Cineraceorum - Chapter 5 Underground Showdown

Before I can react, Mika goes spiraling into the abyss. Running past, with more agility than I’ve ever seen out of him, Talion jumps in after her. He better not be dead or I’ll bring him back and kill him myselfgreat now I’m sounding like Lana.

“TALION!!! MIKA!!! YOU ALRIGHT DOWN THERE?! PLEASE, TELL ME YOU’RE ALRIGHT!”

“YEA WE’RE FINE I GOT HER!!”

Thank God.

“GUYS JUMP DOWN HERE YOU NEED TO SEE THIS! DON’T WORRY I’LL CATCH YOU!!”

Well, don’t wanna keep the man waiting. Everyone jumps in, and after free falling for a good twelve seconds, I feel a gust of wind under me twisting my body. After spinning to the ground, I look around and see the others have all landed safely as well. Whoa, what the hell is this place? There’s a huge cavern down here! How did no one know about this? Waitthat’s not right. Just because I never knew, doesn’t mean no one else did. Judging from the looks on my friends faces; they had no clue this was here either. I look over at Talion and see an interesting development occurring.

“Um Talion?” Mika says blushing.

“Yea? What is it?”

“You can let go of me now.”

Looking down he finally realizes he’s still holding her, and his face turns as red as Leo’s mana. “Oh, umI’m so sorry” he says putting her down.

I’m not letting this opportunity go!

“OH TALION, SO THIS IS WHAT WE’RE DOIN NOW HUH?!”

“HEY SHUT UP!”

“WOOOOOO!! TALION YOU’RE ONE SMOOTH BASTARD!” Leo shouts excitedly.

“Yo guys, I don’t think we have time for this.” Jalen says.

“No, no let them go. I love seeing Talion embarrassed.” Armin adds.

That’s surprising. I figured Armin would’ve been upset.

“YO, I SAID LAY OFF ME!!”

After we all calm down, we start to plan our next move.

“Alright so I’ll be the one to askdid any of you know this was here?” I ask.

“Not me.” Mika replies.

“Me neither.” Talion says.

“I’m as shocked as you are.” Leo answers.

“I knew it was here.” Armin finally says.

“Armin, shut up no you didn’t.” I respond.

“I’m seriousI’ve seen this place before.”

After he says that I look at him with a stunned expression.

“Wait what?”

“Yea ever since the tremors started, I’ve been having weird dreams. There’s a voice that’s been telling me to ‘find the labyrinth and restore balance’ or something. Then I saw some visions of this place.”

When he finishes talking, I just stare at him like the moron he is.

“What’s up Damian?”

“Don’t ‘what’s up’ me you jackass! Why didn’t you say anything before now?”

“Why would I? It was just a dream. Besides, I don’t like listening to strange voices in my head.”

What the hell?! I’ve been stressing out for the past couple days, and I come to find out this dumbass had the answers I was looking for?!

“Arminyou’re lucky we’re friends. Alright guys, we need to get moving. If what Armin said is true, then the source of those tremors is probably down here, and we need to stop them before Valoria goes to hell.”

Picking out a pathway to my right, I lead the group through the cavern. We walk in silence for about five minutes, before I notice something’s off.

“Hey Damian, do you-”

“Yea, I noticed Leo. HEY! WHOEVER YOU ARE, SHOW YOURSELVES! WE KNOW YOU’RE THERE!”

No reply comes and I start to feel like an idiot, when four figures clad in black cloaks emerge from the shadows. Great, weirdos in a cave. What could possibly go wrong?

“So, you noticed us, huh? Not that it’ll do you much good.”

“I’m going to be honest with you here, you’re better off crawling back into the shadows you came from. Because if you don’t, you’re gonna die.”

“Hey Damian, you can’t just kill people!” Mika cries out.

“Oh, don’t worry Mika, these guys aren’t normal people. They’re vampires, and if they’re sneaking around down here, they’re obviously not the law-abiding kind.”

