Chapter 24 - I Will Protect You.

Cyren sits at the mouth of the volcano, watching as the blue magma swirls and pops with deadly bubbles that could melt the skin into nothing and the bones to ash. Shes reminded of her times in the rat tunnels, how she had to hide there from warlocks and witches who wouldn't accept her as anything other than a monster, the humans were worse.

In a way she sighs knowing the past wont ever change, even if she could change it. Just like the Monk tried explaining to her. He approaches her from behind and stands just to the side of her in her daydreaming and reaching to her mind to speak with her.

"Are you feeling well?" he asks as she opens her mouth to reply.

"Better now than I was a few days ago...thank you for what you've done for me...and you till haven't told me your name?"

"Do not thank me, and my name has been long forgotten, there was something I wished to show you when you arrived...but you needed time, now you have nothing preventing you from meeting him"

"Him? who do you mean?"

He looks at her with serious eyes, unexpectedly opening his mouth to speak out loud.

"We stay here for a reason...we protect him, for he is the last" his voice was crooked and croaking, like it was the first time he'd ever spoken in his life

"Who is this person? and why are you protecting him so fiercely that you would break your promise?!" she asked, bewildered by his change in behavior.

"Come, it will be easier to show you instead..."

The monk begins back inside the cave with Cyren close on his heels, he approaches the area the monks ate at which consisted of raised stone stumps in the flooring along with mats to kneel on, the monk enters another hallway coated in paintings and murals just like her home, stopping abruptly in front of one that looked like an eye, its iris was a faint and withered blue which the monk had pressed his fingers delicately over.

Lightly pressing in as the iris pushes into a depression, making the stone around it start to move out of the way into the ground, a secret passageway leading lower into the crown of the volcano, the temperature breezing past Cyrens face as she gasps from the heat, already feeling sweat dribble down her forehead.

"Whats down there?"

"You will see, for I must not follow you past this point"

"Why not?"

"It is...his will"

She looked on into the gaping cave and steps in without fear or regret holding her back, cautiously heading into the depths of the volcano, the heat only getting hotter as she gains closer to the core.

Breaking away from the monks sight, crossing dangerous gaps and falls with her swift air magic, floating over pits of endless blue magma, moving like it was stalking her.

"This feels strange...why do I feel like I've been here before..." she faintly whispers to herself, crossing the final jump without effort...before her magic gives away and the very end, losing it she falls, only just managing to save herself from a painful death. Heaving herself up the edge and breathing heavy breaths of shock and terror.

Examining the walls to see symbols carved into it, she squints and traces the symbols with her finger, thinking back to her basic lessons in magic.

"Runes...clever"

Realizing she doesn't have her magic to rely on, she sighs and continues.

"Whoever is down here better be worth this..."

Seeing a small gap in the way, just managing to squeeze through but falling to the ground once she'd made it through, coughing at the dust surrounding her and wiping at her clothes. but once she looks up at the tomb before her, she gasps with awe at the magnitude of it, the walls were covered in dusty gold and treasures, the ceiling held a chandelier with flickering candles melted down to the wick.

But the biggest shock came from what laid underneath it, a sleeping lump curled in a ball, it was huge and its snoring was loud. She couldn't tell what it was until it takes a deep breath in and wakes slowly, rising and unfurling its body and shaking at the mane that wrapped around its neck, the beast was roughly 35 feet long, but when it stands on its front legs it rises up towards the ceiling, just a few feet below it.

It towered over her, but she gazes on it and takes in its beauty.

Its scales were like oil spillage on a crystal-white marbled floor and its mane snow white with speckles of blue and black, like shimmering stars. It had claws the size of her arm that were jagged and jet black, shining in the candle light and its face was smooth scales that meshed around its eyes which were the same as the one on the entrance.

But the real eyes that shone to her, even in the dim candle light the phosphorescent blue struck her. She falls to her knees, worshiping the beast knowing exactly who it was.

"You're...you're Goddriad...Master of The Skies!" she says with great reverence.

His throat hums with a pleased smile, opening his mouth to show his deadly white teeth.

"Yes my child...rise" his voice was deep and quaked the tomb he rests in.

"Thank you...why are you here?"

He crosses his arms on the ground as he rests easier, staring at her with his charming and large eyes.

