Scene #5718: The Monster

Owner	Pose
Carna	Intruders of some kind attacked Emblem City. Chaos was left in their wake, one of the saboteurs having damaged the PRAYER System somehow. Coeus, the God Within The Walls, the God of Invention, had disseminated information to the public: Entities from a nightmarish void outside of Emblem City, perhaps something like a 'hell' where souls are corrupted into monstrous forms, their minds and memories supplanted with false recollections, to turn them against those they knew, had forced an entrance into the city in a restricted area of the Blue Tower's art gallery, Nkaleri Technis. They had slaughtered a number of Selenes that tried to intervene, and abducted three souls, corrupting them before everyone's eyes. Soupi, a friendly little girl who attended at the Temple of Phoebe, had been turned into some scarred corpse-like monster with metal and machinery melded with her flesh. Aepicus had become some sort of vampire-looking being in an ominous bird-of-prey attire. Gil VI hadn't changed much outwardly, but he began openly aiding the intruders where before he had been a loyal follower of Emblem's laws, dedicated to making sure everyone got to continue enjoying this existence. To so thoroughly twist these Noble Souls is truly a great transgression. Yet, even though, after the intruders and their prisoners escaped, their entry point was sealed, all that can be done right now is to try to mend the damage, and make sure everyone returns to their homes. Some of them must do so without the Selenes they have come to know, to live with even, as family, friends, lovers, teachers, or whatever else. Yet how can they simply go home? How can they just do nothing? Phoebe has returned, and successfully captured one of the intruders, some horrible shadow monster, and her priests and priestesses have promised to learn all they can from it. Coeus is even now working to upgrade Emblem City's defenses, as evidenced by new structures emerging everywhere, practically growing out of the ground and other buildings, expanding in every direction, and making Emblem City even larger, with more places for him to watch from. Even if the aesthetics are a bit... Different. Less futuristic, more 21st century western city. Like New York or something. There is still no sign of the third god, Prometheus. Really, there's nothing much they can do at this point except to do as they are told.
Carna	But maybe, going to find Prometheus, might make a difference. Maybe together, the three gods can safeguard Emblem City that much better. And in the late hours when everyone should be in their homes for their one second long rest period while the city mends itself, some have gone out to find him. The threat of these intruders from the void is too great for those whose hearts hold the stuff of heroes to easily ignore and entrust to others, no matter what their memories tell them. So a small group has disobeyed for the first time, and gone to the forest that lays all around the area known as Prometheus' Respite. A no-fly and no-teleport zone, that can only be traversed by foot. However, while this expansive forest is a peaceful park and nature hike zone in the day, at night is an utterly silent and dark locale, not even the animal-like Selenes meant to mimic wildlife in evidence. Spooky fog creeps along the ground about the roots of the trees, hiding trails that might otherwise be familiar, now rendered strange and uncertain in the night. Somewhere beyond all this, a massive mountain stretches upwards and upwards without end. And somewhere up there... Is where Prometheus is said to lie.
Leyanne	Paird approaches the forest slowly, her pistol in hand. The big revolver looks a little big for her hand. She's been off-centre and feeling strange ever since the PRAYER failure; she felt different for a few moments. She tasted the air of another world, one that was heartbreakingly familiar to her, yet at the same time utterly alien. She's long past second thoughts. By now she's on fifteenth and sixteenth thoughts; her home calls her like a beacon, shining in the night. The urge to shut down and 'reset' is almost overwhelming. Almost. The blue-haired woman looks to her compatriots. "Let's keep together." She suggests. "Even if there aren't any monsters I'll bet the Selenes will be distinctly unhappy to see us." A pause. "...has anyone seen any Selenes recently?"
Tomoe	Jeci had stood up against he invaders what right did they have to disrupt the afterlife like this? It troubled her the things she said that Sataren yelling at them frustrated her in a way she wasn't able to put into words too. Worse those wretched souls had run off with some of the people she knew including Soupi. This had left her in a bad mood but she also needed to do something about this. What Soupi had become it scared her a lot it was nightmarish and everyone else? The question is where is Prometheus? It's time to get off her duff and go to see about finding Prometheus. She had grabbed what supplies she thought she'd need and made for the words Prometheus had to be in here somewhere? She also doubted she'd be the only one searching too. She took a look at the fog and felt unsettled by it and the creepy nature it gave to the woods. "Now where would Prometheus be?" She also noticed she wasn't alone and fell in with Parid. "Good idea, Parid."
