“We have some distance to cover,” Umbra replied first. “It will be faster for me to transfer everyone. And safer since we have to pass through at least two other territories. That is, if no one has anything against it.”

  “How long is it going to take?” Silvia asked.

  He consulted with Tia and hummed quietly. “About ten hours. But, we can take breaks.”

  “I believe this will serve as a good test and training,” Althea chimed in. “Since we are in a place where darkness is a dominant theme, we should get used to it as much as we can.”

  Everyone agreed and gathered together. Selene suggested a bet, and before Asterios had even a chance to say anything, the girls were burning with intense competitive spirit. He could only chuckle in amusement as they ignored him and discussed between themselves what kind of reward they would be getting. Which, obviously, involved his person.

  Happy with what they decided on, the ladies signaled their readiness, and Umbra swallowed them into his shadows, save for Abyss, who would have no issues keeping up with him. It took about six hours for the first person to quit their self-imposed social isolation. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Miria but Tina who gave up ahead of everyone else. She looked fairly disturbed, so Asterios wasted no time in praising his amazing girlfriend for being so incredibly brave and strong-willed.

  One by one, the others joined them and began taking their minds off the deep black emptiness surrounding them by talking to each other. It became much more bearable with the presence of another person by their side, though not completely effortless. Only Asterios seemed to be doing fairly well, but that was to be expected with one of his lineages being related to this element.

  By the eighth hour, they had to stop for a short break. Miria won the bet by default when all the other women surrendered. She would have most likely continued until their very destination, but the panthergirl was literally shaking and shivering as she fought off all her fears, discomfort, mental pressure, and worst of it, the crippling loneliness of not being able to connect with her beloved master.

  Therefore, Asterios broke her out of her trance, announcing her as a winner, and spending some time pampering his unbelievably determined mate. He knew Miria still viewed herself as the weakest in their group, no matter what, and this was one of her methods to catch up with them, by pushing herself way past her boundaries and comfort zone. Out of sheer respect and love, Asterios didn’t try to dissuade her from such attempts, as much as he wished he would, unable to watch the girl he cared for deeply hurt herself so much.

  Taking a bit more than thirty minutes to recover, they continued with their journey, this time working on the oppressive feeling together while Umbra intentionally made it more intense for them. As much as they needed to work on their resistance individually, they knew they were a tightly-knit team and their true strength lay in their powerful spiritual and emotional connection.

  This time, even Asterios struggled a little as they combated the Lord of Darkness’ influence.

  Thankfully, the second part of the trip was much shorter, and they soon were relieved of the challenge. Taking deep breaths and examining each other in case anyone needed any support, they looked around the area they had found themselves in. Abyss descended next to them in a blink, curiously staring at something.

  That something turned out to be a weird crystal… lake.

  They stood on solid ground, albeit a little springy. Black earth spanned underneath their feet while they were surrounded by what resembled trunks of dead trees but made of the same dark stone. The only space free of them was the sizable, almost perfect oval resting on the ground at the same level as the tender surface. It was hard to distinguish, but the purplish dots from the sky reflected on it clearly.

  “Is this it?” Miria frowned lightly. “I expected something… less empty.”

  “I have a feeling there’s more to this place than meets the eye,” Silvia said and took a peek at Abyss, who remained quiet and detached.

  “You are right.” Umbra chuckled. “This is just an entrance. What you see before you is the blood of the previous lord of this region. The creature’s main trait was the ability to invert almost everything. It even tried to invert its death, but instead of resurrecting itself, it turned its blood into an everlasting fluid. Some argue that it’s still alive, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to recover from this splotch of reflective liquid.”

  “How is it an entrance, then?” Asterios furrowed his brows at the eerie mirror.

  “Let’s just say that I was pissed at having to look at it forever from that point on and tried whatever I could to remove it from my new land. As you can see, I failed in the end. However, I discovered something interesting during my attempts. After me, please.” His familiar seeped into the gleaming surface, sending faint ripples through it.

  Exchanging a few glances, Ast’s group moved closer to the perfectly flat edge. Althea risked dipping her shoe in it to check if it truly wasn’t solid and evoked a similar reaction from the pool. Shrugging, she offered the ladies the closest to her a hand each, and they all formed a chain. Counting down in their connected minds, they jumped right in.

  The transfer was instantaneous, though it involved a few quite disorienting spins. They were spat out on the other side, quickly realizing they were in the air, already approaching the faraway ground. Selene reacted first and created thin barriers underneath everyone’s feet, using the spiritual discs to slow them down and then fully stop them in the air. The footholds merged together and formed a single platform.

  Now that their focus wasn’t on surviving the fall, Ast’s group fully took in the sight before them.

  It was immediately clear that they had dropped into an enclosed space, even if it was impressively deep and much wider than the stain would have suggested. The main difference from the other place was the color palette. While the straight cliffs surrounding them and the uneven, natural-looking ground were white, they were still far off from the marble structure of the underground facility. The shades here were much less pristine and much more worn out by the passage of time and whatever weather conditions existed in the realm. It was more of a light gray than white, actually.

