The Endless Solvent

Gymor was one horror after the next. Verne leaped from one rooftop to the next of small wooden houses, narrowly missing the swipes of the Unseeing that managed to spot him. What happened on the ground between the buildings were only briefly seen with his eyes but he picked up on all of it as if he moved in slow motion.

He saw a half turned man being ripped apart by Unseeing. A dog desperately trying to escape was mauled and eaten alive. The bloodied remains of those unlucky enough to not turn. An Unseeing with its body slick with blood - Verne was not sure if it was its own blood, or the blood of something else.

Those with the ability to climb or jump went after him with ravenous anger. More than once he had to stop to land a few lethal strikes to make sure those tailing him and Ral did not follow any further. One Unseeing in particular was a bit smaller than the rest and moved with such agility and speed, Verne failed to strike it down as they moved closer to the enormous Gate that yawned over the settlement.

When Verne decided the smaller Unseeing was going to be a threat and he needed to finally face and eliminate it, it abruptly changed its course and hurled across the rooftops straight at Ral. Verne snarled something at his red headed friend who ducked last minute. The Unseeing only managed to nick his back with its claws and it overshot its course past the Caelisian.

Verne burst forward and knocked the Unseeing further back with the purpose of debilitating it to the point that it couldn’t move. However the angle in which the Unseeing fell landed it right on the hardened carapace-like outer shell that seemed to grow at random on the monsters. Verne reared back to skewer it fatally with his sword but it raised a crooked arm and knocked the blade away. Then he saw it - on the arm of the strangely undersized Unseeing was a bracelet made of knotted string and twine.

It was the type that children and youths could easily make. Verne felt a sudden chill down to his bones when he realized this Unseeing was previously a youth, or even a child.

The monster it turned into screamed at him, only one mouth stretching red and vicious at his face but with five or six voices screaming in disharmony. Was it anger? Or was it fear? Would the child know if he killed it?

A staff whistled down and landed right at the Unseeing’s throat. Ral immediately landed next to him and shoved him back away from the Unseeing and dislodged the Freerunner’s staff, then kicked the body off the roof. “Not right now, Verne,” Ral shouted at him. “We still need you.”

Numbly, Verne stood hand gripping his sword handle. They needed him. His limbs unfroze and he ran next to Ral towards the circle of black fire. Ral had to get close to it and that was what they focused on.

Metal sliced through monstrous flesh as more Unseeing clambered up the sides of the houses to get to them as they ran past. Verne was able to knock the slower ones down - the rest had to be sliced through or killed so they didn’t follow. It felt like days on end but he knew it didn’t take more than a few moments for them to reach their destination.

“Not yet,” Aris’s voice rang out warningly when they got close enough. Verne’s heart sank as he desperately looked for a safe place, however the Gate itself was situated out in the field. No buildings were near it except for a shack that held farming tools. The Unseeing were cluing in to their location and more and more of them were willing to try to climb up the side of the houses to get to them. They would have to resort to running in circles until Aris gives them the signal.

“Don’t get too close!” Ral hollered at him over the sound of Unseeing screeching. Verne had hoped to stay close to the Gate, but then he saw movement from within the Gate’s dark depths. Strange tendrils drifted out, then bulging lumps of what looked like eyes, mouths noses and ears bubbled in and out of sight.

“What is that?” he said, horrified.

“I don’t know, but it might be Mind,” Ral said. Verne was unable to ask more as they sliced and kicked their way to a new rooftop to safety.

That couldn’t be Mind. How could that… monstrosity be a Part?

“Give them to me,” a voice suddenly hissed out, loud and ringing. It came from the Gate. A lump of what looked like black tar bubbled out and formed a mouth that mouthed the words as the voice spoke again. “They’re here, give them to me!”

Mind was after the twins. Verne immediately moved to position himself closer to Ral - surely if the Gates created the Unseeing and Mind resided inside the Gate, then the Unseeing would be at Mind’s command. However the monsters didn’t exactly coalesce to attack Ral. They didn’t seem to hear her orders at all.

Scowling, Verne scanned the area from his perch when he had the chance between fighting off the Unseeing that made it up onto the roofs. At a distance, he saw a group of people running. They weren’t more than a hundred paces away and they were making a break towards the forest - two Unseeing were on their tail but he saw that they were well armed, each carrying a weapon of some sort.

If they had run faster or picked a route between the houses, Verne would have missed them. If Verne hadn’t looked around at that moment, he would have missed them. One of the men in the group turned at that instant and Verne felt frozen for the second time that day because he recognized the man there.

He had grown up with that man and so Verne was sure it was him. Pinnlo, his parents’ porter, spotted Verne and made eye contact with him. Verne thought he saw a smile as the older man turned and ran.

Verne glanced back at the huge Gate before them, at the hoards of Unseeing around. Pinnlo, a pure Gaian, had not turned even when he was so close to a Gate.