Bab 21: Soul Shattering
Panic rose inside Kaleb as he watched the bewitching movements of the mist rising out of the mess Ameri's insides had become. He looked at Ameri's face and watched as the bright light that had always been in his eyes, began to fade. For a brief moment his frenzied mind considered cutting off his hands to try to stop the process.
Instead, Kaleb stood up and began sprinting down the tunnel. He couldn't think of many solutions but, he assumed distance had to be an obvious drawback for something that seemed to require contact in order to initiate. 50 meters down the tunnel, trailing red mist in his wake, Kaleb knew that if there was a upper limit to this ability he wouldn't find it in time to save Ameri. If 50 meters wasn't enough, then distance wasn't a realistic solution to the draining, if Kaleb continued to try running then Ameri would die from the explosion wound long before Kaleb returned.
He sprinted back to Ameri, and when Kaleb saw him agony filled his mind. Ameri had already withered to a skeletal point. His eyes were sunken and lifeless, his greying skin was pulled tight across bones with almost no muscle remaining. Ameri's lips had been pulled tight, leaving a terrifying grimace as the only remnant of his perpetual smile.
It had happened much faster than Elroth's death. The red mist continued to flow meaning that Ameri was alive but, Kaleb could tell that it was only a matter of seconds, not minutes. Kaleb collapsed to his knees next to Ameri's barely recognizable figure and silently watched as the last essence of life drained from his friend. Kaleb was now completely alone.
Emptiness filled Kaleb's mind. The vast echoes of his own thoughts and emotions caused such commotion that he could hear a roaring in his ears, but not a single thought could be heard. Explanations, excuses, justifications, solutions he hadn't been able to try, memories of his time with Ameri and a small voice trying to decide what to do next. All these thoughts whirled around in Kaleb's mind and just as all the colors mixed together make black, so to did all the thoughts in Kaleb's mind swirled together to create an absolute emptiness. It was as if Kaleb's consciousness stood above his chaotic thoughts staring down into the void they created, threatening to devour him.
Dim lights flickered down the tunnel, growing brighter by the moment. Their illumination cast a twinkling reflection in Kaleb's unseeing eyes. Though, this sight was not lost altogether.
'Damn, its still not enough.' Rackshar grumbled to himself. 'Those are the Hunter's torches coming back. Hide!' He growled at Kaleb through the fog of thoughts clouding his mind.
Kaleb's lack of response to his warning failed to impress the Dragon.
'Listen to me slave! What do you think they will do to you once they see you killed those two?! They will tear you apart! You need to move now!' Rackshar roared, scattering the fog.
Kaleb's body began to move before his brain, almost as if on its own. He stood up and began to walk toward the crevasse that was the Abyssal Fears nest. His still hazy thoughts slowly started to catch up with what his body was doing as he crossed the threshold.
The first two things Kaleb noticed were the torch he was carrying, though he couldn't remember picking it up, and the voices that were echoing through the cavern, still too distant to be understood.
While Kaleb could understand what his body was telling him, it was like he was viewing the world from underwater. Everything was distorted and he was having a hard time focusing on anything, including his own thoughts.
The narrow tunnel he had been walking down opened up into a large circular room with a high cathedral ceiling. The walls and ceiling were filled with crack like crevasses scattered around, similar to the one Kaleb had just entered from. In the center of the room stood a giant pillar that supported the grand curving ceiling.
'Where am I?' Kaleb asked with extreme detachment.
'This is the Abyssal Fear's nest.' Rackshar told him.
'Shouldn't I not be here?' Kaleb felt like he should be worried about this development. He felt he should want to know things like, how he got here and why he would come here in the first place.
But, Kaleb felt like the real world was far away. Like his mind had just been woken up from a deep sleep, seeing the world through eyes still dreaming, and he was currently being dragged back into that sleep by comforting hands of exhaustion.
'This is the best place to be. The Hunters won't come here while the Abyssal Fears are pursuing them and the Abyssal Fears won't return until they capture the Hunters. While they pursue a pointless game of cat and mouse, I will get the treasure.' Rackshar explained as if in passing.
Kaleb, who had paused just inside the entrance, began to walk toward the pillar in the center of the room.
'Treasure?' Kaleb asked, more out of habit than actual interest.
'This is a tomb. Everything here can be considered a test by a god. When you pass a test they give you a reward to keep you moving toward the inheritance. So, there should be some reward in this nest, we just skipped the test part.'
