Seth Ranger gave out a yawn as he poured over an old yellowed tome, sluggishly copying the tome’s contents onto a new sheet of paper. He was working on the second tome of seven that he would have to copy by the end of the week before his master returned.
Although Seth wasn’t too well versed in the world of wizards and magic, but from his experience, mages seemed to demand a lot out of others, and his master was no exception. All it took was a single summon from the King, Solaris bless his name, and then all the sudden his master dumped a heavy stack of books in his hands and told him to copy them all by the end of the week while he was gone.
Each book was nearly as thick as his head, half the pages seemed to be clung together for some ungodly reason, and Seth even had reason to believe that some of the inscribed runes could still potentially be active, lingering remnants of mana stored within them, ready to explode, or maybe summon some horrific beast that’ll maul him to pieces.
There was a reason why scribes working under mages tended to have the highest mortality rate out of all employed scribes. Sleeping could be a very nerve wrecking experience sometimes.
Still, it wasn’t that bad.
Seth looked up from his writing, staring out through the window, watching as the hardh heavy rain splashed against the library window. It was stormy outside, and it had been for nearly three days now. Rainfall in this region of the world was common, but they went on for so long, especially in summer.
He was glad he was inside, being owned by a mage, the Gethian Estate was filled with all sorts of arcane trinkets and tools. The very thing that was providing the room a soft light and warmth was a small miniature sun that lazily floated above the space of Seth’s desk. Handy little things. When Seth could, he’d occasionally take one with him to the nearby villages and use it to impress the local children with his “magic”. Fun times.
Seth shook his head, giving out another yawn as he tried to stop reminiscing and get back to work. He wanted to finish writing down a few more pages before heading off to bed in his personal cubbyhole that was built into the library.
There was a knock on the door. Seth looked over, he could see a shadow coming from under the entrance to the library, which he was sat only a couple feet away from. That was strange, not many people went into the library containing all the arcane manuscripts.
“Come in?” He said with a hint of confusion in his voice. Given how much time he spent inside the library it was practically his room, but technically servants were given free reign over the entirety of the mansion’s rooms except for the master’s laboratory, so they shouldn’t have needed to knock, much less need his permission to come in.
He heard that the master was keeping a few guests over while he was gone, perhaps it was a curious noble wanting to explore the mansion?
The door opened, and suddenly Seth’s arcane light winked out of existence, the tiny solid core that comprised it’s center falling out of the air, powerless as it thudded onto the floor and bounced away.
It was pitch black, Seth could hear the arcane lights in the hallways shut off too, a multitude of orbs bouncing off into multiple directions outside.
Had something drained them of their stored mana...?
Seth blinked multiple times as his eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness. There was a shape... something was there...
“Hello... umm... the lights shut off, did something happen? I didn’t quite see your face before the lights turned off, who is there?” Seth asked, trying to keep the slight edge of fear he had out of his voice. He still couldn’t quite make out the details of the person in the room with him... but they were big.
All it took was the sound of an ugly, monstrous laughter for Seth to bolt up from his chair, racing behind a bookshelf. He heard a loud crashing behind him, the sound of a bookshelf nearby falling to the floor, dozens of books thudding in a cascade of leather and paper.
Seth ran, trying not to stumble or crash into anything himself in the darkness, thankfully he had a good sense of the library’s layout, and managed not to bump into anything as he ran away from whatever was nearby.
He could hear loud, pounding footsteps, the crashing sound of more bookshelves falling to the floor, and that horrible ugly laughter.
Seth in his panic ran headfirst into the library wall, briefly stunning him before he shook his head and desperately searched the walls for the other door out of the library. Finally, he felt a door nob and quickly opened it, slipping through the door and slamming it closed behind him.
Quickly, he activated a manual security rune next to the door, and he felt a surge of relief as he saw the glyph inscribed into the mansion wall light up with mana. The door seemed to shine with a pale blew light that washed over it, just in time before a sudden powerful force began to visciously pound on the now reinforced door from the other side.
Whatever was in there, would be trapped... for now anyways. He had to go.
Looking around, Seth saw that it was still pitch black, had all the lights in the mansion been turned off?
The storm outside rumbled as he yelled out for help.
Nobody answered, and the reason why became deathly apparent.
Whilst running he had accidentally tripped over some large mound in the middle of the hall. What was it...? On shaky legs he kneeled over to feel the thing he had fallen over. He felt... a mound of wet cloth... no... he felt around some more and felt... hair, attached to what felt like a head, and skin... and further down he felt a torso with a gaping wound in the middle of it. He drew back his hand, recoiling in horror as he looked at his hand in the darkness... he couldn’t see any color, but it was wet... with blood.
The mansion was being raided, attacked, something. He had to run, he had to leave right now.
With disgust and fear his wiped the blood off his hand using his shirt and kept running heading towards the mansion entrance.
The storm outside continued without pause, occasionally thunder would boom throughout the sky and each time, Seth could’ve sworn he heard a shrill human shriek masked under the thunder’s roar.
Eventually he found the entrance hall, and not caring about the fact that he was wearing a simple tunic and pair of trousers, pushed the mansion doors wide open.
