The Mantis Continuum - Book Four - 35. Chapter 35 - Riam, Part Two

In the distance, Riam could hear muffled chanting through the trees. It was not what drew her to this location, but it now led her to what she sought. Within a small hut at the edge of an isolated community, she could sense a photonova gland. Several people were outside of the little building, but they were young, not adults yet, and none of them possessed what could satisfy her wicked craving.

Slow repetitive thumping noises came from the little shack, and those inside repeated in unison, “Consume! Consume!”

Riam did not hold herself back, and she rushed the youths, slamming into them and sending them hurtling around the clearing. Two of them were soft, and their bodies were ripped and twisted by her devastating assault, but the others were hardened. As Riam impacted with them, her massive strength managed to launch them away from the small structure, but they were unharmed.

The wooden walls were nothing to the monster, and she smashed her way into the building. The chanting died.

Riam’s entire being honed in on the thing she needed, currently being swallowed by a blood-soaked boy, barely on the cusp of adulthood. He was on his knees, and he was surrounded by a large group of very surprised-looking adults. Every one of them appeared completely normal, in fact, they all looked similar.

“What is that?!” one of them squawked.

The photonova gland that was intended to turn the boy into a Messiah was traveling down his gullet, and Riam attacked him. In a matter of seconds, the boy would have become nigh invincible, just like the elders of the Lovegood cult. He would have been unharmed by the assault, and strong enough to fight back, but he was too late. He had hesitated too long after watching one of his little cousins slaughtered right before his eyes.

Riam grabbed the boy by his wrists with two of her many arms, and two others grabbed him by the torso. He let out the briefest scream, but his cry and his life were instantly extinguished, as Riam pulled the boy apart. She roared and ripped him in half, and his body exploded from collarbones to hips. The boy’s head dangled attached to one of the gruesome sides, and his organs poured out and splashed into an enormous pool of blood at Riam’s feet.

She dug through the boy’s meat, but then she was attacked.

Messiahs are strong and nearly invincible, but Riam was a Messiah before she became a monster, and her power was greater.

A sword collided with her and was deflected without leaving a mark on her skin. A club was swung down upon her head, but it shattered. Hands gripped her and fingers tried to dig into her skin, and she brushed them off as she hunted for the little stone that the boy had partially swallowed. She located the gem within the ruined flesh of the meaty esophagus, and even as the other cultists tried to pull Riam from the corpse, she thrust the photonova gland into her mouth.

Riam laughed at the measly human Messiahs, laughed at the glorious pain that radiated through her with the consumption of the tiny gemstone, and she laughed at her superiority. Riam was a monstrous goddess of death.

Lonklam and Ronging lumbered up to the edge of the isolated community as Riam stepped out of the ruined hut. Messiahs were viciously attacking her, but their brutal assaults were futile. She swatted, and several of them were knocked away from her; she ignored the rest.

“There are… more,” Riam managed to say.

“More what?” Lonklam asked.

She sniffed the air with her natural nose and also the bizarre single nostril that grew from her shoulder. “Can’t… you smell the sweet glands?” she asked, and she turned. “They’re keeping Shifts… right in there.” Riam roared again, and she charged another building.

A large man in red robes and with blood up to his elbows cried, “Not our temple of sleep!”

Riam smashed through the wall, instantly grabbed three unconscious bodies that were within, and she rushed out into the woods.

“No!” the Lovegood priest wailed. “Our corrupt children! Our coma children! Nooo!”

Riam was gone. She left the community and her fellow monsters behind, and she raced into the trackless wilderness. Many cultists pursued her, but she proved far too fast for them, and she escaped.

Deep in the high mountain forest, Riam slaughtered the three unconscious Shifts. They may have been little more than youths, but Riam knew what she needed. She smashed their heads open on jagged rocks, and the three did not even experience any pain as they were massacred. She collected their photonova glands from within the mess of their ruined skulls, and one of her many hands formed an impenetrable fist with the trio of gems at its center. There they would remain until she needed one again, and she would need one again soon.

In the forest, she waited. She knew Lonklam and Ronging would eventually find her, and with three extra photonova glands in her possession, she considered that she might indeed be able to follow them on their journey to Xin. Three might be enough to get her through the extended time without access to more Shifts.

The new flesh that had grown after eating the photonova gland that was meant for the cultist boy, added two new arms and two new legs to Riam. The thick black whiskers that grew from one of her ears spread down onto the side of her neck near the cluster of fingers and trio of glassy eyes. She was a mess of weird flesh, and she liked the way she was. She looked forward to someday eating Xinitian Shifts. Riam was ready to travel south★