As Kaleb approached the base of the pillar his foot came down on a bowl like object producing a echoing crunch in the cavern. Kaleb stepped back and the torch cast its light over the bones scattered around the base of the pillar like rushes. The crushed skull Kaleb had just stepped on was grey and brittle with age.
'The Abyssal Fears previous victims.' Rackshar explained with amusement, seeing Kaleb's hesitancy to continue. 'I imagine that they would pin them to this center pillar so that their fear can permeate through the entire cavern, feeding them all. Ignore them. Look at that.'
Kaleb felt his eyes drawn back up to the pillar, where he could see an assortment of cracks veined across the pillar face.
'This is what we're looking for, and we have just the right key. Blast it open!'
Kaleb's arm came up subconsciously at the order, his palm placed at the center of the cracks. Once again with no thought an explosion tore open the silence. Kaleb's arm was thrown back and the spray of rock shrapnel scraped across his arms and chest, his instinctual shielding of his head sparing his face.
Kaleb expected the pain to pull him out of his stupor, but he felt nothing. The long, shallow cuts painted his arms red with blood, but Kaleb's detached and foggy mind didn't register the pain.
Instead Kaleb was looking at the cavity that had been opened in the rock face. It was at chest height and half a meter wide, but Kaleb couldn't see how deep it went as the shadow swallowed its depths. Kaleb reached in without thinking, his arm going in all the way up to his shoulder.
He pulled out a round rough object the size of a grapefruit. It was an opaque container made of rough glass and a thick silvery liquid could be seen flowing sluggishly around inside. As Kaleb turned it around in his hand, he found a wooden cork protruding from the surface.
'Hahahaha! Yes! Excellent!' Rackshar couldn't hold back his elation, as his ecstatic laughter continued ringing in Kaleb's head.
'What is this?' Kaleb asked in his dull voice, unperturbed by the dragon's reaction.
'Dragon's Blood! This is a dragon's tomb!' Rackshar's excitement overpowering his contempt for Kaleb. 'If you drink this it will raise the pathetic amount of Dragon's Blood flowing through your veins. It will change your anatomy, increasing your overall condition and multiplying all the power you gain from now on! It will also give you various other benefits as well! You will finally be on the path of the Dragonborn!'
This grand announcement seemed lost on Kaleb's foggy mind. All he could think to say was 'Oh.'
Surprisingly, Rackshar didn't seem bothered by his lack of response. His enthusiasm seemed unhindered as he quickly continued to prompt Kaleb to drink.
Kaleb slowly uncorked the rough vial and began to drink the dense liquid. The metallic taste of blood filled his senses. It was much stronger than that of human blood and for once Kaleb felt grateful for his detached mental state. For, he was sure that if he was fully conscious he would have thrown up. But, much like with the cuts on his arms, while he was aware of the metallic warm liquid flowing down his throat he didn't really experience it.
As the last of the liquid entered Kaleb's stomach he felt an inferno engulf his insides. He collapsed to his knees as the shock cleared the fog from his weakened mind and he experienced true hell. Flames crawled from his stomach and raced through his veins tearing his insides apart as they spread.
Quickly it made its way through each of his organs, which he felt strangely aware of, pausing on them and engulfing them in intense searing agony. His heart was on fire, his bones were lava, his skin crawled like ants.
'Oh! I may have forgotten one little detail. In order to give you all these amazing benefits it may have to slightly reconstruct you, and how could it rebuild without first tearing you apart.' Rackshar's deep, sinister chuckle cut through Kaleb's agony.
Kaleb wished he could respond, but he could barley maintain what little sanity he had regained, as the flames began to spread across his limbs. Then he felt it soar up his throat without stopping, his mind immediately encased by the inferno.
All Kaleb was conscious of was his own screaming, as he felt the last fibers of his existence being torn apart as the flames lanced into his mind, piercing his very soul. Then he heard a distinctive shattering sound, as if someone had thrown a rock through a stain glass window.
Everything quickly began to fade. Darkness grasped Kaleb's mind with the promising embrace of peace. All the determination and will that Kaleb had, softly fell away as he gently allowed that embrace to take the pain away. As he sank into the peaceful abyss he could hear laughter in the distance. The last thing he heard before silence took him was,
'That took longer than I thought it would, you were quite tough for a human. Thanks for the body, my slave!'
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
ShadowOfEmbers
ShadowOfEmbers Thanks for reading.
This can be considered the end of the prelude. The story truly begins now.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone