POV: Charlie.

  None of us said anything the rest of the way. Keeping our silence as we each travelled through our preferred methods. The first sign of battle we saw was a half-dozen guardsmen wielding their typical oaken clubs banded with blackened iron. They were manic, eyes full of terror as legs and arms trembled uncontrollably. Their limbs seeming like twigs on the cusp of snapping against some dreadful storm.

  But this storm was invisible to them. Oh they could feel it well enough, given the way their eyes darted to the corpses beneath their feet and then to the darkened shadows of the nearby alleyways. No doubt wondering what sort of horror might erupt from the unknown next. But they could not see the slight tint of purple on the breeze. Nor the delicate strings flickering in and out of the plague-ridden bodies beneath them. The evidence of disease plain to all in each and every one. That is, they could only see the corporeal evidence of corruption and not the ethereal presence that had been possessing them moments earlier. The same one trying to bring the bodies together to inhabit them once more, even as the guardsmen stood there. Fruitlessly trying to process what they’d seen.

  Above us, the fog and the cloud cover above it was only growing thicker. Like some misty fist closing to crush us. The blanket drowned out the starry night as well as the moonlight. So that only a few of the still-burning lamps penetrated the cover and allowed normal humans to see.

  Add in the regular taint of the plague and the unnatural taint of the Intruders Sully had mentioned, and it was a wonder the guards had the nerve to linger here at all.

  Some might have called their effort valiant. I would call it idiocy. People like Sully or Monique or Helga or even Prudence for that matter swore up and down that Intruders, while chaotic and sometimes unpredictable, were not all that much worse than a bolt of lightning to the face or a charging horde of monsters rushing at you underground.

  I disagreed.

  Not only that, I was pretty sure anyone who didn’t disagree had something fundamentally wrong with them.

  If this was what bravery looked like, then I would choose cowardice every time.

  “Halt!” One of the guards shouted out. “Th….th…the…. The curfew is in effect!”

  He barely managed to get the words out. His teeth clattering with barely suppressed terror.

  “Go back to your homes!”

  “Ignore the fool.” Another, older guard snapped. Pulling his peer back and making his way to the forefront himself.

  “As per the orders of the mayor, all men of military age not yet drafted must make their way to the mines in order to make up for the shortfall in production. However, as per the state of emergency being declared right now, those individuals must join up with the emergency militias and help drive the invaders and traitors from our shores!”

  He kicked one of the corpses and his boot came away smeared in jelly-like blood.

  “There’s some kind of insurrection going on!” He continued when neither I nor Henry said anything. “The sick and dying have been recruited into some kind of plot to overthrow the government. Grab a plank of wood or some stick from nearby and join us in crushing this rebellion, or be branded a traitor to our dear Boudicca!”

  Henry blinked at him.

  “Dude! The (Sully) are you talking about! There’s no insurrection! The literal living dead are coming to eat everyone!”

  He pointed down.

  “Look! That guy’s missing half his ribcage and his hand’s still moving towards your foot! Look! Look!”

  The officer did look and then he did curse out loud as he brought his cudgel down on the half-crushed skull. Pulverizing it and sending bits of bone flying everywhere.

  The Intruder was unperturbed and the corpse’s hand still reached out with the speed of a lunging viper. Dead, rotten, diseased fingers wrapping themselves around the guard officer’s throat.

  The man’s eyes turned to saucers and his mouth let loose a very effeminate screech as the smell of urine wafted through the air.

  His hand still swung the club, but the swing went wild and took another guard in the jaw. Shattering it and sending the smaller man tumbling to the floor with a groan of agony.

  The other men joined in, sticks beating down on the moving corpse and then moving on to the other moving corpses that were also starting to come alive as well. Then the Intruder flickered into reality for the first time, his body appearing as a frail starved form, with a hunched back that bore the weight of a weeping pustule as big as the rest of his body combined.

  When the unreal thing swung its arms, the guard officer reared back even further. Falling backwards on his rear end and beginning to cough blood.

  Blood that had the consistency of jelly.

