Once the old man finished speaking, his eyes rolled back. He had drool running down his mouth, snot running down his nose, tears running down his mouth.
Suddenly, it all turned into blood. His back hunched back, growing round and big. His arms grew longer, his mouth tore apart and his eyeballs fell out.
This revealed a disgusting, disfigured human body as it rapidly tore apart, green mucus splattering everywhere and blood covering most of his face.
He spoke again. This time, he had a sharp and screeching voice that drilled pain into the ears of the group listening.
Beatrice covered her ears in pain, however, as soon as she did, old man Henry had finished his disgusting transformation.
What followed this was an extremely dense and enormous amount of divinity filling the air.
Beatrice and Drake felt this, and it shook their hearts to the core. Again, it began to feel like gravity itself was pushing them down. Powerful waves of divinity swirled around the grounds as Drake and Beatrice desperately started coating themselves in divinity.
Although doing this relieved them of most of the pressure, it was still a heavy burden on them.
Jacob took a step forward towards the disfigured body of the monster that called itself Henry.
"This is it. You guys need to defeat Simon quickly."
Beatrice looked up at Jacob while she gritted her teeth under the pressure of old man Henry's monstrous amounts of divinity.
How is he fine under all of this? How much divinity does he have to be able to withstand this.
Jacob looked up at old man Henry. He smiled slightly and spoke calmly.
"Are you trying to discourage us by throwing all your divinity at us?"
As he spoke, Jacob's divinity kept rising slowly. Suddenly a burst of divinity surged and filled through the air. It matched the levels of old man Henry to the exact same level.
Drake and Beatrice's eyes widened as the pressure they felt was multiplied a few times over. Drake seemed to be able to stand it still. Beatrice however fell to one knee.
The pressure was heavy and left Beatrice struggling to breath.
Impossible! We're all humans of divinity, so how are his divinity levels so high?
Beatrice held onto her consciousness under the immense pressure… just barely.
Jacob spoke calmly again.
"Leave Simon here to fight them. We could find our own space elsewhere."
Old man Henry spoke again with his screeching voice. This time, they could understand him.
"What makes you think… I'll… agree to that?"
Jacob looked up at him with a smile. He shook his head slightly.
"You can't distribute too much divinity to him because it will weaken you. I'm certain that's the only reason why I can match your divinity levels."
He turned his head and looked at Simon, then he looked back at old man Henry.
"So if we fight here, I will take down Simon before I start fighting you. I'm sure you realize I wouldn't have much trouble doing that, right?"
Old man Henry could feel how high Jacob's divinity was. This made him seriously consider whether Jacob's words were true or not.
He took a few seconds then spoke again, spitting mucus and dripping blood while he did so.
"You're right… let's…go."
Jacob maintained his smile and his composure.
"After you then." He pointed his sword towards the direction he wanted them to go in.
Drake, who could withstand these high levels of divinity walked up to Jacob and stood next to him.
Jacob didn't turn to look at him, and rather watched old man Henry leap over 50 meters high in a single jump.
"We'll be quick with this thing and follow behind to support you." Drake had a calm expression on his face as he spoke. He had regained his composure.
Jacob smiled and started walking forward.
"Make sure you do. I can't hold that thing off for too long."
Then he took a leap, following old man Henry who was far ahead of him.
*****
After about 10 kilometers, he realized that the old man finally stopped. They were deep into the forest but it all looked the same as when he first realized he was stuck in this place.
Jacob stopped on one of the tree branches and stood facing forward. In the direction he was facing, 30 to 50 meters away. Old man Henry stood on a tree branch facing Jacob's direction too.
They were 50 to 60 meters high on the enormous trees of this forest.
"What are you? Are you a creature of divinity?"
Jacob's question was asked in a calm tone. Which the old man responded to in kind.
"I'm not." His voice screeched as he spoke.
"Well I am… but I am about… to advance. I… will be… divine soon."
After saying this, it cackled as green and slimy mucus mixed with blood dripped on the tree branch.
Jacob showed a surprised expression as his eyes widened.
"Then how are you able to control these corpses if you're still a creature of divinity?"
Old man Henry laughed at Jacob once he heard this question.
"Kid, once the… advancement process…is in motion… we are… able to use… our divine powers…immediately.
