Chapter 140: A Most Horrific Terror
Through the cave's entrance, they all saw it as clear as day.
A glowing eye spanning miles, its golden iris burning through the Rukh like a third Sun, its pupil a slit of pure darkness that seemed to swallow everything it touched.
The eye was locked on them, staring with an intensity that made Malik's skin crawl.
Abyssal King.
The ocean's eye.
Belonging to the protector of this realm of Rukh.
It was no different than the Venerable.
No, it was worse.
The eye blinked once, and Malik felt something press against his Soul.
It was... touching. Testing. Seeing what he was made of.
Then the Will came.
It invaded their Souls, cold and utterly without mercy.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Safira's scream tore through the Rukh first, her body convulsing as something unseen ripped through her.
Huda followed a moment later, her voice rougher but no less pained.
Both women clutched their heads, their Souls being shredded by the mere presence of the Abyssal King.
Malik, of course, felt the pressure too.
It pushed against him, tried to find cracks in his defences, to worm its way inside.
But his Angel Soul held. Strong enough to survive what would have killed lesser beings.
He gritted his teeth and forced his body to move, rushing towards his cohort.
His fire erupted around him in a wide arc, pushing back the Scorpion Crabs and Flesh Swarms that had been drawn back in by the screams.
The monsters recoiled from the flames, their bodies hissing, and Malik used that moment of hesitation to reach Safira and Huda.
He grabbed them both by the shoulders and pushed them away from the cave's entrance, away from the eye's direct gaze.
"Move!"
Malik shouted at them, though he wasn't sure if they could hear him over their own screaming.
He turned back to face the monsters.
They were closing in again, savoring their scent of fear.
Scorpion Crabs scuttled along the cave floor, their tails raised.
Flesh Swarms poured through the cracks in the walls, their mouths gaping.
Djinn of the Deep flickered in the shadows, their empty masks watching.
Malik killed them.
One after another, he struck—his hand stabbing through a Scorpion Crab's skull, his fire burning through a Flesh Swarm, his fist caving in a Djinn's mask. He didn't care if the poison reached him; he didn't care if the claws cut him...
All could be healed later.
If his healer survived this.
Behind him, the screaming finally died down.
The Abyssal King's Will seemed to have shifted, its attention moving elsewhere for just a moment, and that moment was enough.
Safira gasped, her body going limp, and then forced herself to stand.
She was a healer; her Soul was trained to repair itself no matter the circumstance.
Thus, she recovered faster than Huda and used that speed to join Malik at the cave's entrance.
Safira likely saw herself as the stronger one here.
The one responsible for the cohort's survival.
Depending on a seemingly old man wasn't allowed to pass.
Her blasts tore through the Rukh, waves of force that shattered all the Scorpion Crabs and sent multiple Flesh Swarms scattering into pieces.
Thanks to her, the creatures died quickly.
Within moments, the cave was practically empty, only corpses floating in the Rukh.
Safira didn't waste a moment.
She rushed to Huda's side, her hands already glowing with light.
Using all that she had, she pressed her palms against Huda's chest, wherever the King's Will had cut deepest.
"Haaaa!"
Huda's eyes fluttered open, and she looked at Safira, the concern written across her friend's face.
She nodded once, unmistakably tired, and then stood up.
The two women now joined Malik at the cave's entrance.
He was staring back at the single eye.
It began to blink.
The eyelid came down slowly.
Its golden light vanished for just a moment, plunging the cave into darkness...
Only for it to light up a second later.
But something was different.
The eye was gone.
Not closed again, but gone.
The massive golden iris, the slit pupil, the overwhelming presence—all of it had disappeared as if it had never been there at all.
'...is it—'
Before the thought could even form, a large tentacle shot through the cave entrance.
It was thick as a tree trunk, covered in suckers that pulsed and flexed.
The thing moved faster than anything that size had any right to move.
KKKCCCCRRRRRRAAAAAAAAACK!
It slammed into the cave wall, cracking the stone, and then whipped towards the trio.
No, the Abyssal King wasn't gone!
It was just getting started.
Huda rushed forth.
She moved past Malik before he could react, her wind carrying her through the Rukh at incredible speed, and crashed into the giant tentacle feet-first, her boots slamming against its flesh.
The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the Rukh, stopping the tentacle.
It hung there, suspended, its momentum completely halted by Huda's strike.
But more were coming.
Yes, even more tentacles began to appear, tearing through the island from the sides.
They punched through the rock, their massive forms curling around the cave, surrounding the trio on all sides.
