The previous day passed by in a rush of anticipation for Nessa. The anticipation for the closure she's been looking for. If she could complete the quest and prove it to the guild, maybe then will others be able to see her worth. If she could just make everyone see her worth, then maybe Wright will see worth in her as well. Those thoughts raced through her and pushed her forward through the darkened tunnels where few decided to tread. A bright purple light hovered over Nessa's extended palm as Fausm trailed behind her. Her light barely illuminated the path ahead of them through the silent pitch black, leaving everything beyond the miniscule light an utter mystery to them both.
"That Ilz kid," Fausm spoke up as he followed Nessa's light, "He's moving in from the opposite end of the tunnels, right?"
"He should be. His team is with him now," Nessa responded quickly and quietly. Her focus was dead set on the path ahead of her, still shaded in the darkness outside of her magic. She watched for the tracks of her brother, who scouted in the dark tunnels ahead of them.
"You seem nervous, are you sure you're willing to do this? Plan or not, Revilis won't go down easy." Fausm continued.
"Nervous? Maybe. But I'm more than willing to see this through," Nessa responded with confidence. Nessa looked down at her other hand. With a slight twitch, a red current ran up through her veins and reached to her finger tips. Revilis' mobility was his greatest weapon. If she could restrain him successfully, then victory would be in her grasp.
Nessa's thoughts were quickly interrupted as something lashed out from the darkness ahead of her. She recoiled back in shock, only to notice a moment later that it was merely Mair returning from his scouting. He appeared out of breath while he rested within the light.
"Mair, what happened? Did you see Revilis?" Nessa inquired as she tried to ease her brother out of his breathless state.
"Well, not exactly. But I did find something weird further down the tunnels." Mair motioned for his teammates to follow as he leapt back into the darkness.
Nessa hesitated and checked on Fausm. He gave her an understanding nod, and then both followed Mair deeper into the dark. Nessa kept the light of her hand ahead while Mair led the way.
As the adventurers strayed further from the standard path, the tunnels became more narrow until soon they walked single file through what they could only assume would be a dead end eventually. Nessa was close to questioning Mair when a glint of light caught her eye ahead of her. It was a shade of light not like any of a star crystal she's seen before, so it must've been something else. She approached the light ahead of her while dimming her own magic to get a better look.
Soon enough, Nessa reached the end of the tunnel. She walked past Mair and Fausm to witness an expansive cave decorated with ponds filled with water glowing a brilliant light pink. Streams of the glowing water poured from sections of the ceiling, further lighting the cavern with its magnificence. Accompanying the beauty of the cave, families of large moths fluttered about. They scattered the area in a golden dust or clung to the walls to drink at the water that flowed down in streams.
"It's beautiful," Nessa whispered under her breath, "I had no idea such places like this existed outside of the city."
"It's a rare sight to be sure," Fausm added, as the three of them continued to observe the scene, standing on the elevated ground from the mouth of the tunnel, "These waters are apparently a result of excess mana from star crystals. No doubt there must be a mass of them above us."
"A mass of star crystals? Don't you think Revilis would want to show up there?" Mair questioned his sister.
"It would be a fair assumption, let's move out and try to find a way up." Nessa moved to take a step forward but was stopped by a distant echo of footsteps deeper within the cave. "Wait! Something's approaching." She held her hand behind her and backed into cover with her two teammates joining her into hiding.
The echoes of the footsteps drew closer and closer, barely masked by the sounds of running water and flapping wings. Through the intense dread, a figure turned the corner from further down the cave and stepped into the glowing light of the water surrounding them. As the pink light illuminated the figure, it was revealed to be Revilis. He wandered slowly with unnatural grace while his eyes remained shut. He outstretched his arm and let one of the moths perch upon it. Revilis then brushed his hand beneath its head, easing its stress and setting it off to flutter away once more.
Mair peeked out from cover and spoke in a quiet whisper, "Should we attack yet?"
"Not yet," Nessa stared down Revilis, trying not to be noticed yet, "Wait for my signal."
