Trash: Chapter 164 Stigmata (Patreon)

Chapter 164

Stigmata

I might be a bit of a pyromaniac. This is the thought that comes to mind as I see a bright beautiful green light, first cover, and then devour an unmoving opponent. What might have been a sign of ultimate safety, the bonding of an incorporeal body to a wall that could be used to manifest appendages, now turns out to be an easy second grave for the otherwise restless spirit.

Watching the green flames roll over and consume the shaking body of the spirit that is clearly crying out in pain, feels odd. Especially as the cries are muted, it feels like I am watching an action movie in silence, as the flames consume the main villain. The villain, the mind dominating necrotic flame wielder, is burning and twitching violently in the flames. Her movements so realistic in the bright green flame that I can’t help but think of how realistic it all looks.

Maybe I’m crazy. I feel crazy, for here I am, willingly inflicting agonizing flames on a restrained victim. But my bloodline powers, the ones that let me see ghosts, blessedly doesn’t extend to all my senses. Through the flames, I can see the equivalent of curses being uttered, as the ghost’s lips move. Well, they move in between obvious screams of pain. Perhaps it is the fact that I can’t hear the ghost’s cries of pain that makes this last part easier. Part of me wants to feel for this monster. Even in death, I know that this burning piece of ghostly spider monster, was once a person who died young.

Part of me also realizes that, had this ghost just existed, I wouldn’t have been drawn to such extreme measures. Had this ghost not lured in new victims, killing them, then controlling their unprotected spirits, I would have never had to bother with this level of violence. I even remember the brief second, where I too almost lost my own mind to this creature. A feat that I am still confused about. How I could go from being perfectly still one second, to fighting through memories of my past life the next. A fact that both chills me and makes me realize that there are far more frightening powers out there than I could ever have imagined. It is one thing to know that a monster you are fighting somehow mentally manipulates and controls other monsters around her. Yet, it is something even more frightening to realize that this same monster can do the same thing to you.

Perhaps that also plays a part in why I feel so detached about burning this monster so thoroughly. The fact that, if I let her go right now, she would just return, twice as strong and more willing to mind control me in a second. Even now, I can still feel the residue of where her tentacles punctured my skin. I’ve already healed the wounds, but that doesn’t mean the blood I shed, and that traces of her mind manipulating tentacle slime aren’t still there. A reminder of just how close I came to the end. Not a true end, but something far worse. I would have been stripped bare of my abilities to defend myself, killed, and ultimately mind controlled as a spiritual puppet.

 That is why I watch the bright green hue of my Healing Flames* burn everything about this monster from the face of the earth. I watch as her body slowly stops to spasm, a sign that the muscles and spiritual ectoplasm within the monster have burned away, leaving behind finely singed strips of ash. Ash that then gets melted and burnt once more, until it completely disappears.

I watch the flames dance across the monster, the same way I would watch the completely metallic cyborg assassin get dropped into the molten metal at the random steel mill. Then watch until the final red burning eye of rage blinked out, letting us all know that the threat was finally over. I am doing the same thing here, watching the life, well unlife slowly get burned out of this miserable monster. Then in what has to be the most terrifying thing I’ve seen all day, it speaks.

Fortunately, I still can’t hear the words being spoken by the muted monster. But I can read the lips well enough to make out what the monster said. Almost as if it read my own mind about the killer cyborg assassin, this mind controlling monster utters the three most spine tingling words possible.

“I’ll be back.”

Even while muted. Even while having to lip read the monster’s final moment of clarity, I read and fully understand the intent behind those words.

Worse, I believe her when she says those words. I believe she can be back.

I don’t know how.

Logically, my mind tells me that this is it, she is gone. That with these last vestiges of flames burning away even the final lingering ashes of her spiritual corpse, I believe her.

I know beyond a doubt, that this frighteningly powerful monster can and will be back, somehow, some way, and that frightens me to my very bones.

Realizing that it is over, for the moment, I stop creating the burning green flames. I hold still, watching the corner, where the wall flower mind controlling spider monster last rested, with bated breath.

While I wait, I notice the distinct change in the air. How the completely suffocating darkness that had coated the room is now gone, replaced by the natural darkness that only comes from being in an underground room that has only one trap door letting in the light from the outside world. With the thickly suffocating darkness gone, I can also smell the dusky scents of mold, mildew and worse finally coming to life and filling my lungs. I watch all this, and it is the sweet smell of rotting freedom that lets me know that this battle that went far more violently than I had intended was now over. I fought, and nearly lost to ghosts. Well not ghosts, but to a ghost. A vengeful spirit that sought to control any and all men that came down to her little den of doom.