  Within the span of a few seconds, the guard officer started showing symptoms of all four plagues we’d seen. Flesh turning blue and black even as other parts turned into red slurry and began sloughing off of him like melting ice-cream. Pustules showed up on his skin too, bursting almost instantly and drenching the cobbled roads in green-grey ooze that smelled of rot and death.

  In any other fight, my first instinct would have been to rush in and get a few punches in. Putting all of my body’s weight into a charge while keeping a [Force Bubble] around me in order to run down whatever it was I was hunting.

  The Centipedes back then had exploded in spectacular fashion. The Lobster Mole-Bear things had been sent flying with several shattered limbs. The gnomes had been flattened into mushy rugs beneath my feet.

  But Intruders… no.

  The way those ghostly hands caressed my skin made me sick. Made me feel weak and helpless. I… I couldn’t move. Even while the other guards jumped on the thing with panicked voices and even as the vile spirit made them sick in turn. Laughing while it did so.

  Laughing, laughing, laughing…

  With a voice that sent chills into my very bones. My very soul.

  Touching me and hurting me in ways no material object could.

  It made me remember Sister Nina’s stories and… and other things. Other things I hadn’t thought about in a very, very long time. Mom and dad and the men in hooded cloaks and the chanting….

  The basement and the chanting…

  The smell and the chill and the taste of iron in the air and…

  I hurled.

  Crumbling down as if he’d hit me in the stomach.

  ‘No.’ I told myself. ‘No that’s just a dream. Mom and dad left for drinks. They sold grandma’s jewels and never came back. They never came back and the debt collectors took the house. That never happened. That never happened. That…’

  The images came back stronger and I hurled into the cobblestones again.

  Shivering.

  I felt the air shift as something moved. Around the spot where Henry had been.

  Then there was a blast of force and a spectral wail. A sucking shift in the air as it was sucked away and then… the chill vanished.

  “Hey man, are you okay?” Henry asked with worry. His arm grabbing mine again and lifting. Bringing me to my feet.

  “You look pretty roughed up.”

  I was going to say I was fine, but I couldn’t. My mouth was still filled with the taste of rotting meat and the cold was still stubbornly clinging to my bones, despite the air regaining some of its warmth.

  Henry’s face moved to the side and then upwards.

  “Sully’s not up there right now, so I’m gonna go ahead and heal the guards here. We can move out and fix things after they’re safe.”

  “No one is safe.” I blurted out. “No one. Oh (Gnome).”

  I coughed.

  “How? How did this happen here?” I asked, feeling stupid even as the question left my mouth.

  “This kind of thing isn’t supposed to happen here. Other places sure, but not here. What… why?”

  Henry merely patted my shoulder and sent some healing Psy into me. Before then moving on to the others.

  “I don’t know.” He called out afterwards. “A lot of these things are new to me too. I mean, we learned about Intruders in the academy over at my first Instance. But I never really got how dangerous they could be until Sully sent his over and they… well…”

  He looked around.

  “Thinking back on it, the changes were worse than this, but none of them hurt any people. Not humans at least. If you were a gnome, you were (Sully)ed.”

  He looked around nervously.

  “Hey Sully!? I think we’re ready to talk now!”

  “No!” I roared through the cold and the pain and the blur of half-remembered nightmares.

  “No I won’t allow it! He can do whatever he wants everywhere else! But not here! Not in my world! Never in my world!”

  “Dude!” Henry shouted again. Now pointing at the spot where the monstrosity had been. “That’s a magic zombie! I mean, a Psy zombie or a… (Sully) me in the… It was a spirit possessing a corpse! Dude! I’m not even sure I killed it! I think it just went back to wherever the (Sully) it came from when I stabilized reality! Dude! If there are more of those things going around then your world is well and truly (Sully)ed in the (Sully)! I don’t think you have a choice here!”

  “There’s always a choice!”

  “Mother(Sully)er your siblings might be getting possessed this very second as we speak! Just let Sully do his thing and scream at him later! He did it to me didn’t he? I turned out pretty alright. I mean I still got nightmares and the occasional panic attack and sometimes Sully looks really, really inspiring and larger than life out of nowhere but I’d say I turned out pretty alright; all things considered. Just let him do his thing this one time and you can yell at him later!”

  “Never!” I shouted again. Now forcing myself to my feet.

