Why are we here? What have I done to put myself in such a place?
Alisson asked himself. Sitting in the dark, two comrades slept next to him. A corpse lay a few meters away, finally resting silently in a peaceful death.
He stood atop a pile of corpses to get here. All of them were his fault, and he knew that damn well. Why? Why did they have to die?
Because Sidonia had ordered it.
It was that thin line of reasoning that Alisson held onto, like a trail in a forest that guided him. Without it, it was all meaningless. He’d just be some murderer, some fanatic, without orders to give it all meaning and transfer away the responsibility.
Berein opened her eyes.
“Can’t sleep?”
He asked.
“How can I?”
She muttered, staring at Amelathet’s corpse. “She wanted to open an orphanage you know. Wanted to make light of the dark slums.”
Alisson didn’t respond. He wasn’t in the mood for this.
“Stow it.”
He snapped at Berein. She kept silent after that.
He didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want hear the futures that had been cut short. All he could do was shake his head and close his eyes. They were just humans. Enemies. He didn’t have any responsibility to bear the weight of their lives. He kept on telling himself that, and eventually his mind settled.
He could’ve sworn he saw shadows moving in the tunnel’s darkness ahead of him. They vaguely looked familiar.
He didn’t look up after that.
For a couple hours he sat in silence, the scratching at their backs growing ever more prevalent. That monster impersonating Cleff had long since shut up. He now only heard vague, guttural growls behind him, muffled by all the rocks and earth.
He sighed, and got to his feet. He lifted Enhérejär up, and sheathed it. He fixed his cloak as best he could bearing in mind all the rips and tears it had. At his feet were a few pieces of armor that he’d taken off. They were mangled, and completely broken. Wearing them would only hamper his mobility, so he’d stripped them.
The break had let him take inventory.
They had water for a few more days. Food for a week. They’d starve to death if Alisson didn’t find this structure and bug out before then.
He only had a couple explosive knives left. One phosphorus, and one smoke screen knife. That was all.
Their combined scroll count was also dwindling. He had about half of what he entered Freigat with, Celis too.
He walked over to Celis, and shook her gently. She stirred quickly, evidence of their sleeping habits being molded by the past week in this damned Jungle. He flicked his head to Berein, who was already awake.
Silently, they were ready to move out, and started the tunnel down, darkness thickly in front of them. A single mage light by Berein illuminated an area around them.
Berein hesitantly looked back at Amelathet. Alisson had already stripped her of useful items. There was no point in towing her corpse, not with three people. He tapped Berein’s back, and she peeled her gaze away from her former teammate. All three of them started forward. The tunnel wasn’t anything special, it was quite mundane, and normal, if not dark. Alisson tried not to let his imagination wander as it had prior. He didn’t need anymore shadow puppets dancing before him.
“Mana?”
Alisson asked.
“Half.” Celis replied.
“A little over half.” Berein replied.
Alisson nodded. “Same here. Save your mana for healing you two. With just three of us, we should be able to avoid confrontation. The less we fight, the be-!“
He suddenly choked on his words, and fell to his knees. A knot formed in his throat, and quickly filled his mouth. Blood poured from his mouth, with a familiar viscosity and color.
Celis took his side, but he stood quickly, wiping his mouth.
“This joke is getting less humorous every time I hear it.”
Alisson muttered, staring at the blood on the ground, not feeling any pain whatsoever.
“What do you think it is?” Celis asked tepidly.
Alisson only shook his head in response, about to shelve the topic when Celis’s question suddenly rung a memory out of him.
The very first time he coughed like this, it wasn’t long ago. When he was fighting the Basket Maiden, in Evering’s territory…
She said that she’d ‘cursed’ him.
He realized that his coughs had happened periodically, almost every week, on the dot thereafter. This was no random affliction.
He closed his eyes. There wasn’t anything he could do, for now. He’d worry about this after they got out of Freigat.
“Come on, let’s get a move on. The sooner we get topside the better.”
Alisson said, striding forward again. Berein turned and blocked his path.
“Do you even have a plan?”
She flashed a sour look at him. Alisson sighed. He supposed it couldn’t be helped. She had a right to know. Wordlessly, Alisson swung his canister holding Lavjoure’s maps off his back. He twisted the cap, and laid out the most important one across the ground, the one that showed physical features, like mountains and rivers, and was colored beautifully.
“This is…where did you get something like this?”
Berein muttered, her eyes entranced.
“It’s a long story. But look here.”
Alisson pointed to where they were, at a dark green mass above Lake Aleeze a ways. There were two small splashes of blue within the mass.
“There seems to be two lakes within Freigat, quite deep in.”
Berein swallowed.
“There were rumors about there being bodies of water…I didn’t think they were true but…”
“Look. The lakes are odd in shape no? They don’t look natural, the both of them are symmetrical, and wrapping about this point of land in between them.”
“You’re going to use the lakes as a landmark?” Berein asked.
“Partly.” Alisson switched maps over to the one that mapped mana. The blue trails and circles flowed around and through the lakes, culminating in the point between them. “See here too. The image that all this blue overlaying makes is eerily similar to the symbol I’m looking for.”
Alisson tapped the center of the lakes.
“I’m willing to bet that this, is a good place to start looking.”
With that, he rolled up the maps safely into their canisters. Even if he failed his mission, these maps were incredible. They would serve nicely in Sidonia’s use, he had to protect them, which is why they were one of the few items he’d brought with him from the horses – He didn’t want to lose them.
“You knew going into this that you had to go so deep?”
Alisson nodded. Berein looked dumbfounded.
“If you didn’t see, there were some dots of dryland just south of the lakes. I’m willing to bet that those are the canyons that we were in – We’re a lot closer than you think.”
