7 in 3

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Coil

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The large front doors make a bang as I quickly stride through the entryway of the manor. Everything within view inside seems normal enough. I look down and a blob of darkness splits off of my shadow, quickly forming into a small rat-shaped shade. I crouch down and look at my new creation.

“Go get Father, bring him to his study.” The rat scampers into my shadow before dissolving. I start my walk again, not checking to see if the new knight is following or not. He’ll keep up, or not. Rushing up the stairs I feel a sliver of envy, Scarlet could take these steps two at a time. It’s like she got my height. A jealous sigh leaks out of me as I push Father’s study door open.

The generally orderly study is trashed. Stacks of papers and books are piled everywhere, some already toppled and strewn across the floor. I see empty bottles of something peeking out from behind things, hastily hidden for sure… Father isn’t doing the best, I guess.

I plop down on the sofa near the center of the large office, putting my feet up on the coffee table, since it’s only little Porter here with me. The knight actually kept with me, not that I was trying to get away. I stare at him intensely, waiting for him to notice my gaze. Eventually his eyes meet mine. Nothing, no embarrassment, no shock, no discomfort. The guy just stares back at me, stone faced and without any visible emotion. Eventually his eyes wander off to look at the decorations in the office.

The door we had entered through not long ago slams open, revealing a large man being pulled by a rat. The small smoky creature has attached itself to the hem of Father’s robe and is tugging him into the room. 

“Gods damn this creature!” Father looks up and locks onto me. “Coil! This is yours, isn’t it? I tried crushing the thing and it just exploded into smoke!” The anger is clear in his voice. I quickly dissolve the rat, freeing my parent from the rodent. 

“Sorry, Father, I didn’t expect it to literally drag you. I only sent it to bring you here.” I flash an apologetic smile at him, hoping he’s able to calm down. Unfortunately I have no luck today, and his anger stays boiling. 

“Coil, why the hell do you even need me here?” Finally his eyes drift over to Porter, who is watching with an excited expression, if stone is typically excited. Father quickly recovers his dignity, sucking in his anger and calming his expression. He walks over to the opposite sofa and sits down. 

“So, what do you want?” The gruff and irritated tone doesn’t match his expression, but it’s better than before. He reaches under the sofa and grimaces when he finds nothing. 

“Zenith, what's going on with them, Father?” 

He sighs loudly, leaning back deeply into the sofa. “Well, she’s home, but he’s not. She showed up in the dungeon, Jet brought her home. When she finally woke up she was clearly not herself. I thought she might be a fake, but once she was caught she attacked.” He chuckles ruefully. “The dents in Jet’s sword can attest that it’s really her.” He rubs his forehead, smoothing the wrinkles. 

“She has to have been brainwashed, hypnotized, something like that. Whoever did it, though, hadn’t realized that she is only one half. She gave herself away immediately by not knowing that.” Father looks over to Porter. “I’m sure you know that if you say a word about any of this you’ll be missing by sundown, right, son?”

Porter nods solemnly at Father’s threat, seemingly unconcerned. I have to try to not laugh at the knight’s indifference. 

“How will we track him?” 

My words startle Father out of his funk. “I was planning on waiting until this Zenith woke up, and planned on having dispelling magic cast on her.” 

I nod slowly. “That might work… but it’ll take much too long.” Zenith has been missing for months now. The longer this gets dragged out, the less likely it is we’ll be able to find them. Alive at least. The Count shakes his head slowly.

Just as Father goes to speak, the ground begins to vibrate.

 

【〓〓〓〓】

 

We both jump to our feet as Porter draws his sword. The vibrations slow to almost a stop before sharply increasing. After almost an entire minute of shaking, it stops. The pause is soon filled with a horrible sound. A screeching crackling backed with the moans of thousands of humans pulses through the air. Visible ripples move through the space around us, warping the view of each other. With a sharp dropping sensation, the racket stops.

A green square lights up above Father’s desk, slowly displaying a stern faced man. The man makes eye contact with my father before speaking.

“My Lord, there is a situation.” I almost crack at the man’s understatement. Father nods however.

“Major Wenn, I figured.” A small smirk flickers across Father’s face. “What happened? I’ve never felt anything like that.” 

“Well, my Lord, that sensation was the townheart being damaged severely.” 

Father’s eyes go wide.“Details, Major! I need details now!” he growls out.

The major shakes his head. “I’m sorry, my Lord, that’s all I know. The only reason we know this much this quickly is one of our mages has experienced this before.” 

Father’s anger recedes quickly. “Of course, Major, expecting more this quickly is nonsense.” He glances at me. “Major, send out survey teams, make sure they have a combat squad attachment as well. We don’t know what’s going on. Report to me with any news.” The Major nods silently before cutting the feed. Father quickly rounds on me.

“You two, go out and see what happened. Our knights are skilled but the two of you moving alone will be faster. Only observe, understand? I can’t have my heir dying on me.” Father’s gaze burns into my soul. 

