Lyra clashed with Bjorn, His club versus her blood blade dagger.
Bjorn repelled her at once and slammed his club down, forcing Lyra to dodge out of the way. She planted her feet firmly on the ground, then zipped around, cutting and scratching at Bjorn's arms and legs as he swung his club to intercept.
Taking advantage of the difference in speed, Lyra leaped in the air, poised and ready to strike.
"You haven't changed one bit, Lyra. Try all you want, but your childish tactics won't work on me." Bjorn raised his free hand and released a torrent of fire at Lyra, barely grazing her as she shifted her body at the last second.
Lyra landed hard on her feet with her deadpan expression, letting a sly chuckle escape her mouth. She then turned her glance to Zelak, who tore through the dark puppets around her and Bjorn.
Killing the last of the puppets, Zelak whipped his sword back to normal. He turned to Lyra as Bjorn stood at the ready for her next move.
Her eyes shifted around, not seeing any more of the puppets emerging from the ground. "
Suddenly, a shriek filled her mind, forcing her to reel over in pain. More concerned, she turned back to the castle, utterly stunned.
Using the opportunity, Bjorn swung his club down. His club cracked and splintered the ground below, nearly hitting Lyra, who jumped away. Her face contorted with rage, with eyes gluing back to the castle.
With a steady focus, Bjorn channeled magic. "
A torrent of blazing fire shot from Bjorn's palm, like a natural disaster.
Left with No Option, Lyra Gulped down.
In an instant, she crashed hard to the ground as the fire blazed into the castle, and like a flash of lightning, she dashed at Bjorn.
Bjorn prepared his club, but to his shock, she ran past him and leapt to the top of the earth wall.
"
"
"
"
Bjorn glanced at Zelak, who was now sweating beads."
"< You're dead, god?>" Bjorn's gaze fell to the black lines, and he watched as the bubble with ominous miasma.
Wanting more answers, Bjor turned back to Lyra, only to discover her sudden absence. He scoffed. "
********
Inside the core's chamber, Everyone inside watched as the black patches and lines bubbled and foamed with a suffocating darkness.
Annoyed, Kalika cringed and yelled. "What do you mean!? Make me do what!?"
The slimy sludge bubbled more violently. Charla, frightened, reunited with Donovan as he took his pipe back.
"[All you had to do was ignore the noise and do as I said. Do you have any Idea, the time I spent trapped under the earth of Teru's design!!? I refuse to stay trapped because of a mere homunculus!]"
An explosion of miasma surged into the room. "[You will consume my core! AND YOU WILL FREE ME!!]"
Kalika planted her feet to the ground and braced herself against the storming darkness around. "Hey! What are you doing!? Zorbian!? Zorbian!!?"
Cyrus could only look at Kalika, stunned at the mention of the name. His gaze then turned to the core, with a new realization that struck like lightning. "Th-the miasma, it's pulling us towards the core!!"
Everyone sprang to life. Donovan stabbed his pipe into the ground as Charla planted her feet, standing right behind him. All the while, Cyrus clutched the walls in a panic as their eyes locked on the newly forming whirlpool of darkness centered towards the core.
"The Barrier! If we enter, lives will be forfeit!" Cyrus warned.
"Tch! Damn you, Zorbian…" Kalika hissed. "Everything Donovan was saying is true! Isn't it! You lying bastard!"
Kalika, with clenched teeth, calmed and turned to Donovan, who fought against the oppressive waves of darkness, with Charla assisting from behind.
"D-damn it! What are we supposed to do!?" Donovan uttered.
"[These homunculi you call 'human' and 'demon' are useless! They only serve to drag you down and trap you in Cassell's web of words! If you want your revenge, they must die. All of them!!]"
Kalika passed a glance towards the core. "Shut up! He doesn't need to die!!"
"[Funny, coming from the immortal who's killed thousands of her kin already. And tell me, what makes that human SO special? He's a nobody. a puppet on a string destined to die in Cassell's perfect world. And once Cassell gets his hands on you, he'll lock you away, just as he did with me!]"
"Shut up!"
Donovan stumbled, and Cyrus clung tight to the stone wall as they watched the elders' bodies drift into the barrier, only to disintegrate into nothing.
With a steady determination, Kalika glared more harshly at the core, and with her dagger in hand, let the waves of sludge take her to the barrier, and launched herself into the barrier. She posed and, with her dagger, struck the core.
A small crack formed.
Unsatisfied, Kalika pulled her dagger to strike again. "[Did you forget where that dagger came from? Or the contract with whom you made it with?]"
