Lucien stared at the sight in front of him. White sand flowed down the dune, merging seamlessly with grey stone at the boundary. The stone surface stretched for about a mile before curving steeply into a mountain. The Hollow Mountains, his last chance at finding his mother. The end of his search, one way or another.
Strangely enough, a sense of danger persisted in his mind. He couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off.
Forcing his memory to return to his soul sea, Lucien went to take a step, but his legs wouldn't move. It was as if they had been locked in place. No matter what he tried, his legs simply wouldn't budge.
"What the hell?" He muttered, still staring at the white expanse in front of him. For some reason he didn't want to take his eyes off of it.
Something like this had only happened once before, back inside Nethers Tower. His legs had locked up before he could walk into a room filled with corruption. Now it was happening again.
Frowning, Lucien stared at the sand in front of him. There was nothing there, no source of corruption. Why then, were his legs stopping him?
He tried to look down at them, to see if something was wrong, but he couldn't. He couldn't possibly take his eyes off….
A wave of numbness suddenly washed over his mind, killing his thoughts. But, the moment that happened, two thoughts replaced it.
'What was that wave of numbness?' and 'Why did it happen just as he was about to think about-'
Another wave crashed into him, this one much stronger than the last. As soon as his thoughts were deleted, four more took their place, the two questions he had asked and…
Lucien's eyes flashed red as Nightveil activated, staring intently at an empty spot on the sand. At the same time, his consciousness dove into his soul sea, to the safety it offered.
As soon as the purple rays of his soul cores hit him, his mind cleared. All of the numbness disappeared at once, and so did his thoughts. Only one thought remained:
"Just what the hell are we fighting?"
As he floated on the turbulent waters of his soul sea, information flowed into his mind, information about the Fallen Terror they were facing.
A humanoid monster, with the ability to alter memories, remove thoughts, and subdue minds. The moment they looked at it, they had already lost. It was actively altering their memories, removing itself from them. To make them think that there was nothing there.
But that would have never been enough to beat them, so it subdued their minds, made them numb, so that they would not even think of fighting back. And even if they did, it could just remove that thought entirely.
Lucien shuddered, what a terrifying opponent.
Now, how was he going to counter it?
He couldn't possibly fight the mind hex head on, that would be a futile effort. It took him this long just to break free of it and run to his soul sea.
'Think back, when did the hex begin? How did it begin?'
It was right before he climbed up the dune of sand, when Nephis said there was no one on the other side. Right as he lay his eyes on it…
Come to think of it, that was probably why it didn't want Lucien to look away. All he needed to do was look away, close his eyes, or leave his physical body altogether.
If he were to fight it and stand a chance, he'd need to do it blindfolded. Fighting a Fallen Terror was bad enough, fighting it blindfolded was a death sentence for anyone.
Lucien wasn't just anyone though. His sight wasn't the only thing he was dependent on, far from it.
His storm sense for one, he had relied on it to guide him to the monster they were facing right now. If he localized it enough, he could make out people's movements in it. It was a strange thing he had noticed.
An impulse of electricity would originate from the brain and go to the part they wanted to move, say a hand. There was a short delay after the impulse reached the muscle, and before the body moved.
For anyone else, that delay was not long enough to take advantage of. But for Lucien who could move several times faster than sound, it was just enough. Combined with his ability to sense the air around them and the sand under their feet. It might be as good as using his eyes.
He didn't have much experience with that, after all it wasn't often that he had to fight blindfolded.
Still, it was better than trying to fight off the hex.
Speaking of which, how was he supposed to leave his soul sea? The moment he returned to the outside world, he would fall under the hex again. His body was still staring at the Terror.
He could try to look away as soon as he returned, but that was a gamble. If the hex got him before he could turn, it was over.
And so he came up with a different idea.
Out in the real world. Lucien stopped struggling for a second and went limp. A moment later, streams of sand began flowing out of his chest. Two streams flowed down his arms, and a third one reached for his head.
Mictlan's Demise materialized in his arms, and the sand shaped itself into a blindfold around his eyes. And then Lucien left his soul sea.
With his eyes now blocked, the hex failed to take hold. Free from its effects, Lucien spent a moment to shrink the radius of his storm sense, and the image of the Terror became clearer in his head. At the same time with Mictlan's Demise in hand, Lucien could feel the sand around him, and he could feel the slow heavy footsteps of the Terror.
And if that wasn't enough, he could feel the air around him like an extension of his being. He could feel the wind parting when it came in contact with the Terror. He could feel how it trembled and was pushed away whenever it moved.
He could clearly sense the Terror moving, and its movements were changing, it was turning towards him.
It had noticed the blindfold.
An impulse of thought shot from its brain to its throat and jaw and Lucien understood what it was doing before it even moved.
