Chapter 129: Hilda… Where’s Your Brain?
Logic was telling me that the answer is 'no'.
If Hilda saw it up on the deck, then others may have also seen it. And if others had seen it, we'd have known by now.
But they didn't.
It was only Hilda.
And Hilda is affirming that it gestates inside of you upon gazing into its eye.
I, however, don't believe it.
Not an inch of my brain is willing to accept that fact. It made no sense to me; perhaps it's due to my upbringing and the abhorrently fucked up events I'd been forced to experience, and the myriad tricks played on my mind through our parents' Authority...
I don't trust it.
For one, it was too straightforward.
A third eye that just so happens to be in a conspicuous section of its face to increase the odds of procreation?
From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes sense.
But these are Heathens.
These aren't animals; these are monsters.
We can't apply common sense to them.
I should ask Hilda for more information, a general run-down of sorts-
"Jill! Elden! It's coming for you! It sensed you!"
-but it doesn't seem like Hilda is in a position to explain anything at the moment.
---
Streaks of sizzling reddish-orange pierced in and out of the battle, thrusting into the Heathen's skin as a distraction.
Between every bolt of flames, Hilda's sword slipped its way into the monster's defences and stabbed deep into the Heathen's torso. Hilda kept close to the three-eyed monster, a dangerous yet calculated decision.
Spikes of black, bubbling slime occasionally burst outwards in an attempt to turn Hilda into a pincushion, but she slapped them away with reinforced palm strikes.
And while the Heathen was distracted by Hilda-
Crackle!
-miniature lightning bolts zipped across the Heathen's body, scarring and charring its putrid humanoid body. The stench wafted into the girls' noses, causing them to scrunch their faces uncomfortably.
The combination of flames, lightning, and Hilda's extremely volatile combat methods threw the Heathen into demented frustration.
And pushing this demon further into frustration, Hilda squeezed herself into its face up close and personal. Slamming her fist towards its solar plexus, the three-eyed monster gurgled out a putrid spike towards her hand.
Hilda instantly spread her closed fist open and grabbed the spike instead. Pulling the monster even closer, her left elbow swept sharply towards its chin before it could realise what she had done.
Thud!
Crushing its chin inwards, the Heathen scattered out a blast of mini spikes from the horn that Hilda had been holding, but she let go, snuck her hand deeper towards its torso, and smacked her fist in an upper-cut with a grin.
Her knuckles connected with a wet, slapping sound reverberating from the point of impact.
The damned thing followed her fist upwards into the air and smashed its skull into the ceiling. Not puncturing the ceiling, though, but creaking the wood to the point of giving Hildekar a headache and rattling its head enough to disorientate even a Profaned being.
Not from the impact, per se, but from the stream of Blessings flowing profusely from Hilda's fist.
Planting its hands on the ceiling, the three-eyed Heathen flipped itself backwards and off away from the girls.
Its seemingly functional nose sniffed and-
Splat.
-it twisted its head backwards, towards the incoming rapid footsteps echoing from the distance.
It sensed the boys.
With its head twisted backwards and arms curling, or, in better terms, twisting backwards irregularly, the monster stamped off the ground and sprinted towards the incoming noises.
The girls immediately realised what it was planning and ran after it.
"Jill! Elden! It's coming for you! It sensed you!" Hilda wasted no time warning them.
"Got it."
"Off you go, grasshead, hold it back for me and kill it."
The boys' banter remained consistent nonetheless as they passed around the corner and entered the line of sight of the Heathen. Jill stepped forward towards it unhesitatingly; his body oozed with light whilst his muscles squirmed and grew by an inch, amplifying his strength by a deceivingly large amount.
"Careful of close contact." Hilda warned belatedly, but Jill didn't retreat.
He pushed onwards.
The moment fist and fist were about to collide, the Heathen's fist transformed into a mace littered with viciously sharp spikes.
And, in return-
Flicker.
-sparks glittered across the Cloak of Verdansk's midnight hue.
Elden's Manifestation began shimmering with its true power. It smoothly reinforced Jill's body with a rush of power; it amplified his strength, agility, endurance, and stamina all at once. Even the Blessings and Curses oozing through his veins squirmed with vastly improved purity and power.
Reinforced knuckles smashed right through the mace, sending its solid shards scattering across the air-
Crack!
