[ANNI-24] ONLINE

“ON THE LINE: at serious risk.

‘Their lives were on the line.’”

The crabs were tired. None of them had any idea of how long they had been wandering, nor how long they would keep going on - only that it felt like an eternity.

They had traveled to so many places, met so many creatures.. yet none they deemed deserving of hosting any of them. 

How could Mother abandon them here.. in this godforsaken world crowded with unworthy, pathetic creatures?

How could they fulfill their purposes and live their lives without a perfect body?

Mother must have had a reason. Mother must know something they don't.

They would never have been left behind in a world unable to help them achieve greatness.

They just needed to find it.

Tired from endlessly searching under the torrential rain, the soaked crabs decided to rest in a mountain’s cave.

The cave was enormous, sinuously going deep in the mountains and decorated with mighty stalactites and stalagmites prepared to swallow them whole.

A warm breeze was swirling from somewhere beyond their visions, at the end of the long path bathed in occasional sun rays dripping from cracks.

The crabs walked forward, looking for warmth.

The beast was sound asleep over a nest of treasure and gemstones.

Each of its breath carried the warmth within it to meet the freezing rain outside the cave.

It was hard to understand what they were looking at. The two-faced creature looked both human and monstrous. It looked both like a creature and an object.

It was an amalgamation of opposites, except for its undeniable deathliness.

The crabs could not believe their luck.

Silently, they went up the pile of gemstones. The beast was resting its heads over its crossed arms, facilitating the entrance of the crabs in its skulls.

Although they preferred for each one to have its individual body, the exhaustion of the endless hunt for perfect vessels in an ocean of nothingness made them agree to share their future home as they have shared the search for it.

As soon as they entered the skull, they started getting rid of the brain.

They started viciously clawing it out, eager to finally have control of the perfect body they have been looking for so long.

They were boiling the gray matter like the explosion of a chained hunger, incessantly and viscerally destroying anything they touched.

They could barely wait. The taste of divine force was finally within their grasp.

Then, nothing.

None of them had had a body before. They had heard about it, though.

Some were immediately inundated by the former owner’s memories, while others just opened their eyes.

They were met with nothingness. Sole emptiness and silence surrounding them.

– Why, hello. – a voice said – I have never expected any guests.

It didn't sound like a voice. It didn't sound like a thought.

It had an intrinsic snarky smile to it. It had the type of certainty of its own capabilities that could awaken the purest form of fear - the certainty of death, not of its own.

– Fear not... – it continued.

The crabs felt the body standing up while they were still embedded in darkness.

Images of the most hidden fears of theirs started clawing their souls.

Images of what it was capable of starting crushing their minds. Frightening images of uncontainable and unstoppable violence, and the awakened hunger for it.

Then, it stopped.

They saw the pile of treasure under them. The beast’s hands - their hands - were slightly covered with a couple gemstones.

They looked around with the beat’s head, seeing nothing but the inside of the cave and hearing nothing but the dripping rain outside.

They sighed in relief. Maybe it was just a fever dream.

– …I will find a use for all of you, Kilvnabadorite.

“IN LINE: under control.

‘They were kept in line.’”