Shining In The Darkness
A Tale of Sol and Luna
Chapter Five: Down To The Depths
"If we're going to activate the defences, we'll have to send at least one person down to the Depths," said Harmony, who fit quite well into the role of confident strategist.
"The Depths?" queried Jenna.
"It sounds more dramatic than basement," Justice explained. "This is the Sol Lighthouse."
"I think we won't want to send anyone on their own. If Orian and Lycoris really think we're a threat, they're likely to be hunting for us before heading for the Star," Isaac commented.
"Unless they think they can just beat us there and take us out once they have the power," Felix added.
"Orian doesn't seem interested in killing us," said Picard. "That is probably something we can use to our advantage. But it also means that Lycoris, if she is as vicious as I think she is, will work to convince him that we have to be removed first."
"The wench is twisted," Garet agreed.
"And you think I'm going to ignore that sort of remark?" asked Jenna.
"You're different. I-" began Garet.
"Topic at hand, people," Ivan reminded them.
"If we have to go to the Depths first, then get up through the labyrinth to reach the Aerie, that's a long way, and slow going. We'll have to make good time to beat them there," said Mia.
"Not if four of us go down and four go up. We can get a head start, and then slow them down at the top while the others catch up. Also, we'll have four fresh Adepts while Orian and Lycoris will have been fighting for a some time," suggested Picard.
"I'm really quite impressed," said Harmony to Bane. "I say one thing and they're off scheming."
"Planning. Heroes plan. Villains scheme," said Dew. "And brigands plot, if you want to know."
"I'm afraid I've forgotten much of the terminology over the last few thousand years. It's been a while since I encountered any villains," she pointed out.
"Those were good times," Bane mumbled reflectively.
"Hey, these are the best times we've had in a while," said Core, glancing back at Jenna. "And don't say anything about being around longer than me, I was born long before this whole quest began."
"Bah. A few centuries? Maybe a millennium?" muttered Bane. "Anklebiters."
"We had some fun of our own, a long time ago," said Harmony to Core. "Maybe I'll tell you sometime." The Djinn turned back to watch the humans that they now depended on.
"Six to the top," Felix insisted. "They'll be taking the dangerous route."
"And leave just two to make it all the way from bottom to top?" asked Ivan incredulously.
"He has a point," Sheba returned. "The fewer of us go up, the worse their chances of lasting at all."
"Maybe all of them are depressing," Infinity suggested to Aeon, who simply shook his head.
"But not one," Mia said. "Six and two is the least safe way this side of suicide. No one gets to go out fighting, no matter how glorious it could be."
"We already cured Felix of that one," said Jenna, grinning.
"I don't want him getting ideas into his head. Picard, Jenna, you two will go into the Depths and do whatever you have to. Everyone else, we go up," said Isaac, sliding into his role as leader very comfortably. "Harmony, are you coming?"
"No, I have other tasks at hand. The Sol Djinn are quite capable of leading you, don't worry." With that, Harmony dove into the font again, and a moment later a light shot through the ceiling. The Adepts looked at each other, but Harmony had one last suggestion for them. "GO!" They went.
"Come on," said Justice, hovering ahead of Jenna and Picard as they dashed out of the room. "The path down starts a bit higher up, but with the power you guys have now, I think I have a shortcut."
"That's a good point. I feel a lot stronger now. Exactly how did you power us up?" asked Picard. Guardian, who was cruising along at the significant altitude that was head-height for Picard, laughed like a knight riding to joust.
"Indeed, mighty Picard! All of you have reached new classes now that you are allied with us, the Djinni of Sol!" said Guardian, swooping dramatically.
"You'll get used to it," said Justice, but she added in a low tone, "or kill him first."
"So? Don't keep us in suspense," Picard said.
"You, o warrior of the oceans, with my aid are now of the Herald class. Your range of Psynergy has been expanded, and you may call upon me at any time to nullify the casting of your foes," Guardian proclaimed.
"And you?" asked Jenna, looking at Justice.
