Daevas -I- ✔️

Chapter 10.3: Darkness

When he bent down to look at a promising piece, Ari saw something skittering through the shadows. Slowly, Ari reached for his dagger before picking up a long piece of wood. It laughed and snickered. Soon Ari heard its footsteps as it traveled further down the stairs which made him release the breath he had been holding. There were things down here as Rein had suspected. Ari never turned his back to the stairs it had taken until he was near where he had entered. He skipped up the stairs and found Rein in the same place where he had left him already having a fire made.

"You found one? Thank the gods. Give it here."

Ari handed it to him and watched as he tore a piece of his shirt off and wrapped it around the stick. As the torch emanated with light, the ruins surrounding them showed them the gargantuan temple that they had found themselves in.

"Rein, there are... things here. Strange things... that snicker... and hide in the shadows."

"I had told you there are reasons why we do not come into these temples. Things that are not worth the knowledge it promises. But we are here now, so do not look so afraid." Rein nudged him and went on ahead into where he had just come from. Ari was quick to follow behind him, but his curiosity was slowly beginning to fade under the danger it presented. Strangely enough, Ari did not regret coming down here. Yes, he was weary of what could be found there but the idea of knowing and the knowledge it presented him outweighed his fears entirely.

"Are you not afraid?"

"I have been slaying demons since I was able to hold a sword properly. What is there to be fearful of?"

"Death," Ari murmured.

"Because you are a damned soul when you die by the hands of demons?" Rein shook his head. "You are damned only when you die in fear of them."

"But, death, does it not scare you?"

Rein spared him a fleeting glance. "Not for myself, no."

Rein looked around the room seeing it as he had seen it, Ari was sure. When Rein cast the light onto the ground, Ari saw many human-looking bones scattered around the room. Some still had skin with gnaw marks decorating their bones while others looked like they had been there for thousands of years and could see their bones in the pile of dust.

"Some of these are fresh... " Rein mentioned. Ari looked at Rein as he bent down to touch one of them. "This one seemed to have his throat ripped out. That one over there looks as if something has been gnawing on his bones."

"Demons eat the flesh not gnaw on bones. There is no sustenance for them there," Ari said with furrowed brows.

"Perhaps it is one you are unaccustomed to."

Rein rose and carried on down the next flight of steps.

"There are more I do not know of?"

"There are many things you do not know." Ari did not like the meaning behind those words. "Has Freir told you yet? About how you came to be with us?"

"This order had killed my parents and you and Freir took me in only under the condition that you could be together."

"Killed your... " Rein scoffed. "Do you think we, as humans, possess the capabilities to kill one as old as he? Those are lies and you are so gullible to believe in them."

They went back out into a corridor filling with the humid air of past rain. The light from the torch cast long shadows that turned into grotesque shapes before they shaped back into lines. Ari thought his mind was playing tricks on him, but every so often it would change and form some other thing as if taunting him or baiting him closer.