Chapter 97 - The Feasting Hall

Hump didn’t breathe as the creature stepped inside. Its pace was leisurely, a curious look in its eyes just like Albry’s had been when he was possessed. Assessing, curious, hungry.

A woman trailed behind it carrying a rod that glowed with pale red light. She wore a simple tunic and trousers, stained with either blood or dirt—it was impossible to tell in the dim lighting. Her footsteps were inhumanly even, and she gazed ahead with a stare that appeared like her very soul had been sucked out of her. Around her neck, Hump caught the glimmer of an adventurer’s medallion.

The missing adventurer.

His eyes shifted back to the monster. He couldn’t help but stare—didn’t know where else to look. Up close, the creature’s lumpy flesh was more like moulded clay. At its centre, a dull yellow light pulsed gently. Some sort of heartstone? All sense of logic left him beneath its gaze. A primal fear rose within him. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. The gods had truly abandoned him, and he was to be a victim of a horror beyond his world.

It took a step closer, peering into Hump’s eyes. A smile formed on its mouth, a hint of its teeth showing.

“You are afraid,” it said, its voice low and deep.

Hump licked his lips. “You’re rather scary.”

Its grin widened. “Good, you are right to be afraid. You are in my home now. Do you like it?”

Hump gulped. If he’d truly been taken to the Remnant Realm, he was on his own. No one knew where he was, and even if they could, they couldn’t come from him. They wouldn’t. The very concept was insanity. Which meant he was imprisoned by some mad beast of another realm, and he was alone.

He fought back the building fear. He was already exhausted from his previous attempts to escape, and he didn’t know how long it had been since he’d last eaten or drank, but it felt like at least a day had passed. There was only one thing that gave him hope. The creature was speaking to him, which meant it wanted something.

“I like it,” Hump said, despite his attempt at bravery, his voice came out as a croak. He glanced beyond the entrance the creature had created in the wall, seeing only dark stone beyond. “I’ve slept in worse places. The view’s not great, but at least it’s clean.”

It tilted its head in that alien manner. “I have learned to keep my pens clean.”

Hump inwardly groaned. Gods have mercy. If he was in a pen, did that make him food? He shook the thought from his mind, searching for anything to say. Come on, Hump. Focus.

“How do you speak my language?” he asked.

“I have spent centuries in the minds of your people and seen much of your world. Language was a part of that.”

“And are your kind the people of this world?” Hump asked.

The creature shook its head. “The people of this world are gone. Once, I was a spirit. I always admired your use of names. ‘Shade’ was a particularly interesting choice. Spirits of nature turned into mere shadows of their former selves, twisted by the gods you worship. Through the destruction of our realm, they created me. Here, only by feasting could I survive. Devouring my own. In your tongue, I am a gorger.”

“And what do you want from me?” Hump stammered. “Am I food?”

“I want many things,” it said. “The wizard took something from me. You are her apprentice, are you not? Tell me where it is.”

“If I tell you, will you let me go?”

The creature smiled but shook its head. “There is no escape from here. You must accept that. You are mine to do with as I wish. Answer my question and I shall grant you an easier fate.”

Hump hesitated. Not out of courage, but out of preservation. If all he had to bargain with was information, then once he gave it up there was nothing left. The creature could kill him right there, or perhaps it had simply lied and would do as it wished anyway.

Keep it talking, Hump thought. It was desperate. No matter how long they talked, it would change nothing, but it wasn’t like he had anything to lose. Perhaps there was something in there that would give him a chance.

“Why should I tell you anything if you’re just going to kill me?” Hump asked.

The creature stepped closer, inspecting him. Hump didn’t have his staff, but he called upon his essence anyway, gathering it to his hands. If the beast could sense his growing power, it showed no sign of caring. It walked around him, poking at his ribs with stone hard fingers, tugging at his hair.

“There is nothing to bargain,” it said. “I have waited an age and am nothing if not patient.”

It was suddenly before him, a blur of motion. Its mouth opened wide and a low snarl echoed out from inside like the earth itself was trembling. Its body seemed to grow larger, until it towered over him, madness filling its eyes.

Hump’s eyes went wide as it neared, his eyes fixated on the rows of ivory teeth in its mouth. He drew quick, short breaths, stepping back until he hit the wall of his chamber. The creature didn’t move its feet, but its body expanded to follow him, growing until it was all he could see. For a moment, he thought it was going to swallow him whole. Then it shrank back. It stepped away from him, groaning as if in restraint. Hump sensed its insanity bubbling within, barely hidden beneath the surface, held back by sheer will.

“How I hunger!”

Hump could sense the truth in those words. He could feel it. It was as if every part of this creature desired nothing more but to feast on him.