She hovered in a doorway, looking back and forth between the possible directions. "Me? I've raised you to Valkyrie class. And as for unleashes… Wait, here we are." Justice had stopped at a blank wall, no different than any of the other rooms that honeycombed inside the Lighthouse's outer walls. "The proper lyrics should give us a nice shortcut. Which of you is the better singer?" asked Justice. Jenna and Picard looked at each other, then at the Djinni.
"Picard," they said in unison.
"Then sing these words will all your spirit," said Justice, and into Picard's mind a song was written.
"Come on now, you can trust me,
Come on, open the door,
I know just how you're feeling
I know, I've been there before
Open the gate up
Open the gate up, hurry,
Open the gate up, hurry,
Do it right now-"
"Open the gate up, or I'm gonna knock the damn door down!" shouted Jenna, who had been standing there with growing impatience, waiting for something to happen. As soon as she finished, the yellowish gold of the wall dissolved like sand, leaving a rectangular hole that showed only blackness beyond.
"How did you know how it ended?" asked Justice.
"It ended?" repeated Jenna, a little confused. "Well, there's fate for you."
"Quickly now! Our pace must be great!" said Guardian, and dove into the shadows.
"He's a little out of his mind," Jenna commented.
"After so long so far away from civilisation, you might not hold up so well yourself. And he is a gallant fighter when necessary, with bravery rarely matched," replied Justice.
"But he's way out there. Like insane," Jenna added.
"Most Djinn are. We just never tell anyone," the Sol Djinni replied, and followed Guardian into the darkness. Jenna shook her head, not too surprised that the Sol Djinn were much like all the others.
"That sounded oddly familiar," Picard muttered as he and Jenna stepped through the wall and into the void of shadows. Then they fell for rather a long time.
"They're on their way," said Felix, watching his sister and Picard as they were lead away from the fountain room. "We'd better move fast if we want any sort of head start."
"We could always just hope that the moving walls crush them where they stand," grumbled Garet, who had been severely battered by Orian's Psynergy.
"You're now back by the power of the Sol Djinn and you don't want to take another shot at those two?" demanded Torch. "And you call yourself a Mars Adept."
"I wasn't serious, spark-breath," Garet replied. "Though the idea of no more pain before this ends is an intriguing one, not to mention unique." Torch glared at him, but was cut off by Mia. For whatever reason, the Djinn were always particularly respectful of the healer.
"So let's move. We can probably make it a good distance up before too long, if we put a bit of Psynergy at our feet," Mia said. "Ivan? Garet?"
"Hey, yeah, why didn't you help out outside, anyway?" demanded Ivan, nudging Garet playfully in the ribs. The Mars Adept, who still stood well above Ivan, looked down at him imperiously.
"Because I was helping save our collective skins, while you were flailing away like the Mad Staff Swinger, trying to damage the polish on those nightmare parrots," he growled, but Ivan knew better than to take him seriously. "Unleash Turbo!"
"Unleash Zephyr!"
The Mars and Jupiter Djinn flared with power again, vastly increasing the speed of all the Adepts. With a sound like silk being dragged across a blade, Isaac fired out of the room, following Halo's directions as he raced through the chambers.
"We're supposed to follow him?" asked Garet.
"Just follow the violet-shifted trail," Sheba muttered as they sprinted after Isaac.
As Sol Lighthouse had never been designed for anything less than very dignified processes -assuming it was designed at all, and not simply coalesced out of the firmament- the fastest way from top to bottom right now was the vast spiral path around the edge of the Outer Well. That, unfortunately, was where they had first encountered Orian and Lycoris.
"Look at it this way," Ivan said to Garet. "They're not going to see anything but a glowing blur."
"Even if that were true, it's not like there are just glowing blurs all over the place. Well, not anymore," Garet said ironically, looking at Seraph.
"Watch yourself, mortal," Seraph muttered. "Just because you're a Titan now doesn't mean you get to mouth off to Sol Djinn." Garet struggled mightily to tell if Seraph was kidding or not, but couldn't.
"Titan?" repeated Sheba. "And what about the rest of us?"
