Apexus heard them before he saw them. The Deathhounds screeched with high pitched voices as they chased after him. They scaled the cliff in seconds, like spiders scurrying up a wall, and made their way into the canopies.

‘No, no, nope!’ the slime thought, beating his wings in an effort to gain height. No matter the enemy, he was safe in the air, that was the adage that had proven true time and time again. The demons, however, were another calibre of enemy.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” the disharmonious screams echoed as all four of the Deathhounds leapt into the air. For a moment, it seemed like they would miss the slime, then they grabbed the air itself. It was unclear how they did it, but their limbs definitely found resistance in the shapeless gas and they leapt again. They didn’t fly, they leapt from one invisible footing to another. Although not as manoeuvrable as Apexus, they were much quicker and had soon caught up to him.

One of the Deathhounds landed on top of Apexus. At over two and a half metres, the demon was more than large enough to grapple the slime and its weight caused them to drop like a rock. That two of the Tharnatos class demon’s arms were holding the slime’s wings still wasn’t helping.

They turned in the sky, the demon hissing, perfectly aware of its orders. Shifting weight so it was on the bottom, it effortlessly feathered the fall with its remaining four limbs. The landing impact rippled through the dense muscles without harm. Apexus hadn’t been lazy during the fall, opening his membrane and now trying his best to encapsulate the demon. A last-ditch effort to hurt it and somehow get away from the other three.

The demon looked at the goo spilling on its chest. Each of its four eyes blinked individually, naked terror in the abomination’s behaviour. The long head reared around, inspecting whether its target was hurt and now bleeding on top of it. It gave Apexus enough time to even expand around one of the Deathhound’s arms.

Enough of it had been covered now that the digestion process began. “Ssssssss,” the Deathhound growled, a voice like the hissing of a snake crossed with the growling of an avalanche, “Sparkeater! Grrrrr…” It was clear that the Deathhound held itself back from completely ripping Apexus’ apart. With as little violence as possible, it ripped its arm out of Apexus mass, then threw the entire slime off itself.

The opened membrane caused a lot of Apexus’ slime to fly through the air, reduced to basic water. The three other Deathhounds approached the chimeric goo, as he closed his wounds as quickly as he could. If there had been anywhere to flee to from the skittering abominations, the slime would have, but they approached, tails raised, like bear sized scorpions hunting in a pack.

“Sparkeater?” one of the Deathhound’s asked the one that had caught Apexus. “He is a Sparkeater? Rare, too rare, I don’t want it. Is he weak?”

“Laughably,” the first one answered, their mouths dripping with black saliva as they spoke. “It has legs to walk but moves in a crawl. Worthless creature, easy target, Master’s prey. Body liquid, body eats.”

“Eats fast?”

“Weak and acid slow. Bones under skin, hard under gripless. I take pain, I take honour.”

The three Deathhounds hissed at the original one, now grabbing Apexus by the arms. “Let go!” the slime said, trying to deter the creature by letting its hand sink through the outer membrane. Anything he had faced before would have flinched at having its hand submerged in acid. It was the last and desperate defence manoeuvre he had.

At the best of times, it came at the loss of a lot of biomass. The predator would usually thrash, tear open the membrane even more, causing a lot of slime to be spilled, as their limbs were suddenly dissolved. Regardless, it had saved Apexus’ life against that eagle and made it easier a few times after that.

The Deathhound gripped Apexus’ bones and began dragging the slime. The smooth skin inside the slime’s mass just refused to dissolve, no matter how strongly he concentrated on it. Although there was definitely some progress made, the chimeric slime could not cause any meaningful damage.

And so, with futile struggles, Apexus was dragged back. The other three Deathhounds stalked after them, growling and cursing every step along the way. “You don’t deserve honour of Master Apotho, Kurlesh.”

“Kurlesh deserves nothing.”

“Kurlesh is nothing. He is more Parasyte than mortal. Parasyte!” “Parasyte, Parasyte!” the other two echoed mockingly.

The named Deathhound turned around and screamed at his comrades. It was a hateful, prolonged sound, that made birds fly all around the forest. It echoed through the trees, over the canopies, made whoever managed to catch as much of a whisper of it shiver with panic. Apexus felt it down to his core. The reverberations of it still echoed in his liquid mass and rang in his sensitive ears, as the other three Tharnatos class demons snickered among them like hyenas.

“Your prey, Master,” Kurlesh lowered his entire posture, as he pinned Apexus to the floor.

“Good,” Apotho’s voice was neutral. He should have been happier, but couldn’t find it in himself to gloat. ‘Sink into oblivion already, Gizmo,’ the Warlock thought, shoving the slime’s importance to the side. There were proper things he had to get done. “Kurlesh, you keep watching over him. Don’t let Apexus escape, don’t harm him.”

“Apexussssssss,” the Deathhound giggled, his nostrils widening as he sniffed the slime. “What apex are you? The apex of disgust?”

The Warlock turned to the other three demons. “Terlash, there is a Ragressian somewhere in the local building of the Church. Find her. An exiled angel should also be somewhere close to that. Bring both of them to the Stem. Purlesk, Turlesh, split north and south, you will find evacuating masses.” Apotho took an artful pause. “Convince them to come to the Stem as well. Just spare the young ones.”

“As you wish, massster,” they hissed, then split according to his orders.

“Now, let us walk, Apexus,” Apotho mused, leaving behind the torso of the dead Cardinal in the burned-out summoning circle. “I have something beautiful to show you.”