What is this supposed to be? A forest what else. And yet everything is now dyed by the night sky. Michael looks at the stars shinning on his skin, the dark has never been inviting. He can feel himself taken in, to be one with the starry sky. It’s a welcome feeling especially now has invaded his mind, something sad, something forlorn.

“Keep your eyes on the prize, Sir Knight!” A voice pierced through the muddle mind.

From behind, the Stranger gives him a nudge. Michael realises his face is dripping down, merging with his own hands. Ripping himself free, the youth is inch away from being consumed whole. Looking up, he can see their enemy still standing still, the eyes moving erratically gazing all over.

“I presume this is the greater threat you talked about” The old hunter asked. Looking at the Stranger who nods at him.

The man readies himself, an unfamiliar feeling of unease niggling him. The anomalies of the new world are caused by the mysterious deities. Despite their incomprehensible power, it is possible to identify their aspects, what they represent, names whispered by cursed beings. Scy’lla of the ocean depth, avatar of pain and suffering Azu, shadow over the far freezing north Shotep, Ondoro’toth underneath the endless western desert and many more, some with names still unknown.

But the deity of the cosmos, that is unheard of. And for it to manifest in the territory of another entity, Scy’lla. Is this a power play? Do they even have the concept of place? Is this deity always here or is it a new face, unleashing its horror on this world?

Whatever the answers, it is the old hunter’s job to cut down this monstrosity.

Dashing forward, he raises his sword, also coated by the cosmos.

“Be careful!” Michael chases after only to find yourself colliding with a tree. When everything is shrouded by the night, he could barely make out the shape of the surrounding. The youth is amazed to see the old man, making his way through the thick wood like nothing.

The frozen creature suddenly moves to seemingly dodge the blade. But instead, the steel sword easily connects with the target.

“This is!” The old hunter realises that the thing did in fact dodged. But it only moved so the blade would meet with the skin shrouded by the cosmos, not one of its many eyes. Suddenly, the weapon is dragged into the creature by an unknown force, fuelled by curiosity. Drawing back the blade, the old hunter slashes straight at one of the eyes.

The steel digs into the creature and warm red blood spurts out, staining the night. The injured eye disconnects from the body as the creature leaps out of the blow.

Around them, eyes open on the ground, on the rocks, on the trees and the branches and even all over Michael. The Stranger and the old hunter are unaffected, however, but now the creature has seemingly blended into the surrounding.

“It wants me… just like those corpses!” The youth reaches the epiphany.

Not a bad guess, unlike his other two companions, he is the only one who can hear the whispers. The deities worm their way into the untainted mind, corrupting it with knowledge.

“Whatever this threat is…” The old hunter looks at his sword, the top part missing “It’s too dangerous, it must be exterminated to the root”

The cosmos infused skin has swallowed a part of the steel blade. Such a feat thought impossible before. Made by the Blind Order in their war against the deities, the weapon can not be affected by any of their nebulous power. But that doesn’t mean the hunter or the weapon itself can’t be damaged by conventional method. Many of them have fallen, cut, eaten, crushed, burned, drowned, a hunter living past twenty is considered a veteran.

But this new deity can seemingly consume anything, even Blind steel. There is something else unaffected by their power, one under influenced of another deity. And yet, this thing could swallow all of the bloated corpses.

That means both him and the Stranger are in mortal danger.

“I presume you have reached the same plan as me” The old hunter said.

“I wonder, we will see” The Stranger replied.

The eyes around them start to blink, disappearing into the night only to reappear later somewhere else. Or have they switched places, there is nothing to tell one eye apart from another. The creature must be using this to mask its movement, moving along with the blinks. But that also means that it needs to hide, that it can be exterminated.

“What is it, this plan you are talking about!”

Michael asks the two, he is out of his depth. But none of them answers, the old hunter simply makes his way back to them slowly. The silence is killing him, what is he supposed to do, no one is saying anything. Is he just the tasty bait that they are dangling over this monster?

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The youth pinches his wrist only the find his fingers merging with the hand instead. Ripping them out, he realises some of his fingers have already fused together. He can’t seem to get them apart. The youth starts to panic, he is just a boy looking for his father who didn’t return home. Now, here he is being slowly digested by a cosmic horror. That feeling of sadness and forlorn return to him.

A pair of hands grab onto his own. The rough feeling of the leather shoots through his brain, still present through the darkness, they belong to the Stranger. She simply splits his fingers apart again, one by one.

“Here we go” Even when shrouded by the night sky, Michael could still see her smile.

The youth is overflown with a feeling of respite… only for it to all turn into dread. Something is making its way through him, like it is a part of his body. He tried to open his mouth, to warn the Stranger, but it is too late.

“Watch out, it’s coming!” He wants to say.

