Traveling around the lake would take far too long, even with the vastly enhanced speeds most Walkers possessed, so Chris and Leon had spent the last several days investigating mana signatures that stood out around it.
Thus far they'd found a clam the size of a house with eyeballs instead of pearls, a pack of dogs that seemed to be fusing together at the body, and a guy who was playing basketball by himself.
Suffice to say, the search was going poorly, and even with the ironclad belief they were on the right trail, it wasn't encouraging even with Brent (the guy) cheering them on. The importance of a more comprehensive skillset became significantly more obvious after this experience and Chris vowed to find a group of people he trusted for missions in the future, particularly since working with the mercenaries had turned out to be a nonstarter.
He dropped to his butt in the sand, letting the exhaustion take hold for the first time since they'd started, and looked out over the lake.
Mission aside, the scene was beyond gorgeous and the ethereal glow closer to what he imagined was the center of the lake really added to the ambience of the scene.
"I wonder what all those souls are doing out that way," Leon said, dropping next to him.
"Souls?"
Leon nodded and started drawing something in the sand, "Yeah. Souls have a kind of tealish glow to them."
Souls had been studied to a reasonable extent, but Chris wasn't exactly up to date on the work being done on the research. He was inclined to trust Leon on the matter though since he spoke with such deadpan confidence about the color.
"Do you know why?"
His friend shrugged and pointed out at the lake, "No clue, but I can say one thing for sure. There are a lot of them over there to be visible to the naked eye."
The more time Chris spent with Leon, the more he hoped they could recover his lost memories one day. He was a fascinating person when he wasn't fighting, and seemed to have a strangely deep knowledge on a lot of fairly obscure topics.
They sat together for a while, resting their legs until the tide started coming in and the water began brushing up against their feet, draining their energy ever so slightly.
That was…weird?
Nothing they'd seen or read had mentioned the lake having draining properties, and he felt fairly confident saying they'd done exhaustive research on it so far. It definitely would have come up that the lake Heaven's Shore had built itself around in almost every regard had such a distinct property.
Was it a new phenomenon?
Thinking about it at length didn't really bring any kind of solution to the conundrum, particularly since he wasn't here to study lake magic, he was here looking for missing people. It seemed unlikely to him that the change was anything significant to his mission, but he sent the information to Jet in a concise message, just to be sure. He hadn't had a chance to speak with the man at length since the last time they'd met in person, but it never hurt to be a little more thorough than necessary.
After taking a second to mention the report to Leon, he added the bit about the soul vortex at his request, sending it off after triple checking for any errors or additional information they could add.
"Why don't you want to join the Bureau officially," Chris asked abruptly.
Leaning back on his elbows, Leon said, "I don't know…it seems like they've got it together without me. Not sure how much I could actually contribute in an official capacity."
The two had become fast friends after they first met, but the last few weeks had given Chris a chance to get to know this guy pretty well. He was open, both with his beliefs and his mindset, and seemed genuinely interested in getting to know Chris and seeing the world together.
He was about to ask another question when a thick slapping sound caught his attention.
Leon heard it as well, and the two of them looked around to try and find the source of the increasingly disgusting slaps.
Down by their feet…something…was pulling itself out of the lake.
The golden light of the setting sun revealed a nearly flat figure pulling itself up, trying to grab at their ankles.
Its abhorrent appearance drew a single question to mind…would life even be worth living?
Skin.
It was skin.
Unblemished, if wrinkled, skin dragged itself up to the shores of the lake, its still clearly human shaped form writhing in the water as it fought its way past the tide.
A sound that could only be described as screams from a distant shore radiated out from its mouth as the husk used its hand to pull up its head and look at them with empty holes where its eyes should be.
Kill me.
Its holes begged for death, and as Leon instinctively swung a sword that had appeared in his hand, Chris got the distinct impression it was a death that would never come.
The skin cut cleanly and the now bisected form continued dragging itself toward them, one nightmare now made two.
Continued cuts accomplished nothing and soon they were facing down seven parts of a human's skin, all intent on pulling them beneath the waves to endure whatever had done this to it.
One piece had pulled itself to the side and was dragging itself into the sand, digging a message into the ground as it wriggled, but the other seven were relentless. Chris knew a single spell, one he had saved up for quite a while to afford, and as he cast it, he wondered if it was the right choice.
Flamethrower burned all but the one hand shaped scrap of skin to ash, which flew out and into the lake, hopefully at peace.
The thought that they might all be still alive but now trapped agony as particle sized pieces was almost too much to bear, so he focused on the message being written.
After ten minutes passed, it was almost complete.
"Monster on lake"
Chris looked at Leon, who had a pained expression on his face.
