The Slaughter

'Hah-hah… Jesus…'
Erel's mind snapped back to the forest, finding himself right beside Lyra, who seemed to be looking at him with deep worry etched across her features. Before he could reply, though, his legs gave out beneath him, and he fell to the ground, his face as pale as a sheet, his hands trembling violently as he forced himself to suck in air through laboured, ragged breaths.
Lyra rushed to his side without hesitation, wrapping her arms around him and helping him up with gentle but firm hands.
"A vision…" Lyra mumbled, her fist balling with helplessness.
Erel gasped between breaths.
"Yeah…" Erel rasped, his voice barely above a whisper. "There are rats inside, hundreds of them… they swarmed me from every direction."
Hearing him and probably figuring out what had transpired in the cave, Lyra's jaw hardened. However, rather than having the explosive outburst Erel had expected, she calmly helped him sit against a nearby tree, allowing him to rest against its sturdy trunk.
"You're okay, right?" Lyra asked, the worry evident in her voice as she knelt beside him.
Ciril seemed to be looking at him with deep concern, not quite sure what was going on, while Ren kept staring at the entrance of the cave with an unsettling intensity.
"Yeah, just need a minute to catch my breath," Erel replied, though his voice still carried the tremor of what he'd experienced.
Erel was no stranger to dying through his ability now, but some deaths once in a while cut deep enough to break the very foundations of his composure, quite like being impaled by spikes in the Bluebeard plane. This vision had been particularly visceral.
'That really was something…'
Erel could hardly let go of the memory, the hundreds of rats clawing and digging into his skin from all sides as they slowly claimed his life, the feeling of absolute hopelessness as the swarm descended upon him from every direction. Taking a final deep breath, he finally composed himself enough to stand up again; however, Lyra hardly seemed satisfied with his condition.
His hands still quivered slightly as he proceeded to look at the cave entrance with renewed wariness.
"As soon as we enter, we'll be swarmed by rats in no time. They pour over from all sides like water, so it will be impossible to fight them head-on," Erel explained, his voice gaining strength as he focused on the situation.
Hearing him intently, Lyra began to draw her bow that lay dormant over her shoulder, her movements fluid and practiced.
"I'll draw them out and lead them into the forest. Once they're out, you enter the cave and take the children with you," she spoke with finality, her tone brooking no argument.
Erel wanted to refuse her plan, however he could find no clear reason to object, and furthermore was in no position to offer a better alternative. Gritting his teeth, he gave her a weak nod of approval. However, before she could take a single step forward, Ren bolted from where he stood, running directly towards the cave entrance with reckless abandon.
'Fuck! Has he completely lost it this time?'
"Ren, wait!" Ciril shouted behind him, his tone edged with panic and worry, however it did nothing to stop the boy as he continued his mad dash toward danger.
They didn't have to exchange a single word before they were already chasing after him, Lyra disappearing from her position like a flash of shadow.
It took her barely any time to catch up to him, stopping him just barely before the entrance of the cave with her superior speed.
Ren, however, continued to struggle against her iron grip, still trying desperately to run towards the cave, almost growling like a feral animal as drool slid from his lips in his frenzied state.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Lyra looked up towards Erel in confusion as he stopped before them, breathing hard from the chase. However, seeing the expression plastered on his face, one of absolute fear and disbelief, made her realise that something far worse was coming.
Erel's tattoo blazed with searing heat, just like it had in the vision, but this time he was not alone. Lyra's Morrigan instincts screamed danger at her as well, every fibre of her being alert.
Letting go of Ren, who stumbled forward in front of her, she extended both her arms by her sides as the imaginarium turned wild and chaotic all around her. Darkness crept from within her like living smoke, however, her expression never faltered, remaining calm and steeled despite the power coursing through her.
The darkness coalesced around her form, turning into writhing tendrils behind her, each one extending like the branches of some ancient, otherworldly tree before breaking apart into hundreds of feathers that seemed to glimmer with an inner light even in the oppressive darkness around them. The hundreds of razor-sharp pointed feathers rose all around her, forming a deadly arc and pointing towards the cave entrance like an army of obsidian blades, as the walls began to rumble ominously and the ground itself started shaking beneath their feet.
Erel looked at the scene unfolding before him in complete disbelief. The sheer scale of the feathers arrayed in front of him sent a bone-deep chill up his spine. He realized in that moment just how much Lyra had been holding back on her true abilities around him, restraining her power just so that he would have a better chance at growing stronger on his own.
