"Hmm…"
Mark hummed as he circled around the sacrifice that was bound to the metal platform, the woman wasn't aware of him on a consciousness level. However, the scent of her fear grew as her mind tried to convince itself that the sounds she head wasn't real
'... Well, this will do for now'
With the fear of the sacrifice growing steadily Mark left her alone and continued exploring the cave, beyond the sacrifice and the platform lowered from above lay further stone pillars carved from the bedrock
'Oh?'
Around 20 meters from the sacrifice platform, the cave began narrowing slightly until it reached an abrupt drop, Mark stared down into the dark abyss for a bit before he spotted the dark water that raced below
'A underground river… Oh, what's this?'
Mark discover a loose panel of stone next to the edge, he eventually found a small circular hole and slipped a finger into it and pulled up the panel
'A bucket?'
Mark pulled up the bucket and found it attached to a long chain inside the small compartment
'Well, that makes sense… Or does it?'
The fact that a bucket had been concealed here to draw water didn't sit quite right with Mark, if what had inhabited this place had been a Scourge like him then it didn't require water to live
'If anything, the only thing I would use this river for is garbage disposal… Wait a moment'
Mark floated up before he flew back, passing the bound sacrifice and sending a casual "Boo!" in her direction as he flew past, Mark ignored the screaming and definite foreign language she shouted as he returned to the smaller cave he had awoken in and took a closer look at the thing he had ignored at the start
"...This doesn't feel like a garbage pile on second look"
Looking at the pile of bones thoroughly, Mark quickly saw that it was the bones of several people, neatly cleaned and stacked in a pile
'Hmm… Maybe there's a living space hidden somewhere in this cave, then? Presumingly, it will also hold a stock or source of food along with a comfortable living space for the mortal pets this Scourge has been keeping?'
Mark decided not to fuck with the shrine and floated aimlessly through the larger part of the cave for a bit before he shrugged and concluded
'...I don't really need to snoop anymore than I've already done. The real question is what to do with this sacrifice, I could snap her neck and be done with it, but that feels excessively cruel for someone that hasn't done anything to me'
Mark floated back towards the sacrifice, he studied her for a few moments before he sat down on the ground and walked towards her. When her eyes went wide in shock at his sudden appearance, Mark simply gave her a small wave and greeted her
"Hi"
After a few moments of a silent staring contest, Mark realized the poor woman had passed out with her eyes open
"...Well, this is going to take some time"
-
And time it sure took, however not quite as much as Mark had expected. Using his experience from being stuck in a hotel room with Lisa he quickly won her over, however communication still proved to be a problem
'Well… from feeding on her fear I've got most of the picture already'
The young lady (Which Mark had mentally named Liz) was the daughter of a merchant clan that had been captured by a group of what Mark could only describe as darkness worshipers that lived above the cave in a sun void
'...I am definitely not in Kansas anymore, not that I've ever been… I think?'
Escaping reality aside, Mark had a hard time accepting his current reality, his original plan had been to find a working ship and get back to Lisa and Luna no matter the cost… However, having seen what he had seen when feeding on Liz Mark wasn't confident he could ever see either of them again
"...Well, let's get going already… Liz, Liz"
Mark shock the sleeping young lady slightly as he called her name, a few moments passed before she woke
"----..."
'She's tired despite the fact she's just woken up, well, she has been starving for a bit by now'
Mark carefully took her hand and traced a finger up towards her wrist where her hands were bound by thick rope
"Easy"
Mark pinched the robe between two fingers, slowly and carefully the rope sheared under his monstrous strength, Liz stared at his finger dig through the rope completely dumbfounded
"See, easy right?"
Mark scooped her into his arms before he lifted her up, then he simply lifted off the ground and floated up towards the entrance of the cave
"--- —-?"
"Yeah, flying is pretty neat, right?"
Liz fell silent, Mark saw her close her eyes as she started muttering something or another. He ignored it and floated up to the top of the cave where the platform Liz had been bound to had been lowered from, it was another mostly empty cave, besides the pulley system for the platform to be raised and lowered the cave was bare
'...'
Mark stared at the exit of the cave for a few moments before he sat down on the cave floor and walked towards the exit, after he walked out Mark ignored everything but the sky above as he gazed up, at first glance the dark sky seemed dotted with a few stars but as Mark narrowed his eyes he quickly saw them for what they really were
"Bonfires… Yeah, this definitely isn't Kansas"
The world, or rather reality Mark had found himself in after seemingly swapping places with the other Scourge wasn't like anything he had ever heard of. Beyond the Sky simply lay the ground, that is to say if one flew straight up one would pass through some sort of boundary before flying straight down into the ground in an entirely different place
'...The lack of light is one thing in this area is one thing, but from feasting on Liz's fear I know there's light elsewhere in this strange space'
Mark kicked off the ground and quickly gained altitude and gazed ahead, the dark forest below him gave way to an entirely different terrain a few kilometers away, from what Mark could see it appeared to be a frozen tundra and beyond that he saw vast golden fields of wheat. All had different localized weather and seeming random light level
'Is this what acid is like?'
