[Fsh] B2 Chapter 40: Vampress

Vale watched in awe, as the chips and cracks in the Fearshaper of blades’ bones were filled with and reinforced by shadow. One of her revenant’s missing fingers returned in the form of condensed shadow. It seemed like the invocation would allow her revenants to persist through physical damage for at time.

[Reconstitution of the shadow wolf]

“So that was Solastra’s angle. Empowering my revenants. It’s…”

Brilliant.

Shiver called forth the invocation she had gained.

[Decoy of the shadow wolf]

Shiver’s shadow stepped out from behind her, a hazy dark and nebulous afterimage left in place as the girl stepped forwards. It bore a hazy, humanoid form, but lacked all of the terrifying details that made the frost shades in her nightmares so horrif-

Her decoy’s featureless face twisted towards her.

A line of darkness blossomed from where it lips should have been, bisecting the circumference of her face.

Its jaw dropped, to reveal a maw of black teeth.

A familiar tone wordlessly hummed from the depths of its chest.  

Shiver’s Phobia severed the decoy’s head from its shoulders before its words had a chance to escape, her eyes wide.

“Shiver! Are you alright? Was it your decoy?”

Lord Quietus appeared in a burst of green flame on her shoulder, leaning forwards, and closely examining Shiver as the girl collected herself.

“It must have been her Fear, Vale. It must be the effects of the withdrawals. Stay vigilant.”

In the midst of all of the action, it had been difficult to forget that they were under the effects of the Tranquillity withdrawals. All of their Fears were heightened and intensified, which was what allowed them to derive invocations from creatures that their Fears would otherwise be incompatible with.

Shit. Here come the consequences.

“I’m alright. How are your Fears?”

Vale’s eyes lingered on the Fearshaper of blades. Unlike Triol, he had betrayed no intention to harm her. Then, they shifted to the dark cliffs that bordered the stagnant sea under the eclipse. The surface of the cliffs were pockmarked with holes, and Vale thought she could see something swaying within. Ever since they had entered the Gloamshores, she had the haunting suspicion that something was watching their every move.

“Vale. Are you alright? Your neck.”

Her had snapped back towards Shiver, and she nodded.

“No issues with the Fearshaper of blades. So far. What’s on my neck?”

Shiver traced her fingers over the girl’s neck, pushing away the dark blonde hair that obscured her skin. Her eyes narrowed.

“Fingermarks.”

Vale shuddered.

“It must have been from when Triol strangled me.”

She shot her Fearshaper of blades another look. Then, she turned to Caledon.

“How about you, Caledon? Are you alright?”  

Caledon nodded, his grip tight around his Phobia. His own Fear had been suspiciously inactive for an extended period of time. The tension, of when it would emerge again, and in what form, was driving him to the edge of Insanity. It was clear as day to Vale, that the young lord was paranoid, but trying his best to remain calm and grounded.

“My Fear is under control, so far. Virgil, where to next?”

Perhaps, if they moved quickly enough, they wouldn’t give their Fears a chance to torment them. There was a slim chance that the strategy would work, but that was all they could do as they were.

Virgil nodded, as he turned to the cliffs beyond them.

“Our next creature is the vampress. Caledon, this one will be yours for the taking.”

“Virgil, please. Is there anything you can tell us about it. Anything at all.”

Their fight with the shadow wolves had quickly demonstrated that they wouldn’t always be at liberty to calmly analyse the creatures abilities, before choosing whether to kill it. A single tendril of shadow through the throat, and it would spell the end of their descent. Even knowing the creature’s abilities it would be hard to guess what dimension of their Fear it elaborated upon, or the new dimension it paved.

If they were fighting more powerful creatures, they couldn’t afford to relinquish any openings.

Virgil relented. He knew how it felt to be placed on a path with little choice of your own. The Highlady had curated his descension as well, after all.

“The vampress is a spider-“

He frowned, halting in his explanation, as he watched the colour flood from Vale’s cheeks.

