The large party kept away from the mist, searching for these Elders and trying to find them before heading into the mist. It seemed safe to reason that they couldn’t or wouldn’t be hiding in the mist at all, so they must be in the small amount of area remaining in the underground caverns.

  Unfortunately, not even the kith they brought along with them knew where they might be hiding. So that left Sable and Shak’terra rushing ahead, trying to find them.

  Sable found the first one. It was the very same stone tiger that Nick had fought, and it had barely finished fully recovering from their last battle. The kith seemed to get upset with Nick at first, jabbering as they shook their little furry or scaled fists at him for harming it.

  Nick addressed the stone tiger, which was bearing its teeth at him. “I understand you were desperate, Elder, but you attacked people under my protection. I will not apologize for defending them. If you’ll remember, I spared you.” The creature hesitated but went back to baring its teeth, though the kith relented in their anger.

  “I thought these guys would be the smartest among them.” He said to Sable.

  “I think they are, but maybe when they take this form, their minds become more… simple and animalistic.”

  Nick retrieved several items from his pouch, some high-quality beast cores. He held them out in front of him. “How about a peace offering? You may have these cores if you forget about our fight before. I’d like us to be friends. We are moving to help save your bond, and we could use your help.”

  The stone tiger relaxed its posture and sniffed the beast cores. In all, they were not that special, merely collections from Nick’s more recent Barrows explorations that he hadn’t had a chance to hand over to Lumos. Most were merely the size of a plum or smaller.

  A few were at the peak of the second stratum, though, and the beast took interest, its tail lashing behind it before it grabbed one with its tail and popped it into its mouth. Then another and another, until none were left.

  The creature then gave a slight bow to Nick, and the kith jabbered in excitement.

  Nick did go ahead and probe the creature with his Soul Magic, and what he found was not that surprising. He required the other half, the bonded pair present, for him to perform a Soul Pact.

  “We plan to find more elders like you before we rush in to save the bonded pairs. Will you help us?”

  The tiger turned to look at the mist, deep toward where the tower likely stood. Its ears were flat on its head, and the monster hesitated.

  Sable added, “With our allies, we are many. They will look to find the rest of your friends before we attack and save your people. More elders.”

  The tiger frowned at that, but then nodded.

  Shak’terra suddenly appeared before them, causing the stone tiger to become wary–lowering its posture and baring its teeth.

  Nick patted the creature’s chest. “It’s okay–this is a friend. What is it, Shak’terra?”

  “I’ve found another, but we’ll need to hurry. One of the abominations and some kith are getting close to it.”

  “Lead the way.”

  Many of the kith now rode on their elder’s large back, and then Jasper’s, which allowed the party to pick up the pace. The knights of keltharis and the mantisfolk were quick with their mixed running flight movements, and so they made their way across the underground rapidly.

  Eventually, they came upon more than a dozen kith releasing some of the mist into the area, while another appeared to be capable of sensing the elder’s general location with what looked like a shamanic fetish. They were near the edges of the giant cavern, with the cavern wall and numerous boulders and outcroppings visible around them.

  The abomination was near the back of the group, watching, with its tentacular appendages whirling around, as if seeking something. This one was largely shaped like some kind of elephant, a massive creature with countless tendrils and six legs instead of the usual four.

  Nick let Shara and Kaya go in big and loud after Sable helped sneak them in, leaping from a cliff face while Jasmine and the kith secured their brethren with webbing and nets, keeping them from fleeing.

  Covered in starlight and with a roar, Shara brought down her giant, heavy tetsubo onto the abomination’s back. The monster’s footing gave in, and its body was slammed into the pulverized ground. Then Kaya’s essence-piercing axe cleaved deeply into the monster’s side, causing it to give a pained screech that hurt their ears and assaulted their minds.

  His Soul Fortress helped, but the screech still caused Kaya and Shara to stumble in their movements, briefly stunning them. Eirwen’s starlight arrow then struck the monster, the effect cascading over the rest of the party who was rushing in, boosting their passive abilities.