  “Let’s go! We can still get my family out of there! Then, we’ll go somewhere else. Anywhere else! Maybe Carthage. Maybe Rome. Maybe the lion kingdoms to the south. I don’t know. Anywhere but here.”

  “Dude!” Henry shouted again. “What about the people dying here? I literally just performed a fist-infused exorcism and I can already sense three more of those things ahead of us around the corner over there! I’m pretty sure the other guards are dead! Not to mention all the people dying from the diseases! What good are we doing healing everyone when the (Sully)ing evil spirits are just gonna re-infect them!? This is above our paygrade man! We need Sully to do his thing one last time and…”

  “Stop you moron!” I hit him. Though in the end, my fist was hurting and I wasn’t even sure he felt it.

  “It will never be one last time! Don’t you get it? This is a lesson! This is the lesson! There will always be another world gone to (Gnome)! There will always be another crisis! That was Sully’s whole point!”

  I glared daggers up at him.

  “Maybe in those cases, I’ll let him do what he wants. Maybe in those cases I’ll make the call. But not here. Never here.”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “You’re being stupid!”

  “No you’re being stupid! How did you feel when Sully brainwashed your parents!?”

  “He actually didn’t change them all that much.” Henry admitted. “I mean yeah, they were really into him after that, even when they didn’t know exactly who he was, but they didn’t turn into strangers or anything.”

  He seemed to be lost in thought all of the sudden.

  “(Sully) me. I just remembered that we still needed to have that talk after the show with Vince and Thunder Fist. (Sully) me in the (Sully).”

  Henry took a deep breath.

  “Okay, uncomfortable discussions aside, he did give them powers. And he did save a whole bunch of people and… if I may say so… this seems a whole lot worse than the monster problem we had back home. In your place, I’d have already made the call.”

  “Well it’s a good thing you’re not in my place.” I started walking again. Shrugging him off.

  “Let’s get moving again. I don’t want to waste anymore time.”

  We ran through another three barricades and found only bodies every time. Bodies, and sometimes Intruders. With wagging tongues that tasted the air around them. Corrupted and inhuman faces twisted in rictus smiles.

  Every time, I tried to dispel them. Every time, that duty fell to Henry. Despite being slow and clumsy for his levels, the man was able to open a path of destruction in his wake. His raw Psy reserves were making themselves known as he flooded more and more power into [Warp the Veil II].

  He was getting better and better at controlling the flow as well. Making it so that our surroundings were the only spot in the nearby streets where the spectral translucent hands did not appear. Making it so that they vanished into thin air with the rush of collapsing air whenever we passed by.

  Yet there were more and more Intruders in our path the closer we got to the mines. All of them charging at us with glee, only to shriek and shrivel away when Henry rushed forwards to strike them.

  He was starting to copy me now too. Gathering force around his body with [Telekinesis III] in the same way I used [Force Bubble], before launching himself forwards with all that gathered power and his Enhancer abilities combined.

  It was a simple combination. One that did not involve [Accelerate] or [Decelerate] as Henry did not have those abilities yet. He was still faster though. All those Enhancer levels showing their stuff even without him overcharging those abilities.

  If he ever trained enough to properly control those powers, he’d be a complete and utter menace to anyone and anything below the 3rd Tier.

  ‘Or even to those starting out on the 3rd Tier.’ I corrected myself. ‘The man had more than one Tier 4 ability. That’s going to come as a real shock to anyone he fights in the future.’

  Eventually, we reached the mine’s entrance. Immediately noting the absence of guards, as well as the absence of bodies.

  Instead, three people were standing out in the open. Waiting.

  Although it might be more accurate to say that they were only two people and one thing pretending to be a person.

  A violent shiver ran down my spine when I stared at Mittens. The Intruder Sully had birthed out into the world.

  ‘How does it see what’s happening here?’ I wondered. ‘Is it happy that the Veil between us and that damn place is thinner? Or is it angry that someone other than it had the nerve to try out such a thing? Would it notice if my siblings were dead? Would it even care?’

  Somehow, I figured I wouldn’t like the answer very much and tried to avoid staring into its eyes.

  “Well that’s a relief.” Henry sighed. “With the way things were going, I was almost sure we were going to find some kind of blood ritual and a bunch of dead boys tied to stone altars.”

