Eldritch Girls Chapter 3

The Beast with Infinite Eyes

Despite Kip tugging on her arm, Liz remained still and stared at the approaching knight with a baffled expression. “Is there some kind of convention going on today?” she thought. “No way, not in this crummy little town.”

“Come on Liz!” Kip shouted while continuing to pull on Liz's arm. “We've got to go before he kills us!”

Before Liz could ask Kip for an explanation, the knight stopped walking, raised his blade and pointed it right at her. He began speaking in a strange language that kind of sounded like a beautiful hymn you'd hear from an orchestra, only sung in words Liz had never heard before. “Hello there” she said while waving at the knight. “Can I help you?”

When the knight ignored her question and continued to talk, Liz looked down at Kip just in time to see the kid give her leg a thump. “Don't talk to it!” she shouted. “Just run!”

Liz was about to tell Kip how rude it was to refer to somebody as “it,” only to be interrupted when the knight let out a quick cackle before resuming his approach, albeit slightly faster. “Well that's not a good sign” Liz thought before noticing the fear in Kip's eyes. “Maybe running is a good idea.” Liz turned to grab Kip and bolt, only to spot her new friend already sprinting back toward the school. “Wait up Kip!” she called out before running after the small child. “Don't go that way!”

As he watched Liz and Kip dart through the schools front door, the knight returned his blade to its sheath before quickly following them into the building.

Despite Kip being half her size, Liz found it surprisingly difficult to keep up with her as she chased her through the school's halls. “Hold up Kip!” she yelled. “We should find somebody to help us!” As she watched Kip turn down another hall, Liz looked back and spotted the knight casually running after her, the distance between them shrinking at an alarming rate.

Once she had turned the corner, Liz immediately noticed Kip waving at her from the entrance to the gymnasium. “In here Liz!” she called out before opening the door. “Hurry, hurry!” The instant Liz entered the gym, Kip ran inside and locked the door. “He'll get through that quick” she said before pointing at a large stack of thick gym mats. “Over there!”

“Will you just wait a minute and start explaining what's going on?” Liz asked, only to immediately follow Kip behind the mats when she heard the knight fiddle with the door handle. “Kip, who is that guy?”

“I already told you” Kip assured. “Trouble with a capital T.”

“Yeah I got that” Liz growled as the knight began to bang against the door. “Why is he after us?”

“He isn't” Kip answered before pulling out a small leather bag from her suit's pocket. “He's after these.”

Liz looked inside the sack and spotted five small marbles, each a different color and almost as big as her eye. “What are those?” she asked before trying to grab one, only for Kip to pull the bag away from her hand.

“Something very dangerous if used by the wrong person” answered Kip. “Like that knight...”

Liz peeked out from behind the mats just in time to see a sword slice through the door. “Well if they're so dangerous, why did you bring them to school?” she asked.

“I couldn't just leave them laying around at my house” Kip said. “What if somebody found them? No, these need to go to somebody noble, who will only use them to protect the world.” Kip cleared her throat. “I think you are that somebody Liz.”

“Excuse me?” Liz raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about? Who are you?”

Suddenly, the gym's door fell to the floor, sliced into many small pieces. “I don't have time to explain” whispered Kip while fishing through her bag. “All you need to know right now is that knight is about to kill us both to get to these. Once he has them, this world and everyone on it is doomed. Do you want that?”

“Well of course not” Liz whispered back. “I just need to know what I'm getting myself into.”

Kip pulled a purple marble from the bag. “Koth will be a good match for you Liz” she said. “Now when you meet him, just explain that the Divine are back and you need his help.” When Kip saw the look of unease of Liz's face, she grabbed her new friend's hands. “Liz, I need you. The whole world needs you. I promise I'll explain everything to you later.” Tears fell from Kip's eyes. “Please, help me.”

Liz hesitated for a moment. The last time she'd said those three words, it didn't end well for her or her older sister. However this time somebody was saying it to her, she knew what she had to do.

After taking a deep breath, Liz nodded, causing a huge grin to appear on Kip's face. “Thank you Liz” she said while holding up the purple marble. “Don't worry about Koth when you meet him, he can't hurt you.”

“Wait what?” was all Liz had time to say before Kip slammed the purple marble into her forehead as hard as she could. A bright flash of light immediately followed, forcing Liz to shut her eyes. When she reopened them, Liz couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Somehow, she'd gone from ducking behind a stack of gym mats to standing on a barren rectangular platform. The sky was dark and filled with storm clouds, severely limiting Liz's vision. “Where am I?” she asked herself, her voice echoing out in all directions.