“Vale… are you alright? Is it your Fear?”

Shiver heartily slapped the girl on her back, provoking a yelp.

“Not her Fear, she just has a fear, of spiders. Does this one look anything like the Matchmaker, by any chance?”

Virgil’s eyes widened, and he gulped, as his eyes lingered on the girl.

Vale frowned.

Why is he staring at me?  

“N-no. It’s smaller, and has a creature with dominion over blood. The creature has thralls that do its bidding. It can enervate them to empower itself.”

Caledon’s eyes widened.

From the sounds of it, it would allow him to leech off other elves. Drawing into himself their strength.

Creating a physical dimension to his corruption, previously relegated to mental influence.

He steeled himself, as he turned to his guide. The floating eyeball which sported draconic wings. He gave him a nod, dispelling his momentary doubts that threatened to linger.

One thing was evident to him, in their brief fight against the shadow wolves.

He had been useless to them. “Bravely” raising his ebonwood shield to “protect” Vale behind him.

All things considered, being the subject of torment through physical means of corruption was far less terrifying than the nightmares that he currently endured.

“Let’s go.”

“That’s more like it. If you doubt yourself again, Dunce…”

Caledon smiled softly at his guide, who had burst into existence beside him in a soft flash of burst flames.

The eyeball’s golden iris flashing with mirth.  

“Save me the effort and throw yourself into the sea.”

---

They strode into the cliffs in search of the vampress. Shiver rolled her eyes as Vale nervously clung to her, staring at the dark red spiderweb that filled the tunnel they were walking through.

Mercifully, Caledon’s Phobia was effective in dispelling the darkness, along with the other torches they had been provided with, which they lofted upwards.

Shvier’s eyes darted to the darkness before her. The winding tunnel going deeper into the cliffside.

She swore that a familiar black smile of her shade was following her.

Virgil crouched, and raised a hand as they rounded upon the entrance to an opening to the cavern wall. She coughed lightly, and the group turned to her.

She cleared her throat.

“S-sorry. It’s a bit… stuffy in here.”

“Cygni, wai-”

“Watch for my signal.”

They watched as the moonbeast blended effortlessly into the darkness with her beautiful coat of stars. She slipped through a tear in reality, to scout the environment ahead of them. From where Vale, Shiver and Caledon were crouched, they could see little of the chamber ahead of them, only that it painted Virgil’s pale face in a strange hue.

Tinged the colour of blood.

Then, the ground beneath them shook.

“Cygni! Feardamnit!”

Virgil rushed forwards, followed shortly by Vale, Shiver and Caledon as they finally glimpsed the yawning cavern before them. The golden light of the eclipse filtered through a gap in the clifftop.

Only to be met with red spiderweb that covered the cavern around them. Golden light turned scarlet, casting shadows across the interior of the vast cavern.

Below them, was a vast sea of blood.

Still, as the air around them.

The cavern began to shake once more, this time, with Cygni’s presence. Ripples began to spread outwards from the lake of blood beneath them. Shiver’s eyes scoured the roof of the cavern, pouring over the red cobweb, until she found her target.

The vampress was nothing like the distinguished Matchmaker that had greeted them when they awakened as Fearshapers. Large, black fangs were visible, which gleamed in the eerie red light cast by its webs. Cygni struggled at its feet, trapped in the web, struggling helplessly to free herself.

The spider’s body was a dark shade of red, bordering on black, that allowed it to effortlessly conceal itself in the shadows cast by its web that filled the entirety of the cavern.

Cyvni’ presence, the gravitational force available to moonbeasts, harmlessly passed through the permeable web.

Virgil watched, his eyes wide.

“Virgil. A path now.”

Shiver’s cerulean eyes shone, as they met into his own.

Then, the Fearshaper of stars cleaved reality, with his curved greatsword of stars, as he called his Fear into reality.

