The first sign of the leviathans' collision was not sight. Nothing could be seen through the pitch black darkness that permeated the nights of the Crimson Labyrinth. It was not even sound— no, it was the sheer force that the collision generated.
A tremor surged through the Dark Sea, a shockwave so powerful that it punched through the water and into Cade's chest like a battering ram. The Echo beneath him lurched violently. Its massive, ice-armored body twisted instinctively to remain upright. Cade gritted his teeth and gripped one of the frozen spikes, barely keeping himself from being flung off.
Then came the sound— a deep, abyssal roar, like a thousand mountains splitting open at once. It wasn't a single cry, but two, interwoven in a cacophony of rage and agony, a sound too massive for human ears to fully comprehend.
And in the blind dark, Cade couldn't see it but he could feel it.
Not just the shockwaves reverberating through the water. Not just the way the Sea itself shuddered with every motion. He felt something deeper. Something primal.
This... this was a battle beyond mortals, beyond reason. A war between entities so vast and ancient that their existence was nothing but hunger, territory, and slaughter.
Another impact. A force greater than a tsunami.
The Echo twisted again, narrowly avoiding a massive something that crashed into the water just a few meters away. Cade's instincts screamed. He could not see it, but the displaced Sea alone sent the massive serpent veering sharply away, spinning into the darkness.
A blur— no, a void— passed below the inky black surface of the water.
Was it a limb? A tentacle? An appendage large enough to crush cities? Cade didn't know. He only knew that it belonged to one of the leviathans.
Curiosity gnawed at Cade. He wanted to see what it was that lurked beneath the depths of the Dark Sea. An idea entered into his mind, but he hesitated.
What if he attracted another horror from the depths? What if he caught the attention of the two just a few hundred meters from him?
But curiosity wasn't so easily suppressed.
He steeled himself and took a deep breath. He stretched his hand backward. Then, he bought it forward over his head with the full strength of a Monster. While his arm was cutting through the air, a black orb, emanating bright red light appeared into his hand, and it was flung forward— towards the hulking leviathans tearing each other apart.
As it moved through the air, Cade hurriedly dismissed it. He didn't want any new guests crashing the party.
For a moment, just a fleeting moment, the Radiant Eye's residual glow— faint and dying— illuminated a fraction of the war.
And then, finally, he saw.
It was only a glimpse. But it was enough to freeze Cade's blood in his veins.
A mass of chitin and abyssal flesh, lined with spiraling maws, was biting into itself as if it could not contain its own hunger. Towering limbs, thick as fortresses, were curling and coiling around another shape— larger, more massive, but writhing desperately against the constriction.
The other leviathan was fighting to tear free. Jagged fins, long as spears, slashed through the dark. A massive, barbed tentacle snapped forward with enough force to crack the abyssal waters of the Dark Sea.
The abomination— the thing Cade had lured here— twisted in response. It did not fight like a creature at all. It fought like the Dark Sea itself was moving. It shifted, rippled, and became something else in response to every attack. Tentacles coiled and solidified into blades. Maw upon maw twisted open. It was devouring water, light, and everything else around the two monstrosities.
Then, darkness swallowed them again.
Cade's heart slammed against his ribs. His hand rose instinctively to cover his mouth. Looking away from the clash, he felt like he would puke out his innards.
D—Damn Fated...
What Cade had just seen was a sight beyond mortal comprehension. It was indescribable horror. Terror given form.
That brief, terrible, horrible glimpse had been enough. If he and Maya had stayed here, they would not have survived the clash. That much had been obvious, but seeing it first hand... Cade thanked the dead Gods that they'd somehow escaped that horrible fate.
Another shockwave pulsed through the Dark Sea— another collision. A scream, guttural and violent, sent tremors through the black waters. The Echo screeched in response, its armored form stiffening beneath them.
Then, something exploded beneath the surface.
A breach.
The water parted, not by air, not even by force, but by sheer absence. A void opened— a vortex of pressure as one of the leviathans detonated outward, sending cascading waves rolling through the Dark Sea. The ocean itself seemed to writhe in protest.
Cade clutched Maya's unconscious form tighter. His breaths were shallow. The Echo shifted beneath them, trembling, not from fear— it couldn't feel fear. No, it recoiled from some deep, instinctive understanding. That this was not its battle. That it was a witness to something far older, far deadlier.
