So, running through the countryside like a madman is not a good way to blend in. Less so when you're being chased by multiple guards.

Of course, they weren't really trying to kill me. Mostly, they just yelled at me to stop. They were even kind of polite about it. It was really weird, actually.

I'd expected to be chased by the mermaid, but she didn't go after me. I guess it made sense. After all, mermaids aren't really known for their sprinting speed. They kinda don't have legs.

My footfalls were much heavier than that of the guards, and left large imprints in the soft earth. It would be very easy to track me, if someone chose to do so. Although, most people wouldn't want to follow a hulking six foot behemoth, now would they?

The grass was a nice, emerald green which sparkled with dew. I thought dew was a morning thing, but then again, I couldn't really tell if it was morning or evening at this point.

There were trees in the distance. They were, of course, an entrance to a large forest.

I could easily lose them in there.

No sane person would chase someone into a dark forest in this world of nonconsensual debauchery. The chances of getting kidnapped and fucked were… pretty damn high.

So, I dashed into the woods, weaving through the trees at breakneck pace. If I smashed into a tree, I wasn't sure which would give way.

Y'know, unlimited stamina is a wonderful thing. I could literally keep doing this all day, if I wanted to. Also, you wouldn't expect Jason Voorhees to be a speed demon, but he absolutely was. Still, I was super heavy, so god help whatever got in my way.

I gradually lost them in the forest, so I stopped running.

I tried to step lightly, as to not make noticeable tracks. It actually worked, to my surprise.

So after a little while, I realized that the road was nowhere in sight. The woods here looked like the forest I grew up in, which was both comforting and deeply disturbing.

Unfortunately, just because it looked familiar, didn't mean it was familiar.

Yeah, I was lost.

Fuck.

That wasn't a great thing, like, at all. I had a map, but that doesn't really help when you're far from any road.

So, I just started walking. I didn't take any turns, or anything like that, so I couldn't accidently circle back. If I kept going straight, I'd eventually reach something, right?

Right?

…Yeah, I didn't have too high hopes.

So there I was, trudging through the foliage, lost like an absolute moron. Still, I stuck to the path I'd set out for myself.

Maybe I should ask someone for directions. They probably wouldn't be too much of a threat, if they turned out to be hostile.

However, that required me to actually find someone. That was difficult when you were in a FUCKING FOREST! Not much lives there. Other than the trees and birds and shit, I was completely alone.

At least, I thought I was. I'm not really all that perceptive, so I really couldn't tell you if I was being followed or anything like that.

"Hello?" I called out. "Anyone out there?"

The forest doesn't make for good conversation. The trees just sit there, silently judging you. With their eyeless gazes, they bored down upon me. They think they're sooooo much better than me, just because my uncle's a lumberjack. Well fuck you, trees!

Wait, that one looked kind of unsta-

"OH FUCK!" I screeched, diving to the left. The tree barely missed me, crashing onto the ground.

After getting up, I looked around. That tree falling just didn't seem normal.

"Get out…" A creepy female voice echoed through the trees.

Okay, this is cliché as fuck. Some ghost, or forest spirit, or whatever the fuck, tries to kill me. I don't leave, and she says something ominous and/or threatening. Now, normally, the slaughter fodder would ignore this, and be murdered. It's an old movie idea. Jokes on her, though. I actually want to get out of here.

"Would if I knew how, crazy bitch!" I exclaimed. "Seriously, just point me to the exit. I will leave post-haste!"

"…Liar." She growled. I found it odd that I couldn't figure out where her voice was coming from, but I just chocked it up to magical bullshit.

"Why would I want to exist in this shithole?" I asked, annoyed. "Lady, I got stuff to do, and I don't have time to put up with your dumbassatry. Just show me the fucking road, and I'll go."

I felt anger bubbling within me. It wasn't the hate-filled rage that usually preluded murder, though. It felt more like that feeling you get when repeatedly losing an online match of some game. Sure, you wanna break shit, but you're not as committed.

"How dare you call my home a shithole? I'll fucking kill you!" She yelled.

A figure appeared before me. She had green skin, and was covered with miscellaneous plants. Vines, flowers, and other shit like that. When she first appeared, she had a disturbingly lewd grin on her face. However, once she actually saw me, that disappeared real fucking quick.

"Ew." She said. "I was going to just suck you dry, but you're so gross."

Ugh. I still found that disgusting.

"Honestly, I'd rather skewer myself than get touched by you." I groaned, leaning away.

She glared at me.

"You don't seem to be taking me very seriously." She hissed.

