Chapter 46 - Abomination.
A deep silence settled over the stretch of forest where a seeker’s scream had cut off a minute earlier, and a dense fog slowly closed in between the mossy trunks, catching on branches broken during the chase.
The ground beneath Aren’s feet was furrowed with deep grooves from the creature’s horn strikes, while the flattened fern along the path held the trace of a man who had fled headlong without managing to get far enough away.
At the same time, the damp air carried a thick metallic smell, mixed with the sickly sweetness of decaying flesh, and every breath lodged in the throat like a dense lump.
Aren stood with his blade bared, holding his gaze on the massive figure ahead, while the bag holding the remnants of his gear weighed heavily on his shoulders, cinched across his back by a knot that had begun to slip after a sharp lunge forward several seconds ago.
The creature slowly lowered its horse skull closer to the ground, and from the empty sockets seeped a dull reflection of scattered light, devoid of any flicker of awareness. The fused mass of bodies on its torso trembled faintly, while the freshly absorbed flesh of the seeker continued melting into the overall contour, smoothing out the bumps beneath the torn fabric of its rags.
Bare, mutilated arms, jutting from the creature’s sides at impossible angles, slowly clenched and unclenched, with no coordination between them.
The forest around had frozen into complete silence, without a single birdcall or rustle of undergrowth, which made Aren’s own breathing seem unnaturally loud in the emptiness. The fog kept closing in tighter, gradually hiding the distant trunks beyond the small stretch of space separating him and the creature.
“What kind of… abomination…”, flashed through his mind, while the creature started off with slow steps, swaying with its entire fused mass, before it broke sharply into a run, erupting in a piercing ringing wheeze.
Aren bent his knees, shifting into a more stable stance, after which he stepped sharply to the side to avoid a direct collision and cut through half the creature’s torso with a slashing stroke of his sword, ending up behind its back.
The creature froze in place, and the deep gash in its side began closing over with flesh right before Aren’s eyes, after which it slowly began turning toward him.
Aren clenched his teeth, after which he lunged forward in a sharp burst and brought down dozens of slashing blows on the creature’s body one after another, trying to shatter it into fragments, but each of the cuts instantly closed over with flesh before the blade could land the next.
Inside the torso, a dense knot of intertwined limbs and fused flesh instantly reared up, shooting forward toward him and forcing him to instinctively snap his sword up into a block, and the impact threw him back several meters.
The creature immediately released a new series of growths, the head of a bandit left unconscious in the earlier fight dangling from the end of one of them. The bandit’s face was locked in a continuous convulsion, and a broken wail tore from his half-open mouth, while his teeth snapped at the air with every forward lunge of the growth, trying to reach him.
Aren severed the head with one swift strike, but even as it separated from the body in midair, it released its own thin tentacles in both directions, forcing him to fend off attacks from two directions at once.
The moment the head touched the ground, it shot out new growths toward the main mass, instantly merging back with the body.
The creature drew all its tentacles back into itself, gathering them in one fluid motion into a massive club of flesh, after which it drove the club into the ground with colossal force, sending a blast wave outward in a circle along with torn-up clumps of earth, while new growths of flesh tore through the ground right beneath him.
Aren jerked sharply upward, launching off the ground in a high leap and arcing straight toward the creature, after which he brought down a series of lightning-fast cuts on it, hacking himself a path through the flesh at the same time to land behind it.
Touching down already behind the monster’s back, he released an extra pair of Ursus’s energy limbs, after which he continued his series of strikes without pause, using the sword and both pairs of arms, shredding its body into pieces.
In one brief glimpse amid the scattering flesh, he noticed at the very center of the biomass a small core, filled with shimmering rainbow light and coated with clinging scraps of flesh. The creature’s entire connection to the rest of its mass ran through it.
He had barely managed to make out the core when the body closed over it at once, hiding it completely from view, while he jumped back, breathing heavily.
