The next two days were days of silent travel.
CRUNCH
His heavy foot stepped on a dead leaf on the forest floor. Having arrived at the village in question, Aldric was now patrolling the perimeter of it. Performing an initial scouting and investigation.
Alone and with his own thoughts, the luscious scenery of the northern expanses rolled past him over the past two days. Rocky terrain mixed with luscious forests and meadows with the ever-standing, hollow mountains eclipsing the landscape.
Unlike in the dream realm, Aldric did not have to worry too much about his safety outside of human settlements. The Kingdom of Hope was not overrun with nightmare creatures like it would be in the future. According to many of the Nightglade, the few remaining hordes of nightmare creatures remained in their own territories. Happily avoiding any human settlements in fear of being hunted.
But of course, there would be the overzealous species that would attempt to expand their territories. Vying for more resources and land, only to be culled by the Nightglade.
Or in Aldric's current case, an anomaly.
Lady Alana had not given him much information on what the creature was. Though hidden in subtext, he could tell that the potential for danger was large. That if left unattended, the village in danger would be wiped off the face of the earth.
But it was one phrase in particular that caught Aldric's attention when Alana had initially told him about the creature.
In that a creature would 'descend the mountains'. It was that particular wording that reminded Aldric of someone. Someone that he had long since buried within his mind. A person that he no longer needed to worry about.
'Is this the creature that Mordret originally took over?'
Subconsciously, he was relieved. At most the creature would have been an awakened terror. Something like that would have been close to a death sentence for a dreamer, but as an awakened himself, he was fine.
Yet, something was telling him that there was more to this. That perhaps he was wrong or that something had changed.
After all, he was long past the days when he had the [Destined] attribute. Back when any changes he made to fate would rebound to him as if it was divine justice. Just like when he fought against the [Dark Sea's Firstborn] in the Crimson Spire.
But now things were different.
Outside of the confines of fate, he did not have to worry about a form of karmic retribution. But that did not mean that he was safe. Outside of the structure promised by fate, he was now open to an infinite number of possibilities.
Chaos and entropy.
But just as how something better than what was fated could happen to him, the inverse also applied. Something infinitely worse could rear its ugly face.
So he would not rely on assumptions and hope to keep him alive.
"I can't relax at all. I need to be ready."
And in that moment, a harrowing mist descended onto the forest floor from the East.
"It's here."
In a burst of speed, Aldric dashed through the crowded forest and broke out the adjacent opening. A wide area filled with rocks and sparse grass opened outside of the formation of trees. And much further ahead, the boundary between the northern territory and the Hollow Mountains appeared.
He was here, at the entrance to the dreaded Hollow Mountains.
Yet it was not just a boundary of land but a sea of mist. A sea of nothingness. Spanning a football field, it was the same wave of existence-erasing mist that descended down the mountain when they left to search for the Dawn Shard.
And somewhere in that inert mist of nothingness, a creature lay awake.
He could not see it, but his instincts spoke to him. The feeling of danger spread over his body. Yet, Aldric was still.
The creature was like a grain of sand in the desert. Completely undetectable. The only reason that Aldric knew it was there was due to the strange static within his mind that alerted him of a nightmare creature. It was very similar to the reaction from the ever-changing and shifting guardian that slumbered beneath the temple in the Phantom Verge.
It told him something in particular. That this creature was not corrupted. So to his luck, Aldric did not have to worry about any adverse reactions from his flaw.
"I need to draw it away from the mist. If I so much as touch it, I'm gone."
With a stamp of his feet, from a pool of darkness, Bael stood tall. His broadsword stood between his hand and the ground as it normally did, but this time, something was different. Laid across his back was a massive greatbow. Spanning nearly 2 metres in length, a crimson red marble-like material made up the outer layer. Reflecting a blood-red light to anyone that gazed at it. Besides its large size, anyone with an ounce of sense could tell that it was a bow made for war.
