A Tale of Forgotten Gods

Chapter 61: God of Flesh.

The main palace of the cult loomed ahead of them. The beautiful path had lost its luster; now it was just a road to horror.

At that moment, everything had fallen apart. The plan, strategy, or even the process to stop the God’s son. Both of them managed to reach the entrance in a few minutes. Yi Jyuhan’s pale face turned to glance at Xue Lan.

”How could you not find the deception?”

Xue Lan stopped near the palace. The air suffocated their throats. ”That previous puppet... I could easily tell it wasn’t him. But the one we fought seemed legit; I was almost certain that it was him. Something must have concealed him.” He opened the door.

Yi Jyuhan followed him, seeing the marks of the wheelbarrow. ”How did it go wrong?”

***

Back in the hallway. Jian Yue, Mo Fei, Zhuo, Riyoshi, Alisa, and Jim stood at the entrance of the hall. All of their expressions dropped into dread.

From the hall, the crunching voice reached their ears.

Mo Fei entered first, the sight stopping his feet from moving further. Alisa followed him and saw Lin standing there.

In front of the God’s son.

Its eyes glowed further in grayish light. The shape emerged from the blood, trying to pull itself free from the woman’s torn stomach. It was the face of a child but without any skin; instead, it was crimson flesh with dark, wet texture.

The body slowly grew more, turning into a large frame. Dozens of hands emerged from its body, but not human hands. They were claws like a mantis’ but sharper, almost a blade. Then there were only two human-shaped hands, three other spider-shaped hands, and one tentacle.

The son’s jaws opened with a clatter. The fangs were illuminated by the soft light of lanterns. It was whispering something in an ancient, archaic language of gods, a tongue that they had yet to understand.

The cosmic whispers made the air itself shiver. The wind dropped immediately; no sound remained.

Riyoshi and Jim’s feet stopped in their tracks. ”That was not simply how a demigod should behave.” Both of them thought.

It was tainted by the corruption it had even before birth. That was a cosmic fear of its own nature, the same madness that had consumed ’Him’ before. It had lost its mind once again. At that moment, it had become the mindless, insane God. Somehow ruined the idea of a God’s child.

Zhuo entered after Riyoshi and Jim, his heart pounding as he looked at the madness. ”What is... that thing?” His breathing quickened.

Jian Yue entered last. His eyes fixated on the figure of the son. ”That power is immeasurable...” His eyes scanned the shape half out of the woman’s body.

Her eyes were closed; there were no movements or twitching. She had finally died, her face settled in a calm expression. Her clothes were covered in blood. Jian Yue closed his eyes and nodded slightly. ”You’ve suffered a lot, but now stay in the peaceland.”

Grrrrrrrrr-eerrrrkkkk!

The son’s hands shoot out wildly around with a loud roar, shaking the palace itself.

Mo Fei gripped the Glaive, one leg stepping back. ”Lin, move!”

Lin’s eyes snapped back into focus; the God’s son turned its head toward her. Its jaws clattered like grinding rocks, letting out a pungent scent of human flesh from the mouth. Lin quickly jumped back, landing near the group with a thud.

Its head snapped toward Mo Fei with a slow neck-cracking sound, the grayish glow of its eyes locking onto him. The world seemed to freeze between them. The chaotic noise of the hall instantly drowned into a heavy, suffocating silence.

God’s son shifted its flesh. One of the Gods elongated mantis claws rose, but it didn’t attack with blinding speed. It moved in a deliberate slowness. The movement was messy, shaking while the large claw reached out. The blade-like edge of the claw cut through the air, making no sound, yet the pressure itself stopped their hearts.

Mo Fei pushed his hand to lift the Glaive, but his muscles refused to move. The air around him turned into thick, viscous concrete. Every time it advanced felt like eternity. He could see the wet, dark texture of the flesh coating the claws. He could smell the metallic scent of blood.

The sharp tip of the claw crept closer, merely inches from his chest.

Mo Fei’s breath hitched; his hands finally moved. The Glaive came up, aimed to slash down the hand, but the moment the blade touched the claw, it just stopped. It couldn’t slash down the hand as if the flesh was harder than any metal he had ever seen.

Then the hand launched toward his heart. Alisa jumped from behind him, grabbed his collar, and pulled him away. ”Are you stupid? You really thought you could slash down HIM.”

Mo Fei staggered near a pillar, stopping a few meters away. ”I actually did believe I could.”

”You are hopeless.”

Alisa turned toward Lin, who was with the group now.

Riyoshi faced her and asked, ”Why didn’t you finish it sooner?”

Lin darted her eyes at the son, who was moving its hand around. It scratched its body with its spider-shaped hands, almost as if trying to clean itself.

