“I… I can’t hold it in anymore! Scy’lla, please heed my word!”

Where did it all go so so wrong?

“Run! Ru… dag y’uel iz K’os!”

The raider makes his way through the forest, the dark night swallowed him whole. The last vestige of his world crumbled into nothingness. Touching his face, he can feel the skull, half exposed to the air. And yet, there is no pain. How is he still alive even? The raider wants to end it all but he can’t, his friends risked their lives so he could go on.

“I can’t do this anymore!”

Falling to his knees, the raider weeps, surprised that he could still shed tears. Clutching his spear, the man apologises to everyone he has known, it is time he joins them.

“What’s wrong, my child?”

A gentle voice calls out from the dark. The raider looks up to see a man in black suit with tab collar and a white strip on his neck. A priest, but not an ordinary one.

“Get back!”

Grabbing his spear, the raider points at the stranger in horror. A third of the priest face is heavily burned, with black rock and glass shards jutting out. From the side of his mouth running down, twisting around his neck is a long black barb wire, going through the man chest and around his left arm. A part of the priest cheek is also ripped off, exposing the row of teeth within.

“I thought you wanted to die. And yet here you are, trying to protect yourself” Despite the gruesome accessories, the priest voice is one most kind. Like a fresh spring to the tired soul “It seems like there are plenty of life left within you, do not waste it”

This isn’t something caused by magic or a Runeland mutation. No, it reminds the raider of his friend who took the burden of the Scy’lla artefacts upon himself. It turned the person into something horrific from the deep and drilled into his mind to whisper words, runes from the sea deity.

This priest is also an acolyte, but of what deity? The raider no not the name but he can feel what it represents, pain.

“If you value then stand up and fight” The priest said gently, yet the urgency in his tone was not lost.

From behind the bush exits a malformed figure. The raider could barely recognise one of his friends, now a monstrosity. The creature is a human with head enlarged, throughout its body are holes as big as a fist. There is nothing inside those holes, but an infinite darkness.

Just like Mark.

He volunteered to bear the weight of communing with Scy’lla, the raider could only watch as his friend continued to mutate. First his eyes rolled of to be replaced by bulging fish eyes. The scales and carapaces started to cover his body, tentacles sprouting randomly, painfully. Despite Mark’s best effort, slight mutations started to manifest in some of the others. Those affected decided to use that cursed spear and now they are all dead, killed by a stranger with crimson hair.

“I’m sorry”

The raider said, thrusting his spear into his old friend’s body. But the wound couldn’t slow down the monster which lunged at him. Something flies into the thing’s eye, a glass shard. One small piece soon blossoms, exploding like a blooming flower. The monster jumps back, half of its face covered by glass shards, gleaming in the dark night.

Despite the severity of the wound, the monster shrug it off.

“We can’t do to harm him” The priest said “But I know someone who can, we must go”

“No… I can’t… I don’t want to run anymore” He feels weak.

The raider looks at his ‘friend’. The monster walks toward him then stop, from its many holes, countless eyes open, gazing at the man. Yet he is still fine, as if this thing recognises him. But not for long, the raider stabs the monster rapidly “AHHHHHH” He screams out, those eyes, he couldn’t recognise any of them.

Kicking the monster away, the raider turns and runs, the priest still there waiting for them.

Another glass shard is thrown at the thing’s leg, tearing it apart. The monster could still pursue them. No matter where they go, even if all of its eyes are blotted out, it could still see the preys, forever and ever.

The raider and the priest only stop when they have gained a considerable distance.

“Now we need to find help, I’m sure he is around here”

The raider doubts that, they are still in the forest in the cursed section. The trees around all hollow, no life could exist in this place. This is also where seven of his friends died to the mysterious stranger.

“Quite a dire situation we are in” The priest said, his calm tone contrasted the content of his saying “May I ask what happened and how many of them are there? But before that, I’m Father Walker. How should I could you?”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The raider looks down “By my name, Bruno is fine.” His mind casts back to when it all go from wrong to worse “There was this woman who came from the sky. She dropped something, a steel capsule and a stone ring… I brought it back to our time then it all, turned to hell”

The capsule seemed normal but there was something wrong about the stone ring. But it wasn’t a feeling of dread but of forlorn instead. Unknown of what to do, they gave it to Mark, who was the most in tune with Scy’lla, perhaps he could identify it. Despite the horrible mutation, the deity of the depth would provide its acolyte with protection against the unknown.

They were wrong.

As Mark gazed through the stone ring, his screeched was from the depth. He called out his deity name, but it was no use. The man was possessed by something greater. His eyes, all the tentacles fell off to reveal gaping holes.

Bruno was there, he was the one to give Mark the stone ring.

It was a mistake; the raiders were safe because they weren’t enlightened enough. “Run” Mark pleaded to his friend. But Bruno didn’t listen, he tried to help and his eyes were drawn to one of the many holes filled with darkness. No, it wasn’t the void, but something forlorn, it was the cosmos itself, gazing back at him.

