They both stepped back, wanting to distance themselves from whatever calamity was about to happen.
Petra snorted, inwardly commenting that they were too cowardly.
She turned, looking back at the mine.
After a nod, Petra raised her hand. An intertwining spiral of white and grey gas rose from her pores and twisted around her arm like a desolate serpent. The grey and white gas condensed on her palm, and a moment later, Petra held a small ball of elegantly woven, solidified poison. It pulsed in an unstable rhythm, seemingly ready to explode at the slightest touch.
It was about the size of her fist, and with a toss, Petra shot it up and sent it hurtling towards the endless darkness that formed the ceiling.
There was a moment of silence, followed by a horrifying explosion that shook the cavern and left the upper cave hissing like dry ice.
* * *
Below, the three Telltera paused, all looking up at the same time.
"Do you feel that?"
"Yes, it would seem that we have a very dangerous guest."
Hong!
"It's going to come down."
"There's nothing we can do, it's too late."
"Do you know what it is?"
"It's like the Chieftain said, 'it' has arrived."
"Then it's true? The Cross Continent is going to be messy."
"We'll have to send people over."
"Mm."
One of the ashen giants turned to the 'human boss'.
"Evacuate immediately, take only what you need, and leave everything else behind. Our deal is done."
The burly boss frowned, his large physique eclipsed by the towering Telltera.
He asked, not yet understanding his situation. "Is there a problem?"
Boom!
The instant he finished speaking, there was a loud explosion, then rock and debris rained down from above. His question was quickly answered by a massive piece of falling debris that hurtled directly at him.
The wind broke with a snap, and a massive hammer split over and blasted the house-sized stone away from the small human.
One of the Telltera spoke in a cold yet booming voice. "The mine is collapsing, you're on your own."
Hong!
Another earthquake shook the cavern.
Rumble!
The boss stood there, frozen in fear.
He watched the three massive ash giants calmly depart amidst the collapse.
* * *
Petra's compressed poison exploded like a bomb.
It spread out, appearing as a violent mixture of all three states. It hissed when meeting the stone walls, softening the surrounding cave, and quickly wearing down the upper support that held the cavern open.
Rumble!
Another earthquake shook the surrounding area. Large stones fell from the sky, mixed with solidified poison and dust, devastating the foundation that the humans had spent the last few days building.
Petra watched with excitement, her little eyes sparkling with starlight as her new experiment unfolded, producing extraordinary results. If she wanted to do something like this back on Earth, then it would take a lot of time to set up.
-
As more and more debris fell, the segments of rock that broke off became larger and larger. Melted dark stone, distorted mining equipment, and leaking corruption all mixed to begin the final implosion.
Hong!
Lilly and Luna hugged each other, shaking in fear at the apocalyptic surroundings.
Around them, the world collapsed.
The deafening booms and earthshaking tremors resounded unendingly throughout the cave.
Petra surrounded them in a thin barrier woven from her mental energy and illusory echo.
She safely sat back, calmly watching the dark stone mine collapse.
Soon, Petra's attention was drawn back to the Telltera. She noticed that instead of investigating the cause of the collapse, the Telltera chose to retrieve something from the central outpost and leave. This was good, because Petra didn't want to fight them if possible.
After they disappeared somewhere, only the terrified human boss was left to frantically run around.
Petra grabbed Lilly and Luna, teleporting down with a flicker of black light. A moment later, they appeared in front of the boss.
When Petra flashed in, he widened his eyes in horror.
He screamed, then stumbled back and fell on his but.
Petra had no interest in interrogating him. She just wanted to see what he would do. In situations like this, people would often say or do something that would reveal some secrets.
He struggled to get back up, tripping twice more before he finally began to run away.
Petra followed him like a horror movie villain.
Her steps were slow, and her face was dark. She hid the twins with an illusion and wrapped herself in a terrifying black shadow for extra spookiness. If you were to ask why Petra suddenly wanted to tease this poor man despite his current predicament, it was probably because she could tell that regardless of whether he escaped or not, he, like all the others, would fail to remain human after leaving the dark stone mine. They had been exposed to the Darkness Element for too long, and their souls had already started to mutate into monsters.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Petra approached slowly.
