Synopsis: Murdered by his wife, a man meets Peyra, the goddess of mischief and lust, who saves his soul. While her motives remain unclear, the murdered man becomes her pet, a ghoul called Grym the Faceless. Grym carries the insatiable appetite for human flesh, but he also carries the frightening power of a dark sorcerer.
In a world that shifts to human ingenuity, using cannons and muskets against mages and monsters. Magic is no longer vital when the empire grows by using steam ships and trains to haul goods and passengers. The rulers replaced heroes and their supporters with armies and telegraphs.
But Grym has a plan to shake the empire to its core. Discovering the eternal tomb of Valary, a healer hero betrayed by Emperor Nazalath, he releases the woman who seeks vengeance for her betrayal. Together, they start on their separate paths of revenge. While it appears the ghoul’s focus centers on short-term revenge, he has much bigger plans. Grym intends to take down the empire using the ancient sorcery he’s learned and the underlying strife inside the empire. He will turn the world into a bloody realm filled with anarchy and chaos. For a ghoul sees no reason to help a humanity filled with a history of hypocrisy, cruelty, and stupidity.
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Chapter 1
Pain finally faded to nothingness, a black hole where time and senses meant nothing. An awareness combined with a powerful will remained amid a dimension where substance and form were irrelevant. Amid the blackness, the presence kept memories and passions, which blended in a shared cause waiting to burst out.
Payback!
Revenge!
Vengeance!
The terms burned through the conscious. A raging need for a terrible, unyielding punishment against those who killed his body. No, not just a few, but an entire kingdom filled with such humans. Memories returned images of people he once cared for. But now, he recognized them as disgusting creatures wrapped in hypocrisy and soulless passions. Joy filled him when a grisly scene played out in his conscious. Images of vengeful mobs stringing up their betrayers and leaders. Sheep-like followers joining a vengeful crusade amid burning cities.
“You amuse me!”
The voice broke through his awareness like a sudden comet.
“Go away unless you can give me revenge!”
A bizarre wobbly type of laughter, reedy and obnoxious, came through his thought.
“Dead one, your body feeds my pet. But your soul is strong. What can you offer me for your revenge?”
He felt the awareness of the voice’s amused connection. His loathing and rage flowed out at the cosmos. When he finished, a long silence returned.
“I have only my conscience to extract retribution upon the world,” he calmed his anger. “Still, I will force my way out of the destroyer god’s bowels to deliver my vengeance.”
The reedy chuckle at his response irritated him again.
“My, such determination. Let’s see if we can come to terms. I’ll give you immortality, dead one!”
“No, I don’t bargain anymore. Only revenge matters!”
The presence sensed the god’s contemplation. Finally, a response came.
“What if I give you a path to your revenge?”
“Give me your terms!” His thoughts replied in an instant.
“When I take your soul, can you accept the eternal cost?”
The dead man’s spirit recognized the path shown to him by the god. He liked the images and the scenes of a possible future. Still, he took nothing for granted. Betrayal came from gods as much as humanity.
“I trust you only no more than the one who laughed while cutting my throat. My free will, my memories and my mind are the only requirements for me. I’ll not be your puppet. Accept those terms or go away.”
This time a giggle, with the same infuriating tone, entered his thoughts amid the blackness. This time, images flickered like a candle in the window. Scenes of his past and pictures of those he hated and despised. However, the other conscious melded with his ideas and showed a path, illuminated shining path leading into the clouds. Comfort gradually settled amid the thoughts.
“Fine, you’ll become a beast, a monster for eternity! Only utter solitude, rejection, and condemnation wait for you. Do you still accept the power I give?”
No hesitation came as the dead spirit replied to the image of his new body.
“You’ve made me retribution! I can’t wait to see their faces.”
~~~
Drip!
The ceaseless sound of the water trickling amid the soft echoes barely entered her consciousness.
Drip!
Barely able to lift her head after hanging down, she forced herself to try. Pain shot into her as her neck muscles rebelled at the attempt.
