The rhythmic thumping grew louder as Kaelen walked closer
After a few moments he was faced with a unique sight—there was a temple; it was a sort of open temple with no walls, just pillars holding up the roof.
He also noticed something that made his eyes narrow slightly. There were several lights hanging around the temple and all of them were identical to the [Glowing Glass]
Walking closer to the temple with slowed steps, Kaelen found the source of the banging—a particularly large nightmare creature banging its head on the ground of the temple.
'Whats the big oaf doing?' - Kaelen was honestly curious
Walking up the stairs he found himself standing behind the nightmare creature and his eyes did not deceive him—the Nightmare Creature was banging its head on the floor
'Looks sufficiently strong'
He thought to himself as he summoned the Light Sword.
The white sparks and the glow of the sword itself seemed to draw the creature's attention; its eyes landed on his own and Kaelen could see the mindlessness of a beast within them
It stopped its rhythmic battering and turned, its featureless face "looking" toward the source of the heat. It let out a sound like grinding stones and charged, its massive, flabby body moving with surprising, gelatinous speed.
Kaelen didn't dodge.
He sucked in a deep breath and held the blade's handle, angling it like it was a shield as he planted his feet in the ground right as the creature hit
Kaelen felt the shockwave travel through his heels and into the floor, cracking the obsidian tiles beneath him, but he did not move—his body did not even shift as if it were a mountain
"Is that all?" Kaelen's voice was flat.
He raised his foot and kicked the blade, causing the beast to be launched back, and before it was able to gain its footing properly, he raised the sword and brought it down in a vertical cleave—the blade bit into the creature's head, not even stopping as it was enhanced by his own strength
Straight through the head
The creature fell to the floor and spasmed for a few seconds before going still
[You have Slain an Awakened Beast: Dark Survivor.]
'... I should learn some sword skills when i get out of here'
It seemed to be very effective.
Walking over to the creature, he pulled out the shard and analyzed the creature's flesh—the meat seemed to be red, and so did the blood. that was not a sign that it was definitely not poison but he had literal light blood so he doubted poison would even be a problem
He cut some meat off and shoved it into the seafarer's satchel and then cooked the bit he did not put away
This temple was mysterious, but it definitely had a good atmosphere; the darkness was pushed back by the glowing glases around—there seemed to be nothing here at all other than himself.
He just lay there for a bit and ate in the silence.
When he had taken the last bite, he raised his hand and looked at it with a deep gaze—the glowing yellow forearms were bright and radiated power; the claws were disastrously sharp too, but they were not his arms
Am I going to have to become a monster when I escape the nightmare? will this appearance be my flaw?'
It was possible
He did not want that but it would not be the worse flaw
He closed his eyes for a bit and made sure to keep his ears perked just in case there was something that attacked but he did not hear something attacking
He heard something trying to get away
'What is that?'
It was a scurrying sound, like something was walking on walls or like a crab on concrete. he woke up and tried to find the source of the noise and found that it was coming from the ground
Walking closer to where the sound was, he had a sudden realization—the Dark Survivor had been banging its head against this stone slab
'...'
He had no word
From what he could understand, there definitely was more than one creature down there unless it was a centipede or something else with many legs.
He summoned the burning blood and the claw of flame. I had taken a lot of effort to move the slab, even the little bit that he did but he was not going to open it fully and release whatever was in there onto where he was
Tipping the mug and leaving it on the ground, he watched as it flowed into the tunnel like a flood. When he decided enough had been poured, he threw in one of the Claws and waited
He did not need to wait long
The flames flowed instantly going down the hole—whatever had been in there started to scurry around, spreading the flames to the ones around him
[You have slain a dormant beast: Dark Swarm Minion.]
[You have slain a dormant beast: Dark Swarm Minion.]
[You have slain a dormant beast: Dark Swarm Minion.]
[You have slain a dormant...]
[You have slain a dormant beast...]
He listened to almost 40 messages from the spell announcing his kills
And then it stopped, and the silence was around again.
'...I had to go up in the Air trial and now i have to go down in the Dark trial?'
He sighed and pulled the stone slab again with a significant amount of strength—looking down, he saw a bed at the bottom, a bed of the corpses he had killed. There was no ladder leading down, and it seemed the ground was higher up than the entrance tunnels' end.
If he entered he would not be able to climb out even if he used his sword to stand on
'Well... it's not like there is another choice, is there?'
Just like in the air trial, he could have jumped into the sky below but he didn't; he climbed up because thats what his gut had said and now he would follow his gut again and go down
Jumping into the tunnel he used the claws on his hand to grind against the walls to slow his fall and eventually he reached the end and fell off into the bed of corpses
Before he moved to harvest the shards, he immediately looked around the area, trying to make sure there was nothing around.
