Ok So A Little Evil

For anyone who came down into the basement they'd just see me standing there in my damaged suit looking at the hand of death god. It bathed in its creepy green light. Me slightly drooling from standing in place for hours. The weapon was making its appeal to me, I was making my appeal in counter, and so we were deadlocked in a morality battle. I won't bore you with the details, it took hours on hours, and I'd probably still be going at it if not for.

"I knew you'd find it." Delor had the Hand of the death god leveled at me, she was looking worse for wear as her suit was all damaged and her face mangled. She was also now bathed in the green light from the weapon.

"All part of your grand plan then?" Even half drowsy I can still crack a quip, its a gift. She fired the weapon at me, or tried to, but the problem with being a lowly pirate half dead, using a weapon of the death god just makes you fully dead. Well undead, it took her soul and replaced it with itself which is what it wanted all all along.

"Yes all apart of my plan." The Hand spoke for itself now, and it didn't exactly have a happy go lucky way of itself.

"There never was an offer for these idiots was there." The hand smiled.

"It's amazing what you can do with time and access to a dead civilization. I figure eventually I would have been able to bring this world to my will, but I don't have time for eventually." It cocked the hammer on itself (I'm weirded out here, it was the thing it was holding, I don't know how to convey that with possessives).

"Should have waited." The benefit to being crazy is that you know how to multi task when you're otherwise detained. As in while I was arguing with the hand of the death god, I was also aligning a necromantic trap to stop the damned thing from taking me over, but it worked to stop it from killing me too. The shot powered by it self reflected backwards down the barrel and effectively killed it (how do you kill something dead again? Honestly I swear I killed this gun before).

Of course after the blackened gun hit the ground alongside the corpse of Delor my robots came barging in to rescue me. I swear they are about as timely as every other ally I've ever had.

Deadfestation

Apparently in my absence the hand of the death god had been preparing. I'll have to talk to Hanlon about his evil pistol someday. That damned thing had harvested all the dead people who weren't taken by the Fire God's damned (seriously Ronerawth apparently got boned and this wasn't even directly my fault this time... directly). The undead were mostly mindless, turned mostly by the magic of the death god into slobbering sad creatures that just attacked at seemingly random. Even with my shoddy sword skills from being unpracticed I managed to carve them up. Aided of course by the suit I was wearing. The only real problem was tiredness. Even with physical assists my arms were getting tired from killing the dead. It got so bad I just set up a wall of flame and sat down. I was at least aided by old runes I'd set up in case the basement had developed some kind of infestation I had to deal with.

So I was sitting there waiting for the runes to break down catching my breath as the dead slammed into them and killed themselves. This went on for three horrifying hours. Like seriously why wouldn't they give up? I mean I know why, but I wanted them to. I really really did. Because it had me wondering exactly how many dead were down there, and what had they been doing. Still they stopped eventually. The runes had held, but the dead had stopped. The light still shone of course. I wanted to leave it there. Wait for my people to come get me, maybe blow the shop up on the way out, but it started talking to me, and so you know how this story goes.

No I didn't sign on the with the gun, good lord, it wasn't anything like that. I just almost did...

Oh So That's Where I Put That

The Pirates prenatural ability to know where I had gone apparently had ended right around where they captured me. Because from what I could see they hadn't gotten close to where my shop actually was (and here I thought not advertising the location was screwing me on business apparently it saved countless lives by leaving the hand of the death god untouched). I had to go slow because my suit was damaged and the area I was going into had not been excavated like the other areas. But I at least could vaguely recall the right landmarks (what was left of them) to get back "home" as it were.

My shop was in the basement of a larger building, I expected that building to have collapsed and my shop to be compressed or something else. But shockingly the building and my shop were both exactly where they had been. It was freaky, everything else around it was destroyed, but that building stood in stark relief to everything else. It made me wonder if it was something I had done in my years of experimentation in the basement or something more sinister like the Death God's influence kept things around. I tried to open the door and had a good laugh to myself as I remembered I'd locked it before I left for some stupid reason so I had to knock it down (which was harder than I expected, I guess I'd really paid for a good door when I had it installed). The door dealt with I felt a wave of nostalgia hit me upon entering the shop. All my old things were there. Price tags and admonishments about not bothering me about prices, it was like actually going home again, except home is now surrounded by a death gas on a planet no one has lived in a long time.

You'd think it would take me a while to find my sword, but hilariously it was actually out on the counter, next to a bag I'd packed and completely forgotten to take. I do this all the time, I prepare and prepare and then completely forget what I was going to get. My sword retrieved I was feeling pretty good about myself until I heard the rumbling. At first I thought it was the building finally coming down, until the basement door opened and green light bathed the remains of my shop. I took up the sword in a defensive stance and thank the gods I did because I was beset by the dead almost immediately.

