Chapter 2437
The space reacted almost instantly to the new presence. However, instead of an image fluttering and expanding to fill the area, a suffocating sense of loss seeped out to soak every aspect of the area.
Devick spun around, her back already beginning to tingle with bits of chilling perspiration. She couldn’t believe it, the air still retaining that washed-out quality, as though even reality had begun to melt. Her heart pounded. I’m… afraid? Without even seeing the foe?
“Flee,” The monkey urged again.
Devick ignored its words and her own heart's emphatic drumbeat of support. She pulled on her image, allowing stubbornness and malice to blossom in her chest. Flames wrapped around her body, yet the manifestation remained filmy and insubstantial with the horrific aura. The flames resembled paper cutouts rather than any real raging inferno.
On the far side of the room a slit formed in existence. A fat and scaled hand pushed its way through. One by one, those fingers curled around the edge and began to draw space back like a heavy curtain.
What began to filter through the opening, however, was nothing like sunlight.
Next to Devick, the monkey had almost folded in on itself. It wrapped its torso in its furred arms and bent forward, already shivering. Devick reached out through her connection with Randidly and grasped for him. Yet the connection felt dull and sluggish; she didn’t receive any sort of timely response.
From the opening, a head forced its way through. A fat serpent pulled itself forward, long arms connected to a massive body. Its face was a mess of gore; both of its eyes had been carved up and bled fat drops of ichor onto the ground. It’s head swung back and forth, blind and searching.
Then, with a horrific sense of finality, it swung in Devick and the monkey’s direction. Its long tongue poked out of its mouth. Its slouched and lazy posture reminded Devick of an overflowing pile of garbage. And the aura of death it radiated was just like the stench such a presence would produce.