"Before man and monster were at war, all the Wyverns knew the coming of the gods was near, we saw what would happen and we retreated, when the war began it set back the end for a few decades and in that time...our kind was being wiped out, until there was only one left...me" he said with a sorrowful glance to the floor.

She looks down to the floor in regret.

"I am sorry...if the witches had turned to battle the war would've lasted much less time...there would've been time to stop it"

"Ah but it is not so simple, the prophecies told related to your friend, the blood witch...he was made to succeed the power of his father, and you have your own separate destiny ahead of you" he mumbles, stretching and arching his back in multiple places, stretching out his hind leg like a cat.

"What is my destiny...please tell me"

"I will show you, come closer"

She approaches on command and reaches out to him, placing a hand on his fore head as his mind melds with hers, her eyes see flashes of the future, multiple events leading from one to the other until it skids to a stop...a singular image frozen in time.

Her face smiling in victory, holding the scepter of power over her head standing over her defeated enemy...The Matron...Endar's mother lying on the floor, her magic crumpled and shattered.

She gasps for a moment and takes everything in.

"This...is this my future?" she asks with shock and amazement.

"Think of it more like a template, for whats to come, it may happen...but there is still time for its course to change"

"I become the Matron...this is...unbelievable i thought-"

"That Endar would take her place? kill his own mother?"

"No I-"

"I have given you a choice, to live your dream and the life your were promised at a young age...you cant possibly not see your potential for greatness, for power"

"And if I don't want it?" she questions back, but the Wyvern simply glares back with an unbreakable stare that felt like scolding hot water poured over your head, she could only stare at Goddriad with an unsure expression of doubt... while trouble brews at the bottom of Mount Sapphirus.

At its feet, scuttling and scrapes of ashed stone echo over the ridge, looking up at the monstrous volcano with uncertainty stood Alana, with Camus just on the heels of her stride as she propels up the mountain with determination like he'd never seen before.

"Are you sure climbing a volcano is a great idea? if you have a death wish im more than happy to oblige~"

"Well all things considered, if i get annoyed i could just chuck you in its mouth...it'd feel good in the moment right?~"

"What are you even hoping to find up here?"

"High ground so I can scout out the direction we're heading"

He hums in response, lightly stepping on stone perfectly placed like steps. with grace he tiptoes over the heated rocks and remains at the side of his new partner. Alana keeps her eyes forward and straight, making sure to stay focused in case anything comes to attack them. Her fingers clasped around the hilt of her dagger.

"Why do you want to find this witch anyways? he looked like a nobody when we first met"

"A nobody who beat you in under 10 seconds? now that...is real power, with him on our side we'd be unstoppable...of course he'd never agree to come willingly, my father talks of him greatly"

"Greatly? pfft he has no taste, clearly the strongest magic is the dark craft~"

She looks at him with an amused smile, something he doesn't often see with her while hes traveled, its been a few days since the giant incident and the two don't often speak, but his curiosity with her had only grown as he watched her doing anything.

Walking, talking and fighting seem to interest him the most, how brutal she could be.

"You know I've seen some pretty powerful beings in my time, all I've seen you do is resurrect an entire kingdom...you're strong but there's nothing connecting you right?"

"Connecting to what?"

"The realm, the only thing is your mothers spell...she was such a powerful witch...my father talks of her as well..."

"Your father talks about many things doesn't he?"

"Yes...well..." she awkwardly looks down at her feet and sighs.

"My feet are tired...we should take a break while there's some even footing"

"Yeah...sure" he replies looking back down at how much they had climbed, they were halfway up the volcanoes side and there was still a long way to go, dreading the incoming exhaustion he sighs.

Meanwhile, Cyren remained in Goddriad's sanctuary, questioning his vision to the very extent she was sweating buckets asides from the immense heat in the chamber. she approaches, her tone becoming more scratched and ragged.

"This must be a trick, you're lying"

"Your mortal perception of deceit means nothing to me, what would I achieve by lying to you?"

"Why would you show me this, what relevance does it have in ties to you and me?!"

His face recoils in shock, her passion to know the truth inspiring him and his old soul.

"You want the truth?...then we need to go all the way back...to the beginning"

He closes in on the witch, curling his entire body around her, the light permeating from his scales bounces off each other and at her head, her vision striking white as it slowly fades out, revealing Aspendria like she had never witnessed before. The land was still rich with life and humans were living in harmony, while the monsters and witches kept their distance peacefully.

