Death of Melsil’s Love—Evil of the Red Fungus’s Head Family

Chapter 9–Part 1“Kill her!” Juchil screamed. “Kill her now!”The boy held the sword above the prisoner’s face, trying to keep himself from crying. The fungus woman not much older than him looked up with a tear stained face, her otherwise red body with blue spots covered in the green fluid that was the blood of fungus people. More than half the red mushroom atop her head was gone, torn away after growing back during these painful months. Her wrists and heels were chained by honeysuckle vines to the ground, the ends sharpened to protrude deep into the floor beneath. Causing him to shiver in fear was his father standing behind him as his son held the black venom sword to reach near her throat. Surrounding him in the thirteenth floor of the Tower Fungus were his father’s advisors, veteran members of the Red Fungus. Many of them served as both administrative positions in the mob as well as swordsmen who fought to conquer land needed for Juchil’s ambitions. They all stared at both him and the prisoner they had taken, their eyes boring holes in him with disappointment. Melsil’s sword wavered in his hands, unable to control his arms as they shook in fear. He was crying just as she was but her expression came from a sense of tiredness, as if there was nothing left for her. Female mushrooms were not born with coverings over their mouths so the young man got a good look at her full expression and from the bruises on her lips and sullen eyes, he could see this woman had been thoroughly brutalized. Each blow that had struck her physical body had also damaged her soul.Her face, however, was pleading with him not to kill her. Despite her hopeless situation and at death’s door, she obviously still had some amount of hope instilled in her. She was still looking up in hope at him, her courage not totally destroyed or lost as she looked at him with a hope of saving him. Melsil had spoken to her last night, the woman chained in the same place.“My name is Teres,” she said.Those were the first words she spoke to him, five months ago when he decided to visit her. Melsil sat across from her, sitting on top of one of the mushroom heads that grew along the floor to form soft seats for anyone. As he sat across from her, his sheathed black venom sword resting against his shoulder, he could only look at her broken and torn body. She was bleeding from several places along her skin and covered in different bruises.He decided to visit her during the night. The Red Fungus soldiers specialized in inflicting pain were through with her from dawn until dusk before returning to the next. After they left, she was left alone with guards positioned outside her door through which anyone of the main branch of the Duchil family was allowed to visit her whenever they wanted. “Teres?” was the first thing he asked her once they met. “That’s...a name from the western fungi clans, isn’t it? It means…strong bloom, I think?”“Powerful blossom,” Teres corrected. “My father named me because spring was his favorite season, the season I was born in.”Melsil could not go to sleep that night, the story of Teres’s family having to be assassinated bothering him. Normally he’d just have to look at the stars to go to sleep but the news of the Ghilroy family being assaulted was too much. The Ghilroy family was the second most powerful family in all of Ushujin, the only competitor to the Dushil family. Juchil had successfully eliminated all of the competition of other tribal heads with the support he gained after the massacre at Yellow Spore, a slaughter that took place a few weeks before Melsil was born. The massacre that had not only killed thousands of innocent civilians but destroyed the fungus people’s economy by the head of the Knife Claw army had sewn deep resentment in the mushroom people's hearts against all other species. While their race would never have been dragged into the war had it not been for the Red Fungus allying with the people of the oak, Jushil had taken this opportunity to unite his species against all of Wassergras. Support had come forth in the hundreds of thousands over the past few years, the Red Fungus’s swordsmen outnumbering the Exploratory Pincer brigade recently. Juchil had not only used the infamous, parasitic red mushrooms that the mob derived their name from to take back control of the land they lost during the most recent war between the oak and pine people. The fungus people who had been trapped in poverty and had many relatives lost when Yellow Spore was destroyed now cheered and celebrated the crawfish’s land being stolen from them. Even more, they threatened to take even the territory of the ants, the most powerful species in Wassergras.But these victories were not without consequence to their own