“Why have you come here?” I asked.
“I was hoping I could travel with you,” Ranik said, his eyes big and expectant. Then he narrowed his eyes and menacing grin coming over his lips. “On a second thought I would like to not travel with you. Instead I would prefer to take your… craft.”
“And abandon me here?”
“You can always travel back to the town on foot,” Ranik said. “It’s only a few hundred miles away.”
“You don’t want me to complete the quest?” I asked. “The wizard himself sent me.”
“Yes, he told me to travel with you,” Ranik said, “he stressed me not to take over the craft actually. But you know what? I don’t care. I have never really cared about the town as well, either. The people there are always too contended with what they have.”
“Your father wouldn’t want you to do this,” I said as Ranik unsheathed his sword.
“I don’t care,” Ranik said, “I have never really liked my father, you know. He’s a bit of a liar really. And now, old man, I ask that you back away. Or else you would have to face the might of my sword.”
I respected Ranik’s father. Maybe that’s why I had not really made a move against Ranik so far. But then I realised that Ranik and his father were entirely different persons. I could still respect one… and harm the other—in self defence of course.
I made my sword materialise in my hand.
“I ask that you use that powder and leave,” I told him.
Ranik scowled.
“A fight it is then,” he said. And he stepped forward. I had seen Ranik sword fight before. He was actually a good fighter. But most of the times he won by pulling a move that would easily classify as a cheat in any sword fighting event. He only ever got away because he was the mayor’s son.
Ranik was fast. He shot forward, his sword pointed for my belly, maybe even my groin.
“Bastard,” I cursed, as I side stepped and only barely escaped.
Ranik laughed, quickly making his distance from me.
“I am kind,” he said, “I ask you to leave with your life. But if you don’t even after this warning then I shall leave no stones unturned in killing you.”
“Return to the town with your magic powder,” I told him, “you might age a few more years, but at least you would still have honour.”
Ranik grimaced.
“I will always have my honour,” he said. Once again he shot forward. But this time I was prepared. As I side stepped his attack, I gave him a resounding hit on the back of the neck, such that he was thrown to the ground.
“It’s a good idea not to judge people by their age,” I said.
Ranik didn’t get up. He just kept kneeling down, seemingly in pain and panting. But I knew him well. It was just one of his tricks. I could have killed him at that moment itself. It would have been a clean beheading. But I didn’t want to do that if only for the sake of his father, the mayor. But I promised myself that if Ranik came for me again, I would slice his throat and leave his corpse here to be eaten by scavengers.
Ranik got up, his speed like lightening. Even though I knew he would do that, I was still taken off guard. I was slow in lowering my sword. Ranik hit me on the chest with his shoulder. I was thrown backwards, slipped and fell.
You have been hit!
You receive -30 health!
Ranik raised his sword. He let out a cry and opted to stab my chest. I kicked his stomach, stopping him. However, I couldn’t put much power into my kick from my position, and it did little harm to him. Ranik grabbed my leg and swung his sword to chop my leg at the knee. I was quick and threw my sword at him. It embedded itself onto his shoulder and he stopped an inch short of his sword making contact with my leg. He looked at me with venom in his eyes. His temple veins popped up in pain. He staggered backwards.
“F… father wouldn’t be happy with you,” he croaked, as he sat down at the base of a tree.
“But he wouldn’t be happy with you either,” I said. My body ached at countless places, but at least I was alive till now, even though I could see that my health bar had fallen significantly. I could have killed Ranik right then, but I was caught by mercy since he had ceased his attacks, too caught up in his pain. I decided to leave him as he was.
“Do not follow me,” I said to him, “you might think I am old, but do not underestimate me. Return home and let me deal with my quest.”
Without waiting for a response from him, I sprinted to the Sphere. I was inside it in a heartbeat. Very soon the Sphere was hovering in air. I was actually thankful for my physical exertion, as it took away all the mental weight I had been previously experiencing from driving the Sphere. I took off from the place.
***
Lanak Tanor
Class: Not yet unlocked
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Level: 0
Strength: 130
Health: 277/500
Mana: 133
Intelligence: 60
Mental carrying capacity: 120/200
Youth:20
Chapter 7: Lana
The news about the demons spread quickly. Only I had seen the demon in her true form, but the people believed me. I was so thankful to them for that.
“I didn’t like her,” the lady shopkeeper who sold pottery next doors to the demon’s shop said. “I always thought there was something wrong with her. Initially she tried to sell me her pills, but I am too old to care for pretty looks.”
However, along with the news, the fear spread as well. Everyone knew now that there was something wrong with the pills. Both male and female soldiers now went from house to house taking names of women who had taken the pills. Some of them gave away their names immediately, but others were harder to deal with. They even went to the extent of throwing things at the soldiers. Some of those same women were known to have been very kind persons previously.
