Cry

Skeletons emerged from the wriggling flesh,

The guardian used this moment of shock to throw me to the floor but the flesh softened my fall and Callon was able to kick him away and pull me back towards him.

The kick didn't seem much until you find out it's coated in mana, the undead stumbled back for a moment and almost fell but the flesh supported his body using its tentacles.

I looked around, Elgor was nowhere to be seen, maybe dead or hidden by this large wave of undead skeletons.

The guardian regained balance, he clutched his skull in silence, we just stared, he is a wild card and who knows what he will try to do.

"These ancient bones held me back but now,

It's time for a new body."

His words confused me for a moment but considering everything that I witnessed so far,

It seemed possible.

Question is, why didn't he do it earlier?

The undead gathered around us and the guardian raised both his arms in the air and shouted, "O, my brethren, the inferior and rotten blood of Adam has stepped foot into our lands once again however unlike last time,

They won't leave this place alive."

The moment he finished his words, tentacles wrapped around him and turned him into a fleshy cocoon of eyes, ears, teeth, nose etc.

It submerged back into the ground which made me more paranoid, he can attack from anywhere inside this fleshy mess and I can't do anything about it.

"GRAAAHH!"

A battle cry, the undead raised their weapons and horded around us.

Callon immediately jumped into action, he coated his arms with flames and started to smash the brittle skeleton bones.

I looked away from him, I need focus on my enemy now, I ran towards the nearest undead group, there were five of them.

One tried to stab me with a dagger, but I caught his hands and pulled him towards me and I headbutted him with enough force to shatter his skull alongside his eyes.

The others didn't idle around, one bit onto my leg while another tried to stab through my neck, I dodged the stab and picked up the skeleton on the ground who was biting onto my calf.

I threw him at the one who tried to stab me, they both collided and fell to the ground,

One laying ontop of one another.

Before they could get up I stepped onto the chest and ripped off their skulls with both my hands.

I darted my eye across the battle field, more and more undead were approaching but my stamina was running dry.

The drowsiness was intense and the fact that those heavy hitters that brutalised me isn't here is making me more paranoid.

I crushed the skull under my grip, these days I have noticed my increase in strength,

As days passed I am becoming something more inhumane.

Regeneration doesn't seem to be the only thing I was curse..blessed with.

I dropkicked a skeleton, its bones shattering and flying across the floor, I fell to the squishy ground but immediately rolled over to dodge a stab to my eye.

But it didn't make it better because when I finished rolling, a hammer met my face.

The floor helped a bit in negating more damage, but my nose was broken and my lower jaw dislocated.

I immediately got back into my feet and retreated towards a safe spot.

'Dammit.'

I raised both my hands towards my hanging jaw and pulled, the pain stopped me from ripped it off, it was similar to removing a tooth but more painful.

Blood splattered and leaked onto the floor as I ran, I pulled again, my face tightening in pain and finally tore it away.

The regeneration had started so it was more difficult to rip it away but it works, I pulled my arm back to its limits and hurled my lower jaw towards a skeleton's skull.

The sound of bones shattering reached my ear but I only gave it a glance before returning to killing more undead.

It took out three of them.

My jaw was healed back, making me wonder when did I get so daring.

Ripping off my own limbs for combat, would I have done this if I didn't have regeneration?

I was lost in my thoughts, mindlessly killing these undead, unlike before this was more precise and less brutal.

As I think back, when did it start to change,

My mentality on pain, how I resorted to eating the disgusting flesh, my brutal way of combat.

It..isn't like me at all.

I'm changing, adapting, becoming more experienced too quick.

My personality and mentality is changing,

It can make me into a tale of legend like I want but it doesn't feel complete.

If my personality and mentality changes,

Would I be the same person?

What makes a person unique?

It's their memories, personality and mentality.

It isn't material matters like beauty or strength.

It is what makes them unique.

Out of these three, if you take away even one thing, that person won't be the same.

A completely new entity, they might look the same, they might sound the same but they aren't the same person.

The fleshy room started to dim its glow and the ground shifted, pores the size of my fists opened and released a stench of gore and death.

Around these pores, eyes opened up, tongues stuck out and hair follicles grew.

The eyes observed my every action,the tongue spoke in a language erased by time.

I looked back for a moment, I could see far but by the sound of shattering bones Callon seems to be doing alright.

"Enough."

The guardian appeared again.

However he was different, he was a muscular flesh similar to those tentacles, eyes, ears, teeth, tongue, nose and hair follicles, all sorts of facial features were present around his body.

His body pulsed, dim light similar to the fleshy room radiated from him making it easier to identify him.

The skeleton I fought backed up, they weren't the horned skeletons that threw me in the well,

They were human skeletons.

'If we fail would I also be one of them?'

Mindless, broken, slave to order.

Would I accept such a fate?

I would kill myself.

"My brethren, rise from the flesh of our mother!"

And the room wriggled, writhed, made me fall to the ground for balance and I took this chance to peek inside the pores.

The light inside it was better than the one outside, its interior was filled with...eyes.

The moment they sensed my presence, they stared at me, they noticed me, they started weeping.

'What?'

"Hmph, pathetic creatures you can't even identify your ancestors, how can you call yourself an intelligent creature?"

"Anc..estors?"

That was a huge blow.

I looked at him expecting an answer, flesh similar to his body turned into grotesque wings.

It may have been a lie, but these days of over exhaustion has already made me unable to differentiate reality and dreams.

So how can I differentiate truth and lies?

His body tried to keep itself from falling apart.

It was trying to imitate some creature, but that creature has long been forgotten by time,

Even those undead ones who survived their extinction forgot them.

"I don't need to answer you, you know exactly what I meant by that."

He was right.

I know.

I know these are humans, alive and well,

Death would seem like heaven for them.

"They have been there since the start of humanity, who knew they could still think and be rational."

The undead guardian chuckled.

His lack of morality made Cassian sit on the ground hopelessly, staring at those flesh demons with an unknown emotion.

Callon watched from afar, he was already considering escape but he was hesitating.

He wasn't hesitant about leaving both Cassian and Elgor to die, he wanted to make sure they won't survive to tell the tale.

He wants his future saintly image to be untouched by scandals.

Elgor was nowhere to be seen, it wasn't confirmed whether he died or not.

Cassian was still on the ground, head hung low, staring at the wailing flesh.

He observed.

The eyes did weep due to their pain,

Not due to their fate nor was it due to their anger, they wept for him.

They wept for their descendant who was forced to see them like this.

The guardian, his flesh wriggling, sometimes a tentacle trying to emerge and escape but another appears and stuffs it back into the body, he just stared, his tongues spoke the forgotten language, the eyes surrounding him blinked in sync, pleased with the human's suffering.