Chương 29: Save Me, Kill Me

They were being pursued by what sounded like a minefield. Tremor after tremor, the bronze walls burst from the cavern floor, threatening to smear them upon an unseen ceiling. So Joel and Alis did the best they could. They kept running for their damn lives. Joel would've cursed if it wouldn't simply exhaust him further. He did risk a glance at Alis, running ahead about three strides to his left. Honestly, they were lucky to be within sight of one another. They'd given up following the invisible wall of the Sanctum.

In the initial panic, they bolted anywhere away from the eruptions. Ending up stuck between the bronze wall and the invisible barrier was a terrible way to trap oneself anyhow. First things first, not getting smushed into a human pancake. He ignored the dull pain — best as someone who'd been running all day could — to catch up to Alis. Her blonde bangs were clumping together with the sweat that drenched her brow. She moved nimbly for someone in such fluffy robes. Joel risked a glance back.

The thundering walls were becoming softer and were no longer in view. They were maintaining a healthy pace. His eyes strained; vision still obfuscated by thick miasma. As big as the cavern seemed, he hoped that they wouldn't run out of space to keep sprinting through. He hoped— The ground became a wet void. The booming bronze was getting closer. His step dropped and his body lurched forward. He crashed into the pool with a loud clap.

Water splashed against his helmet as he foolishly gasped before pulling himself upright. The water came to his chest as he stood. Another quake knocked him back into the pool. The booming bronze was closer. Joel scrambled as he broke the water's rippling surface. The entire pool was shaking loudly. He was on his feet, trying to wade to the pool's edge. The booming bronze was close. He knew he wasn't going to make it. A puff of smoke and Alis was there with a hand outstretched.

Joel grabbed the lifeline as she helped yank him over the edge. They threw their bodies to the side as a wall erupted, spraying rock and water everywhere. Scrambling to their feet, they broke back into a frantic sprint. This time he didn't waste time thinking about the distance behind him, despite how the walls chomped towards them. All he worried about were the first five feet in front of him and running as fast as his legs would carry him.

As he ran, he only heard his own desperate breaths and the looming stamps from the shadows. They both stopped as they saw the ground in front of them disappear. The border of the Sanctum. The curved wall was a dead end — their death sentence. The booming bronze was here. Alis and Joel looked at each other, both uncertain. The ground shook underneath them. He wanted to scream out the hopelessness — he swallowed that feeling. He refused to give whatever was controlling this place the satisfaction.

It was pointless defiance, but at least it was his defiance. He closed his eyes. The ground quaked violently. Alis' warm hand wrapped around his. A dreadful scream — one out of despair rather than pain — pierced the air. It rang so loud that Joel couldn't tell if the scream came from his own mouth. Or if it was the wail of Alis next to him. Perhaps it was both of them. Perhaps it was neither of them. They gripped each other's hands tight. The screaming stopped and the world halted.

After a lengthy pause, Alis' hand slipped from his and he opened his eyes. A wall of bronze was only ten feet away from them, now still and no longer erupting. The dense miasma was thinner, allowing them to see more than the handful of feet ahead. The quiet stretched out as they held their breaths, worried that a sound would restart the avalanche of copper. Finally, Joel let out a sigh, leaning over with hands on knees. He took the moment to wipe the sweat from his eyes before standing straight again.

Alis carefully approached the wall, running her hand across the bristled metal. The bronze wall had a scalloped pattern, each panel layered over another. She muttered something that Joel couldn't make out.

"Thanks back there," he said, walking up next to the young mage. He felt his ears going red.

"At the water, I mean."

"Happy to help." Alis was gazing upwards, tracking the wall up. Towering over them, it appeared endless as the top was lost in the dark fog.

"Maybe it ran out of metal to crush us with." He had no idea why else it would've stopped.

"Perhaps," she said, still studying the bronze.

"That might've been the charged attack that Wirbald mentioned. Still doesn't explain why it stopped. Whoever summoned the Sanctum has immense arcane control over this space. We should be dead." Joel softly knocked his knuckles against the wall. The bronze was dense.

"Hope the others are alright." Alis' jaw gritted and she leaned her head forward, barrier helm clinking softly against the wall. Without even needing to say so, they both took the time to sit and rest. The short breather did wonders for Joel, no longer needing to hear the echo of his own gasps within his glowing helm. He savored every minute of the rest. Anything felt better than just running for your life. As he warmed his hand around a hovering flame that Alis provided for them, his stomach grumbled loudly.

