Scathach's limp body stood suspended, impaled through by a very large dead branch and coated with her blood. Minutes passed after the Seraph left her there, broken and beaten before it flew off, believing that it had killed her. More time had passed in the foggy ravine, staying cold and silent... until-
The ground was disturbed; dead leaves were kicking up even though there was no wind. However, it was accompanied by the sound of footsteps... yet whoever was making them and approaching Scathach's body was not visible to the naked eye... at least until they pulled off their concealment cloak.
Having revealed himself, Kihli looked up to where Scathach's lifeless form was pinned and impaled against the tree branch.
"By the Gods!" he said with worry, fearing Scathach was indeed dead after her fight with the Seraph, and Kihli's heart wrenched at the sight of her so beat up and bloody as he resisted the urge to throw up at the scene.
But then... glancing at one of her hands, Kihli saw one of Scathach's fingers twitch... a sign of life! He immediately unsheathed his sword and proceeded to hack away at the branch until Scathach's body collapse to the ground. Kihli then grabbed the piece of branch that was still imbedded in Scathach and pulled it out, leaving a gaping hole through her chest. As soon as Kihli freed the offending branch, to his astonishment he saw Scathach's wound close by itself despite her clothes still torn and frayed. When Scathach's injuries disappeared, she suddenly gasped for breath, and Kihli moved immediately to cradle her and cup her face.
"Scathach! Thank Lugh you're alright...!"
Scathach continued gasping for breath, even coughing as function returned to her limbs. She eventually opened her eyes...
"K- Kihli..." she managed to say, her voice strained but otherwise relieved that her rescuer was okay after the Seraph's initial assault. Before she could say anything, Kihli frantically kissed her, and without needing to think about it, she returned it in full.
"I thought I lost you..." he said, hugging her dearly. Scathach manages to wrap an arm around him, albeit weakly given her recovering state.
"I feared so too," she replied as her voice returned to her. As glad as she was to see Kihli, reality would hit her in full as she recalled how she had gotten so badly injured. "That thing... where did it-?!"
"Easy," Kihli calms her down before Scathach could force herself out of his arms. "I just saw it fly overhead, going west."
"The village!" Scathach let out, struggling to get up on her feet. "We need to hurry-!"
"I hear you," Kihli said. "Here, let me help you..."
Kihli eased Scathach back on her feet, much to her protests.
"There's no time! I have to-!"
"You're still recovering!" Kihli reminds her before picking Scathach up and carrying her bridal-style. "Let me carry you for a bit. Whatever that creature is, it beaten you to within an inch of death... at least it looked like it."
"I can get us there faster...!"
"At least wait until you fully heal," Kihli shoots her down. "You can't fight that thing again in this state. I can at least get us partway back..."
Scathach gives up arguing upon realizing how fatigued she still was, low on mana after the Seraph had beaten her to a pulp. A humbling experience for her to say the least. And Kihli was only looking out for her after all.
As much as she felt that she did not need his aid, Scathach let Kihli carry her out of the gorge if only to appease him. He almost lost another loved one in recent days...
As Kihli struggled up the slope with Scathach in his arms, she was left wondering...
"Kihli, how in the World did you find me?"
"You and that thing left a trail of destruction through the forest," he told her. "It wasn't hard... especially after I saw it pass over me moments ago. I feared the worst..."
"Huh... I guess it's easy to forget that I can't be killed..." Scathach's ill attempt at humor did nothing to alleviate Kihli's worries. Feeling... guilty, Scathach instead said to him, "Still, thank you Kihli..."
"Don't thank me yet," he replied before clearing the last section of the climb up to the forest. After that, it took Scathach a while before she was feeling reinvigorated enough to carry both her and Kihli the rest of the way to Dunscaith via Scathach's wraith-form.
When they finally arrived... the situation was dire...
Scathach and Kihli materialized before the front gates of the village, which have been blown wide open. Running inside, they stopped to assess the trail of destruction that ran the length of the village up to the mountain. People were moving the injured, mutilated corpses of guards littering the ground in the Seraph's wake, huts demolished or set on fire. Scathach was experiencing glimpses of her previous home, razed and destroyed by the Heralds as she stood witness to the near identical scene of devastation before her.
"By Gods..." she cried, guilt seeping in seeing the people scattered and scared, while others tending to the sick and injured...