people. While the Red Fungus were now the most powerful force in the fungus country of Ushujin, they still had rivals who were reluctant to ally with a criminal force that would only stir up resentment against other species. Jushil, knowing this full well, had gone out of his way to depose any royal family in Ushujin that would not ally with him. After they were defeated, their soldiers, land and resources became the Duchil’s and they grew stronger. Jushil was able to convince so many fellow fungi to attack their fellow mushroom people because of one key element: foreign fear. With the fungus people now fearing and hating every other species in Wassergras, he painted every tribal leader and royal family not saber-rattling against the crawfish, ants and pine people as cowards so fearful they would not defend their mother country. While it was true the other royal families in Ushujin didn’t want to war against rival species, it was because they did not want to sacrifice anymore lives for pointless bloodshed, instead trying to curry favor with the ants who now restricted their military. Duchil despised this and said they were race traitors, turncoats who hated their own race enough to sell them out for the illusion of peace. And the fungus people at it up as angry as they were.The Ghilroy’s were the last piece that had to fall before Jushil was virtually unrivaled by any military or political force of his own species. They were a family tribe that was notably hospitable to other species and trying to act as peace brokers between the fungi and the ants. With the Ghilroys using what military the Red Mountain ant colony allowed them to have to target the Red Fungus, the chances for war from breaking out were mitigated. And Juchil hated this.So he began targeting the Ghilroys. Juchil was able to capture their daughter, Teres, in a meeting. Juchil paid off southern tribe fungus peoples to pretend to be politicians. Luring Teres Ghilroy, both a mushroom swordsman and a diplomat for her family’s royal lineage, Juchil sent soldiers in place to ambush her. After capturing her, Teres was tortured for five months before revealing the hidden location of the Ghilroy family’s whereabouts. The first few months she stayed strong, saying nothing, even while she was brutalized. Melsil could hear the screaming all the way from five floors up. He had to no longer sleep in the same room, it disturbed him so much. The pleas of Teres begging that her family be kept safe and not be harmed not only hurt him but made him genuinely curious about her life. Melsil visited her many times a night, wishing to know about her family, unable to sleep knowing the girl’s torment was immeasurable. Those guarding her allowed him in, not thinking much of Juchil’s son talking with a prisoner, probably convinced he was trying to coerce information from the captured girl. However, that only made him respect her. After months of egregious violence shown to her and not only were the Red Fungus no closer to getting any information from her but Teres still having the ability to talk correctly was something beyond comprehension for him. Melsil wanted so badly to release her but with her wounds, she couldn’t escape.“You certainly earned your name,” the mushroom swordsman said. “Powerful...only someone with an intense spirit could resist so much pain.”She looked at him silently, not blinking, afraid to speak anymore. Teres was trying to speak as little as possible as it was clear she was doing her best not to divulge anything that could be used as information to find her family. Melsil could only feel immense appreciation of such a courageous heart.“My family,” she said. “Is my strength...they mean everything to me.”She lowered her head, obviously uncomfortable with looking him in the eye. It was at that point Melsil felt too agonized by her sorrow to stay in the room any longer. He left that night, resisting the urge to stay awake and forced his eyes shut. It would be another week before he would return. The question that plagued his mind is something Teres confronted him with.“What?” she asked as she looked away. “Would you not do the same for the Juchils?”The question hurt him in a way no sword piercing his flesh ever had.“I don’t know if I could,” Melsil said. “As much as my father has trained me in the art of the sword...I don’t know if I could go months on end without saying anything incriminating.”“That’s because you don’t care for the path your father has set you on,” Teres said.“What?” he asked.“Parents often have difficulties raising their children,” she answered. “They want their children to follow the path they think is most beneficial for them. But, for whatever reason, their generation rarely ever follows the route their elders wanted them to take. Whether it be stubbornness, immaturity, lack of gratitude or whatever...children hate being told what to do, especially as they get older. You seem to be the person who doesn’t want to follow the path of destruction your father put you on but didn’t realize how much you hated it.”Melsil narrowed his eyes.