Chapter 13 - Whore of Hell
[Arc 1: No Light Left For Us]
…..
"You are here."
Eden and the others sat arranged in a loose circle.
At its center stood an ancient monument— a gargantuan pillar that seemed to hum with its own gravity, worn thin by time. Its surface cracked yet still it stood— decrepit.
Shimmering symbols crawled across its length.
Line after line of foreign scripts arranged with deliberate structure. It resembled language— not markings, but a system.
Beside the pillar sat a boy.
He had one palm placed on the humming pillar and sat in a serene posture. His eyes were closed and, occasionally, veins surfaced on the surface of his skin, denoting some kind of silent struggle.
Despite that, the boy had a face that none of the survivors could forget.
He was the Last Severant.
The final survivor to awaken from the cocoon.
"He is still not done yet?" Mist asked with a raised brow. At the same time, she passed the leaves of assessment to the group.
"It appears so," Eden politely replied.
She looked at the content on the leaves, her expression softening into a smile. "It seems not everyone wants their sigil disclosed."
Mist shrugged, "That is to be expected. I warned you that'd happen."
"Yes, you did." Eden said, "It was foolish of me to think otherwise. I apologise."
She added. "Regardless… this much is enough. We can work with this."
Mist responded with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. She took a brief second to scan the tent once more.
Her gaze fell on Jordan.
Dark circles weighed heavily beneath his eyes, and his posture sagged as though sleep had abandoned him days ago. With a weary look and quiet intensity, he studied the list of sigils.
Since the attack at the previous camp, the leaders of the survivors went through a period of change.
Faces that had once led them past the tower were no longer present.
In fact, a lot has changed since then— people changed.
Those who remained… weren't the same. Jordan had changed. Hayden had changed.
'Am I different now?' Mist wondered, entertaining the thought.
Her gaze returned to Eden.
Eden was the one that had stepped forward to fill the void left behind. While she didn't possess Jesse's powerful tongue, she had a demeanor that was quite undeniably noble.
Speaking with her was always a delight. Plus, it was always good to suck up to big bosses… totally nothing wrong with that.
Eden opened her mouth to speak—
"Archer's waking up," Raven interrupted.
Immediately, everyone perked up.
Every head turned.
They fixed their gazes on the Last Severant, watching his face stir alive and his eyes quiver. Soon enough, he flung his eyes open, inhaling a large gale.
His face was unnaturally pale.
Archer first looked around, confirming his safety. Relief came briefly. Then a grim expression quickly replaced it.
Eden was the first to ask. "What is it? Did you do it? Were you successful in your translation?"
Archer hesitated.
He placed his palm on the pillar one last time, as if confirming something grievous.
Seconds stretched.
Finally, he pulled away and faced the group. His voice carried tension that silenced the tent.
"We were wrong."
He swallowed, his voice trembling.
"This place— this realm… isn't–wasn't devoid of civilization. It was once the heart of one, inhabited by beings we don't understand. Maybe humans… Maybe something else."
"Where are they now?" Dante asked.
Mist, Raven, and Hayden shared a glance.
Along the journey, they had noticed markings on some trees.
It was always the same marking, painted in faded red. Symbols faint yet too potent to ignore. More unsettling, they seemed to belong to the same system as the symbols etched across the white pillar.
Raven and Mist had sensed raw, raging hate in the markings, hate that could not be produced by monsters.
Someone had made those markings.
Eden asked, "What does it say?"
"It's not what we are looking for. It's a passage." Archer revealed, "A passage by the previous inhabitants."
Archer waited for someone to speak, but when all he got was silence, he continued, "Allow me to recite. Some words are lost in translation. My sigils could only translate as much, mostly fragments, given my inexperience."
Archer coughed his throat, sinking into the chaos of sensation he was subdued to during the translations. Emotions creeped into his eyes— emotions and memories that did not belong to him… emotions that had been dead for eons.
An ancient tone emerged from his tongue.
He spoke:
"
The lands have whored with hell.
And her lust knows no ending.
Wicked Hell entwined herself with the great earth, and from that unions were bastards that should never have drawn breath.
Bastards.
Bastards fester in the soil.
They walk our roads.
They speak in our tongues.
Our sons. Our daughters.
Sired from a night of forbidden longing.
Forbidden.
We have dined in the forbidden sin.
We have erred.
And now—
There is no light left for us."
….
Silence followed.
No one in the tent spoke, not even those peeking from beyond.
The passage was not a warning or a guide.
It was a confession.
A final acknowledgement from a people who had already surrendered to despair.
It felt directed at them— a piece of advice from ghosts beyond, whispering for them to give up.
Mist said, "Well, that's depressing. Way to go, Archer."
The Last Severant shrugged. He wasn't to blame for this. The others had desired the contents of the pillars as much as he had.
"Well, that's that." Eden got to her feet. "It didn't tell us anything that we didn't know. You… me… we all are doomed."
Her gaze moved across the survivors. "So what are we going to do about it? I reckon we did not survive all this way just to give up… because dead civilization told us to."
"About that, I have an idea." Mist cleared her throat. "I think we should check the river settlement. If we are going to be doomed, then we might as well be well-informed. That place is the only thing around that looks like it might have answers."
Everyone froze.
Then varying reactions ensued.
For some, it was excitement towards another journey.
While for others, fear was apparent. They could not imagine another round of horror and despair which might await them at the settlement, especially when they barely survived the previous encounter.
Eden turned to the others, "What does everyone think?"
Danted deigned to respond. He ignored the other, lit a flame at his fingertips, and watched with incredible passion, seemingly unbothered by the discussion.
"It's stupid," Jordan hissed.
"Very fucking stupid. You want us to go there without knowing what to expect? Is this a joke?" Jordan turned to Mist and yelled, "Do you have any idea what you are saying?"
"Yes." Mist shrugged lightly with a smile. "Some of us might die."
"Some?" Jordan laughed—hollow and jagged. "A lot will die if we encounter something even remotely close to the balliches."
His hands trembled as he spoke.
"We were around thirty when we left the tower. Now, we are fifteen. My friends have slowly fallen, dropping one by one. My sister… she died in her sleep. I can still hear the ballich chewing into her bones, bit by bit. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one with that experience."
His eyes pierced into Mist. "What makes you think we should risk something like that? After everything?"
"Because we don't get the luxury of stopping," Mist coldly said. "We keep moving. We don't look back."
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jordan cursed.
Mist went on.
She ignored Jordan's tense state, glancing at the others. "By the way, I wasn't asking for permission. I was merely letting you all know. Raven and I are doing this, no matter what the group decides. It's not like we have made a single 'safe' decision since we got here."
Raven blinked. "I am…?"
"Are you not?" Mist asked with a cryptic glance.
He considered it for a moment.
"Actually, I don't mind," Raven cooly said.
Mist smiled. "Perfect. Now, it would be great if we have another volunteer."
The survivors flinched, eyes avoiding Mist.
It was quickly that Eden and Dante were too vital to the camp's survival to be risked on a scouting mission
It was decided Eden and Dante couldn't volunteer as they were pivotal to the camp. The others gave various reasons why they couldn't go.
Not everyone had the desire to willingly seek encounters.
It took several rounds of tense, circular discussions, but finally, a voice cracked the stalemate.
"I'll go."
All heads turned.
Archer looked up. "You will need me if you come across more foreign texts. And to be honest, I don't really like the food here. Its disgusting."
Mist grinned. "Well then, welcome aboard."