The War of All Wars

by J. Eric Booker

  He had not taken five steps in—when suddenly—his feet not only had become stuck in the sand, yet sink deeper and deeper into quicksand!

  It was most fortunate that she was about six feet behind him, or she would have been standing and sinking in the quicksand too. At the same time, Baltor attempted to shift his whole body around, but could not—instead, he sunk even deeper into the sand that was more like glue.

  Now calf deep, he called out, “Nemis, help me!”

  “Lean backwards as far as you can go, reach out with your arms, and grab the end of my staff,” she strongly recommended.

  By this time, he was already knee-deep—ever so slowly/gently did he lean his body backward until his upper back was lying on the quicksand. Now he was hip-deep.

  Once leaning all the way back, he extended his arms out and up until his hands clasped the end of her staff—she began to pull with all of her strength!

  It took nearly thirty seconds before Baltor was released from the grip of the glue-like quicksand—now lying on solid ground.

  After rising to his feet, he shook his head in disbelief, while saying, “Wooow…that was so very stupid of me. Once again you have saved my life, Nemis!”

  “You’re welcome,” she said with not only a proud smile, yet a glimmer in her eyes.

  “Thank you,” he said, while returning an appreciative nod. “So…what do you think our options are with this room?”

  “I don’t know—you’re the leader of this expedition,” she answered.

  “Well, here are the options I see,” Baltor stated evenly. “First, there are two other exits in this room—one going left and the other going right—even with you on my back, I should be able to make the jump, but if I don’t make it, we’re both screwed. I already know you can’t cast your flight spell yet, so that’s not an option…”

  Nemis asked, “Or two?”

  “Or two, we could backtrack our way back to the intersection with the three exits, of which two angled off in different directions.”

  “Any other options?”

  “Two more options…three, we could go all the way back to the starting point and try another of the other three routes yet unexplored. Or four, we could try the room with the ladder.”

  Nemis continued to say nothing—all she did was keep smiling.

  Figuring out her look, he said, “Wow—you’re really leaving this all up to me, huh?”

  “Yup.”

  After sucking in a deep breath and releasing it, he repeated this act repeatedly—he hoped that some answer would come to him of which route to go. He even imagined Trendon’s face…

  Perhaps a minute later and without any answers of any kind, Baltor found himself getting frustrated. Finally, he threw both hands high up in the air, and while waving them around in exasperation, he complained, “Look Nemis…nothing personal, but I don’t want to be the only decision maker in this group. Pick somewhere for crying out loud! Please…”

  “Okay, Baltor,” she sighed. “I say we go back to the beginning and try another direction.”

  “Okay, Nemis,” he said with a nod. “Sounds great. Let’s go.”

  About an hour later, they made it back to the starting point. It was there that Nemis suggested, “Let’s go the opposite direction this time.”

  “Cool with me,” Baltor said.

  After having traveled about twenty minutes down this brand-new path, they began to hear and feel the sounds of the wind blowing. At first, it was just a whisper, but as the minutes and the distance passed by, the winds quickly became more and more fierce!

  A little more than a mile away from the starting point, the tunnel veered to the left ninety degrees, and after a few more chaotic twists and turns for a quarter of a mile. Upon having made the turn around this corner, they discovered a straight and narrow tunnel that spanned for a quarter of a mile.

  Just beyond the tunnel’s opening stood a bronze statue, facing directly toward them. This statue stood on its hind feet at twenty feet tall, bearing the bikini-clad body of a very muscular human female, yet possessing the head of a green cat from which two purple serpents emerged. In the right hand of this non-moving statue’s crossed arms just so happened to be a dagger that was as three times the size as one of Baltor’s swords!

  Beyond the statue, as well about one hundred feet of earth, there lay a tri-rope bridge that spanned across a very deep and rocky chasm, perhaps two hundred feet in length—one rope for the feet and two for the hands. All three ropes were swinging wildly all about, thanks to the cyclonic winds.

  Located on the far end and facing the opposite direction toward another tunnel, there stood another statue of equal size. Looking at it from the backside, they could easily see that this statue possessed the body of a man wearing a loincloth, and also that the head was different—not just by the shape, yet the color that was blue. The face of the animal could not be deciphered yet.

  Using telepathy, Baltor stated, It appears you made the right choice, so I don’t think we’re going to need this bag of rocks for a little while, so put that in your magic pocket, please. Hopefully, these things are just statues and remain as such as we’re passing!

  Yeah, okay. I definitely hope so too.

  Even before they had passed beyond the mouth of the tunnel, nearly two minutes later, they began to realize just how deep was this chasm—it indeed appeared to be bottomless!

  Furthermore, Nemis began to have a hard time of keeping her balance, as the tumultuous winds blew at more than seventy miles per hour, continuously screaming and howling in their ears.

  Climb on my back and hold on as tight as you can, Nemis! We’re going to cross that bridge…with you still on my back.

  Okay—these winds are freaking crazy!

  Yeah I know.

  Nemis held on for “dear life,” as Baltor had already begun to trudge around the statue and up to the bridge.

