Chapter 641: Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Chapter 641: Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Argrave walked out of the makeshift interrogation room a great deal later, his gray eyes looking somewhat darker after what he’d learned. Others, who’d not participated in the interrogation so as not to make it overbearing and overcrowded, walked up to him.

“Have we learned any useful information?” Bhaltair questioned.

Argrave stood, searching in his own head for how he might answer that question. After a long while of many waiting expectantly, he finally said, “I think we may have a new ally.”

“What?” People looked between each other. “You got that one to turn against his kind?”

“No,” Argrave shook his head. “But they’re fighting against someone they call the Manumitter at the same time as us. This person is apparently capable of liberating Shadowlanders from their hierarchy. Anneliese and I... after reviewing all the information, and making some admittedly big leaps in logic...”

She nodded to back up his point. “We think that it’s Traugott they’re fighting against.”

Argrave looked between everyone. “Guessing that, I proposed a collaboration. This Manumitter has amassed a sizable force of Shadowlanders, freed of the hierarchy. He’s apparently attempting to break the chains that bind them once and for all, bringing free will to everyone in the Shadowlands.” Argrave rubbed his chin.

“And?” Ghislain pressed.

“Our little dark knight friend with a flesh wound wanted me to meet his boss.” Argrave crossed his arms. “The big boss. The Hopeful, he called it. He’s physically incapable of breaking protocol and working with me independently. Only the big boss has free will. And the way he told it, it sounds like the Hopeful’s responsible for holding this whole realm together. If the Manumitter takes him down—and that’s not out of the realm of possibility—we might have bigger problems than a few stragglers coming to our world. The whole damned Shadowlands could leak out to our world.”

“If he can’t break protocol, why’s he talking to you?” Aurore asked prudently.

“I’m not sure. Maybe it’s because the big boss never accounted for his little peons actually being able to speak. It seems like only the higher-ranking ones are, and only within the domain Anneliese establishes after I burn away the shadow.” Argrave shook his head. “But I’d only be guessing. Question is, I suppose... do we meet with big boss?” He raised a finger. “Speak now, or forever hold your peace.”

“That depends largely on what such a thing would entail,” they sought information.

Argraev nodded. “It would entail me letting the man go so he could deliver word, and then waiting for him to make good on his promise.”

Argrave felt rather like a child releasing a wounded animal he’d found back into the wild after its injuries were tended to. Like a child, he secretly hoped the pet would come wandering back. Ultimately, it was a calculated risk. If nothing came of it, so be it. If something did, they’d gain. Either way, torture wasn’t truly on the table.

For the first few hours, Argrave’s company thought that nothing had come of it. Roland noted that the horseman was staying on the edge of the realm they’d carved out of the Shadowlands, doing nothing. Argrave coped by suggesting that he was having someone else send the message, but he secretly thought that he might’ve been played by the black knight after all.

That is, until Argragve realized just how wrong he was about how gloomy this place could become.

It all started off rather casually, as one might slowly turn up the heat on a frog in the water. The land all around seemed to become darker, as though the sun was setting in the Shadowlands. Soon enough, it became clear this was not a transitory thing. The white grass grew grayer and grayer, until eventually it turned black. The dirt darkened until it seemed like nothing remained of it. The mesas of varying shades started to shift to a solitary black.

Then, gaping holes opened miles above, and gigantic spouts of black shadows started to flood the world in a horrifying scene. Argrave thought this might be another attack on its way, and so sent out blood magic to chip away at what came. But soon enough, someone pointed out something.

“Something huge is coming this way,” said Bhaltair. “I... I can’t quite make out what it is.”

Not long after Bhaltair noticed its presence with his undead scouts, everyone started to feel it, too. It was an overwhelming presence that tugged at their very souls, threatening to spirit it away if they lost concentration for a moment. It was a constant thief, a constant desire, a constant hunger, that was so intense in its existence that it could swallow them if they didn’t resist.

Resist they did—Argrave spent copious amounts of his own blood fighting back against this changing world, and Anneliese struggled desperately to keep it maintained by rewriting it near as fast as it was destroyed. Eventually, this consumption of shadow became so utterly overwhelming that Argrave resorted to a spell he’d deemed a last resort—[Apollyon]. Bursting free of his skin, he had no lack of energy to replenish himself as the locusts raged against the collapse of this world brought about by the coming giant.

In this suffocating darkness, the gigantic form that intruded upon this world they’d carved loom large over them. It made the giant gods in the Bloodwoods seem miniscule by comparison. The heroes of the ages past crowded around Anneliese and Argrave for reprieve against this nightmarish creature. It was only darkness, but in that wreath of shadow, Argrave could barely make out a pair of brown eyes.

“It’s him,” Anneliese confirmed to Argrave, her breath heavy from the sheer pressure and fear of this scenario. “There’s no one higher in the hierarchy. He holds the reins.”

Argrave gazed into those oddly human brown eyes, gritting his teeth as locusts erupted from both of his hands in defiance of the coming of the abyss. This was, ostensibly, what they had decided to seek out. Now... how the hell was he supposed to have a civil conversation during all of this?

“If you’re here to talk... can you dial back the darkness?!” Argrave shouted up. “And if you’re not here to talk, well... talk to me anyway!”