Chương 132: 130. Skeletons in the Closet

A titanic crash quakes the forest, a burst of pressure shaking leaves from the trees even hundreds of yards away. I feel the fight in front of me: two beasts of unfathomable proportions duel to the death, one for territory and the other to quench an unspeakable hunger. It's the kind of power that makes hunters tremble, the sort of creatures for which there are no campfire stories because mere humans simply do not meet them and return alive.

A grin parts my lips as I sense the moment they feel me, and I'm the one they fear. Even after spending a few hours cuddling Penelope—and holy shit I've missed having someone to hold—I was still antsy after returning to camp. Altrix healed up my face pretty much immediately (which is crazy impressive, not even Penelope can do that) but I fucked off pretty soon after that. She felt guilty about something, and wanted to have a big talk, and I just… I couldn't. Still can't. Not yet. Things are too fucked.

I've journeyed deep into the forest, aimlessly at first but with increasing boldness. I've never been this deep. No one goes this deep. Throughout most of the forest, the trees tend to grow between twenty and fifty feet high. Looking up now, I think the canopy must be hundreds of feet above me, the trunks as thick as city streets. With each tree taking up so much more space and devouring so much more light, there's plenty of room between each trunk and much less shrubbery choking the ground.

It's dark, but visibility is better overall… and there's space for the giants to grow. Again, a thunderclap rings through the forest as my two chosen prey continue fighting each other, my tentacles coiling in glee. If my soul could salivate, it would be drooling a veritable waterfall. These big bastards are too busy kicking the shit out of each other to run from me, so I guess they're just going to serve each other up on a silver platter. Let's see…

I guess I'll kill the vrothizo second, since it probably won't flee anyway. My perception flits through literal miles of forest life, yearning for the millions and millions of souls within. To my senses it's like a vast field of glittering jewels in every shape and size, from the tiniest insects to the mightiest beasts. It kind of makes me wish I could fill a big pit with souls and swim around in them. Hmm… actually, I guess that's kind of what my own body is.

I start squirming around inside myself, poking at the various inert souls of my collection and giggling as I approach my soon-to-be-meals. Nearly a hundred yards in front of me, I spot my prey for the first time as one of them leaps between two trees, its long, millipede-like body undulating through the air like a whip. The monster must be at least thirty feet long, and it looks like a spike-covered snake.

Every inch of the massive murder noodle is covered in bony points, and I watch with fascination as two of said spikes launch out of the side of the beast, still attached to the main body by a thin cord of flesh. They lodge into the bark of another tree and yank the entire monster towards it, diverting its course seconds before a pitch-black claw crashes down where it used to be. A single paw of the giant vrothizo is larger than I am.

It draws gashes through the tree bark and cracks the ground, causing me to stumble. Its soul is massive by normal standards, though compared to the size of its body it's almost pitiful. Not that I'm going to complain about eating it. Power. Fuel. The skin just under my armpit twitches where a new tentacle is trying to form, but I ignore it. If I have to endure more unwanted growth from this meal, I will. Just don't think about it, as usual.

As I approach, it becomes clear that killing the Vrothizo second is going to be kind of a pain in the ass. The grappling-hook-centipede-thingy is just way too fucking fast for me to catch up with, and it's smart enough to not want to be anywhere near me. In fact, it's trying to flee, but the vrothizo keeps cutting off its escape and pinning it between the two of us. I'm not really sure if that's instinct or intelligence, because I still can't feel much other than all-consuming hunger coming from the vroth.

With escape looking less and less likely, the grapplepede switches to an offensive, firing its spikes towards the vrothizo itself. I finally get a good look at the behemoth's full body: six massive, simian-like arms tipped with claws longer than my legs radiate out from its body in an equidistant pattern, interchangeably striking out to slash at their target, grab and swing from trees, or push off the ground to run.

Three long, serpent-like black tongues lash out from the gaping mouth of its dog-like head, spraying saliva and trying to wrap around the incoming prey. The grapplepede is too fast, though; it twists in the air to dodge the counteroffensive and smashes into the vrothizo's chest, wrapping around it so its countless spikes dig into the black creature's body. Then it starts to move, rushing across the vrothizo's radial torso and leaving dark, bloody tracks wherever it scurries.

