“That was...a monster?” Chloe said as she poked the creature’s face with the tip of her blade.

Rosaendra pried the Athame out of its head. The blood soaked into the blade vanished as if it had been wiped off with a rag. Chloe kicked the club around for a moment.

“Do we take it with us?”

“What? The squid-thing?”

“No, the club.”

“Can you carry it?”

Chloe bent down and tried. It was heavy, really heavy.

“No.” She admitted.

“Then?”

“Okay okay, jeez. Let’s go.”

“This is going to be difficult.”

Rosaendra sighed. There were at least a dozen doors in this hall alone; not counting the one they had walked out of. They had to find one thing among these, and there were at least a few layers here.

How many hundreds of people lived here at one point? Thousands? Chloe’s mind wandered as she stepped forward through the hall. Rosaendra tapered off to the nearest

“Is there a way out? I want to see the world.” Chloe said.

“Why? We’re here for a mission.”

“Oh come on, aren’t you curious?”

“A little, but...”

“But nothing. Let’s go.”

Chloe took the lead. There was light coming from the door on the other edge of the long hallway. The fear she had felt when facing the monster lingered in little quantities, though they would come flooding back if she looked at its still body. Her eyes kept off the floor until it faded from their peripherals. She kept her sword drawn as he pushed through the door at the far end of the hall and stepped out.

“Whoa...is this all...a single ship?”

Chloe took in the view. An ocean spread out across the horizon. Rippling, and as pale as the light that bled from the fog-covered heavens. Just beneath the wooden railing, straight down, were five layers of similar banisters until the bottom of the ship sank beneath the rolling tides. Her eyes traveled along to the wall of mist on her right. Her hand sank into the gel-like structure.

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“What is this?”

“According to the Servitor, it’s the sign of a world that’s dead. A world where all the gods have been killed or subjugated.”

“And this is what’ll happen to our world?”

“Apparently.”

The wall of fog, this time, didn’t just cover the single hall like Rosaendra’s first one did, instead, it ended a little ways away; encompassing another door. She noticed this, when the door on that hallway swung open, and a Squidman emerged. It had heard them speaking, and came out to investigate; it clutched a glaive in its webbed hands. Its blade seemed like a broken off, sharpened piece of coral attached to an old oar.

“Shit.” Chloe rose her shield above her head as the glaive came crashing down at her.

It was a heavy blow. It felt as if her arm was about to break, and her knees were about to buckle. It pushed forward with its shoulders and slammed into Chloe. She was tossed off her feet and thrown back into the wall of fog. The Squidman continued its charge and crushed her between it and the Fogwall. It was then with Rosaendra attacked, stabbing the Squidman in the throat with her dagger. It bit deep, but the pain didn’t seem to reel it. It turned its attention to Rosaendra, pulling away from Chloe, who he thought had been knocked unconscious.

That momentary lapse of judgment, however, would prove fatal for the creature. Chloe pushed herself up with her back against the fogwall and drove the point of her blade into the rising and falling gills on the creature’s shoulder. It screamed in pain and turned around, and Rosaendra charged forward; slamming her head into the middle of its body, staggering it backward. Chloe slammed the rim of her shield into its head, pushing it further. Its back was pressed against the railing, and then Rosaendra raised her foot and kicked it with all of her weight into the area of its body that would be the solar plexus on the human.

The deadwood railing snapped and cracked and fell away at the force, and with another strong bash from Chloe’s shield, it fell backward and careened off the edge. It crashed through the railing below it, and the one below that, and the one below that one, tumbling head over heels before the foamy peaks of the water swallowed it as it smacked and died against the salty surface.

“I really wanted that weapon,” Chloe said somberly as her feet shook. Her arm held slack at her side. "Longer reach than this thing."

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Chloe answered; her voice shaking as she spoke, “That was...that was terrifying.”

She slid to a sitting position and grasped her arm. A bit of blood trickled from her wrist. The shield had splintered at the blow and a few shards had driven themselves into her palm. She sucked in a sharp breath.

“Now that the adrenaline is gone, however...this kind of hurts.”

“Let me see...”

Rosaendra pulled out her first aid kit and dug through it until she found the cheap tweezers. Most of the shards had pierced her palm and the back of her arm. One, however — a rather long, thick one, had found its way into her wrist; piercing through some of the blue veins therein.

“Oh, that’s bad, isn’t it?” Chloe chuckled, “Ah...no, don’t pull it out. It’s stopping the flow of blood.”

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Badly.”

“Then...”

Rosaendra grabbed hold of the edge of Chloe’s sword and slid her finger’s against the cutting edge until blood flowed out. At the same moment, she yanked the splinter out of her wrist. Bright red blood flowed from it and Chloe hissed. Rosaendra wiped her blood over the wound.

Seal. Seal. Seal. Seal.

The blood flow slowed, and soon the puncture wound began to seal from the inside out. Relief washed over Chloe’s face. The fear of dying there at that moment fled from her as she let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding.