The conflict between the two and Erugo was about to reach its peak. The barriers blocking the exits only enhanced the brewing aggression within Ed and Bloo. Erugo lowered his arms, yet his hourglass and dark orb remained floating around in his proximity, he spoke, "Those are strong words, beast," he replied, "But I can see right through you, your aura gives away your true cowardly nature."
"You don't know a single thing about me, bicho raro, don't pretend that you can read minds," Ed quickly fired back.
"Yeah, you think you're so mighty cause' you lead some crappy cult," Bloo backed up Ed. "We're gonna make you eat those words."
Ed sharply whispered to Bloo, "Uh, but what if he can read minds? I mean, we can't tell-"
"I really, REALLY, hope not," Bloo worryingly whispered back. He then cleared his throat, "But that's besides the point, I got a game plan," Bloo took a quick glance at Erugo to make sure he wasn't trying to eavesdrop, "Okay, Ed, I'm going to rush that maniac and distract him, I need you to try and break-"
Suddenly an Acid Arrow shot right in between Ed and Bloo, making them recoil away from each other, interrupting their planning. Erugo snickered, "You really think I'd let you pathetic scoundrels coordinate an attack on me? Hmph, it's not like your strategy would have succeeded anyway." The Acid Arrow left a streak across the heightened flooring where the podium sat, the stone floor sizzled and bubbled as the acid reacted with it.
Bloo looked towards Ed, "Did any of the acid get you?"
Ed was looking at his lightly burned forearm, "A little did," he cringed a bit in pain, "It won't kill me though." He turned and readied his warhammer, "Forget the plan, let's go!" Ed dashed at Erugo and pulled his hammer back, getting ready for a big swing.
Erugo swiftly dodged, and caused Ed to topple over due to him losing his balance. He taunted the fallen beast, "Hand to hand combat isn't quite my forte, I much prefer encounters that involve mental fortitude instead of brute stren-" An arrow suddenly pierced Erugo's right shoulder, and made him instantly stop talking. He clenched his shoulder in pain, angered, he looked up to the arrow's point of origin.
Bloo was holding his crossbow with an empty chamber, grinning, "You talk way too much."
Erugo's eye twitched, he pulled out the arrow that impaled his shoulder, he groaned heavily as the arrow was removed. He threw the bloodied bolt to the side, "So we're playing sticks and stones now, hm?" Erugo casted Animate Objects, the amount of sand in his hourglass suddenly decreased to have enough to only take three minutes to drain down, "How about I add a little silver in the mix!"
The Overseer statue above Bloo started to move, the ropes that were holding it up tore as the statue's sharp wings sliced them effortlessly. With the frayed ropes cut, the silver idol began to fall, and the slime was just beneath it.
"Oh no…" Bloo attempted to move away from the drop shadow, but he couldn't escape from it in time. The statue fell and crushed the lower half of his body. But luckily, due to him being a slimefolk, being crushed wasn't instant death, however, it wasn't any less fatal though. Bloo screamed loudly as the idol pinned his lower body, "Ed, get this godforsaken thing off of me. Help!"
Ed used his hammer to help himself up from the ground, looking up, he was horrified, "¡Mierda!" Ed ran over to the scene, and he swung his hammer at the statue, "Get off of him!" The hammer dented the silver bird's head, but it didn't react to the attack.
"Your hammer won't even make it flinch." Erugo was elated, "Bringing this being to life was astute! I shall title this entity, The Silverseer! The lustrous dopplegänger of The Overseer. Prepare to bite the dust, you immature scum!"
The Silverseer finally moved off Bloo, and faced Ed. The scene was gruesome. Bloo's lower body was splattered all over the floor where the idol landed, some of his slime was even on the animated idol itself. "That hurted so goddamn much," The dying slime said with a face of anguish.
Ed began to fall apart, he dropped his hammer and ran to his friend's side, ignoring the silver foe, "No! Bloo, stay with me, you can come back from this! Please."