The creature rapidly restructured its own form, and the faces and heads of victims that had grown into its flesh shifted chaotically to new parts of its body, while the horse skull split into fragments that drifted apart to opposite sides of the torso.
The previous outline disappeared completely, leaving behind only a tangled heap of swollen flesh, bone fragments, and chaotically jutting scraps of bodies.
“Understood.” Aren thought, after which he once again formed an extra pair of Ursus’s energy limbs and lunged sharply toward the creature.
The monster brought down dozens of flesh growths on him from all sides at once, but he cut through each of them with successive sweeps of his sword and claws, after which he passed through the main body, once again shredding it into small fragments.
The core wasn’t among the shredded mass, but when he spun around sharply, he spotted the exposed clot of light, which had already shifted aside and begun closing over with fresh flesh.
In that same instant he shot forward an energy tentacle with a spike at the end, recently gained from the beast he had absorbed, driving it into the creature’s flesh and yanking himself forward with a sharp motion.
Closing the distance in one powerful lunge, he brought down a crushing blow on the core, shattering it on the spot.
At once a dense tension gathered around the shattered core, and as he tried to pull back, he didn’t manage to take even a single step before a deafening explosion rang out.
The energy shield he threw up at the last moment absorbed the main force of the blast, but threw him several dozen meters back through the air.
Aren landed, driving his sword into the ground for support, after which he slowly raised his head, waiting for the wind kicked up by the blast to settle completely.
When he turned his gaze toward the source of the explosion, what he saw made his eyes widen, for before him gaped a deep crater, covered in dense black matter and radiating an unseen pressure of decay along its edges.
The grass and shrubs right at the edge were quickly blackening and crumbling into dust, while the moss and exposed tree roots closer to the center had already turned into dry, brittle husks.
He moved closer slowly, and the moment he neared the very edge, he felt a sharp constricting pressure beneath his ribs, while the familiar flow of his inner strength abruptly cut out for an instant.
The image of Kyle immediately surfaced in his memory, bent over a spread-out map in the shade of the royal garden, slowly tracing the borders of the Cursed Forest with his finger during one of their conversations.
“In the Cursed Forest, according to researchers’ reports, one can often encounter so-called ‘Dead Zones.’ These are zones where the Unified Field is partially or completely destabilized, because of which any creature entering it instantly receives Exdurum. You’ll know one the moment you see it. Under no circumstances approach it, and especially do not step into that zone.”
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The sound of branches swaying around him slowly brought him back to reality, dissolving the image of the royal garden.
“I ended up not getting any energy at all… and the creature itself left a Dead Zone behind? What even happened to those bandits… and my horse?…”
Aren heard a strange wet, slithering sound, at which he turned his head sharply to the side and saw one of the small remnants of the creature’s flesh, which sank into the ground right before his eyes.
“The longer I stay here, the more incomprehensible devilry I see…” He thought, after which he turned around, cinched the strap of his bag tighter on his shoulder, and continued on his way toward the presumed way out of the forest.
Almost a third of an hour later, Aren finally made it out of the forest, after which he took a deep breath, finally feeling the fresh and noticeably lighter air of open space.
Carefully scanning the terrain that opened before him, he made out a distant river ahead, and farther to the left, at an even greater distance, the outline of a large castle was just barely visible, belonging, judging by the map, to the small kingdom of Augenstadt.
The path to Helios lay in the opposite direction, to the right, so with a sigh he began descending the rocky rise beneath the Cursed Forest and headed east, all the while trying to keep close to the riverbed.
At that very same time, neither Aren nor anyone else on the surface of the earth suspected the event unfolding at the very heart of the dark and ominous forest. Deep beneath the cover of the trunks, in the depths of a colossal abyss sealed more than ten years ago, the former silence slowly began to break.
From the very depths of the darkness, heavy echoes stretched out, suffused with undisguised malice, gradually filling the space of what had once been dead emptiness.
