The dark cavern, which was located at the outskirt of Thais, was no different to the other caverns they had visited before. Cautiously trudging inside, wiping out the nasty creatures -- which turned to be the remains in the last war -- that blocked their way, minding their head from hitting the stalactites, looking at the ground from time to time from tripping over the stalagmites while enjoying the music orchestrated by the water droppings.
"Are we there yet?" asked Lars impatiently.
"Soon," said Te'ijal. "The demonic scent is getting stronger. We must be near."
They were deep in the conversation when Lars stepped onto a stone, which appeared to be sinking afterwards. Rows of tiny holes formed on the wall. Before they could make out what situation they were in, darts of arrows shooting out.
Dameon reacted quickly, "Shield Extora!" The arrows made a huge impact on the shield like bullets firing from all over the place. "Run! I can't hold no longer!" They ran for their dear life until a wall blocked their way.
"It's a dead end! What should we do?!" yelled someone from behind. They could not make out whose voice it was as the arrows hit on the shield made a thunderous booming sound.
"I'll make a path!" Rhen stepped forward. "Trinity Fury!" They entered the room and dashed aside just intime to evade the incoming arrows coming from behind. They held the breath, the arow shower went dead seconds later.
"We're here," said Te'ijal. "The scent here is the strongest."
"I don't see anyone else in here, besides us," said John, scanning the room.
"Let's look around," drawing out his sword, Galahad started inspecting the place, searching for any signs of life form. Apparently someone did live in that room. Remains of the creatures being piled up at a corner. The putrid smell of the rotting carcasses made them barely to swallow back the gastric juice coming from their stomach. A cot, made out of the skin of the creatures that lived within the cave, laid by a fancy-looking chest. From the way the demon put, there must be something so special that it must be protected.
An unfamiliar footsteps echoed behind Rhen as she knelt in front of the chest. She turned around but saw no one. Her friends were busy searching the other parts of the room. She turned back and laid her eyes onto the chest. Attempting to lift the lid open but it won't budge, she examined the box and noticed it did have a keyhole. Rhen rummaged her pocket and took out a magical picklock that she had bought in Thais. She was about to open the chest and have a look what was inside when a voice echoed out of nowhere.
"Don't you dare open my chest!!"
Before she could react an invisible force pushed Rhen away, who fell sliding on the floor.
"Rhen!" Lars called out. He ran towards her direction but being pushed by the same force away from her.
"Shield Extora!" Dameon summoned enough barriers to protect each of his friends to prevent further injuries.
Galahad pulled Rhen up to her feet, who then wiped the smudge away from her face. Drawing out her sword, Rhen readied herself to face her opponents. She looked around, seeing nothing but her friends, who were as puzzled as she was. Te'ijal closed her eyes, feeling the movement of their foe. In instant, she pulled the bowstring and fired couple of arrows toward Dameon. Instead of hitting him, an invisible force deflect the arrows away. Dameon ran away as the demon revealed himself.
"It's the demon that attacked the fairies in Memory Cavern!" gasped the priest. He had known all of these when Elini and he stayed to help the poor fairies back then. "He stole the Father Time's soul!"
"The prophecied one!" hissed Aesma. "You're jst in time for me to have a grand feast! I've been starving for days!"
No sooner had he said that than he disappeared from view. At the next second he appeared on front of Rhen, who reacted fast and delivered a blow in respond but the demon vanished again before she could gave him a sword cut.
"The demon is moving too fast! We need to slow him down!" said Lars, blocking the demon's attack when he pounced onto him and disappeared again before Lars managed to perform a counter-attack.
Te'ijal pulled some arrows out of her quiver, standing from somewhere where the demon could not see her arrows coming. She pulled the bowstring slightly and stayed in that position, waiting for the opportunity to strike. Aesma appeared behind the vampress suddenly. With her sharp sense, she crouched and rolled away before the claw got her and fired the arros. Unfortunately, it was a little too late for the demon to vanish. He hissed when the arrow sinked into her arms. He did not have time to pull them out when Te'ijal gave him a good hard kick onto his head. The demon toppld and fell with his back on.
"Xilo Moksi!" with the aid of the orb staff, Lars channeled his flow of mana and successfully casted a Slow Motion Spell.
Aesma telepoted himself behind Dameon, who caught off guard, when the spell was in effect.
"I'll take you now!" Aesma threw something to Dameon, who could not defend himself in the nick of time and fell down, lying unconsciously.
"Dameon!" Rhen ran towards the demon. "Blade Walz: Dreambird Song!"
Melodious song started playing out of nowhere. With a swing of her sword, swarms of dreambirds charged towards Aesma, who defended himself with his Claw Fury.
Rhen occupied herself dealing with the demon when Dameon stirred around and got to his feet. She was hoping he could lend a hand and instead he silenced her with a flick of his finger. Smiling, Aesma pushed Rhen as hard as he could. She fell and slid towards Elini. She pulled her up and chanted: "I summone thee, Salamandrakes!"
"Dameon, what's wrong with you?" Rhen looked at the priest and noticed that his face was unreadable, confusion, anger, anguishment, strangely expressionless. "Dameon, can you hear me?"