  Shak’terra’s curse then landed on the monster, a purple aura burning through and destabilizing the abomination’s essence within its liquid, living flesh. Fang, Luna, and Sable then each struck into it with their spears in a coordinated assault, freezing large portions of the monster with their different frost enchantments. And Rebecca’s beam of frostlight from the light of wisdom struck the monster in the head, silencing its annoying screech.

  From there, it was a rather simple beatdown, the monster’s essence unable to keep up with their ability to freeze and dismantle it. The monster was sturdy–there was no doubt about this. But it was no match for his elite wives’ surprise coordinated assault, and he was confident that nearly all of his wives could beat it in a one-on-one if given enough time and preparation.

  He didn’t involve himself and all of their forces in the fight, as he wasn’t sure he wanted to reveal everything to what was effectively a hive-minded being. His wives had stood in the mist for a short time before it was dispelled, which was a small test of the feeling they would have once they entered the mist later.

  Shara frowned at her tetsubo covered in black goop. “Ick, those things are nasty. Can someone please help get this nasty stuff off of me?”

  Luna said, “I’ll help! I noticed Kaya got a lot on her too.”

  After killing the abomination and thus freeing the kith, Nick had a new problem. Perhaps a small one, but it was an annoying one. One that he just might need to solve if he was going to properly help these kith people.

  The kith stood over their bound brethren with spears, wanting to kill them–they did not want Nick to save the abomination’s unwilling allies. That they would sell out their venerated elders went against their tribal values. Eirwen and Sable had managed to get in between many of them, and Fang had warded off some of their attacks with her shield.

  Anja looked at the captured kith with a dismissive gaze once she arrived with Henrik. “The little buggers are at least partially right. Selling out their brethren means they’re not loyal, and they aren’t worthy of the lord’s Soul Pact at all. That said, it might not be deserving of death. They were coerced, right?”

  Eirwen petted one of the little furry people’s heads as she talked to one, trying to understand it. She eventually said to the group, “The abominations are threatening to eat them. They don’t really have much of a choice.”

  Fang looked over one of the kith, almost like a gray furry mirror of herself with her ears flat on her head. “They seem sorry for what they’ve done, and their spirits are just gray–not bad at all. Except for that one.” She pointed over to the one that held the odd fetish. His spirit was certainly darker at a glance, but the kith’s minds were simple.

  They only barely understood sins and virtues, and it was a challenge for their spirits to be dragged into the darkness in the same way from selfish acts. Certainly, a single act of betrayal as part of an act of self-preservation or greed was not enough to deserve death.

  Nick was thankful that his ability had nothing to do with remorse; otherwise, the spell would have been useless, and most of the people he judged would have barely flinched. Judgement by Archaen Law would burn these kith betrayers’ spirits painfully, and while it wouldn’t necessarily kill them, he wasn’t sure this was productive.

  But what if it could be? Part of Nick’s Heroic Redemption Concept certainly felt compatible with the nature of his spell, Judgement. If he offered them a chance at redemption, he could pacify the current and future kith and grant redemption to the living. Previously, he could only grant such to those who had already died.

  Probing his soul magic and his potential targets, he realized he may have to amend that previous thought. The one using the tracking tool had betrayed his brethren for simple greed more than once and may not actually survive–under normal circumstances.

  Nick assumed he would have a whole lot more kith than just this dozen or so in front of him to worry about later. Solving this problem now was for the better. He’d have to keep things relatively simple for their minds to understand, leaning on his Monsterfolk Empathy once more.

  “I am the light one. I am here to try to save your people and wound or kill the ancient one. To protect the week. To bring justice. We need your help.”

  The kith who had already joined got upset at this, waving their spears and growling. Nick held up his hand to them and continued, “You chose fear over tribe. Fear is normal. Not always evil. But fear that harms your tribe leaves a wound. A darkness upon you and those you hurt.”

