Am I The Villain?

14. Nightmare Of The Walled City

The rumbling tremor shook me off the bed. I tried to get my bearing on what happened. Looking around, I see that I'm inside the inn's room. My staff is still leaning on the corner of the room with my robe draped over it. What was that shaking earlier? It was strong enough to throw me off my bed.

I recalled all the events leading to tonight. Both Mill and I decided to call off the Wraith hunt after we met that abomination masquerading as a little girl in fear that we are facing something greater than us. At first, handling her was no problem. Mill kept pressure while I readied up my spells. Just like always. I got I direct hit on her and Mill swiftly cut her head before she could recover.

But what happened after that was a nightmarish scene we were not prepared for. From within her corpse, a mass of black writhing organic material emerges. This black ooze pulsated in the most revolting manner, crawling and consuming the corpse. As the corpse is fully engulfed, a staggering blast of mana was released along with a loud incoherent screeching. When I say staggering, I meant actually staggering. Both Mill and I were blown back by the release and broke trees with our flung body. When we came to and looked back to where the corpse was, it was already gone without even a trace of blood.

Swallowing our pride, we decided to retreat and report. Our lives are too precious to waste on hunting a living nightmare. After that we stayed in the inn of the nearby city, which happens to be the capital of this margraviate.

The door to my room burst open with Mill behind it wearing a panic stricken expression. He is already in battle ready state with his enchanted sword in his hand. "Nia, Get up!" He quickly help me stand up.

I grabbed my staff and donned my robe. Many of the inn's guests have also woken up and making their way to the exit. "What happened? Did you feel that shaking?"

"Can you sense anything? A magic at work, or a presence of Old Ones?" Mill hastily questioned me. I shook my heads.

We managed to squeeze ourselves out from the inn. I didn't even need to use perception magic to know that something abhorrent is in progress. In the distance, a grim scene unfold under the moonlight. This isn't even an Old One anymore. This is something beyond.

Atop the skyscraping main tower of the colossal Carina Palace, a behemothic abomination was stretching its limbs toward the sky. The horrid beast has a misshapen humanoid form. As if trying to mimic a human, her body instead ends up as a depraved moving carrion. Her limbs was a mess of conflicting proportions. Arms longer than the legs, and neck longer than the arms. Incongruous to her figure, brilliant white light covers her physique. Her appalling cadaver was exuding piles of vile black ooze, forming a hideously beautiful gown for her.

For a whole minute, the whole city are stilled as they watch the horror in silent. Mothers and fathers went out to take a glimpse of what is transpiring while their children are told to curl up inside. The streets are filled to the brim with people despite the freezing gale of the night.

The monstrosity suddenly roared a ghastly wail toward the night sky. Her voice a melodic joy filled laughter mixed with pitiful sobbing as if grieving over the terrible fate that has befallen upon her. The air around her shook and reverberated to her tune. Waves of pure aural energy radiated outward from her and swept across the landscape, shattering both windows and eardrums. The inquisitive crowd of people assembled on the street fell down helplessly while clutching their ears without even having the strength to scream in pain. I tightened my grip on my staff until my palms turn pale as if I was grabbing onto the last piece of sanity I have left.

Her wail shook every living creature within the city wall. Only the disturbing sound of meat slapping and sloshing from her are emanating around the silent city. Even the gusts of wind are too frightened to make a sound. Minutes passed without anything daring to make a move.