"No, I really am. Oh god, I tremble in fear of your power." I sarcastically exclaimed, waving my hands in the air for dramatic effect.

"No human that walks into this forest lives." She growled. "I kill every one that comes here."

That flushed any humor down the drain. Great, another homicidal maniac. I'm getting real sick and tired of these rapey pieces of shit.

"Excuse me, could you repeat that?" I asked, my voice barely containing anger which had just escalated to massive inferno.

"Yeah." She said, mistaking my rage for fear. "No mercy. I don't even let kids live. So tell me, what do you think about your odds?"

I replied with a punch. My fist slammed into her face, propelling her into a nearby tree. She smacked into it full force, and landed in a heap.

I saw something move in the corner of my eye, almost too fast for me to track. A large, knotty tree root had quickly wrapped around my left leg. I tugged at it, but it was stronger than it looked. I could probably get it off, but it would take a lot of effort.

The plant lady that I'd punched got up, an absolutely murderous expression displaying on her bruised, bloody face.

"FOOL!" She exclaimed. "I'll make you suffer before you die!"

The forest seemed to come alive around me. Trees, grass, vines, etc. Everything seemingly wanted me dead.

I unsheathed my sword, cutting the root wrapped my leg. Other roots quickly tried to replace it, but I dodged out of the way.

I turned towards her and charged, my sword glinting in the dim light.

Leaves seemed to rip themselves from the trees, catapulting towards me at a surprising speed. I didn't expect them to carve into my flesh like razors, but they totally did that.

What kind of pokemon bullshit is this?! That's not how leaves work!

I, of course, ignored this. I had more important things on my mind, like taking this bitch's head off.

I was only about ten feet away when a torrent of roots exploded from the ground. They slammed into my chest, and tore completely through, leaving a large hole where my dead heart once resided. They propelled me into a tree, which then turned and hit me like I was a fucking baseball. I flew through the air, hurtling like the world's derpiest missile. I slammed into an outcropping of rocks, creating a shockwave that rumbled through the air.

Now, at the moment where body met ground, time almost seemed to slow. I hit it arm-first. My bones splintered, punching through the flesh with ease. My elbow got it especially bad, getting basically severed by the unfeeling sediment. A couple stubborn strings of flesh were all that kept my lower arm attached. Black pus poured from the wound, splattering the ground. The grass seemed to shrivel up when touched by the fluid, which was cool and all, but low on the totem pole of priorities.

I finally landed on the ground, broken and mangled.

I could see her walking towards me, a sadistic grin on her face.

I wasn't going to be able to kill her. She'd killed children, and I couldn't even avenge them.

This is bullshit! How dare she?! How dare she get away with her crimes?! (He said, conveniently ignoring the shit he'd done.)

Unconsciously, I reached for the strange, wild power in my body. The wind seemed to pick up, whistling through the trees. Energy flowed through me, dancing in my veins like a tornado.

I focused on her, my working hand outstretched, and moved.

Like last time, I shot forth incredible, mind-numbing speed. Unlike last time however, I was aimed at a living being, rather than an ocean reef.

I caught a glimpse of her surprised face just as my hand plunged into her stomach, destroying everything in its path. With all of my might, I clamped down on her slippery intestines, and pulled.

She let out an inhuman screech, and flailed wildly. One of the roots smacked me away, sending me shooting through the air. This was a dumb move, seeing as I didn't relinquish my grip. So, she went right along with me, getting dragged by her own gut-ropes. She was sent careening into a tree, screaming all the way. Evidently, fate wanted her to shut up, because she fell on a sharp tree branch, getting speared through the throat.

She hung there for a moment, gasping for air as she coughed up a putrid mix of blood and bile. Grabbing for her ruined neck, she thrashed wildly, tangling her organs in the leaves. After a few minutes of struggling, she went limp.

But where was I during this? Well, I wasn't left uninjured by my unexpected flight either, so don't worry about that. Allow me to tell you exactly what happened to me, with all the juicy details

I slammed into the ground, head first. I heard a snapping sound as my collarbone punched through my neck.

I landed hard on some rocks, eliciting more cracking sounds from my abused form. However, the momentum forced me to keep going, tumbling along the ground until I hit a tree, and stopped.

I laid there for a moment, waiting for the world to stop spinning. I have no doubt that if I could still feel my body, I would be in agony.

Seeing as I didn't want to be launched again, I waited for the strange power to fade back into my body.

I tried to move my legs, but couldn't. Considering the fact that I could physically see the bottom half of my spine sticking out through my torso, that made a lot of sense. Thankfully, my upper body was still moveable.

