This was a city swallowed by the earth, buried deep beneath hundreds or thousands of meters of soil and rock. Looking up, there was only darkness; not a single glimmer of light could be seen.
The stone structures were heavy and dilapidated, as if they had stepped out of ancient memories. The outer walls were carved with intricate murals depicting the history of a group of ghouls who kept the Son of the Formless under the protection of the Great Old Ones, living in this city.
Yet, something unknown had happened. Now, only countless mindless Son of the Formless wandered the city, and the ghouls had vanished. In the narrow streets, only eerie stone statues remained, captured in various, lifelike poses.
Most of the buildings were intact. Inside and out, the rooms were filled with traces of life: overturned chairs, dirty bowls, and disheveled bedding, as if the lives of all the residents had come to a sudden halt on some forgotten day.
"Bang."
The wooden door, having stood for ten thousand years, appeared whole but crumbled into dust upon impact. Lynch, clutching the Torch of Light, burst through the entrance and fired a shot to his side.
The impact of the bullet made the Son of the Formless lingering outside pause for a moment. Seizing the opportunity, Miss Valente rushed out behind him, and together they slipped past the creatures and charged back into the city streets.
The sound of slithering echoed behind them again as a dozen of the Son of the Formless squeezed together, pouring out of the room after them.
"Something is wrong. The murals said the Son of the Formless were mindless."
Lynch stumbled a few steps to regain his footing, not daring to stop. The beam of the Torch of Light swept rapidly across his surroundings, illuminating messy rooms and the stone statues that appeared periodically in the middle of the road. He glanced back at the growing number of dark shadows, his scalp tingling:
"Why do they keep chasing us? Is there something on us that attracts them?"
"Throw another bottle, sir." Miss Valente had forgotten about formality, looking urgently at the pursuers behind them. "They have gathered into a cluster again."
"Coming."
Lynch pulled out another bottle of strong acid and hurled it above the mass of the Son of the Formless.
As the bottle flew five or six meters, just as it passed over the cluster of monsters, a gunshot rang out.
The folding fan erupted with flame and a wide spray of buckshot. The dense steel pellets shattered the bottle, and the acid splashed through the air like a light drizzle.
A vast cloud of white mist hissed into existence. A group of the Son of the Formless twisted and went limp, but the two of them had no time to check their results, gasping for breath.
Although the Son of the Formless moved with a slow frequency, their massive size meant their actual speed was not slow; it was comparable to the light jog of an ordinary man. Moreover, having no fixed form, they flowed across the ground like molten asphalt, with almost no obstacles able to stop them. If there was even a narrow gap, they could squeeze into any room.
The key was that these monsters were like sharks scenting blood, drawn by some unknown force, clinging tightly to the pair's trail. They could not shake off their pursuers, and any slight delay would see the monsters closing in.
The problem was that one of them was pampered and the other was a natural shut-in. After more than ten minutes of high-intensity sprinting, their bodies, though transcendent, were showing signs of fatigue. Having cleared the nearest pursuers, they immediately seized every second to rest.
They were only a few hundred meters from the green light of the temple, but they could no longer run.
"Do, do you have any, stamina-restoring, potions? Aren't you an alchemist?"
"The things you ask for might only appear if you pray to the gods." Knowing they could not sit or lie down, Miss Valente could only press her hands against her knees, using her handkerchief to wipe the sweat from her face, looking quite unrefined. "However, I have noticed a good sign. There are not as many Son of the Formless in the direction of the temple. The pursuers are all closing in from the surrounding areas. As long as we keep moving toward the temple, we can reduce a lot of trouble. Do you think they are afraid of the temple, Mr. Levive?"
"It is possible. After all, that is the temple of the evil god's avatar, though I am not certain. However, I have noticed a very strange phenomenon here." Lynch struggled to regulate his breathing, turning the Torch of Light to scan the surroundings, remaining alert for any eerie shadows lurking in the dark. "Do you know what happens to the sacrifices of previous generations after they enter?"
"I do not know. There are no such records, and no sacrifice has ever left alive." Miss Valente frowned, asking in confusion, "Is there a problem?"
"Over thousands of years, there have been hundreds of sacrifices, totaling at least several thousand people. They all died here. Statistically, we have walked for ten minutes and passed through many rooms; we should have seen a few corpses. But along the way, aside from a few remains of the original inhabitants, I have not seen a single human sacrifice's body."
"Oh, that is right, why?" Miss Valente froze, a question she had never delved into. "It is impossible for anyone to have moved the bodies. They should not have disappeared. Were they eaten by the Son of the Formless?"
"Judging by the remains of the original ghouls, the Son of the Formless do not seem to eat corpses."
"Hm."
"Then I do not know. Perhaps those people gathered themselves together and buried themselves. Let us observe again in a while."
"Do not say such terrifying things, Mr. Levive." Miss Valente rubbed her arms and glared at him, though her gaze suddenly sharpened. "Why are they coming again? Let us go."
Before she could finish, a whistling wind descended from the sky.
In this city, anyone in an open area could be struck by a Son of the Formless falling from the dome of soil at any time. It was impossible to guard against, and most of the pursuers behind them had arrived this way, forcing the two to weave through buildings to avoid the air raids.
Lynch's expression changed. Cursing under his breath, he pulled Miss Valente to the side and charged straight into another nearby building.
Kicking the door open, Lynch fired two shots, his movements painfully proficient. After the gunshots, two muffled thuds echoed nearby, signaling the bullets had found their mark.
"I will handle it."
Miss Valente, following closely, immediately stepped forward, pushing Lynch aside and raising her folding fan to blast the interior.
The buckshot erupted from the muzzle, turning into a spray of acid. The liquid suddenly vanished into thin air halfway through, followed by a thick plume of white smoke in the room, and a mass of darkness rapidly shriveled into a ball.
The wind above them grew more urgent. The two did not even wait for the smoke to clear before diving into the room. A massive crash followed behind them; dust filled the air, and the building itself was shaken to the point of collapse.
No, it was not just shaking.
"Go, we cannot stop. To the temple."
Lynch pushed Miss Valente, and they bolted out through a window at top speed. Behind them, the towering, ancient building collapsed with a roar, turning into the dust of history.
Amidst the swirling smoke, Miss Valente climbed up from Lynch's body and pulled him up in turn. They exchanged a look, both feeling a sense of strangeness.
Stopping meant being caught; veering off meant running into enemies. It seemed they had nowhere else to go. To avoid being surrounded by the Son of the Formless, only the temple remained.
It felt as if they had no other choice. This made Lynch feel increasingly uneasy. Why did it feel like a force was guiding them to the temple? Was this choice really correct?
But the temple was already within reach, and there was no sense in turning back to fight the Son of the Formless to the death. Lynch could only suppress his unease.
At least go in and take a look. It was not the first time, anyway.
Rate on N.U.
