Keelhaul the Captives

I could take a moment to explain the sort of pain that I was feeling again from whatever it is that's happening within me, but that would take more time than just giving you the same word over and over again.

'PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN.'

That exact feeling, that exact word. That sensation was the only thing that was getting slapped into my very core as I felt the most painful experience that I could have ever been made to feel.

The black sludge then came out of my mouth like the first time that I was able to get the chess pieces, and this time, it wasn't from a game that was possibly born out of a couple hundred years old older game that may or many not have been from the Mediterranean.

This time, it was something else. A diamond that seemed to be etching itself into the very fabric of reality. My body felt weak as the little one ran to me and tried getting me to wake up, but the only thing that seemed to cross my mind was the darkness that was overcoming me.

The moment I came to, I was back in our little cottage as she was right beside my bed, tuckered out from taking her fair share of care to keep me safe.

I groaned as I realized something. The old aches, they were back, and so was the dull pain. I grit my teeth as I held my gut as I recalled that I forgot to file for an appendix removal all that time ago, while I was back in prison.

'Argh, well then, wasn't that just a nice little knockout, wasn't it? Lass? Have you come to yet?'

I realized that I shouldn't really try to wake her up, since I was about to shake her awake, with my thoughts proving themselves to be more than an issue.

I needed her to be fine, and she was quite literally knocked out. She looked like she was awake for more than a day, and she even had eyebags. That's not all that good.

I sighed a little, considering that she was supposedly getting "status points" and taking her sweet time to take care of me, and somehow even came down to getting eyebags, that could only really mean one thing.

I had to get out of the bed carefully to not wake her up, which was difficult since the beautiful issues of old age have caught themselves up with me.

I carefully put on my shoes as I opened the door and saw that it was autumn.

Okay, that wasn't a bad thing. When I was awake the last time, it was also autumn. I don't want to assume that time took a big, and extra jump to make me go out of commission.

Going out of commission for who knows how long, that's not really something that I wanna try to figure out the consequences of.

I looked back at the little one, and then the strange diamond, which appeared to be hovering and humming, still feeling like it's still something that shouldn't have existed.

Seeing as I was also somebody that feel under the same category, I could say that this is a bit more "on brand" for me. Hah, I can't even believe that my old humor is returning to me.

I tried to quickly walk over to it to try and see what exactly this thing was doing, until I felt a pop and pain went through the bottom part of my body.

"Ah, a popped disk, oh you have to be-"

The diamond then stopped it's hovering and began bobbing up and down towards me, getting closer and closer as I felt something different about this.

Something was different about this "artifact". The chess pieces were more literal with the sort of things that they could do, but this? This was a big fat unknown to me. This was something that eluded me.

But this thing? It got even closer and closer as it started to unfold itself right in front of me. And when I meant unfold, I mean that it was acting like a kaleidoscope of fractals and shapes that hurt my head while I looked at them, and it turned smaller and smaller up until it was able to fit into my hand.

When it got to that size, reality shifted a little as it then fell right in front of me and kept pulsing. I took a few seconds to get up, despite the pain.

It didn't really do anything when my hand hovered above it, but when I touched it, well, something different began. My vision went completely white as the only thing that I heard was pure white noise.

White and white, now that's something right there, real odd but otherwise still not that impressed. What happened afterwards was where things got a bit more interesting.

The diamond "unfurled" itself once more as I was made witness to something really good. It started to change into a more block-like form, and then began creating spire, and walkways, and other odd things that seemed to be making-

"A fucking castle."

Yup, that's what I was given. What took me a couple years of saving up my extra lives, for a fractal castle that was within some sort of weird white space.

That is, until it stopped midway its construction and changed again. It began to take a different form, with rooms, some larger, some smaller, with straight passageways to some, others with stairs or stairwells, and many of them being directly above each other, with a significant amount of height between them, only being connected by a hole.

This, this was it. This is what I was supposed to be working on. This is my "dungeon". At least I think it is.

"Alright, so the power that the goddess gave me seemed to have mutated to such a degree that it ended up bringing forth the very thing that I was supposed to use to take over the world. This is getting more complicated now.

Does that mean that she was certain about how things would actually go, to the point where she figured out how to nudge me along to get my abilities?"

My words didn't fully express whatever thoughts I had. I think that might have been a good thing. Though, it makes me a little peeved at the idea that this goddess assumed that my "dungeon" came in at a very specific time, under specific condition, taking into consideration that there might actually be multiple uncontrollable variables that could affect me getting it.

