Part Thirty-Six

“”””“KRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”””””

Several ear-splitting cries broke the night-time serenity that had settled in, and also caused me to bolt upright in bed. Malice was thick in the air again, and even Regis seemed to be affected, as he was cowering under the bed. Seconds after that, the cries and screams of other monsters began to echo, causing a cacophony that I couldn’t ignore. And neither could the others.

I burst into the living room to find Gwyn pushing a couch in front of the door. He looked panicked, and the screams coming from outside were the obvious cause. I ran over and helped him move the couch, which was a good thing since something started pounding on the door seconds later.

“Fuck, the hell's going on out there?”

“I don’t know. A few minutes ago, there were these series of crashes followed by a few faint cries. I thought it was just a routine fight between monsters, at least until this happened.”

“Whatever screamed just now must be behind this, and there’s more than one too. We need to get out of here.”

“Agreed. The whole town seems to have turned into a war zone.”

The girls all came downstairs at the same time, fully ready for battle. Considering how many weird things had happened at night here, it was obvious that we were now experiencing yet another occurrence of weirdness.

At that moment, the door began to crack from the constant hammering on it. Gwyn reacted quickly, telling everyone to go out the back. I volunteered to be the last one through, which meant that I saw what happened to the door just as we left.

One of the cracks widened enough for me to glimpse whatever was on the other side. All I could see was a single glowing red eye, filled with unbridled malice. I knew then that if that thing caught us, it would try to rip us to pieces.

I caught up with the others as they were getting ready to hop the backyard fence. We usually left the car on the outskirts of whatever town we were in, as the sound of the engine would attract unwanted attention. Unfortunately, that safety measure was now coming back to bite us in the ass, as it meant we had to get through a horde of unknown monsters to reach safety.

“Tch, which way's the truck!?”

“Over that way! We can cut through those houses over there as a shortcut!”

*Crash!*

“KKKRYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAA!!!!!”

“I don’t think we have time for that!! Run!”

The sound of splintering wood and an unearthly scream followed us out into the yard, reminding us that we didn’t have the time to leisurely think about these things. There were horrific creatures out there, hell-bent on killing us. The din of monster screams ringing out through the town was a constant reminder of that.

“Get moving! Don’t stop for anything, just keep moving!”

We hurried past several houses, sometimes having to stop to break down fences in our way, and finally reached the street.

“What the hell…? What’s going on here?”

The street looked like hell. Monsters were everywhere, though most of them were already corpses. Blood and viscera coated the ground, and many of the corpses looked like they’d been stomped on. And even worse, there were dozens of Undead roaming around. Most of the houses had had their front doors broken down, and screams could be heard coming from them.

“””KRRRRYYYYAAAAAA!!!”””

More of those sinister screams came from across the street from us. Three dark figures were perched on top of one of the houses, each with the same glowing red eyes. When they saw us, each of them leaped from the roof in a different direction and charged towards us.

“Keep moving! Ignore them!”

We hurried down the street, swerving around all the Undead that were in the way, though the creatures just tore through them. We were fortunately just a little faster than them, but there was no way we’d actually escape them. And once we reached the truck, they’d probably catch up before we could get it started.

“I’m gonna run ahead and start the truck! Watch my back!”

“M-Michael!? Wait, hold up a-.”

I didn’t wait for Alicia to finish her sentence, instead activating all my Skills, doubling my speed and allowing me to pull away from the others. Pouring my all into running, I pumped my legs as hard as I could, sprinting down the street and through several turns. Thankfully, the carnage seemed to be localized around where we’d started, so there weren’t too many Undead or corpses around here. And not a single one of those creatures.

There it is. Okay, I’ll start it up and get it so they can just slip in. Then we’ll be out of here and we can say goodbye to-.

“KRYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAA!!!”

One of those things had been hiding in the truck bed, and it leaped out at me once I got close. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop myself in time, and there was little chance I could dodge it, so I channeled all the focus I could into countering its attack.

“Kyyyyaaaaaaaa….”

The white sword, loaded with mana, slashed out, severing not only the creature's claws, but also decapitating it in the process. Using the momentum from the slash, I roundhouse kicked the corpse away from me, putting some much needed distance between us. And it was a good thing too.

Okay, now to-. Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me!

The creature was regenerating, regrowing its head and fingers. It recovered in seconds, and was once again after me, the red lights in its eyes shinning maliciously. I finally got my first real look at one of these things, and it didn’t do anything to help me identify it. It had a vaguely humanoid form, though its skin was covered in a thick, tar-like substance that seemed to ooze out of it. Honestly, it looked like something from one of my nightmares.

Dread Thrall

Rank: C

Archetype: Abomination

Description: As a half-Undead, half-Spirit being, Thralls possess immense regenerative abilities, enough that they could recover from being sliced into pieces. Tenacious beyond belief, only Holy Magic can truly purge these wretched creatures from the world.

“Spirit, do something!” the second I saw that this thing was half-Spirit, I screamed for my familiar to interfere with it in any way it could. Undying monsters were terrifying.

