[Pyschokinetic] Eyeball Pulling - Chapter 246 (Patreon)

They all looked the same. Long, black, eel-like beasts reaching over one-hundred metres tall. They also had slender arms thick with wiry muscle.

“Dread-Wyrms,” Noah said with a severity in her voice. “Weapons at the ready and look to the sky.”

Look to the sky? Astrid wondered. Her gaze rose. There was nothing.

At Noah’s words, those at the front held onto whatever was available. From the maws of the creatures, a black laser fired at them. But there was no damage done. The black light rested on Astrid’s body. She had multiple layers of defence not only in front of her, but around the others as well. Yet there wasn’t a single mark done to her barriers as a result of the illumination.

Astrid wondered what the hell was going on, and then she saw it. From the eel’s backs, little green pods shuddered, then broke. Thousands of little bugs emerged from the eggs. They screeched, like metal plates grinding against each-other.

Thew flew into the air, then dive bombed straight for Astrid, and the others that were illuminated by the black light.

The light acts as a command, Astrid thought as the troops of Rebirth lobbed whatever projectile attacks they had. Arrows, bullets, fire, water, and whatever other elements they had. It was like a light show.

Rachelle threw a blanket of blazing fire at them. In a wide area, it swept over the bugs like an exterminator. The bugs crackled and popped and released a vile liquid from within their stomachs.

Noah didn’t say anything, so it was unlikely that the liquid was dangerous, but Astrid didn’t want to be covered in some mysterious goo. She swiped the liquid out of the air, depositing it into the waters below.

More bugs appeared. They were endless. From the skies, they flew into the beam of light, and disappeared. One of them struck her barrier, then another, and another. Astrid’s eyes widened as they instantly annihilated the first layer of her barrier, then the second.

“Shit,” Astrid spat as she Crashed the air in a wide arc. They’re damn strong for little bugs!

She used around 15% of her mana in an instant to vanquish whatever was in front of them. The others were protected from her explosions behind her barriers which she created more of.

“Don’t let the bugs near the light,” Noah said as she killed over a hundred with high powered rain. They were like bullets fired from a barrel as they tore into the bugs. It was a bloodbath.

Astrid’s mother kicked the air, sending fire wave after wave through the air. They were like scythes, reaping their lives.

“You could have said that before!” Astrid snarled.

Realising that her talents were better utilised elsewhere, Astrid immediately created large sheets of metal. They lacked defence, as even a level 10 could tear it down, but that’s not what it was for.

Astrid created over fifteen of them. And that was how many of those damned Dread-Wyrms were. She pushed them through the air, around a mile away. Then she stopped them. She had blocked the light. With no light, the bugs couldn’t use the illuminated pathway to multiply their movement speed.

But it didn’t matter how many she, or her mother, and the others were killed. The worms sprouting from within the whirlpools just kept on spawning them seemingly with no limit.

“How much longer?” Astrid shouted above the sound of deafening magic explosions.

“This is just the beginning,” Noah said. “Conserve your strength. We are approaching the first king.”

“What bloody king?” Brett asked. “Didn’t that whistle open up a path for us? I thought you’d be a snake charmer. Not a fucking bullmaster prodding it with a piping hot brand.”

“We need to get past the king first.”

“You really should have told us that first,” Rachelle said, grinding her teeth. “Is she always like this?” She shot Havel a look. He replied with a helpless smile.

“Well, what does the king look like?” Brett asked.

Rachelle’s head snapped onto him. Astrid groaned. The water exploded in the far distance.

Astrid said as she gazed at the horizon. “You just had to open your cursed mouth.”

A giant emerged. It had one eye, a broad chest, and a body to match. The king was so tall that the ocean’s surface only reached the giant's knees. It was like a colossal sculpture, each muscle chiselled to perfection. And now it looked at them. It glared at Rebirth with its one eye. Then it roared.

Astrid turned down the volume within her mind. Why does everything need to be so loud?

“If that’s the King, then is it the King of the south?” Astrid asked Noah.

