Chapter 198 - Unwanted companions
The world around Rosa was nothing but an impenetrable void of darkness, an infinite expanse closing in on her from all directions, suffocating her. It felt as if she were a phantom of herself, with only vague memories of her past lingering in her mind like a haunting dream. The last thing she remembered was…
Her eyes snapped open, revealing a sprawling chamber bathed in an eerie light.
Towering black walls reached into an empty abyss above, where the ceiling lost to an endless twilight of shadows. Glistening crimson veins of molten stone ran through the floor, casting a disturbing dark-red luminescence over the room, thick with the acrid scent of brimstone. In the heart of it all, Malachi, hood down, bent over a grotesque sigil etched in blood on the floor. Strange items surrounded a small circle at its center, and Malachi was in the process of meticulously tracing the final sections of the sigil.
Rosa tried to move, but an invisible force bound her to a raised throne of pitch-black stone and white bone, pulsating with a sinister energy, as if possessing a life of its own. At its base, just before Rosa, stood a short pedestal that held the Abyssal Vilewyrm’s heart, an obsidian mess of muscle and crag that pulsated in rhythm with the throne. Strange black tendrils extended from the heart, connecting to the crimson veins in the floor and the throne itself.
The scene was alien yet oddly familiar, and an ominous fear fed the fear and disquiet inside Rosa. Gradually, as recollection dawned, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and counted down from eleven.
With a whispered prayer to the gods even if they had never listened before, she opened her eyes again, focusing on Malachi.
She didn’t know exactly how she had ended up here, but she understood the general gist of it. This was part of whatever ritual Malachi had promised to perform to free Rosa from her passenger. Part of the deal they’d made back at the woman’s farmstead.
The current situation deviated quite a bit from Rosa’s expectations, though. She couldn’t remember how she ended up in these exact circumstances.
Clearing her throat, the action sent echoes through the chamber. “You never told me that ridding me of this thing involved strapping me to a throne in a chamber that could make even the most bloodthirsty of tyrants coo in awe.”
Malachi paused, one hand stained red, and looked up at her. Rosa chose to avoid dwelling on why there was so much blood here for now. First, she needed to get her bearings.
“I’m surprised you’re awake,” Malachi spoke slowly, returning her attention to her work. “I had assumed you would remain asleep until the ritual was finished. And no, I did not tell you about this. It seemed unlikely you would have agreed if I had.”
Once more, Rosa tried moving her arms, but it was as if they were part of the throne itself, attached to the winding pale bones comprising its armrests. “…Golly, I wonder why,” she muttered.