I swear when I go looking for something it's always a good news, undead encounter type situation.

And I'd Feel Better Too

I've always held over the years I'm not a good person. It's how I sleep at night (sort of, sleeping is weird I believe I've mentioned I never get a full night of sleep, haven't for centuries, I believe this lends itself to my cranky demeanor). So killing a bunch of slaves that only lived a life of misery was the least of my crimes. I figured it was better than setting them free to die in whatever biological garbage existed outside of the camp. I also stupidly thought my suit was way better suited for surviving an explosion, an implosion, and then general geological instability I caused. I mean I didn't even leave the camp when I blew it up. So of course I almost died immediately in the explosion. What good is blowing something up if you can't watch it burn? I ask you this as I was almost impaled and then buried beneath tons of rock.

I guess I trusted my ships robots to have built a strong suit that could survive what I did to it (and they did!), but I could already hear that voice in my head "Don't trust others to save you." Stupid voice all telling me what I already know. Anyway the suit's communication system was damaged, which sucked, but I had planned for this eventuality (you know yourself, and you know yourself enough to know that you'll eventually screw yourself) so my boys would be coming in a day without contact. Of course that meant I had to live through that day, and with the damage to the suit possibly contaminating it and killing me, on top of any pirates still remaining out there it wasn't exactly a safe bet.

On top of that I still had to find my stupid sword, the entire reason I was down there in the muck to begin with. So I had a day to do so before my AI would take me back on the ship and probably lock me up a bit for my own "good". I tell you I was feeling the pressure, though that could have just been from the suit damage.

I'm Not Saying I Don't Believe You, But

"Doricky killed people with his hands and bombs, I don't remember anything about a pistol." Delor (I don't recall if I said her name, that's her name its Delor) did not necessarily believe me, it was upsetting after all the trust we'd built up over like twenty minutes of talking.

"It was left out of the official record, but trust me it was all this pistols doing." Delor looked at me skeptically with her eye.

"So? What do you care what the buyer does with it?"

"Did you not listen to the story? THERE IS NO BUYER! The gun has brought you here to get itself free, you're being played." She laughed, she laughed long and hard.

"Lock him up." I felt the shackles close on my wrists before I even could turn around, not like it mattered because they don't do shit to me, but still it was mildly alarming for them to just do this to me. I went with my jailer to a cell they'd built down below the work camp, there were plenty of people down there that looked rough to put it mildly. Successfully away from the other pirates and in an isolated place I burned the shackles off my hands (still hurts, hot metal will mess up your wrists something fierce). The pirate escorting me was surprised for the three second he was still around before necromancy dealt with him. Thankfully I remembered my way out of the prison area in that it took me like an hour of wandering around hoping no one noticed I wasn't actually locked up before I discovered where they stored the environmental suits and found my personal one. By the time I was suited up the other pirates had discovered I hadn't actually been locked up and they were coming for me, so I did the only sensible thing and blew up the camp.

Ok I said sensible, but I meant Lorentino. It's weird how those two words are linked in my mind.

The Hand of The Death God

Unlike the Hand of the Fire God, the Hand of the Death God hungers. It wasn't something I notice at first with it sitting in a desk drawer or behind some floor boards. But as the years drug on I felt like I wanted to use it. At first I thought it was curiosity, time had passed since my initial interaction with the weapon, and it was supposed to be "dead" (an object not alive is supposed to be dead, even though it itself is a manfestation of the death gods power, figure that shit out). But it grew stronger and stronger as it sat there, infiltrating my thoughts and mind. Thankfully as I'm a man of several madness's I realized the foreign madness and locked the weapon behind several runes, and other magic canceling things.

Unfortunately that didn't do anything. The damned weapon seemingly was only enthralled to push further, and instead of working on me, it started on my neighbors. I had several break ins attempting to steal it over a pattern of a month. I had to move it six times to keep it away from people and that only lead to more people trying to steal it. My entire life became devoted to keeping it away from others. Which is a bad idea since I don't devote my life to literally anything, and trying to keep a death god gun from killing just seemed like too much of my time.

So if history books were still a thing you'd probably have heard about a guy named Thomas Doricky. A man most notably known for killing 87 people with what was called in court "a magical weapon." I was called to testify in his trial, in which I threw him under the bus and told the court the weapon was no more magical than anything else. Doricky was pulled apart for his crimes (like literally, Ronerawth back then had a weird belief system in execution, I think they currently execute by vaporization, which seems nice). The gun managed it's way back to me through mostly illegal means, and I found a way to lock it away, up until the end of the world in which case I left it behind thinking it mostly safe on a planet full of dead people (what better place to leave it?). Now clearly I was incorrect.

