IM2: Chapter #48 (Patreon)

Emerging from Aciakko’s shadow like a prehistoric monster, Hati’s teeth sawed through Aciakko’s neck, nearly detaching it from her body. A bloody gurgle rose to Aciakko’s mouth and she dropped her dagger, reaching down to touch a small token at her waist. A flicker of flame shot out of it as soon as it was activated, landing two dozen feet away. With a surge of mana, she teleported to that spot, blood still leaking from her neck in great gushes. In a single bound, Hati caught up with her, his paw slamming down on her back and driving her to the ground.

The token she had used to escape shattered under the pressure and she flailed weakly, unable to remove his paw. Gasping for breath, Thorn scooped up the dagger she had dropped and staggered to his feet. At this point, the fight was effectively over, but the danger that Thorn was sensing had not abated in the least. Unsteady on his feet, Thorn wobbled over to where Aciakko was pinned to the ground, leaning heavily on his staff, her dagger clutched in his other hand.

“You… you think you won… you only… delayed your… death.”

Aciakko seemed to have been holding on just to say those words, and the light faded from her eyes as she finished speaking. Disgusted, Thorn spat on the ground, his saliva mixed with crimson blood. Turning to scan the crowd, Thorn caught sight of Akira, who was holding Prince Felix’s foot in her mouth, letting his limp body dangle. Prancing over with earth shaking steps, Akira dropped the unconscious prince at Thorn’s feet.

[Master! I tried to kill him, but this guy has more lives than a cockroach! And then, when I was going to bite his head off, he went and fainted! I can’t kill him when he is unconscious, can I?]

“You did great, Akira,” Thorn said, patting her on the head.

Wiggling happily, she transformed into her small form and climbed up onto Thorn’s shoulder, clearly tired from all the excitement. Looking down at Prince Felix, Thorn’s lips twitched. A large part of him wanted to kill the prince, but like Akira, something about killing an unconscious opponent didn’t sit well with him. Shaking his head, Thorn picked him up and threw him to Ferris, who had drawn near.

“Here, make sure he gets back to civilization. Or leave him in the jungle for the beasts. Either way, he is not my problem anymore.”

No sooner had the prince landed at Ferris’ feet than he suddenly jumped up, his eyes filled with rage and humiliation. Pointing a shaking finger at Thorn and Akira, he was about to say something when an iron hard fist slammed into his face, rattling his teeth, snapping his jaw and breaking his nose. Falling unconscious for real this time, he crumpled into a heap, blood leaking from his face as Thorn massaged his hand.

“Sorry, now he is unconscious,” Thorn said, looking at the pale faced old man. “Oh, and I suggest you leave. As soon as possible.”

“Is that a god beast?”

Hearing the question, Thorn turned to look at Ferris who was pointing at Hati, a dreadful fear in his gaze.

“It is. And Aciakko saw him a long time ago. Which means we are going to have company soon.”

“And then we’ll all die,” Ferris said, his voice trembling.

“No, and then the real fight will begin,” Thorn replied, his gray eyes flashing. “Like I said, this is your one chance to leave.”

“It won’t matter,” Ferris muttered, “she’ll take this world apart piece by piece until she knows that there are no more god beasts here.”

Eyes narrowing, Thorn looked at the old man again, catching the haunted look in his eyes.

“You sound like you’ve seen a god hunter before.”

“You’ll understand soon enough,” Ferris said, picking up Prince Felix’s unconscious body. “I sincerely hope we are able to meet again, Thorn. But I doubt we will.”

Turning away, he raced into the jungle, calling for all the other adventurers to flee. The golden robed warriors went with them, and soon only the Deva were left in the middle of the ruined camp. Walking up the hill, Thorn took his time, trying to restore as much energy as he could before the next fight started. At his side, Hati walked quietly. In many ways, the Moon Wolf was an enigma to Thorn, but one thing he knew for sure was that the giant wolf would never hurt him. He was still bound to Hati as the Moon Wolf’s avatar, and that connection could not be changed or erased.

“You could flee,” Thorn said, glancing over at Hati.

“I’m afraid, that would only hasten the death of this world,” Hati said, licking a bit of blood from the fur around his mouth. “If the god hunter finds that I have left, they will not hesitate to wipe this world out in order to ensure I am not hiding here. Only by engaging with the god hunter and then leaving will we be able to ensure that it won’t take this world apart.”

