Guardian(Part IV): Revelation

Chapter 14: The Fox

We managed to find our way into the fortress through a crack in its outer wall, and once we did, we began to feel something other than the darkness of all the Turned, Lost, and monsters. This was an aura of light. It couldn't have been members of the other teams, since they were all on different parts of the island, too far away for Ser Gabriel and I to sense them. We began to move towards its source, and I began to recognize it. It was similar to that of Ser Gabriel's, and even Princess Meridia's. I couldn't think about what it could be right now, though. There were Turned crawling all over this entire fortress, and I was slowly becoming concerned with these ECHOs that Morgan and Maddy were talking about.

"Those ECHOs sound pretty dangerous, don't they?" I asked.

"Yes, they do," Ser Gabriel answered.

"What if we run into them?" I wondered.

"We'll kill them," said Ser Gabriel.

The Paladin's plan was clear enough. It was simple, straightforward, and doable. I'd already killed things that were much worse than walking corpses with mutations and cybernetics, anyway. They wouldn't give us too much trouble... Hopefully. The aura of light led us to a hatch in the ground beside the wall that covered a stairway that went underground. We went down the stairs, and reached a locked cage door at the bottom. I ripped it off its hinges, and we both crept through the brick tunnel, with this aura growing closer and closer, until it seemed to break off into two separate auras. One of which was behind a door with a glass window, leading to what must have been some sort of vault. It must have been for belongings of prisoners for a dungeon, but there were hardly any belongings, other than a broadsword's scabbard with a sword in it. It took me a moment to realize that one of the radiant auras here was coming from that sword. I ripped the door off its hinges and went to have a closer look at it. A crystal of radiant malakyte was on its pommel, and the mere design of its hilt made me recognize who made it. Xyhra!

"Gabriel," I called.

"I know," said Ser Gabriel. He picked up the scabbard and drew the sword. It had the exact same design as his own, and the same power. It was a Paladin's sword.

"Ser Gabriel, that's...," Princess Meridia blurted. "There must be a Paladin being kept in those dungeons. You are not leaving that island without them, you hear me?"

"I wasn't planning to, my lady," Ser Gabriel promised, sheathing the other Paladin's sword. We followed the other aura of light through the rest of the dungeon, not finding any prisoners in the cells, but when we got to the very bottom floor of the dungeons, the Paladin's aura was at its strongest, and coming from behind a wall entirely made of black metal. The same kind of black metal that the Turned and other demons used for their weapons.

"Well, whoever captured this Paladin wasn't messing around when it came to imprisoning them," I observed.

"Safe Haven, can any of you tell if there's some kind of seam or crack?" asked Ser Gabriel.

"I'm seeing some thick mortar in the wall that you should be able to cut through," Wilson reported. "Here."

Our APIDs highlighted a tall, wide rectangular shape in the black wall, easily big enough for a person to fit through.

"Thanks," I said, then I stabbed my ninjato through the highlighted outline and dragged the blade across it until the wall fell forward. I raised my hand to stop it from crushing me, then set it down against the wall. In the cell behind it was a young red-haired woman wearing rags with cuts in them, and lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. I quickly knelt down beside her to turn her over, and Ser Gabriel laid a healing hand on her forehead. The young woman's wounds healed, and her blood returned to her body, but her eyes remained closed.