With nothing by darkness surrounding her, Liz got on all fours and peered over the edge of the platform. Below her, there appeared to be a dimly lit city that stretched out for miles. It quickly became apparent from the designs of the buildings that this was no human city. The stone structures curved around into impossible formations, wrapping around each other as if they were once alive.

Suddenly, a flash of lightning illuminated the surroundings and for a brief moment, Liz caught a glimpse of something in the far distance that made her hair stand on end. It was only with the corner of her eye but that was more than enough to send her shuffling to the opposite end of the platform.

With the lightning now gone, a terrified Liz trembled as she tried to comprehend exactly what she'd just seen. It looked like a thin humanoid creature sitting atop a black throne. Two enormous leathery wings stretched out from its back and a tail coiled around the base of its seat. What upset Liz the most was the hundreds, if not thousands of tentacles that sprouted from the creature's neck in place of a traditional head.

“Well... Hello there” a dark voice called out from the direction Liz had seen the hideous beast.

Despite her trembling, Liz focused her vision and was able to make out the gargantuan silhouette of the creature. With the exception of the mass of swaying tentacles, the monster remained still. Suddenly, one of the tentacles made its way to the platform, eventually getting close enough so that Liz could see that it was in fact not a tentacle but a neck, the head at the end easily larger than her entire school. At the front of the head sat a wide gaping maw, filled with row upon row of razor sharp teeth. Surrounding the mouth were four spiked mandibles that seemed to twitch at random intervals.

“How very interesting...” the beast bellowed as it opened a single bulbous eye in the center of its face. “A human? Here? This is a first.”

Liz forced herself to her feet, only to immediately drop back down when the beast snapped its jaws at her. “I... I... I g-guess you're K-Koth?” she asked.

The monster let out a chuckle that seemed to come from every direction at once. “You're almost correct” he snickered. “I am Koth-Ladon, the Dragon with Infinite Eyes. A space god of unfathomable power. You may also know of me as The All Seeing-Fiend or The Soul Gazer or perhaps He Who Watches Everything.” When Liz slowly shook her head, Koth-Ladon seemed to sigh. “Humans... So ignorant of the universe and it's mighty gods...” he grumbled before moving his head closer to the platform. “But somehow, you do seem to know who I am.”

“K-Koth-Ladon...” Liz clenched her fists and tried to swallow her fears. “I've c-come here to speak w-with you.”

“Oh have you now?” Koth-Ladon's voice sneered from behind, causing Liz to turn and spot a second head had worked its way around her, this one identical to the first. “And what would a meager human want to say to me? Have you come to beg me for knowledge? Or Maybe you wish to provide me with some entertainment? Kip always goes on about how amusing humans can be.” A third head emerged from the darkness, this one also identical to the previous two. “Well before you say what you can to say, I have a question to ask of you little one... How exactly did you get in here? This realm is a paradise created specifically for me. You could not have just appeared here on your own.”

It took Liz a moment to stand back up. “I... I was s-sent here” she answered as three more monstrous heads came into her sight. “By my n-new friend Kip.”

“I figured as much” a seventh head growled. “I knew Kip would never be careless enough to misplace me.”

Liz gulped as sweat poured down her face. “I've come here to...” Liz froze up as five more snarling heads appeared around the platform, her mind constantly repeating Kip's words “He can't hurt you” over and over to keep herself from screaming. “I've c-come here to ask you for y-your help.”

“Help?” the first head bellowed. “Help for what exactly?”

“Kip s-said to mention the... Deadly?” Liz shook her head. “N-no sorry, the D-Divine?”

Koth-Ladon's heads suddenly all hissed at once, forcing Liz to cover her ears. “The Divine? Free again?” the heads asked each other. “It cannot be possible. Kip would not allow this. Unless... Unless, she had no say in the matter. What if they take me? I cannot fight back from here.” Suddenly, many more heads began to encircle the platform, completely obscuring everything but the platform from Liz's view.

When the heads continued to chat among themselves, Liz waved her arms in the air. “H-hey!” she called out, causing every head to turn toward her, each one sounding like a bone being broken in two. “S-so can you help me or n-not?”

One of the heads leaned forward. “Are you aware of what you're asking?” Koth-Ladon asked. “Did Kip give you a thorough explanation of what's going to happen if I agree to help you?”

“She promised to explain everything to me later” Liz assured, causing all of the monster's huge heads to laugh. “All she's told me so far is that the Divine cannot get their hands on those marbles.”

