Chapter 104 - Is This The End?

The flames within his orbits flickered as he cast them down at the nearly recovered monster. He was certain now that whatever this thing was, was not from this plane. Amaranthae must have encountered this abomination all those years ago, and using some unknown spell, sacrificed herself to seal it away within her own flesh. There must have been more than that to the story, but the details would be forever lost to the ebbs of time. One thing was for certain though, he was nowhere near as selfless as the Goddess of healing magic.

With a wave of his hand, a swirling portal opened directly above the monster. The lava the beast was wading in suddenly surged beneath it, pushing it up and into the churning gateway. With a flash of violet light, the open portal snapped shut, instantly separating the monster's head from its multi-limbed body. Spurts of black, viscous blood poured into the molten rock, generating copious amounts of foul-smelling haze as the body fell limply back to the molten pool.

Professor Kal's bony face didn't betray any of his emotions as he silently watched the monster's body slip beneath the roiling pool. He knew that there was no way that that would be it, that he had defeated the self-proclaimed devourer of worlds with such a simple trick. He put some more distance between himself and the pool of lava, cautious of any sudden attacks being thrown at him. His disappointing student was still wrapped up in a cocoon of hardened earth, passed out from the pain of breaking his leg following his violent fall from the ledge high above.

Without looking back, he opened another Warp Gate before moving Ryan, cocoon and all, into it and out of the immediate danger. He had enough confidence in being able to protect himself, or at the least, escape; but that was as far as it went, he would rather not have to hunt for another student that happened to have the same affinity as Ryan had.

An eruption of light, heat, and molten rock came from the glowing pool below him. He narrowed his eyes, the flames in his sockets dimming as he strained to peer through the spray of liquid rock. Hidden behind the veil of light was the monster's headless body swimming through the pool of molten rock like a fish in water. Its six limbs grasped solid ground and hauled its massive body out of the pool, its hoofed feet digging deeply into the soft soil of the crater's wall.

Out of the gaping wound that was its neck, grew countless tendrils of wriggling flesh. Professor Kal couldn't get the sight of maggots swarming a decaying corpse out of his head as he watched from above. The tendrils of flesh slowly morphed into the shape of a head, some began to harden into rock hard bone, others squirmed around before turning into pink, sticky muscle. In only a matter of moments, the monster's familiar dull, grey eyes were once again staring up at him.

"Nothing you do will stop me, none of your paltry tricks will delay the inevitable." It spoke. "Lay down and embrace your fate, for I am the end."

A blast of fire broke over the rambling creature's face, obscuring its vision and temporarily deafening it. As the flames subsided and its vision returned, the monster noticed that its audience had vanished, leaving it alone in the bottom of the crater. With a smirk, it dug its many claws into the steep walls and began climbing to the surface.

Professor Kal floated high in the sky; his fiery gaze cast down on the ground below. The winter sky was filled with billowing columns of black smoke from the ever-expanding fires below. Hot air was rising rapidly, pulling the cold air from further away towards the flames, fanning them further. It was the beginnings of a firestorm.

Having a bird's eye view allowed him to see everything happening below, even through the thick, choking smoke. He waited patiently for the monster to make it halfway out of the crater before attacking it with his formidable magic.

"Titan's Jaws…"

The massive crater instantly constricted onto the monster, trapping it inside and causing ripples to spread out, toppling buildings in their wake.

"Heavens' Wrath…"

A jagged bolt of lightening tore the sky in half as it reached for the earth, creating a blinding flash and deafening boom as it struck the ground.

The plaza was now unrecognizable, nothing but flat, desolate earth remained. The meticulously sculptured foliage had been burned to their roots while the tall, ancient trees uprooted and thrown into the raging fires beyond. A sparkling black obelisk now stood where the crater once was, a glass coffin that Professor Kal knew wouldn't hold.

Small cracks began to spider web on the outside of the black glass before giving way to larger fissures that ran from top to bottom. With a resounding 'crack', the obelisk split in two, revealing the unharmed monster. Professor Kal wasn't surprised, he had a feeling that whatever he could throw at it, the monster would be able to repulse it. He was up against something more than just a monster.

He silently descended to the barren ground below, his boots creating crunching noises as he walked towards the otherworldly monster.

"What would it take for you to just go to another plane?" He asked, shouting across a good distance; he knew better than to get within reach of the monster.

The monster laughed once again, a noise that grated on Professor Kal's nerves. "Bargaining, are we? Tell me, does the reaper spare the souls of man when they beg and plead for just one more breath? Does he stop swinging his righteous sickle, reaping souls like blades of grass, just out of pity?"

"That's a no then, right?" Professor Kal said, replying to the monster's long-winded response.

Without another word, the monster charged at him, kicking up clouds of dust as its large hooves dug into the ground. Reacting quickly, Professor Kal summoned a wall of ice, cutting off its path. The monster easily broke through the chilly obstacle, only to be met by three, thirty-foot stone golems on the other side.