The vrothizo roars furiously, grasping at its chest in an attempt to catch the horrid, spike-covered snake now dripping with black blood. Yet the other monster just twists onto the vrothizo's back, digging deep into a ridge between the shoulderblades where its many arms cannot reach. In response, the vrothizo throws itself backwards into a tree, attempting to splatter the other beast between them.

It is a testament to the terrifying durability of these sky-scraping plants that the impact of what must be tens of thousands of tons slamming against it barely even causes it to shake. I've not a doubt in my mind that this vrothizo could knock over the walls of Skyhope like they're a child's stack of blocks. Assuming it could get that far before the High Templars turn it to ash, anyway.

Unfortunately for the vrothizo, the grapplepede avoids the impact, twisting itself around the bicep of one of the black beast's many arms before moving up to the neck. Once again, the vrothizo tries to snatch the grapplepede between its claws, but this time that stabby snake doesn't avoid the strike. Instead, spikes fire outwards from its body and imbed themselves in the vrothizo's wrists before they're pulled back tight against the grapplepede's body, leaving the vrothizo only able to scratch at its own face.

Sensing my opportunity, I burst forward, leaping up on the vrothizo's back as it chokes and struggles. Now that the grapplepede has more or less trapped itself in an attempt to score a kill, I can easily run up the vrothizo's back and yank out pedey's soul. Which it quickly seems to realize, squirming in terror as it fails to choke out the black beast before I reach it, shove my tendrils inside, and gleefully rip its life away from it.

Instantly, the vrothizo switches its target to me, which is a slight problem due to how damn big it is. Having a huge body and a tiny soul means I need to reach pretty far inside this thing to grab its spirit, and I physically can't reach far enough if I'm all the way up on the neck. It's just a short jaunt back down the shoulders to my yanking spot, though, and soon enough I have two massive, tasty morsels all to myself. Hmm…

I should probably make one a Risen, just so I can ride it home while I'm eating the first. And shit, I'm not going to say no to returning to camp on the back of a thirty-foot-tall soul-eating monster. It seems like a good way to avoid awkward conversations. Plus, this way I can carry the grapplepede corpse back as well, and eat it. I'm surprised when night falls, but I probably shouldn't be. I'm deep in the forest. How long have I been wandering around out here?

I guess I'm many miles away from the camp, since I can't feel it anymore. It's kind of weird having a sensory range this long. I continue riding back and munching throughout the night, occasionally leaping off my mount to go sneak up on and kill sleeping monsters powerful enough to be worth the effort. I haven't really been sleeping much at all since escaping Site 4, and considering the massive soul meals I've been having I doubt tonight will be any different.

Sure enough, I feel perfectly energetic all the way through the island passing overhead, and when light returns to Verdantop I finally feel my destination enter the edges of my senses. What I don't expect is to sense Theodora, Margarette, and Vitamin there. I urge my massive mount forward, which in this part of the forest means I need it to smash through trees in order to fit half the time.

No wonder the deep forest holds all the biggest, most dangerous crap; it must be a massive pain in the ass for anything this big to leave. I guess when you think about it, this part of the forest is sort of a barrier protecting us from an even worse part of the forest. Well, protecting everyone else, I guess. I no longer need protection from mere monsters. Everyone else in my camp does, though, so screaming panic erupts throughout it when my mega-monster-mount emerges from the trees.

"Hey everyone!" I announce, waving happily as a team of former prisoners and undead emerge to try and protect everyone from the incoming threat.

"No worries, it's just me!"

"Vita!" one of them huffs, clutching his chest and sagging in relief.

"I… you're back!"

"Of course I'm back!" I call back, hopping down from my perch.

"You didn't think I'd die in the forest, did you?"

"I mean, kinda?"

"Vita!" squeals my favorite Revenant, dashing towards me at hyperspeed and jumping into my arms. I catch her and spin her around.

"Vitamin!" I answer back, nuzzling her face.

"Hey, baby girl! When did you and the others get here? How did you get here?"

"Capita dropped us off yesterday!" Vitamin giggles happily.

"She says hi, and also wanted me to ask you not to kill Sky when you next see him."

"I'll think about it," I answer flatly. On one hand, the dude helped break me out. On the other hand, he's a mass-murdering terrorist and arguably the reason I was in prison in the first place.

"So… why are you here?"

"Well, we wanted to be with you, duh!" Vitamin answers, pouting slightly until I put her on my shoulders.