The seal itself, which had kept the chasm closed all these years, began to tremble noticeably, until at some point a deep crack ran across its surface.
Meanwhile, beyond the Golden Desert to the southeast, the Temple of the Sun rose above the central part of Midar as a colossal cluster of white-stone spires, trimmed with fine golden carving along every edge and cornice.
The side towers were crowned with rounded domes of deep turquoise hue, traced with gilded veining, while between the upper tiers stretched elegant bridge-walkways, connecting the individual spires into a single structure. At the very center of the facade rose a tall pointed-arch window, filled with stained glass, radiating outward from its center in rich blue, gold, and crimson rays.
Before the entrance spread a wide marble square, framed by neatly trimmed trees and low columns, while the soft light of the setting sun gilded every surface of the building, lending the stone a warm honeyed hue.
Thousands of citizens had filled the square and the surrounding galleries long before the ceremony began, while festive banners bearing the Republic’s sun emblem hung from every column and every balcony. The voices of the crowd merged into a dense hum, filled with anticipation, while guards in gilded armor slowly formed a chain along the main aisle, clearing the way to the altar.
Eveline stood in the upper gallery of the temple among the mid- and lower-year university students, pressed tightly against the marble railing by the crowd of her fellow students. The ceremony itself didn’t concern her directly, since only senior-year graduates were being honored, but the chance to see the Council of Archons up close drew every student to the temple regardless of their year of study.
Rexy shifted restlessly on her shoulder, his small transparent wings creaking each time a horn beneath the vaults let out another drawn-out note. Ilau squeezed in beside her, adjusting his round glasses and craning his neck in an attempt to make out the altar through the palisade of strangers’ heads.
Inside Eveline, the familiar anticipation kindled, the one she brought to the ceremony every year, picturing her own place among the honored graduates somewhere in an undefined future.
A deep blast of horns rolled out beneath the temple’s vaults, at which the crowd’s hum died down almost instantly. The tall doors at the far end of the hall swung open, and the procession of the year’s best graduates moved slowly toward the altar, dressed in white ceremonial robes with a golden border along the edge.
On the dais before the altar, the Council of Five Archons already waited, and at the far right of center, in a robe of immaculate white with gold embroidery at the collar, stood Aurelius Bright, Archon of the Sun and head of state.
His silvery skin softly reflected the light of the stained glass, while a warm, almost fatherly smile never left his face even as he waited for the ceremony to begin.
He raised an open palm, calling the crowd to silence, after which he spoke in a voice that carried beneath the vaults without any magical amplification.
“Today we honor the diligent labor, discipline, and personal merit of each of the young people standing before us, regardless of their origin or their families’ wealth.” He said, sweeping his gaze over the rows of graduates.
“Helios’s strength has always lain in the reason of its citizens and in the rigor with which each of us serves the common good.” The Archon added, after which he turned to the Council and with a barely noticeable nod passed the word to his colleagues.
Somewhere behind Eveline, one of the female students whispered to her friend, not taking her eyes off the dais.
“He says the same thing every year about discipline and merit, but I’m still ready to listen to him for hours.” The girl whispered, pressing her palms to her chest.
“They say he personally remembers the name of every graduate from the last twenty years.” Her neighbor answered, lowering her voice even further.
Next to step to the edge of the dais was Lucia Radiant, Archon of War, clad in a dark golden dress uniform with stiff straight shoulders and a high standing collar, and with silvery hair reaching down to her chin. Her posture remained perfectly straight throughout the entire ceremony, while the figure of the Archon of War stood out among the other Council members with an almost tangible authority.
Lucia’s face remained motionless, and her gaze slid over the rows of graduates from the Military Faculty with cold, appraising precision, without a single hint of the warmth that had marked Aurelius’s expression a few minutes earlier.
Lucia called out the first name in a short voice, almost devoid of intonation, after which she handed a named blade in a plain, unembellished sheath to the young man who stepped forward.
