by Tim Johnson
He turned to see Sulfur staring at him through the flames of the wreckage.
Christian hid the Soul Crystal in his Inventory and ran back to Alexia, who was firing her bow into the mob as they tried to fight Sulfur and his soldiers back. It will be over soon. Fire was everywhere and without their Savages or leader the Goblins were getting slaughtered.
“Let’s go get that diamond,” he said.
Together, they turned from the battle and into the temple. The flicker of green flames lit from human skulls marked their way.
Inside the temple was a small shrine-like room with a throne in the center. Around it treasure chests were open and overflowing with gold and gems. A fortune. But what attracted Christian’s attention was what was on the great throne. In the center of it was a massive diamond wrapped in a black wire casing. It was as big as two of Christian’s fists laid on top of each other, and a small hole in the temple roof shot a shard of light down upon it. It cast an orange glow of shifting rectangles of light around the room from the fires blazing outside.
“There it is,” Alexia whispered. “The Astral Diamond.”
Christian stepped forward and went to lift the diamond from its wire casing.
Then a clap rung out.
Christian slowly turned to see Sulfur, Kari and Ardios in the doorway. Ardios’ bow was pulled tight and aimed squarely at him.
Sulfur continued to clap slowly, each clap ringing loudly off the walls.
“Well, well, well,” Sulfur drawled. “What a beautiful little moment.”
Sulfur’s lips curled into a sinister smile.
“You killed the boss and nearly claimed all the glory for yourself, wanderer. Very impressive. Now, pass me the Astral Diamond.”
If only I was more powerful, Christian wished. He had no choice but to obey.
Christian turned his back to Sulfur and pulled the diamond from its casing. The diamond was twice as heavy as he expected and the weight of it pulled at Christian’s arm.
He passed the diamond to Sulfur.
Sulfur stepped forward and held the diamond up in the light, inspecting it.
“Knight Lord Sark will be most pleased.” The diamond disappeared as Sulfur placed it in his Inventory.
No doubt Sulfur would get all the credit for all of this.
Sulfur smoothly pulled out his sword and gave Christian a dark look. “In fact, Sark, wants to speak with you after this mission. Best not keep him waiting long.”
The bastard.
Christian went to reach for his own blade, but Sulfur’s sword was already singing through the air. He felt the sensation of the blade meeting his neck, he saw Alexia scream and his vision spun. Then it was dark. Gold script appeared letter by letter in the black.
Quest: Astral Caves Treasure Raid: Failed
You did not survive.
15
Christian gasped awake. He grabbed at his neck with both hands.
He swallowed uneasily. Fingering his neckline, half expecting there to be some cut, but his throat was mended. Underneath him was a flat slate of cold marble, with candles burning around it.
Christian was still in his armor and his sword was laid at his side. He pushed himself up and peered into the darkness, shielding his eyes. In front of him there was a shift in movement. Light caught the corner of a jaw. A face began to emerge from the darkness.
Knight Lord Sark.
Lord’s Sark’s armor seemed to suck in and meld with the blackness around it. It was like staring into night itself, with the smallest twisting of movement to the surface, like flitting clouds in a moonless night’s sky.
Sark leaned forward, the candlelight flickering in front of his face, which gave the effect of his black eyes dancing.
Sark held the Astral Diamond in his hands and turned it in the candlelight.
How can he have it already? The time delay, he realized. Sulfur and Alexia must have already made it back.
“You might be questioning why I am doing this, Christian. Why I need you and Alexia. Why I want to convince you to join our cause instead of just locking you up. Well, let me tell you a story about the times of our wanderer Emperor. When your kind were in charge here. All my men have similar stories from their childhood. This story is about a little boy.
“The boy lived in a cottage that backed onto a wood and the boy’s father served as a guard in the local town. His parents would never let him, or his sister, play farther than the fence. One day the boy dared his sister to go into the forest. The sister stormed forward and was soon out of sight. The boy waited some time, until he grew uneasy. Guilty and frightened he followed her into the forest too.
“He saw his sister hiding behind a fallen log. Ahead were a group of wanderers. Yes, this was the time of wanderers, Christian. Long before the Demon Gate Victory. In this time, a wanderer named Corus ruled Valeria as Emperor and his lords terrorized our world at will.
“The boy’s father was held captive by a young wanderer and his men. The wanderer leading them was no more than a young teen, yet he already wore plate armor. It doesn’t matter how old you are, wanderers can amass power as fast as we let them, like you already have.
“The wanderer’s men held the boy’s father between them. The boy and the girl watched as the wanderer summoned a blaze in his palm and he threw it at their father. The boy watched as his father burned and died. His sister ran towards her father. She was struck with a bolt of fire and perished just the same way.
“But the boy stayed there. His face pressed against the moss. Biting his fist so as not to make a sound. The child wanderer laughed, ‘I told you that was what I needed. I’ve leveled up,’ he said. And then left.”
Sark took a long sigh.
