The ape's hand is slowly making fractures in Seraphiel's skull like a hydraulic press. He grits his teeth. Madarame launched a kick at the neck of the beast, and it jumped back, still holding onto Seraphiel, dragging him with it. A beak tears through Seraphiel's mouth as it pierces the hand and pecks like a war pick at the ape's chest. The chest cavity has been turned to powder, and the dent is noticeable. Seraphiel slashes the ape in two with his wing as the black flames evaporate the blood before it can hit the floor.
Seraphiel instantly drops his guard, holding his mouth in pain.
Madarame shouts out, "Run away!" beams of light shoot out of the eyes, mouth, nose, ears, all orifices of the ape. It wasn't regular light; it was far faster, hotter, and far more blinding. Seraphiel covers himself with his wing, which turns to dust the moment the light touches it. Madarame's legs emerge from his back. He stabs one into the shoulder of Seraphiel, pulling him out of the way before the light could touch him. He tumbles into the corner. The door they came in from is kicked open. A familiar face appears.
Sura.
His body was covered in stripes from burns. His gaze was stone cold, as tough as a monolith. He speaks no words; he draws his curved sword. The light from the ape has turned into a ball of light that Seraphiel can hardly look at; he feels gravity shifting and sees a dragon-like figure emerging from it. Madarame turns, yelling so viciously that he spits out. "GO NOW IDIOT".
Faced by a ball of light and Madarame's fury or Sura, Seraphiel felt he was in a lose-lose situation. Seraphiel heals his wounds and flies past Sura. He turns around, not attempting to attack him. Sura blocks the door with his body. "You won't get away from me this time, you treacherous rat. You forsake your kingdom and brothers of blood for these vile bloods". As Sura runs toward Seraphiel, He unsheathes his curved blade. He swings it to the left, and it slithers up as Seraphiel leans back, barely dodging. The sword turns into a snake. It is also scalded. It jumps, extending the Sword's reach. Seraphiel slices the snake's mouth horizontally, making a deep horizontal incision in its throat. The bottom piece falls off and turns into another sword. Sura picks it up; he now wields two and launches them overhead at Seraphiel's shoulders. Seraphiel blocks the swords with his claws and plunges his talons into Sura's stomach. Sura coughs up blood; he drops one sword. Seraphiel slashes at Sura's face with his free claw.
Sura grabs Seraphiel's leg, after pulling the talon out, he pulls the leg towards him while kicking Seraphiel in the face, trying to tear it off. Seraphiel screams. He grabs one of the bones from his wings and chops Sura's leg off. Sura falls over, still holding Seraphiel's leg as Seraphiel stabs at Sura's head. Sura moves his head while lying down, dodging each strike. 100's of strikes flurry as Sura moves each time precisely. He grabs the bone with his hand on the last strike. Blood is pooling from the wound, but Sura does not react. From behind, Seraphiel is pierced with the curved sword. Sura's leg had morphed into a clone. He lifts Seraphiel, grabbing him by the head. He pulls the sword down through his chest, cutting his bottom half vertically, like a torn wrapper. He throws Seraphiel aside and walks toward where Madarame is fighting the Bahamut. He recalls the possibility of regeneration, so he walks back, plunging his sword through his head. The sword won't come out.
He leans back, pulling the sword free; his clone tries as well. It's stuck.
Seraphiel begins to click. His eye shoots open, pitch black like a glossless marble.
Click. Click. Click.
Seraphiel's spine shot out of his body like an extended neck. His limbs shoot out, extending.
The sword shoots out of Seraphiel’s head.
Sura tries to sever the bones, but thin, sharp hairs quickly cover them. A beak, talons, claws, and two wings. All forms from the corpse.
Due to the area's size constraints, the Tengu had manifested much smaller than it should have.
The Tengu caws as if laughing. It spins abnormally; its beak shoots out of its face like a drill, decapitating one of the Sura's. The other looks back in shock; the beak has returned and extends, biting the Sura's head off and swallowing him whole. Its neck is retracting as if a baby bird is trying to swallow something hard. Two Suras appear, cutting the one being swallowed; they aim to make him duplicate rather than be wholly devoured. The Tengu flies up in the corner. Its neck is hunched and spinning like an owl. It dives into the chest of one of the Sura, spinning rapidly. The razor hairs and the sharp, bent beak tear into it, spattering blood everywhere like a blender.
