Darkness and Hellfire

"Something's watching me." Isaac whispered as his eyes followed the direction his Polarity Sense was whispering to him.

"How far? Power level?" Lenna instantly questioned.

Isaac's eyes suddenly widened in surprise. "It's gone." He told Lenna. "Whatever it was, it knew when I noticed it and vanished. It's more dark than Fen." He explained. Fen L'Vore was a shadow sorcerer at the absolute pinnacle of what they could achieve. If something was more dark than him, it meant that it was not a mortal and thus did not have the same limitations on power level that a mortal soul had.

"Should we be more careful?" Lenna wondered. "Do you think it will come after you?"

Isaac nodded slowly. "It almost seemed hesitant, but if it realized that I can't feel where it is anymore, it might just show up looking to have a chat and a snack, maybe not in that order." Isaac frowned and then grunted as he forced himself onto his feet. 'Shamesh, tell Edward that there is something as dark as me on a level lower than us in the Innerworld. I couldn't tell quite how deep it was, but the only tunnels I know of that connect how deep it was to how deep we are, are the ones the Tunnel Horrors made trying to eat me last time.' Isaac sent towards his familiar through their link. 'It vanished as soon as it realized that I noticed it. I don't know if it is going to try to hunt me or if it decided to leave.'

"Are you letting Edward know?" Lenna asked her husband. She could tell by the faroff look on his face that his mind was elsewhere, probably talking to Shamesh.

Isaac nodded. "Yes." He confirmed.

'Understood, my Lord, and be safe.' Shamesh replied to Isaac's messages.

"Shamesh is going to fill in Edward. If for some reason whatever it is decides it wants to eat me, the caravan might be toast." Isaac commented. "We can try to lure it away from the wagons but if I don't know what it is, I can't be certain that it won't plow through the caravan on purpose."

Lenna nodded in agreement. "Stay shadow-cloaked, I'll deal with our mortals." She told her husband. It was a lot for Lenna to voluntarily take on the task of dealing with people in a nonviolent manner and Isaac's smile in thanks told her that he was well aware of how much she loathed the task. It was at that time that one of the guards stationed at the front of the caravan worked up the courage to go out to meet Isaac and Lenna.

"Um, excuse me, my Lady?" The guard tentatively spoke as soon as he had stepped into the cavern.

"Yes?" Lenna simply replied. It was just better for everyone if everyone else around her did almost all of the talking.

"W-Where is the Lord of Darkness?" The guard questioned.

"Around but not seen." Lenna explained.

The guard waited a moment for Lenna to continue to elaborate but received nothing. "I see, well, I guess I don't see, but I understand." The guard rambled to which Lenna just nodded. "Is it safe to proceed?"

Lenna's gaze panned the small cavern. "Clean up the corpses, strip their armor but preserve their dignity. Let the snakes, spiders, and wolves strip that from them along with the meat on their bones." Lenna instructed the guard.

The guard nodded in understanding of his new orders. "After that, are we going to proceed or should we wait here?" The guard asked. He had apparently been the one tasked by the lead merchant to see what their protectors had in mind for the rest of the day.

Stolen novel; please report.

Lenna nodded slowly. "Yes, but do one thing at a time." She replied.

The guard saluted her. "Understood, my Lady." He then turned around and left to get help carrying out his assigned task.

"Notice anything?" Lenna asked quietly. She could feel that Isaac was close enough to her to hear what she had asked.

"No." Isaac's voice came from right behind her as his shadows now clung to her. "I think it might actually be worse than feeling it coming."

"Agreed." Lenna replied. "So what is the plan?"

"Exactly what you said." Isaac agreed with her orders to the guard. "'Loot and scoot' and hopefully whatever it is will show itself or fuck off."

Lenna frowned. "Why do I feel like this is how Effy and Drake are feeling right now, especially if they know that we have people everywhere looking into their whereabouts?"

Isaac frowned as well. "Because you are probably right." He agreed. "I'll stay on high alert, but how do you feel?"

"Great." Lenna said with absolute certainty. "My body feels like I haven't done anything other than my morning stretches and I hardly taxed my aura. My mana pool took about a twenty percent hit but I am still more than capable of fighting off most things."

"Speaking of fighting things off, did you ever learn a new spell when you reached level nineteen?" Isaac wondered.

