Divine System: Land of the Abominations

This is not a story of joy.

Neither is it one of happiness, or of light.

This is a story of pursuit. Of weakness and sorrow and of dread...

As the dim sun vanished beneath the grey clouds in a lackluster display of fading colors, Nero felt the warmth of a fire wash over him.

He looked up subtly. With Aisha's help, Geor was building them a fire.

He huffed and rubbed his palms together. Even with his resistance, he could already feel the chill. And the worst of it was yet to come, filling him with quiet dread.

He had known the night would be anything but easy to get through. But this...

Things were starting to seem bleak.

He sighed deeply.

To take his mind of of things, Nero decided to take his mind of of things.

In his free time, Nero enjoyed reading. Besides the books, scrolls and journals he had found in that strange settlement of the Elkerlings, he truly hadn't found anything to lose himself in.

He sighed and gently pulled his satchel closer. He pulled the now very fragile string that held the bag together.

His brows turned up.

The first thing that caught his attention, was the strange book he had acquired a long time ago.

Calling it a book was also a bit of an understatement as it was a Relic. The Wandering Spirit's Journal.

It was a book that entailed the life of some unknown being, most likely human, having traveled a journyrather similar to his.

Thanks to the cryptic messages of the book, he had been able to gain some rather valuable information throughout his journey, but nothing too groundbreaking.

Most of his realizations also came after the fact, so they were not as useful as one would expect, especially since the journal was meant to prophetic in nature.

Nero frowned.

The journal was mostly empty, save for a single page being revealed. He had checked through several times, but nothing had changed in his over a month long journey. He sighed again and thought to put the book away, when he felt a sudden inkling.

A dashing moment.

A flicker of a flame about to die out, and yet its warmth lingering. Persevering...

Nero froze.

Then he straightened his posture, choosing to place the book on his laps and open it up.

The first page was the same as always, greeting him with the words that spoke of the Soul Amalgam. Then, there was the second page that spoke of the four Stone Demons of Baal.

Then the third page was bla—

Nero's eyes widened,

"There's something here!"

He glanced around, extremely cautious of prying eyes. If he was not careful, he could very well be accused of gleaming forbidden information.

If that happened, it would be his funeral.

He sucked in a deep breath, trying his best to hide his excitement.

Then he began to read.

The moment he began to read, however, his excitement was replaced with bone chilling terror and fear.

His heart froze in place.

It began this;

"Everyone will die."

"Everyone will die."

"A field of corpses, the walls stained red. Painted in starlight, glorious like the dark river."

"The time has come. There is no salvation, neither is there judgment. Run. Flee. Despair. For only in the darkness, will you see light."

Nero felt a wave of stillness wash over him.

His breathing became erratic, and the chilling cold pervading his body down to his bones didn't seem so bad when contrasted with the frost growing over his heart.

What does this mean?

That everyone was going to die?!

He looked around.

The night had already come.

The sounds that filled it were diverse and vibrant, even without the glow of the sun.

The crackling of fires. The cries ofchildren and the calls of worried parents.

Laughter, criws, grumbles, pained mumbles.

He could hear it all. He shook his head,

"No. It can't happen. There's I way. Right?"

The Templars were protecting them. Surely they wouldn't let something like that happen, right?

Yes, they wouldn't let it happen.

Right?

Nero grit his teeth as he rose to his feet.

At the moment, he had no idea what to believe.

Sure, the book had not lied to him yet. And still, he wasn't quite certain if he was simply interpreting its contents poorly.

After all, the book had a reputation for being cryptic, so maybe it wasn't really as it seemed.

Neither shook his head. After all, what did everyone mean? Did it mean everyone in his party, or every single humans behind those gates at the moment, or those on this side, laying their backs on the grass and waiting for salvation, or for death?

He had no idea.

Nero trembled again. There was nothing he could make sense of.

No.

There was something.

He could tell that whatever it was, danger was coming. Something potentially worse than anything he could think of.

He huffed and wiped the sweat away from his forehead.

'What can I do?'

He glanced around.

Everywhere still seemed normal.

"Nero, are you okay?"

His body jolted and he snapped around. His tensed nerves relaxed.

"Lucy..."

Staring at Nero intently for a moment, Luck folded her arms,

"What's up kid, are you alright? You've been acting strange lately."

Nero frowned.

However, just as he was about to answer, the sound of screams coming from somewhere wormed its way into his ear.

Without any hesitation, Nero's head snapped in that direction and he was already unsheathing the Silver Blade.

"Nero!" Lucy called after him, but Nero had already made a decent amount of distance.

In just a moment, he had arrived at the site where he believed he had heard the scream.

There were multiple people gathered already.

At the rear of the group with more even gathering, Nero decided to pry a bit, activating the Heretic's Eye.

In an instant, what was before him was laid bare.

In front of him, clad in heavy plate armor of incredibly high quality, painted in dull crimson paint, was one of the prestigious members, the Crimson Crucible.

And laying right beside the Templar of the Crimson Crucible, was a hollowed out, decrepit shell of what looked to have been human once.