Something came for me, something was there for me. All I remember is that I eventually closed my eyes, and then nothingness came. I can’t remember anything chasing me, getting injured, or even what happened to michael. Just a horrible smile...and then nothing. I feel like I am half asleep, stuck in a thick substance. It feels like water but with more resistance, but I do not feel wet nor am I drowning. I can not open my eyes, all I can do is weakly move my arms around, feeling nothing but the strange fluid around me. I fluttered between waking and sleep, not sure of how much time had passed. Without noticing its approach I felt something breathing on me, like something was right in front of my face. I desperately closed my eyes, because something primal in me knew that if I looked I would no longer be sane. The awful feeling of dread was rising inside of me, I knew that what was in front of me was the same thing that I saw last. It was there, just breathing right in front of my face, before finally saying in an unhuman language “isicy... kytapy smady alty iqiul...”. The voice was full of snarls, hisses, and growls that didn’t even seem possible for any creature to make. But the words it spoke became clearer each time they echoed in my head, until finally one word suddenly made sense to me. Isicy...Awaken…
I awoke gently, with a gentle shaft of sunlight directly in my eyes. I was sleeping in a garden, a beautiful garden that was meticulously maintained. Marble benches with intricate designs were evenly spaced, showing careful thought to the layout. Small streams of brilliantly blue water shimmered as they lazily tried to find their way downstream. Flowers brilliantly colored with almost fluorescent brightness, swaying in a gentle breeze. Brilliantly colored exotic birds chirped musically, creating an Garden of Eden type of feeling to this garden Was I in heaven? If this is death, I am actually okay with this place as my eternal rest. But with a slight headache pulsing in my head and a nauseating feel in my stomach, I knew that this was no afterlife.
I finally decided to get up, only to realise that my clothes had changed. No longer was I garbed in a simple shirt and basketball shorts, but in lengthy dark robes that feel a bit too big for my body. But that is not all that changed, the skin on my hands were completely changed as well. Instead of my rather pale skin, I saw dusky-grey smooth skin with slightly long effeminate finger nails that were painted to be black. My hair felt longer than usual, reaching the length of my shoulders. A quick look showed the color to be silverish with tones of violet. I felt up my face, not feeling too much of a difference except fuller lips and slightly changed cheekbones. My ears however, were much longer than they were previously. It was pointed like spock, but stretched like a JRPG elf. With a growing sense of realization, I began to run for the nearest stream to look at my reflection. Unfortunately, the stream wasn’t able to get a clear picture, so I decided with a heavy heart to feel my body up to see what has changed. Of course I already knew in my heart what had happened, somehow I had become my [Summoner] character, the female half-drow Nhilvin Freafin.
[Michael POV]
I don’t remember what happened, I only have the vague association of fear as the closest thing to a memory. Alex and I were playing E.S.S., and then suddenly I found myself standing in a field of light. I couldn’t even describe to you what it looks like, any time something starts to look familiar it suddenly shifts to something alien again. At my feet are swirls of cloudy light, everything else shifting in shape and color. I can see no distance, no space, no sense of scale of this place. For some reason, I also can’t look at my own body. I tried looking at my hands, but nothing was there. I can still feel them and move them, but they are invisible. I looked into the sky once again, hoping that something would change. Every once in a while a word shows up, like Friend, Sacrifice, Savior, Exchange as well as a bunch of words that only seems like a jumble of letters. A new word shows up, it took a while to understand because the letters were strange at first. Now the letters formed the word...Awaken...I said it outloud before drifting quickly to sleep…
I awoke myself in a field of beautiful flowers, an idyllic garden that comes straight out of fantasy. I lifted myself up off the ground, not really paying attention to what changed due to a piercing headache. What finally made me realize something was different, was the fact that my clothes made jangling sounds like rows of chains. I looked down at my clothes, and saw they were in fact not cloth at all. It was a black, brutal looking plate armor with studs and spikes to make it seem even more vicious. A light chainmail covered the spots in between the plates, with leather underclothes beneath that to protect my skin. There is a proper term for the leather equipment, but I don’t really care enough to worry about it now. On a loop of my belt, I see a deadly looking one-handed metal war mallet, and my left hand has an oversized gauntlet full of brutal, sharp spikes on the knuckles. My skin poking through the armor is a deep green, finally making me realize what has happened. I had become my E.S.S. character, Saridur the Blackfist.
