33 Risen#re

Tobias and Media sat on their horses in the lead of the expedition group, as they made their way back to the base, they heard more than a few people cursing out a Lirian for calling of the expedition.

As much as they wanted to explain the situation to the students they were clueless themselves, they sighed hopelessly and continued to lead the group, until Wentian and Cole returned riding quickly on their horses.

"There is still no sign of them," Cole said with a worried look, "You guys don't think that something happened to them right?"

The candidate's glanced at each other and shook their heads simultaneously, "It's Lirian we are talking about, if there's any trouble I'm sure he can handle it," Media said confidently.

"Under normal circumstances, but you all saw how panicked he got when he gave up on the expedition not to mention that he wasn't in a good condition," Wentian argued dossing cold water on them.

"We need to go back, they could be in trouble," Wentian said firmly and turned around to leave he could see the struggle in Media's and Tobias's eyes, they were supposed to be leaving just as Lirian ordered them to but there was a chance that Lirian needed their help.

Boom.

A resounding explosion echoed behind them it wasn't the first time such a thing happened, they had been hearing it for a while now and every time they heard one a wave of energy would slam into them knocking the wind out of everyone.

This time however it was different as it sounded like a hundred explosion went off all at once

"You guys don't think that Lirian is involved in what ever is causing those waves?" Cole asked nervously casting a glance behind them after the tremors passed and they could stand firmly.

"I don't know how powerful someone has to be to send shockwave this far, but if we get involved we'll die without knowing what happened," Tobias said.

"If Lirian and Edith are really there, they are either dead or someone is protecting them, either way we are powerless to do anything, we'll keep going," said Tobias firmly, it might have sounded heartless, but it was the truth.

Tobias and Cole both looked unwilling and a trace of sadness appeared in Media's eyes, she cast one last gaze backwards hoping that she might see Edith and Lirian but reality didn't give her what she wanted so she turned around to continue directing the group.

Just then someone came flying from above with an image in their hand, no one could see the person, but the person could see them, their eyes traveling through the group until they found their target.

The person in the shadows looked at the image one more time to confirm, the image held a picture of a boy with long black hair, sharp eye brows and a pair of black eyes.

The person eye's were fixed onto Wentian who was sitting on a horse, "Target confirmed," a woman's voice echoed from behind the black clothing.

She pulled out a spear and several laws as well as a bright yellow light formed, then with a thrust the spear light smashed down to the ground, creating a huge crater on the ground, it didn't just hit where Wentian was, but it struck a large area of the group.

However the woman frowned and looked around because she was certain that her attack didn't make contact, as she looked around she found a man in military uniform floating in the air, and all those that were supposed to be killed in her attack were moved away.

"You are?" she asked with a frown as she stared at the man with killing intent.

"Commander Pexis, I'm afraid that you don't belong here so I'll be removing you," Commander Pexis said but he lacked in confidence, just from that earlier attack he could tell that the woman was a second accord cultivator and he stood no chance against her.

"All of you run away from here while I hold this person off," he said to the students with an encouraging smile.

The students began to run away in a panic but they were so slow in the commanders eyes that he couldn't help but sigh.

"Hump," the zealot snorted coldly, "If you think you can protect them you are sadly mistaken," she said dismissively, but a sudden piercing pain entered her head, and when she looked around it looked like the entire world was spinning around giving her a nauseous feeling in her gut.

"You're right," commander Pexis admitted, "but even if I can't win I'm pretty confident in my ability to stall you," he said as he placed his fingers on his temples and directed mental attacks at the zealot.

The woman gritted her teeth in frustration as her vision started to resemble a shattered mirror, showing everything in strange angles, she could see the same person running in six different directions, and she found it difficult to fly forwards or backwards because everything seemed to return her to the same position.

"This isn't enough if you want to stall me," she roared and a law of crushing was emanated from her body smashing apart the energy that sustained the illusion.

Commander Pexis felt like a blade had pierced into his skull when the illusion shattered and when he looked up again he saw the woman flying towards, she came flying with a soaring kick into his gut.

The commander spat out spittle as he went flying through the sky at break neck speed and crashed onto the ground with his body broken, as he turned his head to look down he could see a few ribs sticking out of his chest and fell back down powerlessly.

