Final Artifact

In front of him, there was an image. It was enveloped in a hazy red film, yet it clearly depicted Dylan, his body thrown to the wall and creating a small pool of blood beneath, matching the crimson artifact on his hand.

Pieces of broken metal fall from his bloodstained fingers before the image fades, as if it was never there.

"Henrietta, you saw that?" Charles said as he clenched his fist until his fingers turned white from the strain. "We can't waste time here!"

"Understood. Then, let us finish this."

Henrietta's lower face and jaw no longer looked human. A muzzle full of rows upon rows of teeth, similar to the form she showed when they first met took its place on her face, while her eyes looked wild. Her horns had also extended slightly.

Then, she decided to strike. She dashed forward at a speed until she turned into a blur of black and white.

Gharal, the kobold, raised his staff once again, and thousands of books from the library gathered together into a tornado of miscellaneous pages filled with symbols undecipherable to the human eyes.

A sad, melodic tune echoed in the air from the tornado, causing Henrietta to stop. She jumped backwards, landing in front of Charles to protect him. From the tornado, a massive serpent rose out, resembling an eastern dragon yet with beautiful, feathered wings that reflected all the shades of the rainbow.

At the same time, Charles glanced at the notification of his skill.

[Time remaining: 42 seconds]

Realizing that he would be a sitting duck in less than a minute, Charles gritted his teeth. Yet, despite everything, he knew that his slowed agility meant he would not be able to keep up with the snake's movements.

The snake kept on attacking Henrietta, and while she was able to fend it off, the snake's presence stopped her from going after the summoner.

Suddenly, an idea came to his mind.

He tried to put on his best grin, then he shouted.

"Hey, you damned idiot! Come at me instead!"

It was clearly a childish attempt at taunting, but at least, the intended target finally shifted to focus on him. The snake's tongue darted out a few times, before a swing of the illusionist kobold's staff directed the snake to attack Charles instead.

[Time remaining: 30 seconds]

Knowing there was no chance, Charles did not dodge. He stayed in place and braced himself, using both his arms as a makeshift shield.

Hiss!

The snake opened its maw and attempted to bite, the purplish venom from its fangs dripping down onto his head and down into the arena floor, leaving a trail of painful, bleeding wounds. Thanks to his endurance, the poison only wounded the surface of his skin, yet his blood felt so hot, like he was being boiled from the inside out.

With gritted teeth and cold sweat, Charles gripped the snake's maw, using all his strength to try and tear off the creature's mouth. He shouted with a trembling voice.

"What are you waiting for, Henrietta?!"

[Time remaining: 10 seconds]

"Sure thing!" Henrietta immediately understood and dashed forward, turning into an invisible blur. She reappeared in front of the kobold, who had just tried to swing its staff to beckon the snake back, and tore its tiny body in a flurry of claw swipes and bites.

As the snake attempted to flee back to its master, Charles kept on his persistent grip, despite how his body have started to weaken.

[Time remaining: 3 seconds]

BANG!

Right after the time went down to zero, Henrietta slammed the mangled body of the illusionist kobold onto the barrier.

The formerly sturdy barrier started to crack, and with it, the kobold's destroyed corpse hurtled down from the pillar, becoming a mess of flesh and blood beneath.

She spat out the kobold's hand from her maw, the hand still gripping tight onto the quickly fading light of the crude scepter. At the same time, the feathered snake stopped moving, turning limp and its eyes turning glassy before it disappeared into a mess of torn, blackened pages.

Charles collapsed onto his knees afterwards, the barrier disappearing and coalescing together into a blue ball of light. A brilliant feather descended down from the light, and Henrietta easily caught it with both hands.

"Now, let's go,"

Charles nodded. Standing on shaky legs, he walked towards the stairs.

"Nope, that'll be taking too long. Come with me,"

Before Charles could answer, Henrietta lifted him up with both hands and ran to the edge of the pillar before jumping down onto the floor. With the death of its master, the blueish glow surrounding the place have started to fade, pages of abandoned books fluttering into ashes and useless piles of dust. The shelves had also started rotting, black blots slowly eating away at them.

Right as they landed, a white portal appeared in front of them, leading to the familiar halls.

After they went out, Charles quickly looked around, trying to find a trace of his friend.

"Dammit, we still need to save him!"

"Calm down, it will not do anything good to us if we panic," Henrietta said. She grasped at the metal tag on Charles' hand and touched it for a bit. Then, strings made of red light started to spill forth, winding into the halls.

"With something like this, there has to be magic that links one item to the others. I just had to make the magical energy visible," Henrietta explained. "Now what are you waiting for?"

Charles nodded. Though the wounds he sustained still throbbed painfully, he decided to disregard it for a bit.

At least, until he could see that his comrade is safe.

Without further ado, the two of them ran, following the crimson lights.