A/N: My terror souls submission. Some slight variations Dark souls 2 from are up ahead.
Tala gasped in relief as she spotted a dimly lit bonfire in the belly of Black Gulch. She might have been through a plethora of poisons in her home, the great swamps, but never had she experienced such a noxious poison...mainly from these dreadful statues.
Pain, Poison and other maladies became but a bitter memory after resting at the bonfire. It had been a cruel journey to drangliec; the things she had done to survive...the abominations she had to face. Hope was keeping her from descending into madness and nothing else.
In this brief moment of respite, Tala checked her belongings. Her lucky dagger was mostly in a good shape while her garments were painfully tattered and murky; dried blood, mud and other stains veiled the true colours of her clothes. She used to have a bottle of Estus but it started to leak as of late thus becoming useless.
Tala stared at her charred left hand for a couple of minutes. It was a weird fascination really; She had heard tales of great pyromancers bursting into flames not because they weren't worthy enough to harness the power of flames...instead, they had become one with the flames. The very thought of it sent the woman of the great swamps into a euphoric state. She closed her eye for this lucid daydream.
Muffled growls of danger pull Tala back from her dream. In a tick, her hand was ablaze ready to incinerate any potential foe. A slimy worm coated with tar was crawling its way to her. It was adorably small barely exceeding her knees. Nevertheless, it must be dealt with.
Tala conjured a small fireball -fitting for her adversary- and threw it at the worm. It shrieked and wailed as its flesh melted away. The tar enveloping the youngling made it even worse for it. Within seconds, it was nothing more but a molten pile of flesh and bones.
Her scent must have brought this young one out of its hideout. It acted out of pure primal instinct throwing anything else out of the window. This naiveness and immaturity remind Tala of her younger self. She had nobody in this grim world to teach her what's right from wrong...trail and error were her only tutor.
Tala stepped outside of the small cave. She inspected what was around her. the two prominent features in Black Gulch were those blighted statues and the pools of tar all over the ground. she could spot some bubbles popping up periodically in these pools. It must have come from the mature worms patiently waiting for their next meal to step right into their sneaky trap. She was no fool ,and most importantly, she knew how to deal with them.
The ground shook as pillars of flames terrorized the sulking worms forcing them to jump out of their inferno. Unlike the youngling of before, these slimy worms towered Tala. They didn't melt right away. Instead, their very flesh got peeled away in a horrific scene. Tala hurled a decent number of fireballs before obliterating them.
The pyromancer patted heavily; She didn't expect that large number of them. Her hand was shaking slightly. She had to embrace herself with flash sweat if she had any intention to cross her sea of flames.
Tala didn't like that particular pyromancy for a good reason. Flash sweats would dampen her from head to toe negating any potential fire damage but at the same time it would extinguish her pyromancy flame making her as defenseless as a new born. The fire in front of her didn't seem to die out anytime soon. She had to cast it in order to cross the other side.
With her lucky dagger, she walked slowly in the flames. the ground beneath wasn't all flat as it seemed to be. there were some burrows hidden under the tar pool made by the worms. Occasionally, Tala would slip into one of these vacant burrow bringing the tar to her waist.
She was nearing the end of this fire lake when she saw a huge masked figure in the horizon. It had a huge bloodied cleaver in its creepy looking hands. It didn't possess any form of legs as well. Despite the look of this abomination, Tala stood at the very edge of the fire lake pitying it as it was crying and whimpering in pain. It remind her of her childish memories that she wanted to forget.
"Huh?" Tala was brought back to reality when she noticed herself slowly sinking into the blazing tar. The pyromancer tried to move her legs but she fell hard on her ground instead. She felt as if her legs were restrained. She felt as if-
"GODS NO!" her legs began to shift upwards with the movement of the worm as it ascended from the blazing tar. It was by the far the biggest and oldest of its kind. It endured the burning for this particular moment. Tala could see its charred flesh and even some hints of its bone. Scars from previous travellers were all over its body. Perhaps it was too old to sprawl out and hunt or perhaps this was an act of cunning out of experience. Nevertheless, it's mouth had slurped both of her legs restraining her.
The panic was real.
"L-LET ME GO!" screamed the young woman. Her constant squirming knocked off two or three of the worm's dull teeth but it wasn't just enough. Till that moment, Tala had forgot that she was a pyromancer. She tried to cast a fireball but she couldn't even conjure an ember as the flame was immediately quelled by flash sweat.
