Hours passed as feeling slowly returned to David's body. He was finally able to blink and remoisturize his eyes after what felt like an eternity. Now that he was finally able to close his eyes he would be able to look at his notifications. Maybe with the lizards he killed he had earned enough XP to be able to summon some sort of tool or something useful that could help him escape.
David closed his eyes as he began to look at the notifications the floated in the inky black.
"You have killed a teenage male Gekkonidae Discerpere lizard. 4XP and 1 summon awarded."
"You have killed a teenage male Gekkonidae Discerpere lizard. 4XP and 1 summon awarded."
"You have killed a teenage male Gekkonidae Discerpere lizard. 4XP and 1 summon awarded."
'Shit if I had tried to kill that last one maybe I could have enough to summon a servitor or something useful. No, I need to think. What can I summon to help me get out of this situation? A Laz cutter? No, I wouldn't be able to turn it or make sure I'm cutting properly. Maybe I can summon some sort of tool or assistant.'
Before David could set his mind on a plan to escape, a searing pain shot through his body. It felt as if a branding iron was charring his flesh, as David writhed in pain. David's eyes shot open and looked around frantically as he fought has hard as possible to keep from screaming and weeping. A large green blotch writhed under his skin around the stinger puncture wound. The chime of a notification sounded in David's head as he struggled in agony. fighting his instincts and primal nature to escape the pain he closed his eyes once more.
"A parasitic Gekkonidae Discerpere larva had attached itself to your shoulder blade."
David's eyes flashed open as a new look of complete desperation engrained itself on his face and his eyes shown with desperation. 'Shit, shit I'm going to end up like those other strung up eaten bodies.'
A new wave of extreme pain shot through David's body as he could feel the parasite moving under his skin. He was unable to stop a scream from escaping his lips as tears began to run down his face. A large bruise began to form near the head of the parasite as it ate away at Davids flesh. Reacting to David's scream the adult Gekkonidae Discerpere made its way towards David's hanging body. Instead of looking at David with resentment or contempt the adult looked at his with a sense of what David assumed was fondness. The adult began to examine David's body before opening its mouth and dragging its barbed tongue along the puncture wound in David's back. When the tongue touched the parasite began to move and feast with an extreme fervor as if trying to escape it's confines inside of David. David's screams of pain caused the adult to flinch its head away from him.
The adult rounded once more around David so it was looking at him head on. the adult shifted its weight onto its back legs as it raised its front left claw to David's chest before cutting into the sinew strap that held his damaged chitin armor. With a echoing thud the deformed chitin armor hit the stone floor, revealing David's partially bare chest to the adult lizard. David's eyes filled with horror as the lizard's needle like tail flashed towards his exposed stomach.
The sharp pain was quickly followed by numbness as the paralyzing effect began to take ahold of David once more. This time he knew instead of just being forced to watch himself being imprisoned he would be forced to stay conscious and aware as his body was consumed from the inside out. Before the paralyzing toxin took full control of his body he muttered a plea to his family to save him and closed his eyes so he would at least not have to watch the parasite moving around under his skin and be able to see any notifications.
The inky blackness felt like a refuge from the horror that was occurring on the other side of his eyelids. Red notification boxes flashed with urgency silently willing David to view them. With a resigned calm David began to read through the notifications.
"URGENT!!! you have been turned into a gestation vessel. The parasitic larva with consume you over a period of time before eating its way out of your body. You will continuously lose HP until the Parasite is either removed or you have been consumed."
"URGENT!!! You have been afflicted with a paralyzing toxin. Quickly find the antidote or way to remove toxin."
"URGENT!!! Seek immediate medical attention or raise durability as quickly as possible. An extreme amount of internal damage has been suffered."
"You have earned enough XP and summon slots to acquire new tools and objects please review."
"You have earned enough XP to increase 1 stat, but this increase will consume all current XP."
Upon finishing reading the last of the notifications, David didn't even bother to look into what stat he could increase. 'What use would increasing my stats be if I'm stuck here paralyzed while I'm being eaten alive?' With this thought in mind David focused on new options box that appeared next to the summons notification.
