The barrier was a transparent dome-shaped object. It could only be sensed when you tried to move in or out. Cal estimated it to be around 8 meters in diameter and could easily fit thirty people. They resumed their journey when it was set up.
Initially, Cal was skeptical if it could bear the full brunt of the attack from a powerful Shadow. However, when an adult Shade came into the lit-up area and ran towards them, all the knights remained totally unfazed. They seemed to have absolute confidence in the barrier.
When the adult Shade met the barrier, at first, it felt a slight resistance to moving forward. But it was unbothered and tried to push through to reach its prey. That was what ended its life.
The moment it tried to move past the resistance, its whole body started to light up. It happened very quickly. One second it was giving off a bright light and the very next second the light burst out, leaving behind nothing but flamestones.
The instantaneous death was impressive even for Cal. He was getting more and more awed by the staff’s capabilities.
‘Now to see how it fares against Shadows,’ he mused.
They encountered a few more Shades as they kept moving. All dealt with in the same manner. Finally, after about half an hour they met their second Shadow. It looked almost identical to the first one except it was maybe a few inches shorter. It ran towards them just like the Shades, however, unlike the Shades it did not try to force its way in when it was met with resistance at the barrier. It cautiously moved back and created a dark spear to attack the barrier. The spear was thrust into the barrier, but it was fruitless. The moment the Shadow tried to forcibly push the spear in, it started to light up just like the Shades. At the same time, it pushed the spear back with the same force, and the Shadow was thrown back. The spear in its hand was already disintegrated in a burst of light.
The Shadow did not give in. It tried to use many other forms of attacks to destroy the barrier. Swords, arrows, axes, etc. Regardless, none succeeded. Every weapon was disintegrated the same way as the spear.
It starting to get more and more agitated by its failure. In the end, it gave up on the weapons and formed a large darkness shield. Then it made a sprint to the barrier and tried to move inside again.
Cal was surprised by its ingenuity, yet he knew that this was a wrong move. If the barrier pushed out any inanimate object that tried to pass through, then it would do the same thing to the shield. And that was exactly what happened. The shield was disintegrated. Furthermore, since the Shadow tried to persistently resist the barrier for a few more seconds, it too started to light up. This time it wasn’t as instantaneous as it was with the Shades. It turned from pitch black to bright white in a few seconds. Ironically turning itself into a source of light. It tried to resist the mana inside its body but to no avail. The accumulated light did not burst out like it did with the Shades. Instead, the burst was contained within the Shadow. Cal only noticed it due to the fluctuations in the brightness given off by the light inside at the end of the Shadow’s life. After the internal burst, the light slowly went out and the Shadow was nowhere to be seen.
Shadows didn’t drop any flamestones compared to Shades, however, Cal was sure of its demise. He was honestly astonished by how quickly and effortlessly the High Priestess dealt with the Shadow.
“Alright. That went as well as it should have,” Sergeant Ved said. “Are there any other threats within the abyss that we should know about, Cal?”
“No, sir. The largest threat here should be the Shadows and the environment. But since her excellency can take care of both, we don’t need to worry about our safety anymore.”
“Are you absolutely certain?”
Cal took a moment to give his answer. “The heart of the abyss is totally unexplored so there might be some hidden dangers there. However, outside that I am certain that there are no new enemies.”
“Okay.”
Sergeant Ved ended his query and motioned for Cal to continue guiding them.
As they were going deeper into the abyss, Cal started to notice that it was becoming easier and easier for him to find the direction of the heart. For some reason, traversing the abyss was going much smoother than when he came here alone. None of the tunnels ended up winding back and taking them further away from the heart. Even for him, this was a shocker. For though he knew which tunnels to take to get closer to the heart, on most of his solo patrols here he would encounter some intersections where both the tunnels ahead would lead him away from the heart. If the trend continues, then he estimates that they would reach the heart within a few more hours.
The closer he got to the heart, the stronger the reaction from whatever was calling him from within. He was getting more and more anxious from the excitement of what he would find at the heart. At the same time, he was quite nervous. He knew that this call wasn’t natural. It might even be a sign of corruption. But somehow, he was certain that wasn’t the case. Yet, he could not understand why it was filling him up with hope. He thought he had lost that long ago.
