Chương 80: Owner of the Boots

Lloyd's legs trembled treacherously; he couldn't believe what he was seeing before him. The air in the clearing seemed to thicken, growing viscous, saturated with something primal and inexpressibly alien, and his own heartbeat seemed to be the only sound in this deathly silence. Before him sat an absolutely real, undeniably genuine monster — a Nightmare. A single glance was enough to know it beyond any doubt, without the faintest shadow of hope that this could be a mistake.

Sharp claws tipped its hands and feet, long and curved, gleaming dully like steel blades ready to tear through flesh as easily as wind rips through a spiderweb. The Nightmare itself towered over the ground at a good six meters, maybe more, its colossal form casting a shadow over the clearing so dense that the air beneath it seemed to have dropped several degrees.

Its body was covered in strange red skin, resembling crimson armor as though forged from living flesh, etched with thin cracks, while black skin showed through in the gaps between these plates, dark and viscous, like tar, glistening faintly in the sparse light filtering through the canopy. Purple blood trickled slowly down the Nightmare's body, thick and syrupy, dripping onto the ground with a quiet, sickening sound, splattering into small puddles that hissed like acid eating into the grass beneath them.

Its head was missing entirely — where it should have been, only a jagged, torn stump remained, its edges already beginning to seal over with something resembling a dark, pulsing membrane. Every member of the team felt a wild, animal terror mixed with total incomprehension, their breath catching all at once, hands instinctively reaching for their weapons even as their minds told them weapons would do little good here.

Even on Casper's face, usually completely blank, indifferent to everything happening around him, something like shock flickered — faint, almost imperceptible, but there nonetheless, a slight tremor at the corners of his mouth. Lorian was the first to snap out of it, turning to the team to say something, ready to shout some order or warning, but it was already too late.

A mysterious voice cut him off instantly, strange and dual, as though a girl and a young man were speaking at once, merging into a single, eerie sound that seemed to spread across the clearing from no visible source at all, as though the very air itself were whispering the words. — Excuse me... Everyone spun toward the sound at once, weapons raised, bodies tensed to the breaking point.

Where the voice had come from, an unnatural, dense darkness reigned, as though light itself avoided that spot, refusing to enter its boundaries. The creature was draped in a red cloak, from beneath which horns protruded, decorated with golden patterns that glinted faintly even in the gloom, casting tiny sparks of reflected light.

Its body seemed to be entirely absent — wrapped completely in swirling darkness, alive, breathing to its own rhythm, and from its dark, blurred legs seeped some kind of black, viscous ooze, soaking into the ground without a trace, leaving behind not a single drop, not a single stain.

In place of a head, three eyes floated slowly, with no body around them at all, hovering in empty space on their own, studying Lloyd and his team with careful, appraising attention, turning in perfect sync, as though controlled by a single invisible thread. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. — Have you seen my shoes?

Lloyd, driven by pure animal fear, involuntarily took a step back, feeling icy sweat trickle down his spine, and a twig snapped beneath his foot, tearing through the clearing's tense silence with an unexpectedly loud, jarring sound. In a fraction of a second, the creature was mere centimeters from Lloyd's face — so fast that even Lorian's eyebrows shot up in astonishment, his hand instinctively reaching for the hilt of his sword, though against an opponent like this, the gesture felt almost pathetic.

All three of the creature's eyes stared straight into Lloyd's own, as though trying to see his very soul, to look past flesh and bone into the deepest corners of his mind, and a wave of icy chills rippled across his skin at that gaze, his breath lodging somewhere in his chest. But the creature didn't get to say another word — a soft crack of a broken twig sounded off to the side, and all three eyes snapped toward it in perfect, almost mechanical unison.

There, swaying on invisible legs, walked a familiar pair of boots — the very same ones Lloyd had seen on the very first day, in the clearing full of corpses — but now Lloyd finally seemed to understand who they belonged to, and that realization sent a fresh wave of sickening dread crawling up his throat.

The creature seemed delighted at the sight and clapped its hands together, hands formed entirely of swirling darkness, producing a strange, muffled sound as it did, as though not hands but clumps of smoke were colliding in some silent, otherworldly rhythm. — I missed you so much!

The creature extended its unnaturally long arms, joints bending in impossible places no human body could ever manage, and pulled the boots closer to itself, and the boots, in turn, seemed to tremble in its grip, quivering like frightened little animals pressing themselves against their master. — I know, I know, I missed you too. It began gently stroking them with its dark fingers, from which thin strands of that same swirling darkness seeped, wrapping around the boots in an almost motherly, tender gesture.

— I'm busy right now, so if you don't mind. Suddenly its mouth split open to an unnaturally, terrifyingly enormous size, stretching far wider than any normal anatomy should allow, revealing rows of something that vaguely resembled teeth, though bearing no resemblance to anything living. — Just sit tight here for now.

A revolting, wet chewing sound spread across the entire clearing, echoing among the trees frozen in terror, and only Lloyd, standing closest, clearly heard the creature smack its lips afterward, licking them with obvious satisfaction, as though it had just finished eating something particularly delicious.

Suddenly it turned back toward everyone present and clapped its hands, drawing their collective attention, its three eyes curving into something like a smile, even though there was still no hint of a face around them at all. — Well then, I believe we weren't quite finished with our conversation!