The world around me entered my vision with a vivid sharpness, as if some sort of film was removed from my face, the pain from the mask giving away to a dull ache. All around me, I could see... More... I don't quite know how to put it... A dull glow surrounded my hands and arms, the very stones around me appearing nearly transparent, the skeletons of the stunted lizardmen visible through my Earth Cage, which gave off it's own glow, the edges firm, and unwavering... Where Fae sat in the other room, I could only see a bright ball of light, roughly the size of a fist. All around, I could see... Everything...

As I watched, a titanic wave pulsed from some deeper point within the labyrinth, several more, miniscule by comparison, pinging in reaction to the original. It was... disorienting... to say the least. I focused back onto the enemies behind the wall, I have to kill them, or else they will kill Fae after killing me. I won't let them. Not again.

Not EVER again!

I slammed my spear against the magic wall, irritated that the soft flesh was hiding behind it. The soft flesh killed our chief, as well as several of our warriors. The sacrifice of my kin will not be wasted, such a strong foe will strengthen our tribe with it's flesh! But the shaman wasn't with our hunting party, so we have to break down the soft flesh's wall by force.

Along side me six others smacked ineffectually at the wall, the others urging us to break it faster. My mate was the loudest of them, eager to turn that soft flesh into a corpse with her bow, even firing a few into the wall to help us. But this was about as pointless as trying to smash a rock with a stick. Made sense, since this was a rock wall.

Suddenly, the wall dropped, and we froze in surprise, not expecting this...

What we saw was a shadow, wearing the chiefs mask, eyes burning with a hellish flame. I raised my spear on reflex, as did my kin, all of us backing away in fear.

"Maskerad skugga!" I shouted the name of the reaper within these tunnels.

A Masked Shadow, a spirit of death made manifest!

Before we could do anything, my vision spun, slowly rotating upside down as my gaze turned to my tribes men... to my mate.

The last thing I saw, was my körsbärsblom, her face frozen in terror... and then I was sent to join the ancestors.

I dropped the Earth Cage, already slashing at the opponents I saw through the stone, their skeletons disappearing as they themselves came into view. I saw them flinch back right before I sent their heads flying. I rushed forward, feeling as if I flew on air, as my blade rended flesh, and split bone. Blood traced through the air, as bodies fell, tracing the path of my blade, which moved like a serpent, fast, and lethal.

Finally, their brains caught up with the situation, as they began to fight back, but now they seemed so sluggish, as if I was under a haste spell. I threw my sword at an archer as they aimed at me, pinning them to the stone, the edge so sharp, that their body falling split it in half.

A brave fighter tried to stab me with their spear after I disarmed myself, but I grabbed the shaft just behind the head, and yanked them forward, shoving my claws into their chest... Wait... Wasn't I wearing a gauntlet? Examining my bloody hand, I couldn't distinguish the gauntlet from my skin anymore...

A club smashed into the side of my head, but the mask absorbed the majority of the impact, even as my head was slapped to the side. I turned slowly to the one who hit me, and I could see the fear in their reptilian eyes, their club broken in their hands. I used my tail to grab my sword from the wall, slicing through this one as he stared in terror.

taking the hilt from my tail, I turned to face the rest of my enemies, who were backing up. I grinned, and they flinched. Feeling my face, I could feel the mask had opened the mouth partially, and within were jagged, sharp teeth. A bird mask with teeth... Oh fuck it.

I dashed forward once more, slashing two of them, starting from the shoulder of the first, and exiting through the thigh of the second, the barbed tip ripping a thirds leg clean off after catching the bones of the knee. They were silenced with a second flash of the blade across their chest.

As their comrads were left gurgling on their own blood, the rest fled as if Beelzebub himself were on their tails. I felt a primal urge to give chase, but quickly squashed it. I have to protect Fae. If I gave chase, Fae would be left to the mercy of whatever stumbled across them.

I turned, and went to protect Fae... Only to have them squeal, and retreat to the farthest edge of the room from me. I tilted my head in confusion, before remembering the reaction of those lizard things. I must look terrifying. That being said... I looked back down at the armor which seems to have fused with my body, a dull glow surrounding my entire body. Maybe that glow is a sort of illusion...

For now, lets focus on trying to get this damned mask off, assuming it hasn't fused with my face... I hope not...

I reached up, and tried to take it off... Only to be unable to tell where the mask ended, and my head began... Christ spare me...

