Ch. 31: Dungeon Run

We ran blindly through the halls, or at least it felt like we had no direction. All I could do was follow Arius' glowing trail and trust that he could get us out of sight from the golem, all the while frantically trying to summon Dukalis.

"Dukalis!" I panted. "I need you! We need you! We're gonna die!"

"Shut up, Aven!" Arius snapped breathlessly, not daring to look back. "I'd rather not die today!"

I ignored him and furiously continued trying to contact the spirit inside me. "Come on, Dukalis! If I die, you're gone forever! Just listen to me!"

"LOOK OUT!" Arius yelped suddenly. He grabbed my arm as he skidded to a stop, and I almost fell into deep blackness.

I screamed and scrabbled at the edge frantically before slipping, and as I fell the force of my momentum pulled Arius down with me.

"You idiot!" The last thing I heard was Arius' biting remark before we hit water.

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I came to at the edge of a vast expanse of putrid-smelling water. I coughed, both from the stench and the presence of liquid in my lungs. I wearily looked around and was relieved to find a familiar glowing green light beside me.

"Arius?" I whispered, crawling over to him.

He stared blankly at the sewer water, sitting cross-legged. "...Don't talk to me." The violet glow from his eyes faded, signifying that he had stopped using his night-vision abilities. Now he was seeing what I was seeing: An eerie green glow illuminating the river before us.

I sat beside him and sighed morosely. The sickening crack of Victin's horrific death still echoed in my ears, making me sick to my stomach. Guilt made my fur crawl with imagined insects, like remorse personified into a multitude of centipedes. They slithered all over me, my imagination making me shiver. I could feel panic setting in.

I'm not good enough. I couldn't save him.

I'm a failure.

It should have been me.

I should've died in his place.

A tear beaded at the edge of my eye, and I sniffled, pushing it away. Immediately another took its place. I wiped that one away as well, but before I knew it my face was overrun with a torrent of tears.

I whimpered softly, sniffling and giving up on hiding my utter dismay. Right now, nothing else mattered. Nothing at all.

"Hey, cut it out," Arius grumbled beside me. Yet his voice sounded far away, like he was in a whole other world. A universe separated us, the great divide only filled by a void of disillusionment.

He prodded my shoulder, shaking me. "I said to cut it out!" He said firmly, his voice a low growl. Yet desperation trembled in his breath. I could feel the tremor in his hand as he shook me. But what he wanted wasn't important. I continued to sob.

Arius snarled. "JUST SHUT UP!"

"I CAN'T!" I bawled. "LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU INCONSIDERATE JERK! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME!"

"If you don't shut up, I'll make you!" He shot back. But I didn't care. Instead I faced away from him, burying my face in my hands.

He growled deep in his throat. "...That's it."

He crawled over to me, and I perked up, still whimpering. "Arius, please-"

Before I could finish, he did something I never would have expected: He wrapped his arms around me, holding me tight as he pressed my face into his scarred chest. "...There," He murmured. "...Be quiet. Now."

Slowly I felt my heart rate beginning to drop, my breathing becoming slower. I coughed and sniffled, but I could feel myself coming back to reality, a sense of calm replacing my anxiety.

I could feel Arius tremble against me, his own body responding to the panic that plagued us both. "...That's perfect," He murmured, flexing his fingers as if he was trying to calm himself. "No noise. No screaming. No sobbing. Oh, gods, it's perfectly fine, oh fine."

We were both quiet for a while, even after my crying faded away. All I could hear was Arius' heartbeats and the lazy rippling of the sewer.

Finally to my surprise Arius spoke again. "...Thank you."

I sighed deeply. "No. Thank you." I looked up at him. "That's what I needed."

He was quiet. Slowly he pulled away from me, not daring to meet my gaze. "...I just wanted you to shut up," He muttered, looking sheepish. "Screaming and crying got someone killed last time. And today is not a good day to die."

