I smile when I face the next creature. It is not alone. A "Hollow" crowd patrols the perimeter of a grand, three-story manor, their dead eyes staring into the mist. But the crowd is a secondary concern. Hovering around the eaves of the house are translucent, spectral jellyfish, pulsing with a rhythmic, bioluminescent glow. They swim through the fog as if it were deep seawater, their bells heavy with trapped essence.
I need to see what they are made of.
I open two rifts simultaneously. One swallows me; the other snaps shut around one of the drifting jellyfish. We are pulled into the Void, though I maintain a calculated distance. I drop the creature into a sector where five void Hounds are roaming.
The jellyfish begins to twitch. It is an erratic, glitching motion, as if its very existence is stuttering. It is in immense pain, the purest agony I've ever witnessed. I watch, fascinated, as its form begins to shift. Something inside, something alive, tries to break through its membrane. I finally understand: it is the Maddening Lullaby of the Void. The absolute, insane song of this place is already deforming the beast, preparing to turn it into a Nightmare.
The experiment is failing. The creature's mind is shattered before the Hounds can even touch it. I quickly release a pulse of my own essence, creating a stabilizing barrier to protect what remains of its consciousness. Inside that small pocket of "reality," the creature's instincts kick in. It detects the five Hounds entering the barrier and lashes out.
I expected the beasts of the Void to tear it apart with ease, but the jellyfish is surprisingly lethal. It wraps its tentacles around the lead Hound and releases a massive electric discharge. The Hound twitches violently before exploding into black ichor that is instantly reclaimed by the background Void. The remaining four close in, their teeth tearing into the main body, devouring it alive even as it kills two more before finally going dark.
I consume what remains. The essence is cold, tasting of the Void's purity; this thing was already half-transformed into a dweller of the void.
I step through a portal, returning to the room where I left the others.
"You're back!" Lilith jumps into my arms, her eyes wide. Our human escorts are slumped in the corners, unmoving. I look at them, a silent question in my eyes.
"Oh, they started acting weird—muttering about noises in their heads," she explains, brushing a stray hair from her face. "I put them to sleep and trapped them in an illusion. They're safe from the mist's influence for now."
"Our enemies have high psychic potential," I tell her, setting her down. "They generate sonic waves that can liquefy human brains. They control the mist, the people we've met, and those servants with significant physical strength. I need your help to capture one alive. We need information."
Lilith hesitates, stepping back. "I... I'm not a warrior, Vance. I'd just be dead weight. I don't think I can help you with that."
"So you don't trust me, after all."
"I do! But I'm not an idiot!" she snaps. "That thing is an Elder—"
"These are offspring. Lesser versions," I interrupt. "I've already killed one. They act as transmitters for the Elder's song. I need your mind to break into theirs."
"What do you need to know? If you can kill them, just kill them all. That is going to help defeating the Elder." She is trembling slightly.
"I could," I say, my voice dropping. "But in the time I killed them, Anya would die. And I need her help to navigate what comes next."
Lilith sighs, looking at the sleeping humans. "She's probably dead already."
"A possibility," I concede. "But the distance to the peak is large. We still have time. Are you coming?"
"I can't believe this. Yes... I'm coming." she mutters. She pauses, then looks at her thin silk dress.
"Put on something more practical," I suggest. "Protection."
She nods, and with a shimmer of magic, her attire shifts into reinforced traveling leathers. We step through the portal together, and for the first time, she sees the true scale of my reach.
The manor comes into view. I don't give the jellyfish time to react. My portals swallow them, whisking them away to that dry, dead planet I first discovered, for later.
"What did you do to them?" Lilith asks, her voice thick with awe as I cast another portal, this one blooming directly in front of the Elder's offspring. It's in a spacious room on the third floor of the manor.
I do not answer. My focus is on the creature's anatomy pulsing in my Perception. I manifest [Reality's Blade] just one time, but the targets are multiple. The wet thud of severance follows. Every tentacle, the thick, pulsing limbs that supported its massive head, are sliced clean. The creature collapses, its mobility deleted completely.
As the creature thrash in shock, Lilith's violet light finally takes hold, subduing it into a deep, forced trance. She exhales, her chest heaving, and asks again: "Where did they go?"
"Far away," I say, my eyes tracking the green blood staining the shingles. "I'll deal with them later. Focus."
I see the flicker of hesitation in her eyes, followed by a surge of curiosity. She is beginning to understand that my strength is an entire world she has yet to explore. Her face shifts. Struggle.
I can see the immense effort on her face; controlling a creature of this tier is draining her marrow. But she is protected by my Clarity; without my stabilizing presence, this creature's psychic weight would have crushed her. It is clear now why she was so terrified of this mission. Yet, looking at her, I see a flickering satisfaction on her pretty face. She is conquering something she was never supposed to best.
I have made her stronger.
"Should I wound it more?" I ask.
"The pain will set it free... So don't," she gasps, her brow beaded with sweat. "But if you could... weaken it... steal its magic. It will make things easier..."
I focus, reaching for the flow of essence within its being and draw it out slowly, like a gentle breeze pulling heat from a sun-baked stone. The creature is too far gone into Lilith's nightmare to notice the theft.
