Shadowbane

I stab the hamburger with a fork and bring it up to my mouth. After a brief hesitation, I bite down on it.

... Oh? I still have no idea of how long I've been dead, so I expected the meat in her giant freezer to all have gone bad, but this is still delicious. Can meat freeze forever? If that's true, then that's amazing and something I need to remember for the future.

I chew on the salt and ketchup infused hamburger while gazing out at Viseux. I'm outside in Aresa's gazebo right now, hoping I won't see anything moving in town while I eat and read Fin's diary. So far everything is exactly the same. The only thing I can see and hear is the pulsing of those monuments, which is starting to get on my nerves.

Alright, let's see what, uh... I forgot his name it seems. Yuki's brother, the one who translated this for me. Kind of rude of me, but eh, it is what it is. Anyways, let's see what he wrote down for me.

I slide the plate out of the way and bring the binder over. Flipping it open I find about three and a half pages in neat handwriting.

~Fin's Diary~

Reimia(white one), this wasn't an easy code to break but it wasn't super hard either, so I'm nearly certain everything written here is one hundred percent accurate. It starts from the next line:

I escaped... How long was I trapped there? I don't even know where I am nor why I'm writing in a fucking diary. Feni said writing in a diary helped her after we had rescued her from Kellog's prisons. I really doubt this will help, but I might as well try. I have no one left to talk to after all...

Ash... That fucking limpdick freak blamed us for Xelba falling. Or to be more specific, he blamed me. 'Why didn't you trap her in one of your shadows?!' he yelled the second we returned to Jericho. Does it fucking matter? I didn't know nor did I care why Rei had suddenly decided to go on a massacre inside the city while all our warriors were out repelling the siege.

Although, the fact that I hadn't seen her unit for months gives me a pretty good idea as to why she had rebelled. We'd all heard the rumors about what happens to any units who try and remove the cursed marks, and I'd also heard that Rei had figured out how to remove them from her unit, so... It's really not hard to put two and two together. There's no way Viktor, Ash, or anyone else in power was going to let that slide.

Regardless, Ash, that little shit acted like it was our duty to stop her. Technically it was... But that's only because we had no idea Viktor and the Xerath were still inside Xelba. Ash had told us weeks before that the Xerath had been moved to Jericho so we could begin phase two, so if anyone was at fault, it was him for lying to us. And that's exactly what our leader said to him. The next thing I knew we were all in the dungeon... And that's where I had been this entire time.

One by one I watched my unit, my friends... Die. Most died during the torture, but a few had merely just... Died. Lack of food, water, and medicine will do that. None of us understood why we were there, but I held out hope that Viktor would return and find out that Ash had lost his fucking mind. And yet, that time never came... Time and again the Tengu reached out to me, offering his aid, and I refused every time. I stupidly believed Viktor would save us, but that all came to an end when I saw them drag in another unit from Xelba, chaining them up with the rest of us.

Apparently, we were all loose ends. Well, everyone but my unit and one other was... Viktor said to keep us alive, but Ash took it upon himself to kill us anyway. It was then, that I allowed the Tengu to corrupt me, except... He didn't. I was told that even with an infusion from him it'd be a miracle if I killed Ash. So instead, he taught me several different diagrams for chaos magic. One would summon a Satyr, while useful, it wouldn't quite be what I needed.

There was another for a far more sinister Demon. You become its puppet and share your abilities with it, but it can level entire nations if it's given enough time and sacrifices. The Tengu said it was very capricious so it could cause some problems here and there, but if I support it properly, I should be able to destroy Jericho.

Except I needed an ungodly amount of souls to transfer the creature over and I needed the corruption level to be at a certain percent before the ritual would even work. I had never heard such a phrase before, but that basically meant I had to wait, which was very aggravating.

With nothing but time on my hands, I was able to hide the ritual under the city of Glassdow, where I had slowly sacrificed people over the years. You don't need to do it all at once, and since I had the time, I did it one person at a time. Thanks to this, no one ever caught on to what I was doing, and it's amazing how fast people will sell others for the right price. I had mostly powered the ritual by myself, but the Tengu told me recently that the corruption level had finally reached what I needed, so I decided to risk it and just buy some humans.

Whether anyone caught on or not I have no idea, as I'm about to finish the ritual now regardless. I've been told I won't be myself anymore after I summon this Dedrasi, but it'll be worth it to kill Ash and everyone else in Jericho. After this, the Dedrasi will require a large amount of sacrifices before it's powerful enough to unleash its special magic on Jericho. And gathering them shouldn't be an issue. The Dedrasi and I will channel on rituals underneath villages until it reaches the point that it's ready to attack Jericho. Once it is about ninety percent ready, it can no longer cast high-tier magic or channel onto anything like ritual marks until it uses its special magic.

