They all ran until they saw a giant structure that could only be the ziggurat.
"Wait" Scnalan called when he noticed what was in front of them
"Uh, Scanlan?" Grog asked
The bard gnome gasped in realization remembering all the details. 'We should focus on this book...it's some kind of fucked up diary'
'These symbols show the sky at a specific time and date'
'I think it's a ziggurat'
"It wasn't a spell book. It was an instrunction manual" Scanlan said and looked at his friends, "The drawings, the symbols, it had to do with the name. Uh, the wha...what was it?"
"The Whispered One" Miel said
"Yeah! That!"
"The Whispered One?" Pike repeated in question
"You've heard that name?" Vex asked
"Once. From an elder of the Everlight. They said he's some sort of undead creature whose soul seeks the power to return to our plane." Pike explained
Miel sighed, "he's a banished god that was involved in a battle between Prime and Betrayers" she explained, earning confused looks from the group
"I get the book, the maps but what's with the star chart?" Scanlan wondered
"It's the solstice, when the barrier between the planes is the thinnest" Keyleth realized
"Oh, sure, sure, the planes. Yeah, yeah, what's that mean?"
"If The Whispered One wants to cross over, now is the perfect time to do it" Miel said, not taking her eyes off the ziggurat in search for either Vax or Cass
"And the Briarwoods must be trying to help him" Pike said
"I don't give a shit what they're doing" Vex said, "I just want my brother back"
"Look, there he is" Miel said and they both saw him at the edge of the stairs before walking towards the Briarwoods.
"Vax"
"Okay, I'll take Vax. Piece of cake" Grog said
"Grog, I want my boyfriend back alive" Miel narrowed her eyes at him
"Oh uh, the I got Cassandra"
"No. She will answer to me" Percy said cocking his gun
"Oh...I never get to play" Grog whinned
"Buddies, we still need somebody to handle Sylas. Any suggestions?" Pike told him
"Um, I don't know, maybe Ripely?" he said, "Doesn't really matter what happens to her" he laughed
"Grog, we need your mighty strength against him" Miel chuckled gently
"Ooh...Goody" he smiled
"Well, that's settled then" Vex said, "Grog's got Sylas, Percy's got Cassandra, Pike's got Delilah, while me and Miel got Vax"
Miel's eyes widened and she looked at Vex, "What?" she whispered shouted, "you two always beat me up!"
"we know him best, which means we know his way of fighting" Vex explained, "Don't worry, I'll hold him down and you try to get him out of his trance" she pointed at her bracelet, "he told me about it, so you should be fine"
Miel looked at her wrist. Pike healed her burns from the lightning earlier, but her wrist was still red from the heat of the bracelet when she helped Scanlan keep them above the acid. 'He did say, if I absolutely needed to use it' she thought and let out a sigh, "I'll try, but this thing is about to burn my wrist off. I think it might burst from all the magic I've been using"
"Then so be it" Vex said and she started moving, "Let's move" Without another word, Vex jogged over to the side of the Ziggurat stairway. She then signaled for the rest to move. Grog, Pike and Scanlan went up the stairs while Vex and Miel walked behind them. They all ran up while Keyleth, Percy and Ripely stayed at the bottom of the stairs.
They climbed the steps as slow as they could so that the Briarwoods don't see them. Stairs are not exactly great for hiding when you're heading straight for the enemy. As they walked, Miel's head was racing trying to think of all sorts of spells she could use to help Vax, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't think of anything. She's about to fight her boyfriend with his sister, a vampire and his dark mage wife, and she can't even think of a plan on how to do it.
"Sylas!!" Miel jumped when she heard Percy suddenly yell out as he stormed up the stairs. "We have debts to settle"
"I kind of assumed we were gonna sneak up on them, but okay" Scanlan said as they watched Percy reveal themselves. They ran out behind Percy, Vax ready to block them.
"Vax please" Miel said
"Come on, brother" Vex said
"All right, look" Scanlan called, "you might as well surrender. You're outnumbered, and there's nowhere to run"
Delilah shrieked as she showed off her power to them, not intimidated at all, "who's running?"
"You had to say something" Miel muttered, glaring at Scanlan
Delilah shot out a giant wave of black magic right down the middle of the stairs. Everyone jumped to the sides to avoid it, but Grog tried to block it with his axe. Only to be knocked back to the bottom of the stairs. Percy ran back up, avoiding Vax's blade and before the rogue could run after him a grey barrier appeared in front of him, blocking the way up.
"Go, Percy!" Miel yelled.
