Blades and blasters shined in the moonlight as they fought the Splugorth.
"Get this piece o' shit out of my face!" Screamed the ever profane techno-wizard of the group, David. Tentacles lashed at his face, burning the air as they moved. They stopped at the end of their reach, singeing his bushy beard and dissolving the end of his lit cigar. He grunted, finishing his statement with a flourish of one of the largest Gatling guns money could buy. Gears clicked and whired as it revved up, and he grinned, spitting out the cigar in his mouth to shout one last taunt before he opened fire. "Your mother was a Calamari!"
"Really?" chimed in Andrea. "That's the best you've got?"
"I'll give ye a better name for it once it's good and dead!" David ducked as he spoke, and the tentacle that shot from the lake missed him once again by a hair. "Less talk, more Wild Magic, you unpredictable bitch-witch!"
"See? Now that's what I've come to expect, you flatterer, you!" She shot back, swinging a chain over her head like a bolo, readying it for some sort of strike. Greens and reds of magical energy swirled about the weapon, and her eyes glowed with it. With the other hand, she flipped a coin, catching it on the elbow of her other arm at it swung out towards Damian.
Damian, the youngest and least experienced of the group, shrieked like a little girl. Another tentacle whirred past him as well, and he was not nearly so lucky as David had been. Were it not for the power armor he had bought in town before going after this thing, he would have been vaporized by the magically enhanced member, and as it stood the tentacle burned a smoking hole in his chest plate. "Andrea?" He shrieked again. At only twenty years of age, this was not how he wanted to meet his maker.
"On its way, hun!" She yelled sweetly. Her chain, tip writhing in magical energies in the shape of an ace of spades, swung towards him, also enhanced by magic, and where it met the tentacle thousands of tiny explosions of light and heat swelled before it. The Splugorth shrieked, and dove back down. Andrea gasped and stood upright, coursing with energy. The men looked at her for a moment before she pushed her raven locks out of her eyes and grinned, revealing perfect teeth.
"Glad that worked out." She grinned wider, and Damian sighed in relief. The coin had fallen heads. Wild Magic didn't go so hot when it fell tails... whatever spell she tried to use would go "Wild", and another one would often take its place, sometimes devastatingly. Andrea was a powerful mage, but also as her title suggested a powerful and wild liability. Still, there was no one Damian would rather have by his side.
Seeing him stare, Andrea winked.
Damian blushed.
"Oi, ye stupid boy!" David growled. "Eyes off the lass and on the fucking beasty! It ent dead till it's dead!" Revving up his gun again, he whirled just in time to avoid the backlash of the third tentacle, jumping into the air as the stone he was standing on collapsed. The beast healed quick. This Splugorth was not going to go down easy. Quicker than thought, four more of the superheated appendages shot through the air, and Damian's moment of happiness ended in an instant.
David dodged the first three with ease, turning in mid air to avoid one and shooting the other clean off... but it only takes one hit to be lethal. He cried out, fell to the earth, and was still.
"DAVID!" Damian screamed. He gritted his teeth and pulled out a syringe, preparing to help his fallen friend, when Andrea's yell stopped him.
"No! I'll heal him. I need you to distract inky!" Damian nodded, and flicked out his ion gun, levelling and firing it at the nearest tentacle. Lord, lead my hand, He thought. You are my sun and moon, and by your light I will guide me home. The shot hit, and the beast reared back. Damian heard the distinctive click of a coin being tossed into the air, and he smiled...
Then Andrea screamed. Damian barely had time to move when the Rift opened. It sucked his friends in instantaneously, and before he could blink the two heroes he had followed for a year and counting were gone. Death is cruel and sudden. He remembered David tell him. A moment is all it takes. A flip of the coin...
The tentacles moved more frantically, and suddenly one swept towards the rift and became caught. Damian whooped in joy; Once something was caught in a rift it almost never got back out again. It didn't matter that it was one tentacle; The rift would find the rest of his essence and scatter it in a million different directions, just like it had just done to his friends. Damian tried to grin in grim satisfaction and watch the Splugorth die... But he couldn't. Images flashed through his brain, and emotions with them... Images of a tentacled monster... yet with his single eye unblinking and showing such emotion as Damian had never seen. Remorse. Fear. Regret. Pain. Such pain... He remembered the litany.
Save what can be saved; Give Salvation to those that need it, be they human or D-bee. Friend or Foe. End the pain of the sinner, and shield the innocent from the wrath of the world. Suffer not to allow pain into this world unnecessarily.
He shot the tentacle, cursing as he did. The beast roared in pain and freedom, and reared back into the depths. The rift, however, was far from quiet.
