Chapter 5 #3
His head was a massive sphere formed from countless golden rings, each turning and twisting around each other like the most demented armillary sphere ever seen by human eyes.
And fuck, the eyes. Each ring was covered in them, as were Sariel’s wings, and there were even a few peeking out from his shoulders and sides.
They were wide, unblinking, and glimmering like molten gold.
In the core of the sphere was a brilliant ball of light. It was too bright to look at for longer than a few moments, but it was an absolutely breathtaking meld of prismatic colors. It was every hue and also somehow none, ever changing and warping away as it continued to glow.
Every few seconds, the outermost ring slothed off and vanished only to be replaced by another in the neverending process of whatever the fuck was going on with Sariel’s head.
As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, he noticed there were also tiny ripples in Sariel’s skin, as if there were dozens of angry worms writhing just below the surface.
Sariel was…
Yeah, no, he was pretty terrifying.
Okay, yes, still weirdly hot, but Seymour was much more focused on the element of sheer terror.
An eye opened up on the small of Sariel’s back, peeping right at Seymour.
Fuck.
Sariel twisted his hand, popping the giant’s neck with a sickening crack. He turned back to Seymour, his countless eyes blazing like tiny flames as he rumbled, “Are you all right?”
It was still Sariel’s voice, but it was deeper now and seemed to come from all directions.
“Me?” Seymour laughed wildly. “Oh, I’m fuckin’ great. How are you? You, uh, you’ve, you do somethin’ with your hair?”
“My apologies.” Sariel bowed his head. “The battle was difficult. I was forced to reveal myself.”
“Uh…” Seymour jerked his eyes up from Sariel’s barely there loincloth. “This is… you?”
“Yes. This is most of me. I am sorry if it is unpleasant.” Sariel’s giant head dipped a little. “We need to leave. I will transform—”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay!” Seymour tiptoed forward. “Sorry, I ain’t tryin’ to stare. It is, uh, new. It’s very new, but I will get used to it. It’s fine. Totally fine. Finer than a frog’s hair.” He tilted his head, grimacing when a new eyeball opened up on Sariel’s chest to peer at him. “Yup. Good.”
Sariel pouted.
Well, at least Seymour thought he did. It was difficult to be sure with all that fire and eyeballs.
“Hey, it’s fine.” Seymour reached out to gently touch Sariel’s arm, picking a place that seemed mostly devoid of wiggly bits and eyeballs. “You don’t have to hide from me. It’s still you in there.”
Sariel’s eyeballs crinkled a bit.
Hopefully that was a smile.
“Thank you, Seymour,” Sariel said, his hand curling around Seymour’s. “That is very kind of you. I was afraid of showing you… I—” He flinched. “No!”
“Wha—?” Seymour gasped as Sariel yanked him forward, and he snapped around just to see a newly awake Godzilla lunging at him with a sword.
Again, who the fuck used a sword?
Really?
This asshole apparently.
Before Sariel and Seymour could react, there was that strange crunching sound again and Godzilla screamed as he fell to the floor. Something had a hold of him, sucking him up like Santa shooting through a chimney.
There were rows and rows of sharp teeth, flashes of an endless maw that stretched and twisted around Godzilla, chowing down as if he was nothing but a Twinkie. He screamed again, but the sound was cut off abruptly.
He was gone.
Day stood there now, her lower jaw closing back up to normal proportions as easily as a stretched rubber band snapping back into shape. Her tummy was definitely round and full, and she rubbed it, licking her lips with a very satisfied smile.
She’d swallowed Godzilla whole in two clean gulps.
“Holy shit.” Seymour stared stupidly.
“Holy shit,” Sariel agreed.
“When you said they can eat whatever times their own body weight—” Seymour laughed in disbelief. “Wow, uh, I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Ah, I should have been more specific. They are known for eating humans and leaving no trace behind.”
“Oh. Wow. Great.”
Day meowed, stretching her paws out toward Seymour and kneading the air.
“Aw, you want uppies? Okay, good kitty.” Seymour dropped the golf club so he could gently pick her up, surprised to find she wasn’t much heavier than before. He thought that was pretty odd considering she’d just wolfed down an entire kaiju. “Nice and full now, right? Not gonna eat me?”
Day meowed and smiled sleepily, purring.
Sariel shrank back into his human form, suit and all, and he adjusted his jacket. “She must be what your father intended you to find with that key.”
“Well, that’s great and all, but it still doesn’t tell us anything about where to find Talos’s head.” Seymour nodded toward the giant. “Any idea who the fuck these assholes were? What were they doing here?”
“I imagine that—”
The giant groaned, stirring on the floor.
Seymour tensed and hugged Day closer. “Uh, didn’t you break his fuckin’ neck?”
Sariel grabbed Seymour’s arm, steering him toward the door. “I believe that means it is time to go.”
“But you broke his fuckin’ neck!”
“Yes, and that is why it is time to go.”
“Fuck!”
Day burped.