Deus Necros

The ruined body of Sloth stood amid the smoking crater. For several seconds, nothing happened. Then the flesh began to move.

It crawled over bone in thick white strands, spreading from the few pieces that had survived Kaiser’s explosion. Muscle wrapped itself around exposed ribs, tendons stretched across joints, and pale tissue climbed over the skull, filling its hollow cheeks and reconstructing the face beneath the crimson eyes.

There was no bloodied struggle to regenerate or any obvious expenditure of power. His body simply returned to the state it had possessed before being destroyed, as though remaining injured required more effort than becoming whole again. Even the arm Celine had severed began reforming. Bone extended first from the stump, followed by muscle, veins, and finally the same chalk-white skin.

Kaiser watched the regeneration with visible displeasure. ”I preferred him without the flesh.”

Thomas floated near Ludwig’s shoulder. ”I preferred him when he was inside the explosion.”

”Same.”

Sloth finished rebuilding himself, rolled one shoulder, and took a step forward.

Then he disappeared.

Ludwig’s eyes widened.

”Care!” Gale howled.

The Death Knight moved before anyone else understood what he had sensed. His tower shield swung around as he slid in front of Redd, Oathcarver coming upward in the same motion.

The sword struck something, and a tremendous metallic crack tore through the canyon as Sloth appeared against Gale’s blade.

The collision lasted less than a heartbeat. Gale was launched backwards into Redd, and both were carried away by the impact. They separated in midair, Gale spinning with his shield still locked to his arm while Redd tumbled across the ground before digging his claws into the stone.

Ludwig barely had time to turn before Sloth disappeared again and appeared beside Cain.

The vampire reacted instantly. Blood crystallized around his fingers as his claws crossed above his body. Cain twisted his wrists, intending to catch the descending fist and redirect its force rather than block it directly.

Sloth punched downward.

Cain’s arms moved, then slowed. His expression changed as he realized what was happening. ”Fuck.”

The claws had not been stopped. They had simply become sluggish. The concept of completing the parry weakened halfway through the movement, allowing Sloth’s fist to pass through Cain’s guard and strike him.

The vampire ceased to resemble a person.

His entire body burst against the canyon floor. Blood sprayed outward in a broad circle, bone fragments disappeared into the red mess, and pieces of flesh struck the nearby rocks. For an instant, the only evidence that Cain had ever stood there was a vast puddle of blood spreading through the cracks.

Ludwig froze. ”Cain!”

His gaze snapped toward Celine. He expected Wrath to answer. He expected the sight of her uncle being reduced to a stain to tear through whatever control Noctivex had given her and unleash the same murderous frenzy again.

Celine did not move.

Her crimson eyes remained visible behind the black visor. There was anger in them, a tremendous amount of it, but it was focused and controlled. Her sword tightened in her hand as she stared at the blood coating the ground.

The expression on her face was not that of a berserk monster. It looked closer to someone who had already signed their own death warrant and merely wanted to decide what they accomplished before it was collected.

”Don’t worry about the vampire! He won’t die that easy” Kaiser said.

Ludwig took look at the blood and noticed it withdrawing back together reforming the vampire again.

”He’s way too damn fast,” Kaiser muttered as dark mana gathered around him.

His eyes followed Sloth, though the Usurper had already returned to the center of the canyon as though the two attacks had required nothing from him.

Kaiser frowned. ”How did he do it?” he said as he closed his eyes trying to remember something.

Sloth had never displayed anything resembling speed before. Everything about him was slow. His movements, his speech, his posture, and even his attacks appeared lazy despite the catastrophic force behind them.

Yet for a moment, he had crossed dozens of meters faster than Cain.

Kaiser closed his eyes and struck his staff against the ground. ”Meh should probably be something like this...Black Swamp!”

Darkness erupted from beneath him as a thick substance exploded outward in every direction. It looked like tar, smelled like tar, and even moved with the same heavy, oily consistency, bubbling as it spread across the canyon floor. Within seconds, the black swamp had covered most of the battlefield.

”Got it on the first try,” Kaiser smiled proud of his accomplishment.

The tribesmen recoiled from the swamp. Redd lifted one foot as the substance passed beneath him, only for Kaiser to shout, ”It won’t harm you unless I tell it to.”

The swamp reached Sloth and divided.

The black substance flowed around his feet, creating a perfect empty circle before continuing beyond him, as though approaching the Usurper had become too troublesome to justify.

Ludwig looked toward Kaiser. ”You can use that?”

Kaiser opened one eye. ”Once you understand the principle, it is not particularly difficult.”

He pointed his staff toward Sloth, and the swamp responded. Several black spears erupted from the tar, sharpening as they rose before shooting toward the pale giant.

They stopped inches from his body.

Kaiser sighed. ”The issue is...”

The spears trembled, but none moved any farther.

”...it is not especially useful offensively.”

Sloth regarded the halted weapons without interest. Kaiser, however, smiled. ”Fortunately, I expected that.”

