Death: Genesis

Zeke ducked beneath a fist the size of a compact car, then between its owner’s legs, rolling to his feet a moment later. Normally, he wouldn’t engage in such acrobatics; indeed, he usually preferred to stand his ground and trade momentous blows with his opponents. However, in this case, he knew that was an inadvisable path, largely because of the size disparity. In his Titan form, Zeke was more than twenty feet tall, but the flesh giants towered over him like buildings.

And by virtue of that size, they could bring quite a lot of force to bear, as he’d discovered upon first engagement when a kick had sent him tumbling across the graveyard to crash through a mausoleum. Even that brief fall was enough to give the other undead an opening to pile atop him. Zeke was no longer vulnerable to that sort of attack, though. Their sharp claws and biting teeth weren’t incapable of piercing his skin, but they couldn’t do much more than leave a series of shallow scratches. Meanwhile, he was more than capable of throwing off the weight of hundreds of zombified bodies.

Which he had, sending them arcing through the air in an explosion of rotted flesh.

But that had happened nearly fifteen minutes ago. Since then, he’d spent the intervening time dodging massive attacks while searching for an opening to return the favor. He’d gotten in a few good licks, but because of the flesh giants’ nature, those hits had been less than effective, even despite his own incredible strength.

“This isn’t working,” he muttered inwardly as he leaped aside to avoid a descending foot. When it hit the ground, he lashed out with Voromir, the head of the hammer burying itself in the rotted flesh. It tore a chunk from the monster’s thick ankle, but that small degree of damage would do little to slow the creature down. What’s more, the wound quickly sealed shut, preventing the thing’s pus-like blood from leaking out. It wasn’t healing – not precisely – but it was reasonably effective in keeping the little damage Zeke could do from impacting the monster’s combat viability.

“Hit them harder?” asked Eveline.

“Brilliant,” Zeke deadpanned within his own mind. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”

“You don’t have to get snarky,” she responded.

Zeke ignored her, as he had more important things to worry about – like another descending fist. He reached back, swinging his hammer in an uppercut. When the two forces met, they did so with a tremendous shockwave that threw the surrounding undead a few dozen feet away. It also sundered the ground as if under the influence of a small, localized earthquake.

And the flesh giant’s fist exploded into a shower of rotting meat, pus, and death-attuned mana that fell upon Zeke like the world’s most disgusting rain shower. He didn’t let that slow him down, though. Instead, he gathered his strength and leaped toward the staggered flesh giant. As he did so, he dismissed his hammer into his spatial storage. It disappeared just in time to free his hands so he could grab hold of the monster’s chest. Then, without missing a beat, he pulled back, straightened his fingers, then stabbed forward.

The monster’s flesh parted before his knife-like hand, but his arm stopped after plunging wrist-deep. So, he yanked it free before repeating the action. This time, it went in up to his elbow.

It was good progress, but by that point, the creature had recovered. Fortunately, it was no mental giant, and it responded to Zeke’s attacks by slapping its massive hands against its chest. That did very little to dislodge him, and when those hands retreated, Zeke repeated his attack. This time, his arm went in up to his shoulder.

That was enough.

So, after enduring another blow, Zeke took hold of the wound he’d dug into the monster’s chest, grabbing the sides with both hands. And then, with a roar, he flexed as he tore the two sides apart.

He dove in.

And he immediately wished he hadn’t. Digging into a living creature’s chest was a dubious prospect in the best of times, but doing so to an undead monster created from melding hundreds of other corpses together was, in a word, disgusting. Never was that more clear than when Zeke felt things wriggling all over his face. The monster wasn’t composed of only necrotizing flesh. Rather, there were worms, bugs, and even fat maggots the size of his finger digging through there.

Even though Zeke was well used to all things disgusting – he’d once dug through a living cyclops’ skull for untold days – he had never encountered anything that turned his stomach quite like being surrounded by all the things that comprised the flesh giant’s body.

Still, he didn’t let it derail his progress.

Instead, he clawed his way deeper, wishing the whole time that there was a better way.

There was not, though.

