West remained on one knee, breathing heavily with his chest rising and falling in rough bursts as blood dripped from the corners of his lips. The massive black sword stood embedded into the stone floor before him with dark mist curling slowly upward like ghostly tendrils.
He leaned against it for support as every part of his body scread in agony.
His ribs throbbed and the frost creeping beneath his skin from earlier strikes still gnawed at his nerves like biting ice.
For several long seconds, he let the noise of the chamber die around him before lifting his head slowly toward the throne.
His brows furrowed upon noticing that the throne... was empty.
The being that had been sitting there earlier, watching everything unfold like so detached monarch overseeing a spectacle... was gone.
West’s heart sank.
"That’s... not good."
A scraping sound echoed through the chamber continously causing West to slowly looked around.
In just a few monts, they were surrounded as dozens of the four feet creatures filed into the chamber.
Their twisted bodies skittered across the stone floor with their blueish limbs stretching unnaturally as they circled him like scavengers waiting for the last breath of a dying animal.
Only one Verdant Pyre Behemoth remained.
The other had sacrificed itself monts ago to block that devastating blow from the Butcher.
The surviving one stood protectively nearby with its flas flickering weakly around as it snarled at the encroaching creatures.
But even it looked exhausted due to grievous injuries. It was barely holding itself together.
West wiped the blood from his mouth and forced himself upright slightly, gripping the sword.
"Damn it..." he muttered under his breath.
His body was in terrible shape... It was only thanks to his stamina that he could still move but nonetheless, he wouldn’t be able to keep this up...
And now, to make matters worse, the numbers had multiplied.
However, what bothered him more than the creatures was the empty throne.
Where the hell had that leader gone?
West slowly turned his head, scanning the surrounding..
All of a sudden, his senses alerted him of danger behind causing the hairs on the back of his neck to rise instantly.
West turned sharply but he was already too late.
Blue fingers shot toward him like spears, moving faster than his eyes could properly track.
SHKKT!
Four elongated fingers tore straight into West’s left abdominal region, lifting him off the ground instantly.
West’s eyes widened violently.
"—GHHK!"
Blood exploded from his mouth as his body convulsed in midair.
The massive sword slipped from his grasp and clattered heavily against the stone floor.
Blammm~
His feet dangled helplessly as the long blue fingers pierced clean through his flesh and lifted him like a trophy.
An unbearable cold spread from the wounds instantly.
Frost crawled across his skin like living ice, branching outward from the puncture points.
West groaned painfully as his vision blurred.
The figure holding him stepped forward from the shadows and it just so happened to be the sa being that had been sitting on the throne.
Their supre leader.
Up close, its presence felt even more oppressive with its tall and thin figure.
Its body elongated unnaturally with its limbs being slightly too long for its fra. Its skin carried a faint bluish tint, and its fingers had stretched into those terrifying needle-like appendages currently embedded in West’s body.
Its had a calm but curiouslook as if examining an interesting specin.
West gasped painfully and grabbed the creature’s fingers with shaking hands.
He tried to pull them out... but the mont his hands touched the fingers—
CRRRK.
Frost erupted across his palms.
West’s eyes widened as ice crawled across his fingers instantly.
"—AHHH!"
He jerked his hands away instinctively, but it was too late.
The frost continued creeping upward across his skin.
West clenched his teeth and tried punching the creature.
His fist slamd weakly against its chest over and over but each punch grew weaker and slower, dealing no damage.
The frost spread further up his arms with every passing second causing his muscles to stiffen as his strength faded.
Soon he could barely lift his arms.
The supre leader watched him silently and then, its fingers extended further, stretching into the distance.
West’s body slid further along them as they carried him toward the circular platform nearby.
The platform covered in severed heads, fresh limbs and organs.
A grotesque altar of butchered remains...
West’s vision swam and blood dripped from his wounds as he was carried above the platform.
Upon withdrawing its fingers, West collapsed onto the stone surface with a wet thud.
"—Gk...!"
He coughed violently causing blood to spill from his mouth.
The mont his body touched the platform, tallic bindings shot upward.
CLANK!
They wrapped around his arms, legs and torso, locking him tightly against the cold surface.
West struggled instinctively but his arms were already stiff with frost.
His injuries burned while the cold spread deeper into his body.
He coughed again causing blood to bubble at his lips.
"Gor...’thala..."
His mind reached outward through the contract.
His thoughts were strained and chaotic.
"I’m... in serious trouble."
A brief pause followed and then Gor’thala’s voice appeared in his mind.
~ "I am on my way, Master. I am close." ~
As for Seraphyra, she communicated back that she is in a situation and hurrying as fast as she could.
Her tone carried frustration.
anwhile, the last Verdant Pyre Behemoth roared in fury as it lunged toward West’s location, smashing through several of the four-foot creatures as green flas erupted across its body.
Several enemies burned and crumbled under its claws but more and more kept coming.
The chamber was filled with them now... their numbers had increased drastically.
They piled onto the Behemoth from every direction and despite tearing them apart, burning them and crushing as manay as it possibly could... it was still a wounded creature.
The sheer numbers eventually overwheld it...
They latched onto its limbs, climbed its body and dragged it down.
The Behemoth roared again as greenish flas rose violently and then dimd as they ripped its limbs apart, swarming it aggressively.
Eventually, the Verdant Pyre Behemoth collapsed completely with its body breaking apart and fading into embers before finally disintegrating.
West watched helplessly from the platform as he struggled to free himself to no avail.
The supre leader suddenly spoke again in that strange tongue.
The system translated the words inside West’s mind.
[Translation Complete]
『 "I have more than one Butcher." 』
West’s pupils shrank as a heavy sound echoed from the chamber entrance.
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