Do You Have a Lifetime? Let Me tell You A Story

"You look good for thousands of years old." I was surprised to see a woman leading these dirty pirates. I mean I guess I'm a sexist, I just don't think of women leading a bunch of slaving jerks, despite having run across several ruthless women, and dealt with the fire god specifically. Yep that makes me a sexist. This leader was missing an eye, looked to be about two decades older than she probably was and had a voice that spoke of a throat injury. I guess its hard getting to the top.

"I work out, take supplements, you know the usual." She smiled and showed most of her teeth were gone as well.

"Right necromancy had nothing to do with it."

"Unfounded rumors you know, besides I'm not even the real Trezlan, its just a name we pass around as the old one dies." The common lie I've used in the more information tracked age, it doesn't work at all, but one of these days...

"Lets cut the bullshit Trezlan."

"I like the bullshit, can we have more bullshit and less what's not going to be the bullshit? Because I know what's coming is something I'll find unpleasant." She smiled that missing tooth grin again.

"I'm not going to do anything to you, past is prologue you're a horrendous murderer who's done things me and mine can't even dream of. No, what I'm here for is something someone paid me to retrieve, something you had in your possession and they assume you still have it/had it. Now me I've looked and looked and come up with shit. Some random things that will sell to others, but nothing of yours. So I want to make a deal with you, you help me get the thing I'm looking for and I cut you in on the profit as it is your object anyway, but without my people you wouldn't get shit, so don't tell me its your's anyway." I was surprised she was offering me a deal, not totally surprised since she probably saw my ship in orbit and knew what that could mean, but still surprised.

"Fair enough, so what am I helping you reaquire of mine."

"A pistol, though I'm beginning to suspect its more than that." I smiled, I knew the gun already.

"Not the hand of the fire god, I know where that one is, and it ain't mine, no you're looking for a different one all together I suppose."

"So you know where its at?"

"Vaguely, but you might want to hold off on retrieving it though because I have story to tell you about that gun. And ain't exactly a pleasant fairy tale."

I Like Listening When I'm not Talking

Why don't you just kill them, is what people always ask when I say I got captured again (lets not get into the captured again theme ok...) But for me its all about information gathering. Sure you have to deal with discomfort of people ordering you around, and threatening you. You learn so much! Like you learn that pirates had apparently come to loot Ronerawth and established a sort of base there. And you also learn that these pirates apparently are looking for something of yours. Well you don't learn that, I don't know who you are, but I learned that. I also learned that what I look like in an environment is just like everyone else, so these pirates had no idea I was the guy they were stealing from.

The three that jumped had moved me to their make shift work camp. I was actually surprised at how large it was considering my ships scans had failed to pick it up. And they had also managed to decontaminate it enough that you didn't have to wear suits which I thought was impossible. Their camp unfortunately looked like a hellish work camp and safety was not a main concern.There was plenty of half starved workers next to dangerous tools right next to support structures. It looked like it was literally one spark from becoming a huge bomb (which was reassuring considering my affinity for blowing things up). My new captors had passed me into processing where an old man who smelled of something I couldn't put my finger on looked me over.

"You look old for an explorer."

"Thanks I like to imagine I'm young at heart."

"Won't get much work out of you, if you screw with us, we'll leave you dead in the dirt." He was so polite I wanted to ask him about their employee retention programs, but I was rudely shoved into a shower to be "scrubbed" and then pressed in with the rest of the prisoners. It was all very quick and efficient and seemed again very strange since I couldn't imagine there were a lot of people they could kidnap on planet, but seeing how many were there, these guys made do. I shuffled from the old guy to where prisoners were waiting for work (efficiency!) It was here that I learned all about the digging and that they were vaguely looking for something from my shop (no one really knew what, or if they did they didn't tell me, the dicks). I was going to ask what they were looking for when a couple of the pirates in big suits drug me away. Apparently I wasn't as unrecognizable as I thought.

More Ruined Than Expected

I've stepped through a lot of decaying ruins. It's kind of been my thing. But I admit going through a modernish one that I actually lived in made me feel more than a little uncomfortable. Especially since the rotting skeletons of those who died were still smashed and broken about. I was very glad I was wearing a suit that kept the smell out, well the smell and the toxic gasses that would melt my flesh (seriously whatever the RiG's used on Ronerawth it lasted, I'll have to inquire from sources for personal uses err I mean to stop something horrible from ever happening again... damn it why do I write down these ideas...)