Slowly, Kalika's dagger melted away, shocking her and everyone watching.
"[I'll give you one last chance. Relinquish your body, or I'll lock you myself, in eternal damnation.]"
"D-damn you…" Kalika shook. Her determination waned. "D-damn you…" With trembling lips, she steadied her breath and steeled her resolve. "I REFUSE!! I refuse to be controlled and tricked!"
"Then consider our contract void. And the connection we shared, severed!]"
A pain ripped through her, and her flesh tore from her bone as the barrier turned to assimilate her. She looked at her hand, and a long-forgotten fear reemerged as she trembled.
"KALIKA!! GET OUT OF THERE!!"
"[Agree to relinquish your body, and I may release you. And my favor in you, restored. Until then, enjoy the eternal darkness.]"
Kalika glanced back at Donovan, feeling an inevitability. In seconds, Kalika evaporated into a million pieces.
"KALIKA!!!" Donovan felt himself weaken, his grip loosened, and his muscles relaxed. "Kalika, a she was…."
Charla pushed hard on his back, fighting against the current of miasma pushing at them. "
Charla gasped and curled her fingers tight. ""
Slowly, Donovan regained his strength, fighting against the currents. "Th-thanks, Charla. S-sorry I-"
"There's no point in dying in here. Otherwise, it'll all be in vain." Cyrus blurted.
"In vain?" Donovan chuckled. "I came here to stop her… B-but… Now she's… I don't know. I'm sorry, Tilus."
"Feeling pity for yourself won't save us. Kalika tried to destroy the core. But clearly it s was too powerful for her to destroy. But if you want to avenge her, we can't die here!"
Donovan firmed his stance and tightened his grasp on the pipe he hooked into the floor. "H-he's right. If we stay here, we'll end up like Kalika!" His eyes darted around the round chamber, then at the earth wall trapping them in the room.
Suddenly, Cyrus slammed his spiked dagger into the wall and reached for his pouch. From inside, he ripped open a smile vial with his teeth.
"Cyrus?" Donovan watched as he gulped down a red liquid and as the veins in his neck bulged, along with the muscles in his arms and shoulders. "What the…"
"Donovan," Cyrus called. He threw another of his red vials towards Donovan and Charla, with Charla barely catching the single vial in her hand. "Surely you see it too."
Cyrus traced his gaze back to the earth wall. "That wall's breaking apart. If we can reach those halls, we might have a chance to escape. Albeit a slim one. Especially if this dead god wishes us dead."
"W-what is this? It is a vial of strength. I made it back in my youthful years, back before I took this form. If you want to survive, drink it!"
"But what about Charla!?"
"I only had two of those vials, but she'll be just fine without them." Cyrus turned to Charla. "
"Wait! But that means…" Donovan glanced at Charla and gulped. Memories of brash nature rising, he instinctively reached for the black contract hidden in his pockets, then nodded at Cyrus.
"
"H-hey, Charla. pass me that vial he gave."
"H-huh?" Without much fuss, she followed his order.
"Now…" Donovan irked, then forced out the words. "I need you to listen to Cyrus and drink your saliva and strengthen yourself!"
"
Donovan drank the vial and exhaled. "Sorry, Charla. But we have to do whatever it takes to get out of here." He threw the drink into the raging waves of miasma and slowly grew stronger than he had felt in a long time.
"Alright! Now climb!" Cyrus clutched the cracks of the walls and drove his dagger in, slowly fighting against the raging currents.
Like Cyrus, Donovan dug his pipe into the ground, moving inch by inch with Charla behind, breathing even more heavily than before.
Slowly, the waves became heavier and the current rougher, desperate to pull them in.
"We're almost there! Keep going!" Cyrus exclaimed. Suddenly, a stone rock pulled loose from the wall, forcing him to drive his dagger back in.
More determined, they pushed forward, watching as the earth wall was slowly crumbling from top to bottom.
"Almost… There!"
Suddenly, from the black patches, black, sludge-like tendrils formed over the exit. Desperate, Cyrus conjured a fire in his hand and shot at it, striking a barrier. "W-we're doomed!"
"Charla! Hold me down!!"
With absolute glee, Charla hugged him with her breast pressed hard against his back. Donovan shook, and with clenched teeth, raised his pipe from the trench and channeled a fireball that grew with every second. "Get out of our way!!"
The giant ball shot and imploded into the vine. The sound of chattering glass filled the room as the vines burst into fire, and Cyrus looked onto the scene, stunned. Writhing in agony. They reeled away, opening the hall to a flood of miasma that pulled Donovan, Charla, and Cyrus.
