Rudaheim.
The first tremor hit like a breathless whisper - a soft shiver along the hard, stone floor. Then the earth bellowed, as though a wrathful dragon had been awakened from its long slumber.
Chunks of rock exploded from the ceiling in every direction as the cavern groaned under its own weight. Dust spread like smoke, choking the air and turning the dim torchlight into sickly shadows.
"MOVE! It's coming down!" Zerath shouted as he grabbed Silas's arm while simultaneously holding onto Eurus.
"My lord!"
"Stay where you are!" He exclaimed to Gressil, roaring to rush to his side. "Escape back to the surface right away!"
"But-"
"NOW!!"
A massive slab of a rock threatened to strike Gressil, one which he dodged narrowly by a hair's breadth. But another boulder was already closing in at an inescapable pace.
Damn it!
A dome of blue light shimmered above his head as he struggled to breathe into the dusty smoke. The blue dome, a spell cast by Arzan, formed a protective barrier around himself and Gressil. But Zerath and Silas, amidst the raining fury of the cave's collapse blocking their way, were too far outside its reach.
"Take Arzan and escape before the opening crashes shut! The other knights need you. You cannot get stuck here!" His sword pierced through an incoming barrage of sharp rocks and debris.
Gressil clenched his jaw, furious with his own helplessness, but orders were orders. Without wasting a second more, he seized Arzan and sprinted right out of the third floor's stairwell.
Silas's spear cleaved through the debris just as Zerath's sword danced across the air. He tucked Eurus tighter against his chest, shielding him from the onslaught. Watching Gressil clear the cavern brought a sliver of relief, but the battle was far from over.
Just as they reached close enough to the stairwell, the cavern split, a sound so monstrous as though the earth was tearing apart into two. A beastly crack swallowed the corridor they had come from, sealing their way out. The altar behind them had already turned into a pile of rubble. Eurus trembled, his ears aching with the thunderous uproar of the cavern's collapse.
Meanwhile, Silas cursed the hell out of this misfortune. Even if they somehow managed to shatter through the blockage, it was impossible to cross the stairwell at this point.
"There must be some other way out!" Zerath shouted through screeching collapse.
The problem was to find its location. With rocks and dust and debris blowing right at their faces, they could barely differentiate east from west. Another quake threw them sideways. A third rumble sent them stumbling. Zerath groaned as a jagged-cut rock drove into his arm. Silas snapped the rock cleanly into half, but its pointed end was still lodged inside. Blood trickled down his sleeve, staining it crimson.
Silas breathed hard. "That wasn't the sound of wind I had heard. This place was rigged with a mechanism to collapse if anyone entered by force. There must've been a hidden lever somewhere to open the passageway, but we barged in like idiots!"
Zerath's expression changed. It meant that measures had been taken to ensure no unwanted soul ever learned what transpired in this underground cave. If anybody did, they would be buried along with the secrets. Forever.
"Should we say our farewells?"
Zerath's eyes narrowed. "Not me. I've a woman I have vowed to make my bride. She'll kill me if I die here, so dying isn't an option for me."
Silas stabbed through another rocky protrusion and sneered. "So poetic. Also very nauseating coming from you. If you don't want to die then better find a way out."
"That's what I am doing," his eyes continued to search for an answer.
Meanwhile, Silas dropped a smack on top of Eurus's head. The dull ache made him peek out from Zerath's shoulder, still tightly clutching onto his mother's hair ribbon this entire time.
"Time to show your usefulness. Cast your ice magic on us."
His eyes widened, and he threw him a look to gauge if he was serious.
"I won't stop the next rock from hitting your head if you don't do as I say."
But you will freeze, Eurus's perplexed gaze pointed out.
"Right now, we have better chances at survival being frozen rather than getting choked under these piles of debris."
"Do it," Zerath said, "Your ice doesn't break or shatter. It's the perfect replacement for Arzan's protective dome."
Eurus's eyes lit up with realization, and he nodded with vigor. Drawing in a sharp breath, his silvery aura curling around his fingertips intensified. The ground beneath them trembled - a warning that hinted at another deadly strike. Gritting his teeth, his palms reached up in the air.
A wave of cold swept outward, spiraling into an expanding dome of translucent ice. It shimmered like delicate snowflakes, but looks were deceiving. Nothing could rival steel than Eurus's ice in this very perilous moment of life and death. His mother's ribbon fluttered wildly in the freezing gust, caught between his clenched fist and the frosty wind's cry.
As the shield curved around the trio, stones clattered against the ice dome - but none could form even a single dent. Eurus's mana control was no longer raw and reckless, but honed with intention and practice.
Silas arched his brow. "The dome's actually holding."
The tremors surged once again. Behind them, a support beam finally gave out like a thread snapping into two, and a wave of earth slammed against the top of the dome. The ice dome absorbed its full force and held firm and unbreakable without so much as a crack.
"Impressive," Silas commented.
Zerath's eyes squinted. "That altar. I see an opening there."
"Are you sure?"
He looked at him. "It's true that they'd have wanted to kill any trespassers, but people always build fail safes. What if enemies broke in while they were still here? They wouldn't let themselves die over something so pointless. It's why the mechanism triggers a little late - to give them the time to escape but which is also short enough to trap the intruders."
Another unsteady wave reminded them of the cave's imminent collapse.
"Let's get through it. Now!"
They squeezed themselves into the narrow opening, almost crawling their way out. With every step that carried them farther and farther away, the jagged shard of rock lodged in Zerath's arm worked itself deeper. Blood streamed freely across his arm, every breath now turning into a painful nightmare. He gasped. He sweated. His vision blurred and at one point, a strange haze surrounded him.
"What is this…fog?"
"Fog?" Silas turned to him. "What fog? There's no fog."
"Zerath?" He blinked, watching Zerath slip into a trance. His pupils had gone distant, somewhere far and unreachable.
"ZERATH!!!"