The Knights of Grimm - Act 4 - Whispers of Arkhonex

Chapter 29 - A Father's Fury

Kassius

Kassius stares at the ceiling as the cracks spread across the gold and silver map, dropping stone down into the ground. A huge boulder breaks from the ceiling and plummets down, crashing straight through the layer and causing it to cave in. Fissures spread across the beautiful Map Room, causing to floor beneath them to peel and collapse into itself. Kassius jumps and gets to the stronger section of the floor and the others run. Emerald runs and jumps, Kassius catches her hand and she yells with shock as she dangles over the crater where the floor was once built. "Hold on! I've got ya!" Kassius assures, pulling her back up with his cybernetic arm and she holds onto him.

The Visionary Books tumble from their pedestals, the beams of blue light that once connected them together cease, all meeting in the centre and creating a powerful pulse of magical energy, one that accelerates the collapse even further. "No time to lose! Run!" Kassius yells, sprinting with everyone towards the doorway that they entered this room through. Velvet is the last one through after Coco and she looks back as the roof completely collapses, sending giant boulders crashing down in thunderous bangs that bury it all, and the cracking spreads like a disease, into the rooms they run through.

The quakes of the thousands of tonnes of stone crumbling and collapsing above their heads sends them all into escaping. The five of them sprint as fast as they can, not even drawing their weapons, running through the labs and the buried data. The ceiling cracks and crumbled over their heads, hearing the explosions erupting overhead where Salem's King Wyvern bellows fire down from the sky, annihilating everything in its path. But for now, they cannot see the fire, only hear it through the rock and soil that protects them from it.

But that does not mean they are safe, because this seismic pressure is severely damaging the cavern that the Map Room has become. The fissures split through the labs that they sprint through, seeing the ancient texts that were left behind falling into an abyss of darkness. Kassius stumbles as he runs, but Cardin catches him as the ground tears itself apart. "I've got you!" Cardin calls out, pulling him from the fall that would have claimed his life.

"Thanks! I owe you one." Kassius chuckles as he sprints alongside Cardin, and the much larger man glances at him with a smirk.

"We'd better start keeping count." Cardin scoffs, and Kassius laughs as he runs alongside them. But the faster they run they all see the doorway collapse before their very eyes, huge tonnes of rock plummeting down from the ceiling and blocking their exit. But luckily not for very long as Cardin takes his mace and engages his semblance, his skin burning as he ignites the Wickerman's Rage within him. The red dust crystal inside of the huge mace charges up and he swings it straight into the side of the rock with all his might as he bellows, the impact creating an all-powerful explosive shockwave. The rock shatters like glass, and their exit is open again. Kassius looks up and he stops, catching another falling rock, using his back to hold it up and the power of his metal arm. Velvet and Coco stop for a second, but he strains as he stands there, using all the strength he has in his body.

"Go...now!" Kassius yells, his eyes glowing orange from Hyde giving him some more strength as well to hold it high enough for people to get through. He lets out a powerful howl, for just as the two women pass by, he launches the boulder across the room, crushing some of the tables. The impact of the rock on the ground creates a deep chasm that opens up in the ground, splitting and sending chunks of rock falling down into the depts of the planet. Kassius exhales with relief, turning and running ahead with his fists clenched, catching up with the others ahead of him.

As he runs, Coco looks back at Kassius. "The hell is happening?" Coco exclaims as another explosion from above sends a thunderous tremor echoing through the stone. Like a war raging above, it really does make them wonder if it is just Salem. But considering she is the only other person up there, then it is a pretty good guess that her King Wyvern is unleashing the full force of its power upon the island to try and create a collapse inside the Map Room.