My lower arm had flown off somewhere, and I decided to go get it. I could see it sticking out of a pile of debris.

"Fuuuuuuuuuck." I groaned, shimmying towards it like an epileptic worm. I also had to be careful to not get tangled up in the plant lady's guts.

Now that I thought about it, how the fuck did her organs work? I'm not an expert, but I don't think intestines are forty feet long. She was hanging from thirty-something feet up, and still had parts of the great organ chain lying on the ground!

I'm not one to talk, since I have literal regeneration, but still!

So, after retrieving my arm, I began the long process of healing.

Time for another song!

*LINEBREAK*

Alma Elma was not used to feeling fear. Normally, her thoughts were preoccupied by things that many would consider lewd. She was a succubus, after all.

However, her mind was far from sex at this point. For some reason, she just couldn't get the rotten man out of her head. She was mostly sure that he was dead. People don't tend to survive trips to the bottom of the ocean. Breathing is, after all, important to almost everything.

A small part of her mind claimed that he had survived. It insisted that he was alive and coming for her. No matter how hard Alma tried, she just could not get it to shut up.

It was ridiculous to even think about. That man had practically been a walking corpse when she'd encountered him. How could he survive the ocean's crushing pressure?

His energy wasn't like that of a human, but it wasn't like a zombie either. Alma wasn't sure how to describe it, but he seemed undead.

That should be impossible, though. He was clearly male. Male undead don't exist. Was he just diseased?

She wasn't an expert on these types of things, so she really had no clue.

Whenever she thought back to the moment when he stole some of her magic, she shuddered. Something about it had just been so… Vile! It made her want to absolutely brutalize the man, pulping him with her devastating martial arts. However, she would NOT allow herself to do that. As Queen Succubus, violence was something which she abhorred.

And then the nightmares started. She could never get away from him in the depths of her mind. He would always come back, no matter what she did.

And, swiftly following the nightmares, came the questions. What was he? He just couldn't be a zombie. It was very obvious that he was, in fact, male. She'd originally thought him to be human, but that just couldn't be right. He didn't seem to be alive. Most wouldn't notice, but to someone like her, his unnatural movements were very obvious. Coupled with the rotting skin, it would only make sense for him to be… a male zombie.

But that was impossible! Male monsters didn't exist, period! That's just not how it worked!

His very existence was just… Wrong! Thinking about him sent shivers down her spine.

Unbeknownst to her, other people were having similar questions.

*LINEBREAK*

Tamamo was annoyed. Granberia, for some reason, had decided that 4 in the morning was the perfect time for training.

The constant grunting and clanging of swords would not allow her to sleep. For the sake of her sanity, it needed to stop.

She slammed open the door, angrily stalking towards the training grounds. She could hear the sounds of training dummies getting destroyed from halfway across the fucking castle. As an ancient being, Tamamo thought she was a patient woman. Living thousands of years will make you chill out a bit, considering the fact that you'll outlive almost anyone you ever meet.

All of that was thrown out the window at the sound of… whatever the hell Granberia was doing to the training grounds. The sound would just scrape along in your head, leaving irreparable damage to your ear canals. The castle's echo made it far worse than it should have been. It was absolutely torturous.

She walked into the training grounds expecting to see a couple smashed objects, maybe a dent or two in the wall, that kind of thing. In reality, everything was on fire.

Granberia, of course, was fine. She was stood in the middle of a raging inferno, the ground around her cracked and splintered.

Tamamo's sigh was venomous. Clearly, it caught Granberia's attention, because she turned around almost immediately.

"Granberia?" Tamamo asked in a sickly sweet tone that barely hid the anger beneath. "What do you think you're doing?"

"What's it to you?" Granberia snarled, glaring at the kitsune.

Tamamo blinked, surprised. Granberia almost never snapped at her like that. Sure, she'd get annoyed sometimes, but this felt different. She was genuinely upset for some reason.

"Granberia, is something wrong?" Tamamo asked, concerned.

Granberia sighed, and shook her head.

Tamamo, of course, didn't buy that for a minute. She didn't force the issue, however. Knowing Granberia, that would just make her angrier.

"Okay." Tamamo said, her frustrations forgotten. "Just keep it down in here."

Granberia silently nodded, and went back to what she was doing, albeit quieter than before.

*LINEBREAK*

After belting out some tunes at the top of my lungs, my body eventually healed. Sure, my reattached arm was still a little iffy, but that would fix itself in time.

