She stood up, and went to opened the door. A middle aged lady pushed a trolley into the room, the smell of roasted meat permeating the previously odorless space. She was wearing a white apron on top of a black dress of sorts. She looked like a maid. She smiled at us and gestured at the various containers on the trolley.
"Roasted boar, boiled vegetables, fruits and rice." they were covered by silver domes. She took them off one by one and the smell intensified. She carried the pots containing the vegetables and rice to the table, the meat laying on a slab of metal.
The fruits sat on a basket she placed next to me, smiling. She put two wooden plates on the table along with silverware I doubted was silver. She grabbed a thick cloth, covering the sides of the metal slab holding the meat, and put it in the middle of the table on top of another piece of thick cloth.
From under the trolley, she produced three glass bottles and a medium sized barrel. One bottle was what looked like wine, the others juice and water. The barrel had a tap for serving the contents. She put glasses and cups on the table and pushed the trolley to the door.
"Have a nice meal, and an even better night, ladies." she smiled and left, closing the door behind her.
I glanced at the food, feeling a rumble on my insides. I wasn't particularly hungry, but the display was seducing my senses.
"Let's dig in, then." Lapia said with a wide smile, her sharp teeth peeking from under her succulent lips.
Stop that. I halted the line of though. People's lips aren't succulent.
My attention back on the food, I took a slice of pork and some vegetables that were actually just potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. The meat was delicious and the vegetables rich in flavor. I finished eating quickly. I reached for the water bottle, but was stopped by Lapia's hand.
"That's alcohol." she warned me.
"What kind?" I took the bottle anyway and inspected its contents.
"Potato spirit." she said, taking a bite from her food.
My eyes went wide. Vodka?! I removed the cap, squashing the thin metal under my grip in my haste. I sniffed the contents and surely enough, the overpowering smell of high percentage alcohol assaulted my nose and my face scrunched up. My lips met the bottle and long gulps went through my throat.
"Yooo..." Lapia's surprised voice matched her face.
"This is pretty good." I said, licking my lips. I drank a third in one go. It was pretty mediocre if I was honest, but high quality is not necessary for vodka to be good.
"Let's hope your liver is as strong as you are." she shook her head. "I don't want to deal with a drunk Halve." she shuddered at her words.
I ate more meat as I drank the vodka. Lapia took her time with her meal, annihilating the vegetables mostly by herself. When we finished, the rice pot sat almost untouched, the Elf eating very little and me not bothering with it. The fruits were juicy and sweet, an assortmentof tiny apples and pears.
"That hit the spot." she sighed and leaned back on her seat.
I had finished the alcohol, a pleasant buzz at the back of my head, a smile on my face.
The Elf was drinking something that looked and smelled like beer, served from the small barrel.
"Hey, Natasha." her voice was tired and smooth. I perked up at her calling me directly by my name for the first time. "What's it like, waking up as a Halve?" she took a long sip from her drink.
"Confusing, exciting, scary." I recalled the first days. "I thought it would be an epic tale of adventure, friendship and romance. Then I killed ten people in the blink of an eye." my hand shook and a jolt went up my spine, a queasy feeling in my chest.
"Want to know a little something?" she looked at me with a smirk. I nodded. "You are the second Halve I've met, and you both show the same symptoms after your first kill." her smirk turned into a shit eating grin. "Your body will remember the rush. It will try to reenact the flood of adrenaline and emotion until you do it again. Whether beast or people, the second kill is cathartic."
I had recognized the withdrawal, but didn't want to label it as such. Both because I thought it was mental trauma and because it was too fast to form an addiction. I wasn't particularly haunted by the faces of those I killed. It was the memory of the shower of guts and blood that made me quiver. The very next day I realized my reaction to the events was more an emotional overload than disgust, and yet I did not address it.
"How come?" though the alcohol buzz was there, it was not enough to impair my thoughts. My liver lived up to expectations.
"No clue." she shrugged. "Your minds are constructed for conflict, perhaps?" she waved that off. "Matters not. I see you struggling with something when you mention the bandits you killed, and that is perfectly normal. If you choose not to kill again, it will fade with time. If you choose to kill, it will instantly disappear." she gave me a gentle smile. "Both choices are fine."
"Sounds more complicated than I feel it." I told her. "However, I see your point. Thanks."
"Not at all." she chuckled. "Anyway. Do you have a general idea of what you want to do from now on?"
"Go around, explore, see the world." I shrugged. "I've no need for money, I don't like the thought of staying behind walls, and a whole world sounds too exciting to pass on."
"Great." she had a weirdly excited smile, but covered her mouth and let out a long yawn. "I'm spent."
"Same." I said, the buzz from the alcohol and the relaxation of being out of relative danger allowed for tiredness to creep in. "It's pretty late." I looked out the window and the dark sky was surprisingly not stained by the many streetlights.
Lapia stood up and walked to the window, closing the curtains. I removed my underwear with the super amazing power of storage and sighed in relief as my chest was liberated from the constrains of the surprisingly comfortable swimsuit. No piece of garment in existence would beat the feeling of freed breasts. My new partner dangled inside my sweatpants, slightly uncomfortable, but not out of place. I also removed the hoodie, leaving me in my sweatpants and t-shirt.
