Tread Lightly – Among Monsters And Men

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Wyatt Graves

 

On the other side of the giant gate stone gargoyles and skulls line the path for a few steps before giving way to a desolate and barren landscape. I can only see as far as the light of my lantern goes out, though. The darkness of the Underworld is suffocating. There are no moon, sun, or lights. Only darkness as far as I can see. The duo of moons, Olijee and Muha, being present is rare aboveground, but at least one is almost always present. Yet here, no light as all exists.

I take a few steps forward to inspect the area further as I hear footsteps follow behind me. I even hear the scrambling of a man waking up, but my focus is on the otherworldly scene before me.

Loose and unmoving skeletons litter the ground, piled upon each other in a macabre display. Broken and rusted weapons are scattered all around seemingly remnants of battles long forgotten. The thought of battles down here is odd, but I suppose maybe some souls somehow come with their weapons. The air is thick with the stench of decay and the sounds of wind and rocks settling are all that can be heard besides the movement behind me.

The sky is pitch black as if the rock of the earth has swallowed up all the light. The only source of illumination comes from the Death’s Lantern I hold, its blue light casting a melancholic glow across the desolate landscape. It protected me from the pressure of the Gate Of Death just as it protects me from the darkness of the Underworld.

I take a few more steps and continue to walk, and while I do so I can feel the weight of the underworld pressing down upon me, suffocating and oppressive. The shadows seem to move and twist in strange and unsettling ways, and I can't help but feel as if something is watching me from the darkness.

I point the lantern outward and try to find whatever might be watching me, but all I see are bones and rusted weapons. Some broken pillars of stone also exist, but they are just as old and decayed as the dead. Even listening closely to my surroundings with Listen bears no fruit. Silence is all that reigns beyond the light of the lantern.

Before I can take another step, a hand touches my shoulder, and I jump around, instinctively preparing to fight only to meet Blake’s worried face.

“D-do-don’t walk away from us. None of our torches or lanterns work here, all fire seems to get expunged the second it is lit. Only your lantern has light. Also, look, the pressure of the gate woke Johnny up. Wait for him to recover a bit, will you?.”

I turn around and notice that she is right. Otto is trying to light matches and the second they ignite, omnipresent darkness flows in and douses the flame instantly. Not just that, but Johnny is standing wobbly as he walks very carefully, turning his head constantly with his eyes closed as if he’s listening for the way to go.

His movements worry me, and I ask him what’s wrong. My first thought is that Darkstep blinded him.

“Are your eyes fine, Johnny?”

He turns his head toward me and speaks slowly as if he just woke up recently, which I guess he did.

“No… yeah… I used the skill given by my Absolution when I fought Darkstep. It has some… side effects just as yours does. I will likely be blind for a few more days.”

Otto looks up from the matches and laughs as he throws them to the side.

“Well, you don’t have much to worry about at least in the seeing department. We can’t see much anyway. It’s dark as… well you would expect the Underworld to be. No sun. No moon. No lights. Only Wyatt’s lantern.”

Johnny nods as he tries to follow our voices to keep up while we slowly walk forward by the blue light of Death’s Lantern. I look at the man oddly for how he seems to brush off the coma he was just in and press him about it while we move.

“Johnny.”

The man is still quite injured as he walks with an arm to his chest and a small limp, so he just grunts instead of saying something at first. He has been out for multiple days now, though, so I think he will recover soon. Those bandages from Heath work like a charm, and I’m sure someone like Johnny knows a way to heal faster with Ether.

“Hmm?”

“How’d you escape from Darkstep? I just found you randomly in the middle of the swamp behind a tree. Had I not found you, I think you would have died.”

Johnny takes a few moments to answer, and we all take a few more steps in silence as we all wait for his answer. Rotted bones crunch under our feet as the dry ground beneath them has sucked out all their moisture.

“I used a variety of skills alongside the skill from my Absolution and found out that Darkstep was a Nahullo, not a human. Using that knowledge, I made her think that I had known prior and set up someone who would release that information should I not survive. The lady wants to be the next Pillar, and I guess infiltrate humanity’s upper echelons. Because of that, she let me live. For now. I can only guess that the moment she learns that I bluffed, she will be back.”

Otto chuckles dryly while he walks close to the lantern to be able to see.

“Well if you tricked her, then why are you so fucking beat? Each of us had to drag your sorry ass for miles in a swamp. Darkstep beat your ass even after you pulled that trick out of your ass?”

Johnny laughs back at Otto, not taking offense to the man’s coarse words.

“No, no, no. I got away from her just fine, but a blind man in a swamp full of danger is not a recipe for success. Ran into a bunch of deadly creatures that slowly whittled me down alongside that Nahullo’s poison from her strikes. Eventually, I just laid down on a tree trunk and passed out, hoping that my body could fight off the poison.”

Damn, Johnny will be quite a bit weaker without his eyesight, huh. At least it's not permanent, though. But that revelation about Darkstep is huge. A Nahullo, hmm.