So, Zeke continued on. It was a testament to the monster’s size that he was able to fit his entire twenty-foot body in the thing’s chest cavity. As he climbed through, he felt the monster’s flesh closing in all around him. The gaping wound he’d already dug had closed only moments after he’d climbed through, so he was entirely enclosed within the flesh golem’s chest.

Then, he found its rib cage. Fortunately, it was sized to fit the monster’s enormous body, so the ribs were spaced comparatively far apart. As such, Zeke had no trouble slipping between them and to the much squishier bits within. Of course, those organs were no more important to an overgrown zombie than any other parts of its flesh. However, what Zeke was counting on was that there was a threshold for damage, beyond which the creature would be incapable of enduring any longer.

So, as was his natural inclination, Zeke embarked on a quest for destruction. He channeled a little Will into his body as he ripped and shredded, pulled and punched. With his high strength as well as the power of his Path of Arcane Destruction singing through him, he made great progress in that endeavor.

Great, disgusting progress.

But Zeke kept at it, angling upward as he went through the lungs and heart, eventually reaching the creature’s neck. That’s when he had an idea. He reached through liquifying flesh, digging outward until, at last, he found the monster’s skin. His fingers peeked through, feeling fresh air for the first time in minutes.

Then, Zeke ripped his arms out, raking them sideways until a gaping wound had opened. And unlike before, the flesh didn’t immediately mend. It still healed, though much slower than it had in the beginning. That seemed to verify that Zeke’s efforts had overwhelmed the monster’s flesh healing ability. But more importantly, it was precisely the opening Zeke needed to enact his plan.

He continued to rip sideways through the monster’s thick neck. It was at least forty feet across, so it took no small degree of effort to make his way around. Complicating matters was the fact that, despite not being at full power, the flesh giant’s healing ability still worked hard at mending the damage. So, Zeke was forced to retrace his proverbial steps.

In the end, though, he completed the task by ripping through the creature’s spine.

Its head toppled free, and its enormous body followed suit – with Zeke peeking out from its stump of a neck. The body hit with a tremendous crash that splattered almost a hundred zombies, but fortunately, they were deep within the horde, and none of the members of Zeke’s army were affected.

He didn’t have time to rest on his disgusting laurels, though. There were nine more flesh giants on the battlefield, and he was the only one capable of taking them out one-on-one. However, he was more than a little impressed with the fact that Adriel’s undead – Talia among them – had surrounded one of the enormous monsters and were making good headway toward taking it down.

Meanwhile, another was tied up by Pudge, who was roasting the thing with a copious application of hellfire. Every now and then, he would disappear from Zeke’s perception, only to reappear a moment later. When that happened, a hundred new wounds sprouted on his opponents’ body.

At the same time, Zeke’s assassin kobolds had descended upon another flesh giant. They looked like ants crawling all over the thing’s body, but everywhere they went, fiery destruction followed. It was a testament to the power of the path he’d granted them via [Benevolence].

Over the raucous sounds of battle rose a melodic crescendo as Jasper brought his own skills to bear on the battle. Often forgotten, the Troubadour’s efforts were not to be underestimated. Everywhere his music touched, it energized Zeke’s armies and spurred them to new heights of power.

Finally, Silik and his kobold legion held their own against the hordes of zombies. They even managed to advance, cutting the undead down with the ruthless precision of their tactical mastery. None of it was new. Zeke knew enough about history to recognize the formations the kobolds used those usually associated with the Roman legion. Yet, the introduction of skills made those tactics – drilled and practiced tens of thousands of times – that much more effective.

But the tyranny of power was not merciful, as became apparent the moment one of the flesh giants crashed into the meticulously raised wall of shields. The kobolds were great against other armies composed of similarly powerful members. However, they were at a severe disadvantage against individually powerful foes like the flesh giants.

The monsters were too large. They were too strong. Their levels were too high. And over it all hovered a truism that Zeke didn’t like to acknowledge. Tactics could only take an army so far. Numbers were useless in the face of true power. And at the end of the day, the kobolds were not well-developed enough to stand against anyone the truly mighty.

But that was where Zeke and his companions came in. Already, the others – like Adriel, Pudge, and Silik – were holding their own. Sasha waited in the wings, ready to destroy the whole city if it came to that. Her spell was already drawn. The power was ready. She merely needed to wield it.