Bloo's vision was blacking out, he was succumbing to his deadly injury. His eyes were beginning to roll back, his body was shutting down. Darkness was encompassing the half splattered slime's spirit.
"No! NO! DON'T QUIT, YOU CAN SURVIVE THIS!" Ed tried to force some of the splattered slime back into Bloo, which helped keep him conscious for a bit longer.
Erugo led out a wicked laugh, "That slime wouldn't be a major loss, his prowess is as novice as it gets. Let that disposable weakling that fraudulently brands himself as a wizard die!"
The Silverseer grappled the purple beast with its sharp wings, the wings folded over Ed's torso and held tightly, holding Ed back from assisting Bloo. Ed went savage and thrashed around, "I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR THIS YOU SICK BASTARD! I'LL SEND YOU DOWN THE DEEPEST PITS OF HELL YOU TWISTED FIEND! YOU'RE NOT LEAVING THIS PLACE ALIVE!" Ed snapped, he violently jerked around like a rabid animal in The Silverseer's grasp. "BLOO, DON'T GIVE UP! DON'T!"
"I can't….fight it...anymore…" Bloo's soul was about to leave him.
Loud knocking was heard suddenly from one of the barriers covering the door. Bloo came back to the light to glance over, from his blurred vision and how magical barriers were slightly transparent, it appeared to be a tall red figure by a way shorter, winged figure. "It's them…" Bloo saw his friends frantically trying to enter, but couldn't. "No… I can't let them stand by and watch me drift away…but…"
Wilt was punching and kicking the supernatural barrier as hard as he could, he was putting in all of his strength to try and break it, but it was simply too solid to bust open. "Damn it! I can't get through. Bloo seems badly wounded, Ed just lost it. Coco, what are we going to do?!"
Coco inspected the barrier. She noticed that there was a small gap on the left side of it, allowing air to flow through, "Cocococococo!"
"How does that help?!"
"Cococococococo!" Coco said as she shifted through her dainty spellbook to prepare Healing Word.
Wilt lit up, "That could work! You just gotta aim it right and Bloo might be able to survive! Hurry up and cast it. Don't miss, or else we'll be out of options to help him!"
"Cocococococo!" The palm tree carefully peered through the gap, trying to get a good sight on the slime. She then swiftly casted Healing Word once she got a good visual on Bloo.
Erugo looked over to Wilt and Coco, "Are those misfits your reinforcements, Bloo?" He cackled, "One of them is missing an arm, that's comical, how can he fight for you if he's handicapped?!" Erugo was exultant.
Bloo was just about to fully succumb to death just as Coco's Healing Word was casted on him. Some of the splattered slime from the floor began to return to Bloo's upper torso, healing his damaged state moderately. He wasn't fully together though, so he was still very vulnerable, but alive nonetheless.
Ed stopped shaking around, "¡Yes, gracias a Dios! We can still win this battle, Bloo!" Ed tried to leave the grip of The Silverseer, but it appeared that it reverted back to its unanimated state while the statue's wings were still holding on to him. He began to try and bend the wings out, which was slowly working, "I'm able to get out of this thing's grasp, but it'll take a little while. You're gonna need to fight that nutcase by yourself until I'm free."
"No problem," Bloo began to slowly rise up, molding more of his slime back into his body while doing so. He took a quick glance at his allies on the sidelines and then sharply focused on the cult leader, "I'm not dead yet, Erugo!"
Erugo spun his orb around a bit, "Oh, you're about to be." The orb became frenzied, the static electricity transformed into full on bolts of white lightning that were striking the floor, "Let's see if you can handle this," Erugo casted Chain of Lightning, three bolts of unstable lightning arched across the room from the dark orb, aiming straight for Bloo.
