ELEX VINSPEAR (POV)
The curious hole in the wall that Chrollo spoke of was just as revolting as he had described it. Its sickening odor which held the stench of hundreds of rotting re-animated corpses caused me to gag and make my stomach churn just at the very site of the orifice. The thick pungent air that emanated from the room on the other side was forced to squeeze its airborne contents through the small breaking, and whoever was so unfortunate to get too close, was undoubtedly forced to inhale said contents.
“God’s,” Leo winced standing at the edge of the room door. The area had filled with the smell coming from the hole, and it seemed Leo couldn’t keep about his wits any longer.
“Is it really necessary we talk about our plan of action while that stench oozes in?” he said wafting his hand in front of his nose.
“You’ve barely seen anything worth causing concern so far. Mongrels and imps are one thing, but are you really going to succumb now just because of a bad smell?” Chrollo mocked him with a slight smirk.
Leo rolled his eyes at the statement with his hands now crossed, “Bad smell?” he repeated, “Bit of an oversimplification, don’t you think? Perhaps it was only me who saw it, but the last time I peeped through that hole, an entire room filled with mongrels, piles of excrement, and bodily fluids stained the floors and walls. Not to mention the fact that an environment such as the one on the other side of this wall is the perfect place for all sorts of bacteria to grow and thrive. That’s enough cause for concern for me, thanks.” He said taking another step back from the door.
“Well we don’t really have a choice about what we want to do right now,” I said speaking up. “The fact is, one of the keys that we need to open Morsom’s prison is right there in the center of that room,” I said pointing at the hole. “We’re going to have to break down this wall and retrieve that key at some point. And personally, I would prefer if we did that sooner rather than later.”
“You may be right, however, actually accomplishing that is easier said than done,” Leo replied. “Mongrels react to sound or just about anything that will stimulate their senses. If we tear down this wall there's a high chance that we will alert at least one of the ruined creatures and undoubtedly cause a chain reaction for the rest of them to wake.”
Leo tended to explain his views from a non-biased side. He indeed knew our skills and talents, however, he believed that acknowledging the obstacles before us as a greater threat than what we’re capable of handling would be a better way to approach things.
“Furthermore,” he continued. “Let’s say we do find a way to break the wall down without the mongrels waking from their stasis. How do you intend to maneuver your way to the center of the room, open the casket that the key is contained within, and come back to this side without starting a mongrel frenzy.” He finished with his hands still crossed.
“Where is your trust?” Chrollo said, “Do you doubt our abilities that much, Leo?”
“I'm simply telling you what we’re going up against, Chrollo. In a situation like this, you need to think the way I do, or else you’ll end up with people who are overconfident in their average arcin powers and eventually cause new problems that could have been avoided if they thought things through.” He responded. “However, I do see why you would be confident. I suppose calling your abilities average would be naive of me. What do you suggest?”
Chrollo smiled slightly and moved closer to the wall where everyone could see and hear him clearly. “Well, first, I think that taking down this wall as silently as possible would be our first priority. After all, you’re not exactly wrong about the mongrels waking before we even enter the room if we are careless about how we create an entrance.” He acknowledged. “ However, luckily for us, the wall is clearly already at its limits with holding up. We know this because just by gently bumping into the wall I created this hole.”
“Also,” Christina said stepping forward to join the conversation. “We don’t actually need to bring the entire wall down. We only need to make it big enough for at least one or two people to fit through at a time. So that would make things easier.”
“You’re right,” Chrollo commended her. “And I know exactly how we can do that whilst making as little noise as possible.”
Christina stepped back again, this time with a content smile on her face.
“Please, go on,” Leo urged for him to continue.
Chrollo walked up to where the hole rested on the wall. It was formed around his shoulder height. I assume it was his shoulders that were the cause for the crack in the first place.
“We can start making an entrance around the hole that's already here,” he explained. “Since the wall is fragile, we can chip away around the hole and make it bigger piece by piece. Or better yet, I could burn the parts we want to fall off so that it will practically crumble with the slightest touch by itself.” He said eagerly.
