The night of the full moon was here, and though Nyxia found herself lacking in sleep, she was wired and ready to go. She had timed her departure just right, though made sure that she kept her intentions secret from her father. It was probably best that he didn't know what she was up to. He would have spent the entire time either persuading her not to go or simply fearing that she might not make it back home alive. He was too busy a man to distract with more worries.
However, as one fairly confident in her skills as a fighter and a sorceress, she felt she had a pretty good chance.
Once at The Fallgrove, all Nyxia could really do was wait. At her disposal, she had an array of staves she had learned to wield, just as King Cingarus once did. She had never been here before, though had heard gossip about it through others in the palace. She approached the entrance, which was a stone doorway that would refuse to budge, no matter how she pushed it.
"Well, it was worth a shot." She sat down on the callous floor, the chill of the night air cool against her pale skin. Daemons could come out at any time, but right now, all was quiet. Maybe Nyxia was just lucky. Maybe they were inside, waiting for that door to open, like hungry, imprisoned beasts.
She couldn't deny that she was a little nervous, but this was about the fate of the world - a world that her influential family was a big part of. She had a responsibility, even if this might not have been the typical way to uphold it.
Am I doing the right thing?
She looked over to the pool of moonlight on her left. It was slowly reaching in her direction, but it would still be a little while longer before it would find the doorway. She conjured a book - with the flick of her wrist and a flash of blue, it appeared in her hand. It was simply something to help pass the time: Tome of Healing. She only got about two, lengthy pages into it before a loud noise sounded behind her. She was almost too intrigued by the book to stop where she was at so suddenly, but she knew that this meant that the passage was now open. Rising to her feet, she dismissed the book into thin air and then cautiously stepped inside. A stairway took her further down as she left the moonlight behind her. A silver staff appeared in her hands, taller than her own body, though carved into an ornate shape at the head. She had to be ready for anything.
The stairway twisted right, and the narrow walls around her made her feel both cramped and so minuscule at the same time. Again, they turned right, and further down she went. One more turn, and she was headed into a broader, round room. Nothing caught her eye so far, save for the tall ceilings and old architecture. However, as she came into a significantly larger room, she realized just how old and dilapidated this place was. There was rubble ans fallen columns to be found here, though not much else struck her interest.
But considering how extensive the tower was told to be, she knew she still had a long way to go.
Carefully, Nyxia crossed a fallen pillar that served as a bridge to the other side of the giant chamber. It was the only way to get across the gap left behind by the collapsed floor.
Soon, a long, narrow chamber took her further on. There seemed to be branching hallways on her right, but fallen debris blocked both paths. The only way to go was forward. Perhaps if she reached a dead end, she could always backtrack and use magic to remove the stone piles. For now, however, she needed to save her strength. Daemons could still be lurking in here.
In the next room, a wide, downward slope slumped in a spiral, and she treaded carefully. The staff did well to provide her the light that she needed, but even still, it was hard to see any more than a few yards ahead of her. Glancing behind her was even more unsettling. It was like a black chasm was following her.
She forced herself to keep looking forward, no matter her anxiety. Somehow, she felt like she was being followed by
something. The tower continued to lead her deeper into the earth. She came across what had to be the largest room in the entire place. In the center of what appeared to be a humongous, black room, a paved pathway took across, a guard rail on both sides that, if they weren't there, would have made her paranoid of falling into an abyss.
The ground seemed to hook slightly right for a good while, and just when she was beginning to think it looped forever like this, she saw the rails straighten on either side of her. Thank goodness. Some progress.
Then, from behind her came a menacing series of snarls. She shouldn't have been too surprised that daemons had followed her this far, but as she turned around, she saw three Ereshkigals stalking her. One of them launched its small, though agile body at her, sharp teeth bared through another growl.
Nyxia was quick to respond by rolling out of dodge, the knees of her red, skinny jeans scraping across the hard concrete. She managed to ignore the pain for now, more focused on the stealthy devils that were pursuing her.
They moved fast, and the fact that she was outnumbered did not help her situation any. She broke into a run, knowing they would likely catch her in no time. She had never seen anyone or anything move this fast!
She just needed enough time to get a little distance between them and her. She then swung the staff behind her, creating a giant wall of fire that would allow her more time to get away. Hopefully, she could at the very least get a headstart.
Another ramp descended in a downward spiral, though about halfway down, she could hear two of the three daemons chasing her again. One must have been lost in the fire still. She threw a wave of fire from the head of her staff, immediately followed by a second one in hopes to catch them off guard. One jumped over it, and though the second one did get hit, it followed its comrade, though now a little slower.
The first one jumped, leaping at her only to slam itself into the top of Nyxia's staff. She launched the Ereshkigal overhead and behind her, sending it slamming into the stone wall. As the second one limped toward her, Nyxia ruthlessly shot another wave of fire at it, sending it backwards and leaving ash in its wake. Then, behind her came an angry snarl. The third one she thought she had left in the dust had managed to be reunited with the others, though belated, considering she had wiped them out.
Its speed was wickedly fast, throwing her off guard as its claws swiped at her left leg. Nyxia growled at the pain as she staggered back a bit, then drove the bottom end of her weapon into the ground. The head of it changed from a flourishing, carved wood to a sharp shard of metal - a readied spear to drive right into this beast's black, little heart.