"But also Theodora and Margarette had a bunch of stuff they wanted to do. I think Margarette is making a thingy?"

"Oooh, a thingy," I grin, nodding along.

"Sounds cool! Should we go see her?"

"She'd love that!" Vitamin agrees. I order my new mount to start following us around the outside of the camp, ripping trees out of the ground for our building teams to use as Vitamin and I head towards where Margarette is doing… something. It looks like she cleared out a wide area, put down a big slab of stone (where did she get that?) and is now carving runes on it.

"Mar-Mar!" Vitamin calls out.

"Hey!" The pitch-black half-humanoid half-scorpion skeleton monster that I think Vitamin convinced me to adopt at some point turns its empty skull towards us and continues grinning, though now I feel the intent to in her soul. She dashes towards us like the beautiful nightmare she is, scooping me up and wrapping her ribcage around my head, which I suppose technically counts as a hug so I hug her back.

"Vita! Vita Vita Vita! You're back! Welcome!"

"Hulumph, Mghrutte," I greet her, my face smooshed against her bones.

"Hw yh dng?"

"I'm doing great!" she answers happily.

"Really great! I'm making us a teleportation circle!" I'm surprised, and I successfully remember to shape my face to reflect that. I'm back in civilization now, at least kind of.

"You know how to make teleportation circles?" I ask, extracting my head from the bone hug.

"Isn't that crazy difficult?"

"Oh yeah, definitely!" Margarette preens.

"But I used to do regular maintenance on the Litia grain gate! Er, Theodora did that, I mean. Sorry, I'm trying to remember to not claim those actions, but um… anyway, I remember it like I did it! We don't have the metal for a proper spatial gate, but we do have the magical chutzpah to charge runes manually and flash-teleport things. I just need to get a few kinks worked out, which… oh, actually!" The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

She presses a bony finger on the side of her skull, channeling mana through a rune engraving there.

"Hey, Nugas?" she says out loud, even though Nugas isn't anywhere nearby.

"Yeah, let's try another test. Use one of Theodora's rats, I have a good feeling about this one." Margarette skitters over to the slab, motioning us to follow. Incredibly intricate metamancy glyphs dance across the stone, the sight of them making my head spin.

I can almost feel the pull of understanding from the ocean of mana inside me, seeing a hint of the brilliantly impossible structure the glyphs are trying to represent with a mere two dimensions, but when I try to focus on the feeling it vanishes like ice in a hot bath.

"Okay, activating!" Margarette says.

"Three, two, one…!" There's a loud cracking sound, and suddenly a bloody, ooze-covered but otherwise normal rat appears in the middle of the slab. It's alive, but seems to be sleeping.

"Huh," I say.

"Did Theodora's weird incubator things finally give birth?" I ask.

"Uhhh, nope," Margarette answers.

"No, they did not. Hey, Nugas? Uh-huh. Yeah, it didn't 'deflate,' per se, we actually teleported… er, yep. Yuh-huh. Well, yeah, that's technically progress, but… oh. Ew. Yeah, give it five minutes for the mana to finish cycling out and then you can clean up, okay? Sorry." She ends the communication spell and turns back to Vitamin and I.

"Wow! Okay, so this still isn't safe at all. Sorry about that. But yeah, I'm—oh shit in a sack what is that!?" Margarette's jaw opens up wide and she points. I follow her finger with my soul-eye and shrug as I realize she's just noticing my super huge vrothizo Risen as it rips up some trees nearby.

"I mean, it's pretty much what it looks like?" I answer, shrugging.

"I… I want it!" she announces.

"Huh?" I blink.

"Vita I want its bones!" she insists.

"Please? Please please please? Please give me its bones! Vrothizo bones are the best, I could make so many cool bodies with it! Backups, extras… oh! I could make a body for Norah! Please, Vita?" A body for Norah? I wrap my tendrils around her, hugging her close. I… I guess. I guess she deserves one to call her own. It'll be weird not protecting her myself, though.

"Sure," I allow.

"I can eat its soul if you want to use its corpse for parts. Where do you want me to kill it again?" She squeals with delight, scooping me up for another prehensile-ribcage hug. We guide the massive vrothizo to another clearing at Margarette's request and I pop out its soul, happily munching down on the raw power as Jeramiah starts to meander over as well.

"Welcome back, Vita," he greets me politely.

