The cave mouth yawned before us, a maw of shadows that even the afternoon sun seemed hesitant to penetrate. The lingering stench of fear and ozone, a bizarre perfume of my own making, hung heavy in the air. Elara was still pale, her usual vibrant energy muted to a nervous thrum. Seris, however, had a new intensity in her silver eyes – a fierce, almost desperate curiosity that burned brighter than any fear. She was a warrior, and the unknown was a battlefield she couldn't resist exploring, even if the enemy was comprehension itself.
"Well," I said, breaking the silence that had stretched for an uncomfortably long mortal minute. "Shall we? Wouldn't want to leave any… goblin-related paperwork unfinished." I stepped into the darkness.
A beat of silence, then hurried footsteps. "Rael, wait!" Elara squeaked, practically clinging to Seris's arm as they followed. "It's… it's really dark in here. And creepy. Are you sure everything… fled?"
"Most things with a rudimentary survival instinct tend to avoid places where their power source has been… unplugged," I replied, my voice echoing slightly in the damp confines. My vision, of course, needed no light. I saw the cave not as a tunnel of blackness, but as a tapestry of cooling energy signatures, fading life-auras, and the subtle, ugly stains of Void corruption clinging to the rock like sentient mildew.
"Unplugged," Seris repeated, her tone flat. She was processing. Trying to fit the square peg of my existence into the round holes of her understanding. It was an admirable, if futile, effort. "That Herald… its connection to the Void… you just… severed it? Like cutting a string?"
"A rather frayed and unpleasant string, yes," I confirmed, sidestepping a puddle of something I preferred not to identify. "It was causing a rather nasty tangle in the local reality. Think of it as cosmic housekeeping."
We delved deeper. The cave wasn't just a natural formation. Crude tunnels branched off, shored up with rotting timbers. The air grew colder, carrying the scent of decay and that distinct, cloying sweetness of active Void taint, albeit much weaker now.
A scuttling sound from a side passage. Three goblins, smaller than the ones outside, armed with sharpened sticks, peeked around a corner. They saw us, their already wide eyes bulging. Then they saw me.
I didn't even look directly at them. I was more interested in a rather fascinating species of phosphorescent moss growing on the ceiling. Yet, the goblins froze. They didn't shriek. They didn't charge. They just… trembled. Violently. One of them dropped its stick with a clatter that sounded deafening in the sudden stillness. Then, as one, they turned and scrambled away, whimpering, tripping over each other in their haste to vacate my general vicinity.
Elara blinked. "Did… did they just wet themselves?"
"Their bladders are notoriously weak when confronted with stimuli beyond their limited processing capacity," I observed. "A common biological response in lesser beings."
"Lesser beings," Seris murmured, her gaze fixed on me. "Rael… what constitutes a 'greater being' in your… experience?"
I paused, considering a patch of particularly stubborn Void residue on the wall. With a thought, I encouraged it to reconsider its existence. It faded, leaving clean stone. "Those who can perceive the score of the universe, rather than just the individual notes. Those who understand that 'power' is not about accumulation, but about resonance. Or, more simply, those who don't wet themselves when things get… interesting."
Elara giggled nervously. "I think I almost qualified for 'lesser being' status a few times today then."
"Courage, Elara, is not the absence of fear, but the choice to act despite it," I said, a statement that was, for once, universally applicable. "You both possess that in commendable quantities."
Their surprise at the compliment was almost comical. It seemed my brief moments of 'godly pronouncements' made any subsequent normal human interaction seem startling.
We reached a larger chamber. This was clearly the Herald's… office, for lack of a better term. A crude stone slab served as a table, littered with chipped bones, dried herbs of dubious origin, and a few poorly scrawled parchments that radiated a faint, nauseating energy. In the center of the room, a circle of scorched earth marked where the Herald had likely performed its rituals. The Void crystal, now just a dull rock, lay discarded in a corner.
"This is it," Seris said, her voice low. "The heart of the corruption." She nudged a pile of what looked like blackened, twisted metal with her boot. "What was this?"
"An attempt to create a Void-infused artifact," I surmised, examining the warped remains. "Crude. Unstable. Had it been completed, it might have caused a localized reality tear. Messy." I tapped it with my foot, and the metal dissolved into fine, harmless dust.
Elara shuddered. "Reality tear? That sounds… bad."
"Generally speaking, yes," I agreed. "Tends to play havoc with property values."
Seris was watching me, her expression unreadable. "You speak of such things… 'reality tears,' 'cosmic housekeeping'… as if you're discussing the weather."
"The weather, in some dimensions, is a reality tear," I pointed out. "It's all a matter of perspective." I surveyed the room. "No significant threats remaining. The primary source of the taint has been… decommissioned. The echoes will fade."
"So… it's over?" Elara asked, a hopeful note in her voice. "The goblins are dealt with? We get our bonus?"
"Indeed. Unless you wish to redecorate?" I gestured at the grim surroundings. "I'm not much of an interior designer, but I could perhaps be persuaded to unmake the offensive color scheme."
Seris actually cracked a smile. A small, hesitant thing, but a smile nonetheless. It was surprisingly… disarming. "I think we'll pass. Let's just find whatever 'treasure' these creatures hoarded and get out of here. This place gives me the creeps, even without active Void magic."
The 'treasure' was, as expected, underwhelming. A pile of tarnished copper coins, a few chipped gems of negligible value, and a surprisingly intact, if rather plain, leather-bound journal. I picked up the journal. It felt… mundane. Utterly, refreshingly mundane.
"Anything interesting?" Seris asked, peering over my shoulder. I was acutely aware of her proximity, the faint scent of iron and something uniquely… Seris. It was a novel sensation. In my usual state, proximity was measured in parsecs, not inches.
