The whole world shook.

At least, it certainly felt like it. Sorore had been on the rolling deck of a ship in a storm. She’d travelled along rocky roads. She’d even felt the entire church in Albion quake around her.

But even that wasn’t quite like the cold and fear following up with the entire ground sliding away under her feet. This was something new, something special, something far more terrible than any church maxim or personal experience had prepared her for. It was a moment before she could even manage the strength to push herself and turn around.

What she saw, however, made her wish she stayed on the ground.

The rest of the motley party was picking themselves up, terror bright on their faces. Even the apparent traitor, Azio, and that horrible slip of a woman next to him was there with them. Everyone was united in the need to fly from the peril that lay only a hundred steps away.

A implacable, rational section in her mind whispered that it wasn’t actually a hundred steps, more like five or six hundred. While that part counted all the little canal bridges between sections of the promenade and tallied a rough estimate of their distance, Sorore looked up at the thing. The first noticeable quality of it was its size.

The thing was nothing short of titanic, rising on dozens of long, thick jointed limbs above the promenade. It was composed of a lumpy, half-spherical, half-triangular mass, rearing up above even the roofs of the warehouses. The rest of it was a long, thick tabular body that coiled and writhed, smashing into the stone as it piled up behind it. The rational part noted that the reason she’d assumed it was only a hundred steps was the simple vastness in size, and made a note to correct for future encounters.

The other thing she had time to note was the mass of fog that billowed forth from it, shadowing its more specific features. It stood, tall, resolute, that horrible icy aura of fear exuding from the fog that poured forth before it. The rational part catalogued it -so they aren’t all human-shaped, how interesting.

The thing rose to the balls of its… hands? Feet? She couldn’t tell, rearing back, a massive stomach bulging as the rush of air echoed around it. The fog around them receded just for a moment. Sorore caught a glimpse of fleshy pouches inflating between folds of skin and fat. What a lung capacity! was all the time the rational part of her had to marvel.

Then the thing roared.

The sound was a thoroughly unique sound, as grating to the soul as it was to the ears. A combination of the lowing moan of a whale, the high piercing scream of a human, and, oddly, a hint of a serpentine hiss.

Sorore felt her legs go weak as the fog billowed forth and with it came the supernatural fear. Her bladder loosened, her knees hit the stone, and then she was being dragged to her feet. Frare, brave, sweet Frare, was hauling his twin, running with the rest of them. It was enough to shock the animal part of her awake.

The last thing she saw before she turned to keep pace with the group was the thing beginning to charge. Its motion was almost spider like, great limbs extending far as if to feel the ground, then dragging it forward. The rest was just the crashing, cracking, smashing sounds as it destroyed the promenade giving chase.

“Turn! Here!” called someone from up ahead, and they ducked into an alley just before the end of the promenade.

“Two of you go to the city! The children too!” shouted the older woman, Aya’s grandmother, Sorore remembered, “sound every alarm we have, bring heavy weapons, the whole guard, all of it!”

Two of the bronze plated legionnaires sprinted north, undoing the claps on their armour and dropping it behind them.

“Aya, go!” screamed the matriarch, shoving her granddaughter to the north with Lillian.

“No!” she called, “It’s after us!”

They all turned to stare at her.

The smashing grew louder.

“They’ve always been after us! We’ll lead it into the city!”

The thing’s growl echoed through the entire alley.

“We need to buy time!” Aya screamed, before taking off not north but east, further into the maze of canals, streets, and walkways that interweaved the boatyard.

There was no time to change direction as the heavy footfalls crashed into the ground behind them. They ran, following Aya in no particular direction as they ducked and weaved between open workshops and canal loading docks. Only once did Sorore actually look back behind her, finding the creature hauling itself over the buildings often smashing through the roofs. Gouts of black blood shone in the moonlight as it withdrew the injured limbs without much care.

That only inspired Sorore to run faster.

They were rounding a bend in the canal when she felt a sudden shift. It was subtle, she couldn’t quite feel what had changed, but it was a change. Everything… looked wrong. In the wrong place to where it had just been only a few moments.

There was a subtle thud beside her, and she found herself running next to a man dressed in dark grey leathers. His mask and cloak apparently had been forsaken for the current danger.

“Le…?” was all she managed to wheeze.

Leonard glanced at her, seeming to keep the pace with ease.

“That will keep it confused for a minute, perhaps two,” he called to the front of the group, voice completely calm, “I hope you have a more permanent solution planned.”

“Keep it distracted… until the army arrives,” Frare said, seemingly unsurprised that Leonard had joined them out of nowhere.

“Less than ideal,” said their older ‘brother’, “we’ll have to hide. I don’t know how long that will last.”

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

He increased his speed and pulled ahead to the front of the group. They changed direction, the odd shift in location making it hard to gauge where exactly they were going.