Keep trying!
The woman took a deep breath and tried again to lift her head. This time, the pain lessened. Still, she saw nothing in the blackness.
Drip!
How long has it been? Days, weeks, years?
Time meant nothing inside the dark confines of her eternal tomb.
That’s what those bastards called it!
Drip!
She heard the faint scurry of an unseen creature near her. The slight sound once made the woman’s flesh crawl. However, such dreadful sensations left her long ago. She did not bother to look for the creature in the pitch-black darkness of her home. Instead, she waited for the expected pin-prick tickles of a worlbie scurrying across her skin. Suddenly, the sensation of those blood sucking creatures crept into her mind as she remembered several of them already hung down from her body.
Drip!
More are coming, I can feel it!
The woman grimaced at the thought of the coming wave she must endure. Creatures who fed upon her ravaged body. Soon, the taelis and the harpids would join to feast upon her flesh, their presence quickly followed by larger monsters. Each would hurt her farm more than the small ones. The progression occurred time after time, day after day. An endless repetition…
No, I can’t think about them! I must lose myself again.
The woman attempted to push herself into the trapdoor she made inside her mind, where the beasts could not break her sanity. Each bite into her flesh, each lick from a revolting tongue across her naked body, threatened to shatter the door and send her into reality again.
When the larger beasts arrived, Valary became a target for their pleasure. Probing her orifices in a monstrous gang rape, the rutting beasts used their appendages to absorb her aether, her essence of an immortal life.
Immortal torment given by a worthless god!
While she could not see their stinking forms in the darkness, the woman knew each beast by their size and sound. Once, her group killed them for the empire. Now, she endured the creatures’ thrusts into her body in a frenzy, driving her screaming insanity. The agonizing thrusts of her continued until she eventually lost consciousness when the aether drained from her. Still, the woman could not die, for she always awoke to the revolting feel, taste and smell of monster’s leavings which covered her.
Crunch!
Crunch!
The woman froze.
They’re too early!
Crunch!
Crunch!
Something came closer to her, but the sound of footsteps coming was lighter, unlike those of the creatures that used her.
Boots!
The woman almost forgot the sound of leather pressing into the crushed harpid shells covering the stone. She tried to lift her head, then dropped it again with a groan.
Flick!
She opened her blind eyes, seeing nothing. However, the smell of something burning whiffed by her face. Slowly, she recognized the burned fragrance of the stubblefield weed. As a healer, she knew opium addicts used such cigarettes to relieve their cravings.
“Well, well, it looks like I found the eternal grave of Valary, the Hero of Idmore,” the cool, unfamiliar voice drifted to the woman. “You would think that a virgin healer could do better. It’s a shame that you can’t trust an emperor.”
The voice sighed.
“Well, the stories I overheard are true. You live in your waste while the labyrinth’s monsters enjoy your body to recharge themselves.”
Again, she looked up but still saw nothing but black. Her head dropped again.
“You’ve been here for over six months. You might say something, so I might know you keep some sanity.”
“W…what…do…” Valary struggled to remember the words. “I’m…brok..n.”
The man’s unsympathetic laugh echoed around her.
“A broken hero of the empire betrayed and forgotten. Tis a sad story I’m sure,” the sound of his crunching footsteps came from her left side as the hint of light came to her blind eyes.
“Yes, you are in a terrible state. Worse than I imagined.” The voice seemed surprised when the man looked over the damage revealed on the woman’s body amid the darkness.
“So, it’s true that Nazalath ordered them to cut off your arms and legs first. It’s even more amazing he had that iron rack made for the monsters to enjoy you. You really know how to get people angry.”
The blind woman felt his close presence. She winced from a sudden pain from her breast when the stranger pulled off a blood sucker.
“I noticed your tormentors lined these labyrinth walls with diatomite to suppress your healing magic. Even these blood suckers live to feast upon you. You’re covered by these things. Did you stop to consider changing your life at some point?”
His amused tone infuriated her.
“Mock me else…where!”
