Marco POV
"[Abyssal Artillery]!" I shouted for the third time, raising my skeletal hands, coating them with the dark fire the envelopes my skull.
[Abyssal Artillery] (Active) Level MAX
The Heart is the living of a simple but true philosophy; life feeds on life. Those it finds worthy are granted brief moments of cosmic power, growing stronger and more horrifying with devotion and sacrifices.
This skill allows you to call down hooked tentacles over a limited area. These dangerous extensions are feral and independent, and will wrap, grapple, or shred anything within their grasp.
Due to your fanatical sacrifices of Mewmans, the Heart has allowed you to use this power up to 4 times per day.
Above the magic sanctuary, a red right bleed from the night sky as gigantic, hooked tentacles flail down to wrap around the building and violently shake it, cutting into the material and churning the swamp water it resides in an attempt to rip it apart.
Time had passed before the duration of the skill reached its limit, and the hooked tentacles retracted back to the cosmic patron that allowed me to do so, erasing any presence of me ever using the skill.
"If it didn't work for the first two times, why would a third attempt be different?" Ember asked as she reformed near me, she looked healthier and scorching when I eased the binding spell. "You're not the kind of person to waste time, Marco."
"I needed to test how strong the magic sanctuary really is," I said as I pulled out a chunk of reptile meat from my inventory. "The first time was to check if it had any magical shielding or barrier of sorts. The second time was to see if I could lift it. The third time was to see if there were other security features to deal with continuous outside threats."
"What about the blue crocodiles guarding the place?" She asked as I held the chunk of animal flesh in the black flame covering my skull, mostly burning it in an instant before I removed it. "You said that they would guard this place."
"They did, and they came out trying to defend the sanctuary when I called upon the skill a second time." I raised the cooked reptile meat in my bony hand, moving my mask upward enough to expose my mouth. It was chewy and burnt, and it tasted mildly like quail. "What do you think I'm eating?"
System: Meal has been eaten! MP has been restored! [Voracious Growth] has been activated! By consuming a guardian near a magical site, INT has been increased by 2!
I no longer have a tongue to detect the taste, and yet I do anyways. My stomach literally fell out of me when I put on the Collector's Cloak, but the food I consume does not fall out of me when I swallow.
My power allows me to do, even when it is physically impossible.
But recent events have taught me that impossible is just a word created by those who lack the determination to make their dreams into reality. An excuse by those who have an absence in resolve to achieve their goals.
I refuse to be like them.
Ignorant.
Proud.
Defensive.
Loud.
I turned away from the magical sanctuary, admiring the damage I have done, to look at the fire elemental. "Is it done?"
Ember returned my question with a glare, not answering my question as if I asked something stupid - giving me that look of condescension that I've seen on many faces before. She is like a forest fire that refuses to be extinguished, her own special way to spite me when I dominated the other elementals and shattered their minds.
Yet when I gave her the privilege of freedom, being able to move away from my body at will, what does she do? She shows disrespect.
Individuality is among the many reasons why I force elementals to cooperate, rather than mutual partnership.
I willed the dark, ethereal chain to reform around her body. Her gasps of shock was replaced with cries of agony as I willed them to tighten around her throat - spikes erupted from each link to pierce her form; cuts and wounds bleed precious heat.
I moved over to her, towering over her pathetic form. "When I ask you a question, you answer it."
"It's…" She choked as the chains got tighter. "It's done - I set the inside of the castle and anything else, one fire - anything left inside will be reduced to ashes and rubble; Ludo won't have any problems moving in. The flammable liquid you brewed sped up the process…!" She struggled to say anything more, releasing nothing more than choking grunts and a desperate need to breathe.
"See?" I willed the chains away as breathing became easier for her. "Was that so hard?" She opened her mouth to retort, but I pressed my bony finger against the mouth of my mask of crooked, spiked teeth before pointing back in the opposite direction of the sanctuary - the way I came from when Star used her spell to spy on me - to show the mounds of ore and wood being stacked and piled high by my undead horde, and the mentally-shattered elementals that helped them. "Remember what's at stake here, Ember: freedom will only come if you fulfill your end of the deal!"
"I burned the inside of the castle as you said!"
"That was only one of the requirements," I reminded. "You still need to help me build my machines of war within the day. And yet, you continue to waste my time by not answering a simple question about the task I gave you!"
