Chapter 9 - The Cannibals

Walking was awkward, not just because he was trying to avoid putting weight on his healing leg, but also because of the loss of his wings. He found he had to shift his center of balance further back to accommodate the change, and even then he still stumbled and nearly fell a few times.

Lazar’s eyes darted around the surroundings as he crossed the rocky landscape, remembering the demon from earlier. The emptiness was becoming increasingly unsettling. The longer he went without seeing another demon, the more he expected one to appear.

His caution turned out to be justified. About a third of the way across, shuffling sounds broke up the silence, and he dove behind one of the larger stone structures. Quieting his breaths, he carefully peered around the stone.

Near the cliff face, a few more demons appeared, many with similarly insectoid forms to the one from the previous day. They scuttled along the cliff walls or crawled across the ground, a few winding themselves around the stone spires. None of them could fly from what he could see, which he was thankful for. If he was cautious, he should be able to make it to the other side of the field without attracting their attention.

Before turning to continue forward, Lazar paused, eyes landing on the distant corpse of the demon he’d killed. It was still lying flat against the stone ground, and the wound from his halberd gaped open, the flesh surrounding the cut shredded and minced from when he’d removed the blade. Most of the blood had dried, and a puddle of drool had formed around the creature, its long tongue hanging limply from its mouth.

One of the other demons approached it, one with a soft, slimy body and a single round blue eye that peered down at the dead demon. Lazar frowned, studying its movements closely.

For a few moments the slug-like demon simply leaned over the unmoving corpse, staring at it. Was it mourning?

A ripping sound rang across the field, and Lazar’s eyes widened as the demon’s fleshy stomach opened up, revealing a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth lining the interior of its body. Each tooth rotated around an individual axis, and Lazar held his breath as the demon leaned over the corpse and began to devour the body. Shredded flesh flew outward and landed with a splat against the hard ground. The demon pressed closer, sinking its teeth deeper into its meal.

Cannibalism. He’d heard some of the other seraphs say that demons practiced it, but he’d never seen it for himself. Lazar watched, transfixed, his body perfectly still.

Perhaps he should’ve felt disgusted, but Lazar found he couldn’t muster up any particularly strong emotions at the sight. It made sense, he thought. Demons who weren’t strong enough to ascend had little other options, not when it was so rare for higher plane beings to willingly descend into the Abyss. For the most part they were left to their own devices, and this was what was resorted to.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Julius’s voice rose, unbidden, in his mind. He swallowed and pushed it down, focusing back on the scene in front of him.

A few of the other demons had turned in the direction of the slug-like one, drawn by the noise, and began to creep in that direction. Their movement caught the attention of other demons, and soon they were all moving towards the corpse.

A distraction. Lazar used the opportunity to duck out from behind the rock and to the next spire. He ended up stepping normally on his leg despite the slight ache—he couldn’t risk being discovered because of a limp.

Behind him, he heard increasingly frenzied snarls and squelches, but he didn’t turn around, simply continuing across the rocky field, single-mindedly focused on his destination.

—

When he was about two thirds of the way across, it became clear why there were so few demons in the area.

One of the quivering mounds began to undulate, its surface waving and contorting like ripples on water. The glow around it grew so intense that Lazar had to squint. Memories of the pendant flashed in his mind.

By the time his eyes had adjusted enough to see again, the mound was already beginning to morph. The ripples became more uniform, and a long arm sprouted from its center. The single limb waved around, clawing at the air, grasping blindly. The mound warped again, and a wide eye blinked open from the back. From where he stood, Lazar heard a low groaning sound emanate from the tangled mass of half formed flesh.

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The demons surrounding the corpse stopped, and the slug-like one hissed. Lazar was keenly aware of the other quivering lumps around him glowing more brightly, and his eyes widened.

He ran for the cliffs, abandoning all attempts at stealth. He could see the paths just up ahead, and he pressed forward, blood pounding in his ears, nearly stumbling a few times but using the halberd to push himself upright.

