Archemi Online Chronicles Boxset

by James Osiris Baldwin

  The Imperial Crypt wasn’t a single room - it had no fewer than six interconnected chambers, about the size of a ranch-style home. I ran toward the combat, and turned the corner to see a scene out of a schizophrenic’s nightmare.

  More than thirty people were brawling in the tight confines of the crypt. Ebisa, Rin, a dozen Nightstalkers rogues fought against a line of soldiers without faces. They wore the silver and orange uniforms of the Taltos City Guard, but their faces were shifting, morphing walls of pixelated blackness. Reality distorted subtly around the soldiers as they moved. Even worse, they were almost soundless. These [???Soldiers] didn’t grunt, didn’t cry out in pain. There was something almost hallucinatory about them, but their steel was very real. Longswords tore through fur and flesh with ferocious strength.

  I stormed in, blasting straight into the back of one soldier with the Spear. The Spear punched all the way through his chest. I followed up with an Umbra Burst, blasting a streak of energy up along the polearm that engulfed him and two other [???Soldiers] nearby. They thrashed without sound, clawing at their faces, and then collapsed into black dust - like pinprick holes in reality that danced, then vanished.

  Void creatures. They have to be. And ironically, void creatures were weak against the Darkness element.

  [Warning! Your primary weapon is badly damaged! Durability 15/100]

  “About time you showed up!” Ebisa snarled. She was being driven back toward me, battling two [???Soldiers] with unnatural speed. Her limbs glowed with magic - a Haste buff. “Push through the mob! Help Ignas!”

  “Where is he?” I called back, searching the pack for Rin. She was hanging back by the edges, casting spells from behind a glowing blue barrier while her turrets tanked for her.

  “Head west - they’re in the Founders Vault!” Ebisa teleported behind a soldier and plunged her knives into his neck. “We got separated - these freaks just appeared out of thin air and cut us off! Ignas is alone in there!”

  I plowed my way through the scrum, belting a soldier across the jaw with a fist, pushing another away from me with the Spear of Nine Spheres, and sprinted toward the Founders Vault - the only room with tombs instead of urns. Huge, ornate steel coffins with life-sized statues stood behind them, dressed in layers of scrollwork. The Kingsguard had been decimated, the survivors shivering and groaning on the ground. Ignas and Andrik battled in the center of the room. Ignas with a light mace and shield, dressed like a master thief; Andrik in his ancestral armor, a mageglove, his sword and the Ravenstar dagger. He was fencing against Ignas’s heavy blows, his sword wreathed in flames. His glove glowed brightly. Andrik is a Spellsword?

  “How can you commit such deeds? In front of our ancestors, our blood!?” Ignas caught a blow on his shield, pushing the sword away before it caught the wood. “How can you act so dishonorably toward the men who protected us!? Against me? Against our home?”

  “How could you stoop so low as to murder my citizens? Are you that petty about being outmaneuvered at court?” Andrik could move faster than Ignas. He was younger, faster, and he had magic. “Father always praised your wisdom, but a very wise man once told me that victory belongs to the strong.”

  Even as Ignas threw his brother’s sword back, Andrik barked a string of Words that sent a bolt of freezing energy into Ignas’ body, knocking him back toward the biggest sarcophagus at the end of the room. The tomb was flanked by a pair of thick pillars. An androgynous, veiled statue stood behind it, arms spread in a gesture of benediction.

  “I did what I had to do to reclaim this kingdom before you destroy it!” Ignas snarled with effort, swinging in. His mace clipped Andrik in the shoulder, but the weapon rebounded off an invisible barrier, sending out a cloud of blue sparks. Andrik didn’t slow. He pressed forward, herding his brother toward the back of the room. “You are a pretender! A vile heretic who would corrupt this place as your ‘Master’ corrupted you!”

  Andrik scoffed, dodging “Master? I don’t have a Master. I am the master of my destiny and the destiny of Vlachia, not you!”

  I dropped into a crouch, but as I passed the threshold, I paused as both of my arms throbbed with a strange pulsing sensation. Confused, I looked down and saw sparks of deep, indigo-black energy crawl through the seams of the iron gauntlets. They were warning me. Something was wrong here.

  Void Wraiths, I thought to myself. Where the fuck are the Void Wraiths?