“Understood. I’ll be right back.” I flash him a smile before rushing out the door of the office. Porter quickly follows behind me. The two of us dash to the entrance to the manor before pausing. 

“Oh, thank god we’re free.” I smile at the knight. Breathing in the sweet, fresh, not tense air, I push open the doors.

【〓〓〓〓】

 

I stare down off the ledge of the noble tier and let out a whistle. 

“You two seriously jumped down this?” I look over at my impassive knight, who gives me a nod. “Damn, you two have balls, no way in hell I’m jumping off this.” I take a step back from the ledge, which is clearly in need of guardrails. I raise my hands, causing my shadow to spread in all directions. Thanks to the full moon, the shadows are deep tonight, making my blessing much easier to use. One by one shapes emerge from my expanded shadow. Slowly the amorphous blobs define themselves into humanoid shapes. As they become clearly human shaped, they kneel before me.

“This is more like it!” I grin like a madman. “Alright, boys, go out and find anything unusual for a town at night. As soon as you find something, come back to me.” I snap my fingers and the sixteen figures dash in every direction. I feel the life drain from me.

I stagger but am caught by Porter before falling. The knight helps me stay upright.

“Be careful, my Lord.” Porter makes sure I can stand on my own before letting go of me. Was that… nervousness in his voice just now? My grin spreads wide as I think back to his tone. “Should we take a carriage down to the lower levels, my Lord?” 

I nod at his suggestion, the shades won’t find anything that quickly and I have no idea if they can even do what I asked. We quickly head back to the manor.

 

【〓〓〓〓】

 

As the carriage trundles down the ramp to the lower tier, one of my shades comes back. The dark shape slips through the crack in the carriage door before rejoining my shadow. As the being returns to me, memories flash through my mind. 

The shade jumps from roof to roof in the shopping tier. Its path is somewhat close to the townheart. In the distance smoke is rising from buildings before pooling under the stone floor of the upper tier. The shade quickly makes its way to the source of the smoke.

As it draws nearer to the cause, sounds of screaming rise up into the night. Slowly large cracks become visible on the face of the townheart as the shade closes in. The shade makes a final leap to a shingled roof at the edge of the commotion. 

Laying before the being is a large section of the shopping tier, crushed to rubble. A large section of the townheart face sheared off, falling on the buildings nearby. Revealed by the collapsed crystal is the front of a building that is embedded into the gem. 

The building front is massive, at least three stories, and is covered in huge windows. The doors in the front are almost completely made of glass. Or were, as they've been smashed outward, the glass broken and the metal frames twisted. On the edge of the smoking rubble are people who were probably seeing what happened. The groups are screaming as they’re attacked by monsters.

The creatures are vaguely humanoid, with no faces or features of any kind. The smoothed over things are slate black and seemingly made out of gel. As a nearby kight tries to cut into one his sword just imbeds itself into the monster. The metal starts hissing and melting into the thing. Soon the sword is completely eaten by the gel.

The creature extends its one arm before it elongates and shapes itself into the sword the knight just lost. His horrified face as he’s cut down by his own blade is pitiful. 

I snap back to the present, gasping for air in the carriage car. Porter is kneeling next to me, making sure I’m alright. I look at the guy with a pained face.

“A dungeon opened inside the townheart.”

 

】〓〓〓〓【

Porter

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The alleys are strangely quiet as the Lord and I run through them. We are already quite close to the place that Lord Coil indicated earlier. There should be some screaming or yelling, something other than this complete silence. Without realizing it we rush out into the open space of the smoldering rubble. I take a glance around, noticing the copious amounts of blood on the ground and walls. I look over at my Lord.

“Strange, huh, Porter? Where the hell is everybody?” Lord Coil is also scanning the area. His well fitted clothes he had made earlier have reformed into tightfitting black armor. His presence oozes authority. I suddenly notice a small movement from one of the alleyways.

I point out the alley to Lord Coil, who nods before moving towards it. We slowly make our way to the place I saw movement. I lift the only thing there, an overturned crate. Underneath the box is a kid, curled up and hiding.

“Hey, kid, it’s alright. We’re not monsters.” Lord Coil soothes the child, causing him to look up at us. The kid tilts his head slightly.

“You’re not? That’s good, I was really scared.” The kid falls back onto his butt, clearly exhausted. After letting the child calm down some I start to grill him.

“Where is everyone else?” My voice comes out like ice, probably upsetting the poor kid. Surprisingly the small boy just blinks at me.

“I only know where Mamma is, the others all ran off!” The kid nods enthusiastically. “Follow me, I'll take you to Mamma so you can ask her.” The boy grabs Lord Coil’s hand, who motions that it’s okay to me. I take my hand off my hilt and follow the duo.

“What’s your name kid?” Lord Coil asks. The kid tilts his head again, and waits a moment before answering.

“Urim!” he says with a smile. “I’m Urim!” The boy then comes to a stop outside the door to a house. “This is my home! C’mon!” Urim opens the door and pulls Lord Coil in after him. I quickly follow behind them and close the door behind me. 