Finna	Today Nico Zang wears a more robust version of her robes, this one including an almost-stereotypical mage hood - although the hood has slits cut for her ears! She's ANGRY about these break-ins that are changing her peaceful... 'afterlife' of sorts and damning people to some kind of hell. PEOPLE SHE KNOWS! She cannot simply just stand by and let this happen. Even if the Gods themselves say they have everything under control. Something deep inside won't let her sit by idly and let others take care of the mess! And so the youthful-looking foxgirl in robes has set out with Paird and Jeci through the woods. Her nose is pretty sharp, and she hopes to catch a whiff of the rumored Monster before it knows they're there. When hunting monsters, you -have- to get the drop on them! Else, you'll just be running and running... "It just keeps getting worse and worse." She comments to her companions, while trying to put on a brave and cheerily inspiring face for their sake!
Asterios	Night is not kind to Prometheus' Respite. Here, so far away from the city, its lights seem like nothing but a distant memory. If it weren't for the eerie glow of the moon and stars mixing with the light of the dull green bioluminesence of the odd firefly filtering through the fog, there would be nothing to light their path. The fog itself is a strange and claustrophobic thing. It clings, misting across the skin. Sound itself seems smothered, silenced, it takes effort just to communicate. With every motion and every word, the fog seems to swirl, taking on bizarre and alien shapes that twist light and shadow together into frightening forms. But still, following the old animal runs and forest trails, it should be difficult to get lost in a place like this. It should be. Nico's bestial senses should be more than adequate to keep them on the right path. And yet it meanders in bizarre geometries. Even the old hiking landmarks and signposts have lost their way, leading in directions that terminate in nonsensical geographical features- dry riverbeds, withered groves. The path twists ever onwards. A darkness is cast into the fog like the shadow of a great tree. It looms large at the center of the path. All is still. All is silent. The fog is all around.
Carna	Prometheus, the God of Foresight, who had, in myths and legends of the past, brought fire to human kind, stolen from his fellow gods. He treasured humans enough, saw in them the potential to be something more, that he risked punishment... And received it, tortured for a long time as the consequence of his actions. His liver plucked out each day by birds while he lay chained to a rock, only to have it regrow that night. Maybe Prometheus will have a gift for human souls this time as well. His trust in humanity, his desire to help them in the face of its enemies... 'Fire' could mean more than literal fire. It could mean knowledge, a weapon, or magic itself. Phoebe is the Goddess of Prophecy. It is her task to guard the borders and to pass along what she sees of the future. Coeus is the God of Invention. It is his task to create new and wondrous tools and conveniences and protectors. Prometheus's foresight might be enough to see what even prophecy can not, to tell them what they must do in the future. And somewhere up there, he's waiting for them.
Leyanne	Paird tries to aim everywhere at once with her big pistol. "I don't like this." She admits. "There's supposed to be a monster here." That would be the sound of eighteenth and nineteenth thoughts. A loud bang rings out as Paird blasts an innocent firefly with her revolver, before cussing herself under her breath. "Sorry." She adds louder, looking sheepish as the group meanders through the forest. So long as they are still heading uphill, they're going the right way, right? The long walk gives Paird time to voice her thoughts. "Something's troubling me." Paird says to the eerie silence. "What those... invaders were saying. They were treating it like we were locked in a prison... one of them seemed to know me. What... if he's right?"
Finna	"Don't like this place! Something isn't wrong... and yeah, know what you mean! Someone called me the wrong name, too. But let's follow that hypothesis. Let's say they were right and this is a prison. We have paradise here! Our alleged 'captors' are kind as they come. What, then, would our crimes be?" The wisps of fog that warp the forest paths are clear to Nico Zangt. She can just Tell that something's wrong with her pathfinding tonight. Which is odd, because little can throw her off the trail whens he wants to investigate something or track a thing down! Nico, it seems, is far more civilized and refined than the person she truly is, for as the distant silhouette emerges into her sharpened view she holds a hand out warningly to one side, bidding the others halt! Of course, it might be too late, with the forest turned against them. "Someone's out there." She hiss-whispers.
Tomoe	Jeci has got a spear with her from the looks of it as she looks back to Paird for a moment nodding. "Where are the monster and I don't know one ofd them I found infurating in the way that only someone you have long known can be." She thinks for a moment as she keeps going alojng she looks to Nico freezing and making her spear ready as she takes a stepforward in the direction she thinks the thing out there might be. "Keep alert."
