All was quiet and Elric and Fen had gotten use to it counting down the minutes till they swapped with their friends when soft creak snapped Elric out of his thoughts. Elric's head snapped to the origin of the sound, his eyes now searching.
One of the pews at the far end of the chapel had moved.
Upon seeing this Elric turned to Fen who slowly made it to his feet, his eyes locked on the pew with his weapon at hand.
Elric rose slowly as well, hand drifting to the hilt of his sword, scanning the darkness just outside the torch's reach. Nothing stirred now, but the air felt colder. He took a few steps toward the source of the noise, every footfall echoing too loudly in the chapel's ruined frame.
Then he heard it... a whisper.
Not in his ear. Not in the room.
In his mind.
"Elric…"
He froze. The voice was breathy, distant—like a memory not his own.
"Elric… come…"
His hand trembled on the sword hilt. He looked toward the others, Mira and Den were still asleep. Mira's hand twitched slightly, Den curled against the wall, Fen on the other hand moved with his axe in hand, towards the Pew unaffected by... whatever it is he was hearing.
Turning around Elric saw it.
A figure stood in the archway of the ruined chapel door.
A woman.
Or the echo of one.
She was draped in what looked like funeral cloth, but her face was hidden beneath a veil made of shadow itself. Her arms hung limp at her sides, fingers long, wrong—too many joints. She said nothing, only stood still in the faint outer rim of their torchlight.
Elric wanted to take a step back, but it all felt as though he was in a dream. Like he was trying to wade through a swamp, to his horror Elric came to the realization that the longer he looked at the woman the stronger this feeling got.
Now starting to feel the panic set in, he called out . "Fen."
But no matter how he tried to shout his voice was barely above a whisper. the woman took a step forward.
'was this how it ended, dying before he even became a hunter. No not yet he had a goal to accomplish." Gritting his teeth Elric yanked his sword from its sheath with a sharp ring.
That was enough.
Moments later Fen's axe flew through the woman splitting her form and embedding itself in a wooden pillar. This had been enough to free Elric who leapt away putting some distance between him and the woman, no creature that had reformed herself in mere moments.
The commotion had caused Mira to shoot upright with Den following a second later.
"What the hell is that?!" Fen called out with a torch raised as he and the others formed a semi-circle around the creature.
The figure stood still, head tilting at an unnatural angle to observe them. Then screamed, a high, broken, glass-shattering sound.
Every single torchlight in the Church flickered violently with that.
Not wasting a moment, Mira flung a throwing knife at the creature, but the blade simply passed through her veil, striking the door behind. Her actions had caused no harm to the creature, only serving to enrage it.
Its scream only got louder something no one thought possible, Its proportions began to distort. It's hands and fingers gained an unnatural length, bones elongating with a sharp crackle.
The skin of the creature began to split peeling away in slow, flaps, revealing translucent, pulsing muscle beneath. Her hair turned brittle and fell in clumps, dissolving midair into ash. Its torso caved in, then stretched, like it was breathing through wounds instead of lungs. Something inside it let out a chittering noise, like teeth grinding behind bone.
At this point the group had already began taking a few steps back with none of them daring to take their eyes off the creature.
The veil that once covered the creatures face faded away like smoke revealing a gaunt face beneath with eyes stitched close. It's face begun to flicker and twitch as the stiches on its eyes began to unravel. Once the stiches were gone...
The scream stopped, the sudden silence caused the group to freeze as their heats begun beating in their throats. Their eyes locked onto the monster that simply stared back at them with embers in its eye sockets.
The uneasy silence lasted for a few seconds.
Until the creature grinned.
Not with lips, but with its entire face. Skin pulled back unnaturally, revealing rows of jagged, half-formed teeth scattered across its cheeks and throat like broken mirrors.
"RUN!!" Elric screamed as he made to escape the chapel.
The other's didn't need to be told twice as they all rushed for the exit as well, Den fired an arrow at the creature as he followed after them, but it went through the creature as though it was a ghost.
"Fuck me" Den cursed when he realized his arrow did nothing but anger the creature.
The monster closed the distance in a moment and swiped with its claws at Den's head, but he barely managed to jump forward just in time, causing the claw to miss his head and destroy the door frame of the chapel.
Den who had narrowly escaped with his life, wasted no time in getting back on his feet with his torch at hand.
"WHAT IN THE HELLS IS THAT THING?" Fen screamed as he and the others tried desperately to loose the creature. However their attempts seemed futile as with each passing second the distance between them and the monster grew shorter.
"Its an Echo, I remember now, creatures born after the death of innocents in a sacred place. However they are not usually-"
"Not the time Mira!, how do we kill the bloody thing?!" Elric cut Mira off as he turned around and launched an alchemical bomb at the creature. As the vial broke a wild torrent of flame arose, consuming the monster.
The initiates regrouped, with Den putting his torch in its holster and drawing another arrow. "You think that did it?" Fen questioned as he trained his eyes on the monster, "There are only three ways to kill an Echo..."
Mira began causing the other three to focus on her, "Lure it into a sacred place preferably where it was born. however that clearly didn't work on this one".
At this point the flames had began to recede causing all the four to tense up, " Second way is to burn it with hollow flames, which we don't possess and finally with salt."
Fen beamed once he heard that, "that's great we have salt."
"Yeah but that means we are going to have to get up close and personal with that"
At Elric's words the group focused on the monster who was now rid of the flames and was staring at them with pure murderous intent.
"Alright guys this is it, we are going to be hunters and hence we'll be up against shit like this every cycle. So take your salt and ready your weapons."
"Zel'ra thon'veth, ra'kel sa'vael!"
With the words they charged the monster.