Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Chapter 296 An Empty Cave

Snow stalked the plain stone corridors of Seteste's battle arena. It was a decent distance underground and was dug out of a natural cave that existed on the outskirts of the actual city known as Seteste. The halls themselves were dimly lit with light crystals, though they were not enough to push back the dark thoughts within.

Ever since seeing Lucius had been taken away, the call from the mark in her hand grew stronger and stronger still. The word 'protect' echoed through her mind constantly. It encompassed the totality of her being.

Every step was for him. Every thought. Every action. She had to protect Lucius... No, that's not right...

'PROTECT'

Once again, the words echoed in her mind. A searing, mind-melting pain forced Snow to the ground. The pain was so intense that her voice failed her, and it threatened to reduce her to a comatose state. However, that's not what it wanted. It needed her to stay awake, to stay alive. Otherwise, it could not complete its goal.

Snow found it odd that no one had intercepted her. Ever since she was told to protect Lucius, all she had done was walk right into the cave. For some reason, the guards at the door were gone when she walked inside. Similarly, the halls were devoid of life. Even several of the cells she walked past were completely cleared of people.

She also noticed this strange haze in the air. It was like dust, but when she tried to interact with it, it simply vanished as if it had never been there in the first place. A few seconds after vanishing, it would reappear again.

Snow could also feel an unsettling presence behind her at all times, but when she turned around to glance at it, nothing was there. What was the most interesting aspect of all this was that despite the strange haze and unsettling feeling, she did not feel like she was in danger. Rather, this strange place felt safe.

The elf decided to lean into this feeling and simply continued on her route to her goal of infiltrating Itorin's office. Lady Voltara al Famyn had given her and Lucius a map of the interior of the cave. According to the lady, it was fairly recently updated as she had several spies that monitored Seteste constantly.

Standing in the center of the actual battlefield were two entities. Both looked vaguely humanoid, but their skin was as black as night. One was much larger than the other. From this distance it was hard to assess how tall they might have been, but the smaller of the two had to be at least ten feet tall or more.

The smaller one was kneeling before the larger one with its head hung low. Despite an overwhelming amount of fear, Snow found herself unable to look away. The larger one began to turn in her direction, further freezing her in place, as if standing still would make her invisible to the creature.

It had to have been almost twice as large as the kneeling creature and had an extremely muscular body. Its face was very beastlike, with a nose that was pointed and shallow. Glowing, golden eyes stared directly at her as if penetrating her soul. Sharp fangs lined its entire mouth and massive clawed hands hung at its side.

Snow continued to stare at the creature and felt...

Before she could process the sensation, she blinked and found herself suddenly in front of the target she was sent to find. A massive blue crystal sat before her, pulsing with mana.

The same haze still filled the air and seemed to interact with the waves of mana coming off the crystal itself, mixing together and forming strange, wavelike patterns through the air. The sight was oddly beautiful in a way and threatened to put her into a trance.

Snow suddenly felt the weight of someone's hand on her shoulder. She looked slowly at the hand and saw massive fingers, each at least six to seven inches long, with massive claws at the tip of each finger. The claws themselves looked sharp enough to cut her if she so much as looked at it for too long.

The hand stayed on her shoulder, but the index finger of the hand raised to point at the crystal in front of her. Then she heard it, a voice unlike any other. It echoed from within the depths of her soul.

'Destroy'