Chapter Twenty-Seven: Hope

(Third person)

Sitting on their stone thrones, surrounded by their followers and servants, the Litchs' eyes followed Jasmine and her friends. The eerily flames working as eyes never stopped tracing their every step.

Jasmine had regained her cool, ever so slightly. She no longer shivered uncontrollably, even if beings of tremendous powers followed their every move. She had casted cleaning magic on herself and made her stone horse pick her up again, after she had fallen off.

Harkolth was walking, completely distracted by Asiana on his back. Last time when he carried her she was unconscious, but now she was fully awake. It made things a bit awkward, thanks to that they were in their own world. Somehow focusing on their hormones instead of fear.

Jasmine didn't have that luxury and had to live in fear. If they somehow started moving again it would be over for them.

They walked and walked and soon enough the amount of floor decreased. But the undead didn't; millions of Death Kings were all around them, frozen in place. Many Death Lords patrolled each floor, but they were also frozen. Standing tall like statues. Jasmine and her friends had the pleasure of walking past one of the Death Lords. It was twelve meters tall, with a sword eight meters tall. The sword was pointing upwards, barely escaping the grasp of gravity by being stuck to the Death Lord. They hadn't noticed it till now, but the skeleton Death Lord had black bones, not white like the others. Even the Death Kings had white bones. Turns out Death Lords were different.

For the first time in a while Harkolth and Asian returned to reality. Both of them were shocked as they walked past the Death Lord. Their eyes carefully watched for any sign of movement in fear.

Afterwards they were on full alert and things got scarier and scarier by the second until they finally reached the last floor. More and more floors had merged until what was left was a final floor. Not a single skeleton, or creature of death was on the floor. Or so they thought. When they finally reached where the voice had come from they saw a final throne.

It was bigger than all other thrones and was made out of a weird golden material that wasn't gold. On the throne was a naked Litch. Unlike those before only its lower body was frozen and its head was free from the eyes.

"Visitors, huh!" the Litch said and Jasmine, Asiana and Harkolth jumped in fright. Well Jasmine tried, but just ended up falling from the horse.

"Wgo, who are all of you!" Jasmine managed to ask. While trying her best to get back up on the stone horse.

"We are undead, who even in death serve the world for the greater good. Why have you come to this place? It's a prison, once you enter, you don't leave!" the Litch said.

"We were tasked to save everyone who was kidnapped. How come everyone *in the city was kidnapped, when the age requirement was below thirty?"

Harkolth asked, having found it weird that there was an age restriction.

"That's simple! We need more soldiers to replace our numbers. So we recruit new skeletons from time to time. By kidnapping everyone in a city and turning them into soldiers of death. While the age restriction keeps all beings of true power away from this place." the Litch said.

"Why are you telling us all of this?" Jasmine asked.

"That's simple little one, you will never leave this place. At best you'll become a Death Lord. Plus I'm wasting your time, to keep you here till the ice has melted enough! It seems like I succeeded too!" the Litch said and stood up. Towering slightly over the scared Falken.

"I am Ratarring first king of the Falken and the chosen apostle of Catara!" the Litch proclaimed and raised his staff.

"I'm a tier six being, who with the help of hundreds of tier five and thousands of tier four managed to trap…" he began but a gust of wind enveloped him before he could continue and froze him!

"Come now little ones, we don't have time! The chains eat away at my powers too fast. That weakling will be able to free himself in a minute!"

Jasmine horse made out of stone quickly helped her get back up and started walking towards the only entrance to where the voice came and the place the Litch was guarding.

When they entered they saw thousands of chains made out of unknown material strapping one being to a giant standing hexagon wheel that enveloped the entirety of the trapped being. They could feel a massive amount of mana emitting from each chain, leaking what it couldn't hold.

"Impressed young ones? These chains suck me dry of mana and use it to control this entire ruin. Only through my magic is this construction kept up. A terrifying spell that uses my own powers to trap me. No matter how hard I try I can't escape this prison!" the raspy voice of the prisoner said.

"Then how can you help us?" Harkolth managed to muster. All three young Falkens were trembling in fear. Just the aura from the weakened being made them want to off themselves on the spot. But the same aura kept them in check, stopping them from doing such foolish things.

"Leaving myself is hard, but helping the three of you leave is easy! You, the girl on the horse, when the time is ripe I will need your help, until then this book is yours." the creature said and a worn out fragile book appeared in Jasmine's hands.

"Now onto important things. My mana is too much for this ruin to handle, so when my magic has accumulated in the core of the ruin and the chains are filled to the brim this place will teleport, using all of my stored up mana. This was a failsafe incase something goes wrong, or I grow too strong!

"When that happens, which is in about thirty seconds I will make it so that you aren't teleported along with the ruin. This means you will appear where you first entered.

"The two of you, the guy carrying the girl and the one he's carrying listen well. Don't tell them about me! Just say you were all of a sudden here, after fighting some weird flying creature. Never tell them about me, or the diary! I have ways to make you disappear if I must!" the being ranted, telling them how it would save them.

"Um, great sir! May I ask what your name is?" Jasmine asked.

"Ah yes, my name, I don't remember. Maybe you'll find my name in the diary I gave you! But you won't recognize the name! I went by an alias when I was younger, after all! Bye then young bloods. May you bring the Falkens the prosperity they deserve!"

These were the beings final words, as they disappeared from the ruin.

Jasmine fell on the ground and landed on her stomach. The book had disappeared and a tattoo had appeared on her right hand. The horse she had created was no longer with the three, as it was part of the ruin.

Jasmine grunted in pain when she heard distant noises, but she was too tired to care. She simply lost consciousness right there!

Strong winds came and raging thunder arrived. Rain started pouring from the sky and a man with a wooden spear appeared next to Jasmine. His eyes were full of blood lust and his crazed smile showed he was ready to fight whatever would come.

Hundreds of monsters, in tier zero, had gathered at the place. They all swarmed the man with a spear, as he protected the younglings.

The monsters in question looked like squid and had a humanoid form. They carried weapons stained in blood. Most likely borrowed from the dead!

The man raised his spear high into the air and brought it down in the motion of a slash. A thunderbolt struck down at the squid people and electrified ten of them. The water gathered on the ground and the rain helped strengthen the lightning's range and power.

The man was filled with power, as the squids died and the weather reacted even more to it. The lightning never stopped falling on the squid, as the man looked for a physical confrontation.

His spear tore through more and more monsters. Blue blood covered the man from head to toe, the rain wasn't enough to wash away the filth. More than hundred squids fell to his spear and even more to the lightning the man controlled.

Through all of this Jasmine and her friends stayed safe. The lighting was protecting them from all the monsters.

After half an hour the squid finally died and what was left ran away. The man rested his spear in the ground and leaned on it. His physical condition was at peak performance, but mentally he was exhausted.

"Those damn Squidras, first you attack our village then you start terrorizing the neighboring villages and cities!" the man proclaimed to the heavens with his fist raised and clenched.

"Thankfully lord Jantyr knew she would appear here, otherwise she would have died."

{Amount of time spent in the ruin: Five days outside world, some hours inside}

(Five hours earlier ~Pov Jantyr~ (First person) )

(Author here: hi hope you like. Please donate some power stones and write a review :) )