Trail Of Dark

Axiolypito bent his back and not anything else to dodge, twisting his arms and hands around, he crawled away as though he was possessed.

The questioning was nice and all, but Axio had only wanted to confirm a single thing for his plan, seeing the piles of bodies and such, he knew that the old man had in fact, not moved from the room he had originally been in, he had simply stopped making sound for whatever reason.

Eyeing a hole leading to the ocean close-by, Axio smiled in a not-so repulsive fashion, almost charmingly in fact.

The venator was coming at him still, willing to try his chance even if he had no real reason to believe he could get the wretch to an early grave.

Axio spat saliva at the hunter, the spit going at an awfully fast pace.

Taken aback by the projectiles, the old man focused on deflecting the harmless move, it was just fast spit after all, it might sting a little bit at best.

Axio slid in between his legs and jumped into the hole, not even making a plop as he immerged himself in the stagnant ocean.

He calmly swam over to where the hunter should be, then, looking around, he noticed a random marine beast swimming around.

Ironically, even though the monsters had been given light again and could make use of their eyes that had grown used to the darkness, things had become less dangerous for Axiolypito.

Now they could clearly see how unappetising he was, no monster that had an idea of what he looked like was willing to even try and take a bite.

Much like how mundane sharks wouldn't give a thought to tasting a human unless it was severely starving, to them, his appearance rhymed with unknown and disease.

Axio had his ways however, forming a monster flare in the between his two palms, he stuck both of his hands together, only slightly opening it in direction of this particular creature, getting its attention despite the distance, something monster bait wouldn't have been able to do.

One of the good things about this unwanted trip at the sea was that Axio had gotten to learn about his powers a bit more, especially those he used the least.

Enthralled by the peculiar light flashing at it, the monster rushed without thought, Axio projected an illusion for it, giving it the impression that behind the wretch, no obstacles would impede on a charge.

It frankly wasn't necessary, this lowly monster wasn't intellectual enough to think of such things when flashed by the flare.

Swiftly swimming around it just as it was about to crash into him, it planted its face into the stone ceiling and simultaneously felt something stabbing it in the nape.

Now under his control, Axio forced it to repeatedly smash its own head into the ceiling, breaking parts off little by little, until there was a significant difference compared to the rest.

Axio then ordered it to stay still, it was severely disfigured but still operational enough to serve as an additional landmark.

Satisfied with this, Axio placed himself right underneath the monster and swam straight down, making sure not to deviate in the least until he reached the bottom.

This was one part done, the hunter should remain in place, he had put markings in case he didn't remember the directions, now he needed to find the hardest piece for his plan to have a change to function.

He needed to find something that would force Nartak to give chase.

It was easier said than done with his little information about the serpent and the place.

'King, Nartak, Abyss, a stranger, two other men, venerer, venator, blobfish, loop, stagnation...' he repeated in his head, this was when he would appreciate if additional minds would come barging in and give their own thoughts.

Obviously, the fuckers of the crystal didn't show up to lend a hand.

'The King, Nartak, a stranger, two men, a stranger before me...'

'The stranger had brought something, the blobfish said so, I believe'

'If I go ahead and assume that the two other that were present when the venator got there were that lost king and that stranger, then...'

He had no clue where he was going with this, he was just thinking about everything he had learned, trying to put the seemingly important figures together to form a picture.

'Nartak and the king were friends, very good friends, enough for the serpent to agree to a fate worse than death to protect something dear to the king'

'Huh, there was someone else dear to this king... Wasn't there? His piece of mind or whatever? His dear lady it was, a queen then' the wretch stood on the floor of the ocean, his dark hair rising up whilst he scratched his chin.

'The blobfish said the king lost her, meaning that she's probably dead-'

"Hah" a bubble escaped his mouth, his face twisting into one of the terrible expressions he was known for, a nearby predator, who had been eyeing him shuddered and swam away without looking back at the sight.

This smile was nothing but charming, calling it a facial expression was almost stretching it, no visage should be allowed to warp so much, it was like the visual representation of vileness.

Anyone watching it would assume that Axiolypito had either completely lost his mind or was just already an utter nutcase.

"?" he only stopped his mad fit of laughter as he notices something from the corner of his eyes, some sort of dark blue cloud.

It was a manifestation of the Abyss, or rather, a trace left of its passage.

It definitely wasn't there before, neither were the other clouds that followed after it or came before, a trail of dark had suddenly appeared before Axio's eyes.

As though his sight had become sharper and more sensible to the Abyss, he noticed the slight destruction beneath every single cloud.

The Abyss manifested itself in a strange fashion, Axio thought of clouds but it wasn't quite right.

It simultaneously looked as though a foreign liquid of a different density was gather around, but also looked like a visible gas, sometimes seeming stiff as if it was solid or wavering like flames.

The center of the various bizarre tendrils being as dark as Axio had ever seen, the outer portions appearing as this dark blue the wretch had grown more familiar with.

Somehow, he felt compelled to follow the trail, his instincts and somehow, his better judgement seemed both convinced that it was the natural course to follow.