Chương 96: 158- Monsters For A Monster

Vraxious—The Ravenous Grove Vrax and Slev stood in one of the many overgrown courtyard-like areas in the city. Slev struggled with a wrathful creature of wing and sass in his arms. Occasionally it sent out mind-rending waves of psychic force meant to rip memories from its prey. Thankfully both of them were more or less immune to the effect. Vrax felt a slight tickle; Slev just staggered and shook his head.

"Knock it off, Mind Render! We must work together!" Slev practically begged the flapping Memento tentatively held in his arms. He winced as it got a good chomp off on his hand.

"Man, you have to name it something else…that name is just…like, come on, we don't need to lean that hard into the 'We're a kingdom of evil' vibe. The rumors are already bad enough..." Slev scowled at Vrax incredulously…

"Vrax, have you looked around…most of the rumors are mild compared to the truth. Listen, do you hear that faint violin in the distance?" Slev said sarcastically.

"Yes, of course I hear Edward; it's rather lovely…" Vrax said tentatively certain Slev was going to make it a bad thing.

"Yes, lovely, and it means something is currently having its mind broken and its flesh consumed by horrors that shouldn't exist… that's the fucking violinist! He's the nicest person here!" Slev waved his one free hand around dramatically. Vrax grumbled noncommittally, a bit bothered that Slev wasn't even wrong and focused on a small field of flowers dominating the courtyard ahead of them. The courtyard was strewn with low bushes bearing dark purple berries.

They didn't move or anything yet since Vrax hadn't gotten around to it, but they did taste delicious. In the center of the ring of bushes, shin-high yellow daisies with glittering green edges on the petals swayed slightly. Vrax was still trying to figure out how the hell the man-eater daisies were reproducing so fucking fast, and this random patch was the first real answer he had gotten to that. A swine of some kind rooted its way out of the bushes and started getting near the field of flowers.

"Oh hell..." Vrax mumbled and took a few steps back. Slev looked at him in confusion and then back to the field.

"Wait, why are we here anyway? I thought you just wanted to adapt my monster father away from the others so as to not kill too many with the majesty you were about to create." Vrax didn't answer, and Slev finally squinted hard enough at the flowers to notice the tiny slit maws running down the center of the infant daisies. His eyes went wide. He stepped back behind Vrax.

"Is that an entire fucking field of maneaters?! How?"

"Fuck if I know; I just made them. That's why I'm here!" Vrax whispered, and then they both quieted down as the swine snuffled its last flower. Its nose edged against one of the daisies, and everything went to shit really fast. The still not quite fully formed daisies began uprooting themselves by the hundred, swinging tiny daisy faces around and raising tiny stubs of tendrils towards the pig. It was horrifying the animal didn't realize how dead it was yet.

It stuffed its nose into the nearest writhing flower and gave it a good chomp. The flower chomped back, latching onto its snout and flinging its tendril straight at the beast's eyes. The only thing that saved the swine from being immediately blinded was that the daisy's tendrils were still too stubby to reach the face. The beast's gaze went wide, and it lowered its head into a charge, galloping forward deeper into the flower patch. Where It slammed its face into the ground to dislodge the daisy.

That was absolutely the wrong choice. The boar literally disappeared under a sea of flailing yellow and green. Hundreds of infant daisies clambered onto the beast, struggling to get past their brethren. The boar made it another few panicked steps; every single inch of the beast was covered in flowers. Then one of its legs gave out, chewed through to the bone, then another. It only got out a single panicked oink before the tide silenced it.

Vrax tapped his chin thoughtfully as the daisies slowly started trickling away from the stripped-to-the-bone corpse. Taking root once again in the blood-soaked stretch of freshly aerated soil.

"What the hell was that?" Slev asked, showing some genuine curiosity at the daisies seemingly replanting themselves.

"Not sure! That's what I was trying to figure out. I think when they are just sprouts like that, they grow like a normal plant for a few days, only popping up if a target of opportunity arrives. Then when they get a little bit older, that's when they start in on the endless hunger and inability to fucking sit still." Vrax reached out and calmly plucked the Memento from Slev's hands; it seemed happy at the change of bearer, awkwardly flapping up to land on Vrax's forearm like some game-hunting bird from hell.

Vrax looked the creature up and down; it was a good fit for Slev, honestly. Something that could incapacitate and confuse his foes so the sanctuary breaker could get into touch range. Once he was in someone's sanctuary, though, his real-world body was a sitting duck, and as far as Vrax knew, his overall defenses were terrible other than against mental attacks. Vrax was honestly a bit jealous about what he was going to give Slev here… he wanted his own damn psychic dragon.

Ehh, next time I'm in the hell realm, I'll make sure to pick another one of these up. Honestly, if I had the chance before Hellmaw closes up shop, I should go on a beast-gathering excursion in there; now that would be a fun trip! Vrax set the flapping creature on the ground, its base form was kind of ridiculous, but he loved it. A tiny newt-like body with an oversized mouth. That was set between two massive wings wider than his damn spear.

