Kingdom Rivalry

Chapter 24

Astral gasped softly in the darkness and clutched Black Mist's arm in fear. Neither of them saw what took their entourage, and neither knew if they would be next. Eventually, after a long time of nothing happening, they tentatively continued on their way. Still, they were very wary of their surroundings.

The hallway was very long. It seemed to take forever just to reach the other end, and when they got there, it was a branching path.  One path would lead closer to the crystal, and the other would potentially lead to either death or away from the crystal.

"Which way seems the likeliest path?" Black Mist hissed in the silence.

Astral reluctantly detached himself from Black Mist and approached one path. He felt nothing. Then, he went to the other. Still, nothing. "I...have no idea," he replied. "I don't feel the crystal on either side of them." Suddenly, he stiffened up as another waking vision took control of his mind and both.

The right path led down a hall with a pit of snakes, which were forming a writhing and tangled mess of hissing bodies down below. Further down was a pulsing sound, like a heartbeat. Through the left path was a monster's den with the beast lying in wait. It was hidden in a shadow with eyes that glowed pure white. Past the beast was a faint sound of more hissing and footsteps, possibly guards made of the dark ones.

Astral started walking down the left path, where the beast resided. Black Mist, confused by the sudden silence, followed quickly. He heard a growling sound further down and frowned. What could Astral possibly be thinking by taking this path? Maybe there was a specific reason for it, but at the moment, he didn't know what it was. Black Mist didn't bother asking, though. He saw the dull look in Astral's eyes; there was no way he'd be heard.

A loud roar woke Astral from his daze and alerted Black Mist, who started powering up his death magic automatically. It was to be his first defense, and if he ran out of mana, the sword came next. Finally, if there was no more options, he would beat the thing with his bare hands, just like he would have a long time ago. A slithering beast approached them. Its jaws parted in a sneer as it circled around them, essentially trapping them with its long, thick tail.

"Stay behind me," Black Mist whispered. He was accustomed to dealing with huge beasts since the Obscure Forest was filled to the brim with the crawling things. "Whatever you do, don't move. It's already attracted enough by your glow. No sudden movements, you hear me?"

Astral nodded, too afraid of the giant thing to say much else. He himself had never been exposed to such frightening creatures before in his life even though he'd been trained to deal with them. However, right now, his hands couldn't make the proper signs to summon a spell.

Black Mist summoned a bubble around Astral and released his magic in a giant burst of his death magic around the area to kill anything that moved. The giant slithering thing fell, causing a crash to follow and apparently alert anything else that would have felt the vibration because soon, more smaller slitherers crawled in, hissing and spitting. Black Mist backed up some, but he didn't back down. Instead, he hit as many as he could with the magic until he ran out of mana.

He then unsheathed the sword, which glimmered even in the darkness. That was what brought Astral out of his frightened daze. He looked around quickly, taking in the little things on the ground, which were ganging up on Black Mist. His hands, which were clutched into his chest, immediately unclasped the cloak he had on. He knew that his glow, which he would amplify, would distract the little things from Black Mist and from anything, in fact.

"Black Mist, drop the bubble," Astral said calmly.

Black Mist glanced at Astral for a brief second and then returned to his task of slicing the enemies. "Are you crazy!? You-"

"-can defend myself, thank you very much." Astral smiled softly. "Trust me. Just do it."

"...Fine." Black Mist waved a hand and dropped the bubble.

Astral immediately clasped his hands together tightly and closed his eyes. This was a very basic spell, so it didn't require any specific hand shapes. His natural glow, which was naturally very soft, suddenly intensified, causing everyone to be blinded. The small slithering things started shrieking, and that was when Astral struck. He dropped the intensity so suddenly that only Black Mist, who had the foresight to close his eyes when he saw the glow intensifying, really recovered. What he saw was pretty amazing.

Astral was moving on magically enhanced legs, flitting about and blasting all of the things with short bursts of magic that exploded fatally on contact while they were still blinded. This being, who he first thought was completely vulnerable despite knowing he was well versed in powerful spells, was bouncing himself off the walls to avoid the claws of the slithering things and giving small packages of attacks. Black Mist gawked for only a few seconds before helping Astral get the job done. He continued slicing away at the small things.

The Cosmic prince switched up his tactic when he saw that the things were no longer blinded. He held himself against the wall and formed a shield around himself. The slithering things suddenly stood upright and rushed at Astral, whose glow was making him their primary target. His face was set on concentration as his hands flew, forming and throwing various spells at the things, all while maintaining his shield. This kept going until something huge entered the room.

Both princes were busy fighting off the small things that they didn't notice another giant beast entering. It growled deeply and grinned. It swiveled its massive head around and noticed a small blot of light. Its claw immediately swept out and caught Astral, who suddenly broke his concentration. He was thrown across the hall with the little things swarming him.

Astral tried forming another shield before the things swamped him, but he was so terrified that it only flickered. He screamed as the things gathered around, biting and clawing painfully at his skin, which had never been flawed before his sparring with Black Mist.

The Number prince faced the direction of the screams in alarm. He was horrified to see Astral losing his control over his magic. The light was flickering and practically drawing the attention of all the little monsters. Soon, he he wasn't even able to be seen! Angrily, he sheathed his sword, threw the belt and scabbard to the side, and started ripping the beasts off of the pile with his bare hands and throwing them so hard that they didn't get up. He eventually pulled Astral out of the pile and placed a black bubble around him with the remnants of his mana.

It was time to deal with the things. Black Mist didn't even bother with the sword anymore! Instead, he drew upon his natural reserves of Chaos, a poisonous type of energy to the user and recipient if neither were of Barian origin. 96s naturally had it, but they could only handle so much. He was gathering up a dangerous amount of the Chaos into himself like he did with the death magic and released it in a huge burst that ensured that every living thing that wasn't protected was killed.

And then he fainted.