"...why do you even need my help?" She asked, confusion and anger clear in her raspy voice from being strangled by dark magic. "I've seen you do much more all on your own, you even managed to find Star."
"And yet I can't get in!" I reminded, but there was some truth to Ember's words; [Detect Magic] allowed me to see the blonde princess spying on me - it didn't take too long to locate the source. I locked most of my skills away in the coffin, but I kept the bare necessities. But the fire elemental didn't need a reminder of that, I know she saw everything when I willingly weakened myself upon Star's request. The princess's logic was simple as it was naive: if I don't have the means to hurt others, I won't enable myself to exercise my sadistic habits. "But I always find a way."
I couldn't tell if I was referring to the impenetrable magical sanctuary where the mother and daughter of the Butterfly family resided, or if I was talking reminding myself of how using [Heal] in a creative way granted the squire, Higgs, premature knighthood - a self-taught lesson of how my skills do not need to be harmful in nature to have it be harmful in consequence.
The same applies to what I'm about to do when the materials presented to me.
I moved over to the large clearing. Heavy deforestation and excavation played its part in doing so, creating plenty of room for the elementals I once summoned, their forms once proud and full of life have been reduced to insulting proportions - what material appearance their eyes had were long faded into a submissive milky white, a price to pay when forcing their evolution to increase their potency of mastering the elements.
I should be recalling their names, but when summoning and binding elementals one after the other, seeing these creatures as individuals with identity never occurs until moments of clarity. The only reason I remember Ember's name is because of my invasion of the realm of fire, the only time I ever did anything personal with an elemental.
Unlike the adventures I had with Star, I only invaded the elemental realm because of my curiosity turned into a whimsical ambition; to build a terrifying super-weapon by cannibalizing the personifications of fire. It felt easier to go to the source, rather than summon them one at a time.
I watched an earth elemental made out of smooth, grey rocks that were layered over his body like scales of an exotic animal, with precious metals and gems shining through the gaps. With his hands stretched outward, he raised them slowly with strain, and the ground burst open with raw, unrefined metal. I remember him boasting about how he could move mountains, but I thought it was nothing more than the arrogance of strength - not a fact of geokinesis - and felt great pleasure in burying him in the darkness within me.
The water elemental pulled water from the swamp. Her body made out of the purest liquid that shone like polished pearls in the ocean, a hypnotic beauty rippling with each fluid movement of her aquatic form as she used the swamp water to wrap around the uprooted minerals before rapidly washing away any dirt and undesirables, leaving behind a polished chunk of metal that several of the headless undead wordlessly carried away. I recalled that she had an enchanting voice - the last time I heard it was her cries and sorrow when I submerged her with dark magic.
"So what am I supposed to do?" Ember asked, looking away from her fellow elementals with sadness and pity, but her form flared in anger of the injustice of my own actions. I found it amusing.
"Just stand over there; I'm going to need you later." I pointed to the group of headless, decaying Mewmans that carried the mass of metal to the ever-growing pile far to the left. Easy to see it stacked next to the pile of uprooted trees due to the clearing expanding as a consequence of reducing living individuals and elemental beings to mindless labor forces who can never feel exhaustion. "Wait until I bring out the other elementals to join you - I'm going to need all of them to craft what I need to tear Mewni apart."
"Why not command them?" Ember asked, her pride of an elemental bruised of being reduced to a mere heat source.
"They are nothing more than a cheap source for my elemental skills," More accurate to say they reduced the cost - while increased the potency - of my element-related skills by 90%. "Other than that, they can only follow basic orders-" Move this. Clean that. Repeat. "-and I don't rely on others to help me, I exploit them until I no longer have any use for them, and then I get rid of them."
I've faced and killed many, many people - small armies, scores of bandits, knights protecting their kingdom - and I would be lying if I didn't acknowledge their collective strength, and how I had many close-calls with death.
But strength in numbers is an illusion.
Once you systematically eliminate their numbers, fighting an individual rather than big groups, the threat becomes dismissable.
Lady Whosits and her knights is just a recent example among the many I have in memory.
I once had partnered with a blacksmith to provide my weapons and armor, only to discover that he was purposely overcharging me, despite generous donations of rare materials.
I was once a regular and frequent customer to a friendly witch who provided me potions, and I learned much later in a near-death event that the brews and antidotes I paid for were heavily diluted.
I had no choice but to rely on them for repairs and refills - when I confronted them, anger fueling my confidence to show their wrongdoing - they never let me forget my dependence on what they provide, and later charged me double the price for half of their services.