  I hit him, but he didn’t even flinch.

  Instead, he turned and looked abashed.

  “Sorry. My bad. Let’s get your siblings back.”

  “Yes. Let’s.”

  Henry turned to the three again.

  “Where’s the kid you guys had with you?”

  “Borond?” Randall asked. “He’s over there inside the shack. We… uh. Well he was being very brave and he wanted to go down into the mine but we wanted to wait till Sully got here and....”

  “Mittens sees and others flee. Mittens savor the lark. Five big knives dancing in the dark. Run now. Flee now. You cannot escape. None can run and none can hide from the Coffin and his Drake.”

  “Yeah.” Randall continued. “What he said. But Borond didn’t like that so we had to tie him up.”

  He looked at me then, as if he’d just realized he’d admitted to binding my brother.

  “Uh. Sorry?”

  “No.” I said suddenly. Unable to contain the relief. “You did the right thing. In fact, I might have Henry here open up a portal and send him packing back to the orphanage.”

  “Vince thinks that’s a terrible idea.” The ghoul said.

  “Vince thinks he’ll run right back here to help rescue his bolder brothers and sisters. Borond is a hero, but kinda dumb at the same time.”

  “Luigi is on the other side. He’ll stop him from leaving.”

  Mittens laughed then. Cackling to itself.

  “Fool you once and fool you twice. Little piglets acting like blind mice. Mittens sees and Mittens hears. Mittens knows the future that even now draws near. The boy is brave and truth he craves. Too important to forget. Master shall now prop him up so Charlie will regret.”

  I blinked at it. A fresh wave of terror washing over me.

  I put my arms up as I always did, but something stopped me from moving. [Predator’s Instincts] was screaming at me inside my own head. Beating over the skull with a hundred trumpets. All blaring that fighting this thing was the last mistake I’d ever make.

  “Vince thinks it means Sully wants to take him along.” Vince spoke up before I was disemboweled. “To have him convince you.”

  ‘That cheap (Gnome)ing bastard.’

  “Right. Okay. Whatever. Sully’s not here so let’s move on.”

  I made my way to mine shaft after that. Not daring to look back at the thing drooling off in the corner of my vision.

  “But your brother…” Henry complained.

  “He’s safe enough here I’m sure.” I told him. “I’d rather be here than with Luigi if Sully’s just going to pull him back at the last moment to mess with me.”

  It was at that moment that we heard his voice again. Calmn, composed and uncharacteristically devoid of emotion.

  “No. You will not do that.” We whirled and my eyes widened once more as a figure stood between us and Sully. Five rotting hands outstretched towards us. Towards me.

  The thing, which looked like six bodies melted together, turned to gape at him, just as we did.

  “Aaand whaaat aaareee yooouuu, straaangeeee feeeelloooow?” It hissed through multiple mouths. The sounds melting together into a raspy whistle.

  “A concerned third party.” Sully spoke. Advancing on the thing with an increasingly jovial trot.

  “Tell me, what do you remember?”

  The thing turned its own head sideways. As if confused by the question.

  “Reeeeeemeeeeembeeeeer?” It clicked several tongues together. Acting as if the question vexed it.

  “Iiii reeeecaaaal theeee feeeeveeer. Iiii reeeecaaaal aaaskiiiing fooor heeeeelp. Fooor aaand eeend too theeee paaaaaiiiin. Iiii reeecaaal.”

  It shook its head, as if waking from a dream.

  “No. Not I. The first suit of meat. Yes yes. The first suit of meat asked for an end to the pain. I remember slipping in and taking in the raw sensation. The suit did not feel pain anymore, but it did not feel anything else either. Yes yes. I became it and I ruled it and I forced it to pay me back via sanctified obedience. To me. To my maker. Yes yes. The mighty Gorxanctunact. Orphan of the great Grotko.”

  “I see. And what happened to this Grotko?”

  “He was a mighty Telepath. A master of his Type and of three others to a lesser extent. He was on the 8th Tier. He was on a mission to hunt a Dragon. He was turned to mush scattered on the ground and so my maker was orphaned. Set loose upon Pandemonium.”

