Chapter 21- Lake of Fire
Volcanic tomb
Prospective: The 'Kid'
After affirmatively deciding that it would be best for faye and Drey to find and dispel Coe and for Jessica and I to locate Hera, we'd parted ways. Five hundred feet down the path Faye had directed us, the air was getting warm. Hints of sulfuric gas could be tasted.
"Should we be concerning ourselves?" I asked.
"The gas shouldn't be concentrated enough to kill us. Most of it I imagine funnels up to the surface through naturally formed cracks, acting as venting.
"Shouldn't be enough?"
"What, you're expecting a guarantee?"
"Considering the other elements involved, I'd prefer not to have to deal with any further issues."
Some rock slid down the side of the cavern wall. I flinched and nearly raised my sword in anticipation.
"It's just some lose obsidian, relax," she assured pushing on the back of my armor for me to keep moving.
She kept looking at me funny.
"What are you thinking?" I asked finally.
"You know we're going to have to kill her, right?"
"I've been thinking about that."
"If I can't manage, you'll have to do it yourself."
"I know. I'm not that arrogant. There's only two of us. I know that there's a reason Faye sent you and I, otherwise she'd never entrust a task this important to me. She wouldn't even let me spray her purity gun…" I groaned.
"This is serious… You need to prepare yourself for the worst."
"I am prepared," I assured.
"Really? Ever driven your blade into the chest of a sleeping human girl?"
"How is this making me feel more confident?"
"I'm trying to make you see this realistically… I can't kill her, it has to be you."
I stopped walking for a moment. "Has to be?"
"That's what Faye told me. I was supposed to prepare you. I'm only here in case you need support."
My hands felt cold, the blood began to leave them. I imagined that it may have been that way, for some reason I felt it in my heart all along. Denial allowed me to dismiss the obviousness of the truth, while we were walking around sulfur crusted caves every moment more people were dying in the battle that raged not so far from here. All these people's lives where in a sense entrusted to me. The battle could be won in our favor with the might of our army and the willpower of the Adrmiral and his men. The Alter strike never arrived. That must mean the battle was going well in our favor. That would abruptly change if Hera were allowed free. By killing her, I'd be saving everyone's lives.
These notions of justification brought courage, yet still I felt a darkening urge to disobey what I knew had to be done. The shard had been removed from me, so why did I still feel this way? Something dark was still lurking inside.
"Stop," Jessica said grabbing my armor and holding me back. "There's what we've been looking for."
To the left was a small desecrated obsidian brick city, encompassed entirely by boiling lava. This was the central chamber, the heart of the volcano, still somewhat active. A massive stone dome encased the city, the passage upwards had been blocked by past magma eruptions. The only way out was to go back the way we'd come.
"That seems like a strange place to build a city," I sated. "Any indication where the tomb is?"
"I can't see clearly from here, the heat is distorting the air. We need to get closer."
"How will I reach the city. You can walk on lava and tolerate the intense heat because of your gear."
"I could carry you," she mumbled.
"The heat would still be too much for me to tolerate."
"Your dark armor must have some ability that would allow you to get into the city."
"It looks to be over a hundred foot gap between the nearest solid rock ledge that overhangs the lowest building. I could use the armor to accelerate myself and leap from the edge of that pillar there," I said pointing.
"It might be wise to calculate the angle before leaping off of it."
"I'm not so great at math. I'll be fine."
"The fall from that height would likely kill you."
"My armor can take the fall. Besides, I still have this," I said showing her the horseshoe medallion.
She nodded. "Ok, fine. That seems to be our only course of action possible at this moment and we don't have time to come up with a better solution. You head up to the ledge, I'll start walking," she grinned jumping backwards over the ridge into the lava.
Her feet contacted the surface and stopped her fall as if she'd jumped onto solid rock.
"Get going!" she called up to me.
"Right."
I climbed the rock wall until I reached the ledge. Overlooking it I could see Jessica far below, traversing the lava lake. I could see faint movement near her position under the lava. Something was moving around down there.