Johnny looks at me with shock still on his face as he slowly backs up and a few of his lackeys starts to surround me.
"You should be deep in a nightmare right now! Your worst fears should be replaying over and over until you die of fright, so how the hell are you awake!?" He yelled as he shook his head in denial and then started to stare daggers at me.
"I think we have underestimated the power of that she demon's blood. That vile abomination must be more powerful than we were previously led to believe." The person whose whole body was covered by a thick cloak spoke in an arrogant tone but also at the same time as if they were trying to sound saintly. I looked over at them with a look of suspicion as I could just smell the stench of hypocrisy of some form of religion.
"Hey you there. I smell a religious zealot, who are you?" I couldn't see much of there face but they did have a symbol that looked like it was either tattooed or burned into the small piece of neck that I got a glimpse of as they turned to look at me. It looked like a drop of water but was as red as crimson but looked almost like a polished ruby? It was a deep color but also at the same time had a glow that came from within when the person turned just the right way.
The person looked towards me for a few seconds before their hands raised towards their hood and lowered it slowly, What was uncovered was a man that had a golden red mane of hair that flowed down to his back. His eyes were like a deep jade green that shined with the same glow that came from within his necklace, his face was like he was sculpted from sun kissed, pristine marble and his features were like an Adonis. If I was into men I'd be down with this.
He looked at me for a few seconds as if studying a new discovery but shortly frowned before a with a sad expression and tone he spoke again. "You sad, poor creature. You have already fallen for that demoness' machinations. I can already feel the fresh taint of her blood flowing through your veins. There is nothing I can do to help you now. I am so sorry." He looked up at me and in his eyes I could see as tears were actually forming and falling down his face as if he felt actual sadness. I was confused but thoughts were gone from my head as I was soon defending myself from a glowing golden red mace that materialized from thin air as the man flung himself at me and smashed that weapon onto my arms. I could feel a burning sensation and the smell of meat cooking.
I looked at the man and saw as even now he had a look of sadness and tears were still flowing from his eyes. "I'm so sorry you poor creature. Just let me finish this quickly and I promise I will pray for your salvation in the next life." He said as he jumped back before swinging towards me again.
This was just insane! This nutcase is crying the same time he's trying to kill me! I block again but this time afterwards I grab onto his cloak and then fling him into the cave wall and send a spatial bullet towards him hoping to end him quickly. I'm not a fan of religious talk on the best of days let alone from the same person who is trying to kill me and my family.
"Just stop fighting and I will release you from your suffering. I will be your salvation!" Before my attack could hit a silvery light flashed and created a small shield big enough just enough to block the attack and caused my attack to be absorbed and both my bullet and the silvery shield evaporated into fluttery lights.
"What the fuck was that! How the hell did you block my spatial magic!" I was confused beyond belief as nothing before today has blocked my bullets in such a fashion and with such efficiency as this.
"I am a follower of the Holy Blood! By the Divine power held deep within me and my divine heritage, I can bring forth the power to do endless miracles! Do you see now you tainted creature!? I AM YOUR SALVATION HAHAHA! I WILL SAVE YOU FROM THE DEMON'S GRASP AND SAVE YOUR SOUL!"
The man starts to yell as his hair lifts up and floats while his necklace glows a brighter red than normal. The cave walls start to shake around us as this guy starts to laugh hysterically while his power starts to ramp up to higher and higher levels. If we were in a different place I would totally fight this guy but in a cave with limited space to move? Nope, not here. I turn and lower my shield that was protecting my wives and daughters. By now they had woken up with the help of Mara and they were waiting for me.
I just wave at the freaking religious nutcase that's glowing and then yell RUN!. The slavers around us don't even pay attention to us anymore at this point as the cave roof started to crumble down at this point and Johnny had started to order them to retreat, I guess they knew these tunnels better but at this point I didn't care and this was a problem for later. we run down a tunnel that starts to widen but I stop and turn around and draw a couple runes into the ground. One is to cause the walls to close up and the other is to cause the earth to strengthen and harden into a tougher stone. I know it won't stop whatever was coming but it will hopefully give us a good head start.
"Vexsus! We have to go this way, this tunnel leads to the lake that the well in town draws from. I had this tunnel built in to make sure the water was staying as pure as possible.... Anyways let's go!" Mara said quickly as she lead the way down a tight tunnel, The tunnel started getting darker so I summoned a ball of light mana that was enough to show our way ahead. A few minutes later I heard a loud boom coming from behind us and I just sighed as I knew what that was. The girls just looked at me and behind us with looks of worry and slight fear especially from Mara as I'm guessing the power from that man is especially harmful to her.
"That's right ladies, He's right on our tails. So if you don't mind can we please hurry? Mara, how much longer? I can do another wall but all that's gonna do is confirm that he is on the right path. But it'll give us another few minutes...."
