Symphonic Odyssey
: Vol. Three: Dark Sarcophagus: Verse One-Hundred and Sixty-One

In a dark cavern, far from the presence of normal civilization, a group of people kneeled around a large imposing black throne. Their Captain sat upon it, a smile on his face as he casually read the scroll in his hands. He loudly cleared his throat and shifted in his seat.

The five people bowing before him waited breathlessly as their Captain read in silence. Breaking his concentration was a crime punishable by instant death, or worse. They dared not breathe, move, or even tense a single muscle. Even their watering eyes stared ahead, unblinking.

He was a newly advanced Captain, and quite young considering. The Sect had never had someone at that age assume such a high position of power, but he had quickly proven how ruthless and cruel he could be. An entire quarter of the sect had already been killed by his hand alone for minor things, but the higher-ups didn’t even seem to care.

They had learned to keep their mouths shut in situations like these, and the only way to have a chance at surviving was to remain absolutely still no matter what happened.

On the new Captain’s first day, a new recruit to the Usurper Sect had witnessed another being killed for failing to bow in time. This new recruit had then spoken up about the unnecessary cruelty, and as a reward, his punishment had been extreme.

This new Captain had not killed him, however, he had sliced open his belly and pulled out his entrails. He then had the poor recruit nailed up on a wall for all to see, and the Captain had him kept alive with a constant stream of healing spells powered by a crystal that drew Zight from the environment. After that, nobody even dared to question the new Captain’s motives or directives.

Even now the screams of that unfortunate recruit were probably still echoing throughout the main hall of their primary base of operations.

The stone floor was hard, and it sent waves of pain pulsing through their knees. Yet they all remained perfectly motionless. The Captain atop the throne finally finished reading and sighed heavily. “Fuck!” Before any of them could even wonder about that exclamation, one of their comrades exploded in a rain of blood and gore.

Still, they remained still and internally mourned the loss of their comrade. “How difficult is it to conquer a small town? I mean really, how hard can it be? You just pull up, fire off a few spells, kidnap the mayor’s child, and then kill them both once your demands are met.”

“How much more do I have to suffer the incompetence of fools? Hmm? How long until you idiot peasants realize that your lives don’t matter so long as the mission is accomplished? I sent thirty of you! THIRTY! Yet somehow only five of you returned? Did you even bother to read the mission details before you left? Would it have really been so bad to stay behind and die for our cause? At least then our cover wouldn’t have been blown.”

Another among the group of kneeling people exploded, however, this time only the lower half of the man vanished in a splatter of gore. The upper half of the man howled in pain and writhed on the floor in his own blood and guts, and their Captain only looked on with a sick, half-amused smile.

It was a few more moments before the howling man finally succumbed to the blood loss and went limp. “See? That at least is amusing to me. But watching you insects die like that can only soothe my disappointment so much. What did you think was supposed to happen here? Did you think you’d come crawling back to me barely alive and that I’d welcome you with open arms?”

“What part of ‘Secure the city at all costs’ didn’t you idiots understand? I know it’s difficult to follow orders sometimes, but really, you have to have some semblance of intelligence in those worthless skulls of yours!” The captain looked at another of the kneeling acolytes and moved towards him.

“Let’s replace out shall we?” The Captain then spent the better part of ten minutes slowly scalping and removing the upper portion of the acolyte’s skull. His brain pulsed slowly as it came into view, and the poor guy never stopped screaming. The Captain reached in and ripped the brain free from its bone casing and looked carefully at it.

“Ah! So you do have brains after all! Maybe next time, you fucking use them, yeah?” He threw the brain to the ground and the body of the dead acolyte fell on top of it. “Fuck me! How does the leader of our sect even get anything done around here with worthless scum like you clogging up the process?”

“You two!” the Captain pointed at the last remaining acolytes. Blood and chunks of brain matter dripped from his outstretched hand, and the acrid smell of internal organs filled the room. “You will replenish your numbers, go to target three, and try again! I’ll send word to the Sect Master that claiming target two requires his personal touch.”

“This time, don’t you dare come back unless you’ve secured it. I don’t care if you die, and I don’t care how many men it takes. Am I understood?”

The two acolytes nodded furiously and saluted him. The Captain smiled and cleaned his hand in a nearby basin. “That’s the kind of response I like to see! Take a few Zweicores with you this time. Make absolutely sure that nobody sees you using them though!” He carelessly threw the acolytes the Zweicores and they clumsily caught them before they hit the ground.

“Don’t fuck this up. I have to impress the Sect Master after all. Remember, my victory is your victory. But equally, if you fail, it reflects badly on me and I will not tolerate it. Now, get the fuck out of here before I change my mind about sparing you. Oh, and do me a favor. Send in the cleaning lady. Can’t have this mess lying around too long now can we?”

With that, the two acolytes bowed low and rushed backward out of the room. As the doors slammed shut, they glanced at each other in fear, while tightly gripping the Zweicores in their hands. They were determined not to fail this time, but using a Zweicore was almost certain death. They had seen it happen several times and weren’t eager to become the newest examples. As powerful as these items were, they were still in the testing phase, and if you weren’t lucky you ended up as some amorphous blob of decaying flesh.

However, if they didn’t use them, they would be unable to take the area before reinforcements arrived. Ever since the new Captain had taken power, their lives had been worse than a nightmare. They had hated him when he was only an acolyte. He had been brought in from some uppity noble family from up north, and had been a nightmare to train with. But now that he had some actual power things were even worse. At least back then they could tell him off.

However, the two survivors were happy they had never spoken badly to him. He killed everyone else who had been foolish enough to chastise him, and he had even hunted down and eradicated their families. Something was seriously fucking wrong with this guy, but they could never speak of it. Their only option was to carry out their orders and hope for the best…