While Alduin slept the poison crept through his body; even as he awoke, he wouldn't even feel the effects of the poison for another hour. After Alduin woke up, he equipped his armor, grabbed his carving knife, longsword, and finally, he grabbed his satchel and stuffed his journal into it. Alduin walked out of his tent and started to pack up; the group is going to leave their tents and cooking equipment on floor 18, this would lower the amount of weight they would have to carry Once Alduin finished packing he took his things over to the main camp. Once arriving Alduin noticed that the others were already up and preparing to depart.
"Ah, Alduin good timing, we are almost ready to go," said Torva.
"That's great to hear, I assume we will leave all of the tents and cooking utilities here," asked Alduin.
"You are correct, as a reward, I'll make you breakfast," teased Torva.
"Thank you, but no thank you, I'm not feeling too well right now, it shouldn't affect today though," said Alduin as he turned his back and walked off.
"We will talk later Alduin," said Torva, with an ear-to-ear smile.
After another half an hour the group gathered at the entrance of floor 19. Torva stepped up and addressed the group.
"Our mission is on the 20th floor, we should be able to explore the new section by nightfall," said Torva.
The group was fully prepared to fight, Cliff and Alfred had their suits of plate armor and greatswords, Torva, Messor, and Leafalia, wore full mage gear with the signature blue robe and staffs. Torva and Leafalia's staffs was obviously higher quality then the others gear, Torva's had a long segmented brown stalk that looked like it slid down probably to reveal a sword, it had a gold ornamented head with a purple magic stone adorning the top, while Messor had the standard wooden stalk and curved wooden head, and Leafalia had a special Elven staff with a silver stalk and a flower bud ornament with a green magic crystal in the center. Torva, Messor, and Leafalia all had the same uniform underneath their cloaks as well, a brown tunic with 2 breast pockets on either side it was well hemmed, then they had black pants with knee guards. Alduin wore his usual black cloak made of variant dragonhide with a black undershirt and brown pants, along with that he had a brown satchel around his left side which held his Journal, healing potions and antidotes. For a weapon Alduin carried a long sword that was nothing special, it had the enchantment Durendal, which made the weapon next to indestructible. Alduin's equipment had one major difference between others of his level, and that was that he brought antidotes for even low-level monster poisons. The reason for this was because unlike most humans who actually have a fairly high resistance for poison, Alduin did not (Maybe because he isn't human, also this isn't fun if he doesn't have at least one weakness).
The group started down the path that leads through floor 19 and into floor 20. Floors 19 – 24 were known as the Large Tree Labyrinth. They encountered more monsters than usual on the way down into the floor, the numbers weren't great enough to pose a threat to a high-level adventurer. However, Alduin slowly felt his body weakening. After fighting large hordes of battle boars, and triffids they reached the entrance to floor 20.
"There were a lot more monsters than I expected," said Leafalia, who was obviously exhausted.
"Your right, there were way too many monsters," said Torva.
The group's gear was scratched up from the small hits they all took. Torva's cloak was cut and covered in battle boar blood. Both Cliff and Alfred's armor were scuffed and marked. Alduin who managed to catch the monster attacks with his hands and dodged whatever he missed had very few scratches from the fights.
"The fearless Alduin has come away without a single scratch, please take me," teased Torva.
"I'm not in the mood for your games, quit it," scolded Alduin.
Before Alduin could push Torva away she hugged him putting her ear to his chest, attempting to listen to his heartbeat to see if the poison was working; however, the moment her head touched his chest Leafalia was already pushing Torva off Alduin with an extremely blushed face. Torva stumbled back attempting to regain her balance.
"Thank you for that, Leafalia," said Alduin with a genuine relief.
"Aw, you guys are no fun; either way it's about time we head down into floor 20," said Torva, suddenly getting serious.
The group kept heading deeper into floor 20, by this point Alduin was starting to really notice the poison's effects. To be safe he downed one of his plant-based poison antidotes, on the chance he got poisoned by a triffid. He noticed that he was slowing down and that he wasn't hitting as hard. By the time they reached their destination, Alduin was having trouble catching his breath. In the meantime, Torva was waiting for his stamina to dip low enough she and the others could attack him. As the group neared the entrance some were mesmerized. It looked as if something burrowed into the wooden wall of the floor.
"What are you gawking at; let's hurry," said Torva.
The others followed Torva into the tunnel. The tunnel was well lit, the walls and ceiling were made of crystals emitting a warm glow. In front of them was a slope made of crystal so slick that it seemed impossible to climb without specialized gear.
"Messor how much rope did we bring with us," asked Torva.
Messor quickly took off his pack and started to count the spools of rope.
"15, 30, 45, 65, 80, about 80 meters," said Messor.
"That should be more than enough, set up a line down immediately," commanded Torva.
After about 5 minutes the rope was ready. The rope was attached to a clip at the top of the slope. Messor with a heavy heave threw the spool of rope down into the abyss. The group slowly started to rappel down the rope. After what seemed like an hour of sliding and 'controlled falling', they reached the bottom with only a few meters to spare.
"We must be near the 30th floor," said Torva.
"I believe you are right; however, I have never seen anything like this even in the Deep Floors," exclaimed Messor.
That was when they saw it. In the center of the room was a kite shaped crystal. This crystal was suspended by four pyramid-shaped crystals attached to the walls.
"WOW, this is amazing, what do you think, Alduin," said Leafaila; however there was no answer.
