(110) Whoops

Deadron stood next to Daena, doing his damndest to keep his knees from shaking.

Why am I here?

“These are the strongest?” a demon with blue eyes that sent shivers down his spine asked.

“These are who can participate,” Daena answered, her arms crossed. “Maybe your plan works, and we lure it away. Maybe it doesn’t. I need strong people here to defend the rest.”

Daedron glanced around the circle of his people formed around this demon and a winged man. Daena, four other council elders, Broga, three guards, and Daedron were present.

Why am I here?!

The demon scanned the assemblage briefly before turning with a shrug.

“If we fail to lure it, everyone dies. But that is your risk to take, not mine,” he said.

Why me?!

“We’re committed to the people present,” Daena said. “What must we do?”

The winged man dropped his magic shield suddenly, without warning, seemingly searching for something in his coat pocket. 

Plop.

A drip of oily, fatty meat splattered the ground only a hundred feet away. It wobbled, gyrating with the residual momentum of the impact. It was disturbing in many ways, but perhaps most unsettling at this moment was the lack of blood. Despite clearly being severed from the creature’s main body, there was no gore or viscera, merely dripping oil.

The meat burst into motion, inching across the ground like a slug, several mouths with jagged bone spurs in place of teeth opening across its glistening body. 

Daedron took a subconscious step back, bumping into Daena, who placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Stay near me, kid,” she said, but before she could do anything, the meat burst into blue flames.

With a flash that forced Daedron to shield his eyes, the blue inferno scoured the beast away until, after only a second, there was nothing remaining, not even a scorch mark on the stone.

Neither the demon nor the winged man even acknowledged the vaporized fleshing, neither when it appeared nor when it was erased. The demon continued to stare toward the battle in the distance, which had begun scaling the walls of the Shattered Cap, and the winged man finally withdrew a scroll from his coat, looking satisfied with himself.

“There we are. Gather around, please, everyone!” he called.

The group pressed close together as the man unfurled the scroll. It was a decorated piece, filled with swirling, flowing lines that ended in harsh angles and bends. Somehow, all the intricate lines seemed to circle back on themselves, as if all the myriad decorations were made with a single stroke.

“One of the ancient scrolls? And one with such a powerful, complicated spell inscribed?” Daena mused with a whistle.

The man recoiled slightly, as if offended by the suggestion.

“This is a spell scrawled by our lady herself. You will not find its like anywhere else. Who else could record Mass Telekinesis without burning the page? Even wyvern skin could not hold such—” he started.

“Please do not even suggest such a thing, Ramose,” the demon scolded dryly, still not breaking eye contact with the fight in the distance.

“I am not suggesting she ever would use wyvern skin, and Wrex likely would not even care…never mind,” the man sighed. “Brace yourselves. We are starting.”

The scroll seemed to evaporate in a flash of purple light, and the winged man, Ramose, raised his right hand, now coated in the swirling purple energy like yarn from a spool. With a wave of his hand, the group was lifted into the air on invisible strings. 

Daedron was momentarily breathless, watching his feet lift off the ground without consent. His recovery was quick, the magic feeling like it grabbed him in a giant’s grip, starting as a comforting sense of security. Though the more he thought about that image, the more uncomfortable he grew.

His heart seemed to stop as a titanic shadow fell over the group. A wall of flesh blacked out the sun, barreling toward them, so massive that their group would not even occupy the palm of its ‘hand’.

The demon spread his hands wide, and a sphere of blue flames rushed out in response. They passed over everyone before Daedron had time even to flinch, yet their passing was little more than a summer breeze. As it rushed outward, the demon brought his hands together, his arms before him, the tips of the fingers on both hands touching at a point, making a sort of triangle shape before him.

The flame sphere collapsed in on itself, forming into a pointed funnel. The tip was aimed where the demon’s fingers pointed, and with a quick gesture like wiping with a rag, he set them spinning.

A heinous mouth of disfigured bony shards opened on the palm of the beast, poised to consume the group whole. However, it met the spinning flames like a hand meets the tip of a knife. The inferno tore into the creature, flesh and mouth all, its heat like none of the blue flames Daedron had witnessed prior.

They flashed the flesh to vapor so fast that much of the limb exploded before the flames could even reach it. Once again, Daedron was disturbed by the sight, which was completely devoid of blood and gore. It was as if the monster was composed entirely of fat, cutting it being no more visceral than cutting the fat on a slice of meat.

Clear fluid burst and dripped below, sizzling, the entire limb completely mangled. The creature bellowed, though whether it was in pain or rage, Daedron was unsure.

“That should do it,” Ramose muttered, propelling the group forward and over the towering walls of the Shattered Cap.

Behind, the ground shook as the monster ascended the walls, exiting the mountain with a leap. It landed on the slope with a crash that cratered the ground and sprinted after them. This was the fastest Daedron had seen it move thus far, and he was not pleased by this new discovery.

The group blasted past mountain caps at a speed that would have been impressive were it not for the tower of meat pursuing them, nearly keeping pace, a single of its steps clearing hundreds of feet. 

A group of demons flew toward them, and as they drew alongside, Daedron recognized Leia among them.

