The Multiverse: Stronger Than Ever

The stench was overwhelming. Not like garbage, but like an abandoned butcher shop with meat left in it to rot. And to sit. And to mold.

For far, far too long.

But anyone who didn't need to breathe wouldn't mind, unless the sight of a rather horrifying creature dwelling in the woods, feeding on a corpse that it shared a likeness to, would make one grimace.

But Mortuus did not care. She had been in the Cursed Wood the last hundred years feeding, growing stronger, and becoming powerful.

He drew in a breath, out of habit, and nearly spit the air from his mouth.

There was almost nothing in the world that smelled quite like that, the rotten flesh, the putrid odor...Almost nothing. Casren quickened his pace, straight into the murk that would leave mortals in waste. Straight into what he hoped was, what could possibly be...

The bloody sight ahead of the vampire both angered his stomach and enticed his nerves. Could it be?

"Excuse me," He said, careful not to let his guard down from a semi-distant tree.

From ahead, something peeked out from the bush. Two glowing, green eyes, like round orbs, piercing through the darkness to stare at the vampire. Whatever feasting that had been going on had paused for now. Silence fell upon the wood.

That is, until the voice of a woman spoke up behind him.

"Casren."

Behind him was, indeed, a woman. A very normal, young, pretty woman wearing a black funeral dress. She tilted her head at the vampire and blinked. "It has been a while."

Caught off guard, he spun to face the voice. Mortuus?

He blinked, dumbfounded at the sight of the young woman. Lips parted to reveal his fangs, his jaw went from attack ready to slack. Mortuus?

"Ah..." A while indeed, many many years, but where was the old Mortuus...Literally, where was the rotting dragon that he had known so long ago?

"Eh..." For possibly the third time in his life, manners completely eluded him. "Mortuus?"

The woman blinked at Casren. She was so terribly innocent. There was a curiosity, and not malice, in her eyes. There was some kind of innocence, there. Shining.

"Yes." she said, nodding. "Could it be that you were trying to find me, Casren? How nice of you to visit in the last century."

Something big moved behind him, boned creaking and ground shaking lightly with every step. Before he would get a chance to turn around, it jumped into the trees, climbing from one to the other until it was behind the young girl, staring at Casren.

In the exact same way.

The tree the dragon had latched onto nearly uprooted for its weight. The dragon was massive. Larger than the vampire would have remembered.

Rendered speechless, Casren simply stared at the enormous beast.

He had not visited in the last century, nor had he tried. The vampire had simply disappeared, in the wake of the catastrophes that were.

"Mortuus, I'm sorry," He directed the words at the dragon, looking to the young woman as an afterthought, "But how did you..."

"I stole it. I have become more than you can ever imagine, Casren. Must you believe that a century has passed, to not expect that I could have grown stronger?" spoke the girl, just as the massive beast beat its wings, causing a powerful gust to sweep past them, leaves and dirt and rocks flying into the air.

The lich then jumped down behind the woman, staring at Casren.

"I have become much more than the sum of my parts. And what of you? What is the reason for such a visit?"

Beautiful, really, that Mortuus could evolve into such a beast. Beasts, perhaps, but nonetheless fascinating. His hair whipped awry in the wind of wings. As much as he didn't want to tear his eyes from the powerful display, the dust caused a bother and he had to shield them.

"I'm not sure what I expected, dear Mortuus," Casren said, removing his hand to look at the woman, "But this is surely more than whatever it was. A visit indeed," He looked back up at the stolen creature, wondering how she managed to pull that one off.

"I've returned. We've returned. It is time to rise again, I suppose. Naturally, that brings me...Back. You've been here all this time?"

"Surely, you must have expected something grotesque and grand," said the girl. The dragon reached forth a great, rotting limb to touch the girl's back. Her eyes fluttered, and she fell to the ground, seemingly...dead.

It was then that the massive lizard approached Casren further. A light ignited within Mortuus' core, spinning around threads of hanging flesh and crawling up through her eye sockets to ignite them with a mossy glow.

This time, instead of the woman's voice, a low, raspy, demonic growl greeted the vampire as Mortuus stuck her snout an inch from his face, nostrils blowing warm, sickly air past his cheeks to disturb his hair.

