In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
Shattered Grimoires is the work of the mind(s) of Ardere & Shattered Grimoire's staff. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. Black Clover is owned by Yuki Tabata and published by Viz Shonen Jump. All images belong to their original owners. The theme you are currently viewing was made by Eliza of ElizaCodes exclusively for Shattered Grimoires.
All throughout the country, Griswold had been traveling to familiarize himself with the world for the sake of his work as a knight. More than that, he travelled to different parts of the world for the sake of getting stronger so he could protect people, so he could protect nature and the creatures dwelling within it, as well as gathering the strength required to reach his other goals. Because of the fact that there was a possibility that he was more than just some commoner and had ties to an ancient lineage, it made him open up ever so slightly to the chance that he might not be able to roam about as freely as he did now because he might have even more people and places to protect in the future. So before his freedom was limited, it was imperative that he make use of what he had to get stronger now.
As the encounter with Aamon and his followers had shown him how weak he still was in the face of a true threat like that, there were still plenty of avenues for him to discover and open up to. Remembering quite well how one of the demons he had fought had just been using him as a punching bag before he fought against another demon he could not beat on his own, as well as the archdemon himself, he also remembered what it had cost him. Aside from putting some serious dents in his own ego and sense of self-worth as all he had been able to do was to function as a battery that could lay down a nearly constant barrage of destructive spells. But that was all of it, as it was Ardere, pumped up by the power of a woman who had been counting on them for protection, but had been killed by the demon lord.
But before they had managed to get to that point, Griswold had been fighting the Archdemon up close and personal while the captain of the crimson lions had been doing his best to bring the woman back to life with his magic, only to fail in the end and receive a whole load of power from her in a last ditch effort at beating the demon lord. During that fight however, he had managed to land a few hits on the demon, only for him to summon up the full totality of his power in the form of a powerful suit of armor and weapon. With that weapon, he had struck down not only Griswold but also the weapon he had been using in so many different situations. Using it to save children from werewolves in the forests near Hage, defeated the denizens of the deep while seeking to protect various civilians from Hapshass and many more.
To put into words the amount of times in which the black blade of Feardèanamh had aided him in putting his enemies to death would likely take him about a day as it had been with him for a very long time, acting as the focus of his offensive strength. Because his magic was so very volatile and could easily cause wildfires or sent entire towns or cities ablaze, he had always been very cautious when using it, as doing such things would only cause more people to look at him with disdain. And while that was not really the issue within the forsaken region and most of the common region, there were plenty of people down south who believed he was the kind of person that was just out to destroy any noble that crossed his path. While obviously untrue, it was not easy to sway people from what they believed, something he knew quite well from his own experiences.
So rather than giving those people even more of a reason to slander him, he’d rather keep his magic sealed away, only using those spells that he knew well enough in terms of destructive power and in which situations they might be useful. That, and obviously relying fairly often on those that increased his physical capabilities, making it easier for him to beheaded and eviscerate those that stood between him and his objectives. And now that Aamon had taken that blade from him, there was very little he could do aside from relying more on his spells. But thanks to Dragir Farnay, the dwarf he had saved from making a huge mistake by killing humans on Cloverian soil, he had gotten his hands on a weapon that had once belonged to a royal family that had long since disappeared. So instead of continuing to sulk even longer than he already had, Griswold had decided on getting better at using this strange new weapon instead.
Believing the blade had a potential to rise to a level that was even greater than that of Feardèanamh, the weapon he had dubbed “Serenbleidd” required someone that could truly master it, and that someone was going to be him. Once he could get used to the blade that seemed a lot more prone to damage due to it being so much lighter and faster than the broadsword he had grown so accustomed to over the past year, perhaps the biggest thing that he had to learn to work with was the fact that this sword only had a cutting edge on one side of the blade, rather than both. Knowing that such things would not just come from doing basic training, Griswold had decided to take some more drastic steps towards self improvement. Which was why he had come to a place that was tied to the same thing that had taken his original blade from and forced him to get strong fast.
Demons.
As the story went, when one of the more powerful demons to attack the country fell, a part of whatever palace he had under his control had fallen and continues to seep out its darkness at this very day. In so doing, it had created a large magic zone that had been gradually expanding, which was by itself rather concerning. If it were to keep growing larger and larger, there was really no telling how much land it might swallow up inside of it and when it might stop, if it were to ever stop. When it came to these strange locations that possessed such strong amounts of “natural” mana, there were always some kind of rules to it, though the fact that this place had been created by unnatural means meant that such rules were not there as there was no precedent. And where there was no precedent, intel gathering was a must.
But that was not why he had come here today. He believed that if the land was to be affected by the unnatural darkness this place had to offer, it would also seep into its inhabitants. Some people had spoken about how the place had certain spots of concentrated darkness where one might have visions, and where those very visions might actually come to life. That, and the animals and monsters dwelling within the place were being augmented and changed by it, some of them turning into far darker versions of themselves. If nothing else, all of it made for a very interesting venture, and one that might help him in reaching higher levels of skill with his new weapon. So as he stood at the border of the country, he could clearly tell where the “border” was right now. Seeing the spot where the darkness began, like a veil one had to pass through in order to get into the place, he took a deep breath.
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Last Edit: Feb 12, 2022 11:07:35 GMT -5 by Griswold
Stepping forward across the boundary and through the veil, he could instantly tell how the air had changed. Affecting his sensory capabilities due to all of this unnatural mana that was seeping into the land itself, he felt that it had become unreliable in this place. Luckily for him, he had his Ki to fall back on in such situations, at least until he could go back to using both once he had sufficiently acclimatized himself to this region of darkness. Finding it odd that there was actually a place within all of this darkness where people were living out their days as normal as it could get, Griswold made sure not to get too close to it. Believing that the things he was after would not be found near civilization, he would try to find the place where the pieces of the shadow palace had originally fallen to the earth.
Hoping that this would be the place where the darkness was at its strongest, it was likely there that he would end up finding his query. For now though, he still had quite a ways to go before he would reach that point, though he would not lull himself into believing he would be safe this close to the border. At the end of the day, he was still within the Fringe, he had just descended deeper into one of the most dangerous portions inside of it. Knowing quite well that there were some things in this world that thrived in the dark, it made sense to believe that they might have come to this place where they did not need to hide away during the day, as this place of constant night took away what was most likely their greatest fear: the sun. This instantly brought his mind to a single thought, that of vampires and their like.
Having met with a vampire once not that long ago, it had told him that he had planned to move his “family” to this place so that they might thrive, though he had not managed to get to that point. Had he not taken people against their will and conditioned them into believing they loved one another after he took them from their actual families and turned them into bloodsucking abominations, he might have actually made it there too. Though the children he had turned were still very much alive and hidden away within his new underground base, a place where they might hide away from the sun until Griswold could find a place for them to live out their days for however long they might be, everyone else had been forcefully put down by his late broadsword. Thinking back on it, perhaps it was for the best that that weapon was no longer with him today.
When he had retrieved it from an elven ruin, word had it that the blade had been created and wielded by a dark elven king, one that had been trying to swallow the land of Clover up by the sea in days of old, only for the spell he used to backfire and send his entire fleet down into the abyssal depths of the ocean. Believing the weapon to have been cursed by that same king as it was made to kill as many humans as possible, there was no denying the fact that a lot of humans had in fact died at the hands of it. And at the hands of Griswold. With the sheer amount of blood that had been spilled by the sword, it felt like he could fill a lake the size of Sivert twice over, making him into what might possibly be one of the greatest killers within the country. And since that was a reputation that he was trying to shake for a more peaceful or at least protective image, that sword being gone seemed like it was a blessing in disguise.
