After Kael struck his uneasy deal with Salvador, he noticed the strange, almost disconcerting shift in the man’s demeanor. Salvador had gone from a figure dripping with menace and bloodlust to someone almost jovial—chatty even. The switch was unnerving. Salvador seemed to take genuine pleasure in the twisted camaraderie he now shared with Kael, as though they were equals.
“You know, Kael, you’ve got potential,” Salvador said casually, his oversized sickle resting lazily across his shoulders. The blood had dried into dark streaks along its edge. “Most people, they would have begged or cried. You didn’t do either. That’s rare, boy. Makes me think I didn’t waste my time saving your sorry hide.”
Kael said nothing, his eyes fixed on the uneven stone floor as they trudged through yet another endless tunnel. The faint sound of dripping water echoed around them, and every shadow seemed to flicker with malice. He wasn’t sure if Salvador’s “praise” was genuine or part of some elaborate mind game, but either way, he wasn’t falling for it.
“Thanks,” Kael muttered dryly, not bothering to look at him.
Salvador let out a bark of laughter. “Ah, don’t be so stiff. You’ll get used to me. Or you won’t, but either way, you’re stuck with me for now.”
Kael glanced at the walls around them, they had been wondering the tunnels together in hopes of finding a way out of this cavern, but with no luck, looking for anything that might give a clue to their direction. For what felt like hours, they’d been searching for an exit or even a sign that they weren’t just walking in circles. The runic markings appeared less frequently now, and when they did, they vanished even faster than before, as if teasing him.
“This is pointless,” Kael finally said, his frustration boiling over. He stopped walking, his hand gripping his [Flame Blade] so tightly his knuckles turned white. “We’ve been wandering aimlessly. There’s no way out of here.”
“Ah, but there is,” Salvador said, his tone irritatingly smug. He tapped his temple with a bony finger. “You’ve just got to think a little, boy. This place? It’s alive in a way. It’s testing us, seeing how far we’ll go. But it’ll slip up eventually. They always do.”
“They?” Kael raised an eyebrow.
Salvador smirked, his eyes glinting with something dangerous. “Oh, you’ll see. If we survive long enough, that is.”
Before Kael could press him for more, the ground beneath their feet began to rumble. Small rocks and dust fell from the ceiling, and a low, guttural growl echoed from deeper within the tunnel.
“See what did I tell you, we’re getting closer” Salvador almost seemed happy with himself as he said, this like he wasn’t sure what he said was actually true but then he turned out to be.
The two of them kept walking easily killing and prey that came after them well it was Kael that did most of the killing, Salvador had said he needed it more than he did but then didn’t elaborate.
As they kept walking the rumbling grew more fierce and more frequent and the creatures they encountered less so, the cave wall seemed to be a darker shade than what it was an hour ang and all of this left a feeling od dread inside of Kales stomach.
They continued moving, and Kael found himself doing most of the fighting whenever creatures lunged out from the shadows. Salvador stood back, his sickle resting casually against his shoulder as he watched Kael dispatch their attackers with practiced precision. It was strange—Kael had expected Salvador to jump at the chance to fight, to revel in the violence
“What’s causing the rumbling?” Kael asked after a particularly strong tremor nearly knocked him off balance.
Salvador stopped and turned, his expression unreadable. “You’ll see soon enough.”
Kael’s jaw tightened. Salvador’s vague answers were wearing on him, but he knew better than to press the issue further. They continued in silence, the oppressive atmosphere only growing heavier with each step.
Kael was starting to get a bit bored now they had been walking this same tunnel for hours and Salvador wasn’t exactly the best company, not that he’d say that to his face he kept speaking in riddles again and Kael didn’t like it, it made him think that something big was at the end of this tunnel.
After another long few hours of walking down the tunnel it seemed to widen into another cavern but that wasn’t the most striking feature, there was a large beating heart the size of a house suspended in the centre by long tendrils of corruption.
“What! What is that?” Kael almost shouted
“Funny you ask that, because that is our way out of here” Salvador responded with a hint of amusement his lips twitching to a smirk
Salvador started to wander towards the overly large pulsating black heart, then wish some hesitation Kael decided to follow him towards the heart
If that Is really the way out then Kael would put all his fear and instinct behind him, he was tired of strange cavern and quite frankly missed seeing the sun up in the sky, if this thing was a way out it would have to do.
When they finally reach the heart, the scene is both horrifying and mesmerizing. The massive, pulsating organ looms before them, black and veined with molten gold that weaves through the chamber like arteries. Its tendrils writhe hungrily, reaching toward Kael and Salvador like sentient creatures.
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Salvador turns to Kael, his expression unreadable at first, but then his lips curl into a chilling smile.
“This is it, boy,” he says. “The end of the line... for you.”
Kael stiffens, gripping his sword. “What are you talking about?”
“well unfortunately only one of us will be able to escape, it’s a true shame I was starting to like you”
Kael summoned his [Flame blade] instantly lighting it on fire he was going to need his full strength in this fight and he knew he couldn’t hold back an inch.
The moment Salvador lunged at Kael, the world seemed to shrink down to the fiery clash of their blades. Salvador's oversized scythe cleaved through the air with a haunting whistle, its crimson-stained edge leaving streaks of light in its wake. Kael twisted away just in time, feeling the displaced wind tug at his cloths, and countered with a sweeping arc of his flame blade. The blade sang as it cut toward Salvador's midsection, but the older man spun, fluid as water, and deflected the blow with the blunt edge of his sickle.
