Rise of the Blood Weaver - Chapter 64 (Patreon)

Arlo came to the realisation, but then he winced in pain. He looked behind him. His appendages swayed in the air. One was much shorter than the other. The blood had stopped, barely, and had already scabbed over.

“Don’t come near me!” Louis shouted.

Arlo whirled around and saw Justin punch Louis in the face. He fell to the floor.

“You could have gotten us killed,” Justin spat.

“I was just trying to help!” Louis shouted, holding his face.

“That’s the problem.”

Elian was going to move, but he decided not to get on the bad side of an angry Justin. Merc was busy standing on the spot. She was most likely looking at the information regarding her Reflection.

Arlo rushed to them, inserting himself in between. “C’mon, Justin–”

“No, Arlo,” Justin said, looking him directly in the eyes. “Mistakes need to be trampled on for them not to happen again.”

He grit his teeth, and said, “I saw you Justin, you weren’t going to help him.”

“Look at where we’re standing, Arlo,” Justin said, looking at the surroundings. “One mistake and that’s us dead. Lineage or not. Louis attacked knowing full well he couldn’t hurt it. You tried to save him. I had to pull both of you out. That’s one life risking three. Sometimes you have to make the tough call. I wasn’t going to help, because that would put my own life in danger.”

“We’re friends, Justin,” Arlo said. “That’s what we do.”

“Yeah, that’s what we do,” Justin said. “But friends also don’t place lives in danger with stupid mistakes.”

Arlo stood silent for a second, before nodding with a sigh. “I get it.”

“Good,” Justin said. “Now let’s move. We’ve wasted too much time fighting that… Beast.” Justin’s voice trailed off as he watched the crab’s Reflection squat down, then back up. It snipped the air, then returned its pincer back to its body in the next second.

Incredible. She’s commanding it with her mind.

Reflections were phantom copies of slain enemies. And they were very difficult to obtain. Only the person that received the killing blow had the chance of obtaining the Reflection, and it was a rare chance at that.

“We don’t have to worry about that,” Merc said. She outstretched her palm, and the huge crab lowered its body into the sand. Then, she climbed up the carapace and stood on its back.

Elian laughed and joined her. He looked all around, taking in the sight of the Reflection.

“Come on, Louis,” Arlo said, stretching out his arm for Louis. “We all make mistakes.”

Louis clenched his hands into fists, then took hold of Arlo’s hand. Arlo pulled him to his feet. “Well he didn’t have to hit me.”

“I agree with you there,” Arlo said helplessly. “Come on, let’s go see the Reflection.”

Arlo, Louis, and Justin climbed atop the Reflection.

“Woah,” Arlo couldn’t help but exclaim as the crab rose up. They were high up. Then it moved. Arlo quickly held onto one of the raised spots on the crab's back.

Its speed increased, billowing wind through Arlo’s sandy hair. It felt good. The breeze. Arlo couldn’t help but yell out an excited cry. The pain he felt was a reminder that he was still alive.

“Uh, Arlo?” Justin said.

Arlo paused his smile, and turned back. He was expecting Justin to be pointing at his appendage as the stinging pain throbbed. But he wasn’t pointing at them. Rather, everyone’s attention was glued to the coffin tied securely to his back.

Frowning, Arlo slumped off [Void Sanctum], and gently placed it onto the Reflection’s back. The lid was opened. Only lightly, but opened nonetheless. Splashed atop, was the splattering of blood. His own blood.

Blood was needed to open it? That’s not terrifying at all…

Despite the gruesome key, Arlo took a breath, then pushed open the lid further. It slipped off. Arlo stumbled backwards, his body shaking despite the intense heat bashing his flesh.

Laid within, was the skeleton of what appeared to be a human. It was laying on an eternal darkness. A bottomless pit that reminded him of a deep, dark, and limitless well. In the next second, the skeleton frame fell into the darkness, disappearing from sight in an instant.

“What hell was that?” Louis asked, crawling further backwards.

“I don’t… Know,” Arlo said. He plucked up his courage and crawled forward. He peered into the darkness. He heard whispers, but they were just a muffled jumble of words with no decipherable meaning.

Then Arlo recalled the description of the [Void Sanctum]

He no longer exists, but a breath remains.

Are they words from the enslaved god? Arlo couldn’t comprehend it. Although he couldn’t understand what the words were saying; they were words from a god. A god!

The more harrowing sight were the marks etched into the underside of the coffin’s lid. They were fingernail markings.

“What the hell did you obtain from that devil?” Elian asked.

“I–” Arlo paused. He was about to tell Elian what he had obtained from Zekorian; the Fallen. But with a look from Justin, he decided not to. “It’s a storage box.”

He dumbed it down as much as possible. But from the appearance within the Remembrance, it was obvious that it was more than that. Elian didn’t ask further questions. He just looked at it with morbid curiosity.

Arlo took a readied breath, then moved his hand over the sanctum.

Justin grabbed his arm. “What are you doing?”

“Seeing what it does,” Arlo said. “If it’s a storage box, then surely I can use it to store things. It’s scary, but I need to use it eventually.”

Justin nodded and released his arm. “Just remember, not all Remembrances are useful. Some can be outright dangerous. Others can even hold sentience and grudges. Not just to yourself, but others as well. If I’m not mistaken, this looks like one of those. Just be careful.”

“Got it.”

Arlo took a steady breath. Justin’s words caused him to hesitate. His mind was telling him to lock it back up and never open it again. But his heart was telling him otherwise.

After weighing up the risks. Arlo plunged his arm into the dark abyss of [Void Sanctum], where the whispers of a fallen god entered his mind.

It was a grizzly and harrowing voice. “Wielder of the Corrupted Blood. You–you will begin the cycle of ruination. Again, the wars will rage. It’s all your fault. Fault. It’s all your fault. IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!”

The voice boomed within his mind. Arlo held his ears tight and fell backwards. The voice vanished without a trace. All that remained in the sanctum was darkness.