Realm Lord-Chapter 187: Its Worse

He dropped back to the ground, his legs nearly buckling under the impact. The creatures were almost upon them now, their hollow eyes reflecting the dim light from the vehicle’s interior. Arthur could smell their putrid stench, could hear the wet sounds of their approach.

"Get in the damn vehicle!" Arthur shouted at Aziel, moving to place himself between his friend and the advancing horde. His odachi came up in a defensive stance, though his arms shook with exhaustion.

Aziel’s eyes widened with understanding, and he nodded grimly. Using his spear as a crutch, he began to move toward the vehicle as quickly as his wounded body would allow. Arthur backed up alongside him, his blade flashing in desperate arcs as he kept the creatures at bay.

"Almost there!" Cara’s voice came from inside the vehicle, her tone tight with tension. "Just a few more steps!"

A creature lunged at Arthur from the left, its claws extended and its mouth gaping wide. Arthur’s blade caught it through the temple, but the impact sent him staggering backward. His foot caught on an uneven piece of ground, and he went down hard, his odachi spinning away into the darkness.

"Arthur!" Aziel’s voice was filled with alarm, but he was already climbing into the vehicle, his wounded shoulder making his movements slow and clumsy.

The creature that had knocked Arthur down was already preparing to strike, its claws descending toward his exposed throat. Arthur rolled desperately to the side, his hand scrabbling for his lost weapon. His fingers found the hilt just as the creature’s claws scraped across the ground where his head had been.

"Come on!" Cara’s voice was desperate now, and Arthur could see her preparing to jump back down from the vehicle.

Arthur surged to his feet, his odachi coming up in a vicious uppercut that took the creature’s head clean off. Dark fluid sprayed across his face and chest, but he was already moving, his legs carrying him toward the vehicle with the last of his strength.

"Now!" Myha’s voice cut through the chaos, and Arthur felt strong hands grabbing him, hauling him up into the vehicle. He collapsed onto the metal floor, his chest heaving with exhaustion, as the heavy door slammed shut behind him.

The sound of clawed hands scraping against the armored hull filled the air, punctuated by the wet thudding of bodies pressing against the vehicle. But they were safe now, protected by layers of reinforced steel and bulletproof glass.

"Everyone okay?" Cara’s voice was soft with relief, though her hands were shaking as she helped Arthur sit up.

Arthur nodded weakly, his throat too dry to speak. Aziel was slumped against the far wall, his shoulder wrapped in a makeshift bandage that Myah had quickly applied. His face was pale, but he was breathing steadily.

"We need to move," Myah said, her voice calm and professional despite the chaos outside. "There are more of them coming. A lot more."

Arthur could feel the vehicle’s engine rumbling to life beneath them, the powerful motor drowning out the sounds of the creatures outside. Through the reinforced windows, he could see the shambling forms of the horde pressed against the glass, their hollow eyes staring at him with endless hunger.

"Well lets get moving then?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Cara’s face was grim as she looked out at the nightmare landscape around them. "Lets get the hell out of here" she said quietly. "And fast."

The vehicle began to move, its reinforced tires crushing the creatures that had fallen beneath its wheels. Arthur closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the metal wall, his body finally beginning to relax as the adrenaline faded from his system.

They had survived. Against all odds, they had made it through the nightmare and lived to fight another day. But Arthur knew that this was just the beginning. There in district 3 now, where things like what just happened are no longer abnormal and hell have to get used to that.

The armored vehicle rolled through the darkness, carrying its exhausted passengers away from the battlefield and toward an uncertain future. Behind them, the horde continued its relentless advance, their moaning cries echoing through the night like a promise of horrors yet to come.

This war was far from over.

The vehicle’s engine hummed steadily through the oppressive silence that had settled over its occupants like a suffocating blanket. Many agonizing moments stretched by with nothing but the harsh symphony of desperate panting and the thunderous drumbeat of hearts hammering against ribcages. The metallic taste of fear still lingered in the air, mingling with the acrid scent of smoke that clung to their clothes and hair like a grim reminder of what they’d just escaped.