He flushed as bright as the fire as Alis let out a quiet laugh.

"Hungry in the face of death. Your stomach knows no fear," she said mirthfully.

"I'd do anything for some of Gorum's spiced cheese." His mouth was watering.

"Siv's stew is a good shout too."

"You enjoyed that? You're not giving my brother his credit. You'll see what he can do in a proper kitchen." Her face was beaming. At least she was confident of getting out. Joel rubbed his stomach.

"I'm content with just being hungry. Reminds me I'm alive." Alis' smile wavered. Okay, maybe it was time to relax on the jokes. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"I heard Siv and Al talking to you, you know?" she said, continuing when she saw his clueless look.

"About me. About being Untethered." If he wasn't beet red before, he definitely was now.

"Oh, yeah." Oh yeah? Are you kidding me? He felt sick.

"Well, I heard some of it. The fever kept me half-awake." Alis picked at the ground with her charred wand.

"It wasn't their secret to share."

"Sorry," he blurted out. She looked at him blankly before laughing.

"For what?"

"I don't know. It sounded like the right thing to say." He felt stupider by the second. Maybe some of the toxic gas was leaking in and affecting his brain.

"Don't apologize for something that's not your fault," Alis said, her green eyes still looking at the bit of dirt she was still playing with. She tapped the floor with her wand and sparked a floating flame. The fire took the form of a tiny bird that twirled through her other hand's fingers.

"It's not all bad. I've always loved magic and I love being good at it." Alis waved her hand. The flaming phoenix flew around her head before landing on the tip of her black wand. She tucked her blonde hair behind her pointed ears before untucking reflexively.

"It's simply ill-fortune that even for what I am exceptional at, I am strange."

"That makes two of us." He looked at his [Status] screen in order to check his HP. She raised a brow at him. Shoot.

"Being strange." Her still raised brow forced him to continue.

"Wirbald told me that I probably don't have a lot of magic in me. Something about being empty or having magical deficiencies."

"Oh." Her face became crestfallen as she hugged her knees.

"Sorry." Joel chuckled this time.

"What happened to not apologizing for things that aren't your fault?" A brief look of indignation flashed across her features before breaking into a smile.

"I don't believe it anyway," Joel said, playfully huffing.

"What does he know? I can do a little magic after all."

"Can you now?" Alis smirked.

"Show me."

"Okay." He didn't know why he felt nervous.

"I'll show you the only spell I know." Standing, he dusted his hands off. With a dramatic flourish — which he instantly regretted when Alis stifled her laugh — Joel pointed both hands towards her. An itch tickled his mind as he cast [Mana Hand]. He saw his MP drop to 99% as he guided the summoned, spectral hand over to Alis. Turning palm up, the magical hand slowly inched towards the flaming silhouette of a bird. Alis' bright green eyes lit up while she let out a happy snort.

"Well, well. That's certainly magic. No wonder you weren't impressed with my own summoned hand." Twirling her wand, the bird-shaped fire floated over to his outstretched [Mana Hand].

"Well, a person's got to have their secrets." He nudged the spell hand up, letting the flame bird fly around them.

"Maybe there's hope for the both of us magical oddities," Alis replied, her bright eyes following the bird. They watched Alis' bird continue to soar around them, the purple-black fog swishing away as it flew. A scream shattered through fleeting peace. Startled, Joel jumped, breaking his concentration on the spectral hand. His hand went to his sword's hilt. Waving away the flames, Alis snapped to her feet with her wand raised. Both of them stood still and waited for the wailing to end. But no end came.

The scream railed on, a gut-wrenching cry of torment and despair. Of utter hopelessness. Joel caught Alis' glance; her grimace matched his own. Drawing the cutlass, he slowly began following after the sorrowful cry. The space between the bronze wall and the Sanctum's border made a cramped tunnel. So every step was gentle. The wails had been going on for so long that he was beginning to worry more if the horrid screaming stopped. If whatever was there noticed their approach.

Despite being able to see further, they'd both begun to slow as the anguished cry rang louder. The lament echoed in the tight space like an opera solo in a subway tunnel. He clenched his teeth and squinted his eyes at the deafening wail. Meanwhile, Alis already plugged her ears, her arms phasing through her barrier helm. If her face was anything to go by, her fingers had little effect. Their pace dropped to a crawling, measured speed. The shadow of something hovered ahead, only a few more steps away.

