The darkness of the Prismatic Chambers seemed all-encompassing and eternal. The two siblings trudged after their grand-uncle, keeping their light to themselves as he sensed for danger. Few words were spoken, which made everything more difficult.

The heaviest steps were in the back, Ursel taking a protective position over her brother. She was wounded herself, but the leeches had done much more damage to Tirto. And Aydan. Both injured because Ursel went running off after Melanthina. She hated that, but it would all be worth it when they rescued her. They just had to find her first. Aydan led the way with conviction, but Ursel couldn’t sense even the slightest traces of her sister. Then again, if Melanthina was trying to avoid dangers, she would be pretty difficult to find.

They had to use their senses to the utmost regardless. If they were with the whole group, they would have strength in numbers and the ability to relax. Here, they had just three. With uncle Aydan’s Consolidated Soul Phase strength they should be safe, but that didn’t mean they could be careless. Even their previous caution hadn’t been enough to notice the leeches.

Slight tremors in the ground brought back recent unfortunate memories. “Earth gliders!” Ursel called out. “Something’s weird though!”

Their presence was dull, though how they moved the ground was not. When one burst out of the floor, Ursel dodged away, swinging her club down towards its upper body. It was little more than clawed arms and teeth, and her attack struck true. The power of her new totem drove roots into its body… a body that seemed strangely soft. Tirto attacked it from the other side, stabbing into its midsection. Normally the earth gliders would have avoided such an attack, but it simply swept a claw at him as his spear sunk into it. It was only his training to always maintain defenses that saved him, a cushion of water sending him staggering back instead of being rent apart.

Two more burst out of the ground, moving towards Aydan. One staggered and swayed, one of its lower limbs bent at an odd angle. The other had a hole straight through its midsection. All three were primarily radiating darkness instead of earth element, and it soon became obvious what these were. Reanimated corpses. Zombies driven by spirits of the darkness element itself.

They had no fear of injury or death, attacking only to kill and feed. If a body was slain, the spirits would simply find another.

If they were all fresh and healthy, defeating such reckless opponents would probably be simple. As it was, Ursel had to chase after her opponent, striking whenever she could and doing her best to avoid its claws. Her armor would be little better than rags after they returned to the surface, and her Diamond Defense had already been pushed beyond its limits, merely keeping her going instead of being an unbeatable armor.

Each strike with her club drove more earth energy into her opponent, and on the fifth strike the roots finally grew enough to seize up the limbs of the earth glider from the inside. If its body had been more rigid she could have cracked it apart, but this was the best she thought she could do against this particular opponent. The slowing of its attacks allowed Tirto to stab into an elbow, destroying bone and muscle structure. That meant that particular arm was held up only by darkness energy, greatly weakening its danger.

Aydan dodged and weaved around his two opponents, slicing into them layer by layer. As expected, he alone was more effective than the two siblings. When the first body no longer functioned, the spirit inhabiting it slunk off, leaving him to deal with just the second. He slashed into critical parts of its limbs, slicing between the individual clawed fingers so they hung limply, then moving further into its reach to remove them at the shoulder. When the spirit left its body, he did not simply let it drift away, instead stabbing his blade into it and tearing the energy apart with his own.

Tirto made an attempt to disperse the spirit of the one the siblings defeated, but it slipped into the darkness infused walls mostly intact.

Left behind were the corpses and the rubble-filled tunnels they had approached through, stone torn apart instead of smoothly swimming through the rock like the living creatures they had inhabited.

-----

The rise and fall of Nik’s chest was comforting, partly because now Melanthina wasn’t alone, and partly because it was so peaceful. His rest would not have been quite so pleasant if she had not been keeping the natural darkness away from him. Since he was already exhausted, letting her traveling companion be slowly worn away while he slept would have been foolish.

For her own part, aside from sheltering him from the darkness, she sat content and alert. Her stomach was full, but her senses were prepared for something. Fortunately, things tended to be territorial, so there was more danger when they were moving about.

The hours were long, but they felt less terrible than when she was fully by herself. It almost seemed quick when Nik awoke, radiating a dim light. “How long was I?”

Melanthina looked up. “Based on the movement of the sun… I have no idea.”

“... Right. Well, I feel much better. It’s your turn to get some rest.”

“Oh. Right.”

Should be pretty easy. She was exhausted. Nothing weird about thinking about being watched as she slept. It was just like being with the clan.

And, strangely, it was easy to fall asleep.

-----

Melanthina woke up to the smell of food. Her eyes quickly settled on the thin strips of meat, much more appetizing than bat.

“Go ahead and take some,” Nik said. “There’s enough for both of us.”

She picked up a strip out of Nik’s strange cooking dish. Once she looked closer she could see it was jerky, but it was strangely juicy and flavorful. Fruity, even. “What is this?”

“Just some jerky soaked in lightapple wine, then it’s cooked out. Don’t want to dull our senses. Nothing difficult, really.”