The large man screamed like a girl, fumbling through iron platforms and collapsing overhangs. He reached a crudely built elevator, quickly slamming the buttons with his hand.
Click click click click click click click!
From afar, Petra slowly approached.
Hong!
Sweat ran down the man's forehead as the cave continued to shake. He was overwhelmed by time, this short moment felt like an eternity. He screamed to himself, 'Why won't the elevator move!'
Petra continued to slowly approach...
The boss looked over with panic, quickly making sure that he had hit the correct button.
Petra was still slowly approaching...
Ding!
The elevator made a ding, and the doors finally began to close. Unfortunately for the boss, the doors closed by smashing together, bouncing off, exploding, then falling down the elevator shaft and disappearing into the darkness.
"Fuck!"
He cursed, looking back at Petra in terror.
She was almost there...
He violently kicked the elevator, hoping that it would do something.
A moment later...
Boom!
The elevator dropped, dragged down by gravity. The cables snapped, propelling the unlucky guy down into the abyss.
* * *
Petra stood at the top of the shaft, frowning.
As she looked down, she realized that the darkness element had condensed to a concerning degree. She could only imagine what was down there.
The reason that she was hesitating was because she wasn't sure if she could protect Lilly and Luna.
If she wanted to go alone, she would have to send them back to the Tower Spider first.
"Mmm."
She looked around at the collapsing world.
'It might be a little late to send them back now.'
If she wanted to follow, she would have to go now or never. After the cavern collapsed, she definitely wouldn't be able to find her way back here.
Suddenly, her eyes lit up.
Petra turned to Luna and asked, "Can you use that power to give your 'corruption' to me?"
Luna was silent, but Lilly immediately protested.
"No! That's too dangerous, what if something happens to you!"
Petra shook her head.
"I'll be fine, it's you who's in danger."
Before Lilly could protest again, Luna pulled her sleeve and shook her head.
Lilly pursed her lips, before reluctantly touching Petra.
She used her Lunar Echo Physique.
Petra could feel the dark element that had accumulated in the bodies of the twins slowly pass to her. She was slightly surprised at how much they had been affected, but she was even more surprised that Lilly could so easily pass it to her.
She thought that it would take time, but Lilly managed to do it almost in an instant. Petra was starting to understand why the twins were so valued by the Azurefell Family.
With the problem of corruption solved, Petra and the twins jumped down.
-
Woosh!
Petra landed with a flutter, her small body failing to feel the impact of jumping from such a high height. Lilly and Luna landed next to her, their small bodies supported by Petra's mental strength.
Looking around, it seemed as if they had come to the core area of the mine.
Here, the darkness element was almost palpable, turning the air into a dense black mist, and making it hard to breathe. The fog twisted in unnatural patterns, refusing to follow the natural flow of the air.
To the side was the scrapped elevator.
Leading deeper into the cave was a black trail of blood. That guy had survived the fall, telling Petra that he was already a monster beyond saving.
They continued.
As they approached the heart of the mine, their vision continued to worsen. The faint light that lit the chamber had begun to be absorbed by the dark stone, and soon, this supernatural loss of senses extended to their sense of smell and hearing as well. If Petra was sure of anything, it was that whatever lay in the heart of the Dark Stone Mine, it was definitely still there…
-
When Petra finally caught up, she was shocked at what she saw.
This was a large dome-shaped chamber around fifty meters across. The walls were spiralling pitch-black patterns with thousands of white streaks all twisting towards the center. In the center of the room was a large dark stone pillar that spread out and connected the floor to the ceiling. This pillar-like piece of dark stone radiated waves of black light that condensed and splashed against the far wall like waves.
When the girls entered, Petra immediately felt the danger.
Although this room looked like a serene shore, this black wave had the power to corrode flesh in an instant. Even Petra's mental energy might not be able to protect against it for long.
She shifted her vision to the twisted red skeleton in the center of the room.