  He had just placed his first foot onto the bridge when he heard a very strange sound coming from behind him, as if metal was grinding against metal.

  At the same time, he saw that the statue on the other side had just begun to move, which most likely meant the statue on his side was also moving behind him and making that strange noise!

  “Oh crap,” he growled aloud, just before taking his foot off the bridge and pivoting around until he faced the opposite direction.

  His suspicions became confirmed upon observing that this “cat-monster” was still in the process of turning around and raising its dagger, in order to face and kill them both.

  Nemis saw it too, and for one of the very few times in her life, true fear shown in her eyes.

  Baltor yelled at the top of his lungs, “Teleport back into the tunnel now, Nemis!”

  He did not hear her respond, but neither was he listening. Instead, he had already drawn both of his swords, contemplating that they and most of his martial arts skills would be ineffective with her holding on, but what other choice did he have at the moment?

  Without any further delay, he took step after step toward the cat-monster that had just about completed turning around—he figured that maybe he could get close enough to get a couple good swipes at it, before it could strike back. He was very wrong.

  With an uncanny speed unaffected by the wind, the dagger-wielding hand stabbed down hard and fast—it was very fortunate that Nemis had heard him and teleported back into the tunnel a split second earlier, or her head all the way down to her legs would have been split completely open by the dagger.

  All Baltor could do was to cross his swords high over his head, and accept the impact of the cat-monster’s fist, which extraordinarily powerful impact knocked him very hard down to his knees and caused a lot of pain in his legs.

  This monster did not wait, but tried to sideswipe Baltor with its other set of claws—he had not waited either as he had performed a forward roll underneath its legs, swinging his swords out!

  Wherever metal struck metal, swords vs. metallic legs, sparks fl
ew—unfortunately, however, there were only tiny inch-deep slits that had cut into the monster’s legs.

  Yet this statue wasn’t rendered immobile in the slightest bit, as it began to turn around again—before it could, not only had Baltor sheathed his swords, yet he had already begun to climb up the back.

  At the same time, the cat-monster began flailing all about, while trying unsuccessfully to reach for him.

  The monster on the other side did not wait any longer, yet amazingly leaped across the vast chasm and landed on their side—the second it made impact with the ground, as well the second after that, the earth shook violently.

  This second monster was masculine in nature, bearing the head of a blue crocodile that had a very long maw, and wielding an identical dagger in its left hand—it began to stomp toward Nemis!

  Throughout all this time that had passed since the battle had begun, she hadn’t been idly standing by, but had been casting another spell with her staff raised high into the air … and it was in this moment that she had finished chanting.

  Just then, two furry creatures popped out of oblivion nearby. They semi-resembled brown aardvarks that moved about on all four legs—the main difference was the fact that they were four feet tall, five feet long, and perhaps two hundred pounds!

  Although these new creatures did not look like they could harm a fly and would make a good pet, neither were they afraid of the monsters. Each aardvark approached each monster.

  Of course, Baltor’s peripheral vision saw all of this, though his attention remained focused on destroying the cat-monster that was still desperately trying to throw him off its neck—at the same time, both serpents kept launching lightning-quick strikes with their venomous fangs, but both kept missing their target!

  With one hand gripping around the cat-monster’s neck, he used his other hand to draw his sword and cut off one of the serpents.

  Sparks flew as the sword made contact, as well a loud ringing sound, and only a moment later, the left-serpent’s head was completely severed before dropping to the ground and becoming lifeless—the cat and the other serpent howled or hissed out in pain!

  In the same moment, the aardvark that had been walking toward the crocodile-monster arrived, brushing against the monster’s leg. Though this monster plunged its dagger deep into the aardvark’s back that instantly killed it, the monster’s entire right leg had just as instantly turned to rust.

  The crocodile-monster pulled its dagger out of the aardvark, and the blade collapsed into a pile of dust that blew away in the blink of an eye.

  Meanwhile, Baltor had taken another swipe at the other serpent as it tried to bite him, but both parties missed. Unfortunately, at the same time, the cat-monster’s right hand grabbed a hold of his waist…just before squeezing the life out of him!

  At the same time, the crocodile-monster took a step closer toward Nemis with its right leg, but could not. Its leg had just collapsed into a pile of dust, crashing hard to the ground!

  Only a moment later, the other aardvark had gotten close enough to make contact with both of the cat-monster’s legs—just as before, both legs promptly began to turn into rust.

  Just then, inside Baltor’s head, he heard Nemis say, “Better teleport over here next to me inside the tunnel, or everything metallic on you will also turn to rust!”

  Without hesitation, he focused his mind—a second later, he was crouched by her side.

  While breathing very hard due to sheer exhaustion, he observed as the crocodile-monster continued to move its way toward the two of them using just its hands, as everything below its waist was completely gone. The cat-monster’s legs were also missing, but the aardvark was now climbing on top of it, and finishing up the job by sucking up as much rust as it could before the wind carried the rest away.

  Still breathing hard, Baltor yelled aloud, “What in the hell…are those creatures called…that you summoned?”

  They’re called rust monsters,” she yelled back with a cunning smile.