But how could you clean the blood? You could only wash the blood but not the tainted soul.

Lin narrowed her eyes. ”There was another royal guard here.” Her voice was too flat. ”And that thing ate him...”

Jim tilted his head at her in surprise. ”What?”

Lin nodded. ”Yes, he was hidden.”

Jian Yue stepped forward. ”There is no point in fearing despair.”

Before they could talk further, the god’s son’s hands stretched toward them. Its mantis’ claws lunged toward Zhuo. He quickly dove, rolling across the stone, but the claw struck the ground where he had been, carving a massive line before splitting the ground open. The palace groaned.

”It’ll turn the palace into debris.” Riyoshi whispered. ”Zhuo, get away; don’t come closer to it.”

Mo Fei stood near the pillar, his eyes hidden behind the mask saw something. His heart pounded when he realized something he shouldn’t have... that God had no threads to begin with. How was that possible? It was alive; it was moving. Then how? ”Divine Serpent...” He thought in his mind. ”Why are there no threads?”

”Because the God’s soul is not here yet, it is fighting in the death world to return.” The Serpent hissed, curling around the throne.

”Death world?”

”Lord Lightless, there is no time to explain; look around. See them clearly.”

”See what?”

”Him.”

Mo Fei’s focus returned to the son. That was when his breathing stopped entirely. Those thick threads were here, coming out of the walls. Those threads were connected to someone who was inside a place that was still unknown, but he could see the edge now. ’He’ had chosen it.

Finally, a sound of boots clicking echoed in the hall. The wind blew almost instantly, no longer stopping from the pressure.

Skrr-krrkk!

The wall tore open, and from within the wall a figure emerged. His first step clicked against the ground, then with another step the figure came out.

The man wore armor, but on the edge of his shoulder guard were three thin bones. They were like the claws made of bones, emerging in a bony wing shape. His pitch-dark eyes locked onto God and said nothing. Then his eyes darted around the hall, looking at the terrified faces.

He took a few steps forward, stopping near the God’s son. ”It’ll take you some time to get your humanoid form again.” The man spoke in a flat, emotionless tone.

The son reached its eight hands toward him slowly, and its hands of humans opened the jaws wide. All of those hands trapped him in a circle, but he didn’t flinch at all.

The man tilted his head. ”The corruption has returned to you...”

The hands lunged forward; the sinister, slippery tongues from the jaws launched to devour him. The hunger had taken over, the bloodlust that didn’t care about anyone, enemy or ally. What were they to a survivor?

The bones in his shoulder guard stretched, turning into the vast wing of bones. He didn’t move an inch, yet the hands couldn’t bypass the bones.

Sssss

The bones swung wide, tearing the hands instantly. The God’s son screamed in agony, a child cry that had lost its throat, a mix of animalistic roar and plea.

Finally, the man turned his back, facing the group. He opened his hands wide in the air, as if tracing the air itself. All of them locked their eyes on him.

Alisa quickly pulled Mo Fei behind the pillar. ”Don’t speak. Stay hidden.”

Mo Fei went silent. His eyes saw the thick threads; all he could do was just clench his Glaive. They were too strong to chop; he wasn’t sure if he could; his hands didn’t try either; they couldn’t move... fear, or pressure of divinity, anything you could say.

Then the man spoke, ”Welcome to my palace. Tonight things have been inconvenient, but it was certainly the time the FleshWeaver cult had been waiting for.”

Riyoshi stepped forward, just a single step, almost as if taking more than that was an invitation to death. ”How... Are you here?”

The Curator lowered his hands, one hand resting on the spine blade. ”You mean I should have been fighting someone else, huh?” His voice shifted into a low, deliberate tone. ”They have been fighting my puppet, but I wonder how they couldn’t find out.” He knew; he damn well knew. His tone was filled with a hint of mockery.

Jian Yue closed his eyes, then opened them slowly. ”What made you think you could stop your God?”

”I can’t.”

Jian Yue’s brows furrowed. ”Then why?”

”I’m nothing in front of my God. Who am I to control him? He is here, even tainted with corruption, but I won’t let him rot in the death world.” The Curator walked sideways.

Jian Yue darted his eyes. ”His greed didn’t let him pass. So that’s why.”

The Curator stopped in his tracks. ”I admire your dedication, but ultimately the FleshWeaver cult won this time.

The air rippled and tore apart. The space turned into a vast eye, blinking between the heartbeats of the God’s son. The Curator bowed his head slightly toward it. ”You think you can stop my God? Well then, go ahead. Try, but I’ll give you fifty seconds, and if you can’t, I will defeat you instead.”

He snapped his fingers. ”Fifty.” The word hit them like bricks. ”Forty-nine.”