The intensity of the darkness magic in the lift shaft was extreme; so much so that Leon almost changed his mind and turned back before he’d even reached the bottom.  He knew from Mbana’s map that the shaft was relatively narrow, but the darkness around him was so complete that he felt like he’d jumped through a portal to some world of darkness rather than simply leaped down a lift shaft.

So dark was it that he wasn’t able to see the ground getting closer, and wound up stumbling enough to be embarrassed about it.  When he sprang up, though, he found nothing around him but darkness; no walls, no light above where the lift shaft had opened, and no Blue Sky Prince.  Leon’s senses were already working at the highest capacity he could maintain, but as he looked around, his heart rate accelerating from slight panic, he devoted more magic power to trying to orient himself.

His magic senses, however, remained locked in his body, much like they’d been throughout his journey on Arkhnavi, but now he couldn’t even project his magic far enough to perceive the ground he stood upon, let alone anything else in his surroundings.

With gritted teeth, he summoned his light magic and tried to create a light source, but the oppressive darkness around him snuffed out his magic before so much as a candle’s worth of light could be shed.

Before Leon could do anything more, the darkness magic around him pulsed, and the ancient runes protecting him shuddered and shattered.  The darkness rushed in, washing over his body like oily water, seeking every crack and crevice in his defenses and flooding in.  Leon stifled a scream, keeping his mouth sealed shut in an instinctive attempt to keep this foreign power from entering his body.

He flailed about in complete darkness and silence, feeling like a mortal drowning in the ocean.  He couldn’t feel anything around him; he didn’t touch the walls in his flailing, and he seemed to lift off the ground, leaving him, for all he was able to tell, floating in the deepest, darkest ocean in all of existence.  He lost all sense of gravity and spatial awareness; he could no longer tell where he was, where he’d come from, or where he was going.  The overwhelming darkness swept him along, leaving him with the barest sensation of motion, but no idea where he was going, or how fast.

Worst of all, pressure built against his mental defenses, threatening to overwhelm him and leave him nothing more than a gibbering mess.  If this darkness broke past his mental defenses, all that he was would be lost.

With a silent roar, his lips still sealed, Leon summoned Iron Pride to his hand, and everything changed in an instant.  Silver-blue lightning raced along the blade, and the darkness retreated from it like receding water following a flood, finally giving Leon a hint of light to orient himself with.  At the same time, the tau pearl in his armor seemed to burst with power in response to Leon’s desperation, adding its power to his in pushing the darkness back.

He gripped the hilt of Iron Pride tightly and called upon his inherited power.  The roc feathers hanging off the weapon glowed silver with a blue halo, the thunder wood hilt blazed with green lightning, an entire storm’s worth of silver-blue lightning raced up and down the blade, and all pressure upon Leon’s mind was alleviated as the Iron Needle responded to Leon’s silent plea.

The darkness around him was like an endless sea, but with the power of a Universe Fragment, Leon set his jaw, narrowed his eyes in determination, and pushed against it.  Lightning exploded out from him, lightning bolts arcing in every direction.  The darkness was hurled back, revealing to Leon that he was lying down on the cold stone floor at the bottom of the lift shaft.  The chamber was fairly large, though empty, and the walls, floor, and ceiling were still stained black by darkness magic.

But he was back in control again.

[Call me!] Xaphan shouted, and Leon did just that, pulling on their contracted connection.  A moment later, the former Lord of Flame exploded into existence in front of Leon, and demonfire filled the chamber at the bottom of the shaft.

Demonfire was dark red in color, but it shed light, and with the backing of a powerful demon, the darkness was forced even farther back.

[Runes!] the Thunderbird called from Leon’s soul realm.

“I’ll hold the Devil’s power back!” Xaphan added.

Leon, trusting in his Ancestor and demonic partner, let his power stop flooding through Iron Pride, and switched to light magic.  The darkness pressed in again without Leon’s lightning there to push it back, but Xaphan’s power slowed it down long enough for Leon to kneel, inscribe the shield rune in light, and focus on it.

‘Protect from darkness,’ Leon thought repeatedly, picturing a barrier of white translucent light through which the power of a Primal Devil couldn’t penetrate.  He closed his eyes and pictured that image in his mind’s eye so vividly that he could almost see it, while funneling his tenth-tier power through the rune.

