Chapter 4: The gargoyle
Dod Allentown lay, covered in dust, his eyes so red that every blink burned.
"You know what fuck this...I could just lie there doing nothing. We're all going to die anyway. I've got a dry mouth; I'm starving and most of all I'm lazy about everything. Of course, we had to steal the cart that the PRINCESS of the kingdom herself was planning to take that night! Really, we couldn't have done it at a better time!"
Dod lay there for several minutes, his eyes blank as he watched the sky gradually darken. Then the dust rose to his eyes, and he finally decided to get up, out of spite. Dod decided not to dust off his clothes, not wanting to raise any more dust than necessary. The young boy was moving forward like a condemned man on death row, and it had to be said that he didn't really seem to be looking for a way out; no, he was moving forward because what else could he do? Dod could barely open his eyes, so he was walking blind.
"Allentown!"
Dod turned abruptly, the expression on his face impassive, yet his flesh was well and truly made of chicken at this very moment (Ordinal expression for goosebumps). He had heard someone shout his name, almost in a whisper.
"Who's there?" Dan?"
Dod's voice echoed through the rest of the labyrinth, but no one answered him. The cold calm of the labyrinth made him more anxious than he would have liked. Who knows, this place may be infested with monsters too.
"Dan! If it's you, know that I'm really not in the mood, so come out!"
Still no answer, come to think of it, Dod knew very well that the thing that had called him wasn't Danaël. He could recognize his friend's voice even underwater. What he'd heard sounded more like a growl, a noise impossible to reproduce with human vocal cords. Dod could sense danger coming, but from where? He slammed his fist twice against his chest, and a fantastic mist emanated from his body in the form of white flames with purple tints. Seeing in the dark was surprisingly not a problem for Dod since his fantastic paths had been unlocked. Even without sliding fantastic energy into his pupils, he could see several meters ahead, even in total darkness. A gift that turned out to be frightening, as Dod saw, out of the corner of his eye, something watching him.
He could only make out the outlines, for the thing seemed to be bathed in a blackness darker than the color itself. The creature seemed to be deliberately hiding behind a wall some thirty meters from Dod. The first thing Dod noticed was the look in the thing's eyes. It exuded hostility, and you couldn't miss its yellow pupils, which looked as if they might pierce his body.
"Allentown! Allentown! Allentown!"
Dod backed away slowly, and the creature stepped forward. Dod's teeth chattered with fear, but above all, with cold. The ambient temperature dropped and continued to drop as the creature approached the boy. Dod took a deep breath, his face shivering, a slight mist now emanating from his mouth. The hard-packed earth beneath his feet hardened into a light glaze. The same fate awaited the surrounding walls, which were in turn covered in this layer of frost. Dod should have run for his life a long time ago; he knew. Yet he was unable to do so. The closer the creature came, the more the feeling of extreme unease that knotted his heart intensified.
Dod was far from an expert on fantastic monsters. However, on the Ordinal continent, there was a creature feared by all, a being who embodied fear and despair. They were infamous, going by many names: nightwalkers, dream devourers, evil incarnate. Their appearances were infinite, as was their bloodlust. Only, when they appear at night, and are about to devour their prey, there is never any doubt for the victim as to the identity of their tormentor. Humans, elves, dwarves, giants, and all other fantastical monsters, nothing was spared. As long as the beings possessed flesh and a beating heart, they would be there to devour them.
"It can't be...," muttered Dod. "A gargoyle?"
Dod struggled not to lose control of his fantasia. He also fought against his emotions; gargoyles fed on fear. It wasn't what kept them alive, no, this was just a means to reach the heart of their victims, before devouring them.
"Allentown!"
"What the hell did I do to it?! How does it know my name ?!" Dod thought, completely distraught.
The gargoyle's hideous features were gradually revealing themselves. It had a humanoid form with completely grey skin. A slender body with well-defined muscles and sharp claws. You'd think its face was human - it had the features - but the overall arrangement of its face made it so monstrous that it was impossible to mistake it for a human.
His face was awe-inspiring in its own right, as you lost yourself between his bony features and the obscure mass that gave him a false impression of perpetual motion that was extremely unpleasant. Its bald, flattened skull was complemented by two small black horns as sharp as its claws. The gargoyle advanced on two legs, half-curled in on itself, occasionally using its hands to hold itself up. At times, the wings folded down behind its back, rubbed against the now completely frosted ground, with a high-pitched squeak that sent a chill down the spine. Dod heard the creature murmur his name and other words as inaudible as they were incomprehensible.
Suddenly, the walls began to slide again, the exact moment Dod Allentown ceased to make his escape. With a slight leap, he swung his fantasia directly to his feet, and as soon as he landed on the ground, he dashed off in the opposite direction to the creature. Unlike Danaël, Dod hadn't taken the time to analyze the various repetitive patterns these walls could take. At that very moment, he was simply guided by instinct. Thanks to his fantastic strength, he could afford to react with a delay and still be able to avoid the walls. In the middle of his run, Dod glanced behind him. The gargoyle was hot on his heels; it had taken on a liquid form, and a huge puddle of black liquid was chasing him. Dod tried to surprise the gargoyle by taking random turns, while risking a full-blown wall himself. However, the gargoyle's new physiology rendered it very difficult to surprise.
"Fucking hell!"