Everyone remained trapped in their own private worlds of horror, silently processing the nightmarish tableau that had unfolded before their eyes as they desperately sped away from the hellish scene. The landscape outside the windows blurred past in streaks of muted colors, but none of them paid it any attention. Their minds were still locked in that terrible moment, replaying every detail with crystal clarity that they would have given anything to forget.

The tires whispered against the asphalt, carrying them further and further from the devastation, yet somehow the distance felt meaningless. It was as if the darkness they’d witnessed had followed them, seeping into the very fabric of the vehicle and poisoning the air they breathed.

After what felt like an eternity of tense silence, Cara’s voice cut through the oppressive quiet like a blade. Her words were clipped and professional, but there was an underlying tremor that betrayed her own shaken state. "Myah," she said, her eyes never leaving the road ahead, "help patch up Aziel’s arm."

The urgency in her tone snapped Myah from her stupor. She hurried to grab the medical bag, her hands trembling slightly as she fumbled with the clasps. She brought it to Aziel with practiced efficiency, immediately getting to work on treating his wound.

Her fingers worked quickly but carefully, cleaning away the blood to assess the damage. The wound was deep, angry red edges speaking to the violence that had inflicted it. She tried to keep her expression neutral, professional, but the sight of torn flesh and the metallic scent of blood made her stomach clench with familiar nausea.

It was in this moment of forced normalcy, with Myah’s gentle ministrations providing a anchor to reality, that Arthur was finally able to drag his consciousness from the thick sludge of shock and disbelief that had engulfed his mind. The fog of confusion and horror began to lift, replaced by a burning need for answers that erupted from his throat like a volcano.

"What the fuck was that?!" he shouted suddenly, his voice cracking with the strain of suppressed emotion and raw terror. The words exploded in the confined space of the vehicle with startling intensity.

His outburst startled both Myah and Aziel, causing them to look at him with wide, haunted eyes. Aziel grunted from the sudden movement aggravating his wound, the sound a mixture of pain and grim acknowledgment. When he spoke, his voice was rough with exhaustion and barely contained anguish.

"Yeah, I’d like to know too," he managed, wincing as Myah continued her work. "Obviously humans can technically get turned into corrupted creatures by exposure to corruption, but that was something else entirely." His words carried weight.

Cara glanced at them in the rearview mirror, her reflection showing eyes that had seen too much and carried the burden of knowledge she wished she didn’t possess. The silence stretched for a moment as she seemed to weigh her words, choosing each one carefully like a surgeon selecting instruments.

Finally, she sighed deeply, the sound carrying weariness and frustrated helplessness. "To be honest... we’re not entirely sure," she admitted, her voice heavy with the weight of uncertainty. "Scenes like the one we just faced have been popping up more and more recently, and you’re correct—this is no normal corruption."

She paused, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the steering wheel tighter. "The problem is, we don’t know what it is. Every time we think we’re getting closer to understanding, something like this happens and we’re back to square one."

Another sigh escaped her lips as she brought her eyes back to the road ahead, the yellow lines disappearing beneath their vehicle like a countdown to an unknown destination. "The best guess we have so far is that it’s the work of some very... very strong void creature that nobody has encountered yet. Or at least, nobody who’s survived long enough to tell about it."

The implications of her words hung in the air like a death sentence. Arthur felt his world tilting on its axis, everything he thought he knew crumbling around him like sand castles before an incoming tide. He didn’t know what to say, couldn’t find words adequate to express the magnitude of his horror and disbelief. Instead, he simply stared at the floor of the car, his vision blurring as he shook his head in desperate denial.

"But that’s insane..." he whispered, his voice barely audible above the engine’s steady hum. "There were so many of them, and this is just one of many sightings?" The question came out as more of a plea, as if he could somehow convince the universe to take back this terrible revelation.

Myah looked up at Arthur from where she was carefully wrapping Aziel’s treated wound, her movements precise despite the tremor in her hands. Her eyes held a serious and grim intensity that seemed far too old for her face, speaking to knowledge gained through bitter experience.

"However bad you thought the situation was here..." she said softly, her words cutting through the silence like shards of glass, "it’s worse."