In another corner of Nesbeth, far from the shattered walls and bloodied fields, a cluster of survivors huddled within a sanctuary. Civilians pressed close together on the cracked ground while injured Priests and warriors lay on makeshift cots fashioned from torn cloaks and broken doors. A shimmering transparent barrier enclosed the small complex, and it held back a writhing horde of Tumors that clawed and slammed against its surface with relentless fury.
CRACK! THUMP!
The impacts echoed like thunder, but the barrier held for now.
Inside, an older man with a weathered face and a badge marked 27 knelt beside a young Priest whose chest bore a deep gash. He hovered his palm over the wound, and green light pulsed from his hand while the torn flesh knit itself closed with slow, deliberate precision.
The young Priest gasped as the pain ebbed. "Thanks, Provost Joseph. That blow almost killed me. I thought I was done for."
Joseph withdrew his hand and helped the man sit upright. "Easy now. You are one of the lucky ones." He glanced toward the barrier where shadows of Tumors loomed. "Tell me the situation out there. How bad is it?"
The Priest leaned against a nearby wall and wiped sweat from his brow. "Very bad, sir. Church Number Twenty-Seven has lost three Apostles already, and four more lie in critical condition. We exorcised dozens of Tumors, and we rescued as many survivors as we could from the nearby streets before those things consumed them. But they keep coming. Wave after wave. No end in sight."
Joseph nodded grimly and followed the man's gaze to the barrier. Four exhausted Priests stood at its corners with hands pressed against the glowing surface, and sweat poured down their faces as they channelled their Gospels to maintain the shield.
"It must be the Sarx Effigy. If we do not destroy it soon, they will overrun us completely."
He pointed to faint cracks that spiderwebbed across the barrier.
"That shield will not hold much longer. Those four are burning through their power, and they have no infinite supply. They must be close to collapse. Look at those cracks. The Tumors sense weakness."
A cluster of Tumors gathered at one section and pounded harder. The cracks spread faster, and survivors inside noticed.
A woman clutched her child and cried out. "Help! They are breaking through!"
"We are going to die!" a man screamed, and others joined in panicked wails.
Joseph rushed to the weakening section and slammed his palms against the barrier. He poured his own energy into it, and green light flared along the cracks while he strained to seal them.
"Hold! I need more power here!"
The barrier groaned under the assault, and fissures widened. Tumors pressed their maws against the surface, and saliva dripped down the transparent wall.
CRACKLE!
Just as claws pierced through a widening gap, brilliant broadswords of pure light rained from the sky.
SWOOSH! THUNK! THUNK!
The weapons impaled the clustered Tumors and pinned them to the ground where they writhed and dissolved into black smoke.
A figure landed nearby with a heavy thud. Joseph recognized the silver hair and bloodied white garments immediately.
"Apostle Yohan Creed," Joseph called out. He opened a temporary gap in the barrier. "Get inside, quickly!"
Yohan dashed through with a mother in one arm and her child in the other. He set them down gently on the ground.
"You are safe for now. Stay within the barrier."
The mother clung to her boy and whispered thanks, but Yohan turned to Joseph. "What is the status here, Provost? How many have you secured?"
Joseph sealed the gap and shook his head. "The barrier will not last much longer. We are holding, but barely. What about the reinforcements? Did the Sensory Nun Unit receive our message?"
Yohan wiped blood from his sword. "I do not know. The Sarx Effigy interferes with our Ascending Stones. The frequencies are jammed."
"It must be the static from the warp," Joseph muttered. He glanced at the exhausted Priests who maintained the shield. "Your Church members are still out there?"
Yohan nodded and sheathed his blade. "They fight to rescue survivors and prevent the Tumors from claiming more bodies for possession. But we have been in active combat for thirty-eight hours straight. Soon we will burn out."
Joseph clenched his jaw. "Then we must destroy the Sarx Effigy now. What about your Provost? Have you heard from him?"
"Provost Lamar?" Yohan began, but his badge vibrated against his chest, and he looked toward the centre of town where a plume of smoke rose into the sky.
"That signal... the Provost is in danger. Curses! Not even he can face the Effigy alone. I must help."
He turned and bolted away before Joseph could stop him. "Wait, Creed! You cannot go alone!"
Yohan's figure vanished over a distant rooftop, and Joseph stood frozen for a moment. He clenched his fists until blood trickled from his palms where nails dug in.
He could not leave his post to aid the younger Priest, or the injured civilians would perish without protection.
He whispered to the smoke-filled sky. "How long must this terror continue? Where is our reinforcement?"
…
"GRAAAH! DIE!"
Fennalin leaped high into the air while hugging a massive boulder against her chest with both arms. She plummeted toward the nine-foot Tumor below, and the gaping maw in its chest snapped open wide to receive her.
CRASH!
She drove the rock straight into the beast's throat with all her weight. Bone and flesh exploded outward, and the Tumor collapsed in a heap of twitching limbs that dissolved into black sludge.
She landed amid the ruin and wiped sweat from her brow. Her gaze lifted to the distant plume of smoke that rose from the town centre.
"That signal..."
A sharp snarl came from behind. She spun just as a smaller Tumor vaulted onto her back and clamped its jaws toward her face.
"Damn you!"
Fennalin cursed. She reached over her shoulder and seized the creature's head in her gauntleted hands. She squeezed until the skull cracked like an egg, and the body went limp.
"I do not have time for you small fries."
She flung the corpse aside and glanced up again. Yohan's silver hair flashed across the rooftops as he dashed toward the signal.
"Creed! Wait for me!"
