Eris opened her eyes as the connecting fluid broke, as she asked, "Why?"

"Depends on the question, as to why," Jack replied, as he turned to walk to the large door that led back into the palace to rejoin Leslie, Emily and Dr. Hollowell in the hall.

"Why are you so kind to me?" Eris clarified.

"Do I have a reason to not be?" Jack paused to look over his shoulder to Eris, as a cold glint gleamed in his otherworldly colored flaming eyes set in his rugged fleshy face.

"I... Not... Not yet, but in time you will have a reason to not be kind." Eris closed her eyes as she exhaled.

Jack turned his head to face forward before words finally escaped him, "Eris... My dearest pet, Eris... My memories are blurred of my past lives, but one thing I can tell you is that I am no stranger to betrayal. Deals forged... Deals are broken... Friends made... Friends die... Lover made... Lover died... Mother's love... Mothers pa.s.s... Again, I am no stranger to betrayal, but one thing I know is choice. We all... Have a choice to make. As of this moment, you have not betrayed me."

Eris looked on the large wide back of Jack, as bittersweetness flooded her heart.

"I'm waiting for you too," Jack spoke, as he pushed the large doors open and entered the hall.

Eris nodded, as she followed Jack, not to be left behind.

Jack entered into the hall, as he smiled widely to Leslie. Leslie smiled to Jack, as she looked behind him to see the flushed face of Eris. Leslie couldn't help but notice an odd feeling between the two, Jack and Eris. While she knew that they were intimate, as she accepted long ago, this would be the case for the third wife come pet, but it felt to Leslie that there was something else... She would grill, no... Ask... Eris later.

"Dr. Hollowell, if We can proceed."

"Of course, but G.o.d-King, I'd like to ask... Where did you get your body from?"

"Hmmm?"

"I didn't want to ask among the others, and it didn't seem to be the time... But I can't hold myself back any longer... You traded your Skeletal body for a zombie body?"

"Oh? OH? No, good doctor... I just regrew some flesh back for a limited time... A gift from Death and Life itself. Remember as I said, We need to recover the child of Death and Life."

"Marvelous." Doctor Hollowell stepped forward and reached out. She pinched Jack on the cheek and felt the flesh bulge up in between her fingers.

"It's almost like it's alive. How wonderful... Is it possible to bestow this gift to others???" Doctor Hollowell began to probe and trace the fleshy face of Jack as she went along his jawline and to his neck.

"My case is a bit... Extreme. Flesh isn't hard to grow back with the right powers." Jack looked over to Emily, who was rubbing her flat belly and seemed to be in a bad mood.

"Alright, Dr. Hollowell... Enough feeling our husband. The G.o.d-King wanted to see your work."

Dr. Hollowell reluctantly removed, now both, hands from Jack's clavicles and upper pectoral, "Yes. Yes, you're quite right. You are going to love this, but I still have some things to work out. Come now. Let's make haste."

Jack nodded, and followed behind Dr. Hollowell, flanked by Leslie with Emily and Eris following behind.

*******

As the group continued to descend further into the depths of the Holy Palace and having long pa.s.sed the ground level floor and entered the subterranean level, Dr. Hollowell began to speak about her progress, "G.o.d-King I wanted to give a bit of background as We continue. Waste not, and all that."

"Hmmm, proceed, please, Dr. Hollowell."

"Mmmm? Oh, yes, yes. I've integrated the Fulgor completely in my newest test subjects." Dr. Hollowell said pleased, but her words were laced with some frustration.

"Fulgor? I'm not familiar with this term." Jack spoke plainly.

"Oh, of course, It's what I and my a.s.sistants have come to call Glowstone in liquid form. It became difficult to speak without a term in conversation."

"I see. So, the liquid glowstone or Fulgor is now the blood of zombie undead?"

"Yes. I have been able to completely replace the black blood of undead... It seems to only be effective with light cultivating undead. I suppose it would make sense. There were... Losses of test subjects that weren't able to handle the Fulgor."

"Losses?"

"Rejects, you could say." Dr. Hollowell then continued before more questions, "We ran into a bit of a problem, even if the Fulgor now flows freely within the test subjects."

"Oh?" Jack noticed the topic change by Dr. Hollowell but didn't press, as he figured he was going to see the research soon anyway.

"The increase in strength, stamina, and sheer cultivation ability of the bodies have increased well beyond normal talent in undead, but..."

Jack and the group remained silent to let Dr. Hollowell continue. Dr. Hollowell noticed no one was going to ask her to continue, as she snorted and continued in spite, "But it seems that the same power is causing the flesh of the zombie undead to decay."

"That is interesting."

"As you may or may not know, all Zombie undead are in a state of decay. It's just that the dark magics that bind the soul to the undead body slows this decay down so much that it almost becomes a moot point."

"So undead flesh is decaying, it's just so slow no one can notice it unless the undead is around for a very very long time?" Jack commented as he rubbed his chin's stubble. He missed having stubble. The little things, as they say.

"Exactly correct. Very concise, but as the light is the anathema of the dark magics that holds Us together it's causing this effect to reverse!"

"But this can be corrected by utilizing the Light Cultivating Zombie Undead???" Jack asked while pondering the issue.

The group took a long spiral staircase downward, as the glowstone on the walls flickered at the pa.s.sing of Jack.

