Chapter 12:
Nuclear war in Torento Canyon
Something about the crystal above her head did not seem right. I could start sensing it building up, but at the same time, laying low. Does it suppress its foes, or does it only support her. I looked at it again, but it gone away. I then decided to just focus on the task at hand, and that was finding Raleigh and making sure he doesn't do anything that will harm anybody. I now feel like I am sick to my stomach, but still I am never gonna stop, he is just that dangerous.
When we walked together, I felt some comfort, despise the illness in me. I could start hearing rustling of a shadow, but still not fear it. Air became sharp and we stopped making sure that we were not being followed. It seems we were with each other, and in front of us, a cliff. I said to Talya to stay while I looked over the edge. She turned around ready to spot any danger on the way. I looked down and I could see a few miles down a sharp rock, but not just one rock, multiple ravines, mountains, desert-like environments, and for a long distance too. I really did not want to do this, but if it leads to Raleigh then I will take it.
"Incoming wall of fire! Hang on!" Talya yelled.
I heard it scorching everything in its path, and I turned around to look. It overpowered us, but we managed to not get burned by it when it impacted us. We were knocked off the edge, being caught off guard and now falling to our doom. I tried to boost Talya up so she doesn't have much impact when she lands, but I noticed something. He had her hands in a strange way. The gem reappeared, and started to pulsate energy. I noticed that we started to become able to stand up straight and wall a bit slower. I wondered how and now I knew the crystal was for her. We fell faster, but I began to realize what she was. She might've been a mage, but really I do not know how they learned magic because the scroll was burnt to ashes.
"Watch the ground. Someone is after us. Keep on moving, we got to escape the canyon." Talya suggested.
We ceased to fall and began slowly descending. Once I got to the ground, I could see multiple explosions exploding from here, as dust storms followed. There seemed to be a huge battlefield full of full scale weapons that will decimate anything that was living. When I looked out, I saw the giant fire demon Zhallo, who was pounding one of his fists make magma shoot out of the ground, and therefore the magma devoured one of the mountains and everything with it. He then was shot with a nuke that sped towards him, and it hit him right in his chest. It seemed to do nothing to him, unless you could count being almost fully operational. I could smell the gas and could feel the radiation. She also sensed it and them cast something that made us be immune to it so we can continue.
It was getting so sweltering, that even my arms burnt even with something on. This was probably the result of the excessively large amount of nukes exploding all over the place. Zhallo then released all the energy he absorbed, and made it into a massive blast that destroyed most of the mountains there. The opposing force were all wiped out. We hoped to not be seen by Zhallo so we took the other route. My heart was pounding like a drum, but more like lightning.
Talya who was next to me began running faster, but was keeping low profile at the same time. We were headed the direction around the explosion. Sometimes I would catch myself almost tripping myself, and each step I take would be lucky. The Fire demon's fiery soul keeps on infiltrating me, knowing me like a mind reader. She just began to start limping and kept on going. I caught up to her to ask her whats wrong, but she denies everything and continues. I know she hit something on her shin, but I took her word and kept on moving forward like her. She still was faster than me, to the point wherever she turns a corner, I cannot see her.
We reached a column where Zhallo was watching like an eagle. I can probably assume that he knows that we are here.
"We need something. Here, let me try and make ourselves invisible. If this works, please watch your step, that pass is really unstable by the looks of it and its narrow." Talya whispered in my ear. "To be honest, I still wonder why it has not fallen down yet. Okay, enough talk. I am going to try my best, I will tell you when you are invisible. When I try it on myself, give a thumbs up when you cannot see me."
"Will do." I answered.
She did that strange motion again with her hands, stretching them and spreading them out horizontally. Then light began shimmering out of her hands. Suddenly, energy pulsed all around her. She then focused all that energy into me, and I felt a bit strange. She then gave me a thumbs up, meaning that It worked. I saw myself, but she couldn't see me. I hurried and walked fast on the thin chasm that Zhallo was looking at. He seemed to not notice me, but I noticed him. I gone and took cover behind a spire. She then did it again, and this time I couldn't see her, but she saw me because it wore off. I also gave a thumbs up. Talya then proceeded from what I could predict and tried to walk on it, but when she reached the midpoint, Talya then slipped, and tried again to regain her balance. Zhallo then grunted and looked closely. I crunched my teeth and waved my hand to come back here. She then did regain balance I think, but I heard Zhallo walk over.
