Margaret walked into the town with no clear border and took in the sight. Brick houses of all shapes and sizes lined the streets of the backroads sandwiched between cheap restaurants, cafes, and run-down hotels. A middle-aged man in tattered worker clothing combed what little strands of his hair remained. The man noticed the well-dressed woman holding a notepad, and outstretched his worn hands, "Anything. I beg."
"I-I'm sorry." Margaret lowered her head and tried to ignore the poor workers filing the sidewalks.
In a dark alley, a man with a revolting and unnatural appearance stalked her from within the cover of shadows. His four arms clicked and bent abnormally, exercising a range of motion unattainable by regular human standards. He smiled a scary ear-to-ear grin, revealing countless stitches that forced an eternal smile on his face wet with scarlet blood. He cackled and giggled in a jarring tone, changing in high pitches. Unruly black hair flowed down his face and cascaded down to his lower back. He ran back through the alley and to a secluded - almost abandoned - part of town and stared up at his creations. Four gutted bodies swayed in the breeze, hanging from a thin wire by their own intestines wrapped around their necks. He spread his arms wide, like a master painter revealing their latest creation at a show, "This! This is true art!" He cackled manically, growing parts of his body that shouldn't be there. Another pair of arms grew from his trapezoids, and a final grew from his tailbone. This amalgamation of grafted arms stared at his reflection in the window of a nearby house, stunned by his otherworldly beauty. "I am true beauty! Only me! Only I am beautiful!"
"Fuck, you're disgusting." The maniac spun on his heels to see three figures in red tuxedos donning bloodied clown masks and sitting casually on the house roof behind him.
"Ha! Told you he'd go crazy! Where's my money?"
"Piss off." The clowns joked amongst themselves about the creep's disgusting appearance, strangely unbothered by the four dangling bodies in front of them.
"Digusting? Digusting!? How dare you call me disgusting! Come down here!" The manic creature challenged the three clowns, waving his arms forward and twisting and contorting his body unnaturally.
"Now, now. Just chillax will 'ya." The clown who spoke had a white mask with a comically large smile painted in red, showing his pearly white painted-on teeth, with various blue markings around the eyes and a large red nose. "I've got something for 'ya. Take it with gratitude." The clown jumped down from his seat on the roof and handed over a small bottle of black liquid.
"T-this is a p-potion?"
"Nah. Though I guess you could call it a 'half-potion'. It's a mage drug. It'll make you even more beautiful, I promise." The two clowns behind him cackled when he said this.
"I-I see! Thank you!"
"Yeah, sure. You're welcome." He turned around and jumped back onto the roof. "Time to go. Don't wanna be here when he turns."
"Mm. Let's leave." The three clowns agreed on their departure and vanished behind the wooden house.
The many-limbed maniac carefully uncapped the small bottle, brought the concoction to his lips, and downed the black liquid. Within seconds, his flesh bubbled and his torso swelled in size. His lower half morphed into goat legs, and hair grew rapidly all over his body. His teeth grew a sharper edge and lengthened three-fold, forming razor-sharp shark teeth. Saliva spilt from his open mouth and his nails turned into claws. He had reached a state beyond just a Mage's mania - he was now a beast with no conscience, nothing more than a monster.
He reeled his head back and let out a beastly roar, alerting all residents of the small town. He jumped onto a roof, leaping from house to house, looking for victims.
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In the Inquisition Commonroom, beneath the main Cathedral prayer room, Solis and his squad sat around a table in front of a blackboard and listened to Bishop Marner.
"Less than an hour ago, we received intel from a nearby Church that a manic mage is running rampant inside Erysa, a small town in The Dunes. According to the report, the mage of an unspecified Channel has destroyed most of the town, and survivors are unlikely. Your team's mission is to erase the threat and escort any survivors to the Church in Crolk. This mage has gone mad. Nothing remains of the human he once was, and you must kill or be killed. Captain Durk, you have execute authority.
Dismissed!"
