“Looks like something’s coming through.” a concealed figure spouted.
“Yeah? It better hurry up, we don’t have all day!” another shouted, angrily.
Behind the two, a vortex similar to the one in Deniran’s lair formed - albeit scaled down greatly and but its crackling sounds were amplified, the stone walls encompassing it had near unmatched acoustics sending the sound into the nearby chamber. From the blackness emerged Keristis, who quickly fell to the floor. It seemed that its purpose was fulfilled, and it just as quickly disappeared.
“What the hell is that?” both questioned in tandem.
Their awe was cut short by the arrival of a group.
“RAAAGH!” they screamed, stumbling into the room with their mouths agape and weapons drawn. It was some of the Blighted, given away by pulsating energy flowing across their bodies and the nonsensical sounds they made.
The two masked individuals slid across the room to hide behind a wall, a temporary solution to a much larger problem. With the arrival of someone or something through the vortex they hoped to recieve a fighting chance.
To their surprise, Keristis began to stand up. He stabbed the Deviant’s Path into the ground to leverage himself and looked towards the Blighted at the enterance. They stared right back at him; their unreasonable minds only sought to destroy him or assimilate him.
Keristis decided it would be his turn to attack first, he launched his spear directly into one of the Blighted, following after it immediately and threw another to the ground. They retaliated with multiple sword swings that all missed as Keristis avoided them all. One that straggled at the edge of the group prepared an orb of mana to harm him with, which was swiftly halted with the caster being promptly impaled by Keristis’ spear.
Pulling it out of the Blighted caster, Keristis turned around to spot two running straight towards him, their energy pulsating even faster. He spun the Deviant’s Path around to block both of their attacks, causing the three to lock blades.
Shocked and amazed, the masked pair spectated as the fight went on. They couldn’t intervene unless they sought to die but even so, it didn’t look like the armoured figure needed their help. Almost effortlessly he cut down the Blighted that had been pursuing them for so long. One after the other they threw themselves at him just to be slain over and over again until they experienced a true death, when their spirits escaped their infected bodies.
Being Blighted was truly a horrible experience, a Summon would not be able to control their physical self as the affliction would take charge and force them to act in manners that they never wished to do. Be it killing those once close to them or spreading the infection further. The only way to kill one definitely was to damage the body enough to allow the spirit to exit as that would be the only thing that kept it functioning.
It didn’t take Keristis long to figure that out; the multitude of bright lights and illuminated figures rising out of their bodies caused them to remain on the floor.
The two Blighted clashing blades with Keristis let out an ominous screech, their force tremendously increased and began to make Keristis falter. He pushed back, taking one out as one of his edges sliced its torso in two but the other didn’t go down as easy. Another came from behind and pulled him to the ground then began to assault his silvery armour.
“Oh no, this isn’t looking too good…” the first masked one uttered, “Wait, Iblia, where are you going?”
“I’m not just gonna sit here and watch our way out close on us.” she muttered, pulling out a pitifully small dagger that sheepishly glowed green.
“No! Stop!” the other cried, but to no effect. Iblia silently sprinted straight at the menacing Blighted.
They paid her no mind as she approached them, Keristis was surely their target of highest priority. It gave Iblia a chance to inflict damage, not much but she hoped to give Keristis an opening.
She jumped, unnaturally high, and managed to clamber onto the back of the Blighted dragging it down. With a swift movement of her wrist, a fatal slit on the infected’s neck appeared. Nothing emerged from it but it wailed out in strange pain, reaching behind it and grabbing her then forcefully removing her from itself by throwing her across the space.
While this happened, Keristis struck the other one with the spear’s hilt and disoriented it, managing to get back up on his feet again. Time Dilation activated and purple smoke slowly emerged from the slits in his helmet, then came forth furious violet flames. The two remaining Blighted attempted once more to attack, but all was useless as Keristis dodged the offensives with ease. He spun the Deviant’s Path around and made many incisions into their beings, finally defeating them all as their ethereal forms left.
He looked around to see what aided him, spotting Iblia leaning against a wall completely unscathed. He stepped over a Summon and walked towards her, waving in order to prevent a hostile impression.
“Iblia! Are you alright?” the other obscured figure came out of hiding, running towards her, lifting up his mask to reveal deep green eyes were marked with what seemed to be runic markings hailing down from the eyebrows but that was all to be seen with a cloth covering the latter half
“No thanks to you.” she coldly mentioned.
“I-I’m sorry, I was just-“
“Leave it for now.,” she turned to Keristis, “Thank you, by the way. As you may have heard from this loudmouth, I’m Iblia and he’s Thelan. What, or who, are you?”
An awkward stare ensued as Keristis waited for the Deviant to speak for him.
< Please do not be surprised by my user’s lack of communication. He’s just shy. > The Deviant teased.
“Wha..?” the two looked completely bewildered by the disembodied voice coming from a weapon.
< Anyhow, his name is Keristis and you can call me the Deviant. >
Iblia began to have a grasp on what she was experiencing, “Okay… A bit strange but I’m sure we’ll get used to you. Where are you from?”
< You ever heard of Skyhost? >
Thelan immediately looked excited, “Skyhost? You’re kidding, right? Everyone knows Skyhost, although no one has heard from them in years. Right now we’re extremely far from there though.”
< So, where are we then? >
The two looked down, seemingly reclusive to reveal their whereabouts.
“We can tell you that later, did you see some sort of demoness before you came in?” Iblia muttered.
< Deniran? We sure did. >
“I don’t know her name, but she’s teleported you to this place through a portal. You’re the most recent to arrive.” she continued.
< Say, have you seen a man called Aurelius around? We came to look for him aft- >
Keristis hit his spear slightly, surprising Iblia and Thelan who lurched back.
< Ok, ok, sorry. >
Thelan gave a quick glance, inspecting Keristis’ every crack and colour of his armour. “Ah, I get it, you’re one of those Summons aren’t you?”
< An astute observation. What gave it away? >
“Well, I’ve never seen one without their Summoner. Also, you really stand out in a place like this.” he laughed.
< If you know that much, could you tell us if you’ve seen him? > The Deviant reiterated.
“Sorry, we haven’t seen anything but those… things. For the past day we’ve been out here trying to get back home.” Thelan sombrely uttered.
“But!” Iblia excitedly began, “Now that you two are here, we can surely get back in one piece.”
< I don’t like the amount of faith you’ve immediately placed in us. > murmured the polearm.
“Eh, it’s fineee~.” She looked to Thelan who pulled down his mask again. White markings vertically rode down past the eyeholes and there was no indications as to where the mouth laid. The same was true for Iblia’s mask apart from an extra horizontal marking that almost made it look like a tally. Keristis assumed it was just a sign of seniority or superiority, seeing as Iblia was the one that took charge.
He felt a bit uncomfortable with the relative size difference between him and the pair he was walking with, compared to Aurelius they were much shorter which made the dynamic seem odd. Together they walked out of the room and took a right entering a long walkway, at the end the faintest sign of the outside world could be seen.
