Chapter 41: The Avatar
The thing standing above the altar looked... wrong.
It flickered like a dying lantern, its shape twisting with every heartbeat as if the air itself was trying to spit it back out. One second it was a cluster of gaunt limbs, the next a wet mass of shifting grey flesh, completely unable to anchor itself in solid stone.
Behind it, Rowen wasn't screaming in rage anymore. He was curled on the floor, clutching his skull with both hands, shrieking in pure, unadulterated agony as the magic backlash tore through his brain.
Elina and Alina didn't glance at him. They couldn't. Every instinct they had was locked onto the shifting horror at the center of the hall. They knew, with absolute, cold clarity, that a single wrong move meant dying on the spot.
Even incomplete, the creature radiated a pressure that crushed the breath right out of their lungs. If a botched fragment felt like this, a complete descent would have flattened the kingdom.
It turned toward them. It had no face, but its gaze pierced straight through their chests. Did it know they had broken the ritual? Did it understand that its half-formed, miserable state was their fault?
Neither girl stayed to find out.
"Move!" Elina grabbed Alina’s wrist and yanked her toward the heavy double doors.
The instant they bolted, the creature reacted. It didn't run. It shifted.
The air warped. A single, blurred movement from what looked like an arm sent a shockwave ripping through the nave. The stone wall beside them detonated into dust, columns snapping like twigs as a straight path of stone was simply erased.
It was clumsy, unfamiliar with its stolen weight. The strikes missed by inches, blowing hot stone dust into their faces, but with every swing, the arc grew smoother. Tighter.
It was learning how to move.
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Before they could reach the archway, Dally cut off their path. Using rapid, short-range teleports, he warped loose masonry and shattered pillar sections right in front of them, blocking the hallway with piles of jagged stone.
Elina ground her teeth, her sword flaring with pale light as she hacked through the falling debris. Every swing tore through her remaining mana. If her strength gave out before they reached the exit, they were dead.
Then Alina’s boot caught on a raised flagstone.
Her legs buckled, and she pitched forward, her weight dragging Elina down onto the dusty floor with a hard thud.
Alina’s heart stopped.
The entity had ceased its thrashing. Complete silence fell over the hall.
Slowly, the creature raised a long, needle-thin arm, pointing a distorted finger straight at Alina's chest. A pinprick of blinding white light condensed at the tip.
Alina froze, staring into the glare. She squeezed her eyes shut.
The heat hit her face, but the pain never came.
Confused, she opened her eyes.
Elina stood over her, blocking the line of sight. Blood was already spreading thick and dark across the front of her coat, her left hand pressed hard into her stomach. She’d stepped into the path of the beam.
"Go!" Elina spat, blood bubbling at the corner of her lip.
The roar snapped Alina out of her daze. She scrambled up, hooked an arm under Elina’s shoulders, and dragged her through the smoking archway with every ounce of strength left in her legs.
"...And that's how we got out," Alina finished, her voice barely a whisper in the dark corridor.
A heavy, suffocating silence settled over the group. Even Mo stayed dead quiet inside Nuri’s pocket, for once dropping the sarcastic commentary.
Alina rubbed her bruised shoulder, looking around at the tired faces. "We can't hit that thing head-on. Not with steel and basic magic."
Nuri nodded slowly, his face pale. "What... what even is it? The way you're describing it... it sounds like something straight out of an old horror record."
Lucien leaned against the wall, his umbrella resting against his shoulder. "An avatar."
Every eye in the hall turned toward him.
"Since you shattered the primary stone, the full manifestation failed," Lucien said calmly, as if discussing the weather. "Only a fragment, an avatar of the God of Sacrifice, managed to slip through the seam. I can't give you a full breakdown without seeing it myself, but that's the gist."
Silence stretched.
Nuri blinked, stunned by how easily the information rolled off Lucien's tongue. But Elina’s eyes narrowed into tight slits, her jaw setting hard.
A wealthy, bookish civilian didn't identify divine avatars on sight.
"...How do you know that?" Elina asked, her voice dropping into a dangerous register.
Lucien met her stare without flinching. "I'm a scholar. Divine architecture is my field. They've always fascinated me."
He offered a small, polite smile. But his eyes stayed ice-cold.
Elina didn't smile back. Her hand drifted back toward her sword hilt.