They waited as instructed, observing the aeriie as he appeared to waltz aimlessly. His steps slowed until eventually he stopped. Nessa's heart raced as she feared that he would soon notice her, but his attention turned up to the cavern wall across from her instead. He stared at the upper section of the wall, motionless with his eyes drawn to nothing in particular. Nessa considered making her move while his back was turned, but the artifact was clearly nowhere on his person. While she considered her options, Nessa felt a shift in the earth around her.
The trio momentarily panicked as they tried to keep their footing and remain concealed amidst the sudden quake. As the cavern continued to shake with tectonic pulses, the upper section of the wall that Revilis looked upon opened itself up. The earth molded itself into the mouth of a tunnel with a short balcony jutting out from it. Shortly after the trembling stopped, a figure of a cloaked man stepped out from the tunnel and stood in the shadows of the newly formed balcony. The mysterious man's hooded face tilted down towards Revilis as an eerie silence befell the cavern.
"Ah, Lord Ignus," Revilis bowed politely to the man on the balcony, "It is a pleasure to see you well and thriving. What brings you here, good friend?"
The man referred to as Ignus pulled down his hood in response. Though his features were still shrouded in the dark, a clear outline of a glowing scar running completely down the left side of his face illuminated his presence ever so slightly.
"You know why I'm here." Ignus' voice was hoarse yet dignified. He spoke in a tone that demanded respect, using it to continue to talk down to Revilis. "I expect you fulfilled your end of the bargain and brought the artifact here?"
"That I did." Revilis replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
"And yet you do not have it with you now. I expected more from you then to twist the deal we had made. Did my devotion to the coven truly mean nothing?" Ignus questioned.
Revilis smirked as he answered. "Were you truly a devoted ally to me and my people you would not use it as leverage to pursue your own desires—"
"The future I seek is one that will benefit the aeriie!" Ignus interrupted in an outburst of anger. His foot stomped upon the balcony he stood upon, pebbles and dust rained from the ceiling and the streams of water paused briefly as if the underground itself feared Ignus. He sighed and continued. "Enough. I know the law of your people. You fulfilled the bargain, but twisted it. So what did you do?"
Revilis' smirk dimmed following Ignus' outburst. "The artifact is here in the cavern. I'd suggest you go find it."
Without any desire to argue any further, Ignus turned and stepped into the tunnel. The earth shook once more as the balcony folded back into the tunnel. The earth molded around it, returning the wall to the way it once was.
Before Nessa could properly react, Revilis turned and glanced in her direction. "No point in hiding now, come on out," Revilis called out in his typical sing-songy tone.
Nessa cursed under her breath. "Stay behind me," She told Mair and Fausm before standing up and out from cover. She walked out from the tunnel down a slope to stand on equal ground with Revilis with her teammates standing a few meters behind her.
"So you still desired the truth then?" Revilis looked directly at Nessa, "Well there you have it. That man, Ignus, desired the artifact for himself. He sought its power and now it is within his grasp."
"Why go through this to begin with?" Fausm questioned, "You clearly have a distaste for the man. Why bother doing his dirty work?"
"Unfortunately, it was not a choice I was allowed to make," Revilis solemnly spoke as he drew a handful of gray scales from beneath his suit and looked upon them, "Ignus was once a friend, and as my friend I owed him many debts. As he desired, this was his way for me to repay those debts." Brilliant color returned to the scales that Revilis held and soon they flew from his hand and lodged themselves back into his wings.
Nessa watched as the scales settled back into Revilis' wings, but upon closer inspection, there were still a few gaps in the otherwise perfect patterns upon them.
"If your debt to this Ignus is finished," Nessa added in, "Then tell us where the artifact is before he takes it for himself. If he has been responsible for the star crystals darkening around the underground as you claim, then I can't imagine that power should be in his hands."
"I'm afraid I can't help so easily." Revilis drew daggers between his fingers, glaring down his targets through the gaps in steel. "I am still sworn to Ignus until he succeeds or fails, such is an aeriie's word."
"Don't say we didn't warn you then!" Mair impatiently readied his pike and charged down the aeriie. Nessa and Fausm quickly worked to catch up with the sudden charge, preparing magic and following after respectively to cover Mair's recklessness.