"Do you really want us to list all your powers right now?" asked Infinity, still somewhere inside Sheba's mind. "You're a Prophet now, if you really want to know. And I can help you out by striking all enemies in the area with one heck of a slap that ought to stun them a bit, if you really want to know."
"Some of us do want to know, actually. We're probably heading into a fierce battle against strong enemies. Anything you can tell us is good," said Mia, never one to take nonsense from Djinn.
"No argument from me," Saviour chimed in. "I can place protective Psynergy around any one person you want. The next time they take a fatal strike, I'll step in with some of the strongest healing power you've ever seen. I've tried to use it other times, but it never works unless we're talking life-and-death, I'm afraid."
"And any Djinni who can raise someone to the class of Disciple is no slouch," Aeon added. "Me, I'm stuck with a united elemental attack and this big silent guy. I mean, Crusader is a nice title and all…"
"Aeon, if you're not careful, someone's going to think you like her," Felix warned his Djinni. "In this group, they'll grab anything. Ivan and Sheba have gone through too much already."
"And I suppose if Sheba were at all involved you'd be well aware of it, wouldn't you?" joked Garet.
"I rather resent being left with the responsibilities of your girlfriend," Seraph grumbled, but flapped closer and gave Garet a resounding smack to the back of the head with his wing anyway.
"Don't worry. We're not going to ask you to kiss him when he gets depressed," Ivan assured him.
This is certainly an interesting band of chosen defenders, Halo commented to Isaac, silently.
None better, the Venus Adept agreed.
But I do wonder about the way they act. Surely you would expect more discipline from such important warriors?
Not at all, Isaac replied. They have to be like this just to stay normal. Human, if you'll excuse my use of the word. Otherwise we'd probably be racing to take the Sol Star before Lycoris and Orian.
Human, Halo repeated, and laughed. Well, you make a good point. It's fun to watch, too.
Makes a long journey interesting, I can tell you, said Isaac. The Adepts continued to joke as they ran up the spiral path, steadily marching, the powers of Mars and Jupiter fuelling their pace. They would likely have made it all the way to the top before Picard and Jenna even activated the Lighthouse's defences if they had not forgotten a crucial detail.
With a flicker of light, Orian and Lycoris appeared in front of them.
"Oh. Right. Warp Psynergy," said Mia, distastefully. Orian waved a hand, nullifying the Mars and Jupiter Djinn's speed boosts.
"We so should have remembered that," Sheba added.
"Do we really need all this talking?" asked Lycoris, producing the Psynergy whip again. "If it's a problem I could always silence one of you for good. That tends to grab attention."
"I've heard better threats," Felix commented.
"Saturos. Now he was always one for a good menacing," Ivan pointed out.
"Karst was never unprepared when it came to evil villain talk either," Sheba said.
"Orian, I do believe they're taunting us," Lycoris said, narrowing her eyes.
"Oh, very well. Just don't prolong it," said Orian, relenting. His hands emerged from the folds of his perfect robe and a sudden updraft blew his hair out of his eyes, which had gone wild with crackling power. "Blinding Burn!" The air grew thick with heat as light grew all around the Adepts, shining harshly so that it was painful to look at anything. Images began to melt into pale blurs and even sound began to sublimate. The floor was heating now, heating like a stovetop. The soles of the Adept's boots began to stick, hindering them even as they stumbled.
Garet hit Orian at a run, tackling the Sol Adept to the floor and rolling up again, on guard against retaliation. The Psynergy broke immediately; the world snapped back to normal and the floor was simply cool tile once more. Orian's assault broken, the Adepts followed Garet into battle. Unfortunately, the two strange villains, while not the same sort of warriors as those of the Mars Clan, were still more than capable of holding their own in combat.
Ivan and Sheba's first concerted attack should have left little choice for Lycoris except whether she wanted her legs struck numb or a smash to the temple. Instead, she performed a competition-perfect backflip without ever seeming to push off the ground. The Luna Adept simply rotated three hundred and sixty degrees like she was on an axis, dodging both staves and landing firmly.