Arriving where Velin was standing, Thorn gave her a complex look. She was looking back and forth between him and Hati, and despite the bloody battlefield that surrounded them, she looked for all the world like an angry housewife who just caught her husband and his friend sneaking back into the house after a night out.

“Thorn, what is going on?”

“It's a long story, and we don’t really have a lot of time.”

“Then give me the short version,” she snapped. “How am I supposed to help if I don’t even know what is going on?”

Holding up his hands in surrender, Thorn gestured to the group clustered around the portal.

“I’ll tell you, but you have to promise me that you’ll go through the portal as soon as it's active. Things are about to get… dangerous. It turns out there is a big war going on between the god beasts and all the non-god beast races.”

“Yes, I’m familiar. What does… oh.”

“Exactly. Hati is one of those god beasts, and it seems that Aciakko really really hated me, because she called a god hunter to come and find him. Well, if my intuition is anything to go by, we have about two minutes until the god hunter shows up and burns us all into ash. Or at least tries. Our only good option is to fight the thing and then have Hati escape, drawing it away. We’ve got a plan, but no bets on if it’ll help or hurt the situation.”

“That's what your Destiny Points were supposed to be for,” Velin said, swallowing.

“Correct. Well, that ship sailed, so here we are. Either we get it right on the first try or...”

“We’ll get it right on the first try,” Velin said, her voice certain. “I just need to keep you alive, right?”

“No, you need to leave,” Thorn said, his expression hard. “No one is staying besides me. I need you to get everyone who is still on the battlefield through that portal.”

Before Velin could argue, Hati called out in a low voice, his eyes trained overhead where a crimson glow had appeared.

“Thorn.”

“I see it. Velin, please. Take Akira with you. I’ll find you once we’ve completed the plan.”

Tucking the dagger into his belt, Thorn gripped his staff tightly and jumped up onto Hati’s back as the Moon Wolf took off, vanishing into the shadows of the jungle. Her face cold enough to freeze the air into ice, Velin stared at the spot they had disappeared for a full minute before she snapped out of it. Seeing Akira sitting at her feet, she stooped down and picked Akira up, petting her lightly as she sighed. Sometimes, Thorn infuriated her, but his eagerness to put himself in the way of danger for other people was part of what she loved about him.

“He’s got his job, and we’ve got ours, right Akira?”

As Thorn raced through the jungle with Hati, he could feel the gnawing hunger in his heart. Every time the lich totem activated to heal his body, it used the stored life force and the void in his heart grew stronger, awakening his desire to swallow more life force. The dagger he possessed was supposed to hold the key to canceling the spell, and even Aciakko had confirmed that. However, he had no idea how it worked, and no time to figure it out either.

Up ahead, the crimson spot on the ceiling had brightened until it was white hot, and a moment later, a sun appeared, falling from the ceiling and hovering in the air. Thorn and Hati were half way between the camp and the location of the sun, so Hati stopped in place, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

“You might want to get down, Thorn.”

“Not on your life,” Thorn said, a crooked grin on his emaciated lips as he brandished his staff, a long blade extending from its end. “Let's see how dangerous this thing really is.”

With a loud howl, Hati launched himself toward the being in the sky, his feet landing on puddles of darkness that appeared in mid air as he shot toward the sun. Blinding light filled the fifth strata, causing many of the sensitive jungle plants to begin slowly wilting, and as Thorn got closer, he found it impossible to keep his eyes open. Gritting his teeth, he locked onto the being with his mental sense, ignoring the burning feeling it caused in his mind.

To his surprise, the god hunter looked nothing like he had thought. For some reason, since Ferris had called the god hunter she, Thorn had assumed that he would see a young woman, or maybe even an angelic looking being. And before he had shut his eyes, that was what he had seen hidden inside the light, a faint female silhouette. Instead, what he saw in his mind was a twisted amalgamation of mouths, eyes, and wings, all constantly opening and closing as if they were in great pain.

Horrified by what he was seeing, Thorn gripped his staff all the tighter as Hati pierced through the wall of light that the god hunter projected. Light was the natural enemy of shadow, and as they got closer, the light burned away the shadow mana in Thorn’s body, forcing him to coat himself in earth mana. Even that was peeled back by the intense light, but compared to Hati, he had it easy.

