“Oh I don’t like that…”
“No, I don’t like that shaking feeling either. We need to move. Faster.”
Tenuk was trailing behind Kayel. Normally, if he planned on doing lots of running, he would shape-shift into something with longer legs. But thanks to the horrible gases in these horrible labs, Tenuk’s body just wasn’t properly obeying him. Then again, he was doing far better than most of the denizens in these labs, in that he was at least alive and not completely traumatized. He couldn’t say the same about Kayel. That room full of Skyavok that had been turned inside out had clearly shaken his friend, and now the normally quite chatty Skyan wasn’t saying much at all. They’d also stopped checking rooms, looking for survivors, since they had clearly not found anyone.
“Ah. A stairwell…”
Kayel had come to a halt, giving Tenuk a chance to catch up. The walls were suddenly less fleshy, made out of concrete. A stair spiralled in both directions, but with no guard rails or anything. Below, a pink liquid could be seen, slowly rising.
“I guess we’re going up then…” Tenuk frowned. As he glanced upwards, he noticed that he couldn’t really see any sort of exit, everything was obscured with a pink mist.
“Yeah. Don’t see any other choice.”
Kayel leaned against the wall, then started to climb. Tenuk did the same, being careful to take it one step at a time.
“Are you okay, Kayel?” Tenuk asked, a vague attempt to break the silence. Sure, the whole building, assuming it even was a building, was randomly shaking and shuddering, but the stairwell felt particularly dead.
“Really, Tenuk or Tanos or whatever your real name is? You’re asking me if I’m alright, when all I’ve seen today are dead Skyans?”
Tenuk grunted. “I was just asking, no need to take it out on me.”
Kayel took a deep breath, then sighed. “I’m sorry, Tenuk. I’ve seen the dead before, but what I’ve seen today, or however long we’ve been here…”
“It’s sadistic.”
“Yeah.”
The Skyan paused, allowing Tenuk to catch up. He hadn’t realized that Tenuk was struggling.
“Let me put it this way, Tenuk. I’ve always considered myself pretty open-minded. I’m fine with completely free open speech. I’m fine with interspecies relationships. I’m fine with worshipping the deities, even the Thantophor. But this? This is what it’s like being in the domain of the Lifebringer? The Great Serpent that’s supposed to bring us life?”
Tenuk nodded. “Yep. Us Spasts have known this for a long time. It’s why worshipping the Allbirther is forbidden in Spast territories. Granted, we only saw things from the side of the Whenvern, but Spasts have been disappearing for decades, only to be found dead in Allbirther temples. Often as sacrifices to her.”
Tenuk’s explanation was interrupted by a low rumble. The pair glanced downwards, realizing that the water was rising at a much quicker rate.
“Can you swim?” Tenuk asked.
“Yeah, of course.”
“That’s good, because I don’t think I can outrun that liquid. Not if we’re still climbing these damn stairs.”
Kayel grunted, then started climbing again, picking up his pace. Tenuk followed, but was quickly getting tired. After all, not too long ago, he had just survived having open chest surgery. Frankly, he wasn’t sure where Kayel was getting his energy from.
The stairwell though only seemed to contain more and more stairs. Even as they entered the pink mist, there didn’t seem to be any exits… at least, until they came to one, where a door had been blasted open. Between the stairwell and the corridor that had opened up, there was a massive, empty hole which stank of burnt flesh.
“Kayel, Tenuk, you are alive?” A concerned voice echoed from the other side.
“Why is Nyssi wearing Retvik’s stomach wrap?” Kayel blinked, not sure whether to feel happy, surprised or terrified. “Retvik, Nyssi, you are alive as well?”
“Yeah! We’re alive! I think our death god friend just got thrown this way as we were trying to escape and there’s a bunch of Temthans trapped with us behind us and they are the sexiest beasts I have ever witnessed also this gas is making me talk a mile a minute with no inhibitions!”
Retvik carefully tapped Nyssi on the shoulder, a reminder for her to calm down. The gap between the two pairs was quite wide, and there seemed to be quite a few Temthans behind Retvik and Nyssi. Nyssi was rather strong and agile, she could probably make the jump. Retvik probably could as well, if he took a long run up. But the other Temthans, no one was sure.
There wasn’t time to ponder that question though, as spindly talons clawed their way from the bottom of the hole.
“Of course he would get his new friends to help save these lost souls!” Sini almost laughed, eyeing the four mortals. “How pathe-”
The Allbirther abruptly screeched, then glared at the being that had dared attempt to hurt her.
“How dare you murder so many of my kin!” Kayel spat, stamping on Sini’s claws. “To think that we considered you a kind and fair deity!”
Sini removed her claw from the Skyan’s side of the hole, then flicked him away, causing him to fall down the stairwell. But before Sini could flick away the Spast as well, she felt something tug at her head, pulling at her hair-like tendrils.
“We have never done anything towards you! Leave us be!” Retvik shouted, dragging Sini backwards. “Let us go!”
“You insolent little monster!”
Nyssi joined in on the tendril-pulling, giving Tenuk a chance to grab Kayel and get him to safety. The Temthans behind them stood still, watching on in a mixture of shock and confusion.
“You hurt us! We worship you and you hurt us!”
Hissing and flailing, Sini whipped her head around, slamming the Rethan and the Temthan into the nearby wall. Her anger only rising, she readied an orb of flickering energy, but found she couldn’t get it to ignite. In fact, the air around her seemed oddly anoxic.
Suddenly, a beam of electricity exploded downwards, pushing Sini back down the hole. After a good couple of seconds, the energy faded away, leaving behind an uncomfortable static in the air, as well as the presence of the Thantophor. Unlike the last time they had seen him though, Arkay looked considerably beaten up, with large cracks in his armour and blood pouring from cuts across his body.
“Retvik, Nyssi, are you both alright?” Arkay asked as he helped them to their feet, then rushed over to help Tenuk and Kayel.
“I just pulled the hair of the Allbirther…” Nyssi blinked. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, that took a lot of guts…” Arkay glanced down at himself. Already, his injuries were healing up. The exact same way their injuries had healed up, Retvik noticed. “I have no idea what’s gotten into Sini. You guys really need to go.”
The Thantophor took a moment to look around. As he acknowledged the other Temthans, all standing in silence, he grunted, then tore off a large section of fleshy wall, and used it to cover up the hole Sini had disappeared down.
“Get to the roof. Get out of here. Before she gets to you.”
Without waiting for a response, Arkay disappeared through the floor, chasing after the Allbirther. Retvik immediately snapped to attention and started grabbing the Temthans from behind him, pushing them across the makeshift bridge.
“You heard what he said. We need to move! Now!”