The shrill singing had reached an intensity that hurt their ears when they returned to the cavern. Akatsuki had already killed three cultists who wandered around searching for the people who had attacked them recently. She raised a closed fist when she peeked around the next corner and fanned her hand down. She turned after squatting down and shook her head.
"Epesh in the caverns," she whispered, "Three of them, wolf size and probably twice as fast." She took out two hand crossbows.
Sabreman did the same, as did Amelia.
"We line up and shoot, Amelia goes ahead of me and takes the one on the right, Sabreman behind me and take the one to the left, Go now."
Amelia quietly moved ahead with Akatsuki behind. Once they were all in position, they opened fire. The bolts broke through their thin carapace. Two were dead, Ammy's was not. She lobbed a spare mace at it. Cracked its head open when it broke past the carapace and knocked the thing down. It managed a whimper before Akatsuki managed to reload and shoot it again.
Couldn't even put down a fucking target without help, dropped her damn food... the bloody fairy. She looked down to see she'd crushed the hand crossbow. She threw the thing forward, and someone yelped. Akatsuki ran into the cavern without muttering a word of complaint and dragged back a cultist while Ammy chewed on the spare epesh carapace she had.
"You wanted to talk to a cultist," she said flatly, "And I hope you're happy to talk," she glanced down at the cultist with a long hairpin pressed to their temple.
The naked woman laughed crazily for less than a second before Akatsuki shoved a rag into her mouth, then started pummeling her middle with her fists. Each laugh became a wheeze, which turned to gags. Akatsuki dragged the rag out of the woman's throat and then slapped her.
"Talking?" she said with her face millimetres from the woman's own.
Amelia stepped beside her and found the woman's desaturated eyes staring up at her for hope. She took out a piece of the epesh carapace and ate it to ensure she watched.
"Sabreman, keep watch." Akatsuki left with silent steps toward the celebration space.
Amelia squatted down beside the woman who breathed hard, "I met your people before on the wasteland, tell me, why do you worship these demons?"
"This world's sick," she woman muttered, "So Ephem came up with a wondrous lush idea, go to another world. A second world to spread our brother and sisterhood in where we can live in peace and bring peace to their lands."
Peace?
"Is this peaceful?"
"All the sex you can want, and we don't need to eat or drink. Our water and bread is provided through it." she raised her hands, "Ephem our guide, our lady of night..."
Amelia thinned her lips to avoid snarling at this lunatic, "How did you come into Ephem's love?"
"Like you, my darling," she raised herself up and pursed her lips.
Amelia pushed her back, "I'm not convinced."
She lunged at her, fingertips suddenly black, eyes still drained of colour.
Amelia, in her rage, met the woman with a dense punch that tore straight through her head. When the haze of red passed, she opened her mouth to shout at the bones and muscles rebuilding themselves in her right arm from exceeding her body's limit. She barely kept herself silent by biting down on her other arm. She withdrew her right arm from the remains of the woman's head and sat down.
"For what it's worth, I did propose to Gideon that you should be taken off the mission to rest," he said.
"But you're not captain."
He nodded and kept his mouth shut.
"I'm sorry..." she fumbled through her belongings for a pipe, only to find Sabreman offering her already sorted with herbs, "Thank you."
"It's got tobacco, you seem the type."
"Yeah..." she lit it with the stolen pyromancy ability and took a long drag of the matured odour. Tolmyr, what else am I being used for?
Akatsuki returned a few minutes later, her quiver was empty, and her clothes had splashes of blood. "Start the set-up now, no time."
"Stars wheel," Sabreman leaned off the wall and glanced at Amelia. Akatsuki waved him off.
She knelt by Amelia, "Are you ready?"
"What I don't get," Amelia said, "Why were you so kind to me when it came to fairies?"
"Remember my promise? That's included, but we'll finish the job first," she said.
Amelia felt sick in her head, but that putrid feeling should've been in the pit of her stomach. She stuffed the pipe in the bag and followed Akatsuki into the tunnel, taking deep breaths to focus. She had to let the emotions wash aside for now. Just stay focused on the task. The path is clear. Then she'd be able to go home and cry to sleep.
Sabreman was most of the way done setting down the gunpowder traps and paper packets when they arrived. He allowed them to pass by him but to maintain their distance while he finished planting. Amelia peeked around the corner to see that the epesh was missing from its 'throne,' cultists stood up and cut their flesh with jagged knives over a large pot. A bald, pale-skinned anorexic woman with blackened fingertips and empty eye sockets waved her hands over the pot. Fire erupted underneath. The cultists continued to bleed themselves inside. A woman approached with something wrapped in cloth. Akatsuki pulled her back.
"Do not look."
But she heard the cries of a baby before they were snuffed out when it was plunged into the pot. She reached for her morningstar. Akatsuki's hand gripped her own. She looked up at the woman to see suppressed rage in her eyes also.
"Fine," Amelia said, "I get it."
"The kid was born half demon," she said, "We need to see if this is how they make epesh. Stay calm and watch."
When she looked again, she watched the cultists bring imps, goblins and other creatures into the pot before they stirred it and started-
Why?