The god beast was a being that embodied the darkness in a physical way and the closer they got to the god hunter, the worse the damage became. At first it was just fur that was singed, but soon that fur began to burn and skin began to melt. The sight of Hati’s suffering stabbed Thorn in the chest, and an eruption of fury was the result. With growing rage that completely erased any fear he felt, Thorn focused on his one task, piercing the monstrosity in front of them with his spear.

[GOD BEAST IDENTIFIED. BEGIN DESTRUCTION.]

The god hunter spoke in a voice that sounded like a thousand voices tightly layered over one another, causing an unpleasant shiver in anyone who heard it. It had long noticed them and after it finished speaking, all of the radiance it was releasing suddenly shifted and focused on Hati, hitting him with a powerful blast.

“Thorn, jump!”

Instinctively listening to Hati, Thorn jumped off of the Moon Wolf’s back, continuing to fly toward the god hunter even as Hati was blasted into the jungle below. In too much shock to react, all Thorn could do was stab his magical blade into the god hunter’s body. With a ding, the blade bounced off, catching one of the opening and closing mouths. Slipping inside by sheer luck, Thorn’s spear pierced into the monster’s body, causing it to thrash about violently. One of its wings clipped Thorn and sent him hurtling back through the air, but not before he decisively triggered his magical blade, causing the overloaded mana to explode violently.

Shrieks of pain echoed across the fifth strata and the monster spun, as if trying to see Thorn with all of its eyes at once. Realizing that he had drawn aggro, Thorn activated Earth Step, falling into the stone doorway that appeared behind him just before a beam of energy sizzled through the air where he had just been.

“This thing is firing lasers!”

[Technically, not lasers,] Eve replied, entirely calmer than she had any right to be. [But even as I say that, the difference is miniscule enough that it's not worth quibbling over.]

Landing on the ground, Thorn glanced up but couldn’t see the god hunter due to the thick foliage. He was praying that the opposite was true as well, but considering that the abomination seemed to have locked onto Hati from outside of the world, he thought it was a far-fetched wish. Sprinting to where Hati had fallen, Thorn saw the god beast struggling to his feet. Never once had Thorn seen Hati so badly wounded, even when he had faced off against the dragon, Cherserrorth. Large patches of his fur were falling out in clumps and his skin underneath was burnt and blistering. Large welts and growths protruded all over his body as his flesh putrefied. Seeing Thorn’s aghast expression, Hati spoke, his voice filled with an undercurrent of humor.

“You should see the other guy.”

“Hati, this is not the time for jokes!”

“Seriously though, were you able to see past its brilliance? Those things are terribly ugly. Unfortunately, they are as tough as they are grotesque and just as deadly too.”

“And it's coming this way,” Thorn said, his eyes darting upward just in time to see the leaves above him burst into flame.

Everywhere it went, the intense, shining aura that surrounded the god hunter burned away everything it touched, clearing a path as it drew closer to them.

[GOD BEAST IDENTIFIED. HUMAN…FALSE…ELF…FALSE…ASSIR…FALSE. NON-GOD BEAST CREATURE IDENTIFIED.]

Once again, the creature spun this way and that as it tried to look at Thorn with all of its eyes at once. Unable to determine what sort of creature he was, it just stopped trying.

[COMMENCE DESTRUCTION OF GOD BEAST. CANCEL. QUERY NON-GOD BEAST CREATURE. WHAT IS YOUR ALLEGIANCE.]

Sensing the confusion in the god hunter, Thorn glanced over at Hati.

“Uh, what does it mean?”

[FALSE. NON-GOD BEAST CREATURE IS NOT TO COMMUNICATE WITH GOD BEAST.]

“Be quiet, I’m talking to my friend.”

[FALSE. WILL NOT BE QUIET. FALSE. GOD BEASTS CANNOT BE FRIENDS. NON-GOD BEAST SHOWS SIGNS OF RESISTANCE. ADD NON-GOD BEAST TO EXTERMINATION LIST.]

“Hey Eve, doesn’t this thing speak a lot like an AI?”

“Maybe from a bad SciFi movie,” Eve said, shrugging. “Regardless, I think you should probably think less about that, and more about how you are going to survive the next few minutes.”