Despite her injuries, Nyx looked happy to get out of the circle and scan the area around them while Kal turned his attention to Ander.

The process for Ander was identical to Nyx’s besides the fact it was significantly easier to both maneuver and trigger the barrier’s completion. Kal was pretty sure it had nothing to do with practice and everything to do with the fact that the boy was unascended.

Ander had no idea when the barrier slipped into place and Kal supposed he shouldn’t have. It wasn’t particularly common to learn internal and core sight. Kal remembered it was important for some classes to learn more about their skills and how they worked to increase their rarity but she was tutored in all of that information.

Nothing had bothered them during the last steps of Kal’s weaving but Nyx stayed on her guard even after Kal was finished and Ander stepped out of the circle. He was still trembling and tired but he kept a brave face.

Kal checked his wrath generation again and was happy to see that the channel from Ander generated less than Nyx’s. It was probably simply due to the fact that abyssal mana struggled to find anything to break. His core was there but barely visible at all, as if nothing had ever passed through it.

For some reason, Kal didn’t like looking at their cores. His soul flared at strange times whenever he looked at them directly. The feeling faded when the barrier was in place, probably because it concealed them further from his sight.

“Ok. We can leave now. You both need rest so keep an eye out for a cave or something,” Kal said

“Rest would be appreciated,” Nyx said, her voice sounding strained.

Kal felt fine fatigue wise but he was hungry. The use of his Longevity Cycle seemed to drag out both his hunger and fatigue levels. He felt he could go a few more days without sleeping but he would have to eat soon or the hunger would start affecting his attributes again. That wasn’t something he could allow with the loss of Wrath Incarnate.

Ander fell in behind him without a word and all three of them left them and walked up the rise towards the dead Seeker Shadow Hydra.

[Shadow Hydra | Abyssal Spawn 83] [Deceased]

“You defeated this monster alone, even with the level disparity…” Nyx said her eyes focused on the seven decapitated heads of the hydra.

“It was strong. But I have seen stronger things here, well, at least in the last layer I was on,” Kal replied, not really paying attention and instead walking over to the heads and dumping them into his Amulet of Dimensional Storage.

Nyx looked aghast, “Wait you say that so casually, and what do you mean this layer? Why are you taking the corpse?”

Kal smirked,” Full of questions, aren’t you? The way I understand it is that we are currently in some kind of different plane of reality based on the remains of a demon-conquered world. One of the few demons I have spoken to mentioned that some great big lord lived on a lower plane so since we aren’t surrounded by ridiculously strong demons I reckon we are on the second or third layers.”

Kal shrugged,” But I’m only guessing. I only arrived here myself an hour before you got here.”

“So we aren’t where you were first trapped?” Nyx asked, confused.

“Nah, that one exploded.”

Nyx apparently didn’t like that answer since her face paled again but Ander was staring at him, “Wow… You must be strong.”

Kal chuckled at that, “More like stubborn and lucky.”

He continued to stuff any sizable bits of hydra into his amulet and made sure to rip out the fangs of each head as he went. They were less useful as melee weapons now but as something to infuse with Flames of Wrath and throw they would always be handy to have.

Thinking of weapons Kal turned to Nyx, “Do you have a weapon?”

Nyx grimaced, “No. I lost it in the chaos before coming here. Your battle with the lumixet demon was… intense.”

Kal noticed her eyes dart away from him as she mentioned the battle and his heart sank. He was sure of it now. Her burns were his doing. The two of them had been far closer than anyone besides Vorayx, too close.

“I have spares,” Kal wanted to say something about the burns but regardless of the guilt he felt now wasn’t the time.

He scanned through his dimensional storage. Luckily his looting of Fyborh’s armory had netted him quite a haul. Most of it was just uncommon quality but there were a few rare items, though none of them gave attribute bonus. They were just simple well-crafted weapons.

The problem was that they were all sized to fit the hands of the large Karthian people. Nearly all of it was far too large for Nyx all except one.

Karthian Shortbow [Uncommon]

During the final days of Kartha, even the young were forced to take up arms in the defense of their homes. May The Defender save us.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

The description was grim but the bow was the best he had so he withdrew it and a quiver of arrows and handed it to Nyx.

“This is the best I had that would be a workable size for you,” Kal explained as Nyx read the description.

Workable was the right word, the “Shortbow” was closer to a longbow for Nyx. Kal could have sworn she was taller back at the camp. Has he really grown that much?

Nyx smiled as she tested the grip, ” Thank you. I will put it to good use.”

“Do your skills require mana?”

“Only two. Most use stamina, so don’t worry about me slowing you down too much,” Nyx said with a challenging grin.

The look made Kal smile, ”Alright, let’s get moving. You two need some sleep before we do anything else and I am hungry.”

