The fruits of my labour hadn't paid off, room after room, there was nothing but darkness. From time to time I would come across something abnormal like a monster or animal were hostile. But eventually after clearing so many chambers, I finally caught up with the adventurers again.
Had I actually gone in a circle just to come back where I started? The group were fighting some gigantic crab with a rock shell. It had spiky protrusions all over its body and could make spikes out of rock that would fly towards the adventurers. Although most of those dangerous fast projectiles were deflected by Steve swatting them away with his hammer.
I watched from a distance as they worked together to distract the crab and land a finishing blow on it. Green crab juice flew all over the place as Steve smooshed the crab's head.
Everyone looked at Steve after being soaked in crab innards but Steve just laughed it off.
They walked towards the lox redeeming altar to prepare to get their reward for beating the boss.
But when they had finally stepped onto the altar they seemed confused, it was as if the place wasn't working. Alicia looked around to see if they had missed any monster but she found nothing.
But finally, it worked, they glowed yellow, and it was as if they had been granted some more power. Steve picked up Alicia and celebrated with her as they had cleared yet another dungeon. Roxy, lowered her head, distancing herself from the group before giving a weak grin as if she was proud of herself. While they were celebrating Alicia felt like the warriors weren't making any noise, as if they had vanished.
As she turned her head back towards her teammate, her eyes widened in horror as she saw the twisted body of one of the warriors on the floor. The head of Sett rolled across the stone plates. The warrior's friend who was celebrating with him stood completely still with eyes widened.
There was blood sprayed all across his friend's body, as he looked down at his hands, he started to tremble, before releasing a gut-wrenching scream that echoed throughout the chambers. Roxy and Steve turned their heads towards the warrior and looked down at Sett's headless body spilling out blood on the floor that seeped into the ground.
And before they could say a word, a bolt of lightning descended upon the altar, knocking everyone away. Steve held his daughter close to him while Roxy crashed into the stone pillars.
When everyone had gotten up, there was some skinny humanoid monster with lightning marks etched into his skin. His nails were long and sharp like knives. In one hand he held the other warrior's head. The monster wore human clothes and had short black hair. He had piercings all over his body and sharp yellow eyes that reminded me of lightning.
"Yuck… human blood."
The head of the warrior he held, glistened yellow with sparks of electricity emitting from it before it exploded.
Alicia finally opened her eyes to confirm if actually what she saw earlier was the truth. As she scanned the room, she finally found it, the headless body of her two friends on the stone floors.
It was as if she hadn't accepted reality yet but stared intently at their bodies not even realizing the monster was there. She had completely zoned out completely forgetting the situation she was in.
"ALICIA! SNAP OUT OF IT!"
Her dad called out, before giving her a good slap across her face. She finally looked at her dad holding her red cheek.
"What is going on…"
"It is a dragon…"
Across the room, Roxy screamed out while shooting spells at the monster. Her eyes were filled with hatred and the thirst for vengeance. After using everything she had, she collapsed against the pillar, but as the mist cleared, the Dragon had vanished.
She closed her eyes and smiled but in that satisfied state, she felt like knives were against her chin.
Opening her exhausted eyes she saw the yellow eyes of terror staring into her soul. The nails dug into her skin as they lifted her head.
"A pretty girl like you, shouldn't be this aggressive."
"ROXYY!!!"
Steve charged towards the dragon at full speed, it was as if he was prepared to sacrifice his life for his remaining party members.
The dragon punched Steve's chest-plate but it didn't deter him, he still readied his hammer and slammed it down onto the Dragon. But as quick as Steve swung his hammer the Dragon had vanished.
Behind Steve stood it, holding its sharp nails against Steve's back.
"I am the lightning Dragon… Wolte!"
He grinned before piercing Steve's armor into his back. I heard coughs that were filled with blood as Wolte removed his hand from Steve's back.
Roxy fell to her knees in despair. Her eyes were an ocean of emptiness, she knew it was over, and her short life was about to come to an end. Across the room, Alicia sat with tears in her eyes watching her dad getting stabbed. Alicia started weeping, but then the Dragon kicked Steve's body into the wall, with a thud, armor clattering, his body lay next to his daughter.
"It is an unlucky day for y'all humans."
Wolte once again turned his attention towards Roxy.
"Your head would make a fine decoration for Her Majesty."
Roxy's head slowly looked up towards the Dragon. She started shaking her head before tears started to come out of her eyes. But before Wolte could say anything more she stopped crying to say:
"Go fuck yourself."
Wolte smiled before raising his hand towards Roxy.
Wolte felt a cold presence spreading up towards his arm. Trying to move his arm he realized that his arm wasn't listening to him. Looking down at his arm he saw it slowly turned grey and hard and then he looked towards Roxy. But in front of his eyes was not Roxy, it was the Aeon of Freedom.