Chapter 34

Sylvester and Nero stood on opposite sides of the place. Sylvester held his friends in the palm of his hand whilst Nero had Erin and Brandon beside them. The two dark fae had returned to their regular appearances. Except instead of blonde hair, Erin's hair faded from black to a light blonde. Nero's companions were visibly stunned at Nero's words, no matter how hard they tried to hide it.

"I assume you haven't been home in a while." Sylvester stated flatly as he started to walk. The bridge wasn't completed. There would be no way for him to get across, not unless something decided that they wanted to be nice. He wasn't sure what Nero aimed to achieve by following him. He didn't know why Nero wanted him in the first place and then decided to...He tried to minimise his shock as he came to the conclusion, the reason why they wanted to trap him.

"Ah you wouldn't be far wrong, I thought this place was destroyed." Nero crossed their arms and started to enter. Each step they took caused the grass to turn a tan colour. Erin and Brandon hesitantly followed. The fact Nero mentioned their father was a rather concerning fact for them, they didn't want to meet the man who brought up someone as terrifying as Nero. "come on out Father! I know you're here." Nero seemed to pout as they looked around. "Wouldn't you like to see how far i've come?"

The place seemed to grow lighter slightly, Sylvester didn't understand why until Nero stomped their foot and looked up angrily. "Oh come on! I know you're stronger than a few fancy light tricks!" Nero continued to walk around the place. Sylvester got more and more uncomfortable with each step he took. He could no longer step back for fear of falling into the acidic waters."Now, Now Sylvester, if you were that eager to die why didn't you let me do it without all the running?"

"I'm not." Sylvester said confidently as he gripped the device tighter. Nero said no other word but they launched for the boy. Sylvester tried to dive to the side but apparently it wasn't him what Nero was after. Despite Sylvester's strong grip on the gadget Nero still managed to scratch it out of Sylvester's hands.

"With some simple deduction." Nero spat the last words out , they had a sinister expression on their face as they looked at Sylvester. "I can assume your dear, dear friends are in here..." Their eyes wandered to the device in his hand and he gave it a violent shake. "Wouldn't it be such a disaster if they were to-"

Nero lightly chuckled the device over to where the water was. In a very quick and frantic response Sylvester reached his hand out, he thanked whatever benign was up there that he was quick enough before he screamed in pain. His hand had fallen slightly into the water. Nero seemed angry that the device didn't fall into the water but there was a glint of satisfaction in their eyes as Sylvester screamed in pain and lifted up his hand which was dripping in blood.

Sylvester gripped the device tightly, he was sure a few splashes of the acidic waters had hit the device despite his efforts to stop it. He hoped that it hadn't done much to it. He couldn't really concentrate too well due to the searing pain in his hand. Nero was too close to him, he couldn't roll anywhere and stand up without being kicked down again.

"Awe look at that." Nero spoke in a baby voice. Sylvester couldn't hold back his annoyance aymore as the pain traveled up his arm. It was liked he had been stabbed repeatedly in the hand or he'd spilt hot oil on it. "See father? You can't even help them stay safe from yourself." Whilst Nero was talking, something had caught Sylvester's eye, the tree.

Brandon and Erin caught sight of it too. They could see what was happening and it scared them. As followers of Nero, it terrified them. Nero had their back turned to the tree so they couldn't see as it began to grow and stretch. The terrified looks on their faces didn't catch Nero's attention as they didn't care enough to look.

Sylvester quietly scrambled to his feet and sprinted to the tree once more, moving the device to his other hand. Nero turned around, expecting to still see Sylvester on the floor. It wasn't hard to find him, even if the place was big, Sylvester had slowed down. "Seriously?!" They shouted and groaned, they attempted to move forward but they were stuck. They were stuck to the ground with vines wrapping around their feet and ankles. The same was the case for Brandon And Erin but they hadn't noticed quite yet.

There were several things which went unnoticed in the place. None of them paid attention to the darkness which took over the symbols on the stone or the fact that the riddles had changed. Everybody was too tense and focused on one thing. Survival.

Sylvester had made his way to the tree which held out a branch for him. Sylvester knew he wouldn't be able to hold onto it with his hands without risking the lives of his friends and so he tried to balance on the branch the best he could. That way he would be able to throw them to safety if he had to, if he fell.

The branch returned back to the base fo the tree, where he was covered by other branches and leaves. "You can't hide him forever!" Nero shouted angrily as Sylvester sat in the tree. He was so confused and in pain, he didn't really know what he was supposed to do. He knew what he would like to do and that's all that he cared about right now.

He looked closely at the device with tears in his eyes. He wanted his Tyrell back, he wanted his friends back. He could feel the hope growing within his chest. He couldn't dwell on it much before but now he could. There was hope and light in his heart, directed towards the odd device in his hands.

Whilst Sylvester was stuck in the tree, Nero looked around for any sort of help. When they found none they pouted and crossed their arms. They were in an extremely bad mood now, they were stuck at home once again. They felt powerless and useless. Their mood was not improved as the door opened and many people walked through.

At the front of the group was Addamak and Demitria, followed closely by Dawn and many fae. All the fae which Nero had captured oer the years. They all looked somewhat weak and raggedy. It was understandable considering how long some of them had been captured for. The room grew brighter. The shadows which Nero had previously cast around the place completely vanished.

"No hard feelings?" Instead of the usual happy yet sinister tone, Nero had a flat and plain tone to their voice. They knew that they were defeated. They knew that they wouldn't get out of this easily. That didn't mean that they were going to give up. They had came too far to do that.