“There is nothing I want more than to feast on you.” It lowered itself until its eyes were level with Hump’s, it’s stare so intense Hump wondered if it could see straight through to his soul. “Your mind cannot understand what it is like to starve for so long. To eat and never be full.”

“Please,” Hump said quietly. “Please spare me. I’ll tell you what I want to know.”

“You are far too alive for me to set you free. There is nothing like you in my world. It is desolate, destroyed by your kind. No more. I will be free of it. You came to my home and destroyed it, now I will eat yours. Do you want to know what happens when I feast?”

Hump glanced at the woman to his side, standing there as stoic as a statue. “I guess I end up something like her.”

“No. I tasted her a little, but not this one. Without your spark, you become no more than sacks of meat.” The gorger approached the woman and gently caressed her hair, admiring her. “This… this takes craftsmanship.”

It touched the wall and Hump felt essence in the world shift. The wall churned, the entire chamber rumbling as if it were about to collapse. A few seconds later, a body fell from the wall and it the ground. No, not just a body. A man. He lay there, sputtering and crying random babble, his head held in his hands, his knees clutched to his chest.

It took a moment for Hump to recognise him. Albry.

“This is what happens when I truly feast,” it said.

Hump’s heart hammered.

“He failed me,” the creature continued. “Now I shall feed on him for years to come. One learns to drag out their meals here. There is little choice but to ration in a dead world.” It stepped closer, coming face to face with him. It eyes were deep and hollow. “Answer me now and I shall give you a choice. Become my puppet or become my meal.”

That was hardly a choice. Hump drew upon the power he’d been building and slammed a palm into the creature’s chest, right against its heartstone. He threw everything he had into it, holding nothing back. “Blast.”

His essence left him in a flood. The chambered boomed as if the world itself was coming down. The creature was blown to pieces, its body littering the ground like shattered clay. For a moment, Hump felt hope. But only for a moment. Essence stirred, and the pieces flowed across the ground like sludge, reforming around its heartstone before his eyes.

Its laughter sounded the entire time, without a mouth even. That’s when Hump realised that it was not just a physical creature. It had a spiritual form, given shape by whatever it built its body of.

Suddenly, Hump felt something around his throat. His wrists a moment later. It dragged him up, half hanging him from the roof until the only thing that kept him choking was the tips of his toes.

He gasped for breath, shaken by the cold of essence overuse and the pain around his neck. Adrenaline surged through him, but he was wiped out. There was no fight left in him.

“It’s always best when my meals resist,” it said.

Hump felt a sharp pain in his mind. The world went white. His feet gave out beneath him, but the chains that bound him held him up.

“The lighthouse,” Hump screamed. “Hestia’s Star is in the lighthouse.”

The creature smiled. “Good, but there is no need for you to speak. It is too late for you to decide. I can find everything I need myself. There is nothing quite as satisfying as sifting through the mind of another, though I believe you will find the process rather unpleasant. It will begin slowly, as work my way in through the cracks of your soul, until it can no longer endure. Then you will be mine.”

The gorger placed its hand against Hump’s chest, its stone-hard hand warm to the touch.

“No!” Hump said. “Wait—”

Pain stopped him. A foreign power crept out from each of its fingers, penetrating him like tendrils of ice. He felt the worm through his body like a physical force, worse than any essence overuse he’d ever experienced.

He gasped, then gritted his teeth. Instinct kicked in, and a wall of will formed to face the encroaching force. The only thing that stood between it and his soul. It enshrouded him, grasping him in its icy claw, poking at his defences in search of a crack.

“Your will is strong, but mine is stronger. There will be no release once it falls. No distance from the pain. Even once your mind falls, your soul has no escape.”

Hump didn’t respond. If he focused, he could resist at least this much. He could hold out. But for what? To drag out his demise?

While you are alive, there is hope. There is purpose.

Hump closed his eyes and envisioned the river within. Into it, he channelled all the pain and fear he felt—at least he tried to. It was all he could do just to hold back the gorger’s will. With every passing second, it grew a foothold in his body. His defences were falling, moment by moment. Perhaps he could hold out for an hour, maybe even longer, but eventually he would fall.

A roar thundered from the very core of Hump’s soul. Life rose up from within, flooding his body with warmth, reinforcing the cracks in his defences and at least for a moment pressing back the gorger’s invasion.

Hump opened his eyes and breathed deeply, drinking in the air.

The gorger staggered back, its eyes widening. “What are you?”

Hump stared at it numbly, catching his breath. The moment the pain left him was bliss beyond anything he’d ever felt. He couldn’t help but smile at the relief.

“Just a hedge wizard,” Hump said softly. “I’m not going to let you eat me.”

The gorger smiled back, baring its teeth in a feral grin. “A gorger is what it eats. What will I become if I eat you?”