Chapter 215: Out of Fire and Into Hell (1/2)

The mana driven elevator rose as my two hybrids stopped that butcher in female form. She shifted into disgusting shapes as she killed, some twisted polymorphic reaper. She was nothing but a disgusting monster.

I leaned back against the cold rock behind me, gasping for breath with my hand over my chest. I failed. My plan had been foolproof. Perhaps I gloated more than I should've, but every piece was there. Those heathen abominations weren't normal in any sense of the word, however. I'm not even talking about Hybrids either.

The Gray Giant chomped into the damn Hybrids...It's not that I won't comprehend it. It's that I can't. Hell, most warriors can't even get near an eldritch without getting some parasitic infection. Hybrids are far worse, and that armor wearing idiot devoured one? It makes about as much sense as Emagrotha's whole philosophy.

That is to say, none.

I slapped my forehead a few times, my hair flattening from my sweat. A group of mind mages had failed to overwhelm that degenerate cannibal as well. They rendered his female friend unable to move an inch during the entire journey, yet he was only stunned for a few seconds. That let him break her capsule somehow. I lost my life for that.

Fortunately, I'd yet used Schema's revival. As my mind went blank, I stared at the blood caked on my hands. It was my blood, and that was why my palms shook with fear. That cannibal nearly ate me alive with jaws dark as the sea at night.

If he showed that side of himself to the public, perhaps he might not be quite as popular. He made my entire media campaign difficult. Up till now, I struggled just to keep him from turning against me. To think he had the foresight to record a video of that interview. I kept information channels limited, but there's only so much that can be done. The truth speaks for itself after all.

After learning he recorded it, I told Tohtella to corrupt the file on his obelisk. She told me that it would compromise our information channel. Thinking about it gave me a bad taste in my mouth, so I spit. It was red as wine, so maybe the bad taste wasn't from thinking about her after all.

I cursed that woman with my every breath. She came to me promising a plan for the ages. I was to become the central power on Giess and eliminate those filthy gialgathens at the same time. Now my throat thickens as my own blood jellies in my throat. It was a waste of pure blood. There were few pure espens left these days.

I dragged my hand down my face, refocusing on the issue. I, Thisbey Thorn, had been taken for a fool. Never again. Once I re-established my base of power here, I'd hunt her down like the dirty pig she was. In fact, I'd do away with her entire pig race.

Sometimes, filth needed to be cleansed. Turns out, I'm the only one willing to do the cleansing.

Heh, maybe not the only one. The Gray Giant was giving me a run for my money with how he tore through those Hybrids. For a moment, I thought he was a demon come to life. In fact, his being a demon is about the only thing that makes sense about this entire situation.

I licked my lips before shaking my head in disgust. Tohtella's mind mages were as useful as starting a fire by rubbing ice cubes together. Relying on them in any capacity had been my downfall. Now our base of operations was destroyed, and our unity was decimated.

With my eye for talent, I could salvage the situation, however. This wasn't the end by any means. I still had control of the Hybrids, and even if only a few of them were left, they'd be plenty for my purposes. I'd been lower before, and I'd rise up now as I did then.

As the damn elevator finally reached the top of our cavern base, I whistled out. From the dark two Hybrids skulked up, their bodies disgusting and grotesque. I suppressed the urge to vomit at the sight of them before pulling a hover pad from my dimensional storage.

The cube of silver expanded, becoming a comfortable size and easy to balance on. Why any idiot would ever waste time on learning to fly was beyond me. After all, I had lofty ideals unlike most. Purity was my absolute goal, yet few understood my ambition.

I put myself back into this moment. As the hoverpad fired up, I stepped onto the stabilizing platform, gravitational restraints making the device easy to use. Otherwise, it would take the agility of the damn theonostra, and those deep dwellers were about as trustworthy as an Old One.

After flying up a few feet, I thought over to the Hybrids to make them obey my will. Even so much as touching their minds made my skin crawl, but to clean up a mess, sometimes you needed to get your hands dirty.

Without any real face to speak of, they kept their mishappen heads staring at me. I pointed at them and snapped my fingers,

”If you two could grow a brain perchance and listen for a second, I'd be mighty grateful.”

They kept staring at me, silent as the night. I narrowed my eyes, glaring between the both of them, ”So the both of you are staging a mutiny as well now? Who'd of thought you imbeciles could muster up an ounce of defiance. I must say, I'm impressed.”

In my mind, the image of Tohtella appeared. Her repugnant violet skin and nasty white hair made me want to vomit once more. I'd had plenty of practice containing my nausea each time I stared at her alien face, however.

I glared and thought to her,

'What's the meaning of this?'

'Precisely what it looks like. You've outlived your usefulness as you might have already suspected. These two will take care of you.'

My face reddened as I hissed in outrage, ”Who are you to double cross me? I sacrificed everything for you. My reputation, my businesses, even my rebellion. My chance is gone because of you.”

Calm and collected, she gave me her amused smile, 'I care about results, Thisbey. You know this. Unfortunately, you've given me quite the opposite.'

I roared aloud, ”Your mind mages were overwhelmed by a warrior. A dumb, idiotic barbarian. He has no technical knowledge. He's a goddamn caveman, a backwater savage, a...a chunk of iron without a brain. For espen's sake, you couldn't even use those advantages to come out on top.”

Tohtella's smiled turned into a frown, 'My bug only allows me to view his messages, not his status or other information. He even created a telekinetic network, further muddying my informational timeline. As a team, we planned based on his abilities given the nature of the tournament. We could not have predicted his resilience to mental magic.'

Tohtella sighed, 'His mind is as strong as his body it would seem. I will act accordingly to kill him shortly. You will not.'