Herald of death

Ethan is thrown into cold, deep water. He doesn't know if his eyes are opened or closed, but no light reaches them. He feels his body but cannot move any of its fibers; his etheric senses are closed to him.

A presence swirls below, shifting the pressure as its immense body moves under Ethan. It rises around him like a claw until it comes down, emptying the air of his lungs and pushing him upward.

Ethan surfaces. Light blasts his darkness-attuned eyes. His senses return, and he hears himself screaming, his body suffering the fragmented panic and pain that flooded him.

An Orc turns to him, rushing towards Ethan with an even louder war cry. Before the Orc can reach him, Ethan unleashes a torrent of flames that sublimates the beast into scattered ashes.

"Do you need a moment to gather yourself?" the realm's master asks. He appears at Ethan's side with a towel folded over his forearm. "The first time is always the worst on the soul. By the way, if you weren't in my realm, you would have destroyed your soul by dying after exhausting your life force."

"Spirituality leveled up. Melee Weapon (long sword) leveled up (x3). Ether manipulation leveled up. Life force manipulation leveled up."

"Shut up for a minute!" Ethan takes the white towel to dry the sweat drenching his face. His wounds are gone, but he can still feel the presence of Thaddeus' summon, making him feel small and threatened. 'Russ!'

Russ leaps out of Ethan's shadow, squealing as he rubs his nose against Ethan's hand. He flattens himself to the ground, staring at the sky for an instant before going back to being playful. Like Ethan, he must still feel the attacks on his soul.

The realm's master picks up the towel to turn it into vanishing black smoke. "You have a remarkable ability to handle trauma. Most need a long time to handle their death, and very few ever talk about it."

"The pain I can handle. I've never experienced the kind of apprehension and physical memories most people seem to suffer from," Ethan says. He jumps to his feet as Russ goes to sniff the ground. "But the attacks on my soul, or at least that's what I think it was, I can still feel. It's like Thaddeus' summon is still here – that feeling of being a powerless prey."

"I mended your body, but your soul is the same. Take a moment to remind it of your true nature." The realm's master vanishes into the ground.

Ethan closes his eyes and forces his breathing into a slow rhythm. The image of the beast flashes in his mind, towering and suffocating. Little by little, Ethan pictures it getting smaller until he sees it no larger than a duck.

He imagines the beast launching itself into the sky as the wind rustles invisible trees. A loud bang echoes in Ethan's mind, and the eagle falls down, gunned down in its flight. The pressure he felt vanishes, returning him to his usual calm.

'How am I supposed to focus on these imaginary fights while I am fighting for real?' Ethan ponders. He cracks his neck to relieve tension in his traps. 'Round two, I guess.'

After an introductory fight with Razak, Ethan notices that Cedric is absent, making him believe he will appear as a final test. Ethan begins to preview in his mind plans to increase his chances but stops himself. Being able to resurrect, it is in his interest to face the hardest challenge possible.

To his surprise, Alaric remembers their previous encounter. Nearing the end of his training with Alaric, Ethan asks, "Do you know of the Aura of Dread ability?"

"Indeed," Alaric answers before waiting for the next question.

"Recently, someone trapped me with it; I felt as if it didn't attack my body but my soul. The caster morphed into a giant snake and attempted to bite down on me until my bond bit first. I need to know how to protect myself from it." Ethan has let Russ out of the shadows for Alaric to sense. "My bond has the same ability."

"Morphed is the wrong term," Alaric begins. He takes a pause, touching his chin as if thinking. "Usually I wouldn't divulge such secrets, but I sense that it's a matter of life and death, isn't it?"

"Just so," Ethan confirms.

"You've only begun a long journey when it comes to spirituality. There are steps I cannot teach you because you lack the fundamental changes and experiences that will come along the way." Aranthor pauses again, staring at Ethan thoughtfully. "Aura of Dread allows the user to skip some of these steps for an instant, granting them power they do not yet comprehend. It is the power of spiritual beings, the likes of gods' servants. Resisting it at your level is …impossible without external help."

"So, I have to leave that to my bond," Ethan concludes.

"Yes," Aranthor confirms. He begins to dim, marking the end of their conversation. "As I said before, training your soul is the only sure way of resisting your enemies' spiritual attacks."

Ethan returns to his senses in the altar room. He waits for a moment, expecting to hear from the system, but the message never comes. 'And this is supposed to be a secret, ancient training method surpassing anything else available?'

Cedric's lackey notices Ethan returning and walks up to the doors.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Where do the other doors lead to?" Ethan asks.

"Barracks with stone beds, kitchens, latrines, storage rooms, and so on. The people who lived here had everything to stay inside forever," the man answers. "There are a few collapsed sections, but it's probably more of the same."

'The keep was built to contain a portal to the Abyss. I'm unconvinced they would settle in this desert for no real reason,' Ethan ponders. He jumps unsteadily to his feet, suffering from the corruption and the strain on his soul. He glances at the murals and says, "If that's allowed, I'll go have a look."

"Sure," the man grants. "I'll go help the others; just don't get lost while you find nothing."

'That was easy,' Ethan thinks as he watches the man leave. He walks up to the door opposite the exit and pushes its rusty hinges open. He triggers predator's sight to listen for signs of life and hears nothing.

Following a spiraling stair downward, Ethan visits several floors of hollowed-out living quarters. Faded tapestries depict the Abyss Watchers in battle along the walls of what once were training arenas.

On the bottom floor, Ethan finds laboratories where broken glass tools lie. Through predator's sight, he picks up on a slight irregularity in the dust layered on the ground. 'Someone hid their trace.'

