Meeting

"My name is Erebus"

My voice sounded deep and hoarse, almost as if it hadn't been used in years. And to be fair, it hasn't been used at all.

"I see, Erebus. You are strong, but I must ask. Why do you befriend the carriers of the Light?"

Carriers of the light? What the hell does that mean? It has been talk of darkness over and over again and now I'm getting word of the light? I voice my confusion to the Thrall in front of me.

"Carriers of the Light? What do you mean?"

The Thrall points over to where the ghost floats and lets out a growl before continuing.

"That thing, only the Guardians have them. Hive are not meant to side with the Light!"

Traces of hostility laced the voice of the Thrall, I still don't understand. If anything, this ghost seemed to run on darkness, it even informed me a while ago that it uses darkness to heal me. Looking at the ghost, I speak through the connection once more.

"I don't think this ghost runs on the Light, take another look at it."

The Thrall grabs the ghost out of the air and begins to inspect it, poking and prodding at the ghost as well. Eventually, a dark green aura begins to seep out of the ghost before it fades away, reappearing at my side. The deep and distorted voice of the ghost rings out again.

"Do not... touch me..."

Through my head, the Thrall speaks.

"This is a new discovery. Come back to base with us to report to Lord Malvūc."

With that, the connection gets cut off before I can even reply. The Thrall, including the one that just spoke with me, turn to look up, as another Hive ship appears out of a strange green portal, and the Thrall vanish into thin air, presumably getting transmitted into the ship. Something like this happened with the Guardian before, when the ghost teleported the gun into its hands, this is probably the same thing.

The important thing to ask right now, is who the hell is Malvūc? If they want me to meet him, why was I left down here?

Before I can ask another question, I see my hands begin to fade with a green glow, the feeling vanishing. Soon enough, my vision fades as well.

When my vision returns, all that is around me are piles of Fallen corpses. The amount here could almost reach a hundred, why aren't they eating this all? This is basically Biomass galore! I have got to get my hands on some of this, it's basically free Biomass.

Reaching forward, I go to grab one of the bodies to begin eating. As soon as I try, however, my hand gets pulled away by some... what is that? It's definitely a Hive, however it isn't like anything I've seen. Three green, glowing eyes sit in the middle of its star shaped head, its shoulders practically exploding off of its arms. In its hand is a giant sword, practically the size of me. Is this some kind of knight? If it is, who is he to keep me away from all of this Biomass?

Instantly, a connection flashes in my head and sends a message.

"The food is only for Lord Malvūc, we cannot take any of it."

The connection fades, and I'm left there in a stupor. This fucking Lord Malvūc, he doesn't need all of this food. I understand that this race has nigh-infinite hunger, but come on, not even one body?

Unfortunately, I'm in no position to even challenge the knight to this food, and if the knight is so strong, I can only imagine the power of Malvūc. I still have a long way to go in terms of strength I see.

I wonder what the upper limit is? Whatever, my focus at the moment should be getting at least as strong as the knight in front of me.

After a few minutes of me contemplating my next actions, I feel a sharp pain in my head, followed by another message.

.

[New Task Available]

[Mutiny:

Kill Malvūc and destroy his worm]

.

His fucking what? A worm? Why the hell does this ability want me to destroy a worm? What's up with this 'Task' anyways? Since when could this ability issue missions for me to complete? I have so many questions, and no answers to any of them.

After a few more seconds, my body and vision begin to fade once more, I'm getting teleported again. After a few moments, my vision returns to me, and around me is a strange sight.

Grey sloped walls line the area, with beautifully sculpted pillars raised along the sides of the walls that appear to be made from bone. Whitish vines droop from the pillars, some of them grow on the ground. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling with crystals on them that flood the area in a warm green light.

A pathway of bronze engravings lies on the floor, they seem to depict some fat dude with a sword, however I can't really tell for sure.

In front of me, the Thrall walk forward, along with the knight who is no longer carrying a sword. Turning around, one of the Thrall beckon me to follow, and so I do. I get the feeling that my power here is super low, almost negligible, I'm in no place to disobey what I am told.

Walking forward, I notice that the hallway begins to widen, as if we are heading to an open room. Looking out, I start to see an outline of a chair, and it seems that someone is sitting atop of it.

Continuing onwards, the outline becomes more and more defined, and I start to make out the figure that sits upon the chair. A fat grey figure with a triangular head, three green glowing eyes sit directly in the center of its head along with a gigantic maw that takes up most of its face. Huge piles of Fallen bodies are placed behind its chair. I can't tell if this guy eats or collect the bodies, and I'm not sure I want to know.

Its face contorts into a grim smile as he stands up, walking forward to somewhat greet us. Stopping a few meters away, I feel a connection force itself into my brain, as I begin to hear the thing cackle aloud.

"Where is the day's haul?"

The knight steps forward and takes a knee before speaking though the connection.

"It is being transported to the vaults as we speak, Lord Malvūc."

So this is Malvūc, huh. He reminds me of one of my colleagues back on Earth to be honest, Doktrov was an interesting guy. He wasn't a hitman, but rather he took the hit requests and distributed them to hitmen to carry out. I don't know if it's good or bad luck that he gave me my final request.

As I think, Malvūc points to my location and interrupts my thoughts.

"Who is the one you have brought along? I cannot sense my mark on him."

This time, the Thrall steps forward, also taking a knee, before speaking in a voice that clearly conveys its fright.

"A rogue Thrall, one that had assisted us today. We would have faced many more casualties had it not been for Erebus."

"Erebus you say? Hey, Erebus, come here."

Fuck, he's talking to me? I hope nothing bad comes out of this. Stepping forward, I follow in the other two Hive's footsteps, and take a knee.

"So, you saved this mission from facing failure. A deed such as that cannot go without reward, now can it?"

I don't like the way that sounded, something about the way it speaks really throws me off, but ultimately I swallow my concerns and speak out.

"You think so?"

Malvūc lets out a small laugh before continuing to speak.

"I do, indeed. Come closer."

Malvūc waves its hand towards me, and I walk forward to it. When I get close enough, it raises its right hand and growls a few words aloud that I cannot make out before a green darkness flows out from its hand and into my head.

My head begins to feel warm, only for it to be rudely interrupted by pain. No messages seem to come forth, however my body begins to morph as pain engulfs my body. What the hell did Malvūc do?

My grey body begins to grow larger and my arms and legs begin to lengthen. The black bones that once ran on the outside of my leg grows thicker and sturdier. My shoulders begin to grow slightly, and my overall body begins to look more like bone armor.

This hurts so fucking bad!

Immediately, it got better. Not because of the pain fading, however. It was actually due to more pain, specifically a sharp pain in my head, followed by a message.

.

[An influx of darkness detected]

[Rapid evolution will now begin]