Shadowbane

... We'll never be able to kill whatever the hell this is. There's no other choice, we're going to need to find another way out of here. I don't know how, but truly, there just... Is no other choice. Unless...

I looked around and noticed that the fog was suspiciously absent from this cavern. I suppose another monster could be responsible for trapping everyone here... I'll keep scouting the caverns just in case, but it's looking like we'll need a different plan going forward.

Down below I saw the spider reach the ground before it sped through a nearby hole in the wall. That's the direction the marble building was in, it must be planning to attack the others from behind. They're going to need my help then, and fast.

I crawled on all fours along the roof, following the same trajectory as the spider until I reached the exit below. I ran forward, entering a long tunnel that eventually opened up into a pure white marble room. Inside there was a massive set of stairs going up, and I could even see the spider about ten floors above me, but it currently wasn't moving, and it definitely wasn't fighting anything. That's odd... Why isn't it hunting the others?

I ran up the steps until I was only a few floors below the spider. What is it doing...?

The spider was on the stairs, using eyes on its palms to scan the top floor, but that's all it was doing. It's at the top level, so it should have ran into the others by now. But if the spider can't find them then maybe they fled through another exit...?

About a minute later the spider put its hands down and crawled up the rest of the stairs. I followed after it, crawling on all fours until I reached the top. Upon reaching the last step, I peeked up and saw the spider through the building's entrances as it walked around outside with its palm-eyes darting back and forth. It was clearly looking for something.

... Everything about this scene is wrong. Where are the trees? The Crotian-creatures? The casters... Why the hell is everything back to---

And that's when it hit me.

Why everyone was gone.

Why the spider looked just as confused as I currently was.

Arkaios must have activated the reset... But I and the spider were left behind? Is it because we were underground? Or maybe it's because we were near that thing...

Eventually the spider walked away toward the left, leaving my view completely. It must have given up. Without knowledge of Arkaios or the reset, it has to be infinitely more confused than I am right now.

I walked toward a marble bench against the wall and laid down on it. I meditated for a little bit, attempting to push away the aura encompassing my core, but I was barely able to alleviate the fear I was feeling. And it's not just that. I'm starting to feel heavy as well...

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

... Okay, what should I do? I could wait for my allies to come back, but now that I know the most powerful being in this place is far stronger than anything we could ever hope to beat, we'll either need to pray something else is preventing us from leaving, or find another avenue of escape.

Either way, we need to find something, which isn't easy when we're running around as a group while fighting constantly. So it's pretty clear what I should be doing right now. But it's... Risky. Checking underground means if anyone dies down there, they're gone for good, since Arkaios won't be able to save them. Shana's clones could go too, but... No, she'll have a much harder time. An old god like Arkaios lost contact with me underground, so there's no way she'll be able to retain control of her clones down there. The most obvious option is that I need to be the one to check the underground for anything of value. At least if I die, I'll come back one day. The others won't be so fortunate. Even the branded crew will be lost for good, since the tether Arkaios has them on will break when they come underground. Maybe that's why he activated the reset? He probably felt his connection to them breaking when they reached the underground.

I got off the bench and began walking down the stairs. Yeah, I need to be the one who scouts out the underground. I can't risk the others dying down here...

The city was completely silent, as were my footsteps. The only thing I could hear was the loud echo of something cracking from below me. Once I reached the bottom I walked into the cavern again, but this time I had a purpose. That large building in the center platform is extremely suspicious. It's the only thing in here besides three long wooden bridges connecting to different exits out of here.

Whatever was coating the arms continued to crack and crumble as I strode toward the home in front of me. Some of the crumbled bits even fell past me, only a dozen or so feet to my right. A strange odor hit me as they did. It didn't smell all that bad, but I still felt like I never wanted to smell that odor ever again.

After stepping off the bridge and onto the platform, I stopped for a moment to marvel at the building in front of me. It's made of pure white marble just like the building behind me. They're both of a much higher quality than any of the homes I've seen up until this point.

I walked up the building's steps to one set of its three double doors and pushed them open. The room was pitch black at first, but by the time the doors had fully opened, the room was fully lit. However, I couldn't see anything inside that could be considered a light source.

Moments later my aura was ripped off as an ivory monster's head appeared in front of me. I jumped back in response, preparing to fight, but the creature just tilted its head at me in confusion. That's when I noticed that while it had one of the creepiest heads I had ever seen, its body was that of a human girl, and she(?) was wearing a pure black dress.

The... Girl, continued to tilt her head at me, clearly not understanding why I had just fled from her. She could have done some serious damage to me if she wanted, that's how fast her ambush was, but... She didn't. I really need to know what is inside this building, and she's the only monster down here who hasn't attacked us yet, so...