"Just some goblin poetry, it seems," I said, flipping a page. "'Ode to a Half-Eaten Rat.' Quite avant-garde." I tucked it into my cheap adventurer's pouch. A souvenir. A reminder of the delightful absurdity of mortal existence.
The walk back to the Guild was… different. The previous tension was still there, but it was now overlaid with a thick layer of bewildered awe from Elara and a cautious, analytical observation from Seris. Elara kept asking questions, rapid-fire, about what I'd done, how I'd done it, if I could teach her how to make Shadow Hounds 'poof' (I politely declined, citing potential ecological imbalances). Seris was quieter, her questions more pointed, more about my origins, my purpose.
"You're not just a powerful mage, are you, Rael?" she asked, her voice low, as we neared the edge of the Whisperwind Woods. "Mages draw on mana. They chant, they use foci. You… you just are."
"Being is a rather fundamental state of existence, Seraphina," I replied, enjoying the way her name felt on my tongue. A name resonant with celestial beings, ironically. "Some are simply more… impactful in their being than others."
"And you're 'impactful' enough to make Void Heralds wet their non-existent pants and run screaming," Elara chimed in, then clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oops. Too blunt?"
I chuckled. "Aptly put, Elara."
Garon, the guildmaster, looked up as we entered, his expression shifting from bored indifference to mild surprise. We were back sooner than expected, and none of us appeared to be bleeding profusely, which was already an anomaly for an E-Ranker goblin quest with B-Rank escorts.
"Well, look who it is," he grunted. "Didn't get eaten, E-Ranker? Goblins give you too much trouble?" He winked at Seris and Elara. "Or did the pretty ladies have to save your bacon?"
Seris opened her mouth, then closed it. Elara looked like she was about to spontaneously combust from the sheer effort of not blurting out the truth.
"The goblin nest in the Whisperwind Woods has been neutralized," Seris said finally, her voice carefully devoid of emotion. "There were… complications. The initial assessment was inaccurate. The threat level was significantly higher than anticipated."
Garon raised a bushy eyebrow. "Higher? How much higher? Few extra goblins? A hobgoblin chieftain?"
"A Void Herald, several Void-Maulers, and a score of Void-touched goblins and Shadow Hounds," Elara blurted out, unable to contain it any longer.
The guildhall, which had been a low hum of chatter, went abruptly silent. All eyes turned to our little group. Garon stared at Elara, then at Seris, then at me, his jaw slowly dropping.
"A… Void… Herald?" he stammered, his face paling. "In the Whisperwind Woods? Are you… are you three insane? Or drunk? A Void Herald would wipe out this entire town before breakfast!"
"It was… dealt with," Seris said, her gaze flicking to me for a microsecond.
"Dealt with?" Garon sputtered. "By who? Did the Royal Knights happen to be passing through? An S-Ranker on vacation?"
I stepped forward. "The situation was resolved. The nest is clear. We're here for the bonus." My tone was mild, almost bored.
Garon stared at me. At my cheap leather armor, my unassuming demeanor, my complete lack of any visible injuries. He looked at Seris and Elara, saw their profoundly shaken, yet undeniably intact, forms. He saw the lingering terror in Elara's eyes and the utterly unreadable, awestruck expression on Seris's usually stoic face.
Something in his mind seemed to click, or perhaps snap. "You… the E-Ranker… you dealt with a Void Herald?" The incredulity in his voice was monumental.
"I provided assistance," I said, choosing my words carefully. "It was a collaborative effort."
A nearby adventurer, a burly man with a scarred face, snorted. "Collaborative? An E-Ranker helping B-Ranks take down a Void Herald? Pull the other one, it's got bells on it!"
Seris's eyes flashed. "Rael's contribution was… decisive." The way she said 'decisive' sent a shiver down the spines of those listening. It was laced with an experience they couldn't fathom.
Garon just kept staring at me, a slow dawning of something – not understanding, but perhaps a primal recognition of otherness – in his eyes. "The bonus," he said slowly, as if the words were foreign. He counted out the coins, his hand shaking slightly. "Here. And… and an extra fifty gold for… exceptional service under extreme circumstances." He practically threw the pouch at me.
I caught it. "Appreciated."
As we turned to leave, the guildhall erupted in hushed, frantic whispers. "Did you hear that? A Void Herald!" "That E-Ranker… what did he do?" "Seris looked like she'd seen a ghost… or a god."
The seeds of legend, I mused. So easily sown in the fertile ground of mortal imagination.
Outside, the sun was beginning to set, painting the sky in hues of orange and violet. It was a rather beautiful display, for a planet of this classification.
Elara finally let out a long, shaky breath. "Okay. That was… intense. I think I need a stiff drink. Or five. And then maybe a very long nap."
Seris was quiet, thoughtful. She looked at me, the setting sun catching the silver in her hair. "Rael… today… I don't know what I saw. I don't know what you are. But… thank you. For Elara. For… well, for everything."
There was a raw sincerity in her voice, a vulnerability that her warrior shell rarely allowed. It was… intriguing.
"The universe is full of wonders, Seraphina," I said, my gaze sweeping over the darkening town, then up to the first stars pricking the twilight sky – familiar, distant friends. "Some are just a little more… interactive than others."
I could feel their gazes on me, a mixture of awe, fear, and a burgeoning, almost magnetic fascination. This 'vacation' was indeed becoming more involved. The Void's clumsy fumblings in this reality were a minor irritant, but the reactions of these two mortals… they were proving to be an unexpected, and not entirely unpleasant, complication.
The path ahead was uncertain, even for me. Or rather, the choices were infinite. But for now, the night was young, and the symphony of this small, vibrant world was playing a most curious tune. And I, the Composer, was finding myself increasingly drawn to its melody. One thing was certain: life as a 'commoner' was about to become anything but.