I tried counting the stairs we had gone down, trying to remember we didn't lose track of our walking direction. When I watched the clock, it was 14 hours left, which made me worried that if we got stuck in this place, dying in a dungeon wasn't precisely what I thought was the place to die, which was not the best way to go out.
A wind blew through the dark corridor as our torches went out when the chubby baby fired up the whole wall to the right to light up my torch as I stood still. I was sweating with the pain getting worse, and I looked down at the baby, pissed off that I could have lit up together with the torch and the wall.
"Y, Y, YOU DAMN BLUE BALL, NEXT TIME GIVE A HEADS UP BEFORE SHOOTING FIREBALLS," I yelled at it as it just stared at me and responded:
"M...E...H!"
Of course, everything it can say is calling for its mother. I picked it up and put it on my left shoulder as it grabbed my hair to hold on, but at least it was on the side and could only fire forward. I doubt it can turn because it's so fat. It would fall if it tried to face me.
After walking for a while, it looked like we had entered a room. The room was huge when we tried to light it up as much as possible with our torches. My brain told me this was a trap, but it was the only way to move forward.
"Ke tah me me yre!" The Daemon uttered with a weak voice.
"Yeah, I don't talk Daemon. What did it say, Mage?" I asked the girl.
"It says that this is probably a trap!"
"No shit! That was obvious from the room layout." I commented.
The girl found a scribble on the wall and started to read out loud:
"A demon who passes shall not let anything of the other pass. If something else passes, death only waits ahead."
Well, I am not surprised that it is a dungeon for demons. It makes me wonder how long the baby has been here. That is strange, but it probably just went around killing demons and kept screaming after its mom and became fat in the process.
"Okay! Well, it is a trap. The only demon we have is dying, more or less, and we do not have time. So I will move forward with the baby and see if any traps activate."
The Mage nodded. Of course, she didn't want to die. I wish we had the chair here. Make a sacrifice, throw it in the middle of the room, or use it as a shield if something shows up. I took two steps forward as the chain around my wrist came loose, and I grabbed one end to prepare for battle. Strangely, my right fist didn't catch on fire, which made me a little worried. I tried moving my fingers to light up my fist with fire, but nothing happened. Is the fire only getting lit up when there is a battle?
I moved a couple more steps forward and noticed two exits from the room, one in front of me at the other end, and one door with a ramp sticking out on the upper right on the wall. The Mage took a few steps behind me, entering the room. I felt as though the whole situation was weird. If there had been traps, it would have gone off by now when I had passed more than half the distance to the other end. I looked around to see if there were any clues before I walked to the door, but baskets were hanging on several hooks. Wait a minute! The center of the room is empty.
"GET BACK MAGE!" I screamed, but it was too late. A clicking sound came beneath us, and all edges of the floor fell into darkness. We stood still, not moving. Rocks kept plunging into darkness as we stood on a smaller rectangular floor with all edges gone and nothing to jump to. I tried moving toward the Mage when a clicking sound went off, and a large part beneath the floor crashed. I noticed the floor was moving in my direction, so I quickly moved forward to keep a straight balance so the floor wouldn't fall and kill all of us. We would not survive a fall of more than 15 seconds until hitting the ground.
"Well, the door on the other side of the room is out of the question. I guess we have to get up on the ramp and enter the door on the right." I said with a sarcastic smile, knowing that if the floor got unbalanced in weight, we would die anyway.
She looked afraid and didn't answer my comment. I wouldn't call this a child-safe PG-13 mission and decide to go into a pitch-black dungeon with more or less no information. It is like asking to get killed, more or less, if there is no information about it. It reminds me that this is way worse than the time I had an assignment in Paladin Woods when I entered a small dungeon to take out a Minotaur that was kidnapping and eating children. Ah! I don't want to think about that when this scenario is way worse. I tried to slowly turn my head to see the ramp more closely and use my chain on it, but it wasn't easy to concentrate and keep the right balance so we wouldn't fall when my back was against the ramp. I suddenly felt immense pain on the left side of my stomach, and the girl was watching me on the floor on the same side as I had pain. Then I started to puke blood on the ground but kept my balance. I opened my blazer and saw blood covering the left side of my shirt. It was red, so it must be my blood. I looked down at the watch, noticing it was 12 hours left, making me hesitate as I had been here for a long time. Walking in darkness felt like we moved fast, but was it the opposite?
I slowly took off the blazer as the baby fatso didn't want to get stuck on the blazer and moved to adjust its position on my shoulder, and I moved the chain between my hands to get it off completely. I wrapped the blazer around my waist and pulled it hard in an attempt to slow down the bleeding, or even maybe stop the bleeding. My breathing became a little bit heavier, but that was okay as long as the bleeding didn't continue. I tried to get my right fist into black fire, but nothing happened. I tried focusing and closed my eyes into pitch-black darkness, and when I opened them again, I was on the field with Sterk standing in front of me.