[I walked between stars]

Then, they watched, as the Vampress far in the distance, bore her fangs down onto Virgil’s guide.

Only to be intercepted, by a cracked blade of gleaming frost.

The ring of the strike echoed outwards from its epicentre, as Shiver averted the blow.

Then they watched, as their friend called her Fear.

The ripples on the lake of blood froze in their passage. Vale raised a finger to her nose, as a drop of blood slid down to colour her lips, the moisture in the air removed. Her breath rendered visible in the sudden drop in temperature.

The vampress’ vast web shattered in an instant, rendered brittle by the cold.

Shiver called forth the invocation she had received upon her descent. The very same one she had invoked to destroy the crow that had been possessed by Vetrian Revenant in Sakar’s clash with Berevan Brimstone.

The Fear born of her Anhedonia, that encapsulateds the very shape of her Fear.

[Desolation]

Shiver and Cygni fell, along with the Vampress, towards the solid lake of blood beneath them, as the cobweb holding them shattered.

[Hand of the moonwalker]

Two vast grey hands with black nails emerged from tears in reality to catch his guide and Shiver as they plummeted through the air. The girl emerged, shivering from the frost wrought by her invocation. Her cerulean eyes met his own.

Shiver stared into eyes as black as the inky night sky, that greeted them with the coming of twilight.

In the short time Shiver had known the man, he had avoided combat like it was the bane of his existence. Even when forced to battle her to retrieve Shiver from the ice glades, he had showed incredible restraint.

Heedless to the ridicule his peers might level at him, for losing to a Fearshaper in Trepidation.

If there was one thing, that Shiver respected about Virgil Starstrider, above all else, it was his humility. Virgil laid a hand on her shoulder, heedless of the cold that sunk its way through his skin, evoking a piercing pain akin to having skin peeled with a breadknife.

“Thank you.”

Then he leapt into a tear of reality of his own making.

“Shiver, are you alright? Should we help-“

Vale watched as her friend raised a shaking finger to her lips, her eyes fixed on the frozen lake of blood before them.

Then, the lake of blood, frozen from her Fear, shattered.

The Fearshaper of Stars that walked its surface, called his Delirium.

[Oblivion of the nightvortex]

An orb of midnight blinked into existence behind the Fearshaper, light distorting around its edges.

Caledon’s eyes widened, as he happened upon one of the countless horrors that lay far beyond Elucidor, as he had often wondered, as a young boy – peering at the distant stars.

The vampress, that towered over the man, at least three times as tall as him, was brought to its knees.

As were all the rest of them.

Shiver fought, with every inch of her being to raise her head towards the lake’s frozen surface. Unlike his previous invocation – the [presence of the moonwalker] – the invocation of his Fear, born from Virgil’s Delirium was imposed indiscriminately.

[Edge of the blazing sun]

His greatsword of stars, that bore across its surface the beautiful reflection of the night sky, morphed. Shiver flinched back, as the heat that washed over her hit her slammed her like a physical wall, ceasing her shivering momentarily.

[Trail of the nightcomet]

He surged forwards, the force of his advance sending cracks splintering outwards on the surface of the frozen lake beneath him. With a precise slash, his sword cleaved through four of the legs on the right side of the Vampress like they were butter, brought within his reach from the force of the “nightvortex”.

Then, his invocation of Fear blinked out, and the frozen lake of blood, melted back into its original, viscous form.

Only to be frozen once more.

[Vacuum of the far reaches]

For a moment, air was denied to their lungs, and the icy reaches of void beyond greeted them, freezing the lake of blood solid with a cold snap that emanated rapidly from where he was standing.

The vampress, still alive, helplessly struggled, its four remaining legs on its left side now encased in blood frozen solid.

“Never doubted you for a second, Starboy.”

Shiver grinned maniacally at the Fearshaper who walked through another tear in reality. He met Shiver’s grin with a soft smile, motioning to Caledon to finish the Vampress. Vale watched with wide eyes, as he laid a tender hand on his guide’s head, his dark eyes creased with concern for her.