He follows the marks of hidden footsteps around, but they wander as much as he was. The fact that someone moved the dust around to hide their trace tells him they found something. He stops, spotting a cleanup that points to a wall.

Ethan brushes his fingers along the surface, searching for an edge. He finds one that forms a door-wide section in the wall. He looks around for a loose stone or a fixture but finds nothing. 'How do I open you up?'

In ancient temples, Ethan's father used modern scanners to see through the walls and find hidden mechanisms. Ethan tells himself he should add such tools to his inventory. 'Wait, I don't need them.'

Ethan focuses on his senses enhanced by predator's sight and knocks on the wall. It comes back to him in a series of echoes. He repeats the operation at different points until the echoes he hears come back with a metallic tone.

Following the metallic constructions, Ethan finds a spot on the wall separated from it by precise cuts. He presses on it to cause the door to slide inward and open to the side.

Ethan enters the room behind to find an altar surrounded by tools such as scalpels, saws, clamps, pikes, and more. The floor around the altar is concave, with drains at the bottom. Desks lie along the edge, topped by books and loose, molded papers.

One of the books lies open, its page clear of the fine dust layered over everything else. It is at a page holding a skull drawing marked with a complex spell like Aranthor's array casting.

'What the fuck?' Ethan ponders as he grabs the book. He moves to the first pages to find an index describing one full-body, bone-carved enchantment per page. According to it, these complex enchantments could grant passive abilities to their subject. They range from heightened strength to a permanent growth spurt.

Through predator's sight, Ethan hears someone opening the doors in the soul altar room.

The man descends the spiraling stairs, his heart beating faster than normal.

Focusing on the figure, Ethan realizes it is Thaddeus. If he's the one who found this room, it might give Ethan the opportunity to get Thaddeus to teach him more about magic.

Ethan takes another book from the pile, titled 'Organ runic enchantment carving.' Like with the first book, he skims through it to see depictions of hearts, livers, kidneys, and more carved to enhance their capabilities. 'Just how much can someone modify his body?'

Thaddeus tries to calm his steps as he approaches the open door and moves along its wall. He's nervous, barely able to restrain his breathing.

"Come on in, Thaddeus," Ethan calls, keeping his gaze on the book. He senses the noble's heart contracting in surprise.

"How?" Thaddeus asks as he edges the door.

"High perception," Ethan says, shutting down predator's sight before looking up. "I heard you opening the doors upstairs. You should control your breathing; it's loud. Didn't you learn to be sneaky as an adventurer?"

Thaddeus enters the room, staring at the book Ethan is studying. "How do you know I am an adventurer?"

"I heard a thing or two about you," Ethan says. "Like how you are hunting the Dark Descendants."

Thaddeus jumps back, gathering Ether into his hand to blast his cone of frost spikes into the room.

"I'm not your enemy," Ethan says, returning to his book while preparing to cast Silence. "And no, this wasn't a trap to get you to an isolated spot. Though I was a little surprised that you are the one who is studying this stuff."

Thaddeus sighs. "The Abyss Watchers wouldn't have hidden it from their own if it wasn't a taboo. I'm only studying it for the theorical knowledge and to record it for my family's libraries."

"Could you do it though?" Ethan asks, holding the book at a page showing bone enchantments.

"I won't," Thaddeus answers immediately. "But I'm pretty confident I could in a few years. This isn't the first time I've come across bone carving. Do you know what else it is used for?"

"No," Ethan answers.

"Torture," Thaddeus reveals. "In the dungeons of Kingsreach, there is an executioner who uses it to get information out of his prisoners."

"It's a tool; you cannot banish something because some people use it to harm others," Ethan says.

Thaddeus sighs again. "It's not the result that torments them with pain; it's the process. Carving bones is so painful some people kill themselves to get it to end."

Ethan puts down the book. "I guess that's why the walls are so thick."

"Are you going to tell Razak about what you found? Or Cedric?" Thaddeus asks.

"I don't care about what you are doing. But who is Cedric?" Ethan asks, not having met the man today. He scans Thaddeus' expression as the noble is doing the same, trying to guess if Ethan is one of Cedric's men. Ethan feigns recognition. "Ho, you mean the lordling. I heard he was coming here too."

Thaddeus' gaze doesn't waver as he tries to decipher Ethan's expressions. He moves into the room to grab the book Ethan is holding. "You said you know I'm after the Dark Descendants. How?"

"I met your father not so long ago. It was a short encounter; my bond didn't like Sky too much," Ethan lies. He spots Thaddeus' eyes moving to where Russ hides in the shadows. "But he mentioned you were already here and what you have gotten yourself into. He hoped I could improve your swordsmanship while I'm here."

"I will have you know my skills with a sword are quite sufficient," Thaddeus says, offended.

"You mean stiff, lacking power, and above all poorly leveraged by your use of spells?" Ethan asks, using his memories of the fight to assess Thaddeus' skills.

Thaddeus laughs. "You do know my father. I had a doubt, but that's exactly what he would say."

'I'd have to be blind to not see those flaws,' Ethan comments to himself. He mimics Thaddeus' laugh while keeping it low volume. "I had hoped I could learn a thing or two from you too. I'm not specialized in magic, but I use spells."

"Where did you learn?" Thaddeus asks.

"Self-taught," Ethan answers. "I gained the Spellcasting ability and worked my way from there."

"Oh fuck," Thaddeus comments. He pulls out books from his satchel, placing them down before Ethan. "You do have a lot of things to learn. You know how to read, right?"