Gates could create all matter of monstrosities and impact people in ways that were as numerous as fractal dreams, but this felt…deliberate.
There was no doubt in Chris's mind that someone did this…but was it related to the mission?
He turned to ask Leon, who was already on the move.
Either he had figured something out, or he didn't care about the relevance and in hindsight, Chris knew he shouldn't have either. His friend stood at the very edge of the water, the tide licking up against his shoes as he contemplated how to get to the vortex of souls out in the center of the lake.
It wasn't even a matter of question in either of their minds, it had to be the source of the tortured skin form's origin.
Chris had felt Leon's mana before, an unnatural presence that rapidly erupted from him as he built up power.
The ability to feel mana as it moved into the various circles and forms to cast spells or use abilities was uncommon, at best, and certainly not one in his tool box, but so dense and powerful was Leon's that it was harder to miss than to sense. This stood out as especially true as he watched the man's palms begin to bleed as he dug his fingers into them in frustration, desperately trying to cast his first spell.
After all, if not now…when?
The sand began to swirl around him as the power reached some sort of breaking point, floating in a vortex at a speed that matched the souls in the distance beyond, and sparks of black and purple energy crackled in the air.
Leon pulled his arm back and roared in fury as the mana condensed back into his body and his sword began to glow and flicker with ominous aubergine flames before he swung his arm forward and the world went silent.
Multiple System notifications made themselves known as Leon swung with so much power that reality itself seemed to fracture for a brief moment.
In the aftermath of the strike, for a single second, nothing happened and Chris almost had time to wonder how he had dispersed the mana with no effect.
Then all hell broke loose as the lake split in two as a massive swath of water leading straight to the vortex simply…disappeared and the space where there had been air screamed as it was emptied and refilled in the instant it had been cut.
In the space that had been cut, Chris could see what appeared to be a translucent vault so massive it stretched up into space, with intricate machinery and impossibly complex magical circles covering it.
You have witnessed the Infinite Vault.
+20 Vitality
+40 Endurance
+100 Magic
You have been exposed to the Void and not succumbed to Madness.
While your mind was strong enough, it is impossible to glimpse upon the Void and remain untouched in return.
Several questions instantly came to mind, but before he could voice any of them, Leon had leapt onto the dry stretch of land within the lake and began running with a single minded focus Chris could only envy.
Forcing the questions to the back of his mind, he dismissed the notifications and jumped in to follow, unsure how long they'd be running or if it was the right thing to do…from a mission perspective at least.
Several hours of running forced the two men to accept the fact that they might never reach the vortex as it seemed like it kept getting further and further away as they tried harder to get closer.
Whether or not it was involved with their mission was cleared up along the way as they witnessed multiple of the skin forms dragging Walkers through the water, just out of reach.
The terrified expressions also clarified that it was, indeed, abductions and not people quietly walking into the lake.
It was a stupid idea, but given their lack of resources and information, the two had been forced to consider every option, including the idea that the missing people were deliberately disappearing.
The water began to recede slowly over the course of the next few minutes when they stopped running, realizing that they might even get caught up in the lake if they didn't turn back now. Frustrating though it was, they turned back and found themselves back on the shore within ten minutes, proving they weren't going to make it doing it that way.
Out in the distance, the vortex was now surrounding a crystal structure that had begun taking shape above the water, vaguely resembling a pillar though something about it made Chris's head hurt.
"We know where we need to go…now we need to figure out how to get there," Leon spoke, uncharacteristically firm, his voice just loud enough to be heard over the sound of millions of gallons of lake water falling back into place.
Chris nodded as Leon stalked away from him, still angry about the entire situation, and likely upset about the failed attempt to deal with the problem. A sentiment Chris shared, if he was honest, particularly since several hours of full speed running was exhausting and walking away from the vortex with nothing to show for all their effort was demoralizing, at best.
"What do you think we should do now," Chris asked, unsure if he'd even get an answer.
Leon stopped, his entire body language dropping from frustration to what appeared to be embarrassment as he turned and said, "You know? Good question!"
He had an awkward smile on his face that reminded Chris that for all Leon's strength, this was new for him too.
Walking up to him and putting his hand on Leon's shoulder, Chris said, "Lets get in touch with Jet and see what he has to say. Might be some kind of barrier or seal we can outsource dealing with."
A question rose unbidden to his mind before they started walking away and he asked, "Why did you get so mad?"
Without skipping a beat or seeming to really have a proper understanding of why he said it, Leon responded, "I hate ------ magic."
The world around them began to spin and Chris felt like the air itself was compressing him.
He managed to choke out, "What-" before darkness overtook him and he was knocked unconscious.