Now, finding trouble was not as easy as I had thought. First of all, I wanted to move on and find my mettle on the way. Second of all, I could see nothing. Just the still waters and the foul mud. So was it time to spring a trap? I squatted next to a tree, shielded from below through the roots, and observed the still waters ahead of me. There were so many damn insects around. I had killed a few of the big ones but did not receive EP for them, so I let them be. Well, time to play the stupid card again.

I tested the waters with my walking stick, found them to be shallow enough for my purposes, and walked out a few feet. Almost immediately I heard the clinks and clanks of Zero whipping through the air with his [Chain Lash]. And something black, slimy and wormy, as big as my leg flew past me, exploding in a cloud of blood.

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward: 1 EP]

Oh hell no.

Once more Zero lashed out from the secure position of the tree, while I hurried back to dry land.

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward: 1 EP]

Before I could reach the tree, I saw the dark shadow under the water racing to me, I saw rows of lamprey-teeth opening and closing around my leg. I did not feel a thing. As if nothing was touching me. But there was a log sized leesh sucking on my leg. I felt dizzy immediately and fumbled for my sword. But Zero lashed out once more, nearly hitting my leg, and cut the leech apart.

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward: 1 EP]

"Oh no. No. No. No. Fuck that.“ I swore. I had not expected to be attacked the second I put a foot into the waters. I searched my leg for wounds and found a round one with the teeth marks and in the middle, a hole where a milky substance was leaking out from. Some kind of numbing poison, I assumed, [Improved Constitution] already fighting the effects. I turned. The water was churning.

"No, no, no.“ I yelled again, picking up Zero, who slung himself around me and walked away at a fast pace, having trouble putting weight on my numbed leg. Zero slid around me and I felt the force of his lash.

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward: 1 EP]

Again.

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward: 1 EP]

As the feeling returned to my legs I increased my speed, finally running over the stretch of dry land I had scouted out earlier. Away from those waters. A look around me made me shiver in disgust. Hundreds of them writhing with their fat glistening bodies behind me. But I was leaving them behind.

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward: 1 EP]

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward: 1 EP]

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward: 1 EP]

When I had enough of land between me and them, that I would not have to fear them anymore, I slowed down. Which was exactly the time the abomination used to heave its ugly body onto the dry spot in front of me. It looked like a giant starfish, as black and slimy as the leeches had been, but as big as a horse. Underneath, in the middle of the - what were those, legs? - was a mouth as round and teethed as the mouth of the leeches had been. On top of it was a round protrusion, eyes all around, and flailing tentacles to crown the horror.

I would have screamed like a little girl falling from a swing if the horror of what I saw had not tied up my throat. Zero, always the cooler head, already was lashing out, opening small gashes in the black flesh, where black ichor dripped out.

With one motion I took the sling of chain around my torso, tossing it aside. Zero could fight on his own, and I needed the freedom to move. My leg was a burden, still wounded from the White Beast, now numbed from the leeches.

"Zero!“ I said. "look out for the leeches in our back.“ He immediately turned away from the thing and slithered backwards.

I pulled Kingsbane from my back and gripped it in both hands. As I saw it, being under the leg things of that creature and near that mouth was a death sentence. It was not very agile, the legs not walking but pulling and heaving the thing in my direction, but the catch arms on top were lightning quick.

I tried to follow them all with my eyes, ready to cut or dodge anyone that came too close. Which was what almost killed me. While I was looking for the catch arms, the thing had squatted and jumped. A giant black mass of slime, darkening the sky. I dove forward, under the creature and out on the other side, while it splashed way to close to the ground behind me. I whirled around, Kingsbane followed, and as in a drunken fever dream one second behind, a ghostly image of the same horizontal slash followed as I activated [Ghost Strike].

The first cut split flesh, ichor followed the arc of my sword, spraying out into the marshes. The creature was too heavy and blobby to move immediately after its jump. The ghostly image hit the same spot and ice crystals exploded in the wound, freezing the ichor and parts of the flesh around. Not a sound from the creature. But it was in disarray. Even as the tentacles snapped after me, I jumped, [Airwalk], jumped even higher, soaring over the mass of flesh now under me.

I raised Kingsbane to a two-handed stab and activated [Stonehide], maximum Mana. Thick skin of rugged rock formed around me, increasing my weight immensely. The human-size rock, that I was, slammed on top of the starfish, smashing it flat to the ground again, while barbed tentacles uselessly scratched over my skin. Kingsbane slid into the flesh, right where the protrusion with the eyes was, piercing the whole body and nailing the thing to the ground. It spasmed and laid still.

[Giant Wyldmarsh Slime-Star-Thing defeated! Reward: 9 EP. What are these things? I don‘t know how to call them! -L. ]

"I don't know either!“ I yelled back.

Meanwhile, Zero had reached the water in the back and whirled about, cold steel and spikes smashing and cutting bloated leech flesh.

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward: 1 EP]

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward: 1 EP]

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward: 1 EP]

It would have been a good spot to fight a few of them. But my leg was bad. And with no fresh blood in reach, the leeches soon dispersed, tired of fighting a chain they could not eat. Zero was red and sticky when he came back to me.

"Thanks, my hero.“ I smiled. It did not matter that he was dirty. I was covered in grime and muck. And I had been for a very long time.

Noise. It was the noise grinding on my nerves. An ebb and flow of screeching and scratching, always just a little bit too silent to be anything but unconsciously on edge. For a long time, I had thought the noise to come from insects or something around me. But it was relentless. Every now and again I believed to hear a scream in the noise, or children laughing. Or beasts roaring. But silent, oh so silent. I whirled around more than once, thinking something behind me.

