They were running to a gate, thrown open by lucky servants who escaped the horror.

Faster! Fucking go faster!

Distorted squeals came from the Corrupted. It crossed the humongous front yard like nothing, tearing out the grass and dirt as it gained on them. His hairs stood on end. He pumped his legs as fast as they would go.

“I, I can’t...” Lilith said, gasping for air.

The distance between them grew by the second as her dress slowed her down. Her stamina was nearly gone. The maid was a bit further behind her due to her debilitating injury.

Kieran didn’t slow or stop until he saw the monster barrel past them. It dived onto the crippled man and devoured him. He could only pray the old butler succumbed to his injuries or was finished off quickly.

Once Lilith and the maid passed through the gate, he threw it shut. They both slowed to a near stop, Lilith to catch her breath, and the maid to reduce the weight she put on her foot. The beast was feeding, but it fed fast, maybe faster now that it knew more food might be getting away.

“Don’t stop,” he pulled Lilith along, and deeper into the cover of the trees.

“Wait,” the maid yelled. She picked up a stick, using it as a makeshift crutch as she struggled to keep up.

The enormous manor faded into the background. He didn’t know where they were going. The first thought was to loop to the main road and seek the help of the village but what if they just brought the monster along? The moment before the monster dived for the old man, he made eye contact with it. Its disgusting bloodshot eye watched him even as he shut the gate.

It knew it was fast enough to catch up to them. It would hunt them down.

Even if the village could somehow keep them safe, there was no time for detours. They had to get as far as they could in the time the butler would buy them. They had to hide. Delve as deep into the woods as possible and hope some hill or overgrown grass would protect them.

Kieran slowed when he couldn’t see the Manor anymore. Lilith pulled away and planted one arm against a tree. She vomited out her lunch while Kieran stifled his dry heave. Through his tears, he saw the exhausted maid pushing her crumbling makeshift crutch to the limit. The maid collapsed once she caught up.

“Let’s rest here for a minute,” she said.

“No, we can’t stay.”

The initial adrenaline had worn off. His legs ached while his chest constricted with each breath. The warning signals were loud and clear, his body cried out for a rest. Yet, he couldn’t shake the fear gnawing at the edge of his mind. It first appeared when he saw that servant maimed in front of him and was reinforced when that monster looked at him.

These things were related to that mass of hands in the hedge maze.

With little regard to their protests, Kieran moved forward. A minute later, he spotted an old shack. Splintered wood littered the ground, the planks broken outward. Mixed in with the rotted snapped trees were fresh ones, torn through, mirroring the sight just before he reached the village. Etched into the floor of the shack was a triple layered circle on top of an octagram. The circle was uneven and the smaller details were asymmetrical. It looked like a cheap imitation of the one inside the palace.

The shack emitted a faded but foul, bloody, odor.

“Heresy,” the maid muttered. “I knew it was the work of the Colorless.”

“What do you mean?” Kieran asked.

“They performed a forbidden ritual.”

Lilith’s gaze was focused on the path we just came through, “Do you hear that?”

Kieran heard the distant rumbling and some sharp cracks. Birds perched in the trees scattered in the sky. The ground was faintly shaking.

They broke into another dash. Lilith was just a step or two behind him while the maid was several away.

Thank God.

“Wait! Please don’t leave me!”

Lilith paused.

He yanked her away.

“Don’t go!"

“Just run. She’s done for!”

From the woods, the Corrupted jumped out. It instantly rushed the maid.

Neither of them could look away. The Corrupted pinned her by the leg and, despite her desperate screams, devoured her. Snapping bones and the smacking sound of flesh was no farther than twenty yards away.

He saw how the black mass fluctuated. How its body ballooned, bludged, and reshaped itself as it fed. It was an abomination.

They ducked under fallen trees, jumped over rocks, and stumbled through small hills. They reached an area filled with dense foliage.

The sounds of eating stopped.