"And hello again, Margarette. Onto a new project already?"

"Jerry!" Margarette cheers.

"I'm so glad you're here! Help me peel all this flesh away, would you? We're going to make so much cool shit out of this!" He chuckles, glancing worriedly at the thirty-foot tall corpse.

"Well… I suppose I did ask to compare notes with you, as it were, and a gentleman never hesitates to get his hands dirty for a lady."

"Exactly!" Margarette agrees, already starting to burrow into the corpse's chest cavity.

"So get to work! Oh man, I have so many great ideas. So, you remember how I was talking about anima branch flexibility and distance issues? Well…"

"They became fast friends," Vitamin explains solemnly.

"I can see that," I confirm, deciding to wander off and leave them to it.

"That's nice, huh?"

"It's very nice!" Vitamin agrees.

"I think Margarette is really really happy to have a new friend? Especially a human friend. It's just kind of been us, Nugas, and Penelope for years now."

"Do Nugas and Penelope not count as human friends?" I ask.

"Ehhh," Vitamin hedges.

"I mean, they're not really human anymore. Plus they're more like family than friends! When you marry Penelope, Nugas is gonna be my sister for realsies!" I blink. Uh. Wow, I'm not touching any part of that mess.

"Speaking of, how about we go see Theodora?" I ask, desperately changing the subject.

"Heck yeah!" Vitamin cheers. We set off, though along the way I spot To-Kill-From-Above, of all people, assisting the shelter-building team. He seemed completely uninterested in doing much of anything to help anyone, so it's a big surprise. I start walking his way, waving at him.

"Yo, To-Kill!" I call out.

"I see you've finally decided to help out!" The bug man quickly finishes what he's doing, then turns to face me, standing ramrod-straight with two hands clasped behind his back and two hands clasped in front.

"Greetings, Vita," he answers in a clipped, militaristic tone.

"Your observations are accurate. I have determined that the goals of the community align with my primary objective. Therefore, I am compelled to assist."

"Well hey, that's good to hear!" I answer, smiling at him.

"Your joy is noted. For clarification: is it accurate that you intend to come into conflict with the pseudo-governmental entity responsible for our incarceration, known commonly as 'the Church of the Mistwatcher,' or simply 'the Church?'" I grimace.

"I wouldn't say I intend to, but I think it's absolutely going to happen regardless of my intentions."

"Then my skills will continue to be at your disposal," he nods.

"I look forward to helping you damage and destabilize your island's primary defenses." I blink at him. He does not blink back.

"Cool," I answer.

"Well, see you around, I guess." I turn and depart, Vitamin playing with my hair as she continues to ride my shoulders.

"He's funny," she says.

"He's something," I agree.

"At least he's helping people make better houses." Note to self, though: don't eat any more High Templars. We'll still need them for Hiverock, so I'll have to make them Revenants instead. Theodora, to my surprise, is actually hanging out with Melissa. I guess Melissa is a different sort of slime to the kind she's had history with, but I'm still not totally sure what they could be doing together until I get there and hear the tail end of Theodora trying to convince the kid to let her cut pieces off.

"It's perfectly safe," Theodora sighs.

"We will need a sample large enough that some of your free-floating anima splits along with it to form a new ozoid, but it won't be anywhere near enough to cause you memory problems again. Your soul is almost entirely healed."

"I… I know," Melissa burbles back, her liquid hands quite expertly pretending to wring together nervously.

"But I'm not supposed to split, Ms. Theodora. I'm scared."

"It's okay to be scared," Theodora murmurs soothingly.

"But think of all the people you might be able to save."

"Will it really be saving them?" Melissa asks.

"They'll… they'll be like me."

"Oh, Melissa, of course it will," Theodora insists.

"There's nothing wrong with you, Melissa. You're beautiful. We'll feed everyone properly, just like we're doing with you! No one is going to suffer through what you had to. We're not the Templars."

"Fuck yeah we're not!" Vitamin cheers, causing Theodora to look our way and absolutely light up with joy.

"Vita!" she exclaims.

"It's so wonderful to see you! You have perfect timing, actually. Could you help me with Melissa, here?" I nod. The potential for giving the souls stuck inside me their own bodies and consciousness back by using ozoids is just incredibly exciting. If Melissa refuses to bud off more animavorous ozoids for experimentation, I guess we could try to capture a wild one, but I'd rather get these things out of me ASAP.