But she notices the sky wasn't its usual colour, it was so many lights and flashes wrapped in a twisted rainbow that spiraled through the entire sky, space and beyond lay on the surface into a black and starry abyss, like night and day in the same minute.

"My gods...""

"Beautiful...isn't it?"

"Yes...what happened to change such a place?"

He remains silent and waves his claws in a swiping motion, the image blurs and fades out of existence, with a new image set in its place, it was of Aspendria in the same time, but above the clouds rest Wyverns that laid in watch of their utopia.

"Our kind happened"

He waves his claw again as the image replacing itself was of a different Wyvern she was familiar with.

"This-" he goes to tell her but she stares on at his form with fear in her eyes.

"-Is Naylrayne...Master of blood"

His scales were a jagged pattern of reds and blacks, and his mane was snow white and his claws were blood red, he was fierce looking, and his eyes were blazing orange with an incorrigible scowl as he roars fiercely into the sky, his size wasn't comparable to the other wyverns , towering them by at least an added 20 feet.

"Yes, he was the only one of us who didn't care for the lives of the realm...and in his fury he created The Astral Gate and the beings within it"

"Nobody know what he left in his wake, but we all knew it would kill us all..." she whispers with a faint shudder in her breath.

"Titans, gods that have no restraint and they are excessively powerful...so powerful they killed my brothers and sisters with a single strike"

"How many are there?"

"If I can recall correctly, he created each one as a source for all the magic classes...fire, earth, water and even more beyond that"

"Is there a way to kill them?"

"Gods aren't easily slayed...if there is a way I am unknown to it..."

She thinks on this, before the volcano begins to shake with vigorous intent, the ceiling crumbling before them in tiny pieces. Her brows creasing in suspicious, hearing a muffled yelling coming from the end of the passage she entered through, knowing none of the monks would be shouting...she looks at Goddriad with a pained expression.

"Somethings wrong..." she mutters as his face looks on remorseful.

"I am afraid...their time has come..."

"What?! They worship you, and you wont even leave your cave to help them if they're in trouble?"

"Their time was always meant to end...and your time has only just begun my child"

"I am not your child! and you have no idea how they helped me...how dare you!" she yells in anger at his laziness, turning on her heel and running through the tight passage and jumping the gaps until she passes all the runes, feeling her lightness carry her back into the air, flying onward through the tunnel and out into the eating area.

Looking around to find nobody was around and the cave was full of silence, ore so than usual, even with no chatter or sound, the place was full of life and now its just silence...

She hurriedly heads to the mouth of the entrance and comes across a sea of blue robes ahead of her, staring in fear and a distant murmur coming from the main hall. Quietly making her way through them and slowly moving them out of the way so she goes undetected, the closer she gets the voices get louder.

Until she reaches a better view, gazing upon Camus and Alana making the monks kneel on the ground, their scared expression enough to make Cyrens rage boil at high levels.

"Who knew an entire civilization was hiding inside a volcano, a genius plan really..." Camus admires them as Cyren takes down how many monks there were, counting them one by one with laser focus, but continuing to speak with him lightly.

"Peaceful too, which is easier for you"

"Excuse you, you're royal princess...am I not here to protect you on your quest?"

She continues to count under her breath, her eyes scanning each face without fail from left to right, while Cyren remains in the middle of the crowd, unseen for the time being. Alana's eyes were deadly serious and with each monk she looks at they shudder as a cold drops down their spines.

Then she stops, her head tilting in confusion.

"You!...step forward, now" her voice was stern, for a moment Cyren fears she'd been caught early, but once the speaking monk steps from the crowd and lifts his hand in greeting... her stomach drops, Cyren recognized Alana's face but she cant remember were she had seen her before...but she knew she was dangerous.

"Do you speak or are all of you mutes?"

He opens his mouth, but his voice strains, unable to form a compete sentence with his voice cracking and shattering.

"Don't hurt us...we mean no harm" he says slowly, Camus lifts his head and watches on at the display of courage and senses something in him.

"Hes a magic user...a warlock to be precise"

Alana's face observes the old man and approaches him with her dagger sheathed, but on guard, she stands in front of him as his frail form shakes in her presence. She smiles peacefully and holds out her hand, he was unsure of what to do as he holds out his arm, the tip of her dagger slashes outwards and points it towards his wrist. The dagger glowing with a faint yellow glow.

