CHAPTER 3

Or so I thought… I wanted to start right away and make a name for myself in any nearby village, town or city. Instead…  I’ve been traveling through this desert for days now. While walking through it, I encountered Desert Worms. Thought I could ride one to get out of this area faster. Nope. I was wrong. I found myself in their underground dwelling. Looking at more of them I could see that these creatures are as tall as two carriages stacked on top of one another, and as wide as two side by side. They’re thinner and smaller than I expected, but I think that’s to adapt with the environment they're in. They definitely move with incredible speed in which they use to move through an underground system they’ve developed. And by the looks of them… Omnivores? They’re not aggressive towards me but… I do see a feeding area with bones of creatures. So they’re most likely scavengers. It’s very organized for creatures with no thoughts. The one I am currently mounted stops from time to time, but I noticed it was so it could eat. There are roots from whatever plant can survive in this terrain that it also feeds on. I do get hungry at times, so when he does stop, I grab some of the same roots to eat. What I would do for some meat though. Droplets of water would also hit my face depending on the area we hit and I’d use that to quench my thirst. I’ve encountered no enemies and had just been taken for a ride. Sometimes, it would let other worms go through, and other times worms would let them pass instead. I get so sleepy being on this worm and doing nothing at all.

“I would get off but I have no idea where I am or how I’d leave without destroying your habitat, Wormie!” I hit the worm a few times, “I’m just going to stay until I see an opening, cause clearly, you don’t know where the desert ends!”

I would have used teleportation magic that my dad had taught me, but it only goes for short distances. Very short. And I really don’t want to run through the desert myself. I left home to avoid doing tedious tasks like that! My dad would always make me run at full speeds through the underworld just so I could end my enemies quickly. I also don’t think this body could handle it without breaking her fragile bones. If there’s a bright side to this though, I feel like I’m a real adventurer! Not taking any shortcuts to be where I need to be. It’s pretty nice. But also lonely,

“It’s not like you can understand me, Wormie. Otherwise we’d have found our way out by now.”

It stops.

“Hey what’re you doing? There’s no food here—” I look ahead, “That’s…” I see a pit ahead of us, and inside of it a small underground village. But from the smell of it, it’s a monster village? The worm doesn’t seem to be moving anymore. I guess it had its own motives after all. “Is this a trade Wormie? I deal with whatever is down here and you take me out of the desert?!”

It may not have eyes, but I’ll assume it's staring at me and the silence means yes. I could use flight, but once again, that wasn’t something taught to me yet, and climbing down normally would seem like it’d take too much time. I am looking down the pit, and it almost slopes down. Maybe I could slide my way down but… I feel a push. Then a shove. Then feel myself losing balance and trip,

“You stupid worm! Why did you push me!”

As I am tumbling down I catch a glimpse of Wormie slinking away from view. I land upside down and see the village up close. Or what I thought was a village. Based on how the formation of the underground was, it made it seem like one. There are in fact monsters here. Ones standing right in front of me. They are humanoid based entities, with no face. Just pale white bodies with long arms and legs, and fingers that become hook-like near the ends. They don’t appear to have ears, just holes at the side of their heads. Like the worms, I can feel them looking at me. I get up, and keep my distance. They’re still as rocks. They might be observing me or because of their lack of eyes trying to listen to the sounds I make. I walk through them, but keeping my hands firmly on my staff. I’m not sure what they’re capable of just yet and the same goes for them. It’s a lot easier to keep my eyes on them than how things would be if I didn’t have my staff. I’m thankful that once the divine staff became a demonic staff it had grown eyes. And these eyes that aren’t for show. They allow me to see all my surroundings that would be observable like my own vision, that means I cannot see through objects or see distances that I couldn’t normally see. The creatures remain stiff and only move to turn in the direction I walk towards. The boulders have holes in them that were no doubt hollowed out by these creatures. Every creature I pass stops in place and stares. They’re watching and growing in numbers. Unlike the worms, they’re cunning and aggressive.

