He jumped over the fence, nearly spraining his ankle. The door was wide open, the inside of the house was dark, all the candles had been extinguished.

What happened.

Zane looked around, he could see something on the ground near the entrance to the house. He crouched down and let his hand glide over the object, it was furry.

Boulder!

Zane jumped up and took his lantern out of his satchel and lit it. Blood was splattered all across the room, on the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the shelves, the tables, everywhere. Boulder was missing his head, a large puddle of blood had formed around his lifeless body. Zane noticed some scratch marks on the walls near the entrance.

What could have done this?

The door was opened slightly. He pushed it open, revealing a small totem, a broken spear had been rammed into the path, Boulder's head on the other side, his dead eyes staring at him and blood dripping onto the path. Zane felt a cold shiver running down his spine, his heart began beating faster. He took a deep breath, trying to keep the fear from appearing.

Why, why, why . . . why is one of those here . . . I thought they had been driven to extinction!

Zane grabbed his head, pressing against it. It was a feeling of pure fear. Unlike the stalkers he had not anticipated this, he had not prepared himself for this. He looked past the totem, to the forest. Big chunks of wood were missing from the trees and in the light of his torch, he could see the red of blood on some leaves. On a few branches that grew over the path sat birds, all looking at him. Zane slowly got closer to the edge of the forest, he noticed that similar to the chupacabra the eyes of the birds were orangish.

Is this what he meant by payment?

"Is this one of your tricks, Erebus? Is this your doing?" Zane yelled, into the darkness.

He could feel something watching him, but wasn't sure whether or not it was the creature that did this or if it was the Lord of the Deep, trying to drive him closer to insanity.

Zane slowly walked into the forest, still feeling the eyes of the birds following him. The bushes around him began rustling, making him feel on edge. He tried concentrating, looking for anything with Aura in the area, he felt a few birds and other small animals here and there, and in the distance there was a stronger presence, a familiar one.

Lovia.

Zane got faster, using his katana to cut the bushes that were in his way. But the noises coming from all around him had him on edge the entire time, every time he heard something next to him he lost concentration, losing his goal. He felt as if the animals of the forest were playing a trick on him when he again lost concentration due to a branch above him shaking violently only to see a few squirrels running around on it. The trees seemed to move around him, he felt the fear seeping into his mind.

It's playing tricks on me.

A sudden pain on his forehead made him temporarily forget his fear but when he looked up from the ground it reappeared. Gerds severed head, the blood still dripping down from it, hung from a tree, attached to it by a chain which had been rammed through his entire head, Lovia's chain. The blade had been broken off, the part it had been attached to dangling out from the bottom of Gerd's head, covered in blood. Some of the links were heavily damaged, blood was splattered all over the entire chain.

Anger now made itself at home in his mind, right next to the fear. He clenched his hand into a fist, making the lantern shake, as he stood up from the ground.

I must be getting close . . .

Zane became less careful, his only desire was to find her, to not lose a friend so soon. Zane knew, if he failed now he would regret it forever. He ran through the bushes and over sticks, nearly tripping on roots multiple times.

He reached a clearing, lit up by the shine of the moon. There was a hill on one end with an opening, seemingly leading into a mine shaft. Around it were many totems like the one the creature had planted in front of the house. Sticks or broken weapons rammed into the ground with skulls attached to them. In the middle of the clearing was one even creepier. It was a still intact spear, with the wheel of a carriage bound to the top of it, about a dozen skulls hanging down from it. Skeletons, all missing their heads, were hanging down from the trees around the clearing. The ground and tree trunks were covered in scratch marks.

Signs of many fights . . . I wonder how long this thing has been here . . . Years? Months?

Zane slowly stepped into the clearing, the light of his lantern revealed some blood splatters leading into the cave. He gulped, knowing that it would be a bad idea to enter. Zane slowly approached the cave, always looking behind himself, in anticipation.

The beat of his heart had drowned out the noises of the forest, all that could reach his ears was a voice, a voice coming from the distance. "Zane! Zane!" it called.

Lovia?

Zane turned around to where the voice was coming from. But there was only the forest, nothing else. He tried to listen more closely, the voice was closing in. It was Lovia's.

She's safe.

Zane began running towards the voice. He ran into the forest, stumbling around, ducking under branches. The voice was moving towards him. A large figure jumped out of a bush in front of him. He could only see it for a split second before it disappeared again. It looked like a stag at first glance but Zane knew that he had fallen for the beast's trap. The voice was gone. Zane turned around, noticing that he had no idea where he was. He couldn't see the clearing anymore. But he was sure that it should have been right behind him. He stumbled through the forest, back to where he thought the clearing was. But all he could see was a path, a broken spear stuck in the ground with the head of a dog on top, a house with its front door wide open and a fenced-off area filled with dead goats.