Bloo narrowly dodged two of the bolts and was barely grazed by one, the precarious bolt left a very light burn mark on Bloo's side, he wasn't too harmed by it however. "That was close..." Bloo aimed his palms out, "Try this!" Bloo casted Acid Splash in Erugo's direction, a vicious wave of corrosive fluid pushed towards the changeling.
Erugo couldn't move fast enough for the acid to completely miss him, some of it managed to hit his face. The acid severely burned and disfigured the right side of Erugo's face. The changeling howled in pain as the acid disintegrated his eye and cheek.
Bloo smiled, "That's for nearly killing me with your piteous idol, scarface!"
The changeling's scream was bone-chilling, the sheer agony he was having as his face melted was apparent. His cries ceased as the acid started to clear up. Erugo was clutching his face as he turned away from Bloo. His hand was rubbing the fresh burn, it stinged as he touched it, he slowly tilted his view towards the slime again. The chemical burn destroyed half of his face, his right eye was now only a hole, a part of his hairline was gone, his bony cheeks were now droopy flesh. The rough scabbing of the injury contrasted his smooth skin. His twisted face didn't show overconfidence anymore, only absolute malice. His stare was unwavering, his silent anger was overflowing.
Ed was almost out of the stiff grip of The Silverseer, he looked up as he was giving his final pushes for freedom, he grimaced at the sight of Erugo's burned face, "His face is horrifying…"
Bloo was disgusted, "Yuck, your face suits your attitude now," he laughed triumphantly. He then noticed the intense aggression within Erugo, he smirked, "I guess I finally fazed ya', huh?"
"Silence!" Erugo yelled, his sharp tone pierced the room. "I've had enough of your idiocy, I'm going to end this conflict now!" The ground began to rumble violently, every unsecured object in the room fell out of place, fragments of oak fell from the ceiling.
Bloo was losing his balance, he held onto the podium, "What the hell are you doing?! Stop! This whole place could come down and kill us all!"
"The Overseer will protect me from such a fate!" Erugo affirmed.
The vibrating helped Ed finally escape from The Silverseer, but not in a very graceful manner. The wings let up and Ed fell on his face, and the earthquake kept him from bracing himself. He rolled around on the floor uncontrollably, his body was at the mercy of the earth tremors, "I can't hold on to anything, help!"
"Just hang in there! I don't know what this maniac is doing, but it has to end soon," Bloo reassured.
One by one, four stone pillars began to burst through the floor. Three of them were in front of Erugo, providing him ample cover, and one went through the middle of the room. The shaking didn't stop yet however.
"Made yourself some crude cover, huh? Let's see how long that'll-" The floor began to elevate the slime suddenly, "What the?!"
Ed was barely managing to remain on his back, there was hardly anything to grip on the floor. His flailing body started to rise as well, "What's happening?"
"He summoned pillars right under us, move it!" Bloo hastily leaped away before the pillar crushed him into the ceiling.
Ed was able to roll off the pillar quickly enough, but he accidentally bumped his head on the floor when he fell down.
Bloo landed on his side, which caused the pain from his injuries to flare up, "Ow! Of course you'd go for the cheap tactics, wuss!" he said with a cough.
The earth's rumbling ended once all of the pillars touched the ceiling. At this point, the church has faced some severe damage from the whole ordeal, which angered Erugo even further, he peaked around his cover, "Look at what you made me do to my own church! Everything is ruined!"
"Who cares? This entire place is nothing but a hole for menaces like you to rot in," Bloo expressed as he sat up. "You all do nothing but bark about some stupid fictitious bird."
The changeling growled, "Fictitious?! The Overseer is not a fabrication! You vapid children don't understand, our God is real as it gets. The spells I've presented to you two only proves the existence of The Overseer."
Ed rubbed the knot on the side of his head, "I think I'm beginning to understand what's happening here. Escucha, you're rebranding standard forbidden magic so that you can obtain followers. You even said it yourself that you use forbidden magic, so-"
"Naive children trying to explain things bigger than they are," Erugo scoffed, "How ludicrous, you clearly have no idea what you're talk-"
Ed continued, "You feed those looking for illegal powers all of these lies so that you have a group that does anything you say, through the guise of this Overseer."