Another impact. A sickening, tearing shred of flesh and chitin.
The second leviathan— the abomination Cade had invited— had latched on. Cade felt it happen. A limb? A tentacle? He didn't know, but something impossibly vast clamped down on its rival, twisting, constricting, crushing. The other abyssal horror let out a cry, lower this time— choked, strangled.
The fight was coming to an end.
Cade didn't need to see it. He could feel the shift in power. The ancient leviathan, the one which had almost claimed his and Maya's life, was losing. It was dying.
Cade's face contorted in a grimace. Before twisting into a dark smirk.
Who's helpless now, eh? he thought in glee at the leviathan, at Fate itself.
The Dark Sea groaned. Then, a sound echoed through the starless void. Something immensely vast cracked.
And then—
Light.
A sliver of gold. A thread of pale dawn.
Cade's breath caught.
The first rays of the artificial sun caressed the horizon, and as they did— the Dark Sea surged and bubbled.
At the heart of the horrors' battlefield, dark shapes tangled in an ancient, silent struggle were peeling away from each other.
The leviathan that Cade had lured— the victor of the horrifying battle— tore away from the chaos in a hurry and began to retreat. There was no roar, no thrashing farewell. It just... melted away. Impossibly vast and nearly unfathomable, its silhouette unfurled like a continent losing interest in the world above.
What little light broke through seemed to slide off the thing's glistening hide. It revealed nothing of its true form. Only impressions— a jagged crest like a mountain ridge, limbs or tentacles shifting with corpse-like grace, a hundred maws that opened and closed as if it were taking a yawn before returning to its slumber.
This was the horror that Cade had almost fallen prey to. The horror he had lured here to kill his enemy.
And he had succeeded.
The loser of the clash— the abomination that had almost claimed his and Maya's life— did not follow its opponent. It sank in utter silence, motionless. The Dark Sea claimed its corpse before beginning its own retreat.
The abyssal blackness of the abominable Sea shuddered, gurgled and recoiled. Like a wounded beast, it began withdrawing into the depths it always crawled out of. The grasping tendrils of the black water slithered backward.
The battlefield, which was shrouded in darkness just moments ago, shifted.
Water levels dropped, falling away into the depths. The serpent's Echo, still carrying them, descended. Cade's stomach lurched as the floor— unseen, untouched for so long— rose to meet them.
And then, after a minute or two, they were on solid ground.
Cade looked around, scanning his surroundings. They had indeed been moving over the colossal crater between the Ashen Barrow and the Dark City. But they weren't that far off. The Ashen Barrow was distinctly visible at the edge of the crater. He saw the red leaves and the onyx trunk of the Soul Devourer far in the distance.
That... is a little too close, he thought in distaste.
Then, without wasting any time, Cade got up with a groan. Carrying Maya's unconscious form in his arms, he jumped off the Echo's back and landed on the ground. His legs felt like they were made of lead and he almost collapsed as soon as he hit the floor, but he managed to stay grounded. He carefully put Maya down on the ground and straightened.
Then, he turned to look at the Echo's enormous head and locked eyes with the ice-clad serpent. The Echo tilted its head to the side before straightening in a sudden motion. Understanding flashed in its glacial eyes which were like pools of frozen blood.
Cade nodded stiffly, and the Echo returned the gesture. It coiled its enormous body around Maya's unconscious form, forming a small boundary and rested its head on the ground.
Cade smiled lightly and then, he started moving, his legs trembling with the effort.
Of course, he wasn't moving in the direction of the Ashen Barrow. Only a fool would do that. No, where he was headed was the battlefield of the ancient horrors.
The Echo looked almost exhausted, exhaling long streams of frozen mist. Cade barely noticed. And he didn't much care either. Echoes weren't alive, and so naturally, they couldn't be tired. With an Awakened Terror guarding Maya's unconscious body, there was nothing to worry about.
As the last wisps of the harrowing waters of the Dark Sea slithered back into its abyss, the remnants of the battle were revealed.
And there, lying in the wreckage of the retreating tide, was the loser. The ancient leviathan, the one that had fought against the other abyssal horror, lay broken.
Cade moved toward it. Slowly. Carefully.
As he did, he noticed almost imperceptible movements in the gigantic limbs. It looked like the horror was not quite dead yet.
