The Forsaken Hero

”Fable!” I screamed.

My tail started to lash, my heart beating in my ears. R’lissea backed up, jumping as she bumped into the shady wall.

”C-cold,” she stammered.

I clapped a hand over my mouth, staring at the darkness with wild, wide eyes. The demons were all around us. Any second, they would respond to my scream, and...they weren’t moving. Well, all of them were moving, but not with any urgency. A small cluster of third-level souls drifted toward us, a hundred feet ahead in the hallway.

”What’s going on?” R’lissea whispered.

I shook my head. ”I don’t know. It’s like they don’t even know we’re here.”

”But how is that possible...? Wait, the darkness? Does it work both ways?” she asked.

”This entire realm is one big curse. I can see it trying to touch us, but my ability keeps it at bay. ”

She gasped. ”It must be like a spiderweb! The curse doesn’t just drain mana, it also Carrie the vibrations to the spiders!”

I looked at her blankly. She coughed, flushing.

”Er, the realm isolates intruders so they’re lost and blind. But it also works on the demons. To counter that, they use the ambient curse mana to keep a live map of the realm. They can feel the flow of divine mana being drained by their curses and know the mortals are there.”

I stared at her. ”You figured all that out from spiderwebs?”

She laughed, instantly covering her mouth and hunching her shoulders, looking around. When no one responded, she continued in a whisper.

”Nature has a lot to teach us, you know. I just wish we could tell where they are, too. Finding Evla’s going to be a nightmare.”

I looked at her. ”You can’t? Their souls are practically bleeding aura. I can sense a few of them just ahead of us.”

”So we’re not totally blind. What are we going to do without Fable?”

”That won’t be an issue.”

I waved my staff, drawing on our soul bond. A shimmering gate appeared between us, hovering a few inches above the ground. I caught a glimpse of dark walls identical to the ones in our hallway before Fable jumped through, and the portal closed.

”There you are,” I said, petting his neck. ”Where have you been?”

A rush of impressions and memories flowed through the soul bond. I sorted through it, nodding slowly.

I turned to R’lissea. ”This entire gate is a maze of these walls. That hole we crossed through is a kind of doorway, but the location changes every few seconds.”

”It’s probably random, to separate and confuse invaders,” she said.

”Or maybe there’s a pattern. How else could the demons navigate?”

Fable growled, hackles raised. I followed his gaze to the darkness ahead, where the small demon patrol approached.

”Will they be able to raise a warning?” R’lissea asked.

”Only one way to find out. Fable?”

Fable lunged forward, disappearing the instant he crossed the threshold of our vision. R’lissea and I chased after him, but by the time we caught up, the patrol was gone. A few shattered corpses littered the ground, slowly disintegrating into shadows. Fable held the last demon in his jaws. His fangs dug through its dull iron armor. Darkness dripped like blood from the wounds. He threw it to the ground and tore it in half with his claws.

As the demon died, it released a final pulse of mana. The wave made my soul tingle as it swept through us. My infernal mark burned slightly, translating the tingle into an incoherent impression of intruders and death.

One by one, as the wave reached them, I felt the infernal presences stop and turn toward us. I shivered, putting a hand on Fable’s back for support.

”What is it?” R’lissea asked.

”They know. Not where or who we are, but that we killed these demons. I can sense about a quarter mile around us, and there are hundreds of them.”

”So we keep moving, especially if we kill some. Will you be able to sense Evla?”

”I don’t know. It’s like trying to smell something through a dirty rag.”

We kept moving after that, fighting only when forced to. The lack of anything beyond demons, black walls, and the void was claustrophobic, playing tricks on my mind. Every shifting shadow seemed like a demon I couldn’t sense, or a spell about to be unleashed.

There were never any curves or turns in the tunnel. It was completely straight and seemingly leading to nowhere. We passed several holes in the wall, but elected to keep moving forward. It was better to remain together than risk being split up again.