“So that’s why…”

I reach a spot where they all are bundled together. They are hollowing out the worms and using them as host bodies to place their young. The young are born with mouths but the remaining features remain the same, they eat the insides of the living worms and grow within seconds. We don’t have creatures like these in the underworld or maybe I haven’t seen them? Still, my dad would agree, these are creepy cave monsters. The ones ahead haven’t noticed me yet, and the ones behind don’t seem to have a means of communication to alert them. They’re not hive minded, but they are single minded. The growing numbers aren’t too hard for me to handle. I fought days on end against a goblin army after all. I walk along the paths they made, and it leads towards a hole in the wall that was made by the unlucky worm they’re hollowing out.

“Wormie has a problem with you guys… So I guess you leave me with no choice.”

Divine magic works in a way where the caster has to do a prayer and load the spell. It’s a very long process which is why almost all priests and priestesses are in a party of those who can take on the enemy while protecting the caster. Divine magic is generally used to finish the enemy in one blow. I can see it as Maria’s memories intrude on my thoughts. However,

“I can’t use Divine Magic to fight Maria! I’m a demon. My demonic magic prevents me from doing those kinds of things!”

There are demonic abilities that allow me to do the same thing without the prayers. Demons definitely have a more efficient way of using spells. The problem though… Is that my dad didn’t show me how to do that and only demons with the knowledge and power can cast a spell like that. I only have the power part down. Maybe I can defeat them in groups instead of all at once. I turn to the ones behind me,

“You know, if you all were like the worms, you’d probably live longer. I’m sure there are many other creatures down here… Coexisting. You guys chose to be pests.”

As long as they don’t attack and keep in place, I should have no problem doing this. I raise my staff and allow my power to go through it like before. The eyes on the staff move frantically and glow a deep red. The eyes stop in place. Thin beams of light target the heads of the creatures, 

“Ten at a time for precise hits are my limits?”

If I spin the staff I could hit a lot more. But then the attacks would be more randomized. I’m sure if I did that I would alert the others from the sounds of destruction. I have a good advantage right now that I don’t want to lose.

“Alright. Slow and steady.”

The beams then change into strikes. Piercing the skulls of the creatures and coming out the other ends. The creatures don’t fall to the ground like most but become rock. I decided to call them Terras. I continue to take out as many as I can, but my energy is depleting. It wouldn’t be an issue normally, but I’ve only been surviving on roots and water during the last few days I’ve been underground. The ground trembles, I can feel something coming. Worms? No…

“The boulders!”

I stare aimlessly as my surroundings change. I plant my staff into the ground to prop it up, then cover my mouth and holding onto myself as comfort with my other hand. I was stunned.

“That can’t be right? They were hollowed out!” I am trying to understand what I am seeing but, “It was empty! Are these creatures just…?!” 

I rub my eyes just to be sure and as it turns out, the boulders weren’t ordinary boulders. They were bigger forms of these creatures. They’re sprouting out from the ground and looking in my direction. They’re massive, but very few, three of them and only halves of bodies. I was wrong to say we don’t have these in the underworld. These are a type of golem. Their mud bodies would harden when killed which is why they don’t fall to the ground. This also explained why they could be so still when observing me. They were just made with a different kind of magic. Then the question remains, why are they down here? And how did they get here? As the thoughts run through me and as I continue to stare and observe. I notice a crack in the ceiling above. A crack that over time was covered by the desert. These golems must have fallen through at one point and did whatever it could to survive.

“Survive?” 

That doesn’t add up though. Golems generally have no need to continue on their lineage unless… I look at my staff.

“Corruption.”

A demon must’ve used Corruption on the originals creating them into these kinds of monsters. A demon that could still be in this world? Or… I can hear my dad’s chuckling in my head.

“That idiot…”

It was clear to me that in my dad’s younger days while he was in the human realm, he most likely had a fight with a human and corrupted their creations. The human then must’ve cast them aside as a means to escape.

“Yup…” and so, I am the one in charge of cleaning up this mess.

