Verge of Darkness

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  The mist roiled and heaved, pressing against the walls and ceiling of the cavern. The coal-red eyes in its midst enlarged and glowed so fiercely, it turned the billowing, churning mist crimson. Within it, appendages writhed and flailed, some insubstantial, and others thick and bulbous.

  The whole cavern shook as Beleth's anger raged. Jakut and Surgat had failed, and he had felt their trembling essences as they fled back through the portal. All their Bahktak and Suanggi in the human world had been destroyed, and the portal sealed, or perhaps destroyed, for the enticing scent of soul-fire that had previously seeped through had stopped abruptly.

  Then he felt something else. At first, he was unsure what it was, for he hadn't felt the like before. It wasn't soul-fire, but an alien presence – not sentient, but with an odd glow of life attached to it. Surely the humans were not foolish enough to come here...