Chương 71: Thoomp

"Can you kill all the Fleshsmiths?" This Euphoria was obviously far beyond the happy critters Nyx had been intending to summon. His imprecise, mind warping presence alone screamed danger. He was a god. Or at least something close enough that the difference was negligible. Considering a being like that actually considered her sacrifice worth upholding the loose binds of this summoning ritual, she was all too ready to ask for him to wipe out the cult. Unfortunately, his response was disappointing.

"I do not kill." His eerie, tilted smile made it clear the stance was not a mercy or benevolence.

"Besides, should I interfere too greatly in your task, some will be quite displeased with me. Your-" Euphoria snickered.

"'Little God' found that out the hard way."

"You know Li… what happened to him?" The dark smoke curled in around her, and Euphoria's giggles had her twisting on her feet. His bodiless grin reappeared to her side.

"Oh, don't worry about that one. They've just been put in time-out for a bit. You'll see them again in a few million years." Nyx grit her teeth, wondering if she should believe the creature. She wanted to believe her little eyeball was still alright, but didn't want to never see him again. With Euphoria's grin growing ever so slightly as she pondered, she figured it was very likely the being was simply messing with her. But, if its words were true, then it was confirmation of why she'd returned.

"The Eidolon Gods would punish you as well? They want me to destroy the cults?" Euphoria's grin appeared right before her face and let out a booming laugh that rattled Nyx's soul. The thousand other immaterial white smiles giggled in cohesion. Nyx needed no more confirmation. The Eidolon gods had sent her back in time to fulfil her wish from when she fell into the black hole. Both for her sake, and theirs… whatever their intent might be.

Nyx stepped away from the unimaginable being, closing her mind from the chain of giggles that threatened to bubble up her throat just being in its proximity.

"If you can't kill…" Nyx finally brought the conversation back to the problem at hand. She didn't have time to waste with idle chatter. Even if it might know something about Little God.

"Then what can you do?" Again, the being seemed to find her question hilarious.

"Everything you need from me, and not a single thing more." With that, his smoke dissipated. Nyx poked her head over her small bunker to watch the smoke roll down the mountain like a thunderstorm. It spread and thickened. Flashes of white grins lit up the darkness like lightning. Soon, Euphoria was a storm that spread from one impossibly far forge to another, and quickly rolled towards the tower that suddenly didn't seem so tall in comparison.

The echoes of laughter fell over the landscape, and now that Nyx was no longer in the cloud itself, she felt nothing but a revolting sense of terror at each sound that reached back to her. She thought she'd held out well against the mental influence, but it was clear now that the light-heartedness had struck her all through that conversation. No other explanation could answer how she hadn't thought the being that now moved away from her wasn't a horror of her worst nightmares. Nyx shivered.

At least it was the Fleshsmiths who had to deal with that. As Euphoria washed over the land, he left countless fleshforged crippled and giggling like lunatics. The swarm surrounding the tower was disabled in moments, but unfortunately for the cultists, that was not a reason to celebrate. A rumble passed through the earth even before Euphoria struck the cult's fortress. His storm-like smoke billowed around the fleshy chains, rising hundreds of metres a second.

When he finally engulfed them, the noises unleashed travelled to every corner of the Dark Star. Screams or laughs, it was impossible to distinguish. The whales rising from the oceans were not so difficult to comprehend. Four of them crashed through the metal surface and swam for the tower. Their wails, and the mountains of metal they shifted could all be felt through her chest. Nyx wobbled for a moment, but she didn't lose her feet. Having what almost amounted to six legs was helpful.

As expected, the highest creed cultists already lingering on the outskirts came rushing in to distract the beasts. They were joined by the few upper harbingers that had remained to defend the tower. Harbingers that couldn't stop giggling despite the situation. Stolen novel; please report. Identically to every time the whales had attacked previously, the cultists were successful at distracting them.

They wouldn't be able to defeat the whales — especially not four of them — but they could survive long enough to keep them preoccupied. Nyx hoped the higher creeds would fall. Considering their numbers were spread over four of the monstrosities, there would be far less opportunities for them to be bailed out by a strike from the other cultists. It was easily enough to kill the lot of them, but Nyx wouldn't hold her breath. The plan didn't hinge on them.

Standing a bit further out of her dig-out, she focused her third eye and found Euphoria acted true to his word. He didn't do any more than was necessary. Despite clearly having the power to overwhelm their minds, he only filled their minds with joy. The Fleshsmiths still had the wherewithal to know they were being manipulated, but they had no answer to deal with him.