“Go under here,” Kieran said as he helped Lilith slip into the cover of a thick bush.

“Wha-What about you?” she asked. Her lip was trembling. Tears pooled in her eyes.

The maid’s cries echoed in his ears. No doubt they echoed in hers.

“I’ll hide there,” he pointed to one of the many trees that had tipped over. It was wider than most of the trees and within eyesight of Lilith’s hiding place.

He crawled into the hollowed out base and pressed himself against the wood. Not a moment later, the Corrupted appeared.

“dONt LEavEEEEE…”

Teal watched in horror as the form of a Corrupted filled the window. Its whole body convulsed. The frame fractured under the pressure. It planted one food down and then another, pulling itself in and tearing whatever remained of the window apart.

The older royal guardsman acted first. He cleaved its head in two and thrust the point through its body. The Corrupted thrashed about, trying to strike the guard. He dodged and, with a heave, lopped off of its arms. One more swing tore its body apart. The black mass finally stopped moving.

“These Corrupted are different from what I imagined,” the older guardsman said. “They’re more mindless than I’ve heard.”

“I believe these are the devourer types of Corrupted in their early stages,” the younger one replied. “I’ve read about them before.”

“Right, the Ywenir kid. Miss caretaker, where is His Highness?”

“I’m not sure. The last time I saw him, he was with Miss Lilith. Her room is on the third floor at the opposite end.”

Upon hearing her information, the two royal guards ran down the hall without a second thought. She chased after them. A group of servants blocked their way. They were struggling to open a door.

The sounds of the Corrupted and their victims filled the manor. From the corner, another black mass appeared. The servants all shrieked as if death had personally come for them. The two guards fought against the crowd of panicked men and women. Teal, at the opposite end of the hall from the Corrupted, glanced behind her.

“Stop,” she screamed. “Another one’s coming!”

It was an absolute disaster. The servants at the front, who noticed the new monster, stopped on their heels. They were toppled over and crushed under the stampede of their fellow workers. Some ran back to the single door in the hallway, pulling with all their might.

“Please open the door!”

“Let us in!”

“They’re coming!”

With the appearance of another Corrupted, the younger royal guard changed course but was pushed around in the sea of people. The older one finally managed to break through and rushed the monster. It reared back and whipped him into the wall, crumpling part of his armor.

“Focus on what’s behind you,” the younger one warned her.

Teal turned to face the oncoming Corrupted. It was smaller than the one in the window but it stood around chest height, even on its four legs. The creature’s mouth was forming, and the vague visage of sharpened teeth stuck out of its maw. It watched them with its one unblinking black eye.

Her heart pounded and she faltered under the challenge. She backed away until she bumped into an injured maid, who sustained an injury from the panicked crowd. Teal fought back her instincts and took down the sensory bubble around the manor, forming a new one around herself.

“Move,” the man commanded. The servants were beginning to make way but Teal would have to hold on until then.

The creature swiped with its extending forelimb and she ducked. It unleashed a high pitched cry. Its front limb shot out at her leg. She dodged to the side. The limb latched onto the arm of the injured maid and reeled her in. Her cry was a near incoherent jumble of words but her terrified face said it all. Teal, against her better judgement and instincts, suddenly grabbed the woman’s free hand.

The tug of war was a one-sided slaughter. Although her interference slowed the Corrupted down, they would still be at its gaping maw in a matter of seconds. Teal ducked under another attack after sensing it with her Flow. She uttered a spell and a bolt consisting of air slammed against the monster. It shuddered. Teal used the opening and assaulted its arm with a barrage of air bolts.

It released its hold on the maid and howled. The Corrupted’s body squirmed, ballooning, as if about to burst, and charged at her. Teal closed her eyes and shielded herself with her arms. It leapt into the air and was impaled by the young guardsman. He kept it pinned and unleashed his gifts. Long and thick claws grew from his hand, ending its life with one powerful swipe.

