Chapter 45 Tension arising
Vandal listened carefully. Something massive was slamming against a barrier far behind them. It was probably the same barrier he had created earlier by collapsing the entrance.
Lamishtu is not huge. So what is happening back there? It does not matter. I don’t want to find out.
"Run!" Vandal shouted, the command tearing from his throat.
"Jaclynn, Mael, lower left! The bedrock is fractured!" Vandal barked. His left eye faintly glowed with a thin crimson line.
Jaclynn reacted instantly. She activated her Earth Echo and drove her fist forward. Brown resonance exploded outward as she struck the spot Vandal indicated. The wall trembled violently. Mael followed up immediately, firing a thick beam of light echo into the same crack. The entire left section collapsed in a shower of stone and dust. The group stood ready, expecting a wave of creatures to pour out.
"Nothing is coming out to attack us? Did they all leave or what?" Chan said in surprise.
BOOM.
"It does not matter. Let us just go!" Vandal pushed forward. In the rush, he reached back and locked his fingers firmly around Sabine’s hand. He pulled her along, his eyes fixed on the distant light of an exit. "Move! Do not look back!"
"I already know that!" Mael retorted. He was the leader of their enforcer group, yet it was starting to feel like Vandal was the one calling the shots.
A few feet away, Yazmeen froze for a heartbeat. She had seen Vandal reach out and, for a delusional second, thought his hand was for her. When his fingers claimed Sabine instead, a sharp flash of jealousy pierced through her panic.
"I have got you, Yazmeen!" Chan swung his hand toward her, his voice booming with forced confidence. "Take my hand. I will carry you if I have to! I am twice as strong as Vandal, you know!"
Yazmeen did not even look at him. Her lips curled into a sharp, silent scoff. Stronger?
She thought bitterly. Chan was nothing compared to the power she had witnessed.
She remembered the cave. She remembered the Blood Dust poison entering her system, riding through her bloodstream, trying to kill her. But her Ruin Echo had reacted instinctively, draining the energy from the poison and holding it dormant. She had been wide awake, pretending to be unconscious, when Vandal faced Lamishtu.
She had seen the raw, terrifying power he unleashed. It was so violent that Lamishtu had been injured and chose to negotiate his retreat in exchange for their lives.
She ignored Chan’s outstretched hand and ran after Vandal. Her eyes stayed fixed on his back as a dangerous mix of awe and resentment burned inside her.
BOOM.
They reentered the hall. Much to their surprise, the same creatures stood completely still and unmoving. They slowed down, afraid the noise might awaken them, but Vandal yelled.
"Do not slow down! They are being controlled, but whatever is controlling them cannot act right now. Keep moving!" Vandal shouted without slowing down.
"How do you know that?" Mael asked.
"I just do," was Vandal’s reply as he stayed several paces ahead. The group picked up their pace. Chan accidentally bumped into a Harbinger Corpse Eater. He jumped to the side, expecting it to attack, but the creature simply fell over like a lifeless statue.
"Vandal was right," Chan concluded as he kept running. Jaden soon followed, struggling to keep up. Soon they were back in the original cave passage leading back to the outside, but they noticed it had other pathways leading to different sections of the tomb ruins.
"Vandal, what do we do?" Chan asked, staring at the three pathways before them.
Once again, Vandal used his eye discreetly and pointed to the left tunnel. "That way. Let us get some treasures out of this tomb at least, and quickly."
Vandal was taking a big gamble, but he was willing to risk it. He had lost all his treasures in the earlier fight, and he was not even sure if she had died.
"Oh, there is treasure there!" Chan said in delight.
"I do not even care how you know that, but you are the man, Vandal!" Chan said in praise as he headed toward that particular tunnel even before Vandal could move.
"You will tell us how you always know these things," Mael said in puzzlement. At this point, it was more than a coincidence. It was obvious that Vandal seemed to know exactly where they were headed most of the time, and it made no sense.
Soon they arrived at an overarching doorway that appeared closed and had the carved picture of a ruthless warrior standing atop a mountain of corpses. His eyes seemed to stare directly at anyone who approached.
Vandal hesitated. I am running low on resonance energy. If this place is dangerous, all I can rely on is my left eye.
"Wait!"
However, Chan stepped past the threshold. The giant stone doors slammed shut in front of them with a thunderous bang. Ancient formations lit up across the walls and floor.
"Chan!"
"Vandal, see what your greed caused! You have caused Chan to die!" Mael threw a well-aimed fist at Vandal’s jaw, but Vandal caught it.
"You do not care about anyone but yourself!" Mael said, his fists clenched so tightly that the blood drained from them.
"Now Chan is dead and it is on you!" Mael used his finger to aggressively point at Vandal’s chest.
"Leave him alone. He was just trying to help!" Sabine said.
"Of course you would defend him. You have become his little lap dog!" Mael snapped. "How does he always know exactly where to go? How can someone at the third stage of resonance keep up with those of us at the eighth and ninth stages? That is a five-stage difference he should not be able to cover!"
"It is enough, Mael," Yazmeen spoke up.
"No! I am the leader, damn it! It is over when I say it is over!" Mael spat in anger.