My mind spins to remember what a Nahullo is, and the description comes after a second or two. Giant white-skinned creatures with pale hair. They are known for living in the Frozen Wastes high up north and for their toughness. There was a bit of detail from them in the First's book, but not too much.

The fact that one of them could somehow become someone as important as a Forerunner in the Hunters, a type of Hunter where there are only about a hundred or so in all, is incredibly worrying. That, and based on the newspaper I saw in the Crossroads, many people think she might become the next Pillar.

That would be disastrous. If a non-human were to become a defender of a whole territory, we would surely lose it. An idea comes to mind about Johnny's lie, though, as I kick the bones at my feet while I walk.

“It doesn't have to be a bluff, though.”

Johnny gets a bit confused and asks for clarification but figures it out halfway through.

“What do you mean? Only we know… oh, I see. We release the information when we get out, putting her on a bounty poster herself?”

I nod. That was my idea exactly.

“Yeah. Let her feel what it’s like to be on one of those things. Maybe then she will leave us alone.”

Johnny nods at the idea, but Otto seems to disagree.

“It’s a decent plan, but what do we do when she is cornered and has nowhere to run? A man is most dangerous when they have nothing left to lose. Surely she’ll come to us for revenge.”

Silence hangs for a while as Otto brings up that fact. He’s right. Currently, we are just a high priority for her, but not her only one. Should she be hunted for her life, she will surely come to kill us. But at least it will just be her, right?

“That’s true Otto, but at the same time, she will be alone. No other Hunters will follow her once they know she’s not human, right?”

I see his shadow-covered face nod to my words under the blue light, and he goes to presumably agree with me. But before he can, Blake cuts in. Her voice is shaky and anxious. Almost as if… she’s afraid? Am I understanding the emotion right? I think so.

“G-guys. Have you noticed it yet? This whole place is wrong. Nothing is like it should be.”

We all stop moving instantly and turn to her. Johnny is the first to speak to her.

“What do you mean, Blake? What’s wrong? We made it here, did we not?”

She shakes her head sideways frantically.

“Yes… well, no. We made it here, but is here the Underworld? Sure there was the Gate Of Death, but what about everything else? Where are the White Fields Of Comfort? The Gray Salts Of Loneliness? The Black Dungeons Of Agony? Or even the Red Court of Suffering? All that is here is darkness, rubble, and skeletons.”

When she reminds us of the regions in the Underworld is when my brain finally understands what she’s saying. None of the places in legend are here. There are no white fields. There is salt and rock beneath us, but it is not gray. It is brownish black. The broken rubble, however, is a very dark stone. But even with that slight correlation, nothing else really fits.

Are we in the Underworld? Or were our stories wrong? And if they are wrong… then what else about the world we know is a lie? I know facts, truths, and stories shift over time, but I figured something this important would hold true.

Johnny brings up the same thing as me as he thinks with a hand to his chin.

“You might be right, Blake. The legends about the Underworld say that all souls first visit the White Fields and only move deeper should their souls be darker than the ground. This keeps happening until they arrive at the Red Court. So, we should be in the fields right now, and if we aren’t, there are only two possibilities–”

I cut in here as I want to put my thoughts in.

“Either our legends were wrong, or we aren’t in the Underworld.”

I feel really confident in my guess, but Johnny shuts me down.

“No, not quite, Wyatt. We are definitely in the Underworld. There is only one Gate Of Death, and it is at the highest point in the Underworld. It is the only way that Death can go up and down, but based on how you all described it, it looked quite unused. The other option instead of our legends being wrong is that a huge change occurred down here. One that no one could possibly know about because no living man ever came down here. The last time we would have known about it was when humanity used to have contact with the Gods before they went mad.”

Johnny takes a deep breath before he finishes his last sentence. One that condemns all of humanity.

“If that is the case… that means the White Fields Of Comfort may no longer exist.”

Another bout of silence ensues as all of our minds spin with the idea that something so massive could have occurred that the entirety of the White Fields is gone. The greatest afterlife possible is just… gone. The place the world's greatest people and young children who have yet to do any wrong, just… gone with the passage of time. What does this mean for us? The living?! My feet stop moving and everyone else joins me in my pause.

What is the point of living well, then? If there is no chance of peace after we die? Are we just condemned to the Gray Salts Of Loneliness at best? Or maybe the Black Dungeons Of Agony? The Red Court??? Will Edmund or Ma even be here?!

My mind reels with these possibilities as I notice something higher up than usual at the edge of my blue light. It stops my spiraling thoughts and puts me into survival mode. It looks to be a figure perched on top of some kind of structure. I point it out to the rest silently so as to not alert it. I see Otto whisper into Johnny’s ear what is in front of us, so that the blind man may know.

Our pace goes from a pause to a crawl as everyone draws their weapons, and as we approach the figure I notice what it is under the blue light of the lantern. It is a gargoyle made out of white, gray, black, and red stone. The creature is perched upon a nearby rock, its massive wings folded neatly behind its back. Its body is covered in a mosaic of colors, the white, gray, black, and red stones creating an intricate pattern that seems almost alive.

