Volume 3 Chapter 17 Devoured by the Black Mist

Chapter 17 Devoured by the Black Mist

I

The thunderstorm had ceased and the rain had stopped, but a new disaster which was far more horrible than the thunderstorm had come to Cheum City: the black mist was sweeping Cheum City.

No one knew where the black mist came from. Seen from high floors, the centre of the mist was the Internection.

At first, the black mist had just consumed a small part of the city, mainly the surrounding area of the Internection. However, it kept spreading at visible speed, and it would devour everything it touched. It was devouring the buildings … It was devouring the pedestrians … It was devouring the whole city.

No one knew what would happen if he or she was consumed by the mist, since the mist was black and non-transparent so that nothing could be seen within it.

Maybe those who had been pulled into the mist would come to another world, a world composed of pure blackness.

Though the black mist looked like mist in appearance, it was more like a creature that kept growing and eating. Sometimes, people would see tentacles composed of the mist.

People were running on the street, screaming. They were trying to escape that enormous dollop of black mist. It was in the wee hours right now and people were all wondering whether they were in a dream or in the reality.

No one knew that the black mist was the materialized form of the radiation released when the nexus of the elementalical spheres exploded. Since the nexus was destroyed, all elementalical spheres had stopped functioning.

It was satirical. The birth of those elementalical spheres pulled the citizens into the depth of violence and darkness mentally, while the destruction of the elementalical spheres pulled them into bloodiness and murkiness physically.

As a tool for remote communication, the elementalical spheres were neutral at first, but Tudius had turned them into evil things.

At the centre of the black mist, Tudius and Tschimuo were merging with the core of the black mist which used to be Amethyst Nexus as well as each other. Their bodies’ were disappearing and they were gradually turning into some sort of energetic form.

They were fighting with each other because they hated each other. They were like two aggressive twins fighting in the uterus of their mother, and the strong one would finally absorb the weak one.

Obviously, Tudius was a stronger one. He was much more powerful than Tschimuo, since he had seen through the substance of violence and humanity, while Tschimuo hadn’t. Tudius was a successful man while Tschimuo was only an ignorable cynic, though he used to be successful too.

“ꡎꡟ, ꡆꡠ ꡎꡟ ꡁꡡ’ꡋꡝꡞꡃ. ꡇꡞ ꡒ ꡋꡝꡞꡃ ꡇꡞ ꡃꡡ ꡁꡠꡃ? ꡂꡡ ꡋꡟꡋ’ꡗꡞꡃ ꡂꡝꡞꡃ ꡁꡠꡃ’ꡊ! ꡎꡟ ꡁꡡ’ꡋꡝꡞꡃ!” [No, it’s impossible. How can you be stronger than me? I shall have been more powerful! No way!] shouted Tschimuo, his voice become smaller and smaller.

Tudius won. He had taken control of the black mist, while the black mist had taken control of him too. He was staring into this ultimate abyss of darkness, and the abyss was staring into him too.

Now, Tudius was the core of the black mist, and the black mist was him too. The void of meaninglessness was the one true doctrine of this shattered world. Everything was nothing, while nothing was everything.

II

A gust of sounds of explosion woke Aisling and Yanni up from their dreams.

“What is happening?” queried Aisling.

“I don’t know,” Yanni shrugged his shoulder.

They could also hear the screaming sounds of pedestrians right now. What was happening?

Aisling and Yanni looked outside the window and see pedestrians running towards the periphery of the city. In the distance, there was a dollop of black mist, which was spreading and engulfing everything it touched.

“Look at that black mist! It is spreading and devouring everything!” exclaimed Yanni in fear.

“Yeah, we shall leave here now. Where is Stasha and your sister?” questioned Aisling.

“I don’t know,” replied Yanni worriedly.

They stormed out of the attic and saw Floria and Stasha and the second floor.

“Let’s leave here right now! There’s something wrong with Tschimuo! He has a personal library and he is making some explosive liquids!”

“Tschimuo is not important right now, because some sort of black mist is engulfing this city!” Yanni pointed out.

“Black mist?” asked Floria in confusion.

“Yeah, we shall leave the city as soon as possible. The thunderstorm had stopped, let’s go right now!” commanded Yanni.

Yanni kicked the front door of Tschimuo’s house open and the four ran out of the house to the street.