Revilis defended with ease against the fury of Mair's jabs and swipes. Once an opening appeared in Mair's stance, Revilis lashed out with a slash of the daggers between his fingers. The quick attack was cut short by an intervening block from Fausm's broadsword. Even with the two warriors giving their all into attacking Revilis from each flank, neither could land a decisive hit against the aeriie.
Tiring of the exchange, Revilis stood upon Fausm's sword as a leaping point to soar above the adventurers. His wings stretched in glorious beauty, illuminated by the fluorescent waters surrounding him, and soon began to fly further into the cave. Nessa, meanwhile, flipped through her tome for a spell she prepared for the sole purpose of an encounter with Revilis. She twisted a violet spell between her palm and tome. A thread of mana weaved between her grasp as it was stretched and tugged. She sent the long chain of mana to grapple Revilis before he could flee. The spell wrapped itself around Revilis's waist, momentarily preventing him from flying away as Nessa gripped the other side of the chain.
Despite her best efforts to keep her target grounded, Revilis's flight inevitably overpowered Nessa, dragging her on his path deeper into the cavern. She held firm on the spell latched onto Revilis, even as her feet skidded against the cavern floor and through the fluorescent ponds and streams. Despite it all, she still held true as to not let the aeriie escape. The speed at which she was dragged through the cavern was far more than what she was expecting, creating a troublesome distance between her and the rest of her team.
Thinking quickly, Nessa knew she had to stop Revilis before he got any further. Her tome's pages flipped on her own and in one decisive movement she brought the base of the chain and her hands to the ground, sealing the chain down with a rune. Revilis's flight tugged at the rune that kept him chained to the cavern floor. He ceased his flight and looked back to Nessa in annoyance.
Nessa observed her environment before re-engaging with Revilis. The both of them stood on a narrow stone bridge hanging over a pool of water. The walls around them were decorated in star crystals that flashed and pulsed with the threat of going out permanently. She briefly turned behind her, not yet seeing Fausm and her brother.
"I understand you still owe that man a debt, but if the Solferre Halberd isn't brought back to the guild, there's no telling what destruction its misuse can bring." Nessa stood her ground over the rune.
Revilis smiled. "When we last met, I recall you took offense when I said there was no reason for you to keep trying. Allow me to reevaluate. If you keep moving forward to oppose Ignus, you will die. If dying a martyr is your purpose, or if you hold such will that you believe you can stop him, then continue as you desire."
Nessa's heart stopped for a moment. Behind Revilis's smile he held grave tidings, but not in the form of a threat, but of a warning. Whether he himself truly feared Ignus or just worried for Nessa was not of her concern. She had already made her decision, and so Nessa decided to keep walking towards Revilis with her tome at the ready.
"I suppose, I was wrong about you," Revilis spoke softly, "Maybe you were even wrong about yourself." Without another word the aeriie gripped the chain attached to him and yanked in such a way that the thread would trip up Nessa off the bridge.
Caught off guard, Nessa stumbled off the stone bridge and fell to the pool below. Her form disappeared in the fluorescent waters with a seemingly miniscule splash.
"Nessa!" Mair finally caught up just in time to see his sister fall into the water. He rushed to the edge of the pool while Fausm stepped onto the bridge to approach Revilis, whose chain slowly dissipated off him. "I- I just saw her fall in, where did she go!?" Mair looked deep into the pool. He could see the shallow bottom of it clearly, yet Nessa was nowhere to be seen.
Nessa found herself cast out of a different pool of water somewhere else entirely, tumbling to the ground dizzy and disoriented. She couldn't explain it, but it felt like she never even touched the water, and her dry body was the very proof of that. Picking herself up off the ground, Nessa took a good look around at the new yet familiar surroundings. There were more star crystals that weren't yet dimming, and the water appeared less diluted in this tunnel of the cavern.
As Nessa tried to figure out what had happened, she heard the stumbling of light footsteps approach from down the tunnel she was in, accompanied by pained heavy breathing. Her attention was quickly drawn to the source as she saw Ilz, clutching at his body and limping towards her.
"Ilz!" Nessa rushed to his side, kneeling down to get a closer look at his wounds. One puncture wound stood out to her as something completely foreign to her. Regardless, she outstretched her palm over the gash and let crimson energy flow through her fingers. Ilz's body repaired itself as assisted by Nessa's blood magic. "What happened? Where's the rest of your team?"