Before I could respond, suddenly we both heard a loud noise that both of us knew all too well. It was the golem. Arius snarled. "For the gods' sake! Can't we even have some peace?" He pushed himself away from me, rising unsteadily to his feet. "Come on. Let's get out of here before the brute kills us, too."

As his eyes began to glow again, I forced myself to stand, briefly stumbling. My limbs felt sore and weak, both from the fall and from my sudden anxiety attack.

I can't do it.

I can't keep up.

I'm worthless. I'm helpless.

I should just stay here and die.

"Come on!" Arius' voice broke into my thoughts, chasing away the self-deprecation. "Quit hanging around and follow me, you lazy rat."

For once, I was strangely comforted by his jabbing retorts. His insults served to ground me in reality and reminded me that we had a job to do, and if I sat here, wallowing in my misery, I would inevitably end up like Victin.

I gathered all the strength I could muster- which, mind you, was practically non-existent- and followed my brother, using the glowing trail from his poison blade and violet eyes to pinpoint our location. We came to the edge of the sewer channel and Arius quickly scanned the area before nodding his head in the direction of against the flow. "This way," He muttered. "The entrance must be up ahead."

As we followed upstream, making sure not to slip on slimy bricks of stone, suddenly we heard the loud bellow of the golem again. This time it sounded like it was closer. Yet when Arius scanned the dungeons around us, he couldn't see anything.

"How come I can't spot a hulking ugly monster through these walls?" He spat, walking faster.

"...Maybe it has some sort of cloaking magic," I replied slowly, trying to catch my breath. "It must have been crafted to blend in with the walls, so that when you try to find it, you only see through it. That's my best guess."

Arius fixed me with a horrified stare before giving a resigned groan. "...Perfect. The minute we can actually see it coming towards us, we're as good as dead." He quickened his pace, grabbing my arm and dragging me with him. "Today is not a good day to die." He muttered to himself, panting. "Come on, Aven, faster!"

Inwardly I began calling upon Dukalis frantically, but for some reason he was still dormant. If the golem managed to catch up with us before I could summon him, we were going to die.

Suddenly I tripped on a chunk of stone, and I fell to the floor with a grunt. Arius turned and paused, his eyes widening before he bent down to help me up. "Get up!" He snapped. "We don't have time for this!"

I nodded wearily and was about to rise to my feet when I paused. Glistening on the floor an arm's length away from me was a silver amulet. It seemed awfully familiar, and suddenly memories flooded back to me.

I reached out and grabbed the amulet, then sat up and began to blow on the silver pendant gently. Arius stared wildly at me. "...What in the name of the gods are you doing?!"

"It's our only chance!" I replied deftly, trusting that help would come in time.

Arius only shook his head in disbelief. "We don't have time! If we stay, we're going to die!" He dragged me to my feet and before I knew it, he had draped my arm over his shoulders. We began walking again at an unsteady pace, Arius constantly trying to push on faster and faster.

The bellows from behind us became nearer and nearer as we followed the channel upstream, and yet we had no idea how much time had passed. It felt like hours, but yet it was likely only a few minutes.

We came to the entrance of a low, dark tunnel, and flowing through it was the slimy dark sewer channel. Two paths on either side, barely wide enough for a cart to pass on, caged in the channel, and Arius' eyes glowed brighter.

"There's something past that tunnel," He muttered. "Something big. It's our way out of here! We must be close."

Behind us, the bellows became louder, echoing throughout the tunnel, and Arius' fur spiked. A shiver raced along my spine, making me freeze briefly. Panic began rising inside, but Arius snapped me out of it. "Come on!" He growled, dragging me inside.

As we raced through the tunnel, the stench was steadily becoming overwhelming. I held my nose with one hand as my brother gasped and sputtered, coughing and gagging. 

Finally we broke out on the other side, emerging from the enclosed darkness to an unusual light: A pale, otherworldly illuminance filled the immense cavern that opened up the space, and for a moment the switch from darkness to light burned my eyes.

"There it is!" Arius said breathlessly.

