The party’s location appeared on the map as a little green blip. So far, they’d traveled around thirty percent of the distance between the savanna and the coast. The Fortress of Shadows—or rather, the sunken temple that was now a deserted ruin—lay almost directly east of their position with the demon installation sandwiched between. Between the installation and the savanna, the scout had sketched an almost straight line running north-south. Hazel had called this a Bridge Road, which Devon had been assuming meant there was some sort of causeway raised above the level of the swamp. Normally, that would have been a much better choice for their route south, except that Hazel had also written (unfortunately, demons) along the line.
As for the installation, more details had emerged now that they were close enough for it to show up on a zoomed-in map. Alongside a sketch of what looked like an Egyptian step pyramid were the words Black Fortress, can’t approach. Major demon presence. None of that sounded good, but that was where the quest marker indicated Devon should go. She’d briefly considered rescuing Hazel first, then checking out this fortress-installation thing. But that would mean backtracking for at least a couple hours, not to mention putting Hazel and her ostrich in danger. Besides, they weren’t planning to try to attack the fortress or anything, just check it out.
Just as she was about to close her map interface, she noticed a toggle that let her view historical position information. She grimaced when she saw the snaking course they’d taken through the swamp. They must have walked twice the distance they needed in terms of straight-line progress.
“Okay, guys,” she said. “We need to start heading almost directly east. Anybody have the Sense Heading skill? I know it’s a challenge, but we’ve been weaving back and forth a ton.”
“I know it’s a challenge,” Greel parroted in a mocking voice. “Do you? Because it seems to me you’re just floating over all the submerged logs and tangled sticks we have to weave around.”
Devon’s nostrils flared as she took a deep breath. Maybe she wouldn’t give him that potion after all.
“I’m just hoping to save you the effort of—”
“Hey, guys?” Hailey said, cutting Devon off. The woman was pointing into the swamp ahead. While they watched, a dark mass curled forward from the swamp, writhing between the trees and snuffing all light save for a purple glow that pulsed in the darkness every few seconds.
“Uh. Doesn’t look very welcoming,” Torald said.
Devon shook her head as she checked the map again. No, they definitely hadn’t reached this installation thing, and yes, the dark fog stuff definitely stood between them and their goal.
“Well,” she said, “I guess we should buff up.”
***
As the party moved deeper into the murky darkness, the group members walked closer and closer together. Devon started to worry that she’d step on someone’s head if she didn’t watch her feet as they paddled on her Levitation cushion. She cast a tier 1 Levitation spell over the top of the higher-tier version to lower her max height. The previous spell effect ended gracefully, lowering her to within just a few inches of the surface of the swamp water. Of course, then she felt vulnerable without the minor advantage her height had gained, and she grimaced as she glanced side to side at the nearly featureless surroundings. Trees grasped at them, extending skeletal limbs from the darkness like some kind of creepy-ass Halloween ghouls. Ghouls shedding their gray-green skin in the form of desiccated strips of bark and scrappy sections of hanging moss.
It was the kind of situation that brought out the worst in people’s personalities. On edge, Devon’s friends snapped at one another over things that otherwise would have passed without comment. Ahead of her in line, even intrepid Hailey walked with hunched shoulders, her head turning neither left nor right as if looking at the surroundings would make them real by the acknowledgment.
So far, they’d been marching through the darkness for about twenty in-game minutes. Torald took the lead, his platemail shining faintly in the murk as the magic from the group’s collection of buffs danced over his body’s surface. He held his sword before him as usual, still not seeming to tire despite the effort it must have taken to maintain such a massive weapon in the guard position, but something in the set of his shoulders made Devon feel even iller at ease. Ordinarily, the man looked, even from behind, as if his chest were puffed out beneath the steel plates defending his torso. Now, Devon got the uncomfortable feeling that inside his armor, he walked with shoulders hunched over a collapsed chest like he’d just taken a blow to the gut.
She considered asking him whether everything was okay but decided that her perception of her friends was probably just skewed by the oppressive surroundings. To quiet her nerves, she pulled up the map again. They’d probably covered around half the distance between where they’d entered the miasma and the supposed location of this demon-built fortress thing. Just another twenty minutes or so to go, then they could check out the installation and beat a quick retreat toward Hazel’s position.
As Devon made the mental gesture to dispel the map interface, a shriek from one of her party members sent a frigid bolt down her spine. She slapped for the hilt of her dagger while sidestepping to try to see around Hailey, who’d stopped short at the scream. Ahead, the bodies of her friends were a tangle of shadows accented by the wavering lights from the buffs and the dull glints of armor buckles and blades. She couldn’t tell what the hell was going on until Greel streaked past her, his eyes white-rimmed and his lips drawn back from his teeth. The expression on his face was one of utter terror.
“Shit!” she yelled. “How many?”
