'Those must be the cultists,' Liam thought, sensing the larger masses of energy. 'No sight of the tear.'
"We're going to have to enter the city to find out where the tear is," Liam told Ava and Illyana.
Giving Liam a nod, they both moved after him.
Standing at the edge of the dimensional energy, Liam summoned Incursio around him, his wings spreading behind his back before quickly closing again. While it would be easier to fly above the city to search for the tear, doing so would leave Ava and Illyana wide open for any attacks.
Looking behind him, Liam noticed Illyana had taken out her Soulsword while Ava had her quantum suit on. Both looked at him, ready to enter the city.
"Alright then, let's go," Liam said, focusing ahead.
Setting foot inside the enemy's dimensional energy, Liam kept watch using his Eldritch Sight. If he noticed the larger energy masses approaching, he would immediately warn Illyana and Ava while taking the lead in attacking.
While walking past the first few houses, Liam looked inside one. Sensing a small energy signal inside, he walked up to one of the windows. As expected, an elderly woman lay on her bed, sweating profusely with a terrified expression on her face.
Right beside her, Liam could see an elderly man. This man no longer had an energy signature from the dream dimension on him, confusing Liam for a second.
Then, he realized. 'He's already passed away,' Liam thought, saddened. 'I can't imagine how vulnerable the elderly are to these kinds of attacks.'
On the elderly man's pale face, Liam could still see the terrified expression, while his body looked extremely thin, as if someone had literally sucked all the energy out of it.
Before Liam could take in more details, he felt an extremely thin energy wave fly over them.
"They just scanned us. Be prepared," Liam said, looking behind him.
Giving one last look at the elderly couple in the house, his expression remained unreadable. Then, he turned to the now approaching larger energy signatures.
'This world already has enough problems as it is,' Liam thought, summoning Neontote to his hand. 'There's absolutely no reason for these fuckers to make it even worse.'
At the end of the street, Liam saw the first two cultists running toward them. Their foreheads bore a grey marking, their eyes hollowed out and completely replaced by grey energy.
Pointing Neontote at them, Liam sent some energy into his spear. Then, he released it, sending a small circle of blue flames spiraling toward the approaching cultists.
The flames hit both of them, causing them to scream out in pain. Their skin melted off their bodies while more grey energy covered them.
'They already lost their humanity when they put this town through this, but I guess now we can see the real monsters,' Liam thought, sending a burst of energy through the spear.
The flames turned purple and melted straight through the cultists' bodies.
Lifting his spear again, Liam watched something strange happen. While their human bodies had been burned to dust, a grey mass of energy remained, slowly swirling in the air.
'What is this?' Liam thought, confused.
The grey energy wasn't his only problem. Watching through his Eldritch Sight, he noticed more and more large energy signatures moving toward them.
"More of them are coming," Liam said, turning to Ava and Illyana.
Snapping out of her shocked state, Ava nodded, joining Illyana. Both looked toward the horizon, noticing the incoming cultists.
Liam counted a total of 30 more cultists approaching them and raised his spear. At the same time, he created five sword constructs using purely the white energy inside his cells, letting them float beside him.
"You guys take care of my left and right," Liam said, letting Ava and Illyana each take on eight cultists.
Sending his sword constructs toward the 14 approaching cultists, Liam opened his wings and flew at rapid speed after them.
The five sword constructs all struck one target each. No matter how they tried to dodge, the swords found their marks.
Two cultists were beheaded right away. The other three dodged, using their superior strength and speed to get out of the way just in time.
After the swords missed their marks, they turned around and went for round two, piercing one cultist's head like a watermelon.
The other two cultists, seemingly having some fighting experience, managed to dodge and send grey energy flying toward Liam.
Dodging the energy while burning through the heads of two more cultists, Liam started to get a strange feeling. 'Why are they so weak?' he questioned. 'This isn't the strength of low-level creatures, let alone beings close to high-level.'
Flying around another grey energy attack, Liam threw his spear at another cultist, his organs spilling out as his body split in half.
Having a bad feeling, Liam decided to conserve as much energy as possible. Using his floating constructs, he finished off the remaining six cultists.
Looking behind him, he noticed Illyana and Ava also had an easy time killing their opponents.
'If they aren't in danger, then what is this weird feeling I'm getting?' Liam thought, alarm bells ringing in his head.
Then, he directed his attention to the bodies of the first two cultists he had killed. Above them, the grey energy had transformed into some kind of grey creatures.
'What?' he thought, confused.
The creatures looked straight at Liam, completely ignoring Illyana and Ava, who were closer to them.
Turning his head, Liam noticed more grey creatures appearing above the corpses of the cultists he had killed. All of them had the exact same appearance and looked straight at Liam, ignoring everything around them.
Getting a creepy feeling, Liam noticed all of them start moving. At first, it was slow, but they quickly sped up, soaring into the sky to catch him.
'They can fly?' Liam thought, even more surprised.
Flying further away, Liam noticed that the creatures seemed to be accelerating.
Wondering how they were doing that, he noticed many smaller dimensional energy dots vanishing on his Eldritch Sight.
'They are siphoning the energy from the people to fuel their actions,' Liam realized, quickly slowing down until he came to a complete stop.