Bound by chains, extreme pain, a strained existence. Futilely resisting the stone beneath his feet as it sucked mana away endlessly.
'Ah... So am I dead or..?'
"No, you did not die. I enclosed you in a dimensional realm of mine. You were on the verge of death and I did not want to wait thousands of years for another like you again."
"..Nyx?" Looking up Niss could see, they weren't in that horrible dark room he had seen in his nightmares, instead they were enclosed in a simple translucent box, floating among the stars in space.
The chains and stone beneath Niss disappeared, freeing him as he slumped to the floor of this ethereal 'box.'
"You? I thought you didn't have the power to save me."
"Sigh... I did not. I will trade my life for yours."
"What!? Why would you do that? Aren't you some kind of god?!"
"There is a lot to explain and not much time before I lose control of this space, if you want to live to repay my efforts and you want to carry on to achieve your goals I will only ask one thing from you in the future that you can not refuse. It won't be something horrible, I just can not tell you yet, you have enough to worry about."
"Will... you be gone now?" Niss looked directly at Nyx for the first time, he was actually able to see her and talk to her.
Nyx, shrouded in the essence of obsidian stood before him. Elegant robes like that of the night sky scantly draped over her pale, almost translucent skin that seemed to elevate her existence. Her face, Niss could only bare to look at it for a moment, as he felt his very soul would be swallowed by her unimaginable beauty. Dark and seemingly endless pits of obsidian gleamed with what seemed to be a sense of relief, her eyes were stunning.
Her perfect pale skin continued to show its beauty in her face, warm and full cherry kissed lips surrounded her heart stopping smile. Her body strong but thin, only curvaceous in all the right places. Her beauty was undeniable and nothing like Niss had ever seen or imagined before. Her feathered wings wrapped around from her back, each feather a manifestation of obsidian and eerie beauty. She was a dark angel, she was captivating, she was Nyx.
"Well, I will bind my soul to yours to save your life, I will die in a sense but I will live on through the bond in our consciousness, although I will not grant you any more power I can guide your growth and help you achieve your goals and eventually... I hope, you will be strong enough to grant my one wish."
Niss paused for a moment, thinking.
'This is too much to process... I will die if I do not accept her help?'
"Will I die for certain without you?"
"Yes."
'Only one wish, and it's not 'bad' according to her.... I want to live, I want to see my friends again, I want to see my mother and sister again, I want to make a world where they are safe and happy.'
'So that means I have to accept her deal.'
"I accept."
"Simply say 'Brehon' I have already made the contract."
"Brehon."
.....
Waking up, cold, alone and in the most excruciating pain in his entire life Niss barely managed to open his eyes.
"Arrrgg *cough* *cough* ahh..."
A thick cord of black mana was wrapped around the throat of the pale orc constricting further and further but this orc was not some random bandit boss, it was a sixth stage being, something like this was not enough to end it.
Niss only had one arm that wasn't completely destroyed though badly burned he had enough strength to roll himself over closer to the beast.
"Fucking die already."
Niss swung his Kama the tip of the curved blade piercing into the pale orc's eye, Niss met a surprising amount of resistance, this creature was insanely strong compared to him. However the creature currently could not do anything to stop Niss as he continued to stab the creatures eye over and over, and over, and over, and over. Air escaping his lungs in the form of a weak yell, Niss finally closed his eyes again next to the dead creature.
'Good, now rest. Your friends will return soon.'
'Yeah..'
......
Siarra, Lys and Curt had been in a dead sprint back to the capital, running full speed it took them about an hour before they stormed into the guild hall.
"Help! we need help from the guild! There is some kind of orc that is way stronger! A Pale Orc! Our friends could barely hold them off so we could reach the guild!"
Siarra continued spewing words at the shocked receptionist of the guild, eventually she got a grip on the situation and the woman finally ran to grab her supervisor.
Very quickly the receptionist woman returned with a tall elven man in guild attire.
"Ahem. I am Finrod Sunshimmer, please explain your issue clearly."
Siarra still hadn't calmed down and the fact that they were not acting immediately drove her mad as she cried in her hands slouching to the floor.
"I am Lysandra Frost, we have a dire situation at the Orcish Bladecave dungeon, the dungeon must have evolved. White orcs that were exceptionally more powerful than anything I have seen before were in the forest nearby the dungeon, they appeared to be a scouting group and had laid down an ambush for us." Lysandra had reverted to her more regal way of speaking and holding herself as she spoke evenly and calmly to the man. "One of the orcs erased a kilometer of the forest with his fire magic. We do not know the condition of our friends who let us escape..."
"A kilometer of destruction from one spell?" The man, Finrod asked again for clarification.
This time Curt looked at the man, "Yes, and a single wave of the hand launched one of our friends into a tree, almost all the ribs of a fully aura infused D-Rank were broken."
"I see, In that case I need to make some calls, you all stay here and give as many more details as you can while I request a team." The man swiftly moved back to the room behind him and started pulling out a communication artifact right away.
The receptionist spoke to the three of them, "This is the capital, there is a lot of people here and the guild should be able to get a team very quickly. I am sorry about this situation, as the Orcish Bladecave should not have been close to evolving I need to ask you some more questions." The receptionist woman spent a while with the three of them as they divulged every single detail they could remember.
"Ahem. I have an A-Rank strike team headed to the dungeon now, if your friends are alive they will save them. They will clear the dungeon to reset it so we won't have to worry about this for now. Since I have important issues to address this is all I can offer right now, I am sure you will hear back soon."
Finrod spoke to the group before turning to the receptionist, "Lirael can you please come with me."
Speaking to the receptionist in the back room as he collected her notes, "Lirael, please mark Orcish Bladecave for an increased rate of clearance, something is going on recently in the north and now here. We should remain vigilant."