Abyssal Awakening

Chapter 64: Archbishop Mahri

"Aw don't make that face. It's not very hard to guess when you keep snooping around. Plus, you don't smell like the rest of us." Mahri narrowed her eyes as the spy wanted to run but his legs were held in place by red tendrils coming out of the floor.

"Don't run, not while you have the privilege of witnessing the birth of something far greater than yourself." Mahri laughed.

"But I'll take it as that you don't want to kill your fellow Guildmates. Bravo, such sense of camaraderie." She clapped while walking over to him.

"So tell me, have you ever felt the gaze of death? The moment you know you are facing something outside the realm of common sense, a beast that makes you want to run the moment you set your eyes upon it? The moment you feel as though you face the devil." Mahri asked while narrowing her eyes.

Kneeling down, she grabbed his chin and made sure he kept his eyes upon the bulb that sat upon the head of the Titan.

"One does not often get the chance to witness the birth of such a being. Consider yourself lucky to be here at this moment. With each passing moment, I can feel the pulse of life increasing in strength."

At that moment, the spy could feel a pair of eyes staring back at him. Unable to turn his head away, he was forced to watch as the skin of the bulb started to stretch to abnormal degrees.

Behind the thin veil of skin, a skull could be seen pressing against the material, making itself seen. The two blazing orbs of hatred and vengeance blazed in the eye sockets as the beast let out a piercing scream that caused a myriad of shadowed spectral figures to lung out at the spy.

Feeling his mind on the verge of breaking from just hearing a single scream, he knew he had to run no matter the sacrifice. He had to take this information back with him, the Guild MUST know what's coming.

Gritting his teeth, he started to gather his strength as six bone spikes pierced out of the bulb, rupturing the material and erupting with a fountain of blood.

Perched atop the now hollowed out head of the Titan, the beast stood at 100 feet tall with ghastly white spikes and bones acting as armour across its whole body. It primarily had a humanoid shape with two smaller arms crossing its chest.

A large spine like tail whipped behind it as a single swipe caused the head of the Titan to separate from its shoulders and fall to the ground with a resounding crash.

The skeletal beast had a bestial skull with exposed teeth, a pair of crimson orbs for eyes and a crown of darkened bone.

Rearing its head back, it let out another roar causing the bone armour around his body to break apart and expand, revealing the red flesh beneath before hundreds of tentacles erupted out with its cry.

The edges of its bone armour started to dye itself in a blood red as the tentacles retracted itself and the armour wrapped around its body once more.

"Such beauty, such raw terror. A beast created from the body of a Titan and the blood tribute from hundreds of starved beasts, forced to kill one another for survival. The manifestation of that desire! Let us coronate the birth of this beast of death with a name!" Mahri declared while spreading out her arms in awe.

"The beast of hunger, White Death."

*BANG!!!!!

Breaking out of his bindings, the spy's cloak was shredded apart as it revealed 4 Sigils flaring across his skin.

Turning around, he didn't waste a single moment and broke out into a sprint.

"Archbishop, your orders?"

"Go after him. Take the Charger if you need and use a slave collar on it to keep it under your control. I'm taking the White Death through the Howling Depths and transporting him elsewhere. I do hope that I don't have to interfere with this." Mahri smiled as the man shook his head.

"We will deal with it, rest assured Archbishop."

Giving her one more bow, he relayed the information for the other cultists.

It was time to chase down a rat.

###

While Alice and Ria were scouting around the forest, they could feel the ground tremor lightly.

Stopping the both of them, Ria frowned and placed her hand and ear against the ground.

Waiting for a few moments, it started tremor once more as Ria noticed it was a scream.

"What the hell? I don't think a Shasura should sound like that… Was there another beast big enough to make this kind of cry?" Ria muttered in confusion as she could barely make out the sound, yet the ground still shook.

Looking back, Ria could see Alice staring off into the distance with a frown.

