The sudden surge of magical power enveloped Elise and the bugbear. Movement had become impossible. No matter what she tried, she could not escape the iron grip of the dead bugbear. Upon noticing that she tried to cut off his arm, but it was already too late. The young girl noticed how her surroundings seemed to fade away before she found herself in a pitch black area.

Elise finally managed to free herself from the bugbear's grip and took a defensive stance, trying to make out where she was. Elise had never heard of a nest teleporting anyone. Worse, she didn't even know if she was still in the nest or had been spirited away to a distant land. The latter, at least from what little she knew, would have required a lot of mana. Therefore, it seemed unlikely. She suppressed the bit of panic that had begun to build up, panicking and crying wouldn't help her at all.

"Do you need help?" the angry voice asked, "'Sight' might help, won't give you night vision but might help you see the magic of your enemies."

Elise frowned and activated 'Sight'. She noticed that her surroundings still were pitch black. However, she could make out vague humanoid figures fifty metres away. They didn't seem to have noticed her and Elise decided to take a short break.

The fight with the bugbear had drained all her energy. Her legs felt as if her muscles would give out at any moment and her arms ached tremendously. She sighed quietly before asking the angry voice if she knew where they were. The angry voice didn't know where they were, which wasn't surprising considering Elise didn't know where they were either.

"Should I use 'Fairy Fire'?" thought Elise. The spell didn't seem to have many offensive capabilities, but it at least provided some light, which might make it easier to see her immediate surroundings.

She cast the spell and produced a green flickering fire in her left palm. The light reached further than she had expected, revealing that the humanoid figures in the distance were indeed human, or at least had been long ago. Their bodies looked rather unsightly, missing chunks of flesh or whole limbs. Elise knew instinctively that these were no ordinary zombies. All these beings were held together by demonic energy. Furthermore, a zombie was not made of only skin and bones.

"Skinwalkers," Elise thought, and the angry voice agreed. Instinctively, Elise took a few steps back and noticed hard stone digging into her armour.

This was extremely bad news, the mere presence of skinwalkers meant that a demon must be nearby. Elise began to wonder idly how long it would take for the demon to notice that a living being had somehow entered its territory.

This was simply a hopeless situation.

She strengthened what little remained of her resolve and thought about what she could do. She had to kill the skinwalkers or avoid a fight with them. The latter seemed impossible, she didn't know how big the area was. But it was her best chance.

When she noticed one of the skinwalkers staring at her, Elise crouched down, hiding behind one of the stalagmites, and ended the spell. She would rely on ‘Sight’ instead, which may make it harder for the skinwalkers to spot her. Sound was another matter, hopefully time had taken its toll and the skinwalkers could no longer hear.

She began to sneak around, using her sword to feel if she would hit anything. Like a blind man using a stick, she moved through the pitch darkness without somehow bumping into a wall, stalagmite or stalactite.

Elise paused in her movement when she noticed a slight change in her vision. Somehow, for lack of better words, she began to see more. She could still see the vaguely humanoid forms imbued with the bit of demonic energy that held them together. But she also saw that the walls were saturated with magic and that magic permeated the air. The only place devoid of magic was a black hole right between the skinwalkers.

"Shit," was all Elise could think. She tried if she could spot anything else that looked like an exit. There was nothing, it looked as if she was in some kind of cave under the surface.

The only visible way to leave was through the hole. She sighed and thought of a plan that didn't involve fighting all the skinwalkers. Elise looked at the ground and spotted several stones that would fit right in her hand. She grabbed one, gauged its weight and then looked at the wall furthest away from the skinwalkers. The young girl threw the stone as hard as she could. It hit the wall and bounced off. But no skinwalker had noticed the loud noise, confirming her theory that their hearing had deteriorated.

This was not that great. So she grabbed another rock and threw it directly into the face of one of the skinwalkers. It turned and stared in her direction before rushing towards her. Elise quickly and stealthily moved further away, trying to increase the distance as much as possible. The skinwalker reached her previous position, stopped and lunged wildly, hitting nothing but air.