A roar, impossibly loud, louder than anything the Splugorth could have produced, came from... behind him? Too late, Damian whirled to meet this newest attacker, but his prayers were nothing in the face of what he saw. It's body was covered in horns and spikes, and the ruby red scales of its back parted only to give way to two great, bat-like wings. Long curving horns grew from it's head, framing eyes that rippled and undulated like molten gold... His mind went numb, and his arms fell slack to his sides. Slowly, savouring the moment, the demon from the rift advanced toward him. Like the sadist it was, the creature prodded the edges of his mind, vicious and careless in its explorations. He tried to scream, but he could only stare, even his eyes refusing to obey the commands of his dominated mind. He knew in that moment, beyond any doubt, what the demon intended to do with him. It would violate him, body and mind, in a process that would last seconds, but that in the slow and controlled mind of Damian would go on for eternity. It would drink of his pain for what would, for him, feel like eons, and only when his mind was spent and dead would his body join it. This was the method of murder the demon and its kind employed; It thrust this knowledge like a spike through his consciousness, loosening its grip only enough to allow Damian's eyes to widen, acknowledging that he knew what was to come. The demon opened it's maw to laugh... and a tentacle shot from the lake, and down its throat. Coughing and gagging, confusion turned to anguish as the Splugorth activated its magic... and boiled the insides of the demon with superheated air. The demon took minutes to die, though it could not move or scream.
Words flashed within Damian's mind. A Life for a Life. Our debt is paid.
The splugorth had saved him!
Damian turned towards the creature, and he had just enough time to smile in thanks before the Splugorth's tentacle punched through his chest and out the other side. In shock, he moved his eyes again, and his mind asked the question his lips could not form. Why? The voice answered.
Our debt is paid. We owe you nothing save the comfort of the void.
Before the darkness took him, though, a third voice not belonging to the Splugorth entered his mind.
No... your debt is not yet paid. Do not so lightly forget the bonds of life, brother. Even across dimensions, the laws of the void hold clear. Hold thy word, Splugorth, or we will hold it for you.
Damian barely heard the response before he lost consciousness.
Hold it as you see fit, Sin... We will meet again I think. 'Til then, listen for my name. I am Nyagtharim. Mine is the bond, and yours is the price. If you steal this boy from death, I will hunt you forever.
Truly, yours is a stupid species, Nyagtharim. We were here before you, we will be here long after your stars, too, are dust. Hunt as you will, but remember.
You cannot hunt shadows. And We Are Legion.
Eyes wide, Damian fell backwards into the rift.
"Get this piece o' shit out of my face!" Screamed the ever profane techno-wizard of the group, David. Tentacles lashed at his face, burning the air as they moved. They stopped at the end of their reach, singeing his bushy beard and dissolving the end of his lit cigar. He grunted, finishing his statement with a flourish of one of the largest Gatling guns money could buy. Gears clicked and whired as it revved up, and he grinned, spitting out the cigar in his mouth to shout one last taunt before he opened fire. "Your mother was a Calamari!"
"Really?" chimed in Andrea. "That's the best you've got?"
"I'll give ye a better name for it once it's good and dead!" David ducked as he spoke, and the tentacle that shot from the lake missed him once again by a hair. "Less talk, more Wild Magic, you unpredictable bitch-witch!"
"See? Now that's what I've come to expect, you flatterer, you!" She shot back, swinging a chain over her head like a bolo, readying it for some sort of strike. Greens and reds of magical energy swirled about the weapon, and her eyes glowed with it. With the other hand, she flipped a coin, catching it on the elbow of her other arm at it swung out towards Damian.
Damian, the youngest and least experienced of the group, shrieked like a little girl. Another tentacle whirred past him as well, and he was not nearly so lucky as David had been. Were it not for the power armor he had bought in town before going after this thing, he would have been vaporized by the magically enhanced member, and as it stood the tentacle burned a smoking hole in his chest plate. "Andrea?" He shrieked again. At only twenty years of age, this was not how he wanted to meet his maker.
"On its way, hun!" She yelled sweetly. Her chain, tip writhing in magical energies in the shape of an ace of spades, swung towards him, also enhanced by magic, and where it met the tentacle thousands of tiny explosions of light and heat swelled before it. The Splugorth shrieked, and dove back down. Andrea gasped and stood upright, coursing with energy. The men looked at her for a moment before she pushed her raven locks out of her eyes and grinned, revealing perfect teeth.
"Glad that worked out." She grinned wider, and Damian sighed in relief. The coin had fallen heads. Wild Magic didn't go so hot when it fell tails... whatever spell she tried to use would go "Wild", and another one would often take its place, sometimes devastatingly. Andrea was a powerful mage, but also as her title suggested a powerful and wild liability. Still, there was no one Damian would rather have by his side.
Seeing him stare, Andrea winked.
Damian blushed.