“You’re being sent to the Third Guard Legion, to the western border of Solum.” She said, without her expression changing for even a fraction of a second, after which she moved on to the next name on the list.
The second graduate received his blade with a short nod instead of any parting words. To the third graduate, Lucia handed over the weapon, accompanying the gesture with only a dry phrase.
“Border outpost, the northern frontier of Solum.” She said, before turning back to the list once more.
“Has she ever once smiled?” One of the young men beside Eveline said quietly, not taking his eyes off the dais.
“They say no, not once in her entire career.” His neighbor answered, while a third student sighed briefly, before remarking from his side.
“But under her command, the Legions of Solum haven’t lost ground in more than ten years. I’d rather fear her than serve under someone kind and helpless.” He added.
Eveline couldn’t tear her eyes away from the straight, almost motionless figure of the Archon of War. There wasn’t a trace of showy coldness in Lucia’s strictness, her posture conveyed real, hard-won discipline, unattainable for most of the people around Eveline.
Somewhere deep in her chest spread a sharp, almost painful admiration, mixed with the bitter awareness of her own weakness, for Eveline herself, despite all her diligence, could barely hold a faint spark of light at her fingertips.
The Archon of Infrastructure, Varian Solaxe, took the floor next, and unlike Lucia’s strict restraint, his voice sounded businesslike and animated at the same time.
He presented each of the best graduates of the Engineering and Architecture Faculty with a small golden compass, after which he personally announced which of the Republic’s construction projects each young specialist was being assigned to, mentioning among other things the expansion of the heliograph network and new residential oases on the outskirts of Midar.
After him came Revareus Flare, Archon of Science, whose speech turned out to be the shortest among all five.
She called out the names of the graduates from the Natural Sciences Faculty and the Faculty of Optical Technologies almost in a rapid patter, presenting each with a mark of state recognition and dryly listing the names of the laboratories and research institutes of Midar to which they were now being assigned.
Last to step to the edge of the dais was Aphira Ray, Archon of Trade and Intelligence, holding herself with a light, almost conspiratorial smile that set her strikingly apart from the other Council members.
She announced the names of the best graduates of the Economics and Diplomacy Faculties, after which she distributed the first diplomatic missions abroad among them, including trips to the Trade League, and several analytical posts in the Republic’s internal security department.
“Wasn’t she some kind of personal agent before she became an Archon?” Someone whispered behind Eveline, to which his companion gave a short snort, after which he answered.
“They say that’s exactly why the Council of Archons still doesn’t dare ask her about her past in too much detail.” He added.
When the last of the graduates received his assignment, Aurelius stepped once more to the very edge of the dais, and an almost absolute silence fell over the temple in anticipation of the final decision.
The Chief Archon personally chose one student, unquestionably the best graduate of the year among the representatives of all four faculties, and it was precisely this moment of the ceremony that always brought about the greatest tension among those gathered.
“This year’s Prime Graduate is…” Aurelius began, pausing briefly, while hundreds of eyes flicked at once toward the graduates of the Military Faculty, who were considered the leading contenders after the assignments announced by Lucia.
But the Archon of the Sun named a girl from the Faculty of Optical Technologies, at which a short, surprised murmur swept through the crowd.
A girl named Saira Morwen slowly stepped to the very edge of the dais, and Aurelius personally placed a light golden cape over her shoulders, marking her new status as a trainee personal advisor to the Chief Archon for the entire following year.
After the personal verdict was completed, all the young specialists dropped to one knee before the altar and spoke a collective oath of loyalty to the Codex of Helios, and their voices, fused into one, for a moment filled the entire temple all the way up to the dome.
Eveline watched the kneeling procession, her chest swelling, silently repeating the words of the oath to herself along with the graduates.
Somewhere deep inside her, a quiet, stubborn dream kindled, of one day standing there herself, before the altar, under the gaze of the Council of Five Archons, having earned her place through her own labor.