Oct 20 • Royal Road Updates
SwornSlayers: Diver - The Parasite Pools Pact
POV (Diver)
Dear SwornSlayer Diary,
Scene 1: The Symbiont Selection [Interior, Parasite Pools, Late Evening]
Diver: (Strips down to bare skin beside the phosphorescent pools where Depth Crawlers writhe like liquid nightmares, knowing that fabric would just give the parasites more to consume). The water reeks of digested flesh and broken promises, a smell that makes even hardened smugglers retch. Six hours, they remind themselves, watching their reflection fragment across the pool's surface, six hours before I become nothing but appetite. Their fingers shake as they prepare to plunge into voluntary damnation.
Saltbriar: (Grabs the Diver's wrist with her barnacle-encrusted hand, her eyes wide with the kind of terror that comes from experience). Twenty years ago, she watched her brother dissolve from the inside after a Crawler infection; she still dreams of his liquefied organs. "There are other ways to reach the Empress," she pleads, though they both know she's lying. The fastest route to the Abyssal Throne requires becoming something the defensive systems won't recognize as human.
Diver: (Pulls free from Saltbriar's grip and steps into the pool, feeling the Crawlers immediately investigate their heat signature). The parasites move like intelligent mercury, testing entry points with microscopic boring cilia. Through the ear, they think with detached horror as one finds its path, of course it would be through the ear. The sensation of something chewing through their eardrum makes them bite through their own tongue to keep from screaming.
Tidecarver: (Watches from the pool's edge, his young face trying to maintain the stoic expression of a veteran he isn't). At seventeen, he's already killed twelve men for the resistance, but watching the Diver voluntarily submit to parasitic infection makes him vomit into the luminescent water. "I should be the one," he says between retches, though everyone knows his epilepsy would make him seize and drown before reaching the first pressure barrier. His shame tastes bitter as the bile in his throat.
The Crawler: (Burrows through the Diver's temporal bone, its consciousness merging with their neural pathways like oil spreading through water). The Diver feels their thoughts bifurcating; part remains human while another part begins cataloguing everything in terms of consumption potential. Saltbriar: too much mineral content. Tidecarver: young meat, tender, worth the effort. They shake their head violently, trying to maintain the boundary between self and hunger.
Monkfish: (Emerges from the deeper pools, his body already host to three different parasitic species that have achieved grotesque equilibrium). His voice comes in stereo, each parasite speaking through him in turn: "The Crawler will want to feed within the hour. I've prepared supplies." He gestures to bound captives, pirates who tried to raid the resistance last week. The Diver realizes with horror they're looking at the prisoners as provision rather than people.
Saltbriar: (Produces the navigation charts tattooed in squid ink on preserved human skin, the only material that remains legible at crushing depths). Her hands shake as she presses them against the Diver's chest, the ink transferring through osmosis enhanced by the Crawler's modified biology. "The path through the Feeding Grounds is marked in red," she explains, her voice cracking, "though red might be hard to distinguish when everything starts looking like meat." The joke falls flat; nobody laughs.
Diver: (Tests their transformed body, feeling gills split open along their neck while their bones begin hollowing to handle pressure). Each breath brings water flooding through new passages in their chest, and they taste the microscopic life in every drop. I can feel Saltbriar's sadness in her sweat, they realize with disturbing clarity, and Tidecarver's fear-hormones are making me hungry. They back away from their companions, no longer trusting their proximity.
Progression Status After Scene 1
The Diver has successfully bonded with a Depth Crawler parasite, gaining the abilities needed to reach the Abyssal Throne but beginning to lose their humanity. The transformation is progressing faster than expected, with predatory instincts already manifesting. The resistance members show various levels of horror and acceptance of this sacrifice.
Infection Status: [ACTIVE] — Depth Crawler successfully integrated; 6-hour timeline initiated.
Physical Transformation: [PROGRESSING] — Gills, hollow bones, and enhanced senses developing rapidly.
Mental Integrity: [DEGRADING] — Predatory thoughts beginning; struggling to see allies as non-food.
Mission Support: [COMMITTED] — Saltbriar, Tidecarver, and Monkfish prepared to assist despite horror.
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SwornSlayers: Diver - The Parasite Pools Pact
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