“And what about when the wall is actually down, how do you intend to acquire the key from within the midst of all those sleeping mongrels,” Leo asked again.
Chrollo’s mouth formed a smirk, and he turned to face me. “That's where Elex comes in,” he said confidently. “Using his wind magic, Elex will carry himself and me above the mongrels and take us straight to the container where the key rests. Then I will grab the key from above within its container while Elex still holds me in the air and we then both return back here unscathed.”
Leo looked toward my direction to see for himself what I thought of Chrollo’s allegedly thought-out plan. In theory, it may be the safest thing we could think of, even if it did sound a bit far-fetched. However, we didn’t exactly have much variety in options for our plan of action. Chrollo wasn’t an idiot, I know this because I know him. He would never suggest something he thought impossible for him or for anyone else.
“This is all very . . . ambitious, to say the least,” Emily commented. “Are sure that Elex is able to do something like that anyway? It’s not that I doubt his abilities, I know he is a talented arcin user, but being able to control the air currents to hold yourself up is already a task unto itself. However, two people seems like it would be quite the challenge.” She questioned.
The entire room turned to face me, and only now did I realize the trust and weight of the role Chrollo had placed on me. Could I do it? Did I have the skill to take Chrollo and me safely across the mongrel's vision before something catastrophic would happen? I mean, I had never had to lift someone else before, If I fail and mess up, it would most likely be fatal for at least one of us. The stares I received from everyone only told me that they doubted I could pull it off as well. My comrades didn’t trust me, they didn't trust in my abilities. They knew of my strengths but still doubted my potential. Perhaps their skepticism was what caused that same doubt to form within me as well. I began to convince myself that I couldn’t do it either. All of a sudden Chrollo’s plan seemed to lose its credibility.
Mustering up the confidence to speak, “I . . . I’m not sure I-”
“I know he can do it.” Chrolo interrupted. “Elex is one of the best arcin users in our entire school year. You shouldn’t question his abilities so easily.” He said so while staring at me with a smile. A slight nod was transferred between us and I couldn’t help but smile back.
“Yeah, I can do it. Just leave it to me.” I said with my feet more grounded. It didn't matter if everyone didn't trust me, as long as Chrollo did, I knew I would have to perform to meet his expectations.
“And what should the rest of us do?” Zack asked from the other end of the room. “You can't leave all the dangerous work to you and Elex, can you?” he asked eagerly.
“The rest of you will simply watch on guard,” Chrollo said. “This plan is ridiculously reckless and could cause a lot of problems if something goes wrong. And by chance something does go wrong, you all will be the first to take action and protect Elex and me while we do our best to retrieve the key and avoid whatever threat that may face us.”
Leo sighed, “This . . . this is insane. You leave yourselves completely exposed if something goes wrong while you’re deep inside that room. It doesn’t matter if we are hear watching your backs, we can’t actually help you when you get that far in.” He argued.
“Leo, do you trust me?” Chrollo asked.
“I trust that you see there are many flaws in this plan-”
“But do you trust me?” Chrollo insisted.
“I trust in your ability, however your plan…” Leo looked down in thought to himself.
Despite the fact he wasn't the one who produced the plan and the fact that everyone was slowly beginning to join along with Chrollo’s idea, Leo was still our leader. Chrollo knew that and wanted to gain Leo’s approval before following through.
“. . . I suppose I trust more in your ability to make it out alive than I do for your plan to actually work.” He said with a smirk, “Just make sure you don’t make any mistakes.”
“Thank you,” Chrollo said genuinely. “Right, let’s get to work.”
Everyone began to the edges of the room where Chrollo had instructed them to stand for the time being, whilst he and I took our places at the large wall where the hole rested. Chrollo lit a gentle blue flame from his fingertips and began to sear the edges of the hole and make his way outward. He looked over at me and saw that I was slightly nervous about the whole thing.
“You okay?” He asked.
I smiled at him, “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just I'm surprised that you believed I was up for the challenge. I mean, why did you think so? You know the odds are stacked against us in this situation, and yet, you insisted I could do it without a second thought.”
