As Sen cautiously opened the door, he felt a cold wave of air run through him. He felt himself shiver; a wave of excitement urged him on. He suddenly felt cold.
There was a tunnel before him. It seemed to go on forever. Sen touched the walls. They were cold and moist, and green moss curling around it. The tunnel seemed to have no oxygen in it, and Sen felt like there was a great force pressing against him.
"What's going on!?" Sen yelled. There was an echo. Going on... going on... going on...
Sen felt the door close behind him. There was a great slam, and Sen was in the darkness. For a moment, he thought he was dead, but then he moved and found out he was still in the tunnel. There was something wrong about this.
Suddenly, a bright green fire burst in front of him. Sen jumped up and yelled, but the green light beckoned him to go forward. Cautiously, Sen followed the green light. They walked in the tunnel for ten minutes until Sen saw a light in front of him. Sen ran to the light.
Sen burst out the tunnel and was blinded by the light. Sen shielded his eyes, and realized he was in a giant circular dome. It was ancient and had a holy feeling to it. There was a man in a hooded cloak in the middle of the room, with a crystal ball.
"Who are you?" asked Sen, walking to the man. The man did not respond, but he slid off his hood.
"Hello," said the man. Sen realized with a jolt that the man was not human. He had short, scrawly black hair and pointed ears. He was pale and his hand was not human-like. Sen stumbled back.
"Is something wrong, Sen?" drawled the man. "Nice to meet you... my name is Chung."
"C – Chung?" repeated Sen dumbly. "Who...?"
Chung shot him a glare; his eyes seemed to penetrate Sen's very soul. Sen felt daggers stabbing at him, but there were no knifes. Sen yelled out in pain.
"Spell! Knifes of Darkness." murmured Chung. He walked over to Sen, who was writhing on the floor in pain.
So he's a magician, Sen realized, But what does he want with me?
"How unfortunate," murmured Chung, peering over Sen's body. "That such a talented hermit should be assassinated. You should have stayed in Kerning City..."
"K – Kerning?" coughed Sen, wincing at the pain. "Y – You were sent here to kill me?"
"My, my," exclaimed Chung, faking surprise. "I see you are smarter than you look."
"What d – do you want?" gasped Sen.
"I want you dead. It is my orders. No one must talk about what has happened to Kerning. Your friends shall die. The Dark Lord shall prevail." said Chung.
"The D – Dark Lord?!" said Sen. "No way! He's a good person – He's the one who taught me my skills, everything I know about thieves–"
"Shut up, boy!" snarled Chung. "You will die now. You do not know anything." Chung peered down at Sen, and took out a knife.
"Good bye, Sen." The knife plunged down.
"Where's Sen?" asked Joyce, looking around the room. "He should be here with us."
"We apologize, Master Grendel." said Iris, bowing low.
"It is alright. You may rise." said Grendel.
"God," yawned Leo. "Where is that loser?"
"I don't know," said Joyce, but it sounded more like Iunnooo.
Suddenly Grendel snapped awake. Joyce and Iris jolted, and Leo stood up.
"Did you feel that?" said Joyce quietly.
"Yeah." replied Leo.
"Sen," said Iris softly. "He's in trouble."
"Magic." said Grendels clear voice. "Great dark magic is in this city."
"We have to go!" yelled Leo. Suddenly, a picture appeared before them, fuzzy at first, but then came into view.
"Hello Grendel... Leo, Iris, Joyce." said Chung.
"What do you want!?" snarled Leo, "And what have you done with Sen?!"
"Your friend is dead." replied Chung harshly. "Your city is in great danger. We will destroy everything. You will die. Everyone who resists will die. You are next. I have cast a spell around you, and you cannot escape it. Even you, Grendel. Goodbye. We will take over Victoria Island. You will die." The picture became blurry, and then disappeared altogether.
There was silence for about two seconds, and then Joyce gasped and pointed to the door. A shadow was creeping in through the crack of the door.