I forced myself to relax and walked up to the girl. "Sorry about that, you took me by surprise there, so I kind of panicked." And you stripped my aura... As if I wasn't frightened enough as it is. I hate not having access to my aura damnit...

The girl's strange monsterous eyes closed in a way that made them curve upwards. Their appearance made her look like she was smiling. In fact I was almost positive she was smiling.

"ጎፕ'ነ ዐኡልሃ!" she said as she bowed. After that, she motioned for me to come inside.

I think she said 'It's okay', but it was really hard to understand. It sounded like three people said it back to back and with three entirely different tones.

I entered the building, and the first thought that came to my mind was museum. The inside was like an exhibit, except at the center there was something sticking up from a hole in the floor, and there were hundreds of archaic-looking pillows surrounding it. The thing in the middle is a fleshy round ball, or at least half of it is. I don't know what the rest of it looks like below that hole.

The girl made no further motion, she just stared at me as if waiting for me to do something. Well, I don't know what she wants, so I guess I'll just have a look around the room.

I walked over to the back left corner of the room. There is one long mural on the wall back here, and there is podiums here and there with books on top of them. I'm guessing those are for when you want more context on that specific part of the mural? I've never actually been inside of a museum before. I only remember seeing them on TV and my Uncle ranting about one of them.

Immediately, I recognized the creatures depicted at the start of the mural. It's the Crotia... So we were right. They're bigger and a little scarier looking than the Ishars of today, but these must be his ancestors.

At first, the mural depicted the Crotia living completely ordinary lives. Farming, eating, breeding, and surprisingly, no hint of war. Or they just didn't show it on the mural. The next part of the mural showed the Crotia finding a massive underground cavern, and soon after that, they were building a great city inside that very same cavern. They flocked there in great numbers, all lining up to worship something that rested deep inside of Veca. Something with many hands, and many eyes.

The underground city was barely ten percent finished when the mural showed something new. A fleet of large metal vehicles came down from the sky, and what exited them was the creature I saw inscribed in the home I left Nisha inside of. Their ships were barely functional. They were heavily damaged as if something had been attacking them, and the aliens themselves were also gravely wounded. The Crotia took them in and gave them homes while they recuperated and attempted to repair their vehicles.

However, the aliens soon found themselves enthralled by the creature the Crotia were worshipping. That from the abyss soon became their everything. The mural showed the aliens destroying their vehicles, grinding them into dust before they joined the Crotian society, all choosing to live underground with their new god. This part of the mural ends with the God of the Abyss spawning multiple smaller gods.

I flipped open the first book. It showed that there were dozens of major and minor gods, but none of them had entered this realm. They had all remained in the abyss with their god, spreading their influence from there. Some of them however would create splinters of themselves and send them into this realm, but their purpose was unknown to me.

The next pages showed images of planes with circles around them. Words I could not read surrounded each circle. They each pointed to different parts of the circles as they explained something I couldn't understand.

Fortunately, the next page had illustrations, and the second I saw them my whole body froze. Next to one of the circles, there were several drawings of monsters that were molding Crotia and other aliens into their own image. The next plane's illustrations showed a large eye in the sky, and most of the creatures below it had horns or spikes on their different colored bodies, but most of them were red. The last plane was filled with faceless creatures who were forcing different races to love and obey them as they waged war on one another in their never-ending drive to feed and grow stronger.

There were also small images of the gods of the abyss with lines next to them pointing toward the different planes. Did they attack the Eldritch, Demon, and Xerathian planes? And just how long ago was this... Ishar was clearly surprised by the existence of the Crotia down here, and he's a well-renowned warrior in his tribe, so if his elders knew about this place, they probably wouldn't have kept it from him. Odds are Terra'ka does know though, he looks like he's on the verge of becoming an old god, so he has to be unbelievably old.

I closed the book and moved to the next part of the mural. Large parts of it were depicting different main gods, and there was a book in front of each god that explained everything about that specific one. Not that I can read any of this.

One of the books showed a god bestowing something upon animals. There was an image showing the god placing a golden aura around animals, which was making them happy, but I did not know if it served any other purpose. However, the next image did look familiar. It showed the god turning regular animals into monsters. None of them had any eyes, but they were all given different abilities and very powerful detection powers. That explains the cat and three-headed dog monster we fought...

Each god seemed to signify something special and important. The first major god made sure that all souls from our world did not reach the Eldritch realm. It even illustrates a planet-shaped Eldritch stealing souls from our realm, and it showed how this god prevented that from happening. The next god is shown intertwined with the first, she took those souls and created new life from them. A god of weather was next, and a god of harvest, and so on.

It continued like that until it reached the minor gods. Those ones however proved hard to understand from the illustrations alone. They looked hyper-specific in design, and most of them just didn't make any sense. Oh, I know this one though... There's a minor god who, shockingly, looks human. She has black hair and pure white eyes with blood dripping out of them. There's even an illustration of her turning the bodies of the dead into puppets.

