"Ready for a labyrinth?" Alma asked, her voice echoing slightly as she addressed the assembled students of the magic and knights class.
"Yes, ma'am," came the eager reply from every student, each one wearing the best armor their families could provide, a mix of polished steel and enchanted materials.
"Are you ready?" Caelum murmured, turning his gaze to Elias.
Elias offered him a soft, reassuring smile and a slight nod of his head.
'Why is my heart beating so loud right now?' Caelum thought, letting out a silent sigh of frustration. 'I really need to get my head straight. There is no possible way he feels the same way about me.'
"Go," Alma commanded, watching as the students immediately began to run into the dark, stone-lined dungeons. "But remember, do not go beyond the fortieth floor," she warned, her voice firm despite the chaos of their departure.
Caelum and Elias looked at the instructor and nodded their understanding before walking calmly into the dungeon entrance, their steps measured and controlled.
"Can you teleport inside?" Caelum asked as they easily navigated the first floor, which was relatively empty, and headed for the stairs leading to the second.
"No," Elias replied concisely, striking down a small, grotesque goblin with a quick thrust of his blade. "Teleportation magic does not work within the labyrinth's walls."
Caelum sighed inwardly, the sound barely audible. 'What if his poison acts up while we are down here?' he worried. He made sure to keep himself close to Elias, maintaining a constant, soft green healer circle of magic around him, just as he had promised Elias he would.
Inside the five meter radius of that protective circle, Elias would be shielded from most immediate dangers and, crucially, his spreading internal poison.
Caelum also kept his fire magic subtly active. Whenever Elias used his ice magic, Caelum immediately channeled a pulse of gentle fire magic to counteract the cold and keep Elias's core temperature stable and warm.
"Stop," Caelum instructed when Elias made a move toward the stairs to descend to yet another floor. He pointed to the carved number indicator on the wall beside the staircase. "This is level 40," he stated, his voice low. "Any deeper, and we are directly violating Madam Alma's strict orders."
Elias stopped his forward motion instantly and began walking back toward Caelum, his expression unreadable.
It was at that exact moment that Caelum's sensitive air magic picked up a multitude of rushing, powerful magical signatures surging rapidly in their direction.
He swiftly pulled Elias into a tight embrace against his chest and threw up a shimmering, fiercely hot fire barrier around them as he attempted to move away from the exit leading out of the 40th floor. However, he instantly realized they were too late; the source of the magical signatures was already upon them.
"Ice shield," Caelum shouted, his voice strained with effort.
Elias immediately added his own considerable ice magic to Caelum's shield, the combination making the defensive barrier immensely stronger and more durable.
"We have to leave immediately," Caelum urged, looking back at Elias, and his heart seemed to seize up in his chest.
"No," he gasped, his eyes wide with alarm. "Not now," he almost screamed in utter desperation as his strong air magic forcefully pinned them both to the cold stone wall just as the remaining students from their class came sprinting frantically past them.
When Caelum finally saw what the other students were running away from, his blood ran utterly cold in his veins. "Grand wolves and dire wolves," he whispered, the sheer size and number of the monstrous canines making the words catch in his throat.
He tried desperately to pull Elias up to his feet so they could run, but both their hands and feet were mysteriously submerged and fused into the unyielding stone of the wall and floor, trapping them.
'Bastards,' Caelum cursed viciously in his mind, his frustration boiling. He could visibly see Elias beginning to weaken, his color draining.
In just a terrifying second, their combined ice shield shattered completely as the last of the other students fled the floor, leaving them exposed.
"Three minutes until the time limit," Elias stated calmly, despite the imminent danger. "I can hold on for another five minutes beyond the limit with sheer will," he reassured Caelum.
Caelum gritted his teeth, a muscle twitching in his jaw. "Do not tell anyone about the magic I am about to use," he instructed, meeting Elias's eyes with a fierce, determined look.
He then pushed a surge of concentrated, warm light magic directly into Elias's body. He immediately noticed that Elias's internal poison seemed to halt its activity, as if it had been completely paused in time.
"Holy barrier," Caelum whispered the incantation, the words barely audible.