Scathach was not here to defend them... she allowed this to happen... Scathach cast her head down beginning to cry in shame. Kihli seeing this, put a shoulder on Scathach, silently telling her to not blame herself for what happened. This gesture gave her just enough comfort to pull herself together and focus on the fact that the Seraph was still at large. Following the trail of destruction, Scathach looks up past the edge of Dunscaith and her eyes travel up the mountain to the Shadow's fortress...
"No..." she let out, seeing in the distance the gates of the fortress breached and smoke coming from the castle. Her worry immediately went to her mentor, who as far as she knew had no idea the threat that came crashing at his doorstep.
Worse still... assessing the damage to the village further, Scathach realized that the Seraph had only been passing through, laying waste to anything in its way before going up the mountain... to its real objective.
There was only one reason for that...
"The Gate!" Scathach said in epiphany before turning to Kihli. "I need to go, now!"
"Wait, what are you talking about?" Kihli asked with worry, seeing the look of existential fear on Scathach's face. "Look around, you can't just leave the village like this!"
Just then, one of the still alive hunters came into view and ran towards the duo.
"Captain!" he called. "Scouts report movement north of here! An army of Heralds are heading this way!"
"What?!" Kihli yelled in disbelief. The village was in a sorry enough state already and having no idea how many of his fellow hunters were alive, Kihli was unsure if the village could be properly defended. "Just when things couldn't get any worse..."
"They're about to be if I don't go up to the fortress," Scathach said, and Kihli looks back at her with palpable frustration.
"How can it be?! The village is barely standing and so few are around to defend it from a Herald invasion. We need you here or we're doomed!"
"We could ALL be doomed either way, Kihli," Scathach responded, hoping to get through to him. Hearing the direness in her voice prompted Kihli to inquire further.
"What's so important up in that castle, Scathach?"
With a heavy heart, Scathach put it as basically as she could to Kihli, remembering the purpose of the Gate of Skye...
"Something that if set loose, will destroy anything and everything wherever it goes. Not just the village... everywhere."
Kihli's face morphed into one of grave astonishment as Scathach had no reason to lie to him. He stayed silent as Scathach continued.
"If that thing went into the fortress for the reason I fear it has, then I must try and stop it. If I am to fail, then you need to get everyone as far away from the village as you can... as fast as you can."
As Scathach's words sank in, Kihli looked conflicted; faced with the prospect of fighting an entire army without Scathach's strength to even the odds.
"Scathach... there's nowhere to run. We have Heralds bearing down on us... I don't have your strength to fight all of them..."
Wasting no time, Scathach summoned her spear, Gae Bolg, and with a rune created a duplicate to give to Kihli, who stood speechless.
"I've trained you well, Kihli. I know you will be enough..."
Kihli reluctantly took the weapon, realizing the utmost trust Scathach was putting in him by giving him a copy of her deadly spear. It came with a promise; protect the home that she and him created together in this village, not just for them, but for the people.
"Go do what you need to do..." Kihli said to Scathach. "We'll all hold the fort here."
"Thank you, Kihli," Scathach replied before turning to leave, only for Kihli to grab her arm, stopping her.
"Wait," Scathach turns and sees the solemn look in Kihli's eyes, for it was plain to her that he thought there was a chance they would not see each other again. "What if...?"
Without thinking, Scathach interrupted Kihli by kissing him on the lips. When they finally broke, Scathach rested her forehead against Kihli's while cupping his face, even shedding a tear as she too shared the same fear he did.
Scathach could only hope both she and Kihli will live through this, but just in case, she whispered to him:
"I love you..."
Although it pained her, Scathach could not wait for Kihli's reply. She reluctantly pulled away and Kihli watched as Scathach went into wraith form and flew towards the fortress. Looking down at the projected copy of Gae Bolg that he held, Kihli gathered his resolve and turned back to his comrade.
"We're going to need every man fighting. Tell whoever is left to meet at the front gates and get the women and children to safety."
"Aye sir!" the scout gave a salute before running off. Kihli was feeling trepidatious, but to even have a chance of being reunited with Scathach, he was prepared to fight his very hardest to see her return and make sure the life they made for everyone in Dunscaith lived on...
_____
Scathach materialized in front of the gates of Castle Dunscaith, finding the doors blown open and the trail of destruction upon rushing inside.
