Chapter 11:
The Imperial Capital of Mercadia
ONE, TWO, THREE… Ten… Twenty… Thirty… Sixty…
Monsters fell in droves, but I was far from done. I could still eat. It was like I had a bottomless appetite. My power swelled as a steady stream of stats flowed into me.
Eris and I had split from Roxy and Myne and were steadily making our way to the imperial capital. Explosions echoed from the east. I imagined that Myne created her own paths of escape and places to hide by violently reshaping the land around her. If anyone could do that, it was her. The distant sounds also told me Myne and Roxy were still locked in battle. As long as I could hear them, I knew that they still drew breath.
“Master Fate,” said Eris. “Surely from this distance it would be okay for me to—”
She lifted her gunblade as we ran. She’d been doing this nonstop.
“I said no! No guns until we reach the capital!”
Eris’s hands shook as she gripped her gunblade. I got the feeling she was especially trigger happy and desperate to go wild. This wasn’t like the Eris I knew at all, and I wondered if it had to do with her reconfiguration. Perhaps it had given her a thirst for battle.
“I will not tolerate you collapsing before we reach Mercadia,” said Eris.
“Well, I’d love nothing more than your support, but that’s not an option because it would mean firing your gunblade and alerting Gemini to our position.”
“But I am bored.”
“That’s good, isn’t it? Coming to Galia and having all this free time on your hands?”
I sliced off the head of the monster that blocked our path. It had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and a snake for a tail—a classic chimera. Even headless, however, it put up quite a fight. It closed the distance between us in a single bound so its tail could sink its venomous fangs into me. I was resistant to poison, thanks to the lamia’s skills, but I still didn’t relish the thought of getting bitten.
I activated my one-handed sword skill, Sharp Edge, and cut the chimera’s body to pieces, decapitating the snake at its tail.
Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +2.5E (+8), Strength +3.4E (+8), Magic +3.0E (+8), Spirit +2.4E (+8), Agility +3.4E (+8).
The chimera’s skills were just as delectable as its stats, and very useful, too. I was certain they’d come in handy during the battles ahead.
The chimera was a fearsome monster in its own right, but with my ever-growing stats, it felt like little more than a goblin. My body wasn’t used to the overwhelming increase in stats, though, so I couldn’t access their full power. Nonetheless, even I could feel how terrifying I was becoming. The monsters grew more and more powerful as Eris and I made our way further south, and my stats grew higher still.
An even greater roar sounded from the others’ direction. The earth rumbled, and thick clouds of dust rose and obscured the eastern sky. I suspected Myne was responsible. She was single-handedly altering the Galian landscape.
“They’re going wild over there,” I muttered.
“We are very close to Mercadia,” Eris said calmly.
“Just a little further then.”
Contrary to Eris’s cool demeanor, monsters swirled around us like a maelstrom, blocking our advance. Perhaps they’d been drawn in by the stench of blood from those I had already slain, or perhaps they’d been able to pick out our scent. Either way, we had to hurry to the capital. We didn’t have time to waste on these monsters. With Myne and Roxy’s battle reaching a fever pitch, we couldn’t afford the slow and easy route.
I wasn’t as loud or explosive as Myne, but I had tricks of my own. I transformed my black sword into the black stave as Eris looked on with curiosity.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Ensuring us an easier path forward.”
Fighting all the monsters in front of us would inevitably slow us down. Our best bet was to make sure the monsters couldn’t block our path to the capital. The black stave filled with every bit of magical energy I had devoured. I then unleashed every drop, and cast a fire the likes of which I had never before seen.
“Onward!” I shouted.
A whirlwind of black flames flew from the end of the stave, growing as they sapped my magic. Thick, intense flames dripped with something that glowed blue—probably gas particles floating in the atmosphere around us.
“Master Fate!” cried Eris.
“I got it!”
Monsters leaped at us, mouths agape. I didn’t slow and sent my flames to consume the incoming enemies. As soon as the fire touched them, they were incinerated. They made no sound, and they left no scent.
The fire didn’t stop with the monsters, though. Instead, it stretched out toward Mercadia. Everything in its path was scorched to nothing as the flames cauterized the landscape before us into a pair of parallel black lines. I heard the toneless drone of my Gluttony informing me of my increasing stats, but there was another voice along with it.
“More… More…”
I slowed down for a moment.
Eris turned to me. “Master Fate? What is it?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s nothing.”
I leaped onto the path between the two walls of flame. Only Eris and I could get inside here. Galian monsters were huge, several times larger than any human, but my black flames would consume them all the same if they tried to push through. The same fate awaited them if they attacked from underground. They could destroy the ground itself, but they’d still be burned. The black flames would last as long as my reserves of magical energy did. Nothing could extinguish these flames unless I allowed it.