It is at it's weakest though… once I… advance, I… will be able… to use my… divine abilities… at their strongest."
Jacob stared at the creature before him as it spoke.
"I see. My master always avoided teaching me about advancements. I'm glad I could learn about this."
He smiled once again as he lifted his sword.
"You're ready… to fight… then? Learning this… before you… die is a… blessing, kid."
*****
Back at the campsite, the group had already engaged in combat.
Beatrice stood back as Tarth and Drake engaged in close combat.
After exchanging a few blows with Simon. Tarth and Drake took a leap back and opened up some distance between themselves and Simon to catch their breaths.
Beatrice, still coated in divinity, gritted her teeth and showed an annoyed expression on her face.
"Drake, why're you taking your time with this? Let's just go all out so that we can go help Jacob… he might die out there… alone."
Drake looked at her with a calm expression.
"If we use shifts right now and deplete our divinity, we wouldn't be of much help to Jacob even if we get there now."
Drake turned his head and took a glance at Tarth, then he looked back at Beatrice behind him.
He revealed a slight smile to her, then he spoke again.
"Okay… Tarth and I will go all out. Once we take Simon down, you'll need to replenish our divinity before we leave again."
She showed even deeper annoyance after hearing this.
"But that would mean I'd be useless when we get there!"
Seeing them bickering, caused Tarth to laugh as loud as he could.
"You two are quite good… acquaintances."
He laughed while saying this, clearly implying that what Drake said about them just being acquaintances wasn't true.
Beatrice rolled her cold and sharp eyes in annoyance.
"Whatever! And why aren't you affected by all this divinity?"
Tarth chuckled a little then turned his head to look at Beatrice.
"I have a lot of divinity too. Most warriors of the north do. Unfortunately, I'm unable to spray it around and use elements like you lot do. Mine is strictly for combat and strength enhancement."
Drake turned his head.
I should've known. The warriors of the north…
He thought to himself while turning to look at Simon and said:
"Tarth, let's do this quickly."
Once he said this, Simon laughed.
Suddenly, his eyes, mouth and nose started dripping blood and green mucus. His back hunched up and his bones broke apart in all areas of his body. His body turned into a disfigured pile of hanging flesh, similar to the old man's transformation.
Deep in the forest, Jacob's eyes widened as he listened to the creature before him laugh his guts out.
Then old man Henry's divinity suddenly took a plummet, rapidly decreasing and growing weaker.
"This was your plan when you took me this far?!"
Jacob's brows furrowed in anger.
"Don't you go anywhere!"
His voice carried all of his fury as he roared at the old man.
"Let me… tell you something… kid."
His torn apart, bloody face revealed something similar to a smile.
"I'm no regular…creature. I'm… a wraith… of divinity."
He then continued to laugh after saying this.
Jacob turned around and started leaping from tree to tree at extremely high speeds.
There's no way I'll make it in time…
Back at the camp, dense and powerful divinity filled the air once again.
Drake and Beatrice quickly coated themselves in divinity once again.
Beatrice was visibly shocked by this major turn of events.
How is that thing as strong as Mr Henry?!
As she thought to herself, she suddenly lost sight of Simon.
So did the rest of them…
Suddenly, Tarth looked down and realized blood was streaming down his entire stomach.
He coughed up blood as he desperately tried to hold himself together.
When he reached his hands out to hold his torso in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
The upper half of his entire body simply slipped off from his lower body.
His lower body stood up as his upper fell to the ground. What remained was the trace of a clean cut across the torso which split him in half.
His upper body fell on it's back, blood streaming down his mouth and his nose, while tears streamed down his eyes.
He smiled as he stared at the clouds, the sunset slowly approaching. This indicated that they had been there for a while.
I miss the snow. This sunshine thing is too bright for a warrior of the North.
He revealed a pained expression filled with sadness as the tears in his eyes continued to cover his bloody face.
He continued to smile at a final attempt to speak.
Drake and Beatrice remained frozen in place as the only turned their heads to look at him with wide eyes and extremely surprised expression.
"Brother… when will I ever see you again? When will this nightmare ever…"
He couldn't finish his final sentence when the tears stopped streaming. His body stopped moving, his eyes still open.
He went silent.