More screeches and groans sounded behind them, some of them distinctly closer than others. He chanced a glance back as he kept running, and he saw that by then, a majority of the mounds were twisting and contorting, birthing new demons. Many looked like the ones he’d seen so far, insectoid or largely amorphous, but there were a few with more humanoid bodies as well. A cold weight settled in his stomach when one of the lumps sprouted wings.

Something slammed into his side, and Lazar crashed into the stone ground. He only barely managed to catch himself with his hands, keeping his head away from the impact. He snatched up his halberd before it could roll away and leapt back up, turning to face whatever had attacked him.

His eyes met a grinning face, bulging eyes, and a wide red mouth. The demon’s body didn’t look much different from the fleshy mounds, but from it, multiple limp arms and legs grew out and fanned around it in an arc. They looked humanoid in appearance, but their size was many times larger and, Lazar realized, they could stretch and extend bonelessly.

The mouth opened, and a high, shrill voice pierced Lazar’s ears.

“Human?”

Lazar didn’t respond, simply tightening his grip on his weapon and slowly inching away. This one was semi-intelligent, it seemed.

Without his wings, it was no wonder they were mistaking him for a human. Lazar’s eyes briefly darted to the side, where more demons were quickly forming from the lumps. He had to get away from here quickly.

The demon took a step forward, and one of the arms stretched out, springing towards him. Lazar jumped out of the way, wincing as his leg stung. The stone structure beside him shattered, the pieces spraying out and scattering across the field.

Another limb, this time a leg, flew in his direction, but Lazar didn’t stay around to see it make contact. He turned and sprinted towards the cliffs. He couldn’t win this fight, not in his weakened state. His only hope was to get away before the entire field was crawling with demons.

A second demon appeared on his right, and Lazar slid away, barely dodging a sharp, whipping tail with razor sharp spines running along its edges. His eyes darted wildly around, realizing that the path up the cliffs was blocked.

One of the cave entrances flashed in his peripheral vision, and as another arm swung past, narrowly missing him, he came to a decision.

Lazar turned towards the grinning demon that had spoken, making sure to meet eyes with it. Once he was sure he had its attention, he bolted for the cave.

Loose debris flew past as an onslaught of attacks destroyed nearby stones and cracked the ground. He ran in a curving, patternless path, pushing himself to move faster. The cave was just up ahead, he told himself. Just a little further.

He heard another screech as he dove into the narrow entrance. The demon’s fist slammed into the cliffside, and Lazar heard it shriek in frustration. Through the opening, he could see more demons circling the entrance, prepared to strike.

Before they could, however, a low rumble resounded across the field. Lazar felt the cliff tremble, and as he’d hoped, rocks began tumbling down, cracks forming along the stone as the entrance caved in. He hurried backwards as more rocks fell, stumbling deeper into the cave, away from the collapse. It was all he could do to avoid being crushed.

His injured leg finally gave out, and Lazar fell, landing hard against the ground. He tensed, preparing himself for an onslaught of stones, but none came.

The seraph blinked his eyes open. He turned his head, and he saw that the rockfall had stopped. A few stray stones rolled down, clattering and landing near him, but the worst of it was over. Lazar breathed a long sigh of relief and pushed himself back up. As he did so, he heard a splash and realized that he was lying in a large pool of water. He turned his head, and his eyes widened when he found not the small grey rock shelter he’d been expecting, but a massive cavern.

All around him, the dark stone walls glowed red from within, and more of those black flowers from before bloomed between the cracks. The floor was covered in water that was shallow enough to stand in. Save for the ripples that formed from his movements, the rest of it was perfectly still. More of those flowers drifted along the water, scattered dark petals dotting the surface.

As he turned his head, he realized that the cave system seemed to extend much deeper into the mountains, far beyond what he could see. Lazar exhaled.

Where was he?