Shadowbane

"Tsk..." Shana shook her head and leaned back against the wall.

"How close did you get this time?"

"Barely half the distance I covered the first time. They always find my clones and kill them with ease. Normally I'm good at evading attacks..." Shana said.

"Are they moving in this direction or was it by chance that they found your clones early this time?"

Shana closed her eyes, thinking about the question a bit before answering, "... I don't know. I didn't even see them this time until it was too late."

"The fog?" Markus asked, still in his praying pose.

Shana sighed, "Yes... It's getting thicker, and it's doing more than blocking my visuals. I can't sense anything through the fog."

Well, it's definitely not a normal fog then if it's also blocking our ability to sense mana signatures.

It's been almost a week since we revived Markus. In that time Shana has been trying to get close to the dig site with her clones, while Markus and Nisha pray to the artifact. For my part, I'm directly pouring mana into the artifact whenever my mana is capped. According to Arkaios, I'm horrible at praying. I was barely contributing when we were working to revive Markus. So for now I'm pouring mana into it directly so he can at least get the barrier up and running again. Sadly, we might be needing it soon, but it's nowhere near ready.

I planned on scouting out the digsite personally, but everyone asked me to wait. Once Nisha's whole crew is back and the temple is up and running again, they'll be able to set our reset points to the temple. Going out there before then would be rather stupid, so I agreed to wait. If I go out there and die, who knows how long it'll be before I revive again. They can't afford to lose me right now.

"Okay, close your eyes everyone," Markus said.

The same light show as last time plays out between Markus and the artifact. Once it's finished I can see Keith lying there on the ground. He slowly sits up and looks around the temple. Eventually, he looks down with a vexed expression on his face.

"... Damnit."

Markus laughed, "Don't worry about it kid! I'm sure my death was much stupider than yours was."

Keith shook his head and stood up. He approached the artifact and equipped himself through it just like Markus had before, however, his gear was rather lackluster in comparison. After that he sat down and heavily breathed in and out, preparing himself.

"Alright... where are we?"

Several more weeks went by and Keith's whole crew was finally back to the realm of the living. They're all going to stay behind and keep praying to the temple just in case we need the barrier or more reset points for others. We don't know what kind of condition Ishar is in after all.

"Rei." Markus waves me over.

I walk over and sit next to him. "Something happen?"

Markus nodded, "Arkaios has decided to do a full reset instead. Do you know what that means?"

"No?"

"Thought so. Basically, he's locking down this entire region. Everywhere from the portal you came in through, Shana's tree fort, the temple, and even the digsite, plus a few more miles in each direction. When he activates the reset, everything resets to the point it was at before, including inanimate objects."

"... Honestly, that sounds ridiculous. Can he really do that?"

Markus laughed, "Only for small areas. Normally it would require a temple to be in peak condition and for there to be at least fifty well-trained templars constantly praying to dissuade some of the costs required with such a feat. However, the most problematic part is the Eldritch and Demon threat. This power draws their attention, especially the Eldritch, because it requires Arkaios to siphon the moon's life force, which makes you enemy number one in their eyes."

"What about Terra'ka?"

"He also greatly disapproved of such an ability, but he didn't explicitly say not to use it."

He's probably more concerned with rooting out Xerath and Demonic corruption. Arkaios slowly killing any world he's on by siphoning its life force is also a problem, but there are times when it's necessary, like right now.

"Arkaios is going to start soon. You'll know when it's finished. After that, we want you to go scout out the digsite for us. Hopefully you can find Ishar too, but at the very least we need to know what is waiting for us over there." Markus said.

I'll know, huh? That means the enemy will probably know too. Assuming they even have intelligent thoughts at all.

Shana sits down to my right and rests her head against my shoulder. "I'll keep trying to get my clones closer to the digsite so they can back you up, but far from gaining ground, I'm losing them much faster as time goes on. Whatever is killing them is coming this way."

"Hmm... I think I'm going to follow one of your clones so I can see how and what is killing them."

"Good idea. I'll keep one on the ground---"

The air itself seems to ripple for a split second, followed by a loud cracking sound that echoes throughout the world around us.

"There's your cue." Markus continued, "Oh, I almost forgot. Only the people here will remember what happens between the resets, so if you find Ishar but end up needing to reset, he won't remember anything from the prior reset. The same goes for the creatures out there as well."

"If I bring Ishar back here, I assume Arkaios can make it so he also remembers what happens between the resets?"

Markus nodded.

Perfect. Now I see why he decided to do a full reset, which is basically the same as rewinding time. With the creatures getting closer, merely returning here alive wouldn't mean much if they are also learning from any encounters with me. Plus, this should prevent them from destroying the temple, unless Arkaios ends up running out of energy before we can kill them.

