Butcher's Graffiti

The three were in the lounge, sitting on exquisite red sofas adorned with a few obsidian pieces and sculptings. Bastian was serving warm tea, some colorful macaroons, and other treats. It was a strange menu for breakfast but n.o.body could speak against the empress about her diet.

"I still can"t understand how Sir Nikolai is able to just spend his life force like it was mana." commented Bastian as he poured another serving to Amira.

"He"s immortal!" replied Phillis as he caught a macaroon with his mouth.

"Yes, that is true. Yet immortality wouldn"t necessarily mean an infinite amount of life force, would it sir?"

"Well..." his gaze drifted to Amira, signalling her to explain. She sighed.

"Nicholas is one of a kind, literally. He"s the only one of his "species" in the entire world of Arkenheim, as far as we know. An anomaly, an abomination that shares an unseverable bond with the world itself. He isn"t a parasite, no, it would be better to say that the world wants him to have its energy and empowers him to heights of power that even he has yet to discover, despite living for nearly 500 years.

The strangest of strange cases.

Where he came from? Neither he nor any of us knows. But in our theory, he"s most probably a personification or an alter ego to the Will of the World. Materialized, realizing a physical form to actualise its plans. Which we have no idea whatsoever." she explained, taking a long sip of tea after.

"And there you have it! Quite the monster, isn"t he?" said the monster bat as he pointed at the 3d representation of Nikolai in real-time.

"Well, it does explain how he"s able to perform such a dangerous and highly complex spell with such ease." the butler chuckled to himself, pouring the seventh cup of tea for Amira.

"One thing though. He"s virtually unkillable due the naturally hyper-regenerative prowess of his body but that also gives him not even a tiny bit of affinity in Healing Arts." the vampire added.

"...what?"

.

u003c"I"ve weakened...it"s been a long time since I got to let loose like this. It feels liberating."u003e Nikolai thought, feeling his fist.

He cracked his neck and shoulders as he walked over to the castle where the soldiers were. After he"d burned away the ghoul corpses blocking the gate, Nikolai picked up a few human corpses on the way.

"Are you reinforcements?" Rovan"s eyes were watery as he fell to the floor. The fatigue had settled in and as a result he couldn"t move a muscle. This was true as well for everybody else, but Major Rodrick was somehow able to perform his salute.

Nikolai felt awkward at first. He wasn"t entirely used to interacting with other soldier, having worked alone in the majority of his battles. Nevertheless, he returned the gesture with a simple bow.

"Butcher." introducing himself briefly.

The soldiers were of course intimidated by his size at first, not to mention the feat he"d pulled off just then, but after he"d performed the basic courtesy with the Major"s salute, everybody relaxed.

"I am Major Rodrick Weston of the Eastern Military Branch, sir! We"ve been expecting you. We tried our best to defend against the swarm but, as you can see, we weren"t entirely successful and lost over 80% of the original squadron." his heart broke some more uttering those words.

The soldiers shed tears for their fallen comrades, gathering at the few corpses that Nikolai had brought up. They lamented. Apologizing to the dead, holding their cold hands and cursing at the cruelty of such a fate.

Nikolai remained silent. He was all to familiar with such a feeling.

"...t-these men—! They have families! Awaiting a return that will never be. And that...the thought of my incompetence resulting in all those children...! They don"t deserve any of this. It"s all my fault. All mine...*hick* mine!" Rodrick couldn"t bear his survival. At some point, at some instance in the battle, he felt afraid and unconsciously avoided direct battle. His conscience was clawing at him as he started to hear the voices of those deceased.

All the giant could do was comfort the man wordlessly with a pat. He wasn"t particularly well-versed in the field of emotion and his ability to speak is impared to boot, so there wasn"t much he could do.

Their emotional moment was interrupted, however, as Nikolai turned his head in confusion. A dark ma.s.s was gathering in the goopy mess that was supposedly the Queen Ghoul before.

u003c"Something"s different. It"s soul was flawed to begin with and it"s Mana Nucleuon had multiple abnormalities, especially how it seems like two conjoined Nucleuons. I should"ve known!"u003e

"Can you hear me, Nicholas?" Amira"s voice sounded from one of his backpockets.

"Dahahaha! He kept the jewel in his a.s.s-pocket! Hahahahha! I told you so!—oh, uh, mhm, apologies. I"ve unintentionally hindered—" Phillis" loud voice could be heard from the background.

"Whatever.

Moving on. Please describe to me the creature. I can"t a.n.a.lyze it since I"m not there, so you"re gonna have to narrate it." she continued.