Bloo simpered, "That actually explains everything. You're not tough at all, you're nothing but a power hungry fibber, Erugo,"
"I can end your life in an instant, slime," Erugo threatened as he fully left the cover of the three pillars.
"If you could, me and Ed would've been long gone by now, you're not capable enough to finish us off," Bloo replied.
"What about The Silverseer? That entity had you on death's door, if it weren't for your avian comrade over there, you'd only be a lifeless puddle,"
"Anyone can make an idol fall. That didn't display any evidence of power, it only proved that silver is heavy and gravity exists," Bloo dissed. "A spineless coward with a hideous face is what you truly are."
Furious, the changeling's frown turned into an evil scowl, "Perhaps I'd let you live for too long…" The dark orb fell to the ground and shattered, shards flew everywhere on the damaged carpet and floor. The black glass fragments evaporated into the air as a strange white ball of energy remained at the point of impact. Erugo lifted the ball of energy with his hands, he held it carefully, making sure to not put too much pressure on any areas. "If I were to compress this sphere hard enough, the energy inside of it will burst, causing a massive shockwave that will even shake the underworld. This room will cave in on the both of us, killing us instantly, ending this battle in a draw."
Bloo squinted, "So that's your last trump card, huh?" He ran his blobby finger along the empty chamber of his crossbow, "In the face of certain defeat, you consider the option that involves both parties dying," Bloo held in a laugh, "You could accept your loss and open the barriers, allowing us to leave without losing your life. But clearly, you don't want anyone to leave out of here with knowledge about this pitiful cult and your lacking abilities."
The purple beast frantically turned to the trash-talking slime and whispered, "Um, Bloo, you shouldn't be bullying him right now. He might actually be on the brink of squeezing that thing."
"He's bluffing, he has to be. I mean, isn't he too prideful to kill himself?" Bloo whispered back.
"Ay, ay, ay, this guy has been clearly out of his mind from the start. His view of pride is surely that of a madman. We should switch our efforts from fighting to escaping with Wilt and Coco-"
"STOP WHISPERING AND FIGHT ME!" Erugo violently screamed. His internal rage has now broken out of his restraint, he flung the energy sphere against the floor, he raised his boot over it, ready to stomp it.
Ed barely had a moment to breathe, "WAIT, WAIT, NO, STOP!"
Erugo, with all of his physical strength, crushed the energy sphere beneath his boot. The sphere ruptured, and the energy inside of it exploded, causing the entire room to violently shake. The sheer power of the shockwave produced completely blew off Erugo's lower right leg, and his body flew across the church.
Ed and Bloo were pushed up against the wall. The magical barriers that were blocking the exits vanished in thin air. The ceiling was beginning to crack as the rumbles raged on, support beams were failing, rubble was falling down.
Wilt and Coco ran into the room, taking note of how the room was beginning to collapse. Wilt ran over to his friends, helping them up, "Are you guys okay?! This place has a minute and a half max before it falls in on us!"
Ed coughed as Wilt helped him up, "I'm fine, amigo. But we need to leave, NOW!"
Bloo was slightly dazed from the impact, he regained his bearings, "We can't leave through the tunnel due to the spiders, we have to take the front entrance!" Bloo commanded.
"Cocococococococo!" Coco complied as she got ready to run through the aisle.
"Let's book it, guys!" Wilt took the lead as he sprinted for the front entrance.
Ed, Coco, and Bloo followed, dodging falling wood beams and keeping their balance while the earthquake continued. Wilt swung the front door open and ran out with the other three closely behind. But Bloo fell behind when he suddenly tripped, he tried to stand back up, but he realized that something was holding him down. He looked back to see the fallen changeling, bleeding out from his blown off leg, with fallen support beams pinning him to the ground, which only left his arms and neck movable. Erugo held Bloo's slimy body down.
