Mathew was frozen for a moment. The monster could be in the room with him any second. He willed himself, begged himself to move.
The creature had many eyes, but judging by how it had passed him in the hallways, it probably couldn't see in the dark as well as he could. He just needed to find some form of cover to hide behind. He decided first to try to hide behind the weapons rack.
The creature was in the room a moment later.
It was scuttling about at a leisurely pace, moving in a strange circular way, rotating its body as it walked. Mathew guessed that it was trying to cover as many blind spots with its many eyes as possible.
Mathew tried to breathe as quietly as possible, for the creature was taking its time, and he couldn't possibly hold his breath.
Suddenly, the creature pounced on a small square table across the room, turning it sideways with its sharp, insect-like legs.
The legs pierced the wood of the table easily like blades, and Mathew couldn't help but picture being impaled by them. The creature, having not found him underneath the table, continued its search.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mathew noticed one of the spears leaning against the rack was off balance and was slowly sliding away.
He cursed silently. It was probably knocked out of balance by his clumsiness earlier. If it fell, it would reveal his hiding place.
He reached out to grab it, but the spear accelerated too fast, and avoided his grasp. The sound of wood hitting stone echoed through the room as the spear fell to the ground. Matthew's heart skipped a beat as the monster went rigid, and then started coming his way.
Why was every weapon in this room hellbent on revealing his location?
He had to think fast before the creature arrived. He gripped the spear in his hands. Perhaps he had never used one before, but Mathias had.
Mathew decided to trust the muscle memory of the vessel once more.
He revealed his upper body above the weapon rack. The many eyes of the monster immediately focused on him, and it accelerated straight toward him.
Mathew aimed carefully, then threw the spear like a javelin. The monster scuttled in a circular motion to avoid the attack, causing it to slow down considerably.
Mathew went into a forward roll from behind the rack, just as 3 blade-like appendages pierced through it. Mathew was already sprinting around the circumference of the room, and the monster's pursuit of him was delayed, as it seemed to be a bit stuck. This was not something Mathew had planned on, but it was something he had hoped for.
It was about time for luck to go his way after all.
Mathew made his way to his spear, grabbing onto a pair of small wooden chairs and tossing them behind him in order to slow the creature once it went after him again. He knew it was watching his trajectory, for it literally had eyes in the back of its head. He couldn't escape it, but he could block its line of sight.
He grabbed his spear from the floor in another forward roll, trying not to slow his momentum at all. Even though this body was pretty slim, it also had tons of lean muscle mass, a lithe athletic build, and strong coordination.
Whatever the priest had done before him, he had made this body very physically capable.
Mathew threw himself behind the sideways table, the one the creature had knocked over, putting his feet against it.
If he tried to throw the spear again, the creature could avoid it, and it would just be a permanent game of tag until one of them died. If he was going to kill it, he needed to force the creature into a movement where he could predict its trajectory. He only had one shot, and it was a risky one. If only he could somehow see the creature through the table.
And then, for a brief moment, he could.
This was different from his night vision; instead, the world had turned into a transparent white mist. He could see through the table, and the walls, and everything else, only their vague outlines remaining. The creature was visible to him as well, formed out of a thick black vapor. It had gotten free from the rack and was now coming his direction, navigating around the chairs. It was almost upon him.
Mathew didn't want it to dodge. He needed it to climb over the table, so his timing had to be precise.
Right as the creature was just a meter away from him, Mathew's vision returned to normal, and he no longer could see through walls. This was fine, though, because he had the beast right where he wanted it.
With his back to the floor, Mathew loaded his legs, his knees touching his chest, and kicked the table forward with all his might. As he did so, he held his spear angled in the air before him.
Having no room to go around it, the creature leaped over the table, attempting to reach Mathew.
But this was more than he could have hoped for.
The creature impaled itself on Mathew's raised spear
Inky fluid dripped on the ground.
The strange creature deflated, then evaporated into thick, black mist.
…..
After his victory over the Nightspawn creature, Mathew's followers welcomed him back with relief on their faces. They had genuinely been concerned for his well-being, and a few of them had felt guilty for asking him to do it.
To them, he was their wise master and teacher, their spiritual counselor and leader. They had only gone along with it, because Mathias had asked them to.
After a celebratory meal, Mathew and one of the acolytes were touring the temple side by side.
It was the man he had yelled at after first arriving in this world, and Mathew had learned his name was Aesop. Though there seemed to be no rankings here in the temple, after the man had forgiven him, Mathew had started to get the feeling he was sort of Mathias's right-hand man.
Another thing Mathew realized is that the people here, including Mathew himself, were not speaking English. They were speaking something that was more similar to Latin, and it was only because Mathias knew the language that Mathew could speak and understand it himself.
It was strange that even though almost all of Mathias's memories were vacant, so many of his ingrained skills and abilities were still accessible.
"Aesop, who is this lady we worship?" Mathew finally asked. It was about time he started grilling his followers for answers about the world.
"Master…" Aesop said, face etched with concern, "Have you even forgotten the grace of the Lady? Or are you just… testing me?"
"It is true my memory is a mess, but you can just take this as a test," Mathew said carefully.
"I see… The lady is the goddess of all things regarding peace and order. She is the great sequence of unity, and the bringer of direction." Mathew didn't feel very informed. He raised an eyebrow.
"Sequence… is the name of our Lady 'Sequence'?" He asked, trying to put the pieces together.
"I have never heard her referred to by that name, Master. Is this a new teaching from the Lady?" Aesop's eyes were wide and curious, as if willing to add a new teaching to his faith at any word by Mathew.
The priest had really had way too much power over his followers.
"No, that's alright," Mathew sensed that he would not get a clear answer on this specific topic. "Do we perhaps have a depiction of the Lady here in the temple? Such as a painting or a statue?"
Aesop's face brightened as he spoke:
"Of course, Master! I shall take you to the core chamber of the temple. Right this way!"
Only a couple of minutes later, Mathew entered a large circular room.
In the center of the room, there stood a large statue, maybe 4 meters tall, of a woman. She was dressed in a simple gown, and had flowing hair. Her face was elegant, and her expression was calm. The only strange thing about her was the 8 arms.
Each part of the statue was perfectly symmetrical, including the four arms on each side, which were uniquely poised in different ways, but were perfect mirror images of each other.
The two bottom arms were held low, as if offering someone a gift. In them was a short rod, perhaps half a meter, made of a silvery metal, a strange rosevine design wound around it, with blue gemstone protrusions resembling thorns sticking out of it.
"What is that thing she is holding?" Mathew asked. Aesop responded quickly, as if he were trying to win a game of jeopardy.
"It's a holy blessing from the goddess, Master. I do not know its purpose, but one of the first things one is told when joining the Disciples of Dread is that our most holy task is to keep the blessing secure and protected." Mathew nodded his approval, and Aesop grinned.
It was then that Mathew noticed the massive circle of symbols and writings carved into the stone floor at the goddess's feet. He could read numbers, seasons, and labels that looked like events. The final event etched into the stone simply read 'Catastrophe'.
"Aesop… What are these writings on the floor?"
"That is the calendar created by you, Master. It calculates the day of the coming catastrophe."
"And this… Catastrophe… When is it supposed to happen?" Mathew asked, and a chill went down his spine as Aesop's face turned grim.
"… Midnight tonight, Master."