machine genesis
a sprawling lush forest.
a serene silence ruined by his frantic running, a man in casual attire which comprised of a white shirt, black jacket, jeans and black and white shoes raced through this place of wood and life glancing black regularly behind himself to catch a glimpse at his assailant.
stumbling, he quickly hid behind a tree and crouched he began to breathe heavily due to the adrenaline levels in his body returning to normal, he peeked his head slightly and looked around.
he clutched at was once his left arm now a ravaged mess, everything below the bicep gone and slumped down, his safety monetarily assured he looked to his wound unsure of how he would deal with this.
his thoughts however were halted by the small movements he saw.
coming from the stump of his arm, muscle both damaged and worn twitching and moving in unnatural ways, he saw as cables extended twisting and snaking their way down ending in a crudely formed hand and arm which soon was covered by 'bone' or what his body passed as bone, the metal liquid moved down the limb completely covering the steel strings as it defined the bone structure of the arm, then as if they were apart of some macabre orchestra the seemingly 'alive' musculature soon wrapped and twisted and spiraled down,around the 'bone' a skinless new arm of black flesh that seemed to ignore his new boney digits, this too was soon covered by a metallic liquid forming a kind of second 'skin' which quickly too was covered by a more natural layer followed by the missing sleeve of his jacket.
he stared at what was once a problematic wound, now a new limb.
so, he sat there.curled up trying to make sense of everything that happened,why he was here,why could he regenerate and why.
why was there a vine wrapped around his arm?.
soon he found himself suspended in the air, his limbs bound by Vine's that snaked their way over his body lowering him to where they were connected to.
before him was a massive, bulbous plant.
and atop was a 'woman'.
her skin was green, and her body was covered in places by flora. atop her head was pale green hair that went past her shoulders adorned by a flower.
her red eyes looked at him with a depraved hunger that was made apparent by her horrific smile.
he struggled, trying to break free and run.
this only made her laugh, her voice a seductive poison spoiled by a deprived hunger for pleasure.
"my~, what an odd smell you have."
she spoke.
the goddamn plant lady spoke.
the mixture of fear and confusing didn't help.
"y-you w-w-wouldn't w-want to eat me, probably tast l-like metal or something else bad" he stuttered out hoping she'd throw him away or something.
she brought him close.
and licked him."my~, what a unique taste you have".
oh god.
this was it.
he regretted not aligning with a specific religion instead of believing in all of them.
the beast suddenly pulled him in.
the kiss was long and felt disgusting.
to his horror the massive bulb opened and worse he was being lowered into it.
he flailed, screamed, anything that might help him escape.
"fuck!, fuck!, fuck!. fuck you!, you fucking green piece of muclh!".
this just made her laugh.
he was simply dropped in, scampering he tried to quickly crawl out but the walls that lined the inside of the plant were like a room smotherd in grease.
he gave up quickly, he faintly recalled a similar plant that used the same trick on flies.
and unfortunately he was the fly.
"ah!?" he pulled his hands up.
the flesh on his hands were half melted.
his face grew grim, his eyes widened.
and looked down.
the space was filling with acid.
he frantically tried to claw his way out even as the acid rose up to his chest, melting his flesh along the way
his mind was clouded by pain as the acid reached his shoulders, screaming from the pain of his slowly melting flesh which died out as it submerged his neck.
finally, he was completely submerged in the corrosive liquid blacking out from the pain.
the dryad smiled as she enjoyed her meal.
though she was disappointed that she couldn't have a little 'fun' with him.
she was unable to continue that train of thought due to a sudden pain in her lower half.
metal claws violently ripped it open.
she cried out from the pain.
her prey tore and ripped it's way out.
she trembled from the sudden evisoration and looked up to the thing standing over her.
it picked her up and violently shoved her head into the ground, repeating the process over and over again.
after a sufficient number of head to ground trauma, it slowly tore chunks out of her flesh.
once it had finished it dropped her to the ground, perhaps it grew bored with her. this was soon answered when it lazily swiped at her head, easily crushing her skull.
with that done the thing lingered before wandering off.