“I don’t hate my father,” he said. “Or the path he put me on. I want the best for my people.”“Then why visit me?” Teres asked. “You could be like all the others who destroy my body and break everything in me...but instead you ask me about my personal life. And it’s because you don’t want to torture people or kill others...you’re not willing to be tortured for your father’s ambitions because you don’t care about your father’s goals.”Melsil stiffened at her words, shaking his head.“No, no, no…” he said. “I-I love...love my father. He’s-he’s a good man...he’s doing what he needs to for the people of the fungus…”“If you believe that,” Teres said. “Then torture me.”Melsil’s shoulders went limp.“N-no,” he said. “I can’t...why...why would I-?”“Do you think it’s wrong?” Teres asked.“Yes it’s wrong!” he said as he stood up.And he immediately regretted saying what he did. Melsil looked down at the prisoner as Teres looked up at him with solemn eyes. Her expression was so dispassionate, the woman not even feeling proud she caught him in his words. All Melsil could do was sit back down and frown beneath his face covering.“Therein lies the dissonance between your father and you,” she said. “You would never want to torture an innocent person, yet you are his puppet. Why do you continue to go down a path you know you hate?”Again, it was a question that Melsil could not stand to answer. He’d always been burdened with the idea of what he would do if he was Teres’s torturer. Or if he had to be the one to assassinate rival families. Melsil despised this so much he rarely ever thought about it, preferring it to be a nightmarish what-if scenario rather than a physical reality he might be tasked with. He went to bed that night, even further dismayed by her inquiries. Melsil resolved to not return to Teres again for three weeks, hoping she would say something different. Instead, he turned over that night trying to think of something to say that would defeat her rebuttal. He came up with one after two nights before returning. “Because it’s what must be done,” he said. “If my species is to survive in this increasingly violent era then we must become violent ourselves. When Yellow Spore was destroyed the Knife Claw general knew that there was no need to destroy the capital of our commerce. He did it out of fear of economic rivalry. And if we don’t fight back we’ll be slaves to the ants and crawfish forever. The Red Fungus is our only hope.”“But the Ghilroy family was already doing that,” Teres said. “My family was going out of its way to be a peaceful buffer between our two races in an attempt to consolidate peace. We knew the ants were stronger than us and had to adapt. There would be no need for the Red Fungus if we had our way.”“But we wouldn’t even be a real nation,” he said. “Merely subservient bondservants walking on eggshells in attempt to not incur wrath of-”“Wrath of our overlords,” she said. “Yes...I’ve heard this exact argument before. The Red Fungus spread that exact propaganda everywhere in order to create obedient soldiers for their cause.”“Well it’s true,” Melsil said. “And how do you know if you chose your own family’s path back?”Teres laughed.“Because,” she said. “I would live, die and be tortured for my family. It’s one thing to serve your own kind because they’re your kind...it’s another thing to do so because you prefer them over anyone else.”“So…” Melsil said. “What you’re saying is...you’re not serving the Ghilroys because you were born into the Ghilroy house?”“No,” she said.“But that…” he said. “That’s...foolish. Who would not want to serve their own kind?”“Someone who sees past such foolish division,” Teres said. “My father and mother taught me to look beyond the special differences of one another. If we all live, think and breathe then there’s no reason not to treat the other as equals. The Ghilroys have a long history of facilitating wealth that would help not only the people of the oak but the pine as well. They’ve been the first to attempt to establish good relations with even the ants.”“I know,” Melsil answered. “And the Ghilroys are traitors for their historic betrayal to our race.”“The Ghilroys were not always seen as traitors,” she said with a smile. “In the country of Ushujin they used to be seen as tolerant, civil and very helpful to the mushroom peoples. It was the Red Fungus who were thought of as the more sinister of the fungus species. Us losing the war with the crawfish and ants changed all that.”