Vaid Empire: Mother of Tentacles
Chapter 27
19th of Onis, 758 BVE.
The City of Tentacles.
The City of Tentacles loomed before Darmi in the darkness. Leaving the protection of the jungle tree line behind, she strode across the tramped landscape towards the towering wall of black stone and black tentacles.
“Aifa, I’m coming.”
Finality danced in the night air as she walked among her forsaken kin. Her slimy descendants poured from the trees all around, summoned to the heart of their homeland in preparation for whatever approached.
Surrounded, Darmi walked with a face of stone. Fear turned to a hard knot in her stomach, something she had long grown accustomed to. With Invaelag’s transparent tentacle wrapped tightly around her waist, she walked like an unseen ghost among the living beasts.
She gripped her dagger in both hands as the swarm of seedlings slowly crept by. If they sensed her, she knew the tiny blade would do nothing to save her. Made of crude metal, she had found it years ago among the bodies of Cavari males left behind after a seedling raid. A final memory of her species, an echo of the Cavaries she had caused the downfall of, Darmi squeezed the wooden handle with regret.
The seedlings passed her as if she didn’t exist while she glanced at the countless carvings littering the barren landscape as she strolled by. It was one thing to see them in the distance from atop a tree. Now that she was up close, she saw the maddening detail of the wooden sculptures the trio had littered across the land from what remained of shattered trees. Thousands of tentacles had carved figures she had never before seen. Some towered over her petite height. Others were no taller than her ankle, gradually lost beneath the mud. She saw carvings of people, of strange humanoids, of fantastic beasts pulled from the heights of imaginative dreams and the depths beyond her deepest nightmares. A celebration of creation lay spread out around her, yet Darmi passed through with a single purpose. Every step brought her closer to Aifa.
She came to a stop before the colossal black wall. Cavari hands had built the once grand City of Aslyd, though now their works were decorated by slimy tentacles slithering across the stone. Seedlings remained fastened to the wall, leaving little of its surface visible beneath their squirming appendages.
With the entirety of her species trapped within the doomed city, there was no reason to open the towering gates. No new captives would be ushered inside. The entrance to the city was sealed and buried behind a cover of tentacles as returning seedlings simply climbed over the wall. She watched their slimy appendages grasp and wiggle as they used each other as leverage to ascend.
Darmi gathered her courage. There was no going back. As moonlight bathed the writhing wall, she fastened her dagger to the belt of vines that rested above her hips. She glanced back at the tree line in the distance, then down at her hands. A finger was missing from each hand, lost to predators. The tip of her tail too had been severed by sharp teeth. Years of surviving the jungle on her own had left scars that would never heal, yet still she lived. Aifa’s teachings had kept her alive.
Closing her eye, as what remained of the other was concealed behind a vine wrapped around her head, she inhaled a breath. Exhaling slowly, she peered up at the wall with determination.
“I’ll find you.”
Darmi followed the lead of the returning seedlings. Faced with a sealed gate, she’d have to climb. Heart quickening, she waited for Invaelag’s abilities to demonstrate their worth.
Her transparent companion never let his mother down. She watched as the tentacles looming before her gradually slowed their writhing movements until they fell limp. Long had she grown accustomed to the constant muffling of her thoughts beneath the strange mental protection of Invaelag, though now she watched as he softened the thoughts of the seedlings nearby. For years she had endured having her inner voice feel as if it echoed from a vast distance within her head. When he used the same effect upon the simple minds of the seedlings, their thoughts collapsed entirely as they were severed from the trio’s influence.
The effect was temporary and greatly limited. Only the closest creatures fell limp, though they formed a path upwards through the squirming masses.
Keeping calm despite her fear, more than accustomed to controlling her terror, Darmi began to climb. She felt the wet tentacles in her grasp as she carefully ascended the wall, using the limp masses of unconscious seedlings for leverage as they remained fastened to the otherwise smooth wall beneath. She felt the slime tingle upon her scarred skin wherever it touched.
Invaelag followed slowly while keeping his tentacle tightly around her waist. Though he had only grown to match her short height, his bulbous mass greatly outweighed her petite body. Together they crept carefully up the wall of the fallen city, driven by the anticipation crackling in the air.