I looked around for a stream or mirror to get a good look at my face, hoping to all the gods out there that this wasn’t happening. While searching for a stream I saw another person, a small female half-drow. She was also looking at the stream, and didn’t even notice my approach. She was checking her body, perhaps she too is another person who became a Character.
“Hello miss, are you ok?” I said gently, well as gently as possible with my gruff half-orc voice.
She jumped out of her skin, completely caught off guard by my statement. She turns around and looks at me with terrified eyes, tears just beginning to form at the ends of them. She has a remarkably cute face, a gentle and innocent look despite being related to drow. Her body is rather petite both in physical size and feminine curves, though she has a rather shapely bottom that definitely will earn her some fans. She is on edge now, since it seems she caught me checking her out. She was wearing black ritualistic robes that clearly don’t fit her well, why do I feel like I have seen the character before?
“H-Hello s-sir, May I ask who you are?” She said with stutters in her voice, like she isn’t used to to speaking.
“Yes, my name is Saridur. But my real name is Michael Riviero, I am not sure how I got here. Do you have any information on where this place is?” I replied back, managing to make my voice sound less aggressive.
“Michael! Oh my god! I am so happy to see you!” the girl shouted with glee, and quickly ran up to me and hugged me. Her face full of relief upon learning my real name.
“Uhm, nice to see you too, but who are you again?” I said, trying to clear this vague sense of recollection.
“Dude, It’s me Alex! I know I look different and all, but it is really me!” Alex said, clearing up the mystery for me finally.
“Man, Holy shit! Looks like you got transformed as Nhilvin, you feeling ok? I said full of concern.
“I am ok, but how about you?! You have all the heavy armor and you became a Half-Orc. Isn’t your character taller than you are in real life?” Alex asked, full of concern as well.
“Yeah it is a bit difficult to walk, but for the rest I actually feel fine. The armor feels hot, but it isn’t as heavy as I thought it would be. Might be my natural strength gain as a half-orc?” I replied, trying to get Alex to calm down a bit.
“Ok that is good, luckily my Nhilvin is the same height as me in real life. She might be a bit lighter, but I haven’t really checked.” Alex said, trying to make me feel better.
“I know this might be an insensitive question, but have you checked if your body has fully changed or not? If not, maybe you should go behind the tree to find out. I am going to take off my armor to check my body, just to be sure there aren't any nasty surprises later.” I said, while trying to find a way to take my armor off of me.
“Ok...I will check, and then help you out of the armor. It looks awfully uncomfortable and difficult to remove by yourself.” Alex said, as he walks behind a large tree.
I started working on removing my armor, struggling to find the leather cords that tie it together. From behind the tree, I hear the ruffling of clothes along with a few sad sighes. After a while, Alex comes back from around the tree with a tired expression on his face. I tried to talk, but his face showed a mood that had no tolerance for chat at the moment. He went up to me and squatted behind my back, his dexterous fingers finding all of the leather cords and untying them for me. After a few minutes of silently removing armor, I was down to the leather undershirt.
“How do you feel now? A little more comfortable?” Alex asked, breaking the icy silence.
“Yeah, much better. How about you? Is it the worst case scenario?” I asked in return, preparing for a possibly angry reply.
“Yeah...I completely became Nhilvin, unfortunately. Luckily I have an Appearance Elixir on this character. Probably will do that once we figure out where we are.” Alex said reservedly.
