The darkness that surrounded me was thick enough that I nearly wasn’t able to breath. The very air was tainted with it, and the Aether that around me felt…wrong. It felt like it was suffused with an ancient malaise.

That was lifting, though. Something had woken from a slumber that had lasted for generation upon generation, and an alien mind was rousing. With it, that sense of being was rising from it's resting place, to find triumph on the surface above.

I...I don't...

Even in my near catatonia, I retained enough of my mind to wonder how I could even know such a thing.

The answer didn't come to me.

The murk was so all-encompassing that I wasn’t able to tell when I switched from the waking world, to that of the dreaming.

I floated there in the resulting black, for a time. It felt like my eyes were open, but they saw nothing before me. For once, there were no enemies in my sight for me to throw myself against in vain. There were no innocents to free from bondage. And…there were no companions to fight side by side with.

A selfish part of me wanted to stay here forever, in this vast nothingness. Here I had no responsibilities, no struggles. There were no scant victories or crushing defeats to be found in this murk. Every time my wandering mind tried to focus on the depth of my failure against the beast that was Nerexxa, and what it meant for the whole of Vereden, I shied away from it.

I didn’t want to remember.

There was only the numbness of the void.

I can’t say how long I floated there, in that gloom. It could have been seconds or centuries for all I knew.

But eventually, all things must end.

Something stirred in the blackness.

I wasn’t aware of it until I caught the faintest trace of movement somewhere just out of sight. Sluggishly, I tried to focus on it, but I couldn’t.

All I could see was the slightest of waves, as if a long body had disturbed a stagnant pool of water.

A voice pierced the blackness. Though it was quiet, in the depths of this dark, it rang out as if it was projected from a loudspeaker.

“What’s this, what’s this?” A sibilant whisper sounded, carried upon echoes. “A mortal, in this place?” It paused for a moment. I almost physically felt the attention that was being directed at me. “No…not quite. A Precursor, yes yes. I recognize that glint upon your soul. That’s what you are…”

Listlessly, I raised my head to try and see who or what was speaking, but it was…so hard. “Who…” That was all I was able to get out, before even that brief surge of energy left me.

“Who, who, he asks,” The voice breathed in an amused tone. “As if he was an owl, and not the spawn of old Terra.”

Old…Terra…

Did this person…or thing…mean Earth?

Suddenly, I was much more alert. Somehow, Ringed Mind had faded from me in the depths of this murk, but no longer. I felt my mind fragment into rings once more. My outer was still mired in what felt like induced lethargy, but not my middle and core.

I could focus again.

I forced myself on my feet, somehow finding my footing in an endless void.

“Oh? Did that catch your attention, failure?” The voice called. Now that I was able to focus better, I could actually see whatever was speaking to me circling just out of sight. It was as if I was surrounded by the form of a gargantuan snake, its coils winding about me on the edge of my vision.

But…it was wrong. It was as if this thing was many serpents all at once, all layered on top of each other. The winding lengths of scales that formed a solid wall around me were nearly glitching in my vision, overlaying on top of each other. It formed an illusion to where it appeared as if there were thousands, or even millions, of coils that stretched off into infinity.

The inky horizon was dominated by an ocean of scales.

Strangely…I felt no fear.

In this place, it was as if I could sense the intentions of the being that had found me. This thing…

I was nothing more than a gnat to it. It cared little for my existence, and felt no need to swat me.

I found my voice. “What do you mean…failure?”

I saw a brief flash of intense yellow eyes in the sea of scales. “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. You…are a failure, like all of your kind,” The voice said, almost kindly. “It is in your nature, I’m sorry to say. But you in particular?” A brief chuckle. “It’s been some time since a remnant has failed so spectacularly.”

I closed my eyes, no longer able to hide from what had sent me to this place. “Nerexxa.”

“The little tick is irrelevant,” The voice said dismissively, shocking me out of my self-pity. “It is what she has awoken that is the source of your failure, Precursor.”

