The Magi's Society

As Mevi rushed down the hallway, the sounds coming from behind her became louder and more violent. The ground shook as the entities fought in the abyss beyond the corridor. Her injuries seemed to be only getting worse, and in the panicked haste she forced her bad leg to propel her forward despite her increasing agony. As the alien cries reached a crescendo of violence and earth-shaking quakes of battle, Mevi stumbled into the darkness at the end of the long hallway.

She hadn’t realized it, but at some point Mevi forgot to reactivate her gemstone device’s shroud. The ascending roil of the two beasts had urged her to continue without the assistance of her new device. Even within the darkness she plunged without hesitation. She could see only slight outlines and blurry shadows as the race from the terror behind her continued. Mevi met with the remains of the collapsed rocks she had snuck through in her previous attempt at escape, the pile was reduced to dust and pebbles and several chunks of the walls were cloven free of their original structure. The terrain was made more difficult with the large rocks and shards of metal scattering across the corridor. The uneven terrain, that gave way at the slightest mistake, made her crossing additionally difficult. Yet the rage behind her seemed to be dying down, or slowing. Maybe she was getting too far away to hear it? Mevi couldn’t tell what was going on behind her anymore, and to be away from the alien broadcast of anger and battle was both a boon and curse.

Mevi conquered the collapsed ruin and crossed the rocky pond that threatened to bury her with every wrong step. As she rounded the corner and progressed further back the way she originally came, what little sounds of fighting there still remained were now muffled and quiet. Her own rushed sprint over obstacle and through darkness was slowing as well, as her breath would no longer accompany her any further in her quest for freedom. Mevi fell against the wall, to catch what strength she had left, as the sounds of fighting titans echoed quietly through the hallway and gusted past her. The sound of thousands of cries and screams of unholy horrors bounced off the walls and propelled themselves into a cacophonous choir that assaulted Mevi’s few senses.

Mevi only allowed herself a short rest. She couldn't risk being tracked by either creature, at least not until she put enough distance between herself and her potential pursuer. While her mind traced her distance she came to the realization; there is more than one monster in this soon-to-be crypt of hers. The creatures at least seemed to dislike each other, unless their angered cries was some form of greeting she couldn’t understand. She needed to be increasingly careful patrolling new paths and unfamiliar territory. She had caught her breath at this point, losing herself in the distant sounds of eternal battle. How long the faraway entities had been fighting she didn’t know, she had lost track of any sense of time when she deactivated her gemstone device. All she knew was those two monsters could not fight each other indefinitely. One would rise victorious, or one would retreat to a different territory. If either happened, she might very well become a target of their hunt again.

Without any other real choice, Mevi forced herself to her feet again. The darkness offset by the distant blue glow that shone faraway like an impossibly faroff star in the night sky. Her destination was clear, she needed to find where she had entered this hellish pit from and in doing so hopefully secure her own escape. Where her items had been found would be the easiest places to start. So Mevi began her quickened limping, using her guiding star to ensure her direction was true.

Mevi eventually lost track of the echoing sounds from behind her. The journey back from where she originally came seemed much longer than she remembered. Perhaps her panic and haste had made the distance seem shorter, or perhaps Mevi was becoming more and more exhausted. Her hope was the former, as she needed her body to hold together until she could find some place she could determine was safe. Yet the exhausting trek eventually concluded as the brightness of the blue star stretched its dim limbs out from the cavernous crater and into the hallway she now progressed through. The vast open space soon revealed itself to her, and she stood at the scene of the slope’s murder.

The side of the crater was torn into crushed boulders, scattered rubble, and jagged gouges. The metallic beast that chased her had obviously given up on attempting to ascend the side as normal, and preferred to cut out entirely new ledges and crude steps to allow it to scale the now less steep cliff. Indeed the side of the crater was a cliff. Her perception of the places she had swarmed past had been corrupted by confusion, pain, and terror. The side of the crater seemed to reach several meters high, maybe upwards to ten. When she first came upon the crater, and how she fell down the nearly sheer face so gracefully and without major injuries had to be some kind of miracle. Yet the way down was now more easily traversed, with the gouged ledges and platforms created by the monster’s own progression.

Mevi descended into the crater, carefully navigating the rolling piles of rubble and metal. After her third stumble and collapse, she finally sprawled against the flatness of the floor within this large cavernous room. The blue orb shone its dim light like her holy savior, and provided her much needed respite from the near complete darkness she had been immersed in from her gemstone device. She didn’t have enough time to properly survey the area before, due to the creature pursuing her, but she could finally investigate the surroundings that were basking in the cold light.

The bowl-shaped center of the room expanded far and occupied the majority of the space available, if such an expanse could be considered a room. As Mevi investigated the walls for doors, passages, or new objects of interest, the walls were some of the first she noticed weren’t scorched black. The walls, while still decrepit and ruinous, were a clean marble with inscriptions of a silvery blue metal. The walls, and even most of the ceiling, were covered in the strange and illegible silvery blue material. The icons of inscription were all at least the length and height of Mevi herself, and some were incredibly larger than that. The blue orb was what Mevi assumed was the source of light in this large space, but as she watched the many inscriptions seemed to produce their own weak light that reflected off the orb within the center. Many of the inscriptions were void of any illumination or power, and contributed only to the dimness of the room.