"Shadow?" Scathach called out, her voice echoing through the halls as she ran. "Shadow!"
Following the damage that the Seraph no doubt had caused, it became apparent to Scathach that all this carnage; walls broken, floors cracked, ornaments destroyed, and the faint scent of expended mana, she could tell it was all the result of a fight between it and the Shadow, almost as if her mentor had been taken completely by surprise. Scathach ran past Revenants lying on the floor as she pressed on, following the trail as it led down to the depths of the fortress... towards the one place Scathach feared the Seraph had gone.
Her fears were confirmed when she came across a familiar set of double doors that were the entrance to the cave system beneath the fortress... towards where the Eye of Odin was held. Scathach arrived to find the doors destroyed. Scathach stopped to use a Recall Rune, seeing a projection of the Shadow in an intense fight with the Seraph.
And did not look like it was going well for Scathach's mentor...
"Poor sod," Scathach let out. "Didn't know what hit him. Just what I was afraid of..."
Scathach then ran down the stairs into the cave, going as fast as she could towards the inner sanctum. When she got close, it would become evident that something was terribly wrong...
A bright violet light was emanating from the chamber as she approached... which could only mean one thing...
The Gate of Skye was open.
Upon arriving, Scathach was met with a scene of utter carnage. Rubble everywhere and the Gate coming out of the vast cave wall was indeed wide open. And worst of all, absent from the very center of the chamber:
The Eye of Odin was missing...
"SHADOW!" Scathach yelled again, using her enhanced senses to detect any sign of life-
(groan...)
Scathach gasped, hearing the barely audible sound of someone in pain. Homing in on the source, Scathach followed it to one particularly big pile of rubble. Upon approaching, she heard a heartbeat and proceeded to frantically dig out whoever was under there.
"There you are!" Scathach said before reinforcing herself to move heavier rocks out of the way. "Hang on!"
Little by little, Scathach cleared the rubble away until the person who was buried turned out to be the Shadow himself, who came to as Scathach pulled him out to sit him up against the sanctum wall. Scathach was glad he was alright, regaining consciousness as his body healed.
"Scathach..." he said, opening his eyes at his student, almost unsurprised by her appearance. "I assume you are here because you've "met" my uninvited guest?"
"Unfortunately..." Scathach remarked, as she then helps the Shadow to his feet. "Where did it take the Eye?"
"In there..." The Shadow pointed at the Gate. "The Land of Shadows. Whatever it was, it seemed to know where to go. Taking the Eye in there is keeping the Gate open. I fear it's trying to wake up the monster..."
"The Coinchenn," Scathach grimaced. "How long do we have?"
The Shadow grunted in frustration as he clenched his head, almost like he had a lingering headache.
"Getting knocked out messes with one's track of time... I'd say barely any time at all. We will have to go in after that thing, bring the Eye back and close the Gate before the Coinchenn attempts to escape."
"In... there?" Scathach asked anxiously, glancing at the entrance to the Land of Shadows and not knowing really what to expect in there.
"Aye, lass," the Shadow said before telling her, "I warn you; the Land of Shadows is a place where matter and thought are not so separated. You will experience things completely unfamiliar to you."
Scathach's gaze dropped to the floor, and that was when the Shadow put a hand on her shoulder, gaining her full attention.
"I won't blame you if you decide to stay back," said the Shadow. "After all, you wanted nothing to do with all of this."
Scathach thought about it but soon decided that to stop the Seraph from waking the Coinchenn and save Dunscaith, it was not a difficult choice at all. In response, Scathach summoned her spear, declaring resolutely:
"To stop that thing and get the Eye back... I'm prepared to do anything if it means keeping the people in the village safe. I'm coming with you..."
The Shadow nodded, accepting her answer before summoning his blades. He guides Scathach towards the Gate, standing on the precipice to a realm unknown to mortals before stepping inside.
"Okay lass..." The Shadow starts. "Stay close and don't stray..."
Scathach nods, and with a look of determination follows her mentor, taking her first step into the Land of Shadows...
_____
"Captain, Heralds closing in!" the scout called out from a top the ruined front gate of Dunscaith. Below him, Kihli was with several other of his fellow hunters, filling the role of soldiers in the looming battle. It was not a large force that Kihli had, but he was determined to make the most of it. Looking around at the other men with swords and spears, Kihli brandished his copy of Gae Bolg and rallied his comrades.