It was only after spending a month of plundering and studying knowledge of craftsmanship and apothecaries is when I entered their shops for the last time and murdered them both in broad daylight.
So I refuse to depend on others; I refuse to invest in other people - my strength, my power, my money, time, and effort, it's mine, and mine alone! To be selfishly hoarded and spent any way I wish; not to be thinned and diminished by investing rare materials in a blacksmith or supporting the business of a witch, or complying with a blonde princess by healing the sick or repairing shelters in the poorer areas of her kingdom in a petty attempt for redemption and reform! It's a waste, a very irritating waste I vow to never repeat.
Teamwork, cooperation, partnerships - whatever synonym that exists - are nothing more than a weakness; I could go as far as to call it cancer.
It is no different than my partnership with Star, and my cooperation with Toffee, or any collaboration with anyone else, because I will soon cut out the disease.
"What was that?" Star asked as the violent tremors had finally died down, leaving behind an ominous silence.
"Don't worry, Star," Moon reassured her daughter, still holding her in a motherly embrace. "This place has been a safe haven throughout the Butterfly bloodline - it has protected our ancestors, and it will protect us."
"B-But the building was shaking!" She said, her nerves on edge upon discovering the slaughter back at the castle, and the haunting skeleton creature in a yellow cloak she saw with the All-Seeing Eye spell.
"And yet nothing is breaking apart." Moon gestured to the interior of the sanctuary; it was still messy, and the Magical High Commission is still inactive in their pods. Yet nothing happened to show it was getting worse. "Even as the building shakes, no dust or specks of debris fell from the ceiling."
Even in the face of danger, all it takes to soothe the nerves is the calming words of a mother.
"...so what do we do now?" Star asked her mother. She wasn't worried, but she wasn't relaxed either. The slaughter she witnessed with the All-Seeing Eye made her want to act, to do something to prevent more lives from being taken!
Yet in the back of her mind, there lies the fact of Marco's escape, and it was enough for her to hesitate.
She had never agreed to keep Marco in a cell, chained and interrogated by the Magical High Commission, but with how adamant her mother was - especially her caution with evil and dark magic - Star could only make the best out of a worse scenario.
Magic seemed to be the answer, just like it was before.
Marco was skeptical of the idea of how a spell could fix everything wrong with him, but after some arguing, and begging and crying on Star's part, he finally caved in. She never forgets the amount of relief she felt that day, her fears of her friend being encased in crystal and eternally locked away were at ease.
The results spoke for themselves. Marco seemed happy, more willing to try and be good, helping people - enough for him to earn a pardon from his crimes against her kingdom, something which seemed impossible to do! Seeing how more valuable he is alive, and his serious attempts of reform, even the Magical High Commission and their paranoia agreed to let him go under the condition he was monitored and guarded.
After seeing him continue to cooperate, helping the kingdom by healing the sick and repairing various building with his skills, Star would finally relax - she never had to worry about unsolved murders or missing people who vanished without a trace, which were obviously caused by Marco - and could have a social life once more.
Star never thought she would ever do so, but if there is one thing she learned from Marco, it is that nothing is impossible; she even manages to start over with Tom. Friends at the moment, but they frequently started to hang out more, and Marco supported her without complaint. Always smiling, even when he tagged along and didn't do much, he said he had a great time. Yet she could tell he was lying, but she decided it was a more minor concern to be confronted later.
Star just wished she actually did. She never gave Marco any indication that she and her mother were fleeing the castle, and feels very guilty of stealing the only precious thing he had taken with him when he came to Mewni.
"Like I said before," Moon's gentle voice snapped Star out of her thoughts. "We need to get some rest."
With a lot weighing on her mind, Star sighed as the mental fatigue took its effects, and said, "Alright." Which seemed to earn an approving nod from her mother, a small smile on her face.
Moon helped her daughter to her feet, before separating from her to sit on a bed of moss. "Tomorrow we will need a plan, but what I warned earlier still stands: do not-"
"-use the wand." Star finished for her. "It could attract Toffee to our location, and until we can revive the Magical High Commission, we must keep ourselves hidden."
Moon nodded in approval, feeling proud of her daughter before closed her eyes, and laid down on her bed of moss; prepared to fall asleep, but not until her daughter's voice prevented her from doing so.
"Hey, mom..." Star's voice was a whisper, trying not to disturb her tired mother. "...I love you."