"Look what we have here... Another Human. Tell me, tell me your purpose of coming here?" Zhallo asked.
"Ummmmm uhhhhh... I do not know!" Talya answered.
"Very well. Prepare to die in my hands." Zhallo said.
Zhallo raised up his sword and began to start killing her as quick as possible. I saw her cower in fear. I ran over to help her, knowing that I might get destroyed. He then swung it down on her, but I gone under before it reached her head. Zhallo then tried to make his sword sink deeper into my shield, but it did not work. He then decided to fling us both away.
"Eidolon... Here. Ill go over there and try and help you. Please. Do not fail." Talya said.
"Two of them... This will be more fun than I thought." Zhallo thought.
"I am not letting you lay one finger on her. Get out of the way before someone gets hurt." I said.
"I think I will go for the before someone gets hurt part thank you very much." Zhallo answered. "I am still not letting you live."
Zhallo then prepared another massive explosion. I took my shield and hoped I could block it, and I dug my feet into the rock just in case force sweeps me away. I looked back and Talya cast shields for both of us. Zhallo then exerted the energy, and everything turned white, while everything on the ground was flying, or now breaking down to pure ashes. The shield protected us, and even did not let the blast knock us away. once he finished, my shield broke and I wanted to take a chance. He seemed exhausted, so I charged at him with my Sabre, but little did I know he was prepared for me to do that. He quickly swung his sword against mine, and I was sent back like a rag doll. I could start feeling some strength coming back to me, and some strengthening me further than before. Then I looked at Talya who has her shield still fully operational. She was helping me finish this battle. I progressively became faster, and more resistant to his blade and his aura, second by second I could slowly feel the burning seep away. I jumped at him again, but this time he did not use a sword to counter, but I used the same, and the ground shook terribly, as the ground cracked weakly.
Zhallo started to become grounded by rocks and rain then filled the skies. I see Talya doing all of this. I gone and kept on Striking Zhallo as he couldn't keep up from my strikes. He began staggering with each hit from my blade. I finally stabbed him in the chest, and he went down hard. He then got back up and tried for a concentrated laser. I then befell the might of his ability, and went down myself.
"Not... Bad..." Zhallo remarked. "I will let you go this time, but next time I will do my all. Consider yourself lucky."
He disappeared into a concentrated sphere of nuclear energy and he left us alone for now. I gone back to Talya, all bent up and weak, She looked at me, confused.
"Why did you do that? I thought you did not care if I fail." Talya said being confused.
"I follow our code. I will never leave a man, or in this case a woman behind." I stated.
"Well, since you said that, I would like to thank you. This was a hard task. Now, maybe I should try again to heal you?" Talya asked.
"I am fine really. I just got wind knocked out of me that's all." I answered.
We walked together for a long distance across this barren land, and never in my life have I ever crossed such a difficult terrain. The mountains now seemed peaceful in such a way that it would not look ugly when we see its marks from the nukes and explosives. Each and every time I gaze upon her face, I could see a little angel in her although she has potential to be a major threat to everyone, but I want to believe she is good. She then pulled out her blue crystal, and it glowed in succession as if it could read her mind.
"Eidolon. We do not need to walk this far. I just learned how to teleport. I will give it a try. Hopefully It will get us closer to where you desire the most." She explained.
I agreed and her hands moved differently, and the crystal separated into eight pieces, each guiding by direction. I went inside the crystal halo, and she made the crystal in front of us teleport us to a place. When we finished, we saw a bunch of ice, combined with grass. Some of it was cold, and some of it was just like last time. I really wanted to stay there and camp out for the night but Talya encouraged me to not lose focus off of my original objective. We started to walk forward, but then multiple dark blights appeared and shadows came out of them. We found ourselves surrounded by them, and each one aimed to each of our vital organs.
I then released a blast from my right arm that made all of their weapons explode, then Talya burnt them to a crisp, summoning a fireball with her red crystal. We were thinking that we must be getting close since the shadows are getting a bit more frequent, but anything we do, must cripple the plans of Raleigh.
Thanks for reading to chapter 12. You might see chapters that are extremely long like 10, since I am going for a 100k word count and in 50 chapters. Put in the comments section to bet if I can do this challenge.
