The Omega Secret (Book Four of the Omega Game Series)

Chapter 2

Monster

The Blue Outpost

Three days ago...

My Master’s orders were still ringing in my ears while I patrolled the ruins. Kill everyone and everything you see...Monster. Be good and I will let you out of the cage.  I hated the cage. It hurt to be inside that f*****g cage. I roared and growled angrily. I would do everything to stay away from the cage. Anything the Master wanted.

The wind ringed against my pointed ears when I stopped and surveyed the place. I've known this place. Through the red haze obscuring my eyes I recognized some of the structures that had fallen a long time ago. There had been a tavern standing in the middle of the devastated town. A two floor building that had been reduced to a pile of burned wood.

I sniffed the air but all I could smell was the scent of snow, ashes and death. Death...I knew that smelled better than anyone. The scent of dried blood and unbeaten hearts. The scent of my Master. It had been my Master who had ordered me to destroy this place. I’d killed so many that night…I remembered the name of this place. I had friends here...

My head started hurting and I growled, shaking my head to the sides. It hurt to remember. I just couldn’t remember. Have I always been this Monster? There had been a time before my Master? I wouldn’t know. All I knew was pain and desolation. All I knew was to follow orders like the Monster I was. 

With a snarl I passed the old ruins and started moving to the south. The other monsters followed me like they always did. They moved slowly, sinisterly, all messengers of death. The miasma of our stench clogged the air with every step we took. If there had been plants around this place we would have killed them all with our presence. Making them wither under our steps like if death itself was touching them. And still we moved, always searching for people to kill. Always following our Master’s will obediently.

It was about the time when the snow should have started to smell the coldest. Right in between when the night finished and the new day started, I felt a great presence coming our way. It made me stop against the cold blizzard hitting my face and look ahead of us. I could feel strange things since the Master had changed me into the Monster I was. I could see the spirits that lived all around us. I could feel life and death balancing in the air. And I could feel the power in others. I was the most powerful Monster the Master had created. I knew things that no other Monster knew.

The wind changed course then. 

I sniffed the air and howled fast, alerting the others something was coming our way. Enemy. Powerful. Incoming...The other monsters started to move agitated. Like a wave of decay we pushed against each other, snarling and growling, getting ready for battle. The cold seemed to intensify, heavy snow falling harder over our furs with every heartbeat that took for our enemy to reveal itself.

For a moment the entire world turned colder than I’d ever felt it and then a lonely figure appeared by the hill to our left. The sun started its ascension, illuminating the outline of a man. Just one man...and still something different. I growled, shaking my head in confusion. I looked over at the stranger and felt the same awareness I’d felt before. Enemy. Powerful. Incoming...I howled again, alerting the others that we were going to fight. All the monsters tensed, bodies ready and ears prickling. We waited until the sun had started to turn into a pink color behind the man’s back and then we attacked.

We opened in a circle, running down the hill, howling with mouths full of the foamed trace of our drool. Even the wind seemed to recoil at our fury. At the madness that pained us. At the horrifying image of what we had been turned into. The other monsters followed me with a well practiced formation that I’ve taught them. First the ones that ran the fastest and behind the tallest monsters, the ones that moved the slowest. We were angry and deadly. Lethal in our rage.

With fast moves we all surrounded the man. Or Alpha? No...No...It didn’t smell like an Alpha. It was something more. Something deadly like us, but different. Yes, different. Like the Master. I tensed the moment my pained mind finally understood what my instincts had been telling me. This was a creature like the Master. It didn’t smell like death, but it was as strong. Maybe even stronger…

“I’d been postponing this for a while now…”said the man that was not a man, staring at us with grey eyes that looked strangely like ice, “...but I’m bringing a guest over and I can’t let you roam free around here anymore. Don’t fret. I’m not killing you. Katala would only get angry at me if I disrupt the balance and Noctis gets irritated if his mate is angry…”

I growled at him, posing to strike him down. If this was my end then I would gladly die serving my Master. At least I wouldn’t die inside the cage. I really hated the cage. It f*****g hurt to be inside the cage.

The man that was not a man looked over at me.

“What was that? You don’t like what I’ve planned for you? Well, tough luck,” he shrugged, “ Your options are looking like an ice statue or dying, you ugly fucker. At least you are not dying and believe me I’d considered killing all of you many times. But I couldn’t do it. It all needed to happen at the right time.”

My fur bristled and I growled threateningly one last time.

“Why am I talking to you, you ask? I don’t know...you are the first being with a pulse I interact with...I don’t remember how long…” I attacked then, jumping in the air and retracting my claws. The face of the man came in and out of focus and then he disappeared. I fell on my haunches, checking my left and right but the man that wasn’t a man was nowhere to be seen. The monsters around me started to shake their heads, trying to refocus and find our enemy. 

Where could he…? Ice started crackling on my legs, securing me fast to the icy floor. I growled and tried to break free but the ice was moving fast, hardening, growing, expanding. It started covering me fast and so it did to the other monsters. We were being trapped! Trapped like in that cage! f**k the cage! I roared so high that the entire world shook under my rage. This couldn’t be happening! I preferred death!

The man that wasn’t a man appeared before me then. Up close I could see that his eyes had changed and had turned completely black. I could feel he was looking at me curiously, like if I was interesting enough to gain the attention of a creature more powerful than what I could ever have thought. The ice started to crack around my neck. Soon I would be completely covered by it.

“Rest for now…” he said, “I promise we will find a way to help you. Rest in peace.”

The ice covered me completely.

And finally...finally I could rest.