Chapter Forty-Nine: Face To Face With Death

In the midst of chaos, Jasmine rushed to finish the ritual. With great haste she inscribed rune after rune, first twice on the ground, one small set of runes and a big one. Afterwards she carved the runes onto her hand.

as she finished up the last set, she hunched down and put her hand on the smaller set of runes on the ground. Then she steeled herself and stabbed the hand with the runes.

The pain of being pierced by a weapon didn't come, instead she felt nauseous. The world started to spin and she felt her legs go limp, quickly succumbing to whatever had taken effect on her.

…

On the battlefield Lenart noticed Jasmine's fall, and was overcome by worry. He had been told by Jantyr how dangerous a ritual could be and her losing consciousness wasn't a good sign.

Sadly the split second he was distracted got him punished.

Lenart regained his focus, when a golden axe appeared at the edge of his vision, heading straight for his head. Time came to a halt once more, as Lenart's body started falling apart, his skin boiling and disappearing.

Turning into lightning at the last moment Lenart barely managed to escape death. He had lost the better part of his skin. His pinkish muscles were visible on the exposed parts of his body that weren't covered by his clothes.

Thunderclaps sounded again, as the blinding light took over the battlefield and died down. Next moment another explosion resounded throughout the slope, as the orc's axe hit the ground.

A small earthquake made some falkens fall and die by the remaining orcs. The arrows kept coming, but they weren't enough to kill all the orcs, just slow them down. Harold, who had been killing the orcs, was fighting their seeming leader.

Lenart was brought back from the hallucinations caused by the searing pain, by the sharp whistle of an arrow travelling through the air. His whole body was stiff and he could barely move, but thanks to it, he was once more in lightning mood, for however long it would last.

Capitalising on the small time he had, Lenart rejoined the battle.

The lightning clapped, as Lenart attacked the orc. The two of them faced one another, as their weapons clashed. Sadly, after the initial power from the lighting subsided, Lenarts was overwhelmed and thrown back. Only to return again, clashing with the orc.

Meanwhile the guild's branch leader was waiting for the best opportunity to deal some damage, while Harlod was just knocking arrow after arrow. Eventually his time came, the second Lenart and the orc clashed again he stabbed the orc in the back with a sword he picked up. Leaving the blade in the orc, he then started punching. But he had to retreat, as Lenart was overwhelmed.

The branch leader found himself facing a golden axe, as Lenart was pushed back. The orc was less than happy about being stabbed in the back and pulled no punches.

"Roarrrrr" it howled in rage, petrifying those below tier one. Falkens and orcs from both sides froze, creating an uncalculated stalemate between both sides.

Meanwhile the orc had its eyes set on the branch leader, its eyes glowing red from rage. The axe quickly found its way to the branch leader and split him in half. So fast in fact, Lenart, who was in lightning form couldn't even see the orc move, before the branch leader was already dead.

Just like that. The branch manager was no more.

…

Jasmine twitched in pain, struggling to keep her sanity. She felt like passing out from the excruciating experience, but that luxury was kept from her. Instead what felt like thousand years of agony awaited her.

At some point she lost her sense of self, forgetting who she was, why she was. Yet the pain was endless and didn't get easier to bear with time. Instead it magnified, causing even more suffering.

Everything was dark, as dark as something could be. But then there was light, a bleak, brownish red light, filled to the brim with hatred, despise and endless agony, just like her.

It reached out to her on a spiritual level, trying to establish contact and it succeeded.

"Why have you called for me?" the being asked. Its voice was outworldly and raspy, like it hadn't consumed any form of liquid for aeons. Somehow the words made her uncomfortable, but she couldn't understand why.

'I called for it, when? Why?' Jasmine thought. She had a feeling that she'd forgotten something important and it stirred at the edge of her consciousness. Then like a fountain it broke through and with it a tsunami of emotions. Fear, worry, angsty, she felt it all.

Jasmine finally remembered who she was, but the creature in front of her, or seemed to be in front of her, cared not for her worries.

"Why. Have. You. Called. For, Me?" it asked once more, speaking slowly and clearly, like it was impatient with her pathetic act.

Jasmine quickly regained her composure and said. "I wish to make a contract with you, sir. Sable Marth told me how to do it, saying that this was the best and strongest creature from this place." she said, somewhat speaking the truth.

"And note this, the creature's name is Thanatos and we made a contract long ago, the best one of his kind I could find!" Sable Marth had written.

"Sokyty, known as Socrates in his younger years, why would he direct you here? Don't lie to me vermin, he'd be embarrassed to have someone like you under him!" the being said, as the place started to fracture.

"Wait, Vex Marth also recommended you!" Jasmine said, making a last ditch attempt. Her words made the creature freeze, and the place around them returned to normal.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT NAME, ANSWER ME?" the creature yelled and Jasmine suddenly found herself facing death's door.

She could feel a sense of great anger from the being in front of her, it wanted to kill her where she stood, but she had other plans.

"I met him in his prison and he tasked me to save him!" she told the being.

(AN: yes, yes, I know late chapter, now to my excuse, I hurt my back yesterday and on monday I studied for a final math test, so I haven't really had the time to write. Now, the pain in my back has decreased, so it's not serious, but it still hurt like hell yesterday. Anyway chapter tomorrow, bye, author out :) )