With a quick scan of the open room, I can see piles of rotting bones laying on the ground. I’m not a psychometric, that is I can’t see the past of living objects, but I can guess by the skeletal frames that remain, that many of the bodies here belonged to the very spirits I had fought earlier.

Only after a moment of this, where I finally allow my mind and body to relax, do I start to pant. A terrible mistake, for it only causes the scent of old mold, and rotting bones to fill my nostrils that much faster. An act that I almost instantly regret, as it causes my body to cough violently from the irritation going down into my lungs.

“Are you okay?” The voice of a goddess calls out, breaking the spell of being utterly alone and safe down here. I know it is the calm and gentle voice of Luna reaching out to me, assuring my safety.

“What yeah,” I call manage to get out, in between violent coughing bursts, as my lungs try to purge themselves of the rot they have just inhaled. I try to use my Trash Skill to cleanse the area around me, only to find that I am too exhausted to even think straight at this time.

Then before I have a chance to warn the two not to come. That a monster that frightens even me had called out and swore her revenge, the two came. Aided by a mobile light source that I didn’t even know they had. Until I realized it was a mana generated flame that was used to light a cloth wrapped round a wooden stick the girls found. A stick that I would almost swear was a broken off broom handle, if so, then what a way to improvise. A quick glance shows that the cloth was seemingly ripped from the lower part of Luna’s shirt. A fact that is proven by the fact that I can now see her stomach and gently rhythmically belly button, forcing me to look away and try to look Luna directly in the eyes.

“You okay?” Luna asks, her enchanting eyes never looking away from me. As she speaks, I stare at her and see the look of complete fear, slowly get worn away as her rational mind seems to relax after seeing that I am still up and standing.

“Yeah, completely,” I lie.

“Hey, is that your sword?” Lucia asks, pointing to the spot on the ground where my sword fell into a pool of slime and sludge. Seeing it, and realizing the headache I just got from trying to use Trash to clean the air I breathe, I sigh and reach down.

Turning my back to the two so they don’t see the look of revulsion on my face, as they realize just how tired I am at this moment. However, this turns out to be a bad idea, for that is when Luna cries out, “your back!”

Hearing Luna cry out, I remember the sticky stains that I was unable to get rid of. While the corporeal tentacles managed to somehow miss my clothing, while piercing my soft flesh underneath, those wounds were healed from my flames. The only reminder of just how close I came to losing the fight was the now sticky circular patches of blood on my skin.

“Oh, that? I just bumped into something, after I dropped my sword, while trying to turn on the lights down here,” I joke as turn after grabbing the slime covered sword, and quickly place it in its scabbard. While I am looking forward, I can feel a thin film of watery slime get pushed out from the scabbard and cover my hands in a sticky film.

“Are you okay?” Luna asks, coming forward, before her foot inadvertently kicks an object on the floor. Only after she kicks the object does she look down to see that the object she kicked were the skeletal remains of the first brute I fought while down here.

“EEP!” Luna jumps back, looking down and realizing just what she had kicked. A natural reaction, and one that I instantly found cute. Though after seeing her jump back, I realized something very important.

“Yeah, after thinking about it, I think this place is going to require a little too much work, we will have to find somewhere else to move to,” I declare.

Then as if to make matters worse, I hear a number of footsteps up above, judging by the fact that there are multiple sets of metal boots clanking against a wooden floor, I realize this is not Junior or Lelia coming back with good news or food, or both. Then I know things have gone terribly wrong when someone with a clear authoritative voice calls out, looking for me specifically.

 “Healer Candidate Catarine DiVoratore Bloom! Are you here?” Just hearing my full rank, name, and former house name called out like that, I know I am in trouble, somehow.

With a reluctant sigh, I reply the only way I know how, “here!”

Then all I hear is the crisp shifting of metal feet on floorboards above, as I can tell the group of soldiers above are getting into some type of formation. That’s when I get the clear idea, that this isn’t going to end well. Then as if to highlight just how terribly wrong things are about to go, the next words from the authoritative leader confirm the worst.

“We are about to come down. Sheath your weapons now, or we will assume you are hostile and see any use or brandishing of weapons as a sign of hostility,” the leader declares, as they instantly start to descend the stairs, golden light rolling off of them and from above in brilliant bursts of light. I look down at my sheathed stone sword at my side and wonder if I need to drop it, or if my removing the sword to drop it would be seen as an act of violence. Then before I have a chance to act, the man drops down the final few rungs of the vertical ladder and quickly turns to face me, drawing and pointing a glowing sword at Luna and Lucia who are completely confused by the sudden blade pointing squarely at them. Seeing the blatant provocation towards Luna and Lucia, my protective instincts flare to life, and that’s when I say possibly the stupidest thing I could, given the circumstances.

“Hey, shit-face—” I begin, only to double down on upcoming bad choices.