Crave ✔

Chapter 38

       But the panic was growing in Liberius's eyes, and this time it was his breath that began escaping in hyperventilating pants. There are worse things than death. Adie's word rang throughout my mind as I watched the ground just a few lengths away began to shake.

       My own eyes grew as wide as the moon as the earth beneath Adranus's touch moved and slowly turned a hard, corroded black as it crumbled in on itself. Like a sinking sand pit with no foreseeable end.

       Oh my heavens.

       A long, jagged crack rippled through the ground underneath his hand, and broke along the earth's edge until it reached just beneath the seer's feet. Liberius was in near hysterics, his feet tripping against those long robes as he rushed to get away from the breaking ground, but it was no use.

       "You should have foreseen this coming." Adranus's voice sounded around the entire clearing, the dark growl reverberating among the treetops like the eternal being he was. I watched him in awe, watched the power ripple from his hand, watched the way those red eyes darkened like the night sky. It was a beautiful, terrifying sight.

       The jagged break in the earth continued to grow and drop fall away until a hole appeared just beside him. A black, endless pit that seemed to suck all air and life into it depths. I stood safely behind Adranus, away from the sucking winds of the void, but that didn't ease the fear shooting through me.

       "A-Adranus..." My voice was nearly unnoticeable in the ripping wind of the void as he stood slowly back to his bare feet, but the small tilt of his head let me know he had heard. "What-" I didn't know what to say- or do. Did I try to stop this and save the seer's life when he would have so easily taken mine? Or let Adranus's power eat him whole?

       "His time on this plane is over. Do not look if it upsets you." His voice was in my ear, in my mind, as if he were just beside me, bending down so I could listen- though he stood lengths away. It honestly did not surprise me. But he did not turn, or even cast a glance in my direction, and his words had been so cold. But I... I couldn't worry about that now.

        Liberius let out an earthshattering scream, that whirlwind of chaos pulling at his robes as he lunged away from the void. I was shocked, stunned into a frozen state at the easiness Adranus seemed to radiate watching a man slowly be dragged into a lifeless, soul-sucking pit.

       "Do not worry." The God of the Night growled, those red eyes nearly smug as he watched the seer grip helplessly at thin blades of grass. "Arie will be joining you soon enough."

       "Adranus please-" Liberius begged, his eyes so wide they looked close to falling from his skull. But it was too late, that sucking wind had wrapped around his legs tightly and pulled him effortlessly into its dark depths. His ear piercing screams drowned out the sounds of the wind.

       Oh, my, Gods...

       I was nowhere near the voice, but I still stumbled away as the man I had come to fear over all others disappeared. He just- He just disappeared... Adranus stood tall, proud even, right at the edge of the abyss, his red eyes gleaming mercilessly as he gazed down into its depths. The wind never even touched him.

       We both stood silently for a few long moments, watching that endless, earth-shattering void slowly disappear back into solid ground. The earth seemed to reappear and mend itself, that awful corroded black color disappearing back into brown dirt and green grass.

       My eyes were wide in terror, Adranus's narrowed in appeasement. The Underworld. He had conjured a portal to the Underworld. I-I remember watching him bring it before, but never so close.