Morphling

Whinereos shook his head when he heard the name, “I’ve neither seen nor heard from the beasts in decades, but I personally met the Tyrant that led them back then. It was a large white beast and their troupe size was barely a few dozens. It was more wise than powerful, but if you’re saying the current leader is incredibly strong then perhaps, they have changed. Rather unfortunate if that’s the case since the white Tyrant was amiable to the fae.”

It is widely known that Tyrants were either solitary or led their own groups. There has been no precedent that a group would be led by more than one Tyrant, so Whinereos believed that the white Tyrant may have either been killed or driven off.

“Still, no matter how strong the Primatus are, in the end they are only beasts. The Nachtnamari are monsters that feed off of life essence and their presence brings decay to all things. That is the same reason why I and my wildling kin cannot help directly in this war.”

Narissa nodded in acknowledgment and added, “I have also heard that the Primatus don’t number too many. The troupe led by that Tyrant only numbered in the dozens according to my girls, so I doubt they’d be of much help in this fight.”

The dozens the fae described was simply a patrolling group and each patrol only numbered few, but it would be later that they would know of this.

“Though the Felvalim had given it the title of “Demon”, a mortal beast of flesh and blood cannot aid us in any way. Our only hope still remains with finishing the vessel.”

Without saying anything further, all the fae acknowledged this fact and silently continued on with their task.

– - –

“Graah!”

Ogmai roared as he formed a massive body of stone rivaling the Aberration while charging towards it with a shoulder tackle.

The Aberration tried to avoid the charge, but Amver continued to harass it with his white-hot fire, preventing it from completely avoiding the attack.

The beast was flipped over when Ogmai crashed onto its leg, but its preternatural agility allowed it to recover almost immediately.

Amver didn’t relent as he continued to bombard the beast with fiery blasts.

Avoiding only the most dangerous of the explosions, the Aberration continued to elude the worst of their attacks like a slippery eel.

While it appeared as though the Aberration was mostly on the defensive, in truth it was hardly ever in danger. With its nimbleness and cunning, it continued to avoid only the most dangerous attacks while keeping close to the fae. Grazes and insignificant injuries healed almost instantaneously while its stamina was near endless as it continued to exude the red mist.

As long as Ogmai and Amver kept in contact with the mist, their energy continued to be drained and it wouldn’t be long until they were completely exhausted.

The two fae lords knew this, but they were out of ideas as they know they couldn’t ignore the Aberration.

The corners of its mouth raised as though it were mocking the two fae, but while it was distracted, the mist around it began to disperse.

Not noticing this, the beast began narrowly dodging their attacks once again, but this time the attacks that connected did more damage than it expected.

Its leg was thoroughly shattered as it was flung in the air by Ogmai’s tackle while its burns from Amver were much more severe and healed a lot slower.

The Aberration was dazed, but it quickly realized that the red mist it was emitting continued to dissipate, which caused its current wretched state.

Its six eyes turned to look for the culprit and discovered a white powder that seemed to hang in the air.

Realizing what the powder was, the Aberration let out a powerful reverberating roar, blowing away the powder.

Just as the powder was blown, a bullet struck the back of the Aberration’s head and disintegrated while releasing more powder. Normally, the Aberration wouldn’t have noticed such a small attack that didn’t intend to harm, but because it became wary after seeing the powder, it turned towards the direction from where the bullet was fired.

Loen flinched as all six eyes of the beast stared at him.

“It’s on to me!”

Just as he yelled, the Aberration was already charging towards him in a mad dash.

The beast leapt over hundreds of meters in a few seconds and just as its arm was about to fall upon him like a hammer of death, a massive bolt of white lightning struck it from above.

BOOM

Instead of the telltale sound of coursing electricity, the sound of an earth-shaking explosion sounded out as the bolt struck the Aberration smashing it onto the ground.

Loen heaved a sigh of relief.

“Couldn’t come sooner, old mage.”

As though he was gradually fading into existence, Jortus appeared standing in front of Loen as though he was always there.

“The spirits of the divine are quite finicky. It took a bit of goading, but they finally decided to help the storm spirits at the right moment.”

While Jortus was casually speaking with Loen, the Aberration slowly tried to reach out towards the mage.

Jortus already noticed it, but remained calm and pretended to ignore it.

Just as the beast appeared like it was crawling forward to crush him, the massive form of Ogmai appeared from above to deliver an elbow drop.

With another resounding smash, the titanic man of rock delivered a heavy blow that cratered the earth.

Soon, the dust cleared to reveal the Aberration’s twitching form held firmly in place by the stone titan.

“Now!”

Ogmai cried out.

Above him, Amver was creating a massive swirling storm of fire. While the others tied down the monster, he took his time charging up his most powerful flames.

Supplementing him, Jortus was willing the spirits to charge up another bolt.

As though they planned it beforehand, the two of them simultaneously unleashed their attacks.

A gigantic white bolt surrounded by a whirling storm of fire lanced down towards the stone titan and the Aberration it pinned down.

