The burning, pale white flames, soaked in a slight crimson hue grew larger to engulf them. They roared and crackled with a new found fury, with a slight contentedness to them, happy with catching their prey.

Everyone would have been crying, if their tears were not immediately evaporated by the immense and intense heat that superheated the world around them.

‘I wish that I could have experienced more.’ Syllis regretted inwardly before she began crying out in pain.

Syllis was the first to experience the complete brunt of pain due to her innate weakness to heat. This was a pain unlike anything she had experienced. It was greater than the searing pain of Ansel’s acidic flesh, burning through her arm, as well as her crippling phantom pain that she had managed to best through an anathemic loophole.

She grit her teeth as her companions began shrieking. They were like a pack of heasen, slowly being crushed under the weight of trampling thenithans.

The ground cracked, breaking into a dozen tiny pieces. Sections began to seep into a black abyss beneath. This void beneath their feet was like another predator, eager to steal from the flames of the four suns.

It called for them, but Syllis and the rest could not hear. The crackling of the sun was too severe, the call of the void was insignificant in comparison.

Syllis seemed to be the only person to notice this void beneath them. She also noticed that the flames did not dare approach the dark abyss.

In a final act of desperation, Syllis called on Coryzan for even the slightest bit of power he could bestow upon her. ‘Please… Coryzan. The visitor from beyond Acciliant, doomed to watch everlong. A wasteland, cold and doomed to get colder.

‘Give me the slightest shred of ability and I will give you a whole lot more. Take whatever you want, it will be useless if I die here, after all!’ Syllis cried out internally.

The secare nymph felt the slightest bit of power return. She laughed maniacally and cried in complete sadness. This dichotomous act would be entirely horrific if viewed by an outside party.

‘Hah! What kind of matters involving anathema and their bonds aren’t entirely horrific? We don’t shy away from living even if we kill innocent animals. All of life is horrific, anathema are merely an extension.’

Syllis groaned as she tried to manifest a large chunk of ice in the air. It took around three seconds and shattered as it collided with the ground. The four of them were immediately plunged into the piercing darkness below.

Aura screamed, green glowing ephemeral creatures writhed behind her eyes. She sensed something beyond the void’s pitch black exterior.

Everyone’s faces widened with a new sense of horror. Meanwhile, Syllis basked in this. Yes, the flames burned her much more severely than her companions, and it hurt much more as well. Compared to that pain, falling into the maw of some terrifying beast was a vacation. This quick descent to her death was calming, but not fully determined.

They did not need to die now. Syllis presumed this to be the maw of a colossal creature. Not only did she believe in their escape in this case, she even thought Korman could acquire some new mutation. Granted, she had no clue how Korman had gotten any of his other mutations.

Syllis laughed crazily before turning to the manic and dissociating girl. “Aura!”

Aura momentarily snapped from her psychiatric shutdown and regarded Syllis’ beautifully pale face. She was the only one who could see through this abyss, through the use of the ephemeral maggots behind her eyes. She had spent a considerable amount of mental fortitude to form such a small rift behind her eyes, where it would not interfere with her brain or anything else.

Syllis had not known about this facet of her bond. Not even Korman or Clyde, despite how long they had known her. They were friends for years, and yet this secret remained. It needed to, this was her trump card, something that could not be revealed to even her closest friends.

“You can save us, right? You can bring out some horrific creatures to do the job?” Syllis spoke in a sarcastic tone. She had not meant to but her corruption took various things from her control.

They were still falling at full speed. Something needed to be done to decrease their speed or they would collapse instantly upon reaching the bottom of the creature.

Clyde had long accepted his death. He had expended almost no mental fortitude, no infection was spreading throughout his mind. He was simply content with the situation. There was no way for his bond to have helped with either the previous situation or this one. He felt an acute sense of uselessness.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Korman maintained his stoic look. It was like he did not have a care in the world. Of course, Syllis knew this to be false. He was likely still stunned. Tears rolled down his cheeks, unbeknownst to his companions.

Green light surged from below them, way below. There was a massive tear that seemed to tear through this void that the four suns’ flames dared not penetrate. The void was not against fighting back, it grappled with the tear, a conquest for territory.

Before the rift had been completely taken over, some massive creature emerged from it.

Syllis could not directly see this creature, nor could Korman nor Clyde. The only way for it to be detected was that it blocked the green, ephemeral lights that secreted from the tear in the abyss, and space.

Soon enough, Syllis and the rest of her group collided with this balloon-like creature. It hurt, for a second. It was impossible for all damage to be mitigated.

