The Dark Before The Light

Her body instantly emitted steam, flesh knitting itself back together with an audible hiss. She sat up, retrieved her satchel, and unzipped it to find Behemoth surprisingly unharmed, coiled calmly inside. Moving to the second bag, she found some of the food mashed beyond recognition.

"Luckily they weren't in the same bag," she sighed, standing up. She slung the satchel over her shoulder, her gaze sweeping the immediate vicinity. Before her, a narrow pathway was illuminated by an eerie, faint green glow emanating from clusters of jagged crystals embedded in the walls.

'Do you sense anything?' She thought, directing the question to Daemonis.

'No, but something or rather, someone is disrupting my connection with you,' Daemonis replied, his voice a low hum in her mind.

'Who?' Acacia thought, a flicker of confusion. She began to walk forward, the steam from her healing body dissipating as she moved deeper into the crystal-lit path.

Although it's faint now, the connection was interrupted the moment you entered the Pit. It's not the Pit doing this; the mana it emits is different, Daemonis elaborated.

Acacia furrowed her brows, replaying the events in her head. "Lani-ka? She broke the barrier."

'Is that her name?' Daemonis asked, sounding utterly disinterested. 'Regardless, she might be the one. Even though her mana isn't strong enough, perhaps her grandmother.'

'They'd stoop to anything,' Acacia thought, shaking her head in disgust. 'But what is the point of weakening the connection? It would not be beneficial to them since they want a connection to the gods.'

'Who knows, humans are unpredictable.' Daemonis replied casually.

Acacia pressed onward, the green glow of the crystals barely illuminating her path as she moved deeper into what felt less like a pit and more like a cavernous, endless cave. The unsettling silence was abruptly shattered by the faint, distinctive cry of a baby. Simultaneously, the cloying, sickly sweet scent of expired milk assaulted her nostrils. She stopped dead in her tracks.

The single cry multiplied, echoing from every direction, growing louder, more desperate. As the green crystals along the walls pulsed brighter, her eyes widened in horror. What had been one or two now numbered closer to twenty grotesquely malformed infants, their tiny, misshapen forms crawling on their knees, scuttling with unnerving speed towards her from the deepening shadows.

"What the...?" Acacia gasped, immediately backing away, her wings beating hard to lift her high above the ground. Below, the grotesque 'babies' ceased their aimless shuffling, their cries swelling into a unified, piercing wail that scraped against her nerves.

'Huh, looks like we're being welcomed,' Daemonis's voice chuckled, a chilling counterpoint to the growing dread.

"This is not funny!" Acacia gritted her teeth. From her aerial vantage, she watched in horror as the amorphous forms on the ground collectively raised their heads. Their eyeless faces, or what served for them, tilted upward, all aimed directly at her. Then, with an unsettling, synchronised movement, they began to run.

They didn't just run; they scrambled. With insane, jerky speed, they crawled up the sheer crystal walls. A tide of malformed flesh was flowing towards her. Before she could react, they launched themselves, a swarm of small, biting horrors. They latched onto her body, their tiny, needle-sharp teeth tearing at her skin, forcing her down, until she hit the cold, hard ground and her bags fell off her body. They swarmed over her, a living shroud, their insatiable mouths seeking purchase, their chilling cries now muffled by the press of their numbers against her ears.

She felt the sickening seep of her own blood. A cold rage, born of violation and instinct, surged through her. With a furious snap of her fingers, her blood, leaking from a dozen fresh wounds, solidified into razor-sharp spikes that erupted from her form, impaling the creatures clinging to her. She shoved them off, their tiny bodies flopping to the ground, still twitching.

Scrambling back to her feet, Acacia lashed out, a raw, desperate fury surging through her. She kicked at the grotesque forms, the sickly green glow of the crystals illuminating her brutal, desperate dance. The wet squelch of flesh, the continuous, high-pitched wails of the creatures, filled the oppressive air as she stomped, again and again, on their contorted faces. Three, more tenacious than the rest, bit into her leg with a harsh, relentless grip, their needle-like teeth tearing at her flesh. Acacia let out a guttural growl that ripped from her throat. Her blood, fueled by rage, instantly condensed and solidified into a jagged axe in her grasp.

