Nyx’s eyes leave a trail of light, moving as fast as they can to track the warden’s attack. It was an extremely fast sideways swing, aimed directly at her right leg. She steps back to dodge it, but she immediately realizes that she is not fast enough to get out of the way in time. The blade grazes her leg, leaving a red streak that quickly freezes over. She opens her mouth to say something, but the warden immediately follows up with a front kick. She partially manages to evade it, only being hit in her left arm, but the force of the kick sends her rolling a few meters away.

  Aaaah. I’m not good at thinking fast. I can’t focus to form my light into precise celestial bodies, or else he just attacks me. I could try to blast him with a neutron star, but…

  Nyx’s train of thought is interrupted by yet another sword slash, as the warden closes the gap separating them in a blink. The sword cuts her arm as she barely dodges, and she notices small needles of ice attempting to crawl inside the wound as possessing a will of their own. She quickly starts feeling a sharp pain in her leg, and when she looks down she sees the same needles, seemingly produced by the first slash, tearing into her flesh.

  I’m starting to get tired… The star on the ceiling is using too much of my light…

  Nyx raises her spear, which she was still holding backwards, and smacks the head of the warden. The latter doesn’t even bother raising his sword to parry, as the wooden shaft simply shatters on his skull without dealing any visible damage. He reaches forward to grab the rest of the spear Nyx was holding, and when she attempts to resist his pull she quickly finds herself overpowered. The remnants of the weapon are ripped from her hands, and she finds herself disarmed.

  Ah, there goes my spear. So much for conserving energy! If I use too much, I’ll fall asleep… and also if I use bigger attacks, the others will die. I don’t want to kill anyone, and I told them I’d protect them… Is this one of these big choice moments that humans have sometimes?! I never knew it’d be so hard! Oh, here comes the warden.

  Nyx makes that observation as the warden’s sword stabs through her shoulder, emerging from her back with a fountain of blood. Said blood quickly begins freezing over as it comes in contact with the sword’s blade, and Nyx could feel ice needles spreading inside the wound.

  …That hurts. This ice really causes me a lot of pain, Vanessa is definitely going to be mad. I need heat… Wait, heat?... Heat!

  The star on the ceiling flashes brightly, and a cascade of yellow plasma violently bursts from it, aimed directly at Nyx and the warden. The latter quickly tries to pull out his sword from Nyx’s shoulder, but Nyx grabs the handle with her left hand, preventing him from making a quick getaway. He is forced to abandon his weapon and jump back to safety, as the wave of plasma engulfs Nyx.

  - “Nyx!!” Beatrice desperately screams before coughing.

  - “Yes?” Nyx replies from behind the blaze.

  As the light fades, they all see Nyx standing in the center of a ring of yellow plasma, rapidly spinning around her without making contact. Beatrice drops to her knees in relief.

  That wasn't easy! Good thing Solomon taught me how to weave my plasma more precisely, or that would've hurt a lot. All I have to do is make it flow around me in a circle, but it'd be much easier if I wasn't human! My brain can just do... less things at once.

  - “What’s this now?...” The warden asks as he gets up, having rolled on the floor to avoid the attack completely.

  - “Solar winds! It’s a lot easier to control than supernovas!” Nyx has a smug smile. “See humans? I can also be creative when I want!”

  - “It’s down to magic then.”

  - “Probably? You took my spear, so I’m confiscating your sword!”

  The warden exhales, as a cloud of white mist comes out of his mouth. He then extends his left hand towards Nyx, and a massive wave of ice forms. It almost engulfs the entire room as it crashes down, and Nyx quickly realizes that it’s also going to hit the group of escapees. She extends both her arms to the side, and the star on the ceiling starts to produce constant solar winds around Nyx, clashing with the ice and melting it. A cloud of vapor was forming at the point where plasma and ice were clashing, and Nyx was doing her best to avoid hitting the group with her plasma.

  I’m so tireeeed. I want to take a naaaap! But I can’t, or else the humans will die… But the warden doesn’t look tired at all, no fair! Welp, I just have to keep going. I’m sure I’ll make it work out eventually, like everything else! I just need time… tiiiiime… I’m sooo tireeeeeed…

  The warden was standing still as a statue, his attention fully focused on maintaining the constant wave of ice overwhelming Nyx. However, a figure rises from behind the warden, holding its hands up as if grasping at an invisible object.

