Chapter 37

"Don't cry…" A soft voice spoke near Rhordan, startled she flew her eyes open to find Gideon weakly staring at her. Rhordan couldn't think, her mind failed miserably to understand what she saw before her, she stared at Gideon as if a miracle had just been preformed in front of her. With a brief pause, she leapt at Gideon and hugged him tightly. "Ow, ow, ow, ow… easy please… my chest feels like someone used it as a cutting board."

Rhordan sheepishly, and very reluctantly, let go of Gideon. She laid her hand on his cheek, smiling warmly at him as she tried to wrap her head around how he managed to survive, and how his chest no longer looked like the ravaged mess she left it in. However, she found she didn't care, he was alive and that's what mattered.

"I nearly lost you…" Rhordan sniffled as she smiled at him, content with just sitting there beside him. Gideon offered a meek smile, he felt his body convulse and he coughed harshly, though there was something wrong with how his body reacted. Gideon could feel the pain and anguish his tortured body was in, and yet it felt as if it wasn't his body anymore.

"Yeah… didn't think I would make it either… glad I have you around to save me." Gideon cheekily grinned, though he was rewarded with another bought of coughs as his body tried to readjust to breathing once again, his words brightened Rhordan's smile. "Hey Rho, Can we please just stay within our bodies… for at least a few months… all this out of body experience isn't doing any good for my complexion."

Rhordan burst out laughing, the two shared the lone happy moment of peace and tranquillity after the nightmare they had survived. It was a peaceful scene, Rhordan laughing contentedly while Gideon smiled painfully, neither caring about the number of times they had escaped death in the last day alone.

"Umm… Rho, what happened… I think I recall up to the door… maybe… but beyond that… nothing." Gideon asked curiously, he didn't recognise the weird surroundings, nor the weirdly glowing blue orbs of light that were slowly growing dimmer. Rhordan felt she should have been irked with her new nickname, but she let him use it as it reminded her of her old nickname, one that she hoped she could hear one day soon.

"Nothing much, just an evil old witch that tried to trick me." Rhordan tried to chuckle at her attempt of humour, yet she found herself staring at the space where she had killed Undaria. Gideon weakly raised his right hand, resting against her cheek and pulled her head back towards his. "I'm fine… it's you I'm worried about."

"And I am worried about you…" Gideon could tell something happened between the time he blacked out, and when he woke to a crying Rhordan. He wished she would tell him so he could comfort her, but he wouldn't push her. "If you don't want to tell me… that's fine… but don't let it consume you. I am here with you… you can talk to me."

Rhordan placed her hand against his on her cheek, holding it to her as she let his words sink in. She knew that he had his fair share of demons that haunt him, including ones that were somewhat related to her current problem haunting her mind.

"I… I killed someone…" Rhordan painfully admitted the truth, she felt her heart quiver at the words as the memories flooded into her mind. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that she killed another human, or rather how coldly she had done it.

"Did they deserve it?" Gideon bluntly asked, he could see the swirling emotions in her mind, he knew that if she was left to her own devices then she would spiral into madness thinking about it. Stunned for a second, Rhordan thought long on his question, replaying the entire event that had transpired not long ago. Undaria was evil beyond doubt, her intentions would have killed Gideon and possibly many others if she had been allowed to escape. With her mind made up, Rhordan simply nodded, though she still felt distressed at what she had done. "Then don't let it plague you. They deserved what they got, and if you let it bother you then you're just letting them win."

"That still doesn't mean Undaria deserved to die…" Rhordan muttered meekly, still distraught over her own actions. Gideon pulled her as close to him as he could, staring deeply into her sadden amethyst eyes.

"Maybe, maybe not. You don't know if they were the worse villain to have ever existed or the greatest saint." Gideon held her gaze, conveying every ounce of reassurance he could. "But if it was a choice between us and them, then you did good."

"But…" Rhordan tried to complain, though Gideon silenced her by placing his thumb over her lips. Shaking his head, he sullenly grimaced before he spoke.

"Trust me when I say that you would know when they didn't deserve to die…" Gideon's words stayed within Rhordan's mind, she knew he was right. She felt more upset at killing another human rather than killing Undaria specifically, it was a bizarre distinction but one that mattered as she found herself forgetting the old woman piece by piece.

