Chapter 5: The Guardian's Test

The ground trembled at Kael's feet, the thunderous voice of the dark figure echoing deep within the chest of the young man. The horror that burst forth from the heart of the ruin towered over him like some terrible ancient thing, its form dark and clouded in shadow, its unnatural eyes burning with an eldritch fire. The air was thick, heavy, and Kael's heart raged.

He could sense Reika behind him, but the quiet creeping up his spine. There was a crushing heaviness in the air between them. They both sensed the heaviness of the moment, but Kael couldn't help but feel his horror escalating.

The abomination tilted its head to one side, whites of its eyes gleaming evil glee. "You wish to attack the Core," it sneered. "How silly mortals.".

Kael's airway constricted. "We don't want to be masters," he informed them, his voice thick with fear but charged with determination. "We want to halt it. Whatever it is."

The monster's laughter was harsh and mocking. "Stop it? You can't stop what will awaken. The Core slept for centuries. Now it must wake. The world will bow before its power, and the weak will perish."

Kael's trembling hands hung at his sides, but he stood up into rank. Reika's sharp words cut through the thick silence, bitter and unyielding. "We won't let it."

The creature's shining eyes flickered to hers. "You? You, a weak mortal, dare to stop the power of the Core? You are nothing but an ant in its grasp."

Kael steeled himself for the worst, but Reika went toward the creature, her eyes on its. She did not look afraid, only with icy strength that he couldn't fully grasp. She walked under her cloak and drew a small, elegantly crafted dagger. It seemed to have an unnatural power on it, the same power that had attached itself to the Core in the room.

"This is why we came," Reika told him, her own voice a cruel snarl but still venomous. "We have come to cage the Core. We can do it, and you will not be able to stop us."

Its laughter stopped. Its eyes narrowed to slits. "You believe you can keep it in? You believe the power of the Core can be kept within something so minute?" It thrust out a clawed hand, the air around it rippling with a feral, unnatural power. "Then come forward, if you dare. You shall learn the cost of your mutiny."

The monster was already advancing, so fast that it seemed to blast into nothing. Kael's thundering heart. He had no idea, but the power and speed of the monster's attack were more than enough to create a fear-driven strike radiating over him. Reika was already taut with anticipation of impact, however. She slid with oily smoothness, the knife in her hand exuding the same unnatural energy as the Core.

Reika drove the dagger into the ground in a flash of lightning. Power in their world burst and a cracking energy wave radiated from the dagger as a shaft of light which hit the monster's attack and knocked it back in ruins.

"This is your test," Reika growled through her teeth, her small fist closing around the hilt of the dagger. "If you're going to trouble us, show it."

The creature snarled, its eyes afire with fury. "So be it," it boomed, and, with a vomiting, spastic slap of its fingers, the darkness within the room convulsed. Planks on the floor at their feet stumbled in a bucking, animalic movement, spewing up a vortex of blackness to the edge of anywhere. Kael's belly roiled at the sight, lungs clogged and greasy with the foul presence hovering there as if determined to strangle him.

Shreds of night exploded out of the void, curling around them in snakelike motion. Kael did not have time to move before one hashed out and slammed into his chest with a battering-ram force. He reeled, his wind knocked from him on a gasp, but the moment his feet touched down on solid ground, he stood.

Reika was already in motion, slicing through the tendrils with a smooth, fluid motion as she held her sword. The power that was gathering around her was growing stronger, growing more and more powerful as she pulled more and more power from the sword. But Kael could sense that this was only the beginning. The guardian was testing them out, feeling them out, and the actual battle was just beginning.

"Kael!" Reika yelled above the commotion. "We have to listen. The power of the Core is contained in this ruin. If we don't close it down now, it will kill us."

He nodded, woolly head befuddled with thought. The black presence waited there, hoping to find out what next they would do. He had no idea how on earth they could possibly win the battle, but he did know this — they couldn't help but try it.

Reika's dagger flared again with that strange, burning light, and Kael understood the reality: She was not practicing with a sword. She was practicing with an extension of the Core itself.

"We can do this," Kael stated, resolve even greater now. He didn't know how, but he couldn't help but try. He had to.

Reika pulled her hand back hard. "Then let's do it.".

They pressed on together — a great mix of strength, skill, and will. Kael battled through the darkness claws as Reika pressed forward without shattering the creature's grasp on the ruin. It wasn't easy, but with every blow they struck, the creature's grasp seemed to loosen, the darkness surrounding them drawing back with every blow.

But the more they walked, the creature let out a shriek so shrill that its scream echoed for miles. The earth beneath their feet shook. Out of the depths of nothing, a shadow surfaced — one so gigantic that it swallowed almost all the light of the ruin. Kael's heart fell when he realized that they no longer had an enemy to fight. They had something worse.

"This is only the beginning," growled the creature, its voice thundering that reverberated from the ground itself. "The Core will not be vanquished. It will rise, and you will be brought low."

Reika's eyes fought with Kael's, refusing to be intimidated by their exposed stance on her cheek. "We have to stop it now," she said to him, her tone resolute. "We can't let it wake up completely."

Kael balled his fists. Now there was no turning back. The war was no longer a fight to survive — it was a struggle for the fate of everything.

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