Chaos Churned

It struck the Abyss Great Lord's right side.

Three tentacles were severed at the root. The cuts were smooth and clean, exposing the structures inside.

They were not flesh and blood, but layers of compressed abyssal power, like tree rings, like strata of rock.

At the severed ends, the power of order burned.

Gray-gold light spread up the cut surfaces of the tentacles, like fire racing through dry grass.

Wherever it passed, barbs burst in the flames, mouths shriveled, and dark red mist evaporated. The severed tentacles twitched a few times in the chaos.

They fell from the Abyss Great Lord's body and writhed in midair like snakes with their heads cut off.

They writhed for three breaths, then stiffened, then dissolved into black smoke.

The Abyss Great Lord let out a muffled grunt.

The sound came from deep within its body—not from the mouths on its tentacles, but from its core.

A low rumble, like the beat of a drum.

Its body flew backward several miles.

Two other Abyss Great Lords closed in from either side.

The one on the left was pitch-black, like a piece of charred coal.

Its body was covered not in tentacles, but in bone spikes.

The spikes grew from beneath its skin. Each was ten feet long, as thick as an arm, and needle-sharp at the tip.

The bone spikes were not arranged at random. They followed a pattern.

They ran from the top of its head to the soles of its feet, like armor woven from spikes.

The spikes were gray-white, like bleached bone.

But fine black markings covered their surfaces. Those markings slithered across the spikes like tiny snakes.

Each time they made a circuit, the spikes grew a little thicker.

The Abyss Great Lord on the right was dark red, its