The once-proud stone walls no longer look so imposing. Large gaps have been smashed into the stone, giving us glimpses of the destruction that occurred within. Massive stone blocks that had been part of the wall have been scattered across a wide area of land, as if the masonry had been smashed by a titan’s fist, blasted out of place and flown a hundred metres to land in a field.
What buildings existed outside the walls, concentrated around the gates for the most part, have simply ceased to exist, flattened and destroyed. Barely a wall remains standing of these dwellings which appear to have drawn the monsters’ ire for some reason. They present an ill omen for what remains of the city inside the walls.
Morrelia grows more tense the closer to the city we get. Her muscles are bunched and knotted by the time we reach two hundred metres of the wall. So great is her wrath, her eyes are ablaze with fury. Like balls of liquid magma radiating heat into the air.
[Try and stay cool,] I advise her, somewhat uselessly. [Whatever has happened is likely to be worse than what we see out here, and this is exactly the wrong place to go berserk.]
[Don’t you think I know that?] she replies, though her teeth remained clenched.
Not going to have a lot of luck there…
[Crinis, if Morrelia flies off the handle, I need you to try and grab her so we can run the heck out of here.]
[I’ll do my best, Master!] she replies, never failing to follow my instructions to the letter. If only Tiny could be so diligent.
The ape in question is sniffing the air, looking bored without anything to fight. Just to be certain, I reach out and speak to him. I want to make sure there aren’t any incidents.
[We aren’t here to fight, Tiny,] I warn him. [You are not to attack any monster we see inside the city. No fighting at all until we’re safely away. This is an order.]
I reinforce the point to ensure there is no wiggle room for him to avoid obeying me. I can’t afford any stuff ups this time.
Morrelia and I decide that climbing the wall for a higher vantage point, even if it might outline us against the sky, makes more sense than slipping through one of the cracks. Most monsters have quite poor vision, especially those from the first stratum, and since we only intend to look for a few seconds, we should be safe.
Hunkered down, we circle the city until we come to a largely undamaged stretch of wall with no openings for a few hundred metres on either side. If we’re spotted and pursued, the monsters will either have to go over the wall or travel the extra distance, and that could mean the difference between life and death.
I’m constantly checking our surroundings. It’s eerily quiet. Where I expected to see roaming hordes of monsters, there’s almost no motion, no sound. The city feels dead in a complete way. As if no living thing existed within it for the last hundred years, when only a few months ago, it was full of life. Just what is going on here?
When we close the final stretch to the base of the wall itself, I feel something change.
I freeze in place, then start snapping out instructions to my pets.
[You two, stay back here! Do not get any closer than this!]
[Master! No!] Crinis protests.
Thank goodness she’s sitting on my back and not on my head, otherwise she would have felt this change at the same time I did.
[Off you get, Crinis. Tiny, come over here and let her ride on your shoulder. Don’t get any closer to the city than this!] As an aside I speak to Morrelia. [You can feel that too, right?]
Her face is even more tense. If she looked like she could eat rocks before, she could very well chew through steel now.
She nods. [Somewhat. Though I imagine it may be a little different to you.]
Once Tiny gets Crinis off my back and has moved back a little, the little ball of mayhem protesting the entire time, I begin to move forward. Very. Slowly.
It’s an aura. An aura that hit me like a truck running straight into my brain. Oppressive, dominant and filled with endless fury, it turned on the moment I drew close enough to feel it, as if someone flicked a switch. My entire body quailed at the touch of that aura and my minds shied away from it. This is far worse than what we experienced in the Marsh Expanse. Ten times worse.
Garralosh. It has to be. If it isn’t the big croc, if one of her children can unleash this kind of power, then we’re cooked. We’re a duck stuffed into a chicken, stuffed into a turkey and then double baked kind of cooked. I’m talking well-done with the charred marinade on the outside.
Focus, dammit, Anthony! Stop imagining yourself being so delicious!
As if moving through molasses, I firm my will, push forward to the base wall and begin to climb. One leg at a time, I advance, my claws digging into the stone and gripping like a vice as I reach to grasp my next foothold.
[Enhanced Grip (II) has reached Level 5.]
Shut. UP!
Who cares about that right now?
Impressively, Morrelia uses her bare hands to climb. Her fingers display extraordinary strength as she finds minute holds and gaps in the stone to haul herself up. She still takes longer than I do. Walking up a wall is only somewhat harder for me than walking on the ground, but I have natural advantages.
After ten minutes of silent, tense climbing, we reach the top.
Just before we poke our heads over the edge, Morrelia and I look at each other with possibly the world’s first ‘Good luck, hope we don’t die’ exchange between human and monster. Then we take the final step and lift our heads above the edge.
That’s a big ass croc.
68. The Beast Itself
The city is in ruins. Forget about a hurricane, earthquake or other natural disaster, this level of destruction is far beyond that. As if a meteor landed on the city or a god stamped down with its heavenly foot. If the latter had occurred, then that god had supremely flat arches, because the city is just gone.
It looks as if no two bricks still stand one atop the other. The open spaces are strewn with rubble, and the once-proud, cobbled roads are broken and cracked. In the distance, the hill on which the castle once stood, with its inner wall and high towers, there is only a ruin.
This city had been built from over two hundred years of effort and endeavour, and now it’s gone. If anyone wanted to recreate the city, establish the Kingdom of Liria once again, they would need to do so from scratch. Heck, even the job of cleaning up this mess would take a monumental effort.
Although, just because the buildings have ceased to be, doesn’t mean the space inside the walls is empty. Oh no, it’s full to bursting. With monsters.
Across every surface, on top of every stone, they stand, stock still. As if mesmerized by an illusion, monsters of every type from the first stratum are rooted to the ground, staring in one direction. The site sickens me to my core for reasons I can’t explain. It’s unnatural for monsters to act this way. As if they were mindless drones with no will of their own.
These are creatures born of the Dungeon. They should fight, struggle and battle!
They appear weak. Like slaves to a greater will than their own. Bears, frogs, centipedes, hounds, slugs, bats, apes, lizards, even a few shadow beasts are in the mix, each staring in the same direction. Even the sightless monsters, as if they were receiving the light of the sun from their god.
Or goddess, in this case, sitting right on top of the Dungeon entrance.