CHAPTER 11
Nil's entire body morphs into something grotesque and vile. The speed in which its veins are growing; the twists and turns its ligaments make; the constant crunch from the restructuring bones. It is a crude awakening for those watching.
This is hell.
Riley steps away from this monster, emotionally petrified. Urth hops out of its range for safety measures. Zephyr and the Hunter unsheathe their respective weapons, ready to have a brawl with what they can only describe as a demon.
Eylventh is cozy in its hole, but it decides to check what is going on outside, curious. The flying crocodile sees Nil doing its uncontrolled temper tantrums on the ground, metamorphosing into a beast, and Eylventh proceeds back into its safety net, alarmed. It observes, quacking. It analyses every detail of this thing with a look of apprehension, growling.
The cat gains in muscle mass, increasing in size. Its color is changing to what resembles a dark shade of red, hairless, and the texture of its skin is becoming gluey. As it is expending, there's now holes that are opening from everywhere in its body.
Whatever Nil is turning into, its reaching heights that even the hunter is starting to fear. Everyone trembles, terrorized over this gigantic mutant that was once a kitten shooting pebbles with a submachine gun attached to its tail.
It descends to the status of golem made of flesh, sporting many eyes everywhere on its body, walking on two enormous legs and dragging around two arms that reaches right past its knees. It has an eyesight on everything. It even locates Eylventh, hiding in its small crevice.
"W-What. Why, wh-when did my tears could do something like this? Why?? When??" Questions the doctor, still tearing up.
He is the only one still close to the monstrosity. Too close.
"Okay doc! It would be a tad bit crucial that you move back here right now!" spouts Alister in an attempt to help the doctor escape.
"Ooooh! I am SO so sorry, my dear little star! I should. I should have been there for you!! Please forgive me!!"
Too much pressure. Riley is moaning and pleading to the creature that was once his cat. This creature cannot listen to human speech, nor does it look like one who can understand any of it. Riley could never beat sense into whatever state Nil is in.
It's at this moment that Eylventh taunts the newfound monster, roaring like the proud flying crocodile it is.
To retaliate against the genius verbal assault, the monster spawns a pack of mini turrets that covers at breakneck speed its entire body. It has the aim, the rounds, everything that constitute a turret, now mounted on the slime-like body of this gigantic golem. Each turret sticks under every eye of the monster. He only leaves two giant lobes on the frontal area to focus on the small fries.
With a confident bounce out of his comfort zone, Eylventh flies downward, as the turrets starts to shoot. Despite the precision of the turrets and the rounds being about as big as a boulder, it's arduous to hit something that soars through the air as fast as Eylventh.
Zephyr, witnessing one of the animals on the assault, gets out of his emotional funk and starts acting.
The first thing Zephyr does is to dash with a flashlight towards his bag and get his grandfather's trademark pyramid barrier. The blacksmith picks up four golden pyramids that connects to one another thanks to transmitters on each face that emits enough energy to reach 5 meters. He drops one pyramid to the left, throws one to the right and another one at the back with the right amount of strength to not send it off the platform, surrounding him, the assassin, and Urth. He holds a switch in his left hand, ready to press it as soon as Eylventh and the doctor passes by the pyramids at the front. Zephyr's cracks are still present, although dissapearing, with his eyes glowing in a fiery orange.
Despite having its eyes set on the boy, the beast lacks adaptation to its new composition, thus failing to multitask as Eylventh continues to be an eyesore, dodging everything the turrets throw its way. The bird then goes under the golem and picks up a lamenting Riley, who is easy to lift thanks to how fast Eylventh is flying.
"How's that gonna fucking work against behemoth over here!?" Shouts the assassin to Zephyr.
"The Yundath specializes in stuff like this! Let me do my thing, and then maybe we'll leave this place alive!" Retaliates Zephyr, unhinged in the wake of what is unfolding in front of them.
"Alright! I'll tell you when to press the button!" States the hunter.
"Okay, well-!"
"NOW!"
Zephyr's instincts kick in and he presses that button so fast he breaks the controller. Riley and his bird immediately fly inside Zephyr's concoction. At that moment, the barrier glows of an eye piercing yellow. Before it can surround the whole party, Eylventh leaves Riley inside the pyramid barrier with the rest of them and goes hiding below their platform.
Every rock fly so fast that it smashes the ground they stand on, leaving small crevices. However, this barrier is so strong that it repels any rocks that touches it.
A perfect setup.
"Okay! That is done! We need a way to assault it when it wears out of bullets!"
"Kid, you've got a freaking sword with a huge lighter on it! Make a fire sword! Ever thought about that!?"
"What am I gonna do to the turrets!?"
"Shit, right, the turrets!"
The golem of flesh is shooting precisely at the pyramidal shield, not having a clue of its defensive prowess. It is therefore wasting round after round of munitions on a yellow shield that is indestructible by hook or crook.
The golem, now gassed out, needs to reload every turret one by one, as its brain cannot concentrate on all of them at the same time when giving rounds.
"It's reloading it's turrets at a slow pace! Maybe we'll have a chance to kill it with ease!" Proclaims the young boy.
