We marched for a week, maybe more and made camp in a place of desolation. The land was barren; it was hard to know how I was faring as I could feel darkness itch at my skin. I was understanding that serve Darkness servants brought a sensation
I was not sure where on the map we were, however, even with the shelter of my shield and a scroll that covered it making it a perfect shelter for me and Comforter in all his gilded armour kept vigilant watch over me as I slumbered but it seemed sleep had a hard time finding me.
I awoke to crows cackling in the early morning twilight, they were encircling a door of some kind beneath us, because as the sun appeared I saw a stairway that led down to a cavernous pit.
"You must descend Rune. Everything you need is in you and in you. Courage is not found by not having fear, but having fear latched into your very core and going though the passage of darkness anyway." Comforter said following me down very close behind.
I could smell something foul that smelled of sulfur and flames, I was unsure of where I was venturing to but the darkness moved a living being in water.
I could only see because of Comforter emitting light from the core from within himself and without him I would not have been able to know that I had flesh.
I rounded the steps and saw more souls hanging upside down in pure agony. A fire burned underneath them some were already fileted by the flames the half burned citizens of Nod were in cages. They kept muttering things and then I saw the beast guarding it.
"My name is Regret. I am the serpent and fire breather of lies." The snake said his tongue was slashing about. I did not have to look hard to see the pouches of venom that hung from under his throat. The poison burned though everything
I saw him whisper things to those barely clinging to life. I heard the hissing. "The Author of Life does not love you." His words burned through the souls with no place of escape. He took enjoyment torturing them with no relent.
The entire floor was molten sulfur and I was utterly afraid of burning alive. I was trying to navigate a battle plan but it seemed an impossible fate. Then I realized my weight could be held by my shield.
Liar was distracted by those he had in cages and enjoyed lowering the souls into the molten liquid laughing as they screamed. He forgot about me. Father used to tell me, "Liars forget friends and everyone becomes their foes. Ignore a liar and avoid a snare." He would always say, which is why Father always made such good business alignments.
I used my sword as an ore and Comforter flew around me though not sure how he was able to do that. Yet, this was not the time to ask about such trivialities. I moved swiftly to the bank where he had slithered up over a cage spewing his lies to his capture.
He had completely forgotten about me for several moments. My boots made no sound ever so grateful for them in all my life. I used my shield to ensure he did not see me at all. I crept slowly like a full moon over a lake. I made not make a sound as I trekked closer to him.
The snake I realized had a massive opening and there was zero skin over his heart. There was a gaping hole and black smoke came through and the smell was putrid.
When I had climbed above the cages I swung from chain to chain I wondered if he could hear the clinking of metal above him. However, it seemed he was tantalized with his victim. Ignoring everything around him. His tongue entered the ear of a girl who was screaming with no relent in sight.
I repeated the word I saw on the back of my shield. "Truth shall set you free." I whispered the words slightly under my breath barely breathing.
I climbed to a cage and watched the rhythm of the cages like a pendulum going back and forth until I timed it just right. I leapt off the one cage and hid under the one in which his victim dwelled.
His body twisted around the post, his head fully engaged but he was neglecting his torso and let it hang with glibness and ignorance. Liars are the most ignorant to their weaknesses.
I slashed his body in half and had he slipped to the sulfur below I got a perfect aim for his head. Slashed my sword into his eye and then released my sword as he plummeted into the sulfur.
Comforter released all the prisoners as I took shelter at the top of the rotunda. I was confused. How could Comforter be sure I would live through all of these trials when I had come so closely to death.
I was gasping for air. I collapsed, I was drained and it seemed there was nothing left. The nations left their cages thanking me, and praising the Author of Light. Yet, I did not feel like celebrating, it was as if each trial I was doing was eating a piece of my soul through exhaustion.
We did not travel on. We stayed in that place for several days until my strength came back. Comforter called Nim helpers to nourish me back to health. I was struggling to eat after this trial and with each servant of darkness I defeated it was though Darkness was clawing at my soul and causing me doubts I thought I had silenced in the library of Utmost Wisdom anchored within the Monastery.
Comforter held me for two weeks in a coma like state trying to heal my heart and mind. There was something that struck me harder than the killing of the servants of Darkness, it was seeing citizens of Nod in fetters; not one book could have prepared me for such a plight that clawed at the deepest question of my heart, how could more not be submitting to love and the Author of Love, knowing this is where it leads? I was not sure if Comforter would have an answer to this question.
Comforter observed my pain closely over those nights. "Rune, when you free them here in this realm you are keeping their souls safe so they can go to Paradise when their coffins call them home. They can never return to the cages once they submit their lives to the Author of Life, keeping a mansion for them in Paradise." He explained when his words hit my soul, it was the joy my heart needed not from that of a flask, but a knowing my soul could anchor to. I was ready for the rest of the trials to set the captives free.