The claw's arm continued rising from the ground. Movent being relatively slow but inexorable as a complex structure erged from the earth like having been concealing its total extension.
But instead of a body or head, more arms began appearing. Ergence revealing the first appendage wasn't unique but part of a strangely similar group.
Six arms total manifested eventually… Three right handed, three left. Each terminating in a claw resembling to one containing Ren and even two legs were added at the process's end, the appendages being thicker than arms but following a similar design.
It was a construction reminiscent of a strange spider in general configuration. Though proportions and specific details diverged sufficiently that the comparison wasn't at all perfect.
First, there was no thorax or opisthosoma/abdon.
No normal anatomical structures.
The structure joining them was actually amorphous.
The union maintaining the 8 artifacts stuck to each other being provided by mutant bodies beginning to adhere when making contact.
They beca a pulsing mass upon touching the artifacts. Tissue being transford into a substance seeming more fluid than solid. An amalgamation filling spaces between the rigid components and providing cohesion converting a collection of parts into a unified organism.
It was wrong... Bodies weren't ant bending that way, weren't ant flowing or rging into a single mass that pulsed with combined heartbeats.
But they did it anyway.
The eight artifacts in the mutants' power were finally together.
The result was this horror surpassing a simple local threat and entering the territory of a nightmare that could destroy the entire city.
♢♢♢♢
Inside Ren's mind, the experience was now completely different from what external observers witnessed.
He wasn't seeing the arena nor feeling physical pressure from the claw containing him. Instead he found himself in a space simultaneously familiar and alien. A place he recognized as internal but having been altered in ways he didn't completely understand.
It wasn't the first ti…
Not even much ti had passed since last ti darkness had trapped him here. They'd just saved him and already he was looking at this enormous dark space again.
What had once been an enormous library was now empty and lightless.
No books, no shelves and no knowledge preserved in physical form. Just void… emptiness. Just architecture without purpose serving as a monunt to what had been lost.
The library existed as a mory. As a hollow shell reminding him that sothing important had been here once. But this ti sothing was different from last ti.
This ti upon opening his eyes he saw a small girl nearby in a dimly lit corner.
White hair... Appearing approximately eleven years old. A small figure sitting still with her back turned while remaining curled into a ball. Arms wrapped around herself in a position communicating vulnerability.
It was sowhat familiar, and an image provoking protective instinct. Impulse to approach and provide comfort alleviating the obvious suffering.
She was crying, he could hear it... Quiet sobs, the kind of desperate sadness that ca from being alone, from being trapped in darkness with no hope of escape.
And part of him wanted to help her. But then the girl vanished abruptly.
Vanishing being instantaneous without transition or explaining how movent had occurred. Just there then not there like she'd been deleted from reality.
And then soone called Ren from behind with a voice that couldn't be from such a small girl. Strange voices in quality that couldn't belong to a child not simply because of discordant age but sothing deeper.
Not a human voice. Or not entirely human. Sothing else underneath.
Ren turned to see who had spoken.
Curiosity being mixed with confusion about what exactly he was experiencing and whether this was real or so hallucination or strange senseless dream.
What he observed was a girl appearing almost his sa age. Perhaps a year younger according to an approximate evaluation he made comparing her with the girls he'd interacted with all last year. Observing features and body proportions he could calculate sothing close to reality.
Not the child he'd seen monts before but a bit more mature version. Transformation having occurred in an instant, in a manner defying ordinary logic.
She looked at him with a genuine curious expression. Evaluation being directed not in manner suggesting threat but like studying sothing she found intriguing in ways she hadn't completely anticipated.
Beautiful. He had to acknowledge that... Objectively beautiful in a way that made looking away difficult. White hair flowing, features perfect, big eyes that caught light despite the darkness surrounding them.
But also wrong. Sothing about her was wrong… An uncanny valley, like almost human but not quite, like a statue animated, like a painting given life. Like a thing wearing human shape but not truly understanding what humanity really ant.
"You've grown well," she comnted with a tone carrying approval and surprise.
"At least in that simple visible form you present to the external world."
She paused before adding with a critical note contrasting with the previous praise.
"But your network not so much... Are they idiots? Why would they stop the growth of…"
She interrupted herself abruptly. The final word remained incomplete when her attention was captured by sothing she noticed, sothing she was observing more carefully now.
She looked toward Ren's chest with disconcerting focus intensity. And Ren felt strangely vulnerable under such scrutiny.
'Is there sothing strange about ?'
Looking down to see what had so completely captured the girl's attention, he realized sothing making his discomfort increase considerably.
He was completely naked.
Hadn't noticed clothing absence until the girl's observation made him conscious of his present state. Revelation being belated in a manner that was more comic being followed by Ren awkwardly covering himself.
Perhaps he would've recognized the girl sooner if not for the genuine embarrassnt he felt. Hard blaming him when the situation was particularly awkward considering it was quite a pretty girl seeing him in such a vulnerable condition.
Though suddenly he realized sothing fundantally changing the discomfort's nature.
The girl wasn't looking at his body in a manner suggesting romantic or sexual interest. She only saw his chest specifically. Focus being directed toward an area apparently containing sothing interesting transcending simple physical anatomy.
Ren looked down again, the inspection being more careful this ti to find exactly what the girl was observing with such attention.
And he discovered with shock he could no longer see his skin in an ordinary manner.
His chest seed to have beco transparent. Solidity being replaced to reveal internal structures normally remaining hidden behind his flesh and bone.
He could see his tar core with clarity impossible under normal circumstances.
Actually the entire system…
Mana center being visible in manner permitting direct observation of a configuration that no one or perhaps few in ancient history ever understood so explicitly.
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