Nowthat he was free from the tangle of bones and metal ships, he received hisfirst proper look at the gigantic reptile.It stood on two legs, mostlyattaining a bipedal gait, though its posture was unusually crooked and bowed.There was a field of spiky protrusions along its tail and vertebrae, like aline of caltrops.Its pelvis was wide and seemingly backwards.Its arms werepathetically small, grasping feebly at the air.Its ribs were so long that theyalmost curved around to meet each other, like the curling limbs of a spider.
Isaacsaw now, more than ever, that the titan was a horrible amalgamation of bodyparts.Its skull and pelvis were reptilian, or a close facsimile of such, butit had far too many vertebrae, and the rest of its proportions were utterlybizarre.Its neck was almost too long to properly support its head, its chestwas grotesquely wide, and its arms were so tiny as to be useless, like theywere merely a vestigial trait, a remnant of finer function.
If hehad to guess, it was likely the creature had never actually beenkilled—instead, it had merely succumbed to the inadequacies of its own anatomy.
It didnot seem a creature made for this world.
It didnot seem a proper creature at all.
Now,the creature reared itself back, its crooked posture rising toward the sky.Athunderous growl pierced the air.Its body heaved and stretched until therewere visible gaps between the connection of the bones, held together only bythe energy of thousands of souls, like a cartilage that screamed for mercy anddeath.
Theearth rumbled.It seemed to come from everywhere, all at once.
Berithhad taught this lesson very well.Killing the master of a thrall did not killthe thrall itself.It would retain all the energy with which it had beeninfused.
Theonly thing that would be lost was control.
“Isaac!”Zaria yelled.“Do something!”
Thereptile steadied its head, its empty eyes roaming over the rubble of thecavern.The rumbling intensified.From the sides of the pyramid, glitteringshapes moved among the sea of ossein, like worms squirming beneath the web of aspider.A few feet from where Isaac stood, the bank of metal devices remainedactive, their panels alight with flashing letters.
Isaacstumbled into a run.The movement was enough to catch the titan’s attention.Hegrasped at the bank of machines, gripping through the hanging souls.He had noidea how to work such a device.There were calibration knobs, measuring dials,rusted buttons, levers whose function was only written in an ancient language.His hand roamed over the different control mechanisms, lessons on necroticresurrection racing through his mind.
He lookedup towards the sky, and the sky was gone.There was only a skull peering downat him, like the stark white moon of Solnova was tumbling from its orbit.Isaacmade eye contact with the colossus.It felt like staring into the face of agod.
Thebeast pointed its snout, giving a brief sniff.
Thesuction of air was monstrous.Clouds of sand whipped into the air.Isaac had togrip the metal device to stay where he was, and Zaria was outright lifted fromher feet, nearly flung from the edge of the pyramid.When Isaac regained hisbalance, he gave up all pretense of a plan, immediately slapping as many of thestrange buttons as he could.
Thecolossus opened its jaws, loosing a flurry of sand.As it braced for a bite, the rumbling reached a crescendo.
Suddenly,a sandwyrm leaped from the sea of ossein, its wings glittering in the sun, itscircular maw striking the titan right in the empty socket of its eye.The titanwhipped its face to the side, shocked and reeling.Isaac just barely noticedZaria sprinting in his direction before she tackled him to the ground, savinghim from the gusts of wind.For a long few moments, they braced together behindthe metal devices, enveloped by a cataclysm of earth and sound.
Isaacrisked a peek from cover.Above, the colossus had reared back to its fullheight, and the limbless dragon was still squirming from the depths of thecreature’s eye, like the grotesque birth of a parasite.The colossus squirmedits tiny arms, thrashing its head from side to side.At its feet, moreglittering wyrms erupted from the field of concrete,leaping onto shins and knees and toes.
Thetitan roared.The sound nearly split Isaac in half.With a great heave, itbegan to kick its legs into the air, flinging the wyrms from its body like onemight shake a swarm of leeches.Any of the dragons who did not fly away were,instead, splattered against the ground as the colossus resorted to vicious,bony stomps.In seconds, the sea of ossein was drenched in a splattering stormof blood.
Zariayanked Isaac to his feet, pointing at the metal devices.“Do something!”
Hestared at the instruments, barely able to focus.
“Dosomething!”
Isaacbegan to randomly slap buttons.
Thetitan lurched back, letting the sun return.Its body seemed to spasm.Entireforests of ossein were swept away as it took a stumbling step backwards, itsbones trembling like the reeds of a chime.Slowly, the colossus caught itsbalance, shredding earth and concrete with the flexing of its toes.Isaac wassure he had just interrupted the flow of energy within the creature’s bones, ifonly for a moment.He would just have to figure out how to do it again.
Therewas a growl.The colossus snapped its jaw, growing frenzied in rage.Thesandwyrm in its eye finally lost attachment, spilling from the socket, itsbulging body tumbling end over end as it fell the great distance back to thepavement.Once it struck the floor, the colossus immediately swooped down,crushing the dragon within its mountainous jaws.
“Isaac,”Zaria said.
“Iknow!”
“Isaac!”
“Iknow!”
Thecolossus rose back to a hunched posture, green blood oozing down its chin.Chunks of a freshly-skewered wyrm rained from the sky.For miles, the concretewas bathed in the meat of a dozen shredded dragons, which was far more than anykingdom of the Nine had managed to vanquish in centuries.