The ground became treacherous as well, for minutes at a time I had the feeling to walk on haystacks, or wool or water, but my eyes begged to differ. My leg was getting worse as the hours passed and darkness swallowed the swamps once more.

What I had thought to be a clean and bandaged wound sent cold sweat to my face, even before I saw the greenish hue in the flesh, when I changed the cloth. Then the fever started. I could not rest, not here. A tree was the minimum safety measure I needed. Some of them had been ahead, but the twilight may have been playing tricks on my eyes. Was there movement in the water? No, just my nerves playing up again. The cursed noise in my ear. I ground my teeth in frustration, my jaw muscles anything but relaxed.

Lights. There were lights in the darkness. Do not go to the lights. I knew that. I had learned that. Do not stray from the path. I knew that. Laughter. Bells ringing. The sound of steel hitting steel. Screams of pain, anguish, and death.

The Wyld was in my mind.

I had walked into the water, I recognized with sudden clarity. Water splashed around me, blood flowing freely, flying even. A chain, whirling in desperation, spikes, and steel ripping through bloated leeches. Curious.

A light. When did I walk towards a light? A warm, glowing ball of light in all this darkness and blood. Screeching noises drowned out every sound. My father told me a story, sitting by a fire, once, a lifetime ago. I could hear his voice. The fire had been almost as beautiful as this light here.

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward 1 EP]

The light rose up and I followed it with my eyes, awestruck by its beauty. I did not see the creature underneath. The frog-like behemoth, covered in warts and mucus that rose out of the dirty water. But I felt the leathery tongue slapping around me, binding me, dragging me back. Towards an opened maw.

Kingsbane flashed. Flashed again. Hacking like a lumberjack, I cut the tongue, blood splattering all over my face. I screamed but there was no sound but the screeching.

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward 1 EP]

[Giant Wyldmarsh Leech defeated! Reward 1 EP]

Somewhere behind me, Zero was busy.

[Iron Mind Behind an Iron Mask]! [Iron Mind Behind an Iron Mask]! The mantra sounded through my mind with the clarity of a winter morning. I repeated it, over and over again. The noise grew louder. [Breaker of Chains]...nothing.

There was a creature slapping me around. Claws the size of my torso cutting air and mud. Instincts had taken over. I was good with those.

Kingsbane soared again, hacked again, stabbed again. The light went flying, I saw the creature stumbling, but I could not hear his roar. Or it was one of the thousands of screams I heard.

"You call that madness?“ I screamed at no one, hacking a piece of flesh off the frog. "This is nothing to me!“ Kingsbane rose again.

"I know true madness! It is where I was born. Do you think you can drive me mad? I’ll drag you down into the Abyss with me and show you what madness is.“ I had opened my arms wide, bending back, yelling as loud as I could, still no sound reaching my ears. The last cut came down like the blade of an executioner, cleaving the frog in twain.

[Mirage Bullywhack defeated! Reward 13 EP.]

I saw the cube of a Shard of Essence floating over to me. There were leeches. I stumbled through the mud.

The heavy bell of a cathedral rang in my ears, calling the people to mess. My father was there, and my mother. I had never known my mother. She laughed in delight. My father was so proud. A beast tore the image away as if it was a piece of paper.

There were trees, beautiful and terrifying. I screamed. They had eyes. And the dead grew on their branches like plague filled apples, swinging in the foul wind.

Steel your mind, Raven! Steel it. Feelings are nothing if you don‘t give them power.

[Iron Mind Behind an Iron Mask], [Iron Mind Behind An Iron Mask]. Suddenly I had an epiphany. I saw everything oh so clearly.

[Skill developed! Iron Mind Behind An Iron Mask!]

The noise was deafening, I fell in the middle of the woods, the earth running through my hands as I clawed the ground. Worms? Were those worms? No, fingers. Mine. I needed that Skill. Meditation. Meditation. How do I meditate?

"Zero," I said. Where was he? "If I do something wrong, stop me."

I had done it once and I could do it again. Ride the chaos that is madness. I went feral, as I had done all those nights before, in the darkest hours of my time in the Abyss. My mind detached from my body completely, while my instincts took over.

"Nooo! Don‘t“ Lily screamed as I entered my Demesne, she was in front of me, no, she had engulfed my whole head with her body. I could see nothing but her blue light. "Don‘t listen. Close your ears. La la la la. It is an attack on your mind. Your Demesne is as much your mind as it is Limbo. It is a thousand times worse here.“

"I need the Skill!“ I yelled in desperation.

"You cannot see! Skills are far too intricate to weave like that.“

"It is my own. I created it. I can do it! Just give me a strand of Essence.“

I pressed my eyes shut, tried to block out the noise. I began weaving. Essence was running through my fingers, smooth as silk. The pattern was brilliant, yet so easy. Four pillars and a weave between. The representation of my skill.

It was a box. White, brilliant white. And nothing else. A compartment in my mind to shelter from the storm. And I sat there in isolation. Peace at last. Nothingness.

Time had no meaning but passed nonetheless.

Then, a man entered. He wore a brown tunic, no shoes, and had a head full of wild hair, caked in mud and dirt. He had gentle eyes behind all that hair in his face and a nose like a potato. Crooked antlers grew out of his nest of hair, all around his head, like a crown of horns.

"It's fine, you can come out now. I stole the madness from you, if only for a day or two.“

"Who are you?“

"They call me the Dio, the Mad King. But I am no one’s King. I am pretty mad, though.“

He cackled.