*…*

The Spirit manifested itself, then swarmed towards the Thrall, somehow managing to slip into its body. The Thrall then began convulsing, and small puffs of Miasma started coming off of it. Those puffs combined back together to reform my familiar, who signaled to me that the Thrall had been dealt with.

“Are you sure? Cause it still looks-. Oh.”

The Thrall fell over before I could finish that sentence, the light in its eyes having gone out. I looked at the Spirit inquisitively, though it merely responded by transmitting a feeling of satisfaction over to me, as if it had just finished a large meal.

……well, whatever. It says it’s done with, so I’ll just trust it for now. Let’s focus on getting the car ready.

A few moments later, and the truck was gently idling, and just in time. The others came around the last corner, over a dozen Thralls chasing them. Gwyn had slung Kalia over his shoulder, and Alicia looked to be on the verge of fainting, but they’d made it. Gwyn vaulted himself into the bed, while the other two slid into the cab, and I hammered on the gas, sending the truck plowing through the Thralls.

*Crunch, thud, thud, crunch, crack, thud, crunch, crack, crack, thud, crunch!*

A orchestra of disturbing sounds played out as the Thralls were run over by the truck. It was a bit bumpy for a few seconds, but things soon smoothed back out. Once we were clear of them, I executed a U-turn, causing both passenger side doors to close, then hammered on the gas again. I normally wouldn’t have been so rough with a vehicle, but this wasn’t my car, so I didn’t care. I’d use it as a weapon as many times as possible.

“Uh, Michael? Shouldn’t you drive a little more carefully?”

“KRRYYYYYYYAAAAAA!!!”

“N-Never mind!”

One of the Thralls had finished regenerating, and it leaped onto the hood before I could run it over again. However, its claws were unable to find purchase in the metal of the hood, and a few swerves soon saw it falling off. And once I’d run over the other Thralls, we were in the clear.

“What, what the hell was that shit? Where’d those fuckers come from?”

Gwen must’ve recovered, because she started cursing up a storm in the backseat. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I had an idea about those creatures’ origins. And it wasn’t one I liked.

***

Back in the town, a slaughter was still underway. Monsters, no matter how strong or how skilled or how numerous, were dying in the most horrific ways. Torn apart, ripped limb-from-from, the Thralls were venting a portion of their endless bloodlust and malice on them. By morning, not a single living thing would be left here.

Seated amidst this slaughter was the same shadow Michael had encountered so many days ago. The creature was unmoved by the carnage occurring around it, instead viewing these events as if they were some form of twisted entertainment. No, they weren’t even that. This creature, a Dread Servant, didn’t even take joy in this massacre. To it, this was nothing more than another task it had to undertake for its master.

“So, they escaped. So be it. This too is the will of the Lord.”

The Servant had naturally reported the events of the last few weeks to its master, who had left the matter in the hands of its most capable servant. Under normal circumstances, the Servant would’ve just annihilated the humans and been done with it, but one of them had the potential to serve one of the ancients, and that was something the Servant could not bring itself to ruin. While it may have pledged its undying allegiance to its current master, Dread Spirits long to serve the ancients at their very core. In a way, it was almost envious of the infantile Spirit accompanying the humans. It would have the chance to meet an ancient in the flesh, even if it didn’t realize it yet.

So instead of outright killing the humans, it had instead decided to task them with solving a small problem it had discovered. One of the pretender’s servants had been coming a little too close to the Lord's territory in past days, and it wanted the fool destroyed. Doing the deed itself could begin a full-scale war between them, something they were in no way ready for yet, but the humans would make for some convenient pawns. There was little to no way the pretender could connect this to the master, and even if the humans failed, it could just use one of its other pawns to finish the troublesome Spirit off. Truly, this was a plan with no downsides.

“Krrrryyyyaaaaaa?”

One of the Thralls went up to the Servant, reporting that they’d completed the slaughter. It also reported that one of the Thralls had been left in a comatose state, not quite dead but not quite alive either. The Servant bent down to examine the corpse in more detail, only to recoil in shock.

“The…Core is missing? But how? …the infantile Spirit. It must have devoured the Thrall's Core. Hmhmhm, interesting. Very interesting.”

Like all full-grown Spirits, Thralls possessed a Core that functioned as their heart and was the center of their near-immortality. Destroying a Thrall’s Core was near-impossible, as they existed only on a metaphysical level. Only Holy Magic or powerful Grudge Magic could follow that link to find and destroy the Core. Which made it all the more interesting that a Spirit barely out of infancy could do such a thing. Even if the humans didn’t survive their upcoming encounter, it looked like there’d be at least one interesting specimen left over.

“All shall be as the Lord wills it. This land will belong to the dead, and none shall stop that. Struggle while you can pretender, you too shall feel the touch of death closing in.”

With its business here settled, the Servant ordered the remaining Thralls to consume all the corpses left over the battle, all to grow the hate they felt. Once it reached critical mass, the Thralls would Evolve into something utterly wonderful, and this world would be theirs for the taking.