Before anyone could even mutter the word 'Cursed' at the abhorrent sight of the mechanical man's metamorphosis, Riven broke into a sprint. He ran on the hot coals, pain lancing through his feet with every step. A choked cry escaped his throat. He gritted his teeth and reached out with his hand, feeling for metal.
He grabbed the crescent pendant on Sophia's neck, jolting her from shock. She shrieked in shock and confusion.
'Gather' in an ancient language.
Riven saw the ethereal golden threads around Sophia coagulating and gathering near the pendant.
He made sure to push Sophia off the box of coals at the same time before jumping off himself. His feet were singed, causing him to step gingerly off the box. 'Riven?! What?' Sophia was naturally shocked, but Riven was focused on the ethereal golden threads swirling around the pendant.
When the threads finished gathering, he looked back up at the man. His skin was black, bubbly ripples moved along the surface. The irregular, writhing, glossy surface. Tendrils poked out to create three misshapen and grotesque arms, each one with wriggling flesh poking out from orifices.
Frozen. People were frozen around the creature. Some managed to instil some will into their bodies, slowly backing away, but their bodies and minds were under too heavy a pressure, they could barely cover any significant distance before their knees buckled in fright.
Riven glanced at the monster and then looked back at the pendant in his hand. Gabriel Cross — his teacher was many things, most of them weren't good. But if there was one good thing about him, it was his collection, and for once he wasn't stingy when he gave Riven some artefacts to borrow for the journey. He just didn't imagine he'd have to use so many of them. He couldn't have seen these things coming, could he? That would be ridiculous.
Black liquids excreted from the creature's mouth as it uttered "Ranich…Valohau…" another arm emerged from his body, this one was the longest of them all. The black mass attempted to stand upright and released a devilish screech, though its figure was forced to hunch over. It must have been about three metres long. The screeching sounded like it was coming from multiple voices and sources, harmonising like a choir of athirst strangers.
Gazing upon it, Riven buried his face in his palm, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips. 'I-I really didn't expect this. Hah!' his hand slid off his face, revealing a pained grin. He stepped off the box and began circling the wailing creature.
It settled finally, eyes opening. Two on its face, another on the neck, and three on each arm. They slowly opened and the irisless pupils rolled while the long eyelashes fluttered. All locked onto one location, Sophia. Adam's guess was right, that strange man and his remnant seemed to have something against religion, and Sophia was the one who ticked it off the most.
The cacophony of screams stilled, leaving a deafening silence in its wake, before being shattered once again by the sound of wood breaking as the creature powerfully shot off, heading towards Sophia.
'Sleep, ' Riven recited the words in Yue. The faint illusory lights gather at his words, and a faint ripple echoes across the room. No audible sounds were heard, but a lightening of the mind was felt, like a mental lullaby. The fear-stricken faces in the crowd revealed faces of alleviation, followed by a slew of slumping bodies.
The monster's explosive burst slowed momentarily, allowing Sophia to move out of the way, despite her lack of athleticism. The black mass made its way through the room as if it were swimming through mud, its multiple limbs spinning and pushing off the floor, pushing its tilted body forward in a straight line.
Riven looked at the charm on the necklacce, noting that about half of the etheareal threads were gone, leaving the knot that weaved itself around the charm far less dense than it had just been. He then turned his eyes to observe Sophia, desperately evading the monster. He had intentionally left her out of the spell, otherwise she would be left helpless against the angered monster that was far too powerful for the spell to have too strong of an effect.
She found herself near the entereance of the room, the creature stalking her — cornering her.
But a shout rang out once again, in a flowy, ancient language. 'Sleep.'
The effect was less than previously, but it was still enough for Sophia to slip away, letting the monster lethargically crash into the doorway, completely collapsing the structure.
Sophia ran, she ran past her limits. Her knees were giving way at this point, her breathing ragged. She'd never felt such pain in her sides, such burning in her heart, a wallflower thrust into the woodlands.
