Chapter 231: Experiments, part two

“The Abyss do you things want from us?” Kyle demanded, clutching his scorched hand, waiting his turn as Amy brought Bess and Roger back to full health.

The fae with the burning eyes didn’t seem concerned, steering their boat into the star-filled darkness, passively watching as Bess regenerated the skin of her left side. The barrier mage gasped in pain as her consciousness returned under Amy’s hand.

This crazy bitch had already demonstrated that she could take all of them at once while they were still wearing kit. Now that they’d been disarmed, she was entirely beyond their Party.

Wasn’t she one of Fabron’s servants? Kyle thought, offering his hand to Amy as she crouched beside him, sighing in relief as the balm of Granesh’s favor cooled the pain.

But if Fabron is dead…she must be from the set he was wearing, which means whoever took it is directing her…

“Is this another one of William Oh’s childish attempts to ‘torture’ us?” Kyle demanded.

The gorgeous fae gave them a half-lidded stare that reeked of contempt and…pity?

“You wish.” She murmured.

Kyle glanced away from the fae and towards the front of the boat, curious about their destination. It took him a moment to pick out the details, but eventually he recognized their destination: Steve The Bigass Snake.

“Hey, that’s not a safe place to go. Steve’s got parasites the size of cities, which in turn have their own parasites the size of buildings. The constellation snake is practically a continent with its own biome and monsters. People have tried exploring him before and been forced to retreat by the unending onslaught of monsters. We can’t go there.”

“You can’t go there.” The fae replied.

“Fuck that, if you wanted us dead you should just kill us and get it over with.”

The fae looked down at them, growing flaming talons.

“He doesn’t speak for us.” Amy said hastily.

“I’ll take my chances with the snake.” Roger grunted.

“…I can guarantee you that you will not die to any monster native to ‘Steve’.” The fae said, relaxing her claws. “Although you may wish you had.”

The Abyss does she mean by that?

It wasn’t too long before they found out.

Steve’s back got larger and larger until they eventually were able to make out a discolored patch on the back of Steve’s neck, out of sight of Zodiac Stronghold.

The patch was a tiny dot in the center of a single scale, and yet, it expanded, and expanded, and expanded…revealing a swath of ash and charred monsters the size of a city.

And at the center of that swath was an emaciated man seated on a throne of charred flesh.

Standing around him were three more fae, carefully peeling him apart piece by piece.

The man’s steady eyes and wide grin gave no hint that he was being carved like a roast turkey, thick black blood oozing down his sides as they sawed through his flesh.

Pop!

With a wince, a fae removed a rib and set it aside.

In front of Kyle’s gaze, the man’s flesh simply reformed, his white rib returning for an instant before the wound closed.

Now that Kyle took a moment to study the scene, he realized that the fae were bleeding under their clothes, too. Fiery blood was oozing out of them that matched the same wounds they were inflicting on their master.

Was he…torturing them by forcing them to torture him and offloading the damage? It would still hurt, right!? RIGHT!? Why would he even need to…

The Abyss is happening here!?

“Oh wow, it’s you guys. What are the odds? Kyle, Bess, Amy and Roger, from the wedding, right? Do you know who I am?” The man asked, casually bobbing the scepter in his hand against his knee as two fae behind him carved into his flesh. The third was cutting open his left arm.

“Aren’t you…Void? The Wyrd family’s necromancer?” Kyle asked. He didn’t recognize the face, but the body left an impression.

The emaciated man grinned.

“Well spotted. Although since I can’t wear the mask with this set, a code name doesn’t really serve any purpose anymore. Just call me Vincent.”

Pop.

Kyle winced and looked away as another rib worked its way free only to instantly regenerate.

“…Right.” Kyle said. “What do you want from us, Vincent?”

“Well, I just so happened to come into possession of a set and I need some helpers to confirm a few of its effects.”

Kyle scanned the fae who were silently flaying themselves and their master. The pity in the fae’s expression suddenly made sense.

He caught the rest of his Party’s gaze and nodded.

As one, they turned and scattered in every direction, sprinting like their lives depended on it.

If I get outside of this dead zone, maybe I can get a monster to eat me, Kyle thought, his legs pumping as fast as his heart.

“Now, now, none of that.” Vincent said, his soft voice carrying in the unnaturally still air. The ground beneath him bucked up, wrapping Kyle in a suffocating embrace and carrying him back, depositing him in the grip of one of the surrounding fae.

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Kyle struggled, but without his Kit he was no match.

“The monsters have been lured in, Master,” A large fae said, kneeling down in front of the flayed necromancer.

“Excellent. Aria. Go stand on the mark and when the monsters get close to you, kill yourself.”

“…Does Master have a weapon for me to do this with?”

“I’m sure you can manage.” Vincent said with a placid smile, leaning on his palm, the bones of his forearm in plain sight.

Pain did not seem to exist for him.

“…Right away, Master,” she said, moving into the distance, where a large black X had been burnt into the ground.

Kyle saw the constellations approaching, a variety of different monsters, from giant grabs to serpents and manta rays, all drawn from beyond the edge of the cleared area, provoked to attack by the large fae standing beside Vincent.

When they got close to where Aria stood, she reached up and tore her own throat out.

An instant later, a flash of light and a deafening explosion washed over them.

When Kyle blinked the tears out of his eyes, he spotted Vincent holding his thumb up to the blast. All of his wounds along with the wounds of the other fae had vanished in that flash of light.

“little bigger than my thumb, and she got…two of them.” Vincent mused.

The constellation crab and manta ray began shambling unnaturally to the sides while the serpent continued to charge.

A moment later, Aria reappeared beside Vincent, whole and undamaged, with an extremely sour expression.

“Ah, it didn’t damage your spirit.”

“No, master.” Aria said.

“Excellent. That means we can do that as many times as we want. For free. You may want to figure out an easier way to kill yourself…for your own convenience.”