The ground under her feet gave way, plunging her into darkness. She fell, and continued to fall, no end in sight. All the girl could do was scream, scream into emptiness that did not respond with echoes, or any sound. She yelled and thrashed as she continued to fall, flailing in vain against no one in an attempt to somehow feel anything other than falling. Her eyes unable to adjust to the absolute nothingness around her. Time itself slipped away, her voice giving out long before any end was in sight. Her lungs burned, throat raw, her mouth dry, and her body limp, yet she still fell. Eventually the terror had changed to anger, then confusion, and finally acceptance. She closed her eyes and simply let herself fall. There was no sense in struggling anymore, not like her frail body could do so by now. Just as she was ready to simply disappear, the falling stopped. The silence broke by her limp body hitting something wet and cold. She should be dead from a fall like that, and yet she lay there, body limp and to exhausted to move. She lived.. She was alive. She could only mange to open her eyes and look around. That absolute void gave way to a floor under her that slowly angulated. It rose and fell very slowly. There was a light illuminating the area beside her. Something moved towards her, the source of light seemed to come from this... thing. It was soon upon her, eyes gazing down on her. Eyes that made no logical sense and were filled with chaos. The girl could do nothing but watch as those eyes lowered to her face, until inches from it. She tried to look away but couldn't. Unable, or unwilling, she wasn't sure which.

And then it spoke.

"I will grace thy flesh. Ye will be consecrated in mine sovereignty as a Vassal"

It's voice drove her mad. The words burrowed and tunneled into her ears, clutching onto her mind like a vice. It was many voices, overlapping and changing. Constantly shifting higher and lower with every single syllable it spoke. And yet it had no mouth, just those eyes that burned and smoldered above her, like a tortured flame, unable to be contained. Tears ran down her face, drool and snot bubbled and frothed from her nose and mouth. It stopped speaking, and suddenly she was bathed in scarlet light that engulfed her, and the reality around her.

The carriage stopped near Baldir. It pulling to the side of the Sable Road as the group got out. Grune grabbed his spear, looking up to the pillar of black smoke rising from the town. "Not good." Hunuki looked to him, then to Illiya. She moved past them, heading directly into the city, frowning. "Hey!" Hunuki hurried after her, Grune only a few steps behind. She stopped at the gate, looking up to it. No guards to lower it to let them inside. The town itself was silent. She raised her hands, moving them through the air slowly. Dragon Prose appeared and formed in the air as she did. A faint line of light connecting each word. When she finished the spell was cast. The gate being forced open. The chains pulling the heavy metal gate up, locking it in place. "Let's hea-" She was cutoff but a horrid stench that seeped outwards from the town. It burning her eyes and nose immediately, causing her to recoil and back away. Acrid and pungent. The smell of carrion and the faint taste on iron in the air. She almost gagged, but composed herself quickly. Both Hunuki and Grune covered their noses. "Whatever happened in there was her doing.." Illiya said, looking to them, wiping her eyes. "This smell is just like Aslandus." Hunuki said, moving in front of Illiya. Grune took his spear, stabbing it into the ground. The Prose written along the shaft started spinning, rotating around before locking into place, word by word, lighting up. A protective bubble surrounded each of them, keeping the air of the village out. "Case it's poisonous." He looked to them both, before heading inside the village. The town was silent, an unnatural stillness was heavy in the air. The buildings and homes seemed undisturbed, There were empty wagons on the road leading out. Equids that usually pulled them were gone. The harnesses and bridles lay empty in the street. Hunuki went over to a table outside of the tavern, picking up a still full cup of ale, the bowl of stew beside it half full, a spoon still in the bowl. Illiya knelt down beside the road, picking up a stuffed doll, looking it over, no child in sight who owned it. She brushed the mud off of it a bit, standing up. "It's like they all just vanished." She looked to the other two. Hunuki nodded, before heading into the tavern. Everything was still, plates of food, mugs of ale sat still on the tables. The bar-maid's tray was on the floor in front of him. A spilled glass of water and a few pieces of bread were beside it. He knelt down, picking up the bread, looking it over. "Not stale.. but not warm. Only been here maybe less than a day. What happened here?" The pit in his stomach getting worse, suddenly the silence broke when he heard something wooden snap further inside.

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His ears pinned back slightly. He raised his hand, the gem on his wrist sparked as the rift opened. He plunged his hand inside, withdrawing the Scythe. He felt it's weight, it nearly pulling him down to a knee as the blade hit the wooden floor. "Damn, did it get heavier??" He looked down to it, managing to lift it off the ground enough to keep it in the air, the black blade gave no reflection, seeming to dim the area around it, absorbing the light. He made his way into the back of tavern, back into the kitchen, the noises getting louder. Squelches and wet squirming could be heard. An unnatural clanking of bones and metal up ahead. He held the scythe tighter, hefting it up more as he rounded the corner. He was about to call out when he froze. The source of the noise in front of him. Bones crunched and creaked as the mass moved, hunched over itself as it pulled an iron stove into the gaping hole that dripped with red slime and meat. Intestines and organs hanging off of it's form. Limbs composed of arms, legs, ribcages, and dozens of fingers held onto the stove as it vanished into the wet, putrid hole that was apparently it's mouth. It's body was a mass of flesh, a pile of corpses bound and mashed together with no real sense of reason. The sounds of metal bending and breaking. A guttural, spitting and hacking sound coming from the maw on its front. Bile and blood splashed out of the hole onto the floor below as it devoured to metal stove whole. Hunuki took a step away from this.... thing, clutching the scythe tightly. He had to get back to the other two, right now. The creature stopped, One of the half melted heads in its body suddenly looking at him. It's eyes half hanging out of the sockets, staring directly at him. The giant mass lurched, spinning around with an unnatural speed, facing him. It rising up quickly to it's full height, towering over him. A mass of flesh, bones, and blood. Two giant eyes staring down and through him. It screamed, a mass of voices piercing the silence, shaking the walls around them, knocking over chairs and tables. It lifted one mass of arms, holding a broken sword, another clutching a spear. Hunuki held the scythe by his side, his legs shaking for a moment at the horror in front of him before he gritted his teeth. He had to stop this abomination.