The monster leaps out of the youth body before he could mutter a single word. The Stranger dodges but it is no use. With its hand, the creature swipe at her face. The lower half of the woman head along with part of her neck, gone without a trace. Blood spurt out as the Stranger collapses to the floor, unmoving. Cleaning itself of the red fluid with its consuming power, the creature merges the surrounding once again.

“NOOOOOO” The youth kneels next to the unmoving woman.

He wants to get closer but refrains from doing so. What if his skin would consume her as well, Michael can’t risk that.

“What a woman” The old hunter commented. He has noticed it, the moment she is attack, only some of the eyes of the creature are looking at her. This monster has been mutated by the deity but it hasn’t truly transcended. No, it is still needed here in this mortal realm and that detail shows that the monster still uses its eyes as a way to perceive. But not all of them.

“It’s all my fault” The youth laments “Now you will also die and it will digest me whole”

“Digest? What do you mean, boy?” That choice of word intrigued the old hunter.

“How can you still ask that, you are going to die anytime soon” Michael looks at the man to find him still calm “It’s coming for you… it’s over…”

“Really?”

The old hunter draws his blade stabbing at an eye and from it bloods flows out. A direct hit, but before the monster could escape the man plunges his blade closer.

A crack starts to appear and spreads all over the darkness. The night world collapses in an instant and at the old hunter’s blade is a monster, one of its eyes pierced. Screeching a forlorn down, the creature drops dead. What was once a marsh is now drained of water, only the wood remains. Sunlight going through the branch, banishing the darkness.

“But how?” Michael looks on in disbelief.

The realisation that the creature still sees with its eyes and not all of them are used for that was vital. The Stranger must have realised that when it lunges at her. As her hand reached up to clutch her fatal wound, she flicked one of her fingers. A tiny droplet of blood was sent straight onto the iris of one of the unused eyes. When the creature cleans itself, it couldn’t spot the tiny drop, blending in with the black eye.

But the old hunter is looking out for it, knowing the Stranger wouldn’t let herself be attacked like that. The plan in his mind involves marking the monster with something, possible blood. Spotting that red tint, he strikes the horrible cosmic being down.

But what if it has noticed the drop? That is simply luck, nothing is certain when fighting these unknown horrors. And once again, the old hunter survives.

“You want to know how, it’s just chance” The man said “And she has given us that chance”

Michael looks at the unmoving woman, her once beautiful face now missing quite a chunk, drenched with the same crimson that colours her hair. A mystery from nowhere, she saved him. Seems so impossibly reliable, her words alone were enough to give him the strength to fight back against the darkness.

“We must bury her” The youth said.

“No” The old hunter doesn’t fancy that idea, however.

“But she deserves a proper burial” Michael looks down, he couldn’t give his father once. Now his body forever gone, consumed by the cosmos.

“That’s exactly why we must leave, no animals are in this wood anymore to bother this body” The old hunter kneels down next to the youth. He removes the Stranger hat and place it over her face “The monsters wouldn’t care either, unless you continue to loiter here, drawing their attention” He looks straight at the youth’s eyes “We will return later, if we are alive”

Blood stained the ground, reaching the youth’s boots. Michael sighs, grabbing his face then takes in a deep breath. The once rancid marsh air now cleanses by the cosmos.

“Are you going to the source of this?” The youth asked.

“Yes, it’s my job” The old hunter answered.

The two makes their way out of this dreaded place. Sunlight reaching through, warming the wood, this area has never seen more welcomed. But hiding the façade, horrors of the cosmos still roam. They simply consume everything in their way, even if it belongs to the depth, to Scy’lla.

“Earlier, you talked about being digested, describe that feeling for me” The old hunter asked.

The youth bites his lips, everything returns to him like a flood. He has to pinch his wrist and breath a sigh of relief when everything is normal, when he could feel the slight pain.

“That darkness, the night was so vast. I couldn’t help but feel lost, alone all by myself” Michael explained “I can see that every star feels the same, their lights could be seen but they are all alone. Even that monster feels strangely forlorn, just like me. We all exist under the cosmos and yet we are apart, alone”

Remembering what happened next still bring a chill down his spine. He looks at his palm, sweating profusely.

“Then I heard a voice calling out for me, it promises I could be one with the cosmos. And when everything is one, no one would be lonely anymore. That voice, it was so terribly convincing. I could feel it absorbing me slowly, it makes me feels like I am being digested. But the most horrifying thing is that, I wanted that to happen” Closing his hand into a fist, Michael steels himself “But then she calls to me, just at the moment when the temptation is the greatest. She saved me”

“Is there anything about that voice, a name?” The old hunter asked.

“No, nothing, it was all about me and that forlorn feeling” Michael replied.

The two continues but without their guide, they will have to wander aimlessly until stumbling onto something. But luckily, the old hunter and the youth aren’t the only living beings here. In this very forest, three other also wander, two of those are looking for the pale rider with crimson hair.