With a savage cry, she swung down, the improvised blade carving through the 'babies' clinging to her leg, severing them at the joint and sending her attackers flying, their cries abruptly cut short. The axe then slashed through their tiny skulls, splattering viscous blood and grey matter across the glowing crystals.

She stopped, chest heaving, as the remaining 'babies' hesitated, their guttural growls now laced with a new, primitive fear.

Her grip tightened on the blood-axe, the raw power thrumming in her hand. With a roar of pure, unadulterated rage, she charged. The axe became a blur, a crimson arc of destruction, hacking and tearing through their forms. She twisted her leg, delivering bone-shattering kicks, while the axe cleaved through soft bodies, severing limbs and heads. She slashed, pulverised, and bludgeoned, over and over, until every single one was a mangled ruin, their guts spilling onto the cold, hard floor in a grotesque, steaming mess. She panted, the air tasting of blood and fear, as she scanned the carnage, ensuring not a single twitch, not a single ragged breath, remained.

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'Now, I'm sure you'd make an excellent mother with your discipline tactics,' Daemonis commented, a dry amusement in his tone.

Acacia's wings twitched, and she grumbled under her breath, "You're lucky I can't see you." She walked towards the rumpled bags on the floor, her brows knitting together in annoyance at the sight rumpled bags. She bent down, grabbed both, and slung them over her shoulder. As she did, Behemoth crawled out, his reptilian gaze assessing the carnage. Before Acacia could react, he darted towards one of the mangled 'babies' and began to eat, tearing into its grotesque form with disturbing relish.

"Seriously?" Acacia raised a brow, a mix of disgust and disbelief on her face. She shook her head while her body continued its rapid healing, the faint steam still rising from her skin. She kept a tight grip on the blood-axe. Behemoth, having finished his meal, licked his non-existent lips and quickly clambered back onto her, settling comfortably around her neck. Acacia continued her journey, leaving the gruesome scene behind, though the cloying stench of expired milk seemed to grow even more intense with every step.

Her gait became more controlled, quieter, as she walked deeper into the chilling depths. Her gaze flickered around when the green crystals suddenly grew dim, plunging her vision into near darkness. Instantly, the nauseating stench of expired milk intensified, closer than before, making her nose wrinkle in disgust. The crystals flared back to life, and Acacia's heart plummeted.

Standing impossibly close, almost within arm's reach, was a horrifying figure: a woman woven entirely from umbilical cords, her empty eye sockets dripping with a whitish, viscous liquid. The sight was unbearable, grotesque. Acacia instinctively took a fast step back, raising her blood-axe, its crimson edge reflecting the sickly green glow, at the… thing in front of her.

"My babies... you killed my babies... all I wanted was to be a mother, and you took that away from me," the woman whispered, more whitish liquid oozing from her cavernous eye sockets.

'What in the abyss is this?' Acacia questioned, a sudden wave of doubt crashing over her decision to enter this pit as her bag dropped from her hands.

"Give me back my babies! It's unfair! I want my children!" The woman's voice warped, deepening into a dark, echoing growl. Suddenly, a whip-like umbilical cord shot out, coiling around Acacia's left arm. She reacted instantly, swinging her axe and severing the fleshy tether. But as the cord fell, her entire left arm vanished, simply gone. Her eyes widened in confusion, a cold dread seizing her. She moved her shoulder, and something wriggled, an unsettling sensation beneath her sleeve. She stumbled back from the woman, pulling up her sleeve to stare at the impossible: a baby's arm had replaced her own.

