Elena’s descent, down into the caverns of the Doomrigger’s Mine…

The path ahead was winding and narrow enough to push a single cart through. There were many torches lighting the way as I made my way down. They’d been recently lit, and the smoke reeked of freshly applied animal fat set aflame.

The walls and rocks had been stripped clean of ore, at least for the lower levels. There were no cultists of the Demon King, nor any monsters in my way. Whatever dwelled down here, be they goblins or giant spiders or whatever dwells under the earth, had already been cleared out by the Black Legion a long time ago to set up this operation.

There was not much left to speak of, my Lady. The Black Legion probably realised this long before I ever did, seems like, and their answer was to dig deeper. Further down into the earth, if the path ahead of me would suggest what they were thinking. The abundance of ore veins that I can spot as I descend into the lower levels, even with my untrained eye, suggests this.

But then, the growing eldritch presence isn’t a good omen. I suppose that I’m walking now, upon the same path that so-called Demon King once did. Right into the heart of the dark forces that seduced him, driven him mad to rebel against his Lord General. The torches down here have been snuffed out, and the fire that my sigil brings forth illuminates the sight of mortal bones strewn across the floor, left abandoned by the flies and maggots.

Very welcoming, I know. Still, I can’t help but wonder this, my Lady – did these mortal souls find peace in the Veil? I don’t fear another death, nor will it ever be my place to ever do so, but Claire once confided in me of her fear of dying in an evil place, far beyond the touch of Elicia’s grace. Like the mansion of Izoria Vhal, or this damned place. Because, you know, her soul wouldn’t be safe in places like these. Wouldn’t go to the Veil, or whatever promises of an afterlife paradise that the Central Church peddles in the Codex Elicia, to all of Arcadia.

Maybe she’s right, though? Evil’s strange like that. Even I can’t be too sure. I still remember pretty well, what that sick dragon bastard had in mind for Anna’s soul, were his ritual to succeed. Personally, I’m just glad that I never have to worry about this for myself.

But I digress. As for what happens next, my Lady, I can only best describe it as surreal. Bear with me for this, won’t you? Because suddenly, it’s like I’m no longer treading through darkness and bones, but instead, on the surface upon what looks and feels like verdant grass upon my feet. My surroundings, now a forest of flowers and trees with colours that run momentarily like watercolours on canvas, only to settle down into normalcy as I refocus myself.

There’s a slight drizzle in the air. The sky is visible again, bathed in shades of what looks like of dusk and dawn. Twilight, no, eternal twilight. It’s crazy, maybe. But I know of this place in the realm of Chaos, my Lady, and I’m sure that you do as well.

It’s the Realm of Eternal Twilight, as depicted in the annals of the Akashic Records. In that moment, though, I didn’t have much time to make sense of surroundings, before I saw him standing before me, my Lady – my brother, Grinnaux de L’Enfer. He was well aware of my presence in this realm beyond Melodia, and he smiled at me.

“Elena.”

Looking back, as I prepare this report for you, my Lady, I still don’t know what came over me. Maybe it was some sense of forlorn longing, or just plain old guilt. His voice and his smile were exactly as I knew them to be like, so fond and warm and sharp. I thought it to be over in Eldia, at the Cathedral that was once my ancestral home. But I suppose, that some things just stay with you forever. Literally, in my case.

Whatever. I’ll write it as it is. That’s my oath to you. And because either way, I stepped forward. Towards him, and all that I had lost for this power of mine.

“Brother…” I uttered, unsure of what to make of this. “What’re you…”

He shook his head at me, and smiled some more.

“I’m glad that you finally found your way here, after so long.”

“Have I…?”

“Yeah. We can finally be together, silly girl…”

I was within arm’s reach of him, my Lady. I wanted to embrace him, and I’ll say it here plainly, my Lady – I had taken all leave of my senses. I wanted to stay here and forget about Claire, forget about you, forget about my duties, my penance, and everything else.

“Praise Amon, truly…”

But then, he said that. Error, perhaps? Who knows. It snapped me out of my reverie, right out of my delusions for some kind of reunion and happy ending for myself. I suppose, in reflection, that some things are simply too good to be true. That, and it reminded me of my conversation with up on the actual surface with that madman, the Demon King.

“Nice try,” I stated, curtly. “Daemonlord.”

“Ah. For shame. Pray, did I get that minor detail wrong?”

“Looks like you did.”

The Daemonlord laughed, and she shed my brother’s image from herself, like he was some kind of robe. Her true form was tall and beautiful, white skin and platinum hair that felt so smooth to stare at, and lips red with the colour of blood. A bit like Elicia, but a complete whole.

“Mortals can be so easy to enrapture. If only the children of Amon were as susceptible.”

It’s Aria, my Lady. Elicia’s enemy, from the realm of Chaos. Heritor of the Corruption and the Realm of Eternal Twilight, and patron of the Hellbringer. I know of her involvement in the events of Wintervale, and I know that she has done something awful to Alyssa de Aintree. That’s what I gathered from Father Edwards’s notes. And I’m not too pleased about that and this little bit of smoke and mirrors, to say the least of it.

“It is a shame, puny Lich,” Aria adds, her words dripping with bemusement and venom. “You would have done well serving me, instead of a lesser Hellbourne.”

“Doubt it.”

“But know this, child of Amon.”

“Oh?”

“Your mind is exposed to me…” Aria answered, as her eyes flashed greedily with malice. “Claire de la Lune, is it? Your interest in this defiled whore of a human turned Vampire, is most intriguing…”

I didn’t say anything to that, my Lady. Instinctively, almost like a reflex, I conjured forth a fiery blade with my sigil and slashed her. The Daemonlord, no, merely her image, shattered before me like a pile of glass, her twisted laughter echoing upon the falling shards as reality sets in once again, bringing me back to the darkness of the mines.

It's gone for good now, the eldritch presence in here, once so potent upon my senses. Quietly, I stared dead ahead of me, at what had enraptured my senses for the briefest of moments. Nothing but glass shards and bones remained of what had once been a mirror into the Land of Eternal Twilight, figuratively speaking, that had seduced the hearts and minds of mortals, driving them to madness.