"W-What happened? They are not moving anymore!" Gabriel finally showed a moment of relaxation as the worrying lines on his forehead vanished. But he was confused and worried about his best friend.

"He won!" Sir Dolorem exclaimed and looked towards Sylvester. But, there was nobody... and just a deep dark pit, as wide as ten meters.

'No, no!' Sir Dolorem left everything behind and ran towards the pit. His duty of protecting Sylvester was a joke already. He was just a helper, but he knew he couldn't ever let the boy die--no matter what.

"Sylvester!" He shouted into the hole. But all he received back was absolute stillness and a menacing sensation of nothingness. He felt powerless against the bottomless pit right now, as he had no means to go in there and get Sylvester out.

"Did he make this?" Gabriel also reached the edge, as the mountain of snakes coming towards them had died silently by now and had already started to rot and vanish.

"We need to get him out! He's likely in bad condition--he must be Solarium deprived." Sir Dolorem didn't hide the urgency.

"How do we get there? How deep is it?" Gabriel wondered.

Thud!

"The mist has started to disappear." Bishop Lazark finally came out of the stone golem, battered and bloodied as well. He then walked to the edge of the pit and frowned. "We can't have Lord Bard stay there! Let me help."

"How? We all lack Solarium. We can't create stairs to the bottom even if we all tried." Gabriel argued, frowning. He was thinking about calling Felix as he'd have perfect magic right now.

But it appeared Bishop Lazark had his ways. The Stone golem didn't disappear and now started to climb down the pit slowly. "I am a necromancer. Did you forget that, Priest? At least it might bring Lord Bard up."

But what they didn't notice was that the little invisible cat also jumped onto the back of the golem and waited to reach down. He was also worried for his son. How was he going to live without his Maxy? It was already saddening to him.

"Maxy!" Miraj meowed loudly once he knew the people above couldn't hear him. Everything was dark, however, as no light reached that deep, not when there were dark clouds in the sky.

Tip! Tip!

Woosh!

However, it appeared as if the heavens were crying for some reason, as the rain started to pour and made the golem lose its grip--sending it sliding down straight to the bottomless pit.

"Mewaaaa..." Miraj was screaming and holding onto the golem for his dear life. Whatever number it was, he was not taking any chances.

Boom!

Then, with a loud thud, the golem fell onto the bottom and shattered into stone and mud. Miraj was safe, thankfully, and soon cleaned himself quickly with his tongue. But, now that he looked around, he felt scared as it was all dark. "Maxy! Where are you?"

"Maxy!"

Miraj ran around, trying to find the body in pitch black darkness. It was not a large space, so he reckoned if he ran enough, he'd eventually stumble onto him. But seeing Sylvester was not replying to his shouts, he felt worried.

"Don't leave me, please!... I don't wanna be alone again." Miraj cried loudly and ran around frantically. To Sylvester, he may just be another being in his life, but to Miraj, Sylvester was his everything--as clear by his cries.

Thud!

Running around, Miraj finally fell down as he tripped on something. He quickly returned to the spot and tapped around, and there he felt the silky hair of Sylvester. "Maxy! Don't worry. I'll save you!"

Miraj started to vomit quickly and soon took out a bag full of more Solarium crystals. It was a treasure in itself that Sylvester had illegally compiled. They had likely spent more in this one fight than the gross domestic product of many small viscounties by now.

Miraj didn't know how to use magic, but he knew how to make Sylvester good. So he quickly took out a handful of solarium crystals, shoved them into his mouth, and then forced his jaws to chew on them. The crystals soon melted like sugar and disappeared.

"Maxy, why are you looking so thin? Are you dead?" Miraj cried and put his head on the chest to listen to the heart.

Bam!

But all of a sudden, two arms caught him in a hug and plastered him on the chest. Miraj happily slid to the top and started to lick Sylvester's dirty face to clean him, for he was his child, and it was his duty.

Sylvester chuckled as the first thing he saw after activating a little magic was Miraj's furry, cute, white chubby face. "You truly seem like an angel right now, Miraj. Come, let me kiss your forehead."

Sylvester left a big nasty slurp on Miraj's head, which obviously annoyed the cat as he tried to get away but was held by Sylvester.

"Let go! That's so dirty!" Miraj cried.

Sylvester scoffed. "Yeah, that's what I feel when you lick my face."

Both of them fell silent then and looked at each other's faces. Then in an instant, they burst into laughter, both feeling much relaxed in body and mind.

"You're very strong, Maxy."

Sylvester sighed and tried to get up. "Yes, but clearly not enough. Let's get out of here now."

He took more Solarium crystals and started eating them like they were little snacks. Even Miraj was given a few to eat. The strange thing was they could never tell what the crystal tasted like. All they knew was that it felt amazing--refreshing.