There's also a minor god who looked like he was purely built for war. A large lion who commanded armies of smaller lions who looked just like him. Their swords are serrated but I don't see any of the wriggling tentacles or leeches that we encountered. It's either another god who did that, or... Well, I'm honestly not sure.

As I'm flipping through the book I come upon one that makes my core ache. A tall slender god is standing in the illustration, wearing a black hooded one-piece that covered its entire body. Its face couldn't be seen. There was only darkness inside of its hood, signifying it was more attuned to the god of the abyss than most of the others were. One part of the book showed the god turning bones into skeletons. It also depicted this god as one that supported the lion.

Battles are illustrated side by side. They show the lion slaying hordes of enemies while the black god supports him from behind. She is turning the bodies of their enemies into allies, and sending in invisible spies to collect information. Next, it showed the black god draping black cloth everywhere as it turned an entire area into an impenetrable maze.

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

In a panic, I returned to the first book and flipped it open to the page depicting the realms. Next to the Xerath realm there were four minor gods depicted. The lion was the first. The next one was a god I was unsure of as it only showed food around him and a connection to the main god of harvest. The third was the puppet god who looked like a human girl. And the last... Was the black hooded god.

... I... Know what this means, but...

The monster girl grabbed me and guided me toward some benches built into the walls. She sat me down and then stepped six feet away from me, returning to the stance she had up until now. Holding her hands in front of herself while closing her eyes, waiting for me to need her in some capacity.

I rested my head against the wall and closed my eyes.

... I don't understand. Even if that black god was in the Xerath realm, how did...

I froze again, unwilling to contemplate the rest. I sat there for a long time in silence, maybe a bit too long, before I finally opened my eyes and looked at the monster girl.

"... Is it your job to show people around this place?"

The girl had not expected me to talk to her, so at first she opened her eyes in surprise, but then she quickly placed her hands together as her eyes smiled at me again. "ሃቹነ! ጎ ነⶴዐሠ ልረረ ሠⶴዐ ሠጎነⶴ ፕዐ ረቹልዪክ ፕⶴቹ ፏዪቹልፕክቹነነ ዐቻ ፕⶴቹ ጮልነፕቹዪነ! ፕⶴቹጎዪ ፱ክጋሃጎክፏ ረዐህቹ... ሠቹ ልረረ ጮ፱ነፕ ነፕዪጎህቹ ፕዐ ነቹዪህቹ ልክጋ ፱ክጋቹዪነፕልክጋ ፕⶴቹጮ."

Past the 'Yes!" I understood absolutely nothing else she said. She seems happy that I talked to her though, so it's still a victory I suppose.

...........

... It's just so hard to accept. I'm happy to know what changed me, I really am, but the truth is... I never actually expected to find any answers related to myself. After all, it seemed impossible. The Xerath realm is a place I never want to return to, and even if I did... Then what? Only war and misery awaits me there. And it's definitely not the kind of place I could bring people to investigate my origins. Which I kind of still need to do if I ever want to fully understand what happened. Merely knowing the existence of the god I was corrupted by is only half of what I want to know. There was nothing in my little cave I called home that suggested a black god from the abyss lived there damnit. And it wasn't a fast transition, it took a long time, so it's not as if the god took me by surprise while I slept and then left before I saw it. So how the hell...

I stood up and went back to the book. The last information on the black god was mostly in text form, but there was one illustration of a halo with lots of text underneath it. I've never had a halo before now though? Is it an ability I have yet to unlock? Hmm... It could also be something that only the god has access to.

"Hey, do you know how I can use this?" I pointlessly asked the monster girl.

The girl walked over and glanced at where I was pointing. She then looked at me and nodded before she sat down cross-legged. After that, she closed her eyes and went still.

... I think she's pretending to enter her soul realm, but I already know that's where most people unlock abilities, so this doesn't help me much. Although... Hmm, I did unlock one active and one passive ability back in Xelba. However, I was never been able to figure out how to activate them. Could this halo be one of them? If it is, and now that I know exactly what the ability is, just maybe I could...

...........

I sat down next to the monster girl and prepared to enter my soul realm, but before I could she reached out and rested one of her hands on mine. Oh? She wants to enter my realm? Normally this would be a stupid idea, but somehow I know that she isn't out to harm me.

I entered my soul realm and pulled her in with me. She looked around the environment and nodded at the Xerath popping out of the ground. So it makes sense to her that she'd see Xerath here, huh... That's just further proof of my origins.

I focused on my mana and tried to create a halo with it using the dormant ability, but nothing happened. Next, I tried it with the passive, but yet again... Nothing... Oh well, it was worth a shot.

