Announcementcontent warning: violence; injury; gore; body horror; deathAfter witnessing my grandmother's gruesome demise I suddenly understood what Aunt Leslie meant when she said Outsiders consumed people. I just hoped Judith was actually dead before it happened. No matter how awful the woman was, I didn't think anyone deserved that kind of fate.

  The Outsider that ate her tilted back what passed for its head. A maw opened up far too wide, revealing hundreds of jagged mismatched teeth. Then it let out a deafening scream, an awful earsplitting noise that made my knees shake and almost caused me to drop my weapon. Like something out of a nightmare, its call was answered by over a dozen more. Each one was different yet equally horrible, as more of those monsters cried out from the darkness all around us.

  Suddenly the rge slug-like Outsider lunged forward, with way more speed than should have been possible. It knocked down the other dark-robed figure, the guy that was holding the big book. The man screamed in pain and terror as his legs ended up trapped beneath the monstrosity's oozing body. He struggled frantically to try and free himself but the monster's stubby floppy appendages quickly entangled his arms, along with the big book he'd been holding.

  Then the guy let out an even louder shriek, and that's when I realized his body was beginning to dissolve everywhere it was in contact with the creature's slime.

  That seemed to be the breaking point for Judith's hired goons. All four men dropped their guns and ran for it, each fleeing in a different direction. They were obviously panicking, none of them seemed to have any idea where they were going as they disappeared into the darkness and rain.

  "Azura, Violet, you're with me!" Lily shouted as she raised her sword. "Rosa look after the students!"

  The white magical girl leaped forward and swung her diamond-bded sword in a wide downward arc, but her first cut didn't strike either of the Outsiders. Instead she neatly severed the fallen prof's head from his body, granting him a quick merciful end. The maggot-like Outsider rumbled in anger, but continued to consume the dead prof.

  I forced my eyes away from that nightmarish scene and turned my attention towards the two people in the white robes instead. With my heart pounding in my throat alongside the bile that was rising up from my stomach I raced towards them. Both had been bound, hands behind their backs and ankles tied together. My halberd was ridiculous overkill for the job but I was careful and made easy work of the ropes.

  As I freed them I stated as firmly as I could, "Stay with me, don't run off! There's more of those things out there, and I can't protect you if I can't see you!"

  One of the grad students, a guy in his mid to te twenties, was trembling and shaking in fear as he asked, "What the fuck is going on? Who are you? What happened to Professor Williams?!"

  "She's fucking dead Glen!" the other student shouted at him. She was a young woman in her early twenties, and although both of them seemed terrified at least she appeared to understand what was happening. "That goddamn monster fucking ate her!"

  Just then a new unholy noise filled the air, and both university students curled up with their eyes closed and ears covered.

  It sounded like the dying cries of a hundred tortured souls all screaming at once, and it was coming from that stubby worm-like Outsider. The orifices that covered its back and sides were open and they were moving rhythmically, like a choir of singing mouths. The sight of it almost made me want to throw up, while its song made me want to cw my ears from my head.

  The Outsider had finished consuming the other prof, and now it was chanting in its own foul nguage. I had no idea what it was saying, but somehow I understood it meant to complete what my grandmother started. Judith opened the rift, now this abomination was trying to stabilize it. And we had to stop it.

  A quick gnce around told me both Lily and Azura were busy fighting the monstrosity that killed my grandmother, while Violet was doing battle with something that looked like a cross between an inside-out bear and a tree. It was a good thirty centimetres taller than the purple magical girl, and its bulk meant it probably outweighed her four to one.

  With the others all occupied I grit my teeth and readied my weapon, then charged directly at the noisy chanting maggot.

  The Outsider didn't have any eyes, yet it somehow sensed my approach. One of its many holes angled towards me and unched a stream of dark viscous goop straight at me, but I had my enhanced speed and reflexes to back me up. And just like when I was fighting Violet, it seemed like I had access to skills and expertise well beyond my own knowledge and ability.

  The end of my halberd's shaft dug into the rocky ground and I easily vaulted over the foul spray, nding just a pace or two away from the foul creature. As soon as my pretty pink boots hit the rugged ground I twirled my weapon once then brought the rge rose-quartz bde down. It seemed to fsh with angry pink energy as it cut through the Outsider's body like a hot knife through butter.

  The oozing nightmare abruptly went silent as it was neatly carved in two. Both halves started to harden, then a moment ter they began crumbling into dust, as if it was decaying before my eyes. Unfortunately no sooner had I silenced one Outsider when another somewhere nearby took up the unholy chorus, like they were determined to complete the ritual and stabilize the rift no matter what happened.

  "Rosa!" Violet shouted from my left, "Behind you!"

  I immediately twisted to my right as I brought my halberd around, and found myself facing another Outsider that had tried to sneak up on me. This one was a mass of two- and three-meter long tentacles surrounding a core that was probably only a half meter in diameter. And instead of being on the ground it seemed to float and swim through the air at head-height, moving like the bloated carcass of a dead octopus rolling around in the surf.

  Two putrid limbs shot out at me, aiming for either side of my head. I ducked down and rolled to the left, then swung my weapon around and severed both outstretched appendages. The Outsider made an angry burbling noise that sounded like a drowning child, while three more tentacles shed out. This time one came straight at my head, while the other two aimed lower and to either side as if it meant to trap me.

  Instead of trying to escape to one side or the other I ducked then lunged forward, thrusting the long pointy tip of my weapon directly into the centre of the mass of tentacles. Its countless slimy limbs thrashed about and I felt one of them strike my right forearm, about halfway up between my wrist and my elbow.

  It was barely more than a tap but the pain was intense, even in my magical girl form. It reminded me of when I was three or four and accidentally touched mom's curling iron, except this was a hundred times worse.

