1-Up

by Dean Smith

  It was another situation that Valiant never thought he would be in, hugging a thief and his former arch-nemesis and being so happy about it but as the hug ended, he saw a shape beyond the trees and a beautiful face that had grown dark. Rita. She had spoke of a test before and Valiant wondered whether he had passed but her face was devoid of expression and betrayed no answers. She nodded at him and disappeared within a field of static as Valiant was once more left with more questions than answers.

  Level 7

  Rita remained on Valiant’s mind throughout the short journey to the Spirit Tower. What was the point of her ‘test’ and what did it entail? Was it to do with the villagers and the monsters? Valiant's difficulties with Mordoom and Nina? Was it just another attempt to spread discord like she did in Goldharbour? Valiant considered the possibilities and none of them were good, did she have the reach to orchestrate the conflict in the forest? She certainly had the power but what would have been the point? She called herself a villain but if she set that situation up out of villainous intent then why stop at manipulating the two villages? She could have destroyed them, she had the means to do so. He hoped that was a sign she wasn’t too far gone, that she could be reasoned with but he also knew that it was very optimistic and naïve to think that. He no longer understood her as he once did and the more he thought about the whole incident and her actions since the day she got those accursed powers, the more frustrated he became by his own lack of ideas of how to reach her.

  He thought of her blank expression in the treeline as she watched him, it was weird and unexpected to see her there and he felt himself wither as he thought of her stony gaze. He was still no closer to knowing whether he passed her ‘test’ and what the consequences for a pass or a fail could be.

  Valiant put his questions to bed for the moment as he needed to focus on the immediate future as the Spirit Tower loomed overhead in the distance and they had no idea what to expect.

  ‘There’s a portal that leads to Vilemire at the top but that’s all I know.’ Mordoom shrugged as they asked him what he knew of the place. ‘Back when everything was a game, I never left Vilemire, I’d just wait until Valiant arrived to beat me up. I have no clue about what we’ll be up against in there.’ Valiant squirmed as guilt echoed through his body which was something that Mordoom noticed.

  ‘None of us could control what happened in the game, Val. I don’t blame you for your actions and remember, I’m not innocent either. Would Rita have gone down the path she’s gone down had it not been for the years of victimisation she’s gone through at my hands? None of us had any say in what happened, if we did, things would have been different. Instead of worrying about things we can’t help or change, let’s focus on what we can do.’ He shot a supportive smile at Valiant as he patted him on the back. Valiant wished that he could change the past, Mordoom deserved better than being a punching bag. Despite his occasional neurotic outbursts and an almost obsessive need to clean, Mordoom had displayed more heroic qualities in their journey than Valiant ever could. He had willingly thrown himself into danger even without his powers and knowing he’d face certain death, He never turned away from what he needed to do. Mordoom was the hero of this story in Valiant’s eyes and he no longer recognised the villain he once hated in Mordoom. He was proud and envious of how far Mordoom had come and Valiant hoped that he could match his example one day.

  Resolving the conflict between the villages had been a good start, but he was still far from the hero he once was. The only thing he could do now was try to live up to the hero he wanted to be, what the people of Venturis needed him to be. It was a lot of pressure but like everyone else in this world, he had a role to play and he would do what he needed to do to fulfil his duty for all the people along the way whose lives previously revolved around him. It was his turn to live for them, to honour everything they had done for him. He needed to ensure their freedom and bring Rita back from the brink but before he could do that, they needed to get through the Spirit Tower.

  As with the rest of the forest, the final stretch towards the tower was another direct path to their destination with no diverging routes along the way,

  ‘I think this is one of the few times I’m thankful that this world is kind of limited.’ Valiant spoke, disturbing the silence. ‘I have vague memories of this place being a maze, something that felt almost impossible to traverse but I’m glad the reality is far more simple. Its weird isn’t it? How far our perceptions of what this world was apart from the what it actually is.’ Nina and Mordoom nodded in agreement but neither of them seemed too keen on reminiscing about how the world used to be and Valiant couldn’t blame them as he remembered how difficult the old ways were for them. He remained silent until the tower came into view.

