The situation outside was, to say the least, fucked up. I had found my way to the cabinet and extracted the potions from within. My bones were mending and, with Eva’s help, I was recovering some of my strength. What was happening outside was completely out of expectations. I never thought the Church would come at us with such force.

‘Just how important are you to these people?’ I asked Eva, who had been helping me cycle my own Essence through all Conduits, except for the ones where I had broken bones. That one needed to heal first before I could cycle energy through it once more. I shouldn’t interfere with the potion’s effect, Eva told me.

I couldn’t move, not yet anyway. But the urge to leave this place and never come back, stayed with me. I was thinking of a way to accelerate my recovery, but came up with nothing. So I resorted to helpless prayer.

‘Dif, if you can hear me, please show up. Your champion’s in real trouble!’

No answer.

I swore and pounded at the high table beside me. The last time I looked out, Raiya was surrounded. There was a man before her who spelled nothing but real fucking calamity. The door that says Biarkh, that’s where I needed to go. I couldn’t sit around here waiting for them to come and find me. By then, I was certain Raiya was a goner.

I didn’t know much about magic, but after defeating so many wyverns then destroying more than two dozen paladins, Raiya couldn’t have any more energy left. She was fucked, and so was I unless I decided to –

‘Crawl!’ Eva finished the thought for me.

‘How will I descend those spiraling staircases?’

‘Fall down,’ Eva said. ‘You’ll get some bruises, but it’s better than Sam’s punches, don’t you think?’

‘I’ll break my leg again,’ I said. ‘Then I’ll have to crawl back here –‘

‘Raiya’s a goner Stalwart!’ Eva said. ‘Take what you need from here, and go! We’re both fucked if we stay here!’

‘I thought you wanted to get back to your soul by using me.’

‘There’s no going back into my own soul unless you willingly give me up,’ Eva said.

She sounded annoyed. But I’d almost lost all hope, a broken leg and a bunch of Church paladins outside. How am I supposed to react? All composed and stuff? Hell no! I panicked like every young man who’d just witnessed a great display of might and magic for the first time. I didn’t think I’d survive any of this, so I freaking panicked.

I couldn’t help but think of all the manipulation I was subjected to prior to this bloody skirmish. I was sure Eva was playing an angle there. I was sure the Church had their own motives to capture this tree and find the withered bones of the dead empress. The only thing I wasn’t sure of anymore was what I had to do.

I was no match for the people outside. I had to find a door in the labyrinth downstairs. I wasn’t even sure where I’d end up if I’d ever taken that escape route Raiya had pointed out. So don’t blame me for whining! What would you have done if you were in my shoes? Run, probably. That’s what I did anyway. That’s what people generally do when faced with improbable odds.

I gritted my teeth and crawled, pricking my ears for any sudden development outside. The paladins were screaming, cheering. Raiya was in trouble. There were no sounds of explosions anymore. All I could hear now were grunts, snarls and Sisha’s painful cries and howls.

I crawled until I reached the spiraling staircase. I went down, head first, and let gravity do the rest for me. I felt the sharp ends of each stare scrape against my ribs then my knees. Pain came back as my injured leg fell on each step. I gritted my teeth and endured, hoping against hope that I don’t get any critical injury.

I reached the bottom, with bruises but no serious wounds. I was lucky. I had to admit it. Anything could’ve gone wrong, but it didn’t. I came out with minimal damage then crawled toward the dark labyrinth downstairs. The dark corridors looked foreboding. Endless rows of doors were aligned on each side. I didn’t know where to start.

“If only there were some railings on the walls. I could at least use them as support,” I mumbled under my breath as I hopped on one knee while my injured leg trailed behind.

I heard a soft, rumbling sound. To my surprise, the walls had suddenly sprouted railings.

“Go forward,” Raiya’s voice reverberated in the corridor. “Count twenty doors to your right then open the next one.”

Was that a message she recorded to guide me here?

“Emergency protocol activated. Vessel will shut down in ten minutes.”

It’s good I decided to crawl down when I did. I learned later that Raiya was losing her fight against the High Priest. She activated the emergency protocol in order to keep all intruders from pillaging her treasure trove. She’d learned that from an Archmage’s Grimoire I helped her retrieve long ago.

