The Chronicles of Dwynveia – A Slimeling LitRPG

Savri - Day 55 - 71 Days Remain

‘Why don't we handle the “reunion” outside?’ Ren suggested.

‘Good idea,’ I agreed. ‘It will help us avoid property damage should it go… poorly.’

‘Property damage?’ Taros squeaked. ‘Why would… oh… oh no…’

‘It all depends on your answers,’ Anika smiled.

Taros hung vaer head and followed us.

We planned to interrogate him near our boat, but as we were getting to the quay we got an excellent look at storm clouds rapidly gathering in the distance.

What the fuck are those morons up to now? I thought, realising the location of the weather phe

‘Believe it or not, pookie,’ Nyxie laughed, ‘but this is actually one of Lilyth's better ideas.’

If a good idea involves summoning a storm, I am terrified to think what the fuck they found over there.

‘Believe me, it is-’

Something that in retrospect was absolutely terrifying happened then.

I heard something resembling microphone feedback, and then the link abruptly cut off.

It was what? I asked, caught off-guard.

Nyx? I asked when no response came.

‘Nyx?’ I said out loud, panic in my voice.

‘What’s going on?’ Ren asked.

‘Nyxie,’ I tried to choke back tears. ‘She is not responding.’

Ereshkigal - Day 55 - 71 Days Remain

Goddess’s heart was in her throat for an instant when she saw that the cradle where Phoebe should have been was empty.

The feeling passed quickly after Ereshkigal sensed her mother's presence nearby, which was confirmed by Lady Madness entering the bedroom through the bathroom door, Phoebe in her hands.

‘I apologise for the scare, dearie,’ Lady Madness said. ‘Phoebe was crying when I arrived, so I changed her nappy and was just planning to play with her until you returned.

Ere felt both relief and irritation at the intrusion. Still… she couldn't exactly fault her mother for helping under those circumstances.

‘I wish you had just given me a warning,’ she said instead.

‘Alas… the matter is rather urgent, sweetie,’ her mother sighed. ‘As you have probably noticed.’

‘The plant?’ Ere asked, feeling dread rise inside of her again.

‘The plant,’ Lady Madness confirmed.

Ere still didn't manage to fully process what the fuck happened in the previous half an hour or so. First, Nyxie, Akh’ret, Irmen, the King and herself got hit by ricochet from the insanely strong [Despair] spell that travelled up the mental links they shared with their proteges, and soon afterwards their resident airhead got hit by the brunt of the psychic strike aimed at Lilyth, which actually briefly knocked her out.

Lucky thing that. I think the attack would have literally caused her head to explode.

The King Who Commands the Ocean suspected it was due to Lilyth being in her [Storm Form], but this was just speculation, as something like that had never happened before.

‘Fuck,’ Ere spat.

‘You were taking care of Nyxie, so I figured I would look after Phoebe and wait for you,’ her mother finished her apology. ‘How is she?’

‘Nursing a mother of all headaches,’ Ereshkigal shook her head. ‘The King is now with her so I had a moment to come back here.’

‘Let’s go join them then. Once Nyxie is feeling okay again, I’ll summon Akh'ret and Irmen. We have a lot to discuss, I fear.’

Savri - Day 55 - 71 Days Remain

‘Sorry for worrying you, sweetie,’ I heard Nyx groan after some of the longest minutes in my life. ‘I’ll explain later, but it turns out there was… unexpected nuance to Lilyth's good idea.’

What the fuck did she do?

‘Nothing she should be blamed for. This one caught all of us by surprise.’

What?

‘I’ll explain later. I am not entirely sure what happened myself.’

What.

‘Something is very wrong,’ Taros suddenly said. ‘I have never heard my mom that worried.’

‘Irmen too?’ I couldn't believe my own ears.

‘Yes,’ vae nodded. ‘She told me to sort out my differences with you, because, and I quote, “it is an all-hands-on-deck situation, and we can't afford internal conflicts.”

‘Then…’ Deirdee began but was suddenly interrupted by Anika.

‘Guys… is it me or are the plants around us dying?’

It wasn’t just plants though. Birds began dropping dead from the sky, and people around us started to scream. One of them was Kart.

She collapsed to her knees, holding her stomach and shortly afterwards collapsed onto her back, and worryingly began choking and scratching at her throat as if she was trying to get something out. As I rushed to restrain the spymaster, I saw that she began to bleed from her eyes, nose and mouth.

What the fuck?!

The sight gave me an instant pause, as my medical training overrode my instincts and reminded me that “strange haemorrhages = bad”.

‘Anika!’ I shouted at my old squadmate, remembering that she was undead so she would likely be immune to any bloodborne contagions, be they mundane or magical.

The ghûl followed my order without question, either realising the same thing, or just due to being so used to following orders.

Now… How do I help?

Assuming this would likely require extra oomph, I summoned the staff Lilyth made for me and cast [Scan Body] on the spymaster.

The results were… disconcerting to say the least.

Plant vines were spreading through Kart’s body, invading every major organ. The reason she was scratching at her throat was due to the ones in her larynx and oesophagus.

I managed to trace the source of the “infection” to a spore build-up in her stomach and intestines. The muscles around them were atrophying at an alarming rate, meaning the spores were probably using them for nutrients.

What the fuck?

There was also a secondary spore presence in her veins, though it seemed less potent. Still, tiny tendrils were creeping through Kart's veins, so it meant it was only a matter of time before they breached her heart and brain, assuming she didn't suffocate first.

The familiar sense of despair filled me. There was nothing I could do for the spymaster.

Still, maybe I can use her case to help others. Though I imagine any bioethicist’s head would explode from rage if they heard about this.

