Page 82 of Demonic Affliction

Then we hit the brush.

Branches whip at my face and arms, tearing at my wing. Frozen leaves slice my skin, leaving deep, bloody gashes all over my body. Something catches my ankle only to rip free as my body hurtles downward, but I am too disoriented to make out what it was.

We break through the canopy into open air, dropping through the space of a massive cavern. The ground rushes up to meet us, and we snap our wings out at the last moment, slowing our descent and landing gently on the icy stone.

I gaze upward, my lips parting as a wave of shock courses through my system.

It can’t be…

“Is that…?” Nyx doesn’t finish the sentence. We’re all in states of shock, unable to believe what we are seeing.

Instead of a pit in the ground, it seems we passed through the hollow trunk of a Welwig. It’s hanging upside down from the center of the ceiling, so large that if it were above ground, you could probably see it from the surface of the sun.

Thick black cords spread out from the center, covering the walls and ceiling with mats of gnarled, necrotic Welwig root. They twitch and writhe, sensing our presence, but they don’t attack like the ones we came across in the upper chamber.

This looks just like the space Willow described in her dreams. This is the core…

“I don’t like this,” Rhune says. “I don’t like this at all.”

Willow squeezes his hand, but doesn’t say anything. She’s too busy staring at that darkened pit at the far end of the room. Dark, ancient energy swirls from it, infecting the air with its wrongness, coating my throat with every shuddering breath.

Instinctively, I reach out and pull Willow back a step, putting my body between her and the pit. Unlike the others, this one does not lead farther into the earth. It leads into oblivion.

The abyss.

If any of us touches it and accidentally falls in, our souls will be ripped away, and we will be lost forever to the reckless chasm of the universe.

“Don’t go near it.” Dravik’s voice is strained. “Everyone stay far away.”

“What is it?” Willow asks.

“Abyss. The end and beginning of everything.” My low, distorted voice no longer belongs to me. The longer I stare at it, the more time I spend in this room, the faster I feel myself slipping away. I don’t know how much longer I can fight this thing.

The whispers of The Other grow louder, layering over one another and rising to a cacophonous scream. It’s shrill and endless, clawing at the inside of my skull and driving me mad with pain and bloodlust.

At the same time, all around us, the roots come to life. They twitch along the walls and ceiling, the dead black surface splitting open to reveal a deep red light that pulses through them in slow, sickening waves, filling the chamber with its glow.

Then there is the pain.

Someone is driving an iron poker through my temple, pushing it slowly through the meat of my brain. My vision goes white at the edges, and I fall to the ground hard, the impact reverberating up through my body and causing me to shake.

Please… please stop… I cannot… I won’t…

“You okay?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Cin?”

I try to warn my brothers—tell them to grab Willow and run from this place as fast as they can—but I can’t speak. Can’t breathe. All the while, the screams grow louder. Hungrier.

Desperately, I pull my head up, my eyes finding Willow’s. I love you. I’m sorry. Please… please get away from me.

But I never get to say any of it. The screaming drives me to madness. The Other wins.

Everything goes dark.

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