Lovecraftian Devastation
At their master's command, THEY surrounded me. I could perceive no visible eyes, nor any other semblance of a face, and yet THEY seemed to be staring right at me, gazing right through my soul. Each of THEM bore their master's mark, a glyph that I had come to fear. I stared right back at THEM and waited. Their current appearance, which would never arouse the suspicion of a passerby, masked the dangerous monstrosities within. I had seen their true form before, and knew THEY would soon reveal themselves for the abominations that THEY were. Their true forms defied description, but I shall do my best to put into words the demons that hid beneath these deceptively harmless forms.
The first could only be described as a gigantic torso, with massive arms that could rip the very earth from its foundations. In place of legs, a gyrating pair of limbs would rise above the beast's head, crashing down on the ground before it.
The second had been vaguely humanoid, lanky, and heavily armored. Its spidery arms had ended in three needle-clawed fingers, the thumbs grotesquely inverted. Upon its back, there had been a strange protuberance that, when pointed at an object, reduced it to dust in a bright flash of light.
The third had resembled an impossibly thin man, but its feet were akin to shovels and its hands were horribly disfigured. One hand looked to be a solid claw, absent of joints, while the other hand could bludgeon its victims from afar with deadly efficiency as it gave chase, reducing solid stone to rubble.
The fourth's head had been encased in an apparatus not unlike a wiry cage. Its feet were elongated and crept across the ground like gigantic centipedes, its multi-jointed legs supporting its bulbous body. A skeletal crest extended well above its head, and ended in a grasping claw, while its arms, if one could call them that, seemed to be shriveled and useless.
The fifth had possessed four crablike arms. A hooked appendage extended from its back, but I could not discern the purpose of the apparatus. It appeared to be a carrier of sorts, but I could not be certain.
The sixth had been built like an ape, with a hunched stature, a flat crest above its neck, and the strength to carry a manmade structure as one would a sheet of stationary. A bulbous growth sprouted from each of its massive shoulders, and it seemed to have no less than sixteen separate eyes above its vertically hinged jaws.
The seventh had been truly disturbing in its enthusiastic destruction. Hopping across the terrain on a single, pointed leg, it had seemed giddy as the tentacles protruding from its clawed hands whipped about, scoring deep gashes in anything they hit.
The eighth was unfamiliar to me, but its current form resembled a miniature of the third's facade.
And so I waited, waited for THEM to assume their true visage, waited for THEM to reveal themselves for the monstrosities that THEY were, but THEY did not; no, THEY had one more terrifying secret to reveal. As I watched, some of THEM appeared to raise their forelimbs to the heavens, as a continuous, faint ringing sound reached my ears, growing higher in pitch until THEY began to change form.
Before my eyes, the second opened its armored shell like some grotesque flower, while the third split its forelimbs in three, warping them and twisting itself until it resembled a disembodied arm. The first spread its arms like those of a gigantic mantis, producing a gaping orifice from the center of its body. As if sensing the second before it, the first seemed to reach this orifice toward its compatriot, producing four octopus-like tentacles that wasted no time grasping the second and thrusting it into the orifice, where it suddenly melted into an impossibly large face that can only be described as demonic. Shortly thereafter, the combined first and second reached its arms toward the third and fourth, lacing three more octopus-like tentacles through each of them before drawing them in. The third became the new beast's right hand, clawing at the ground while the fourth remained almost entirely unchanged. The sixth had made its way to my side at some point in time during my preoccupation with the other four. And as it began shifting, I hastily took cover behind a nearby structure. When I looked back, the sixth and seventh had elongated themselves, and attached themselves to the main body from behind. I saw no trace of the seventh, but the eighth had split its forelimbs in three and used them to lift itself off the ground. The three-legged form crept toward the thing that had assembled itself, which then proceeded to lift the fourth from the ground. I briefly glimpsed a small protrusion appear at the front end of the fourth, before it was forcibly brought down onto the eighth, whose mass briefly splayed out from the impact as it was lifted from the ground. Then just as suddenly, it fastened itself in place and came upon the land once more, no longer as a three-legged creature, but as the beast's left hand. The earth trembled as IT brought one mighty foot forward, dragging ITS jaw for a brief moment before it finally managed to lift ITS gargantuan bulk from the ground.
The hulking behemoth that now stood before me was a monster in the truest sense of the word. ITS multi-eyed, demonic face, ITS long, pulsating neck, colossal frame, mismatched limbs, and the various parts of THEM that were still visible on ITS body all contributed to the fear that I felt as I gazed upon IT, but the worst was yet to come. I could only watch in shocked silence as IT moved toward me on all fours, flexing ITS many mandibles as IT swung ITS ungodly head to and fro. ITS growls were turning into horrible wails; ITS head was beginning to split in half. Perhaps the Goliath before me was never meant to exist and could not hold itself together? If only I were so lucky. Finally, IT let out one last bestial roar, ITS neck shortened to a fraction of its original length, and IT opened ITS maw wider than should have been physically possible. The gargantuan beast had transformed ITS head and neck into a swirling vortex, and everything in ITS path was indiscriminately devoured. Earth, vegetation, animals, structures, men, women, children, none were safe from the swirling void within ITS gaping maw. As IT continued its assault, sparks of light and clouds of dust were ejected from ITS back. As I attempted to escape, I felt something strike my head as it flew past. I fought to stay conscious, but my vision began to swim and I collapsed. Before everything went black, I remember hearing ITS master cry out one word.
"DEVASTATOR!"