  The thing nodded, as if satisfied it could remember everything so well.

  Then it kept nodding some more before adding:

  “The old master had been a gnome. The mightiest of gnomes in fact.”

  ….

  ….

  ….

  In that moment, no one spoke. No one moved.

  Such was the silence… that you could have heard a pin dropping halfway across town.

  Me and Henry stared at each other.

  Randall stared at us.

  Vince and Mittens stared at the thing.

  Vince with fresh hatred and Mittens with saliva falling from the corners of his mouth.

  “Was he now!?” Sully balked. Laughing so hard his head reared back towards the heavens.

  “Tell me more!”

  “Of course. Yes yes. Usually meat things scream and cry, but you can talk normal just fine.” The thing snapped all the heads at its disposal to attention. Fingers caressing three of its chins as if trying to recall something.

  “My maker needs slaves and sacrifices to stay whole while being orphaned. Yes yes. It needs to feed on sentient beings and their emotions. It needs more and more emotions to stay whole after some time. Yes yes. So, it gets slaves. Stupid slaves that get trinkets and favors in exchange for feeding. My maker’s slave asked that no one save children be allowed to enter. Yes yes. I have chosen to help him. Please die.”

  The thing made the request so easily, that one would think he was asking for a drink of water or a few seconds to catch his breath under the hot summer sun.

  Sully only smiled.

  “No problem pal! Why don’t you and my friend Mittens here go over to that building over there and you can sort this all out.”

  “Yes. The building.” The thing agreed. Pus erupting from zits and boils that exploded in that very second.

  Mittens stared with a face full of joy before obeying. He went in the shack first and the thing lingered at the door. Turning to us as three of its hands closed the door behind it.

  “Mwahahahahahahehehahaha!” It cackled in a deep, resonating, booming voice.

  Then the door was closed and there was silence in the night.

  Then the door opened again and Mittens half emerged with Borond. The latter looking utterly shell-shocked as he staggered out.

  Mittens waved him away with a cheer, pointed towards me, and then pushed Borond’s back lightly towards us.

  Then he went to close the door, just as the thing had.

  His face suddenly gaining more feline features as a wicked smile appeared there, alongside a pair of horns that grew sharply from his forehead.

  “MWAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHUHUHAHAHAHA!!!!!” He laughed in an even deeper, more resonating voice.

  Then the shack went quiet for a second, before all kinds of noises came out of it.

  “YEOUCH! WOAU! WHOAAUA! WHOO! WHOHAHUHAI! WHOAAUA! WHOO! WHOHAHUHUHUI!”

  The walls began to shake violently. The roof jumping up and down as all the planks levitated high in the air before coming back down again. The very structure shivering as if there was an earthquake shattering the foundations below it.

  “YEOUCH! WOAU! WHOAAUA! WHOO! WHOHAHUHAI! WHOAAUA! WHOO! WHOHAHUHUHUI! WHOAAUA!”

  The walls kept shaking. Half the wooden planks outright falling down one after another for half a minute until a sudden silence descended on the place.

  Mittens came out, looking thoroughly satisfied.

  “Aaaaahhh.” He said, letting out the sigh of relief in one long hiss through his lips.

  “Mittens did not find it taxing. Mittens thinks that was soooo relaxing. Mittens is here.”

  Me and Henry were both staring. Awestruck, when Borond began pulling on my sleeve.

  Looking down, his eyes were blood-red and I saw that he had been crying.

  “Charlie…” He sobbed. “Please get me out of here. That Mittens woman! She’s crazy! They’re all crazy! They said I’d be safe here, but the dead started getting up! Let’s just go find the others! Please!”

  Borond sobbed some more, but I held him close. Not letting him go as I lifted him up like a potato sack and carried him in.

  I used [Photon Bubble] to make some light before me, but most of the darkness refused to be dispelled. Henry noticed that and I heard him suck in a sharp breath.

  “Swear to Buddha. This is the last time I go along with Sully into one of these (Sully)ing excursions.”

  I knew the root problem would have been the same or worse without Sully being here, so I didn’t echo that sentiment. Though it did resonate with me.

  I didn’t want to be here either.

