“Strange. There should have been more phantoms here,” Kel’Shatel muttered, putting away the obsidian dagger.

“So, how did I do?” he asked, his lips drawn together in a smirk.

“Good, but not perfect - the incantation could use some work. We’ll discuss more after the trial ends. Time is ticking,” Daniel said, clicking his tongue, betting he wouldn’t have to do that.

“You sound like Kel’Tharia right now,” the boy grumbled but followed after Daniel as they began to walk forward.

After ten minutes, Daniel began to panic, and then sprint. Perhaps there was a good reason their teacher had ordered them to spread out after all. He didn’t want to find out what the “true horrors” were if he went past the designated time limit.

When he passed into Vael proper after several minutes, it was like someone had dumped an ice bucket on him. Instead of revulsion, fear crept into his mind with every second. That shadow there, it was the devil smirking, chasing after him. There would be no escape this time, no one to save him.

“Kel’Val!”

The shout made him shudder. When he came to, he was still in the middle of the Vael, now even more lost than before. Kel’Shatel was panting next to him, wracked with exhaustion. His left hand was tightly clutching a chipped and cracked amulet, its light dim. A trio of wraiths formed a circle around him and cackled with joy before Daniel whacked them with his staff, still dazed from the encounter.

“Step back. I’ll prepare the ritual here,” Daniel said, keeping the fear out of his voice. Before, he wasn’t sure, but now he was convinced that if he died here, it would all be over.

His hands were covered in sweat, and he fumbled around his pockets before tightly gripping the obsidian dagger, recalling how Kel’Shatel had done it. Placing the incense on the ground, he tried to let out a fiery breath, but as expected, he had no such powers.

“Tch,” he clicked his tongue.

Racking his brain for an answer, he recalled Finnean’s magic lessons. Although learning proper spells required spell formulae and complicated mana manipulation, the ancient mages had done things differently. In a place with sufficient mana, even thought would be enough, which is why when he moved the mana over to the incense and imagined the soft candle glow in the middle of the night, the air itself ignited in a burst of flame, engulfing half the incense.

The first phantom emerged before he could even blink. As the shimmering liquid coated the blade, twenty more appeared, and by the time Daniel started carving his first symbol, a hundred different spirits, wraiths, and banshees circled him, their voices joining together in a ghastly wail.

“W-What’s going on?!” Kel’Shatel shouted, raising his arms to form a transparent barrier.

The shadowy figures blended into a whirlwind of nightmares, held at bay by the incense smoke. Every second, the circle tightened, more and more hands desperately grabbing for the still-living souls. None of this helped Daniel’s trembling hands, unable to properly draw a straight line. When he finished the sixth rune, his robes were almost entirely black. They wouldn’t be able to protect him for much longer.

“Val’Zerith! You’ve come to me once again.” A gravelly voice, like burning coals in a furnace, whispered in his ear.

For a moment, it seemed like time had stopped. Every shadow simultaneously froze, not daring to move an inch. Even Daniel halted his dagger, slowly turning his head. What greeted him wasn’t a horrible abomination, nor a frightening spirit. Instead, a faceless human peered over Daniel’s shoulder, its body made of solidified shadow.

Daniel’s breath caught in his throat as he gazed at something that shouldn’t exist. The air around them stilled, a thick silence permeating it, broken only by a single high-pitched note droning in his mind. Like static, the creature was distorted, its form never the same. Despite its simple appearance, an overwhelming aura of malevolence emanated from its body woven together from a thousand nightmares.

“Don’t make me harm you. I do not wish to do that,” it leaned forward, grasping his head between a hundred thousand overlapping arms and looking him in the eye.

As Daniel stared into the endless darkness, everything around him disappeared. Only there could the two of them speak privately, trapped in the world of a little music box, repeating the same distorted tune again and again.

“Ah, I finally see you there, little Soul Reaper, hiding behind a layer of pretence.” Cold sweat ran down Daniel’s back. It wasn’t talking about him. There was no way it could know.

“But it matters not if this is a world of memories. Nothing you or I do here will change what has already happened. The war for the world wages on and on until the fabric of my existence is erased.” It reached into his body, delicately wrapping its fingers around Daniel’s soul.

“What do you want?” he failed to keep the panic out of his voice.

“No. What do you want? I can offer you anything that you wish for - even bringing back the dead. Hm, no, that’s not it.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

A spider web of darkness spread through his soul, driving Daniel further and further into despair. His hands grasped his own neck and squeezed. The rest of his body didn’t resist.

“How sad. He has claimed you already,” the abomination said, withdrawing its hands as, from within the depths of his soul, a phantasmal scythe cleaved through the darkness.

“I don’t wish for anything. Just let me go, please,” he begged, his voice quivering, his body unable to move an inch. True fear rampaged through his mind in front of the eldritch abomination, and his soul was once again on the verge of shattering, only barely held together by the red river.

“Money? Power? Status? Love? No, it’s none of those,” it whispered, ignoring his desperate pleas.

