Deus Necros

Sloth appeared behind Ludwig and closed one hand around an enormous horn. Sloth pulled, snapping the crimson structure and tearing it free from Ludwig’s skull. The deep crack echoed across the battlefield.

Then Sloth punched. His fist did not enter Ludwig’s chest.

It went through it.

The hand emerged from his back carrying pieces of spine, ribs and something dark that had once been an organ. Before the Living Vessel could react, Sloth struck Ludwig’s head with a second punch and launched him across the canyon.

Ludwig struck the distant wall and disappeared into the rock. The cliff collapsed around him, and Kaiser’s mirror flickered beneath the force of the impact.

Thomas stopped moving. Tull’s mouth tightened, and even Cain leaned forward.

Sloth stood alone before the ruined wall, blue blood drying across skin that had already reconstructed.

”Without the armor that carried Wrath before you, your vessel is inferior.”

No answer came from the rubble.

Sloth began walking toward it, slowly, of course. ”You do not tire, but your flesh still breaks.”

The rubble moved.

”You reconstruct because that vessel permits it.”

Crimson light appeared beneath the stone.

”But reconstruction is still an action.”

Sloth stopped.

”Eventually, even this body will cease. All is futile, all is but a waste.”

The canyon remained quiet for half a second.

Then the rubble exploded.

Ludwig emerged from the destruction still resembling Wrath.

Almost.

One horn remained intact, while the broken one had already begun regrowing from the front of his skull. Crimson and black veins covered his immense body, Nightbreaker remained clenched in his hand and his chest had completely reconstructed. The red aura surrounding him burned as violently as before.

Yet Kaiser leaned closer to the mirror.

Celine noticed it at the same time.

One eye and only one.

Ludwig’s left eye remained completely red. There was no white, iris or anything else behind it. Nothing but Wrath.

His right eye had changed. The crimson receded. White returned around the edges, followed by a blue iris. His was Ludwig’s natural eye.

Wrath charged.

Sloth caught Nightbreaker with both hands, and the collision shattered the ground between them. His gaze rose toward Ludwig’s face, then stopped.

All three crimson eyes narrowed.

Something about the creature before him had changed, though only slightly. Wrath still possessed the body. Its aura remained unfettered, and its murderous intent continued spreading indiscriminately across everything surrounding it.

Yet one eye watched. Eerily it looked far too ’sane’ for the current Wrath, it wasn’t seeking destruction nor carnage, it only watched.

Sloth shoved Nightbreaker aside. Ludwig immediately swung again, forcing him to dodge, but Sloth’s attention never left that eye.

”Why?”

Wrath came forward, and Sloth blocked a punch. The impact broke three of his fingers, though they repaired immediately.

”Why has Wrath not taken the eye?”

The human eye blinked.

Then Ludwig smiled.

It was a horrifying expression upon Wrath’s face. Fangs showed between his lips as the monstrous features twisted into something unmistakably his.

”Surprised?”

Everyone gathered around Kaiser’s mirror froze.

Thomas turned toward the former lich. ”That’s Ludwig.”

”Yes.”

”But Wrath is still...”

”Yes.”

Tull stared at the mirror. ”What the hell is going on?”

Kaiser’s expression slowly changed.

He began laughing, quietly at first and then louder. ”Oh, you ridiculous bastard.”

Inside the canyon, Sloth stopped moving for the smallest fraction of a second.

”How?”

The question carried something Ludwig had not heard from him before.

Confusion.

”You surrendered your body.”

Nightbreaker descended, forcing Sloth to step aside as the ground ruptured beneath the missed strike.

”Your violence possesses no distinction. Your rage remains absolute.” He added.

Another swing followed. Sloth caught Ludwig’s wrist, leaving the arm straining between them.

”Yet you retain yourself.” Confusion was clear in Sloth’s words.

Ludwig’s human eye stared directly at him.

”How?”

A laugh emerged from the monstrous mouth. ”Pretty easy, actually.”

Wrath tore its wrist from Sloth’s grip with enough force to shred its own skin. The damage sealed before Ludwig finished speaking.

”All I had to do...”

Nightbreaker swung, forcing Sloth to duck.

”...was give up the body.”

The mace turned within Wrath’s hands.

”But not the mind. Or at least not completely”

Sloth stepped backward, and Wrath followed.

Ludwig had not reclaimed control. That was the important part.

His legs still moved because Wrath wanted them to move. Nightbreaker swung because Wrath wanted something broken, and the rage flowing from the Heart remained complete, unfiltered and uncontrolled.

Ludwig had simply stopped trying to sit in the driver’s seat.

He had moved somewhere else.

He had become an observer. A passenger.

One eye remained his because that was all he needed. It gave him a window through which he could watch what Wrath was doing without interfering with why it was doing it.

Sloth’s Authority had nothing to seize. The body still possessed no singular intention, and Wrath continued hating everything equally. Ludwig’s mind could understand that Sloth was the enemy without directing the body to attack him.

The distinction was microscopic.

Conceptually, it changed everything.

Sloth moved first. He parried Nightbreaker aside, creating an opening, and sent one fist toward Ludwig’s face.

The attack was quick and precise.

Wrath responded as it had throughout the entire battle.

It did nothing.

Taking the punch did not matter. Pain and damage held no value. The only thing Wrath cared about was completing its own attack.

Except Ludwig was watching.

Sloth’s fist came closer, and Ludwig’s human eye followed it. Not the body or the limbs. Only the eye.

Within that thin remaining space of consciousness, something offered the smallest suggestion. It wasn’t an order or a command. No, that would be too egregious for Wrath to accept.

Only a thought.

’Wouldn’t it make Wrath angrier if Sloth missed?’

