Chapter 25: Ape's Prison II
Ravi dodged again, leaping onto a tree and launching himself off with explosive force. His silver blade carved a deep wound into the ape's shoulder, drawing a guttural howl. The beast thrashed, smashing trees and stones in a rage-fueled frenzy.
But the battle was taking its toll. Ravi's essence was rapidly depleting, and the dark sigil on his neck flared with pain. A dull, agonizing throb spread through the right side of his body, clouding his vision and thoughts. His head pounded with a splitting headache, and his limbs felt heavier with each movement.
The cursed sigil was hindering the flow of essence through his nervous system, making it nearly impossible to channel his Essence Aspect properly. Still, Ravi pressed on.
Velka noticed, clenching her fists. "If we don't help him, he's going to — "
She and Mirelle stepped forward but were stopped by Garn and Elyra. Despite his own injuries, Garn shouted, "No! We'll only get in the way!"
Sira was observing quietly. "He's fighting differently ... Not like before. He's matching its rhythm."
Waker, struggling to stand, watched Reydon — not with fear but in awe.
The way Reydon moved now wasn't just refined. It was unnatural. His agility, his ability to predict the ape's every motion, the razor-precise counterattacks—he fought as if he had battled such monsters many times before.
Mirelle wanted to rush towards Kiran, but she was stopped by Elyra as they were separated by a devastating fight of a tainted cursed beast and bandits from Kiran.
As Ravi landed on his feet, his vision turned crimson. He was surrounded by the darkness, pierced by jagged flashes of red lightning. There were many corpses littering the ground in front of him.
His heart ached as he saw that in the centre of these corpses, a seven years old girl was sitting on his knees gnawing on a rotting human arm. She looked up at Ravi, blood dripping from her mouth and hollow eye sockets filled with darkness.
She said in a cheerful voice, "Brother, would you eat with me, please?"
Ravi knew and understood that all of this was the hallucinations of the Dark Sigil, but his heart and mind felt an unbearable pain from seeing this. Then, many cracks appeared on Zaara's body from head to toe, revealing red, vertical-slit eyes beneath her skin. A massive red eye opened in the sky above, glaring at him chillingly, before bursting from the middle. Ravi calmed himself down and, with grim resolve, slashed his own right arm with his silver sword. The pain snapped him out of the illusion. Everything returned back to normal around him.
The ape seized the opening as it saw its target in the daze and unleashed a sonic roar that shattered trees and tore up earth. The sonic roar approached Ravi faster than the speed of sound.
Ravi was thrown backwards, crashing into the ground, the burst eye mark flared bright, trying to crumpling his body and mind entirely. Steam hissed from his right arm, his breath heavy. Just at the last moment, Ravi covered his body with illusory white light to reduce the damage. Otherwise, he would be crippled from many places and possibly die with his current condition.
He rose slowly, muttering, "So ... the Dark Monarch also bore the Dark Sigil."
The ape paused - a tremor of recognition as he looked at Ravi like he was looking at the Dark Monarch, a tremor of fear appeared in his eyes.
Meanwhile, the remaining bandits didn't dare to attack the kid in front of them. They were surrounded from front and back, and there was a steep drop awaited on their right, while there was a cliff on their left side.
One of the bandits saw a cybertech weapon resting on the cliffside. He lunged, seized the weapon, and aimed it at the kid. He presses the trigger without any hesitation. A strong beam of water shot towards Kiran. The boy didn't have much time to react as a huge sphere of pressurised water surged towards him.
But just a while ago, Dorn emerged out from the ground, like water, in front of Karin, and used his greatsword as a shield in front of him. But Dorn had underestimated the water beam, the force was too strong, and his Greatsword broke into pieces. Both of them pushed backward and fell down from the edge of the cliff. Mirelle eyes widened in panic and disbelief as she saw her sons disappear. The bandit who fired the weapon collapsed dead on the ground as the weapon had drained all the essence from his body.
Dorn felt that his lungs had damaged and most likely due to breaking of his ribs. He couldn't able to breath properly. Karin vision began darkening as both of them fell from the cliff, followed by a cold grip of sleep.
As both brothers fall further from the cliff, they are embarrassed by yellow-green grass. As Waker was present the closest to the siblings, just separated by the bandits. He quickly rushed his yellow-green grass to help the brothers and luckily able to grab them in midway.
The white-masked man tilted his head as he said in an amusing tone, "Let's take it to the next phase. Shall we."
With a snap of his finger, the ground beneath Waker, Ravi, and the big cursed ape cracked and collapsed, plunging them into a massive pit. Waker grip faltered, and the brothers also fell down from the cliff as well.
Mirelle collapsed on her knees, sobbing softly. Velka let her wind barrier dissipate. Tarin lowered his spear, stunned. Garn stood frozen in disbelief. Sira stared at the pit, her expression full of horror.
The black-cloaked man with the crimson twin-sting scorpion emblem vanished in a vortex of stormclouds and lightning.
The white-masked man stepped backwards into his own shadow—and disappeared.