Another year went by where the pair traveled together. Hilda had ‘made her move’ and the two started their relationship. They continued to travel the world following any lead that might lead them to Hilda’s father but each one ending in another dead end. Eventually they had followed another lead to a mountain in Corrvis, where they descended into an undead filled dungeon.

They just finished clearing another room of skeletons and zombies, and Hilda took a deep breath before sitting down on a collapsed pillar to catch her breath

“Jeez this place sucks.” She let out a heavy sigh “I don’t think we’re going to find anything living here.”

Tyr let his sword fade away and took a seat next to her. “Yeah. Hilda we’ve been doing a lot of searching for a long time, but we have haven’t found anything anywhere.”

“I know, I know. We’ve been out here searching for two years and we haven’t even found anyone that’s heard of him.” She let out another sigh “I don’t think we’re going to find him.”

Tyr put his arms around her in an attempt to comfort her. “Listen, he might still be out there, but we should at least take a good break from searching.”

“You’re right, a break wouldn’t hurt too much.”

Tyr nodded “So when we leave this place how about you take me to meet your family? It would be a nice way to wind down from everything.”

She turned to him quickly “You want to meet my family?”

“Of course, I should get to know them and get along with them. I mean, especially if I’m going to end up being around them a lot.”

Hilda hopped up suddenly and started for the next room “yep, yeah. You are knowing them, isss good, and should happen” stuttering on every other word.

Tyr got up to follow her and snickered behind her “You know, it’s cute when you do that.”

Hilda snapped a look at him “Shut up Tyr!” She crossed her arms and continued onward. She barely stepped through the doorway into the hallway, when a small click went off in the wall beside her. Afterwards the floor beneath her hooves was gone.

Hilda tumbled through a tunnel sloping down. It felt like a full minute of just tumbling downwards before she was finally deposited out and fell onto a cave floor. She got up and made sure she still had everything and also checked her horns, still, remarkably undamaged. She looked around to find that she was now in a large cave tunnel, with only two ways to go.

Tyr came sliding down the tunnel on his feet, only about ten seconds afterwards and landed cleanly on his feet, before coming over to help her “Hilda! Are you ok?!”

“Yeah, just surprised, I guess. Who puts a slide in a damn dungeon?” It was only moments after she finished speaking though that even she could feel a sudden presence. It felt like, what she came to know as, magic but it was different from what she usually felt from Tyr, it was not only clearly stronger, but evil.

A loud voice boomed through the tunnel echoing from one direction “You dare trespass into my lair! I will rend the flesh from your bones and have your corpses throw themselves off my mountain!”

Tyr summoned a blade to his hand and kept it at the ready “Hilda, get behind me, whatever this is, is dangerous.” Hilda quickly stepped behind him, her own axe at the ready.

The voice boomed in response “Dangerous, is far below me! You have entered the Lair of Hemshaal Coryanth, Conqueror of a hundred lords, and servant of a power far beyond your comprehension. I will make your deaths a slow one.”

Tyr’s sword arm wavered for just a moment before he turned back to Hilda “You have to follow this cave the other way, you have to leave.”

Hilda looked to him, surprised “I can help, I can hold him down or-”

“No, you don’t understand. This isn’t a nor-” He stopped short as a purple glow slowly began to illuminate the walls of the cave. He lowered his sword arm to his side and turned away from Hilda, his voice now coming out forced and choked. “You can’t help me here; you are not strong enough. I can’t fight if I have to protect you too.”

Hilda could not stop the tears coming to her eyes “But-”

He turned back to her, his own eyes sad and heavy “Please Hilda, don’t make me say anything more. I need you to be safe.”

Hilda closed her eyes and turned to run away. Tyr turned away from her aswell and spoke softly “I’m sorry and I love you Hilda.”

Hilda had been running for what felt like ages. She could finally see an opening ahead and stepped out onto a small ridge on the mountain. A loud boom echoed through the cave and across the mountain. In the distance she could see a large dragon flying away, its body decayed and broken. It must have lost, she thought looking back into the cave. She couldn’t remember if any of Tyr’s swords could cause that, but normal dragons don’t look like that either. So, she steeled herself and ran back into the cave.

She had run through the dark cave until she could see a light ahead. And as she got closer, she could see that the wall of the cave had been blown out revealing the mountain side. Standing close to the edge of the hole, she could see Tyr, his clothes ripped, and armor dented.

She began to run up to him “Tyr, are you ok!?! If you need some potions, I have still have the ones you gav-” She caught her words and gasped after she got closer. “Tyr, Gods no.” Her voice cracking and the tears already coming back.

Tyr had turned to her, his eyes dead, and a hole ripped into his chest, his insides scooped away. He had began lumbering towards Hilda, mouth hanging open.

“No no no no no, I can fix this. You’re going to be ok.” She raised her hand and invoked the ring that Tyr had given her. It shined with a bright white light, before growing dimmer. She gave her hand a slight shake in confusion and desperation. As she did so the, the ring began to crumble, falling away into dust, and as she looked up, the same was happening to Tyr.

“No, please Gods, no!” She threw caution to the wind and ran to Tyr, but as she made contact, he fell away into dust aswell, coating her lightly. Hilda sunk to her knees and began to weep.

“No, please don’t let this happen, Vallum please. I don’t want to be alone!”