Darkness and silence go well hand in hand, both describe an absence, a void. Something which should be present but isn’t. As such, when combined together the void grows ever more powerful, enough to seep into the atmosphere and start tugging at reality.

Our voices come out as whispers easily absorbed into the consuming void, even should we shout our voices would soon be lost.

The light we create to guide our path cuts through the darkness ahead of us, but before long it gives way to the darkness.

Our path through the ruins, above the dungeon but below the academy, has been unnervingly peaceful. Not a single beast has crossed our path, but the wet bloodstains along the walls suggest that this is a recent change.

I’m not quite sure what sort of demon has made a home here, but I’d relish the challenge for a good fight. Give me an enemy upon which to test myself, to force myself to grow stronger.

“How much further is it?” Eshya asks Rudolf who guides our way. Apparently, he has some sort of Skill that will help us arrive at the right place to meet with his rebel friends.

I haven’t entirely disregarded the possibility of a trap, but if it is, we’ll walk into it and see that the ambushers are given a proper greeting. Not many at our mana grade can compare to my magical output, or resist a full scale annihilation casting.

“Not too much further.” Rudolf replies nervously, while I’ve had a good conversation with the man here and there, I know he’s not a fighter. Leaving the safety of our home in the ruins must bother him.

“Why aren’t there any beasts?” Vii asks. “Like these ruins are always full of beasts every other time we pass through them. When we were trying to free everyone from the beast prison on the surface, we had to fight so many of them.”

“I imagine that the Rebels would keep them away.” Rudolf replies. “That’s my hope, otherwise perhaps a larger predator has come through recently and scared them off.”

“I think I like the first thing you said better.” Vii said.

“I’m in favour of the large predator.” Eshya says, raising her hand as she cheerfully votes on the preferred outcome. “Kyra? Adler?”

“I’d prefer there be no beast.” Adler says, hesitantly.

“I wouldn’t mind a fight.” I say, “But I would rather not arrive at the rebel camp bloodied and injured. I need to impress them, not come knocking on their door covered in bloody injuries.”

“So, a beast fight after we’re done with our business, instead.” Eshya suggests. “Honestly, I’d just like something good to eat. With everything going on in the dungeon we can’t really bring anything to the surface anymore.”

“I can make do with the salads on the surface.” I reply with a shrug. “We might have to hunt a few things in these ruins to refill my mana, though.”

“Something big, juicy, and tasty.” Eshya suggests.

“Does it have to be meat?” Vii asks. “We haven’t seen many, but there are lots of plant-based beasts that are edible. With how dark everything is down here, I’m surprised we haven’t come across a fungi-based beast before.”

“Plant and fungi-based beasts frequently struggle to compete in highly competitive environments.” Adler says. “Which this is.”

“I have to agree.” I say, “Most things here want to kill you and eat you. Can’t we just find a grassy field full of fluffy bunnies or something?”

“I have been wondering about that, actually. Not the bunny thing, the violent beast thing.” Vii says, looking around the halls. “Why do the dungeons let the beasts roam the ruins? The welfare officers do because of their weird programming and rules and all that.” Adler flinches. “But why do the dungeons.”

“Maybe they’re hoping to breed some beasts to scour the surface?” Eshya suggests.

“Not likely.” I reply. “Arduelle seems determined to keep things in check, to a degree, at least. Burning plenty of mana to do it too. In fact, she’s always burning a ton of mana.”

“You’re not really in a place to be jealous of others for that.” Adler says dryly.

“It’s to keep students from exploring too deep.” Rudolf says, joining the conversation seems to settle his nerves a little. “That’s my theory.

“It seems that she wants to keep this dungeon ‘hidden’ from the Unified States. So long as no one mentions its existence, then for all intents and purposes, it doesn’t exist. That’s how the welfare officers are taking it and the dungeons seem to know how to play by their unspoken rules.

“This is hardly a new institution after all. Neither the dungeon nor the academy is some new development.”

“Sounds plausible.” I say. The dungeons, both Frey and Arduelle have their own goals and purposes, but I can’t really say that I know them. It would do me well to try and talk with them more often, Frey in particular.

It’s good to have friends and associations with powerful people and it doesn’t get much more powerful than those two.

As the silence regains lost ground, and the darkness fills my peripheral vision, my thoughts slowly return to Loekan and the battle that I’m turning from.

I know that technically I’m not running, or trying to escape it, but it still feels that way. The cold rage still writhes about in my chest only further feeding my violent thoughts and desires. My need to subjugate those that take from me, and those who threaten what is mine.

There’s hypocrisy to it, I’m not blind to the fact that I’ve harmed Loekan and his kingdom, and that I’ve intruded on his territory, but that doesn’t really matter to me. I can take from him, and any others that bother me, but I refuse to let anything of mine be taken from me.

As I understand it every empire is built on that unfair principle, and I won’t let the morals of my upbringing hold me back.

When Loekan has been ended, then there’ll be new threats after. New enemies made simply by existing. The unified states not the least among them. I will take from them their everything, and fight them should they dare respond.

It seems somewhere along the line, I have become something that most would consider evil. Even up to the point where I don’t mind the label.

Though, this can only lead to unending war. I should talk to a few people, figure things out before I come to regret this path. Is that part of the reason Red want’s me to associate with the rebels?

“I think it’s just ahead.” Rudolf says, guiding my attention back to reality.

The hall ends with a ruined door, the edges of the stone seemingly melted away. The room beyond is tall and wide beyond my expectations, our small light wands can’t do away with the darkness entirely. I don’t know for what purpose this room was built, but the ceiling is high enough that our light can’t reach the ceiling, and there’s room enough that the large buildings inside seem rather small.