Cade smirked darkly, continuing to move closer.
It was impossible to tell just how massive the thing was. Even in death, it was an expanse of torn flesh and shattered armor, of curling, twitching limbs that no longer obeyed instinct. Its body was a grotesque masterpiece of ruin. There were gaping wounds that should have been fatal. Yet still, it clung to the last threads of existence.
Damn... that other guy was really something, huh? Cade thought, his eyes widening slightly as he took in the leviathan's complete form.
The abominable thing had seven eyes— great, sunken pits of voided light. They stared past him, seeing nothing.
Cade simply stood there for some time, gazing upon the monstrosity's ruined form, his breath unsteady.
For a moment, he felt no fear. No triumph. No relief.
Just awe.
A leviathan had fallen. A true leviathan. And the only thing more terrifying than its death— was knowing what had killed it.
Cade's expression twisted into a murderous grin.
Well... almost killed it, he thought in satisfaction.
He shook his head slightly, shrugging off his shock at the sheer size of the ancient abomination. His awe and wariness evaporated, replaced by satisfaction.
His smirk turned even more vicious. "Not one to die easy, huh? Well, I guess we have that in common..."
As he said the words, he summoned the Voidfang into his hand. Breathing out a small amount of Darkness, he augmented his blade and moved closer to the dying leviathan.
He stood in front of one of its massive eyes. Cade's head didn't even reach the pupil of the towering abomination's eye. He touched the slick surface of the horror's eye and whispered to it in a low voice.
"Gods, I hope you're the one who grabbed me on my first night here. You really should've known better than to mess with me, you know..."
With that, he thrust the Voidfang forward with all the strength he could muster. But the Darkness-wreathed blade simply glanced off the cornea of the ancient leviathan. Cade let out a low laugh.
"Figures, I guess... dead or not, you are still a Corrupted," he muttered.
However, Cade wasn't going to give up. From the moment the tentacles had appeared, he'd been hell-bent on killing the thing.
Helpless? Him?
As if.
There was no way he would ever give in to overwhelming force. Anything that tried to overwhelm him, would fall by his hand. And this dying leviathan would be the first to taste the bitterness of his newfound resolve.
But still, he was having a little trouble. He scratched his head in confusion.
He knew that eyes were the weakest part of an abomination. But the thing itself was two whole Ranks above the Voidfang and three Ranks above him. He needed something more.
Wait... he thought, a sudden idea appearing into his mind. Didn't I become a Monster? I should be able to hold more than one augmentation, right?
He wasn't completely sure because he was quite different from other Divine Aspect holders. He was the wielder of an Unholy Aspect, after all. Still, there was only one way to find out.
He took a deep breath and exhaled another wisp of Darkness. He commanded it to move toward the Voidfang's blade. The Darkness... obeyed. It coated the Darkness-wreathed blade of the Voidfang in another layer of the same Darkness.
Cade smiled brightly.
The Voidfang was now augmented two-fold.
Taking a deep breath, he brought the short-sword back and thrust it forward again.
But the blade glanced off once more.
Crap! Cade thought, gritting his teeth. At this rate, this bastard will die before I even deal a single scratch.
Cade's mind raced. He was determined to kill the thing. Even if he didn't get a Memory, he'd receive a lot of fragments for killing it. He had to do it. He just had to.
But how?
Another idea sparked in his mind.
He had never been able to augment his own body with the Darkness, boost his own strength with it. But he had evolved into a Monster. Would he be able to do it now? Like always, there was only one way to find out.
He commanded the two layers of Darkness coating the blade of the Voidfang to move back, and focused on wrapping them around his own body.
To Cade's delight, it worked. As the Darkness retreated from the blade, it moved into the Ebonveil Plate, seeping in through the gaps between the intricate metal plates. Cade felt the Darkness embrace him.
Immediately, he began to feel a lot stronger. But there was also something else that changed.
What the hell...? he thought in frustration.
He did feel a lot stronger but the thing was... he couldn't see!
The moment the Darkness embraced him, his vision went completely dark. If Cade could see himself through someone else's eyes right now, he would've seen that his own eyes... were utterly and completely shrouded by a deep darkness. Not just his irises. No, the entirety of his eyes were covered in an abyssal blackness.
He looked quite scary. No, he looked nothing short of horrifying.