"Let me go!"
"I can't let you do this to my image. If I die, I'm taking you with me!"
"Screw you!" Bloo tried to free himself, but he couldn't escape Erugo's grasp. His grip was so tight, he even felt his fingernails digging into his body. Bloo looked up to the ceiling to see that it was about to crumble in a few moments.
"You humiliated me! You destroyed my church! You permanently crippled me!" Blood was pooling over his face as he snarled, "I HATE YOU!"
"You've done all of that to yourself!" Bloo hastily looked around, he noticed that Erugo's spellbook was in his proximity. He grabbed it and battered Erugo's bloody hand. It took several strikes for Erugo to finally loosen his grip. Bloo immediately stood back up and ran.
"YOU WILL REGRET CROSSING PATHS WITH ME FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, BLOO! I PROMISE YOU WILL! YOU JUST INITIATED THE CHAIN REACTION FOR THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF YOUR MISERABLE EXISTENCE. YOU'RE GOING DOWN THE SAME PATH THAT I WENT TROUGH, THE PATH RIDDLED WITH FAILURE AND SUFFERING. ONLY THE CURSE LIES AHEAD FOR YOU!" Erugo was livid, he abused the floor, banging it and scratching it. He glared at the slime as he sprinted away for the last time, left for dead in his own church.
Bloo didn't listen or look back, he stuffed Erugo's spellbook into his leather pack and continued running. The ceiling caved in, the entire architecture of the church has finally failed, but fortunately, the stone pillars caught the ceiling from falling in completely, buying Bloo some time. The blue slime had to maneuver around several obstacles, while also dodging falling debris. He successfully got away from the church when he left out of the front door, but the escape wasn't over yet, he had to make his way back up to the surface.
Outside of the front door was a short hallway that led to a rotating staircase. Knowing that he was pretty far behind his friends, he ran up the vibrating staircase, struggling at each step due to the earthquake. The underground section that contained the church had now fully caved in, and Bloo realized this as the descending stairs behind him were beginning to cave in as well. Will I make it out of here alive? Bloo asked himself, while dashing up the crumbling stairs. Doubt began to consume Bloo's mind as the caving ceiling got closer and closer to him. Bloo's hope dropped lower and lower as the stairs continued on, the sound of the falling wreckage kept him moving.
Certain death inched closer as time went on, and Bloo was nearly out of breath. His stamina was just about to fully deplete once he finally managed to reach the surface, he ran out of the opened doorway and fell over on his face, into the grass. He laid there for a moment, and then rolled over to get a breath of fresh air.
The sun was right above him, beaming straight down on him. The light breeze cooled his slimy body as he caught his breath. The trees gently shook around, basking in their afternoon glory. A familiar face came into his field of vision, blocking the sunlight.
"Oh my God, Bloo! Guys he made it out! Get over here!" Wilt loudly alerted the other two while helping the slime up, "Are you okay man?!"
"I'm fine, just super tired from dodging the falling wood beams and rushing up the staircase," Bloo said in between deep breaths.
Ed ran over to aid, he removed Bloo's leather pack to lessen the strain on his body, he slung over his own shoulder, "¡Gracias a Dios! We're so glad you're alive, amigo! We didn't realize you fell behind, we just kept running, we're so sorry, Azul!"
"It's alright, Erugo in his dying breath tripped me and held me down while I was trying to escape with y'all. I had to smack him a few times with his own spellbook to break loose. Right now, I'm just glad that he summoned those pillars, those things bought me some valuable time.
Coco offered Bloo a small healing potion, "Cocococococo, cocococo?" She asked about the changeling he fought.