I struggled to get ahold of the railings and hopped toward my destination. In this type of situations, pain becomes immaterial. You feel it but you push on. Adrenaline pushes you forward, forgetting about your worries and ailments. I counted the doors to my right. One… I hopped further. Two… I hopped even faster. Five… I had to reach that door no matter what.

“Eight minutes until shut down!” Raiya’s voice echoed.

I hopped and hopped, ignoring the sensation of fire burning through my calf, ignoring the splitting headache that came to join the pain party. Ten doors… I was getting close.

“YOU!” the highest pitched voice scared the living daylights out of me. I stumbled and fell. I looked back to see Zoey, a ghost of her former self, standing, arms akimbo. She still had the energy to give me that attitude.

“You’re still alive?” I asked. I knew she was, but I tried to sound surprised. After all, I had nothing to do with her imprisonment.

“What’s happening here?” She asked. “I heard some explosions… What’s happened to you?” She had just noticed that I couldn’t stand on two feet.

I struggled and stood once more, railings to the rescue. “The Church is here,” I told her. “Stay here if you want. They will find you and rescue you.”

“Where’s the witch?” she asked. “And where’s Agatha?”

“Agatha’s dead,” I answered then turned my back to the Sister. “I’m leaving. I don’t wanna find out what shut down means.”

“WAIT!” Zoey barked. Gods her high pitched voice hurt my ears!

“What now?!” I asked. “I don’t have time to dilly-dally here!” I’ve done enough of that already…

“Where are you going?”

“What’s it to you? Your friends are here. They’ll save your ass!”

“They are not my friends!” she said, emphasizing the words not and friends.

“What? They won’t be happy you helped us escape?” I asked. “They don’t even know it was you!”

“It’s a long story,” Zoey said. She slowly approached me. I had realized how weak she was then, by the way her feet threatened to give up on her any second as she walked. “Can I come with you?”

‘Don’t!’ Eva warned.

‘Why?’ I asked. ‘It’s not like she’s capable of any mischief in her state.’

Eva didn’t answer. I took it as her way of reproaching me but I didn’t care. Zoey annoyed me, but I didn’t really hate her. Perhaps the annoyance I had before was caused by the possession. I was slowly substituting annoyance by pity. Zoey was also manipulated by Agatha. She almost lost her life for it.

“Follow me,” I said. “I know a secret way out of here.”

Zoey nodded.

‘Five minutes left until shut down!’ Raiya’s voice reminded us of the urgency of the situation.

“Where will the secret way take us?” Zoey asked.

“Far away,” I hoped. “We’ll only know when we take it. Going out the main door isn’t an option.”

Zoey didn’t ask any more questions. She followed me as I hopped forward, counting the doors as I went. I’d reached twenty when I started second-guessing. Was it the twentieth door or the twenty first?

‘Twenty first,’ Eva answered. She sounded like a brooding child. I ignored her and hopped forward, toward salvation.

We reached the door by the time Raiya’s voice made a sudden announcement.

‘Shut down canceled. Initiating scrambling sequence.’

I leaned against the door and opened it. I stumbled inside and found myself rolling forward, helplessly. By the time I’d stopped, the world around me was spinning dangerously. I felt dizzy and my headache intensified. Zoey ran after me. She knelt beside me and inspected my leg.

“How did you break it so?” she asked.

“Long story,” I answered. “I was in a fight against an old friend. He thought it was funny to leave me in the forest to be devoured by the Church’s foul beasts.”

Zoey ran her hands around my shin. “It’s healing. How did that happen too?”

“Raiya’s potions,” I answered. I winced as Zoey applied more pressure on the broken shin. “Easy!” I cried out.

“You shouldn’t move,” she said. “It’ll heal in an hour or so.”

“We don’t have a bloody hour!” I said. “Didn’t you hear the announcement? The Church might have forced her to stop the shut down.”

“Or she might have won!” Zoey retorted.

I snorted. My head gave me a painful reminder to not let air out of my nostrils so suddenly. “There are hundreds of them outside,” I told her. “They have fucking wyverns!”

Zoey’s face fell.

“Didn’t expect that, did you?”

She shook her head. I sympathized with how she felt. I felt pretty desperate myself.

“Help me up,” I said. “We should get moving.”

Zoey nodded and offered me her frail shoulder to lean on.

‘Zedd,’ Raiya’s psionic message reached me. ‘If you can hear me, it means you’re still inside. Hurry up. Something worse than the Church has arrived!’