The cliff overlooking Kreeshan Valley offered a perfect vantage point.
From here, one could see the entire dig site, the white tents, the excavation grids, and the tiny figures of researchers moving between work stations.
Six figures stood at the cliff’s edge, watching. They were all dressed in black attire, concealing their forms.
From a distance, they looked like humans, but upon closer look, you could tell by their eyes that they were not. They were huge in build and gave off a nacing aura unlike humans.
They were demons of the demonic realm.
The five figures stood a little behind and had the sa type of aura.
But the sixth was different. It was a female demon; she looked slender but really strong.
She appeared human, a perfect-looking human.
A woman in her thirties with dark hair pulled back in a practical ponytail, she wore a black gown. Her face was attractive in an unremarkable way, the kind of face that wouldn’t draw attention in a crowd, that people would forget monts after seeing.
She had this penetrating gaze in her eyes, which would make anyone not able to stare at her for a couple of seconds.
Her na was Jannahvi Blaeke. And she was the most dangerous demon present, precisely because she looked so thoroughly harmless.
"How much longer?" one of the other demons growled, its voice like grinding stone.
"We’ve been watching for days."
"Patience," Jannahvi said, her voice perfectly human, carrying none of the distortion that marked her companions’ speech.
"We’re not here to attack. We’re here to observe."
"Observe what? Humans digging in dirt?"
"Humans digging in very specific dirt," Jannahvi corrected.
"This valley has always been significant. The energy signatures here are unlike anywhere else in the Evanisckar realm. Sothing powerful is buried beneath this place."
Soone was sealed here, important enough that the Sovereigns themselves had participated in the imprisonnt. Soone whose very existence had caused reality to fracture when they were contained.
She knew exactly what was hidden in the valley.
She’d been watching the dig site for a week now, noting the researchers’ activities and mapping their excavation patterns. They were searching for sothing specific, though they didn’t seem to know exactly what.
And last night, sothing had changed.
Jannahvi had felt it.
A disturbance in the ambient energy. Soone had entered a space that had been undiscovered for years. Had approached the seal directly.
She’d watched through the darkness as a single figure, one of the researchers, the lead archaeologist, had disappeared into the cliff face, erging hours later looking shaken and transford.
That woman had found sothing. Had made contact with that lay sealed beneath the valley.
And that changed everything.
"We’re going down," Jannahvi announced.
"Now, while the humans are distracted with their work. I need to confirm sothing."
"The Highseer was just here," another demon protested.
"There could be patrolling the area."
"The Highseer left," Jannahvi said.
"And military patrols follow predictable patterns."
"If they co, stall them."
She moved down the cliff face with supernatural grace, her human appearance making the descent look like skilled rock climbing rather than demonic mobility. The other demons followed, less gracefully but with the physical capabilities that made them formidable in combat.
They reached the valley floor and moved toward the area where Jannahvi had sensed the disturbance. The narrow passage in the cliff face was obvious to her demonic senses, though she understood why humans had missed it. There was a subtle aversion ward woven into the rock, nothing powerful enough to stop soone determined but sufficient to make eyes slide past, to make the mind dismiss the passage as unimportant.
"Stay here," she told her companions.
"Keep watch. If humans approach, create a distraction but don’t engage unless necessary. I need ti."
She entered the passage alone, her body compressing slightly to fit through the narrow space. The wrongness of her true nature made the rock itself uncomfortable, but she pushed through the discomfort.
The chamber at the end was exactly what she’d expected. Natural formation is utilized for a deliberate purpose. And the wall, that massive sealed barrier, was even more impressive up close.
Jannahvi approached slowly.
Her skin darkened to obsidian black. Her eyes beca pools of liquid darkness. Power radiated from her in waves that made the air shimr.
She placed her hand against the sealed wall, and the cold was irrelevant to her demonic nature. She sent tendrils of dark energy into the stone, probing, searching, and analyzing the seal’s structure.
It was a masterwork, multiple layers, each one reinforcing the others. Origin energy woven through daemon power, Sovereign authority binding it all together. Designed not just to contain but to suppress, to numb, to ensure that whatever was sealed within couldn’t even attempt escape.
And behind it, she felt him.
A smile crept up her face as she caressed the wall.
A presence, vast beyond comprehension. Sleeping but not dead. Contained but not destroyed. Power that made even her ancient strength feel insignificant.
"I will free you, Grandfather. Soon, you will be free from this shackle," she whispered, her voice carrying tones that would drive humans mad to hear.
No answer ca, but she hadn’t expected one. The seals were designed to prevent communication, to isolate completely.
She stepped back from the wall and began channeling power. Not the small, controlled techniques she used for normal tasks. This was her full strength, accumulated over the years of existence, refined through decades of combat and study.
Dark energy erupted from her form, a pitch-black mist that seed to absorb light itself. It swirled around her in complex patterns, responding to her will, forming into structures that resonated with the seal’s own energy.
The key to breaking any barrier was understanding its nature. Origin energy and dark power were opposites, order and chaos, and structure and entropy. But at their deepest levels, they were two sides of the sa fundantal force.
Jannahvi had studied that relationship for most of her existence. Had learned to manipulate the boundaries between order and chaos, to find the stress points where one could be turned against the other.
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