That philosophy worked well for all of five minutes, until the passage came to an abrupt end. Fable sniffed the wall carefully and gave his coat a shake. There was a hole in the wall a few hundred feet back, but the ever-growing number of demons converging on us had already overrun it.

”We’ll have to fight through them,” I said.

”Can you do it? Or should I summon some elementals?” R’lissea asked.

Fable snorted, giving her a flat look. She chuckled nervously, playing with her hair.

”Right, sorry. You’re so soft and cuddly, I keep forgetting your eighth level.”

Fable gathered his mana, his fur glowing with starlight. With a soft roar, oddly conscientious for our sensitive hearing in the enclosed space, he lunged forward. Again, we ran after him, catching only a glimpse of his tail before he was gone.

I almost screamed as a demon came flying out of the darkness. I soul cast wind wall, but the demon broke right through it. R’lissea grabbed my hand and tore me out of its path.

We watched, bewildered, as the demon soared right by, vanishing into the passage on the other side. I clung to her tightly, trembling.

”Was it...missing a head?” R’lissea asked.

”I-I couldn’t see, ” I stammered.

Another demon appeared, rolling across the floor. It fixed bloodshot eyes on us and started to croak something before its eyes rolled up in its vaporous head, and it disintegrated into shadows.

R’lissea took off again, pulling me by the hand. More demons died beneath our feet, stricken by deep claw laceration or torn apart in Fable’s jaws. I could feel them pressing ahead of us, filling the tunnel like a raging river. They retreated constantly, though, clashing futilely against a suspiciously empty region that could only contain Fable.

Fable emerged into view, smashing a large, sixth-level demon against the wall with his shoulder. he spun, raking with a hind leg, and the demon’s head left its body. A few more demons stumbled into view, freezing as they say the corpses in his wake.

”Come on!” R’lissea said.

She jerked me to the side, and I tore my eyes from the battle and saw we’d arrived at the hole.

”Fable!” I cried.

The wolf roared, releasing a shockwave that sent the demons stumbling back out of sight. He turned and, with a single bound, cleared the distance between us. I grabbed his fur, holding on tightly as we leaped through the hole together.

I half-expected the hole to break the three of us apart, but when the blackness receded, putting us in another hallway, we were all together. Three fifth-level demons stared at us from only a few feet away. One, a large, hulking figure like a shadowy bear, roared, lunging at me.

I screamed, falling back against Fable in fright. R’lissea waved her staff, and a glowing ball of green energy shot from the emerald, striking it in the chest. Vines erupted from the sphere, rapidly entangling it and the other demons. They struggled against the bonds, tearing them free as fast as they grew.

”Thorns!” R’lissea cried.

The vines abruptly tripled in girth and sprouted thick thorns longer than my hand. The demon’s roars turned to pained screeches as their bodies were turned to pincushions and they were dragged to the ground. By the time the last had fallen, the first was already dissipating.

”That was close,” R’lissea said, looking me over, brow knit with concern.

I sagged against Fable, panting heavily. ”I didn’t expect them to be right there.”

She nodded. ”They were just as surprised. I think we were just unlucky.”

”That means we’re far away from the last place. Otherwise, they would have been more alert.”

”Just how big is this gate?” she muttered.

Once I caught my breath, we returned to searching the maze. Killing those demons had set a whole other horde on us, but Fable cleared them out with ease. R’lissea swiftly dealt with any that happened to sneak by.

”I feel so useless,” I muttered as we were forced to take another hole. ”I said all those brave things, but I’m still just relying on you two. Maybe I should have made Fable stay outside, too.”

”Then we’d be dead,” R’lissea said. ”Just being here is enough, I think. It’s not like you’ll ever be able to fight, not so long as you have that curse.”

We continued for almost an hour, killing over a thousand demons and exploring dozens of hallways. I started to worry we’d never find anything other than more corridors and demons. And even if we did find Evla, would we be able to find the way out?