I agreed with his statement, and promptly used the lengthy leather cords that hold the armor together to wrap it up into a ball. I wrapped some extra cloth my character had in his person, and held the armor underneath my arm. Alex was amazed by my physical strength, he could barely lift the chest piece to my armor. But this half-orc body had an unbelievable amount of strength, especially if this really is the half-orc that I made in E.S.S. I finally looked outward from the garden, and began to recognise the sight. This garden was the garden on the Disk of our Guildhall, but the landscape that surrounded our massive guild is now completely different. I looked inward towards the center of the disk, and saw the beautiful temple that is the treasure of Chronicle. The home that was always vacant, is finally gaining some residents.
[Blake POV]
I was waiting in front of the temple for everybody to show up. My character is leaning against the marble wall arrogantly. I saw Alex busily reading some archives, I didn’t want to bother him since he is probably doing proper guild stuff. Man, I forgot to tell him about the next DnD session during lunch. Hope he finishes what he is doing soon. I curse my forgetfulness a bit, as a wait a bit impatiently for him to be done. He is the one that got me into DnD, he really got me to accept my nerdy side after years of hiding it. Being a football player and maintaining that image is fucking exhausting, these DnD sessions are the only thing that keeps me sane. Sometimes I wish I chose a different path, but after years and years of football training it became that only thing I knew how to do. And my parents wanted me to do this for years, so I can’t exactly quit when I might be drafted in the First round of the Pro League.
I quietly sighed by myself, worrying about the mask I wear to the media and my parents are beginning to crumble a bit. My parents know I play E.S.S. and they are fine with it, but the hard catholic italian-americans that they are would never accept DnD or cosplay. They consider stuff like the devil worship or signs of being a “faggot” as my dad would say. I wonder if they would ever know the truth about their son, that he isn’t the stupid god-fearing football-playing meathead that they wanted him to be. At Least I can be real with my friends. Well, mostly. I decided to stop looking at the screen and stretch a little bit, my body is still sore from summer football workouts.
Doing a little stretches in my apartment, I looked back at the screen to see a strange pop-up on it. A strange, but simply designed black box with one sentence upon it. Do you seek to be free of all of the lies? I thought quietly yes as I tried to X it off my Screen. The moment I thought yes, the text changed. Do you wish to obtain what you desire more than anything? Getting freaked out, I start pulling up my task manager to close out the game and begin a virus scan. You will be given a chance to have everything you want, but do not hesitate or you will lose everything instead. Not even a question this time, I began to press the power button on my computer to snuff it out. Clearly, my computer got hacked by some trolls again. Guess I better get Alex to help me with this, seems like a good excuse to have him around.
While quietly thinking that as a held down the button, the pop-up box disappeared. I still held down the button knowing that leaving my computer on will only make it worse. Curiously, Endless Story Saga still hasn’t shut off despite my attempts with the Task Manager and my power button. I looked deeply at the screen, feeling that something was slightly off. A strangely awful feeling began to well in my stomach, the feeling that I just did something wrong. I suddenly felt terrified to turn around, something would get me if I stopped looking right at my screen. I took my hand slowly off the power button, and then a new pop-up box appeared on my screen. Time to stop pretending, Blake Vercetti. The message froze me completely, a deep bone-chilling dread filled me to the core. Deep black hands came rising out of the screen, the hands looked like they were made out of static, like their very existence was rejecting our reality. The hands grabbed around my head while I frozen stiff with fear, all I saw was my vision growing darker and darker. One final message appeared in my thoughts: no more hiding.
I awoke with a start, my back leaning against the wall of a large marble temple. A beautiful garden was in front of me, and in front of that was a large ring of statues surrounded the whole area. I looked down, my armor was black with white intricate design accenting it. The metal was angular and beautiful, with blue trimmed tassels flowing off of my chest piece. I had a massive Zveihander sword, a sword made out of a pitch black material with the structure of a shar piece of volcanic glass. The hilt is equally as massive, with an angular and gothic design and a massive dark purple gemstone at the pommel. My character’s name was Blake Fels (I am not creative with names), she was a [Dark Knight]. I didn’t want to believe the situation at all, this nightmare of a situation can possibly be true. But looking down, I can see 2 large hills that did not exist before, my handles were small and feminine. I couldn’t get a better look elsewhere, but I know something has changed. I was deep in thought, when I heard the footsteps and voices of 2 people. I walk towards them, hoping that they have some answers.
