"What in gods' names does that mean?" Amai asks, squeezing some of the blood from his garments onto the sand; yet, the cloth still clung to him.
"We have more religions in the islands, one of them being Christianity," I inform, ringing out the blood from the white cloth. "And there's a story from it about the 10 plagues in Egypt. I could go into more detail, but the important thing is that a bunch of bad stuff happens to the Egyptians since the Pharaoh didn't listen to Moses."
"And is this bad stuff going to happen to us, now?" DG asks and my brows furrow. "Possibly. I think it was more about it affecting the people's way of life, since everyone was a farmer. Other than that, I don't remember too much, just that the last ones are the worst...we should arrive quickly."
"Let's go, then," Genos agrees. After we all wrung out the edges of our clothes, we tied up the ends of our garments so they weren't too heavy on our feet. However, this just made it easier for the sticky blood to rub annoyingly between our legs and chafe it; but, what else could we do?
Amai stopped in his steps, and we stopped as well. "Do you hear that?"
"No, are you crazy?!" MB asks and Amai scoffs. "Stop being an idiot for a second, and be quiet. Just listen."
Our party was silent, until I finally heard it. "Croaking," Flashy Flash mutters, and Genos turns to me, noticing my eyes light up in recognition.
"Do you recognize the second?" Genos asks and I nod, the word on the tip of my tongue as rumbling shook from behind.
Our party turned around and saw bloodied frogs hopping from the river, forming together into one large frog monster. Well over 400 feet, it was made of multiple frogs stained in a Christmasy green-and-red. It had wide, amber eyes, and a wide set mouth. It let out a mighty roar showing rows of needle teeth and two forked tongues as a swarming horde of flies emerged from its foul mouth.
"That thing is definitely not from the Bible," I inform as we all take up stance.
"We've got to take it down, or else we'll be plagued by it our entire journey," Amai informs, glancing at DG and Genos. "You both are useless, right now. Go elsewhere."
"Hey-!" DG starts, but Genos grabs his arm. "He's right, we're without our gear. We'll see if we can find a weapon."
DG hesitantly retreats behind Genos, as MB cracks his neck. "I'm not leaving, if that's what yer gonna call for-"
"I wasn't. Flashy Flash, can you try to break up the frogs really quick?"
Flashy Flash nods and was quickly off. He raced towards the approaching frog, quickly racing up his body. From the untrained eye, one could only see a white blur cross over the monster's shoulders and torso. The frog monster's tongues quickly darted at him; however, the tongue was only where Flashy Flash was last.
The frog monster temporarily collapsed, with a couple hundred squashed frogs falling at Flashy Flash's feet, but it wasn't enough. The monster rebuilt, angrier than it was last. The hero quickly reappeared out our side, shaking his head.
"Did no good. We'll have to eliminate all the frogs at once," he informs, holding up his hand, a small welt on it. "And, the flies bite." I look at the cloud of flies, eyes narrowing. The frog monster was probably on a temporary alliance with the flies to take us out...
"You guys take care of the frogman, I'll take care of the flies," I inform as the three nod before racing off. In the distance, I could see the sun to begin to set. My brows furrow in determination as I race to the nearest building, quickly scaling up it and hopping up unto the roof.
I glance down, seeing the roof made of stone with a circular chimney in the middle. I walk over to it, peering down through a glass lens.
Inside was a man, strapped to a table. He was gagged, strapped to a table as he was electrocuted as muffled grunts escaped from his lips. I gasped in horror, stepping back from the image, bumping back into something.
I quickly whirled around with a punch, only for my hand to be caught. My eyes glanced up, softening at the figure.
"Death," I whisper, shocked. "What are you doing here?"
"I don't have much time to explain. I'll tell you it all when you get out," he informs, red eyes steely as he passes me my hilt. "You'll need this to defeat the demon."
"Yo-"
Death's hand quickly went over my mouth.
"Don't say his name, he'll be able to see past the cloaking spell I've placed."
He moved the hand away, sighing "Listen, use this when the time comes. Hide it, he didn't send you with it since it's his only bane." I nod and tuck the hilt into a safe pocket in my chest.
His image faltered and I quickly reached out to touch him, but my hand went through his body.
