Rain scaled up and across Sey’s visor as she carefully kept formation with her squad. The Sorroz Unit had managed to reach Post 18 without much occurring. All posts had been unfortunately barren, except for the dismembered remains.

  Every single body they had spotted had been stripped from their upper torso, leaving behind the half-formed remains to float high into the Inverted Sea.

  Their situation was increasingly dire, but what itched at Sey’s mind was the absence of infected. M?ry’Plu was a long city that had once stretched across several square kilometers. But as time had carved its way and as less and less Servinae had desired to reproduce, the city had naturally shrunk to a city core roughly 16 square kilometers.

  The perimeter that the rangers had been working on stretched roughly 5 kilometers, divided into 11 sectors and 33 posts. Each sector spanned approximately 480 meters, with three posts scattered at irregular intervals.

  Sey and her unit had been cautiously making their way through mud and ruins from Post 14 to Post 18. Yet across all that dreary terrain, they had encountered only a single infected.

  The storm rumbled overhead, thunder echoing between the drenched forest canopy and the unnatural body of water hanging in the sky. The rain had gotten worse over time, ripping up solid ground and making the journey on foot a miserable, muddy hell. Trenches had been carved around the old roots and pipes that had slumbered untouched for decades. Their tangled, decaying entrails now forced the rangers into a slow, defensive crawl toward the northern Posts.

  They were tired, scared, and on the very edge.

  The dismembered bodies.

  The relentless storm.

  The warping terrain.

  It was breaking them.

  PING.

  Ranger Lucien stiffened. “Motion—25 meters Northwest.”

  The squad stopped.

  “Details?” Sorrows asked.

  “Two unknowns,” Lucien replied. “They’re just… standing there.”

  Sorroz scanned the area, eyes locking onto a dense patch of trees nestled atop a patch of solid ground. “Rally at the treeline—three o’clock,” he ordered, motioning toward the thicket.

  The rangers pressed on towards the trees, carefully crawling over old, worn roots before eventually reaching the spot.

  Sorroz and Lucien crept ahead of the group, making sure to remain low and behind the trees. Sorroz then tapped his visual system’s controls as he adjusted the optic module until he could clearly see the two figures.

  There—standing motionless in the tall, withered grass of the once-gilded forest—were what appeared to be people.

  Lucien, upon seeing them, felt relief standing up to holler at them, but he was aggressively dragged back down by Sorroz.

  “Lucien!” Sorroz hissed. “Stand down!”

  Lucien was taken aback. “What’s wrong, sir? They don’t look infected.”

  Sorroz didn’t dare look away from the figures. “Look closer.”

  Lucien hesitated, then tapped his visual module, fine-tuning the focus. The rain distorted the image, but he could just make out two female rangers standing in the swaying grass. Their hair blowing viciously in the wind. The two seemed to be talking, though the content of their conversation was a mystery saved for the storm.

  “What’s wrong?” Lucien asked, confused.

  Sorroz shook his head. “Are you blind? Look at their waists.”

  Lucien focused his visual module, trying to fight the noise the rain was creating, until he finally focused on their waists.

  Lucien’s eyes widened as he crouched down in a panic.

  “WHAT THE FUCK?” Lucien hissed as he pressed his back to one of the trees. “What are they?”

  “Hell if I know,” Sorroz muttered, “but they’re not human.” he switched his comms to broadcast—but before he could speak, he was suddenly shoved to the side by ranger Holden.

  “Holden!” he barked, lunging to grab him—but Holden had already slipped and tumbled down into the mud below.

  The two figures snapped their whole bodies in his direction and stared.

  Holden raised a hand and waved at the two, “Syl! It’s me!” He called out cheerfully.

  He got no response.

  “Syl, it’s me! Holden!” he called out as he struggled to maneuver the terrain, his feet slipping on roots and rocks as he waved over at the two.

  The figures remained unmoving, silhouettes against the rising rain.

  Holden shook his head, bewildered, “Hello?” he slid his hands against the rim of the jaw brace of his helmet.

  Click.

  He popped off the top half of his helmet as a warning flared across his visual module. Cold rain immediately crawled up his face, overwhelming his senses. He scrunched his nose as the water slipped into his nostrils, stinging. “Eugh...” He coughed, gagging as he wiped the moisture away. “—Syl!” he choked out, but the rising rain had dulled his senses, his Kyyr waning as the abyssal condensation slowly wore him down.

  He was now maybe five meters from the two, but because he’d taken his helmet off, he was blind to their reality.

  “Syl, are you okay!?” He shouted into the rain as he wobbled over, “Are you hurt? My unit has supplies!” He shouted, pointing back towards the thicket.

  Sorroz swore under his breath “You fucking idiot!” he snarled, switching urgently to broadcast mode. “Hostiles! Unknown contact imminent!”

  The rangers behind him jolted upright, confusion turning swiftly into dread as they readied their weapons.

  Holden, unaware and blinded by the allure of the figures, got closer to them as he smiled at what he thought was his sister. Pink lightning flashed across the Inverted Sea, illuminating the figures’ faces.

