Chapter 15: Bloody Escalation.
The low growls of the Eidolons echoed through the cave entrance as they made their steady retreat. In situations like this, Damien would usually try every trick he knew to antagonise and provoke the enemy into mistakes, but with Yuri and Chad too exhausted to continue fighting, he settled for patience instead.
They followed at a distance, maintaining formation in case of a sudden counterattack. Even with the Eidolons retreating, Damien wasn’t letting his guard drop.
"Quick question," Seris finally broke the eerie silence. "What are we actually trying to accomplish by following them to the entrance? If this chief really came back, we’re definitely no match for him."
Damien’s blue eyes shifted toward her.
"What makes you so sure we can’t beat him? Besides... The best way to disperse a herd is by killing its leader."
Seris hesitated. She didn’t want to crush his confidence, but at this point he had been the one making all the decisions, when to fight, when to push back and when to run. If she held anything back now, it would only make things worse.
"The chief..." she said carefully. "He isn’t dormant like the rest of us. His rank is above that. He’s awakened."
The already heavy atmosphere thickened.
Damien had known this wouldn’t be simple from the start, but hearing it left a sour weight in his chest.
"Whatever this chief is," he said with a steady voice, "we will find him. And we will end him."
His confidence cut through the silence.
Even Yuri and Chad felt something shift in their resolve. They knew exactly how dangerous that thing was, but even knowing that, Damien’s words made it feel possible.
Even if they understood the truth: even the most powerful humans in the ruins had only managed to break a fragment off one of its frozen antlers, and yet. They were still willing to try.
"Hmm". Seris reaffirmed. " It doesn’t matter, we’re gonna fight it, and win... then we will find our way back home". She sighed lightly. "What I wouldn’t give for some unhealthy food".
Seris sounded exhausted, and the way she spoke. She’s clearly been in the tower for a long time, meanwhile. Damien was certain the tower only appeared about a month ago.
"How long have you been stuck here?". Damien realised thinking about it wouldn’t change much, it’s better to squeeze her for information, perhaps she might know something useful.
Seris was feeling talkative, as much as she would love to pretend everything was pitch perfect, it really wasn’t. Speaking with Damien helped her feel sane in a way, which was weird, cause Damien didn’t seem like the sanest person alive. In fact, everything he’s done thus far has been pretty insane.
So she patted her chest and spoke with a fake smile.
"We’ve been here for about five months, so I really would give anything for some pizza and fries, perhaps a juicy donut".
Damien desperately wanted to focus on understanding the tower, but Seri’s watery mouth made his face twitch unnaturally.
"Five months... In the outside world, you were only gone for a month".
Yuri and Chad turned in his direction, but honestly speaking, who wouldn’t. When they left, the ground was exploding and the sky was collapsing. The world was rupturing in itself, and then a majestic tower or perhaps nefarious looking was the right word. Emerged from the ground and pierced into the space above the sky.
Many people died that day, Yuri could still remember the look in her mother’s eyes as she was engulfed in flames, the only reason she herself survived was because the gate appeared in the nick of time.
"Do you recall when you entered the Tower? The distortion of time within makes the passage of time difficult to measure."
Damien shook his head.
"Time seems to move five times the normal speed of earth, so I shouldn’t have been gone for half a day... when I first entered, an Eidolon found me and dragged me to the ruins. I’m pretty sure I was dead at the time...".
Damien gathered his thoughts before continuing.
"The gate should’ve appeared for me around the same time it did for you, I just avoided it for a time, but eventually it got harder to survive in a ruined world, so I decided to face whatever it was that was in the black devilish gate...".
Damien scowled in annoyance.
"I prefer the outside world, this place is shit".
...
The last of the Eidolons filed out through the entrance. The bright sunlight had already faded, replaced by a strange, muted darkness that clung to the snow covered ruins. Snow began to fall again, heavier than before, swallowing the stone dais in cold silence.
Damien and the others were behind the three undead he sent to act as their shield, so they couldn’t really see what was in front of them.
"Halt".
The undead responded instantly to Damien’s words.
"We shouldn’t walk out completely, they might be a trap waiting for us, let’s hold our defensive line here, that should give us more breathing room".
The others nodded in agreement, Damien’s plan had worked, and now they weren’t being forced to fight with no point of retreat, the tunnel could be a safe home, or a safe grave. Either way, they now controlled the entrance to it.
The night was a bit unsettling, but the fresh air more than made up for it.
Damien turned to Seris. "Help Yuri with her wounds".
Seris nodded, but before she could move, a high pitched whistle tore through the night sky.
Then without warning, a black projectile shot through the three undead Eidolons at the front, it flew with their corpses and collided at the foot of the entrance.
Damien reacted instinctively, hugging Seris and jumping to the side, the entrance shook intensely as heavy dust fell from the top
Damien coughed before raising his head to check on the others, Chad had somehow reacted quickly enough to push Yuri out of the way.
But his undead were impaled cleanly.
[Your undead has fallen]
[Your undead has fallen]
[Your undead has fallen]
"Is that a bloody siege crossbow?". Damien howled.