Nyx had hoped he would just kill them all — or at least send them into some eternal hypnotic nightmare — but he restrained himself so his effect was no different than the lotophagi. Well, at least there was no chance Euphoria would jump to his death in a molten river… as had been a concern with the dumb birds. But the fact that the being only twisted the minds of the cultists enough that it attracted whales showed that he understood her plan. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Had he read her mind?

Did it matter if a god read her mind? What was important, was that despite being a creature of madness, he didn't dare go against the will of the Eidolon. It was troubling. If even gods gave her space to fulfil her role, then what would be her punishment for failure? Still… despite the sudden change in method, her plan was still progressing as intended. Feeling emboldened, she intensified her gaze and burnt away at both the fortifications and the remaining — giggling — cultists on the walls.

They felt it immediately. Those that could, dove behind cover. Others threw up fleshforged cloaks around themselves that Nyx had a much harder time trying to burn through. Clicking her tongue — the little mouth inside biting her cheek in retaliation — she turned her focus on creating holes in their defences. They didn't have to be big. Just enough that the next attackers of their tower would have easier access inside. Things were going well. She really only needed to wait now, and everything would slot into place.

Hopefully, it would be enough to end the remnants before Solan and her most devoted returned. Nyx's vision suddenly swam. Instead of looking at the tower and burning holes through the fleshy defences, she was now blind. It took her but a moment to realise that no, she wasn't blind, she'd simply been laying face first in the cooled puddle of fleshy remnants from the ritual. She didn't know what had happened.

As she pulled her head from the goopy substance — her mould hair deciding on its own to spread over her head to eat every trace of it and embolden its growth further — she felt her ears ring. Nyx hadn't heard what made them ring, but they pounded regardless. With her hands and tentacles beneath her, she rose to her feet… only to tumble once again into the narrow trough in metal. She struggled to comprehend how she'd fallen. Only by glancing down, did she discover a horrific sight. Her leg was gone.

For a brief moment, she sat there and stared at the empty space that once held her leg. She didn't understand. It didn't hurt. It barely even bled. But she now had a stump up to her thigh where only seconds ago she had a fully functioning leg besides a couple of missing toes. As if her body finally realised it was injured, her heart pumped, blood spurted like a hose, and the pain struck all at once. She grit her teeth and clutched at the wound. It was smooth. Too smooth for any blade.

It was like her leg had just ceased to exist. A trio of dull, weightless thoomps turned Nyx's attention up from her little hole. She didn't know what that sound was, but she knew what that hole was. Right above her, the wall of the bunker had a chunk sliced away. A perfect sphere removed from solid steel. With another thoomp, Nyx watched the wall right beside her explode, then implode into a singularity. All mass disappearing from existence.

She stared, barely comprehending, through a tunnel of voided spheres to the landscape beyond. Nyx's body reacted. Ignoring the pain of her stump, she threw herself out of the trench just in time for the place she'd been laying to explode in an underwhelming thump. She was under attack! K'Thorn had come for her. This had always been a possibility. Not specifically K'Thorn; any of the cultists could have discovered her and chased her down. But she had assumed she'd see them coming.

Her third eye was good enough for that. Nyx snapped her wings wide and sped down the other side of the mountain. She may have lost a leg, but this was still fine. If she could keep the cultist busy — and herself alive — then it would just make her plan all the more effective. All she needed to do, was fly down into the side of the volcano and reach the safety of the fissure before K'Thorn crested the summit. Only there, could she get close without getting her head shot off.

Only a few dozen metres from her target, her wing was ripped from existence. Tilting her head, she watched the severed tip — the only part that still remained of her wing — tumble off to the side along with a plume of feathers. Like a mirror, Nyx spun out the opposite way before crashing along the surface. She groaned as she ground to a halt. She'd been flying too fast for her body to handle the crash. Her skin burned in places, bruises were plentiful, and she was sure she had at least a few fractures.

I swear, if I've broken my ribs again… A couple of broken ribs were the least of her concerns. The click of footsteps had her blinking through the delirium. Two figures rose from ahead. From within the fissure she'd been trying to dive towards, K'Thorn and that acolyte of his clambered out only a dozen metres ahead of her. How? The shots had come from the tower. She'd flown this way to get away from him. how was he here?

"I'm liking this new name already. Takes a bit of time to set up, but it's very good bait." He lowered his rifle at her head, and Nyx knew that if she moved, she would die.

"Now, my acolyte and I have a bit of a disagreement about you. Speak. If you are still sane, I might let you live. Even with all your crimes."