56. The True Monster

The ritual had begun.

The pile of corpses in the center of the temple had been set alight with black flames which seemed to soak up all the light and joy around them. The suspended Heroes groaned weakly as their very souls were being sapped out of them.

Maxim chanted in the infernal language of Beasts, which burned his tongue and seemed to darken the chamber with each successive word.

His entire being brimmed with power. The souls of his victims fed him well, gave him the ability to perform miracles or atrocities. Despite what the Beasts sharing his body had in mind, he was planning on the former.

Something lurked within the flames before him. A sliver of an undulating monstrosity of eyes and mouths. Its inscrutable gaze was fixed on him, and wordless whispers spurred him to continue, to complete the ritual and make her free.

The One Among the Stars.

So close… Nasaizh cooed within Maxim’s mind. Finish it. We will all ascend.

But Maxim had no intention of letting the matriarch into the world. He channeled the energy of the harvested souls away from the endless prison, and into something else.

His very own wish.

I will see you soon, my daughters, he thought.

Fool! Khruj screeched, sensing the change in energies. What treachery is this?

“Treachery? None,” Maxim said. “My loyalties were clear from the start. You assumed I would be caught up in your mad scramble for dominance. I was not.

“You think I would remain loyal to you? If so, you are the true fool. Or have you forgotten? You are the one who took them away from me, Nasaizh!”

They strained against him, of course. Nasaizh. Khruj. Gorod. But he had been bottling his strength for this very moment. His will remained supreme for just a few moments, but that was enough.

The unknowable creature inside the flames howled its dismay, screamed curses and warnings in a thousand dead languages, but Maxim paid it no heed.

Maxim continued his chant, managing to put his hands up despite the Beasts attempting to seize control of his body. He raised them to his heavens, his chant growing to a pitch, throat burning from the effort of sustaining the eldritch language.

A flash of pure white filled his vision as he channeled the power of pilfered souls into a single point.

Maxim smiled.

He had done it.

*****

Kiren’s back arched as his spine popped and shifted.

Pain and rage coursed through him. It became his entire being. He was unable to feel anything else.

His body changed faster than he could comprehend, growing in size, its very structure fundamentally altered. His muscles swelled. His skin bristled with fur. His mouth elongated into a muzzle filled with sharpened teeth. His limbs lengthened and warped, hands and feet becoming clawed paws.

He felt it all. Every bone cracking, every tendon snapping and reconnecting, every muscle torn to shreds and made whole again. His heart beat faster and faster, a demented drum in his ears that seemed to adhere to no rhythm or reason.

Even his name slipped away from him, and he became something else.

Something feral.

Not a man, not any longer.

A wolf.

Eventually, the transformation slowed, the pain receding as his bones settled. He was left panting as he trembled on his four new legs.

The wolf’s vision snapped into perfect focus, keener than he had ever known despite the darkness around him. He steadied himself, a low growl escaping his throat.

The spawnlings still feasted on his master as the humanoids came together in some vulgar dance, stroking their fleshy, malformed bodies in utter rapture.

The wolf could stand it no longer.

He loped over the horde on long, powerful legs, crushing Beasts underfoot with each step. They cried out and clawed at him, but they were nothing.

In only a few moments, he reached his master and lunged at one of the remaining humanoids. His jaws closed around soft flesh while the monster was still reeling in shock. His teeth sank deep, splintering bone. He shook the thing around like a ragdoll in the air. Lightning arced over his muzzle, but the pain was only a sting. He tossed the broken Beast aside, knocked the other down with a swipe of his tail.

The spawnlings scattered from his master in fear, leaving a man so torn apart he could hardly be recognized, surrounded by his own blood and shredded viscera.

The wolf threw his head back and howled into the night, standing vigil over his master. The sound carried across the courtyard, a mournful echo, and all else became silent. Even the Beasts stilled, frozen at the sight of him.

Because they knew.

He was the true monster. The only hunter here.

And they were the prey.

Slowly, the wolf bent down and picked up his master’s sword between his teeth. It had looked heavy while his master wielded it, but to him, it was light as straw.

With a growl, he issued a challenge to the Beasts. Dared them to attack.

For several moments, there was no movement.

Then they charged. A few, at first, then all at once.

Hundreds. Thousands. He could not tell, and it did not matter.

He would kill them all.

*****

The Purifiers tracked Evangel by the stench of his corruption, Legario leading the way. Eventually, that trail brought them to an abandoned temple built in the Creator’s glory. Now, ghostly light streamed from the windows. Screams both human and other could be heard from within.

Lace flew up to the rooftop, still unsteady in the air. She landed on the slippery tiles and pressed herself against the tall belltower. Magge brought forth his water to surround the temple. Legario, Rusty, and Cora encircled the north side, beneath the large stained-glass window.

“We don’t know what’s in there,” Legario said, his voice barely carrying up to the roof, “but we don’t have any room for caution. It seems that the ritual is already in progress. Let’s hope we aren’t too late.”

“What’s the plan, then?” Cora asked as they went around to the south side, which sported a pair of sturdy oak doors.

