XXXIX

  Skul the Half-formed

  Vyke hovered in front of the treeline, both his armour and wings covered in guts.

  He swallowed a cough. The holes in his chestplate had already closed themselves, so the black blood escaping his mouth flowed down his stomach and into his boots.

  ‘It’s doing more harm than good.’

  Where the light had pierced his armour, smoke rose from his skin. The flesh was closing at a rapid rate, but the smoke had nowhere to go.

  Collecting Tirion’s soul would make the pain worth it a thousand times over. However, despite the similarly heavy wound he’d dealt the boy, he was apt at hiding his presence.

  Scanning the treeline didn’t reveal any energy signatures. Not even the three weaker ones Vyke had sensed for a moment before the battle started.

  ‘It’s this place.’

  The forest of a frozen realm itself interfered with his senses.

  Wails turned into echoes as he let his spear and wings dissolve.

  Sobs drew his attention to the ground.

  Tirion’s grunts, all sporting several degrees of writhing wounds. Though blood had drawn away from their faces to leave their skin as white as that of a ghost, a modicum of fire remained within their gazes—heralding the belief in their commander who’d used their lives to save his own. One of them even managed to throw a weak insult his way.

  Vyke chuckled. ‘So much for honour.’

  The shimmer of a red moon came to hover behind him as his arm stretched out. Souls bubbled out of their skin and whirled towards his palm, which dripped with a liquid that couldn’t be blood. On a whim, Vyke refrained from absorbing the weakest member of Tirion’s party—a lvl. 17 fencer—and stopped the Cures writhing inside the cavity in her chest. The girl didn’t draw breath in relief for her mind was already dark.

  For a long moment, an acute silence settled over the clearing. Until the girl began to shiver. Her heart didn’t start beating, neither did essence draw towards her brain. She simply rose.

  ‘The parasites are near invisible.’

  They were like a swarm of insects rummaging through the corpse but were individually a thousand times smaller than a fly. It was part of what made them so difficult to sense. But adding to it was that they didn’t consume whoever they killed nor stole their essence.

  ‘Is their only goal to spread?’

  But how were they keeping the body from deteriorating? Some of the undead running through this place were too old to have come from this generation of trial takers yet they were in perfect condition—as far as their wounds before death would allow such a thing. They could also use all of their previous abilities.

  The girl, her presence in the spirit realm now many times stronger than before, rushed towards him. She flew back as dozens of spears shot through her body and nailed her to the ground.

  Vyke’s Cures ate their way inside the corpse but the feedback was different from normal…no, it was entirely absent.

  ‘They completely trap the soul…’

  “The curse carved into this realm is powerful, is it not, Lord Thorne?”

  Vyke languidly turned around. He’d sensed her long before she entered the cavern yet his gaze narrowed. Neon often liked to trick him by using Ada’s mannerisms. From the way she was standing, she was waiting for him to guess, too.

  ‘Insufferable woman,’ he cussed her out.

  Some of the strands of her marble veil were twisted into each other, revealing a little more of the face behind it than was usual. Ada would never do such a thing.

  “How many are you leading, Neon?”

  He spotted the shadow of a smile behind her veil. “I’ve recovered four teams.”

  ‘So around thirty members.’

  “I suspect we’ll number a hundred before two hours pass,” she added.

  Vyke hummed. “Contact with the Black Fangs?”

  “In the works.”

  “Then we wait.”

  The Dragonflight had already shown they were stronger than he’d given them credit for.

  “There’s another matter requiring your attention, Lord Thorne.”

  Vyke frowned. She always let the joke go if he guessed correct. Was he wrong?

  She bowed—to keep him from studying her face, surely—and held up a white slip. “A team of our apostles recovered this seal.”

  Vyke took the token and turned it around in the light.

  [Seal of the Arch-Fiend]

  “Arch-Fiend…an old title, maybe?” Vyke said, glancing back up.

  She was still bowing when he did.

  ‘Has to be Neon.’

  Ada never bowed that long.

  “We suspect it may lead to the origin of the curse,” Neon said, only then raising.

  Both turned back to the undead, which continued to wriggle and try to pull free of her chains despite lacking most of her body.