I was getting even more concerned based on what I was seeing of the trail I was following, because it was going the way I wanted to go. Like I had a vague sense of where my shop used to be, and where I generally lived, and whoever had come before was seemingly going right my way, and that either meant I was a time traveler showing myself the way, or someone knew about me/where I lived and was there to take something from me. 

I was a bit confused though as to what they could take. The shop I ran was illicit, but not like super much so, and none of the objects I left behind we're all that dangerous (that I remembered, obviously though you can forget things that are actually dangerous). The pit in my stomach got worse and worse as I followed the trail that amounted to how I left the underground, like whoever came back in knew the exact path to my shop and it's not like I was openly holding a shingle, and that the streets and such were all the recognizeable anymore.

"We did do a scan for life signs correct?" I wasn't talking to the ship for a bit, didn't want to be bothered really, but now I felt we must have missed something, had to have missed something.

"It was really impossible to fully identify life signs sir. Withe biological contamination the planet registers as fully with life." I heard the foot steps before I saw the weapons, there were four of them and they didn't exactly look friendly.

"Well I think we can update our file on people living here." We being hopefully me was the implication I made here.

What Happens Underground Stays Underground

Everywhere in Ronerawth got it bad at the start of the Red War, but no where got it worse than the underground areas. I remember being down there when the assaults happened. My shop was down there, I had been running some, lets just say less than legal business deals, and so I was down there at the start of the bombardment. Shit went bad immediately, made worse in that as buildings fell above they plunged like spears into the lower parts of the city wrecking what little infrastructure we had down there. Which was garbage. The underground was one of those things that needed to exist for the city up above, but the good people who lived up there didn't give a one about how things were down below. Crime, structural problems, and just ability to escape in emergencies were ignored. Which meant in the crisis that came there was a lot of death, a lot of destruction, and literally no where to go.

It was around the sixth sky scraper plunging down into my path that that I started to seriously wonder about my ability to escape the calamity up above. Sadly no one really did. Like when I escaped from down below I was with two other people.  And we didn't see many more, this was an area prior to the bombardment that millions on millions of people lived in. And in a few short hours only a few hundred survived.

The resulting mess would have been a nightmare to navigate in a good scenario. Seeing as shortly after that the Royal Military gassed the planet and then flattened every other building themselves, the whole area because nothing but a death trap of gas, ruins, and structural instability. When I rolled up with my ship it took me hours to find a suitable path into the underground and even then I was clearly following a path someone else had taken and the scared me, either because the person I was following had met a rough end. Or they hadn't and they were waiting for me in the dark. Which again was super encouraging!

Futility, A Lorentino Specialty

"Sir I know you are well versed..." SiC was on the ship with the rest of the AI, Trezlan insisted on visiting the planet by himself. Said it was one of the few places he actually considered holy ground even if the atmosphere was no longer actually liveable anymore, and the planet had been torn apart by a huge war. Trezlan had fond memories of the place even if its broken exterior looked nothing like he remembered.

"If you're going to say I don't know where the sword is because I can't possibly know, you're wrong, I know vaguely where it is." Vaguely was vague enough to cover that Trezlan believed it was on the planet, probably. But he didn't want the AI to know that. It's why he didn't want them down there with him, that and he felt the robots shouldn't be there, it was a planet of the dead, and only the dead should be there.

"It's just that sir, its dangerous on the planet scans show several different forms of life that would be hostile to you, even in the suit, and you are not as young as you once were." The youth thing almost had Trezlan laugh.

"I'll be fine guys, you just keep a watch on anyone who may be coming, I don't want to be disturbed."

"Yes Sir, sir you'll admit when the search is futile and come back correct?"

"Futility is what I do best, a long with everything else I do well."

"Yes Sir, we'll maintain a vigil, good luck." The communicator went dead and Trezlan looked into the cavernous underground tunnel in front of him and nodded. He'd need the luck, especially where he was going.

Always Know Control Can be Temporary

Tolviar watched as the entry was added to her ship. She recalled Trezlan had a love for writing things, and apparently so did her madness. Then suddenly she was back in control. The other relinquished and his hallucination stood next to her. It was so fast she wondered if this was a new trick. The madness didn't speak, just let her readjust herself for a moment.

"So now you know." He was smug, very smug. Tolviar wanted to hit him, but since he was just a manifestation it would only end up hurting her.

"What? What do I know? That you can take control at will, that you are more dangerous than I expected? That you're a sadistic murderer." She was angry, very angry, she had lost control, but more so, she had lost what she thought control was.