Melanthina had to disagree. Sure, she’d had better and fancier food. How could she not, as the young mistress of the Tenebach clan? But that was done with a proper kitchen and numerous chefs, not in the middle of a danger zone with random things in someone’s pack.

It also didn’t hurt that Melanthina couldn’t cook at all… and didn’t have any food in her storage bag. How stupid. She should at least have a pile of tasteless rations.

There wasn’t much in the way of conversation. What could they talk about? Nothing good, really.

Melanthina led the way through the tunnels, keeping ahead of Nik’s light. He would stand out to anything here, which could either make him a target or have the creatures of darkness avoid him.

There were many tunnels to choose between, and Melanthina couldn’t help but look over her shoulder towards Nik as she came to them. She didn’t particularly sense anything, and if he had no reaction then she would just pick one. There were a few places where she sensed high concentrations of darkness, and if she had been interested in training still those would have been potential boons. But she just wanted to leave.

At one intersection, she just stood and looked back for a while.

“Is something wrong?” Nik asked. “I’ll tell you if I sense any problems. Otherwise you can just pick whatever.”

“Well, umm… it’s hard for you to be around all this darkness, right?”

“That’s right,” he said as he stepped forward, “Which is why I would prefer to be out of here as soon as possible.”

“I could, uh… help with that. The darkness.” She stepped back towards him, holding up her arm to keep the light out of her eyes. They were fully dark adapted, so pure light was especially uncomfortable. As she moved forward, Nik’s light shifted its focus, bending around her.

She wasn’t sure why she was surprised. That was literally his sect’s focus. Even so, experiencing it in a non-aggressive manner was new. Ever since the first match they’d faced each other, that had defined their relationship. As enemies, which is what they still were and would continue to be after they got out of this place.

Melanthina stood awkwardly next to Nik. If he were one of her siblings she would have grabbed their arm or something, to make the process as easy as possible. Instead, she just reached out to the surrounding darkness, pushing it away from him and pulling it around towards her.

As they walked along, Nik kept his light focused forward, and also kept it from reflecting into her eyes despite its brightness. Like that they continued onward, looking for a way out. They had to go up, but it was hard to say if one tunnel that briefly rose would be better than any other.

-----

Finally reaching the light element section of the caverns, Renato and the Amber Heart cultivators were able to relax somewhat. Light was still opposed to earth, but it wasn’t directly dominant like fire. The Golden Tomb Guardians were now in their optimal area, and the Milanovic clan was recently bolstered by their journey through the fiery chambers.

The walls were lined with crystals, much like the Prism Underfields- though more sparse. “Don’t bother collecting any of the crystals here,” Deirdre instructed the Guardians. “It’s better to leave them for later, when they’ve developed. And while others might not necessarily extend the same courtesy to us, these chambers are distant enough that fewer will reach them.”

In truth, they wouldn’t gain much from simple light producing crystals. Those were widely available, and pointless for training unless present in great quantity.

As they walked through the tunnels light drifted in and out, but never faded entirely. Few things stood out, but a particularly bright and powerful source pulled them down a particular path into a larger chamber. There in the middle was a formless orb of light, a spirit light source of high caliber.

“Hold on,” Renato said, putting out an arm to stop the others from approaching. “It’s a trap.”

Obviously such a thing wouldn’t be completely undefended. The local denizens would want to absorb its power for themselves. However, nothing else was apparent.

“How so?” Deirdre asked, not trying to push forward. “I don’t sense anything.”

“It’s the oldest trick in the book,” he said, stepping forward and stomping the ground. As he did, a ring of stone crumbled away, leaving the light by itself on a central platform. Beneath the now collapsed thin ring of stone was a trench full of long, thin crystals. They didn’t seem to have formed naturally, but instead were placed near to vertical and sharpened.

Then the seemingly lifeless mass of spirit light began to move. A bolt of light shot from it towards Renato, who blocked with his club. Then the light winked out, leaving people in sudden and unexpected darkness. Even the light produced by the cultivators was lessened in that moment as the light element was drawn together.

Then the sphere of light reappeared next to Lucanus, who directly punched it, flames coating his fist. His reaction, while inelegant, served as a decent counter to the force of spiritual energy levied against him, a scalding light that scattered around his outstretched hand and focused energy.

The light blinked out once more, negating it presence. “Careful, it’s looking for weak targets!” Deirdre said. “Get in defensive formations and share the burden!”

Everyone moved quickly, and as predicted the next attack was on the weaker cultivators on the backline. However, a focus on pure defense and the combination of energy from several Soul Expansion Phase cultivators let them resist the attack.

When it disappeared again, Deidre rushed into the middle of their group, forming a blade of light on the head of her staff and slashing at seemingly nothing. An explosion of light burst from where she slashed, revealing the spirit. “It pulls in all the light to itself… watch how the shadows shift to find it!”

With that guidance, everyone prepared themselves to fight and dismantle this spirit. It wouldn’t be as easy of a reward as simply gathering unrestrained spirit light, but it would be worthwhile spoils for the Golden Tomb Guardians.