The entirety of the surface trembled before the might of the portal's destruction.
Trees shook rapidly, and rocks shifted back and forth, falling and rolling down like the people and animals caught in the vortex.
One by one, people rose up from the ground. Dust and dirt had coated their clothes. However, many hadn't cared.
"By the heavens almighty, we have returned!"
Many were relieved to be alive.
As Asahi arose from the floor and wiped the grime off his clothing, he found that he was miraculously located near the stone bridge leading to the golden light.
(Is this the end? Are we finally free?) Asahi mumbled.
During the conclusion of The Vortex, Asahi noticed that a dark figure stood far in the distance. He hadn't known her eye color, nor had he known what clothes she had worn. Nonetheless, he detected a familiar resonance beaming in her.
As the silence continued, Kendra and his followers race over to Asahi, smiling with relief.
"My lord, you have done it!" A blonde one said.
"You took us back!"
"Our prayers have been answered!"
While they all cheered and rejoiced in relief, Asahi smiled and answered each of them with quiet replies.
. . .
However, despite being appraised, Asahi felt guilty in some way.
Deep in his mind, he felt an itch whisper to him. A thought that implied someone else deserved to take the praise.
Just before he could lose sight of her, Asahi spotted the exact shadowy figure he saw before swiftly disappear in the corner of his eye.
Only a little could be identified from her, but Asahi could catch two details.
An arm holding a magenta luminance in her palm and an S mark emblazoned on her hand, wearing five black rings.
(Is that…)
After he blinked, the sight of the figure vanished. Asahi scratched his head and noticed that Kendra was near him. Though he wanted to discover who the person was, he couldn't create a clear depiction of the mysterious being. And so, following what he had said before, Asahi took one step at a time and conversated with his friend.
"Goodness, Asahi! I never thought we would ever escape that place!" Kendra said, glowing haste with happiness. "Thank you in advance. I don't know where we would have ended up if it wasn't for you."
"I should thank you as well," Asahi replied as he took a deep breath. "You have made me realize something."
"And what's that?" Kendra said with an attentive stare.
"That I should do stuff one step at a time." Taking a step back and tilting over to the distant golden light shining through the cavern's pores, Asahi adjusted his tone to a serious one. "I never realized this, but my hopelessness came from being overwhelmed. I was so fixated on many things that I just wanted to give up. Too many solutions."
However, as Kendra leaned over and paid full attention with wide eyes, Asahi's tone gradually became optimistic with a slight grin.
"But now I realize that focusing on one step will still take me to the same destination. So that's why…." After one last sigh of relief, Asahi grabbed Kendra's arms and embraced her fully, tapping her back and whispering to her ear. "I will focus on you next. We need to escape this place before it's too late. And I know just how to do it."
Not long after, he answered, the followers gathered around him, interested in their lord's words.
"Lord Asahi, are you being serious?" A man masked with a veil asked with open body language. "Are you truly going to make an escape for all of us?"
Asahi nodded quietly.
"That's what I plan to do." He replied as he collapsed his hand under his chin. "But I don't exactly guarantee an escape. The Guardian is still lurking around the darkest corners."
Keeping the strength of Asahi's embrace, Kendra smiled through tears. Throughout all of this pain and surrender she had experienced, she would never have expected this to happen to her. Nonetheless, she had never felt this much joy because of this encounter.
As they slowly parted from the lovely embrace, Kendra drew a breath and gently released it, turning her face to the distant golden light with Asahi.
"Thank you, Asahi." She whispered as they began their journey up the stone bridge. "Thank you for everything you have done."
* * * * * * *
Even with everything Kendra, Asahi, and the outside force had done, something horrible still managed to leave a last breath of life in the Nameless Caverns.
As Asahi, Kendra, and the followers peacefully climbed up the stone bridge, unaware of the figure following behind them, a cyan light flashed out from the dark corners of the underground expanse.
"What's that?" Kendra asked, tilting her head to the side.
Asahi's curiosity was quenched at the sudden disturbance. Despite that, they continued into the golden light until they couldn't ignore it any longer.
From pointed fingers, a person composed of fractured pieces of steel and swirling starry essence approached Asahi and Kendra in brutal steps.