  He let his soul magic cover them, as if he was about to activate Judgement. They could feel he was the arbiter of the law and an impending doom for their sins, and their bodies trembled as they shrank down in fear.

  His eyes became white as he explained his pact. “My Law sees all darkness, and it feeds on it. It burns what is twisted with the light. It hurts. It may even kill you. To show those you wounded your desire to close it. To find redemption and return to the light.”

  This appeared to appease the kith as Nick continued, “If you accept the burning, and if you live and stand again for your tribe, I will bind you to mine and fight to save them from the ancient one. You will not face the fear alone again. But you must be Judged. And if you die, you will find redemption in my prison of chains and in my blade, as I seek to save your tribe.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The kith trembled in fear, even those who had already joined his tribe. They muttered things like, ‘light one scary,’ and others tried to hide behind Sable. Those that had helped seek out the elder’s bonded pairs did feel remorse. Nick did wonder what choice these creatures had and why the ancient one and abominations didn’t just eat all of them, but it did seem that they had one of some kind because they regretted what they had done.

  “Do you feel it? Remorse for the darkness within you? For hurting your tribe? I can wash away your sins with the light and brand you as seekers of redemption. Let us save your tribe together. Will you accept my Pact?”

  Nick infused his Judgement with his Heroic Redemption Concept, granting a path of penitence for their sins against their tribe. The kith’s souls burned as they were judged, small bubbles of their small betrayal and other sins shown to all.

  A few of them had stolen from their brethren or hid behind others. One had even tripped a brethren of his to escape one of the abomination’s feedings. Others merely betrayed out of fear, the scenes showing where they were gathered back at the tribal village.

  The kith that used the fetish to hunt down the elder had accepted cores and beast corpses for his rituals. And he was promised empowerment to hunt and sell out his dissenting brethren. Then he created a ritual to extract the elder’s blood that was the pair and create this fetish, betraying his people far more directly.

  Many of those present only feared, but this one knowingly betrayed for greed. The kith screamed out in pain as their body was seared by the light and power of Nick’s spirit, his Concept weighing down on them. It was less painful, he thought, but less so–since they were being branded, and perhaps some of the pain might continue going forward.

  The dark essence from all the kith present was seared away from their body and soul as they were burned by righteous purity, and drained into Nick like streamers of essence drawn into his mouth. In all, it wasn’t all that much to provide a serious amount of benefit to Nick, but it did appear the betrayers were a bit stronger than the average kith he had met.

  The diviner betrayer died, his body being drained down until it was a dried husk of a corpse. It joined the soul prison that was Archaen Law, as the Noblefrost brand of the crown of frost appeared on their chests over their Soul Cores; the Soul Pact was complete.

  Numerous kith started jabbering and bouncing up and down, looking over their brethren. It seemed they were excited about something related to their shamanism.

  Henrik shivered as he looked over the shrunken husk. “Damn. Not a good way to go.”

  Shara frowned down at the little people. “I’m glad you found a way to make them happy, but where’s the elder now?”

  Shak’terra appeared and said, “Right over there. It was watching from underground.”

  The earth shifted, and suddenly an odd… stone-colored spider turtle came out as if from a trapdoor. Or maybe a crab? It had a large shell on its back, but the appendages looked a bit more…furry and its face spiderlike, and it lacked the claws he would usually be expecting.

  “Will you join us, Elder? We must continue searching for your brothers before we move to save your bonded pair.”

  The spider turtle and the stone tiger seemed to converse with their roars and clicking, before the spider turtle bobbed its body and head in acceptance, as if nodding. But then, the spider came toward Nick, making clicking noises with its mandibles, and its numerous eyes turned toward him somehow expectantly.

  Frowning, Nick guessed what it wanted–beast cores. The stone tiger had sold Nick out on their deal. He tossed out several beast cores to the spider, and it picked them up in its mandibles and ate them.

  Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Greedy things. Though they do seem hungry. The underground has been overhunted, it seems. We have hardly seen a beast down here.”

