There was almost complete darkness all around, which was being hardly illuminated by the dim light of fires burning here and there. Said fires weren’t burning on nothing, as from what little they illuminated, showed that the fuel for that fire were corpses; of animals, people, and even monsters. The corpses that weren't burning were of people from all sorts of backgrounds that had stepped foot in here.

They went from people in shiny knight armor to rags, clothes of commoners, and even a few exotic pieces that seemed as if they came from the other side of the world. And all around them, weapons of different make were dropped. Some still looked good to go, and others were already rusting and breaking down.

The place reminded me of the depictions that some humans give when it came to a thing called Hell. What was missing to give it the full appearance of that, was just a few red demons with pitchforks jumping and laughing at the misfortune of the souls that fell here, like the one next to me.

“Please! Let me out of here!” Eleanor wailed as she slammed her fists on the wall of darkness that stood behind me, the one from which we came.

She had yet to notice my presence, and she looked just the same as when she was thrown in here; her face a complete mess of tears, snot, and dirt. The sword that she managed to grab was thrown to the side as all she did was press on the unmoving wall that refused to answer her pleas.

“Oh—” she let out with a pained moan, “Father, help me… Goddess, please save me…”

She dropped to the floor on her knees as her hands dragged down the black veil that refused to open. There was no longer a Goddess in this world listening to her, and if there was, She wouldn’t care about what happened to one lonely girl.

But I was here, and I was listening. I could pluck her out of this place if I wished, but doing so would create a scar on this world akin to tearing someone’s finger right off their hand. Saving this girl by force could create more deaths of innocent people than just her own. For now, all she could do was hang on as far as she could and find a way to get out of here on her own.

I decided to go over to her and try to at least give her some comfort, but as I took a step forward, a roar was heard, and we both turned to look at what was making such a ruckus.

From between the burning fires of the corpses, a tall shadowy figure was stepping forward. It looked like a giant, but its body was composed of nothing but a dark mist. The arms were long and ended in claw-like hands that dragged on the ground. It was hunched over with a thin and long torso; and its legs were bent down like someone that was walking as if they were carrying a heavy object.

A set of red eyes opened on its head. They were as if a child randomly placed five eyes on a face, and they all looked this way with bloodshot desire; the desire of a beast to consume and destroy. And just like the eyes, a large maw of jagged sharp teeth opened, going from one side of the face to the other.

That thing was bad news. I could feel the power that it carried, and it wouldn’t compare to the monster that the Prince killed a few days ago. This thing could probably kill several people of the Prince’s army in one fell swoop and give a hard time to the man himself—if it didn’t kill him too.

And facing it right now were just me and the crying Eleanor, who was now paralyzed with terror as that thing looked down on her. If she didn’t move, she was going to be as good as dead as all the other corpses in here.

The shadow monster’s body cracked in random spasms, as if it was being shocked, causing it to move in violent tics. That was the signal that it was about to move, and by the looks of it, it was going to move much faster than the way it was walking.

Eleanor would have no chance to survive if she stayed put like that, so before the monster even took a step forward, I jumped to the side in hopes of pushing the girl aside. Right as I did, the monster moved, its shape disappearing instantly, leaving only a shadow that was being erased in the air.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I managed to land on the girl’s side before it got there, and thanks to my familiar’s body, I was able to move her away. If I was a common cat, I would’ve done nothing more than a tap on a dead girl’s body, as right when she was pushed aside, the monster’s claw-like hand pierced the air in the same spot that her chest was only a second ago.

The monster was paralyzed in apparent confusion as its eyes focused on the claw that was holding on to nothing. I fell on top of the claw, and it looked at me, its eyes not too different from the same desire to kill. But I was no common cat. If it wanted to kill my familiar, it would have to try harder than that.

And yet, for some reason, its eyes moved away from me and down to the girl at the side who was looking up with completely wide eyes at the monster. Could it be that the monster didn’t recognize me? Though it felt like it looked at me…

Regardless, none of that mattered, since if this girl refused to snap out of it, then nothing I did was going to save her. With a nimble jump, I dropped to where the sword was and quickly pushed it so it would tap the girl’s hand.

She urgently turned to look at it, and without me doing anything else, she quickly grabbed it and clumsily pointed it at the monster. There was no way for her to do anything to it from the position she was, with her legs spread and her ass on the ground. She might as well be begging to be killed.

The monster once more cracked its body in the same creepy spasms as it slowly turned to her. And just like last time, I jumped over the monster and landed on top of the girl’s head, forcing her to fall down on her back as she exclaimed in surprise.

At the same time, the monster moved. This time, the claw-like hand of the monster passed right over where her head was just a moment ago, leaving the monster once more perplexed as it looked at its empty hand. This was as good a time as any to attack the monster, and thankfully, the girl managed to realize this as well.

From the ground, she gave a wide, clean swing, right at the monster’s arm. However, to both my and the girl’s surprise, the blade passed through its body, just as if she had tried to cut down the steam coming from boiling water.

The arm remained in place, and the monster quickly noticed the attack that came from below. It snapped its head in an unnatural motion that made it seem as if the head moved in the blink of an eye, and like last time, the monster spasmed and prepared to attack the girl.

This was it. There was no way that Eleanor could be saved by me anymore. If she didn’t have the strength and power to fight back this monster, she was going to be dead. But the instinct to survive seemed to have been activated on her, so while the monster was preparing to move once more, she did her best to roll away from the next attack.

“AHHH!” she painfully screamed after the roll, holding to the side of her body.

The monster moved with booming speed, crashing its claw-like hand right where she was a second ago, but this time, its claws were covered in crimson red blood. It had managed to wound her. Severely, since her left arm was completely gone.

“Uuuuhggg! No—!” she exclaimed, crying as she held to her side.

She was still alive, but I didn’t see how she was going to keep going. I quickly moved and pushed the sword that she dropped back to her. The monster—apparently satisfied with what it had done—took its time to savor the blood that remained in its claw, before chomping down on the missing arm.

There was no way now that this girl could make it out of here alive… Even if she somehow managed to take down this thing, she was probably going to bleed out in a few minutes…

Unless…

She had to kill this thing, and she had to do it fast. I scrambled to find a way for her to do it, but my Godly powers were limited inside this place and inside the familiar. I looked around for a way to save her. It was then that I noticed a large, pointy stalactite made out of a strange, silvery material that was just about to break down, hanging right over the monster’s head.

“Kyun!”

A strange sound came from the cat-like familiar as I tried to call the attention of Eleanor, but she was in far too much pain to notice me.

I jumped on her, which is when she opened her eyes wide and looked at me, but I simply turned to look at the sword on her side. She followed my face with difficulty, sweat and tears rolling down her face, and somehow understood what I wanted to convey. With a struggling hand, she reached for it, firmly holding it in her hand.

It was then that the monster finished eating the arm and turned to look this way. I tried my best to point at the large stalactite with my cat-like paw, hoping that Eleanor would do what she needed to do. She struggled to stand up, looked up at where I was pointing, and seemingly understood when she nodded.

The monster remained unaware as its gaze fixed on the shaking Eleanor. There was no more time to think. She had to act now.