Life Reset: Salvation (Life Reset - Neo Book 6)

by Shemer Kuznits

  “So, a secret torture chamber?” Misa asked with a delighted smile. “How very thrilling.”

  “Let’s check out the last leg of this corridor, get the book, and get out,” Riley said. “This place gives me the creeps.”

  “You’re worshiping an evil deity who had you sacrifice victims in his name, and this creeps you out?” Fox asked with a raised brow.

  “You have to put the limit somewhere,” the priest said. “Come on.”

  They turned the next right, seeing two more doors ahead of them.

  “The first looks like the one with the skeleton,” Fox noted. “Same locking mechanism.”

  “It’s also locked,” Raystia whispered. “I get the feeling there’s something important inside. Let’s open it.”

  Fox removed the locking bar while Riley repeated his trick with the darkness-made key. The lock clicked and the door swung open.

  A single candle lit up the room, sitting on top of a crude table with a jumble of crumpled notes. Chains clinked on the left, drawing their eyes, revealing a shackled, emaciated woman in rags.

  “I’m not done yet,” she said in a panicked tone. “Please don’t hit me. I’ve been trying so hard. Please don’t—” The woman began to sob.

  Raystia was beside her in an instant, holding her hands and looking straight into her eyes. “We’re not about to hurt you. Please calm down.”

  Riley paled. “That’s a player.”

  “Shit,” Fox muttered.

  “What’s your name?” Raystia asked gently, lowering the shaking woman to a crude stool. “What happened to you?”

  “I’m Ayelet,” the woman said in a quavering voice. “I used to do quests for the guild, trying to raise my reputation with them. I knew they belonged to a criminal organization, but it was just a game, you know?” She shuddered.

  Raystia nodded. “Go on.”

  The woman took in a deep breath. “Then we all got that weird message about this Shiva taking over, and I couldn’t log out. I thought I could still make it in here, I had built up a high reputation with the guild so far, but when I came to visit them next, the guards seized me and brought me to their leader – a crime lord named Crowley.”

  “We’ve heard the name,” Fox said darkly. “What did he want?”

  Ayelet started shaking again. “He said I work only for him now. He threw me down here and forced me to do research for him. I’m a … I’m just a junior lab assistant in real life, I don’t … I don’t know much about science. I tried doing what he asked, but nothing I came up with was good enough. They … they stopped feeding me, only throwing me scraps unless I gave them something substantial. I’ve been starving for months.” The player covered her eyes and sobbed.

  “Here you go,” Misa said gently as she handed the woman some rations. Her arms blurred and the shackles holding the woman’s wrists fell to the floor.

  The player stopped crying and looked up at her in amazement. “How did you do that?”

  The half-elf winked at her. “Chainmaster’s secret. Go on, eat. We’ll get you out of here.”

  The woman shuddered again and started biting ravenously into the food. “There’s nowhere to go. I heard them talking about getting more travelers down here. But it sounded like other powerful NPCs already got most of them. If we run, they’ll just catch us again. And I also heard them saying we can’t leave the city.”

  “Things are different now,” Raystia said gently. “There’s a player, Oren, who’s helping the rest of us. He’s got a safe place in the deadlands, and a large army to back him up. He already strong-armed Everance to allow players free passage. We’ll take you there.”

  Ayelet stood up and started walking haltingly, as if in a waking dream. They only made it past the door when a sudden, tormented scream pierced the air.

  “No, no, no,” Ayelet whined. She dropped to the floor, covering her ears and rocking herself back and forth.

  “Damn it, she’s catatonic,” Raystia said sharply. “Fox, get her. We have to help the one that’s screaming.” Then she rushed out into the corridor. The rest of her party followed, the bugbear bringing up the rear, carrying the insensible player on his shoulder.

  Light was pouring from beyond the corner they’d just turned, and they could hear groans of pain accompanied by a raspy voice coming from that direction.

  ‘Quiet,’ Raystia mouthed to her friends as she led the way.

