Darkheart

As Rickley's Bolero tapered off to silence moments before, so too did the Mafia's geyser dwindle into a steady stream that rippled down the walls to Zimysta's basin, now filled almost to the pedicel with dark blue, almost violet waters.

It was entirely too much water, according to Cononthoth, but it would soon drain. Her growling was unjustified whining; mine was warranted, for I had to guide my closest followers into the belly of a demonic spider, but not before the Black Plume made its history.

So it was. I surveyed the cavern a final time, comparing what had been to what was now- the transition to something greater; passing my eye up and down, from left to right, until they settled on the arcane tower a few dozen meters behind me, in the pedicel.

With his horniness slapped aside by the shell shock of the powerful seed sown within him, Eban seemed much smaller in his tower. Now that he could see through this pervasive darkness, his many-ringed fingers rubbed each other nervously as he glanced beyond the windows, taking in the sundered sights of everything he'd ever known.

The roaring of water, the acrid stench of burnt hair and charred flesh; lingering chemicals and fading tunes; the clacking of bone creatures and the groans of the dead, all mixed with Sovereign Galendra's snickering and the chattering of spiders. All things considered, I couldn't blame him. Lilith's divine mana had been reduced to a concentrated point within her tower, while mine, although less powerful, was spread from the First Sanctuary in the Rharian Deep Dark to here, connected by a taproot of twilight spread by the First Druid.

And so, now came the time for the second Twilight Sanctuary to rise from the rubble of Zimysta Falls.

It began with the absorption of Eban's tower. The shadows seemed to overtake it as it withered, shrinking to the size of Eban's many rings and, in turn, widening the convex junction in Zimysta's center into a concave face of darkness. Then, with a few words exchanged, Sovereign Galendra turned to meet my eyes and faded into wisps of shadow, appearing by my side a moment later.

So it was. Eban drifted to and landed on the ceiling overlooking the basin with Iris, in a clearing of violet and black moss, canopied by the gilded overarching branches of the Darklight Forest.

He tentatively greeted the rest of the Troupe before Reina and Rickley dismissed themselves, giving Eban a first row seat to what I viewed from afar. Although, unlike me, his mind wasn't racing, rambling about rewards and unholy items for the Plume and wondering what horrors I would soon face from Lilith's most fanatical followers.

Rickley stood off to the side within a few steps and positioned herself to add a subtle but fitting ambiance to Reina, stepping toward the first and largest tree with Limy and Tava trailing her. It was a bit like a water lily, if the stem was the size of a tree trunk and the flower was like a radar dish, spewing out spore-like seeds like pollen caught in the wind.

When Reina stopped before it, the stamen stalks ceased their wavering for the first time since it sprouted with a great shudder, causing the clouds of spores to cascade over those gathered. It formed something like an aura as it stopped short of their skin, then began swirling as Limy and Tava began chanting, making their auras rise and fall with Reina's hand, drawing a line down the center of the stem.

Unlike the Troupe, I saw more than that gilded line crease the stem, making it fold inward on itself. I saw that line force a growth spurt in the taproot Reina formed and watched it pierce the Darkworld like a heavenly spear, phasing through uncountable volumes of degenerate stone until it reached that sacred place in the Deep Dark.

There, in that sanctuary built what felt like so long ago, a pair of crimson eyes settled on a vertical black line splitting the bark of those intertwined trees. She stepped through without delay and fell, tumbled through a starry expanse for an endless second before her foot found solid ground once again.

After a few swift steps, the Twilight Empress stood between Reina and Limy, with Tava close behind her, and like an owl inspecting a potential nest, scanned the fallen eyes and legs of Zimysta. Her doll-like visage was unchanging as it moved from hollowed sphere after sphere, noting the magma, water, ice, and fumes leaking into the cavern before her eyes rose to Queen Demon Spider's temple above.

Unlike most in this cavern- even me- she could almost innately feel the divine power radiating from the cruel spire jutting from the ceiling, giving her a sense of G'eldantaar's superstructure embedded in the bedrock above. True to its position, it was like a crown of blades- or rather, a bladed halo encircling that central spire. One that rose and repeated in concentric circles like a sadistic pine tree capped by a crimson jewel.

Seeing it made us react in differing ways. I started off at an amiable pace toward the tower, relying on the spurts of ki from my feet to give me footholds where none existed while Sovereign Galendra lazily orbited me. Opal, on the other hand, requested Reina's assistance and detached from the ceiling to drift down to the basin.

Wreathed in the legendary armor I made her, Opal looked like a veritable star in the dark, as the gilded Faerie Flames enveloping G'eldantaar reflected off the Starscale in her armor beautifully, casting crepuscular clouds and projecting illusory nebulae across the ceiling. They swayed and rippled from the lazy flaps of her wings, rising from her lower back to kick out like the knee of a harp, occluding almost all eyes from the sight of her armor's Stargrave, soaking in the twilight to corrupt it into a necrotic darkness that made the undead settle with a silent shudder.

While Opal and Tava floated above, Reina and Limy descended to the basin and fell beneath the inky surface, the former sinking like a water-logged stump rather than a rock that dragged the undying shadow down with her. Hardly any sediment lifted from their landing- a far cry from the energies released above and below.

It began with Opal and Tava, gurgling arcane blood while murmuring a long-winded prayer about corruption and rebirth. Arms clasped in prayer, looking up at me, they looked mad on the brink of death, suffering from grievous wounds that saw gallons of blood spew from their maws. Yet the prayers continued, and with such a fervor that the sound sent ripples through their black blood as it leaked down their armor and robes, soaking it in divine and necrotic energies until it eventually dripped into the abyssal waters.