Binni gave away her name without a problem. But all the time I could feel her glare. She didn’t talk to me or mother over lunch and locked herself away in her room the rest of the time. When mother went to her in the afternoon, she didn’t open the door. She didn’t even answer.
“Please Binni,” mother cried, “Open the door.”
“Get out, Binni!” I ordered. I feared Binni might have done something to herself in revenge of me going and exposing everything about the pills.
“Back away, mother,” I said.
“What are you going to do?”
“We must break the door,” I said. Mother nodded. She would have never accepted doing something so crazy but it was a desperate moment. I kicked on the door. The first time I did so it was my leg that hurt. But the fifth time I kicked the door broke right around the bolt and swung inwards.
Mother and I entered. But there was no Binni. The windows were closed so I didn’t think she had gone out through it. Then my mother pointed at a symbol on the floor of the room, right at the middle which I had missed entirely. A star surrounded by concentric circles. It had been drawn with greenish glowing chalk.
I gaped at mother. That symbol felt eerily like it had something to do with black magic. Binni had disappeared into thin air, much like the demon.
Within a few hours of Binni’s disappearance, we received news from the neighbours that the girls who had used the pills were disappearing all about the town. There was chaos everywhere. Parents cried out for their daughters, brothers cried for their sisters, husbands for their wives.
I myself felt light headed, as though I was incapable of thinking anything. Mowa came to our house, but he could provide little consolation to me or to my mother, even though he tried his best.
But the worst was yet to come.
It was sunset when the demons came.
They came in a great group. They came flying. All of them had horns, wings and tails. They came in the hundreds. As all the townspeople were staring at the sky in horror, one person noticed the great dust in the grounds surrounding the town.
A
n army of demons were coming on foot. But these were males. They possessed horns and tails but no wings. However, unlike the female demons, they carried swords and choppers. Our little town was being invaded by demons. How could the world just turn upside down like this within the span of twenty four hours?
The people fled for the hills that surrounded our village. I fled too, along with mother and Mowa. But the demons pursued us. The townsfolk tried to hide in the caves that the hills had in plenty… as if that would stop the demons.
Then there came a point when I got separated from my mother and Mowa in the rush of the townspeople and the wild demons. I was alone now, fleeing. For a while I tried to find my mother and mowa, but it was just impossible. There were too many people running about and the trees were in thick numbers. I ran like mad, not looking behind me, tears streaming down my face. I was sure the demons had taken my mother and Mowa by now. I could still see their fear filled faces in my mind’s eye.
I ran for what length of time even I didn’t know. The only thing I knew was that when I stopped running, it was already night. Only now did I decide to take stock of where I was now. I was near the top of a hill. I could recall my feet splashing water a good while back and when I looked down, I could spot the waters of the Holy Stream glowing in the starlight.
The Holy Stream.
I was suddenly fearful.
No one was ever supposed to cross the Holy Stream. I reckoned all the other people of the town had, even in their confusion, decided it was better to flee towards the other hills. Nobody had dared come towards this particular hill even as they were being chased by demons.
Nobody except me. The world had been a total blur when I had run. A chill crept up my spine. Earlier I had known that it was the demons that I needed to escape. Now however, I didn’t know who or what to flee from.
The hills beyond the Holy Stream were considered to be haunted by the spirits of kings long dead who once ruled over this area. Every child in our town was told never to wander towards the Holy Stream. If you ever cross the Holy Stream then you are on your own. Do not return from there once you have crossed, at least if you love your town. Or else you will bring the evil spirits with yourself. Better perish then make the town perish.
But the town had already perished more or less…
My heart cried out for my mother. I wanted to be near her and Binni. I didn’t know what I should do. I had once thought I was a strong person. But I had never faced anything like this. I fell to my knees and I began to sob.
After a while even the tears ceased coming out of my eyes. I couldn’t remember when I had drunk water. I turned my hands into fists. I was going to survive. It was the only way I could ever think of getting back to mother, Binni or Mowa. And to survive I needed water.
There was plenty of it in the Holy Stream.
I ran down the slope. My legs were aching but I pushed on. In a few minutes I reached the Stream. I fell on the edge of the stream. I cupped my hands and drank.
I kept drinking for a while. And then I fell beside the stream and I was so tired that before I knew it I was in the land of dreams. Dreams filled with frightening demons, my mother and Binni, and my best chum Mowa.
***
My stomach was aching when I awoke. I was hungry like I had never been in life. I sat up. Yesterday still felt like a dream. But lying on the side of the Holy River, the stark reality that yesterday had been no dream was clear to me.
