Hastum

118. Mortal's involvement

A massive Egyptian man with a two-handed khopesh on his back walked in. He was almost two meters tall, with broad shoulders, a long braided beard, and relatively harsh facial features. His body was overall stout, except for his massive height.

“Wasn’t he supposed to be a dwarf?” I heard Ophelia ask. "Weren’t they… ummm… smaller?" she whispered.

“Oh, yes,” I whispered back. “But he suffers from a dwarf’s version of gigantism. Because of it, he can’t fit in a d...

117. Vampire

“You look like you’re going to an execution,” I said, my eyes on Q’Shar’s tail, which was currently dragging behind him as we made our way to the car.

“Every time you idiots gather is a tragedy waiting to happen.”

“Oh, don’t whine. It’ll be fine—you were supposed to tell us your big plan. I thought you’d be excited.”

The cat simply jumped into the passenger seat without giving an answer. I saw Ophelia stop in front of the door, realizing she was too...

116. Preparations for the sabbath

The next two weeks were spent preparing for the sabbath. Q’Shar, although not without whining and bitching, completed the list of people “asking for an accident” very quickly, and I spent quite some time collecting souls, with the occasional kidnapping. The countryside mansion where I fought Ester turned out to be a great temporary holding ground.

Ophelia also began to engage with the knowledge her god had given her. Accessing it took a toll, as it would come to her in a form simi...

115. Demon's nightmare

Jess slowly made her way toward the bed. If the deep dark circles underneath her eyes were anything to go by, then anyone would think she’d go to bed gladly, but her movements suggested otherwise. They were slow and jittery.

She approached it more like a prisoner might approach a guillotine, rather than a tired person going to get some rest.

She looked around, still thinking about what to do, trying to find a solution. Her eyes went a bit softer when she saw a set of photos on t...

114. Third Chamber

“The food was really good. You should have told me politics was just eating on someone else’s dime and throwing insults. I would have gotten involved much sooner.”

Q’Shar looked at me, his ears flat to the sides.

“I’m not going to grace that with an answer,” he grumbled before turning to Ophelia. “You did well.”

“It was tense.”

“You have a good sense for reading the room, then. Yes, it was tense. But you need some work—you have to keep any ner...

113. Getting heated

The promised bonus chapter is here!

***

Q’Shar’s tail twitched as he considered whether he should stop Sam. He knew where the priest was going with this and didn’t like the direction. So after a quick calculation, the cat decided to take the gamble. He could see the priest’s façade start to crumble slightly as Sam let the magic materialize at the end of the staff.

A second-tier spell slowly came into existence, one that would easily tear through the cheap wall next ...

112. No rest for the wicked

Author's note.

If you noticed, the chapter numbers changed because during revision, I ended up deleting a chapter's worth of text from the previous chapters. Since I promised 17 chapters ahead, a bonus one will be posted this weekend to even it out.

Thanks for reading!

***

We went to the tomb—me, Q’Shar, and Bakari.

“That’s a lot to transport,” said the smaller of the cats.

“Yeeep. You could have brought more helpers.”

“Ophelia is trai...

111. Strange machine

I waited for some time at the cave entrance, meditating and restoring myself to top condition. Only after about an hour did I go back inside. 

The stone chamber was silent as before, but there was a change in the air. The atmosphere had calmed, as if a great tension had dissipated.

I went to the center, covered the three bodies with white sheets, and carried them into the hidden room outside the tomb.

Once back inside, I looked around curiously, now without the corpse s...

110. Waltz No. 2

Author's note.

Hello!

A small update. I finally should have some more time, so the promised bonus chapters should be back.

But aside from that, thanks to all of your support, I can spend some money on artists! So I wanted to get character art for all the main cast of Sam, Q'Shar, Ophelia, and others later. I don't know any artists, though, so if anyone here has any experience or heard something good about an artist from someone else who commissioned something, please feel f...

109. Sally

“But before I begin,” he said, glancing back at me, “you claim the world outside changed. Yet you know the name of the dreaded Alhazreds. So the ancient families endured the many ages that passed. Then… which clan do you come from?”

‘Oh, interesting. Should I lie?’ I thought.

