The Wrong Person Was Transported to the Horrific Lost Village

 

I was running.

"AHHHH! No! HELP ME!"

Kaz was still crying and screaming far behind me, those blasted beasts were still howling, and the eldritch deer was moaning.

"I'M SORRY! Please, I'm sor--"

Then Kaz's screams stopped. They were replaced by the sounds of feet squishing flesh and breaking bones. 

I heard all kinds of sounds across my lives in two worlds, but these ones--I could tell they were going to stick with me against my will.

"The monsters... do not torture. Noted," I said, forcing out a chuckle.

I kept my sprint up. My advantage--it was on its way to becoming significant. I focused on that fact as I ran.

 

In the goddess's world, my butterfly conversion ability always consumed my mana, of which I had plenty. Before attacking Kaz, I thought that I would be in trouble without healthy mana reserves. I really thought I would be stuck using it during the most critical of moments while risking mana deficiency, but then I struck Kaz and realized the startling development. The butterflies started using the Vengeance I had absorbed to fuel it. 

At first, I was surprised--so surprised I was euphoric--and thought that it meant that my power had evolved and adapted to the new world... but now I was wondering if my butterfly conversion power could always fuel itself with Vengeance. I just never noticed because the power was never challenged. In a world of abundant mana, the butterflies never had to consume Vengeance, so I never had to learn that it could.

When I thought about it like that... maybe I had gotten my final moments in the goddess's world wrong. Maybe the goddess never drained my Vengeance away. Maybe, during our final battle, she had actually drained my mana which led the butterflies to use Vengeance as fuel, resulting in it being drained by the time I arrived here... I could make this interpretation make sense. 

My personal powers were beyond her. How could she have touched my Vengeance? It was something that only existed because I existed to use it. I was the goddess of this energy. This power was born of my anxieties. It was mine... She couldn't take it away from me.

Anyway, my mana had been depleted to pitiful levels. But now, thanks to its absence, I was sure that my Vengeance could fuel my invulnerability. I wasn't beholden to mana. What that meant was that--

 

"I have a few moments of intangibility that I can rely on with no drawbacks."

I lost out on some prime Vengeance by not offing Kaz myself, but it couldn't be helped. All it meant was that I had to be efficient and tactical with my use of the butterflies in the present. But in the future--yes, in the future I could have more. If I just found the right targets... I wouldn't have to fear anything!

"Huh?"

I wiped the sweat rolling down my face. I tried to distract myself by ruminating over my power, but the fear was still there, persistently trying to affect my mind as much as it did my body...

 I shook my head. "I wonder if an eldritch abomination can be surprised..."

I kept running. The beasts of the woods were still howling, but they were not coming for me as far as I could tell. If anything, it sounded like they were getting further and further away. I looked around and was annoyed. 

"Something's messing with the mist..."

I was practically running down a hallway defined by mist walls. This mist that just a few moments earlier was building up on the ground had gone and raised walls on either side of me that reached to the treetops.

Just when I was getting distracted by mist, the sounds of galloping reminded me of how dire the situation was and renewed my fear.

I dreaded turning my head, but I did it anyway and saw the figure of the eldritch deer galloping alongside me, but behind the light cover of the mist. The bastard was slowing itself down to keep up with me.

"One heck of a companion," I muttered. "Are you playing with me? You raised that misty curtain for the atmosphere?"

I slid to a stop and let it continue galloping past me. It started turning as soon as it noticed I wasn't running, and then it started circling me while staying behind that light misty cover. 

I was panting. My whole body was trembling. My mind wasn't afraid, though. It hadn't succumbed the way my body had. Rather it was more like my mind was anticipating the visceral sensation of greater fear that my body would experience.

"I know 'I' am not afraid of you... but I'm guessing that you have some kind of weird fear effect radiating from you!" I shouted. "How does it work? The more I see your bare body, the more afraid you force me to be? Gotta admit--that's new. Never experienced a status ailment that tries to affect the mind by going through the body first!"

It just kept running circles around me.

"You're not that scary! You're just gross--"

It shot out from the mists and every neuron in my body fired. I leaped out of the way and rolled onto my feet. My eyes were on it quickly, and I saw it zoom past and back into the mists.

I smirked. "What's wrong? Don't like being called gross--"

The eldritch deer leaped out again from my left, and I just as quickly rolled on my back and back onto my feet in time to see that healthy pair of legs come down and stomp the ground. It then spread its legs and belted out an angry roar that made its slit folds shake so hard, I could hear them slapping each other.

"God, you're gross--"

A large mass of tiny hands shot out from its slit. I leaped out of the way again and watched as they crashed into the floor. They hit the surface like they were hundreds of separate fish hitting the surface of a boat.

