Heart of the Void: Sosaku Online - Book 2

by J. Arthur Klein

  I barely managed to cleanse the fourth guard when the others fell to the combined might of my party and the newly restored bodyguards.

  As the show progressed at the central sarcophagus, I healed the wounds that had been suffered by my companions while I was otherwise occupied, and grimaced as the potion cooldown slowly ticked down near my health bar.

  “My strength is almost gone. You must cleanse the darkness before it becomes too powerful,” rang from Asah’s spirit once again, and the inner ring exploded.

  The cleansed bodyguards took off towards the closest soulguard and began to hack at it with their blades. A flourish of its glaive sent one of the cleansed NPCs flying backwards as its health began to drop from the onslaught.

  I gestured towards the other soulguard and called out, “Get the others! I’ll grab this guy before he kills everyone.”

  Mika ran to the left. “I’ll kite this one, just keep an eye on my health in case it gets lucky,” he yelled as he pulled out a knife and threw, embedding it in the soulguard’s neck.

  “Good Idea!” Kjara called as she swapped her blades for her bow and headed off to the right. “I’ll take the right.”

  “I will hold the last, Adept,” Amenhotep sent, and then used his Shockwave skill to gain its attention.

  “Roger!” I yelled and started the cleanse, cursing myself as I realized I’d forgotten to take advantage of my shield’s bonus to divine casting since well… a long time ago. I channeled Cure Wounds spells through the shield at the besieged soulguard, seeing a small but noticeable increase in the spell’s potency as it erupted out of the stylized jackal.

  The healing magic washed over the soulguard and pulsed with its critical effect, healing the three closest bodyguards of some of the wounds they had suffered earlier as the soulguard’s black veins retreated in the face of the holy magic.

  It took four of the shield-boosted Cure Wounds spells to cleanse the big guy, dropping my mana down to just over sixty percent, thanks in part to my food and my light-boosted in-combat regen.

  As soon as the last of the veins disappeared from the creature, the bodyguards stopped attacking it and dashed towards the nearest corrupted target. Seconds later the cleansed soulguard followed, his now-void free eyes locked on his corrupted brother.

  “Oh shit,” I said as its glaive cut deep into its target’s shoulder, releasing a large cloud of black mist into the air and dropping its health by a third.

  I booked towards the melee and started healing the injured soulguard, as quickly as possible. Pausing to heal Amenhotep as well when a lucky blow from the corrupted cut deeply into his sword arm.

  I spotted Mika and Kjara out of the corner of my eye, both doing a great job of kiting their targets.

  Finishing the cleanse of the second soulguard left me just under forty-five percent my mana, with five seconds until I could use another potion.

  The two cleansed soulguards and their retinue of younger siblings charged towards Mika’s number one fan. I yelled out a warning and Mika deftly dodged out of the way of the mummy stampede, which descended on their corrupted brother like some kind of mummy gang initiation.

  There was no way my healing could compete with that much damage, so I headed towards Kjara and her tail. “Kjara, bring it over here!”

  The corrupted soulguard followed her as she shifted direction. Its health was down to seventy-five percent from Kjara’s arrows, and its body looking like some sort of reverse porcupine with the number of arrows sticking out of chest.

  Amenhotep intercepted the enemy with a charge, slammed into it with his shield to grab its attention.

  I chugged my second potion, brining my mana back up to seventy percent and started the cleansing routine. Before I could get off a second spell I was interrupted by the return of the murder-train. The two cleansed soulguards and three remaining bodyguards barreled past me and started in on the last enemy.

  “Damn it! I’m trying to cleanse them. Why are you killing your family! Just stop!” I yelled and then looked on stupidly as they listened.

  Almost at the exact same time the health bar of the final corrupted soulguard dropped to zero and the enemy fell, revealing Mika sheepishly looking up as he slowly extracted his daggers from its back. “They were killing it anyway, and xp is xp.”

  My retort was cut short when the spirit of Asah continued its scripted behavior and collapsed once again.

