Chapter 74: Beyond The Walls
They stumbled over one another desperately, each faltering step bringing them closer to the archway. Their feet trembled beneath them, muscles burning with exhaustion as the chittering horde approached from behind, a moving wall of corrupted carapaces that blocked out the horizon. The sound of countless termite legs scraping against stone created a horrifying symphony that seemed to grow louder with each labored breath they took.
Arthur’s lungs burned as he dragged Aziel’s increasingly limp form alongside him. Sweat trickled down his face, stinging his eyes and leaving glistening trails through the grime that coated his skin. His companion’s weight grew heavier with each passing moment, Aziel’s consciousness wavering as blood continued to seep from his mangled foot, leaving crimson smears across the ancient stone path.
’Come on, we’re so close... come on!’
Arthur’s thoughts were a desperate mantra, pushing his screaming muscles to their limit. They were only ten feet away from the archway now, but the termites were gaining ground rapidly, their relentless pursuit never faltering or slowing.
Just as they were mere feet away from the entrance to the city, Arthur felt it—his dark sense, he detected something stepping into his shadow... a termite, its mandibles poised to strike.
Arthur’s heart spiked painfully in his chest as panic flooded his mind, time seeming to slow as adrenaline surged through his system. He felt the darkness flood around the body of the termite, responding to his fear like a living extension of his will. In that moment of purest terror, he wished desperately that the darkness would consume the creature, that it would kill it, that it would protect them both when he could not...
And then, it happened.
The termite died.
Shocked, Arthur spun his head around, his movements seeming sluggish and dream-like in the midst of his surging adrenaline. Multiple thin spikes made of what appeared to be condensed shadow had emerged from his own shadow, skewering the termite in a display of lethal precision. The dark appendages quivered for a moment, as if alive and taking satisfaction in their kill, before fading away like smoke on the wind, allowing the termite’s lifeless body to collapse to the ground with a dull thud.