She bounded after him and leaped from one shattered roof to the next until she caught up. They ran side by side while tiles crumbled beneath their boots.
"Our Provost must be in trouble," Fennalin said between breaths. "Earlier he told us he would destroy the Sarx Effigy with Apostle Runiar. Do you think it was too much for them?"
Yohan kept his eyes forward and leaped a wide gap. "I hope everyone is all right, but this knot in my gut says otherwise." He touched his badge and whispered, "Provost Lamar..."
"GRAAAH!"
A deafening roar erupted ahead, and a monstrous shockwave blasted roofs from several buildings. Shingles and beams flew through the air, so Fennalin and Yohan slowed their pace and dodged the debris that rained down around them.
They skidded to a halt on a sturdy rooftop and stared at the horror rising in the distance.
A towering mass of flesh uncoiled toward the sky while Tumors from the surrounding area merged into it. Bulbous arms sprouted in every direction, each tipped with gaping mouths or huge, unblinking eyes. Multiple heads fused along its torso, and they screamed in unison.
"What the hell is that thing?" Fennalin winced. She shielded her eyes from the dust.
"I have never seen a Tumor on that scale before," Yohan replied.
He pulled a small device from his coat and glanced at the fluctuating readings on its screen. The Sarxicmeter needle jumped wildly between 7.6 and 8.2 Possession Magnitude.
He held it out to her. "Look at this."
Fennalin leaned in and her eyes widened. "That cannot be right."
The Slack Jaw Tumor Zareth encountered on the road to Nippledale registered only 1.5. Even at that low level, one was weak, but in droves they could overwhelm a single Priest. The average Apostle could handle a 4.2 solo, yet anything above that enters a different realm of horror entirely.
Fennalin's heart thumped.
"This... this is a Beast Tumor."
The readings climbed higher as the monster ravaged the streets below.
WHOOSH!
One long limb scraped across the ground and carved a deep abyss that swallowed homes whole. It scooped up the displaced earth and hurled massive chunks toward distant Priests and civilians who scattered in panic.
"Watch out!" Yohan shouted.
"That monster is trying to crush us all."
Fennalin looked up and clenched her fists. "Not gonna happen!"
Wind whipped around her arms, and glowing yellow steam rose from her skin.
"Chrysosefos Polemistís!"
She thrust her arms skyward, and two enormous golden phantom hands materialized above them. They caught the descending debris in a thunderous grip that shook the rooftop.
"KYAAAH!"
Fennalin screamed louder and poured more power into her Gospel. The phantom hands expanded until a giant golden warrior fully revealed itself. The ethereal figure mirrored her feminine build and towering stature, yet it rivalled the Beast Tumor in size. It swatted away the remaining earth chunks with sweeping blows.
Yohan watched from nearby as debris crushed other sections of the town. 'She is careless as usual. Her Golden Blessed Warrior protected us, but others suffer the fallout. Still...'
He noticed the veins that bulged on her forehead. 'She cannot maintain this form much longer.'
Fennalin knew it too. Sweat poured down her face, but she commanded the warrior forward before her strength failed.
"Go! Destroy it!"
Thud! Thud!
The golden giant charged and rammed into the Beast Tumor. It pinned the monster to the ground, and several buildings crumbled beneath the impact.
Seconds later, the Golden Blessed Warrior faded into sparks of light.
Fennalin dropped to her knees on the roof and wheezed in pain.
Yohan rushed to her side and knelt. "Fennalin! Are you all right?"
She waved him off and forced a grin. "I am fine. Just... a bit drained."
"You need healing," Yohan insisted. "We should get you back to Provost Joseph right away."
She shook her head and pointed at the monster, which already stirred and was rising again. "We need to stop that bastard first."
"But how?" Yohan asked. "Its Possession Magnitude is off the scale."
THUD!
A figure crashed onto the rooftop beside them and startled them both. They turned and saw a man collapse in a heap, his body covered in severe wounds that wept blood.
"Runiar!" Fennalin exclaimed.
Yohan helped the wounded Apostle sit up. "Apostle Runiar... you accompanied Provost Lamar to the Effigy. What happened? Where is the Provost? That distress signal..."
Runiar coughed violently and spat blood onto the tiles. "It is too late."
"Explain yourself!" Yohan demanded.
Runiar lifted a trembling hand and pointed at the rising monster. "That thing... that is Provost Lamar. Or what remains of his body after a powerful Tumor possessed him."
"No," Fennalin whispered. "That cannot be."
Yohan shook his head in disbelief. "How? Provost Lamar was the strongest in our Church. His Gospel could topple mountains. No Tumor should have overpowered him easily."
Runiar leaned against the chimney and recounted the events through ragged breaths.
"We fought our way to the Sarx Effigy. It grew from the earth like a twisted tree with roots that pulsed and writhed. At its base, four arms intertwined, and above them hung many heads, red and purple with hollow mouths that dripped viscous slime.
"The Provost told me to guard his back while he destroyed it. I fended off the gathering Tumors, but the mouths on the Effigy spat out bug-like creatures. Those were Tumors in their original form before possession. They swarmed him, yet he crushed them easily with his Gospel Pressure alone.
"Then he unsheathed his sword and charged it with power. The blade glowed blue and steamed for minutes. When he unleashed the slash, it cut the Effigy to pieces. We thought it destroyed.
"But a cloaked figure attacked him next. It looked human, yet it weaponized strange veins from its body, which convinced me it was a different kind of Tumor. While the Provost cut down this new foe, the Effigy shot a tendril that attached to his spine. He tried to sever it, but nothing worked. I watched him morph into the beast you see now."