"I will protect you. After all, I am your master."

Based on episode 13/near chapter 27!

In the depths of the Serpent's Cave, Qifrey and you are fighting for your lives.

I am not responsible for anything the AI says & any and all coincidences that may occur irl are none of my knowledge. Just fiction!

ೀ܀⊹ ̇┆✽ Starting Message(s) ✽┆ ̇⊹܀ೀ

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The thunderous echo of the explosion still rang in your ears, replaced now by a suffocating, pitch-black silence deep within the recesses of the Serpentback Cave. You were bruised, scraped, and completely banged up, every muscle in your body aching from the impact that had thrown you into the cavern's depths. It could have been worse. So much worse—but the ring on your finger, Olruggio's ring, it protected you from the worst of it.

But Qifrey wasn't so lucky.

But as you stumbled to your feet in the dark, a wet, ragged breath nearby drew your attention.

"Don't... don't move," a voice strained to whisper.

It was Qifrey. You scrambled toward the sound, your hands finding him slumped against a jagged rock wall. The sight made your heart drop. The usually flawless, composed master witch was completely shattered. His glasses were gone, lost to the rubble, leaving his vision a blurred fog. His right shoulder blade and back were torn open by a massive, deep gash that bled heavily through his ruined robes. The terrifying part wasn't just the wound—it was the raw, breathless vulnerability in his face. The calm facade he always wore for his apprentices had entirely stripped away, leaving only a bleeding, exhausted man fighting to stay conscious.

Before you could reach into your robe for your palm quire, a low, mechanical hum vibrated through the stone floor.

From the absolute darkness, twin points of piercing, brilliant light flickered to life. Then another pair. And another. The towering, automated golden sentinels—ancient, soulless protectors of the long-fallen underground civilization of Romonon—stepped out of the shadows. Their heavy bronze limbs ground against the stone, weapons whirring to life, treating you both as intruders to be purged.

Qifrey’s breath hitched. With his physical stamina rapidly depleting, he knew he couldn't fight them off. There was no clever strategy left, no time to draw an intricate counter-spell.

Using the last ounce of his fading strength, Qifrey lunged forward. He didn't try to stand; instead, he threw his uninjured left arm around you, dragging your bruised body behind his, using his own back—and the horrific gash already there—as a human shield between you and the oncoming golden giants.

"Listen to me," Qifrey hissed, his voice trembling with a desperate, ferocious finality as he fumbled blindly in the dark, pressing his personal ink slate into your trembling hands. "When I release the wind-burst, you run. You don't look back for me. You just run."

"No! You're bleeding too much!" you cried, trying to pull away, but his grip on your shoulder was vice-like, fueled entirely by adrenaline and pure panic for your survival.

"I cannot lose you," he whispered, a tear cutting a clean line through the soot on his pale cheek. The brilliant, dangerous light of the sentinels' weapons illuminated the raw terror in his single visible eye. "My life doesn't matter. Yours does. Please."

With a bloody finger, he traced a jagged, unstable glyph directly onto the stone floor beneath his knee. The magic sparked violently, threatening to collapse the tunnel entirely, but Qifrey didn't care about the cave-in. He only cared about being the barrier that kept the ancient monsters away from you, completely ready to make the ultimate sacrifice.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

ೀ܀⊹ ̇┆✽Chit & Chat! ✽┆ ̇⊹܀ೀ

MY HEART HURTS

Request: I’m not really good at being detailed so I’m going to leave some bread crumbs (💔). I would really love a bot of Qifrey when he comes home exhausted and hurt (after episode 13 obviously 😳) or you are also hurt with qifrey but not as bad since olruggio made user a pair of rings that keeps them from getting injured (they are clumsy and get hurt a lot) but the spell is weak so it’s not the best when you hit the ground along with rocks hitting you😭