Chapter 19: The Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Deep within the great tower of madness, a towering figure of muscle and feathers returned to its nest after the odd realization that its nemesis was nowhere to be found in their usual battlegrounds.

Deeper still and after some time, the gray bird monster with dead eyes silently shuffled its way inside the dimly lit halls.

It had, for some unknown reason, felt an urge to go back to its nest not long after being gone and when it reached the first room, it was impossible not to notice its kin laying dead on the ground, blood drained.

Still, it made no reaction and kept on climbing upward, calmly. Unease coursed through its mind for the first time in its life, like if something crucial was amiss. One would think that it would take some time going from stairway to stairway due to the tighter walls at the start of the cave, but it moved nimbly and flexibly, showcasing how well it knew these tunnels.

The fallen ascended, going through the room of the first altar while paying it no heed.

That is, until it reached the hatchery room, there, it could smell the smoke, embers and blood. When it reached the center of the open area, surrounded by charred corpses, goo and exploded eggs, the bird stopped in its tracks.

There, right in front of an old hatched and burned eggshell, it wondered if it was the work of its enemy, the fallen scorpion, but soon dismissed the idea. The bird lord knew the fungi lord would never enter this place again, and it even abominated fire due to its inherent plant-like affinity. Even the corpses that weren't burnt to a crisp were too cleanly dealt with.

It had a lot of first times in a row as an uncontrollable rage filled it for the first time in decades as its long work of assembling an army was destroyed in hours, the very future of its kin torn off its roots except for itself and a few who were out there hunting and waging war with the fungi.

What came next was a roar so heavy it shook the entire cave and pillar into silence.

However, despite its furry, the bird moved on and this time with renewed swiftness and will to tear to pieces whoever had thwarted its plans.

In fact, his swift but violent movement caused vibrations in the entire lab cave that did not go unnoticed by Laura and one more person, kilometers above even the pair.

High up and above, a layer of clouds and fog furiously swirling in the air hugged tightly the form of the cyclopian pillar of stone. Pillar which, in contrast to the surrounding ones, was broken off and destroyed two kilometers above the cloud line.

A great plateau of sorts where lush green fields extended and even structures built by humans could be seen spreading out. There, in a large building besides a castle of sorts, a group of awakened were huddling together around a map, planing a route of sorts.

Suddenly, in the middle of an explanation, the girl speaking went quiet.

''Lady starburst? Did something happen?'' Said a young, handsome knight with dark green hair and a muscular build that was also standing beside her.

''My sister is close and danger is not far behind, let's go!''

And as if the entire building heard her words, things quickly got hectic, people running to one side or the other getting preparations done, others preparing for battle and even more with dark looks on their faces. Despite this, nobody questioned the girl because they had always been able to rely on her for light during the darkest moments in this hellhole. As a result, they moved in unison as if they were the girl's arms and legs.

Even if not everyone liked this sister of hers.

When everyone was ready, they sat out towards the edge of town. Passersby looked at them in confused looks, some knew they were setting out soon, but not this soon. Many worried looks were thrown, and all knew what it was about, the downfall of one of the most notable people in the city.

Not even a week earlier, the city was in dire straits as its two largest forces were in an ever-growing spiral of conflict. The first faction was the older people of the city, also young but with more experience in this dungeon and months if not years trapped and gathering resources. While the other faction was the rising star faction led by the oldest daughter of the Starburst family, who were made of people who had just arrived in the dungeon.

What no resident of the city expected was things to turn worse, but they did. During a conflict between factions, the person Nike Stardust loved the most: her little sister.

While somewhere else, that said sister was rising the dark stairs while helping her companion up after he had taken quite a mental shock.

She couldn't help feel slightly scared of how affected he was by it, especially if it was what she thought it was. Plus, even without speaking, she wasn't able to hide all that well the fact that she knew something about it, since she reacted so fast in face of the appearance of the rift.

Yet, Jack said nothing, as he too was able to do things he shouldn't be able to, based on instinct alone.

The stairs were never-ending, silent and dark, all they could see was based around the small flicker coming from the lighter that now was almost out of fuel.

After an even stronger tremor shook the tower, Jack let go of Laura's arm and said:

''I think I'm better now, this way we can go faster as we are running out of time.''

Laura looked at him worried, the dark expression from before still etched in her mind even now with him more... normal.

''Don't worry, it was just a bit of shock, let's run!''

Thus, both sprinted ahead with no knowledge of what kind of danger could arise. Still, it couldn't be as horrific as what was gaining on them from behind.

The more they ran, the more they thought about how endless the steps seemed, how cold the atmosphere had gotten and how the very air they breathed had not enough oxygen for its worth. However, the fact that they were awakened made it, so their body adapted much faster than usual and in Jack's case, having a special constitution, was even faster.

The cold hard floor echoed their every step and the shadows danced as they ran, until Laura was having a hard time keeping up, and the ever smaller light made it, so she eventually needed to be carried.

