The Druid looter breathed heavily as her gaze was fixed on Aizen. She smiled maniacally. From what Aizen could discern from her facial expression, the Druid was enjoying herself, and he would be correct as the Druid had forgotten the feeling of fighting evenly with someone like she was. She believed she had gotten rusty from her years of scavenging and surviving, which she attributed to how Aizen had survived her onslaught for so long.
In fact, to her knowledge, Aizen was the only Voidling who could use aetherite gems to this level of combat. The regulations on the Voidling ownership of ability stones are strict within the walled settlements worldwide. Because of these regulations, a Voidling can go their entire lives without seeing an aetherite gem in person. This puzzled the Druid, but fortunately, it was insufficient to warrant another pause in their combat.
Suddenly, a wretched shriek, ear-piercing like a herd of distorted howling cries, came from the depths of the ruined mansion in the distance. Aizen's heart skipped a beat as the familiar, haunting shriek echoed through the ruins. Goosebumps prickled along his arms and a chill down his spine, leaving him momentarily frozen. He took a shaky breath, eyes wide with terror. Aizen's blood ran cold at the sound of the roar, a primal fear gripping his chest. He took a cautious step back, his eyes darting around for any sign of movement. The battle and the burning town around him faded into the background. All that mattered now was survival.
He knew what kind of monster would emerge from the depths as a pair of gray, flaking, decaying arms reached up from beneath the rubble, attempting to pull itself free. It was an amalgam. A creature of grotesque form was a writhing mass of flesh, with dozens of eyes glowing like burning embers, casting an eerie light. Each eye moved independently, scanning the ruins with a malevolent hunger. The body, a fusion of corpses and dark sorcery, bound together, creating something disgustingly malign and wickedly vile. The faces of fused corpses that formed the body of the monster flexed and gnarled, their jaws strained, biting the air, desperately wanting to consume their prey, their eyes locked on the duo.
Shards of bone protruded from all angles as the ball of contorting flesh struggled to free itself from the ruins. Its spider-like appendages comprised many others, fingers, and toes flaying up its arms and hands, and Aizen could count more than the natural number. Its flesh burned in flames, but it was driven by its thirst for blood. The monster turned towards the duo. The skeletal face of the amalgam and the burning ember eyes in its black sockets caught sight of the pair; it became ruthless as it thrashed about before breaking free of the rubble and barrelling toward the pair as it roared again.
Aizen's eyes widened in recognition and terror. Without a second thought, he spun on his heel, cloak billowing behind him as he sprinted away, his heart pounding like a war drum. He knew taking on an amalgam alone was a fool's errand. Even with potential assistance from the Druid, they likely did not stand a chance. Amalgams are known for their ruthlessness. The corpses are a threat enough, but the amalgams are on another level.
They take on many forms, as twisted creations of an untamed dark power of fused corpses. The amalgam's spider-like appendages and sphere-like figure make it easy to move across any terrain and scale the abruptest inclines, making the spider variant of amalgams one of their most dangerous forms.
Aizen dashed away. He had what he needed; now, it was time to flee. He hoped to break away, leaving the Druid behind for slaughter as he made his escape. Unsurprisingly, Aizen looked back and saw the Druid trailing him. Her eyes were still fixated on him despite the danger. The amalgam roared behind them as it crashed through buildings and chucked large pieces of debris at them. The debris collided with the top side of the building behind the pair, collapsing the building upon impact.
Aizen breathed deeply to calm his nerves; the amalgam's strength was intense, but there was no time to panic. The Druid barely glanced at the approaching amalgam, her lips curling into a smirk. Confidence radiated from her, a belief that her light sorcery could obliterate any foe. First, the Voidling. Then, the monster.
She fired off a few quick homing light beams that Aizen repelled with a force barrier with ease. Aizen was determined to flee, but he needed to lose the Druid. He was headed toward the front gate but quickly veered away and headed toward the clock tower in the center of Meold.
"Where are you headed? Voidling!" The Druid cackled in her pursuit of Aizen.
Aizen did not answer. He kept his eyes fixed on the clock tower. He activated his amethyst stones to propel him forward, hoping to distance himself from the Druid.
The amalgam sped ahead of the pair. It tore through buildings beneath them, causing unbridled destruction and leaving ruin in its wake. It then sprung through the roof of a building ahead, confronting Aizen head-on.
The monstrosity thirsted for their blood. The wild number of burning eyes scattered around its flesh, their vicious black veins across its body flaring as the glowing ember eyes fixated on its prey. The monster gritted its razor-sharp teeth, breathing heavily, a mucky drool dripping from its mouth, grunting devilishly as it reached for Aizen as he approached, struggling to come to a stop.