"Sure sure, I'm all of those things, and not that you're all of those things. Its a nice fantasy you've built up in yourself. But you have to reconcile, I am not Trezlan, I am you. Sure I may have his tendencies at times, but in reality," The image faded and it became one Tolviar had never seen, but one Trezlan had a distinct memory, "Am you, and you are me, and at anytime when I feel you can't handle yourself I will take control because I like living more than I like preserving your little illusion you're in real control. Now Buck up sweet heart you get to go home again, for now." The madness winked and Tolviar felt her skin crawl.

She would have to have a conversation with Hanlon about what was going on, but she wasn't sure which one of them would actually be having that conversation. Still she was going home, and that was at least something, for however long it would last.

As Long As You Have Lived, You will Suffer

I descended the voice of Tolviar in my/her head, I don't know it was a weird thing. But I descended. The walls were a nice black sheen, way better maintained than the usual sewer swamp shit these creatures loved to engage in. For a brief moment I wondered who had to keep those walls clean? Was it the creatures Tolviar had killed above? They hadn't done it in the past, but maybe this creature preferred things cleaner than the others. I knew I'd hurt it, I'd had some ideas while I was watching Tolviar deal with lessers forms of these creatures, so it was nice putting it in motion. Well to be fair it was nice to actually do the killing, I'd had to sit idly by for so long it was great to actually be in charge. Even if I had to deal with Tolviar's annoying prattling.

"Come, come to your destruction." I almost yawned at how boring the creature was. Like seriously Trezlan used to cower at these creatures, but I wasn't Trezlan, well not really, sort of? I dunno I how split personalities work, as in completely actually physically split from the base person personalities. Anyways, the creature was boring.

"Blah blah blah, I've already basically killed you, here have your little segment back." I threw the twitching body of his lackey towards the creature.

"So confident now."

"I've always been confident, just not in charge." I watched as the lackey drifted towards the black mass, the creature made no move to get away as I had predicted. As soon as the flesh touched my spell unleashed a torrent of fire and necromancy. It was a combination Trezlan had once theorized, but never used. I basically used the corpse as a bomb, using the remaining life and connection of the man as a fuel to it. It was a bit much honestly, the explosion burned off Tolviar's eye brows, but I was victorious.

Tolviar was furious of course, I had almost killed her, and I had taken over her body (poetic justice in my mind, but you know people never see things like that). I at least took time to write an entry, because it's the most Trezlan thing I could do.

Sometimes You Just Have to Enjoy the Ride

Willis was bleeding black everywhere. The creature and the man were unable to deal with the rapid unpredicatable nature of the attacks. Using necromancy and fire magic, Tolviar was ripping him apart, but not in a way that was actually killing him. Worse for the god fragment somehow she was actually hurting it through Willis and it was unable to break the connection. The fragment couldn't figure out why the woman had suddenly changed from being competent and over her head to a vicious creature that seemed to delight in the suffering she was causing.

"What are you?" Willis didn't have legs anymore, his arms were quickly being shredded as well, but the fire magic sealed the wounds.

"Insane, how are you?" The voice sounded masculine to the godling, it wondered if somehow the Death God had manged to slip by its protections in the body of this woman. In the mindspace of Tolviar she got to watch helplessly as her madness indulged itself. She was in awe and terror at what was inside of herself despite knowing her origin she figured she was ultimately good, now it seemed to her that Hanlon was right, and she was a monster. She tried to futilely fight for control, but was unable to even be able to stop the monster that was Trezlan's madness.

"Calm down dear, just enjoy the ride." And so Tolviar watched as she dragged Willis's broken body with her down into the depths towards the god fragment. She could hear Willis's calls for his own death, but she knew that the madness would not kill him, it had plans for him and that horrified her she could actually hear what the madness was thinking.

Step Into My Horror

"I've been waiting." Willis was standing behind an army of enslaved. Their blackened eyes told Tolviar all she needed to know about how reasonable they'd be. She hated how right Hanlon had been about the killing, it was one thing to know they'd die when the creature did, worse to have to do it yourself.

"I'm sorry I don't know who you are?" She had to shout, there was a low hum from the black eyed people, it was more than a little unnerving.

"This bag of flesh is unimportant, I am the creature you sought to kill, but you will fail." Tolviar smelled the creatures before they attacked, she knew they'd be coming. She figured the creature would attempt to distract her and then attack her with the black beings. She took up her rifle and let her nose point the way. Ordinarily the rifles bullets wouldn't do much against the creatures, but she was using explosive magic enchanted fire rounds. They pierced and scorched the creatures, leaving their smoking corpses where they fell. The rifle was only half empty before the creatures were dead. Tolviar smiled to herself, before a rush of the black eyed behind her forced her to the ground.

