Vermin Tide Quest


Chapter 16


Alice huddled in a coiled ball for several minutes, the Lamia shocked into fear from the various trees and their outburst towards her. That, and she saw how the Angel Halo had no effect on the one she attacked, at least not that she saw. The only noises around her were the waves crashing on the beach, and rumbling from several trees digging up the Treasure Cave. Upon picking up the Angel Halo sword, she looked over at the forest, and then sniffed the air.

Upon catching Lukas' scent, she swallowed down the gob of saliva that poured into her mouth, and began to slither after him. As she sped through and followed Lukas trail, the full weight of what she witnessed began to set in. She had encountered the very spirits the Druids claimed to exist within the world, that resided in the plants that were not of the daughters of Ancestor Kanon. Not only that, they were enraged at her, and she could feel them even now looking at her. If they existed, then that means that despite everything she had been taught about them, the Druids were indeed what they claim to be.

But if they did commune with the plants, why did they turn on them, and reveal themselves to me now? What is it that made them reject their aiding humans like they once did? Alice thought this to herself, and then stopped upon realizing she was entering Illias port. Turning into Human form, she ran on Human legs, until a nearby tree bent and blocked her path with a branch. Stopping in place, the Monster Lord turned to see an arm point southwards.

That. Way. Luka went into. Port town. To throw you. Off his. Scent. A voice said. Alice started to run, before turning to the tree as its arm retracted.

"Thank you." she said, giving a bow to it before continuing on. While running, she felt a pang of guilt, recalling her outburst with shame. She was supposed to stay level headed, to maintain a neutral and calm demeanor and set an example as Tamano taught her. Instead, she took it out on Luka, raging at him for things that were out of either one of their control. Not only that, she realized that according to what the Heavenly Knight claimed, the so called Daemon impied that it whispered some form of lie to convince him to let it attack and murder Nanabi. She had seen more then her fair share of how Illias' mortal Human priests and followers preached that Monsters were beasts, creatures that sought death and enslavement towards those who fall into their hands. Many of the crimes they accused Monsters of committing often included draining Human men until they died through Critical Ecstasy, and enslaving them as breeding stock. Who knew what the Daemon told Luka, to make him radiate such intense anger and bloodlust that it could not be described more then it was felt by her and the other Monsters back at the Treasure Cave. She saw the intense glares he shot at her and the others, and how many Monsters actively hid upon seeing him, rather then risk becoming a potential victim of his wrath.

"Damn it Alice, you really were a fool." she muttered to herself, stopping when she sensed a sudden chill in the air. A group of Humans were also nearby, with a wagon that was being pulled by a horse. The horse in particular reeled and whined in terror, as the driver of the wagon tried to calm it down. The other Human who were around also clearly felt the sudden drop in temperature, meaning Alice was not imagining it. As she shivered, several Humans took notice of her.

"Hey, you there, are you alright? You seem a bit cold miss." one of them, an elderly man said as he approached Alice, then handed her a set of clothing. "Here, these will warm you up." he cheerfully exclaimed, as the disguised Lamia took them with a slightly bemused look.

"Ah um, thank you." she said, blushing upon thinking of what she looked like from their perspective. As the temperature continued to drop, her sixth sense started to go haywire. "Sorry I was looking for someone, a boy in fact."

"Purple hair, crying his eyes out? He went that way. Are you his girlfriend and he found out you were working at a brothel or something?" Alice turned beat red at the sheer gall this man had.

"Father!" another man said, this around his 40s exclaimed, turning him around. "Go back to the wagon! Sorry, he does have a brain to mouth filter."

"I understand." Alice said, recalling similar experiences with Alma Elma. Suddenly, she felt as though it grew cold as a blizzard, and she and the Humans dropped down as a multi-colored vortex opened up and from it a cold wind blew from behind a wagon. She could also sense that the Daemons of Chaos were responsible, their suffocating aura growing intense for a split second before it went away as fast it came.

When the group got up and turned to see what it was, they saw, from what Alice could tell by scent, a tall and muscular man of some kind laying face down on the ground holding an ax and a shield that was wrought in an unknown workmanship, wearing a a suit of armor that was colored in blood red and bronze, and a cape painted with a rune that glowed with a baleful red light. As one of the Humans, a woman this time, approached him cautiously to see if their fellow Human was alright, Alice realized that the rune was the same one that killed Nanabi.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" she screamed, but was to late when he, despite how thick and heavy his armor looked, suddenly shot up. He was at least nearly double the size of the Human before him, and with nary a care, grabbed her by the head using the ax as a hook, and snapped it sideways with a twist of the blade. and Alice looked on in shock, he tossed the dead body to the side.

