SQUELCH. CRACK. POP.
The sound of wet meat knitting together echoed across the silent square. It was a noise that violated the senses.
Inside the barrier, Provost Joseph fell to his knees. He stared with hollow eyes as the Beast Tumor rose from its own ashes.
"It… it cannot be. We killed it. Provost Kirill destroyed the core. I saw it shatter."
Yohan Creed gripped his sword until his knuckles turned white, but the weapon trembled in his hand. "Why won't it die? What kind of monster is this?"
Fennalin didn't answer. She simply stepped back and terror was etched onto her face.
The Beast Tumor did not just reform; it evolved. The amorphous blobs of flesh twisted and hardened. Bone pushed through the skin to form plating that resembled medieval armour. A massive slab of calcium grew from its left arm to form a tower shield, while its right arm extended into a jagged greatsword of fused bone and muscle.
It stood like a knight from hell.
"GRAAAAAAAH!"
The roar shattered windows three blocks away. Its aura was heavy, suffocating, and reeked of ancient decay.
"What the hell is up with that Tumor, Provost?" Meldov yelled over the wind. "It's up and kicking again!"
He fumbled with a small device in his pocket and pointed it at the beast. The needle on the display redlined instantly.
"And to make matters worse, its Possession Magnitude has increased! Look at this!"
He shoved the Sarxicmeter toward the others.
9.3.
Targellan, the giant of a man, stared at the reading. Sweat broke out on his forehead. "Nine point three? I've never faced anything like this. That is approaching god-tier levels of power in a single host."
Kirill stood motionless amidst his panicked Apostles. His grey eyes remained sharp and cold.
'Immortal? No. Nothing in Sarx or Earth is immortal. I overlooked something.'
BOOM!
The Beast Tumor raised its bone leg and stamped the ground.
"Scatter!" Kirill commanded.
The unit leaped away in all directions just as the shockwave hit.
CRACK-BOOM!
The pavement where they had stood disintegrated into a massive crater. Debris flew like shrapnel.
Kirill landed lightly on a jagged piece of masonry. He didn't blink. He opened his mouth and whispered.
"Swarm."
A flock of scripture birds poured from his throat. They dive-bombed the monster and exploded against its bone armour.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The explosions rocked the giant, but when the smoke cleared, the bone plating was merely scorched. The damage was negligible.
"Hindar!" Kirill shouted without turning his head. "Use your Gospel! Find what is sustaining that creature's vitality! Is there a hidden core I overlooked?"
"On it!"
Hindar landed on a rooftop and faced the monster. She closed her eyes for a heartbeat, then snapped them open.
"Gospel Release: Oculus Panoptes!"
[Translation: Eyes of the All Seer]
Her irises dissolved into rotating geometric patterns of golden light. The world stripped away its physical skin. The dust, the blood, the buildings—all faded into wireframes.
Nesbeth became a grid. But the Beast Tumor blazed like a sun.
Hindar focused. She looked past the bone armor, past the regenerating flesh.
"There!"
She saw a network of light points pulsing within the creature. But in the centre of its chest, where the core should have been, there was nothing physical. Instead, a swirling vortex of energy rotated in the void.
And trailing from that vortex was a thick, ethereal tether. It stretched across the city and connected directly to the towering Sarx Effigy in the distance.
"I see it!" Hindar shouted. "It has an Ethereal Nucleus! It isn't physical, which is why we couldn't see it or cut it!"
"Explain!" Kirill demanded while dodging a massive swing of the bone sword.
Hindar explained rapidly.
"It's being empowered remotely by the Sarx Effigy! The Effigy is acting as an external battery! As long as that connection exists, the Beast Tumor can reform endlessly! We need to destroy the Sarx Effigy first. That will cut the tether and force the nucleus to materialize into a physical core!"
Meldov grinned and spun his axe. "Then what are we waiting around for? Let's smash that Sarx Effigy to bits!"