A new window opened with a grid of icons showing all the new things he could summon with the amount of XP he had. The first icon was a Laz pistol and two power packs. The second icon was a servo-skull with a arrow in the corner of the icon. The Third was an auto pistol and a box of ammo. The fourth was a standard issue solar auxilia sleeping system. Fifth was a combat medic backpack. The next icon was a bandoleer of grenades. And the last icon was a solar auxilia entrenching kit. Under these icons was a small text box. David imagined selecting the text box to find out what it would say.
"The icons listed above are all the new items that you are currently able to summon with the amount of XP you have. new summoned items are available either by increasing your XP and Summon slots or by returning to you home and building a new item."
'Hold up it is saying returning home. Does this mean I can escape this hell? How? Tell me how! I want to know how to get out of here! TELL ME!!!'
No matter how much David yelled in his mind for the notification box to tell him how to get home, it didn't change. With a resentful feeling despair David focused on returning to the grid of icons. He began to look through the different icons once more, sorting them into how useful they would be in his current situation. He immediately labeled the Auto pistol, Laz-pistol, sleeping and entrenching systems as completely useless in his current situation. 'This leaves me with the grenades, medical bag, and servo skull. Grenades are a last resort; I'll be able to die and take those bastard lizards with me. The medical bag is a must, but I can't use it right now. That leaves the servo skull. The icon doesn't show what type of servo skull it is or what its specialty is. With the level of intelligence, I remember most servo skulls having, it would be like summoning a Roomba.'
As David thought about the servo skull he remembered the arrow in the corner of the icon. The quickly began to work his way back through the different icons to the servo skull. Focusing on the arrow a new box appeared with the different options of servo skulls he could choose from.
'Thank you so much old me. If I get out of this situation, I'm going to summon a treat for myself. now that only question is do I choose the guardian, medical, or monotask servo skull? The guardian might be able to kill the adult but how would he survive the parasite. The medical servo skull would be able to remove the parasite and maybe be able to free him, but it would be completely defenseless against the adult. The monotask would be the worst option, it has neither the offensive capabilities or the medical skills to help me with the parasite.'
Having weighed his options David knew what he wanted to summon, he now just had to wait and endure until an opportune moment arrived. Closing his eyes allowed him to interact with the anime type system but it also heightened his still usable senses. The slight changes in the light and shadows on the other side of his eyelids worried him. Tho dull and seemingly distant he could still feel small pricks in his back as the parasite continued to slowly devour him. A new notification hit him like a hammer blow.
"EMERGENCY!!! ACT IMMEDATELY!!! Parasitic Gekkonidae Discerpere larva is approaching your spine. If allowed to continue your spinal collum will be severed and you will lose function of most of your body."
'Fuck what do I do? judging by the shifting light the adult is still watching me. If I summon a servo skull now it might all be for nothing. The grenades, I should summon the grenades. Wait how I arm them while paralyzed? Shit, what do I do? Just sit here and let my spine be eaten through? There has to be some way to save myself.'
Panic started to fill David as he hung helplessly from the drying rack like structure that imprisoned him. Time passed as more and more notifications kept warning David about the parasite. Over time he regained the ability to open his eyes but when he did so, he immediately wished he had kept them closed. The skin around his stomach and chest moved and slithered in a steady rhythm as the parasite moved around under his skin. He could see the green eel like parasite breathing and eating away at his outer layer of muscle and what little fat he still had on his body. the few cuts visible to him oozed an orange, brown liquid, a mix of blood, puss and whatever liquid the parasite kept continually creating. As feeling and movement began to return to his body, David knew he was going to be in for the most painful moment of his life. As the parasite grew it caused the skin to stretch and tear. From one of the tears the small head of the larva stuck its toothy maw out and began to breath. It let out a sound like a cat's meow before diving back under David's skin to continue its work.
The original puncture wound was now a large blotch of purple with a black ring forming around the opening in the skin. Through the opening David's shoulder blade could be seen, the muscle that had once been attached was eaten away and the small indents of teeth could be seen on the bone. Seeing how much damage the larva had done to him so far, David was surprised he was still alive. That is when a truly horrifying thought crossed David's mind.
