[Eden]
Everyone in the room looked towards the source of the command that disrupted them. As soon as they realized who it was, they quickly ceased with the accusations.
“This isn’t the time or place to argue. Everyone, hurry up and make your way to the exit.” Prince Alex spoke up, making his presence loudly known.
“But, Your Highness—”
“Save the details for later! There’s danger approaching us, and unless you lot want to die here, you better start running!” Prince Allen didn’t allow Pyke to finish his defense. With a look of discontent, he rounded up the remaining survivors and continued their escape.
My feet were still frozen in place. Knowing what you’d done was wrong always left a certain bitter feeling, and it wouldn’t go away without paying for your mistakes. Having been left scot-free, I still wasn’t able to shake away these feelings of guilt. Returning to the surface along with the others was just something that I couldn’t do.
“You. Stay right there.” The younger prince made his way to me, commanding me to ensure that I didn’t leave. Not that I had any intention to. He had his right hand ready on the hilt of his sword, showing his caution towards the dangers that I harbored.
I looked at the prince straight in his face as he approached me. I should’ve addressed his royalty, but I didn’t. Was there any point? I would be punished as soon as we returned to the surface anyways, and the man whose life I took wouldn’t return.
Surprisingly enough, the first thing that the prince did was take the stone that I had dropped to the ground. While giving it an inspection, the prince finally broke the awkward silence within the room. “Was it this stone that gave you that magic?”
“Yes, Your Highness.” From the blandness of my voice, it was clear that there wasn’t any respect in my words, but rather mere answers to his question. However, the prince didn’t address this, and rather was more intrigued with the stone.
“Give me your name.” He seemed slightly interested in me now, but still hadn’t lost his gaze to the stone. Granted that the stone was the source of my mystical powers, it was only natural for him.
“It’s Eden, Your Highness.”
“Eden. I saw what you did back there. You know there will be consequences, don't you?”
I’d determined my decision. “I do not plan on running away from them.”
Finally, the prince looked me straight in the eye. “Come with me. I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself.” With absolute confidence, the prince commanded me. His confidence made me wonder, had he known what my answer would be all along?
I gazed into the stone that had given me my malicious powers, and it felt like it gazed back at me. ‘Take me. Bring forth my powers. Anything. Can. Be. Yours.’ Whispers of greed manifested themselves in my head. Perhaps I had gone delusional. Drops of sweat started forming on my skin.
I can’t let that happen aga-
“This isn’t an invitation, but your retribution. You owe this to yourself.” He gave me an extra push, with that all-seeing eyes of his. He could tell that I had guilt riddled inside my heart—one that he was willing to manipulate.
“I… can’t control that thing. I’ll end up injuring you, and everyone else.”
With that statement, a smirk, so tiny it was barely noticeable, formed on the prince’s lips. Was he waiting for me to say that?
“Who said you needed to control it?”
“Alex! What are you planning? We need to get out of here, quick!” Prince Allen, the only one left in the room aside from us, butted in our conversation.
“Save your own ass, dear brother. I’m going back in there with this guy.” Annoyed, the younger brother snapped back.
“And what good would that do?! If you don’t make it out alive from this trip, Father’s going to kill me, y’know?! Scrap whatever plan you have, let’s just get out of here!” He was visibly frustrated at the nuisance his younger brother created.
Without a single hint of hesitation, the younger brother declared his ambition. “If I do die, then tell him that I died trying.”
The older prince shook his head in exasperation, but he did not pursue his case any further and started heading for the exit himself. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he was thinking something along the lines of ‘I better not be blamed if anything goes wrong’.
“What are you waiting for?” My head turned around at once, facing the dignified prince who called out to me. Was it his charisma? His utmost confidence in himself? When was it that I had decided to offer my assistance, and why was it that I even decided so in the first place?
“We haven’t got all day. There are people waiting for your help.”
Whatever the reason was, I could feel the two of us getting along.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The voices of our rapid footsteps echoed through the dark, lonesome tunnels, solely illuminated by the single torch in our possession. In just a few more minutes, we would arrive at the fifth section.
The prince had filled me in with the current situation of the raid group. With a quarter of them escaping from their ‘demise’, the entire formation had fallen apart quickly. In the best case scenario, around a third of the remaining group would still be surviving, which was approximately only 8 people.
Then there were the monsters that caused the catastrophe in the first place. The prince had only told me that they were powerful beings from the war 2000 years ago, but it wasn’t anywhere descriptive enough for me to have a solid idea of what they were. Nevertheless, I knew not to make light of the enemies ahead of us. The fact that three of them could demolish an elite group of raiders was in itself warning enough.
The few drops of sweat that accumulated from our running. The slightly elevated heartbeats. The blood rushing through my veins. This feeling… It’s new to me. Was I scared? Excited? Perhaps somewhere in between? I didn’t have the answer at this point, but it didn’t matter. At the end of the day, I had decided to fight.
Finally, the tunnel that seemed to go on forever showed us the long-anticipated exit. As soon as we stepped into the fifth section, the bloody remains of a battlefield sprawled across the entire room. No, a massacre would be a more appropriate description.