Pedestrians were running and the street was in absolute chaos.

Some people were not running. They were kneeling before the black mist, chanting with cultic words. They didn’t know that the black mist was just the manifestation of the radiation released when the nexus of elementalical spheres exploded. In their eyes, the black mist was a god that they could worship.

The black mist was still distant from the four, but it seemed to be giving off a dark aura which was weakening their power given by Sylvana. Their legs were weak and they felt hard to breathe.

Normanians are enemies of Reauneians, so that when the four were running, the citizens were throwing stones at them. Though their physiologies were stronger than normal humans due to the power of Sylvana, they were still knocked to the ground by the stones that the citizens threw, since they had been weaken by the mist.

After they fell to the ground. Those running pedestrians kept stepping over them while running away from the mist. Trampled by the pedestrians, the four failed to get up to their feet until the black mist came near them.

They staggered up and started to run from the black mist. Suddenly, some black tentacles reached out from inside the mist and entangled Aisling’s ankle. The mist was thirsty for power, and Aisling had the power. The tentacles were composed of black mist too.

The magical power of Life, the purest power in this world, was running inside Aisling’s veins. The mist was thirsty for her power. The mist wanted her, and the desire of draining her power was manifested into those black misty tentacles.

Screaming desperately, Aisling tried to break free from the tentacles. She concentrated herself to channel the magical power into her hands but she failed. She felt weak because of the obscene aura emanated by the black mist. Finally, she was pulled into the black mist.

“Aisling, no!” yelled Yanni, charging towards Aisling.

“Run, Yanni, Run! It’s dangerous inside the mist!” shouted Aisling.

Regardless of Aisling’s words, Yanni ran into the mist in an attempt to save her.

Soon, both Aisling and Yanni disappeared in the black mist.

“He is so reckless. If I were him, I would make a plan first,” sighed Floria.

Holding hands, she and Stasha went into the mist too.

III

“Yanni, Yanni?” Floria and Stasha were walking in the black mist. It was dark there and they couldn’t see anything clearly.

“I am here, where are you two?” shouted Yanni.

Following Yanni’s sound, Floria reached out her hand and touched Yanni. She found Yanni. Holding hands, the three walked in the darkness.

After about five minutes, their eyes got used to the dark environment. They were enhanced humans and their night vision and adaptability to dark environment was better than normal humans’.

Upon being able to see the surroundings clearly, they found out that they were still in city, but a dark and dilapidated version.

The buildings around them were decrepit and their rooves were shattered. There were disgusting stain which looked like oil everywhere, and the rotten smell of corpses filled the air.

In this world of black mist, everything was immersed in extreme silence. There were no background sounds except their own breaths.

There were corpses around them. Their skin had rotten and blackened. Obviously he had been killed by the black mist, which was lethal to them.

“All those who are devoured by the black mist have died, but we’re still alive,” murmured Yanni.

“Our power from the Spring of Sylvana is protecting us. That’s why we haven’t died. Anyhow, the black mist is suffocating,” guessed Floria.

“Where do you think Aisling has been taken to?” queried Stasha.

“I don’t know. The centre of the black mist seems to be that Internection,” answered Yanni.

“That’s an evil place. Maybe this black mist has something to do with that prison,” speculated Floria.

“Indeed,” agreed Yanni.

“Anyhow, let’s go there to check what had happened there. Maybe Aisling has been taken there too,” proposed Floria.

As soon as those words were spoken, something weird happened.

One of the corpses around them began to melt, streaming out from which was some sort of oil-like slimy black liquid. The liquid was wriggling as if it were alive, and tentacles were growing out on the surface of it.

The same was happening to other corpses around them too. Soon, the street was dominated by those shadowy slimy monsters coming out from people’s corpses. They were all glowing with whacky violet light.

Those shadow monsters were hostile. When they noticed the presence of the three, they moved towards them and attack with their tentacles.

“Run!” yelled Floria.

Circumventing combats with those shadow monsters climbing out from the corpses, the three kept running towards the Internection.

Although they were running in the darkness, Floria was good at directions so that they found the right way to the Internection successfully.

Yanni dashed into the door. Floria and Stasha were following him, but suddenly a pillar of dark violet light rose from the centre of the Internection and cut directly into the murky misty sky. Along with that pillar of light was a surge of shockwave and mushroom cloud.