Even though her eyes were closed, Moon felt them become moist. Sometimes it was easy to forget the bond of family in dire times, and the strength it possesses when all seems lost. "...I love you too." And with those final words, the Queen felt at ease and drifted off into a deep sleep fueled by panic, danger, and emotional fatigue.
Star was alone with her thoughts. Immediately, she thought about her escaped friend, and the skeleton monster with its head on fire, and the chance of the creature's identity is actually Marco. But Star shook her head of those thoughts, for she has faith in her friend - he said he would try to change, and she used a spell to bring out the good in him. There was no way he was capable of doing something so awful now.
It was only her, the wand that she cannot use, and the precious item that she stole from her best friend when she fled with her mother. Star quietly walked over to the area of the sanctuary, where oddly enough had a vending machine of various corn-related goods, and kneeled in front of a large rectangular object covered in cloth.
She gently unwrapped it, revealing it to be a grey, rectangular safe. However, it would be accurate to describe it as a vault in the form of a coffin - 54 inches long to be exact. It had 7 large clamps placed around to firmly secure the lid to the main box where the valuable contents lie within - two clamps on the top, three at the bottom, and one on each side as every clamp has a complex lock built in. Each one comprising of keyhole and a combination dial. Each keyhole needing a special, and most importantly, different key - not to unlock the clamp, but to allow the small combination dial above the keyhole to move. For good measure to keep it shut, it is covered in lengths of barbed wire that crisscrossed across the lid. The barbed wire was enchanted to contract, so even if the clamps were removed, the coffin still couldn't be opened as the lid was held down.
"What could possibly be inside you?" Star wondered as it was surprisingly easy to carry the coffin all the way the magical sanctuary, probably due to the many runes and symbols layered together in a complex pattern on its surface. Her mother and the Magical High Commission warned her about what was written on the coffin could only be done with dark magic. What was more disturbing was that she could swear that the runes and patterns moved when she wasn't focusing on it; crawling across the metal surface like ants feasting on an animal's corpse, moving around the picture of a large, horned skull engraved on the front with a red handprint on its forehead.
She tried to ask Marco about it, what made it so special that he would invest so much time and energy in making sure it could never be opened, but he would always give vague and abstract answers. As if he didn't want to think about what was contained inside it, how he seemed conflicted about what he made, and how he couldn't decide if the coffin should be opened, or if it required more locks.
There was once a time where Star's curiosity got the better of her, and she furiously tried to discover what her friend locked away. Yet even when using the wand, Star couldn't get the coffin to open as no matter what spell she used, as it would deconstruct any spell or magic before the horned-skull engravement on the front would 'inhale' it.
It's for that exact feature why Star was desperate enough to steal it from her friend.
Toffee possess the other half of the wand, still being able to cast dangerous spells while magic is being drained from the universe, leaving magic users like her mother weak while causing the current empty-like state of the remaining members of the Magical High Commission - it was easy to forget that Lekmet died - but if the coffin could negate Toffee's advantage, they would only have to deal with a possessed Ludo and his rats.
Star could only pray that Marco would understand why she betrayed his trust, but she knew it wouldn't be a problem, he has changed for the better; while forgiveness is a new concept she is trying to teach him, Star is confident it will all work out.
As she fantasized about victory, a hopeful smile on her face, Star took the cloth she used to wrap around the coffin before folding it repeatedly into a messy, make-shift pillow. She slept near it, with a plan in mind combined with fatigue from recent events, only for her flinch with her eyes open in shock when she heard something unexpected from the coffin.
She stared at the metal box in disbelief before hesitantly placing her 'pillow' on the coffin's disturbing lid to shield her from the barbed wire. Placing her head on it, Star pressed her ear against the coffin's surface, holding her breath to confirm what she heard coming from inside it.
It sounded like a child crying.
"...how many do you have inside you?" Ember asked as she watched me in horror.
"Elementals or severed heads?" I asked as I opened the front of my cloak, revealing the uncountable quantity of decayed craniums that are layered and melting, stretching and lining the inside of my cloak.
All of it brightly illuminated by the cramped spheres of elementals confined within me. Folding in and out of one another, twisting and breaking, reforming and dissipating before the cycle repeats as their agonizing cries grow quiet. For Ember to survive and retain her individuality is an impossible feat, yet she is living proof of defiance to my cruelty.
A mistake I am going to rectify very soon.
