The rain pouring on us soaked our fur coats to the brim, yet we couldn't warm them or heat them with Aisha and Nova's Skills until we understood what the nature of the grotto was. But one thing was clear...

It was magically sealed.

"I can't see through its darkness even with my night sight," I said.

Meanwhile, I was more interested in studying the warriors' spears, which I could definitely see now, thanks to Loki's perception.

The big lion stood by my side, sniffing, examining the spears.

They were regular spears, but from their frames, a vague transparent haze seeped into the air.

Bloomingwood Spectral Spear

Durability: 97%

Bonuses: Agility + 15, Strength + 35, Focus + 25

Strengths: Phantasmic State

Weaknesses: None

This Spear has been built by an Advanced Class Tinker and Inscribed by an Ultimate Class Scribe. It has been bathed in a broth of cursed souls; whoever can touch an Ethereal can wield this spear.

It can strike both Physical beings and Ethereal beings.

I couldn't touch Ethereals; among us, only Loki could interact with them, but I could see them.

However, Aisha interrupted my analysis of the spear by telling me of her guesses regarding the grotto's nature.

"The interior of these walls has been inscribed, look," she said as she passed her hand on the walls.

"I'm not certain, I've never studied runes, by I think this is a negation-passage; they are made to stop Flow or Shade from leaking out. Which means that inside of this place, there might be a place of convergence."

I had no idea what a negation-passage entailed, but I knew what a place of convergence was.

"What is a place of convergence?" Nova asked.

"A place where Shade and Flow are present at the same time.”

Yet Aisha did it better, "A place where Flow and Shade converge without denying each other, a stable zone where their mingling does not result into annihilation or devastation," she continued, "However, wherever these places appear, inexplicable phenomenons follow. Many of them have never been explained even by our best scientists."

Okay, she did it a lot better.

"I've seen one before. Where the Netherlion's Titan resided, it was a place of convergence."

Indeed. "People have gone to study it; they found traces of it, I believe, but it extinguished itself."

"It's safe to say that this place might be related to the Sand-Wyrm Titan then?"

"I don't know, Loke. We've been to that Titan's lair; it wasn't a place of convergence. And if this grotto leads there, maybe… then maybe something has changed, but if the Titan and this place are not connected, maybe we're about to go inside a place we don't know how to deal with..." Aisha looked afraid. But I knew her; she wouldn't stop just for that.

"Should we go look for the cart and go back home?" Nova asked.

"No, we should not abandon the mission. I want to try and save these people from themselves if I can," Aisha said.

If we completed this mission, Nova and I would have gained a lot in front of Sundoors' citizens. I did not want to lose this chance. And even if the place was dangerous, if things went sour, Aisha could blast things into oblivion, Nova could use her Flow shield, and I could bombard everything that barred our way.

"I'm with Aisha. We should try and end this. Also, I promised Roana. Anyway, Nova, have your shield at the ready. There will be all the Flow you want in here and the Shade to replenish your Stamina."

Nova nodded; she looked satisfied. And I could say that it was because I was counting on her.

So with Loki as our frontman, we delved into the dark grotto.

It took only a few steps inside of the dark tunnel to regain my night vision. The place was bare and regular that other than the runes covering the wall, I saw no real reason to use magic to block people from seeing the grotto's insides.

Still, we went slowly in, in fear of traps, but fearless as these nomads were, I doubted we would find any traps.

The grotto's inside were more than empty; they were utterly deserted; not a soul had been guarding the place; it was likely that whatever was going on needed the whole village’s presence.

"Nova, how many wounded did you say there were in that hospital tent?"

"I didn't count them... but I guess sixty? At least twenty or so with the plague," she said.

—Sixty wounded individuals, all at the same time.

"What are you thinking about?" Aisha asked me.

"I don't really know what I'm thinking about, but… Loki came back with a couple of huge chunks of Soul fractions; they were tall numbers, as tall as the undead Wyrm I fought yesterday night."

"You think… you think they are fighting undead creatures somewhere? En masse?"

"I told you already; I don't know what they are doing. All I know is that it requires all of their presence, it leads to a high chance of injury and of taking the plague, and it is secret enough to require-" I had heard something then, it stopped me in my tracks.

"Did you hear that?" Of course they didn’t, only I had enough Perception to hearing that.

The passage in front of us started slowly descending and curving to the left. We had been descending down the root of the mountains for a while already and had not noticed. If we kept going like this, it was clear that we would reach the place in which the Sand-Wyrm Titan resided.

But as we delved deeper, I started picking up sounds.

Nova shook her head after cupping her hands around her ear, "Can't feel anything."

"It's like… a rasping."

Synesthesia triggered at that moment while Sixth Sense pushed me into action; what I had seen with my ear's sight was a mad, giant creature running right at us; it would not stop.

I acted as fast as I could. I took Nova in my arms, forced her to put her arms around my neck, then I took Aisha in my arms, and I threw my knife up toward the corner of the wall.

