Deus Necros

The tribesmen led them deeper into the Dark Continent.

The journey took days.

There were no roads, at least none that Ludwig could recognize as roads. The humans followed routes made from memory, scent, broken branches, and markings so subtle that even Redd failed to notice some of them until they were pointed out. A strip of pale bark cut from the underside of a branch. Three stones pressed into mud. Black thread tied around a root and hidden beneath moss. Signs meant to guide those who knew where to look while remaining invisible to everything else.

They crossed dense thickets where thorned branches locked together tightly enough to form walls. The tribesmen moved through narrow gaps Ludwig would have mistaken for animal paths, sometimes crawling beneath roots or crossing streams through tunnels hidden under hanging vines. At other times, the forests opened without warning into broad empty lands where nothing taller than dry grass grew.

Those open stretches were worse.

There was nowhere to hide.

The tribesmen crossed them quickly, keeping low despite the lack of visible danger. They spoke little and never lit fires while exposed. When they rested, they chose shallow depressions, abandoned burrows, or circles of trees whose roots rose above the ground like walls.

Life existed, but it lived quietly.

Large creatures watched from far ridges, bodies partly concealed beneath dust-colored hides. Packs of narrow, long-legged beasts disappeared whenever the travelers approached, squeezing themselves into cracks in the earth that looked far too small to contain them. Winged monsters circled high overhead but never descended. Once, Ludwig saw something enormous beneath the surface of a stagnant marsh, its back rising like an island before slowly sinking again.

Nothing attacked.

That was not because the creatures were peaceful.

They had simply learned that hiding was the safest form of survival.

The farther the group moved from Solania, the more obvious that lesson became. Trees grew low even where sunlight reached them. Animals remained close to holes. Birds nested beneath branches rather than above them. Everything in the Dark Continent seemed built around avoiding attention.

The humans guiding them were no different.

They never raised their voices. Never stood in open ground longer than necessary. Never discussed Sloth unless the terrain was dense enough to swallow sound. They referred to him only as the White One, and even then, they did so reluctantly.

On the fourth day, Ludwig noticed the first cube.

It stood alone in a field of pale weeds.

A perfect white structure, taller than a man and wide enough to resemble a small house. It had no door, no window, and no visible seam. Its surface was smooth despite the dirt surrounding it, untouched by moss, vines, rain, or age. It did not reflect the dreary light above. It simply remained white, as if color refused to settle on it.

Ludwig glanced toward it but kept walking.

The tribesmen did the same.

Several hours later, they found another.

Then another.

By the next day, white cubes had become part of the landscape.

Some stood half-submerged in mud. Others leaned against trees without bending them. Several had been piled on top of one another in impossible arrangements, balanced corner against corner as if weight and stability were suggestions. One cluster rose high enough to resemble a crude tower, dozens of cubes stacked into a pale monument with no purpose Ludwig could understand.

They were too precise to be natural.

Too empty to look inhabited.

And too common to ignore.

Ludwig finally pointed toward a row of cubes standing beside a dried riverbed.

"What are those?"

The tribesman walking at the front glanced toward them.

His expression became uncertain.

"We don't know."

"You've never investigated them?" Tull asked.

The man looked at him as if the question itself was foolish. "No."

"Why not?"

The tribesman's brow tightened.

For a moment, he looked as though he wanted to answer.

Then he simply said, "We don't know."

Tull slowed. "That was not an answer."

"It may be the only one he has," Cain said.

Kaiser had already drifted away from the group.

He approached one of the nearest cubes, curiosity drawing him forward with more strength than caution ever managed. The structure stood slightly apart from the others, one corner buried in dark grass. No symbols covered it. No runes glowed. There was no visible aura, curse, or magical formation.

Kaiser reached ten paces from it.

Then stopped.

His body went perfectly still.

Ludwig noticed before anyone else. "Kaiser?"

The former lich did not answer immediately.

His head tilted slightly, and his expression emptied, not from Sloth's influence, but from concentration. One hand rose toward his temple. His red finger twitched.

Then he turned sharply toward the group.

"Everyone but Ludwig, back off."

Celine immediately stepped away.

Cain did not move at first.

Kaiser looked at him. "That includes you."

Cain's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Because I do not know what this does to vampires, and I would rather not discover the answer through you forgetting your own name."

That was enough.

Cain stepped back, taking Celine with him. Redd and Tull followed. Thomas flew from Ludwig's shoulder to hover near Celine, though he clearly wanted to remain close enough to hear.

Ludwig approached Kaiser alone.

"What's going on?"

Kaiser looked back at the cube. "Something about these structures affects the mind. If you get too close, you start forgetting."

Ludwig stopped several paces away from him. "And how did you come to that realization?"

"It tried to alter my mind."

Kaiser tapped the side of his head with his red finger.

"Unlucky for it, I'm undead. That won't work. I don't know how it will affect a vampire, but we might as well remain cautious rather than risk a True Vampire turning around and asking who we are, whether we are worth the air we breathe, or the space we occupy since we're both dead."

Cain's voice came from farther back. "I heard that."

"Good. You still remember how hearing works."

Ludwig sighed and moved closer to the cube.

The effect struck him almost immediately.

A soft absence began pressing against his thoughts.

