The fall only lasted a few seconds, but a human body in free fall can travel a great distance in a short time. The two dropped around 40 meters before the tunnel around them opened up into a wider underground cavern. There was almost no light so deep underground, and Lucius could only see the floor approaching because of a single patch of illuminated earth directly below the hole he had fallen into. That patch of light was rapidly expanding in his vision, and he braced himself for the impact.

There is a proper way to fall to minimize injury as much as possible. It’s practiced by airborne rangers and is called the PLF, or Parachute Landing Fall. Lucius was not aware of this technique, but he naturally performed it almost perfectly out of pure instinct. The technique involves using your body to absorb as much of the force of the fall as possible, starting from your feet and moving up. Lucius hit the ground feet first, but to avoid breaking a bone, he chose not to stiffen his body or reach out his hands to brace himself. Instead, he allowed his body to collapse forward, effectively spreading the impact across a wider area.

"Ughh."

The air was knocked out of his chest as he hit the ground, but even as he tasted the blood filling his mouth and his vision turned into flashes of dizzy motion, all he was thinking about was Maryanne. He felt the child's body slam hard against his back when he hit the floor, and now she wasn’t making any noise. Lucius spat the blood out of his mouth as he pushed himself off the ground. His entire body felt like it was on fire, but thankfully it was still responding to his commands. While holding the sides of his forehead in his hands, trying to stabilize his vision enough to see straight, he casually added two of his free attributes into Vitality to blunt the pain. It worked a little, and the feeling began to return to his limbs as warmth spread through his body. However, he would need to add more than two points to stop the pain entirely, and he couldn’t afford to do that in a dangerous situation. The whole reason he had been saving them up was to avoid using them while out on his own when passing out could lead to a quick demise.

He scrambled to pull the straps of the backpack off his shoulders and laid it on the ground in front of him, pulling Maryanne out into the light to check on her. Blood was dripping out of the girl’s nose and one of her ears, but she was breathing steadily. He said a silent prayer that she had simply been knocked unconscious before looking around at their surroundings. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see. Beyond the small circle of light he was standing in, all he could see was a solid wall of darkness, and to make matters worse, he could feel through Sense Danger that the centipede was approaching. The bastard had put on a marvelous show, feigning stupidity to make Lucius underestimate him as he laid his trap.

"Damn it!"

Lucius punched the ground with enough force to crack the washbowl-sized rock that took the blow, breaking the skin over his knuckles in the process. By now, he could hear the faraway echoes of skittering feet as the creature raced along the underground tunnels toward them. Lucius squinted hard in an unsuccessful attempt to see through the darkness around him as he felt around clumsily on the floor for the sword. The force of the fall had thrown it from his hand.

"Father, I can help you. Step away from the light."

Lucius looked down at the ring on his hand as he heard Whisper's voice, remembering the bat’s promise to show him how to use its power. The sound of the centipede was quickly approaching, so there was no time to think carefully about anything. He stood up from the ground and stepped forward, away from the lonely circle of sunlight into the darkness.

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"Okay, now what?"

Lucius saw two narrow orbs of purple light glowing in the air in front of him. Whisper had emerged from the storage ring, and a magical glow was being emitted from his eyes, growing brighter by the moment.

"The process is called Mythification. My power is a product of the combined soul of humanity. I am just the focal point. I will pass that focal point to you by merging my body with yours. You must speak my name aloud, with the intention to undergo this process held in your mind."

Lucius' eyes continued to widen as he listened to Whisper's explanation.

"Really? Merge bodies? That is not what I had in mind, Whisper!"

The floating orbs of purple light shifted slightly as Whisper leaned his head to one side.

"I am already part of you. We are two pieces of one body; this process simply recombines it. I don't understand why you hesitate."

Sense Danger interrupted the conversation, reminding Lucius that he was running out of time. The young man held one hand against his brow for a moment before turning his head back toward Maryanne. Her body was lying inside the circle of light as her tiny chest slowly rose and fell with each breath. His fists couldn't help but clench as he thought about how unfair the world had been to the child. Now she would certainly die if he did not decide to share his body with a mythical creature. Maybe he could escape on his own, or even defeat the centipede, but there was no way he could do that while protecting Maryanne. Not in the darkness of the cave, without his vision, on the creature's home turf. The indecision fell away from his face as he continued to look at the child. His eyes closed as his face became an image of calm resolution. Then he uttered a single word aloud.

"Whisper!"

The bat’s lips peeled back, exposing its sharp teeth as it put on a large smile, before its body collapsed into a wave of shadows that quickly raced toward Lucius. He couldn't help but tense his body as he felt the silky shadows climbing up his legs under his clothing. They felt cool to the touch as they covered every inch of his body, holding him tightly before slowly sinking into his skin. Lucius immediately felt a tremendous change taking place inside him. The most obvious was a new sense that suddenly became available to him, allowing him to feel the shadows around him. It was similar in a way to the telekinesis that his ring provided him, but the intensity of the two was worlds apart.

Lucius felt his fingers growing slightly longer as his nails thickened, turning black as they sharpened into deadly weapons. Something was happening in his mouth with the shape of his teeth that he found unpleasant. It forced him to hold his mouth open a bit more than he was used to, in order to keep from biting himself. When the shadows covering his face finished the merging process and exposed his eyes once again, both of his irises had turned a deep purple, and he was suddenly forced to squint due to the brightness of the previously black cave. The small circle of light where Maryanne rested was like a blazing sun that hurt to look at for too long, causing him to cover his eyes and look away.

When he cast his new vision back into the cavern, he finally saw the environment around him: a wide, rocky cave with stalactites covering the high ceiling, while the walls were covered in a large honeycomb of tunnels that moved off in every direction. Lucius' perception had undergone a massive improvement, and he was able to pinpoint exactly which tunnel the skittering echoes of the approaching creature came from.

"How do you feel, father?"

"I feel strong. Where are you? How can you speak without a body?"

"I am here, with you. I did not use my body in order to speak in the first place, so why should losing it stop me? I can even help you command the shadows!"

As Whisper spoke, a clump of shadows rose up from the ground and took on the form of Whisper's body, waving at Lucius before it returned to the ground.

"I see. We should take the fight to the creature. If we wait here for it, Maryanne will be in danger. Let’s go."

Lucius stepped toward the wall of tunnels, but what should have been a simple step forward turned into a great leap. He landed on the ground with his arms and legs sticking out awkwardly in a clumsy attempt to steady himself.

"Shit."