In a great flash and explosion, the entire battlefield was illuminated as though a star had crashed upon them.

Blinded by its brightness, the sphere of white light burned bright until it slowly faded away.

The remains of the stone titan became charred and molten hot, but Ogmai’s main body was able to leave through contact with the earth, so he was unable to determine the monster’s demise.

An ear grating laugh suddenly echoed out behind them.

They immediately turned to see the Aberration still alive, but not unscathed. Its body was completely burned and was releasing smoke, yet its wounds appeared to be slowly recovering. Aside from its burns, what appeared different was the “chrysalis” that was on the creature’s back was now above its head.

The sphere that held the Niskari Lord suddenly morphed with a yellow streak at its center giving it the appearance of a reptilian eye.

[Pitiful bugs of this rotting world.]

The creature spoke without speaking. Its words rang in their heads and felt as though they were insects trying to worm their way into their minds.

[How foolish of you to believe you had me cornered. Had one of you chosen to sacrifice themselves, then perhaps I might have been gravely injured. Regret your pathetic clinging to life.]

Ogmai scrunched his face in displeasure at its words. It held their attack in little regard and dared to mock them by saying one of them had to die simply to cause it injury.

[I will show you all your folly. Had you chosen to die, it would have lessened your suffering. Your world is destined to be consumed.]

With these words, the beast charged again as though its previous injuries were a lie.

Amver tried to intercept the beast by charging forward, but as though it expected it, the beast avoided him with a feint and leapt. Instead, it attacked Ogmai while he was preparing his titanic form.

Unable to finish channeling his armor, he was smacked away by the Aberration’s massive claw.

“Ogmai!”

Angered by the creature’s actions, Amver tried to unleash a widespread blaze. While he was channeling his attack, however, the Aberration’s tail lashed out like a whip and smacked him away.

[Those bugs will be back, but no sooner than I can corrode you pitiful humans.]

With a sneer, Jortus spun his staff then smacked the ground with it. A vast runic circle suddenly appeared that encircled the ground under the Aberration.

“You’ve gotten careless, Bolragmal. It seems your years of imprisonment have made you impatient. Or is it rather your mind had grown dull?”

The Aberration twitched upon hearing the mage’s words. The “eye” on its head began to focus on the old mage and upon recognizing him, the edges of the Aberration’s face raised up in a terrible grin.

[My, my. If it isn’t an old acquaintance I see? Pathetic little Spirit Mage, it seems you’ve grown quite old. Do you honestly believe you can win with your power along with these wretched bugs?]

“Say what you will, vile Niskari. The Gate of Rauvanna may not be able to completely contain you, but it is enough until the arrival of your new prison.”

The eye then turned towards the runic circle that surrounded it and laughed.

[Ha ha! It seems you’ve learned a few tricks over the years. And yet, it seems you’ve still remained naïve.]

Jortus’ eyes narrowed upon hearing those words, “What are you – “

Just as he was about to respond, a yell from behind cut him off.

“Look out Jortus!”

He turned in time to see a small silhouette suddenly leap up with a dagger in hand.

Although caught by surprise, Jortus was still able to block the attack with his staff. As the silhouette’s face revealed itself through the staff’s light, the mage was shocked to see the assailant.

“You! But – “

Jortus swallowed his words at the sight before him. He recognized the one attacking him was the halfling party member of the half-elf mage that was possessed. However, his face was covered in growths and had a blank expression with his mouth agape with drool.

Further back, he also saw Loen dealing with Gern who was in a similar state.

“Wretched beast, you planted sarcomas in them as well! But how!? I tested them all myself!”

Just as he was yelling, a bow was slung over his head and pulled under his chin to choke him. The archer girl revealed herself to be in a similar state as well.

[Gahahaha! You’re not the only one who’s learned a few tricks little mage. The more we remain in this world, the more we grow and attain more from our master. It was simple enough to hide a few spores that were so faint they emitted no energy. They simply needed to be near my presence then voila! Simple puppets!]

The Aberration continued to laugh as the circle of light around him dispersed with Jortus being unable to channel the spell.

With leisure, the Aberration reached out and grabbed Jortus from the two he was tangled with and held him up to its eye.

[It’s been fun, little mage. I’d like so much to toy with you, but you are an eyesore I can’t risk leaving alone or imprisoning. Any last words?]

With defiance and near madness in his expression, Jortus boldly proclaimed, “May you rot in the Abyss as the Light of the Pantheon shines upon you.”

Hearing his words, the Aberration simply snorted. It opened its maw ready to devour Jortus. Oh, how he’d love to slowly corrode him and whittle him away in despair. After it’s done with him, he’ll be sure to slowly savor the other humans.

These were its thoughts before a strange spherical object smashed onto its face.

Startled rather than harmed, the Aberration rubbed the sides of its maw as it stared at the strange object that smacked it.

The object twitched and started to open up.

Before them stood an ape with disproportionately massive arms encased in a shell which seemingly had a confused looking expression.

***