Belial gave the party freedom to walk around his realm at will. He instructed his children to accommodate any of the party’s needs. Then he invited them to travel across the land and watch his creation up close."This shouldn’t be much different from Earth." Tina commented while picking a flower. "But somehow this feels out of place."
They were now traveling the land on their own studying the alien planet with their own eyes.
"It feels unnatural." Ffyr commented.
"Unnatural?" Matthew asked with a teasing tone. "From a Fae?"
"Even in the Fae there are things that are and things that aren’t. All of this. The people, the plants, even the land just feels like they aren’t." The fairy explained the best way she could.
"I wish we could study this realm." Tina picked up a rock and watched it closely. "No matter how I look at it, it is just a rock. Beige, but we do have rocks in this color on Earth. Yet... Why does everything in me tell me it is not a rock?"
"Maybe it’s because we’re in a dungeon?" Helen suggested.
"We’ve been to tons of dungeons. No. This is different." Erin interjected.
"This is Belial’s realm. At least a projection of what it was. Didn’t you feel something similar when we were in Haeresis?" Matthew noted.
"Yeah. But not quite like this. There was more about the smell and not... Wrongness." Ffyr said, unable to be her playful self because of those feelings.
They approached a forest. The same red bark everywhere. Blue leaves. Bugs of shapes and sizes they have never seen before. Critters with fur that seemed to glow in the dark.
"Why do you think Belial changed the dungeon?" Richard asked Matthew.
"I don’t know. It’s hard to say. But it seems he wants me, or rather, us to witness the fall of his realm." Matthew answered.
"Why?" Daisy asked.
"I don’t know. They said something about being loved. Being worshiped. I don’t really understand." Matthew shook his head with a sigh.
At this moment, a huge part of the forest turned into black forms of themselves. The trees looked like Matthew’s sword, something made of shadows. Not only the living things, but the beige ground also turned to deep black.
There was no sound. No warning. In the blink of an eye it changed.
The animals that were in that forest also turned into shadows. Wrapped and deformed. They cried seemingly in pain. But none could tell.
They wriggled and contorted themselves. Their cries started to get louder and less real. As if someone was filtering their screams through dozens of filters creating impossible sounds in nature.
Suddenly the shadow creatures charged them attacking Matthew and the others with their weird bodies.
The party defended themselves. They shot and weaved their spells.
When their blades met the shadow creatures, they didn’t feel like they were a simulacrum made of mana. They felt soft and rubbery.
They didn’t die with a single attack. Removing their heads didn’t stop them. They could not die. Only be cut down into pieces until they could not cause any harm.
"¡¿Qué carajo?!" Ferdinand exclaimed.
"They don’t die." Erin said the obvious out loud.
"What happened?" Helen asked.
"It is what Belial told us. Reality is crumbling." Tina noted.
"Everything is turning into shadows. This place is becoming Haeresis." Matthew said.
The stars in the sky started to vanish.
"Let’s go back to the temple." Richard ordered.
Their way back to the temple was dangerous. Even the plants attacked them once they became shadows. Burning them only slowed them down. Freezing them the same.
The worst was when they reached civilization. Belial’s children were turning into shadow figures as well and attacked the ones who didn’t turn.
Some screamed, some tried to fight back and others ran.
A child cried asking her mother what was going on before the shadow form of their mother bit the child’s head off.
And it wasn’t only the shadows. Even being eaten alive, the children of Belial didn’t die. They suffered and cried, but didn’t die.
Matthew party cleaved between the shadow creatures. They incapacitated the monster’s opening way for those who didn’t turn to run away. Everyone ran in the direction of the temple.
They bagged at the doors imploring Belial for help.
Meanwhile, Matthew and his party held the monsters back. In the distance, everything started to turn into shadows.
The sun came up and then down then up again passing fast through the sky as if time was accelerated.
Yet, the temple doors didn’t open.
Belial’s children knelt and prayed. They begged and cried.
When the sun disappeared from the sky there was no more light. The only thing illuminating the darkness was a light sphere created by Ferdinand.
