Threads of the Soul

Task 4 was different from the rest in the sense that it was the only one in which he was completely dependent on another individual. Whilst his puppets along the front line were fighting alongside plenty of people, it wasn't an individual effort, but acting as a unit. It one person fell, whilst tragic, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

But for the fourth task, while he had his own part to play, the meat and bones of it was down to a single individual. Ironically enough, that individual didn't have any meat and bones of their own.

The task in question, was leading Cynthia through the castle to perform a little assassination mission.

Using little Geets, his action figure spy that had stowed away to get here, as a guide, Seth led Cynthia through the castle. The slime girl herself was currently in the form of a true slime, nothing more than a small ball that glided across the ground, walls and other surfaces.

On the rare occasion that they stumbled across a Hemogoblin still patrolling the halls, performing a variety of different tasks such as gathering more weapons or carrying buckets of blood, they simply disposed of them before moving on.

The most recent one they had stumbled across was slightly odd, in the sense that it didn't seem to be performing any duty that had anything to do with the war they were currently experiencing.

It was simply plodding its way down the corridor, with a bucket of pungent brown... something in a wooden bucket. It definitely wasn't faeces, it was more like a discoloured and very unappealing porridge or gruel.

Regardless of whatever mysterious concoction it was carrying, the pair dealt with it just like they did the rest. Cynthia slid her way up to the ceiling above it and waited for it to pass beneath her.

Once it was in place, her body stretched like a droplet falling from a leaking tap, before releasing its grip on the ceiling and dropping directly onto the Hemogoblins head.

Her gelatinous form surrounded its head and stayed there, almost acting like the helmet of a space suit, except instead of letting it breathe in space it was simply drowning in the acid solution Cynthia was composed of.

Although, that liquid wasn't going to be enough to melt its head in seconds or drown it quickly, so she simply used herself as a muffler and manifested an arm from the rest of her blobby self. A dagger manifested itself in her hand, curved like a panthers talon, as she plunged it into the Hemogoblins chest a few dozen times until it eventually collapsed, spilling the contents of its bucket across the floor.

Leaving its body where it fell, so that it could simply melt into a puddle of blood like the rest of its kind, the pair moved on without a second thought. They had no earthly idea what ramification this action would have.

Perhaps if they had further investigated the strange concoction, they would have found that it was composed of an assortment of meat, mixed with an extremely strong sedative, but it is doubtless that discovery would have gone well if the sedative had effected Cynthia, so perhaps that was for the best.

Or maybe, if they had gotten lost or taken a detour to the dungeons, they would have stumbled across that heavy, steel door covered in locks and the dreadful creature that lurked behind it. A creature that Seth had stumbled across previously, and which had, by what could only be a happy coincidence, just recently woken up after a strangely long slumber.

A creature whose stomach was growling as it had been kept forever hungry and unsatiated, yet unlike the previous times it had awoke there was no food being poured through the slot in its cell.

Perhaps, if they had left this wretched little goblin alone, that steel door would have stayed strong and secure, instead of starting to sizzle and hiss as it was gradually melted from the inside out, as the beast contained within was eager to find its own food.

But Alas, none of these situations occurred, and so as the pair of would-be assassins made their way through the castle, the steel door within the dungeon gained its first hole, no bigger than a penny, as the impenetrable steel schlopped to the floor like melted ice cream.

***

As the assassin duo arrived outside of a pair of large, wooden doors, and remained completely oblivious to the unintended consequences of their actions.

"So, little dolly Silver, is this where you saw the boss goblin, the big green one?"

Cynthia asked the little action figure clinging to the wall next to her, after forming her face on the side of her teardrop shaped, blob body. Geets simply nodded in response, Seth being too busy focusing his mind elsewhere to spare the energy required to speak through this puppet.

It really was exhausting multi-tasking like this. He really needed to find a better way to do it.

They moved over to the doors, which were curiously left abandoned by their guards. That wasn't too strange though, no doubt they were simply forced towards the front lines, needed to deal with the army of humans.

