Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 6 I Guess I Should Help

Waking up a little while later the man’s whole body ached. He had pushed his new muscles as hard as they could go, if only for less than a minute, and was bruised in multiple places. He let out a low groan as he rolled to his back.

“Why is it so freakin’ cold down here?” He wondered. The cold stone had stolen much of his warmth and the constant chill of cool spring day was ruthless when unconscious. It wasn’t cold while he was up and moving however while laying face down on solid stone and unconscious he was freezing.

“I need warm clothes. Maybe a cloak… or a blanket.” The cold made it hard to move. The ache in his bones from the recent battle made it worse. His left hand stung from the dirt that had gotten into the cuts from his accidental descent down the path earlier.

“Huh… Why doesn’t my right hand hurt?” He reactivated his dark vision power. He had accidentally turned it off when he cut the other ability off before his brief bout of unconsciousness. Raising his hands to his face he noticed something under all the dust, dirt, and blood now covering them.

“Where did those cuts go?” He thought back on everything that had happened. “Wait, death can heal?” His eyes bore into his right hand, unable to think of anything else that could have healed the few cuts and scrapes in such short a time.

His gaze shifted to his left hand. He lost focus for a moment staring through his hand. “Shit, I need to move.” He said to himself and then slowly stood up. “The cold’s getting to me.” He looked around quickly to make sure he was alone.

Against the far wall, where the wolves had originally been he noticed something. A backpack, torn open, and some bones. “Okay first my hand then the backpack.” He brought his left hand up and examined it for a moment. “Here goes nothing I guess.”

Black flames covered his hand and dripped off it towards the ground. Before his eyes in an instant his hand started to heal. In a matter of a second all of the scrapes and cuts were gone and anything that had gotten in them was pushed out.

“I need to ask somebody how the hell magic works. None of this makes any sense. It’s death mana right? Why did it heal the shadow wolf and more importantly why did it heal my hand?” He thought for a moment, staring at the black flames.

“I swear if the reason I get is something stupid like ‘Well it just kills the injuries obviously’ I’m going to kill somebody.” He cut the power now that his hand was healed and walked over to the shredded back pack. He didn’t try to heal any of his other injuries because he still remembered the pain of his very first experience with death mana.

Crouching over the remains of the pack he dug through it looking for something worthwhile. He found a metal container with a tight latch and a pin holding it closed. He took out the pin and undid the latch. Slowly opening his eyes went wide.

A smoky scent of jerky reached his nose as he laid his eyes on the dried meat. “Thank you poor traveler for the meal.” He said and stuffed a piece in his mouth. It was salty with only a hint of smoke and beef hidden beneath. It was obvious it was made more to last than taste good. The mage however didn’t care. Food was food. He hadn’t eaten anything since getting this new body and he was starting to feel it.

“I wish Zei would have given me something to eat too.” He mumbled as he chowed down on another piece. He stuffed the rest, box and all, in his Inventory. Next he saw a small badge. It was about two inches across and tall but quite thin. On the back it had a pin to fashion it on fabric of some kind. On the front There was a spyglass and a feather crossed over a map.

“I guess I should bring this with me. Maybe somebody will know what it means… If I ever find somebody that’s still alive.” Seeing the corpse and fighting for his life against the wolves had been sobering. He was quickly reminded of his mortality in a very direct manner.

There was a whole mess of tattered and torn fabric but nothing he could really use. He put some of it in his Inventory but only because he thought there was a chance he could find a use for it in the future. “Better to have and not need than need and not have.” He mumbled while standing up.

“I wonder what I should do about the wolves? Can I eat them? Do I bring them along and hope somebody else can make use of them? They look heavy.” He was now standing over one of them contemplating the corpse’s immediate future.

“Maybe I can bring just one of them.” He turned his Inventory window to face downward and pressed it down onto the corpse willing it to enter. The next thing he knew he was face first on the ground where the corpse used to be. “Ouch… how heavy is this damn thing?”

He tried to get up but it was a struggle. Finally on his feet he pulled the corpse back out and let it drop. “Sorry Zei, it looks like I crushed myself already.” He ripped his shortsword out of the skull of the last one he had killed. He wiped the blade off on a relatively clean part of the corpse’s fur.

Now that he was paying attention he could see the wolves withering away. The shadow stuff that was entwined throughout their entire being was drifting away, whatever had been making it before couldn’t as the beasts were dead. He retrieved his dagger and cleaned it off before sheathing it and his shortsword.

“Okay time to go. If I keep moving I’ll keep warming up.” He thought out loud as he headed forwards once again. The path seemed to wind on forever. As he wondered so did his thoughts. He thought back on how the death mana felt in his hands and practiced using it a few more times. Eventually he noticed something.

“The death mana isn’t hurting me because the mana pathways in my hands have been changed somehow. It’s almost like they have been infused with it somehow.” As he contemplated his magics he would periodically take out his compass and check to make sure he was still going in the right direction.

Thankfully there hadn’t been any more large caverns full of something trying to eat him for a while but he was starting to get concerned. Why were the wolves there in the first place if there wasn’t anything else to eat or drink nearby? Just as he was thinking this he came upon an intersection.

There were three more paths other than the one he came from. They all look relatively the same too. “Well I guess the compass is going to be useful for once.” He checked the compass and the needle pointed to the right most tunnel. “Right it is.”

He proceeded down the rightmost tunnel for a little while longer and then he noticed something. A light in the distance around a corner. Slowly he approached the corner then stopped. He moved his shadow stuff to his boots and around his waist where most of his buckles were.

Now silenced, at least mostly, he peered around the corner. He was immediately met by a horrifying sight. The path opened into a massive cavern. At least a hundred feet in each direction, a few dozen pathways in all directions even on the floor and ceiling.

Nearby there was a small campfire burning some weird kind of wood that seemed to tubular, the fibers large enough to use as a drinking straw. A few bedrolls around the fire. A person was sitting up staring off to the side. The problem was that they were stone. Through and through nothing but stone.

Farther in he was a massive creature ten feet tall to its back spines and stony skin. It was fifteen feet long and locked in combat with a warrior and a mage.

The mage was a beautiful woman in white robes and holding a staff shining golden light. Her hair was a light brown and he could see her pointy ears from the entrance. She was chanting a spell over and over again firing golden bolts at the creature's eyes with reckless abandon. ‘That feeling she gives off kinda feels like Zei and Rei. maybe she’s a cleric or something.’ The dark mage thought.

The warrior was brandishing a long pole with an ax head on one side, a square plate on the other, and a spike on the end. He was covered in shining steel armor that hid all of his features. All the dark mage could tell about him was he was huge in both height and shoulder width. He too was focusing the monster’s eye that was closest to them.

“Well I finally found people. I guess I should help them unless I wanna find civilization by myself.”

He steeled his nerves then drew his shortsword. He moved it to his right hand where it felt more comfortable. “Time to hopefully not die again.” He mumbled and took a step forward.