It was a million stars exploding violently, their light flaring brightly before being snuffed forever. It was the endless nothing, stretches of darkness furthered than even the sight of the most eagle-eyed. It was strange foreign beings far away, on another world with different suns and moons. It was the infinity and also nothingness.

It was magnificent.

But his appreciation was cut short as Mark knocked him out of the way. Bruno then noticed half of his face, already drawn inside the unknown cosmos. His skin, his blood, his meat wasn’t torn off, no they just simply cease to exist in this realm of human comprehension.

Horrified, Bruno ran away but the rest of his friends, enthralled by the infinite, flock over like moth to the flame.

“There were more than thirty of us, thirty-four to be precise. I think all of them are possessed now” The raider reaches up touch his skull, his face missing feels most natural.

They search for this ‘someone’ that could help them. The priest simply said, you will know when you see him. Going through the cursed wood, Bruno has plenty of time to see the destruction that he and his friends had brought. A once mighty oak, now hollow, its everything lost forever.

But they didn’t have any choice. The order was clear, they were to retrieve the charger.

Suddenly, from behind the mist, a sound of crushed leaves could be heard. Something is coming, but it isn’t a human. No, the sound indicates that this thing is so much heavier. The outline behind the mist is something unnatural. The sound of breathing is coarse and threatening.

Then, it comes out, a beast on all four with a some sort of leather seating on its back. This thing seems so familiar, Bruno has seen it before.

“It’s a horse” The priest said “Guess you didn’t get to go out much”

Oh right, the raider has heard of this animal, used mostly by knights on the plains. Bruno had caught sight of them once or twice.

“How could this horse help us!”

The raider asked, just as their pursuer burst out from a hollow tree right behind him. He could narrowly dodge the swipe, a feat of pure luck.

Father Walker shoots out the barb wire from his hand, piercing the monster in its leg. From around the wound, barb wires burst out wrapping around the limb. The priest pulls the monster toward him. Seeing the monstrosity, the horse is startled but ready to attack.

But before the animal has the chance to, the monster many eyes glow and shoot out ethereal beams of light toward the priest. He still stands strong but one of the beam hit the barb wire, cutting the monster free.

It’s escaping, it is afraid of the horse. But why.

They are saved by this animal. Bruno wants to breath a sigh of relief but he couldn’t. Seeing the monster twisted pain still pains him. He knew that man, that boy. They grew up together, studied together, lived together, grew up together. In their dim lives the young mages only had one another.

And now, all of his friends are gone, replaced by monsters.

The raider can feel a swirl of emotions inside, pain, sadness, regret, anguish, anger, fear, curious. They all bubble up then… there was nothing. Bruno hunches down, his mind completely cleanse, the raider knows what to do, what he must do.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

Screaming out, he jumps at the running monster. Gabbing it spells death for him, coming in contact with the eyes he would no doubt be drawn in by their gaze. Becoming one with the cosmos. The raider, the friend grabs the barb wire, his hand burning up from the pain. The pricking pain intensifies then blossom as more wires sprout like flowers around his arms.

Gritting the teeth, Bruno pulls the monster back.

Resisting, it shoots the beams of light, puncturing the man. It hurts, it burns, it is excruciating, but Bruno still holds strong.

He swings the monster back where the horse is waiting. The animal kicks the thing with its front hooves covered in black horseshoes. The blow takes the monster’s head off, but it is still alive, groaning. The horse still isn’t done, it tramples upon the thing again and again and again. Until finally, all sign of life leaves the monster.

The raider looks on the person lying on the ground. It is his friend covered in holes but still very much his friend, now lifeless but free.

‘I promise’ Bruno vowed to himself ‘I will see to it that you all find rest’

He somehow survived this fight. None of the beams hit vital spots and they are too small to cause much damage. The barb wire has also stopped drawing blood, it wants him to live, to feel pain. That’s a price he is willing to accept. But first, he needs to find a way to do that. Turning to the priest, the man asks.

“How does this horse manage to kill this… thing?”

“Well” The priest scratches his head “The horseshoes are black but it is forged out of a special kind of steel, made to kill these sort of thing”

Bruno had heard about this. The most prominent groups to use this are the Blind Order with their secret forging techniques and the Diver. Some of the knights are also outfitted with such steel but it isn’t their job to battle monstrosities of the unknowns.

The horse, meanwhile, has moved away from the two.

“Why is it going away from us?” Asked Bruno.

“Well… how do I say it. It isn’t my horse” The priest answers nonchalantly “But be careful, someone has looted it. And I am sure that person is still here, watching us, bidding her time”

‘She’, it seems like Father Walker has an idea of who is it. Bruno minds cast to the woman falling from the sky. Is it her? He wonders. The most important question is, is ‘she’ a friendly or not or if ‘she’ is still a human.

Under the rusted leaves, a pair of eyes are watching with the crossbow ready. Grinning, the Smiling Hunter waits for the perfect moment to strike.