"Alright men, whoever wants to give it their all... follow me. For Dunscaith!"
The hunters cheered as Kihli led them past the gates. They stood ready in formation as Herald soldiers emerged from the forest. Their numbers may have been greater, but Kihli's ranks were full of men who would die for each other, and fight to survive as they have since Dunscaith was founded.
Kihli did not allow himself to feel any bit intimidated by the force of Heralds rushing towards them. Standing as his late brother had done protecting his previous home, and wielding Scathach's tutelage, he was determined to make them both proud.
We made this new home together, Scathach. I'm not about to let it fall without a fight...
As the Heralds were halfway across the field, Kihli yelled, giving the signal for everyone to charge...
_____
Scathach was walking behind her mentor as they trekked across the lavender dunes of the Land of Shadows, in awe of the hostile wonder of this unknown realm. With an unnatural wind blowing against them and kicking up dust, Scathach's eyes wandered to the deep violet sky of this land, following the trails of what she is sure was countless souls from the realm of the living converging on a point way off in the distance that she and the Shadow happened to be following.
As they traveled, Scathach took note of the mountains in the distance and the remains of what seemed to be ruined structures that littered the supernatural desert. Scathach recalled the Shadow's words of the Land of Shadows being a derelict, left over from the creation of the Root, and wondered if this place held some other purpose beyond a passing to the next life and the prison of the Coinchenn.
The Land of Shadows was not uninhabited, as the Shadow guided Scathach as they stayed clear of a Netherlyst, wandering aimlessly across the sands. With the Seraph loose in the inner most depths of the realm, they had no time to waste fighting the gigantic creature, so they avoided it.
"The Netherlysts are of no harm to anyone as long as they don't reach the Gate," the Shadow said to Scathach over the intensifying wind. "They'll be stuck relying on the leylines if we get the Eye back as soon as possible. They don't move fast on sand..."
Scathach covers her eyes as more dust gets disturbed and kicked up into the air, accompanied by the oblivious howl of the Netherlyst.
"Where are we heading?" Scathach yelled over the wind.
"The Coinchenn resides in the lake of fire," the Shadow replied pointing up. "Follow the falling branch of the souls above... You'll know it when you see it..."
Scathach was getting annoyed by the wind, which had disturbed so much dust that she could barely see in front of her. She could only trust the Shadow to lead them to where the Coinchenn was slumbering. If the Seraph was there already with the Eye, it may not be asleep for very long...
That was when Scathach heard a distant scream... a human scream, making her stop to seek the source of the sound.
"Who was-?"
"Lass..." the Shadow cut her off. "Focus."
Forcing herself to ignore it, Scathach moved to catch up to her mentor. Just then, another sudden gust of wind forced Scathch to shield her eyes as so much dust had scattered causing a total whiteout.
"Argh!" Scathach winced as dust got in her eye. She yells over the wind for any response from her mentor. "Shadow?!"
Scathach could hear a thing over this deafening wind, not even her mentor calling out to her from who knows how far away...
"Shadow!" she yells again. "I've lost you! Where...?!"
Suddenly, the same scream she heard before echoed past the wind rushing past Scathach's ears. It was growing clearer... so much so that she could make out it was from a little girl... who sounded so familiar. But how could that be?
"That voice... Aife?"
Lost in the dust storm, Scathach could only follow the screaming in hopes that it led her out into the clear. Stumbling through the whiteout, the storm eventually died down, but when the dust settled, Scathach found herself in an impossible place:
A village... that appeared as if was rising from the sands, uncovered by the wind. The sky was even changing shade, resembling the familiar blue/gray of the Isle. There were even people going about their daily routine, oblivious of her arrival...
Where am I? Scathach thought. This isn't Dunscaith... but it feels so familiar...
Walking past the huts, Scathach came across something that made her stop in her tracks. A grown man... walking beside her overjoyed daughter... who had caught a dead rabbit by herself... and she had long, violet hair...
"No, it can't be-!" Scathach let out fearfully as she saw the father and daughter arrive at one of the huts, where a mother and her daughter were waiting... only this young girl resembled the one walking beside the father, with the only difference being she had shorter hair.
Sisters...
