"It" was terrifying, as if a child's worst nightmare came to live and was eaten by one even worse, birthing this monstrosity in some kind of way, and as it appeared the choir of screams grew endlessly more powerful, there were screams of fear, terror, despair, screams to others so they might run, screams of ecstasy, mayhaps only false one, though those were exceedingly rare, and many of the screams talked in languages he could not, or would not be able to interpret, but of those few he heard countless screams calling out to their parents, their friends, their everything, in despair.
And all of those screams, every single one of the dismembered voices that now plagued the back of the minds of both Cades and Manug who were already struggling with the endless distraction, the endless fear, the endless pain that each and every single one of the voices conveyed to them, all of these voices came from the being that now stood in front of them, its entire stature signifying power, pain, dread and the suffrage of everyone on the island.
The being was about seven foot tall, with two spiked tails coming from its rear end that extended in a kind of S form to become about one and a half times as big as it, itself, was, extending to be about 13 feet long all together stretched out, other than that it had two feet that resembled those of a goat when it climbed, each ending in two claws in the front and one in the beck that was facing the air but could undoubtably be used for a better grip while walking, the claws faced together and became something that would be quite useless in a survival situation as far as he could however see.
It's body was covered in what seemed to be a kind of robe resembling that of a priests in some way that moved something hidden deep within their minds, like a primal archetype, that was only strengthened by the fact that it seemed to wear an unknown religious symbol around its neck that almost resembled a circle with a black crystal in the middle but looked old and broken, and made out of wood, except for the crystal that still shone with darkness.
The being's head was covered in bandages with only the mouth uncovered, the mouth full of a gaping hole of darkness that seemed as if it would devour everything that came close to it, and indeed, Cades could feel, no, sense, how warmth was already escaping into the beast's maw, how the mana of the air was being devoured like a candy.
The bandages which seemed to have been old and damaged before the being was turned into a wooden puppet had spikes that now resembled twigs extending from it, like a kind of morbid crown that also pierced the being own skull, it actually reminded Cades of a torture device he had heard of in ancient times, the crow of thorns, a device used to pierce the had of prisoners until they said the truth.
Finally, it's old, decrepit hands looked oddly like that of a human, he felt as if they had once been grey, but even though the rest of it was definitely not like a human, the two hand that protruded from it's robes were definitely almost the same as that of a human, with the small exception that it had six fingers on each hand, including the thump that seemed to be operable, same as with a human.
And if it itself wasn't already enough it wielded a weapon, one that wasn't made out of wood like all the others, in it's right hand, one that looked as if it came straight out of a drawing.
It consisted of a long staff, about eight foot long all together, almost, no, even bigger than the being itself, though the being seemed to stand with a slightly arched back, and at one of the ends there was a small rope with spikes on them, similar to the staff Cades once wielded, on the other hand there was a spiked blade that seemed to slither like a snake as he was wielding it, only separated from the staff and the monster by a kind of huge crossroad that seemed to be about half as long as the two foot long blade, much too big for normal usage, but seemingly of no matter to the monster.
All together the monster was emitting a kind of toxic, black steam from it's body while itself not seeming to be affected, to Cades it almost seemed as if he could hear the black steam scream in pain, the pain of loss, of weakness, the pain of every sin in every book, the pain of all the pain in the world, and as the steam began to spread out the voices began to transform and their panic, their regret, their pain grew even more, but their panic was on the forefront more than anything else.
The steam rose high up, and finally as it gathered in a kind of cloud above their heads it truly began to descend, and with the descend Cades and Manug began to truly feel and not just hear the screams, they felt as their hearts were being ripped apart, crushed, eaten, they felt as their every limb was being poisoned by the steam whose effects vanished just as quickly, but not quick enough for the two of them who were now a bit dazed, if at all, to recover before the monster began moving its body, not even trying to hide it's intention, as if it knew that there was no chance for them to win either way.
Neither did the sickness itself that was now spreading out its intent to possess, to kill, to destroy them wholly as if it knew they would never escape, and perhaps it was right, as within a single fracture of a second the being was already behind them, not even having moved but simply having appeared out of the now faint black steam.
Cades was barely able to turn around when he saw the weird weapon already being raised high, ready to stab down and turn them into the next prey for the sickness to further itself.