The Rise of Rulers

17.

With ???
Narrator's pov:
"Good, the gnome's gone" the one with the antlers said, looking up at the captives around him. He smirked as he saw their faces go pale in horror.

"What did you do to her?!" The black haired fairy shouted, running towards the bars of her cage. Her movements made the cage swing dangerously over the void below. Everyone in the room could hear the cage creak.

"Katherine don't!" Gem shouted, swiftly being silenced by a string of dark magic wrapping around her throat.

"Silence. You wouldn't want your friends to suffer more, would you?" Their captor said menacingly.

Gem hastily shook her head, as she was finding it harder and harder to breathe. The dark magic faded and she fell to the ground, gasping for air.

"Now, you all should probably stay quiet. For her sake..." the captor continued, gesturing towards the air beside him.

They could all see Galaxy, who they now knew as the triplets' younger sister, hanging over the void.

The 15 year old girl's body was hanging limp in the chains of darkness. She seemed to be in a frozen state, conscious but unable to show any signs of being awake.

They all fell quiet after that, not wanting to risk the young girl's life for the sake of speaking.

With the others
"What just happened?!" Lizzie said in shock, now noticing that all of them were together in the same room.

"Wh-What just...did I really...I-I..." Ara couldn't bring herself to continue, shaking and crying at the same time.

This was a weird sight for her brothers, since she was usually so composed. Xornoth quickly went to her and pulled his sister into a tight hug, to comfort her.

"What happened after your voices disappeared?" Lizzie asked, the now gentle sound of her voice calming Ara down a bit.

"More importantly, where's Shrub?" Pearl continued, but deep inside she already felt she knew the truth.

"She...she..." Ara started, but she didn't need to say more. The others understood what she was trying to say, but they were all in disbelief.

"You what?! How could you let her stay behind?!" Pearl screamed at the female elf, making her wince a bit.

"Pearl, stop! It's not her fault. Shrub CHOSE to stay behind, Ara didn't force her too" Lizzie yelled back at Pearl, who now realized that she had shouted.

"How do you know?" The fairy asked, angrily fluttering with her wings.

"Because I know both of them better than you ever will. Shrub is stubborn, protective and selfless as hell. Plus, Ara could and would never force someone to sacrifice themselves, trust me" the ocean princess said, now more calmly than before.

"I should know that by now...sorry Ara, I shouldn't have yelled at you like that" Pearl sighed, and gave Ara an apologetic look.

"It's alright, I don't blame you" the elf answered, just happy that her friend wasn't THAT angry with her.

"Well, are we just going to stand around here or what?" Fwhip said, breaking the silence that had formed.

"Right, we need to get...moving!" Scott said, screaming the last part as an armed ghost approached them.

The six of the, started running, trying to get away from the area. In the chaos, a formation had formed with Ara in the front, making way in the dark maze with the help of her night vision with Xornoth and Scott right after her. Fwhip ran after them in a panic, leaving Lizzie and Pearl to fend off the ghosts behind them.

After running for what felt like hours, with more and more ghosts following after them, they reached a dead end. Fwhip charged up an explosion, but right as he was about to fire it, he got frightened by a ghost cackling behind them.

On accident, he fired the explosion, meant to hit the wall, at the ground in front of Lizzie and Pearl. The part axolotl managed to make a water bridge and get across.

However, the vine Pearl tried to swing over the rift with snapped, causing her to fall down towards the darkness below. She desperately started fluttering her wings in an attempt to fly up, but to no avail.

As the hole in the ground closed with their friend in it, they all got dropped down a rift opening below them, and they landed by the third task...

Another chapter, WOOHOO! It's getting easier to write, but a big thanks to my dad for helping me brainstorm. See you next time!