"This is home..." Scathach finished, taken back completely in shock. Her home before she and Aife escaped into the Dark Forest was a distant memory, yet here it was just as she remembered, down to the last twig and strand of reed.
How was this here?!
Before Scathach could question this miraculous occurrence, she heard screaming from the direction she had come. Turning around, she saw the sky suddenly turn dark, and the villagers ran, scattering as the settlement was being invaded by a familiar force.
"Heralds!" Scathach said as she summoned Gae Bolg. "I have to-!"
Before she could meet them, Scathach suddenly found her feet stuck in the ground and she started to sink.
"Ngh! I can't move-!"
Scathach felt a growing sense of panic as her body sun fast, nearly to her shoulders as cultists ran past her and began gathering children, killing adults who stood in their way and burning huts to the ground.
She needed to stop this!
Reinforcing herself, Scathach frees her herself with a yell, bursting out of the ground and cutting apart Heralds left and right as she made her way to the family she was most desperate to save.
But when she reached the home, Scathach saw she was too late...
"No... Mother, father...!"
The parents were on their knees, restrained as they were cut down remorselessly by the Heralds standing over them. Scathach heard the ear-piercing scream of a girl being carried away along with her sister, reaching out back to the scene as if there was something she could have done to stop it...
Scathach fell on her knees, crying in anguish same as the little girl. It was because they were one in the same... and the irony was if her younger self was as powerful as Scathach was now, this whole tragedy might not have happened.
The little girl was a mage... and she never knew it at the time.
That was when Scathach heard another familiar voice creeping up behind her.
"Look how strong you are, sister... had you realized it earlier, we'd still have our home! Our lives..."
"Aife..." Scathach looks up and sees her sister, appearing like the last time she had seen her... when she was banished. Aife was looking down at her, ashamed and angry as she proceeded to torment Scathach.
"Ours was one of many homes destroyed. How many more have the Heralds desecrated while you waste your abilities trying to uplift others who could not prevent THIS? They are NOT we are; Mages. We have a power they can't fathom... the power to make real change..."
Aife circled Scathach's still form, who was reeling from the carnage around her and the failure of saving her family.
"We can take what we want and nothing can stop us. It's the only way to stop atrocities like this... the World will continue to perpetuate tragedy unless we force it to STOP..."
Aife sticks the knife into Scathach's guilt and twists it, crouching to raise Scathach's head so that she was looking at her dead in the eye. The storm returns and the village disintegrates into sand much to Scathach's horror.
"But instead of heeding my words... you cast me out! You made me a threat to your little corner of paradise... your OWN sister, who relived this moment countless times in her dreams!"
A tear escapes Scathach's eye, just before Aife pushes her backwards forcibly. Instead of falling on the ground, Scathach continues falling as if the floor had sunk into the sand. Screaming, she falls for a while before landing in a massive sand pit. Scathach struggles back on to her feet as Herald soldiers emerged from the sand beneath her feet and approached her, all the while Aife's voice continued ringing in Scathach's ears.
"For someone so knowledgeable, you were none the wiser! I only wanted what was BEST for us! Do you not understand that?! Behold the price of your arrogance, Scathach...!"
Scathach brandishes her spear, slicing apart the Heralds as they charged at her, each disintegrating into sand when "killed." Only the more Scathach cut down, the more enemies appeared until there became so many that Scathach found herself swarmed; the sand itself threatening to eat her alive.
In desperation, Scathach conjured a strand rune and fired it at the roof of the cave, using all her strength to pull herself out of the sand. Scathach coughs dust out of her lungs and gasps for breath as she climbed out, exhausted both physically and mentally.
Reeling from her ordeal, Scathach froze when she felt the entire cave shake, and the sand shifting beneath her feet. She soon found herself sliding towards a sinkhole in the center and sees a giant Legless emerging and gaping its mouth to eat her. Scathach dashes out of the way as the Legless submerged itself in the sand where she once stood. When she thought she had avoided the immediate treat, she was forced to jump out of the way to avoid a tail swipe from behind her.
The sand shifted around Scathach, and she barely had time to react when the gaping maw of the Legless burst out of the dune behind her and came towards her. Scathach flips and scrapes the blade of Gae Bolg over the monster's eye. The Legless roared in agony and thrashed its tail around, kicking up more sand and hitting the walls of the cave as Scathach is forced to wraith dash around to avoid getting hit by the beast or the falling rocks from the ceiling.
