CHAPTER 28: PREDATORS AND PREYS (5)

Varrick the Testmaster of the first floor let his icy eyes move from one carnage to another, not moved by the endless screams and wails from the endless forest below him. He looked at the huge projection of runes where the number of participants was displayed.

[3019 CROSSERS REMAINING]

"Tsk, I wonder why the real hunters have not chosen to strike now." He said in a hushed tone. "Or it seems they are waiting for something."

The princess who stood by him, had said nothing while the massacre happened. She simply hovered there with the help of her winged shoes, her face hidden in the darkness of her hood. Despite being called a princess she looked very different from how a princess should be portrayed, her outfit looked like an adventurer’s wear. It was mostly made of thick leather, covering every part of skin from being revealed.

There was a shiny vambrace on her upper arm, her pants looked to be very customised dark jeans cut on the knees either by herself or from someone else. The only part of her skin revealed was her hand which looked calloused and very rough.

Her shape was tall, lean and slightly curved. On her hip was a long brown belt that held a short sword barely a few feet long, nestling there hidden in a white scabbard.

Varrick sighed lightly and turned to face her for the first time in a long while, then he spoke in a tone that showed no emotion. "You still haven’t said why you’re here... why you really came."

The princess failed to respond or she chose to rather keep her silence to herself. The clashing of blades and the never ending wails continued to rise in the endless field of green and red.

After a long time she finally broke the silence. "Varrick, why did you lie to them. This isn’t the first trial, it’s your trial. Even if there are ways to shorten the number of crossers why resort to this one?"

Varrick’s blinked at her left her very slowly, it was like her question had a weight it should not have. He turned his gaze to the earth below and stayed in secluded silence for a moment before speaking. "Is there a reason to doing anything in the tower besides the simple reason that I can. As the testmaster I set tests to prepare the crossers for the tower, besides I hate a full house."

The princess was about to speak when her body jolted. Her eyes widened. Varrick’s expression mirrored hers, rigid, as though both had swallowed fire. It was very similar to the feeling of having a thousand ants crawling over you, only that your face was also on fire. They took in a deep breath almost immediately, and cancelled the effect the strange surge had on them.

Before they could say anything, their gazes locked and the world seemed to go silent. Everything slowed and it felt like the world had frozen. Barely a second later then realised that the world really did go silent.

Far below them where there had been clamouring and a bloody massacre, surprisingly there was nothing of the sort at the moment.

The screams faltered mid-echo. Swords clattered to the ground. Even the wind seemed to lose its voice. A d strangely enough it felt like the tower itself was listening.

It was utter silence.

The endless forest of Calquin was filled with an endless abyss of cold utter silence.

Both the princess and the Testmaster looked down on instinct at almost the same time, their faces now showing an hint of something akin to fear.

Some there down there something was awakening and it was of an indescribable evil.

On the surface of the endless forest was a huge abberation made entirely of rock currently in the process of stomping a young man into the ground only to be stopped by a strange force.

What came from the small pit in the ground was a low strange giggle, it did not sound human in any way. It sounded distorted, it even made the air curdle like it was being forced into something it was not.

The rock monster watched in horror as it’s leg started to turn gray and slowly show signs of losing structural integrity.

The strange giggling continued to grow louder, and everyone within earshot if it felt paralysed. Their bodies freezing and their skin itching.

Whatever was happening to the rock monster seemed to be spreading at an exceeding rate, in barely a minute it was covered in the strange dull gray colouration that looked very much like rot.

The gray spread like a disease that had been waiting for centuries, creeping through the monster’s veins with purpose, not hunger. It screamed— not from pain, but disbelief.

It’s scream reached every ear in the endless forest, breaking the silence and filling every where with a deep sense of fear and perhaps pity.

The rock monster did not even get a second to breath before it disintegrated into dust and scattered in the wind.

Emilia and Nasha who stayed a small difference away witnessed everything that happened and it made them feel... Irritated.

No not the exact scene itself but something they could not describe. They had just witnessed Aerith he crushed to paste, or maybe they had seen it wrong. As far as they both knew the young lord had no power of combat of his own so there was no way he could have survived that hit but oddly enough, something did.

Whether they wanted to be believe their eyes or not they had no choice but to accept what they saw. Something had been unleashed unto the world and it was currently crawling out of the ground where Aerith had been. The only similarity it had with a human was the fact that it had two hands and two legs, and of course a head. But that was where it ended.

It was pitch black, covered all over with billions of needles that reflected light from the sun. Every part of its body was covered in the said needle even it’s face. It’s head was a pitch black mass with no eyes, no nose or a sign of one, there was not even a mouth on that thing. Could it even be considered human again?

One thing that did seem very strange and out of place for the already mysterious being that had recently just surfaced was what it had on its neck.

Around its throat gleamed an onyx collar, etched with seals that looked older than any language. There was a chain that once held it but it was shattered— not broken, but shattered.

It was like the chains used to keep something devilish locked away had been shattered by someone or something, and letting the said beast free into the world.

When it stood, something of Aerith’s outline still lingered in its posture like a flicker of memory or habit still twitching inside that husk of needles. A second later even that was gone and it’s posture shifted ever so slightly, like it had erased something within itself.

As Emilia stared at it, she could not help but remember something Aerith had said to her at one time. Her stomach churned and grew cold, and her eyes felt so heavy she felt they would have rolled unto the floor. She gripped Nasha tighter over the chest, and words slipped out of her mouth like venom...

"You really are— the devil!"