The Star, The Demon, and The God - 51. Steaming Surprise

Tobias

With one last look at Laneer, I make my way to the bottom of the tower.

Even from here I can hear the moans and screeches of the angels inside. The moans definitely tell me that there are tons of dead angels in there.

Looking the tower up and down, I try and figure out how I am going to do this.

There aren’t any openings like windows or the like.

There are stone ledges that spiral around the tower. It looks like it is one super long piece of stone that circles around the entire thing.

How in the hell did they manage to do that?

...magic I’m guessing.

Biting my bite, I can’t really decide on what to do.

Should I walk along the spiral ledge to the very top? Wouldn’t that be the worst place to enter?

There is the entrance around halfway through from the bridge. If I wanted to do that, I would one hundred percent get spotted by the army of green angels leaving the tower.

I swear it is a never ending stream of limping bodies in armor.

Now I wish I could fly like Luno.

Better yet, I wish I could travel through the shadows like Raiyo. That would make sneaking into this place so much easier.

My eyes widen when the pillar of light flickers for a moment.

That is new.

Fuck it! I need to get moving!

I hurry and start making my way up the tower.

Perhaps my tiger form could help, but I fear it would be too big to walk along this.

I have to keep my back to the tower so I don’t possibly fall off.

At first it feels like I am the slowest person to ever move in Thymestrys but after a few minutes, I manage to get a good pace of walking up this damn thing.

While I am doing this, I am feeling around for any opening that I can find.

The sooner I find a window, the better.

Alright, I can do this.

It feels like the dumbest thing even but it has to happen.

Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot.

Oh? What is under my hand right now?

I bring my hand in front of me and cringe when I see the familiar black gunk on my fingers.

Some dead angel must have died next to this wall or something.

I wipe my hand on my chest armor and keep moving.

~~~

After around what feels like years, I found my first problem.

I found it by almost falling to my death!

Now I have a somewhat fear of heights. Why shouldn’t you? One wrong move and you’re gone.

I have made it my goal to not look down. I don’t want to see my progress.

When my left foot happens to slip into a fucking hole in the ledge, my heart just about shattered into pieces.

I landed hard onto my upper body thankfully, but that in turn made me have to look down to make sure there aren’t any more holes to look out for.

Now I don’t want to say I cried, but I’m not saying I didn’t just a little bit.

I am so high off the fucking ground it is insane!

Who built this thing? This is the dumbest building in all the godsdamned realms!

Based on the bridge below me, I am pleased to know that I am at least over halfway to the top of this shithole.

You know what...maybe I do love this dumbass star if I am willing to do something like this!

Gods he better not be dead.

I’ll kill him myself.

~~~
~~~

Luno

I cough up blood and fall to my knees, letting go of the handles of the machine.

Having to hold myself up with my hands, I close my eyes and take deep breaths, wiping away any blood sticking to my face.

My eyes feel heavy and I so badly want to fall asleep right now.

I fall on my side and roll onto my back, staring up at the opening of the tower.

All I see is the edge of a moon cutting through the sky.

I close my eyes and keep breathing in as much air as I can.

Something jabs into my ribs, forcing me to open my eyes.

It is the undead Archangel.

It’s mask oozes off a black substance. It drips off in chucks and falls next to my face.

It growls at me, spitting out more black gunk.

The dead thing points the end of their spear at my face.

My eyes widen and I try and back away.

“Watch it,” An angel says, reaching for the undead’s shoulder. “We are not supposed to harm him.”

The undead Archangel backhands the poor angel, sending it backwards onto it’s back.

With a small twirl of the spear, it thrusts it’s spear down for the angel’s head.

“No!” I shout and hold my hand forward, creating a small shield of light around the angel.

The undead Archangel’s spear bounces off the shield and out of its hands, flying off and down the bridge.

It turns its gaze to me and its hand lashes out and wraps around my throat, lifting me off the ground.

I grab onto it’s giant hand and try to pry him off of me.

I whine kick and punch at him but it won’t let go!

It’s hand squeezes tighter around my neck.

My vision becomes blurry around the edges and I find it harder to struggle against them.

Suddenly, black fluids splatter out off the undead’s neck and I find myself falling off the bridge!

I am so in shock, I barely have time to use the winds to help my fly!

Arms scoop me up and they carry me back up to the bridge.

When I look down, I see the body of the undead Archangel falling down the deep drop of the tower.

What just happened?

My savior is the Archangel! He is carrying me to the bridge!

His powerful wings bring us safely to the bridge and he sets me down on my feet.

I watch as the other angels kill two other undead, kicking those bodies off the bridge.

“You’re...helping me?” I ask the Archangel.

He nods. “You have shown us kindness and saved one of our own when no one else has done that for thousands of years. We thank you for that.”

I smile up at him.

A high pitched scream goes off near one end of the bridge.

I cover my ears and fall to my knees.

Oh gods it feels like it is piercing through my head!

Wings surround me and the screaming becomes muffled.

Looking up, the Archangel stares down at me with his wings surrounding us.

“We must get you out of here,” He says. “We will try our hardest to save you, your highness.”

Your highness? Not this again! The demons had called me that before!

I shake my head. “We all need to escape! Come with me!”

“We aren’t sure if we can. Morgoren has control of us but...something feels different ever since you healed the few of us who were with you.”

Another muffled scream.

“Hurry,” The Archangel says before opening his wings. “Get out!”

He picks me up and throws me high into the air.

I yelp and quickly try to gain control of the air around me.

Quickly, I fly high into the air.

This is it! Someone came to help me and now I can be free!

The sounds of swords clashing makes me look down.

An army of undead angels pile through the two ends of the bridge and they are going for the living angels who helped me.

Glancing back up at my escape...I bite my lip before making a decision.

Flying straight back down, drift down quickly until I barely touch the bridge. That creates a gust of winds that push off of me, sending a large group of undead angels over the bridge and down to the tower’s depths.

The Archangel and his friends look at me for a moment before quickly turning to defend themselves from the horde of enemies.

Putting my back to them, I face my own set of never ending undead angels.

So many of them try to climb over each other, so desperate to get to us.

It is terrifying!

Quickly, I cast shields around all of us to make sure they can’t get too close.

Next, I start sending gust of wind after gust of wind! Anything to make them fall over the edge!

With how often they keep falling, their numbers never falter! There are so many of them!

Trying something new, I create a small fire in my hand, spinning it around slightly, creating a small tornado of fire.

With a fling of my hand, a giant fire tornado is sent forth and runs along the bridge, burning any enemies who were running along there.

Once it reaches the wall at the end of the tower, the tornado disappears.

My are wide open in shock with how well that worked!