  “Syl!” Holden’s cry shattered through the storm as he saw the undeniable face of his sister.

  Sorroz and Lucien watched in horror as Holden embraced his sister, his feet gently rising from the ground as he was overcome with twisted emotion.

  “I thought you were dead!” He cried out his tears, joining the streams of rising rain.

  The other rangers in the backline watched in horror as a large dark figure emerged from the ground.

  Holden cried tears of joy as he held his sister’s corpse in his arms. Her sweet embrace lulling his fear and despair in a false exchange of love.

  GLRRRRK!

  The rangers watched in horror as Holden’s lower half was viciously twisted with a sickening wet crunch until muscle tore and bone splintered through his uniform. Holden’s joyous sobs turned instantly to shrieks of agony. His eyes bulged, disbelief and anguish wrenching his features apart as black tendrils ripped off his still-living body. His viscera fell to the ground, splattering onto the muddied earth as the black tendrils reached inside his body, holding the still conscious Holden like a fucked-up sock puppet.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “S—yl…” Holden choked through a gurgle of blood as he was ripped away from his beloved sister's embrace.

  The rangers watched in Horror as the massive hound-like creature dragged Holden into its blackened, writhing mane of tendrils. His arms flailing uselessly in the dark as he was consumed by the spiraling black. The two lures followed a similar fate as they were dragged back into the creature's body, the spiraling tongues consuming the two figures.

  It stood massive and vile, eclipsing any Caused Sorroz had ever encountered. Its scaly lower body was a sickly pale white, while its upper half oozed darkness so dense it devoured the storm’s fleeting light. A monstrous tail lashed behind it, tipped by an appendage that looked like a mermaid's tail. And draped about its shoulders was an undulating shroud of spiraling darkness, embedded with screaming, petrified human faces and pleading hands that reached out in hopes of sweet escape.

  Its jaws ripped open reluctantly, revealing an abyssal chasm brimming with jagged, pitch-black teeth and spiraling tongues that shuddered as it released a howling shriek so chilling the rain seemed to bend around its skull.

  Among the rangers of Post 14, only two had seen the creature’s foul features. Sorroz and Lucien staggered back, with Lucien tumbling backwards and onto his fellow rangers.

  “Fall back!” Sorroz’s shout cracked like a whip through the howling wind. “We have to run—now!”

  “What?!” ranger Sam asked, “We’re not fighting?”

  Lucien scrambled upright, eyes wild. “Forget that hero shit, just fucking RUN!”

  “It’s an order!” Sorroz shouted as he rushed past his fellow rangers, who had no other choice but to follow his frantic retreat.

  But escape was fleeting. The Caused didn’t give them much time to flee, as in a matter of seconds it erased the distance between it and them. It bounded across the mud and water as it abnormally clambered up the Inverted rain, holding onto the rising water as it defied gravity, snaking its way through the mist before crashing down on the rangers like a bolt of lightning.

  The group was sent flying as the Caused rebounded from the ground, snapping its head in the direction of the closest ranger—a young woman named Cind.

  The creature surged with force toward Ranger Cind, who floundered helplessly in the clinging mud. Her terrified eyes trembled in understanding seconds as lightning illuminated the beast’s jaws—she was viciously torn in half—her legs remaining stuck in the mud. As her scream pierced their comms.

  “HELP ME!” she shrieked completely lucid, as the tendrils greedily wrapped around her and dragged her into its eerie black shroud.

  Sorroz cut the feed line as he struggled to his feet. His eyes filled with determined rage. Without a sliver of hesitation, he pulled a Kyyr booster from his belt and drove it into his thigh, the blue liquid hissing as it poured into his body.

  The Caused twitched violently, sensing the surging energy. It hissed in response as it clawed its way towards Sorroz.

  The old ranger didn’t flinch as the Caused closed the distance in a flash.

  Channeling his crackling Kyyr into his M.K. Blade, Sorroz met the charge head-on, his saber igniting with a searing hiss as he swung into the oncoming nightmare.

  The Caused staggered its strike, twisting its spine around the blade’s arc as it slashed at Sorroz.

  Sorroz tried to reposition—but the muddy terrain forced him on the defense. With no time to dodge, he funneled Kyyr to brace his right side just as the claws connected.

  SKRAKK!

  The beast’s claws crashed into the old ranger; the sheer force of the strike hurling him spine-first into a nearby tree with a sickening crunch.

  The creature carried the momentum expertly as it recovered its stance, swinging its body into the air as it skidded against the rain. Its body clawing across the esoteric miasma as it rushed the downed Sorroz.

  Crk-shlkk!!!

  A woody growth suddenly erupted from the ground, catching the Caused in the throat as its body flung forward, its neck snapping as inertia dragged its body into the mud.

  Ranger Korro threw the empty booster to the side as he used his Kyyr ability, manipulating the exposed roots in the area to stab the fell beast.

  The creature howled in agony, accompanied by a ghastly chorus of sorrowful human screams.

