Rise of the Blood Weaver - Chapter 62 (Patreon)

“What the hell was that?” Elian clutched his head and groaned.

They were in the middle of the desert. To their back, Arlo could feel the high walls belonging to the mountains they had come from. Whatever they were put under, must have been some sort of illusion, or something.

Justin was guzzling down mouthful after mouthful of water. Placed under the illusion, who knows how much time had passed. Based on their flesh, it must have been a few hours, at least.

“Something put us under a spell,” Justin said, wiping the remaining water from his lips. He passed on the bottle to Elian.

Arlo frowned and crouched. The sand was different now. There was no red amongst the gold like he had seen before. Right before the strange illusions began…

“I think it’s the sand,” Arlo said in realisation. “Before our minds were taken over, I recall seeing some specs of red amongst the sand. Maybe that has something to do with it?”

Merc joined him. She dug a hole 2 feet deep. Only then did she find little grains of red. “I think you’re right.” She showed them, then placed the sand back down from where it came.

“We must have inhaled the loose particles,” Elian said. “Everyone, cover your face with whatever you have.”

And so they did.

Finally, Louis woke up. He floundered, then screamed at the sudden pain assaulting his senses. Arlo quickly unbound him.

“Why the hell did you tie me up?” Louis asked, his eyes knit in pain. He coughed up blood.

“Don’t you remember?”

“Remember what? I don’t remember a thing.” Louis looked confused.

Arlo sighed, “Guess, not. Well–”

“You tried to kill him,” Justin said. His face was expressionless.

Shit. He’s furious, Arlo thought.

“What?” Louis said, confused. “Why the hell would I want to do that?”

“It’s that thing in our head,” Arlo said. “Whatever it was, it wanted us to die. It wanted me to… kill myself. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was making you want to kill others. Kill me. We need to get the hell out of this desert.”

Justin glanced at Merc, and said, “It wanted me to kill Merc.”

Merc ignored Justin. She spoke up, “Arlo, how did you break free from the spell? No matter what I tried, I couldn’t smash the restraints it had been placed under. I’ve undergone a mental attack before, but this was… something else entirely. Whatever it was, it has to be above the Fallen rank.”

Fallen rank? Arlo picked up on the information. If it had to be above the Fallen Rank, that meant she had experienced mind control of the Devil rank. That was insane. Was it for training?

“I, uh, don’t really know,” Arlo said. “I was going through it, when I saw–”

Justin interrupted him. “Whatever it was, it’s a good thing. We’d be fucked otherwise. The sun is falling. Let’s get the hell out of this desert.”

“I want to know what he saw,” Merc said.

It seemed like she wasn’t going to back down. But neither was Justin. He stood up tall, and looked into her eyes. She looked back. He said, “And it can wait.”

Arlo swore he saw sparks fly. It was intimidating. Was this what a stand-off of lineages looked like? Even Elian and Louis had tensed up from the fiery exchange.

But why had Justin cut him off? Was he worried something he knew would come back to bite him in the future? Justin had his best interests at heart, so he decided to listen to him. After all, even Arlo couldn’t really explain what had happened.

It was better to keep it to himself for now.

“Justin is right, Merc,” Arlo said. “The sky is turning dark and we still have a while to travel. We’re going to be cutting it close as it is. We still have that massive dune to climb.”

Arlo pointed ahead. It was as he had said, an enormous dune practically swallowed the sight-line in front of them. They also happened to be standing on raised ground. He could see the walls they were aiming for in the distance, looming over the dune.

“Alright,” Merc said. She grabbed hold of her huge two-handed Remembrance. It had never once left her hands.

Arlo turned to Louis. “I’m sorry for hitting you back there. You just caught me by surprise, that’s all.” He instinctively held his back where he had been stabbed. Justin watched on. “Are you going to be alright? The walk ahead, I mean.”

Louis tried to move his right arm, but he winced at the sudden movement. He tried to take a step forward, but then he held his ribs. “Shit. I can hardly move.”

Merc walked towards Louis, and said. “I’ll carry him.”

Louis wanted to refuse, but he was in no state to. He could only bite back his pride and let the mighty woman pick him up in a princess carry.

“Well, this is embarrassing,” Louis said helplessly.

Arlo chuckled. As did Elian. With that, the spirits rose ever so slightly. But they still had a long walk ahead of them, and who knows what they would encounter…

***

Reaching the top of the dune, Arlo’s tensed shoulders relaxed as he let out a relieved sigh. In the distance, the vague image of a rectangle was no longer a phantom mirage. It was an enormous wall. Even taller than he could have ever imagined now that they were closer. They had a couple hours left to travel, if he had to take a wild guess.

Arlo panted. “Thank god.” He regained his breath, then said, “That city we came from, and now those walls. Just how tall were the residents of his place? They must be giants.”

“Or it was what they wanted to stay out,” Merc added.

Arlo shivered. “Thanks for that image, Merc.”

He could just imagine it now. Massive titanic monsters like the giant he had rode on the shoulder of assaulting those walls. It was a terrifying image.

Thankfully, the other sand dunes were out of the way. All that was left was a winding path between them that led straight for the gargantuan structure.

“Let’s go,” Merc said. “I want to reach those walls with time to spare. If there’s nowhere to hide from the Sand Surge, then we’ll have to quickly find another place.”

“If there is one,” Justin added.

Elian, Arlo, and Louis grimaced.

“Uh, Merc?” Louis asked while held in a princess carry.

“Hm?” She looked down.

“I’ve got it from here, thanks.”

“Oh right,” Merc said, placing Louis to his feet.

Arlo smirked in amusement at the scene. Then he looked at Justin. “Hell no. You’d be slung over my shoulder if it came to that.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want that either. Sorry, Louis.”

Everyone chuckled. The floor rumbled.

Shit, Arlo thought as he whirled around, looking for wherever the sandworm was coming from. Atop the dune, they had 360 degrees of visibility all across the desert. But he couldn’t find any evidence of the monster anywhere.

No. It was coming from below. The sand gurgled, and before Arlo could react, he felt his entire body rise into the air. The others fell off from the side, into the sand. The sand around Arlo’s feet washed away, cascading to the floor like a waterfall.

Arlo looked forwards in horror as two raised, black beady eyes turned to him. It was a gigantic crab.

“Arlo, jump!” Louis shouted from below.

“No, don’t!” Justin shouted. “You’re safer up there. Take its eyes!”

Arlo listened.