The Mechanical Era

Everyone was on high alert upon hearing the howling noises that echoed throughout the halls. Its creepy aura sent a shiver down their spines, striking a little fear into their hearts. Carson orders his musketeers to form into position, making two lines.

One line is focused on the rear, to protect the demonologists and the knights from anything that may have sneaked behind them, while the front was focused on supporting the knights, who are at the front.

They all slowly walked deeper and deeper into the compound, through the narrow halls, all hyperfocused on their dark and blinding environment, with the only light present being the few torches that were lit behind them. The demonologist focus on the walls themselves, to see if there are any inscriptions written on them. Unsurprisingly, there were none.

They made their way to a large room, spacious enough that they all didn't feel claustrophobic anymore. Carson walks up to Esther and asks him a question.

"Excuse me, Knight Esther?" Carson asks the knight commander.

"What is it?"

"This place is too dark for our torches. I think it would be a good idea to cast a... light spell of some kind so that the demonologist can examine the room more clearly," Carson recommended.

"I will..."Esther suddenly stops talking. Carson immediately senses that something is wrong and looks to the side, to see what Esther sees. There, he can see a pair of glowing red eyes, staring down at them all.

"What the hell is that?" Carson asked while pointing his revolver at the pair of eyes.

"Looks like a pair of eyes; evil malicious eyes." Esther tightens his grip on his spear and his own eyes focus on the creature, hiding in the veil of darkness.

"We better kill it before it kills us!" The creature screams at Esther, upon hearing him threatening its life. The creature dashes at him at high speed, ready to harm him.  Carson, aimed his gun at the creature, ready to shoot.

"Don't shoot it! It is mine!" Esther proclaims. Carson walks back, not wanting to argue with the knight at this time. Esther charged at the creature, so he can stab it. The creature jumps at him, and Esther takes his chance.

Swoosh!

Esther launches his spear at the creature, hoping to tear through its head. Although it appeared as if he managed to get its face, he didn't feel anything making contact with the spear tip. The creature, ignoring the sharp metal point, just goes straight inside his body.

"Knight Esther! Are you all right?" one of the knights asks Esther, who saw the whole thing unfold with the other knights, musketeers, and demonologists.

Esther then senses a great, unbearable pain throughout his body, causing him to scream in agony. His hands let go of his spear, and he falls back to the ground. Everyone started to gather around the man, to see what was wrong with him.

He was visibly twitching and shaking in pain and fear. His face and body had started to glow red in color. His eyes, which were a normal brown, started to turn black in color, with the irises replaced with dark cyan in color. Just as they thought there was no end to his screams, he suddenly stops.

His body stops violently shaking, while his eyes slowly closed off. His breathing rate returned back to normal, and the fortress was filled with a deafening silence once again. The others had looked at Esther with horror, shocked to function properly as soldiers.

They had just witnessed an Alien creature, just go inside the body of a powerful knight, and completely immobilized him from being a threat. That and the fact that the spear didn't harm it, made everyone shiver a little in fear.

"Did you all see that? That... That creature! It just went straight into him!" one of the demonologists yells out, finally losing their composure as their brain processed what had just happened.

"Oh god! We shouldn't have come here in the first place! We are all going to die!" said another demonologist. One by one, they all start to panic, fearing what happened to Esther, will happen to them.

"Alright, Calm down everyone! Calm down! There is no use in panicking!" Carson told the demonologists. With the help of the knights and Herrold, they managed to calm them down. With the demonologists silent, Herrold starts to speak.

"Alright. Now that everyone has calmed down, we can discuss our next move. Now, considering that Knight Esther is still incapacitated, I think we should take Knight Esther outside of this fortress and treat him there.

We can't have him here any longer, as those... things might return. We have no idea how to deal with them just yet."

"Herrold is right. We better get him out of here. We can treat him properly there, and once he has got up, we can all come up with a tactic to counter those creatures," Carson replied.

"What if he won't make it till then? Don't you think it would be better to treat him here?" one suggested. Carson turned to the man, who turns out to be a demonologist.

"Well, we won't be able to treat this man here properly regardless. The lighting condition here is too poor. Our best course is to bring him outside, and hopes he makes it till then," Carson replied.  He then grabbed Esther's left arm and looked at the other knights.

"Can you all please help me carry him outside?" he asked the knights, who he knew was stronger. They happily complied and picked them up. They then started walking back to the entrance of the building, being led by Herrold.

As they were walking back, Herrold can hear the howling, echoing across the narrow halls of the Fortress. However, instead of coming from behind, he felt like they were coming from the front.

"Is there something the matter, Herrold?" Carson asked, who was in the middle of the line, as the front and back were being protected by musketeers. Herrold was silent, his eyes hard at work scanning the front.

"There is something there!" Herrold replied. Another pair of black eyes opened up, right in front of him.

"There are some behind as well, sir! What do we do?" Herrold hears from the rear. He took out his revolver and aimed at the creature, and tires to shoot the creature. But before he can pull the trigger, he hears a voice.

"Wait." the group hears someone speak. It spoke in a more raspy, low-pitch voice. They look around at each other, very confused as to who just spoke.

"Let Us Down. Now." the voice spoke again. They turn their heads to Esther, who appeared to have awoken from his slumber. However, there was something different. His skin was bright red, and his eye color is a dark cyan.

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