The room wasn't flooded with water—it was drowned in darkness.

Josh knew he should see light spilling from the door and into the room, but it just didn't. It stopped at the spot where the corridor ended and the room began.

Whatever caused the unending darkness must have had some weaknesses, otherwise the burning inferno in the left corner of the room wouldn't illuminate the area around it. Two Shadow Knights stood, their energy-produced fire blazing around them.

Josh studied them, and the ember of dislike for anything Shadow Knight related sparked into a burning anger. He recognized one of the flushed, sweating faces. Peter.

Cale's sharp intake of breath indicated he had seen him, too.

"Fourteen Shadow Knights," Mara whispered, words robotic yet strained. "Two seem to be too wounded to fight."

Josh scanned the crowd. As Mara said, fourteen Shadow Knights stood, weapons drawn, stances ready despite the way they huffed for breath. Two others lay on the ground, unconscious. Large red and sickly yellow bumps covered their exposed skin.

And seated on the ground in the back, those metal bands still clasped on his wrist, was Xander.

Alone.

The world froze, and the darkness of the room absorbed all the warmth from Josh like it did the light. It didn't make sense. Xander said he would protect Eli. His baby brother should be there by the Paladin leader.

Fighting to breathe through the terror crushing his chest, Josh searched the room again. He could only see as much as the fire lit, and there was no Eli in its area.

One of the Shadow Knights spotted them, but before she could alert the others, another Shadow Knight called, "There!"

A dog-sized thing darted into the light a mere second later. It had a mammal-like body with four legs and short, matted brown fur with a hard, mud-like shell covering its back and shoulders. Its head, however, was the pointed, large-eyed face of an insect with mandibles that clacked in a bite at the Shadow Knight that had yelled.

It reached forward with one of its forelegs, revealing a weird, pincer-like hand with four points. The Shadow Knight dodged again. A barb-ended tail darted from the creature's back and sliced through the man's shoulder.

He backed away without a sound, eyes set, and swung his axe over his head. Water exploded from the weapon, creating an aura around it.  He slashed through the creature's head with a crunch.

"Moshe chose shi'raz. Of course he chose shi'raz," Aharon grumbled, but his smile gave away his amusement.

Cutting grips? Boomer said. Never heard of those things. And its English meaning is really lame.

Josh eyed the pincer as the last bit of the slain shi'raz vanished. I don't think I would want to deal with them. But without light, he had no idea how many hid in the darkness.

"There are Paladins here!" the Shadow Knight from before finally got to shout.

"That we are," Aharon said, but it seemed more to himself. Then, to Josh and the others, he continued, "I hope you've had long enough to examine the situation."

He held his hands to each side, palms up, and walked forward. Lightning surged from his hand, overflowing in torrents. It cast a yellow light on Aharon and the area around him.

Aharon was connected to lightning. Josh liked him even more, but what made him happier was seeing the lightning cut through the eternal darkness.

Josh summoned his own blue lightning to his weapons, surging more in his shield so it glowed. It could only light up about a foot around him, but it had to be enough.

The Shadow Knights had turned their full attention to Aharon, a muttered conversation passing between them. The one with the axe stepped forward, water gushing out over his weapon once more.

No use for sneaking, not when the Shadow Knights had seen them and now focused on Aharon. Josh stepped forward, sparing one more glance at Xander's side in desperate hope before letting the reality sink in. Eli wasn't there.

But he had to be somewhere.

"Eli!" he cried.

No answer.

Lightning cracked, water hissed like steam, and the energy usage pressure spiked. Josh groaned, the light of his shield flickering as he fought to stay on his feet. He stumbled back—

And it saved his life. The end of a barbed tail slammed into the edge of his shield, mere inches off from piercing his chest. Josh yelped, wheeling backward. The shi'raz clattered its pain as lightning traveled through its tail.

An arrow whizzed past his ear, followed in quick succession by three more. The first two shattered on the ground, but the third elicited another pained click.

Cale appeared by Josh's side, half cloaked in darkness, and stabbed in the shi'raz's direction.

It missed, but Josh could hear the creature's strange feet scrambling back.

Something was going on with the Shadow Knights. Aharon's lighting kept popping and snapping while the Shadow Knights cried out and countered with what sounded like earth and water, but Josh forced himself to zone all that out and focus on his sword and shield.

