Raven's eyes suddenly fluttered open. She stretched and yawned on the large bed before sitting up as she groggily rubbed her eyes.
"Hmm?"
She suddenly unbuttoned her pyjama shirt and pulled it down slightly, revealing her bare upper body.
She looked at the player mark on her upper arm just above her biceps and realized it was glowing.
She closed her eyes and focused on the feeling. She knew who it was, she could never forget how he felt.
"What in the world are you doing Azzy?"
Raven thought for a second and remembered that today was supposed to be the portal expedition for the academy. She guessed that it was probably daytime where he was on earth.
Raven suddenly smiled and shook her head slightly.
"No matter. Whatever it is, he'll be fine"
She no longer questioned it and tried to get back to sleep, but after a few minutes she suddenly realized that the mark was burning with an even more intense glow.
She looked at the mark with mild surprise, dozens of scenarios passing through her mind. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but it wasn't exactly common.
She couldn't help but wonder how the others were reacting to this. Probably quite calmly, after all,they did get into quite a few interesting situations as kids.
After a few more failed attempts at sleep, Raven decided to just sit down and wait for it to calm down. She still believed that Zen could deal with whatever was happening himself, the mark being partially the reason for that. It was more than just a fancy tatoo after all.
********************
"What's going on?"
Jade asked, looking at Zen and Neo who were currently glowing.
"I don't know, but let's get them out of there"
Maximilian quickly moved to grab Zen and Neo, however as soon as he got a little bit close,he suddenly felt like he had crashed against a hard surface and was immediately bounced back.
"Dude, are you okay?"
"What happened?"
Xavier and Jade asked respectively.
"I think there's some sort of forcefield around them"
"Finally"
A female voice suddenly reverberated throughout the entire room.
"Finally you're here"
The three of them looked around, confused as the sound seemed to be coming from every angle.
"I can sense your apprehension. Do not worry,you are safe here my friends. No harm shall come to you"
"Who are you? What's going on?"
Xavier asked, confusion painted on his face.
In a welcoming and gentle tone, the voice replied
"Ah,yes. Pardon my rudeness, you must still be confused. I can definitely sense the curse is still in effect. I....WHAT IS THIS?!"
The entire dungeon both inside and out, trembled as all traces of warmness and friendliness disappeared from the voic.
"WHY IS HE HERE?!"
They all quickly grabbed onto whatever they could to steady themselves.
"Whhaaaat is gooooiiiing onnnn?"
Maximilian suddenly noticed something with his enhanced senses. On the top of the obelisk was a blue orb that occasionally glowed and dimmed,these actions lining up with the words and tremors.
"There!" He pointed to the crystal. "That's where it's coming from"
"The crystal! Aim for the crystal!"
As soon as the tremors stopped, they all immediately sprung into action, throwing whatever attacks they could at the crystal, unfortunately each and every one of them was stopped. Jade even tried opening a portal inside the forcefield but it didn't work.
"What are you doing? We're waisting valuable time." The voice spoke with anger but it didn't seem directed at them.
"Void,Hunter,tell me, where are the others? We don't have much time. He could awaken from the trial any minute now"
Maximilian and Xavier looked at each other dumbfounded. Not only did this voice speak like it knew them, It even knew their last names.
They suddenly realized that the voice had only called out Maximilian and Xavier. Although this seemed unimportant, it was a major clue which Maximilian immediately pointed out.
"By the others, do you mean, Leonel,Draco-"
The voice impatiently interrupted him.
"Yes,them. Where are they? We're running out of time,i can already feel him regenerating and growing stronger "
"You know what? It doesn't matter. We can't wait any longer. You must hurry. I can't lower the forcefield, but that shouldn't be a problem for you, right,Void? It's the one with black hair, hurry!"
"What exactly do you want us, to do?" Xavier asked cautiously
"What do you mean? Kill him obviously!"
The crystal answered
"What?"
"Excuse me?"
"Huh?"
"Stop hesitating. He may look like a normal person, but it's him i assure you,or his bloodline at least. I would never forget the destroyer's aura"
"Hey listen here. We don't know who you are,or what you're trying to pull here, but we're not doing shit for you!"
Xavier spoke out rashly, believing that this crystal was trying to play on his intelligence .
Maximilian usually would have stopped Xavier whenever he got like this, but for once,he actually agreed with his friend. He may have still been suspicious and a bit untrusting of Zen, but killing him had never even crossed his mind.