“Ah, I’ve found it. It’s purpose that you so desperately seek, is it not?” Daniel’s mind denied everything it was saying, barely processing its words.

“In that case, I offer you to join me. I will grant you true immortality so you may pursue whatever your heart desires. Travel with me from world to world to experience sights you have never even imagined, wars that shatter planets, romances that would make even gods weep.”

He didn’t want to listen, but its words forced themselves into his brain, vividly conjuring images of the promised. The option was better than dying by its hands - no longer would he have to struggle for power, to live in squalor and poverty. For once in his life, Daniel could be free.

A tiny voice in his head whispered it was too good to be true, but it was squished in a moment, replaced by the sweet voice of temptation.

“All you have to do is stop resisting. I will plant a tiny seed inside of you from which the new you will be born.” Once again, it wrapped its arms around his soul, delicately infecting the healed cracks.

“I...”

Before he could finish the sentence, he was violently ripped out of the infinite darkness. Daniel’s body hit the ground with a heavy thud. Groaning at the pain, he blinked and looked up.

There, standing in front of him, was the proud figure of Kel’Tharia. At this moment, her back seemed wide enough to carry even a mountain.

“You pathetic WRETCH! I shall trap your soul to experience the worst this universe has to offer! Time and time you shall break down, begging me to kill you, but no such respite will ever come. When your mind shatters, I will piece it together, only to laugh when it does so again and again and again!”

The creature let out a deafening roar, its form twisting and elongating, absorbing each stray shadow into itself. It towered over them, each limb twice as big as Kel’Tharia, endlessly shifting. Like a python, an arm wrapped around her only to transform into a bottomless maw and bite down. Shadowy teeth met a barrier of radiance and cracked, dissipating into the wind.

“I’ll hold Vael off. Finish the ritual,” she said, clasping her hands together.

Beneath her feet, a glimmering magic circle began to expand, forcing every phantom to scatter or get absorbed into the ever-growing light. A pale halo covered Daniel as he continued to draw rune after rune. The process, which was over in a flash for Kel’Shatel, was now so excruciatingly slow.

One of the symbols shattered as Daniel hastily retreated, dodging monstrous limbs trying to impale him from above. They took on the forms of scythes and swung with reckless abandon such that there was nowhere left to dodge. He braced for the impact, but they merely bounced off the pale light, which refused to budge.

“Focus,” Kel’Tharia yelled, drawing forth a frightening amount of mana.

“Ritual of Eternal Light,” she calmly said as the magic circle beneath her feet flashed.

The world became radiant.

Only her protection prevented Daniel’s brain from melting or his becoming permanently blind. Every strange creature for miles disintegrated in an instant, and the Vael recoiled in horror, letting out the sound of a thousand spiders skittering. Then, it redoubled its assault.

“You can’t escape me, Soul Reaper! I shall find you no matter which world you escape to, and when I do, you will beg for death!” It shrieked as the ground exploded in a shower of shadowy needles, all pointed toward Daniel.

He closed his eyes, calming his thunderous heart, and drew the last symbol for the ritual. His voice followed Kel’Tharia and Kel’Shatel in a prayer. For just a moment, he felt their souls join together in a ritual much more powerful than he could manage alone.

“O Dreadful Lord of Death, The Guide of Souls,

I claim this land in your name.

To chase away the fake prophets,

And all those who shun your faith.

Let the souls live once again,

Beyond the gates of Life and Death. “

As they finished chanting the last syllable, the same gate he had seen dozens of times appeared mid-air - an arch of ethereal golden metal trapping an iridescent mirage of every colour he could behold. As if entranced, countless phantoms lined up before the gate, both malice and anger now contained.

As for the Vael, it emitted no more hateful shrieks or cursed laments. Despite that, Daniel’s soul shivered as he beheld cold fury in the retreating darkness, a hatred that would freeze oceans if it could.

“I thought I was enough to take you out into the Vael, but once again, I was mistaken. Forgive me, Kel’Val,” she kneeled next to him and embraced him in her arms. For a brief moment, Daniel forgot to even shiver.

“It will continue to chase after you, but that’s because you possess the most potential out of all of us. It fears you, Kel’Val.”

Considering the thing saw through his real soul, he doubted Kel’Val had succeeded. Then again, he had no clue how far back into the past this was, or if this body’s soul was even still alive.

“Next time, I will be the one to hunt it,” he said, immersing himself in the moment.

“I’m sure you will, but first, let’s treat your wounds. Your soul must still be shaken up. Here - a gift from me to you, to safeguard you during desperate moments,” she said, placing her palm on his heart.

Like sunshine, warmth spread through his weary and exhausted soul, and a small glimmer settled in the middle, chasing away the darkness from the Vael.

“Now, let’s go join the others. Congratulations. You’ve all passed,” she said, flashing them a brilliant smile.

And as they walked back, the world faded to black.

Skill acquired

Ritual of Sanctity (Rare)