Thethia: Underground Dungeon

• Rowan •

When Thunder brought them into the underground dungeon, warm, stale air invaded his nose. An overwhelming feeling of unease stirred within him when he imagined Elianna being locked down here for the past few days. The humid and filthy surroundings were almost unbearable. The conditions of this underground dungeon were inexplicably inhumane. However, more than the conditions she had been put through, what worried him more was her at the current moment. Thunder had mentioned that something had happened to her and he needed to save her before it's all too late.

They turned a few corners and everyone started to feel lost but Thunder knew his way around. Clearly, he had navigated through this dungeon countless of times to memorise the way through the whole labyrinth. When they finally reached a huge metal door, Thunder chanted something in Thethiac and the door creaked opened.

"Who's there?" Wynston spun around and saw Thunder, Rowan and his knights.

"Theron," Wynston's expression darkened, his voice hard. "I knew you were up to something. But how did you know of here?"

Thunder ignored him totally and his widened eyes stayed fixed at somewhere towards the back of the room. Rowan followed his gaze and turned his head sharply towards the sounds of constant whispers. The whispered sounded foreign, yet familiar. It was the constant verses that haunted him night after night. Then, when he found Elianna, he saw that her gift was drawn out of her and her orb was fusing with another. Tracing the path, he found out that the receiver was Elizabeth. Damn, at this rate, both of them will die.

In a power transfer ritual, the receiver can only be the stronger individual. Obviously, the stronger one between the two of them would be Elianna since she was the only who held the Goddess' blessings. An incorrect transfer would result in the death of two. Foolish King. Rowan swore internally. 

Seeing that their orbs were about to fuse fully with one another, he wasted no time as he shot forward and a glow surrounded his arm. From behind, his knights shouted his name but it was too late. He had used his gift to disrupt the transfer. Their orbs exploded into tiny specks of magic dust before they merged with their own and shot back into their respective owners. The sudden surge of magic energy forced out a mouthful of blood from both Elianna and Elizabeth. The impact of the interrupted ritual created a gush of force that pushed the Temple Keepers out of their positions and threw them towards the nearest pillars.

His head spun but he quickly rushed towards Elianna and unbound her. Her body fell limply against his hold and he cradled her in his arms. Placing his fingers against her neck to check on her pulse, he could only feel the weakening thump as her skin temperature dropped drastically in contrast to the heat of his.

"Stay with me, love," he pleaded in a voice that was filled with so much desperation.

"R-Rowan..." she whispered his name weakly, fighting a tough battle with her own consciousness when she tried so hard to balance the magic energy rippling turbulently in her body.

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• Elianna •

In Rowan's arm, she tilted her head slightly to the side and saw Wynston's eyes seething with rage. He drew his sword and impelled forward, attempting to swing it at Thunder, who stood protectively in front of Rowan and her.

Thunder dipped and rolled to avoid the blow but Wynston was a lot stronger and skilled than him. He managed to outplay Thunder and locked him down before slashing a critical blow from the back. A loud roar elicited from Thunder and his expression was marred by the intense pain from the blow. Elianna watched as Thunder fell to the ground in front of her and she jolted upright despite her spinning conscious while screaming his name in a wretched manner. She tried to reach for Thunder but her body had yet recovered from the impact of the ritual, so her body fell forward at the sudden movement but Rowan was behind to steady her.

"No!" she cried. From their bond, she could feel his presence growing fainter with each passing second. Dark hatred grew into a pair of shadowed hands and embraced her heart within their palms.

Elianna, don't hesitate any longer. Be us.

Shadows seeped out of her fingers and dyed the ground with minacious darkness. Her head was too clouded by the tenebrous emotions to rationalise at the moment. She felt Rowan pulled her from behind but in a painful shout, but she directed all her shadows towards the tyrant. Her shadows crawled at unhesitating speed through the ground and lunged at Wynston. But Wynston predicted her move and took a step back before a large magic circle was formed and her shot was deflected. Her shadows rushed back to her and her heart stopped for a moment when a large body hovered in front of her to cover her. She screamed, "Rowan, move!"

She wanted to push him but it was too late. Rowan took the full force of her fury and his back arched unnaturally before a mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth. Dread consumed her in full when his body fell to the side in this slowed time and space. When she raised her head to look at him, she saw the ghost of a smile before those blue eyes lost their shine.

No, no, no! This can't be happening!

This complicated her emotions even further as noisy whispers shrieked from within and her own demons tried to eat her up in full. Her shadows were breaking away from their tamed self and going berserk when they felt her dark emotions simmered from within.

SILENCE!

She screamed in power over her shadows, no longer allowing them to hold their control  over her. Swallowing all the pain and tears that were trying to squeeze their way out of her, she walked towards Rowan's body and unsheathed his sword. The next moment, she misted into shadows and her presence was as thin as air.

She appeared in front of Wynston in a blink of the eyes. He anticipated her move constantly and was able to defend himself successfully. Elianna continued to move in an impenitence manner, and she felt Wynston growing slower as he looked pale and weak. Even though the poisons had not reached their full term for fatality, it is apparent that his overexertion had triggered the effect of the deep-seated poison in his body. She swung the sword in front of him but his reflexes were just as fast. Dissipating into dark mists, she flickered on his side and continued to exhaust him. The more she moved, the higher the chance of aggravating the effect of the poison on his body.

Slowly, Wynston was huffing and he began to lag behind on his reaction and unable to keep up with her momentum. She dissolved into her shadows and appeared right behind him. Yet, this time, he was not fast enough to react and she immediately pierced the sword through his back. Incanting in Thethiac, shadows seeped through her fingers and wrapped the entire sword in cataclysmic black. A wave of amber shone through them and rippled through the tyrant's body. She incanted louder this time, forcefully pushing her shadows into him and she heard the strident shriek as he dug his fingers into his chest in useless attempted to get rid of his agonizing suffering. Blood flowed from the corner of his eyes as her shadows pierced their way through his body, gouging him empty while satisfying their blood lust. Raising her hand, her shadows retreated back to her and hovered behind her back once again.

A gasp sounded that caught her attention while she turned and saw the Priest. He was shaking violently and fell back onto the ground immediately when his legs gave out. Her eyes stayed locked onto him, and she disappeared into a plume of dark mist. The next time she appeared again, she was in front of the Priest. Her hands held firmly onto his slender neck and she allowed her shadows to once again fulfil their blood lust when they seeped into the Priest from his eyes, eating him away from the inside. A loud shrieking cry was the last thing that was heard before the whole place grew silent once again.

Even with the death of the two, her anger failed to cease. This was what she had struggled through ten years of her lives for, but killing the both of them was not enough and unmeasurable to the loss they had put her through. She stood where she was and was about to fall into desperation once again before a hand reached out to hold onto her ankle.

"Eli, it's enough..." Thunder said in a hoarse voice.

Snapped out of her thoughts, she quickly knelt down and cupped her hands on his cheek. "Thunder," she cried, never felt so relieved to know that he's still alive. Thunder raised his hand and held onto hers, smiling weakly before Kaylon stepped forward and helped Thunder up while Alec stood beside Elianna.

"Eli, I'm okay," Thunder whispered. "Go to Rowan."

Horror rose swiftly when realisation kicked in. She raised her head to the direction of Rowan and saw Ilias by his side, keeping his head low. She could see the grave expressions on all his knights and she had already started grieving even when she's so far from him.

Thunder may be okay, but Rowan is definitely not.

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i just want to say thank you so much for staying with the story up till now!