Chapter 15

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The passageway was as frigid as the rest of Cania, with heaps of bones littering the cobblestones beneath their feet. Icicles hung dangerously from the top of the cavern, which seemed to slope upwards as they walked.

Chim was growing hungry again, and the additional wounds he had suffered didn't help things. He hid a wince as he felt the searing ache in his ribs. They always were tender, the stomach mouth's presence had cruelly reshaped his body, and there was no respite. Lucifer's attack had made the pain even worse, and it just made his anger grow even hotter. He was impatient to wreak havoc upon the demon, but he could only roll his eyes and trudge onward. His eyes flicked over to Noc, who had remained silent as they made their way through, seemingly lost in thought.

The words of Pazuzu and Lucifer burned in Noc's mind. If what they had said was true then it meant his family was in danger, but this time it wasn't just their lives but their very souls at stake. He wasn't going to fail this time. He absent-mindedly was wrapping and unwrapping the purple fabric around his hand when the faint scent of the Ebonmoon household drifted from it, reminding him that he had another reason to succeed as well.

Suddenly, the tunnel seemed to turn even colder than before, and the darkness ahead seemed to grow deeper. Two pale yellow lights appeared towards the ceiling of the tunnel, and grey tendrils snapped out of the dark to attach themselves to the walls.

Noc and Chim both stopped, eyeing the new presence with suspicion. The pale lights moved forward, and a familiar voice was heard, "Nocturne, Chimney...we meet at last, or shall I say...we meet again."

Despite the cavernous tunnel the voice did not reverberate or echo, it seemed as close as if he was whispering in their very ears. But there was no mistaking it, it was the same slithery soft voice from their nightmares...it was the Goat.

The darkness swept around Chimney, blocking both the tunnel and Noc from his sight. It was if he was in the dream all over again, in a pocket of dead silence illuminated only by those yellow lights. This was not the darkness of the Void or even of the Shadow, this is was pure nothingness...entropy incarnate.

Chim hunched his shoulders, his miasma forming tendrils of their own, twitching and swaying around him. His eyes quickly shifted around, waiting for the moment when those stabbing fingers would snap out of the darkness and impale him once again. He would not allow himself to be invaded like that ever again, not if he had one last ounce of strength left in him.

The voice slithered out from the darkness, "Chimney, we have much to discuss..."

He snarled, "I don't have anything to discuss with you."

"You know, there's something holding you back from your true potential, that speck of sentimentality that's on your soul. The part of you that's still human. I could rid you of it..."

It took Chimney a moment of thinking, before realizing exactly what the beast meant. He was speaking of the splinter within his soul that contained the last bits of what he once was. He inwardly cursed, remembering when he had tried desperately to rip it out, over, and over again. He desired so much to exist, alone and unfeeling, but he came to realize the fatal consequences of doing do, and that it was the very thing that was helping to keep him alive.

He folded his arms across his chest defensively , "There's a reason it's there. And I'd like to keep it that way. You take that away and I'm basically your puppet. And that's exactly what you want isn't it? It's not about making me "perfect", you just want a proxy to do all your dirty work. Well tough shit, I'm already someone's lackey and I'm not about to become another's...especially if that someone is you."

The Goat whispered, a clawed hand forming among the tendrils, opening its fingers plaintively, "It is within my power to give you everything. If I were not so powerful, why would Argus fear me so?"

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