Felix came in behind her, readying himself for what he had no choice but to hope would be a killing blow. Instead, there was a whirlwind of dark hair and eyes that glowed now, but nevertheless contained a deeper darkness, and with a snap he fell back, clutching his face.
"Unleash Sleet!" At Mia's call, her Mercury Djinn sprang into action, blasting the enemy Adepts with heavy, wet snow. Lycoris, losing her footing on the wet tile, was borne down under the onslaught, but Orian projected a shield moments after the attack began. The Psynergy wall easily deflected Sleet's attack, and with a wave of his arms, he sent it at Mia, crashing it into her before she could leap away.
Even as the wall flew toward Mia, Isaac tried to tell himself she would be fine as he leapt over it, landing and immediately moving in, swinging the Sol Blade up and around. Psynergy flickered again, and another shield formed between Orian and the rushing blade, but the force of the strike still knocked him aside.
Lycoris was up again only moments after Sleet threw her down, picking Ivan up by the neck with one pstrengthened arm and flung him at Garet, stalling the Mars Adept as he tried to catch his friend and put him down without injuring anyone.
Isaac hoped that her attention would be drawn long enough for him to strike, but the powers of Turbo and Zephyr were long gone, while the faint fiery aura around Lycoris suggested that she had no qualms about using such Psynergy boosts herself. She nearly blurred as the second pstrengthening kicked in fully, and the lightning whip snapped again.
Isaac's muscles twitched faster than he knew what had happened, and as he looked at the black crackling cord wrapped around the Sol Blade, he silently praised his reflexes and any of the Elemental Spirits who happened to be listening. Isaac glanced back at Orian, blasting the upright Adepts off their feet. They out numbered these two by a factor of three and were barely holding their own.
"I hate this sort of battle," Isaac muttered, even as he sprinted around Orian, wrapping the Sol Adept in a single coil and then taking a flying leap, right over the rail of the ledge. Far below him, the bottom of the Well Chamber expressed its interest in getting much closer to him very quickly.
Orian, who had been too focused on casting Psynergy to notice Isaac with more than passing interest, found himself dragged to the edge, into the low wall, and right over, following Isaac down. Lycoris began to slide as well, but her pstrength was considerable, and she ground to a halt, her foot wedged against the rail.
"I think I hate this sort of thing even more," said Isaac, aware of what he was about to do and how little any of the three of them would enjoy it. But Orian was unable to cast a thing while wrapped in concentrated Luna Psynergy, and Lycoris was already busy keeping the whip, the pstrength, and her grip steady. She wouldn't be able to get out either. At least, he hoped not, considering the plan. "Unleash Ground!"
Ground released her power onto Isaac, wishing she had a better plan but aware that if this were to have any effect, it had to be done fast. Gravity's pull on Isaac suddenly increased, and not even Lycoris could hold fast against it. The three of them plummeted toward the base of the lighthouse, a fall no person, not even an Adept, could survive.
Jenna and Picard dropped through the darkness uneventfully for a few moments before landing on a sharp slope sideways. They continued nearly falling, but in a wide circle, inside the walls of the Lighthouse, and very slowly the slope curved more gently. By the time they had circled the tower's foundations for the second time, it was horizontal, and Jenna found herself sitting less than elegantly in front of a wide door. On the other side was a corridor with just enough light to see how many shadows there were.
There were a lot.
"Any chances of some extra light?" asked Picard, standing up beside her and trying not to walk in circles. "Sheesh. High winds on high seas aren't that bad."
"I'm not sure light would be such a great idea," said Jenna, with an odd tone in her voice.
"Why?" asked the Lemurian.
"Because the only light I see right now is coming from those spider webs," she managed. Closer inspection showed Picard that she was right. The strands that stretched from wall to wall before coming together in a sticky web were glowing pale blue, and that light glinted off the slick floor and walls.
"Why does every Lighthouse seem to have some place that is so intensely like a sewer?" demanded Picard of no one in particular. He shook the thoughts of what was likely to be out there off and turned to his Sol Djinni. "Guardian, where do we go from here?"