"To the center of the room! Here, my children!" roared Grendel, and Leo, Iris, and Joyce sprinted up on the platform to Grendel's magic circle. The darkness quickly swirled around them, and soon they could only see blackness. Joyce began to reach her hand out to touch the darkness, but Grendel sharply said, "Do not touch it! If you touch it, you will be sucked into the darkness!" Joyce quickly retreated her hand.
"W – What is this?" stammered Leo, inching closer to Grendel.
"A high black magic spell," murmured Grendel, walking around his magic circle. "I can't believe it! He can use the Darkness Spread spell... impossible! It was abandoned eons ago... where did he learn it?"
"M – Master Grendel?" piped up Iris. "A – Are we safe?"
"Yes," replied Grendel. "We are very safe inside my blue magic circle. It is the highest level of defensive spell; it would take a lot of magic to break it. But... this castle is also enchanted. I can't believe he knows this spell, yet alone break into my ground."
"Really? What is this?" stammered Joyce.
"This is called Darkness Spread, as I have said before. It is a great, cold darkness that swallows everything around it. Nothing will be left, not even a soul. It was abandoned eons ago because it was too dangerous. That was when I was still a child," said Grendel.
"Is there a way to escape?" asked Leo.
"Possibly," Grendel said gravely. "But if we were to escape, I would have to dispell my magic circle. Then I would cast the spell immediately to kill the Darkness Spread, but it is very risky. There is only one chance to cast the spell, because it takes all of my MP. We would have only one chance or death."
"I see..." murmured Leo. "Let's do it."
"Do it?!" cried Joyce. "Are you crazy? If it doesn't work, we will all die!"
"But if we don't do it, we'll die either way," shrugged Leo.
"It's all right," smiled Iris. "Believe in Master Grendel."
"Very well," said Grendel. With that, he began to chant words, and began to summon up great amounts of MP. The blue circle began to fade, and Iris, Leo and Joyce huddled together as the menancing darkness came closer. Grendel was now walking in circles around them, chanting strange words and suddenly yelled "RELEASE!"
The blue circle immediately faded, and for a second the darkness zoomed toward them, threatening, evil, and cold – then a bright golden light came out of Grendel's hand, the darkness evaporated, they were back in the room.
"Yes!" sighed Iris in relief. "I c – can't believe it! I thought we were dead for sure!"
Grendel collapsed on the floor. Joyce and Iris quickly ran over to him.
"Are you okay, sir?!" said Joyce, panicking.
"Y – Yes..." said Grendel. "L – Let me see... my city..."
Leo opened the door, and everyone gasped. The city was burning, smoking, everything was destroyed. The trees were black from fire, and bodies lay across the branches. The once beautiful swaying branches were now ashes. Nothing moved except the dance of the ever-consuming flames.
"M – My city..." said Grendel, looking around as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "M – My beautiful... city."
Joyce was in shock. She couldn't believe what was happening. Her home. Her beautiful treetop home, in ashes, all gone –
"MOM!" screamed Leo, and he jumped off the branch and leaped to his home. Iris quickly followed. Joyce stayed behind to heal Master Grendel. She had a mix of emotions running around her; she trembled as she healed Grendel's wounds.
"M – Master," she stammered. "What happened?"
"This is the work," he gasped. "Of Chung. While he tried to assassinate us, he destroyed the city..."
"No!" cried Joyce. "Our Ellania! Our beautiful Ellania. Don't tell me one man did this all!"
"This is the power of our enemy," murmured Grendel. "Now, go, I must think for a while..."
"Yes, sir..." bowed Joyce.
As she jumped into her once peaceful city, she thought, How could this happen to me?
Nothing much to say.
Reviews please.
Yeah, I didn't want Ellania to burn down either, but don't leave shitty comments like :
OMGOMGOMGOMGMOMGOMOGMGOG YOU KILLED ELLLANIA OMFG I HATE YOU OMFGOMFG YOU SUX GO DIEEE !!!11 NUB!!!!1111oneone
Thanks. I appreciate it.
-wink-
;D