Kieran had not thought about the cause for the sudden severance with rational reasoning, nor did he consider the other angles of what could have happened.
Because of that, he did things in his abrupt fury.
One of those things was neglecting the peril of his current surroundings. It was a lapse in judgment and awareness, and it was not without consequence, which Cardinal Weiss made abundantly clear with his grim visage.
Together, they stood atop the Wailing Sierra's second mountain, with the Screaming Night far beneath their feet. Their footing was narrow, barely enough to gain purchase for an unhindered attack or to mount an unassailable defense, but Cardinal Weiss exhibited his exceptional poise in combat and his familiarity with the nuances of disadvantageous fighting.
"Put your back to mine now and remain vigilant, Condemned Fiend."
Kieran listened, pressing his back to the dignified champion. It was rigid and unshakable, like the base of the immense mountain they stood upon.
The support of Cardinal Weiss' back also provided a peculiar calm.
'Is this feeling perhaps the effect of a real Master's Presence? I don't know a thing about that, though...'
Despite the lack of physical empowerment, Kieran felt more lucid and capable of apt decision-making, which was strange considering a Fiend drew power from madness, exploiting its delirium to wreak vast amounts of havoc.
Kieran soon understood why Cardinal Weiss inspired this change in him. Atop the Wailing Sierra was a rugged and shaky place.
Though its foundation was sturdy, the same could not be said about its exterior. It was worn by time and other erosive influences.
The echo of falling rocks and slabs of stone breaking away from the mountain did not escape their senses. It was too jarring and ominous for them to ignore. One incorrect step could have them tumbling into the daunting abyss of the Screaming Night.
A glimpse over the adjacent edge made Kieran wonder.
'What unspeakable horrors lay in that darkness down there?'
Frankly, though curious, that was an answer Kieran didn't seek at all. Some questions were best left unanswered because the truths they hid were too… intolerable to bear.
"Calm yourself, Condemned Fiend. The mountain is about to come alive. The terrors slumbering within have eaten what you supplied, and they're now awake."
What he provided…
Kieran grimaced because he somehow understood what Cardinal Weiss was saying without him directing blame. The Wailing Sierra had targeted the anger and resentments used to forge him, and in that burst of anger, he let his own resentments run amok.
The Wailing Sierra was not a place to let anger run rampant, not just because of the mountain's unknown cohesion but also because of how the chain of eerie mountains reacted to feelings of ire. Those feelings had been consumed, their scent alluring and appetizing to what lurked in the darkness and the depths.
His emotions being eaten may have stirred the beasts down there, Kieran's forceful stomp that shook the integrity of the mountain and roused them thoroughly.
That was the start of an unforeseen ordeal, evident by the severe expression the Cardinal of War and Flame bore, which often shifted in darkness.
"Ready yourself, Condemned Fiend."
Inclined to believe in the dignified champion, Kieran brandished his blade and prepared.
Cardinal Weiss similarly reacted, coating his arms in the blood gauntlet. Unlike his spar with Kieran, however, these gauntlets seemed firmer, heavier, and far deadlier. The metallic crimson sheen emanated a fiendish vigor.
What were these Bloodwights to warrant such a grave reaction from the Cardinal of War and Flame?
The answer to that question took little time to present itself.
First came wails carrying a new shrill, disconcerting pitch, making Kieran's blood run cold. They sounded ominous and inhuman, like the bestial howls of something suffering agonizing torment.
Except those screams were the torment. It was shredding the calm Cardinal Weiss' presence provided to pieces.
"Condemned Fiend, from here on out… whatever your mind tells you, ignore it. You may even find yourself wanting to do the opposite. That will be up to your discretion."
The warning was given to calm Kieran, but it did the opposite, heightening his anxiety and sharpening his senses. The Flame's sinister and immolating heat warmed his icy veins as tremors grew increasingly frequent beneath his feet.
The shadowy miasma enveloping the Wailing Sierra gained a gory quality and the coppery taste of blood. That was their sign of arrival.
The Bloodwights had come.
Kieran held his breath and gathered himself, clutching the crimson blade tighter. Just then, it felt like multiple ruthless eyes stared at him with insatiable hunger, wanting to devour him, drain his body, and reshape his flesh.
It was a detestable feeling. Unshakable too.
As that feeling grew, hopelessness sprouted in Kieran's mind. However, it didn't consume him. He remembered the Cardinal's advice and made swift use of it.
But as that emotion sprouted, treachery erupted from within the mountain, shooting to its surface.
'They're here…'
Bloodwights, Cardinal Weiss called it.
They weren't what Kieran expected. Not in the slightest. He had assumed the Bloodwights to be a term coined for vampires in this era, but he guessed wrong… somewhat.
Unique horrors rose to the surface of the mountain.
The Bloodwights had not gained their name from what they consumed but what they spewed — a kind of rotten, putrid, and black blood with a fetid stench carried by the Wailing Sierra's zephyrs.
The creatures were made of mounds of ghastly, ash-colored flesh that amalgamated into strange, moribund forms with pustules leaking that deathly fluid. Some took on a humanoid figure, others adopted the shape of powerful predators, and the rest retained the shape of horrific entities straight out of a nightmare.
'What the hell has Xenith been through?!'
These kinds of monsters didn't exist in the current age. At least Kieran had never come in contact with monsters like these.
"Abominations of the Abyssal Rift. Careful. No Monster or Threat can compare. Avoid their bites at all costs."
Even without warning, Kieran did not want to have an encounter with the gruesome, pointed teeth that imprisoned a Bloodwight's abyssal maw. Despite their varied forms, their sharp, interlocking teeth was a common trait amongst all of the being.
An endless stream of Bloodwights erupted through the ground in a ring around Kieran and Cardinal Weiss. They loomed and stalked with ghastly bloodlust radiating from their crimson eyes.
The look in their eyes wasn't dissimilar to the burning madness in the eyes of the followers of the War and Flame faith, but they were more unhinged, as if delirious from an insatiable hunger. Their bloodlust seemed detached and impartial.
Some Bloodwights even looked at one another with that ghastly bloodlust like they wanted to consume their kin.
Finally, with a screech that eerily resembled the wails of these mountains, the Bloodwights lunged in unison, performing an omnidirectional attack. Their mouths opened wider than their facial structure hinted, exposing endless rows of razor-sharp teeth that extended deep inside their maws.
As he was about to take a side-step to prepare for reprisal against the Bloodwights' incursion, Cardinal Weiss' strict order came.
"Do not avoid them! Look at where we stand."
