Chương 26: A Gathering of Worms

Echidna accepted the assurance without question and followed as Gloria led them away from the Guild, yet while the goddess appeared content to leave their destination entirely within her hands, Gloria found her attention returning to a different uncertainty that had lingered since Iris corrected Echidna's account of Judgment Day.

Three numbers had been circling through her thoughts ever since—six, nine and fourteen—and the contradiction between them had seemed impossible only because she had assumed that each number described the same group of people.

Of course, fourteen had never represented every Supreme Being still alive when Judgment Day began, because plenty of players had refused to attack her, remained inside their guild territories, arrived too late or simply decided that challenging Gloria Superba sounded like a remarkably efficient way to lose everything they owned.

The meaning of fourteen was thus the easiest to settle, for Gloria remembered that number from the end of the battle itself: among everyone who had entered the field against her, only fourteen remained alive when she finally fell. Six belonged to an entirely different part of the result, and Echidna's peculiar certainty now showed Gloria exactly where it had originated.

The goddess remembered information granted to her by the world in the same manner that she remembered her abilities, titles and place within the Golden Age, which meant that her account had probably inherited the game's own method of assigning victory credit.

DDO had always favored measurable contribution, and if the battle against Gloria had been processed like a raid, the six participants who inflicted the greatest amount of damage would have been displayed as its foremost victors before being woven into history as the six Supreme Beings who defeated the Dragon of Dragons.

A delighted grin crept across Gloria's face as the full implication settled over her, because she had been treated as a genuine raid boss, complete with hundreds of challengers, a pitiful number of survivors and a victory record honoring those who had contributed most to bringing her down.

'That was exactly what Gloria should have been… what I should have been!' Nine remained, and the legends surrounding the Nine Heroes finally supplied the missing division within the fourteen survivors, because nine of those who walked away from the battle had belonged to Gloria's own guild, while the remaining five had come from among the countless outsiders who joined the raid.

Their survival hardly surprised her now that she considered how deliberately she had restrained herself against the members of her own guild, because even at the height of the chaos she had never truly fought them with the same intent she turned upon everyone else. Whenever she recognized a familiar name, she adjusted almost instinctively, weakening spells that would otherwise have killed them outright, redirecting attacks at the final moment and allowing openings she would never have granted another opponent.

If anyone was going to stand among the victors when Gloria finally fell, she had wanted it to be them, preserving some fragment of what their farewell battle had originally been meant to represent even after the raid grew far beyond anything the guild had intended. By the time that realization settled fully into place and Gloria finally pulled her attention away from those distant memories, the broad avenues of Ural had already fallen behind them.

The route had carried Gloria and Echidna into a succession of increasingly narrow streets, where the crowds thinned as the scent of salt grew steadily stronger, carrying traces of tar and wet rope. Nearly an hour and a half had passed since the Katamaran's horn first rolled across Ural, yet Gloria remained comfortable with their progress.

With every turn, the buildings pressed closer until a patchwork canopy of dark cloth and faded sailcloth swallowed the sky, leaving the narrow alley beneath it crowded with merchants whose stalls could be packed away long before the city guard arrived. Gloria recognized the covered market from Ural's lore almost immediately, for it had always been one of the city's worst-kept secrets.

Players had once come here for restricted equipment, rare monster materials and countless other goods not sold by the regular shops, which included Katamaran tickets sold at a considerable increase once the official supply disappeared. Finding the market still thriving after three centuries reassured Gloria that she had remembered correctly.

Echidna looked at the surrounding merchants with little more than passing curiosity, for their concealed weapons and discreet exchanges were far too insignificant to earn her concern, although Gloria's familiarity with the alley soon drew a questioning glance.

"The Mighty knew of this place before today?"

"I did, though the faces occupying it were different during my age," Gloria replied as she stepped around an unconscious man.

"This market was already among Ural's worst-kept secrets, and its purpose appears to have survived the centuries remarkably well." Echidna surveyed the alley again.

"This place has endured since the Golden Age, and the rulers of Ural knowingly permit it?"