  “I have done all that I can. He comes.” The spirit cried out, and hearing his cue, the Manifestation of the Devourer well… manifested.

  *** You have been affected by Gaze of the Devourer. All regeneration rates have been reduced to 0 ***

  “Blood of my blood, I grant to you my strength.” intoned the spirit, and the cleansed NPCs bowed to their god and were bathed in golden light as his image disappeared.

  *** Spirit of Asah uses Empower Bloodline ***

  The NPCs raised their weapons and charged, leaving faint glowing trails in their wake. With the buff, the cleansed mummies were quicker than even Kjara and Mika and made it to the boss well ahead of us.

  As we approached the boss I had to stop and stare. The bodyguards and soulguards were going buck wild on the squid headed void beast. Their glowing weapons were rising and falling with no regard to their own safety, the bodyguards even using their shields to bash at the creature’s kneecaps while their larger cousins hacked into the creature with their glowing glaives.

  The Manifestation of the Devourer responded in kind, its claws and tentacled maw lashing out to destroy its assailants.

  When we joined the party, the creature had been reduced to eighty percent health, which then began to drop steadily as Kjara and Mika’s damage joined the tentacle gang bang.

  The creature split its attacks between its assailants, claws flashing out to rip a bodyguard in two while another combo knocked Amenhotep back several steps.

  One of the soulguards took a massive blow to its torso and its health dipped. They were doing a ton of damage to the boss, so I adjusted my position so I could reach my party and the NPCs with my healing spells, and sent a Cure Wounds to heal the injured soulguard.

  Another injured soulguard pulled me further to their side of the fight, and I was able to save it as well.

  Mika backstabbed the creature, dropping its health to seventy-four percent, and the temperature in the room plummeted as the pits that were the manifestation’s eyes seemed to pull in all the heat in the room.

  With a sudden lunge, Cthulhu’s bastard child slammed one of his hands into the ground while another ripped into the soulguard I had just saved, dropping its health to a sliver.

  *** Manifestation of the Devourer uses Voidwave ***

  I was so focused on keeping the soulguard alive that I barely registered Kjara’s scream. “Kheph! Look down! Move!”

  Confused for a second, I looked down at the floor under my feet. I was standing right in the middle of a wedge-shaped section of the room where the black veins were now pulsing ominously. I’d done fucked up.

  I didn’t even have time to ponder my newb mistake further as the veins erupted and I felt a piercing cold energy rip me to pieces before I could trigger my get out of jail free item.

  *** You have been killed! ***

  *** Shield of Faith activation failed. You may not use items while dead. ***

  As the starlit sky and crimson dunes of the underworld manifested around me, I couldn’t help but sit down and take a deep breath. That had hurt, more than my last death at the creature’s claws.

  I pulled up my logs and read the last message.

  *** Voidwave afflicts you with the infinite darkness of the void! You have been mortally* wounded! ***

  Focusing on the Asterix told me everything I needed to know.

  *Critical damage upgraded to Mortal damage due to: Saa racial weakness (cold), Aspect of Light weakness (cold, darkness)

  I just sat there and laughed for a few seconds before the expected messages came scrolling by.

&
nbsp; *** Kjara has been killed! ***

  *** Mika has been killed! ***

  *** Your party has been defeated by the Manifestation of the Devourer! ***

  *** Manifestation of the Devourer, ending HP: 63% ***

  *** Surviving Allies: None ***

  *** Encounter reset: Manifestation of the Devourer ***

  *** Your party has killed 4 Corrupted Bodyguards! Your party gains 1200xp ***

  *** Your party has killed 2 Corrupted Soulguard! Your party gains 1626xp ***

  *** Your party has cleansed 4 Corrupted Bodyguards! Your party gains 300xp ***

  *** You have gained 4 Divine Favor! ***

  *** Your party has cleansed 2 Corrupted Soulguard! Your party gains 406xp ***

  *** You have gained 10 Divine Favor! ***

  *** Congratulations! You have gained a better understanding of the Cure Wounds spell! Rank 14 Achieved! ***

  *** Congratulations! You have become more proficient in Medium Armor! Rank 12 Achieved! ***

  *** Congratulations! You have become more proficient in Endurance! Rank 7 Achieved! ***

  *** Congratulations! You have become more proficient in Aura of the Underworld! Rank 3 Achieved! ***

  No level gains that time, which was expected with our party level climbing and the lesser xp from cleansing instead of killing. The divine favor boost was nice. I had enough at this point that it might be worthwhile to try to use some of that divine favor to boost some of my attacks the next time we fought Mr. Anime-gone-wrong.

