Being alone is a fairtly hard task for a human. By evolution, humans are depended to each other for survival. While physicaly weak compared to other file froms of equal size, it is this weakness that gave them their need for social life which required the humans to be as intellegent and cooperative as they are.
One can say modern humans are more like ants that are bigger and consious at the expense of being less cooperative and having selfish interest that can end up doing more harm than good, rather then the drone-like workering ants.
And just like an ant, when left without the protection of thier society, they are easy prey for anything from large preditors to bacteria.
Erto was that lonely ant. The unfortune one that survived the genocide of what currently appeared to be his entire city.
Keyword here is: His. City.
While no longer alligable to rule anyland, before the destruction of Durus, he was the heir to the throne after his dad. His fathers dynasty had ruled the rather large city-state of durus for generations. While not big enough to become a nation, Durus was too powerfull to be anything less than a vassal to the many kingdoms that came and went away over the hundreds of years its existance. His ancestors, realising the lack of both population and resources to defend Durus as an independent nation, tradeded full soverntiy for protection.
Unlike other cities in the continent it. Durus went by without any "major" raids or slautghers over the few hundred years by monsters or humans alike. Which gave it a rather stable and growing economy, thanks to its position on the coast of the lower part of the Irina mountians facing the sea since it made a decent amount of trade between the two major cities on the contient with its main competition being Illiasburg and Illiasport with some other less major small cities and towns that didn't have "Illias" in their name.
All of this was irrelevent right city was gone. His people were gone. His family was gone. His social status was gone.
Erto sighed. These thoughts had been troubling him for the pas few years now. He looked forwards towards the exit of the cave he hid and lived in many years. The image of an long cave with pillar formations scattered along the floor and the arch-like roof along the thin walk way he had built filled his sight. Looking pass the exit arch hole of the cave, He gazed into the night sky. Remembering what happened.
It happened rather suddenly. Even though the event transpired 30 years ago the effect it had on Erto's mind was still just as strong as if happened yesterday:
30 years ago, when Erto was 14, he and his family were infromed of an plauge by their ruling king and were adviced to take procautions to stop it from spreading into the city. Soon this helpful advice became an order as more infromation of what it was came to light.
This new sickness both effected and had diffirent effects on humans and monsters. Humans, upon becoming infected died before half a day passed. The dead then reanimated the corpses, producing a drone or a"zombie" in folk langauge which seeked uninfected humans and, as the reports stated, ate them... alive... bit by bit... limp by limp...
Monsters, on the other hand, weren't targeted by the undead humans nor did they change into flesh eating corpses. Instead, the infected would begin work together with the undead. Either destroying human defenses like castle walls or straight up ripping and crippling humans for zombies to enjoy the still screaming victim.
At first these reports were thought to be some sort of propaganda or a rumor by the church to divide humans and monsters. Even though godness illias and her angles had been sealed away along with the other dark lord and her ancestors (or so did the legends say) Church was still a huge organization that somewhat aimed to,even if they deny it, create racial tenstion to separte the two species. It wouldn't have been the first time church lied about monsters and certianly such incorrect rumors were common in the illias continent.
However, the current lord of the monsters which was said to be a slime that hated humans and wanted to kill them all of mankind. And this information didn't come from the church. The monsters who worked in Durus or in nearby settelments talked alot about her in this way. But it was, again, too farfetched as most monsters needed humans to live and doing something like that was an political suicide. Even Erto, at age 14 knew; you don't let citizens go hungry. Or else, they will let go of your head.
Then around few hunderd thousand refugees were said to come by ships to the northen end of the continent. Durus was ordered to build housing for a few hundred new citizens as did the other cities under the rule of the reinging kingdom but when the said refugees never arrived. Couple of weeks later, Erto's father, as the lord of Durus, requested information about the ETA of the refugees from the king. A reply never came back.
Finally when something was seen on the horizion, it wasn't the refugees but a foul smelling army of rotting corpses along with a huge number of accompaneing monster girls.
Erto was with her mother in the citdel, placed there by his father after seeing the on coming onslaught. While not having a dircet window, Erto was able to see more the he wished from an arrow hole that was unmanned due to all of the archers being put on top of the other city walls. He saw it all. How the a super stong fox monster broke the walls with ease. How a blue slime one half digested humans and then fed the still painfully alive to zombies. How a succubus ripped spines of the back of man, woman and kids alike, exposing thier organs to zombies to feast. How a dragon took all the limbs of people, leaving the living humans chest and the head for the undead as it screamed and cried before being muffled by the sound of flesh being ripped apart from their bodies. And a lamia, crushing the ribbs and bones of people before serving it to its infected followers
After these 5, came equally genocidal but less powerful monsters whom could be stopped by the cooprative soldiers using tactics unlike the first 5 which couldn't be stopped no matter what the soldeirs did.
