They ran.
The shrine's wall crumbled, the seams tore open, and they were out, boots hitting the gravel and breaths sharp in their throats. The tunnel ahead twisted as if unsure whether it was narrow or wide.
Tevis took charge, running the front, Pahanin right by his side with Void slung over his shoulder. Bandit and Cory raced on their flank, and Levi ran up to their rear.
As the hunters raced towards the junction of the tunnels, the Hidden triggered their warps, scattering into dust.
"F*cking warlocks!" Bandit cursed under his breath, his jaw tightened as he sprinted like a mad dog.
"Just....run! AAHhhh." Cory grit his teeth, squeezing every ounce of speed out of his legs as his lungs burned.
The hunters hit the tunnel's exit at breakneck speeds, akin to a blur as they rushed towards the spot where the Sunbreakers held the line. Heat pulsed and rolled through them. They raised their eyes and spotted Liu Feng looking back, surprise etched across her face. She blurted, "Already—?"
"RUN!" Tevis snapped and barked.
Liu squinted, her eyes glanced past them. The dark lurched behind them and condensed into an eerie, veiled figure.
"Son of a-"
Just as she snapped out of her trance, the hunters had already leapt over the Hive Knight legions, darting past without hesitation.
Liu whipped back, she yanked the hammer into her hand, and swung wildly. A flaming tide burned through the Knights that held them back.
"RUN NOW!" She roared and charged forward. The titans by her side flinched in surprise, but as the dark reached the corner of their eyes, they jolted behind her without questioning a thing.
A shriek from the tunnel behind them ripped the world lengthwise, and a shiver ran through their bones.
Omnigul had taken form, her eyes narrowed, the witch curled her fingers, and whispered.
The walls flexed. The floor rolled. Rooms changed like a shifting maze.
"Left—no, right. Cory!" Tevis barked.
"On it!" Cory slid a step forward, his foot dug into the rocks, and he rocketed ahead. Shadows wrapped around his form, and he kicked, puncturing through the dead end in one fell swoop.
Ahead, the tunnel split into three mouths. For a moment, time seemed to still. And an instinct flared.
A sensation that connected every Hunter, one way or the other. Their eyes flicked to the side, and for a single second, they shared a glance.
As their next steps hit the ground, the group split into three; one darting towards each tunnel.
Pahanin's eye flicked from one to the other, chip bright on his wrist, Void's weight dragging against his grip. But he could still feel the presence at his heels. The shriek came again, closer, thinner, needle-sharp.
Pahanin's jaw set. "She's not following us," he barked into the comms, breath ragged. "She's following him."
"Say it faster," Levi replied on the comms.
"She wants the body," Pahanin snapped. "Trade hands. Just keep moving!"
His eyes flicked forward, a wall erupted from the ground, and the tunnel narrowed, its jaws setting in, but just then, Pahanin planted, spun, and threw Void through the gap.
"Levi!"
"Holy shi*", Levi looked up, saw Void arc, and sprinted.
He leapt and caught him midair with a slam, the momentum carrying them both forward. Just as his feet touched the floor, the ground seemed to reel back, but he ignored it and ran.
"Bandit!!!" Levi screamed, and a puddle of shadows rippled by his feet.
The ground yanked itself back, Levi slipped, he twirled, then hurled Void upwards, and the puddle rippled. Bandit shot up, one hand grabbed Void, while the other dug into the rocks as he climbed upwards.
"F*ck, f*ck, f*ck." Bandit cursed as he frantically clawed up. He looked back down, and Omnigul was already on his tail. "Cory YOU BASTARD, DO SOMETHING!" He screamed.
"I CAN'T!" Cory screamed back, desperately running towards another winding tunnel.
"AAHH!" Bandit cried out, using his legs to crawl and scuttle up the walls as he crazily chucked down knives. "DIE DIE DIE!"
Bandit flinched, the wall to his side burst open, and a hand outstretched from within, pulling him and Void into the flickering maw, "Oi-"
Before he could even blink, Bandit was thrown out of another portal, sent flying towards the tunnel, right behind the titans. The instant he landed, a Hidden Warlock hit the ground running next to him, glanced at him and disappeared.
"F*cking warlock!" Bandit groaned, hurling Void forward.
Liu Feng ran like a bull, crushing anything in her path with a smouldering charge. She blazed through the tunnels until her ears rang.
"CATCH!" Bandit yelled out.
She saw the body arcing ahead of her. Liu Feng took in a breath. Pure power coursed through her veins, the weight of her light sinking her feet into the stone. She looked up, her eyes flared.
Liu Feng bolted.
Storming towards Void like nothing else mattered, the Sunbreaker ploughed through the walls, lunging to make the catch.
