…Which he promptly did, but not before squeezing the promise of a favor of some kind for the future out of me.

Whatever. If I don’t like it, I’ll just eat him. I should just eat him now, except…

He’s already gone. The god of betrayal brought me here, and I didn’t even have time to blink before he vanished with a chuckled “Good luck!”

Taking in my surroundings, I see I’m in some kind of cave…?

Or maybe a dungeon or labyrinth of some kind, from the stonework…

Or hells, maybe a castle.

I’m on an elevated ledge encircling a pit, with an entryway on either side. There’s no light at all, but considering I don’t see with eyes it’s not an issue.

And it would seem that whatever’s in the pit isn’t hindered by the dark either, considering the dozens of eyes watching me hungrily from down there. The walls are angled so they can’t scale the walls, but…

Vampires.

There must be at least a hundred of them in that chasm.

At least a hundred of them, not being destroyed by my curse.

Someone is keeping them like… what, a menagerie? A preserve? A number of terms flood my head for what exactly this could be, but it doesn’t matter.

My will is being bypassed.

I’m a single breath from hitting the entire lot with Consume and being done with it when… sure as hells.

Dolos wasn’t lying.

Manipulating, misleading, sure… but I expected some amount of that from him.

What I didn’t expect is that among the middling vampires crowding below…

“Hello, Nerin.”

***

After some work, I’ve confirmed one unfortunate thing… she no longer has her wits about her. I’m assuming that whoever has her here just let all these creatures succumb to their hunger and lose their minds… maybe as convenient disposable shock troops, though I’m sure they’re much less effective now that they can’t be in either sunlight or moonlight.

I made sure of that.

But that doesn’t preclude them from being someplace underground like this.

I take my time reducing every other bloodsucker in the pit to dust before focusing on my old… acquaintance? Subordinate? Nerin worked for me and also did me some favors when I was freshly awakened, but I never really considered us that close.

That said, she’s competent, and that counts for a lot.

It counts for a distraction too, and I’ll take any I can get.

…Although I guess it matters more whether I can get her back to her senses… I remember someone told me that when they succumb they typically don’t recover… who told me that?

Ah well. It’s not that it matters.

First things first, I need to get her out of that pit, and out of this… wherever I am.

And then I need to find a way back to the Shadowed Plane.

Maybe I should just rename it the Lair of the Demon Lord or the Blighted Lands, considering that’s what most of the inbound adventurers call it.

Not like I care. They can call it whatever they want, it’s still my home.

Mine.

Nobody else’s.

I lift the squirming, snarling mess of former eldra from the pit before picking one of the exiting hallways at random. After following it for some time it broadens, metal doors with barred windows along the sides.

It looks like I’m in a dungeon alright, just not the kind I’d thought… probably.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Most of the isolated cells house further vampires of varying strengths who snarl hungrily as I pass, throwing themselves at the openings with all their might. Unfortunately for them, they haven’t reached the point of getting any kind of dematerializing Skill… Or are just too far gone to recognize they could use it? I don’t know how instinctual Skill use is for monsters that have lost their minds.

Not that I care to find out considering I dust every single one as I pass, accelerating the process by snatching them through the bars with a feeler.

Someone is probably going to be upset with me for killing their pets, but I don’t care. I’ll just kill them too.

Ah, here’s some stairs.

I float effortlessly up them, the tattered hem of my robe lightly brushing against the stone as I go.

Repairing it would be as simple as applying some mana, but I just can’t bring myself to care, the same way the permanently stained white has turned to an ashen gray. Aside from the bloodstains, anyway.

The landing above is surrounded by a well made set of dark wood railings, probably meant to keep people from falling in. There was a locked and barred door leading here, but I simply phased through it. Modern defense really don’t take into account people who can simply step through the space between planes.

…People?

Am I person now, in the same way that humans are? Are monsters people?

…

Does it matter?

My thoughts are interrupted by my feeler restraining the former grocer going unexpectedly taut and producing a loud clunk.

I furrow my brow… before it registers that they obviously didn’t phase through the door with me.

Huh.

So I simply manifest a dozen more feelers and bodily tear it from its frame instead.

I continue my silent journey, now down a finely-papered hallway peppered with doors of a similar dark wood and occasional branching hallways. I still don’t know where I am, so I simply float straight ahead. If it’s a dead end or something I can always turn back.