Hoping that if he did everything right, that this new sword might become a shining beacon for the people that saw it as opposed to the blade of a butcher of beast, monster and man alike, becoming better at wielding it and pushing it to greater heights was now more prominent than ever. Truly, there was no limit to the amount of reasons Griswold could give himself to explain how important it was that he pushed his skills at wielding Serenbleidd to levels that equalled his skill at wielding Feardèanamh. Placing his hand on the handle of the blade as he moved onward, Griswold felt how it had been a long time since he had last hoped for something as much as this. Besides, this time, there was actually a chance that the thing he hoped for was actually going to happen as it was not something that was on the scale of his hopes for a better and stronger Clover country, one that was devoid of castes.
As that was not something he could make happen on his own, and had come to believe would never happen even if enough people wanted to bring it about through something along the lines of a civil war, it was likely just going to pop up in a new way. It was because of that insight that he had stopped believing in such things, and why he had been wanting to bring about an organization that was going to look to the wellbeing and prosperity of the forsaken region while aiding the black bulls and green mantis squads in doing so. Shaking the thought as he was starting to put more and more of a distance between himself and the border of the country, he thought about how he had left his horse in a stable back in Hage, not feeling like this place was going to be doing the creature a whole lot of favors.
Beginning to hear things from a distance, he saw large rats scurrying away as the black-clad man approached them, showing they were not going to be hostile to him unless he put them into a position where they had to lash out. But it was not the noise caused by the rats that drew his attention, but rather something else that was moving within the darkness, striking down one of the rats and instantly sinking its fangs right into it, draining it of every drop of blood before beginning to devour the body. Not quite sure what this beast was that he was dealing with, the speed and power with which it had pounced on top of the oversized rat proved that this was a hunter that had acclimatized itself incredibly well to life within this region. Stepping on a bit of crunchy terrain, the creature became alerted to Griswold’s position, turning it’s head and staring him down with bright red eyes.
With blood dripping down it’s mouth and fangs, it dropped the rat to the ground as it stood up straight, showing itself to be taller and more lean than Griswold was, something that could potentially become an issue if they came to blows. Spotting the large claws and powerful longs limbs, Griswold believed that the only reason why it had dropped its food was because it had seen another prey that it might take down, one that would provide it with quite a bit more food than just a large rat. Staring one another down, Griswold’s Ki was locked on to the strange creature quite well, ready to inform him as to the exact moment where it might bring itself to attacking the elven mage. Resting his hand on the handle of his sword, the black bull did not move an inch, as this was not the kind of fight that he was going to be triggering for once.
And that was when it made its move, lowering to the ground before lunging it him with bestial ferocity, a frontal assault that was simple yet effective against just about any opponent. But there was one thing about such lunges that made them specifically tricky against any kind of adversary that was worth their bacon, this being the fact that they had become airborne. And while their feet were off of the ground, it meant that they could not steer their bodies in any way or alter their trajectory for things such as dodging incoming attacks, something Griswold had come to understand quite well. It was one of the reasons why his sword was such a boon to him, as it allowed him to create a zone around him in which he got to use the air itself as footing, the perfect tool for any kind of swordsman that knew their own field.
So as the creature lunged at him, Griswold’s hand already resting on the handle of the sword, he moved to the side in a pivoting motion while drawing the blade from the scabbard. In that same motion, the beast flew past the black knight, but not before it would receive a deep cut from the side of its ribs all the way down to its upper leg. Howling out in pain, the creature landed on the ground on all fours before turning and lashing out straight away, almost as if such a wound did not even really bother it. Using the sword to parry the blows from its thick and sharp claws, he countered blow after blow after blow, though the creature did not seem to let up. Normally, something like that would start slowing down after receiving a wound like that right in the opening minutes of the fight, but this beast seemed different.
After parrying a powerful blow that pushed him back several steps, Griswold received but one moment to have a clear look at the creature’s side, only to see that the entirety of the wound had vanished. Having seen this kind of regenerative prowess only two times, once in a werewolf and once in a very old vampire, he looked at the creature’s shape and came to realize that it actually had a bunch of features that could be attributed to both of them. However, based on how it ate, it seemed to be more like a vampire than a werewolf as it had fully drained the rat it had killed of any blood before it had started digging into the fleshy belly of the animal. Given the shape the other vampire had taken on, it made him wonder if this was perhaps what happened to vampires that went feral, fully giving in to their bloodlust and relinquishing their humanity.
While it was not a very welcome idea to fight a vampire that was as feral as they came, especially given how powerful the previous vampire he had fought had been, it was not for his own sake that he was worried. It made him worry about the children he had saved from the vampire, the ones he had turned into vampires themselves and kept around for his twisted little “family”. Having left them with plenty of animal blood to last them for a week or two, maybe three if they paced it, which seemed highly unlikely, the fact that they were out in the Aristaeus basin meant they wouldn’t be much of a threat to anyone if they ventured out. Perhaps they might become a threat to a deer or something like that, though he didn’t imagine them to turn feral in his absence. But if they did, and this was the kind of creature he would return to, he would put them down himself.
It was the vow he had taken when he had decided not to kill them but look after them on his own, hoping he might find some kind of a cure for them at some point during his travels. But if that time never came, he’d just keep looking after them until they could do it by themselves, or until he found a place where they might be able to live free and unbothered. Truthfully, this was one of the many reasons why he had come to this particular magic zone to train rather than going to the volcanic zone, figuring he might be able to kill two birds with one stone this way. Right now though, it did not seem like this place would be very welcoming to just about any vampire, as there was likely a reason as to why this particular one had fallen into such a feral state. Perhaps the city located within the area was different, but there was no telling how they might respond to vampires being in their midst.
Deflecting another couple of blows, it was time to push the offensive, as this was just going to end up tiring him out and giving the savage attacker the upper hand. Parrying one of the incoming strikes and angling the claw away, causing the beast to fall forward in the wake of their own momentum, Griswold pierced the creature between the ribs with his blade, believing he might have perforated a lung with what felt like a decisive strike. He had however aimed for the heart, though the creature had managed to angle itself in such a manner that it was no longer in any life threatening danger. As for the reason behind going for the heart, it was something he had learned from the vampire hunter back in Kiten, a man called Waylon. That said though, he had used wooden stakes to pierce their hearts, which seemed like superstition to Griswold. At the end of the day, anything could die by having their heart shredded.
Not about to let this chance go to waste, he utilized the swords’ ability to feed off of his mana and translate it into a solar attack. Causing the beast to burn up from within, the close proximity to the heart meant that the beast was rapidly taking damage to its internal organs. While quite literally feeding the flames within the beast, Griswold used every ounce of his strength to angle the blade and force it through the creature’s back, severing the spine and lacerating the heart as solar flames erupted from the open wound. With a harrowing scream of pain, the creature fell over, face first into the soil as it exhaled a staggered last breath. Taking a deep breath himself before cleaning Serenbleidd on his cloak and sticking it back into the scabbard before turning the deceased creature on its back. While some might consider it barbaric, Griswold knew differently as he was going to be here for a while.
Taking out his trusty dagger, he placed it on the ground next to him as he began checking out the body of this creature. Taking mental notes as he went over all of it, he used his hands to open up the creature’s mouth, finding that the teeth had all resembled those of predatory animals with the canines being elongated even further than normal, making for a maw fit for shredding meat and making things bleed profusely. Next he observed the limbs, beginning with the arms and seeing how they had grown to a length that allowed this thing to run on all fours effectively, just like a werewolf. With the tufts of hair covering the creature’s back, arms and legs, mixed with the peculiar way of moving around and the long clawed fingers and toes, he could excuse himself for believing that this creature might actually have been a werewolf to begin with.