"Thanks…" Rhordan felt somewhat at ease with herself, it wasn't the kind of ease that one had after a revelation or relaxation, rather one that spoke of the good in her soul that wept at the action of taking a life than taking Undaria's life. She knew it won't be easy going forward, but knowing that her feelings were more toward herself than the old woman, made things somewhat easier.

"If you ever need someone to talk to, just ask." Gideon let go of her cheek and let his arm fall to his side, his body was in weak state and doing such actions for a long time caused him to lose control over it. "How long do you think we can stay here for?"

The moment he asked his question, the floating blue orbs winked out of existence, casting them into darkness once again. Neither choose to interpret that as an omen as Rhordan pulled out the equipment from the ring to start a fire, she had kept a few of the useless books which came in handy for something to burn.

"I don't know." Rhordan answered as she finished setting up the fire, wincing harshly at tearing the paper out of the books and lighting them, she pulled out a spare set of clothes and rolled up them up to put under Gideon's head, she managed to get a shirt on him after struggling with his temporary lack of motor control. "There is no chaos energy here, whether that will stay like that with Undaria gone, I don't know."

"Then we should prepare to leave this place immediately." Gideon stated, testing his arms and flexing his legs slightly, he experimented with what little motor control was still available to him. "But first, I am in no condition to go anywhere, and this place possibly has some interesting things. So, for now, lets get some sleep and then we can explore this place."

Gideon grinned as he mentioned exploration and looting, truly living up to the name dryads gave him, the 'explorer'. With both of them exceedingly tired, they laid downside by side and practically fell asleep. They had thought of setting up a watch system, but their states were too deteriorated to let one sleep and the other stand watch just to switch over every so often. Instead, they chose to risk it. Though, Gideon found sleep somewhat disturbing, he knew his body was asleep, but his mind was still functioning as if he were still awake.

Mulling over the events he could barely recall from his time inside his core, he wondered if he was truly put back together. He felt connected to his body, but in the way one would if they were using a glove puppet, and yet he could actually feel everything that the puppet was feeling. He shook his mind and pushed the issue aside, whatever was happening to him had to be side effects of having one to many out of body experiences one after another, he was sure if given enough time these symptoms would dissipate.

Gideon found he could use the conscious sleeping to manipulate his mana throughout his body, focusing energy to heal parts that were heavily damaged and cleansing parts that still held vestiges of chaos energy within. With his miniscule amount of remaining mana, it was difficult to repair himself at first, but with trail and error he managed to fix most of the damage and rid himself of any remaining chaos energy.

An indeterminate amount of time later, they awoke in each other's arms, though neither recoiled from the other as they laid there comfortably. After a few moments, they reluctantly got to their feet in the sheer darkness of the room. Reigniting the fire, they fashioned a torch out of a set of spare clothes and the old knife, using it to light the room.

Gideon's repair work had managed to recover most of the minor injuries and a few of the major problems affecting him, but he still couldn't mend bones or muscle injuries. Rhordan didn't want him moving around in his current state, though Gideon convinced her that the movement would help him recover, that and they didn't know how long they had left inside this building.

The room they had slept in held nothing they thought of value, pieces of paper with scribbles dotted all over the place, random objects that glowed with various elemental energies when viewed with their magical sense. Yet, they couldn't make sense of Undaria's work, nor the items she had laying, and with limited space in their void ring they decided to just leave it.

They found other rooms of similar make and style as the first, each filled with equally various and senseless junk, though a few pieces stood out to them. In one of the rooms, they found various books that Rhordan wanted to read through, yet upon opening them she found they were written in an older form of the current written language she had learned to read. Storing them away within the ring, they carried onto another room that had various parts from magical beasts, anything from their skin, teeth, and claws to their magical cores.

They picked their way through them, with limited space in the ring and no backpacks around they could stuff them into, they had to be picky about what they took. Most of the magical cores held a very dim light despite being of good quality, while only a stark few retained their lustre. Of the magical beast parts, they didn't know much about any of them, so they went with their gut. They stored several pieces of black scales, and as many claws, talons, and teeth that they could cram into the corners of the ring's storage space, hoping that any of them might come in handy later on.

There was one piece among the piles that took their interest, most materials of magical beast radiate their elemental energy, so it was fair to assume the power of the beast through that measurement if they factored in the amount of time they had been down in this building. One piece glowed with such an intensity that they had to shove it into the ring otherwise they wouldn't have been able to see the other pieces, though those other pieces each glowed insanely bright despite being down in the building for such a long time.