She looked at me and behind me a few times in between as if her mind couldn't comprehend or make a decision on something. She shakes her head before turning around and takes off running ahead while we take off after her not caring if the noise we make reverberates off the cave walls or not. I hear the soft lapping of water against rocks and turn a curve to see what would look like a underground beach if it were not for the mining carts and other old time operation machines that were littered around the walls. Leading to the water was actually a sandy beach down the middle while on the sides were two rocky cliffs. There wasn't an opening or anything so I couldn't see where the water was coming from but from the color of the water I could tell that it was pretty deep.
"There is the rope that we use for the bucket comeon!" Mara pointed at a rope that hung clearly down in the water as it ebbed and flowed with the current of the water. We race down and the girls jump into the water without a second glance and start swimming towards the rope. I on the other hand..... Have a slight pause while looking at the water.....
"VEXSUS HURRY!" Kitsoma yells as she and Mara are helping Harper and Grace up the rope. I look up at her with a nervous smile before looking back at the entrance to the area and for a second my mind really considered if I would rather fight the zealot rather than get in the deep water.
"VEXSUS DAMMIT LET"S GO NOW!" Kitsoma yells again as she is now out of the water and up the rope still looking at me.
I kept looking back and forth before throwing a small tantrum and yelling. "AHHH DAMMIT!!!" I jump in and start quickly paddling as fast as I can towards the rope all the while trying to mentally keep away all the horror that was swimming just below my feet from making me have a panic attack. Oh you thought since I'm a dragon I wouldn't have fears? Well to bad I was a human first haha. I even have a fear of heights! But I'll promise you this, I will fight a god in the air with my dick in my hands before you ever see me volunteer to explore the sea!
I reached the rope and started to climb as fast as I could. I could hear from deeper in the cave as sounds of running and shouting were getting closer but I didn't care as soon we were all out and above the well, and once out I quickly drew some runes onto the well and the surrounding ground that would slowly strengthen the ground and make sure that it wouldn't cave in. Now that I know what's down there I didn't want the town to suddenly sink one day thanks to an unexpexted earthquake or something.
From the well I heard shouting and I looked down but due to being above ground I wasn't able to see anything. I tried to bring the rope up but when I did I could tell that something heavy was on it.... So I cut the rope. Next thing I heard was screaming and then the sound of multiple splashes of what I'm assuming is bodies hitting the water.
"That should stop them for a bit so now we just need to go find the other entrances capture the ones who come out. Please tell me there are only a few entrances that we can easily block off." I asked Mara with a hopeful expression.
"Yes. actually up until recently the only entrance was one that led just outside of the vill...." She went silent as she remembered something and looked off towards a building that stood apart from all the rest. It was a two story building that was quite big and looks like within the last few years had been remodeled and made with better materials.
"Honey.... I'm getting the feeling that that building is used as some kind of storage for something?" I asked hoping it was just like a store house and not a cliche that I was dreading it was going to be.
She looked at me with worry in her eyes. "That's the bunker that I have the Dark Embrace stay at. Under that house is also the original entrance to the underground cave system we were just in."
"Well shit, I don't like the sound of that Mara. You know what that could mean right? What we need to do is get everyone together and figure out what's going on because I have a feeling that my people getting sick and the slavers not being cleansed thoroughly might not be as unrelated as they should be." I shook my head to try and focus before all the assumptions and worries I had about what could be going on in the shadows overwhelmed me. I needed to get to Sondar and fill him in on the possibilities and come up with a game plan. I know I'm falling back into that depending on Sondar role again but the man is to damn dependable and with the way things are going I need dependable right now.
"Kitsoma, I need you to go talk to Sylvania.... Find out if she and Shorunt have made any progress with the illness affecting our people. I know after what happened she would never want my help but still offer it anyways. Grace, Harper? Go find your brothers and uncle, tell them to do patrols around the center of the village and around our peoples area as a whole. I don't know exactly what's going on with this Dark Embrace but until even still I can't let the innocent people suffer from the slavers. If need be get your other brothers and sisters to help out and outfit them with whatever you can salvage."
I had Mara stick with me in case one of her people showed up. If they were betraying her this whole time then we still needed to play the part as the simpletons who just think we know the secret plans... Fuck I had espionage bullshit!
"Do you really think my Dark Embrace could be apart of this? I trained each one of them myself though, how could they?" As we walked I heard Mara ask me but when I looked all I realized that she was just talking out loud to herself. I really hope that they weren't apart of this and that Mara could be saved from being betrayed even further but I wasn't going to get my hopes up seeing as how the tunnels led directly to the bunk house of said group.
I only shook my head as I wrapped my arm around her shoulder as we walked up to Sondars house and knocked. "I love you Mara, I'm sorry this is happening to you. I wish things weren't this bad and that we could just live in a peaceful life."
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l