The seed of the Spell sat inside him like a swallowed stone.
Corvin didn't linger on it; he didn't have the time. He turned back toward the wall.
Suddenly, the landscape around him felt more ominous. It was like the true nature of the world was no longer muffled, exposed for him to feel.
After hurrying his pace, he squeezed back through the crack the same way he came in. Grabbing his pack hidden behind a protruding piece of wood, it fell around his shoulders in one swift motion. With another shrug of his shoulders, it somehow felt heavier...
He sighed.
'Now I just have to drop this off to Mira and fall asleep. Right?'
***
He heard it before he saw anything.
Not even halfway back to their improvised shelter, there was a sound that didn't belong to the outskirts. Some kind of muffled cry, or maybe a scream. Or both.
Immediately, Corvin changed course. The screeches were in the direction of the collapsed foundation he was at earlier, in between that and Sera's shack. He darted towards a denser section of the outskirts. Buildings built on buildings; it was a maze of interconnected makeshift structures.
However, the sounds only grew louder.
'A Nightmare Creature... and during a guard change of course.'
Guards patrolled the outskirts regularly, however reluctantly they wanted to do so. Each formation included one grudging Awakened along with a couple of armed mundane soldiers. Still, the rotation left a gap, only about ten minutes, but a gap nonetheless.
'From the direction of Sera's shack too.'
Corvin didn't have time to think about that. It was unnecessary. The cries were only growing louder.
Corvin swiftly navigated the environment. Keeping his pack steady with one hand, he wrapped around a rough corner as the water sloshed and cut through the breach of an abandoned hive. He appeared out its front door and—
Froze. He jolted back inside and pressed himself to the wall. Corvin peered out the doorframe over his shoulder.
Sunset was forming over the outer wall, and a singular ray of light escaped through the slatted openings of the buildings. The gorgeous beam of the sun shone across a vaguely human monstrosity.
Corvin could count three spiked legs and two uneven arms. The creature almost looked human, if that human was enlarged disproportionately and its features swapped for bony flesh. It looked to be holding something to its face...
A person. Corvin couldn't even begin to determine who it was because of how mangled the body was.
'It's distracted.'
He slowly started to back up to the breach while keeping his eye on the creature. The floorboards seemed to be creaking even louder, and he was regretting the weight of his pack. Not that he had a choice.
When the sightline couldn't be sustained, he quietly veered straight to the breach. Right before he was about to step through, he noticed something.
A book.
Corvin leaned forwards and turned his head to the creature one more time. Then back to the book.
'Mira would love this...'
The decision was already made. The book was located across the hive, peeking out underneath the rubble of a collapsed shelf. Directly exposed to the sightline of the creature if it were to turn around.
'What the hell are the guards doing?!'
Corvin set his bag against the wall, making as little noise as possible. It would just slow him down and the sound of the water was really getting on his nerves.
One step. Then another. Floorboards creaked; others were simply missing. He lifted a foot over a fallen beam; with the monster back in sight he froze when it jerked, moved as it feasted.
It was about halfway done with the body.
Finally, he reached the buried book. Leaning over, his left hand scooped under the frame of the shelf and his other gripped the dusty cover.
He slowly started to lift and...
'Shit.'
Crack. The other end of the broken shelf struck the ground. After swiping the book and carefully setting the shelf back down, Corvin — as still as possible — stared at the creature. Its head jolted back from the corpse and started to sniff the air.
Corvin quickly made it back to his pack in half the time it took before and silently slid the book inside. With it already around his shoulders, he exited out the breach from before and curved around the other side of the building.
He listened as the monster scurried into the building and abruptly stopped. Floorboards were groaning under its weight, some even snapping. Without its meal, the screeches could be heard again. Louder. Ear piercing.
Corvin's back was pressed against the outside corner, looking at the disfigured body lying on the ground.
'It could mask my scent.'
From the way it reacted, smell. It had to be. Walking past the corpse could mask Corvin's scent with the overpowering odor and confuse it.
Corvin took a breath.
'Okay.'
Sounds of unnatural movement and breakage could be heard to his left as he maneuvered the narrow alley. His pack rustling, water sloshing with every twist and turn.
He made it to the corpse. Corvin didn't look at it, nor did he look back. The only morbid distraction was the hideous smell that filled his nostrils.
He moved forwards.
Corvin cut through failing buildings, darted underneath rickety platforms, veered around jagged corners. This section of the outskirts was mostly too old and worn for safe living.
The cries of the Nightmare Creature grew fainter and fainter, until he couldn't hear them anymore. Either Corvin made it far enough, it started eating the body again, or it found someone.
Out of immediate danger, Corvin's body suddenly grew heavy. He slowed down to an even pace to get his breath under control. He felt... tired.
'If only those lazy guards would do their job—'
Before he could finish the thought, three figures appeared where the clustered buildings opened up to the more habitable part of the outskirts. In a hurry.
Recognizing the guards, Corvin shifted to the inside of the building next to him, intending to exit the area along it.
'Oh, so they do their job.'
***
The rest of the way back was simple. The outskirts were back to normal, as if an inhuman creature wasn't set loose within it.
He was almost to Mira.
Still, Corvin had an idea of how a Nightmare Creature appeared inside the walls, and he didn't like it.