“This is one of just a thousand stories. Stories that my men have told me. I promised my men revenge. We searched for that wanderer for a long time, Christian. Then the others like him. It took a lot. It took most of my life to raise the people against the Emperor, and a war of ten years to beat the wanderers back to their last bastion. Then we followed them through to their own world, and there everything changed.”
Sark smiled.
“There, we just had to kill them once. In their own world wanderers aren’t brave nor strong, they are weak and beg for mercy. Their magic doesn’t work, but ours does. We fought their technology with magic, and I made an incredible discovery, Christian. In their worlds our demons can flourish.”
He spun the diamond on the marble plinth and as it moved it shot shards of light around the room.
“I realized wanderers are sent here by our Gods, so we can use their worlds to house our demons. They are proven unworthy by their actions here, which makes destroying their worlds an act of justice. Our legends speak of the great demon Arnook, trapped for a hundred years in a dungeon sealed by wanderer mages. Then the Artificer arrived, and now we’ve found you and Alexia who I know are from this same world.
“Another war will be upon us, and we must get ready for it. My sorcerers are working right now, to break down the ancient barrier to set Arnook free. All they were missing… was this.” He held up the massive Astral Diamond.
“Isn’t it perfect? Can’t you see how it’s all coming together? This is what your world is destined for, Christian. To become the new home for the great demon Arnook. To be cleansed through flame and burn forever. You’ll help us do this; you already have. We will bring the demon and its horde to have your world as its own. You and me, Christian. It is our shared destiny.”
Christian stared into Sark’s eyes. He could see him for what he truly was now: a monster. He’s going to destroy our world.
Sark smiled. His teeth were white, sharp and slightly crossed.
“Christian, you were meant to find us. Let me guess, you didn’t fit in in your old world. You were skilled, but an outcast.”
He knew what Sark was trying to do, but he needed to let Sark think that he could be manipulated and encourage him to keep talking. “I was,” he said. “They froze m
e, for two years in a jail of ice. For a crime they all knew I didn’t commit. I was a scapegoat.”
Sark nodded slowly. “Your ice-affinity. Born from that pain they’ve caused you. I think you were meant to help lead us to your world. It’s obvious you are a soldier; you have knowledge of how your world wages war. I know you have knowledge of the Artificer. I am no fool, Christian. But, you’re still very weak. I will make you strong, stronger than you could ever have dreamed. When the time comes, I will need that strength and you will give it to me.”
Christian stayed silent.
Sark smiled. “You may have come to us a prisoner, Christian. But I have made you an Ice Knight. Don’t fight that gift, you can belong here with us.”
Sark rose to his feet.
“You have much to think on. Take a bath, I heard it helps. Then, we celebrate.”
Sark melted away into the black. Christian heard no footsteps. No door open or closed.
Sark planned to turn their world into hell.
This is madness. He remembered Alexia’s words. She said how when they first came here, they had thought that their two worlds could live together in peace.
And the only thing that stands between them getting what they want is my uncle and the key to the portal.
In the distance, Christian heard a splash. He rose and walked towards the sound. Along the far side of the wall were stone tubs, with steaming water fed from spouts that lined the wall.
He saw a naked slim back knotted with muscle, like a ballet dancer, and long straight white hair, someone bathing in a stone bath nearby. Steam twisted up from the bath and a long arm gently reached up, playing with the steam.
Christian watched as the figure in the bath stood and slowly picked up a towel.
That’s when Christian saw the profile. White-blonde hair framed high cheekbones; skin so white it could be carved from ice. With clear blue eyes and ears that were long and pointy.
An elf.
Christian looked down to see a katana laying atop of the snarling face-mask propped against the bath.
Kit?
“He’s right you know,” Kit said with a voice like silk.
“I saw you die,” Christian said.
“Yes, and by the looks of things so did you.”
“You’re one of us?”
Kit smiled. “No, no. I am certainly not one of you. But I am by a wanderer. Though I’ve called Valeria my home now for a very long time. I am the last one left from my old world.”
Kit brushed away soap suds from his ghostly white skin with a towel and hung it up next to the bath. He stood naked in front of Christian.
“My old masters brought me to Valeria as a boy slave. Sark set me free, trained me and made me what I am today. Do as he says, Christian.”
Kit strutted away into the darkness and left Christian alone with his thoughts.
16
Christian didn’t take up the offer of a bath. He left the strange chamber and found guards waiting for him outside.
“There is a feast that we are to escort you to,” one said.
He was escorted to the banquet hall. He could hear the ruckus from beyond. He entered the hall to see there were over a thousand of Sark’s warrior lords feasting. There were a good hundred deer on spits, their carcasses spread out and being attacked enthusiastically with skinning knives, great clay pots of steaming vegetables and jugs of gravy were passed roughly among the warriors as serving boys and girls tried to organize the chaos.
Everyone there was a level 20 or above, with some warriors even in the mid-30s.
These are the people that will lead the armies that will try and destroy our world.
Christian could see Sulfur from far away, his loud laugh carried over the hall and the size of him in his blue armor made him hard to miss.
As Christian entered the hall, the ruckus ebbed to a halt and a thousand soldiers stared at him, some missing eyes, others horrifically scarred from battle. Christian could see the hate in their eyes.