  “A worthy prospect,” Vyke said.

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  [Balekin Hatchling - Grade: F | Rarity: Normal | Stage: Early]

  Azure eyes didn’t look away from me as clouds condensed into scales and spikes which protected the head. The summon’s jaw was so massive my skull could fit inside twice over, and from fangs lined around its mouth, pale azure fires gushed like smog.

  A neckline extended from the base of the skull but dissipated into fog.

  ‘Half-formed…’

  So the title was literal.

  Blazing eyes resting on the highest branch of the cinderwing tree glued themselves to my steps as I closed the distance between me and the summon. The Balekin twisted around its home, its great head vanishing behind the thick trunk before curving around and regarding me again.

  Faint cries that had been mere whispers at first, figments of the imagination, grew louder with every footfall until they were unmistakable.

  I held out my palm. Mist cold to the touch rolled over my skin, and my fingertips dug into the grooves between scales as the Balekin rested its chin in my hand. Serpentine shadows flicked through the vertical-slits in its eyes like mischievous faeries...or ghosts.

  My other hand reached out and cupped its snout. “What should I call you?”

  The beast didn’t utter a sound, only closed its eyes and leaned into my touch. Looking back at the cindertree didn’t bring up anything either.

  The great wheels inside my head spun as fast as they could. My gaze roved over its body once more, more specifically, its lack of one.

  “Skul,” I whispered. “I’ll call you Skul.”

  A huff of smoke shot from holes on the side of his snout.

  “Yeah, I know, I’m not the best at names. But that’s on you for not saying anything.”

  Skul retreated to his home and swirled around his trunk.

  I gave him one final glance, then drew back into the real world.

  Fur stroked against my legs. Saber was staring at me.

  I patted him on the head. “You’ve got a new companion, buddy.”

  The cat moaned and walked on.

  “Glad you’re back,” Raven said.

  He was walking beside me, one arm hovering behind my back.

  “You were walking into the walls,” he said at the raise of my eyebrows.

  Ahead of us, the horizontal stalactites had grown so long they covered a majority of the path.

  “Ah…thanks. I thought the path would stay clear.”

  He waved me off. “Your new ‘companion’ any good?”

  “He won’t be of much use for now. Why?”

  “Because we’re gonna need all the help we can get,” Rin said.

  Trembling walls and pieces of ice raining to the floor cut off my next question.

  “Was that…a roar?” I asked.

  “Drakes,” Rin said.

  “The third in about five minutes,” Raven added. “We think they’re using them to locate each other.”

  Entirely probable. And bad for us. Erri would be the last worry on our list if we ran into a group with two or more elites and some regular drakes.

  We put a spring to our step. Along the way, we tried to travel in the direction where the roars were weakest. This saw us delve through corridors growing denser with stalactites. The pillars of ice barred the way and either forced us to climb over or hack our way forward, which involved Raven blowing the obstacles to bits or Rin cutting through them.

  Travel continued like this until we reached a stalactite so massive it extended from side wall to side wall. It was twice my height in length, too, so we had to force our way through.

  Raven breathed in and dark smoke poured from his skin—

  “Wait,” Kiran said.

  The clouds paused.

  Saber growled low.

  I sauntered up towards the pillar and wiped at the ice with my sleeves. Light bent and distorted, but the image was clear enough to what was on the other side: a chamber. One with multiple entrances—

  A shadow paraded through my view. I blinked. The person wore the skin of an elk and antlers on his head. His attire left his face shielded except for his eyes, which were redder than blood.

  There was a hole in his chest where his heart should be.

  [Scorn - lvl. 27]

  ‘That’s high...’

  He stepped out of view. Another followed him. This one was missing half their face. On its heels were at least a dozen more dead, all lacking in bodily integrity in some way.

  We waited five minutes after the last of the dead passed.

  Rin’s technique was a lot more silent than Raven’s, so she sliced an entry into the pillar.

  A relieved breath shuddered through us when no ambush waited on the other side.

  “Let’s not dawdle,” Raven said.

  Unanimous agreement.

  There were three entrances, our own not included. A solid slab of crystal covered one. The second was the entrance the scorn vanished into. Third was a corridor that didn’t appear special in any way.

