AMBROSIAWe emerged from the Mountain of Fate, and immediately began to hunt Grey Wolves. Physical attacks didn''t work on them, and the air of the Realm of Void mostly soaked up the magic we used against them. What we cast was so dispersed that their tough skin and fur soaked it up. It might as well have tickled them. Yazim Jianne muttered some gibberish words under his breath, and tossed a big ball of emptiness at the one we fought. I fully expected it to do absolutely nothing as well, but to my surprise, the creature groaned in pain. “What did you do to it?” I asked. He explained, “The Void soaks up all energy and most matter that is not Void itself. The creatures who have survived here, have adapted to low amounts of Void, allowing them to spend prolonged time there. But a focused attack works against them.” Seeing the confusion on my face, he simplified, “Think of it like a plant absorbing moisture from the air getting hit by a water cannon. Or a lizard adapting to the desert, but getting burned by a flamethrower. It''s too much at once.” Azrael helped with some spells that also created Void, and her new sword Eternal Moon finished the job. Nevras helped us as well, although his sword wasn''t designed to cut these creatures, he had the Void Slice, which he used to great effect against these Grey Wolves. I was suddenly glad he was here.

    As for me, I helped not at all. My thoughts went back my first dog, a cute lil'' puppy named Scratch, who was named this from his habit of scratching... nevermind. I did not see Scratch''s animal soul when we visited Heaven unlike Miss Kitty, not that I expected to. Scratch was a holy terror. Now, he didn''t start out this way. But he was one of these dogs that we saw looked cute and said, “I''ll take good care of him, I promise!” Yeah, right. Between my schooling and my parent''s work, we neglected the dog except to feed, and kept him chained up. The dog started to break free from his chains, and since we couldn''t be there to watch him all the time, we had to give him bigger chains. As he grew, he got stronger and stronger, in one case pulling the post we tied him with along behind the chain. The dog began to run with the wild dogs, and picked up a bad attitude, helped along by his constant abandonment. Eventually, he bit a neighbor, and we had to give him away. As much as I knew these Grey Wolves were probably never children and as much as I could tell these things were as big as a house, with solid muscle and jaws that could take off my head, I couldn''t get past the image of the dog we had. Let''s ignore the fact that I had already faced the wolf Fenrir in battle, this is completely not relevant.

    We finished off about seven of these in groups of one or two, when a pack of them caught wind of us and attacked. Now, not all of us even had effective weapons against such creatures. Aqorm and Elias basically had to stay out of the fight despite having ultimate weapons because of the freakish toughness of these things. The same was true of Zoe to a large extent, though if push came to shove, she could probably use her Sage ability to at least fend them off. Lilith on the other hand, took pleasure in using her blade to carve up two of these things. Azrael and Yazim Jianne each took on one, and Nevras got a fifth. But one slipped past, so I turned around and found myself face to face with this wolf which was probably the size of a bear. It panted slightly and drooled, then slowly approached me. I froze in a strange mix of fear and sentiment, not really knowing what to do. The wolf pounced, and I dodged to the right. It moved its front feet and shoulders, turning itself to the side. I panicked, and stabbed it with my knife a few times. The beastie writhed and screamed, and then crumpled in a heap.

    I cried, and was strongly tempted to dig it a grave, until the others cut it open and removed its Heart. In front of me. Once we had 13 Hearts, we returned to the Tower of Sorrow. “Very good,” said the people there. They said that they would now perform the ritual to unlock the Sword of Sorrow from its bindings.

    ZOE

    They showed us how to feed these Hearts to the Sword of Sorrow. You see, the Sword of Sorrow was a katana with a sheath, and a large chain attached to its handle. At the end of the chain was a metallic broken heart, and the chain was coiled around the Sword several times so that it could not come unsheathed. The leaders of the tower fed the Sword some Hearts, and gradually the chains loosened. At long last, the chain uncoiled, and began to glow at a regular rhythm like a heartbeat. I touched the Sword, and it responded to my touch. I could feel its sorrow with my own hands.

    The Sword of Sorrow had many powers. Those slashed by it would die. But the sword could also bring the dead back to life. The sheath could create a protective barrier, and the chain could restrain people. I was happy with this weapon, but I feared I would later regret having to use it. Azrael saw the doubt on my face, and gave me a hug to cheer me up. sea??h thё N?vel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.