"SAMANTHA!" the young man that was directing his father screamed, drawing a sword and screaming as he rushed at the murderer. When it merely clanged off the helmet, which was fashion to look similar to that of the Daemon that controlled Luka, the man stared in shock. He then paled as the beast of a man looked, his face hidden completely as a growl left his mouth. The man then flailed wildly to no avail, his opponent watching as blow after blow clanged off his armor. Alice then saw his ax hand tightened, and immediately threw away her illusion of a disguise. Before the warrior cleaved the Human in half, she coiled her tail around him and pulled him away. As the ax swiped at nothing but thin air, Alice readied Angel Halo while the Humans looked on in shock.

"You're a Monster?!" the elderly man yelled. "Let my son go!" he yelled, before seeing his son was already running back to him. Alice turned back to the wagon and the family who stared in terror.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" she screamed. "DO IT OR DIE!" with that the family hopped on as the wagon sped full force away in panic. She then turned as the Human from the other world laughed evilly. As he spoke, his armor made his voice sound metallic and hollow, sending chills down her spine. While he spoke in the same language Leopold spoke, she still understood the words.

"Well now, I never expected a Slaanesh-corrupted Elf of all things to challenge me in face to face combat." Alice raised an eyebrow, then blanked out as it set in that he was probably from the same world that Victor and his group was from. Seeing her open-mouthed look, the Human stared at her, then waved a hand. "Well, are you going to see anything, or did Slaanesh just now fuck what little brains you have left?" Alice snapped out of it and into reality.

"What was that you prick?!" she yelled, her eyes glowing. She proceed to cast Monster Lords Cruelty in rage, and blasted it full force at the Human. However, the rune on his chest plate glowed, and dispelled the attack, much to Alice's shock. "What? How in the hell did you do that? No Human can match a Monsters magical might."

"BAH! Magic is nothing but the under-handed tactics of the weaklings of the Empire and their allies. It was but the stolen power of the true Gods, wielded but those who know nothing of hardship." he then ran towards Alice, who was immediately taken aback by the sheer speed at which he charged at her. "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" he screamed, and swung his ax to strike at her. "SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!" Alice blocked it with Angel Halo which let out a warbling noise, and then Alice realized she could hear the ax growl. On closer inspection, she saw that instead of a single blade of metal, the head was two rows of bone teeth, which were grinding at the Halos' blade in opposite directions and glared at her with a singular eye that was off center of the head. The warrior pulled the ax back, and punched with his shield, which had a wheel engraved with eight spokes and was large enough to practically be a mini-door. Alice dodged the attack, and winced as she felt the wind pass by her.

Damn, that just might hurt to take head on. As she swung the Angel Halo sword, the Human ducked under, only to get struck off balance when Alice redirected her swing and slashed along his back. The warrior caught himself by placing one foot forwards, and swung his shield arm back as he spun, smashing her in the body as she was caught off-guard, intending to stay behind him in his blind spot. Alice then flew at least several feet, before hitting the ground with a grunt. While she was not actually injured, it still rattled her senses, and the Lamia shook her head, as the Harpy Queen arrived, with several soldiers.

"My Liege, what happened?!" she exclaimed, shock on her face. Alice then pointed in the direction of angry chanting, and the Harpies saw Alices' opponent running at them.

"KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN!" He screamed, his bloodlust and hate making the Monsters recoil at his yelling.

"He happened! Don't bother with any offensive spells like throwing a fire ball or hypnosis with him, he has some weird anti-magic enchantment placing on his armor!" Alice explained, and got up, dodging a chop aimed at her neck, and knocked him back with a abdomen strike with a pillar of rock. The Harpies then took to the air, their Queen readying a distraction by swooping at him while Alice recovered. The Harpy Queen flew just out of reach of his ax, then dived down and kicked the Human warrior. Her soldiers danced about, fluttering and dodging the rapid and frenzied Human. Once Alice readied herself and took a stance with Angel Halo as she dashed at the Human. The Harpies immediately got out of her way, and the Human warrior turned around and saw Alice was about to hit him with the Angel Halo sword.