How? Why am I back here?

Zane turned around quickly, looking for the creature that had run past him. But there was no sign of it. He concentrated again, looking for any kind of presence, but there was nothing, nothing but the small animals he had felt before, the familiar presence from before was gone, there was no sign of it.

Lovia! Is she- no! I need to hurry up.

Zane walked back into the forest, looking for the bushes he had cut on his way, he quickly found them and followed them back to the clearing. This time he could hear something walking somewhere close to him. And he could hear a quiet voice, whispering into his ear.

"Help me! I'm right here! I don't want to die! Zane, please help me!"

But he wouldn't fall for it again, he knew that it was the creature, trying to trick him again. Zane walked straight back to the clearing, holding his lantern with one hand and having the other on the hilt of his katana at all times, ready to strike at any second. The clearing slowly came back into sight. But he heard a rustling coming from a bush next to him. Zane immediately drew his katana, striking at whatever came out of the bush. He looked down at the ground, seeing a dead bird.

This fucking thing is trying to play with me . . .

Zane grit his teeth as he cleaned off the blood with a leaf and sheathed his sword again. He now stepped back into the clearing, looking around, trying to catch a glimpse of the beast again. Guess

I'll have to go in there.

He began concentrating one last time, sensing an uncomfortable feeling coming from the cave. It was as if there was a piece of the world missing as if an unpenetrable vail had been put over the cave. Zane slowly approached it, swinging his lantern around in an attempt to keep an eye on the forest. Once he stood right in front of the cave entrance he held his lantern inside. Even with the light of the lantern, it seemed dark inside, making it almost impossible to see more than a few meters.

Zane stepped into the cave, a strange feeling overcoming him immediately. It was as if the cave itself was trying to devour him, trying to absorb him, make him part of the rough moss-covered walls or the floor with many mushrooms growing all over it.

There were a few remnants of the time people used this cave to mine for resources. There were tracks and a broken down minecart with all wheels missing. As he got deeper and passed more support beams with unlit lanterns he noticed weird symbols on the walls, all of them drawn with blood.

What could this mean . . . maybe it's supposed to mark its territory.

Zane held his lantern closer to the weird markings on the walls. They depicted a sort of circle consisting of many small symbols, in the middle was what looked like the skull of a stag. At the same time, he could hear something shuffle across the ground quickly behind him. But when he turned around all he could see was darkness.

Zane tried concentrating, hoping that he might be able to sense the Aura of something around here but to no avail. Just like in the inn something was overwhelming his ability to sense Aura, it wasn't as strong but enough to make him unable to sense any presence.

Shit, shit, shit.

He began walking deeper into the cave, his lantern only ever allowing him to see a short distance in front of himself. And then he came to the point he had feared he would get to sooner or later. A small chamber, three tunnels, all leading in different directions, leading away from it.

Where should I go . . . where would it have brought her?

And then his heart suddenly dropped all the way to his feet. A warm breath on his neck made his hair rise up and his body tense up. He felt a boney hand with long claws slowly settle down on his shoulder. The claws were covered in blood and the creature gave off a stench worse than the ghouls, worse than anything he had ever smelled before. He slowly felt how the creature put a long claw to his throat, digging it in slightly and making blood drip from it. Zane's body began shaking and his mind was completely overtaken by fear. As if it was trying to mock him the creature slowly made him raise his head, making him look at its face. It had a large stag skull for a face, instead of eyes it had two orbs, glowing in an orangish colour, its antlers nearly scraping at the ceiling of the cave. And secured between its sharp teeth and pressed against its dark blue tongue was a hand, freshly cut off. Blood from it was dripping onto his face.

Lovia!

At that moment Zane's fear disappeared. Rage surged through his entire body, before he even noticed it the vials on his back had already burst into pieces and he felt the blood withing the containers strain against the glass.

"Die!" he said, his voice not even resembling its original state, instead it was that of the being he hated most, it was that of Erebus, the Lord of the Deep.

The creature dropped the hand onto his face as it was pierced by countless spikes, all made out of blood. It also let go of Zane who sank to the ground for a second but recovered immediately after. He jumped at the large creature, drew his katana and slashed at its uncovered ribs that emerged from its chest like teeth. He managed to cut it deep, covering his blade in dark blue blood.

The creature screamed in pain, but it didn't sound like a monster, it sounded like Lovia. Zane, now even more enraged at the creatures bold attempt of fooling him, raised the blade far above his head and brought it down alongside needles made out of his own blood. The creature's skull cracked slightly as the katana hit it and the needles pierced right through it.

His vision suddenly became blurry, he saw the two orange lights that were the creature's eyes disappear in the dark, he heard the creature's feet drag across the ground, disappearing in the dark.

How dare you!