Vax turned to look at her. Miel's eyes widened when he ran at her but Vex lunged at him, sending both to the side of the stairs. Vax quickly pinned Vex down but she rolled over as she blocked his dagger.
"Vax, it's me" she called out, only to get scratched on her shoulder and avoiding another to the face. She jumped away before Vax could try again. "Not the welcome I hoped for" she said before avoiding Vax's daggers again. She moved away and tried to stay as far from him as possible. The thing about daggers, they're short distance when not thrown.
Vax pulled out two daggers and tribe to stab Vex, only for her to block his arms, "You sure you want to do this, brother?" Vex asked, "Cause we both know you used to lie about letting me win" she said as she pushed him back, only for him to turn and almost swipe at her.
Miel ran over to the edge as she watched the two siblings fight. "How to do this? How to do this?" she panicked a bit. "okay, okay, okay, Sylas is controlling Vax...maybe a counter controlling spell?" she wondered. Sure it wasn't the best idea, but she was worried that if she did manage to get Vax out of his mind control, he'll just be able to do it again. Miel groaned as she held out her hand, "this is the worst fucking plan" she said and concentrated her magic over to Vax.
As Vex kept her brother busy, she took a quick glance over to Miel and saw eyes glow grey as she held her hand out towards Vax. She then saw the gold light flicker bit between gold and silver. Vax groaned and held his head before turning to look for the other source of mind control. "uh-oh" Vex muttered when he looked straight at Miel.
As her glow faded, Miel flinched when Vax started running full speed at her. When he was in front of her, she managed to bring up a barrier in time as he tried to stab her. Vax growled and ran around to be behind her. He kicked her side, sending her flying to the side.
"Miel!" Vex yelled as she ran up to catch up to her brother
The warlock quickly stood up and summoned her own blades. There's no way she'd be able to beat Vax, but there was no way she wasn't gonna defend herself. As his blades came down she brought hers up to block the blade. Sparks flew off the daggers as she blocked his and swiped his arm to the side, away from her. She turned and brought her leg up to kick him, but he brought is arm up in a block and wrapped his arm around her lower leg. He brought his dagger up to stab her leg. But Vex managed to ram into him, pushing him away from Miel.
"Miel! Hurry and do something!" Vex yelled as she tried to get Vax as far away from Miel as possible.
Miel groaned as she watched them go back and forth. "Why do you know me so well?" she grunted as she used her bow to pin his arm behind his back and pushed him away before kicking him in the face and sending him flying back. "Snap out of it you fuck! It's me!"
"I know" Vax said and brought out his dagger, managing to cut Vex's cheek.
"Please tell me you're still in there"
"Come on, Miel, think!" she grunted as she hit her head. She clenched her jaw as the jewel on her bracelet glowed. "Goddamn it!" she raised her hands and vines grew around Vax, wrapping around him to stop him from stabbing Vex. 'I can't think because I don't want to hurt him' she thought, 'try again.' Miel held her hands out and her eyes glowed grey as she tried again to push Sylas' mind control out of Vax.
Vax struggled to get out of the vines when he suddenly stopped. His eyes were shifting between gold and pink. He was frozen for a minute before his eyes stayed gold and he started to slash at the vines. 'Maybe closer?' Miel thought as she jumped down and ran up to him.
"Miel wait!"
She stopped in front of him and placed her hands hovering around his head. Her bracelet lit up as her eyes and his glowed pink. 'I'm so close. I can feel it' she thought as she grunted to stay concentrated with the bracelet burning her wrist. Vax's eyes were flickering back to gold. 'Just a bit more!' Right as she thought that Vax broke through the vines and grabbed the collar of her shirt. Miel gasped as the light went out and he swung her over his shoulder, throwing her behind him.
"Miel!"
Before Miel could get up, Vax came up to her. He stomped on her left wrist, breaking the jewel, and then using his dagger to stab her right hand clean through the palm. She shrieked in pain, and she swore she heard a snapping noise from her left wrist. Vax summoned his other dagger and was about to stab her again, when Vex ram herself into him again.
"Trust me, you'll regret that for the rest of your life" Vex said and ran after him.
Miel brought her left arm close to her chest but could not mover her right because Vax's dagger was still pinned to the ground. She looked over to the twins and saw Vax about to summons the dagger he used on her. Her eyes widened as she quickly looked at her right hand and created a barrier around it, strengthening the field and keeping the dagger trapped. When nothing came to his hand, Vax looked back to Miel and ran back to her.
"No, Vax!" Vex yelled as she ran after him
Vax glared down at her as he reached down and grabbed her by her hair.