“Is that true?” Melsil asked.Teres smiled up at him, now feeling clever at his instinct response. Melsil felt tricked, like how she got him to admit that he thought it was wrong to torture people. He shrugged, embarrassed at his response. Now it was revealed that he didn’t know much about history between the fungus, crawfish, ants or anyone else. Or at least he knew very little past what his father told him. Melsil had never read a history book on the subject, even though he knew they existed. He never had access to such a thing and even if he did he felt his father’s explanation of the world was sufficient for understanding Wassergras. That would explain why he never told me of the Ghilroy’s reputation before the Yellow Spore massacre. He thought. He wanted to convince me they’d always been seen as traitors by the fungus. NO! NO! That cannot be the case!“And after the evil species of the crawfish destroyed our people’s pride and heart, you still don’t think it’s useless to compromise with such malevolent races?” Melsil asked. “You’re proud of their history?”“No race is inherently evil,” she said. “I love my family and yes...I am proud of their history.”“Dis-disgusting,” he said.But Melsil wasn’t thinking that. Instead he was thinking that was both smarter and more beneficial to everyone in Ushujin than the Red Fungus taking control. He didn’t dare say that but not for fear his father or his underlings would hear. He was afraid of admitting it to himself than anyone else. It meant everything Melsil knew was wrong. He stood up with the intent to leave the room but just as motioned for the door, she asked him something else.“Can you say that you’re proud of your family?” Teres asked.Melsil was asking himself that same question as he pointed his sword at Teres’s face. She looked so sad, yet so pleading, her eyes begging him not to kill her. She was so brave, not giving up on the hope that she may be able to live. Melsil admired that more than anything his father had ever done. He knew definitively that if he killed Teres he would stain his conscience with innocent blood. Not only did he want her to live, he couldn’t stand the thought of her dying, even as the eyes of the Red Fungus attendants burdened him.“I honestly have barely ever met anyone outside the Red Fungus,” he told her the next night. “Many of them are relatives. I’ve never been proud of them...just that since they’re my kind I should obey them. It’s the natural order to look after your own.”“My father told me that if all we did was obey the natural order,” Teres said. “We would be like nothing more than the animals we hunt. We’re allowed to kill certain creatures because they are not equal to a sentient creature. All grass frogs and cicadas know is how to kill for food and flee for danger. If we did that then we would be no better than that. So is the natural order really a life philosophy we should adopt?”Melsil could not answer that. He had no knowledge of how to answer. It was as though she asked him if he shouldn’t drink water or eat food to survive. How could Melsil go against something so natural?He didn’t talk to Teres anymore that night. Each night he visited her was after she was tortured, not daring to do so before. And each night she was still strong enough to speak. Over the passing months where Teres refused to give up information about her family’s hiding place, it only drove a deeper wedge in his mind. Here was a rival family member, an enemy, acting more noble than Melsil ever had for a cause and a family he had been taught was evil. And she had proven to be more moral than he was. Why? He thought. Is this a curse? Some punishment I’ve been given by a higher being? Who has stricken me with this plague of moral guilt?He then turned over on the mushroom bed he slept in, angry at her words.Doesn’t she know that it’s necessary for us to be violent? Melsil asked. We have to be! We’ve been oppressed for centuries by other species! The Red Fungus was meant to fight the ants when the Red Mountain ants invaded all those hundreds of years ago! Why...why should I have to defend the fungus people’s anger?! Teres is just brainwashed...the Duchils...we know the truth.However, the downfall of the Ghilroys was not their daughter giving up information about them. It was their daughter herself. Jushil, fed up with Teres’s resolve, publicly announced that his forces had captured the Ghilroy heiress. With this, it was a declaration of civil war that was meant to lure in the remaining Ghilroy family. While the ants were a numerous force in their own right, the fungus people allied with the Red Fungus were far more numerous than those standing with the Ghilroys. The latter were seen as traitors who aided the occupying enemy while the former as heroes rebelling against a foreign nation that was pure evil. When the ants