A terrible shriek pierced through the air, and Lucien flinched as he heard it. Beside him, Nephis didn't react. She couldn't, the memory of hearing the shriek was removed as soon as it was made.
"Nephis," Lucien said, gaining her attention, "I need you to stay right where you are, don't move no matter what happens."
She frowned, still staring at the nightmare creature, "Why?"
"Just trust me this time." Lucien said, activating his aspect, "No matter what you see, don't move."
Receiving a hesitant nod, Lucien began walking towards the monster. He waved his hand and the sand underneath them rose up into another dune, separating them from Nephis and Eurys.
Then, an impulse travelled down from the monster's head to its legs, and the sand underneath was compressed with immense force. The monster shot forward like a comet, ripping through the air as it lunged at him.
Unable to truly see what it was doing, Lucien decided to jump away instead. Of counter attacking. But he didn't leave without leaving a gift.
As the monster's fist dug into the sand, it came into contact with something hard and almost glass-like. Rays of purple light leaked through the sand, and before it had the time to react.
CRACK!
The white expanse of the desert was hued purple for a moment as hundreds of bolts of lightning exploded all at once.
Yet the spell remained silent.
Lucien stared towards the explosion, part of the sand had turned into glass from the sheer heat generated from the lightning. The remaining part, however, he could sense. Something lay stiff on the sand, a long appendage, with four thin fingers. One of its arms. A few feet away from it, the owner of that arm was already getting up. It used its remaining arm to push itself up and swayed in the wind for a moment, dazed by the explosion.
Then, it snapped towards Lucien, a low snarl leaving its throat.
Lucien could taste the bloodlust in the air as he faced down the Terror. Or was it just the blood? He couldn't quite tell.
It had survived the explosion from an ascended storm shard and only lost a hand. To be honest, he had hoped that would kill it. It had an extremely powerful mind hex, and all power came with a price. A flaw.
For the Terror, Lucien had thought that it would be weak physically, weak enough for an ascended storm shard to kill it. But he had underestimated its durability. It was still a Fallen Terror, even if it was weak in a physical confrontation. It would take more than that to kill it.
In the horizon, the Sun had begun to set. They did not have much time before the deathless began waking. If they were still fighting when that happened…
Lucien suppressed a shudder. That was not a position he wanted to be in.
And so he tried something foolishly risky.
Taking a deep breath in, he began executing his plan.
In the distance, Nephis watched with a frown as Lucien fought nothing. Was it an invisible foe? If so, why hadn't she sensed its corruption. Was anything even there, or had Lucien finally lost it.
Her frown deepened when the explosion of lightning shook the world. Beside her Eurys whistled.
"My, oh, my, that is quite the insidious foe."
"What do you mean?" Nephis asked, refusing to take her eyes off the fight.
Eurys said something, but Nephis couldn't quite make out what it was.
"What?"
The skeleton sighed, "If the boy succeeds, you will understand what I mean."
Choosing to ignore that statement, Nephis watched Lucien clash time and again with an imaginary foe, still wondering what exactly it was that he was fighting.
Lucien cursed under his breath as he clashed with the monster. Even with one hand, it was still a formidable opponent. It didn't help that he was getting weaker by the second. His skin was turning paler and paler as time passed.
It got to a point where he had to dismiss his armour just to move around. In fact, if the daggers weren't already incredibly light, he would have dismissed them too.
Still, it wasn't enough, he couldn't take any chances with it. He had to end it in one move. So, even when his hands became painfully cold, he kept going, he needed more, so much more. Even if it drains all the blood in his body.
Thankfully, it didn't come to that. Before he could die of bloodloss, something else began draining.
His very flesh.
The skin crumbled first, dissipating to nothingness, exposing the flesh beneath. No blood flowed out of the wound, for there was very little to lose. Then went the flesh beneath, leaving deep patches all over his body.
It was then that Lucien stopped creating. It was done, he had enough. Behind him, the sand dune was emitting an ethereal purple glow.
Lucien's back was against the sand by then, and the monster in front of him seemed to grin gleefully. Once again, its legs moved, and the sand under them was compressed.
And as it lunged towards Lucien, he fell into the sand. The monster couldn't stop and pierced through the veil of white sand, and into the library of purple sheets.
Hundreds of sheets of electricity floated around inside it, lighting up the interior of the sand dune.
Lucien grinned as the pages shot towards the monster, wrapping themselves around it. Each page delivering a million volts into it. If it tore free of one sheet, two more would take its place. The monster was being buried in pages of concentrated electricity.
And as the last page struck it, Lucien released his control. And the hundreds of pages of concentrated lightning exploded all at once.
KA-CRACK!
[You have killed a Fallen Terror, Caulborne]
[You have received a Memory.]
[Your Spirit surges Brighter.]