He had never thought someone with a weapon quite like his before, its long and curved blade that was adorned atop a long pole, it was made to swing in a long arc reaping lives as it did so, and with Salvador’s honed technique it was hard to fight against.
"Not bad," Salvador sneered, his eyes glinting with malice. "But you’ll need more than a few sparks to take me down, boy."
Kael didn't respond. Words were useless against a man like Salvador.
But instead, he gritted his teeth and sent a flurry of attacks in quick succession—one after the other, precise in delivery. The cave lit up with bursts of orange and red as the flame blade clashed with Salvador's, now warring in a dangerous duel of both fire and steel. Showers of sparks descended in a meteor like shower around them, their footsteps pattering against the echo within the cavern's core mixed with the endless pulsating heartbeat of corrupted nature.
It seemed like Salvador was just playing with him he didn’t seem to take this fight seriously at all, almost leading Kael into a false sense of security, he knew Salvador was a lot stronger than him and a higher rank but Kael closed that physical gap with his pendent and the marrow he had consumed even so Salvador was still a little stronger.
Salvador's movements were impossibly fast for a man his age. His sickle seemed to be an extension of his own body, arcing and slashing in patterns that were as unpredictable as they were deadly. One moment he was advancing; the next, he would be falling back, luring Kael into some misstep.
Kael's instincts screamed at him to keep his guard up, but Salvador was relentless. A sweeping strike forced Kael to leap back, and before his boots even touched the ground, Salvador was already closing the gap, his sickle descending in a deadly overhead slash. Kael raised his flame blade to block, the impact jolting up his arms like a thunderclap. Salvador leaned in close, their faces mere inches apart.
"You’re quick," Salvador growled, his grin savage, "but quick doesn’t mean alive."
He pushed off, shoving Kael back with a burst of strength that sent him staggering. Kael barely had time to recover before Salvador was on him again, his sickle spinning in his hands like a whirlwind. The deadly arcs forced Kael to give ground, each dodge and parry a desperate attempt to stay ahead of Salvador's assault.
But Kael wasn't defenseless. He flared his flame blade brighter, the heat from it making the very air shimmer. He parried perfectly, ducking under a wide swing and surging upward with a thrust aimed directly at Salvador's exposed chest. Salvador twisted to one side, avoiding by mere inches the fatal stroke, but the tip of Kael's blade scored along his side, opening a line of blood.
The older man hissed, staggering back. "Well, well," he muttered, inspecting the wound with a grim smile. "You’ve got some bite after all, I might have to take this more seriously than I thought."
Kael didn't let him. With a roar of power, he dashed with an inferno streaming at his back and delivered an almost horizontal slash, destined for Salvador's mid-line cleaving. Salvador snapped the sickle up in time to have most of his upper body numbed by the shock waves crashing through the cavern under him. The force drove him back, boots slipping over the floor ground.
"You're stronger than you look," Salvador admitted, his voice laced with grudging respect. "But strength isn't everything."
Kael's eyes went wide as Salvador suddenly dropped into a low stance and his sickle whirled in a deadly arc, sweeping up shards of rock and corruption-tainted energy. The edge of the sickle glowed with an eerie red light, and with a bestial roar, Salvador launched it like a whirling disc. Kael barely had time to dodge. The sickle grazed his shoulder and slammed deep into the cavern wall behind him, lodging there, heavy with power.
Before Kael could take advantage of Salvador's momentary disarmament, the older man clenched his fist, and the sickle yanked itself free, flying back into his waiting hand like a boomerang. Kael muttered a curse under his breath. Salvador wasn't just skilled—he had tricks up his sleeve that Kael hadn't accounted for.
The battle raged on as the two opponents were going head-to-head, pushing each other to their limits. Kael's flames grew hotter, its light casting eerie shadows on the cavern walls as Salvador's sickle now seemed to pulse with the same rhythm as the corrupted heart, its edge glowing brighter with each clash. The two fighters revolved around each other, their weapons colliding in bursts of light and sound that shook the earth beneath them.
"Why do you even fight, boy?" Salvador goaded, his voice carrying above the battle din. "You're only putting off the inevitable. You think you're some kind of hero? You think you can save yourself? No one can in this world."
Kael didn't answer. His focus was absolute, his every movement firing on the dual fuel of adrenaline and determination. He parried another cut, his blade slithering down the curve of Salvador's sickle, and followed it up with a fiery upward slash that forced Salvador to leap back.
But Salvador's retreat wasn't a sign of weakness. When he landed, he lifted his free hand, and the darkened energy around the heart gushed toward him. Tendrils of black and crimson wound around his body, soaking into his skin, as his eyes lit up with the glow of something not from this world.
Kael's stomach dropped. "What are you doing?"
"Ending this," Salvador said simply. He lurched forward, faster than ever before, his sickle a blur of motion as it came down in a devastating strike. Kael barely managed to block, the force of the blow driving him to one knee. The ground cracked beneath him, the pressure threatening to shatter his very bones. Kael clenched his teeth, the flame blade burning brighter still in defiance. He bellowed in effort, sending Salvador stumbling back, and a torrent of flames erupted, engulfing the older man. Salvador emerged from the inferno, his cloak singed and his skin marked by burns, but his twisted grin remained. "You’re strong," he admitted, his tone almost admiring. "But strength alone won’t save you."