"Straight through the gloom, as is the bravest course!" the Djinni announced. "Let those who would stop us in our quest feel the power of Mercury, Mars, and Sol!"
"You are out of your mind," said Jenna, but she called up Shine anyway, who lit up the hall as well as a torch. Jenna rather wished he didn't. Shine's light didn't flicker like flames, which was probably an advantage, especially since shadows tended to move disconcertingly when that happened. But torches had a sort of life to them, while Shine was… well, ethereal. Otherworldly, perhaps. In any case, the dark tunnel wasn't any better when lit.
"Gloomy," Shine commented. "I hope we get through here quickly."
"This is the most dangerous part of Sol Lighthouse," said Justice. "Or rather, it was, until those two up above showed up. Now there's a good chance that we're in the safest part."
"Thank you for not helping," Jenna muttered.
"You're safe, I said."
"And our friends aren't, and we don't know what's happening to them," Picard explained. "So let's move fast and hit this switch, or whatever it is."
"Basically a switch," Justice agreed, bringing her aura of light -which strangely didn't brighten the room at all- in close, and staring at the shadows very intently as they moved in. "There's a command, and it will draw Psynergy from you, but it's really just an Adept's switch."
"Let us not creepy forward as though we fear the monstrosities of the Depths! Let us charge most gallantly forth!" said Guardian, apparently a bit miffed by the Adept's precautions.
"If you don't shut up, we're not going to have much choice except to run and hope we turn this thing on before we get eaten!" whispered Picard, but it had a strange quality that sounded more like yelling.
"And if you want Gallants, talk to Felix and Isaac," Jenna muttered. But she agreed with Guardian's suggestion for speed, and slipped ahead into the corridors. Picard followed as quickly and quietly as his heavy boots would allow.
It was just after the third time they turned in the winding halls that Picard's sense went onto full alert. There was something very much amiss with the situation. The walls, at first rigid and smooth stone, were now growing rough and natural- more like caves than carved passages. That was fair enough, except that the spider webs that clung to the walls were also appearing more thickly, and he heard sounds that might have just been water dripping or flowing through some strange lighthouse plumbing.
"Jenna?" he called to the area of light just up ahead.
"Shh!" hissed a patch of shadow behind and to his right. Jenna stepped away from the wall and let her cloak fall back. "Thank you ever so much for the assistance. Unless that thing thinks Lemurians often talk to walls…"
"What thing?" asked Picard, too bewildered to resist her urgent pulling forward.
"You can't feel it?" asked Jenna, shuddering. Picard's face remained blank. "Spider." She sped up, trying to get back with the Djinn without looking like she was in a hurry. Picard followed, but started to look back. With snakelike speed, Jenna's hand reached out and grabbed him by the chin, forcing him to look straight ahead. "Don't look. It hasn't attacked yet, which only makes sense if it's waiting for something. If it knows we know it's there, we're probably toast."
They moved on, following Justice and Guardian through the tunnels -for they were truly tunnels now, not even resembling anything so civilised as a hallway. And behind them, a strange rustling was sounding out more frequently, as though something was beginning to prize speed over stealth. Picard pulled his headdress up like a hood, certain that not even a Psynergy monster was smart enough to distinguish types of clothing. Keeping it in about the right shape with his free hand, so that it appeared as though he was still looking straight ahead, he raised the corner and looked back into the shadows.
Behind them in the dark, bits of blackness were moving faster than the rest of the blackness. And in the midst of those, there was a patch of not quite-darkness, where Shine's light was reflecting off something. Several things, if Picard's guess was right. Perhaps fifty feet behind them was a spider that could have stood comfortably with a side's worth of legs on either side of his ship.
Picard spent a moment in thought. Mostly thoughts about how quickly he had seen spiders move after smaller insects in the past. He expanded this to the current proportions. They could indeed outrun it, he guessed, but not for more than a minute and a half. Mostly because they currently had a head start and they would run first.