"Alduin," said Leafalia.
Leafalia turned around and saw Alduin collapsed against the wall of the cave.
Leafalia ran next to Alduin. Seeing this Torva had a big grin that even her sly personality could hide.
"Alduin are you alright," said Leafalia.
"I guess it's about time then," said Torva happily
Leafalia looked at Torva with resentment. Suddenly 10 other members of the Ouranos familia slid down the rope into the cavern.
"Checkmate Alduin~; Leafalia come over here, I've decided I'm going to kill him instead," declared Torva.
Leafalia looked at her in shock. Alduin still against the wall groaned in pain.
"This is my fault, if I had told Alduin instead of looking out only for myself he would be strong enough to put up a fight, I can't leave him, not again," thought Leafalia.
"No, I'm not going anywhere with you, why are you doing this Torva," asked Leafalia.
"Stubborn brat, you don't understand, do you; Ouranos ordered this himself," said Torva.
"No way, your lying, Ouranos would never order something like this," exclaimed Leafalia.
"He most certainly would," said Alduin, barely able to speak.
"Seems you're still kicking, well not for long anyway," said Torva gloating.
"Wait, Torva, if Ouranos said to capture him why are you now suddenly trying to kill him," asked Leafalia.
"Simple, I was forced to kiss and get close to him and my charm didn't work at all, so now I'm really pissed off, Ouranos said 'try to capture', so I'm going to have some fun, NOW Leafalia get over here," commanded Torva.
"I refuse," said Leafalia.
"Fine then, die along with him," said Torva
Torva started to walk towards Alduin, but Leafalia got in her way. Leafalia stood face to face with Torva. Leafalia was quivering in fear but refused to back down.
"If your feeling so suicidal then you will die first," said Torva, unsheathing the sword hidden in her staff.
Torva readied her sword, staring at Leafalia with intense hostility. Leafalia gulped, she saw her own death staring her in the face. Torva swung her sword at leafalia at a speed which could easily slice her in half. Torva's sword was a foot away from Leafalia when she saw a blur of light dashed between her and the sword. As Torva's sword came down upon Leafalia, there was a loud chink sound. Leafalia opened her eyes and saw Alduin standing in front of her holding Torva's sword only inches away from his neck. Torva's face was filled with shock as she began to process what just happened.
"How are you able to move," exclaimed Torva!
Alduin completely ignoring Torva turned around to Leafalia who had fallen to her knees.
"A-A-Alduin, how are you moving," Asked Leafalia who was extremely nervous.
"It was because you gave me enough time to apply the correct antidote," said Alduin.
Alduin looked Leafalia directly in the eyes; this made her even more nervous.
"Leafalia looks directly into my eyes, [Dominance], sleep," said Alduin.
Leafalia suddenly passed out. Alduin picked Leafalia up and placed her against the wall. Torva and the others were still in shock from what just happened.
"What was that," asked Torva.
"Nothing you need to know about, now tell me what exactly were your orders," demanded Alduin.
Alduin's calm face from before had completely changed, his eyes were glowing bright orange, there was only one word to describe his current state, that word was annoyed.
"Nothing you need to know," said Torva mocking Alduin.
"Regardless it seems Ouranos hasn't realized who I am yet, so there is no reason to worry," stated Alduin.
"I know who you are Alduin, the burner of the sacred tree," said Torva, proud of herself.
Alduin's face shifted to one of complete boredom. Alduin put his hand to his forehead and sighed.
"It seems you don't know at all, I was worried for no reason," said Alduin.
"I've had it, kill him," commanded Torva.
One of the robed men revealed a bow. The man pulled back an arrow and shot it at Alduin. The arrow whirled towards Alduin, as it approached his head, Alduin suddenly caught the arrow. Alduin had managed to catch an arrow without even receiving a scratch.
"Wha - What, impossible," said one of the other robed men.
"That was quite rude, it seems I will have to teach you proper manners," said Alduin.
Torva looked into Alduin's eyes, as she did what she saw filled her with an emotion that she hadn't felt in a long time; for the first time since arriving in Oratorio, she felt true fear.
"He has the gleam like that of a snake in his eyes," thought Torva.
"Tell me, what are you," demanded Torva.
"The time for conversation is over; [Release]," chanted Alduin.
A sudden chill swept over Torva, and the others. Torva barely managing to keep her sword up; the power radiating from Alduin made every one of her survival instincts scream danger. Suddenly Alduin leaped across the room grabbing one of the men by his throat.
"What the…," said Torva before she was interrupted as her sword was snatched out of her hands, and as she turned around she saw her sword through the man's lower jaw and into his skull.
"Do you still want to know what I am," said Alduin, lowering the sword allowing the corpse to fall to the floor
Torva could only stand in shock as she hadn't even noticed her sword was gone till it was too late. Torva gulped in anticipation for Alduin's answer.
"I have been called many things over the years, Burner of the Sacred Tree, Eater of Worlds; however, I will grace you with the name my creator bestowed upon me. Know my name; I am Leviathan," declared Alduin.
There will be multiple views as characters like Bell, and Ais are introduced into the story. The current set of events will be wrapped up next chapter and Will start to connect with the current story in chapter 6 (I already have most of it written on paper). Now that schools almost finished I should have plenty of time to update the story on a more regular basis. If you have any questions or suggestions please comment them I welcome any criticism.
-Torva Messor