Alasla: The New Age

Chapter Seven- Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire

Ralph widened his eyes in shock, but Kanitha just simply cackled.

"By the way, if you're wondering, this is Flow Jungle," she says. "The Pope loves collecting Targets and throwing them into his dungeon. The Government's people come to Town Nile once a year to collect the Targets, and the Flow Jungle ships their prisoners to the Town and gets a handsome price. I've been here for quite some time, the Pope seems reluctant on handing me over. I'll bet you that he greed for my power too."

The Flow Jungle! Ralph thought with awe and confusion. One of the Five Regions, ruled by the Pope. But how am I here? Was it them who knocked us out with the gas and took us here because Eve's also a Target? And Town Nile is a place he couldn't be more familiar with. That is the land of freedom. No rules. No law. No authorities. Most of his missions happen there. The place is far from Flow Jungle, it's sandwiched between Garavia and Ling.

All of a sudden, the floor beneath them gave a large shake, and the whole chamber began to rise towards the opening of the dungeon. The light gradually grew brighter, until they were fully exposed in the prison up above. At once, Ralph felt hands grabbing him, pulling him away. It was the same on Kanitha's side, she gave a fight, but it didn't last long before she was also outnumbered.

But suddenly, the people on his left let go of him, and a familiar voice fills the air.

"Run, Ralph!" Eve cried as she knocked the bulky men away with her body. Before Ralph managed to crawl up from the ground to run for the entrance, Eve's scream made him look back.

Someone had run a sword along her chest, and the scarlet blood is now visibly sinking into her garments. Another knocked her onto the ground while others gathered up to tighten ropes and chains around her limbs.

Anger flooded him. Before he knew it, a circle of dark emerald flames kindled upon his hands outstretched towards the crowd of guards around Eve. A shrilling scream ripped through the prison, and the guards were pinning Eve down lets go, falling onto the ground, twitching and hollering with angry blisters, grey, dying skin, along bubbling pus spreading over their body like a...Plague.

Eve scrambled out of their clutches, gasping for air, backing away, her eyes fixed onto the dying guards in fear.

Ralph slowly blinked. This is his power; the Stone of Plague's power. It's like he discovered a brand new pair of limbs, and had just found out he a way could attack with them.

He swept his arm in a wider, circular motion, and a whole group of his opponents fell. He looked around, aimed it at Kanitha's attackers and they, too, screamed their way down onto the floor, their bodies deforming.

He saw Kanitha fumbling out the key from one of them and opening her band with a clank. His own chains and cuffs still weigh him down, but with the Stone's power supporting him, they barely matter.

He snatched up a random sword discarded on the floor and rapidly shuttled through the defeated enemies, ending their life for good. He's in love with this power. Almost addicted to it. To this ability to end lives. He can. He's doing this just because he can.

Then, out of nowhere, a tight pressure compressed his skull. And instantly his head hurts like hell. He dropped his sword, and his knees hit the floor, his hands tightly wrapped around his head, trying to block the pain out. But it was no use. Even his body had started to hurt now.

Tolerating the pressure, he looked around and saw with surprise that the air is filled with water droplets. But they're frozen in mid-air, not moving at all. These scattering beads slowly gather towards one point. His eyes snapped towards that direction, where Kanitha is standing.

Her arms were crossed in front of her chest, her hands clutching the air. Her azure eyes flashed in the dark.

"Stop what you're doing," she threatened in a voice very different from the one down in the dungeon. "Right now.

Then her clutch lightened, and the floating droplets plummeted down like rain in a thunderstorm. The compression around Ralph's head ceased away along with it, and he staggered up.

"What was that for?" He growled.

"The gate is closing," she says, completely ignoring his question. "Make your way out quick or get stuck inside forever."

At that, she dissolved into a puddle of water and slipped out of sight.

"Did you feel that?" Ralph asked Eve, who was still panting at the outskirt of the battleground.

"Huh? Feel what?"

Ralph frowned. Did Eve not feel the pain? Was Kanitha's attack specially targeted at him?

A series of roars erupted behind them, and floods of soldiers starts to pour in from the other side of the prison. Ralph gritted his teeth and ran towards the only exit, a metal gate of the prison that is slowly closing up.

"Run," he instructed quietly to Eve then rushed off for the slit of the door. Eve followed closely with soldiers closing up behind them like a hive of angry wasps.

Ralph bit his lips, the door was closing too quickly. They wouldn't make it before it shut completely.

But suddenly, the lights in the prison sizzled and dimmed, and the door stopped moving.

Everyone stopped for a second as a few electrical lines zipped across the ceiling with only sizzling zaps and sparks illuminating the dark. But soon enough, Ralph pulled himself back into reality, grabbed Eve, and sent her tumbling through between the door slit.

Doing his best to ignore Eve's terrified complaints from the other end, he kicked away another soldier and jumped out of the door after her.

He felt himself sprinting and tripping through layers of branches and wet leaves, with startled birds screeching in alarm and strange hissing from insects ringing in his ears as he smashed through the prison tree and landed hard on the wet, fern-grown jungle floor. He could see how Eve would be fuming about him tossing her out.

He sat up, wiping the blood away from his nose and lips, then looked up at the jungle to see what happened. The architecture of their prison, in fact, was built into a large tree. He had just burst through the entrance of the prison, and instead of taking the stairs that spiral down the trunk, he came crashing through the vines and undergrowth instead. Trees looming over one another overpopulated the whole jungle, their thick, ancient roots covered the ground with lumps. Houses shimmering with lights and noises spread throughout the woods. In the distance, he could see the vague outlines of two giant trees twisting together and shooting up higher than any of the others.

He's heard of it. The Twisted Library. Drafted by the same person who designed the Great Wave of Ling. The Twisted Library is known for holding the name of the largest library in the world. He wishes he could see it up close a little more.

"How long are you planning to sit here dazing for?" A chilled and familiar voice jeered behind him. Ralph twirled around and saw Kanitha, leaning on a large tree beside him.

"None of your business," Ralph huffed, pushing himself up but wincing as a sharp pain shot through his leg.

"A broken bone, nowhere to go, chased by soldiers..." Kanitha stated smoothly. "Are you sure you'd want me to leave you alone?"