Chapter 78: Till the End (1/2)
After finally managing to lose the wasp in the rocks, Julia found herself a good hiding spot next to a crude altar. She had to walk carefully around the corpses of a few demons and some raggedly dressed humans.
”Where the hell am I?” She muttered looking around.
Not too far away was a pair of ritual circles, seemingly painted in a dark red paint that resembled dried blood. One of them was extensively damaged, with bits of the circle appearing to have been washed away by some flood. The other had bits of rotting, dismembered bodies stacked in regular piles. She grimaced in disgust as she caught another waft of the putrescent scent.
There was a minor explosion as the newbie adventurer was thrown clear across the chamber, cratering the wall of the cavern. Amazingly, he was able to pick himself out of the rubble, almost as if it had barely affected him to be thrown with that kind of force.
A burning aura surrounded him as he intercepted the war hammer of the armored figure. The pair then began to exchange blows at a high rate of speed, fighting with an intensity that Julia had never seen before in person.
[So, he was definitely going easy on me last time.]
After dodging a wagon sized rock, and blocking a few more attacks, the newbie started chucking fireballs every so often. Ones that exploded with terrifying force.
[And he's a mage.]
While Julia was re-evaluating her life choices, she completely failed to notice the growing circle of primordial darkness that had appeared over the altar.
[Maybe if I can find a break in the fighting, and sneak out.....]
”Hey you! Over there by the altar!” A youthful female voice shouted from nearby.
Julia glanced around and saw a silver-haired young woman struggling to remain on her feet. Wincing in sympathetic pain, she took note of the woman's extensive burns.
With an agonized grimace the woman continued. ”You need to move the idol! Its our only hope of saving the world!”
”Eh?” Julia followed the woman's pointing finger and finally saw the horrible pit of absolute darkness, and the shrouded claw that was attempting to push free from it.
”Eyah! What in the hells is that?!”
”That is a powerful demon prince that will devour you and everyone else in this city, if you don't stop it.”
Julia was having a hard time processing all this. ”What do you mean? What's going on?”
”JUST GET MOVING YOU STUPID CAT!”
The beastman jumped to her feet and started running up the stacked stones of the altar before she'd even realized it. Climbing the 20m or so was not an issue for the experienced thief, but something about the altar was making her deeply uncomfortable.
When she got to the top, she was greeted by the sight of the idol in question. It was a grotesque thing fashioned from the rib cage of a humanoid creature and a cattle skull. The bones had been painted in obscene glyphs that stung her eyes when she looked at them.
”Ugh. What am I supposed to do?”
There was a tearing sound above her.
”MOVE IT! PICK IT UP! PUSH IT OVER! I DON'T CARE, JUST DO SOMETHING!” The exasperated woman yelled.
”Jeez, no need to get so upset.” The cat beastman replied as she knocked the idol over with one of her daggers, not wanting to touch the thing.
With almost maddening slowness, the gruesome contraption toppled, breaking into pieces on the cavern floor.
The hum of power that had filled the air, suddenly took on an almost painful whine. A swirling column of intense power circled the altar, filling the surrounding area with unearthly light.
A roar of fury shook the chamber, causing almost everyone to double over at the sheer force of it.
The claw withdrew into the pit of darkness, which quickly receded to a pin prick and then disappeared entirely.
Silence fell as the cavern became dark once more.
When Julia noticed the change, she raised herself from the crouched position she had taken. Checking herself over, she made sure she was still in one piece.
She threw her arms into the air, ”Woohoo, not dead!”
The former Chosen smashed into the side of the altar with terrific force, causing it to collapse with the beastman still on it.
”Ah?” She had time to ask, before she was falling towards the debris-strewn floor.
Just as she was about to start screaming, someone collided with her.
She looked up and found herself in the arms of the glowing newbie. Staring up at those pure blue eyes, Julia felt her heartbeat speed up. With a rush of air, her savior landed, dropped her off, and returned to fighting the armored monstrosity, which had already freed itself from the pile of rocks.
[He's making it hard to keep hating him.]
After a moment of thought, she nodded.