Seconds later, Reina started an offering to nature in the form of a dance of sorts. Her mind eased, her hands swayed, and her body moved in ways that called to nature's bounty, all while her flesh, floral, and life magic radiated from her frame in waves.

First came her flesh magic, which gave the dark waters a certain bloody essence that mixed readily with the Vampyric blood dripping in. Using manipulation, Limy took hold of the bloody water and, with Reina's aid, brute forced it through the stone. Bubbles broke apart the lake's surface as if it was boiling as it seeped in, cascading through whatever vacant pockets existed until it reached its maximum pressure, wherein Reina released her second wave.

The second wave was an influx of floral magic that attacked the crepuscular plants at a fundamental level, changing their preferences to that of the bloodied waters swamping their roots in ways that made them almost sentient. Their roots surged toward the saturated stone, greedily guzzling the eldritch fluid and causing the basin to drain in record time.

Left with nothing to sustain them, the arcane flora collectively shuddered before slowly wilting and withering. Yet, Reina had more to give; a crimson and green wave of fused floral and flesh magic that radiated from her frame.

From its influence, the gilded trees withered and unraveled into tendrils that regressed into the stone, barreling and boring for dozens of meters, until they reached an arbitrary barrier and amalgamated into a thick layer of leafy fat and woody tissue. The violet plants followed, filling the space between the woody epicardium and the cavern's inner wall with thickly muscled vines stacked atop one another like geological striations, capped with a layer of black moss compressed into a layer of silky tissue.

Reina released her final wave as the last flowers shifted to mimic flesh, ensuring not a single cell was forsaken by her life magic; subtle though the effect may have been. More of a pulse than a wave. It jolted the layers of muscle enveloping the falls in a way that made the ceiling buckle and quake as it spasmed, then flexed enough power to dislodge the many stalagmites and stalactites spread across its surface.

The flex attacked more than the outcroppings, however. It affected my spirit, crunching my cores to make electromagnetic mana and darkness flow from my spirit and fuse into twilit lightning; and as it did in the Tower of Might, it radiated from my skull like a nebulous tesla coil, sending golden lightning dancing across the fleshy flora- a defibrillator to jump start the newly formed Darkheart.

Thump-thump. Thump.

While the ritual had ended, the effects had yet to be set in stone. Only about ten minutes had passed and six times that remained, for the Darkheart had no blood to pump. And yet, the result was still the same.

What was once a cavern shaped in the likeness of a spider was now a multi-layered complex, hollowed with the many chambers and tunnels of a heart, with veins and arteries made from Nydorden, Reina's taproot, and G'eldantaar's soon to be corpse.

Rather than a cavern of chaos, it was now like a dormant reactor, one that would take light from above and darkness from below, merge them in this Darkheart, and send the resulting twilight along the pulmonary artery to what would become Cononthoth's lair.

There, in that crepuscular pocket, she would absorb the twilight and replace it with gloom, putting her one step further down her divine Draconic evolution and releasing her gloomy essence to be pumped back through the heart. And from twilight to gloom, it would flow out of the aorta and into Shujen's Underground and Darkworld.

Not just Shujen would change as a result, but Bodhi Peninsula as a whole; from the Deep Dark to the worlds woven above.

With her job done, Opal turned to Reina with a request to look after Karu and took flight over the Falls. Joined by Limy, Tava, and later, Kele, she came screeching to a halt before me and Sovereign Galendra, just a few hundred meters from G'eldantaar, saluting proudly.

"Glad you could join us." I dryly smiled, returning the gesture.

To which Opal bowed. "The pleasure is mine, my Liege."

Saying nothing more, I turned, allowing Sovereign Galendra to come up on my right while Opal stayed on my left, with Limy and Tava two trailing behind.

To my surprise, the one to greet us was the one I wanted to see the least- Yela, Etyl's 2nd daughter. Her mind was in control of 188 centimeters of drow sadism with over 3 centuries of experience in this shit hole. Her daughters; Nym, Nyx, Naphyss, Shaenya, and Schyrl, were lesser versions of her in varying ways; even Daulery, given the ruthlessness she displayed in taking back what was hers.

If there was anyone who'd throw shit at the fan, it was Yela. My only solace was the predatory glare Opal gave her. As, like Daulery, those traits would be of great benefit in death.

<<"Circumstances aside, we did not expect you to arrive with so many.">> She sang in our mother tongue. <<"Our task was to allow you and you alone to enter.">

<<"Such is the folly of expectations, Yela," I said dryly, much to her chagrin. <<"If I am to meet Lilith's Matrons, High Priestesses, and clerics, they will meet mine. That's the condition.">>

<<"Your conditions are not our concern.">>

'Ugh! I'm too old for this shit!' I internally groaned, shrugging as I turned away. <<"Very well.">>

<<"W- you wouldn't just leave at this most important time? Our tasks are-">>

<<"Your tasks are of no concern to me, Yela.">> I waved over my shoulder. <<"I have much more important things to than this. Goodbye.">>

<<"So it seems.">> I heard a pained groan echo from behind me, followed by a growl. <<"Enter. All of you.">>

Hiding back a grin, I faced about and floated toward the threshold while willing the shadows around my feet to retreat. And, for the first time in my life, the taps of my footsteps echoed hauntingly.