Chapter 58: The Veil Of Night

Before we knew it, we already reached the Ordeal of the Midnight.

[The Ordeal of the Midnight will be approaching in 1 minute_]

[This message will appear invisible to every instances of entities in this world, if you received this sequence of notification, please notify any of the Arbiters to prevent further complications in your immersive playing experience]

Both Verina and I immediately positioned ourselves within the 2 meters deep trenches, taking precautions to any sudden attack that would immediately be sent into our bastion the moment the clock hit midnight.

[Quī mē ex v!ersicu!līs meīs put?āstis, quod!? su?nt molliculī, par!?um pudīc?um!!]

And yup, that eerie message appeared once again like the last time, signaling the time of midnight.

[A special type Calamity Object have been manifesting within the vicinity of your bastion_]

[Attempting to analyze its property and identity_]

Ah, it looked like it won't be spawning any Qliphoth Object for today's Ordeal of the Midnight.

—

[The Veil of Night]

[Description: A dense, unnatural fog that rolls in without warning, blanketing the bastion in a thick, impenetrable darkness. Within the Veil of Night, time and space seem to distort, and strange, shadowy figures can be seen moving just out of sight. The air grows cold and damp, and all light sources are dimmed, barely able to penetrate the gloom]

[Hint: The Veil of Night offers an opportunity to harvest rare, ethereal materials that only appear within the fog. However, venturing into the Veil is perilous, as the shadowy figures within are hostile and nearly invisible. The fog also warps reality, causing individuals to become disoriented and lost, potentially forever]

—

Nevermind, this Calamity Object sounded equal if not worse than a Qliphoth Object.

Unless it does what I think it will.

"Ah, this veil again…" Verina muttered.

Just as the Midnight arrives, the Veil of Night descends like a living entity, unfurling across the whole land and sky outside of the bastion's perimeters with an eerie silence.

The once-familiar moonlighted landscape was swallowed by an impenetrable, unnatural fog that rolled in with a malevolent ease.

Those darkness writhed and stretched as if animated by some unseen force, their forms flickering just beyond the edge of perception.

The air thickened with dampness, and any attempt to light a torch or lantern only reveals faint, waning glows that barely cut through the oppressive gloom.

"What is your experience with this Calamity Object, Verina?"

"Not so fun," Verina replied with a bitter voice. "I've lost a couple comrades to this wretched fog. However, the two of us will be safe as long as we stay inside our bastion, and never play around the skirt where the curtain of darkness awaits."

"And your comrades didn't know this information when you encountered it for the first time."

"None of us knew… And thus, we paid the price for our recklessness and obliviousness."

Time seemed to fragment within the Veil, the usual flow of moments bending and twisting as reality itself warps and wavers. S~eaʀᴄh the Nôvelƒire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The very essence of the fog definitely distorts space as the information screen suggested, making familiar paths and landmarks vanish into an abyss of obscurity.

That must be why Verina lost her comrades.

Not because they couldn't fight the entities within it.

"On the good side, I remembered that no other Calamity Object ever manifested itself when this phenomenon occurred." Verina scooted around before landing herself comfortably resting on the wooden chair in front of the table where we did our Dungeon and Devil session. "Of course, outside of the non-hostile one, since they could still manifest inside the territory of our bastion."

"Welp, this will be quite the long night then," I said as I reached out the Dungeon and Devil set that I deliberately craft, hoping to soothe the mood now that we had free 12 hours of unnatural darkness outside. "Want to continue the session."

"... Very gladly."

We dove back into our game with a sense of both relief and anticipation. However, Verina requested to just start with a new session and story.

The session started with Verina's new character, a necromancer who decided to step outside its lair because she was bored.

Like always, I relied on Sir Aethernet to fill me in with unique encounters and overarching events that were happening within the session. At one point, Verina overthrew an underworld's mafia organization and became their new leader, before deciding to pick a stray barbarian to be in charge as she continued treading toward a new land.

'Managing an organization sounds like a pain in the ass' were the very words that Verina uttered after she made that decision.

As we proceeded, we delved into a subplot where Verina's character discovered an ancient artifact with ties to forgotten deities, setting the stage for a deeper narrative involving celestial conflicts and forbidden magic.

Her character ended up becoming a part of the eldritch mind-hive that exists beyond human's perceived reality, which ended the campaign, and prompted a new one.

The hours stretched on, the sessions blending into a series of gripping adventures and dark mysteries, providing a welcome distraction from the unnerving darkness outside.

Each roll of the dice and every stupid, outright moronish, strategic decision helped to momentarily push away the shadows of reality, binding us together in a sense of weird camaraderie.

At one point, Verina wanted to try becoming a Dungeon Master.

It was a mess, the story was outright incoherent, albeit somewhat fun.

"The dawn is here," Verina said as the comforting orange dye began painting the clearing sky, banishing the Veil of Night away into the faraway darkness where nothing ever reached.

"That was a fun one."

In the end, we absolutely forgot that the Withering Sentinel existed.

Regardless, my second night in this world was an utter success. Not only that we were lucky to have such a lax Ordeal, but I also found a new player to play Dungeon and Devil with.

I used to be a Dungeon Master a lot when I was still in my college's theater club, and my session with Verina reminded me a lot of that time.

"Mmm…"

Maybe my time back on Earth wasn't all that bad.