A human maid gasps and launches a tray they were carrying before staring in wide-eyed terror and slowly backing away.

She… smells wrong.

Bad.

I can tell it’s her mana, but why does it smell so bad?

…And familiar?

…

“You,” I grate. “Take me from this place. I do not wish to be here.”

“Muh-muh-muh-muh,” is the extent of what they manage before falling backwards directly on their ass and continuing to stare.

“PERCY,” echoes a voice through the hallways, “I KNOW IT IS HERE. BRING IT TO ME.”

…A familiar voice, but I’m not sure how, or where from.

And just like that, I guess I have an audience with the lord of this manor.

***

“So you finally made your way here, did you?”

The pitch-black-skinned woman glares down at me from her throne.

…Or she would be if I weren’t already floating at eye level.

“Sure, wherever this is. You had my human, so I’m taking them back.”

“And why,” she intones, “would I allow that?”

I huff a small cloud of ash, allowing it to stain the fine carpet below me. “She is mine. She was taken from me. I am taking her back.”

Laughter.

She met my declaration with laughter, and a roll of her eyes.

…Her pitch black eyes, with red pupils that…

Roll and multiply…

…In waves…

I can’t help but feel that a mortal might go mad from gazing into them for too long.

But that doesn’t matter.

I know where I know her from.

“Hello, Erebus.”

“Hello, sister,” the goddess of darkness answers with a smirk.

***

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” she asks with a shrug that doesn’t disturb her head resting on her hand.

That’s actually a very familiar pose because it’s mine. I’ve spent a great deal of time in it, and can confirm that it’s quite comfortable.

“Because I’m not your sister. Nyx is.”

“And who or what is Nyx, then? Oho, I know. I know quite well.”

Leaning closer she continues, “What exactly is a person, anyway? Not that it matters. Say… why don’t you bring her here? I know you can. I’ll even allow it! The same way I’m allowing you here, you know. Or I suppose you don’t, you don’t know much of anything, do you?”

“Shut up. Why should I bring her here, anyway?”

The goddess shrugs again. “You don’t have to, obviously. But aren’t you curious?”

“Not really.”

“I doubt that,” she laughs with a look of disbelief.

Ugh.

Nyx, do you want to see your sister? I’m apparently, uh. On her plane? And in her throne room. I think she wants to see you.

(What, to gloat? Fuck her.)

Not going to say that to her face? I know you, you definitely want to.

A split second later, my personal angel of envy appears at my side…

And seamlessly glides into a tirade of profanity, some of the words I don’t know. I’ll ask her about those later, I think they’re indra indigenous.

Or runic. Not that it matters.

Erebus meanwhile is just laughing.

My former Assistant finally stops her stream of insults to take a few breaths.

“So!” the goddess of darkness says, wiping a tear from her eye, “How does it feel to watch yourself squander all your potential? You worked so hard for it, I know. I watched you do it, from your shadow. Do you have any idea how many people compared me unfavorably to you? Over and over and over. It’s too bad she’s not as bright as her sister, it’s too bad she’s not as strong, fast, WHATEVER AS YOU.”

“I never cared!” Nyx shouts back. “I never cared because you were my sister and that was enough! We were together, and that’s all that mattered!”

“Or at least, that’s what I thought,” she continues much more quietly.

“It was enough, at first. But it wears on you. It wore on me. But no longer!”

“You suck. You suck so hard.”

I just keep my mouth shut. This… doesn’t involve me. Not directly.

“And why exactly are you so quiet?” Erebus prompts me, because of course she does.

“Why wouldn’t I be? I don’t care. This is between you sisters or whatever.”

“OH,” she says, dripping with mock surprise, pantomiming holding a hand over her mouth. “You don’t know. You really don’t know? You haven’t figured it out? I was sure my genius sister and her once in a millenium insight would have figured it out. No? You really haven’t?”

My former Assistant’s gaze hardens even more than before. “What the hells are you talking about?”

“You can shut up,” she says, “You’re nothing but a ghost. I thought about it, and it wasn’t enough to just take you from yourself.”

And then she turns to me. “How does it feel, SISTER? To have everything taken away from you? To be haunted by a shadow of what you once were? Huh, NYX?”