I'm back! I'm so sorry it took me so long to update, I'll explain myself at the bottom of the chapter!
Enjoy!
The constant attempts to jump scare himself and Winter were pissing Drake off. More then once Quintus had made a random sound in an attempt to scare them, and in Winter's case it usually worked.
"This is insane." he heard her mutter. "How're we supposed to be beat this guy?"
"Don't ask me." he whispered back. "I'm just as lost as you." Drake had his hands out in front of him in order to make sure he didn't slam into a wall, making sure there was nothing obstructing their path. After feeling a wall in front of them, Drake turned left and continued on the same way.
"Are you sure your hearing magic can't help?" Winter whimpered.
"Quite sure." Drake said. "I can bounce it off walls to sense where we're going, but Quintus can change our pathways with shadow walls. My hearing can't pick up shadows so if he makes the effort to misdirect us, we may be in trouble."
"Great..." Drake chuckled as another sound echoed around the chamber, making Winter jump.
"You really that scared of the dark?" he asked. Winter scoffed.
"No." She denied. "I am not afraid of the dark. I'm seventeen, not seven." Drake rolled his eyes.
"I won't make fun of you." he warned. "I understand if you are, I'm not exactly relaxed myself either."
"..."After another jump scare that even spooked Drake, Winter muttered something incoherent.
"Huh?" he asked. "What was that?"
"...I guess I am...A little afraid of the dark..." She said weakly. Drake smirked.
"See, was that so hard?" He asked.
"If you tell a soul I'm afraid of the dark, I'll kill you." Drake gulped at the complete seriousness in her tone and nodded, laughing awkwardly.
"It's not that weird if you think about it." Drake said. "There isn't a non-shadow mage on this earth who isn't tense in the dark, some more than others. You're one of them."
"I'm serious." She said again. "I will make absolutely certain you are the last poison dragon, if you catch my drift." Drake knew what she meant, as her threat was accompanied by a jab of pain below his belt. Shifting uncomfortably, Drake felt his hand touch another wall.
"Give me a second." he told Winter, sending out sound waves to detect a path. He sensed a slid that would take them downward, and beyond that not much. "Looks like we have to go deeper, or on a straight path. Pick your poison."
"Of all people to use that saying, it would be you." Winter said, making Drake chuckle. "I guess we could keep going straight, if you want."
"At this rate, I don't feel like it makes much of a difference." Drake replied. "One way or another, we'll just get more lost." They walked towards the open tunnel and Drake was about to head down it before his face made contact with a shadow wall. Cursing, he stumbled back and bumped into Winter, who jumped back.
"Shadow wall?" She asked weakly.
"Yep." Drake said, rubbing his head. "Looks like we're going to have to slide down that slide."
"Ugh, great." Drake guided her towards the other tunnel and felt around, his hand landing in the sewer water.
"Alright, you go first." Drake said, guiding her towards the tunnel. "I'll meet you at the bottom." Drake heard her sit down in the water, and she cursed. "What? What happened?"
"This is by far the most disgusting thing I've ever done." She hissed. "Ugh, I'll never feel clean again." Drake rolled his eyes.
"Get on with it, Winter." he said, patting her on the back. After he heard her slide down the tunnel, Drake climbed into it and sat down in the water, understanding why Winter felt gross, so did he. After positioning himself in it, Drake pushed off of the wall and tucked his arms in and slid down, rancid air and shit water hitting him in the face as he twisted and turned in the tunnel. He did his best to ignore his breakfast attempting to leave his stomach from the smell, but he forced it down, not interested in throwing up and making himself feel even worse. After, maybe, forty seconds of flying down a disgusting sewer tunnel and and doing his best to not sallow any sewer water, Drake landed head first in the water below. Sputtering as he got his face out of the water, Drake coughed and crawled out of the ankle high water and onto the pathway next to it.
"Well, that sucked." He hissed. "How was it for you, Winter?" When Drake got to response, he frowned and looked around in the total darkness. "Winter?" After still not getting a response, Drake bounced sound waves off the wall and his eyes widened.
Winter wasn't down here.
Getting up and looking around, Drake bounced more sound waves to look more her, but she wasn't anywhere down in the tunnel with him. Drake sighed and cracked his back.
"Great, first we got stuck in the sewer, and now we're separated." He laughed. "Could things get any worse?"
Winter was currently sitting against the wall, doing her best to prevent a freak out. She hadn't exactly been truthful with Drake when she'd said she was afraid of the dark, it was more than that. It wasn't that she was afraid of the dark, it was because she was a Sky God Slayer. It was in Winter's nature to want to be in open spaces and feel the wind on her skin, and down here in the pitch black, she couldn't be that. She felt constricted, as if the walls were closing in on her.
Claustrophobia, that was her problem.
She'd had it since she was little, enclosed spaces always got to her. That was why she always kept the window in her room open, so that she didn't freak out. And now that she was lost in the sewers without Drake, she was on the verge of losing it.
"Calm down, calm down..." She muttered to herself. "It's nothing, it's nothing..." Finally standing up and leaning against the wall, Winter could tell she was all alone. She hadn't known what had happened, but if she had to guess she'd say Quintus had used shadow walls to split them up in the tunnel to different area's in the sewers. Looking around, the pipes above her creaked, and she flinched.