"Come on, you little punk." Nyxia sneered, crouching lower to the ground as she prepared herself for its next jump. It made a strange noise, skipping from left to right as if it was taunting her. Then, it threw itself at her again. At the same time of dodging its claws, she would swing the blade at it, but it still managed to duck under it. Next swing caused the Ereshkigal to jump back and out of reach.
This one was really starting to get on her nerves.
She threw the spear this time, and once again, the daemon was too quick. She watched as it jumped, using the blade as a platform to ascend higher into the air and over her head.
Behind her back, Nyxia drew out two daggers. With the last of her confidence, she threw them both, one after the other. The first one missed, but to her great relief, the second one landed square into his chest. As it did, the blade would catch fire. The last daemon shattered into ashen remains in the air, where it would float into the darkness.
Huffing for a moment, Nyxia retrieved her staff from the ground. She could feel the sting in her leg as she put weight onto it. With a few potions on hand, she was glad she had been ready for this. She poured some of it onto the wound, soon leaving nothing but blood and rips on her pant leg. She continued down the path, and it would soon take her into another, vast room that opened up. Even the flooring gave her more space to move around, and the blue lights embedded into the ground gave more than enough illumination for her to see the room around her.
She stepped off of the stairs and into the large area, observing the surroundings closely. There were stone columns that seemed to be randomly placed in the corners of the room. With them were stone squares that appeared oddly curious. Just to confirm her suspicions, she stepped onto one of them, and as she did, it did something to activate it, causing it to lower into the ground. For a moment, Nyxia had panicked, but she kept her eyes open for any traps. As the floor beneath her finally stopped moving (it must had descended at least another, few floors), she saw a gap in the floor ahead of her. There was nothing else, as though it was the only way forward.
She peered down first, and after she saw that she could spot the ground of the room below her, she supposed this was the only way to go.
She braced herself as she would leap down, rolling into her landing so as not to break her ankles. The room around her was significantly darker, and at that, unnecessarily massive. Nyxia rose to her feet, using her staff as a light source again to see what was around her. She wasn't sure where to start at first, until she saw a small chasm in the wall behind her to that was just enough for her to crawl through. She knelt to the ground to see if she might get an idea of what was beyond it. Her head went in first, then, suddenly, she felt something slip around her ankle.
She was abruptly yanked away from the crawlspace, the back of her body grinding against the stone floor. The creature that snatched her was snakelike by nature, but all in all, completely unnatural. Catching a brief glimpse of the smaller swarm of snakes branching from a central point somewhere in the air, she was pretty sure she had an idea of what she was up against.
And she had no chance of taking on a Nagarini, especially considering the fact that she would likely have to pay more attention to not looking at its face than fighting it.
A giant, scaly tail coiled in a circle around her, and Nyxia realized she might have gotten more than she bargained for. She still tried to keep her head high (and eyes relatively low), twirling her spear in a circle in hopes of keeping the huge serpent at bay.
Behind her, she heard the snakes hissing loudly, and as the large head came towards her, Nyxia tried to fend it off with more fire. However, there was no way she was going to take this thing down by herself.
"Looks like someone bit off more than she could chew." A voice called from the far corner of the room. The figure it belonged to moved across the room incredibly quickly, and a giant spear soared and flew into the back of the naga. Nyxia almost couldn't believe her luck as the woman landed on the ground in front of her, her movement fluent and confident.
"Aranea? What are you-"
"I'd ask you the same thing, Nyxia, but not right now!"
How her mentor had managed to find her down here, Nyxia couldn't be sure, but the bounty hunter was right. This was not a good time to make inquiries.
It took some teamwork to bust the Nagarini, but after excessive use of their spears, and a few, cool tricks up Aranea's sleeve, they managed just fine. Unlike the more skilled hunter, Nyxia practically found herself out of breath at the end of the fight. Aranea merely grinned, brushing her platinum bangs from her eyes.
"You got a deathwish or what?" she teased, pulling out her blade from the serpentine corpse.
"I... thought I had things under control," Nyxia murmured. At this, Aranea's expression seemed a bit more serious.
"Your confidence is inspiring, sweetcakes," she replied, "but that was pure crazy. You wouldn't have stood a chance against that thing if I hadn't followed you."
"You...followed me?" Nyxia repeated.
"The moment your dad realized you left, he called for me. He did what he had to. You're daddy's little girl."
Of course. Though she understood, Nyxia wasn't feeling too pleased. While she was thankful that she was thankful that her tutor had saved her life, it did do something to bruise her ego.
"I'm nineteen. I should be able to make my own decisions without a bodyguard."
"Look, kid. I'm just following king's orders. I respect royalty, whether it's Lucian, Curian, or whatever. I'm not going to step on your dad's toes just because you're too damn proud."
Nyxia took a moment to think about Aranea's words before she would nod. "You're right. I'm sorry. I just..." she drifted off, knowing there was no good excuse for acting so incompetent.
"Hey, I get it. You want to help save the world. Don't we all? You just have to take it a little slower." Aranea gave her a small nudge on the arm. "Tell you what. We'll do some training tomorrow. How does that sound?"
Nyxia allowed her to escort her out of Costlemark Tower and back home. Aranea was a difficult person to read when she first met her, but ever since the plague of daemons kicked into full throttle, it became clear that her alliance was with the good people of Eos. She hunted demons on a regular basis, and though she usually worked alone, she was acquainted with many others that did the same thing.
One day, Nyxia hoped, she would be doing the same thing.
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