欧洲无人区天空码头IV

The thing that was coming out of his cut-off arm further on the ground was bigger than usual.

That arm on the ground was deformed, not longer resembling anything that used to be a human body part.

What was exiting from it had a strange shape. It almost seemed human.

The way it had four extremities resembling arms and legs, and something that could\'ve been a head.

The way it behaved was exactly like a hex, crawling out. Everything coming out of that body was trying to latch on the ground and any surface it could, with its multiple extremities almost resembling tentacles.

Mori was pushing the ground with his feet, trying to get further away but it was barely budging. Rather, he was the one getting pulled.

Another spike left the mass, piercing his shoulder.

Mori grunted in pain, he tried to move his pierced arm toward his shoulder to remove the spike, but he felt it anchoring around his back.

Even if he could, his arm barely moved, that hex was holding him tight.

Mori looked around rapidly.

The spear?! Where is it?!

Next to the arm, on the floor.

In a desperate move, he got up and ran toward the hex. It didn\'t hold him back, rather it welcomed him, its body seemingly opening.

As Mori got close to it, he leaped to the ground, sliding next to it with his arm extended toward the spear.

He touched it, with the tip of his finger, but the spike in his arm violently moved him, like a whip, to the nearby wall.

Mori fell to the ground, leaving a dent in the wall.

His head was spinning.

Ah. Purring. Again. You like what you see?

Mori\'s body felt heavy against the ground. He lifted his head, the thing that was still attached to him was crawling on the floor. It was heading toward him.

"What do you want..."

But it didn\'t answer.

It kept moving forward.

"You can\'t kill me... I\'m all you have."

It was insanely close and looked more and more humanoid, yet nothing besides its overall form hinted at it. On what could\'ve been its back, a swirling pattern was described on the abyssal surface.

It was a pattern created from it\'s \'skin\' caving in, as if something swirled its body on that area.

The thing was already upon him, climbing from his feet.

"Don\'t..."

It didn\'t listen, progressing on his torso, then toward his mouth.

Mori clenched his jaw, but the hex forcefully entered his mouth, its texture was almost a fluid, but not quite.

Mori thought his jaw would break, and it almost did, as this mass made its way down his throat.

It thinned itself, every last bit of its being crawling inside Mori\'s body, the spikes in his arm and shoulder the last things to make it down his throat.

Mori was on his back, his eyes blankly staring at the ceiling, while his hands slightly trembled against the floor.

The purring had stopped.

It felt like time was suspended in that room.

For the next hours, he remained there, against the floor, eyes blank.

His body was shaking, and spasms were happening frequently.

His eyes had a black swirling pattern in them, it would grow large, his entire eyes becoming black, but as if he was fighting it, they would grow smaller and dissipate.

From the tip of his finger could be seen the abyssal color taking over, the skin of his arm gradually turning into a void of colors.

That void would reach up, gradually reaching his shoulder then his neck, but would eventually regress.

—~~~—

Mori sat upright, his eyes emptily scanning the room.

His eyes looked tired as he finally located the spear next to his arm.

Or what remained of it.

You really had to do such a number on it?

Mori looked at his left shoulder, what remained of his arm wasn\'t bleeding anymore.

He barely felt any pain, nothing like what he experienced all the previous times.

He walked toward the spear and picked it up.

The next room was visible at the end of a passageway that had appeared on a wall, but he had run out of arms to get rid of.

Mori walked back to it, using the tip of the spear to move it around, but no hex would come out of that.

Mori stumbled backward, holding his forehead.

It was burning hot, and a headache was making its way through. He cracked his neck and opened his [Dungeon] menu.

He selected [0-0].

The scenery changed before his eyes, the familiar room he lived in for the past weeks coming back before him.

Sitting on the bed was Aleesia, holding her knees close to her chest while staring at the blankets.

When she saw him appear, she sprung up, rapidly getting out of bed.

"Where... I thought you were dead..."

She walked toward Mori.

Her face wasn\'t the same one from before, shocked and stressed.

It was a striking difference.

She looked... worried.

Dried tears on her cheeks, her eyes red from a clear lack of sleep. Her hands were trembling, and her gaze felt like it tried to hold on to him.

As she approached, she slowed her pace down. She looked like she would hug him, but she was standing about two meters away from Mori.

She was staring at him, but not his missing arm.

She was staring at his eyes.

"What is this?" she asked.

Mori only raised his eyebrows, wondering what she was talking about.

"Your eyes... That black thing?"

"Ah..."

Words felt heavy, as if each of them took the breath out of his lungs.

Mori staggered again, holding onto the spear.

"Mori..."

She got closer, slowly stopped.

"It\'s getting bigger... The things in your eyes."

Mori opened the dungeon system.

"You... go home for now."

Mori kicked her out, surprise displayed on her face as she disappeared, leaving Mori alone in the room with the Unkindled.

He dropped to the ground, the sound of the spear clinking against the ground, the last thing echoing in his mind.