Something big was approaching.
A conscious seedling nearby flicked its tentacle in the darkness of the night. Darmi froze as it narrowly avoided slapping her thigh. Though invisible to their senses, a touch would reveal her.
Climbing, pausing, nearly falling as she briefly lost hold of the slippery appendages, Darmi finally pulled herself onto the top of the wall. She saw the doomed city below as it stretched out before her, the result of all her former mistress had worked to seize. Aifa had indeed claimed a homeland for her children.
Even as she endured the sight of everything she had aided in destroying, she couldn’t wait long. Invaelag’s thoughts prodded her forward with urgency, sensing whatever approached growing closer and closer. Though miles away, it would arrive with the morning sun. When the darkness of light was washed away, their final hope would end.
Never had Darmi seen a city, though she was forced to turn her back to the new sight as she began the descent down into its depths. The other side of the wall was much the same as outside the city, and she made her way down before stepping foot into the streets of Aslyd for the first time.
What she felt beneath her was not mud, however. With every inch of the ground seemingly covered in tentacles, Darmi felt the piles of tendrils woven together beneath her feet. They rested limply, unconscious within the snug ring of invaelag’s mental protection while the rest of the slimy ground seemed to squirm endlessly.
Truly in the heart of a doomed world, Darmi knew there would be no escape if she was caught now. She felt Invaelag’s straining mind as he concentrated deeply to maintain his protection, hoping he’d retain enough strength to conceal Aifa as well when they found her.
If they found her. The sight of the buildings bathed in tentacles all around strained her hope. The central ziggurat loomed in the distance, and Darmi could only pray to The Creator that Aifa was inside. If she was anywhere else within the maddening maze of tendrils, she’d be lost forever.
An unsteady hope drove Darmi towards the large structure as it towered above the living buildings.
No longer did Aslyd have streets. The once muddy pathways between buildings of black stone had long been buried beneath a sea of seedlings. They washed over each other, squirming masses flooding the city. Only Invaelag kept her safe and concealed, allowing her to walk carefully atop unconscious tendrils.
Hardly could an inch of the countless buildings be seen. Dark tentacles covered black walls until the structures themselves appeared alive. Darmi beheld the horror of what she had created with every step, passing Cavari women fastened to the squirming walls.
She heard the suffering of her species. Gurgled moans echoed from every direction, mixing with wet thrusts as tentacles glided between parted thighs. Little more than living wombs, pregnant bodies decorated every wall of every building, mindlessly pleasured.
Guilt pooled within Darmi’s gut. With the limbs and faces of every victim concealed by tentacles holding their bodies firmly in place, they were no longer people. Her species had been reduced to squirming flesh, their only purpose to be impregnated and tormented.
With their countless trapped legs held wide apart, the bioluminescent blue of their Cavari loins glowed in the night. Darmi bit her lip with silent agony, seeing the vast display of lights faintly glowing throughout the city. Thousands suffered everywhere she glanced.
She fought to ignore the mindless moans as she made her way between the living buildings. Muffled pleasure echoed all around as female forms quivered in their permanent bindings. Each of her steps was careful and calculated, finding a path through the uneven ground of seedlings.
Circling around a tall mound of tentacles, she was forced to venture close to the wall of a building. She couldn’t stop herself from glancing at the women she passed. One trembled as tentacles gushed sperm deep inside of her, fertilizing her bound body as potent seed oozed heavily from between her parted thighs. Another was hardly visible, for only her pregnant belly was on display as tentacles lovingly caressed it. A third convulsed uncontrollably, seemingly gripped in a continuous orgasm that offered no end.
Despite her guilt, Darmi’s face was hard as she passed by. Once, she would have whimpered, though the world was cruel, and she had grown accustomed to horror.
Creation surrounded her with every moan and every spurt of sperm meeting fertile wombs, though she marched onward. She and Aifa would have to endure the knowledge of all they had done when they were safely away together, though for now, Darmi had to find her.
In the darkness, the ziggurat waited ahead. It beckoned to her. The pyramidal structure stood buried beneath the forms of the trio, a monument in the center of a sea of squirming torment.
