Come Dawn or Darkness

The cries could be heard in every direction, a familiar sound to the wanderer's ears. He had heard similar pleas countless times before, and would surely hear more once this one had been silenced.

"Help! Hello? Please, help me!" The voice was small, far away and distorted by the twisting patterns of the Abyss. But that was just another deception, no more an indicator of the lost soul's location than the direction that her voice was coming from was. In the darkness, a scream may come from any direction or every direction, may seem to be coming from right next to one's self or appear to be a thousand miles away. Yet that meant absolutely nothing; sound was a misleading sense in the void.

"Please! If you can hear me, I need help! I'm lost and I don't know how to get back!" The shouting had diminished to a whisper, yet the robed figure continued to press on, unswayed by the fact that the voice was now coming from behind him. He could see the trail now, a misty path of lavender light, winding it's way through the shadows; his target was surely waiting at its end. Suddenly the voice was coming from right above him, deafening him to all else that made a sound. There were no words this time, only shouts of terror. Something else had reached her first.

He knew the speed at which he traveled would make no difference, yet he broke into a sprint nonetheless, rushing down the path of purple light that now stretched before him. Finally he could see where it ended: a tiny aura of more heavily concentrated light, little more than a speck in the distance. That was surely the being who was cry out for aid. And, just as he had feared, it wasn't alone. A shadow was slithering toward it, rising and falling from the trail that so easily gave away its victim's position.

His sprint grout him to the place where the two beings waited no faster than walking would have, yet either way he arrived in time to see that the being with the purple aura was dangling through the ground. She was struggling to stay up, arms reached out before h as her legs kicked furiously in an attempt to find some footing. There was none, of course; she was going to fall if he or the beast did not reach her in time. Yet somehow, the Abyss would not allow her to pass through entirely, leaving her with just enough solid ground to hold onto to ensure that the choice of whether or not she fell was still her own. So there she dangled, like a child on a ledge, holding on for dear life as her doom slowly approached on a thousand jagged legs.

The traveler had encountered the types of beasts a before; centipedes at first glance, massive and horrifying. Yet a closer inspection of their bodies had revealed that they were actually just another form coagulation, another creature made up of the countless bodies of its victims. Ribs made up its legs, the bones splitting and reshaping under the massive weight of its metallic exterior. Shields, swords, guns, bars, and any other metal objects it came across became another plate on its disturbing coat of armor. And now it was looking to add this poor soul to its soft, wriggling collection of bodies underneath that exoskeleton. The pilgrim would not allow that.

Stretching out his right arm as he closed in on his prey, a massive silver-grey sword materialized in his hand, conjured forth from the very essence of the void itself. He wore boots clad in the same metal as his sword and other armaments, yet his footfalls were muffled by the void beneath his feet. The chains upon his sleeves and shoulders clinked noisily, but their sound was audible from every direction, leaving the centipede unsure of just where this new din was rising from. Finally, the creature turned itself enough to catch a glimpse of the figure rushing toward it and, upon opening its terrible eight-mandible jaw, released a scream filled with such agony and hate that it remains impossible to transcribe into written words. Thankfully, that shriek did not last long, for it's maw was only open for a few seconds before it was filled quite thoroughly with the wide point of the wanderer's blade.

As the sword sheathed itself in the creature's throat its blade began to glow with an eerie green-white aura as it absorbed the beast's life force and laid to rest the souls trapped within its body. The monster began to fall apart as its hijacked bodies disintegrated. At this sign of victory the traveler let go of the sword's hilt, abandoning the glad within the monster's mouth, and rushed passed it to the place were the young lady dangled over the threshold of the void. To his initial surprise however, it was not a young lady that hung there at all. What he had originally taken for arms from a distance turned out to be a pair of forelegs that ended in hooves. The dark hair thumbing down from her head proved to be a mane, streaked by a single line of pink and another of dark violet. And what he had originally assumed was merely purple clothing turned out to be her own natural coloration.

A horse, yes of course it was, yet not like any kind he had ever seen. It was too small for starters, with eyes on the front of it's face rather than on the sides. And it was those eyes that drew his attention immediately. They dominated the creature's face; huge, round, wide with fright, and pleading wordlessly for his assistance. Yet this little creature was by no means the most bizarre of being he had rescued from the abyssal shadows, and he hesitated for only a second before crouching to help the pony regain its footing.

He grabbed her forelegs and did his best to lift her up above the pitch-black floor. Being a rather skinny man to begin with, and by no means a body builder of any kind, this proved to be a bit more daunting of a task than he had hoped it would be. She was not particularly heavy, but the void did not seem to want to let her go, having already decided that she was meant to fall. Finally he managed to lift her up, bringing her up to the height of his shoulders so that her hind legs touched down on the ground softly. Once he saw that she was able to stand upon the colorless floor beneath them he let her down and exhaled deeply.

