Chapter 71

Hound was unable to climb the way she did, so it sniffed her out in a separate route. It smelt danger all over the Holy Land, so it howled in anguish when something changed across the space, which notified the girl. She noticed something terrible. It was the sound that lingered across the space, giving it away. Rifts spread above the helicopters, causing sharp noises that the girl hardly ever heard.

It was rare. That noise felt like no howl but a destruction of space. It was sharp as if the earth was squeaking, tough glass was shattering, metal turned brittle and shattered, and a rumbling mountain crashed down.

Openings of those couple of Rifts weren't big, indicating Mild Rifts at best, though who knew what they were hiding? Even Mild Rifts had their Ranks. Some could have a lot of little monsters of low Rank but a ton of them. Others could have one or two very powerful Darks that came to one specific hunt or order.

How one saw a Rift came through the opening, aura, and amount of Fog that could come out of it, or via the crumbling space.

The girl had no idea how to distinguish them. She had eyes on different things while she kept her ears covered, not noticing a dark figure looming behind her, standing on two feet, looking human yet inhuman.

She glared at the stars and those starry Rifts, wondering which was prettier. Their vision elevated the whole sight to new lengths, and even the explosions and some flames or light around the ground didn't seem to be that bad. But the earthquakes kept going, and whatever was happening two miles away was hard to tell.

She was mesmerized, ignorant, yet safe. The space over the starry sky, or the depth of those Rifts, illuminated the moon and her eyes. She looked up, gazing at that white star with its big red wound and mist as if they were celestial clouds. The moon was always there, looking wounded, yet stunning. They were right.

The sky was always looking pretty. It wouldn't betray her, as it gave the moon a great contrast of white and red. Adding to that various stars over the Holy Land, the girl was unable to remain calm. She treasured such sights.

It didn't matter to her when some monsters came from those Rifts after they stabilized in a few moments. It wasn't enough for helicopters to disappear, or explode to bits either. Still, the tremors and wind changed after many Darks came, and it was a matter of time before both of those machines crashed to the ground, causing explosions and noises to spread.

Many Fengs delightfully howled and went to work. Then, the trembling stopped and the battle turned upside down outside of this Holy Land.

The War Rings came, and people and Walkers fought for survival or their mistakes, or hopes. This changed the whole picture that reached many eyes over those hills and mountains not that far away.

And it went on and on and... on. The girl stared down for a whole hour, looking and hearing screams and explosions, and how some places changed completely. Even Rifts changed slightly, for there were many lights and powers that littered the ground or the sky. Devoid of care for her surroundings, back, or what was happening on the ground, she was an observer.

She wasn't even aware where she should watch, or whom. There were at least dozens of battles happening across this night. Fengs weren't everything, and stalking Corruptors or huge ass Stompeeds didn't take part in this war.

There was a certain ceiling in Darks who were willing to come forward, for there was a close Holy Land and something dangerous that came over. Walkers were that, so a lot of surrounding territories went up in arms, going over to fight for their blissful darkness.

Rifts themselves were secondary for this Holy Land or Darks, but Walkers took them as their priority. Thus, it was a matter of time before the Rifts shifted, wobbled, and no longer let Darks out. They became Barren and not Wasted.

One could still come inside, however, but not as if it was a good idea or priority when their depths were unknown. It wasn't safe. Explosions stayed or echoed further, revealing a desolate picture of obliterated ground that never reached those hills or mountains, let alone touched this Holy Land.

There was nothing new in this sight for the girl who watched everything with clutched fists. Darks fought well, endlessly coming as monsters of their name, and it wasn't just those Rifts that were there. Around this Coban Region, Darks moved and smelt those dangers. Those metallic monsters couldn't keep up with them, for she too couldn't do so. The girl thought escaping this region was impossible, and it was all she ever knew.

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As she watched from the top of a hill, the fighting subsided within two hours. Then, she glanced behind her, seeing nothing but a distant mountain. Hound was nowhere either and silence spread when a lot of battles moved further away, leaving whispering booms into the night. Only then did she decide to go down, putting forth an expedition to see if there was some loot or people.

Usually, mornings were a perfect time for that, yet she wanted to look for the residues of those machines right now and not waste time. The last couple of times, she was unlucky, so perhaps this time would be different.