The transcendent memory was the first of its class that Aldric had procured. The memory originated as part of the reward received from a contract Event Horizon had completed with the Sorrow Clan. The memory itself did not have grandiose enchantments that promised immortality or brought forth elemental phenomena; it could only enhance what was already present. Making what was sharp, sharper. What was heavier, much more heavier. The spell described it as akin to an exponential multiplier capped at the transcendent level.
Pulling a massive white bolt fashioned from the femur of a Fallen beast out of the accompanying quiver on his waist, Bael readied his shot.
Standing beside his Apostle, Aldric transferred the weight of his darkness to the bolt and imbued it with the full power of his true darkness and all its attributes. With a tension that could hold mountains, Bael pulled back with all his might and released.
BOOOM
The very air parted, and the world cracked. Displaced air rushed to fill the vacuum as the thunderous sound echoed across the valley. Piercing through the air, the darkness enhanced bolt invaded the sea of mist. And it too split.
In an instance, the once inert sea of mist turned into a chaotic storm. Folding and collapsing on itself as it attempted to fill the dead space.
Throughout the entire exchange, Aldric watched, and he learned.
Learned that darkness had no supernatural effects on the mist. It did not weaken or limit the mist like it would for a nightmare creature or Awakened human.
Yet, there was good news. This was not the same mist that erased everything that it touched when they entered the mine back in the Forgotten Shore. It was much more similar to the mist in the river that they traversed. A mist that harboured creatures that devoured the souls of anyone that peered at it from within the mist.
But the most important thing that Aldric had learned through observing the exchange was that the creature had no form. It was a vaporous entity with no solid form. No visible soul cores or features.
"What on earth do I do now?"
He thought. Aldric needed time to think and plan out his next moves. But that could not happen as nothingness descended upon him.
Quickly returning his Apostle to his soul sea, he ran into a dash back toward the forest. He needed the high ground.
While being enveloped in the mist would not kill him, he knew that opening his eyes would be a death sentence for his soul. But that was not enough. It would be idiotic to assume that the creature did not have any other method to injure him while inside of its body.
As he sprinted, his mind raced with ideas to counteract the creature's supposed invulnerability.
'If my darkness doesn't work, then the rot from Sundered Sorrow definitely won't. Think! What is nothingness weak to?'
But Aldric drew a blank. His knowledge regarding the force was simply too little. The elusive force that caged the void.
For the first time in a very long time, the young man was truly stuck.
---
Leaping from branch to branch, a small figure darted through a forest as a sea of mist chased after him. Engulfing everything in its path like a tsunami.
The forest met a slow end. With the mist eroding any signs of life in a slow and twisted fashion. Though strangely, all the lifeless aspects of the forest remained completely the same.
In the time that had elapsed, a familiar plan formed in Aldric's mind. A plan that relied on a particular red energy. His [Insight] itched at him that something was wrong but there was simply nothing that he could do. He would have to shoulder the danger.
Jumping to the highest branch that he could see, he pulled from a deep well of power within himself. Crimson red sparks lit around him like static electricity. Directing the overwhelming and uncontrollable power through his core and towards his blade. Through a feat of desire and want, it began.
He willed it.
Pure energy of unknown origin bounced around his form, dripping towards his blade. But in that moment, something else began.
A drain from his chest, right where his pseudo-core was. The very same that he had created in the Ebony Tower. The one that allowed him full autonomy over a vessel that lacked a spark of divinity.
COUGH
DRIP
A mouthful of red dust expelled from his mouth like smoke. His own life essence escaping him. Something was wrong.
"DAMNIT!"
In a fit of rage and emotion, he punched the bark off the tree as he stood in a shower of splinters. Bursting like shrapnel, they bounced off his durable skin.
'What the hell?! If I can't use it, what on earth can I do?'
Before he began to spiral into useless thought, Aldric focused his erratic mind on finding a solution.
'Think! It's immune to everything that I..'.
Just as he began to think of a way to fight the ghastly creature, it caught up to him.
A harrowing mist rising to meet him.
***
Thanks for reading.
The cliffhangers are back!
Looks like Aldric is truly stuck. What can he do against such terrible odds?
Till the next one.