Berein’s eyes widened. “Those maps are incredible…So accurate and with their color you can see landmarks easily…”
Alisson only bobbed his head. Lavjoure told him that the maps were outdated. She said that rivers and forests might not be as accurate. What exactly she meant by that, he didn’t know. So what if a map was a couple years old?
He activated his Opensen for the sake of safety. Enhanced hearing never hurt.
They kept on walking with no event for some time. Alisson’s compass indeed confirmed that they were heading north, but at this rate, he was starting to doubt if there was actually a way to get topside from this tunnel system. They didn’t know how deep they were; For the cavern they entered was one that they entered without meaning to. Who knows how long Crimson had been on a downward slope to reach that decrepit spider lair, and who knows why nobody ever realized it.
What if there was no way out? What if it was just one large trap? What if this tunnel was nothing but a dead end, a false hope for quick witted prey?
As they went on however, this fear of Alisson’s was abraded over time. More and more side passages cropped up; Small cropping and paths that branched away from the tunnel proper, leading down dark, void-filled corridors. It was a universal rule of thumb to not bother with the side passages; Beasts could lurk there, and people went missing there. Most of the time they were dead ends, or the passages themselves were so small that no human could fit.
It was in one of these side passages, out of the corner of his eye, that Alisson saw a skeleton as Berein’s mage light passed by. It was of human origin, judging by the structure and the desiccated rags around it. It had evidently been there for some time.
Alisson rose a fist, and his two followers stopped immediately.
He drew Enhérejär, and crept closer for a better look.
There were a few things that screamed peculiar to Alisson. Just what was a human doing here? And with an intact body at that? There could be a shortcut from whence this person came from that they could use. He flashed a small magic light around the area with the tip of his blade.
The side passage was small, but at its end was something out of place. A large metal cog it seemed was embedded in the wall. With a valve looking wheel, it seemed to be some sort of thick, massive door, it could easily fit numerous people through it at once.
There seemed to be nothing useful on the corpse. There was however a journal. It only had one page written in it, the rest had been evidently torn away from the binding for whatever reason. Despite the corpse’s age, the page was written in understandable Phrengari.
It’s been almost a month since contact has been lost with Teams Falkewolf and Thir. They probably left us behind. I wouldn’t blame them, especially with all those unkillables looming about. Whatever. It’s given us ample opportunity to scour where no human has before. The beasts were all drawn to the other teams, so we’ve had an easy time rummaging through the deep ruins here. There’s far too many of those screamers around for comfort, though. And way too many of those stalker ones too. In the few ruins that we’ve been able to bore into, we found these horrendous looking beasts – This would be normal except for the fact that this type of beast was unanimous in all the ruins we’ve found – All different instances, yet still somehow beasts of the same type loom within them. It doesn’t make any sense. They’re not aggressive either, just scary as hell. They’re skin colored oddly enough, look like hairless gorillas, they’ll just sort of stare at you and growl, and then walk away. Easy enough on paper, but it still made Reed and Gabie…well, they made the wrong moves, and they were killed right next to us by those beasts. I had to stand there, sweat on my forehead, as a beast thrice my size mauled my friends and covered me in a shower of their entrails. It wasn’t all a loss though. There’s a reason I’m still going, even after so along alone since Xavier kicked the bucket a day ago. The things I’m finding are incredible. Paper, real, feelable, paper, white as an angel’s wings; and soft as a slime. All of it, deep within dusty old ruins. On most of this paper is black steganography, of what I can only assume to be words, but I can’t for the life of me make out what language it is. Unless those hairless apes have a printing press up their asses, I think there’s only one reasonable conclusion to draw. Humans inhabited these ruins at some point. If this is true, we can only imagine what the junk we’ve been finding really is. Writing though, is definitely a human trait – No matter the crap we find scattered around it. I mean, if humans weren’t responsible for these ruins and worded papers, then what suspects do we have left? The questions still remain though. Where did the ruins come from? Where did the humans that created them go? What resides in the ruins that we have yet to unearth, and those that we are unable to?
These questions I will leave unanswered, regrettably. I have contributed what I can, but this is it. The screams are getting louder, the roars echoing ever nearer, the footfalls sounding all around. Things watch and scamper here and there, just out of my vision. Things below at me, things laugh at me, and things hurt me. I will keep my meaning close at hand. A bed, yes, a cot by a warm fire, and perhaps a sweet angel to look after me, yes, yes…
The rest of the page was incoherent rambling. Alisson put the journal down, and noticed that within the skeleton’s ribcage, under its arms, was a pouch. It was a pouch that wrapped around one’s waist, that had evidently been ripped off and clenched in the corpse’s final moments. Alisson wrestled the pouch free from the corpse, and quickly poked around inside it. It held a great deal of paper, the same kind of paper described in the journal – Extremely neat, orderly, and surprisingly clean, white paper; Completely unreadable.
Alisson was about to discard of the pouch when he thought better of it. This man was defending and proctoring these papers with his life. He could’ve been a madman, but what if he wasn’t? These papers may prove valuable.
Alisson slipped of his pack and stowed the pouch neatly in it. He stood, and motioned his hand forward in a chopping motion. Celis and Berein took up position on either side of large metal cog-door at the end of the passage. He strode forward and examined the thick door. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the symbol Alisson had wanted to see on it. He rose Enhérejär, and struck the metal door.
Alisson stumbled back as sparks flew. There wasn’t even scratch on the door though. This was not soft metal by any means. The adventurer either came through this door and shut it behind him, or was backed into a corner with it. Though the ladder is probably what happened considering the adventurer was writing so much; he probably starved to death or something of the sort. Beasts don’t leave corpses, none that Alisson knew of did.
He flicked his head back toward Celis and Berein. They weren’t going to be getting through this door anytime soon, and he doubted any spells would do it in. A Reysarke beam might do the trick, but it would collapse the tunnel around the door as well.