  Ignas feinted and tried to break past Andrik, but the younger Corvinus didn’t let him. They were two thirds of the way down the vault now. Andrik was definitely pressing his brother toward the back of the room.

  “You thought you could look down on me!” Andrik panted. “But now look at you!”

  “I never looked down on you.” Ignas eye briefly caught mine, but his expression didn’t change. “And if you surrender now, I will show you mercy, brother.”

  “Becoming a common thief didn’t teach you to lie any better,” Andrik sneered. “And besides... Mercy is weakness.”

  I broke off from the shadows into a sprint, Shadow Dancing to cross the distance and power the blow I dealt Andrik from behind.

  The Spear hit him in the back of the neck, and there was a shattering sound as his magical shield discharged and blew out. The explosion threw me back and sent both brothers stumbling forward onto the sarcophagus.

  [Your primary weapon is broken! It can no longer be used in combat!]

  The Spear spat and sparked in my hand. Cracks had appeared along its length, discharging small puffs of mana gas. I threw it aside in frustration and rolled up to rejoin the fight.

  “No! Leave us!” Ignas barked at me. He was grappling with Andrik. The Volod had lost his sword, and was straining toward Ignas’ face with the dagger – the one that could cause instant death on contact.

  “You bought a friend, did you? Well, so did I!” Andrik snarled a string of foul-sounding words as he pinned Ignas against the sarcophagus, and I saw the shadows cast by the pillars stir.

  The wraiths! I equipped the Blindfighter’s Fold, plunging the room into darkness – but I knew where they were about to emerge. The pools of shadow were drawing life energy from Ignas and the injured Kingsguard.

  “What foulness is this!?” Ignas struggled, weakening by the second.

  “Don’t look at them! Keep your eyes shut!” I ran forward.

  I sprinted forward, determined to disrupt the summoning – and as I did, the statue above the sarcophagus moved. The long veil and shroud fell away, and Kanzo leaped down from the niche onto Andrik.

  “Wh-!?” The Volod toppled under the Mercurion’s weight.

  Kanzo took Andrik to the floor, stabbing at his neck. Red blood sprayed across the stones, but not before the king – choking with confusion and rage – plunged the Ravenstar dagger into Kanzo’s chest. The Mercurion’s blue-on-blue eyes flew open, and he toppled to the side.

  “Damn you!” Andrik pushed himself away. He managed to get to his feet, but stumbled back against the sarcophagus and slid down it as the Void Wraiths slowly rose from the floor. Their forms were like cutouts of reality. Vaguely humanoid, vaguely reptilian, impossible to look at. Impossible not to look at.

  I squared up and thought of Karalti in that circle of magic, and prepared to fight, but the wraiths didn’t advance. Their billowing faces turned down to regard Andrik as he gurgled on the ground, clutching at the blood that poured through his fingers.

  “N-no.” His voice strained with effort - and fear. “No! I did everything he asked of me!”

  “He does not tolerate failure.” The Void Wraiths had voices that slithered across your skin with an oily, moist sensation that made me come up in gooseflesh.

  As they slowly moved in toward Andrik, Ignas backed away from them, panting with fear.

  “No! I got the dragon! Ignas can’t become the Volod!” Andrik croaked, trying and failing to push himself upright. “I won! I-I just need a little more help! That’s why I called-”

  “We have given you a great deal alrea
dy,” one Wraith whispered.

  “Why is the dragon still in the circle?” the other asked.

  “She is inaccessible to us.”

  “She cannot receive our gift.”

  They began to close in on him.

  “Were you planning to double-cross Him?”

  “The Architect?”

  “No!” Andrik watched them, terror-stricken. “No!”

  The sounds of fighting behind us had died off, and I turned my head as I felt someone approach - Ebisa and Rin, and one of the tougher Nightstalkers had survived. Everyone else was dead.

  Rin gasped. “Kanzo!?”

  “Ignas!” Ebisa took a step forward.

  “Don’t look at the Wraiths!” I hissed, holding up an arm as they surrounded Andrik, pinning him against the tomb. Kanzo had folded up around the dagger still buried in his chest.

  “Kill him!” Andrik screamed, eyes dark and wild with hate. “Why are you menacing m-me when you could kill Ignas!!!”

  “This place is anathema to us.”

  “We are hungry.”

