Almeida looked at his jailers, at first only two demi-human snakes, he prepared his stance and looked at one of them closest to him, raised his shield and prepared for a bash aimed at the enemy's head, the demi-human tried to defend himself with his own shield but he was too slow, at the impact of the shield on the face of the snake, Almeida spun on his own axis, raised his mace in the air and smashed the head of the demi-human, the other demi-human snake saw an oportunity using his great cleaver at Almeida's exposed neck, while the latter had just time to raise his shield, already in poor condition, to defend himself and enter into a struggle of forces. ''What, that's all you got?!'' Spoke Almeida, while imposing his stance on the demi-human and pushing him with all his strength towards the stairs, making him fall down some steps.
At this point, Almeida expected people to be inflamed with courage, with determination to stay alive, with strength to rise up against this threat and leave this cursed place, but all he saw were broken people, all with frightened faces and expecting the worst, even the guards were with their mentals in shatters, he had no time for that, he had to find a way out, 'Forgive-me, I will return with help,' he spoke to the others as he descended the stairs, not looking back, preparing himself to confront the other jailers that were rising to stop him.
The paladin fought tooth and nail, each Demi-Human that stood in his way was pushed onto the railing and patted down or killed by his mace, he was already on his fifth opponent when his shield broke to the point of no recovery, now he had only his weapon and his arm, but he had a greater protection, his faith, Almeida screamed and yelled, he would not give up, he would savor every single second of his life, even when he was impaled by a spear that pierced his stomach, he would keep going.
At one point at the bottom of the stairs Almeida was covered in blood, bathed in his own blood and that of the Demi-humans, he was tired, the seals of his armor were already impossible to read because the paper had absorbed all the blood, the demi-humans surrounded him and pointed their weapons at him, he stood proudly before them, ''I will not die here.'' Almeida was determined, his faith was strong, but his body was losing too much blood, he was hungry and tired, he prayed to the Four Great Gods,he asked for strength, he asked for courage, but his body could not respond anymore, one of the Demi-Humans trusted his spear into Almeida's knee making him fall with one knee to the floor, he swung his mace with vigor and roared to the Demi-Humans like a trapped beast 'I Shall... Never... Surrender...'' The words slipped through Almeida's mouth with determination, he tried to stand up once more, with his body shivering, but as soon as he got his spine erect his body almost gave in, making him fall to his perfured knee once more.
The demi-humans began to give space to Almeida, which surprised the paladin, his hearing and vision were about to fade when he felt the tremor on the ground and the crystal dust was stirred up , he felt his body being revigorated as a strange blue energy surrounded him, and when he looked in the direction of the quake, all he saw was an eldrich abomination, it looked like a dragon, but it had no scales, it had tentacles, and its inferior body was like that of a snake, pale and coloured at the same time, with strange tendrils near the mouth, holding a crystal cage similar to that of a bird, this held a woman with white hair and empty eyes, with scales on parts of her body, wearing clothing similar to that of a cleric, this woman looked in the direction of the cell where Almeida was before and wept, the creature in the other hand was looking directly in Almeida's direction. A deep voice reached Almeida's ears, so that his body, although healed, fell to the ground'Hello, I don't think we've met before, you must be one of the new subjects brought by my servants,' Almeida soon realised that this voice came from the scaleless dragon creature, which slowly tilted its head in Almeida's direction as if to look at him up close. 'Don't be afraid, I know I must be repulsive to someone like you, but I am the duke of this archive, Seath,' the creature spoke eloquently, signalling Almeida to rise.
Almeida nodded to the creature. 'Ah, yes, I must apologize, after all, you and your people are quite impressive, I still have no idea what to do with your kind,' the scaleless creature lowered its hand and placed the cage on the floor. 'This one was a huntress of your people, she was strong, so strong that I used my mutagens on her to achieve a new result, she is the first one I have achieved such results' on Almeida was puzzled by the creature's claims, nothing he was speaking made any sense to the paladin, he thought he had a chance to hit the creature with a killing blow, but what if he failed... no, Almeida could not die, not like this, Almeida shivered and looked at the woman again as the creature continued. 'Her name was Yara Castidade, I expected to just make her another of my experiments that i already tried so many times, but it turned out very different than I expected, she is now able to perform some feats of my kind. She is also valuable because of all the information she provides me, but now I have a new interest.' Seath opened the cage and let them in, Yara slowly got out in surprise and began running up the stairs to reach the cell above.
'So you knew I was coming.' Supposed Almeida, while he was now even more confused about the woman's behaviour, but his eyes remained fixed on the beast. 'You knew that the Order of Paladins would not let your evil deeds pass, you knew that you would feel the wrath of the gods, did not you, beast?!' He raised his voice while holding his mace, tightening his grip and looking at the ground.
Seath was surprised by the human's courage and laughed a little, 'Yes, I was prepared to see what issues your Council would bring me, but now I am more than aware that sooner or later there will be more and more of you agaist me, and frankly..., I am impressed, very impressed, you have killed six of my lesser servants and seriously injured several more.' He pointed to the Demi-Humans on the stairs and on the ground. 'Let me bless you, Almeida, let me make you what your gods fear'
Almeida looked to Seath as his mace began to glow with a deep golden light, and his eyes narrowed as he saw the foul beast. 'A monster?' he asked, ready to attack.
'A god among men.' He replied as he approached his head and stood before Almeida.