  It was a large circular tower made of pitch black obsidian, just like the Stronghold. The tower stretched beyond the canopy of the forest, hiding its true height. On its curved walls they could see glowing purple symbols spread around the tower that hummed with an unsettling malice.

  Mordoom held up his hand as it glowed a similar glow to the markings.

  ‘This is the right place.’ He said. ‘Well, we won’t get through it by standing here. Tally-ho, I guess.’

  ***

  When Valiant stepped inside of the tower, he thought he was in a loading screen with no notification of being in one. It was darker than dark within the tower and he couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face as he waved it. Unable to see his surroundings, the first thing Valiant noticed was the music or more specifically, the lack of it. Every place he had been to had its own music that played endlessly in the background, he had learned to block it out mostly but the absence of music here was unsettling. In its place were strange noises in the dark, weird creaks, the sound of movement around them and a gust of wind that almost sounded like a groan. Valiant almost yelled at that last sound as he felt something grip onto his arm.

  ‘I don’t like this, Val.’ Mordoom had grabbed hold of him and wouldn’t let it go.

  ‘Who knew the great and terrible Mordoom was scared of the dark?’ Valiant said lightly, not to mock him but to inspire him not to hold his arm so tight it could fall off.

  ‘I’m not scared of the dark!’ I’m scared of what’s hiding in it!’ He cried out defensively while trying not to raise his voice too much. It was a valid fear, they had no idea what was waiting for them in this place. Valiant scoured the darkness hoping for a dialogue box to tell them what to expect, looking at the tower he expected more raid battles but the lack of notifications put paid to that theory. If they had to fight in this tower, it would be turn based but before they could worry about that, they needed to find their way through the darkness which was a thought he was about to voice before Nina got in before him.

  ‘We need to move forward, stick together and take it slowly, there could be traps.’ Valiant was expecting monsters, spirits and ghouls. He hadn’t thought there could be traps too. With that thought in mind, he took his first step and yelled as everything exploded around him.

  The tower erupted in purple light with a loud and lasting roar which covered Valiant’s scream. When the light dulled, they could see floating candles in the air around them, all of which were lit with a small purple flame. Although the light was dim, it was enough to make out that the ground floor of the tower was empty. The only thing it contained was a winding staircase that began at the far wall and seemed to wind up the walls of the tower into the darkness above.

  ‘I guess the only way is up?’ Said Nina with a shrug as she took the lead and ascended the staircase. ‘Are you coming?’ She called back to Valiant and Mordoom and they caught up to her. The floating candles seemed to move with them as they ascended the stairs and the strange ambient noises that had greeted them upon entering the tower were growing louder and more intense. Valiant reached for the hilt of his sword, this unnerving atmosphere was building up to something, most likely a battle atop the tower and if that was the case then he didn’t want t
o be taken unawares but he was also wary of attacks as they climbed. He saw visions of ghosts charging out from the darkness but that vision in his mind remained just that. There were no attacks from the darkness, no tricks or traps to fear, just a long and seemingly unending staircase. As he climbed, he wondered whether the staircase itself was an obstacle, that it would be unending until they figured out how to solve the problem before them. He looked over the railings, he could no longer see the ground below and the sights above were no different. He considered the unending staircase theory more seriously as he tried to disprove it by looking for unique features or damages on the walls and stairs that would help to identify a loop but there was none to be found. There was nothing he could see that would prove or disprove his thoughts and he didn’t want to voice his fears for fear of upsetting an already scared Mordoom even more. All he could do for the moment was to keep climbing and hope that, soon, they would reach the top.

