Devourer Class

'Ahh, there it is.' Sladdus projected. 'You're finally showing that predictable human emotion.

You wanna know something interesting? Most humans blame themselves in anger for their deaths, the rest that are too frightened to think angrily only sit there and tremble.'

"But you and I both know this rage isn't at myself, it's at your little parlor trick." Galahad growled through gritted teeth.

'Yes, you certainly are a mystery. Why is it your so angry at my blessing? Does the answer lay in that foggy part of your mind?'

"I don't know what the hell your talking about, what do you mean by fog, and why are you calling your name a blessing?" Galahad tried controlling himself and asked the two questions without exploding, but just barely by a hair he was holding back.

'I went through that mess you call a mind and found a few strange things. One, you're delirious enough to believe that a great power evolves you above others. Two, your memories before conjuring this false power become something else, a sort of gap or mesh of irrational thought. You became senseless enough to stop me from looking through your mind like turning a window into a cracked glass, too shattered to be used for viewing.'

'What the f.u.c.k is he talking about?' Galahad was first infuriated at the smoking monster, but now he was beginning to think it was just messing with him. 'How can I be defending my own mind irrationally when I can't understand how he was attacking it in the first place? Is the black orb protecting itself? Why would it hide from its own kind? Or whatever it's creators are?'

Galahad was about to ask the questions he was thinking, but it seems Sladdus was reading his mind the entire time. The secret to the method being mind Flayers were magic wielding demons like spriggans and others alike. Capable of conjuring mana tethers they forcefully link their victim's soul to a gain access mind in a painful manner. The connection between a human's soul, mind, and body was not just figurative saying; Sladdus was exploiting that forced connection to read Galahad's b.a.r.e soul and actions with

The Flayer simply gave Galahad the idea his thoughts were brief enough to go undetected. False sense of security always seems to bring out more interesting answers for the demon.

'You're thinking all the wrong kinds of questions. Questions that don't matter when you're here for a different reason.'

"You know why I'm here? Can you see about the black orb then? The thing that gave me the powers you think don't exist. Surely you can just read my mind and see what I'm talking about?"

Galahad wanted to talk more about the strange memories, but the flayer didn't care. It carried on the conversation fairly quickly, know that time for discussion was soon to draw to a close.

'Your many years of searching and suppressed yearning has come to an end. Now as for my blessing, it is Sladdus. A grand blessing given to me by truly greater power.'

The little squid body seemed to have shivered in joy in recalling its past. That only pissed off Galahad even more.

"Answer me!" He shouted, letting loose his red inferno. "WHAT THE F.U.C.K HAPPENED TO ME!?!"

He let go of all the semantics and asked what he needed most; a simple answer to what was happening to him.

His voice turned into a roar, devoid of his normal tone that always seemed to be humorous or casual disinterest. Instead, something deeper and more coarse exploded with his words, shaking the earth around them somewhat.

'My my, what a ferocious little growl. True colors show in times of emotional discomfort.' Further analyzed Sladdus.

'Well our discussion has come to an end, time to remove your soul since it only attracts more trouble to my doorstep. It's a thing of fortune when the soul leaves a body and yet the delectable brain remains for me, and the blood filled hearts for my weaker kin. None of your pieces shall go to waste.'

When the word 'waste' was telepathically said, it was like an activation code as several of the crates bursted open to reveal the prisoners within. Monsters and mentally possessed humans came bursting out in a mix. Galahad didn't bother counting as he immediately stabbed at a human berserker that tried grabbing at him into a bear hug from behind.

Galahad didn't bother aiming his stab precisely, he could tell this shouldn't be any harder than fighting level ten hordes of silver rats. The weighted end of the arrowhead sword went through the flesh between the man's collarbone and neck, releasing a huge splurt of blood from the carotid artery Galahad just barely nicked. The counterattack was done slowly, but the Berserker barely moved in a sorry attempt to dodge.

Much like the puppets controlled the mysterious woman at the camp massacre, the mimics and humans were nothing more than husks of their original forms. Being controlled remotely by a demon unfamiliar with humanoid bodies made their reflexes and combat prowess drop significantly.

Galahad immediately went on to fight the next human, more concerned about any magicians hidden among the group.

They may have been wasted away bodies, but a magician's power over mana came from the strength of their internal manipulation. They could be physically fit or absolutely weaklings, but a frail mage could still obliterate a whole mountain if they trained their mana frame to a high enough degree.