'What if the larva is purposely avoiding vital organs and blood vessels in order to keep me alive as long as possible. The notification did say I was being used as a gestation vessel.'
David's mind was thrown from his thoughts as the first true sensations of what was happening to him started to reach his brain and be processed. The endless dull pain, the shifting of his skin and center of gravity as the eel like larva moved, but by far the worst was the slimy like feeling of the eel as it passed through his still intact nerves. Nausea began to overtake him as the eel pressed against his stomach and rib cage. it wasn't eating his organs but around them as if trying to keep him alive while still feeding on him.
He felt pressure on his lungs and began to breath in sort ragged breaths as the parasite continued on its journey. Once the eel reached the purple wound on David's back it began to curl up into a ball like a snake. A large bulge rose from David's back as a black puss like substance began to pour from the open wound. As the black puss worked its way down David's back and spine it began to fill the small cuts and openings in his skin. once the puss entered the skin a new black ring began to form around these new openings followed by a larger purple blotch.
Each time the black puss entered a new cut or wound on David's back, a stench of burning flesh filled the air. The pain was extreme but brief as each nerve was boiled and destroyed. In the area where the black puss had overtaken there was only the feeling of warm mud on skin. David's body began to swell and bulge as more and more foreign liquid filled his body. His intestines poked out from the opening in his stomach. Sticky purple substance formed strings between his now exposed organs.
'Why? How am I still alive? I can see my own organs. Why haven't I bleed out yet? Please, just let me die. I don't want this. Someone, anyone please just end this.'
Pain drove David to the point of insanity. The feeling of being burned only to quickly be followed by a dull numb sensation as another small part of him was corrupted and consumed. Unable to take it anymore David began to cry and curse.
'Why did this happen to me? Why am I here? What did I do wrong? Is this a punishment? These damn notifications gave me hope only to help drive me further into despair. I just want this to end. I don't care anymore, just make the pain end.'
The sound of more and more chimes kept filling David's head but he had been mentally broken. He no long cared to close his eyes and see what they said. He already knew. They would tell him he was dying, that he was being consumed, that he needed medical attention immediately.
At David's lowest point he began to see visions. His mother, father, brother and sisters. All sitting around a table laughing. They looked towards him and asked why he wasn't joining them for dinner. Tears streamed down David's face as he tried to speak, but all that escaped his lips was a gargling choking sound. The eel had long since eaten his vocal cords. He could see them, his reasons for continuing but he couldn't reach them. He couldn't speak, or ask for help. Just watch in agony as he slowly was consumed.
Once he was completely broken was when they appeared, they feed on his pain and despair. Offering salvation at the cost of his soul. The offer temped him. he wanted the suffering to end. He wanted to be free, to return to his family. There sweat words and corrupted thoughts filled David's mind. Their words like honey filled his mind as blood began to pour form his eyes. David's vison grew red and blurry. He could feel himself being corrupted. The vision of his family began to fizzle and fade.
'NO! Don't go! Don't leave me here! Brother! Father! Save ME!'
Before David's vision went black, he saw a wicked grin spread across his mother's lips. 'That wasn't her, there's no way she would make that face. No. She wouldn't ever do this to me. This must be a trick. A way to break my will and any safeguards around my soul. The gods of chaos. Yes it must be them. They must be the ones behind this. I new they were awful from the lore, but this is crazy. So this is how the corrupt people so easily.'
Once David understood what was happening and acknowledged their presence, he knew what he needed to do. First he needed to sure his mind by using his purpose for surviving. Not the simple and surface level function of survival but something deeper. His reason for living, those he cherished and wished to protect. His vision began to return once more. He was still trapped and being consumed, but his mind was no longer broken.
'You want my soul that bad huh? Well I'm not ready to die just yet so it looks like you will have to wait just a little longer. But I'm sure you are used to waiting, it will make things more interesting. I need to think. How do I get out of this?'
David's mind began to scheme as four malicious gods watched on in amusement.