"We got split up," Ilz choked out, "Everything went dark, and suddenly we were under attack by something. I desperately tried to find them, but I just can't."
"Gods," Nessa said in a faint whisper, "Alright, stay with me Ilz, we'll find them." Nessa lifted up the far smaller reptir and began to walk in the direction that Ilz came from. Though she made some distance down the tunnel, it was only a matter of time until a sudden pulse of fear washed over her and stopped her in her tracks. The star crystals around her flashed with pulses, again and again, as if a heartbeat ran through the cave itself.
Nessa couldn't move her body. Her gaze was fixed before her on a wave of encroaching darkness. One by one, crystals dimmed until they were left with nothing, threatening to consume the tunnel in its entirety. She watched helplessly as the familiar white scar revealed itself in the shadows.
Ilz quickly noticed the presence of the man in the shadows and responded by aiming his wand. A pale blue beam of light shot out from the reptir's wand, dead set on Ignus's form. The beam illuminated the path it sailed on, and it hit the wall of the tunnel as if Ignus was but an illusion, a nightmare fabricated by the pair of adventurers.
"We have to go! Now!" Ilz leapt out of Nessa's arms with panic clear in his voice. Though he had a slight tilt to his walk, Ilz still hurriedly tried to escape. Nessa finally snapped out of her daze and followed after him. She illuminated her hand in a violet mana to better light their path ahead as the crystals around them flickered in their final moments of life.
"What did you do with my sister!?" Mair clutched his pike as he glared down at Revilis. "Where is Nessa!?" His grip was shaking, but he could hardly notice in his state of rage.
"She's within the cave system. She sought to challenge Lord Ignus, and so I granted her that wish." Revilis calmly responded to Mair, still standing on the bridge across from Fausm.
"Then take us there too." Fausm demanded swiftly, keeping his sword at the ready.
"I'm afraid I can't do that. I can not take any more of a side than I already have. Either Nessa will succeed and return things to as they were, or Ignus shall succeed, and the world shall be forever changed. Progress and stagnation. The will of the determined against the hope of the naive. Truly, it is no scenario that I would ever seek to change." Revilis smiled in pure glee at the prospect of it all.
"I don't care about the little game you're playing." Fausm heaved his sword behind him in preparation. "You'll take us to them, or I'll beat that information out of you."
"Has that at all worked before in your favor?" Revilis commented as he drew daggers to defend himself.
"It will now." Fausm concluded the discussion with a swift charging swing at the aeriie. Revilis responded aptly by dashing right through Fausm, seemingly evading the strike with ease while also striking Fausm with his daggers. Revilis opened his fist, revealing his daggers not to be in his grip, but instead the blades were left deep into Fausm's chest and abdomen behind him.
The reptir struggled for a moment to cope with the pain of the three stab wounds. But once he pulled through, he turned himself around and faced Revilis once more. The aeriie reached beneath his jacket for another set of daggers, but abruptly stumbled off balance to one knee. His gaze shot to his pained side, he had been hit without even noticing. Revilis ran a hand over the wound, but quickly retracted when mere contact with the gash sent a burning sensation through his palm.
He shot a sinister glare at Fausm. "Your blade. I could've swore it wasn't iron."
"You're right." Fausm pulled the last of the daggers out of his body, dropping them to his feet. "My sword is only coated in an iron powder. An aeriie's deadliest poison, isn't that right?"
"The weakness of an aeriie is not one so easily known. Your experience is truly your greatest weapon, adventurer," Revilis sighed in defeat, "I'll tell you where they are, and that's it."
Ilz and Nessa rushed through the tunnels. They evaded the twists and turns while the earth rumbled threateningly beneath them. Stalagmites shot out from the ground to try and slow them down. Their chase was soon cut short as they hit a dead end in the form of an expanded cavern room.
"Gods no," Nessa muttered, "What do we do now?" She tried desperately to hide the panic in her voice.
"Hold the tunnel as long as you can. I'm going to try and transport us to safety!" Ilz stumbled to the center of the cavern clearing and drew his wand across the ground to start on creating an elaborate rune.