According to the Tengu, the Dedrasi's spell will quite literally make everyone in Jericho explode from the inside out. We'll still need to create the chaos marks around the city, but I know Jericho in and out, so that part shouldn't fail. I can only hope that Viktor is there as well, but he probably won't be given how long it's been... Ash however, I know he'll be there. He can't leave until it's time to initiate the final phase of the plan. I just hope I make it in time...

Ahh, it's just now hitting me... I'm doing the same thing Rei did all those years ago.

~Reimia POV~

.............

I lean back in my seat, gazing out at the city, letting the words I just read ruminate in my head for a while.

... Jericho. So that's the city south of Xelba? How the hell did they build a city in the darklands without anyone knowing? I thought I was keeping track of Viktor and Ash's movements, but there were plenty of times I needed to leave so I sadly didn't know everything they did... Even so, this is still hard to accept.

Up to this point, all signs were pointing to there being another city of Viktor's on the other side of the mountains, but it just seemed so damned implausible that I couldn't shake all my doubts about that theory. And yet, if Fin's diary(or the translation) is to be believed, that's literally what happened.

I can see why Fin was surprised that Viktor was still in Xelba during the siege. Even I was surprised when I saw him fighting one of the nobles leading the cursed Lords. I knew he wanted them dead, which is why he was relying on my assistance under the guise of allowing my unit to leave for Gaia when we succeeded. Which I didn't fully believe, and that's why I looked for ways to break the curse, and that resulted in the Lords finding out somehow... The next thing I knew, we were being ambushed by several other units and stabbed with those knives. I, Simon, and Nera all managed to escape, and then we did our best to save the others, but our rescue attempt failed miserably...

I sigh, stabbing the last of my hamburgers and shoving it into my mouth. I make short work of it and immediately walk outside the chateau, heading straight for city hall. On the way I see no monsters or Xerath as usual. Upon reaching city hall I duck into the alley where I initially gained entry to the building.

Okay... I can't activate this tracking ability with my aura up, so this will be my first time removing my aura outside of Aresa's home. I hope these damned monuments don't have visual detectors on them, at least not very good ones.

I remove my aura and immediately activate my tracking ability. I focus it on Ishar's soul and sure enough, he pops up at the last known sighting of him in this area, but it's kind of far away.

The range on this ability is pretty amazing, but I think I get why he's way over there. His 'last known' location in the tracker's range would be just as he's leaving the tracker's range. Let's see if I can...

I focus on the ability, attempting to shrink the area it's scanning. It takes me a few minutes but I eventually figure it out and shrink it all the way down until it's just outside the alley. The silhouette of Ishar is looking backward and up at the sky with his arms outstretched as if he's preparing for battle.

So this is him when the invasion began...

I extend the range a little, which shows Ishar with his spear out battling an empty space. The more I extend it, the more I see him trying to fight his way toward Aresa's chateau, but eventually, the ability shows him face down on the ground. Strangely enough, the more I extend it, the more I see that he wasn't devoured like everyone else was.

He's being dragged away...? His arms are held out at his sides as if there is two people carrying him from both sides. His feet and tail are sliding along the ground while his head is completely slumped over. He's obviously not conscious, or doing a damn good job of pretending he isn't.

Very strange... When I was running through Viseux the Xerath were devouring everyone. Yet here he is, being carried away by two beings that appear to be human-sized. The only idea that comes to mind is that the people of this 'Jericho' knew about him being an ally of mine, and wanted to capture him to find me... Maybe? That feels like a stretch, but I don't know what other reason they'd have for keeping him alive while slaughtering everyone else. In that case, I need to see what happened to Shana and Nisha. Maybe they were captured too.

I deactivate the spell and put my aura back up. I head south through some back streets while praying I'm moving in the right direction. I only went to the temple once, but I think it was in this direction?

After about an hour I finally find it. Just like Aresa's chateau, the temple is in pristine condition, completely untouched.

Heh, I'm not surprised. With the amount of templars praying here and Arkaios channeling through it, it'd take ages to break through this barrier, and there's just no point. Even if there was somebody inside of here, they'd have to come out for food eventually. So the Xerath expending themselves to break into here would be a waste of time.

I walk closer to the temple until I sense something in front of me. I reach out and touch the barrier. One emotion after another flares to life upon contact. Pure shock, confusion, acceptance, joy, and finally an overwhelming desire for me to enter. Immediately I feel the barrier give way, allowing me entry. I walk through the barrier and open the front door, revealing an interior that's just as clean as Aresa's chateau is.

I wonder if these places of worship stay clean by default so long as they have... Prayer power? I don't even know what to call it. I'll have to ask Aresa when I see her again. Whenever that is...

There are small blue lights leading me forward that stop at the artifact sitting on the altar in the back of the temple. I reach the artifact and grab it with both hands. Immediately, I can feel Arkaios touch my soul and mind much more closely.