Guess this thing had some kind of projectile attack.

I gulped and wore a smirk again. "It's terrible for you, but I don't 'freeze.' I'm the kind of person that uses fear to move faster. You know, a 'flight' kind of girl."

The legs rose into the air again as its neck veins throbbed and gurgled. Its front deer-leg pawed the ground as its human toes wiggled. I got on my feet again, doing my darndest to keep my body from shaking. I took a step back, and it charged.

I leaped out of the way again, and when I did, it fell forward onto its human feet.

"Aww, shit--no way!"

That thing spun on its heels with the grace of a ballerina. It lined itself up with me as its body rose into the air. Then, it reached the apex of its rise and gravity took over. The torso came down like it was a laborer's sledgehammer.

I scrambled away at the last minute as the monster's back slammed into the floor. One would think this was the time to attack, but I wasn't going to do it. 

"Oh my god--eww!"

There was a giant, red eye on this creature's underside, and it was looking at me while its legs spasmed.

"Y-Yeah, forget this."

I booked it again. My curiosity got the better of me, and I looked over my shoulder.

"Gross!"

The thing had gotten back onto its deer legs but had decided to come at me while moving sideways. Did that fall rattle its brain and make it think it was a crab? At least it didn't have pincers--ahh, spoke to soon. A hundred little hands were crawling over its human thighs, and three hands on long, veiny and wet, multi-jointed arms were coming out of its hindquarters now.

"I think I just gagged a little! Ass hands, ass hands--gross!"

I ran faster than before. Every time I fell over roots, I caught myself and used the momentum to propel myself further.

"What degree of athleticism do I have this time? Time to find out! Peak condition, don't fail me now!"

I leaped onto one tree trunk and used it as a foothold to leap to the one directly across from it. 

"I can do this!"

I leaped again, executing a series of wall jumps like an empowered freerunner. I grabbed onto a branch and pulled myself up in one swift movement.

"Did it!" I yelled as I looked back down. "Your move--"

The thing suddenly stopped and just leaped straight up. It was quite literally a few feet away from me and right at eye level with me.

I gulped instinctively.

It just let gravity take over and descended like it was a ball that had been thrown into the sky. It was such a casual move...

"Message received!" I yelled as I leaped off and hopped from branch to branch until I could hop no longer. I landed on the forest floor and looked behind me. The thing wasn't following me on land anymore. No, the cracking branches above clued me in.

"Show off!"

It was hopping from branch to branch, picking the exact same branches I had.

"Super show off!"

I faced forward, but right when I did, it landed mere feet ahead of me, cutting me off. I slid to a stop as the ground rumbled from its impact and scrambled as I turned to run the other way. I hadn't even taken a step when I felt dozens of little fingers tapping on the back of my skull.

How?! I didn't even hear you move!

More of those fingers dug their nails into the back of my head as I felt the deer push my body forward.

It's so fast! Bastard! You were--

The eldritch deer propelled me forward at a pace so great that I couldn't keep my eyes open. 

Critical moment, Mari! Be brave!

Within the second, my head crashed into a tree face-first after it released me. I could hear it run past as my skin split open. 

"Shit," I mumbled as I stumbled backward. Blood was pouring out from the giant gash in my head and getting into my eyes now. I had my brain turn into butterflies at the last moment, so it wasn't the worst hit I could have taken--

The deer moaned as it tore out from the mists again. I couldn't even react. I couldn't react, but my eyes were cursed--that thing forced me to see it in all of its eldritch glory. It forced me to see all of the steps in its attack in such excruciating detail that I thought I was going mad. 

First, the slit had spread open, and the hole in the middle of it stretched as something slimy crowned. Then, in the next millisecond, a hand burst out from the hole. This hand had many other smaller hands growing from it like sprouts growing from a spud. It stretched and reached for me all in that brief moment.

I don't understand--

It grabbed me by the face and ran with me so quickly that my feet left the ground. Dozens of its little fingers crawled across my face like worms. They poked my eyeballs and scratched them with dirty nails. Others found the gash in my head and slipped their dirty little selves beneath my skin and muscle until they were incessantly scratching my skull. I could feel it--those vibrations that felt like nails against a chalkboard. They were reverberating along my bones.

Resist! Resist, Mari! Don't just waste your Vengeance! Keep an advantage!

The back of my head hit another tree. The collision echoed through the forest. And the deer, of course, continued on its way, leaving me against the tree it tried to split my head against.

