74 And then, there was none... (1/2)
”Those faces, the full display of their disbelief and terror.” That was the main thought of Kardel. What he wanted was not just killing them anymore. If he was closer to the main base and had the approval of Leilade, he would have even brought that exhausted man in front of him, just to enjoy the sight of his mind crumbling. He had not suffered such a shameful incapacity since his first mission, where he nearly died because of his carelessness.
To say that every duvodiad is an immensely proud and smug bastard would be underestimating them. Only the best of the best made it out alive when their entire home planet is turned into a zoo filled with creatures that would make the Skorpus looked like some small ants. Unlike even the strong Akûl or the succubus, the number of duvodiad never exceeded 10 thousands of men or women. For a galactic empire that had its reach on countless solar systems and lone stars, that was a pitiful number.
But even at a time where battles were mainly made in space, there was neither a moment where assassinating the enemy leaders was a bad idea. The success rate of the Noctulis Temple was high enough to still allow some important resources to be directed toward the duvodiads. Kardel himself had escaped death under threats far more deadly than a few feeble humans and with fewer injuries. But like all his peers, when he felt that his prey was far too weak, he enjoyed playing a bit with it.
If it had been a formal mission, ordered by Leilade, he would have never been so carefree, but now, he just hoped that no one will ever hear about what happened here. Maybe at the beginning, he thought about letting one or two escape alive, to scare the rest of the pack. But not anymore. As he was thinking this, he kept walking confidently, alone in the middle of a sea of broken armors and weapons, dismembered bodies and bloodied limbs.
Right at the moment when he was barely two meters away from the commandant Adin, he suddenly felt a bit weird in the lower part of his torso. Breaking the illusion of strength and confidence, Kardel had no choice but to throw up the undesirable object out of his stomach. Everyone saw a half melted hand, still with a bit of leather on it, fell on the ground. By sheer luck or not, the lieutenant did raise a point, about the number of dirty things he ate in the last days.
They couldn't see it, but right past the dune where the ”RUN” was now ”RIV” because two arms fell, there was a massive pile of dead bodies, still clothed. Even in his snake form, he couldn't eat everything, so before deciding to retake his original form, he emptied his stomach entirely. Or that's what he thought. Taking the hand now covered by sand, he threw it away. He couldn't even take another bite to pass the bad taste in his mouth.
The audience was truly baffled by the strange spectacle. A snake turning in a human, that spit out a hand and was now looking at them angrily. The foreign individual was more than two heads above Adin, and totally naked. Everyone sneakily peeked at his crotch, but after a short comparison, they decided to never do it again, to not ashamed themselves before death. Only the female magus stare lingered a bit more, because of its size.
Raising his saber instinctively, Adin only relied on the training that was deeply inserted in his mind. Not daring to even slightly move the finger still inside the hole of the magical bomb, he prevented the stranger from moving any closer.
”What … Who … Why? No, that's not right, what. What are you MONSTER?” He was still not used to see something having such a big change in its form. At least not to the extent of turning from flesh and fur to scales. But far from doing anything threatening, the naked humanoid in front of them sneered at the intention of his saber.
”Do you want an answer or to kill me? If it is the latter, we can all forget what is happening and be done with it… No answer, I take that as a …”
”No, no. I want answers. WE ALL WANT ANSWERS. What are you, a human turned into a monster, an experiment of the Lich King Ptolekh?”
”Ptolekh?” Kardel tried to remember anything about that name. Thinking deeply, while he totally disregarded the presence of the rest, ”Why does that name seem familiar?” It was necessarily coming from the memories of the fanatics, those delusional cultists. Even after racking his brain, the only answer he got was that it was a lich. Thanks to its title.
”Nope, never heard of that name.” But to his surprise, that small sentence shocked everyone else. Even the dragons had heard and feared that name. All the creatures in the desert knew about it, even the Skorpus. The moment when one got enough intelligence to think about more than food, the name of the Lich King will be impregnated in its mind.
”You … You truly don't know?” Adin asked with a shocked voice. It was even less shocking that the transformation he saw a minute ago. ”No, wait, you know about the Dark Gods at least, right?”
”Yep” Even against himself, because he was getting slightly bored, he still picked up the hand covered in sand. Trying to clean it as much as he could, he began to eat the finger while casually talking. That sight reminded everyone that the naked lunatic was still a monster in the end, but because he assumed that form, they expected him to a least talk.
Right now, without the knowledge of Kardel, everything he said or did was monitored closely by the female magus. Inside her robe, there was a small device capable of recording her experiences, and even if she did die in the end, at least it wouldn't have been all naught. The reason why she had this quite costly device was because of the black bomb. In case of an emergency appeared, she had to record it immediately. Her superiors won't blame her for using it for that other case.
”Oh, by the way, I am a duvodiad. What's a duvodiad, well, for you, it's your worst nightmare. Quite frankly, you did surprise me with that bomb, so I was like, maybe I should let them go because they beat me. Not going to happen.”
He was obviously jeering at them, taunting with his disrespectful words. But he was still totally in control of the situation, and even the bomb in the hand of Adin couldn't change that fact. Even if the latter tried to rush forward while releasing the deadly spell that he carried, he wouldn't hit the so-called duvodiad. Otherwise, Kardel wouldn't have been so complacent.
”But because I still have a mission to accomplish, please state your name and function. Will be best to cooperate, trust me. I am the most merci… well, not really, but I am a kind man. Compared to others.”