I reached within me, grabbing the amalgamation of elementals within me before pulling them out. The pain I felt from the fire burning my skull was easily overshadowed by what I was doing, sending a tsunami of agony throughout my body as the only natural thing I did on instinct was to laugh.
I giggled like a madman as I had to resort to using both of my skeletal hands to rip out the chaotic mess of my own making, pulling slowly as Ember continued to watch with a blend of beautiful disturbance etched on her face before I finally let out a scream and tore every elemental I had out of my body.
They unwoven in the air as my laughter slowly died down, leaving my hands trembling as the pain faded. I heard a series of wet plops from under me, as deflated heads of my victims spilled out. They looked more akin to popped zits than rotting, flesh-stretched heads.
System: Forced extraction of elementals has resulted in a loss of 60% Maximum HP!
"Oh, the prices we pay..." I said, watching the freed elementals take their humanoid forms, slumped over and submissive as their eyes are filled with emptiness. Blood puddled under me in the most graphic detail, but my maximum HP is still higher than normal without the Collector's Cloak; I've collected that many heads to do so. "Oh, that felt so refreshing!"
"...you're sick, you know that?" Ember said, looking appalled. "You're a sick fuck, Marco!"
"You're damn right I am!" I retorted with an odd sense of deja vu, and some nostalgia: it feels like I'm arguing with Star all over again. "But I'm running out of time, and I'm frankly not in the mood to give you a courtesy warning when ripping myself open! Just like how I'm not giving anyone on Mewni any time to react when I'm finished crafting!"
"You!" I pointed to the metal elemental, her silver humanoid body was an ever-changing fluidity. I then pointed at the large pile of metal ores that were pulled to the surface. "Get in there!"
Without resisting, she glided her way across the barren land, causing a breeze to ripple through the thousands of golden stringed metal that grew from her scalp as if it was hair. Her form broke apart as she pressed her segmented hands against the large pile of metal ores, and it rippled as she sank into its very center.
I could have used her to extract the metal from the ground - it makes sense to use a metal elemental to gather metal. I, however, had found it was more convenient to call upon a primary element, such as earth, rather than a specific one. Hell, I could have used her to melt Lady Whosits' weapon and armor, along with the rest of the knights who tried to stop me, I could have used my metal elemental against the guards outside my cell while melting the chains that bound me; freedom would have been an easy feat.
But I was done depending on others, it would have been a fool's task to think that the mentally-shattered elemental of metal could have aided me in any other way. It is a consequence of my own hubris, as they were incapable of any advance instructions - being nothing more than a cheap source to enhance, and reduce the cost, of certain skills - and with most of my skills locked away in the coffin, I no longer had a use for an elemental.
I pointed my outstretched hand to the pile of metal ores, all of them of various types, but none of it mattered. "[Mass Production]."
[Mass-Production] (Active) Level MAX
Monotonous labor is detrimental and mentally taxing, a waste of labor that could be put to better use.
This skill allows you to craft multiple copies of the same item with the use of magic if you have provided the materials to do so.
Quality of final result is determined by skill level, materials used, and WIS.
The cost of MP is determined by the complexity of the item being crafted.
The skill knew my intentions and highlighted the mountain of various ores my elemental recently resided within.
System: Please select a recipe.
"Select recipe: Living Metal."
System: Warning! Sentient ingredient detected! Using this individual as an ingredient will consume and destroy them in the crafting process! Do you wish to proceed?
[Yes/No]?
I immediately hit yes.
A flash of light blinded me for a mere moment, but I didn't need to see to know what taboo I have committed; using sentient creatures as ingredients, one of the forbidden techniques of blacksmithing as the moral cost was too high while the risk of failure matched the possibility of being filled with despair. To feel a sense of guilt and loss when the item many had spent a fortune and loved ones to make resulted in shoddy quality, there is no greater joke than that.
The light died down, and I saw the notification I expected to see.
System: Crafting successful! A mountainous amount of Living Metal has been added into your inventory!
"Finally…!" I choked on my own words. An indescribable ambition I had curiously dreamt of will soon be made real, a personal project I had morbidly pursued in my early days before I met the blonde princess, the sole reason why I gathered so many elementals in the first place. However, spending time with Star, and gaining her trust and friendship made my dark pursuits to be nothing more than a minor task to procrastinate in its completion.
It's a good thing my priorities are now in check.
Then the rain poured.
