Thankfully, I really didn't require my sunglasses.
Of course, the bright light hit me like a flashbang, but it soon faded away.
As my sight recovered from the bright assault on my retinas, I began to notice my surroundings.
The chamber I found myself in was vast and circular, made of white stone blocks that shone brightly.
The floor was made of solid silver, flowing and jagged as if the molten precious metal had been spilled and left to cool down and solidify as it flowed outwards.
Two black pillars arose from the middle of the floor, their forms like twisted and gnarled roots of solid darkness with a faint violet glow bleeding from their cracks.
And between the pillars was a sight that turned my blood to ice.
A woman. Or at least, something wearing the shape of one.
She was on her knees, her arms outstretched, wrists shackled in spiked black chains that tethered her to the pillars.
Her head hung low beneath a cascade of silver hair that spilled across the floor like a waterfall.
Her body was the physical manifestation of light, pure white and flawless, pulsing faintly amidst the jagged golden patterns that traced all over her slender figure.
The edges of her figure flickered, as if her very presence was distorting the reality clinging to her radiant flesh.
She wore no garments, but it didn't seem like she was naked. It was more as if existence itself had clothed her, almost like a skintight body suit.
For why does one have to cover up perfection?
That is the only way to describe the figure I was seeing.
But the sight of what marred this perfection unnerved and even terrified me.
Black spikes glowing with an eerie purple were embedded in her arms, her legs, and her throat.
They were very familiar, and I felt a faint throb in my abdomen as my hand unconsciously hovered over it.
Agony Thorns. Lots of them. Sunk deep into her luminous flesh.
Three particularly large ones speared straight through her slender torso, front to back, criss-crossing each other in the front, forming a gruesome and terrifying sight.
Silver liquid flowed like blood from her many wounds and her shackled wrists, streaming over her body, down to her knees, dripping, pooling, and spreading outward.
I froze in my spot, a sick and horrifying realization spreading all over my body.
The silver dust, the shimmering fog, the metallic floor that was seemingly made of pure silver.
It was her blood, thickened and dried to form a solid wave that covered the stone floor, eventually powdered by the passage of time and carried by the air.
I felt bile rising in my throat, and my stomach lurched.
Even with my sick addiction to blood consumption, this was utterly sickening.
How much has she bled to cover not just the entire floor of this chamber, but the very halls beyond the doors?
And for how long was she spilling this much blood?
Years? Centuries?
My eyes shifted to something glinting in front of her, and my breath caught in my throat.
It was the skeleton of a human, lying half-buried in the solidified silver blood, as if someone had tossed the body in front of her and left it there.
A suit of battered white armor clung to the skeleton, leaving the bare skull visible as it lay splayed before the figure, eternally grinning at her pitiful state.
A symbol peeked out of the solid ichor covering the ruined shoulder plate, a four-pointed cross with light rays coming out of it and surrounded by a ring of flames.
The symbol of the Order of Lux.
The skeleton belonged to a Paladin, and I very well know who it was.
My eyes went over to the figure. She remained still and silent, as if she were dead as well.
Then she stirred.
Her body shuddered, and she slowly raised her head. A weary sigh escaped from her, like a light mist.
But with just that simple sigh, the air flickered, and an immense wave of ardor washed over me, toppling me back, almost making me fall.
Her head turned in my direction, and my entire body went numb.
She had no face.
No eyes, no mouth, no features that would make one human.
A smooth white canvas of a visage tilted towards me.
An eyeless gaze pierced into my very existence, peeling away everything, examining straight into my soul.
I felt it. With just a simple glance, she had seen everything about me. Every fear, every strength, every weakness. Everything that made me who I am.
She saw everything.
My breathing quickened, and my whole body shuddered.
This wasn't fear.
This was the feeling of being in the presence of something ancient, something immensely powerful, something just unfathomable.
I instinctively knew.
It was the gaze of a god.
A god that was thought to be lost.
Her appearance… the immense power she released… the breaking down of reality due to her presence.
I just knew.
There, chained to those black pillars, with those many Agony Thorns piercing her very being, drowning in her own divine blood, was the one Vanis was searching for her whole life.
The Lost Incarnus
The Goddess of Restoration.
"Phoebe."
The name uttered by my tongue carried in the air and stilled it, if only for a moment.
"Yes?"
Her voice was soft, yet it made the very air quiver and distort. An immense power lingered beneath it, yet it swept over me like a cool breeze on a hot, sweltering day.
It was strangely refreshing, yet felt empty.
And it was the voice that spoke to me before.
"So it was you. You talked to me in the cell, and while I fell." My voice trembled slightly, my eyes fixed on that blank visage.
The Incarnus of Lux nodded slowly, as if weary. Her soft voice shifted the ambient ardor as she spoke. "Indeed. It was me."
