No, not black.

Dark. It was dark all around in every direction.

But how did he know this? How was he "seeing" the darkness...?

What was he seeing? Was he even "seeing" at all...?

All he knew was that it was dark, warm, *comfortable*... Almost like he was enveloped in a snug, warm coc.o.o.n... Almost like he were encapsulated in a mother's womb.

'What...? What's going on...? Where am I...? I-I... I can't move... Or think...'

He felt a sharp sense of danger ringing through his senses for just a split second. Then he felt his consciousness ebb for just a brief moment, one pulse, before the lethargy overcame his unease and it was all just comfortable and warm again.

He felt himself drifting like this, carried on the flows and currents of an unseen river, buoyed by the waves of an unfelt stream. And he knew not of anything except that it was warm, comfortable, peaceful...

And that it was enough if this could just continue forever.

'Boy...?'

Faintly, he heard a sound. A *scritch* *scritch* sound that he felt he should pay attention to and remember *something*, recall *some memories*.

'Kiddo....! Kiddo!!!!.....'

The calls of urgency echoed in the distance, or at least that's what it felt like. A faraway whisper that caught his attention for a second as he struggled to focus his mind on it - then gave up and decided to just relax.

'But what was it...?' He asked himself, then shrugged. It didn't matter.

It especially didn't matter at that moment because in the midst of the darkness, he started to see the light.

It was funny - because the light though it shone on him and his surroundings, did not reveal anything for him to see; no features, no surroundings, no waters for him to be floating on.

It didn't even reveal his own body!

All he saw was the light, the whiteness of the light and... The light.

He felt uncomfortable from the brightness and tried to close his eyes to shut out the sharp disturbance. But even with his eyes closed, he could still not shut out the annoying bright light...

'...Eyes...? What are...'

It was also funny - because he didn't know why he was thinking about all these things or why he even *knew* about these concepts. Who was he...? *What* was he...?

Was he even a "he"...? What was this concept of a "he" or a "she"...?

He yawned. His eyes began to close. It was too much bother to think about all that. Why think so much when he could just go back to sleep...? And drift along lackadaisically in the streams of wherever he was...

Just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard a still, small voice. Different from what he had heard before. This voice was not afar-off, not a whisper. It was just soft... But clear, ringing true like a bell in the middle of a silent cove.

"Child of purity... Yet no longer pure..."

'Me...?' He could only yawn and blink his eyes instinctively, however useless the action was - it couldn't shut out the d.a.m.ned dastardly lights!

He shook his head one, trying to keep himself alert - but gave up. It was too heavy, his head that is... He should just go to sleep...

Then he heard the voice speak again, just as soft as before but closer this time.

"Child... Born of two opposing lineages, each vying one with the other for ascendancy... For coming here... Before my soul remnant is faded away forever... Before my captor erases me forever... Receive my blessing..."

'.....' He kept silent, hoping the voice would leave him alone to sleep. But alas, it was not to be so, because in the next few seconds, he heard it speak again - this time sounding like it was right inside his ear.

He didn't have time to ponder what an ear was or whether he had one, as this time, the voice shouted uproariously, suddenly frantic, suddenly filled with panic - even as it disappeared, drifting off into nothingness.

"Child! Wake up before it's too late! Wake!......"

And there was only darkness.

* * * * *

Lars' eyes snapped open.

'Wh-What was th-' Lars' mind tried to reorient itself as he felt himself lying on his back.

His mind was still fuzzy, his thoughts in disarray. His vision had returned, but he had no time to consider all these things as the first thing he saw when his eyes opened was the face of a young girl straddling his body.

She had long, straight black hair that was rather unkempt but still looked good. Her skin was a stark white, so white that she looked pale. Her nose was high and angular, giving her the appearance of one high-born. Her lips were like two petals of a flower, pert and dainty, except for being pale as the rest of her skin.

She would have pretty if not for the colour of her skin and lips... And for the fact that she had no eyes, and had her mouth wide open, full of rotten, sharp inhuman teeth and rearing back, about to take a bite out of his neck!

Lars screamed and crawled in a panic, moving on his back across the floor in horror, forgetting even to use any spells as he lashed out at the girl--No, the creature's chest in an attempt to knock it away. And when his. .h.i.t landed on the *thing's* chest, he heard a sickening *crunch* sound as it soared away into the shadows, unprepared and defenceless against his palm strike.

Heart still pumping like crazy, Lars quickly fired-off as many low-level instcastable defensive spells as he could, feeling relieved that despite the creature's terrifying appearance, it seemed to be rather weak.

Still cautious and tense with his nerves fired and frayed, on edge like a cat that had just encountered a cuc.u.mber[1], Lars kept his eyes trained on the shadowy darkness where the *thing* had disappeared and quickly cast his senses about to take in his surroundings.

Within that half-seconds scan, he found that he was standing on the sandy floor at the bottom of a rather deep gully that ran about 500 metres long and had snaking indents along the sides - indents that struck fear in his heart, where the shadows ran deep and he somehow could not find the ends of.

At one end of the 500 metre long gully was the steep slope he presumed he had come down, with the crack leading to the Ancient Slith Sect treasury at the top. While on the other end of this gully was... Darkness. But within that darkness, he could feel a threatening, insidious presence... And somehow, his mind's eye caught the image of an abandoned, eldritch black altar dedicated to some unknown ent.i.ty.

Which made him wonder about 2 things.

First, how had he ended up nearly halfway from the entrance to the other end where the... Altar stood.

And secondly, with how far underground he was, where was the light coming from for him to see anything at all...?

With that, Lars looked up.

And saw countless gla.s.sy white orbs hanging from the ceiling, emitting a gentle glow of light, swaying uniformly as one in the wind. Wind which blew from G.o.d-knows-where. They looked like milky white marbles with some round disc-like colouration - black, brown, blue, grey and one or two in colours like red or purple.

Feeling a chill pa.s.s over his spine and the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, Lars was about to lower his gaze back down when he froze.

If before, he had felt a chill up his spine, this time it was like he had been encased in an iceberg and thrown into the deepest trench of the ocean.

Because he realised that the "white orbs" hanging from the ceiling were not enchanted marbles after all.

Those were eyeb.a.l.l.s.

Stifling a scream, Lars' first instinct was to flee this horrifying place - and he heeded that instinct, making haste as he kicked off the ground and ran hurriedly towards the entrance some 500 metres away.

And it was as he was running that it occurred to him.

Since when had the altar moved to be so near to him...?

And as he ran frantically towards the exit, he realised that that was not the case. He saw the exit moving further and further away, growing darker as the shadows captured it more and more.

Frazzled and confused, he cast a glance over his shoulder to look backwards and realised - it was not the altar moving closer, nor the exit moving further. It was he who, though he ran desperately, was somehow still moving nearer and nearer towards the altar.

The altar where the pale faced eyeless creature crouched atop, uninjured, waiting for it's prey to be reeled in.

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[1] It's not a joke. Check it out. Youtube search for cats afraid of cuc.u.mber.