They raced through a yard full of benches with canvas-covered parts in progress. It was smashed behind them, though the sound was slightly distant. Sorore wasn’t sure if that gave her hope or not.

There was a confusing series of walkways and platforms on pulleys. The rational part of her mind suggested they may’ve been to deal with tall sections of ship hulls. The wooden cranes crunched moments after they sprinted over one of the larger canal bridges and into a warehouse.

In the middle of the warehouse, they turned hard right. Now there was a smashing ahead of them as Leonard threw himself with grace through a heavy door, shattering it to splinters. They had to sprint in twos to get through the narrow racks of still machines and fine workbenches. Several more turns, and they were out through into a shadowed, brick-layered room, where barrels stretched into the distance.

It was there that they halted.

While the others were bent over panting and gasping, Leonard looked around.

“It’ll be safe for a moment,” he said, “it has a vision that pierces rock and wood, though. We’ll be running again soon enough. You.”

He turned to Aysatra, the older woman holding up better than Sorore. Not that she had the energy or composure to worry about what that said about her.

“Explosives, heavy armaments, anything that can kill an abomination of that size. Where are they kept?”

“South-east edge,” gasped the matriarch, “Lodan’s Point. Ship building rarely needs them, better to keep them away from the yard and city.”

“Hm,” said Leonard, thinking, “that might be necessary. I’m unsure if I can kill this on my own. We should go to Lodan’s.”

“And what?” said Lillian, pink-cheeked but in possession of her breath, “blow ourselves up with it?”

“That may be necessary,” Leonard said without a shade of humour in his voice, “perhaps not.”

He tensed.

“Get down!” he said.

The rational mind whispered that was the first time she’d ever heard him raise his voice.

Then the explosion happened.

It wasn't really an explosion, at least not how she understood the term. There was no light, no heat, only a great movement of air, sound, and materials. She had dropped to the floor, as had most of the others. The one or two unlucky legionnaires that lacked the reflexes of their colleagues simply… vanished. Blown away in an instant with all the bricks and wood and barrels.

They were out in the open air once more, the remains of the building around them. A massive scaly shadow swept over the fallen company, and Sorore’s rational piece computed the rest. The leviathan, propping itself up on its forelegs, must’ve swung its serpent’s body in a deadly scything arc, smashing the buildings around it to pieces. The strength it must’ve had to hold itself in place! Even the rational part of her was awed to silence by the revelation.

Either way, the horrible shape loomed over them, nearly blotting out the moon. She could see it clearly now, the fog not quite thick enough to obscure it. The mass that comprised its head was a merged lump of life of every description. Sorore couldn’t tell where one creature ended and another began, and in some places whether there was a creature to begin with. Her stomach somehow dropped further as she recognized human limbs and faces fused into the misshapen mass.

The most striking thing about its head however was the massive, jutting crystal, like a great black horn. As she noticed that, the mass parted, folds of skin and fat drawn aside like fleshy curtains to reveal a crevasse, lined with oversized blunted molars, curved fangs, and the baleen of whales. She was grabbed and half-dragged, half carried by Niche, having clambered to his feet during her observation.

Just in time, as a couple more legionnaires injured, or otherwise too slow to rise, disappeared as the creature hurled its bulk down. The survivors broke out into a wide yard, populated by many masts, both erect and laid on their sides. Its surface was broken up by moving platforms mounted on inset tracks. They almost fell over when they mounted one, the wood surface moving with their momentum as some mechanism underneath rolled.

“We won’t be able to outrun it,” said Leonard, “we’re not even halfway there. I won’t be able to distract it again for long.”

“What do we do then?” Niche said.

Leonard scanned the yard as the Leviathan rose once more to its full height, pieces of the building falling from it.

“We’ll kill it here,” he said, “or immobilise it.”

“How?” clamoured a half dozen voices.

Leonard’s eyes flitted this way and that.

“Fast runners, lure it to the far end of the yard and back, including you,” he said, tossing Frare casually towards them.

The creature growled as it drew nearer.

“Everyone else with me,” he said, taking off to the right.

Once more there was that subtle shift that must’ve been Leonard’s ‘distraction’.

Sorore kept up to the front of the group, finding Leonard doing… something with his hands. Little strings of glowing light weaved between his fingers. He was manipulating them, ring to fourth, thumb to pink, middle to ring, ring to second, the strings wavering and crossing as he did so. Faster and faster he moved his fingers, his eyes flitting from one string to the other.

“Very well,” he said as they neared the edge of the building, “a solution has been found.”

“What?” once again a half dozen voices chimed.

“You,” Leonard said, waving to Efrain, the twins, Aya, and the paladins, “come with me. Others, watch. When it comes to eat us, run. Any direction, as hard as you possibly can.”