  - “Hrraaah!” Julian yells as he strikes the head of the warden with an invisible object. Nyx could see strands of magical energy permeating the air around his hands, rendering it solid and having loosely congregated into the shape of a club.

  Surprised, the warden turns and the intensity of his spell decreases. This causes Nyx to immediately gain ground in the room, slightly forcing the warden back. The latter refocuses, trying to grab Julian with his right hand while continuing to focus his spell with the left. Julian was dodging and weaving, blood continuously spilling from his forehead as he pushed himself as far as he could. Then, the warden notices something behind Julian, and his eyes widen. The heavy metal door was fully opened. On the other side, a faint glow was visible amidst the torches lighting up the thick wooden cages, which had bars made of a white metal. It was a swirling orb of water, residing in the hand of a single man, with short black hair and a pair of pale blue eyes fixated directly on the warden. They are practically burning with hostility, and the man raises his hand. The orb of water suddenly expands before returning to its original size, producing a jet of high pressure water powerful enough to cut through the floor’s bricks. The warden barely evades it as it swings in his direction, but it still manages to leave a deep cut in his ankle. The man collapses to the floor after this, but soon enough a myriad of sounds are heard from the cave containing the cages, as they are destroyed by a varied selection of spells, from blades of magma to summons of creatures strong enough to rip the white metal bars apart. The warden swears and says a sentence in an unknown language as he diverts his attention away from Julian, instead using his right hand to create a thick wall of ice in front of the door.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  - “Big mistake!” Julian shouts as he jumps and delivers a strike to the warden’s face with his club of solid air.

  While the attack doesn’t seem to do any real damage, the warden’s focus is disturbed for half a second. This small moment allows Nyx’s solar winds to claim the upper hand, as the continuous wave of ice produced by the warden is almost completely vaporized.

  - “I did it!” Nyx celebrates right before realizing that the stream of plasma was now threatening to engulf both Julian and the warden. “Julian, you shouldn’t stay here if you don’t want to get melted!”

  - “Do it!” Julian yells back as he keeps pummeling the warden, preventing him from stabilizing his spell.

  - “Huh? No! The warden can take it but you’ll just die!”

  - “You’re running out of energy! We don’t have a choice, DO IT!”

  - “I decided that nobody will die, so that includes you!” Nyx shouts as the star on the ceiling dissolves into particles of plasma, and she slowly begins to fall forward. The solar winds rapidly lose in intensity, and the warden’s wave of ice starts progressing towards her at a terrifying speed.

  Ah. I ran out of light.

  As Nyx hits the ground, an ear shattering sound of thunder resonates through the room, originating from the cave behind the metal door. Only Nyx and the warden manage to see it before it happens: a short girl with glowing cyan irises and blonde hair bursts through the ice wall and towards the warden in a flash of light. She was wearing a worn down, very long black skirt and a white shirt, complete with an ample dark blue cape wrapped around her shoulders. Her hands and hair were cloaked in lightning, and she had a demented smile on her face.

  - “HAHAHA! TIME TO RUN IT BACK YOU OLD BASTARD!” She screams as her palm makes contact with the warden’s face.

  A discharge of electricity bright enough to temporarily blind everyone in the room erupts from her hand, and the warden’s body is overcome with uncontrollable spasms. The wave of ice shatters, but the warden raises his hand to grab the arm of the girl. In one swift motion, he snaps it and throws her to the side against a wall. The girl gets back up, still grinning.

  - “Still not enough eh?!" She flicks her hair to the side and a wave of lightning courses through it, slowly burning the tips. "Guess I’ll just have to try HARDER!” She shouts as her valid hand starts emitting so much electricity that Nyx could feel her hair standing on her head.

  Soon after, a cascade of spells starts flowing from the cave as all the warden’s previous captives pour out and start attacking him. He somehow manages to fight back even when outnumbered one to ten, but was unable to withstand their combined firepower. They all seemed to be extremely low on magical energy, some of them collapsing after firing off one or two spells. However the warden is eventually knocked out and pinned to the ground by a white wolf massive enough to reach the ceiling summoned by a small, gray haired boy with almost completely white irises. He had a very neutral expression on his face, displaying an almost unnatural composure even as he waved to the wolf to return to his side. He was mostly wearing an oversized white cape with black clothes under it.

