The cracks in the trunks resemble fanged mouths, and venomous spiders weave thick webs on their tallest branches. The ground beneath his feet was soft and muddy, a stagnant swamp - like a glade abandoned by a little fairy.

Starfire made her way to the entrance to a shadowy clearing, then shook her head back, refusing to move forward, snorting in fear.

"Take it easy, lad," she said. "Fossian's grave is right ahead. Take a few more steps. ”

But no matter how much the horse was appeased, he would not go any further.

"Okay," Lux said. "I'll go on my own. ”

She slid off her horse and walked into the clearing with her cane in hand. The cane's glow was like a lantern swaying in a storm, but it was barely bright enough to see around.

Fossian's tomb is a grassy knoll. In the dim sky, the grass turned black. At the top of the mound is a simple stone mound with stones. Black smoke lingers, and the sky above you is swirling in the shape of various ghosts, and when the time comes, it will take over the world. Black lines like pythons circled around the huge stone slab, which was the same stone slab on which the heroic deeds of Fossian were inscribed.

A little boy, no more than twelve or thirteen years old, sat cross-legged in front of the stone slab, his thin body swaying back and forth as if enchanted. Black smoke poured out of the grave, wrapped around his neck like poison ivy.

"Luca?" said Lux.

The boy's swaying body stopped.

He turned to face Lux, and the boy in front of him made her shudder. He stared at a pair of blank black eyes and grinned cruelly.

"Not anymore. He said.

A giant spider leaps over Galen with its sharp barbed legs, its fat belly full of round eyes and beaks. He slice open its chest and kicked it off the stage, though the spider's body had begun to dissolve.

Galen's steps were heavy, and he suddenly felt a hot chill in the muscles of his shoulder, and a black claw pierced deep into his shoulder guard. The metal of the shoulder pads is not dented or cracked. The claw passed through the shoulder guard without hindrance, and Galen felt a wave of weakness and disgust spread throughout his body. He smelled the stench of the grave soil, the earthy smell of decaying corpses after a hundred years. He relied on the experience he had learned in training to fight the pain.

Rodion made a careless move, and was caught by a hook blade that caught a hole in the defense and hit him in the side. He cried out in pain and lowered his shield.

"Cheer up!" shouted Galen. "Shake off the pain. ”

Rodion mustered his strength, his mistake had taught him a lesson, but the shadow creatures were still rubbing their shoulders and frantically frantically frantically flocking to the dreadnought vanguard warriors.

"They keep coming!" called Valya.

"Then we'll keep fighting!" replied Galen.

Although she just wanted to get out of the smoke-filled void as quickly as possible, Lux moved closer to the boy. His eyes were dark outward, and the nightmares inside waited for the nourishment of human weakness, ready to break through the ground. She felt a cold, cunning intelligence looking at her.

Lukka nodded to her and slowly stood up. Murmuring shadows converged on the periphery of the clearing, and monsters and fears hid at the edge of the field of vision, slowly enveloping Lux.

"You're full of nightmares," he said. "Looks like I'm going to have to rock you in the head and scoop them out. ”

"Luka, it's not you. She said.

"Then you say, who do you think I am?"

"Demons in the grave," said Lux. "I don't think it died with Fossian, not as people think. ”

Lukka smiled, his mouth grinning so big that even the skin at the corners of his mouth was torn. Two streaks of blood trickled down his chin.

"Not dead at all," he said. "It's just sleeping. Healing. Rehabilitation. Get ready. ”

"What are you going to do?" Lux asked, forcing herself to take a step closer.

The boy smacked his lips and held out a finger contemptuously. Lux stopped, unable to take the next step.

"Slow, slow," he said, bending down to pick up a sharp stone. "Let me dig up a nightmare first. ”

"Luka," Lux couldn't move, but she could still speak. "You have to resist it. I know you can do it. There's magic in you. I know, that's why you ran away from home, right? That's why you're here, to the people who have defeated demons. ”

The thing attached to the boy's body burst into laughter, and the grass around him withered and withered in the laughter.

"His tears are like a fountain in the desert," it said as it circled around her, as if searching for a suitable craniotomy spot. "The fountain awakens me and nourishes me. I've been asleep for so long that I've forgotten how sweet mortal pain is. ”

The boy reached out and stroked her cheek. A cold pinprick emanated from his fingertips, spreading fear throughout Lux's body. He removed his hand and took up a puff of black smoke. Her throat tightened, recalling the fear of being drowned in the mud. A teardrop rolled down her cheek.

"I put him to sleep, and his dreams already had many ripe fears that could be formed at once. The boy said. "His magic is insignificant, but in your flesh is a blazing furnace compared to his embers. Although he did not have great practical conveniences, the fear of a child was a hospitable to me who was hungry. Demacia was his fear. It's your fear. ”

Lux felt her magic defeat the creature, the darkness of the clearing oppressing her light to the point of sparks. But even a little spark can spread quickly and eventually become a prairie fire.

"They hated him. Lukka knows. You mortals are always willing to fear what you cannot understand. Too willing to fan the flames and make three tigers create lifelike fears. ”

Lux flexed her fingers hard, and the movement was accompanied by a tingling. But the pain meant she was in control. She used the pain to make the spark in her body burn, isolating it from her fear, and allowing the light of the fire to slowly return to her body.

"Luca, please," she said word by word. "You have to resist. Don't be taken advantage of by it. ”

The boy laughed again. "He can't hear you. Even if you can hear it, you know that his fear is not without reason, that he is afraid that his fellow citizens will reveal the truth. He's the thing people hate the most. Mage. You should know this feeling better than anyone else. ”

The pain spread from Lux's arms to her chest. The boy's dark eyes revealed suspicion, and he felt the gathering of mana.

"I know too well," she said. "But I'm not going to let fear take the lead. ”

(End of chapter)