With my right hand gripping the knife and pushing it into the rock wall and my left hand's clock-arm fingers penetrating deep in the rock to stabilize us, we remained there, dangling like upside-down bats.

Loki phased out.

Whatever was running at us like a crazed Rhinoduster in the night's sky, soon revealed to be a giant creature that would not have stopped for our sake; it would have trampled us. And judging from its smell, the beast was an undead. It was a massive undead Cyclops.

The screaming beast ran out of the cave.

Soon another passed by, and another still, a few moments later, peace returned in the dark caves.

"What was that?" Aisha asked.

"I think… Those were the things that Kaleeki woman warned us about. The things whose scream we would fear during the night."

When I felt confident enough, I jumped down, holding both of them up.

"But what happened? Did they escape?" Nova asked. She was surprisingly... not surprised even though she had never seen an undead before.

"Let's find out, but hurry up, summon your blades, keep your shield at the ready, and let's run."

We had to speed up; whatever was going on was happening now.

The massive cave that opened up in front of us was lighted as day; it was the peculiarity of a convergence zone. I could already see Abyss water lying in big puddles around the place.

We had traveled for around ten minutes and had gone deep down the steep reclining tunnel that brought us to the mountain roots.

During the trip down the abyss, I found many tracks of the passage of a lot of people. The villagers had indeed come down here, en masse as Aisha had said.

"Look!" Aisha exclaimed, pointing at the waters; she had likely arrived at my same conclusion; "We found those even in that grotto, remember?"

"Yeah, I guess that was even the reason why those Cyclopses were so high-leveled, the undead must have escaped and reached the grotto, and they took care of them. The waters might have started developing for that same reason; what the reason actually is, though… I guess we are going to find out."

Even before we entered the cave, we could hear cries of battle, of pain, wailing, so we entered carefully.

But when we did, we quickly found ourselves facing a big number of nomads giving us their backs; they were… waiting? —waiting for their turn to fight.

The massive cave had no more openings to the sides. The one we had come from was the only way to reach it. However, it had a huge pit in its center, and all around the sides of it stood villagers. They had formed a half-circle.

They were all intently staring down at the pit. But I couldn't see what they were looking at, not from where I stood.

I turned back toward the others then, asking for silence with my fingers; I would have to take a big leap of faith to figure out what these people were staring at.

The cave was big enough and wide enough that if nobody was actively looking for spies, I could transfer myself on one of the walls and take a good look at what was going on at the center of the pit.

I took a big breath, slowly releasing the air; it didn’t seem to want to leave. What I was about to do could reveal myself; the possibilities were high, really high.

I knew then that I had to warn my companions.

"Listen," I whispered, "I need to see what is going on there if something goes wrong if I'm seen, you run, you just run away, find the Flow-cart and go back; nobody can catch me anymore, it’s a new Skill thing, so don’t worry about me. Okay?"

Nova stared at me, her eyes almost wishing to fulminate me.

"No,” she simply said.

My eyes involuntarily went to the ceiling; this girl would be the cause of my death, for stress.

"Alright, then do whatever you want, but-"

"No, buts. Go and come back, end of the story," Nova said.

I was taken aback, almost about to laugh out loud, "You're going to be my ruin…" I said, still, I was happy.

"Loke, we can simply leave, whatever this is, I can feel a strong disturbance in the Flow; they are abusing both Flow and Shade; I've never felt anything like this," Aisha said.

"I know, I can sense part of that weird phenomenon as well, but… I need to do this." And you know why I would have added if Nova was not there.

"Alright, then go. If worst comes to worst, I'll simply have to unleash my Flare on them; I just wish it didn't come to that."

I nodded. I would try.

Turning the other way, I nocked a shadow arrow, then aimed at the wall's angle with the ceiling.

When I manifested in mid-air, and the shadow disappeared, I thrust my knife in the stone. Then stabilized my body, like a spider.

But whatever paved in front of my eyes when their attention went to the pit was… unbelievable.

The deep and vast well was huge, much more so than I could imagine; it extended far beneath the earth and seemed to have a few exits, but that was of no relevance for what stood at its northern side was the massive corpse of an immense creature.

Something that would make a Titan pale in comparison.

However, what I could see was not everything there was of the corpse, not at all.

The corpse of a humongous creature, much bigger than a Titan would ever hope to be, lay in an even bigger pool of water, Abyss water.

Its head and chest sprouted out of those waters, while what couldn't be else but the chief, Terra, and the old man stood on top of it.

Earth Dragon (Primal), Level ????

Durability: 0%

Health: 0%

Stamina: 0%

Flow Capacity: 0%

Shade Capacity: 0%

Agility: ???

Constitution: ????

Strength: ????

Focus: ????

Perception: ???

Willpower: ????

Strength: ?

Weakness: None

Abilities: ?

A Primal Dragon of old.