  Silence slowly returns to the room, only cut by the sounds of combatants catching their breath while Beatrice was silently holding Nyx’s hand.

  - “Did we get him?” Julian asks, placing one knee to the ground and struggling to breathe.

  - “Yeah, gotta say you guys put up a damn good brawl!” The blonde haired girl replies. “If I wasn’t so exhausted, I’d ask for a duel right now! The name’s Matilda by the way.”

  - “Julian.” He sighs. “I don’t want to have to do this ever again…”

  - “We won!” Nyx says, struggling to talk as loudly as she normally does. “I feel like I’ve accomplished something big! Like creating another planet like Earth!”

  - “What’s she on about?” Matilda asks.

  - “Don’t know, don’t feel like asking her about it. Since she saved us I’m just rolling with it at this point, out of respect.”

  - “Huh. Odd bunch in Specta eh?”

  - “You’re one to talk. I can hear your Polemian accent.”

  - “You saying we also got a screw loose back in Polemys?” She loudly laughs before flopping down to the ground, lying on her back due to exhaustion. “Y’might be right!”

  - “Alright let’s get out of here.” Julian says as he attempts to get up. “We need to get everyone outside before they call in more people. Lucas?”

  - “Yes?” Lucas turns towards him. His arms were slightly burned due to having been too close to Nyx’s solar plasma, and he had trouble remaining standing.

  - “I’m assuming you need the river to heal everyone that’s injured right?”

  - “Yes…”

  - “Alright let’s backtrack first then. I think I can retrace our path from the cave, and I’ll carry you on my back. You need to conserve energy.”

  - “But you-”

  - “No buts. If I have to do it, I will.” He turns to the rest of the group, along with the escapees from the special containment area. “Follow me, Lucas is going to heal us! The moment we’re done, we leave this place no matter what it takes! Those who can walk, please try to carry those who can’t or who fainted! We’re not leaving anyone behind!”

  The group immediately lines up behind him, and the summoned wolf who knocked out the warden picks up a few of the injured escapees before suddenly shrinking down to a smaller size to be able to fit through the exit tunnel. The gray haired boy reaches up to pet it before silently turning towards Julian.

  - “Real responsible.” Matilda whistles. “You got some background in the army?”

  - “No.” Julian replies.

  - “Nobility then?”

  - “...I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s move, we don’t have much time.”

  - “Hey, we should take our prisoner!” Nyx says.

  - “What? Oh, the warden? He’s way too large for us to bring… But that’s a good point, we’ll need someone to show us the exit. This place is a labyrinth.”

  - “Then there’s the other one!” Nyx points towards the half of the room that the warden had filled with ice earlier.

  The invisible mercenary was lying on the floor there, her spell flickering on and off. Her fingers and ears were showing signs of severe frostbite, having turned almost completely black.

  - “Well, see what working with scum gets you. They can’t even be bothered to think about their allies.” Julian tells her. “Guess that’s it for your line of work huh? I’m sure they’ll treat you real nicely when they find you here after we all escaped.”

  - “Aight I messed up.” She replies, her pink eyes having lost all their glow as she looks down to the ground. “Please, I can’t die here. I’ll help you guys get out of here, and you’ll never hear from me again.”

  - “Sure. But until we escape, Lucas won’t heal your hands, just to make sure you don’t try to kill us again.”

  The mercenary slowly nods, and the white wolf strolls over to her to pick her up and place her on its back. It also picks up Nyx, who was unable to walk and Beatrice, who refused to let go of her. The boy who summoned it also summons a giant gray wolf after his hands glow white, and the creature collects the rest of the incapacitated escapees.

  - "By the way, we ain't killing that guy?" Matilda asks as she points to the warden. "If you don't wanna dirty your hands, I'll happily do the honors."

  - "Hmm?" Nyx turns towards her. "No ! I don't want to kill humans for nothing. If he survived, then let's just leave him there!"

  - "He'll definitely get killed by the big shots though. I heard traffickers don't let that kinda stuff slide. Yknow, letting prisoners escape and all."

  - "Then that'll be the end of his story! I don't wanna end it right now though."

  - "Got it boss." Matilda giver her a thumbs up before turning towards the exit.

  - “Alright time to finish this!” Nyx declares as they re-enter the tunnel.