The ears atop Alisson’s head fluttered and stuck upright, and his irises suddenly narrowed vertically. Something was running toward them fast; It had the noise of bare feet on stone. It was close, right behind them.
Alisson turned to the darkness, Enhérejär raised, prepared to swing.
…
But nothing came. In fact, the steps had stopped as soon as Alisson turned.
I could’ve sworn I heard something…
He looked back to Berein and Celis, and sure enough, they were standing on guard Celis with her baselards up and Berein with her staff pointed horizontally down the tunnel. Alisson turned back and squinted at the darkness. In those first few moments…something moved in the darkness. Alisson didn’t know if it was his eyes playing tricks on him or…
He let out a heavy breath of air, and physically relaxed, and began to turn back toward his team.
…
Nothing. Nothing took his bait. There really was nothing there. He rose an open hand, and swung it forward as he began out of the side passage. Berein and Celis were quick to form up on him.
“Lights. 100 meters in both directions.”
Alisson murmured. Seconds later, mage lights spread out on either side of them down the tunnel. There was nothing, exactly as before.
“…Alright. We’ll continue forward then.”
If there wasn’t anyway out, then the metal door was the next best bet. After that…well, hopefully those spiders will have cleared out those rocks by now. Those were their only options. If none of them worked, they were all dead.
They continued down the tunnel as they had been. Side passages surrounded them. They led only to darkness, not fully illuminated by Berein’s lights. Alisson was about to relax once more before the light in his peripheral vision suddenly faded. It was the lights behind them – When Alisson careened his head back, he saw that all of them but one were out, and their range vision had drastically decreased.
Seeing his expression, Celis and Berein turned too. When they did, Alisson saw once again in his peripheral vision, the light against the walls get noticeably dimmer. He turned back in a panic, and saw that once again, all of their lights but one had went out in the forward. They now only had a single light in each direction.
“Back to back, now.”
Alisson said quickly. Within a second, him and Celis were against each other backs, staring down both sides of the tunnel at once. A second later, Berein sent more lights to replace the ones that had been lost.
Alisson didn’t trust this, not one bit.
“We’ll advance like this. Don’t take your eyes off the tunnel.”
So slowly, they moved bit by bit, weapons raised, expecting anything. Alisson’s ears twitched, but picked up nothing but the echoes of their own footsteps.
An hour passed like that. A full hour. Or at least, that’s what it felt like anyway. One loses their sense of time in tunnels. A couple times the lights at the far end of their convoy would blink off, and seemingly cease to exist. Berein was quick to replace them however. She went through a quarter of her mana just on lights alone.
As they were walking, Alisson couldn’t help but wonder what lay down these side passages. More doors? More corpses? If it was anything else, he didn’t want to find out.
They eventually saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Alisson didn’t get his hopes up. Sure enough, when they neared, the light was bright sunlight, shining through the mouth.
However, the small outlines against the light that Alisson had thought were strands of moss growing over the tunnel’s mouth, were standing figures. Three of them. When Alisson neared about a hundred meters away, he made them out as Guardians, the tall, black furred humanoids with long limbs and small heads. Alisson kept his guard up.
“Don’t look forward but, there’s three Guardians watching us up ahead. I’ll take care of them – Don’t take your eyes off the tunnel.”
“Yes master.”
Celis acknowledged without hesitation. Berein peered over Alisson’s shoulder, clutching her staff, evidently wanting to fire. As they neared however, the Guardians were not increasing in size as they should’ve been. They were backing up as Alisson advanced, and keeping the same distance. The three Guardians blocked the tunnel, but were backing up, in cadence with Alisson.
“Halt.”
He said, and then stopped moving foward. Sure enough, the Guardians stopped moving. He pushed against Celis and took a few steps back. The Guardians stepped toward him.
He scoffed. Alisson continued forward, curious as to what they were pulling.
Soon, when the Guardians were pushed to the mouth of the tunnel, two of them kept on stepping back. One remained, standing still as Alisson neared. As he did, he could see through the bright light of the mouth.
Fluffy green grass and tall trees, as well as thick undergrowth. That had to be the way out, no doubt.
The Guardian who had not followed his friends was getting very close. At about a dozen meters, Alisson charged. The Guardian did so as well, thundering toward him with its deft steps and sudden, explosive speed. It swung its arms at him. Alisson cut off one of its arms, as he passed by it, and turned to impale it in the back of its head. The Guardian turned to swing its other arm at Alisson. Expecting it, Alisson bobbed under the lanky limb, and cut it off as well. He turned and stabbed at the beast center mass, and thew his body into the thrust. He managed to topple the beast, and stabbed down at its head numerous times before he was certain that it was dead.
He looked down the tunnel at the entrance. He couldn’t see the other two Guardians anywhere.
He jogged back to Celis and Berein, and continued the slow creep out. He didn’t want to break into a run out of here, and leave the tunnel behind them unwatched. Painfully slowly, they made it out, and into the open.
When they went through the mouth, he could see the sky above him; or at least, the dots of blue through the thick canopy high above. They were outside alright. Alisson stared back at the tunnel. Moss grew over it. It seemed unnatural. It didn’t look at all like the opening to a tunnel deep underground.
Was that cavern of spiders really not underground after all? Or was the tunnel on such a small incline that they had no way of noticing their ascent? How would that adventurer have not escaped? Why did he die there of all places? It didn’t make sense.
The lights went out, only when someone wasn’t looking. That adventurer only died after he lost his teammate. Therefore…he wasn’t able to look in both directions at once…He was probably bumbling around in the dark, and died.
At least, that was Alisson’s initial guess. It made sense though. Maybe if he’d been alone, the tunnel behind him would’ve been a far worse place. But he wasn’t. And for that he was thankful.
Alisson glanced back around, confirming once again that there was no sign of those other two Guardians. Celis was still looking down the tunnel.