I continued wandering throughout the forest, trying to find a way out. As I did, I thought back on the lady who attacked me.

Why had she told me to leave, only to not let me go? That didn't make much sense to me? Did she just want an excuse to attack me? Given how she spoke of… sucking people dry, that was probably the reason.

Ughh… Just thinking about that makes me want to vomit. Fortunately, I don't think I'm even physically capable of that. It was kind of hard to throw up when you didn't have a working stomach.

The trees were thinning out, which hopefully meant an end to this foliage-filled misadventure. Silently, I rejoiced.

The forest around me gave way to a large, open field. It was loud, being chock full of buzzing insects.

Off in the distance, I saw… What the fuck?

Off in the distance, was a small herd of centaurs. Of course, due to this world's fucked up logic, they were all female. Still, they probably could give me directions.

I casually walked towards them, trying to appear nonthreatening. As I approached, one of them saw me, and grabbed the bow that was strapped to her back. Seeing this, I raised my hands in the air.

"Woah, there's no need for that." I said. "I just need to ask for directions.

"Stay back, zombie." She said. "I won't hesitate lodge an arrow in your skull."

"I'm not a zombie." I said, annoyance dripping into my voice. "Notice my clearly male body."

She looked me up and down for a moment, confused.

"What are you? You're not alive, but you can't be a zombie." She said.

"I'd like to think I'm alive." I said, trying to be funny.

She just continued to stare at me. The silence was awkward, to say the least. It didn't help that the other centaur ladies were also just staring at me.

"… Anyways, I just need to find the nearest road. I have a map, but it's pretty useless if you don't know where you are. Could you please tell me where I am?" I asked.

She gestured towards a direction in the distance.

"Keep walking that way for a couple of miles, and you'll get to San Illia. From there, you should be able to get wherever it is you need to go." She explained.

I nodded and thanked her, before continuing onwards.

While walking, I checked my map. Sure enough, San Illia was on there. Plus, it was connected to several major roadways. One of which led to Sabasa.

Okay, I was finally getting close to my objective. I just had to make a little detour first.

Considering the town's name, they probably worshipped Ilias. This might be a good opportunity to learn about her, considering that she's kind of my boss.

Nothing of importance happened on the way to San Illia, so I'll just fast-forward a bit.

Okay, fast-forwarding's done.

The city was massive, and beautiful. It was a place that seemed to just sparkle with cleanliness. In the middle of it all was a giant castle/church/whatever-the-fuck. It was obviously very old, even though it was well-kept.

This was everything I could see from the road, of course. I hadn't quite made it to the gate yet.

Of course, the guards stopped me. Unlike the ones in Iliasburg, these ones didn't seem so shaken up. They were pretty nonchalant, actually. It seemed that they had experience dealing with strange things.

"Who are you?" The Guard on the right asked.

"Oh, I am but a simple traveler." I said. "I simply wish to learn more of Ilias' glorious ways."

And so begins the GREAT SHIT-SHOVELING! (I.E: Lying like an absolute bastard.)

The other guard looked at me, eying me up and down.

"How do we know you don't mean harm to our city?" He asked. "You look like a zombie, after all."

Swallowing the absurd anger at being called that stupid word, I responded with a mountainous pile of lies.

"My appearance is why I'm here." I spoke in what I thought was a humble tone. "I was cursed by an evil monster, and I'm trying to find a cure."

They seemed somewhat more sympathetic to that. God, these people were easy to fool! All you had to do was say something along the lines of: "Ilias good, Monsters bad" and they would believe you! It was almost saddening to see how she had wrapped humanity around her finger.

"I believe there are a few healers within our walls." A guard said. "They might be able to help you."

He gave me directions to one such person, and let me pass.

Walking through the town, I got stares aplenty. It made sense, I suppose. If you saw a nearly seven foot tall rotting man just walking around, wouldn't you take a gander at that? Nobody gave me trouble though. Most people just avoided me.

There were quite a few churches around here. That big one was probably only used for major ceremonies.

That didn't quite make sense, though. There were a bunch of people lined up to the Uber-Church. Interestingly, they were all armed. A few of them actually looked pretty tough. Of course, they also gave me a few curious glances. I waved. They didn't.

There was also a large statue of Ilias in the town square. It was impressive, I had to admit. People seemed to pray to it, loudly expressing their reverence and love for their god.

I didn't say anything. Far be it from me to criticize people for their beliefs. Sure, Ilias is the villain, but they don't know that. Also, It would be a pretty dumb idea to call her out for being evil in the middle of a city that worships her.