"Don't go-"
"Don't worry, Gina." He was nearly gone when his eyes widened. "I almost forgot!" He shouts, voice fading "Don't go through the doors-"
"What?" I ask, eyes fixating on his lips, but soon nothing was there. I glanced back and noticed now how the sun was teetering on the river's edge and painted the sky a wicked purple.
I step forward to the roof's edge, pretending as if I hadn't just seen Death. The three were delivering attacks, but the frog monster kept regrouping while the flies swarming their vision.
I crack my joints, spreading my arms outward as I feel electricity surge through my entire body. My clothes clung with static against my body as a bubble of electricity formed around me. The swarms of flies soon turned to me, blindly flying towards their death as they hit my bubble. The sound of singed flies, which is a lot more disgusting than I thought it'd be, flooded through the air, as the frog turned towards the scent.
Frogs love flies...how could I be so dumb? I quickly released the electricity and hopped over the roofs to get to the river, a little over a hundred feet away.
"Scarlet!" Amai shouted in anger, "Get back here!"
"Trust me!" I shout back, landing at the river's edge. "Run over here!"
The boys paused for a moment before they stopped fighting and began running in my direction. The frog monster turned, eyes drawn to the figures retreating.
Turning towards the river, a heavy cloud of flies unassociated with the frogman hung over it, swarming about itself and ignoring me. Electricity once more surged through my veins, as I formed a plan in my head.
The three were now right in front of me, breathing heavily. "What do we do now? We're cornered!" MB yelled as I turned to him. "When I tell you to, get down!"
The three exchanged glances, before nodding. I turned to the frog monster, that was now rapidly approaching.
"It's almost here-" Flashy Flash informs, and I nod. "I know."
"It's going to kill us!" MB shouts. "Do something!"
"Wait..."
"We've got to attack it-" Amai argues, and I shake my head.
"Wait..."
"Scarlet-"
"Now!"
The three duck as I squat down. The frogman jumps over us into the pile of flies, mouth opening to catch it as I surround the frogman with electricity. With a resounding SPLASH! coating us all in blood once more, the frog monster dispersed in the water, thousands of froggy tongues jetting up to catch flies. I quickly release the electricity as soon as it hits the water, but the flies had already begun to swarm the frogs. The flies were ripping apart the flesh of the frogs while the frogs ate them simultaneously.
"That's disgusting," Amai sneers, shaking his blue head to free itself of blood droplets. "We're disgusting."
"It was the only way, and we should get going before we're the flies' next meal," I add, as we quickly run back to Genos and DG who were hiding in an alleyway.
"You look..." DG trails off and I arch a brow. "Do you really want to hug me now?"
He pales as I roll my eyes, squeezing the blood from my hair. It was dark now and we were still far from the pyramid.
"We should go into one of the houses and rest-" Genos suggests but I shake my head. "I don't think we should; there are probably worse things in the house than what we'll see."
"What are we going to do, then? Camp out?" MB suggests sarcastically, as Amai shrugs. "Seems like that's all we can do. While I truly hate camping, the demon probably has more maggot-apple tricks in the houses awaiting us."
"I'm down," I add. "We can take turns going on watch."
"I saw a barrel not too far from here," DG adds. "We can burn it for wood..."
"It's decided, then. Let's find a place to sleep," Flashy Flash sighs, as we walk over to a decent alleyway. Genos leaves and comes back with a barrel, making it into a campfire. Flashy Flash quickly rubs the wood together, setting it on fire.
"Who wants to go on watch?" MB asks as I glance around. No one seemed to be volunteering...
"I'll do it," I volunteer, raising a hand. I felt guilty, knowing that it was most likely my fault we were in this mess; unless some random demon wanted to cause chaos and just happened to know about the whole mess my life was in.
Yet, even if the latter option was even plausible, I'd know 100% it was my fault.
"I'll stay up as well," Amai adds, as I shake my head. "You don't have to-"
"I can't sleep if it's not on a goose feather pillow," he adds. "Why even bother?"
I sigh, but soon enough, we were the only two still awake. I sit next to him by the fire, and I lean forward towards the fire, hoping to feel heat; yet, I feel nothing.
Even the fire here is weird...
"You noticed it as well, then."
"Hm?"
"This place...it isn't normal," Amai informs, eyes staring at the fire. "The detail, yet lack of life."