“You think you can kill us?” one of the vampires asks.

“NoI know I can.”

In an instant, all four of them lunge at us, trying to catch us off guard. Unfortunately for them, I was waiting for this.

“Lux Murum!”

Before the can reach us, I conjure a wall of light that they slam into headfirst.

“Leo, you’re up!”

“On it! IGNIS PILA!”

I remove the wall and as soon as it’s gone, Leo follows up with a fireball, incinerating the former threat. The flames die down shortly, leaving behind burned pieces of fabric.

“Well that was disappointing. I was hoping they’d be a little tougher.”

“Yea I know what you mean. Nice shot by the way.”

“Yea, we do make a good team, don’t we?

“Not to interrupt the bromance moment, but are we not going to talk about this?” Talion asks.

“What’s there to talk about? I told them to walk away. They didn’t listen and then they died.”

“Are you sure that you should be so casual about this? You two just murdered them, with barely any hesitation. Don’t you see any problem with that?”

“Saying ‘murder’ implies killing someone without justification, but if someone threatens me and my friends, they’ll die for that. Don’t act like I didn’t give them the chance to walk away.”

“I heard what you said earlier Damian. You used the fact that they were vampires like an excuse to kill them. I wonder if you feel that same way about Lan-”

I grab him by his collar before he finishes his sentence.

“Don’t you EVER say that to me again.”

“Hey, let him go Damian. We don’t have time for this.” Leo says while grabbing me by the shoulder.

“Whatevercome on let’s go.”

I can’t believe him, that was a low blow. He’s not going to make me feel bad for killing people who want to kill me. There’s nothing wrong with that.

After about 10 more minutes of walking, the passageway opens, and we find what looks like a massive underground oasis. In the center is a pool of water and next to it is awhat the hell?

“Um. you guys see that right?” Leo asks.

“Holy shit, that’s a golem!” I shout.

“Guys we have a bigger issue than the rock pile!” Jalen screams.

I look next to the golem and see two black clad figures flying towards us. Damn, they’re fast! Before they reach us, I feel a gust of wind building up next to me. As soon as the figures get close Talion extends his hand and the wind towards them. I see blood flying off them with their cloaks in tatters.

“You guys are pretty fast, but you’re not faster than Mach one winds.”

Jeez that’s a bit much.

“Careful guys, there might be more of them.”

“What are they even doing down here, and why are they attacking us? I thought we had a truce with the vampires.” Mika says.

“A truce?! You mean that sham where you filthy bugs strong armed our kind into becoming your slaves?” One of the vampires asks.

“Dude what the hell are you talking about? There aren’t any slaves in this city, vampires are equal citizens.” Leo replies.

“That may be the case in Valoria, but do you really think it’s the same everywhere?”

“So, if you have a problem with someone else, why are you screwing with our city?”

“Well this city holds something we want, and the quickest way to find IS TO SEND YOU ALL TO HELL!!” After shouting again, the vampire duo jumps towards us againonly to slam into a wall of rock 8 feet tall.

“Nice one Armin!” I yell out.

“Thanks.”

Morphing the wall in to two separate structures, Armin imprisons the vampires in rock. Alright, now time to get some answers.

“Alright you two, you’re the reason these tremors have been happening, aren’t you? So how do we stop it?”

“There is no stopping them now! With the golem sealed no one can prevent the volcano from erupting!”

That’s when I hear something heavy. It almost sounds like a mini landslide.

“PLEASEYOU MUSTHELPME.”

Turning around I see the golem has lifted itself up. That thing’s still alive? Waitis alive even the right word?

“You’re still kickin huh? How are we supposed to help you?”

“THEVAMPIRES THEY HOLDTHE SEAL. BREAK IT.”

Well, works for me.

“Alright Armin, hold em still.”

“Uh, what do you think I’m doin?”

“You know what I mean dumbass.”