  The muted voices coming from behind the wall became clear, the speaker obviously not worried about being overheard.

  “Yes, High Priest.” The voice was cold and sinister. “This is pain. Revel in it, atone for your blasphemous actions.”

  “That’s Kuzai, the clan’s asshole priest of Nihilator,” Riley whispered, his eyes wide. “What’s he doing here?”

  “You’ll pay for that,” an anguished voice said.

  “Holy shit, that’s Oren,” Fox gasped. “What the hell is going on?”

  Raystia’s lips tightened. “It sounds like he was betrayed. We have to help him.”

  “How?” Misa whispered, looking closely at the wall. “I don’t see any way past the wall.”

  “How the hell did you get me here? Where are we?” Oren demanded.

  Kuzai chuckled maliciously. “It is confused. Helpless. We are in the capital city of Everance, High Priest. It seems you’ve made powerful enemies here. Once I learned of your death, I reached out to them, and we came to an understanding. They arranged for this delightful prison while I performed the necessary rites to make sure you would be reborn in this place. Unlike you, your enemies aren’t weak-hearted. They quite readily provided me with the sacrifices I needed to complete the ritual. Had you only allowed me to sanctify the cathedral with innocents’ blood, my attempt at hijacking your respawn point would have failed. But I prepared for that eventuality as well; the book lying on the altar was to be the bait in case my first plan failed.”

  Oren tried saying something, but his words came out in a pained jumble.

  Kuzai laughed. “You are weak, unfit to be the master’s first disciple. You are mine to do with as I please.”

  “That’s why there are no guards around,” Riley whispered in horror. “The trap wasn’t meant for us. Oren was meant to stumble into that room and get caught.”

  “Nihilator will have your soul for that,” Oren growled. “You went too far.”

  The demented priest let out another hollow, evil laugh. “You are mistaken, Shadow Lord. Our master values cunning, subterfuge, and taking advantage of an enemy’s weaknesses. He will applaud my actions and relish at the pain I shall inflict on you. Then, when you’re nothing more than a whimpering husk, I shall lay you over his altar and carve open your chest as an offering to his greatness. I shall eat your heart and I will become the high priest, and the clan will follow my rule. The so-called ‘believers’ living in your precious vassal settlements will be offered to the master; their blood will paint our way to victory, bringing us everlasting glory in the master’s name.”

  “Every second-grade villain wants to eat my heart,” Oren muttered. “It gets old at some point you know. How about you eat your own heart out instead?”

  “I can’t believe he’s still making jokes,” Riley whispered. “I can barely stand just looking at that light. What do we do?”

  “We have to help him,” Raystia said, flinching as the glow of light coming out from the cell intensified and Oren started screaming again.

  Riley was looking pale. “How? There’s no way in, and even if there was, that light would hurt us as well.”

  “Not to mention that Kuzai is a tier 2 boss with more than a few levels over us,” Fox said. “I’m not sure we can take him on even if we could get inside and withstand the light.”

  “Kuzai’s also Shadow-Touched. How is he standing there in the light all calmlike?” Misa asked.

  The screaming stopped as the light dimmed again and Oren spoke, his breathing ragged. “Why the hell aren’t you hurt by the light?


  Kuzai laughed. “A simple cowl of perpetual darkness. A minor enchantment – perfectly attuned to counter the light in this cell. Courtesy of your enemies. Now, I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.”

  There was a sound of whooshing metal followed by a meaty ‘thud,’ and Oren cried out in pain.

  Kuzai laughed again. “It cannot defeat me in this place. It is powerless here.”

  There was another thud and Oren grunted.

  “Now, to continue our lesson …”

  The light intensified and Oren’s grunts turned into screams.

  “That’s enough,” Raystia said. “We have to do something now.”

  “What?” Fox asked.

  The catgirl’s eyes narrowed. “The office. The light crystal we found must be connected to this trap. If we break it …”

  “That’s a little too obvious, but probably the best move we can make,” Riley whispered.

  “Let’s go!” Fox hissed, adjusting the unresponsive player on his shoulder, and the four shot down the corridor.

  “Faster!” Misa gasped. “I hear footsteps coming from the entrance. They must have figured out we’re here.”

  As if summoned by her words, a group of thugs spilled in from the entrance as soon as the players turned the next corner leading to the office door.

  The thugs, ranging in levels from 10 to 50, barreled down the corridor as soon as they saw the intruders.

  “We can’t fight them all!” Riley cried, launching a blob of darkness that impacted against the leading thug, causing him to stagger for precious seconds.

  Fox lowered Ayelet to the floor and drew his magical shield. “They can only come at us two at a time. I’ll hold the corridor. Riley, Misa – support me. Raystia, get that crystal!”

  The catgirl nodded, delaying only long enough to throw an adhesive grenade at the enemies, pinning two of them in place.

  The first two thugs charged the bugbear, but though they had several levels over him, Fox’s physical bonuses as a monster allowed him to halt them in place.

  Misa launched a chain through the gaps of the melee, tying three of the thugs together, but others stepped in to take their place, their daggers and short swords seeking an opening in Fox’s defense. Riley switched between throwing blobs of corrosive darkness to healing the bugbear, but it was all they could do to hold back the tide.

  “The ones at the rear split off, they’ll circle around and come behind us!” Misa shouted. “Hurry up, Kitty!”

  ***

  Raystia burst into the room. The glowing crystal still sat on the pedestal, and the light instantly burned her skin, dropping her health.

  The catgirl clenched her teeth and seemed to blur as she charged ahead, enchanted dagger leading the way.

  She half expected the crystal to prove too hard to break, for her dagger to simply glance off or even be destroyed by the impact, but she needn’t have worried. The enchanted blade sliced through the glowing gem, and the ensuing explosion sent her flying back toward the door, her flesh charred, her armor smoking. But she was still alive.

  Raystia barely had time to bounce back onto her feet before she had to duck. The first golem’s arm slammed into the door frame, shattering it.

  She dodged the next two golems by somersaulting backward out into the corridor. “Mission accomplished.”

  ***

  “Get Ayelet and retreat!” Fox shouted, grunting in pain as a sword tip found an opening and ripped into his shoulder blade. He slashed his axe diagonally, ignoring the thud of a thrown dagger as it found his flesh, and sliced the leading thug across the chest, finally bringing him down.

  As the other thugs struggled to get past their dead comrade, Fox turned and ran after the rest of his group.

  They made it past the corner, back into the part of the corridor with the barred hatch. There was no time to worry about that. More thugs spilled into the hallway ahead of them, and glancing back, the bugbear saw a golem sweeping aside a thug to clear its way.

  They were boxed in.

  “I’ll hold the right side,” Riley said determinedly, though they all knew he was out of his league.

  “Right.” Fox turned to meet the charge of the first golem.

  “We have to get Ayelet out of here,” Misa said, uncharacteristically somber. “We can’t let her get captured again.”

  Riley groaned as he swatted away a hurled throwing axe aimed at his torso, only to find himself assaulted by two other thugs. Raystia blurred next to him, leaving a trail of flower petals in her wake, causing their enemies to lose their balance. Fox nearly crumpled as a golem’s fist hit his shield dead center, but he braced through the impact and raised the shield in time to divert another slam, causing it to bash in a thug’s skull.

  The other thugs backed up to give the golems room to move. Misa launched two chains from her magical ring, but the moving statues simply shattered the steel links as if they were made of confetti.

  “Uh oh,” Misa said as she tried to retreat, only for her back to hit Riley’s. “We’re not going to make it, are we?”

  A wet explosion, followed by the hollow sound of rushing darkness, came from beyond the barred hatch.

  “Oren!” Raystia shouted. “Help!”

  22 - Recouping Losses

  I couldn’t help but scream at the intense pain the accursed light sent through my body. Every one of my nerves was on fire, screaming, begging for relief. But none came.

  Kuzai chuckled in his dry, creepy voice, toying with the bloody dagger he had used to carve a symbol on my forehead. The blade hadn’t hurt half as much as the damn light.

  I was chained and unable to move under the purifying light. Even when Kuzai made it recede, it was still there, eating away every shred of dark mana I tried to summon. And I didn’t have much to begin with.

  “Soon,” the demented priest promised. “You are not ready yet. Once your mind breaks under the strain and your flesh becomes tenderized with trauma, only then shall you be a worthy morsel to present to the master.”

  “I am going to melt your limbs off,” I snarled back at him, feeling the goblin in me struggle against the oppressive light, craving to sink its teeth into my tormentor. I didn’t care about the agonizing pain. Pain was an illusion. It only made me stronger.

  “Definitely not ready. It needs time to tenderize.” Kuzai raised his dagger, slowly bringing the tip toward my left eye.

  I braced myself. I knew what was coming next. I’d had my eyes gouged out before. Pain was an illusion, but I wasn’t looking forward to that particular one.

  The dagger inched closer toward my eye as the hated priest continued to chuckle.

  Then the light was gone, and we were both subsumed in darkness.

  Kuzai’s arm froze, and his eyes widened, but I didn’t hesitate. I flooded my muscles with mana while simultaneously casting Drilling Arrow. A swarm of missiles exploded out of me, reducing the chain holding me to metal scrap. With a fluid motion, I reached out, grabbing Kuzai’s wrist with one hand and his throat with the other. Then I picked him up and slammed him down onto the altar.

  The traitor’s sunken eyes widened with horror. “No! How—” he croaked, but I choked the words out of him.

  I didn’t care what he had to say. I was consumed by the raging monster inside of me, finally free. It wanted blood. It wanted pain. It wanted to tear the traitor’s heart out and eat it alive.

  My dagger came hovering out of its sheath on its own and slammed into the priest’s stomach. Kuzai groaned and sounds of tearing flesh filled the small chamber as my blade sliced him open. He tried to wrestle against me, but without the light, he was no match for me. I discharged my aura like a physical blow and watched in contentment as he lurched backward, almost losing consciousness. That wasn’t going to do.

  “Wake up,” I barked at him. I let go of his wrist, forming shackles of pure darkness to hold him in place, then I plunged my free hand into the bloody hole in his stomach.

  Kuzai let out an agon
ized wail as my fingers explored his innards, tearing intestines and pushing organs, forming a cavity. As I had discovered in the past, a boss’s prodigious health could work against us, prolonging suffering before death took over. I now took full advantage of that fact to make the hated priest pay for his betrayal.

  His health fell rapidly but held steady at 50 percent when I’d finished hollowing out his stomach. “You’ll pay for that,” he said weakly. “I was conceived by the master’s own will; he shall not forgive—”

  “You were a gift for me to play with,” I snarled. “And right now, I feel like breaking my toys. I’m sure Nihilator will understand, just like you said before.”

  The sight of his distress and being unable to refute my words was incredibly cathartic. “Now hold still,” I growled. “I promised to melt your limbs off, but I just had a better idea.”

  I condensed a considerable portion of my remaining mana, forming the tiniest Singularity I could muster inside the wretched priest’s body.

  I looked into his bulging eyes with satisfaction as the spell sucked in his entrails, causing his body to deflate like a punctured balloon. I kept a tight leash on the spell, not wanting it to end too soon, and maintained a steady watch on his health, doing my best to prolong his agony. It was still over too quickly for my taste. When Kuzai reached death’s doorstep, I plunged my dagger into his heart, delivering the killing blow. I watched with clinical interest as the conflicting forces of the Singularity and consuming darkness fought each other for dominance, tormenting the priest until the very last moment before sending his soul straight to Nihilator. A slight mental adjustment to the clan’s hierarchy settings ensured he would never respawn again.

  Immortal Killed!

  Boss Tier 5 Progression: 8/500

  Kuzai Sacrificed!

  +608 Faith Points (38 X 2 boss X 4 using altar X 2 god’s boon)