Narrowing her eyes, she slowly reached into her bag and grabbed her gloves.

"Something wrong?" Ria asked with a frown.

"Something's coming. That direction, bad feeling. Unnatural, underground, shouldn't exist." Alice replied softly as she was trying to find the source of this discomfort. It was as though something was drilling this sense of discomfort into her mind, warning her.

Clutching her right eye, blood started to cloud her vision as she could see a white beast walking slowly through the cave system. Just as she spotted it, it swung its head back 180 degrees and stared back at her.

The red orbs floating in its eye sockets stared deep into her soul as Alice wanted to stop this vision but was unable to separate this connection.

It was only when Ria grabbed Alice by the arm and shook her several times did the connection finally break, causing Alice to pant heavily while trying to control her breathing.

"Alice? Alice! What happened?" Ria asked, confused as to why she suddenly stood still and started to shiver.

"Don't know, will tell you later." Alice shook her head as she could the forest starting to shift.

Glancing back, Ria narrowed her eyes and nodded her head.

"Alright, you can tell me later. And I'm assuming Allura is going to have to explain a lot of sh*t as well." Ria sighed as she knew that whatever was happening to Alice, Allura probably knows the answers.

Breaking through the tree's, a man could be seen with rugged clothes and several fresh wounds across his body. He had dark brown hair and a pair of red bloodshot eyes with a mask across his face.

"Why are you still here?! Run dammit! Don't get caught!" He shouted out in anger as he twisted his body and parried two ice blades that was sent spinning towards his back.

Before Ria could reply, she noticed the people chasing him and her eyes immediately focused on their style of clothing, methods and their way of fighting.

"Damned Cult!" Ria shouted out in annoyance as she flared up with lightning before rushing towards the group, taking both Alice and the spy off guard.

"What are you doing?! Do you not understand the meaning of f*cking RUN!?!?!" He shouted out.

Ignoring the spy, Ria charged head first into the crowd of Cultists with killing intent.

Seeing this, Alice ignored what she was planning and jumped into the fray as well.

'There are 7 of them and only three of us. If I play it safe, I'll be able to support Ria from behind.' Alice thought to herself as she narrowed her eyes.

Her mind immediately started to calculate which is the best route for her to take as she could not fight any of them head on.

Thankfully, she had already equipped her gloves so she grabbed a vial of her own blood.

'If I lace the wires with my blood then scratch them, Ria will have an easier time.'

With the plan in mind, she poured her blood onto the wires before storing the vial away.

Watching all of this happen, the spy clicked his tongue and prepared to leave. He had to take this information back now that he knows what kind of beast the White Death was born from. This information is more important than two lives of people he didn't know.

However, he had already turned around. He could not allow himself to run away while these two youths fought against the cult.

'If we're fast enough, we'll be able to leave before the Archbishop decides to interfere. There's also the issue of the Kata Charger, I'm not sure how strong it is now after it bathed in the Cult's blood ritual that birthed the White Death.' He thought to himself while running past Alice.

"I'll take care of 4 of them! Deal with the other three yourself!" The spy shouted out as crimson armour wrapped around his legs. Boosting forward with a giant increase in speed, he slammed his arms against two of the cultists, launching them through the forest while grabbing another two by the head and forcefully separating them from the group.

He had taken the 4 that felt the strongest to him as he saw the lightning girl only having 3 Sigils.

After all, the Cultists were either 3 Sigil owners or 4 Sigil owners just like him.

The plan was to stall these four until the girls finished up on their side. That way they can come assist him with his fight. Even for him, fighting against four of them was beyond his power. But if it was just stalling them? He could go all day.

Now that Alice and Ria only needed to fight 3 of the Cultists, the odds seemed more favourable as Ria had been trained by both Allura and Gin. Even if they have four Sigils, Ria will be able to hold her own to some degree.

But this wasn't on Ria's mind. All Ria wanted to do right now was kill every Cultist she could see.