177 - Behind The Veil

They did not find the exit.

In fact, they didn’t find anything. Alexandra kept a distance of a few paces from Kyle and her five Paladins. They were all Golds. She didn’t know their intentions.

For now, the unknown threats of the hole kept them allied, but she didn’t know how long that would last.

“What do you think, Speck?” she whispered. “Do you understand what’s going on?”

Even with the supernatural senses her elemental familiar shared with her, walking around in pitch-black darkness was unnerving, even more so since the place wasn’t simply dark. She’d known something was afoot the moment she stepped inside the hole and immediately lost track of the exit.

Knowing the basin, she believed it was an elemental of unknown type and rank. Only, she couldn’t be certain it was the case.

“I. Don’t. Know.”

“Are you sure it's not a darkness elemental?”

“Can’t. Be,” Speck said.

A pause.

“It would eat me and the others.”

“You can’t do darkness like that?”

“Can!” Speck cried in outrage. “Soon. But it’s not just darkness stumping us.”

Alexandra nodded. Even if Speck had some difficulty acknowledging it was yet unmatched in its mastery of the conceptual truth of darkness, she didn’t think it would let its ego cloud its judgment.

“Alexandra,” Captain Kyle called. “Anything new?”

“We’re seeing fewer and fewer Architects,” she said. “I think most of them have fallen by now.”

“That is likely. We’ve been walking in circles for a long time, it feels. Their armors are sturdy and expensive, but even the Legate’s coffers cannot equip Golds with unbreakable enchantments.”

“Any idea what we should do?” Alexandra asked. “We’re not getting anywhere.”

“I agree. It’s time we change tactics.”

Alexandra observed the Paladins. Kyle was stoic, her back straight as she assumed a posture of authority. The others were a lot worse for wear. The absence of light took a toll on them. Except Alicia, who just looked bored, but Alexandra suspected she had a way to perceive the world around her.

“Do you have a plan?” she asked the captain.

“I do. Are you aware of the tasks Yshar entrusted his Paladins?”

Alexandra nodded. “Defend the Abyssal fissure.”

“Yes. We’re only Golds, so we have yet to fight a greater fiend. But we’ve been trained to counter them.”

“Wait,” Alexandra interrupted. “Do you think we’re up against a fiend?”

“I don’t know what we’re up against. That’s the problem,” Kyle snapped. “Now listen. I want you and your familiar to find something. Anything. A rock different from the others, the corpse of a fallen soldier, a roaming darkness elemental. I assume your familiar’s presence is what's keeping them at bay.”

Alexandra frowned. If there were a special rock, Speck would have seen it.

“I can do that. And then?”

Kyle smiled. “We get close to whatever you picked, and improvise from there.”

“I guess that’s better than walking in circles,” Alexandra said, unable to hide the doubt in her voice.

“If anyone has a better idea, feel free to share it.”

Silence.

“I hope you find an elemental,” Alicia grumbled. “At least we’ll get to fight. Blow off some steam.”

“Or just the exit,” Erik said, prompting the rest of the group to acquiesce.

Alexandra focused her attention on the edge of the sphere her perception allowed her to sense. Speck went further.

She wasn’t completely sold on the plan, but she didn’t have anything better. She could try overpowering the darkness with her skills, but the flash from Rays Of The Sun had barely helped find the Architect. It would be a waste of mana. Besides, Speck could see further than that.

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“How large is that hole, anyway?” she muttered.

It was strange. The ground was flat. There were no walls anywhere in sight. Just a rough, stone-and-dirt ground that seemed to extend forever in every direction.

“Could we be in some place similar to your darkness dimension?” she whispered to Speck.

“There is no ground in my dimension. Only. Rocks.”

“But it does look a bit similar. No?”

“Different. The darkness dimension is hidden. This darkness is not.”

Alexandra couldn’t refute that. The darkness in the hole was not hidden. In fact, she would love for it to be a little less noticeable.

She tried to picture the color of the sky outside, but the memory was washed out by a brain fog that made her question how long she’d been walking. Around them, the darkness was thick and suffocating. There were no echoes.

They kept walking.

Nothing.

“What do you mean, nothing?” Kyle asked.

“There’s nothing around us,” Alexandra said, relaying what Speck was telling her. “Nothing but the ground under our feet.”

“That can’t be,” Kyle said. “Is your familiar messing with us?”