Her faceless head tilted to one side, not with curiosity, but like a half-forgotten movement, remembered out of habit. "Please. Come closer, child."
Her words had a certain effect on me, and my feet began to move towards her before my mind could resist.
However, I stopped myself, planting my feet into the silver ground. I can't let myself be swayed by her words.
Phoebe noticed my restraint.
"You are a cautious child," she murmured in observation, her voice hollow and weightless.
"It appears that my current state deeply unnerves you," she guessed with another tilt of her head.
I nodded. "You read my mind."
"It is not that difficult," She said simply, shifting slightly, causing the chains to rattle a bit. "Perhaps…. a much more familiar appearance would be better."
Her form shimmered, her otherworldly appearance flickering like an illusion.
Her long silver hair shortened until it touched her shoulders, and the bright white of her radiant skin dimmed like dying embers and darkened a bit, turning into fair skin.
The jagged golden patterns faded and warped, taking the shape of a tattered and battle-worn white battle dress with silver armor plating that showed extensive damage.
Her blank visage shifted and rippled like water, and features began to take shape.
It was a disturbingly familiar face.
Lilith's.
But almost.
As if like a twin.
Phoebe's resemblance to the Daemon Queen was uncanny, but there were stark differences. Her features were much softer. But the biggest difference was her eyes.
Her irises resembled shimmering crystals that floated in the middle of a flawless, milky white lake, glowing softly like the moonlight.
While Lilith's eyes revealed her sadistic obsession and madness, Phoebe's beautiful eyes revealed a soft emptiness that reflected her expression.
Her face was void of emotion and blanker than her previous form, as if she wore her own face like a blank mask.
Not even a flinch escaped from her despite the immense agony she must be suffering from those many Agony Thorns embedded in her body.
"Better?" she asked, her voice no longer layered with power, and didn't break reality.
It was soft and pleasant, like glass chimes moving gently in a soft breeze that wasn't there.
An empty sound.
I nodded and walked over to her. "Much better. Although I have a small complaint about the resemblance to a certain maniac."
"Huh," she nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."
My eyes fell on the skeleton, half-buried in the silver. "That must be…"
"Yes," the Incarnus nodded. "Alexander Zierhart."
For the first time, her voice trembled, if only for a moment.
"He was the one who revered me truly, perhaps even more than the Lumini, my kin. He was such a bright human." Her crystalline eyes dimmed, a faraway look in them.
"Perhaps even brighter than me."
She then let out an exhausted sigh. "Yet his belief… killed him."
"So I've heard," I said. "Genisix bragged about ripping out his tongue."
Phoebe turned to me, her hollow gaze piercing straight through me. "And you believed him?"
Absentmindedly shaking her head, she said. "Alexander was a formidable existence. He was easily able to take down Genisix and could even defeat little Alisax."
"When Lilith began her rebellion and every Luminus in this realm turned against me, only Alexander remained by my side."
"His reverence and faith in me fueled him as he mowed down hordes of daemons, who, just a few moments ago, used to be my beloved Lumini."
Her gaze wandered over to her chained wrists, as if trying to remember when they appeared around her wrists.
"After Alisax fled because of her transformation, Alexander took down Genisix and Zygaxis before he was cut down by Elariax herself."
She let out a soft chuckle, detached and numb like her gaze. "He was still smiling and joking even as Elariax dealt the last strike."
She closed her eyes, a sliver of guilt tracing her voice as she spoke. "I utterly failed as his Incarnus. While his life was snuffed out like a candle, I was too… distracted."
She paused, the silence broken by the steady dripping of her divine blood onto the ground.
"Wondering why Naberiax betrayed me."
"I sensed Alexander's death," her voice turned quiet, as if she were confessing. "And in that moment of grief… my most loyal High Commander plunged his blade into my chest."
Her words weren't bitter or angry. She just spoke as if narrating someone else's life.
Hearing her words, my mind churned with thoughts.
So, Phoebe was caught off guard by Naberiax when she felt grief? That is something I would definitely do.
Was that how she was defeated?
"Don't be mistaken," She looked at me, as if reading my mind, her eyes like hollow lanterns. "It took way more than a lucky stab to defeat me."
She frowned. "Well. I wouldn't exactly call it a defeat. I brought all of them to their knees. Even Naberiax. Even Elariax."
Her voice cracked slightly as she recounted. "I was about to find Lilith and confront her about this betrayal when he played his card."
"Who?" I asked, sensing the quick sharpness in her voice that immediately went away.
"The human who felled me and helped Lilith to chain me to my new home." Her words sent chills up my spine.
Phoebe's gaze swept over me, and a faint recognition flickered in their weary emptiness.
"And you… You resemble him a lot, Mordred Pendragon."