The transformation spread rapidly across his body as his features softened and flowed like molten wax. Hair vanished first. Then his nose collapsed inward. His ears flattened against his skull before disappearing completely.
The surrounding resistance members immediately backed away. The same thing began happening to the others.
One after another, bodies twisted.
Entire identities dissolved before our eyes. The illusion finally gave way completely.
Where humans had stood moments ago, something else now remained.
The creatures possessed sickly yellow skin stretched across unnaturally thin frames. Their torsos appeared elongated and segmented with strange ridges running across their bodies.
Numerous circular holes punctured sections of their flesh as though parts of them had simply never developed. Their heads were completely bald. Where ears should have existed there were only dark openings. Their faces possessed no true noses, merely narrow breathing slits above thin mouths filled with small sharp teeth.
Hida’s eyes widened.
A look of genuine shock appeared on her face.
The reaction immediately drew my attention because up until now she had remained remarkably composed regardless of the situation.
"No..."
Her voice came out quietly.
Then realization struck.
"Hany is dead."
The words spread through the valley like a physical force. Several resistance members visibly stiffened. Others looked back toward the transformed creatures with growing horror.
Hida’s gaze moved across the entire group.
"And so is everyone who came with him."
"Who are they?" I asked.
"Shapeshifters," she muttered.
The implication settled heavily over the ruined settlement.
The people who had answered the distress signal. The people who had supposedly arrived after receiving the warning. The people standing before us now.
None of them were real. They had never been real.
The leader of the creatures smiled. The expression looked deeply unnatural on his inhuman face.
"Very observant."
His voice no longer sounded like Hany’s. Instead it carried a strange layered quality as though several individuals were speaking simultaneously through the same mouth.
A few resistance members immediately raised weapons.
Others began spreading out instinctively. The shapeshifter seemed completely unconcerned.
In fact, he looked pleased.
"As much as I would love to take credit for fooling everyone forever, I suppose this is where the performance ends."
His gaze shifted toward me. Then slowly swept across the gathered resistance. A strange excitement burned within his eyes.
"You know, the original plan was significantly more complicated than this."
Nobody responded.
The creature didn’t seem to care.
"I spent decades chasing rumors. Decades hunting settlements. Decades trying to locate bloodline communities that have spent centuries hiding from everyone."
His smile widened.
"Then suddenly a living Ironhart appears."
His gaze remained fixed on me.
"A living Saint."
The excitement in his voice continued growing.
"The stories sounded absurd."
He laughed softly.
"Honestly, I thought they were exaggerating."
His hand rose and gestured broadly around the valley.
"But then you did something magnificent."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Did I?"
"Oh yes."
The creature nodded enthusiastically.
"You awakened Verilux. You fled directly into the arms of the resistance."
His laughter echoed across the ruined settlement.
"And most importantly..."
His eyes gleamed.
"You brought everyone together."
Now I understood. Not the entire plan but enough of it. This had never been solely about killing people.
It had been bait. The destruction of Settlement Thirty-One Alpha had merely created the stage. The real target had been whoever came afterward.
The shapeshifter spread his arms dramatically.
"Do you have any idea what information is worth in the Prime Territory?"
He barely waited for an answer.
"Entire fortunes."
His gaze moved between the resistance leaders.
"Hidden settlements."
Then toward me.
"A living Saint."
Then toward Ragnar and the others.
"And somehow 3 more Saints."
His excitement became almost manic.
"When this information reaches the right buyers, I will become one of the richest Soul Hunters in the Prime Territory."
Beside me Ragnar scratched his chin.
"That’s what he is excited about?"
Lyrate sighed.
"I think so."
Knight looked equally unimpressed.
"A disappointing villain."
The shapeshifter’s expression twitched. The reaction clearly wasn’t what he had expected.
He had imagined fear, shock, perhaps anger.
Instead he received mild disappointment. Several of his companions shifted uneasily.
Then the leader’s excitement finally gave way to irritation.
His smile disappeared.
"So be it."
Soul force erupted from his body. The surrounding shapeshifters immediately followed.
Power flooded the valley.
Four distinct Saint auras rose among their ranks while dozens of Transcendent signatures surged outward. The pressure rolled across the settlement ruins like a storm front as the Soul Hunters finally abandoned any attempt at subtlety.
Gigantic soul projections manifested behind the four Saints. One took the shape of a towering beast covered in wings and claws.
Another appeared as a heavily armored giant carrying a massive spear. The third resembled a writhing collection of blades constantly shifting between forms. The final projection manifested as a serpentine creature covered in countless eyes.
The valley trembled beneath the release of power.
Around us the resistance members immediately retreated. The battlefield had suddenly become far beyond their level.
I remained where I was. So did my summons. Because compared to what we had fought earlier, this wasn’t particularly impressive.
Verilux had distorted entire regions merely by existing. These four Saints felt insignificant beside that memory.
The Soul Hunters attacked first.
The winged projection descended from above while the armored giant charged across the ground and the remaining two Saints released devastating attacks that tore through the valley.
Then Knight moved. Darkness spread outward explosively.
Simply inevitably.
Space folded inward around one of the attacking Saints and his projection immediately froze. The creature struggled violently but found itself trapped inside a prison formed from overlapping dimensions.
At almost the same moment Ragnar stepped forward, he didn’t transform. Didn’t summon his projection.
Didn’t release his true strength.
He simply swung his club.
The resulting impact shattered the armored giant’s projection instantly and launched its owner through several mountains beyond the valley.
A stronger version that fits Lyrate’s style and keeps the momentum flowing would be:
Lyrate laughed softly as she stepped forward and raised a single hand toward the battlefield. Crimson soul force spread beneath the ruined settlement and disappeared into the ground before violently erupting moments later.
The earth shattered apart as enormous wooden palms formed entirely from intertwined roots burst upward from below. Each hand was hundreds of meters across, its fingers resembling ancient tree trunks twisted together into monstrous shapes.
The two remaining Soul Hunter Saints immediately reacted. Their projections shifted and attacks descended toward the rising constructs, but the giant hands simply crashed through the incoming techniques and continued upward without slowing.
The first palm closed around the winged projection, crushing it between its fingers with a deafening explosion before slamming the Saint himself into the ground hard enough to fracture the entire valley.
The second hand rose even faster.
Its fingers spread wide before snapping shut around the serpentine projection. The creature struggled violently as countless eyes across its body released beams of soul force in every direction, but the wooden fingers tightened relentlessly. Cracks spread across the projection from head to tail until the entire manifestation shattered apart. The giant palm then swung downward like the judgment of a god and smashed both the projection and its owner into the ground below.
The leader watched the scene unfold with widening eyes.
"No..."
His voice sounded distant.
"No, that’s impossible."
The confidence that had filled his expression moments earlier vanished completely.
The yellow-skinned shapeshifter took an involuntary step backward while staring at the battlefield.
The realization finally reached him. The leader’s body trembled slightly as yellow blood began leaking from several wounds that had appeared during the initial exchange. One side of his face was split open while a deep crack ran across his chest where Ragnar’s aura alone had struck him during the opening moments of the battle.
"How is this possible?" he shouted while looking around desperately. "How can Saints this strong even exist?"