It was a strange Rhythm that sang through the darkness I was fighting in. Kingsbane fluttered, no, whispered through the air that was thick and heavy so deep down under the surface, rang hollow as it broke and cut chitin armor and was answered by angry screeching and roaring. Followed up by muffled footwork and scuffling insect legs. Tap tap tap, woosh, crack, screech.

Again and again, the sound repeated itself, interrupted by the thudding arrows burrowing into insect bodies, the clanging of a metal chain or fists or stone smashing faces of insects. But that was far away, near the entrance, where the spirits of Kara held the door.

The Kings were formidable opponents, strong and hard to kill, but mindless. They ran after me, eager to catch me and grind me into paste between their fists, but that was all the tactic they had.

Dancing under the scythes of monstrous creatures, one hit certainly my last, had become something of a comfortable situation for me. It was where I was best at. I whirled around the strike of a King, his fist smashing behind me into the ground, small debris hitting my back as I drew the blade of Kingsbane across the back of his knee. Kingsbane was sharp, that much was true, but the sword that cut everything it was not yet.

How was I meant to invoke its powers? Its true powers? The rune of strife worked. With every drop of blood I lost, every sliver of skin that burned away under the acid, the rune glowed stronger and stronger, until the blade and my arm was cast in cold, blue light, streaking through the darkness. I felt the thrumming of the force within rising, like a melody building up to a crescendo I longed to see, sought to achieve.

I was familiar with the instrumentalization of two emotions while fighting. I knew the burning rage and hatred that had carried me through the Abyss and I knew the cold, and calculated style of the Betrayer, which he had hammered into me in the hours of training. This was new. This was suspense, building, eagerly awaiting, and actively working towards the moment that the rune promised me, lured me with... to ever riskier steps, even.

A shame I had to bleed to achieve the result, which made the emotional response I had more than a little bit dangerous.

Behind me, the giant King fell heavy as his knee refused to carry his weight any longer, cut by my blade, and I sprinted on, at an angle, to get some distance between me and the other ones, who would have the fallen King as an obstacle to hurdle if they wanted to reach me. Which they didn‘t, as both rocked their heads back to spit their globs of acid at me. I dove to the side, acid sizzling where I had stood a moment ago, but again, small splashes rained on my boots and legs.

The rune of strife grew in intensity, as I hissed more in anger than in pain. I had no good answer to the acid. [Cutting Winds] just spread the liquid out over a larger area and [Stonehide] was too expensive in Mana, or too weak, to stop the acid effectively or completely.

I threw a frantic look around, allowing me to let the kings out of my sight for a daring second. Kara and Grim still were at the door, defending themselves with spirits, spear, and bow against a heavily injured King that had crawled over. The one Zero was in the process of grinding into bits. In its death throes, the king proved to be dangerous still. Mindless, true, but immune to pain as well. He saw intruders and went for them, no matter how much pain he felt and how dire his fate.

My companions would survive, between the three of them, and would resume supporting me afterwards, which meant that I should not be taking risks right this moment. I was waiting the kings out, evading them, dancing, always dancing around them. But the acid, the damned acid, was wearing me out instead.

Damn the kings, and damn reason. I am the Raven and I am in the Wyld - the place I claimed for my home. I would not stand sneaking around the dance like a shy scion on the night of the great ball.

My muscles burned as I dug them into the ground, shooting forwards with all the speed I could muster, Essence burned in my veins as [Improved Speed] ate the distance between me and the wall of chitinous limbs, scythes, fists, and mandibles.

As I drew Kingsbane back I cut the air before me, channeling [Cutting Winds] into the motion, and a blurry blade of wind shot forth, impacting the group of kings, cutting a limb here throwing them back a step there. More important was the cloud of dust and debris in the wake of the wind blade, veiling my lunge. Out of the obfuscation, I jumped. Cut, Kingsblade! Show me what you can do! From below, the light of the glowing blade tore the afterimage of a line of light into the darkness, as metal met monster. A sharp ringing noise echoed through the cavern.

I dove through the limbs. A cut on my calf, my cheek, a fist to my shoulder - chaos reigned supreme as I ducked and dove, cut and tumbled. [Stonehide] took most of the damage. Most. The rune of strife grew brighter and brighter until suddenly my world was hurled into the blue light, my pain devoured by the rune, my lost blood rising as thick smoke, burned away from my body. A heartbeat erupted out of the blade, took over my own with its steady rhythm. There was a moment of utter silence and stillness around me. Nothing but pressure in my heart and a world that stood still.