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[Alex POV]
Michael and I walked together inside the temple, still shocked with how our bodies had changed. He stumbled around, still not used to his heightened body. He actually needed my help to guide him a bit, which sucked since he is so much heavier than I am. He also was carrying his armor underneath one arm which ruined his balance, causing my light body to strain underneath the pressure. He was grumbling, because he was someone who isn’t used to asking or needing help. We reached close to the center, where the pillar of archives was located. Michael sat down for a bit and sat next to him, exhausted from carrying him to here. We caught our breath before hearing the rhythmic steps of a person approaching us.
“Hello mister and miss, I didn’t mean to intrude here but I am a bit lost. Do you know how I got here or are you people who transferred here as well?” I heard a husky female voice call out to us. Clearly someone who is just like us.
I look up to see a tall female human about 6 foot 4 inch in height. She has glossy red hair that is wild and unkempt. It is slightly short, reaching just past the ears. Her skin is pale, with almost no blemishes on sight. She has a light scar on her left cheek that carries past her eye into the forehead. Her hair parts to the left, just hiding her left from vision. She has a wild amazonian face, surprisingly cute facial structures with full pink lips, freckles spotting her face, and a fierce smile that will intimidate foes. She has 4 earrings on each ear, and one small nose ring. She has a muscular body with rather large feminine shapes. Though, her heavy armour hides a lot of her probably splendid curves. She has long beautiful legs, though heavy armour and thick hide leather are hiding all of her skin. Looking back at her weapon, being a massive Zweihander Sword. There is only one person that I know with that character, someone who has a terrible sense of naming.
“Blake! Is that you! It is me Alex! And the half-orc on my right is Michael!” I shouted out, happy to see my friend.
“Whoa Alex! Surprised to see you like that, though the feeling is probably mutual about me Haha. Michael! Yo doing ok? Nothing went wrong with your transfer?” Blake responded, showing concern for Michael who was sitting on the ground leaning on me.
“Nah, just kinda difficult to walk in a body much taller than your normal one, and the fact Saridur had more muscle mass than me. How about you? You need help getting the armor off?” Michael responded, a bit guarded.
“Luckily I made my character similar to my original height, so no issues there. The armor is actually not too bad to walk in, just my sword is quite heavy. But we have no idea if more people are here, or if even they are friendly. I may not know how to use it properly, but I at least have my weapon and protection.” Blake answered back, on edge due to our situation.
“Well I should have an Appearance Elixir on my personal stash, so I will probably use that soon. How about you? Are you planning on using one soon?” I asked
Blake, a fellow comrade stuck in a foreign body.
“Yeah well I thought about it a bit...put how do we access our personal stash? They were just random inventory slots for game purposes. It isn’t like it is in one of our bags, or anything like it. I think it is possible we lost all of our personal stash items.” Blake answered, revealing a rather horrifying truth.
“OOOOHHH SHHHIIIIITTT!!!” I screamed in despair, finally realizing the reality of our situation.
“Calm down you idiot, if we don’t have our personal ones we can just raid the guild treasury. Assuming that this building is our guildhall, it certainly looks like judging by the statues and architecture.” Michael said, calming me down after a moment of hysteria.
“Oh right, phew, was honestly worried for a bit. Well, I could try opening the treasury door while you guys help each other. If you want to come with, lean on Blake.” I said, ready to test our little plan.
