Chương 47: Drinking Too Deep

"Are you insane?" Maya asked.

"We're in the middle of a conversation right now." Grim was done with this, but if she wanted to talk to her so bad, maybe she could use her.

"I'm gonna try and get him out of there. If you want to keep bitching at me, then try to keep up," Grim egged her on, although truthfully she doubted she'd be able to get to him on her own.

"Keep up with you? I already outclass you by a mile, and I'm not even going fast yet." Grim flipped her off.

"Prove it." She started running back towards where she'd come from, followed behind by Maya, who was hurling a string of insults towards her. The street was littered with the bodies of petals and, to a lesser extent, other applicants, but in no way was this not a massacre. The bodega had been close, but if this was the resistance they were supposed to face, no way was she gonna be able to do this alone. At the very worst, maybe she could take [THUNDER GOD] for herself.

Getting back in was easier than it had been then leaving, by now most of the other applicants had fallen back to more defensible locations or slipped away. The Petals that were left were now massed up around some of the other groups that hadn't gotten away, and Soryn, who was fighting more than the rest of them combined. Maya took the few petals that tried to attack out in an instant, cut to ribbons so she could continue complaining to her.

"Like honestly if I wanted to, I could be done and out by now. I only stayed behind because my uncle said I had to help other people. He didn't say how I had to, and no one has even thanked me yet. Can you believe that?"

"Oh wow. So horrible." Soryn's aura boomed across the field, and Grim sped up. There was a thick tension in the air as if they were being watched. Every breath she took in was heavy, which was not how she remembered air being. The effect she was feeling felt like it was ramping up slowly, like a slumbering beast waking up. Like how it was in the minefield. She didn't dare try to see the threads, she wasn't sure it would hurt, but she wasn't going to risk anything.

She just had a feeling that she needed to get to Soryn before he ramped up too much because something else was going to if she didn't, and there was no way that was going to be good for the rest of them. His aura pulsed again, and she got the feeling of an intense light dimming, a candle burning down its wick, the scent of sunflowers. He was going to unlock his authority. Fuck.

"Hey, uhh, Grim was it? We're getting a bit close to that horde and all, we're supposed to... you know? Go the other way?" Maya said as she ran backwards in front of Grim, bounding without the hint of a hurried breath.

"It's just a couple, are you scared?" Grim taunted her. They were too close to stop now. Maya answered by giving her a glare and mincing through a crowd of petals, pushing herself faster than she had been before. She came back and smirked, "Does that answer your question?"

"[FRAGMENTATION WARD]," Soryn shouted as a barrier formed and blocked a barrage of small acorns from hitting him. They exploded as they hit, and shrapnel was sent spiralling around him to take out a mass of petals. Bodies were piled up around him as he fought in a small pool of blood. His eyes glowed a fierce blue, and the one that had thrown the acorns convulsed before something popped inside it.

In a blur he grabbed another petal and wrenched its elbow up, snapping it before finishing it with a burst of electricity. Another petal walked to face him, the growth growing from its head was spread farther down its body and covered it like armor. Soryn punched it, but instead of it crumpling, he was sent flying back in a burst of concussive force. His body cratered through four more petals before his momentum was stopped by a vehicle.

Its alarm blared like a poor imitation of the real thing as he struggled to get up. Grim ran straight towards the larger petal and watched as Maya blurred and was thrown away to the side in another burst of force. The petal moved forward towards Soryn, uncaring as it did so. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Shit."

"You... you think I'm done?" Soryn started laughing, a desperate, raw burst of emotion as he lost himself. His aura flared with every shudder of his chest and did not return to him.

"The show's just getting started! I've got so much left to show you." The brute hovered over Soryn as he lost it, its fist raised back in a killing blow. It was a race to see whether he'd get his face smashed in or Soryn would ramp himself up enough to unleash his authority. Grim forced herself to slow, her instincts screaming that she didn't have enough time.

"If you can hear me, Hazel, sorry in advance. I don't have a choice." She stowed her sword in one action and slammed the chain knife into the concrete with the next, the D-rank knife easily cutting through the concrete. A shadowed hand hovered an inch off her skin and she used Hazel's boon [SHADOW VESTIGE] to copy it. The brute was faster and went to bring its fist down on Soryn's skull but found itself held back at the last moment by a chain attached to his back.