Dropping my arms to my sides, I sighed, leaning my head back in exasperation. This armor was definitely cursed, as the most common curse for equipment is binding curses. Binding curses do exactly what it sounds like, it binds the item to you in a way which prevents it's removal. Thankfully this wasn't one of those which stabbed the user through with thorny spikes deep enough to reach the vitals.

But, that still means I'm stuck looking like some scary humanoid thing which is covered in blood... great, just great.

Fae at least seems to have realised it's me, as they arn't actively cowering against the far wall, though they still refuse to get near me. I strode over to the fountain to see what they might see. Looking into the water, I found a horned wraith in a raven mask, eyes ablaze within it's skull,, a mane of shadow floating behind my head...

Yeah, I can see how this can be intimidating... Hell, I might start having nightmares about my own face now... Well, the priests back home can hopefully remove whatever curse this is. At the very least, I'm assuming that most things with a brain will avoid me now.

I motioned to Fae for them to come over. They hesitated, before fluttering infront of me, looking as if they were standing before a dragon. I rolled my eyes and tapped the spot on my shoulder they liked to rest on. They actually backed up...

Oh, for the love of-!...

I can see now. I can see what was around me... Not that there was much to see. The area looked whispy, I stood in a tunneled area, much like what I remembered, but different... A different area maybe?

I looked around curiously, trying to take a step... but for some reason, while I could move, I can't do so from a five foot area in this spot. Suddenly, a bright, white orb flew into sight, glowing like a torch. It stopped just out of reach, seeming to quiver. I tried to grab it, but it moved away.

Glancing down at my hands, they seemed made of shadow, with clawed fingers which glistened like steel... as did my sword... this is beyond strange. As the glowing orb passed me, it stopped in the center of my area, where I saw another glow, this one had a strand attaching me to it... I was tempted to cut it with my blade, but something told me that would not do anything... infact it was like I couldn't do anything at all to it.

Sure enough, trying to poke it led to my finger passing through it harmlessly. As it began to move away, I was urged to follow it, unable to do otherwise. So I did just that, following this thing which held me bound to it.

I wonder if this is what Genies feel like...

Finally, Fae landed on my shoulder.

I turned, and stode past the lizards bodies, turning down a passage opposite to where those things ran. I could see through the closest walls, allowing me to see what was in the passages next to me, and around corners, but anything past about three strides remained opaque as... well, as stone. As for what I could see through, was still visible, in a similar way to how one can tell when glass is present in a window. Still, this would prevent a great many surprises.

It was still weird, since Fae seemed to glow like an ember, similar to myself actually, so maybe that was marking a soul or something. Who knows?... But then why didn't those lizard things have a similar glow?... Well, I guess I will leave such considerations to scholars.

I strode through the tunnels like a shadow, my feet feeling as if I were striding on air. Shaking my head mentally, I turned my thoughts to more important things. Such as whether or not their was more armor waiting for me. If so, it was likely something for my tail. This armor seemed geared for stealth, meaning that I likely wouldn't be wearing an entire set of plate armor. That being said, it is rather odd that I haven't found some padding for my armor... Maybe I'm going to find something like that...

Either way, I can see a giant spider walking along the ceilng at the intersection up ahead. That would have been one hell of a surprise... I stopped, and waited, taking a dagger from my hip. As it entered the intersection, I threw the dagger, impaling it's abdomen, despite how I was aiming for the head... It thrashed in surprise, dropping from the ceiling as it tried to grasp at the spot where I hit it's ass. My next dagger caused it to go limp as it sunk into the space between the eight legs.

I saw something float up from the spider, before dissapearing from view as if something snatched it... I felt chills race up my spine at the sight. I couldn't place why, but something primal within me was horrified at the sight... I shook the chills off as I continued on my way... even as something in the back of my mind continued to shiver in fear.

Oddly, I found that tail part... On the ground in a random passage. Fae seemed to shiver for some reason, but I couldn't tell why. I fiddled with putting it on my tail, but I hadn't worn armor like this before, so it was awkward as hell to put on, but thankfully it had a familiar setup like the gauntlets.... though actually putting it on proved difficult. Especially as I had to latch it under my tail right up against my rear end, which really dosen''t get touched much as one can imagine, so I am very ticklish there. Of course that isn't to mention the tedium of doing the same down the entire length of my tail.

Of course, after the last part was latched into place, that black fluid raced down my tail, and the armor fused to my skin again... The armor tipped my tail with what looked like a barbed spike, so now I could use it in a fight too. I will have to remember that...