A magical vortex swirled to life directly beneath Souta's hanging feet, which he recognized as a passage to safety even before Akoni told him because of the portal-punch maneuver performed by the old sorcerer a few minutes before. Trusting one of his more vicious allies to take full advantage of the opening he'd stuck out his neck to create, and not at all willing to accept responsibility for ditching should they not, he banished the Trawler hook currently stuck in the Abyssal's flesh and dropped unceremoniously through the gate. He landed harmlessly on a floor blackened by unnatural fire but no longer aflame, and after inwardly sighing in relief he fixated his attention on the scene above. A smug smile covered his face as he saw Mary, having escaped a potentially catastrophic multi-impalement on the creature's newly-created defenses, diving toward the exposed part with murder in her eyes. The words, ”We got it!” slipped from his lips.
Even as this favorable event unfolded, however, not everything went so fortunately. In the heat of battle, Silas failed to react fast enough to properly evade the rain of arcane spears. Nevertheless, the emissary of heaven did what he could, and by standing his ground and consolidating his defenses, he avoided lethal damage to his vitals. Still, glowing spears pierced his limbs and parts of his clothing, inflicting grievous wounds to them.
This nasty result did not garner an abundance of concern from the others. In battle, one should expect to take wounds, and Souta at least didn't imagine that such injuries would compromise his supernatural ally. All eyes were on Mary as her claws ripped into the Abyssal's hide with frightening tenacity, cleaving through the soft tissue. The shock of the pain rippled through the monster's body, causing it to utter a shrieking groan. Combined with the damage done to its tentacles, this caused it to drop. As it did, the dislodged tentacles lashed at Midori and Mary, threatening with their speed and desperate strength to crush their bones. With a crash the creature hit the floor, though legs were already sprouting from it to hoist it up. Rather than immediately counterattacking, however, it slunk to the side where melee attacks could not immediately harm it. At that moment, something became clear: this wasn't some mindless vermin that would throw itself at a target until it was paste, but something greater. It placed emphasis on survival, rather than victory. As it happened, though, this was only the beginning of the group's revelations.
Aaaah... A cavernous voice echoed through the room. It carried with it traces of fatigue and fear, but more than anything it seemed eerily deadpan, more like a detached narrator than a living being. The idea that another threat currently hid somewhere to take the envoys of the Charred Council by surprise would undoubtedly surface, but after a few seconds, the only conclusion that could be made was that this voice emanated from the Abyssal itself. That is a new kind of pain. Neither heaven nor hell quite match it. The wormlike horror's head was turned toward Akoni, Silas, Midori, Souta, and Mary, but it did not suck in. Instead, the singularity of light within beat in tune to the projected voice. This tone did not give off the impression of a person at all, or even a primal monstrosity, but rather a talking supercomputer. I wanted to pull you in and turn you to knowledge, but it would appear that you pose me a threat with this unknown power. It would satisfy my curiosity immensely to consume one of you and learn all about it, but I am more concerned with living. If you will not now leave my home of your own volition, I, Nichts, will break your minds.
The blue light within the creature suddenly increased in intensity, turning white and blanketing the whole room. Souta, who though surprised by the abomination's ability to speak still wanted to kill it and deliver it back to the Charred Citadel, hesitated. A stirring feeling was taking root inside his head. Something happened, and the smith staggered, holding one hand to his head. There was no pain, but instead a sort of pressure. Bizarrely, Souta thought about a host of new information present in his mind. He inexplicably knew, and could even name, every kind of tissue, bone, and organ in the human body. Instantly he realized that whatever this effect was had distracted him, and he steeled himself to fight. His effort went in vain, however, for his mind suddenly filled with the knowledge of how each human organ worked, as well as the systems they were part of, and he found himself knowledgeable about almost all of the elements of the common demon's body, too. Barely a second later, he realized he knew all about the woodwork and masonry of this place, what each material was, where it came from, and what else it could be used for. Souta murmured a swear and almost fell over, his head swimming. He couldn't tell whether or not similar effects were troubling his comrades, and he almost didn't care. To have so much knowledge thrust upon him threatened to overtake his mind and send him into a coma. Squinting his eyes, he wondered, is that thing doing this to us?
Out of everyone present, Souta almost certainly had the least resistance to mental attacks given his inexperience and his species. Yet, he felt that this kind of mental assault would overtake everyone. Mustering his strength, he said as coherently as he could, ”We gotta...gotta get outta here.” If he sounded drunk, it was because even more knowledge was being poured into his aching head. Images of a yellow sky beneath and a brown earth above flashed before his eyes, but he couldn't at the moment understand them.
