Deus Necros

The farmer stared at the dust, then looked across the crop he had spent months tending. His resistance left with a slow release of breath. Ludwig guided him back toward the road before signalling Kaiser to continue.

One construct reached the center of the field and drove both fists into the ground. The impact threw soil and broken roots into the air. It struck again, widening the crater, while the second construct dropped to one knee and pushed both hands into the fractured earth.

Its fingers sank deep beneath the roots. Soil heaved as the construct pulled, exposing layers that had remained untouched by farming. The surrounding wheat bent outward until the construct’s red eyes brightened.

Kaiser stepped toward the hole. "It found something."

The enormous hands pushed the remaining earth aside, revealing what appeared at first to be a leather sack. Then Ludwig saw the legs.

The corpse resembled a pig, though starvation had drawn the hide so tightly across its frame that the ribs and spine could be counted from a distance. Its belly had collapsed inward, and every limb appeared too thin to support its weight. The body had been buried long enough that it should have decayed, yet the flesh remained intact. No insects moved through it, and no rot marked the exposed skin.

Green circular blemishes covered the hide. They bulged slightly beneath the surface, and several pulsed in a slow rhythm.

Celine stopped beside Ludwig. "What is that?"

"A vessel," Kaiser said. "Something has been placed inside the corpse and kept alive enough to carry its effect."

The nearest construct reached into the hole. The instant its fingers closed around the body, every stalk in the field surged upward.

Golden wheat climbed past Ludwig’s shoulders. Stems thickened, roots spread through the loosened earth, and grain heads swelled until they split beneath their own weight. Dry powder poured across the field like smoke.

A farmer behind Ludwig clutched his stomach. Others reached for their waterskins as the air itself seemed to empty around them.

Thomas drifted lower. "I feel hungry."

"You don’t need food," Ludwig said.

"I know, which is why this is unpleasant."

Celine pressed one hand to her throat. Ludwig felt it a moment later: a small pull within his body that was soon overwritten, it was faint but impossible to mistake. His Living Vessel demanded water, but his Undead essence denied need for Hunger.

Kaiser watched the buried corpse with open disgust. "The vessel is reacting because it knows we found it. Remove it now."

Dark metal gathered in his hand and formed a crooked staff around a red crystal. Space folded beside the crater, opening into a lightless passage.

The construct pulled.

Roots tore around the corpse as it came free. The moment it left the ground, the false hunger intensified. People staggered across the road, several drinking desperately while the wheat rose high enough to hide the crater.

"Put it through," Kaiser ordered.

The construct threw the corpse into the opening. Kaiser closed his hand, and the passage snapped shut behind it.

The effect ended at once.

Every stalk in the field collapsed. Golden color drained into brown as the wheat shrank, curled, and dried beyond recovery. Within seconds, the crop resembled straw left standing months past harvest. Wind passed over it and carried fragments away as dust.

Several people holding waterskins froze. One farmer doubled over and vomited onto the road, followed by another farther down the field. Their bodies had regained the ability to recognize everything forced into them during the unnatural thirst. The Holy Order moved among them, lowering them carefully to the ground and treating the pain of stomachs stretched far beyond comfort.

Thomas stared at his hands. "The hunger is gone."

"The source is no longer close enough to impose it," Kaiser said.

Ludwig looked toward the irrigation channel. Water continued moving through it, but the surrounding soil had begun to darken as moisture finally remained within the earth. The wheat beyond the crater wilted more gradually, its roots too weak to support the growth the Authority had forced upon it.

The field had never possessed the substance its appearance promised. Once the influence vanished, there was nothing left to maintain the deception.

Ludwig approached the hole. Its walls showed no sign that an animal had burrowed into the soil, and the corpse had rested several feet beneath the deepest roots. Someone had dug down, placed it carefully, and repaired the field above.

"That thing was buried deliberately."

Kaiser rested his staff against one shoulder. "Yes. It was positioned beneath the irrigation network, close enough to feed its influence into the water, roots, livestock, and anyone consuming what the land produced."

"So Gluttony did not attack Bastos directly," Celine said. "Someone brought part of his Authority here."

"That is the most likely explanation. I’ll need to examine the vessel before I can tell you how it was created or whether anything inside it can identify the person responsible."

Ludwig looked over the dead field. Bastos had lost its first real crop in centuries. Cattle had wasted away, and people had nearly injured themselves trying to satisfy needs that had no end. One preserved corpse beneath the soil had caused all of it while remaining invisible to the priests working only a short distance away.

"Why choose this land?" Celine asked.

Kaiser’s attention moved toward the southern horizon. "Sabotage, experimentation, or preparation for something larger. The placement tells us the damage was intended to spread quietly before anyone understood what was happening. Anything beyond that would be speculation."

Ludwig studied the fields surrounding them. Similar wheat stretched across the southern territory, broken by pasture, wells, irrigation channels, and restored homes. Every one of them offered enough soil to hide another vessel.

The first corpse had almost escaped notice. Whoever planted it possessed the knowledge to carry a fragment of Gluttony’s Authority and enough patience to bury it where the entire region would feed from its influence.

There was no reason to assume they had stopped at one.