Michael and Blake glanced at each other for a bit, then both made a motion of not wanting to help the other. Michael said that I could just help him walk again, but I pointed out that my small body is unable to provide any real support for him. The finally relented, with Blake supporting Michael as they walked. Blake made sure to complain the whole way back outside to the garden, remarking on how Michael still has too much weight even in another world. I just walked ahead to a special Marble sarcophagus that is in the garden. There are multiple Sarcophagi in the garden, but this one is unique. It is the secret entrance to our treasure, it is guarded with a tile puzzle. If you get it right, the sarcophagus will open itself up to reveal a staircase downwards.
I finished the puzzle, and the sarcophagus began moving just like in the game. The staircase now truly exists instead of being a teleport to the treasure room though. I walked down the staircase while Michael and Blake stayed above, complaining that stairs would be too difficult and they would simply guard the entrance. I went ahead and walked in, walking down the steps that finally revealed a massive treasury of items and coins. A sea of gold coins and jewels that would rival Smaug’s Hoard, rows and rows of sorted magical items organized by rarity and their type. Another section full of increasingly rare crafting ingredients, and a massive circular library that holds potions instead of books. I go to the potion cache, to find 3 elixirs somewhere in this massive reservoir of riches.
After about 30 minutes of searching, I finally found the stash of Appearance Elixirs. These potions are quite difficult to get your hands on, most people pay the 10 dollar fee instead of trying to get it in game. My guild is lucky that we completed a special event raid “Changeling’s Conspiracy” as the world’s first completion. The reward was 150 of these Elixirs, which was an undisturbed amount until I grabbed 3 from the shelf now. I found a satchel to place the potions in, and went back to the entrance. I went back up the staircase to see Michael and Blake still there, audibly bickering with each other. Though both of their voices sound different, I can tell who they are just because of the way they act.
When I reached the surface, I realized a few new people had joined us. A tall Half-Orc woman that looks suspiciously similar to Kira. A human male [Warrior] that I knew from recent experience was Anne. a female Cat-Beastman [Pathfinder] that I also knew from recent experience that should be Rachel. A spindly and lanky male elf in a robe was also there in the background, he wasn’t saying much. And a massive human that had an appearance suspiciously similar to Jaxon.
“Hello everyone. I know I look like this now, but I am actually Alex” I introduced myself to the new group, hoping slightly that there wouldn’t be a crazy reaction.
“Whoa! I forgot that you chose a female half-draw as the [Summoner]. I thought Blake was a shock, but this is surprising too. Luckily, my character looks like me...just sized up a bit.” Jaxon said, confirming my suspicions.
“Yeah, I never got a good look on your Summoner before because of the heavy robes, but she kinda looks like the real you in a way. Like somehow you and her are related” The Half-Orc woman said incredulously.
“Kira, Jaxon, you have to at least introduce yourself so he knows for sure. Alex, I am Rachel, though I am sure you probably guessed it already.” Rachel said, turning to the Tall half-orc woman and Jaxon to scold them.
“Hi Alex...this is Anne...a-are you doing ok with that body? I am having a lot of trouble here…” Anne said with embarrassment, I guess since her character is much bigger and taller than her normal body, she would have a rougher time.
“I am doing fine, this body is too much different from my own in terms of height and build if I am honest. Though I did grab some of our Appearance Elixirs to fix me up.” I gestured towards my satchel to show the bottles.
Everybody looked at my satchel with hope and tinges of greed. Everyone wanted to go back to their original appearance, especially for the people who had radical changes to their body.
“Hey Alex, you can give the potion you got for me to Anne for now. I don’t need it as bad as you, Blake, and Anne need it.” Michael said, seeing that 3 people above all others need to change back more than he did at least.
Everyone else agreed with Michael’s assessment, so the 3 potions were given out to the three most afflicted. Though we had another issue, the problem was clothes after we finished changing our appearance. Blake and I didn’t like the idea of being in clothes that no longer “fit” if you understand. Especially Blake, since he made his avatar to be busty which also includes clothes that properly fit those dimensions. Anne also had the same issue, since her real body is much smaller than her in game avatar. We decided that the 3 of us will look around in the treasury for clothes that might suit us, and when it is time to change 1 person stays will the rest wait up the staircase. We had a quick rock-paper-scissors match to see who was lucky enough to try first, after I didn’t lose it was decided that Guildmaster should always go first in these situations.
