Strange Occurrences
Farther to the south of Ciemnosc's village.
Within a rather large territory, taken by around 250 square kilometers with a very large multitude of people walking around in and out of buildings some of them having screams, sobs, wailing, and heavy hitting sounds coming from them. A place that was fully dreaded, and a prohibited place for all ordinary people, but an opportunity for all possible and brand new cultivators.
This was a place in which one of the hegemons of the Region resided and where for the past few months, though they hadn’t been lucky with the otherworldly cultivators when they stayed, the information given to them was naturally something they sought after and achieved. Right now, as they were just a few weeks into having started many brand new projects, every single thing that happened in their territory, in their side of the Region, was a major important point for ‘them’.
Knock, knock knock.
Within the territory, where a lot of brown was all that one could see wherever they went; be it dull, sparkling, darkish, obscure, ordinary, or strong and light brown. Right in the middle of it, a very tall citadel-like residence, which took about 5% of the entire territory as its private householding, a very short man with gray hair, and nice looking was working on some papers that were from several different places all around their zone.
“Come in.” A rather honest, yet empowered voice came out from the very short man, who was wearing obscure robes. From the outside, a person’s voice came in before even the door knob was turned, “Yes, Pastor Erquiles, I’ve brought news about the disturbance of energy farther to the north.”
Rustle~, flap.
Leaving the papers on his desk, Pastor Erquiles sat back on his chair’s backrest and waited for the messenger to come in. Once a young-looking man about 25 years old opened the door, he bowed big time and kept his head low before entering the room.
“Rise,” said Pastor Erquiles. Once the messenger stood straight, Pastor Erquiles went back to check the papers on his desk while the messenger was then to go on. Taking the hint, the messenger said while trying to feel much less nervous. “Pastor Erquiles, there was nothing found out of that place you mentioned, my team and I went over to look several times but it was fruitless.”
“Even the village nearby wasn’t aware in the slightest. We even almost took the lives of 2 children when interrogating them.” Hearing his words, Pastor Erquiles nodded slightly, his eyes still not leaving the papers despite the contents of the messenger’s words…
“Pastor Erquiles, if I may. What does it really matter if there are some of the other organizations’ members nearby? What can they do if they are in our territory? Besides, it is our territory. They should be careful instead of what they are doing in it, it is no longer times of peace with our little planet being the center of so many cultivators from outside!”
“...” Pastor Erquiles looked up from his papers, not really bothered or hiding his annoyance, as he didn’t have any. The tone of his voice was calm and collected. Yet emitting power itself from it, “It is exactly because it is my territory that things such as these where nobody in our Cult was aware nor part of that we must investigate it. Hm, look, even the nearby prefectures around that area are showing signs of less activity.”
Giving the messenger a little bit of insight from the papers he was holding, Pastor Erquiles made the messenger quiet real fast. The latter then lowered his head once more and left it like that to wait for the Pastor’s follow-up of instruction on the matter.
“Go again and grab another few teams to go with you, lead them towards the northern prohibited zone and investigate, do not let any single little rat around go without being interrogated, understood?” Said Pastor Erquiles after considering things for just a few moments, also putting pressure on the valuable somewhat new member in front of himself.
“Yes, Pastor Erquiles, we’ll set off as soon as you give the order!” Promised the messenger, ready to give it his all to demonstrate himself to their Cult’s leader. In return, Pastor Erquiles nodded his head and with his aged eyes, responded rather bluntly but softly at the same time. “Mn, in 2 days, go and prepare.”
***
Back at the jungle fores. A few days after beauty beauty left the little planet, the origin of Ciemnosc’s birth and where he has lived a hell of an eventful life.
Rustle rustle rustle, step-...
‘Ah, pheww~, haaa. At last!’ Ciemnosc, who had just come out from a very, very long path of strong, tall, and walled-like vines that came out from the ground and tried to reach the sky with a height of almost 50 meters, which Ciemnosc couldn’t take lightly at all. Suddenly stepped into a very nice, sweet-looking, and mild greenery scenery with soft, flaccid smallish grass all around, a few trees here and there that were also smallish as if miniatures of well-grown, large trees appeared before his eyes.
The grass was of a lavish, lightest of greens color, while the trees had their leaves painted of a darker, stronger green color that matched well with the equally dark, strong brown color of their trunk. In the middle of this scenery that went for about less than 50 square kilometers, a small house took the center of it all. This house looked pretty humble and even inconspicuous, one could even not notice it after a few minutes of walking in this very alienated place.
‘Huh, it does look a bit fun, so far.’ Thought Ciemnosc. As he looked at the decrepit red tiles of the rooftop at the entrance and main building, as well as the chimney that seemed to have gone off since ages ago. Besides that, the yellow on the walls was so wasted that it even turned green with all of the beautiful green around.