"No." Lenna replied. "I wish I knew if I was supposed to or not and also what exactly I am supposed to do to level up to the maximum."

"You and me both." Isaac said with a frown.

Soon enough, a pair of guards and two wagon co-drivers found their way into the cavern and they started the morbid task of cleanup after a battle. It was clear that the fight had been entirely one-sided from the start. A singular squad of anything less than Imperial Royal Guards wouldn't stand a chance against Isaac and Lenna's combined might after all, well, except maybe whatever Isaac's Polarity Sense had 'lost'.

Once the cleanup was finished, Lenna took a seat on the lead wagon and then gave the go ahead for the caravan to continue. The wagons continued on their way as if Isaac hadn't noticed a double platinum level threat somewhere beneath them only a few minutes prior.

Isaac stayed shadow-cloaked in front of the lead wagon, just far enough that he hoped that if something were to try and attack him, the horses would be spared. While Isaac was on high alert, Lenna kept part of her mind dedicated to listening for strange sounds while the rest of her mind thought back over the fight.

The more she thought about it, the more Lenna felt like her aura had been helping her instead of just lashing out at whatever she could direct it at. Instead of just fire that would burn her foes, it felt like a cleansing warmth that even helped to stave off the exhaustion of combat while it endeavored to reduce whatever she directed it at to ash. It was almost as if the echo of Isaac's power that had leaked into her soul, and even her oath, was doing its best to support her the entire time that she was using her aura. The black part of her black and orange flames almost seemed to carry with it some of Isaac's feelings towards her. It made her wonder if her aura was actually weaker offensively than it had been before or not, in exchange for the extremely low revitalizing effect that she had noticed. Then again, it could have just been her upgraded blessing from Lua. It was the day before the new year after all.

"It's almost the new year and we are stuck running caravans." One of the guards in the same wagon as Lenna commented towards the other.

"The four times pay is nice though." The second replied.

"It should be six." The first grumbled. "Triple for the danger and then double that for holiday pay. Not four times for both."

The second just shook his head. "Just shut up before you say something stupid and jinx us. That is the last thing that any of us need."

"Fair point." The first one said. "Can't spe-"

"Don't you fucking dare finish that godsdamned sentence Teddy." The second guard snapped. "Not unless you want to get 'lost' the next time you need to take a piss."

The first guard, Teddy, audibly swallowed at the seriousness of his companion. "Okay, okay, I'll shut up." He said with raised hands in surrender. "Just take a breath man."

Lenna wasn't going to say it, but she nearly snapped at Teddy to keep his mouth shut too. With whatever was out there hidden from Isaac, the last thing Lenna wanted was a jinx.

While Lenna was sitting in the lead wagon with the chatty guard and the serious one, Isaac was using Shamesh to talk to Alexander and Edward. With both men apprised of the situation, and Alexander looking into what monster it could have been, Isaac felt at least a little better about the fate of the caravan. If something happened and Isaac needed to deploy the beacon for Alexander, then Alexander would grab Edward and Shamesh and rush to the caravan's aid while Isaac and Lenna tried to deal with whatever the threat was.

It took Alexander a little while but eventually he got back to Shamesh, and then Isaac, with a few likely options based on their geographical locations, potential maximum power level, and ability to hide their presence. 'A black dragon is at the top of the list.' Alexander told Shamesh with obvious concern in his mental voice. 'After that is a vampire, and then a lich, but a lich of that power level would be nearly impossible to come across. Other things to include are shadow demon, we aren't entirely sure that all of their kind have been eradicated from the depths of the Innerworld, Shadow Elemental, sometimes they just form naturally but one that powerful would either be extremely old or from the Realm of Eternal Darkness, a mutated doppelganger, it is theorized that they could be capable of growth because we haven't found any reason that they couldn't grow stronger.' Alexander went on. 'A Night Guard could be on the hunt for something or someone who escaped from the Realm of Eternal Darkness but we don't know enough about them to know for certain if they could be capable of hiding their presence from you. Nothing else that I have seen matches all of the criteria you've given me. Honestly, I'm not sure which one I would prefer it to be. All of them are extremely deadly. Be careful.'

'We will be.' Isaac assured him. 'Just be ready, just in case.'