“Why assume you’d recognize it? It’s been a thousand years.”

“The ancient clans were pillars that supported the magic world for many years. They would not fall easily. You fought...

108. Another test

I locked my eyes onto the corpse sitting upon the massive stone throne as I slowly approached.

When I was about halfway there, it twitched and then moved. The head rose slightly as two white, milky eyes met mine, and the face stretched into a grin.

“Welcome,” said a hoarse, ancient voice. “Welcome to my tomb, traveler.”

I stopped and extended myself to the creature, wondering about its power. I expected to sense a relatively strong opponent. The golem was probably al...

107. Golem

I jumped back on instinct, dodging the massive clump of metal before it could turn my face into paste. As I did, I felt a gust of air on my cheek as the fist passed me with enough force to take my head clean off my shoulders. I kept my distance while keeping my eyes on the enemy.

Finally, the doors ground fully to the side, and a golem walked out of the darkness of the corridor.

It was wholly made from some sort of metal. I couldn’t tell what kind, as I had my irises snapped ope...

106. Case closed, tomb opened

A gentle and warm wind picked up the desert sands as I stood over a yawning abyss, staring into a deep hole that went straight down. As I was about to turn away, the sand started moving, and like a pale golden river, it flowed into the opening, taking me with it.

I then meandered through stone corridors far too large for any human. I was looking for it. I knew where it was. I knew of the books in the strange library. And then the whistling came. I ran as the short, low sound was getting...

105. Tom's father

Ophelia lay in her bed with her gaze focused on the ceiling. She still had over an hour until her alarm rang, but she could not fall asleep. And that was because today was the day. She had proposed that if Tom’s father wanted to talk to her, they could speak on her terms and no other way.

She then had the cats leak some information to the businessman about the training place in the forest and when she would be there.

Q’Shar reassured her that he would show up in person. They g...

104. Phantom pain

I saw Rey run to Cecil, who was lying on the ground, unmoving.

I looked at Peter and quickly poured healing potion over the stump to stop the bleeding. Once it looked like he wouldn't die just lying there, I went after Rey to start on the long process of cleanup after this shit show.

I approached him, keeping my distance. We’d fought a battle together, so I did owe him some time before I had to spring the new reality on him and the other survivors.

“Hey. Cecil, can you h...

103. Give me fuel, give me fire

The strange person with a bloated belly ran at us. I took some distance, and so did the mutant, unsure of what to do.

I prepared for defense.

Around halfway to us, the creature turned in the direction of the mutant. And as it got closer, I also sensed what it was: a zombie. A very weak one, but an undead nonetheless.

So Mr. Cuddles was a necromancer.

The creature wouldn’t be much help, though. I could sense it was almost at the second tier, probably created by a ritu...

102. Final round

I could see Rey’s facial muscles flex as he gritted his teeth. His breath quickened and his eyes darted between me and the tree line.

“I suggest we get moving if you want to see them alive.”

“You won’t bullshit your way out of this one,” he said, raising the gun slightly.

“Do you think I’m bullshitting right now?” I asked, looking him in the eyes.

As our gazes met, another scream echoed through the night.

“You go in front where I can see you!�...

101. Mutant hunters

It took me another two hours of going through them before I got the whole picture.

The mages who initially camped here were the very same ones whose souls were attached to Peter’s body, and now I understood how they were bound.

There were seven people described in these journals. The team trying to ambush the Butcher consisted of a monk, a thunder warrior, a soul healer, a mind warlock, a nature paladin, a fire sorcerer, and a necromancer.

So the hook left a deep soul woun...

102. Battle once fought

I looked at the hook-sized hole under the sigil. I extended myself into it only to sense a seal I could not even truly comprehend. I immediately retreated, not risking a backlash from something created by one of the most infamous soul mages in history.

I then turned back to the cat.

“So, is there something more here?” I asked, looking at the signs of the old battle.

“Yes, there is much more,” said the animal, and then pushed on a stone, powering a hidden rune as the ...

100. The sigil

It's a bonus chapter!

I attached images, one is a concept of what the pumpkin would look like, and the other is my own drawing of the original sigil. Hope this helps with the visualisation!

