Ankou and the Shadow World, part 2

Chapter 9. Harbingers

For months Ankou studied Fianna’s altered magic, and with each day he became more convinced: the distortion’s cause lay within himself. The piece of his soul he had given for her return was damaged. But how exactly?

He turned his search inward. Probing his own body and soul, Ankou looked for the slightest deviation or trace of alien interference. Suddenly he noticed a tiny quiver in his chest — a minuscule knot of darkness radiating demonic aura. Along with the pulse came a forgotten memory: Gludin, the three demons, and their parting spell striking his chest. The event had been erased from memory, yet the curse had lain hidden for years. Ankou suspected that this farewell gift from the demons had poisoned him all his life, suppressing human feeling and leaving him only one drive — to resurrect his mentor. Perhaps it had been steering his thoughts all along.

The realization that someone had dared to lay claim to his will burned hotter than any fire. Ankou would not be anyone’s plaything. He was the lord of the dead. And if the demons had dared touch his soul, he would find them and crush them.

Thus his hunt began. He learned their names: Lybe — the demon of disease, Tilfo — the demon of discord, Turen — the demon of misfortune. After Ankou had banished them, they had lost their physical bodies and now dwelled in the realm of shadows, bereft of the strength to return to the real world.

Under normal circumstances, the souls of the living could not enter the shadow realm. An ancient manuscript suggested a solution: in dark times, when wars and disasters scour the living world, mortals’ despair thins the barrier between worlds, allowing demons to break out of the shadows and sow yet more chaos. Reflecting on this, Ankou concluded: if demons could pass into reality through a thinned fabric of the world, then one could pass through it into the realm of shadows as well. Only one thing remained — to become the source of the woes that would erase the boundary.

What had happened to Fianna’s magic played into his plans. But the scope of his design demanded more, and Ankou decided to resurrect all his mentors. He had already given up love and compassion for Fianna’s sake, so the suffering of those dear to him no longer mattered. One by one his friends returned to life, each costing him a piece of his soul. Compassion, morality, trust, hope — he gave them all up, and with each ritual his humanity died a little more. He himself grew ever more like the demons he meant to confront.

Aware that the road ahead would be long and perilous, Ankou ensured his own safety and the preservation of his designs. He mastered a secret art and turned not only himself but all his mentors into liches. Their souls were sealed in phylacteries — vessels that held their essence — then transferred into crafted bodies. The destruction of a body no longer meant death: the souls would return to their vessels, take on flesh again, and continue to exist.

Ankou’s former mentors had been powerful warriors with wills of their own. They might have risen against his plans, and that was unacceptable. In remaking them as liches, Ankou stripped them of their personal desires. Their former selves dissolved into the dark, and from then on each became merely a harbinger, carrying out his will.

When all was ready, Ankou sent his harbingers into human settlements — to bear pain, suffering, and ruin so that human despair would grow until the chance came to avenge himself on the impudent demons. The continent trembled beneath their steps. People died, towns emptied, despair spread through the living world like poisonous fog. Adventurers and warriors tried to stop them, but the liches rose again and again. People whispered of the world’s end, but it was only the beginning.

When the world had filled with war, famine, and death, Ankou felt reality shiver — the veil between worlds had thinned, opening a way. The moment had come: he would go to the realm of shadows and prove that no one could toy with his soul.

Chapter 10. The Realm of Shadows

Only a special ritual could grant passage to the shadow realm. Ankou’s phylactery, hidden in a cache in the material world, was the only bridge for his soul’s return. Losing that vessel would mean eternal imprisonment. The risk was great, but the necromancer did not waver.

As soon as the ritual ended, sound, light, and scent dissolved into a half-light, and Ankou found himself beyond the edge of reality. The shadow realm mirrored the world of the living, but its muted colors and uncanny silence made it feel unreal.

Lybe fell first, the one responsible for his parents’ deaths. Learning of this, Tilfo sent his minions to find and steal Ankou’s phylactery, hide it in the shadows, and destroy themselves so that no one could ever recover the vessel holding the necromancer’s soul.

One by one, Ankou found the demons and fought them. Each battle was a storm of ruin and wrath, but the necromancer proved stronger. Soon all three were bent to his will, and Ankou forced them to tell him everything: why Lybe had brought the plague to the village and why the three of them had killed his mentors.

The demons confessed: they had learned by chance of Estel’s amplifying ability and sought to seize him to grow stronger through him. They meant to break his spirit and bend him to their will. But they had underestimated him — the loss of everyone he loved had only tempered his soul. Their curse did not break him; it merely inclined his thoughts toward a dark path. And now that path was his.

When Ankou tried to return to the real world, he realized he could not cross the boundary. Tilfo laughed and revealed his treachery. Though the demon was under Ankou’s power, it did not stop him from hating the necromancer. He had taken his revenge on Ankou for imprisoning them in the realm of shadows.

Only one path remained — to find the phylactery to regain the ability to return to reality. In time Ankou discovered he could step into reality only when his harbingers created the proper conditions — and even then, only so long as his body remained intact. Failing to locate the vessel, he established himself in the shadow realm, and the demons he had subdued now guarded the necromancer’s domain.

Epilogue

Have you heard of a place called Pailaka? Researchers began discovering them after the opening of Kamaloka. It appears in areas touched by chaos. Where dangerous magical experiments were performed, where many lives were lost, or where Kamaloka’s energy once surged. Scholars describe Pailakas as windows into another world, as if they were rooms glimpsed through a pane of glass.

The Sky Library Guild continues to study Kamaloka’s energy, hoping to open a path to Ankou’s grim lair beyond reality. Their aim is to assess the true level of danger posed by the necromancer and his liches — and, if fortune smiles, to find Ankou’s phylactery and rid the world of his threat forever.