This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Benji closed his eyes as Aura’s duplicate scurried into the invisible entrance within the boulder, his breath slowing as he focused on their shared perception.

Thankfully, Bea’s influence ensured that the information wasn’t limited to just Benji. Nearly invisible threads extended from Bea’s tiny form, connecting subtly to each of them—thin strands of mental energy that transferred the images and sensations obtained from Aura directly into their minds.

Suddenly they weren’t in the clearing, it felt as though they had been transferred to Aura’s body, looking at the world through her perspective.

Kain felt the shift in temperature, the unnatural density of the air once Aura entered the boulder. It wasn’t cold in a normal way. It was a soul deep chilling sensation— heavy, suffocating, like something unseen was pressing down on them. The unpleasant temperature had more to do with the atmosphere in the boulder and less to do with the actual temperature.

Aura moved cautiously through the entrance, her small frame scurrying between the jagged formations of stone and pulsing blackened roots that wove along the walls like veins.

Then, she saw it.

This was likely the “guard” that had killed everything else that had tried to approach.

The creature stood motionless at the cavern’s entrance, not far from where Aura had just entered.

It was grotesque, even by Abyssal standards. Its hulking frame was hunched, its body a mass of shifting, pulsating black muscle covered in jagged bone plating. It had too many limbs—six arms, each ending in a different kind of blade or claw—and its head was completely featureless except for a gaping, vertical slit where a mouth should be.

Aura paused, her tiny nose twitching, scanning for any sign of awareness from the monstrous being. If it detects her, she’d immediately give up her cover and try to enter the cavern and obtain as much information as possible before dying.

And yet—nothing.

It didn’t react.

Not to her presence. Not to her movements.

Thankfully, it appears as though the combination of skills she usually employed was enough to keep her undetected.

She ran right past its feet, so close that she could feel the heat radiating from its abyssal flesh, but it remained utterly still.

Past it was a long tunnel that after travelling a short distance split into three.

However, the confusion on the correct path only stopped Aura briefly, through her shared vision with her, they saw the group that Kain had previously been following. However, they weren’t solid. They more closely resembled holograms. Kain realized that Aura must be using her ability to see past events in order to determine which path to take.

The ‘holograms’ took the path to the right—so Aura did as well.

“This space is huge,” Benji murmured, voice tense as Aura travelled down the selected hallway for what felt like several minutes. The space inside of the boulder clearly exceeded the massive boulder’s size by hundreds of times. “it is much bigger than it should be based on the size of the boulder. And the walls are…alive?” He paused, and through the mental link, Kain saw what he meant.

As Aura travelled, the originally black stone walls took on more of a fleshy-grey-toned hue.

The walls pulsed. Slowly, sickeningly. Like veins.

Kain exhaled sharply. The sensation crawling through Kain’s skin told him that although they couldn’t be sure the walls were alive, there was definitely something off about them.

And then, the images changed once again. Aura had finally reached the end of the tunnel.

The space opened up into a massive tunnel. And it was so large that loud screams, likely generated by a large amount of wind, practically blocked out all other noises.

Is there another opening? To outside? Otherwise, why would there be such loud, high-pitched screech noises, as if from wind?

A deeper section of the cavern. The Abyssal creatures—the same ones Kain had been tracking—were no longer walking. They were working.

Building something.

“A Gate,” Benji said, voice hollow.

The word settled over them like a weight.

Kain’s stomach twisted as he took in the grotesque sight through Aura’s connection.

The structure was massive, far larger than any of the creatures surrounding it. Its frame was bone, twisted and warped into a jagged arch. But what lay within the half-formed structure was worse.

The center of the Gate wasn’t solid. It wasn’t stone or metal. It was flesh.

The flesh was alive.

Kain watched as it moved—twitching, shifting, like it was trying to form something but couldn’t quite take shape.

At the same time, Kain and the others saw the source of the screams—it wasn’t from the wind.

Claudia inhaled sharply and her voice reverberated through the mental connection they all held with one another. “That’s not—That can’t be—”

“They’re using people,” Benji cut in, his voice thick with barely contained rage. “The bodies are being absorbed. Their flesh melts into the structure, their bones fuse with the frame. They’re alive when it happens.”

How were they even able to get people? All of the civilians here are products of the memory relic, aren’t they? They shouldn’t be able to accomplish whatever their goal is.

Unless, similar to Kain and the others, some other citizens of Brightstar City were sucked into this relic against their will…

Kain’s hands curled into fists at the thought that people he knew and grew up with—teachers, shopkeepers, neighbours—could be those integrated into this gate.

He could see it now—figures, twisted beyond recognition, writhing within the Gate’s growing form. Their mouths opened in silent screams, their limbs fused together in unnatural angles as they were pulled into the structure itself.

Some still had vaguely recognizable faces.

The flesh that made up the center of the Gate rippled again, and for the first time, Kain’s gaze locked onto a single, twisted face embedded within it.

Or rather—half a face.

The other half was fused seamlessly into the grotesque structure, as though it had been sculpted from the same material. The skin was stretched unnaturally, merging into the pulsing, bone-like frame of the Gate, yet the visible portion retained its human features—enough to be recognizable.

A single, bloodshot eye stared outward, blinking sluggishly, as though struggling to remain conscious. The pupil twitched, unfocused, rolling in its socket before locking onto Aura’s tiny form.

Surprisingly, despite the guards seemingly not being able to detect Aura, those fused into the gate seemed able to see her.

The mouth—half-formed and fused into the living mass—parted slightly, as if trying to form words, but only a weak, garbled noise escaped.

A choking whimper.

Kain felt his stomach twist violently.

He knew this person.

Mister Yan.

The elderly man who had once owned a tea shop on the outskirts of Brightstar City. Kain had passed by his store countless times growing up.

The scent of roasted tea leaves and aged parchment was seared into his childhood memories. He could remember the old man’s wrinkled hands carefully pouring a cup of jasmine tea, the warm smile he had offered to customers, the way he would always slip extra cookies into the bags of Kain and his siblings who wandered into his shop but weren’t able to afford much of anything.

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Kain’s breathing hitched.

Master Yan was here.

He had been sucked into the relic just like they had. Who knows how many others…

Kain clenched his fists so hard that his nails bit into his palms and drew blood.

He had to fight every instinct screaming at him to charge in there and do something. But what could he even do? Master Yan wasn’t just trapped. He was part of the Gate now. There was no way to tear him free without—

He swallowed back bile.

Without killing him.

But could he even be truly considered alive?

A fresh wave of horror surged through Kain.

“If they’re still conscious—” Clara began, voice shaking.

“They are,” Benji confirmed, his tone grim. “At least… for a while.”

A nauseating silence filled the link.

Nadia broke the silence, “We can’t get hung up on these individuals. Yes, what happened to them is terrible. But we are helpless to save them. The best thing we could do, would be to make sure that the Abyssal creatures don’t succeed. To make sure that these people don’t need to watch as their bodies are used to form a gate to the real world and launch an attack on their friends and families.”

After making a sound that seemed like they were choking down their vomit, Kain and the others did as Nadia directed and focused on the task at hand.

Using the connection to Aura, they examined the gate with a more calm and critical eye. Now looking for any information that may help them and not focusing so much on the ‘materials’ the gate was composed of.

Benji’s voice broke the silence once again, “Aura said that she can somewhat detect the purpose and function of the gate. I think they are trying to use the connection between the flesh and blood creatures in our world to construct a gate that would lead to the ‘origin’ of those fused into the gate.”