***

I took a last look at the pumpkin, or rather, what was on it. The arcane rune of the spark, depicting a singular flame with an infinity sign—the very magic sigil representing the eternal soul, also associated with soul magic. It was burned into the front of the massive vegetable as ...

100. The sign

Author's note

This chapter turned out shorter than planned. I decided to cut it at the pumpkin since I have a drawing to help visualize what will be revealed in the next chapter, but I want to try to make it more readable. Since it is shorter, there will be a bonus chapter tomorrow, not to keep you too long on a cliffhanger

***

I sat in the cornfield, listening to all the sounds around me. There was shouting coming from the direction of the festival, now joined by fire truck...

99. Over my head?

I was running out of spells, not to mention my broken ribs. I had it in me for another Eldritch spell, maybe even of a third circle, but… would that be enough? Was it keeping more surprises?

I realised… I didn’t know how to deal a killing blow.

But I still needed to do something about the mutant.

I raised my gaze just to see it looking back at me, as lightning started snaking around the longer of the hands.

I threw two poisoned needles at it using my last stored ...

98. Illusion

I dodged two more attacks and blocked a rock flying at my head with a Shield as I made my way to the place where I first cast the grasping hands. The parts of the flesh the creature tore off itself were still lying around.

I blocked another attack and smeared some of the blood over my tattoos.

Blindness of the Seven Hells.

The casting would take a few seconds. I chose the anchor as the face located near the enlarged leg. I ...

97. Face to faces

“So what do you think he wants now? His father wasn’t in the slaughterhouse, so his revenge changed.”

“I don’t know. Last time we spoke, he was talking about punishing all the guilty. Or rather, it was the faces that spoke. He was just trying to understand what they wanted from him.”

The kid then looked at me, slightly raising his head.

“So, what do they want from him?” he asked.

I had to think for some time before giving an answer that would be evasive...

96. Many faces

It took me a while to realize who that was, as I’d only seen him briefly. But now it all made sense.

“When do your parents come back?” I asked the girl.

“They work late. Why?”

“Good, so we have time. I think your brother should join us,” I said.

The boy looked at me suspiciously.

“And who are you?” he asked.

“I’m here about the Peter situation,” I said, and I saw panic on his face. I didn’t need to extend myself to know what he was...

95. Emma

After listening to the kids’ story and getting their contact information, I met up with the ghost hunters as they went back to their parents. As it turned out, the man who spoke to Rey was a local policeman. Apparently, they were getting desperate, as there were no leads in the investigation.

Rey was also in a nasty position, as he was stuck between keeping some information secret so the ghost hunters could nab the person first and helping law enforcement as he’d promised. Those wer...

94. Patient zero

I told Cecil I would meet them at the vigil and drove to the apartment where the mortician’s cat lived. I then looked through the window, checked around, and even knocked and tried to talk to the apartment owner, although that was hard as she really was as deaf as a rock. But no dice, the cat was nowhere to be found.

Well, no use now. I would have to check on him from time to time, hoping to run into the animal.

I went to get something to eat, and around 7 p.m., I finally went t...

93. Paranoia?

Ophelia looked out the window. She wasn’t sure whether she was seeing things or was actually being stalked by someone. She slowly approached the window without turning on the lights and looked out.

It was still there—a black, luxurious car. She didn’t get the license plate, but she was sure she’d seen it from time to time throughout the day.

Well, almost sure.

Someone was sitting in the car. Whether they were looking at her or that was another part of her imagination...

92. Guilt

I went back to the motel I stayed in near the town. All the way back, I was thinking about the quote. So there was another person involved in the murder, one not in the local Protestant community. One that would also be close to the family, or at least the kid.

It was high time I paid a visit to the school, or at least got the list of local kids associated with the two new victims.

Having made an overall plan in my head, I went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up to a mess...

91. Writing on the wall

I could hurry to the hospital later. I didn’t see any flesh changes on the girl, so I should have some time. I got in my car and drove to the preacher’s place as I could hear the sirens behind me.

I would have to explain myself to the local police later, but right now I needed to see the crime scene. I arrived at the house around the same time as the police cruiser.

The policeman got out and shouted, “Stay in your car!” as he made his way towards the door.

“Of cour...