"How much further?" he asked, trying to sound perfectly calm. To any normal person, he succeeded incredibly, though in Picard's personal opinion he might as well have fallen flat on his face.
"Not precisely sure," Justice responded, unaware of the arachnid behind them.
"Make an educated guess," said Jenna, and something in the harmonics of her voice said that this would be a good idea despite any personal feelings in any other direction, got it?
"Perhaps another five minutes. Is it important?" asked Justice. Jenna and Picard looked at each other.
"Next turn," Jenna said, barely gulping.
"We both go," agreed Picard, "but don't you stop. I'll tire first; I'll see about slowing it down."
"If he tries accepting a noble death, slap him," Jenna whispered to Guardian, who nodded gravely.
"Turn coming up," Justice told them, and she sounded a bit tense, suggesting that she had caught a random thought about what was behind them.
"I'm ready when you are," Shine muttered.
"I'm ready now," Jenna replied. She turned back and looked straight at the monster, which had gained on them slightly. It halted in its pace and stared back. Jenna took the intense arachnophobia she had been fighting for the past few minutes and shoved it all into her legs. "Run!"
They ran with all the haste a Mercury and Mars Adept could manage, which was a considerable amount. After a second or two of sorting out legs, the spider ran too. Much faster.
"Why on Weyard did I let Garet take Coal with him?!" gasped Jenna, but she realised it wasn't worth the air, and instead pounded on ahead. Shine did his best to grip her shoulders, but it was hard with only feet and a tail. The Djinni slipped, and would likely have been an appetiser if Picard hadn't grabbed him in mid-fall as he passed.
"Thanks," said Shine, relieved.
"I prefer fleeing in good light," Picard breathed. He had just noticed the way the shadows seemed to be moving, and not all of it was due to Shine shaking as Picard's long stride bounced him around. Smaller things were scurrying too, even along the walls and across the cave's ceiling. More spiders, of course. He should have expected that.
A very long leg stabbed down just ahead of Picard, to his side. "Off you go!" he called, flinging Shine ahead. "Jenna! Hurry! I wouldn't count on a big delay here!" Then he turned and faced the massive arachnid. It was better lit than before, and Picard found it hard to complain about Shine's receding glow. On the other hand, fighting in the darkness with something that didn't depend on sight was definitely lacking in the strategy department. Backing away carefully, since it had greatly slowed its pace, Picard fumbled around in the pouches on his belt.
There wasn't anything combustible nearby, and all of Picard's Psynergy was related to water. But facing a Lemurian in a corner, one should keep in mind that they are generally very inventive and particularly good at solving several problems with one move.
The spider was most displeased when the hair on its back burst into flames.
Picard quickly tied his pouch of oil drops closed again and drew his great sword. The smaller beasts around him seemed to be moving on after Jenna, but he thought the big one wasn't likely to ignore him now, even if it might have before.
"A most excellent strike, brave Herald!" said Guardian.
"Get back inside and give me whatever power you have, will you?" snapped Picard, a little harshly. He would apologise later, after the vast monstrosity that was trying to stab him or poison him or drain all his juices out was dead.
Now he darted around the thing, willing to bet that if spiders were bad at anything, it was turning on the spot. Picard slipped between the two last legs on its right side and behind, hoping to get in one good stab into the underside of its abdomen.
"Unleash Chill!" shouted Picard, but just as he thrust, the flailing spider released a burst of webbing. "Oh, right," the Mercury Adept said as it weighed him down. Being a sailor for decades, he wasn't particularly familiar with spiders, but remembered quickly.
Fortunately, the webbing was frozen in short order by Chill's power. Picard pushed against the ground and the thick strands shattered, cutting him only slightly as he escaped. The spider was still infuriated by the flames licking across its exoskeleton, but there was only so much hair that a giant arachnid had, and the light was decreasing rather a lot.
Picard tried to do what he could with the remaining light, casting Tundra in the hopes of freezing the beast to the floor. Several legs were caught in the ice, and the spider shrieked even more as it tugged. The last flames on its back burned out, but the sudden darkness that fell on them was punctuated by a burst of light as the spider blew a fireball at its feet. The next patch of darkness was mostly filled with the hissing of steam.