  The gate they had traveled through remained slightly above their heads, the mirror surface positioned in the ceiling, now also light instead of dark. In all that bright space, there was one distinct landmark bearing black colors. It resembled a tall and thin mountain, or maybe a sharp spire, with a flat top, leaning slightly to the side. It released thick fumes into its surroundings, which descended to the ground at a languid pace and covered it in a small layer of dark fog.

  “Where are we?” Tina voiced the question that everyone pondered.

  “It turns out that this creature loved consuming entire plots of land that it had stumbled on. That’s why the ground seems like a mishmash of different natural styles. After its death, this place didn’t disappear but became a static pocket dimension under my control, attached to the blood. I used it as my lair for the most part. It still seems connected with the realm and the lands outside of this oval box,” Umbra explained. “Save for the spire, everything you can see here is here thanks to the courtesy of the previous lord.”

  “Did you make the spire?” Silvia inquired, noticing the slight resemblance between their darknesses.

  “Well…” The Lord of Shadows turned his glowing eyes aside awkwardly.

  “I don’t feel anything like wind here, but damn, that black grass around it is going wild.” Miria giggled, switching everyone’s attention to the mentioned detail.

  Ast’s brows rose as his eyes landed on the dark shapes wriggling in every direction in perfect sync. “That’s no grass…”

  Those without sharper vision focused on his senses through their bond, and they all saw what he had seen. The moving things were actually living, or at least existing entities shaped like someone threw a blanket on a person and cut holes in the sides for their arms. Those black figures kept bowing and shaking their bodies almost in a trance, every single one facing the mountainous tower.

  “Are they… chanting?” Althea noted.

  Surely, after focusing more on their hearing, the group could recognize the intonation and even some words. The entities sang praises to the Lord of Shadows and expressed their gratitude for his existence. They seemed to relish in the dark fumes surrounding them, their form shivering with each new wave descending upon them.

  Asterios and the ladies turned to Umbra, who kept glancing away. But, he couldn’t escape their gazes forever and released a tired sigh.

  “These are Shades.” He mimicked the notion of rubbing his eyes. “Don’t ask how and why, but these guys just migrated here one day. They chose me as their… god, and no matter what I did, they wouldn’t leave or change their minds. After a few decades, I gave up and decided to ignore the problem. They are extremely territorial and take care of any intruders who stumble inside the pocket dimension, so I just let them be.”

  “Ah. I remember you mentioning something like that during our aquatic travels with Svertaniel.” Asterios cocked his head back in realization.

  “From the doorstep of one cult to the doorstep of another.” Miria snickered sweetly. “Do all of us get one?”

  They all laughed at the possibility.

  The sounds of their joy sent ripples through the Shades, and the chanting stopped. All the figures froze, and so did Ast’s team. Expecting the entire population under Umbra to turn hostile in a flash, they readied themselves to defend, not necessarily wanting to hurt his followers.

  Then, the Shades shot up into the air as one mass, the bottom ends of their figures rippling like flags in the wind. They weren’t fast, but the hundreds of dark shapes soon surrounded them in every direction and axis, staring at them with a single, vaguely triangular bright white spot near the top of their forms, which had to be their assumed eye.

  “The Lord has returned!” one of the Shades threw its arms into the air.

  The rest of the crowd mirrored the motion, and they chanted the phrase repeatedly.

  “Alright, alright, that’s enough.” Umbra waved his hand at them, silencing the gathering instantly. “As you can see, we have guests today. They are very important to me, so show them proper respect. And don’t antagonize them. They can end you whenever they wish to.”

  The Shades nodded with their entire bodies, which looked fairly comical.

  “So, who is the leader?” Asterios asked.

  “We are all one,” a different being answered with the exact same voice. “We exist to serve the Duke of Umbra and share the same respected rank of a devotee.”

  “When one falls in battle, another takes their place,” a third speaker joined in, also a perfect copy. “The Tower of Shadows gives us strength and replenishes our sect for as long as the Duke’s darkness spreads its tendrils into this and many other worlds.”

  “What exactly is the tower?” Silvia glanced at the worshiped entity.

  “You can think of it as my nest, my birthplace, which somehow ended up inside the giant, most likely on one of its wandering journeys,” he responded. “I have no idea how they managed to link themselves to my lifeforce, though. It should be impossible.”

  “There is nothing impossible for the most devout believers,” Abyss shared a bit of her wisdom. “The enemy you have slain might have played a role in it too, as I assume these creatures weren’t so interested in you before.”

  “On the day of the great prophecy, we left our home in search of our dark master,” the Shades said in unison. “It is our duty to serve.”

  “You must have done something to the blood,” Asterios offered his thoughts. “Because I bet that this thing wasn’t the only one you bested.”

  “Definitely not. It wasn’t even the strongest at that time.” Umbra shook his head. “But none of that matters now. I can’t get rid of them. I can only hope that the demon from your realm doesn’t start another cult, as I can barely tolerate this one. I still regret coming back.”

  It looked like no matter how harsh he was on his followers, they didn’t care.

