"He's dead! No, he can't… not again."
Arduo felt the remains of her fragile heart collapse. It was a flash, no one could see what even happened, they were all dazed for a second. Who could have thought of such in this situation.
They all screamed, but Arduo just stared in awe, utter shock.
Nick was the strongest and fastest amongst them, and with his skill, he should be impervious to sudden movement, and yet even he could not dodge, meaning that that knight, no that thing actually moved to intercept Nick in every possibility, and Nick did not have the speed to dodge any hit, and was paralysed by futility, and his thoughts to overcome it. This had happened before when they were just barely level 10, but now Nick was level 28, and had vastly improved his response time.
She fell deeper into shock when she realised that this thing in front of her must at least be level 50 to move that fast. An avalanche of realisations hit each member with speed. Shockingly though Folisha was the first to jump, to defend their rear, Ansi and Max were still blaming themselves. Then Arduo jumped forward, being the second strongest after Nick, and because even stricken with grief she remembered her promise to protect her party even if she had already failed considering that Nicks body had just hit the ground snapping Folisha into her senses first.
They were a seasoned group of adventurers and had experienced shock in their lives, and new that in battle faltering any further might mean no survivors. They pushed themselves to move, and deal with the fallout later, if there even was one. All their focus was on trying to get the teleport stones from the bag on Nicks body. It was quite impressive really that they did not lose sight of their goal. The fact that the Knight had killed Nick was even shocking, with how revered and exalted they are, and that is why Max and Ansi were still slow to assume their defensive position. They had practiced this formation, one without Nick, Nick was mostly their vanguard, so none had ever thought that they would actually have to do it, since it meant he was dead. What chance could they have with him gone.
Folisha was horrified but realised when the body collapsed that there might be something behind them, and jumped to guard their rear thinking, 'That can't be a Knight, it looks the part, but why would a Knight kill Nick, was it because it thinks we are monsters, the villagers must have told him or her. Should we run for Nicks body and take the stones? or should we try to fight it off? Who are we kidding, even if this thing is not a Knight we have no chance.'
Ansi and Max were blaming themselves; they were supposed to be the alarms for danger. Ansi thought 'I should have been able to sense those things from a while back, not only did I let my guard down at the sign of a Knight, but I also assumed those illusive souls behind him were beasts not monsters, because their souls are so strange it was hard to just write them off as monsters.' After that she realised that if she wanted them to survive, she could not dwell on her guilt in the face of the current danger, especially because Arduo just jumped ahead to defend them.
Max was the worst of them all, that is because he's the one who gave Nick the go-ahead, that the thing in front of them was not a monster, '… what is this thing, it's not a monster, and because of my negligence, I was too late to realise that it's not human either, Its strength though is more than we can handle.'
Nick was his best friend, ever since childhood, they were always growing together with the hopes of doing something with their lives. A friend like him was precious in the village secluded from the rest of the world. It is true that they had been drifting apart in the last couple of years ever since they got girlfriends, that's why he even fell short on their training and even Arduo got stronger than him. 'I can save them, if only I can get to that bag.
Arduo just witnessed something that would have made her spill their food, as precious as it is in the village. She could leave her body, so she could also see souls, and usually when a being dies their souls dissipate, and this vile abomination just consumed his soul, meaning Nick did not even going to get peace.
They were even somehow plagued with a fear so debilitating; it was like their blood wanted to crawl out of their bodies, which it did. They coughed up blood as they collapsed to their knees, who knew their situation could worsen. They all gave up when the entourage of the thing in front of them surrounded them. It is all futile, there is no way they can make it to the stones, they were almost out, Nick was just about to give them, the bag pocket for the stones was even open. They all looked at Max, who swayed his head side to side, telling them that each monster there was enough to crush them, so they gave up and collapsed to the floor. That is when one of the monsters pulled something out of thin air, a cage of sorts. They were placed inside, not even noticing its structure or that the Knight had just tossed their belongings inside, except Nicks bag, the monsters just left Nick and his bag there seemingly not caring. They did not notice that the monsters did not eat Nick which was strange for monsters. The lights were all destroyed and they were submerged in darkness, they soon all fell into utter despair as they were dragged deeper.