/0/
he found himself in a void.
he felt something underneath him, something that felt like...soft.
he opened his eyes.
looking down at him was a woman.
light purple skin, short dark purple hair along with long pointed ears.
golden eyes stared into blue one's.
"stay with me" her voice was soothing, letting him for a moment forget the pain.
metal bones and black flesh grasped the flailing dragons head, her talons clawing at the arm leaving momentary wounds.
it was disturbingly easy to crush -.
"kill for me" she gently caressed his face.
"why won't you die!?" the lizards sword cut off his arm, her strike was ultimately pointless as a new one grew in it's place.
the attack may have burst every muscle in it's arm, but was all the more worth it after it broke her-.
she leaned close to him.
and whispered.
"love me".
/0/
"are you alright?".
he sat up against a tree in front of a burnt out fire.
he turned to the girl, dressed similar to a nun.
she looked in worry at the man, his lower body covered in strange clothes while his upper body was bare covered in a silver skin.
"these woods aren't save, their infested with monsters".
she walked up to him and knelt down checking if he was injured.
"really".
she held his arm up examining the odd coloured skin.
it was cold, the smell of metal with a smooth texture.
"oh!, i can't believe how rude I'm being. my name is Silvia, and you are?" Silvia asked him.
he looked at her with an odd expression, a small amount of silver hair fell from under her headwear and she quickly tucked it back under, there was a slight blush to her face as she looked away in embarrassment. he chuckled lightly.
"Kieran" he said a small smile on his face.
she stood up and grabbed the basket she was carrying.
"it's still early so we should be able to get back in time".
Kieran stood up and to her astonishment a 'normal' layer of skin flowed upwards and covered his upper body which was followed by a white shirtof clothing forming over his chest and biceps. a black and grey jacket formed soon after.
"convenient, right?" he noticed the awed look she was giving him.
"certainly, but we should bet going now".
and with that the two made their way.
/0/
"hey sil, what did you mean by 'still early'?".
the day had just reached the afternoon as Kieran and silvia walked through the forest.
she turned to him as the two continued to walk " there's a village nearby the forest, it's usually a day's walk back and forth" she answered.
"really?, who thought to build a village so close to a place like this".
"well, I've only heard stories about it but as they seem to agree on, during the age of the previous demon lord this forest was home to monsters that, unlike their kin, never bothered themselves with humans. and in some cases protected them if they traveled through the forest" silvia explained as they reached a hill.
"doesn't seem like that to me".
"yes, after the previous demon lord died a succubus became the current lord, after that the forest monsters became the opposite of their previous selves. killing, eating and butchering humans or monsters that enter" she continued somberly.
"what?, isn't that the norm everywhere else?" Kieran asked.
Silvia stopped which surprised him.
"no. in fact it's the exception. everywhere else there has never been a case of a monster killing a human.".
"really?" he couldn't believe that.
"yes".
a sudden gust of wind pulled his attention.
off in the distance Kieran saw a large village.
"is that it there?" he asked.
"I'm surprised at how much ground we've covered, well be back in no time" she seemed to brighten up simply from looking at, what he presumed to be, her home.
the duo made their way down the hill and on ward.
/0/
'four already' Kieran glanced at the digital clock that sat at the edge of his vision.
"say, Kieran how did you get here?. it's normally forbidden for anyone to enter".
he crossed his arms " hmm, well if i remember right, something hit me in the chest and next thing i know I'm in the middle of a forest" he explained.
"hmm, well how long have you been here?".
he stopped.
"Kieran?" she turned.
he stared off at something, terrified.
" y-yknow, a few days. maybe".
"are you alright, your hands-".
he suddenly realised his left hand was shaking.
"I'm fine. the village is close, right?" he interrupted her.
"an hour's walk, is something wrong?" Silvia was worried now, there were many who couldn't move on after a monster encounter.
"no. let's go".
Kieran still held his hand as he walk past her.
she caught up to him.
the two eventually made it.
the edge of the forest.
silvia walked past the remaining few trees and stopped.
"it's alright".
she turned to Kieran who stood under the shade of the tree's, looking down at the ground.
"i don't know what this forest did to you, but it's up to you and you alone to get past this".
she held out her hand to him.