And while he had taken out his knife, he quickly realized that he had more or less destroyed the creature’s internal organs with his solar sword attack, meaning there was very little to be learned from cutting it open and seeing if it was in any way different from human anatomy. So as he got up and put his skinner back, he left the body for what it was as he began moving on deeper into the darkness. Not even needing to look over his shoulder to tell that the large rats had returned as soon as Griswold left to begin feeding on the remains, it was clear that even in such a place as this, the natural cycle would just continue as planned. Proving that the weak were meat and the strong got to eat, while the death of one thing became the banquet for another.
As the hours began to drag on, it became quite easy to forget what time it was, having to go off of his internal clock to tell him whether him being tired was due to it actually being late or because he had just fought and killed a feral beast. Simply looking up wasn’t going to cut it, as the sun, the moon or the stars weren’t going to be very helpful here as far as navigational tools went. There was a reason after all why the vampire he had faced was capable of just moving around in what had still been the middle of the day at that point in time. Proving really quickly that there were far more struggles to this place than he had initially realized as night and day didn’t seem to be a thing here and the creatures that normally went bumping in the night were now just doing the bumping twenty-four hours of the day.
And at some point, he was going to need to find some place where he could sleep, a place that was fairly hidden and would make it hard for any of these skulking monstrosities to creep up on him while he slept, slitting his throat while he was defenseless. For some of the other knights he had met that he considered to be his equal or above his current level of skill, they could just have their spirits keep watch and wake them when danger was approaching them. But as far as things went for Griswold, he did not have such things, he was never picked by one of them in the way people such as Charles, Ardere and Cyrus had been. It had always been something he had never truly understood, as he had worked very hard to become a powerful mage that did the right thing for the people he had desired to protect.
He had put his own ass on the line to keep other people safe time and again, travelled far and wide for the sake of others, even going as far as joining the Royal knights to protect the entire country and perhaps the entire known world against the threat posed by the archdemons that were hanging over them as this looming darkness that was just waiting to descend upon everyone. And they did not seem to care about human constructs such as peasants, commoners, nobles or royals. To them, they were all just sacks of flesh that were only fit to serve or die, meaning they had to be stopped no matter what. But even as his blade had been shattered, even as he got beaten around like a ragdoll trying to save his comrades and give Ardere a better chance at beating down the archdemon Aamon, by the time he came out of it, he was still just the same old magic knight he had been going in.
At least, he had been the same as he had gone in, minus his trusty sword.
And if the spirits had still not considered him to at least be a viable choice for bonding, that just meant that he and the spirits were more at odds than he believed, which had become fairly obvious by the way in which Cyrus’ spirit had spoken to him. But to be fair, Griswold hadn’t cared enough to remember their names, which went to prove just how much he actually felt for the spirits held by other people. Figuring he was going to remain his own man without any additional aid, it meant that he would have to just go back to basic training. The very same training he had received as a child growing up within the Fringe, albeit a very different place than the one he found himself in now. Since the same laws that applied in one place did not apply in the other, finding a spot high up in a tree seemed like it wasn’t going to work out as well as finding a deep hole in the ground.
And so that was what he was going to be doing. Looking around for some kind of abandoned den or cave that might be able to provide him with a sleeping spot for the night. Hell, even an abandoned building would do, though he figured those would likely not be that prominent around here. That said, he really had next to no ideas as to what was even in this place before part of the shadow palace came crumbling down and changed this part of the world forever. For all he knew, he might very well stumble across a town out here, or at least what remained of it as he had his doubts about some countryside yokels wanting to live among these ferocious beasts. So it made sense that people would make their way over to a place he believed was called Regnum Umbra or something along those lines. As he had never visited and hadn’t really heard a lot of talk about it, he wasn’t entirely sure.
At some point, he was going to have to go over there to see if there was some place that could provide asylum for his orphaned kids, but that was not something he could worry himself with right now. So as he just kept pushing onward, luck would have it that he came across a cavern, one that was as dark on the inside as the world around it was. Using his Ki to scope out the place to the best of his abilities, as his mana sensory had still not been attuned well enough for it to be used without fault in a place that was so rich with ambient mana, it seemed that there was but one thing inside of it. Seemingly bigger than the monster he had fought before, the scent suggested that it might very well be a bear. Not wanting to give the beast an excuse to wake up and attack him as he had been fighting enough for one day, he trekked on.
Finding that there was surprisingly little greenery in this place, he figured that much was to be expected as most plant life required sunlight in order to thrive, which was exactly the reason why they did so badly here and why things like vampires did so well. And the trees being as barren as they were made for bad spots for him to camp out, as all it would take was for one of those monsters to climb up and snatch him out, or for something to just inflict a fatal wound before he woke up. These seemed to be the main dangers this place posed upon those foolish enough to try and brave the wilderness, though Griswold was not going to be dissuaded easily. He was not going to turn his back on his plan and run back towards the safety of the Clover country until he had properly mastered this blade. Because right now, that was more important than anything else.
Continuing along, he finally found something that seemed promising, the remains of an old chapel of some sort. At least that was what the stonework would suggest, sharing a fairly similar architecture as the large church he had seen back in Nairn. Approaching it with the intention of checking it for being a viable sleeping spot for the night, his Ki did not sense anything upon getting as close as he was, which was a good thing. It meant that nothing had decided to make this place their home yet, meaning it might be unfit for the creatures skulking about here, or maybe it simply was too far away from most of the food sources this dark place had to offer to the local wildlife. Whatever the case, it worked out perfectly for him, as he could use a proper night of rest if tomorrow was going to be as action packed as today.
Opening up the doors to the chapel was quite difficult, the hinges having long since rusted over as the place was no longer being looked after by the deacons, nuns and the priest that were in charge of such places. Taking a bit of force to open the door fully, it turned out there had been some bodies blocking it from the inside. Inside, it was clear that something along the lines of a massacre had taken place, with various bodies stacked up against the door and more of them along the walls, as if they had been killed while trying to get out. Obviously, this gave him a really bad feeling in his gut, as something terrible had happened that caused the deaths of all of these individuals. But as his Ki had pointed out, nothing alive was currently within the building, nor were there any cracks in the ceiling or other entrances anything might come out of.
As such, all signs pointed towards the idea that whatever had been responsible had left this place a long time ago. Kneeling down to check out some of the bodies, many of them appeared to have one or more holes in their necks, as well as showing the tell-tale signs of having had their bodies drained of blood as they were more or less mummified. Believing a vampire had been responsible for this bloodbath, it would make a lot of sense as it wouldn’t be the first one he had encountered within this land. Noticing a lot more bodies in the church benches that had been left behind, it was very possible that much of this place had been evacuated at the time the shadow palace had appeared and was attacked by the royal knights of that time. Whether these people had believed they’d be able to wait out the storm in here or had perhaps come back here for some reason wasn’t something he knew.
He hadn’t been around for any of it after all, so the best he could do was guess. Wandering around the chapel to make sure the place had no concealed ways in or out, it turned out that the place was actually quite secure. All he would need to do now was to drag out all the bodies and set them on fire, believing that a proper cremation was the least he could do for them. And while he imagined most of these people would rather be buried, he also figured that most of them had not imagined they would die and be left here in the way that they had. As someone who knew of the spirits but didn’t exactly consider them to be something along the lines of divinity, even after fighting alongside one of them, Griswold did not possess the faith of the churchgoers and the average joe in the land of Clover that the spirits would be what would save them from the demons in the end.
But even as he said that, part of him was doubting his reasoning, as it had been Ardere that had defeated the archdemon in the end. It just hadn’t been the Salamander that ended up making the major difference in this case, but rather the power he had received from Varisse in conjunction with the power of the great spirit of fire. Had he not had the spirit, it was likely that the power boost he had received had simply not been enough, meaning they would all still have died. But there was no denying that for all of the spirits they had between them, what with the sap, silver and fire spirits being present, Aamon would have beaten them all bloody in the end. As such, Griswold did not consider the spirits to be all that, though part of that also came due to a bit of spite as they clearly did not hold him in very high regards either.
