14/07/337

Audra

After walking for what seemed like a few hours the group found themselves in a wide open circular room, maybe 15 meters wide. With three tunnels, one leading directly to the left, one forward, and another between those. The walls were decorated with the rune they called ‘Ri’auphii’ass’ or ‘Safeguard.’ Audra decided now would be as good a time as any to reach out.

“Faust, can you hear me?” She asked.

“Audra!? It’s good to hear from you. The Storm its-”

“I know, what’s it like out there? We’re traveling through some of the old Safeguard’s tunnels.”

“Kiaveen is swarming with demons, I feel that a few cities have already started to fall. I feel nothing but demons in Trudid, Nevenal is empty, Larkinge is fighting and I am on my way to assist. I feel something near you, something more noticeable than even Noelem.”

“That’s not good.”

Coming back to focusing on her surroundings she noticed Noelem and Vasuki at the entrance to three branching tunnels, examining the runes next to each one. Cabana had begun to approach her, she couldn’t look the woman she owed so much to in the eyes.

“I couldn’t stop it.” Audra claimed. Cabana pulled her into a hug and rubbed the back of her head.

“It’s alright. I know you wouldn’t let it happen if you could.” Audra swallowed the knot that was trying to form in her throat. She had caused the end of the world, and here she was being comforted. She pulled away from the hug after a short while.

“Thank you.” Audra claimed, before looking over at Noelem and Vasuki, “We’re being followed from outside. I think it’s that thing that Noelem was worried about.” she claimed. Noelem looked their way.

“You can feel it too? That thing is above us. No doubt it’s looking for a way to get down to us the easiest.”

“So no breaks, we gotta keep moving.” Vasuki pointed out. Noelem nodded his head.

“Correct. The three tunnels here lead to Daemerall, Larkinge, and Gushe. We might need Faust’s help out there. I say we head to Larkinge.” Noelem claimed. Vasuki recoiled slightly, then brought his hand to his head, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Faust…he’s…the serpent. I didn’t think he had yet to be slain.” Vasuki straightened himself, “It would be advantageous for us to be near him, especially with that beast biting at our heels.” He looked a bit confused for a moment.

“How do you know about Faust?” Audra asked.

“Boreal shared his life with me.” Vasuki let out a long exhale, “It’s hard to separate my life as Vasuki with his memories as Boreal at times. I don’t think we should dally much longer, eat if you need to then we should go before it gets impatient.” Vasuki suggested.

Cabana opened her bag of supplies, and handed everyone a few ready-to-eat rations. Afterwards they all began to walk down the narrow corridor towards Larkinge. Vasuki led the path with Audra closing in behind him.

“So what made you come back to our side?” She asked.

“The girl that was with me revealed that her brother stole the artifact from the Southern Isle. I remembered what you had said to me all that time ago and I saw that I had been wrong.” Vasuki explained.

“Yeah glad to know you can still think. Thought you lost that ability when you tried to kill me, not sure you remember that or not.” She barked.

“I do and you can get your revenge later, but I think we can both agree that now isn’t the time for that.” Audra breathed out.

“You’re not going to try to hold you bringing me back from near-death as a way of us getting even?” He shook his head.

“It was luck, I didn’t know those snakes would do that…and I know you’d do the same if you were in my position.” Audra thought before she spoke up again.

“I guess you’ve been growing up while you were gone.” Vasuki quickly exhaled through his nose, as if he found something funny.

“I got my ass kicked by Felix…”It seemed like he was about to say something but stopped himself, “...saved Liz from the prison under Daemerall, watched Awls claw its way from the sky and destroy Daemerall, then fought a racist Royal Knight that I thought would have died from Awls. What about you?” Vasuki asked. Audra brought her head back in surprise.

“This how we catching up with each other now?” She let out a small chuckle, “Well we looked everywhere around Daemerall for you after you vanished from our sight, I was corrupted by Runahera, we went to Trudid after we fought, I formed a contract with Faust after he kicked mine and Cabana’s ass, then we came back and Zadkiel betrayed us the day we met up.” Audra was kind of surprised how much they both had been through.

A blood-chilling shriek came from somewhere above them, how deep they were underground wasn’t really known but whatever that thing following them was it was most definitely loud.

“If that thing could stop following us, that’d be great.” Vasuki pointed out.

“It would make things a lot calmer down here.” Audra agreed, “Hey, what about that girl that showed up with you? The one you saved. What’s her deal? It seemed like she knew a lot more about Zadkiel than we did.”

She does, she revealed to me that he was the one responsible for the Southern Isle Massacre, she was the only survivor, probably because they’re brother and sister but I don’t know the full specifics. I do know it involves Erefus, her familiar saving her. She became a summoner and now she can’t die unless he does.” Vasuki explained.