Its dying body has remained stuck in a loop between the Abyss and the Physical world. Until it is still inhabiting both dimensions, it will not dissolve.

Crystals weight: 0.500kg x 10000000

Stones weight: 0.500kg x 10000000

Dark Crystals weight: 1kg x 100000

Shiny Stones weight: 1kg x100000

Evercrystals weight: 10kg x 10000

Everstones weight: 10kg x 10000

Eternal Dark Crystal weight: 100kg x 10

Eternal Shiny Stone weight: 100k x 10

Primal Crystal weight: 1000kg x 1

Primal Stone weight: 1000kg x 1

A Primal… I was actually staring at a Primal, and it was dead. Unbelievable.

The nomads were conducting some sort of ritual, while all around the pool of Abyss water, bodies, remains of creatures, Flowborns, Shadelings, Cyclopses were amassed by the villagers that had descended the pit.

But that wasn't all. Something came out from the dead Primal every few moments, it looked like… like the whispers; maybe it was a soul, I couldn't say.

Yet the whispers moved about in the air, eerily, then they crawled inside of the corpses, inhabiting and reanimating the dead bodies.

The creatures that were about to be possessed started trembling, then they jerked crazed.

From what I could see, the old man was the one moving about, he was in some sort of trance, and as he danced, the whispers that came from within the body of the Primal moved with him, while the young man was immobile, his hands touching the flesh of the Primal; he seemed to shiver, continuously.

The cycles of whispers escaping from the Primal's body to then inhabit the creatures continued for a few more minutes while the villagers kept climbing back from the pit and took their place around its rim.

When they had all done so, the boy let go of his stance.

The undead all rose up at the same time; they emitted a guttural shrill, then they started rushing to the walls of the pit.

They began climbing the rocks with madness in their eyes and movements that unmistakably showed that there was no sanity left in them.

The villagers, now all standing around the pit, took arms and started throwing their spears, rocks, bolas, arrows, whatever they could at the creatures.

The vast majority of them fell back into the pit; their bodies broke for the impact, while others managed to escape the pit and assaulted the villagers.

It was a grisly spectacle. Some of those bodies seemed to have been used again and again.

Finally, not all of those were defeated; others started running away toward the exit, the only exit.

Maybe it was some leftover survival instincts that made them act like that.

I was astonished, but then I realized; those creatures were like the ones that had come at us while we were still in the tunnels; Nova and Aisha were still there, in hiding. Would they be able to take cover or defeat the creatures without revealing themselves?

Fuck.

I did not know what to do?

We could not escape all these villagers if they came at us; there would for sure be some runners among them, they would be able to catch us, slow us down, and the whole horde would be upon us.

I took a deep breath as I closed my eyes; I knew what I had to do.

Two plans formed in my mind, one more unpracticable than the other.

The first required that butchered all the people still standing in this grotto while hoping I would actually be able to make such a feat; as unlikely as it was, the second plan was to escape in an... unconventional way.

Extracting Spectre's Dignity from the rocks, I threw it with all my power to the exit, where Nova and Aisha were waiting for me.

It would not reach, but I didn't need it to.

When I transferred, I had already summoned a Shadow Crystal Blow arrow, and the moment I manifested, I shot it at the undeads running at my companions.

The resulting explosion was deafening.

The enclosed space resounded with the echoes of the explosion, and when the harmonious result ceased, a perfect moment of silence took its place, descending on the whole of the cave.

I broke that silence then, "This madness ends here."

The woman that had welcomed us, Kaleeki, was the first to answer my taunt, throwing her spear.

A spear that, thanks to Loki's borrowed Perception, I could clearly see, and with much of her gawking, I simply sidestepped it.

"Loki!" I yelled, "Go back!"

I could feel his repulsion to that idea, but having already tamed him, he could not ignore my command.

Then I called for the others, "Nova, Aisha, come here, fast!"

They had no idea what I wanted to do, but they came to my call. Although I was giving them my back, I was ready to bet that when my companions saw all the villagers stare at us, ready to fight, their knees would tremble.

"Come close, and get ready to hug me."

"Is this gonna be a goodbye kind of hug?" Aisha asked, her voice was shaking.

Nova answered, "There are no goodbye hugs with Loke, only I-love-you-hugs."

"Well, I hope you love me then…"

I chuckled, but there was no time to waste because just as they neared me, the villagers started rushing at us.

So I raised my bow and released an arrow, a regular arrow.

It was aimed for the pit, and curving in the space over it, the arrow would not attract attention. From their point of view, it would be a miss. Nobody would notice it.

When I saw it pass the pit's rim, I put the bow around my neck, turned to the side to check on Spectre's Dignity, which I had not had the time to retrieve, but found it nowhere.

A sense of guilt washed over me for having lost my grandfather's heirloom, but I couldn't dwindle, not now. My arms took hold of my companions, and before the horde of angry villagers was about to run us over, we disappeared.