The child who was stabbed many times in the face in the blink of an eye didn't drop dead. She stayed standing there, looking at him in shock.
Then, her beautiful childlike face began to twist splitting open down the middle like the mouth of a hideous beasts.
Dozens of shark-like teeth filled the gaping maw that appeared where her nose, cheeks, lips, and chin should have been.
Above the mouth were two beady eyes, glistening with a dark eerie glint.
Her true form was revealed.
She was a monster.
In and out.
"You… when did you find out?!" she screeched in a distorted and inhuman voice.
Kev's glared at her coldly as he spat, "With that rotten stench of yours… you thought you could fool me?"
"You dare make fun of me?!" she howled.
She knew how powerful her illusion was.
It could fool all the five senses of low tier creatures. Humans, especially, were susceptible to it.
It should've been impossible to see through.
He had to be mocking her.
Fury surged through her like a tidal wave.
With a scream that echoed like a beast's cry, she lunged at him, her eyes gleaming with the fury of an enraged bull who had seen red.
She acted out of fury.
Kev was furious too.
Selena was his sore point.
He wouldn't tolerate the existence of any person or beast that dared mock or tarnish her memory.
Yet, despite the maddening rage surging within, he didn't let it cloud his judgment.
He remained calm and collected, sidestepping her lunge before plunging his dagger deep into the side of her neck.
When her face had twisted into that grotesque shape, he had seen it—runes and a nucleus being pulled downward by fine, thread-like tentacles made of sinew and flesh.
It stood to reason her energy source was somewhere below the monstrous maw.
As for where exactly?
He had to find out on his own.
Focusing every ounce of strength into his arms, he gritted his teeth and dragged the embedded dagger downward, making it dance on her body.
It sliced through her tough, unnaturally elastic skin, cleaved apart her collarbone, and moved downward with an irresistible force.
All his rage was put into this attack.
Like the unconquerable fury of nature, It was unstoppable!
Squelch.
The blade shattered through her ribcage and tore open her abdomen.
Blood and innards spilled out, painting the clearing in gore.
Amid the mess of intestines and ruined organs lay hexagonal crystals, solemnly representing her various sources of strength as well as her sole energy source. Her nucleus.
Tentacles burst from her mouth, slithering downward to pull them back into her body.
Without the nucleus, she would die.
Without the runes, her powers would diminish, and she would become inferior to other evolved Revenants even if she somehow survived this battle.
Revenants indulged in cannibalism so her fate can be discerned if she becomes useless.
In that moment, only one thought dominated her mind. She had to get them back. She had to get back her nucleus and runes, no matter what!
Kev didn't give her the chance to make a comeback.
He seized the nucleus that had dropped out of her body when he slit her stomach open and leapt back.
"You're done for," he said coldly. "Isn't this the most precious thing to you human-eating monsters? Now that it's with me, forget about ever getting it back!"
He locked eyes with the monster fearlessly.
"Give it back!" She screamed like a miserable wretch as her flesh melted like wax under fire due to the loss of her power.
First she lost the ability to move.
Then, she lost the ability to speak.
Her body quickly deformed, turning into a pile of melted and rotten flesh.
As she drew closer to death, she stared at him with a gaze full of madness and despair and raised her hand one final time.
"Even if I die, I am going to bring you down with me!"
Tentacles made of flesh and muscle erupted from her collapsing body, thrashing wildly.
The terrible power she burst out with in her last breath didn't solely target Kev.
It lacked focus.
She had lost too much power.
Her control over her tentacles was worse than a child learning to walk.
Still, it wasn't something Kev could take lightly.The tentacles were as thick as logs.If even one landed, his head would explode!
Prediction!
His gaze sharpened, his eyes focused solely on the chaos of flesh whipping toward him.
As the monstrous tentacles came, he moved.
His upper body swayed and twisted like a leaf in the wind, slipping past each tentacle that came his way by a hair's breadth.
A few moments later, the tentacles rose high into the air.
Then fell down powerlessly.
Crack.
The clearing shattered like glass.
With the death of the evolved Revenant, the illusion collapsed.
Kev found himself back in the tunnel.
Before him lay a mass of rotting flesh, motionless and unpulsating.
Many cuts and wounds marred its surface.
It had been sliced open in several places.
This was the true form of the monstrous creature he had just faced.
"You shouldn't have brought her into this. Now there will be immense regret. I will make you all regret."
Kev's voice carried suppressed rage as he flashed the beam from his flashlight toward a certain spot in the tunnel.
Met with light, the darkness receded.
Revealing a tall, slender woman with bountiful curves in all the right places.
The woman's body was fire.
But as his gaze traced upward, a rotten face was revealed, with one eye dangling out of its socket.
She stared at him with undeniable hunger, as if she wanted to make him pay for her dinner with his flesh and blood!
"Lady, stop dallying about. I've got places to be. Make your move now, or you won't get the chance to," Kev smirked playfully, but his eyes revealed his true emotions, glinting with crimson rage.
She charged fiercely.
Kev threw his combat knife at her to check her response.
She slapped it away, responding in a way he desired.
"Against someone so stupid, a simple tactic is more than enough."
With a kick, Kev lifted his broadsword off the ground and grabbed it by the hilt.
As she rapidly closed the distance between them, he spun twice in place, building momentum, then hurled his broadsword at her.
With a swipe of her claw, she slapped it aside.
That momentary distraction was all it took.
She lost sight of Kev.
Where was he?
Suddenly, the rancid hair on the back of her rotting scalp was grabbed.
Bam!
Her head was slammed against the wall.
Not once.
Not twice.
But over a dozen times.
Until her skull was reduced to paste and her runes and nucleus spilled out.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
A round of applause echoed through the tunnel.
If only this wasn't a place where corpses roamed, it wouldn't have sounded so eerie. But here, it sent chills down Kev's spine and immediately put him on guard.
He turned his flashlight toward the source of the sound, and saw a man in a tuxedo.
Everything about him—from his attire and posture to his demeanor—screamed gentlemanly grace.
Except for the fact that he was missing half his face.
Above his mouth was an empty void.
The man in the tuxedo lacked eyes, a nose, ears, cheeks and even a brain.
How was it alive?
It wasn't. That much was clear.
It was a Revenant, a creature that had risen from the dead to haunt and hunt the living die to a curse.
"Although it has no eyes… why does it feel like it's staring at me?" Kev muttered, unnerved.
The gentleman's body—faceless and expressionless—turned slightly toward him, and then, it broke into a bizarre smile.
A wave of forbiddance rolled over Kev.
He instinctively knew this thing was up to no good. His senses were screaming at him. If he didn't act fast, he'd end up in deep, deep trouble.
Without a second thought, he swapped his weapon to gun it down.
But.
In the end, he was two steps too late.