He seemed to have fallen down the hole and now was currently in a circular room—he was grateful that there was nothing, but the fact that there were 3 walkways bothered him a lot.
He would need to go through one of them, and he felt that there was one that had the correct path to take, but he could not tell which one—the smartest one to take would be the one on the right for now.
So after shoving all the shards into his bag, he moved into the pathway, holding the Golden Glass in the front of him to make sure there was nothing there and the light dragging behind. from what he could tell, the tunnel was large enough to swing the sword in a circle in all directions, which gave him some assurance
He walked through the tunnel for a few minutes, and then it turned into hours, and eventually a third of the day had passed—but it wasn't uneventful in the tunnel; there were a few dark survivors here and there—about 5.
He had reached the end of the tunnel and saw nothing. Just a stone wall, which he had tried to punch or break but nothing happened
He had also tested for some sort of secret button but found nothing
So he did the only thing he could; he turned back
The walk back had taken half a day but it didnt take long because there was no nightmare creatures on the way back and he did not need to be careful
When he reached the starting point again, he chose the left tunnel
But it was the same: only 5 Dark Survivors, no secret pathway and just an empty stone wall, so again, like the day before, he had walked back all the way
He was a bit tired now after a little over 2 days of walking straight and since he knew the path must have been the middle, he decided to go to sleep
'...Should've just went down the middle one in the first place....' He grumbled as his eyes closed
...
The next day had come and he ate and prepared to make his way towards the middle tunnel and something he had noticed instantly was that this one was signficantly longer
He had walked for 2 days down this tunnel before he reached the end of the tunnel, which admittedly was not so bad since there were no Nightmare Creatures
And when he did, he found a ...
"Graveyard...?"
The tunnel had opened up into a large underground... grass plain?
Kaelen was not entirely sure
There seemed to be just flat land of grey blades of grass; the background stretched with the same look aside from the tree that seemed to be in the distance. The walls on either side—which were at least a kilometer or 2 apart—closed the area.
It reminded him of the fire trial
But he was also standing in front of a graveyard with the obsidian gates wide open; he could see the numerous tombstones that were lying here and there that had these beautiful purple flowers that seemed to be made of crystals
The black and purple combination made the place have a sort of ethereal beauty
But Kaelen did not care
There was definitely a nightmare creature or many here, and that tree he saw all the way in the back? It definitely was the location of the Dark Guardian of this trial
So he walked, he walked into the graveyard.
As he walked through the cemetery he felt a sort of calm wash over him, it was hard to explain but the appearence of the place was comforting
The tombstones were tall and jagged, carved from the same light-drinking obsidian as the gates. Each one was unique—some bore names in a language that looked like weeping scars, others were etched with scenes of stars falling from the sky.
Growing in thick clusters around the bases of the graves were the flowers
Their petals were shards of translucent purple crystal, glowing with a soft, internal light that pulsed like a slow heartbeat. The violet hue bled into the grey grass, creating a landscape of bruised light
He made sure to remember he needed to keep walking forwards
'Someone spent a long time building this trying to remember these things, to keep these memories' he thought. 'All for people who are never coming back.'
The silence here was different from the tunnels. It wasn't empty, it was heavy, as if the air itself was holding its breath. He walked for what felt like miles, his eyes fixed on the distant, gargantuan tree that dominated the distance out there.
Eventually, the density of the graves began to thin, leading toward a narrow exit path flanked by two final, towering pillars.
Standing there, perfectly still, was a figure that simply stood there at the front of the gate
It looked like the statue of a Knight
It was about 8 feet tall and it was encased by a thick plate armor that looked like it was carved out of obsidian and yet there were no reflections from the crystal flowers like it was absorbing hte light but there was something else there too
A massive, notched claymore was planted in the dirt before it, the Knight's gauntleted hands resting heavily on the pommel.
Kaelen stopped a few paces away.
He raised his finger and pointed at the stature - "Did you think i would really fall for the stature act?"
The Knight's head tilted a fraction of an inch. A sound rose from the suit of armor and seemed to echo despite not being in a tunnel
"I will not let you pass," the Knight rumbled.
Kaelen's response was intrigued, this was the first speaking nightmare creature he had encountered after all - Why not?"
The Knight's grip tightened on the hilt of the black blade that seemed to darken further in his grip
"I will protect the Princess."
The Knight didn't wait for Kaelen to process any of his words.
With a suddenness that defied the massive weight of its armor, the Knight lunged. The heavy claymore left the ground, whistling through the air in a brutal upward diagonal slash that threatened to split Kaelen from hip to shoulder.
Kaelen leaned back just enough for the black steel to pass, the tip of the blade whispering past his chest.
He hadnt summoned the sword just yet and was not sure if he wanted too, the fight would end too fast
His glowing yellow forearm flexed, and he drove his monstrous claws toward the Knight's midsection. The sound was like glass grinding on a chalkboard as his claws raked across the black breastplate.
