When Mr. Valen finished speaking, Carla went quiet, her eyes narrowing as she spoke, "That exploding head thing must be one of Amethyst's minions, anyway, what name did that NIU hellspawn call out again?"
"Ly-" Mr. Valen wanted to speak, but felt an oppressive chill lock onto him instantly, the same chill he'd felt at the bar when the NIU hellspawn uttered the same words.
Simultaneously, his avatar (the shadowy humanoid) popped out its head from the dashboard and smiled at him, the same terrifying smile that it had given him many times before.
"What? Don't you remember the name?" Carla swallowed and spoke, prompting Mr. Valen to slowly turn and look at her, his heart pounding against his chest as a small smile bloomed on his face, "This is why I like you with claws, now slam your head against the window."
"Bam!"
Carla obeyed immediately as her head (against her will) bashed itself against the window with so much force that a crack appeared. Thankfully, other than the intense mind-numbing pain in her head, she remained mostly uninjured.
"W-why did you do that?" Carla stuttered, her heart skipping a beat as she tried to keep a straight face, but Mr. Valen could see it, the subtle micro-slips in her expression.
"Tell me what you know about those names." Mr. Valen commanded immediately, his voice grim.
"That name belongs to one of the gods that govern our powers, specifically the god of mind," Carla responded immediately, "I can't tell you the names of the other gods as if they are spoken or written by any hellspawn, the god will notice and will kill that hellspawn without mercy, regardless of how powerful."
"... I see," Mr. Valen nodded his head, reaching a new understanding on the way the NIU hellspawn died, "But would an NIU agent not be aware of such a thing already? Why then did he fall so easily?"
"That is one of the reasons Amethyst is so terrifying; she probably made him forget everything about the dangers of calling that name without his knowledge," Carla whispered, her voice strained as she pondered what was on Mr. Valen's mind.
"Will you punish me?" she asked, her voice low.
"Yes, but not at this moment," Mr. Valen responded as he turned to look at Leo, who shuddered at his gaze.
But he was not looking at him; rather, his attention was locked on a shadow that was tailing him from behind.
The feeling of its predatory gaze was so strong that it sent shivers down his spine.
"What is that thing?" Mr. Valen spoke, turning to Carla who seemed to have noticed it as well.
Leo was the last to notice it, an unclear figure in his rearview mirror running after the bus.
"What the fuck is that!!!!" Leo whimpered in shock, stepping on the gas to increase his speed, but the thing kept up at an insane pace.
"It's a demon, the god may not have gotten your exact location, but it might have gotten a feel of your general direction, sending a demon in its stead who tracked you itself. Keep driving; we have to reach the city, demons of the mind don't like crowds," Carla spoke grimly, her eyes locked on the unclear figure in the sideview mirror, but the more she looked, the more the thing warped till it disappeared.
"Bam!" A loud metallic clang scratched the rear of the bus, frightening Carla instantly, her form jumping, 'Fuck, this is why I stuck to therapy; I didn't want to get involved with this fucking world,' she thought.
"Shit! Shit!" Leo, on the other hand, cursed heavily, tears leaking from his eyes as he stepped on the gas, the engine revving in response.
Mr. Valen, on the other hand, felt... nothing, nothing but a slight gnawing hunger that grew by the moment.
Suddenly, as though feeling his hunger, a shadowy hand phased through the dashboard, reaching up to Mr. Valen.
Meanwhile,
"Bam!" Another sound could be heard as the beast landed atop the bus, its claws digging into the frame.
Its beady eyes moved rapidly, mapping two energy signatures on the bus, one of which appeared to glow much more intensely than the other.
Within the bus, Leo almost pissed himself as he heard the unmistakable sound of steps
atop him.
"Shii!"
Carla looked up and noticed claws digging into the roof, her breath hitching in her throat as she spoke, "Valen, what do we-"
"Bam!"
"Ahhhh-" a loud scream of despair sounded out as the door was ripped off the bus and Leo was grabbed by some kind of shadowy appendage, his form flailing wildly.
The night air rushed in like a virus, sending a shiver down Carla's spine as the car swerved violently to the left.
The sound of screeching tires ripped through the night like a banshee, "Valen!" Carla yelled, expecting him to stabilize the vehicle, but when he stayed still, she lunged forward and handled the steering wheel.
In another smooth motion, she arranged her lower body and sat upon the driver's seat, gaining immediate control of the vehicle, 'It's alright, it's alright, maybe we can still make it,' Carla thought to herself, but then Mr. Valen's voice sounded out beside her.
"Stop the vehicle, and assist me to the best of your ability," he said, a purple mark pulsing on Carla's chest as a result.
'Fuck!' Carla cursed internally, her foot stomping on the brakes against her will.
Mr. Valen had already leaped out of the vehicle, his boots landing on the damp road (boots he had stolen from the search party).
The night had suddenly regained its peaceful, eerie quiet with the only sound being Carla stepping out and walking up to Mr. Valen in her scrubs.
"I hope your death will be long and painful; I hope it eats you slowly," Carla cursed through gritted teeth, while peering into the empty darkness of the winding road.
"We would not have been able to outrun it, and you are aware of that," Mr. Valen spoke as he calmly took a step forward, then another step, and another step.
He could feel it nearby, that thing that he wanted so badly to hunt; it was watching him.
The shadowy humanoid stood beside him, peering at his every move as well. Mr. Valen had refused to fuse with it too soon as he knew the toll it took on his body.
But now was the time, and so he stretched out his arm.
Carla, who stood beside him (her eyes jumpy), was the first to notice the change in him.
At first, she felt the energy stored within her enter a state of unrest, as though being pulled by something, and when she glanced at Mr. Valen, she noticed that his arm was outstretched.
Starting from his fingers, the skin on his arms suddenly began to darken, rapidly spreading before it consumed his entire form, making it seem as though he was encased in a thin layer of shadowy mist.
'It's strange now that I think about it, this ability to absorb energy is unheard of for a spawn of the body,' Carla thought for a moment, and only a moment, as her attention was brought back to the problem at hand.
"Crunch!"
The thing had finally decided to show itself, stepping out of the shadows with Leo's body in its maw, blood spattering in thick streams as it gulped him down while chewing, clothes, bones, and all.
Standing on two goat-like legs, it resembled a hairless creature the size of a bear, built like a starved beast, its form an artwork of ropy muscle and tight skin stretched over a skeletal frame.
Carla felt her heart skip a beat as she gazed upon its elongated, eyeless head, covered in thousands of disgusting, vein-like pores that pulsed faintly.
She felt her courage falter when it opened its jaw, but it wasn't normal (It had no vertical jaw).
Instead, the front of its head split open horizontally like a nightmarish flower, revealing concentric rings of needle-like, rotating teeth.
Mr. Valen's attention, though, was drawn to the two impossibly long appendages on its shoulders, not its arms (those were different); these seemed more like monstrous whips (the ones that had grabbed Leo).
And its arms could only be described as large muscular things with machetes for claws gleaming under the sickly moonlight.
«Focus!»
«Vitals!»
«Neck!»
«Eyes!»
The voices of the shadowy humanoid chanted in his mind, but this time it was different, more grim and less playful, as though they was begging him to survive.
Suddenly the beast opened its mouth and let out a soul-shattering screech!
"Ahhhhhhh!"
'What going is on?' Mr. Valen thought to himself or tried to think but discovered to his horror that he could not form articulate thoughts.
'Mind of course abilities has it, by it summoned was him,' Carla also tried to think but faced the same problem.
The air grew blurry with that screech, and in their confusion:
"Swoosh!"
The beast was upon them, the air tearing as it swung its claws at Carla.