Somewhere else entirely
???'s POV
An endless abyss spreads before me, the only points of interest being the stone platform I'm currently standing on, the giant eyeball; A thick cord of viscous dark matter connecting it to the formless body below, and the innumerable souls slowly descending into the darkness to be remade and reborn into the Cycle of Life and Death.
The giant eyeball is the physical manifestation of Abyss, the God of Death in this World. They are currently replaying the deaths they find interesting.
Shining a light from its singular pupil onto the soul in front of it, the last moments of the souls life is displayed. A Goblin Shaman is tearing out the throat of this unfortunate Kobold General. How savage.
With the soul still suspended, preventing it from moving on, Abyss then shines a light onto a different soul. The final moments displayed are of lesser quality, not unlike static interference on a video-tape. It's hard to make out what exactly happened, but it left the soul in a damaged state, something not normally possible. What I am able to make out is a blueish shadow leaping onto the body of the Quartz Deer, viciously striking at its neck.
Moving onto the next soul, there is even more interference. The soul itself is barely holding together; it probably will not be able to complete the Cycle. What a waste. This one shows a high speed battle with something. There's too much interference to actually tell what the Bristle Wolf Alpha is fighting, but it seems to have the same blueish hue to it.
The last soul is just a garbled mess, the soul itself just a few fragments of light. Once Abyss finishes watching its last moments, the soul shimmers and fades. Wiped entirely from existence. Their eye furrows in frustration. Seems whatever this blue shadow is, it is causing great distress to Them by damaging and destroying the precious souls.
"I see now, why you called me." I address the eyeball.
Seemingly ignoring me, Abyss goes back to watching the replay of the first soul. Seems it has a soothing effect?
"Do you wish for me to interfere directly with the cause of this, or should I inform Mother first?"
Shaking their eye back and forth, then nodding. I am not to go directly to the cause of this, I am to gain Mothers approval before doing anything.
As it always has been, as it always will be. Mother knows best.
"I will inform Mother. I will now take my leave." I bow as deep as I dare (I do not want to lose my balance and fall), my hair brushing against the stone platform I'm standing on. Readjusting my cloak, I step into the circle that lights up the middle of the platform. The light envelops me, and I am taken to Her Room.
An enormous being rises in front of me. Its lower half is composed of the same viscous darkness that makes up the entirety of Abyss's being. It sinks down below the floor, to connect back to the endless void under this room. An exposed spine gives way to ivory skin, three pairs of arms, each hand holding a different room, each belonging to the other Gods. Her face, eternal beauty. The Source of all Life in this World, the All-Mother. Her body, a nexus to bind together the other elements, and give stability to this World.
I prostrate myself in front of Her Glory. As the Envoy of Death, I am the highest ranking Divine Envoy, yet even I hold eternal respect for Her.
"Rise, Grim, Mother welcomes you" The voice, small and child-like, originates from Lyf (~pronounced the same as life~AN~) the Divine Envoy of Life and the One that Speaks for Mother.
I rise, once again adjusting my cloak so that it hides as much of the right side of my body as possible. With my left hand I stroke my hair to once again cover my right eye.
I bow before Lyf, last ranking Envoy, and start my report.
"Something is killing Monsters with such ferocity that even their souls are damaged. Abyss showed me, and I suspect that by now the souls are entirely destroyed by whatever is causing this. The last soul they showed me couldn't take the strain of the replay, and shattered before my eyes." As I talk, Lyf comes closer to me. She takes the form of an old woman, carrying a newborn child in her arms. Her eyes fill with sorrow when I relay the fate of the last soul.
"I think I know which soul is responsible, not of the killings, but of the birth of the killer." The newborn says. Reaching out her hand, a bright light forms in her tiny palm.
Unlike below, where the souls are really falling into the chasm to be reborn, this light is a simple illusion capable of displaying the status of its owner.
I inspect the soul, and am taken aback. Her? Why would the Important Life do this?
"Mother says she didn't know the consequences. She merely saw a life in danger and decided to aid it, regardless of what it might become when it grew up." Lyf informs.
I study the soul closer, it has an odd skill. "Do the Monarch typically have this skill?" I ask.
Lyf's older half makes a confused face. "Check the Skills, there's one I haven't seen a Monarch have before." I insist.
Lyf holds the soul up to her eyes. Her face betrays her shock. "A Divine Sacrifice?! That Skill. It is only given to those not of this World!" She looks at me, full of excitement. "To think! Such a rare event as the birth of a Monarch, and the soul chosen is not of this World!" Her smile then darkens. "But even so. The situation is dire. If the infant Monarch dies, we're back to square one in restoring some semblance of Balance."
"Then we interfere. The one aided by the Important Life should still have its mind intact. We just have to dispose of it before it loses its Love for her." I propose. It's not just because I'm bored and want to have a fight. I am just as worried about acting too late, and all of Mothers hard work producing a Monarch be wasted.