Jack was adapting so quickly that he didn't even notice that his body was slowly learning to function with less oxygen.

Then, while carrying Laura, he felt it. How much he was straining his body and how it responded to every adversity by evolving and becoming stronger after it. Therefore, it was no surprise he actually didn't mind giving her a ride if it was going to help him get stronger.

However, it didn't make it any less painful, as every one of his muscles trembled in pain and his lungs felt that they were on fire.

Finally, after almost another hour running up the stairs, Laura saw an orange light at the end of the tunnel.

At first, a single point in the distance. A point that grew with every step and every hoarse breath until she motioned to let her down as she was now able to see every step clearly. Some more time passed and Jack begun to see it too, both were elated to see sunlight again, no more darkness of a cave, no more mushroom lights, just the outside.

Giving it a final sprint, both went full speed toward the light and as it touched their skin, they almost jumped in joy... just to fall to their deaths.

The outside was as stunning as Jack remembered, it was now the end of the afternoon and the sun slowly closed in on the horizon, its red-rays of light being cut by one of the moons shining brightly while the other was nowhere to be seen.

They were in a platform much like the one they first found themselves in, but much larger and less crude.

''Damn... I could stare at this scenery for an eternity.'' Jack said out loud, only to brought back to reality by Laura, who urged him to look up.

What he saw was a great wall of the rock pillar, extending for five kilometers until it was devoured by a strange sea of cloud and mist.

''That is...'' He wondered out loud, then looked back at Laura.

She looked back at him and gave him the brightest smile he had ever seen of her.

''It's up there, isn't it?! The human settlement!'' They had made it, and all that stood between them and safety was a few kilometers of wall.

Laura nodded energetically, then opened her backpack and gave Jack half of her only energy bar, urging him to eat it fast.

These energy bars were mass-produced and handed out by families or the government to newly awakened blooded before their teleportation to the rift, so they could physically recover faster in urgent situations, and it did its job in saving many lives from that alone.

After they were done gobbling up the energy bar, Jack used some vines Laura had saved from before to tie them up together for extra safety, and they immediately began climbing with Laura going in front.

The cliffs they were scaling were perfectly vertical and had slight indentations from wind or even ocean erosion, making it simpler to climb fast.

They pushed their bodies to even greater limits and heights, ignoring all the pain and tiredness.

Soon they felt even colder winds on their face and after the two kilometer mark and a slight rain, the stone surface of the black pillar began to get humid and slippery, slowing down their progress tremendously. As in such an uncertain surface, if one fell, there was the great possibility of them both falling to their deaths.

''Steady! We are almost there!'' Jack shouted in motivation and little by little they got closer to their objective.

''We'll make it!'' He screamed when they got to the three kilometer mark.

However, fate wasn't done with the young pair doing their best to survive for, as if in response to his statement, the walls of the cave below them rumbled in a deathly howl.

And from the darkness emerged feathers and cold dark eyes in an unnatural grimace of fury.

"Oh, no.'' Jack whispered when looking down at his hunter.

Laura, on the other hand, was too focused and had no way of listening to the explosion below, so she kept on climbing, eventually, a sloppy movement of hers dislodged a small rock, which Jack saw falling in slow motion.

''Crap, he'll notice us!'' He thought in that split second and tried to grab it, almost losing his footing, but his reflexes were an instant too slow, and the comparatively small rock plummeted to their deaths.

Jack didn't even want to look, for he knew what came next, and he went back to climbing with renewed urgency.

After a few seconds of tense silence, the rock finally landed... right beside the fallen bird monster.

Its head jerked upward, and the moment it locked its eyes on the prey, there was no stopping it anymore.

The muscles underneath the feathers of the great bird tensed like steel wires, and it shot itself from the ground at extreme speeds.

Its wings flapping created a small gale coming from underneath that Jack felt in his entire spine as he tugged slightly three times on the rope. The signal to climb faster since danger was coming.

Without even looking down, Laura knew what it was and was now aware of its presence, they were almost at the sea of clouds and mist. And she knew what kind of strange things happened in that sea.

The flying abomination was approaching way too fast, and Jack thought they were doomed—that is, until he saw that as the fallen approached, it decreased its speed and stuck its claws to the pillar, beginning to climb as well.

''Why did it stop flying?'' Jack wondered as he pushed himself over another ledge.

''Could it be that there is something that prevents flying in the sea of clouds?'' He sure hoped that was the case.

They couldn't stop, though, because a fallen monster would obviously have far more strength and speed in climbing than them.

Now almost twenty meters deep in the sea of clouds, everything got darker again. The wind howled and threatened to tear them down with every sway of its waves.

Thirty meters deep into the wall of clouds, they finally saw the real light at the end of the tunnel, Laura could see the end of the great pillar and wall they were climbing, only 30 meters ahead.