"Well, it certainly helps... I still have a few pools of flesh and bones laying in my lab from the rejects. It's just that... Well, you'll see."

After exiting the long spiral staircase the group was greeted by the a.s.sistants that were in the court area with Dr. Hollowell, as they kneeled at the pa.s.sing of Jack and the group, as they entered into the large dark laboratory.

"Welcome to where the genius happens!" Dr. Hollowell cackled.

"Indeed. Quickly, Dr. Hollowell. I may have time, but not so much that I can idly chatter. I'm only here because it's going to take time for my armies to a.s.semble."

"Yes, yes. a.s.sistants!"

Another pair of a.s.sistants unlike those previously came forward leading from a side room four shambling monstrosities.

"This is the fruit of my labors."

The four large shambling undead looked upon the G.o.d-King, and at first did not know who he was... It was then they saw the flaming eyes of Jack's did they realize he had taken another form.

The four shamblers of putrid flesh and boiling pox fell to their knees with a fleshly disgusting sound of crumbling bone. The four began to prostrate, as each in their horrible voices groaned in hoa.r.s.eness, "My G.o.d-King!"

"...Who are these...?" Jack asked as he rubbed his chin, seemingly unfazed by what he saw, though the smell that came from there four were horrific to the point that even Jack curled his nose.

Before Dr. Hollowell could answer, one of the four groaned out, "We are your former Judges, your soon to be Militus Obitus." The wretch spoke.

"These are those judges?!?" Leslie covered her mouth, as did Eris. Emily tilted her head.

*******

"Your move."

Somewhere in the place between worlds, a pair of eldritch ent.i.ties were playing a very specific type of game.

"Seriously... How do you two tell whose pieces are whose???" Shub-Niggurath asked the pair playing.

In the vast empty s.p.a.ce between worlds, there was a small table set up with a solid yellow board with all yellow chess pieces. Each piece appeared to be in a grid, but no lines were marked to designate which piece should be where.

"It's Carcosian Chess... The best chess of all." Hastur picked up a knight and took a p.a.w.n from Yoggi's side.

"Not really, I prefer fifth-dimensional chess... But Nyar won't talk to me anymore." Yoggi used his queen to take the knight.

Hastur's yellow hood quivered seeing his knight taken, as he muttered under his breath things no mortal should hear.

"How is Nyar, honey?" Shub-Niggurath asked as she walked to the side of the yellow chessboard.

Hastur looked up from his yellow hood to take in Shub-Niggurath. She stood to the side in her humanoid form. Hastur was always smitten by her, even in her humanoid form. She wore only a simple robe that opened in the front revealing large swaths of skin and her large belly... No doubt filled with his brother's progeny. Her face was angelic with goat eyes and a third eye in her forehead with a cat's pupil. Her head was adorned with two simple goat horns, and her l.u.s.trous black hair extended to her waist. extending blow her robe were her two goat legs. Hastur had to admit her first daughter he had back home looked so much like her mother...

Hastur finally broke his attention from Shub-Niggurath to see the board.

"HEY!!!"

"Hmmm?" Yoggi tilted his black skull as he turned his attention to Hastur.

"You took five turns in a row!"

"You were eye-f.u.c.king my wife, so I kept playing."

"Oh, f.u.c.k right off with that business!"

A yellow bat flew from the void and grabbed a yellow piece from the table.

"And what the h.e.l.l was that, a.s.stur???" Yoggi looked up to see the yellow bat flying away, as he casually flipped his hand in its direction. A purple tentacle pierced through the void and into the bat snuffing the bat's life, as the yellow piece dissolved along with the tentacle.

"That was my queen, you know." Yoggi looked back, noticing which piece was gone.

"And?" Hastur folded his skin flaked arms.

"Nyar is fine. She's still at Hypnos' place, though... I can't help but notice I can't sense where she is at this VERY moment... VERRRY suspicious that she's missing when I can't see what's happening at my piece's world." Yoggi continued, as he waited for Hastur's next move.

"Speaking of pieces-" Hastur promoted his p.a.w.n at the end of a column to become a queen.

"No. He's mine." Yoggi cut off Hastur, as Yoggi moved his last knight to take the newly promoted queen.

"That's amber-colored cow pies! What about his wife, the ghoul?"

"Not my piece, have at." Yoggi nodded his black skull.

"Really now? Hmmmmm..." Hastur rubbed some of the yellow flaky skin on the back of his arm off as it fluttered into the wind of the void.

"No," Shub-Niggurath said flatly, as she turned her lovely goat eyes to Hastur.

"Huh?"

"The G.o.ddess of ghouls is going to be my piece!" She placed her hands on her well-developed hips despite her advanced state of pregnancy.

"...Rathy..."

"Who said you can call my wife by my pet name?"

"Stuff it, brother... Rathy, let me have this one."

"No... I've already blessed her the day she ascended... She's mine, so you can use that same language you used on hubby... Eff right off." Shub-Niggurath also known as Rathy walked away.

"Ha~! Checkmate." Yoggi spoke with pleasure, as Hastur looked down to see many of his pieces missing, and his king cornered by two rooks.

"...d.a.m.n it!"

"That makes what? Every game we've ever played won by me?"

"SET IT UP AGAIN! I'll win this time for sure!" Hastur slammed his fist on the yellow board.

"I feel bad for the bats of Carcosa," Yoggi laughed as the pieces of the board materialized again.