Meanwhile.
Madarame's fight with the Bahamut is much closer than it was before. Madarame is crawling about the walls and cells as beams of light follow shortly behind him. He pounces off the wall toward the face of Bahamut. The mouth opens wide. Madarame forms a shield of webs with his keratin legs and holds a scythe. As light beams past him, reflecting off the one-way mirror and scalding his back till it's pink. He drops to the floor as his legs cover him like a spider pretending to be dead. The Bahamut roars, conjuring a black hole; the gravity makes it hard for Madarame to move.
Madarame, while bundled on the floor, is weaving something. He weaves a tapestry; he weaves Arachne. He crawls into his tapestry while Arachne, the weaver, steps out. Arachne had the upper torso of a woman attached to a spider, akin to a centaur. Arachne’s body is far stronger and faster than Madarame's. She could endure the gravity and pounce on the roof. She crawled above the black hole and shot an arrow at it. Once the black hole absorbed the arrow strings, it shot out like a net and crushed the black hole.
Arachne fired three arrows at once from her bow. Each arrow piercing the Bahamut-which was far too big to dodge- would unwind into a nail and connect like a larger tapestry. Bahamut was too absorbed fighting Arachne to notice Madarame was no longer in the tapestry. He was under the belly of the Bahamut and stabbed his legs all at once into the belly and started melting its flesh with his mandible.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
A storm of arrows had been plunged all over the beast as Arachne's spider body dodged with elegance and the torso adjusted its aim. The nails had finished being deployed, and just like a razor wire net, the strings of the tapestry began to converge on the beast. It encloses the beast, they are digging into its scales, and its 4 wings are being sliced into thin strips. The Bahamut opens its mouth a loud whirring sound is heard as its ribs start to glow.
-
The Tengu is rapidly flying in a circle so fast that the now nine Sura can't perceive it and are being shredded by a tornado of hair. They retreat out of the bunker, baiting the Tengu to follow. Once they are out in the open forest, they shout out in unison. "Hydra". A giant nine-headed white snake coils around itself; its thick scales seethe with a purple liquid that dissolves the ground on contact. All nine heads split in different directions. The Tengu flies like a fighter jet. It flaps its wings at blinding speed, commanding the wind to slice off a tongue and a head of the Hydra; two more heads grow in its place.
The Tengu flies faster and faster in a circle out of reach of the Hydra. It catches fire, burning a deep black. It flies directly above the hydra and creates a tornado. The wind does not faze the Hydra, which still tries to bite the bird and spits venom at it. A drop of venom lands on the Tengu as it dissolves and leaves a hole instantly. The cold, sharp wind entering the wound is an indescribable pain. The Tengu fires hair covered in black flame, igniting the tornado. It flies into the tornado of flame, biting and chewing off heads of the Hydra. The wounds are cauterised, and the beast cannot see due to the heat, making it hard to open its eyes. The Tengu is chewing off another head while slicing the other with its talons. The fire has engulfed the land; the air is like plasma, and the surroundings are grey with ash. The Hydra is like a black rubber tyre, coiled over itself. The Tengu's tornado of flames has eventually burnt it to ash. The bird crashes down and perches on the grass. Its hunched head is face down as it clicks rapidly.
The bird retracts into Seraphiel, just as it did the first time in the ritual scene.
When a user of a pact beast is killed, the beast does not die but rather returns to their domicile until another pact is made; they cannot be exterminated by conventional means.
-
The Bahamut’s glowing ribs function like a nuclear reactor; it was going to destroy itself and the two others along with it. The ribs grew in size and luminosity as the webs sliced deeper and deeper into the flesh; it's so deep now there are red lines all over that look like streaks but are actually where the string had entered.