Wrath’s head tilted.

The fist passed right beside Ludwig’s face, making sloth’s eyes widen.

Nightbreaker was already moving.

The dodge had exposed his ribs, and the mace struck with enough force to fold Sloth’s torso around the weapon. Bone shattered, his feet left the earth and the impact launched him across the canyon.

Sloth passed through one wall, then a second and a third. Each collapsed behind him in a chain of destruction stretching into the distance.

Wrath marched after him.

Slowly this time. Not because it wasn’t fast. It didn’t need to.

”Holy shit.” Ludwig laughed. Though the laughing mouth of Wrath was clearly not fitting on the rage induced expression on the remainder of its face.

His monstrous voice echoed throughout the ruined canyon.

”I think I figured it out.”

Sloth emerged from the rubble ahead. Half his chest had collapsed, and several ribs protruded through his pale skin. His body corrected itself almost immediately.

But his expression did not it remained confused, utterly baffled at what was going on. That was the interesting part.

Ludwig could see it now. Not fear. Not it would be ridiculous for an Usurper to have that notion. But to Sloth this new expression was far more offensive.

Uncertainty.

”At first, I thought I’d just lost my shit,” Ludwig said as Wrath continued walking, every step cracking the ground beneath him. ”Letting the Heart completely take over sounded like a terrible idea because, well...”

He gestured vaguely with Nightbreaker.

”All this.”

A crimson crystalline formation erupted from the ground beside him without warning and shattered a nearby cliff. Ludwig glanced toward it with his one normal eye.

”Yeah. Case in point.”

Sloth said nothing.

”I figured that once I opened the door, Wrath would take everything. Body, mind, soul, whatever remained. Then the two of you would keep beating the shit out of each other until either you died or I stopped being me.”

Nightbreaker dragged against the ground as Wrath walked, carving a trench behind him.

”But apparently, I was thinking about it wrong.”

Ludwig’s grin widened.

”I don’t need to control Wrath.”

He tapped one finger against the side of his head.

”I only need to make sure Wrath doesn’t fully control this.”

Sloth’s gaze moved toward the human eye. ”You believe thought is separate from action.”

”No.” Ludwig laughed. ”I know it isn’t. It wouldn’t have worked if it was.”

Wrath suddenly charged, forcing Sloth to move. Nightbreaker missed and shattered the earth, but Ludwig continued speaking through the destruction.

”The thing is. Wrath’s actions just aren’t mine. I think of you as an enemy. But I’m not the one actively smashing your face in.”

Sloth punched. Wrath twisted only far enough for the fist to strike its shoulder instead of its throat. The joint exploded, but Ludwig did not care, and Wrath cared even less.

Nightbreaker crashed into Sloth’s thigh and tore the leg free.

Sloth fell, though the missing limb regenerated before his body touched the ground. At the same time, Ludwig’s shoulder reconstructed.

”I gave him the body,” Ludwig said. ”I keep the mind.”

Sloth rolled beneath another swing.

”He gets to go completely batshit crazy.”

Nightbreaker struck the canyon floor, and red energy erupted around them.

”And I get front-row seats for the spectacle.”

Sloth appeared behind him, beyond the range of Ludwig’s human eye.

Wrath still perceived him.

The body spun, and their fists collided. The resulting shock wave destroyed every remaining window of stone within hundreds of meters.

Ludwig laughed again. ”This is actually pretty useful.”

Sloth forced him backward. ”You mistake novelty for victory.”

”Maybe.”

Wrath attacked, and Sloth blocked, but Ludwig’s knee struck the Usurper’s stomach and folded his body around it.

”But it’s a pretty good discovery.”

Sloth caught Ludwig’s leg. Wrath used the grip to pull itself closer and drove its forehead into his shoulder. The remaining horn punched through pale flesh, spraying blue blood across the canyon.

”Good experience too.”

Ludwig ripped the horn free.

”So, thanks for that.”

Sloth shoved him away, and the two separated.

”Your vessel cannot handle the overload much longer.”

”Not my problem,” Wrath shrugged.

For several seconds, neither moved.

The ruined canyon stretched around them with almost nothing left of its original shape. Smoke rose between red crystalline formations. Entire cliff faces had been pulverized, and deep fractures spread across the earth, glowing faintly wherever Wrath’s Authority of destruction had entered them.

Sloth stood upon one side of the devastation.

Ludwig stood upon the other.

One creature remained whole because it always returned to stillness. The other continued breaking because destruction did not care what body carried it.

Ludwig studied Sloth’s expression and smiled. ”You know what’s really interesting?”

Sloth remained silent.

”That look.”

”What look?”

”That one.” Ludwig pointed Nightbreaker toward him. ”The one you’re making right now.”

Sloth’s three eyes narrowed.

Ludwig’s human eye brightened with amusement. ”You almost look like you’re hoping for something.”

The canyon went quiet.

Sloth’s expression flattened as his Authority spread across the ruined land. Dust stopped falling around him. Loose stones ceased rolling, and the remnants of Wrath’s aura nearest his feet weakened until their flames barely moved.

”There is no need for hope,” Sloth said as he stood completely still. ”There is no need for action. All things end.”

The air around him became heavy.

”Everything struggles only to arrive at the same conclusion.”

His crimson eyes fixed upon Ludwig.

”All is futile.”

Wrath tightened its grip around Nightbreaker, cracking the ground beneath its feet.

Ludwig laughed.

Not Wrath.

Ludwig.

”Oh, I’m not so sure about that.”

Sloth stared at him while Ludwig’s single human eye remained fixed upon the pale giant.

”Because you’re still fighting back. And that is what we call... being hopeful.”