Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) (16 page)

“Eric Watley, do you object?”

He snarled.

“I didn’t think so.”

Once again, she leaned down for the Kiss of Death.

"A knight becomes a dragon. A dragon becomes a
knight. What is his role? What is his role? What is his role?"

In the administrator's office on the fifth floor, a large
crystal provided illumination. It cast elemental light energy on a bed, a
microwave, a mini-fridge, and a CV. Empty pizza boxes and soda cans were
scattered everywhere. Monster waste was absent and in its place was a forest
pine scent similar to the air-fresheners that cab turtles wear on their necks.
Assorted magazines lay open on the bed and their contents made Annala sick.

Gruffle reached past the gold cage’s bars and grasped her
chin. She looked defiantly at him despite her chains. He turned her head this
way and that and she grumbled at the handling.

"You're a pretty girl. No wonder that boy fell for
you."

Annala growled.

"Now, now; be nice. My boss will be here soon with
your obedience collar."

Annala gasped, eyes wide.

“I’d do it myself, but I’m not an ordercrafter. Her
Majesty made sure of that.” 

He took off his hat and revealed a Crowned Tiger tattoo.
It was etched into his forehead with the same eldritch light as Order and it
stood on a crossed out Eye of Order.

“This mark means I’m doing community service for the rest
of my life. It forbids me from serving other deities, like Order, since I’m
serving Little Miss Demi-Goddess.”

He yanked Annala’s bangs to the limit allowed by the noose
and whispered in her ear, “I bet you’re wondering why I’m telling you this.”

Annala could neither speak nor nod; she could barely
breathe.

 “It’s so when I do what I’m about to, you can explain how
I can do it.”

He lowered her back into a kneeling position and she
settled on the cage floor, breathing deeply through her nose. Then his large
and stony hand glowed with otherworldly black light. Annala gasped a second
time and thrashed in the cuffs before the noose choked her back into
submission. The power of death touched her and there was nothing she could do
about it.

"So it's true. Immortals fear death just like everyone
else.”

He petted her head while she trembled.

“You see, I met Samael on the bridge. She wanted to find
Eric and I wanted to ambush him. While we waited, she gave me her necrocrafter contract
spiel and then ‘forgot’ to tell me that it would shorten my lifespan. ‘From my
perspective, everyone is dying’ my big stony ass! Here's a taste of what I feel
every second.”

The power of death flowed over her face, down her neck,
through her torso, and down to her toes. It killed every cell in her body, but
the Seed of Chaos within her replaced them just as quickly. It was the
experience of dying without the release of death; just pain and torment. She shuddered
and sobbed in his grip.

"Not so tough now, are you, little girl?"
Gruffle taunted. "That cost me a month off my life, but it was worth it to
see that naked terror on your face. The only thing better would be if that worm
boyfriend of yours were here to see it.”

He pulled the gag out of her mouth and said, “Now tell me
how I can do this.”

“Fi-ire is ass-associated with both d-death and l-life.”
She sniffed and swallowed. She cleared her throat. “However, it is more closely
associated with death and
rebirth
because of forest fires, funeral
pyres, and cooking. Thus, someone sworn to a fire goddess could also swear to a
death god without breaking the first oath. Cosmically speaking, they are
similar.”

Gruffle forced the gag back in her mouth and she resisted
on principle. He cinched it extra tight and patted her check. Then he slugged
her.

“Loophole abuse…. That bastard! He set me up! My soul was
payment for that grave ghoul’s help with this trap. All because of Eric...and
you...”

He looked back to Annala, who was trying to slide her
wrists loose without alerting the device. She failed and the noose choked her a
third time.

“You have an endless supply of
kon
. Your Seed of Chaos
generates as much as you need. That’s why you live forever.”

He loomed over her and both hands glowed with Death’s
power. Annala shrank away from him and shook her head, pleading with whimpers
and wide eyes.

“I don’t suppose you mind sharing.”

He encompassed her head with his hands and drained her
life energy as fast as possible. She screamed and writhed as she died
repeatedly. When he was finally satisfied, she slumped over, feeling violated,
but too exhausted to cry over it. Gruffle floated like a trickster and glowed
like a deity. He threw up his arms and shouted, “THIS IS AMAZING! I’VE NEVER
FELT SO POWERFUL IN MY LIFE!” He leered at the captive elf girl. “I gained two
hundred years worth of
kon
just now. My life expectancy has
doubled.
I feel like a brand new creature with a fresh lease on life.”

