“The caves are good. Little food is less good, but bearable. We got used to eating all sorts in the Darant sewers, and there are plenty of fish here. Your people taught us how to catch them.”
“Yeah, there aren’t too many animals,” I said. “The damn Montosaurus ate them all up.”
“The Great Reptile is ravenous, but gracious,” Movarak said, bowing his head. His voice sounded like cobblestones in a throat of stone.
“Gracious? That’s new! It doesn’t attack you?”
“The Great Reptile has become the protector of our tribe. With the blessing of the Great Sleeping God, of course. We would not dare to anger Behemoth the Terrifying.”
“You mean as a patron?” I asked in surprise. I thought the Montosaurus would trample and eat the whole trogg tribe as soon as they bent the knee to him instead of scattering.
“We feed him. Each day, we have a battle between our weakest warriors. We take the two losers and sacrifice them to the Great Reptile, and he leaves the others alone.” Movarak thought for a moment. “It is natural selection, Herald of the Sleepers.
This news required close study, but I had other plans for the Montosaurus. That dumb dinosaur wouldn’t be terrorizing the island much longer!
“Tell me, Movarak, why did you leave Darant?” I asked. The question had been on my mind for some time.
Although it wasn’t unheard of for NPCs to migrate around Dis, it was unusual.
“It was Knock-Knock’s fault,” the chieftain answered, but didn’t continue, as if I should somehow know who Tuk-Tuk was and what he did wrong.
“Who’s that?”
“Knock-Knock is the one who caused us to leave Darant,” Movarak answered, surprised at how dense I was being. He decided to explain further: “Angry. Nightmarish. Frightening. Forgive me, chosen one of the Sleepers, I am no master of words. Songs are another matter…”
Before the chieftain could break into song, I thanked him and assured him I’d listen another time (sure, at a concert with Movarak, Infect and a kobold howling choir as backup singers) and said my goodbyes. A small queue of people wanting to talk to me had formed beneath a tree. Dekotra the troll, leader of the cultists of Morena, was first.
He looked tired and even spoke quietly, as if it took effort.
“Chosen of the Inexorable One,” he nodded. “May the Sleeping Gods never wake!”
Each used their own version of ‘chosen one.’ It was starting to weigh on me. Should I order them all to call me Scyth? Definitely. But not now. Something was bothering the cultist.
“And may their sleep be eternal. What’s up, Dekotra?”
“The Inexorable One summons you. Echoes of what is happening in the world have carried beyond the Barrier, and she is concerned about what she hears. “He touched me on the shoulder, trying to read something in my eyes. “Will you refuse her?”
“No, I’ll go. How do I get to her?”
“Leave that to us.” The troll sighed heavily. “We could break through the Barrier from here if you would allow us to sacrifice one of the locals…
“No.”
“Then we must go to the shelter you visited before. On Shad’Erang…”
I could have used Depths Teleportation, but it wouldn’t have taken everyone. So we repeated the ritual with the choir singing to send us to the dark continent.
In the cubists’ cave, I was placed in the center of a circle. The cubists ragged in some live chickens, a sheep and a catgator like the ones I killed for the Dangerous Game Hunters in the Mire. Dekotra performed his ritual, the portal opened and I pushed through the Barrier.
The old goddess of death didn’t torture me. I landed lightly in the center of her temple in the otherworldly forest.
“Young Scyth!” Morena said in welcome. Her voice was friendly, but sad.
“Hello, Inexorable One,” I answered, dropping down to one knee.
She approached, placed a hand on my head, listened for something, shivered and released me.
“Less and less of my Reaper remains as the creature gains power. The Nether is swallowing him up, absorbing him.”
“I didn’t let it convert your followers, Morena.”
“I know, I know,” she said softly. “You have a big heart, young Scyth.” You did the right thing by bringing them into the fold of the Sleeping Gods. Without betraying me, they will gain new knowledge and power. Most of all, they are no longer alone. Chased by all and hated, they had need of like-minded allies. But you should have asked me first!”
Divine presence thickened in the air. I felt as if a skyscraper was bearing down on me—but Morena had only raised her voice by a fraction!
“The Nucleus asked me to turn them undead,” I croaked. “The Supreme Legate was meant to place the souls of other legates into their bodies. Liches. I protected your followers!”
“You speak the truth…”
The pressure disappeared. Morena touched my cheek gently, gave me strength.
“I cannot demand. But I beg you, free Reaper! Do it, and I…” Morena’s eyes widened. She took a step back, pointed beneath my feet. “It is already here!”
Pulsating black-green veins of familiar slime seeped up from under the ground, wrapped themselves around my legs. I watched in horror as my flesh melted, flowed away, dissolving into the slime.
Call of the Nucleus!
The plague slime enveloped me with incredible speed, and then Morena and the temple disappeared. I was experiencing the Call I’d used to summon my minions. I flew underground, stunned that the Nucleus had made it through the Barrier. A place where the Old Gods like Morena felt safe!
The Nucleus’s commanding voice echoed in my head:
“Legate!”
I didn’t know where I was yet. My eyes were blind and my body had only just reformed.
“Ruler,” I answered mentally.
Regaining the ability to see, I saw the Nucleus. It had changed—it was no longer an orb-like mass of corrupted matter crisscrossed with veins and arteries. Before me towered a colossal figure, at least eighteen feet tall—not yet human, but with a head, arms and column-like legs just taking shape. Actually, what I’d thought of as a head turned
