E-SQUAD MORPHED, THE ECOSYSTEM DID TOO, and Swishy and Sling could do nothing else but wait.

The quartet was transforming, their four bodies achieving their separate forms, and they siphoned the environment to do it. The once healthy everytrees were drained not of life force but of age. Time reversed, slipping from the woods in gentle breezes. As the rewind took effect, the physical changes took dramatic hold of the scenery.

The lush canopies overhead receded into their branches—leaves and twigs and fruits and all. Next, the everytrees themselves reduced, the trunks gradually returning to their prior forms—from sky-piercers to cloud-tappers, and from cloud-tappers to saplings.

Even the bulged and uneven terrain from the sprawling root system leveled out. The massive roots had become thin, sparing the stressed and pushed-up ground—while the surface itself healed, the fissures and cracks closing, Cearth absolved of its wounds.

The energy of all the organic material floated into the air as glistening blue marbles that drifted toward E-squad.

Swishy gawked at the metamorphosis, the time warp, the demonstration of what The Curse from a century ago must’ve been like. Every gain was given away, packaged and stored into orbs.

“Pretty…” Swishy wanted to scarecrow pose within the parade of souls.

Sling did, too, because her expression was rapt and amazed. “There’s nothing prettier.”

The blue orbs were drifting, drifting, a sheen traveling over their surfaces from the active souls caged within. The entities raged within the marbles, protesting in pain and fury, but their current cage muted them.

Silently, the curses proceeded toward Emi, Emilio, Eren, and Emily. And the closer the marbles were to the E-squad’s amorphous, ghostly forms, the darker the orbs became. A blackness would set onto the outermost layer before that same corruption seeped within.

Tainted. Corrupted. Black. And shiny, oh so shiny.

Swishy and Sling mourned for the souls’ beautiful demise, their absorption into the now-enlarging E-squad phantoms. The pair sorrowfully shook their heads and glanced at one another.

“We have to get them back,” Swishy squeezed his rake. He imagined the moment of the souls’ returning from the E-squad, another rewind, a desired one. The tips of his golden rake teeth gleamed from the thought.

“We will,” Sling said. “Nobody deserves that.”

Of course, they do! The phantoms called. They deserve all of this and more. They’re within us. Powerful and firm. The hungry band together—that’s the core of Straw City. Everybody eats. We are eating them—and they, these souls, are feeding from our care and nurture. They are part of us, well-fed specters. Understand this well and find your compassion.

The soul pull intensified, the steady drift of nutrients and time speeding toward the E-squad.

The unstable nuclei molded their entire mass into heads. Their resemblance to Ruby was striking: their cheekbones, jawlines, strong brows, and feathery layers of hair.

They opened their eyes—all white, no pupils, no irises, no anything. Just clean, life-absorbing whites.

Emi-Emilio-Eren-Emily’s mouths opened, wide-wide-wide, their cheeks pushed upward by the razor edges of their grins. The inside was all white—no tongue or teeth to speak of—the purest bottomlessness Swishy had ever seen.

The floating heads vacuumed the orb parade into their mouths, indulgently gasping from every nutrient.

“Let’s go!” Swishy rushed toward the heads, spear-thrusting his rake. The foggy heads dispersed to dodge, then reformed over another cluster of souls, sucking them in. They rolled their non-tongues against their cheeks, savoring the flavor.

“How unbecoming,” Sling said, shooting bandages from her head, a magically lengthening lasso attempt. She missed, though, and the heads formed in the pair’s faces.

The E-squad blew blue balloons from their mouths, turning their captives into soul bubblegum, and popped them.

Ouch! Cried the imploded souls.

Oh the joy of food, the rapture. Never in our wildest dreams could we have been so…so FULL.

They continued their sickening buffet, consuming the whimpering souls.

Necks sprouted from their whirling fog.

“I have a plan Sling. Just pay attention to your emblem.”

Sling ran a finger over her heart. “Of course, my dear Swishy.”

More eating, more body parts conjured—shoulders, collar bones. Do you like what you see?

“You’re half-cooked. What’s there to see?”

How lukewarm of you… E-squad grew arms and abs, hands and hips.

Swishy executed a [Wing Jump].

They paused their absorption to stare at the sky, searching for Swishy. But it was too late.

[Pile]—the boy dissolved, his clothes empty, his pumpkin head uselessly falling.

What are you fools up to now? The E-squad taunted. Settle down, eat a sou—

Stomp!

Sling had reached them in one galloping leap, having received the signal from Swishy.

The boy descended from the sky.

And the pair landed upon the shadow busts in sync, in self-satisfied pettiness.