The sun priest looked at her, and Rhen's spine went cold. HIs face was as pale as the vampires who lived in Ghed'ahre, his eyes bulged bloody-red and his holy aura went plummeted.
"He's under a trance," said Elini. She ordered the salamandrake to defend her friends. The creature charged, collecting energy from the air surround it and stopped before the demon, releasing in the form of a fireblast.
"Fyre Shield Extora!" Dameon waved his hand, casting a magic barrier surrounding Aesma who was performing a counter attack.
"Absolute Zero!" with a blow of his mouth, the salamandrake froze in instant, which then shattered into tiny pieces of snowflakes.
"Time to cheer up this place," Aesma stomped his foot, the ground cracked around him. The cave bats woke up the moment they felt the vibration and flapped their wings, swarming the room.
"They looked annoyed," said John. "Elini and I will get rid of them."
"We'll distract the priest," offered Galahad while gesturing himself and Te'ijal, who busied herself shooting the bats with her arrows.
"Please don't hurt him," Rhen reminded them. He nodded and excused himself. She looked at Lars, "Just hold on for a while longer."
"Hurry up!" This is tiring, y'know!" complained Lars while keeping the Slow Motion Spell in effect.
Rhen charged, gaining in speed, towards the demon, who smiled at her in distance as if he had prepared to deliver his fatal blow. When Rhen was about to stab right into his heart, the ground shook. Getting off her balance, Rhen found herself falling into the bottomless pit.
~~~
"This...is...endless!" breathed John, slicing the bats one after another. Just as he was about to have a break a huge bat grabbed him by the shoulders. Squeaking in shock, the pirate dropped his rapier and struggled. Before flying further away a wyvern blocked its way and attacked. The bat loosened its grip in attempt to protect itself. John thought his dear life will be ended in misery before another wyvern caught him safely.
Elini ran after him when the wyvern landed on the ground with a soft thump, "Are you alright?"
"Yes, thank you very much, my pretty,"John smiled weakly. His face went as pale as thick white snow of Thornkeep.
"Duck!" Elini pulled him down before he could open his mouth as the bat swept past right the spot where the pirate had been just then. In the nick of time she used her whip and grabbed the bat's leg firmly, pulling the creature, which then disintegrated. No sooner the huge bat had gone all the other creatures crumbled to dust.
"Looks like we have killed their leader," said Elini. She looked at John running to a corner and threw up. "Motion sickness"
~~~
"Calm down, mate," said Galahad. "I don't wish to hurt such a fine, nice lad."
Dameon fired some holy arrows at the knight the moment he said that. Galahad deflected the attack with his sword. "I'll take them back."
"Save those words, rabbit," snapped Te'ijal. "He won't listen to any of us anyway."
Besides, thought the vampress, under the trance he can't hear us either. Pulling some arrows out of her quiver, she yelled, "Duck!"
Galahad hit the ground as explosions hit his eardrums. He turned his head up and saw smoke rising in front. Te'ijal cursed in a language that he could not make out as the arrow barely hit the Shield, which being set up by Dameon just in time.
"Chopstick, buy me some time," without another word transformed himself into a bat and flew away.
Galahad, using his shield to block the incoming holy arrows, charged towards his foe. Before the priest could defend himself he bumped onto him. Feeling dizzy, Dameon attempted to gain his balance when Te'ijal appeared behind him unknowingly and shouldered the back of his neck, sending him lying on the ground.
"That should take him for a while," said Te'ijal in satisfaction.
~~~
Rhen found herself screaming. She closed her mouth shut and calmed down.
I had better do something. I need to make a plan or else I'll be facing Grim Reaper for good. She deep in thought. I am a bird, a bird who can fly freely... "Nightmare Flight: Soaring Eagle!"
With the aid of the Sword of Dreams, a pair of blazing wings spread out. With a huge beat, Rhen propelled out of the chasm.
"How in the world-?" said Aesma in surprise. "You should be rotting in hell right now!"
"Let's just say that the God has mercy on me," she pointed her sword at him. "Now you're done! Blade Walz: Dreambird Song!"
Like a dreambird, Rhen soared towards Aesma and landed her sword tip on his chest. She pulled out the sword and gave him a good kick. Blood oozing out of the wound and it turned very serious that the demon had to cover with his hand.
The wound, thought Aesma, I can't stop the bleeding. How is this possible?!
"I'm exhausted," Lars fell sitting on the ground. The spell has been broken but the demon could not move fast with a freshly-cut carrying him around. He winced at the thought of it, "How is this possible? I can't heal my wound! Why? Why do I have to carry such a curse? What a cruel fate!"
"Let me change your destiny," with an offensive roar, Rhen stabbed, "Fate Twist!" Aesma coughed out blood, lying on the ground, trembling like a poor puppy strolling around a freezing street. He moaned and shivered as if a chilly breeze swept over the place. With a swing of the sword, Rhen kicked his head hard, which then turned into ashes.
Rhen ran towards Dameon, who started gaining consciousness, "Ugh... what happened?"
"You were under a spell by the demon," Rhen stopped him from getting up and asked him to get some rest. She looked around at her teammates, who were as exhausted as she was, and spoke: "Let's set up a camp here."