attempted to fight the Red Fungus in their home territory of Ushujin with a few fungus soldiers at their side to find the Dushil stronghold and retake Teres, they were crushed. But the worst was yet to come when the rest of the Ghilroy family had been captured. Jushil knew that once he announced to all of Ushujin that he had taken the Ghilroy’s daughter the royal family would have no choice but to personally save their daughter. It was a tradition of royal families of fungus people to be fighters in their own armies. The leaders of the fungus clans were trained from the youngest age possible to wield weapons and fight in battle. Those that didn’t were seen as cowards and not taken seriously. While other species like the oak, pine and ants did not do this it was a tradition both the crawfish and fungus held as a carry over from ages past. Dushil used this to draw out his only remaining competition.The Ghilroy family were captured in battle during the war. Melsil was present when Natun Ghilroy, the patriarch of the royal family of the western fungi clans, was captured. He was a mighty warrior who slew dozens if not more than a hundred Red Fungus black venom swordsmen with the thorn mace, a large, thick vine full of sharp spikes that extended forward with a large ball at the end. Mushroom people could wield botanical as well as fungal weapons due to their ability to send nutrients into living things. Melsil purposefully withdrew from fighting Natun, not out of fear of being killed but fear of Teres’s father being killed. No longer able to stomach the guilt the girl had instilled in him with, he fled to the outskirts in the mushroom forest they fought in to observe from afar Unfortunately, Natun was eventually subdued after growing fatigued from the battle. Weakened, bloodied and bruised and his mace torn into pieces, Natun was bound with honeysuckle and brought to the Tower Fungus Dushil lived in. Melsil was horrified to find that not only was a weakened and crippled Natun bound but also his wife Fugil, their youngest daughter, Cedra, eldest son, Vukil, and Teres, the youngest child. The entirety of the surviving royal family of Ghilroy was bound before the Duchils. Jushil laughed and smiled at the sight of his rivals killed. Duchil’s wife and Melsil’s mother, Golar, Melsil’s youngest brother Toride, his eldest brother Kuseen and sister Shujeen looked like ravenous wolves, wishing to tear into the prey before them. Only Melsil looked the least bit reluctant to attack or harm them, standing in the very back so no one else could see the sorrow in his face.“Oh,” his father said. “I have a very special surprise for your daughter. You see, she was so stubborn about not giving up information after half of where you race traitors were that I decided to draw you out into the open. And my anger for her has...reached maddening levels.”Jushil then gestured for Kuseen to approach him. The eldest of the Duchil children approached and drew his blade as every member of the Red Fungus in the room looked in anticipation at the blood about to be drawn. Juchil pointed at Vukil and Juchil immediately slashed down at him. His severed torso went flying, the entire Ghilroy family screaming as it did. Kuseen then began cutting up Vukil’s body even further, no longer satisfied with just killing him but utterly decimating his form. His strokes were so wild the green blood of the eldest son began splashing on the other members of his family, Kuseen laughing the whole time.Juchil couldn’t stop laughing, bawling in mirth as he slapped his knee. It was as though the slaughter of their child was the funniest joke he’d ever seen or heard. The rest of the Duchils were laughing so much it flooded the room but none more so than Juchil. His hatred for his enemies was intense, beyond anyone in the Duchil family history. After Vukil’s body had been sliced beyond recognition and his blood slathered his family, Jushil looked directly into Natun’s heartbroken eyes with cruel delight.“I am going to have each of my family members,” he said as though savoring his own words. “Kill one of yours. You will die second to last and your youngest daughter...she will watch every bit of it. I hated you, Natun, for being friends with the species’ that lost us the war but your daughter...she has irritated me so much during these last few days…”He laughed, bellowing in pleasure before erupting into intense anger, glaring before shouting in hatred.“Your daughter!” Juschil said. “For wasting my time for half a year! Half a year of wasted endeavors...I-I hate those who waste my time. Time is precious...especially as old as I am...if I am to cement our race’s supremacy into Wassergras permanently before I die I must use each moment to its fullest potential! Your daughter will die covered in the blood of her precious family she wasted my time in protecting!”He then turned to Golar and pointed at Natun’s wife. “Kill her!” he said. “Wife for wife!”She drew her blade as she stood over the terrified mushroom woman, shaking in fear.