Nightblade (Darkest night)

Morgan's entire body screamed in exhaustion.

Every muscle burned with exhaustion, but he couldn't stop, not with their lives were on the line.

They frantically ran, following a different path down the mountain.

Several rocks that had been submerged in the mountain rolled down the mountain, flying over their heads.

The intense fight had dislodged the titanic boulders, starting a devastating rockfall.

Morgan and Emily played a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the rolling boulders, darting time and again for cover.

A large boulder smashed into a mound of soil behind them, flying through the air above them, missing them by a hair's breadth.

Morgan pulled Emily down, ducking beneath the rolling devastation.

In the next moment, the ground cracked and then gave way beneath their feet.

One minute they'd been running, then the next they fell through the air.

Morgan's eyes widened in surprise, his mouth opening in a soundless scream.

Large chunks of rock and earth fell through the air, accelerating towards them as they fell into the darkness below.

Morgan held tightly onto Emily's hand as they fell, dodging the falling debris mid-air.

" Shit, shit, shit!" He inwardly screamed.

Morgan lost all sense of direction the closer they hurtled towards the ground. Their bodies flew through the air at an alarming speed; everything around them blurred, their bodies twisting around maddeningly in space.

Both of them screamed in terror.

The impending moment when they would hit loomed inevitably at the back of their minds.

" Ah, why is everything going to shit?" He frantically thought.

Morgan tried to orient himself, looking for a handhold, anything to grab on to.

Sadly, there was nothing of the sort, and so they continued to fall.

After what seemed like an eternity of falling, Morgan saw a dim light in the distance and with it, he saw the ground.

At some point, judging from the silence, Emily seemed to have passed out.

The ground approached at a blinding speed.

Morgan could almost envision the splatter they were going to make.

" Aaaaah!" Morgan yelled, tightly shutting his eyes.

But the bone-crushing impact never came.

Instead, when Morgan opened his eyes, he found himself suspended in space with Emily floating next to him, the ground just a few inches from their faces.

" This is weird, but thankfully weird."

In the next moment, the mysterious force vanished, and they landed on the ground in a tangle of limbs.

Morgan quickly scrambled to his feet, unsheathing his blades then fell to the ground, breathing heavily.

His face quickly turned pale.

His muscles started spasming awkwardly from the strain of the fight, his breathing quickly becoming erratic.

Emily slowly stirred back to consciousness.

Once again, she was in an unfamiliar place, and she still didn't know how it had happened.

" This seriously has to stop happening," she thought.

It appeared they were in some kind of underground ruin.

Dim light illuminated the space in front of her.

She scanned her surroundings and quickly noticed Morgan.

His body was twitching and spasming strangely.

She dashed over to him.

" Morgan, Morgan!" She called, shaking him.

" Hey, snap out of it!"

Morgan sat up abruptly, then fell into a coughing fit.

"Stop yelling," he said quietly, after he regained coherence.

The battle had taken a greater toll on him than he'd thought, but his body was quickly recovering.

He stood up and inhaled, then picked up his blades that had fallen to the ground.

He sheathed them to his back, then took a few steps calmly surveying his surroundings.

Emily stared at him curiously in silence, then rose to her feet.

" How did you manage it? How are you so strong?"

Of course, she knew that the aspirants trained relentlessly and were stronger than average kids, but watching Morgan go toe to toe with the giant two-headed monster had surpassed her imagination of how much they went through.

The mere thought that a kid her age could take on a beast that size was simply preposterous; it was illogical.

But then again, a lot of things didn't make sense anymore.

Frankly, the Talented had it quite easy from the looks of it.

Morgan spared her an amused glance while scanning their surroundings.

" I trained, brutally, relentlessly. Again and again. Sometimes, I genuinely thought I would die from the training. But even now, I'm still too weak."

" Still, it doesn't make sense, you know. Weren't you scared? Didn't you think you were going to die?"

Morgan scoffed derisively.

" Of course, the thought occurred to me that I could die. But then what? I haven't yet done everything I set out to do. So I can't die. I refuse to die before then."

It was Emily's turn to scoff.

" You almost died just a few moments back."