Wentian was urging his horse to move as fast as possible, he knew that he narrowly avoided death by a tiny margin just a few seconds ago.

The students had lost all order as they fluttered about in a mad panic, not paying the slightest heed to the shouts of the candidates', who were doing their best to keep themselves calm, but the candidates were powerless to enforce any order.

Just when everything seemed like it could not get any worse, they heard a loud crash and saw a bunch of dust fill the air, when they looked back they saw the black clothed woman that was trying to kill them standing strong while the commander was gone.

The already chaotic students started to split of from each other in every direction possible while screaming frantically at the top of their lungs, even the candidates were no longer able to control their fear, as they ran their separate ways.

Boom.

Another deafening explosion rung out this one was a lot closer to the group and they could feel the earth beneath their feet crumbling, as they looked in the direction of the explosion, they saw a massive cloud of dust and dirt covering their view, but they also noticed entire trees and rocks flying out of the cloud in all direction.

But that wasn't the end of it because the ground beneath their feet started to crumble and many screams were heard as people got sucked into the opening earth, they were completely powerless against the sinking land.

One of Wentian's horse legs sunk into the ground, due to its speed the horse flipped through the air and Wentian went crashing from the saddle and onto the sinking ground.

His head slammed hard against the ground and his eyes rolled in opposite directions.

Wentian gasped for breath as he tried to claw his way up, but every movement made him feel like he was seeing stars, but he forced himself to move as he could still feel the earth crumbling under his feet.

Wentian just reached a ledge when he felt the ground completely give way under him, he lurched forward desperately trying to grab the ledge but he couldn't make it, a look of hopelessness entered his eyes when he felt a hand wrapping his arm and holding him tightly.

"Hang in there buddy," he heard a familiar voice and looked up to see Cole holding his arm, from the looks of things Cole didn't fair much better than him, as their were cuts and bruises all over his face.

"I'll get you up in just a sec," Cole panted with a weak smile, making Wentian sigh in relief as he dangled on the ledge, but then he heard as strange sound and something wet splashed on his face.

It took Wentian a few seconds to register that he was falling, before he knew it hit the ground and tumbled through the dirt.

He just barely managed to pull himself up and when he looked at his hand he found that Coles arm was hanging from it with blood still gushing from it, he raised a hand to his face and felt the blood that splattered on him.

He fell down weakly with his long hair coming loose and fluttering in the wind, when he looked around he saw the black cloaked woman standing just a few steps away from him.

"Why are you doing this to me!" he roared loudly with anger filling his voice, he could tell that this person was targeting him from the beginning, "What did I ever do to you?"

The zealot looked on coldly, "This is the price for investigating people that you have no business investigating!" the zealot said coldly and sliced with her spear.

A look of bewilderment entered Wentian's eyes, he understood that it was because he tried to investigate Telamon, but the only ones who knew were his family and the other candidate's.

It would be pretty stupid for his family to sell him out because that could even bring trouble to his family, which meant that one of the candidate sold him out, a look unwillingness and betrayal flashed through his eyes as he looked up at the sky.

It was his final moment and he thought himself to be hallucinating as a monolithic silver serpent appeared in the sky from the centre of the dust cloud, then the whole world started to tilt.

Wentian blinked as he saw his body, then his eyes lost their light as his head rolled on the ground separated from his body.

As she finished delivering the final blow the zealot lost the strength in her arms as she felt a strange ripple pass through her body.

Then she felt the laws in her every cell run rampant like a million blades threatening to cut and crush her from the inside, it was like the laws were desperate to go else where.

She held onto the laws tightly, and the tighter she gripped onto it the more pain she was over come with, not pain of the flesh but pain of the heart, it was like the laws were feeling emotions and she was feeling the emotions of her laws, emotions she thought she had forgotten how to feel came pouring into her making her desire release from the pain.

Her gaze turned to the sky in the direction her laws seemed to be pulling her and she saw a silver serpent, with a tinge of black mixed in, filling every inch of the sky.

The power seemed all powerful, it made her feel so tiny like a spec of dust within the boundless universe, 'Is this the power of a god?' she wondered as she looked up at the sky.