Blake and Anne go back to outside of the treasury, while I sit back with my pile of clothes after I change. I sit nervously staring at the potion, looking at the dangerous looking colors flowing in the bottle. Goddammnit, this really looks like poison. But I can’t chicken out with everybody watching, I can already feel the judging stares. After a few more huffs of frustration, I man the fuck up and drink the poison...I mean potion. The taste of the concoction was just as awful as predicted, I finished the bottle by sheer force of will. It took no more than 6 seconds before the effects of the potion knocked me out. In my forced slumber, I see a Female half-drow standing in a field of light. I felt that somehow, I could actually change this half-drow’s appearance by imagining it. I made the image of my former body, imprinted deep with my soul and I saw the half-drow’s body begin to change.
As the body became more and more like my human one, I started feeling an awful feeling in my gut again. That awful feeling of instinctual fear, the primal dread of something horrifying is close to me. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO! Echoed in my mind, each instance of the word growing louder than the last. I could feel its anger, its disappointment, its desire, but I didn’t understand what I did wrong, or what was wanted from me. The Female half-drow was no longer being morphed due to my fear of it, she was now reverting back to her old shape. After a few moments the process was completed, undoing all of my work. The horror still stood close, I refused to look around because I knew my mind would not survive its appearance. Shadows do not choose its shape; echoed in my mind, before slowly drifting away. It left one more phrase before it left: “kytapy smady alty iqiul”.
I woke slowly from the nightmare, drenched in cold sweat. I noticed that something new has appeared on my body. A tattoo of a shadowy figure of some sort of humanoid shape appeared on the back of my left hand. Beneath it had the gibberish phrase, “kytapy smady alty iqiul”. Nothing else had changed, I was still Nhilvin Freafin. But now I remembered something to ask Michael and others, if they too remember the evil smile that I saw just before I awoke here.
I slowly walked back to the others, ready to hear some answers. They saw my body hadn't changed and gave me questioning looks.
“Did everything go ok? I heard you choking that down before getting knocked out” Blake asked worriedly.
“I assume with that appearance that this is a bust” Michael added, worried as well.
“Yeah...well no it did not go ok. At first it did, and then...something came to stop me from completing the change. Something I saw just before I got here. It said some weird stuff, like creepy shit at me before running off as the potion ran out.” I answered, making everyone wear an extremely worried expression after hearing what I said.
“Alex, are you ok? You seem quite pale…” Michael answered with a tone of worry, I now realized that I was trembling and felt the moment I recollected...the thing. He got up to place a comforting hand on my shoulder.
“I-I am fine...do you remember how all of you got here? Did you s-see something unpleasant?” I said, tremors of fear crawling up my spine as I continued talking.
“I remember nothing, just a white field of shifting colors vaguely sticks in my mind.” Said Michael, though his face goes a bit pale as well, well as pale as a half-orc can get I suppose.
“All I remember is a message box...and a hand pulling me” Blake said. He also had a rough time remembering what happened to him.
All of the others also had a vague memory of what happened, but all of them sounded different from what I experienced. Some just fell asleep and woke here, some just...shifted here like moving in between water and air, while others became a little pale in the face and stopped trying to remember. I told them about a phrase that I have been hearing and showed my new tattoo, but none of them understood it or had any idea of what it is. None of the others said that they had messages or phrases as well, they just kind of clammed up the moment I started showing mine. They seemed to feel uncomfortable trying to remember, like they all were remembering a bad dream. Not like I am much better, I didn’t tell them that it called me shadow. Whatever that means.