"I did notice that there isn't really a temperature..." I respond. "The sun isn't hot. The only temperature was the wind and the waters-"
"Those weren't cold, either," he adds. "I asked Genos what he thought the water temperature was since he's been a robot for so long. He said the water wasn't hot or cold. He said the wind felt like nothing."
My brows furrow, and I lean back from the fire. "What's your theory?"
"This place feels like a dream we can't wake up from," Amai mutters. "That bastard probably has dream powers and united our brains for it to happen, slowly killing us in the real world. It's not the first time I've been through something this..."
"Wouldn't we be able to make anything happen, then?" I ask, thinking about the man I saw down the chimney. I don't think this was a dream, especially since Death appeared, and I could feel the coldness of my hilt; and still could feel it against my skin now.
"Yes, but I couldn't do anything earlier when I tried to make a bed appear."
"So this isn't a dream-"
"If it isn't, I don't know what it is," Amai cuts off, as realization strikes me.
He's afraid of the unknown.
"Speaking of all of this, how did Genos and DG's bodies become normal; but MB kept his bat and now its metal?" I change the subject, as Amai shrugs. "Don't know. Seems like the guy behind it all is disconnected from reality. Have you gotten hungry or thirsty, yet?" he asks, and I shake my head, now realizing this.
"I only felt pain, so far."
"Same here," Amai's brow twitches, gaze on the fire. In the blink of an eye, he slammed his hand into the fire and I yelped.
"Why would you do that?"
He pulls his hand from the fire, revealing a smooth hand with a few fly-welts on it.
"It didn't hurt. At all. In fact, now that I think about it, those flies didn't hurt after I ignored them..."
I glanced towards the fire, hesitantly placing my hand in it. At first, came pain and I was tempted to withdraw my hand; but keeping my mind on Amai's results the pain immediately subsided. I withdraw my hand, seeing it looked the same.
"It's perception, then. If we perceive the pyramid as closer, it could be even closer," Amai adds, and my eyes widen.
"And if we always see it as further away, we'll never escape."
He looks at the people sleeping at the fire. "With all of us, it'd be impossible to view the same distance. We'll be trapped forever."
"But, if it's based on perception, if they perceive themselves as needing sleep, won't they be sleeping for an extremely long time after all this exercise?" I ask as Amai nods.
"One of us needs to get to the pyramid, now-" Amai suggests as a devious idea floats through my head.
"I'm sorry, Amai," I shake my head as his brows furrow. "What-"
I knock my fist upside his head, quickly knocking him out. If he was unconscious he can't perceive how long it takes.
Walking out of the alleyway, I walk down the street, seeing an abandoned cart. Quickly bringing it to the alleyway, I stack the figures inside of it, before sitting at the head of the cart. I've flown with multiple objects before, how hard will this be?
Building up an electrical current, I imagine the pyramid up close, closing my eyes as I jet through the air, the others unconscious in the cart behind me. This was most definitely one of the weirdest situations...
I hear howls of pain from below from livestock, felt boils grow and fade on my skin in seconds, pass through thunderstorms (that only charge me to go on), hear locusts buzzing, and feel suffocating darkness surround me.
The darkness subsides with a woman's cry. I open my eyes to see myself over the end of the river, at the base of the pyramid. Sirens in the bloodied river clutched at their chest, where baby dolls, resembling real babies, hung limp. It would've been compelling if I didn't know that there weren't any other humans here aside from us.
I land far away from the river, quickly pushing the cart into the gilded pyramid. The others were still unconscious, and I was tempted to put them back outside until the door closed behind me.
"So, you figured it out, huh?" A voice chuckles, and I turn to see the demon, sitting on a gilded throne. The walls were dark, aside from lanterns every few feet. He giggles, turning his head to the side.
"I underestimated you, I'm quite shocked. Humans are quite dumb, after all. So, let me reintroduce this place, then."
The lanterns flared, as the brass chandelier lit up thousands of candles, now illuminating the walls. The whole room served as the pyramid, but all around on the walls were hieroglyph-styled images of types of torture. Yolia was now less tiny and was double the size of a normal person. His body was coated in an inky black, with ridged scars in patterns covering his body.
"Welcome to my lil' ol' corner of Hell," he laughs.
Hey everyone!
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