Its voice was sealed shut, and its body trembled with repetitive gestures. It was more broken than before.
"Are… are you serious?" Kendra grumbled with a pinched expression. "How are you still alive?"
Asahi clenched his jaw and hurriedly grabbed Kendra's wrist, both disbelieved and annoyed by The Guardian's sheer persistence.
"After all the attacks you had endured… it's still NOT enough?!" Asahi said with an escalating voice. "What do you want from us?"
"I want… both of you to meet my Lord. The Omnipotent God of All. Whether that be by force or by death." The Guardian replied as it tried to reorganize its muddled, fractured parts. After Asahi, Kendra, and the others took another step back from The Guardian, it tightly clenched its fists and crushed a portion of its broken cyan heart. "I will not stand here and fail. The Greater Result is fated and destined to happen."
The stone bridge shook and fractured with its last, desperate stomp.
With each footstep, Asahi and Kendra stepped away from The Guardian with tight shoulders, unknowing of what to do.
The Guardian silently conversed with a colorless frequency.
It grounded its feet on the stone floor and threw its spear into the air, forcing all particles to exude out of the glowing tip. Now it became apparent to Asahi.
(This is The Guardian's Last Stand.)
Throughout the many hours of fighting, The Guardian, Asahi, and Kendra discovered many things.
They tried to fight, counter, and block the knight with and without weapons.
They tried to use their magical powers and even stop a vortex of epic proportions.
And despite all of that, none of their actions could eclipse the matchless power of The Guardian.
With no other option left, Asahi and Kendra drew near to a desperate resolve.
"RUN!"
They fearfully sprinted the bridge toward the golden light.
Abruptly, Asahi and Kendra's eyes went feverish from the blinding colors.
Their bodies danced to the deadly rhythm of The Guardian's swift swings. They jolted and strafed the bridge left and right, feeling the ground behind them crumble into the pit.
When they reached halfway through the stone bridge, The Guardian whisked across the air at the speed of sound and immediately changed positions, severing a fragment of the stone bridgelike a knife cutting through butter. Rocks flew out; a chunk of glitter spewed out like a geyser, exuding into the air.
A crash followed, stunning Asahi and Kendra as they balanced their bodies at the sharp edge of the torn bridge.
Leaning forward, their eyes widened to a small gap made by The Guardian.
Beneath the cliff, a bottomless pit stood, leading directly into the unknown. Within the floor of darkness, stalagmites emerged. One wrong step, and it would be over for them. But as the gap between now or never shrunk, Asahi hurriedly grabbed Kendra's hands and kept his eyes forward.
Taking deep breaths, Asahi and Kendra tightened their grip and closed their eyes.
Without knowing, they felt their feet part from the ground.
The air around them hurriedly pushed their hair back, tickling their necks and raised goosebumps. Both their bodies weightless with their hearts beating in harmony.
Although their grip may be firm, their arms flailed like ribbons.
Once Asahi and Kendra opened their eyes, they felt their weight returning to their bodies. Loud echoes sounded with their impact and sweats of relief poured down in rivers on their faces.
"We… made it!" Kendra exclaimed as she hoisted and stretched her arms.
"Yes." Asahi said as he hastily pulled Kendra toward the hole caving into a tunnel. "We don't have much time. The Guardian could be here any moment…"
Just as Asahi's warning escaped his mouth, The Guardian pierced its spear through the ground, forcing blue and cyan essences to surge inside stone like a stream of water.
Asahi and Kendra reeled back and hunched over into the opening, desperately crawling toward the light with all their might. A feeling of claustrophobia entered their minds as they felt the intimidating aura shine behind them. Hope was far and dim.
"Do not attempt… to escape your fate!" The Guardian said with their words trailing off brokenly.
Both their leg muscles tightened. Their bodies shook uncontrollably. With each second they crawled in the closing space, the time span of their breaths gradually shrank until their faces turned blue.
Their arms were crushed and snapped like twigs. Crimson splattered and scattered across the stone, their bodies squished after one last suffocated breath.
Luckily, this was a mere vision of what their gruesome fate would be.
