Duke Lynel, something is horribly wrong with Tenna. Not just chasers have gone missing within the past couple of days, more townsfolk have disappeared, but this time we're getting signs. Being completely honest… it's not looking good, my Duke. Only blood splatters or pieces of anyone who's gone missing more recently have been found. My men can hardly identify some of the corpses we've spotted, especially when we attempt to look for their registered infusion… it's just gone. This may be my last letter, my Duke, please send any reinforcements available.
I believe a dark rank beast has taken hold of Tenna.
-Grant, of Tenna
…
Two more days have passed, making it a total of five days since we've been told to keep indoors. Yet, after the appearance of multiple corpses of people that have just been slaughtered, the people of Tenna are staying outside the City Hall, enraged.
"My son is dead! What are you bastards hiding!?"
"Where is my brother!?"
"Who killed my father!?"
Riots and people throwing things at the large building have been an hourly occurrence within the past day or so.
I stay watching from a far, having left the tavern because of the bad feeling in my stomach.
'Kain hasn't shown up since the other day, either…'
Hale thinks he's just left to stay in the City Hall, or went out of town.
I… think he's dead.
We haven't told the others within The Den that Kain isn't there.
'I don't know how they'll react.'
I bury my face in my hands, sliding down the wall I'm leaning against until I sit down. A groan escapes my lips as I feel a small headache form again.
Headache after headache… and not just this situation in Tenna, but my left eye, too…
I feel like my vision on that side has worsened. Whether it's because that's the side my mark is on, from stress, or just lack of care, I don't know… but it's definitely worse.
I cover my left eye with my hand after rubbing my face for a moment.
I lean my head back against the wall, and stare up at the grey sky above. Clouds completely cover the sky for as far as I can see.
Soon after…
Drip. Drip.
A sprinkle lands on my face, then another on my arm.
Rain, and it starts to rain fast.
From a couple of droplets to a downpour within seconds.
"God-"
I stand up and shield my face from the rain with my hands above my forehead, immediately running back to the tavern to take some shelter.
I turn the corner before finding the open street when-
Slip!
"Ack-!"
My ankle twists on a bit of stone that jutted out from the road.
"F-fuck…!"
I groan as I double over on the soaking wet stone road, holding my sprained ankle with both hands.
"H-hah… hah…"
I pant a bit as I try to stand up, putting barely enough weight on my injured foot to stand. Stumbling toward a near alleyway, I sigh as soon as I reach underneath a roof, away from the chaotic rain outside.
"Man…"
I hear another rush of footsteps from outside the alleyway, other people that were rioting and raging a moment ago rushing to the safety of their homes.
I close my eyes and pant, catching my breath. I sit down and cough a bit in the somewhat comforting darkness of the crevice between two buildings.
My ankle throbs with pain after the twist.
'I wanna go home…'
'I'm drenched in rain and dirt. My ankle hurts, I can hardly see out of my left eye.'
'Just my luck.'
I take a deep breath and sigh, relaxing my closed eyes further, feeling a tad bit warmer despite my circumstances.
'No one would blame me if I took a nap here, right…?'
I smile to myself, feeling my last bit of thoughts finally quiet down.
*****
A being in dark, formal attire lay still across a pitch black chair. A face with no features except for dozens of eyes peering from a cold darkness that makes up its head.
E̶̡̬͖̻͋r̸̛̙͎͚͛̈́̔r̴͔̙̓̾͗͝ǫ̶͈̈́r̴͓͕̅͒̈
He rests on the chair, tilting his head slightly. As he does so, the many eyes within the darkness of his form begin to widen.
"Ah… it's not the golden-haired boy, but the-…"
He pauses, the eyes flash a dangerous but joyful look, as if he were grinning from ear to ear.
"This'll be fun. Hah… hahaha…." His small amount of laughter soon turns into a wild cackle. If the being had a face, his grin would be much wider than what his physiology would allow.
"Yes… at this rate, the beast is gonna harm the wrong one… the moron."
Another chuckle passes as he pretends to wipe a tear from his many eyes. The pitch black flame that seems to be his hair ignites, flickering higher up with each moment.
He had originally come to the same conclusion as Cronus, that the root of the new feeling was from Blondie, but after a bit more watching…
…it was Weirdo. The shorter boy with the black and white hair was the cause. The one with the ugly looking infusion on the side of his face.
It was him, and he was sure of it.
So, another slap of his knee and laughter exploding from nothing, he finally calms down.
