Page 93 of To Trap a Soul

Situated over the very middle of a tiny spring that had a wall of dirt and roots beside it, the portal floated just above the muddy ground. Tree branches gently swayed above it, while rivets of water trickled between rocks beneath it. The forest was so thick that only the minutest amount of sunlight shone on it, and Lindi cursed its location for that very reason. If only it was in a meadow – then perhaps many of the Demons could have scorched to death upon exiting it in the daytime.

Her skin prickled in aversion, her soul – her verybeing– telling her to run.To flee as far as she could.

A stick snapping in the distance had her gasping and turning incorporeal, so whatever might be hunting her lost her scent.

“Are you sure I have to go inthere?” Even her floating essence seemed to tremble in repulsion and fear, despite that she could no longer sense her increased heart rate or rapid breaths.

“It’s the only way.”

Gosh! Couldn’t he offer some kind of moral support? A little nudge of encouragement would be much appreciated right then. A little ‘I believe in you’ wasn’t asking too much, was it?

Seeing as there was no other way to avoid it, Lindi turned physical and took in a strong, calming breath. She tightened her satchel over her shoulder, kicked her newish boots to make sure they were sturdy, and let out an expire of shaky determination.

Coldness touched her nose as she stepped through the threshold before it spread all over her.

Blinking through the muted light from a flaming torch, Lindi tried her hardest to see better in the swallowing darkness as clangs against the rock wall reverberated all around her and down the tunnel.

Each one sent terror through her heart, yet she continued to bash her handheld drifting pick against the rock. A clang sounded, along with a crack from the earth, but the rock wouldn’t relent. The only thing that guided her to what she sought was the faintest blue glow, and she kept her focus on it. She didn’t dare take her eyes from it, worried if she blinked for too long, she’d lose it and be stuck here even longer.

Another clang rang out, and her lungs clamped up when an answering animalistic whooping answered from beyond. Lindi bashed faster, wishing she had the strength behind her impacts.

“Control your fear, Lindiwe. You only bring them upon you.”

“Don’t be afraid,” she whispered to herself, smacking her pickaxe again. “I’m not afraid.”

She was utterly terrified.

Then again, being however many metres below the ground, deep within the darkness, in a world overrun by Demons... who wouldn’t be fucking afraid? It didn’t matter that she had magic and abilities that she’d honed over the years with the Anzúli.

Instinctually, her body sensed the malevolent presences all around her, crawling in the shadows of the earth like disgusting worms. Her body breathed in their haunting violence, as if it was so thick in the air it tainted the very oxygen.

Even with barriers on either side of her, Lindi was wrought with unease. She also didn’t like how the tunnels were so small, and how the edges of her vision wavered as if the rock around her was closing in on her. She never knew how suffocating being underground could be.

When the animalistic whooping grew closer, she smashed her drifting pick quicker.

“Come on.” Smack. “Come on.” She smacked her pickaxe so hard it bounced off the wall and the recoil threatened to send the other pointed end into her shoulder. “Come on!”

The rock finally relented, just as multiple somethings bashed against the wall of her barrier. Lindi gasped, held her prize to her chest, and turned incorporeal. She began to float, and she almost screamed when her sight blackened as the top of her head went through the ceiling. She waved her arms down, even though the control was all in her mind, and she sank beneath the rocky ceiling once more.

Red eyes, illuminated by the burning rags of oil-soaked cloth on the ground, tilted when the Demon dipped their head curiously at her. She stared back at their semi-humanoid face, noting their long, pointed ears, and their odd muzzle of lips on a small snout. They were grossly meshed together with some kind of creature, with little horns no bigger than an inch pointing out from their forehead towards her. Their arms and legs were digitigrade, like a dog’s limbs, yet their hands and feet were humanoid, which just looked strange.

There were others around it, some more animalistic, but she couldn’t look away fromthatone. Especially when it opened its mouth, which flared into a triangle as its chin separated.

If she wasn’t a Phantom right then, she may have shuddered.

“You have the mana stone, Lindiwe,”Weldir stated, stirring her from her staring.

Lindiwe looked down to the clump of rock in her hand, as transparent as her, and noticed the sky-blue crystal was no longer glowing. Her gaze drifted to the other bits still shining in the wall.

“Are you sure this is enough?”

She’d hate having to come back here.

Traversing underneath the gigantic trees, foreign grass, and treacherous mountains of Nyl’theria was terrifying. It seemedeverywhere she went, there was a clan of Demons, factions of them spread out everywhere.

She’d even passed two clans locked in a cannibalistic battle of blood and flicking gore. This world was more overrun than she could have ever imagined, even with the thousands that had already begun to enter Earth.

Everywhere she’d turned, there’d been a monster in the shadows, just waiting for something to feed on. No wonder the Elvish had pushed them to Earth, as there seemed to be as many Demons as there were trees, which left the entire realm nearly covered in shade.

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