He surged, willing his energy to his hands and up into the metal. Lightning burst forth on his sword and shield for a moment, creating at least a ten-foot circle around him, before he couldn't hold it anymore and it faded.

That was all the time it took to find the lone shi'raz glaring at them from off to the left.

Cale lunged and vanished into the darkness. There was a crunch, a cry from the creature, a grunt from Cale. Josh stepped forward, reduced to only a foot of light again. By the time he caught up to Cale, the shi'raz was disintegrating into particles.

"I don't think it's safe for us to be in here. There could be more of those things," he said. He placed his free hand against a cut across his thigh. Wincing at the touch, he nodded to the other side of the room. "And they're eventually going to hit us."

Josh finally allowed himself a moment to look at Aharon and the Shadow Knights. Somehow, it intensified the pressure drowning him.

A raging storm collided with a vortex of elements. Aharon swung his arms, lightning arcing from his fingers like whips. As he flipped his arms and brought them down, the lightning lashed out at the earth spikes shooting from the ground. The earth scattered into dozens of pieces.

Not missing a beat, the ancient Paladin moved to intercept a huge fireball created by the unfamiliar Shadow Knight. Aharon swirled the lightning into a cage-like form that contained the fire. The axe-wielder had to produce a wall of water to prevent Aharon from smashing the lightning-caged fire down on them.

Steam hissed through the air, vanishing into the surrounding darkness. A flash of red appeared in the misty veil a second before a flaming spear cut through the air. Aharon moved almost before the attack became visible, dodging it while twisting the lightning back to lash out at the Shadow Knights once more. The fire spear crashed yards from where Josh stood, but it proved Cale's point.

Josh had faced nothing but danger after danger since arriving in the dimension. He had almost lost his life multiple times over the course of a month. He had watched, powerless, as Peter kidnapped his little brother.

Never before had he felt so much like a mortal who stumbled into a battle of titans.

Cale moved back toward the door. Josh followed close, keeping Cale in his light. Right then, he really didn't want to feel alone.

They found Mara once again taking aim with her bow, but now she focused on the battle in the room's corner.

"Do you think you can aim through the chaos?" It seemed like Cale tried to sound serious, but instead he sounded amused.

"I just need to do enough to help Xander."

Josh couldn't find Xander amid the darkness, fading steam, and flash of magical attacks, but Mara stared intently down her arrow. She took a deep breath before becoming so still, she almost didn't look real.

Josh followed her gaze. For a moment, all he saw was darkness, then Aharon's lightning passed over the spot. It was so fast he almost didn't spot them—Xander and a Shadow Knight man pointing a sword at his neck to keep him from moving.

Mara released her arrow. The colliding elements nearly blocked out the sudden yell, followed by a shouted curse. Footsteps grew louder in the darkness until Xander burst into view with them in the hallway.

Despite knowing what he would find, Josh glanced around Xander. He locked his jaw against the wave of sickness Eli's absence left.

"Why are you—you shouldn't be—how are you even..." Xander trailed off and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You will explain later," he continued, shooting them each a meaningful look. "For now, we need to escape."

"Where's Eli?" Josh demanded, the panicked question finally bubbling out. "He was supposed to be with you."

"He's safe, but I'll explain after—"

A screech pierced the darkness, and the hairs on the back of Josh's neck rose. It was a strange sound, mixing a familiar ear-piercing cry with the chattering of an insect.

Xander grimaced, face pale. "We need to go." He shoved Josh's shoulder back toward the hallway they had arrived from.

"Not that way!"

Aharon's voice caught them before Xander could hurry them more than a few feet away. Aharon cried words in the dragonic language and tossed the lightning from his fingers. It formed hundreds of jagged lighting blades that pelted down on the Shadow Knights. With their attention turned to that, Aharon sprinted across the room, lightning once more pouring off his hands, but now a brilliant white instead of yellow.

He directed one hand in front of him and the other off to the side. The first attack slammed into a solid surface. Josh couldn't see what the second hit, but whatever it was, it shrieked loud enough that the world grew unstable under his feet.

The object under Aharon's first onslaught gave out in an explosion of bits and pieces. Parts were still hitting the ground when he swung around to direct a flow of lightning back toward the Shadow Knights. They'd proceeded halfway across the room, the lightning blades already dealt with.

"Go!" Aharon barked.

