"There is a very delicious smell in this room..." Alpha's neck snapped upward in a sickening crack.
Asher's breath stopped, the sheer malice he felt directly below him almost made him lose his balance. He closed his eyes.
A few seconds passed, but nothing happened. No other noises came from below, and he still kept his eyes shut tight.
'Where are they right now? Did they leave?' Asher laid still, focusing on his sense of hearing, but nothing seemed off. The noises had long passed, and he didn't sense any presences below.
He tentatively opened his eyes.
"Hello. Meat."
Alpha's expressionless mask stared at him from above, connected by his, no, its spine which extended all the way to its body on the ground. The bone was ash grey and glistening with mucus.
"Ah-!" Asher jolted to the side unconsciously, losing his balance on the beam. He flailed his arms as he fell, desperate to grab something to support him.
Something slimy and hard caught Asher's hand.
It was Alpha's spine. The monster stared at him from above, the blank expression on its mask twisting with mirth.
He slid down to the ground, unhurt but terrified. Alpha's head and spine slithered back into its body with wet, crunching noises. Gamma and Beta stood beside him, both staring at Asher silently.
Alpha adjusted itself, the mask on its face reverting to normal.
"What relationship do you have with that Messenger?" Alpha knew everything that had happened.
It noticed Asher long before it entered the building. All the fake interactions with the Messenger were merely its ruse.
"I-I'm just her colleague! Her friend! Ah-!"
Asher's mouth snapped shut, realizing the mistake he made. He leapt to his feet.
'I can revive, but what about Yan? I can't implicate her like this!'
Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. Alpha looked at him, tilting its head curiously.
Alpha walked toward him.
"So you have a connection with her? Why don't you text her one more time? Tell her we're with you, kekeke..." Alpha attempted to spread its arms out amicably. Its straightjacket strained with tension, preventing the gesture.
Its tone was soft and soothing, but that only made Asher back away further.
As Alpha kept approaching him, he made a mad dash toward the door, attempting to escape the confines of the warehouse.
But before he walked a step, his dress was snagged by a long, spindly arm. Beta chittered as it held Asher up to its face by a pinch of fabric on his dress.
The dress quickly ripped apart under his weight.
'[Fairy Queen]!'
Asher switched to his E.G.O. Sophie's skills weren't suited to fight against the Carnival.
Only his E.G.O had any chance. An infinitely slight chance, but he had to try.
Gamma and Beta recoiled in confusion. Even Alpha's curiosity was piqued as it leaned forward.
Asher flipped himself onto Beta's arm as it loosened its grip, immediately rushing forward to kick the monster straight in its mask.
But it merely shifted its hand backward, squarely catching his foot in its grasp.
"-!" Asher ignored the crushing grip on his ankle and used it to his own advantage, swinging down Wingbeat with all his strength.
In the back of his vision, he noticed that Alpha and Gamma didn't move an inch. He was too weak for more than one of them to take action.
Before Asher could hit the thing's mask, Beta flicked him upward with ludicrous force.
His body nearly touched the ceiling, over forty feet above the ground.
"A-AAAAH!!" The Carnival watched with amusement as Asher plummeted downward. This time, he had nothing to hold on to.
As he approached the ground, he braced for the impact on his knees, preparing to land.
*CRACK*
Even with the preparation, he felt one of his ankles roll painfully as he hit the ground. He grit his teeth as his shin bone snapped audibly.
He stood up, his vision hazy with dark splotches. He sensed four fairies whirling around him.
As Asher blinked the black from his vision, the fairies fluttered toward their prey with enthusiasm.
Beta tried to catch the fairies with its hands, but grunted in confusion as they phased through its flesh and disappeared into its jacket.
"Things eating from inside? Alpha can help me?" Beta's tone didn't change at all, as though he only met an amusing oddity.
Asher caught his breath as Beta turned away from him. Their leader hummed with ill-concealed joy.
"Magic of the Ruins... Does it hurt at all?"
"No? Biomass suddenly missing. Not much."
Asher hissed as he felt his bones fuse back together.
Just before he healed fully, the fairies inside Beta disappeared. He tried to stand up, but he found that it was still painful to stand without leaning on a support. In this case, it was his weapon.
Even with the fairies, he hadn't healed completely.
"This child is interesting... First an appearance transformation, then creature summons?" Alpha looked past his skin, studying the flesh inside him.
Asher hobbled backward, his body supported by Wingbeat, like a cane.
A small stone on the floor tripped him, sending him careening to the floor. Just before he hit the ground, Alpha caught him.
Its spine extended, wrapping around his body in a slimy rope of bone and cartilage.
"Interesting, no augmentations. This is a true being of the Ruins. Might be... Delicious." Alpha's usually cold voice warped with desire.
He tried to struggle out of its disgusting grip, but it only squeezed tighter.
As his arms were about to break, he transformed back to Sophie in a flash.
'[Fourth Match Flame]: Maximum!' He tried to reach for the knife in his pocket, but he noticed it on the ground next to him. It must've fallen out when Beta ripped his dress.
He tapped the base of Alpha's spine three times in rapid succession.
It was too focused on binding him to notice until it was too late.
Asher's finger burst into scorching violet flames, piercing straight toward its neck. Beta and Gamma chittered in warning, but they couldn't warn their leader in time.
