The First Descent into The Labyrinth (11)

Day had abruptly turned into night once more, with the two groups resting up in their own respective camps once more. This time there was a new tension between the two, specifically between Cyrus and Cornelius although they acted as if the tension that everyone else clearly felt was not there even so. Besides that, the day had been rather uneventful after their last major battle, with only a few isolated groups of sandcrawlers that greatly wore at their stamina but other than that they posed no true threat.

"There were only a few moments in which our group faced true danger, especially with the perfect combination of people we have at our disposal here. Although I suppose the night dwellers would have easily caused us to be eliminated if not for my own special circumstances and Cornelius'…unique world view. I do wonder about his upbringing..." thought Cyrus in passing as he stood watch outside the tent once more, just like the previous night.

This time, however, instead of focusing fully on his surroundings, as his other half might, he instead spent half of his focus on maintaining watch while the other half was looking through Adara's notes that he had long memorized with his mind's eye, pondering on new methods of Vita spell usage.

"Cornelius definitely makes excellent use of his domain, storing vast quantities of energy then releasing it in one go. The down side is that it no doubt uses a hefty amount of will, as well as produces intense strain on the body…he must have some kind of specialized training method to accustom his limbs to such force in order to not simply be blown off…" pondered Cyrus, as he once more wished to hurry up and make use of the laboratory in his new room in the Academy.

Putting his desires in check, as they were of no use right now, he instead stoked the flames in front of him once more while glancing at his surroundings. His focus now fully on the outside world, he looked around the horizon wondering if more night dwellers would show themselves.

"Bandits, crawlers, and night dwellers…the full wasteland experience minus the chaos of the oasis town. I do think that we have experienced everything in full, with nothing left…other than a Sultan appearing with his army but I do not see much of a possible lesson there, unless they wished to do something like the 'impossible' test that was done during the exam" thought Cyrus as he kept his watch.

Eventually, well into the night, he saw that the night was beginning to darken even more. Looking above, expecting to see a cloud having covered the moon, he was shocked to see that it was not a cloud that covered the moon but instead a black haze that seemed to be absorbing the light around it. It slowly expanded, as Cyrus watched in awe, covering the entire night sky. Eventually it stopped its expanse and began to constrict and pool together. Forming a cone in the sky, the haze began swirling with ever increasing speed as it seemingly began to stretch out towards the ground below it…slowly creating a pillar of darkness from the sky to the ground below.

Breaking out of his shock, he quickly got up and roused those under him and packed up in short order. Soon they were all together once more, looking up into the distance and sky in awe.

"What is that?" wondered Imran aloud in awe and fear, whose sentiment was shared by everyone present.

"Whatever it is, its nature is wicked and evil" said Cornelius softly, feeling his brown beaded necklace that was vibrating ever so slightly.

Trusting that Cornelius would not speak nonsense, he gave the order for everyone to arm themselves and prepare to move…fully intending to head in the opposite direction of such an ominous occurrence.

"No matter its origin, something able to create such an effect is something far beyond the capabilities of our group" thought Cyrus as he led his companions, and temporary vassals of sorts, away from the phenomenon in the sky.

Looking back every now and then, they saw that the darkness had grown so thick that everything behind them had seemingly evaporated. Not only that, but the immense pillar that was forcing its way down to the ground had almost reached its goal…

Picking up the pace, as each and every person felt an instinctive fear and revulsion towards whatever that was, they ended up running into two figures amidst their flight.

Cyrus, with his keen vision, saw that the two figures were in fact the two guides for the two groups that had come together, which of course meant the two guides had joined up as well. Relief filled Cyrus' mind as he knew they were here to protect the students in the case of anything unbecoming…such as the obviously evil entity behind them.

"Stop!" said Cyrus abruptly and extremely sternly, his entire visage becoming serious beyond compare. His fellow students were confused but followed suit as the commanding tone employed left no room for question.

"Draw your weapons, prepare to fight. Vita students, while I do not know your names, pardon my bad habit, I will say this: Prepare to fight for your lives, we may die today if we do not work together. Prepare your strongest spells, prepare your strongest will and resolve yourself to fight" said Cyrus, one after the other, turning the groups confusion into nervousness then finally putting them in their place.

Cyrus ordered a quick formation; himself and Cornelius at the front, Minerva and Imran at the flanks and the Vita students at the rear where they could provide support as needed.

