First of the Fallen (Neophyte Series 1)

24. Into the Darkness

        UNYEILDING BLACK SWALLOWED THEM whole, as though their eyes had been yanked out from their sockets in an instant. Even the golden light that once radiated from their Supernal vessels was somehow extinguished, not a vague shape nor form of any kind visible inside the unholy temple. A brief silence was broken with a loud penetrating BANG! and the vibration from the unseen impact threw off Michael's balance, shaking the solid surface beneath his feet, but Ariel's firm hands caught him just in time. The sound echoed through the hollow space ahead and all around, hinting at the vastness of their new surroundings.

    A lingering dread followed, the uncanny feeling of isolation and solitude likened to the cold slam of prison bars. The air was stale and damp, surprisingly cool compared to the sweltering heat just outside the walls, like stepping into a sub-level crawlspace.

   "Urielle?" Michael whispered in his mind, but she could not hear him. "Ariel, where did she—" A warm hand grazed his palm and he recognized her familiar, graceful touch immediately. "Oh, thank God." he breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought I'd lost you for a moment there." Though their basic senses seemed relatively intact, neither could hear thoughts, their only safe means of communication lost along with their sight. "Urielle, can you hear me?" his mind remained quiet. "Answer me!"

    "Why aren't you responding?" Urielle asked in her own head, squeezing and shaking his hand impatiently, but Michael merely grazed her arm for support, and could do nothing more. Neither had yet realized that their means of communication had been severed the moment they stepped into the temple.

    'Try not to panic.' Judas broke the silence, firmly gripping their shoulders and feeling their instant hesitancy.

    "Are you fucking nuts!?" Urielle yelled in her own mind, recalling all too well the last time words had vocally slipped from her lips. Judas had given away their position, and panicked breaths ensued as arms raised in the thick black, preparing for an onslaught of enemies neither could not see. "You mustn't speak out loud—"

    'Relax, my friends.' he replied vocally, which only shook them further. 'Take a moment to collect yourselves.' he firmly rubbed their backs, hoping to calm. 'We are in a very unique space, one which blinds anything and all, both predator and prey alike. You may speak freely here, however, you will have no power whatsoever whilst in this temple. Not even Supernal energy can penetrate such unyielding darkness.'

    Michael hesitantly felt around his human torso, the smooth, lean and firm form he had worn just before he entered the strange temple had vanished into the dense black along with his ability to see. The cloak he had worn at their departure, the arsenal of encrypted weaponry and his utility belt remained, but his divinity had been extinguished as easily as a child's lax breath on a birthday candle. Here, in this hollow space in Hell, they found themselves utterly powerless and exposed, their weaponry made redundant without basic sight.

    Feeling around, he managed to locate a small flashlight clipped to his belt, right next to Raphael's first-aid kit, but as he clicked it's power button the utter blackness remained undisturbed. It was as though he gone blind. The same sounds of panicked clicking could be heard next to him, Urielle's instinctual reaction mimicking his own.

    'F—flashlights d—don't work.' he began to hyperventilate, Michael's fear of the dark now inducing the deepest part of his scared psyche. Knees buckled, his ankles wobbling as the phobia gripped him like never before. This was not like his childhood bedroom where the fear felt imagined, or the holding cell back at the Sanctuary where the danger was merely a possibility—no; in this darkness, he could expect nothing less than hellish creatures reaching for him. For the first time in his life, he had stepped into a living nightmare, so much worse than mere phobia.