~~~
~~~

Tobias

I duck slightly and grip onto the stone as the tower shakes slightly.

What the hell just did that?

Fuck, Luno please be safe!

I work double time with my steps and hurry along the spiraling tower.

I’m so close to the top, I know it! The bridge is so far underneath me, I must be right there!

Screaming can be heard and I am trying so desperately to get in here! What is going on in there?

Another loud bang before the tower shakes again.

Bits and pieces of the stone chip off and I realize I need to hurry.

I mean I am already going as quick as I can, but now it feels more terrifying.

After what feels like an agonizing year, I finally reach the top.

I just about fell over when my back no longer had to press back against the wall

Now that I am here, I was not at all sure what to expect to find. All I knew was that there was a hole at the top of the tower because how else would I have seen that beam of light?

What I didn't expect to find was Luno so far down the tower fighting off green angels.

It almost makes me proud to see it, but their never ending numbers make my stomach twist up.

A hiss to my right grabs my attention.

An undead angel has found its way to the top. A mask barely hangs off of it’s face, revealing a black pool of dark blood oozing out.

Suddenly it throws itself at me.

I quickly take out my sword and swing it out for its neck.

Its head ends up back down the way I came.

The angel had come up through a spiraling hallway. It goes all the way down the tower.

Looks like that is my way down.

Now that I have the room for it, I shift into my tiger form and immediately begin my sprint down for Luno.

I must have been very unlucky because that one dead angel was the only one up here.

Well I say that, but there are windows that show me where they all are.

As I am running down the spiraling tower, there are occasional windows in rooms that show the inside of the tower.

Everytime I get a glimpse of Luno, I see more and more undead angels pouring in through the two entrances to the bridge.

I can see them all running down the tower to get to the Luno. Pretty soon I will catch up to them.

If I can guess from here, there are some coming from the bottom as well.

Never ending my sprint for Luno, I carefully leap and push myself off walls to send myself down faster; anything to save the Star.

I roar as loud as I can, desperate for Luno to know that I am coming for him.

“Tobi!” I hear him shout down below.

My chest heats up and I let out another roar, bringing my burning stripes to life.

I zip through the tower at a fast pace. I leap over anything in my way that has fallen.

The angels must have rushed down without thought, knocking over anything and everything.

I have to leap over fallen over weapon stands and even their own bodies.

Some had died by being trampled to death by their own kin.

A high pitched squeal can be heard above me.

I pause and look out the window.

My eyes widen when I see a flash of blue flying down.

It’s Kulu!

Little Kulu squeals again for Luno.

Oh gods! He better not get hurt!

Just as I am about to get moving again, an explosion of water goes off around Kulu.

A giant ball of water floats in the middle of the tower.

What?

A ground shaking roar erupts from the ball of water, making the tower vibrate.

The water then erupts into a large splash as a giant version of Kulu erupts from the water. Instead of the usual cute face it has, a truly menacing dragon with whiskers and razor sharp teeth emerge.

His two sets of feathered wings have changed from blue to white and white hairs have sprouted around his neck and top of his head.

Kulu rears his head back before shooting streams of steaming hot water at one entrance of the bridge, completely destroying the stone and blocking the entrance off.

What the hell!

Quickly, after getting over the shocking images I just say, I get back to running for Luno.

The little thing is a fucking dragon!

He acts so useless and tiny I never would have known!

It all makes sense now when Luno would sometimes say that I wouldn’t be able to hurt the damn thing.

Holy shit! He’s a dragon!

I roar out to him when I reach another window.

Kulu turns his gaze to me and boy is that terrifying to see.

I press my front paws against the glass and moan out for his help.

The dragon gets the message and flies higher, spinning his tail as if he is ready to attack.

Oh gods!

Quickly, I run out of his way.

I barely manage to get out of the line of fire as his tail swipes out and cuts through the stone like it is nothing!

A giant opening has been made and I quickly get close to it.

Kulu lets out a gutteral chirp and turns his back to me.

Apparently the thing isn’t as stupid as I thought!

With a running start, I leap out of the window and onto Kulu’s back.

He’s so big he didn’t even wobble from my weight!

Taking a chance, I transform back into my regular form and hang onto the hair on his neck for dear life.

Kulu roars before sending another hot stream of water for the other side of the tower, effectively blocking that end of the bridge as well!

This is the most amazing thing ever! I’m riding a dragon!

Kulu flies down towards Luno.

He has to drift around in a circle so that his body doesn’t collide with the walls of the tower or even the bridge.

He is so long he has to be careful!

“Kulu! Tobi!” Luno cries out. “You’re here!”

I am about to tell him to hurry and hop on, but then I realize the living angels behind him.

Quickly, I pull out my gun and aim for the Archangel.

“No!” Luno holds his hands out and creates a shield around him and the angels.

“They are my friends! They were helping me escape!”

“Are you crazy?” I shout down to him. “They are Angels!”

Luno eyes practically plead for me to put away my weapons.

Hisses and snarls from the sides of the tower distract me slightly but gods dammit these are angels as well! They can’t be trusted!

“Leave them, Luno,” I say, not removing my aim.

Luno glares at me and doesn’t move.

Stubborn fool!

“Go,” The Archangel says, gently pushing Luno. “We will be alright.”

Luno glances at him and frowns. “Where will you go?”

I narrow my eyes at the interaction.

“Anywhere but here but you must leave now before Morgoren returns.”

Luno bites his lip and glances at me before dropping his hands.

He quickly flies over and sits behind me, grabbing onto my waist.

“Please be careful,” Luno calls down to the angels.

They stare at us as Kulu makes his ascent out of the tower.

What the hell is happening?

First the Kulu thing, now this? The world has seriously gone insane!