“It’s okay now.”
He approached, and tapped her shoulder. She jumped with a gasp. When Alisson looked at her face, he saw her expression. Her eyes were wide, sweat plain on her forehead. She was staring back at the tunnel, quivering. Alisson shot a glance to the tunnel, but saw nothing. Celis back peddled.
“It’s…it’s still w-walking…”
Alisson followed her eyes, he saw the way that she was clearly tracking something in her vision – Something that he couldn’t see at all. His face twisted into anger.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Damn Sequitur!”
He shouted, acting purely on instinct. He lifted Enhérejär, and unleased a Pictunee spell without thinking. The red beam flew down the length of the tunnel, and through the path of whatever Sequitur Celis had been seeing. Alisson stepped in front of her, on guard. A moment of silence followed. When Alisson peered back to Celis, he saw that she had fallen back, and was silently hyperventilating.
He sheathed his weapon and knelt beside her, grabbing her shoulders.
“Celis. It’s okay. We’re out of the tunnel now. Nothing is following you.”
“It was…it was!”
She tightened her eyes.
Just what happened? When did Celis become so scared? They were just walking down the tunnel, it wasn’t pleasant but it shouldn’t have terrified someone of her mental fortitude.
“Heads up!”
Berein shouted. A Guardian leapt from the underbrush, dashing toward them. A single well aimed spell from Berein pierced it, and its body went limp, rolling across the ground. Alisson kept his attention on Celis.
“What happened? What did you see?”
“One was, one was following me…”
Alisson tilted his head in suspicion. “What do you mean?”
Celis’s eyes opened wide. “Ever since we started moving back to back…I saw one…walking toward me, following me…”
Alisson’s face darkened. For an hour his apprentice had been watching his back. A solid hour of being followed by something like that, off in the distance.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Another!” Berein shouted, firing another spell toward a second Guardian, killing it as easily as the first.
“Why…why didn’t I?”
Celis looked up suddenly, as if she were looking through Alisson with the sudden light of reason. Alisson’s mouth furrowed. He stood up, and offered his hand to Celis. After a moment of hesitation, she shook her head and pulled herself up, evidently shamed.
When Alisson finally split his attention away from Celis, he noticed something odd. The Guardians that attacked them, the two that had supposedly fled away only to strike while they were distracted…he couldn’t see their corpses. He could’ve sworn he saw out of his peripheral vision, Berein’s spells pierce them, scramble their insides and make them fall to the ground like loose puppets.
He set his gaze on Berein.
“…Where are the bodies?”
His tone must’ve intimidated her because she turned to him in a panic.
“What do you…mean…?”
Her voice trailed off as she glanced around. How such a pleasant scenery becomes so nefarious so quickly. It wasn’t good for his heart, really it wasn’t. They already left the underground, so how come it still felt like they had the pressure of kilometers of earth crushing them?
No, that wasn’t an expression, Alisson realized. He felt a quaint throb on his ears and in his head, the feeling was vaguely familiar. It was that same feeling as he had in the hive with the adventurers. The feeling before something bad happened.
Coming to this conclusion, Alisson drew Enhérejär, and looked around frantically.
It was then when Alisson saw a familiar figure. Dead ahead, in the forest undergrowth, was a tall humanoid, completely black, much larger than and with more drastic proportions than to that of a Guardian.
“Darkwalker-!”
Alisson tightened his grip, and stepped forward. By the time he’d taken one step forward, and having blinked once, there were now a ring of Darkwalkers around them. All of them off in the undergrowth, facing them. They appeared within the literal blink of an eye; It was so sudden that it made Alisson gasp and stumble back. Along with all the newcomers, it seemed that pressure at Alisson’s ears and in his head grew for every new Darkwalker now surrounding him.
It was that damn noise, some sort of hum, pulsing through him, overwhelming his senses as the seconds passed.
The three of them stood in a tense standoff. Berein, her staff glowing, and Celis, her baselards drawn, eyeing down the surrounding entities. He didn’t think weapons would be able to defeat such a creature, but he didn’t have the heart to tell them that.
The Darkwalker directly before them, the first that he’d seen, started to walk toward them. It stopped a few meters from them. Only now did Alisson see its body in full. Compared to other beasts, with their rotting, peeling, dilapidated flesh, the Darkwalker was far different. The curves in its body were strong, symmetrical. The outlines of its muscles looked vaguely human. Despite that, its head was horrendous, the farthest thing from human, alien, from another plain even.
It lifted an arm toward them. Alisson realized it was pointing with its large fingers past the three of them. It was pointing back toward the tunnel. It was obvious what it was communicating. All of the surrounding Darkwalkers lifted a hand up, mimicking the action of the first. Though because of their positions, they were all pointing at each other.
If that was the case, if that’s what this abomination wanted, Alisson wasn’t going to give it.
He rose Enhérejär, and dashed forward with an angry growl. He slashed Enhérejär at the creature. He knew it wouldn’t do anything. But he wanted to make clear to this beast that he wasn’t going to listen to it. If these things were involved with his objective…he needed to go through the path that had the most resistance, that would lead him straight to where he needed to go.
Despite knowing that he wouldn’t damage it, Alisson was still shocked when his blade passed through the Darkwalker. In fact, his body followed shortly thereafter, passing though the large black entity as if it were a phantom. He turned back, to see the Darkwalker striding forward toward Celis and Berein. They braced themselves, preparing to attack, when suddenly with one large action the Darkwalker seemed to walk through them as well, blurring forward, as if the air itself was distorting. It kept on walking, right into the tunnel.
“Tch! Come on! Staying here isn’t going to help!”
He waved Enhérejär forward, and the three of them blitzed toward the gap that the Darkwalker had left. While they were running in to the forest undergrowth, the ring of the other creatures disappeared, vanishing into empty air.