Nikolai raised an eyebrow, giving her a look that"s in-between an offended, annoyed, and an "are you serious right now?" expression. He handed the bronze jewel to the Major and hopped off the building as fast as he could.

"...ah." the Major, Amira, and Bastian said in unison.

"DAHAHAHAH!!!!! OH BROTHER, I CAN"T! AHAHAHAHAHAH" Phillis erupted in laughter, squirming in his seat like a delirious worm with jagged teeth.

.

The Queen Ghoul was just as confused as the others were at her sudden revival, but she wasn"t gonna let it go to waste. There was this mysterious energy that leaked from her "new" nucleuon and it made her feel powerful. Every ghoul carca.s.s within the battle"s vicinity, no matter what state they were in, seemed magnetically attracted to the recovering Queen.

She acc.u.mulated so much ma.s.s and her body was mutating all on its own on a cellular level, causing excruciating pain throughtout her body.

The dawn seemed to darken as over 7000 ghoul bodies were sucked into the queen like a vortex, a dark ma.s.s shrieking in its center.

Nikolai was sprinting like a truck. He retrieved Ignitia and immediately transformed his arm as the golden aura enveloped his form again. Despite his size, the giant rushed at the vortex with the speed of a bullet.

CLANG

The collision resulted in shockwaves erupting from both sides.

.

BEEP BEEP

"What is it?" asked Phillis as they continued to observe the fight.

"That Queen just evolved into a Category 6 Fiend, the first one we"ve seen since the past 37 years. And I don"t think it"s gonna stop growing." Amira responded.

A tinge of worry grew in their hearts. High General Vladimir took up his cane and placed his hat in one graceful motion, making his way to the door.

"I"ll be back." he said, his dead eyes gleaming red.

.

Nikolai never blinked despite the shockwave. He"d used the gauntlet like a spear as he tackled the queen.

Or so he tried to.

Three, long, bony appendages covered in a red sticky substance intercepted his charge. The red substance was steaming and dripping from the tails like blood. They had pointed, razor-sharp edges like a scorpion"s and was made of large disfigured vertebrae that grew blades along its surface.

WRRAAAAAAA

A putrid black goo seeped on the ground surrounding the reborn Queen. The same red substance covered her b.l.o.o.d.y exoskeleton whilst another set of clawed limbs had grown on her torso. Her overall size had decreased into more human proportions and most of her body were litteral skin and bones.

In the instant that she"d intercepted the tackle, there was immediate retaliation with a kick infused with pure mana of chaos. Life Force and Chaos mana were like the opposite sides of a magnet and as a result, the attack blew Nikolai away like he was weightless.

BOOM

The castle crumbled as it broke his momentum, causing it to tilt. The soldiers on the roof held on for dear life as the building collapsed under its own weight.

UUWWWRRRAAAAA

The Queen sounded its victory as it charged straight for the castle, so fast that it was a blur even in the real-time hologram. Bursting out from the debris, Nikolai threw his axe straight for the charging ghoul.

It was dodged easily with sidestep and the queen seemed to smirk at the stupid attempt. Nikolai held his hand out like he was about to catch something as he ran forwards. The Queen realized what was happening and ducked in the split second that the humongous axe nearly decapitated her from behind.

Following the catch, Nikolai followed the axe"s momentum and slammed it as hard as he could on the fiend. A deep straight cut appeared on it"s abdomen, the strike ignoring her bony armor, as the ghoul barely dodged in the quick exhange. Tremors echoed below due to the blow, worrying and relieving her that she"d evaded the powerful strike.

This man wasn"t like anything she"d encountered before. He was bigger, tougher, stronger and way more dangerous than any being she"d encountered in her short life.

She was, however, superior in speed.

She splashed some of the red substance to his eyes with a tail whip, forcing Nikolai to back away. But she wasn"t going to let him get away.

The ghoul immediately followed pursuit as her stingers dug deep into his arm and her two clawed hands aimed straight for his eyes, again.

STAB

Each of her arms pierced deep straight for the man"s brain while her stingers pumped gallons of poison into his bloodstream. The battle had been won.

KKRREESSSSHH

The Queen hissed in victory. Though she had to sacrifice her army for the metamorphosis, she was able to survive the immediate threat. Now all she had to do was retreat after feeding on his corpse.

She failed to notice Nikolai"s other arm. Ignitia morphed into an airtight clamp with multiple thick wires wrapping around the queen"s body into a perfect lock around all limbs. She couldn"t hide her surprise and couldn"t defend quick enough as she was slammed on the ground.