Alpha tried to unwind itself as it felt the heat from Asher's finger, but the boy's other hand held its spine in place-
*BOOM*
Alpha's severed head plopped onto the ground, still attached to the spine. Asher wiggled out of the bony grip, panting as he stepped back.
'One down, two to go...'
He looked at his arm.
His hand was blown off, replaced with raw flesh and charred bone. At least it hurt less than last time, he thought as he grit his teeth.
"Surprising? Alpha wounded?" Beta and Gamma didn't sound too worried.
Their leader's head was on the ground, why were they so carefree?
The two monsters stared at the severed head, seemingly waiting for something to happen.
Then something indeed happened.
Asher stared in horror as a pair of centipede legs sprouted from each vertebrae on its spine. The burnt parts fell off, immediately dissolving into a revolting pile of goo and rot.
The 'spine centipede' dug itself back into Alpha's body, reattaching with a satisfying click. Its head spasmed as it was once again positioned safely on the shoulders.
It stood up calmly, as if nothing happened.
"I lost five percent biomass because of you. Stay still this time, or your death will be much more painful."
"W-What do you want?"
"Simple. Take out your phone."
Asher switched back to his E.G.O, shaking his head. He prepared to fight once more, but the fall left the bones of his legs filled with cracks.
Just standing on his feet caused lances of pain to spike into his body.
"This outfit spawns creatures when damaged? Or something else? Interesting. I must test this."
'T-Test?'
Suddenly, Alpha's head shot toward him, faster than he could react.
Its spine wrapped around his arm before twisting it off in a single movement.
Asher screamed in agony as his arm twisted one... two... three... four... five... six revolutions against his joint until it ripped off from his body in a bloody crackle.
"Haa... Haa..." Asher fell to the ground, his eyes glazed over.
A dozen fairies eagerly leapt to action, consuming Alpha from the inside out, but it didn't react at all. The small amount of biomass it lost every second was insignificant for its attention.
The monster stared at him, watching the child heal before its eyes.
A rough skeletal structure formed where Asher's arm should have been. Bits of muscle and connective tissue formed on the bones.
Alpha kicked some dust on the open flesh, curious about what would happen. It stared intently as the dust slipped off, like there was some invisible membrane protecting it.
Then the healing stopped. Asher's new arm was unfunctional, with too little muscle to even move an inch. The protective membrane around his arm disappeared, and he moaned in pain as dust seared his open flesh.
The fairies disappeared, having finished their meal, but Asher was left out of commission and barely conscious. He didn't even notice his torn off arm being feasted on by Gamma and Beta in front of him.
"Beta. Grab the kid's phone, the one he was texting with."
The spindly creature stopped chewing Asher's fingers and began to search his body. Soon enough, it pulled out a white phone.
"Open it."
Turning the phone on, Beta was greeted with a pupil scanner.
"Pupil scanner, for eyes? We don't have."
"Idiot, pull the boy's eyelids open."
Asher mumbled in protest, but he was too preoccupied with the pain. The stump on his right arm and the blistering dust on his mutilated left arm made it so he was in constant agony.
Combined with the blood loss from his open veins and arteries, he barely comprehended the words they were saying.
Asher shuddered as Beta's gloved hands pried apart his eyelids, but he couldn't struggle out of its grip. The phone opened immediately.
[I have calculated that this is your only chance to survive. Still a slim chance, but better than none.]
He stared at the prompt, uncomprehending. Then he realized that the System transformed his pupils into Sophie's, unlocking the phone for them.
He berated the System in his mind for endangering Yan.
Yan was an actual human being, whereas he was some sort of reviving freak, so he felt that his life was worth much less than hers.
But deep inside, he felt relieved. He didn't want to feel this horrible, horrible pain anymore... Maybe, just maybe, he could be saved.
'So what if it implicates Yan?' A sinister thought bloomed in his mind, before wilted away just as quickly as it appeared.
The memories of her innocence from yesterday kept surfacing in his mind, warding away any thoughts of that nature.
But the phone was already unlocked. Nothing he did now would stop Alpha from getting what it wanted.
"The Messenger and this kid's relationship should be pretty close, hm? Beta, text for help to the Messenger on Line."
"N...No, please... Just kill me! Eat me! Torture me! Do anything but that!"
Alpha stared at Asher, who was dragging himself toward it with his stump of a hand. Alpha wordlessly dug its heel into his left arm, causing another sharp scream. Asher gasped raggedly, his throat raw from overexertion.
"Text has been sent? Never eaten Messenger before?"
"Will be tasty? This Messenger seemed soft. Girly?" Gamma approached them, having eaten Asher's arm.
Alpha laughed gratingly.
"With this text, the bait has been set. We have starved on Sweeper flesh for far too long."
Asher could only wait in silence, hoping that Yan wouldn't come.
Knowing her, she would arrive even if she knew it was a trap.
A few minutes passed. Gamma and Beta almost began to nibble at him, but were both stopped by Alpha's cold glare.
It wanted to test something.
"Have you heard the Index saying, 'Divine Messengers, silent guardians'? Wonder how our 'divine' friend will react to this, no?"
"No... ple-ASEE!" Asher twitched in pain as more dust was piled on top of his skinless arm to silence him.
"Hush now. The guest of honor has arrived."
The doors burst open, kicked ajar by Yan. Dragged along with her were the twins that guarded the front doors.
"Asher!"