Seeing that giant made of corpses, Muta felt a chill run down his spine — but he didn't let it shake him. He was the only one in the group who knew what a necromancer was — and the only one who had the slightest clue how to beat him.
The necromancer charged at the group, each step squishing like rotten meat being squeezed. When he got close, he shouted, pounding the ground with both hands. The corpses forming his hands got crushed, their eyes stopped glowing, and they fell apart. He didn't hit anyone, screamed in rage, and the group scattered.
Muta stayed by Edwin's side while the rest gathered on the other side of the necromancer. Looking down, Muta saw the burned corpses he'd killed and remembered the games he'd played. Then he said to Edwin:
"FIRE! Corpses are weak to fire!"
He bent down, grabbed a piece of burned corpse like it was nothing gross, and showed it to Edwin. Even burned, the meat reignited thanks to Muta's glove. Edwin looked at the ball of flesh, then at the necromancer preparing to charge, and threw the flaming mass right at him.
The corpses hit caught fire, their eyes went dark, and they detached quickly. The necromancer didn't care and ran straight toward Muta and Edwin. Muta went left and Edwin right, heading for his suitcase with Zoe.
The necromancer chased Muta, who ran and lazily dodged the necromancer's wild, clumsy attacks — the necromancer laughed with every strike. Edwin shouted for Muta. Both stopped and looked. Edwin tossed a bag toward Muta. Too far away, it dropped on the ground — neither knew what was inside, but both sprinted for it.
Muta got there first, barely dodging a punch. While running, he opened the bag: full of baseballs. Not knowing what to do with them, he looked at Edwin, who held a bat and said:
"Go for it."
That's when Muta realized what to do. He grabbed a ball, his glove ignited it, and he threw it while running from the necromancer. Edwin swung the bat yelling:
"HIT!"
The flaming ball slammed into the necromancer's legs, piercing through both. The necromancer screamed; the corpses there caught fire and detached, making the giant fall hard.
Muta threw another ball to Edwin while trying to hit the corpses directly, but the necromancer got up fast and blocked the hit. Edwin, however, struck his left arm, tearing off half the corpses.
Furious, the necromancer charged toward Edwin and the rest. Now Edwin couldn't hit Muta's balls anymore, so Muta started throwing two at a time into the necromancer's back. The balls couldn't pierce through but stuck, spreading fire faster across the giant's body.
The necromancer fell while running, his moving corpses writhing in pain and slowing him down. Jack, Zoe, and Edwin thought all those flaming corpses would run over them if they didn't move. Venus stood still while the rest moved away.
The necromancer stopped right in front of Venus, who crouched, grabbed his skull by the eye, and pulled, ripping it off. The burning flesh on his face didn't seem to bother him. He laughed and said:
"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! You're better than I expected."
Venus answered:
"You're just stupid. You ran around while letting us hit you. Honestly, no wonder you've been dead for thousands of years."
Muta added:
"And all those dead people here were probably weaker than you... or got swallowed by the worm."
The necromancer got angry, but before he could say anything, Edwin took the skull from Venus's hand and broke it in half with his bare hands. Muta and Jack's eyes went wide — they weren't expecting that. Venus and Zoe screamed at Edwin; half the skull still had flesh, and to them, it was disgusting.
Edwin looked lighter and said, "Mission accomplished." He grabbed his suitcase and walked away. Venus and Zoe followed, yelling at Edwin for what he did. Jack and Muta stood frozen, mouths open, eyes wide, looking at each other. They still hadn't processed what Edwin had done.
It was a long walk to the worm's stomach. As they moved, Muta couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about the fight with the necromancer, but he didn't say anything. The rest stayed calm: Zoe and Edwin collected weird stuff the worm swallowed, Venus kept trying to summon the sword, and Jack examined everything cautiously. That was how they reached the stomach.
The stomach was full of the worm's own tentacles. It was dead, but the tentacles started moving as the group arrived.
Once again, Muta thought about the necromancer fight: That was too easy. Not that it's a bad thing, but... didn't he have years of experience? He was about to share his suspicion when Zoe spoke first:
"Look! Like those little creatures that drop their tails when scared, and the tail keeps moving."
