The ambient air carried a scent of ancient dust, completely replacing the familiar rot of the surface world above. Lucid navigated the remnants of figures that resembled humans. These entities were mere echoes of physical reverberations. They stood scattered across the wet floor like ancient, forgotten statues. One entity pointed an arm toward the obscured ceiling. Another aimed a rigid finger in the exact opposite direction. A third pair held one another in a permanent, desperate embrace. They emitted a distinct, faint noise. The sound was a low, continuous resonance that perfectly mimicked the mournful song of an instrument.
Lucid walked closer to observe these frozen people. He noticed their structural anomalies immediately. They were definitively not human. Large, feathered appendages were attached firmly to their backs, carved from the same ambient energy that constructed their bodies.
Alice spoke within his consciousness. Her tone carried an immutable, divine clarity. "They look like angels."
'And you would know exactly what those are, I assume?' Lucid thought. He delivered the internal question with heavy, blunt sarcasm.
Alice expanded her presence within his mind, wrapping around his thoughts with a possessive, suffocating affection. 'Your attempts at humor remain remarkably crude, my chosen. I perceive the celestial hierarchy perfectly because I sit above it. You, however, perceive only the dirt beneath your feet. Try to show some reverence.'
Lucid ignored her critique and approached one specific reverberation. It was an elegant female form resting on her knees in tattered robes. Her skin consisted of iridescent gold. She extended her right arm forward, projecting a faint light from her open palm. An impossible illumination hung in the air directly above her. The light formed the shape of a spectral white arm descending from the darkness, reaching down to meet her grasp.
He stepped past her and surveyed the surrounding architecture. Massive homes and ancient settlements populated the vast cavern. These structures predated the current scattered realms of the surface. The original builders had carved the homes entirely from heavy marble stone. Under normal conditions, the marble would possess a pristine white finish. However, the persistent golden glow of the abyss consumed the stone completely, staining every surface with a rich, metallic hue. The absolute uniformity of the gold color was maddening to his eyes.
As he continued his march, distant chants echoed through the cavern. The sounds grew more grotesque and profound with every step he took. The vocabulary was vile. Lucid recognized the cadence instantly. He remembered these specific words from a buried trauma.
"Careful, Lucid. I sense something remarkably wrong ahead," Alice warned. Her formal tone shifted rapidly, conveying a genuine, protective worry for his physical safety.
'Right, because everything else down here screams absolute security,' he thought, scoffing at her advice.
"Do not dismiss my guidance. You are mine to protect. I will not allow you to walk blindly into a slaughter simply because you refuse to listen," Alice countered smoothly, her divine superiority mingling with deep maternal concern.
He observed another female statue and continued passing the others. One figure looked ancient and weathered. Another was a massive warrior holding a broad sword. The final echo looked like a young girl. This specific statue differed greatly from the rest. She possessed short hair and remarkably sharp facial features. Her eyes remained closed tightly. As Lucid stepped closer to investigate, the entire figure vanished into thin air.
"This place is starting to give me the creeps," Lucid muttered aloud.
Alice spoke within his mind again, her voice softening into a gentle one. "You did not have to come here. You still do not have to do this. We can retreat to the surface immediately."
Lucid did not care about her reservations. He continued forward until he reached a massive marble wall coated in thick gold. He summoned a single heavy chain from his palm. He swung his body upward with a smooth, practiced motion, utilizing the chain as a grapple. He scaled the barricade effortlessly. As he crested the high wall, he caught a sudden glimpse of a purple fire burning in the distance.
Someone was tied securely to a wooden stick. His eyes widened at the sight. The silhouettes surrounding the roaring pyre wore deep hoods that obscured their faces entirely.
He moved instantly into action. He dodged through narrow alleyways, dropped beneath a small stone bridge, and jumped over the ruined counters of the ancient golden palace. He broke through the final corridor and entered the vast openness of the primary domain. The intense golden light assaulted his eyes, burning his vision like a second sun.
He looked up toward the pyre. A woman hung there. Her hair was tied back tightly against her scalp. Her pale skin bore deep red marks, dark bruises, and jagged cuts. Lucid remembered her face clearly. A dark coat lay abandoned on the wet ground beside the purple bonfire. Her captors had tied her hands behind her back to the wooden stick. The posture was a sickening, crucifixion-like display. The rising tongues of purple flame threatened to reach her bare skin at any moment. She wore an expression of absolute, defeated exhaustion.
He looked around the base of the pyre. Hooded figures stood in the exact configuration he had witnessed once before in his past.
One of the robed figures chanted loudly. "Oh, Mother Alisia!"
