Wooyoung crouched down on the icy floor of the temple, shuffling closer to the pedestal as the flame in his hand grew to twice the size it had been just a couple of seconds ago.
"We don't need that pick's help anyway," he mumbled, and even though he didn't mention any names, in particular, we were all very aware of who the pink-haired man was referring to.
Wooyoung moved the flame closer to the pedestal.
By the time I realized what he was about to do, Jongho had already moved out of his spot, sliding across the slippery floor as he tried to stop him.
Mingi reached out a hand and grabbed the earth elemental before he got too close to the flame, though, holding Jongho back.
"We'll just take this with us and then-" Wooyoung continued, slowly melting away at the ice before he was interrupted.
A loud rumbling sound split the air, as if the thunder was coming from everywhere around us.
It might as well have been the case, I thought, shuffling closer to the others as we looked out through the gaps between the pillars all along the walls.
My heart fell as the familiar smell of electricity and rain spread through the air, but I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as I realized that there were no storm clouds anywhere to be seen.
Something wasn't right. The rumbling got louder and louder, closer and closer, and I could feel the wind pick up as I backed up against Yunho.
No, I thought. This wasn't right. We had been so careful.
We had kept out of sight, and we had chosen the least likely district considering that our team had two fire elementals in it.
Daios couldn't have found us.
He couldn't.
The icy doors to the temple blast open with a strong gust of wind, but the five silhouettes in the doorway didn't look human.
Their obscure, shifting figures kept changing, shifting, as an eerie purple light shone from within them, creating two balls of light at the top that could have been glowing eyes.
"What in the world is that?" Jongho mumbled from somewhere behind me.
But before any of us got a chance to figure out, a strong blast of northern wind rushed through the temple, cutting through the air like a knife as our group staggered back a few steps.
The five figures saw this as their chance, and they literally blasted through the room toward us as their figures changed into minor storm clouds.
I couldn't help it. I stood completely frozen as one of the cloud-men, no, that didn't sound right, storm spirits, charged straight in my direction.
I stared into those electric purple eyes and realized at that moment, that I had no idea how to stop him.
Wooyoung yelled out my name, and our of the corner of my eye, I could see Yunho making a move toward me as well before he was toppled over by one of the storm spirits.
He hit his head against the icy floor with a sickening crack before complete chaos broke out in the temple.
Thunder rumbled again, and the man was now so close that I could see the bolts of electricity within him flashing in shifting hues of purple and white.
Those same lights that made our the two orbs that shone eerily at my shaking figure, like a predators' eyes locked onto a weak target.
I tried my best to clear my head, bracing myself as I felt my inner fire awakening, my eyes turning red as I took a step back.
But before he got the chance to strike, the storm spirit came to an abrupt halt a few meters from me as an icy spike pierced his chest.
The solid white shape stuck out from the whirling clouds that made up his torso like a dagger.
The look of hostility in his eyes quickly changed into one of confusion as he ripped his eyes from the dagger in his chest and back to me before exploding right in front of my eyes.
The air crackled with electricity and purple sparks as the storm spirit turned into MIST, the force of the explosion throwing me into the air before I sliding across the floor.
I barely managed to stop myself before I slipped over the edge of the temple.
Everyone looked shocked, the storm spirits included.
Following the direction the ice dagger had come from, my eyes flickered to the doorway once again where another figure was standing, ready for battle, his chest heaving up and down.
His eyes began glowing bright white as another icy spike appeared in his hand.
Bringing his arm behind his head, he sent another dagger toward one of the storm spirits with such speed that I almost didn't register it.
But it missed by an inch, and the purple glow in the spirits' eyes seemed to intensify as they took in the ice elemental in the doorway.
"San?" I said, scrambling to my feet as the aforementioned charged into the temple as well, joining the chaos as the rest of the group joined in on the fight with the storm spirits.
Fighting, minor storms, rumbling, and electric sparks flew everywhere as the powers of the elements, fire, water, earth, and ice, as well as nature itself, clashed.
I barely missed the stones that Jongho summoned from the earth as he sent them flying in the storm spirits' direction with the help of Mingi's winds.
Several times, Yunho's floods brought me so close to the edge of the temple that I was convinced I would fall into the chasm below the mountain.
But I kept fighting, using my powers, though not to their full extent as I was still scared my fire would make the temple topple down on top of us if I made a wrong move.
We could practically taste the victory as we vaporized the third storm spirit, leaving only two, but a cry of pain made me turn around.
A wave of panic washed over me as I saw San crumble to the floor, skidding across the ice before hitting the pedestal with so much force that it broke down on top of him.