Morgan chuckled.

" You'd be right. Except I didn't die. I'm right here, aren't I?

He turned and began walking in a random direction.

" Besides, we have to figure out where we are and why we both didn't die after falling from such a height."

He stared up and realised he couldn't see the sunlight from the crack they'd fallen through.

" We must be quite deep underground. Which begs the question, how are we able to see?"

They were standing in a wide cavern that stretched in all directions.

Several large pillars sprouted out from the ground, stretching endlessly to the cavern's ceiling.

Emily approached one of the pillars and touched it, running her hand across its surface.

Large dark bioluminescent crystals were embedded in the pillars.

They rhythmically pulsed, emitting a strange light.

" I think this answers your question, " Emily said, pointing to the pillar.

Morgan took a step forward, and his foot sank through the floor.

His eyes widened in surprise.

" Oh damn,"

He glanced down and realised he'd stepped on a switch of sorts.

A hidden mechanism whirred to life and and several hidden compartments rolled out of the pillars.

The compartments contained lanterns that suddenly lit up, emitting light.

A golden glow filled the cavern, illuminating it even more.

As if brought to life by the light, several buildings sprawled out into the distance.

" It's like a city down here. This place, people actually used to live here?" Emily asked.

Morgan remembered Rebecca mentioning that there were fallen civilisations in Tenebris.

" This must be one of the ancient civilisations." He said, speaking out loud.

" I learnt a bit about them before coming to the academy. Apparently, some of the advanced technology used on Earth was discovered in ruins such as this. But from the look of things, this is one of the older ones."

Large statues were spread throughout the city.

The statues depicted hooded men with their hands clasped in front of them, seemingly in reverence or worship.

The statues had withstood the test of time, standing tall without blemish.

Morgan walked up to one of the statues.

Beneath it, a plaque was inserted, which read,

" The truth shall set you free."

Morgan frowned. " The truth? What truth?"

Several structures that looked like they'd been houses were spread throughout the city.

The houses were devoid of any sign of life.

Small rodent-like creatures darted around on the ground, scattering at their arrival.

Most of the houses had beds and tables.

" People used to live here," Morgan said.

* What could have happened? And why is the city underground?"

" Judging from the pillars supporting the cavern, it was probably built underground," Emily said, like it were the most obvious thing.

" That's true, but why?"

Morgan stopped staring at the statues in the distance.

" A city like this would have been magnificent at its inception. I can actually picture it in my mind's eye."

He gestured at the cobbled walkways, pointing at an area that was deserted with strange-looking stalls.

" That was probably a market. I can picture the kids darting about, playing. The vendors selling merchandise, buyers haggling over goods."

They walked for a while in silence.

After a while, they arrived at what appeared to be the centre of the ancient city.

Two giant statues stood facing each other, one was holding a long sword and the other held two daggers to its chest in the central courtyard.

Just then, they heard a sharp screeching sound.

Morgan's head whipped around in the direction of the sound.

Giant bat-like creatures swooped down from the cavern's ceiling, making a beeline for them.

" They must have been attracted by the light."

As the creatures approached, Morgan noticed they had four arms.

The creatures picked up rocks from the debris and began to hurl them through the air.

One of the rocks broke through a house with harrowing force, the rocky structure exploding in a shower of rock and debris.

" Damn it, run!"

The bat-like creatures were deceptively strong and intelligent, continuing their onslaught with chilling precision.

Morgan and Emily sprinted across the cobbled stones in the central courtyard, making for a giant building at the centre of the city.

The creatures followed in hot pursuit, emitting loud screeches and snarls.

" What the hell? All we've been doing is running and hiding since we got here."

The massive doors were almost within reach.

Morgan ran for all his was worth quickly covering the distance between him and the doors.

Emily trailed behind him desperately running with all her might.

Morgan strained against the giant door but they wouldn't budge.

" Come on," he grunted, gritting his teeth.

He pushed with everything he had and the stony door creaked open by a few inches. He strained harder pushing his exhausted body beyond it's limits.

The door shifted by a few inches, allowing just enough space for him to squeeze through.

He glanced back at Emily.

Then his eyes widened in horror.