Azaria 32

Last chapter of the book, sorry it is so short!

Lance Teron

Groaning as I sat up, I felt like my entire body was broken. My chest in particular felt horrible. I couldn’t believe Sera had tried to use her ability on me. Twice at that. Taking into account what she did to Kyle, there was more to it than just destroying hearts. It appeared to be similar to my own ability.

I was about to stand up when a beautiful song reached me. It lacked the normal haunting of Azaria’s normal music that she played in the dungeon. I was only able to enjoy it for a moment as I felt the Aether in the dungeon start to grow increasingly dense. Soon it was hard for me to breath.

Kneeling on the ground, I dug my nails into the stone as I fought to remain conscious from the pressure. When the music finally stopped, I couldn’t help collapsing to the ground breathing heavily for the third time tonight. I was realizing that I was still weak in this new world. 

Grinding my teeth, I got up and started making my way out of the dungeon. I reactivated the scale bringing my illusion of Erica back up. Thankfully, my injuries transposed onto the image, so I didn’t have to hide my pain. When I reached the first floor boss room, I found Starburst back alive, but he was staring up at the roof.

“What is it?” I asked worried something else might be wrong. 

He jerked toward me then neighed angrily. “All this is your fault! I’m not sure how the next few hours are going to proceed, but you need to leave. Now!”

“Fine.” I started moving past him, wincing from the pain in my chest. I stopped at the door. “When Azaria returns. Tell her thank you for saving my life.”

“I will.” He turned back to staring at the ceiling. I briefly wondered what he could see but shook my head. 

I exhaled then nodded and continued to make my way out of the dungeon. The crowd outside the dungeon was enthralled by something when I exited through the manor entrance. Following their gaze, I turned to see the sky alite with an aurora. Not everyone was watching the sky though, as a agent rushed over to help me to the checkpoint.

“What happened? Something tore through the dungeon twice than the sky lit up.”

“Our party was decimated by the same bear things that attacked the other party. One of our members had a contract with someone who attempted to save them. Not sure who it was though.”

I was led to a separate room and given some coffee. The warmth felt great going down my throat, but my chest was in pain as well. A few minutes passed and no one came to question me about the circumstances in the dungeon. All the adrenaline and now lack of it was causing me to be drowsy and I wanted to get to a safe place to heal. I thought coffee was supposed to wake you up?

I jerked up in realization and tossed the mug away, but it was too late. I collapsed to the ground, the world fading in and out around me. Someone stepped into the room with me, but I only saw that their foot was encased in golden metal armor. The last thing I thought as I lost consciousness was that the ground was nice and cool.

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