“Wanderer,” one spat. Others jeered as he walked in.
Christian ignored them. They hate us.
He saw Alexia sat on Sulfur’s table and went over to her. As he sat, slowly the rumble of the crowd returned as they got on with their merrymaking.
Sulfur was sat opposite, pulling deer meat from the bone with his greasy fingers. His cold blue eyes met Christian’s.
“Took your sweet time,” Sulfur said, sniggering into his dripping meat. “I suppose it takes the wanderer gods longer to put you back together when your head needs to be reaffixed.”
The soldiers around him joined in with a laugh.
Alexia looked down, swallowing her food uneasily.
You can’t do that. He wanted to say to her. You can’t show weakness to these people. They only respect violence.
Despite everything, he was near-starving and ate his fill. Tankards of ale were passed around and Christian helped himself. It was strong but good. Sulfur seemed to sense Christian wasn’t going to provoke him anymore and returned to devouring his deer.
At the front of the hall was a great plinth carved from black onyx, eight steps leading up to a throne made from the same black rock. Behind it was a circular slab of white stone, four feet across, framed in gold.
The portal to the other world. Christian realized. Sark’s using it as a display.
Christian sensed a flicker, his eyes, for a moment, caught some movement in the air near the throne and then Sark materialized from the black, sat in the great chair.
His two great guards threaded their way through the tables to stand either side of the steps leading up to this strange, shining black throne.
The guards were massive, seven footers matched in white armor with the image of a red fist on each pauldron and a double ended spear in each hand. Each one was a level 25.
The banquet hall had gone completely silent with Sark’s entrance, Christian could hear his own breath.
Sark addressed the hall.
“The Goblin Lord has fallen. His treasures belong to you. The famed Astral Diamond is ours.” He lifted the great diamond for all to see.
The hall erupted into a throaty cheer. Sark raised his hand and there was silence. “Our sorcerers will use this to give us access to the great demon Arnook’s dungeon. For now, it slumbers beyond that door in a home made from fire. We will wake it. We will command it with steel. It will be dangerous. But for that, each of you and your armies will gain treasure beyond your wildest dreams. Despite this, I ask you to look past the riches. Look towards our fight with the wanderers. Think of the stories that will be written about you. Think of the songs of your sacrifice. Think of your children and grandchildren being safe. We shall save Valeria.”
So, I helped them get the very thing they need to destroy our world, Christian thought.
Just then, as if Sark had sensed Christian thinking of him, his vision snapped to him. For a moment Christian froze, thinking Sark had mind-reading power. But the glint of respect in Sark’s eye calmed him. Sark stood and pulled one of his short black swords free and pointed it towards Christian and Alexia.
“Christian and Alexia have come to us to show us the way. They will join us, serve us and shall be our guides in the war ahead. Together, we will free Valeria from the wanderer menace forever!”
The crowd roared, the whole hall surging to their feet. A thousand tankers smashed down, and ale flew everywhere as Sark’s warrior generals let out their battle cries.
Amidst the carnage Alexia’s dark eyes found Christian’s. Despite the fear they held, Christian could see her resolve.
It is up to us to stop Sark. We need to get that diamond back.
After Sark’s speech, four guards came to escort Christian and Alexia away. The hall was already beginning to descend into revelry, with a band of lute, guitars and a fiddler attempting to play above the noise and a terrified dancing-troop brought in to do their best.
Escorted by four guards, Christian could hear the jap
es and jeers as they went past each table, with Sark’s men’s tongues now loosened by ale.
“Show us your world, wanderer.”
“Wanderer scum.”
“Keeping my knife sharp for your kind, wanderer.”
The guards ushered Christian and Alexia along the corridors until they reached their quarters. These were new rooms. Next door to each other but separated by a wall of stone a foot thick.
The guards guided him inside his new quarters and the door was slammed and the bolt slid home.
He took in his surroundings. A window let in some moonlight, and a small hearth burned. The quarters were simple but well appointed, with a bed, a chest, a chamber pot, a closet, a desk with a few books piled up on a shelf, and even a mirror. Pure luxury compared to his old cell and there were even thick furs on his bed.
And this is how they get you, he realized. This is how they slowly get you bought in. He thought again of Kit, who had turned against his home world and stood by as it was destroyed.
I won’t be like that.
He checked the window; it was bigger than the one in his previous cell but still barred and it looked down at another sheer drop to the keep below. The same icy mountains framed the horizon beyond. The promise of freedom was out of reach.
It was time to get to work.
Christian un-equipped his armor and pulled up his Stat Screen.
He had 5 stat points to distribute, a new ability and new items to check out. He decided to put the stat points into Willpower and give himself a greater well of magic to pull from. This would essentially double the amount of magic he could wield in a fight and that sounded great.
When he was finished, his checked his stat screen approvingly.
Christian Lawson
Level 7
Build: KnightAffinity: Ice
Health: 70/200Mana 60/200
XP: 2275/2500
Stats:
Points to Distribute: 0
Strength 7 – Stamina 11 – Intelligence 15 – Dexterity 12 – Willpower 10