Chapter 17: The Merchant's Tale
The fire crackled softly in the night, casting flickering shadows across the camp.
Bao sat cross-legged, a cup of tea trembling in his hands. His usual smug merchant demeanor was gone, replaced by something more serious, almost fearful.
"You two want to go there? To that cursed land?" He shook his head. "You'll be walking into the grave of a god."
Raviel and Horizon exchanged glances.
"Explain," Raviel said simply.
Bao sighed and adjusted his robes. "They call it the Abyss of Xal'Zir." His voice dropped lower. "It wasn't always a wasteland. Hundreds of years ago, it was a battlefield."
The fire flickered.
"A war between two mighty beings—Xal'Zir, the Demon of the End, and an unnamed Celestial Guardian. They say their battle lasted for weeks, shaking the land itself. And in the end… Xal'Zir fell."
Silence.
Bao's fingers tightened around his cup. "But demons… don't just die like humans do." He glanced at them. "Even in death, his body never decayed. His flesh, his bones—they oozed with demonic energy so powerful that it seeped into the very ground."
Raviel's expression didn't change, but his eyes darkened.
"The creatures that lived in that land…" Bao exhaled. "They were twisted by his remains. Mutated. Corrupted. Some of them grew stronger than the demons who had once ruled over them." He shook his head. "The deeper you go, the closer you get to his corpse… the worse it gets."
Horizon grinned. "Sounds like a fun challenge."
Bao gawked at him. "You're insane."
"Maybe," Raviel murmured, thoughtful.
But deep inside, a spark had been lit.
This wasn't just a random land filled with monsters.
This was a graveyard of a legendary demon.
A place that could make them stronger.
Their journey stretched across months.
The further they traveled, the more the land changed.
The skies grew darker, even in daylight, with heavy clouds permanently blocking the sun. The forests turned into twisted, gnarled landscapes, where trees bled black sap and whispers drifted on the wind.
And the creatures…
They were no longer ordinary beasts.
One night, they encountered something that should not have existed.
A beast with no eyes, yet it saw everything.
A body stitched together from different creatures, its skin covered in pulsating black veins, as if something inside was alive.
It didn't growl or snarl.
It laughed.
And then—it attacked.
The battle was unlike anything they had faced before.
This creature—whatever it had once been—was unnatural.
Raviel struck first, his fist colliding with its ribs. The sound that followed wasn't the snap of bones—it was a wet squelch, like hitting something that was still shifting inside.
It didn't react.
Then, it moved, twisting its limbs at angles no creature should be able to. Its arms elongated in an instant, stretching like tendrils, slamming toward Raviel with inhuman speed.
Raviel barely dodged.
Horizon grinned, kicking off a nearby tree and landing on its back. "You're one ugly bastard!" He dug his fingers into its flesh—
—and screamed.
A surge of black energy flooded into him, cold and suffocating, like a thousand voices whispering at once.
He ripped his hand away, leaping back. His breathing was ragged.
"What… the hell was that?"
The creature turned toward him—its mouth splitting open from ear to ear, revealing rows upon rows of needle-like teeth.
It spoke.
"You… are not ready."
And then, it vanished.
Raviel and Horizon stood there, frozen.
That thing… wasn't just a mindless beast.
It knew them. It recognized them.
And it had let them live.
For now.
After that encounter, they became more cautious.
The land was alive, changing, shifting, almost as if it was watching them.
Bao left them after reaching the last human settlement, refusing to go any further. "You're heading toward death itself," he had said. "I'll pray that I never hear of your bodies being found."
Then, they were alone.
And the real journey began.
It took weeks before they finally reached the edge of the Abyss of Xal'Zir.
A place that no human had dared to enter in centuries.
A land where the deeper you go, the stronger the demonic energy becomes.
And at its very core—
The corpse of a fallen demon god.