It didn't feel like a single person, but a huge multi armed entity crushing and clawing at her. Her weaponry was useless against the crush of the flesh lest she kill herself. On the plus side the rush of people couldn't hurt as much because there were too many hands and bodies in the way, the weight of it all seemed to do the work. Tolviar felt pressure and the damnable hum, and she lost it. Her mind went away and power surged up she didn't know she had. Fire surged from her body and the black eyed people burned away. Tolviar couldn't control it, it took her a moment to realize it wasn't just the fire that wasn't in control. She personally was no longer in control, and in that she felt horror as the madness gripped her.

"Impressive." The creature didn't realize it either.

"You haven't seen anything yet." Tolviar could only watch in horror as the madness secured its reigns.

Kind of Worried About Your Reaction

"Is that All?" Hanlon had just caught Trezlan up on Tolviar and how she was effectively a secondary aspect of himself. Trezlan for his part didn't seem bothered by it, in all of the scenarios Hanlon had forseen this one was not the one he expected. Trezlan if anything seemed more bothered by Hanlon being there than in hearing about Tolviar's existence.

"You're taking this surprisingly well." Trezlan shrugged and walked down the ship's hallway.

"I always figured there was a cost to the cure for being possessed, this is one of the less damaging scenarios. Sure I'm hurt you kept it from me, but it makes sense why you would, besides if anything I'm kind of laughing about the reversal of fortunes." Hanlon was more confused than ever.

"Reversal of fortunes?"

"When she was in my head, at times it was a madness. She desired to be in charge and attempted to make that happen. I can only imagine now she's dealing with me as a source of madness, and if I know me that's a fate worse than any I could have surmised." Hanlon was stopped, once again Trezlan brought up something he never though about.

"Oh wow I didn't even consider that." Trezlan smiled now, it was nice for him to be the one surprising the death god.

"Yeah I imagine your person has probably kept it under wraps, not even aware that they had me inside of them, but during a moment of duress I'm out being an asshole. That's how Val always showed up for me, have to be careful I don't think a piece of my personality would take over, but you might want to watch her for signs of perturbance or put upon ness. I know I can be a real asshole to deal with."

"That you can, thanks for this Trezlan, enjoy your journey into the void."

"Will do Hanlon, I'm sure I'll find something horrible out here and you'll be coming right back."

"Something, someone, plenty of awful shit in the void Trezlan, be careful." With that Hanlon was gone. SiC knowing it was wise to hang back during the visit with a god peaked around the corner.

"Have a nice chat with your god friend?"

"Enlightening SiC, set course for Ronerawth the old one, I need to find something I lost along the way."

"Right away sir, sir should we start work on a decon suit?"

"Yes SiC please do."

Everything's Fine Don't Worry It's Fine

There were people here. Tolviar knew this. She knew the planet should have had lots of people, but she saw no one. It was as if everyone went away on a holiday. Tolviar knew this was a really bad thing, the only time she'd previously dealt with something like this on a planet people lived, when everyone went missing shit was about to go bad. She had most of her carryable arsenal with her, and several different trigger and focus objects with which she could attack the creature and its minions and she still felt under prepared.

She now understood why Trezlan always was afraid of Hanlon. It wasn't that he was the death god, it was that he ultimately didn't care whether you succeed or not. There would be something else he could do, you were a plan, but not the only one. Tolviar had gotten that sense previously, but now, now it was explicit, and she did not like how it felt to be so casually thrown away. She wondered if the dread she felt was her own or a residual of Trezlans. With the madness in full swing she now worried she was taking on more of his traits than before.

"Little bit of both." The madness had returned, though he looked older now. More what Trezlan looked like now than what he previously did.

"Great you're still here."

"I believe you already said that previously."

"Well I don't need you here messing me up."

"You got a weird word for helping, but sure I'm here to mess you up. If you think you can do this without me I'll leave you be, but it's my ass at stake here too, remember that." He was gone again, and Tolviar almost felt bad if not for him being an expression of her losing her mind. Feeling bad was probably another symptom. Tolviar tried to put it out of her mind though. She had a job to do, and figured it was time to get it done. She checked her weaponry again and made her way to seat of power in the city. She figured if there was any place the fragment would be hiding it would be there.

When I'm Sleeping? Creepy

"I never appreciated how willing you were to do things Trezlan." It was an alarming way to wake up. Trezlan's blood shot eyes awoke to seeing Hanlon standing at the foot of his bed. Trezlan felt a little sad because he thought he'd inscribed enough runes to keep the death god out.

"This seems like a reference to something." Trezlan got out of bed and immediately regretted it since he slept in the nude and even though Hanlon never cared Trezlan did.

"I just haven't been appreciating you is all, though I do wonder what are you doing this far out in the nothing? This seems strange even for you."