Being face to face with this mind-bending spectacle, Mark suddenly found himself interested in popping some mushrooms or cubes before he became distracted with weighing the possibilities that his strange physical form even could get high, so he turned his focus on Liz and spoke
"This is some wild shit Liz"
Maybe it was due to his bewilderment, but it was only then he noticed what was wrong with Liz. Her hair stood on end, floating out from her head and before Mark managed to do anything else as his vision was overcome with light as the wrath of the heavens stuck the two
-
The lightning that struck Mark and Liz wasn't called lightning in the plane of existence Mark found himself in, it was named heavens' wrath. This wasn't just due to the locals having a flare of the dramatic either, as this lightning both rendered both the physical and mental forms of what it struck. Needless to say Liz was killed instantly, her body was disintegrated in an instance, Mark however survived, if only barely… What was left of him reverted to its baser, more primal instincts as his physical regeneration far outpaced his mental regeneration.
-
"General"
It was like waking from a sudden dream, or maybe like getting dunked into one? Anyhow, the sense of vertigo that hit Mark was unlike anything he had ever felt
"Oh, sorry about that… My mind was elsewhere…"
The man that had spoke to Mark was covered in a metal armor, looking at it Mark thought it looked like a weird mismatch of different central and east Asian cultures, the helmet he collapsed under his arm had long curved horns with a face mask fashioned into some sort of demon face with a twisted expression and long narrow metal teeth
"General, are you unwell?"
Mark looked at the man, he seemed familiar despite the fact that he held no recollection of his face, he clearly wasn't human, with dull blue skin, purple eyes and two saber like horns sprouting from his forehead
"I… I think I am?"
"General! Someone send for the—"
"SILENCE!"
Mark was as surprised as the man in metal armor over his commanding yell, he felt something stir in his mind. It was like he slowly found his footing, he remembered how to breathe
"...Let's roll"
The man's face brightened up and he immediately responded
"Yes general!"
The man clad in armor led the way and held the tent flap open for Mark that walked right out… Into the blinding sunlight, it was only once he had stepped out he remembered that the light was his natural enemy and would kill him if he was exposed long enough, however to his surprise his flesh had in fact not started sizzling, instead it had changed into glossy white scales that reflected the sunlight mostly harmlessly away
'I feel a slight pickling sensation though… Well, it's a lot better than if it started melting'
Mark looked ahead, the war camp lay on an open field and entirely covered it in cloth tents that spread out ahead for at least half a kilometer, Mark walked ahead down the path between the tents, his body knew the path and so his mind simply followed it
'This feels really weird… It's almost like remembering how to ride a bike… Well, scaled up to, whatever being a general is? Am I really a general?'
While Mark's mind was still significantly jumbled, his body played the part of a stoic general as he continued walking past elite units who all wore different armor and used different weapons, all these different people saluted him with clear reverence and no small amount of fear as he walked past before falling in behind him
'Hmm…'
For the first time Mark stopped walking, he looked at the sword that had been stabbed deeply into the ground ahead of him, just from seeing the hilt he knew it was his sword, however what it had done to be placed into the ground like this he didn't recall
'The soldiers are tense too… Hmm, well when heading into battle having a sword is better than not having a sword by a significant margin'
Mark walked two steeps closer to the sword and grasped the hilt, it felt right, natural even to grip it and when he pulled it from the ground the familiar weight brought back flashes of numerous battles, blood soaked fields and slaughters
"...Not bad… Not bad at all"
The sword was a straight, double bladed long sword with a triangle pointed tip, the hilt cross guard was a complex design and was seemingly hollowed out with holes deliberately made in seemingly random points along the cross guard. The hilt itself was wrapped with worn brown leather strips and at the bottom of the hilt extended a metal circle wide enough to fit 4 fingers into, the metal was the same carbon black as the blade and lacked any kind of polished sheen
"..."
Mark swung the blade ahead once, then twice in a one-handed grip before he twirled the sword around to a reverse grip, then finally he twirled it around once more and caught it by the ring on the bottom of the hilt, the inside of the metal ring brought back the flash of a memory that caused him to show a fond smile as he muttered
"...Sing"
Then he swung the blade, twirling it around along the metal hoop, slowly at first, but as the speed quickly increased the hollow cross guard caught the wind and began letting out a sound reminiscent of a whistle. Memories of battlefields and sieges flooded his mind, he remembered hacking and slashing through everything and anyone that stood in his path of poorly reasoned bloody warfare as he had led his band of warriors like a pack of locusts through the decades since he had been named general