Tenebrous Wolf
Chapter 115: Horrors Of The Soul Grave

Chapter 115: Horrors Of The Soul Grave

A few minutes later, the group decided it was time to clean themselves up. Anyone glancing at them from head to toe would’ve instantly noticed they were caked in dirt, grime, and dried blood.

Apparently, traveling through the Sunless Void while fending off monsters wasn’t exactly a tidy experience.

Klaus and Adrian stepped aside to give the girls some privacy as they washed. Once the girls were done, the men borrowed the limitless bottle and began scrubbing away the filth clinging to their own bodies.

Meanwhile, Seraphim and Morgan took the opportunity to start a fire and cook some meat.

The flavor was somewhat... lacking. Perhaps "bland" was the most generous way to put it as there were no spices or salt to speak of. It wasn’t very appealing but after a few weeks, they were to forced to get accustomed to it.

Klaus took the first watch. Once the others had drifted off to sleep, he considered using the opportunity to exercise his muscles. But after a moment’s thought, he chose instead to sit down and expand his senses into the surrounding stillness.

The skeletal remains of colossal creatures loomed around him, forming the eerie contours of the Soul Grave. Amidst the silent bones and shadows, he felt a strange sense of peace. It was unnaturally mesmerizing.

He wondered what this place would look like if the crimson sea rose again and flooded it once more.

Of course, that would mean wishing for the bloody storm to manifest, something he’d much rather avoid while standing in the heart of its depths.

Fortunately, there was nothing to fear. Even if the crimson rain began to fall, they were high enough to remain untouched by the flood. At worst, their bodies would be drenched in blood — an unsettling thought, but far preferable to being swept away by the tide.

Klaus let the thought linger for a moment before shaking it off. The storm, however vivid in his imagination, was not a present threat. For now, the only danger was the silence that seemed to stretch on forever beneath the dark sky.

He glanced back at his companions, still deep in slumber, unaware of the weight of his thoughts. The quiet night around them was both comforting and suffocating. It seemed to spell how just fragile their existence was in this forsaken place. But for the moment, all he could do was wait and watch.

The occasional rustle of the wind through the bones of the dead creatures was the only sound that broke the silence, but even that seemed to fade as Klaus focused deeper into the night, his senses reaching further out into the empty vastness of the Soul Grave.

When morning came, Klaus opened his eyes and stretched his body, feeling a little sluggish and stiff. Sleep had come reluctantly, hardly a surprise in a place teeming with hidden monstrosities. Strangely, it might have been more comforting if he knew what was out there. The absence of anything tangible made it all the more unsettling.

Is this what people call the fear of the unknown? he thought, scowling to himself with a sullen frown.

He had read once that humans feared not what was in the dark, but what could be. That the imagination, when untethered by knowledge, became a breeding ground for dread. In that way, fear was a reflection of what the mind conjured in the absence of certainty.

Klaus found that idea disturbingly accurate. The Soul Grave, with its silent giants and lingering shadows, was a blank canvas for the mind to paint its worst horrors. And last night, his mind had done exactly that.

He sat up fully now, brushing away the thin layer of ash that had settled on his cloak during the night. Around him, the others began to stir. The embers of last night’s fire still glowed faintly, but the chill in the air made it clear that the morning wouldn’t be warm.

"Good morning."

His voice sounded slightly off, roughened by sleep and silence, but Klaus paid it no mind. He doubted anyone else would.

"Morning."

Seraphim returned the greeting without her turning to face him. She had taken the latter half of the watch and was already awake, seated cross-legged and still as a statue. Eyes closed, she appeared to be meditating. In the absolute darkness of the night, sight mattered less than sound, and watching over the camp often meant listening.

For a normal person, that would be true. But Seraphim, like him, possessed perfect night vision, though their sources differed.

Klaus’s night vision was the result of his Adaptability, a natural evolution of his body to the darkness. Seraphim, however, gained hers through her Darkness Attribute. That made a difference. Unlike his purely visual enhancement, her affinity likely extended deeper into the very essence of shadows. She might be able to perceive things his heightened senses couldn’t.

And knowing what he did about the nature of the Darkness Attribute, it was possible her abilities went beyond sight. The darkness wasn’t merely a passive element, it held within it the potential for destruction, concealment, and perhaps far more than he wasn’t aware of.