And most of the wings were covered in small hateful little eyes that darted around independent of each other. First things first, let's make you at least a little bit tougher. I would feel really bad if you died catching a single stray arrow or something else equally stupid. Vrax channeled Adapt Life into the beast while it slowly flapped its wings nervously. Green streamers of mana trailed around them, and the air took on the slightest oppressive aura when Vrax used the powers granted to him by a hungering god.

Slev took a step back, eyes wide; he had seen Vrax at work before, but it was always disconcerting at best. The Memento's muscles slowly bulged along its wings, and its overall form began growing and growing. Finally stopping only when its spread wings were a match for a true apex of the forsaken lands, nearly four strides wide when spread. And each of the hundreds of eyes had grown to match the size, now nearly as large as a clenched fist and rolling around madly to get glances at its new form.

Vrax didn't even slow his channeling. The thin almost membranous wings slowly gained contoured interlocking scales formed from translucent bone, giving the wings an unearthly sheen and lightweight armor. He took a deep breath and checked his mana briefly. [Mana 175/306] Plenty more room for improvement… Normally I would say, "Why not more eyes but… in this case I think our little friend has plenty for once. From what I could tell earlier, it does direct its psychic powers from the eyes, though… hmmm…

oh, fuck it, why not? Vrax focused on the small newt-shaped torso and its stubby legs. With the overall size change, its body was the size of a small dog now, but he wasn't going to make it have more teeth or anything so simple. This creature fought using magic attacks, so he would just help it along with that by… adding more eyes… but different ones this time! If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Vrax created four long, equidistant tendrils of flesh and muscle that rose from the creature's back and extended out nearly as far as the wings themselves. Then he set to work on creating an ocular orb of such disconcerting intensity he was sure it would give humans pause even before it started slinging psychic attacks. First he made a meaty pure white orb for the eye.

Then he added a lid that wrapped all the way up from the end of the tendril so when it blinked, it was more like a cloth being drawn over a crystal ball than a normal blink. He didn't just do it for show; it should be able to catch people off guard. If the lids were closed, the tendrils looked more like odd clubbing tentacles. Then he added irises not one per eye, nearly ten. It took him an almost embarrassingly long time to figure out how to make it so the irises could each independently move.

He figured it out, but as a side effect, the eye seemed to churn with blood whenever they shifted around and pulsed with the beat of the creature's heart. With that much of an addition, Vrax added a bit more intelligence to the creature to help it keep up with the massive new flood of information it would be receiving from the four large eyestalks. He stepped back a little and nodded to himself.

It was good and looked like an eldritch angel of death now as long as you didn't look too hard at the kind of cute newt body hanging in the middle of all the awful. The Memento made a happy chirping noise towards him, flapping its colossal wings once experimentally. It rocketed upwards before slowly drifting back down on billowing, shimmering wings. Vrax smiled and slapped a hand on a wing again for some finishing touches.

Small marks of the cycle dotted across the edges of its wings that would illuminate with malevolent bioluminescence when it channeled its powers. The final flourish he was proud of; he managed to dot luminance in such a way that if it had its wings spread and used its powers, a facsimile of a grinning maw would light up. Slev was staring at all of this with a dumb smile on his face.

"It's…it's awful…it's magnificent…" He stumbled forward in awe and patted the memento on its head. It only snapped at him slightly, basking in the praise. Ah, shit, might have made it a little too smart. Alright, you have your very own psychic dragon to help you cower foes so you can get close and do your thing! Now let's go find a psychologically damaged troll and get you a meat shield." Slev's body snapped towards Vrax's eyes, practically burning in excitement.

"Did you say troll!?" I'm getting a troll!" The creepy bastard almost jumped in excitement. Obviously even he realized what a strong ally that could be. Vrax sighed.

"Yes, but you have to be nice to it… it's had…a really fucking bad time." Slev nodded emphatically and gestured for Vrax to lead the way.

Slev dutifully followed Vrax outside of the city. Hopping begrudgingly onto malice to make it quicker. Vrax galloped onward, seeming to know where the hell they were going.

"You aren't just taking me out into the woods to off me, are you?" Slev asked suspiciously after an extra savage jostle from Malice unnecessarily violently leaping over a log it really could have just stepped over. Vrax grabbed onto the saddle firmly and braced himself before addressing Slev.

"What, no? Why would you think that? If I were going to kill you, I would just take away your mark and let Duchess do the rest." Slev flinched but nodded.

"Yeah, that's what I figured… just wanted to check…" The rest of the trip was in awkward silence other than the occasional curse from Slev when Malice got a bit too excited and entered zoomies mode, moving at unquestionably terminal speeds. The still-unnamed memento followed along behind, struggling to keep up. Well, Slev kept trying to call it Mind Render which was stupid, so Vrax refused to acknowledge that as its real name.

Malice pulled to an abrupt stop at Vrax's direction, sending Slev sailing into a bush with some colorful curses.

"We are here… I think…" Vrax prompted dismounting with considerably more grace before sending Malice back to the menagerie with a wave of his hand. Slev pulled himself from the bush.

