STAGE ELEVEN: A WORLD WITHOUT BARRIERS
Avice barged into the top room of the tower, shattering the leftmost wall upon collision. "Is this the room you're talking about, Kirin?" Alaric asked, looking around the dark room with only a couple of illuminating crystals to light the walls. Kirin himself, was surprised to see what's inside. The 'strictly forbidden' room, heavily guarded, even from the members of the Aethelmaer clan, is not what he imagined. It was surprisingly wide and empty, with nothing but a gigantic silver bowl embedded on the floor and inscriptions that reminded them of celestial script, all over the ceiling.
"Everyone, look at that!" Alyon alerted, pointing at an emerging shadow from the far corner of the room.
"Wait! That's—" Kirin, Freyja, and Alaric immediately recognized a familiar face. Tall, with long, unkempt dark brown hair and matching dark brown eyes. Ahrin Aethelmaer, the eldest son of Aneurin and the current master of the Aethelmaer clan emerged from the shadows. His robes tattered, facial hair almost made him unrecognizable. He was barefoot, and his entire body covered in letters, some of them, Freyja recognized as celestial. He was far from the Ahrin they knew.
"Ahrin, what are you doing?" Kirin asked, slowly walking towards his brother. But Ahrin only gave him a dazed look. "The Lenfiare…" Ahrin mumbled, with a raspy voice. "You… will not…. stop me." He raised his hand, and a stream of thick, dark aura wrapped around Freyja, and flung her against the wall, almost shattering it. Freyja coughed up blood, but Afra's vigilance saved her from sustaining serious damage. "Lenfiare! Be careful! His aura is unlike any other!" Afra warned, before the barrier disappeared.
Alyon attacked Ahrin this time, focusing his phreinian aura into a conjured whip. He was skilled enough to wrap his aura around him, but to their surprise, Alyon's aura dissipated upon contact with Ahrin. Like Freyja, Alyon too was flung against a wall, but Alaric reduced the impact by summoning layers of wind barrier behind Alyon. "What kind of aura is that!?" Alyon clenched his fists, suppressing his trembling. "Must, stop. Lenfiare." Like a machine, Ahrin's responses were direct and repetitive. Thick dark aura with streaks of white surrounded him, in tentacle-like forms. The tentacles seemed to have minds of its own, attacking them non-stop, regardless of where they run to. Kirin, Alaric, Alyon, and Freyja, couldn't get close.
"Lenfiare, he is probably using Amos' power." Astrid came out of the medallion, in his human form. "Let me try." Upon receiving permission from his master, Astrid charged at Ahrin, skillfully evading the tentacles going after him. He was able to get close, but not enough to damage Ahrin. He was violently thrown away, his body dissipating before it could even touch the walls. "So, how was it?"
"It's definitely Amos' aura but its mixed with something else. Part phreinian, part celestial. Be very careful, Lenfiare. I haven't seen anything like this before." Astrid warned from inside the medallion. Ahrin especially aimed at Freyja, not giving her a second of rest, or a chance to even draw her rune blade.
"Kirin!" Alyon called, "Your aura and mine, let's try to merge it and hold him back. That should buy time for Lenfiare!"
"Alright, let's do that!" Kirin agreed, summoning dark aura blades. Alyon summoned his dark aura whips and merged it with Kirin's blades, before they simultaneously attacked Ahrin. Surprisingly, Alyon's strategy worked. It did hold Ahrin's tentacles back. Alaric stood in front of Freyja, summoning five layers of wind and ice barriers to protect her. "Go, Freyja!"
With the small time she had, Freyja closed her eyes and concentrated her aura in her hands. She called the celestial rune-blade, Astrid. "Now go to hell!" With the strongest blade in her hands, Freyja rushed straight to Ahrin, and sliced off the tentacles going after her. But when she did, a strong spark, like a thunderbolt, suddenly exploded in the middle of the room, in the gigantic silver bowl. Freyja jumped back to see what it was.
"What was that!?"
Freyja attacked Ahrin again, and every time her celestial aura comes into contact with his, lightning bolts and explosions happen in the middle of the room. Every time it did, the tower shook, and the tower's roof started collapsing, the celestial script etched on the ceiling glowed.
"Freyja's aura is triggering something." Alaric thought, looking around. "That man is no longer human. He's a complete slave of the aura controlling him." Alyon said, reading Alaric's thoughts. "He is merely moving in response to Lenfiare's aura."
"Wait!" Alaric remembered something. He recalled the day he first saw Freyja went out of control in the Runerich tower, her white aura consumed and controlled her. It was exactly how Ahrin is now. "Alyon, is the aura controlling Ahrin a mix of celestial and phreinian?"
"Watch out!" Alyon fended off an incoming attack at Alaric before answering. "Yes. But that's not as simple. It is a unique mix. There's something else in there."
"Kirin! Alyon! Alaric! Buy me some time!" Freyja shouted, as she jumped back, away from Ahrin. Alyon and Kirin stood in front, fending the attacks off with their combined aura. Alaric stood in front of Freyja, summoning layers of barriers to protect her.
Freyja took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"ARIA! AFRA!" She called, her golden eyes illuminated, as two of her guardians appeared in their beast forms, almost surrounding the entire room. "ASTRID!" She called a third one.
Afra dissipated, forming concentric barriers in the entire room, centered at Freyja. Aria too dissipated, forming a barrier around her, constantly healing her injuries. And finally, Astrid dissipated and shifted into his celestial rune-blade, made even stronger by Freyja focusing all of her aura in her hands.
As Freyja charged straight at Ahrin, the dark aura tentacles melting upon contact with her aura barrier, the tower shook more and more violently, the inscriptions on the ceiling glowed bright, and bolts of lighting and explosions continued at the center of the room. But Freyja didn't stop. She aimed straight for Ahrin's heart, and pierced the celestial rune blade right through him.
"She got him!" Alyon rejoiced, Kirin and Alaric were just taken aback. The tentacles started jerking around violently, and the letters on Ahrin's body glowed so bright, it almost blinded them. "Freyja did not draw the sword. She pierced him further, refusing to let go."
The ceiling collapsed, revealing the gigantic swirling dimensional portal over them.
Kirin, Alaric, and Alyon started looking around for an escape, fearing the collapse of the tower, while Freyja single-mindedly focused on eliminating Ahrin completely. Finally, a couple more minutes, and the shaking stopped. But the inscriptions remained glowing bright, and the bolts of lightning from the middle of the room continued.
The aura surrounding Ahrin started dissipating, revealing Ahrin's shriveled, lifeless body on the floor. There wasn't even blood that came out of his body anymore. He had been dead for a long time, even before they came to Hawsdark.
Freyja recalled Astrid, Aria, and Afra in her medallion, before falling down the ground on all fours, exhausted. She struggled to chase after her breath, before standing upright, still with trembling knees.
Soon, a mass of white aura, released from Ahrin's corpse, piled up before them. The aura took the form of a young man that appeared to be in his late twenties. He had long, pitch black hair and deep blue eyes, his limbs covered in celestial script.
"Lenfiare…" The man spoke, bowing before Freyja. "It's been a while."
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