Then again, I don't really know much about her. Sure, she's the bad guy, but what does she actually do? I never played more than like fifteen minutes of the game. I don't know what happens.

It's probably not important.

*LINEBREAK*

Luka had finally arrived on Sentora after persevering through a perilous battle against Alma Elma. She had merely been toying with him, sure, but he still won. That counts, and Alice is wrong for saying it doesn't.

Still, there was a lot to reflect on, when thinking back on the fight.

The succubus queen had seemed preoccupied during the whole confrontation. Sure, she behaved how a succubus would act: incredibly lewd. However, there was a faraway look in her eyes. It was one that deeply disturbed Luka, although he couldn't figure out why.

Once Alma had decided that the battle was concluded, she turned to Alice, and told her of a strange rotten man. Luka had no doubt that this was the very same as the man who'd rampaged in both Harpy village and Enrika.

According to the succubus, he'd fallen into the depths of the ocean. Even so, she believed he'd survived. Luka didn't doubt that for a second.

He was seemingly immortal, an unkillable machine. He'd been torn apart before, and yet he was fine! What vile creature could have birthed such a monstrocity?

Luka decided that he didn't want to know.

Things got worse when they arrived in Port Natalia. Immediately, they were stopped by a stern-looking, brown-haired mermaid.

She introduced herself as Mildred. According to her, she supervised the docks. Mostly, her business was with the ship's crew, so she didn't speak with Luka all that much. However, she did ask him if he knew of a masked, zombified man.

Luka swore under his breath, and relayed to her the stories of the man's atrocities. Her eyes widened at the information. She ran off presumably to warn people of the man

Luka, happy that people would be alerted, continued on his way.

*LINEBREAK*

Curious about what an Ilias-related sermon looked like, I wandered into one of the churches. Taking a seat in the back, I stealthily watched from the shadows.

It looked like a normal church session. People sat in pews while a priest stood in the front, declaring how Ilias was the one true goddess.

"We are in a time of crisis!" He declared, with impressive religious zeal. "People are falling left and right to the temptation of these despicable monsters!"

It was about what you'd expect. I had to give him points for enthusiasm though. This man believed entirely in his goddess.

He didn't notice me at first, as he was too wrapped up in his message. His loud declarations reverberated throughout the room. However, after spewing out a remarkable string of horseshit, his eyes finally fell upon my form.

He stood, slack-jawed at my horrendous appearance. Confused, most people in the audience followed his gaze to where I was sitting.

Silence reigned for a while, as no one seemed to know what to say. Finally, I broke the silence, and nervously spoke.

"Oh, don't mind me." I said in what I hoped was a friendly tone. "I'm only here to listen."

The priest blinked, and scratched his nearly-bald head.

"A monster!" He exclaimed, pointing a bony finger at me. He began to pray loudly, waving a crucifix at me.

Before the room could erupt in chaos, I figured I needed to speak.

"I'm not a monster." I said, making a calming gesture with my hands. "I'm a human. Please calm down."

That was sort of a lie, but who cares? I'm technically undead, but he doesn't need to know that.

The priest looked worried, but stopped his nonsensical rambling.

"If you're human, then what's wrong with your body?" He asked. "Why do you look like you crawled from the mansion up north?"

"I was cursed by an evil monster." I said, recycling the lie I used earlier. "I just wanted to learn about Ilias while I was here."

Silently, the priest looked at me, all hostility gone. However, there was still some unease in the room's atmosphere.

"I should probably go." I said, turning around.

"Wait a moment!" The priest exclaimed. Silently, I turned back.

Gesturing to me, he looked at his audience.

"This man still believes in Ilias, even in times of hardship! Learn from him, all of you! Your faith will constantly be tested, but you must not falter!" He exclaimed.

He seemed to assume that I already worshipped Ilias. I didn't correct him, considering where I was.

"I'll pray for you, so that you may be cured of your illness." He said to me.

I nodded, and walked out of the building.

What the fuck was all that?

He used me for a sermon, and I did not like that shit. I knew I was probably being unreasonable, but for some reason, It just rubbed me the wrong way.

Shaking off the weird feelings I got from that whole experience, I pondered on one particular thing he'd said.

When referencing my appearance, he mentioned a mansion. Was there zombies there?

I decided that I should probably check that out.

A/N: Okay, I'm finally done. I don't know how to feel about this one. The whole San Illia part feels iffy to me. However, after going over it several times, I decided it was the best I could do. Eh, it's over 4,000 words, so I guess I'm happy.