Dodging one wagon sized fist, the monster was struck by a second and sent stumbling backwards, slipping on the large ice chunks from the just destroyed wall. Not letting the opportunity escape him, Professor Kal ordered the golems to pile on top of it, morphing their stony fingers into meter long swords.

Blood saturated the ground beneath the golems as their weaponized limbs hacked and slashed tirelessly. One golem was pushed back, tipping over and falling hard onto the ground. Another was shattered, its body crumbling into thousands of pieces like a dried sandcastle kicked by a child. The third golem continued its attacks, its sharpened fingers digging into the monster's flesh with little affect.

"Get up you klutz!" Professor Kal yelled at the golem struggling to stand.

No matter how angrily he shouted, the golem couldn't move any faster, and was soon destroyed along with the other one still attacking. The monster's six, clawed hands crushed the stone heads of the golems as easily as crushing an egg. As the last bits of stone peppered the ground, the monster charged forth once again, forcing the Professor to retreat into the tumultuous city streets.

The noble district had long been evacuated, its prosperous residents escaping either into the royal palace, or outside the city altogether, leaving no one to fight the encroaching fires. Hurrying down an empty street, thick smoke choking the air and burning embers falling like rain, Professor Kal cursed loudly. He didn't know what he was going to do, he had never run into a problem like this before.

He knew he could teleport away, leaving the city behind and avoiding the monster all together. But he also knew that that would only lead to the end of life on this plane, eventually, he would be forced to face the monster one way or another. The ground trembled from behind him, turning around, he saw the building he just passed by collapsing, its flaming timbers spilling into the street. Rising up within the flames was his pursuer, still smiling its sinister grin as it walked out into the cobbled street.

"Shit!" He cursed again, lifting up into the air and sending an explosion of poisonous gases hurtling towards the monster.

Not staying behind to see how affective his attack was, Professor Kal took off into the city once again. Flying over the buildings was much faster than taking the streets, but the downside was that anyone could see him in his skeletal form, but at the moment, he couldn't have cared less. He would be lucky to survive this ordeal, let alone defeat the monster, so really, there wasn't a point in trying to hide his undeath.

The winding streets below him were beginning to become much more populated as he drew closer to the common district. People were running hither and yon; most were trying to run towards the city walls as they noticed the approaching wall of smoke and the dark ash drifting down like snow and covering the streets. Another reverberating crash rung out behind him as the monster smashed through a line of timber houses, sending splintered wood and plaster flying in all directions.

The commotion drew the attention of the already fleeing commoners, forcing them to cast their gazes in its direction. There was a momentary silence as their eyes met the monstrosity, only the far-off roar of the growing fire could be heard. Then the first scream came, one couldn't tell if it had come from a man or a woman, but it didn't matter, like a spreading sickness, the screams jumped from one to the next until everyone was screaming and running, running faster than they ever had, many trampling over others in their bid to escape.

Professor Kal watched as the monster diverted its attention from him to the smorgasbord spread out in front of it. Easily outpacing the slow-moving humans that were dragging each other down, trying to escape, it swept them up in its many arms before feeding upon their souls. The Professor knew that he had to stop it from feeding, it was difficult to even injure it now, if it continued to grow stronger it would be nigh invincible.

With only one clear choice, Professor Kal began to cull the fleeing people. He separated the monster from the throng of citizens with a wall of stone before flooding the streets with white hot flames, incinerating them in hell fire until nothing but ash remained. He was prepared to raze the entire city if it meant preventing the abomination from feeding, he was willing to sacrifice as many lives as it would take for him to buy enough time to figure out how to permanently kill the beast.

An arrow whizzed past his bony head, it was easy enough to dodge, but it still caught him by surprise. His focus had been on the calamity unfolding beneath him, so he hadn't noticed the large gathering of soldiers a few streets over. They must have finally gathered up the soldiers left behind to protect Säravast, sending them into the city to quell the civil unrest.

He clicked his nonexistent tongue as more and more arrows targeted him, forcing him to lower his altitude. He had to divert all of his mana into killing off the helpless civilians before they could become food for the monster, he didn't have any to spare to ward off the deadly projectiles. Turning back around, he found the street devoid of any people, and most disturbingly, any monsters.

He had lost track of it in the few short seconds he had been distracted, he cursed his lack of foresight, he should have equipped some items to protect him from something as simple as iron arrows. He had to find it quickly, before it fed even more. Just as he poured more mana into his flight spell, the house directly below him exploded, peppering him with debris. Jumping out of the wreckage was the creature he was looking for, its mouth wide open, the worm like organs extending out and wrapping themselves around his bony body.

He attacked on instinct alone, a blade of air cutting into the wriggling mass, severing several of them at a time. Fire burned even more, and ice froze them solid. No matter what magic he threw at them, they would regenerate just as fast, shooting back up to replace the ones that were lost before dragging him down. As he disappeared into the monster's gaping maw, the fires in his eyes flickered like candles in a storm before extinguishing altogether.