Mattias' body jerked as breath tore back into his lungs. Goo slithered across his ribs, knitting bone, filling the holes where horrors had gnawed. He coughed black liquid and rolled onto his side, gagging as it hissed into smoke on the ground.
Mattias: "Looks like I'm basically immortal to physical damage. To a degree. That still hurts…"
He got up and dusted himself off. His shadowed hands twitched like predators sniffing prey.
Mattias: "Sigh… I should be more emotional than this. Maybe that's how a normal human would be. But again, I don't even know any actual humans…"
As the dust settled, a voice drifted from above.
Manu: "Still breathing. Good boy."
Mattias groaned and cracked his joints. His eyes darted around the endless black and back up at Manu.
Mattias: "Don't call me that, you psychopathic creature."
Manu's voice sang down lazily as he floated wings barely moving.
Manu: "Is that any way to speak to your friend? Here I thought you'd be glad I didn't take your body, and even made you my Apostle"
He wiped a fake tear from his eye.
Mattias kicked the ground and pointed upward.
Mattias: "Don't call me your friend! You were about to take my body and before that you just kept killing me and torturing me!!!"
A ripple ran across the ground the stone cracked, then collapsed Mattias dropped as the floor swallowed him.
Mattias: "Come on!... Give me a break... I just got my sanity back!!!"
As he fell Manu drifted after him with his hands in his pockets.
Manu: "If you actually die I'm still going to take your body"
Mattias twisted midair after hearing sounds from the ground only to see horrors swarming below like ants.
He thought: "You can't be serious. He planned this in case I tried escaping… that bastard."
Manu caught up flying beside him without effort.
> Manu: "What do you think? Isn't it well made? This place… is to keep my food fresh don't they look tasty?"
Mattias felt disgusted but didn't say a word as he had gotten to the point where he had to eat one as well
Manu: "Tell me… are you scared of falling to your death again even though you just did? If you're so afraid you can let me have your body. What do you say?"
Mattias' jaw tightened.
> Mattias: "Never not even if I have to die clawing away from those creatures down there."
Manu: "Oh? Are you sure about that?"
Manu spread his arms, twirling as if giving a tour of his palace.
Manu: "They're delicacies I've raised. You can't expect they'll just let you claw away"
He leaned close, voice dropping to a whisper.
Manu: "And as my Apostle I'm telling you if you die even once to one of those horrors you forfeit your body to me."
Suddenly a chain of energy appeared around Mattias not restraining his flesh but his soul before fading out.
Mattias: "You lunatic! What did you do to me?"
He grabbed Manu by the collar as they fell.
Manu: "All I did was give you a commandment you have to follow and a punishment if broken."
Mattias glared but let go below, a wyrm like horror rose to meet them. Without hesitation, he dove straight into its mouth.
Mattias thought: "I need to escape that crazy bastard before he actually just takes my body and destroys my soul."
Manu tilted his head, smile widening as he flapped upward out of the wyrm's reach.
> Manu (thinking): "What a strange half-breed he is If he really wants to escape maybe I'll just skip the appetizers and take his body now…"
The wyrm banked downward but its belly split open as black hands clawed their way out. The monster shrieked as Mattias tore free his body drenched in blood. The wyrm crashed to the ground, smashing lesser horrors beneath it.
Mattias landed, blinking at the swarming landscape. The "ants" he'd seen from above were actually massive creatures devouring each other in a frenzy.
His thoughts barely had time to settle before four horrors lunged at him.
Without hesitation he leapt, black claws slashing.
Mattias thought: "I've died too many times before to not know the first attack should end it all."
He drove his hand through the first horror's skull, killing it instantly.
From above, Manu grinned like a madman.
Manu: "You little cockroach… you grew stronger from the beating I gave you."
Mattias hit the ground hard, his knees cracking under the impact.
Manu: "Bravo."
His grin grew wolfish.
Manu: "I like that body of yours even more now"
Mattias wiped blood from his face, eyes burning.
Mattias: "I hate that I can only survive now because that thing tortured me."
He glared up at Manu as the remaining horrors circled him.
Mattias: "I really hate you"