ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter 51: Leveling Earth and Sky

I was expecting something along the lines of a Hollywood explosion – a controlled, evenly distributed release of kinetic energy, heat, and light. A few billowing flames wouldn't have seemed out of place. That wasn't what I got.

There were no flames, but there was plenty of light and force. A brilliant wave washed over me, drowning everything in an intense sea of white. I was blinded. It lasted only seconds, but those moments contained more pain and death than anything I had imagined possible.

The force of the blast had pressed me into the cold soil. Heavy earth fell like rain, burying me further. I felt trapped under the weight and it bore down upon me with increasing force. I began frantically kicking and pushing as I tried to free myself.

My panic and the loamy walls of my tomb muffled the sound of the world above me. Everything was distorted and far away, but still clear to my enhanced perception. Those sounds still haunt my more restless nights.

Screams full off spittle and rage filled my ears. Howls and pounding feet shook the earth around me in answer to these calls. This was met with a clash of claw and flesh as allies turned against each other. The cries of fury quickly turned into despair as I heard the thud of dozens of bodies hitting the ground at the same time. Something incredibly large was slamming against the earth with terrifying force and speed.

The ferocious beat slowly increased in tempo, it was much like the sound of a train picking up speed as it pulls away from a station. The earth responded like taut skin stretched across a drum. The dirt bounced, and waves passed through blood-soaked mud like ripples in a pond. I felt it as a deep vibration in my chest.

Each strike was followed by a thunderous boom like the crack of a whip. As the speed of the cracks intensified I could no longer hear the dings and shouts of combat. A few inhuman voices still called out in pain and rage, but they were quickly being silenced.

The wet sounds of tearing flesh and the sickening cracks of shattered bone would follow each percussive strike. It seemed to go on forever but had taken no more than a scant few heartbeats — a single measure of a ghastly dance.

Eventually, even the raging howls and cries of anguish faded into quiet whimpers. Everything else had gone quiet. No sounds of battle or life broke the silence as the deadly percussion slowly stilled.

My vision was beginning to return. The blinding white slowly retreated, to be replaced by a deep and overwhelming black. I thrust my arm upwards and I could feel a cool wind between my fingers. I tore at earth and pressed up with my legs until my eyes broke free beneath a purple and hazy sky. The world was blurred and dark and I was unable to focus on the carnage that lied around me.

Something large and fast passed over me, creating flickering shadows like the spinning shade of a gargantuan propeller.

A gentle hum filled the silence. With every rotation of the shadow the hum grew louder, and the air began to pull at me like the drag of a large truck passing too closely. As the effect increased, dirt and small stones began to fly into the sky until converging at a single point.

I may have joined them if I didn't still have a half ton of earth anchoring me to the ground. I wasn't sure how long that would be true, however, as thick streams of dust spiraled into the air and began to rotate around a growing sphere of rock and dirt.

The spinning singularity picked up speed and was soon absorbing green-skinned corpses and tearing craters from the ground as loose dirt revealed buried stones of various sizes. I reinforced the earth around me by creating a large net of eldritch energy that covered myself and the small hill I was buried in. I then anchored the net with massive spikes that I drove as deep beneath the ground as I could.