“Rusty, you break in the door. I’ll try and line up a good shot on Evangel. Cora, you’re on rabble duty. Magge, you’ll stay outside and provide backup. Lace, you get the window, surprise him from the other side. You got all that?”

Everyone voiced their assent.

“Got it!” Lace called down.

“Good,” Legario said. “Get into positions, everyone!”

*****

The light faded.

Maxim sighed and opened his eyes.

The black fire had gone out, and the Heroes hung limp as their souls had gone out of them.

He looked down, laid eyes on two little girls standing in front of him. They both had brown hair, like their mother, with pale skin and big, questioning eyes.

They were just as angelic as he remembered.

“Girls…” he murmured. “I did it.”

Maxim made to kneel. The Beasts inside him strained for every hair’s breadth, but he won out.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he said, reaching out with two of his many hands to touch their faces.

Lessie screamed and pulled her sister back, the two of them nearly stumbling into the pile of burned corpses behind them. Mara began to weep at the sight of him, muttering prayers to the Creator as her lips trembled.

“Girls, please,” Maxim said, extending his arms. “It’s me. Father.”

“Stay away from us!” Lessie cried.

“Mommy, mommy, mommy,” Mara spluttered, sobbing into her hands.

Maxim pulled back. He looked down at himself. It was heavy with throbbing flesh, writhing limbs poking off in all directions, faces stuck in silent screams running up his torso.

“I-I…” Maxim stuttered.

The large window at the back of the temple shattered. A woman tumbled through in a shower of colored glass. The woman landed on the floor in a crouch, clad in a suit of white and gold.

Maxim’s mind echoed with recognition.

The girl.

*****

Veera and most of the apprentices who could still stand stared with rapt attention out of the windows of the main hall.

A black wolf, larger than a horse by half, stood alone against the Beasts. It swung a massive sword around by its mouth, tearing through spawnlings by the dozens like so much chaff.

“Who is that?” an apprentice asked aloud, to no one in particular. “We don’t have a Hero like that, do we?”

“That is Kiren Odirk,” Bloodhound said. He watched from some distance, arms folded behind his back.

A wave of murmurs went through the apprentices.

“How is that possible?” Haden asked, leaning on Tommyn so he could watch out of the window, despite his extensive injuries. “That’s not his Power!”

“Kiren has reached another level entirely,” Bloodhound said. “He’s become something else.”

Creator’s breath, how is this possible? Veera thought. She watched Kiren hold his ground against the entire Beast horde without losing a single step of ground. They leapt onto his body and tore away with claws and bony spines, ripping out chunks of flesh and fur, but he remained standing.

Matted with blood, Kiren howled his utter hatred for his foe.

Veera looked down at her hands. He’s still out there, fighting. What excuse do I have to stay in here, where it’s safe?

A mass of spawnlings tackled the wolf, and he stumbled, growling. Bites on his legs caused him to tremble, and no matter how many monsters he cleared away, there were always more. Too many.

“I am afraid that Kiren has resigned himself to folly,” Bloodhound said. “There is nothing we can do for him now.”

The apprentices watched now in solemn silence, joined by a few of the Heroes. They watched Kiren’s final stand.

No, Veera thought. I have no right to do any less than him. If I watch him die from this fucking window, how could I ever call myself a Hero?

She headed for the doors.

“Stop!” Bloodhound barked. “I forbid anyone from leaving the Guild Hall! We need every able-bodied defender in here.”

Veera ignored him.

The two Heroes at the door silently lifted the barricades as she drew closer. Bloodhound kept shouting commands, but no one was listening.

Looking back, she noticed that she wasn’t alone. Haden, Tommyn, a few other apprentices, as well as Counter. All grave-faced, most of them wounded, but determined all the same.

The doors opened, and they entered back into the courtyard, stepping over corpses as they headed for the great wolf.

“I don’t think any of us will make it,” Counter said, jogging to the front of the pack. “I won’t judge if you head back now.”

No one diverted from their path.

“Good,” he said. “Stay behind me. I’ll do my best to keep you safe.”

Veera summoned chains into her hands that wrapped around her wrists, the glowing constructs barbed near the bottom. The first spawnling that came close, she whipped a chain around its neck and pulled, causing it to tumble through the air towards her. She kicked it in its ugly face, crushing the bones within, and allowed her chain to unwrap as they continued on.

They began to encounter more resistance, the horde thickening out well before they would reach Kiren. The apprentices drew their swords and set to work, hacking away at the creatures while Counter raised shields to protect them.

Veera summoned chains out of the ground in front of them, ensnaring spawnlings so that the other apprentices could easily dispatch them.

Slowly but surely, they gained ground, fighting through a bloody tide.

Kiren teetered under the weight of his opposition, nearly consumed beneath their sheer numbers. More than twenty of them clung to his body, weighing down his every movement as he struggled to swing the sword between his teeth, gums bleeding with the effort.

They broke through. Counter arranged the apprentices in a tight line around Kiren, facing outward. Vera brought forth a myriad of chains that wrapped around the spawnlings clinging to his body and pulled them off, a couple at a time, until he was completely free of them.

Kiren did not seem to take note of their presence, but he moved easier, slicing through the horde with abandon.

The sight of it made Veera smile.

Maybe we can actually win this.