  “We sense weakness.”

  “Victory belongs to the strong.”

  Andrik struggled up to his feet. He was milk-white from blood loss, but terror drove him to stand and stumble away. “I served him well! I did everything-”

  The Void Wraiths flew at him. Andrik got off one blast of fire before they twisted reality around themselves and merged into his body like a virus.

  Chapter 44

  “Brother!” Ignas cried out in anguish.

  “Mercy! MERCYYYY!” Andrik was engulfed by the shadows, clawing at his face as his entire body distorted and blurred.

  [Warning: The Void draws near! HP regeneration is no longer effective! The effect of healing items is halved!]

  [Void Horror is weakened by Holy Ground! Level halved!]

  “They’re Stranging him! Preemptive strike before they take him over!” I dashed forward, jaws clenched, fists raised to strike.

  Rin chanted a spell as Ebisa and Ignas rushed from the sides. A Haste buff hit me like a splash of cool water, and suddenly I was faster, keener, and better able to dodge the whip-like lash of void energy that cracked out from Andrik as he stumbled to his knees.

  Insectoid legs burst out of Andrik’s back - his own ribs, extending and forming joints that lifted him back off the ground. His legs snapped and reformed, and his howls of pain and terror became garbled as his head caved in like rotten fruit.

  I drove my knuckles into the still-forming [Void Horror] in a one-two punch, crushing malformed flesh.

  [You used a Darkness attack! It’s super effective! x3 damage!]

  [You deal 747 Darkness damage to Void Horror! HP: 6253/7000]

  As soon as the Void Horror finished forming, it emitted a pulse of anti-energy that sucked the strength out of my limbs. I began to feel sick. My nose and eyes ran, my joints ached, my temperature spiked. It felt like the first day of HEX’s five-day life cycle. A Curse debuff appeared on the inside of my blindfold, along with a 60-second countdown.

  [Void Horror uses Harbinger! You are marked for death!]

  God dammit, Karalti - I need you! Relying on my blindsense and aided by the Haste buff, I dodged to the side. A pair of spiked limbs struck the floor instead of my body.

  Ebisa came in from my left, swiping at the Horror’s body with her daggers. She landed the blows, but the monster backhanded her and sent her flying. She hit the far wall and bounced, falling to the floor.

  “Normal attacks don’t do any damage!” Rin called. “You have to use Dark or Light element magic!”

  “Just as well I’m a specialist!” I shouted back, circling and feinting to draw aggro instead of taking an attack turn. Fifty seconds left. “Rin, was that your Haste spell?”

  “Yes!”

  “Then just keep buffing. I can take it!”

  Ebisa pushed herself up with the help of the wall, and Ignas ran to her. The pair of them staggered off to join Rin at the front of the vault while I danced with the Void Horror, drawing its attention away from the escaping NPCs.

  The creature slashed and thrust and stabbed with two of its skeletal limbs as it slammed the other seven deep into the stone floor. Now anchored, it hoisted itself upward, pulsating like a rotten black heart. Ignas and Ebisa had almost reached the door when that heaving core tensed up and emitted a wet, gurgling bellow.

  [Void Horror uses Antigravity!]

  The entire place dissolved into chaos as the Void Horror made Up become Down, sending me, Rin, Ebisa, the sarcophagi, even loose dirt and grime, all hurtling towards the ceiling. Rin's shriek of shock and surprise pierced the air as the polarity of gravity reversed even as my innate gyroscopic ability kicked in. Instead of slamming hard into the ceiling, I dropped onto it on my feet and ready.

  [Rin take 65 damage!]

  [Ebisa takes 91 damage!]

  [Ignas takes 65 damage!]

  The coffins did more than just open. They all but exploded, ejecting their dusty, wizened contents through the air, scattering the remains of the royal dead onto the ‘ground’ around and on me while the Horror recovered below. With my feet firmly planted on the ceiling, I ran at it and Jumped

  I couldn’t actually strike it with Jump. Jump, Blood Sprint, and most of my other heavy-damage strikes required a polearm to be equipped. But there was one attack I could use with any weapon - Umbra Burst.

  “KI-AHH!” I activated it and slammed into the [Void Horror] with fists of cold iron. Dark energy rippled around my arms as I bounced away. The Horror was immune to the Frozen debuff inflicted by the maneuver, but it took massive damage.