Galahad scanned over his assailants, seeing Sladdus jump over to an unopened box, using his wriggling little tentacles to scuttle with haste. Galahad ignored him for now, using the enhanced vision of Fury and Fyre to see which deathly pale and ragged humans were performing chants and not swinging weapons. He managed to get a quick head count before the first attacker's body hit the floor.

Four were human and three were undisguised mimics. The monsters without fake faces or pretend weapons were not at all what Galahad was expecting.

They were hairless and translucent creatures, their n.a.k.e.d skin was partially showing their innards like they were composed of some kind of cloudy jellyfish like material. Beneath their gelatinous faces, Galahad could see their wide rows of long jagged teeth that stretched from ear to ear, even without them opening their lipless mouths.

Galahad noticed a spearman and a swordsman were defending an even scrawnier human who was backing into a corner, while the last of the four humans and the mimics went after him.

Galahad managed to kill all of monters with little to no difficulty. The mimics were completely under Sladdus's reign, posing no more of a threat than clumsy drunks. They could only chomp their teeth at him and try to use their b.a.r.e bodies as obstacles, making their dismemberments finish quicker than he expected.

His biggest problem was growing in the back corner. He could faintly feel a tug at the ground around him, a buzz of mana being shifted was hitting his ears, the old semblance of his magician class could sense the change through the tingling across his skin. The man being defended in the back corner was exactly what Galahad feared, a magician that could kill him the moment he finished performing his skill on the earth.

After he decapitated the last mimic, Galahad didn't bother with the fourth human that was wielding an old looking mace. Galahad dodged under the heavy weapon's swing and sprinted across the confined space to stop the magician from finishing his chant.

The two possessed humans were bracing for an attack before Galahad suddenly let the sword drop and brought his fists forward. The magic sword was too difficult to carry any rapid fire swings, so he dropped it and instead lunged towards the spearman first. His quickly drawn up plan of attack seemed crazy, but then again, what else would he be if not perfectly sane?

Sladdus was still tethered to his mind, so he knew what the boy was trying to do. The only problem was he couldn't stop the actions from taking place. Reading Galahad's thoughts and attempting to counter via his possessed minions was too much of a delay, the demon couldn't stop the spearman from falling right into the position Galahad wanted.

The spearman gave his weapon a quick thrust, aiming for Galahad's heart without worrying about the thoughts of him retaliating. His body carried most of his momentum and suddenly it couldn't stop.

Galahad moved just enough to position the spear under his armpit. Once it was there, he clamped his arm down and pulled his opponent forward enough to break his stance.

Galahad continued to take two steps back and rammed the spear behind him, impaling the swordman that was aiming to attack him from behind.

In a single turnaround, he managed to pull the spearman over and break the spear in the swordsman's sternum. The poor possessed spearman didn't even get up from his fall, as Galahad slammed a mighty heel stomp through the back of his neck, snapping it loudly.

Without waiting to confirm if the possessed mace wielder was closing in, he grabbed the sword out of the hands of the impaled swordsman behind him, feeling no resistance as he snatched away the hilt.

The magician in the corner was still doing as it was commanded, chanting and making motions with his arms to transform the dense dirt around them turn into living tendrils. Something Galahad would certainly die to.

Unfortunately he was interrupted by Galahad cutting off one of his hands at the wrist. The magician receive no real pain as it was only a ghost of its past life. It only managed to look up in time for Galahad to leave a huge slice across the throat, using one of the daggers he grabbed from the hallway. It was sitting in his belt loop and seemed like a quick way to stop the chants from completely at least part of the skill.

Galahad felt the man die as the earth around him felt back down from its bubbling state. The poor adventurer has been nothing but a tool till the moment of his death, dying just because the demon felt it necessary for a test with Galahad.

'How strange,' Sladdus said telepathically aloud. 'Most adventurers will only fight the demons and try to avoid the human. Hence how they get trapped by that human and his magic before it's too late. Yet you feel nothing after murdering the innocents of your own kind.'

"Pshh," Galahad blew the sound in a mocking tone. He knew about the deception behind those words. "Nice try, but you make that accusation like their souls haven't already left their bodies. You mention all this crap about my soul bringing something this way, yet have no mention of the walking corpses you keep around causing any issues."

'Perhaps, but who's is say I cannot simply fend off the soul bound. Otherwise I wouldn't keep this treasure in such pristine condition.'

Sladdus wriggled a little before the box he sat on bursted open and Galahad was completely stunned with what came out.

Keyna Mystroff, the sister he remembered having gone missing for over a decade, was standing right there with a saber pointed at him.