“No,” Noah said, “it is the Guardian King. He makes certain that people aren’t able to leave. Usually he only appears when travellers have reached the point of no return. He has made his appearance sooner than I had anticipated. Maybe it has something to do with the Leviathan.”

“You really suck with information, you know that?” Astrid said. “If we all die, I’m choosing to haunt you.”

Noah smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

“Then where do we go?” Brett asked. “If you haven’t already noticed, the path is heading right for the damned thing.”

Astrid gazed ahead. He was right. The path travelled straight for the giant King, and continued through the monster's legs. The path was leading them right to their deaths. And with explosions rocking the back of the arc thanks to the Order and the Great Migrators, there was nowhere to run.

Noah looked at Brett, and said. “You weren’t wrong.”

“What the hell does that mean?” He replied.

She ignored him. Noah fiddled with the flute in her hands. Bringing it to her mouth, she blew a strange tune. They were getting closer to the giant King now. Three miles. Two miles. One mile. Astrid had to crane her head all the way up to see the King's head.

If it attacked now, they would be deader than dead. But it didn’t. Noah kept on playing the flute, not daring to stop for a single second.

We’re going to make it.

Astrid couldn’t believe it as she stared up at the hulking figure looming above her. They still had a little ways to go, roughly around a couple hundred metres, but the King wasn’t attacking. High above, its eyes didn’t even seem to register them even being so close to it.

However, it seemed to glare daggers at the Leviathan, who was rapidly gaining on them. The explosions at the back of Rebirth were increasingly becoming worse.

Astrid guessed that they were pulling out all the stops to hold them back. She felt a familiar mana source. It was so overwhelming that she instinctively held her breath.

Looking over her shoulders, she saw him. A figure shrouded in gold. He wore a gilded mask, and the halo carved onto the forehead of it, detached from the mask, and rose into the air. He floated up, passed the Leviathan’s head.

Two gleaming eyes shone from behind his mask. But Astrid could sense something ghastly about them. She could feel Pupil sneer. Looking through Astrid’s eye, he looked upon the man in utter contempt… and unbridled rage.

“Pupil?”

She hadn’t heard from him in a while. Astrid assumed that he was still sleeping. He did that alot. Especially with Astrid’s overutilization of mana.

“That person won’t survive for long, Astrid. They are rejecting him.”

“The black blobs are?”

“We go through a fusing process. Only compatible hosts can survive our integration. He is killing them.”

Astrid stilled. So the man had forced them to join him. And now he was killing them because of it. Just like Pupil, she felt angry. Pupil acted like a child. From him altering the System title messages she received, to the way he spoke. The symbiotes were young. They had sentience. And they had life like that of a young child.

But now Pupil had changed. The way he talked was different. More mature.

Astrid stirred. Her eyes widened. Within her mind, she blurted, “Do you know more now? About yourself? Your past?”

“We–” Pupil’s voice trembled. Astrid envisioned him. He was writhing in rage. “Everyone is dead. Murdered. Absorbed. They are here now. You must kill them, Astrid. All of them.”

Astrid’s heart sank. She asked, “Who?”

“Your people call them the Great Migrators,” Pupil said. “But they are devourers. Now they are here. To hunt us. To devour this world. Like they have done around the vast blackness up above.”

Space? Astrid thought.

“The man in gold has one Demi-God within one eye. And a S–Supreme in the other,” Pupil stuttered. “The six–the Devourers–to the side are responsible for devouring us and the planets. They used to be seven. I don’t know how they do it, Astrid. Soon, there will be nothing left of this place. Our home.”

“I won’t let that happen, Pupil,” Astrid thought in an attempt to calm down her eyes.

Pupil spoke up in desperation. Astrid’s eyes flashed. One with an X scored through her pupil, the other with an endless void.

“Astrid, we need to kill–”

A pillar of golden spawned in the skies above. It descended in a flash of piercing light. It landed near the back of the arc. It disappeared the next second. An enormous hole bore into the toughened metal plates of Rebirth.

They were sinking.