Jack immediately replied:
"That happens with people too, you know?"
"Re- really??!!" Zoe asked, excited.
Venus said:
"Yeah, and it's creepy as hell. Just thinking about it gives me chills."
Muta said:
"I don't even want to imagine it."
After hearing that, Muta figured that was probably all it was.
Besides the tentacles, the gastric acid held the remains of various buildings. The group decided to cross by walking on top of them. As they moved toward the acid, it felt like the tentacles knew exactly where they were and tried to hit them.
At the edge, they jumped onto a building. Edwin opened his suitcase and pulled out an iron pipe.
"HELL NAH, MAN. How the fuck do you have EVERYTHING inside that damn suitcase?" Muta said.
Edwin replied:
"Dunno. If you wanna know, ask him."
They looked at me.
Edwin handed the pipe to Venus, who rowed across while dodging tentacles.
There was silence, so Muta decided to start a conversation.
"You guys seem pretty chill... like you've been inside a worm before."
Everyone looked at him silently, smirking.
"WAIT... YOU'VE BEEN INSIDE A WORM BEFORE??" Muta asked, eyes wide open.
They all laughed and said no.
"Then why the hell did you all make that face? Nah, just forget it. Tell me what you did day to day here."
Jack answered:
"Nothing interesting. We lived in Strabevield. With Edwin's white door, we'd go there all the time."
"Thought that door couldn't hold many at once," Muta said.
Edwin replied:
"We always went and came back at different times."
Jack added:
"Yeah. And honestly, when you showed up here, we were bathing in a nearby lake. Now that I think about it... our plan was to all come back through the white door right before the Dark Hour. Even if you hadn't appeared, we'd have lost the door eventually. Guess it was fate."
Muta remembered the man from his dream telling him to go to Strabevield and got curious.
"What's Strabevield like? What did you guys do there?"
Venus replied:
"Well... everything there's HUGE. It's like a city made for giants, with SO MANY people, like... so many it makes the city feel small."
Zoe continued:
"And during the cute little creature event, it kinda feels like we're the small ones, not them being too big."
"Little creatures, huh..." Muta said.
Edwin commented:
"I wanna know how people tame creatures that big. Like, for real."
Jack:
"Yeah. We wandered around the city. Unlike others from a single universe, Strabevield was built millions of years ago by people from many different universes and it keeps growing. No matter how far you walk, there's always something new you've never seen."
Edwin added:
"It was built there 'cause it's near several cities, around a giant hole. It's completely black, almost creepy. Some say it's the center of Purgatory, 'cause the closer you get, the more stuff shows up."
"Damn... can't wait to get there," Muta said.
Muta asked,
"What's the Dark Hour like there? What do people do?"
Jack replied,
"There's a barrier there that no other place has. During the Dark Hour, monsters can't appear or get inside. The city doesn't stop, Dark Hour or not."
He tried imagining the city, getting more excited. Seeing all those cultures from other universes... he thought, then asked excitedly:
"DO YOU THINK THERE'S ANYONE FROM MY UNIVERSE??" Muta asked excitedly.
Venus answered:
"Hm... maybe. We've never seen anyone like you... but that doesn't mean they're not there, you know there are infinite universes, right?. "
Muta answered:
"Yeah, i know"
Venus continued:
"We've only explored a tiny part of the city. It's almost like a whole country."
"Man... when you said it was big, I pictured big... but not THAT big," Muta said.
Jack:
"Don't even try, man. It's way too big."
Suddenly, Muta felt someone breathe in his left ear. He jumped and looked to the side — it was Edwin, waving at him. But Edwin was more than three times his size, and Muta thought: "Nah not him... he's way too tall and sounds like cracking sticks when he moves."
This time, Muta heard laughter fading away in his right ear. He looked around, startled — no one was there.
Jack noticed and asked:
"Something wrong?"
"The necromancer... I think he's still alive," Muta said.
Edwin put a hand on his shoulder and said:
"Chill, man. I split his skull in half. No way that guy's alive."
Zoe and Venus glared at Edwin.
"Bu—" Muta started.
Jack interrupted:
"Edwin's right. No way that thing's alive... whatever it is."