  Anja noted, “Both of these have strong earth and stone elemental essence. It was easier for them to hide and persist down here, no doubt.”

  Nick said to the group, “Let’s get moving. We have more ground to cover.”

  Much of the kith could ride on the spider turtle’s back, keeping their movement respectable, and they continued on.

  In all, finding a few additional allies and slaying another abomination wasn’t that big of a deal. The so-called Elders were not all that strong, as most appeared to be early in the Third Stratum and no match for these abominations. The rest of the kith mixed between the end of the First Stratum and the middle of the Second Stratum. That didn’t add much to their overall fighting force when they had hundreds of trained warriors.

  However, each elder brought to their side was one less enemy abomination, perhaps two depending on how the conversion worked. Nick had received reports to his Soulscape while they were on the move, and Agatha and Myron had also managed to locate an elder each, bringing them to their side. The numbers on their side certainly helped convince them.

  In all, they were making good headway with gaining Third Stratum allies and denying their enemy strength.

  Nick was starting to wonder just how many abominations the enemy might have. How many pairs had they managed to capture? The kith didn’t seem to know, which was frustrating. Counting past their fingers and toes was beyond them, it seemed.

  The attack on their keep was starting to feel foolish. Why waste forces if they could commit to a full attack and destroy it? But feral monsterfolk could not just wait around endlessly. Their hunger and drive would force them to seek out and consume monsters and cultivators alike in time and may actually start fighting and eating each other. They would only obey their minders for so long.

  Perhaps this ancient one had decided that it would rather wait until the mist covered the entire underground and captured the last of the bonded pairs. It could even have some kind of benefit to doing so granted by Orion.

  So with little choice in the matter, the enemy had sent a few abominations as a form of commanders to guide the feral monsterfolk. It must have hoped to capture some of his people to use for rituals as the feral monsterfolk attempted to thin out Nick’s forces and thought the abominations could escape.

  That, or it was luring them into a false sense of security to spring a nasty trap on them.

  Anja’s Sageblade found a third elder, this one a stealthy lizard-wolf of the shadow element hiding in a hidden cave in the upper reaches, before they eventually arrived near the mist and had to make a choice.

  The tower’s sphere of influence controlled the whole middle area, and they would be forced to traverse up to a hundred miles or more of it before they could be free of it. Around the middle point, they would only be a dozen or so miles away from the tower, a quick march for angry abominations and feral monsterfolk.

  “What can you tell me about this mist now that we’re closer?”

  Shak’terra said, “Tis a conduit, Milord. Through it, this ancient one and its minions can likely see all. Know all. Even if we protect ourselves with our mana aura, soul essence will pass through, and our enemy will be aware of our presence. Soul essence is difficult to fully reject with mana, though you and your wives may find some luck with mixing some of your own in to improve your defenses.”

  Anja nodded. “Our partners say the same. They can protect us somewhat, but their protection will be limited and costly. The longer we spend inside, the more soul essence will pass through our mana aura protections.”

  Eirwen and Luna had been spending a lot more time chatting with the kith while they traveled, and they had learned some more details. Eirwen said, “They say that while they are in the mist, they feel afraid. A need to submit and join the ancient one.”

  Nick asked, “How do they protect themselves from this? Don't they live inside the mist? And they were using the mist themselves.”

  Eirwen replied, “The mist is just a simple shamanic spell that I’ve long since been able to do myself, but it’s not all that useful when done as a small group. These odd creatures must have some special methods to use it besides.”

  Luna added, “I’m not sure I fully get their stories, but it seems like there is a small haven near the tower where the mist does not enter. They can use the shamanic magic they know to protect themselves, and they likely have totems and wards around their village that keep it out. As to why this ancient one doesn’t just destroy their haven, I’m unsure.”

  Anja replied, “It’s possible Orion is protecting them. It wouldn’t just place an eldritch abomination on their head with zero chance to become more.”

  That made sense to Nick. “That’s good news in terms of a target for us, then.”

