March from Darkness | ✓ (to be edited)

THIRTY-EIGHT

DARAYA

I tried to brush off Izanami's warning, but it kept ringing in my head as we walked through the darkened realm.

The further we walked, the more rotten it smelled, the cavern alight with dim traditional lanterns that swayed in a non-existent breeze, casting shadows all around. Any normal person should have been afraid of this place, but it just felt familiar. The moans of the dead were faint, almost as if they were figments of my imagination.

I wanted so desperately to talk to Phrer about what had happened, but I had no idea when, or if, there would be a good time to talk about it. Deep down, the selfish First part of my soul wanted to tell Phrer that this was no different than what he had done to my family, but I couldn't compare the two in all reality.

Yes, their deaths could have caused the end of the Universe if I had felt even worse about it, but this one truly could cause the Universe to collapse. It had been part of the reason I had spent the past few days trying to track his energy signature.

I was lucky in the aspect that everyone had a unique aura, but that didn't mean it was easy to track one down. The number of beings in the Dimensions was near the trillions, and I had tried to track parts of the Plane, but it had been slim pickings.

Humans didn't have as bright of auras as other beings, so the search there had been fast and equally as fruitless.

The fact that I had even been able to pick up on his signature in Tuat was by pure luck. Sāma, who had agreed to help me, though I was sure part of it was to spite Phrer, had suggested looking in pantheons that either had a lot of Gods and traffic through the realm or were in such constant chaos that no one would have noticed a new addition. The Egyptians had been the fourth ones we'd checked, just after the Greeks, the Romans, and the forgotten folk deities of Korea.

I just hoped that he was still there when we got to Tuat.

We walked for another while longer until we came to a cliff, dropping into what I could only describe as dark brightness. It was as if it was neither, like it was simply there. There was nothing beyond the drop, it just faded.

"Is this the drop-off into Tuat?" I asked quietly, the thought of disturbing whatever spirits that were here keeping me nearly silent.

In the dim light, I saw Phrer nod. "Just do something for me." I raised a brow at him, and when his eyes met mine, I could have sworn we were actually going to die.

"Pray you land in the water."

Then he jumped.

Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me!

I stood there for a minute, completely paralysed. I wasn't afraid of heights, but it was the fact that I had no idea where this one led that made me incredibly cautious. I wasn't scared so much as I was unnerved by this; I knew I wouldn't die from this, but that didn't make the prospect of jumping off a cliff into a pit any more appealing.

I backed up a good way before I started to run towards the edge. As I reached the end of the ground, the only signifier of where exactly it was the lanterns ending there, I jumped.

It felt like I was flying for a moment, and then I was falling, my stomach feeling like it was pushed into my throat as gravity took over. The wind roared past my face, whipping my hair around in a whirlwind behind me as I fell face first.

It was a liberating, exhilarating, terrifying experience, and one that I would never partake in again in my lifetime.

I fell for what seemed like hours before the world around me slowly got brighter and brighter, the end of the fall coming closer and closer.