  As the climb dragged on, Valiant lost track of how long they had been climbing, was it minutes? Hours? It felt like the latter. He wondered how tall the Spirit Tower was. It extended beyond the canopy but for all they knew they could reach the top and find themselves in the clouds, they could climb for days. Valiant hoped that wasn’t the case but as time marched on, he couldn’t help but consider it as a real possibility. He really did not want to stay in this place longer than necessary. As another hour (Valiant assumed it was an hour) dragged by, Valiant’s eyes were drawn to the dark areas where the candles’ light couldn’t reach and in the darkness he swore he could see movement. He glanced down below, in his mind’s eye he saw something using the darkness as a cover to follow them up the stairs unseen. Valiant felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up, and his pulse raced with fear as he kept looking back. Each time he did so, he feared seeing a horrifying face staring back at him, but every time he was faced with the same empty darkness. It would appear the next time, he told himself and he didn’t want to look to prove himself right but each time he couldn’t resist doing so and the cycle would begin anew.

  He was growing frustrated with himself, why was he falling apart like this over a staircase in the dark? He told himself it was all in his mind, that he had nothing to fear but logic couldn’t overcome the fear within. There was something watching them, waiting for them to drop their guard to pounce and so Valiant kept vigilant, his nerves becoming more frayed by the moment until, thank goodness, a door!

  All three of them cheered as Valiant cast one cautious glance back at the darkness. There was nothing there, there never was.

  Behind the door was a room that was almost as barren as the tower below save for a circular gateway in the middle of the room with an altar that housed a large stone switch on top of it.

  ‘Look, the gateway!’ Valiant and Mordoom ran towards it but Nina remained in place, her eyes had caught sight of a chest on the other side of the room and she walked over to it. She opened the chest at the same moment as Valiant pressed the switch. A loud groaning echoed throughout the tower as the ground below them shook.

  ‘What’s going on!’ screamed Mordoom as the violent groaning wind from before reached a fever pitch as though it was screaming in sheer agony. The shaking of the tower became steadily worse as a strange beat seemed to accompany it. It sounded like something was falling and hitting the floor.

  ‘Oh no!’ Realisation hit Valiant, and he ran to the door and looked outside at the staircase. The tower was illuminated by candles but they were disappearing in time with each step falling away into the now growing darkness. The staircase was falling apart before his eyes.

  ‘We need to get out of here!’ Nina sprung into action and checked every nook and cranny in the room and Valiant joined her but they found nothing that could aid them in their escape.

  ‘What are we going to do!’ Wailed Mordoom as the last stair fell away but that wasn’t the end. The bricks comprising the floor beneath their feet fell away, and they backed away from the growing chasm, hoping for a miracle, a last minute burst of inspiration to stop whatever was happening from happening but no such thing happened. As the last few bricks gave way, Valiant, Nina and Mordoom plummeted into the darkness and the last thing Valiant saw before darkness overtook him was the gate and the treasure chest floating in place above them.

  ***

  Valiant landed in a pool of some sort, its soft and thick contents were enough to break his fall, he opened his eyes wearily and saw a single candle above him that lit the surrounding area. He was in a vat of mud.

  ‘Mordoom? Nina?’ He called out, rubbing his back although he ached all over. A shriek answered his call.

  ‘Nina!? Are you hurt? NINA!?’ The scream had shaken him from his stupor as he looked around for the source of the shriek. He thought he would see her broken and dying but she popped up beneath him from the mud.

  ‘That wasn’t me.’ She said in a low voice.

  ‘MUD! MUCK! I AM UNCLEAN! MY CLOTHES ARE RUINED AND I CAN FEEL THIS... THIS FOULNESS STICKING TO MY SKIN!’ Mordoom wailed as desperate splashing could be heard on the other side of the vat followed by howling sobbing.

  ‘I need a bath! Or even just a waterfall, I’d rather risk the leeches than feel unclean!’ Another howl. Valiant could see a platform just ahead of him and he followed the sound of Mordoom’s breakdown to find him erratic and inconsolable in a corner. Valiant guided him to the platform where Nina was trying to wipe her herself clean to no avail. On the platform there was a large mirror that covered the entire wall and Mordoom’s screaming began anew when he saw how filthy he was.

