The ark chamber was silent, all sound seeming completely muffled in the wake of Mbana’s reappearance and subsequent suicide. Leon still kneeled by the man’s body, staring at him, wondering just what in the hells he was supposed to do with the information Mbana had imparted in his last moments.

“… May the Red-Eyed one speed his journey, and Just Helior show mercy for any flaws and reward all virtues,” Tir whispered.

Nara remained as silent as Leon, though when Leon rose and glanced in his direction, he saw a burning curiosity in his eyes.

“What did he say?’ the Prince asked.

Leon frowned and looked back down at Mbana’s body. “Let’s get him into the ark, first,” he said, bending down to pick up the tenth-tier mage. However, he hadn’t even taken hold of him before the darkness held at bay by his ancient runes surged against the barrier, starling him into darting back, drawing Iron Pride, and donning his helmet. Tir and Nara, likewise, readied themselves for battle.

The darkness surged again, growing so thick in the ark chamber that it became visible to the naked eye—black mist seemed to rise from the darkness blanketing the ground and flowed up against the runes’ barrier. It surged a third time, and the runic barrier shuddered and flexed, and a hole was torn where the mist was thickest.

Leon acted immediately, firing a bolt of the Thunderbird’s lightning at the darkness, dissipating most of it, while in the moment after, he began channeling light magic to inscribe another ancient rune in the air. Nara and Tir added their magic to his in an attempt to block out the darkness, but the darkness surged a fourth time, and a torrent of black mist rushed into the space protected by the runes.

However, halfway through inscribing another shield rune, Leon realized that the mist wasn’t coming for any of them, nor was it heading for their ark. It rushed toward him, causing him to take a few steps back, but the darkness halted at Mbana’s corpse, wrapping around and concealing it from view. This formed a shapeless black mass in front of Leon, Nara, and Tir, and the latter two attempted to disperse this mass while Leon hurried to complete the rune.

The mass, however, sank into the floor, taking Mbana’s body with it, before any of them could stop it. As soon as it was gone, the darkness was thrown back by Leon’s now-completed shield rune, and in the space outside of the runic barrier, the darkness melted away, leaving the chamber as full of darkness magic as it had been for the past day.

In all, the entire event barely took longer than ten seconds.

“By all the gods…” Nara whispered in frustration and audible fear. “Mbana’s body is gone!”

“Taken by the devils,” Tir added.

‘Shit…’ Leon thought, cursing not only what just happened, but also his powerlessness.

[That was the Primal Devil’s power,] Xaphan said from within his soul realm. [All the darkness on this plane is its power, of course, but that… was directed. It was purposeful.]

Leon’s frown deepened. The Primal Devil personally acting to take Mbana was… concerning, to put it almost insultingly mildly.

“Inside,” he growled aloud. “Now.”

He, Tir, and Nara retreated inside the ark, and Leon stuck his hand onto the runic circle by the ramp and closed the ramp using his power, as the ark was still essentially dead even with the thunder wood and storm crystal he and Mari had done their best to force into the ark’s power chamber.

“What Mandious’ name happened out there?!” Nara demanded as soon as the ramp slid shut and Leon closed the bulkhead into the ark’s foyer.

“Can’t say,” Leon said. “Mbana didn’t tell me anything; he only showed me a more complete map of the tower, and shared with me what he was feeling.”

“And what was he feeling?” Nara pressed.

Leon pointedly looked Nara in the eye and stated, “Fear. Fear, and… something else. Yearning? No, more like… desperation.”

“What might it mean?” Nara asked, his tone a little less accusatory, but not completely neutral.

Leon scowled.

“Where is his companion?” Tir calmly asked. “Have the devils taken her too? Or has the Red-Eyed One taken her instead?”

“I don’t know,” Leon answered.

[Share it with me,] Xaphan demanded. [What that human showed you.]

“Give me a moment,” Leon said aloud before doing as Xaphan requested.

[Can you make any sense of it, demon?]

[Hmmmm. I have no great insight into this kind of magic, but… I believe this human was telling you to head down to this underground chamber and investigate it.]

[You’ve got to be fucking kidding, Xaphan.]

[Do I sound like a comedian, boy?]

[Do you want an honest answer to that question?]

[Of course!]

[You’re the world’s unfunniest comedian. Of all the comedians who’ve ever comedied, you’ve comedied the worst. Out of all of them. The worst.]

[Good to have confirmation that you have no taste.]

Leon rolled his eyes and said aloud, “Xaphan thinks I should investigate what’s going on down below the tower. There’re tons of underground tunnels and passages, and I think what Mbana and Serena were looking for is in… or, rather, I think it used to be in the deepest chamber.”

“To journey down there would be to spurn Wise Farangeun,” Tir stated. “It killed one tenth-tier mage, possibly two.” Tir looked like he wanted to continue, but Nara held up his hand and silenced him.

Nara then stared at Leon with his mismatched eyes, and Leon could almost physically feel the intensity radiating off of him.

