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Rubbing her hands down the side seams of her trouser-clad legs, Lindi shifted her weight from side to side on her booted feet. Her tunic – loose and allowing a breeze to flutter its way in and keep her cool – felt foreign wrapped around her torso.

She’d been wearing robes for so long, she’d almost forgotten what it felt like to wear these. In fact, she’d struggled to find where she’d tucked them in her room all those years ago.

Lindi had left Sing Dynasty’s only Anzúli temple a week ago, to her heart’s dismay, and had travelled south. She’d come across one of their other temples in her travels, as they had six main temples on this massive and seemingly unending continent that spanned hundreds of countries.

Each temple was situated close enough to a portal that led to the Elven world to be able to assist humans nearby in surviving the oncoming monsters.

Lindi stood in front of one of those portals with nervousness slipping down her spine. She nibbled on her bottom lip with trepidation that a nightmarish creature would slip from it.

No matter how long she stood in front of it, the centre of it swirling like water and transparent enough for her to see through, nothing came from it. The outer edges of it were yellow and sparking like lightning, giving minor creaks and zaps that reached her ears.

Situated over the very middle of a tiny spring that had a wall of dirt and roots beside it, the portal floated just above the muddy ground.

Tree branches gently swayed above it, while rivets of water trickled between rocks beneath it.

The forest was so thick that only the minutest amount of sunlight shone on it, and Lindi cursed its location for that very reason.

If only it was in a meadow – then perhaps many of the Demons could have scorched to death upon exiting it in the daytime.

Her skin prickled in aversion, her soul – her very being – telling her to run . To flee as far as she could.

A stick snapping in the distance had her gasping and turning incorporeal, so whatever might be hunting her lost her scent.

“Are you sure I have to go in there ?” Even her floating essence seemed to tremble in repulsion and fear, despite that she could no longer sense her increased heart rate or rapid breaths.

“It’s the only way.”

Gosh! Couldn’t he offer some kind of moral support? A little nudge of encouragement would be much appreciated right then. A little ‘I believe in you’ wasn’t asking too much, was it?

Seeing as there was no other way to avoid it, Lindi turned physical and took in a strong, calming breath. She tightened her satchel over her shoulder, kicked her newish boots to make sure they were sturdy, and let out an expire of shaky determination.

Coldness touched her nose as she stepped through the threshold before it spread all over her.

Blinking through the muted light from a flaming torch, Lindi tried her hardest to see better in the swallowing darkness as clangs against the rock wall reverberated all around her and down the tunnel.

Each one sent terror through her heart, yet she continued to bash her handheld drifting pick against the rock.

A clang sounded, along with a crack from the earth, but the rock wouldn’t relent.

The only thing that guided her to what she sought was the faintest blue glow, and she kept her focus on it.

She didn’t dare take her eyes from it, worried if she blinked for too long, she’d lose it and be stuck here even longer.

Another clang rang out, and her lungs clamped up when an answering animalistic whooping answered from beyond. Lindi bashed faster, wishing she had the strength behind her impacts.

“Control your fear, Lindiwe. You only bring them upon you.”

“Don’t be afraid,” she whispered to herself, smacking her pickaxe again. “I’m not afraid.”

She was utterly terrified.

Then again, being however many metres below the ground, deep within the darkness, in a world overrun by Demons... who wouldn’t be fucking afraid? It didn’t matter that she had magic and abilities that she’d honed over the years with the Anzúli.

Instinctually, her body sensed the malevolent presences all around her, crawling in the shadows of the earth like disgusting worms. Her body breathed in their haunting violence, as if it was so thick in the air it tainted the very oxygen.

Even with barriers on either side of her, Lindi was wrought with unease. She also didn’t like how the tunnels were so small, and how the edges of her vision wavered as if the rock around her was closing in on her. She never knew how suffocating being underground could be.

When the animalistic whooping grew closer, she smashed her drifting pick quicker.

“Come on.” Smack. “Come on.” She smacked her pickaxe so hard it bounced off the wall and the recoil threatened to send the other pointed end into her shoulder. “Come on!”

The rock finally relented, just as multiple somethings bashed against the wall of her barrier.

Lindi gasped, held her prize to her chest, and turned incorporeal.

She began to float, and she almost screamed when her sight blackened as the top of her head went through the ceiling.

