Abyss's Embrace

Chapter 11: Pride and Discord

Everyone stepped out of the portals, appearing at the same point where they were dragged into the portals earlier. As soon as Nerezza laid eyes on Alora, she ran up to her and jumped into her arms on the verge of tears, almost making Aloras hairpin fall out, it was a gift from Nerezza and very dear to her. "Alora, thank god you're okay, I was incredibly worried about you." Nerezza sobbed while her head was being cradled by Alora. "I was worried about you too Neri, I'm glad you're okay" Alora said with a smile. "But what happened to your coat, its so colorful usually but now its only red, is that blood?" Nerezza asked in a concerned

tone. "Don't worry about it Neri, I promise I'm alright" Alora said in a soft voice, "hey Pyke, I know we just got back but can you clean my coat with your water?" Alora asked the boy. "Sure, give me just a second" Pyke replied, happy to help. After a good washing, the cloak was back to its old glory, looking as colorful as ever. "Ignis, what the hell was that whole 'princess Ignis of the silver castle' thing?" Jaxith asked in a serious tone. "Its none of your business, get off my back" Ignis scoffed. "Of course its my business, you're endangering all of us by keeping this from us, that jester was clearly stronger than anything else we fought up until this point and if he returns stronger, we're doomed." Jaxith started to raise his voice. "First of all, I killed him, he's not coming back. Second of all, it was your choice to ask me to travel with you, when you asked that, you accepted the risks of that." Ignis replied to Jaxiths statement. "How do you know you killed him? Have you seen his corpse?" Jaxith asked Ignis in a yelling tone. "Well... no but-" "See, how do you know he is dead? Also, when we asked you to travel with us, we did not say we were okay with being bounty hunted by a jester that can shove us into different dimensions, are you insane?" Jaxith yelled out. "I'm not going to say it again, my past is none of your business, stay out of it." Ignis said in a threatening tone. "Okay fine, if that's what you want then you can no longer travel with us, we can't afford to have someone with us that's apparently being bounty hunted. Go. NOW!" Jaxith screamed, "fine, but you won't survive long without me, I'm stronger than all of you and if you go deeper without me, you'll end up dead for sure!" Ignis yelled out at the whole group. "Oh, you wanna bet on the fact that you're the strongest?" Nerezza said while forming a huge scythe that looked like it was made from a nightmare itself. "Nerezza, don't, its not worth it." Alora said to her girlfriend while putting a hand on her shoulder. "No, this is worth it, stop trying to control me, Alora." Nerezza said while brushing Aloras hand of her shoulder. "I'm not trying to control you but I know you better than anyone and I know that when you take out the scythe, someone ends up dead and I'm not letting that happen." Alora yelled at Nerezza. "Fine, I won't try to kill her" Nerezza said in an annoyed tone, "you're free to leave alive Ignis, but if we cross paths again, I won't hesitate to make your pride your downfall." "You cannot be serious, leaving me behind because I have a past I don't wanna talk about? You are insane. I'm better off without all of you anyways. Fuck you Jaxith for making me think I finally found a decent person down here, turns out you're just like them all." Ignis said to Jaxith in an aggressive voice. "Whatever, I have no reason to continue this conversation. Let's head deeper guys." Jaxith said, "oh and Ignis, if you follow us, we wont hesitate to kill you" he continued, then turned around and left, along with the rest of the group.

Ignis headed down a different path, through a crystal cavern, it was filled with crystals of all colors and incredibly beautiful. Suddenly, Ignis heard a strange sound nearby, she recognized it immediately, it was the sound of the jesters portal opening. Ignis looked around for it and managed to locate the portal just as the jester stepped out of it, this time, without his mask. Immediately when she saw him, Ignis tried to get close to him, but as soon as she was next to him, the jester shot a fireball right into her chest. Sending her flying into the wall of the cavern. "So Jaxith was correct, you aren't dead" Ignis said in a strained voice, she was seriously hurt. "You only realized that now? You're even stupider than I thought. But regardless, you're coming with me." The jester said in a belittling tone. "And what if I don't?" Ignis asked provokingly. "I will kill you on the spot, if you come with me you can revenge on those morons that abandoned you." The jester said while stretching out his hand, his blood red eyes glistening like rubies. "Okay then, if you're saying I can show them that I really am the strongest among them, I'm with you" Ignis replied while grabbing onto the jesters hand. "Excellent, now follow me, I'm going to take you under my wing." The jester said while stepping through a portal along with Ignis.