"It's blind," the angry voice stated, "or it can see practically nothing."

Elise had deduced as much. To prove her theory, however, she crept towards the skinwalker and tried to move in its blind spot. Well, only if the theory turned out to be wrong.

She reached the skinwalker and lunged for a powerful strike while waiting for it to turn around. It stared at her with its glassy white eyes, but did not move. Only when her sword moved did it take notice. But by then it was too late. Her sword struck the skull. It did not pierce it. No, her sword shattered the brittle skull with ease. Not much of its brain remained, and so her kill had been quite clean.

The skinwalker's corpse fell forward, one of the bones protruding from its fingers scratching against her cheek. Elise felt a thin trail of blood run down her cheek. She wiped the blood away, frowned and wondered why she had allowed herself to be hit by what could only be described as a very ludicrous attack. Fortunately, the wound seemed quite small and would surely heal on its own.

"Seems that their vision sucks," the angry voice said, and Elise nodded, "They probably just see movement."

That was good, she didn't have to fight like a real warrior. Elise grinned, she just had to throw a rock as fast and hard as she could to hopefully crush the skull or force the skinwalker to walk towards her.

It took her several tries. In the end only one skinwalker survived her throw. Its head had been covered by a rusted helmet, shielding it from the impact. Her sword, however, took care of the problem. Now, with no skinwalker left, she could use ‘Fairy Fire’ to her heart's content.

She cast the spell and held a brightly glowing fire in her left hand. In hindsight, creating a very bright light source turned out to be a stupid idea. It almost burned her eyes and forced her to close her eyes to get used to the sudden brightness. It took a few moments, but eventually the light stopped blinding her eyes.

Elise noticed a handful of notable things near the hole. Firstly, the remains of a campfire next to the hole. This may have offered some light but it would have also consumed what little oxygen remained in the cave. Secondly, a ladder made of ropes that led into the hole. And finally, a small bundle of papers next to a bag that looked as if it had been lying here for a very long time.

Elise eyed the bundle of paper and approached slowly, not seeing a magical trap directly underneath. 'Sight' proved to be rather useful. She inwardly reprimanded herself for not using it all the time. The price of having the sensation of a dry tongue could have saved her from the hellhole she had landed in.

She reached for the bundle of paper and was pleased when it didn't fall apart. Elise stared at the first paper, looking at a crudely drawn map. She reached for the next one and read the words that were written down. The handwriting was getting worse, but she managed to read enough to understand what had happened to her and the other poor souls the nest had whisked away.

This really was a demon's territory. It was also part of the nest, at least that's what the writer argued, claiming that their earth mage had mapped the area and found that it led to a large area connected to part of the nest. Unfortunately, magic was not omnipotent. The geomancer had not been powerful enough to map more of the area.

Elise also found out that the five skinwalkers had been mercenaries, mercenaries who had entered the nest a long time ago. Apparently they had considered using the rope to reach the lower level, but had not done so. Their bodies and minds had been beyond saving, the corruption from the demon's power had already spread through their bodies. Therefore, they had decided not to go deeper and possibly emerge in the nest which could have spread the corruption.

Elise frowned, wondering how long it would be before she fell victim to the corruption. Besides, she had read that the rope had already been there when the five mercenaries had arrived here, having fallen victim to a similar trap. That meant either that Elise had to fight other corrupted beings or that someone had managed to escape from the demon's territory.

But ... all in all ... that seemed extremely unlikely.

Elise sighed and looked at the bag. She rummaged through the remains and found a quill and a small bottle of ink. The water had already dried out, leaving behind a mass of undefined consistency. The young girl frowned, considering her options. There was only one.

She spat into the bottle of ink and used the quill to stir up the mess she had created. It wasn't necessarily the most sophisticated solution, but it worked. She wrote her name on the small space left on the last paper and that she intended to delve deeper, that she would either die or succeed.

"May peace be with you," she said, looking at the remains of the skinwalkers before grabbing the rope and climbing down.