The power of a Primal Devil pushed back, but with the Devil still imprisoned, Leon and Xaphan’s power won out, and the barrier that Leon strained to conjure manifested, through which the crushing darkness couldn’t pass.

Leon relaxed minutely, but as he stared out into the abyss his rune held back, for just a fleeting moment, he thought he saw a single red eye, burning with malevolence, staring back.

He blinked, and it was gone.

He hurriedly inscribed another shield rune and again channeled all of his willpower into forcing the darkness back, and then inscribed a third.

He created a dozen such runes before finally falling back, mentally exhausted despite only a few minutes having passed since leaping down.

“Sloppy,” Xaphan crackled.  “Those runes at the end.  Might as well not have made them after the fifth.”

“Feel free to do something yourself, demon,” Leon shot back as he breathed deeply, trying to still his racing heart.  “Do you see Ard’Nara?”

“The arrogant twat is not here,” Xaphan stated.  “Where he is, I cannot say.”

Leon let out something that was half-sigh and half-growl, then forced himself up to properly evaluate his surroundings.

Aside from the hint of lost beauty that the size of the chamber spoke to, the chamber was empty save for him and Xaphan.  There was no lift, no pieces of furniture, no decorations on the Devil-stained walls—nor any hints that any of such had once been present.  Either the chamber had always been empty, or more likely in Leon’s view, everything human had been wiped clean by the Primal Devil.

At the moment, he neither knew nor cared why.

“Great,” he said after his fruitless search for the missing Prince.  “Five minutes after jumping, and I’ve already lost the guy I started with.”

“It was his foolishness for jumping ahead into unknown danger,” Xaphan stated.  “You have powers and benefits he lacks; such foolishness was rewarded as it deserves.”

“Fuck what it deserves,” Leon spat.  “Let’s find him, let’s find this damned Universe Fragment, let’s find fucking Serena, and then let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“And stopping this ritual?” Xaphan asked, his tone deadly serious.

“Yeah, that too,” Leon responded, irritated at how this had gone so far.  He glanced up the shaft, noting that he could see the open door through which he and Nara had leaped.  He couldn’t fly under his own power thanks to the sheer oppressive weight of the darkness magic in the shaft, but he thought he could jump up if need be.  Otherwise, he thought he could fashion something in a pinch to fly him, or at least give him enough of a boost to escape when the time came.

“Which way?” Xaphan asked, his head turning back and forth between three open halls to the left, right, and center of the chamber.  There wasn’t any indication, magical or otherwise, of which way to go, but Leon had all he needed.

Without a word, Leon strode for the central hall, Xaphan falling in a step behind him.  The runes stayed with Leon, and he monitored them closely as they pressed on.

[The Primal Devil is acting with more agency down here,] the Thunderbird whispered as they moved down the hall.  [It’s able to exert more power here than it could above ground.]

[If that’s the case, then how can we stop it?] Leon asked.  [Disrupting the enchantment that’s releasing it should still slam the door and cut it off, right?  And that’s assuming we can even get there!]

[If it were able to exert all of its power, Leon, then your runes would be like a single sheet of paper trying to hold back an ocean.  And your runes are quite well made—or, those first few were, anyway, you rushed most of them.  But understand that the Primal Devil hasn’t just magic, but origin power, too.  There is nothing that a pre-Apotheosis mage can do against that.]

[Nothing?  Really?] Leon asked as he gripped the hilt of Iron Pride just a little tighter, the Iron Needle sending a comforting spark of lightning into his hand that did more to calm down than his runes had managed.

[Hmm,] the Thunderbird hummed in response.  [I’ll take that back, then.  Not nothing, but don’t even try.  If the Primal Devil were free to act and at full power, even with a Universe Fragment, you’d stand a snowball's chance in the Elemental Plane of Fire against it.  Not to say it’s impossible—everyone can die, given the right circumstances—but…]

[Yeah.  I get it,] Leon replied.

Aloud, he asked, “Xaphan, can you still pinpoint the location of the ritual site down here?”

Xaphan closed his eyes as they walked on, passing several doors and alcoves that led to other chambers in the dense tunnels beneath Tell Kirin.

