Amelia watched the creature's heads sway from side to side as it approached and towered over her, the wheeze of laughter coming from its throat.
"Ephem says to send you to your God with a message." The creature raised a giant fist the size of a large car, "The sun will not save you, this is our world."
Death.
Amelia groggily awoke in the Inn with Chelsham, shocked out of his skin to see her on the bed.
She smiled up at him and raised her hand, and he collected himself and kissed it. She stroked his soft skin and brought him closer. "What does it look like when I come back?"
"You weren't here and then you were here, before I even blinked."
She sat up, feeling all her limbs present and seeing she maintained her buffs and abilities, but they were all cut by two-thirds this time. Likely connected to the nature of her death. She sighed. At least I'm out of there. She remembered the demon's face.
"Chelsham," she said, "Who do I go to for training? I need to get stronger."
"That would be joining one of the main army forces, miss, most of the soldiers here have. The death rates are extremely low because of how thorough training is, and most of the people that are here have survived the front lines."
She gripped Chelsham's hand tight, "Go find whoever's in charge, Gideon, whoever it is and tell them I have an emergency message for them."
"Yes, Miss Carbyne." he left the room as quickly as he could while she leaned back to collect her thoughts. I hope Akatsuki and Sabreman made it out alive. Her body was wide awake... but her mind was exhausted. Just a few minutes...
Amelia opened her eyes to the sound of horses galloping in droves outside and swung out of bed to stretch and hammer out some pushups, sit-ups and squats before she shrank her breasts again. She opened the door to the face of a dark-haired, bearded man who looked at least double her age.
"Carbyne, report." She stepped aside as he marched into the room in his uniform, gold pauldrons, long black silk cloak over his full plate mail. Helmet under his arm, decorated with laurels and a golden cross, "James Targon."
As she relayed what she experienced in the dungeon, the man nodded calmly and had a messenger she barely noticed run off.
"We'll pull them out," he stood up and placed his helmet on, "Come with me, we'll see about this new creature."
"Yes, sir."
Down the stairs and through the inn, an alarm bell started to ring in the camp. He offered her a seat on the back of his horse, but she refused, deciding that warming up her muscles by applying density to her legs and running was a better way to prepare her for combat. She ran alongside Targon through the town as people fled from the dungeon's direction.
When they arrived, she found Akatsuki being carried away on a stretcher and Sabreman wearing an eyepatch. She went to approach Akatsuki, but the nurses stopped her as the doctor started examining her on the go. Akatsuki opened her eyes briefly and gave Amelia a thumbs-up.
"Captain Gideon?" Targon asked Sabreman.
Amelia went to grab some gear but decided against wasting more armour with how the creature sliced through her gambeson. It was best she had a plate, but they had none to spare with the alarm calling in reserves. She assumed it was so that the guard around the dungeon wouldn't be reduced. She saw a mace with a heavy end covered in spikes, a battle axe and another morningstar. Between all three, she decided to go with the battleaxe. She gripped it tightly and swung for a test, then increased her muscle mass and again, faster and faster. Speed was everything for her to win this.
"He's inside preparing defences, sir," Sabreman said, "They brought heavy crossbows and Gunnarion with the crossbow squads."
"Prepare yourselves, men, we're going under." Targon turned to Gwyllion, "Final day here, Gwyllion, lovely to bother you with this affair."
"Killing demons is always a pleasure, James Targon."
"Down we go!" Targon dismounted and charged in with his men. Ammy found herself lost in their fervour and bloodlust as she charged right in with them. Through the tunnels they marched quickly, with her rushing ahead of them despite protest. She knew these tunnels. Running was easy. Once she passed through the initial chamber where supplies of arrows and explosives were being carried, she offered to cart some, citing her powers as being able to increase efficiency. They agreed and allowed her to take a large wheelbarrow with the other logistics crew.
Toward the slopes, she heard the sounds of combat. Once they arrived, a few sappers and soldiers took charge of the supplies she brought and instructed her to go to the front, where the pyrokinetics blasted the humanoid creatures the ephesh spawned. Amelia shouldered her way to the front to check for the ephesh's presence and was relieved to find it hadn't arrived yet.
"Carbyne," a soldier said, "We've gotten the report from Sabreman that something is creating these. He claims that it took his eye. Can you provide more information?"
Again, she relayed everything she knew. The second, she mentioned that the ephesh carapace cracked to birth a new creature, and he called over Captain Gideon, who scowled deeply at the news.