With a slight smile on my face I walk up to the vampires. God, these guys smell like death. I guess I should be happy Lana is nothing like them. Her smell makes me feel alive. The stench these guys give off makes me wanna ask Leo to torch them, but it’d probably just make it worse.

“Revelare!”

After casting my spell, I see a glowing mark over both vampires’ chests. Hmm, looks like some sort of rune. This must be the seal the golem was talking about. It wasn’t very well hidden, but it does seem decently strong. It seems like it’s layered too.

“Yo, Mika come here.”

“What’s up?” Mika asks.

“Take a look at this rune on their chest. Got any ideas how to undo this seal?”

After casting the same revealing spell, she examines them for a second.

“Well there’s a couple ways we could do this. If you want, I can work on breaking it, but I’ll need to have the other vampires here too.”

“How many more are there?”

“From the looks of it just two more.”

“Ok so how long will it take you to break it?”

“I’d need about an hour for each one, so about 4 hours.”

“Damn that long?!” Jalen yells out.

“Shut it Jalen I don’t see you doing anything.” Talion says.

How cute, Talion’s already defending her.

“Alright then, what’s the other option?” I ask.

“We just kill them all. That’ll break it too.” She says.

“I like that plan; I’ve been itching for a good fight!” Leo yells.

“Yea, the only problem is killing them will also make the golem self-destruct. They’ve tethered themselves to the golem, so if they die the golem goes with them. That’s why it’d take so long for me to undo the seal without hurting the big guy.”

That’s when something occurs to me.

“Hey Mika, any chance you can tell how old these seals are?”

“Well I’m not one hundred percent, but I’d say they look to be a couple days old.”

Dammit, I knew it.

“It all makes sense now.”

“What are you thinking Damian?” Talion asks.

“You’ll see. Hey golem, you’re the one who guards these tunnels aren’t you?”

“YES.”

“You’re also the one in charge of keeping the volcano quiet, aren’t you?”

“THAT ISALSO TRUE.”

“Oh, I get it now.” Talion says. “If these seals are a couple days old, and the golem is the one in charge of watching the volcano”

“Exactly. That’s the reason for these tremors. Once they restricted the golem, he couldn’t do his job. Which means the only way we come out of this on top, is by saving our giant friend here. So that means we have to keep these fanged bastards alive until Mika can undo their dirty work.”

“That was kinda racist, maybe I should tell Lana.” Talion says with a smug look on his face.

“Yea you do that. I’ll just tell Mika about all the times you were looking at her all googly-eyed in class.” I whisper back.

Oh yea, that shut him up.

“Alright, Talion and Jalen, you guys are coming with me. We’ll go hunt down those other two. Leo, I want you Armin to stay here with Mika.”

“Aw, why do I have to be on babysitting duty?”

“Because, Armin and Mika are gonna be defenseless and you’re one of our strongest fighters. I trust you to make sure nothing gets within a hundred feet of these two. There might be more than just the two we’re looking for.”

“Well when you put it like that alright fine.”

“Thanks buddy, I’m counting on you!” I yell out over my shoulder.

Can’t believe he fell for that. I just want to fight those guys first. That spiel sounded good though, didn’t it? Before I get too far, I stop and turn around.

“Hey golem, quick question. Which way is the volcano from here?”

“FOLLOW THAT PATHYOU WILLKNOW.”

“Okay thank you! Let’s get moving guys!”

A few uneventful minutes go by, leaving me to think in silence. My hope is, if they went through all this trouble their plan must be making the volcano go kaboom, so we should find them there. If I’m right, we can be done and go home all in time for dinner. Speaking of dinner, I wonder what Lana’s up to. She’s probably worried, the whole cities gotta know about the cave in by now. Now that I think about it, where are the sentinels? They should be here by now. Unlessthis might be a bigger issue than I thought.

“You’re thinking about Lana, aren’t you? I can tell you’re smiling again.”

“Shut the hell up Talion! What do you know anyway? Oh wait, I forgot it’s the same way you smile about Mika!”