Her darkest fears were coming true.
By the time Tala had exhausted her pyromancer option. The elderly abomination has passed her knee. It tried to lift her to ease the swallowing but it broke its back with an audible crack. It grumbled for a moment but it chose to forget this new pain for now.
Tala could already feel the churning of the worm's hungry stomach. Her toes began to sting with the arrival of newly made digestive juices. She had to act soon or she might not see another day. Tala calmed herself for a moment to think allowing the worm to proceed without resistance.
"The bell!" Tala squealed in excitement. She would have never thought that the sovereign she bought from that bald man in Lordran could save her life. She yanked the bell out of her pouch with her free hand. According to the bald man, this bell belonged to some twisted warden in a distant land. Those wardens could momentarily paralyze anyone by ringing that bell three times while enchanting some words.
The worm was shot by a green beam electrifying and paralyzing it in a heartbeat. The unexpected worm twitch briefly then it utterly stopped. Tala sighed out of relief thanking the bald man wherever he was. All she had to do was prying the worm's maw open and she would be free...
Except that its maw was closed shut.
Panic rose once more especially with her lower half inside the worm's belly. The juices had made its way past her light clothes. The uncomfortable sting was slowly morphing into a burning pain.
Again Tala concentrated her fear in something else. It was pure anger, rage and hatred combined with the will to survive. With a roar of determination, Tala had set her hand ablaze despite the ongoing flash sweat. The resulting steam burned her arms but she mattered not. Breaking through this turmoil was her only concern.
Her flame was never brighter than that day. It wasn't just a mere flame on her petit palm, it was a complete engulfment. She had never reached that state of combustion before. This engulfment surged her body with happiness she never experienced. for a mere second, she forgot the whole world. It was just her and her fire.
The Gulch worm started to regain control once more only to face the most intense flame in its lifespan. The ruthless combustion went through its flesh and bone as if they were naught. It cried for the first time loosing up a bit. Tala continued smashing the beast with her raw flame till a quarter of its face was but molten mesh.
Afterwards, Tala's rage started to seep away from her body as well as her strength. She felt weak, Terribly so. Her vision started to blur and her senses were failing her. She tried to conjure a fireball but in vain for an obvious reason.
Her arm was charred away.
Her gout of flames were so intense that she lost control of the flames in the midst of her rage. The untamed fire had consumed her very arm "Wh..how could this.."
The worm, despite its serious injuries, continued sucking her into its abyss. Her crotch was already introduced to the steamy juices of its stomach. Tala wiggled faintly in a desperate attempt to break free. Both of them knew it was futile. The pyromancer cried out for help with a sore throat. The outcome was inevitable.
The swallowing process was slightly hindered by Tala's chest; It wasn't too big for the worn to gulp, it was too painful to do especially with its loosen flabs of it charred maw. Afterwards, it wasn't much of an issue. With a half eye, Tala took one last glimpse at the greenish fluorescence walls before succumbing into the pulsating darkness below.
Tala phased in and out during the slow digestion. Her mind was mostly incoherent. Her body was mostly numb and unresponsive.
However, in her last moments of consciousness, The pyromancer of the great swamps bumped into something pointy at her back.
It was no other than her lucky dagger. Even in her current state, Tala wondered what would have happened if she discovered her dagger earlier. She poured the last of her strength to grab the dagger.
"No...more... pain" said Tala as she used her dagger for the last time.
Hey all, how are you doing? I just want to clarify a couple of things:
-I invested a lot of emotions in this one-shot. I feel pity for Tala's fate. This was not my first brush with 'disturbing' content but like i said before, i invested some emotions in. Am I proud of my work? no, but one must delve into some uncharted territories to discover new potentials.
-The main reason behind my investment was the shear amount of M-rated disturbing details. I watered it down to suit the T rating (deleted over 1k worth of juicy details). I would have loved to publish this entry in its true grotesque form but since most of my readers are teen, I must abide to their taste.
-Despite how awful the whole Grimdark theme is, i encourage other fellow authors to write mature content. I want to see a time where Mature stories are treated the same way as teen stories.
-Last but not least, A big thank you to all the fellow authors and readers who participated in this event one way or another. Souls community is the best community.
Stay classy y'all.