Dark smoke spread from underneath Swishy’s Timbs as he ground his heels into his enemies. He dragged the gold rake across the ground, exorcising the curses.

Sling activated [Timeout] through her bandaged feet. The same spell she used to subdue her own blackwheat body, she now pushed outward toward the E-squad, shrinking them.

Blue marbles were expelled from the ground, souls now freed from E-squad influence. A few shadow-living curses slithered away, too, escaping beneath rocks and surface cracks.

Tough crowd. The E-squad’s flattened forms dispersed in four separate directions, merging their bodies along the ground like proper shadows. As they swam along, they absorbed the cursed entities all around, dragging passersby into themselves.

Swishy focused on his ethereal radar, waiting for sound and movement and pulsing souls, but the night was still.

The trees were trees. The stars were stars. And the moon shone a dead, matte light upon the land.

Emi-Emilio-Eren-Emily broke the silence. Now, before we were so loudly interrupted…Get back here!

The escaped marbles and fleeing curses were drawn back in double time, flying into the E-squad’s open mouths. They spoke as furious individuals.

You can’t starve us!

Our time of the stomach rumblies is over!

Have you ever been CONCAVE? It’s not nice!

Please, please stop this. It’s a family meal!

Shadows bulged, the E-squad rising upward into their humanoid silhouettes again—now with full bodies with hips and legs and feet.

Soon the E-squad was equal in height to Trey.

They then became the size of two Treys stacked together.

Past this point, the environment also shrunk in equal proportion to the quartet’s growth—the trees, the flowers, the grass, everything.

Noooo! The dark dwellers said. This isn’t what I chose! Not again! We just escaped the wrathravens! We just learned freedom!

But they drifted into the sky as a reverse rain, absorbed into the immense silhouettes.

Meanwhile, the rain itself, the remnant blackwheat chips of the destroyed [Possessed Guardian], rained upon the E-squad and the E-squad only.

Swishy and Sling wanted to attack, their bodies trying to lunge—but they were stuck, glued in place by the quartet’s force. Sling’s shuddering became all-out tremors, her wheat audibly cracking from within her mummification.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m weakening…” Sling’s trembling gaze landed on her hands, shavings of her fingers gently pulled from her bandages and drawn away. Her shadow also atrophied beneath her, now stretching and gathering within the E-squad.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Swishy felt the pull, too, the casual pressure of the starvation shadows taking from their bodies, but he was holding up better. The boy sturdied himself, hardening his topmost layer of straw with [Bale]. But even then, a couple of strands were plucked out of place by the E-squad’s presence.

“Stiffen that straw, Sling. You can do it!”

“I can!” She clenched her fists and joined Swishy in [Bale]. For good measure, she stretched and wrapped her bandages in an additional layer.

Meanwhile, the buffet continued. E-squad were three Treys high now.

Then Sling height.

Emi-Emilio-Eren-Emily stared at Sling with their empty egg-white eyes—and then continued to grow. With size, came stronger gravity.

Sling shuddered, the wheat shards flying from her body again.

“It’s okay, Slingy,” Swishy said—for what he felt must’ve been the thousandth time. How long? He wondered. How long before we actually just die?

Don’t you worry. The E-squad sensed the boy’s anxiety. We’ll eat you in no time.

The quartet smiled, the white abyss of their mouths stretching into sickles. Their collective mood brought them in sync and revealed the secret of their growth, their spell.

S-I-L-H-O-U-E-T-T-E danced within the E-squad’s orbit, each letter bobbing and flipping and graciously somersaulting.

The E-squad’s slight pivots broke the illusion of their massiveness. Their height reached the clouds but their bodies were paper-doll flat. They ate and ate and ate and ate—but failed to fill out. They were shadows in the truest sense, destined to be flat.

“No wonder you’re always hungry…” Swishy said to himself—both sorry for their endless hunger and stressed that that meant their attacks wouldn’t stop.

The 2D demons summoned clothing then—but in three dimensions.

The girls, Emi and Emily, made themselves shadowy dresses, evening gowns trimmed in fog. The boys, Emilio and Eren, wore stand-up collars and tailcoats. With their hands, they stretched and crimped and molded their smoky contours, creating their favored clothing. They tailored peacoat tails and top hats, cinched belts and wide-flaring skirts.

Meanwhile, the passive Cearth drain continued. The blue marbles, the curses, and the stray strands of Sling’s and Swishy’s bodies were drawn upward.

Sling prepared a spell, bringing aura to her stomach. She struggled, though, her energy draining as quickly as she’d built it up.

Swishy placed a hand on her calf, using a basic ability—not a spell, just his natural power.