Experimentally, he swung his club and created a shockwave
that shattered one of the four walls of the building. Standing on the edge of
the new grand window, he fired a beam of pure life energy towards the moon. It
rocketed from his hand, escaped the planet’s orbit, and formed a new crater in
the satellite’s surface. Looking back to Annala, he said, “I just might cart
you away and keep you for myself.”

A door flew off its hinges and collided with Gruffle’s
bed, crumpling it. Out of the dust of the doorway walked a tall humanoid figure
with metal skin. Its other features refused to be identified, but the claws on
its hands were clearly sharp and bloody. Each dragged a mangled corpse. Its
eyes immediately spotted the gold cage with its captive bride. It heard her sniffles
and saw her tears. It turned to Gruffle and snarled.

“That’s right, Grendel! I have your precious elf girl as
my
kon
battery. I was tormenting her just before you walked in. What are
you going to do about it?”

Grendel raised the two corpses for him to see. Its lips
separated into a grin. Then it tore a chunk of flesh from each one and threw
them at his feet.

“
Threat
.
Food
.
Threat
.
Food.
”

“You poor bastard. That’s all you can say now, isn’t it?
Grendel want a cracker?”

Grendel charged the troll, swinging its fists wildly as it
ran and roared out a challenge to this threat. With club in one hand and
necrocraft in the other, Gruffle stood like a sentinel between the monster and
the maiden. He fired a necro dart from his left hand and a needle-like stream
of deathly power soared through the air and struck Grendel in the chest.
Burrowing deep, it extracted a measure of
kon
and returned it to its
caster. Gruffle grinned as he felt it join with his own pool. Then he frowned.

“Only a day?”

Grendel’s fist connected with his nose. In any other
circumstance, his nose would have shattered into tiny fragments followed by the
rest of his face. He would die. Empowered by Annala’s Seed of Chaos as he was,
he survived. The stolen
kon
repaired the damage instantly at the cost of
five years. Grendel pounded three more out of him while he was dazed. Gruffle
grabbed both of Grendel’s hands and drained
kon
directly from the
monster’s body. It might be a slow process, but Grendel couldn’t escape his
grasp. Gruffle’s empowered body was too strong. It might take a week or more,
but he would steal every last drop of life from inside this creature.

Indeed, Grendel couldn’t escape. His hands were trapped
and he was feeling fainter by the second. Instinctively, he pulled back. With Universal
Mana Enlightenment, he pulled Gruffle’s mana straight out of his body.

While Gruffle had years and years of extra
kon
, his
mana stayed the same. Having a body with
kon
but no mana was like having
a car with an engine but without a heater, headlights, or anything else.
Gruffle weakened while Grendel strengthened just as quickly. Raising his right
leg, he gut-kicked Gruffle into the far wall. The troll’s impact shook the room
and Annala squealed as mortar fell on her cage. Recognizing this and
comprehending the consequences of his action, Grendel resolved not to use that
tactic a second time.

Gruffle popped out of the indent he made and fell to his
feet. Annala’s pilfered
kon
mended his injuries by the second. He rushed
forward and slammed Grendel’s head with his club. Grendel dodged and the club
broke only a hole in the floor. Then the metal creature stuck his left claws into
the club and they gleamed with otherworldly black light. The troll gawked as
his solid oak club crumbled into ashes. Then Grendel socked him in the chest
with a palm strike from his right hand.

Staff-Soiléir emerged from his palm and punctured his heart,
costing him more
kon
to stay alive. Then the central light shined and
stole
kon
in return. The crystal was capable of storing every kind of
energy. While he wasn’t a necrocrafter, he could still steal life like one with
Staff-Soiléir. He rapidly recovered everything that Gruffle drained from him.
When Gruffle tried to counter attack, Grendel uppercut his chin with his left
hand. There wasn’t enough force to propel him into the ceiling but just enough
to send him flat on his ass. He followed up by reaching for Gruffle’s head. An Order
Shield stopped him.

