Chapter 12
Lysaria felt her breath coming shorter, Descending the stairs took an effort of will, the dark essence clouding the air made her want to gag. Lysaria felt disgusted at the thought of the essence entering her body and pushed more essence than was necessary into her aura of dark green.
Telling herself it must be the dark she did her best to ignore the darker colour of her essence Lysaria really didn't want to think about why her essence was changing colours. Judging by the pale faces of both Thana and Dakar Lysaria was not the only one who noticed the colour of her essence.
Pushing those thoughts aside she did her best to push back the persistent darkness. The further down the stairs they went the heavier the pressure, Darkness could be seen cracking and eroding her aura quicker and quicker. Before long the darkness might be able to penetrate the layer of essence she was holding around them.
Lysaria could feel the call of the dark whispering telling her to let down her shield to accept the power. Sheer determination pulled her further she wouldn't let whatever was doing this go unpunished, those who used the power of the dark always used it for harm and never for good.
Lysaria felt a hand on her shoulder yelping she spun around and almost cut Dakar who was pale-faced and right up next to her. He said," I'm not sure how much further I can go, the pressure of this dark essence feels like I'm drowning." Lysaria looked over at both Dakar and Thana who were both gasping and looked terrified, neither of them looked as though they could continue deeper.
Lysaria felt the call again pulling on her mind a caress on her thoughts pulling her deeper. She felt anger and a desire to crush whatever was creating the dark, Lysaria said," follow close and stay in my aura or the darkness might try and trap you.
Feeling as though walking into a strong current Lysaria led the way, her mind became cloudy and she didn't notice when her friends fell behind. all she could think about was confronting whatever was creating this foul substance. One foot in front of the other her aura lighting the way Lysaria stumbled down the final set of stairs.
The dark was pushing her aura back and now she couldn't hold her aura more than 2 feet from her body, if she held out her sword she could poke the edge of the clawing dark. The pull of the enemy grew stronger and her body felt heavy, her sword no longer feeling light, She dragged her feet forwards not even noticing the two dead corpses of the enemies in the pitch black as she passed.
Rumbling water and a soothing mist washed over her, the sound deafened the room she entered and she walked in the darkroom. Darkness grasped at her hands doing its best to enter the last foot and touch her body. Lysarias efforts to hold back the dark were failing, the best she could do was hold back the dark.
the smell of moss and wet earth permeated the air, feeling cool water rushing around her feet Lysaria trudged forward resolving in her mind the thought of ending this being of darkness. Whatever it was needed to be ended the being was undoubtedly evil. She stumbled and splashed to her Knees her legs felt week the water was somehow drawing essence from her pulling the light from her body.
The dark drew closer and grasped her body, She shuddered, clawing darkness began entering her being consuming the light. Pushing back and feeling the resistance of the foul being ahead of her she felt horrified and disgusted, Lysaria felt the will of this being and Slashed her essence charged blade through the air.
Her mind burst into pain and nearly passing out Lysaria collapsed to one knee, She felt the pain she had just caused the enemy, whatever it was the being was attacked her physically and mentally. Feeling her essence fading, Lysaria hands shook and her legs quivered, her mind throbbed as she prepared a desperate move and pushed 90% of her remaining essence out at once creating an aura that covered the room. The enemy of darkness shrieked in her mind sending her into unconsiousness.
Her mind throbbed after waking up on her back blinking rapidly she shivered to feel the ankle-deep rushing water rush over her. Lysaria blinked her aura was pushing back the dark and the screaming in her mind was now only a low throb still a testament to how much damage she had caused. Feeling blood trickle from her nose and the hot coppery taste of blood in her mouth Lysaria knew she needed to fight harder.
Darkness was fading from the room her last attack must have wounded the creature but she still felt the throbbing pressure of the been trying its best to enter her mind and crush her like a bug. Crawling to her hands and knees Lysaria look up and shuddered, A crystal floated a few feet from the ground and pooled darkness. She could feel the hate and rage of the will in the stone pressing on her mind doing its best to crush her.
After her previous attack, she could see small cracks that leaked ooze from an odd crystal, and the haze of shadowy darkness was now only covering part of the room. Lysaria Channeled her essence and sent a short slash at the crystal, to her dismay shadowy darkness drifted like smoke forming into a shield and blocking the strike only allowing a small crack to form on the crystal.
Lysaria crawled through the water noticing that she could see her breath in the air and the water was turning cold as ice. Her hands started to shake, she could hear the water hitting the back wall as it started cracking turning to ice, This was Abserd she thought the light damned crystal was freezing her. Pushing past the cold and doing her best to hold her sword in her numb grip Lysaria channelled essence to her sword, from mere feet away she slashed at the Corrupted crystal.
Her sword fell from her knumb grip as her blade met solid shadow blocking the strike, She dug in the already freezing over water grasping in desperation for her weapon. After all, she realized this creature of darkness was trying to trap them in its shadow and keep them here permanently. The creature's attempts to crush her mind were tearing down her defences and making her nose flow with blood.
Lysaria realized she wasn't risking just death she was risking permanent death, this creature of the darkness was trying to trap her and her friends in its shadowy embrace permanently and destroy their minds. Even if an angel's body was immortal their minds were their weakness, destroying their minds would be worse than suffering the final death by demons.
Lysaria thought of any measure she could think of, regretting bringing her friends into this. Light take her, she brought them to the only place that could kill them in the ceremony, Lysaria shuddered, the thought of this creature of darkness delving into the minds of Thana and Dakar before tearing them apart shook her to her core.
Deciding anything was better than letting her friends die Lysaria took in a shuddering breath, tasting blood she looked over her tattered and blood stained front of her shirt. Making up her mind she stepped forward protecting her outstretched hand with shimmering essence and grasped the malicious crystal shimmering with dark essence.
Feeling drowsy as her head throbbed and body felt heavy, her mind and body being attacked by the pain Lysaria channelled her essence. Channelling essence into her aura again and instead of pushing out, she tore at the essence of The crystal doing the unthinkable and drawing in the darkness. Her body shuddered and her inner light darkened taking the small amount of essence she had already acquired and pulling in the darkness from the malicious crystal.
In the last effort to kill her the water at her feet froze solid freezing her feet in ice and the pants of her clothes, Her aura of dark green light wouldn't let the water crawl any higher pushing back the cold. Sweating and shivering lysaria drew in the disgustingly pleasant energy of the dark, Her hand gripped tightly to the being of darkness as the crystal began crumbling falling into dust. The pool of darkness hanging in midair hurt her eyes to look at.
Looking away she gritted her teeth biting her tongue, now that she had started and surrounded the essence with her aura she had already given it a path allowing the substance of evil inside. Her once lustrous bright aura shimmered sputtering as her very being was corrupted changing from one of the light to one of darkness
Lysarias body shuddered she felt the rush as her wounds were cleansed healing pleasantly foretelling of the illustrious power of her newfound darkness. Feeling disgusted with herself Lysaria glanced over her aura, she could see perfectly in her shrouded shield and felt even more tainted the darkness around her felt pliable and ready to move on command. It's ok she told herself as Thana and hector ran around the corner, judging by their looks of relief at the sight of her she had made the correct decision.