Chapter 59: Eye
The poisonous fog washed off from the giant coffin’s lid like the waves of a dark sea, coiling subtly around the edges and spreading its poisonous influence across the hall. Through the pillars, the waves slithered like snakes out sniffing for fresh prey, as slowly, insidiously, the thick shroud made its way toward their group.
Valens felt a touch around the nape of his neck, then it was down his back, spreading over his skin like an infectious disease. He could feel the stubborn insistence of the fog as it tried to seep into his body, and in the midst of it, coming from deep under the ground, were whiffs of pure mana being sucked toward the Fiend’s battered body strapped across the coffin’s surface.
It’s corrupting the pure mana coming from the manastones inside the tunnel to fill the hall with this venomous fog.
The bloody circles drawn about the ground were all resonating with that creature’s Resonance, and each of the mana waves passed through one of the circles before gravitating toward the Fiend’s body, tainted by a unique set of frequencies during the process.
Interesting. This looks oddly similar to the way Lord Zahul’s fog worked, though the undead had a useless lung to spread the corrupted source across their bodies, while here, the pure mana from the manastones gains a poisonous quality as they pass through the Fiend’s body before being ejected outward.
Theoretically, there was nothing wrong with the practice, but it didn’t seem possible to Valens that a single Fiend would be enough to poison such an egregious amount of mana all by itself even if it had a giant reservoir of venom inside of it.
So, there was something else at play here, and he had a good guess as to what it could be.
It’s that shard. Even from here, I can feel the foul mana inside of it. There’s an ocean’s worth of source in that thing, and it’s feeding the Fiend— Wait. No. It’s not feeding the Fiend, it’s feeding what’s beneath that coffin. Isn’t it the Weeping Horror, isn’t it? The giant-eye monster I had the pleasure to meet before?
That familiar haunting presence hung over his head like a ghost, but unlike the first time they had met, Valens could now retain the clarity of his mind against its probes. Still, he wasn’t amused by the notion that he had to endure a sickly, slimy touch at each second which felt like he was being violated in a twisted way.
I’ve experienced worse.
He shifted slightly to the side as the coffin’s lid creaked slowly open. Captain Edric and the other Templars stood facing the giant structure, swords already drawn, fog bouncing gently off their armors. The golden hue covering their plates shaded their expressions, but Valens could see that there was a stiffness to their posture and a certain unease, unlike their usual air of confidence.
I wonder if they’re feeling the same exact thing I did when I saw that creature. The obscurity, the sheer enormity of it was like a wall being pressed upon my soul. I’m glad it’s mostly gone.