Chapitre 42: Despair...

As they both peered into the gap, the foul stench of rotting flesh hit them straight on, sending the both of them fumbling backward. The smell was bad enough to make them both want to puke, and this wasn't something that they could really block off since that would restrict their breathing. Restricting your own breathing before potentially going into a fight was just suicidal since that would essentially restrict your combat ability.

Neither of them intended to give up because of this though, and they both got back to their senses. When they peered through the gap this time, they could actually see what lay beyond. Behind the doors, was a ginormous room, this room was about 2000 meters square, and the roof was as high as 20 meters. The middle of the room, from their point of view, was completely empty, and it was surrounded by gigantic black pillars on both sides. This made it seem like the middle of the room was a path, that led up to something, which it did. The floor seemed to be made of some kind of black marble, but Ark wasn't really sure, neither was Thufrat. the walls were lined with torches that lit up as soon as the doors were opened. As if done by magic.

This "path" in the middle of the room led straight to a big black throne. The Throne was decorated by a number of different bones and it seemed almost comically big. At least, that would be the case if they couldn't see the person sitting on top of it. This cloaked figure was at the very least 4 meters tall, and it sat silently atop the throne, staring at Ark and Thufrat. Ark and Thufrat could feel shivers running down their spines as they gazed at this figure. And after a second or two, Thufrat came to a terrifying realization.

"Th-tha-that's a lich!" As Thufrat stuttered this out, he was completely terrified.

Ark didn't really know what a lich was, but he could guess from the way that Thufrat was acting that it wasn't something they could mess with. As he realized this, they both started to retreat. Life, however, isn't that easy. The lich, seeing them like this, suddenly stretched out its left arm, revealing a bony, shriveled up hand. This hand was as pale as could be, an didn't seem to contain any vitality whatsoever.

A sneer rested atop the lich's face as he pointed at the two intruders, not that Ark or Thufrat could see it. They didn't even get the chance to turn around before pitch-black mana swirled around the both of them, completely hiding them from sight. As Ark was about to use his light magic to fight back, he could feel the darkness tugging at his mind. He could hear Thufrat screaming in the back of his mind as the world was suddenly set on fire.

The burning sensation, as well as the smell of burning flesh and death, loomed over Ark. The pain was as if you were stung with burning needles all over your body, over and over and over again. He couldn't employ any of his Mana to defend himself, and he could only despair as the world slowly crumbled in front of him. The pain was unbearable, and Ark started to scream at the top of his lungs. What came out was the voice of his younger self. He started to panic as he frantically urged all of his power to resist whatever was going on, this only made the pain even worse, and Ark could feel his consciousness slowly fading away into nothingness.

"NO"

"I'm not done yet!"

"How could I die like this? I haven't explored this world yet!"

Some of his consciousness returned to him, and Ark started to think as hard as he could. This wasn't a game, this was real life, and if he failed to find a solution, then he would definitely die. As Ark managed to regain some rationality, he could think clearly, and he started to realize something. How could the lich set the entire world on fire? Wasn't his affinity with the darkness element anyway? Where was Thufrat, and why couldn't he see him? And where was he? He seemed to be on some open plain, but how did he get here?

As Ark realized these key points, he came up with an idea. Instead of defending himself from the fire by using the elements on himself as he had tried to earlier, he focused all of his light Mana to rush to his brain, to his mind. As the light Man gushed inside of his head, he could feel a barrier. He urged his Mana even more, and this barrier suddenly ripped open, and as it did, the void was seemingly slashed open from above. It looked as if a spear from heaven had descended as the skies above the plain were ripped apart.

The spear that came down seemed holy, and it instantly abolished all of the fire that was burning the world. As this happened, Ark felt no more pain, and he suddenly returned back to the throne room of the lich. Ark was astounded, but he had a fairly certain guess of what had just happened. And since he had no time to spare, he instantly used all the strength he could muster to pick up the screaming Thufrat and run for his life.

The lich didn't expect anyone to survive this attack of his and was caught off guard. It could do nothing as it saw them both escaping from right under his nose. The doors that were opened slightly slammed shut behind Ark as he left, and the room returned to complete darkness once more. As Ark was running, he couldn't really ignore his friend's dire screams. Since he was unsure of what to do to help him, he sent some light Mana into his mind, to help against the attack.

Thufrat seemed to calm down a little, and he stopped screaming under Ark's constant injection of light Mana. Unfortunately, Ark couldn't solve this predicament. If he sent in more Mana than he was currently, it would probably do more harm than good, and maybe even kill Thufrat instead of helping him. Since that was the case, Ark could only look for help whilst stabilizing his friend. Of course, Ark couldn't ask for help in his current form, and he needed to wait for his human form that would regenerate the next day.

Even though he wanted to help Thufrat right now, it wasn't really possible, and he was sure he could support his friend through the night, even though it would be very energy-consuming. As these thoughts were gobbling up his mind, Thufrat was experiencing something similar to what Ark experienced.

...

Thufrat was experiencing the height of despair, and he didn't know what to do. The flames were consuming everything in existence, including Thufrat. As his consciousness started to fade, he didn't want to give up, he had finally found a friend, a brother-in-arms who would share both happiness and pain with him. As he thought about all of this, his blood started to boil, and not because of the extreme heat, but because of his bloodline. It was awakening bit by bit and the soil around him all started to gather around him. But no matter what Thufrat did, he couldn't resist these flames, not even with the help of his bloodline, all he could do was delaying his inevitable end.

As he was thinking this though, the skies suddenly tore open, and out from the tear came a massive amount of light Mana. The light Mana swirled around Thufrat at all times, and helped him resist these flames, he still felt the heat and some pain, but he was safe for now. As Thufrat experienced this, he knew it was the doing of Ark, and he started to smile, despite the agony he was currently in. He had truly gotten himself a good friend this time!