Thinking on it further, the Darkness Attribute seemed far more useful and arguably overpowered than what was suggested on paper. Its true strength lay in its mystery, its potential stretching far beyond conventional understanding. Because of this, Darkness users were exceedingly rare, so much so that they could be counted on one hand if any truly existed at all.

There were whispers of shadow assassins, of course, but nothing concrete. No names. No faces. No proof. Only rumors born in silence and death.

Here, Seraphim was someone who not only wielded Darkness, but also possessed the rarest of gifts: the ability to heal. The duality of her powers was almost contradictory. The capacity to mend and destroy. Light and shadow wrapped into one.

It only meant that hee potential was nothing short of limitless.

Klaus glanced at her again, the morning light barely reaching her still figure. Seraphim’s presence was quiet, yet absolute like a shadow that had chosen to stay. There was something unsettling about how easily she existed between extremes, between stillness and action, life and death.

He wondered, not for the first time, what her limits were... or if she even had any.

A few feet away, Morgan stirred with a groan, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she sat up. Her brunette hair was a mess, sticking out at odd angles, but she didn’t seem to care. Adrian, still sprawled on his side, grunted and threw an arm over his face, clearly trying to steal a few more minutes of rest.

Klaus stood and rolled his shoulders, working the stiffness from his joints. The air was bitterly cold, biting against his skin even through his clothing. Despite the weariness clinging to his limbs, the day needed to begin.

They wouldn’t last long if they lingered in this graveyard of bones and grime.

After breakfast, Seraphim rose to her feet and glanced toward the faint beam of light filtering down from above, slipping through the nearest gap between the colossal vertebrae. She turned to Klaus and said simply:

"Let’s survey the surroundings."

They needed to get a sense of the terrain and decide on their next course of action. Typically, that meant locating the nearest natural formation tall enough to remain above the ground level and determining which one to aim for next.

The usual pattern followed: a day or two of scouting and hunting, then relocating their camp to the chosen landmark.

Naturally, Klaus and Adrian had taken on most of the scouting and hunting duties. At some point, Seraphim suggested rotating the teams, and since then, they’d followed a loose format to keep things balanced.

Today, it was her turn to join the effort and Klaus’s to accompany her.

Following a brief pause, he gave her a slow, thoughtful nod.

"Okay then. Give me a moment."

Swallowing the last bite of meat, Klaus began preparing for their departure. With a thought, he summoned the Purgatory’s Shroud and Bloodwulf. As the two Nightmares materialized soundlessly, Klaus reached out with his mind, establishing a brief telepathic link with Morgan.

Without wasting time, he spoke through their connection:

’You already know the situation, so I won’t waste your time. Try to get along with Adrian. If he needs anything, help him out. And if something happens... you know what to do.’

Morgan turned her head, clearly catching the message. She looked at him, puzzled, before her expression shifted into a displeased frown.

’Why are you telling me things I already know? Since you went out of your way to message me, I’ll say this; don’t act like a smart ass and nearly get yourself killed again like last time.’

Klaus gave a faint, wry smile.

’Relax. I’ve got no plans to have my stomach torn open again, so you don’t need to worry. Just be a good girl and wait for me, alright?’

’Tsk. This bastard...’ Morgan sounded irritated, but she didn’t offer a retort to his teasing.

Deciding not to push his luck, Klaus turned away and gave Seraphim a quick nod, signaling that he was ready. While they moved, Morgan quietly summoned the Crimson Slayer, just in case.

Klaus followed Seraphim through a narrow gap between the bones. Without hesitation, the silver-haired girl shifted her weight, lowered her stance, and launched herself forward in a sudden burst of speed. She ran a few steps up the curved bone wall, then kicked off near the top, propelling herself even higher before catching hold of a protruding rib.

With nothing but upper body strength, she pulled herself up, vanishing into the soft cascade of light above.

At the top of the gargantuan spine, Seraphim leaned over the edge and extended a hand down to him. There was no rope or gear, so they had to use just their raw strength and the uneven bone structure around them. For most, the climb would be difficult, but for Klaus, it posed no real challenge.

Even so, the gesture wasn’t lost on him. It wasn’t necessary, but it was somewhat sweet.

Dusting off his hands after the climb, Klaus turned his gaze westward, expecting the familiar sight — the endless sprawl of the obsidian labyrinth, broken only by the occasional rise in terrain.

But what met his eyes wasn’t that.

His breath caught.

Instead of the usual bleak landscape, something entirely unexpected stretched out before them.

And it wasn’t just him. Seraphim stood still beside him, her expression mirroring his own quiet shock.

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