Muta tried to accept he was probably just hallucinating. It was his first time seeing something so macabre.
Muta asked if the group had ever heard of anything even close to a necromancer.
Jack replied,
"That's the first time I've even heard that name. I thought in your world they didn't have this whole power stuff like where you're from."
Muta replied,
'Like I said before, that stuff only exists in fiction.'
"Oh, right, I forgot you already mentioned that." said Jack
Edwin said,
"It's also the first time I've ever heard that name.. At first, I thought it'd be tough 'cause of his size, but in the end, it was just size. Even breaking his skull was easy."
Zoe and Venus shot Edwin a pissed-off look and said,
"Don't ever do that again in front of us."
Edwin answered,
"In front of you guys, noted"
Zoe and Venus, together,
"Hm!"
Venus went on,
"Where I'm from, the most someone could do was talk to the dead."
Zoe added,
"Where I'm from, there was none of that. Well, at least not where I lived."
Venus said:
"We're here."
They reached the other side of the sea of gastric acid and jumped off the building piece. Although the tentacles tried hard to catch them, it was a pretty "calm" trip. It took about 30 minutes to cross.
Exiting the stomach, the group arrived in a place where the stench was so strong the masks didn't help anymore. Everyone looked at Venus, who had that "I told you so" look. They apologized and kept moving.
There was shit everywhere. The ground... every step sank in the filth. Rat-like creatures scattered, hiding as the group passed. Despite the disgust, the walk was "calm" until halfway through.
Then they heard noise behind them. A bunch of rats... running together. The group slowly turned and saw them merge into a bigger rat — a Rat King. It let out a scream that gave everyone goosebumps. Without thinking, they all ran as fast as they could.
The Rat King was faster. As they reached the passage to the next worm area, it jumped over them and blocked the exit. Then it screamed again... and transformed into a humanoid form.
Without thinking, Edwin punched its face — but the rats forming its head split apart, dodging the blow.
"FU- FUCK OFF!" Edwin yelled.
Muta, by pure instinct, punched its belly, the only reachable spot because of his height.. He hit a rat, but it just turned into water. Another rat quickly took its place.
Out of nowhere, Zoe slapped Muta. He looked and saw she was drooling.
"That's no way to eat," she said.
"WHA- WHATT??!!" everyone yelled, even the Rat King seemed confused.
The rats made it open its mouth in surprise. Zoe, different from herself, took off her mask, handed her plush to Jack, and jumped on the Rat King. They rolled around in the filth, rats trying to bite her, but her thick clothes protected her. Meanwhile, Zoe tried to eat the rats.
Though disgusting, Muta, Jack, and Edwin ran to help, pulling and killing the rats trying to bite her. They were doing well... but there were too many. Muta turned to ask Venus for help — and saw something that made his stomach turn.
Venus was maskless, smiling at him, hands behind hiding something... her mouth and teeth covered in blood and shit.
Muta vomited on the spot.
"TH- TH- THAT'S SO DISGUSTING!!" he yelled.
Venus dropped the rat she was hiding and went to help... Zoe devour the others.
It was an unbearable scene for Jack, Muta, and Edwin — but a feast for Zoe and Venus. No one — not even the rats — expected it. When all the rats were dead, Zoe and Venus made Edwin put some in the suitcase.
"Shall we go?" they asked, acting like nothing happened.
Edwin, Muta, and Jack looked at each other, stunned.
"Guess it's your first time seeing that too," Muta said.
Zoe grabbed her plush back (Jack had dropped it while helping) and walked off hand-in-hand with Venus, skipping.
Without saying a word, the group moved on. Muta tried to process... not the Rat King, but Venus and Zoe's behavior. _Is it 'cause they have animal traits? But Jack thought it was disgusting too... what's up with them?_ Actually, they were just like that.
They reached the worm's next section. If it smelled bad before, here the stench was deadly. It was the last region. No living thing, only remains — things that if they didn't die on the way, died here.
Even though it was the last part, the path to... you know... was still long. The group ran for the exit, the smell unbearable.
Halfway there, everything started shaking. A voice echoed:
"Think it's over? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" it was the necromancer.