Another one responded. "This is what salvation is about!"
Those same irritating words echoed through the cavern. Lucid recalled them with vivid, painful clarity. The cultists had uttered these exact phrases once before during a previous tragedy. He refused to let it happen a second time.
He ran directly into the clearing, spreading his arms wide. Because Alice had removed his fear of physical pain, his movements were fluid and completely unhesitating. He drew a small glass vial from his orange life vest. Jing Xiu had given him this chemical catalyst previously. He smashed the vial against his own palm.
Bits and pieces of heavy metallic chains erupted from the glass fragments. The chains flew rapidly across the wet ground and wrapped tightly around the robed figures before they could even react. Lucid clenched his right hand into a tight fist. The chains constricted instantly. The cultists broke beneath the immense pressure, emitting the wet, sickening sound of cartilage and bone shattering into pieces. He crushed them as easily as insects.
He scaled the He did not lower his guard. He looked among the crushed bodies and detected a sudden movement from his left. He stomped on to the wet floor. A sharp stone spear protruded instantly from the ground, deflecting a sudden strike from a concealed weapon. A surviving robed aggressor lunged directly in front of him. Lucid stepped inside the assailant's immediate vicinity. He caught the attacker in a fierce chokehold. The maneuver was incredibly fast and decisive.
"Oh, so fast, so strong, so firm, so dignified," the attacker gasped. The voice carried a raspy tone, sounding as though her very life force were being drained into the surrounding air.
Lucid listened to the words. The voice was an irritating, high-pitched feminine rasp. It was the identical voice of the individual who had coordinated an attack against him previously. His eyes flared with immediate, burning anger. He applied a sudden, brutal twist of his wrists and snapped the neck of the person in his grip.
A sudden presence manifested directly behind his back.
Alice shouted a desperate warning inside his head. "Look out!"
Lucid was still looking at the figure he had just killed. The dark veil slipped from her head. He caught the faint color of long purple hair, soft pale skin, lifeless purple eyes, and thin lips. The assailant was a young female. Lucid felt absolutely no remorse. Anyone who threatened the life of his friend needed to be met with the exact same fatal repercussions.
His realization came too late. A sharp weapon entered his back, tearing through his muscle and exiting directly out of his stomach. The blade was heavily laced with corrosive Fate Essence. The toxic energy burned his internal organs immediately. Lucid threw up a violent torrent of dark blood.
A smooth hand found its way up his cheek, forcing his head up as he struggled desperately for breath.
Alice's divine energy pulsed violently within his core. Her voice rang with absolute, terrifying authority, masking her deep panic for his well-being. "It is acceptable, Lucid. Fall unconscious. Surrender the vessel to me before the poison stops your heart."
'What does she mean by that?' Lucid thought, his vision darkening rapidly. He could feel another pair of glowing green arms rushing forward from his subconscious to intercept his falling body.
He refused to yield. He stood fast, his legs locking into an unyielding, stubborn stance.
"Shut up," he spat, directing the blunt command at both the divine entity within him and the physical attacker standing behind him.
The person standing behind him pressed her mouth close to his ear. Her breath was shaky and filled with a hungry anticipation against his skin. "Oh, prophet."
Her fingers continued to touch his skin, moving all the way down his collarbone, exploring every inch of his upper body while he stood there, completely paralyzed by the potent poison.
The corrosive essence threatened to dissolve deep into him. Alice could no longer tolerate the physical violation of her chosen. She forcefully bypassed his stubborn refusal. Her superior divine presence expanded, completely overriding his motor functions. The glowing green arms solidified around his torso, pushing the assailant back with an invisible, crushing shockwave of pure energy.
Alice spoke directly through his lips. Her voice echoed with a formal, beautiful resonance that demanded absolute obedience from the physical world. "You dare touch what belongs to me. Your pathetic concept of salvation ends here."
She raised his right hand. The liquid gold of the abyss responded instantly to her divine authority. The floor rose in massive, twisting pillars to encase the surviving cultist in an inescapable, hardened tomb of solid metal.
Internally, Alice directed her attention back to Lucid. 'Your dramatic refusal to faint simply left us in a highly awkward position, my chosen. Next time, allow your deity to handle the vermin. You are entirely too fragile for this level of stubbornness.'
'Just fix the damage,' Lucid thought bluntly. His consciousness was fading fast as the venom lingered in his veins.
'I am already purging the toxin,' Alice stated formally. Her deep affection bled completely through the rigid tone, wrapping his fading mind in a warm, protective embrace. 'Rest now. I have observed the vast reservoir of Fate Essence within this subterranean domain. This liquid gold is the exact solution we require for the surface.'