"And where the hell is here, you crazy bastard? I see a tree, a stream, and… legs… why are there so many fucking legs!?" Vrax stood on the edge of a familiar tree; just on the other side in a clearing was an especially impressive-looking willow tree that he damn well remembered was a greater mimic. And dotted all around the clearing were dozens and dozens of troll legs as well as various other hunks of beasts and what looked like more than a few paladin remains as well.

The mimic's "trunk" had gotten noticeably wider, like… very noticeably. Holy shit, I was right. I remember how much the damn mimic amused Duchess; she's been keeping the thing as a fucking pet, and also goddamn Duchess. She got it fat. I didn't even think mimics could get fat. Alright now… Just have to find where the poor troll is hiding; she's been keeping it nearby for… He glanced at the piles of legs and shuddered for obvious reasons. Vrax's actual response to Slev was a bit simple.

He pointed at the oddly squat willow tree.

"Big-ass Mimic Duchess has been keeping it as a pet." Then he pointed at all the legs.

"And the troll was the convenient snack source." Slev surprisingly had the decency to look appalled.

"That's awful."

"Yeah, it's why I said be nice to the troll; I'm really hoping his memories don't reform each time he has been hunted by Duchess. And it's just a blank slate instead of... well, probably a gibbering mess." Slev suddenly looked a lot less enthusiastic after hearing that detail. He followed behind Vrax as he skulked nearly invisibly through the gloom of the dense foliage, occasionally pointing out lethal hazards and adapting anything minor and grabby rather than fighting it.

"Hahah…wow, that's…wouldn't it be better to start with a fresh troll? One with less, ahh... potential emotional instability?"

"Sure, you know where to find a troll real quick?" Vrax stopped and stared at Slev until he understood how dumb that comment was.

"Yep, Rare got it…" Slev slumped and followed along dutifully until they got up to the scattered remains of a ruined keep. Its doors had rotted away ages past, and most of it was simply grown over with a disconcerting veinlike fungus that flashed with light. Something large moved in the darkness past the doorway.

"Huh. Fifty-fifty; either we found the troll or we are about to have one hell of a fight." Slev shook his head in frustration and just hid behind the nearest tree. Vrax went ahead, activating his everthirst cloak and making sure his spear was ready. For good measure, he pulled a smelter moss vial in his free hand and held it up like a very lethal torch, casting the room into unsettling emerald hues as he stepped in. The massive form shifted, turning to face him.

It was hunched over in the darkness, but the brutish, violent features of the troll, especially its red eyes, glimmered in his light. It had a bone club in one hand and was using the other to stuff something that looked an awful lot like an Unadapted Devourer into its mouth. It stared at Vrax chewing slowly with gore dripping down its tusks.

"Ahh shit… you don't look terribly comatose… still angry and I'm guessing meaner than fuck, just like the first time I fought you." Vrax backed out of the doorway, keeping his eyes locked on the troll. The last time he had fought it had been a really great lesson in why trolls were famous. Mainly, they were practically impossible to kill through normal means. And they were universally damned dangerous compared to their level. They weren't terribly fast or possessing insane skills like some forsaken monsters were.

Nigh-immortality made up for a lot of that. Vrax got clear of the doorway, thankfully, the troll didn't seem to be in a massive hurry to eat him since it was still mid-chew. Slev harshly whispered from his hiding spot.

"This is stupid! You're going to get eaten, then I'm not going to get shit!"

"Oh shush!" Vrax shot back, and the ground around him blackened in a circle. Plants withered and then melted into puddles of rot, and from that rot, the eldritch form of Sunshine erupted in a shower of death. The troll didn't even get to react before Sunshine hit it at full speed, sending them both tumbling back into the room in a shower of blood. Vrax turned slightly to address Slev, seeming far too unbothered considering the titanic battle happening ahead of him.

"There Sunshines like 20 levels higher than last time it fought the troll. I'll let the basically immortal monsters wear each other down for a bit. Now we are getting you this troll because I have a job for you and I need you to not die while you do it." Slev scowled.

"What's the job? Aren't I your inquisitor?"

"Exactly. The friendly neighbor hag told me we had some trespassers from a neighboring country. I want you to go talk to her and figure out what fucking country is poking at us and why." Slev stared at him for far longer than was reasonable considering the circumstances and then let out a long sigh.

"A hag…a fucking hag…why are we allied with a hag… I thought they were just a damn legend..." Vrax shrugged.

"Seemed like the wisest choice at the time, and honestly I don't have any damn clue if I would win in a fight. You will be fine; just bring Lux. She loves Lux, apparently." Slev rubbed his brow. Vrax could imagine his hair was turning grey in real time. But instead of some expected complaint, he just looked down and made a "get on with it" gesture towards the doorway.

"Hah, there we go now, that's the spirit, buddy." Vax encouraged with some genuine warmth.

"Oh, fuck off. It's just that, well, a hag doesn't even seem that bad compared to, well…you." Vrax looked a bit hurt at that statement but turned to join the brawl.