Threads of the Soul

Gazing into the meaty abyss, Seth felt a strange amusement at the befuddling sight before him. Within the Rat Kings chest, there was no rib cage for Seth to have to peer through or clamber past if he wanted to climb inside.

In fact, there were no bones in sight at all. Despite that, the chest had a cavernous opening within it that refused to collapse out of sheer spite instead of the rigid calcium that should be supporting it.

Not only were the bones missing, but the organs were too. There were no lungs, no kidney, no heart, there was barely any meat inside for Seth to slash apart as a distraction. It was like cracking open an egg and finding out the yolk was missing, and all he had was the useless shell.

However, Seth's amusement at the situation did not stem from what was missing from inside the Rat King, but from what was there instead.

An intricate web of rat tailed tendrils wove themselves together all throughout the inside of the Rat Kings chest, the same tendrils the beast used to stitch itself together whenever it was cut apart, as well as what it was using in place of one of its arms.

Those tendrils coalesced in the middle of its cavernous insides, swirling together to form a grotesque Gordian knot of writhing flesh as tall as Alexandra. Hanging off of that Gordian knot by its tail, like a sad and lonely little fruit hanging from a tree branch all on its own, was a single rat. Unlike the rats that had invaded the Library, this rat was completely normal sized.

In fact it seemed ordinary in almost every conceivable way. Well... except from the mass of a thousand tails extending out of its rear that it used to absorb and control hundreds of its mutated brethren and combine them into one colossal meat mech for it to pilot.

But apart from that it was perfectly normal.

Feeling the predatory gaze on its vulnerable body, the little hanging rat let out a series of fearful squeaks. Kicking its legs uselessly in the air, it tried to flee from the bird faced thing that was peering into its safe place, but all it managed to do was swing itself back and forth.

Cackling softly, Seth pulled himself closer into the breach, reaching forward to pluck this ripened fruit and put an end to this mess. Perhaps the little rat was just pretending to lure him in, or perhaps it had finally remembered why it couldn't run away from him.

Either way, as Seth reached in to slaughter the meat mechs pilot, the Gordian knot of tail tendrils behind it surged as a dozen tails surged outwards, forming themselves into a fist that slammed into Seth and batted him away.

Tumbling through the air, he twisted his body so that he landed on his feet, quickly slashing his crimson blade in front of him to slice apart any more retaliatory tendrils that were flailing out of the gash in its chest.

'Nothing but a big, dumb meat puppet. Sorry little rat, I'm the only one allowed to use puppets around here.'

"Finally Princess! Let's fry this thing already!"

At the sound of Alexandra's voice, Seth snapped his head to the side just in time to see Astra lower herself to the ground and raise up her hand, waiting for the opportunity to strike and unleash all that electricity she spent so long charging up. The swirling vortex of energy that had surrounded her slowly came to an end, the little puppy slowing to a halt and yet still not seeming out of breath despite running so much. It was... Wait, did that dog always have two heads?

Bah, don't get distracted by that now. There was more important things to be thinking about at a time like this. For one, while Alexandra was already celebrating the creatures impending doom, Seth was gritting his teeth in anxiety as doubt riddled his mind.

There were no organs, no blood, no bones. Logically that also meant no nervous system to carry the energy throughout the body, like they had done with the Shelled Drake. This thing was like a collection of meaty islands held together with string. At best, it was going to blast the ever loving hell out of one of the chunks, but the rest would be unharmed.

All that energy would go to waste. Plus, now that the little pilot rat was aware that he had been exposed, it was preparing for attacks on it. Tendrils were writhing out of the gash Seth had made in its chest, weaving together to plug the hole as well as taking wild swings at Omelette whenever he tried to do some fly by attacks.

So the chances of getting a sword in there to act as a lightning rod were slim to none. Then again, who said they needed to?

Just because that's how they beat the last big horrific monster, didn't mean that's how they needed to do it now.