She waved her arms down, even though the control was all in her mind, and she sank beneath the rocky ceiling once more.

Red eyes, illuminated by the burning rags of oil-soaked cloth on the ground, tilted when the Demon dipped their head curiously at her.

She stared back at their semi-humanoid face, noting their long, pointed ears, and their odd muzzle of lips on a small snout.

They were grossly meshed together with some kind of creature, with little horns no bigger than an inch pointing out from their forehead towards her.

Their arms and legs were digitigrade, like a dog’s limbs, yet their hands and feet were humanoid, which just looked strange.

There were others around it, some more animalistic, but she couldn’t look away from that one. Especially when it opened its mouth, which flared into a triangle as its chin separated.

If she wasn’t a Phantom right then, she may have shuddered.

“You have the mana stone, Lindiwe,” Weldir stated, stirring her from her staring.

Lindiwe looked down to the clump of rock in her hand, as transparent as her, and noticed the sky-blue crystal was no longer glowing. Her gaze drifted to the other bits still shining in the wall.

“Are you sure this is enough?”

She’d hate having to come back here.

Traversing underneath the gigantic trees, foreign grass, and treacherous mountains of Nyl’theria was terrifying. It seemed everywhere she went, there was a clan of Demons, factions of them spread out everywhere.

She’d even passed two clans locked in a cannibalistic battle of blood and flicking gore. This world was more overrun than she could have ever imagined, even with the thousands that had already begun to enter Earth.

Everywhere she’d turned, there’d been a monster in the shadows, just waiting for something to feed on. No wonder the Elvish had pushed them to Earth, as there seemed to be as many Demons as there were trees, which left the entire realm nearly covered in shade.

“I will not be certain until I inspect it myself,” Weldir answered plainly, not giving her an ounce of faith.

Lindi returned to the rock wall and wanted nothing more than to expire with mental exhaustion.

Instead, she sucked her lips into her mouth and bolstered strength and determination from the pit of her very spirit.

She turned physical, ignored how that sent the Demons into a frenzy, and mined another chunk.

Each bashing thump against her barrier made her flinch, but it was the eery scratching of claws against the rock that sent her teeth on edge.

Fearful tears welled in her eyes no matter how much she tried to bite them back, and they trickled down through her dirt-stained face. The taste of salty, wet dirt thickened in her dry mouth as she licked at her shaking lips to remove the evidence.

“Lindiwe,” Weldir rumbled, and she was unsure if it was pity or a demand to control her emotions. Right then, she was so frazzled that it sounded like both.

Her heart was racing so fast that its panicked ba-dumps made her vibrate with stress. Any more of this, and it was sure to give out or explode right in her chest.

“I’m not afraid,” she repeated to herself, wishing it were true. Her tears fell faster.

She needed to learn how to not fear the Demons.

She was alive, but she’d never die. Not truly, not forever. She’d always come back. That should be enough to still her rapidly beating heart, yet...

It was the pain of their teeth and claws that struck across her memories like hot iron.

How many times had she been eaten alive?

How many more times would she have to scream until she faded into dust through her bond with Weldir?

The sound of smacking lips, tearing skin, and crunching bones – her own – still gave her nightmares, no matter that it had been well over a decade since she’d experienced such a thing.

Her hands shook as she swung her pickaxe and lodged the pointed end into the wall to wiggle the unyielding rock. She drew it back once more and hit that same spot, then dug again, and the rock popped forward just enough that she could wedge the point of her axe head behind it.

The relief that washed through her when it came free and landed in her hand was overshadowed when she turned towards the Demons.

There were more, all of them fighting each other to get to the front of the line in this cramped, small tunnel.

They bit, clawed, and struck each other just for a taste of her.

“Please, Weldir,” Lindi cried. “Please take me away from here.”

Within an instant, the swallowing, choking darkness was replaced with one that was quiet, weightless, and pleasant.

She embraced it, and how it meant Weldir had surrounded her.

“You did well,” Weldir stated, his voice stronger and no longer echoing.

Her frantic eyes found him, and she wished the sight of his barely visible form calmed her. His words, although a compliment, did little to soothe her.

Being the literal hands of a demi-god came with challenges, and more than ever, she wished his own could touch the world... and would reach out soothingly, rather than rest unfeeling at his sides.

She wanted to feel protected and safe.

Lindi would never get that with him.