Leah had walked into the temple, head held high. When she entered she found herself in a room the angel had more eyes by which to see her there. It looked upon her and her charges and it seemed to know before she even asked.

"Angel, may we proceed to the core? I wish to make an offering." She had said.

The Angel had obliged her with naught a word. The floor had glowed, lighting her way. She had proceeded unmolested through the cavernous rooms with the great peaked arches above. She had seen a great many things lurking in the shadows and despite her faith in God's protection she had felt fear.

Then they had neared the Temple Core. The source of the holy light that suffused this place. THe source of that angellic singing. She had heard it all the while but had not realized, not untilshe was close.

how could she hadve known of the intensity of its beauty? how could she have known of the singular joys of the divine.

She had approached like a woman in a dream. She had come to the church after a secular upbringing. In her teenage years she had wandered far from the path of righteousness. She knew the pleasures of the flesh. She knew the high of drugs. None of it compared to what she felt as she grew close.

Rapture.

Ecstasy.

Her body had grown numb with emotion. Her mind clouded with desire.

The Angel had watched as Leah had slow step after step to approach the shining core. Her charges followed behind her. Drifting.

based on their indecent moaning it was safe to say they felt what she felt.

She reached out her hand and touched the glowing surface.

And then she cried out.

"I am saved!" she screamed.

Sins she had not known she had been carrying the weight of melted away. The world melted away. She barely heard as the angel took the blessed into its embrace. They must have felt no pain at all. it was so quick, and they so distant from the mortal coil already. The arms had simply pulled them into the walls, and they were gone in a blink.

In a snap.

Leah stood transfixed. It was not long before Elijah arrived. He had placed his hand over hers on the shining light. Time seemed to melt away as more arrived. Each one that came, the Temple took in.

The song grew louder, faster even. It was not a frantic speed but more like rising triumph. It was like the victorious army charging down a hill picking up speed. She heard the glory of god rising and rising.

The Father arrived. He sang along with the music. They all sang with him and with the Temple. God’s light grew a little brighter.

(12) Untempered have been sacrificed to the Temple Core.

Flesh consumed.

Essences consumed.

Sacrifice accepted.

First Temple of the Harbinger is advancing to the next challenge level.

Prepare thyself fallow and untempered thing

–

Rick advanced into the room, following closely behind Gross and Isaac. The two were better equipped to handle the front than him. however much it irked him. The young had faster reaction times, and they were both carrying more deadly weapons than he.

He kept his eyes peeled awaiting an ambush. The room was large and there was nothing to be seen in it. not yet. He was expecting an ambush. They would have backtracked and found another path but the door at the end of the huge room had proved too tempting. It might be the exit, or lead to some sort of respite.

Obviously leaving would be great but they at least needed a break. They couldn't keep up this kind of intense fighting for very long. Even if the 'Flesh of the Beyond' kept their bodies feeling fresh, this place wore down on his mind. His usually deep and still emotions were agitated.

A new window appeared in Rick’s mind. He cursed quietly to himself before reading it.

First Temple of the Harbinger has advanced to challenge level two.

Prepare thyself Tempered

The other two had frozen just as he had to read the new message. As they stood there Rick began to hear something. It was a soft susurration. Just a gentle tapping.

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He listened more intently. It seemed to be coming from everywhere the way it echoed around the high arches of the ceiling.

He couldn’t nail it down.

“You guys hear that? What do you think it is?" he asked.

Isaac said simply "more challenges."

Gross just nodded.

The three of them looked around trying to find the source of the noise.

The tapping was getting louder and louder.

Finally one of them emerged from a hidden opening in the ceiling. It did not drop down but walked with its feet firmly planted on the stone above them. Where one emerged, dozens more followed.

At first glance they looked like spiders. The center mass of htem was more like a wadded up tissue than an abdomen though. Thin layers of flesh rippled in a nonexistent breeze, it’s core a mass of thin gauzy layers of skin.

The legs were more substantial gaining weight as they went out from the center. Where they connected they twig thin. At the ends they were a bulbous funnel.

The fleshy spiders walked on the ceilings with ease. They emerged from those tunnels and began to pour down onto the columns, condensing their numbers at those points.

Rick and the others ahd all frozen. The exact worse thing he had been expecting had happened. They were surrounded by overwhelming numbers in the dead center of the room.

Not quite yet they weren’t actually.

“Make for the door!” Rick shouted and pushed the two men in front of him forward.

