39 The Grand Womb

I slashed my blade through the armored body of fourth gobling that crossed our path, I counted it because of its mutation. It had four arms, a large head, and it could use defensive spells. Two halves of the gobling fell to the ground it looked up at me with hatred in its eyes. I planted my blade between them for good measure.

The deeper we traveled below ground the stranger everything became. Yellow cancerous growths attached to roots wiggled and spewed strange fluids. They were covered in boils and oozed with puss. Each were connected to root like growths that spread across the underground. Something was moving inside of them. I held a fireball behind one to see the shadow within.

It was humanoid with wings and a feathered head. There was a distinct human shape to the face. These weren't the womb gobbling of before or even goblings at all. To my database they were unclassified. We needed answers.

Hidden labs filled the underground like cave bats. Every other room contained a magician of some kind running experiments on goblings. They were easy to kill. Despite their talent for magic none were of a high level. They might have been Plebe bet they weren't the guardians.

They were barely worth fighting. Elena held one of those wizards down with a boot on its throat. "Stop, I need one alive." The pale skinned woman frowned, and her tail twitched in annoyance.

She kicked the wizard to me. "Fine, this better be good." I took hold of the wizard and walked towards one of the yellow growths.

"What is in this thing?" I asked. The magician remained silent.

Doppel placed a hand on my shoulder before ripping out the mage's brain. "That is interesting." She said.

"I forget that you aren't one of us and couldn't find out the normal way." Tyrannus said as he approached us.

I looked over the growth and took a good guess. "Are they using selective breeding to produce a new more powerful gobbling." I said.

Tyrannus shook his head. "Close but they have long since maxed out the potential for gobling kind.

"They are breeding a strain within the gobling genome. We believe they are trying to breed a Valkyrie. Lost in the gobling genome are various creatures created by humankind during their golden age. The Valkyrie were considered some of mankind's most powerful weapons." This universe had a different history than the one I'm familiar with. Sometimes names are universal constants.

"What would they gain by creating a bunch of flying warrior women?" I asked.

Rudalpho coughed lightly. "While much of the Valkyrie's origins are unknown it is accepted that they were created by humans. Compared to the standard ling they are far superior. Even a youngling rank Valkyrie is a match for a darkling duke." They were basically broken. Was that why they were gone? I doubted they would be allowed to return. This world's patch wouldn't allow it.

…

I cut the legs off of wizard and shoved his face against one of the growths. He screamed as the growth's flesh crept up and began overtaking his face. "I'll talk." He yelled. I pulled the gobling away.

"We're creating super soldiers." My sword pierced the gobling's chest and the light left his eyes.

"An heir," one of the wizards said after I broke his bones from the feet up. He didn't speak until I reached his waist.

We were at the edge of a pit. Once again, we found that this towers basement simply went deeper. Long terrible roots stretched out of the hole. Growths dangled from them like rotten fruit on vine. Below a powerful presence exude more aura than anything I've felt before. I couldn't help but wonder why make this.

Bringing back a creature from a lost age was just asking for trouble. If anything would call a counter force this was it. The mages didn't know what they were talking about. The longer we fought down here the more xp Dol could farm. All of this was to gain xp.

How long had Dol been here? This place wasn't normal. It couldn't have appeared in a year. This was the undertaking of decades. The only way to get any answers was to fight Dol.

"Let's go my sister is waiting." Tyrannus said. We leapt down into the deep chasm.

We fell past the bulbous growths and roots larger than tree trunks. Below glowing with a sickly green light was a green stone. The rock was covered in runes and crackled with vast amounts of aura. The tree wrapped its roots around the stone absorbing aura from it. I looked up from the ward stone to the creature itself.

A woman's face with hair made of tree limbs stared blankly at the air. Its head was a triangular thing with fleshy tendrils connected to the roots. Small sparks of green aura passed through the roots. Below the creature's stomach was bulbous like the others. Within a green creature glowed within.

Still lower a set of lips drooled open and spat out 12 malformed but fully grown goblings. They stood up and began to run. Before the first could get too far the mouth of some beast came down and devoured it. The gobling screamed as wooden teeth crushed its bones. The monster leaned its head back and swallowed. What remained of the devoured gobling slid through the creature into the womb housing the glowing creature.

Seven wooden heads of those ferocious beasts rose and began devouring the newly born goblings. Moments later the creature's vulva opened and another mass of goblings fell on the ground the cycle repeated itself.

At the end of the room, I saw a familiar door. "What are our odds of sneaking past it?"

Isis lvl100 Grand Womb

Rank: Mad Plebe

She continued to stare into space while the many beastly heads devoured her young. Isis didn't look at us.

"She's a Mad Plebe. If we try to get past her, she'll attack." Elena said. Her glowing eyes hardened at the creature.

"Have you fought many Mad Plebe?" I asked.

Elena locked her hips to the side and raised an eyebrow. "They are the only Plebes allowed to compete in my circuit." I nodded.

"So, odds are good their comparable to the knight rank. That's unfortunate." I searched for any weaknesses. There were the legs. It stood on a tripod the joints were bulging red and inflamed. "Back me up I'm going to cut its joints off and make it fall."

Tyrannus placed a hand on my shoulder. "Keep to the left as much as you can. We're going to fire to the right to keep the heads off of you." I threw hm a thumbs up and charged.

Ping!

Quest: Slay Isis

Reward: +20AGL

My root was simple. I'd shoot a straight line to the wall, kick off the wall, and slash through the joint. With only two legs the creature would fall.

The first head shot towards me at lightning speed. I veered to the left and telekinetic machinegun fire blasted the head. It missed and I raced for the wall. Two more heads shot down their wooden mouths wide open. White lightning blasted them while I charged into the wall.

I could feel the wall crater while I kicked off. All six heads gathered their themselves and attacked at once. My body shot off the wall like a bullet. I raised my wings and flapped increasing my acceleration even more. Long dragon like heads chased after me.

The blue halos that lined Diabla's blade glowed brighter than my fading memories of the sun before I slashed and glided away from the wall. Blood oozed from the wound before a white line appeared in it. Then the wound erupted with blue flames. Isis screamed and green aura exploded from her body.

While she fell all six maws opened and unleashed black, red, green, yellow, blue, and purple breath attacks. The cave shook while I flew evasive maneuvers to avoid the attacks. Suddenly, all six beams pointed in my direction. I twisted closed my wings and held Diabla in front of me. I pulled on the golden spell and strengthened us even more.

Another shriek rang out over the sound of six breath attacks. She fell over only held up by her roots. The ward stone stabbed into her body splitting her hideous womb open. Hundreds of goblings spilled out in different states of growth.

Smoke poured off my body and ever cell in me screamed when I powered up Aura Rush to 100%. I crossed the distance and activated Armageddon's chainsaw. Gripping diabla with both hands I slashed horizontally at Isis's neck.

A shield appeared blocking me for a second. Sparks flew as if felt the shield give. My blade bit deep into her neck. Blood poured while I cut. I tore the head off by her vine like hair and threw it to Doppel.

The dragon heads attacked each other without the head to distinguish friend from foe. Green light erupted from Isis's smaller womb. The green turned dark and the body began to wither. I swung my sword only for a blast a telekinesis to knock me back. I opened my wings and flew above the carnage.

Ping!

Quest Completed: Slay Isis

Rewarded: +20AGL

Agility 206

Ping!

Level up..

Jacob lvl60

HP and AP restored

+300 to HP and AP

+30 to all stats

A crack appeared in the ward stone and the tower shook. The crack spread quickly throughout the wardstone.