Vina slept fitfully that night and awoke feeling emotionally hungover. Her emotions were on a knife’s edge. As she donned the armor her mother had commissioned for her sixteen years ago, Vina felt a connection to it that did not exist before. Vina held it with reverence and love. She wore it with pride.

Quest Completed: Read Priya’s Seal Note

Vina caught the leather bag that appeared in the air before her. She quickly checked inside before stashing it away in her backpack. It was just more Regals of the Watch. Her heart was hurting too much to care how many.

Quest Updated: Find your sisters changed to Find your sisters in Termily Quest marker added

Vina saw the quest marker appear in her vision. To her great relief it was just a single day's walk away with her current attributes. She set off immediately toward it, a solemn determination in her step. She told herself she would make it there in a single day, even if it killed her. So Vina packed everything she had and strapped her lantern to her hip.

The lantern had been on all night last night and Vina could see it had drained itself quite a bit from keeping her safe. She was tempted to give it a little breakfast, but she didn’t have anything prepared. Her Blood Lake passive was still filling and barely had any blood in it. She also felt she might need her blood to achieve her goals for the day. She apologized to the little lantern and set off.

Vina walked with all of the speed she could muster. The quest marker was not lined up with the road she was on, so she had to step off and walk across the wilderness to head toward it. By midday, Vina had cut a large chunk of the mileage out. She rested then, her stamina very depleted from the mountainous walking. She brought out her knife and cut herself enough to cause a drop to fall on the ground. She placed a foot over the blood and activated Scarlet Dance. To her great delight, her stamina regen sped up. Vina continued like this until she was just three miles away from Termily. She felt tired, but her determination kept her going.

She had been walking steadily uphill for hours now, but it finally began to level out. She soon stepped foot back onto a walking path and could see the town of Termily in the distance. This close, Vina could see it was a town built on a cliff edge that overlooked the ocean while behind it was a massive forest. It had large stone walls surrounding it. To her right was the same cliff edge that led straight to the town. The height rather bothered Vina. She walked further to the left of the path, so she didn’t have to see how far down the ocean was.

Vina jumped when a voice spoke out behind her, “The Darkness bathes us.” Vina whipped around and saw a man step out from some bushes. “The Darkness saves us.” Vina’s eyes grew wide when she saw he had six eyes. She brought her spear out in front of her as the man continued to talk and walk toward her. “The Darkness shows us. The Darkness knows us. The Darkness controls us.”

“Stop right there. Who are you?” Vina shouted at the man. She used Examine.

Six Eyed Paliternian Name: Private Level: Private This is a Paliternian being controlled by The Darkness.

The man did not draw a weapon. His hands remained empty as he spoke. “The Darkness takes us. The Darkness makes us.” She began to back away as the man continued his chant. “The Darkness knows us. The Darkness hones us.” The man spread his hands out to his sides and green light began to form. Vina watched in fascination and fear. Finally the green glow coalesced and dripped from his hands. The drips hit the ground and a sizzling sound could be heard as it burned its way into the soil.

Vina turned and ran into the forest away from the cliff with all the speed her agility could muster. She dodged into the trees as she activated Mobility. To her surprise it immediately warned her to duck. Vina threw herself on the ground and a green globe sailed over her head. It did not move quickly, but the tree trunk it hit began to sizzle and melt. Vina hopped back to her feet and saw the man still moving his mouth and running toward her. In his hands he had two more green globes.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“He’s as fast as me!” she realized. Running wasn’t an option. She drew a knife from her bandolier and threw it at him. One of his hands quickly moved to catch the knife and it dissolved in the green globe. Vina tried to come up with an idea on how to fix this. She readied her spear once again and stepped toward the shadow possessed man. She activated Scarlet Dance. She might have to bleed this one to death, but only if she could land a hit. Vina stepped up to the shadowed man and took a jab at his chest to see what he would do. He moved a green glowing hand to intercept the spear, and Vina pulled her spear back. He brought his hand back as if he was going to throw again, and as it came forward, Vina quickly stepped to the side. She didn’t have mobility activated now that she was facing him. She realized from an earlier fight that Mobility should only be used if she couldn’t see her enemy.

