Tribal

44

Landing in the deep darkness, the group of warriors adjusted themselves. They checked to see if everyone else was alive, then took their lanterns out.

"Let's get moving." Ghost began walking forward.

The group remained silent as they moved, readying their weapons for anything that could pose a threat—walking forward until they reached a small clearing.

"What is that?" Hollow asked.

"Shade's vessel." Ghost answered plainly and continued walking forward.

The group descended the cliff and walked further into the clearing, an insect wearing a gold mask kneeling and coughing up a black viscous liquid.

"Godseeker," Ghost said softly.

"You, a foul creature of shadow. You did this to me!" Godseeker spoke in her usual tone.

"You usually don't speak in the first person. What happened to the other seekers?" Ghost asked concerned.

"They were all felled at the hand of that dark beast, the one you brought onto us!" Godseeker began to try and stand.

"Ghost, who is this?" Quirrell asked.

"This is the God seeker, she spends her whole life trying to find the strongest god to worship. Usually, she is much bigger than this, the form we are seeing now is the form she takes when she isn't transporting all the other Godseekers. The other Godseekers live inside of this one." Ghost explained.

"They, all of them, have been destroyed. By that monster you summoned. You have destroyed my home, and my family, and you have warped my worship into something horrid. I have nothing! Nothing! Because of you!" Godseeker stood completely, the same viscous liquid that was pouring from her mouth was oozing from her eyes as well.

"Godseeker, where is Shade? We are here to fix the mistakes of the past, where are they?" Ghost interrogated.

"I am here, I have been waiting for you all to arrive." Shade spoke from Godseeker's mouth.

"Shade!" The group drew their weapons and readied for battle.

"You think you all have the power to defeat me? I AM A GOD! I AM DEATH! I AM THE END!" Godseeker floated up into the air and the bandages that covered her body fell away.

Godseeker's body was pulsing with Shade's tendrils, Godseeker leaned back and screeched with a primal rage.

"SCATTER!" Hollow commanded, and the group did as they were told.

Everyone began running in different directions, trying to distract Godseeker from everyone else.

"YOU FOOLS! I HAVE EYES EVERYWHERE!" Tendrils began shooting out from the shadows, taking the form of the Godseeker.

Instead of everyone focusing on one God seeker, everyone had to focus on multiple different Godseekers at once, there were about five per person.

"YOU THINK YOU HAVE ANY WAY TO DEFEAT ME? THAT SILLY BOTTLE OF WATER CAN DO NOTHING FOR YOU!" Shade continued to taunt them as the group struggled to fend off the Godseekers.

"EVERYONE! REGROUP AT THE MAIN GODSEEKER!" Hollow ordered.

Immediately people began to ditch the Godseekers they were fighting and turn to make their way to the main one.

"OH NO YOU WON'T!" All the shadow Godseekers transformed into shadow energy and Godseeker drew them to her and formed a large energy orb.

"QUICKLY! EVERYONE! STRIKE NOW!" Hollow cried out.

Everyone began to ready their strike when they were interrupted by more shadow Godseekers knocking them back.

"AH AH AH, THAT'S AGAINST THE RULES!" The group began engaging the shadow Godseekers one-on-one again.

Reed looked towards the Godseeker and saw she was beginning to cast a powerful spell, he instinctively began to slice through the shadow Godseekers with his blades to no effect.

"Damn it all!" Reed took the vial from his pouch and let a drop hit his blades, which began to glow with a pale light immediately.

The shadow Godseekers flinched at the subtle glow of the blades and Reed charged forward, slicing them down and reducing them to ashes.

"Take the moon water and coat your blades with a drop! It kills the shadows!" Reed shouted to the others and began his charge to the Godseeker.

The others did as Reed told them to and began making their way through the shadows and to Godseeker.

"NO! NO NO NO! DIE YOU FILTH! I WILL NOT BE DENIED MY RIGHT TO ETERNAL RULE!" Godseeker charged up her spell and released a powerful explosion into the ground.

"NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT!" Hollow cast his spell and contained the Godseeker's spell.

The containment spell burst and the blast radius was significantly smaller than it would have been.

"NO! HOW DID YOU-" She was cut off when Ghost slashed at her mask, causing it to fly off.

The Godseeker sat for a moment, taking in what had just happened, before looking back up and revealing her face. It was severely scarred and Shade's tendrils had wrapped around it, Godseeker let out a horrid screech and charged at Ghost.

"YOU FOOLISH MORTAL PEST! HOW DARE YOU STRIKE ME! TODAY WILL BE YOUR END!" Godseeker reeled back to strike at Ghost but Quirrell sliced at her again.

"Keep your hands off my friend!" Quirrell shouted with much determination in his voice.

Godseeker reeled and the entire group began to attack her relentlessly. She turned to attack one and was attacked by another, finally, Godseeker rose into the air and screamed once again.

"THIS ENDS HERE!" Godseeker began to summon a large black hole and pull the group.

Ghost looked at the vial in his hand, everyone else was digging themselves into the ground and Ghost saw an opportunity and jumped up to the Godseeker. Grabbing onto her body and forcing a drop of the moon water into her mouth.

"WHAT ARE YOU-" The Godseeker screeched and immediately fell to the ground.

"NO WHAT DID YOU DO? NOOO!!!" Godseeker fell limp on the ground.

"Is it over?" Stan asked hopefully.

A white flash erupted from the Godseekers body and the group was blinded by its brightness. The explosion was so loud that Ghost could not hear what his comrades were saying, even when they were shouting right next to him. He tried his best to shield his eyes from the blinding light but the light seemed to pierce his eyelids and the light shone unbearably into the group.

Then.

As soon as it started.

It stopped.

And Ghost awoke on the surface.