Sylvester, however, was silently worrying for himself. He noticed how thin his arms and legs were looking. It was as if he had lost all his muscles. His veins were clearly visible, popping out, and his wrist was so thin now that he could circle them with his index finger and thumb and still leave space for Miraj's fat paws.

'What is wrong with me? This happened the last time as well. I should be a dead boy now, but... here I am." Sylvester wondered in confusion. His own body was a mystery at times, and he didn't like it as it left things uncertain.

"How is everything at the top?" He asked.

"It's raining, and everybody is worried for you," Chonky answered while chewing on the crystals.

Sylvester took a long breath and forced himself to stand up. "Let's go up then, or who knows, Sir Dolorem might just jump down."

But he was obviously not going to use light magic to walk up as that would take a lot of Solarium. Instead, the way up was with the air element. "Chonky, hold onto me tight. We're going to fly."

So the cat wrapped his arms around Sylvester's neck and prepared for whatever was to come. Then, all of a sudden, from Sylvester's palm came a tornado of air, and started to lift them up. Sylvester kept on increasing the intensity, and soon, in that confined space, the tornado acted like a geothermal geyser.

"Weeeee..." Miraj was enjoying this more than anything.

Air hit their faces, and soon raindrops came from the sky. One good thing it did was refresh them, but Sylvester knew he was already on thin ice and couldn't use too much Solarium or might risk falling unconscious again.

'My god, how deep did I fall? And I made this?' He was in awe as even after ten seconds, they were rising up into the air. The exit had finally started to get bigger exponentially, however.

Woosh!

Then, at once, they thrust out of the pit and appeared in the open sky for a few seconds. But by then, Sylvester had started to feel weak, and when they began to fall back down, he cursed as the pit was still under them.

So he used a final push of air with his right hand and threw himself to the edge of the pit, where he fell hard with a thud and rolled into the mud, getting dirtier than before. Miraj had already jumped off, however, and was clear.

The rain seemed to be falling hard at the moment as everything appeared hazy around.

But soon, the footsteps of the mud resounded, and Gabriel arrived. "Max! Are you good?"

Sylvester nodded, but at the same time contradicted himself. "Do I look good? Give me a piggyback now and be my mare."

"..."

Bam!

Gabriel punched his arm lightly and laughed. "Stop joking, man."

Sylvester sighed and relaxed with his eyes closed. "It's the best way to cope with pain and exhaustion. How is everything on your side? Did the snakes stop?"

Sir Dolorem and Bishop Lazark knelt beside him too. The old knight quickly started putting some sort of lotion on his wounds. "They melted away with the rain... after you killed the Bloodling, they were just empty husks."

"I'm glad."

However, Bishop Lazark was in awe of Sylvester and refused to address him as just a Priest. "I feel honored for the spectacle you showed me today, Lord Bard. You truly are worthy of being called God's Favored."

'Great, another worshiper of mine.' Sylvester cheered silently as he felt the strong scent of tulips.

But the truth was, Sylvester could not move too much right now. So he was dependent on them for now. "We need to cover this hole or else if someone falls in it... it'll be instant death."

Sir Dolorem nodded and created earth runes over the whole pit's mouth and erected a flat covering of earth on it. "As long as nobody tries to dig here, they won't fall anymore."

"Shall we return then?" Gabriel asked. They had just spent a few hours in the mountains, but that was enough to make them hate it.

Sylvester agreed. "Let's do that and return to the Holy Land at the quickest... this time with a new little bard in training."

Gabriel chuckled, knowing who he was talking about. "Are you sure about taking Shane along? He's just a kid... a bit too kindhearted."

Even Sir Dolorem chimed in and took Sylvester's side. "He's old enough, and his talents of being an Arch Wizard someday can be a boon. Priest Sylvester making him his apprentice is even better. But first... We should take a look at the Bloodling's nest. Oftentimes, they are hoarders who keep precious items with them."

Sylvester's eyes shined in an instant, and he winked at Miraj. The good chubby cat also understood the task very well and saluted with his paws. The bank of Chonky was once again open for taking more treasures in.

"Let's go then." Sylvester stood up with Gabriel's help and walked along with the rest. The mist had already disappeared, so everything was now clear.

Sir Dolorem seemed to have seen the nest before, so he took them directly in a direction. Eventually, they arrived in a small crater at the side of a mountain, not too deep but enough to hold water in it, drowning whatever treasure was in.

Sylvester walked to the edge and picked a fist-sized strange rock. It was pitch-black with shining blue veins all over it. His hand even shivered, holding it, as he felt everything he did today was worth it for this maddening reward of unimaginable proportions--worth more than gold and silver fortunes.

"T-This is... a Skygem!"

___________________

[A/N: It seems WN has made the decision to kill the site. They have now locked chaps on the website and force people to read on the app, be it originals or fanfics. I'm sorry if this is causing any inconvenience. I hope they go back on this decision.]

GT = 1 Bonus chapter.

Super Gift = 1 Bonus chapter.

APE TOGETHER STRONG!