"We’re going to die here." Daisy was pessimistic.
Echoing her feeling, the children of Belial started to curse their god.
The temple doors finally fell and they all stormed the temple that was filled with shadow creatures.
Matthew conjured flames around him to light the way and charged inside with them. Shortly after the others ran after him.
Richard’s used his shield to keep the shadows away and his pick covered in fire to drive them away.
Ferdinand’s rifle shooted crystal bullets in full auto. Each of them exploded on contact in fiery circles, keeping the shadows pursuing them away.
Daisy’s knives also worked as wands and allowed her to shoot lightning bolts through the darkness tearing the shadows apart. Her aim was perfect even in complete darkness because of her Sixth Sense skill.
Helen broke down the door to the temple’s main hall. Now the only place not consumed by shadows.
The party and the surviving children of Belial stormed the place finding the god sitting on his throne drinking wine with a defeated expression.
"Help us lord!" The noblewoman who first met them ran and knelt in front of Belial. "Oh lord, please! Help us!" She pleaded putting her head on the floor.
"I can’t." Belial whispered.
"What?" The woman asked, lifting her head.
Meanwhile, Richard and Helen formed a shield wall at the door keeping the shadows away with the suppressing fire from the others.
"I CAN’T!" Belial screamed with tears in his eyes. "I’m not powerful enough."
The supplicant’s face contorted in pain and shifted into anger.
"You useless god! You impotent scum!" She cursed him. "Save us! Help us! You are god! You are Belial the creator! DO SOMETHING!"
Belial just cried louder.
The shadows crept in. And, in a blink of an eye everything turned into shadows. Only Belial, Matthew and his party remained.
The noblewoman, now trembling in shadow form and screaming in unnatural sounds attacked the god, biting its neck and tearing him apart with her deformed hands.
Belial did nothing to protect himself. He allowed himself to be destroyed and cleft in twain.
Matthew and the others now fought desperately. Being overrun by shadowy creatures that couldn’t be killed. It didn’t matter how they were cut, burned, pierced, frozen... Nothing could stop them.
They fought for hours. Their Vital Shields started to crumble. The creature’s fingers sometimes turned to needles, other times to claws.
They were pierced, cut, bitten. They bled, but kept fighting until their arms got tired. Until their MP was almost depleted.
And when everything seemed lost. When they started to burn through their own lives to resist. Everything stopped.
As if time itself had stopped.
The creatures were frozen in place.
Ferdinand’s light ball was the only thing that illuminated the darkness that covered everything.
They looked around finally having time to breathe.
Tina distributed mana potions.
"Stay alert." Richard said.
"There’s no need." A male and a female voice said at the same time.
They all turned to see Belial’s body split in the middle rising to its feet. Each side morphed and shifted being healed and reconstructing themselves.
Now stood before them the Belial Matthew knew. Two bodies, one male on right, one female on the left. Human looking, each bore one wing. The male wore white. The female wore black.
"Time itself crumbled. There’s nothing left." They said in monotone.
"Then... It’s over? We survived?" Ferdinand asked.
"You were never in danger of dying." Both of Belial’s faces smiled.
"What do you mean?" Tina asked.
"I just wanted to show you the last of my creation." Belial said, walking slowly towards the party.
"You’re the real one." Matthew said, making everyone take a step back.
"I am." They nodded to Matthew.
"After time stopped I stood here for eons looking upon my heresy. To think I could be one of the creators." Belial laughed. "I dug their graves. I put them to fire." They continued and snapped their fingers changing the scenery to the one Matthew knew.
The putrid smell, the open graves on fire, the infinite darkness and the black stones. Haeresis.
"Yahweh came to me. He helped me stabilize this place. He corrected many of my mistakes. He connected my plane to the other hells. And sentenced me to forever live here and look upon my folly." Belial’s voice was acidic.
"Why show us this?" Erin asked.
"I’m trying to understand. In the end, they turned on me. I was powerless and broken. Instead of extending their hands to me. They demanded my power." Belial conjured a large throne and both parts of him sat down. "Tell me, mortals, why? Why didn’t they love me?"