The second flare of brightness was led by a fireball that Picard just managed to dodge, planting his hand on the floor as he flipped out of the way in an impressive show of agility. But even as his feet came down, Picard noticed the sticky texture that his palms were pressed against, and suddenly realised what the spider had done in those seconds of pitch black combat.
The Lemurian's feet planted themselves firmly in the webbing, sticking to it more completely than he wanted to contemplate. Leaving his gloves stuck to it, Picard straightened as well as he could. Then he immediately ducked again as the space just in front of his face filled with spider, followed by flames. Mandibles slashed at his arms in the darkness, and clutching at the wound, trying to call up Ply Psynergy, he dropped his sword. Then the beast cut into his leg and he stumbled, or tried to, falling back and sticking entirely to the floor.
Picard tried to call on a Djinni, any Djinni, something just to delay for the moments he'd need, but the spider's poison was more effective than he expected. Not paralysis, or numbness, just excruciating pain, too much to speak through. He knew at any moment a fourth burst of brightness would come.
It did.
Jenna had sprinted ahead through the halls, driven on by the need to help the others, to save Picard, and to get the hell away from the hordes of spiders after her. Through the unending scrabbling of thousands of legs she heard the echo of Picard calling up Chill against the massive spider, and took heart in knowing he was holding out, at least for now.
"How much further, Justice?" asked Jenna.
"Right here," she reported, turning into what seemed a minor alcove. But when she dove right through the illusion of a wall, Jenna didn't bother questioning it. She emerged into a larger chamber, still roughly walled but with a cluster of pillars around the centre, each with a large fire held it the top. In the very centre was something like an altar, round grey stone with an indigo dome in the middle. And all around the edges, ravenous spiders poured through cracks in the rock.
"No," said Justice, before Jenna could speak, "that isn't natural. What do you expect? Now put your hand on that switch and start casting." Jenna ran towards the centre, stomping a line through the spiders with more enthusiasm than Justice thought was required. A few larger ones dropped from the ceiling onto her head and left shoulder.
"Agh!" she shouted, trying not to slow down as she fought to wrench it off. Its eight clawed legs were adamant about staying where it was, and so without too much worry Jenna called up Psynergy. "Serpent Fume!" The large draconian flame rose through Jenna, burning off both hijackers, and dove down behind her, driving off several pursuers. Not willing to leave it at that, she spoke again -"Cycle Beam!"- and carved a straight line to the altar.
Jenna sprinted ahead, stretching her hand as far as she could. It slapped down onto the dome, which flickered at its core. The words were there, of course, in her head like all new Psynergy was. "Deus Ex Machina!" The indigo turned to blazing gold, filling the room with light as strong as the summer sun.
It shot through the corridors, and Picard was rather startled that he hadn't been roasted, but the flailing spider gave him the time he needed. "Frost!" The webs froze and shattered as he lifted himself off the ground. The spider was still hunching as well as an arachnid could, but Picard shrugged off his usually honorable morals in the face of the situation far above. "Diamond Berg!" A vast block of ice coalesced out of Mercury Psynergy and fell upon the spider. Picard's sword flared with Psynergy as he picked it up and charged, carving and smashing through the giant frozen beast.
And in mid fall in the Well Chamber, Isaac shut his eyes against the blinding light that flared from the floor below. He, Orian, and Lycoris all halted in the air. The walls began to shake, and everything started shifting.
[Author's Notes] Hey, as far as cliffhangers go, there have been worse. See the collected works of Vilya and Company for countless examples. But anyway, here it is, the longest yet chapter of SD, and there are still more to come. Expect Lycoris to earn some serious hatred next chapter, along with other… stuff. We'll just see what the pixies tell me, hmm? Also, expect it with my usual punctuality (ie before summer). And unless you're on your way to perform or receive life-saving surgery, review, wouldja? Look, Vil's even lent me the review javelin.
Right here. Go on. You know you want to.
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
\ /
\/