I began to look around, my eyes automatically searching for food. However, it was something else that my eyes caught that piqued my curiosity.
It was a golden disc-like thing that was there below the water, on the bed of the Holy Stream. I waded through the water to get a closer look at it. Yes, it was a disc of sorts, and at the centre of it was a fat green jewel.
For a moment I observed it. I was well aware that I was in the holy stream and picking up strange artefacts might lead to grave consequences. But I figured that I was already in grave consequences, after all, how bad could it go bad any further?
I bent to pick up the golden disc. The moment my fingers made contact with it however that a strange sound appeared all around me. The rustling of the stream died down immediately.
I reckoned now that consequences still had the capability to become even graver. It took me a moment to realise I was not standing on the stream as I could no longer feel the flow of the water around my feet. Hell, I was hovering over the stream. Directly over the strange disc to be precise.
I gulped. I didn’t think I had ever floated in air like this.
And then, as though by sheer magic, words began to form in air in front of me. Glowing words. The world began to darken, even though the sun was still up there. After a while I was in total blackness.
I managed to somehow subdue my fears and I read the words.
Name:?
Class:?
Race: ?
Sex: ?
Level: ?
Strength: ?
Health: ?
Mana: ?
Intelligence: ?
Mental carrying capacity:?
Youth:?
What was up with all the question marks? I thought. Suddenly the question marks vanished, and were replaced by other words.
Name: Lana
Class: Not yet unlocked
Race: Human
Sex: Female
Level: 0
Strength: 141
Health: 430/500
Mana: 140
Intelligence: 60
Mental carrying capacity: 200/200
Youth:300
How could all these details about me suddenly appear in mid air?
But barely had they appeared that they vanished. Other words came.
A long time ago you decided to give up the privileges of a player and began to live the life of an NPC. You even wiped your memory. Doing so stripped your age and you turned into a child. As you grew up you assumed the Second World to be the real world, much like an NPC. Your memory cannot be returned. However, if you wish you can have some of you player privileges again.
Despite my strange situation, I liked the word ‘privilege’.
Below are the privileges that you can regain:
Ability to see stats.
Some of your previous powers, including flight and healing.
Your previous level.
Note that there are few places like this in the game world where you can regain your renounced powers. The possibility that you would stumble upon a similar place again is extremely rare. However, the decision remains yours.
My decision. I liked something about that line.
I took a breath and I touched the ‘yes’ option.
My life changed.
***
Lana
Class: Super human
Race: Human
Sex: Female
Level: 25
Strength: 1400
Health: 689/700
Mana: 1200
Intelligence: 300
Youth:300
Chapter 8: The Succubi Queen
I looked at the rituals being carried out. All the succubi and the male demons were working very hard. I wished I could tell them the truth, but a lie was the safest way to get the thing done.
I flew around the volcano. The succubi and the demons had cleared the forests for miles all around the volcano. Green paint was being put on the ground in a particular pattern around the volcano to mark the spots where the succubi would be standing on the day of the ritual.
In the past few months there had been a good inflow of new demons. NPCs and players they were all, or had been at least. Now they were all demons, destined to serve me and my powers till the end of eternity.
I glided towards the mouth of the volcano. I could see well the bubbling magma inside the volcano. Tomorrow the dragon would be reaching here. He would swim in the volcano, his body covered in the precious gooey liquid, and the volcano would calm down. It was a cycle that needed
to be repeated every few days. I couldn’t afford to let the volcano erupt, except on the ultimate day of the ritual. I was glad I had lured the dragon out of the depths of the earth. Idiot reptile. But then, if he had not been an idiot, I could never been able to advance my plans. Idiots were useful.
I checked my health bar. It had become a compulsion for me now. My spirits lowered seeing that my health had dropped further than what it had been yesterday. My heart was weakening with every moment that passed. It was a result of a mistake I made in a ritual that I had carried out a long time ago to bring other succubi and demons under my power so that I could become their queen.
I shook my head and willed the stats to disappear. I was exasperated with myself. The ritual would be carried out in a few days, before my health ran out. I needn’t keep checking the stats for it only brought lowered my spirits. And to accomplish the task I needed high spirits. I vowed I would never again check my stats until the day of the ritual.
I hoped the succubi vessels spread across the sub-continent would be able to contain my spirit in the critical time when I would leave my current body, and move towards a new one.
I had lied to my minions that I was doing everything in order to awaken an ancient goddess from the bowels of the earth..
I sighed. I descended to the base of the volcano where my tent was. It was a gilded one. Succubi and male demons stood around it to attend to me. I entered the tent and plopped down on my bed. I knew no sleep would ever come to me before my plans had been achieved, but I could definitely rest my body, for I needed it.
Succubi's Curse Online Page 6