She peered up at the statue of Aifa as she entered what had once been the market. The surface of The Mother of Tentacles shimmered beneath the moonlight, for tentacles covered the imposing statue from head to toe. The longing in Darmi’s chest settled deeper, seeing slime dripping from the image of the woman she loved.
“Nearly there, Aifa.”
The monstrous forms of the trio utterly dwarfed any creature she had ever seen. They stretched into the sky, covering the entire ziggurat beneath their masses as they stood fastened to the structure. Up close, she shuddered beneath their might.
Her hope had dwindled at the sight of them, only to swell when she saw the main entrance. Rather than being buried beneath their masses, it stood open to the city. The golden and crimson forms of Jynae-bal and Cycath were divided by a narrow gap that revealed the staircase leading to the top of the ziggurat.
Like an insect beneath the notice of gods, Darmi stared up at the trio as she crept inside the structure. Her descendants had grown far beyond her.
The guts of the ziggurat were dark as she entered, though the bioluminescent glow of her eyes and loins allowed her to navigate. Her advanced Cavari sight revealed the horror within, for every inch of the internal halls and passageways were covered by tentacles. They dangled from the ceiling, dripping slime down upon her.
Muffled moans came from ahead. Emerging into what had once been the throne room, she saw the horror decorating the living walls.
Darmi swallowed.
Upon the walls hung familiar bodies. With their faces wrapped and concealed, Invaelag’s thoughts caressed her own to reveal their identities. He sensed their souls as they squirmed in their constricting bindings, offering no doubt of who they were. The daughters of Wair suffered around her.
The four women Darmi had failed to save were spread out, accompanied by three strangers bound near the throne. The trapped women moaned.
Darmi approached the nearest while she was shielded behind an expression of stone. Studying the woman, her arms and legs pulled far apart and buried within the wall of tentacles, she was little more than feminine flesh squirming as tendrils caressed whatever crimson skin remained exposed to the air. A tentacle slithered deep inside her vagina, making her quiver as it writhed inside her.
She watched as slime oozed down the woman’s bound form, dripping heavily. As Darmi felt the tingling liquid upon her own skin, she didn’t dare to imagine the woman’s torment.
A silent command urged Invaelag to act. His focus shifted to the tentacles binding the woman, making them fall limp.
As Darmi’s hard expression twitched, she pulled her dagger free and sliced at the tentacles wrapped around the woman’s head. Invaelag’s senses offered a promise of her identity, though she had to see for herself.
“No…” she whispered, hardly more than a breath.
Utterly drenched in slime, Faima’s face was revealed. Glowing eyes of solid blue rolled back in the darkness, her mind in ruins.
Darmi touched the vine concealing her missing eye, remembering Faima’s claws. What she had lost was nothing in comparison. Standing before what remained of Wair’s sweetest daughter, Darmi knew she deserved a greater punishment for dooming the moaning woman.
Never could she undo all that had occurred, though with a hard face she pressed the dagger to Faima’s throat. Her hand trembled, though she calmed it and focused. With gritted teeth she granted the tormented woman the only mercy she could offer. The dagger bit deep and glowing blue blood spilled forth to illuminate the dark chamber further.
“Forgive me.”
Darmi tended to the past. Time was short, though she could not rush. Like a ghost wandering through a dream, she approached Irima next. The woman trembled as seedling sperm oozed from her tormented loins.
“Forgive me.”
She had failed to save them once. Her dagger cut across Irima’s throat, releasing her from the torment Darmi had caused. Memories poured forth along with her blood, watching her bound body quiver before falling limp.
Darmi found Cirui. The petite body of Wair’s youngest daughter swelled with a round pregnancy. The tentacles caressing her belly fell unconscious as Invaelag concentrated.
“Forgive me.”
Darmi’s blade released her. Blood poured down the girl’s belly, containing a tentacled child that would never be born. Her suffering was over, yet Darmi’s guilt remained.
Erimi squirmed, unaware that she was the last of her sisters. She had lost her home. Her family was gone. She had suffered greatly beneath Aifa’s cruel wrath, yet what she now endured was far worse. The strongest of her kin, a warrior, her fight ended as the blade carved across her neck. At last, she rested.
“Forgive me.”