"I have been here. And I have been growing. What has the Detente been doing?"

"That I did," Casren nodded with a faint smile, reminiscing the dead dragon from his past. The smile slipped as Mortuus did to the ground, he froze in place too late to catch her.

Casren almost recoiled. It was almost too much. Never had he witnessed such a fleshy display, it was grotesque, it was obscene... Who had Mortuus become? Casren pushed the air from his lungs with care, and bowed his head respectfully. When he spoke, however, his voice betrayed his demeanor. Though cast down were his eyes, the voice of the vampire resonated with spirit.

"Healing, lying dormant, waiting for the opportunity to rise again,"

With that he looked to Mortuus, barely flinching.

"I've missed you, Mortuus," Almost lovingly, with the ghost of a boyish smile.

The young woman, who was whole, alive, not rotting even a bit, and more than decent in appearance, lay limp in Casren's arms. It was, perhaps, not the best choice for Mortuus to have chosen that human body- she was, after all, filled with blood. Her heart beat. Her lungs inflated in a soft breath. She had a mind of her own when Mortuus wasn't using it.

But the dragon was now standing in front of Casren on her large feet, lifting her massive, tattered wings with a sound like snapping cloth.

"And I, you, Casren," spoke the monster, a small, terrible chuckle echoing through the Cursed Wood. "To rise again...I shall remain loyal to your cause. And I eagerly await the results."

It was a moment that any one person would have felt endowed with much power- the moment where a creature of such bountiful power came to bow its head to them in loyalty.

"I am yours to command."

A whirl of satisfaction-No victory-No, Excalibur-No...It was a moment of true Blood, true alliance.

Carefully, he stopped to one knee, doing his best to balance in as deep a bow as possible.

"Never command, simply request," He said, raising his head to reveal a smile. "It is, after all, our way. Do no more for me than I do for you, Mortuus."

He shot her a wink, and bowed his head again.

The behemoth rose her head, then inclined it at the vampire. "You always were more interested in the brotherhood, but I believe that is the cause of the Detente growing so quickly." She sat back on her haunches, head raising at least thirty feet above the vampire. Mortuus was gigantic.

The young woman within his arms stirred a bit, uneasy, and aching. Her eyes peeked open in slits as she looked up to Casren. She muttered one thing, and fell back asleep.

He angled his own head back to try to meet her eyes, but found himself stumbling gently onto his bottom. A chuckle, more from impact and irony, escaped him as he landed.

"Possibly, or perhaps it's due time for everyone to start being friends again," He looked down to the girl, and frowned. Who was this? "Erm, Mortuus, if you don't mind me asking..." He flicked his eyes to the girl.

"Friends. An...interesting thought." said the dragon. Friends. Friends. A strange word to her vocabulary.

As the attention shifted to the girl, the dragon almost seemed to...grin. Ripped lips curled so far back over her needle-sharp teeth that one could see the bones where her jaws connected.

"She is a young girl I found in a cemetery. Weeping over wasted food in the ground."

Food to Mortuus. A father to the girl.

"I suppose you were able to.." The frown turned to a skeptical sideways expression, "Solve her problems, then?"

He didn't even want to think about the implications.

The dragon shuffled in place and lifted her head up proudly, like a dog that had just killed a squirrel and was showing its human.

Except...this was an undead dragon and a vampire.

"She will never have to think of her troubles again. I will do the thinking for her!"

"Well I suppose that's," He smiled, kinda, "Good. Very good. Now. Mortuus,"

Casren looked to her, like a true long lost friend,

"Will you return to the castle with me? It's been too long, and there are others now."

"Of course." said Mortuus. "Let us not waste time."

He said return to the castle. Of course, he did not say how, which prompted the dragon to leap forward, reach an arm out to grab Casren in one talon, the girl in another, and lift off into the skies with a vigorous roar.

Casren Bistreo was swept away, to his surprise emitting a lady-like shriek. After a wriggle and realizing he wasn't in peril, the scream turned to a guffaw as they soared away.

The Multiverse » Arcs » Stronger Than Ever

As written by: Moonscar, lostamongtrees

20 pieces and 2 characters involved, written by 2 different authors.

1 places involved

So begins...

Stronger Than Ever

Setting: Cursed Wood