(From the point of view of Violet Belladonna)
***
A soldier stopped running, his feet sliding on the stone floor of the catacombs as he turned his body away from us. "Go! Go!" He said as I looked back at him, not stopping to run, gazing at the back of his arm with respect for his valor. Without stopping, I waved three of my orbs to come forth, and as I did so, a sturdy and transparent wall appeared in front of the soldier, stretching from the ceiling to the walls, down to the ground—not even a single crevice left untouched. Those who are coming on the other side of the wall would not be able to cross the barrier, but anything and everyone in the warrior's side can—they can swing their sword and shoot an arrow, and it can pass through the wall with the greatest of ease. Therefore, he can swing his sword at his enemies, but those who follow our tracks could not touch him. It's completely and utterly impossible to penetrate, I pride myself over my barrier creation, and though there is no barrier competition in Luxael, I am proud to say I will definitely nab that victory. If it needs to happen, that barrier will protect the lone warrior forever, and it will remain unbroken, unmoved, untouched, unscratched.
With that barrier, I have depleted the few remaining mana energy I have in my body; the only thing I can do now is to coat a strong barrier around the princes and my orbs. Aside from that, if I really push myself to the limit, I can still retain the magic that's keeping my orbs afloat.
"NO MORE!" A scream from a distance upstairs reached my ear. I looked back and saw that my barrier is still intact. "NO MORE PLEASE! YOU'RE TEARING MY BODY APART, NO! NOOOOOUUUGHHHH-"
"THE WALLS HAVE MOUTHS!" Another man shouted with a cackle.
I ignored the agonizing scream of the soldiers who lagged behind us. It was as if hell itself had risen from the earth to give us a kiss of death.
However, we're almost there. Our destination, we've almost reached it, we're almost there! Just a bit more, and we are almost inside the royal mausoleum in the grand catacombs of Izrecael. Around us are tombs plastered on the walls with the names of unimportant people printed over it, of course, to show the world it is, indeed, their grave.
However, the one that stood a few meters from us is different. With two gigantic pillars around it, a gate of a basic and simple structure with no design engraved in it yet large, almost towering both of us even if we combined my height with Sir Damia's, lies before our reach. Above it is the arched letters forming the name of our glorious empire: "IZRECAEL," and a carved figure of the empire's sigil lies on top of it. The base of the columns shouts our pride for our might never falters even in the afterlife. Meanwhile, the shafts, now filled with holes and cracks, carries a drawn history of how the pioneers of Luxael made the empire of Izrecael, one stone at a time.
Sir Damian pushed the gate with all his might, and although it's budging, it's taking a really long time to open. I could have helped him, but I really won't be much of a help with two of the important princes of our empire on my hands. Instead, I used my orbs to push the door with Sir Damian with all the remaining will power in me as much as I can.
Sweat dripped from our bodies, and Sir Damian grimaced as he pushed the giant gate with all the strength he could muster with his bulging body, though compared to those other soldiers I've seen, Sir Damian's power is near impossible. The fact that this man who was dying of his wounds earlier could push the weight of a thousand tons with his own two hands is enough for me to hail him as the strongest man I had ever seen in my life, and believe me, I had seen countless strong men fall before my very eyes. This one is undisturbed, his strength unstoppable, his power uncontested.
However, all those efforts might be in vain.
BAM!
The door swung open.
A powerful gust sending me forward in a tremendous force that probably broke a few of my bones helped us open this metallic structure of monolithic proportions. I was about to exclaim in excitement in this wondrous act of divine providence, for I cannot explain the arrival of this powerful gust aside from it being a call from divine authority, intervening these hell spawns from laying a finger on the princes.
However, when the corpse of the soldier I protected with a barrier earlier slid towards my feet along with the sound of the distant cracking of the wall I created synced with the sickening growl of the hounds from afar, I knew god doesn't favor us.
"I will not surrender."
I ran. I ran as far as I could.
There were countless tombs inside this mausoleum, but I knew exactly where the tomb of queen Lara lies.
"Sir Damian, it's around here…" I noticed he's not with me anymore. From far in front of the mausoleum gates, there he stood. Ready to die, ready to kill, ready to protect.
However, I have seen the fate that befell those who were as foolish as Damian Carmichael.
"It was nice to meet you, Sir Damian," I said, trying to suppress my tears. "it was goddamn nice to meet a man as great as you."
I ran again as I heard the howling of the hounds and the cry of a lone warrior, a steadfast soldier.
As the sound of gnawing and growling feeds the violence all around, I saw it—a tomb on the farthest side of the mausoleum, right on the northwest corner, two lion statues hanging from each side.
The tomb of queen Lara confined itself in a mini-mausoleum surrounded with flowers that never wilt, made by steel that never rust, while the material of the tomb itself is that of dark mud that never breaks.
As I entered the small mausoleum, someone cast a shadow on top of my body, covering the tomb in darkness along with its wake.
"There you are, sssssssssssssssssweetheeeeaaaarrt!"
A woman appeared with her head drooped like melted glass, her back shaped like the bottom of a ship, and her head leaned forward. Her ass perched upward to overemphasize the voluptuousness of it, and her feet were half-crouching while her knees pointed from one side to another.
I looked up to see a tall, no, giant woman wearing a torn black wedding dress with an insane amount of scratches and tears ruining its beautiful ruffles and floral embroideries. A huge scratch created a slit at the center of the bottom part of her wedding dress, revealing her unappealing and her genitalia that reeked like the smell of a dead fish. The giantess carries a giant glowing crystal on its back, its gleam casting a pitch-dark shadow, eating the light away from where it lands, bathing me with its enormous weight. A shadow could make someone fall on their knees, but this one is enough to make my feet wobble like a weak jelly.
She cackles. Her doing so made me raise my head to look up at her visage, and oh my god, she looks horrible! Disgusting, even! Her face melted, as in its sagging a lot on her left side, while the other side is only a bit sagged. Her grin reveals darkened teeth, yellowing in color, pointed and sharp, but most of it is missing. Her eyes bloodied, veins appearing from around her pupils, with a thick and dark layer of black eye bags sag beneath them. An in-depth look at her fucked up face reveals that she is wearing makeup—an abundant amount of pink blush on over her cheeks, a violet eye shadow begging to be removed, a poorly placed contour on her nose, and a white powder covering her face and neck. Marks of blemishes, a considerable amount of wrinkles especially visible around her lips when she smiles, and a lot, and I mean, A LOT of acne peeking all over her skin—not just on his face, all over her. Not even those thick layers of white powder could hide it. She's wearing a veil I wish she wore at this moment, or she wore every second she breathes.
Her eyes looked as if they were about to pop the soonest possible moment and would surely fly from out of her skull and splat towards my face. If I'm not carrying the princes, I will shield my face using my arms already. Her smile is a genuine display of her utmost happiness, but I cannot say if this applies the same way to her eyes. As her smile grew bigger, her eyes opened wider, popped even further, its color got even redder, the way it shoots its gaze at me felt even crazier.
Her belly is sticking out of her wedding dress, but her arms are too slender for the gown, making it look loose on her arms. However, her belly is so bloated up that it's almost tearing the side of her stomach. I can see from inside of her see-through wedding dress the number of violet veins popping from her body, making her black wedding dress look like it has a few violet designs.
"I beliiiiieve, you have something I neeeeeed." The giantess said as she took a step inside the mausoleum, as she spoke her spit rained from all over me, making me covered in a disgusting goo with an even more disgusting smell.