Grim Eternity

"I've missed you love."

These words rang like ricocheting shrapnel through Tzipora's mind. That familiar voice, one she hadn't heard in years, pierced her straight to the heart. "Is it really you?" Tzipora whispered, "I thought you died."

The hazy figure smiled sadly, "I did, dear. I am only a spirit." She hovered over Tzipora and lightly stroked her hair. Tzipora shuddered at the familiar sensation.

"Mom!" Tzipora called out with all the weight of her years of longing. She tried to embrace her, but sailed straight through her mother's spiritual body.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Tzipora's mother apologized. "I can do something about that." Her foggy form slowly materialized and solidified, still glowing a hazy blue, but no longer translucent. She had long, dark curly hair like Tzipora, but her face was more solemn looking, with high, pronounced cheekbones, and sunken eyes.

She quickly embraced the embarrassed Tzipora in a tight hug. "Is that better, Tzipora?" Tears were streaming in buckets down her wrinkled face.

Tzipora relaxed in her mother's embrace. "Yes... you don't know how much I've missed this."

"I think I do, love." Tzipora's mother smiled. "How's Yothr been?" She naturally wanted to know how her husband was living after they had been separated by death.

"He's fine." Tzipora assured her mother, before tilting her head in recollection. "Well, things were looking pretty bad for a while, but he's healthy as a gryzocerous now thanks to Anak."

"A gryzocerous?" Tzipora's mother inquired, having never seen nor heard of the terrifying, nearly unkillable predator.

Tzipora shook her head bemusedly, "It's a big scary animal. That's not important. What matters is that Anak helped me and dad a lot."

"That's you?" She smiled at Anak disarmingly as she let go of Tzipora and turned his way.

Anak cleared his throat as he answered. "That's right. Though actual-"

"And who are you to my daughter?" Tzipora's mother suddenly asked a pointed question. It seemed she had disarmed him earlier in order to strike. She was a good mother.

"Mom!" Tzipora protested in frustration. They were in a nebulous stage of their relationship that was difficult to define. They could be considered tacitly engaged after their prior conversation about marriage that promised a later ceremony, but the term 'betrothal' was only ever used to refer to noble or royal arranged unions, nothing voluntary. So it was a rather difficult-to-answer question that her mother asked Anak.

"I'm her husband." Anak directly stated.

"Anak!" Tzipora protested sheepishly this time. She was now thoroughly embarrassed.

As they both looked at the blushing Tzipora, Anak and Tzipora's mother laughed simultaneously.

"I am Libbi, but you may call me Mother." Tzipora's mother, Libbi, winked at Anak as she offered her hand.

Anak smiled and, taking her offered hand, actually half-knelt and kissed her knuckles like one would when greeting a noble-lady. "I am pleased to finally meet you, Mother. Your son is called Anak."

"Ooh, so polite. Tzipora did you marry a little noble?" Libbi joked towards her daughter, but Tzipora actually stammered, unable to answer. "Wait... are you a noble?" Libbi's brows shot upwards as she aimed a suspicious glance towards Anak.

"Eh... more or less." Anak hesitantly answered. He didn't have a title himself, but Edo officially bore the title of War Master, one of only two, though he'd never participated in any wars. With the Book of War and his sharp mind Edo had been able to revolutionize military strategy in the city of Ischuros and the eventual Haskud Kingdom. This title would be passed to Anak whenever Edo retired from the post, so he could be considered a title-less noble. In time, people in such circumstances would have all kinds of titles conferred on them as well, but Gel-ad hadn't gotten that far into the Tome of Kings yet.

"Mom, stop it. No one in the city of Ischuros has done more for us than Anak." Tzipora stepped between the two.

"So? What is Ischuros? Home to a power-hungry king and a bloodthirsty people. So what if you found someone better? It's not hard to be the best of a bad bunch." Libbi huffed through her nostrils in contempt.

Anak smiled dryly. "Well, I'm sorry if my parents status is a problem for you. The truth is it doesn't really matter that much. Tzipora is already my wife." He stood his ground, certain this was better than weakly trying to suite whatever whims Libbi had.

Sure enough, Libbi relaxed slightly."Well, at least you've got the guts to stand by her. It's a start."

"If you don't mind my asking," Anak preambled after a brief awkward silence. "Are you the only spirit here?" He put on his best I'm-just-your-caring-son-in-law expression.