The stream of dark sludge streamed through the halls like a flowing river, jerking them down each hall and turning available. Eventually, the ride subsided, and everyone laid atop the gentle flow of the dark sludge.
"W-we made it…" Donovan wheezed.
Suddenly, Charla's chest pressed on his stomach as she held him down tight. She looked up at him with an all too familiar gleam in her eyes that said it all. "Ch-Charla! Y-you can stop now!"
To her disappointment, she jerked off him, repelled by an invisible force, and groaned in disappointment.
"So that mark wasn't for show after all." Cyrus said.
Donovan sighed. "Now what gave that away?" He sarcastically said.
With regained energy, he gazed down the flow of darkness seeping down.
Cyrus, standing behind Donovan, examined him and then his pipe keenly. "Fascinating, that staff he holds is able to manifest such powerful magic. There's no wonder he made it this far. But still…"
"We should escape this castle now." Cyrus said, "Before that god decides to drown us in these halls."
"Y-you're right." Donovan stood and saw the remains of the guards that once accompanied him. He grimaced and darted his eyes to the closest exit. From the corner of his eyes, black sludge leaked from black lines and the walls, filling the hall from every corner. "Tch! Alright! Let's go!"
Without hesitation, Charla and Cyrus followed behind Donovan as they twisted and turned down the secret passage, eventually breaking out by a hair.
Black tendrils formed from the black lines and shot at them in a fury, each one missing by a hair as they blazed through the stone corridor. They turned the corner of the hall and continued down as the Zorbian attacks relentlessly continued through the windowed hall.
"Alright! The balcony is just around the corner. With the blue crystal, maybe I can-" Donovan, glancing out the window, looked on in stunned silence as he saw something huge and black within the city. "We just have to get to the balcony, then we'll regroup with Bjorn from there!"
Coming around the corner, Cyrus and Charla dodged a deadly attack set by the tentacles. Another whipped around, attacking Donovan from behind, only to be kicked to the side by Charla. Her eyes looked on at the tentacle with a deadly seriousness, surprising Donovan,
"Thanks, Charla!" Donovan blurted. His eyes refocused on the hall and dashed to the balcony ahead.
Feeling the approach of even more tendrils, Donovan glanced back and watched as they homed in on them. "Crap!"
"We won't last long if we keep up like this!" Cyrus exclaimed
"Just a little longer, once we get to the balcony, we should jump off the edge!" Donovan instructed.
"Are you insane!?"
"J-just trust me!"
The attacks from behind intensified. Donovan clenched his pipe tight and clenched his teeth, preparing himself inwardly.
Seconds later, they emerged onto the castle's balcony and back outside the castle. Donovan ripped his blue crystal from his pockets and darted to the edge.
His eyes widened, acting fast, Donovan jumped back, carrying Cyrus and Charla with him as Zelak suddenly crashed into the balcony wall.
"Z- Zelak!?"
Nonchalantly, Zelak set from the cracked wall and wiped the blood from his face. He grimaced as he looked from Donovan and traced his gaze back to a ginormous hand in the center of the castle's plaza.
"What the hell…" Donovan uttered. He watched as both Bjorn and the remaining city guards fought valiantly against the strange new enemy.
"Where's the champion?" Zelak suddenly asked.
"K-Kalika? Sh-she was… Killed. Shred to pieces attacking the core."
"And were you able to convince her to change her mind?"
"Didn't you hear me! She was turned to ashes in the wind! She is not coming back this time!"
"Did you convince her or not?" Zelak questioned again, more annoyed.
Cyrus glanced back at the newly blocked doorway, then back at Zelak with narrowed eyes.
Yeah! And why does that matter!?"
"Because it's the only thing that matters," Zelak said. He conjured his sword in his hand and whipped it into its chained form.
"How the hell can you be so calm about this?"
"Did you already forget? Nothing can kill the champion. Not fire, not stone, not water. Even turning to ash, she'll just come back. Just like she always had. Or has your faith already waned?"
A tremor shook around them, and rubble fell from above. Curious, everyone peeked up. To their horror, their eyes met with a large eye that stared down at them like mere insects.
Zelak chuckled at the newfound horror. "Looks like we're at a crossroads. We can either give in… Or fight like hell… And I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not just ready for that yet."
Donovan, with a cold sweat running down his face, steeled himself, along with Charla and Cyrus. Determined, He clenched his pipe tight. "We will survive. All of us!"
********
Kalika sat, with a deepening confusion, looked on into the white void, unsure what to make of her new surroundings.
"So we meet again… My child."