  I stifled a scream as I clutched my halberd tighter, then gave the pole-arm a twist. After another second or two the Outsider finally stopped its filing. As the lifeless body hung limp from the end of my weapon the tentacles began to harden then crumble. I gave my weapon a shake and the dead monster fell to the ground where it broke into several pieces. Meanwhile I flexed my right arm and hand a few times as I quickly gnced around to try and figure out where the new noises were coming from.

  "There!" Lily shouted as she pointed with her sword.

  She and Azura had finally finished off the Outsider that killed my grandmother. And Violet was just pulling her big two-headed axe free of the crumbling remains of the inside-out bear tree thing she'd been fighting.

  We all looked in the direction Lily indicated, and my gut lurched once more. What I first took to be a rge rocky feature of the ndscape was actually alive. It was the size of a tractor-trailer and moved like a cross between an army tank and a giant worm. It was probably three meters in diameter and had to be more than ten meters long, with skin that looked tough as stone.

  There were smaller mouth openings arranged in rings along its length, and they seemed to be the source of the noise. And a main mouth at its front end opened and closed like it was slowly breathing, but each time it opened a dozen long sickly white tentacles spewed out and groped around in search of prey.

  "Let's finish this!" Violet stated grimly as she hefted her two-headed axe.

  Lily called out, "Violet, Rosa, you two try and draw its attention! Azura and I will move in close enough to attack the head while it's distracted!"

  The purple magical girl and I exchanged a gnce. Then she fshed me a cocky smile and said "C'mon Rosie. Let's show this thing what a couple girls can do!"

  I nodded and followed her lead, as the two of us moved directly into the monster's path. The next time its main mouth opened we were ready for it, and as the long pallid tentacles surged out we both swung at them with our bdes. Half of them fell to Violet's axe, while the other half were severed by my halberd. They fell writhing to the ground like a knot of albino snakes, while the Outsider let out an angry roar loud enough to blur my vision and leave my ears ringing.

  A moment ter a scream snapped me back to my senses, and I realized the purple magical girl was down.

  There was a meter-long dark green centipede-looking Outsider clinging to the back of Violet's left leg. Her axe had fallen just out of reach so she was kicking at the big bug with her right boot as she struggled to get the thing off her.

  I thrust the long sharp tip of my halberd with pin-point accuracy, stabbing through the smaller Outsider's head and nailing the thing to the ground so the other magical girl could pull away from its countless stubby limbs. Her hand found the handle of her axe and she rolled twisted and swung, chopping the writhing bug-beast in two.

  Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted Azura giving her big blue war hammer an almighty swing. There was a fsh of blue light as it struck the giant monstrosity's stone-like skin, and the force of the impact literally shook the ground beneath my feet. It did the trick though. The Outsider's rugged exterior shattered, revealing its soft vulnerable insides.

  Lily lunged towards the wounded giant and drove her diamond bde deep into the damaged side, almost to the hilt. At the same time its main mouth opened once more, so I joined in the attack and jammed my halberd's crystal bde into the gaping maw.

  Then Azura brought her big hammer around in another huge swing onto the monster's already-damaged exterior. There was another fsh of blue light as the crystaline hammer head smashed straight through the thick stony skin and buried itself partway into the Outsider's flesh.

  A moment ter fshes of white and blue and pink light shone from all the openings and cracks in the creature's body, as if it was being burned from the inside out. The monstrosity gave one st shuddering roar, then it went silent and still. A second ter my halberd came free of the crumbling mouth parts, and I knew it was dead.

  With the immediate threat over I turned back towards Violet and asked, "Are you ok?"

  "I'll be fine," she responded through gritted teeth as she slowly pulled herself to her feet. Then leaning on her axe for support she added, "You did good, kid."

  Before I could respond Azura called out, "Look girls! The rain has stopped!"

  I gnced up and realized she was right. More than that, it seemed like the clouds were already beginning to break up. It was getting lighter out too, which meant we were finally able to see the rge ke just to the south of us. Its surface had stopped frothing, it looked cold and quiet once again.

  "Did we do it?" I asked nervously. "Is it over?"

  Lily shook her head, "We've stopped the ritual, but we're not finished yet. Let's spread out girls, make sure we haven't missed any Outsiders. And look for any other survivors."

  "Violet can you still fight?" she added as she looked to our injured teammate.

  "Yeah I'm good," the purple magical girl insisted. She didn't sound good though, and she was limping really badly when she tried to walk.

  The white magical girl shook her head, "No you're not. You stay with the two civilians, keep them safe and call out if you see anything."

  "You two stay put," she added to the two students. "Violet will look after you."

  The pair nodded slowly as they stared wide-eyed at Violet's injured leg. The students seemed to have survived the whole ordeal unharmed, but they looked scared. They also looked like they had a lot of questions, about who we were and what was going on. They kept quiet though as Violet joined them, while I set out with Lily and Azura to search the area.

  My grandmother's campsite had been thoroughly trashed. Between the storm and the Outsiders and the fighting the tents had all been shredded, and the quonset hut was levelled. On the other hand that meant there weren't a lot of pces for people or monsters to hide, and it didn't take us long to locate a few more Outsiders. They were smaller ones, about the same size as the centipede or that floating octopus thing. Lily and I found and killed three more apiece, while Azura destroyed another two.

  Apart from that, the only other thing we found was a few scattered scraps of human remains. The three people who died before we arrived, my grandmother, the other prof, and the four guys who ran off, they were all just gone.

  Lily kept us searching for another half hour or so, before she finally stopped.

  "That's it," she announced. "The rift is sealed and we've destroyed all the Outsiders that made it through. Good work girls."

  PurpleCatGirl