Asterios	There are three gods in this paradise. Three beings who are charged with safeguarding its borders, protecting its people, defending the peace. Three gods. Isn't that strange? Isn't something missing? Leyanne's gun discharges, transforming an innocent firefly into a splatter of luciferase and ichor. But the gunshot never quite reaches her ears. Not properly, anyway. The vibration rattles up her arm and up into the hollow of her jaw in an utterly alien way. And yet, nothing comes of it. Nothing leaps out from between the trees. Nothing. Nothing. But now. Here. So many footsteps from that firefly-lit nook in the woods, something is amiss. The shadow falls across the path, casting what is found there in stark relief. There, clinging to the ground as plain as day, is splatter-pattern of still-glowing insect ooze. Someone is out there, Finna concludes. Someone is out there. The shadow looms large. Something hits the ground in the center of that eerie, glowing ring. If anyone cares to check, they would find it-- A flattened slug of heavy metal. ...Gnarled and distorted as if chewed in the maw of some terrible beast. And still the vale is ensnared in shadow and fog. Someone is out there, Finna says. Someone is out there. Someone. Something.
Leyanne	"I was a pilot. A fighter pilot at that... I highly doubt I could be considered innocent by any stretch of the imagination. Or it could be because of who we are. Or what. Maybe we're dangerous?" Paird suggests. "I was thinking about the paradise aspect. The best way to prevent a prison escape is to make your prisoners not /want/ to leave. Uh... something's wrong." She pauses, thinking about the way she didn't /hear/ her gunshot. She felt it, but she didn't hear it. As she shadow looms over them, she readies to fire but she can't bring herself to pull the trigger. Her attention is drawn to that chewed, flattened slug in the ring of ichor. Paird looks on in absolute horror... Nobody is more surprised than Paird when her voice squeaks out into the silence that follows the gentle tinkle of the crushed slug bouncing into place. "I'm sorry..." she says. Perhaps it's not a monster. Perhaps it is a monster. Perhaps apologising might make it slightly less angry, so it doesn't destroy her. Or angrier, so if it does, it'll do so quicker.
Finna	Nico shifts into a practiced stride of weightless steps, unwilling to make so much as a peep as she shifts closer and closer to the strange lump in the distance-- And soon, her eyes can pierce the fog enough to make out-- "Heeeeeeeeek?" Nico finally squeaks, confounded by the weird insect goo. With a glance left and right, she quickly sketches down what she sees-- and then WHUNK! Now her eyes focus on that messed-up bullet. Admittedly, a single bullet all chewed up isn't anything special to her. She could do the same! The problem is that she doesn't know where it came from... And in a sudden onset of fear she ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPS like a whirlwind back behind Jeci, hands on her fellow's shoulders while she shivers out, "M-MaybeThisWasn'tSuchAGoodIdeaICan'tSeeThroughThisFog!" But in a last ditch effort her nose twitches, trying to get a whiff of anything amiss...
Tomoe	"I took bullet for someone in a bank robbery..." She says quietly for a moment as she looks aorund just what the hell is going on here? She stares for a moment at the metal and seems afraid now as she looks around. "Is it a prison if they are happy?" SHe aks back for a moment looking aorund keeping her spear up and ready. She'll be ready to take any melee attacks that might come there the carnage before has left her spooked. "This should not be happening here...."