He slammed his staff down again, and the spears exploded.

They did not explode toward Sloth. Every black spear shattered into hundreds of thin needles that fired outward in every direction. There was no chosen target and no intent to strike a specific enemy. The fragments simply filled the surrounding space.

Needles struck the canyon walls and buried themselves in corpses. Several bounced from Gale’s tower shield, while others crossed Sloth’s position.

His Authority failed to stop all of them.

Black spikes pierced his pale skin. One entered his shoulder, several struck his chest, and more embedded themselves along his thigh, neck, and face. The material immediately began swelling.

Small black growths spread around every puncture, expanding across Sloth’s white body like blemishes across untouched cloth. The substance thickened beneath his skin, forcing flesh outward as it attempted to invade deeper.

Thomas brightened. ”That worked!”

Sloth flexed, and the black growths exploded from his body. Needles and lumps of hardened tar shot outward with enough force to punch holes through the nearby stone. The wounds they left behind closed almost immediately, pale flesh knitting over itself until no mark remained.

Thomas’s excitement vanished. ”How are we ever killing that?”

Ludwig clicked his tongue. ”Good question”.

Everything they had tried had worked to some degree. Celine had cut him directly, Gale had struck him indirectly, and Kaiser had buried him beneath hundreds of undead before detonating them. They had reduced Sloth to a skeleton, yet it had accomplished almost nothing.

Ludwig focused. ”Inspect.”

The information appeared.

[Inspect]

Name: Slothful Sovereign

Title: Usurper of Death

Level: N/A

Tier: Mythic

HP: ???

Danger Rating: ☠☠☠☠☠☠☠

[Statuses]

[Absolute Sloth: Conceptual Authority]

All things tend toward rest. Motion weakens. Purpose dulls. Even violence may forget why it was born.

[Unburdened Existence]

The Slothful Sovereign is untouched by that which demands effort of him.

[White Kingdom: Authority Anchor]

A world built for those who no longer wish to move.

[Abilities]

[Slothful Authority]

The sovereign may impose rest upon all that enters his reach.

[Stillness Given Form]

What has been made still may be shaped, moved, and remade at the sovereign’s leisure.

[Merciful Repose]

The weary are offered safety, comfort, and an end to resistance.

[Passives]

[The Weight of Everything]

The longer one remains within his presence, the more burdensome movement becomes.

[Indolence Incarnate]

The sovereign need not pursue that which will eventually cease on its own.

[The One Who Will Not Stir]

The Slothful Sovereign remains absolute while all things are permitted to follow their natural course toward rest.

[Burden of Desire]

To seek, protect, pursue, or preserve is to acknowledge that something is worth effort.

[Authority of Stillness]

Stillness cannot belong to one who struggles against change.

[Lore]

He gave his rest so others could sleep.

He gave his strength so others could endure.

He gave his life because duty demanded it.

When he finally stopped, the world named his sin.

Sloth.

Ludwig stopped reading as something about those final lines began to feel wrong. The system had not lied. The problem lay in everything Ludwig had assumed.

He gave his rest so others could sleep. He gave his strength so others could endure. He gave his life because duty demanded it.

That was not the story Ludwig had expected. He had imagined indolence, someone who refused responsibility and abandoned others because moving was inconvenient.

Instead, those lines described someone who had once done the opposite. Someone who had given too much. Someone who had worked until there was nothing left to give, then somehow had that final refusal transformed into the Sin of Sloth.

The crimson eyes across the canyon snapped toward him, and Ludwig felt the change immediately.

Sloth knew.

He had not merely sensed Ludwig looking at him. He had felt something reach into what he was.

The pale giant disappeared.

This time, Ludwig was ready. Nightbreaker came off his shoulder, but he did not swing at Sloth. He struck the air directly in front of himself.

The mace smashed into empty space at the exact moment Sloth reappeared. A pale fist collided with the resulting shockwave, and the canyon erupted.

Aura and pressure exploded outward from between them. The stone beneath Ludwig’s boots cratered instantly, and the black swamp was thrown back in a perfect ring. Gale drove his tower shield into the ground to protect Redd and the tribesmen from the resulting debris.

Ludwig slid backwards.

Sloth did not.

The mace had never touched him. It had attacked the space his fist entered, and that distinction remained enough.

Ludwig stared through the dust, his mind still fixed upon the inspection. He thought about the palace, the people, the endless food, and the comfort. He thought of Sloth’s refusal to allow them to suffer even enough to need escape, and of the monsters hidden far away so those inside his paradise never needed to know what protected them.

Even his decision to move the battle had been for their sake.

It was twisted, horrific, and possessive, but it had not been born from simple laziness.

”I was wrong all this time,” Ludwig muttered.

Sloth’s fist lowered.

Ludwig rested Nightbreaker against his shoulder again and studied him. The pale giant remained expressionless.

A faint smile crossed Ludwig’s face. ”You...”

He tilted his head.

”You’re not that terrible after all.”