The grunted words were all she could force out. Undeterred, the man tapped on a water dish hooked to her cage.
“They’ve really thought this out,” he whistled with apparent approval. “Water dripping from the ceiling to a container close enough to drink from but too far away for her to drown herself.”
She heard a metallic tap on the other side of her cage-like coffin.
“And a container of moldy food for you to feed on. No need to feed an immortal, I guess. From the look of the food, the guards show up once a month to refill this. Lucky for you, the rodents hate the diatomite so you can eat this wretched stuff.”
His tone remained steady, and his analysis reminded her of a scientist. She hated them as much as those who put her in the grave.
“It really looks hopeless for you. I mean, even if you somehow get to the floor, you can’t crawl out of here. It’s really pathetic for the hero to become like this.”
The stranger chuckled, then she heard metal striking the floor. The temperature in the cold confines of the tunnel seemed to drop. Valary felt his hot breath on her face.
“So, what do you want?”
His voice filled her mind like an endless echo for a moment. The blind woman’s pained expression changed to confusion.
“Don’t you understand the words? I asked, what do you want?” He repeated.
She spat out the words.
“To live, you idiot!”
A blurry blob of yellow light finally came through the blackness as the woman felt tears streaming along her cheeks. The brightness ebbed and flowed as her eyelids fluttered to wipe away the tunnel grit and tears. Then his bitter, smirking tone pierced her thoughts.
“Everything wants to live; it is the very essence of our planet. Even these crawling bugs eating your waste at my feet want to live. But such creatures carry neither the intelligence nor the courage to stop my boot from crushing them. Give me a better answer or stay here and rot for the emperor you…”
An echoing roar interrupted the conversation.
“Oh, it appears you have a guest coming to use you again. From the sound of that particular growl, it’s probably a Dalax. I’ll bet he spends a great deal of time bleeding you of your aether while probing your body with those tentacles in its head.”
The man’s voice moved away from her.
“Still, I’m impressed you don’t cower from what’s coming. Bravery — no, something else.”
His movement stopped, then he asked a question.
“Do you enjoy this place? I’ve seen mortals who take erotic delight in the pain and humiliation of a whip or a beating. Tell me if that’s the reason you remain stoic in the face of what comes toward you. If so, I won’t stop the monster if you wish it.”
Valary suddenly felt rage well inside of her at his taunting tone.
“I hope the gods rip off your pole and stuff it down your throat!”
The man snickered, obviously amused at the response.
“That certainly sounds like a heroic healer who stood up to an emperor to reveal the corruption about him and his court. Still, why the hesitation at telling me what you really want? Tales came to me about your brave work with the Infinites to defeat a demon like Thrarion.”
He sighed again at her silence.
“Still, it’s been a while since I got to see a Dalax in action. Ah yes, I remember now. A stupid young Arok warrior stepped in front of one to save me. Unfortunately for him, I had no intention of helping him. Two monsters ripped him apart in their frenzy to get inside his body with those black tentacles. Their work made quite a mess.”
The crunchy sound of the man’s boots as he turned away filled the air.
“Still, the man deserved his fate as my bait. I left while he screamed his last. As I’m sure you know, Arok’s carry more Aether than a human. So, I’m curious why you’re still holding out. Maybe you’ll give me an answer after it finishes.”
The footsteps continued to fade, and Valary’s eyes finally noticed a blurry image outlined by light.
“I want revenge!”
The woman’s nearly hysterical shout came out of her throat before she realized it. The figure stopped.
“Against who?” The man’s tone changed.
The question forced Valary to pause, trying to sort out her confused thoughts.
Everyone in the empire put me in this state! But he wants something concrete.
“The cursed empire!” Words sprang out. “Nazalath laughed when he watched his guards rape me again and again. I want his last gaze on me as I rip out his heart.”
She took a deep breath, then screamed as tears streamed down her face.
“Even more, I want to wade in the bodies while I kill everyone in his court who watched with amused grins while they butchered me! I want to kill them, resurrect them, and then burn them alive!”