"Vax, stop!" she cried
"release it" he demanded and grabbed her left wrist, getting a pained yell out of her but she didn't release the barrier. At this, he got both daggers and stabbed her upper arms. Miel let out another yell. When she still didn't let go, he twisted the daggers making Miel scream.
Vex used her bow to hit him on the head. Vax growled and ran for the female twin.
"Keyleth, do something" Vex called out
"I can't" Keyleth weakly said as she tried to stand up from the harsh throw that Sylas did.
"Please!" Vex pleaded as a dagger was thrown and it hit her shoulder while she was calling to Keyleth. Vax ran around Vex and grabbed her arm while summoning the dagger he threw at her shoulder but Vex blocked it.
"Vex!" Miel called and the female twin looked at her, "I think you might have to stop holding back" she cried as tears rolled down her cheeks. They didn't want to hurt Vax, he was just being mind control, but he was being serious, so they might have to be as well.
"I think you're right" Vex grunted as Vax pulled her back to the ground and tried to get a different angle to stab her. Vex punched him back as her own tears were starting to peak out of the corners of her eyes, "Keyleth!"
Miel saw roots moving towards Keyleth as she struggled to stand up. 'The Sun Tree roots!' Miel's eyes widened as she saw Keyleth gain her footing. The roots wrapped around her staff. "Please, help me be the light!" Keyleth said as she raised her staff up high and her staff shined brighter than her ball of fire from before. The light covered the whole ziggurat from where she stood. Miel couldn't help the proud smile from growing as she narrowed her eyes, unable to shield her eyes.
A sudden struggle brought her back to the twins, and she saw Vex had punched Vax off her. She used her bow string to wrap around his wrists and make him drop the dagger. Vex dropped her bow and placed her leg on his hands to keep them there as she started punching him over and over. "Please don't make me do this, brother" she pleaded, her eyes closed as she continued.
"Fuck! Vex is that you-"
Miel gasped when she heard him get interrupted by Vex's punches. "Vex! Stop!" She yelled but she wasn't listening. She grunted as she tried to move her arm to have her palm facing the twins. The movement hurt like hell on her upper arm but Vex wasn't listening.
"Will you stop hitting me?!" Vax yelled and a small barrier appeared, stopping Vex's next punch. Just in time, since she finally heard him. Vex's eyes widened, and she finally looked at him, not seeing that empty look but he was wincing from her punches. She gasped and let her body fall over him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she sobbed.
"Don't ever do that to me again" she cried, "I was ready to kill you just now"
Vax chuckled and brought his hand up to his reddened cheek, "my face believes you" he said and returned her hug, reassuring her he's not being controlled anymore. Miel smiled seeing that Vax was finally out of the mind control. She let out a sigh of relief and let her head fall back.
As they broke the hug, Vex moved off of him to help him sit up. That's when Vax noticed the broken pieces of a jewel a few feet away. He gasped and looked around, "where's Miel?" he asked. Vex pointed to the upper ledge next to them. Vax got up quickly and helped Vex up the step.
"Yay, you're okay" Miel chuckled from her position on the ground when she saw them
Vax hissed when he saw her wounds and ran over to her. "Miel, I'm so sorry" he apologized as he carefully held her.
"Nah, don't worry about it" she said, "you can take your dagger back now" she chuckled as she brought her hand up and the field around it disappeared.
"oh, love" Vax summoned his weapon out her hand, not wanting to touch it and Vex sat next to them. She placed her hand on Miel's head as the warlock released another sigh of relief and smiled at the two.
"Whoo! It worked!" They all heard Grog yell. Everyone turned to where he was, and they all saw Sylas with Grog's axe in his stomach. He then ran at Sylas right as he pulled the axe off and grabbed him from behind, locking his arms around Sylas. "Real men hug!"
"Get off me!" Sylas growled
"Okay Keyleth, hit him!" Grog yelled as he held Sylas up, facing the light. The Ashari glared at Sylas as she released her staff, which was being held in place by the vines, and held her hands out to gather the light that came from her staff and the roots of the Sun Tree. As the light gathered to Keyleth, it shines brighter, hurting Sylas as he was sizzling, and his skin was burning.
Off to the other side, Miel saw that Scanlan managed to block Delilah's spell causing Pike to overpowered her.
Keyleth gathered all the energy into a ball of light. As she held it over her head, she warned Grog, "Grog, I don't want to hit you"
"I can take it!" he said not about to let go of the vampire. Keyleth was about to protest when he yelled, "Just do it!" At that, Keyleth brought in her hands and shot a giant ray of light straight at the two men. Everyone could see Sylas was burning up as they could all hear his wails of pain as well. Once Keyleth stopped, Grog was holding the burned and chard body of Sylas, which then turned to ash in his arms.