Arachne shoots a web at Madarame, dragging him towards her. Her spider body has constructed another tapestry, and they jump inside of it, unwinding the string slowly but surely. The dragon stops its self destruction as it notices they have evaded. The scene is empty, on the back of the dragons head Arachne aims a single, but incredibly thick arrow at its head and lets go, it shatters the scales launching right into the head missing the brain by a fraction, the arrow reforms into the shape of Madarame, he swings his scythe up and to the right from his hip cutting the brain in two uneven pieces. The Bahamut falls silently and crashes into the ground.
The Bahamut, being restricted to its small environments, did not allow it to fly about or use its agility. Nonetheless, it had been slain and was returning to whence it came.
Arachne crawled back into the tapestry and pulled the strings till nothing remained.
Madarame falls to his knees while his keratin legs retract into his back. He collapses face-first onto the floor. The floor is cold and wet with blood; each breath draws a little blood into his mouth. He feels a presence to his right as he turns his head. It's the crab-like hybrid. It flails its limbs harmlessly at him. A foot comes crashing down on its skull, splattering it like a plum dropped on the floor. Seraphiel is back, and so is the glossless marble in his eyes. He grabs Madarame by his arms,, raising him to his feet.
"You recorded it for long enough", Seraphiel says calmly.
"Wha- oh, right". Madarame replies
A voice crackles again for the eyepatch. "Well. Done."
Madarame walks with Seraphiel up the stairs out of the bunker. The charred skull of the Hydra is melted into the surrounding soil. "How did you pull that off?" Madarame says with no vigour in his voice. He places his foot on the skull, and his foot slowly falls through like pressing into quicksand.
Seraphiel does not reply.
"So, what are you going to do with your favour?" Madarame breaks the silence.
Seraphiel looks up. "Hmm. I'll ask for the crown."
Madarame scoffs, "Do you think he will just hand it to you? You know that's a pretty large ask for some sightseeing."
"It's mine, so it's hardly even him doing me a favour, the favour would be delivering an item for me".
"Indeed, Mr King."
---
Sol can foresee something impossible. He can foresee wounds on Khael's body but not the cause; he can see him retaliating, turning into an eldritch beast, but as for what the subject of his rage was, he was unsure.
---
Yumi and Ryo stand knee deep in mud in a forest.
"Are you sure you saw it here?" She asks, untrusting of Ryo.
"I swear it was just-."
The tree behind them begins to move. Its bark breaks into 4 thick, intertwined limbs. The Leshy. A deer's skull is mounted at the head, surrounded by bones which are protruding like tusks. Ryo flies towards it, the beast's limb extends and whips its sharp claws at him, he blocks with his blade and flourishes the blade before striking directly on the deer skull. The sword bounces off, Ryo backflips mid-air and lands on his feet.
Yumi reaches her hand towards the beast.
It grabs its head, screeching with agony. Sounds and voices are reverberating through its skull so loudly that it's shaking. She pulls out a spear with a curved edge, allowing for slicing and dashes so fast she leaves an afterimage. She twirls the spear and slices off the 4 limbs of the beast. The wooden limbs fall and slither towards her. She stabs her spear in the ground and performs a pole vault, like a bullet. The spear crashes and splinters the skull, the beast covers its face and disperses into the environment.
"It escaped". Yumi says.
"Wow, that was really amaz-"
"Let's follow after it".
-
Khael walks through the capital, he looks about as the people are screaming and terrified, the ground is stained with blood and saliva. He walks around, looking at the people in such a state of hysteria. He looks towards the old woman Seraphiel mentioned. He slowly walks towards her as she freezes.
"Please, go back inside, madam."
She turns and runs, slamming the door behind her. The guards of the castle all walk out, they look at the corpses and stab their spears through their bowels, performing seppuku. The gates to the castle are open for Khael to waltz in calmly. He arrives at the King's chambers. The air is still and cold. A man stands there, his ashen hair like a Verezian, his skin pale, like that of those from Cairnreach, his face perpetually bored despite his fluctuating tone.
Khael freezes.
He had visualised the King walking towards him and kneeling, though that did not happen.
The King drew three small knives, one he placed in his mouth and one in each hand.
He walks slowly forward.
Khael visualises the King slashing his own throat. Nothing happens.
The King is edging closer slowly and calmly. The air does not change as he steps closer. The man who bore no biological nor epistemic signature is walking towards him as if haunted by ennui.
