Chap 138: He’s Alive

Zod reached his four teammates just as Tee yelled for them to stop attacking. But it was too late—Kie had already sent an energy wave at the monster. The blast struck, splattering the creature against the dome’s walls, leaving a large lump in its center. The lump pulled free from the dome and fell flat to the ground.

The five Sentinels stared at it, straining their super-hearing for any sign of life. Heartbeats reached their ears, freezing them in place. Two arms protruded from the gooey mass, pulling the host across the ground. All but Tee stepped back.

“It’s the host,” Tee said. “He’s alive.”

The wide red splatter on the dome crawled together, stretching toward the host. But he dragged himself forward, trying to escape. The gooey mana engulfed him halfway, darting spikes in every direction. The Sentinels leapt back to avoid being impaled, keeping their eyes locked on their target.

Zod asked, “Is that the near-death state Kie mentioned? So… what comes next?”

Miko kept her head straight, praying Kie didn’t call her name. But those thoughts vanished when the host began screaming.

Through the chaos, a few comprehensible words came from him, thick with a Vergant accent. He was speaking to the voice in his head, pleading for the pain to stop and insisting he did not want to kill.

The last of the dark mana peeled from the dome, erasing all trace of the host’s dark robe and face. Then the deep, chilling voice returned.

“Bestow upon me thy power and blood.”

The red mana thickened, forming the bulky beast they had faced before. Its long tentacles shot from its shoulders—but then something strange began.

The monster’s red skin rippled, and the tentacles sank back into its body. It dropped to its knees, pressing its hands to the ground as it pulled the veiny red skin from its head. The host’s mouth was revealed, letting out a shivering male scream.

A deeper voice followed, commanding, “Cease thy resistance.”

The monster froze, pressed its head to the ground, and began fidgeting violently. Spikes rose and sank into its back repeatedly, like a broken fountain.

Kie ordered them to keep attacking, but he didn’t get another chance. The monster lifted its head just as an explosion of raw energy erupted from its body.

The Vergant natives outside the dome were forced to shield their eyes from the blinding red light. When they glimpsed one of the Sentinels appearing outside the dome, they muttered in stunned disbelief:

“Fraggle rock!” – “Balderdang!” – “Mighty mother of pearl…”

Miko shrieked, realizing she had teleported out of danger. But what had happened to her teammates?

Saeda’s eyes flashed blue as an energy sphere formed around her. Kie pushed against a translucent blue wall, realizing he had dropped his swords. The red explosion of energy pulled his mind back to the moment before Legion’s axe snapped. He remembered creating that energy shield before and pushed with all his strength. But Tee and Zod were not as fortunate as Saeda, Kie, or Miko.

A dark energy sphere formed around Tee, but her fear shattered it. Zod held both swords in front of him, energy bursting from every angle in a desperate attempt to separate him from the blast. Yet both he and Tee were struck.

When the light faded, Miko could see inside the dome she had teleported from. Only Zod and Tee had crashed and rolled across the ground. Kie’s shield had vanished, and he dropped to his knees, fine lines of blood tracing down his face.

Saeda remained safely within her energy sphere, eyes wide as they had ever been. She hadn’t been pushed far by the explosion and had a front-row view of the monster hidden behind two massive wings.

Both Tee and Zod bore bruises and blood. Tee struggled to push herself onto her knees, while Zod fidgeted in pain. Miko called to the Vergants outside the dome to let her back in, but their minds were distant, perplexed by how she had teleported through their sorcery blocks.

Miko kept her eyes on Zod before she returned inside the dome. She paused a few seconds to adjust, then dashed to him, pulling him into her arms. Blue light flickered through the peak of his eyelids.

Tee fought against the force trying to control her body. She couldn’t push herself past her knees. The immense pain felt all too familiar, but the deep voice in her head made her heart skip a beat. She understood—someone was speaking, commanding her not to resist.

“We are one, and thou shalt not resist!” the monster roared. Its two giant wings thrust open, sending a powerful gust of wind across the dome.

Saeda stayed rooted inside her energy orb. Kie’s swords could not pierce the impenetrable dome and were pushed back. Miko huddled with Zod, while Tee was slammed and rolled farther away by the gust, struggling to stay upright.

The monster, now tripled in height and bulk, turned toward its nearest target. Saeda blinked twice, wishing she could wake up by the pool from that nightmare. The monster levitated, flying like a bullet toward her energy sphere. Her mouth tore open, but no scream came out.

Kie saw it charging for Saeda’s sphere and whipped two waves of energy at its back. The monster soared above, and the blasts struck Saeda’s sphere instead. While in the air, it began stabbing the tips of its wings into the sphere.