"Exploring, I figure might as well before we destroy the universe somehow." Hanlon smiled.

"Destroy it? Whatever happened to ruling it?"

"That's Morley's thing, I'd rather it left me alone, me and my crew of robots." Hanlon got a sour look on his face.

"Ahh yes your 'crew' you know Trezlan if you want a loyal crew of never aging..."

"Stop there I'm not doing anything for you that would then put some poor bastards souls at my beck and call."

"Suit yourself with your robots who will betray you..."

"What do you want Hanlon?"

"I wanted to appreciate how willing you've been for me! You're my go to guy most of the time, and I don't think I've correctly appreciated that."

"I feel this is some..."

"I'm not buttering you up to have you do something, at least right now. Just take the compliment, and find your pants or something. I think you and I should have a talk."

"That's ominous."

"Yes, Yes it is." And so Trezlan sought his pants so the death god and he could have a chat about things.

You're Mistake Was In Thinking You're Good

"You're a real bastard." Tolviar could barely contain her rage. Hanlon didn't seem affected at all. She wanted to see some kind of response, but he she did not. He looked like he always did.

"Not possible, I have no parents. If you mean it as a general insult you'll have to try better."

"Do you know what I had to do?"

"Murder children, and you'll have to do worse I'm sure, its not all bad guys and people shooting at you, being my clean up person means you have to get your hands bloody, real bloody."

"Well you're here you can solve this now." She wanted to walk away, from all of it, being a nothing was better than dealing with all of this garbage.

"I'm here on this ship because its something of mine, but I can't enter this place, the other exists here, its why I use people like you, I can't deal with these damnable things because they keep me out." Hanlon actually seemed legitimately angry at being locked out his eyes even changed from being human to distinctly not, "So you're going to gather some weapons, and go down under the ground and kill this thing or you will be punished, you think being unmade is bad? Honey I got a whole of shit I can do to you that would make being unmade seem like a picnic."

"You are the real monster."

"And so are you, need I remind you of how you came to being, see that's the issue, you think because we end up doing good, we're the good guys, we aren't, we're the worse guys, that good comes from our actions is only a result of how shitty everything is." Hanlon disappeared after that, replaced by the madness.

"Well that was chipper. I like the idea of something worse than being unmade, wonder what that could be."

"Shut up Trezlan."

A Part of A Horrible System

Thirty seven other people had come to the planet and died. The number seemed overly too high and too low for this fragment. Tolviar had to hope it wasn't Hanlon who had been sending them, but she couldn't be sure. The death god seemed to do things for his own amusement more than actual goals at times. Still that the children had helped usher these people to their doom told Tolviar all she needed to know about them. They were a defense mechanism of the creature. Unbeknownst to them, they helped it carry out its dark plans. Ultimately the children were its last line of defense.

"So what happens now?"

"Now you go down deep, into a secret path, and then you kill the creature, we have weapons you can..." Tolviar shook her head, and the woman looked confused.

"I will not be going down your secret path, I need a way out of here back up top, I will find a different way."

"That's not how the prophecy goes." The woman's eyes went black and she surged with power. Tolviar would have been shocked if not for the madness. That nattering crazy that was Trezlan had warned her never to trust, and in her not trusting she'd laid a necromantic trap for the woman, she touched it as she surged forward and her body went lifeless. A black ooze flowed out of her and past the make shift door. The rest of the children would come then, Tolviar knew it, and steeled herself to it.

"It's always hard to murder children, even ones mind controlled like this, you feel there should be another way." The madness waited till it was all over, the broken bodies smashed around the sewer like some grotesque nap time.

"How did you do any of this?" Tolviar realized she wasn't actually the soul of the monster that had given Trezlan his necromancy, she knew it now as she stared at the dead and had Trezlan himself seemingly impressed with her child murder.

"It helps if you don't think about it, if you don't look too deep into it. I mean at least these ones attacked you, I've done worse. It's funny I recalled killing my mentor and thinking I'd do better with the world, but tell you the truth I haven't, and now with you I'm glad my legacy continues even if I should not."

"You're the real monster." She found the way out and hoped the madness would not follow, but she knew it would, it had gotten its hooks into her now. She had let it in, and now it was happy to stay, if only to remind her that she wasn't a person like everyone else, and could never be. Once back on the surface the city was remarkably empty. She was able to make the spaceport without any resistance, and got in her ship which was remarkably not damaged.

"Leaving so soon?" It was Hanlon in the flesh and it took everything in her not to punch him in his god face.