~~~
~~~

Luno

I rest my head on Tobi’s back and close my eyes, breathing in his smell.

He smells like burning wood right now.

I like it.

I also missed it a lot.

He really came to save me!

Kulu flies over the tower before dipping low near the water surrounding the island. He circles around into the shadow of the realm.

There we find Laneer and his boat.

He looks up at us with his hood on.

His eyes widen at the sight of Kulu.

I smile at that.

Kulu is rather shy with revealing his true form. He rarely even shows it to me.

I will forever be grateful that he was willing to come out of his comfort zone to help me today.

Kulu brings us to the rocky shore and brings his head down to the ground, his way of telling us to get off.

Tobi jumps off before turning to help me get off as well.

Once I am standing before him, I smile and hug him as tight as I can.

“Thank you,” I whisper, my legs shaking slightly from how scary this all was.

Tobias leans back and lifts my chin up before pressing his lips to mine, pulling me in as close as he can.

Sighing into the kiss, I hold onto his arms to make sure I don’t lose him again.

Laneer clears his throat.

“Maybe save this for when we are in Enfierna,” He says.

Pulling away, I frown at him.

“We...we shouldn’t go there,” I say. “There’s something we need to do first. Morgoren told me his next plan. He is going to Avelin tomorrow! We have to tell Drulai!”

I can tell by Laneer’s face that he really doesn’t want to do that. He so desperately wants to see Raiyo and I understand that.

As much as I’d also like to see what changes have been done to Raiyo, this is very important!

“Very well,” he says. “You’re the savior here.”

I frown at his words but he has already turned his head.

Tobias helps me into the boat and Laneer quickly gets to bringing us to our next destination.

I give one last look at Morgoren’s evil realm as we sink into the shining water.