Medea was sitting near the fire. She felt the warmth on her skin and watched the shadows dance on the cold black marble. She had been here for a week, as had her brother, Leonard, and old man Alexander, but it felt like an eternity. She was lucky, and she didn't try to talk herself into believing anything else. She couldn't fight. She had never held a sword, and even if she had, she didn't have one here. When she woke up, she found she had a ring her grandmother had left behind and a first aid kit. To be honest, that had proved extremely useful, but she couldn't help but see herself as useless and weak. If they hadn't encountered Leo, they would be dead.
Three loud shots startled her out of her self-pity.
'A monster? Are we under attack?'
She looked around and finally managed to capture what had alerted the soldier. A small, almost intangible blue ghost was slowly falling to the ground. Then, someone started talking. A tall young man, around twenty or twenty-one, emerged from the shadows. He had wide black pants, a ripped blue T-shirt that showed a lot of his deathly white complexion, a long black winter coat, and in his hand, an umbrella covered by that horrible moss. His face looked rough. His complexion wasn't clear—far from it—and there were scars under his eyes as if he had suffered from constant dark circles for a long period of time. All of that was topped by long black hair. He was smiling, and Medea found his appearance reassuring and calming. He was also somehow handsome.
She heard Leonard cough behind her and then proclaim:
"I apologize. This place has already taught me to be ready."
"Yeah, I understand. It couldn't be too long after you slew that wolf amalgamation. I was as creeped out as you are," he replied calmly.
"How... what gave it away?"
"You have a Terror Core in your hands. That's what I call it. You will understand after you use it. I could give you a few hints before you go for it. But I would like to rest a bit first; can I join your campfire? I have more meat."
It seemed as if Leo was still wary of the man, but Medea didn't feel the same. His smile was an honest and happy one. And what he said meant that he had also encountered that monster and killed it. He had also done something with the magical stone he called a Terror Core. Was that how he made that ghost? She suddenly wanted to ask him so many questions.
He sat next to her and started taking out meat from what looked like a makeshift bag.
"By the way, I forgot to introduce myself," he said, glancing first at her and then at the others. "I am Maledictus Sanguine. It is a weird name, I get it. I was named Lukas when I was born, but now I am not anymore..."
He was silent for a bit, as if what he was saying was as confusing to him as it was to her.
"Well, Maledictus is more precise and closer to what I am. You could say that Lukas is a name that was given to me by someone else—that being my mother and father—and Maledictus Sanguine is a name that precisely describes who I am. A true name of sorts. Like, if you could see my soul, you would see that name written there. Literally."
Leonard started and introduced the small company:
"I am Leonard; you can just call me Leo. This old man is Alexander."
"As in the Conqueror," added the old man with a smile and pride.
"Like the Conqueror," Leo continued. "And these two siblings are Thadeus and Medea."
"Was it your mother or your father who had such a poetic heart?" asked the charming young warrior with a bright smile.
"Our grandma," Thade answered without looking away from the fire.
"Maledictus Sanguine is too long. Can I call you Mal?" Medea finally blurted out.
"Sure you can," he answered, again with a smile.
The conversation then turned to what they had done. Thade was silent, and she herself really didn't have much to share. They had found themselves here a week ago—at least that was how long Leo claimed it was, and Mal agreed with him on that—and had been in that building almost the whole time. They met Leo and Alexander two days ago and had been with them since. The whole two days were spent resting and traveling toward the walls. It was again Leo who had decided that, saying there would be fewer monsters, and Mal again agreed with his observations.
It was the same for Leo and Alexander. What they wanted to hear was Mal's part of the story.
"Well, it started the same way. I woke up and didn't know what was going on. I was confronted with the wolf abomination and managed to kill it, although I sustained heavy injuries. I relocated to an ancient library filled with cookbooks and was forced by my injuries and by how weak I was to try to gain power from the Terror Core I obtained from the wolf. Simply put, when you do that, you will be transported into a weird dimension filled with existential terror and fear. You need to form a Wisdom Core, and then you will obtain a circle around it that gains you access to Shaping. It's basically a way to manipulate reality by incantations and names—fancy magic, but nearly all-powerful. I then went to hunt another wolf abomination out of spite and saw the smoke. I ran here, my ghost got murdered, and now I am here. Nothing much."
"You killed two?" Leonard asked, almost with reverence.
"Don't stroke my ego like that," he laughed. "Let's rest, and after that, I will help you with the creation of your Wisdom Core and the process of assimilation."