That’s right…

Just before the ground had caved in on us, I’d heard Nerexxa screaming about a ‘harrower’. Whatever her ritual was, it hadn’t been about directly calling her goddess back to Vereden. She had said something about it being the actual catalyst to bringing this ‘Ixiah’ back.

Suddenly, I was feeling much more hopeful about the future.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The voice must have noticed, because it chuckled at me. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, little Precursor,” They said, dashing those same hopes. “What the tick has awoken is as far above her as she is above you. If you failed against the bloodsucker, then I doubt your chances against it.”

It…

“What…is it?” I asked hesitantly. In the brief moments that I had been awake as I fell into the caverns below the now deceased Olsen’s palace, all I had seen was a shadow.

A massive one. Something big enough to dwarf the palace itself, and blot out the light of Tarus.

But what I had felt...

The voice hummed. “A gatekeeper,” It said pensively. “Or perhaps a keymaster? One of the two. Certainly a weapon, though. A foolish one, and something only the ‘divine’,” I could physically feel the contempt that the creature surrounding me infused in that word, echoing through the murk. “Could harness. Where the little tick is a knife in the dark, meant to turn knots of resistance against one another, this was a proper greatsword. A bludgeon, to utterly crush armies in its path.”

“A Calamity.”

Oh.

I see...

“Not a full one, admittedly,” The voice continued. “Not even the ‘gods’ could manage to leash a true Calamity. Instead, they cultivated them, and at the exact moment before a chosen Prime ascended, they were stopped. And instead of developing their own spark, they were given a piece of a god’s own stolen divinity. From that moment on, they were loyal little doggies. They called them Godbound, as if they could even pretend to that title. This one is old and weak, but still strong enough to squash you like a bug, and fulfill its purpose at the same time.”

“Purpose?” I called out into the blackness.

“Oh yes,” The voice said, liquid amusement thick in its tone. “That gnat Ixiah left it behind as insurance, caring little for her little ticks in the process. Her hound, on the other hand, could one day be her ticket back onto this verdant land. All it needs to do…is properly attune the Portal Stone to her location, and that upstart can return. Hmm,” They hummed. “I believe she was banished to Azul. The upstart must be feeling quite waterlogged, after all those millennia spent in that storm. No doubt she longs for these shores.”

As the voice chuckled to itself, I frowned. “What do you want from me?” I asked bluntly. “Why are you here?”

I could almost hear the shrug in the voice as it spoke next. “Oh, I expect nothing from you, Precursor,” It said dismissively. “I felt the stirrings of the beast, and decided to poke my head over this way. I was curious to see who was foolish enough to wake the sleeping giant.”

“I don’t believe you,” I challenged. “Who are you? What do I call you?”

“Call me?” The voice said, surprised. “You don’t. I call upon you. But…if you’d like a moniker? Then….you may refer to me as Nehushtan.”

Something unexpected happened then. A light began to shine through the darkness of…wherever I was, coming from overhead. It was cool, comforting, and most of all, familiar.

Looking up, my breath caught in my throat as I beheld a perfect full moon.

And I do mean perfect.

It was like no moon I had ever seen. It hung in midair with an immaculate surface, with none of the craters that were visible on either the surface of Earth’s moon, or Vereden’s. It was perfectly spherical, perfectly smooth, and perfectly radiant.

And its light was shining directly down on the entire area. The form of the serpent was illuminated briefly, allowing me to see its massive triangular head, crowned by what looked like tree roots. But I lost sight of it almost immediately, as the entire thing retreated in a plume of murk with a hiss.

An irritated female voice rang out in the darkness, originating from the moon. “Get going, you old menace. This one is beyond you.”

