“Communication with elements of DARKSTAR remain sporadic at best, and potentially lost entirely at worst. Local elements and elements of SHIELD continue to temporarily operate under HAWK. SHIELD reports that OUTLAND has dispatched an unaffiliated expedition to DARKSTAR. Will keep in contact. ”

  - Private Communique, Letter On Desk Of High Inquisitor Hildebrandt, “Northern Regions Update”

  The two of them squirmed as they waited. Their presence now depended on factors wholly out of their control. Time seemed to slow as Sophie peered out from the peephole. Watching shadowy figures flitter to and fro as they gathered themselves in the hallway.

  She could feel Sophia’s grip tighten on her shoulders, her own pressing into the edges of the doorframe as they both tried to stop any possibility of noise from escaping. A tense silence interrupted only by their breaths. Then, a few soft clicks echoed from down the hall and Sophie’s eyes narrowed. This was their chance, the enemy was moving to investigate.

  “Hun..gry…” The same distorted creature growled from somewhere out of sight.

  Now!

  Sophia gave her a nod and let go of her shoulder, letting her regain full control of her body once more. She reached down to push down on the door handle, doing it as slowly as possible despite being aware of the rust that tried to fight her every step of the way. Each squeak and creak made her wince and tense up even more as she jolted with every vibration.

  But with a click and snap, she could feel the rusted release as something clicked open. Holding steady, she released a breath she didn’t know she was holding before committing herself to pushing the door open in full

  “Hun…gry…?” The creature gurgled, its voice now more clear with the door open.

  To Sophie’s ear, it was less of a singular creature’s vocal chords being distorted but rather an amalgamation of different voices forced into one.

  As the rest of the door swung open, Sophie caught a better glimpse of the hallway around her. Damp, moldy carpeting and ruined furnishings lined the flanks. Then, at the end of the hall, what seemed to be the tail end of something far more grotesque and massive. Dried leather skin bulges and a twisted looking set of legs held up the back end of the creature, though the rest of it was out of sight behind a hastily opened door. It’s there, but… she narrowed her eyes as she stopped in her tracks.

  No movements, good.

  Somewhat relieved, she gestured for Sophia to advance. The two of them cautiously snuck over towards the banquet hall as Sophia hurriedly started trying to get it open. But much like the staff kitchen door, the rigors of time had created an unexpected hurdle in this endeavour. Try as she might, with how gently and quietly she was trying to get it open, it simply would not budge. They both collectively winced as the metallic parts screeched in response to being disturbed, although it was followed by a hefty clack from within.

  Unlocked, go, go! Sophia urged.

  “Hungry?” The monster gurgled, squelchy wet plops of multiple feet as it struggled to turn around.

  Shit, it heard us. Sophie gave her sister a shove as she covered the retreat, her sword pointed outwards while she stepped backwards into the doorway.

  As the two of them hastily tried to shut the door. Out of the tiniest crack before it shut once more, she saw it. A part of the creature’s main body. An amalgamation of crumpled armor and torn clothes from a mass of bodies, appendages sticking out at bizarre angles, a compressed mockery of the victims of Eichafen. More importantly, for her, a reminder of the abominations she had fought before and in this instance, a sign that Arantos’s hands had been responsible for felling the city.

  With the door barely closed behind them, they could hear the roar that followed.

  “Hungr…y!” It snarled, hurried footsteps plodding awkwardly forward.

  Go, go!

  One of them called out as their thoughts grew jumbled with alarm.

  They rushed their way across the banquet hall. The dusty tables, chairs, all having been arranged into dozens of little nooks. Only when she was halfway across the room did it dawn on her what had happened here. The castle’s inhabitants had turned the banquet hall into a makeshift triage center. Though given the lack of bodies or remnants, they were at least successful in evacuating the wounded elsewhere before succumbing to the foul forces arrayed against them.

  Reaching the other end of the room, they started to slowly tinker with the lock when a sickening creak echoed from where they had come from. Sophie’s eyes widened in horror as splinters started shooting out from the door, the cracks across its form getting ever larger by the second. The creature was trying to break in.

  Sophia quickly! The monster, Sophie tried to hurry her sister.

