(Don’t forget to vote for Cassandra for the Character Voting Event. Let’s take her to the semi-finals.)
Cassandra collapsed right before Siroos’s eyes, and his heart jumped into his mouth, his arms reaching out, catching her before she hit the ground.
"Malakti!" He frantically yelled out, seeing her eyes closed and her body go limp. Everyone else instantly became tense, their eyes darted all around. Lotus rushed towards Cassandra to see what had happened. Bells of alarm rang in her head.
"Cassandra!" She brushed away the hair from her face and observed her sister’s lips were turning blue.
Siroos’s heightened senses hadn’t deducted anything, so what could have happened to her?
"She has been poisoned." Lotus’s heart missed a beat. She hysterically began to fumble inside her satchel for an anti-venom.
Faris, Aiko and Razial spread around, searching for any danger, while Siroos growled in a warning tone. Whatever had attacked his mate was extremely clever to remain unnoticed by him and his spirits.
Just then a grotesque creature emerged from behind a clump of trees. It was a towering, 40-meter-long arachnid-like monstrosity. Its grotesque body was covered in dense, wiry, black hair that bristled like sharp needles, giving it an unearthly texture.
Siroos noticed its many legs were twisted and jointed unnaturally, each ending in jagged, claw-like tips that scraped the ground as it scrambled towards them.
A low shriek left Lotus seeing the creature’s head. It was a work of nightmares: ten glowing, blood-red eyes of varying sizes were scattered asymmetrically across its face, radiating malevolence.
Its fanged mandibles oozed a viscous, dark fluid that steamed upon contact with the air and ground. The sheer size and horrifying appearance of this being evoked a primal fear, as it seemed to embody the essence of terror itself. This froze everyone in their tracks.
"What in the blessed world is that?" Faris called out, pulling a shivering Aiko close to him. The fear had overtaken her mind and all she could do was watch the creature approaching.
What was even more frightening was the fact that Siroos couldn’t feel its heartbeat or sense it in any other way other than being able to see it with his eyes.
Something was very wrong with this creature, Siroos observed how it was accompanied by more creatures similar to it but much smaller in size. He remembered Gildaryn telling them about creatures dwelling in these lands. One of them was this spider-like monster called Gadal.
"Lotus, protect your sister. I am going to deal with her. All of you take your positions," Siroos bluntly called out to his stunned companions. He had to buy time so Lotus could treat Cassandra.
Razial, Faris and Aiko jerked themselves free of whatever spell this creature was casting on them.
But the landscape around them began to change. It turned dark green to almost black as if they had been transported into another dimension. The grotesque trees and wriggling vines sprouted out of the ground trying to capture them in their hold.
"What’s happening?" Razial asked in confusion as he cut off a wriggling branch but no one had an answer for this. It was some kind of spell or maybe her powers of hallucination.
Raziel fought them with his ice powers; Faris used his axe while trying to keep Aiko safe. She was still paralyzed by fear.
"Take that, you stupid spider," Faris thwacked one and sent her flying back to the big mommy spider.
Lotus quickly formed a protective boundary around herself and Cassandra using her thorny vines, curling them into a ball so those spiders wouldn’t be able to crawl inside. She had extracted the vial of antivenom. Opening Cassandra’s mouth, she emptied the bottle inside her mouth and hoped it would be enough to make her conscious.
"Please! Come back to us," she pleaded, hugging her sister close with her forehead etched in worries. Cassandra’s heartbeat was faint but she was alive.
Siroos let Duskborn come forward, covering his companions as the mighty dragon opened its mouth and let out a warning roar; it echoed wide and far.
The creature paused; it towered over the dragon, all of its eyes focused on him and their minds linked as her sinister and blood-chilling voice rumbled through Duskborn.
’This is my domain, dragon; you can’t defeat me here. And your mate is going to die.’
So that’s what it was; the creature had trapped them in her domain, and that’s how the landscape had changed.
’I can and I will,’ the black dragon roared back in rage and let his reddish fire out.
Gadal opened her mouth instantly and let out a web so intricately woven that it shone even such dimness. It hovered in the air in front of her like a shield and blocked the dragon’s fire, dispersing it.
They had never encountered anything that could stop his fire.
Gadal raised its right front leg and tried to bring it down on Duskborn but he instantly shuffled back, dodging the attack.
Razial raised his hands in the air and formed hundreds of spiked icicles and hurled them towards Gadal and her minions. Several of her creatures were spiked and dropped dead but none of those could reach Gadal and melted away. She was too powerful.
Duskborn rose in the air instantly and attacked her with his claws, throwing another rain of fire on her, trying to scorch her face and eyes.
But her shield was too strong and nothing went past it. She let the webbed shield glide towards Duskborn, and it wrapped around its claws, body and right wing, clinging to him like a wet cloth.
He let out a shriek, his body burnt wherever that material touched him as he tried to set himself free of it but he found himself hurling to the ground.
Faris ran towards his mate and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her lightly.
"Aiko, I need you to open a portal and get us out of this."
Light returned to her eyes and she fearfully nodded. She swiftly moved her hands but the portal wouldn’t open. This was a new domain and her powers weren’t working.
Gadal meanwhile brought down her right leg over Duskborn’s wing and pierced it; he shrieked in pain and let out another burst of fire, which hardly reached her.
The ball of protection Lotus had formed around Cassandra burst open, and the goddess of love emerged, all glowing with her lilac and white energy. A ball of fire in her hand which she hurled at Gadal, it connected, burning a hole in her right leg.
The creature shrieked and stepped away from Siroos as Cassandra blazed.
"Stay away from my mate or I will turn you into dust."