The snake seemed like it hadn’t really vanished just yet, because I heard its voice echo out from beyond the near platform of light I was now standing on. “Children these days, no respect for their elders,” The being calling itself ‘Nehushtan’ grumbled, before I felt its attention fall on me once again. It dropped its pretense of curiosity then. “If it’s answers you seek, then find me, Precursor. I am not bound in the way of these upstarts and wisps. I can tell you all that you want to know, and all that you don’t know you do.” The voice began to fade away, as if its owner was retreating from the harsh glare of the moon. “Seek me out, in the northern mountains…”

The darkness beyond the radiance lifted somewhat then, and I could tell that whatever that thing had been, it was truly gone now.

“What…was that?” I asked out loud breathlessly.

“An old ghost, squirming in the dark,” The female voice said, irritation thick in her tone. “From an age so long ago that not even the bones of Vereden can compete. Pay its words no mind, as you have other concerns. You have to wake up, Nathaniel.”

I reeled, a stab of pain piercing through me at her words. I bent over, clutching my chest in agony, feeling like something was lodged right in the center of my being.

The female voice sighed. “What a disaster this is,” She said, sympathy thick in her voice. “But it’s going to have to be you that handles this, I'm afraid. I’ve informed my beloved about what’s happened, but neither he nor his forces can reach you in time to deal with the Godbound. It’s already begun the process of attunement.”

I looked up incredulously at who I suspected was the spirit that Grey loved. “How?!” I said weakly, nearly crippled by my pain. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t shut it off with Ringed Mind, and I wasn’t appreciating this reminder of what real pain was like. “How am I supposed to kill this thing, when I could barely scratch Nerexxa?!”

“Don’t worry,” The woman said soothingly. “You have all the tools you need to slay this beast. The Vampire will be dealt with by another, closer than you think.” She paused for a moment. “If he complains, just tell him I’m calling in his debt. Your task, however, will mark you…but I know you can do it. My love wouldn’t place his faith in those that don’t deserve it.”

As a more natural darkness began to grow around my vision, and the vision of who I suspected was Elys above me began to fade, she had one more thing to say before I left this place.

“Oh, and Fade sends his love….”

……………………………………………….

I awoke to agony.

Thankfully, this was an agony that I could immediately shut down, allowing me to descend from my suffering-filled panic. Once I had done so, I opened my eyes…

To find that I was once more surrounded by darkness.

This wasn’t the supernatural darkness that I had somehow just been dreaming inside, where I had spoken to what I thought were a pair of Spirits. No, this was the familiar darkness of a deep, dark cave.

And it was easy to see what was causing my pain.

There was a long splinter of stone piercing straight through my front. Looking down and muting my panic response, I could see that it luckily looked to have missed my heart, which was probably why I wasn’t already dead. I think I had fallen straight onto it, and it had gone right through my…right kidney.

Ah.

This was…quite the predicament. How was I supposed to deal with this? It was hard enough performing impromptu surgery on other people with Aetherial Melding, but on myself was a whole other matter. Especially when I had no help, no supplies, and…

I looked down at my left arm, already suspecting what I would see.

Yup, my prosthetic left arm was crushed.

I only had one functional arm.

The golden prosthesis had taken the blow that had nearly killed me straight on from Nerexxa, and suffered for it. The outer golden shell of the limb was completely crushed, and I think the Mithril bones had been bent as well. I was lucky I didn’t have real pain receptors in the enchantment for the arm, or I was sure it would be screaming at me. The best I could do was twitch a few of the fingers slightly, but it wasn’t usable anymore. I was going to have to melt it down completely, reforge it, and then re-enchant the whole thing in order to get my arm back. Luckily, it didn’t look like the damage extended to the cap on my stump, so the port that connected the false limb to my soul was still intact. All I’d need to do…was make a whole other limb.

But that didn’t help me now, when I was in mortal danger.

And looking around?

I wasn’t the only one.

All around me, I could see the still forms of those who I had fought Nerexxa alongside. Crook, Thirty-Two, Dusk, even Baldric.

I also found Sylvia.

Even through my enforced calm, my breath caught in my throat at the sight of her, lying splayed out against a nearby boulder in this cave.

She wasn’t moving.