He expected the metal to rend, but the armor was unnervingly dense. He only managed to leave shallow, glowing gashes in the darkness of the Knight's plate.
The Knight didn't flinch. It used the momentum of its missed swing to spin, bringing its armored elbow around in a crushing arc.
Kaelen raised his arm to block, and the impact felt like being hit by a falling boulder.
'Was this how the nightmare creatures felt after i got the stone skin?'
He was sent skidding backward across the grey grass, his heels digging deep furrows into the earth. He came to a halt twenty feet away, his arm numb from the wrist to the shoulder.
He looked down at his yellowed skin. There was no pain, just a dull vibration in the bone.
"The Princess sleeps," the Knight intoned, its voice echoing as it began a slow, predatory advance. The darkness at its feet began to spread outward, wilting the crystal flowers in its path. "Thy light is a plague upon her rest."
Kaelen straightened his back, his expression remaining entirely blank. He reached out and grasped the air, and with a familiar surge of ight, the Light Sword manifested in his grip.
The brilliance flared, clashing violently against the creeping darkness of the Knight's aura.
It seemed that the Knight was not something he would be taking lightly
Kaelens voice, a flat, emotionless tone sounded out. "I'm just trying to leave. Your princess is an obstacle and so are you - now die"
He shifted his weight, the obsidian tiles of the path cracking under his boots. He wasn't going to play defense. He charged, the Light Sword trailing a streak of brilliance behind him.
The Knight met him halfway. The collision of the two blades—one of pure,radiance and the other of darkness—sent a shockwave through the graveyard that shattered the nearby tombstones into fine black dust.
Kaelen felt the Knight's strength pressing down on him, trying to crush him into the dirt but it was not enough
The stalemate lasted only a second before Kaelen shifted its weight, seeking to capitalize on his superior mass, the knight tryinf to meet him in the same tactic
The blades grinded against eachother
Kaelen's eyes remained fixed on the hollow abyss of the Knight's visor.
He didn't feel the strain in his muscles, though the obsidian floor beneath his boots continued to spiderweb.
But then suddenly, Kaelen yielded.
Instead of pushing back he pulled the Light Sword back and stepped to the side, letting the Knight's massive momentum carry it forward.
As the demon stumbled a single, heavy step, Kaelen didn't go for a lethal strike. He went for the Knight's mobility.
He dropped low, his glowing claws dragging across the ground as he swung his leg in a brutal sweep. The impact against the Knight's greave was like iron hitting a stone pillar, but the force was enough to momentarily unbalance the giant. While the Knight was off-center, Kaelen drove the point of the Light Sword toward the back of the demon's knee, where the armor plates overlapped.
The blade bit deep.
There was a moment where a dark mist like substance started to flow out, but it was not the kind he absorbed from a guardian, it was the Knights Blood
The Knight let out a guttural roar of static and swung its claymore backward in a blind, one-handed arc. Kaelen threw himself flat, the massive blade passing so close he could feel the cold vacuum it left in the air.
He rolled across the grey grass, popping back up to his feet with his sword held in a low guard.
"Vile Wretch!" the Knight hissed. It didn't limp; instead, the darkness at its feet rose up like thick vines, wrapping around its wounded leg and stitching the armor back together with dark energy.
Both of them were silent for a few seconds and then there was an odd buzzing - Kaelen, despite being in a battle turned around, his eyes watching the glowing flowers brighten
Then, they exploded
The crystal shards started to flow like a tornado and then it seemed as if the Knigt was preparing something but before Kaelen could think to repond the shards exploded again - just in every direction
Kaelen didnt even respond, he burst fowards
Kaelen burst through the settling shroud of glass, each of them cutting his skin and causing the glowing yellow blood to seep through in small amounts
But he saw the opportunity and was going to take it
The Knight was still recovering from the exertion of its spell. It raised the heavy claymore for a desperate, vertical overhead strike—a move designed to crush Kaelen into the very soil it guarded.
Kaelen didn't move to avoid it.
As the massive black blade descended, Kaelen sucked in a breath and his body sped up, he lunged forward, entering the Knight's reach instantly.
The Knight was open.
The light sword seemed was positioned like a ram nad dug straight into the creatures chest moving straight through the creature, the light entering and poking out of its back
He pushed of the Knight and left the blade in there
He looked at the Knight who was now silent just as their surroundings were
"Any last words?"
"Protect... the ... princess"
Kaelen let out a sigh, and moved forward wrenching the sword out
[You have Slain an Awakened Devil: Dark Knight.]
[You have received a Memory: Obsidian Requim.]
'...'
Everything was silent again save for Kaelen pulling out the 4 shards and turning to look at the great tree in the distance once more.
"She will join you soon"