As Mevi became bewildered by the form and function of this obviously ancient ruin, she noticed several passages beyond those trailed with blood and gore. Three other passages seemed to stretch out in varying points, while some other points might once have breached into this space but were now blocked. Mevi debated the points of interest. She needed to know where she came from, or at least where she entered these ruins from. Her gut told her to investigate the room of blood and bone with her newfound light, while her fear wanted to flee into the winding tunnels and passages. She had found her welding stick within the gore and muck, but her bending hammer was somehow placed in the center of this room. Her mind confused itself, there was no rhyme or reason to what was happening or how she got here. In the first place, if she was within that monster’s den why had it not eaten or killed her? It seemed determined to pounce upon her when it noticed her, unless she was somehow undetected by it? Her thoughts were jumbled with ideas and possibilities, the decision of where to go seemed doomed to fail in some way regardless of her path. Mevi sighed and resigned herself to the most obvious clue.

Mevi reluctantly abandoned the craterous room, and began to scale the side of the short cliff. The ledges she attached to were covered in partially dried bloody ichor, and as the warmth in her hands grasped what handholds she found the ichor seemed to almost melt and become slippery. Mevi wondered if this was why the monster had so much trouble climbing the slope on its own. The creature seemed to emit this strange substance, regardless of its intent or purpose, and it caused the scaling of heights to become doubly more difficult. Regardless, Mevi managed to struggle against the challenges posed against her and she reached the top. Now was the moment of truth. She resumed her quest of discovery and immersed herself in the waning light, eventually parting from it entirely.

Consumed by the darkness within the foreign corridor, Mevi slowly limped into the origin of her terror. Where she had awoken would be through this long passageway. As the last dredges of dim light escaped her, she resolved herself. Regardless of the fact her deadly reaper had sensed it before, Mevi willed her gemstone device to brighten her surroundings slightly. The blue gem began to glow slowly, and eventually illuminated a dreary light. The provided illumination was enough to engulf her in a dim portrait, and provide enough light that she could see slightly easier her surroundings. She could at least see either wall, along with the scorched and clawed terrain that it hid under the blackened scars.

Mevi ignored the red ichor that coated the corridor, it lined the walls with such density she didn’t recall from before. Regardless of her surroundings, Mevi pushed on into the dreadfully familiar territory. As she passed further and further into the monster’s domain, the gore and fleshy piles increased more and more. She had missed many of the details along the floor when she previously limped quickly past without looking down. With her hunched exhaustion and quickly weakening state, she found herself often forced to gaze upon the blighted scenes around her.

After a while of walking, no more than five or ten minutes, Mevi arrived at where she had originally awoken. The large room opened immediately into a sprawling cave of some kind. Not nearly as large as the cavernous crater, but still intimidatingly large in comparison to her previous hideaway. The worst of her encounter was soon to come. As Mevi turned to take in the entirety of the room, only barely illuminating a few meters around herself, she caught a glance at a gruesome pile.

Stacked almost adjacent to where she stood, was a mound of flesh, bone, and robes. Robes that were torn, tattered, and in any number of colorful combinations. By what she remembered and observed, the design of the robes seemed to be that of initiates and other newcomer servants to the Magi. The piles didn’t even seem to be eaten, or otherwise used. The gore was strewn across the floor like some macabre display of decor. The faces of the lost were twisted into grimaces and pained agony, if there was any face left to be observed at all. Broken and shattered bone, skull, and torn flesh scattered across the abhorrent mound of death. Mevi couldn’t turn away fast enough before taking in more than she desired of the unholy effigy’s features. She turned her back to the pit of death and wretched what was left within her. The brief sight of the monstrous horror wasn’t enough to break her, not even the terror of pain and death, but the sight of so many lost souls… Some of them younger than she was, by the size of what remained of their piled bodies.

Mevi fell to her knees, wincing in pain as she fell and slammed her injured leg against the wet floor. The ichor was now soaking into her bare flesh. Her hands were bloodied before, but her cloak and robes had protected her from the majority of the filth. Mevi held her hands in front of herself and noticed how much she was shaking. Pain and death was one thing, but the tortured bodies of others made her sick beyond anything she has felt before. She fought against herself, struggling against some argument within her own mind. She slammed her hands against the wet floor, and gasped in pain as she remembered her wrist. She laid there, sprawled against the blood-soaked ground in her own filth and the gore of others doomed as she was. What could she possibly do in this situation? What could she possibly hope for, someone might rescue her? The others within this chamber of torment probably thought the same as her. Maybe some didn’t escape as quickly as she did, but she couldn't believe she was the first to try and survive within this pit.

Mevi sat there, righting herself to lean against the wall of the corridor, removing what thoughts she could of the room from her own mind as quickly as possible. She needed to forget. She didn’t want to think or remember about pain and agony. The twisted expressions within the dead dyes of so many corpses. Her body was convulsing and shaking violently, she had nothing left within her. She couldn't possibly hope to survive. But she knew one thing. She hated that monster. The terror it caused her, the pain it inflicted against so many already. She hated it more than she thought possible. She didn’t understand what it was, only that it was evil and she did not permit herself to think otherwise. She couldn't possibly survive, regardless of what she did or didn’t do. So she decided to find a way to wound the monster as best she might manage. She remembered her bending hammer, its ability to create sonic emissions that could shatter stone and dent metal. What it might do to flesh would be devastating. If she were to harm this monster she needed a plan. And she realized she had a powerful bait at her disposal.