Through his touch, Sling replenished. As the E-squad fed from her—from everything—Swishy could feed her at double the rate, producing straw within the chipped and punctured portions of her body. Sling’s posture straightened, her movements fortified.

Talismans floated from her in 9 strips.

S-A-N-C-T-U-A-R-Y flew into the air, affixing in static levitation in an arc. And everything within the bubble paused in mid-air, the blue orbs and cast-off straw pressing against the [Sanctuary] barrier.

For now, they were protected from the E-squad’s casual drain.

Even Swishy felt relief from the slight pull the drain had exerted on him. “Please join Trey after this. These guys are crazy”

“I can’t let you—”

“Do it. They’ll turn you into a donut stand at this rate.”

Sling self-consciously recoiled. The comment drew attention to her rushed reconstruction, to her several rings of bandages that she’d turned inside-out. DONUT appeared three times: on her right knuckle, her left collarbone, and drawn in a doodle on the tip of her nose.

“Point taken,” she said.

“Good, prepare to run. Even if they can’t see the seals, they know we’re here.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help.”

“You’re kind. That’s help enough.” An inner glow warmed his insides, dissolving the cursed energy.

V-o-o-d… Another letter was erased. The boy was stressed but steady.

SNIP. Declared the E-squad’s voices—which should’ve been muted—were all too clear.

[Sanctuary]’s nine talismans were cut in two, bonelessly falling to the ground.

(…)

[Sanctuary] fell.

The starry night was eclipsed by the E-squad who’d now surrounded Swishy and Sling. Flat as they were, the silhouettes were less like a cage, but more like a wall with gaps at their corners.

With Sling’s barrier dispelled, E-squad’s absorption resumed. The blue orbs mutely screamed in their prisons, drawn upward once again. The eight hands of the E-squad reached for the popcorn souls and popped them into their mouths.

Yes! Yes! Join us! Let us feed as one…Everybody eats…blessed be the shadows!

The buffet continued, while a new phenomenon occurred: an unnatural gurgling.

“They’re hungry…” Swishy said.

“I gathered that, they said so.” Sling reinforced her [Bale] and bandage wrap combo, bracing against the E-squad’s pull.

“No, I mean, their stomachs…they’re screaming.”

“Oh my…you’re right.”

The blue marbles floated upward, the souls inside forming the vague shapes of eyes and mouths. They stared at the heroic pair, desperate and pleading. They were silenced but spoke expressively enough for Swishy to read their lips.

Don’t abandon us! Save us…Please!

Sling’s wraps floated from her body, dozens of bandages extending from her shoulders and back. With flourishing arm gestures, she directed her gauze toward the souls, collecting them with the adhesive. Upon contact, the [Nest] and [Nurture] intents sealed them into her bandages as they re-wrapped around her body.

“That’ll darken your blackwheat, Sling!”

“I have room! I can do it!”

“Okay…”

How giving…The E-squad said, glaring down at Sling. But you’re taking from our dinner plate. What kind of manners is that? A lady like you should have some etiquette…

Shadow-formed scissors affixed to their flat, jointless hands. Experimental snip-snips resounded in the air.

[Snip], they said, cutting the air with their scissors, and Sling’s bandages went flying.

The attacks were exactly what was advertised: ethereal scissors were conjured near Swishy and Sling, humongous ones of an appropriate scale to the E-squad’s hands. As the silhouettes gestured with their eight held scissors, the aura-summoned ones closed on the ground level.

Eight hands, eight pairs of scissors, snipping at once.

Sling dodged as best she could with her [Split], preemptively cutting herself in the path of the scissoring, while Swishy simply ducked and sidestepped and jumped over the spells.

As the attacks persisted, the blades enlarged and the sonic impact intensified. X-shaped white flicker scarred the pitch.

The inevitable happened: Sling lost pieces, and Swishy did too.

The snipped bandages were obscured within the dark prison, and as soon as they were cut from Sling’s body, they were forever lost to the E-squad’s casual absorption. A white aura displayed the pillaged talismans: BLUEBERRY SCONE, HOT JAM, PEANUT-BUTTER & HONEY, MAPLE BACON.

Yippee! Emi or Emily said. I got meat! Bow down, foolish carb-heads.

Hot Jam? Emilio or Eren said, What kind of jam?

Maybe you cut off the recipe part? One of the women asked.

Maybe! We’re just snip-snip-snipping away! cried one man or the other.

And they did. [Snip] times eight. The E-squad’s precision increased. And so too did the damage of their attacks. Sling’s arm was chopped off at the shoulder. Swishy’s forefingers were sliced while readying a swing. And the E-squad’s bodies drew their detached parts into themselves, cursed mouths opening in their legs, vacuuming the bounty in.