Asterios	'I'm sorry.' Leyanne says, seized by terror absolute. 'I'm sorry,' she says to whatever, to whoever it is at the heart of that terrible shadow. To placate its fury. To perhaps strum some forgotten, merciful heartstring. Her words find their mark. The shadow responds as only it can. A bloodcurdling scream reverberates through the forest, cutting like a sharp knife through the miasma choking the woods. More than just being heard, it is /felt./ It is a roar that reverberates in the hollow of the chest, plays across the inside of the ribcage like a mad, tribal instrument, crawls up the spine, settles in the base of the gut like a stone. It is the same scream that drove the ancestors of man into their caves. The same yell which shattered the courage of countless heroes. The roar of the predator in its domain, angry, hungry, suddenly all too aware. It's almost impossible to look right at it-- every instinct demands the same thing. The shadow shifts, drawing into itself. Drawing what little attention you may be able to spare to something infinitely more terrible. There. In the murky shadows. There. In the roiling fog. For a split second, you can see it. Two beacons of angry, crimson, chaotic light. There is peace but for one more moment before you realize that the silent fog was a mercy. It prevented you from hearing /it./ Hearing as bones are crushed and ground to dust by inhuman teeth. Hearing as the remains of an unidentifiable femur falls to the ground. Hearing its breath, hot and angry and everpresent. Hearing as its muscles tense like piano wires... Seeing. As it charges, fog roiling off its enormous limbs as it seeks to seize hold of anything it can grab hold of. The beast is now awake. It is the hunter. You are the prey. --==RUN==--
Finna	"A-a-ah-ah-ah-ah-!!!" Nico's left staring down a GREAT BEAST in the distance. Something DEEP INSIDE her say she should make a stand, but what's here before her eyes says this is a VERY BAD IDEA! "IT WAS A BAD IDEA!!" She has now decided, and immediately turns around as the case of the jitters ends. Instead her mind turns HOT in the middle of the panic. The surge of primal emotions - terror in this case - resonates with something deep within. It says, this is wrong. She should be the one chasing the monster and turning the tables on it. For she is the beast that hunts that which hunts men. What? So she reacts SWIFTLY, driving a hand that ends in glowing silver claws into the dirt below... and FLINGING a spray of it for the beast's glowing eyes. A small show of defiance that might just slow it and give her a chance to study it. Which she'll be doing while RUNNING. Her flesh burns with silver flames, growing white fur of her own. The clothing recedes into her flesh and she hits the ground on all fours, scampering back down the path and looking over her shoulder to take the beast's measure... All while her heart thunders in her chest!
Leyanne	Paird looks at the beast, her jaw working soundlessly for several seconds, frozen with fear even as it starts to move. When she does manage to find her voice, it's once again in that squeaky tone of fear. "RUN!" She announces, turning. As she turns, she moves to shove or otherwise assist Nico and Jeci in departing. Fighting it would be useless; it's already shrugged off - and chewed - her bullet. "STAY TOGETHER!" she says, following Nico's fox form. As she runs she tries to think of ways to slow the monster down and protect others.
Tomoe	Jeci has something in the back of her mind goign she coudl take this, and to protect the others. She feels the urge to do something but staying here isn't a bad idea. "Nico GO get out of here!" She'll wait till Nico has fled till others are running as well berfore Jeci is leaping back she does not going to remain long she's turning to form her wings anf flee as well, there is no cowardice in running away from certtain devourment once everyone els eis gone but if anyone gets hunted down it will be Jeci as she'll be the last one.
Asterios	It exists in all legends. It lurks in all nightmares. It dwells in all men. The primordial beast-god which sups on the blood of those who are lifted up in sacrifice to it. The monster in the darkness that promises safety if only you would become like cattle to sate its limitless appetite. It. Is here. The beast roars in surprise and anger as dirt is hurled into its eyes, blinding it and briefly causing it to barrel into-- THROUGH a tree, turning it to splinters. It buys Nico and the others precious seconds to escape-- but she should know better than anyone. A proper predator does not need its eyes to hunt. The land itself bows to The Predator King. Somehow, you sense the world change. You feel it in your bones. A power asserts its dominion. The words form, carving themselves into your brains. --==Wander Forever - Abandon Hope - Die Alone==-- -Eternally Unchanging Labyrinth- CHAOS LABYRINTOS Another terrible howl reverberates through the air as blood red lines surge across the forest floor. The world twists and distorts earth and wood and stone all answer to their master's call. Roots rise to become trap-snares, tripping limbs and twisting joints. Branches reach out in great thorny brambles to close off clear paths to the sky. The land weakens and yields in unpredictable, unexpected places, causing you to loose your footing. Stone barricades seem to rise as if by magic to bar what seemed like a clear path. Turn to help your friends and the mist itself serves its master by hardening into an impenetrable wall. The fog is no longer fog. It was never fog. It burns crimson limned in wisp-like chains of moonlight. It smells like fear and freshly spilt blood. The Predator King comes for that which seems most like itself. Not the one on the wing. Not the one with the gun. The one who is herself of beast-blood. The enormous mass charges at Neco, rippling with shadow and fog, its horns lowered as if to gore her form and hurl her to the ground-- as its first meal...!