  Rin laid her hand on the slab. “Getting through this will take me time.”

  Any extra second spent here was a higher chance of being discovered, and since following the scorn was on no one’s to-do list, we chose the third exit.

  Light shining from within the walls illuminated our way into the corridor. Unlike before, no stalactites blocked the path. Instead the hallway widened. Walls fed into each other, the ground sloped, and the light from within the walls whirled and slowly shaped into different forms. Rolling landscapes with frozen hills, mounds and giant trees. Great creatures which soared through the sky, only their wings were frozen in the middle of beating.

  The entire place was a work of art of which it was impossible to tell if it was real.

  We continued through a phantom forest that filtered into a rock outcropping, which in turn fed into a bridge that crossed a gap in the land. A black abyss rested underneath, and rising winds from below made the bridge dangle. Pieces of the structure were already missing but between it and the mass of scorn, our choice was easily made.

  I didn’t look down as I crossed but kept my shard energy close at hand. Ashwing was but a swipe away—the landing would be hard but better than whatever awaited me.

  After the last of us crossed, Rin turned around and jammed her trident into the bridge. Essence condensed, then spit out from each tongue of her weapon. Energy raced across the already flimsy structure like spreading spiderwebs and the structure snapped with a crunch.

  She shrugged at our glances. “No use leaving a hole in our rear.”

  Ahead of us, lights flickered within the ice, and the frozen forest picked up where it left off.

  “I’ll scout ahead,” Kiran said, then vanished.

  There was no time frame attached, so we settled in to wait. He didn’t take long, which must’ve irked Kayle, who was in the middle of setting up her tea table when he returned.

  “Enemies?” she asked, no sign of any irritation on her face.

  Kiran shook his head. “A cavern with a large pool. May be a natural treasure. I didn’t go close enough to confirm.”

  “How far?” Raven said.

  “Five minutes with your speed.”

  Exactly five minutes after we set out, our trail opened up into a rounded chamber. The downwards sloping floor was interrupted by a body of glowing water running like a moat around an island in the centre, connected to with a wooden bridge. Two canals fed into the pool, and a bed of flowers rose from the land. Five-leaved, black clovers, with a single strand of purple running down their midst.

  Raven glanced at Kiran.

  “Nothing here from what I can tell,” the boy said.

  “May not stay so for long.” Rin surveyed the many entrances to the chamber. Most were too narrow for someone to travel through, but others were wide enough two people could walk through side-by-side. That was enough space for a drake.

  The air passing my nostrils cleared up with every step towards the bridge. We didn’t cross immediately and instead scanned the waters.

  Kiran again shook his head.

  “Ladies first,” Raven motioned to Kayle.

  “What a gentleman,” she said and regarded me. “Could you perhaps use one of your familiars?”

  I called forth one of the chicks. The cinderwing landed in the middle of the field without response. To be certain, I had her touchdown in various places.

  The land remained quiet.

  I was the first one to cross. Up close, the flowers were even stranger as they didn’t appear to actually have a stem. Their base was a trick of the light, like many things in these tunnels were, and trailed off into smoke, which rose in small clumps from the floor.

  [Spirit Ash (F) - Uncommon]

  The smell wafting from them was…decrepit. What I imagined a morgue would smell like. But when I sank into the lotus and closed my eyes, the discomfort that brought vanished from my mind.

  “It’s so dense…” I muttered.

  Seeing that nothing had happened to me, the others joined me and seated themselves.

  “Finding air so pure in the wild is rare,” Raven breathed out, the muscles on his forehead relaxing more with the second.

  Compared to this place, meditating in the outside world was like trying to breathe through mud. Progress here would be more than four times as fast.

  ‘Just what I needed.’

  My core was nearing an increase of one-hundred-fifty percent, making me just fifty shy of having a perfect evolution to the next stage.

  “We’ll rest for half an hour,” Raven said.

  Too short for a treasure trove like this. But staying in one place for too long was stupid. Especially since there could be better rewards waiting for us.

  ‘Let’s make the most of it.’

  With a twist of the spirit, I grasped hold of the mountain of swirling essence inside me and got to work.

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