Sling caught her arm with her other hand, the woman blessed with tremendous reach.

Swishy pushed new growth through his fingers to heal his missing digits—

[Snip]—eight more scissors.

The pair dodged, dropping flat onto the ground as the blades boomed over them.

[Snip].

Swishy raised his rake above him, that reliable glowing staff of his, and enclosed him and Sling in a [Straw Hut]. He layered it multiple times over as chunks were cut from the dome. Sling tucked her knees beneath her torso, turtling herself so the barrier could fit around them.

The E-squad cast faster.

[Snip].

[Snip].

[Snip].

And down went the hut.

The scissors appeared once more, a faint white X crackling to life—then fading.

Swishy preemptively dodged, falling for the fake-out.

Eight scissors appeared around Swishy who was still carried by the momentum of his sidestep.

[Snip].

Swishy’s life flashed before his eyes: birth, strife, and harvesting. He fused his head inside his body, then morphed into a [BALE], hardening as much as he could. He gazed through his eyeholes as the attacks came in what felt like slow motion. “Sling! I’m sorry!”

The boy survived the first spells with minimal damage, the scissors clanking against the fortified, steel-like straw.

[Snip].

[Snip].

[Snip].

They concentrated the full assault on Swishy, patiently cutting at his corners. Every time a strand came loose, they cut that away. E-squad worked with slow deliberation, sheering Swishy as if they were pruning a hedge. Nothing could stop them from completing their work, so they cut-cut-cut away.

Swishy stayed firm, redoing his [Bale], telepathically drawing his cut straw back. But he couldn’t grab it all—not in the powerful gravity of the E-squad.

As expected—and inevitable, really—significant portions of his straw made their way to the E-squad’s faces. The siblings gleefully absorbed his snack bites of wheat into their white mouths.

Cut and snack, cut and snack, that was the rhythm, that was the task the E-squad dedicated themselves to, and because of their persistence and power, their patience revealed a just reward.

Ah ha…there it is!

It’s so pretty!

Is that a heart-shaped box?

Yes, it is! That heart is gift-wrapped in a magic case—just for us.

E-squad had cut Swishy so significantly that even if he used [Pile] one wouldn’t know the difference.

Sling reached for whatever Straw she could with her hands and bandages, but she couldn’t secure enough to help.

There were precious few things that Swishy could now claim as his. Bodiless as he now was, his pumpkin head floated in the air, and his mouth turned downward in profound distress. His wing broke down as well, its feathers orbiting his gourd, never straying too far from his soul. The rake was his, too, glowing, luminous, but laid upon the ground.

And the boy’s core, his possible heart…it rose before his eyes encased in Trey’s [Heart Armor]. The gold magic electrically crackled in lower case [Zzt], more aesthetic than a weapon.

The core floated upward and upward, the E-squad’s gravity drawing it toward them.

Was that so hard? The four voices sounded as one, harmonized for once, immaculately synced. See how that didn’t even hurt? See how your delectable straw has fed us? And you’re not even screaming. You’re not even dead. Perhaps, your protest has been dramatic. Can you admit that yet?

Sling gathered aura, preparing a spell—

The eight scissors conjured around her. A killing glare slid along the blades.

“Sling, dust yourself!”

[Snip].

The white x’s converged upon Sling—who dodged with a last-second [Split] from the initial assault—but was forced to use [Pile] when the snip flurry continued.

“It’s okay, little straw, we’ll be okay…” Sling somehow said, pile of hay that she was. And despite her affirmation, her cursed straw activated in its stressed, unbandaged state.

“Sling! Sling!”

Sling had no answer, a poor blackwheat pile, her cursed straw growing spikes.

E-squad laughed and laughed and laughed, basking in their levitating bounty of blue orbs, scarecrow crumbs, and the main course of Swishy’s heart.

Thank you, Swishy, for being a dutiful farm. Ruby will be pleased to hear of your generosity—and your continued pledge of cooperation.

But as far as Swishy was concerned, this wasn’t the end. He stared at his orbit of feathers, his disparate straw, and his glowing, grounded rake.

And the V-o-o-d-o…the final o was coming. Nothing was more inevitable. Nothing, at this moment, was more welcome as well.

“I have enough,” Swishy told himself. “I am enough.”

Are you now? E-squad said, clearly offended. New spells conjured in their hands.

BOLT CUTTERS—four of them, of course.

“Bolt cutters? How hateful. No wonder Cearth is starving you.”

The white outlines of bolt cutters, the size of Swishy, conjured around the insolent pumpkin’s head.

Such is the way of heartlessness, little straw.

“Swishy!” Sling called, her spikes jumping.

And the cutter teeth snapped shut.