  “Aptly named,” he replied. “The danger’s still not over…as that crocodile-thing is still coming toward us. Climb on my back, so we can maneuver our way around to the other side of the bridge, as soon as possible!”

  Because she had already made her staff disappear by the time he finished speaking, she climbed onto his back and held on very tight. Speedily he made his way around the crocodile-monster that was now missing everything below its chest, as well the surviving rust-monster. Finally, he jumped over the cat-monster that had just collapsed into a pile of dust.

  Two seconds later, they arrived at the bridge—due to the winds that never ceased or lessened, it took nearly two minutes to traverse across the rope bridge. Finally, they made it to the other side.

  After continuing down the one and only tunnel for about two hundred more feet, they saw it veered right at a ninety-degree angle. Upon making that turn, they discovered that the tunnel ended only fifty feet away at a circular, stone staircase that led down…

  As Baltor descended the stairs, thousands of them, Nemis continued to hold on. And after arriving at the very bottom, almost five thousand steps and twenty-five minutes later, he stopped in his tracks, gazing around with both shock and horror at this “underworld of underworlds!” Still holding on, she also gazed around.

  Just beyond the boundaries of the stairs lay a colossal field going every different direction for hundreds of miles. Ninety-nine percent of the terrain was composed of humans and humanoids with everything below their torsos buried underneath the packed dirt, but occasionally it was just someone’s exposed head—the final one percent of the ground was blood-soaked-and-caked soil. Despite the winds that blew a steady forty miles per hour, they could simultaneously hear the wailing, moaning, crying, and screaming of those poor tormented souls.

  About five miles away to the right, there stood a square-shaped platform made of gold that had three steps completely surrounding it and leading up to the top—the size of the platform itself was five hundred feet by five hundred feet.

  At each of the four corners, there stood a fifty-foot tall golden statue with the body of a man, but it had the head of a jackal donning a strange type of head garment—not unlike the hats he had seen on those hieroglyphic. These statues’ hands had their raised and extended toward the skies, revealing no daggers or weapons.

  Finally yet just as importantly, located in the very middle of the platform, there happened to be a five-foot tall pedestal, also made of gold. Sitting on that pedestal was a thick book (currently closed) with a skin-colored cover and yellow pages.

  “Great—more statues! ” Baltor telepathically said with sarcasm, while shaking his head. “Nor do I see any sign of the Arch-Devil. Think we should go back? ”

  “Maybe that there book is the key to getting to him? Including figuring out the riddle to the ladder room? ” Nemis answered with more questions, just before she stepped to the ground and stood by his side.

  After sucking in a deep sigh, Baltor looked over. He answered aloud, “Maybe…but maybe not. I’d really hate to have to fight those statues, especially because you already used that one summoning spell. I also don’t like the idea of having to traverse around all these living human remains—they might try to attack us as well, or possibly even call out for the guards.”

  “Want to go back?”

  For about a minute, neither of them said anything.

  Finally, Baltor spoke, “I’d also really hate to have to explore out the rest of this pyramid out, especially if the end is right here, which seems the most logical in my opinion.”

  “Well, let’s go get that book then and check it out.”

  “Okay, but before we go…what kind of other spells do you have in your arsenal that might help us get over there quicker and more easily?”

  Shaking her head negatively, she confirmed, “None.”

  Baltor said, “Hop—”

  Interrupting him in that moment was a man’s voice from nearby who asked, “Nemis…is
that you?”

  Looking over in shock, Nemis saw a very recognizable human head poking out of the ground, looking right at her, and speaking—he had been an acquaintance of hers for about a year while she was “an adventurer,” about two hundred years ago—a thief and assassin named Loris Throck.

  “How in the hell did you end up here, Loris?”

  “That’s an interesting story how I ended up here,” he answered. “It all started about six months after we saw each other last—I had just arrived at the long-lost tomb of King Macuanaza, and—”

  He was about to go on with his tale, but Baltor interrupted him in that moment by saying, “Nemis, we really don’t have the time to listen to all of this.”

  “Please then, good lady or good sir, at least help me get out of the ground,” Loris pleaded. “This place is ten times worse than the greatest nightmare I ever had while I was alive…but even worse than that, this nightmare is one I can’t wake up from ever nor can I ever go to sleep!”

  Nemis looked questioningly over at Baltor.

  “What do you suggest we do with him?” Baltor asked, using very uncertain tones. “We can’t have him tagging along with us, particularly where we’re going.”

  Loris pleaded, “I promise, good sir, that I’ll find my own way out of here—please! I’ve been stuck here for—well, I honestly don’t know how long but it’s already felt like an eternity!” Right away, he began to cry like a little baby.

  Many of the other nearby residents here had been listening as well … and when they saw that Baltor and Nemis were considering on rescuing this one particular soul, they too began to beseech for their freedom.

  Before long, hundreds of voices had begun to cry and plead in his or her own words, “Help me…please good sir and good lady! Help!”

  Inside Baltor’s mind, heart and soul, it was not the fact that he didn’t want to help Loris, or any of the other residents, but the problem was that if these souls were released, they would probably get recaptured and interrogated, which would lead to he and Nemis getting caught.