"One last question. How long will this reset last?"

Markus shrugged, "It depends. Setting a reset point drained some energy, but right now it's costing almost nothing. What does cost energy is the act of resetting. If we end up needing to do it a bunch of times back to back, that will be a major problem. Arkaios can only siphon so much from the moon to make up for what we are lacking in prayer."

Markus continued, "Also, uh... Not to worry everyone here, but there's another reason he never does full resets. Breaking causality to that degree will draw the attention of Meizha'thul and Eremnon. They won't notice it right away, but with every passing reset, we risk them turning their eyes toward us. It doesn't help that Eremnon just lost a bunch of Demons here, so he might even notice us much faster than he normally would."

Albel stopped praying and whipped his head around, "A-Are you being serious right now? What do we do if either one of them decides to assault this temple?"

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," Markus said.

In other words, he doesn't know. Not that I blame him. No one could possibly know how they'll 'deal' with us if they decide to attack us. And Arkaios is draining the moon, which means Meizha'thul has even more of a reason to want us dead.

Shana removes her head from my shoulder, allowing me to stand up. After that I wait for her to create more clones. I stare at Shana for a few minutes as she meditates, until eventually two clones split off from her. The second they both fully materialize they run out of the temple. Alright then, here we go...

I chase after the clone on the left, activating my aura after I'm outside the temple. The clone sprints from one tree to another, stopping only for a split second to peek out from behind a tree, scanning the area for enemies.

I doubt she can see very far though. The fog is unbelievably thick at this point... I didn't plan on following her from this distance, but I don't have much of a choice. I'm barely sixty feet behind her.

This continues for quite a while until a large spear hits the clone in the chest, pulling her deep into the fog. I immediately stop moving and stare forward, hoping to see something, but even my eyes can't pierce fog this thick. However, I can hear loud footsteps. It's something with a large stride that makes the ground shake as it walks... And that spear was bizarre. After it pierced Shana, claws came out of the end of the spear and dug into her back, allowing whatever speared her to pull her back towards it.

I wait until the footsteps are far enough away that I can no longer hear them. It went to the left, so I shouldn't need to worry about running into it...

I restart my sprint forward. Unlike my first trip through the forest, I no longer need to worry about the sun hitting me. Instead, I'm doing my best to avoid stepping on any twigs. My feet aren't very good at blocking the sound they emit when I step on them. Fortunately, I can still hear all the insects and wildlife that are associated with forests. It would've been even creepier if this place was completely silent.

An hour later I'm standing on one side of a river, watching the Lion creature drinking from the river on all fours. There are other creatures here too, but I can't fully make them out yet. They're just out of range through the fog. All I know is that they're as large as the Lion is. Shana said the digsite is on the other side of this river, so that explains why I'm suddenly seeing two enemies together after not seeing any up until this point. I heard a few on the way here, but they were pretty far away from me.

I walk along the river until I don't see any enemies on the other side. After that I hide behind a tree and enhance my legs. Once I'm ready, I jump over the river and continue my journey, except this time I move much slower.

It should be really close now. She said it wa---

I stop in my tracks as a vile but familiar feeling washes over me. I look up, and while I can only see fog, I know the presence that's currently up there looking down at the world below it. Eremnon's great eye.

How does he have enough influence here to manifest his eye in the sky?! I know this area was owned by Demons but still... I can feel him regarding me with curiosity. I don't know if he remembers me, but at the very least he finds my presence in this area to be quite interesting. The emotion I felt before he noticed me was pure hatred. Whatever is here, he doesn't seem to like it very much.

I pull my attention away from the eye in the sky and begin moving forward again. It doesn't take long for me to exit the trees, finding myself in a wide-open plain. And the digsite should be a little beyond this.

As I'm walking through the short grass, I can hear someone screaming in pain diagonally to my right.

Okay... The digsite is on the left side of the area, and the prison is on the right side. So whoever is screaming is in the prison. I suppose I should take it as a good sign that the people here are still alive, but it's hard to be overjoyed at the sounds of someone's bloodcurdling screams...

I turn and head straight for where the screams are originating from. An old stone building comes into view, but there is also a shaggy gray three-headed dog creature resting in front of the entrance. The 'dog' is forty meters tall and three times as long. Worst of all however, is the fact that it has no eyes. That's making me even more wary of it.

Hopefully it just has better hearing or sense of smell to compensate, but for an unknown creature like this, I bet the damned thing has an amazing detection ability. I'll try and see if I can walk around it, but if that fails I'll jump on top of the prison and look for another way inside.