“My plane is suffering a cataclysm that even the gods cannot save us from,” Nara said, drawing a look of disapproval from Tir, though nothing more than that. “We are now in the devil’s lair, the place where its power is strongest, the place where we can disrupt its ritual. I must stop it. We cannot take hold of our hats and run!”

“What can we do,” Leon asked, “that Mbana and Serena couldn’t?”

“Try,” Nara answered, bringing the tiniest of smiles to Leon’s face. “Those two have been laid low by their own arrogance. They did not want to stop this cataclysm; they wanted to profit from it. Now they are dead, and the devil is mere days away from release. And my home… mere days away from complete destruction. I will not condemn my people and run away when I yet have the power to stand and fight!”

“I like the way you think,” Leon stated, his smile widening. “I hate to be the voice of caution, but we are nothing compared to this Primal Devil; trust me, I’ve faced beings of its power before and survived by pure luck.”

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“So we just wait here for my world to end?” Nara growled. “I will not. This ‘ark’ may not even work.” Nara made to open the bulkhead, but Leon interposed himself between the Prince and the door. Nara growled in frustration and summoned Cloud Piercer to his hand.

“Please, friends,” Tir quickly interjected as Leon responded by brandishing Iron Pride. “Just Helior will judge us all harshly if we descend into conflict now. We can work this out without violence.”

“I’m surprised a man like you would say something like that, Tir’Anu,” Nara spat.

“I own my mistakes,” Tir stated. “I also refuse to see you two fight each other.”

“I don’t want to fight,” Leon said. “But I will defend myself.”

“Let me pass,” Nara ordered, his tone dangerous. “You three can run for the ‘Grave Wardens’ if you want. I cannot leave. I must stay and defend my homeland, however I can.”

“This place ate two tenth-tier mages,” Leon said, his smile returning despite their minor spat. “Are you so confident that it’ll work out for you?”

“Whether or not I survive means little,” Nara replied. “The point is that I must try, whatever the outcome.”

Leon stared at him, his smile stretching his face almost to the point of pain. Silence in the wake of Nara’s statement dragged on for what seemed like hours before Leon shouted through the ark’s halls, “Mari’Kha! What more do you need to finish your repairs?”

“Uhhh, I don’t fuckin’ know, Lele!” Mari shouted back from the engine room. “Gonna have’ta see if any of this shit works, yeah?”

“Need me for anything more?”

Another few seconds passed in silence before Mari came running into the foyer. “The fuck’s goin’ on in here? Ya thinkin’ of leaving, Lele?”

“Someone’s going to do something stupid,” Leon replied. “I can’t let him do it alone.”

“I did not ask—” Nara began, but Leon cut him off.

“And I’m not giving you the choice. Mbana was terrified of something down there. I’d rather not check it out, but if you’re going to insist, then I’ll go, too. See just what was so damned horrifying about the tunnels that the man killed himself.”

“What the fuck are ya two talkin’ about?” Mari loudly asked, her eyes wide and bouncing between Leon and Nara.

“Tir,” Leon said, “fill Mari’Kha in on everything. Stay with her and help her as much as you’re able.”

“By the Mothers Above and Below, I will do this,” Tir stated with a slight bow.

“Mari’Kha, if you get this thing up and running, see if you can fly it to any of the nearest planes. Hopefully, you can contact one of the Grave Wardens and send out some kind of signal to alert them to what’s happening here.”

“I can’t fly this fuckin’ thing!” Mari desperately insisted. “I don’t know where to go!”

“We’ll be back as soon as we see what’s what down there,” Leon pressed on.

“You sound almost giddy, Leon Raime,” Nara observed.

Leon shrugged. “Look, I actually do want to see what’s down there. I also want to do the safest possible thing. I just… you’re right that we shouldn’t put all of our eggs in one basket.”

“Seems strange to use more baskets than are needed, but to save Arkhnavi, I’ll do what must be done,” Nara grimly declared.

Leon nodded, then turned and opened the bulkhead. He then looked over his shoulder at a determined Tir and a very desperate and terrified Mari. “Keep working. We’ll be back before you know it.”

“How about not leaving at all?” Mari quietly squeaked.

Leon just smiled as Nara pushed past him into the space between the bulkhead and the closed ramp, then began mashing his hand against the runic circle to get the ramp to open again.

“Stay safe,” Leon said once the ramp was open, and then he and Nara quickly walked down it, leaving Tir and Mari alone in the ark. “If anything goes wrong,” Leon said to Nara as Tir closed the ramp behind them while Mari shouted indistinctly behind him, “turn around and run back here. This’ll be our fallback point. I’d rather not poke the Primal Devil itself, but if we’re able to find something that disrupts its unsealing ritual whatever…”

“Then we slam its prison shut,” Nara said with grim determination.

“Then we slam it shut,” Leon agreed, and together, he and Nara ran to the door and the stairs beyond. With Mbana’s map now burned into his head, Leon knew exactly where they had to go.

They moved through the halls almost as quickly as they had when charging to the ark chamber. Despite their alacrity, Leon still diligently kept an eye on their surroundings, noting the levels of darkness in the environment for any concerning signs of growth. The hallways were largely empty and the wards in the walls decayed, so there wasn’t much magic in the air to distract him from this.