Petra assumed that this thing was whatever remained of the boss from before.
She could feel the twins behind her shaking, but unlike before, she couldn't reassure them this time. In fact, Petra was more serious right now than she had been in a long time.
She stood before the first true challenge that she had encountered ever since coming to Pillomal.
Petra took a deep breath.
She first turned to Lilly and Luna, then tapped them and created a large green bubble around their bodies.
"Stay here," She commanded, turning back.
Looking at the twisted red skeleton that was quickly approaching the dark stone pillar in the center of the room, Petra moved. Her body flashed with black light, before she ripped through space and approached the skeleton.
Appearing directly above its head, Petra whipped her arm and shot a storm of white poison onto the skeleton's head. There was a sharp hiss, but the damage was regenerated by some unknown power.
Petra frowned, then blinked further up.
She didn't want to touch the black skeleton. She didn't know why, but something told her that it was dangerous.
After creating more vertical distance, Petra tried to use her mental energy to bombard the skeleton next. Hundreds of dense cubes formed around Petra, their green light illuminating her in the darkness.
Petra pushed her arm forward, thrusting the cubes forward with her mind.
There was a crash, and the red skeleton was pushed down and buried beneath a small mountain of mental energy.
She narrowed her eyes.
Just as she had suspected, the twisted red skeleton soon pushed its way out of the mountain of mental energy. Petra flinched, her mind recoiling at the sudden force that pushed back against her mind.
Although she had yet to encounter another enemy who could use their mental strength, Petra was sure that the strength needed to combat her wasn't small.
Knowing this, she easily concluded that there was something more going on with this skeleton.
Perhaps, she had accidentally come across a plan that had long been arranged. She might have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and became an early trigger.
Frowning, Petra readjusted her position.
The red skeleton was almost at the dark stone pillar. Her intuition told her that she couldn't let it reach its destination. If she could, Petra would just trap it in a box. Unfortunately, Petra was sure that this thing could tear apart her mental energy with only a little effort.
Since it was immune to poison and her mental energy didn't work, Petra actually felt, for the first time, that she was out of options. Her mind turned, and she thought back to the many items that she had collected over the past few years.
Unfortunately, Petra couldn't think of any tools that could help her.
She was stumped.
Unlike on Earth, where poison was a be-all end-all, here in Pillomal, she actually hit a dead end.
It was frustrating.
Petra only had one thing left to try.
She stepped on the air, blinking forward in a black light.
She appeared on the red skeleton's head, landing gracefully on one foot.
Petra flexed her mind and tried to wrap the skeleton in the same force that she used to teleport…
However, when her foot landed, something happened!
Before Petra could even try to teleport, the red skeleton suddenly exploded in a mutated ball of wriggling flesh that extended out of its head and wrapped Petra in a tangled mess of black tentacles.
Petra's eyes widened, quickly trying to teleport away.
'Shit!'
Her blink failed, and Petra realised that she had messed up. It was finally time for her to receive her retribution for constantly underestimating her enemies.
Her body was wrapped up in hundreds of black tentacles, their scaled exterior like keratin. They wrapped around her and hardened, locking her on top of the twisted red skeleton's body like some kind of morbid throne. At the same time, more tentacles suddenly exploded out of the skeleton's ribcage, shooting it towards the dark stone pillar.
Lilly and Luna cried out from the side, but they were completely sealed by Petra.
Petra was dragged to the middle of the room, her small body failing to produce the strength needed to escape. She was slammed against the pillar and groaned in pain.
She heard the clatter of bones, before something in the pillar moved.
Petra looked up to see another black skeleton sealed in the dark stone pillar. Unlike the human skeleton that had trapped her, this skeleton had long horns on its head and a spiked spine that extended down into a draconic tail. Her eyes met the empty sockets of the skeleton, before she suddenly shuddered.
Chink!
The pillar cracked.
Booooom!
The earth shook.
Whoosh!
The sealed skeleton's arm shot out through the narrow crack and reached for Petra with lightning-fast speed. It moved so quick that it almost seemed like its hand had teleported. At the same time, a thick stream of black darkness-element mist was violently expelled, seeping out like smoke and filling the room.