The buildings within the room are clearly a recent addition, made from wood and stone that’s of lesser quality, likely brought up through the dungeon. We are assuming that there is an access point into the dungeon nearby, likely a different cavern to the one we’re based in, considering the direction and distance we’ve travelled.

What’s strangest about this, however, is the darkness and silence. What look to be lanterns have been smashed, melted or otherwise destroyed, with clear intent. We make the only sounds in this void, and we bring with us the only light to temporarily disperse the darkness.

The walls of the small buildings are covered in a hodgepodge of holes, and a few long gashes. The stone melted at the edges and the wood blackened as if by an intense fire.

“This is the place?” I ask just to be sure, checking every shadow while we head closer.

“It is.” Rudolf says barely keeping his calm.

“We should stay together as we look around. Whatever did this could still be around.” I say, glancing through the ruins.

“Maybe we should just leave.” Rudolf says, his light wand aimed at one of the long gashes in the wall. Inside is a mess of broken furniture, shattered wood, and scattered papers.

“We should look around first.” I say. “Whatever did this is in range of our own base, and I don’t think anyone wants to get this kind of surprise.”

Heading inside the central building, it doesn’t take long to find some of the residents. Their skin is the texture of pale and soft bark, and instead of fully imitating the forms of elves, they have humanoid bodies set on a cluster of four legs made from their roots.

The remains of the rebels, I would guess. Rudolf bows towards them in respect before turning away from the sight.

The silver leaking from the bodies at least proves that they had Chips installed, but that’s common for most beasts, too. Orange-yellow sap spills from the trunks of their flesh, staining the ground. Some of it has bubbled away from the heat of the attacks.

“Thoughts?” I ask, “Single enemy or a group? Wild beasts or intelligent peoples?”

“Single wild beast.” Eshya says confidently, Adler nodding in agreement. “There’s one attack type, it stabs with some superheated weapon, sometimes dragging it across to make these larger gouges.”

“It’s the same attack used on the walls of the building, and interestingly on the lanterns too.” Adler continues, the first to step up and check over the bodies more closely. “These people are the same. Also, they’re all the same species, maybe it’s indicative of a particular Rebel faction?”

“Red, what’s your thoughts?” I send her. She’s one of the few that we’ve dared share the new tagging Skill with. While it’s uncomfortable knowing she can see through my eyes, the benefits in scouting alone is too much to ignore, and we’re getting good use from it now.

“They’re Fignats, it seems it might be the Viris faction. This is good, well not that they’re dead, but that this is the faction working here. Their faction runs a number of training academies, like the one I wanted to send you to. See if you can’t find some survivors.”

I quickly convey the key points to the others as we check over everything. More and more signs indicate that it was a single beast that did all of this, and if that’s the case then there’s good odds that some had a chance to escape.

Some rooms seem to have been left entirely untouched, beds left well made, and offices with paperwork left unbothered.

One particular room draws my attention, some sort of plant grows along the wall, covering most of it. I can’t clearly make out the mana in it, but it seems at least liquid stage by the feel of it. This doesn’t seem like the best place for a garden, but who am I to judge, maybe its some sort of art?

“Why didn’t it eat the bodies?” Eshya asks pulling my attention away from the strange growths, as we pass back towards the central room, where the corpses lie. There’re piles of paperwork filled with all sorts of bureaucratic nonsense scattered over the place. None of it worth reading.

“Not everyone can consume mana like Kyra can.” Adler says, “The beast could be leaving them for later, or maybe these ‘Fignats’ cause indigestion? We have trouble consuming the mana from some plants, so it might be that the beast can’t properly process them.”

“What sort of beast would that be?” I ask, looking around, I can’t see any tracks in the blood or the scattered papers, but I haven’t put proper efforts into the appropriate Skills recently.

“I’m not too sure.” Adler admits, looking back over the scene one more time.

“This part of the building wasn’t attacked either.” Vii says, wandering deeper into the central building, the stone mostly whole the deeper inside we explore. “It looks… you guys should see this.”

“Coming.” I say following her in through the undamaged wooden door. Inside is filled with the dull reflective shine of polished metal, swords, spears and a few other strange weapons, all neatly lined up around the room. The mana glow from them suggests that they’re all considerably higher quality than what our own forces are using.

“This... could give us an edge.” I say as Eshya takes a step forwards to look through the swords. She takes one which seems a little too large and too powerful, but she handles it perfectly well as she swings it about to test it.

“They’ll want this back.” Adler says. “If we want good relations with these people, stealing from them would be a bad way to go about it.”

“They shouldn’t begrudge us borrowing some for now.” I say, “We’ll consider what to do with it later, if there are any survivors. If there aren’t, we can at least recover it with the consideration of returning it later.

“If you see something you can use, take it. I don’t want to be under prepared when that beast returns.” I say turning back towards the hall that brought us here.

The void formed of darkness and silence is starting to play on my senses. The shadows seem darker, and the silence pulls at my attention, as if I’m almost hearing something that’s barely evading my senses.

“Quiet! Lights turn off your lights!” I hiss, turning off my light wand and hiding myself behind the door to the room.

Flickering lights illuminate the outside world as a faint bubbling emanates from the creature that flows along the ground.

The midnight-black, liquid flesh erupts from bubbling pustules, soon absorbed back into the shifting mass of flesh. Flickering white flames cover the black liquid like oil set alight.

If I focus on the sounds it’s making, Chip translates.

“Kill the light. End the light. There’s still too much light. Let there be eternal darkness.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 4003 units

~Mana distribution:

Category Current Max. Defence 40% 99% Offense 20% 94% Mana Sense 40% 100% Recovery 0% 75% Gluttony 0% 79% Misc. 0% 93% Efficiency 100% 100%

~Favourited Skills:

-Tag and Film

-Mana surge movement

-Annihilation defence

-Annihilation flame burst

-Annihilation net