Speed was as important to the four of them now as breathing. Without breathing they could die, without speed they could die.
It didn't have to be mentioned that they made it sacred as they ran through the chamber and reached a second exit twenty meters later.
Haru stepped forward and laid a glowing hand on the door. When he pulled, it swung open with no creak.
He peeped out and then waved for them to follow him as he exited.
They all carefully stepped out of the chamber, out into an empty corridor.
At a second glance Ran noticed that it was more than a corridor, it was a bridge of polished starlight arching over a spiraling drop into a river snaking through the mountain ridge from the Abyss, a river that ran hot and red.
The starlight felt soothing at first, gentle. Ran knew if they fell off the bridge it'd be straight down to the abyss but the light, tender, like lullabies from the stars themselves, comforted him.
He shook his head. He couldn't give in again, not to the memories, not to the aura of this place. His hand twitching, he came to a halt.
"What is it?" Kigana who was beside him asked as she too stopped beside him.
But before he could speak, Haru screamed at them. "Don't stop!" The Acolyte barked, moving back to pull them forward. "It's a memory sieve, the light. Don't look at it. Don't think. Just run."
Erisa had tears streaking down her face, but she was moving. The floor beneath them shimmered with moving lights as the starlight fell upon it. Constellations that pulsed like living veins appeared on it. Every one held a memory. Every one opened a wound Ran would have preferred left alone.
He shook his head in a futile attempt to dislodge the emotions and kept pace with the rest of them.
They sprinted across the bridge, and as they did the door they had exited from opened.
Ran turned just in time to see one of the knights behind them take flight.
The sound of the dragon knight's wing was felt by all four of them like a pressure on their minds. The knight soared above the bridge, armored like a cathedral and winged like a dragon.
Ran looked high up even as he continued running and locked gaze with the being. His gaze blazed with something ancient and utterly merciless, something that caused a primal part of the young Fey to recoil in caution.
They were almost at the other end of the bridge now. Ran knew that the dragon Knight midair won't be quick enough to cut them off.
But then, a spear of light slammed into the bridge behind them.
It cracked.
"Jump!" Haru screamed.
They dove into the next doorway at the end of the bridge just as the bridge itself exploded behind them, fragments spiraling down into the fiery Abyss.
Not wasting time, they got to their feet and took off once more. The next chamber they found to hide in was strangely quiet. White tiles covered the floor, cracked and faded. The ceiling was high, domed, with statues of faceless angels.
The air was cold here, nearly arctic. It felt like death hung in the air. But Ran supposed that might just be the mood from being chased by ancient abominations of war.
Erisa knelt, panting. "They won't stop until we are dead, I can feel it. They're not just guards—they're executioners."
"They're hunters," Ran corrected softly. "And this is a sacred kill zone, an environment they are very familiar with. Everything in this tower is meant to be here except us. I have a feeling no one was supposed to know that Dragonhearth had been unsealed, but we seem to have stumbled into quite a trouble. Lucifer wants us here, and if we refuse…we get erased."
"Great," Haru muttered. "So what does that mean for us?"
"We are being hunted, we must find a way to escape. There's no way we can overcome the foes after us," Ran answered grimly.
"From what I know, Dragons are very powerful. Why haven't they gone all out to kill us?" Haru asked.
It was Kigana who answered him. "In Kurana, global powers are very powerful, yet they don't go all out when faced with a national threat as that would mean going nuclear. Attention, they don't want attention."
Ran nodded. "Any huge power surge from Dragonhearth which is supposed to be null, would draw the attention of the Assarians then the Feys, Archdemons, and Divine Pantheons would come to investigate."
Haru snapped his finger, making all of them glare at him. But he ignored them, a look of enlightenment on his face. "Why don't we do just that? What would be the reaction if the Assarians sense a Lagarakei is running wild in the Abyss, right upon Dragonhearth?"
Ran shook his head. "Even if I was willing to open myself up to that thing again, I can't. Lucifer's dominion is supreme here. No other power that is not congenital or of this place can have authority here."
"Ah, do that's what that was for," Erisa said, looking like she'd found the final piece to a puzzle. When she faced some questioning looks from them, she explained further. "When I was looking for you, I had to use my mind to find you, but your mind…it was running fast, too fast. It was like trying to arrest a word that has already been said. I realized that there was something in here that made time faster than it is outside the tower. With what you just revealed, I think that temporal effect is what makes Lucifer's dominion supreme here. If we can just step out of the tower again then I suspect you might be able to regain your abilities."
Ran wondered if that theory could be true. He really hadn't tried to use any of his powers before he stepped inside so it might very well be true.
"Well, we just need to make it back to the bridge, it connected to adjacent parts of the tower and was outside," he said.
"And then what?" Kigana asked, watching him.
Ran frowned. It was time to stop running. He couldn't run away from his past anyway. He was starting to realize that it always crept up on him at the worst moments.
So if he couldn't run away from it, did that mean that he could not use it?
No, he could use it. And he was going to. He will use it to protect his friend, empower his kinhood, and see his will done.
Meeting the eyes of his friends, he said, "And then I must become a new being in order to save us."
Almost pained, Kigana asked: "What?"
"The Arrow of Victory."