It was a little brighter outside, though still quite dark, and as he stepped out into the mansion yard, he could feel himself instantly get soaked as harsh rain began to pour all over him.
Outside... he saw several more corpses... corpses of the guards. All of them had been savagely torn up.
Seth wanted to vomit. He couldn’t run anymore as his legs began to give out, he barely made it onto the grass as he stumbled onto his knees, gasping for breath as the rain continued to lash against him.
Nearby, there was another corpse of a mansion guard. Seth’s eyes latched onto the discarded dagger next to the body.
With a desperate crawl, Seth made his way over to the corpse, clutching the dagger in his hands as if somehow it would be able to protect him from the monsters in the night.
Suddenly he heard... something begin to converge around towards him. Fear plastered across his face, he turned to watch as a shadowy shape began to come closer. At first Seth wasn't unable to make out any major details, but soon enough it was readily apparent that whatever it was, it wasn’t human.
It was a small figure, smaller than him for sure. With what appeared to be two bat like wings, and a long sinuous tail.
In the heaven’s above, lightning lashed out from the sky, the sudden illumination giving Seth a brief image of the creature’s face, an ugly, demonic creature, with a face that looked like a horrific amalgamation of a lizard and a hyena. It’s eyes were full of pure malice, never before had Seth ever felt such a sense of intense boiling hatred before. Hatred completely directed towards him.
Those eyes full of malice seemed to drill right into his soul.
Seth tried to stand up from the ground, to run away, but for some reason he couldn’t. He couldn’t even look away from those hating eyes.He was frozen in place... he was terrified... wait... a minute, it wasn’t just that. Somehow, Seth knew that something was keeping him locked in place. Magic...? Was this thing keeping him here?
That seemed to be the answer. The creature seemed to walk up to him without the slightest hint of precaution.
Another flash of lightning, and Seth in the corner of his eyes he could see it ready it’s claws, long and jagged, small scraps of flesh still hanging off them.
He wasn’t even able to blink now, it was as if his body had just stopped functioning, he couldn’t even feel the cold rain anymore. His entire being felt numb. Like he was more of an observer watching from a first person perspective, completely unable to interact with anything, only being able to watch.
Once the creature was upon him, staring into his eyes. Although the creature seemed to be shorter than Seth’s height, with it standing over him and him prone on the cold muddy ground, it almost seemed to be a giant.
The creature seemed to find the expression on Seth’s face to be funny, as it gave out a cruel shrill shriek of laughter, before without missing a beat, it lunged it’s long horrible claws towards Seth’s neck.
Seth thought he was about to die. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t talk, he couldn’t even breathe,
Yet deep down, a spark was lit. How and why he wasn’t sure, but there was a strength there, a strength he never had until now. A strength that was beyond humanity. A strength that came from the divine.
It was over in a flash.
Seth in slow motion watched as his body seemed to almost move without his say so.
He rolled off to the side, shocking the creature whose claws dug into the muddy ground rather than Seth’s flesh.
Still clutching his dagger, Seth quickly got onto his feet and drove his dagger towards his attacker.
In normal circumstances, the beast would’ve been able to easily back away and dodge his attack, Seth’s movements were sloppy and unrefined. Yet the creature was caught off guard, and more importantly, it was stuck.
It had missed Seth’s neck, and instead it’s jagged claws had been driven into the cold mud, and for a brief moment, it was stuck, the mud clinging to his claws and making it impossible to pull them out in time.
Seth capitalized on that moment and with no mercy, driven by pure fear and panic, stabbed the beast. It let out a new shriek, one filled with fear and pain.
Not wanting it to potentially alert any allies, he stabbed it again, slicing out it’s throat. Then he stabbed it again, and again, and again, until he could feel his arm give out, and until he was sure that it was dead.
Seth couldn’t hear anything save for his own breathing and pounding heart.
He had just killed something.
And in doing that, the sudden spark inside him seemed to glow in response to his realization.
Like a fire fed tinder, it began to grow, spreading throughout Seth’s body.
In a stupor, he was only barely aware of himself as his form began to change.
Human turned into rough demonic skin, his body shrunk slightly as a spiked sinuous tail tore through his trousers. A pair of wings at first caused his shirt to tighten painfully before bursting out. His face distorted, becoming more bestial and demonic.
His nails turned into claws, the same kind of jagged claws that had almost been driven into his flesh.
Within moments, Seth had become a complete replica of his attacker.
The cold and rain didn’t seem to bother him anymore, in fact, his body was filled with a new vigor. Even the darkness around him seemed to pose no threat, he could see quite clearly now, it looked to be practically daytime now.
Seth, still shaking from this traumatic experience managed to stand as the reality of what hit him began to sink in all at once. He would’ve crumpled already at the burdened of everything that just happened, but the same fire that had given him that first burst of strength remained, giving him the will to stand.
In his new form, his now torn clothes practically slide off him as he turned around to see the mansion behind him.
Although his physical body had no form of visible ears, only two short barely noticeable horns on top of his head, his sense of hearing had become much more advanced now.
Over the harsh storm, he could hear fighting and yelling inside the mansion now...there were still more monsters inside, and somehow some of the mansion resident’s must’ve been able to wake up and fight back before it was too late.