Nyx sighed with clear relief on her face, ”Oh good, I don’t have a storage amulet so we don’t have any. I was worried you didn’t have any food.”

“I don’t have any either. Why do you think I’m taking this?”

----------------------------------------

Finding a place to rest was as annoying as Kal expected. This place was worse than Fallen Kartha, everywhere he expected to find a cave or some cover they instead found more twisted metal and rocky slag. This place was even farther from natural than the last. The only thing Kal liked about this place compared to Fallen Kartha was the blue sun.

Its light wasn’t the best to travel by but it was certainly better than the constant purple firestorm above the first layer.

Kal wore his hood up for the most part during their travels and surprisingly it did actually seem to help them avoid fighting. Most of the various demons that spotted him left on sight. Kal wasn’t sure if they were intelligent ones or if they simply assumed he was too dangerous since he couldn’t be identified easily. Either way, it was a plus. Kal wanted the fighting at a minimum at least until Nyx and Ander got a chance to recover somewhat.

Kal craved to continue his demon slaughter and every sighting his soul flared, encouraging him to hunt them down but he did his best to ignore the urge. Those stupid Shadow Imps were everywhere so he still got his chance to take a few here and there but he also let Nyx take a few shots herself.

And well, she was a great shot, as to be expected for a Shadow Archer of her level and honestly it was easier to let her take out the imps after he pointed them out. One group of six were at the base of a hill. Kal simply pointed to a space where he could detect an imp and after Nyx’s first semi-blind shot all the stupid things would drop their invisibility skill and charge toward them.

Under Nyx’s fire, they didn’t last long, even with her burns. Kal wouldn’t say he had looked down on the people on the bridge but he would say he had underestimated them. They had been weakened nearly to death when he had seen them. Nyx was a dangerous woman.

Kal had tried to keep the cobblestone road in sight as they searched but eventually, they were forced to move deeper into the strange metal and stone mountains to find shelter. After a couple of hours, Ander’s legs gave out so Kal found himself piggybacking Ander while the boy slept.

Kal didn’t mind, he knew too well how it felt to be that tired. Nyx looked like she wasn’t far away from collapsing herself but she stubbornly pushed herself onwards. Kal’s wrath continued to grow as they traveled from the abyssal mana getting transferred to him, at first he had simply used it to heal his scars and remaining injuries but he had quickly run out of injuries to heal.

Health:

4190/4190

Stamina:

7960/7960

Wrath:

6545

He was getting awfully close to his old limit already. Kal wanted to figure out what his new limit was but he wasn’t about to do that with people around. He would have to find a way to vent it soon.

“There! I think I see something,” Nyx pointed over at a nearby overhang of metal and stone,” Looks like a cave.”

Kal looked over in the direction she pointed and scanned it with his mana sight, killing sight, and Eyes of the Slayer. He saw no trace of skills or mana other than abyssal so he nodded, “Alright. Let's go.”

Kal juggled Ander over one shoulder so he could draw Exterminator’s Regards before they approached but he ended up not needing it. Nyx had been right, it was a cave of sorts, the entrance was the remains of three large warped and torn black metal plates that partially obscured an actual cave of plain old stone.

Scanning it twice with his sights Kal confirmed it was empty before they entered. He carefully put Ander down against the left wall, the kid was so tired even the hard stone didn’t bother his sleep. Kal still felt bad so he dumped a heap of the armor he had stolen onto the ground and ripped a few of the cloth and leather linings out of them for a makeshift bed. It was still pretty crap but it was better than nothing.

Nyx fell against the wall next to Ander and waved off Kal’s offer to do the same for her, “I don’t need it. I’ve had my fair share of hard camps,” She grimaced as her burned arm scraped on the wall.

Kal frowned,” It was me, wasn’t it? I burned you.”

Nyx stilled, looking into his face. Kal could see the gears turning in her head, “...Yes. But I accepted it as your will the moment it happened. Think nothing of it.”

“What!? What the fuck do you mean my will?” Kal said incredulously.

“You're The Slayer. You’re the one who is going to lead us upon your return. It is your prerogative to cull the weak,” Nyx said calmly.

Kal was gobsmacked by the sheer insanity that had just come out of her mouth, ”What the fuck!”

“Listen, whoever thinks I am some important leader can stick it up their arse. It is not my prerogative to kill anybody,” Anger tinged his voice more than he intended but he didn’t stop,” I don’t care about whatever this prophecy told you. If the gods are involved it’s probably full of shit and if Fyborh was involved it was probably for a joke more than anything.”

Nyx frowned but spoke back sharply, “But you have spoken to Fyborh?”

Kal ground his teeth. It would only encourage her if he told her about knowing Fyborh but he was pissed off so he didn’t care, “Yeah, and the guy was kinda a smart arse.”

Nyx grinned and her eyes shined with victory, “Gods, Dalen was right. You are stubborn, even worse than him.”