Chương 13: The Thing Beneath the River — Part I

Chapter 13: The Thing Beneath the River — Part I The chamber changes the moment the flesh becomes visible. Until now the entity had resembled a force more than a body, a shifting mass of riverwater held together by corruption and pressure rising from the buried current beneath the city. Even while it battered the formation apart, some part of the mind could still understand it as movement, flow and violence shaped temporarily into form. The glimpse beneath the water destroys that illusion immediately.

Something human hangs inside the current, not fully visible, not fully hidden. A pale shape suspended deep within the spiraling water composing the entity's torso. I catch only fragments between the shifting currents; the outline of ribs, distorted limbs, the curve of a skull turning slowly beneath the river flowing around it. The eldest river cleric stares at the creature in horror.

"Saints preserve us…" The entity surges violently the instant she speaks. Water crashes through the chamber in a massive wave that slams against the shield line hard enough to shake the entire formation backward through the floodwater. The thing understands we have seen it now. Its attacks lose the cold patience carried earlier and sharpen into raw force as the redirected current continues disrupting the spiral feeding its form.

Garrick drives his shield forward through the recoil before the line can lose footing completely.

"Hold the center," he orders sharply.

"Do not give it space." The soldiers respond immediately despite exhaustion dragging at every movement. Shields lock tighter together while the second rank braces spears over their shoulders, forming a narrower defensive arc around the basin and runoff channels where the river clergy continue redirecting the buried current. The entity strikes again. This time it forms multiple arms from the surrounding floodwater and hammers them downward against the formation in rapid succession.

The impacts send cracks splintering across several shields while black riverwater erupts around the soldiers in violent sheets. One guard loses footing entirely. The current catches him and drags him sideways across the flooded floor toward the basin before another soldier grabs the back of his armor and hauls him upright again. The river clergy continue chanting near the runoff channels despite the chaos surrounding them.

Their voices carry deeper now, woven tightly into the movement of the buried current beneath the chamber. Every redirected flow weakens the inward spiral sustaining the entity a little further and every disruption exposes more of the thing trapped inside it. The water surrounding the torso flickers unevenly as competing currents tear against one another beneath the chamber. Pale flesh surfaces briefly through the collapsing waves before disappearing again under the river spiraling desperately back into place.

The entity convulses. Its left arm loses shape completely and crashes apart into floodwater before reforming slower than before. The buried river is turning against it.

"It's failing," one of the soldiers breathes.

"No," I reply while watching the thing struggle against the redirected flow.

"The river is pulling away from it." That distinction matters. The corruption spent years forcing the buried current into the spiral beneath the basin. Now the redirected flow keeps tearing that structure apart faster than the entity can stabilize it again and beneath the water, the thing trapped inside continues emerging. The creature lashes forward suddenly through the collapsing current, its distorted upper body forcing itself toward the formation with desperate violence. Garrick meets the attack immediately.

His shield crashes into the shifting mass while soldiers beside him drive spears deep into the unstable torso now visible beneath thinning layers of riverwater. For the first time, the strikes actually hit something other than water. The thing recoils sharply. Dark fluid bursts through the exposed flesh hidden inside the current while the surrounding river struggles to seal the damage around it. The eldest cleric sees it immediately.

"The body carries the corruption," she says.

"Yes." The realization spreads through the chamber like fire through dry roots. The water entity was never the true vessel. It was armor. The river itself kept the thing hidden, sustained and protected beneath layers of corrupted current for so long that the distinction between creature and river had nearly vanished completely. Now the buried flow keeps stripping that protection away. The thing beneath it emerges piece by piece.

Its torso hangs twisted beneath the collapsing current, flesh swollen and stretched unnaturally around bones warped far beyond human proportions. One arm appears larger than the other, the muscles swollen unevenly beneath pale waterlogged skin while dark veins pulse visibly beneath the surface in jagged spiraling patterns. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it The head finally rises fully through the current. Several soldiers flinch despite themselves.

The face still carries traces of humanity. Enough to understand what was lost. Its jaw hangs partially dislocated beneath skin stretched too tightly across the skull while empty pale eyes drift slowly toward the formation through strands of black riverwater pouring continuously from its mouth. Then the creature speaks.