The dungeon suddenly started trembling again, probably to show the crystal's anger.
"Damn curse....is.....is that how you all feel?" The crystal said, sadness evident in its voice.
They didn't reply but the looks on their faces made it obvious what their answer was.
"I see"
Xavier had had enough of this and once more tried to attack the forcefield to release his friends.
Just like before, the attack bounced right off, however, unable to take the repeated damage, his gauntlets both suddenly shattered, falling off his arms.
Jade wanted to stop him, but Maximilian held her back. Something that the crystal had said stood out to him. It had said that the forcefield shouldn't have been a problem to Xavier , with the crystal already knowing to know so much about them, Maximilian was willing to bet it was right.
Xavier didn't let the destruction of his gear slow him down as he punched the forcefield with his bare hands. The second his bare hands made contact,it was clear something was different,as unlike before when all attacks rebounded, Xavier's fist slowly passed through the barrier, like it was passing through gelatin, while simultaneously causing small but visible cracks.
"Enough! I'm sorry for this my friends, but I can't let you do that,I have to keep our world safe. All the sacrifices we made will be meaningless if he doesn't die. Forgive me"
The large door to the dungeon which they had initially closed upon entering suddenly burst open, revealing that the beasts had never left and were patiently waiting outside the dungeon, and the moment that doors opened,they all started charging towards them.
Jade and Maximilian panicked and tried pushing the doors shut, but there seemed to be a strange force keeping them open.
"Grrr! It's no use" Maximilian let go, panting slightly.
Xavier was about to come over to help when
"Stop. You're the only one who can touch the forcefield. We'll keep the beasts away,you get them out of there and we'll find a way out together"
Although he had spoken with an air of confidence, Maximilian honestly had no idea if surviving was even possible at this point.
They had been fighting all this time and the exhaustion was starting to show as the adrenaline rush wore off, they had lost half their original numbers and were already slightly injured. All signs were pointing to them not surviving this fight, however they still had to try.
A part of him was still questioning how things had gotten so bad for them in less than two hours on this planet.
That's right, they had been fighting for almost two hours and were very exhausted.
He looked towards the unconscious Zen. He remembered all the legends and stories he had heard of players changing the course of fate with simply their presence, and always having tricks up their sleeves. He'd never thought he would say this, but he was now hoping that those legends were true.
He brandished Neo's metal beast staff which he had picked up a while back and prepared for battle. He had been forced to abandon his spear when they were climbing down the mountain.
Maximilian once again evaluated their situation: they were about to fight a horde of beasts exhausted and wounded. Only two of them had functioning weapons, none of them had combat abilities, and half the team was unconscious. In the end he could only sigh.
The only thing that seemed to work in their favour was that the dungeon door was only big enough for one beast at a time.
Maximilian watched as the beasts charged towards him and stood his ground. Jade immediately nocked an arrow shakily, firing an arrow into the head of a beast, missing her target which was its eye, and only succeeding in slowing it down.
"Ugh" Jade decided to berate herself for her own incompetence later as she nocked another arrow as fast as she could while Maximilian went on the offensive.
Maximilian stood ready as the first beast entered the dungeon. He held the staff in front of him, waiting for it attack, but was suprised when it jumped over him, and started heading for Zen and Neo.
Maximilian originally wasn't worried due to the barrier, but when he saw the beast attack the barrier and actually make a small scratch, that small bit of hope disappeared. It seemed the barrier affected humans and beasts differently.
Maximilian could now either abandon his advantageous position to go get rid of it,or stay here and leave it. Luckily he didn't have to choose as an arrow struck the beast, piercing it's vulnerable eyes and lodging itself in its brain. Although it didn't go very deep,it was enough.
Xavier followed up with an attack of his own before punching the bottom of the arrow, driving it even deeper. The beast fell to the ground, twitching. It wasn't dead, but it was pretty darn close.
Xavier growled,annoyed. He had been forced to abandon the forcefield to take care of it. Now he had to start all over again.
The next beast made it clear that that it wasn't that the beasts weren't attacking them, they simply made Zen a priority.
The crystal glowed with a dim light as it watched them struggle. Although it couldn't possibly show any emotion,it gave off an inexplicable sense of melancholy.