I give the dog-monster a wide berth, walking toward the wall on the left side. After I reach it, I creep towards the entrance. I'm about halfway there when the dog's six ears all perk up at the same time. It raises all three of its heads and looks this way. They begin snarling as the dog stands up. God damnit, I knew it...

I leap backward repeatedly, creating more and more space between me and the creature. Immediately the dog stops snarling and leaps forward to where I was originally. One head begins sniffing the ground, while the other two look to and fro, trying to find me. Using this chance, I run around to the other side of the creature, giving it a wide berth again so it can't sense me. But apparently I was still close enough for it to sense me when I neared the gate. It whipped around and leaped for me, but I was already inside the prison by the time it jumped into the air. After it landed, all three of the heads began barking and snapping at the entrance behind me.

The inside is barely lit. There are a few torches on the walls going, but it's still rather dark inside. A man who was resting by the wall to my right stands up and walks toward the entrance. I move further inside to avoid him, but as I'm passing by him I get a good look at how disgusting he is. His body is completely ripped and riddled with scars, but everything about him feels *off,* just like the other creatures I've seen so far. As the man is looking up at the dog another man walks into the room from one of the connecting hallways. What the hell? He looks exactly like the other guy... Are they twins?

The new arrival looks between the man and the dog for a split second, before continuing on his way toward the hallway on the left side. I walk toward the hallway on the right(the one he first appeared from), peeking around the corner as I arrive. In both directions there is minimal lighting and only a door or two. I enter the hallway and jog through it until I reach the end. It turns to the left, but there's also a door here. The screams are coming from the left, but I'll check any doors I come across just in case.

I reach for the handle and it doesn't turn at all. Locked, of course. I could break it but I'll hold off for now.

I turn to the left and proceed deeper into the prison. Eventually the hallway opens up to a large room with two large cells on each side. I walk through the room and scan the cells, looking for anyone I recognize, and surprisingly, it's not just Ishar I find.

There's Ishar, sitting down with his back against the wall, looking just as horrified as everyone else in these cells. But that's not all. I see Greyson as well, the werewolf I encountered back in Thule.

More screams erupt from an area deeper in the prison, but this time it sounds much more clear. It must be close, maybe even in the next room over.

I walk up to Ishar's cell, and after one quick glance in both directions to check for enemies, I remove my aura. A few of the people jump back from the bars, while a few others freak out as well, causing Ishar and Greyson to look up.

"Ishar, Greyson," I whisper, waving them toward me.

Greyson looks confused, but Ishar's eyes nearly bulge out of his head. He stood up and ran over to me. "Rei?! How, how are you... No, never mind. I know how..." Ishar chuckled lightly, "You have no idea of how happy I am to see you... Do you know what is happening here?"

I shook my head, "Nope. I just arrived on this moon a few weeks ago. I brought Arkaios' relic with me and then found Shana and Nisha as well. We've already revived Keith's group and Markus, now we just need to break you out of here."

"... Best news I've heard in years." Ishar said in a way that almost made me tear up.

... Now that I see him up close, he's covered in scars and looking much thinner than the last time I saw him. His eyes are completely gaunt as well... Fucking Demons.

Another scream erupted from the next room over. Ishar jumped with the others and gripped the bars hard. "... There's a ghost-like spider taking us one by one into the room back there. I don't know what it does, but whoever is its victim for the day ends up screaming like that for about twenty hours before finally going silent. Fortunately, most of us are going to die of thirst before it's our turn." Ishar continued, "But now that you're here, we might actually be able to get out of here... How far away are the others?"

"About an hour in that direction." I pointed toward the temple. "... I don't think I can save everyone here Ishar. There is a bunch of building-sized creatures out there roaming around, and the entrance to this prison is guarded by a three-headed dog that we would struggle to beat."

Ishar looked around the cell. Fortunately, nobody was even listening to us, aside from Greyson, who was now standing up and walking over here.

"I remember now... You're that white-haired girl who killed Charles. Except your hair is black now it seems. You're here to save this Crotian? Didn't think I'd ever see the day that someone stuck their neck out for one of their kind..."

"Well... He is a friend, and I'd love to hear about how you two ended up here, but for now I need to get you out of here. How do I open these bars? I barely touched them and they began sapping my mana, so I already know that breaking them is impossible."

Ishar nodded, "You've seen bars like these before? This was my first time encountering them, so I don't know what they are, but we can't even dent them."

"Forget about that! Girl, go save my prince!" A man said from the cell behind me.

Greyson sighed, "The man the ghastly spider took was important to them." Greyson motioned toward the other cell, "Ignore them. Helping us is the same as helping them, so if they know what's good for them, they'll shut the fuck up and wait."