Racing over to the two women, he quickly placed his hand on top of Astra's before gently pushing her hand down. An action that once again drew her chilling, angry stare as if to say 'what the hell are you doing?' or maybe she still wasn't used to being touched again. Who knows.

As the growing sparks started to recede back into Astra's hand, apart from those that were biting into Corvus' hand, Seth spoke quickly and calmly.

"It won't work."

"Why?"

"It just won't. This isn't like last time. I have a plan."

Despite their oh so informative conversation in which these two chatter boxes simply wouldn't shut up, Astra narrowed her already chilling death stare as it burrowed deeper into Seth. This was the second time he was stopping her from killing something.

Seth could feel the tingling sensation in his hand as voltage that should have been enough to kill him simply licked at his hand harmlessly, although it would have been a different story if Corvus was made of flesh and bones instead of just being a mannequin dressed up in a garish raven-styled cloak.

But it was because of that that Seth knew he was right. Tightening his grip on her wrist, Seth stepped closer and looked deep into her, admittedly dazzling and hauntingly beautiful, eyes. He just hoped that her soul piercing gaze would actually feel the sincerity in his soul as it possessed this puppet as a vessel.

"Do you trust me?"

"..."

"Do. You. Trust me?"

Moving her eyes away from his, since they were still hidden behind the mask he never took off, Astra glanced down at his hand, which still hadn't left her wrist. She contemplated for a few seconds, which in this type of situation seemed like it lasted for an eternity, before finally looking up at that glistening silver mask again.

Her full lips parted, as if she was about to speak, but closed just a second later before she simply nodded.

"Ahem. So... Should I leave you two alone?"

Quickly letting go of Astra's wrist, Seth whipped his head to the side and shot his dirtiest glare towards Alexandra, who was standing to the side with a mischievous grin on her face and eyebrows that would not stop wiggling at them. An expression that she would have had to have dismissed her stone mask just so they could see it.

Unfortunately, because of the mask, she couldn't see said dirty glare. Thankfully, the lightning goddess beside him had a bone chilling death stare that was fearsome enough for the two of them, and then some. Honestly if looks could kill, she'd be the Goddess of Death instead.

For some reason Seth could not figure out, even though Astra was looking at Alexandra, he could feel an eerily similar, rage filled death glare coming from somewhere nearby, although he couldn't quite pin point from where. Maybe he was just mistaken...

Regardless, It seemed that Alexandra's skin really was as thick as stone, as such a glare simply caused her to chuckle at their reactions. Putting back on serious expressions, they turned their attention back to the Meat Mech that was currently being occupied by its wrestling match with Cynthia.

"What's the plan then?"

"We'll need a car."

***

"We've got one shot, so make sure you aim it right beak-face."

"It would be easier if you let me concentrate."

Seth grumbled softly under his breath as he worked. He was currently stood, still in the body of Corvus, between two lamp posts. The lamp posts in question had been ripped from the ground, straightened out, wrapped in wire and were currently being held vertically by his statues.

The statues, at his mental commands, were lifting the ends of the lamp posts either up or down based on his aim. All the while Alexandra stood to the side, a bored expression on her face, as she held a car in her hands which she had crushed into a beach ball sized...Well, ball.

"There, done."

"Finally!"

Stepping out from between the lamp posts, Seth moved a safe distance away as his place was taken by the crushed car ball. Standing behind the ball, looking down the 'barrel' of their makeshift rail cannon was Astra, with a wire in each hand that connected her to the lamp posts.

Once she had the confirmation, Astra grit her teeth and began to churn out all of that stored power. The wires in her hand glowed with life, sparks of electricity leaping from the lamp posts and licking the crushed car, which began to gently float.

Faster and faster the ball rotated as it floated in place, guided by the lightning that constantly leapt from the lamp posts until, faster than you could blink, the ball blasted from its place and rocketed through the air with a dazzling blue streak, leaving behind a thunderous roar as it smashed through the sound barrier like glass.