The monstrous Blood Red Glister, scourge of the Stonecomb
The Blood Red Glister is an antagonist in the first book of The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddel. It is the first creation the First Scholars made when playing God. When they saw how evil it was, they shut off the Laboratory, blocked it off, and left it imprisoned. The Blood Red Glister was the first of two creations of the Scholars of Sanctaphrax. The second, of course, was the Gloamglozer.
Nature[]
The Blood Red Glister resembles something akin to a flying jellyfish or squid. It is disgusting with many faces, claws, hands, tentacles and suckers. It is venomous, and drains the blood and life of its enemies.
It is forever shifting its shape, a monstrosity of oblivion. The Glisters, in their natural forms, are the source of all life, often mistaken for evil demons because of their diet of fear. The normal Glisters are harmless and the most they can do is burn one. But the Blood Red Glister is pure evil and seeks to kill all it meets.
The Blood Red Glister was first encountered by Earth Scholars who went into the Stonecomb, the maze inside the floating Sanctaphrax rock itself. Some Scholars never returned, their remains drunk dry. But the survivors told of a giant Glister which killed everything it met. The Sky Scholars dismissed this as fiction but some scholars like Bengus Septwill, the Glisters' archenemy, knew it was true.
The Scourge of the Stonecomb[]
When slipping through the Stonecomb, scraping, sliding and slurping noises would be heard, as well as an infernal red glow when one was near the evil beast. It had a gigantic lair in the center of the rock where it lured people down. It could have an ability to manipulate the environment because it seemed to make Maris' cries seem louder and nearer than she was.
The guards who heard the horrible noises were deterred from going into the Stonecomb but they were too loyal to Sanctaphrax to desert their posts.
Bengus' first encounter[]
The Blood Red Glister was hunting one day when it came on easy prey - Quintinius and Maris who were looking for Linius' experiments. The Glister immediately took Maris and dragged her off to certain death but Quintinius ran after it and, as mentioned, it made her cries seem nearer than they were. Quintinius found the Glister's lair, and he was repulsed by the corpses. He tried to slice the Glister with his sword but it knocked him unconscious and tried to drain his soul, but was burned by the Chine sand the professor Bengus Septwill threw at the creature.
Return and defeat[]
Wounded, the Blood Red Glister retreated into its home and seethed and repaired itself, but its fear of Chine didn't stop it from coming after Bengus again. This time, Bengus thought he had enough Chine to destroy the monstrosity, but he reached for his wallet and realized it was gone. Quintinius had taken it to protect him and Maris, and the professor vainly tried to fight the beast. The Blood Red Glister managed to suck him dry and kill him. But in his last moment, the professor bought the walls crashing down, imprisoning the beast in its rock for ever.