Alexandra frowned. “No. I sense the same thing.”

“Me too, Captain,” Alicia said.

“Alicia!”

“What? I’m sure she figured out at least one of us has a sensory skill.”

Kyle coughed. “Well, Alexandra, I apologize for the secrecy. Standard safety procedure. Alicia’s skill isn’t as good as your familiar’s perception.”

“I don’t care,” Alexandra said. “Address the obvious. What should we do now? If you’re hiding more skills, maybe now’s a good time to use them.”

Behind her, Erik’s gauntlets clattered as his fingers twitched against his pommel. “Do you hear that?” he whispered. “She’s ordering you.”

“Shut up, Erik,” Alicia said. “Unless you know the way out.”

The stoic posture of the Paladin commander was beginning to fracture.

“Kyle?”

“I have one last idea,” she said, brushing the ring on her hand. “Not quite a skill, but an artifact. Standard issue to captains. I’ve never used one, but it's supposed to clear the mind and allow us to focus better.”

The captain took the artifact out of her spatial ring. It was a horn.

“How does it work?” Alexandra asked.

“No idea. As I said, it’s a standard issue. I don’t make them myself.” She paused. “Some fiends specialize in mental manipulation. That’s why we have them.”

“Do you think we’re being manipulated?”

“I don’t. But I’m out of ideas.”

Alexandra opened her mouth. Closed it.

Better than doing nothing.

“Yes!” Speck whispered, its voice shivering. “Yes. That’s. It.”

Alexandra raised an eyebrow and looked at her familiar.

“The darkness in our mind,” it said, as if that explained everything.

“Speck, what do you mean?” Alexandra whispered.

“The darkness isn't around us,” the familiar hissed softly. “It's inside. In the head. Eating the eyes. Eating the thoughts!”

Before Captain Kyle could blow the horn, Speck released a deep pulse of mana.

The oppressive darkness abruptly collapsed around her.

The boundless void, replaced in an instant by the cramped reality of a rather small subterranean cave. The sudden shift in scale made Alexandra dizzy. They hadn’t been walking through an endless dimension, but in a circle within that cave.

Dozens of darkness elementals hovered randomly through the air, drifting, their source fully exposed as if they were in the dark. Beneath them, the floor was carnage. The corpses of fallen Paladins and heavy-armored Architects littered the rough stone, their enchanted gear dull and lifeless.

Yet what drew Alexandra's focus wasn't the dead, nor the drifting elementals.

At the far end of the chamber, completely untouched by the filth and blood of the cavern floor, sat three breathtakingly beautiful men. They rested comfortably on plush, portable velvet armchairs, dressed in sweeping, luxurious robes of finest satin that shimmered softly in the dim, natural light coming from outside the room. A small, collapsible low table stood between them, laden with an array of delicious-looking sweetmeats, fruits, and wine.

They were casually eating and chatting, watching Kyle and her group as if enjoying a private theater performance, entirely unaware that Speck had just shattered the veil over Alexandra's mind.

Alexandra held her breath, her hand freezing over her weapon as she took in the absurd without letting on that the illusion had broken.

Speck did the same, though it was more interested in the tasty elementals that were completely bemused by the illusion.

“I don’t think the elementals will get them,” one of the men commented. “They’ve completely stopped attacking.”

“No matter. We have time,” The man sitting in the central position said, bringing a cup to his lips. He was taller than the others. His face was perfectly symmetrical. Alexandra pretended she was still in the illusion, doing her best not to meet his eyes.

Don’t move. Don’t look at him, Alexandra screamed mentally through her bond as if they could communicate like that. She forced her eyes to remain unfocused. Her heart hammered against her ribs so violently she feared the Platinum-rank figure would hear the change in rhythm.

Who the fuck are they? That guy is a damn Platinum.

Five exhausted Golds, Speck, and her. They stood zero chance against a Platinum, let alone one flanked by two Golds.

“Speck, do you sense anything? I sure don’t.” She cringed at her poor acting.

“I. Also. Don’t.”

Speck isn’t much better. What do I do? I need to warn the others before Speck shatters their darkness.

Easier said than done.

She opened her mouth when she saw Kyle bring the horn to her lips.

“Wait!”

Too late. The artifact echoed with a sound that reverberated against the walls of the tight space, sending Alexandra’s ears ringing.

Alexandra brought a hand to her sword and started planning her exit. She wasn’t fighting a Platinum today.