NOVEL WEB Chapter 9
Dmitri ran like the devil was after him; which was nearly the case. He rounded the last corner that would have taken him out of the cave; it was blocked! The quake before must have brought down the roof. Dmitri, in the shock that his escape was hampered lost his concentration, and his hold on the magic keeping his lantern lit slipped, it went out. Dmitri assessed the situation; he was now trapped beneath a mountain, in the dark, being pursued by a demon that had already slain his apprentice. Fear began to creep in. He knelt there in the cold dark, listening, and then wished he hadn't. Over the soft gurgle of the river, he could hear the horrible liquid-mud breathing of the demon. Trying to remember the layout of the caves, he crawled back the way he had come on all fours, away from the sound of the breathing. As he was crawling, he accidentally brushed up to the wall of the cave and sent some debris scattering. There was a sharp intake of breath; the demon had heard. Dmitri could then hear an odd snuffling noise and heard the demon moving about. Dmitri realised to his horror that the demon was trying to get his scent. Figuring that he didn't have much more time before he was found anyway, Dmitri groped around in the dark for a rock on the ground and threw it back towards the original, now blocked, cave entrance. Hearing it, the demon made a triumphant sound and charged towards the source of the noise. It hit the rubble blocking the entrance and burst out into the sunlight. Surprised, the demon looked around itself for Dmitri. Unable to locate him outside the cave, it turned and peered back in; there, huddled in the pool of daylight streaming in the newly created hole, was Dmitri.
Dmitri, seeing he was now exposed, and with the cave entrance right there before him, did the only thing he could think of; he dove into the river. The water was icy cold and deep, the current strong. He could die as easily in the river as by the demon if he wasn't careful. The current swept him out of the cave and past the demon, which roared in frustration and started down the mountain. Dmitri saw the demon heading in the direction the river was flowing so he started to swim downstream himself. The cold water was biting against his flesh, and arms leaden, Dmitri felt exhausted. The events of the day catching up to him, he closed his eyes and let himself drift.
A bang on the head brought Dmitri back to where he was. Berating himself at having fallen asleep in the first place, he looked around and found to his surprise that he was back in the village. He'd hit a bridge support. Relieved that it had been only moments since he dived into the river, Dmitri clambered out and stumbled into the village, "Run! Everyone run!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, "The demon is loose!" The people that were in the streets went into a frenzy of activity; screaming and shoving and pushing as they all rushed to safety. Dmitri stumbled onwards towards the church. As he did so however, he turned and saw the demon; its face was a mask of fury. It bore down upon him with unremitting vengeance in its eyes, stopping only to snatch up a villager and hurl it at the fleeing Dmitri, who dodged out of the way at the last moment and made it into the church. Inside, Dmitri ran down the nave, "Father Marcus!" he called, "The demon; it's real!"
Father Marcus, who had been preparing things for his morning sermon looked up wild-eyed and terrified, "Fire, quickly!" he demanded.
“But it didn’t work!” blurted Dmitri picturing the demon tearing apart the fire elemental.
“Hush man, and do as I ask,” said Marcus sharply, not tolerating one of the churches Exarchs losing their nerve. “I shall imbue your fire with a holy light.”
Dmitri, feeling foolish at not having thought of this already, raised his arms and brought them around him in one massive glyph for fire. Outside the church, great gouts of flame erupted from the ground, encircling the church in one big circle of fire. Father Marcus followed suit with a chant and the flames turned golden. The demon, who had only just reached the church was thrown backward and screeched in both agony and fury. It raised its arms and let loose several bursts of some dark magic. The magic impacted against the hard wooden doors and the stone of the church. The places it hit began to darken and the wood began to grow fungal-like sores and began to rot, the stone simply crumbling. Seeing the church that was his life decaying around him and that his holy powers couldn’t do much to forestall the demon, Father Marcus wailed. He grabbed Dmitri, "Do something! You must do something!" he pleaded.
Dmitri was in a panic, nothing that he had dealt with before had prepared him for something like this, "I can't," he said "My powers are elemental and natural, the demons are completely unnatural."
Regaining some of this composure but still sobbing, Father Marcus responded by rushing to the altar, kneeling, bowing his head and beginning to pray.
"What are you doing?" asked Dmitri incredulous," This is no time to pray!"
"I think you will find that it is time to pray Dmitri, a demon walks the earth and our earthly powers are useless. Only divine power can save us now."
Nodding numbly, Dmitri agreed and rushed to the spot that Father Marcus was kneeling and joined him. No sooner had Dmitri uttered words to the heavens, beseeching divine assistance then- then the screeching and howling outside stopped! Dmitri leapt to his feet ecstatic, they'd done it! He reached over to nudge Father Marcus, who was still kneeling, only to find that he didn't move. Not only that, but he couldn't be budged. Dmitri looked around, no one else was around nearby and all the candles were lit. But the candles weren't flickering. The flames weren't even moving! Becoming more and more alarmed, Dmitri rushed to the large doors that led outside. They too would not budge. He could see through the holes that the demon's corruptive magic had eaten away. Looking outside through them, he could see that the corruption had stilled as well. Beyond this, he could see the massive wall of flame and past that the hideous figure of the demon, also frozen in time.