The Divine Hunter

There were still people in the room filled with fluorescent plants, and then the ground rumbled, shaking the group standing right outside the ouroboros door.

"What's going on?" Lambert pointed his sword at Idarran, who was bound in dimeritium chains. He saw a hint of excitement and fanaticism flickering on the treant's face.

"Alzur is nearing success!"

"Explain!"

"I told you. The Most High has reached maturity!" he shouted. "The whole world shall be turned on its head!"

Kiyan, Eskel, Coral, Kalkstein, and everyone else felt their hearts squeezing up. They were worried about their comrades, all of whom were still inside.

"Where's Roy?" Eskel asked, cutting off another of Idarran's wooden arms.

Idarran only gasped and winced a little. "Are you ready, people?" His mushroom eyes roved over the group. He held his pain down and roared, "Bear witness to a miracle!"

A long, everlasting wail echoed through the air, and then, an eerie red light followed. The light revived the nightmares hiding in everyone's hearts. Horrified, they covered their ears, and they tensed up.

The ground and walls were rumbling more violently than before, shaking like a raging sea, as if some titanic creature were shaking the outer walls of the sewers they were in. Shockingly, the ouroboros door sprang to life. It lay on the ground and was dragged backward. Like a python slithering out of its hole, the door left a deep, wide trail filled with crushed boulders and scalding hot smoke.

The white light of dawn shone behind the living door. The elements were pelting down on Maribor's old city area. The sewers that had been standing strong for centuries now had a great hole bored through them.

A creature the size of a mountain was curled up outside the hole, red light shining around its body. The people hiding within the chamber couldn't see the creature in its entirety. All they saw was the door dragged by the creature swiftly turning into a pair of crimson tentacles.

What happened next almost killed them with horror. The tentacles split up, revealing a bloated head. One crimson eye the size of a palace opened up on that head. Burning, sawlike crimson light was embedded around the rims of that eye. It hung in the air like a burning red sun, and it unleashed a sea of nightmares to the world around it.

A black, sharp line appeared underneath the eye, and then it opened up wide, eventually turning into a bloody maw as black and dark as an endless abyss. The creature let out another voice akin to the song of a whale, then the sewers shuddered, the ground rumbled. What little clouds were left hanging in the gray skies overhead ran away in terror. The creature's voice could penetrate everything easily. It charged straight ahead at the wall before it and slammed into the city of Maribor.

The time was dawn. The people of Maribor were still sound asleep, but they woke up with a start and pulled their clothes on tightly. Quickly, they went to their windows to see the commotion that was coming from the old city area, and what met their eyes horrified them.

A towering crimson monster was hovering over the ravine in the broken area. The ravine left by the nightmarish myriapodan a hundred years ago. The monster floating on it was obscenely gigantic, taking up the whole zone. It was like an octopus, but the tentacles that were supporting its body numbered far more than eight, and each of them was more than 100 feet long. The tentacles wove themselves into a crimson shadow underneath the monster. If the monster so wished, it could open up its tentacles and cover the whole city easily.

Blinding, ominous red light shone from its body, painting the skies above in bloody red. It scared the people. The sky looked like something evil and demonic. The skies could shatter and collapse at any moment, raining down on the city.

***

"Gods, have mercy on us! Save poor Maribor!"

Stricken by fear, the people of Maribor prayed silently. Some packed their possessions, ready to escape the city. Some fell unconscious from fear. Some huddled with their family, shaking in the corner of the walls, awaiting their demise. Even the soldiers of the city did not dare come close. They paced around the city gates. Their armor and weapons meant nothing in the face of this colossal creature.

Kalkstein was at the entryway of the hole, the light of magic shining on his robe. He hurled a string of fireballs at the monster's head, but they were all doused out right away like crushed fireflies. "That giant squid in Flotsam's just a maggot to this thing. How are we supposed to win this?"

Coral looked icy. She quickly tied her hair in a ponytail. "We're fighting it one way or another. Roy, Vesemir, and Letho are in there."

The witchers quickly unsheathed their weapons and covered themselves in the golden barrier of Quen. They were solemn, and their medallions were buzzing. Without hesitation, they leapt out of the hole and approached the gigantic monster before them.

"Fools. This is the Most High." Idarran, still locked in place, stared at the leaving group. He looked up at the great creature before them, and a hint of fanaticism flared in his eyes. "The devourer of civilizations and bringer of the world cycle!"

The monster hanging in the air shot a tentacle across the battlefield. It hung in the air for a moment, then it swung down like a giant red bat. The ground was crushed, and dust flew into the air. Idarran, still in awe, was crushed into splinters, and it died.

The tentacle landed on the ground, and the prairie of Maribor shook. Even the walls were shaken. The houses started to rumble, and the people held their breaths. A ravine more than 30 feet deep spanned across the ruins. Corrupted, crimson flames tore through the dust like a dragon rampaging through broken land.

The vines, alder trees, and bushes burned. The debris that was sent flying into the air from the impact fell like meteorites, arcing down to ground. Part of them flew into the city of Maribor, crushing multiple houses in an instant. The flames on the meteors were like leeches. Some unlucky sods were infected by it, and before they could even scream, red light shone from every hole on their face, and they were burned into nothingness.

Screams filled the air of the city.

***

Some meteors fell onto the witcher and crashed into their barriers. The light on the barriers went dim. Kalkstein and Coral were shaken. Their mana recoiled, and blood trickled from their noses and mouths, but the meteors were deflected eventually. Then, as if struck by lightning, everyone stopped in their tracks.

Before the gigantic creature, a ball of something that resembled it was moving at lightning-fast speed. That ball was not even a hundredth of the monster's size, though it was more vibrant. There was a layer of starlight on its crimson skin. The creature hung in midair, expanding and contracting like jellyfishes in a sea. It blinked around, evading the tentacles that were coming down on it.