The three proceeded at a sprint.

“Isaac I want you to set up a perimeter of eyes when we get to the far wall. We don’t stop for anything.”

The thing little creatures might hurt them but they were quite small and weren’t going to slow them down at full speed.

Predictably the creatures began chasing after them as they reached the bottom of the columns. They skittered across the floor after them. A growing mass awaited them.

Isac threw one eye ahead into that waiting mass.it made contact with a few, sticking onto them. It began to swell at a prodigious rate. The three men had to dash around it as it was taking up a significant portion of their path by the time they reached it.

The flesh spiders began to lunge out at them as teh ran past. Rick felt a few bit into his pants but not his legs. He did not even bother ot look down to see if the clung to him. He lit up the torch and swung it at those he could see leaping onto Gross and Isaac.

In only a few moments they had reached the door at the far wall. Isaac began tossing eyes a few paces away in a semicircle all around them. The men each did what they could to kill the oncoming flesh spiders.

“Die you Bastards!” Gross shouted.

His rifle had run out ammunition and he was working with a knife now. His bleeding hands picked up one spider after the other and rammed the knife through the center of them.

Rick suffered bite after bite. As he torched spider after spider he gained more and more essences of Flesh of the Beyond. He didn’t pause to read the windows, and could think of nothing else but burning the incoming creatures.

Isaac’s eyes had been swelling taking in more of the oncoming stampede. Isaac’s shouts of pain began to ring out, not from teh spider bites, but from the swollen now boulder sized eyes.

“God please! I can see it all, please take back!” He shouted and stopped fighting the spiders that were attacking him.

Soon he was covered in them as Rick and Gross could only react to what was on them. Rick watched as Isaac fell to the floor screaming, unaware of the swarm devouring him, only aware of the horrible sights he was beholding.

Then the tide of battle truly shifted. A single spider dropped on Rick from above. He torched it in short order only to have two more land on him. He shot a quick glance upward and saw hundreds scuttling up the walls to get to the ceiling above them where they could drop down.

Rick lost his sense of time and place. The world became a whirlwind of pain and blood. Everything felt heavier as time went on. He had given up when a brilliant blue flash of light appeared.

As if from very far away he heard Eric’s voice calling out to him. Rick finally fell. He could do no more, and he only hoped that would be enough.

—

Eric immediately began channeling Writhing Storm again.

Writhing Storm II

Increased Focus.

Skill: Channel the energy of the beyond into a writhing storm of potent energy. Storm attacks enemies within range.

Skill: Manipulate the storm as though it were a solid object.

A whisper of the Beyond may still the seas

The first volley had killed hundreds, but hundreds more remained. They had come running when they had heard Isaac’s shouts. As they had gotten closer they had seen Rick and Gross falling down below their chest high barricade made of eyes.

Grant hadn’t stopped running, Eva and Eric would stay back, Grant rushed ahead. He whipped his tentacles through the monsters as he went, back and forth like two harvester’s scythes taking down the wheat.

Ripping Tentacle of the Void

Item - Grafted Appendage

Attacks made with Ripping Tentacle of the Void break down matter at an elementary level. Emitted energy and particles propagate the reaction. Effect has sharp diminishing returns as the ability chains.

Each cut produced four or more new kill windows. The vapor streaming toward him threatened to blind him. Fortunately he didn;t need to see as he cut a path through the thick mass of monsters.

He reached the eye barricade and swept his tentacles in a circle around him. The next writhing storm passed overhead. Grant watched as tendrils of lightning cut blinding blue white lines down into the bunker. Grant cut through one of the eyes.

He revealed the three men still covered in monsters. Using just one of his tentacles he swept over the men carefully. His other tentacle was still whipping blindly behind himself.

As he worked a third writhing lighting passed over. And then it was done. The lighting caught the remainder of them.

He took in the sight of Gross, Rick, and Isaac all laying on the floor. He heard Eric and Eva approaching from behind.

“Isaac!” Eva shouted as she rushed forward to help her friend.

Eric likewise ran forward to help Rick. They needn’t have. Grant could already see the men beginning to heal. They would be stronger for this. Grant would make sure of that.

The fight had been easy for the three of them. Grant likely could have done it all by himself. Even the three men together would have died without killing most of the enemies.

Grant would have to get them leveled up before they did anything else. Grant looked at the door behind the men. Certainly before they went through there. That was a boss door if he’d ever seen one.