Petra was engulfed in the endless darkness.
* * *
Petra looked around at the endless void that extended infinitely in all directions.
Her mind was foggy, and her body was weak.
She stood opposite to 'something'.
Petra's 'connection' with the darkness was cut off, allowing her to immediately understand that whatever this thing was, it was at a far higher level than her.
Petra's body was unable to move, locked in place by an unseen hand.
Around her, the darkness was filled with the sound of slithering serpents and clattering bones. Her emotions stirred, but Petra quickly realised that these weren't her own, like something else had awoken in her body, a kind of emotional echo.
"What... Is this...?"
The voice was hollow and emotionless, but Petra immediately knew that it came from the shadow in front of her.
"Are you... the one sought by the 'Mourner'?"
There was a long pause…
"Vellesunaura... failed? Did... the void… come...?"
Petra looked at him with what little strength she could muster. She didn't know the 'Mourner', or this 'Vellesunaura', but for some reason, she instantly felt her bloodlust rise when those names were spoken.
Petra didn't have time to answer.
Before she could open her mouth, a sudden chuckle came from somewhere below.
'Hehehehe'
"Ah... Is it you? Hollowed Hand...? No, you are not… that which holds up the empty… throne...? You are... wrong... too young... not yet… odd…"
'Hehehehe'
Petra was unable to find the source of the chuckle, but for some reason, she felt as if it were familiar.
The shadows surrounding her suddenly shifted, slowly starting to move. They rippled up and down, twisting slightly, and began to mimic the rising currents of the sea.
"You wish to devour... me?"
They quickened, changing from slow ripples to violent waves. The whispering echoes that came from the darkness ceased to sing, and the void was suddenly filled with the billowing momentum of wailing waves.
"How odd... you are not you...? No... I see..."
The current began to twist. It became stronger, faster, and quickly turned into a violent vortex that surrounded Petra and the shadow. The silence became a deafening voice, like all noise was being ripped from its path.
Despite that, the shadow's voice was still clear.
"'He' has come seeking your true name... Yet, you… are not the hunted...? How terrifying!"
'Something' was torn apart by the dark vortex. 'It' was pulled in, compressed, then torn to shreds. The world was shocked by another violent quake. From the vortex came a wave of thousands of pitch-black butterflies, ejected from the continuously building singularity. They flapped their wings, fluttering like elemental life formed by pure darkness. They shimmered in the void, like silent strands of cloth that swayed on the winds of fate, fluttering forth like unseen guides.
"I will remember this, Shadow of the Green Witch!!"
Boom!
The world shook again, and darkness overtook the void!
'Hehehehe'
As Petra's vision faded, for a mere moment, she seemed to somehow see her own shadow cast against the curtain of darkness. Its smile was unsettling, and its form was unbound.
Then... only darkness.
* * *
Petra was shocked awake by the skeletal grip of a bony hand wrapping around her throat. Her eyes snapped open, and she ripped her body away from whatever bound her.
Her 'bindings' crumbled like brittle wood, allowing her to explode backwards and create distance.
She looked around, finding herself back in the room with the dark stone pillar.
Hong!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The room shook!
The violent quakes from the collapse above were starting to reach this place.
Petra turned her attention to the room, only to realize that the whole place had changed drastically. What was once dark walls and an infinite expanse of blackness had now been sucked into nothingness, leaving only an empty white room. The mist was gone, and the mine had dimmed, leaving only empty crystal walls that had been completely drained of their element.
It was a different kind of death.
The collapse continued.
The skeleton that was embedded in the dark stone pillar had turned to dust, and what remained of it was only a formless black stain that stretched across the white world.
Petra's vision shot over to Lilly and Luna, who were unconscious in their bubbles.
She sighed with relief.
Her head pulsed with pain, but she didn't have time to think. Petra raised her hand and brought them towards her with a quick pull of the mind. She aggressively pushed her teleportation ability to the limit, and in a massive flash of black light, the three girls tore through space and disappeared.