The blob tensed up all its tentacles and pounced on the big octopus' head, aiming for the left eye that was bigger than the little blob itself. It thrust its tentacle again and again. The air hissed, and the suckers on its belly opened up as much as possible. Crimson energy beams came pouring out like waves.

Red whirlwinds screamed in the air, and a blinding flash of red and white shone in the air. The void was shattered like glass from the explosion of the storm of attacks, and it fell into the red eye.

The Most High let out a deafening roar as its left eye was punctured by the little blob's attacks. Crimson liquid resembling magma came spurting out of its wound. The monster slammed the ground with its tentacles, and the shaking of the earth ran far and wide. Winds howled, and everyone wobbled. Carefully, they evaded the incoming debris and tried their best to stay balanced. Trees and patches of land were pulled off the ground and flew into the air along with screeching gales.

***

When Coral, Lambert, and everyone else came, all they saw was a patch of cooled magma and broken land. They looked up into the skies and were met with forked lightning tearing through the heavens, and deafening thunder roared. One crimson tentacle slithered out of the clouds like a python and swung around the vicinity. Dark clouds rolled, and sharp gales howled.

The tentacle returned into the clouds, and the light of lightning poured forth, revealing the insides of the clouds. Revealing the titanic silhouette of an octopus. The creature was hiding in the clouds like a god looking down at the world.

There was another shadow inside the clouds. Weak and insignificant, and yet it defied its superior, challenging it again and again, raining down assaults from all every direction.

Coral and the others could do nothing but watch from the ground underneath.

Lightning crackled, and thunder boomed. Towering tentacles would slither from the clouds, flailing around. Bloody light coursed and strobed like waves. Bolts flew through the air, and the hiss of swinging swords rang in the air. Crimson flames screamed, and bombs exploded. Blue currents of air roared, and colorful chaos energy blinked.

At times, majestic, furious roars belonging to a dragon tore through the air. And then, wails followed.

***

In a couple of minutes, the sky was nearly torn apart by the battle. Holes broke open. Red light and crimson, roiling magma came pouring out. Smoke billowed all over the land. The silhouette of the Most High blocked out the sun, creating a weird, bloody eclipse.

The red light was piercing everything. The air was filled with heavy depression, suffocating everyone. Their skin was starting to prickle.

"The Cleansing Flame? It wants to purify the world!" Eskel blanched. There was pain in his eyes. "Roy lost?"

"No. We can't stand idly by anymore. Give me a hand, Kalkstein." There was a plea in Lytta's eyes. "We'll cast Alzur's Thunder together and smite this beast."

"Are you mad? That spell will kill us! We'll explode on the spot!" Kalkstein snapped, but he quickly started casting the spell, and the sorcerers started chanting.

The clouds were getting darker, and biting winds howled. Millions of silver bolts sizzled and covered the beast in the clouds.

Crimson tentacles tore through the lightning bolts like titanoboas rolling around in the skies. They were more powerful than ever.

The tentacles fell down, rolling around. This time, everyone saw the tentacles holding the silhouette of a falling human, before they took it high up into the clouds.

***

Roy had failed. He had expended all his EXP and exited the form of the Most High. The status bar in his character sheet was shining bloody red. He was but a regular human now, and his refractory period would go on for a long time.

The Most High, on the other hand, had nearly infinite power. No matter how grievous its wounds were, they would heal immediately.

The winds in the skies were cutting Roy's face. It hurt him, and the rims of his eyes were red, but there was still defiance in his gaze. Still, he was also shivering from great fear. Am I going to disappear?

The tentacle took him to the Most High. The creature that stood tall like a god. Lightning illuminated its silhouette and the bizarre look on its face. The creature was looking at Roy, and there was a hint of approval in its eyes, as if it saw one of its own. "Roy, witcher of the Viper School."

An androgynous voice spoke in the witcher's mind. There was no emotion in that voice, but Roy felt connected to it for some reason. There was no anger or fury in the voice at all, unlike before the battle.

"You have proven yourself enough moments ago," said the voice calmly. "From now on, you are no longer my shadow. You are no longer anyone's marionette or appendage."

Roy was held in the tentacle, and his eyes went wide. He saw, in the creature's big, crimson eyes, his face. What the Most High said next shocked him further.

"You shall be a new Most High. One that I gave birth to."

"How is that possible? I-I'm a Most High?" I'm not a pitiful shadow anymore? I'll become a monster that devours civilizations? Roy was starting to suffocate, and he shivered uncontrollably.

"Far from it. You have a long journey ahead of you. For now, you can enjoy the present to the fullest. But when enough time has passed, you will eventually tire of your erstwhile passion. Humanity's hearts and feelings are fragile. They are transient in the face of eternal time. Fleeting and powerless. Eventually, you will understand that the one true cycle of the multiverse and all things in them is to feed, destroy, purify, and begin everything again. You will awaken your nature eventually. To celebrate your birth, I will give you this space-time, these people, and their wishes."

The holes that broke in the sky were patched up. The dark clouds and lightning disappeared, and the titanic tentacle, for the last time, rolled down the clouds. Within it were Roy, nine unconscious figures, and five agate-like crimson crystals with circles of bands within them.

The tentacle placed everyone firmly on the ground, and Roy's friends came running toward him.

The young witcher looked up stiffly at the giant creature swimming in the skies. This time, Roy saw through all the clouds. He witnessed the Most High swimming away, disappearing through the ozone layer. Within the void of space, it tore a dark gash open and leapt into another timeline.

Before it flickered away, one last tentacle hung at the edge of the portal to wave Roy goodbye.

The creature was magnificent, and yet it was lonely.

Roy fell into his musing.

***

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