Abyss's Embrace

Chapter 16: Puppet

"Are you guys ready to get going?" Alora asked as everyone finished packing their stuff. "Yes, we should have everything I believe" Nerezza replied while looking checking for everything. The group headed deeper, leaving behind the plateau that so much had happened on. The next layer was a cavern with some beautiful crystal formations all around, it seemed to be another part of the cave thatIgnis met the Jester in. Jaxith felt a wave of uneasiness as they entered the cavern, he felt watched and as he looked around, he believed to see a pair of red eyes quickly disappear. "Am I going crazy? Theres no way something would go unnoticed in this case, the echo would be heard across the entirety of it" Jaxith thought to himself. "Pyke are you sure you are good to be on your feet again?" Jaxith asked in a concerned tone "I can carry you if you want to." "I promise its fine, it hurts a bit but thanks to Alora that's all there is. Without her it could have ended much worse" The younger brother said. "You are welcome Pyke, its no big deal to me" Alora said from a bit further ahead. The boy gave her and his brother a smile and then picked up the pace to catch up with the girls, Jaxith following closely behind his brother. As they descended further into the cavern, they came across a few purple strings laying on the ground but they did not think much of it. After a few more minutes, Pyke pulled his brother aside "Jaxith have you also seen those red eyes that seem to disappear?" Pyke asked his brother in a concerned tone. "Wait you saw them too?" Jaxith asked with fear in his eyes, Pyke nodded. They both ran to inform the girl of their apparent stalker. "Alora, Nerezza, we have someone or something following us. Be careful" Jaxith whispered to them. "Another thing that wants to kill us, seriously?" Nerezza complained under her breath. "Neri do you really need to worry? I mean we are probably stronger than most things on this layer" Alora said in a calming tone. "You're right but its still annoying" her girlfriend replied. After the conversation was finished, the entire group could feel something watching them, as they looked up at the ceiling, they saw a pair of glowing red eyes staring at them. The creature immediately slammed into the ground, trying to attack the group right away. As the dust of the impact settled, they could finally see what had been watching them this entire time. It was a purple dragon that looked like it was used more as a piece of decoration rather than it being a living thing. It had accessories all over its body and had no scales, instead its body was divided into parts. Its body looked like it was sewed together by someone, even its glowing red eyes looked like that of a puppet. Its mouth was full of razor-sharp teeth, partially stained red. As soon as the dust settled and the group observed what was in front of them, they went to attack it, Pyke took on a more defensive position since he was still hurt. Jaxith and Alora slashed through it with swords made of their respective powers and Nerezza took its head off with her Scythe, holding it in her hand after as a sort of trophy. Despite being separated from its body; the head was still alive. It started biting at Nerezza who managed to drop it in time. After the head was dropped, the pieces of its body were being pulled back together by glowing, purple strings. Jaxith tried to sever the threads but it did not work, they seemed to be indestructible. The body of the dragon pulled itself back together and it was as good as new, ready to fight once again. Alora tried to pierce through it with a beam of light. The light went through the dragon's body and the group got a glimpse of the inside as it went to attack, it was completely hollow on the inside. "How the hell are we gonna manage to defeat this thing? My light isn't working and neither are any of your weapons, in addition to that it doesn't have weak points to target since it has no insides" Alora yelled out to the rest of the group, the other only returned hopeless glances.