Blood stained Darmi’s hands. Long had she accepted what she had caused. She didn’t flee from the sight of their corpses, instead peering at them in silence. No tears remained to shed. Only her guilt endured as her face hardened further. When she finally turned away, she regarded the strangers across the chamber.
Approaching the throne, she held her blade ready. Never had she met the women squirming before her, though their identities caressed her awareness. She whispered names that had never before touched her lips, though they were people all the same. “Sarui, Pirmi, Rafi.”
Sarui had been placed upon the throne, her legs permanently held apart and draped over the armrests as a tentacle glided in and out of her sex. Sperm dripped from her pleasured loins to drench the former seat of her father. Invaelag allowed Darmi to sense the girl’s connection to Mauron, though it held little meaning, for the dead Knowledge Holder had been a stranger. Regardless, she would permit the girl to suffer no longer.
The remaining population squirmed in the grasp of tentacles throughout the city while Sarui had been granted a place atop her father’s throne, yet still she remained a slave. All she had been, all she had craved to be had been lost. Little remained but fragmented memories within her shattered mind, falling silent as Darmi’s blade carved across her neck. The blood of The Knowledge Holder’s daughter spilled upon his former seat of power as she was finally allowed to rest.
The remaining two had been placed on either side of the throne, fastened to the wall just behind. Between their bound bodies hung the remains of a Cavari skeleton. As Invaelag’s thoughts caressed her mind, Darmi’s remaining eye opened wide with shock as the beast’s whispers revealed the truth of the bones. Above the throne hung Audir, and she couldn’t help but scowl.
The transparent beast’s thoughts guided her own, permitting her to sense the unseen connection binding the two women to the bones. Darmi regarded the daughters of the man who had hunted her, watching their bound forms writhe as tentacles flicked and rubbed between their thighs.
She stepped back. For a moment she felt an urge to leave them to their horrid fate. Her cold expression turned to a scowl, watching a tentacle slither over the skull of Audir, though her hatred was a dying thing. All around her were the remnants of Aifa’s hate, and she could offer no more. With a sigh, she granted the twins the mercy of her blade. Their corpses remained hanging beside their vile father.
“Forgive me.”
The past was dead, and her future was rapidly threatening to seal shut. Darmi left the chamber of death behind, letting memories slip through her fingers as she strode swiftly through the ziggurat’s slimy corridors.
Rising through the great structure, she searched every chamber. Aifa was nowhere to be found. As she approached the spiral steps that would take her to the highest chamber, she was stopped by the sound of muffled moans as she passed a doorway. Peeking inside, she saw another woman fastened to the far wall of a small room.
“Aifa?” Darmi dared to hope. Invaelag’s thoughts brought her only a quiet disappointment. Before her squirmed the head priestess. “Gima.”
Another stranger. Another name the woman herself likely no longer remembered. Another being Darmi had doomed. She readied her blade. Invaelag’s thoughts caressed her mind, allowing her to feel the fabric of time. Like the others, Gima had remained bound in place for years. She shuddered with horror as she watched the woman’s pregnant body quiver mindlessly, reacting to the tentacles teasing her dripping labia.
With a slash of her blade, Darmi released her.
The night was swiftly coming to an end. The sun approached with every passing moment, and with it the fading of her hope. The feeling of finality she couldn’t explain remained at her back, ever driving her steps as she left the corpse behind and climbed the final steps. What she found inside the highest chamber was little more than the ruins of Aslyd’s grand legacy. Nothing remained to hint at the generations of Knowledge Holders that had called the chamber home, for tentacles covered every surface, and seedlings dangled from the ceiling.
Finding no sign of Aifa, Darmi’s hope withered further.
Pondering, feeling Invaelag’s concentration straining, she recalled the tales Aifa had told her in rare moments. With a final hope, she hurried down into the depths of the ziggurat once more, seeking the cave that rested far beneath.
Searching, sprinting, Darmi found the tunnel that descended deep beneath the ground. Careful to avoid slipping on the tentacles laying across each step, she ventured into the darkness waiting below.
The doors at the bottom lay shattered and open to the dark void beyond. With a small blue light glowing in the distance, Darmi dared to creep into the vast cave of Onaalag’s tomb.
