Rakdos vs. Project Kraj

Rakdos roared back at the ecological nightmare that was Project Kraj. Without further challenge, the demon drew back a knotty fist and threw what Kos thought was a respectable roundhouse punch that connected and kept on going. Soon Rakdos’s arm was encased in slimy cytoplastic material and the spiky botanical monstrosity that made up the rest of Kraj. The demon roared again, this time definitely in pain, and tore its arm free with a jerk. Much of the flesh on his forearms was gone, exposing pulsating muscles that glowed with fire and crackling bones that were charred from within.

The demon-god was not a fool. He backed away and spread his wings, preparing to take to the air. He cleared perhaps fifty feet before the shambling bulk of Kraj reached him. It extended a slimy pseudopod that reminded Kos disturbingly of lurkers and wrapped it around the demon’s leg. It pulled Rakdos easily back to earth, but the demon did not hit the ground. Kraj, or whatever intelligence it still possessed with Vig gone, slammed Rakdos into its own body, engulfing the unholy guildmaster in a roiling mass of translucent cytoplasts, shattered growth, and—Kos was certain—a wide variety of deceased Simic who had aided their guildmaster’s plan.

After a few minutes of writhing and kicking, with muffled roars from within the body of Project Kraj, the demon’s legs stopped moving and finally fell still. Kos wasn’t willing to bet Rakdos was dead. This was an original parun who slept in lava pits. But Rakdos wasn’t tearing up the city, for now. Kraj, facing no threat but without any apparent guiding intelligence, remained where it was, pulsating. After a few minutes, it, too, stopped moving. Perhaps swallowing a pill as bitter as the demon-god ruined your insides no matter what you were made of.

***

Watching the quietmen tear Project Kraj apart piece by piece, revealing a comatose Rakdos beneath, it occurred to Kos that perhaps everyone would be missing cytoplasts. And he felt pity for those who, unlike Fonn, had put their bodies through ridiculous physical changes to accommodate the Simic augmentation.

***

It was over. Feather, with the help of many teratogens, had hauled Rakdos’s body—still alive, but in some kind of suspended animation—into the pit of Rix Maadi. Fonn had gone along for the ride, half-expecting the chance to take out some of her grief bitterly fighting the cultists.

***

Dissension, Chapter 17-19