“Well, Alex do you think that the potion will work for me or Anne. I know that it didn’t work for you, but that kind of sounded like a unique case.” Blake said, I think more worried for Anne than himself at the moment. Anne is about 1 more bad incident from a full blown panic attack.
“I think you are right, it might have just failed for me. It seemed like it was working fine until I was interrupted. Why don’t you guys try it out, no harm in that.” I replied, hoping for something good to happen, even if it is for someone else.
“Hey Blake, I want to go first if you don’t mind.” Anne said timidly, an extreme fatigue was visible on her face.
“Yeah go ahead, I am cool waiting a little bit longer. Just be careful ok?” Blake said with tenderness.
“Hey Kira and Rachel, Why don’t you go with her? I think it would be better to have some people close in case something happens.” I said the Cat-Beastwoman and the female Half-Orc.
“Yeah, I am ok with that” “Yep, that is a good thought” Both of them said close together.
Anne immediately looks relieved knowing that she doesn’t have to do this alone anymore. All three of them go down into the treasury with Anne holding one of the potions from my satchel. They walked deeper in, no longer making noise audible from the outside.
“Who wants to hold my hand when it is my turn to try?” Blake said wryly, trying to lighten the mood.
“Fuck no, then I would have to see you in women’s underwear. Just thinking about it is giving me mental trauma.” Michael said disgustedly, adding a fake vomit sound at the end of his sentence.
“Well I could do it with---” “Don’t think about asking Alex, he already has the trauma of having this fail on him. Don’t think he should have to suffer the trauma of seeing the potion work for someone else.” Michael interrupted me, preventing me from offering my help.
“Ahh man, well I guess it is fair since he did by himself. How about you Rhyse? Want to walk me down there?” Blake said to the lanky elven man, trying to use his new voice to sound as cute as possible as he said the last part.
“No” firmly said Rhyse, with a look of utter disgust and contempt painted over his face.
Jaxon laughed heartily with a rich, baritone laugh. Blake’s antics has worked well, making all of us forget our bleak situation one way or another. All of us near the entrance were smiling a little bit, the panic that filled us to the core subsiding for a little bit.
“Hey man, good job for letting Anne go first. I know it is probably rough for you but she was really struggling. You did a good thing.” Jaxon praised Blake while showing his fist for a welcoming fist-bump, which Blake obliged a bit embarrassed at the honest praise.
“To be honest, this doesn’t feel real quite yet for me. I guess my armor is helping me deny the facts of this for a bit. She kinda reminded me of my little sister too, and I guess big bro mode came into play as well.” Blake answered bashfully, genuinely not used to the praise. I guess growing up catholic and playing football you get used to the insults and scoldings after a while.
“Just pointin’ out some facts man. If you really need someone to be with you during the potion I will----” A loud, awful scream originating from deep inside the treasury stopped Jaxon halfway in his sentence. Painful shrieking, and the echoey sounds of heavy thrashing was coming out from the treasury. Sounds of flesh being ripped apart and bones being broken filled the air. These awful sounds came along with the sounds of 2 other women crying out as well, like the cries of someone finding a mangled body. These horrible noises, a loud pop of flesh along with the sound of something wet splashing around, bones splintering and cracking like dry firewood, and the voice screaming in absolute agony. This froze all of the people outside in their tracks, they stood in fear all imagining some eldritch horror emerging from the staircase.
Jaxon was the first to start moving, but by the time he reached the staircase the sounds had stopped. He stood there hesitating a little bit, but before he could move we heard somebody running toward the exit. We see Rachel emerging from the entrance back outside, extremely pale the hairs on her cat tail puffed out. She stared at us with eyes of someone who had seen too much, before she went to the side and started heaving. Her body was trembling as well as trying to expel everything that was eaten recently. Tears were running down her face, none of us had the courage to go near here except Jaxon. He slowly walked up and put a comforting arm around her shoulders, which she accepted. We hear the staggered walk of 2 more people coming up the stairs, all of us dreading what we're going to see.