The cavern was carved from dark indigo stone, jagged bricks lining the walls that seemed to stretch upwards into infinity, masked by a blue haze. But the centerpiece of the vast expanse wasn't the ancient craftsmanship- rather, it was the sewer channel that cascaded down from above in a black waterfall. I had to look up to see the top, and yet it was hidden from view. At either side of the waterfall was a series of ladders and thin stairs, ones where one slip could cost you your life.

"This is it," I said breathlessly. "Freedom is up there."

To my surprise, Arius turned to me, his face unusually soft with emotion. "You think you can make it?" He asked.

"I don't know." I confessed after a moment, feeling a fresh wave of exhaustion hit me. Before I could stop myself, my legs trembled and I fell to the floor, panting heavily. Instantly Arius knelt next to me, his face scrunched in an annoyed growl before softening. "...You did good, little sister," He murmured. "...Great job."

We sat there together for a moment as he let me catch my breath. "I don't hear the golem," My brother said. "Take a breather. We can't have you falling to your death if we're going to make it out alive."

"...I'm so sorry, Arius," I sighed. "I wish I could've been able to do more. I wish I could protect us. But for some reason my magic… it won't come to me."

Arius was quiet. "...That's a problem." He whispered. "But we can do this without magic. The golem's only a brute, right?" He forced a smile, causing me to mirror his actions.

"Yeah."

The sound of the waterfall seemed to die away as we sat there together, gathering our thoughts.

After a moment, I pricked my ears. "Arius?"

"What is it?"

"Where's the golem gone? I don't hear it."

He narrowed his eyes. "...Maybe it stopped tracking us." He looked around, his eyes flashing violet. "...I don't see it. But that doesn't mean anything."

I looked down and saw that I had put on the silver amulet, the pendant shining beautifully under the dim light. "...Either way, help is on the way. I hope."

"What is that, anyway?" Arius gave it a suspicious stare.

"Um… nothing. Nothing yet. Just… a lifeline, if anything." I shoved it back into my cloak before he could say anything. "Isn't it time we escaped?"

He rose to his feet, nodding solemnly. "I believe it is." He waved his hand. "Come on."

We approached the thinly placed stairway and ascended the first step. Suddenly I felt a low rumble echo through the cavern. I saw stones fall from the walls and cracks form in the seams.

We both stopped and paused, and I flashed Arius a desperate look. "Not this again," I whispered.

"No." My brother growled, taking another few steps. "We won't let this stop us. We're getting out of here."

But before he could take another step, suddenly the rumbling ceased. I looked around. "...The noise is gone." I murmured. "...But something's off."

"Nothing's off." Arius snapped brusquely. "This is our chance!" He took another step and was suddenly hurled off, tumbling down to the ground below us.

I whipped around and screamed. "ARIUS!"

He lay crumpled on the ground, wincing before rising unsteadily. "Damnation!" He pointed behind me. "Aven, LOOK OUT!"

I turned and saw that the stairs behind us were destroyed, and in their place was a huge, gaping hole, descending into blackness. Within the midst of the void was a singular red, glowing eye.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

The rose pulsed rhythmically, an eerie scarlet glow fading and glowing in tune with the beating heart.

I took a step back, stumbling. Behind me, Arius screamed. "RUN, AVEN!"

The monster stepped out from the darkness and loomed over me, its cone-shaped claws clenching, as if it were imagining ripping my head off like some kind of twisted trophy.

It raised a fist, preparing to bring it down. Yet panic transfixed me to a singular place holding me in silence. Arius' calls seemed so far away, dimly telling me to run. And yet I couldn't.

The golem brought the claw down, about to smash me to bits.

But it didn't.

Something- or someone- pushed me out of the way.

I found myself at the base of the stairs and gradually found myself returning to reality, and when I came to I saw that the monster had crashed through another wall. Where it was standing before, now a tall, lean figure took its place. They held a massive mace, dangling from a metal bar and held on by rusty chains.

I rose to my feet shakily. "...Maceren?"

He turned, his eyes flashing lime as a smirk crossed his face. "Need a hand, Miss Aven?"