The team of Inquisitors lept from their seats at the meeting table and barged through a door on the far side of the room leading to the back entrance, off limits to non-Inquisitors. Through the use of Light Treading as often as possible, and running full speed through back streets and over roofs, the team made it to the south border, covering the distance of over 100 kilometres in just 30 minutes.
Reaching the border, the security team opened the gates as soon as they saw the coveted white uniform of the Inquisition.
"Solis! Ever used a DuneSpeeder before?" Just outside the south border, a row of sand-coloured floating machination of metal and copper wires hovered graciously above the sand.
"What is this thing?" Solis question.
"DuneSpeeders. Recent addition to the Church. We got them in from the Church of Craftsmanship. I doubt you've ever used one, so you'll have to learn on the fly. Let's move!" The Captain's empowering voice uplifted his subordinates, and each climbed into a DuneSpeeder.
Solis fiddled with the joystick slightly, fearing toppling over. "It's simple; point the joystick where you wanna go, and stomp on the acceleration peddle under your right foot," Darla yelled from her speeder. He did as instructed, and his speeder veered forward. One after the other, his teammates shot past him, and he had no choice but to follow suit.
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The team of Inquisitors reached the target city of Erysa and parked their DuneSpeeders outside.
As they entered the city, the faint smell of blood and rusted metal breached their nostrils. The smell, unlike anything Solis had ever smelt before, made him sick to his stomach.
"Keep an eye out. It could be anywhere. Firstly, we will look for any survivors. If we find them, our first priority is getting them out of the city. Only after we have confirmed there are no civilians will we hunt the beast." Captain Durk issued orders to his team.
Solis thought about this decision, fearing an immediate confrontation. "What if it comes to us first?"
"We hope it doesn't."
The team walked through the streets, silent other than the occasional 'Hello?' and 'Is anyone there?', each to no response. The town appeared empty. All of the buildings had fallen down with small pools of blood tickling from within the rubble.
Solis scanned the street, a grimace showing on his face. How awful... Are cases like this common? Do mages often go manic? What would have happened to me if I went mad..?
"Doesn't look like anyone survived. We've cleared most of the town, and all we found is ruins." Valentino spoke solemnly.
The team had examined most of the small city, yet not a single voice called back to them. All they found were destroyed buildings bathing in blood.
"We haven't checked the slums. Don't give up yet, I'm sure we will find someone."
Entering the farside of Erysa, they all stood beneath the clothing racks hung between the houses - the only houses still intact. Hanging like wet garments, countless lifeless bodies dangled from their nooses crafted of intestines. Each body had a square hole in its lower abdomen, devoid of all organs. Bodies lay sprawled across the dirty streets covered in a thin layer of sand, they too of empty stomachs, maggots and rodents crawling along their carcass. The smell of rotting corpses hit Solis' nostrils like a mallet, causing him to stumble slightly. He ventured away from his group slightly and threw up his lunch into a trash bin.
Holy shit... What kind of monster could do this? Do I really have to fight that thing!?
A deep howl came from further within the slums, and Solis rushed back to his teammates.
"You ok?" Asked Darla, gently patting his back.
"Yeah. I'm ok. Thanks."
"The Maniac is up ahead. Stick together and be ready at all times." The captain addressed his team and fastened an ornate black watch decorated with stars and black gems to his wrist.
The six Inquisitors followed the sound of repeated agonised howls and laboured breaths.
After minutes of quiet travel, the Inquisition turned a corner around a wood house and saw a revolting amalgamation of different beasts and human limbs gnawing on the arm of a human woman. Bile rose up Solis' throat, but he forced it back down, steeling his resolve.
For the safety of this world, I will kill that beast.
"That thing is no longer human. Don't have any second thoughts about killing it. It's the best thing we can do for the person it once was, Solis."
"I understand, Captain. I can do it." Solis' voice sounded different - more hardened - than his usual hint of naivety.
Tagger drew his revolver and fired a shot at the monstrosity's back. The bullet ricocheted off the bones of the target and embedded itself in a nearby collapsed wall. The Maniac turned around, revealing its eight arms, and howled at the sky.