After a while, as they were passing through a large chamber just as conspicuously empty as all others before had been, Nara said, “I apologize for my behavior before. I’m trying to hold myself together, but…”

“It’s understandable,” Leon replied. “My Kingdom was recently threatened, and I did what I could to stamp that threat down forever. I… I don’t know how I would react if our positions were reversed. For what it’s worth, I apologize if I seemed at all disinterested in aiding your people.”

“That you’re here at all speaks volumes,” Nara said. “The other two who started the Blue Sky’s failed reconquest were… uncaring about the cost my people have paid. The Red-Eyed One took them for their arrogance, I believe, for they pushed us onward in clear disregard for the military reality of our position. Iluva, Mbana, Serena… all of these mages came here for themselves, not to aid us. You may not be here for us either, but I sense that you’re not here to enrich yourself.”

“I’m here for a favor, as I believe I’ve explained before,” Leon said. “My Grave Warden was concerned about his friend, Qo Weylekh—”

As soon as he said the name, Leon felt a strange ripple in the darkness magic around them that caused him to come to a skidding halt not far from the door that would lead them into the central tower, and not far beyond that, the hidden lift that should take them into the passageways below the tower complex.

“What is it?” Nara asked as he halted a moment after Leon.

“Did you feel that?” Leon asked as he both scanned their surroundings and the runes that hovered next to him. He shared what he’d sensed with Nara.

“I didn’t sense that,” Nara claimed.

Leon scowled. “Let’s keep moving. Keep your magic senses projected. We don’t know what we’re walking into here, and as much as you want to save your people, we can’t do that if we end up like Mbana.”

Nara nodded.

Leon waved them on, wondering why Nara hadn’t been able to sense that ripple of magic—it had been weak, but hardly so unsubtle that the ninth-tier mage could miss it if he were alert.

[Xaphan, what in the hells was that?] Leon asked.

Instead of the demon of flame answering, it was his Ancestor.

[Something’s building beneath you, Leon,] the Thunderbird stated with almost uncharacteristic seriousness. [I can feel the Primal Devil in the magic around you. You’re being watched.]

[Actively?]

[Yes. Stay alert.]

[Thanks for the warning. It’s unsurprising that something’s keeping tabs on us, but the heads-up is welcome.]

[I’m just trying to keep you alive, kid.]

[In that case, the surprise is you not arguing for me to turn around.]

[I’m tempted to try, but I want to see what’s down there as much as you do. Just promise to turn around before you die?]

[As much of a choice as I’ll have in that… sure.]

In the space of that brief conversation, Leon led Nara on into the central tower, and then through the halls until they arrived at what might’ve been a grand office or possibly even throne room at some point, though there wasn’t any furniture to clear it up. It was a large triangular room, with Leon and Nara finding themselves at the wide end of the room. There was a raised section on the other side of the room, with steps leading up to it as the room tapered. The corner that Leon and Nara faced was supposed to be a secret door, but it was open, leading into the lift shaft that would take them down into the bowels of the tower.

Neither Leon nor Nara hurried over to it, though. The open door emanated thick darkness magic that, as it had when it claimed Mbana’s body, streamed through the doorway like a black mist. So complete was the darkness beyond the doorway that Leon couldn’t see that far past it, and his magic senses were scattered at the threshold, so the map he had in his head was all he had to know what might be at the bottom of the lift shaft.

“Ominous,” Nara whispered.

“Doesn’t seem to be a lift, either,” Leon replied as he gritted his teeth and began slowly, cautiously, walking toward the open shaft. He carved another quick shield rune, though he did it hastily and it was weak. Still, one more, weak as it was, was better than nothing.

He kept all of his senses on high alert as he approached, watchful for any sign of change in the magic that surrounded them. However, it remained remarkably passive, even though he knew they were being watched, per the Thunderbird’s warning.

He ascended the stairs to the raised section and soon found himself standing in front of the open door, staring into a black abyss, Nara at his side.

“No lift,” Nara stated.

Leon nodded at the obvious and redundant observation. The shaft was hardly that spacious, being wide enough for a lift that could carry perhaps twenty people comfortably. But the shaft was so damned dark that even with his tenth-tier senses, Leon couldn’t see the opposite wall.

“It’s a few hundred feet down,” Leon said. “We can make that jump under normal circumstances. But getting back up’s going to be more of a problem. You sure you want to do this and not turn back?”

“Are you?” Nara asked.

“Not entirely,” Leon admitted. “I think one would have to be mad to not hesitate here… But if we don’t continue, then we give up all attempts to stop this Primal Devil from being released. We commit ourselves to hoping that Mari’Kha and I can fix that ark.”

“I am unwilling to trust that that machine, so broken that Strong Ashagon must’ve crippled it himself, can be fixed in time,” Nara stated. “Balk if you must, but with all Arkhnavi on the line, I will keep going.”

Without another word, Ard’Nara, Prince of the Kingdom of the Blue Sky, strode forward and leaped into the empty lift shaft, plummeting down below the ground.

Leon sighed, hesitated only long enough to look at the door they’d entered the room from, and followed.