The most interesting piece was a large sheet of extremely dense dark green leather from a magical beast, it's elemental energy was as deep green as Gideon's which made him invested in taking it with them, hoping they could either find a good blacksmith or learn to forge themselves.

As they explored, they found that the construct of the place was far simpler than they had first thought, the tower like building had three identical rooms arranged in a triangle formation, with the only exit leading out between two rooms. The tower went up two more floors before stopping, each floor was designed exactly the same as the first floor. They didn't find much in the other rooms, except that one held various materials or metals that they made sure to take with them as they could come in handy, though they did have to shuffle a few items around inside the ring to ensure they fit.

Entering the last room of the tower at the top floor, they found a set of light armour on a stand in the centre of the room. The ice blue armour was intricately carved with similar patterns to that of the robe Undaria wore, except these were engraved with images of frost and snow patterns in a shock white colour. It had several icy blue feathers around the shoulders and a few crowning the helmet, they also layered the belt around the armour. From the naked eye, the armour radiated a frosty aura as it's marking glowed a light blue, the feathers as well emitted a frosty blue aura.

Viewing the armour through their magic sense told them all they needed to know, the armour had an insane amount of power behind it and was most likely Undaria's combat gear. One that was made for ice elemental magic, a type of magic they were sure they didn't have but that didn't mean they were going to leave it here.

Chucking out a few pieces of armour from the dungeon, they managed to fit the armour into the ring before deciding that was enough. Returning to the first room on the ground floor, they eat their food in silence, glad that they had the foresight to pack the ring with supplies beforehand. Their time scouring the tower had taken nearly an entire day, though they couldn't exactly tell if it had other than how tired they were.

They decided to sleep first, and then when they awoke they would attempt to leave the abyss by scaling the walls. Gideon had taken the spare magical beast items and fashioned them into makeshift climbing gear for both of them, it was essentially two sharp claws as climbing hooks and several pieces of leather to wrap around their hands and knees. Rhordan had spent the time padding out their armour with extra clothes to protect them from the wall they had to climb, she filled the vacated space with whatever she could from the remaining pile of magical beast materials, especially from the magical core section.

Sleeping peacefully, they found themselves excited for the morning as they would be making their way out of the abyss and back into the light. Though it would be a daunting and difficult climb, they were determined to leave this hellish place once and for all.

Gideon spent his time carefully focusing on repairing the damage to his muscles to ensure he could climb when they awoke, but he couldn't do much as he had to conserve his mana for the protection rune. He spent most of the time wondering why or how he was in his current state, how he was awake while his body slept, though one thing he was sure of was that he didn't want to tell Rhordan. He didn't want to burden her with the knowledge as he was sure it was nothing more than side effects from having his magical core removed, a fact that disturbed him greatly when Rhordan finally told him the entire story as they searched the rooms.

The pair awoke refreshed, ready and resolute in their planned escape from Hell's Abyss. Donning the gear, they did a retake of the items of the first room again, opting to taking a few of the parchments filled with scribbles and a few of the items laying around as there was a few tiny spaces left in the spatial ring.

Rhordan had practiced somewhat in the evenings when they were eating or resting on her runes, she found that they were far more effective with the recent unlock of two elements as they opened up a whole new set of runes she could work with. She found she could use lightning runes to increase attack speed and movement speed, while spirit runes were more for protection of the soul, something that instantly became important for the rune barrier against the chaos energy.

Her previous version was much in similarity to that Gideon's suppression orb except it formed a layer of mana around their bodies that prevented any form of energy entering their bodies. Now with mystic level spirit magic under her control, she now had a method that would prevent the chaos energy from corrupting their bodies and magic cores. She couldn't exactly understand being a mystic as her only reference was Gideon's previous claim of feeling like one with the forest, though she found that the tower had a mass of spirit energy available which she was free to play with to her hearts content.

With the added protection of the spirit energy in the rune construct, and the added power of the residing spirit energy within the tower, the barrier should be far more effective and require a lot less mana than her first attempt, that was her hope anyway as they didn't want to try it since they didn't know how to turn off the barrier once it was active. Rhordan knew that with her basic knowledge on her two elements, her options for runecraft were limited, but if she could learn those elements from either books or actual masters then who knew what she could be capable of.