"Captain Gideon," Targon said, "I bring news from Chief Hobbes, but that can wait. Ragna, Gunnar, fan out with the Gwyllion squad and prepare for cleansing. Amelia, the fell beast knows you. Remind it that you're here to take its head."
She marched to the front and went down the first slope, leapt over the heads of soldiers with the density increase. Tossing the dice, she increased the density of her arms and the battleaxe, to a lesser degree. She spun and sliced the creatures, then devoured the heads, arms, and legs that she lopped off. She spawned her own mix of appendages from her back, bladed and blunt, to become a one-woman massacre for the creatures until they began to fuse all into one at the back and form a giant.
A bolt of fire struck the creature, then two more in rapid succession. She glanced back to see a man around her age do a flint and steel motion several times while others stepped in to loose fire of their own. Hands raised, balls of fire hurled through the air at the giant until it became a lump of bubbling muck on the floor.
Amelia's skin knew the creature was near. Her senses were higher than ever, and the anxiety in her head had her wound up, ready to burst. Its head rounded the cavern corner first and lunged at her with teeth the size of fingers. She was faster, the battleaxe across its head, split open the mask. Spiked appendages came through, blocked by shadowhands and appendages. She turned the offensive on and shredded the creature until its head split into several more.
The 'thunk' and 'clank' of heavy crossbow bolts pinned the creature's neck down. It dragged its spider-like body forward, more appendages snaked out and forced Amelia back, she swung, parried, chopped and even had to use the blunt of her battleaxe to stay in the fight while she worked double shift overtime with the shadowmancy to fend it off. The legs of the creature expanded outward as a large canon formed on its body.
She thought this was a chance, but the creature's attacks didn't slow down; it was more than capable of two things at once.
"CARBYNE IS CLEAR, FIRE."
A deafening crash like a modern-day bass canon came from the guard's side of the cave, over her head. She winced at the heat and saw what she almost thought was a microscopic fragment of the sun tear through its torso, vaporising the majority of the creature.
Soldiers roared and descended the slopes with shields up, blocking strikes. Cleaved appendages. Amelia fell in line with them and was given a spare kite shield. She wasn't able to fall in line with them due to her lack of training. She went around the side as they pushed the creature back. When it attempted to escape, the golden chains that Gwyllion had spawned before locked it in place, as three dozen weapons struck through its dark, inky flesh until one of the soldiers shouted something. Others joined him, and they pulled out a large red crystal with a corrupted human baby fossilised inside. It had become a mix of goblins, an imp and other creatures. A repulsive act by these cultists who happened to share her race.
Amelia watched as the soldiers dismembered and boxed the creature in with wood barriers as Gwyllion and the pyros descended the hill. Once they were certain they'd collected every spec, they set to gather it up in bottles that Gwyllion personally prayed over. Each one at a time, he then handed one he did not pray over to a soldier. The soldier presented it to Amelia, she understood and downed the entire thing.
Mixed material belonging to demonspawn.
Ability extended: Ability gained: tentacle shadow mutation - 9 hours
A soldier tapped her on the shoulder, "Captain Targon says you can rest at the inn."
"No, thank you," Amelia replied, "I'll sleep in the tent and get back to work to establish a foothold on the next floor down."
"As you wish," he said.
Tolmyr sat down in his office at the end of the day when the door swung open to Ellen's face.
"What?" he tapped his finger against the desk.
"Lily May sent you a letter."
"I don't care," he waved her away.
She shrugged, "Already left it in the bin."
After she closed the door, he unlocked the desk and took out the nullshade folder. He hissed his breath when a knife was pressed against his Adam's apple. The assassin placed Lily May's letter on the desk and removed their blade. He opened the letter slowly and read the contents. His eyebrows raised to his forehead with each word.
"I thought you hated your sister, Akatsuki," he said.
She walked around the desk and let her hood down, "You should be overjoyed," she traced her knife on the edge of the desk, "King Dace has sealed the Nullshade project's funding, with some minders."
He tightened his grip on the letter, "These plans are beyond audacious, even for me."
She looked down at him with those dark eyes.
"Very well," he signed his oath on the divine script, "I will follow this to the end, for mankind and the sanctity of Salem."
"No," Akatsuki said, "For the world of Laima, for we've nowhere else to go."
He poured some wine, "You're a true believer, now? Is that why you tamed Carbyne so well?"
She sheathed her knife, "Acts, works, deeds," she walked to the door after taking the script, "Say nothing of this, wizard."
"Yes, Sanctorum court assassin."