Nessa set up a magical barrier against the entrance of the tunnel. She could hardly see anything beyond the violet shade of her shield, nothing besides the dark void that Ignus was no doubt using to his advantage.
While Ilz drew more and more of the rune upon the ground, he tore his guild emblem off his uniform and clicked it within his grasp. The mana within the emblem desperately tried to reach contact with the guild as it pulsed with a faint light.
"Request for teleportation circle access! This is an emergency, we are cornered and far outranked, requesting teleportation access immediately!" Ilz begged through to the connection that the emblem brought to the guild. Ilz received no response, and soon he noticed that the light of the emblem faded out into nothing.
Nessa tried to look back at Ilz when her barrier was struck by something out of her vision. She snapped back to attention, but there was no mark of anything attacking her. Again, her barrier was struck, this time she heard the faint hissing whisper and saw some sort of crystalline spear pierce through the darkness and shatter itself against Nessa's shield, breaking it slightly. Nessa desperately tried to repair the section of the barrier that was damaged but another spell struck her shield, damaging it even further.
With the barrier close to collapse, Nessa was sure it would take one more assault before she gave in. However, her barrier was suddenly reinforced by an overwhelming cyan surge of mana. She looked at her side to see Ilz putting in the same effort to keep the barrier standing, with all his might. They both held strong, as best they can, the onslaught of summoned spears could not match their combined strength.
A glimmer of hope shined for them as they felt like they might've been able to fend off Ignus, but that glimmer was quickly extinguished as Ignus's glowing scar shone beyond the barrier. They watched his hand gracefully touch the barrier before him, and it was rapidly washed over in a layer of frost that threatened to destroy the barrier in a snap freeze. The sounds of ice cracking under sheer pressure struck utter fear into the hearts of the two adventurers.
"Nessa! Get back!" Ilz yelled as he narrowly shifted a segment of his magic to shield his friend, just before the barrier shattered like a thin layer of ice, piercing Ilz's frail body with the shards of the broken ice-covered mana. Nessa had only a moment to react as Ignus's shadowy form stepped into the dark room.
Ilz fell to the ground. Nessa tried to reach out for him, but in that instant, Ignus waved a staff in her direction. A flurry of pointed rocks rained upon her from the earth, piercing directly into Nessa, hitting her legs with the majority of the attack. The impact of the spell caused Nessa to stumble down the slope from the tunnel's entrance, collapsing atop the unfinished teleportation circle, helpless to watch Ignus step closer towards Ilz.
"Ilz! No!" Nessa screamed. She tried desperately to stand up, but the stones that lodged into her legs made her writhe in pain and collapse to the ground again and again. Ignus stood over Ilz's fallen body, his hand outstretched over the reptir. A swirling frost flowed from Ignus's staff to his palm as an ice spike forged itself in his grasp.
The spell escaped Ignus's grasp, striking Ilz down with one fell blow. Nessa could only see the silhouette of Ilz's neck pierced by the spike of ice. While blood flowed down the slope towards Nessa, tears flowed down her face as she clenched her fists over the cavern floor.
"No...Ilz…" Nessa sobbed uncontrollably, unable to process everything that had just happened. The excruciating and stinging pain in her legs faded out as her thoughts flooded with emotions she couldn't comprehend. The one friend she made at the guild was gone, and there was nothing she could do. Her limbs felt heavy and she could feel the need to close her eyes draw nearer and nearer. It was only a matter of time until she was next, so she took solace in knowing that her brother was safe from harm.
Interrupting her grief, Ignus spoke in the elvish tongue to Nessa, but in the state she was in, she could hardly grasp even the basics of what he had just said.
"What?" Nessa croaked out as she looked up at the monster before her.
Ignus repeated, but still Nessa's poor grasp on the elvish language hindered her understanding. After a few moments of silence, Ignus spoke instead in the Centralan language.
"I see that as a half breed you've lost touch with our culture and customs."
One of the star crystals in the room flickered back to life, revealing Ignus's true visage. An older dusk elf with crimson diamond eyes and a face carved by a glowing white scar.
"Do not fear, I no longer have any reason to kill one of my own," Ignus stared down upon Nessa with a look of sorrow and loss, "Soon enough, the future will be that for the dusk elves alone."