“Are you alright, Cygni?”

“You should not have endangered yourself like that.”

The moonbeast purred, as she nuzzled him. The man let out a small sigh of relief.

Then, he raised his greatsword in a flash and called a tear above his head.

Vale watched helplessly, as the dark red cobwebs above them began to splinter and fall, having been frozen by Shiver and Virgil’s invocations. Virgil’s words returned then, to Vale and Caledon.

One of the Vampress’ foremost abilities was the its ability to link itself to its thralls, to enervate them and derive its strength-

Thralls.

Spiders fell from the ceiling as the frozen cobwebs crashed down upon. Vale let out a shrill scream as she called her Phobia to her.

Shiver flowed into motion, together with Bladey, sending a [shard of the frostwolf] spearing into a smaller spider that had landed before them. She thrust her Phobia into the fangs of another that had crawled beside her, holding it off.

“Caledon, go!”

Caledon rushed into the tear, to open in the epicentre of the sweeping chamber around him. Right before the Vampress. The remains of its four left legs still glowed from the heat of Virgil’s cut. He watched as the spider struggled to free its remaining legs from the frozen lake of blood. Then, it halted in its screeching, as it noticed that its thralls were tumbling towards it.

“Kill it before it can link with them!”

A smaller spider leapt towards him, and Caledon knocked it off with his ebonwood shield, driving his steel shortsword into the body of the smaller beast. The spider fled, its sword still embedded in its carapace. The tool to steal the vampress’ life from it, deprived from him in an instant.

Caledon peered at the vast black fangs that hung from the vampress’ mouth.

Feardamnit.

He manifested his Phobia and focused.

On the injustices House Brimstone had faced. His father, betrayed in life, and robbed of his will in death. His mother, still within the clutches of a Fearshaper of corruption far beyond him. House Brimstone, shattered by the idle, idealistic games of Dreadwalkers far above him, all in the name of creating a utopic world.

His wrath blossomed into golden flames that flowed from his Phobia. Zel, appeared in a flash of similar golden flame beside him, his golden iris and large black pupil fixing Caledon with his gaze.

Caledon drove the blade forward, aiming for the most vulnerable spot within reach of him. The Vampire’s fangs grazed him, setting his forearms alight with its venom, and his blade pierced through the weak carapace protecting its brain.

Even as its thralls rushed towards it to take the blow, Caledon witnessed the shape of the vampress’ Fear.

Born in blood of its progenitors, the vampress Feared the blood from the moment of its inception. As a young hatchling, it emerged from one of innumerable eggs laid by its parents, whose bodies now lay motionless to provide their progeny with sustenance. Yet, even its birth was a test, for only a fraction of them would survive. As it ichor of its mother washed over it, it realised its strength.

It turned its eyes to its siblings, and wielded its Fear of blood – sapping their energy from them, even as it closed its jaws upon their soft, newly hardened carapace.

It would not feed of its parents, for more tender meat awaited it.

[Bloodlink of the vampress]

Progress to Fearcore consolidation: [70%]

The Alarum which burgeoned within him, coalesced with the memory of the vampress’ Fear to birth his invocation, given shape with the death of the creature.  

Caledon Brimstone turned his eyes to the approaching thralls, and invoked his Trepidation.

[Authority of the wyvern]

[Bloodlink of the vampress]

The oncoming creatures flinched, and bowed against their will as his first invocation of Fear took hold. He appeared to them, for a moment, as their queen. They welcomed the second invocation, as the link of blood was created, and their queen began to drink of their succour as it was always intended.

Caledon’s eyes of hazel and gold watched coldly, as the searing wound on his arm eased, and gradually began to heal, just as it began to be inflicted upon the thralls around him.

He drew on their succour, and imposed unto them the wrath and suffering of a Fearshaper of corruption.