  “What’s it look like I’m doing? This lock's rusted to shit.” Sophia scowled, the unexpected sound of her voice a hint at her own growing concern.

  Realizing that time was of the essence, Sophia eschewed the stealthier techniques for one more suited to the moment. Sophie glanced over as her sister stepped back, then rushed at the door with her shoulder, slamming against it with a hearty thud as she reeled from the blow.

  Stop staring and help me.

  Startled, Sophie quickly hopped into action and joined her sister for a charge.

  Three, two…

  There was a snapping noise from the door behind them.

  One!

  They gathered what strength they could and quickly charged the door. Both letting out simultaneous grunts of surprise as what resistance gave way and collapsed under their weight. Wooden splinters and the door knob clattered in a messy pile around just as the banquet hall door also exploded. Through the opening, they both spotted the large abomination, the creature barely squeezing itself through the doorway as limbs and bits hung loosely from it.

  There the monster stood, wobbling in an unsettlingly inhuman way. Dozens of gangly limbs, half planted onto the ground, arms, feet, hands and all just trying to support itself. The other half, mostly rotted and emaciated, sacrificial nutrients for a beast that stood almost a full person taller than her if not for the fact that it was hunched over. Stretched dried leathery skin lined its body like some grotesque mimicry of clothing, and a half dozen heads protruding from its torso at angles bizarre and inhuman. At first only a single set of eyes settled upon them, then in slow motion, Sophie could feel the weighty stare of dozens of eyes as her hair stood on end. They regarded her as one cohesive entity but also not at all. She could feel the various minds all trying to come to their own conclusion only for a sharp look of pain to pass through all their faces.

  Stars… that’s…

  The two sides simply stared, the monster almost too confused at the sight of the two elves standing there. Whereas Sophie was simply mortified by the bizarreness of the abomination.

  “Move, you dolt.” Sophia broke the silence.

  Her words seemed to shatter the brief peace between them as well. An unholy cacophony of pained screeches and shrill cries escaped from the conjoined abomination, its frenzied movements sending the remains of the banquet hall into chaos. Sophie meanwhile, did something she had often done. Turn tail and run.

  They took off sprinting in the other direction as the abomination roared in frustration. They simply crashed through the next door with little regard, covering the two of them in saw dust, splinters, and grime. Together, they ran into what looked to be an L-shaped hallway of sorts, Sophie wasting no time in urging Sophia to follow her. Just based on a quick glance around them, she spied collapsed statues and broken display cabinets. Nothing out of the ordinary beyond the faint tint of golden that even the rot could not hide. A sign that someone wanted to show off, or in this case, make a good first impression on guests and therefore, they were close to the entrance.

  A terrific groaning of wood and falling stones echoed behind them as the abomination rammed itself into the doorframe. Flesh and puss made an unholy array of noises as it used sheer force to simply break open the entire frame in pursuit of its prey.

  “Damned bastard.” Sophia muttered under her breath.

  “Quick, here!” Sophie called out as they rounded the corner.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  At the far end of the hall, it opened up into what she hoped was the main foyer. There was another corridor on the opposite side of the building, and a large, almost wholly too fancy for this sort of place set of carpets lining the floors, at least before it got all moldy and grimey. The entryway!

  Perhaps it was only a small flaw in their plan, but a flaw was a flaw regardless. For arriving in the foyer with the abomination in hot pursuit, they now faced an unexpected, but in hindsight glaringly obvious issue. The doors had been barred and shut so that even Sir Taurox couldn’t reliably break them down. Now, they had to find a way to unlock it before the abomination descended upon them, or the other hostiles who would’ve undoubtedly heard all the commotion by now.

  The two of them frantically searched the doorway, quickly setting their attention on two mechanisms on the side that looked to be responsible for the locks. Wordlessly, they sprang into action and began twisting it left and right, praying that they found the right direction or hastily switching if they faced too much resistance. Down the halls, the heavy uneven plodding of the abomination’s footsteps grew louder. Though be it a quirk of the monster itself or some shred of humanity, it sounded noticeably slower than it had been chasing them in the banquet hall. Sophie wondered if it was a heavily sight based monster, though she certainly had no inclination to check.

