Chapter 7

Ruggar looked back at the rest of the party. “Be ready that fight was much too easy!”

Before anyone could really get a grip on themselves the cathedral started to shake violently. As the shaking continued a black ooze began to seep out of the stained glass windows.

Alia yelled out to the party, “Don’t let the substance touch you!”

“It’s pure mana but something is wrong with it. It looks almost like it has been tainted by something. Maybe a curse?”

The ooze pooled up in the middle of the cathedral. Once it all pooled there it started to form a multi-headed hydra like entity.

Ruggar shouted out for an analysis. Alia casted an incantation that created a sigil of mana in front of her. “Severe class! Everyone, be ready for anything!”

Ruggar shook his head. “Rookie stay near me got that?!”

Silas dashed over to Ruggar but before he could reach him Silas was forced to jump backwards due to one of the massive heads crashing into his path. As it did this it looked Silas in the eyes. Silas felt a fear he never felt before.

As the Hydra head looked at him it built a purple flame in its slightly agape mouth. “Run Silas!” Kaylin shouts at him from across the cathedral.

Silas snaps out of his fearful daze and quickly dives behind a nearby pillar just in time to avoid the flames, however his non dominant arm got a tiny singe from the flames.

Silas let out a guttural scream while holding onto his singed arm. “Those are mana flames! Don’t let them touch you! Lord Silas I’ll be over there as soon as I can! Kaylin, can you help me get over there?”

*****

-Silas-

My mind and body was searing and the only thing I could think of was Astrid and Kaylin. I my vision I see them both. That’s not right though we’re in a dungeon afterall.

Kaylin and Astrid in unison speak as they come up to me “Silas. Silas. Silas!”

Suddenly I felt a searing pain in left arm. I look down and see nothing but bones. “AHAHAHAHAHA!”

Suddenly both of their hands touch my skeletal arm. “Don’t touch it! It’s hideous…”

Before I could say anything else the two girls overlapped each other and began kissing me. The pain in my arm and my head just keeps intensifying.

Suddenly the combined Astrid and Kaylin morph into the woman made of fire. The shock is enough to snap me out of my trance. The pain is still so intense but I have to move.

I slowly break away from the fire woman and crawl backwards. Suddenly she morphs back and splits into Astrid and Kaylin again.

This time Kaylin speaks alone, “Silas, come with me. Leave everything and lets go on an adventure together. Just you and me.” She slowly starts to lift up her tank top.

At the same time Astrid speaks finally, “No Silas remember what I feel like. Come home to me, let me take care of you.” She slowly starts to move her dress shoulders down.

Suddenly they stop and their eyes go black and blood begins to pour profusely from their eyes. “No this isn’t them. Someone, anyone…”

Suddenly the pain becomes too intense and my vision goes white.

*****

“What is the Rookie going on about?!” Ruggar shouts out as he deflects another head with just the front of his battle axe.

“He’s experiencing mana poisoning! The pain becomes so intense you begin to hallucinate!" Alia and Kaylin finally make their way to Silas. “Lord Silas, I'm here everything is going to be ok now.”

She holds his head up and recites an incantation. Sigils begin to float all around her. When she says the final incantation in the old Elvish language she seals a kiss on his forehead. Suddenly the floating sigils rush into his body and he jerks upwards and coughs up blood.

“What… Happened to me?”

Kaylin says, “You got hit by the Hydra’s flames, and started suffering from Mana Poisoning. Alia, did you really need to kiss him though!?”

“Nah just thought it would be fun and make you all flustered Kaylin.” Alia chuckles. “Here, drink this potion. It should give you temporary immunity to mana poisoning.”

Silas stands up and immediately lunges at Alia and Kaylin. “Get down!”

He pulls the two women to the ground right in time for one of the Hydra heads to take out the pillar that they were standing behind. The three of them get up to see Ruggar take out one of the heads with an Axe Art.

“Time to get back in the game. Kaylin back me up. I’m going to use a sword art on the center of it.” with that he yells out to Ruggar as well, “Ruggar back me up!” He points to the center of the entity.

Ruggar smiles a toothy grin and quickly falls to Silas right side as Silas bolts down the center with Kaylin flanking his left.

One head tries to bash at Kaylin but is ricocheted into a wall of the cathedral by a massive fiery explosion sent out by Tallow. Right after a different head attempted to come in from Ruggars side, but Ruggar jumped and took it head on.

Kaylin and Silas continue their straight descent towards the center of the entity. “Kaylin! Ready!?” Kaylin shakes her head in agreement. In that moment Silas activates his Fierce Dragon Fang Sword Art. He zips forward in a flash of light but gets deflected by a hydra head.

Silas flies through the air and lands feet first on a cathedral wall. “Kaylin, do it!”

Kaylin activates her Sword Art with a shout “Spiral Descendance!”

Kaylin’s speed increased ten fold and she whipped around the battlefield almost like she was dancing until she finally made contact with the entity's main body and with one slash sent it flying into the air.

Together Silas, Ruggar, and Kaylin each used an Art to land critical strikes on the entity defeating it. It floated in the air as it slowly started to disintegrate into specs of light.

*****

-Tsubomi-

I have the urge to stop. We had been running, no more like barreling towards the Creation Event, with little to no thoughts other than to get there before anyone else that I somehow didn’t feel the dungeon initially activate. However something was drastically different about this feeling.

“Clint, do you feel that?”

Clint stopped with me. “Yeah something is off. Almost like the Event is evolving. Also someone definitely activated the dungeon inside it.”

Suddenly the still air turned hot then cold and the blood in my veins felt like it stopped flowing for a moment. “Oh god. Clint, this means?”

He shook his head and started to laugh. “Tsu, you better be ready. We are about to go toe to toe with a Cataclysm.”

*****

Nikolai was napping on his bed when he was startled awake by a sensation. A searing pain that engulfed his head and cold breeze that should be impossible at this time of the year. “Brother? Astrid?”

Astrid, whom was in the other room reading a book having just finished her chores jolts up and onto her feet at the sudden cold breeze. She didn’t feel the head pain but she did feel the breeze and knew in an instant something was amiss.

She runs down the hall into Nikolai’s room. “Nikol are you ok?”

In an instant she is sitting on his bed and holding him. Cradling his head in her arms. “Astrid? It’s brother? Isn’t it?”

“Shh, it’s going to be fine. When has Silas ever taken too great a risk? No matter what he will always come back to us. We’re his family after all.”

She says this to console Nikolai but the words were just as much for herself.

“I have a feeling that something bad is coming and it’s going to change everything around us.”

Astrid just cards her hands through his hair. “Me too sweetheart, me too.”