But as he went over the corpses, beginning to drag the ones near the doors outside first and piling them on top of one another once he got there, he was fully prepared that doing such a thing might draw unwanted attention for the local fauna. But as that was not something he could really concern himself with as these people simply deserved to be put to rest, the first ten corpses were relatively easy to drag out due to their fortunate placement, as cold and uncaring as that might have sounded in his head. It was however when he began tugging at one of the corpses that was still in the seats that he noticed a twitch, something his Ki picked up on as well. Beginning to think these people might not be dead at all, he watched as the body opened its eyes and tried to bite him. With a swift blow to the temple, the body got flung across the church bench and smacked into the wall.
Drawing his sword, the punch itself had happened entirely out of instinct, not looking forward to the idea of getting bitten by some undead shambler. And while his focus had been on the one that had snapped at him, his Ki suddenly registered a lot more than he had been able to before, as even his ears picked up on what sounded like hearts suddenly starting to beat once again, as well as some strange kind of squirming inside of the bodies. In mere seconds, all of the bodies that hadn’t been desiccated and mummified were all rising from their seats as some kind of strange spike came from their mouth. Wondering if something was perhaps inhabiting these zombies, he placed one foot in front of the other while lowering himself a bit, taking on a defensive and reactive stance. It was likely the best thing he could do, especially when facing superior numbers.
Rising from their seats, the zombies did not appear to be very fast, though there was something about the spike inside of their mouths that worried him. Making sure to remain at a safe distance, as the zombies got closer, one of them shot the spike towards him, which was attached to some sort of thick, fleshy tentacle that moved very fast and was incredibly flexible. Believing it to be some kind of ranged weapon, the thin nature of this spike reminded him of the bodies he had dragged out, the ones that had between one or more puncture holes in their neck. Thinking that it might be possible that these people had been killed by these things as opposed to a vampire, a vampire killing usually had between two and four puncture holes from their canines, but never just one or five as that was virtually impossible given their dentures.
Responding to the tentacle by cutting at it, he instead ended up just swatting it away, having hit it with the blunt side of the sword. Cursing his own idiocy at forgetting how his sword had only a single cutting edge as opposed to the two that he had grown accustomed to, as well as how mistakes like these could cost him his life if he wasn’t careful, he took in a deep breath. In spite of the smell of dead bodies, the breath in allowed him to at the very least get his thoughts back in order as it calmed him down. Fighting a whole lot easier with a quiet mind that could remain on point, the tentacle retracted for a bit before it came forward a second time, giving the other shamblers the time they needed to get close enough to also attack him. This time however, he would not fall over the same mistake a second time as his blade severed the tentacle, sending half of it flying across the room.
Almost instantly, the body the tentacle had been attached to began regurgitating blood through the wound as its eyes became bloodshot, gripping at its throat as the body began twitching like someone that could no longer breathe. After a few moments of heavy bleeding, the body simply fell over as the heart had stopped beating. While it had been a rather awful thing to witness, as these things had been people too at some point, he now knew that their main means of attack seemed to also be their weak point. It also meant that they were very well equipped to fight unarmed individuals and animals, but that they were at an extreme disadvantage when faced with adversaries wielding bladed weaponry such as Griswold. But what worked out poorly for them just proved to be his own salvation. Still, they held greater numbers, which would make it dangerous if they all attacked at the same time.
Not about to give them the chance to gang up on him, he grabbed hold of one of the nearby church benches, tossing it towards three of them with such force it through them and the bench straight through the wall as parts of them were utterly crushed. With it being one of those things he had only recently realized he could do, being able to channel his strength into such feats never ceased to amaze him. It in fact amazed him to the point where he forgot what his strength could lead to, as he had just destroyed part of his own shelter here, which was borderline stupid. But for the time being, he had a few less threats to worry about, at least until he made his way outside and murdered those things too. Turning his attention to the few left inside of the actual building, he held his blade with one hand so he had one free hand. There was after all no way of knowing if a spell might be in order.
Beginning to close the distance, one of the tentacles got shot towards him, which he grabbed onto with his hand before pulling at it with all of his might. Seemingly pulling something from the shambler’s stomach up into its throat, it was clear to see that whatever was going on there messed up the workings of the body, which was all the better for him. Throwing the tentacle’s spiked tip into a nearby bench where it continued to wriggle, Griswold used his sword to sever the head of one of the other zombies, causing it and part of a squirming tentacle to fall to the ground where the severed pieces quickly died off. Had it not been that this was a new kind of enemy, he might have been able to finish them all off much sooner, though he did not want to give these odd creatures the chance to get the drop on him. And as his mother had taught him, sometimes it was best to take things slow and steady.
Getting a better feel for the capabilities of these creatures the longer the fight dragged out, there came a moment where he felt like his own speed was superior to the striking speed of the tentacles, allowing him to quickly take out several of them by beheading them, which seemed to be just about as effective as it was on every other creature. That said though, he had to make sure to sever the tentacle, as that seemed to be the most important part about this creature’s body, being capable of moving even without the brain attached to the body. Believing this to be some sort of hostile takeover caused by a parasite, rather than being a form of symbiosis, Griswold made sure to stab all of the tentacles to make sure they’d bleed out and die properly. Returning some form of peace to the old chapel, he wandered outside to where he had tossed the bench and the remaining creatures.
As the bench had more or less destroyed whatever it had hit, one of them had already died as the parasite had been crushed inside of their stomach when the bench hit. Another had no legs attached to its body anymore, causing the tentacle to flail about wildly as it tried to keep the black knight at bay. But when faced against a sword, all of its flailing eventually led up to nothing as Griswold severed it before severing the head of the zombie next to it. Believing that to be the end of it, it turned out one of the clever squirmers had hidden beneath the throat area so that when the head got cut off, it remained unharmed. Coming with a sneak attack shortly after the head had been severed, Griswold’s Ki warned him to the impending threat, grabbing hold of it with his free hand while cutting the damned thing off with the sword. And with that, the last threat in the chapel had effectively been neutralized.
Leaving the body that seemed most intact, which was the one he had stabbed through the torso to just kill the parasite without having to go through the squirming and the flailing, he began dragging all of the bodies of the recently re-deceased to the same pile. Using the church bench he had thrown through the wall as tinder by breaking the shattered planks apart and sticking them between the corpses, he used one of his minor solar spells to light the pyre. With the light this cast, it allowed him to see much more of what he was actually doing, which would aid him in spotting any potential threats that might make their way over to the fire as it was pretty much a beacon in a whole lot of darkness. More importantly, it would aid him in the autopsy, as well as in reconstructing a new wall with whatever materials he had to work with.
Taking his dagger out and making a deep incision at the base of the throat, carving it down along the length of the ribcage and to the lower end of the stomach, he began making additional incisions that would normally allow him to effectively gut an animal he was about to prepare for dinner. This time however, it wasn’t because he wanted to eat this thing, but because he wanted to know what he was dealing with as it seemed like the kind of creature that could pose a threat if it somehow made its way into the land of Clover. With a bit of force, Griswold managed to break out the ribcage and remove some flesh to see what the parasite looked like, though he had not expected what he encountered. Finding that this thing had grown itself and fused with pretty much all of the organs and detached them from most of the nervous system, it felt no exterior pain while it controlled the body.
Effectively becoming one large sac of hungry organs attached to a tentacle with a stinger through which it could suck out blood from prey, it was clear that this thing was vampiric in nature, he just had no idea where it would fit in into the food chain. Regardless, at least now he that if he encountered any more of these things somewhere, he knew what their weaknesses were and what made them tick. And at times like these where one found themselves in a place that was nothing at all like what they were used to, doing this kind of thing was incredibly important. This was about his own survival after all, as in this case, him becoming a better swordsman in as little time possible went hand in hand with him getting out of this place alive. Right now though, he could put his sword away with the certainty that he was done fighting for the moment.
