In front of Theodore and Aryan, a thing lood over the smashed truck that defied every comprehension.
It was vast, perhaps thirty feet tall, perhaps even higher. Its upper mass bled into darkness rather than ending clearly.
Its body was made of compressed black energy, dense enough that it resembled thick liquid. Its outer surface moved continuously, roiling like oil heated just before the boiling point.
It walked on six limbs. Four of them below, bent wrongly at too many joints and ending in massive paws. The remaining two supported its upper body, touching the ground with its massive knuckles. With each movent, the joints cracked like splitting bone.
However, the sight that sent chills through Aryan and Theodore were the Soul Eaters fused to its body. Their lower halves were swallowed into the creature’s mass up to the chest, the hip, or the shoulder, each one at a different depth, as though the thing had stopped absorbing them mid-motion. Around twenty of them were arranged across its torso, limbs, and wide back.
Yet the worst of it was that all of these Soul Eaters were alive. Their upper bodies protruded from the black mass and moved with horrible animation, heads lolling, rolling, snapping upright again. Their mouths hung wide open and their arms were free, flailing without coordination.
As Theodore narrowed his eyes on the creature’s body, he instinctively took a step back. Two of the bodies fused to it belonged to the awakeners he had sent on the patrol.
One of them seed to have completely turned into a monster, his skin blackened and his eyes hollow. The only thing that made him recognisable was his short blonde hair, slowly withering into nothingness.
The other was still conscious and absolutely horrified. He had been absorbed only up to the thighs and was slowly subrging further. Webs of black energy spread across his torso at a terrifying rate.
He snapped his head toward Theodore with a crack and pleaded, tears of blood streaming down his face.
"S-Save .... L-Lion King..."
Theodore’s eyes widened, veins bulging across his forehead.
"Wait, Theo—"
Aryan moved to stop him but he had already bolted forward. Leaping high into the air, Theodore landed on the creature’s back, grabbed the awakener’s arm, and wrenched him free with a jolt of force. He coated his body in mana so the touch of the other Soul Eaters couldn’t corrupt his skin.
The sudden force sent him stumbling backward onto the ground, the awakener’s hands still clasped in his own.
"Quick, we need to take him to a heale—"
His body froze as his eyes fell on the awakener. His lower half was completely missing. Blood, viscera, and internal organs were spilling across the ground.
The awakener looked up at Theodore with half-open eyes, a faint smile resting on his face.
"Th...thank..." The light in his eyes vanished before he could finish the word.
He hadn’t survived. But he had died relieved, spared from turning into a monster and turning on his own comrades.
Theodore clenched his fists, suppressing both his anger and his grief. Those two had been his responsibility. They had gone out on his order, and now one had turned into a monster while the other had died in his arms.
A loud crash rang out behind him.
"I owe you one now, Lion King," Aryan said quietly, his crimson axe holding back the creature’s fist that had been aid squarely at Theodore’s back.
Aryan tried to pull the axe free but a Soul Eater along the arm had pinned it in place. The creature’s body rose higher as it shifted onto its four lower limbs, freeing the upper limb that had been braced against the ground.
With its hand now free, it brought it down toward Aryan’s head.
"Damn it!" Aryan muttered, releasing the axe to throw himself clear. But before the arm could land, a golden spear punched through the creature’s thick black hide, pouring out an oil-dark stream of black blood.
"Now I don’t owe you anything, Blood Demon," Theodore said, driving the spear in deeper.
Aryan channeled his mana into the axe and tore it free from the Soul Eater’s grip. Both of them retreated a few feet.
"What the hell is this thing," Aryan asked, his eyes never leaving the creature.
"No idea. But from that exchange, I’d say it’s at least as powerful as . Maybe higher." Theodore replied. "It might well be the Boss Monster of this dungeon."
"No wonder my hand split open just from stopping its fist," Aryan said, his axe trembling in his grip, the shaft darkening crimson as blood poured into it.
"You say that like it’s a problem for you," Theodore replied, tightening his grip on the spear.
The Soul Eaters across the creature’s body let out a collectively disturbing shriek, the black energy wreathing its form surging violently. It was impossible to tell whether the creature was controlling the Soul Eaters, or whether the Soul Eaters were sohow driving the creature itself.
Then, at a speed that defied its enormous size, it charged at them on all six limbs.
Aryan’s axe flared red, drinking the blood from his hands. He shifted his grip to the middle of the shaft and began rotating it between his fingers.
"Blood Demon Art, Chapter 1: Thousand Needles."
Thousands of thin, razor-sharp needles erupted from the spinning axe and riddled the creature across its body, sinking into its hide.
The monster did not slow in the slightest.
From the opposite side, Theodore drove his glowing spear forward.
"Spear of Lion King: Roaring Fangs."
A translucent lion’s head materialized from the motion of the spear and launched itself at the incoming creature, its enormous fangs crashing squarely against the monster’s head.
"SCREEECH!!!" The Soul Eaters across its body let out a piercing, high-pitched wail, their arms reaching and clawing toward Theodore. The creature still did not slow.
"Blood Demon, can your second Chapter work on this thing?" Theodore asked, already swinging for another strike.
"I’ll try," Aryan answered, driving the axe into the ground.
In rapid succession, he drew dozens of hand signs across a span of seconds.
"Blood Demon Art, Chapter 2: Absolute Control."
The black blood around the faint needle wounds stirred briefly across the creature’s hide. Then nothing. One by one, the needles slid free on their own, and the creature’s roiling skin sealed every mark shut as though they had never existed.
"I can’t control its blood. It’s too contaminated to even be recognised as blood," Aryan said, wrenching his axe back out of the ground.
"My attacks aren’t doing much better. Looks like we have to do this the old way," Theodore replied.
As the creature closed the distance, both of them surged forward to et it. They moved around its massive body in tight, overlapping patterns, lacing their weapons with mana to bite through its thick, slick hide. Whenever a Soul Eater along its body caught and pinned one of their weapons, the other would drive in and smash it free.
Neither of them spoke. There was nothing to say. The creature was massive, relentless, and barely marked by anything they had thrown at it.
And sowhere in the back of Theodore’s mind, the face of the dying awakener refused to leave.
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