I felt the droplets evaporate as they came near the evil fire devouring my head. I looked up at the dark sky and felt a sense of wonder as if I am seeing precipitation for the first time. A perspective of childish wonder I never wanted to lose, as I actually managed to look at my surroundings.
Alone.
I couldn't describe it any more than that, it all just felt so calming as the thunder roared above.
At this moment I knew that having myself as my own ally would be the best course from now on. I don't need anyone to tell me I can change, I shouldn't listen to people who convince me of pursuing redemption. People don't change - specifically, I don't change! A certain magical princess' progression will only go so far before she regresses back into those naive ways. Just like me.
For the first time in what seemed forever, I've felt so happy - the events of today are made me happy. The brutality of my fighting. The slaughter of the people in the kingdom. The march of the undead growing with my victims. Hunting my prey. Bargaining with sentient beings using unknown and ulterior motives.
It was like the good old days, and it all felt so wonderful - at best I could gleefully call it debauchery, and at worse, I would shamefully identify it as depravity - and all I had to do was go back to my old habits. It just felt so comforting, so right!
And it only cost me the healthy condition of my very being.
Clearly, self-improvement isn't the answer...perhaps it's self-destruction.
Suddenly everything became clear.
"...Ember, help me burn the wood! Now!" I shouted as the rain poured harder. Without hesitating, the fire elemental coated the gargantuan pile of uprooted trees in her signature flames. Using [Fly] to position myself above the crackling flames. I pointed to the earth elemental. "Help me contain the flames, I don't want to waste any of the ashes!"
The pile of burning wood dipped into the ground before a thin wall ringed the entire blaze. I pointed my hands down at the fire, it burned far too slow. "[Incinerate]!"
Black fire shot out of my hands, drastically changing the color of the flames and increasing the temperature, making Ember gasp as a darker inferno overtook hers. She just looked at me with a new sense of fear, how I violated her element, and I wonder about the sensation she felt from the soul-burning fire that covers my head as it grows in aggravation and temperature while I called upon its dark power. It's heat making my skull brittle and causing it to form cracks.
System: A Vital area is being damaged!
I ignored the warning and continued my act, and after an hour the trees of this deadly forest that were full of life had been reduced to dead ashes. It left a huge column of smoke traveling upwards, surrounding me in it. But my lungs had already fallen out, and any debuff I would have received had been negated by the Fortifying Garlic I wore. "Gather the rain!" I shouted at the water elemental, my voice clear in the storm and smoke. "I need more water for this!"
All the droplets I could see froze before darting towards the massive pile of ash, slowly turning it into a black paste resembling ink.
Ink that has been tainted by dark fire.
I reached in my inventory to grab the Living Metal, dumping it out into the black substance below me, one ingot at a time. "Good, keep adding the rain! I need clean water for this!"
Living Metal is a tool for construction. Able to erect support frames for buildings, frames, and parts for vehicles, and repair any metal structure with ease. I fantasized about making a Grey Goo apocalyptic scenario, but this is as far as I could get to the real thing.
It was made with my elemental, who was still bound to me, and in turn, allowed me to control it. That was why it's a tricky thing to make, not to create it, but to control it afterward. I've seen an entire civilization in one of my travels become destroyed by Living Metal running amok, growing monstrous and destructive with each assimilation of metallic goods and buildings.
But for what I have planned is much worse, for everyone else and for me.
I plan for self-destruction.
I want today to be my last day will be my last day.
A day of liberation celebrated by genocide, sadistic sport, and cruel hunger cravings! A day I was honest with myself and realized I didn't want to be good; I've seen my split-personality do so and it was pathetic. If that is what I earn if Star's naive plans of redeeming myself worked, then I do not desire a future like that.
I felt everything he did, and if that is what redemption is, then I do not want it!
I would rather die happy than live miserably.
And there is only one thing that can make me happy - happier than betraying all of my friends, more exuberant than my first murder, and anything combined into an irrepressible flood of glee! The sensation has many descriptions.
Saving the best for last.
Like having well-earned dessert after a nice meal.
Fulfilling an overdue grudge.
No matter how I phrase it, all of it has the same conclusion of me killing Star. So when I do kill her slow and make her bleed, then at the peak of euphoria is when I shall end my own life!
That is how I will go out of this godless world: blissfully. My happy ending. I feverishly imagined the outcome, making me desire it more and more. It made me giddy; soon I will be able to cut her.