“Mamma?” Urim calls out, looking for his mother. 

“Yes?” A sweet voice comes from another room. 

“These two guys wanna know where everyone went.” The boy stands beside Lord Coil, still holding his hand. From the other room the mother chuckles softly. She pokes her head out from around the corner of the hall. 

“Oh! Such handsome men! You two want to know where the others ran off to?” She gives a sweet smile at us. Just before I reply the room is filled with a hissing sound.

“God dammit!” Lord Coil cries out. I look over at him and see that the hand being held by Urim is smoking. My Lord pulls his hand free, which is now covered by burns. At that moment the mother steps out from around the corner.

The woman is on the shorter side, wearing typical shopkeeper garb. Unlike the typical shopkeeper she has a long silver sword instead of her right hand. I see anger fill Lord Coil’s eyes.

“I was really starting to worry we’d run out of food soon, right Mamma?” Urim smiles at me with an evil light in his eyes. I draw my sword and look at Lord Coil. 

“My Lord, is it okay to attack?” I look at the mother and son nervously and then back to Lord Coil. He snaps out of it after I ask a second time.

“Ye-” His words are cut off as the mother lunges at him. I move to intercept but Urim jumps in my path. The skin on his arms explodes into dozens of dagger blades. The small thing cackles at me while holding my sword back. 

I pull back my blade before swinging again. Again the boy blocks my attack, holding my blade back with one arm. My attempt to pull back is stopped as the kid holds my blade in place with multiple dexterous daggerheads. He swings his other arm around, grabbing my blade. His arm starts to turn to gel and expand up the blade towards my hilt. I abandon the sword, jumping back before the gel can touch my skin. 

The creature cackles at me as it consumes my blade. That was my favorite sword too. I reach behind me, grabbing the thick wooden shaft strapped to my back. With a hard pull the weapon swings free. I hold my greataxe out in front of me. 

The child - no, the monster tilts his head a bit. His arm slowly loses the daggers before being replaced by my recently deceased sword. I smirk a bit before swinging my axe above my head and bringing it down in an arc. The creature blocks with its new weapon. 

The axehead cleaves clean through the silver sword, shattering the blade. The momentum carries my weapon through the monster behind the sword as well, hissing all the way. With a cracking sound the blade hits something hard, causing the mockery of a child to scream. I pull back my beloved axe, noting that it took little damage from the gel. I look down as the monster’s gel body dries out and turns to dust. 

That's when Lord Coil slams into my side.

 

【〓〓〓〓】

 

Lord Coil’s impact sends the two of us sliding down the hall on our rears. We stop with a thud at the foot of the front door. Without so much as a chance to breathe I jump up and block the swing of the surviving monster. The faux silver screeches across the head of my axe. My hasty movements save me and my charge, but they cost me my balance. The force of the creature’s swing does a number on me, and I stagger back some. 

The loathsome thing sees the opening and doesn’t waste the chance. The silver sword swings up from below, aiming for the gap between my armor. I can’t maneuver my large axe in the confines of the hallway quick enough to block so I brace for the incoming wound. I grit my teeth for a blow that never lands. Tendrils of darkness shoot from below my feet, wrapping around the holy looking blade. The vines of shadow hold fast, stopping the swing just short of my ribs.

“S-sorry it took me so long.” Lord Coil’s voice comes from the floor behind me. His tone wavers a bit as he speaks. “I don’t think I can get up, so I’ll just support you, my knight.” I can hear the obnoxio- pointed smile in Lord Coil’s voice. Before I can get a retort out of my mouth I’m distracted by a strange sensation.

Hundreds of small snakes made of black tar wriggle out of my shadow, crawling up onto my body. They rapidly line up and coalesce into a singular whole. After a few seconds my leather gear is replaced by shining black plate armor. Unlike the plate armor I was required to try in training, this set was shockingly light. 

My admiration of Lord Coil’s creation is rudely interrupted by the monster’s sword arm finally cleaving through its binds. The woman’s face twists in fury and she lets out an inhuman snarl at us. The creature moves faster than before, closing the gap much quicker than I expected. I make a split second decision, choosing to trust in Lord Coil’s handiwork.

I ignore the blow aiming for my heart, instead swinging my axe down at the undefended monster. The creature smirks as its blade makes contact first.

With a loud clang the monster’s arm bounces off the black armor. Realization dawns on the beast’s face just as it’s cleaved in half by my swing. Like its smaller sibling its soul crystal is hit directly, letting out a cracking sound. With one last scream the monster loses its shape and collapses onto the floor.

I’m happy that my bet paid off. It was unnecessarily risky, but for some reason I wanted to look cool. I hear Lord Coil mutter an insult on my intelligence as the black armor fades, leaving my standard gear in its place. I turn back to the Lord, a miniscule smile cracking my features.

But Lord Coil isn’t there. The only person behind me is a large, nude, woman unconscious on the floor. On top of the sleeping person sits a large… much too large lizard made of roots and leaves. The thing looks right at me with eyes made of two large berries, and starts to wag its tail.