"They permit it because closing the market would inconvenience everyone who profits from it," Gloria explained.

"The guards know where stolen goods eventually appear, the wealthy know where to purchase objects forbidden by their own laws, and adventurers know where to obtain whatever respectable merchants are too frightened to stock." They passed a rusted cage containing a cluster of pale reptiles that clung upside down to its ceiling, then squeezed around a merchant surrounded by shallow metal basins filled with slimes of every imaginable color.

'There he is!' Just down the alley, Gloria caught sight of the person she had been searching for, although reaching him required passing a shuttered stall around which several men had made themselves remarkably comfortable. They occupied mismatched stools and overturned crates while drinking from dented metal cups.

Their conversation dwindled when Gloria and Echidna approached, and after several openly appraising looks passed between them, one man leaned forward, dragged his gaze along the goddess and gave a low whistle that sent his companions into laughter.

"Look at the height of that one," he called, making no effort to hide where his eyes had settled.

"Come sit with us, beautiful, and we might find a better use for those long legs than chasing after that little horned girl." This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Another man lifted his cup toward Gloria and grinned.

"Nah, bring your friend as well, if she promises not to bite! We are a generous bunch, after all!" Echidna's stride slowed, though she remembered Gloria's warning and continued walking for several more steps while her fingers curled against her palm.

"The Mighty granted Echidna permission to express her displeasure through words, did she not?"

"You may answer them however you please." Gloria replied without glancing toward the men. Echidna turned her head just enough for the men to see the contempt within her eyes.

"Echidna has dragged livelier worms from the festering bowels of plague-swollen beasts, and even those wretched things possessed finer faces, sweeter voices and a greater claim to manhood than the reeking failures squatting before her." The laughter around the stall died unevenly, and the man who had spoken first pushed himself upright before swaggering into the narrow space behind them.

"Careful, tall girl, because a mouth like that might persuade someone to teach you manners," he said, reaching toward the curve of Echidna's hip. His fingers came within an inch of touching her before Echidna caught his hand, and for a second she merely held him there. Then a dry crack sounded at the corner of her mouth, followed by another and another as thin fractures spread across both cheeks, splitting her smile farther than any human jaw could open until rows of narrow teeth revealed themselves.

The man's leer vanished as he tried to wrench himself free, yet Echidna's arm lengthened with the movement, its pale flesh softening before flowing over his hand and winding around his forearm.

"Release me, woman!" he demanded, though his anger faltered as the living sheath crept past his wrist.

"What is that? Wait… let go of me!" Echidna watched with boredom as her flesh contracted, collapsing his knuckles before folding his wrist and shattering every bone up to his elbow in a rapid chain of cracks.

"My arm! Please—get it off me!" His knees struck the stones as he clawed uselessly at her flesh, his threats dissolving into desperate sobs.

"I was only playing! I did not mean it! PLEASE IT HURTS!" Gloria watched the man collapse into pleading with considerably less sympathy than she might have offered under different circumstances.

'Should I help him? Probably. Do I want to? Not remotely. Too many men had put their hands on me like that and walked away believing a laugh or a half-hearted apology settled the matter. Consider him the unfortunate recipient of their accumulated debt. You do you, Echidna.' A small part of her was already cheering when a familiar voice rose above the commotion.

"What is the meaning of this distur—Lady Gloria," Rali began as he approached from farther down the alley, his irritation giving way to a pleasantly surprised smile when he recognized her.

"An unexpected pleasure."

"Rali, the pleasure is mine," Gloria replied, while the man trapped within Echidna's arm twisted toward his employer and screamed, "Boss, help me!" His companions crowded forward with their daggers drawn.

"Boss, give the word and we will cut her down!" one shouted, while another raised his blade toward Echidna.

"What are we waiting for? She is tearing his damn arm apart!" Rali silenced them with a raised hand before looking between Gloria and the towering woman beside her.

"Your companion?" he asked.

"She is, and I have known her long enough to place considerable trust in her judgment," Gloria answered, watching his smile tighten as another crack sounded from the mangled arm.