'ha, even now they still haven't changed. If only HE was here to see it'
A few minutes later
Maximilian at this point was covered in blood which mostly didn't belong to him. The solid steel alloy beast staff had broken into two parts and both were in his hands,Jade had run out of arrows and had resorted to using her ability to create opportunities for Maximilian and help him in any way she could, although,her heaving and panting made it clear she would soon be out of Aether and be unable to use her ability, Xavier was still trying to get through the barrier and was significantly closer to them than when he started.
"You all don't have to do this. It pains me to watch you struggle. Just leave,you could have if you wanted to"
The voice said, sounding like it was about to cry.
Maximilian looked around and suddenly spoke to Jade.
"Jade....go grab Sable and wait for my signal"
"W... what?"
"Just do it"
Jade clenched her fist. Why her? Why was she the one that had to run away. It was because she was weak. She knew it, same as everyone else.
In her rage,Jade yelled at the crystal.
"Why are you even doing this? What do you have against Zen? Who do you think he is?"
"Who do I think he is? Whether or not he is him,or his descendant ,i don't know, but In his blood and soul lies the very essense of the destroyer, The one who came here from the great void,the bane of reality and slayer of gods, the world breaker, and the false King . His name is death,doom and destruction.....His name is-"
Xavier had finally gotten close enough and wasted no time punching the Crystal, cracking it and sending it flying.
"SHUT. THE FUCK. UP!"
Xavier suddenly felt his ability stop working to protect him as the forcefield disappeared.
"Yes! Guys I got it"
"Hurry"
Maximilian felt like the moment the forcefield fell, the beasts became even more ferocious. At this point,he wasn't even killing them,he was just defending himself and slowing them down.
Xavier bent down to pick up Zen. Strangely he just stayed like that for a second before releasing him.
"What?"
A look of disbelief was plastered on his face as he tried to grab Neo, but the same thing happened as he realized that he couldn't lift him up, like he was glued to it. In fact he felt like his aether was getting drained with every second he spent trying to pull them. At this point,he was almost empty.
"Guys! Something's wrong,i can't move them"
"What?"
That little distraction was all that was needed for the beasts to push through his defenses as they rushed into the room.
Xavier immediately tried his best to defend his friends as he showed his back to the beasts and tried to cover them.
....
....
....
At that moment, something in that room had regained consciousness.
*Drip*
A strange black slimy substance suddenly appeared out of seemingly nowhere and created a thin line surrounding Xavier. The substance suddenly hardened to a bone like structure.
The beasts fangs didn't stop and bit on the bony structure, barely cracking it and failing to break it. After stopping the beast in its tracks, the substance returned to its previous gooey form and slid into its mouth.
The beast suddenly began to struggle,twitch and convulse. It's eyes suddenly became a milky white for a second before being covered by the black substance.
The beast suddenly started roaring erratically and attacking other beasts like it had lost its mind.
As it bit one beast,part of the black substance would ooze out of its mouth into the open wound it created. The same thing would happen to that beast and the process would repeat itself.
After almost all the beasts had stopped focusing on the humans Black discreetly slithered back onto Zen's wrist.
If he was conscious right now and looked at the bestiary, he'd probably see something like
[Assimilation completed]
[Minor evolution completed]
Throughout all the chaos,Jade managed to find Sable. As she was about to lift her up, she suddenly saw a pair of glowing red eyes staring at her.
Teara welled in Jade's emerald green eyes as she saw Sable awake.
"Y-your'e awake. H- how are you feeling?"
Sable however wasn't listening as she stared at a specific area on Jade's upper body and slowly licked her lips.
Jade suddenly felt Sable's hand on the back of her head. She didn't know what was going on but didn't resist as Sable slowly pulled her head down towards her
"S-sable?... what are you...?"
"Shhh"
Sable shushed her. A strange smile adorned her lips,and put her other arm around Jade. Whether it was to calm her,or lock her in place was.....a matter of opinion.
When there was only an inch of distance between them, Sable's eyes suddenly widened and cleared up. She suddenly pulled Jade down on her at once, unsheathed her katana and immediately swung upward.
Black blood, followed by the head of a beast landed on Jade's back thoroughly drenching her.
Sable brought up Jade's face to look at her and asked worriedly.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah... thanks"
Sable wanted to ask why Jade was acting weird when she suddenly noticed the lingering soft feeling on her lips.
"D...did we....?"
"Y-yeah"