Before they could all relax, they heard Delilah's muffled yell through Scanlan's spell, before it broke and a wave of negative energy pulsed off her, sending some of them flying back. Once they all recovered, Miel saw Delilah walk up the steps and she called to Percy.
"Delilah!" Percy took off running after right as Scanlan and Pike floated up next to them
"She's running away!" Pike called
"No. She's doing something much worse" Cassandra corrected
Delilah walked up the steps and locked the door behind her before Percy could make it to her. When everyone made it to him, he was banging on the door, trying to get in. Pike noticed how banged up everyone was and healed them up.
"Here, gather close" she said as all wounds on everyone healed.
"Thanks, love" Vex sighed as Vax let go of Miel so she can stretch her now healed arms.
"Open the door!" everyone grew silent when they heard Percy's strange voice as he banged on the door, "I need to get in there now!"
Grog caught his hand, "Take it easy. She ain't going nowhere" he said
Scanlan walked up to the giant keyhole on the door. "What can you see?" Vex asked
"uh...you wouldn't believe me if I told you" he said rather shakingly, "we gotta unlock this door"
Vax walked up behind him to look at the lock, "I don't suppose anyone has a key?" he asked
"You're the key" Miel smirked as he let out a sigh and brought out his locking picking tools and got to work. Obviously, no one was making it easy for him though.
"Vax, come on. We got to hurry it up it now."
"This ain't working. Just let me hit it"
"Hurry, hurry! Must go faster! Must go faster!"
"What's happening in there?"
"Shut up and let me work!" Vax yelled at them, "Hold your breath if you can't do anything else"
"You can do this. We're right behind you" Miel said placing a hand on his shoulder
"Plus the whole word is at stake, so try not to fuck up" Vex added with a smirk behind Miel
"You always know what I need to hear, Stubby" Vax grunted as the lock clicked
The doors opened and Miel gasped at the feeling of all the negative energy that flowed out of the room. "Move aside!" Percy's demonic voice sounded as he pushed past everyone and ran inside the room. Delilah was in the middle of chant and a portal was opening up above her. "Delilah, stop!" Percy yelled as he fired shots at her, only for her to put up a barrier and sent a blast of her magic at Percy.
"Don't let up!" Vax yelled as they all ran at her, "Give her everything you've got!"
Miel's eyes widened and grabbed Keyleth from running in, "hang on" she said and Delialh pushed everyone who ran in, back to the wall. "Now, Keyleth!" she said as she brought out her vines to grab Delilah's arm. She only looked at the two before breaking the vines and shooting a blast to the two as well. Miel managed to block the attack, but they were still sent flying back.
"Bear witness as I unleash him unto the world!" Delilah announced and continued her chanting
"Shit. We're not gonna stop her!" Pike said
Vex hardened her eyes and ran to a different position behind Delilah. She aimed her arrow and released it. It went straight threw the barrier and into Delilah's back shoulder.
"You!" She glared at Vex, "I'll make you suffer for what you have taken from me!" She yelled and unleashed her magic at Vex.
"No!" Miel gasped when she heard Keyleth. She turned to see that she was no longer next to her, but she was in front of Vex. Keyleth had jumped in front of Vex and took the hit, penetrating her chest.
"Keyleth!!" Miel screamed as she ran to the two. Vex caught Keyleth right before a blast of energy sent them flying back.
"Yes. Reveal yourself!" A figure appeared in front of Delilah before the green lightening suddenly rose up and blinded everyone in the room.
When the light faded away, they all looked towards Delilah and saw some sort of skeletal figure in a robe with its eyes covered. Then it morphed into some spinning sphere.
"No. No. You promised" Delilah cried, "this can't be all there is!" She yelled
Suddenly, two shots were fired at her from behind.
"Why did you do that?" Vex whimpered as she held Keyleth, "Pike, help me!" She called
Pike ran over and checked Keyleth quickly, "she's still alive but barley. I need to do this quickly before-"
Suddenly, as if someone had swung their hand through, Pike vanished from their sight. Everyone gasped as they stared at the golden trail she left behind.
"No. No, no. Please, no" Vex pleaded as she reached for what was left of the trails, "Pike!"
"Pike's gone" Vax called and grabbed her shoulders, "Vex, look at me. Sister, she's gone, and Keyleth will be, too, if we don't do something fast."