The King sized bed was bouncy and comfortable, the sheets smooth on my naked feet and arms. I saw Lapia undressing and entering her side of the bed naked, she lied on her stomach and her butt stuck out from under the covers. That's a thicc ass. I commented in my mind.
She waved towards the lamp on the ceiling and the light turned off. I closed my eyes, relaxing my breathing and mind.
"Hey." a whisper next to me made me turn. Lapia grabbed my arm and closed in. "Good night." she gave me a quick kiss on the lips.
"Sleep well." I said back, caressing her face and smiling.
I closed my eyes again, and this time no horny flirty Elf kept me from falling asleep.
Screeches and growls surrounded me. The source of the aggressive cacophony rushing to me. Corpses littered the ground of a massive cave. My naked feet tread on a yellow sticky liquid that filled the air with the stench of vomit, piss and shit. The first creature reached me, flinging clawed hands on my naked torso. Gashes as wide as my fingers and just as deep spurted crimson blood on both the creature and me.
I screamed in pain and rage, grabbing the offender by the horns it grew on both temples. I jumped on the spawn and wrapped my legs on it, twisting my upper torso, breaking its neck and separating the head from the body, a shower of the same liquid that covered the ground from wall to wall fell on me.
I bit the stump and sucked with all my strength, the all consuming taste of urine bringing me to the edge of ecstasy. Falling down and quickly standing up, I heabutted the severed head with all my might and split it in three pieces, now holding its horns as makeshift weapons. I ran at the approaching horde, my wounds closing and my energy renewed.
Pain. Agony. Suffering. Death.
Kill! Kill! Kill them all!!
Consume! Pain! Death! Consume!! Survive!!! Live!!!
Annihilate! Obliterate! Exterminate! Extinguish! Eliminate! Kill!
I jumped into their numbers, swinging my improvised weapons around, kicking, and biting.
"DIIIEEE!!!!" my throat bled as my loud scream injured my vocal cords.
Demonic beasts fell as fast as they approached. Those that had any body part resembling weapons I could use fell first, twisted, broken, ripped open and apart by my bare hands to be used as tools to bring death upon their kind. Beheading, dismembering, bisecting, impaling. My body cleaved, impaled, cut open, crushed, and destroyed in equal amounts.
Every time I received injuries, I'd feast on the corpses of the fallen, consuming blood, flesh and all manner of fluids I could get my hands on to heal and strengthen the most important tool I had access to.
Spawns were slowly replaced by bigger, stronger demons as time passed. Their bodies magnitudes tougher, though ultimately useless in the path of my unending thirst for death.
I felt primal, unending hunger. Such starvation caused madness to break my mind, finding the briefest of respite when consuming those I butchered. Nothing more than prey for me to slaughter.
I lost legs, arms and sections of my torso. The sheer amount of blood and flesh I consumed changing my body to regenerate even mortal wounds. The pain, however, was crippling, bringing waves of insanity and unhinged madness which empowered my rage, breaking my body time and time again to end those in front of me.
Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.
My mind broken by unimaginable pain and rage. My body abused to its limits and forced to adapt or die.
Until there remained one demon among a sea of carcasses. A female like me. I could smell it.
"L̶̷̲̅ö̶̷̲̅ ̶̷̲̅ғ̶̷̲̅ᴇ̶̷̲̅ɴ̶̷̲̅ ̶̷̲̅ᴋ̶̷̲̅ᴀ̶̷̲̅ᴊ̶̷̲̅ʜ̶̷̲̅!̶̷̲̅ ̶̷̲̅R̶̷̲̅ë̶̷̲̅ ̶̷̲̅s̶̷̲̅ᴋ̶̷̲̅ᴜ̶̷̲̅ɴ̶̷̲̅ ̶̷̲̅ᴍ̶̷̲̅ᴀ̶̷̲̅ᴀ̶̷̲̅s̶̷̲̅ᴛ̶̷̲̅!̶̷̲̅!!"
She snarled something and the world around me shook. Her wings kept her floating high above ground, near the ceiling.
I hated that.
Beasts such as them should not enjoy power.
I did not.
All should suffer. Pain. Anger. Hunger. Kill. CONSUME!!
I leaped and reached her in an instant. She tried to dodge, only to expose her back. Holding onto her wings, I placed my feet between her shoulder blades and pulled until my muscles screamed and bones creaked.
"DIE!!" I screamed as I plucked her wings off.
She screamed in pain and rage.
The fall was a storm of blood and flesh as I grabbed everything I could and ripped it from her. My body tattered as she fought back, claws and teeth rending my body. I ate what I took from her, forcing the flesh down with her own blood, and sometimes even mine.
Her screams shook the world, saying things in a tongue alien to me.
I locked her in position when her struggles ceased, my legs around her head and my arms keeping her own legs open, devouring what was between them. We crashed on the ground, her head first, bursting like many creatures before.
Screeches and growls surrounded me. A new wave approached. A savage smile twisting my face in anticipation, insatiable hunger and unquenchable thirst. As long as I lived, all would die!