Slowly everyone was recovering at the bottom of the cavern – even Zippy was back up and fluttering angry red and purple towards Michael. “We all alive? In one piece?” Michael asked, after finally getting his own stomach under control once again.

“That was…” Shaking his head slowly from side to side, Mongo didn’t even try to describe the experience. “We’re here,” was the only thing he’d finally say.

“Zippy! We need you to shine as brightly as you can for us. We need to see what we’re dealing with down here.” With the barrier gone, Michael’s earth sense could feel the ground and surroundings and give him a general impression of where they were and what was around, but unlike the tunnels, this was a large open air cavern underground – who knew what dangers might be flying or hovering around and beyond the sense of the earth?

Petulantly, the floating orb grew dimmer; barely giving off even the light of a torch.

“Zippy!” Michael shouted, exasperated. Of all the times for the little thing to act up!

Pouting and upset over its spears being broken and it being flattened, the light grew even more defiantly dimmer. Now, it was barely as bright as a candle with the wick trimmed short.

“Can you do it for me?” Tiffany asked, pouting her lip out towards the orb. “Pleeeease! I don’t like the nasty dark. It scares me.” Flickering for a moment in indecision, the orb finally flared up and light erupted illuminating the whole cavern. “Oh! Thank you sweetie!” Tiffany half hopped, thrilled that her ‘baby’ would listen to her so well.

Glancing around, things were just as bad as Michael had feared. They were down in the bottom of an enormous underground cavern, and a massive pyramid rose up in the far corner, layers of bones piled several stories high around. Unnatural black fire flickered and danced on the rooftop of the pyramid, signaling some dark and corrupt magic already at work.

“We’re too late!” Pointing, Michael screamed towards the pyramid. “The ritual’s begun already, I believe! We have to get there now!”

Screaming “DAAMMMMNNNN IIITTTTT!!”, Mongo barreled forward and dashed through the wall of flames that was keeping the dead away. Extinguishing the circle of fire, Michael tried to come up with a strong battle cry of his own – not that the dead would care; he just wanted to sound cool! “SPOOOOOOON!!” was all he could think of in the moment, so he shouted it with complete vigor and unleashed Nature’s Wrath in a shotgun blast outwards.

Spoiler : ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcm-J7lQT3w )

Having adjusted somewhat to his oddness, the others paid him no attention as they rushed forward to keep up with Mongo. Skeletons crumbled to the sides as Heartblade’s aura shattered any that got in range, and Mongo crushed the zombies in a raw surge of display of warrior’s prowess. Some he hacked down with his blade, others he simply charged boldly into like a battering ram, knocking them for a loop and trampling over them in his stone-plate armor. Jess and Tiffany rushed to stay in the center, between Mongo and Tiffany as they ran recklessly onward.

Only Michael was left standing behind, calmly observing the scene all around. Fragments of Nature’s Wrath now spun and circled him like the flames had earlier, as he took in the situation. There was no way the group could cover the distance in time. The dark magics were growing ever more intense on top of the pyramid as the ritual was nearing completion. With a calm and serious expression, he slowly walked over to the edge of the slide he’d built and touched it with his magics. Ignoring the greasy feel of the taint on the stone, he shaped it to create a platform at his feet and he purposefully stepped upon it.

‘Where are you, My Lord?!’ Noticing that he wasn’t with them, Crystal cried out mind to mind for him.

‘Hush. All will be well,’ he replied back to her gently. The stone platform was now moving and raising him up the slide, to its highest reaches. Looking down, Michael could see the swarms of dead closing in on the group – and he could tell that many of the dark-boned skeletons and leapers were nearly upon them. The party had just moments left before they were overran and destroyed.

“SPOOOOOOON!!” Screaming in defiance, Michael forced his will to connect with the strength of the deep earth; the pure earth, deep below the roots of the corruption. With a surge of raw strength, he tied his own natural flows of power into the deeper, untamed power of the inner earth. Electricity cracked from the ground, up the slide, and shot through him. Michael’s hair burned, blood boiled, and skin blistered as he wrapped his hands around more power than any mortal was ever meant to try and wield.

In an instant, the other side of the slide was destroyed with a flick of his wrist. The ground shook and split open in protest of the power being ripped from it, forcing the natural flows to bend and go where they never should. A flick of a finger and the shattered chunks of the slide instantly hurled themselves out with explosive power, reigning down like a hail of meteors across the cavern.

One large chunk cascaded down and erupted directly above the party, only to reform itself into a hard stone dome which covered them completely. The other chunks hit the ground with explosive force, obliterating anything in their path. Whole legions of dead evaporated in an instant.

Where the chunks of stone hit, they didn’t stop there. Melting like butter tossed in a campfire, the stone liquefied and rolled across the dead in a wave of grinding, turning, churning earth. An avalanche cascading down a mountaintop wipes everything clear before it, and Michael’s will created an avalanche that wiped clear all the dead below. The price for such raw power was immense, causing his skin to melt and run like candle’s wax down his hands and arms. His muscles had long since failed him; it was only his pure will and the raw force of magic that kept his body from collapsing completely at this point.

With the floor clear, Michael gathered all the loose stone from the side of the slide which he’d destroyed, and he unleashed it in a massive tsunami of liquefied stone up the pyramid. Step by step up the terraced side, the earth roared on, mercilessly. A dark flow of pure blackness blasted down, trying to halt the encroaching tide, but it was almost as effective as trying to stop a wave from crashing into the beach my pissing in the ocean. The old earth, the deep earth, was too strong. Too powerful. Too overwhelming.

Within moments, the darkness was over ran and the whole pyramid was covered in a thick layer of earth.

“SPOOOOOOON!!” Michael gurgled as much as he screamed, fire scorching his lungs, burning the air from them. With the last vestiges of his life flickering away, Michael erupted like a volcano. Pure earthen power erupted all about and the ground shook and trembled, cracked open, and swallowed the pyramid whole; leaving only a small earthen ball behind.

Deep in the bowels of the earth, the old flows of magic rumbled and shifted; angered at being grabbed and bent to the will of man. With a scream of frustration and anger, the ground showed its displeasure. Fissures cracked open. The ground shook and split. The earth rose and moved. A massive rippling earthquake reverberated across the kingdom of Gondor.

Young Lord Mik’hail of the House of Dancing Flames; High Champion of the First Daughter of Andor, Protector and Guardian of the Heir to the Throne of the Shining Star, had fallen. Burnt out and destroyed by magics beyond his control – magics which now rippled and shook the kingdom with his death.