Facing Darkness

The faceless ones were very big humanoids, their size could roughly be compared to ogres, around three to four meters tall.

They had an arm with a thinner tentacle which was more flexible and was used to grapple tools or enemies, the other arm was thick and muscled, usually it was used to hit things hard. Their hard build made them very strong when compared to humanoid races, even a giant would have trouble in a contest of strength against them.

They were called faceless ones due to the fact that their faces were a mess of muscle and tentacles.

They were hardy and dificult to kill, very adept at shadow, mind magic and also underwater combat.

So we had to take the initiative and not allow it to even breathe without being hit for it.

Me and Brother Pyke would alternate our lightning attacks, doing our best to stun the faceless one while I used the Light with the Starfire druidic magic to damage it.

The wounds made my Light and Starfire would burn even underwater, making grievous wounds in it.

But its constitution did not allow for it to be stunned for long, it quickly started to attack our minds with shadow magic while sending a dark energy beam towards Brother Pyke.

I got in front of him while casting a holy shield, and it quickly became a fight of endurance of whether my shield would hold out against the dark purple beam.

The situation quickly changed when many shadows started to take form and come at us from our flanks. The initiative was lost and we were now in the defense!

("Cast area magic around us and do not hold back, shadow magic is capable of draining energy and lasting longer than we are, we need to finish this quickly!")

Soon a whirlpool started to drag the living shadows who approached down bellow, the suction too strong for them to resist.

Making use of this timing I made the shield into a beam, making both beams of energy start to drive each other back.

My beam was made of Starfire and Holy Light, the N'raqi used shadow energy on its beam.

We started to increase the potency without much care, knowing that whoever lets up first will likely die.

Brother Pyke now having dealt with the shadows send a lightning bolt that snaked towards the faceless one, and hitting it made it briefly spasm, it was less than a second, but I made it a much bigger gap by slowing the speed of my enemy, that brief second it was stunned looked like three for us.

My beam overtook his, it could no longer fight back or dodge due to the slow. It just let one of its arm and shoulder be consumed by the beam and then started to lash at our minds more fiercely.

Our heads soon started to get heavy and our vision was turning black, so I turned the beam towards its head, if it wanted to live he would have to take me out or defend.

A single second was all it took of a mind lash to make Brother Pyke unconscious, I was able to hold on due to mental fortitude, mental protections and willpower trained by many sufferings. This pain was nothing compared to having you spirit ripping apart slowly.

The beam kept consuming it, slowly approaching the head while my vision got darker, but soon the faceless one panicked and tried to flee, to which I stopped time for a single second that was needed to reach its vital parts, killing it.

Again I felt my mind exhausted, not only due to the attack but also the large amount of focus was necessary to cast compound magic... if not for the Arcane Knowledge being able to improve my mind and calculating powers it would be trully hard to mix different powers together. My limit was to use four with alot of preparation time. Two felt quite easy to use continuously but three at once was too much yet.

This fight I used Time Manipulation and Light with Starfire, only managing to use the former due to a milder effect.

I quickly healed Brother Pyke and made the N'raqi's body into ash, and we departed the shrine to make the preparation for the opening of Fate's End.

------

Around three days later the preparations were complete, we stood at the beach closest to Fate's End.

The ritual was making the spirits of those lost at the sea and Fate's End come out, this way making a way for those outside to go back in.

For that we needed a lantern which would be used as a lighthouse for the souls in the dark to find us.

A knife to take out your own blood for them to know of life once again and manifest themselves.

And last a bell to awake awareness on those souls for them to try and leave the cursed place.

The order of doing the ritual was to first ring the bell and rouse the spirits, followed by letting your blood into the sea to calm them and remind them of their fate, and lastly to guide them to you with the lantern, then the gates would open to reach Fate's End.

The thing we didnt expect was that a boat showed up, it had lost souls rowing at the sides.

We embarked the boat and let the lost souls guide us to the place of their demise... which was the Blighted Lands of Thros.

"Steel your emotions and thoughts, let no regret or worries cloud you, this moment is when we brave into the abyss and conquer it, we face our fears and come out stronger. The Light shines bright in the dark!" I started to encourage the others in the boat, but the one I was speaking to was rather myself.