Syllis knew a couple of her ribs had cracked. It meant nothing to her though! ‘This is nothing, haha! This is the price for living. I will revel in this pain.’

Her corruption was doing a number on the secare nymph. The occasional maniacal laughter and questionable sounds that came from her was proof of that.

None of the four companions said a word as they tumbled down towards the bottom of the abyss. It was slower than before, but they would still suffer massive damages to their bodies if they did not slow down further.

“Korman!” Clyde yelled out as everyone else was dealing with their own psychological problems.

He had not completely given up, there was new hope! In fact, he cursed himself out for ever giving up in the first place. If they did not emerge from this fable rift, then it would merge with Asanoch. So many people would die and the city would be rendered uninhabitable. This was easily understood through their encounter with the four suns.

“I know you have some space in your mind for a little more use of your bond. Grab a hold of the wall!” Clyde yelled at the absentminded man.

Korman instantly grew his fur-ridden skeletal arms again. They scratched against a hard wall, trying to stick into it and suspend them all in place.

These skeletal arms did not possess the ideal abilities to pierce into this wall though, they only had strength! They could hold them in place, but only if they were accompanied by some way to pierce into the wall.

Korman furthered his mutations, groaning as bone white thorns grew within the palms of his skeletal hands. Again, they mashed into the side of this near impenetrable wall.

Failure, again. As Aura’s incoherent wallowing and rambling entered his ears, he again grew more thorns. This time they were more vicious and were a darker color, as though they had been stained in tar.

Korman shrieked, his skeletal arms jerked, sticking into the abyssal wall. This wall was not made of rocks, nor flesh in accordance with Syllis’ theory. Instead, his was a sort of malleable solid. This wall wanted to take Korman’s arms for itself and pulled on each bone individually.

Pain overtook Korman and he nearly relinquished his bond as a voice called out to him. “Korman, let go and grab the wall further down. You have to repeat this until we reach the bottom.”

“Can anyone tell how far we have to go?” Clyde inquired calmly. There was less urgency. Death still loomed but major injuries were now far more likely.

“T-two… No one, definitely two. One hundred meters. One hundred meters.” Aura spoke like she was about to cry. Her infection had taken over her speaking sector as well as compromised her emotions.

She had willed the maggots in her eyes to glow. With them, Aura easily discerned how far they had to go.

Korman yanked his bone arm from the wall. It pained him immensely, enough to make him draw blood from his lip. This was necessary though. As with most bonds, it cost considerably less mental fortitude to repair an aspect of his skeletal arm than to dismiss it and form an entirely new one.

The devouring abyss that Korman had latched onto devoured through several key parts of his skeletal arms. They had cleverly disabled it by taking the most necessary parts. This wall was an intelligent creature, or a group of such creatures. It was evident his arm latching on had caused them considerable pain.

He continued the process of pushing his fur covered arms into the devouring wall and then out before mending them over the course of twenty to thirty minutes. They were nearing the bottom.

The entire time, Syllis and Aura were laughing maniacally and mumbling incoherent thoughts while crying. It was like the sounds one would hear, perusing the outer ring of Asanoch at night.

The ephemeral creature soon hollered as it slammed against uneven ground. No blood seeped from it, as was typical for Aura’s abominations and instead, a rotten smell rose.

Aura’s pupils dilated as she took in her surroundings which no one else could see.

Syllis and the others shared the same reaction as the ephemeral balloon-like creature as they soon collided with the ground after Aura dismissed the ephemeral monster.

Voices spread murmurs from just beyond where Syllis could hear and screams could be heard, emanating from beyond the dark abyss, or from further within.

This was a scene of true horror. Syllis had trouble discerning whether this was a side effect of her overusing her bond or if they had just stumbled into a civilization in this fable rift.

‘What an absurd thought…’ Syllis mused within as she continued laughing uncontrollably. She held her hand over her mouth in an attempt to stop it, to no avail. Coryzan had taken control over many sectors of her brain.

“Who are you!?” An odd voice resounded from within the void.

Syllis reconsidered her prior conjecture. This voice was so unique, her mind could not have formed it entirely on its own. ‘It sounds… Earthy? Ha! Earthy, earthy.’

She cackled a little more before another voice chimed out.

“Identify yourselves! Why have you invaded the Elmannise!?” A distinct anger rang out as a figure pressed the tip of their cold weapon against the secare nymph’s skin.

Feeling the cold, Syllis was not afraid but relieved. She was not entirely far gone. This was a civilization of people they stumbled upon.

There was hope.