Movement flickered in every direction. The cave walls and ceiling seemed alive, seeing countless black tentacles covering every rocky inch. She could hear them moving, feeling their slime dripping down upon her as she crept deeper into the darkness towards the small light. She could make out the figure of a woman’s body wrapped in tentacles ahead.
Dark objects lay scattered throughout the cave. As Darmi grew closer to one, she realized they were oversized vases carved from stone. She sought the center of the otherworldly chamber, creeping towards the black heart of Aslyd.
The source of the small light became obvious. Coming to a stop, Darmi beheld the colossal pillar of tentacles stretching from floor to high ceiling looming before her. The living structure writhed, a monument holding a prisoner deep beneath the world. Seeing the body wrapped in tentacles and held tightly to the surface of the organic pillar, the faint glow coming from a Cavari vagina, Darmi’s hope swelled.
“Aifa…”
Little but her former mistress’s thighs, groin, and torso were visible among the constricting tentacles, though Darmi held no doubt of who squirmed before her. Invaelag’s thoughts offered a confirmation.
Elation mixed with horror, however, beholding Aifa’s suffering. The black spear was secured at her side, beyond the reach of hands concealed by tendrils. Tentacles tickled and licked at every exposed inch of skin while another writhed inside her helpless sex. Slime and seed drooled from her glowing labia, for The Mother of Tentacles was little more than flesh for her children to torment.
Disgusted at the sight, Darmi’s hard composure faltered for a moment as she whimpered. She quickly snuffed out what remained of the weak girl Aifa had known and straightened, preparing herself.
Invaelag concentrated as she readied her blade. As the tentacles torturing Aifa fell limp, she reached up to begin cutting them away. Black blood squirted as she carved through the tentacles wrapped around their victim’s head.
Darmi froze when she saw her face. Even drenched in slime and unable to open her eyes, she recognized the woman she loved.
A tentacle remained down Aifa’s throat. Darmi began to tug, pulling inch after inch of the long tendril from her mouth. Just when she was beginning to wonder when it would end, the tip slipped free of Aifa’s lips and squirted as it fell away. So too did she pull the tentacle from her sex, watching as sperm oozed heavily from her tormented loins.
Next, Darmi slashed at the tentacles trapping Aifa’s arms and legs. Careful to avoid the crimson skin beneath, she gradually cut the appendages that had held their prisoner for years. Aifa began to slip from their grasp before falling into Invaelag’s outstretched tendrils.
“Aifa? Can you hear me?” Darmi grabbed her hand as she and Invaelag gently helped her to the cave floor. “I’m here. I’m-”
Trembling on her knees, Aifa vomited seedling sperm across Darmi’s thigh before collapsing. Though the strange whispers of her captors had somehow kept her body healthy and unchanged, entirely preventing her muscles from atrophying, she had been unable to move her trapped limbs for years. Her body merely shook as she rested on her side.
“It’s Darmi. I’m here!” she dared to say loudly, seeing the living walls move in reaction to the noise. “We can’t stay.”
Invaelag wrapped a transparent tentacle around Aifa’s waist. His concentration deepened, threatening to falter as he strained to keep both women concealed. She merely twitched at his touch.
“Aifa, tell me you’re still in there.” Darmi held her hand tightly. “Please…”
After a long moment, Aifa squeezed her hand.
Darmi’s heart fluttered, though time was short. Invaelag could feel the sun rising outside. Together they lifted Aifa’s shaking body.
As she draped Aifa’s arm across her shoulders, Darmi turned back towards the giant pillar a final time to eye the spear. She reached out to take it, only to stop as she felt its smooth surface. It offered little use but to coax memories of Audir and Aifa’s hate, and she left the vile weapon behind with a grimace.
The morning sun was burning away the night beyond the dark cave. Gritting her teeth as anticipation tightened her stomach, Darmi and Invaelag supported Aifa as her feet dragged across the slippery floor. Every inch of her was drenched in slime, dripping down her saviors’ sides.
Darmi had endured the worst the jungle could offer, yet hardly could she imagine what Aifa had suffered.
Remembering the tales of Aifa’s escape long ago, she was dismayed to find that seedlings concealed the entrances to the tunnels at the rear of the cave. Instead, She and Invaelag were forced to drag her past the shattered doors to return the way they had come. They began to ascend, leaving the tomb behind.
