Deviant: No Longer Human

Once proud and powerful, their bloodlines had mixed over millennia, twisting them into the inbred forms they now inhabited.

Their existence was a just another curse of the time\'s cruelty.

It had been Yuriko—at least, in one of her past incarnations—who saved them from extinction hundreds of millions of years ago.

Their civilizations had been wiped out, their creators abandoning them to their fate.

It was only through her intervention that they had been spared.

But now, the cause of their rage had nothing to do with the past.

For the last few years, these dryads had been hunted, slaughtered mercilessly by an alien species.

The Solar Children and Greenwardens, already a fragile race, were on the brink of extinction again.

Worse, the god they worshipped—The Eternity—whom they revered for millennia, seemed to favor the invaders over them.

Their confusion and anger grew into desperation.

Why was their god—the one they had prayed to for eons—allowing these foreign creatures to slaughter them?

In just four years, their population had been halved.

Yet, despite their suffering, Yuriko felt no responsibility for them.

Neither the Solar Children nor the Greenwardens were her creations.

She had merely intervened when their original creators abandoned them. The Greenwardens were failed experiments of Aurora, while the Solar Children were created by another of their kind.

Though she had once saved them, she felt no loyalty now.

Still, they blamed her.

"Enough!" one of the dryads suddenly roared, stepping forward with authority, trying to calm the boiling rage of the crowd.

His bark-covered limbs crackled with life energy as he stood between Yuriko and the leader, desperation in his eyes. "We need to stop this! We need to think—"

SMASH!

"!!!"

A wet, sickening crunch echoed through the clearing as the leader\'s enormous hand swung down.

BAM!

The dryad was torn apart instantly, his body shattered like brittle wood. Green gu like blood splattered across the grass as the earth trembled beneath the blow, sending shockwaves through the ground.

"Why....?" Yuriko\'s voice was low, as she narrowed her eyes at the leader in disbelief.

\'Infighting among their kind?\' It was unthinkable. Forbidden by their ancient laws.

Yet, the leader had just killed one of his own in cold blood, right before her eyes.

"Has your desperation driven you mad?" She can\'t help but question.

The leader, now towering over the remains of the fallen dryad, snarled, his green gem glowing with a furious intensity.

His eyes, bloodshot and wild, locked onto Yuriko with venom.

"He was weak!" the leader spat, his voice shaking with anger. "He would have had us bow before our enemies, beg like dogs for survival! I will not allow it!"

Yuriko remained calm, something darker was at play here—something far more dangerous than mere survival.

The bonds that once held their kind together had broken already, but now… now there was something sinister beneath the leader\'s fury.

"And what will slaughtering your own accomplish?" Yuriko\'s words were cold like ice. "If you seek war, prepare for the consequences."

Before the leader could respond, something shifted in the air. The dryads behind him began to convulse, their bodies writhing as strange sounds filled the clearing.

Squelch! Crack!

"Wh-What\'s happening?!" one of the dryads screamed, his voice filled with panic.

"Ahhh! My body… it\'s…!" another wailed, his limbs twisting disgustingly.

Splurt! Splaaash!

Thick, green blood sprayed violently from their bodies, hissing and sizzling as it melted everything it touched. Skin tore and bones snapped as their forms contorted, warping beyond recognition.

The dryads\' faces twisted in agony, their eyes wide with terror as they screamed, their skin sloughing off to reveal something sinister beneath.

CRACK! SPLASH!

From the remains of their bodies, Skinwalkers emerged—ugly, mantis-like creatures that looked like abominations of nature.

Their long, spindly limbs resembled twisted versions of a praying mantis, covered in dark, sickly green flesh that gleamed with a disgusting sheen. Their skin hung loosely off their insect-like bodies, slick and oozing, and their human faces—now distorted into insectoid masks—retained a disgusting mockery of life.

Razor-sharp mandibles clicked beneath their twisted jaws, saliva dripping in long, thick strands.

Their eyes glowed an eerie, yellow-green, set deep into their skulls, and they moved with unnatural speed. Their forearms were long and scythe-like, ending in jagged claws that twitched with anticipation.

"Ssssskreeee!.."

The sound they made as they moved was like the hiss of a thousand mantises, a hungry, predatory noise that sent chills through the air.

"They… they\'re inside us!" one of the remaining dryads shrieked, his voice cracking with terror. "Run! RUN!"

Panic exploded through the clearing as those still uninfested tried to flee.

But just as quickly, massive tendrils burst from the leader\'s back.

SWOOOSH!

The tendrils stretched across the clearing, writhing like serpents, coiling around the terrified dryads and pulling them toward the leader\'s grotesque form.

The remaining dryads screamed in horror as the tendrils dragged them into the massive body, their limbs thrashing helplessly as they were absorbed into the monstrosity.

CRUNCH! RIP!

The leader\'s body swelled, growing larger with every soul he consumed. His form expanded until he towered a hundred meters tall, his body a mass of pulsing veins and twisted flesh.

His face had melted into something unrecognizable—his once noble features now a ugly, insectoid mask crowned by tendrils of pulsating veins.

Yuriko\'s eyes darkened. \'The leader had been dead for some time.\'

The thing standing before her now was not the dryad leader.

It was something far worse—the Rakshas King.

Its deep, thunderous voice echoed through the clearing, shaking the earth and causing the trees to tremble.

"Another powerful being?" it growled, its glowing eyes narrowing as it surveyed the area.

The Rakshas King had sensed a powerful energy source battling his minions in the distance.

If he could consume that energy, he would finally have the power to face Yuriko.

BOOM!

With terrifying speed, the Rakshas King leapt into the sky, his enormous form disturbingly agile.

In a single bound, he covered hundreds of kilometers, his massive body blotting out the sun as he descended toward his prey.

Meanwhile, Yuriko stood unmoved, her expression cold. Around her, thousands—no, millions—of Skinwalkers skittered toward her, their hissing, insect-like noises growing louder with each step.

"Ssssssskreeee... kill her..." one of them hissed, its voice a disgusting blend of insectoid clicks and a rasping whisper.

"She\'s all alone... crush the bitch!" another screeched, its mandibles clacking hungrily as it closed in.

The Skinwalkers lunged toward her with murder in their eyes, their scythe-like limbs slicing through the air.

SPLAT! SPLURT!

But they never reached her.

The moment the first wave of Skinwalkers leaped toward her, their bodies exploded into chunks of flesh and green blood.

Limbs and organs sprayed across the clearing, bursting like overripe fruit under the force of her gaze.

"Die," Yuriko whispered, her voice laced with an ancient power.

The words crackled with energy, resonating through the ground. She invoked a forgotten spell, one that vibrated through the very air around her.

BOOOOOOM!

A thunderous shockwave erupted from her, tearing through the Skinwalkers in a wide arc.

Tens of thousands of them disintegrated on the spot, their bodies turning to ash in a matter of seconds, their screams drowned out by the force of the spell.

But more kept coming. For every creature she obliterated, hundreds more appeared from the shadows, swarming toward her like a horde of locusts.

Their insectoid bodies hissed and clicked, their eyes burning with an insatiable hunger.

"Sssssskreee… we will devour you…" one of the Skinwalkers rasped, its voice filled with malice.

CRUNCH! BOOM!

Yuriko continued to unleash devastation with every word, every glance, but the tide of creatures seemed endless.

The ground trembled under their sheer numbers, the stench of blood and decay filling the air.

\'There are too many,\' she thought, her eyes narrowing in frustration as she prepared to face the next wave.

Even with her immense power, this was chaos beyond reason.