To her relief it worked. The man missed with his green globe of acid. Vina tried to counter attack with her spear. She struck out in a quick jab, but he raised his arm to deflect the strike. Vina pulled back the spear quickly, not wanting him to be able to grab the spear.

He reached out with his free hand and opened his palm toward Vina. Something told her this was going to be different and she rolled to the side. Her agility gave her the ability to regain her feet quickly. Where she had stood, he was spraying acid like a flamethrower. He swung his hand around toward Vina and she ran away from it, clockwise around the man. Seeing how she was somewhat behind him, she threw a knife again and rejoiced when it hit his side.

All this time the shadow controlled man was doing his manic chanting. When the knife entered his side he grunted, stopped speaking, and tore the knife free. Vina was not idle and tried to activate Spear Slash. Just as she swung the spear down to slash him, he stepped closer to her and the strike missed. Feeling panic, Vina tried to gain distance between them, but he was faster. He kicked his foot outward, catching her in the stomach. Vina doubled over onto her knees. The hit was so hard it felt like she wasn’t wearing armor at all. The blow stole her breath and she felt something break inside of her. Vina scrambled back to her feet, but she was too late. He was already in front of her. He grabbed her by her armor and lifted her up off the ground.

Vina kicked his stomach and tried punching his arm. When that didn’t work, she tried to pry his fingers back individually. However his strength far surpassed hers. He brought his other hand up, still dripping green acid. He brought it closer to her face, and Vina did the only thing she could think of. She snapped her lantern on.

The lantern lit up red next to the man’s dark eyes. The light was not bright in the evening light, but he was very close to it. He gasped and stumbled back. In his haste to get away, he let her go. For a moment, Vina saw something different in his two human eyes. There was a life inside there. A single word escaped the man’s lips, “Help.”

“I can’t.” Vina said and she turned to run back to the path toward Termily.

She managed to get some distance between herself and him, however, he recovered quickly and soon caught up with her. She had no idea what her plan was. She turned back to face him, but he was doing something different. He bent down, acid flowed from his arms in waves and onto the ground. He quickly formed a pool that moved with intention. Vina watched in horror as the pool quickly surrounded her. The acid began to flow toward her like a sentient liquid.

Vina saw she couldn’t jump the green liquid lake around her, and to her back was the cliff edge. Vina had no choice; she had to kill this man. In desperation, Vina threw the remaining knives on her belt at him, but he deflected all of them with one hand. She next took her spear and threw it with all of her strength. It sailed through the air fast and with deadly force. He tried to redirect it as well, but the momentum behind it was enough to knock him off his feet. Vina pulled her bow from her backpack. As the man regained his footing, she activated Trueflight and fired her first arrow. The arrow crossed the distance between them almost immediately.

The shadowed man seemed surprised and raised an acid covered hand to block it. The arrow embedded itself in his hand and he roared in pain. Vina didn’t hesitate however, and she fired a second trueflight arrow, aiming for his throat. He brought both hands forward for this arrow. It wasn’t enough, however. The liquid covering his hands did not burn the arrow faster than it could travel and it passed straight through his already injured hand to embed in his shoulder. Vina continued her volley with the final trueflight arrow. The man groaned in pain, but was not deterred. He drew a short sword from his side and managed to mostly deflect the last arrow, but it had still managed to nick his arm. Vina fired every arrow she had, hoping to gain time for herself. They were simply regular shots though and he deflected every single one with his sword, effortlessly.

Vina could see he was bleeding heavily now. The stacking effects of Scarlet Dance were active on his body. His side was spilling black blood profusely and the newer wounds were beginning to see heavier bleeding rates.

“Just die already!” she yelled at him.

He just grinned, black blood evident on his teeth, and took a couple steps back. Further from the lantern now, shadows began to cover his wounds. Soon he stopped bleeding entirely and resumed his chanting, “The darkness lies. The darkness cries. The darkness wills.” He bent down once again and poured acid from his hands and arms to pool around Vina. It crept closer to her as the sound of sizzling grew louder. Vina looked over her shoulder and only saw the ocean far below. Vina’s panic overwhelmed her thinking. She didn’t have any more weapons and the lantern couldn’t affect him from this distance.

She didn't have any time to think as the man raised his hand to make another acid flamethrower attack. He whispered, "The darkness kills."