As the streets began to smell like blood and the population began to erode away, the human soldiers line, what little good it did, broke. As soons as it did, his father bursted into the stonghold covered in injuries and blood. Sad and terrified words were exchanged between his father and mother before he took both their hands and excorted them into a room that Erto had never seen before in his 14 years of life in the city. Along with some guards and officals of the court they moved into a trap door hidden underneath some stone bricks on the floor. An Escape rout!
And escape they did. Moving through the humid and watery tunnels they heard the screams above slowly go weaker and weaker until the finally reached and exit.
And outside was the initial blue smile that went into the city waiting with happy smug on her face. Not evil or angry. Just a normal and genuine smile. Her skin was now slighty red from all the blood of her victims. Perhaps she had reached its absorbtion limit?
The next scene had a huge impact in Erto's life. He along with his family and some officals were constricted by blue slime, one court offical, Erto can now recall as his personal teacher, a man who educated Erto from a young age, a friend and was would be the person that was responsible of Erto's survival was first in the chopping block.
His teacher stuggled in pain as his skin lost its grip on his flesh, departing in chunks. Exposing his was his eyes which were poped out with the vines to the brain still attached before they also, agonizgly, digested away. Then he was just thrown out like trash. Left to scream in pain likely to attracht zombies for a lunch and die.
Next was... His mother.
Next... His father.
Next... Him.
Erto was picked up from the bundle of humans by long slimy tenticals. His eyes in tears and face in shock, anger and looked at the remains of his parents: Skinless and bleeding pair of bodies that struggled without making a sound, most likely on their death spasms. before he was inserted into the now very blood red blue slime.
First pain came to legs. The slime "peeled" the skin of others from bottom up the same way he she did to his parents and it seemed Erto would face the same threatment to the end. He cried and tried to scream out of instict but opening his mouth gave way for the acidic slime to enter his body. As the slime, rather slowly, climbed up his legs and reached his penis he experienced the worst pain he would ever feel in his life.
But before ending up as grounded meat for the dead, a loud bang and a flashing light came. Something pulled him out of hell. As the painand shock subsided Erto saw his resucer, a loyal palace guard named Temron who was with the group while they made their escape through the tunnels. He would later tell him that while the slime was busy with her victims, he found and opening between her slimy grasp and swiftly poped an smoking distarction bomb.
The entire reason why he had been carrying such an odd but vital item was appreantly to make a last ditch attempt to run away with his father should there weren't any possible escape routs. But since he was dead, Erto was rescued instead.
The bomb also, for a while, made the user and one other individual (in this case , Erto) invisible. Which allowed them to escape at the cost of leaving everything behind.
They took shelter to the cave where Erto still lives today. There, Temron applied all the magical and medical technical knowledge he had learned during his traning as a palace guard on ErtoErto's body had nearly been bleed white by the time they arrived to a safe location. Using magic, Temron was puzzled when he could only patially rebuild the digested flesh on Erto's legs. The two would later find out why this was and why did the city (and humanity) fell in such a short time.
The infected undead humans were immune to magic. And as Erto was inveloped inside that Blue slime while being tortured, he had contarcted the plauge from her infected body.
Temron was undoubtly worried. But could do nothing aside from try to cover up the still bleeding wounds of the teenage boy infront of him. He had no bandages or clothes he could spare. They were pretty high up in the mountians after few hours of climbing and it was too cold for either one of them to took their wears off. Instead, he took out his old bread army ration that he had never goten around throwing it away. Not wanting to use up the limited food they had, Temron used the moldy bread to tampon the bleeding area after using some alcohol on it.
Erto was already in a state of somewhat unconsciousness before they arrived so he fell asleep quickly after his improvised medical threatment. Temron stayed at nightwatch both for monsters that might followed them and also he didn't want to get eaten if Erto did turn into a zombie overnight. But Erto survived. Something that day went his way atleast.
But now at age 44, Erto sat alone in this cave. Temron had been dead for years now. His only friend and reminder of his past as a noble. Gone like all things that he had.
He was suddenly distracted by the loud sound of a long breeze that came from the cave enterence, breaking the nights calm. Another blizzard? Perhaps. Such things were common in the mountians. Without warning, weather could change better or worse. But it mattered little to Erto at this point. Tomrrow he would have to get out of the cave to collect food like he as done for every week for the last decade. He retreated to his hand-made bed on the end of the cave where after a small corridor of smoothed-out cave walls, a speherical room was present along with all of his belongings. Covering up the hole of entrence with another boulder that fit the enterance perfectly, he went for his bed and closed his eyes. And hoped that tonight, the anniversary of the events that had taken place, he wouldn't have the nightmare of it. Just for one night.