I stumbled forward. My mind was hazy--those little butterflies flying around in my skull were durable, but their biggest weakness was themselves in a confined space. That last slam made them crash into each other and shook them up. Their disorientation became my own--that was how linked we were, and dammit, it had been a long time since I had been manhandled like that.

I tripped on some roots and fell onto my knees, unable to catch myself as I had done before.

"Damn it... It's just mundane damage... Don't fall onto your knees."

I said that, but I was being hard on myself. The thing was moving at speeds beyond peak human performance. Of course, I wouldn't be able to compete at all times. All that said, however--

"You really were just playing around."

I stood up, royally ticked off. There was an itchy sensation in my palm, and it was building. 

"If one good thing came from this, it's that I now know your nature you sadistic prick..."

I heard the gallops clearly, having reformed my brain. 

"And you think I'm probably a vulnerable little girl..."

My mind was clear again, and my heart was fueled by anger. Letting it think it got a hit on me and letting it see a wound were all for this.

"But that isn't who I am!"

I turned to my left the very moment it tore out from the mists like the sadistic ambush predator that it was.

"Surprise, surprise!" I yelled as I went back on my word and opted for one last blast of the goddess's fire magic.

The firebolt--the weakest form of the goddess's fire magic flew right into the creature's slobbering slit and burst into a mass of tiny flames. 

The reaction--a shrill, reverberating shriek--was amazing. It stopped its charge and pulled back as the persistent flames burned its slit. Those thick thighs were flailing--not that they could do anything else.

"Ha! Gotcha--urgh--"

Something shifted inside of me, and I fell onto my knees, where I heaved my stomach contents. At first, I thought it was because of something it did, but then a familiar feeling came. 

"Mana deficiency," I muttered as I wiped my mouth. I glared at the monster that had tripped over some roots. "Worth it... Serves you right," I said. "Scary when the prey has her own tricks, huh?"

I stood up while clutching my stomach. I had to re-evaluate whether I ever wanted to do this again. The effects of the mana deficiency were more severe than I could have imagined.

Starved for fuel, I studied the deer. 

My Vengeance--that energy that I could reap was generated by people who had committed aggressive, unmistakable evil. Murderers, torturers, violators of human rights--I would never again be unsure of who was deserving of death by my hands thanks to it. The thing was, however, that Vengeance wasn't generated by people who engaged in 'softer' or 'petty' evil. I would never know who was a pickpocket, or simple con artist, but honestly, I didn't need to split hairs. They were the types I could take my time sussing out. Vengeance showed me the ones that needed to be removed immediately and rewarded me for making them pay.

Now we had this deer. There were no black wisps around it, which told me quite a lot.

"You're not sentient like humans... Got it." 

Monsters never really generated Vengeance. The fact surprised me when I first got the power... but I think my own biases influenced its function. Back when this power was born, I was more obsessed with knowing that human targets were deserving...

I started jogging away from the flailing, flaming, shrieker deer.

"You're just a sadistic, violence-prone beast. Nothing more."

"HEEEY!"

I stopped and looked around. My eyes widened, and my heart actually rejoiced when I saw her.

"Hey, over here!" yelled Haunting Tone. 

She was waving me over. She was actually there, standing on a log--I could hardly believe it.

"Susy found somewhere we could hide!"

Hide? Seriously? I wanted to criticize everything but now was not the time. I ran toward her, fighting the discomfort in my stomach.

"Holy crap--you look terrible!" she said as she threw my arm over her shoulders and helped me run.

"Are you sure we can hide?"

"I think so! You might not believe it, but... just trust me! My instincts as a paranormal investigator have never been wrong!"

"Your what now? What instincts--"

The creature let out a blood-curdling shriek behind us.

"Shit! Move, move, move!" I yelled.

"It's right over there!"

Haunting and I hobbled over to the most random mound of rock and moss in these woods.

"It's a cave! We'll be safe in here!" she said as we crossed the cave's mouth.

"What? That's it?" I yelled. The cave--it was the most man-made thing I had ever seen. It was barely bigger than a hotel room, and I was sure it was made up of rocks that someone had stacked. "How are we going to defend this--"

"Just believe in Susy!"

I heard the galloping again.

"Shit!"

No matter what would happen, I would survive. But these girls--their only crime was being stupid. If I didn't do something, they would die. 

"Decent idiots aren't dying on my watch!"

I stood up again, ready to drag up every last bit of mana in my body.

The eldritch deer burst out from the mists and ran toward the cave. I braced myself for a wicked penalty due to acute mana deficiency and raised my hand. Haunting, meanwhile, pulled on my other hand.

"It's okay, Mari!"

My eyes, meanwhile, were locked on my enemy.

"Let's go! Round 2!"