Leyanne	Paird skids to a halt as she sees the beast going for Nico. "NICO! MOVE!" She calls. It's about now that she remembers the firearm in her hand. Fear grips her, surges through her very soul... but it's there that fear finds a wall. The soul living in Paird's body never really understood 'fear', and now she seems someone in danger. She has to act. It wants to eat Nico? Not on her watch! She levels the firearm at its back and opens fire, unleashing all seven shots. When the fog hardens into a wall to try and stop her, she tries to fight it, smashing at it with her left arm - never her right, trying to push through it with sheer cussed willpower alone. "NO!" She growls, attempting to reload the gun.
Finna	Seeing the little scrambling fox's mad dash through the hellish terrain that seeks to betray her at every turn is something of an unreal experience. She moves on purest instinct, paws somehow finding purchase even as the ground sinks, rises, and shifts under her. The slightest shift in trajectory takes her detouring around or over roots and around branches that snatch at her! There's definitely some kind of freakish competition of unusual powers at play her, as the white fox seems to gracefully glide through most of the danger like a beam of living moonlight. But it's not quite enough. Eventually the path is too closed, leaving not even a smidgen of room to safely weave through the hazards! Fox-Nico trips, leg snared on a root... and she loses her momentum. Skids to a halt on the forest floor with the beast rapidly approaching! With her heart still thundering, suppressed instincts answer her need for the POWER to FIGHT this beast. "Beast, I am NOT your prey!" Screams the fox as her form explodes outwards, gaining humanoid shape once more. She rockets up to a full seven feet tall. Still clothed only in fur, but now with a recognizably female human-like physique. A great were-beast, a creature of primal fury. Every pound of its form packing sleek, dense, tight muscles optimized for the savage hunt. The fox is not a warlike creature. It's not even much of a predator, favoring small rodents and the like. And yet, this deadly-looking beastwoman defies that classification with silver flames coursing from her limbs and the mark of the crescent moon glittering through the fur of her forehead. She rips free of the root and braces herself just in time-- in a blur of movement her silver-clawed hands curl about the offending horn and her feet leave the ground. This means that instead of getting gored, she's now sailing along with the beast for a brief moment and uses the opportunity to alley-oop swing UP and over it! In this one exchange it's quite clear that the fox is no match for the beast in brute strength, but it is definitely a cunning and nimble little warrior! "What do you -want?!-"
Tomoe	The predator King has come for them the horrible thing is here even with them fleeing, but she looks in horror as Nico is the one beingf targeted she can't seem to move the fox is hindering her? The world is twisting and this place is being warped and controlled by the hunter. Looking for Promethus was a terrible idea. There's no way out for the moment she can't even move to get her spear but it does nothing agianst it. "NICO!!!!"
Asterios	The instincts of a hunting beast are great indeed. They can pierce through the veil of deception and misdirection to reveal the underlying truths lurking beneath. Perhaps in some way The Predator King could sense this bestial form lurking beneath Nico's harmless and meager facade. Perhaps it knew all along. She rockets up to a full seven feet tall. A great were-beast, standing a full head taller than even some of the tallest of men. Woven with the power of the moon, blessed by the might of the gods themselves. And yet. This creature she fights. The beast she confronts. It stands a full ten feet or more in height. Its shoulders are almost half as wide across as it is tall. The horns on its head are enormous, like those of a monstrous bull. It is wreathed in shadow and fog. The monster turns to regard her with its terrible, crimson eyes. It lowers itself as if to charge again, and then-- BLAM. BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM. Seven rounds smash into The Predator King's back. Bursts of hot, scarlet blood erupt from where the hollowpoint rounds explode out the monster's front end, splattering Nico in a wash of red. The blood stains the earth, glowing as if hot magma infused with the very essence of madness and chaos and rage. The bullets dispell the shadows. The beast below is revealed, rising to its full height on two legs. Its physique is tremendous-- one might think it possesses the strength to hold up the very sky. But... That physique- the muscle and sinew is exposed, glowing bright red underneath strips of flayed flesh that twist in the wind. Its hair is like a great plume of pitch darkness, a void into which light itself is devoured. Its size-- its silhoutte-- they are unmistakable and yet /wrong./ Large is too gentle to be such a monster. And yet... Why do they look... so much alike? The wounds that Paird inflict leak profusely as the beast reaches up as if in disbelief that it has been struck. Its hands contort, closing into tightly clenched fists. The beast roars. Blood and sinew and bits of shredded organ twitch around the open wounds as they, to the horror of any who dare to look, begin to knit closed. No. They are cauterized. The blood that leaks from them burns them shut, the beast's body is forged of rage and by rage it is remade. It reaches into the crimson fog. Crimson lightning surges across its knuckles... As it slams its fists into the haze. The mist becomes more than mere mist. It is a cloud. It is a terrible, crimson thunderhead and all of you are trapped within as it transforms into a veritable earthbound lightning storm. What... Is this monster, which so easily harnesses the very fire of the skies themselves...!? Nico... Gets an answer, roared into her very soul. MY. LABYRINTH. NONE ESCAPE!
