He finally came to a halt, judging the distance to be sufficient. No one would see them out here. With a wisp of aether, he drew Nightmare from the teardrop necklace. The direwolf materialized beside him, shaking out his dark fur and sniffing the cool night air, his crimson eyes gleaming with anticipation.
'Can I also come out?' Colossus asked through Link.
"Sure," Seth said aloud, a faint smile touching his lips. He brought the massive scorpion forth, and Colossus appeared with a soft thud. His stony carapace looked almost black under the rising moon as he clicked his mandibles, seemingly happy to be hanging with them.
Seth reached into his Endless Pouch and retrieved the ornate quartz jar containing the Tears of Ebon Snakes. It was cold to the touch, and the liquid of absolute nothingness within drank up the moonlight.
Repeating the process from the Brown-Peak Mountains, he placed his palm flat against the smooth surface of the jar before focusing to draw a stream of aether from his Well and channel it into Nightmare's teardrop. Seconds ticked by. The whole jar flickered, then in an instant, it simply… vanished.
Without an ounce of hesitation, Nightmare moved back into the necklace, and a second later his irritation came through their bond. Seth could see the direwolf inside his pocket-realm inches away from the jar, which now stood in the center of his den.
'I barely feel any Darkness affinity at all,' Nightmare growled.
'It's not Gold-Tier like the Heart of Brown-Peak Mountains,' Seth retorted. 'You cannot expect the same amount of aet—'
Before he could finish, Nightmare sprang forward inside and struck the quartz jar with his paw. The enchanted container shattered into a thousand glittering shards.
Seth's eyes widened in shock. 'Why the hell did you do that?'
The direwolf's response came not in words, but in raw sensation.
The moment the vessel broke, the Tears of Ebon Snakes were released and the liquid unfurled into a dense, inky gas that spread through the den like a living thing. The oil-slick cloud of pure shadow clung to the stone and ground, transforming the space into a sanctuary of absolute Darkness.
Through Link, Seth could feel a tidal wave of cold aether surge outward, Darkness in its purest form so intense and overwhelming that he gasped, staggered by how suffocating it was.
The jar wasn't necessary in the Pocket-Realm, Seth realized as the smoke remained in place inside the den.
The container was probably used to keep the Essence stable in the outside world. In an adaptive domain of a pocket-realm, it could be free. A moment later, Nightmare moved out of the teardrop, trotted right up to Seth, and stared at him, a low growl rumbling in his chest.
'Better. Now the spell-shard,' he said. '...please.'
Rolling his eyes at the direwolf's impatience, Seth reached into his Endless Pouch and pulled out the jagged spell-shard, which he then tossed up into the air. Nightmare snapped it up with a flash of his yellowed teeth, crushing the obsidian shard between his jaws.
Through their bond, Seth immediately felt the foreign energy flood into Nightmare's body. New grooves began to carve themselves alongside the existing ones in his Well, interlocking into a balanced system. The process unfolded steadily with a natural rhythm. The moment the final network took shape, shimmering with a dark glow, Seth examined it; it rivaled the complexity and size of Chains of Darkness, Nightmare's other Epic-grade Iron spell.
'Congratulations,' Colossus said, his voice filled with a simple and honest admiration for his packmate.
Nightmare, whose body still thrummed with the residue of the new spell's aether, dipped his head to acknowledge the scorpion's words. Then, his crimson eyes locked on the dark, endless plains ahead of them. 'Let's find something to test this on.'
"Alright," Seth agreed readily.
With that, Seth moved Colossus back into the teardrop necklace to keep the massive scorpion out of sight, then began to run through the tall grass with Nightmare. They didn't have to travel far to find prey. In a shallow basin where the grass grew shorter, a small herd of creatures was grazing under the moonlight. They looked like oversized rabbits, with powerful hind legs, long, tufted ears, and a pair of curved fangs jutting from their upper jaws. From the faint aether signature drifting from them, Seth could tell they were Copper-Tier.
So did Nightmare.
Not waiting for a command, the direwolf dissolved into Illusionary Emptiness, his form vanishing completely into the shadows. Seth watched as Nightmare crept closer to a lone hare strayed from the herd as the creature nibbled on a patch of tough roots.
A ripple in the air was the only warning before the direwolf's attack.
Nightmare burst from his invisibility with a predatory grace, landing silently in front of the creature before immediately pushing aether into Mantle of Terror's freshly carved grooves. The spell flared to life and caused a wave of pure, unadulterated dread to pulse outward from the direwolf.
The hare froze mid-step, its fur bristling and its dark eyes going wide with fear. Its limbs locked, trembling violently as it stared up at the direwolf. An invisible pressure clung to the air, dense and oppressive. It pinned the creature in place as if roots had spread from under its paws.
From the edge of the basin, Seth watched in silence, his breath caught in his throat. He stood just beyond the aura's reach, but its chilling echo rippled through him. Thanks to Link, though, it had no hold on him—just as Nightmare and Colossus could see through Night Veil's fog whenever he used that.
Seizing the moment, Seth cast Intermediate Identify on the direwolf's prey.
For several long seconds, the hare remained frozen in place. Finally, some deep-seated survival instinct broke through the spell's hold. With a pathetic squeak it managed to twitch, turn, and push the ground with its powerful hind legs.
Of course, trying to escape was pointless.
The moment it moved, Nightmare pounced and closed his jaw around the creature's neck. Shadow Bite's corrosive black smoke then devoured its flesh for a brief instant before the direwolf crushed the creature's windpipe and ended its life.
Seth walked over, glancing at the small, furry carcass. "Is it the same spell the Inferno Bear used on us back in the Wicked Forest?"