Xander didn't question the order, but instead nodded and waved the others to follow. When Josh hesitated, once again searching the darkness for Eli's familiar small frame, Xander sighed. "This way, Josh," he said, voice gentle despite the haste with which he spoke. "Eli went through that door earlier with another young boy. Now, let's hurry."

Josh jerked around to Xander. Another young boy. It had to be Moshe. But why would Eli be with him?

It didn't matter, and as Xander's next gesture to hurry reminded him, he didn't have time to stand around figuring it out. He ran into the room with Xander following beside him. Josh stuck to the wall, hoping that the layout of the room was like the one they'd been in before.

It proved to be, but much emptier of monsters as no more shi'raz appeared from the darkness.

Mara emerged in the light of the hallway first, followed by Cale. He glanced back, searching for their hidden figures.

"Keep going!" Xander said.

Cale hesitated for less than a second before he and Mara continued to run ahead.

Josh stumbled the moment he escaped the encapsulating darkness, but once he regained his bearings, he continued on in a sprint. Shouts echoed behind him, followed by the altered screech. He kept his eyes trained on Mara's and Cale's rapidly approaching figures.

"Why are you guys going so slow?" Josh asked when he caught up.

They turned to him, but their gazes quickly moved over his shoulders.  When they stopped, Josh nearly fell trying to avoid a collision.

Cale frowned. "Xander can't run at full speed," he pointed out.

Josh turned. Xander was dozens of yards back, closer to the room than them. Josh kicked himself. Someone had mentioned the bands Xander wore blocked his connection to his dragon, so of course he couldn't run as fast as a Paladin usually could.

He caught up to them, breathing heavy. His brows pulled together, and he looked like he might scold them for stopping, but he shook his head instead.

"The man who came with you... He is Aharon, right?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?" Josh asked.

Xander smiled, but he wouldn't look directly at any of them. Instead, his eyes scanned the hallway ahead of them. "Every Paladin leader passes down the scale of Aharon's dragon—the key to this dimension—so I suppose you can say this is the temple I know the most about."  He took a deep breath that turned into a grimace. "I have paused long enough. Let's keep going."

They ran, though not at full speed despite Xander's half-hearted attempt to order them to. Like the hallway Aharon led them through, this one was devoid of traps, but it stretched far ahead and sloped.

Based on the hitch in Xander's breathing, he could have done without the uphill run.

Feet pounded against the stone floor. Josh pivoted, raising his sword and shield and summoning his lightning. It didn't reach his arms before he released his hold. Either from relief or shock, he didn't know.

Aharon ran toward them. No monsters or Shadow Knights trailed behind him, which was good. The bad, though, was the myriad of cuts across his body. Blood seeped from the wound, but it didn't get far before turning into red particles that disappeared in the air.

Josh opened his mouth, but no words came out.

"The Shadow Knights will be coming shortly," he said when he reached them, one eye screwed shut against a storm of red particles streaming from a gash on his forehead. "I left them with the reaper, but it won't be long before they forsake defeating it for chasing us."

Reaper.  Josh shuddered.  The cry had been so different he had hoped he was wrong, but no.  There was another reaper still surviving in this temple.

"How much longer do you have?" Xander asked.

"Long enough to get you more help," Aharon answered. "Come. Let's... Let's get as far ahead as we can."

His voice caught, and that more than anything made Xander's implications sink in. Josh gaped at the particles again. His words stuck in his throat, but he forced them out.

"You're dying?" he said.

Aharon had started to run, but Josh's question startled him to a halt. He first looked at Xander, but when the Paladin leader shrugged, he turned back to Josh. Aharon's smile held far to much weight too it for such a small action—sorrow mixed with ancient acceptance.

"I can't die, Josh," he said. "I've been dead this entire time."

Fun Fact: The shi'raz was inspired by the plague that killed the animals.  I compiled them into an abomination and then just threw in some fun bits to it 🤭

The chapter title describes so much of Josh's situation right now.  He really is in far over his head.  Before were basically just weak monsters except the reaper.  But fully trained Shadow Knights? That's another story.  And it is going to make this ending fun >:3 But more on this chapter... So, Eli isn't around.  Supposedly Moshe has him, but Josh—or Xander—could be wrong.  And that last statement... What could Aharon mean?

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter down below, and if you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote and comment! I also have a discord open to anyone who wants to join, and we have a section there to discuss the book :D It's in my bio if you'd like to join!