Chapter 498 - Plague Zombie Tom

Can't believe it's almost chapter 500... really hit me typing out today's title lol.

Edit - Annnnd I realised I'd misnumbered chapters before this. I thought it was 497 but its 498.

Turned out, one thing was missing from Gius’ description of the Trial of Persistence—the god had failed to mention that when the zombie thing was attacked, it didn’t just sit there and take it, it screamed. Agonised cries that shook Hump to his core. It was impossible to tell whether the creature had any sort of sentience or not. He’d tried to get it to respond to his words and movements, but it registered nothing. The only thing it seemed to sense was pain.

It left Hump sick to his stomach. The plaque left from the god to his daughter had left Hump feeling some sense of connection to them—that once, even if it was only a little, they were somewhat human. But now he realised how wrong he’d been.

What type of person would leave this as a gift for his daughter?

Hump had tried to push through. He’d tried to bombard the poor creature with his spells, and they had worked. Its flesh had been destroyed. Its broken crumbled to ash. Yet those screams never stopped. Even when its mouth was destroyed, the essence stone at its core remained, and from it echoed an agony that went beyond the physical.

When Hump finally reached the core—a black sphere brimming with the rotten green of plague essence—something changed. He felt a spark. A sliver of intent at the edge of his senses, hidden within. On instinct, he reached for it, then his mind went blank. The dim chamber went away, and for a moment Hump was dragged into that world of plague. Nausea clouded his head. He felt ill beyond anything he’d ever experience. The stench was bad, but the pain that stirred deep inside his body distracted him, like his organs were burning up.

Before he knew it, he was back in the chamber. He sat there on the cold stone floor, staring at the zombie as it rapidly regenerated, stunned. Its black core radiating green essence floated in place as droplets of blood trickled out, clumping together to form beads of flesh. It squelched as it expanded, layers building upon each other until ligaments and bones took form within. Hump caught only glimpses in the seconds it took for the creature to scream back into being.

And then…

Silence.

The moment its body finished healing, it relaxed and returned to its slouched, inanimate posture.

Hump’s heart hammered. He hadn’t even decided to withdraw his intent. The control over his will and intent he thought he’d mastered was nothing in the face of that… sickness. That overwhelming feeling of poison seeping into his body and soul. For the first time since the gorger’s torture, Hump felt like his soul strength didn’t suffice.

It was difficult to say for certain at this stage, but Hump suspected this wasn’t just a puppet of the plague god, but a soul trapped inside a body and bound to this place. To unmake it as the trial required was not as simple as destroying a body, it required him to torment another being, unravel its intent, and invade the world hidden in its core.

But how do I get past that? Hump thought. Even after a minute of distance, weakness pervaded him. While he didn’t feel the chill of essence overuse quite yet, there was no doubt that it had drained him.

“What in the hells is this?” Walt asked.

Hump glanced at the house deity. “The test of a sick bastard,” Hump said through gritted teeth. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to do this. I saw inside its core, and it was filled with a poison so putrid that I don’t even know how I’m supposed to face it.”

“Then maybe it’s best you don’t,” Walt said. “I know you want the rewards, kid, but it’s not worth killing yourself over. This library belonged to a bad lady. We don’t want you to do the things she did, even if you get stronger for it. This feels… wrong. I don’t know what it is about that thing, but I don’t want to hear those screams again.”

“I think that there’s a soul in there,” Hump said softly. “If I was to guess, Guis created a prison of flesh for some poor fool that attracted his ire and put it in there for his daughter to abuse as she liked. It may have even been someone she didn’t like. This is a level of evil that I’m not sure even the warlocks can compete with.”

“Even more reason not to hurt it.”

“I’m not planning to hurt it. I’m planning to free it.”

Hump forced himself to his feet, feeling more than a little stiff, and stepped toward the plague zombie once more, doing his best to ignore the stench of decay. Putrid blisters covered its skin, lesions leaked brown blood and puss. Hump tilted his head to stare up into its eyes, but there was nothing within. Just emptiness.

“Is anyone in there? My name is Hump. I might be able to help you.”

He spent some time trying to get any sort of reaction from the creature, but nothing worked. Conversation, jokes, dancing light spells, water, and flashes of light. He tried everything and anything he could think of, but the creature didn’t so much as shift its eyes.

“If this is a flesh prison, maybe it simply can’t move,” Walt said. “Would make sense in a sick, twisted way.”

“Maybe. Or maybe they’ve gone so mad with torment and isolation they’ve lost the capability. Either way, I can’t just leave them like this. At the very least I need to know for sure whether or not there’s a soul trapped in there.”

“How will you do that?”

“To start with, I’ll talk to my friends and see if they have any ideas. Maybe Dylan can come up with something—nature is healing and all that. Or maybe I’ll brave that place I saw in its core again and try to get through.” Hump shivered, even the thought making him feel clammy. “Though I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”

Walt let out a long sigh. “Do what you need to do.”

“You going to be alright with it in here with you?”

“Not got much choice, do I? But maybe it’s not so bad. I’m a house deity—I like having people around. This ain’t people exactly, but maybe I can get through to them like you said.” He shot Hump a grin. “I’ve got a way with people after all.”

Hump smiled. “You certainly do. I’ll keep the phylactery on me. Any trouble, don’t hesitate to shout. I’ll be back once I have something to work with.”