As he finally caught sight of the first pair of sharp red eyes gleaming in the darkness, exactly like the ones that had devoured him whole in his horrific vision, she finally made her move. Her feathers shifted from their stationary position, all darting towards the cave entrance with lethal precision as she waved her hand forward in a single, fluid motion.
Erel could feel it in the air around them, the sheer, overwhelming scale of imaginarium she was channeling. It was vastly more than what his own core could even hope to contain, let alone control.
It was a complete massacre. The rats could hardly gain any ground once Lyra's assault began in earnest. The feathers kept descending upon them, impaling them with brutal ferocity and killing each creature in a single, devastating strike, as more and more feathers kept materializing around Lyra to replace the ones that had found their marks.
The slaughter lasted only a few seconds, but those moments were filled with the wet, squelching sounds of something sharp impaling flesh and the crash of bodies against the stone walls, accompanied by the hundreds of rats screeching in futile defiance. The ground itself shook with the intensity of the assault, as every single rat was completely obliterated, their putrid red blood flowing like a crimson river from the depths of the cave.
Lyra finally dropped her arms to her sides, letting out a deep, exhausted sigh as she took several deep breaths to centre herself. The darkness around her slowly dissolved back into her shadow like it had never been there at all. Ren seemed absolutely horrified by what had just happened, his previous desperate intrigue to enter the cave now replaced with pale, trembling fear, something that Erel was witnessing in the boy for the very first time.
"Lyra, are you okay?" Erel asked with genuine concern, approaching her cautiously from the side.
"Of course, this much is nothing. I just didn't expect it to happen so quickly," she replied, though there was a slight strain in her voice that suggested the display had taken more out of her than she was letting on.
Looking over to Ren in the distance, she continued with renewed purpose, "Anyway, the rats are dealt with. We should proceed inside now."
Nodding in agreement, Erel looked over to Ciril, who was clutching Mae's small palm tightly, his eyes wide with shock and disbelief at what he had just witnessed.
"Come on, we need to move," Erel said, trying to inject some confidence into his voice.
"W-we?" Ciril asked, his voice barely audible under the weight of his fear.
"It's not safe outside. There could be more of them lurking in the forest," Lyra added.
That seemed to do the trick, as Ciril quickly moved to Lyra's side, still holding onto Mae protectively.
Finally walking into the cave, Erel was immediately struck by the aftermath of the battle. The walls and floor were slick with blood and littered with hundreds of mutilated rat corpses, while the metallic smell of blood hung heavy in the stagnant air, making Erel scrunch his nose in disgust.
'We really shouldn't have brought the kids,' Erel thought as he watched Ciril close his eyes tightly and grab onto Lyra's sleeve to guide himself forward, his small body shaking uncontrollably as his shoes stepped through pools of blood, dead rats squelching underneath with each step. Ren, however, seemed to be completely impassive to the carnage around them, his previous fear having vanished entirely, now replaced with that same weird, unsettling glint in his eyes.
As they finally crossed through the site of the massacre, the air gradually growing lighter and less oppressive, Lyra finally broke the heavy silence that had settled over their group.
"Honestly, I didn't want to help at first. I was trying to have you solve this plane on your own, to let you grow through the challenge. But after that vision, it finally made me realize that I was pushing you too hard, too fast. You're still tier 1, and you don't even have abilities suitable for fighting against hordes like that. I-I'm sor…"
"It never seemed forced, not once," Erel interrupted her. With a genuine smile, he looked at Lyra before continuing, "I know that you're doing all of this for me, to help me become stronger, and I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you for going out of your way to help me like this, for protecting me when I needed it most."
Lyra's eyes widened in surprise at his heartfelt words, her face quickly turning away in embarrassment as a faint blush colored her cheeks.
The silence continued as they descended deeper into the cold, damp cave. There was oppressive darkness all around them, with the only source of light being the handful of feathers Lyra had materialized that glowed faintly with residual imaginarium energy. The cave was much larger than what the narrow entrance had made it appear to be, and as they ventured deeper, the passage seemed to subtly slope downwards as if leading them deeper and deeper into the very bowels of the Earth itself.
They kept walking as long minutes passed by, with Erel remaining completely on guard, every sense alert and waiting for something dangerous to emerge from the shadows. One hand rested constantly on the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it at a moment's notice.
For the first time since entering this plane, they felt completely blind and vulnerable. The cave was dark enough that they couldn't make out anything more than a few feet ahead of them, and even Lyra's usually reliable crow had been rendered completely useless in the stifling darkness.
Finally, when it seemed that they had been walking for far too long, the narrow walls around them opened up dramatically to give way to a vast, cavernous clearing. Walking further into the space, their eyes finally met a source of light in the distance, weak but steady.
