TBATE A new God

Ch.2 S.6

(hello guys before you read I would like to say that this story Is nearing its end. There are still a couple of chapters left like maybe 20 or so more so I thought I would at least give you a heads up.)

(Art pov)

Gauging by the bloody mud pooled beneath him, he didn't have much longer. "The relic needs blood," he said. "So we...we—"

A stone spike erupted from the floor and impaled him through the chest, spraying blood across Caera's face.

I spun to see a dozen more ascenders huddled together farther down the tunnel. One man stood at the forefront of the group. He was as dirty as the rest of them, but under the layers of filth, I could see a network of scars criss-crossing his face, arms, and hands. His hair was a fine stubble that looked like it had been shaved with a dagger instead of a razor, and a knotted blond beard covered his face. He wore a mismatched suit of armor that looked like it had been scavenged from a dozen different sources.

"Would you care to tell us what the hell is happening in this zone?" Caera asked as she calmly wiped the blood off her face with a handkerchief.

"Hell is the appropriate word," the scarred ascender drawled, grinning. He was missing more than one tooth, and those that remained were filed to sharp points. "You've reached the very bowels of the Relictombs, where ascenders come to die."

Caera took a confident step forward, her dark blue hair fluttering as she leveled her thin blade to the man's throat. The ascender matched it, a small crater forming beneath his feet as he stepped forward and pressed his neck against the tip of Caera's blade.

"There's no way out of here," he continued, his dark eyes wide and more than a little mad. "Except by blood. Everyone either gives it or takes it, but no one who stays neutral survives for long."

I shuffled tentatively in between the two and held up an arm. "We have no desire to fight you if you don't make us. But can you explain what is happening here? Less cryptically, this time."

The leader—Kage, I assumed—seemed to dismiss me immediately, instead frowning intensely as he sized up my partner. Caera's ruby eyes blazed in the dark despite her gaze being frigid. Their standoff ended suddenly when his frown cracked like thin ice and his face shuddered into a forced grin.

Kage tapped his dirty finger against his temple. "I can tell your blood isn't the letting kind. You're just the flavor of fresh meat"—his goons chuckled darkly at this—"that we need here. You see, minds, bodies, and spirits go stale in this purgatory." As Kage spoke, one eye began to twitch. "The longer you stay, the worse it gets, but the only way out is by emptying your friends and comrades of their life's blood. Cruel, those ancient devils..."

The scarred ascender's eyes lost focus for a moment.

"I believe we asked you to be less cryptic," Caera said impatiently.

The men behind Kage shuffled, hands tightening around weapons as their glares cut toward my companion. One raised a weapon that crackled with electricity. Kage's hand flashed out, catching the man in the side of the head. "Don't go rattling sabers when I'm talking!"

He graced Caera with his gap tooth smile. "I can tell you're people of means. Wyverns, not woggarts, as the saying goes. And so I'll level with you. You've found yourself trapped in a zone with no exit. The only way out is to claim a relic held at the center of this maze of tunnels, but that can only be done by blood sacrifice. And so far, no one has managed to spill enough of it to bypass the wards."

I hadn't heard wrong. Kage said it as well...

There was a relic in this zone.

My attention remained on Kage as he spoke: his hands constantly gravitated toward his weapon, his grin would fade only to be forced back on his dirt-caked face, and he swelled up like a fanged musk as he spoke. It all created a subtly threatening image, like an animalistic defensive measure to ward off potential threats. But it didn't help that Seth was already in that 'if you want me to I can kill everyone and move on' look

"We'd like to see this relic," I said gently. "Can you take us to it?"

"Piss off, twig!" one of the men snapped, pointing his sword at me.

Kage let out a craggy laugh and took a backwards step, then spun on his heel like he was in a military procession. A narrow spear of stone burst out of the ground and skewered the offending ascender's hand, sending the sword flying. Kage kicked the man's knee, causing it to crack and bend backwards, then took him by the throat and slammed him to the ground.

"I don't remember telling you to speak!" Kage roared in his face, spittle flying. The runes on his back flared as he raised one hand over his head, and a crust of black and glowing-orange stone formed from his elbow down, radiating a heat so intense that I could feel it from several feet away.

The smoldering gauntlet hit the man's face like a sledgehammer. It fell again and again, filling the cave with the smell of scorched flesh. The rest of the ascenders had backed away. Some watched with a wicked sort of anticipation, but most averted their eyes.

When there was nothing left of the ascender's face but a burnt pulp, Kage straightened. He was panting slightly, and gouts of smoking fire were flashing around the conjured gauntlet. With a crack of his neck and a sigh, he faced Caera. "It takes a firm hand, you know," Kage said, chuckling. "A firm hand, get it?"

Caera's nose wrinkled in disgust, but Kage's men let out scattered laughter. I kept my face blank. "Waste of blood, though. Bah." The molten gauntlet fell away in ashy chunks as Kage released the spell. "Here's the thing, newcomer. Trust earns trust. First, you and your servant boy will come back to camp with us. There, we can decide who gets to see what, aye?"

Caera's mouth opened, and I could tell from the look on her face she was about to dismiss Kage's offer. I grabbed her sleeve and gave it a small tug. "Lady, no good can come from rejecting this man's offer. Look what he did to his own ally. We should go with him and see what he has to say."

"Fine," she answered, searching my eyes questioningly. To Kage, she said, "we'll go with you."

"A wise little sidekick you have there," Kage grunted. "Can't be an unad. Must be a pissy Sentry hiding his mana, eh?" He looked me in the eye and spit on the ground. "Or maybe the lady keeps you around for other purposes, eh boy?"

Grey: "actually the boy over here is her boyfriend."

Kage: "huh?" Kage was surprised as he turned to look at seth, "huh forgot he was there for a second."

It was then I felt a sharp pain hit my arm as caera punched me, "stop playing around!" Caera said quietly so that only I would hear.

Regis: {"is it me or are you petty because your brother is more cooler then you?"} Regis said telepathy to me.

Grey: {"quiet"} I shot back not wanted to deal with Regis at the moment

(Chapter end)