All the bodies etched into the tree followed the same voice, whispering in her ears,
"Come join us, join us, join us."
Their voices faded in her mind like a curse; a terror filled her soul as she began losing her consciousness, eyes moving in closer, mouth wide open to eat her.
The monster smiled one last time.
"I won't let you!!"
A scream echoed as a giant sword pierced through the skull of the monster. Black blood splattered out, stopping it in one motion.
Noen pushed aside its body, pulling Sera into his arms, freeing her from the grasps of the tree.
He checked her pulse and breath with his finger. As soon as relief filled him, finding she's just unconscious. He put her aside on the ground, forming a blood capsule around her, reinforced with his bones.
He stood with one arm holding another sword, eyes dead serious. He glared at the stuck monster, which moved like a puppet, where the sword was still stuck on its mouth, twisting and bending.
It smiled more, staring back with its hollow eyes. A slow laughter followed, putting its own hand onto its mouth. It tore away the sword out of its skull, tearing itself apart.
The monster moved again, twisting like a puppet, before it stood like a statue. The smile was still on its face like an identity, but it stretched further beyond, revealing countless teeth.
It screamed with a screeching sound.
Noen stood wary, holding the sword with his one hand, ready for a battle, but to his surprise, the monster didn't attack. It just stood, staring at him silently.
Tilting its head like it was curious, but that twisting didn't stop. And before he could have known, he was surrounded by countless faces of the monster, stretching from one body like a snake.
Each face smiled at him, looking with its hollow eyes, but he had seen enough. Calming his senses, he moved and, in a dash, those heads fell on the ground as he closed the distance to the monster.
With a calm, monotone face, he slashed the smile in half. Black ooze splattered, but he was sure it wasn't the end, preparing for the next attack.
The monster twisted again, coming to its four arms, starting to move like a spider running at him with a screeching sound; it attacked.
Noen dodged its claws, swinging around in the air as he jumped on its back, trying to land a hit, but nothing happened. He cursed, swirling his sword on his palm, pushing the blade with his legs, digging it further into the monster's flesh, but it caught him, smashing him on the ground.
Pinning him with its sharp and long fingers, its nails pierced his stomach, and like a shredder, it started tearing him with its claws.
He screamed in stabbing pain, but the monster didn't stop, pulling his flesh bit by bit, making him feel every moment like a peeling onion.
His blood painted the whole ground, spraying all over, but from that stillness, another hand emerged, then a whole body.
Noen twisted again, still regenerating. He plunged his own hand with its teeth into the monster's face, taking a step back.
The monster screamed in anger, its eyes radiating gluttony, but then suddenly everything stopped.
The sound. The scream. Everything.
Slowly pulling out Noen's arm, which instantly burst into a spike, plunging more deeply into its flesh, yet it pulled it out, tearing its own face away.
Aside, far away, Noen stood watching with its cold eyes as the hand plunged into the monster. A while ago, disappeared, returning back to him.
He stared blankly, waiting with a dead silence.
The monster spoke again.
"You—you are the meal I was looking for. Your taste reeks of power, which I absolutely love it. Yahahehee!"
It laughed like a maniac, looking at him with its predatory eyes.
The whirls of hollowness grew deeper as two white illuminating lights stared from the dark.
"My little plagues, come to your Father."
Just as it said that, hooded figures came running like maniacs, their faces covered with a bull skull.
"Skrrr, skirr."
They all spoke beastly language, even leaving Noen confused, but then he remembered the monster who left him dying. He commented,
"So you all were his puppets…"
"Wrong," the monster said, its mouth opening wide.
"They are the offering of devotion to my smiling god. Yahahehe."
"Come, my child. Give me the power. More powerrr."
Its face burst apart into a giant blob-like figure. Its mouth expanded into giant teeth as, slowly, each plague wearing a bull mask jumped into its mouth, offering themselves as the offering.
Leaving Noen stunned.
"Wtf even is this?" he commented, disgusted by the behaviour of this leader.
As he watched all of the plagues being eaten by it.
But wasting no time, he muttered,
"I don't have time for you to get more stronger."
And saying that, he jumped to attack, but it was already too late as a gooey substance started devouring everything around it.
Sensing danger, he jumped, running to where he left Sera.
Behind him, the liquid kept devouring everything that came in its way.
He moved faster, reaching an inhuman speed as he instantly picked Sera up in his arms, running far away.
He pondered,
"That, it didn't use its full power fighting me… why?"
"And now it's transforming into that same giant blob."
"Urgh…"
He ran faster as he quickly put her down to a safe place. Putting the barrier up again before he rushed back to where the monster was.
But slowly, a darkness filled his vision; the world fell into a domain. An energy expanded, and for a second, everything was blinded in a light before every dark was sucked back into a single point.
He slowly opened his eyes, trying to see what happened, as his eyes locked onto a giant dark figure standing far away.
It twisted its head. Its mouth opened wide, and it said:
"It just smiles."