Unhooking his mask and placing it on his face, Cyrus thought

"We need all the power we can get…especially the function of the mask that allows me to use both domains at once…"

With the mask fully placed on his face, the other half of Cyrus took over and looked in the distance with a dark face.

"What a fucking mess" thought Cyrus as he drew his own blade, even considering trying to activate the runes on his blade despite the strain surely being too great.

Ahead of him, the cause of all the sudden concern, were the two guides that were currently locked in mortal combat. Alas, they were not fighting some kind of evil entity nor were they against a horde of wasteland inhabitants…but themselves. Both armed in the same military gear, they traded blows equally with one another with their respective longswords whilst also making use of plenty of on the cuff dirty tactics and improvisations to get the upper hand. Projectiles were thrown, sand was kicked in the face of the other and even spit was flying between the two…fully displaying the all out no holds barred fighting style of a military veteran.

The fighting was completely even, until one of the two broke off after one intense clashing of blades.

Now away from his foe the guide, who was Cornelius', began to shake and shiver as his face warped in an extremely unnatural way. The other veteran saw whatever he was doing, and clearly did not like it one bit as he charged forth planning to interrupt whatever foul ritual was taking place. Yet he was forced back by an invisible push…some kind of unknown power that was being unleashed from the now extremely warped guide.

His face was bleeding from every orifice, his eyes turning black and his teeth growing larger and larger, so much so that his mouth was widened to a comical width. He was convulsing and screaming all the while…then with one loud bellow he screamed a phrase so loud that the entire group could clearly hear it from where they stood:

"FOR THE TRUE GOD!!"

He then raised his hands towards the air, which was now more akin to a beasts claws than anything human, and established what appeared to be a connection with the dark pillar in the sky. A small tendril of the massive entity broke off and dove itself inside the insane guide, who had a look of utter euphoria on his face as the process went down. A change clearly occurred in the man as he absorbed the… whatever it was, causing a vast suction force to erupt from him that started to drag even Cyrus and his group towards him…as he looked their way with a thirst for all that is alive clearly contained in his eyes.

The process was only interrupted, if only for a brief moment, by Imran casting a spell on the ground they stood on so that it turned into quicksand for a moment. They fell waist deep into the ground, before he used yet another large-scale spell to revert the sand once more temporarily locking them in place.

As if taking this as a personal challenge to himself, the possessed by Mundus knows what guide increased the force of the suction so much so that even the sand around them was beginning to be stripped away…only to rush towards the guide and disappear into the now opened maw of the guide which had stretched so far open that one would be able to clearly see down his digestive tract…if he still had one…but all that was there was a dark gaping hole that sucked in everything and anything without end.

Making use of their bought time, each member quickly thought of possible counter measures with each coming up with their own ideas. Minerva began to coalesce large amounts of essence to try to drown the enemy in ice, while Cornelius was holding his beads outwards and chanting in tongues with the beads themselves slowly starting to glow vividly and an aura of peace and serenity spewing forth from it.

All of this preparation turned to matter not, as both the group and the possessed guide seemed to have forgotten one thing: the other veteran.

Busy he was, as he held within his hands some kind of symbol or iconography. One that even Cyrus' keen eyesight could not see clearly, but whilst holding it he presented it forth whilst slowly walking towards the foul creature once more with a stern and determined face. This time no force moved him back, or perhaps it tried but could no longer do so. As he walked a clear power emanated from him, and his voice rang out loud and powerful for all to hear.

"Foul demon, your kind has no place under the Emperors' sun. With the power invested within me, I Ralphus condemn this daemon to death."

Along with his voice a vortex began to form above the creature, or rather the demon. A bright and holy light, similar to the one coming from the beads of Cornelius, spewed forth from the gap in reality created. Except while Cornelius' was serene and peaceful, like a gentle but deep spring, the force that came with this splendor was majestic, overbearing, and demanded obedience from all.

Like a hammer to a nail, the majesty of the light from above rained down upon the demon…much to its displeasure as it screamed and wailed in defiance of its fate,

"INQUISITOR BEDAMNED" screamed the demon, in a mix between a guttural growl and a wailing screech.

All was pointless though, as the light came down with such force that the sand around the demon was pressed into glass, with a deafening crash accompanied along with it.

What was left of the dark entity was nothing but the figure of a man seemingly encased in salt and with the blowing of the wind, he was scattered into nothingness.