Tales of Lost Souls | Mia's Journey

CHAPTER 16 - celestial storm

We sat in silence for a while as no one dared to break the silence. At least that was until Haros proposed an idea, "You, the guy with the large ears. I can tell you are a fellow fire mage. Sorry for burning you, but there is a power you possess that we need to get out."

Bermott kept quiet. Not daring to look up, he continued staring at the floor of his cell without acknowledging Haros.

"You were once blessed by the fire goddess Shellbourne Bright herself. I have my connections, so I know that's a fact... You can get us out here. Trust-" Before Haros' was done speaking, Bermott snapped and yelled at him.

He stood up and the only thing stopping Bermott from tearing Haros into shreds was the cell, "Shut up! I need no pep-talk from you! Why would I lend my strength to some crazy demon like you?!"

"I already apologized! What do you expect me to do? Go down on my knees and beg," Haros questioned.

Bermott visibly had a hard time not lashing out at him again. He too wished to see the light of day and his comrade Duriyan again, "Fine... Only this time. What do you want."

The demon grinned and seemed happy with that answer, "Certain Blessed possess the power to turn their whole body into pure fire. A bird told me you can do that: Bermott Aazaad, the Phoenix."

Replying took Bermott a while, "Well, I don't use my fire powers anymore. I should've said it earlier as I knew it would come to this. I don't want to hurt anyone ever again," he held up his arm with the wound Haros' fire had caused, "This will eternally remind me of the pain I caused others with my curse..."

Distant footsteps sounded after he said that, leading the group to break into silence once again.

After examining his comrades for a while, the fox eared stepped up to the back wall of his cell. He was in a moral predicament with himself: He believed his powers cause pain to others, just like a similar power did even that to himself. But now, if he ends up not using his ability to free his comrades from the cells, he would cause harm by not using the power he calls a curse.

Bermott took a deep breath before dashing forward and jumping straight into the cell bars.

Instead of bashing into them, Bermott actually transformed his whole body into a phoenix-like flame, allowing him to fly through the bars. As soon he was through them, he transformed back but was in no good position to land properly. Instead of landing on his feet, Bermott crashed into the door of Haros' and Nodachi's cell. That caused a loud sound, followed by a happy but surprised, "I did it!".

The footsteps from before got louder and faster, indicating someone was on their way here fast. Bermott quickly got up and reached for his lance. With it, he tried to break open my cell door so we could escape before whoever was on their way wouldn't catch us. But as soon as Bermott opened the door to let me free, Elrond came running around the corner.

Believing it was Bermott's crash landing that lured Elrond back to us, Haros prepared himself to use his fire magic again since Bermott seemingly had no intention to free him.

"War never changes, but people can," Elrond said as he walked up to us with his hands in the air, "I will help you out of here. All you need to do is follow me without complaints or surprise attacks." Bermott was hesitant before nodding, and so did I. My head turned to Haros and Nodachi, and so did Elrond's. The knight slowly opened the cell and let Nodachi out, leaving the chained demon alone inside.

For a short time, I was sure Elrond would leave the demon behind, but then he freed him too...

As Elrond started walking towards a door, we hesitated to follow as that wasn't the way out we knew from before. Almost as if he was able to read my mind, Elrond cleared up the thought, "We can't go that way as the entrance is guarded now."

Shortly after we walked through the door, the ground below us collapsed, leading us to fall into a completely dark passageway. Bermott fired the lantern attached to his lance and therefore created some light for us to see, "Is everyone alright? I hope no one got injured."

The Sapphire Knight was the first to get up again, "I did not plan for this to happen... I am deeply sorry, but I don't know my way around here. Never have I been under the main passage." He walked towards a door beside us, "But if I am correct, judging by the placement, this door must lead us to the secret way upstairs too."

As one might've guessed, behind that very door was no secret way out, but instead, a pretty wet surprise.

Once Elrond opened the door, water bashed it open, followed by a weird arrow flying through and almost hitting Nodachi in the process. The arrow conjured a great wind, stirring up the water as well as the stones from our crash. Elrond tried to protect himself from the stones using a shield. It wasn't long until the wind caused the stones to injure some of us before the effect of the arrow finally came to an end.

I was glad the wind stopped, but I soon wished for the wind to come back: The storm had kept most of the water outside, but with it gone, a lot came flooding the passageway. And so did Tashken and Bermott, as they too, were sucked in through the open door.