But just because he was done fighting, that did not mean that the work was done, as he still had to prepare a place where he could potentially spend the night. Tossing the last of the bodies onto the pyre along with the parasite he had carved out of it, he took off his gloves and put them into the back pockets of his coat. Not having the means by which to clean himself or his gear right now, he had to make due with what he had instead. Heading back in through the hole, Griswold began devising a way that would keep things from coming in too easily, as well as figuring out some kind of a warning system. With all of the benches he had that were only stained with a bit of blood here and there, he began stacking them against the hole in the wall before putting another stacked row in front of it.
Finding that the weight of these rows of stacked benches would make it difficult for something to just walk on in, it would take quite a big deal of force to make their way in, which would be followed by a whole series of benches falling all over the place. While the stacked rows would keep the cold out and the creatures that hunted in the region, the benches falling down by themselves would create enough noise to wake the dead, making it into a warning system in and of itself. Feeling quite content with the clever means by which he had solved this problem of his own creation, he used the bench that he had left and shoved it all the way to the furthest wall, allowing him to see the door and the makeshift wall. From there, he knew that if either of the two were to be forced through, he’d have all the time in the world to get ready for a fight.
Putting his bedroll on top of the church bench so he wouldn’t need to sleep on the cold floor, he went out of the chapel with some of the food he had packed, as well as a jar of water. Believing that the food he had packed would get him through roughly a day, the water lasting him at least a week, he knew that he would eventually need to get to the point of hunting something that he could actually eat. Feeling like eating the feral monster and the parasite infested people would be similar to cannibalism, it was good that he had at least encountered a bear, as well as several overgrown rats on his way here. It meant that even in a place as dark and unnatural, that nature itself managed to thrive and just figured out new ways by which it could live in a land of eternal night.
Taking a piece of meat out of his pack, he put it on the top of the blade, holding the blunt side of the sword up so it wouldn’t slowly slice through and fall onto the fire. And while it seemed like a somewhat morbid thing to do, to cook meat over a pyre, when in the conditions he was currently in, one did not get to pick and choose how they went about doing their things. So as he waited for his food to get ready, he just wondered as to who these people might have been, why they had been inside of this chapel and why some of them turned into these husks that were controlled by parasites and had eventually killed everyone else around them. Quite certain about the fact that he would most likely never get to figure out the answer, he was just glad that he had found them and put everyone out of their misery before burning their remains. Though only slightly, it made the place seem a little bit less evil.
Once his meat had been cooked, he sat himself down, leaning his back against the stone wall of the chapel as he took out a piece of bread. Cutting the slab of beef into thin slices and putting them on top of the bread, he dug in and made sure to get his stomach nice and full. Because even though the evening had come, or at least he believed it had due to his internal clock telling him that he should start feeling tired, there was no excuse for malnourishment. If he could not keep his energy levels up, he would feel the fallout of such decisions when he had to do battle, and that was something he was quite sure of as to things that were coming his way. Because by order of things, he had already been forced to fight a feral vampire and a whole gang of some sort of blood-sucking parasites, so it made sense that he would be encountering more threats as he went further in.
After all, this had only been his first day here.
Once he was done eating, it was time for him to head back inside and lock the place down for the night. Passing through the front door, he closed it behind him, slamming the large bolts that had initially been used to seal the place down in the past, but still shoving a broken bench in front of it to make sure nobody would get to just barrel through the door with ease. With his stomach full, the building locked down, the threats level of his direct surroundings brought down to their lowest possible point and his bed for the night made, he hung his clothes off of the far end of his makeshift bed before taking out his sword. Performing a basic training routine with his sword that was similar to the one he had been taught by his mother back when he was still a kid learning how to wield a dagger, some slight modifications had been made to it.
Having originally altered the movements to work out for a broadsword as opposed to a dagger, meaning he had to use both hands to do it, he now again altered it to the point where his strikes would be more precise and thought out. Because when using a broadsword, one had more range to work with, did not need to really turn the blade as it had two cutting edges as opposed to just the one, was a little bit slower and was a lot heaver. While a lot of these things came naturally to him once he was actually in battle, the fact that he had forgotten that his blade did not cut both ways in the heat of the moment meant that he was nowhere near to mastering the blade. Not counting the feral vampire beast, the other monsters he had fought here were simply not equipped for sword wielding prey animals such as himself, which had been what made up for his mistake.
But if he were to face something bigger, stronger, smarter or simply all of the aforementioned factors at once, those kinds of mistakes would be punished harshly. And so, as he spent the better part of an hour practicing how to strike as if he had never used this sword before in his life, he eventually got tuckered out. It was only natural after traveling all the way from Sosshi through the Fringe, head deep into the shadow zone and have to fight his way through feral creatures not once but twice. So as he got comfortable inside of his bedroll, he already knew what was going to be one of his priorities once morning came. A place where he could find fresh water to fill out his canteen, as well as to bathe and wash some of his blood-stained clothing. For while everything was fine now, eventually, it was going to stink something fierce.
For someone who was as cautious as he was when it came to venturing into the unknown, Griswold had truly slept like a baby that night. Finding that his wall of stacked benches had still been fully intact and untouched while the door was still bolted down tight, all in all, it felt like his first day and night in the shadow zone had turned out rather successfully. But even as he got up, the strange feeling that he had no idea what time of day it was or how long he had been asleep for was impossible to tell. Normally, he would just look outside to see where the sun was in the sky, though the fact that it was still just as dark now as it had been when he first entered this part of the land was really throwing him off. For all he knew, he could have just slept for three hours or twelve hours and have no way of knowing.
Deciding that such things were not worth worrying about as he felt perfectly fine, he got himself dressed properly before leaving the chapel behind. Making it the place he would be heading back to once he had seen enough in a given direction, it made for a relatively safe location to sleep in. And so the search for fresh water began, which was actually a lot harder to pull off than he had initially imagined it would be. While there were some lakes within the Fringe, finding large bodies of water in what were mostly wooded or rocky areas was not all that common at all. Hell, as someone who had been living in the Fringe for most of his life, he had never actually seen a lake himself until he had turned about eighteen years old, which was when he first got to see lake Sivert in person.
Hoping to find a similar place like that within this region, he now had two things he needed to find: a lake or river with fresh water, as well as the original location of the shadow palace’s debris. And just like that, several days went by in which he travelled long and wide in order to find either of these things, though to no avail. While it allowed him to rule out a few directions, the fact that his food had effectively run out during what he believed to be that morning, he only had so much water left in his canteen. This meant that when he picked a new direction to go in, he had to find water or he would need to go back to the land of Clover in order to fill up his canteen again. Outright refusing the very thought, the black knight began his stride further north, which was a place he had initially tried to avoid if at all possible.
Not wanting to get too close to the land of Spade due to fairly obvious reasons, he did not doubt that there might be soldiers along their side of the border that wouldn’t hesitate to attack him once he ventured too close. So before he got far enough north to even see such a border, he needed to find water, and preferably some food while he was at it. Ruling out plant-based food sources due to the fact that most things wouldn’t be able to grow here unless they were fed with some artificial light source, the plants that did manage to grow here were likely along the unnatural variety as they had adapted to the constant dark and the ambient mana in this place. Which meant that by default, any of the herbivores in this place would be subject to similar changes as they ingested these kinds of shrubbery, likely creating a rather interesting mutation.