  Not wanting to chance another conversation with my god to explain why I was back without the quest object, I teleported directly to the respawn gate. I sat down to brainstorm how better to approach the boss fight and ready myself for facing the music from Mika and Kjara for my newb mistake of standing in the fire.

  If the cleansed NPCs would obey my orders, we should be able to cleanse them all in preparation for the final battle. As long as there wasn’t a hard timer on the different encounter stages. If there wasn’t a timer, we could theoretically just keep one of the NPCs alive to delay the phase transition, but I wasn’t going to exploit that loophole if it was there. I wanted to succeed, but not like that.

  I wrote up a bug report and saved it as a draft, in case there was no cap. I was willing to test the theory and see if the fight would continue for a minute or two and see if anything happened. But going beyond that just wasn’t in my nature.

  Keeping the NPCs from monsterbating seemed like the best bet to get all four soulguards for the final battle, but we’d have to be careful to make sure our cautious approach didn’t come back to get us invited to WrestleMania XLV in the void.

  My respawn timer ticked down to zero, and I readied myself for the incoming fingers of disrespect as I stepped through the portal back to the mortal realms.

  …

  30

  Even though I was the first to bite the big one in the last battle, Mika and Kjara had respawned before me due to their lesser respawn timers, but not by much.

  I grinned sheepishly as they turned my way. “I know. I know. Don’t stand in the fire.”

  Mika shook his head. “What were you doing over on that side, anyway?”

  “I was trying to keep the soulguards alive. Those things were ripping the boss apart with their glowy glaives.” I responded.

  Kjara raised an eyebrow. “More than me or Mika?”

  “Unfortunately, yes.” I replied. “Those glaives were doing massive damage with every hit. Level fifteen elites with divinely imbued polearms do a hell of a lot of work. Plus, you guys were barely wounded, at least not while I was alive.”

  Mika grimaced as we all sat on the chamber floor while our death debuffs ran their course. “Yeah, that void wave thingy took out both of the soulguard and all the bodyguards, and when you died Amenhotep went poof.”

  “After that even our epic dodging skills couldn’t stop the boss from finishing us off. At least it was the claws and not the teeth,” Kjara said with a wince.

  “Definitely wouldn’t recommend the teeth,” Mika added with a shiver.

  We sat in silence as the game worked its mind games and we were able to look back on our deaths with the eyes of experienced gamers and think up an alternative plan.

  Mika’s eyes unfocused for a second as he accessed something in the UI. “I take it you guys want to try again?”

  “Of course,” Kjara said. “We’re improving each time so I think we’ve got a decent shot if we can get another soulguard on our side, and our healer doesn’t dawdle in the death AOE’s.”

  “I didn’t see it, okay?” I said with a sigh.

  She wrinkled her nose and me and smiled teasingly. “What do you think? Can you bring Amenhotep back or is he locked out?”

  “I think so?” I said, looking between her and Mika. “You said he just disappeared when I died, right? He didn’t get killed himself?”

  “Yeah,” Mika replied.

  “Then he should be able to come back, and hopefully not break my jaw this time,” I said as I touched my face in remembered pain. “Now that we know the cleansed NPCs will actually follow my orders, we should be able to keep them from going full murderhobo on their corrupted friends. With some creative kiting we should be able to get all of the soulguards”

  After some thought, Kjara nodded. “I think there’s a good chance here, but will your mana hold out?”

