Chapter 33 - Exodus

With one swing of his ice blade, Rovan severed Renji’s bindings.

The instant the shackles hit the floor, golden light burst around him, flooding the chamber.

Vaerina narrowed her eyes. “That light again…”

Her words cut off as Renji lunged. He blurred forward in a flash, elbow slamming into her ribs with bone-cracking force. She crashed against the stone wall and slumped, dazed.

“You don’t have time,” Rovan urged, cutting Alina’s restraints. His voice was taut, carrying the weight of two decades of regret. “Go, quickly!”

“What’s happening?” Alina whispered, her strength failing, drained by Vaerina’s spirit extractions.

“I came for you,” Renji said, lifting her onto his back.

He shouldn’t even be standing… She’d seen the spears punch through him. She’d thought she’d lost him. Relief and disbelief tangled inside her chest until all she could do was hold on.

“You’re alive,” Alina whispered, fingers clutching at his cloak. A tear welled in her eye. “That’s enough… for now.”

“Rovan and I… struck a deal,” Renji continued.

Rovan’s jaw tightened. He couldn’t meet her eyes. “I never wanted this for you, Alina. For years I told myself silence was mercy. But silence was just cowardice.” He shoved them toward the door. “Get out. Reach the surface. There’s a barrier around the compound—only outside can you use the teleportation stone.”

Alina pressed her cheek against Renji’s shoulder. Familiar warmth steadied her. I remember this… warmth.

Vaerina stirred, groaning as she lifted her head. Her glare locked on the pair slipping through the door. “Running? You think I’ll let you?”

Still half-collapsed, she thrust out a hand. A thorn of hardened vine shot toward Renji and Alina.

His arms were locked around Alina—he couldn’t raise his blade in time.

“Damn it—”

An ice wall erupted between them. The thorn shattered against it.

Rovan stood his ground, staff raised. His voice was low, grief-stricken. “I can’t follow you down this path anymore, Vaerina.”

He unleashed a volley of ice arrows, forcing her to conjure a wall of vines to deflect them. Renji used the diversion to dash out the door and up the stairs.

Behind them, Vaerina’s voice rose in a hoarse snarl. “You’re betraying me for them? We swore to end the Great Spirit!”

Vines lashed from her hands, binding Rovan’s limbs and torso, pinning him against the wall.

“You don’t understand,” Rovan forced out between breaths, the vines tightening around his neck. “You end the Great Spirit, and the Labyrinth dies with it.”

“We knew that all along!” Vaerina’s face twisted with rage. “Still clinging to the Labyrinth? After it stole Yellan? After it took your parents?”

“I… didn’t… follow you… out of vengeance,” Rovan forced out, vines biting into his throat. “After all these years… it’s still about Yellan? What about… me? Us?”

Vaerina’s eyes flickered—just for a heartbeat—before hardening. “There was never an… Us.”

She swept her hand aside. Vines lashed out, hurling Rovan across the chamber. His back struck stone with a heavy thud. He crumpled, groaning, too weak to rise.

She turned to face him. “The surface is gone!” she screamed, eyes blazing. “This world died a thousand years ago—and all of you are just rotting with it!”

Fury flashing in her eyes, the dark elf whirled toward the doorway. “Bring out the enhanced knights!” she barked.

A cloaked attendant emerged from the shadows and fell into step beside her. The figure’s voice was low, distinctly feminine. “How many, my lady?”

“All that are ready,” Vaerina snapped without hesitation.

“Understood.” The attendant bowed once, then vanished back into the dark.

***

Renji burst through a side door into a broad courtyard, Alina clinging to his back. Flower beds lined the walls. A wide cobbled path stretched toward a heavy iron gate at the far end.

Beyond that gate lay freedom. With the stone Elith had given him, he could teleport them straight to Floor Forty.

“Hold on tight. I’m going to make a run for it.”

“All right.” Alina tightened her arms around him, her cheek pressing against his shoulder.

Renji sprinted down the path. His boots hammered against the cobbles. Halfway to the gate, red magic circles flared across the ground.

“This looks bad…” he muttered.

One after another, the circles erupted in blinding light. When the glow faded, armoured figures stood in every direction—thirty of them, blades glinting in the dark.

Renji skidded to a halt. They were clad in full plate, every surface fused with jagged crystals that pulsed with a blood-red aura. Their eyes were bloodshot, their faces twisted in blank, slack expressions. Thick veins bulged from their temples down their necks.

A chill ran down his spine. “What the hell are these?”

“Renji… you can let me down.”

“No. Not going to happen.” His grip tightened on her. “We’re getting out of here. Together.”

Alina’s lips curved faintly. “Together.” She nodded.

How do I handle these warriors? They are definitely not normal, and I am seriously outnumbered.

Several knights stepped forward in unison, each drawing massive two-handed swords—and wielding them one-handed as if they weighed nothing.

Renji muttered under his breath, “Enhanced strength… among other things.”

Alina’s eyes widened at their warped forms. “What did Vaerina do to them?”

“Nothing good.”

The knights closed in. The ring tightened. Renji braced to move—then steel flashed.

A sword arm went spinning through the air, severed cleanly at the elbow. A pair of spinning chakrams carved through the formation, slicing down three more knights before curving back to the hands of their master.

“Neria!” Alina cried.

The elven warden landed in a graceful somersault, twirling her weapons. She winked at Alina. “Look at you, getting yourself caught. Playing damsel in distress now?” She planted herself at Renji’s side, weapons raised. “There are easier ways to get his attention you know.”

“Neria!” Alina protested.

Renji blinked. “Neria? How…?” An arrow hissed through the dark, burying itself in a knight’s helm. The warrior’s head snapped back just as the shaft exploded in a burst of light and shards.

“Celia told us,” came a familiar voice.

Renji glanced up. Rikka crouched on top of a wall, bow drawn, another arrow already nocked.

“Rikka!” Alina’s voice brightened with relief.

“And Grom’s here too.” Rikka jerked her chin toward the gate.

The iron doors shuddered as they slammed outward. A stocky figure ploughed through, his shoulders alone smashing the panels wide. With a roar, Gromul drove into the enemy line, his battleaxe cleaving the head clean off the first knight in his path.

“Miss me?” he bellowed, grinning under his beard.

“Gromul!” Alina gasped, joy flooding her voice.

“We’ll clear you a path!” the dwarf roared, swinging his axe with a feral force. Explosive arrows rained from above, blasting knights too far for his reach.

Neria planted herself beside Renji. “Stick close, Renji. Don’t let go of her.” She flashed Alina a grin, just enough to bring a blush to her cheeks.

Renji nodded. “Understood. Thank you, all of you.”

The tide seemed to shift. For a heartbeat, the courtyard filled with the clash of steel, the roar of battle cries, and the hiss of magic arrows.

Then a new voice thundered across the courtyard.

“Did you really think you could just walk out? This is my Domain!”

The ground trembled.

A shadow fell over the courtyard as Duke Thorval emerged, standing upon the shoulder of a stone golem two storeys tall. Its chest crystal pulsed in time with the staff clutched in his hand, the beat echoing like a second heartbeat.

“You’ve stirred forces you cannot begin to understand.”

Neria’s eyes widened. “No way… Golems are a lost art.”

Renji’s gaze hardened. “Seems the Duke has a habit of digging up things best left buried.”

The golem raised one colossal fist. Stones ground against each other with a deafening rumble.

Neria twirled her blades and muttered, “This is going to hurt.”

Renji adjusted Alina on his back, jaw set. “We don’t have to beat it. We just need to make it out of here.”

The ground cracked beneath the golem’s step as its gaze locked onto them.