  Ranger Mau’Fo followed suit, jamming a booster into his thigh. Kyyr surged through him as he ignited his M.K. blade, the amber glow ripping through the air. With a burst of kinetic force, he rocketed through the air, using his Kyyr to propel himself toward the beast and carving a deep burning slash into the monster's neck.

  The Caused flailed in agony, howling in anger as its body suddenly began to unravel. Skin sloughed off, bones snapping and popping as its mangled body slipped from the tree roots' hold. Flesh spilled from its collapsing body in the form of a black sludge composed of writhing tendrils and bladed bones.

  Ranger Mau’Fo recoiled in fearful disgust, jumping back—

  but he was a second too late.

  The black mass surged upward, reforming into a malformed claw that dug itself deep into his calf with crushing force.

  In a panic he stabbed the mass, causing it to shriek—but it didn’t matter.

  The formless sludge yanked him down, dragging him into the mire with monstrous strength.

  CRRRK!

  His skull cracked violently against one of the twisted roots, his body bouncing from the impact as blood spilled from his eyes and nose.

  Korro stepped in, trying to disrupt the sludge with his Kyyr ability—but the mass resisted. Without warning, a bladed tendril burst from the ground, driving a bony hook deep into his thigh.

  “AAGH!” Korro screamed as he dug his hands into the mass, but before he could do anything, the muscly tendril whipped him off his feet, slamming him to the ground and violently dragging him across the mud, smashing him into the unconscious Mau’Fo. The two rangers collided just as Caused jaws split open from the roiling muck.

  SKRRRNCH!

  They were instantly crushed between the black jaws of the formless beast.

  Nearby, Lucien thrashed in the muck, fighting to pull himself free from the mangle of sludge and roots. His helmet had cracked, the visor flooded with mud and rainwater. Gasping, disoriented, he fumbled in the dark as the screams of his fellow rangers tore through the storm like distant sirens.

  “Shit!” he screamed as he felt something tug at his arm.

  “Lucien!” a muffled voice called out.

  “Sey?” he gasped. “Wh-what’s happening?!”’

  Sey didn’t answer right away. Her eyes were locked on the mess of writhing tendrils in the distance as they reformed into the houndish form from before. As its skull stitched itself back together, it let out a warbled, distorted howl. The black mass convulsing as it solidified its monstrous set of jaws.

  As the howl echoed through the storm, it dragged its head toward ranger Sam, who stood meekly nearby—both hands tightly gripping a quivering saber as the Caused slowly approached him.

  “AAAAAAAAAA!” He screamed, charging the beast—but—before his blade could ever dare graze the writhing flesh, his arms fell into the mud. He slammed into the monster's belly before his brain realized what had happened.

  “MY FUCKING AR—”

  The Caused snapped its jaws down on the panicked ranger, lifting his squirming body into the air. It then grabbed him by the waist before twisting his lower body with so much force that it snapped off in a wet, sickening snap. Flesh and organs dangled, straining against gravity, as the beast carelessly dropped the unwanted remains on the muddy ground. Its gaping maw yawned open, spiraling tongues plunging into his organs and spine, giving him a second wind of unfortunate consciousness.

  “KILL ME, PLEASE” His eyes flickered in Sey’s direction.

  “SEY! PLEASE KILL ME—” he screamed, reaching out with bloodied stumps toward the horrified girl. “AGHHGH! PLEASE!”

  His cries tore through the rain as the tendrils dragged him into the dark cloak. In his panic, Sam tried to smash the back of his head into the blackened skull of a previous victim as he cried and cried until his screams were swallowed by the abyss.

  Sey collapsed to her knees, her arms still wrapped around Lucien.

  “Sey?! What’s happening?” Lucien cried out as he struggled against the mud and rain.

  The world dulled around her, muffled by the thunder of her own heartbeat. Tears blurred her vision as she clutched Lucien, frozen, watching as the Caused turned to face them.

  Kyyr.

  An electrifying surge of non-abyssal Kyyr suddenly flooded the forest in a blinding contrast.

  It was brief, but it was like a light amidst the darkness.

  The Caused froze mid-step, its head tilting up. Lightning arced across the firmament, its burning light briefly illuminating the underside of the Cetarro Sky Scraper as it silently drifted north far above the Inverted Sea.

  The Caused drew in feral breath, its chest swelling unnaturally as it let out a resounding howl so loud Sey could feel her bones rattling against her trembling muscles.

  A second, equally monstrous howl answered from somewhere farther north.

  Then a third.

  Three howls pierced the storm.

  The Caused stilled as its interest drained. Then, without a glance back, it dropped on all fours and hissed—before vanishing into the rain, surging toward the distant tower and leaving behind nothing but the rising rain… and the mangled remains of the rangers of Post 14.

  Three beasts, born for one purpose.

  Three heads, driven by a single goal.

  One blackened soul, split into three.

  The Cerberus was on the hunt.

  Its one and only desire—

  The Coarseblood.

  M?ry’Plu!

  -L. Osric