The island groaned and shuddered, chunks of stone breaking loose and floating up through the Rukh.
Safira stepped to Malik and pressed her back against his, covering his back.
She could feel his heart beating through his spine, and he could feel hers.
The two of them joined Huda, forming a triangle.
Three directions, three fighters, three elements.
Wind, force, and fire, braced for this realm's king.
The Abyssal King's tentacles crashed onto them.
They were relatively tiny when compared to the King's gargantuan eye, but that didn't make them any less dangerous.
Each one was as thick as the giant mushrooms in the first layer, covered in suckers that could tear flesh from bone, and they moved with unmistakable intelligence.
With their backs pressed into each other, the cohort blasted the tentacles away.
Huda's wind cut through the Rukh, slicing off tentacle tips, sending the severed ends floating away.
Safira's force punches created shockwaves that pushed the tentacles back, buying them precious inches of space.
Malik's fire burned whatever came close, the heat turning the Rukh to steam around his hands.
But they were doing no damage, not really.
The tentacles were regenerating.
They kept pressing forward.
For every one the cohort pushed back, two more took its place.
To make things worse, larger tentacles had grabbed the island itself.
The massive appendages had wrapped around the rock, their suckers latching onto the stone, and they pulled.
That had the island shudder violently, dropping through the Rukh at an alarming speed.
Around them, the cave walls groaned and cracked further, chunks of rock breaking loose and tumbling past them.
The cohort struggled to keep themselves straight while fighting off the monstrosity.
Every lurch of the island threw off their balance, while every shudder made their feet slip.
They had to fight the tentacles while also fighting the movement, and it was taking everything they had when they already barely had anything to give anymore.
Malik was especially struggling.
He didn't have the raw strength of the other two.
His body was older, his Rukh reserves lower, his fire less explosive.
He had to rely on technique to make up the difference—using Goliath's Fall to spring from the cave floor, bursts of fire behind his movements to push back the tentacles, precise strikes aimed at the softest points of the creatures' flesh.
It required incredible focus.
Malik had to time his Ember's Touch activation exactly right—boosting the momentum of his movement without disrupting it, adding just enough fire to matter without wasting Rukh he couldn't spare.
One mistake and the tentacle would wrap around him.
One miscalculation and he would be crushed.
Step. Fire. Strike.
Step. Fire. Strike.
Malik was naturally skilled with his Runes.
He had always been able to feel them in a way others couldn't, to use them like extensions of his own body rather than tools he had to command.
That skill was the only reason he was still alive right now.
He kept up with the other two.
Barely.
It was all made worse by the obvious.
A fact, while forgettable given the power on display, wasn't any less true.
Malik's body remained closer to mortals than to Magi.
His lungs burned for air.
The air pocket was across the cave, too far to reach, blocked by tentacles and debris.
He had been holding his breath for longer than he should have been able to, and his vision was starting to blur at the edges.
But he didn't stop.
Never.
Thump!
Just as he punched another tentacle away, feeling the impact jar his arm all the way to the shoulder, the creature paused.
All of the tentacles paused.
They hung in the Rukh, motionless, their suckers still flexing, but their movements halted.
The cave went quiet, and the island itself stopped shuddering.
'Ah.'
Only for Malik to suddenly feel a force sending him up through the Rukh.
The island was roughly pulled downward at once, crashing into the depths of the Rukh ocean.
CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!
The upward force on Malik's body immediately ceased, switching directions and sending him down after it.
He fell through the Rukh, the pressure building around him until he thought his bones would break into dust.
The cave floor was rushing up to meet him, and he couldn't slow down—
"Wind!"
Huda snapped her fingers.
Pockets of wind opened beneath them—small cushions of air that pushed against the Rukh and caught their bodies, greatly slowing their descent.
Malik hit the ground hard, his knees buckling, but he didn't break.
The wind had saved him.
All three of them lay there for a moment, gasping, their bodies aching, their Souls still recovering from the King's assault.
Then, without a word, they looked at each other and nodded.
Finally came the last step of their plan.
They were to get off the island and rush into the next layer.
Huda took the lead, her wind pushing her through the collapsed cave entrance.
The tentacle that had been blocking it had retreated, leaving a narrow gap just wide enough for a person to squeeze through.
She went first, then Safira, then Malik.
They squeezed through the opening, the rock scraping against their sides.
Once they had gotten out, they...
'N...o.'
Paused.
Their bodies trembled.
Yet again, their eyes met a most horrific horror.
But this time, they met it unobstructed.
The Abyssal King.
It was looking...
Down at...
Th..e..m.