She looked up at him, fear still shining in her eyes. "Th-Th-Thank you." She seemed just as confused by his appearance as he was by hers. Part of him had not truly believed that she was going to be able to speak, that the voice he had heard had come from someone else, perhaps this creature's rider. Needless to say he did his best to maintain an air of calmness, less he scare her even more than she already had been.

"I... Uh... Your welcome." He was unsure just how to proceed, but meant to ask if she was alright before he was interrupted by a gurgled screech from the monstrosity that was slowly falling apart behind him. The tiny horse gasped in horror and moved behind him, just as he turned to face the abomination.

The sword was beginning to vanish from the creature's mouth, fading back into the blackness of the void. Such weapons could only maintain a physical form for a short while once drawn, though it was generally more than enough time to vanquish whatever may be threatening its wielder's wellbeing. In this case, it seemed to be slipping from existence just a bit too early. The creature had been mortally wounded, having lost most of its collected souls, but that did not in reduce the threat that it clearly posed. In fact, if anything it was even more dangerous now than before, when it hadn't been fighting for its life. The blades that The Order used were designed to drain the souls out of such monsters, keeping them safe until the knight could return to a physical world and release them; with neither death nor life being able to initiate within the void, this was the only way to free the lost from their horrible fate within these creatures' accumulated bowels.

As the last remnants of the hilt disappeared what was left of the centipedes let loose an anguished cry, announcing its fury to all corners of the Abyss. Staggered by the awful din, Torrent and his new client both fell backward, forced to the ground by the shear force of its scream. The monstrosity began to lurch toward them, dragging itself along with through the use of three long, now-exposed bones that curved out of the gaping hole in its stomach. Closer and closer it came, advancing upon its prey with new-found conviction. It wanted to eat them, yes, but now it also wanted them to suffer. To feel the pain that it had just been subjected to.

The tall one would be first, the one who had impaled and stolen away it's precious innards. He act as a replacement for some of its missing pieces, after he had been properly minced and ground by its gaping maw. Then it would turn its attention back to the one it had followed here to begin with, the small one on four legs that it had snatched through the light. And once it had devoured its original prey, it would... what then? Rest? No, no it was still too week for rest, something bigger might come along and make a meal of it, should it let it's guard down for even a moment. Continue hunting was the obvious answer, but the pain was too great, there was no way that it would be able to hunt effectively in this condition. Perhaps once it had devoured both of these creatures... Yes, surely that would ease its suffering.

A flash of light brought the creature's concentration back on the man before it, a flimsy assortment of weak muscles and organs wrapped in a thin layer of skin; far too scrawny to be of any threat, at least without his sword. The monster which no longer resembled a centipede commenced it's charge, the green light pulsing from the knight's upraised hand barely affecting its now-eyeless form. A it neared the pair the wizard's light died out, cast aside in favor of an equally useless tool: a small, twisted dagger which he grabbed off his belt. He tossed it from hand to hand, flourishing it at the abomination as if to scare it off. The creature stopped its charge just inches from the it's two potential meals, rearing up to a height twice that of the man standing in front of it.

The bones which had been pullings it along we suddenly in the perfect position to be used as slashing devices, their pointed tips and curved shape proving to be excellent traits for weapons designed to slice through skin and muscles. It thrusted one bone forward, forcing the mage to throw up his left hand to create a barrier of light between them. The bone spear impacted upon it and driving him back several feet. He would have tripped over his little counterpart had she not had the sense to dart backward when the attack had started, she was now a safe distance away, shaking with fear and quietly mumbling something to herself as she watched the battle unfold.

The next bone came slashing in from the right, but was deflected by the dagger's long, slithering blade. Whatever material the weapon was made from was clearly stronger than it appeared, the bone ricocheted off of it without leaving so much as a nick in the blade. Two more blows came in, one from the left and another from the right, both deflected by barrier and dagger respectively. But as the man held back those two bone blades the third shot out from the creature's chest, striking him in the gut just below one of the armor plates bound to his robes.

A storm of sparks erupted as the knight was propelled backwards on the bone spike, the dagger flying out of his grip as he was flung. This was it, the man was disarmed and on his back, an easy target for even the most novice of hunters. The monster moved forward, a slight pressure forcing down upon its back. It ignored the weight, likely caused by another portion of the body beneath its thick plates disappearing, taking another chunk of muscle along with it. It had to eat him now, this deterioration had to end it got any worse. It lung forward, aiming a bite at the injured human on the ground before it, hoping to take him in one massive mouthful. Instead, it's head dug into the ground, a painless process as simple as slipping on and off each tier of the Abyss, but an unexpected result none-the-less.