“Why? Because I know you can. Just remember the internal mana techniques I told you about. All we need to do is reduce the weight of our bodies so that it will lessen the load you have to carry.” He said.
“I know, but, I never quite got the hang of it. I can barely change the weight of one of my limbs - let alone my entire body.”
“Well then consider this practice.”
“Wow, I’ve never done a practice exercise before where if I fail I could potentially die,” I replied sarcastically.
Chrollo smiled, “Don't worry, we’ll be fine. If you watch my back, I’ll watch yours..”
Once a large portion of the wall had been blacked and was already showing visible cracks and crumbling, Chrollo hit it gently with his elbow to allow the now weakened pieces of the wall to break off gently. However, now that the hole had been made much bigger, we were all hit with an intense wave and a more potent dose of the smell that was the rotting room. Everyone grimaced and covered their noses simultaneously, some of them even dropping to their knees while gagging.
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“Gods,” I whispered with my hand covering my face. I looked at Chrollo who winced just the same at me. He used his hands to indicate for me to lift us up and I prepared to do just that.
‘You can do this Elex’ I thought to myself, ‘Just focus on dispersing your weight through the mana particles and hold yourself and Chrollo in the air.’
The more I thought about it the more doubtful my mind would become. Therefore, I stopped thinking and simply began to conjure up a platform of hair that we could both stand on and directed us through the hole that had been created and entered the room.
The problem wasn't the fact that I couldn’t lift myself up, after all, I had done it before in the past. It was more so that this time I had to be slow and controlled about it while lifting two people at once and making sure not take make any noise as I did so. And doing that all while the nauseating smell entered and exited my lungs proved to be troublesome.
It was much worse than we could have imagined. Looking at it through the small hole only allowed us to see a small portion of the catastrophe that was this room. The mongrels were high in number and also still very active. As we hovered above them, the sounds that startled us were something we should have expected, but unfortunately, we didn't. The thick slosh and dribbles that hit the floors in the far corners of the room were prominent throughout and created images in my mind that were unsettling. What was worse was the fact that the room was dark, with no windows or light sources, the only thing illuminating the room was the small blue flame Chrollo continued to harbor in his palms as we traversed above.
‘How big is this damn room’. I cursed in my mind.
You would have never imagined a room of this magnitude would be hidden on this floor of the tower unless you knew about it. However, I suppose I should start expecting the unexpected when it comes to this place or just the ruins in general.
We were almost at the center of the room where the key was held suspended within its glass case. Even though it was Chrollo's idea, I could visibly see the worry in his face as we got closer to our destination. The slight erratic groans that would escape the mouths of the ruined creatures below and the suffocating smells that molested our senses were off-putting. Extremely off-putting.
Once were visibly above the casket, I had to focus as much as possible to create a second platform for Chrollo to descend on and grab the key from within its holding place. It was a task I could do in theory, but practically, and under these conditions was a different story. Concentrating alone on trying to lighten my weight - which I still wasn't able to do efficiently - and carrying my own weight and Chrollo through this room was very difficult. Albeit, Chrollo’s ability to manipulate his own weight did help. He practically had the weight of a child as I lifted him. However, I now had to create another surface of air and slowly lower him to an area where he could complete his side of the task. It was all so overwhelming, but I forced myself to prevail nonetheless.
Chollo gave me a thumbs up as he separated from me on his own platform of hair, and as I lowered him slowly, I mumbled the word ‘Apertia’ to provide a fresh flow of mana to my body to lighten my worries.
As I watched him get closer to the key, I saw him fidget and look around the room a lot more often than what I thought would be normal. Of course, I understood he was on high alert but the way he checked around as if he were expecting something to come for him or as if he was trying to see something in the dark was slightly unnerving.
‘What the hell is he doing?’ I thought slightly angrily. He was right next to the key, and yet he wasn't making any effort to release it from its container. He instead continued to look around, getting increasingly paranoid as he did so.
Not being able to watch him waste time any longer, with the flick of a finger, I sent a small current of wind down from above to get his attention. He looked up at me and then looked back down in the direction behind me. Where he completely froze and his eyes were held gaping in shock at something I couldn’t see.