His eyes stayed closed.
I felt a surge of anger so strong that, for a moment, I was completely blinded with rage as I released a scream and the flames from my hands grew.
With one last push, I sent a wall of flames toward the two remaining storm spirits and, before collapsing, I felt a bitter satisfaction as I heard the sizzling sounds of the clouds vaporizing from the heat.
"Goddamn-" Mingi started to say, but I scrambled back up from the floor faster than he could get to me as I made my way over to San who was still laying on the floor, carefully taking his head into my hands.
It almost hurt physically to watch the man like this, and for a moment, I wondered why I was so careful with him.
A man I didn't know.
An element I wasn't supposed to be close to.
But I pulled him into my lap nonetheless.
Yunho staggered over to me, looking dazed as crimson blood ran down the side of his head.
"Is he breathing?" he asked.
I nodded, "But he's not waking up. What are we supposed to do if he doesn't wake up?"
"He has too," Wooyoung said, "We need him if we want to get the diamond."
"He's a person, Wooyoung," I snapped, "He's a person who saved our lives, and he's not waking up. I'll be damned if we're not going to help him after what he did for us."
Jongho crouched down beside me, wincing as he shifted his weight from one leg to the other, and carefully pulled San up.
"I thought you had a plan," he mumbled, rolling his eyes at Wooyoung, "A plan that didn't include this 'prick'."
"We should get him out of here, though," Jongho continued, "Maybe back to his house?
I know the cold probably doesn't bother him anyway, but right here probably isn't the best place to stay right now considering that those things just barged right in."
"Yunho can't walk that far, though," Mingi said, trying his best to support the brunette as he staggered forward. the blood continued to flow from his wound.
I looked around at the group with a heavy heart;
Yunho had hit his head.
Mingi's arm looked broken.
Jongho's leg was hurt.
Wooyoung looked dazed as well, probably from the cold.
And San was unconscious. Great. Just great.
Another wave of rumbling rolled through the room, and we all instinctively looked out at the sky for any other storm spirits, but there was no trace of life anywhere.
A cracking sound pierced the air, and I prayed that my guess would turn out to be wrong as I turned my eyes to the ceiling above us.
But, alas, it was, and my heart fell as I braced myself for yet another opportunity to get in touch with death for the nth time since we began our treasure hunt.
Time seemed to slow down for the next couple of seconds as another crack rumbled the floor and the icy stalactite above me was ripped loose and began falling.
Its sharp end glinted beautifully, dangerously, in the light before someone pulled me away and hundreds of kilos of ice hit the floor, splitting into thousands of shards.
My heart was all the way up in my throat as I staggered to my feet, thumping, skipping beats, making me dizzy as I tried to focus on the scene in front of me; the rubble, the ice, the noise.
The rumbling was everywhere around us by now, and everyone rushed toward the exit a strong sense of deja vu hit me.
"But we didn't even take the diamond-" I mumbled, breathing heavily as realization hit me and I came to a halt.
Mingi looked back at me with fear in his purple eyes, about to say something before I turned around and doubled back toward the center of the temple.
"Let it go, y/n!" someone yelled.
"It's not worth it if you have to die for it", the sound barely loud enough to be heard of the cracking ice as the temple crumbled right on top of us.
But I couldn't let it go.
It was absolutely worth it.
I had to get The Sacred Themania, even if I lost my life while trying.
I had to. There was no other way.
"The diamond," I mumbled, "The diamond."
I shakily stepped over the icy shards on the floor, careful not to trip as I continued repeating the words over and over again, only to let out a cry of pain as a sharp pain erupted in my arm.
Hot, crimson blood tricked down the side of my arm and onto the floor, colouring the ice a deep red colour.
I kicked the treacherous ice stalactite that had cut me away before staggering toward my target.
The floor was shaking as well by now, and another rumbling sound had drowned out the one from the temple.
"y/n!" Mingi yelled, but I motioned for him to join the others instead of waiting for me.
"The diamond" I repeated, digging out the top of the pedestal from a pile of broken ice.
It was cracked, broken, but the symbols at the top and the hand were still intact.
I hoped the same could be said for the diamond inside.
And so, finally, I joined Mingi, stumbling along as he pulled me out of the collapsing temple.
We all tumbled out, Jongho carrying an unconscious San and Wooyoung supporting Yunho who looked worse by the second.
But before we got the chance to breathe out a sigh of relief at being alive, the world disappeared in a blur of white.
The rumbling drowned out any and all sounds of yells and screams as the entire side of the mountaintop rolled down on top of us, taking us down the side of the mountain as the avalanche picked up even more snow on its way down.
A/N:
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