Saeda had no idea how she was holding the sphere, but she knew it could not fail. She called to Kie through her telecom. 

“Stop the energy attacks. I can’t risk shattering this spehere—especially this close to the monster.”

Kie knew, like Saeda, that pain was the biggest drawback of their Sentinel powers. Yes, they healed but they never got used to the agony. Worse, Saeda was too cautious to take a risk for the team. Damn it, why couldn’t it have been him in that sphere?

He tore his gaze from Saeda to the beast above her. Xenosapians didn’t have wings or speak, but that was no ordinary creature. It was a monster that had to be taken down, and it clearly grew stronger with time.

Kie searched for his teammates to coordinate a maneuver. Miko held Zod in her arms on the ground. Tee struggled to push herself up—but before he could focus elsewhere, massive tentacles tore through her back, hooking around his eyes.

“What the…”

He squinted, unsure if he was seeing correctly.

Miko’s super-sense drew her attention to Tee, kneeling far away. She blinked twice at the unholy sight erupting from Tee’s back before screaming, tears streaming down her face.

“Teeeee!”

Her scream slammed urgency into Kie’s mind. He gripped his swords tighter.

Zod stopped fidgeting. His flickering eyes steadied, then closed.

Saeda was too overwhelmed to maintain her sphere.

Tee fought for control of her own body. The deep voice commanding her to stop resisting had vanished, but she begged her dark side not to emerge. Tears poured from her eyes as her claws extended. A deeper pain stabbed at her heart, knowing her teammates were near.

Both Kie and Miko dropped their jaws as long metal claws popped from Tee’s glove fingers. Tentacles at her back wrapped around her head, spreading darkness down her body. A sharp, pointy protrusion grew from her forehead as she fidgeted violently.

Miko’s voice shook as she asked through her telecom, “What’s happening to Tee? Is it the effect of the monster’s blast?”

Zod cracked his eyes open, following the direction of Miko’s chin. One glimpse of Tee was enough before he bolted upright from Miko’s lap.

"W-w-w-whaaat the hell!" he blurted.

Saeda heard the commotion through her telecom but couldn’t take her eyes off the sphere separating her from the beast above.

Kie didn’t know what to make of it. Xenosapians didn’t have metal claws! Worse, the horn on Tee’s forehead kept growing. Darkness spread past her waist, and spikes began protruding from the back of her coated head.

He blinked several times, trying to reason. Perhaps Miko was right—it could be an effect of the monster’s blast. Yet the loud smacks of the monster stabbing Saeda’s sphere couldn’t pull his eyes away from Tee.

Above, the red bulky monster stopped stabbing its wings into the energy sphere. Mana peeled away below its eyes to reveal a mouth, red light shining from between its teeth. But the power that had strengthened in that place wiped its mind clean, and it swallowed its own blast.

The monster hovered silently, levitating in the air. The all-consuming energy had to be from the voice it had heard. It turned toward the source, seeking the master—only to find a human girl on her knees, dark mana consuming her form.

In the next instant, another pulse of energy radiated from her, suppressing all dark energy. The monster recognized the pulse as an attack too powerful to ignore. It lost its ability to levitate, fell, and crashed onto Saeda’s sphere. It was clear the girl was not the master—but then, what was she?

Saeda shrieked as the massive meat slammed onto her sphere. She shut her eyes, clinging to concentration and safety.

The monster struggled to withstand the overwhelming attack on its existence. Its red skin tore apart, revealing no trace of the host beneath. It fought desperately to stay together, resisting annihilation.

It became clear to the monster that two forces were present. One that empowered it, bidding it to rise, and another that commanded its destruction.

Though the monster could not feel pain, being erased from existence was agonizing. Its molecules tugged between the two commands, mind-rending confusion stabbing through it. It let out a powerful shriek that vibrated the entire dome.

Saeda opened her eyes and saw the monster panicking. Since it wasn’t attacking her, she glimpsed her teammates scattered across the wide dome. All their eyes were locked on Tee—and it was easy to see why. The top half of Tee’s body was coated in spreading darkness as she pressed both hands against the ground.

The deep, mysterious voice commanded its subject. “Obey and bring slaughter.”

The monster roared again, arms outstretched, trying to mend the tear in its mind. But it still struggled against the conflicting commands tearing at its existence.

Tee heard the voice and realized she had heard it before, though the pain blurred the memory. She understood the voice was speaking to her—but it was not on her side. Overcoming the agony, she lifted her head and screamed in a voice that carried the weight of thousands.

“Never!”