Kiaran stepped into the final chamber, a suffocating weight pressing down on him with every breath. The air was heavy with the scent of rot, a musty, ancient odor that clung to his skin like the whispering of dead souls. Eira and Sable trailed behind him, their faces set in grim lines, as they entered the heart of the Sanctuary, where the power of the entity pulsed like some living thing with a power so palpable it almost had a life force of its own.
They had plunged down steep, winding corridors, past crumbling stone statues and walls etched with forgotten runes. The deeper they went, the darker it grew-not just in terms of light, but in presence. Something ancient waited for them, and its eyes had been fixed on them from the moment they entered the Sanctuary. Kiaran felt the tug of it now, a dark calling, like fingers crawling under his skin.
It opened into a round chamber-the place it widened into. It was vast, all domed, with in the center of it a pit, and shadows coiling about it, like living tendrils, slithering, twisting, and the walls lined with runes, the sickly, pulsing light of them appearing to spiral inward to the pit as if attracted. And they said a tale-such tales of corruption, sacrifice, and of power. They spoke of a being whose very essence was carved into the stone."
Kiaran's gaze went to the pit. The source of the darkness. It pulsed with malevolent energy, sending faint tremors through the ground beneath his feet. He could feel eyes on him—though there was no one else here. The entity was watching. It had been waiting.
"We're close," Sable breathed, her voice barely audible. Her normally confident expression was ruffled, and her eyes kept flicking to the pit as if she expected something to spring out at any moment.
Eira, usually so composed, had a look of pure horror on her face. "I can feel it… the darkness. It's… ancient."
Kiaran nodded, his grip around his blade tightening. "This is it."
By the time they stepped close enough to see the precipice of the pit, a deep, rumbling voice resounded through the cavern. Not an audible phenomenon so much as something felt, resonating through their bones. It came from nowhere and everywhere at once, its tone full of laughter and hunger.
"Kiaran Voss… "
He trembled at the sound of his name. The voice knew him. It always had.
"You have traveled so far, endured so much… and for what? Revenge? Power? Survival?"
Kiaran ground his teeth. He could bite back the temptation of that voice. The allure was there, a whisper at the edge of his mind. He'd wanted power for so long now, to be able to rise above those who had wronged him. But this. this was different.
The shadows began to roll and rise within the pit, like a fog. From within them a figure slowly coalesced-a form of shadow and darkness, eyes glowing deep, fiery red. The entity was not yet fully present, but its presence hung heavy over everything. Its form flickered like dying embers, from solid to ethereal.
For each step it took, the air grew colder. Kiaran could feel the weight of its eyes, as if peeling back his very soul.
"I can grant you anything you desire," the voice slid into his mind. Power that is beyond measure. Freedom from your curse. The ability to crush your enemies and stand above all others. Join me, Kiaran. Accept my gift.".
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Kiaran's chest throbbed in his chest. It was intoxicating, this offer. He had long put up with the restraint of his curse-a liminal entity, kept shackled to the lower rungs of existence. With this power, he could break free. He could stand over everything-everyone. For a moment, he dreamed himself standing atop a mountain of corpses, and the world bent the knee before him. All of them lay at his mercy.
But then, a voice pierced the haze - Eira.
"Don't, Kiaran!" she cried, her voice trembling with desperation. "This thing, this. entity. it's evil. You can't trust it. Don't let it corrupt you!"
Kiaran blinked hard and the vision faded, anchored by her words. The promise being made, however irresistible, came at a cost: a terrible one. He would lose himself. He would be that which he loathed most.
He took a step back, shaking his head. "I'm not your pawn," he spat, voice firm. "I don't come here to serve you."
The creature's red eyes narrowed. "Fool. You could have had everything."
Kiaran drew his blade, the steel catching the faint light of the runes. "I already have what I need."
The thing bellowed, flailing out. Shadows burst from the pit, coiling, writhing, striking towards them with an incredible speed, like snakes, and Kiaran dodged the first wave, slicing through the dark tendrils, but there were just too many. The shadows were at once remorseless, a buzzing mass of hostile power bent on devouring everything in their wake.
She flowed, moved with grace, as she called her own powers to life. Her hands weave and summoned in the pattern of dance as she called up her shadows to butt against the entity's attack. Dark upon dark, they crash against each other, energy arcing through the air as Sable strained, beads of sweat dropping from her brow as she fought for purchase.
Eira grimaced set her face and reached deep to call up the last droplets of her remaining light magic. Golden light kindled in her hands as waves rolled forth, disrupting the shadows, giving Kiaran and Sable those precious seconds to regroup.
But the thing was strengthening. Its form took shape, looming larger as it siphoned power out of the pit. The chamber quaked, the walls cracking under the pressure of its presence.
Kiaran knew they could not do this for much longer. They were being trampled. He had to find a way to diminish the thing, to sever its hold on the physical world.
His glance jumped to the runes on the walls. The runes pulsed brighter now, feeding energy into the entity. If he could interrupt the pattern, break the flow of energy, he might be able to weaken it.
"Sable! The runes! We have to break them!" Kiaran shouted.
Sable looked at the walls, her eyes widening in understanding. She nodded, shifting her dark tendrils from defense to offense. Flicking her wrist sent a wave of dark energy into the runes, shattering several of them in a burst of light.
The thing screamed, a high-pitched, unearthly sound that shook the chamber. Its form flickered, destabilizing as the power feeding it began to wane.
The opening was taken by Kiaran, and he charges at the entity with his blade shining into the dim light. He pointed his sword to the heart of the moving phenomenon, that pulse was shown in the contents of the smoldering red glow within the entity's chest, pulsating with dark energy inside. The entity struck at him again, but Kiaran was quicker and dodged each assault as he thrust his sword into the core.
The entity let out one last scream, like in the very last throes of a scream, bloodcurdling, as its form started to dissolve into nothingness. Shadows retreated, sucked back into the pit as the connection was severed. The runes flickered out, one by one, until the chamber plunged into darkness.
This time, there was silence. The weight, oppressive and crushing, began to lift. Kiaran, Eira, and Sable stood there, present in the aftermath. The pit sealed itself as the last parts of the entity were dragged back into the void.
Kiaran lowered his blade, exhausted. They'd done it. They'd defeated the thing.
As they turned their backs on the premises to walk out into the cold, Kiaran knew that it wasn't over yet. The voice of the entity still lingered in his mind, a dark whisper that it was going to see him again and the next time it would come for him.
They came out into the night air, cool and clammy now; their breathing slow, their bodies stiff with pain. But nothing out there in that night sky brought them solace. The battle was won but far from over, and in dark determination, she looked back to Sanctuary.
He would not rest-not not until every last shred of that darkness was purged from this world.
And if this entity came for him once more, he would be able to face it.