The group of escapees was progressing down the tunnel hidden behind one of the numerous doors in the walls of the cave they were in previously, with the captured mercenary leading the way. It was faintly lit up by a few torches, and the path was constantly twisting and separating into different directions, causing the group to quickly feel lost. The black haired girl was holding Nyx’s hand, and the latter was just going along with it, holding another spear she found with her other hand. Julian was going around the group, trying his best to reassure people and distributing orders here and there. Eventually, he approaches the blonde boy from earlier, who was walking not too far away from Nyx.

  - “Listen, I want you to stay at the back. You’re the last person we want injured, so be careful not to engage anyone you don’t think you can beat.” He tells him.

  - “...Alright. I’m sure Nyx will protect us anyways.” The boy replies.

  - “You sure got a lot of faith in the person who almost wiped us all out…” Julian comments with a sarcastic smile. “By the way, what’s your name?”

  - “Lucas.”

  - “That’s a good name.” Julian pats his head. “Don’t worry, if Nyx can’t do it I’ll make sure you all get out.”

  - “Rude!” Nyx comments.

  - “Not my fault we gotta watch out for a meteor shower every now and then.” Julian replies. “I’m sure all these people are terrified, they need to have someone to rely on. And right now, even I am a better option. That’s really depressing, if you ask me.”

  - “Now that you mention it, you’re really good at this! You remind me of these human leaders in times of crisis. But that’s weird, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any human leaders that young… Well, I guess there’s Serafim!”

  - “I’m NOT a human.”

  - “You’re not that fundamentally different! You just have longer ears and a higher concentration of magical energy in your bodies!”

  - “You really shouldn’t go around saying that, some elves would straight up attack you for this.” Julian readjusts his hair. “Also yes, I’m pretty young. I turned 25 this year, but that doesn’t mean I’m THAT stupid.”

  - “25? Like, 25 years old? That’s like the fourth of a human’s lifespan already! Shouldn’t you be an adult by now?”

  - “We can live up to two thousand years on average. I’m barely one percent there.”

  - “Oh, that’s true. I think I remember elves slightly outliving humans! So, do you never change physically? Were you born like this then?”

  - “No, I was born as a baby like a normal person. We can age, but it’s based on choice. I could physically age myself up to 25 for example, but we elves are never able to go back after doing that. It’s a pretty important decision to make, so I’d rather just stay in my teens. My appearance really doesn’t matter much at the moment, granted I’m pretty sure it also affects my mental age.”

  - “Oh I see! That explains why old-looking elves are so rare! I remember Vivianne complaining about you guys, saying that you were cheating!”

  - “Vivianne? Like, the goddess of Love?”

  - “Yeah!”

  - “I know about her.” The black haired girl comments.

  - “You do?! Me too!” Nyx exclaims, which causes her to recoil. “Wait… I think everyone is supposed to know her.”

  - “...Yes. She’s the goddess of orphans. I prayed to her often so that I would get adopted quickly. I didn’t want to end up like the others, and be abandoned for a long time…” She looks down. “But the director, he chose to sell me to get money for the orphanage.”

  - “Classic humans.” Julian comments with a look of disdain.

  - “That’s definitely something Vivianne would do something about! At least normally. I guess she finally understood what I meant back then at the Lunar Councils! It was worth telling her that she should stop mingling so much every time.” Nyx says with a content smile. "She was really stubborn about this you know ?"

  - “You talked to Vivianne?...” The girl asks.

  - “Yes!”

  - “...Then you can’t be bad. I’m sure Vivianne sent you to answer my prayers.”

  - “Hm? Oh to get adopted? Well, it sure will be interesting to see if you ever find anyone willing to take you in! From what I’ve seen with humans, they really don’t do that often. They prefer having children of their own, who look more like them! Never really understood the logic behind that though.”

  The girl keeps staring at the ground while she walks, but she silently reinforces her grip on Nyx’s hand with an almost desperate energy. Julian sighs at this sight.

  - “What’s your name?” He asks as he leans down to be at the black haired girl’s level.

  - “...Beatrice.” She answers after a few seconds of hesitation.

  - “Well, don’t worry Beatrice. I’m sure Vivianne will make your wish come true, one way or another. That’s one of the things gods are best at after all.”

  - “That’s true!” Nyx comments. “I remember, the hairy humans were really happy when I gave them more trees, and-”

  - “Aight we’re here.” The mercenary they were holding captive cuts.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  They had indeed reached the end of the long, convoluted network of tunnels they were navigating, and were standing in front of a wide metal door. She starts pushing it, and it slowly opens to let some light inside the tunnel.

  - “Wait.” Julian says as he walks up. “There’s no way we’re letting you go first here. It’d be too easy for you to set up a trap that way.”

  - “Aww that’s true.” She lets go of the door, and stretches before raising her hands above her head and walking back towards the group. “Would really be a shame if I betrayed you wouldn’t it eh ?”

  - “...Don’t try anything. I won’t hesitate to kill you if I have to.” Julian reaches forward to grab her arm and prevent her from fleeing.

  - “Then you shouldn’t have gotten distracted while I was leadin' you here!” She shouts as she suddenly jumps, delivering a powerful dropkick to his chest.

  Julian is knocked back, all the air being expelled from his lungs by the impact. She then dashes towards the metal door, turning invisible as a veil of rainbow colored light covers her entire body. The door slams open, and thanks to the light they could all read what was carved on it: “Special containment unit”. On the other side, they could see a large circular room not too dissimilar to the one they escaped from earlier. However, this one had a floor of stone bricks, and was only lit up by large torches with metal frames lining the walls. A massive iron door was visible on the far side, with a man in front of it sitting on a large, heavy steel chair. He was at least two meters tall, with an absurd amount of muscle visible on his bare torso, which was partially covered by a large and elaborate tribal tattoo running down from there to his left hand. He was bald, had a thick black beard, and his right eye was very faintly glowing a white color. He was holding a greatsword across his shoulders, whose blade was emitting a faint white glow along with a fine cold mist.