The bigger golem attacks. Its movements are slow, and can’t reach certain points, this is because of how crowded the underground caves are for its body. I am able to dodge it without really moving from my spot. I handle the smaller golems with ease using the beams of light from my staff. As I handle the smaller golems, I can feel myself getting hotter, the sounds around me becoming louder, and a sour taste in my mouth. The thought of having to do busy-work when I’m trying to live my own life away from my dad is very irritating. I begin to attack more aggressively. Letting go of my staff but keeping it in the ground to view all that I can. I use my fists to destroy the heads. They break like crushed rocks, and scatter as the pieces fly out. I grab a few. Taking the handful that I can reach, I let the rocks absorb my demonic energy and use them as projectiles to get the golems furthest from me. Their numbers are dwindling down. Occasionally the bigger ones will attempt to grab me. As they do, I make more and more distance between us to see how far they can reach. The “nursery” seems to be their limit. The golems at the nursery don’t seem to care for my presence and continue to create more of their kin. It’s a strange process. They all chip off their fingers and throw it into a pile. The pile grows and becomes sentient, then forms the body of a smaller version of the regular sized ones. Then they begin to consume the insides of the worms that were hollowed out and grow. As they grow in size their mouths close and meld. Then the whole process repeats. There is a grace period. They all become stiff as the ones who were observing me earlier. They give time to the ones who gave their fingers to bury their hands into the ground and wait until it reforms. I decided that would be a good time to load an attack to end this. My tolerance levels are at zero, and I’m going to attempt to do his signature move. Apocalypse Burst. To spite him. This move requires fire magic which I am proficient at. Or rather, something I was forced to be proficient at. I shake my head,

“I’m not going to make myself remember that particular part of training…”

I mimic what I could remember of what my father did, I raise my hand towards the ceiling, then gather up the energy within me and focus it into one point. I can feel the air drying up and my hand getting warmer. A small flame sparks above my palm. I’m doing it! I focus more energy into it, it’s growing! Not as fast as how my dad can do it, but it’s something! I try to keep myself from smiling because this is my dad’s move after all, but the smile manages to break free. I would never tell him but… This was one of my favorite moves he uses. The flames are taking some time, and have only grown comparable to the size of a bear cub. I notice the smaller golems are starting to move again,

“Fine! I’ll just use this then!”

I’m hit with rocks that shatter against my body. I look behind me,

“You stupid golem! You’re not supposed to think that far ahead! You stay back and not use items! That’s cheating!”

I watch as the bigger golem that has been fixated on me grab the smaller ones, crush them together, and create the rocks that hit me,

“Don’t you dare!”

He tosses them at me again, this time I block with my arms so it avoids hitting my face, this causes my spell to cancel,

“You want to play this game?! Fine! We’re doing this.”

I rush to my staff and pluck it out from the ground, as I do, it gets pulled back down,

“What the hell…”

I look to the bottom and see some of the stones left on the ground, formed into the arms and hands of the smaller golems I had destroyed earlier. Pieces that had become one with the ground to make its way to me. I feel a strong grip on my ankles. The golems are trying to keep me still so that the bigger one can finally grab me,

“Come on…”

I struggle, but can’t seem to break free. My staff is also stuck in place. I’d attempt to use the beam attack it has, but it’s only for far and close distances. Not for enemies that are right under my feet. I’m assuming that with my dad’s corruption, these golems are enhanced, stronger than the regular ones in the underworld. Normally I could break free from something like this. I knew they were cunning from the start, based on how they would observe me and how they would use the worms as sustenance. Now thinking more about it, they must’ve planned for me to break them so that they could initiate this ploy. I never would have guessed how far Corruption could take its effect on things and how long it would last for. These golems most likely had decades if not centuries on them to adapt and learn how to handle any foe that they come across. They’re exactly like a predatory species would be. I can feel the hands gripping tighter. They’re trying to break my ankles so I can no longer move. My demonic energy prevents it from happening, but it can only last so long. The hand from the bigger golem surrounds me. I am able to stop it from completely gripping me with my own strength but it won’t let up. I can feel it getting tighter and tighter, my arms closing in and reaching my head.

“Huh?”