  ‘THIS IS THE WORST THING EVER! GIVE ME A THOUSAND RITAS AND OBSIDIAN STRONGHOLDS! I’D GLADLY DEAL WITH CHIMERAS AND DRAGONS AGAIN IF IT MEANT BEING ABLE TO HAVE A SHOWER!’ Nina went to comfort him but he shuffled away from her.

  ‘You did this! We were almost home free, but you just had to go open a chest and trigger this hellish trap!’ His eyes were wild as he pointed a finger at her. Nina seemed unfazed as she answered back.

  ‘It’s only mud, it won’t kill you plus, I didn’t trigger the trap. Valiant pushed the switch to the portal at the same time remember? It could have been either of us that triggered the trap but I’d bet gold if I had some that it was Valiant that triggered the trap.’

  ‘Me?’ Valiant felt affronted. He shared Mordoom’s views that it was Nina’s greed that triggered the trap and Nina only shrugged at his outrage.

  ‘We’ve encountered nothing in this tower until now, do you think the portal would be unguarded like that? Chances are that by pressing the switch, you triggered something that was meant to happen and now the real challenge will begin. You can blame me all you want but you’ll see I’m right.’ Valiant was sceptical but continuing the argument would accomplish nothing, A staircase made of strange spectral looking purple energy materialised beside them.

  ‘I guess the only way is up?’ Nina took the lead and ascended the staircase, when they reached the top of the stairs, the purple energy spread out beneath them, creating a floor to stand on. On this floor there were eight globes waiting for them, Nina didn’t wait for Mordoom or Valiant to gather their bearings before investigating the globes. As she reached out to touch one, Valiant called out to her.

  ‘Be careful! We don’t want to trigger anything else!’ Nina rolled her eyes.

  ‘Have a little faith, hero. This is a puzzle and unless you know the answer to it, let me think. She spun the globe she was nearest to and watched how it span around and became immersed in darkness and then in light. She stropped the spinning with her hand and the globe settled on a position that was mostly submerged in darkness with only a small crescent of light remaining.

  ‘Ah, I’ve got it.’ Nina rubbed her hands and smirked as she got to work. She turned the globe to their far left to the point it was completely submerged in darkness and then with the next one she did the same except for a sliver of light on the right hand side. With the next two globes, she increased the light’s share of the globe until it was
the darkness that has hanging on to the edge. She left the fourth globe lit up and then did the same process in reverse, returning the final sphere to complete darkness. When she finished, a little victorious sounding jingle rang out and a new spectral staircase appeared.

  ‘They're moons you see, I just had to set the globes to display the lunar cycle. Quite an easy puzzle.' Valiant was impressed, it would have taken him longer to figure that out but Nina had the answer almost immediately. Not wasting a moment to bask in her victory, Nina ran up their stairs as Valiant and Mordoom lagged behind. When they caught up with her, they were met with a room full of large blocks, each was coloured either red, blue or purple. On the wall closest to them were three symbols which matched the colour of the boxes. Valiant understood what they had to do with this one but knowing what to do and how to go about doing it were two very different things. He watched as Nina pulled on a nearby block, causing it to glide along in a straight line.

  ‘I guess even you guys have figured this one out.’ She said, unaware of how cutting her remark was. ‘Do what I say and we’ll have this done in no time. Having no reason to doubt her after the last puzzle, Valiant and Mordoom followed her lead and helped her push the blocks. At first she seemed to mess up the order of the blocks worse than they were before but with a few more movements, all the blocks aligned underneath their correct symbol and another stairway appeared.

  ‘You’re great at this.’ Mordoom was in awe so much so he had forgotten about his traumatic experience with the mud vat, at least momentarily.

  ‘Ever since I woke up I’ve been good at solving problems. It’s nice to put it to good use though, this feels more rewarding than figuring out how to rob people without getting caught.’ Her voice trailed off.

  ‘Don’t put yourself down, if it weren’t for you, nobody would have ever known about what Ferdinand was up to and if you weren’t there scoping out the barn at the human village, that whole situation would have taken a turn for the worst. Don’t let who you were in the game define who you are now.’