Published at 13th of November 2024 1:26 am

Chapter 1149: The Lord’s Castle

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Lith, Arya and the mercenaries were inside the Lord's castle.

It was dark but none of them seemed to have a problem navigating their way to the man's chambers.

On the way, the mercenaries did their job taking out the maid servants who may have posed a threat. So far, they did not encounter any traps.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

A little too smoothly…

Arya stopped in her tracks and stood still. Watching her, Lith stopped as well. The mercenaries were in the front and didn't notice the two stopping.

"Something's not right…"

Arya suddenly had a bad premonition.

She looked around, as if she could see with a blindfold on her face, and held Lith's hand.

"Stay close."

*Fssshhhhhhh*

Something went past the two and creeped right behind two assassin mercenaries.

Thud. Thud.

Lith eyebrows as he held his breath after watching Mace and Viona fall down without even putting up a fight.

The remaining three kept walking and watching for potential threats, unaware of the threat already near them.

Arya held Lith's hand tightly and sent him a soul transmission.

-There is something that is not in this plane yet can harm the ones in this plane.

-What?

-Those mercenaries have probably not encountered such entities before. I have little experience on this as well. Stay close and try not to move around much.

Lith frowned and heeded his wife's call.

The two kept walking and soon, when Lith was a step away from the two fallen mercenaries, he saw something strange flickering on them.

-I see something on them. Do you see it too?

-No?

Lith slowly squatted down and checked what the thing was.

On Mace's lower back, there was a bite mark from which a gas-like substance was slowly spreading all throughout his body.

Viona's leg was bitten as a similar gaseous substance was traveling inside her.

The two were foaming from their mouths and unconscious, not dead.

-They have been bitten and possibly poisoned.

-You can tell?

-Yes. Can't you see these bite marks here?

-No.

-…

Lith knitted his brows and pointed at the place where Mace was bitten.

-There are bite marks here. Can you not see them?

-Babe, I don't see any bite marks or signs of poisoning.

-Shit. Is this what you meant by there being a creature from a different plane? Are these bite marks from that thing which you are unable to see?

-Could be, yes. I only felt the creature's presence because it gave a slight aura of death. If I am unable to see it or feel it, then it's definitely not in the material plane.

-Astral plane?

-Yes!

The two finally understood what they had encountered and what they were up against!

-I cannot manually enter the Astral Plane. Can you do it?

Lith asked via soul transmission.

-I was supposed to learn about it from mother-in-law, but I never got the time.

-Shit. Then we can only run on instincts.

-Yes. It's no wonder this castle seems so empty.

The two finally understood why there were so few staff and no traps.

Lith walked ahead of Arya while holding her hand and immediately stopped once he was twenty steps away from the three mercenaries. He tightened his hold on Arya's hand and gestured to her that something was there.

A second of waiting later, Lith finally saw it.

A gaunt, shadowy figure with hollow, glowing eyes and a gaping, twisted mouth moved right in front of him. It was draped in tattered, floating robes that dissolved into darkness. Its presence chilled the air, and its every movement was a haunting glide through reality, half-formed and filled with malevolent, spectral rage.

This was a wraith-like entity from the Astral Planes that could scare an adult human in broad daylight.

Astral Plane creatures were out of everybody's domain as it was not normal to move in and out of the place or even communicate with people there. Lith was always pulled in there and never entered manually. He did not know how to either.

If it was a normal wraith, it would've been really easy as his wife specialized in the Death element. She wasn't called a Death Dragon for nothing.

-It's a wraith-like existence from the Astral Plane. It's moving right in front of us.

-It did not notice us?

-No. It's going after the three mercenaries.

-Take a step ahead.

Lith did not question Arya and took a step ahead.

-Did it notice?

-No.

Arya took a step ahead.

-Did it notice?

-No.

Both took a step ahead and the wraith-like entity still did not notice them.

Lith and Arya moved cautiously down the narrow, shadow-laden corridor, their breaths shallow, eyes fixed on the wraith-like entity gliding ahead of them. It moved with an eerie fluidity, as if floating just above the ground, its tattered robes trailing like tendrils of smoke.

Despite their proximity, the entity seemed unaware of their presence, or perhaps it simply did not care.

The air grew colder with each step they took, the darkness around them thickening, pressing in on their minds like a vice.

They were only a step away now, close enough to reach out and touch the creature's ghostly form. It was now that the entity stopped moving.

Lith stopped as well. And so did Arya. He didn't leave Arya's hand and his grip on her was tightening as he took a small step back and appeared in front of her, instinctively guarding her.

The sudden stillness was suffocating, the silence more dreadful than any noise.

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the wraith began to turn. Its movements were jerky, as if it were fighting against the very reality that strained to reject its presence.

Lith's heart pounded in his chest as the creature's hollow, glowing eyes locked onto his. Those eyes were empty, yet they burned with an ancient, malevolent hunger that chilled him to the bone.

Then, the wraith's mouth twisted open, wider and wider, revealing the dark abyss within.

*KRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH*

From the depths of its being, a scream erupted—a sound so shrill and horrific that it pierced through Lith's very soul. He fell back on Arya and his eyes and ears began bleeding.

Arya knitted her brows and failed to understand what had just transpired. She looked at Lith worriedly and began casting healing spells, unafraid of any consequences that may occur due to her moving.

The scream of the wraith continued to echo through the corridor, and the very fabric of the world around them began to warp and twist.

Lith's body kept twitching and bleeding as it screamed and Arya was panicking, as not a single healing spell worked.

"Babe! Babe! Babe! Wake up! Stay with me!"

Arya patted Lith's face and tried to wake him up.

Around her, the walls groaned, bended and distorted as if reality itself were unraveling.

Arya felt it. Arya felt it now.

From the shadows, a thousand creatures crawled and slithered into view, each one a twisted mirror of the wraith before them.

They poured out from every crack and crevice, their forms flickering between existence and oblivion, a nightmare brought to life.

The dimension around them rippled and tore, jolting Lith awaken.

"Haaaaah—!"

"Babe!"

Lith gasped for air and suddenly felt a sudden drop in his stomach as the ground beneath his feet twisted into a vortex of darkness.

Even in a beaten up state, he grabbed Arya's hand trying to protect her.

The world shifted and they were pulled into a different dimension, getting trapped in a cursed place with no escape.

The creatures circled them, their empty eyes gleaming, mouths gaping as if in silent screams.

Lith could feel the weight of their malevolence pressing in from all sides, suffocating him with a dread he had never known.

The wraith, still standing before him, tilted its head as if savoring the fear radiating from his very being.

In that moment, Lith knew—they were no longer in the realm of the living.

This was not the Astral Plane either.

It was…

The wraith's domain.

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