Chapter 27: Horrors of the Void
"W-What?" Ravi stammered, blinking rapidly. The moment he crossed the threshold beneath the archway, unease gnawed at his mind. Every instinct told him to turn back, to abandon the crumbling path above him. When he sees the huge horde of phantoms and wraiths floating above the city, then his only thought was to find a shelter and rest for a while. The pain in his body and the creeping numbness of the Dark Sigil robbed him of clarity.
Waker was still unconscious on his shoulder. They had entered what seemed to be a great hall. Blackness pressed in on all sides, yet Ravi could still see clearly. The shadows parted for him like familiar companions. He stepped lightly between broken statues and cracked obsidian walls, their worn surfaces whispering of a forgotten age. Above, the arched ceiling loomed high, lost in dark mist.
On a raised platform ahead stood a massive cracked black mirror—over two meters tall and shaped like a warped dressing glass. Its surface pulsed faintly, veins of silvery shadow wriggling just beneath the fractured obsidian.
Ravi ducked behind a headless statue, gently lowering the unconscious Waker from his shoulder. At that moment, Waker stirred. His eyes blinked open, adjusting to the dim light.
He gasped. Ravi's hand immediately clamped over his mouth. "Quiet," Ravi whispered.
What Waker saw chilled him: circling the cracked mirror were skeletal figures—dozens of blackened skeletons, dust-covered remains hovering weightlessly, locked in an eternal orbit. Their hollow sockets were fixed on the mirror, as though in prayer or torment. It was as if the broken black mirror was surrounded by a black storm of darkness that could devour anything.
But what surprised him the most was what lay behind the platform. Although he couldn't see in the dark like Ravi, he started to sense and perceive the aura to make an outline. There was a monster for a lack of a better word, which easily towered over thirty meters in height, sitting on a high obsidian jagged throne engraved with intricate grey patterns with an arm easily supporting his head. It loomed like a monument of despair, slumped slightly as though asleep.
Its eyes were closed, but its presence was undeniable. Four massive twisted black horns curled outward from its skull in a crown-like formation. It had a mouth of razor-sharp fangs, and its body was adorned in a sleek grey armour that had intricate decorations and embellishments. He wasn't sure whether that motionless thing was dead or alive.
"Bugs will fly into your mouth if you keep it open for too long." Said Ravi as he let Waker go. Waker fell on his hips but didn't say anything for a while as he stared around in bewilderment. He stood up and asked like a country bumpkin, "Just where are we, Reydon!? What is that thing...?"
Ravi replied as he sighed, "Below the Astal Mountains, and unfortunately, no one knows of this place because I came here while warding off you with me. Although, I can't say that we are the first to enter this place ... "
Suddenly, pain surged through Ravi's neck. He gritted his teeth and fell to one knee. The crimson sigil at his collarbone had spread—its jagged roots now reaching up his cheek. The mask of shadow that disguised his features as Reydon Leyn flickered.
"Reydon, please tell me what's happening to your wound? It's getting worse! You said that it was only a fester! I don't think that this will going to heal on its own." Waker voiced his concern as Ravi vomited a pool of red-black blood.
Ravi managing a sheepish smile whispered, his breath coming in sharp rasps. "Waker. I'm dying. But now isn't the time for such talks. I have been dying for quite a while now. Do me a favour, and let's leave this forsaken land a bit faster."
As soon as he finished speaking, the dusty black doors engraved with intricate grey patterns slammed shut with a thunderous echo on the archway.
The sigil on Ravi's neck pulsed violently, releasing squirming tendrils of cursed light which sents jolts of agony to his brain. His sword flashed in his hand, and without hesitation, he slashed into his own neck. No blood flowed. Instead, a dark mist hissed out, and he sealed the wound with his shadows. The pain lessened—but not by much.
Beads of sweat were rolling from Ravi's face, and Waker was shocked to see the shadow powers and the crimson burst-eye mark on his neck. He took a step backwards, stared, trembling. "W-Who ... are you really? "
Before he could say anything, the cracked black mirror on the platform started breaking as more cracked appeared on it. Soon, it shattered, and the fragments hit the floor like thunderclaps.
The phantom horde of dusty skeletons circling around the black mirror produces a mighty shriek in unison—a terrible, psychic scream that struck the mind directly. Blood burst from Waker's ears. Ravi nearly collapsed, only sheer willpower keeping him upright.
Their minds went numb as blood flowed out from their noses and ears. Ravi felt that he was on the brink of going unconscious. Waker grabbed his head as he felt that his brain could burst at any moment, but he wasn't affected as greatly as Ravi.
Before they could breathe a sense of relief, they shuddered as they both sensed a devastating presence. From the fractured remains of the mirror, illusory greyish-black fog erupted, twisting and reforming until a monstrous skull emerged followed by a ribcage—a ten-meter-tall skeleton without a lower body cloaked in dusty essence. Three pitch-black eyes glared from its skull, and its limbs were long, tendril-like constructs of writhing bone.
The huge skeletons opened his mouth and produced an endless-tearing screech. Ravi and Waker felt that they were on the edge of death, and both of them started reciting the prayer of martyr in case they died here.
The dusty black doors with greyish engravings burst open with a great force, and a knight made of black stone and dried blood entered, wielding a massive greatsword. Its armor bore ancient engravings, and its helm concealed all but the glowing black pits of its eyes. Its steps were slow but deliberate towards them as it raised its sword.
At the same time, the phantom horde surged forward. Death closed in from all sides.