Chapter Thirty-Six

It was thirty-seven days ago that I first saw the heart of the madness, thirty-seven days ago that I first stared upon that very Throne of Pandemonium, thirty-seven days ago that I looked upon the beast of insanity that now threatens to swallow this world whole.

In the days that followed that fateful expedition, there was no slumbering moment where I did not see that gruesome visage; stealing my sanity and my resolve.

The good news was that the expedition didn't stumble onto any more Oni.

The bad news was that it stumbled onto something much worse.

There was something different about where the party eventually ended up, a long, darkness bathed hall. It felt more… solid, as if it wasn't going to abruptly come to an end and leave them in the madness everywhere else within the cavern, if they were even really in the cavern anymore.

Aidan, in his seemingly infinite wisdom and preparation, produced several torches in which to illuminate their surroundings, in which the full extent of their current environs became clearer.

"This is…" Coran began in awe, "Well… no, actually it's not… but it seems pretty close to the old language. Even older, I would wager… this could possibly be… from the time before the rise of the gods…"

What he was referring to were the walls of the extended hallway that formed into an angled ceiling, covered in glyphs, words, and pictorial etchings; carved directly into the deep russet stone slabs that the enclosed space was almost entirely comprised of.

The headmaster peered intently at the carvings, moving slowly down the hall, shaking his head slowly. "This… is antiquated before antiquated was old. I can only make some of it out, and even then…" he pointed to one word on the third panel, "This word here in the Old Tyrian could mean either 'sleep' or 'dead', depending on the context. Without that, it's hard for me to say."

"Wait… those are Mursaat!" Cynn said, pointing to one of the pictures two panels down. "They're fighting the Seers in this picture!"

Coran nodded absently, steadily moving along absorbing all the information he could, until he was at Cynn's location. "Interesting…" he then pushed past the party that was slowly starting to disperse to see what else they could recognize in the hallway while he attempted to decipher more of the fragmented translation he was able to make.

Devona, on the other hand, felt something tug at the back of her mind, towards the farthest end of the hall, still cloaked in blackness. This place felt very familiar… and she was starting to grasp how. This was where the Seer had taken her during her illusionary imprisonment… further down… just a little further…

"Intriguing…" Coran continued, then straightened, and pointed back down the tunnel. "This is a sort of picture history, as far as I can tell. The rise of the gods of Tyria is told here, shortly after the Mursaat start their war with the Seers. From what I can tell, the gods assisted in either killing, or more likely imprisoning, the driving power of the Seers… who apparently had come even before that, descending from the heavens, fighting and either killing, or imprisoning, even older giant creatures."

Vekk pointed to one of the first panels, "These, I would say, resemble the dragon lords of the S'sleth…" He paused when he saw the blank stares of most of the party, "… or the Forgotten, as you call them, but isn't it claimed that the dragons were created by the Gods? I can't say I remembered my history classes that well."

"According to the S'sleth, yes. And there's no explanation for what this is…" Coran added, tapping on the crude depiction that he determined to be the Seer's leader. "It's rather odd… everything else drawn here is in surprising detail, the Mursaat, the Seers, the dragons, even the gods and the rise of the mortal races further down… but in every instance of this being, it's very vague, like whoever carved these wasn't given a particularly clear representation."

Coran was so engrossed in his work that he didn't even register that Devona's voice was peculiarly faint. "They were terrified to remember." The warrior suggested. "The very sight of it scared them senseless."

"That would suggest that the artist or artists had seen this being, which is highly unlikely considering the time frame that the later panels depict. Something tells me this hall wasn't made over a long span of time. Unless the gods themselves didn't want…" His voice trailed off as the gods' response to their presence here began to come into focus…

… and then Devona screamed; a blood-curdling wail that nearly sent everyone into a panic before dashing to the warrior who had completely vanished into the darkness.

Coran was the first to reach her; she had dropped to her knees, her torch falling limply from her hands, extinguished from its spill into the abruptly sandy surface at their feet. He swiftly gathered the whimpering and trembling woman into his arms, one hand gently smoothing her hair and forehead. "Easy, lovely… you're alright… you're safe…"

"No… no… I'm not. None of us are…" the warrior blubbered. The party had seen this once before, at the excavation site that would likely be directly above them.

"Devona darling, what do you mean?"

"This… is where the Seer took me. This… this is what I saw, or thought I did. This is their master…"

With a nod towards Aiden, the ranger lifted his torch as high as he could manage, casting it's dim light towards the far side of the rough stone cave…

What Devona had seen in her mind during the Seer's attack had been merely the ankle and calf of the Seer's… god. One of five such lower legs, all positioned in a semi-circle around its seating of the same dull gold color. The creature seemed to be almost completely comprised of woven vines or tentacles, knotted tightly where its joints resided, except in some rare occasions where long tusks or bone jutted out from the chest cavity. The shoulders were nearly a hundred feet across, bearing arms that extended halfway along the perimeter of the cave, with crooked hooked fingers that looked like they were grasping for some invisible object.

Further up was the monster's head, a tendril laced visage that spread along the ceiling, and combined with the arms, dwarfed and surrounded the party. In the middle of the tendrils was a circular maw filled with fangs and teeth that extended as far as their sight permitted down the caping cavern of its throat. And through that hideous mess, two blood red orbs suddenly glowed, narrow black slits for pupils that turned and focused directly on the mortals within the cave.

Vekk shivered, and said, "We have to leave... now..."

Terror crashed like invisible waves, reducing the expedition into crumpled heaps. No one was immune, huddled together in a clump, like scared animals waiting to be slaughtered by a pack of predators. The normally sound, analytical minds of Vekk and Coran were shattered, not a single rational thought escaped the inexplicable horror. Mhenlo's faith, already shaken, completely collapsed, his lips and mind unable to remember or compose any prayer to any god. Even involuntary functions began to falter… unable to even remember how to breathe properly. The party was literally drowning in fear.

But, the nightmare seemed to lessen ever so slightly, just enough for Coran to look up from his huddled position next to Devona. At the entrance to the hall they had come from, a slight, hooded figure stood, beckoning to him as unspoken words filtered into his barely functioning mind.

"Follow… if you wish to live…"

He nervously roused Devona, and between the two of them managed to rouse the party into something passing as sentient action, silently forming a bumbling, hazed line behind the mysterious figure. There was no telling where they were being led, but at that point, they figured it couldn't possibly be worse than where they had just escaped from.