Soryn didn't flinch as he took the opportunity he'd been given, "A dying star bur—""No you don't," Grim shouted as she grabbed his face in a death grip and activated [CEDE]. In the terminal room, she thrust her hand into the screen and screamed as it felt like grabbing a dying sun. She pulled her hand back as she transitioned back into the real world, thrown out by the power of his aura. Her hand was now slightly charred, radiating pain.

The clock tower's bell rang across the battlefield, and everyone stopped, no one daring to move an inch underneath the immutable, immovable presence of the being that watched them. The clock towers face was removed and replaced with an eye. Its gaze stripped defences and wrung Grim's soul as it searched for the hint of power that had awakened it. Soryn didn't move beneath her grip, either unconscious or holding deathly still for the sake of survival. Grim didn't look.

Even the petals were frozen, transfixed as they stared at the eye. The pressure was immense and suffocating, she tried to breathe, but the air was so heavy. Every lungful felt like a risk. Someone tried to run behind her, and they screamed as the eye's pupil dilated.

"Help! Someone help me! I don't want to go, I don't want it to take me," a woman shrieked in terror." [A MOUTHFUL OF PIGEONS]." She didn't dare turn around, but she heard birds flock behind her in a tangle before they fluttered off. The sound of dragging could be heard from behind her until Natalie came into view, her fingertips raw and bloody as she struggled against the concrete for grip. She was pulled at a steady pace, the pull unfazed by her attempts to resist it.

Her eyes were wide and terrified as she was pulled only feet away from Grim.

She was constantly regenerating the cactus spines on her body for traction, but they only left bloody, inflamed bumps as they were ripped off.

"Hey, it's you. You have to help me! You were right, I shouldn't be here," Natalie begged as Grim could only watch, terrified that the thing's attention might get shifted onto her.

"Oh god, don't let it take me. I'm sorry, help me, please!" Natalie was so close, only a step or two away. She could only curse the Saints that they were making her watch. Grim knew that she was going to die or worse, turned into a petal and forced to fight the next wave of applicants. She could do nothing but make eye contact with Natalie, one of the many last witnesses to her final moments, wretched and screaming in despair. Were the others here as relieved as she was?

They must've felt the same as she did, the way the Eye had come for something, and with her kidnapping, it would not come for them. Grim shook her head ever so subtly, denying Natalie the salvation she sought in her. What could she do against something like that? She'd already tried to save her by warning her, it was her fault she was too stubborn to listen.

It was not her fault the skin at the ends of her fingertips had been sheered off, leaving a trail of blood behind her, ruining the dexterity she might have used to be an artist, to decorate a pastry or a cake. It was not her fault. But she'd been the one to save Soryn from his fatal mistake, covering and diverting attention away from him before this godly being could take him. Instead, because she'd saved him, Natalie was going to die in his place.

There was nothing she could do, she tried to tell herself, as only the fear of moving kept her from curling into a ball and hiding from this eldritch being bearing down on them. There was nothing she could do as it felt like her heart was going to explode from beating so hard, and she was so cold it physically hurt despite the sweat coating her body, trying to cool her down. But there was something she could do.

"Don't," Maya whispered beside her. Grim tried to listen, to lie to herself. To reject the very core of her being to stay safe and alive, to live another day without needlessly throwing her life away. She knew she could've, it was possible for her, but if she did, something very critical would break inside her and it might never be the same again. If she denied it, she would never be the same again. Natalie grasped for her, and this time Grim was there to grab onto her hand.

Its pull was interrupted for a small, brief moment, enough to give Natalie a glimmer of hope but quick enough to kill it as Grim's feet slid on the gravel and blood beneath her. Its inexorable pull bringing them closer toward it. Someone from behind wrapped their hands around her waist, "[ELEPHANT BALANCE]." They stopped moving for another moment as Grim was held still. Only for the pressure to double and the pull on Natalie increased as the Eye became incensed.

Grim could not be moved with the help of the stranger, but Natalie's grip began to slip from her finger.

"I'm slipping, I can't hold on!" Natalie screamed.

"Please don't let me go." As Natalie spoke those words, Grim's grip became like iron, the truth inside her soul responded, no longer bound by the lies she'd tried to tell herself." I am the one who will not let go," Grim declared, her authority becoming known to reality.