When the ethereal, glowing barrier materialized and solidified, he looked intently at Elias. "I have put up a healer circle and a holy barrier around you," he explained quickly. "If you remain inside this barrier, the poison will not act up or spread. But you absolutely must not walk away from its center," he stressed. "I can only maintain these advanced, complex barriers for a maximum of twenty minutes before my magic gives out."
"How long will it take you to defeat them all?" Elias asked, pointing to the snarling, enormous wolves that were already attempting to tear the shimmering barriers down with their claws and teeth.
"Three to five minutes, at most," Caelum predicted, assessing the sheer number of the creatures.
"Can you carry me to the entrance of the labyrinth before the twenty minute limit hits its end?" Elias asked, his tone serious and planning ahead.
Caelum nodded his head once, a firm movement. "I can and I will," he promised, quickly removing the rings he wore, which limited his magical output. "I am absolutely not letting you die here today," he stated with intense conviction.
Elias smiled a genuine, small smile and nodded back. "Go," he urged Caelum on.
Caelum clenched his sword tightly in his hand, put up powerful strength barriers around his own body and the blade, and then stepped outside the protective barriers he had created for Elias.
'Forty wolves,' he calculated instantly. 'Four seconds for each one, and I will be done in under four minutes.'
As his calculation had predicted, he was finished with the slaughter in exactly 160 seconds, less than three minutes. He immediately ran back to Elias and helped him climb onto his back. "I will keep the barriers active around you until we get all the way back to the dorm," Caelum stated, beginning to run toward the exits at his absolute maximum, blinding speed. "But once we are at the dorm, I will be at my magical limit, completely drained. Only these advanced barriers are keeping your poison under check, so I cannot afford to compromise on maintaining the flow of magic to them."
Elias instinctively held onto Caelum even tighter. "I will teleport the moment you inform Alma of the situation," he said, his breath warm against Caelum's neck.
It took Caelum fifteen grueling minutes of non-stop running to reach the entrance of the labyrinth. He was dangerously close to running out of both magical energy and breath.
Alma, who had been waiting anxiously, ran immediately toward them. "What in the world happened?" she demanded, her eyes searching.
"Abandoned at floor 40 by the others," Caelum managed to gasp out between labored breaths. He took a single, controlled step closer to her and lowered his voice slightly. "His poison is acting up badly; we are going to be leaving right now," he informed her.
Alma's eyes widened with understanding as she nodded her head sharply, and Elias instantly teleported them both back to the privacy of the dorms.
"I have two more minutes of power left for the barriers," Caelum stated, his voice a strained whisper as they materialized in their room. "Your safe limit still has two minutes remaining," he added for clarity.
"I will use it well, I promise," Elias whispered back, already beginning to undress both himself and a magically exhausted Caelum.
Elias could distinctly feel Caelum's magical defenses weakening rapidly as he felt a powerful, intense heat beginning to rise inside his own body due to the poison attempting to reassert itself. He gently stretched Caelum's entrance as best as he could, preparing him before the critical time completely ran out.
He gritted his teeth in a moment of pain as he pushed himself carefully inside Caelum. "I am so sorry for this rough approach," he apologized, his voice tight.
"Do not worry about it," Caelum groaned, his head falling back. "I am completely out of magic power, and I will be physically weak for a while," he managed to say.
"I will take care of you, I promise," Elias promised, his movements becoming slow and gentle.
Caelum nodded, managing a small, tired smile as he finally stopped pushing his last reserves of magic into Elias when he began to move inside him.
When Elias was finished, he slowly and carefully pulled out of Caelum. 'Thankfully, he is not bleeding there,' he thought with a wave of relief.
He got out of the bed and tenderly lifted Caelum into his arms, carrying him the short distance to the bathroom for a much needed, hot bath.
After he had carefully cleaned both of them, Elias carried Caelum back outside the bathroom, gently dried him with a soft towel, and then put his own comfortable, large clothes onto the smaller Caelum.
Caelum had fallen deeply asleep while in the warmth of the bath, allowing Elias to take a long, quiet look at his peaceful features. 'He looks so utterly tranquil when he is sleeping,' Elias mused, a soft expression on his face.
He suddenly felt his magic pick up the familiar signature of another, distinct teleportation happening just outside the door of his room.
He carefully covered Caelum with a thick blanket and then walked silently outside, closing the door softly behind him. "Father," he greeted the imposing figure standing in the hallway.