Aizen thrust his palms forward, amethyst gems glowing fiercely. Waves of force energy erupted from his hands, pushing him backward as the amalgam's claws swiped inches from his cloak. The air crackled with energy as he somersaulted to safety. Aizen quickly spun around and confronted the Druid as the amalgam struggled to wriggle from the gape of the roof. The looter was hot on Aizen's trail; she descended upon him seconds after the Voidling avoided the amalgam's grasp.
The Druid's eyes twitched with malevolent glee; her desire to rend the Voidling's flesh was palpable. Her movements were a blur as she descended upon the Voidling with her searing blade. Aizen deflected the looter's searing blade with his own as she zipped by him. She leaped into the air and tried to catch Aizen by surprise with a quick beam of light, but Aizen summoned a rock wall from the ground below that blocked her attack while simultaneously separating himself from his foes.
As Aizen preferred, the Druid was now in the amalgam's direct vicinity. He hoped the amalgam would focus on the Druid instead of himself, giving him time to make his way to the clock tower. Aizen tried to push himself up, but his legs buckled, collapsing on one knee. His breaths came in ragged gasps, exhaustion sapping his strength. Every muscle screamed in protest, and the wound in his side throbbed with renewed intensity. He placed a hand on the rock wall before him to catch his breath.
Aizen listened to the grunting of the monster and the zipping of the Druid's beams of light as his two foes clashed on the other side of the wall. Aizen knew he needed to leave before either of his enemies came bursting through the wall, but his exhaustion had caught up to him now that he had slowed down to a stop. He also felt the pang of the wound in his side with more intensity now. He placed a hand upon it, wincing as the contact of his skin caused a sharp, stinging pain in his side. Aizen winced, taking his hand away, revealing blood slowly seeping from the charred wound.
Aizen then clutched the emerald stone on his necklace and concentrated on it. The emerald began to glow brightly in his hand, and Aizen's body was overcome with a soothing warmth as a green light surrounded him. He could feel his fatigue lift, and his minor wounds painfully stitched themselves together. Despite the relief, Aizen grimaced and felt a piercing pain from the burn wound on his side as the stone slowly repaired the damage.
A blinding light flashed opposite the wall, quickly followed by a deafening explosion. The boom reverberated in the wall, shaking its foundation. A large plume of smoke covered the area, engulfing the wall and Aizen. Aizen could feel that the wall would soon collapse. He needed to get moving. He removed his necklace and tied it to his hand. Unlike the other aetherite gems, the emerald healing stone will not activate unless it touches the user's skin.
Aizen dashed across the gap to the adjacent building, attempting to go around his battling foes. Exiting the smoke cloud, he glanced where his two foes had it out. The roof on the other side of the erected wall had collapsed into the house, bringing the walls around down with it. Aizen caught a glimpse into the smoke at the rubble below, and what he saw gave him such a sharp chill that it made his spine snap rigid.
As the smoke cleared and the light of the falling sun streaked through the particles, the amalgam held the Druid high. Blood was spattered across their side of the erected wall. The Druid's right arm was severed and was being chewed in the amalgam's jaw. Blood dripped from her gaping shoulder socket as she struggled to prop herself up, her left arm trembling as she did so. She felt a sense of doom as she watched the Voidling flee.
The amalgam growled with delight, licking its lips as it drank the Druid's dripping blood. The Druid attempted to fire a light beam at Aizen, but it missed him entirely and struck a nearby chimney top. Aizen screeched to a halt on the adjacent roof and faced the Druid.
"You fool!" Aizen screamed at the looter, his voice echoing through the burning streets. The fires raged, and buildings collapsed one by one around them. A large cloud of smoke rose into the sky, drifting southward.
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The Druid's gaze met Aizen's, her eyes glazing over, the vicious light within them flickering like a dying candle. Her body grew pale from a loss of blood as the amalgam inserted her top half into its mouth. Not a single utterance passed her lips as the amalgam nastily bit down, tearing apart her flesh with ease. Aizen could not stand to witness the sight; the sound of ripping flesh and splintering bones made him choke, almost causing him to hurl.
Aizen gathered his composure and pushed towards the clock tower while the amalgam consumed the vanquished Druid. Initially, he planned to isolate the amalgam and the Druid at the clock tower. The building stood alone, surrounded by a courtyard, graveyard, and lawn. By leaving the two at the clock tower, Aizen hoped it would turn the amalgam's attention solely upon the Druid, allowing him to flee. Unfortunately, now, Aizen only had one foe to face; if he had his choice, he would have preferred the Druid.
The amalgam presented a more terrifying presence. Aizen had to be more careful as a bite from an amalgam, like any other corpse, would cause him to suffer the plague and change into a walking corpse. He could take a scratch or blow from its appendages without effect, but a bite meant certain death.