All of Koth-Ladon's heads ceased their laughter. “She's right about that” one of them said. “If the leaders of the Divine discovered a way to harness my power... The entire universe would be changed forever, and not in a pleasant way.” The heads took a moment to speak to each other in some ancient tongue. Eventually one of the heads got dangerously close to the platform. “So allow me clarify what you're asking little one” it groaned. “You, a meager human, is asking me, The Dragon with Infinite Eyes, to grant you a boon that would make you the strongest mortal to ever exist on your world? That is something that entire civilizations have murdered each other to obtain and you want me to just hand it to you?”

Liz paused for a moment before giving her answer. “Y-yes” she said.

“Sure, why not?” the beast bellowed. “This paradise has become stale after being stuck here for millions of years. Now then, human, tell me your name.”

“E-Elizabeth” said a surprised Liz. “Elizabeth Stewart.”

Many of Koth-Ladon's heads moved away from the platform, revealing a head easily three times the size of the others. “That's a nice name for a human” the largest head chuckled. “Elizabeth Stewart, it's time you and I became one, brace yourself.”

“Wait, what do you mean become one?” is what Liz wanted to ask, but she found her trembling body completely unresponsive while she gazed up at what had to be Koth-Ladon's primary head.

After opening its unbelievably gigantic maw, Koth-Ladon's largest head lunged forward, causing Liz to shut her eyes and finally release her bottled up scream just as the monster swallowed the entire platform in a single bite.

When Liz reopened her eyes, she found herself back in the gymnasium, only now a strange red light surrounded her. A second later, that same light exploded outwards, scattering the pile of mattresses all across the gym's floor and forcing the knight to cover his face with his buckler.

“Alright!” Kip cheered while shielding her eyes from the blinding light. “It worked!” With a chilling grin on her face, Kip retreated to the top row of chairs to give herself a better view of the action.

The red glow had finished dissipating, leaving a transformed Liz standing ready for combat, a long spear with a red blade and adorned with three purple jewels in her hands. Her intimidating demeanor was immediately ruined when she noticed her new outfit and promptly freaked out. “Oh my gosh, what is this?” she gasped while staring at her new single sleeved yellow dress, knee high black boots, black stockings, a bright red chest plate with a large purple jewel in its center and the red shoulder pads, both sporting a classic dragon's head and claws.

With her head constantly swaying from side it side, it didn't take Liz long to notice her ponytail had somehow tripled in length, now reaching down to the back of her legs. “My hair! My clothes!” she shrieked. “What's going on?!?”

“I take it from your screaming you like the new attire?” Koth-Ladon's voice whispered. “I'm not surprised, I chose it myself.”

“Koth?” Liz looked around the gym for the monster, but found only the cheering Kip and the seemingly stunned knight. “Where are you?”

“Feel your forehead” Koth-Ladon chuckled.

Liz quickly complied and immediately felt a rock solid lump just above her eyes. “What is that?” she whimpered while tapping the purple jewel on her forehead. “Why is it on my head?”

“That's my new home” Koth-Ladon answered. “I'll be living there from now on.”

“Wait what?!?” Liz gasped. “What do you mean?”

“How else do you expect a space god to give you his power?” Koth-Ladon asked. “I can only do that while we're connected.”

Liz wanted to ask more questions, but the knight suddenly rushed forward and slashed his blade at her head. Liz was quick to leap back to avoid the attack, only for the knight to swing his sword at her a second time. With no time to jump back again, Liz quickly raised her spear and managed to block the blade with her weapon's handle. “Holy cow...” she thought as the knight tried to push her back. “I can't believe I actually stopped that.”

“Not a bad block human” Koth-Ladon cheered. “Now parry his blade and strike back.”

“Right!” Liz grunted before knocking the knight's blade away and swinging her spear in an arc. The knight was quick to block her weapon with his buckler before jumping back.

“You're sloppy” Koth-Ladon snapped. “We'll have to fix that later.”

As the knight assumed a defensive stance, Liz walked into the center of the gym. “Hey you, knight!” she shouted while pointing her spear at her opponent. “Give up now before you get hurt.”

The knight remained still while giving Liz a reply with the strange hymn she'd heard him speak before.

“Talking to him is a waste of time” said Koth-Ladon. “He cannot understand you and you cannot understand him. At least not yet...”

“I don't suppose there's any chance of him running away?” Liz asked while preparing for the knight's next attack.

“Retreating isn't something the Divine do” Koth-Ladon explained just as the knight let out a fierce battle cry and charged forward.

TO BE CONTINED....