by Jaxon Reed
Magos reached for her, his hands just inches from her feet.
And she slammed into the mana core.
It rolled down the street from the impact like a giant ball glowing blue and white, bumping into the wall of a building.
Magos landed. He looked at the mana core, and confusion clouded his face.
“Are you hiding, Toni? Come out and face your judge. Accept the consequences for your sins.”
His legs were bigger, longer now, and he took a giant step toward the core.
“I am your judge! Judge!”
He bent down, reached out to touch the mana core
“I am your—”
The globe exploded.
The full force slammed into his body, pelting it with the mana of 100 gheists.
The impact threw him back 20 feet. He sailed in an arc and landed in the middle of the street.
His body absorbed the mana and it disfigured his transformed face, warping his mouth and mind.
For a moment, he lay still.
Then his head lolled to one side.
Awkwardly, the large figure that used to be Megalos Magos pulled itself up.
His mind had absorbed so much from the blast, he could no longer think straight.
His yellow eyes darted about, searching for . . . somebody. An enemy. Somebody he was fighting . . . a minute ago.
He drew to his knees, and his overly long arms awkwardly pushed up.
His body wavered, and shimmered, as the ectoplasm asserted permanent control. He remained on the physical plain, but barely.
He shook his head, trying to clear it.
He looked down the street, where the mana core used to be. All that remained was a small blue ball, the size of the original cast. It glowed softly in the darkness. He watched it roll toward a sewer grate, and disappear.
In the distance, a small group of humans who survived the city’s descent marched together in torchlight, looking for a way out.
His disfigured face snarled.
His equally damaged mind forgot Toni and most everything else.
The humans called out, seeking other survivors in the buried buildings and houses.
His broken mouth sneered at them.
And the creature spoke.
“Ludge!”
He flew down the street toward the humans, arms stretched out to snatch their souls.
Chapter 12
When the spell ended everyone sat back in their chairs, too stunned to speak.
Tawny kept staring at the spot above the table where the hazy window into the past had floated, where her mother had talked to her from so long ago.
She felt a strange combination of pride, love and sadness. Her mother had given everything so that she and Toby could get away.
And it worked, too. It had taken this long for the king’s assassins to get back on their trail.
Finally Queen Elliah broke the silence.
“Well . . . I think we learned quite a bit. For one thing, we now know how and why Melody sunk into the ground and became a dungeon.”
“Indeed,” Roberton said.
He sipped discreetly from a powerful mana potion, restoring his magical capabilities.
He said, “We also learned about the origins of Ludge. It’s apparent now why no warriors have been able to strike him down. He’s more ectoplasm than flesh, it would seem.”
“Yes,” the queen said. “It’s why all forces sent to take him out have failed, including the Children Soldiers so many years ago.”
They turned toward Percel. He grunted in assent.
Then he took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh.
He said, “I suppose we can guess that once Ludge rid the city of survivors, he set up traps, using whatever magic he could remember. The ones that fed on people’s sins were . . . appropriate, in his damaged mind.”
Everyone nodded at this statement.
“Seems logical,” Justen murmured.
“The question still remains,” Choster said, “how did he migrate to this new dungeon that my former team found him in? And, what was he doing in the body of one of the Children Soldiers for fifty years?”
The queen looked at the vampire thoughtfully for a moment.
She said, “Would you be willing to have Roberton cast the same spell on you? Perhaps we could all see what has become of Megalos Magos over the years.”
After receiving assurances that his status as a vampire would have no bearing on the spell (it worked on elves, after all, and Roberton assured him that if a being could think and remember a previous event, that was all that mattered), Choster submitted to a casting of Sight of the Past.
The group watched from Choster’s point of view as his team met the boy, then were attacked and overwhelmed by Ludge.
Everyone grimaced as one by one each Dungeon Corps member was killed. When Choster was hit by one of the ghostly arms, he popped away.
When the fighting ended, the spell lingered. They watched as Ludge retreated inside the boy’s preserved body. He wandered back into the room from whence he came, the doors closing behind him.
The spell faded.
Choster shuddered. He said, “I managed to survive by remaining in an incorporeal state. I drew no aggro and remained in that general area until Lord Percel and his team came looking.”
Tawny said, “Did you recognize the boy, Percel?”
Percel nodded. “Aye. The lad’s name was Rikkers. I did not know him very well, but he looks the same as I remember.”
“So . . . what happened?” Tawny said.
Everyone looked at everyone else, mostly in confusion.
Roberton cleared his throat.
He glanced at the queen and said, “If I may be allowed to speculate, Your Majesty?”
“By all means, Roberton. Do let us know what you are thinking.”
“I take it, Lord Percel, you did not see your friend die in Melody?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Percel said. “It was . . . hectic. But his is not a death I remember.”
His eyes took a far away glance as he recalled one horrific demise after another.
Roberton said, “I suspect young Rikkers may have escaped for some time. When Megalos Magos, or Ludge, caught up with him, instead of simply killing him he . . . co-opted his body.”