He turned and dashed toward the distant Sarx Effigy.
"Wait, you idiot!" Hindar yelled.
"Go!" Kirill ordered. "Targellan, Hindar, join Meldov! Destroy the Effigy! I will keep this big bastard busy!"
"Yes, sir!"
Kirill vanished in a blur of motion and reappeared directly in front of the Beast Tumor's face to draw its aggro.
Hindar and Targellan turned and sprinted after Meldov.
…
KABOOM!
A massive explosion erupted near the base of the Sarx Effigy before the trio even arrived. But it wasn't friendly fire.
From the smoke and debris, a hulking shape rose to block their path. It was a Guardian Tumor, standing twelve feet tall. Its hide was not pink or red, but a dull, metallic grey covered in long silver spikes. Behind it, dozens of lesser Tumors gathered in a defensive phalanx.
"Out of the way, you karking Tumors!"
Meldov didn't slow down. He leaped into the air and swung his axe with two hands.
"Fenpire!"
The axe blade glowed with a hungry crimson light. It whistled through the air and cleaved three lesser Tumors in half before Meldov landed and hurled it at the giant.
THUNK!
The axe struck the Silver Hide Tumor in the chest. But it didn't cleave through. It stuck in the dense hide and stopped.
"What?" Meldov's eyes widened. "It didn't cut?"
The Silver Hide Tumor roared and grabbed the axe handle.
"Hey! Give that back!"
Meldov snapped his fingers. The axe dislodged itself and flew back into his hand.
"Tough bastard," Meldov muttered. "Grey hide… silver spikes. It's a Silver Hide Tumor. High defence."
The Silver Hide Tumor didn't wait for introductions. It roared and leaped toward Meldov. Its massive fists were raised to smash him into paste.
HUUUUUM.
A brilliant light flooded the street.
A massive, glowing diamond cross materialized between Meldov and the monster.
CLANG!
The Tumor punched the cross and recoiled as if it had hit a wall of fire.
Targellan stepped in front of Meldov. He slammed the base of his massive cross weapon into the ground.
"Don't be too greedy with the spoils, Meldov," Targellan rumbled.
He gripped the handle of his weapon.
"Maltese Shine!"
FLASH!
The cross released a blinding pulse of holy radiation. The Silver Hide Tumor shrieked and retreated, shielding its eyes. Around them, the lesser Tumors stiffened. The light locked their joints and began to sizzle their flesh. They were immobilized.
"Now!" Targellan shouted.
The Silver Hide Tumor recovered quickly. It opened its maw and gathered energy.
VZZZT!
It spat a powerful blast of dark bile at them.
PING!
A translucent barrier appeared out of thin air. The bile splashed against it harmlessly before the barrier shattered into glass-like shards.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Glowing white kunai wove through the air like angry hornets. They zipped through the frozen lesser Tumors.
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
Heads popped. Limbs fell. The mob was decimated in seconds.
Hindar landed gracefully beside her fellow Apostles. She held a glowing kunai in a reverse grip.
"Stop messing around," she scolded. "We have a job to do."
"Aye, aye," Targellan grinned. "Thanks for the shield."
He pointed his cross at the Silver Hide Tumor. "The big one is mine."
He dashed forward, the heavy weapon dragging sparks across the cobblestones.
"Dream on!" Meldov yelled. "I'm not letting you take all the glory!"
He rushed in from the flank, his axe hungry for blood.
Hindar stayed back. She didn't join the melee. Her eyes glowed gold as she scanned the battlefield.
"Leith Blades."
She whispered the command.
Dozens of spectral kunai manifested in the air around her.
"Go."
With a thought, she sent them flying. She didn't need to aim with her hands; her Visual Gospel guided them. The blades curved around corners and pierced the skulls of Tumors trying to flank her teammates.
She stood perfectly still in the centre of the chaos, a conductor of death, clearing the path so her brothers could bring down the Sarx Effigy.