The Eighth Hero
Chapter Three
The Pumpkins And The Tower Heart
...
"They have fallen to sins, lord."
...
I stood before the corpse that was once the mighty beast known the Dire Wolf of the Blazing Plains.
The body begins to rumble and then it explodes in a dark red flash. The ground is stained with a strange yellow and black smoke. It is sickly looking and smells of utter rot and decay.
"That is Evil Energy, milady," the old disgusting Minion says as it comes up the stairs, "It resides in all of us evil creatures. But more importantly, lord, you should be gathering the Lifeforce that that mutt Fenris dropped."
I blink. There, floating where the hellhound once was, were several yellow and red orbs of light. I reach out and touch one, I feel a strange warmth flow throughout my body before it disappears. What is it?
The surviving three Minions quickly gather the few orbs and deliver them to me. Each time, I felt the warm sensation again.
"Good, milady. That is Lifeforce, the energy a living being drops when they die; don't worry, they won't be needing it anymore," it laughs, "It is the resource you need to summon more Minions, lord. Brown Lifeforce for the Browns and Red Lifeforce for the Red; too bad we don't have the Reds with us because we could certainly use some hot water in this place."
Brown...? Red...?
Ah, there were suppose to be four types of goblins, wasn't there?
"Indeed, there should be, milady. The Browns, the Reds, the Greens, and the Blues. Finding their Minions Hives will be essential to building up your forces. But enough dilly-dallying, lord, step up to well-portal, it has just enough power to send you to wherever closest those blasted do-gooders took the Tower Heart."
...
The dreary atmosphere was gone. Yellow and green. Outside in the dim setting sunlight. The cries of sheep. This place... i-
"The Mellow Hills, milady. I'm sure you remember the human village of Spree and the halfling village of Spriggus."
You are here.
How long will you follow me?
"Of course, lord, I still have some things left to teach you about this new corrupted world. But I'll try not to keel-over from breathing too much from these hideous idyllic plains. Now then, milady, spawn some Brown Minions, no need for the overlord to do any heavy-lifting when there are minions that will gladly do it for you."
I call forth five Browns.
Strange, I have more Lifeforce than that.
"You cannot call forth more Minions than your maximum horde control allows, lord. Your overcore is restricted to five Minions right now, but if you collect more Minion Pillars then you'll be able to control more Minions telepathically," the old goblin tapped its chin, "Ah, speaking of Lifeforce... do you hear it, lord? The bleating of lesser creatures!"
Off to the side there was a small gathering of sheep.
"These animals don't even that they're alive! You can harvest a good amount of Lifeforce from these silly creatures. Worry not, milady, they breed like bunnies and their population will rise the second you take your eyes off of them."
I had little qualms about the population size of the sheep. I had fewer when killing them myself.
I was hungry and started a small fire to cook the sheep meat. I ate and ate and ate to fill my empty stomach.
The other goblins looked hungry but I ignored them. They took to gnawing the remains and leftovers and using the bones as clubs.
The sun had fallen when I had finished my first meal in years.
I could see light in the distance.
That must be Spree. I did not know much about the human village, only that it had bordered a halfling village known as Spriggus... the hometown of Maple Underbell. How is she doing? Is she eating well? I should definitely pay her a visit.
"A wise choice, lord, of the Seven Heroes the Halfling Hero should be the easiest to slay."
I grit my teeth. Damn that disgusting thing. Damn it to darkest levels of hell.
"Now then, lord, let us continue with our search for the Tower Heart. You don't want to sleep outside here during the nights do you?"
...
The goblins pushed through a fallen pillar. Beyond there was a farm with a pumpkin and sunflower field and a man acting like a scarecrow.
"ARGH! BE YOU HALFLINGS?'! Ah, no, you look not like halflings at all. You don't work for the pumpkins do you?"
The Minions gathered around the man.
"Say, do Ol' Bob a favor here and get rid of the pumpkins. They laugh at I, always scheming to get rid of me! Those blasted halfling took over my farm, they did, and planted those evil things! They also stuffed Ol' Bob here, you see, like a hay-man to scare away all the crows! They're as bad as the pumpkins!"
Was this man sane?
No, what was that about the halflings? Why would they be invading homes?
"As I said before, milady, the Seven Heroes have fallen to sins and those sins have corrupted the individuals close to them. That small village of Spriggus is probably utterly corrupted and waiting hand-and-foot to the Halfling Hero."
It can't be.
"So will you help Ol' Bob? Atleast with the pumpkins?"
I let the Minions ravage the pumpkin field; they smashed or ate them up, and a few even placed pumpkins on their head.
"THEY'RE SCREAMING! The pumpkins be screaming! Hahahahaha!"
From out of the farmhouse came three halflings.
Yet they only looked like halflings.
Distorted. Wrong.
I can only describe them negatively.
They shout angrily in the halfling language and rushed to attack us with daggers.
"Those bloody 'alflings are here to help the pumpkins! Kill them! KILL THEM!"
Two engage my five goblins and are quickly slaughtered. The third ran to me and I kicked it away, the halfling is then soundly beaten to death by the bone wielding goblins.
Why?
"Hmm? Oh, this smell? I do believe that is the scent of Gluttony, milady. The Halfling Hero possessed by Gluttony, that would explain what the halflings are doing all the way out here growing pumpkins."
What? But that's...
"No matter how much you refuse to believe it, lord, you'll have to meet the Seven Heroes eventually."
...
We continued down the path past Bob's farm and slayed the sleeping halflings patrols in their sleep.
There was another farmland with overgrown pumpkins.
"I smell magic in the air, milady! That ginormous pumpkin there must be the source of it. Give it a good bashing, lord!"
The five goblins quickly clear out the smaller pumpkin and beat upon the much larger pumpkin, as the flesh of the fruit is peeled off a blue light peeks through.
The large pumpkin reveals a blue-white orb underneath its skin.
"The Tower Heart! The blasted halflings must have been using the magic of the Tower Heart to grow these succulent pumpkins. The fools! They know not the power they had possess! Let us take it back, milady!"
We circled back around our path and returned the Tower Heart to the Dark Tower.
...
I was back in the throne room.
"With the Tower Heart back, we can now finally start our plans, milady. Oh look, the Dark Tower has decided to grant you another Minion Pillar for your services. Why, it even brought along a friend, the Fireball Spell Stone!" the old goblin laughed, "Well then, milady, why don't you get some sleep? You have a busy day ahead of you!"
Where?
"In your private quarters of course, lord, just take those stairs on the left over there."
I walk upstairs and find several severely damaged and empty rooms.
I pick whatever room and simply lie my back on the wall with my sword within arm's reach.
Why? How could my comrades have fallen to sins?
Just what happened after I had died?
Quietly a light sleep takes me.
Author Notes
Well, seems like this writing style doesn't suit me at all and I'm honestly having a hard time continuing this story.
The original length of this chapter was suppose to cover up all the way to learning about the full situation in Spree, but I had to seriously cut it short at the Tower Heart because I'm no longer interested in typing out this chapter and it's taking way too long for way too little.
As of this chapter, Chapter 3, The Eighth Hero is on official hiatus.
I'm not sure if I'll do a rewrite of a more condensed version with a different writing style or whether I'll simply it pick it back up later as is.
So, thank you to everybody who has read or reviewed this fanfic.