Lyf turns to Mother, and closes her eyes in communion. She then turns back to me.
"Take Fate's Spindle, just in case. And only intervene if and when it has lost its mind, not before. as long as the killers mind is intact, there is a chance at redemption." A gold Spindle with a silver thread wound around it materializes in my hand. It should let me turn time back a little bit to try again if I mess up royally. I bow deeply to both Mother and Lyf. I then turn and walk towards the newly created circle on the ground, it should take me to where I need to go. As light envelopes me, I hope the Monarch wont be too angry with me, should the worst come to pass.
In the Forest, In the Goblin Cave
Main Characters POV
The next morning I get up later than usual. I guess I'm still fatigued from the fight with the General. I stretch with a great yawn and get up. Looking around, the others are already up, even Brutus. I head over to the main hall to inform the leader of the maintainers of my plan to explore the area. Telling someone where you are going is always smart. It is still raining, so the others are going to stay inside the cave for now.
Heading outside, I glance at my map, no Blue. I then inspect the map closer and plan the route that covers the most ground in the least amount of time. with my route planned, I head out.
About five hours and a few close calls later (who knew there were massive spider-lilies that also are spiders in this world!) I've mapped out around seventy-five percent of the forest within my tribes territory. All that is left is the last twenty-five percent.
I'm currently having a small lunch break. Berries and a Sogleaf is on the menu. It's still raining, but it should let up soon. I'm of course also wet to the skin. If I wasn't such an impatient person I'd have waited until it stopped raining, but nooo, stupid me can't wait.
Being upset with myself wont do any good, so instead I will enjoy these berries. They're not too dissimilar to the blueberries of my old life. They are also very alike the Foolsbane berries. Then the question is, does the non-poisonous one mimic the poisonous one, or the other way around?
As I ponder this mystery, I'm startled when suddenly, I hear voices!
"Han for den veien! Den Blå Nissen! Han er sikkert vert masse om vi får tak i han!" A male voice calls out in a language I don't understand. I creep towards where the voices came from, but they've already run off.
I've never met humans (live ones anyway) in this world, and I'm terribly curious about what they're like.
I hurry after them as stealthily as I can. I count four sets of footprints. One set is set deeper in the wet ground than the others, so there's at least one heavily armored person among them.
"Der er han! I klarningen der framme!" A different voice calls out, female this time. I'm coming up on their backs, so I make a beeline to a different side of the forest clearing ahead.
There seems to be two females and two males. The heavily armored person is female it seems, or a man with long hair, I'm not judging.
As I get closer to the clearing, a blip pops up on my map. BLUE! I hurry to the edge of the trees, and see him. He seems hurt, holding his side whilst panting heavily, there is an arrow sticking out of his side. They hurt him!
As the humans approach, he weakly stumbles backwards, before falling over. No!
Without thinking I run forwards, putting myself between them and Blue. I set my stance wide, to make it as difficult as possible for them to hit him. I bare my teeth in a display of hostility.
"Ho, ein te. E da kjæresten hans?" One of the males seem amused. "Ve på vakt, da der e ein sjaman, dei kan alle slags triks" I recognize one of the words, shaman, so they know what I am?
"Ka gjer me? dersom det er ein sjaman her, så er det sikkert ein del fleire nissa rundt her." The armored female seems to ask something. "Vi har ikkje utstyret til å ta mykje meir enn to eller tre nissar om gongen, om ho tekallar forserkningar så er vi ille ute." The male who I first heard seems dejected.
What are they talking about??? "Men det er bare dei to, så om vi er raske så kan vi ta disse og så springe om fleire kjem?" Blue seems to become angry at this last comment. Does he understand them? I cast a glance at him. Other than the arrow in his side he seems to be in decent shape. But he is gritting his teeth in anger, a malevolent glare in his eyes.
An arrow whizzes past my head.
Shit! when I wasn't paying attention to them, they attacked!
But before I can respond, Blue places a hand on my head and whispers: "Sleep". My head gets hazy, and I fall unconscious.
*Social Title: Second in Command Replaced with: Leader*
That message greeted me as I regain consciousness. I sit up, cradling my head. Is this what a hangover feels like? My head is heavy and feels like its filled with cotton.
*Social Title earned: Survivor*
Huh? What is happening? Why am I getting Social Titles of this nature? What did I survive???
No response. I somehow get to my feet. All around me is the scattered remains of four bodies. What on earth happened here? Did Blue do this??? How could he possibly have done that though?
Something is terribly wrong, I've become the leader of the tribe, and a survivor? It's stopped raining, but the ground is still wet and slippery in some places. I stumble and fall several times as I rush back to the cave.