He proceeded to block, only to be blown away as Alice, instead of slashing at his shield, shoulder slammed it, and screamed as she used her magic to enhance the force of her impact. The Human was blown away, flying into the air and crashing loudly as he tumbled over a hill. Alice groaned in pain, as she felt her shoulder had popped out of place from the recoil. As her regenerative powers snapped it back into place with a pop, she let loose a hissing sound as the Harpy Queen approached Alice.

"Are you alright?" the Harpy asked.

"Yes, but my shoulder is going to hit like hell." Alice explained. As they both looked at the body of the Human, his ax let out a feral snarling sound when one of the Harpy soldiers approached him. Suddenly the Human warrior got up, only to fall to his knee as he limped towards the stunned monsters. Upon seeing that the Human was still trying to fight them despite the amount of damage her last attack did, she spoke to the Human. "Are you seriously going to keep fighting?"Alice asked. "There is no way you can just keep walking after."

"For the Blood God..." he snarled, before smashing his hand into the ground."I. Will. Not. RUN!" he screamed, suddenly releasing a red aura of baleful light from the inside of his armor. As the Monsters watched, his body began to convulse and twist, and the Human suddenly arched over painfully. With a howling scream, he began to mutate into a creature that resembled a combination of a bear, and a gorilla, but instead of his armor breaking apart, it shifted to fit his new form. The helmet turned into an almost skull like covering, growing a mouth from which spilled out a tooth filled maw and a set of at least eight eyes glared and Alice and the Harpies, who were staring with open fear at what was happening. His torso expanded in size rapidly, the armor in that region warping and crackling with energy as various metal plates shifted, grew, or shrunk. His legs extended and bent backwards as he fell forwards with his mutating arms, feet elongating and widening to support his weight. The shield arm became bigger then the one, the block of metal he kept for protection becoming a part of it as it grew claws that tore gouges into the dirt. His ax fused into his other arm, and with a rage-filled screech, he charged at them, clawed hand grabbing at a Harpy soldier whp\o got to close. As she jumped back, she yelped as one of the claws slashed her mid-section, leaving a red gash.

As Alice found herself once again the former-Human's focus, it rushed at her, swinging its ax hand at her with a furious scream of rage. She parried the blow upwards with Angel Halo, and then swung at the opening it made around his armpit. She was able to land a cut, only to be forced to jump back to avoid a return stroke from the warriors ax, which almost sliced her eyes. As the Lamia looked over, she was forced to coil her tail close to her body, as the Human tried to stomp on it, likely an attempt to keep her in one place.

Geez, not even other Monsters have tried attacking my tail. Alice thought. It seems Humans from the other world are more hostile and aggressive in general, and given his comments about me being an Elf, there may be other differences as well. Using her coiled up tail as a spring, Alice launched herself into the air when the human suddenly grabbed at the ground and used his long arm to slingshot himself directly at her. As she over him, the Human roared in anger, and turned almost as soon as his feet touched the ground. However he knocked himself over and lost his balance.

The Harpy Queen took advantage of this and kicked him, sending him crashing to the ground. Before he could retaliate, she then grabbed at his helmet, and tugged on it. A snapping sound was heard as it popped off, and the creature let out a howl as blood suddenly sprayed from the helmet, causing the Harpy Queen to shriek as she was doused in the red fluid. She proceeded to let go to fly away, but not without unintentionally twisting the top part slightly to the left, breaking the Humans jaws now from the way his mouth was lopsided.

"What happened?" a Harpy soldier cried out, holding her spear as she took position next to Alice.

"His armor is fused to his body." Alice exclaimed in shock. "The Harpy Queen nearly ripped his skull in half." she summarized not voicing that that means they may have no choice but to kill the Human...


**POV SHIFT**


As Luka ran down the road, his heart was pounding. He was horrified by what he felt, and at some point he started to see the strange energies again. As he looked up to the sky, hazy blue crackling bolts of lighting danced across the heavens, along with the occasional beam of white light. Green rivers flowed through the ground, and entered the plant life. Luka could see this and more, and he just couldn't make heads or tail of it all. Somehow, despite how powerful Alice was, she could not sense it,so why could he? While running, he ran into a cloaked figure, who grunted, toppling over a basket of various fruit as they both fell. When Luka got up, he realized it was another Human, covered in a gray aura of some kind.

