Aurafall: Fragments Of Power-Chapter 45: Countless Colors [10]

The black dome shattered into countless bits of black, hot stone, pulverized by Yariel’s electric abilities.

The stones scattered on the ground around them. Ravenna grabbed the last dead body with her beak and tossed it down the side of the green mountain. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Where the dome had stood was now a round hole in the ground. It wasn’t exactly a hole, but rather an entrance—a stone staircase that swirled down into the darkness below.

Yariel sighed and glanced at Ravenna.

"Stay here. I don’t think you’ll fit through, and I’ll be back in a couple of minutes."

Ravenna didn’t reply and only nodded. Yariel’s expression became grim as she dismissed her sword into sparks. She stepped into the hole, using the staircase to descend into the darkness. After a while, she used her electric abilities to make her hand glow and continued scaling downward, muttering incoherent laments under her breath.

Soon, the staircase ended and led to a long, dark, and wide passageway, lit only by fire torches that hung on the walls opposite each other. Multiple metallic doors also flanked the hall.

Yariel frowned—not at the doors or the passageways, but at the people occupying them.

There were more than ten guards, all enjoying themselves with betting and wine in a wide corner of the passageway. Noticing her, they immediately unsheathed their weapons and gazed at her with a mix of confusion and fury.

"Who are you?! How did you get in?!"

"Wait! Dark skin?! A Zahara?! It’s Yariel!"

"I don’t care if she’s Jean Atlantis. She has to go!"

Yariel hissed, and her hand stopped glowing. "Jean this, Jean that. What is wrong with everyone?!"

A gust of wind swept from her body, killing the fire from the torches in an instant.

"Hey! She killed the lights!"

"How dare you?!"

Both of her hands glowed this time, radiating an electric blue color. The guards, shrouded in darkness, lunged toward the light.

The passageway was plunged into a suffocating, pitch-black void, save for the twin crackling spheres of blue lightning in Yariel’s palms. The guards, blinded by the sudden transition from torchlight to darkness, relied on the glow of her hands to aim their strikes.

It was exactly what she wanted.

"You’re all so predictable," Yariel’s voice drifted through the dark, sounding as if it were coming from everywhere at once.

The first two guards lunged with spears, thrusting toward the blue lights. Their blades passed through empty air. Yariel had dropped into a low crouch, the electricity from her hands snaking across the floor like hungry cobras. The moment the lightning touched the metal greaves of the guards, their legs locked up. Their screams were drowned out by the rhythmic sound of the voltage discharging into their bodies.

In the cramped passageway, her fists were more than enough. She moved like a glitch in the darkness, appearing beside a man holding a heavy mace. She tapped his wrist, a spark jumping from her skin to his. His hand flew open, and the mace hit the stone floor with a dull thud. Before he could gasp, she drove an elbow into his throat, the impact muffled by the crackle of electricity.

The remaining guards began to swing wildly, their steel clashing against the stone walls as they fought a ghost.

"Over here, handsome!"

A guard turned toward the voice and was met with a palm to the face. The static discharge was so intense it lit up the entire hallway for a fraction of a second, revealing the piles of unconscious or dead men littering the floor. The guard’s head snapped back, his helmet nearly fused to his skull by the heat.

In less than a minute, the chaotic sounds of boots and clashing metal faded, replaced by the low, steady hiss of Yariel’s glowing hands and the heavy smell of ozone and burnt wine.

Yariel stood in the center of the hall, her chest barely heaving. She looked at the various metallic doors, each etched with numbers and warning runes. She looked back at the groaning and dead bodies on the ground, then hissed with disdain.

"Damn! These people so far are not even Aura Farmers! Who puts the unawakened to guard a prison for the awakened?"

She turned back to the doors and walked past the bodies, studying each entrance intently.

’Where is it? Where is it?’

She finally reached the end of the passageway. There stood a large, dark metallic door with gargantuan chains drawn from every angle, locked together with a massive metallic bolt.

"Yep. This is definitely where she is."

She brought her left palm toward the large door and electrified it. The entire area glowed with blue light as the chains groaned under the intensity of the current. Finally, the chains and lock gave in, falling to the ground with a rattling sound that echoed across the passageway, causing the prisoners behind the other doors to bang on their cells and yell.

Yariel ignored them and pushed the heavy door open with all her strength. It led to a spacious room containing nothing but gargantuan chains extending from the four corners of the room to the center, illuminated by a single fire torch.

The chains were used to pin a human down. A woman’s hands and legs were bound, offering her no room for escape. Her head was bowed, her hair covering her face. Slowly, she raised her head.

She had long, disheveled purple hair, purple eyebrows, and porcelain skin. She wore a dirty brown tunic, and her entire body was matted with dirt. She looked as though she could break apart at any moment.

The woman looked at Yariel, and slowly, a smile appeared on her lips.

Yariel stared at her for a moment in mock disgust. "Wow! You look messed up."

The woman’s smile brightened, as if the words were a compliment.

"Th... ank... yo... uu."

"Ah, where are my manners?" Yariel smiled and bowed. "Good day. I am Yariel Zahara, Commanding General of the Atlantis Royal Army. I have been sent by your husband, Jean Atlantis, to get you."

She raised her head slightly, a smirk appearing on her face.

"Final permission to rescue you, Queen of Bones?"