I slowly turned my head around to view into the far darkened corner of the room where Chrollo kept his eyes glued in horror. I would have thought him foolish to be wasting time if I didn’t see the terrifying beast for myself. The skinny black creature that stood amidst all the other mongrels held its body as stiff as a pole. Its figure was tall and its body lanky, with skin as black as coal and a head bald as an old man. It stood completely straight with its dark blood-red eyes piercing straight into our souls. It had to have been at least nine feet tall, and if it weren’t for the seemingly regular height of all the mongrels that stood around it, I wouldn’t have been able to understand the difference in size.
Despite its figure being a terrifying sight to view in a place like this alone, the real horror that struck me was its sinister, gut-wrenching smile spread across its bony black face.
‘An Imp? What the hell is an Imp doing here? I thought there were only mongrels in this place.’ My mind raced with questions as I was in shock at the sight of the creature. It took more willpower to not scream in terror as I saw the black figure than it did to continue holding Chrollo and I in place.
The ruined beast lifted its arms out wide, stretching and showing its wingspan to us before swiftly closing his palms together on the head of a smaller mongrel in front of it. Crushing its skull as its brains splat across the floor, the Imp let out a loud high-pitched screech through its smiling mouth causing the hundreds of mongrels around us to awake from their trance and target the closest things they could get.
I was in complete shock and froze up as I didn't know how to react to such a sight. It was only after I heard the shouts from the hole in the wall far in the corner coming from our friends.
“What was that noise?” Erika shouted as she looked into the room to see the horrifying sight of the Imp.
The roars and aggravated grunts the mongrels produced as they began attacking each other and anything else that caused them to react was quite a traumatizing spectacle to experience. If it weren’t for Chrollo shouting at me to lift him up, I would have probably used all of my power to bolt myself out of the room within seconds.
“Elex lift me up!” He shouted eagerly.
“Ok, just give me a second” I replied.
As I began to raise the platform Chrollo stood on, the Imp started to make its way to where we were. Imps were strange creatures that moved with very little flexibility, meaning that as the creature ran towards us, it kept its limbs as stiff as possible while keeping its eyes locked on our position in a very unsettling way.
Upon Chrollo’s ascent, a multitude of mongrels attempted to lunge out and grab him as he arose. His efforts to fight back, however, were not in vain, as he flailed out waves of blue flames in hopes of causing them to fall back. The mongrels, unfortunately, driven by a sense of madness that we did not understand, only continued to pursue whatever lay in front of them whilst their bodies roasted alight, and to Chrollo’s luck, he was their chosen choice of target.
“Nghaa!” Chrollo grunted as he attempted to loosen the grips that the mongrels had on him. The burning creatures clutched onto his clothing as I tried lifting him up, and suddenly his weightless body became marginally heavier than what I was able to hold.
“Chrollo, I can't pull you up!” I shouted through the strain. “It's too heavy.” Even holding myself up at this point was becoming a bother. The amount of mana control that I required to pull off a task like this was not something I had. I could either drop the air platform for one of us and hope they escape, or drop both platforms and see how we fair against the horde of slaughter down below us.
“Chrollo . . . I think we're going to have to-”
A quick smack sent me tumbling out of the air and straight to the ground into a pile of fighting mongrels. The two platforms I had created dispersed as I shifted my concentration from them to solely focus on softening my land with a shield of mana.
I turned back to see the Imp standing where I previously was, and glaring down at me from above with its sickening smile. It showed its black teeth stained with red blood, some of it dribbling down its lips.
To say that I wasn't shaken from seeing the creature would be a lie. Imps were not like mongrels, they were higher up on the food chain when it came to Ruined beasts - or creatures of the Arcadian ruins, if you will. Unlike the mindless mongrels that attack everything in their path - even their own kind - Imps are able to think for themselves and in some cases show signs of high intelligence.
Aside from their intimidating appearance, the very possibility that the creature that stood before me had planned a trap like this was very unsettling. Its long bony fingers which held fingernails that had grown to the point where they were knife-like, pierced into the skin of its torso and allowed its blood to spurt out of its body and onto the mongrels within close proximity.