With the body safely in her grip, she didn't stop and continued charging forward.
"Left!" Pahanin shouted, "Then straight—straight—"
The shriek rolled up their spines again. The tunnels behind them crumbled into nothing and remade themselves as slithering serpents that tore towards them, akin to a landslide.
"Keep moving!" Tevis said, throat raw.
Just as they hit the last tunnel, the dark thinned out, and a cold gust of wind brushed past their faces; they knew they were close.
The tunnels shook again, all exits snapping shut. But Liu didn't care; her face twisted in anger, and she rammed it open with one push. "Through!"
They poured into the final shaft, and the lip of Hellmouth showed ahead; the surface was in their reach.
"Go!" Tevis barked, feeling the landslide closing in, "Don't look back!"
No one stopped. As they ran, the last twenty metres crumbled beneath their feet, the rocks themselves rolling back into the tide that threatened to swallow them whole.
"Now!" Tevis said.
Everyone leapt for the lip, and the tide followed, surging up till it filled the maw.
Liu gathered her strength and threw. Void went out of her hands and straight into the sky, clearing the rim. For half a heartbeat, there was only a viridian horizon and the silhouette of him falling up into it.
Void was out of hellmouth.
Something hooked Tevis by the spine.
Omnigul's tether pierced through the dirt, snapped around his torso and yanked. Tevis felt the air escape his lungs as he slid back toward the dark. The Witch's outline flickered into the shaft, hands raised, teeth gnashing in the sound she made.
"Tevis!" Pahanin twisted down and caught his forearm. His boots skidded across the maw's lip, but Levi grabbed his arm and leaned back. Just then, Bandit took Levi's belt and pulled. Cory outstretched his palm, and a tendril wrapped around Bandit's legs, pulling all three of them back.
Liu soared into the sky, planted onto the surface, she looked down and grabbed Cory's tendril that had also reached for her. Liu pulled like she meant to move the world.
Outside, Void's body jolted. His lungs shook as he dragged air into his chest, and then, his eyes snapped open.
Everything came back in a rush, and as the dark's hold on him faded, light finally answered his call.
Void felt his body shake; light coursed through his veins. And the pale aura from his blade also surged; The energies intertwined, braiding themselves around his figure, grey and bright.
"About damn time," Void rasped as his voice returned.
He looked down and spotted Omnigul. Void drew his blade.
As the guardians pulled against Omnigul's tether, Void raised his blade overhead, still hovering in the air, the pale sinking into the edge until it looked like it was swallowing the light and leaving it sharper.
Below, Omnigul's tethers jerked once more; the line locked on Tevis's chest bit deeper.
Void's eyes flickered blue as he spotted her true form in the shaft below.
"Zamyr," he said.
«Yes,» the Ahamkara's spirit rose, wreathing around his figure as it held him still in the air.
Void's arms set, he swung.
"Shatter."
He cut the air like it was glass. The strike passed through the world. Almost as if it wasn't real.
But then the tether around Tevis shook. The sword's cut went through to Omnigul's soul, and the Witch took it in full, unable to even react. Her head snapped back, and her body curled inwards, like she'd never tasted pain before.
She reeled. The tether tore. Tevis shot forward into Pahanin's chest, and the two rolled towards Levi. The three hunters crashed and fell into a pile inches away from the maw's edge.
Omnigul felt pain. A burning cut that singed her very soul. She screamed, but it was different this time. As if she were the one who was afraid. And an instant later, the dirt buckled around her and the Witch was gone.
"Up!" Tevis coughed, throat raw. "Get up!"
Levi and Pahanin rolled off him and lay on the ground, heaving a heavy breath. For an instant, their breaths hitched, and all they could hear was their hearts pounding wildly in their chest.
Then the silence settled, and everyone broke into a dogged laugh.
Bandit lay flat and pounded the ground once like he'd argued with it and won. Cory sat up slowly, shadows still running off his wrists. Liu leaned on her hammer like it was a cane and didn't try to stop the thin grin that got out.
Tevis pushed to his knees, coughed again, and wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his hand. He looked around, hurriedly counted faces, counted again, and finally exhaled.
Void hit the dust ten metres out and slid, rolled, and came up to a knee. He smiled, looked at them all, and shook his head.
"You all took your time," he said, voice rough but alive.
Pahanin stared at him for a heartbeat, then for another, and then he laughed—short, relieved, feral. "F*ck off,"
"Ungrateful dog." Levi shook his head with a wry grin.
Liu chuckled. Bandit swore under his breath. Cory's shoulders dropped. Tevis reached out and clapped Void once on the shoulder, hard enough to hurt, because anything gentler would have failed to say what he really felt.
Void looked at Hellmouth's edge, then at their drained faces.
"Let's go home."
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