“Thank you,” the maid said to Teal.

“Ah, of course.”

“We must hurry. If these can pincer us like this then there are most likely some that have climbed to the third floor. And, with the amount of people here, there are bound to be some that evolve,” the young guardsman said.

The older one walked over. He had a large gash on his arm and his horns were showing. “They can evolve?”

“Yes…”

“We may have to break a taboo at this rate.”

Given the choice to follow Teal and the two guards upstairs where more Corrupted were wandering or to find a place to hide on the second floor, the servants stayed. On the third floor, they discovered a mutilated body surrounded by a pool of blood and a trail of footprints.

Lilith’s room was empty. They called out for the children and were met with silence. She had seen how the ribcage of the corpse was missing, and a horrible thought occurred to her. What if the Corrupted consumed the Young Master’s entire body?

A loud noise upstairs caught their attention. As they continued to follow the bloody footprints, they came across ransacked rooms. Two large Corrupted roamed the halls and as the guards readied to face off against them, Teal spotted an open window and a rope made out of sheets.

“DonTTT leAVVeeeee mEEEEEE…” the Corrupted croaked.

Unlike before, the abomination approached on two, thick, hind legs. Its forelimbs had shrunk considerably, both in length and width. They swayed lifelessly. Its snout had also shortened, along with its mouth and head. The eyes scanned different parts of the foliage with the slightest hint of... understanding.

There was a ruffle. Its forelimbs extended and blew away the bush and the nearby tree. Lilith pressed her hand to her mouth. The Corrupted was less than ten feet away from her.

“dOoOnT LEEEEaavEEEE MeeEEEEE… I DOOonT WaaaaNt tO DiEEEE…!!”

He recalled the remains of the maid who was just alive a second ago and gagged. The monster’s disjointed eyes suddenly flicked to his hiding place. There was a dead, cold, emptiness in them.

Nails dug into his skin as he clamped his mouth shut. The once spacious and comforting hiding place was now a noose that tightened around his neck with each step the Corrupted took.

Its frame blocked out the light. His head rattled when the creature kneeled. Five bone thin fingers wrapped around the entrance. An eye peered into the dark, damp, space. It was as large as his fist and scanned without blinking. His hiding place shook. The old wood creaked. The loose dirt trembled. The monster kept rasping, like it couldn’t breathe.

The eye was looking at him.

It focused on him even in what felt like total darkness.

As the base of the tree gave way, he felt the air shudder.

“Jarl und Vass.”

It was Lilith’s voice. The Corrupted turned around and he let out the breath he was holding. She was smart enough to remain hidden but it kept looking. Whether it was because the foliage wasn’t dense enough or because it got lucky, the Corrupted ripped her hiding spot apart.

She scurried backwards. Her pearly white skin and dress were covered in dirt. Her lip quivered uncontrollably. The monster’s arm grew thicker than her body. It clamped down on her foot. She yanked and pulled, kicked and clawed. It wouldn’t let her go.

Kieran’s hands trembled.

“J-Jarl un-und vass!”

Another water bolt exploded against the Corrupted. It seemed effective but only for a second. As Lilith slipped out of her shoe and started crawling away, it pinned her leg like it had done to all the others.

He tried to steady his hand at the monster.

Discomfort mixed in with her fear, “Aah… AH!”

Its grip was tightening. Its arm ballooned and writhed.

She said her max was two uses. She had no more. If he cast a shadow bolt, it’s attention would turn to him. He might be able to buy time for her to run away. He could save her.

But he would die.

If her two water bolts didn’t do anything, neither would his. If he had to choose between his life and hers then-

*SNAP*

“AAAAAAAAHHHH!”

The girl's pitched scream landed on deaf ears.

The Corrupted picked her up by her crushed leg. Tears streaked across her forehead, reflecting the dying light. He could only see the whites of her eyes. The evil black mass held her up as its maw opened wide.