Page 199 of Eternal Ruin

“Talaa, I’m in no mood for games. There’s something here I must examine.”

Only the sounds of the forest—creaking frogs, native birds, and whooshing wind—remained.

“Susenyos!”

The scream came from the sky itself, crashing on him with earth-shattering fear.

He was running before he knew which direction he was taking. A canopy obscured his path, and he slashed across it with his short sword.

When he burst through, his weapon nearly slid from his grasp.

A large cloaked figure had Talaa hovering above the ground, a hand around her throat. Her slippers had fallen off and her feet were swiping furiously at the ground, eyes bulging.

With a cry, Susenyos tightened his hold on the hilt and slashed at the assailant’s back. He put every measure of strength into it and expected to cleave the flesh in half. Pure, unbending stone met his blade, the momentum and force of the hit made the blade rebound and cut into Susenyos’s collar.

He screamed, clutching his bleeding shoulder.

What in God’s name—

The cloaked figure turned to him slowly, two red eyes piercing like needles of venom. Susenyos’s body turned to water. The devil was truly here.

The creature dropped Talaa, who sputtered and writhed on the ground. Only then did Susenyos notice the black yeast on Talaa’s throat, the plague growing along her veins, crawling along her beautiful face. She began to scream for help.

“Talaa.” Susenyos gasped.

The plague spread faster than he’d ever seen any illness, coloring her eyes pure black and filling her tongue.

Susenyos scrambled back from her reaching hand, heart roaring in his ears. Tears filled his vision, and he shouted for his guards, knowing he was deep in the forest with only the birds to hear him.

The figure moved toward him. Beneath the long cloak, the ground was cracking, the short grass wilting, poisoned by this creature. It reached out a dark hand from its cloak, and there were claws, as thick and wide as a lion’s, aimed for Susenyos.

In his scramble, Susenyos found his sword again. The touch of metal under his palm breathed fire into him. He rose to his feet unsteadily and attacked with a roar. The creature did not move from the direct hit. The blade should have punctured its heart from the current angle, but it didn’t. It was no different than trying to plow through a wall.

With each blow, his resolve withered. The creature retrieved the blade like one snatched a doll from a child and snapped it in two. Susenyos’s eyes became as wide as the moon. His knees buckled but he couldn’t fall here.

He would die if he did.

With one last heartbreaking glance at Talaa’s writhing form on the ground, Susenyos ran.

Talaa’s screams crowded him from all directions, thick leaves and prickly branches clawing at him to go back, but nothing could make him turn. He knew he’d die here, today, and he wasn’t ready. He wasn’t strong enough to save her but if he ran, fought past the painful protest of his lungs, he could survive. Reach his guards and survive.

Forgive me. Forgive me.

Susenyos made it twenty strides before the cloaked figure appeared before him. Susenyos’s body slammed into pure steel. His nose gushed out blood, taking the bone-shattering impact and his forehead rang like metal against a statue. He swayed and fell backward.

Horror stretched his eyes as the creature closed in again. Susenyos scrambled in dirt, unable to find anything to throw or wield.

The red eyes glowed under the hood, flints of hellfire.

Torrents of black vines wrapped around its arms. A single touch of that rope and every living thing rotted, scorched, spreading and catching like wildfire.Birds fell from trees, their swollen bodies hollowed out, drained of blood.

Susenyos choked out a relieved breath when the rot stopped an inch from his feet.

“Wh-what are you?” His very core trembled, his voice truly pathetic.

“They call me many names.” The creature had… a man’s voice. Accented, and ancient. He spoke with the power of a thousand voices, form as still as a gravestone.

“You are the new boy emperor, and you will serve me.”