The queen said, “You mean, he possessed it like an evil spirit?”
“Perhaps. Sort of. Recall, Your Majesty, I am still speculating. However, it would seem to me that Ludge is in a partial aethereal state. He is mostly ectoplasm. He is also damaged, thanks to Battlemage Toni’s mana assault.
“Mana, she informed us, is the only way to alter their forms. Her efforts did not kill Magos, but they substantially harmed him while he inhabited the soul stealer form. His mind and his thinking processes were altered. I think when he found young Rikkers, he preserved the body for himself, and began working on repairing his damage. Having a warm body to reside in perhaps helped in the . . . healing process.
“This theory might even explain how he was found in a nearby dungeon. He’s been searching for something. Probably more raw mana similar to what Battlemage Toni used, so that he could continue healing and repairing himself.”
The queen nodded and leaned back in her chair.
She said, “Well, your explanation certainly makes sense, Roberton, and I see no reason for it not to be so. But tell me, how do we go about defeating such a creature? Obviously typical dungeon teams can’t touch him.”
Tawny spoke up. She said, “We defeat him with mana, just like my mother said. She was able to hurt him by hurling 100 mana gheists at his face. We need to channel much, much more, and use it to take him out once and for all.”
Elliah smiled, grimly. She said, “You sound like you’re volunteering.”
Tawny looked at her brother. Toby put his finger in his mouth.
She turned back to the queen and said, “It’s the only thing that’ll work. It’s our responsibility. And, it’s our duty
as members of Dungeon Corps. We’ll find Megalos Magos, or Ludge, or whatever he’s calling himself these days. And we’ll kill him.”
-+-
The next several hours found the palace bustling with activity. The queen demanded Roberton find out where Ludge was at the moment. The fact the monster could traverse between two separate dungeons was problematic, and quite vexing to everyone involved.
“One primary monster per dungeon is bad enough,” Percel growled. “A dungeon roaming monster is unheard of.”
“A lot of things about Ludge were heretofore unheard of, unfortunately,” Roberton said with a grimace.
A solution presented itself when Tawny suggested she could combine her Dungeon Cartography spell with Higher Knowledge.
This idea greatly impressed Roberton and Justen. Together they hammered out a plan to travel out to both dungeons, if need be, cast the spells and send the team in after Ludge.
Impressed with Justen’s competence, and seeing that he managed well with Roberton, Elliah complimented Lady Lexa on her household staff.
“Good help is so hard to find,” the queen said, “especially house mages. I’ve half a mind to steal him from you.”
Lexa blushed with pride. Justen’s performance reflected very well on her. She resolved to give the man a raise when they returned home.
Later that day, a royal procession left the palace grounds. Lady Lexa’s magical carriage followed two owned by the queen. They wound their way through the streets of Menos, with mounted guards riding ahead of and behind them.
They marched through the city gates and picked up the pace out on the road as the caravan made its way toward Melody in haste.
The queen, of course, did not go with the group but she asked for daily reports from either Justen or Roberton. She also sent a scribe to record things, and a couple of other observers from her court.
That evening, the entire group made camp on a bluff overlooking what used to be the city of Melody. The soldiers retrieved tents from one of the royal supply wagons and set them up.
A cook in the queen’s service prepared a hearty stew, thinking there would be leftovers. He was quite surprised to see Toby downing the last of it.
Toby burped and rubbed his belly, giving the man a smile.
“Well, I suppose that’s a compliment,” the cook said, blushing.
While others relaxed before turning in for the evening, Tawny walked to the edge of the bluff and looked down in the valley below. The moon crested the horizon, casting a faint glow on the landscape, lighting things softly in a ghost-like glow.
She heard a sound and glanced over her shoulder at Erik walking up beside her.
He said, “You can see the outlines of the wall down there, underground now. It looks like a giant circle.”
She nodded. Moon shadows spread across the valley, giving the uneven surface inside the circle an ominous appearance.
A few more broken and disturbed parts of the ground to one side of the city were also visible from their vantage point.
She pointed them out and said, “That’s the village of Ligo, if I’m not mistaken. It means “little,” in the Old Tongue.”
Erik nodded. He said, “I’ve heard you can tell how old a village or a city is by its name. Apparently a lot of the villages around here have Old Tongue names starting with ‘L.’ But, Melody was more modern.”
Percel noticed the two staring down in the valley, and he ambled over from the campfire. He overheard Erik’s comment on the way.
He said, “Aye. Ligo, Livadi, Leptos. They’re all ancient villages. But Melody was constructed a mere three centuries ago, as a royal showcase for modern architecture by Queen Ella the Builder. I never saw it before it sank into the ground, but I heard it was remarkable. One of the great cities of the land.”
Tawny nodded, distractedly, then turned her attention back to the disturbed ground over what used to be the nearby village.
She said, “That’s where it all started. Their spells combined to take out the larger city, but he came for her in Ligo. That’s where Toby and I left her.”