Finna	The foxwoman shields her face from the shockwave of transforming mists, which leaves her fur standing on end. The sheer force of that fist hitting the ground itself nearly bowled her over... But she's gotten a good look at the monster's resilience. It reminds her of something... In fact, she sees something else too. This beast reminds her of another she's seen fairly often. But why is that? In the midst of this heart-pounding moment, she blinks a few times in confusion. Only to begin snarling fiercely under her breath. She feels inferior. Terribly inferior. Helpless, even. Because her instincts scream their knowledge at her: if she faces that thing head on, she will be pulverized. It won't even be a contest. A minute or two at best. That's how long she'd last. Although now that she is ready to fight, her thoughts burning like fire, things like the terrifying trap they've all stepped in don't leave her shaking with horror. The beast's grandiose, mysterious figure does not have her trembling... much. "No escape but... through you. Fine... but bigger or not, /I'll/ make you bleed for this!" Reality wavers and ripples a different way this time as Nico starts to dash in a circle strafe tornado around the demon-beast. She becomes an indistinguishable blur... and when the weird effect clears... There are EIGHT Beastwoman Nico's circling the Beast of the Mist. Each snarling. They all close in with a whirlwind of claws and fangs, seeking heart's blood! But none of them are real. It'll become apparent shortly after any of them land a blow - or are struck - and subsequently anyone who saw it has to blink and wonder what they were seeing anyways, as it was nothing but a bunch of dirt and leaves kicked up from the forest floor. The REAL Nico, hoping to use this for her benefit, aims to grab her companions and high-tail it with all the speed she can muster OUTTA DODGE!
Leyanne	Paird's hands shake as she reloads, holding her ground. "Not even you?" She snarls. She might just be pissing it off, buuut at the same time, she's always put herself in harm's way before others, even before her death. "Leave her alone! Pick on someone your own size!" Confusion crosses her face a moment. Why did she say that? It's almost twice her height. This could be a fatal hesitation... ...or not, because she's just been grabbed by Nico. She lets out a faint 'ulp!' of surprise but doesn't resist.
Tomoe	Jeci sees thing sshe should not be seeing, the beast is shot several times. They do not go down the wounds seal over rapidly parts of his innards move on their own accort this isn't tight, this is not right at all. She turns as shje sees Nico do her thing, and then she yells to Paird. "RUN!" She has an idea to delay it thoughs he tkes her spear as she turns to run, she throws the spear at the beast with all she can muster on the move, and then she's gone taking flight on wing as soon as the spear leaves her hands...
Asterios	For a moment, the behemoth seems to pause. Leyanne would feel the dual pinpricks of crimson light stare into her. As if they were laying her soul bare. Again, there is a reply. Especially. Me. But The Predator King has more to worry about than simply dealing with a backtalking pilot. A loosed spear smashes into its shoulder, causing it to rear back in sudden shock and pain. With a terrible roar, it rips the weapon free of its body and flings it /back/ at its owner with tremendous force. Whatever conversation might have been had with the beast is cut short. Nico threatens to tear it apart and seems to make good on its promise, unleashing a vast host of herself to assault The Predator King from all sides. What results is an unholy unfolding of carnage and bloodlust. Its hands seize around gnarled, bramble-branched trees, ripping them from the landscape and wielding them like enormous clubs swung with unnatural speed. This monster must be impossibly strong---! But it is also distracted. Distracted enough that the others can navigate their way through the maze back into a less thoroughly insane part of the forest. Inexplicably, it's as if intending to make their way back home somehow made the trek easier. Is the path only tortuous and mindnumbing if they try and make progress to the mountain...? Regardless, they are free to run if they so choose. But as they leave the forest, they can feel it one last time. A terrible, bestial reverberation that rattles them to the core. Somewhere out there, a monster hunts in the domain it has claimed for itself. The question then... Why is it /here/ in this supposed paradise? Why did they get away so easily even after it declared they would never escape...? ...Did they... truly escape...?