Dod changed strategy and came to an abrupt halt before charging straight into a dirt wall. Before being hit by the wall, he jumped off and, using his second supporting foot, executed another leap that propelled him onto the roof of the wall. This feat he owed to the fantastic flames still lodged in his legs, without which he would never have had the physical prowess to perform such a feat. The gargoyle immediately followed Dod onto the roof, the latter keeping his balance as best he could on the wall at full speed.
The mass of black liquid reformed into a concentrate of flesh and bone, and the ghastly gargoyle once again stood in front of Dod, on two legs, claws digging into the clay so as not to fall off the building. Dod became a little more aware of the gargoyle's immense stature, rising to a height of over four meters.
"The Allentown will pay! Allentown!"
"Pay for what exactly? If you want to eat me, don't make excuses, atrocity!"
Dod was well aware that provoking the gargoyle was not productive. But at that moment, his anger got the better of him. The gargoyle spread its jaw, almost opening it at a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree angle, before unleashing a howl that made Dod Allentown's ears bleed. The gargoyle's howl sent a shockwave that Dod couldn't avoid, hitting him full force and propelling him into the air. Dod collided with the first dirt wall, which exploded into a thousand pieces on contact.
He tried to protect his body as best he could by sliding his fantasia over his entire back, but the pain was splitting. He felt his organs stirring in his body, and Dod even spat blood briefly. But his run didn't stop there, as Dod smashed through four more walls in his path before finally landing in a disproportionately long roll. Miraculously, the walls around him finally slowed down. Dod was covered in blood, particularly on his face. If he wasn't already blinded by the dust raised by all the commotion, his blood was finishing the job.
Face down on the ground, he struggled to get up, agonizing with his back against the ruins of the last dirt wall he'd just smashed. The fact that he was still standing was a miracle, but Dod was struggling to breathe, and his vision was blurred. The temperature around him dropped again, and Dod didn't even need to look ahead to know that the gargoyle had followed him here.
The shroud around Dod's arm had been shredded, revealing the three eyes on his forearm. The gargoyle seemed even more irritated at this sight, throwing several snarls at Dod. At that moment, literally with his back against the wall, facing one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet, Dod Allentown's mind left his body. There was a total vacuum in his head. Dod moved forward without thinking; a primitive, almost animal instinct took over. A second wind, you might say, his fantastic mist now glowed as if invigorated by this new state of fantastic trans. Then, all at once, his flames were extinguished. A single flame came to rest in the grey-iris eye on his forearm. Suddenly, for the first time, the eye began to move in its orb, no longer frozen in place, and acting at last as a true pupil.
The gargoyle snarled, drooling before pouncing on its prey. Dod Allentown's eyes snapped back, leaving an immaculate white to fill them. He contracted both arms, so hard that the sleeves of his shirt, which were still holding together as best he could, were torn to shreds. The one and only flame of fantasia, still burning on the pupil of his forearm, flared up. The ambient temperature plummeted even further, and soon the earthen walls over a forty-meter radius froze, covered in ice. Dod stirred the air with both hands, and a gigantic ice pestle emerged from the ground, almost impaling the gargoyle as it took flight. Dod still managed to hit the gargoyle in the face and tear off a piece of one of its wings. A black liquid poured down the gargoyle's hideous face, and its cry of pain echoed throughout the labyrinth.
Dod struck the ground with his right foot, his ice-covered boot gradually materializing a pillar of ice that lifted Dod to the gargoyle. He then used his Momentum to leap onto the gargoyle, clenching his fist, now covered in frost, and delivering a right jab. The gargoyle passed out, and Dod, now in freefall, grabbed his left horn to keep from falling. The gargoyle struggled and jerked in the air, but Dod's grip was too strong for it. The gargoyle began to fly in all directions, bumping into walls to get rid of Dod Allentown, still clutching her horn. Dod let go for a moment before wrapping his legs around the gargoyle's neck. He squeezed with all his might, and with his free hands tried to frost the creature's face, which blocked him with a violent clawing blow.
Dod received the blow in the chest, which cut off his breathing for just an instant, enough to allow the gargoyle to break free of his embrace. Dod let go, having succeeded in bringing the gargoyle to within a dozen meters of the ground - enough for him to make a damage-free landing. Dod glanced up quickly; the gargoyle was preparing another howl. He spread his hands again and slammed his two fists together. Before the gargoyle could even scream, two walls of ice came crashing down on it, sandwiching it. Dod threw several raindrops of extremely sharp ice to finish the job.
The gargoyle had to be somewhere, lost in this mass of ice. The ice began to vibrate, the surrounding walls gave way, and with a howl even more powerful than the last, the gargoyle exploded the ice. One of the looters had severely damaged her liver. Its second wing, completely frozen, crumbled, and the gargoyle finally came to ground, landing on its two feet with a tremendous crash. With the last of her strength, she shouted again:
"Allentown !!!!!!!"
Only, Dod Allentown was no longer in front of the gargoyle. The gargoyle didn't realize it until it was far too late: like a blade, Dod's frosted hand pierced the gargoyle's heart. Dod didn't stop there, squeezing the point; he ended up spreading all the ice over the gargoyle's entire body, which froze into a statue of ice. With his free hand, he concentrated more ice before delivering a fatal punch that shattered the gargoyle into a thousand pieces. Dod, out of breath, finally came out of his trance-like state, his eyes returning to normal.
"I heard you don't worry, now you can go scream my name in hell," he muttered before collapsing.
***