‘Am I losing myself?’ he thought. ‘Will I even find anything down there? What if it was all in my head?’
The moment he started to doubt himself, the call become even more intense. It felt like he would forever regret it if he did not heed the call. Simultaneously, he was overwhelmed with grief and longing.
While, rationally, he knew that these weren’t his organic emotions, he still gave in to them. He couldn’t even remember the last time when he felt such fervent emotions. The past six years have been so bland and emotionally torturous for him.
‘What is this…? Yearning? Am I being drugged? Why…...why does it feel so pleasant?’ he thought. ‘NO. I must reign in my emotions. I might really be corrupted if I don’t stop now. If there really is something down there calling me, then I can judge for myself if it’s harmless. I should not have any expectations…...’
“…..alright, Cal?” he heard the High Priestess’s voice. “Cal?”
He was bought out of his self-contemplation. The High Priestess looked at him worriedly.
“I’m sorry, your excellency. I was lost in my thoughts. It won’t happen again,” he said.
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“Are you sure you are alright? Don’t hesitate to say if something’s wrong. You might feel like you are fine, but it may be symptoms of outside influence. We are in a place with very high supernatural properties.”
“I’m fine, your excellency,” he said almost defensively.
The High Priestess stared at him for a moment in seriousness. “If you say so. The sergeant was asking you for the way. Which tunnel should we be taking next?”
Cal turned ahead and saw three tunnels in front of them. With how strong the resonance from the call was at this place, he knew instantly that they had to follow the middle path. He didn’t say this outright though. As he did with all the previous intersections, he spent a few minutes roaming around the area and acting like he was looking for clues. While there were not that many clues on the smooth walls of the mine, he did know that the Shadows tend to use the paths that were closest to the heart. And although these minuscule clues were useless to him, they did serve as a good cover when the sergeant asked him what he was looking for.
He led them through the middle tunnel. As they were walking, they met a few more Shadows. Here they were a lot more concentrated. They would clash with one almost every couple of minutes. All swiftly taken care of by the barrier. He wondered how long the barrier could last. It would be too strong if it could stay active forever. From what he figured; it must be consuming the High Priestess’s mana to stay running.
“There are a lot more of them now. Are we getting close?” Sergeant Ved asked him.
“We shouldn’t be far, sir. We are quite lucky. This might be the shortest route to the heart. We have only been here for four hours, and we are already nearby. We should be ready for anything,” he replied.
“Hmm. Stay alert knights. We must make sure no harm comes to her excellency,” the sergeant addressed his knights.
“Yes, sergeant!!” said all the knights loudly.
Around ten minutes later they started hearing footsteps. Lots of footsteps. Like there was a crowd ahead of them. There were occasional roars and growls as well. Everyone was getting nervous. This was a stark contrast to their whole journey. The eerie silence was gone, but the eerie atmosphere only intensified.
Up ahead Cal noticed the end of the tunnel through the lit-up area. Further ahead, past the darkness, he could actually see something. He squinted his eyes to get a better view of what he was looking at.
‘Violet light?’ he thought. ‘Why is there a light in the abyss?’
The High Priestess seemed to have also noticed the light and inquired, “Is that light?”
“It seems to be,” Sergeant Ved answered and looked concerned. “On guard, men. I have a bad feeling about this.”
“What do you think that is, Cal?” the High Priestess asked.
“I don’t know, your excellency. It doesn’t seem to be moving. We should know once we get closer. I think we reached the heart. It should be just beyond this tunnel,” he replied. He was almost excited by what he was seeing. He realized that the violet light had something do to with the call after staring at it for a moment. He had to hold himself back from sprinting ahead.
The High Priestess nodded. Everyone had serious expressions on their faces. They knew this was what they were here for. Once they enter the heart of the abyss and figure out what’s causing the supernatural phenomenon in the mines and how to stop it, their job would be done. They just hoped nothing unexpected happened.
The closer they got to the exit of the tunnel, the louder the noise. The violet light was more visible now and wasn’t confined to a singular point. Rather it was some kind of afterglow that slightly lit up the region ahead of them.
Cal’s emotions were a mess. He was starting to sweat and could even hear a slight buzz in his ear. But he didn’t stop. He couldn’t. His feet were moving on their own. As if they knew that he had to find the source of the violet light. Nobody seemed to notice his situation as they were all focused on what was in front.