"You are dying, and this does not look good for you, Zark!"
"I know. I am trying to get my fist to catch black fire, but nothing happens."
"Yes, that I do know of! You would not come here if there were no problems. Am I right?"
Why was the brat suddenly behaving so maturely? I do not have time for this game he is playing."
"Please, Sterk! Just tell me how I activate the fire on my fist."
"Why does the chain keep sticking by your side? Why does it activate together with your powers?"
"The chain? Is it not only a tool for me to use? It just activates depending on the power of its user. I don't get what you are trying to say here."
My powers are my powers. What does the involvement of the chain have to do with anything?
"That is where you are wrong. Many believe that the chain only adjusts to its user, but it goes much deeper into the depths of its master. You did not choose the chain. It was the chain that chose you because both of you have the same beliefs and principles. Both of you have the same beliefs. If you know what you believe and what principle in life drives you forward, your fist and the chain will catch fire."
Wow! Talk about going in-depth with the talk when he is a brat child who deserves a big whopping. What are my beliefs and principles in life, what are they? I want to find Sandra, but the chain doesn't know her, so that is wrong. It makes me try to think about my life, but I have done a lot of assignments, some deadly, some relatively easy. Why did I do the assignments? Finding Sandra? Not really. It is to protect the citizens, to protect...everyone.
"To protect everyone!" I commented to him.
"Good, you figured out how to activate your powers."
"ZARK!" Someone yelled behind me as I turned around and saw a woman walking towards the cabin, and a boy came out, running into her arms with a big smile on her face.
"Have you missed your Mother?" She asked the child, and I got confused for a second as the boy looked a little bit like me, but I only remembered a bit of my life in the Orphanage.
A hand pressed my back with a comment from Sterk:
"Sorry! I can't have you going into a memory flow now. It can kill you." When a hard push with force from Sterk suddenly moved me back on the floor as I stood still.
The girl was shaking on the floor, and that could mean our death if she tried to move around.
"Do not move and stop shaking, or we can fall," I told her, but her shaking continued.
I need to fix this now. My fist was on fire, and I was so damn happy that the chain was also on fire. I released most of the chain from my wrist as the small bandage that Jacqueline had done was all covered in blood. I swung the chain repeatedly until it started swinging in the air. I threw it above the ramp, and it got stuck. I couldn't completely move to pull as hard as I could, but with my little strength, I knew the chain wouldn't get loose. We will die if it gets loose anyway, and this is the end. I wrapped the leftovers from the chain around my wrist so it wouldn't be possible to lose its grip.
"Okay! Listen Mage! I am going to turn around with my back towards you. When I count to three, you will take two steps forward as I will slide with my leg a little bit back to balance the weight, and you will have to jump and grab my back because the floor under us will fall."
"You make it sound so easy!" She commented and adjusted the Daemon, so it was hanging with its last strength around her throat. I wouldn't be surprised if it would lose its grip and fall into the darkness, but there is no other option.
"Okay! Ready...ONE...TWO...THREE!!!" I yelled out and pulled one leg back, and I quickly noticed the ground releasing under me, and someone was choking me from behind as a baby fell from my shoulder.
We were dangling in the air, and I was waiting for the girl to start climbing, but her grip just got harder.
"M, Mage, climb!" I managed to utter as she now was aware that she was choking me.
She climbed up, and I tried to apprehend the situation as we had lost our blue fire. My leg was swinging back and forth, and I looked down, seeing the baby hanging upside down, tangled up in my shoelace, and it rocked back and forth like it was a game.
"STOP ROCKING BACK AND FORTH, DINOSAUR. YOU ARE BARELY ALIVE AND ARE JUST ADDING MORE CHANCES TO DIE!" I screamed at it as the swinging back and forth stopped, and it went completely silent mode on me.
I climbed up and slowly lifted my foot over the ramp so the small baby wouldn't hit something and fall.
After we had rested for a bit, we walked through a dark corridor until lights shone from a distance. When we passed the lights, a bridge was going to the other side, as the area had many torches around that lit up. I looked up and could see the red sky. Are we inside a mountain?
There were several bridges above us, and when I turned my attention and looked down, more bridges were crossing above each other in different directions. I looked back from where we came from and realized that this Dungeon was massive. It made me think about the woman. Was she there in Sterk's dreamy world, or was it a memory of my life?
"What are you looking at?" The girl asked.
I turned to her and answered:
"I just realized that there is no turning back. I will die here. The priority now is to save the prisoner and to get you out, but my life is over. I will die in this Dungeon."