No.. it is alive. The chest is slowly moving almost as if it is breathing. My grip on Intervention tightens as I prepare to use some of my remaining bullets. I’ve learned from experience that a shotgun is quite good at breaking rock. But before I just fire, I look a bit closer at the gargoyle.

The gargoyle's face is twisted into a fierce and menacing expression, its eyes glow with an otherworldly intensity. Its sharp claws are bared, and I can see the muscles made of stone in its arms and legs tensed, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

Despite its fearsome appearance, there is an undeniable beauty to the creature. The way the colors of its stone blend together to create a seamless and fluid form is truly breathtaking. It also doesn’t seem to be inherently dangerous as it just slowly breathes even as we cautiously approach it.

And when we get close enough to shoot it with shotguns, strike it with rope darts, or entangle it with bandages, I call out to it after a round of affirmative nods with the others.

“Hello? Can you hear me? Or understand me?”

I speak loud and try to imbue my voice with confidence as it rings out through the vast darkness. Sweat gathers on my hand as I prepare for whatever might happen the second this thing wakes up. But I’m given very little time to do so as the gargoyle immediately picks its head up and peers straight at me.

A high-pitched and chipper voice comes from the construction of stone that completely offsets its dangerous atmosphere.

“Living? Living! It’s been so long! Lennox is so happy to see you all! Come, come, come!”

The creature of stone beckons us closer as it waves its rocky arms for us to gather around it. None of us move at its words and just watch its antics. None of us are dumb enough to fall for something like that. Even me.

But the gargoyle, or Lennox, doesn't give up. The creature hops off of its perch and walks toward us as divots appear in the ground from its seemingly appropriate weight to its look.

“Lennox won’t hurt you! Lennox is here to help!”

Johnny takes the lead as usual as the currently blind man draws Downpour and points it at the gargoyle.

“Stop moving then.”

Lennox obliges and stops in its tracks immediately. Then it nods like a dog asking for orders. Johnny obviously can’t notice this, but he continues anyway.

“Where are we, Lennox?”

The gargoyle hops to one foot and then the other in a crude movement as it answers, but the gargoyle seems to have already hidden something from us.

“The Old Fields, of course! My turn now! What’s your favorite color of skin?”

The answer cements our theories while the question confuses us quite a bit. It does seem to set a dynamic for our dialogue with this gargoyle, though. I turn and look at Johnny as the man by habit just looks at his skin with closed eyes.

“Mine, I suppose.”

Lennox claps his stony hands together happily as he spins in a circle.

“Wonderful! Wonderful! What else do you need help with?”

I ask the next question as I’m just dying to know the answer. I need to know if an afterlife exists.

“What happened to the Underworld and its regions?”

Lennox twists its head for a quick moment as the creak of stone on stone rings out. Only after it returns to its normal stance like a gargoyle does it answer.

“The invasion of Hell, of course! Her Majesty Death rallied the souls to help fight the rising demons long ago using her godly powers to give them all their Sigils back from when they were alive. That caused the collapse of all the regions, creating many new ones, although only three remain now. The Old Fields, the New Fields, and No Man’s Land. My turn now! What does the inside of your shoulder look like?”

My mind whirls with possibilities and confusion at the short answer that was absolutely jam-packed with world-changing details. Hell invaded the Underworld? When? How? Death rallied the souls of the dead to fight? Everyone? Is Edmund fighting right now? Is that all that awaits us? Fighting?

My thoughts swirl for apparently too long as Lennox moves a bit closer. I notice that more gray, black, and red start to appear over his stone as the white begins to fade. The longer I go without answering, the more it happens. Instinctively like not wanting to put your hand on a burning flame, I know not to let the stone turn entirely red by not answering, so I do.

I turn around and answer the question in the easiest way I can. I roll up my shirt and pull off the bandage that is covering the wound on my shoulder from that juggernaut-like man. It’s healed quite a bit, but one can still see the inner workings of my shoulder. I sigh with relief as Lennox takes that for an answer. It appears so far as the more detailed the answer, the more… grim the question.

Otto is the next one to speak as he seems excited, if not absolutely ecstatic to hear that we are in fact in the Underworld and that hope exists for the dead to not be gone.

“Lennox. Can you take us to our friends?”

Lennox turns to Otto and nods. It does seem as though he takes such a little thing as a question, though.

“Of course! My turn now! What’s your favorite way to kill someone?”

Otto answers quickly, seemingly just wanting to move on to finding Marion, Edmund, and whoever else we all might want to see.

“Explosions. Don’t have to actually see them die. Take us to a man named Marion Byers.”

Lennox spins rapidly full of happiness and cheer as moves toward the darkness and out of the light of the lantern. I quickly glance at everyone as the gargoyle runs, and Otto shrugs before following after the weird creature.

I don’t really know what else to do but follow because I’m the one with the light and if I don't, then they will be blind in the dark, so I do. Into the darkness of the Underworld, I sprint to keep up with a rocky creature that for some reason needs to ask us these inane questions with a mind reeling of catastrophic questions of my own.