Chapter 35 - Unknown

A sandal'd foot, and the butt of a spear. That was all anyone could see, with the dim light of the crystals. Yet he knew what it was.

The Spear Daughter. 

He cast his gaze down the long line of undead, from side to side, gathering all of what he could see. 

The gate itself was hundreds of feet across, built for ten or more giants stood side by side to be able to pass through at once. Her surmised that there would be some sort of challenge past this point.

The Blind Daughter had fought tooth and nail against an invasion of Nightmares and Monsters, the flood of them, had passed through and attacked, leaving little to the imagination.

She had faced the West. 

The Spear Daughter, if he remembered correct, watched dutifully over the south. He could not see what it was that she was watching on the carving of the Gate, but, he imagined it would be equal in scale to the Blind Daughter.

He idly wondered, what it could be, that was being held, past all of these gates. What was it that was hidden here, and why, if Constance and Awick had come down to clear a path for the civilians, had they not cleared the gates before going deeper? 

It didn't make sense now that he thought about it a bit more.

She had come down to clear a path for the civilians to escape out of the Hollow Mountains without having to fight the legions of nightmares roaming the mountains, but, she had left the Defiled behind, and the Gates open?

Something must have chased her… something… Argo, he… looked back.

He had never thought about it.

Why had he never, thought about it?

If the Gates had been around for millennia, then there would surely be something more than a Defiled down here… and if it could make Awick and Constance run deeper inside abandoning their objective…

…He grabbed the girl tighter, and looked back ahead.

Something was there in the dark.

He didn't know what it was.

Or for what reason it had stayed its hand.

But he knew it was there. 

It was staring at them. 

Murphy hadn't noticed.

Was he unaware? Or did he not care? Impossible.

If he had noticed, then, Murphy had to have noticed.

Or was it focusing on obscuring Murphy's senses on it?

The Defiled could hide away completely from Murphy, despite being at a far weaker level. What could a Nightmare that was far stronger than that Defiled do?

Two fixations? Three? …four? 

Argo didn't look back again.

He wasn't sure if it was paranoia that had struck him in this lightless place, but, if it discovered that he knew it was there, then he was certain that it would no longer solely focus on Murphy, and he would quickly be caught in a far stronger obstruction.

Was it that Defiled' parent? 

Did they even have parents? 

The girl was staring back at the dark. She had been staring there, with her wide eyes, the entire time that she had been held in Argo's arms. 

He wanted her to look away, but, he couldn't do so without arousing suspicion. Was the creature injured? 

If it was strong enough to hide from Murphy, as well as powerful enough to make Awick back down and run with Constance and their group, then it was strong enough to kill Murphy before he could notice.

Was there even anything hiding there? 

Murphy's magic began. 

A great magic circle began to form in the air, as the outline, and then within, more magic circles began to slowly form, as they were drawn together by Murphy's will over his magic. 

Such a large formation took a great deal of mana, to maintain until completion, since the ambient mana in the world was constantly burning it apart, to try and return back to a sum zero of neither more or less than the original amount.

Nature itself fought against magic.

The girl reached out to the dark. Argo's pupils shrank. She had to know that it was dangerous. It couldn't be that she was unaware? 

Was this one of her childish moments? Murphy hadn't noticed since he was focused on the formation. But, if he saw her looking back, he would turn his head too, and once he sees whatever it is… Argo kneeled down.

He stood the girl up in front of himself, and looked at her. She looked at him. They exchanged looks for a little bit, and he spoke softly, "Are you tired?" 

The girl was still for a little, and then weakly nodded her head. Tired or not, she had gotten the message. Argo smiled warmly. There were soldiers and mages glancing over. 

"Then sleep. I'll wake you when we're there." He picked her up, and using a small amount of aura, put her to sleep, and held her close, her arms around his neck, she slept on his shoulder. 

He could not fool Murphy if he checked, so she had to actually be put to sleep. 

Whatever it was, the more he thought about it, the stronger the feeling of being watched grew. It felt sharp and indifferent. 

It was waiting.

What was it waiting for?

What did it want?

Their souls? 

Their flesh? 

Bones? Despair? Or something else? 

He did his best to not tighten his jaw. 

To not show any changes at all, only holding her. He focused on her breathing, and rise and fall of her little body as she did so.

He held her up, to make sure she was comfortable, and couldn't slip or fall.

He focused solely on her. He couldn't slip up.

A single mistake… he wished to go back to before he had looked back.

It was lingering between the lines of undead. They hadn't noticed it either. It was walking between them. He could feel the spine chill moving around as the places he looked at them from did.

Corrupted? Accursed? Profane? What could it be? What was this ancient indifference?

What was stalking them?

He was snapped from his thoughts, and completely lost track of the feeling of being watched, at the sound of the massive gate opening slightly. 

Now that he thought about it, watching the colossal doors open, how had Awick managed to open them? 

A flood of thoughts rushed him as he felt his mind clearing up further.

He didn't have magic. And even with Magic, it looked like a titanic task to just crack them open enough to form a tiny parting, five people wide.

It was a narrow straight, after all of that effort.

And if they had come through here, wouldn't the door still be open? There were too many inconsistencies. Red had said they were trapped in the laboratory, which meant they knew where they were.

Was it a mole in their group? Had they lost contact and didn't know which way was the secret path taken by Awick? 

Would Lunston go that way as well? 

Argo looked dead ahead. 

Light poured through the narrow crack in the doors…. There was laughing. Hearty laughing at that. But, it was not right. 

He felt a chill up his spine.

He was certain if he looked back now, he would see whatever it was, standing underneath the undead. 

It was very close by.

Extremely close.

Murphy began to move the undead forward through the narrow gap, the soldiers and mages either rode them, or walked beside or beneath them.

It wasn't the first time they had passed one of these gates, but, it was also not such a massive gate the last time. 

Had the gate shut behind them, back then…?

His pupils shrank.

Had it been stalking them this entire time? Was it shutting the gates? What kind of strength… 

His heart was beating out of his chest. 

What the hell... was in here with them?