*Social title Leader and Survivor replaced with Sole Survivor*
I skid to a halt as I get to the clearing before the cave. My knees buckle as I realize what has happened. Before me is a bloody mess of goblin parts, viciously torn apart and strewn about. A huge mass of body-parts; mouths, eyes, claws and tails forming a single entity, lies near the mouth of the cave. A human male is standing by it. At least I think it's a human.
He is wearing a deep crimson cloak that covers one of his arms entirely. Long, thick hair forms an impenetrable curtain before one of his eyes, on the same side as his cloak. His hair is a near-black navy blue, and he is clad entirely in black other than his cape. Gosh he looks like an edgelord.
He seems to notice me. Although I cannot see one of his eyes, I feel it boring into me. He smiles.
How can you smile in a situation like this? My entire family is dead! I want to scream and rage at him. This person standing next to the eldritch horror as if it was nothing. As if the ground wasn't covered in the body-parts of my family.
With tears streaming down my face I get to my feet. With trembling breaths I retrieve my spear. If it was he who did this, he will pay!
"No need for such hostility, little Monarch." He spoke. I- I can understand him? I lower my spear.
"That's better. Now, let me introduce myself. My name is Grim, I am the Divine Envoy of Abyss, the God of Death."
I just stare. My brain is entirely unable to process this information. The divine messenger of Death has come to claim my family and whatever the hell that thing next to him is? Is he gonna claim me?
Grim looks amused. "Don't worry, I know this is a lot to take in at the moment. I-" He is suddenly interrupted as a claw descends towards him, aiming at his neck. Effortlessly, he dodges to the side of the attack, revealing his hidden hand. It looks more like a black mass than an arm, actually. The viscous dark mass writhes and pulses, clinging into a shape not unlike that of a skeletal arm. He reaches this appendage out to the extended claw that tried to take his head off, and as they make contact, a ripple goes through the mass. The closest comparison would be a time-lapse video of something decomposing.
"Decay" in a horridly cold tone, Grim utters a single word, and the mess of limbs disperses into dust.
He hurriedly hides his arm beneath his cloak again. "I'm terribly sorry you had to see that, your Highness. I had hoped that merely destroying its soul would be enough, but Hate runs deep I'm afraid." He gives me an apologetic smile. Why refer to me as Highness and Monarch? Is he mocking me?
"Now, as I was saying." He walks up to me, before guiding me away from the cave. Once it is out of sight, he stops and continues. "That's better. Now, I'm sure you have thousands of questions, but I can only answer a few. The Gods frown upon excessive exposition."
He looks into my eyes for a moment. "That thing... was your sibling, I believe you nicknamed him Blue?" What? How could that thing be my sibling? It wasn't even blue anymore, it was some grey-ish purple!
"You see, he wasn't even supposed to be born at all. His soul was improperly remade in the Cycle." I just stare at him.
"His social status, his physical status, It all influenced him. Like it influences all of us. But what he experienced, was mistreatment at every turn, except for from you."
Grim sits down next to me. "Hate is a terrible thing. I believe someone likened it to drinking poison and expecting the one you hate to die." I sit down next to him. Tears start streaming down my face again. I am cold, wet, and my entire family has been killed.
"Monsters experience emotions a little differently to humanoids, it can shape their entire being. Positive emotions refine and polish, negative twist and reduce. Of all the negative emotions, Hate is the most powerful. It gives rise to most of the other negative emotions, reinforcing its own effect. Combine that with Envy of that which one has not or cannot have, and you have the recipe for a Calamity."
I look at Grim. Is it my fault this happened? If i hadn't helped Blue hatch...
"Don't think like that. Survivors guilt is terrible, but it was never your fault. You couldn't help that you're a kind and compassionate soul. What happened was mostly the fault of Fate, and of Blue. Instead of fighting the Hate, he let it consume him. Twist him and turn him into that... thing." But why spare me? Why just me...
"You were the only one who ever was kind to him. All the other Goblins ignored his existence at best, actively opposed it at worst. What saved you from him was his Love for you. Unfortunately, Love is only a saving grace as long as the mind is whole." So when he made me sleep, it was to prevent me from getting hurt...
"And then, during the fight with the adventurers, his Hate got too strong. with the last of his sanity, he got as far away from you as he could. Unfortunately he headed right for the cave where your family lived. By the time I intervened, they were all dead."
I start sobbing. Grim lightly strokes my back, trying his best to comfort me.
We sit like this for a few minutes.
"I'm terribly sorry, little Monarch, but I have to go." Grim rises and dusts himself off. The back of his pants are all wet, but he doesn't seem to mind.
"You should consider evolving soon. a lone Shaman is an easy target." He starts walking away, but stops, as if he remembers something. "You know, I bet the people of Parshura would be delighted to have their treasure returned to them. The kingdom lies to the west of here, if you were to follow the road that passes through the forest near here." He then walks into the darkness of the forest and vanishes.
The monsters of the night stayed well away from the goblin cave that night, of fear of the loud wails of sorrow that echoed through the forest.