NOVEL WEB Chapter 21: Record I
[You have successfully defeated the sons of Marar’bel and reached the Ainfidd Kingdom]
[Your actions are being judged…]
[You have been awarded 8 Incarnations Points for a splendid performance!]
“What?” the Incarnate was stunned.
However, in the name of caution, he quickly cast aside his curiosity and surveyed his surroundings. Getting distracted while in unfamiliar territory was a sure way to die a pathetic death in his experience.
To his surprise, he was standing around five meters away from a great slope that spotted both large, rough rocks and small bits of greenery like bushes and shrubs. All this was a little hard to see as the darkness of night was prevalent, making the Incarnate wonder if there was even a daytime in this place defined by daylight at all. It was starting to seem unlikely.
The Incarnate had counted the days earlier by using the mechanics of the Hermetic Vault. When a new day began, he was able to add another five items into it.
The Demonling looked behind him.
‘This… is bizarre,’ he thought.
The exit he had emerged from was carved through a thick block of dark stone so high that he had to bend backwards to see the end of it. Well, the Incarnate wasn’t sure he even saw its end, really, as it seemed to desire to meet the clouds.
The wall of rock spread far and wide, seemingly having no end to it, whichever way it imposed its vastness.
At once, the Incarnate deduced that this was the same rock which been splitting through the millions of skeletons around the Omen – the statue. It was also the same which grew weathered and formed the crevice he had traversed through five days ago. How it suddenly became so large here baffled the Incarnate.
‘This shouldn’t really be a concern of mine right now,’ he thought and walked a few meters towards where the ground started to slope. He looked down, and an ominous scene greeted him.
Far, far down, where the vegetation started to become more vibrant and denser, an expansive shroud of darkness hid everything up to where a hopeful horizon should have been in the distance; it was a darkness far more potent than that of the night.
It was not static. It squirmed and twisted like dark smoke, making it seem as though terrible monstrosities were moving within it, attempting to find where its influence was weakest so they could escape.
The Demonling took a step back and plopped to the ground. He was unnerved and horrified.
‘What is that?’ he thought, gulping down a mouthful of saliva.
The scale of the unusual, shifting mass of black in front of him was daunting. The area covered by the darkness could easily qualify to be a small country in size, or perhaps larger if the Incarnate could tell how far it spread.
To add to the eerie nature of what was ahead, there was something else in close view. Granted, it was not quite as frightening as the well of darkness, but it did cause the Demonling’s soul to tremble.
Sprinkled among the rocks and trees, were dozens of skeletons adorned in old tunics!
The Incarnate frowned.
‘Here as well?’
He had seen a scene similar to this when he had been chased by the dogs in the crevice.
More Incarnates like him who had perished here.
‘I imagined this was how it goes. There are stages to this Floor or maybe every other Floor. A fixed number of stages,’ the Incarnate thought as he stood, siphoning his resolve.
There was no better evidence of this than the message the glowing tablet had just shown him.
Once again, the Incarnate was awarded Incarnation Points for passing another trial.
The first had been to escape the Fifth Omen of the Amalgam Sand Fiend.
The second – the current one – had been to defeat the sons of Marar’bel and reach the Ainfidd Kingdom.
The Incarnate didn’t know who Marar’bel was – though he was starting to get an idea – but he definitely knew to pin Tenyen and the other armored, expired figure he fought as her sons.
As for the Ainfidd Kingdom…
The Demonling looked ahead at the darkness.
Could that be…
Quickly, the Incarnate cast aside the thought. He dreaded that it might be true, and that it might be his next destination.
Instead, he focused on the amount of Incarnation Points he was awarded with. This time, he only received eight.
‘I’m starting to think I can probably only earn up to 10 Incarnation Points at a time. My performance this time was somehow lacking. Last time, it was outstanding and now it's… splendid,’ the Incarnate thought. ‘What did I do wrong?
He thought he deserved ten again this time, given what he had gone through. He could still feel the sting from that tribulation in his flesh – the stabbing and all.
Had he lost points because he only managed to defeat the guard from that oval room after scheming to acquire the Hermetic Vault first? Or was he perhaps supposed to do something with the corpse of the woman hanging from the ceiling? The Incarnate suspected that she was Marar’bel whom the tablet was speaking of, which meant she was significant in some way, but he couldn’t be too sure.
In any case…
‘I think I might need to use these Incarnation Points to increase my physical attributes now,’ he thought before glancing at the darkness. ‘I might need that now more than ever.’
A few minutes passed.
The Incarnate started pacing about, thinking deeply about how he should distribute his points. He made sure to explore either path the wall of rock extended towards while doing so, just in case there was something useful around.
As half of the Incarnate’s mind had been anticipating, he found nothing. He did figure out a way to best apportion his attributes, though. Just when he was about to do it, the Incarnate stopped hastily.
He noticed something peeking from behind one of the large rocks close to the great slope. The sound the thing made also drew his attention. It rustled crisply in the wind but was not prompted to fly away with it. Something behind the rock was keeping it in place.
The Incarnate narrowed his eyes and drew close.
‘What’s that? Paper?’
He slowed his approach, putting his Valiant Subject’s Ward before him.
Soon, the Demonling found himself facing another one of the skeletons. There was nothing special about it, save for the partly unfurled roll of yellow parchment held tightly in its bony hand.
‘What is this doing here?” the Incarnate thought.
He hadn’t thought he’d find something like paper here.
Because of that, he grew suspicious.
This roll of parchment must have some importance then.
The Incarnate quickly retrieved the parchment from the skeleton and drew back.
After thoroughly ensuring he hadn’t missed anything else that could be important around the skeleton, he went back to the wall of rock and sat down.
He unfurled the paper and looked at the segmented paragraphs of writing – some orderly and some not – scribbled on it.
The person who wrote this had varying degrees of agency when writing each of the paragraphs, it seemed. The last even looked unfinished, with the dry ink failing to finish the last words they had meant to write. It instead swiped across the edge of the parchment messily.
The Incarnate took a deep breath.
‘Let’s see…’ he thought and began to read.
Given the liberties the glowing tablet had given so far, he knew he would be able to read the unfamiliar language presented before him.
The writing on the parchment read:
‘Our victory against the Feraanites has everyone in quite the high spirits. I expect nothing less. It’s been three days and yet the celebrations in the streets of our nation do not cease. His Majesty has decided to let the people enjoy themselves. This is, after all, the greatest victory our nation has ever experienced since the Rikanja Ambush. Our warriors deserve the showers of praise and all the women they can bed.
In light of all this, why is it that I feel so uneasy? As though this is the last gift the gods will ever give to Ainfidd?’
…