Pleasuring themselves above it and allowing their seed to fall inside. The giant epesh returned from the cavern to the right, which led down to another chamber. It picked up a few women who yelped with joy as it forcefully split them open with its... thing.
Amelia felt Akatsuki grip her tight as the other women watched with indifference to the situation. Once the women had been torn open from their genitals to their chests, it hurled them in and picked it up.
"Another child of Ephem shall raise up as a holy bringer!" the witch yelled.
Akatsuki released her grip, "I needed a heavy for this," she growled, "Throw this. I trust you."
Akatsuki pushed a mace branded with a cross into Amelia's palm, the words of reassurance. She felt for the make of the mace and applied something around a third of mass increase. This time, she didn't care and passed the limit of her right arm again and threw it with all her might at the creature's fat head. As it turned, she cursed but then took it back when it entered through the creature's mouth and erupted its head in an explosion of black blood, brains, white carapace and bone. It toppled to the ground, the mix on top of it.
Screams as the cultists sprinted toward them, Akatsuki and Amelia drew their weapons at the ready. When they were closer Akatsuki shook her head and turned around.
"RUN!" she shouted.
"What?" both Amelia and Sabreman said.
"They're scared of something, we should be terrified."
They broke into a sprint when a gust of wind knocked the explosives all over the place. They detonated.
When Amelia's head was in order again, she looked around and found Akatsuki unconscious. She scrambled forward. Fortunately, the woman still breathed, but her head was cut.
"Sabreman!"
"I'm alright," he said from behind.
Amelia turned around to see him limp toward her, "Akatsuki is hurt." She gently picked her up and carried her toward him.
"Out in the cavern," he said, "Quickly, there's still some explosives to use in here." he coughed up blood, spat the rest out.
Once they left the cavern, she set Akatsuki down while Sabreman got to work on checking her over.
"Is she okay?"
"She'll be fine," he said, "Kells are known to be tough bastards."
Something in the other room thumped on the ground, a footstep of a giant. Amelia winced at the pain in her right arm as it healed itself from her enhanced regeneration. She took Sabreman's polearm and entered the tunnel. He said nothing, just focused on his work.
"Take her out of here," she said.
Inside the tunnel, the headless epesh stared her down without eyes. She rushed toward it, spawned hands of ethereal shadow to match its attacks. With her shoulder, she shoved it back out into the chamber where the people danced, fucked and bled themselves. It swung a heavy arm that extended out of its socket to her surprise and hit her in the side.
Amelia slammed into a wall, the wind from her lungs was ejected and drawn back unconsciously without the loss of a second. She forged more hands to barely fend off its shadow attacks. She swung her poleaxe at the next arm swing, the axe got stuck inside of it, but stopped the thing dead. The creature ripped its arms away. She increased her strength to hold it in place. Summoned her limit of thirty shadows to slash and slam against the creature's torso. She pressed down hard on the arm and broke through the carapace to slice through several appendages before the creature snatched its arm back.
It lunged at her, full weight. She dodged to the side and swung down with all her might to crack the torso. Then again, as the creature was stunned. Five more times.
Die, die, die!
It stopped moving, Amelia backed away and fell back onto her arse. A sigh of relief as she felt the tension leave her body, and the tiredness set in from the vicious combat.
The carapace of the ephesh cracked, then collapsed into the black ink body. Tentacles raced inward, then expanded outward. They became spider-like legs, each one stretched for ten meters. The body was a thin pillar of uncanny faces. Laughter, joy, rage, sadness and another with its eyes plucked out that gazed upwards as if looking for the sun. Six arms with the heads of snakes spread out like wings, and the creature's head was a patchwork face of an ear-to-ear grin. Its neck extended down from its thirty-meter height to look at her closely. Empty dark eyes prospecting.
Amelia crawled away, but the head followed her closely.
If I die now... they die.
She summoned all of the ethereal hands to chop the creature's head off. They did. And two heads grew in its place, the third morphed into a human figure and slashed at her with an arm that was now a sword. She blocked the cut with her poleaxe and swung for it. Sliced it in half, then half again. The main body stood and watched as more human figures spawned from the cut bodies. She wheezed, panicked as they bore down on her. Laughing, mocking. She swung, cut more and more but their numbers only grew.
Then she had an idea that made her sick.
When the next swing came, she sliced the arm off and devoured it. The other figures recoiled like they were shocked at her action.
Ability gained: tentacle shadow mutation - 10 minutes
Mutate parts of the body to gain extra appendages
Amelia swung at more and devoured arms, legs, heads torsos while the creature's main body observed. She spawned tentacles out of her back and formed them into blades to lash and slam her enemies into easily devoured bits and paste.
The main body started its attack with a purple light that sliced her left arm off. Amelia tumbled over from the loss of balance but dragged herself up and kept fighting. Then another light that took her right leg.
It smiled, crooked spines for teeth bared in a smile.
Then a light, her left leg, her right arm. And she was reduced to just a torso, barely breathing. Bleeding out... the creature walked toward her at a slow agonizing pace. Licking its lips.