  Their primary concern now, were the heavy clanks of armor and footsteps echoing down from the second floor. If the castle had been any livelier and less hollowed out, they wouldn’t have known. But now, it only worried them all the more.

  “Hungry!” The abomination roared from the hallway.

  Startled, the two threw their weight into the mechanisms, turning the gears in hopes that it would help unlock something.

  “Hurry!” Sophia called out.

  “I’m trying!” Sophie snapped back.

  “Guys? Is that you?” A muffled barely audible voice came from behind the main doors.

  “It’s-”

  Focus! Turn the fucking wheel! Sophia interrupted her.

  “Ugh!” Sophie grunted as she practically leapt onto the rusted gear to turn it.

  Flecks of rust and mold scattered across her arms but she could care less. Giving the gear one last hardy turn, she heard the distinctive clank of something within the doorframe. That’s it! Now just-

  Duck!

  Sophia’s shrill psychic cry sent her reeling backwards onto the ground. The shadow of a dagger darting through the air as it soared across the foyer. Following the trajectory, Sophie’s eyes widened a second before her ears were deafened by the ear piercing shrieks of the abomination’s heads as the dagger impaled one of them.

  Sophie?!

  “I’m fine.” Sophie grimaced out loud and picked herself up, “Door. I’ll be fine.”

  She didn’t even look at Sophia as she turned to face the abomination with a growl, her sword clenched tightly in her grip. Though that did little to hide the trembling that her body felt. Part excitement, part fear, part disgust and pity at the malformed abomination before her.

  “F-f-free!”

  “Meal!”

  “Hungry!”

  “People!?”

  “R-ru-run!”

  The heads shouted out of sync. Each voice invading both as one but also individually at the same time creating a great discordance in the air. A half dozen arms reached for her, some fleshy and muscled appendages bursting with an unnatural purplish hue, others nothing more than scraps of skin attached to what was almost only bone.

  To her growing horror, as it moved, there was an almost imperceptible pain that overtook the creature. Something within it was forcing it to move forward, likely the same something that now entangled the different beings which comprised it together. Worse, it was also becoming clear that the monster’s various parts were much more present than she had hoped.

  “Look at me!” She challenged it.

  Like a taut leash having been snapped loose. Her words were the catalyst that spawned a raging monstrosity. The abomination clambered forward in all its horrific glory, the overriding sentience directing the entirety of the being towards one singular goal. To tear her apart.

  "Feast!"

  "Meat!"

  "Run!"

  "Gragh!"

  Its incessant screeches certainly left little room for doubt about the situation they were in. Its comrades would be here soon, and the two of them would be outnumbered. It had to go.

  She muttered a soft apology under her breath, aware of the sentience on display, or whatever was left of it. This evil must not spread anymore. She told herself.

  With nary a warcry or even a grunt, she lunged at the creature. A probing attack to test its reflexes. To her dismay, the multitude of limbs had the unintended effect of allowing it to shift its body weight and pivot at a moment’s notice. Legs simply allowed to buckle as more took up the mantle to support itself.

  "Hungry!" One of the heads shrieked in anger at her approach. The cry of warning or desire prompting the rest of the abomination to launch a sloppy charge of its own. Swaying from left to right, Sophie couldn’t adequately determine its trajectory. Though she could avoid the main mass, she could only brace herself as three bony arms swung right for her.

  She had been punched and hit many times before, one could even say that it came as a result of her uniquely dangerous profession. Still, brace as she might, she never appreciated the pain and bruising that followed. When the first appendage smashed into her chestpiece, the fragmented almost bony brittle fist shattered on impact, instilling her with false hope. The next came in soon after, a direct hit towards her gut powered by a surprising strength from the abomination’s fleshy muscles behind the decrepit arms. The last struck her square in the belly, the combined force of the three hits sent her skidding across the foyer.

  Fucking hells, she grimaced.

  Sophie? Her sister paused to query.

  Just get it open!

  The monster quickly ran at her as she picked herself up, forcing her to quickly roll away as it smashed into the wall behind her, letting out a soul rending series of wails from the pain of impact. Seizing her chance, she darted forward.