They left the tunnel and were bewildered by the scenery ahead. There were no more tunnels, intersections, or caverns. Instead, what lay ahead was a huge cavity. It was so large that Cal figured that they could fit the whole slum district inside. A few meters ahead of them the path ended and give way to a circular chasm. It covered the entire area, even to their left and right. In fact, the slightly extended path beyond the tunnel looked rather unnatural here. Cal could see that the violet light was coming from inside the chasm. Whereas his companions were all staying at the exit of the tunnel and trying to assess the situation, he continued walking without any caution. He just knew he had to look at the source of the light no matter what.
“Cal?” the High Priestess called out.
“Stop moving Cal. We must ensure there are no threats first,” Sergeant Ved ordered.
Their words fell on deaf ears. The buzz in his head was so loud now that Cal couldn’t even hear what they were saying. He just kept moving.
“CAL!” Sergeant Ved shouted. “Get back here now!”
Cal reached the edge of the path-turned platform. His vision was starting to get blurry now. He looked down and could vaguely see a large black rock standing tall at the center of the chasm. Its edges were giving off a fierce violet glow. The moment he saw the rock, he started hearing voices in his head. It was like a thousand different voices speaking the same thing simultaneously and somehow, he could differentiate each one of them. The information overload would turn any normal person mad.
“Something’s wrong Ved! My intuition is telling me to run away right now,” the High Priestess said in alarm. She looked frightened and felt like she was at death's door.
“So, it’s not just me,” Sergeant Ved said in worry. “Are you sure we should turn back, your excellency? Can the staff not hold back whatever’s down there?”
“You know how accurate my intuition is Ved,” she sounded almost panicked. “Look at Cal! He is showing symptoms of corruption. Even though the special artifact should be blocking and disrupting all forms of external corruption. This place…...”
“ARGHH!!” Cal screamed and went to his knees clutching his head in his hands. His ears wear bleeding now. The buzz was so loud that it burst his eardrum, even though no one else heard it.
‘Oh, how long I have waited for you, child,’ the voices in his head said. ‘Come to me, my pitiful child. I will get rid of all the suffering. Nothing can harm you anymore. I will give you eternal happiness and salvation. Jump down and come to me.’
“Aaaahhhhhhh!!” he kept screaming. Hearing the voice felt like mental torture. It was even more painful than all the torture inflicted on him by his previous masters. The voices were echoing in his head. Resonating. Ordering. Controlling. Cal tried his best to stop himself from jumping to his death. It was futile though. He was slowly starting to stand up again.
“CAL!!” the High Priestess yelled. “We must get him back Ved! I think he can’t hear us. Let’s go NOW before his situation gets any worse. We must head back after we retrieve him!”
“YES, your excellency! White Flame please protect us,” he said in conviction.
They ran up to Cal to carry him back. High Priestess Aurelia increased her mana consumption to strengthen the staff’s protection. While the sergeant was trying to stop Cal from moving and carry him back, the High Priestess looked down and saw what was below.
Cal’s blurry vision only allowed him to see the rock, however, Aurelia saw everything clearly. The whole floor of the chasm was filled with Shades and Shadows. There were even some Shadows that reached almost ten meters. Like some giant. Fear gripped her heart, but the monsters weren’t what horrified her. No. That fear was nothing compared to when she saw the glowing rock. The moment she noticed it a terrifying chill ran down her spine.
“No no no no no!! T-This, this is not possible! HOW IS THAT THING HERE!!” she yelled in dread.
“YOUR EXCELLENCY!! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!” Sergeant Ved shouted in concern.
“WE MUST GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW VED! THIS IS WAY BEYOND OUR LEVEL! WE HAVE TO INFORM THE CARDINAL COUNCIL ABOUT WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING ON THIS ISLAND!!”
Aurelia could not believe her own eyes when she saw the black rock that looked like a large shard. ‘It should not be here. Especially not underground. How could we have been so blind?! To purposely come this close to it without realizing anything.’
“I have got him, your excellency! Let’s leave this hell,” Sergeant Ved said while carrying Cal on his back.
Suddenly, they heard a loud noise of an explosion. The ground started shaking and then everything turned to shit from there.