He looked at the cube and briefly struggled to remember why he had approached it. The journey behind them thinned at the edges. The question he meant to ask became less important. For one dangerous heartbeat, the structure felt ordinary enough to ignore, and the very act of considering it seemed unnecessary.

Then something inside Ludwig resisted.

[You have resisted mental control]

The pressure broke.

His memories returned fully, though the sensation left a cold irritation behind his eyes.

"It does look like it," Ludwig said.

Kaiser nodded. "Pleasant, isn't it?"

"No."

Ludwig looked across the landscape.

Now that he knew what to search for, he saw more cubes between the trees. Some stood alone. Others had been stacked into pale walls and irregular towers. Farther ahead, entire stretches of land were filled with them.

"So how the hell are we supposed to move forward?" Ludwig asked. "There are many of these things everywhere."

Kaiser approached the cube again, slower this time. His eyes moved over the surface, searching for seams, inscriptions, mana patterns, or any imperfection that might explain its function.

"I'll need time to analyze one properly."

"We don't have endless time."

"Then give me a finite amount."

"How long?"

"I don't know. That is why it is called analysis rather than remembering an answer."

Kaiser lifted his red hand toward the cube, but stopped before touching it.

His gaze shifted toward the tribesmen.

They stood farther back, watching in confusion.

Kaiser's expression changed.

He lowered his hand.

"Wait."

Ludwig looked at him. "What?"

"They made it to Sloth."

"Yes."

"These structures erase or alter memory."

"Apparently."

"And yet they claim to know where Sloth rests."

Ludwig turned toward the guides.

Kaiser walked back toward them, staying well away from the cube's influence.

"How did you reach Sloth?" he asked.

The large tribesman frowned. "We told you. There is a place where we watch."

"How did you reach it?"

The man opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

He looked toward one of his companions. The second man stared back, equally uncertain. Their expressions slowly shifted from annoyance to confusion.

"We…"

The first man rubbed his forehead.

"We don't remember."

Tull's grip tightened around the strap of his pack.

The tribesman looked toward the cubes again.

His eyes widened slightly.

"And I only remembered these once I saw them again."

Kaiser stared at him.

Then looked toward the field of white structures.

"Perfect."

His voice carried no pleasure.

"A Psychic Perception Filter."

Tull waited.

Redd waited.

Thomas waited.

Kaiser did not explain.

Ludwig looked at him. "You're making this sound very dangerous."

"When was it not?"

"What does a perception filter have to do with memory?"

Kaiser sighed. "The cubes are not merely erasing information. They are hiding information by attacking the ability to retain awareness of it. You see one. You approach. It alters your thoughts. Once you leave its influence, you forget it existed until something forces you to perceive it again."

Redd scratched the side of his face. "That sounds like forgetting with extra steps."

"It is forgetting with purpose."

"What purpose?"

"That is the interesting part."

Kaiser looked at the tribesmen again.

"This means that anything they told us cannot be trusted."

One of the guides stepped forward angrily. "We don't lie."

"I'm not saying you lied," Kaiser replied. "I'm saying you don't know the truth."

The man's anger remained, but uncertainty weakened it.

Kaiser pointed toward the cubes. "How did you get to Sloth with all of these here? What did you encounter? Which paths did you take? How many times did you turn away? What followed you? What did you lose?"

The tribesmen said nothing.

Kaiser's voice lowered.

"And worse, why are you still alive?"

The question struck them harder than accusation.

Their leader looked toward the ground.

Tull stared from Kaiser to the cubes, then back again. "I'm confused."

"I stopped understanding the moment he said perception filter," Redd added.

Ludwig kept his eyes on the guides.

"Basically," he said, "we're worried Sloth allowed them to reach him."

Tull frowned. "Why would he do that?"

"To make sure they could lead others there," Ludwig said. "Or to make them believe they know the way when they don't."

Ludwig continued, "If Sloth purposely lured them in and allowed them to see where he lived, then made them forget the exact path they took, they would never know whether they escaped because they were skilled or because he allowed it."

The tribesmen's faces hardened.

Not with anger this time.

Fear.

Ludwig looked toward the white cubes spreading through the forest and open ground.

"We might be led into a trap."

Kaiser shook his head.

"No."

Ludwig turned toward him.

Kaiser's eyes remained fixed ahead.

"We are definitely being led into a trap."

The dreary landscape seemed to grow quieter around them.

The tribesmen had survived this land for years. They knew how to hide from beasts, black armies, and the oppressive influence of Sloth. They had reached a place close enough to watch the White One and somehow returned.

But they could not remember how.

They could not remember the cubes until they saw them again.

They could not remember what waited between here and the place they called the Watch Hollow.

Their route was not a map.

It was a gap in their minds shaped like a path.

Thomas floated closer to Celine. "So what do we do?"

No one answered him immediately.

Ludwig looked at Kaiser.

"What do we do?"

Kaiser studied the cube formations ahead.

More stood between the trees. Beyond those were towers made from piled white blocks, their shapes rising above the forest like bones too clean to belong to the earth. Whatever lay farther north was hidden behind more than distance.

Kaiser smiled.

It was not a cheerful expression.

It was the smile of a lich who had discovered something dangerous enough to become interesting.

"The only thing we can do," he said.

Ludwig already disliked the answer.

Kaiser raised his red finger and pointed toward the cubes.

"We trigger the trap."

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