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“A summoner…don’t hear much about those these days. What’s her plan in all of this?” Audra questioned. Noelem cleared his throat behind them.

“Erefus, I bet you don’t know jack about that thing.” He claimed. They both turned around to look at him, still slowly walking forward. He cleared his throat one more time.

“Erefus is a demon, but he doesn’t bow to Runahera. He is a very chaotic entity, gaining strength alongside his creator, Zaurah.” Audra felt chills dance down her spine, “I didn’t know I could trust him the first time I met him, after bonding with him to deliver him to Liz, however, I could tell his intentions were pure.” He looked up above them, “The longer this storm rages the more powerful both Liz and Erefus will become. As well as Zaurah. I have no doubt that he’s behind what’s happening. I wouldn’t worry about Liz if I were either of you, with that…creature with her she’ll be completely fine.” Faust entered Audra’s mind right before she could speak.

“Elizabeth Agano is traveling near myself, her assistance will be invaluable to all of our survival.” Faust claimed.

“Figured as much, Noelem just told us that Erefus was created by Zaurah. It’s nice to have something involved with him that’s on our side for once. How are you keeping in contact with Liz?” Audra asked.

“Liz and I have created a temporary contract, purely communication based.”

“Thanks for the heads up, Faust.”

“Anytime…how strong do you think that demon near us is?”

“Stronger than Noelem.” She felt her heart drop. She looked back at Noelem and Cabana.

“Faust said that demon is stronger than you, Noelem. Do you agree?” She asked. Noelem’s shoulders fell slightly.

“Without a doubt in my mind.” An eerie silence fell over the four of them for a long while after that. Morale and hope had become an all time low.

The tunnel began to shake around them, small stones began to fall from the roof above them..

“We need to go, it’s gotten too impatient!” Noelem yelled, “Vasuki do the runes say anything specific that might help us out here?!” Audra glanced over to Vasuki as he ran his eyes over the walls for a moment.

“I-I don’t know, it doesn’t seem like any of this is going to help us move any faster. We need to run!” They felt wind coming from behind them, Audra had to cover her eyes from the amount of air. Cabana pushed her forward.

“Go! I can keep the tailwind up for a bit!” She claimed.

Tornado-like winds were pretty helpful for them to move a good amount of distance, the tunnel was long and winding but no matter how far they got Cabana seemed to be able to keep the wind pushing them forward, even if they weren’t actively moving it was still strong enough to keep pushing them. Just as they entered another open room they came to a stop and the tailwind vanished. Cabana breathed heavily and leaned against the wall, the wind had to have been up for a good half hour but the progress they made had to have been inhuman. Vasuki brought his palm to her forehead, a cold light came from his palm.

“You okay, Cabana?” He asked, she nodded.

“Too much magic. I’ll be fine.” She claimed. Audra grabbed Cabana’s bag, opened it and produced her waterskin. Giving it a quick shake she found it empty, opening the lid she created pure water from the humid caverns, and filled the container. She handed it over to the tired warrior.

“Drink up, don’t let a drop go to waste. We made a lot of ground, we should be fine right?” Audra glanced over to Noelem.

“I…don’t know. I can’t feel it anymore, but I wouldn’t put our guard down.” He claimed. Cabana grabbed the waterskin and downed the whole thing in one go before speaking.

“We can never put our guard down. No matter how safe we feel.” As if on cue the caverns around them began to rumble again.

The roof above them began to crumble, cracks forming. The runes that surrounded the walls began to turn red, before cracking and fading to match the stone they were covered in. A blood-chilling cry sounded from above them. Noelem’s skin began to harden into the black armor that she had been so familiar with from Lusalene’s visions. It traveled up from his feet, covering his entire body, and ending with two large obsidian-colored horns. His abyss of a mouth opened up with a large cracking sound. A black greatsword formed in his hand.

“Run to Larkinge!” He ordered, pointing the giant blade towards one of the tunnels. Before anyone could move, however, the roof caved in. Dim sunlight illuminated the passageway. And the demon that had been chasing them followed within.

Even though it was in a crouched position it still dwarfed all of them. The demon’s skin was like a dark brown leathery substance, its jaw was wide with sharp canines coming out of the top and bottom it seemed to look as though the bottom was sectioned off into threes. A plate of armor covered its forehead that spread out into two giant horns. The left arm was made from what looked like blackened bones, with a giant flat claw at the end, while the right arm looked like that of a dragon’s talon. A large blade extruded from both wrists and attached at the elbow with skin that seemed similar to that of a bat wing. The demon's legs were bent like a goats but instead of hooves ended with four talon-like claws.

Time seemed to come to a stop as the demon came to a standing position, standing in the natural light above them it was easily ten feet tall. It reared back, its jaw cracking open, with a section on either side of the lower jaw flapping open as it let out a blood-chilling roar with a mouth that revealed little more than row upon row of blade-like teeth.