Scathach regains her footing, materializing on top of the sand dune as she saw the shifting sands of the Legless underneath coming towards her. Scathach conjures a fire runes and casts it beneath her feet, catalyzing the sand into glass just as the Legless burst out and sailed towards her, becoming incased in molten glass itself as Scathach then channeled lightning through her spear and threw it at the beast. The head of the Legless shattered on impact, and the rest of its body collapsed into the remains of the pit.
Panting with exhaustion, Scathach was low on mana as she limped away from the slain Legless, following the cave into a side tunnel that hopefully led back to the surface.
Things seemed promising as the path went upwards, but Scathach's mind weighed heavily on her, having nearly succumbed to whatever hallucination she experienced and fell into a trap. She needed to find the Shadow and get the Eye back from the Seraph. But even if she somehow found him, were the hallucinations done with her yet?
It all felt so real... even the specter of Aife rattled in a way Scathach thought no illusion ever could. And her words... they rang frighteningly close to home...
Thinking back to Aife's anger before Scathach banished her, was that how she felt all this time under Scathach's wing? Reliving the nightmare of their home being destroyed night after night caused Aife's anger to fester and make her snap?
Scathach thought that she might have given more guidance to her sister had Aife's warning signs showed sooner... but alas, Scathach was dealing with demons of her own, and was unaware of Aife's plight in her isolation away from her and Kihli.
Aife was afraid to let go... and that fear turned to anger... then to hate towards who she saw was holding her back...
But in her rage... for Aife to threaten innocents indiscriminately... Scathach struggled to comprehend how Aife could do such a thing. Fear and anger alone could not have been what pushed Aife nearly to the point of becoming a cold-hearted killer. What was it?
Was Scathach to blame for how Aife turned out?
Scathach thought so... and she felt ashamed of herself.
What happened to us, sister? Why did you keep such darkness in your heart for only yourself to bear? Had you only asked... I would have helped you...
Another tear escaped Scathach's eye, missing her sister more than ever now that she was in a place more hostile than any in the World. Reaching a junction, Scathach found herself alerted when someone emerged from a side passage. Another familiar face it would turn out...
"Lass!" the Shadow greeted her calmly. "There you are..."
Instead of feeling glad to see him, Scathach was on edge, raising the tip of her spear towards what could be an apparition of her mentor. The Shadow looked at her in confusion.
"What are you doing?" he asked, looking at Scathach like she was crazy.
"How do I know you're real?" Scathach quickly asked in response, ready to slay him if he showed any hint of tormenting her as the Aife specter had done. Instead of answering, the Shadow slowly and cautiously pushed Scathach's spear away from his throat, never breaking eye contact. He then raised his hand over Scathach's forehead and flicked his finger against it, causing Scathach to recoil.
"Ow!" Scathach let out as she then rubbed the area on her head where the Shadow had hit her.
"Was that real enough for you?" he asked callously before telling her, "Don't EVER point your spear at me like that again..."
Scathach had barely recovered when the Shadow then asked rhetorically:
"It was the sands, wasn't it?"
Scathach looks up at her mentor, who had just proven that he was indeed the real Shadow and was left wondering how her little episode happened. She should have been assured he was real since she could hear her mentor's beating heart but did not trust her senses enough after how scarily real the hallucinations felt.
"Sands...? But how-?"
"The Land of Shadows is where ghosts congregate," The Shadow was quick to explain after seeing Scathach's bewildered expression. "Ghosts who once were living, and ones created from the dark corners of our minds."
The Shadow then turned to where the tunnel continued.
"We can't waste time here; there's a shortcut to the lake through this passage. This way..."
Scathach followed her mentor up the passageway, staying silent the whole way. The Shadow neglected to pry as to Scathach's traumatic experience, and she was secretly thankful for that. It left her wondering if the Shadow respected her privacy because he too shared something similar at some point before.
Scathach saved such questions for when this whole ordeal was over.
"We're getting close..." the Shadow lets out. Looking past him, Scathach sees light at the end of the tunnel, and the duo soon emerged out of the mountain. Scathach could see that they were now back outside, overlooking a massive basin, where in the center was a vast "lake" surrounded by ruins.