Nightmare shook his head. 'No. This spell is far stronger.'
Seth rolled his eyes. 'Alright.'
There was certainly more than one spell that could induce paralyzing fear, so odds were the direwolf was right. Especially since Mantle of Terror was a Darkness spell, and the Inferno Bear that had pursued them across the forest was a Fire-type beast.
"The effect is probably this intense because of the difference in Tier," Seth mused aloud.
'No,' Nightmare retorted, a note of pride in his tone. 'It's because of my high Darkness Affinity.'
Seth raised an eyebrow while readying Intermediate Identify. "Oh, really?"
His attention then zeroed in on the new spell.
The debuff is more powerful than when the merchant gave this to me, Seth thought. And same for the range. But it isn't a massive jump, though.
'See? Told you,' Nightmare exclaimed.
"Yeah, yeah," Seth answered before looking at the amount of aether consumed per minute. But the cost is incapacitating. It's using nearly a tenth of his Well every minute.
"Anyway," Seth then said, pushing himself to his feet. "Let's get back. I've gotta be well rested for tomorrow's fights and I still need to find that inn."
'No, let's ambush another beast before going back,' Nightmare protested. 'An Iron one. To see how it works against a real threat.'
Seth let out a long, weary sigh. "Fine."
They came across a Low-Iron Flurry Jaguar not long after—a lean, carnivore beast known for its incredible speed. Nightmare launched his ambush just as before, activating Mantle of Terror the instant he appeared. But this time, the Iron-Tier creature only froze for a second before breaking free of the paralysis. Even so, the aura still clung to it, sapping a small portion of its speed.
Thanks to the gap in their attributes, Nightmare nearly brought the beast down on his own before Seth or Colossus could even enter the fight.
Once Seth had harvested its beaststone, he moved back the direwolf and scorpion into the teardrop necklace and returned to Oskon under the full light of the moon. The capital's noble districts, so pristine and orderly by day, had transformed into a bewildering maze of shadows. The identical-looking manors and manicured gardens offered few landmarks, and Seth soon found himself hopelessly lost.
He stalked down a deserted cobblestone street and passed a brightly lit inn. The building's windows glowed with warmth and laughter, but the sign read the Silver Flagon—not his destination. The moment he was about to turn down another street, he heard a low, menacing voice coming from a narrow alley on his left.
"—us the pouch, kid. No one has to get hurt."
Curious, Seth slowed and peered into the gloom. Three burly men, their faces obscured by the darkness, had a young boy pinned against the wall. The boy couldn't have been more than seventeen; he was frail and short, with a mop of black hair falling over dark eyes. A faint, X-shaped scar was etched onto his left cheek. Despite being outnumbered and cornered, the boy wasn't crying or begging and instead simply stared at the ground, avoiding the men's gaze.
"No," he said, his voice barely a whisper in the night. "I don't want to."
One of the men, the biggest of the bunch, immediately chuckled. "You don't want to?" He then took a step closer, his hand reaching for the sword at his belt. "I don't think you get a choice in the matter—"
"Is there a problem here?"
All three men spun around at Seth's voice as he stepped into the alley from the main road. His core stirred in his chest, and the untamed, predatory energy he'd been trying so hard to suppress since the incident earlier with Director Chester now bled into the air around him.
He didn't raise his voice—he didn't need to. The oppressive edge of his aura did all the talking; he watched the color drain from the three men's faces.
"N-no, sir," the thick-necked one stammered, moving back instinctively.
"Yeah," one of the others added, already turning away. "We were just about to leave. Let's go."
The trio of muggers didn't wait for a reply and scrambled out of the alley, disappearing into the night. Seth watched them go and took a deep breath to calm himself as his core settled. He turned to the young boy, who was now brushing himself off calmly.
"You alright?" Seth asked.
The boy looked up at him, and for the first time, Seth saw a flicker of something other than shyness in his eyes: a spark of annoyance. "Yeah…" he answered. "But I didn't need your help. I was fine."
Seth blinked, a little thrown off, then stared at the frail youngster for a moment. "Uh…okay," he finally said, unsure what else to say.
The boy gave him a curt nod, then spun around and walked deeper into the alley without any hesitation, as if he wasn't worried about running into other thugs.
'He seems strong,' Nightmare said through Link, examining the young man through Seth's eyes.
'Strong? Really?' Seth retorted internally.
'Yeah. He just acts that way to not get any attention. '
Seth watched the boy disappear into the dark. 'Nah, I think you could be wrong on this one.'
A moment later, he shook his head with a snort and returned to the main street.
It took him another twenty minutes, but in the end he finally found it—a large, well-kept building with a beautifully carved sign shaped like a griffin, its wings and mane gleaming with gold leaf. The Gilded Griffin.
Seth stepped through the heavy doors, headed straight to the front desk to grab his room key, then made his way upstairs and collapsed into bed.
Sunlight streamed through the tall glass window, rousing Seth from a deep sleep. He groaned and sat up, rubbing the haze from his eyes. He barely took a moment to examine the luxurious room before pushing himself to his feet and walking over to the full-length mirror propped against the wall.
His reflection stared back—those golden eyes that had caused him nothing but trouble. Fortunately, that wouldn't be the case today.
Time to move.
Seth retrieved the small wooden box from his Endless Pouch and took the slender vial inside before uncorking it. Without hesitation, he tipped his head back and drank the emerald liquid. It tasted like mint and… rotten beef.
He watched himself in the mirror as the vibrant gold of his irises was replaced by a deep, vivid green, almost indistinguishable from the potion's color. He blinked, unsure if he liked the new look or not.
Alright, let's go.
(UPDATED):
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21 24!! advanced chapters on !