Deus Necros

Chapter 415: Deeper Into The Dark

The fortress felt wrong now in its stillness, like the silence after a storm when you expect another wave to crash but nothing comes. Dust hung suspended in faint shafts of light from cracked ceilings far above. The air still smelled of burnt oil and cold stone, but the tang of shadow, thick and metallic, was gone.

Ludwig let his hand fall back to his side. His palm still tingled from the mana that hadn’t found a target. “Alright then… guess we’re alive.” He shook his head, a quiet snort escaping him. “Or… mostly alive.”

“Whatever that thing was, it’s not ordinary,” she said softly, almost to herself. Her voice was steadier now, but there was a tremor hidden under the words. “I’ve never seen shadow behave like that.”

“Shadow? That thing is beyond shadow.” Ludwig rubbed at his temple, still processing what had happened. His thoughts raced through every tactic, every skill he’d prepared, and discarded them one by one. None would have matched what the hound had just done. “It ate them all… like they were never here.”

Celine’s eyes lingered on the hound, then flicked back to Ludwig. “And you… you summoned it?”

“Not exactly,” Ludwig admitted. His lips curled in a wry smile. “I’ve been trying ever since I got it. It never listened. Today? It just… came out on its own.” He looked down at the codex still floating by his side, its pages faintly smoking from whatever magic it had just performed. “Guess it decided I was worth saving, or maybe it just got hungry.”

A faint sound echoed through the chamber, a soft tick…tick…tick like dripping water. It drew Ludwig’s gaze back to the center of the circle where Celine now stood, her boots crunching softly on old dust and shards of stone. The runes carved into the ground pulsed faintly, dimming with each heartbeat.

“There’s something here,” Celine murmured. She crouched, setting Palios down beside her, and brushed away a layer of fine ash. Underneath was a dais of black stone, carved with symbols that hurt Ludwig’s eyes if he stared too long. Resting atop it was a hexagonal block no larger than her palm, jet black with a glasslike orb set into its center. The orb glimmered faintly, as if lit from within by coals.

“It feels… alive,” Celine said, her voice reverent but cautious. She didn’t reach for it immediately. Instead, she traced her fingers around the carvings, reading runes Ludwig didn’t recognize. “This… this is what powers the circle. It’s like a heart.”

“A heart, huh?” Ludwig stepped closer, the crunch of old bones under his boots loud in the silence. “Then take it out.”

Celine hesitated. Her jaw tightened. He could see the struggle in her eyes, the way her fingers twitched but didn’t yet move. “If I take it, whatever this thing is, this protection, it might vanish. I was using it here for days because of those Umbrites. Without this, I wouldn’t have survived.” Ludwig’s voice was quiet, steady. “And without it, they wouldn’t have been drawn here. But also I doubt they’ll try and mess with that guy over there anymore.”

She looked up at him, lips pressed together. Then she exhaled and reached down.

The moment her fingers closed around the artifact, the air changed. The humming in the runes ceased. The faint light dimmed. And then, like mist burned away by sunlight, the shadow-dome dissolved around her.

Celine rose, the object cradled in her hand. “It’s… cold,” she said, her voice almost a whisper.

Ludwig’s instincts bristled as he extended a hand. “Let me see.”

She placed it into his palm. The moment his fingers brushed the hexagonal edges, the orb pulsed faintly, black light spilling into the cracks. A rush of notifications flared across his vision.

[You have obtained the Vestige of Darkness.]

[You have completed the Vestige of Darkness Quest.]

[First part of the Quest, A Part of Necros, has been completed.]

[Quest Follow up

A Part of Necros Part 2

Use the Vestige of Darkness to remove the limitations on your body.]

[The Vestige of Darkness is reacting to: Shard of Darkness.]

[The Vestige of Darkness is reacting to: Soul Letting Lantern.]

Ludwig’s breath caught. From his hip, the Soul Letting Lantern vibrated, pulling itself free of its leather strap. It floated, glowing faintly, as the artifact rose to meet it. The shard of darkness he’d kept hidden within his lantern’s inventory flickered into existence as though yanked from thin air, then melded into the clear orb at the center of the vestige.

The black light grew intense, until Ludwig had to squint against it. Inside the orb, a small needle formed, thin, metallic, glinting like obsidian. It spun once, twice, then snapped into alignment, pointing steadily toward a deeper darkness beyond the fortress walls.

“A compass?” Celine murmured, her voice tinged with wonder and unease.

Ludwig turned the artifact in his hand, watching the needle hold its direction. “Not north,” he said quietly. “It’s pointing somewhere else.”

Ludwig then Inspected the Item

[Vestige of Darkness]

Category: Miscellaneous

Rarity: Mythic

Stored Darkness: 1/10

Durability: Infinite

Effects: An item that is fueled by Shards of Darkness. It is a strange item that has always been misunderstood, for many think of it as a compass that leads one to what they want, when it leads them only to what they need.

Ludwig’s eyes narrowed as he followed the direction the needle pointed, far beyond this ruined hall, deeper still into the shadowed arteries of the dungeon. He felt the pull of it in his bones, a faint tug like gravity, as though the artifact itself had entwined with his fate.

“Well,” he said at last, tucking the vestige carefully into his belt pouch, “looks like we’re not done.”

Celine’s fingers tightened on Palios’s hilt. She took a slow, steady breath and looked back toward the fortress entrance where the broken bridge gaped into a bottomless chasm. “Deeper,” she said softly, her voice unreadable.

Ludwig glanced at her, the faintest smile curling his lips despite the ache in his bones and the weight of the artifact at his hip. “Yeah. Deeper.”

The fortress groaned around them as if it disapproved. The air smelled of cold stone and old blood. Somewhere in the dark beyond, unseen things moved and waited.

And together, they stepped forward.