A Carpet That Unites All

The Demon Lord’s realm, or Koschei’s realm, wasn’t some hell on Earth. It still counted as civilization with an order of laws. The main differences, though, were that its inhabitants are ruthless and mostly non-human.

To outsiders, it was a place with dark castles, caves, and monsters roaming the streets. To those inside the realm, it was just creatures figuring out their missions, or even doing internal infrastructure work.

Drevtvarz resided in his office within this realm. The walls, floor, and even the ceiling were covered with carpets with intricate designs. They varied in patterns, from small red flowers with lots of petals, a war scene with lots of tiny men on a textured battlefield, or just plain abstract shapes like in a kaleidoscope.

The flames emitting from the lamps illuminated the room with a yellow glow. The light was focused mostly on his table, where a large carpet was draped on top.

Drevtvarz had his left hand up, but it had no fingers. It was just the palm of his hand with a face on it.

“Grigori, you got the hair of Kitezh?” said Drevtvarz.

“Yes, and I assume the brass knuckles of the shatter phenomenon were sent over to you within Koschei’s realm?” said the voice Grigori emitting from Drevtvarz’s hand.

“Affirmative, I need all of these items if I want to send you and all the other phenomena to a place after purgatory.”

“Alright, I will send you the hair over. However, how does that work?”

“I find that sticking something in your mouth will keep everything intact. I’ll give you ten seconds, and I’ll bring your upper torso and head here.”

The eyes and mouth closed and sealed away on Drevtvarz’s hand, and fingers suddenly sprouted out. Drevtvarz rolled his hands on the carpet, magically weaving a picture. It was the body of an elf’s corpse with a man’s torso and head on top.

“…8, 9, 10,” Drevtvarz counted to himself.

BAM!

Drevtvarz turned around to a corner in the room. It was a coffin that made the banging noise. He lifted the black cover, and revealed his creation. It was an actual corpse of an elf, with the head and torso of a person. That person was Grigori’s! It was as if Drevtvarz was Dr. Frankenstein creating a monster.

“This is quite an office,” said Grigori, who is now patting down the corpse body.

“Please Grigori, don’t touch yourself. You need to get that hair out of your mouth. Don’t want to put whatever nasty things in your mouth,” said Drevtvarz, as he lowered the coffin down on the floor.

Grigori opened his mouth and pulled the hair out. Drevtvarz took the spit covered hair away.

“This would be a very convenient way of travel if you could give me the whole body.”

“Yes, but I wouldn’t want some sort of mishap to happen. Though your phenomenon item can’t be transported, so you’re harmless in this state. It’s like keeping you as a trained pet.”

Drevtvarz picked up the brass knuckles

“You had the brass knuckles successfully delivered, so you have the privilege to see my work. If we keep this up, we can officially work together on missions. That means, giving you a full body transportation. Wouldn’t that be sweet?”

Drevtarz handed the brass knuckles to Grigori. Grigori was inspecting it, knowing that the shatter phenomenon doesn’t work when he uses it.

“One of my other underlings failed her mission. In fact, she wants to kill me. It should be quite obvious, but after we deal with Kitezh, there’s another bounty ready for you to handle,” continued Drevtvarz

Grigori crawled closer to Drevtvarz, as his decomposing lower body scraped its flesh against the floor.

“You’re going to give quite the surprise to Kitezh. She’ll suddenly have her head transported to this realm, and killed before she knows what hit her.”

“She’ll have zero time to react. If this poison works fast enough, we will knock her out and kill her before she knows what happened. But don’t worry, she will be going to purgatory. If we trust Koschei, she will end up in a better place. She should be thanking me for this.”

Drevtvarz took another coffin and placed it on the floor.

“Commander Drevtvarz, would it be okay if I had the honor of killing Kitezh. I personally knew her myself. I promise to make her suffering end quickly.”

“Hehehe, go ahead. Whatever happens, we’ll get the job done. Not like she could do anything, especially without her helmet being transported. Consider this a bonus for you.”

Drevtvarz prepared a bottle to the side of the coffin. He went to his desk and put Kitezh’s hair on the carpet. He then massaged the carpet like his hands were playing with bundled noodles. A new picture was being woven. This time it was a goblin’s corpse, but with the head of a human woman.

BUMP!

As soon as Drevtvarz was done weaving, another sound was heard from a coffin. It was the one on the floor in front of Grigori.

Grigori flipped open the coffin. Drevtvarz turned from his desk and looked down.

Grigori was putting something in the head of the dead goblin. However, Drevtvarz noticed something was off.

“Grigori, aren’t you supposed to be pouring the poison into Kitezh’s mouth? I still see the bottles sealed like I left them.”

Then, Drevtvarz noticed something was wrong with his creation.

“Grigori! That’s not the head of Kitezh! That’s… that’s a man’s head? Whose hair did you give me?”

BAM!

“The shatter phenomenon’s”.

“GAHK!”

Grigori had bloodlust on his face. He was holding the goblin corpse that had the head of the shatter phenomenon’s. Lev’s decomposing head had its mouth hanging open, as its tongue stuck through one of the holes of the brass knuckle.

Drevtvarz thought Grigori was trustworthy and let him play around with his work. He believed there was zero chance of attempted betrayal. Now, he is gripping his shattered face as he hacks up blood.

Hold out for just a bit more. I’m going to do a delivery. But first, I’m going to borrow your hand.

BAM!

“AH!”

Grigori shattered Drevtvarz’s left hand. It had gone limp, as its forearm was full of shattered bone.

Grigori pulled the rug from the desk, and began rubbing Drevtvarz’s hand on it. As Drevtvarz kept sputtering in pain, a new image was magically formed on the carpet.

Suddenly, Grigori’s elf corpse body turned into a healthy pair of legs.

“This is much more preferable. Now, I’ve got to make a delivery. Don’t you die on my watch.”

Drevtvarz weakly flailed his right hand on the ground like he was grabbing for something.

“Sorry, almost forgot this.”

Grigori opened up Lev’s mouth, and was about to retrieve the brass knuckles, but looked back at Drevtvarz.

“Actually, this is going to be quite a complicated transport. I’ll be needing the shatter phenomenon still, and your body.”

Grigori looked at the scrambled flesh bag of Drevtvarz’s face.

“But don’t worry, I will kill Kitezh and your underling… as your new commander.”