“Is… this the appropriate reaction to have?”
Something was off. You were just tortured. Turned into a literal slobbering paste of sentient goo. Moments ago I felt my sanity unravel from the horrifying body dysmorphia of being turned into liquid, and now, now my first thought after the incident was to move on. Move on as if there was nothing to do about it. As if it had not happened. As if the event was an afternote.
“Should I be angry…?”
Was I supposed to feel anger at being tortured for attacking a person who I had no chance of beating? Should I be sad that all the interactions I had with Arol and Wunder were gone now and I was once more a stranger to them? Should I feel upset at the lack of progress on my search for knowledge? Should I be frustrated at my weakness? Should I feel depressed that I did not know what to feel?
Like Sisyphus trapped in Tartarus, pushing the boulder up the mountain for all eternity, had I become so accustomed to my own suffering that I felt it was inevitable?
“There had better be a pleasure in this world worth all this…” I laughed. “If not…”
The golem did not answer. Winds rustled the trees and the crickets continued their song, the flames continued to crackle with its embers, and the world continued to on, with its eternal indifference.
Except for one spry creature, appearing with its familiar white feathers, its unnatural gaze that belayed cunning and intelligence. The albino vulture perched on a tree above me, eyes locked upon my form with an unwavering gaze.
“You again. I do hope you’re not planning on following me everywhere. That would be terribly cliché.”
For several seconds, the creature did nothing, simply watching me, observing me, causing me to grow irritated with each passing second.
“I get it,” I said, dusting my cloak as I stood. “I’m not giving up. I’ve not given up. I do not find it my imperative to quit.”
I stretched my arms. “As much as I hate falling prey to Sunk Cost Fallacy, I’ve invested far too much in this second life now to jump off a cliff with a noose around my neck.” I laughed. “This world is so brilliantly horrid that I do not believe there is in any way, any single thing I can do can make it worse. In that case, I suppose it would not hurt to try.”
I formed a rock in my right hand and lobbed it. The vulture took to the air, dodging the rock, flapping its wings twice, before ascending to the sky and beyond. I took in what I believed to be a deep breath. Without lungs, it was mostly just going through motions.
“Alright Janus. You’re a reasonably brilliant young man from the 21st century, tossed into another world where beings can routinely disobey the governing laws of physics and chemistry. Your task is to acquire as much power as possible by killing as many powerful individuals as possible, which grants you more power to kill even more powerful individuals, and so forth.”
“So, first question, what major invention from the 21st century can kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible?”
The answer was obvious.
“Can you recreate that invention with your current skill set?”
The answer to that question, was also, similarly obvious.
I stared down at myself, my gauntlets, my cloak, my shoes, and I knew where the problem lay. I had been thinking like someone from a medieval era. Deceived into placing arbitrary limits on what I could and could not do.
Now, there was no reason for me to think in that manner any further.
“I’m going to kill Erzili.”
It was personal, and at the same time it wasn’t. Erzili had displayed the ability to shapeshift. The ability to change into any man or woman of choice. There was also the likelihood of changing into monsters, animals and birds – the potential appeared limitless.
The skill was too valuable to overlook. It was a skill that would not only finally allow me to cast away my skeletal form, but it was one that would guarantee my ability to blend into human settlements and cities. It was a skill that would guarantee the possibility of a peaceful life in the future, as long as I was capable of acting the role of a human well enough to escape suspicion, and if I failed in that task, I would merely take upon another form and another name and begin a different life elsewhere.
Erzili was also valuable alive, considering the knowledge and power the Slithercreep possessed. My solution was simple. I needed to split timelines and kill Erzili in one timeline to attain the power to shapeshift, then spare Erzili in another timeline and attain information. In a sense, I would not truly be killing anyone.
However, to kill Erzili would mean to have to fight my way through the entirety of the nightmares of Fort Zyvar. To fight my way through Arol, Wunder, Onna and Slim.
“I’m going to need to prepare.”
I knew Arol’s weakness. I knew Wunder could be felled with poison. Onna, I was unsure of, but I was going to take a gamble and say that fire would be an effective means of eliminating her, once I found a suitable material that would be hard enough to freeze. Slim was the complete wildcard, as what I knew of Wendigos were limited, but I would wager either fire or poison would do the job.
Though, I’m not sure what can kill Erzili…
Erzili seemed to be a slime. Or
