At first, it seemed like a large drop of blood floating in the air, but it made no sense to either Gerald or the others how it had come to be. They had fought demons before—battled unimaginable forces—but this crimson sphere was something else entirely.
The team stood, weapons in hand, eyes wide as they took in the strange, liquid-like substance hovering between Gerald and the demon. It was suspended, eerily still, defying logic. There was one thought that crossed all their minds simultaneously:
'Where did that come from?'
Though they'd dealt significant damage to the demon they were fighting, there was no reason it should have released such a large mass of blood at once. They had all seen it too late.
However, there was one among them who had seen its entrance. Jack. His eyes had locked onto the thing the moment it appeared, his instincts instantly telling him something was wrong.
"Get away from that place immediately!" Jack roared, his voice full of alarm as he sprinted towards Darius, who was the closest to the sphere. He raced against time, a sense of dread gripping him. The ball of red liquid had materialized in the air, and without hesitation, Jack had sprung into action.
The others turned, shocked by his sudden panic. They were even more startled when Jack snatched Darius's tiger-headed shield from his grasp.
"Hey! You can't just go around taking other people's…" Darius began, but his voice trailed off as Jack performed a wild and unexpected move.
"I said get away!" Jack shouted again, spinning with all his might and using the momentum to launch Darius's shield into the air. It flew with terrifying speed, aimed directly at Gerald.
"Are you crazy?!" Liyah shrieked.
"Do you want to kill him?!" yelled Amelia, her eyes wide with disbelief.
They watched in horror as the shield rocketed toward Gerald, certain it would strike him. But instead of cutting him down, it collided bluntly with his side, knocking him out of his original trajectory and hurling him away from the blood sphere.
Bang!
"Huh?" Gerald's grunt of confusion echoed as he tumbled to the ground. But that was nothing compared to the sight that followed.
The ball of red liquid had begun to expand, slowly at first, but soon it grew at a rapid pace, swelling into an enormous, monstrous shape that dwarfed even the demon it had once hovered near. Then it changed again, revealing something disturbing beneath the surface.
Was it a mouth?
With a wet, unsettling plop, the sphere seemed to open, though no one could say for sure if it was a mouth, a hole, or something else entirely. But they were all certain of what they had just witnessed.
The demon they had fought so fiercely was now gone, swallowed whole by the red liquid as though it had never existed. The balloon-like mass had absorbed it entirely, and then, just as quickly, it began to shrink back down, returning to its original size.
For a long moment, no one spoke. They were stunned into silence, their minds struggling to grasp what had just happened.
Finally, Liyah broke the silence. "How did you know?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, her eyes locked on Jack.
"I saw it appear right after we dealt the final blow to the demon," Jack explained, his eyes still fixed on the shrinking sphere. "And as Gerald gave the order to send it through the air, it vanished for a second, only to reappear between him and the demon. It was as if it anticipated the trajectory."
The others inhaled sharply at his words, chilled by the idea that the thing had acted deliberately, waiting for the right moment to strike. But even then, there was a more pressing issue.
With another soft _plop_, the liquid sphere fell to the ground, landing with a soft splash. It didn't move, didn't roll—just stayed in place like an ordinary puddle of water. But none of them were foolish enough to believe it was harmless.
Gerald rose from the ground, dusting himself off as he approached the shield Jack had thrown at him. Without a word, he picked it up and walked over to Darius, handing it back with a nod of thanks.
"If you hadn't acted, I'm pretty sure I would've disappeared like that demon," Gerald said, his voice steady, but there was no mistaking the fear that had brushed against him.
Darius was still too shocked to respond. Instead, he was the first to notice Amelia, her voice soft and uncertain. "I think it's starting to turn toward us."
Garius, standing closest to the ball of liquid, let out a mocking snort. "Forget it. That thing's so round it doesn't even have a face. How can it tell which direction is which?"
Liyah turned toward Amelia as well, her tone light. "If this is another attempt to get Gerald's attention, this really isn't the time," she teased gently, though a hint of unease lay behind her words.
Garius grinned at the joke and began to step closer to the liquid, but Jack's voice cracked through the air like a whip. "What in the Gods' name do you think you're doing?"
Garius halted, startled by the sharpness in Jack's tone. "It's just—"
"If you're not stupid, you'll get the hell away from—"
Fwoosh!
The ball of liquid suddenly vanished from the ground, reappearing inches from Garius's face. It hovered for only a second before it started to grow again, expanding slowly, its shadow falling over him like a predator closing in on its prey.
"Garius!" Darius screamed, realizing too late what was about to happen.
Garius looked toward his twin brother, confusion on his face, but Darius's expression said it all. It was over.
The liquid mass expanded once more, larger than Garius himself, its eerie form casting a dark shadow. And then, with terrifying finality, the ball opened.
The hole was darker than anything Garius had ever seen, a void with no bottom. In an instant, it swallowed him whole.
Plop!
Garius was gone. The sphere shrank back down, as though it had never been large at all.
For a long moment, no one moved. Then Darius let out an anguished roar, fury and grief contorting his features. "No! I'll kill that damned thing!"
Snatching Amelia's sword, he charged toward the ball of liquid, oblivious to the danger it posed.