Since we’re now topside, our best bet is finding one of those lakes, if we can, we should be able to make out where we are and thus head toward their center.
As Alisson was thinking this however, he heard sudden screams from behind them. Thankfully upon first glance it wasn’t either of his two allies, but rather it was coming from much father behind, it was coming from the tunnel that they had emerged from. The voice seemed at first human, the one emitting those screams, but due to the sheer loudness, he didn’t think that was the case.
They kept on running, but the screams didn’t ever seem to temper in volume; in fact, their point of origin seemed to move and engulf the three of them – It sounded like there were screams coming from all directions now. Despite Alisson shooting glances in every way, he couldn’t make out anything.
“I’m getting message on the wideband!”
Berein suddenly reported.
“What? How?”
“The jamming stream just disappeared – It’s clear as day.”
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Alisson’s eye twitched. “I don’t wanna hear it.” He said, slashing his arm forward as to cut away the contact.
He knew full well what that message was. It wasn’t from other humans. That was the Darkwalker.
“S-should I send a-?”
Alisson cut her short. “No. Don’t ask for help. Us being here, is between the three of us.”
Alisson sternly declared above the ever increasing volume of the screaming voices around them. The didn’t need anyone picking up a garbled message and following them to their objective.
By this point, Alisson really felt like he had a migraine. Thanks to all the screaming and pressure at his head. He clenched his teeth, his eyes quivering under the mental attack. In his state of impaired thought, he was surprised he noticed beasts.
He felt a wave of relief when he saw with his own eyes that these were ones that he was familiar with. Swords and spells killed them, that's all he needed to know. They were the former human beasts, the ones with dark red flesh that walked on inverted, mangled limbs.
The area was open, and there didn’t seem to be any traces of any other enemies. Perfect.
Berein halted, preparing spells, while Celis and him broke forward to engage the beasts. There were many of them, but they were attacking in a stream, if the three of them could kill them fast enough, there wouldn’t be any problems. The closest beast lunged for him. Alisson deftly evaded to its side, cutting through one of its limbs.
That was odd. In all the times before, these beasts had very strong skin, uncuttable to a degree. How did Alisson just…?
When he looked back, he got his answer. His eyes widened. Red blood now covered Enhérejär and was splattered across the ground. What stood before him, was a tall, blonde woman wearing Sidonian combat garb; Claus Fauxzier, of the 51st. His best healer.
One of her arms were missing.
He didn’t think.
“Claus!”
Almost sheathing his blade, Alisson ran forward, panic on his face.
What was she doing here? Why was she injured? Why was she staring at him with such an expression of shock and contempt?
He wasn’t able to reach her; a blur jumped in front of her. It slashed at Alisson, and on instinct, he jumped back out of the way. A man with steely blue hair and sharp green eyes now blocked his path. With his towering stature and broad shoulders, wielding two scimitars, he was unmistakable. He was Daventdale Se Sabathi, his second in command.
Alisson swallowed.
“Why, why are you both looking at me like that!? What are you doing here!?”
Alisson demanded.
“You bastard!”
Daventdale said, raising his blades toward Alisson.
“I, I can’t believe you would do this…”
Claus weakly said behind him.
Alisson stared at them. “…W-what?” His blade shook. “T-this has to be some sort of joke…”
He looked to his bloodied hands, and saw with his own eyes Claus’s blood on them. By his side, was her detached arm, still clutching a staff.
It was then when Alisson realized what he had done. He started to hyperventilate, his vision shaky as he stumbled back, sweat on his forehead.
Why? Why were his 51st here? Did his lady send them as reinforcements without his knowing? Were they simply trying to rendezvous with him? Was he so dense as to mistake one of his own subordinates as a beast!?
“I…I’m sorry I…”
He was paralyzed in terror. When Daventdale shot toward him though, raising his blades, Alisson’s training kicked in against his will. How he wished that his body would’ve simply laid down, and let Daventdale smite him in that moment. Alisson rose Enherejar, and managed to block both of Daventdale’s blades.
“You traitor!” Daventdale spat at him.
“…I-I’m…a traitor?”
Daventdale then disengaged, and swiped at Alisson from another angle. Alisson’s body moved on its own, and evaded to the side. He rose Enhérejär, about to thrust when he saw who it was he was thrusting at. Alisson instead gave a powerful roundhouse kick into Daventdale’s side, sending him stumbling away. Before Alisson could think, a shield slammed into his side. It was Alieri Eyviartzin.
“S-stop this!”
Alisson rose Enhérejär to his defense, but Alieri knew exactly how to counter him. She swung her mace, such that the ball and chain would wrap around Alisson’s blade; With a single yank, he’d be disarmed. His body acting on its own, he tightened his grip on Enhérejär, and threw himself into Alieri’s disarming pull. The momentum allowed him to slip behind her, and he slammed the hilt of Enhérejär into the back of her neck in a single action. She went stumbling to the ground, knocked out cold.
Again and again, more aggressors rushed toward him. Soon, he was outnumbered forty-seven to one. It would’ve been more manageable normally, but Alisson wasn’t using lethal measures to ward them off. That was of course because these were no normal enemies. They were his friends, his family, his comrades, his subordinates. Those he was responsible for, those he watched over and protected meticulously. Those he made sure to live through battles. He was shocked he could even more, the sight baffled him to such a degree that he could only sputter and quiver where he stood before another attack came and his training took over.
Tears welled in his eyes. “…S-stop it! Stop it already!”
“Attack from all sides!”
“Don’t give him a moment to breathe!”
“There! He’s exposed!”
After shoving away another comrade, Alisson had had enough. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up! Just shut up!”
He fell to his knees, his hands over his head, blocking his ears.
…
Damnit! The second I trip up because of a Sequitur, all hell breaks loose!
