(Brendan POV)
When we saw the monstrosity before us, all of us prepared for a fight.
Seeing how aggressive the tentacles were above the surface, we fully expected it to start attacking us the moment it saw us.
Except no attack came at us at all.
The only thing it did when it saw us was to wiggle more than before.
"What is that thing?" Senior sister Eris wondered aloud, keeping her sword pointed at the mass of flesh.
Before anyone could answer, another voice reverberated around the hall.
"Help…"
Senior sister Diao Chan narrowed her eyes at the thing, "Did it just… Speak?"
"Heeelp…" It repeated, though this time it sounded like several people were speaking at once.
Senior sister Lian Li took a step forward, "Who are you?"
There was a moment of silence before multiple voices whispered at once.
"Me…"
"I don't know…"
"Who…"
"The mayor…"
"Everyone…"
"Not me…"
All of us looked at one another, that was most definitely a response we were not expecting to get.
Senior sister Manami tilted her head slightly, "Ara? Don't tell me… The Dark Sect didn't summon this thing but made this instead?"
"Hmm? What do you mean, sister?" Senior sister Kiyomi asked.
She pointed a finger at the mass of flesh, "This thing… You are all people who have lived in this city, yes? But you're now stuck together?"
There was a pause and then all the voices said together, "Yes…"
I furrowed my brows, "This… Were the Dark Sect practising some kind of alchemy? No wait… The people of the Dark Sect also got affected too, just what was the point of making this?"
The thing groaned and it shifted slightly, a few of its eyes moving to look at me which was quite a chilling sight to behold.
"We… Did not…"
"Not us…"
"Not our will…"
"She made us…"
"She told us to…"
Sister Lian Li frowned, "'She'? Who is she?"
The thing wiggled a little more violently, as though it was struck by something.
"Her…"
"The one who talked to us…"
"Ordered us…"
"We had no choice…"
"It was her…"
"Her…"
Tsuki clucked her tongue in irritation, "Stop with the pronoun game. Who the hell are you talking about, give us a name!"
The thing groaned again, deflating slightly.
"Don't know…"
"No name…"
"Don't remember…"
"Losing memories…"
I'm starting to have a bad feeling about this. Who could do such a thing and yet remain unknown? We're talking about someone who managed to affect the entire city and yet no one knew about it?
"Why did she make everyone like this?" I asked.
More of its eyes turned to me.
"No…"
"This is a curse…"
"Don't know…"
"Mistake…"
"Did not want…"
Hmm? Their words don't really make sense now. Let's try another question then.
"What are you meant to do like this?"
The thing stopped moving and all eyes on our side of that fleshy blob moved to look at me. It stared at me for a few moments before the eyes looked away, searching all around the room.
"What… Who…"
"Where… What am I…"
"Get out… Get out…"
"Who are you…"
"Mama… It's cold…"
"I did not want this…"
"Why am I doing this…"
"Hush dear… Do not cry…"
"All a dream… All a dream…"
"So cold… So empty…"
"Join with everyone…"
"Join with everyone…"
"Join with everyone…"
Right then, the thing started to move and the earth began to shake. It reared up a few of its tentacles in a threatening pose, obviously trying to smack us with them.
Yep, should have known it would come to a fight after all, that's why I prepared these bottles of acid beforehand and tossed them at it while it was trying to rise.
It seems I wasn't the only one who had that line of thought as balls of fire, ice, lightning and various other Techniques were thrown at the moving flesh while it was getting up.
The monster gave a scream of pain when our attacks landed on it, the scream sounding like it came from the throats of different people which I guess in this case it really was. Some of its tentacles and human body parts stuck to it were also blasted apart messily.
The acid bottles I threw also shattered and scattered its contents all over it, the acid quickly eating away at the flesh and even dissolving a few eyeballs.
The fact that our attacks actually managed to do so much damage was quite surprising, considering that it was not effective at all when it was above ground.
Maybe because this was the heart of the monster and thus more vulnerable? Well, I'll research its physiology later since now isn't the best time to think about it.
Hmm? Is it cruel of us to attack this thing when it's actually the citizens of this city?
I don't think so. These people brought about problems for Master and it's not like they were Master's followers either so we definitely have no qualms about killing this thing.
To be honest, we came here prepared to flatten the city if the situation called for it, so having them all here in this monster actually simplified things.
Even better was that the bodies of those Dark Sect members were conveniently left intact, so Guiying could still take them back and arrange a show of executing them too.
We simply need to deal with this monster first.
The tentacles it had lifted up before swung towards us from above, trying to smash us into the ground.
Eris disappeared from where she was standing and reappeared in the air, her sword glinting in the light.
The next moment, those tentacles were separated into pieces before bursting into flames, the fire even spreading onto the monster's main body.
A multitude of voices screamed out in pain and the monster thrashed its tentacles around blindly.
One of them was headed straight for us but stopped before it could reach us.
Standing in its path was Tatiana with her right arm outstretched, the woman having stopped the tentacle with one hand.
She's not a Practitioner right? Just how strong is this woman?
She must have really received some kind of blessing from Master before then… No, I'm not jealous… I really am not…
"No complaints about us killing this thing, right?" Senior sister Lian Li asked the woman with the monstrous strength.
She looked at the monster, "If you still accept the words of our Founding God, you will stop right this instance!"
The only response the monster gave was to thrash even harder.
Tatiana turned back and sighed, "None."
Senior sister Lian Li threw her arms forward and the bolt of lightning she had been charging blasted forward, piercing through the centre of the monster's body.
The monster gave another weak groan before toppling over onto the ground, its appendages dropping all around it lifelessly.
We waited for a while more to confirm that it was no longer moving before finally breathing out a sigh of relief.
I was surprised it was this easy though, but not like I'm going to complain about it. I'll just take a look around later and figure out what can be used here for my own alchemy.
Now there was only one question remaining… Just who was the one who made this happen?