"What the—?" Acacia gasped at the sight. The tiny limb twitched, seemingly on its own accord. It wasn't hers, not really. She clenched her jaw, forcing the small, alien hand into a fist. It obeyed, a grotesque, unsettling obedience, like a newborn trying desperately to please its mother.

"Oh... my baby, don't worry. I will take care of you." The woman suddenly smiled, a terrifying, unnatural stretching of her umbilical-cord face as she advanced. The cords that formed her body writhed and spread out like grasping tentacles. Acacia instantly dodged, her wings flaring, barely preventing the tendrils from touching her. She backed away, using her wings to quicken her pace while swinging the blood-axe, severing any cords that dared to brush her.

'I need to get close to her without touching her,' Acacia thought, her mind racing as she continued to swing the axe. The woman, however, moved with an unnerving, calm gait, almost a glide, relentless in her pursuit.

Acacia, reacting instinctively, morphed the axe into a whip with a flick of her wrist. The crimson tendril snapped out, wrapping around the woman's neck. With a brutal yank, Acacia severed the grotesque head. She panted, only to watch in horror as tendrils of umbilical cord began to writhe and knit, reforming the woman's head even as it fell. Without hesitation, Acacia twisted on her heel and sprinted, her boots echoing faintly on the crystal path. The woman's head fully regenerated in seconds, and she launched into a terrifying sprint, gaining on Acacia with unnatural speed.

Reaching the site of the slaughtered 'babies,' Acacia snatched one of their grotesque heads. She stopped abruptly, twisting her body, and hurled it with all her might. It splattered against the woman's regenerating face, momentarily stunning her. In that precious instant, Acacia grabbed her corrupted left arm, the baby arm, and with a fierce grunt, tore it from her skin along with the shredded sleeve. Her own blood welled from the stump, then instantly solidified and shot out as a long, crimson tendril. It slammed into the woman, impaling her body and pinning her against the wall. Simultaneously, the whip in her other hand morphed back into a gleaming axe.

"You murderer! Give me back my babies!" The woman shrieked, her voice a raw, echoing agony. More cords lashed out, a frantic, desperate attack, but Acacia quickly stepped back, using the axe to slash at the incoming tendrils while maintaining the iron grip of her own blood-tendril, keeping the woman agonizingly pinned. Acacia focused, willing her blood to spread. The tendril in the woman's stomach pulsed, spreading outward, engulfing her entirely in a growing, crimson shell. The writhing cords dropped to the ground as the woman's entire body was consumed, encased in a suffocating, blood-red cocoon.

'Dead?' Daemonis inquired, his tone laced with a rare hint of curiosity.

"No, I'm just holding her down until I can think," Acacia replied, feeling the subtle squirming within the blood-entrapment. "She's not a monster I'm familiar with, and she can regenerate." She paused, assessing. "She also doesn't seem to have much fighting experience."

'And you are an expert?' Daemonis scoffed.

"Don't mock me," Acacia grumbled. "At least I know what I'm doing. She's just shooting those things out without coordination."

Acacia stared at the squirming, blood-encased form. With a determined look, she willed her blood to engulf the woman even further, solidifying instantly. She then used her axe to sever her own crimson tendril from the mass. A hiss of steam escaped as her arm swiftly regenerated, leaving the woman a grotesque, crimson statue, rigidly affixed to the wall. Acacia slumped to the ground, exhaling a heavy sigh.

"Not even a day in, and this is the first thing I deal with," she grumbled, leaning against one of the glowing green crystals. "That 'thing' Ramiel left better be worth it." Behemoth stirred around her neck, a comforting weight.

'Can you pinpoint where Ramiel left his glorious treasure?' She asked Daemonis, a hint of sarcasm in her thoughts.

'No, why would I know that?' Daemonis replied, his voice indifferent.

Acacia let out an exasperated sigh, closing her eyes for a brief moment of reprieve. She opened them again, glancing into the yawning darkness beside her. The limited reach of the crystals only illuminated a short distance before the oppressive, absolute blackness swallowed everything beyond.