  In fact, a large part of me wanted to turn around and give everyone up for dead. After all, if the mayor had ran away, then the rot was spreading far and wide already. Who knew how many corpses were coming to life around town?

  I looked at the screen for confirmation and saw something that, frankly, surprised me.

  “Only 259 deaths so far!?”

  “Yeah.” Sully said from behind. “No thanks to you, you lazy bum.”

  Borond looked back at him and shrieked. His nails digging into my own Symbiote.

  “Charlie! That’s the guy Vince and Randall were talking about! The crazy one! The warlock!”

  “Hey! I’m not a warlock kid! If anything, I like to play a sorcerer for the roleplay elements. A good DM can integrate them really well into a campaign.”

  “He just admitted to being a sorcerer!” Borond shrieked louder.

  “Kill him Charlie! Before he kills us all!”

  “Hey kid, way to talk to someone who just saved your sorry hide from the machinations of a gnome! A little bloody gratitude would be a nice start before you throw out insults!”

  “Everybody quiet!” Henry shouted. “This isn’t helping and I’m trying to peer into the deep, dark hole over here!”

  Sully huffed.

  “Yeah, leave it to Henry to be distracted by a hole.”

  Vince giggled.

  Randall looked stunned.

  Henry blinked at him. Sputtering nonsense before catching himself.

  “I…wha…” Then he reddened. “(Sully) you Sully!”

  The larger man only smiled. A slightly calmer, less manic smile.

  “Sorry, sorry, I thought you all needed some levity is all. My bad. My bad.” He came over to us and hugged all three of us tightly.

  “I’m only here to help, after all. And you know what would really help?”

  Borond snapped out of his terror at that. His brows creasing with determination.

  “I’ll take the deal?”

  “Deal?” Sully asked.

  “Yeah! My spirit for power!”

  “I don’t know where you got that kid. I’m not gonna steal your spirit.” Sully cut him off. “But I will absolutely give you powers! Just get you brother here to agree and I’ll have you stomping gnomish skulls in no time at all!”

  “Gnomish skulls?”

  “No!” I shouted. “Nothing like that! We go down the shaft and we get the others back. Nothing more. We’ll be out and away before anything else happens and then we’ll all be sa…”

  “They’re everywhere you moron!” Borond screamed up at me. Wrestling himself away from my arms to stare daggers up and into my eyes.

  “The bloody fucking monsters! The living dead! I saw then walking through the streets! They’re not stopping! Randall burned them all to ashes with his magic and then ghosts came out! Ghosts! The literal spirits of the dammed! If this guy can stop them then he should!”

  “No.” I said again. My voice becoming harder.

  “No. I won’t let him. Not here. Not in our world.”

  I saw Borond’s rage mix with self loathing then. His eyes watering. Then he struck me. Again and again. Fists curled and fueled by rage as they found my chest.

  “You idiot!” He bellowed. “I’m just me! I don’t have magic powers! I didn’t even know magic was a thing before today! Then you show up all strong and you think you know better than me?”

  He was sobbing again.

  “I was terrified! I was at the mercy of literal lunatics! Who then left me at the entrance to a haunted mine! I don’t want to be here! I don’t want to be anywhere near here! I want to go home but I know I won’t be safe there either! What, so you think you’re so much better than me!? That you can tell me I need to be protected because I’m so useless!? The other crazies said you’d be leaving soon! What happens after that! What are we going to do after you leave!”

  He wiped away a trail of snot with the back of his hand. Turning to Sully.

  “I mean what I said. Whatever the price is, I’ll pay it. I swear it. Help me sir. Help me save my family, and I’ll give you anything you want!”

  Sully’s face was stone then. Unflinching.

  But his eyes moved towards me. Searching.

  “No.” I repeated once more. “No. We go down and we rescue the others and that’s that. No more.”

  And so I leapt into the hole. Not bothering to use the stairs. Letting the darkness envelop me from all sides, as the familiar chill became more pronounced.

  In the back of my mind, I saw the nightmare again, even as my feet touched down on solid rock.

  I saw the men. I heard the chanting. I smelled the incense and the memory. My younger eyes swam with tears.

  I saw the men again. Hooded and robed in dirty green garments.

  And in their hands…

  The daggers.