Tzipora poked Libbi between her shoulders, prodding her to trust Anak, and making Libbi twitch ticklishly. "Alright, alright. Tzipora, please?" She prompted Tzipora to stop as she decided to give them the information. There was something important related to that information she needed to tell Tzipora anyways.

"The spirits of most our tribe are here, as well as some spirits who came here from surrounding lands. However," She shook her head sadly, "There are few who've kept their wits. They roam the labyrinth in a mad daze mostly." Suddenly her solid shape dissipated back into its original misty form. "I'm sorry, that requires a lot of emotional energy to keep up." the spirit wiped her translucent brow.

Anak whistled lowly, apparently impressed at the idea of a haunted labyrinth. "Sounds like quite the adventure," he cracked.

"It's not a joke." Libbi sternly reprimanded. "Death is worse than you realize. Before we fled to this place, we saw several of our own have their spirits sucked up into those black clouds a bit at a time while on the surface. I don't think they even exist anymore. It's another one of the Demon King's designs on this world. That is probably why our spirits linger, so he can consume them." She turned to Tzipora. "You both have to leave this place, survive, and pass this information to someone who can help."

"Not to worry." Anak relaxedly placed his hand against the wall where Tzipora had initially led him. It flashed with blue light and a portal appeared like a controlled rift in space. "I have it on good authority that I won't die easily."

"Who's authority?" Libbi stomped her foot in frustration, sending it phasing partially through the floor.

Anak mischievously smiled, "The voice in my head." He winked, before leaping through the portal.

"Is he insane?" Libbi turned numbly to Tzipora, who was trying to contain her laughter at Anak's departing line.

"Certifiably," Tzipora nodded energetically before laughing uproariously.

"Maybe you both are..." Libbi muttered.

...

The first thing Anak noticed as he stepped through the portal was the scores of spirits drifting down the wide, round hallway, illuminating it with their fuzzy blue light. Many of them even carried spears, bows, swords, or staffs of a sort Anak had never before seen. They weren't enchanter staffs, they didn't have any kind of carvings. What were they for then? Blunt weapons maybe?

While he was standing there analyzing the odd staffs, a ghost spotted him and uttered an ear-piercing screech, drawing the attention of every other spirit in the vicinity. He quickly ducked under a saber swung his way and grabbed ahold of it, ripping it easily from the grasp of the ghost that had attacked. Their weapons, at least, were fully real and solid.

A cluster of arrows flew his way and he batted them aside with the saber easily. It was quite the opposite of his preferred broadsword, but he wielded the saber equally as proficiently, having trained in all manner of bladed weapons, from broadswords to daggers; naturally sabers fell in between.

He swept away at hosts of ghosts as they closed in, disarming them, but unable to land any blows on their ethereal forms. "Damn, if only I'd learned some enchanting." Anak grumbled. Enchanters could use their arts to interact with the non-physical world, and he needed that ability now desperately as he was surrounded by viscous, angry spirits. One of the spirits wielding a staff aimed its blunt end at Anak in a dramatic pose.

"Are you joking? Trying to intimidate me?" Anak smiled mockingly at the spirit, but suddenly a burst of flame and a streak of lightning flashed from the staff, impacting his chest directly on the dark, metal-fiber robe Anak had worn since the day he fled Ischuros.

Anak was sent spinning into the wall on his left, and the ghost that shot the spell at Anak planted the butt of its staff in the ground proudly like a national flag. Smoke was rising from Anak's robe, and the occasional electrical spark flickered through its metallic surface.

"What kind of spell-work was that?" Anak muttered in surprise as he rose back to his feet. "Well, either way, thanks. I needed that." Suddenly, from his dark robe a wave of electricity and flame engulfed him in a circumference of several meters. The spirits hit by this blast-wave were immediately vaporized, including the shocked ghost-mage that had been cockily posing with its staff.

The robe which was gifted to Anak by Edo was especially tailored and enchanted, taking advantage of the properties of the metal it was imbued with. It was a rare ore that came from a meteorite that fell at the dawn of the Demon King's rule over Vinetum. It was collected in Ischuros, and languished in a safe unable to be used until Edo and Eva arrived with the Manual of Divine Weaponry. The metal made from this ore was dubbed enkallibar. It meant heavenly netherworld metal, because it was perfect for both absorbing and reflecting magical and mystical forces, and was an otherworldly black color.

Anak smiled at the now apprehensive remaining spirits. "Let's do this," he confidently declared, diving straight at the next ghost wielding a staff with a savage grin.