To call it simply a lake was misleading, as it did not contain water, but viscous flame licking shades of blue and lavender. Scathach could tell it was very deep, and as she and the Shadow ventured closer down the mountain towards it, a distinct sound reached her ears; a deep, resonant sound that rattled her bones, repeating in a rhythm... like a heartbeat!
There was something alive inside the lake... something impossibly immense, and it could only be-
"I hear it!" Scathach whispered. "The Coinchenn... it's in there..."
"It may slumber, but as souls fall into the lake, the Coinchenn uses them to create the beasts that spawn in the forest," the Shadow said. "It won't be asleep for long... Let's find our interloper."
As they ventured closer, it did not take them long until something caught their eyes; a violet light coming from an altar near the edge of the lake. Using the ruins as cover, Scathach and the Shadow were close enough to see the Seraph standing at the very top with the Eye of Odin hovering and glowing over the precipice. The Seraph remained still as a statue as if waiting for something to happen.
"There's that infernal pest," the Shadow grumbled, sounding eager to for a fight to make up for how the Seraph bested him earlier. Scathach was also itching to rid herself of this abomination, but seeing the Seraph standing there and learning how it wasted no time invading the Land of Shadows after dealing with her made Scathach wonder...
"Shadow," Scathach whispered. "How does that thing know what to do with the Eye?"
"Beats me," The Shadow replied. "This creature moves with a purpose, like something is telling it what to do."
Hearing that confirmed what Scathach had feared regarding this foe, and where it possibly had come from. The memory of seeing this creature on the Shadow's mural years ago was what made Scathach suspect-
"Do you think it's... the Sovereign?" the words escaped Scathach's mouth before she could even comprehend it. The Shadow's eyes widened before letting Scathach's words sink in with realization.
"I thought this thing looked familiar..." he remarked. "That would explain a lot. All the more reason to eradicate it."
That was all the confirmation Scathach needed, but an inevitable confrontation made her assess the treat with caution.
"There's more," she then said. "This thing adapts to my attacks, and I was feeling weaker the longer I spent fighting it."
"It's hogging all the residual mana in the air," the Shadow revealed. "I did not realize it until that thing already had the upper hand on me. We'll have to finish this quick and decisively-"
(Rumble)
The entire ground shook, cutting him off. Scathach looks back at the Shadow with worry and saw a rare look of existential horror on his face.
"What was THAT?"
"The Coinchenn stirs..." the Shadow replied in a low voice. "It senses the Eye in its midst... and mana pouring out of the Gate... we need to end this now."
The Shadow looks back at Scathach, summoning his blades before then telling her:
"We should split up... attack its blind spots simultaneously... you go THAT way, stay out of sight until we're in position."
"Got it..." With the plan in mind, Scathach brandishes her spear to sneak off in the where the Shadow directed her. Scathach wraith-dashes between broken-stone structures that make up the ruins, advancing stealthily ever closer to the altar. The Shadow had trained her well, not only to fight with the instincts of a hunter but also to get around without becoming the hunted herself. Soon, Scathach crept up the stairs to the altar while the Shadow had moved to an elevated position overlooking where the Seraph stood. Once at the top, Scathach hid behind a pillar, just close enough to her target that she could quickly close the distance before the Seraph can react.
From past experience fighting this thing, Scathach knew this was the minimum safe range she can stay at before getting too close to the Seraph and gradually lose mana. Peering around the corner, she now just needed to wait for the Shadow's signal so they can strike at the same time-
(RUMBLE)
The ground shook with an intensity greater than the last one, causing Scathach to stumble and step forward to keep her footing...
Unfortunately, this put Scathach into the Seraph's detection range, and the machination immediately turned and shone its "eye" at her, making a horrible whirring sound. Scathach gasps at having been discovered, and the Shadow was forced to intervene.
"Shit!" he let out before wraith-dashing straight at the Seraph with blinding speed. To Scathach's shock, the Seraph blindly reached out and with its empowered claw grabbed the Shadow by the throat, even in wraith form. Scathach quickly moved to free him, raising her spear to strike the Seraph, only to be blasted away with an orb of energy from its eye. Scathach's body rolled across the ground to a stop, and she was forced to watch as her mentor struggled and the Seraph glowed, draining him of his mana until he dropped his blades and grew visibly weaker.
"SHADOW!"