And then there was Zeke, the most powerful piece on the entire board. With a flick of a skill, he could end the threat entirely. He would kill countless allies in the process, and he might have to search for the necromancer who caused it all. But he would do it if it proved necessary.

Because he had no intention of letting an zombie horde take over another world.

Before it came to that, though, he would exhaust all other possibilities. So, while Talia, Adriel, and their army of undead took care of one flesh giant and Pudge tore through another, Zeke resolved to slay the rest of them.

Seven flesh giants were scattered across the cemetery, and Zeke knew precisely how to deal with them. So, after climbing free of the one he’d already decapitated – the hard way, no less – he stomped his way through the gathered horde. Mundane zombies posed little threat to him, but there were other undead creatures that could – and would – kill him if given the chance. So, it was no stroll in the park. Instead, Zeke carved a path through the mass of rotting flesh as he set his sights on the nearest flesh giant.

When he reached the creature, he wasted no time before employing the same strategy he’d used with the first. It was disgusting, but if it worked, he had no issues with repetition.

So, after leaping upon the monster’s chest, Zeke once again dug a path through the creature’s rotting flesh, then set about destroying as much as possible. That was the key to outpacing its healing ability, and he committed to it fully, wreaking havoc within the monster’s chest cavity until he finally reached the thing’s neck.

Then, he repeated his actions from the first flesh giant, and soon enough, the creature fell the same as the last. Seeing that his strategy was still just as valid as the first time, Zeke embarked on a quest to rid the battlefield of all the others.

And everything went perfectly well for the next four monsters. Yet, he could feel the tension growing with every felled monster until, at last, the necromancer finally showed himself.

They were tall, slim, and wore a hooded black robe, which couldn’t have been more obvious. The staff topped with a skull was just icing on the cake. That was the only thing Zeke saw before the figure raised their staff, waved it around a bit, and released a wave of dense, death-attuned mana that swept across the cemetery.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Eveline said.

“What?” Zeke asked.

“Look.”

Zeke did, and at first, he saw nothing. Then, the issue became obvious when he observed huge clusters of undead merging together into masses of rotting flesh.

“I guess that’s how flesh golems are made,” Zeke said as those zombie clumps started to take shape, building into the familiar forms of the flesh golems. However, it didn’t stop there. And soon, one flesh golem merged with another. “Oh, shit.”

“Yeah.”

“Sound the retreat!” Zeke yelled, waving at his allies. Fortunately, Silik followed orders, and after only a few seconds, the kobolds disengaged and began a retreat. It helped that the zombies had already turned around and were running to merge with the building mass.

Talia came to a stop beside him. “What is going on?”

“If anyone else is here when that thing gets going, they’re going to die,” Zeke answered, gesturing toward the growing monster. To test its durability, he stomped on the ground, sending a gout of hellfire to erupt beneath one of its feet. It did nothing. He used [Inspect]:

Flesh Abomination – Level 81

Then, the number changed to eighty-two. And eighty-three a moment later. “It won’t stop until it’s at the peak,” Zeke said. “I won’t be able to hold back anymore. What I need you and the others to do is to destroy as many buildings as you can. This place is a giant, city-sized rune formation. I want you to break it.” Pudge arrived a second later, and Zeke turned to face his companion, saying, “Tell Sasha to cast her spell as soon as our people clear the battlefield. We can’t afford not to use everything at our disposal.”

To his credit, Pudge didn’t argue. Neither did Talia, and they both raced away on their separate tasks. For his part, Zeke remained rooted in place as the flesh abomination continued to build. The normal flesh giants were at least two hundred feet tall, but this new creature looked as if it wouldn’t stop growing until it rivaled the cyclops in size.

What would happen if it was loosed upon the rest of the Eternal Realm? Would anyone be able to stand up to it?

“It would be stopped,” Eveline said. “But not without inflicting serious casualties. And as with all of the mindless undead, it will spread its corruption everywhere it goes. You feel it, don’t you?”

“I do,” Zeke said. The death-attuned mana in the air was the strongest he’d ever felt. Without the protection of his domains, his people would have been vulnerable. And it was only going to grow stronger.

It was clear what he needed to do. The only question was how much of the city would survive.