-Jill swivelled his hips into the punch, crushing it into the Heathen's face with a sickening crack echoing from its slime-esque head.
It rattled backwards with dazed steps, and Jill followed through with a small step inwards, followed by a low kick to its knee. Struggling over to its side with blood leaking from its head, its eyes darted around with frantic motions...
"Kratis!"
...it could only release a cry as it watched another fist grow in its vision.
Within a split second, the third punch connected and sent the Heathen flying backwards with a trail of blood spurting from its head towards Hilda.
Lowering her stance, Hilda gripped her sword low by her side and dashed forward-
"Take it."
-but not before Esme smacked her back and aided her dash with a flash of flames to boost her speed.
The flames would have normally burnt her, but the starry midnight cloak prevented that from occurring alongside Esme's monstrous control over her flames.
Zipping across the corridor, Hilda's body seemed to glide over the ground with the metallic gleam of her sword sparking over from her right; the stretched shadow and glittering sparks seemed to form a starry night's sky—a sight they'd never lain witness to in the past.
A basic sword form, the thrust, arose from Hilda's fluid posture-
Squelch!
-the runic-carved blade pierced directly through the Heathen's scalp, smothering its life apart as a burst of gold and green flickered from Hilda's weapon and set it ablaze from the inside out.
The Heathen shrieked and screeched in agony, but Hilda bore it no heed as she pulled her sword out and crushed its torso inwards with her foot, sending it tumbling directly back at Jill.
He had been charging all the while with his fist, preparing for another strike. The moment it skidded back at him, he punched its already shattered chest inwards with a flash of beaming light.
If it wasn't dead before, now it was certainly dead.
It crumpled to the ground with a deformed head dripping with putrid blood and a caved-in chest. The slime composing its body fell apart and slumped like gloop, proving its deceased state.
"That one is dealt with, but now..." Elden glanced over at Esme.
Similarly, Jill and Hilda also looked at her.
Shrugging, Esme stared back silently. The her inside of her had to win against it first, which she no doubt would, but, until then, they had to play the waiting game-
"Hey! The Fight's over, right? Hilda, you big dummy, what else did that thing do? Give me all of the information. And I mean all the information. Don't skip over anything your stupid brain thinks is meaningless."
---
Keeping up a state of high alert was tiring on my brain, but better safe than sorry, hey? In the meantime, I quipped at that dumb maid of mine to get to explaining.
"Eh...? Um..."
"Stop stalling. Tell me."
"O, okay."
Hilda started explaining away, and the answer revealed itself quite clearly. Both Nemora and I gazed at each other from across the ship and pointed at our eardrums simultaneously.
Yep.
She also realises it gets you through sound.
The moment Hilda told me about the singing and the uniquely repeating words it made, it couldn't have been a more obvious answer for me. What gave it away was the lack of sound clarity on this deck.
Even if we'd been hearing singing all along, we wouldn't be able to tell through the crashing sound of waves.
"Jill, Elden, Vanessa, Yulei, Lily, block off your ears for the proceeding future until I tell you otherwise. You'll still be able to hear each other through Alora's Manifestation, but it'll protect you from dying. You especially, Lily."
A series of responses came through, and in the meantime, I poured my focus into checking out the main deck. This Heathen may be hiding out of sight, either below the railing out on the outskirts of the vessel or-
Ah.
I know where you are.
The split-second my focus and observation curved upwards, towards the masts and the sails-
There you are.
-I sensed its intentions oozing down onto me, preparing to strike at any moment.
Standing upon the tip of the main mast, a humanoid, slimy, three-eyed, humanoid Heathen built from stacks of viscous, black liquid stared down onto me.
Fluttering my Book of Heresy open, I grasped the binder in one hand and the Quill in the other:
"Nemora, it's up above us. Protect Hildekar. I'll take care of it."
"Understood. Kill it quickly."
"No problem."
Pressing the Quill of Heresy down onto the pages of my Book, the moment I began writing my Orders-
Creak.
-its legs squeezed like coils as it placed its arms in front of itself and descended upon me like a dart piercing through rainfall; shockwaves scattered across its body as sound itself shattered with a screeching noise, overwhelming the sound of the waves crashing into The Canary.
Time for a real fight.
[Alora - Body Amplification - 100% - 5 Minutes]
[Alora - Curse Amplification - 100% - 5 Minutes]