As I already mentioned, mongrels didn’t target anyone or anything specifically, they just tore apart whatever was closest to them, even their own kind. So as I saw a group of mongrels tearing the limbs from one another as they wrestled and screamed in their own piles of excrement, it scared me to see them turn their attention to me as soon as the blood of the Imp touched their bodies. Like the group of feral beasts they are, they all came charging at me with the intent to kill.
“Chrollo we need to get the key!” I shouted as I created a wave of air to push the mongrels back.
I turned to see where he was, only to find him wrestling on the ground with multiple ruined creatures biting into his flesh and grabbing a hold of his limbs. Chrollo screamed as he fought back, but I couldn’t understand why he wasn't using his arc stone anymore. He could easily burn those who had a hold on him to a crisp, so why didn’t he?
“Elex . . .” he grunted within his struggle. I could see his body was now stained with the contents of the floor. “Leave the room, you’re in the way!”
‘What?’ I thought.
How could I have possibly been in his way? However, I understood what he meant only moments after. Chrollo had planned to burn the entire surrounding area down, but couldn’t do so while I still remeained within the room.
With that being said, I created a whirlwind of air around me, pushing all the mongrels and even the Imp back as far as I could. From within the small space I had created for myself, I used a large portion of my mana to create a gust of wind to push me out of the room and back through the hole in the wall where the rest of the group was.
“Where’s Chrollo?” Zack asked while holding back another group of mongrels from escaping through the hole and into the room.
“He’s still back there,” I replied while landing roughly. “He said he needed me to leave.”
“For what?” Christina asked.
Suddenly, we all caught a glimpse of a rising cerulean light that emanated from the dark room. Amidst all the chaos of limbs being torn, mongrels biting out chunks from one another, and shrieks of pure horror, the light shone bright and the raging flames that came along with it were not merciful to anything that touched it.
When I focused my eyes properly to see into the room, Chrollo was letting his blue flames out freely within the area, burning everything to a crisp. It spread so far out that it almost reached all the way to the other room where the rest of us stood. Once his waves of heat had done their damage, all that remained was the ashes of the mongrels and of course, the Imp, which still stood tall and confident.
“Elex take it!” Chrollo shouted back at me, as she smashed his fist into the glass container which had avoided the heat of Chrollo’s flames. He grabbed the key from within and threw it towards the door.
Swiftly, I manipulated the air around the key to suck it in straight to my palms where I held it tightly and secured. I turned my attention back to my friend, who now faced the all-black creature which had lost its smile, and stared straight down into Chrollo’s eyes with a more serious look.
With a quick swipe, it smacked Chrollo who was panting from exerting a large portion of his mana supply at once into his brilliant attack. His body was sent flying towards us, and he crashed through the wall, landing on his back near our feet.
“Don’t let that thing’s blood touch you,” Leo said shouting from the door. “It’s an Imp. They use blood ritual magic. If that thing’s blood touches you, it might have control over your body!” He warned us.
“Everyone get behind me,” I said taking the lead, “I’ll hold off the imp, the rest of you exit the room and get to a lower floor.”
I only said what I did, because I knew that someone would have to take the fighting lead if Chrollo ever went out of action. Despite the fact we had pre-planned roles for each individual, we didn’t do a very good job of sticking to them.
“You don’t really expect to fight that thing on your own, Elex?” Leo asked with concern.
“He won’t,” Chrollo grunted slowly getting up, “We’ll take it together.”
“Leo, take this key and bring it to Rosh’s cell,” I said tossing the blood-stained key. “Zack, make sure they get down safely. After Chrollo made that attack, the ground broke in some areas of that room. I wouldn’t be surprised if other mongrels were able to escape.”
“Right,” he said with a horrified look on his face. It seemed that Zack, along with the majority of other members were taken aback by the disturbing image of the Imp.
“Be careful guys,” Leo shouted as he ran out of the room with the rest of them following. Once they had left the room, Zack created a stone wall from the rubble of the previous room, leaving Chrollo and me alone to face the Imp.