He took off back the way they’d come, heading toward the centre of the yard amidst the great masts. It was insane, they should’ve been running away from the monster. What was more insane was the fact that the paladin of all people followed him, the Leviathan’s long body slithering up ahead. Sorore froze for a second, then remembered her brother, fleeing for dear life, and followed with Aya and Efrain.

In the area with the densest amount of masts, he stopped.

The Leviathan had almost reached the other end of the yard, Sorore unable to see her brother or his group. The fact that it turned to the side, and began to bank around gave her some hope of his survival. Leonard turned back to them.

“When it’s almost upon us,” he said, “break all the bindings you can. Then run before it crushes you.”

“How?!” Sorore screamed, looking at the steel plates bolted to the stone, which in turn the upright masts were secured.

“You are a Bequeathed. Do it,” he said then returned back to his stings of light.

“Flood it,” Efrain said, “Aya, Sorore, each to one. Pump it with as much magic as you can, and more. Every last drop. The paladins each to one. Go!”

They took off in a dash, Sorore following Aya as she sank to her knees by one of the posts, placing her hands upon it. With a gulp, Sorore followed suit, and turned to look at the charging mass of the Levithan. It had fully turned around, partially smashing into the building as it wafted fog everywhere. That at least had slowed it down somewhat, but it was quickly gaining speed.

Sorore prayed to everything and everyone that Leonard knew exactly what he was doing as she turned her eyes to the metal. She tried to conjure up the images that Efrain had taught her, what her limited teaching at the cathedral had revealed.

Nothing happened.

Sorore panicked. Tried again. Nothing. She gritted her teeth, biting down the urge to scream as the sound of the monster came closer and closer.

Once more, she tried it.

Nothing yet again.

Before she could wrench a hand away from the metal base and turn to run, a gentle hand rested on her arm. Aya looked on at her, eyes glowing with an inner light, their usually murky dark blue now a pair of luminous sapphires. Sorore was conscious of a deep sense of having been here before, in this exact moment. In that strange moment of serenity and remembrance, time seemed to slow as she stared into the depths of those blue eyes.

“Don’t force it,” Aya almost whispered, “let it come.”

Sorore did so, and came it did. Gouts, torrents, a rushing river of power from somewhere deep within, burning its way down her arms and soaking into the metal, which began to glow with a thousand tiny lines of light. The lines got brighter, and brighter, and brighter until Sorore could barely see the surroundings, only Aya's face, drawn with focus.

There was a shearing, cracking sound, and a shouted word of command. Sorore and Aya ran, ripping their hands away from the hot, cracking metal as they sprinted towards the surrounding buildings. The monster’s shadow fell upon them as they did, and for a momentary instant Sorore felt her brief fifteen years flash before her eyes.

Then, her body either giving up or subdued by the creature’s frightful fog, she slowed to a halt. In an odd moment, she found that it was not her body that had slowed to a walk, she was still running, just slower and slower, and slower, as an unnatural heaviness flowed into her body. Aya was at her side, her arms barely pumping as her face grew red with effort.

There was a loud crack, a rush of air, and an immense bellow as flesh tore and ripped behind them. And in the next instant, they were free, falling flat on their fast as their speed and weight returned to normal levels. Sorore turned back to see the creature, fallen on its side, writing and kicking its enormous arms and legs. It had been pierced clean through by a half dozen of the largest, thickest masts. It didn’t seem to die, but something within it had clearly been compromised, great rivers of black blood spilling over the stones and into the canal.

Leonard, somehow out from under it and having avoided the scrambling limbs, strode towards her and Aya.

“It’s time,” he said simply, before reaching down and grabbing the pair of them.

He dragged them with ease, getting them halfway to the creature before they could even think to protest. They struggled as he pulled them towards the twitching mass, the shining crystal horn glinting in the moonlight.

“Time for what?” Aya demanded as she pulled on a thin but unyielding arm, “We should run away!”

“That would not stop it, and we will not get another chance with what time we have,” Leonard said matter-a-factly, “this might. It might also kill us. We shall see.”

Both Sorore and Aya redoubled their efforts to no avail. Leonard unceremoniously dumped the two just in front of the dark surface.

“Frare!” he barked, “come here. Or I’ll kill your sisters.”

Frare raced towards them, a look of confusion, triumph, and rage on his face.

“You were right,” he said, to that someone they could not see, “that was simple. Now, you two. Touch the crystal when Frare reaches us.”

“What?” said Aya.

“No!” said Sorore.

“Your choice,” said Leonard.

Sorore couldn’t exactly see what happened next. Somehow, in a blur of motion, Leonard managed to counter Frare’s blur of motion with a loud thud. In the same breath, Sorore felt a vice grip close around her arm, forcing her arm forward to touch a cold surface.

It all went black.