The Furies
Sage and Cye impacted the ground hard, feeling the demons pressing in around them, their skins rubbing roughly against the boys sub armor like sandpaper. Had they not had their sub armor the demon hides would have rubbed them so raw they would have bled.
Sage could feel the creatures hot breath on his face as they crowded in so that all movement for him and Cye had been restricted. One of the demons bit down on his forearm and, though pain lanced through his arm, its teeth failed to penetrate his sub armor. Fro this he was grateful, no matter how much it hurt.
The demons were screaming, for indeed there was no other word for it, a high, feral scream that ended in a sort of whine. They were obviously excited having been set off by the sudden appearance of the two Ronins.
Both knew teens knew that if the cavern flood before hadn't gotten the occupants of the fortress suspicious, this most certainly would and it was only a matter of time before they were apprehended.
Cye felt the warm drool from one of the salivating beasts fall on his cheek as he struggled against their grasp. He choked as their foul breath invaded his senses much like smoke would, making his eyes water.
Shadows closed in around him, snarling and dripping saliva from fangs longer than his hand. It was suffocating and just when it didn't look as though it could any worse the demons, all of them, came to a shuddering halt.
One word had done that. The creatures had frozen in submission as a fire-haired man emerged from the threshold of a doorway neither Cye nor Sage had known was there. He walked towards the dazed Ronins; shoving out of his was the frozen, subservient demons. The man revealed and grabbed Sage by the neck.
An involuntary shudder went down Halo's back, as he became still, frozen muscles refused to respond, and his vision darkened. The red-haired man holding him tossed him into the waiting arms of a servant before moving around for Cye.
The demons growled menacingly at the redhead in their midst and a twinge of hatred for the man was apparent in all their eyes, be them ochre, crimson, or ebon. He ignored this and cast his spell on Cye, handing the teen off to another servant.
Their sight may have been jeopardized but their hearing was not.
"Take them to the Master's Room," the redhead commanded.
"But Lord Orios," One on the soldiers whined. "Master Ar'Nakari may be-"
"What did I just say?" Orios snapped.
The servant mumbled something incoherent.
"Now move, Talas hates dawdlers."
The shadowy demons still haunted Cye in his mind, taunting him as they reached out for him, as he was half dragged away.
"Sage?" He hazarded and was rewarded with a sharp blow on the head that left his mind reeling. The soldier holding Cye grunted at him and continued to drag him involuntarily to the Master's Room.
The Ronins could see nothing and therefore had no knowledge of where they were going. Only when their vision returned did they realized that they had arrived at their destination.
The first thing that Cye recognized was the six-armed deity in the back of the room with five of its arms occupied by the spheres. He bit back a cry of surprise as the memories of his dream came flooding back to him. The servant holding him shoved him to his knees, pulling his head back by his hair, forcing him to look as the man at the rear of the chamber. Sage was subjected to the same treatment.
The man, turning to look at them, looked like Death and Living reconciled. His skin was unnaturally pale, made even more so by his dark hair, and his eyes were a strange depthless, golden yellow. The robe he wore was scarlet and black, trimmed with a gold parallel to his eyes. What struck Cye the most was that this man had the same wicked grin as the one in his dream.
"Master Ar'Nakari, these are the intruders. They were found among your demons downstairs."
Talas nodded. "Gentlemen, it's a pleasure to have you as guests."
"If this is how you treat guests, I'd hate to see how you treat prisoners." Sage commented.
A soldier moved to hit him for the comment but Talas waved him off.
"You will hear nothing from prisoners here." Talas replied, looking Sage in the eye.
"Probably all dead, aren't they?" Cye demanded.
Talas glared at him in hatred before he noticed something.
"You fixed it." He said as he walked over to Cye and lifted the crystal flame from where it hung around Cye's neck.
Cye had forgotten about the necklace. The others had bought a new golden chain for it prior to their trip to the Nether Realm.
Talas tore it from him, Cye gasping in pain as the chain bit into the back of his neck before breaking.
"Thank you for this, you've helped me a great deal." Talas said as he walked towards the stone deity. He was stopped by a swift knock on the door and he nodded to one of his servants to open it.
A winded soldier stumbled in.
"Master Ar'Nakari, we found one of the demons dead in a passage leading down to the catacombs." He glanced at the two Ronins. "They weren't alone, sir."
Talas sighed. "Orios, take care of them, I've got more pressing matters to attend to."
"Yes, Master." Orios submitted, bowing. He motioned for the soldiers holding Sage and Cye to precede him out the door.
For this trip the two teens were rewarded their movement back but were kept under the watchful eye of Orios and the iron grip of the soldiers. Their destination was the dungeons and once there they were promptly thrown into a cramped, stone cell. They got back to their feet just as the heavy door closed and they heard the lock shoot home.
Sage could barely see Cye's white, frozen face turned towards the door as he swayed a little. He could not speak. He tried, and then his eyes closed. Sage caught him as he fell. The bearer of Torrent had not recovered fully from the previous battles so Halo wasn't in the least surprised.
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How is it? I think there's only going to be two more chapters after this and then an epilogue. It may change though.
Keep reviewing, please.
Disclaimer: If I should have to say it by now I pity you.