Beneath the crimson moonlight, the monster emerged.
Its twisted, swollen body was grotesquely oversized, its eyes red as though stained with blood, bat wings spread wide without restraint... These disparate elements combined into a humanoid figure that nonetheless exuded an air of exquisite, seductive beauty.
Countless plants, some flourishing, some withered, covered its body, swaying ceaselessly toward the moon.
The state of an incomplete mythical creature!
Everyone present felt that spiritually crushing pressure, as though it were bearing down directly upon their souls.
"Don't look at it! Your minds will shatter!" Soest shouted, his composure gone, leading the Red Gloves in retreat down the street. "Jimmy, go three streets over to the Church of Waves and call for help! Hurry!"
That was the nearest Church of a true god to their position. Though its faith belonged to the Lord of Storms, when it came to matters like this, the different faiths could still stand united.
As he ran, Leonard tore the handcuffs off Emlin's wrists.
"Your Sanguine's information was wrong!" he shouted. "Why is there a demigod that's lost control?!"
"How would I know?" Emlin wailed, on the verge of tears. "I thought there were only two artificial vampires!"
That puppet Rus Bathory had been carrying, what in the world was it?
"Roar!"
A terrifying roar sounded from behind them. The good news was that the demigod, having lost control, was fighting on instinct alone; otherwise they would likely have been cut down with ease.
But in the next instant, Emlin saw the moonlight before him abruptly deepen, shifting from crimson toward the color of blood.
Shhk!
Right after, the out of control demigod's form was suddenly outlined within the moonlight itself.
The Crimson Scholar's ability, Flash Step!
Bad news!
The Red Gloves scattered like the sea striking a reef, ducking their heads the moment the demigod appeared, desperate to avoid the danger of a direct gaze.
But they were far too close together; even avoiding its stare outright, the attack that followed on its heels would be enough to kill them.
That heavy footfall, accompanied by the rustling scrape of foliage, sounded from just behind them.
It was about to strike!
Soest, leading the group, went pale. His mouth opened slightly, releasing two wisps of chill spectral matter that flew backward.
But the footsteps only paused for an instant before the two spirits let out a mournful cry behind him and vanished amid a faint explosion.
"Keep running, don't stop!"
Soest shouted, then astonishingly closed his eyes toward the demigod and released a ripple like water disturbed.
Crack!
He held on for perhaps one or two seconds before the dream he had woven so carefully shattered with a crisp sound.
He himself took an even more terrible blow, his face turning a ghastly white, and he passed out without a sound.
"Captain!"
Leonard reached out to catch Soest, and had just begun pulling him along to keep fleeing when his feet suddenly stopped, unable to move.
The other members ahead of him were the same; their bodies had been pinned in place by darkness that had appeared beneath their feet without warning, unable to advance any further!
"Old man, what's going on here?"
Leonard called out silently in his mind, then tilted his head slightly, as though listening for an answer.
His expression quickly soured. "Gaze of Darkness"? Anyone caught in its line of sight gets cursed? What kind of unreasonable ability was that!
"Roar..."
The roar behind them shifted slightly in tone, as though the creature were surveying its prey with satisfaction. It hungered for fresh flesh and blood to fill its empty belly.
"Damn it... old man, think of something, fast!"
Leonard shouted in his mind.
Listening to the footsteps drawing closer behind him, he finally steeled himself and was about to act when:
Shhk!
A great sword of pitch black darkness appeared abruptly before his eyes.
Beside him, Emlin gripped the greatsword with one hand while clutching a notebook tightly in the other, and with his eyes shut, thrust with all his strength toward the source of the sound behind them!
Aaaah!
A shrill, agonized roar rang out immediately.
That soul destroying, flesh corroding greatsword held special lethality against any creature that had given rise to thoughts of depravity; their own defenses were utterly useless against it.
In that same instant, the darkness binding them loosened. The out of control demigod, wracked with pain, could no longer sustain its ability.
Whoosh!
Emlin spread his wings and flew for his life into the distance, not daring to glance back even once.
I stabbed a demigod!
I used Temperance's greatsword to stab a demigod!
Terror, fear, and exhilaration surged in his chest all at once.
He beat his wings frantically while flipping through "Lenormand's Travel Notebook," trying to find another useful ability. Given what he had just done, that demigod would surely come after him now.
Then he heard the sound of a great many wings flapping.
It was the clamor of bats, a vast swarm of black flying creatures caught somewhere between the real and the illusory, rapidly closing in around him. They hungered for blood; even the lightest graze tore a piece of flesh from his body!
The demigod had turned into bats!
"Lightning Strike!"
Emlin shouted, summoning a thunderous bolt down upon himself.
A good number of bats let out cries of anguish, their corpses charred black. But soon the remaining bats split apart again, quickly restoring their former numbers, and continued to swarm and tear at him without pause.
Even as the lightning strikes came one after another, they continued to crave Emlin's flesh and blood!
"Damn it..."
Emlin thought to himself. The bats' assault was simply too terrifying. In a brief lull in his struggle, he murmured a prayer under his breath, "One not of this era, The Fool..."
Boom!
A mass of pale blue, blazing flame suddenly appeared before him, and a great swath of bats was consumed by the fire, burned until not even fragments remained.
The flames seemed to possess a will of their own, curving around Emlin and continuing to spread toward the other bats behind him, wiping out these blood hungry monsters in great swaths at a time.
Emlin landed on the ground, his entire body a horrific sight, not a single patch of unbroken skin left on him.
Fortunately, a vampire's vitality ran extremely high, and wounds like these were not fatal; he only needed to wait a while to recover.
He raised his head and looked toward where the flames had come from.
Standing there was a man in a black formal suit and a blood red shirt, holding a strange metal pocket watch in his blood red gloved hand.
Tick, tick.
His expression was cold and detached as he turned the hands of the pocket watch in his grip, again and again.
"Lord Ishmael!"
Upon seeing him, Leonard finally let out a breath of relief. The other Red Gloves looked as though they had seen their savior.
"Take the wounded and leave."
Silas said flatly, his gaze fixed on something in the distance.
There, the remaining few bats fused back together, reconstructing the out of control demigod once more.
The vegetation covering its entire body had grown extraordinarily lush, its beautiful yet twisted form looking all the more strange beneath the moon.
Silas's brow furrowed almost immediately, for he had caught some strange sound coming from the creature.
The crimson moonlight fell gently down, and then quickly deepened into scarlet.
The blood moon had arrived.