I rose a baselard to block the screeching limb of an inverted zombie. It tried to retreat, but I called its bluff, and kept pushing forward, managing to sever one of its limbs and slice at its side.
These things really don’t budge. There’s about a dozen of them, and what’s worse…
I look over to Berein and Alisson.
My two teammates are totally out of commission. At first Alisson was on his feet, but I noticed something weird, he wasn’t killing any of the enemies. Now he’s on ground, on his knees. From his facial expression, I can tell that he’s clearly under some sort of influence. Unfortunately however, I can’t exactly repay him for snapping me back to reality earlier just yet. These beasts are making it impossible to even try and get him back on his feet. The most I can do is keep them away from him and Berein, but even that’s proving difficult.
Berein fired off a spell at the beginning of the battle, killing one of the beasts with ease. She then broke into a sudden fit of panic and knelt near the corpse of the beast, coddling it.
“Vivi! Vivi! You’ll be fine! Just stay with me!”
…She’s healing and talking to a corpse.
I thought I saw some blue haired guy when the battle first started, but I wrote it off as a figment of my imagination and cut through whatever it was. I didn’t think much of it, but in retrospect, it’s probably the only reason I’m on my feet right now.
This is probably why adventurers have never made it this far in and back into Freigat. These damn Darkwalkers are attacking us mentally – And these other beasts are here to capitalize on our disorientation. I’m glad I’m strong enough to hold them at bay…But I’m far from being able to clear the battlefield and render aid to my allies as I would ideally hope.
It’s probably because of all my awareness and alertness then why when I saw four familiar faces among the beasts, I didn’t buckle in the same way Alisson and Berein did. Oda, Ukuri, Yttri, and Gwilyn. I knew right away that they were fake, and I wasn’t falling for it, not when I had teammates I needed to protect.
“You two are dead!” I flashed my baselards at Yttri and Gwiyn. “And you two are too weak to be here!” I pointed to Oda and Ukuri.
“Bu-“
I didn’t let Yttri speak. I didn’t want to hear her voice. She was dead. I’ve long since accepted that.
I threw a baselard. It spun through the air, and struck Yttri straight in her forehead perfectly. She fell backwards, a look of shock ingrained on her face. The other three ‘comrades’ looked to one another, immediately terrified.
That’s right. You’re all so much weaker than me now. If you’re truly set on imitating them, you beasts, then you’ll have to fight like rookies. I broke into a sadistic smile, seeing the terror of the hallucinations.
That didn’t stop the other beasts from charging through. I drew a stiletto to replace my baselard, and met them head on.
“Alisson! Berein! Snap -“ I cut through a beast, “ – Out of it already!”
I won’t be able to keep this up for long. I’m using too many scrolls. I’ve only been nicked, but once I run out of scrolls and mana, I’ll seriously start taking some punishment without the leeway that magic offers. I shake as I mentally anticipate my pain.
“This isn’t funny!” I call. It wasn’t. It really, really wasn’t. If they don’t come back to reality…we’re all screwed.
God damnit Alisson! Stop being a crybaby and help me!
I didn’t have scorn to say that aloud, despite being faced with such overwhelming danger.
…
When Alisson fell to his knees, something curious happened. He’d been hoping that his teammates would’ve cut him down, but nothing happened. He kept his hands over his head for a long while, shaking, anticipating the moment something would come to end his existence. After hurting one of own comrades, he deserved it. He couldn’t live with it. He didn’t want to believe it.
But, out of curiosity, Alisson, sniffling, looked up. There was nobody. Nobody was around. It was silent, apart from some dull noises at the back of his head. He put a hand to his face.
“W-was it all an illusion?”
He said to himself. He almost broke into a smile at the prospect. A sudden redemption appeared for him, and he was quick to seize it.
“Why yes of course, that was fake...” The words that were spoken were not his own, however. “…my dear brother.”
He jumped, his eyes shot wide and his relative relief was ripped away as adrenaline immediately flooded into his bloodstream.
A tall woman with long, similarly colored hair as his own, dressed in black clothes, strode toward him.
“A-Apophria…” He muttered to himself.
His fingers twitched on his blade without his knowing.
“It’s funny how much of a crybaby you can be, I’ve missed it, really I have. Any signs of somebody hating you and you just break down into tears. Pretty pathetic if you ask me.” She leaned in.
Alisson fell back, desperate to get away from her.
“W-what are you doing here!?”
He demanded, surprising himself that he could say something in such a manner to his sister.
“Me?” She folded her arms and stood straight, her two rapiers jangling against each other. “Let’s see, I’m just following orders, the usual, ya’know…Siddy always needs something done here or there…”
She spoke without saying anything. Alisson narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Seeing this, Apophria’s smile turned into a grin.
“Little smarter since the last time I saw you then huh? Well if you want the truth…I just wanted to see your screaming face again. I’m actually disobeying orders right now, all for you – You should be grateful, A-li-son~♪.”
She and licked her lips with her intonation playfully.
Upon hearing why she was here, Alisson immediately froze up. That minute amount of resistance that he’d been able to muster, evaporated as his terror froze him. It had been a long time since this last happened, but even now, the feeling was ingrained in his mind; Struggling was futile.
-!
His terror, much like some sort of flash, vanished. His mouth lay agape and his eyes opened with a light that, when Apophria was around, wasn’t normally there.
Struggling was futile.
This feeling. It was the same conclusion, the same mindset, that he’d reached when the 51st attacked him. If that was all some illusion orchestrated by his sister, then that didn’t make any sense. She didn’t care what Alisson thought. The fact, that laying down and dying was easier than resisting was not her own invention – it was Alisson’s, a conclusion made by her actions – It wasn’t her own intent. Just why would she sick an illusion of the 51st on him in the first place? Why make him attack Claus like that –
Then he remembered. The beasts, the Darkwalker. For some reason it hadn’t been in the forefront of this mind, and what his eyes saw had for whatever reason took precedence.
