"I hope you know what you're doing."
"Stop talking"
Alister and Nacht were whispering as they made their way towards where he had first encountered the abstract. The closer they got the less they talked so as to not draw attention. Eventually, they arrived at the hole in the ground which led to the underground tunnels.
Nacht gestured to Alister to let him know that this was the place. Alister nodded and hopped into the hole. At least now Alister wasn't blind and could be useful. From this point on, he and Alister would split up.
Once Alister leapt into the hole, Nacht immediately started following the trail left behind by the abstract. With Alister gone, the forest returned to being eerily quiet and the sounds of a distant battle could no longer be heard.
Being alone in a dark forest brought both dread and comfort. Without Alister to keep him company, Nacht felt vulnerable, but since he was surrounded by darkness he also felt strangely at home.
Before entering penance he was always wary of the dark. Growing up in the slums of District Nine, Nacht steered clear of dark alleyways and was always vigilant to things moving in the dark. Now that he awakened his traits, he felt as comfortable in the dark as he did in the light… perhaps even more so.
Nevertheless, he was still deathly cautious of the abstract and the floors other participants.
Speaking of the abstract, it left behind quite a trail. The path Nacht was following was filled with kicked up dirt, uprooted trees, and torn branches, leaving a myriad of debris along the path.
Bending down, Nacht picked up quite a large rock that had been tossed to the side of the path by the abstract and then continued to follow the trail while making sure not to step on any sticks or branches so as to not alert anyone to his presence.
He kept his saber in one hand and the rock in the other. He made sure to move quietly until the trail finally came to an end.
Up ahead, Nacht could see the Abstract, except this time it wasn't moving. He looked down at the rock in his hand, and then he looked back at the abstract. Then he threw the rock. It landed behind some bushes with a loud clunk which instantly caught the abstract's attention.
What happened next was almost too fast for Nacht to discern.
The once quiet forest erupted into a cacophony of deafening noise. The abstract lunged towards a dark silhouette of a woman emerging from the bushes. A light greenish hue emanated from her back as green vines emerged from the ground.
The vines coiled along the abstract body like snakes, causing it to stagger for a moment, but that was all the sinner needed. She dodged the abstracts maw and narrowly missed being shredded by its sharp claws.
A spear came screaming down from a small light above the trees which was promptly swatted away by one of the monsters many arms. Dirt and debris scattered into the air where the spear drove into the ground.
The ground quaked as the sinner in the trees narrowly evaded his own weapon that came flying back at him. At the same time, a wall of thick vines emerged to block the weapons path.
Throughout all of this, Nacht stayed still like a statue.
'They can't win.'
Nacht had been observing the battle, and while he was having trouble keeping up, he could still roughly discern what was happening. Unlike Alister who didn't have any abilities to see in the dark, the two sinners seemed to have found other ways to traverse the floor.
It was quite hard to discern, but Nacht was able to discover that one was using her rune to navigate the forest while the other seemed to be using a relic that emitted light. Even though they found a way to combat the darkness, it still had a major effect on the two sinners.
The woman seemed disoriented at times and the man was having trouble throwing his spear on target. If they were able to see then the woman wouldn't have had to use her rune so passively and the abstract wouldn't have so easily deflected the spear.
Still, the situation could have been worse for them. If the abstract was able to command the darkness then they wouldn't have been able to last as long as they have. Nevertheless, the two enlightened sinners were slowly losing the battle.
Due to the ferocious battle, Nacht was learning a lot from how the two enlightened sinners fought. He noticed how they each used their abilities in tandem. The woman seemed to have a rune that gave her the ability to control the forest around her, allowing her to impede and distract the abstract.
On the other hand, the man seemed to be an adept spear user, although Nacht wasn't able to discern his rune's ability, he seemed to be the more deadly of the two.
Their teamwork allowed them to outmanoeuvre the abstract. However, it seemed like they weren't trying to kill the abstract. Instead they were looking for a chance to escape, and eventually, they got their chance.
A torrent of vines sprouted from beneath the abstract's feet and around different parts of the forest, causing noise in every direction. The abstract stumbled while the woman began to run. The other sinner retrieved their spear and launched it while retreating in the opposite direction.
Bang!
Where the spear landed, a loud echo rolled across the forest amplified by the silence.
Finally freeing itself, the abstract began to charge in the direction of the spear. During this time, Nacht finally began to move. He had hoped that the abstract would manage to kill at least one of the enlightened sinners, but alas, not everything could go as planned.
'Plan B then.'
Picking up pace, he began to trail the sinner with the ability to control parts of the forest. Using one's rune— especially for long periods of time— was naturally exhausting. It drained the enlightened of orren making them unable to use their supernatural abilities.
Without access to their abilities they would be on a level similar to himself but in this forest submerged in darkness, he would have the advantage. As he followed the sinner, he noticed signs of fatigue beginning to take hold of the woman.
She was moving far slower than she had when battling the humanoid abstract. Now she was moving at a pace that even he could keep up with. As Nacht got closer to the sinner he noticed something else.
Flowers seemed to be sprouting out of the woman's hair, tree bark was replacing her skin, and vines seemed to be covering her body causing her great pain.
'What a nasty punishment.'
Every enlightened had to pay a price for their terrifying power after all. The price placed upon an enlightened is called a punishment. A person's punishment is bestowed upon them the moment they conquer the first gate.
If repenting was the price one had to pay for their crime, then your punishment was the price the enlightened had to pay for their power.
Nacht looked at the pitiful sinner and lifted his saber, preparing to strike.