“With pleasure,” Golar said.And another one was dead. As Melsil’s mother cut her to pieces, aching with laughter the entire time, the green fluid produced was what the rest of the Ghilroy family bathed in. And the nightmare continued. Melsil watched as everyone except him killed one of the Ghilroys. After Natun was dead, it was time for Teres to die.“Melsil,” Juchil said. “Slay her.”The girl was drenched in green liquid, her face blank as the horror she’d experienced so beyond evil she had no perception at that point. Melsil walked toward her, not even drawing his sword until close to her. His lack of laughter was very apparent, everyone else in the room cackling up at the decimation of their enemies. With Teres barely acknowledging him, he turned back to his father with pleading eyes.“Why?” he asked. “Why me?”His father’s dark mirth transformed into an angry scowl. “Because,” he said. “I know you’ve been visiting her these past few months. I need to test if you are still loyal to me. Prove to me you are not poisoned by this vile woman’s ideology.”He looked down at Teres, not sure what he should do. Not only was there no way she would survive this night but it almost looked as though she didn’t want to live. She barely acknowledged Melsil, almost as though he were not standing above her. Teres looked defeated.“Do it boy!” Jushil roared. “Do it!” “But…” he said. “But father...I have never killed a prisoner before. Only soldiers...soldiers in battle. I...I cannot-”“You cannot kill traitors to our kind so long as they don’t greet you with a sword?!” Jushil shouted. “You feel you should show this fool any semblance of honor?! You want to pretend like they’ve done anything for our race?!”“But-but-” Melsil said. “Is it right?”“It doesn’t matter if it’s right!” he shouted. “It matters if our kind is destroyed by the cowardice and complacency of those unwilling to stand up for our species! Now kill her!”Melsil drew his sword, reluctant to move it any further. As he pointed the blade at Teres he began shaking. He was trying hard not to cry with the emotional suppression warriors of the Dushil family were trained to maintain. A tremor was running through Melsil’s entire body as he did. He could hear his family behind him groaning in protest of his reluctance. However, when he looked past his own shaking he saw something in Teres’s face. As much as she had endured from seeing her family die and being tortured for so long, something remained in her. Teres looked up at him with some sense of hope in her. At first he thought it was her wish to live but then, the closer he looked, he found it wasn’t that.Is…? He thought. Is she happy...with me? That I’m hesitating?He looked down at her bruised face to see that she was pleading in sorrow. And yet, paradoxically, there was something else. Something that looked like...victory. She had won in a way. She won. Melsil thought. She never gave up her morals the entire time she was here. Never betrayed her family. Never killed anyone innocent. And so she can die with a clear conscience. That’s what I see in her face. Teres knows she can die never having betrayed her family.“Kill her!” Juchil said.He began to remember what she asked him about the path his father forced him down and, even moreso, asked Melsil if he was proud of his family.“No,” he answered.He sheathed his sword. A faint smile could be seen flash on Teres’s face. Just as one appeared beneath Melsil’s face covering, he was slammed in the side by a hard force.He fell to the floor, skidding against a wall. Just as he winced in pain and looked up he could see Toride walk up and begin hacking away at Teres. Melsil’s eyes watered as he saw her torn apart, her blood splashing onto the floor to complete the lake of blood in the center of the room. Of all the death he’d seen in battle, nothing had prepared Melsil for the shock of such an innocent soul being torn to shreds by an evil man.He didn’t have long to grieve, however, as Kuseen and Golar raced toward him and each grabbed him by the shoulder. As they lifted Melsil off the floor he tried to resist but Kuseen unsheathed his sword to point the blade at his brother. The laughter in the room had died down and nothing remained but an angry silence that Melsil knew the brunt of was placed squarely on him. He looked around with a hazy gaze to find every one of his father’s attendants glaring at him. Juchil looked the most hateful, his disappointment apparent. Melsil could tell he had hurt his father with his actions.“You…” he said. “You’ve wounded me son...you’ve wounded me…”