Remembering quite well the warg from last month that had been mutated into a mana beast capable of breathing flame, it made him wonder what he should be expecting from this place. And luckily for him, it didn’t take more than two hours before he found a pack of deer inside of a small forest with really odd trees. As he began chasing them down with the intention of killing and gutting one for food, it became clear that these animals with their dark pelts had gained the ability to disappear into one shadow and pop out from the next, making it incredibly difficult and time consuming just to get one of them. Not about to be dissuaded, he imagined he would just come back through here once he was on his way back to the chapel. And when he came back, he now at least knew to engage them with stealth and kill one before they had the change to dash away.
So while it had been disappointing that he hadn’t been able to kill anything, he believed it to be for the best as he’d need to lug the beast around the entire way as opposed to just getting one on the way back. So all in all, it was a minor victory he hadn’t exactly been expecting, but a victory none the less. Continuing to pass through the forest, he felt a rather notable absence of the beings one might normally find within a forest or a woodland. And while one would likely never get to see it unless it allowed itself to be seen, these beings were always present, observing the place and deciding whether or not they needed to step in. The fact that these beings did not seem to be present in this place was likely due to them not being able to stand the unnatural ambient mana that was inadvertently caused by a dead demon.
Believing any place that was devoid of any natural spirits was that much darker by default, Griswold figured that it just fit really well with this place where night seemed to be the natural state. After about an hour of strolling to the forest while keeping his guard up, he eventually passed out on the other side, finding himself on top of a hill overlooking a large body of water. Being all that he could have hoped for and more, he rapidly descended the hill to get to the water. While it looked almost black, he knew that this was not because of the water itself but because it merely reflected what was around it. Lowering his canteen into the water after making sure that it was drinkable after watching some of the shadow dashing deer up in the distance drinking from it, it meant it was safe for him to wash his clothes in it as well.
Finally getting to wash the blood and grime out of his coat and clothes, he put it all next to him to soak as he went in a little bit deeper to really give himself a proper bath. For a hunter, stinking of blood and sweat meant that just about any prey animal in possession of a nose would sniff him out miles away, thus making it impossible for him to hunt animals that could use the darkness that surrounded them to more or less teleport their behinds right out of harms way. And while Griswold himself was quite fast at this point and had the capabilities of getting even faster if he utilized his magic to push himself beyond his natural limitations, he still wouldn’t be able to catch up to something that could blink away at a moments notice and move a distance that was as of yet unclear to him.
But at the end of the day, this was just another trial he needed to overcome if he was to survive here and continue his training. For now however, he was just glad to have a nice cold bath, wash the stink from his body and out of his clothing, as well as getting the chance to wash the blood that had caked onto his blade off properly. While he had done a good job at keeping the blade as clean as possible by washing it off on his cloak whenever he was done fighting, at some point, the cloak itself just became more gross than the sword itself. And at that moment, it was like washing a blood stain with a dirty diaper, which was not exactly hygienic in any way, shape or form. With all of the blood that was getting into the water, it was no surprise that eventually the predatory creatures living inside of it would catch wind of it and come to check it out.
While he had already bathed himself and washed his clothing by that point and gotten out of the water, he saw the water along the surface churn and warp, showing that something was moving just underneath it. But due to the dark water and the lack of natural light, it was hard to see exactly what kind of fish might be living there. Still, it meant that there were fish here that he could kill for food, just in case bringing down one of the deer proved to be impossible. Again, nature provided, even in this unnatural place, something he was quite grateful for as it proved the teachings of his father to be correct. As an elven man that had spent Griswold’s entire life and before his birth tending to plants for food, if there were ever something he believed in, it was that nature would provide and outlive just about any living being on the face of the planet.
So with fresh water located, plenty of aquatic life to fish up and a forest full of strange deer that he could hunt down for food, he officially had everything he needed for a prolonged stay within the area without having to go back to Clover for sustenance. And that was exactly what survival was all about, finding what one needed to stay alive and thrive while in a hostile environment, so much so that at some point, that hostile environment stopped being so hostile. Once one became knowledgeable enough in the area to the point where they were no longer taken off guard by new things, knew where to find what they needed and effectively climbed to the top of the food chain, that hostile environment would officially have been tamed. And so tame it he would, starting with the forest he had passed through on the way here.
With his clothing washed and damp and his scent effectively washed away with all of the grime and filth, it was time to give hunting these deer another try so that he might return to the chapel with more than just a canteen of water, but with a carcass he could probably eat from for about a week if he paced himself and prepared the meat properly. And so he ventured back in, determined to bring food to the table while figuring out the best way to get one of these animals to fall to his already drawn blade, showing just how eager he was to try a different approach towards success. Having already seen exactly how fast they could naturally move, it was the teleporting that was the main issue here, since it seemed to use shadows and darkness as a medium. And since darkness was all around, they could just blink away freely and cover an unknown distance while doing it.
So what he needed to do now was to figure out exactly what this maximum distance was, and if there was something that he could do to disrupt their blinking capabilities enough to get a clean hit in. Reaching a point in the forest where more of the animals were gathering, it seemed that he was going entirely unnoticed as they were no longer alerted by his side. With his weapon at the ready, he just kept himself as low as he possibly could, waiting for one of the animals to stray far enough from the group while grazing along the forest floor. Then, when one of them got within two meters of him, he jumped forth, striking fast and hard and lobbing off its head before it got the chance to even think about blinking away. As the head fell to the floor before the body dropped, he now had food, as well as the chance to test out some theories when it came to hunting these animals.
As this source of food he had just butchered was not going to be disappearing any time soon, he could freely try hunting the others without risking the chance of having to go to bed on an empty stomach. Beginning to race around like headless chickens the moment one of their own fell, Griswold put his sword away, instead deciding to rely on something else entirely. As these animals needed darkness in order to blink away, that meant that if he could somehow displace the darkness, that they would be incapable of using this power. So by tossing a ball of solar light up into the air and detonating it to temporarily shower the place with light and push the darkness away for the duration, Griswold used his speed to chase down one of the larger bucks. Catching up to it in little to no time at all, he managed to essentially place his hand on top of the creature’s hip and keep it there for roughly twenty seconds.
At the end of that period, the buck reached the furthest edge of the field of light, causing him to phase away and reappear roughly twenty meters ahead of him. So as the light died out and darkness swallowed the zone back up, the deer regained their ability to pass through the darkness at near instantaneous speeds yet again. Smiling a bit at the thought of how he had figured all of this out, it gave him some leeway when he would need to go hunting for food again in the near future. Returning to collect the carcass, he tossed it over both shoulders, making sure the blood would drop right to the ground as opposed to it staining his clothing all over again after having just bathed. Knowing that the dirt from the pelt would get into it no matter what he did, that was something he could live with, as staying clean was never an option.
Returning to the chapel, he broke part of a church bench while using some of the materials he found inside of the building that had long since been discarded in order to create a rack over the flame that he could place the meat over for an extended period of time to effectively smoke and cook it over the fire. Finding that he was quickly starting to figure out how to live more effectively within this place, having this much food around made his outlook on the days ahead a whole lot sunnier. And that was something he very much needed if he was to keep training here and do one of the things he had initially come here for: to figure out the source of this place, the location from which this entire zone had jumped into being and continued to feed off of as it grew larger and larger. But that much could wait until tomorrow.
And just as how he made his way into tomorrow, so did he make it through the next few weeks without much of a hitch. Knowing where to get his food and water from, having a rather well defined and protected base of operations he could fall back on that had been properly cleansed of any hazardous lifeforms and getting to train with his sword while going through some things that had slowly gone and went into becoming daily activities, Griswold had gotten close to taming the land. With most of the place explored to the point where there wasn’t a damn thing he couldn’t find, one place still eluded him, though there was a good reason for that. With his regular training, hunting, preparing food and just staying alive when facing the local fauna, he hadn’t yet gotten around to the point of figuring out one of the more important things he had in mind when he came here.