"…hold…" The voice drags wetly through the chamber, distorted beneath the river still spiraling around its body.

"… must… hold…" The words settle across the room with far greater weight than any roar could have carried. This thing was never simply buried beneath the city. It was left here for a purpose. The creature surges forward the moment the words leave its mouth. Whatever remains of its mind inside the corruption understands the danger now. The redirected river continues tearing the current away from its body while the soldiers press closer each time the unstable flow exposes flesh beneath the water.

It cannot remain hidden much longer. The chamber erupts again beneath the force of its attack. Riverwater crashes into the shield wall in violent spiraling waves while the creature drives itself against the formation with desperate strength. Its movements have changed since the flesh beneath the current emerged. Earlier the entity fought with controlled pressure, deliberate and patient. Now every strike carries strain and urgency. The buried river keeps pulling away from it.

Garrick absorbs the first impact with his shield while the soldiers beside him brace hard enough that the formation holds together despite the floodwater surging around their legs.

"Spears low," he orders sharply.

"Strike the body when it shows." The line adapts immediately. The next time the creature lashes outward through the unstable current, three spears thrust through the collapsing water and punch directly into the exposed flesh beneath. Dark fluid bursts across the floodwater while the creature convulses violently enough to send the surrounding current crashing against the chamber walls. Its scream tears through the room afterward. A human voice forced through a throat ruined beyond recognition.

Several soldiers grimace visibly at the sound. The river spirals harder around the creature's torso as the corruption struggles desperately to cover the exposed wounds again. Water surges upward from the basin and wraps around the damaged flesh, reforming protective layers of current across the body. Slower than before. The redirected flow keeps disrupting the process.

The eldest river cleric presses both hands deeper into the runoff channel beside her while blood trickles faintly from one nostril beneath the strain of forcing the buried river sideways through the chamber.

"The lower current is resisting it now," she says tightly.

"But the corruption still controls the center flow." I study the basin. The spiral beneath the chamber has weakened considerably since the clergy redirected the outer channels, yet the core current still feeds directly into the creature through the flooded breach behind it. Every surviving strand of corruption continues pulling riverwater inward around the body buried beneath the current. The thing itself is anchoring the spiral now. The realization settles immediately into place.

"It's connected directly to the flow," I say.

"The corruption is using the body as the center point." Garrick hears me despite the chaos surrounding the formation.

"Meaning?"

"The river will keep rebuilding it until the body fails." Another violent surge slams against the shield wall before he can answer further. This time the creature forces itself partially through the formation's reach. One swollen arm, crashes down onto a soldier's shield hard enough to splinter reinforced oak apart while the other sweeps sideways through the floodwater toward the exposed flank beside Garrick. The captain intercepts it instantly.

His sword tears through the unstable current surrounding the limb and bites deep into the exposed flesh beneath. Dark fluid bursts outward across the chamber while the creature recoils sharply, its distorted torso twisting violently as the river struggles to seal the wound around the blade strike. For a brief moment, the current peels away from the body almost entirely. The chamber sees it clearly then. A human figure hangs suspended inside the river or what used to be human.

The torso has swollen grotesquely beneath years of corruption and pressure while blackened veins spread visibly beneath stretched pale flesh. Sections of the ribcage press unnaturally against the skin as though the bones themselves warped under the strain of containing the thing growing inside it and carved across the chest beneath the shifting current are symbols. Old, binding marks. My breath stills briefly. The same style of sealwork covering the chamber walls. The creature was never imprisoned beneath the city.

It was part of the prison. The thing convulses violently the moment the exposed symbols become visible.

"…hold…" it rasps again through the collapsing current around its skull.

"…river… hold…" Understanding crashes through me then with horrifying clarity. This body was shaped to contain the corruption beneath the buried river. The sealwork, the chamber, the bindings carved into the flesh itself. Someone forced a living vessel into the center of the spiral and buried it beneath the city to keep the corruption trapped below and now the prison is breaking apart. The creature surges toward us again with renewed desperation, holding.