A sudden spiral of awareness and logic befell his mind, the snowball of reason, once started, never ceased to bring him back to the status quo. Alisson closed his eyes.
There was no reason for Apophria to be here. His 51st wouldn’t just appear, fight him, and then disappear, and even if it was an illusion by Apophria she had no tangible reason to do such a thing.
He opened his eyes, and stared directly up at his sister.
“You’re not real!”
He exclaimed.
“…”
A moment of silence passed. Apophria just stared at him, her mouth furrowed. She then scoffed, and opened her mouth, about to say something when Alisson cut her off.
“You’re just a beast! Nothing more!”
He grabbed his blade with a sudden and fervent second wind, and scrambled to his feet. He then brought his bla-
…He then brought his blade…
No, he wasn’t seeing things. His arm wasn’t moving. It wasn’t listening to him. Instead, when he looked down at his person, he saw for himself just how much he was shaking in fear.
Why!? Why! There’s nothing to be afraid of!
He then looked back to what was in front of him, and realized why his body was acting that way. Of course he couldn’t move.
Just how could he think to lift a blade up against her?
Seeing Alisson’s struggle, Apoprhia broke into a chuckle. She shook her head, striding forward again, encroaching ever nearer.
“Even a worm will turn I ‘spouse…But really Alisson, it’s been all this time and your still too weak to lift a hand against me?” She stopped a meter in front of him, looking down thanks to the inches she had on him. “I can’t believe I’m related to someone so pathetic; A boy so weak as to strike his own apprentice and then not apologize – Only to break down into a tears when someone does the same thing to him.”
Alisson’s eyes widened. She was right. He’d forgotten to apologize about that time in the cave, when he’d slapped Celis upside the head. He’d been so enthralled in himself over the next day that he forgot – How the hell did he manage that!? How after spiraling into a depression by an action, then forget that action!?
He was furious at himself.
Ultimately though, he knew why he forgot. He resolved to focus on the mission, and to push Celis aside for the time being. That was just a cover. A shield. It was far harder to apologize to someone one had an interest in. But, he didn’t let this apparition’s words get to him.
He broke into a smirk.
“What are you smiling about?” She asked, intrigued.
“Thank you, is all. For reminding me. I suppose even you have soft spots.”
“Huh?” Apophria tilted her head with an indignant look, not understanding Alisson at all.
He cusped his hands over his mouth.
“Celis!”
He shouted simply. Apophria recoiled in shock, and started glancing around, clearly shaken up. It didn’t save her. Alisson heard quick steps, and from out of his vision, Celis came barreling into Apophria. With a quick spin, Celis slammed her shin into Apophria’s abdomen, and then swiped at her twice with her blades.
It was a curious sight. A mere thirty-five-year-old Nekomata, who didn’t even have their Opensen unlocked, beating back an elder Nekomata, a seasoned warrior from the likes of which he had never seen beaten. If such a weakling could attack his sister, then why couldn’t he? What would that make him?
Evading both blades, Apophria jumped back, cursing. In the next moment, a barrage of spells came slamming into Apophria, and she rose her hands to protect herself, disappearing in the cloud of smoke and dust kicked up by the spells. Alisson wasn’t able to see the results, for he was then tackled to the ground by a sudden force.
When he next opened his eyes, he heard the bellows of beasts and the sounds of fighting all around. Looking over him, was Celis’s face. A beast lunged over head, narrowly missing the both of them, thanks to Celis shoving him down and out of the way.
“You’re back.”
Celis said with a smile. It so out of place that it felt surreal. With blood and sweat on her face, corpses of mangled beasts mere feet away, and with more scrambling toward them, it was somehow more fake than his 51st attacking him. Alisson nodded, now looking over Celis with the guilt of having not apologized yet still utilizing her because of his lack of resolve to attack something that looked like his sister.
Celis pulled him up, and they were quick to face back to back.
“I’ve been holding off - ” A beast lunged at her, and she held it back with her baselards long enough for Alisson to sidestep around her and impale it through the head. “ – Ever since you and Berein went down.”
Alisson nodded in understanding. It seems to have really been one big ploy by a Darkwalker to make them more susceptible to attack – The fact that both him and Berein were on the ground at one point, unable to resist, was clear enough evidence that this was the Darkwalker’s motive. Thankfully, Celis didn’t seem affected for whatever reason.
“Get Berein back on her feet.”
Alisson ordered. Celis would probably have a better impact on her. The number of beasts had shrunk significantly. Corpses littered the area, clearly work of Celis in Alisson’s stead. He really was impressed, how she managed to hold her own against such strong beasts. Now though, it was his turn. His Opensen had been activated thus far an hour, and it was taking its toll, but that didn’t stop him from lashing out.
After seeing his sister again, even if it was an illusion created by a beast merely utilizing his own memories, he felt the need to obliterate everything in his path. Strength. He needed more.
…
“Come on! Get on your feet!”
I slid down near Berein. I ripped away the corpse that she was coddling and crying over. She grasped toward it, trying to resist me, but I was obviously far stronger than a meek little magician.
Here. You wanna know how to deal with someone that’s holding you down?
I lifted a baselard, and slammed it into the corpse. That got her attention. She looked to me, as if now I suddenly existed.
“W-w-why-!?”
“Shut up! It’s fake! It’s useless sitting here!”
I shouted, not caring about her feelings or even beginning to show any empathy. I don’t know what Alisson saw, but the way he smiled back at me after he called my name, I know it didn’t break him. If that’s the case, Berein will probably be fine too.