  - “Special containment unit…” Julian says as he stares at the man sitting in the chair. “I remember the guard talking about it. That’s where they lock up everyone with dangerous magics, which means…”

  - “I’m the warden.” The man slowly gets up from his chair. “Play nice and get back to your cells before it gets ugly. The patrons only give second chances to people that don’t have feet to run away on.”

  - “Hi warden! Do you know where the exit is?” Nyx says before looking around and fixating her gaze on an invisible point. “Our prisoner just escaped so…”

  - “Don’t play games.” The warden replies while standing perfectly still in front of his chair. “I’ll repeat myself one last time: go back to your cells. You don’t want me to drag you back there.”

  - “I’d rather be dead at this point.” Julian replies as he raises his sword, pointing it towards him.

  - “No can do!” Nyx adds. “Vanessa’s going to be mad if I don’t leave!”

  The group of escapees whispers among themselves, most of them agreeing with Julian’s and Nyx’s sentiment, with half a dozen of them actually considering surrendering. Lucas grips his dagger, ready to fight, a few other people following his example and raising their weapons. The warden sighs.

  - “Just wasting my breath.” He says as he extends his right hand forward.

  A frost mist emanates from it, and a powerful wave of cold instantly washes over the entire room. The torches on the walls flicker slightly, as if the very heat of their flames was being taken away. A thin layer of frost starts forming on all the escapees, with the weakest of them immediately collapsing to the floor. Quickly enough, about half of the group is out of commission, and the people who remained standing could feel their movements drastically slowing down.

  - “That’s cold!” Nyx exclaims as her entire body is shaken by uncontrollable shivers. She was starting to lose sensation in her fingers and in her toes.

  - “Dammit… I’m not done yet…” Julian whispers as he slowly advances towards the warden. Each step seemed to be harder than the last, and quickly enough he’s almost immobilized, standing in place like an ice statue.

  The warden simply lowers his hand and sits back down on his chair, staring at them as more and more members of the group collapse. Nyx looks down as she feels her hand getting colder faster than the rest of her body. She sees Beatrice, still holding on and barely conscious. Her entire body had already frozen over, but she still managed to look up at Nyx with what seemed to be nothing but trust.

  - “You… promised…” She slowly says, the frost going further and further up her face every word.

  - “I did say I was going to do help you all!” Nyx replies as she tries to raise her hand to create an astero?d. However, her body was also almost entirely encased in a thin layer of ice, and she could barely move. “Ah. I need to stop being cold. Actually, we all need to right? Or else we’ll die, given that we’re humans and all!”

  Her eyes glow brightly and a flash of white light erupts from the ceiling. A wave of searing heat traverses the room, dissipating the cold at a rate so quick that the temperature quickly becomes unbearable. When Julian thaws, he looks up and sees a small, red, sun-like star suspended in the air in the middle of the room, very close to the ceiling. The bricks making up said ceiling were slowly melting due to their proximity to the star, causing small drops of magma to fall down on the floor.

  - “Ah ! Too hot, too hot !” Nyx screams as all the ice on her body melts, and her skin starts to steam. She raises her hand towards the star, and the temperature quickly starts decreasing. After a few seconds, the star settles on a yellow color, and the temperature of the room to that of a pleasant summer day. “There we go!”

  - “...I’ll treat you to whatever you want once we get out of here.” Julian says as he resumes his advance towards the warden, a fire even hotter than the star burning in his eyes. The latter was looking at the miniature sun with an eyebrow raised in surprise, or curiosity.

  He starts running, and jumps with his sword raised above his head to deliver a vertical swing with all his might. Nyx had noticed this before, but it was much more apparent now that she had seen other people attempt to wield swords: Julian clearly knew his way around a blade, and was forcing himself to move much faster now despite his state of malnutrition. In response, the warden reaches up, grabs him by his shirt with one hand, disarms him with his other hand and effortlessly throws Julian behind his chair, all in a single second. Julian crashes into the heavy metal door with enough force to slightly open it, and falls to the ground motionless. The escapees stand there, completely silent and paralyzed by this display of strength as the echo of the hit resonates through the room. Nyx walks up to the warden, and Beatrice lets go of her hand.

  - “Oh?” Nyx questions as she turns towards her, surprised. “I was so used to holding your hand that I forgot I was doing that. Why did you let go?”

  - “...I don’t want to slow you down…” Beatrice replies, looking down. “And I’m scared of the warden.”

  - “Don’t worry it’s fine! I’ll make him into our new prisoner!”

  - “I…” Beatrice stops, and musters a faint smile. “I believe in you.”

  Nyx is about to answer before the sound of metal clanging turns her attention to the warden. He had picked up his sword, and the aura of cold emanating from it was persisting even through the star’s heat.

  - “You…” He says as he starts walking towards Nyx, each of his footsteps slightly shaking the ground. “You need to be in special containment.”

  - “Nuh uh!” Nyx replies before flicking her hand towards him.

  An astero?d similar to the ones she had been using until now forms in front of her and flies towards the warden, but he swings his sword to the side at a speed even Nyx struggles to keep up with, completely destroying it. She raises an eyebrow, and her smile widens.

  - “How did you do that? That’s pretty fast, you remind me of Serafim!” She comments.

  - “I'm no god of War, but I'll be enough.” The warden replies as he lunges forward, at a speed much higher than what his stature would suggest.