“There is much interference here,” the demon stated, “but I can tell where the tiny-dicked and royally-fucked are bending over and presenting to their Devil master.”

“What a picture you paint, demon,” Leon joked, his tone shaking slightly.  “Where?”

“Below,” Xaphan said as he pointed to the floor.

Leon halted and summoned light magic again, using all of his skill and adroitness to conjure the complex map that Mbana had given him.  “Where?” he repeated.

“Here,” Xaphan said as he conjured a bright white spark of fire that floated down into the deepest chamber on the map.

“Of fucking course,” Leon said.  “I figured that was going to be the place where the Universe Fragment was being stored.  It’s also where Mbana directed me.  I think.  Or was warning me away from.  Whatever the case, he seemed absolutely shit-scared of something down there.”

“You were taking us there anyway?” Xaphan asked.

“I was,” Leon confirmed.

“Then on we go,” Xaphan said.

They hadn’t taken more than three steps before a blood-curdling scream reached them from beyond the wall of darkness held back by Leon’s shield runes.  It was pained and hoarse, the kind of scream that came from deep in the chest.  It was also quiet, as if it were muffled not only by the darkness around them but also by distance.

Leon and Xaphan froze and exchanged looks.

“The arrogant blue ball?” Xaphan asked.

“Sounded like Ard’Nara,” Leon responded.

Xaphan sighed while Leon looked back at the wall of darkness pressing against his light barrier.  He pressed on, his ears straining to hear any more clues as to where Nara was.

Leon didn’t have to wait long; barely a minute passed before the man screamed again, this time much closer, causing Leon and Xaphan to freeze again and ready themselves for battle.  This time, however, Nara kept screaming, and it sounded to Leon like he was trying to say something, but he was too far and incoherent for Leon to make anything out.

As he tried to locate Nara using the map in his head, his ancient runes flickered as the darkness outside them surged.  Leon snarled and devoted more power to the runes, determined not to let them falter.

“Don’t get distracted, boy,” Xaphan warned as the inky black darkness swirled around the light barrier.  “We might not survive another wave if it gets through.”

Leon grunted in agreement as he took a moment to inscribe another rune, devoting much power and attention to making sure the rune was powerful.  Throughout all of this, Nara’s screams filled the underground halls.

When Leon finally looked outward again, he said to Xaphan, “We have to find him.”

“He might as well be dead,” the demon said.  “He leaped down here without protection.  This is his reward.  We should ignore the dumb human and attend to our business.  We foil the Primal Devil’s plans and if the blue ball is still alive, then he’ll recover.  We have little time, in case you were unaware…”

“I know we’re on a time crunch… but we could use the backup.”

“How much do we need a man who can’t fight against the Primal Devil?  Listen to him; he’ll be a burden, not an asset.”

Leon’s snarl intensified, but he didn’t immediately respond to Xaphan.  Instead, his eyes slid out over to the darkness outside the barrier, and his heart almost stopped.

Outside the barrier, he saw figures in the darkness, human in form, though indistinct.

As quickly as he saw them, however, they vanished, subsumed entirely into the darkness.

“This fucking place…” he murmured aloud.  He started moving again—they were in a hallway, and he was fairly certain that Nara wasn’t behind them, so no matter what they decided on, they’d have to move forward anyway.  “I’d rather we saved him,” he insisted.

“Focus, Leon,” Xaphan instead cautioned.  “Focus on the matter at hand.  Not on stupid humans.”

Nara’s screams suddenly cut out, and the image of Mbana stumbling into the ark chamber flashed through Leon’s head.  A tenth-tier mage reduced to that state…  Though, as he turned it over in his head, it did bring some questions to his mind.

‘How did he get back to the ark chamber?  How did he escape all of this darkness?  Where’s Serena?’

Nara’s screams suddenly resumed, now farther away.  As if something could hear his thoughts, another voice joined his, this one much more feminine.

‘Serena…’ Leon identified.

Serena’s screaming came from far behind them, and Xaphan crackled a warning, “Do not turn around, Leon.  They’re lost.  Leave them.  Concentrate on the task at hand.”