  Talk about total fanaticism.

  “You have returned just in time, Great Duke,” one Shade stated.

  “What?” The Lord of Shadows glared at it.

  A powerful ripple shook the entire pocket space enough for Ast’s group to stumble a little, pieces of the ceiling coming down.

  “The unworthy has been waiting for your return to take your throne,” another Shade said. “It is time for the wretched offender to learn its place.”

  Everyone looked up towards the liquid mirror. One by one, massive dark blue tentacles slid into the restricted area. They were thick and full of ugly suction cups from the bottom side, which were used to glue the writhing limbs to the ceiling. Soon, the rest of the monster emerged from the gate, revealing itself as something akin to an octopus whose bulbous head was replaced by a gigantic maw straight out of a horror story.

  “I knew it was a mistake…” Umbra sighed.

  The monstrosity roared and let go, hurtling towards the ground. With another powerful quake, it smashed into the hard surface, its full size finally comparable to something. It was almost as big as the spire, capable of wrapping itself around the tall and thin mountain without a problem.

  Asterios and his mates readied themselves to intercept the new enemy, but their shadowy friend raised a hand to stop them.

  “I’ll handle this,” the Duke announced. “It’s the host’s obligation to clean up their house before the visit. And it’s been a while since another fool challenged my authority.”

  Without waiting for a response, Umbra dropped down too. As he fell, the black fog seeping out of the spire changed directions. Along with the smoke on the ground, it flowed up and into his figure, which took the shape of a quickly growing sphere. Before he crashed just like his opponent had, he reached almost equal size to the scary octopus.

  The tiny planet of black haze exploded upwards like a water drop and formed an old but very familiar shape. Rivaling the height of the octopus, Umbra rose into a tall pillar of darkness with two purplish slits for his eyes. An oppressive spiritual pressure filled the entire area, the light seemingly sucked straight out of the air as the space around them dimmed.

  Once again, the Duke of Umbra stood in front of them in his full glory, holding back nothing. Even though Asterios and his mates had grown since that fateful day of their first meeting, they still shivered slightly from the memory, reliving that powerful moment. Those who hadn’t been there back then could base their impressions only on the current display, which was still quite impactful.

  It looked like they were finally going to see what it meant for their usually kind and considerate friend to go all out.

  Chapter 13

  Clash of the Titans

  Selene swung her arm and brought the platform carrying everyone further away from the two colossi facing each other. She was ready to take more steps to assure their safety as she had no doubts that the battle they were about to witness would be intense. Asterios shared a glance with her and nodded appreciatively, conveying through their bond that the others would be on watch too.

  The challengers wasted no time on pleasantries. A bone-grinding shriek left the scary maw of the tentacle monster, the air visibly shaking from the powerful waves. Ast’s party caught their heads as the invasive noise assaulted not just their ears but even their internal organs. Even Ast’s boosted roar couldn’t currently achieve such intensity.

  It was starting to feel like a fight between gods.

  Umbra wasn’t impressed by the sonic attack, his shadowy form rippling under its assault. He was aware of the discomfort the others suffered, though, so he gathered a lot of black mist on his right side and materialized a limb resembling an arm. Within a blink, a massive fist struck the wailing beast, and a blast of darkness caused another tremor, this time affecting the ground.

  His opponent was blown back and went silent as its writhing body smashed into the boundary of the pocket dimension. Before the ominous dust settled, four tentacles shot out of the created hole and began pulling the monster back into the open. Then, one more limb joined, which soared straight at Umbra.

  The Lord of Darkness scoffed and altered his figure. Ordering the black fog that made up his form to scatter, he created an empty spot just where his opponent was going to damage him. As the tentacle stabbed right through it, he forced the gap to close, trapping the ugly appendage inside him. It clearly surprised the monstrosity as its movements halted.

  Without further ado, Umbra formed another arm on the other side and grabbed the tentacle firmly. Yanking it towards himself, he pulled the beast out of the crater and began spinning. The hellish octopus screeched as it was dragged in circles, hitting the ground, the earth and stone spikes, and the uneven spots in the terrain.

  But that didn’t last long.

  More tentacles surged forward even amidst all that chaos, and they wrapped themselves around Umbra’s pillar-like stature. One by one, the number grew high enough that it actually affected the speed with which Ast’s companion was able to spin around. Until finally, it could bite back.

  Literally.

  Using all those sticky limbs, it suddenly brought itself face to face with Umbra, and its vile maw opened wide. It was obvious that the monster was intending to take a bite out of him. Thankfully, before the sharp teeth closed around the top of his incorporeal body, a massive amount of spikes launched outwards, turning Umbra into a shadowy porcupine for a brief moment.

  A horrifying wail pierced the air just as the needles pierced into the octopus’ inner flesh. However, while that certainly halted its plans, it didn’t completely deter the attacker. Closing its circular maw, it wound its limbs around the dangerous barbs, choosing to squeeze its prey to death. Asterios heard a snort by his side as Miria expressed her amusement at the feeble attempt. The proud grin adorning her adorable face didn’t last long, though.