As nice as they all are, if I'm going to be fighting High Templars I want them as far away from me as possible.

"If people don't like being ozoids, I can always just take their souls back out," I reassure Melissa.

"And either way, Penelope and I are working on getting you and everyone else living, human bodies. It would help us a ton if we can figure this out first, though. It's really, really important. Can you be brave for us?" The young-hearted slime shrinks down a bit, but she nods confirmation.

"Ooooh, this is so exciting!" Vitamin cheers.

"Am I gonna get to see Penta again soon? Will I finally meet big sis Angelien!?"

"That's the plan," I agree.

"It's gonna be a big, happy reu—""Vita!" a familiar voice snaps. I sigh, turning to look at Altrix stomping towards us.

"Damnit Vita, you've been avoiding me since you got back!" she yells at me.

"Do you mind?" I ask her.

"I'm talking with my family, thank you." She flinches like I slapped her, a mixture of pain and rage twisting through her crafted soul.

"You… you absolute fucking bitch!" Altrix hisses.

"You know how we… we can't believe you grew up to be such a rude, selfish, little shithead!" I blink with every physical eye, irritation creeping into me. I feel power start to cycle into Vitamin's limbs.

"... Excuse me?" I say dangerously.

"You heard me," Altrix snaps.

"You're a rude, selfish shithead. You can feel how much we love you, and you think that means you can just treat us the way you do your mindraped slaves!"

"Hey now," Vitamin growls.

"You think you can just rake your fingers through our soul and not so much as apologize about it? You think you can just ignore the six years of your life that made you mean so much to us? We are your mother, and we more than anyone do not deserve this brazen disrespect from you!"

"I already told you," I say evenly.

"I have a mother, and she's not you. I don't even remember you!"

"So that means you can treat us like shit? We will not stand for it."

"Then leave!" I snap.

"What do you want me to say? I'm sorry two-thirds of you were being a stubborn bitch and I had to get rough! It was sort of a life or death situation! As for your love: fuck it! I didn't ask for it! You think this is fun for me? All these fucking strangers coming into my life and saying they're important to me, when I don't have any damn clue who they are? First it was Capita, then Ars, now you? Capita destroyed Skyhope! Ars is public enemy number one!

What sort of awful, life-destroying piece of shit are you going to turn out to be, Altrix? Every single thing I learn about my past is somehow worse than the last!" I'm screaming by the end of my tirade, so I consciously shut up, trying to calm down before I hurt someone. I refuse to start crying again, either. I just got water all over Penelope's clothes a day ago.

"Even if you are my quote-unquote 'real mom,'" I continue more quietly, "that just means I have all the more reason to hate you for putting me on the street." I hate, I despise the amount of raw sympathy and regret that pours out of Altrix at my words. They hurt her more than anything in the world could have, and yet she still feels for me. I want to block it out, but my soul eye has no lid. I can't stop feeling her pain.

"We did everything we could," Altrix eventually answers me, the memory haunting her.

"When the Inquisition took us away, we made sure you would be safe. Our relatives took you in. They were innocent. You were innocent. We don't… we don't know how you died." My eyes widen.

"... What did you say?" I ask.

"So you don't know either," Altrix sighs.

"We thought at first it was on purpose. We thought you were just… that way, and we never noticed when you were a child. That you murdered someone for… for vanity." She spits the word, and I just get increasingly lost.

"What way?" I ask.

"What are you talking about? I died?"

"You must have, unless you changed yourself some other way," Altrix answers.

"We'd never have recognized you, if not for your name and your little Rosco. Your biomancer friend, maybe?"

"Uh, I mean she changed me a little," I answer.

"Like, healthier skin and hair and stuff. Bigger boobs. I didn't ask for that, she just wanted to. And I'm, uh… pretty sure she didn't kill anyone for it?"

"So as far as you remember, you've always been like this?" Altrix presses.

"Always been like what?" Altrix sighs.

"... So, now you're interested in your past?" she grumbles.

"Ugh, fine!" I snap, eyebrow twitching.

"Yes! I'm interested!"

"Then listen to us, Vita," Altrix demands.

"We… before we were us, when only Nix had memories of this body, Ars put your soul inside our womb. Inside our child. We gave birth to you, Vita. And when we did…" Altrix stares intently at me, begging me to believe her.

"... You were our son."