"Ahhh...a psychic...such a shame you didn't see this coming..."

The monks lays eyes on Cyren in the crowd, she didn't know what to do without people getting hurt, but regardless, she wordlessly mutters the phrase... I will protect you...

He goes to speak...until the sharp pierce of her dagger plunges into his chest, his crestfallen face sinking to the ground slowly as Cyren growls in anger, pushing forward and lunging at the unsuspecting Alana, but Camus intervenes and blocks the magical attack on her back.

"NO!"

She immediately kicks him back and leaves her open, her eyes staring at her with great interest.

"And who might you be?" Alana asks as they circle each other, Camus getting between the two with dark energy pulsing in his outstretched hands. Facing Cyren for her.

"Shes a witch...let me handle this!" he begs her but she shakes her head at him. The three now circling each other while the monks pour out of the room, dragging Cyren's friend away to safety to treat him.

"Stand down Camus...She's mine"

Cyren scowls at them both as electricity surges through her arms and hair, the power so big you could hear it humming from the charge.

"Tell you what, I take both of you on...and you both die!" she growls at them both, starting the fight with a blast of air out of the volcano, pushing them both away from the people and out into open, the top of Mount Sapphirus bubbling with thunder clouding the once peaceful sky.

The two clamber to their feet to watch on at the caves mouth, seeing the witch float through it and levitating higher, her eyes now clouded in lightning and sparks...

"These people are harmless and peaceful...you should've left when you were ASKED!" she screams, stretching her arm out as more thunder and lightning comes crashing down on them with a heavy force, Camus tries to create a shield but the force was overpowering and cracks his magic with ease.

Crashing them into the ground.

"LEAVE!!"

The winds were coming from every direction, pulling and pushing at the edge while Camus and Alana do their best to fight it back, she hides behind him and roots her feet into the ground, keeping them at a stand still.

"She's strong...we need her!" Alana yells over the gale.

"This is stupid, we should leave now" he mutters back to her, but it was too late, the magma from the pit slowly rises with the winds in a swirling tornado of sapphire, its range widening and the magma starts hurtling everywhere in all directions with no sense, thought or plan. It just destroys anything it touches.

Cyren didn't care however, so long as these foul invaders get what they deserve.

In a quick slashing motion, Cyrens arm comes down cutting off the winds surrounding the spiraling molten magma as it begins to fall on them, but Camus was crafty enough to create a portal. Falling in before suffering an excruciating death and plopping out in the middle of nowhere.

Barely avoiding the after spill once the portal closed. But Alana's temper prevents her from seeing the danger.

"Why did you do that?!" she yells at him as he lay in the sand exhausted.

"I told you climbing a volcano was a bad idea..." he says sighing with regret, all that tiresome walking for nothing, and now precious energy was wasted. Camus's features began to age rapidly, the lack of souls to eat and the copious magic he spent left him weak and drained.

"I need a drink..." were the last words he murmured before passing out in the blazing sunlight.

Cyren on the other hand was silent as she watches the magma seep back into the pit, gently hovering just above it as she races towards the doctors quarters, attempting to find her friend in time. But after all the effort she gave to fight them, it was too late.

When she bursts into the room she looks upon the body laid on the floor with his hands placed peacefully on his chest as flowers were placed around him, they were only just beginning the ceremony.

"I failed..." she whispers,closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

Crouching before him and placing her hands on his arms for comfort as she whispers short prayers and good wishes to him, hoping he will go on into the afterlife peacefully. Tears falling at the shame and guilt that was eating away at her stomach until she cant take it anymore.

Standing with tremendous conviction and racing towards Goddriads chamber once more. In a last ditch effort to mend herself in honor of him. It didn't feel right to her...she wanted justice. Once reaching him he ponders at her for a few moments before he notices her shift in tone, standing to talk with her properly.

"I...am going to put this very simply...you're going to fly me home to Candervale and I am going to complete this prophecy if it is the last thing I do before I die!" she demands as she gains in closer to his shoulder.

"Bu-"

"You've put off your responsibility long enough, so did I but it's time to finally pull your weight" she hisses at him as he looks at her with shock and amusement. She doesn't wait for an answer and climbs onto his back, his only thought was to do as she said to save from being zapped by her.

"And how do you suppose we get out? the exit is too small..." he asks her for the next move as she looks up at the cracked ceiling from before, a smile spreading on her face.

"We make our own exit..."

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