"Don't mind if I do!" Bloo took the potion from the bird and chugged it, the potion magically healed most of Bloo's injuries, putting him back to full health. He led out a small burp after the bottle was empty, "Thanks, Coco. That changeling was Erugo, he was the leader of the cult worshipping that kipine from earlier." He turned back and took a quick scan of the area. The exit for the church was disguised as a small, dingy, oak cabin in the middle of nowhere. The front door didn't lead to an actual house interior, but to a staircase that descends down to the church. The doorway was now completely blocked by rubble, preventing anyone from getting in, or out. The windows were completely boarded up, enhancing the ruse by not letting anyone see that it wasn't a normal cabin.
Wilt noticed the slime inspecting the fake cabin, "Those cult folk sure didn't want anyone getting in, Ed had to bust through the door cause' it was locked up tight."
"Cocococo, cocococococo, coco," Coco mentioned how it wasn't easy for Ed to even bust through also, as the hinges were very durable. She then went to tend to Ed's burn from earlier, taking out a roll of bandages and a glass jar of ointment. She applied a thin layer of the medicine on the injury and gently wrapped the bandage around his arm using her beak. "Cococococococo?" She asked Wilt if he wanted her to treat the cut on his torso after she was finished with Ed.
"Yes please," Wilt accepted.
The door did show distinct signs of brute force, with the wood splintered and the hinges forced off. Bloo chuckled, "Those creeps were so dedicated to keeping their little club a secret, they built a whole fake cabin to trick passerbys. Really shows how dedicated they were,"
"Or how loco they were," Ed snickered a little as he looked over his bandaged forearm. Giving a small nod of gratitude to his avian ally.
"Cocococococo, cocococococo," Coco commented on how it was very eerie that they built an entire cult hideout underground. She went through a similar procedure with fixing up Wilt's cut on his torso, it just didn't involve ointment.
Wilt was amused for a moment from Ed's comment, and then returned to his normal demeanor, he spoke while patting his bandaged torso, "Anyways, we now gotta find our camp by the pit again, so we can have a starting point for our return home. Judging by the time now," Wilt paused to glance at the sky, "We should be able to get home before sunset," he confirmed. "But we should take a short break for now, considering how we had to run for our lives twice."
Bloo took a seat on the ground, "Sounds good to me," he said with a smile. He laid back in the grass for a brief moment, but sat back up when he remembered something, "Oh right. Hey Wilt?"
Wilt gave Bloo his full attention, "Yes?"
"Did you and Coco find anything cool in the other rooms? Any treasure worth keeping or selling?"
"Um, well…" Wilt trailed off.
Bloo raised an eyebrow, "Did ya?"
"Kinda, sort of. Coco and I found some more of those weird emblems. Coco found some that appear to be made of pure silver in a medium chest, and I found some in a small chest that are even made out of…" Wilt trailed off again.
"Made outta what?" Bloo asked.
"Some were made out of ruby, but-"
"RUBY?!" Bloo said that so loudly, it scared away the surrounding birds. "NO WAY! WE'RE GONNA BE RICH! BILLY WASN'T PULLIN' OUR LEGS AFTER ALL! WAHOO!" Bloo was extremely excited, he was dancing in victory, "We can finally get bigger and better huts! We don't need to live in those sad excuses for homes in the slum side of the village anymore! We can stay where the rich elders live! With the soft pillows and delicious food! Mac is gonna be overjoyed when he hears this!"
Ed was laughing at Bloo's dance, "Nothing makes Azul happier than a chance to make some good coin!"
"Cocococococo!" Coco also joined in on Bloo's victory dance.
Wilt wasn't excited though, "You didn't hear the caveat to it though guys, the emblems are completely embossed in cult markings, selling it within village grounds, or even in the black market, will be nearly impossible."
Bloo's smile faded away quickly as he stopped dancing, "Ah man, you're right. Damn it!" Bloo kicked a nearby stone, "There's still gotta be a way to sell those emblems, the coin we'd get from that would be too good to miss out on!"
"I know man," Wilt rubbed the back of his head, "But let's worry about selling that stuff later. Right now we need to focus on heading back to Mystic Mana."
