[KoJ] Chapter 95: Imperceptible

Orten peeked through the crack in the wall. He was four floors up, but that meant nothing to some of the beasts that rose from Kalma’s pit. If they could climb a hundred kilometres of vertical wall, the piddly dozen metres that separated him would not stop their voracious rampage.

He was fine for now, so long as they didn’t notice him.

Curse his brother! If he hadn’t gone and gambled away the rest of their family’s wealth, Orten wouldn’t be stuck here, trapped in a building on the verge of collapse.

Curse him. If only hadn’t thrown away their last means to buy food, then the man wouldn’t be lying in the middle of the road without a shred of meat left on his bones.

Curse himself. If Orten hadn’t come up with such a stupid idea of looting the abandoned Pit City, they may have starved, but at least he wouldn’t have had to listened to his brother and sister’s screams as their guts were ravaged by hungry beasts.

For the past week, others had been making the day journey in a desperate effort to find something… anything they could trade for food. They’d even take month rotten vegetables if there were any. Orten had figured enough had made it back safely that it would be alright for them to make an attempt.

But as always, luck wasn’t on their side. No, fate had it out for them.

After the Mercenary Order abandoned Kalma’s Pit, and the city was evacuated, the lands around their town had become dangerous in a way they’d never been. Beasts far from their rightful habitat had moved in; all far too strong for any without enhancement to kill. Guns would have helped, but most of those had been confiscated for the war effort. Now, people survived huddling in ramshackle huts they’d been forced to erect in the town centre, where a small defence line could hold the beasts at bay.

The initial week had been unbearable. The wave of creatures had destroyed near all farmland in the surroundings. Unlike Pit City, surrounding towns like his own hadn’t been offered anywhere to flee. They barely remembered to warn them. By the time most realised how bad it would be, it was too late.

Now, the beasts had spread through the plains. Travelling from town to town was gambling on your life. Putting it that way, Orten really should have known the result. But desperation did dangerous things to you.

The city had been almost empty. Enough that they’d been able to scavenge a jackpot of abandoned goods. They’d even found a stockpile of cans and filled their bellies until satisfied for the first time in weeks.

But then that blood-chilling hiss had frozen them all in place. Not even the thought of death by hunger had terrified him so bad.

When it passed, and their bodies listened once more, they had thought that was it.

They had been mistaken.

From the bowels of the earth, thousands of beasts flooded over the lip of the immense pit. Standing in the middle of the street, they could only watch as the horizon suddenly swarmed. A single of those beasts could kill them all, and there were enough to recolour the landscape.

At the sight of death charging towards them, they’d rushed for shelter. The past weeks had left the surrounding structures damaged, some on the verge of collapse, but compared to the threat of monstrous beasts, a building collapsing on top of them sounded tame.

Then came the second hiss.

It was subtle. Not a roar like earlier, but a low wail that carried immense anguish and sorrow. It almost didn’t have a sound, but the three of them had frozen nonetheless. Distress flooded their veins, then terror at the alien sensation.

His sister went first. Taken by some flying nightmare.

Orten ripped his muscles into motion. Just in time to fall by the street-side as the first few beasts slammed into his brother. They barely even noticed him. With a dozen maws shredding through the man, he didn’t have so much time to scream.

Most beasts simply ran past; ignoring Orten and the feast that had become his brother. He’d gaped in horror for only a moment, before fleeing to safety.

Fear had controlled his actions. Only when he’d nestled himself in the nook between a heavy timber desk toppled on its side, and the cracked wall of the third floor did he truly comprehend the horror of what had happened. Orten spent hours switching between anxious jitters, and sitting in shock. Through the entirety of it, he stared through the crack at the shredded carcass.

The stampede of monsters had gone on for a while. Orten was surprised his building still stood. Most creatures hadn’t stopped, continuing to bound through the ruins as if the divine hunted them.

If only that were true. What followed was far worse than Belobog, Actaeon, or any other subject of worship.

When the silence came he couldn’t feel relieved. Not when he still stared at his brother’s remains. Not when there were so many beasts now flooding the land between Orten and the safety of home. Was his home village even safe? They had never had enough enhanced in his town to hold off such an attack. They’d barely managed to defeat the few stragglers in the weeks after the evacuation, at that had nothing on this swarm.

Orten would have stayed where he was for days had the choice not been taken out underneath him.

Just when he was about to… well, not relax, but let his body collapse, Orten felt the concrete tremble. It was subtle and brief. A quake that passed without a sound. He was quick to ignore the disturbance; ever since the Collapse of the Titan Alps, earthquakes were common… but the second, and third were harder to brush aside.

By the fourth tremor, it was constant. A rolling thrum that had the already damaged building quiver beneath him. Outside, there was a crash as one of the neighbouring towers collapsed. Ash flooded through the streets, mirroring the sky.

For a moment, as the roar of the earthquake reached ever higher intensities, the crack that was his window to the outside world became shrouded. Nothing was visible through the dust. He choked and covered his mouth. Orten couldn’t even hear his own coughs.

Were the Titan Alps falling again? They could only collapse so far before everything was destroyed. Leaping to his feet, he made to escape. The beasts were now the lesser threat.

He didn’t make it a step.

The building lurched. A roar of wind whistled through the cracks littering the concrete structure. Orten slipped. On the ground, he watched with a sinking feeling as the cracks spider-webbed around him. A loud snap struck a second before the entire wall broke away. The floor only a metre before him slipped away, falling with a crash to the street below. No dust rose. It was all carried away in the wind before it could obscure his vision.

Orten wished he couldn’t see.

A giant wall of scales blotted the sky. Scraping through the tallest towers — flattening each of them — was a mountain of dark green. It ripped overhead with power.

No matter the god he prayed to, none could hold a candle to the Titans.

Roaring wind, a trembling ground, and his own soul that refused to move in the presence of such a higher being, Orten couldn’t think. No thoughts breached the instinctual terror. If he could, he might have realised the spreading fractures. He might have had enough time to flee the building. Instead, he could only gape at the giant serpent as it crashed through the city as if defying gravity.

When the concrete shattered beneath him, he barely noticed. Orten, buried beneath a crumbling building, joined his siblings.

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I will not become the same as the Titans.

That is my decision as I race towards the land I left Ceph. She is the one who betrayed me… and while my simmering anger remains as intense as before, that is not something I wish to inflict on any but those who have wronged me.

Just because I have the strength to crush these sapients without so much as a thought, doesn’t mean I should. In fact, it is because of that power that I need to be aware of our difference. This… loss of control over my anger was a mistake. I did exactly what the phantom Titan did to my home.

That was a mistake. A mistake I do not intend to recommit.

But Ceph will not receive such compassion. She destroyed the trust I had in her. It was entirely her efforts that led me to experience the agony of the Henosis’ weapon. When I catch her, I will rip her apart and any that defend her… right after I find out why.

As I crash out from the tall pit I first reached the surface from, my body reaches full size. I slither to the East. Sure, I could move a lot quicker, but… I need time to consider exactly what I want to say to the dohrni that betrayed me.

It should be easy; ‘why dare do something so stupid?’ then crush the sapient when she ultimately gives a reason I don’t like. The very thought of confronting her shouldn’t be as difficult as it is. She hold’s no strength over me. Not even the strongest of her nations could compete… so why do I dread meeting her so?

I continue over the somewhat familiar land as memories of the past month trickle through my mind.

Ceph will learn why I shouldn’t be crossed. Then… then I’ll figure out what I want to do.

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