As he had heard tales about a floating place that had been used by some powerful demon called Ben or Sven or something along those lines, it hadn’t gotten by him that this “shadow palace” being broken down and falling down to the ground had caused the place to be covered in this ever-expanding veil of eternal night. Wanting to find the origin point, which was the place where it had all crumbled down, he hoped that it might also show him why the region itself was still growing larger. Perhaps there was something there that people had not been aware of, some nefarious force that kept the veil from stopping where it was and fuelling it to get bigger and bigger. Enveloping more and more of the land for the sake of drawing in those beings that were afraid of the light, allowing them to reach their fullest potential here and make the place that much more of a hazard.
And while Griswold had a good idea as to the general direction of this place as there was but one location he hadn’t properly discovered yet, he wished he had asked around more regarding the events of the past from a time before he had become a magic knight, or even made it into the country. Perhaps if he had, he might have had a clearer picture as to what he was dealing with here, or what the palace had actually been before it had been broken down. But since that was not something he could go do at this point, the best thing he could do was to just make his way over there and see exactly how far he had come since he had come to this place a few weeks ago. Since he had told captain Malcom of the black bulls that he’d be gone for about a month, he didn’t want to stay away for much longer than that as he still had his own tasks to take care of.
Believing that everyone in the country benefited from him getting stronger and being able to put his mind back in order after a certain realization had caused him to sway from many of the things he believed to be right, he would keep it up until he was content. And to be entirely fair, the time he had spent here in a place where he had to actually look after himself so as to not get pounced on by some wicked feral beast or a creature augmented with shadow powers, it had made him change a couple of things in terms of how he perceived the world. And while he still cared about the state of the land of Clover, he had changed his mind away from trying to cure the entire country by getting rid of the sickness that was tearing it up, the sickness being the caste system that kept the poor poor and the rich rich.
Seeing what the world was like in this place, and how a place could potentially become under the worst of circumstances, this shadow zone might even swallow part of the forsaken region if it kept growing. If such a thing were to happen, people would certainly need to migrate south in order to stay out of that place, meaning many would lose their homes and people would need to share the space that was normally not nearly as densely populated. If such a thing came to pass, Griswold imagined most people would have loved to go back to living in the forsaken region, even if it was the poorest place. At least there, everyone got to live the kind of life that they wanted while not meeting a whole lot of criminal activity as there was simply not a whole lot to gain. No, those that wished to make big hauls went to the common and noble regions.
So in those regards, he had come to believe that getting rid of the caste system wasn’t going to work no matter who tried, nor was it going to settle any of the issues the people living within it faced. The only way of handling it would be by working very hard and making sure the people there got to make their lives better without having to rely on those living in the south. It was one of the many reasons why he had wanted to become a vice captain even more than before he had come here, truly believing that the higher his station, the more he would be able to get done for the sake of the peasants that lived all over the place. And if they could empower the downtrodden, make it so they could live wealthier and healthier lives, it would inadvertently make the entire country that much stronger. And all the magic knights needed was a little extra push to not work harder, but smarter.
Meanwhile, another thing he had learned within this place that was soaked in ambient mana was how to finetune his sensory capabilities. For when he had first entered the place, he hadn’t been able to sense a whole lot of anything due to the ambient interference caused by the dark veil of shadow mana. Being quite lucky to have had his Ki to fall back on, surviving had been made that much more easy because of it. But now that he had been able to use his sensory capabilities again in spite of being in a place that was this filled with mana, seeing past the disruptions had made him that much better for it. It had been an additional bit of training he did not know he needed, but was grateful for none the less as it was bound to be useful somewhere down the line. And by somewhere down the line, he clearly meant once he went looking for the remnants of the shadow palace.
As someone who had gotten used to the idea that things would always get worse before they would get better, Griswold did not assume that his hike up to where it was that he believed he needed to be was going to be an easy one. Far from it actually. The closer he was going to get to this place, the denser the mana and the darkness were going to be, as well as any gradual effects it might have on its surroundings. As such, it made sense to believe that the creatures and beings in that area were going to be that much more deadly when compared to the ones he had already faced up until now. But in a way, that was going to be a good thing. It was going to show exactly how well his training had paid off, how much his skills had improved and whether or not his sensory skills were going to be of any use once he got that close to the source of all of this darkness.
Wandering over the hill, Griswold began making his way towards the strange floating structure in the sky, which seemed to be re-originating much of the things that existed into the area, either breaking it down to build something else outlandish in the sky above or merely moving it around. And if he didn’t know any better, it was almost as if this could very well be the birth of an actual dungeon similar to the one in the Aristaeus basin. A place that was warped by ambient mana, almost as if it somehow possessed a mind of its own, though that couldn’t be possible. Having never seen such a thing take place without any sentient being around to make it so, it truly made one think about all of those things existing in the magical world that they simply knew nothing about. Things that he knew nothing about.
Believing that it was not going to be as simple as just walking over there and blowing it up, he still felt like he should at the very least try. Because if this place kept growing, it might swallow up part of the surrounding countries, including the forsaken region, which could be all the trigger some of those countries needed to get into war. For if there was one thing he had learned from spending time among humans, it was that it was easy for them to point fingers without really trying to figure out anything and see if maybe they themselves were part of the problem. So if a nation the size of Spade were to see this as some kind of attack brought upon them by Clover, they would need to deal with two archdemons and the whole of Spade’s armies. And for as confident as he was getting in using his newfound skills, even he knew that such a thing was folly.
So as he continued his approach, it wasn’t long before he found himself moving throughout this strange town, one he was certain of he had seen before. That said, while much of it appeared to be where it should have been, most of it just seemed wrong. Not being all that knowledgeable on every town, village and city within the Clover kingdom, there was no shaking the fact that he had been here before. Before long, what he had been worried about had become true, as the intense mana within this localized area was so dense that it once again began messing with his sensory means. But it was for moments like these that he had been training, training to use his Ki and his extrasensory together in order to overcome such weaknesses. Because through it all, even as his sensory waned in the face of this overwhelming mana, he felt something.
Though he could not be entirely sure as his Ki picked up on nothing yet, he felt like he was being trailed by someone, or something. Not sure as to what he should be expected in a place such as this, the simple thoughts that demons had been involved in what had initially brought about the formation of the shadow region when the palace fell meant that they might still be around. While it wouldn’t be the original ones on account of them having died, others might have stepped up to the plate in order to have a crack at it on their own. From what he had seen, the lesser demons were opportunistic, so the chance of one of them trying to move in on the domain of another to try and continue where the other had failed was really not that far outside of the realm of possibilities. And just like that, a black figure appeared in his periphery.
Drawing his blade and responding by lashing out, his blade clashed with that of another. Making it clear that this place was not as abandoned as he thought, he pushed off his attacker and tried to prepare for an assault of his own, only to see the shadowy attacker get pushed into a wall of a nearby house, phasing through it and straight up disappearing. At this point, quite literally everything around him had become marked by a plethora of red flags, as this thing simply fading into the background meant that either it was an illusion, the town around him was an illusion, everything was an illusion, or all of it was merely an area that this thing was somehow capable of controlling with its magic. Having already seen how some of the creatures in the area had adjusted to the shadow mana and gained abilities allowing them to move around faster, maybe he had just seen things wrong.
Maybe his adversary had merely made it seem as though they slipped into the wall while they actually just blinked in and out of the shadows and had already reappeared somewhere else entirely. Keeping his blade at the ready, the black knight continued moving through the streets towards the place where it was all happening, hoping that getting a closer look as to what he was dealing with might allow him to devise an idea towards topping the entire thing. However unlikely it sounded, what with it warping the surrounding area into something and having this shadowy attacker still on the loose, Griswold needed to be very careful about how he was going to approach this whole thing. Believing the answer might be in the same way as he had depowered the deer before, attacking it with a source of bright light was his best bet.