  After some discussion, it was decided to wait for Lothar’s larger forces to be in the same position on the eastern side of the cavern before pushing through. In the meantime, they would practice and test using a soul aura protection–to defend the elders from the mist, because Nick could not protect their minds with Soul Fortress.

  Then they would seek to move through the mist to reach the northern end, where the mist hadn’t consumed the whole underground world, searching for more elders.

  Nick knew that any plan of his wouldn’t necessarily survive contact with the enemy, however. If the enemy let him do this, then that is precisely what he would do.

  On Lothar’s end, Agatha’s many shamans were able to work with the kith to create a much larger warding before they pushed through. It was costly in terms of essence and weakened them for a future encounter, but they could move fast and only lightly impeded by maintaining the auras. They did this to draw an enemy reaction and response, knowing that their unit was much less mobile than Nick’s.

  In contrast, Nick’s team was like tiny blips moving rapidly through the mist. Luna, Rebecca, and Eirwen each rode with the kith on the elders' backs and protected them and several of the mantisfolk and knights with their powerful auras. Nick only protected himself and Jasmine, keeping his essence reserves high for a confrontation while Sable, Shak’terra, and the sageblades scouted.

  While they wouldn’t be able to give much warning, they’d be able to prevent them from running directly into an army of feral monsterfolk and abominations.

  They raced across the underworld but kept their pace even with Lothar’s team. However, the mist got denser as they got closer to the center, and they eventually made contact with the enemy.

  Numerous red, yellow, and black eyes lit up within the mist, including a massive, ominous one in the distance. He could feel them all looking balefully at him, filled with hunger and hate. It was a lot–as many as thirty or forty sets of these eyes, and he just knew the number of feral monsterfolk and beasts supporting them would be substantial as well.

  The red and yellow eyes blinked open in the fog.

  A voice layered over itself, too deep and too near into Nick’s mind, as well as likely everyone’s present. “You are within the boundary.”

  The mist thickened rapidly. “The elders stabilize the opening. There is no direction that leads away. No escape.”

  The air grew heavier from the mist, and the ground beneath them pulsed. The kith whimpered as the massive eye in the distance dilated.

  “Lay down the burden of separation.”

  Then the mist rushed outward, cold and suffocating, pressing against soul and bone alike. Nick could feel his Soul Fortress trembling as the presence bore down upon them like an inevitable weight from all sides, and they barely held on with the sheer number of followers nearby. The three elders whimpered even through Rebecca, Luna, and Eirwen’s protections, their legs trembling in fear.

  Then the eyes closed, and it was difficult for Nick to even tell which way was up. Mist filled his vision completely now, and it was even a challenge to sense the ground at Jasmine’s feet with his magical sensory. He felt alone even while sitting on Jasmine’s back and felt like predators were ready to pounce on him from all directions.

  He could only imagine what those without protections might be feeling. This Ancient One was beyond anything he had ever felt.

  It was actually somewhat reassuring when the flash of golden light of Orion then spread out, and Nick received a prompt within his vision.

  [Heroic Trial of the Ancient One]

  [The kith failed their Evolution Trial and thus failed to claim full ownership of the Monster Kingdom. They now suffer at the hands of the one they know as the Ancient One, and their people will be assimilated in days or weeks if nothing is done. If not stopped, this will endanger the Noblefrost Kingdom and the entire shard.

  You promised the kith you would save and protect their people, and now numerous powerful enemies come at you from all sides. To flee goes against your Chosen Path and will be heavily penalized with a Tribulation for you and your Kingdom.

  Objectives: Defeat abominations, rescue elders and kith and escape its domain. By accomplishing these goals, mist will be limited to the underworld, and the Ancient One’s convergence progress will be pushed back and halted for up to six months, depending on success levels.

  Bonus Objective (High difficulty, high reward): Defeat the Ancient One and close the convergence portal to claim the Monster Kingdom’s expansion tower.]

  It looked like they wouldn’t be sneaking by at all. They had a fierce fight full of danger ahead of them.