Then the world came back. Only I did not. I still was in the world of silent blue. I shouted in surprise as I moved. Everything I did, I did twice as strong, twice as fast. A strike threw back the King who received it, I ducked under the sluggish strikes with not a sweat, I jumped and soared higher than I ever had, clearing the kings completely and landing in a safe distance. Bliss, pure bliss, and excitement burned in my blood.

Behind me, as my feet touched the ground with easy grace, the king I had attacked just fell, cut in half, a river of innards and blood rushing to the ground with the sound of a tipped-over bathtub. Then, as quickly as it had come, the moment went and the world turned dark again. It had been a couple of seconds. Seven maybe. Seven seconds of supremacy, once the rune of strife was fed.

But that had been after the cut delivered to the king. Had I used the sword the right way this time or had the vertical slash just been a product of timing and force?

The kings straightened themselves, having lost limbs and blood, and came for me again, just three remaining, all of them hurt. Well, so was I. I turned towards them, checking the weight of Kingsbane in my fists. Still looking for the angle that would make Kingsbane cut everything.

“Are you alright?“ Grim asked as he came over after the fight was won. He had a grim look on his face, of course, but there might have been a hint of worry.

“I am fine.“ I answered hoarsely, breathing like the air in my lungs was molasses I needed to press out of it.

“Well, You look better than this lot, but not by much.“ He spat nodding to the cut and smashed insectoid monsters scattered around us.

Kara meanwhile had a haunted look on her face, looking around with thinly veiled horror at the scene the lantern revealed before her. Then her eyes found me.

The look of shock and horror did not change.

That hurt. Why I could not say. It had nothing to do with her, I just never had expected someone could look at me with horror in the eyes.

Just the scenery. I said in my mind. It was just the darkness, and the monstrous creatures, the gore and the wounds I carried all over my body, still smoking. It would rattle everyone. She does not fear you. It is the situation that unnerves her.

I let Kingsbane disappear in its [Hidden Sheath] and took a skin of water out of my bag to wash the worst off my face every now and again glancing over to see if she still was staring at me with the hollow look.

The man I was today had been reborn into this exact world. The dark world filled with monsters and gore. Grim was a hard man who had lost everything that he cared about. What was left was fatalist humor. Even he was shaken by the expedition into the dark and nasty. But she? She was a young woman, who came from hard people and a hard life, yes, but that had not prepared her for this. I could see her forcing herself to some resolve and posture, but she never stopped clamping her jaw or glancing at me when she thought I wasn‘t looking.

“Come!“ I said as easily as I could, already turning to leave the battlefield behind. “We have to find ourselves a queen to talk to.“ I wanted to leave. The stench was unbearable.

Behind a corner, we found a massive tunnel to another cavern, twice the size as the former had been, and the sight shook me to my core. I had seen the mother of the magmawyrms in raging fire and all her glory, but this...this was something else. A creature, endless, bloated, and massive, filled the cavern completely. Thin, pulsating membranes barely contained the enormous sack of living matter that dwarfed us.

Something was moving in there as if swimming through a liquid. We could see the shadows of eggs rushing past us as the cone of light from our lantern shone through the membrane and the transparent matter. So many eggs. They traveled past us and ended somewhere on the other side of the gigantic queen.

I could barely see her, high up under the ceiling. A creature five times the size of a king we had just fought, suspended in the air from chitinous chains or threads, it was hard to tell, but that part was the only one resembling the other insects we had seen. Beyond and below her the massive sack of...whatever was happening there. Thousands of smaller, scuttling insects were hurrying around the walls of the cave, the ceiling, and on her body.

The light was not able to reach up that high.

“She is up there.“ I said. “I can see her. She is connected to all of this.“

Beside me Grim shuddered, eyes closed, and made a grimace of disgust. “My Skill tells me that this is her breeding. She doesn‘t move. They feed her up there somewhere.“

We shared a moment of disgust as we imagined what was happening up there in the darkness.

“Can you...“, I swallowed, “can you communicate from down here?“ I would pay good gold to not have to climb up there, face to face with...that.

Kara took a deep breath, swallowing as well. “I certainly would like to try that first, before...“ she made a gesture indicating the darkness above her.

“Dead gods and the damned,“ Grim spat, “Please find a way to not make me go up there.“

We settled down in the only corner not filled up with the enormous body of the queen, letting Kara work while Grim and I were busy scaring away the myriad of small and tiny insects crawling all around us.

“Do you ever think about where in life you have gone wrong to deserve this?“ Grim asked.

“All the damn time.“ I said sighing. “All the damn time.“