The amalgam let out a guttural roar, its many eyes blazing with fury as it flung the Druid's mangled carcass aside. It turned its grotesque, shifting form towards Aizen and lunged, its movements a horrifying blur of tangled limbs and gnashing teeth. The amalgam left a trail of ruin as it demolished everything in its path. Aizen seemed to glide across the rooftops as the monster pursued, but Aizen was approaching the last building before the clock tower courtyard. The amalgam had all but caught up to Aizen. It was almost within arm's reach as it swiped to grab hold of Aizen as he hurried.
As Aizen closed in on the final rooftop, the amalgam leaped upon him, grappling him, and together, they rolled down the slope of the slanted roof, over the edge, and fell towards the street below. Aizen managed to create a small barrier separating him from the gnarling, flesh-eating jaws of the amalgam, but the grip it maintained on Aizen's arms felt as if it would be crushed in a matter of seconds. Its grip continued to tighten as Aizen struggled to break free. Fearing a loss of limb, Aizen panicked and summoned a large pillar from directly beneath the pair, heavily colliding against them and launching them toward the clock tower.
In midair, Aizen felt the crushing grip of the amalgam's claw tightening around his arm. With a desperate grunt, he swung his blade in a wide arc, the scorching hot steel hissing through the air. The blade met resistance and then sliced clean through. Aizen fell free, the severed limb flailing away, black blood spraying in all directions. He was still reeling from the pain of the pillar's impact, but there was no time to ponder. The amalgam slowly spun about in the air, its arms flailing as it struggled. Aizen readied himself and gripped his blade tightly, as this was the first time he truly feared for his life in years.
As the two foes descended towards the ground, Aizen ripped another pillar from the ground to meet his feet, then retracted the pillar as he plunged. Using the pillar's descent to gently land on the ground with ease. The amalgam landed with a loud "SMACK!" as it bounced into a few stone statues and rolled over a couple of headstones, crushing them completely. The amalgam squirreled around and roared at Aizen as it spun around and barrelled towards the Voidling, who had already dashed towards the clock tower.
Aizen used another pillar to launch him up to the roof of the building attached to the clock tower. The amalgam followed suit by scaling the side of the building, leaving a trail of wreckage in its wake. It tore stones from the wall and shattered glass as it used the window panes as handholds, leaving a long, gaping hole in the wall. Aizen readied his blade and prepared for the onslaught.
The amalgam thrashed and clawed at Aizen, who backed away from the amalgam, circling the top of the roof, waiting for an opening to strike. Aizen used his blade to remove its appendages as it attacked. The wounds spewed a dark black, viscous, goop-like blood that melted objects with a soft hiss. Aizen raised a barrier, protecting himself from the acidic black blood, then propelled the barrier at the beast, knocking the amalgam from the roof.
It landed below on the ground, surrounded by corpses. From its flaying flesh, strings of bloody tendrils ripped through the monster's flesh, extended out and latching onto the surrounding corpses, and quickly yanked them into its body, absorbing the corpses and using them to heal its own wounds.
Goosebumps rose on the back of Aizen's neck. If he had not been careful, the amalgam could have quickly killed him; however, Aizen found what he had witnessed strange. A loss of limb means nothing to the corpses, but the amalgam used the surrounding corpses to regenerate its lost limbs. For a moment, Aizen weighed what this meant. He found it impossible for an amalgam to mend itself with any semblance of self-awareness rather than being an outright mindless monster.
The amalgam was quick to regain its footing. It let out another ear-piercing shriek before bounding up the outer walls of the building toward the Voidling. Aizen was determined to end this fight and quickly. Despite being revitalized by the healing stone, it was not enough to completely rejuvenate him. He huffed as the amalgam returned to the rooftop and lunged at Aizen.
Thinking he had dodged the attempt, Aizen was grabbed by the ankle, whirled about, smacked into the top of the roof, then spun around and thrown at the tower wall. Aizen managed to mitigate the damage from the impacts by surrounding himself with a barrier as he burst through the wall into the tower's innards, but it was not enough to get away completely unscathed.
The clock tower's machinations were long dormant and rusted over. The spiraling metal staircase's aged, chipping black paint and the platforms' grey from years of gathered dust and spiderwebs drooped from the withered chains and wires. The spiraling staircase lay waiting to be traversed again. The tower lay undisturbed for nearly two decades until Aizen burst through the walls from an overwhelming force.
He smacked into the tower's inner opposite wall before the amalgam scrambled inside the hole in the tower, gnashing its jaws at Aizen. Aizen kicked the wall, pushing himself out of the way, and shuffled up the spiraling staircase, repelling the amalgam's advances with barriers and slashes from his blade. The monster bit growled and howled upon receiving damage from Aizen's lunging strikes of his searing blade. The monster writhed about, roaring, hissing, grabbing and clawing, scratching the inside walls, denting the platforms of the stairs, and slicing ropes and chains.
