Free Web NovelChapter 251: Okay Gang!
Leaving the tunnel and double checking that her marking was obvious, Belladonna turned her attention to the two tunnels that remained in front of her.
Thankfully, a quirk of the smaller tunnels tight and twisting construction meant that it was relatively good at soundproofing itself, keeping the sound contained in a trap of reflecting back on itself. So while that unfortunately amplified the crunching sounds when inside the room, torturing the prisoners that were kept in there, it also meant that Belladonna’s loud and creative slaughter was not yet known about.
Not until one of them decided to go for a snack and found their prisoners missing, that is.
Beans manifested from the shadows above her, dropping down onto her head where he sat proudly. His body shifted from side to side like a turret, as Belladonna swivelled her head and glanced between the tunnels.
"There’s no choice for it. If the prisoners weren’t a factor, we might be able to take our time. But we can’t anymore, so we have to split up. You know what to do, right?" Belladonna muttered to herself, and wiggled her head again, causing Beans to wiggle in turn.
The fluffy Shadow-Demon let out a soft meow, before dropping off of her head and extending his wings as he flew down the pathway to her left. Without another thought, Belladonna turned and darted down the path to the right.
When she was half way down the tunnel, traversing it at a light jog, she saw a pair of Grimshawls strolling towards her out of the darkness. Most likely on their way to enjoy a succulent meal, unaware that it was their turn to become one, if they were lucky enough.
Stomping down with her next step, Belladonna blasted forwards and closed the gap between them before they could register her presence.
She came in with a flying knee to the face, sending one of the Grimshawls flying backwards, whilst she plunged her hand into the chest of the other. Just before she stabbed her hand into it, however, she activated a Shadow Infusion.
It was the infusion that concerned her the most, after her last combat use of it resulted in a mental blast of a dead mans trauma. But thankfully such things did not occur when she tested it before releasing the prisoners, instead with these creatures it had a unique effect.
Underneath their shawls was a pit of endless shadows that swallowed up anything that entered it, but shadows could not swallow other shadows. As soon as Belladonna thrust her hand into its chest, and into the shadows beneath, her hand became one with that endless abyss.
She could feel the contents of everything that existed within that abyss, all of the loot it had stolen and stuffed inside of itself, as everything was at her fingertips at once. Not just the things that it had stolen, but the essence of its body too.
She could brush her fingers over its liver, tickle its heart and stroke its lungs.
While her hand was inside the void, Belladonna could also control what she wanted to grab from within it. It was exactly the same as controlling her Bottomless bag. All she had to do was think of the item and it would appear in her hand, if it existed in the void.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the Grimshawls body did not like her doing this and even more annoyingly, as much as she searched inside of it Belladonna could not find a source.
She ripped her hand out of it, causing it to rapidly degrade and lose control of its composition, as it crumbled to dust while it was still alive and clawing at its own chest. Belladonna regarded the sight coldly, simply narrowing her eyes and glaring at it.
"There must be something I’m missing... or maybe it is just pot luck." She muttered with a click of her tongue, before turning her head towards the one she had kicked away,
"Good thing I have more pots."
Like a phantom she appeared standing above it as it tried to clamber up from the ground, as her pitch black and shadow infused hand stabbed into its chest.
***
In the middle of a large room, on a slightly raised and flat section of earth, there was a throne. It was not the only furniture in the room, for example there was a table made from a slab of rock in front of the throne and a stone door built into the wall behind the throne.
But there was something oddly unique about this throne. freewebnøvel.com
It was a shoddy construction that was cobbled together using random knick knacks and bits and bobs. There were swords, daggers and crumpled pieces of armour damaged by battle or simply from being bashed into the right shape.
There were belt buckles, mirror parts, door knobs and random coins. It was a throne constructed of anything and everything even slightly shiny, in a complete moron’s attempt to mimic the wealthy, without actually understanding what made someone wealthy.
It was simply garish and extravagant, built in such a way that it simply forced the eye to look at it and study the delusion and madness that went into its construction.
Upon this throne sat a Grimshawl that was twice as big as all the others, meaning that it was slightly taller than the average human, and which sported three sets of arms instead of the usual two.
It was also the only one that had decorated itself, having earrings made with feathers dangling from its pointed ears and a necklace crafted from finger bones to make up the chain, and which had various types of dried and preserved ears dangling from it. From elven, to human, to the ears of a few beast types. There was even an ear that looked like it was from its own species.
This Grimshawl, the Chief of this little tribe, was hunched over the table in front of the throne, as it gorged itself on the remains of its meal. From the multiple hands of various sizes and shapes, as well as the severed human leg that remained on the blood-soaked table, as it idly gnawed on a human arm like a bread-stick, it did not take a genius to know what it had been eating for its meal.
But even with all of the meat still before it, the Chief was not satisfied, and had sent a few of its children to collect it some more meat to add to its meal. They were running low on the fresh morsels, so it was good they were almost prepared for another raid.
The Grimshawl Chief raised its head and lowered the leftover it had been gnawing on, as it heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Yet instead of the rattling of chains following those footsteps, it heard a chilling voice filled with bloodlust echoing through the tunnel, as it saw a pair of glowing red eyes appear within the darkness.
"Little pig. Little Pig... I see you’ve been fattening yourself up for me. How kind of you. Then it seems I will have to slaughter this pig, to make those people’s sacrifices worth it. Let’s hope you give me what I want."