"I see," Rali murmured.

"My employee is a fool, and his present condition appears to be entirely his own doing, although I would still prefer that he survive the lesson." Gloria turned toward Echidna, tapped two fingers against her own forearm and gave a slight nod, at which the goddess smiled before drawing her liquefied flesh back into its proper shape.

The movement carried the imprisoned limb with it until the man's arm separated at the elbow with a wet snap, sending him onto his back as a fresh scream tore through the market and his companions rushed forward to stop the sudden flow of blood.

"How typical of worms to writhe once disfigured," Echidna observed as she stepped calmly to Gloria's side while Rali's smile finally disappeared.

"If the little worms wish this one to live, they should carry him to a healer before he empties himself across the stones."

"Healer. Now," Rali ordered, and his men obeyed immediately, lifting their sobbing companion before hurrying from the alley. Once they had gone, Gloria met Rali's gaze and allowed her voice to lose what little warmth it had possessed.

"I trust that this has clarified the matter, Rali, for I do not recognize an attempted violation as humor, nor shall I excuse it as an accident merely because the offender regrets discovering its consequences." Rali took a step backward and inclined his head, his usual composure returning with considerably less ease than before.

"Perfectly, Lady Gloria."

"Excellent; I am pleased that we have reached a common understanding," Gloria said, briefly closing her eyes as satisfaction softened her expression, while Echidna remained beside her with a pleasant smile directed entirely at Rali.

"How may I be of service, Lady Gloria?" Rali asked, preserving a remarkable degree of courtesy for a man whose gaze kept drifting toward the blood staining the stones.

"I understand that you possess tickets for the Katamaran." Surprise crossed Rali's face, though whatever question might have followed vanished when Echidna bent down and retrieved the severed arm. The fractures around her mouth reopened as she raised it by the wrist, her jaw descending until the darkness between her teeth became wide enough to receive the limb whole, and Rali watched in silence as the fingers disappeared between her lips before a slow contraction of her throat dragged the remainder inside.

"Yes," he answered quickly, forcing his attention back toward Gloria while reaching into his coat.

"Two remain, and they are yours if you wish them!" He took the tickets out of his cloak and placed them into her hand with enough haste to make it clear that payment had become the least of his concerns, and Gloria examined them before giving an appreciative nod.

"Your generosity is most welcome, although this number will not suffice, for we require passage for three." Rali glanced along the alley and discovered that nearly every merchant and customer had already fled.

"T-Then I fear I must disappoint you, Lady Gloria, because boarding has already begun and even this market has exhausted its supply; those two are the last tickets available anywhere in Ural." Gloria released a sigh, and the small sound straightened Rali's spine more effectively than any shouted threat could have managed. He opened his mouth to offer some alternative, only for Echidna to swallow the final obstruction in her throat and murmur, "Disgusting," as her jaw settled back into place.

"Did you say something, Echidna?" Gloria asked, turning toward her.

"Nothing worthy of the Mighty's concern, for Echidna possesses an answer to this minor difficulty," the goddess replied before shifting her gaze toward Rali.

"Leave us now, little mortal; what follows is not intended for your ears." Rali bowed immediately and began retreating before she had finished speaking.

"Of course. May your journey prove pleasant, my ladies." Rali preserved his composure for precisely three steps before disappearing down the alley with such astonishing speed that it was hard to follow. Gloria stared after him, genuinely impressed by the empty space where he had stood.

'Huh… perhaps I underestimated his level.'

"Now then, what is this method of which you spoke?" Gloria asked as she turned toward Echidna.

"That display of yours was entirely warranted, although it appears to have emptied this part of the market, so you may explain your solution without fear of being overheard." A smile spread across Echidna's face as she stepped closer.

"Echidna believes the Mighty will find this solution particularly enjoyable." Before Gloria could ask what she meant, the goddess closed the remaining distance and gathered her into a full embrace, one arm curling around her shoulders while the other settled firmly around her waist. Echidna's much larger body folded around Gloria's smaller frame until she was almost entirely enveloped.