God of Discovery [high fantasy, slow build, mlm]

Arc 3 - 20. God of Luck

When the white around him turned grey and dark splotches appeared in his vision, D'Argen slowed his step. The splotches turned darker still until they appeared like black drops of ink on wet paper. He slowed enough for the trees and hills to gain an outline, then even more until colour slowly bled into the world. As he turned his run into a jog and then a walk and finally stopped, Kassar bent over beside him and promptly threw up.

Before the other could rise though, D'Argen forcefully shoved him back down until they were both lying in dead grass on their bellies.

Those black splotches turned into demons stalking around the ruins of wooden houses and tents. They were close enough to stop and sniff the air, look around, and turn toward them. D'Argen covered Kassar's mouth to stop him from speaking, but the man's breaths were too heavy. One of the demons spotted them.

It was a huge thing, standing at least as tall as three of D'Argen in one, with unproportioned legs and three sets of arms that all ended in two sharp claws.

How Upates created these creatures and believed them to be an image of either the gods or the mortals was a wonder. Most of them looked like a combination of at least two or three different animals and nature itself. This demon, however, seemed to have more intelligence than the ones D'Argen had encountered so far.

Instead of rushing at them and screaming, it stayed back and still. Its eyes were focused where D'Argen and Kassar were trying to hide and though it did not move, the horns at the back of its head were shifting around and rubbing against one another.

D'Argen tasted something sharp and acidic at the back of his throat and realized the demon was making sounds even though his ears could not hear them. A moment later and a few others like it emerged from the ruins. They all narrowed in on D'Argen and Kassar and stepped forward, then stopped. There seemed to be some invisible barrier that they would not cross.

D'Argen slowly rose, keeping his centre of gravity and one hand touching Kassar's shoulder, ready to run at a moment's notice. The four demons all shifted together in the exact same way, an echo of one another that had D'Argen furrow his brow. Their horns were spinning and shifting in different patterns, but otherwise they all moved as one as they spread their legs and their arms went out, looking like some huge spider creature.

"What is going on?" Kassar whispered quietly beside him. As one, the demons shifted their heads and their eyes focused on him only.

Kassar tensed and the scent of roasted pine nuts came to D'Argen's nose as the man released his mahee. The demons' horns all stopped as one and then started shifting much faster, clacking so loud and emitting a high pitch that D'Argen could finally hear.

Then came the most surprising sight of all.

A few mortals came out of from the ruins.

Both D'Argen and Kassar watched with amazement as a man carried a young child on his hip and walked right through a group of demons that had looked like a mound of burned wood until they raised their heads. The demons sniffed at the mortals, followed their forms with their heads, then hunkered back down.

"Was that you?" D'Argen whispered out to Kassar.

"No. Not me," Kassar replied just as quietly.

"How do we... can we—"

"I do not know!" Kassar interrupted him with a snap that had the four demons in front of them hunching over and baring sharp teeth.

D'Argen took a cautious step back, dragging Kassar with him.

"We can't just leave them here," D'Argen said, even as his mahee begged him to run away.

"They seem to be doing just fine without us."