Childe is with five others (minus Caleb and Jester), wedged inside an open tunnel made of what looks, smells, and feels like... flesh. Organic. It occasionally undulates, and much of it gives in the way flesh does. Between him and the other seven is a skin-like sort of pool on the floor, separating them.

In the distance, a tabaxi, Cree, injured, is attempting to make an escape. Yasha steps quickly on Cree's long cloak, yanking her back and impaling her along the sharp edge of a blade. Cree chokes on blood and begins to go limp.

Cree calls out, "Lu...cien...!"

Childe does not have one of the red eyes yet to hear, but in Beauregard and Caleb's minds, an Irish-accent voices says, You have done well. I need you to hold them off a little longer. I'm not ready yet. Become a vessel for the pattern, and show them the way.

The five red and magical, stylized eyes on Cree swell into a bright glow, turning half of the present tunnel red. On Yasha's sword, Cree begins to violently convulse, and Yasha shoves the tabaxi away with a boot. Cree falls to the ground with the limpness of a dead body, but as it impacts the ground, it continues to writhe.

Suddenly, the back of her shoulders split open, and tendrils of meat and bone sprout from her body, drawing out more tendrils until she is turned almost inside out and bloomed into a hulking mound of flesh, bones, and teeth. The base of the monstrosity begins to draw in the floor beneath ever so slightly, grounding it, feeding it. It howls an ear-splitting screech. Childe is horrified.

There is no way this is not a battle.

Yasha scrambles back, and the abomination reconfigures the claws on the tendril which was once an arm in a new direction completely to swing at her, slicing her across the front.

Caleb, in another area with Jester, is unsuccessful in his attempt to retrieve the threshold stone now being consumed by some of the flesh of the ceiling above.

Every so often, its body blurs for half a second, revealing holographic symbols, fractals tethering it to the city of Aeor. Fjord dives in with powerful swings, slashing, splitting the former Cree open. In the space of the slash, more flesh rises up, and Cree's face twists by through it, yelling in agony. Spines of bone extend, piercing Fjord for daring to harm it.

Childe is next, having watched this, having felt the depths of rolling fear and apprehension watching this all happen. He shakes what he can off, attempting to focus. He draws his hands in front - Hold Monster - but the abomination is too powerful, or perhaps he doesn't have enough focus. When it fails, he turns and runs for cover behind one of the fleshy stalagmites. Patterns of bizarre red eyes and those same unknown fractals pop up here and there in front of his eyes, muddling his thoughts briefly.

The rest of the fight is a seesaw of unfortunate timing, bad luck, and fortunate hits. Veth spares them any more suffering by destroying the abomination before it can start burrowing beneath the ground. It liquefies onto the ground when a crossbow bolt pierces the head of Cree which swirls by in the flesh.

In the aftermath, gathered, the five realize Veth is now sporting a glowing red eye on her forehead. Worried, everyone begins to check one another: Fjord has one, on the palm of a hand; Childe thinks he's fine, looking over himself to find nothing, but as he pulls the mantle aside, Yasha notices a red eye emblazoned on his right shoulder.