Minutes pass in silence, the only sound being the distant, muffled wails of the "Hollow" crowd below. Finally, Lilith's eyes glow with a fierce, unwavering violet light. She straightens her back, a predatory smile touching her lips.
"It's ours," she proclaims.
The offspring does not speak with words. It communicates through a visceral bleed of images, sensory echoes, and raw intent. That is what Lilith explains to me.
"It has been alive for three hundred years, but the Elder is older... Ancient. It doesn't even know how old," Lilith whispers as if she's speaking from underwater. "The Elder has its lair in an abandoned temple deep within the mountain. The temple isn't just a cave; it's a junction for a network of tunnels that connect directly to the sea. That is where it emerged from a year ago."
"What illusion are you showing it?" I ask, stepping closer.
"I'm making it believe I am the Elder," Lilith answers, a strained smirk playing on her lips. "Do you want to see for yourself?"
"Yes. What should I do?"
She offers me her hand. I take it, feeling the heat of her mana radiating through her skin. "Breathe deeply," she instructs.
I obey.
[Clarity] Warning: External entity 'Lilith' attempting to overlay sensory data. Accept? [Yes].
The world dissolves, not entirely for me, but I can see it, the torrent of alien memories. I feel the creature's cold, unwavering will, the absolute, mindless obedience to the source, the total lack of empathy for anything that isn't the Elder or its "brothers." Then, I see their "Great Work": a glorious, terrible dream of a city populated entirely by offspring, perpetually shrouded in the Mist, where humans are kept in efficient, silent farms as their song plays endlessly. It's a maddening, and yet beautiful vision that reminds me of Void, somehow.
"Dig deeper. I want to see the Elder," I command.
Lilith's grip tightens until her knuckles turn white. The imagery shifts. I see the Elder's eyes. They are twin pits of crimson, gleaming with a prehistoric evil and a singular desire to devour everything on the surface until it mirrors the depths; the surface is merely a banquet. I find those eyes fascinating. I lean into the psychic gale, pushing my perception further into the red mist of the Elder's gaze.
Lilith begins to tremble. "W-why are you stopping? T-take a peak..." she mutters, her breath hitching.
I could push further, piercing the veil to see the Elder's true self, but the feedback is becoming toxic. The pressure is enough to shatter a succubus's mind permanently.
"Stop," I order, but the morbid desire to unveil the truth behind the red eyes has trapped her. She is caught in the gravity of the Elder's consciousness. "Stop, Lilith!"
She looks at me, her expression vacant and hesitant. The psychic pull is too strong for her to break on her own. I manifest [Reality's Blade] and sever the creature's head, ending its life instantly. As its consciousness fades, I strip away every scrap of data regarding the Mist's frequency and mechanics.
Simultaneously, I hijack the remains of Lilith's illusion, rewrite the code of it, turning the vision into a luxurious chamber. I place myself at the center, tied to a bed, with her draped over me in her thinnest, see-through silks.
Her instincts trigger instantly. The terror of the red eyes is overwritten by a surge of primal lust, her need to claim her mate. I hold the image for a heartbeat, then shatter the illusion entirely.
We are back in the chambers of the offspring. The room receiving us with portraits of a young lady, beautiful, blonde, with a radiant, innocent smile. Her fate was one of the things I could see when I connected to the illusion. She died a horrible death; her body was incapable of breeding the Elder's offspring.
"The next time, it'll be me who picks the reward," Lilith says, her voice husky, safe from the vision.
I nod, smiling. Her eyes burn with a desire so intense it is both intimidating and magnetic. I know what she will ask for next time, and I find myself running out of reasons, other than Anya, to refuse. Lilith is beautiful. To lie with her would be an experience beyond human limits, but it would change our bond. It would make me care for her.
But am I not protecting her already? Am I not caring for her and Anya already?
I sigh as the truth is settling in my chest. Lilith giggles, imagining my thoughts accurately.
"We could make that dream of yours real... The red dream... Kukukukuh..." she insinuates, her eyes dancing. "Or anything you want! I'm all yours."
She jumps into my arms again, her weight light and her warmth undeniable. I grin, but the expression fades as I look through the window toward the mountain peak. [Clarity] activates my defense. The system informs me the moment the psychic scream hits us. Outside the mist looks as if it were boiling, and the hatred in the scream promises absolute death, but it doesn't affect us.
"Our escorts..." Lilith mutters, meeting my eyes. "They are dead."
I didn't want to lose them so soon and so easily. I must protect Lilith better.
I notice the shift. Every "Hollow", in perfect, terrifying unison, turn their heads toward the manor and begin to march. Their sole purpose is our death. It is fascinating, hypnotic, and it makes me chuckle because we won't be here soon.
I cannot fight along with Lilith; she would be dead weight. We cross a portal, returning to the royal vault where I first met her.
"What are we doing here?" she asks, but I am already stepping back. "Don't you dare!" she protests, but the portal closes, leaving her in the safety of the vault.
My portal takes me to the barren planet. I need to reload my energy after all these portals. The wounded and weakened jellyfish I sent here are perfect for this. I find the first one, twitching from dehydration, its form looking like a balloon that has lost its air.
Their essence is good.
Once I am replenished, I open the [Void Gate] again and cross. It deposits me on the mountain's outskirts, the ancient will there, preventing me from approaching any closer.
Annoying. I'll have to go through the whole army.