Nightblade (Darkest night)

"What happens now?" Morgan demanded, taking a limping step forward. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

The ghost of the ancient serpent god paused.

"Now, Morgan Thane..."

The last remaining golden particles of his face began to disperse into the dark breeze.

"...we discover whether you can survive yourself."

With those final words, the last mote of light vanished.

Nythrakar was gone.

Morgan stared at the spot where the eight foot figure had been with a mixture of bewilderment and disbelief.

"Again with the riddles..."

He let out a frustrated hiss.

"Fuuuu...."

From his conversation with the two ancient beings, Azrael and Nythrakar had a penchant for speaking in riddles.

...And look where it had gotten them...

"Well...you two really deserved each other,"he thought.

Morgan could already feel a headache brewing at the back of his mind.

The cavern returned to absolute darkness, saved only by the faint, synchronized mantle of liquid gold and deep shadow that wrapped tightly around Morgan’s shoulders like a cloak.

Silence fell over the abyss.

Morgan stood alone on the crumbling ledge.

He let out a long, ragged breath, staring at the empty space where the ancient god had just literally dissolved into nothingness.

He raised his right hand, flexing his fingers. He didn’t feel like a monster. He didn’t feel like a legend. Apart from the pain, he felt absolutely nothing.

His right leg still hurt like hell, his coat was ruined, and he desperately wanted a hot meal.

"I’m still me," he thought, grounding himself in the sharp pain of his broken bone.

" I’m still Morgan Thane."

He turned his gaze upward, looking into the endless darkness above, preparing to figure out how to climb out of the abyss.

Then he froze.

Deep inside his Void, far below the golden dun, far below the dark ocean of shadow—something moved.

A small subtle pulse that resonated through the vast lightless realm.

Morgan’s eyes widened slightly. The vibration shook his entire inner being sending a ripple across the Void.

A slow, heavy, primordial heartbeat echoed from the newly forged space within his Void.

And then, deep within the dark expanse, a single, soft sound echoed through his mind, a sound that made every hair on Morgan’s neck stand on end.

*****

The wind rustled through the broken ridges of the Zeregran peaks carrying the acrid, metallic stench of crushed granite and old volcanic ash, thick enough to coat the back of the throat with every breath.

Raven, Sye, Valerius and Angel had retreated afar off from the initial site of the rock fall.

Beneath the oppressive, slate-grey sky, the mountain range was still groaning, a low, vibration that rattled through the soles of their boots and set the jagged pines shuddering in the valleys below.

​A section of the northern slope gave way with a muffled, thundering roar.

Tones of shattered slate and jagged boulders tumbled down the sheer incline, disappearing into the swirling white dust cloud that obscured the abyss below.

​The group of four stood near the shattered lip of the mountain’s edge.

Valerius stood closest to the fresh drop, his heavy leather coat caked in grey dust, his fingers wrapped so tightly around the hilt of his broadsword that his knuckles were stark white.

He’d felt it, deep within the mountain, the deep oppressive aura that had abruptly appeared gad disappeared almost as suddenly as it appeared.

For all his power, in the face of that overwhelming foe, even he had felt a tinge of fear. A strange feeling considering the considerable power at his disposal.

In truth, it had been a while since he’d experienced such a peculiar feeling.

The sheer amount of malice and killing intent that wafted off whatever had awakened from it’s slumber within the mountain made him even more certain about unlikelihood prevailing if he clashed with the creature below.

His three companions had felt it as well. Nobody spoke.

The four of them stood in a solemn somber silence staring into the distance.

Even the almighty Lord of Moreus was unsure of what to do, of how to proceed.

A few paces behind him, Raven leaned heavily against a weathered pine, her dark cloak wrapped tightly around her frame.

Her face was pale, lined with soot and sweat. One hand rested near her daggers, but her grip was loose, entirely devoid of her usual razor-sharp readiness.

Her gaze shifted constantly, scanning the settling dust, tracing the massive fissures running through the rockface, looking for a sign of movement.

Sye was crouched low to the dirt, his knees pulled near his chest, one hand pressed flat against the stone floor. His dark eyes scanned the rocks as well, his ears twitching at the every movement.

Raven’s gaze drifted between the two men. It wa a startling reality she now found herself in. For all their dire strength, even Sye and Valerius, seemed strangely powerless.

The terrible pressure within the mountain negated their ability to fly and both seemed unwilling to draw the ire of whatever lurked within the Zeregran Ranges.

A few feet away, Angel stood with her arms crossed. Her beatiful hair was matted with grime, her regal posture weighed down by sheer physical and mental fatigue.

Of the four of them, she looked the most composed, but the tight line of her jaw betrayed the strain she too felt.

A sharp tremor ran through the ledge. A cloud of fine white dust billowed upward, coating their boots.

Raven shifted her weight, her boots crunching on loose gravel. She stared down into the swirling dust where the entrance to the deep ruins had been completely wiped from the map.

​"He’s survived worse, he’ll make it back alive," she said. The words hung in the freezing air for a long moment.

​She paused, her eyes narrowing as a cold gust of wind whipped her dark hair across her face.

​"Right?"

​Nobody answered her.

Angel closed her eyes for a brief second, taking a quiet breath. Valerius simply stared ahead, the light in his golden eyes dimming slightly.

The silence returned, heavy and suffocating, broken only by the distant, rhythmic sloshing of rockslides miles away and the whistle of the mountain wind through the pines.

​Sye suddenly stiffened, his dark eyes narrowing.

Sye?" Raven asked, her hand instantly dropping back to her dagger hilt.

"Something’s moving,"Sye muttered.

Before anyone could react, the pile of loose slate exploded outward.