"Checkmate, ugly…"
Cronus had come up with a little thing to torture the kid, but if the root cause WAS Weirdo, and if Cronus harms him…
A shining white smile appears, formed across the many eyes from the pitch black, "Game over."
So, he immediately began thinking about what the dumb goat is going to look like once he's done with it.
*****
Grant rests in his office. The third floor of the City Hall building is where he manages most of his affairs.
He rests his head in his hands after finishing sending his most recent letter to Duke Lynel, hoping for some form of backup or reinforcements from the next city over.
They can send letters back and forth, but the arrival time between each one is, at the bare minimum, a day.
With Tenna being located just outside of any royal territory, it's much harder to obtain any city guard, or keep consistent and fast communication.
He wipes a bead of sweat from his forehead and turns back to the pile of papers and folders scattered across his desk. He had been researching tirelessly to at least guess as to what the beast attacking Tenna is.
Disappearances, leading to blood splatters, to full on corpses… the appearance of darkening clouds overhead for days on end, making those nearby prone to feelings of dread, rage, and sadness… the cases match one stray beast record.
'But it's a beast who hasn't shown up for over eighty years…'
Grant could feel his nervousness building as he swallows a mouthful of his saliva. During his one hundred-forty years of life, he had seen the destruction of this beast only once in his forties.
'The Devourer, Cronus.'
A dark rank stray beast capable of horrible things. Mountains, cities, and even an entire civilization on the far east has been felled by a stray beast of this calibre. A dark rank that has lived through countless hunts for its head, and even a majority of subjugation parties came back with heavy casualties…
…or didn't come back at all.
More sweat forms between his brow.
"Shit…"
His thoughts begin to race.
'Why Tenna? What does it want here? Is it just hungry? Fuck…'
Grant had become the head of Tenna through the strength of his Infusion, having reached radiant in his seventies, and governing Tenna since. He had never encountered anything of this level before…
White ranks aren't too uncommon, especially within the royal territories, grey ranks could be seen every once in a while, typically in large fields, flying through mountains, or massive bodies of water.
'Dark ranks.'
The rarest of the three, and an unknown factor within stray beasts. Between White, Grey, and Dark rank, it's said to be a three-way-tie in terms of raw strength between all three.
But, this still begs the question into his head.
'Why Tenna? Have we angered it? Awoke it? Was it even sleeping before it decided to attack this town?'
He couldn't wrap his head around it, but he should've guessed so.
He turns to a wall to his left, a map of Aeon and a circle of Tenna's location are shown through the light of a manalit candle.
'Tenna's in the southwest of the Human Continent… if I can evacuate the people in time, perhaps we can make it to the royal domains and survive.'
He gulps as he stares at the distance between Tenna and the Xyren territory, the closest one to his town.
A day's journey, at the fastest possible speed for everyone.
He grits his teeth, feeling his blood beginning to boil.
'Too far…! Shit!'
Tak. Tak.
A knock at the door cuts off his thoughts, his expression immediately relaxing back to his usual self.
"Ah… be there in just a moment."
Grant flicks the candle off and steps over to the door, slowly opening it toward him.
"Yes?" He puts on a smile for his visitor.
Yet, he blinks, seeing an old man.
It's Kain.
"Ah, Kain, what brings you here?" Grant smiles at him warmly, opening the door further for him to enter, "Come in, come in."
Kain walks in silently, a slight haggle in his step, perhaps even a limp.
Grant notices immediately, "W-woah, pal, you alright there…?" He moves to help Kain at his side, yet-
"E-eh?"
Kain stares blankly at the map, no longer lit up by the candle to its side.
"K-Kain, my friend…?"
Grant feels an edge of anxiousness crawl along his back.
"K-Kain, is there something wrong at the tav-"
Squelch
Kain's head seemingly melts, a rancid scent immediately floods Grant's nose, making him recoil backward as Kain's now corpse rots instantly before him. Grant falls down in shock at the scene before him.
"K-Kain…!"
Grant's eyes flare with rage as he immediately stands up, covering his nose under his shirt to prevent his eyes from watering at the putrid stench.
"B-Bastard!"
Flick. Flick.
The small candles within the third floor office vanish, the light Grant had relied on immediately disappearing.
His vision drowns in darkness, causing him to blink multiple times to no avail.
Yet…
Blink. Blink
Two beady, red dots stare at him from across the hall of the third floor.
Grant gulps loudly, sweat drenching his white hair and beard.
"..."
…
"..."
All that remains of Elder Grant is his spine protruding out from his still-standing lower body.