I was getting a little more scared at that idea, and I don't want to just repress the thing down, but I am a tad neurotic, so I'll just leave that up for later, and make it an issue for the future me.

Gods, I sound like one of those weirdos that act like everything's normal with getting in contact with a being that could control almost every part of their aspect that they embody, and the beings below them having the capability of being near to their level.

I should really stop dreading so much, this isn't really healthy for me to be experiencing.

"Alright alright alright, now what should I do with this? If my duty is to monitor it, then why shouldn't I just do something different, why shouldn't I just change how this thing actually works, to make sure that it's easier on my end?

What if, I make it a bit more, literal, instead of it being on a more metaphorical level?"

The diamond seemed to react, as I felt something pass through my spine into my brain, as the shape of the dungeon seemed to be getting smaller and smaller, up until there were only four rooms.

One which was larger than the other three, two of the same size, and one that seemed to be much, much smaller than what I had initially anticipated.

The smallest room seemed to be holding a version of the diamond, being supported by wires as it showed the same wires getting connected over to the other four rooms, with the largest room being the one that had the most.

The wires also looked odd, with them having either off white lines of light running along them, or pure yellow, with a more technological style to deal with it.

I blinked once and saw that the "diamond" was still in my hand, except it was less of a diamond, and more along the lines of a screen.

I was back in the regular world, that was more concerning if anything. I didn't know how much time I had spent just being there in whatever that place was, but I suppose that it was something else to have to deal with.

I walked back into the cottage, with difficulty this time, since the things that ailed me before have returned, and saw that the little one was still asleep in the same position that I left her in.

Right on the side of the bed. Still there. 'Wait, that's not the same position that she was in. I put her on the bed, why is she-?'

I felt a tap on my shoulder as there was someone else there that I never really anticipated to be right there. It was a younger-looking me, with the exact same little tools, and artifacts, added with the extra look of a pair of very grandiose horns.

"Hey."

I took a few steps back, trying to figure out what exactly this version of me was, while also looking for a weapon that would help defend myself.

"Hey come on, you can calm down. With west comes-"

"-the fallen dawn, the east the rising dusk, northborne are the tales of the forlorn, and south a new morn. The Exiling of the Grotesque God. We still remember that stupid part, don't we?"

"Yes we do, now I'll be the one to cut all of the mystifying bullcrap. This is introspection day, you'll have to deal with your personal demon i.e. me. It's odd, I get it, this day doesn't come often, like every fifty or so years? That's for the normal people, from what I've gotten, our case however is a bit, well, unique."

"Unique in what sense? The sense that it happens more often, or unique in the sense that we get this whenever we do something very very bad? Also are you just saying introspection because it's a lot more easier to describe it than what it actually is?"

"Unique in the sense that if you make a really really really strong artifact that goes against the natural order of the world, I come in and must, supposedly, kick our shit in. And yes, I did use introspection since the correct word is a little bit out of my tongue."

"Alright. So how does this work? You die or I die, and if I end up gone, you're gone permanently, and if you die I get to keep walking on this rock? Bit odd, considering if you were born from this world's metaphysical immune system, for you to be the only thing that gets sent."

"Well we're supposed to duke it out to the absolute maximum, making this fucking place look like Normandy, but you know damn well that we're mentally unstable, and somehow stable enough to do the dumbest shit feasible, which means you can eat me.

And yes, the system is a little aloof with how it views us right now. The thing thinks that I'm currently sending down to Pound Town, when in reality we're gonna do a really really fun little ritual."

"Hmm, good I suppose, but what about you? It feels kinda weird to just let the alleged real version of yourself eat you up like a rotisserie chicken, right?"

"Yeah, but you're gonna cut my head off with the exact axe that we used to kill the wendigo, so it'll be fine. I don't even have a soul, so it's not like I go to hell for fucking this up for the system."

"Fair game, well, nice getting more info from you matey. Tell me how you want me to cook you."

"Stew, preferably. Good way to get nice and tender meat, bye there "brother"."

I ran over and grabbed the axe from the haversack and went back to the doorway, seeing the shade me putting his head on a stump, with his arms right behind his back.

I walked over and swung down once, with a little bit of resistance from his spine as I felt the same feeling of meat that I remember from all those years ago.

Another kill, and this time, this counted as a homicide mixed with a suicide.