They stood before the stone door, nervous and excited at the same time. Rhordan set about activating the barrier rune, taking far longer than she had before as this time they weren't under the pressure of a time limit. With their mana almost fully restored, they knew they could last at least eight or nine hours if the barrier was anything like it was before, that time frame should be enough to get them out of the abyss, though it would be stressful and difficult with the pace they would have to set to climb the three-league tall wall.

When Rhordan pressed her hand against the rune, they were both coated in a purple layer once again, though this time it seemed far brighter and had a swirling yellowish texture to it that wasn't there before. After the first barrier had affected them, they had a fair idea of how much mana was taken each passing second, comparing that to the second barrier showed just how much Rhordan had improved. The mana drain was more than halved, doubling their time to escape.

"You ready?" Gideon looked over his shoulder at Rhordan, a slight grin on his face as he felt ready to face the abyss once again. Rhordan nodded, an equal expression on her face, eager that they were finally leaving this accursed place.

With a strained heave, Gideon barely managed to open the door to the tower, its massive weight requiring him to put in every ounce of effort to shift it. Stepping out into the evil darkness sent a cold chill down their spines as they remembered what had transpired not long ago. Leaving the tower, Gideon decisively shut the door again, earning him a confused look from Rhordan.

"Encase we ever come back for the rest of the materials, plus if anyone else gets caught down here then hopefully they can find this place to rest." Gideon figured that if there was a place down in the abyss that people could rest and recuperate, then he wanted to be sure they didn't ruin it by leaving the door open. Rhordan agreed with his assessment, though shook her head at him thinking that they might come back, she was never coming back to this place ever again if she could avoid it.

The door was jutting just out of one of the walls of the abyss, granting them the opportunity to climb immediately and not spent ages walking through the darkness aimlessly. With their gear set, they tied a durable rope around their waists, testing that they were connected to one another. The rope ensured that if one of them failed or fell, then the other could save them before they plummeted to their deaths.

As Gideon had the most experience rock climbing, he would be going first and plotting the route while Rhordan would follow behind. Testing the makeshift picks he had created, Gideon started to ascend the wall.

The wall itself wasn't perfect climbing material, but with the picks and the extra rope, progress was made. The dark stone was durable enough to hold their weight, and pliable that the picks could bury themselves into it.

Plotting a route somewhat diagonally upwards, Gideon set a brisk pace, stopping occasionally to ensure Rhordan was coping. He would sometimes wait for her to catch up before giving her pointers and little tricks he had learned, teaching her what he could while hanging from a sheer wall side.

As they climbed, they felt the presence of something nearby. Not taking the chance, they flattened themselves to the wall as a hulking behemoth of a dark creature ascended the wall close to their location, it had a similar body to that of a crab except it had scales and a scorpion's tail. The beast horrified them as it passed, making them grateful they never ran into such a fiend when they were leisurely strolling around the ground of the abyss.

Once they could no longer hear nor feel the presence of the scorpion crab horror, they continued their ascent, this time taking a slower and much more cautious approach than before. Ensuring that if they did run into another one of those creatures, they could flatten themselves to the wall quickly and easily.

Gideon found the route he had chosen somewhat rough, the wall changed occasionally from hard rock to shale far to quickly for his liking, plus the fiendish creature had weakened parts of the wall as it had passed. Forcing him to take an alternative route away from where the horror had passed.

The climb was insanely difficult, Rhordan did on occasion miss her swing and nearly fell if it wasn't for Gideon's quick reaction to pulling the rope taut and holding her in place until she was comfortable on the wall, setting off once she was confident with continuing. Gideon wasn't exempt from making mistakes, though he tried his best to avoid it, he sometimes misplaced his foot or got a part of his clothing stuck on the jagged parts of the wall.

Two painstakingly slow hours in and they were forced to stop for a few moments, resting against the wall as it had sloped inwards enough to not force them to hold onto their gear as tightly as they had been. With the extended time on their barrier and mana drain, they could afford the occasional break, but after seeing that fiend stroll past them, they didn't want to risk stopping too many times.

Continuing onwards, they climbed for another hour before finding a small outcropping on the wall, one that was enough for them to climb onto and rest there for a few minutes. They tried to gauge how far they had travelled, but with no visual light or any idea to the exact measurement of the abyss other than it was supposedly three leagues deep, they could only guess that they covered at least a mile. A decent pace considering their time limit.