In reality, they escaped the tunnel and found a group sitting down around the staircase.
. . .
"Lord Asahi, where were you?" A familiar man with messy gray hair and crimson eyes asked as they noticed both their lord and their friend dropping down in exhaustion. "We have been waiting for you as you asked."
Before Asahi's gray eyes stood a fair amount of familiar faces. Some were children, others were women, and few were men. Immediately, he turned away and covered his mouth, disbelieving of his followers' patience.
(They really do care about me.) Asahi mumbled as he straightened his posture. (They… listen.)
Although being a foreigner, Kendra could understand Asahi's disbelief. She never had expected for the followers to be as patient as this. However, as they started analyzing the room, Asahi's eyes shrunk at a realization.
"Wait." He said as his eyes traveled back and forth the enclosed space of stone. "Some of you are missing."
Upon his reaction, the room fell into a disturbing silence.
"Where are the others?" Asahi asked again, showing a worrisome tone.
As some looked away, starting to well up tears in mourning, the gray-haired man stepped forward and expressed with a depressing sigh.
"They… they left us." He said with a gulp of regret. "They left us for the surface. They left us for the light. They didn't listen to us."
"Few of them actually did." Flavia added as she stepped in coldly. "They wouldn't listen. We tried our best to persuade all of us to wait for you, but…"
She tilted her head down and suppressed a sniffle.
"...but it just never worked. I'm sorry my lord."
After a long pause came in-between her last word,
"What happened up there?" Kendra asked them as she slowly leaned her head toward the golden light.
Despite asking, none of them answered. People instead turned their heads away, masking their emotions in front of her and Asahi.
Just before the thought slipped out of their heads, Asahi hurriedly snapped his fingers and warned.
"My followers, I know how much you grieve. However, someone is chasing us."
"You didn't defeat that knight, my lord?" A girl said with a disbelieving, high-pitched voice.
"Unfortunately, no." Asahi said as he took a bow of disbelief. "It will get even worse if all of you refuse to listen to me."
With that, he rained the attention of all ears as a rumbling followed behind him.
"If you want to go to the surface, we have to stick together." He said as he stepped back, straightening his posture. "We can't afford to stand here and watch others die. Do you understand?"
Captured with the sense of urgency from the flow of his words, all of the followers nodded their heads in unison and stood in front of the golden light. Their attention was caught at the nick of time.
"Asahi," Kendra screamed as she hurriedly dashed toward the escalating terrain. "Behind us!"
Immediately, the wall collapsed in harmony, unveiling The Guardian like a stage curtain. It showed a gesture before stabbing the earth with its spear.
At that moment of realization, everyone fleet footed up the stone staircase, dodging an expanding blue luminance. Some of them were caught, while others were far ahead, blocking the golden shower of light in the staircase.
"Don't try to escape!" The Guardian yelled as it finally showed emotion.
For once in this long battle, The Guardian, despite looking really alienated from this world; evoked and presented a pure human emotion of desperation.
Nonetheless, that wasn't enough to grab Asahi and Kendra's attention. They kept their faces locked and anchored at the expanding ribbons of light, feeling the breeze swiftly enter the escalating underground terrain. They heard the birds chirp on the other side, followed by peaceful sounds of wilderness.
At last, Asahi and Kendra felt the warmth of the sunlight touch them once more.
However, during their ascension, Asahi heard a strangulated voice enter his mind. It was deep and profound, matching a familiar face he had heard many times before in Linuxinia.
("Asahi…") He said with echoing distortion.
"Telos?!" Asahi said as he dodged the swift strike of The Guardian. "You're finally awake?"
("You're… not…") Just as the voice finished his sentence, a scream of terror resounded over the staircase.
Asahi scratched his head, noticing a large group of people gathering around the edge of the border between the underground and the surface.
Noticeably, as The Guardian slowed down, he noticed a crown of the skull poking out of the ground. Then, as he continued further he found full human skeletons scattered across the staircase of stone.
They looked fresh, in which their flesh had been noticeably removed. Pieces transformed into piles, until finally he approached the border of the staircase and fresh soil.