  Lashing out with a deft swing of her own. Steel bit into flesh then bone as a clean cut severed an outlying arm. The abomination howled in agony, letting loose a series of heavy swipes and flailing in a feeble attempt to hit her. Well the focus is definitely on me now.

  Matching its howl, she kept low and swiped for the legs. Though it bit into flesh, here, she found far more sinew and tissue opposing her, succeeding only in leaving behind a nasty looking gash. One of the heads let out a mournful squeal that left a splotch of pain in her mind. Still, she couldn’t hold back now and sidestepped to keep the monster’s back towards her as it flailed around.

  Tables shattered, vases broke, and whatever furniture and decor had survived the siege found themselves crushed by the weight of the panicking abomination. It roared in fury and annoyance, like a farm animal that had finally realized how annoying gnats and flies could be. Before she could find an opening, the abomination lowered itself before using its plethora of legs to throw itself backwards.

  The hells-

  Sophie barely registered what was happening before she leapt out of the way, landing with a heavy thud across the cold marble stairs as she narrowly avoided being crushed.

  Turning her gaze to the monster, she found that its aggressive attack had come with more than a few mishaps on its part. Thick bulbous splotches of flesh had exploded from the impact like ink sacs, leaving behind a sickening dark green and crimson residue behind, bits of rotted flesh and bone still floating within it. As if aware of the compromising position it placed itself in, the heads all screamed as one as it redirected its titanic efforts into righting itself once more.

  Catching an inkling that it was somewhat distracted, Sophie launched herself off the steps, throwing herself into a desperate tackle with the creature. A spine chilling crack echoed from under her and ran throughout her body as her weight snapped two more of its arms. Using the momentum she had recovered, she cleaved and clawed at its torso with her blade, sending flecks of spurts of viscera and blood everywhere. Leveraging her current position, she mustered what courage she had and dug her free hand into its crumbling flesh.

  Ignoring the hands and teeth that were now scratching and gnawing at her, she narrowed her mind and allowed her own hunger to manifest. To her horror but little surprise, she could almost see it through her mind’s eye alone. Six weeks strands of mana and life intertwined with a darkened purple crystal. Sharp protrusions jutted out from all over it, almost like it had been trying to entangle the free flowing strands around it. Sorry. She muttered, and opened her own tainted soul to embrace it.

  This time however, something felt different, almost more primal. And as the mana unhooked itself and began to flow into her, she could feel a sharp pain inside and out. Not only did one of the heads try to bite her, but something within the thorny core also lashed out at her. Surprised and infuriated in equal measure, Sophie forced her soul open, allowing the desire for mana to overtake her. In but an instant, their struggle grew as the tainted core of the abomination gradually lost its hold on the mana nodes, raging against her every step of the way.

  “Freings Fletare!” The cry of the incantation snapped her out of her battle.

  The sole head left of the abomination squealed in agony as exposed flesh and sinew burned from the intensity of a radiant orange glow. The smell of cooked flesh quickly filled her nostrils alongside the rotten smell of sulfur from the creature’s internals that now coated her hand. Tearing her arm away from the now dead mouth that had clamped down upon it, she drew forth what mana she had collected and felt her arm twitch uncontrollably as it rapidly tried to heal using the monster's energy.

  Freed, she leapt down from the monster and pulled down her sleeve lower to conceal the wound.

  “Sophie, you alright?” A familiar voice called out.

  Still in a daze, Sophie staggered away from the now burning monster as bile filled pustules slowly expanded and popped from the heat.

  “Sophie?” Elaria’s singing voice dropped a note of concern.

  Sophie could only wordlessly nod as she tried to take in the situation around her. The others had joined the fray as swords clashed in a furious melee. The Red Hawks and Sir Taurox tried desperately to push through two heavily armored foes on the stairwell, the rot covered knights wielding immense tower shields and spears to fend off the soldiers. A strange robed figure laid cleaved in two, likely part of the minotaur’s handiwork. While Raylani and Mila tried to finish off what was left of the abomination.

  Beside her, Elaria breathed a sigh of relief at confirming her wellbeing. The bard wasted no time rushing towards the doorway. Where, to Sophie’s continued confusion, Sophia and Elaria were now desperately trying to lock once more. What…?

  “Sophie! Help! Quick! They’re coming.” Her sister shouted.