‘Ah.’ Only after some time did Ciemnosc notice that there was a fence surrounding the house’s front where its entrance was facing, walking straight towards him since the dark was darkening ever since he began traveling through the hundreds of meters long path of strong vines lined up altogether and tightly to not allow anyone in…and from which his body brutally made a pathway in-between from where he came from.
Since it was already night, Ciemnosc couldn’t do anything else but to sleep in, right? There wasn’t any other place to stay after all, and there was this obvious, small but comfy-looking house that could very well take him in. No biggy, right?
Stepf, stepf, stephhf~...
Stepping on the grass, Ciemnosc felt it was really so soft, he could just lie his body on it and fall asleep, the cold would only be minimal since he was very well trained in his body and had such high cultivation; or so.
But following Older Sister’s advice, if he was too careless, wouldn’t he lose the fun almost right away? Clearly, the right thing to do was to enter the house, visit every single corner within and see what’s up. As for the game that was hidden within, he could deal with it after knowing what he was dealing with, not like it would take that long.
It was strange, for every time that he stepped on the grass, it was only ever so soft, but whenever he was lifting his foot and stepping forth with the other, it even felt as if his soles were being licked by something. His talon and the sides of his feet were grabbed at by a few hands, either small and little or large and grotesque.
Whether those small, little, or large hands were made of grass or not, Ciemnosc didn’t put much thought into it, he couldn’t afford to play games when it was so dark. Who knew if the fun games inside would sleep if it was way too late? Way too late…
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Creak-top.
As soon as Ciemnosc stepped onto the house’s steps and right before the entrance, the entire house seemed to crack altogether, as if his arrival was not just known by those inside the house, but the house itself was aware of him. And the house itself made sure to let him know of it, and for just a fleeting moment, from his peripheral vision and with his Spirit Sense being flawlessly evaded; Ciemnosc saw, blurrily, a body of a tall young girl with small, blue shoulder, a dull and blue colored floral dress, and a very unnatural large neck, no face and neat black hair that was picked up to the sides of her head.
Only for a fleeting moment though, as it disappeared even before he began to turn his head towards that window to his left. The frontal face of the house had its door westwards, while a large couple of windows were on its east wing, the south naturally being the door which seemed out of place as Ciemnosc noticed it had a clear bright, red color, unlike any other thing from this house.
“Hello, can I come in? I came with aaaa…friend’s invitation!” Being the nicest and politest possible, Ciemnosc said before casually placing his right palm on the door and pushing it. But the moment he did, it was as if he was suddenly grabbed by a bunch of tiny hands that were coated with unknown viciousness. He retracted his hand as fast as he could, feeling a strange pull coming from the door immediately leave him be.
‘Eh? No blood.’ Just as Ciemnosc smelled a metallic aroma, he checked his right hand only to find not a single bit of any stain on it, let alone any blood around his hand.
CROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK.
Like a frog that was right before him but obviously wasn’t, the door opened up fully and exaggeratedly as if afraid that Ciemnosc wouldn’t notice if a wide enough door taller than him wouldn’t be noticed being fully opened. Ciemnosc finally became a bit silent and blinked thrice before taking a step forward. All he could see while remaining outside the house and with the door opened…was a totally blacked-out inside with a pair of connected stairs that went up and down.
Step, step- creak~, step- creak~!
Getting in the house, at last, the pure blackness that gave one the sensation of not even being able to breathe when within it disappeared and was replaced by a much more plausible obscurity of the night having already come.
Now, the surroundings allowed Ciemnosc to know just how old this house was, with cracked wooden planks all around and not a single color inside. There wasn’t a single bit of light around, nor did it seem like it could ever again.
“...” Ciemnosc explored with his eyes as he turned his body around and around, his shoulders exercising a bit of preparation for anything. And just as he did the 3rd rotation of his body in this place full of not a single bit of life nor light around, he heard very distorted, deep, and low-volume - exclamations
Daaah…daaah daaah… DAAAAAAAAH…
“...” Ciemnosc turned around quickly as he heard these things from right behind his ear, a strange image of a large female figure right behind him with a face that was 3 times larger than his entire head somehow making its way into his mind. Just as Ciemnosc was confused as to why he was imagining just that, he turned around and looked at the stairs leading upstairs…
THUD-... …THUD thud thud thud thud!
Above, on the ceiling of the floor he was on, steps could be heard from above that were very loud at first but also far away from where the stars were. They immediately became slightly less loud but became ‘closer’ and ‘closer’ to him as they made their way towards the stairs!
“...” Ciemnosc waited and waited, the last round of clear footsteps stopping right at where he could see the stairs leading upstairs begin and where he could very well see someone coming down if there was even someone at all. As for the steps, they were quite heavy, as if they were from a very tall woman who had extremely long limbs and…neck perhaps.
Tap tap, hiush~!
Just as Ciemnosc had been waiting for a good deal of seconds, as if impatient, he felt two fingers, who held the same power and central weight, as if they both came from the same hand but that touched both his shoulders at the same time; also, both of them being index fingers. At the same time, at the end of those fingers tapping behind him on his shoulders, a hiss-like sound filled with annoyance coming from that same deep, low-volume female voice made his ears tremble on their own.