"My lord!" Someone screamed with a trembling voice. "Don't come close. There is…"
At that moment, when Asahi and Kendra pushed the others away from his path into the golden light he noticed a magical floating transparent wall of cyan luminance appear from thin air. Their bodies phased through the wall as if it was slime, feeling the breeze push their hair. Trees and tall extreme lush hills surrounded them. They were nowhere close to Toivo's mansion.
Though they both had made it past, when Asahi turned around to see if the others had followed them, he witnessed an absolutely terrifying sight. Piles upon piles of skeletons were just behind the barrier.
He witnessed his people desperately reaching their arms out through the barrier before their skin had melted off completely and consumed their body until they were nothing but dust and bone.
Both Asahi and Kendra's faces turned ashen white in horror. Their eyes appeared damp and white as they watched The Guardian slowly approach the screaming people.
"PLEASE!" Flavia screamed as she tried her best to pass through the barrier. "Please, save us my lord!"
It was at this moment that Asahi discovered the truth. Those skeletons did not belong to anyone else but his followers. His heart sank into fear as he remembered what that man had said when they first passed through the tunnel.
"They left us. They left us for the surface."
When he tried to phase through the barrier again, Asahi felt a painful sting consume his body. He felt dizzy, nauseous, and terrified, taking a step back. He grabbed onto Flavia's hand and forcefully pulled her out of the barrier.
However, just as just a tiny speck of her skin came into contact with the transparent wall, a strange essence spread and melted her body like a candlestick; the strange glowing liquid consuming her hair, eyes, mouth, arms, and legs until her skeleton and shield inevitably collapsed onto the stairs.
Beads of sweat slipped off his forehead as he took a step back into the surface, watching as his followers stared at Flavia's corpse in pure terror.
"No." Asahi said with a trembling voice. "N-No… No no no!"
It was at this moment, that all hope for his promise to his followers eventually faded.
When he had seen both Flavia's corpse, and all the other corpses resting behind the barrier, unable to touch the light of the surface, Asahi realized that he and Kendra were the only ones who could pass through the barrier. He understood The Guardian's motives and what he meant by breaking the laws of this world.
And now, seeing The Guardian stand behind the helpless terrified group of people, Asahi collapsed onto his knees and witnessed as each of them succumbed to the embrace of its spear with despair.
"NO! Stop!" Asahi and Kendra screamed as The Guardian continued to toss the people into the barrier, melting their flesh one by one. "Don't kill them!"
Suddenly, the same deep and profound voice hollered at Asahi in his mind.
("You're NOT supposed to be there!") Telos screamed with pure desperation lingering within his echoing distorted voice. (You are breaking one of the most crucial and important laws of your world! Never, under ANY circumstance delve into neither Depths above nor below!")
"Huh?" Asahi mumbled tremblingly as he forced himself up. "So.. that's…"
(I refuse to break my promise!) Asahi screamed in his mind as he felt the ground beneath his feet tremble.
Before anymore could be said, Asahi tried to pass through the barrier and strike The Guardian with all the weakness he had.
However, just before his fingers could even touch the underground border, a golden and cyan beam of cosmic light ferociously engulfed every corner of the escalating staircase, forcing all the earth to collapse into itself.
Rocks crumbled, the skeletons were crushed, and even The Guardian was caught in the lethal light, leaving nothing but a barricade blocking the entrance to The Nameless Caverns forever.
When Asahi tried to step back, feeling every single memory of his encounter with The Nameless Caverns flash before his eyes, a visible thin strand of strange black essence flowed outside of Asahi's head.
With each footstep, Asahi felt all memories of that encounter slip away, leaving nothing but fragments of it behind.
* * * * * * *
As the smoke from the terrifying event ceased, Asahi and Kendra noticed familiar faces sprinting toward them from afar. Canyon, Toivo, and Brunella.
"Asahi!"
Asahi's feet were rooted into the ground, clueless and questioning where he was. Kendra stood there and she held a face of pure horror, remembering everything about the events.
With just fragments of memories of The Nameless Caverns left behind, Kendra was the only person who could remember everything. And if things were to continue where they were going, Kendra would serve as the key to solving the upcoming problems that Asahi wanted to fix.
(End Chapter)