The three raiders that remained standing had lost all hope, shaking throughout their whole body in fear of the overpowering enemy. The dozens of bodies scattered across the room only served to strengthen the idea of an imminent doom in their minds. The only thing they could do was stand in horror as the towering knights in black approached them.
So those things are Vahlias?!
“The rune! Now!”
That was the sign for me to get into action. Take a deep breath, you’ve got this. Don’t let it take over you.
I took the runestone out of my waist-bag and clutched it as tight as I could with my left hand. As soon as I did so, the markings similar to the runes etched onto the stone began spreading up my arm. Subsequently, the insidious whispers began to surface. Burn. Burn them all! Bring the entire place to hell! Destroy all in your path!
I closed my eyes. Within the sea of murderous instincts, I singled out the one pure thought that belonged to me. Remember what you came here to do.
Finding the one single voice of reason was all I needed. By focusing all my attention into it, the sinister whispers slowly disappeared. Finally opening my eyes, I realized that the markings on my left arm were slowly dissipating along with the whispers.
The time it took for me to control my emotions felt like an eternity, but as it turned out, it was barely a second. I was immediately greeted by the sight of a Vahlia, arms and axe ready to swing on the poor hopeless raider.
Now, let the show begin. Let there be flames.
It began with a few flickers of fire, followed by a massive growth of the body of fire. I rushed in before the hit could land on the raider, all while the fire spirit was still developing its body. As luck would have it, the fire spirit manifested its two arms just in time to beam down fire on the jet-black knight.
The fire spirit, albeit having a completed form, was still growing in size until it reached the same size as prior—all the while flaming down a continuous beam of fire on the aggressing Vahlia. The raider, barely avoiding his cruel fate, came to the conclusion that this was no longer his fight and made a run for his life. Likewise, the two other raiders who spotted us followed suit as the other Vahlias noticed the elephant in the room.
Now, it was just me and the Vahlias. However, this didn’t seem to be playing out as one-sided as the fight against the queen crawler.
I willed the fire spirit attached to my left arm to stop firing, and so did it. Just as I expected, the Vahlia survived the intense barrage of fire that had enough firepower to burn the queen crawler alive. Still, it didn’t come out of the attack unharmed either as parts of its armor showed signs of being molten.
Through those holes, I could finally see the insides of the armor and what the Vahlia truly looked like, only to see nothing but darkness. The armor was empty.
How’s that thing alive?No—what is it in the first place? My brain couldn’t come up with an answer. Almost immediately, the holes started to patch itself up, materializing black iron on the sites of torching until its entire body had been repaired. This, without a doubt, was regeneration.
Do I burn it to nothingness? How long would that even take? What do I do with the other two? No matter what I tried to come up with, the solution didn’t seem definitive. The most reasonable course of action was only one thing: to continue blasting the hell out of it.
I held out my right arm forwards and commanded the fire spirit to resume its streak of flames aimed at the previously-injured Vahlia. Synchronously, the three gigants approached me at a rapid pace, all their intents showing one single purpose: to eliminate me.
Stronger. Hotter. More firepower! I focused on trying to intensify the beam of fire shot. The outcome matched that of what I was expecting, although I felt my stamina draining out of my body. Still, unless I could completely melt it, there didn’t seem to be a way out of the predicament of regenerating enemies.
As the three Vahlias closed the distance between us, I had to begin positioning myself away from the dangers that were headed for my life. The endless beam of fire significantly slowed down the Vahlia closest to me, to the point where another Vahlia overtook its position in the ‘race’. With that, I had to switch targets to the Vahlia approaching me from the left. As I did so, the Vahlia which I had concentrated all my might on revealed a large, gaping hole on the center of its body.
The hole began repairing itself as soon as the fire no longer kept it from doing so, but that wasn’t the thing grabbing my attention. No, it was the small orb floating inside it, coaxed in a black mist similar to that coating the Vahlia’s armor.
“THE CORE! DESTROY IT!”
It was a voice I knew. Raynhert.
Instinctively, I turned my head around to find the owner of the sound. As soon as I spotted him, I had to hold myself back from vomiting.
He was lying at the other end of the room, on a pool of crimson on the ground that surrounded his body… or what’s left of it. A single clean cut on his lower abdomen revealed his inner organs, which presumably was the cause of the spilled blood.
The mighty Raynhert. A name known throughout the country as the strongest raider in all of Magnolia, lying in complete defeat against the enemy we were up against. What could have caused such a disaster? Were these monsters that strong?
Stop. There’s no time to think about that. With the fast-approaching Vahlias, I had to find a way to defeat them. Except, I didn’t have to. The core. The orb surrounded with darkness within the Vahlias. That was it.
I willed the fire spirit to shoot out a fireball at the exposed orb. That should be it, right? Of course, it wasn’t that simple. The orb remained unscathed after taking the full blow of the fireball. My fires proved ineffective against the orb, but something had to be done before the armor fully regenerated and covered the orb again. Was there no other way? Was I bound to fail?
“Celeste, thunderslash!”
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