"She'll need to steal the keys from the guards, and who the hell knows which one has the keys. They all look the same now!" The man said.

Looking back, I saw that most of the people in the other cell were wearing the same type of garb that Shana wears. I think Ishar called her a ninja? So are these people all ninjas?

The ninja scowled, "Look, I'm going to make this simple for you. You either save our prince right now, or I'm going to shout for the guards. I saw you turn visible earlier. I don't know how you acquired such a powerful ability, but our people know better than anyone else that stealth abilities don't mean much if the enemy knows of your presence, and I will make sure they know you can turn invisible. Hopefully the spirit will turn its attention towards you and then you'll have no choice but to deal with it."

... This bitch.

Both Ishar and Greyson looked like they wanted to bite the Ninja's head off, but before I could decide on how to respond, I heard footsteps coming down the hallway opposite of where I came in. I quickly turned my aura back on and hid near the hallway I came in through. It didn't take long for me to see that the new arrival was one of the guards I saw at the entrance. Probably the one who was patrolling the hallways.

"Ten seconds girl." The ninja said, making the guard glance at him for a second as it walked by their cage.

Fucking ninja. Do whatever you want. I'm not saving your prince.

The guard turned left, walking past Ishar's cage and straight ahead from where I am.

The ninja clicked his tongue, "So be it. GUARD! THERE'S AN INTRUDER HERE AND SHE CAN TURN INVISIBLE!!"

The guard stopped and merely looked at the ninja for a second before it continued walking forward again.

Did the guard think he was lying...? It didn't seem like that though. If anything, it looked like he couldn't even comprehend what the ninja was saying.

A sharp whistling sound passed through the room, making everyone in the cells hit the ground. Ishar and Greyson were doing their best to hold their composure, but they were clearly struggling, and I could understand why. Multiple green ethereal human hands crawled through the wall Ishar's cell was connected to. They stuck to the ceiling, pulling themselves forward until the spider's torso finally appeared. The creature itself was built like an arachnid, but its limbs ended in human hands, and the entire creature was ethereal to the point that I could see the ceiling behind it. Three large human eyes swirled around its torso, scanning the room every which way.

Is it looking for me? The guards couldn't understand the ninja, but this thing apparently can...

Eventually, all three eyes stop on the ninja who yelled out.

"S-She's really here! She was talking to those two right there!" He pointed towards Ishar and Greyson. The spider's eyes regarded them for a few seconds. After that, it seemed to either lose interest or decided I wasn't worth the trouble. Instead, it grabbed the ninja, pulling him through the bars and dragging him into the back room. I heard the ninja whimper out a 'No, please...' before he disappeared.

It made the ninja ethereal too... That's one hell of a problematic ability. It's already a threat by itself, but if it can make its allies walk through walls, then nowhere is going to feel safe. Attacks could come from literally anywhere... Putting aside the ninja and his prince, we do need to kill this creature. It'll make everything from here on out a nightmare to deal with if we don't.

Soon after that, both the ninja and his prince began screaming. The remaining ninjas looked like they were completely broken. A few looked angry, but the rest had tears rolling down their faces as they tried to cover their ears. I waited a few minutes before walking back to Ishar's cage and speaking to him with my veil still up. No need to remove it now. He already knows I'm here.

"So if I heard that correctly earlier, one of the guards has the keys?"

Ishar nodded, "Yes, but hell if any of us know which ones have them. The guards all changed after these creatures took over. Now they're just mindless minions who continue to 'guard' the prison and nothing more. They all look the same now too, so I have no idea of which one the warden is. He had a big keyring hanging off his belt, look for a guard with one of those."

I went to reply to Ishar but I could feel my body go into fight or flight mode. Unsure of why I suddenly felt eyes on me, I looked around until I saw it. One of the spider's human hands were poking through the wall near the ceiling with its palm facing me, and on its palm was one of its eyes I saw earlier. However, this time, the eye was shining a bright gold. I felt nothing enveloping or piercing my veil, but somehow I knew the creature could see me, or at the very least see some part of me, like my veil itself.

Testing it, I moved to the right a little and the palm tracked me to the right. Upon seeing this I immediately turned and ran back the way I came in, but the spider was on top of me nearly instantly. The second its hands grabbed me I knew why everyone it took into the backroom ended up screaming in agony. The spider's soul locked onto my core and began to siphon from it directly. It hurt a little at first but it quickly ramped up to the point that even I was going to start screaming.

Just as I was about to reach that point, I found myself back in the temple with Shana leaning her head against my shoulder.