There Were Others

"This feels strange." Tolviar was by herself, sort of, the madness was there with her. The children had withdrawn, though they did bring food for her, she didn't want to touch it. She didn't trust these children at all even if they had possibly helped her.

"What the creepy sewer children or their idea of a sandwich is like two slices of bread with some weird vegetable in between? Disgusting."

"Not what I meant, but good to know the sandwich is gross." Tolviar noticed there was clothes in her "room", it wasn't so much a room as a dead end of a sewer with an ad hoc door constructed at one end. It almost felt like a prison cell more than a room.

"Totally working for the fragment here, you know they are even if they aren't aware they are." Tolviar didn't want to admit it was right, then again since Trezlan was actually her own mind it was more acknowledging her own fear.

"They are children, probably without parents, what I'm seeing is their frightened response."

"What are you are seeing is what the creature wants you to see, do not trust these creatures." And then the madness was gone. The lead child had returned, she did not bring the others with her.

"Not feeling very hungry slayer?"

"No I ate a big meal earlier." She lied and hoped it didn't show on her face how hungry she was. The magical use alone made her stomach growl.

"You need you strength if you will slay the god here. It's very strong."

"I noticed you have a lot of clothes here are these from your parents?" The woman looked away, unwilling to share her gaze.

"No, these are the clothes of the others."

"Others?"

"I'll admit to you slayer you are not the first to be chosen, but you will be the last." She said it ominously enough Tolviar did not like the implication.

"How many others?"

"Well..."

Lost Children

Tolviar expected to awake to some kind of nightmare. Some living awful thing that she'd wish she was dead during. Instead a little boy woke her up by tugging at her shoulder. She was surrounded by children, they all had the ragged look of having been living on the streets. Tolviar was wary, this could be a trick by the fragment she hunted, but it felt real enough to her for what she could sense.

"The slayer awakens." They spoke in a tone of reverence, the oldest child looked just short of adulthood, the youngest barely out of diapers.

"Uhh what where am I?" It looked to be a sewer, it smelled like one too, seeing as these children had saved her life she couldn't exactly complain. It also at least made sense now how Trezlan had given her the rock, he hadn't, one of these children had.

"You're safe slayer." The young woman who spoke looked like their leader, the other children gave her reverence by posture and allowing her to stand front and center.

"Why do you call me slayer?"

"Because you killed the creature, it poisoned you, but did not kill, you are the slayer we have dreamed of." She couldn't tell how long these children had been down here, but she figured the fumes must have gotten to them.

"I guess that's what I am, but I'm sure not feeling it." Tolviar was glad the ghost of her madness did not seem present here. Though she suspected it was out of eye sight somewhere waiting, it seemed the madnesses style.

"You'll get better slayer and you'll destroy that which lurks we have foreseen it." She was a bit worried now at the children and their nodding. No longer sure this wasn't a projection by the death fragment she hunted.

"Well if you guys say so."

"We'll let you rest, work must be done, things must be undone, we will aid, we will avenge." They left one by one, making a hand gesture as they did.

"That was creepy." The madness was back, but Tolviar couldn't disagree, it was more than a little off putting, and did not for tell anything good about to happen.

Madness Doesn't Work After 6pm

The creature had her pinned down. It jaw snapping close to her face. She looked to the madness for help, but it was gone, she didn't even know why she thought it could help her considering what it was, which proved how crazy she'd gotten. She looked around at objects near her, but didn't see anything that could be used to hit or kill the creature. Just some rocks that were maddeningly out of reach.

"This is why I carry a sword, or carried a sword, I can't recall if I still have that sword, should probably look into that, well if I was Trezlan, I'm sure the real me still has it somewhere. These little beasties hate the earth."

"Help me?"

"How would I do that, I'm not even here." She felt her strength giving out, the creature was coming closer to her face. Then all of a sudden there was a rock in her off hand, she smashed the creatures jaw with it. The creature reeled back wards, its teeth falling out of its mouth as it did. Tolviar pressed the attack, smashing the rock into its burnt wounded face until her hands were sticky and black with its blood. Her breathing was ragged as she climbed off its corpse, it felt like she hadn't slept in years. She realized that it was probably the blood infecting her own like a poison.

"Yep, lethargy that's how it starts, I don't think its fatal, these creatures like live prey, but you got enough of it on you that you're in real shit straights." Trezlan as always was super helpful.

"Not going to die here." It was all she could think of to say.

"Oh no, not here, you'll die somewhere else much worse."

"Help?" Her voice was leaving.

"Sorry off shift, good luck though, I'd love to be around in the morning." Tolviar's eyes got very heavy, and for a brief moment she thought Trezlan had become a small child, but figured this was a new form of hallucination and then she went out, her last thought about watering her plants back at the office.