The clearing seemed desolate at first glance, with jagged rocks jutting from corners, an uneven surface that spoke of natural formation, and a ceiling that seemed to vary dramatically in height from one area to another. But when Erel followed the source of the light, wooden torches that were hooked onto the walls and blazing with flickering fire, oil occasionally dripping from their cloth-wrapped tops, his eyes finally fell upon something that made his blood run cold in his veins.
'The children.'
There, at the far end of the vast expanse, hundreds of children lay unconscious on the cold, unforgiving floor. Their eyes were closed as they lay scattered across the rocky ground like discarded dolls, some even piled on top of others in grotesque heaps.
At the horrifying sight, Erel sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
'Don't tell me they're all dead.'
Ciril seemed to let out a small yelp of terror at the sight before his consciousness finally gave way entirely, and he fainted on the spot, his small body crumpling to the ground. Mae, on the other hand, stood beside his collapsed figure like a broken doll herself, her small form standing there aimlessly, seemingly unaffected by the horror before them.
'Wait, if she's still alive and unaffected…'
"They're alive, don't worry. Their fate is still attached to them," Lyra replied after using her Fate's Thread ability, her eyes turning back to their usual obsidian black from the luminescent golden glow they had briefly held.
"Where is the piper?" Erel asked, more to himself than to anyone else, as he frantically scanned the clearing with growing desperation. However, apart from the unconscious children, the space was eerily, unnaturally empty.
That was when he noticed it, the children seemed to stir restlessly, their small figures finally beginning to wake from their unnatural slumber. They toppled against each other as they rose like zombies from some nightmare, their bodies moving more like marionettes than living humans, their arms hanging limply at their sides. Their eyes opened slowly to reveal the same glassy, lifeless texture that Erel had seen before in his visions.
'Shit, they're still under his control.'
The terrible reality dawned upon him with crushing weight. If these children were to attack them, what would he do? Would he be forced to fight back against innocent kids?
The children, numbering in the hundreds, finally rose to their feet in all their eerie, unnatural glory. However, what seemed to unsettle Erel the most was how their vacant eyes seemed to snap toward Lyra at the same time. All of the children clearly fixed their empty gazes on Lyra without even a single exception, looking at her with faces completely devoid of any emotion or humanity.
"Well, fuck me," Lyra muttered under her breath, her usual composure cracking slightly.
'The piper must have seen her strength during the fight with the rats. But how?'
"What do we do?" Erel asked, tension evident in every word.
"We can't hurt them, absolutely out of the question," Lyra's words were stern and unwavering, as if serving as a sharp reminder to herself to never cross that line, even when dealing with what were essentially constructs.
"I'm their target now. I'll keep them busy and try to lead them away. You need to find the piper and finish this once and for all."
"But where?" Erel asked in growing confusion, desperately trying to rack his brain for anything that he might have missed, any clue that could lead them to the piper's location, but nothing came to mind.
The children in the distance seemed to break into a mindless, shambling sprint, some of them falling clumsily, others crashing into each other with sickening thuds, but their target was crystal clear.
Lyra moved decisively away from Erel's side, trying to intercept the horde from a different direction. As she moved with fluid grace, a pitch-black coat made entirely of feathers materialised behind her, enveloping her in its protective embrace as she used it to take flight over the approaching horde, clearly aiming to dodge them rather than engage, buying Erel precious time to think.
'Fuck, fuck, this is not good. Goddamn it, think!'
'The children at the village were lured away when the flute was played. He must have been near the village then, but the sound seemed to come from everywhere all at once. What if he wasn't actually playing the flute at all? What if we've had the entire concept of the flute wrong from the beginning? But he still has to be close to the village, all the adults were asleep, all the children gone… No, wait. It can't be. Not all of them were gone.'
Erel's mind raced as the pieces finally began clicking into place. He realised what he had been missing all along, the way Ren had been behaving so strangely throughout their entire journey, how he had shown clear, genuine fear only when he witnessed the true extent of Lyra's devastating abilities. How he seemed to be the least impacted by everything that was happening around them, remaining oddly detached from situations that should have terrified a normal child. But still, the flute itself didn't make sense in this context.
Sure he might be dumb or lame, but the coincidences were too much too simply ignore, even more when Erel could simply not think of any other alternative,
Turning his head subtly, moving slowly so as not to alert his target, Erel looked at Ren. The boy was turned toward Lyra's figure in the distance, watching intently as she continued to manoeuvre around the pursuing children, dodging them with supernatural grace rather than striking back.
'Fuck me! That goddamn bastard is actually smiling.'

Chapter end