Vampiric Ascension-Chapter 25: Arrival

We were drifting in a dreary, demon infested sea; but we paid that no heed.

The sound of our passionate mating filled the Uttarian boat. My Vampiric body would simply not tire or relent, and so I continued to plow into her with a great rapacity.

In this place, no soul could bother us.

Fey responded to me fervently. Gyrating her hips to better match my thrust. Dragging my lips onto hers whenever she moaned.

Exploring the cavern of my mouth with her tongue and mixing her saliva with mine.

Hours passed us by as we continued to mate. By the time we had fully given vent to our bestial list, the velvet matress Fey had conjured was completely destroyed.

The Sea of death was filled with Fey’s comfortable and carefree moan

Her tempting body had collapsed onto mine. And her shapely legs were intertwined with my own.

Her eyes were closed— eyelashes occasionally fluttering from time to time.

Her lips were pressed against my chest as if she were kissing me.

I would have preferred for time to freeze in that moment so we could stay like this forever, but then my eyes fluttered open— I was confronted with the unfortunate reality.:

We had arrived at our destination!

It was just an island — but one so horrible that any one who journeyed here would undoubtedly come out insane.

The landscape shimmered like an optical illusion. I spotted several behemoths with monstrous features in the distance— creatures so big I could feel the tremors in space as they walked.

There was a vast moutain range embedded deep into the islands core.

It took me only short while to realize that these were the same mountains I had seen in the vision Fey had shown me.

Besides the monumental mountains, every thing on the island was always shifting.

The landmass itself was constantly breaking apart and reforming.

The monsters ferociously fought among themselves— tearing eachother apart mercilessly.

Blood gushed out in geysers and organs were strewn wantonly across the ground.

The scene would be intolerable to even the stoniest of hearts.

Both I and Fey rose. She waved her palms and a dark gray fog covered our bodies.

When it dissipated, our clothes had materialized on our bodies.

Then I asked Fey."And how were you planning to defeat them?"

"Defeat?" Fey laughed. "A single one of these giants is enough to dehstroy all the seven clans of Nocturnis. There is no power in existence capable of defeating them.

But I did have a plan to get past them."

"How?"I asked.

Fey smiled mischievously at me."You, Mason.

You were my plan.

I divined in a vision that they would refrain from harming you.

I couldnt understand why or how.

And divination has never been completely reliable magic.

What I saw could have been a product of my desperation back then."

I glanced wistfully at monsters."In other words you have no clue if this is actually going to work?"

I looked at her. I could she was reluctant to carry on:

But she knew I would never turn back— not when Hera’s fate depended on me.

"I can’t believe I’m actually going through with this,"I grumbled.

Fey sighed."And I cant believe Im letting you. But this is our only shot. If anything bad happens, ill be right by your side— ready to die with you."

"That’s never going to happen."I promised her as her palm slid into mine.

We gave eachother one last endearing look before leaping onto the island . . .

The demons were the strangest creatured I ever encountered. Most looked humanoid, but emaciated —like torture victims, with gaping wide wounds bleeding a dirty black fluid.

Others had horrendous insectoid featurs: hollow, compound, honeycomb eyes, and poison drenched mandibles.

I knew from the close call with Fey that I didn’t want those things anywhere near me.

The most horrifying of them was just moving piles of rotting flesh that kept on spurting a gooey greenish black fluid.

The demons fought in chaotic hordes across the dark world.

One demon had a body not unlike that of a hippopotamus, but where it’s head should have been were just a writhing mass of vuscous tentacles.

It let out a strange wail— almost infantile —and leaped towards a demon with arachnid festures.

It’s tentacles— despite their fleshy look— ripped into its prey like Iron hooks.

Blood flew, flesh tore, and bones crunched.

When it was done, It threw back it’s head another voilent peal— tentacles squirming.

It’s prey was now a mass of undulating flesh riddled with gushing holes.

At least everal dozen slaughtering like the one we jad just witnessed were taking place all around us.

And despite the constant death, new demons from god knows where kept joining the bloodbath.

But amazingly, inexplicably, none of them attacked us.

Occasionally a demon’s eyes would snap towards Fey and snarl, but then it’s frenzied gaze would drift towards me, and

it would suddenly lose it’s interest in disemboweling us.

As we strode along, I became more and more aware of the thick aura of resentment and death suspending in the air.

A faint cold cruel whisper spoke in my ear. It was a dark, ancient, presence from before the time of man.

’Come forth, little endless.’ It crooned.

Evil and Malice palpable in its voice.

I turned to ask Fey if she’d also heard the strange voice, but I found her still regarding the oddly peaceable demons with awe.

Clearly it was just me.

After a walking while, I realized everything in the nether deathlands was gravitating toawards the center.

I could feel the same force tugging at the atoms of my body, and Fey’s dark grimace told me that she could feel it too.

The landscape only got more twisted and unfriendly the father we traveled inland: Canyons where a multitude of demons gored eachother to death, geysers of that erupted with streams of molten destruction, and barren fields eternally burning with dark fire.

We to a field filled with craters, peppered with what looked smoky black tendrils. They wriggled and flailed about.

And when the caught an unlucky demon, they latched on it tightly and began to squeeze.

The demon would struggle fiercely, but in a matter of seconds it would shrivel into a desiccated husk, which would then crumble like sand into the wind.

Rather than demons, these creatures seemd to be just mindless amalgamations of voilence and death. I doubted very much that they would ignore me the same way the demons had.

’This way. . . little hero.’ The ancient voice trilled— still heavy with sadistic glee.

My eyes immediately a found a path I had been blind to before.

It narrowly snaked through the tendrils of darkness. All the demons who coincidentally stood on that path remained unharmed.

It was only when they veered off that a tendril would devour them.

’This way.’ I said as I pulled Fey along the oath. She glanced at me— her gaze a mixture of surprise and admiration as I led her through.

As I’d hoped, the shadowy tendrils stayed clear of us while we carefully made our way through.

The path led us up a hill until we came across a dark cavern.

’Wait...’ Fey warned.

’I hear footsteps,’ She said. ’Human footsteps.’

’A lost soul in need of a rescue?,’ I wondered wistfully.

’Not in this place,’ she sighed.

’I suggest we go around it.’ Fey continued. ’There is magic radaiting from this place is odd. . .strange, ancient magic.’

I didnt respond to her immediately.

I don’t how, but I was certain the voice I heard came from this cavern.

Then I heard something — a chilling whisper in the darkness of the cavern.

The whispers collected into a chant— to faint for me to make out the words.

’Mason, we should le –’

’Shh.’ I raised a palm.

The voice was becoming emboldened, a murmuring, sinister voice from deep, deep within the dark cavern.

Fey looked terrified. ’That spell. . . It sounds like–’

My muscles tensed and I crouched defensively over Fey. I stretched out my palm and a ball of volatile blue fire roared above it.

The wicked voice seemed to stall, but only just for an instant, before continuing its chant.

I was close to making out the words of its chant now, ancient, archaic words, older even than any language. I knew immediately...

’Dark Magic,’ I said.

’We have to leave now,’ Fey yelled as she grabbed me.

Immediately, we turned away from the cavern and broke into a run.

But my legs felt like jelly. The wind roared against my momentum, fighting every step I took.

As if it had sensed our escape, the voice got angrier and louder behind us.

A cold vaccuum of wind dragged as backwards, as if the the dark cavern were inhaling.

I fought for as long as I could, but it wasnt before my feet gave out, slipping against the caked ground.

Fey caught me, defiantly striving forward against the cursed wind.