First, I tried [Neutralise Poison], but it failed to affect the spores in any meaningful way. Any healing magic would only prolong Kart’s suffering. I quickly looked through my spell list to find a solution, but I couldn't find anything obvious, so in a fit of desperation I cast [Contraception].

That killed the spores, and, in turn, the vines.

This was a pyrrhic victory though, as it did nothing to fix all the damage and blockages managed to do already. In fact, judging by Kart’s increasingly shallow breathing and her lips turning blue, hypoxia was already setting in.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

With a heavy sigh, I drew my gun and, with an “I’m sorry”, put Kart out of her misery.

I looked at my friends, and they all had an expression of shock in their eyes. One that I thought I shared. None of us was strangers to comrades dying or witnessing violent deaths, but for something this sudden to happen… To another friend… It was a lot.

‘W-why?’ Ren asked me.

‘There was nothing I could have done for her,’ the very pronouncement brought me to the edge of tears once again. ‘I… I think what happened t-to Kart was what the SOB who explored the bunker experienced. If I didn't… didn't… y-you know… she would have choked to death.’

I looked around and saw dozens of similar scenes happening all around us. Men, women and children writhing in agony on the street while their friends and family could only helplessly stare at them.

This only made me worry for the girls at the RMAI facility. If things got this bad here, what kind of horrors did they find out there?

Caeileera - Day 55 - 63 Days Remain Until the End of the Mourning Period on Mavigan

The moth-owl thing was absolutely adorable. The brown- feathered creature was maybe a metre tall, with a round body and big lilac-coloured multi-faceted eyes.

The only thing that ruined the image of the beastie as a perfect pet was its very sharp-looking beak with jagged edges.

We found the creature while doing a quick search of the building inside of which Aki saw something move during our initial scoping out of the compound. We were planning for it to be the most cursory of searches, as while it wasn't initially apparent, Lilyth’s thunder attack set the main building on fire. Persephone could handle it as we went, but the less the blaze destroyed the better. Another cause for our hurry was the worrying effect the damage inflicted on the Harvester plant had on the local vegetation - it was dying. While it would have been expected on the weeds' offshoots, though Phosi insisted that plants didn’t work that way, the trees surrounding the base starting to blacken and wilt… wasn’t.

We didn't have to search that thoroughly to find the owl, though, as it was just standing around in the open, unaware of its immediate surroundings and completely unresponsive.

‘What the fuck is that thing?’ Persephone wondered out loud.

‘A Moth-Owl obviously,’ I laughed.

‘Huh…,’ Phosi muttered. ‘I wonder what those were doing here. Kleptoparasitism perhaps?’

I had no idea what she was talking about. The little critter certainly didn't look like a parasite to me. Still… an uncomfortable thought hit me.

‘Wait…’ I shuddered. ‘Those things would have swarmed us and eaten us while we were living through our worst nightmares?’

I was doing my best to repress the memories of Aki and Lilyth rejecting me for being a murderer, but their voices kept echoing in my mind.

‘Probably,’ Phos nodded. ‘Not a fun way to go.’

‘As if there are fun ways…’ Persephone rolled her eyes.

‘Well… there are people who die during sex.’

‘If only that didn't traumatise the oth…’ Lilyth began before realising what had just happened. ‘Did you just try to make a sex joke?’

I was confused because all of us engaged in almost an unhealthy amount of horny talk at times, but then I realised what exactly Lilyth was getting at.

Phosi rarely, if ever, participated whenever we did that. If anything, she found the subject matter distasteful.

Phosi actually seemed perturbed by the realisation.

‘I apologise,’ she rasped. ‘The return of some of my memories seems to… affect me more than I would like.’

We all gave her confused looks which only caused her to grow more flustered, so, figuring out that teasing Phosi too much was a bad idea, we turned our attention back to the Moth-Owl.

We stared at it for a moment, and then Lilyth shrugged, summoned her gun and pressed it to the creature’s temple.

‘Don’t!’ I shouted, as I felt that this was a very wrong thing to do.

Lilyth looked at me questioningly.

‘It will be a mercy,’ she said. ‘I don't think those things are capable of functioning on their own.’

‘How do you know that?’ I cried. ‘It could be in shock, just like the three of us were.’

Lilyth sighed and lowered the gun.

‘You are right,’ she said. ‘I just saw the state this thing is in and assumed that it would just be standing here until it dies from hunger or until something comes by and eats it... Better a quick death, than you know… that.’

I haven’t considered that. Still… is it okay to kill an animal over a hypothetical?

No, I decided. No, it isn’t.

‘I just thought, that you know…’ Lilyth continued in a shaky voice. ‘I just thought they were some kind of an extension... Servants maybe… Oh, gods…’

The gun fell out of her hand.

‘We ultimately don't know how they fit into the local ecosystem,' Phosi rasped. ‘Maybe they didn't and the Harvester plant just mind-controlled them to serve some purpose we don't understand.'

There was no judgement in her tone. Just cold observations.

Lilyth collapsed to her knees and wrapped her hands around the creature, though it got no reaction from the Moth-Owl.

‘I’m so sorry, little buddy,’ the love of my life whispered. ‘I almost hurt you without a good reason.’

To my great dismay, I was proven right about the moths when we found a fully awake one in another of the base buildings. It was “busy” nudging the body of another member of its kind with its feet, trying to get it to wake up.

Seeing that, Lilyth grew green-faced and barely made it outside before vomiting.

I ran over to her, trying to comfort her, but she batted my hand away.

‘Don’t touch me!’ she bared her fangs at me, her eyes turning into slits.

I looked at Aki helplessly.

‘I’ll stay with her,’ she smiled sadly. ‘The three of you continue. We will meet you by the entrance.’

‘Thank you,’ I returned her smile mirthlessly.

Why do I have a feeling that a bunch of dead Moth-Owls will be the least unpleasant thing we will find down there?

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