Aizen raced as he climbed the tower. It was an end-all moment. His worst fear had come to pass, now confined in such a small space with such a gruesome foe. Beads of sweat rolled down his brow as Aizen rounded the staircase, hyper-aware of the amalgam's movements. Aizen grew frantic. An overwhelming dread was taking over. Just one wrong mistake and...
Aizen arrived at the top of the steps, scrambled up one final ladder, forced open the ceiling hatch with a force wave, and threw himself into the bell chamber. The amalgam burst through the hatch, removing the fixture entirely; the hatch tightly squeezed the amalgam's body. Aizen took a deep breath. With his blazing blade, Aizen began to carve into the amalgam. Slashing and slicing. Its black blood spewing, melting everything it touched. A droplet landed on Aizen's cheek, and a small string of smoke of sizzling skin wafted into Aizen's nose, flaring his nostrils and enraging him.
Now struggling and having lost most of its limbs, the amalgam began to gnarl and gnash at the Voidling. Aizen grabbed a set of chains and ropes and began binding the amalgam, speeding around it in a rush of fury and wrapping it round and round. Aizen then leaped up high and broke the ring that hung the large brass bell atop the tower, and down it fell.
The amalgam, bound by the same ropes and chains as the bell, together tumbled down the tower shaft, breaking the clock's gears and other machinations and denting the staircase platforms as they fell. The bong of the bell echoed with each impact, "BONG, BONG, BONG," the amalgam screeched as it fell until finally crashing down to the ground with a rejoicing, lingering, clamoring ring. The hatch around the body of amalgam sliced the monster in half under the force of the fell bell. Twitching. Writhing. Until it lay unmoving, silent.
The once eerily silent streets of Meold were now a cacophony of groans and growls, punctuated by the roar of flames devouring the buildings. Shadows danced madly against the inferno, the town now a hellish landscape of flickering light and dark, ravaged by the chaos of battle. The peaceful ruins of a city now mired by a vehement tragedy. The sun now drifts towards the horizon, its deep orange surrounded by hues of pink and purple high in the colored sky.
From the clock tower, Aizen stood triumphant, exhausted yet proud. He looked down upon his vanquished foe, and with a deep breath, he let out a chilling vociferation. Aizen huffed and puffed and fell to a knee, resting momentarily, but exhaustion swept over him. He removed his pack from over his shoulder, made sure the box from the mansion was still inside, and was relieved to find it so.
Aizen concentrated on the emerald stone in his hand and began healing himself again, falling back behind, resting against a stone column that still supported the roof of the bell chamber. Aizen sat upon the stone sill of the chamber. The fallen bell had utterly destroyed the wooden floor of the chamber, making it impossible for any corpse to reach him so high up the tower.
Aizen sat there watching the setting sun. He breathed heavily. His body ached from the near-endless battle. So there he rested, wishing for the comfortable embrace of that couch from before, but it was likely reduced to ash by now. Even so, Aizen was comfortable enough, having sat back against the wall. Aizen struggled to keep his eyes open as exhaustion quickly overtook him. Not long before, Aizen drifted into a peaceful sleep on that stone sill.
When Aizen woke, night had already crept over the town, but the city was still in flames, causing a faint glow in the night sky. Thankfully, the clock tower was separated from the streets lined with buildings and homes. He had not been asleep very long, maybe an hour or so.
Aizen groaned as he stood. He was still sore from the battle. The wound in his side had closed and dried with blood but still pinched at him when making any form of movement. He continued concentrating on the healing stone wrapped in his hand, glowing, providing Aizen some relief. Aizen made his way down from the tower, descending to the roof of the main building with help from his opal stone.
He looked upon the remains of the amalgam once more. The corpses have long departed the corpse, leaving the amalgam's body to rot into nothingness. Before departing for the town's entrance, Aizen retrieved a piece of the amalgam's removed appendage and wrapped it in a cloth he found inside the main building. The pool of black blood around the amalgam's body hissed as it seeped into the ground. Aizen gave the dead amalgam one last look before leaving. The sinister glare of its glowing ember eyes scattered about its body, now snuffed out, bloodshot, lifeless, sporting the gray hue of death.
The corpses were few on his way to the entrance of the city, likely being attracted to the sounds of destruction as the town burned, lighting up the night. Avoiding the same bell trap the dead Druid looter set, Aizen shut the gates. He summoned stone pillars on either side of the gates, locking the city's fate within, sealing the evil within its confines, and shutting any survivors out.