Up and up and up, each step tested Darmi’s hope. Invaelag never ceased his warning, sensing something massive continuing to approach from miles away. They emerged into the ziggurat and swiftly sought the entrance.
Aifa attempted to open her eyes, only to grimace and clench them shut at the first hint of sunlight she had tasted in years. They stepped outside and found their fate waiting just beyond the entrance. Darmi gasped.
As the morning light bled across the orange sky, she froze at the sight of gargantuan tentacles laying across the path of their escape. A wall of gold and crimson blocked the way forward.
“She comes to witness the end.”
“She comes to behold the beginning.”
“Rise. The created touch the hand of The Creator.”
The voices of the trio echoed in her head. They couldn’t sense her, yet they knew she was there. Long had they waited for their fate. She had been a fool to come.
Darmi’s heart raced as they stood trapped. She began to retreat up the stairs surrounding the entrance, her only choice aside from being sealed within the ziggurat. Dragging Aifa along with Invaelag, they began to climb the many steps leading to the flat top of the structure.
Rising, they ascended as the sun burned upon the horizon. Glancing back, she saw the sea of countless seedlings beginning to climb the pyramidal structure as she did. They scrambled up the trio’s colossal masses.
Darmi stepped onto the ziggurat’s peak and pulled Aifa up. Remnants of the great brazier lay crushed where Vaecath had once sat, though his ruined corpse had long been cleared away. Untouched stone offered refuge from the trio, for the top was one of the few places their mass hadn’t covered. Their gargantuan tentacles rose high into the air at all sides, offering no escape.
She carefully lowered Aifa to rest upon the smooth stone floor before kneeling at her side. Heart racing, she could do nothing but accept her fate. After years of running, of surviving, she muttered an exhausted sigh as she peered down at her companion’s slimy face. “I’m so sorry…”
The protective tentacles of Invaelag fell away, for there was no point in concealing them any longer. His transparent form merely waited beside his mother.
Aifa’s wet body was limp as she rested on her back. Atop the ziggurat’s flat peak, she was a quivering ruin beneath the orange sky. Near the crushed brazier, she was where she should have burned long ago. Instead, she had cast Mauron into the flames. In this very spot she had loomed over the city she had conquered for her kin. In this spot Vaecath had died.
She had risen and she had fallen. Having hated the cruelty of her own species and the world itself, she had suffered far more at the hands of her children. The act of creation had been her destruction, yet all she had made would leave a permanent mark upon the world.
“Aifa…” Darmi ran her fingers through her companion’s slimy hair as she heard the seedlings gradually approaching from every side. The sound of countless wet appendages climbing the ziggurat echoed all around. “I love you…”
Though her eyes remained shut beneath the stinging sunlight, Aifa’s hand twitched. A ruined mind rested within her head. Thoughts and memories fluttered in tatters. As the girl touched her cheek, however, what little remained of the woman she had been gathered enough awareness to utter a single word. “Darmi…”
Her remaining eye began to grow damp at the sound, nodding. “I waited. I came.”
The sound of a distant roar echoed across the sky. The world itself seemed to shudder at its approach.
Turning, Darmi saw the first hint of what had caused Invaelag’s urgency. Through the colossal tentacles standing high into the air, she glimpsed the distant vessel. It rose from the horizon like a hovering mountain, propelled by great flames burning at its rear. The gargantuan white vessel dominated the sky, consuming all beneath its vast shadow.
The Creator had returned.
“The moment arrives at the proper time.”
“The end proceeds. The beginning is promised.”
“Praise Onaalag. Praise Synaalag. Praise creation.”
The strange voices of the trio echoed in her head as Darmi began to tremble. High above, the sky was blocked out as The Creator’s great vessel slowed to a stop directly above the doomed city.
With much of the sunlight blocked by the tentacles surrounding the ziggurat and the colossal vessel above, Aifa’s sensitive eyes dared to flutter open. She beheld her creator, seeing the strange white metal of The Chimira dominating the sky. Broken thoughts clung to the memory of Sarui’s warning.
The seedlings climbing the ziggurat were consumed by a writhing frenzy as the vessel hung above them. The Creator merely lingered, as if judging all he had left behind. Gone were his Cavaries. Gone was Onaalag, his first creation. Abominations swarmed in their place beneath his might.
