What finally touched the ground in front of them was not sothing that could be called a monster in any familiar sense, but a presence that felt wrong the mont it existed within their sight, as if reality rejected the shape it had taken.
Its body hung low and uneven, supported by elongated skeletal limbs that bent at unnatural angles. Its joints ford where there should be no joints, while its surface pulsed faintly like flesh struggling to maintain a form it was never ant to hold.
The head—or what seed closest to one—was an ever-shifting mass covered in countless human eyes that varied in size and placent. So of it embedded deep within folds of skin while the other eyes bulged outward, exposed and trembling.
Each eye looked unmistakably like human eyes, and that was what made it worse.
They were not empty or monstrous in the usual sense. They carried depth, faint reflections, even traces of awareness, yet none of them aligned with the others.
So were positioned vertically and stretched unnaturally as they blinked from top to bottom, while so remained horizontal and flickering open and closed at different rhythms. None of them moved together or focused on the sa point. Yet sohow, every single one of them was looking at the group at the sa ti.
The mont their gazes t it, sothing inside them shaking.
An unfamiliar fear took hold. It did not co from the thought of death or injury but from sothing far more incomprehensible that their minds could not properly process.
Their breathing beca ragged and their thoughts were slowing as if dragged into thick and suffocating liquid. A quiet distortion crept into their senses and made it harder for them to distinguish what was real and what was not.
Even Myles felt it. His grip tightened around his blades but it was no longer steady. The resolve that had burned so clearly within him just monts ago began to waver and crack as that unnatural presence pressed against his mind.
His vision blurred for a few seconds and for the first ti since entering this arena, doubt crept in his heart.
Beside him, Lilian’s expression changed.
The calm indifference she had maintained until now disappeared, replaced by a tight and solemn look as her eyes fixed on the creature with clear recognition.
"I didn’t expect sothing from the Beyond to appear here," she said quietly, her voice carrying a certain pressure that none of them had heard from her before. "This Etherfall has really disrupted everything. There’s no order anymore."
Her gaze shifted toward Myles and the others, and there was sothing new within it. She was worried.
"No matter how strong you’ve beco," she continued, her voice lowering slightly, "you are not ant to face sothing like this."
She let out a soft breath, almost a sigh, before raising one hand. A faint crimson light spread from her. It was thin at first, then expanding until it wrapped around the group like a veil.
The mont it touched them, the pressure in their minds eased, the distortion pulling back as if forced away by an unseen barrier.
Their breathing steadied and their vision cleared again.
The overwhelming sense of slipping into sothing unknown slowly faded, allowing them to think and stand without feeling like their minds were unraveling anymore.
A few seconds passed before Ethan finally spoke, his voice still unsteady. "What... the hell is that?"
Myles gritted his teeth, his eyes still locked onto the creature despite the lingering unease. He did not look away.
Lilian answered instead.
"This is not sothing that should exist here," she said. "It’s difficult to explain, but its very form defies what your minds can understand. Just looking at it can drive people in this lower realm like you into madness."
Her gaze remained fixed on the abomination.
"But you won’t lose yourselves," she added calmly. "Not while I’m here."
After Lilian’s power settled around them the group, for soti they remained still as if they were quietly testing their own minds, making sure the clarity they felt was real and not another illusion forced upon them.
Then, almost at the sa ti, their gazes moved toward her. There was no need for words. The relief in their eyes said everything.
Their gratitude followed right behind it, heavy and genuine, sothing they could not even begin to properly express. Without her, they all understood exactly what would have happened. They would have broken long before the fight even started.
Myles did not look at her.
His eyes remained fixed on the creature, cold and focused, as if the brief disturbance in his mind had already been forced down and locked away.
"How do we kill it?" he asked, his tone flat, stripped of everything unnecessary.
Lilian did not hesitate.
"Its heart," she answered. "Destroy it and the body will collapse. You’ll recognize it the mont you see it. It won’t be hidden in a way you can’t reach."
Myles narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze shifting toward the creature’s center mass. Its chest was buried beneath layers of writhing flesh and overlapping limbs, constantly shifting as if trying to protect sothing. Even so, there was a subtle pulse that did not match the rest of its body.
"Okay," he said, his teeth pressing together.
For a few seconds, sohow, nothing happened. The creature did not move imdiately. It remained where it was with its countless eyes blinking at different intervals, all of them fixed on the group as if studying them, asuring them, and savoring their despair.
Then, as if realizing sothing had changed with their minds, the creature reacted.
It let out a piercing screech that tore through the arena. The sounds were so distorted and unnatural that it barely resembled anything human or beast. It carried anger that echoed across the walls as its limbs tensed and shifted violently.
It had noticed that the fear within them was gone.
"We disable its limbs first!" Myles said imdiately, his voice cutting through the noise with sharp clarity. "Let’s expose its chest then go for the heart!"
Around him, the others nodded, their hesitation replaced by focus. They adjusted their weapons and stances, their earlier fear now pushed aside under resolve to kill.
Not long after, the next mont the creature moved.
Its massive body charged forward pushed by long limbs crashing down with overwhelming force as they lashed out in every direction like whips.
The ground trembled beneath its advance, its countless eyes still locked onto them.
Myles, as always, moved first.
He dashed forward, leading the charge straight toward the creature.
The creature moved with terrifying speed for sothing so massive, its distorted fra bending and compressing before launching upward in a sudden and unnatural leap that made the ground crack beneath it.
Six of its elongated limbs lashed out at once, slicing through the air in wide erratic arcs that targeted all eight of them at the sa ti, as if each limb carried its own awareness.
Above them, Lilian hovered in silence, her wings spread wide as she observed the battlefield without interfering directly. Her gaze was sharp and focused as she prepared to intervene the mont the creature’s influence turned toward their minds again.
Myles did not slow down. He stepped into the attack instead of retreating.
His body twisting sharply as one of the limbs crashed toward him. He avoided it by a narrow margin and imdiately countered. His blade slashed into the limb’s surface with a clean slash.
Around him, the others also moved in coordination. They dodged and weaved between the strikes while launching their own attacks.
Their weapons hit the flesh that felt too dry and too hollow, as if it had long since lost anything that resembled life.
Their weapons cut through it easily. The creature’s limbs were not hard. Deep wounds opened under their attacks and several strikes bit deep enough to nearly sever parts of it entirely.
But no blood spilled. Not even a drop. The wounds remained dry and empty like cutting into sothing that had never been alive to begin with.
Then the creature changed.
Its countless eyes began to glow faintly and from them poured a thick, invisible pressure that spread across the battlefield like a suffocating wave.
The wave pushed against their minds again, trying to drag them back into that endless fear and confusion.
Before it could take hold, Lilian acted.
A sharp pulse of crimson energy like before spread from above, cutting through the creeping influence and shielding their thoughts instantly.
The distortion shattered before it could settle, leaving their minds clear once more.
They did not hesitate and they imdiately pressed the attack harder.
One of the creature’s limbs fell and then another one was cut again. Under their relentless assault, the creature’s movents grew more erratic and less controlled.
Pieces of its massive body crashed onto the ground and as its defenses broke apart. Its chest finally beca visible beneath the shifting mass of flesh.
It pulsed.
—
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