Quickly eating a snack, they set off and climbed higher and faster then before, hoping to find another outcropping like the one before. Though after another three hours of stressful and painful climbing, they didn't find anything remotely resembling an outcropping. Yet, it didn't dissuade them as they pressed forward, determined to get to the top of the abyss as soon as they could without taking any unnecessary risks.

They were stopped once again as another similar crab like scorpion crawled by, flattening themselves to the wall, yet this time they failed to notice the wall breaking apart from the thundering steps of the titanic beast. It was only at the last second that Rhordan called out to Gideon, just as he slipped from the wall. Before he could fall far, he managed to slam his pick back into the wall just below Rhordan who had braced against the wall to take his weight.

Their near fatal mistake reminded them to be cautious and taking this slowly, they had the time to go relatively slow in their climb though their enthusiasm to cover as much distance as possible had pushed them onwards. They sent a mental thank you to Xan and Sapphire for teaching them how to reinforce their bodies as the added strength and endurance greatly helped them climb, though the horrors levelled out the playing field.

With another three hours down, they found something that reinvigorated their spirits, something that bloomed a blossoming flower of hope and longing. The darkness around them was lessening, their sight range increased and the darkness above them thinned slightly. They had to be close to the surface after nine hours of climbing, though they forced themselves to be careful and not make a mistake this close to victory.

They climbed gradually, taking the time to actually chart a way up rather than hope it would be fine as their new sight allow them to see further. It wasn't more than an hour as they finally saw the darkness slowly lift and light poured into the abyss, the first rays of sunlight they had felt on their bodies in over a month. It was a glorious feeling, one that had them stopping for a few minutes to bask in before carrying on.

With each metre they climbed, the brighter it got, a feeling of triumph coursed through them as they soon saw the edges of the abyss above them. They picked up their speed to make it out of the abyss once and for all, their desire to escape the abyss threw their caution to the wind.

As they reached the cliff's each, their foolish mistake of forsaking caution and hurrying recklessly led them directly into a patch of coarse dirt. With their picks losing ground and the wall falling apart before them, realisation dawned on them that their eagerness had been their downfall as Rhordan slipped on lose dirt and fell.

She was caught by the rope, but the sudden jolt casted her picks back into the abyss. Gideon barely held on, her weight now added to his, the picks in his hands no longer holding their traction on the soft wall. They were only a meter away from the top, their goal was within reach. Gideon spied a small section of stone just above him, with a last-ditch effort, he flung himself upwards and smashed his pick into the rock with every ounce of strength he had left.

His aim true, the pick wedged itself into the wall, holding him in place. Yet, before he could get his other pick in place, he heard a gasp from Rhordan. Spinning his head around he caught sight of the rope tearing after this last-ditch attempt, he barely caught hold of it just as it snapped, his pick disappearing into the darkness of the abyss below after abandoning it for the rope. Leaving him with one hand on his only pick and the other holding onto Rhordan, he hung there straining his body, the only salvation being his weird puppeteering body responding to his commands despite his muscles tearing from exhaustion and sudden actions.

"Rho, can you get a hold of the wall?" Gideon called out, hoping to find a solution to their current predicament. He needed for Rhordan to secure herself onto the wall before he could fix himself, with only one pick left, it would be difficult to get them out of the abyss, but not impossible.

"I don't think so…" Rhordan tried and failed to gain a foothold on the coarse dirt, her foot slipped, and her hands couldn't find purchase on any of the holes in front of her. She felt a soul crushing wave of depression threaten to consume her as they were literally right there, the edge of the abyss just a metre above them and they had made a foolish mistake in their desperation to escape the abyss's hellish claws.

"We can do this!" Gideon roared, he refused to give up, not when they were this close. He refused to let this ridiculous abyss take their lives, not after they had managed to beat it, not after that had survived the hellish torment it had afflicted upon them and persevered. "WE WILL DO THIS!"

Gideon's roar was in vain as a sudden jolt wracked through them, the pick in his hand was losing its hold on the stone. They both stared in terror as the stone around the pick cracked, pieces raining down upon them as the pick slid ever so slowly out of its place. Neither of them could utter a word as they watched their lives end with the stone finally crumbling to pieces, the pick broke from the wall, and the pair started to fall.

Holding his hand out, Gideon stared in absolute shock as they fell.

Author's Note: I think I may have put them through too much…