  [You used a Darkness attack! It’s super effective! x3 damage!]

  [Void Horror is immune to Blindness!]

  [You deal 2988 damage! HP: 3265/7000]

  The antigravity effect ended, dumping us back onto the floor - and as I fell, the Haste buff timer ended. I landed on my feet like a cat, but the Horror’s polarity change was instantaneous, and it caught me with a long, hooked claw and began to drag me in toward it. The blindfold was still on, so I couldn’t see its mouth, but I could feel the frigid breath scalding my bare legs with cold. Even as it hauled me forward, other legs stabbed out into the corpses on the ground. Fresh or dry, it didn’t matter to the Void Horror: power pulsed through its limbs, and the corpses got to their feet. We had 25 seconds left.

  [You take 135 damage! HP: 49/738]

  “Spera, Cil, Kain!” Rin shouted. Her voice shook, but Haste suffused me again, speeding my limbs.

  Two more hits.

  Ignas snarled with frustration. “How do we lift this curse?! We only have twenty seconds left!”

  Rin’s turrets began firing on the crowd of [Breathless] now shambling toward her, Ignas and Ebisa. I tuned out the sound of combat, barely inches away from the crackling, frigid body of the Void Horror. I kept my face forward, staring into the unseen mouth about to engulf me.

  The creature lifted me up. And as soon as the toe of my boot froze, I triggered Umbra Blast a second time.

  The energy of potential - of Life - flashed through my body and blasted out through my hands. 118 base damage times my Will modifier, times three.

  [You used a Darkness attack! It’s super effective! x3 damage!]

  [You deal 2988 damage!]

  The Horror screeched, and flung me away with a whip-crack of its barbed tentacle. Even Hasted, I couldn’t correct my course in time. I flew through the air and landed in the crowd of zombies, scattering them like bowling pins. They softened the impact, but not enough. My ribs connected with a hard shoulder, cracking in toward my lung.

  [You have taken 41 impact damage!]

  “Fuck!” I coughed blood, and the sound - or smell - caused every one of the zombies to aggro on me.

  “Hector! Hold on!” Someone came running toward me - it was Rin. She charged through the zombies, taking hits from every side as she bodily leaped onto me and shielded me.

  [Rin takes 102 damage!]
>
  [Rin takes 88 damage!]

  “Rin! They’re-” I struggled under her, only to feel her almost ram a potion bottle into my mouth. The herbal liquid poured down my throat, bringing blessed relief.

  [Rin takes 29 damage!]

  [Warning! Mana concentrations are increasing!]

  “I’ll be okay!” Her voice cracked as she fed me a second potion. “Get up!”

  We had ten seconds left on the clock. Ignas roared as he charged into the pack, swinging his mace. His desperate rush cleared enough space for me to get to my feet. I was back to 120 out of 738 HP.

  [Void Horror uses Abyssal Gaze!]

  “Eyes! Eyes!” I shouted, lunging forward. The same entropic energy I’d felt in the dungeon rolled over my skin in a blistering wave, like passing through a veil of liquid nitrogen. “Fuck you, fuck you, FUCK YOU!”

  Seven seconds remaining.

  I Jumped as high as the vaulted ceiling allowed for and somersaulted down onto the Void Horror knuckles-first. A bone claw as long as a sword tore down my leg, opening it from hip to knee like a zipper, but not before I smashed into the monster with my fists and began beating the shit out of it. I didn’t even see how much HP I’d lost.

  Three seconds.

  The velvety energy of Darkness pushed into the Void Horror’s body and inflated it, overwhelming its entropic nothingness, and the thing that had been Andrik Corvinus shuddered.

  Two... One.

  The crypt rumbled around us, and my ears popped as the Void Horror wailed and inverted, shrinking in to a super-dense core that fell and shattered on the ground like charcoal.

  [You have defeated Void Horror!]

  [You gain 1021 EXP!]

  [Your friend Rin Lu is Level 11!]

  The undead tumbled to the ground, the source of their animation vanished, and we were left in the eerie silence of a deserted tomb. I pushed up my Blindfighter’s Fold, squinting down at the floor.

  “Hector! Are you okay!?” Rin ran to me, limping. Her silicone skin had long gouges taken out of it from the zombies, though she did not bleed.