Sprinting now, lost in the great maze of streets and corridors, the sounds of bestial wings and gnashing teeth surrounded them. Tharne could vaguely sense the feelings of the others as they ran nearby. Anger, fear and determination resonating from each small piece of their strange shared mind, echoing his own perceptions.
The world around them filled with a great deafening, silent boom. too low for his ears to hear it, he felt its force in every bone oh his body. a building nearby exploded, showering the roadway with rubble, separating Blake, Mia and Vasius from the rest of the group.
“Go” Yelled Blake as a crushing foot of black stone landed between them, shadows of the towering beast above cast jagged marks across the ground as its hundreds of mouths opened and closed, exposing row after row of sharp teeth, glistening as crystal mirrors in the contrasting light.
“Head for the Tower” Tharne called back as he turned to follow the others.
“we will meet you there”
Dark shapes leapt from a nearby collapsed building, weaving out from between the many towering trees which had split and crushed the remaining walls to rubble. Spinning, Erim’s arms extended into great razor sharp petal lances, driving the beast aside quickly as she rolled and continued to run. Nima Yelled as a swarm of rotting insects, half formed in green and golden black carapace erupted from the ground ahead of them, pouring as a raging waterfall of horror in every direction. Behind them, came the howls of monstrous beasts as a pack of hunting gaunt canines, standing upright on six crooked legs, their eyes reflecting the colour of flowing blood and dark forest pools.
“We should split up” Erim called, kicking a beetle as it attempted to clasp onto her leg. “Split into smaller groups and get to the tower, you should be harder to track.”
“We can’t leave you here Erim” cried Ivy, dismay in her expression and tears in her eyes.
“Go Now” Erim replied “I will hold them long enough for you to escape”
Ryan, Nima and Yuri nodded and fled down to the left, ahead of the swarming beetles, Nym placed a hand on Erim’s shoulder, then turned and fled with Tomu, Jadeis and Dahuri clutching her book off along a raised pathway ahead of them.
Tharne felt forth, trying to sense Erim out in the tangle of emotional waves erupting through his mind from the others as they faded away into distance and silence. Finding her minds aura, he felt only determination and then fury as she leapt forward into the pack of bestial shadows, bursting into a colossus of blood red petals choked in thorned green vines, lashing out and tearing through the shadows as they leapt towards her.
She will be fine, he thought, he hoped.
Grabbing Ivy, he turned, and they ran. For what seemed hours, the tension built in the air around them, as if the world itself were straining against some catastrophic terror. Beasts fell upon them from above and below, leaping from the sides and snapping at their heels.
The tower ahead began to rise above them as they closed in on their destination, its glorious and twisted shape commanded attention above all else, burning with reflections and furious lights penetrating from the great crystal hourglass within its core.
rounding another corner, Tharne found himself in a large rounded garden, its great trees and vines casting a dappled shadow on the ground as the leaves above them climbed up along the tower’s walls. breathing a small sigh Tharne saw ahead, on the other side of the garden, was a set of stone doors leading directly into the tower itself.
They made a running break for the door, feet sounding a soft symphony of sound against the faded stone and dusty paths, dodging tangled great roots and clumped grasses which had overtaken and buried much of the original structure.
with only a split second to react, Tharne pushed Ivy forward, jumping sideways himself as a blade of dark metal and teeth severed the limbs of a tree nearby and crushed into the ground where they had just stood. There, beside him stood a strange figure, part human part animal, its tall body towering above his own, the great blade it wielded twisting and wrenching the air in swathes of chilling smoke.
“Get those doors open for the others” Yelled Tharne, the heavy weight of the blade smashing down upon his staff, as his great shield of blue erupted around him. “I will be right with you, I promise!”
Her face turning from disbelief, to comprehension and trust in him, Ivy turned and ran toward the doors, her Sceptre glowing as she ran. Striking blow after blow, Tharne battled the great blade of the creature, soon other monsters drew close to him in the darkness and light of the forest, whipping and tearing at his shield as he forced himself to push them back.
Then he felt something strange, an aura, and image of a mind, like he felt with the others. Someone had come to help! Yet as he reached out to it, this felt different, strange and foreign, slippery like grease and metal. It slipped through his minds perception as though it was a ghost upon the wind.
Turning, he saw the source, the black figure he had followed earlier, standing resolute and opaque against the light and dark, reaching towards the back of a circling beast as it moved nearby. the beast seemed unaware of the strange shadowy figure, reaching forward, its dark shaded hand stretching out and elongating into raking claws of bone and skin. The claws penetrated into the creature deep, passing through and leaving no effect, the figure again reached up, tensing and forcing its energies together, as Tharne watched it become more corporeal before his very eyes. Then it struck, not at the shadow beast but into it, as if reaching into the very core and boyond it. The beast howled and burned as its body clenched and writhed, its eyes pools of dark terror and pain.
With a final tear, the shadowy figure reached down and in a motion like pulling water from a lake, simply drew the shadow into itself. The other shadows, hundreds of them now stepped forwards, forgetting Tharne and turning to the black cloaked figure before them. Tharne could not see it’s face or feel the figures intentions directly, yet he was sure that whoever it was, was smiling, it made him nervous.
One of the beasts now leapt at the cloaked figure and passed straight through it, seemingly in slow motion, its body decaying and rotting as it’s essence was absorbed, leaving nothing behind.
Tharne stood and ran, glancing behind as he saw some of the beasts of shadow, strike forward at the figure in their midst, whilst others seemed to flee in terror back over the building tops and between the great trees.
Tharne looked back at the scene just before he passed into the great stone doors where Ivy was waiting, he saw the figure risen into the air, its cloak now fully fleshed and gleaming black red in the light. Clutched in one of it’s dark outstretched hands, dangled the limp form of the animalistic swordsman he had desperately battled before. In one smooth movement, the figure clasped the sword from the beast and drove it deep inside it’s old master, drawing and pulling the very body into its metals and bone.
Hovering there, above the blank forest floor, clutching its new shining blade of curved black steel, Tharne saw no eyes beneath its hooded cloak.
He knew however, that whoever it was, was looking straight at him.
Shattered Cosmos 
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