So much had happened, too much really that even their experience did not help them digest any of it better. All had gone mad, not noticing the strange discrepancies. About a day later, Arduo started to come to her senses. It was not even because she had accepted everything, it was just that she had felt this grief when they told her that her parents were gone, so it did not debilitate her. The hopelessness was still in her but now she could think about the events that had just occurred, the fact that she was still alive was another reason she decided to think things over.
First of all, what had just happened? They found a Knight, which they thought was one, then were surrounded by monsters, then put into a cage with their belongings, Nick was not eaten, and most peculiarly of all was what happened to Nicks soul.
'One at a time Arduo.'
There's something odd about this group of monsters, they seem to all be one soul, strange as it may be, Arduo was even thinking that she was seeing things. Their situation might not be as damming as it might look, they might be able to escape, that is if she could figure out what is happening. What is that thing? It seems human but is not. They have seen monsters in armour but nothing quite like that. They just had never seen a void being or know what it is.
The whole situation was strange, the Knight appeared from the side of the entrance, and with Ansi there, there is no way they could have missed it, meaning it came from outside, but it couldn't have, the monsters around it were not tamed beasts, they were straight up monsters. She could not figure why it came from that direction or have any plausible theories, what she did know is that she could not quite see its soul, meaning it might be a human using a cloaking spell or just a soul to huge to see where it ends or starts, after all those weird monsters are also connected somehow. She was about to try and leave her body and use Nicks body to get the teleportation stones back to the cage, a daring plan, but was discouraged by the image of seeing Nicks soul being consumed.
She could not see anything, but she felt that Folisha's breathing had stabilised, who was on her right side in the cage. Then she asked her if she had noticed the strange things. This question seemed to anchor everyone back to reality, because as long as they were alive, they could survive, they are still adventurers in the end.
Folisha nodded and added, they could still hear how shaken up she was even though she sounded more composed then them, "Usually when I am near monsters, the only thing my skill translates is 'Kill, Kill' on repeat, but even when I was still dazed, this Knight sighed and coughed, and the thing is that my translation ability, on a smaller level it can identify the origin of the sound or communication. I can tell what the language is, even if I know not the language."
She paused then added, "But I have never thought it would come to identify something so strange as this. The mouth might move but there is no wind in its lungs, its sound is coming from its soul, and don't ask me how I don't understand."
Arduo was a bit surprised to hear her tone, it was almost calm sounding, 'Folisha has not always this dependable, maybe this whole situation drove her to mature quickly, removing her shyness. You can barely hear any doubt in her voice now. She was even the first of us to react, now that I think of it, she has not been exposed to such danger before, none of us have. Even when we hunted for the level 50, there were stronger parties around us to protect us should things go south.'
Max was inspired by how the timid Folisha was acting calmer than they had all imagined she would, so to not fail them further he added "I do not mean to bring everyone down, but this thing is so vast it took me a while to actually assess it. As you know, the stronger something is the more time it takes to peer into its stats, so I have developed the habit of checking if it's a monster first. This thing took me a whole day to assess it. I could have finished earlier, but I had assumed we are going to die, when we didn't die, I got curious and started to check again. This thing is not human nor is it monster, before you say anything, it's not one of the other evoforms. By its stats, it's what's known as a void being, which might mean that it's what is commonly known as 'destroyers'."
He glanced at them and said, "I might have just been the first person to assess them, since I have it as a skill and normal appraisal takes too much time, and requires mutual participation. I doubt that anyone has ever managed to stay so close to one for so long, getting the chance to identify them or just like me they could have died carrying their discoveries to the grave."
Everyone turned to Ansi, "What I have noticed is just that these things surrounding the 'void being' are actually not monsters and are not even alive. They feel like vessels for something far more harrowing."
Arduo summed up the first round of information, "that means that this thing is what killed all the monsters up until now, by the looks of the cage, it has also been in here for a long time since some of the corpses had become bones, and a monster naturally decays slower. The reason I have not escaped, is because unlike monsters, this void thing consumes souls, I actually saw it consume Nicks."
Folisha remembered something, "it had seemed satisfied a few seconds after killing Nick, I had assumed it was because it enjoyed killing but it might have been because it wanted the soul, meaning it might be keeping us in here for later, because dead beings lose their souls immediately."
Max sighed, "The worst thing so far is that this thing is level 105…"
Before he could finish everyone's hearts almost stopped, even the matured Folisha had not remained composed. That was not a monster, that people encountered, these were reserved for the knights to handle. Max was not even done.