At first, he hadn't fully seen it, still draped in the dark. He only caught the glimmer of a face, visage contorted with a gaping mouth. Drifting miasma stopped him from seeing more. The screaming stopped. Joel's blood ran cold when he saw what had gone quiet. About ten feet away, a metallic sac sat in the air. It was twice their size, blocking any further way through. The light of their glowing helms dimly reflected off of the bronze surface.

The metal could only be described as weird, appearing like a strange combination of watery and fleshy. The enormous face reemerged, pressing against the walls of the massive pouch.

"Save me," the featureless face cried, trying to rip out desperately. It stretched the bronze like a tadpole trying to escape an egg's membrane. The leathery walls tugged the face back as it fought to scream.

"Kill me! Save me!" The faceless head shook violently.

"KIll… me…" It lunged at Joel to no avail but he didn't wince. Not because he wasn't afraid. He was. The Seahorn cutlass rattling in his hand proved as much. Still, the pang in his gut told him to stand strong. He realized it wasn't courage that welled within himself. It was a searing pity. Each scream for rescue and death tore at him.

"Unbelievable…" Alis' eyes were wide and awestruck. Sending forth a bulb of fire, it glowed against the dull brown of the sac.

"A sagani. A true sagani."

"What's wrong with it?" Joel whispered back, unsure if that even made a difference.

"I d-don't know." She recoiled at another tandem of its screams.

"Perhaps a side effect from maintaining the Sanctum. The conduit could be nearby." Joel's eye darted around, but it was impossible to see past the sac and the miasma. Mid-scream, the face stopped pushing and went still. Almost calm, the visage turned directly to Alis.

"What a tasty morsel," the empty face said. The voice was different now, smooth and soothing. Joel instinctively went between its gaze and Alis, his nerves returning. He noticed that the face no longer reflected the light of their barrier helms. Peering past him, its eyeless sockets, swathed in bronze, were locked upon the half-elf.

"Look at me, you wench!" The face moved closer, yanked back by the bronze.

"So precious, so sweet, so savory. Show those pretty eyes and let me dull their shine upon my tongue." Okay, this freak had to stop.

"Elementals usually act like this?" Joel whispered over his shoulder.

"How are we sure this is a sagani or whatever?"

"It's most certainly a sagani. Look at its control over multiple elements. The bronze and the miasma. Earth and wind. The sheer magical mastery to summon a Sanctum on top of that."

"Alright," he replied, keeping an eye on the faceless visage. Its gaze was still locked onto Alis.

"But if they are such masters of the elements. Why only use bronze and the miasma? For instance, why didn't it squish us with earth?" He stamped his feet onto the cavern floor.

"There's plenty around here. And the Sanctum makes them even more powerful. So why are we alive?" And seriously, what the hell was with the freaky, screaming heads?

"I. Don't. Know." Alis furiously scratched at her back with the wand, as if the answer would be scraped out from there.

"Save me!" The face writhed once more, wracked in torment. Each scream continued to alternate between demanding rescue or death.

"Kill me!" Joel shuddered.

"Kill me, kill me, kill me." The sagani's outbursts devolved into a tantrum. With the giant sphere blocking their path, it wasn't like they could go searching for anything else, conduit or otherwise.

"Please save me." It couldn't seem to make up its mind. Another glance at the crying visage tugged at the pit in his stomach.

"How do we save you?" Joel blurted out, uncertain whether he would get a response.

"Kill me! Kill me! Save me! Save me!" the visage boomed, both answering and ignoring him. Its voice was a contradiction of sounds, a deep and airy plea.

"It's in pain…" Alis' words trailed off. As if hearing the mage's words, the taut head jerked back towards her. Appearing focused, it froze once again when matching its gaze to her.

"I'll show you pain, you disgusting trollop." The dissonance in its voice disappeared, replaced with venomous softness.

"I'll mangle you in a way that you deserve. You'll scream for me into the abyss when I am done with you." The way the voice changed made Joel's skin crawl. His hand went tight around his sword's ivory hilt, prepared for the elemental to try anything. The bronze face contorted once more, voice becoming sickly sweet.

"Dance, my olive." Shock froze Alis' face. Rage distorted it. Fire washed over the bronze.