***

Progress with the plague zombie was slow, but aboard the skyship, time was the one thing Hump had in abundance. He spent much of his resting time with him, as did Walt. They’d taken to calling him Tom and doing what they could to humanise him. Beyond that, the room still made for a good space for Hump to practice his spells without causing any damage.

Outside of the phylactery, things were far more dull. Hump and the others kept themselves busy with training, but there was only so much one could do in the day. Emilia had taken to instructing anyone willing in the ways of the Transcending Blade. Many pathfinders and holy ones joined in, and even Captain Hadbur had briefly participated, all of them eager to receive tutelage from both a swordsman from another world and someone as powerful as Emilia.

It hadn’t taken long for Bud and Acalin to begin friendly spars to keep themselves sharp, and that had quickly developed into a bigger group. Prince Marcoff, Princess Urella, Captain Hadbur and many of his crew, even Hump had participated in a few spars, putting the staff techniques Dylan had long since drilled into him to use. He wasn’t a master by any means, but with his dragon blood and Accelerated Thought, he was more than a match for most—at least against those comparable to bronze-ranked adventurers back in Alveron. Acalin’s party had a few that were clearly a step above the usual, and Captain Hadbur—well, Hump didn’t even bother to challenge a silver ranker with his staff alone.

It was a dark day when they came to the next major destination of their journey, black clouds blotting out the sky like smoke, the sun looming red behind in places where the coverage thinned. Hump leaned on the railing, gaze fixed on the island drifting beneath them. It was larger than most they’d passed recently—easily big enough to hold a town—but there were no signs of civilisation here. These lands were far from the protection of cities and their armies, and with that distance came danger. Howls echoed through the forest canopy below, rising to meet them, following the skyship like a hunting pack. Now and then, Hump caught flickers of movements in the shadows of the trees, or eyes glinting in the darkness, watching.

“I would have liked to stop here,” Celaine said softly beside him.

Hump scrunched his nose and gave her a look. He knew Celaine well, but sometimes she said things that were just… odd. “You would?”

“She nodded, her eyes sharp as she scanned the island. “There’s so much life down there. So much dangerous prey to hunt. I count over fifty pairs of eyes looking up at us now, and every one of them burns with hunger and killing intent. Even we were be at risk down there.”

“Anything that might trouble us up here?”

There had been more attacks in the week they’d Nassuga—wild, disorganised creatures drawn to the essence or food stores of the ship. For the most part, they had been easy to deal with. These weren’t the orchestrated attacks from before, but beasts driven by instinct. It gave Hump and the others something to do, but more importantly, it was the perfect opportunity for Nisha to start getting proper combat experience. Each day, she grew more confident, hunting through the skies and on the deck of the ship alike. Yet here, Captain Hadbur had advised to keep her aboard.

Celaine didn’t look away from the forest. “Nothing we can’t handle. Yet.”

Hump gave her a flat look. “You know you’re not supposed to sound like you want trouble? If it’s already this bad, imagine what Loften’s dungeon will be like.”

A smirk tugged at her lips. She leaned further over the rail, arching her back like a cat. “I know. But honestly? Everything’s been so quiet lately. Travelling by skyship is simply too dull. At least you have a new toy to play with.”

“Calling him a toy is insensitive,” Hump said. “His name is Tom. It’s polite.”

“At least you have Tom to play with, then,” Celaine said. “I just have to watch Emilia and Bud flirt as they instruct the crew.”

“What about Dylan?”

“Only so much time I can meditate and play with his spirit each day.”

“Okay, fair enough. You were bored in Urandel too though, you realise? Maybe try to relax a little.”

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes, an edge to her gaze. “What you trying to say?”

Hump put his arms around her shoulders and wrapped her in a hug. “That maybe you should try relaxing for the brief respite we have. When was the last time we had a month where we weren’t under threat of death?”

“It’s been a while.” There was a long silence as they watched the landscape drift by below. “Are you sure there’s a soul in Tom? I don’t want to see you driving yourself mad over something that might not even be real. Or worse, letting whatever the plague inside is harm you.”

“It’s real,” Hump said. “There’s intent inside him. The kind you can’t find in a mindless construct. Unfortunately, every time I reach for it, I can only hold on for a few seconds before the sickness inside overwhelms me. It’s worse than anything I’ve felt. Even the gorger’s attacks weren’t so disturbing.”

“Doesn’t sound like something you should be taking a risk on right now.”

“I can’t just carry around a corpse prison and ignore it,” Hump said. “It doesn’t feel right.”

“I know.” Celaine turned to face him. She ran a hand down is arm before slipping her fingers through his. “You’ll figure it out. You always do. Just be careful. If it’s that hard on your soul, it’ll only get worse as you start unravelling the layers. Even if you work out a way to defend yourself.”

The days continued, mostly uneventful. Monster attacks became more frequent, and Hump and the others were forced to use more effort to keep the skyship safe. But it soared ever onward, the horizon shifting behind them. And then one morning, the land changed.

High mountains rose all around, their peaks sharp as blades. They encircled a great landmass suspended in the sky like a floating kingdom—one singular, massive island ringed by jagged cliffs and cloud-wrapped ridges.

At its heart, somewhere out of sight for now, they would find Loften’s Dungeon.

They would find a place crafted to hold a god. A place where the Pantheon had sealed one of their own.

Hump suddenly felt like he was walking through a storybook. With any luck, this one didn’t end it tragedy.