She fell forward onto one knee. She found her gaze on a pair of shoes, and looking up. Riven.
He smiled at her, 'You did well.' He said, seemingly kind look in his eyes, it seemed like genuine praise, but Sophia's glare betrayed his supposed kindness.
'Anyays, get behind me. I know you're probably angry, I mean I didn't expect the situation to be this bad, honest. Anyways, it's getting up, just stand… let's say 5 steps behind where I'm standing right now.'
'Anyways? You can't just say anyw-huh?' She was ready to justifiably chew him out, but Riven couldn't satisfy her with the current situation. He grabbed her hand and dragged her up, and she definitely stomped behind him. But at a moments thought, her face loosened into concern.
'But what are you going to do to that thing? Shouldn't we just run away?'
But to that, Riven just smiled and turned to face the doorway where the creature rose to its feet, it's pace slowly picking up, but still at the point where Riven could keep up, especially when it's path would be so predictable, just a straight line to where Sophia stood, tears welling up in her eyes as she stood there, subjected to the foul gaze of the creature, but she endured.
Its four limbs gyrated as it approached, slivering past Riven, who stepped to the side to give it a clear path towards the religious girl.
But the creature briefly stopped, its array of eyes moving away from Sophia for the first time. Riven reached his open palm out, inches away from the creature's face. Sophia watched this scene with shock, not from the creature — from Riven.
His grotesque left eye, the charred, purple left hand, the metallic and clawed right hand. Invisible to her though, was the black mask.
The eyes however, the labyrinth of eyes. They caught on. They jerked away from Sophia and onto the mask that was ever so close to the creature. Riven tensed, this wasn't a part of the script. Shivers down his spine as a clawed arm rippled through the air, as slow as it was the pressure was real.
Riven instinctively backed away, retreating to the wall. He exhaled a breath that he didn't know he took. There was a tear on his robes, revealing the whites of the clothing underneath. Just a trickle of blood drawn, but it was so minor that Riven didn't pay it any mind.
It was coming for him once again, it seemed that the mask's appearance shifted the creature's target from Sophia to Riven. This development was outside of Riven's expectations, typically the mask was not visible to others, but this creature was drawn to it the second Riven brought it out to try and place it on the monster's face.
Riven prepared to duck under the flurry of the creature, its entire body lunged as both right arms swiped at him, the first one was easy enough to evade, lowering his body underneath it. A repugnant and acrid scent entered his nose.
The trailing bottom arm caught him by surprise. Riven instinctively raised his right arm to cover his face, and a clang rang out.
Despite it being metallic, it was still Riven's arm. No blood was drawn but he cried out in pain as he was thrown through the wall, causing it to collapse. A sharp breath was drawn and Riven grabbed onto his ribs. He was temporarily engraved into the wall before forcing himself loose. The brief fall gave him temporary relief from all the pressure and pain his insides endured.
Like a rat, as soon as his foot made contact with the ground, he scurried away towards the direction of the destroyed doorway. Hearing the smacking sounds of that hideous mouth and the slippery tongue that moved as it salivated, Riven let go of the mask and let it disappear. The sound of stomping that trailed behind him ceased, so he took the opportunity to curl himself down on the floor beside the rubble of the doorway, holding onto his ribs.
He watched with a wry smile as the abomination turned and went back to charging at Sophia, on the other side of the room. 'What a stupid fucking thing.' he bitterly chuckled.
'It may partly be because of the spell leaving its consciousness slightly numb. But yes, you are correct, it seems to largely be moving on instinct.
'Oh? How nice of you to finally join me.' Riven addressed the flying metal sphere. He opened his mouth but was interrupted by a scream. He resummoned the mask and watched as cold sweats emerged despite the scene of the shifting eyes and rotating black limbs charging in his direction was one that he'd predicted.
'So? What the fuck do we do?' Riven's voice lacked any sense of composure.
'Nothing that will come easy,' the hunk of metal sighed in resignation.