"NO! DON'T YOU DARE KILL HIM!" screams the scientist, horrified of losing one of his favorite creations.
"And why not, gramps!? That thing is the one that's going to kill us if we don't do something!" Exclaims the hunter.
Alister's concerns are valid. Instead of reloading, the golem, in a fit of rage, decides to walk straight to its preys, not giving them any time to strategize their next maneuver. The beast raises his fist onto the hair and lets it falls down like a hammer on the barrier. The impact braces the whole platform and destroys the barrier.
Somehow, its preys are still alive.
In a last-ditch effort, Urth starts its engine. It croaks and sucks as much air as it can in its cheeks. His face and stomach expand in mass due to the wind building up and this prompts everybody to get out of the bullfrog's way and hold onto something… Except for Riley.
He instead acts as a stop sign, placing himself right in front of Urth in the hopes that it will back off.
"Please! I beg of you! I know Nil was like a brother to you! Please do not do this! I BEG OF YOU PLEASE!"
Urth seems unsatisfied by this beggar in scientist clothing. Showing little remorse, he pushes everything out of its body. Zephyr, out of instinct, grabs the doctor by the sleeve and plants his torch blade firmly onto the platform to help him and Riley stay still. Alister does the same with his katana. The bullfrog's compressed wave of air is akin to a hurricane, pushing winds that would eradicate buildings and levitate trees for rides that could stretch to kilometers. That level of force is hitting the golem in one shot, sending it flying straight out of the platform.
Between it screaming for dear life and Riley crying Nil's name, both are not loud enough when up against the noise produced by Urth's cataclysm.
#
A minute or two passes by.
The doctor drops to his knees.
His memories of the day he successfully birthed the small cat resurrects in his consciousness.
In the city of Castleburn, near Brooklyn, years after the incidents in Gallows, Riley J. Smith had about 30 experiments in the span of 30 days. 27 failures. 3 successes.
After a decade of making mistakes, showering himself in criminal activity after criminal activity, his sympathy for human life was gone out the drain, leaving in its steed the excuse that science was the answer. He thought that these three animals, with their quirks, troubles, and pain, would somehow give him the strength to go through a task only Hercules could put himself through.
Riley is no Hercules; in fact, he resembles no figure from Greek mythology, for the legend of Riley J. Smith is of a man who looks 2 decades older than he should be, mentally crippled, scars of his own trauma bleeding into his creations, seeking love, romance and friendship; but what he cultivated, with that desperation, was a connection with ruin, and the ruin rears its ugly head in the form of these visions, those faint whispers, seeking help against something he understands and ignore at the same time; they are getting louder: babbling thoughts, mean spirited chants: "You! Crazy! All these people! Murderer! Experiments! Scum of a scientist!" repeating over and over and over until he must place his hands on his ears and as he sees the hands and heads and legs of victims asking why over and over and over and-.
The rest of the crew observes briefly.
Riley J. Smith is crawled onto a ball. They can hear him repeating "stop talking to me" faintly while crying. Zephyr looks away. On one hand, an understanding as to what Riley is going through. On the other hand, disgust.
"After everything, the last thing I need is to have sympathy for this guy."
"You say that, but you saved his ass." Interjects Alister.
Zephyr has no comment towards that interjection.
"Look kid, after all we just witnessed, is sympathizing with him a wee bit the worst that can happen? He's gonna die anyway." Interjects Alister.
Zephyr's skin cracks have healed for the most part. In what Alister described, Zephyr's body moved on its own. If he had control of his movements, Zephyr would have let Riley get smashed to death by Nil. That is not what happened. In this sort of environment, the boy's worst fears and insecurities can show. He believes now that he must hide them at all costs. No emotions are worth showing to those bastards. That is how he's able to act cold in the moment with a man that could kill him easily.
"Yeah… Yes. When he calms down, I'll ask him my questions. Until then, if he thinks crying helps him solve anything, then he can go ahead."
The blacksmith sits down near his bag, with the bullfrog joining him. To the assassin, both look in denial. Alister understands Zephyr's view as black and white. His maturity only reaches so far. That's what loneliness does to the development of a child, yet another point Alister can empathize with.
Alister keeps his gaze at the doctor. Where could be empathy, there is instead remorse. Where could be disgust, there is instead anger. If you knew that things would only get worse, why put your life's work on human trafficking in the first place? Why put yourself through taking lives as stock for your "purpose"? Why those who breathe suffering do it around those whose lungs are not tainted? It's almost like you wanted something to clutch onto, something to make your sins more bearable.
That last part makes Alister flinch. Now he's finding points in common with his target too. He suppresses that thought and inspects the platform to distract himself.
Of the three animals, Nil was the one that cuddled itself to Riley, giving him affection like he had rarely experienced before, like that dog back in his hometown. Compared to the two others and most humans he knew, he had a bond with this cat.
The last day or two were not so great. What do you expect after placing living beings inside capsules for 240 hours straight? There was a divide between Riley and his creatures, a two versus two kinds of situation.
Now it's a handicap match. Urth willing to push its own master to his death only cements the separation. The seeds that stack the odds against Riley are blossoming, ready to tower upon him.
What is his purpose again?
Who cares…