Leon bared his teeth in frustration and pressed on, moving as quickly as he was able while maintaining his caution and his runic defenses.  Screaming alternately filled the air and cut out unexpectedly, and no sign of either missing mage was found.  The figure Leon could see in the darkness likewise appeared and disappeared, and always unnerved him considerably.

Through the halls they moved, the darkness constantly pressing inward.  If their defenses dropped for even a moment… they had Nara and Serena frequently reminding them what their fate would be.  Soon enough, they reached a staircase that descended even deeper into the earth, and though all of his instincts were screaming at him to abandon this endeavor and turn around, to focus on the small chance that they could get the ark repaired in the next day or so, and leave this mess for the Grave Wardens, he kept putting one foot in front of the other, kept pressing on, kept moving closer and closer to the source of all this profane magic.

As they descended, the intensity of the darkness magic increased in waves.  Thrice Leon had to stop and reinforce their runic defenses as the darkness threatened to overwhelm them.  From what he could sense from outside the barrier—which was very little given how the darkness seemed to eat his magic—something was building.

“Leon…” Xaphan whispered as they reached the end of the staircase, though they had further to descend.  “We may have less time than I estimated.”

Leon’s blood ran cold at that admission.  “How much?” he asked.

“I estimated three days at the most.  We’d be lucky if we had that much.”

“How much?” Leon repeated, his voice straining with stress and the primal fear of the malevolent dark.

“Hours,” Xaphan stated.  “Two or three.”

Leon felt his heart plummet into his feet.  “Fuck,” he whispered.  “You’re sure?” he croaked.

’You’re not just saying that to get us to turn around?’

The follow-up question went unstated, but Leon thought Xaphan knew what he was asking anyway.

Xaphan, the normally irreverent demon, gave Leon one of the most serious looks Leon had ever seen.  “I’m serious,” he said.

Leon nodded.  He shared one look with Xaphan, then pressed on.  Without a word, Xaphan followed him, deeper into the tunnels, closer to the deepest chamber in the tunnels.

As they moved, the figures that Leon thought he could see in the darkness grew a little more defined, while at the same time, the darkness-stained walls seemed to press in, bringing back unpleasant memories of delving beneath the surface of Aeterna during the Serpentine Isles campaign.

The screaming grew more frequent, while in those times when it faded, Leon thought he could hear whispering, just quiet enough that it cost him some mental bandwidth instinctively trying to listen in on what was being said, but never parsing even a single word.

Leon’s paranoia ticked higher as they kept going.  He knew that the Primal Devil was watching them—the Thunderbird had said so, and they were getting closer to the ritual that threatened to free it.  How could they not be monitored?

But nothing was jumping out to stop them.  No monsters, no great floods of inhuman power.  Just the darkness, pulsing with greater frequency and regularity.  Every pulse hammered on Leon’s eardrums, spurring him on, reminding him that the universe itself could depend on his actions over the next couple hours.

Soon enough, they drew close to the final chamber.  Long hallways and several flights of stairs had been traversed with neither Leon nor Xaphan saying a word, the crushing silence of the darkness broken only by the screaming and the whispering and the pulsing.

Finally, they arrived in the antechamber, the final step before they reached the chamber at the very bottom of the tunnels.  On the opposite side of the antechamber was a set of monolithic double doors made of stone not yet completely stained by darkness, with smooth edges that hinted at great age.  Unlike nearly all of the other doors in the tower complex, above or below, these doors looked like they were so physically secure that Leon wouldn’t be able to so easily blast his way through.

Here, the darkness was most intense, requiring a great amount of power from Leon to keep the runes active.  More distracting, however, was that the antechamber was not nearly as empty as the rest of the underground halls had been—bones and blood littered the floor, while the dark figures Leon could still just barely make out in the darkness contorted in silent agony.

More pressingly, though he’d opted to keep going, Nara and Serena’s screaming had never abated, and now sounded like they were coming from beyond the great stone doors.

“Xaphan…” Leon breathed, not daring to do any more than whisper.  “Ready…?”

The fire that covered Xaphan’s body momentarily spiked in intensity as the demon readied himself for battle.

“Yes,” he crackled, his voice matching Leon’s in quiet conviction.  “Let’s finish this.  Let’s poke the eye of this damn Devil.”

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