Magnus Chase - Rise Of Darkness

Chapter 30 - Déjà Vu

Alex would have fought more if it was not for the fact that the testing sight was currently undergoing an earthquake.

She did not know how, but she snapped herself out of her panic attack. Pushing away the pain as her body morphed into a large and wild bengal tiger.

Since the others had already slaughtered most of the zombies and Jotuns, there wasn't a lot of Alex to claw to death.

The hallway was almost silent, all except the for the heavy panting of Alex and her friends. Hearth's Knaz rune sputtered and died a little behind her, and Sam's glowing spear was even beginning to fade.

Giving herself a minute to catch her breath and morph into human form, Alex decided to break the silence "Okay," she huffed "now-"

POW! A large, thick hand backhanded the einherjar to the floor. Even though it was dark, Alex had no doubt who that was.

"Gunderson!" She growled "Watch it will you!"

"I thought you were a zombie! Sorry Fierro." He grunted.

Before she was able to get up, a sudden eruption made the area around them shift. At first, she thought it was just her face throbbing from Halfborn's hit. But as the ceiling above them shed crumbles of plaster and the others leaned on a wall for support, it was clear that it wasn't just her.

This whole building's coming down. Her own worry said in her mind.

A lively groan boomed through the hallways of the facility as another impact made the building shake even harder. Alex could barely see straight, but she wanted to resume their previous mission.

"We gotta find the others!" Mallory called "We don't have a lot of time."

Next to her, TJ yelped as he ducked away from a piece of the roof crumbling down and almost hitting him.

"I don't think we have any time left!" He cried.

"We can't leave the kid there!" Blitzen wailed. Alex was rather amazed at this; Blitz's clothing was in tatter, muddy, wet rags and rips, yet he still wanted to keep going.

Sam looked back and forth between Blitzen and her sister versus the crumbling hallway in front of them. She turned to face her sister, feeling terrible for what she was about to say.

"I'm sorry," she almost croaked, "but we have to go. We can't afford any more losses."

It was her Valkyrie training kicking in, Alex realized. She wasn't going to guilt Sam anymore than she already felt for her actions.

But Magnus wouldn't leave us against any stupid odds. With that, the daughter of Loki sprinted forward down the hallway and away from her friends.

"Alex no! Hang on!" Mallory yelled at her in a thick accent. But she didn't listen, she was going to charge right down into that room and get Magnus and the other out herself if she had to. But she didn't. Instead, she ran right into a six foot albino warrior.

She looked up in disbelief. "Cyrus?" She gasped in relief. Then her eyes scanned their form; their white tank top of stripped, leaving it mark among their blood red stained skin. But that was not what made Alex sick.

What did was the body of a blond, lacerated, bloody form of Magnus Chase. Cyrus had him in his arms almost bridal style to avoid bumping his broken bones. Through the malfunctioning lights along the roof, Alex could see his pale skin which was almost as white as Cyrus' since his blood was no longer in his system and instead dripped from his hands and soaked his body. Even his untamed, long, golden hair was matted down and stringy. His clothes were nothing but cloths draped over his body, his lead lolled back.