"Oi, ye stupid boy!" David growled. "Eyes off the lass and on the fucking beasty! It ent dead till it's dead!" Revving up his gun again, he whirled just in time to avoid the backlash of the third tentacle, jumping into the air as the stone he was standing on collapsed. The beast healed quick. This Splugorth was not going to go down easy. Quicker than thought, four more of the superheated appendages shot through the air, and Damian's moment of happiness ended in an instant.
David dodged the first three with ease, turning in mid air to avoid one and shooting the other clean off... but it only takes one hit to be lethal. He cried out, fell to the earth, and was still.
"DAVID!" Damian screamed. He gritted his teeth and pulled out a syringe, preparing to help his fallen friend, when Andrea's yell stopped him.
"No! I'll heal him. I need you to distract inky!" Damian nodded, and flicked out his ion gun, levelling and firing it at the nearest tentacle. Lord, lead my hand, He thought. You are my sun and moon, and by your light I will guide me home. The shot hit, and the beast reared back. Damian heard the distinctive click of a coin being tossed into the air, and he smiled...
Then Andrea screamed. Damian barely had time to move when the Rift opened. It sucked his friends in instantaneously, and before he could blink the two heroes he had followed for a year and counting were gone. Death is cruel and sudden. He remembered David tell him. A moment is all it takes. A flip of the coin...
The tentacles moved more frantically, and suddenly one swept towards the rift and became caught. Damian whooped in joy; Once something was caught in a rift it almost never got back out again. It didn't matter that it was one tentacle; The rift would find the rest of his essence and scatter it in a million different directions, just like it had just done to his friends. Damian tried to grin in grim satisfaction and watch the Splugorth die... But he couldn't. Images flashed through his brain, and emotions with them... Images of a tentacled monster... yet with his single eye unblinking and showing such emotion as Damian had never seen. Remorse. Fear. Regret. Pain. Such pain... He remembered the litany.
Save what can be saved; Give Salvation to those that need it, be they human or D-bee. Friend or Foe. End the pain of the sinner, and shield the innocent from the wrath of the world. Suffer not to allow pain into this world unnecessarily.
He shot the tentacle, cursing as he did. The beast roared in pain and freedom, and reared back into the depths. The rift, however, was far from quiet.
A roar, impossibly loud, louder than anything the Splugorth could have produced, came from... behind him? Too late, Damian whirled to meet this newest attacker, but his prayers were nothing in the face of what he saw. It's body was covered in horns and spikes, and the ruby red scales of its back parted only to give way to two great, bat-like wings. Long curving horns grew from it's head, framing eyes that rippled and undulated like molten gold... His mind went numb, and his arms fell slack to his sides. Slowly, savouring the moment, the demon from the rift advanced toward him. Like the sadist it was, the creature prodded the edges of his mind, vicious and careless in its explorations. He tried to scream, but he could only stare, even his eyes refusing to obey the commands of his dominated mind. He knew in that moment, beyond any doubt, what the demon intended to do with him. It would violate him, body and mind, in a process that would last seconds, but that in the slow and controlled mind of Damian would go on for eternity. It would drink of his pain for what would, for him, feel like eons, and only when his mind was spent and dead would his body join it. This was the method of murder the demon and its kind employed; It thrust this knowledge like a spike through his consciousness, loosening its grip only enough to allow Damian's eyes to widen, acknowledging that he knew what was to come. The demon opened it's maw to laugh... and a tentacle shot from the lake, and down its throat. Coughing and gagging, confusion turned to anguish as the Splugorth activated its magic... and boiled the insides of the demon with superheated air. The demon took minutes to die, though it could not move or scream.
Words flashed within Damian's mind. A Life for a Life. Our debt is paid.
The splugorth had saved him!
Damian turned towards the creature, and he had just enough time to smile in thanks before the Splugorth's tentacle punched through his chest and out the other side. In shock, he moved his eyes again, and his mind asked the question his lips could not form. Why? The voice answered.
Our debt is paid. We owe you nothing save the comfort of the void.
Before the darkness took him, though, a third voice not belonging to the Splugorth entered his mind.
No... your debt is not yet paid. Do not so lightly forget the bonds of life, brother. Even across dimensions, the laws of the void hold clear. Hold thy word, Splugorth, or we will hold it for you.
Damian barely heard the response before he lost consciousness.
Hold it as you see fit, Sin... We will meet again I think. 'Til then, listen for my name. I am Nyagtharim. Mine is the bond, and yours is the price. If you steal this boy from death, I will hunt you forever.
Truly, yours is a stupid species, Nyagtharim. We were here before you, we will be here long after your stars, too, are dust. Hunt as you will, but remember.
You cannot hunt shadows. And We Are Legion.
Eyes wide, Damian fell backwards into the rift.