  I shrugged. “That’s going to be tough. I’ve only got one major rejuv potion left. I have like six moderate potions, but those are only good for about fifteen or so percent of my mana pool at this point. I mean it’s better than nothing, but still…”

  Mika shook his head. “Eh, maybe we make it, maybe we die again. In either case, it’s good xp.”

  My laughter at his attitude faded as he raised a hand and continued, “But I’ve only got one more run in me today before I have to go. I promised my sister I’d babysit her kids tonight.”

  I shrugged and said, “I guess that means we’ll have to make this one count.”

  After that we got down to business. Patching up our armor, chowing down on some Kheph-boy-r-dee, and taking another ride on fantasy splash mountain.

  Amenhotep was summoned without an accompanying punch to my jaw. Instead, he just gave me a look of disappointment and told me not to stand in the fire. Thanks, devs.

  I reapplied our buffs, regenerated my mana back to full, and it was back to the boss encounter.

  Mika took trigger duty again, and it was on.

  The first phase went pretty smoothly, our improved attention to placement and ability to command the bodyguards once they were cleansed made controlling the enemy without having to expend too many resources on healing ourselves much more manageable.

  Over the course of the stage, I was able to cleanse five out of the eight NPCs and end the encounter with over sixty percent of my mana pool, only having used one moderate potion.

  When the soulguard appeared in the next phase, we continued our efforts to maximize both cleansing and mana. With three soulguard cleansed, and my mana at forty percent after taking the major rejuvenation potion, I took note of my current mana level and we implemented operation Mary Poppins.

  Mika and Kjara took turns running laps with the soulguard in tow while the other rested. My mana climbed steadily and my theory that there were no timers built into the encounter to prevent this sort of cheese was evident.

  Ready to end the test, I did some mental math and then tossed a flamestrike into the far side of the room, nowhere near the enemy.

  Mika looked over. “What the hell was that man?” he asked, gesturing to the useless blaze.

  “I’ll explain later,” I called back, and then cast Sehkmet’s Cleansing on the last soulguard, slowly burning away the extra mana I’d regened due to the kiting exploit and then switching to Cure Wounds to finish the process.

  At almost fifty percent mana exactly, the final phase began and with my direction the cleansed soulguard charged in to make some void
calamari.

  The initial NPC bum-rush was brutal, and once Kjara and Mika added their blades to the party, the manifestation’s health dropped quickly to the seventy-five percent mark, triggering the boss’ Voidwave ability.

  *** Manifestation of the Devourer uses Voidwave ***

  As soon as the notification popped into my view, my eyes dropped to the floor to make sure I wasn’t standing in on top of any of the pulsing veins.

  “Get off of the veins!” I yelled to the friendly NPCs, but they were either unable to hear me, or too tied up in the scrum to listen. Over half of them were consumed by the flash of darkness that erupted from the floor, destroying the veins in the process.

  My party easily avoided the AOE and darted back in to take charge of the fight now that most of our NPC allies were gone. Losing half their number seemed to have dimmed the bodyguard’s fervor, and as the glowing aura imparted by Asah faded, they returned to a more measured, strategic fighting style.

  Amenhotep rushed in and slammed into the manifestation, causing a small amount of damage and gaining the focus of the creature. The remaining bodyguards closed ranks with him, and together they formed a shield wall.

  The soulguard stepped into the second rank, using the superior reach of their glaives to attack over their shorter companions and even Amenhotep’s larger form, while Kjara and Mika nipped at the boss’ flanks.

  I kept myself in the back, directing the NPCs, watching my mana, and being a dutiful healer. Damn it.

  Progress in the Cure Wounds spell rose as my mana plummeted, shorn up slightly by the moderate rejuvenation potions I was able to quaff every sixty seconds.

  Losing a quarter of its health to its ex-minions had lit a fire under the boss’ ass, and it refused to stay in one place and be tanked like a proper mob. Our line of battle constantly shifted, the shield wall holding strong only through Amenhotep’s efforts.

  When the enemy’s health hit sixty percent, we lost another of the soulguard as the manifestation turned its full fury on the glaive wielders, dedicating all four of its arms and its shadowy tentacles to tearing them apart.