And so, he held out his hand, forming a massive sphere of solar mana in the palm of his hand before firing it right at the singularity. Making contact with it, the sphere roared, causing a loud booming sound to resonate throughout the area as it felt like time momentarily stopped. But just like that, the solar sphere broke down entirely as the mana it was made up of merely fed into the singularity that just kept doing its thing like absolutely nothing had happened. Knowing his attack had quite literally been a longshot, in spite of believing that he wasn’t going to get a whole lot done, he had never imagined that he wouldn’t have put as much as a dent in the whole thing. Showing exactly how much mana was going around in this place and how much this coalesced darkness could take, the black knight was not dumb enough to believe that he could do anything about it on his own.
No matter how long he trained in this place, no matter how much he refined his sensory capabilities and the level of synchronicity with his sword, there was no way in the world a single person or even a small group of people were going to break this thing as it formed into… whatever it was becoming. Believing people like Hania or Franklin would have found the sight of this thing to be pretty interesting as it was unique in Griswold’s experience, it was too dangerous to just stay this close to it. Because even if it wasn’t sentient and things just happened for no reason other than it just happening, he didn’t want to take the risk of getting snatched up in it. Keeping what he had seen in mind so that he might let people know about it once he returned to the land of Clover, he didn’t get the chance to get far from the singularity before the shadowy assailant appeared yet again.
Wasting no time in attacking from the rear, another sword fight broke out in the ruined streets of this abandoned town. As metal clashed against metal, it was clear to see that this thing was fast, perhaps even faster than he was. But as long as it was a fight of swords, his speed did not matter as much as it would only allow him to engage and disengage faster. In terms of swordplay itself, the difference was minimal to the point where Griswold might have even had an edge. Proving that all of his training had not been in vain, now seemed to be as good a time as any for him to tap into the true potential of the weapon. Channelling his mana into the weapon, as they clashed at a rate which felt like it occurred several times per second, the blade began to radiate rather brightly.
As several wolves of solar light burst free from the weapon, which was a skill he had learned about roughly two weeks ago while maneuvering throughout the darkness and learning whatever the sword had to teach, they dashed towards the shade and erupted once they got close enough. Following through upon this tactic until each of the wolves had been vaporized, it appeared as though it had not been enough to throw the being on its ass, though he hadn’t really imagined that it would. Merely using it as a smokescreen for his actual attack, he had used the blade’s solar transmogrification power to increase his physical strength by quite the amount. So when the creature came to attack him again after quickly closing the distance, Griswold blocked the strike from its two handed strike while utilizing only a single arm to hold the strike back.
As he did so, he’d thrust his fist forward, visually connecting with the being and knocking it straight into the singularity looming above them where it was churned up until nothing of it remained. And while he saw that he hit and saw that the being was destroyed by the thing that had birthed it, his fist had felt nothing. No point of contact, just the vision of what “would” have happened if his fist connected the way it did, at which point Griswold knew enough about this place. Incapable of differentiating what was real from what was not, he could have sworn that this entire fight had just taken place inside of his head. After all, it made no sense for his fist to not feel a damn thing when he punched the shade into oblivion. So while he would keep his blade by his side, the elf decided that he was not going to be staying in this place for even as much as another second.
Abandoning the strange town, as well as the mass of darkness that formed itself above it, Griswold imagined that it was something for the magic knights to eventually deal with. But right now, the best thing he could do was to leave, to survive and get to inform people about it all. But as he left the town behind, he could feel someone or something’s eyes piercing him from several directions at once, proving that there was something here that was keeping an eye on him. Whether they had chosen not to get involved with him on account of him being too strong for them or because they had decided that he was weak enough to not bother altogether, that was not something he could be entirely sure of. But what he did feel certain of was that whatever they were, and wherever they were hiding, they were benefiting from the world slowly being swallowed up in darkness.
Not about to turn around and keep looking for them, he just kept moving back towards the hill, pressing on from there until the town and the growing darkness were just an afterthought. From that point on, it wasn’t a whole lot longer before Griswold made his way back over to the chapel, which was where he felt like it was safe to ponder for a bit. Within the safety of the building he had liberated from the vampiric parasite creatures, he thought about what kind of beings might benefit from a realm that had been plummeted into eternal night. And that was when the most obvious thing finally slapped him in the face: Vampires. Of all of the things he had encountered here, the vampires and vampiric beings seemed like the most dominant creatures around, and there must have been a reason why one of the ancient vampires he had killed alongside Joseph had planned on coming here eventually.
No longer needing to hide from the sunlight, being able to walk around whenever it pleased them as it was going to be dark in the morning, dark in the afternoon and dark at night, it made for the perfect hunting conditions. That much had been proven to be true by the feral vampire he had killed almost a month ago, though it wouldn’t explain why that specific person had devolved and turned feral to begin with. One would imagine that the vampires that were here would have plenty of food, or maybe the fact that they were all coming here one by one meant that they were depriving one another of their shared food sources. Already quite capable of imagining how the forsaken region would be bled dry once the dark veil made its way over there, the magic knights were going to be having their hands full with this new threat, making it all the more important that he made his way to the capital and informed people of this looming danger.
Whether people were going to actually believe him, that however was going to be an entirely different story. He knew how things were going to sound, and he knew that many of the nobles would rather die over having the people stationed in the noble region get dispatched to help out some poor fucks who were just tending to their farms and homes. But as had been the case with the demons, so did the people of all three of the regions need to understand that a threat that targeted one of them essentially targeted all of them. For when the forsaken region went to hell, it would only be a matter of time before the common realm got to have their turn, and everyone knew who was going to get theirs next. So even if people were going to laugh at his warnings, that did not sway him from believing that people deserved to know so they might consider defending themselves against it.
And with that thought in mind, he began packing up all of his stuff, which could more or less be summarized to just his bedroll, his clothes and sword, his canteen with the water he had left, as well as whatever remained of the deer he had killed, skinned, gutted and prepared for consumption. Giving the chapel one last look before he turned his back on it and wandered away, it made him wonder if maybe someday people might find sanctuary in it like he had been able to hunker down inside of it for the better part of a month. With the journey gradually coming to an end as he would soon need to go back to taking care of missions and dealing with your average scum and outlaws, he truly felt like the things he had learned here were going to help him out a great deal once the next big threat posed by demons, vampires or simply by the next great war came knocking at their door.
Gazing down at the weapon hanging from his waist, the sheer amount of training, soul searching and just getting to go back to his roots and survive in a hostile environment really felt like they had been worth the time he had put into it. And while it meant a whole month of him essentially being a missing person, rather than being an active magic knight, he knew that this was what he needed in order to grow. Both as a person, and as a knight. So when he passed by the skeletal remains of the vampire that had attacked him weeks ago, it was clear that the rats in the region had been having a field day dealing with cleaning it up. Reaching down and taking the skull, there wasn’t a shred of flesh or a drop of blood left on it. Rolling it up in his bedroll and sticking it into his backpack, bringing it along with him for when he would present his findings, having something to physically present might help his case, or so he hoped.
When finally he made his way over to the end of the veil, he stepped out into the light of the outside world again, showing he was finally free from the darkness. But as could be expected, the light of the sun burned his eyes after being used to a constant state of night. More than that, while he had been awake for at least twelve hours already, the fact that the stance of the sun told him that it was only around one o’clock in the afternoon was relatively bothersome. It meant that the day had not been going for that long, even though he felt like he had already been awake for a whole day. Knowing already that being out in the light was going to take a lot of adjusting, just like he would need to adjust to living inside of an actual time zone again, he at least had his work cut out for him. But at least with all of the things behind him, he now felt like he might be worth carrying the mantle of vice captain.