"Oh my god... I'm so sorry, here, let me pick all this up." Luka said, gathering everything, and then putting it in the basket. "Alright, I think that is everything." he said cheerfully, handing it to his fellow Human, who stared transfixed at the boy from under a hood. "Now, sorry I can't stay here, I will go and-"

"You can see me?" the Human asked, standing up to around five feet or so in height. They then got close, and Luka felt uncomfortable as he was examined. Suddenly the Human gasped. "Is your name, Luka Hein, son of Marcellus and Lucifina Hein, who recently passed?" the figure asked suddenly, pointing to the boy as they hunched over to be eye level. Luka paused, taken aback by the question.

"Ye... yes?" he muttered timidly. The Human looked around, and suddenly performed some sort of ritual hand gesture, which caused the gray aura to turn clear. Luka widened his eyes in shock, as he saw it was a man. He was dressed in a garb that was not recognizable with any modern clothing style, but he recognized the brooch symbol of a set of alternating rings of white and green, the green rings being broken with a white line, used to hold up a scarf of fox fur and and a cloth hood which was currently pulled back revealing a shock of golden hair, and a pair of dark amber brown eyes. The man wore a fur and leather outfit, with various plant vines that wriggled underneath. As Luka stared in open mouthed surprise, he took a second to let the words out of his mouth.

"You, are just like the stories mom talked about. But you were all wiped out."

"Not all of us dear Luka, in fact your mother was very much aware we still existed. But she knew that for our safety, we had to disappear from the worlds' eye, lest the Monsters finish hunting us to extinction." the man said. As Luka continued to stare, the man chuckled "Still, to think you would gain the Sight. But wait, Luka, why did you come back here? Where is Alice?" Luka winced at the mention of her, and explained how Alice got angry at him, enough that she drove him away. The man listened intently, and then sighed. As he just began to reply, he and Luka felt a horrible blood lust emanate from somewhere where Luka just came from.

"Oh hell, I think I know what that is." The man said, kneeling down and putting his hand on the ground, where several vines emerged from under his shirt, and burrowed into the ground. "...Damn. Luka, it is imperative that you back to Alice." he explained, causing Luka to stare at him incredulously.

"What, why? She hates me now." Luka said. The man sighed.

"Well, she has started to regret that and tried to find you, and I'm not going to give you two advice about how to proceed, since that is a conversation that you both should have in private. And due to the particular circumstances, I'll be coming with you in case you need aid." with that said, the man had the vines slick back under his clothing, and stretching out his neck. Luka then noticed thin lines trailing his skin.


**POV SHIFT**


As the Ubersreik Five ran for their lives, one of the Plant Monsters screamed something. Victor in particular did not care, and when an Insect Monster appeared in front of him, he shot two bolts, one into her neck and the other into her head, and jumped over the corpse.

The sounds of crunching meant at least one of their pursuers was slowed down, and the Ubersreik Five found themselves trapped when they entered a clearing, and realized it was a riverbed. Suddenly a tongue shot out, and wrapped around his ankle as a Frog Monster emerged from the water, pulling the soldier down.

"No!" Markus yelled, as Bardin and Victor both piled themselves on top of him, their combined body weight slowing the pulling enough for Kerillian to hack the sticky and mucus covered organ wrapped around his foot. That was not the end of the Monsters' punishment, as Sienna threw out a number of fiery darts at it, scorching the screaming creature until she jumped back into the river, swimming away in a panic as the Bright Wizard shot several more into the water for good measure. As Victor and Bardin got of the now wheezing Kruber, the Dwarf Ranger spoke.

"Kruk!" he cursed. "Coming to this place was a mistake in and of itself. What demented servant of Slaanesh decided to create these damnable creatures?!"

As he yelled in rage, Victor pointed to a cave, from which the stream led into.

"There, we can go in there and get out of the open!" he yelled.

"But if the Monsters follow us in, we will be trapped in that cave, especially if we get lost!" Kerillian cried out. Bardin burst out laughing.

"Never doubt a Dwarf Wutelgi! I can guide us as easily you can walk through this forest blind-folded. Follow me!" he yelled, pointing his ax to the cave as he ran to it.