It took me three days to reach this altar — three days of tearing through monsters and shadows, three days of no sleep and no wasted breath. Years I spent buried in scraps of half-burned records, dead languages, and rumours spoken by men who never lived long enough to see it themselves — all of it led me here.
The Altar of Erebus. Hidden so deep in this cursed forest that even the monsters avoid it like a plague. And now it stands in front of me, just as the last whisper said it would — black stone slick with age, humming with a hunger that feels like my own.
I've waited too long for this. I won't let distance, monsters, or anyone get in my way enough to keep me from what's mine.
I spent years chasing after shadows and now the real darkness finally opens its jaws for me. Let it. I'm ready to step inside.
"Nox. It's time." With this we both can achieve our purpose of coming here. All I need to do is perform a ritual to take these chains off Nox.
All those years, I had Nox. He's been a shadow, a whisper, unable to take his true form. I spent years on the battlefield with him. Just the two of us.
"Master, you've found my altar. It took you nine years to find but you did. As promised, I'll help you accomplish your objective."
I stepped closer, brushing my finger over it, and it pulsed. The air got heavier, and darkness kept getting deeper, inching closer, hoping, desiring to swallow me whole. It can hope all it wants but the one who'll be swallowing it will be me.
"You know what to do." I nodded in response. He taught me. Just like how he taught me how to fight on the battlefield. Despite my protests, he somehow became my mentor.
I draw the dagger without hesitation and drag the blade deep across my palm. Blood spills hot and thick, running over the stone, sinking into every crack like it's always belonged there. I watch it drip down the face of the tomb — a river of red feeding something that's been starving for far too long.
I offer more. Vials of fairy blood, monster blood, the trophies I've kept locked away for this one moment. Years of hunting, harvesting, and hoarding all poured out at the altar's feet like a promise I'm finally ready to keep.
The darkness around me pulls tighter, coiling like a living thing. The runes carved into the altar blaze to life, sick and greedy. Above me, the fog parts— and there it is. The blood moon. Hanging so close I swear I can taste metal on my tongue. It calls for something, a name half-formed on the wind, too old for me to grasp— but Nox hears it. He answers it.
I feel the chain linking us together jerk, shudder, then snap. The chain's links crack one by one—each break a roar that echoes through the trees. I feel him swell behind me, power spilling out in waves that rattle my bones. Every chain I forced on him was carved with my blood and my will, but now they give way like rotten thread.
Just before the last one broke, the light hit me — blinding, searing through the black like the world tearing open. I can't see him anymore. I can only feel what's coming next. And I know, deep down, there's no going back.
As the light cleared up, the figure standing in front of me shocked me. Never would I have imagined or thought that one standing in front of me at this very moment was someone whom everyone feared.
"I'm finally free, finally after a century I'm free. Somehow it's strange. Something is different. Why are my surroundings so tall?"
I shouldn't laugh. It's not polite to laugh at someone. But I can't hold it anymore. I burst out laughing. "Aren't you cute, Nox. If I remember right you said you were a fearsome being. I can see how fearsome you were exactly. Tell me, how exactly did you kill people?"
He was angry and in utter disbelief. Yet I continued to laugh. "Hahaha, laugh all you want. Now that I'm free. I can easily kill. Young lady."
"And how exactly do you plan to kill me? With that cuteness of yours?" I laugh. But somewhere under it, something burns hot and ugly. My heart hammers so loudly I can't hear anything else. Every beat feels like a fist against my ribs, every breath like shards of glass in my throat. My skull feels like it's splitting open from the inside out.
"Hey, kid. You okay?" Nox's voice cuts through the dark, but it's distant, smothered under the pounding in my ears. I can't make out the words — just the shape of them, pointless and far away.
Something — someone — claws at the edges of my mind. I feel it scraping along my bones, prying at the cracks I've spent years welding shut with blood and ruin. It wants in. It wants me.
Let it try. I didn't drag my soul through the filth, didn't poison my veins, didn't chase shadows for years just to hand myself over to some hungry darkness that thinks it can wear my skin.
It can tear at my mind all it wants. I'll tear back twice as hard. This body is mine. This blood is mine. And if the darkness wants a fight, I'll rip it apart from the inside out until it remembers who holds the leash.
"Get the hell out of my body and my mind. Before I show you how merciless I can be." I force it out as I dig my nails into my palm — feel the raw sting of skin breaking open again, fresh blood mixing with the filth already smeared across my hands. The pain cuts through the pounding in my head, sharp enough to anchor me for half a breath.
Nox's laughter flickers at the edge of my thoughts — low, pleased. "That's it, Master. Show it who you are."
The thing inside me snarls. I feel that cold, writhing coil trying to drown my mind in its hunger. It wants to be fed. It wants to wear me like a mask.
I steady myself on the altar stone. "You want to break me? Get in line."
My vision flickers, moonlight, blood, the forest pressed in too close, breathing with me. I drag air into my lungs and force the fire back into my veins. My teeth grind so hard I taste iron.