“Remain behind. Guard the colony,” the lead demon commanded.

The other three broke off and flew back toward Chicolua, much to Daedron’s relief. Though the creature was chasing them, he could not be sure its…drippings would follow. There could be animate chunks of flesh terrorizing the town even now.

The demon seemed to beckon Ramose closer as they flew, and he held up his hand, hiding it from the rest of the group, though Daedron could just make out magic writing above his palm from this angle.

[Nightmare Amalgam 516]

Daedron felt the blood drain from his face, from all his extremities. Five hundred?! He could scarcely believe it was even possible!

Why am I here?!

“That is…” Ramose said.

“Dropping, but not quickly. It is only a couple of levels less than when I last looked, so two to three levels per ten minutes,” the demon explained.

“Then it would be hours before I could hope to contend with it alone,” Ramose sighed.

“The decrease is also thanks to Leonidas and the lieutenants’ work. I suspect its natural decay is even slower. This remains the best option, though…” the demon trailed off.

He now wore a grimace, the first real expression Daedron had seen on the demon.

“We will drop you off and leave immediately. We are far from the colony. It will not be a problem. Your decision was sound,” Ramose assured.

“I hope so,” the demon muttered.

If Daedron was not already as stressed as he could possibly be, he might have been disconcerted by the demon’s obvious worry. He had been unbothered by anything that had happened thus far, so seeing him worried was not a good omen.

“Here will do,” the demon suddenly said, and the group came to a halt just above a barren valley.

A circular basin of gray, jagged stone lay below, bereft of life. It seemed a valley that would thrive should it be located even a few miles in any direction, but it was the unfortunate victim of the Peaks’ wild topography.

Tall mountains encircled it, trapping moisture outside. Where rainwater or snowmelt might collect in similar depressions elsewhere, this one had nothing, no sparse rain to support even the hardiest of plants or animals, and no snow coating even the tallest peaks surrounding it to melt.

The demon dropped without warning, careening down into the valley, yet before he hit the bottom, he was engulfed by a surge of blue flames. These seemed even more potent than his previous display. They roiled and crashed against the walls of the valley like a tide, filling it as though it were a bowl, and they bubbled and broiled as if wroth.

With a gesture of his magic-entwined hand, Ramose flew the group toward the opposite end of the valley, aiming to pass over the rim, yet a gigantic mound of jiggling flesh pulled itself over the edge before them. The creature seemed to have circled around the outside, rather than following them from their ingress.

It wasted no time, grabbing a hunk of flesh from its chest and launching it at the group with a roar. The globule, easily larger than a house, sped toward the group despite Ramose’s attempt to fly backward. The creature seemed desperate, as if it craved their lifeforce more than its own preservation.

Realizing he had no time to get out of the way, Ramose lifted his hand, and the purple threads glowed with energy.

The blob of meat smashed through the air just to their side, missing them by only a few feet, before slamming into the valley below. Ramose held his hand before his face, watching the purple threads sputter and dim after his quick maneuver.

“Problem?” Daena asked.

“Spells stored in scrolls can only handle so much use before dissipating. We must make haste,” he explained.

A roar that shook Daedron’s chest rocked the air, silencing the group, forcing some to cover their ears.

A column of fire towered behind them, crystallizing, solidifying into a ghastly form of fur, teeth, and claws. A snout like a predatory cat emerged, sharp fangs dripping with blue fire instead of saliva, emitting a low growl that seemed to vibrate the air.

Its head was covered with short black fur, and its slit blue eyes, which Daedron recognized, were glaring at the group. A mane of long black fur surrounded its neck, and a short-furred body that was all muscle sat below.

Broad, muscular shoulders were wrapped in enormous metal chains, ending in sharp claws, the fingers they were attached to flexing, as if eager to dig into flesh. A garment of chains and ragged leather covered the creature’s midsection, and its unguligrade legs ended with hooves that buried themselves into the solid ground under its immense weight.

It stood upright on two legs, and its huge horns, which started on its forehead and curved in a smooth arc toward its back, were wreathed in flames.

“Wha—” Daena started.

“That is what we needed. He will be enraged and insensate in this form, targeting whatever the largest threat is, which should not be us—” Ramose began to explain.

The demon’s growl intensified, and it crouched down, as if about to leap. Its eyes were trained on the group, and Ramose, unmistakably.

Ramose looked between the demon and the sputtering spell he held in his right hand, the spell crafted by Nephthys herself.

“I did not expect—uh...whoops,” he said simply.

The demon belched a torrent of blue flames that spread to encompass the entire valley in scorching death. Ramose did the only thing he could in response, sending the group soaring straight into the air, high above even the peaks below.

Though it was difficult to tell what was happening in the valley swallowed by the flames, Daedron heard the unmistakable sound of the meat-creature’s wet scream. It had not escaped the searing flames, and a crash that dislodged boulders for miles around signaled that the true fight had likely just begun.

“Well, that was closer than I had planned, but our work is done. We shall return,” Ramose said, sending them blasting back toward Chicolua.

The sounds of unmitigated destruction echoed behind them, but Daedron did his best to ignore them. He would be glad to return home, and he would never take an uneventful day for granted again.

Why was I even here?