Cracking the door open, just enough for little Geets to get through, the pair slinked inside and quickly found cover so that they wouldn't be detected. With a quick scan of the room, it was easy to find their target.

The room was utterly empty, bar from a regal throne in the back of the room against the wall, and the green giant they were here for. It was honestly hard to miss him as he laid dead in the middle of the floor.

Dead?! He shouldn't be dead yet, that was why they were here. Killing him was their job! Did someone beat them to it? Who? Why? When? And lets not forget, Why?!

Simply standing there gawking at the corpse in the middle of the floor wasn't going to get them any answers, so they slowly and steadily approached the corpse. They didn't drop their guard in light of being beaten to their assassination, in fact it had raised it ten fold and put them seriously on edge.

Cynthia had returned herself to her human form, and the pair of them were keeping their heads on a swivel as they approached. Quite literally, in Cynthia's case. Her flexible body was uniquely blessed in the fact that she could rotate her head 360 degrees without injury or discomfort.

The body itself was roughly 7 foot tall, with bulging muscles and a surprisingly large, robust jawline that jutted outwards to make room for the thick tusks erupting from his lower jaw. Just that sight alone, was enough to tell Seth that this was not some kind of evolved Goblin. If he had to give it a name, the only thing that would ever come to mind, was Orc.

It wore a simple garb crafted with care from a mixture of twigs, bone and other assorted vegetation, with vines used as rope to hold it all together. A stark contrast to the flesh suits that the Hemogoblins loved to cover themselves in and paint with fresh blood.

Tribal markings, made from some sort of dirt coloured paint, covered the Orc's muscular, wall sized chest, but the pattern was ruined by the gaping hole left in the Orc's chest, right between its rippling pectoral muscles.

A hole that was the size of a fist in the centre of something's chest. He had seen this wound before, very recently actually. It was exactly the same wound that one of the spirits had, the Spirit that had warned him of the so-called 'Heart Eater'. And judging by these eerily similar wounds, that was not a name such a creature gained by coincidence.

Just as Seth was contemplating what this 'Heart Eater' could be, the world around him darkened in an instant as a massive shadow was cast over the Orc's corpse, and little Geets as he stood atop its chest.

Whipping his head up, his mind reeled at the sight of the colossal being looming over him, a feeling that was amplified by Geets minuscule stature. But even at Seth's normal size, he would have still been dwarfed by his monster, as it stood at the same height as the deceased Orc.

However unlike the Orc his little short king was currently using as a stepping stool, this beast had the crimson skin he had come to know from the Hemogoblins. With the lack of tribal tattoos, as well as any visible tusks, Seth wouldn't have thought of comparing it to the corpse, if he wasn't standing on it.

But apart from those details, as well as the lack of a hole in the chest, it was like an exact copy of the Orcs tyrannical, muscle-bound build.

'W-where the hell did that thing come from?!'

It had appeared like a phantom, without even a single foot step being heard despite having feet like an elephant. He just couldn't understand how either of them could have missed it approaching, or where it had even come from.

It seemed, although, that the Orc sized Goblin wasn't about to explain itself. It simply lashed out its arm, so quick that even the blur it left was nearly impossible to track, as it slapped its colossal meat slab of a hand into Cynthia.

The Slime girl stood no chance, her gelatinous body bursting like a water balloon as chunks of slime scattered throughout the room and splattered against the walls.

Seth knew such a blow wasn't fatal for his viscous friend, nor was it the first time she had experienced such an injury, but she wasn't going to be happy about having to pull herself together once again.

Leaping backwards, Seth tried to get little Geets away, but this silent stalker was simply too fast and snatched his puppet out of the air mid leap.

Holding Geets by one of his legs, the red-skinned Orc held Geets above his himself as he tilted his head back and seemingly unhinged his jaw as he opened his mouth so wide he would be able to eat a watermelon whole.

Then, without ceremony or a hint of hesitation, he let go and forced Seth to stare down his abyssal gullet as Geets fell helplessly into the beasts gaping maw.