Fwish~~...
Ciemnosc turned around, and right away, the steps from the stairs leading up now behind him began to sound with strong, rather nearby footsteps coming down those steps from the middle of the stairs towards him!
“?!” Turning around immediately, Ciemnosc’s eyes opened wider, and pupils shrank. A female figure had suddenly popped out of nowhere, for as most bizarre and quizzical that it was, and rushed down towards him with her normal-length arms pushing to the front. Her ordinary-length legs also moved, bizarrely quickly, down the stairs as if in excitement for him to finally have arrived and be able to receive her personally.
Her neat, pitch-black hair was abundant and wild, messy as it covered her head, neck, part of her shoulders, and upper chest. She was slouching her back in a way that looked as if a girl used to her small height trapped in a 3 meters tall woman.
Pting.
The moment she began rushing at Ciemnosc, the kitchen to Ciemnosc’s right suddenly lit up. Ciemnosc had now found a way out; the only way out was as the female rushing down the stairs reached the bottom in just half a second.
Ciemnosc felt his vision tremble and intensify. The tall female came rushing down with her fingers becoming 30 cm long all of a sudden, squirming towards him in fast motions while her legs furiously, brutally rushed up at him!
The last moments that Ciemnosc saw were those of a semi-bloodshot eye large enough to compare to more than half of his head that hair on the left side of her face was all that Ciemnosc needed before rushing towards the kitchen with the lights suddenly turned on. Immediately after, his feet moved on their own as his skin felt like crawling little fingers were teasing his scalp.
Step, step- step step step step step STEP STEP STEP STEP- ha.
Ciemnosc began running towards the kitchen, his steps clear but semi-hidden, a quality he had gained after weeks of preying for meat in the jungle forest. But following after him, coming closer and closer despite his own fantastical speed and great method at running, the steps of the smaller legs became ever way too close, and a few meters before Ciemnosc reached the kitchen, the steps became too loud to even hear his own breathing; those sounds reverberated throughout his entire body.
“!...” In the end, just as the feet of the female behind him pressed down on his heels a few times already, Ciemnosc reached the kitchen only to hear a cut-off frustrated, hellish scream stop right behind him as soon as the light reached him.
“Huff, huff, huwaah…” As soon as Ciemnosc got in the kitchen, just about 30 cm away from the entrance to the kitchen, he stopped in place and took a moment to catch his breath. Once he felt he was safe, he turned around.
…dah…
The entire face of the female was just there, as if shackled by something and not able to move forwards anymore, just a few inches away from Ciemnosc’s nose with her own large nose that was his whole face’s size and in the light where her face was fully visible now. Her hair had suddenly disappeared from her face, and it even seemed to be picked up from behind. Whereas a black screen didn’t allow Ciemnosc to see anything that was behind.
Her face was really more than 3 times Ciemnosc’s whole head, let alone the full size of her head, and as her pair of red irises and black pupils looked at Ciemnosc right in the eye at the level of his neck, her semi bloodshot overly oval eyes were eyelid-less and naturally without eyelashes but she had a pair of thick eyebrows.
Yet, her skin was so pale it was as decrepit as the walls from outside. And just as Ciemnosc looked on with her mouth having produced a very scare-inducing rumbling, low hum, he remained steady on his spot standing and even blinked a few times. Each time he blinked, the female’s face was still there, and never did it even move away once, only her eyes that were with red veins popping up within the sclera and her pupils changed a bit of their previous position as if she couldn’t contain her rage and wrath when seeing him.
Uuuuu…uuuuoooaaaaaahhhhh!
Suddenly, the female opened her mouth, which was 2 times Ciemnosc’s torso in width, with teeth as small as Ciemnosc’s fingernails ranging in the hundreds under and below both her lips, her jaw opened widely, and it deconstructed her face by parting her skin and showing a perfectly normal autopsy instead of insects or putrid flesh as if she was more than perfectly alive.
Her mouth opened up until her whole head became 4 times the size of Ciemnosc’s height. While the entire house seemed to enlarge just for the sake of her becoming this large, her bloodshot eyes became even more oval-shaped and with less substance as they still looked down at him.
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH…!!!
The dull call came again, and the whole face came down at him. Ciemnosc fell on his bum as he felt the breath from the female reach his whole body, the insides of her mouth, bloodying and rupturing because of her actions and the scent of all that easily making their way into his senses all while the dull call continued and his body was overwhelmed by the dissipating shadow of her whole rupturing head…
“Huff, huff, huff huff-...kha…” After it went away, Ciemnosc felt his throat dry. Gulping down after a few breaths of air, he had to expel air from his throat as he felt very itchy from how dry it had been. “Hehe.”
“...What a weird race.” Commented Ciemnosc as he rose to his feet and patted his brand-new clothes off the dust from the house.
…