"It's so close, I can taste it!" I willed the Living Metal to churn and stir, rapidly mixing everything in. I took the two of the holy stakes I have strapped to my forearm, and stabbed each one deep within me; eating away my taint and corruption, the dark fire on my head flared brighter, and I giggled as the agony wrecked my innards! I reached the apex of my laughed when I twisted, and ripped the holy stakes out of my body, letting my tainted blood fly out in a beautiful wave of crimson and letting fall into the dark mixture below.
My laughter died down as I looked at the elementals. Most of the skills I had are locked away in the coffin, and I don't plan on taking them back; someone else will get to use them instead.
I moved over to Ember, [Hydra's Rejuvenescence] fixing the holes I made in my body - couldn't say the same for the cloak; I don't have that skill anymore. "...It's ready-"
"That's it?" Ember interrupted me - I wanted to rip someone's fingernails off now - looked at me with skepticism and confusion before glaring. "You just wanted me to burn some trees? You could have done that yourself!"
"Maybe my fire wasn't hot enough, and I just needed yours to get started." I retorted before looking up and the rain. "If I had burned it later, I would have struggled to turn it all to complete ash. It would have taken too long, and I don't have enough time to burn wet trees!"
Before Star came into my life, being unprepared was my worst enemy. From entering dungeons I made with [I.D. Create], to venturing across dimensions on Heckapoo's scissor-quest, to the unpredictable motives of human nature; all it having the common factor of being ill-equipped for the task and costing me deeply each time.
I let my guard down. The thought of Star's plan to rehabilitate me going so horribly wrong always crossed my mind - yet I willingly ignored the warning because I felt so safe around her. Despite all of my sensory skills, my paranoia, my habits of creating contingency plans, I never had to do any of that around her. She is a solid foundation in my unstable life.
I loved her for that.
Now I hate her a hundred times more.
System: For realizing your mistake of misplacing your security, your WIS has increased by 1!
Ember's voice snapped me out of my musing. "Then why did you say it's finished?"
"When I said 'It's ready', I wasn't referring to the completion." I clarified, with a subtle growl mixing in my tone. The Living Metal began to rise like bread dough, inflating and deflating in odd intervals as if it were breathing. "I was talking about the preparation for the final product - you will have a key role in playing it."
"Me?"
"Yes," I carefully looked at each elemental around us. "You and everyone here."
"A-And then you'll let us go?" She asked, the excitement of freedom undermining her short-tempered personality. "We can all go home?"
"I don't need the elementals anymore," I said truthfully. I would be lying if I said it was comforting having a conversation with Ember one last time; giving her an echo of freedom made her a liability - more of an annoyance really. A mistake I am going to rectify.
Right now.
The tainted Living Metal violently erupted upwards before surging towards us, diverting around me and sweeping away every elemental like a gluttonous tsunami; Ember let out a frightened scream - she tried to get away, but I willed the dark chains to bind her in place.
As the black, metal sludge tainted with my blood surged and spiraled around me, with little pockets of lights shining through from the elementals. One of those lights is a bright orange, bubbling its way to the surface before a familiar fire elemental made her last appearance. "Wait…!" Ember struggled to stay above, covered and struggling to speak as the Living Metal attempted to pull her down. "What are you doing? We had a deal, Marco!"
"We did, and I'm keeping my promise; I didn't lie-" I activated [Mass Production] once more, scrolling down the custom crafting list I prepared over the course of my life. "I'm simply fulfilling what I promised: you and your fellow elementals will never have to work for me ever again - you can't do so if you're all dead!" I pointed out, laughing and laughing as it vibrated throughout my body.
"Marco, you…!" She screamed, and at that disturbing, awe-inspiring moment, I saw the black metallic liquid surged before violently slithering in every hole on her face.
System: Warning! Multiple sentient ingredients detected! Using these individuals as an ingredient will consume and destroy them in the crafting process! Do you wish to proceed?
[Yes/No]?
I hit yes. Everything was deconstructed and remade in a blinding flash of light and screams, and the light died down for me to see the notification for one of my many ambitions being fulfilled.
System: Crafting successful! Custom recipe "Universal Devourer" has been created!
A/N: Star's character is something I have trouble writing with. Because in the show, she isn't dumb, she is just naive. She thinks things can work out well, but doesn't factor in all of the variables that can make everything go wrong. And they usually do!
Anyways, I wrote a little too much, and the prologue may continue for another chapter after the next one, or not considering I can trim it down. Let me know what you think in the reviews.