Fearlessly, she got down the hill and met that annoying Hound again. However, there was something wrong with it. It was... wrong, and felt small. She shuddered and wondered what was that bad because she felt whispering nonsense and unease that came through her as if she saw them again. What felt wrong? This unease. This lingering dread. She tried to look for the cause and didn't see it.

Hound was in a corner of some valley, shivering in anguish and looking smaller than ever before. It squeaked like it got bullied out of its tail, and it kept at it in the corner, facing the wall.

She wondered what happened to it.

Then, she saw it. Felt it.

A thing was closing on her home, looking for it. It was a Dark like the night itself, its eyes looking like Rifts, and it had no mouth. Built like a man and no shadow, it was no Fissure. Its skin was dark, shimmering in light purple flames and many lines as if its body was sculpted out of stones and dark Arcana.

In a sense, when Corruption was compact, it allowed many Darks to wield all kinds of powers as long as they ate properly. In this Dark, there were small intangible lines, depicting deep-rooted veins of purple flames that were barely noticeable from the distance. It looked like a starry cloud of mud came to a visit, and two eyes looked at the ground, shifting and looking for something.

The girl got shivers when she noticed it and nearly fell to her knees in horror. The pain in her right arm stopped the worst from happening, and it illuminated the darkness, but it barely did anything to this Creature.

Right. It was a Creature; an upper-rank Dark. It was less than ten feet away from her, walking on two like a person, but unnaturally shifting its head as if it had a flexible neck. It seemed agitated as it moved each of its eyes separately. One glanced at the sudden arrival; the other at the sky and the ground.

Then, its mouth spread, creating a line in a head that seemed metallic and smooth, looking odd like a mask. There were no teeth. Just a hollow endless pit worse than the Rifts.

“Foooooooouuuund you...” It screeched in a hollow tone and approached the quivering girl in slow cracking steps that revealed even more cracks around its arms and legs. Purple flames spread more, giving darkness pretty hues, and the Creature itself smiled like a demon. That insanity in that voice and face was more than dreadful. It lingered like the Haunting, causing her Emblem to sizzle in delightful white light.

She couldn't stop shivering and couldn't move from her spot. Her Emblem couldn't seize anything either. She was stranded in the middle of the Holy Land, and one of the kings might be close. The strange Creature, close to a human, approached her in weird steps as if it was too worked up or too excited to walk steadily or in a straight line, or it couldn't walk well at all.

The purple flames wavered and its mouth was open and started to whisper or mumble some nonsense. It was intense until it got close. Too close.

Then, everything got so much worse when she realized it was bigger than she thought, towering over her with sheer pressure and aura that made it more prominent than that Hound. It was a whole mountain tall, yet its body was small. Her eyes watched it. It was the spirit that promoted something else.

She realized something dreadful when her Emblem seized her hand and gave her strength, washing away the pressure when little lines started to travel around the right arm and cover half of her body. This Creature was even smaller than herself as if reality shifted and her arm moved by itself behind her, almost dragging her away to the ground, but it was futile. She couldn't move, but it didn't mean something else couldn't.

“No... NO! This ain't it!?!” the Creature argued in human tongue and broken English. It screeched, echoing in the wild echo. It hit the ground with clutched fists, cracking the earth and leaving the girl horrified. She flew away, tumbling as her right arm tried to save her. It did, but blood flowed as she coughed and felt tremors all over her body when the shock wave hit her.

“It promised. It promised! Prize! Mine. All mine!” the Creature smacked the ground again and again until it couldn't distinguish between the ground and itself. It hit its arms and legs, pounding the dark skin. Like a chain reaction over its skin, cracks spread, flames started to turn, and it was getting hysterical even more.

Eyes deepened and frenzied, turning even more insane and sharp. Its mouth curved and the flames tensed, disappearing inside. Then, it had enough and pounced at the girl whose fleeting crawling speed of her right arm couldn't help herself. She couldn't even move if it wouldn't be for that delight.

The Creature flew, opening its mouth and crawling for space as it flew to her neck. Then, the girl ducked down, feeling some pressure on her head when some sound echoed behind her.

Approaching claws akin to a mountain stopped against something very sturdy, and a loud echo banged, shuddering the ground and hills more than this Dark. Afterward, earthquakes started, sounding exactly like what was happening before. A person arrived and saved one little life, standing behind the helpless bleeding girl with cracked half-white skin.

She felt no pain when she glanced up to see a man standing behind her, patting her head, closely resembling some memory, or were all people looking the same? She didn't know, but she etched this memory into her mind for as long as it lasted.