Nikolai"s b.l.o.o.d.y eyesockets emitted a white steam as his eyes regenerated at a visible rate, fiber by fiber. The ghoul who was forced to watch the horrifying scene as she was pulled back into his grasp. The Queen squirmed to get away, clawing at his face, stabbing, slicing, and poisoning him over and over and over again.

Nikolai stood motionless the whole time, unflinching despite the barage of lethal strikes pouring down on him. He wanted the fiend to realize that she wasn"t getting away, no matter what.

Every swollen limb, broken bone, torn flesh, open gut, amputated finger, and disfigured face healed back into perfect condition. The Queen unleashed her wrath endlessly trying to keep away from the terrifying truth that was slowly swallowing her will to fight.

This man, no, this lifeform was her living nightmare and she was bound to never wake.

She flinched as she noticed Nikolai"s other arm drop the axe. Physical and Mystic attacks were useless against the invincible gauntlet despite the malleability of its form.

u003c"Was it all a feint?! Was all that defending and evading of his a bait?!"u003e she recalled how Nikolai had evaded the splash of acid and slahes just a while ago. However, nothing fazed this man now, even if she had bathed him in acid or drowned him in poison.

WYAAAAAARRRRGG

One tail morphed its end into a bladed edge, striking down on the Nikolai"s shoulder. It was a shallow cut, the blade struggled to pierce his unbelievably tough skin.

At this point, the ghoul was in full-on panic. She did everything she could to rip every amount of flesh and bone from his shoulder until his entire left arm covered in Ignitia"s transformative armour fell off.

A glimmer of hope appeared in her single vertical eye as she seemed to have found the correct solution, only to have it crushed as she noticed that Ignitia refused to change it"s restrictive form.

BYAAAAARRGGH

She shrieked as a cold chill ran down her spine as her line of sight connected with the monster in front of her. Tendrils of Nikolai"s aura reached for his amputated arm, reconnecting it from the joint.

She was about to repeat her futile a.s.saults when she was flung into the air like a whip. The wires were connecting the clamp to the rest of the gauntlet while it kept the ghoul restrained.

WHAAMM

Nikolai slammed her into the ground with such force that the exoskeleton creaked and craters formed. It shook her insides, miraculously intact despite her painful collision with the ground.

WHAAMM

She was lifted up to the sky and slammed down yet again. It disoriented the queen and she was starting to lose consciousness. Blood was spurting out of her eye and she was vomiting some sort of black sputum.

WHAAM

"GRR!" Nikolai grunted as he pulled with his entire weight to lift the d.a.m.n thing into the air.

WHAAM

WHAAM

WHAAM

WHAAM

WHAAM

WHAAM

WHAAM WHAAM WHAAM

"ARGH! GRAND SLAM!!" with both arms, the wires were pulled back and accelerated the fall to a staggering speed. Nikolai infused the weapon with the gravity spell "Rupture", creating one of his deadliest techniques.

BAAAAMMMMM

With each increasing speed and intensity of the slams, the watching soldiers flinched in unison. They started to pity the creature and gained a newly-found fear, rather than respect, for Nikolai and his brutality.

After literally beating the poor creature senseless, Nikolai pulled back the b.l.o.o.d.y mess of what was once a Category 6 Fiend, some of it"s black blood splattering on his face.

The b.l.o.o.d.y visage and intimidating structure, coupled with a humongous cleaver and chain-like wires was perfect image for the t.i.tle "BUTCHER".

"M-Monster...!"

The current scene was burned deep into the men"s memory as Nikolai held up the unconscious fiend. Little to none was left of it"s exoskeleton, it was clean of the red acid. Claws and blades were either gone or dulled. It"s black inner flesh was exposed and it"s eye was bleeding red, damaged beyond repair.

CLINK

The communication jewel he"d carried was thrown down to the ground near him. The soldiers flinched as he looked up.

"Nikolai. Contain the threat, don"t eliminate it yet. I will personally visit the scene and collect the sample. I"ll be there as soon as I can. This is an order." Phillis" voice didn"t contain its usual s.p.u.n.k. It was distant and commanding.

"...why?" Nikolai uttered, igniting his aura again, prepared to burn the Queen Ghoul into ash.

"Because I have reason to believe this specimen has a connection to Hamellin."

His eyes widened at those words, the already terrifying mug reduced to a horrifying frown.

"Don"t lie...to me."

"I am serious. This may be the only lead we"ve managed to recover in the past 9 years. I order you to contain it, soldier." his voice distorted for a second.

A conflicted look settled on the man"s face, long hair covering his face as he fell to the ground on one knee.

AAAAAARRGHHH!!!!—BOOOM

Webworks of cracks appeared on the ground with Nikolai"s fury-filled punch.

"Ivan...we think Ivan may still be alive."

.