“Shut your trap before I shut it for you!”

“Oh, are you finally gonna fight me?! Thank God, I was beginning to think you were to chicken!”

“My, my look at these rowdy children.” An unfamiliar voice comes from behind us.

“I know, you think they would have the decency to stop this lover’s quarrel when faced with an enemy.”

Finally.

“Hey Talion, I think our little gamble worked out.”

“Yea, I think so too.”

“Wait, you guys had a plan? I thought you were just arguing.” Jalen says.

“Dammit Jalen shut up! You wouldn’t notice it cause your IQ isn’t high enough.” I respond.

“I know he really is useless, isn’t he?” Talion asks.

“AHEM! WILL YOU TWO SHUT THE HELL UP AND PAY ATTENTION TO US!”

As we turn around to face our opponents, we see them clad in similar garb to the other two. OOOO! That mana they’re giving off is decentbut I’m a little disappointed. These guys are stronger than the last pair, but that isn’t much of a benchmark.

“Hey Talion, look, I think we pissed them off.”

“Yea only question is, what are they gonna do about it? You want in on this Jalen? I don’t really feel like sitting this out, but I thought I’d ask.”

“Nah, that’s all you. Just don’t make me wait too long.” Jalen says, as he makes a chair of ice to sit on.

“YOU DARE TAKE US SO LIGHTLY THAT YOU WOULD SIT IN FRONT OF US! COLUMNAE FLAMMA!” Outraged, the first vampire gathers up his mana and shoots a pillar of flame at Jalen.

“Not so fast! Venti Impetus!”

Talion stretches out his hand and counters with a gust of wind that easily blows out the flames.

“You better pay attention, if you take your eyes off of me again, I won’t be so lenient with you.”

“What are you talking about you fo-”

Yup, looks like he finally noticed. Talion didn’t just blow out his flames, he cut his face with that same gust. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I would’ve missed it too. Good move.

“Alright Mr. Vampire, let’s get out of their way so we can get started.” I say.

“Do you really think I take orders from y-”

“DIS (Lux)!”

Unleashing a blast of light, I send the vampire flying a good ten meters down the hallway. Oops, I might’ve overdone it a tad.

“Alright Talion have fun. Transiet!”

Opening a portal with void magic, I jump over to where my opponent is.

“You dare to make a fool of me?!”

“Sorry, I think your mother already beat me to it.”

“AHHHHHHH!” Screaming he lunges toward methe dumbass.

“Lux Murum!”

Raising a barrier of light, the vampire slams into it like a bug on a windshield.

“Come on fang face! If all you do is run at me this is gonna be pretty boring! Revelare.”

Casting another revealing spell, I look at my enemy to confirm he has the seal on him. Waitno, DAMMIT!

“TALION!!”

(Talion)

Good they’re out of the way.

“Alright Jackass, it’s just you and me now. Please tell me you have more to offer than that.

“Damn you, you impudent brat! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!”

“I see. You’re a weakling and a fool, aren’t you?”

Gathering up my mana I pour energy at my feet creating a miniature cyclone. Closing the gap between me and my foe in an instant I gather some energy in my right hand as well.

“My name is Talion Vetala, you’d do well to remember it. Vi (Ventus)!”

Delivering a chop to his neck I knock him unconscious. It’s hard having to hold back on someone so weak. Is Damian done yet?

“TALION!!”

Oh, there he is.

“Don’t worry I didn’t kill mine, I remembered.”

Turning around to look at him I see a serious look on his face.

“LUX HASTAM!” Firing a spear made of light, he hits the vampire I defeated square in the chest, turning him into ash.

“What the hell is your deal! I thought we were trying to save the golem, and you know VALORIA!”

“Yea, no shit. The problem is, we’ve been scammed. Neither one of these vampires had a seal on them. They probably knew what we were trying to do.”

“Wait, if that’s true then-”

Before I can finish my sentence a tremor more intense than any the past few days goes off under our feet. Dammit, they played us!