Darmi found that she and Aifa were mere afterthoughts as the trio’s whispers were aimed towards The Creator. The seedlings offered no threat, continuing to climb their gigantic kin.
Aifa watched with an empty gaze as the bottom of the great vessel began to split. A small platform began to lower itself from The Chimira, hanging far above the ziggurat, only large enough for a single man to stand upon.
The figure of a strange man gazed down from the high platform. With pale human skin and silver hair, what remained of Aifa’s memory recalled him from her visions. Like Zela, his silver eyes glowed brightly. Far above, he pointed a finger down towards the creatures that threatened to consume his world.
Every seedling had been summoned. Every previous year had passed while the trio had waited patiently for this moment. Onaalag’s visions had offered a warning. Synaalag observed across time. The massive tentacles stretched from the ziggurat, reaching into the sky as their lesser kin writhed below.
Coiling around each other, gold, azure, and crimson tentacles rose into the sky as one. Below, Aifa and Darmi watched.
Creations had become creators. The tips of their tentacles touched The Creator’s finger, and a blinding flash of light consumed the world.
Darkness.
Aifa could see nothing above but utter, consuming darkness when her vision cleared.
Blinking, Darmi frantically looked around. “Aifa? What…what happened?”
Gone was the sky. Gone was The Creator. Their forsaken world stood in a black void.
No sun, no moons, she looked down to see that the city had been plunged into absolute darkness. Hardly could she see the tree line of the jungle beyond, taking small comfort in realizing that the ground at least remained.
The ziggurat beneath them lightly trembled as a horrid boom echoed below. Turning, Darmi realized that the gargantuan tentacles of the trio were collapsing all around her. Their great weight crashed into the city, crushing nearby buildings.
Dark forms fell from the sky as the seedlings began to fall as well. They tumbled from where they had climbed up the collapsing tentacles, raining and splattering far below.
For an instant she believed the great beasts to be dead, only to feel the remnants of the trio’s whispers caressing her mind like distant echoes. Merely losing consciousness, like the seedlings, their colossal masses began to fall limp.
Darmi grabbed Aifa’s hand, though she couldn’t pull her limp body to safety on her own. Screaming for Invaelag to aid her as the heavy tentacles fell all around, threatening to crush them, she froze in surprise when Aifa yanked her close.
What little remained of Aifa’s sanity knew they were doomed. With the last strength of all she had been, she held her ruined thoughts together long enough to utter all she wished to say, words she should have offered long ago. “I…love…you…”
Darmi’s single eye widened as she peered down to meet her gaze. For an instant she thought she saw the woman she had known behind her eyes. When they rolled back, Aifa was truly lost.
A crimson tentacle toppled over. With the women directly in its path, it curled just in time to avoid crushing them both. Twitching, it began to slither towards Aifa, for the trio began to gradually regain consciousness.
Turning, Darmi saw one of Jynae-bal’s collapsed tentacles beginning to rise once more. It moved in preparation to strike.
Darmi had a brief moment to squeeze Aifa’s hand. She savored the final time she would feel her touch as the sluggish tendril reared back. “Aifa…I’m sorry…”
Disoriented and slow, the golden tentacle’s great mass built momentum. It struck like a monstrous whip sweeping through the air. On her back, Aifa’s wet form was safe. Kneeling, Darmi stood in its path.
Invaelag leapt to wrap his mass of tentacles tightly around his mother in an instant. The golden tendril struck them both. The force of Jynae-bal’s strength ripped Darmi off her knees and sent her hurling through the air.
Pain exploded through her body at once, her world spinning as she tumbled through the air. No doubt the strike would have killed her in an instant without Invaelag’s mass absorbing much of its force, yet still she felt as if a boulder had slammed into her.
Black buildings below, the dark void above, all swirled and spun around her as she fell, still wrapped in Invaelag’s protective mass. Falling, tumbling through the air, falling, falling, she saw trees in the darkness.
The instant she crashed into the treetops of the jungle, her breath was ripped from her lungs. Crashing through the branches, she thought only of tentacles reclaiming Aifa as she lost consciousness.
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