The Battle of Euangelion: Reborn

Chapter 18: Chaos in the Caves

"How long has she been gone?" Phoebus asked, realizing that he had been so focused on climbing and mining, that he had completely lost track of time.

"I don't know," Aurelia had lost track too. They gathered the water container and cups into Aurelia's satchel and each grabbed a dagger out of an uneasy awareness that had filled them. Quickly they began scurrying through the passage where the red waves were still dancing, but something was different. They could no longer hear the chanting, nor could they feel the tremors that vibrated from below.

The noise and tremors had been tremendously unsettling earlier, but somehow having them cease so abruptly was even more disturbing.

There was no Alexis or Rufus at the end of the passage, instead, Aurelia and Phoebus found themselves facing a large opening.

"I have a very bad feeling, Phoebus," her voice was shaking and her eyes were scanning the opening from a distance. Phoebus took her hand and they slowly started walking forward toward the edge.

It took a while for them to try and register what had happened, there was a thick layer of dust that was still covering yet slowly fading over the scene below. The area where the dust layer was at its thickest stretched from some way down the rocky slope they were currently positioned over to the foot of the mountain. Piercing through the dust they could see Stridor's blazing volcanoes, and where the dust began to settle, a mixture of small figures that were unmistakably Turpis and Feroxes.

"Abominations," Aurelia gaped at the terrible sight which would soon become even worse. All of them were moving in the same direction: the foot of their mountain.

"A piece of the mountain must have broken off," Phoebus quickly assessed, "that's probably the trembling that we felt in Sage's Chamber."

"But, Rufus and Alexis wouldn't have -," she stopped in the middle of her hopeful thought when she saw Phoebus' facial expression.

"They couldn't have, they wouldn't have..." she put more distance between her and Phoebus.

He let out an uncomfortable sigh. "We have to go, Al," he said sombrely.

"Without them? Have you completely gone mad?" She protested, "We aren't even sure they're down there," her voice pitched.

"We won't have time to find out either," he tilted his head toward the swarming crowd beneath the mountain.

"No, no." she shook her head. "No! No! No!" she started yelling louder and louder as tears relentlessly poured from her sapphire eyes. Phoebus grabbed her and pulled her away from the opening before placing his hand over her mouth after her screaming began to echo through the cave. Aurelia tried to wrestle free with all her might, sobbing uncontrollably. Phoebus was a lot bigger and stronger than her, but it required a lot of effort to restrain her outburst. Eventually, they were both half-lying half-standing as Aurelia continued her attempts to break free.

"Here you are! What happened? What's wrong with her?" a panting Dominic emerged from the passage. "I couldn't find you in either of the chambers, so I just followed the noise. We really need to leave!" he ordered before looking around the cave as though trying to find something.

"- where's Alexis? Where's Ruf-," he quickly put two and two together after noticing Aurelia's worsened state at the mentioning of their names.

"Al, we need to leave," Phoebus said softly as he tried to calm her by stroking her hair. Her constant budging made this difficult. "We need to leave. If they're still al-," he stopped himself. Whether for Aurelia's sake or his own, he couldn't finish that sentence. "The only way we can help them is if we leave now!"