Gruffle flourished a new Orderly Pocket Guardian. The
field it generated was impervious to all physical and most magical attacks, no
matter how mighty the attacker. Grendel punched and kicked it in vain. It
roared its frustration. Gruffle smirked, secure in the knowledge that Grendel
couldn’t hurt him and he had all the time he needed to plan. Then Grendel
returned his grin and revealed his Chaotic Claw.

The black/grey at the center shone brightly, along with
the cerulean sphere orbiting it, but what concerned Gruffle was the third
light. At the top of the crystal was a pyramid of golden-brown. It glistened.

With savage delight, Grendel thrust the claw into
Gruffle’s Order Shield. It easily pierced the defense and, driven by a grendel’s
strength, punched straight through to the generator itself. The conflicting
energy created an explosion. Thanks to the shield itself, it only harmed
Gruffle. When the smoke cleared, the troll was badly burned and mildly mutated.
A decade of his life was gone. Grendel sensed weakness and went in for the
kill. Gruffle kicked him in the crotch.

Grendel whined in pain and clutched himself, leaving
himself open for further hits. Gruffle exploited that with a series of punches
and kicks. Like Grendel, he restrained himself so he wouldn’t bring the roof
down on top of them both. Instead, he augmented his punches with necrocraft to
steal a bit of
kon.
It might only have been a week at a time, but it was
enough to stun his opponent and give his next punch extra power. Gruffle swore
he heard bones cracking, and yet, the beast didn’t go down.

“Why! Don’t! You! Die?!”

Grendel’s lips, broken and bleeding as they were,
separated into a grin. Gruffle paused. An awful understanding came upon him.

“You can’t possibly understand me. You’re just a monster!”

He punched again and, this time, Grendel caught it. The
force pushed him back and numbed his hand, but nonetheless, he caught it. Then
he decayed it. Before Gruffle’s eyes, the skin of his fist aged and wrinkled,
and his muscles softened and sagged. The rot traveled up his arm. Absolutely
horrified, he pointed his other hand at Annala and shouted, “Give me
everything!”

Annala shouted and convulsed as he stole centuries’ worth
of
kon
from her.
Immediately, his arm sprang back to life and he
regained a god-like image. Likewise, Grendel immediately switched tactics and
drained mana again instead of aging him. Despite his new power, Gruffle felt
winded for a couple seconds. This was all the time Grendel needed to jump to
the ceiling and shatter the light fixture.

Darkness rushed in, blinding everyone in the room. Gruffle
couldn’t see anything, nor did he hear the grendel land, but he could still
feel the beast’s presence. Its killing intent, its bloodlust, and its rampant
life were everywhere. It didn’t need to make eye contact for the troll to feel
the Universal Dread.

A slap crushed his skull, a second caved his chest, and a
third broke his spine. Each time, the grendel disappeared back into the
darkness before the troll could counterattack. Gruffle was left fumbling,
swinging left and right to hit his invisible enemy by chance. Two hands grabbed
him and aged him into a geezer. In an instant, he was young again. All of his
wounds mended as quickly as they happened.

“You’re wasting your time!” Gruffle shouted. “No matter
how many times you attack me, I’ll recover from it!”

In the darkness, a voice spoke. Gruffle could just barely
make it out with his troll ears. However, what scared him more than the words
was the growl beneath them. It was deep and primal and, worst of all, hateful.

“Winds
that warp and gusts that gale, become my army and fire at my command. Stratos
Lance!"

A pole arm made of air impaled the troll from the left. In
the next second, two more appeared from the right. Then four, then eight, then sixteen,
then thirty-two, then finally, sixty-four. Every single one hit its mark. When
it finally stopped, Gruffle was bleeding from one hundred and twenty-seven
wounds. The pain was so great, it immobilized him. Then Grendel stepped forward
and tore off his head. It leaned in close and licked its lips. Saliva dripped
on the quivering troll’s head.

"I'm sorry! This was just a stupid job! PLEASE DON'T
EAT ME!"

Grendel stuck the head into his mouth and bit down hard
enough to remove its scalp. Then it threw the thing up into the air with one
hand and threw a wind spell after it. When the second hit the first, it became
a bubble of air. Then Grendel helped itself to the troll's body.