"Well, that didn't work." Tagger holstered his pistol and drew his sword.
The Maniac's palm split open, and a dagger of bones shot from its arm and into its grasp. The Inquisitors charged forward, all at once. Tagger Scott and Solis lept into the air and darted overhead, launching sharp disks of light at the monster. The disks cut deep into the beast's flesh, but its bones absorbed the brunt of the attack, not even receiving a small cut.
"Tagger, Solis, try your shot again." Over the commotion of spells being launched and howls from the beast, Valentino yelled out to his teammates. He produced a dice from his pocket and held it between his hands. He was making use of a Stage 8 Gambler's main ability, Wager!
'A roll of 1-3, the shot will deal damage, a roll of 4-6, the shot will be ineffective. I bet my second use that it will roll in my favour.' He rolled the dice along the ground, revealing the side with two black dots.
Tagger and Solis, still suspended in midair, unholstered their six shooters and fired two rounds each at the Maniac, all four finding their target and sending ruptures of blood and bone to the sand-covered street.
"Again!" Valentino rolled his dice again.
"Make it quick, we only have 3 seconds!"
A four! The shot will be ineffective!
At that crucial juncture, Darla and Carver spread their arms wide on either side of the beast, and shouted piously, "The Sun deems it effective!" They had Endorsed their teammates' attack!
The four shots from Tagger and Solis pierced the body of the beast, causing a state of outrage. In one swift moment, the Maniac swung two of its arms and knocked Carver and Darla, sending them flying through the wooden houses. The Maniac's tailbone hand reached into its lower back, and pulled out the 2-meter spine, giving it to another hand. It had crafted a longsword of bones! This was the power of a Stage 8 Skeleton, Osteokinesis!
The monster regenerated its spine and sprouted a rib cage out of its chest and back, protecting its vital organs from both sides.
It swung the sword at the falling Sun Mages, whose Light Treading had worn off, and they struggled to weave out of the way of the blade. Shards of bone and knuckles shot out from the beast's hand like bullets toward their targets.
Valentino shook his dice in between his palms and threw it along the ground. It showed one large black dot on the white surface. Chance would play in his favour!
In the beast's manic and random swing, it was unable to find any target. Solis and Tagger had gotten lucky!
Captain Durk fiddled with the time on his ornate watch, before clenching his fist and inputting the new time. An array of resplendent stars formed around his target, and its transformation regressed. The spinal sword crawled into its back and both rib cages receded into its chest.
This was a power from the black watch, Sealed Relic 3-19, originating from a Stage 6 Astromancer! The power to seal an area in a curtain of stars!
One final howl disorientated the team, forcing Tagger and Solis to their knees. Even Valentino, who was positioned behind a house, was still affected, and blood trickled from his ears. Durk held his ground, maintaining the forming shroud of starlight, sealing the beast's transformation. Unable to completely cover the Maniac's form, a whole was left at the top.
Tagger and Solis lept into the sky again, firing needles of light at the human head of the Mage monster. Reentering the fray, Carver and Darla stood on opposite sides of the illusory curtain, spreading their arms wide and piously voiced, "Praise the Sun!"
A beam of light shot down from the clouds and purified the beast through the hole in the top of the curtain.
A smile formed on the cheek of the human head, a genuine, human smile. "Thank you." A faint whisper came from the mouth on the beast's cheek.
The beast turned to ash, drifted out the top of the seal and flew off into the wind. Captian Durk dispelled the curtain of stars and approached the thick crimson liquid pooled on the ground.
He waited for it to turn into a solid object constructed of blood-red bones in the shape of a heart, no bigger than the size of his palm, and pocketed it.
Solis narrowed his eyes at the solid stone of bones. What is that?
A sharp, pained breath drew his attention away from the stone, and he saw a woman lying up against the remnants of a wooden house, covered in blood. It was the woman being chewed on roughly an hour prior.
She's alive!
"Captain, I see a survivor!" Solis rushed over to the body without waiting for his captain's response.
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