The dark mists before them churned like a massive pool of living tar—thick, black, and almost pulsing with its own rhythm.
It wasn't just darkness, it was as if the very concept of light had been devoured by whatever substance that mist was made of.
Its surface rippled slowly, breathing in and out, expanding and retracting like lungs filled with malice.
Every so often, faint, eerie sounds emerged from within.
They weren't quite screams, yet they carried that same chilling quality—like distant echoes of lost souls crying beneath layers of time and shadow.
The air itself vibrated faintly, carrying the low hum of despair that seemed to seep into the bones of anyone who stood too close.
Rox, however, sat casually on the jagged edge of a large rock formation, her helmet tilted slightly as she watched the mist with quiet familiarity.
A few meters away, Gelhyne was at work, kneeling on one knee as she arranged several small metallic tools in a precise pattern along the ground.
Each device was no larger than a pebble, yet each emitted a faint hum and a soft glow of blue eidric energy that pulsed in sync—like heartbeats echoing from another world.
Rox tilted her head, curiosity present in her eyes.
"What are those for?"
Gelhyne didn't respond.
Her focus was unwavering as she extended a hand over one of the glowing pebbles, whispering a series of words in an ancient dialect—low, melodic, and rhythmic.
Rox couldn't make out the language, but the sound alone carried weight, like a hymn carried by the wind.
And then, one by one, the devices reacted.
*whirrr!!!
A pulse of light traveled through the ground as the pebbles glowed brighter—first faint, then building into a radiant flare.
Lines of pure eidra connected them together, forming a perfect circular pattern around Gelhyne.
The air vibrated, the energy within the tools harmonizing like instruments tuning to the same pitch.
*Whirr!!!
Finally, a blinding surge of light erupted upward from each beacon, shooting into the air like columns of energy that pierced the skiesl above them.
The beacons hummed, resonating together, their combined force made the nearby mists come closer until they were consumed by the eidric force being emitted.
Slowly but surely, the mists nearby continued to seep into the energy… making one of several pebbles to whirr even more powerfully.
""Veil Torrents," Gelhyne finally answered, her voice steady but her eyes still fixed on the glowing devices scattered across the dirt.
Each one pulsed rhythmically, feeding tendrils of light into the mist as if daring it to react.
Rox raised a brow beneath her helmet, watching with a mix of intrigue and skepticism.
"They're conduits," Gelhyne continued, straightening her posture as she noticed Rox's curious stare.
"Each one channels a specialized strain of eidra that interacts directly with the mists of the Umbral Veil.
Once it absorbs enough of the mist's residual energy…" —she gestured to the devices as they flared briefly—
"It can be refined into an ember. A lantern's ember."
Her tone dropped, turning sharper.
"Lanterns capable of piercing the Umbral Veil itself."
Rox's visor tilted slightly, eyes narrowing as the faint hum of the Torrents echoed across the clearing.
"I see," she said slowly.
"So that's your plan. You'll use these embers to craft lanterns for your expedition team."
"Precisely." Gelhyne's reply was quick, confident, and absolute.
Her right hand began to glow faintly with eidra as she knelt beside one of the Torrents, the energy swirling around her fingertips as she prepared to perform another calibration.
"Now, all I need to do is enhance its—"
*ROAAAAAAAAAR!!!
The air split apart with a sound so monstrous that it rattled the very ground beneath them.
The mists rippled violently, twisting like waves under a storm, the black tar-like clouds reacting as if alive and enraged.
Both women froze.
Rox's helmet sensors spiked with readings as her hand instinctively went to her weapon.
Gelhyne's eyes widened, her concentration breaking completely as the glowing devices flickered under the force of the roar.
"Umbral Beasts…" Rox hissed through her teeth, her voice low but sharp with urgency.
She swung her rifle up, cocking it with a satisfying clack as the chamber whirred with glowing blue eidra.
Her stance lowered, her eyes locked on the shifting black wall ahead.
The mist stirred violently once more—until something enormous moved within.
Gelhyne's heart dropped.
She turned and sprinted toward Rox, her cloak whipping behind her.
She had been standing too close to the Torrents,
too close to the edge of the fog.
"Damnit!" she shouted—but her voice was drowned by another deafening roar.
The dark haze split open.
Something massive and grotesque tore through the veil—its body covered in writhing sinew, dripping black ichor that hissed as it touched the ground.
Its form was barely stable, its edges flickering like flame and shadow mixed into one.
"Shit!" Rox cursed, realization striking fast as her finger tightened around the trigger.
Yet with no hesitation, she held off her finger from the trigger as she slung the rifle off her back in one smooth motion.
*BANG!
She then launched forward in a blur—a hard and lightning fast dash that closed the gap to Gelhyne in an instant.
While Rox do indeed lack eidra, the innate and natural physical capabilities of the Corvi species prove very beneficial.
As she reached over Gelhyne, she swiftly scooped her up by the waist and slung her over one shoulder as if she was luggage.
"Urgh!" Gelhyne grunted at the almost instant motion of her body being swung over Rox's shoulder.
Rox then varied her away from the beast before it could reach them,
*Scrrkkkkk!
Rox's boots scraped on the ground as she halted her dash, releasing a breath as she looked at the beast, now behind them.
Gelhyne, still slung over Rox's shoulder, took no time to waste as she extended both of her hands forward and aimed them towards the beast.
For a split second, her arms and hands began to crackle with eidric energy…
*Vwooom!
Before unleashing a torrent of gravitational eidra that completely wrapped the beast's body in mere seconds.
Then, with a clench of both of her hands, the eidra took root and began to explode with force as it slammed into the beast, pinning it under an invisible pressure that buckled its legs and forced it to stagger.
*Shrieeeeeeeeeeek!
"Put me down and finish it off!" Gelhyne shouted as she continued to unleash her power.