The shockwave tore the ground apart, and a long big crevasse appeared between Yanni and the girls. They were separated by that crevasse which was about ten metres wide. Inside the crevasse was purple scorching lava.

Yanni had to go to save Aisling on his own, since Stasha and Floria’s way to the Internection was blocked by that great crevasses which had separated them.

“Yanni! Be careful!” shouted Floria.

Yanni nodded his head and walked into the murky house that once belonged to Tudius.

Floria and Stasha turned back. They were surrounded by those shadow monsters generated by corpses of the citizens. Stasha drew her stellarite daggers while Floria loaded her bow. It would be a long fight …

IV

Upon entering the Internection, Yanni found that the temperature had dropped rapidly. It was cold inside the building and his muscles were trembling.

The inner walls of the building had been corrupted by the dark energy released by the explosion of the Amethyst Nexus and transformed into some sort of rusty iron barbed ware.

The instant Yanni stepped into the corridor of this building, He was discovered by Tudius.

He hadn’t changed much in appearance, but obviously, he had dominated the power of the black mist and become stronger.

Aisling was trapped into a black pool in front of him. She was still conscious. Tudius was siphoning energy from Aisling’s body. Green particles of lights were flying out from Aisling’s body and merged into Tudius’ body.

“Yanni!” she shouted excitedly when she saw Yanni.

“Shut up, elf! Although you’re not so powerful now, your potential is unimaginable. After draining your power, I will be able to dominate the whole world with the black mist of violence,” commanded the monster.

“What do you want actually?” questioned Yanni.

“When the nexus exploded, I felt painful … I could feel the maliciousness of people. I could feel the maliciousness between humans … The dark sides of humans were gathering in this internection. Their violence and their hollowness were surging into my brain. I cannot resist the power … I can feel the power of purity and beauty that flows inside the veins of this elf girl. I need to destroy it. I am a being of violence, I must destroy everything pure and beautiful …” drawled Tudius, the monster in Normanish.

As soon as those chaotically illogical words were spoken, Tudius breathed out clouds of black gas, which gathered into shadow monsters.

Those shadow monsters moved towards Yanni in an attempt to tear him into pieces. Although Yanni was strong, he was outnumbered. Soon, he was knocked to the ground by one of those shady monsters.

The whole body of Yanni had been wrapped by those shadow monsters breathed out by Tudius. Those monsters turned into black particles which made their way into Yanni’s lungs. Screaming in pain, Yanni was struggling but he failed to break free from Tudius’ shady minions.

“Yanni!” murmured Aisling weakly. She was now being siphoned by Tudius. Her energy was taken by him and now she felt rather weak.

Yanni’s screaming voice was drowned in the body of those shadow monsters.

Aisling closed her eyes.

She couldn’t let anyone hurt her friend. With a roar, she poured all the energy that she had into the body of Tudius.

“Since you want to siphon my energy, I will give my all to you!” growled Aisling.

Tudius was trembling. He had absorbed too much energy of Aisling. He was overloaded. The magical energy of Aisling and the energy of bloodiness and darkness were reacting with each other inside Tudius’ body. The reaction was drastic and painful.

Screaming in agony, Tudius stopped siphoning energy from Aisling, and finally, Aisling had broken free from Tudius’ power. She shot a spore bolt towards the monsters that surrounded Yanni.

With the explosion of the spore bolt, all those shady monstrosities that were trying to kill Yanni were cleansed by Aisling’s spore bolt.

“Seemingly you don’t need my help,” Yanni smiled.

“Yeah, you come here to save me, but it ends up being that I save you. By the way, where are Floria and Stasha?” asked Aisling.

“They’re blocked by a giant crevasse. You can’t imagine what this city has become,” answered Yanni.

“Anyhow, let’s give this Tudius a holy thrashing!” proposed Aisling.

Tudius was staring at Aisling and Yanni wrathfully. All the energy that he had taken from Aisling was materialized as particles of green lights and flew back into Aisling’s body.

“No … Impossible … I can smell something between you two that don’t belong to the ultimate concept of darkness. You two have to be destroyed!” roared Tudius desperately.

A fight was about to begin at the centre of the power of nothingness that wrapped Cheum City …