"Try it again," I hissed into the dark, voice cracked raw. "Trying to take what's not yours. And I'll show what's left of you when I'm done."
I can feel it hesitate just for a moment— before it lunges again, deeper this time. Good. Let it come. I'm done running. I didn't drag my chaos this far to bow now.
I am destruction itself. And if it wants to swallow me whole, it better choke.
This time, when it realised it couldn't swallow me, it couldn't force itself down my throat and wear my skin. It did something I never expected. It started crying. Not just whimpering, but full, ugly sobs that scraped against my skull like rusted nails.
To say I was stunned doesn't even scratch it. This thing, this scrap of ancient darkness that just tried to rip me apart, was now blubbering like a child begging forgiveness.
"I'm sorry, please… please forgive me. I felt my master's presence…"
The sound of its voice grated on my bones, high, wet and pitiful. I wanted to tear its throat out just to silence the noise. I nearly did — until Nox spoke.
"Lux," he said, voice edged with something I couldn't place surprise, maybe even… warmth. He looked at the creature like you'd look at an old friend meeting them after years, "You're still alive."
Those words hit harder than any spell. Lux—that name crawled up from the depths of old texts I'd half-forgotten. A bat hybrid—a relic of something that shouldn't still exist. I'd read about them in brittle, censored histories. Never thought I'd stand in front of one.
And now it was draped over Nox's face, wings wrapped around him like a shroud.
"Master," it sobbed, voice muffled in his hair. "Master, where were you? You said you'd come back for me— you promised. I waited. I waited until I couldn't feel you anymore… so I went to sleep. I waited… I waited…"
It sounded like madness given wings. And all I could think was how easy it would be to snap its neck while it wept. Nox didn't push it away. He just stood there, half-shrouded in Lux's trembling wings, that strange flicker in his eyes I'd never seen before softer, almost… fond. It made my heart ache.
"Look at you," Nox murmured, his voice low. "Sleeping in the void like a good little stray. Still crying like you did back then."
Lux only sobbed harder at that, the sound wet and raw against his neck. I could feel the air shift — the forest leaning closer, as if it, too, remembered this thing's name and didn't know whether to bow or run.
I tightened my grip on the dagger still slick with my blood. The scent of iron mixed with the salt stink of Lux's tears. It turned my stomach.
"Nox," I said, my voice colder than the stones beneath our feet. "Get it off you. Now."
Lux froze, sniffling. Slowly, it peeled its wings back, one trembling joint at a time, until its wide, glassy eyes landed on me. Its fangs poked from its mouth — a creature out of some half-forgotten nightmare.
"Who… who is she?" Lux rasped, voice trembling like old silk. It pressed closer to Nox, claws clinging to his shoulder like a child hiding behind a door.
Nox's grin turned sharp again, all fondness snapping back into that smile I knew too well.
"She's the one who broke my chains," he said, voice dripping with amusement. "My master now."
Lux's eyes darted to me, wide and wet and far too alive for my liking. Something like a shudder passed through its wings.
Then it whispered — too soft, but I heard it all the same:
"Then I… I am hers too, aren't I?"
I almost laughed. Almost.
Instead, I stepped forward, dagger glinting in my palm. Before we could continue, the flare signalled the end of the practical. I only had a few seconds before I would be teleported back to the quick. "Hide both of you," I said, and the very next moment, I was at the training ground.
"Congratulations to those who made it through the end of the practical." Esther said. "I applaud you and your courage for making it through that treacherous forest."
There were only a handful of students who completed it. I recognise a few faces, especially those fools who tried to establish their authority. They make me laugh even now. I've completed a big hurdle. And the next one was deemed even bigger. The Imperial Academy does not allow one to drop out. Since I had to enrol for the sole purpose of finding the Altar of Erebus. I now have to see it to the end.
"Your result will be announced at the Orientation. Be prepared." Esther said as she turned her attention towards me. "Miss Florence, the Headmaster has called you to his office."
I wonder why he called for me. I've heard whispers about that peculiar ability of his — the one that lets him see through people, peel them open without touching a blade. Is that it? Did he summon me because he's already seen what I'm really here for? Because he knows exactly why I enrolled in this academy in the first place?
"I understand, please lead the way, Professor Esther." She was surprised by my response. I bet she expected me to act like an idiot who would fumble and get nervous at the very mention of the headmaster.
"You're not scared, Miss Florence. Most students are scared of the headmaster."
"Why should I be scared of the headmaster? It's not like I did something wrong." I asked nonchalantly without looking at her. After that, she didn't say a single word. I was thankful for it. I didn't want her to hear yapping all the way to the east wing.
The headmaster's office was located at the top of the east wing. And we were currently in the north. It takes thirty minutes to get to the headmaster's office from where we were.
She knocked on the door before informing him about our arrival, "Headmaster Damian, I brought Miss Florence as you requested."
A pause, then his voice, smooth and commanding from the other side. "Send her in."
To be continued.