After a few moments though, his frustration bled away. It wasn't really too bad. While fighting inside his Darkness, he was always unable to see anyway. So, him turning blind as a result of activating his augmentation was... only mildly annoying.
Still, it felt rather weird. While surrounded by his Darkness, even if he was incapable of vision, he perceived everything quite easily. His connection to his Darkness ensured that he knew everything that was going on in the area enclosed by the black mist.
Not right now, though. Right now, he was actually, completely blind.
It was... uncomfortable, to say the least.
Is this how Cassie feels all the time? he thought, feeling a little bad for the beautiful, blind seer.
He frowned, but quickly shook off the wandering thoughts. He had more pressing matters to attend to, at the moment.
But still, what the hell? he thought in frustration, moving the blade of the Voidfang back once more. It's like I got a second Flaw. How the hell is that fair? He exhaled sharply, calming himself. Now, this had better work...
Then, he thrust his sword forward with all the augmented strength of a Monster. However, just as the Awakened blade was about to touch the cornea of the Corrupted horror, Cade instantly transferred the two layers of Darkness from his body to the Voidfang's blade augmenting it once more.
As soon as he did, his vision returned, and Cade saw the Voidfang... pierce through.
Cade's face lit up and he grinned like a madman.
"Hell yes!!" he exclaimed in glee.
He pulled the sword out with a little difficulty and gave it a wide swing, black ichor spraying on the ground. Without lingering, he turned around and started walking away. One wound was all he needed. The leviathan was already dead, anyway.
After walking for a few moments, Cade finally heard the voice of the Spell. The horror was dead and it was Cade who'd killed it.
The Spell roared in his ears, its voice laced with contempt and loathing:
[You have slain a Corrupted Tyrant, Malice of the Drowned Deep.]
Cade stumbled slightly. Not because he'd heard the Class of the abomination he'd just killed but because he felt something. It was a sudden sensation in his chest.
For a horrifying moment, he felt like he would go through the pain of his transformation and core formation again.
But no. This feeling was different. It was... good.
Realization dawned on him. A torrent of fragments had just rushed into his Abyssal Core.
What...? he thought, gathering his balance and standing upright. Five Corrupted cores means forty fragments, right? But that definitely felt like more...
Was it because the Corrupted Tyrant dwelled in the Dark Sea? Because it was an inhabitant of that void?
However, before he could think of anything else, the Spell continued, hissing with... excitement?
[You have received a Memory, Severance of the Deep.]
[The Darkness within you takes root...]
[... The abyss within you deepens.]
For a moment, Cade's blood ran cold. Ever since his transformation, the Spell had always spoken to him with nothing but hatred boiling in its words. Why was it suddenly so excited? Over a Memory, no less?
Still, Cade pushed the grim thoughts away. What did it matter? He'd just killed a Corrupted Tyrant. A Nightmare Creature three whole Ranks above him, possessing five defiled soul cores.
His lip curled.
A Corrupted Tyrant, huh? he thought, satisfied. Like I care! It should've known its place. The audacity of the thing— messing with the Otherwalkers of all people...
Shaking his head, he continued forward to where Maya and the Echo were resting. They had a long journey ahead of them. The journey back to the Bone Ridge.
But first, he had something far more interesting to check out.
______________________________________
Hey, readers! With that, my first original mini-arc comes to an end! (Well, not technically... there are still two more chapters, but the adventure itself is over...)
Anyway, what did you think? Was I able to write a good enough arc? Did you enjoy it? Was there anything you didn't like? Or was there anything you felt shouldn't have happened? Do let me know!!
Now, about the last part. You might be thinking that I'm making Cade way, way too overpowered. And you're right. I won't deny it; I kinda am, but it is rather necessary. I swear it'll all make sense in the future. Please stick with me. I'm totally not doing this on a whim.
I'll drop another chapter the day after tomorrow and we'll continue the alternate day schedule from here on out (at least until studies let go of me).
But mind you, the next two chapters will be shorter. You're gonna have to deal with it because these last few chapters were way too long. Like four or five of them were 4000+ words. I could've split each of them into two. But I thought I should improve the pacing a little bit. It's still shit, I know, but just bear with me.
In any case, I do hope you liked this little adventure that our main characters went on. If you have any suggestions or anything you wanna say, don't hold back!
So, until next time, people! :]