Percel nodded, following her gaze.
He said, “Aye, lass. And now, you’ll have a chance to avenge her.”
-+-
The following morning the cook heated up a large batch of porridge. This time he was not surprised when Toby, true to form, slurped down the last of it. He had given Toby the remainders by passing the pot to him when everyone else finished eating.
“At least nothing goes to waste with him around,” the cook said.
The soldiers laughed, having taken a liking to Toby. Never mind the fact the queen herself apparently favored these elves, they said amongst themselves. The big fellow seemed constantly happy, which in turn made them happy.
Their affection felt a little disconcerting to Tawny. She was used to men, especially those in uniform, giving her and her brother the stink eye rather than smiles and slaps on the back.
“You’re under their protection,” Justen said, his skullish face smiling at her when she said something about it. “Be glad they enjoy your company. Some of the nobles they have to guard are rude and troublesome, I’m sure. Our party is probably quite pleasant in comparison. We have no expectations from them, and we make no demands on them. And, we don’t look down on them. That’s likely the most important element.”
Percel said, “We don’t even need a contingent of guards. There’s nothing on the surface worse than what we’ll see down below. But, I don’t mind them coming along. At least bandits won’t try to bother us.”
In due course, the tents were disassembled and everything packed back up into the wagons. They resumed their journey, traveling down off the bluff and heading for the large circle that used to be Melody.
They reached their destination in less than an hour.
Roberton called a halt at the edge of the circle, where the city walls once stood, and everyone climbed out of the wagons.
“We’re establishing our base here,” he said. “Right, then. The first order of business is to see if we can determine the whereabouts of Ludge. So, the cartography spell is yours, Tawny. Will you cast it followed by Higher Knowledge? How will you go about it?”
“Actually,” Tawny said, “I can cast both, at the same time.”
Both mages looked at her in surprise.
She grinned and said, “I’ve been learning a lot, lately. I think it would be best to cast in the middle of the city, though.”
She pointed toward the center of the large circle.
“Right,” Roberton said. “Let’s walk that way.”
Half an hour later, everybody stopped in the center of Melody. A short distance away the large trench leading down into the sunken city remained, a yawning black gateway into the depths below.
“This is going to take a lot of mana,” Justen said, giving Tawny a concerned glance. “Are you sure you’re up to it?”
Tawny looked up into the morning sky, where the sun had a ways to go before reaching its peak.
She said, “I watched my mother and Megalos Magos pull in mana from the Abyss. I can do it, too.”
Justen gave Roberton a meaningful look. He said, “Elves.”
Roberton nodded, silently agreeing. Tawny was growing more powerful than either of them.
Together they stepped back, giving her space. The others in the party moved away, too.
Tawny spread her feet, and held one hand palm down. She lifted her other arm, palm out, and closed her eyes.
She concentrated, and began casting spells. A huge arc of white light shot out from her hand pointing down, cutting through the ground and spreading throughout the dungeon below.
In front of her, a perfect image of Melody formed with soft yellow lines showing every street, building and room as if an invisible hand drew a perfect scale model of the dungeon in the air.
Everyone watched as tiny yellow figures of monsters roamed about. Zombies and skeletons, trolls and alpha rats, gheists, wrait
hs, and other creatures were detailed in perfect miniature clarity. Traps and secret doors showed, too.
The spell strengthened and extended. They watched as the old sewers of the city formed in the air underneath its streets, then newer tunnels dug by monsters sprouted off like tendrils, burrowing deeper into the ground and moving farther away.
Some shafts spread outward leading to other, smaller dungeons.
“That’s Ligo,” Percel said, pointing to a tiny complex of subterranean buildings and streets appearing off to one side. “It’s connected to Melody by yonder passage.”
They watched additional tunnels forming deeper below, as Tawny’s spell drew in more mana and mapped more lines in the air.
Lower passageways reached an underground river. They could see the water in it, as ghostly yellow currents flowed near the ground in their model. Passages branched off and three new dungeons appeared, all connected via the river running underneath everything.
“That’s the one my team explored,” Choster said, pointing.
“Aye,” Percel said, nodding. “That’s where we rescued you. I don’t recognize the other two.”
“They’re new to us as well,” Roberton said. “We’ve no record of them yet.” He glanced over at the royal scribe, making sure she recorded the new sightings.
“And they’re all connected,” Percel said. “It’s an entire complex of dungeons, not just one. That accounts for how Ludge was found 30 miles away.”
“This is all well and good,” Erik said, butting into the older people’s conversation. “But where’s the monster we’re after?”
Everyone scanned the images, looking for something resembling Ludge.
“I don’t see him anywhere,” Nessa said, her eyes roaming anxiously over all the dungeons, soft yellow lines floating in the air. “It’s like looking for a thimble in a dollhouse. Several, really big dollhouses. Underground. With other monsters.”
“We get it, lass,” Percel said.
“Wait,” Erik said. “There, in Melody. See? It looks like a little boy.”