"I-I can't do this..." She hissed, sliding down to sit down. "I'm going to lose it in here..."
You're seriously going to lose your mind right now? You have to keep a level head right now, or that cannon is going to fire. Get the hell up, you can handle sewers.
Winter sighed as her inner voice argued with her, and found the courage to stand. With or without Drake, she couldn't collapse and give up. She walked slowly in the direction of the creaking pipes, not really having a location in mind. Now that she'd been split up from Drake, she also had to be careful to not slip and fall into the water next to her. After almost making that same mistake more than once, Winter made a snail's progress down the sewer
All she knew was that she had to find Quintus, and then Apocalypse.
Damien was having a difficult time following the man from Phantom Dove with Terra complaining about her headache.
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked for at least the millionth time, and she nodded with a grimace.
"Yeah, I-I'm fine." She replied, pointing forward. "Keep your eyes on that guy, we can't lose him."
"Suit yourself." Damien said, keeping his eyes on the man as he walked around the park. So far as he and Terra had tracked him they hadn't seen him do anything suspicious, at least not anything Damien thought he should be suspicious about. All he'd down is walk around and excuse himself through the bigger crowds. He didn't know if this was just a distraction or if this guy was genuinely looking for the cannon, but he was beginning to lose his patience. All he wanted was to kick his ass and find Apocalypse because, from what Damien knew, that wasn't him. Terra groaned.
"Shit..." She hissed. "I've never had such a bad headache..."
"Quiet." Damien hissed. "We're following him, quiet down."
"I know..." Terra rubbed her temples. "Do you have one?"
"No, so shut up." Damien hissed.
"Don't be so rude, Damien." Damien sighed as Xisplate walked up to him. "She's in pain."
"She said she was fine." Damien hissed, doing his best to speak to the demon without Terra getting suspicious of him. "Why do you think you're doing?"
"Well, I had my suspicions about this job, so I wanted to come and..."
"Well, I think it's about time I ended this little charade." Damien jumped and looked forward, seeing the man with brown hair stopping and turning to face him and Terra. "I'm tired of you both following me."
"So you knew." Damien said, not moving to defend himself from any possible oncoming attack. "Any reason you decided to let us follow you?"
"Because I know that no matter what, you'd keep on my trail." He said, and then he laughed. "By the way, my name is Shuichi ." After a moment of silence, the man sighed. "It's customary to introduce yourself, you know."
"Damien." Damien finally replied. Silence before Shuichi sighed.
"And your lady friend?" he asked.
"T-Terra." Terra said, still massaging her head. Damien got an uneasy feeling from Shuichi, and he didn't know what it was from. The man didn't seem like anything special, in fact he looked pretty weak. However, if it was a feeling that made Damien uneasy, he should be extremely wary.
"So, what exactly are you doing wandering around a park?" Damien demanded. "I don't think an Etherion cannon is in the middle of a park."
"Oh, I'm not after the cannon." Shuichi replied. "I'm only out here to make sure the Fairies don't make it to the cannon, and why you may ask? Because Apocalypse doesn't need any intrusions."
"So, are you going to fight us?" Damien asked. Shuichi laughed.
"No no, nothing so barbaric." Shuichi replied. "But, if you are interested..." Shuichi raised his hand over his head, and Xisplate gasped.
"Damien, he's a...!"
"Takeover: Demon Akirelys!" Damien felt his eyes widen as a black magic circle appeared on Shuichi's hand.
"This is bad." Xisplate hissed. "This is really really bad."
"Why?"
"It's because..."Xisplate was cut off as the takeover completed itself, and Shuichi was replaced by a demon with iron colored horns, and in his hands were rods made of the same iron his horns were.
"So, what's this?" Damien asked, trying to sound unimpressed.
"The Demon Lord from the 6th Circle of Judgment, Akirelys." Shuichi replied.
"He doesn't seem that impressive." Damien pointed out. "In fact it seems kind of lame." Shuichi laughed.
"Well, I wouldn't worry about that." Shuichi said. "You won't have to deal with me." Shuichi raised the iron rods and moved them in a weird motion, and Damien tensed, waiting for an attack.
He hadn't been expecting Terra to drive a fist into his face, sending him into tree next to them. He groaned as he looked up, Terra staring at him with wide eyes. Before he had a chance to ask, A pillar of earth rose up underneath him and sent him flying into the air. More of these flew after him, slamming into him and sending him into the earth, making a crater. Before he could say anything, earth hands sprung from the earth and wrapped around him, restricting his movement and breathing.
"Terra..." he hissed. Terra looked panicked.
"It's not me!" She shouted. "My arms and body is moving without me telling it too!" As Terra panicked, Damien tied to breath, and Shuichi laughed manically.
"W-What the hell...?" Damien managed. He heard Xisplate sigh next to him.
"Akirelys from the 6th Circle of Judgment." Xisplate said. "Also known as the Puppetmaster."
Like I said above, I'm really sorry it took so long to update. Since I published this story way back in November of last year, not a week has passed where I didn't update one story or another. And, because of that, over six months later, I've finally reached my limit.
I'm burned out.
Not completely mind you, but it's finally reached the point I'm physically against sitting down for a bit and pumping out a chapter. I don't plan on going on any hiatus', but I thought I'd warn you guys that updates won't come as often during the summer, if for no other reason then to let myself relax a bit.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get ten!