The monster girl, having noticed I had just given up, came over and shook her head at me. She then pointed at me before motioning her hands all around me, and then she ended her instructions by pointing above my head. Hmm...

I closed my eyes and thought about it for a bit, but the only idea that came to me was my aura. That's the only thing that goes 'All around me' after all. I'm supposed to use that to create the halo? But I won't be able to turn invisible if I do that... And everyone will be able to sense me again. I'm still going to try it since I'd like to know what kind of powers the halo brings, but ugh, I hate the idea of losing my aura.

Once again I focused on both my mana and the untapped ability, but this time I also brought out my veil. Barely one second into channeling all three into the vision of a halo was all it took. I felt the ability activate as my veil took its new rightful place above my head.

"Holy shit, it actually worked! Thank you, mon---Girl!"

The girl's eyes smiled again as she happily clapped for me.

After that, I spent the next ten minutes testing out my new ability. I only needed three or four actually, as it was rather simple in function, but it's always best to err on the side of caution with new abilities or spells.

The halo basically allowed me to operate as if I was always over-enhanced. My strength and speed were phenomenal, as was the defensive power of my armor thanks to my new strength, but there were a few drawbacks.

Lack of invisibility is the obvious one, but the next one is also problematic. The longer I use this ability, the harder I'm hit with the consequences of over-enhancing. From what I can tell, the halo greatly limits the damage over-enhancing does to you, but there is still some, and it adds up. Once I remove the halo, I'm hit with all of the reactionary damage at once. I need to be really careful with this ability going forward. Any random nobody will be able to finish me off if I overuse it and end up lying on the ground helplessly.

I exited my soul realm, but not before noticing that the Tengu's connection was currently inert. So even he can't penetrate the area this god resides in. And speaking of the god...

I went back to the first book about the gods and flipped open to the first page. At first I only thought it was kind of strange, but now I feel a certain deep-seated horror when I look at this page. The multi-arm god reaching out from the abyss has no text, nor does it have a name. It's just a single illustration that shows arms reaching out from the abyss, with a dozen large eyes just barely peeking out from the darkness.

I walked to the last book again, scanning over the Black God's pages in the hopes I might be able to understand the text, but like everything else, it was just a bunch of symbols. A language I knew nothing about. I flipped open to the next page and felt a sense of dread, and that's when I realized that everything about the next ten pages had a completely different aura. The pages were darker, and there were more illustrations that were all unbelievably creepy. The first god on the new list was especially disturbing.

It's a god made of wood with a single eye on the middle of its face. It looks disturbingly happy, but everything about it is making me feel ill, including its joyous attitude. The rest of the illustrations are of the god and its creations fiddling with the bodies of all sorts of different living beings. One drawing is of a horse going through several stages of alteration as they take it apart and change it. The final product is something the god is happily presenting, but the horse is so vile-looking that I can't imagine anyone would be happy with what he turned it into. Seriously, this fucking god makes me sick.

Unable to look at any more of that god, I skipped to the next one, which only had a few illustrations. I could only see his head, which looked like a mix of hardened sinew and black smoke. He also had an innumerous amount of eyes on his head, but that's all we were allowed to see of him. There were a few illustrations of Humans and Crotia on his page too, but I wasn't able to understand what any of it meant. It showed two Humans standing next to each other with arrows pointing from one similar-looking Human to the next. As I was unable to read the text, it was impossible for me to discern any more info regarding this god.

Oh, she's been really helpful so far, so I wonder if she'll answer this?

"Um, do you know what is creating the fog that's covering the entire area down here and above ground?"

The girl nodded and presented the fleshy ball in the middle of the room with her hands. She then sat with her knees on one of the pillows and motioned for me to sit next to her. I did as she requested, and she immediately closed her eyes and put her hands in front of her in a prayer pose. Hesitant as I was, I still copied her, as we desperately needed to know what was trapping us here and how to escape this hell hole.

The very second I finished entering the prayer pose, the eye before us opened up. My eyes were closed, but I could see it as if they weren't. There were no emotions associated with its gaze, it merely existed. It gazed upon me for what felt like days, but I had no way of really knowing how long I sat there. Eventually, I was released, and I saw the monster girl happily smiling at me. For my part, I felt exhausted, scared, but also invigorated.

I knew it was the God of the Abyss who was responsible for that. He had, for completely unknown reasons, fully replenished my soul. As a gift? A natural response to a prayer? Or maybe something he gave to all the creations of his children? I did not know, but I was dangerously low on sustenance, as my last meal was a soul from one of the knights of Kellog. That was my final one, and since the souls of everything here disappeared upon death, I was beginning to panic a little.

Worst case scenario I was going to need to either force myself to hibernate while the others carried me out of here, or I'd need the ninjas to sacrifice themselves to me one by one. Either way, the God of the Abyss had just spared me from going down either of those paths.