I grabbed her staff, and shoved it into her hands. She’d long ago lost her large hat, and her clothes were dirtied to hell and back – Her staff was the only thing that I saw useful. She looked down at her staff, as if to wonder what she was supposed to do with it. I stood, and, grabbing her by the collar, lifted Berein up as well. If it was Alisson I was trying to console after a mental illusion, I’d’ve been far more gentle, but this is one of our cards, not another person. It needs to function properly, or we’ll just have to throw it away.
To my surprise, the beasts in the immediate vicinity were all dead. Alisson had cleared them out surprisingly quickly. I couldn’t take him seriously with the ears on his head, and the tails twirling behind him, but his work spoke for itself. In the absence of all the screaming voices from those beasts, the throbbing pressure from the Darkwalker in my head was rapidly swelling as if to fill the gap.
“Let’s move!”
Alisson said, whisking me and Berein with him.
…
Although the area was clear of enemies on first glance, Alisson could feel it clearly. The Darkwalker was upping the ante on their minds, and it wasn’t slowing down at all. They’d only been running for a minute and already Alisson’s knees felt weak, not from fatigue, but from his own mind. His body was progressively getting heavier, and sluggish. A quick glance to Berein and Celis told him he wasn’t the only one. As much as he looked around, he couldn’t see any traces of the tall, dilapidated figure of one of those Darkwalker. They were either far away out of sight, or not even on a plain comprehendible to Alisson.
He didn’t know where exactly he was running, the environment itself looked samey, with no discernable landmarks. When he realized this, he stopped paying attention to signs of beasts, and instead focused on the land around him. Something was off. Something was very off. He didn’t notice it before, but yes, he was almost certain now from having run a couple minutes here.
This appealing forest of fluffy grass and bright rays of sun? It was repeating. It was fake. The whole damn land around them was fabricated. When Alisson tried looking to his sides, further away and past shrubbery, he only saw what had been in front of him mere moments before – Like any direction they choose, they’d still be going the same way.
It was getting hard to think. The pressure in his mind was grinding his body to a halt, as if there were two balls chained to his legs. Every muscle in his body, even in his face, felt strained, and were tensed.
Think! Think! How do we get out of this?
How did they get into this predicament in the first place?
Alisson looked back, grinding his teeth, his eyes twitching as his mind screamed in agony as it was crushed. It was as if two hands were pushing his very brain in on itself.
Back! Backwards!
He couldn’t speak very well, so he simply gave a tug to Berein and Celis, and flicked his head back, muttering something inaudible. They looked just as pained as him. Berein’s knees were shaking back and forth, as if she were an infant who’d only recently learned to walk.
Despite this, the three of them switched directions. After about a minute of running, it became evident that nothing was changing. All directions led the same way.
Curse this damn jungle!
In times like these, Alisson remembered the story of two frogs. The both of them were caught in a barrel of cream. One simply gave up, concluding that there was no point in struggling, and drowned. The other frog, for some inexplicable reason, continued to tread the cream and struggle; It turned to butter, letting him jump out.
Alisson felt like they were stuck in a mighty big pit of cream right about now. He wasn’t going to lay down and die. His eye twitched, not out of pain but anger, as he resolved to continue forward.
“Do you, do you see anything around us?”
Alisson asked with tire. Perhaps one of them can see some sort of change in the terrain. Maybe they even saw completely different terrain, Alisson didn’t know.
Berein struggled to get out the words, “N-nothing…”
Celis, pulling Berein over a shoulder, said between breaths, “Still three illusions.”
Alisson’s head whipped to Celis. That must be it. That has to be it.
“Kill them.”
Alisson said simply. Celis nodded. She turned, lifting one hand backwards, and shot off three Pictun spells. They didn’t seem to hit anything, and flew into the forest. Celis looked back to Alisson, and nodded.
“Tch-!” Alisson growled, his hands shaking despite himself. “Come on! It doesn’t matter which way – Just move!”
Alisson just barely managed to get the words out. He was losing coherence of thought, and he knew it. The pressure, the ebbing throb at his head, the pulse of irritation was growing ever more prevalent as the seconds passed. It was as if his entire body was being crushed by the weight of a building. Or of Lady Salchyon. Her smiling face, devoid of fear and vice, popped into his head. He found himself smiling for whatever reason.
It looked so stupid. Three people, in the middle of a harmless, soft, ultimately peaceful forest, all struggling to even put one foot in front of another. Berein was already out cold, she was being dragged by this point by Celis, and Celis was being pulled with one hand by Alisson.
The weight was only increasing exponentially, but in some backwards way, Alisson knew they were close. This realm, fabricated by beasts, seemed to him a bubble. One that, the three of them were finally pushing through, stretching the bubble and causing more stress to the beasts behind it. At least, that was the thought that popped into Alisson’s head. It was optimistic, and he surprised himself with it; To think that he could even fight back at all against those towering figures of mystery and dread.
That thought, along with Lady Salchyon’s face, stuck in his mind.
Inch by inch, they moved forward as if they were snails. Alisson was only looking down, at the ground. He looked up, resolving to himself that depending on what he saw, he would either give up for good, or continue. The sight he saw brought a pained smile to his face, although an outside observer would be able to make out nothing from his cringed countenance.
The tunnel that they had emerged from was before them. It was not black as before, but bright white. Or maybe that was in Alisson’s head, he couldn’t tell for sure. Whatever it was, it was a difference in the environment. Alisson perceived this as victory.
He trudged forward, now pulling two limp bodies and heaving ragged breath. When he passed into the mouth of the tunnel, it felt as if all the weight on his body vanished. Like he could suddenly breathe. His chest felt empty, and his head light, but fuzzy from the sudden freedom. Despite this, he still fell forwards. In his last few moments, he saw a dark sky, and gray ground and tall, ominous trees.
Behind them was a tunnel, that led to black.
That’s more like it…
Alisson thought, as his shoulders finally went limp and he vision blackened. The weight of Celis’s and Berein’s bodies pushing him into the ground was oddly comfortable.
***