{Alive again... The most resilient of my children.}

"Your children?"

{You must hurry. I only have a vague understanding of where Nisha is, but at this point only she can revive the others.}

You're not going to answer the 'children' part huh...

"What about Markus and the other templars? The bishops too?"

{All gone... Markus was here but fled in a rage when he realized all of my other worshipers had been slain. He never returned.}

Oh right, I completely forgot that Keith wanted me to find the templars down in the prisons. When I was with Markus he never mentioned them so I figured he must have known something I didn't, but apparently he thought they were all still back in the temple?

"Where is Nisha? On Urza somewhere?"

{No. She was taken far to the south. I can only ping her soul if she is not interacting with one of my artifacts or near a temple of mine. So all I know is that she was surrounded by Xerath for several years, but suddenly she was transported to another moon where she is now surrounded by Demons.}

"Demons?! How the hell did that happen? Viktor no longer had a use for the Demons after he got everything he needed from the Xerath's realm. I know they wanted to keep him on a leash, but there's no way that egomaniac would allow himself to be used as a pawn of theirs again. Not after I helped the fucker escape them once."

{Unknown, but it did not seem like a friendly exchange. The amount of Xerath, humanoid creatures, werewolves, and Demons that appeared and disappeared around her was going up and down at a alarming rate, suggesting a battle of some sort.}

"Werewolves too, what the hell..."

{Her soul is fine right now, so she is not in danger, but she hasn't moved in quite a while. Whenever I've pinged her the past half a year, eighty percent of the time it's Demons around her, but there have also been Eldritch Lords, and that Kitsune ally of yours.}

"Shana is there too?! Oh thank god so she's safe as well... Now I just need to find Ishar."

{The Crotia, yes? He was in the same area as Nisha during the Demon battle and when they were on the other moon, but soon after that he disappeared and was replaced by the Kitsune.}

"Hmm... Did he hand her off to Shana and go somewhere else? Regardless, I think I know everything I need to proceed. Thank you Lord Arkaios."

I get on my knees and enter a prayer pose.

{... So diligent, unlike my other children who only care for gadgets and technology now. But that too, is my fault.}

"How are you talking to me, I thought I needed to touch the artifact? Also, by children you don't mean the Elves, do you?!"

{Once you have touched the artifact inside my temple, I can speak to you thereafter. So long as you remain inside the temple, that is.}

Bah, ignoring the damn children comment again. He had to mean the Elves though... Who else is obsessed with technology and gadgets? I suppose it could be races from another planet or moon that I know nothing about, but since he calls me one of his children, connecting the dots toward Elves makes the most sense.

{You are going to leave soon, yes? Take the artifact with you. It's necessary to bring back Keith, Lindon, Albel, Markus, and all of my templars associated with this specific temple.}

So their souls are anchored to this artifact, basically. Well shit, this thing is like two feet tall and kind of heavy. I really don't want to bring it, but it's obviously necessary, so time to just shut up and deal with it.

I make the back of my armor sticky and back up into the artifact, sticking it behind me like a backpack, replacing the diary that was there before(I left it in the chateau for Aresa to read someday).

"Can you still talk to me through the artifact once I leave the temple?"

{Yes, and no. It becomes much more difficult. Expect broken sentences and maybe only emotions.}

"So it'll be like talking to the Lizardmen, understood."

{................}

I activate my aura and walk out of the temple, heading straight for Aresa's chateau.

About a day later I'm finally ready. I stuffed myself with meat, rested to the max, and reinforced my armor the best I could.

I look around at the inside of the chateau one last time, feeling an overwhelming level of sadness for something I've barely known.

It's the memories of being here with everyone... One day I hope to return here with Aresa and everyone else. I can only pray that it happens...

I finally turn around and walk out the front door, exiting the barrier soon after. With one last glance, I look back at the chateau and say my goodbyes.

Alright... This part is going to be a major pain in the ass.

I'm south of Viseux, standing near the outer wall. Looking around, I see no monsters or Xerath in sight so I remove my aura and activate the tracker ability at max range.

Bah, no Ishar. I have no idea where he was dragged to and there's like ten fucking exits out of this place going south.

Over the course of an hour I check several different exits before I finally see Ishar's silhouette which appears to be lying down in midair.

Hmm, probably a wagon? It makes sense that they wouldn't drag him while walking the whole way.

I remove the tracker and put my aura back up. Once I'm safe again I begin to walk down the road, the very same road that we traveled to come and go from Kellog.

The fastest route to Xelba would probably be through Kellog... I just hope the fortress is abandoned and the gates are opened. From the looks of things everything is dead and abandoned, so I imagine the fortress will be too. I'm just guessing here, but I believe my first real struggle will appear when I reach the mountains behind Xelba...