“I don’t know! I don’t see…ugh…” Torald’s response trailed off in a sort of low groan. Still, Devon heard no sounds of combat, no thunks or grunts or screeching of demons. Frantic, she dumped mana into casting a Glowing Orb. When it materialized in her hand, she threw the ball of light forward, squinting to get a picture of the scene. Magda was still standing, the druid’s head whipping back and forth in search of a target, and Hailey remained stock still, her spine rigid. Torald had gone down on a knee, the water now reaching almost to his hips, and he’d planted his blade point-down in the muck. His head was bowed.
There wasn’t an enemy in sight.
Light glowed around Hailey’s hands for a moment, then winked out. Her cast bar flashed and vanished too fast for Devon to read the name of the spell she’d started to activate.
“Damn it,” Hailey muttered. “Wrong thing.”
“Can someone tell me what’s going on?” Devon said as she yanked open her combat log.
Greel has been afflicted with Fear with a duration of 45 seconds.
You successfully resist the Fear effect. (95% chance due to Bravery score of 10)
Magda successfully resists the Fear effect. ( -1 charge on Nature’s Resilience, 2 charges remaining)
Torald successfully resists the Fear effect. (45% chance due to the passive resistance vs evil)
Faced with evidence of the power of his deity’s nemesis, Torald is afflicted by Weakened Resolve.
Hailey begins to cast Dispel Illusions.
Hailey’s spell cast was canceled.
Crap. Devon hated Fear effects. They weren’t as bad as Confusion, which usually caused players to start attacking their friends, but Fear really, really sucked.
She whirled, trying to track Greel’s headlong sprint. If they lost him out here, they might never find him again. Fortunately, the man was trying, unsuccessfully, to clamber into one of the nearby trees.
Hailey’s hands began to glow again, and this time the cast bar remained active, steadily filling as the timer expired. Moments later, the Recognize Falsehoods buff appeared in Devon’s interface.
Greel went rigid as the spell struck and then, stock still, he stared at the tree he’d been trying to climb. The lawyer pulled out his blade and hacked off a twig as if to punish the offending tree. As Devon cast another Glowing Orb to illuminate the sc
ene, Greel turned, red-faced, with hands balled into fists.
“Just so we’re clear, my loss of courage there was a result of unnatural magical influences.”
Magda breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Hailey. My Nature’s Resilience spell has an hour refresh timer. I thought we were hosed.”
Lips pressed into a straight line, Hailey nodded. “Don’t thank me yet. Refresh timer on that buff is longer than the duration. If we’re not out of the influence of whatever caused that Fear spell in the next 30 minutes, I won’t be able to do anything.”
Still down on a knee, Torald shook his head. “I’m afraid I may be unable to advance any closer to our enemy’s stronghold. My companions will have to carry Veia’s light to the evil-doers without me.”
“Uh…” Magda said. “I don’t think attacking a demon fortress without a tank is such a good idea.”
“Pardon me, but I was under the impression this was a scouting mission,” Greel said. “I know that starborn can be foolishly hasty in the decision to initiate combat, trusting their automatic reincarnation to remedy any ill effects of the misguided act, but—”
“We’re not attacking, Greel,” Devon said, cutting him off. “But if a fight were to happen to us, I assume you aren’t volunteering to soak up all the damage.”
The lawyer grumbled something about speaking precisely if one had a certain meaning to convey but otherwise remained quiet.
Devon examined her friends’ faces in the wan blue glow from her orb. After a moment, Torald staggered to his feet, but he swayed and left his blade partially submerged in the water. That alone was proof that he couldn’t lead the group any deeper into the murk.
She glanced at her quest log again, but the mission to investigate the installation was still one of the requirements for completing the quest. Shaking her head, she shared the map pin for Hazel’s approximate location with the group, something she should have done in the first place.
“Okay, you guys. There’s no point in all of us going forward here. Whether it’s a group of five or just me, we won’t be taking out the demon force occupying the installation. As Greel pointed out, this is a scouting mission only. With the way you guys slosh through the water, you’re more likely to alert the enemy of our approach than anything. Head on to Hazel’s position and wait for me.”
Hailey blinked, fixing Devon with a hard stare. “What happens if you die? You’re our taxi out of the swamp.”
“I guess if I haven’t turned up by nightfall to teleport everyone to Ishildar, try making your way back north. I’ll get another group together and meet you at the ruin where we camped.” Of course, just the thought of fighting her way south through the savanna again sent a wave of exhaustion through Devon’s limbs. She’d do it if she had to, but maybe the next time she would bring a real off-tank.
“I hate to leave you here in the depths of enemy territory,” Torald said. He tried to straighten up, but his armor seemed too heavy for his frame.
“If it helps, I won’t tell your paladin friends that your chivalry and valor were overcome by something so simple as a heinous debuff,” Devon said.
He smirked. “You know me too well. Fair enough.” He glanced at the remaining party members. “Shall we head out before Hailey’s spell expires?”
Greel snorted. “If only our fearless leader would have thought of this before we marched through oppressive darkness for half an hour. Let’s get out of here.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
ADVANCING ALONE, DEVON decided to stick with the tier 1 Levitation so that she remained near to the ground. If she encountered a group of demons, she was pretty much screwed regardless of her height advantage. Better to stay inconspicuous. To further lower the chances of getting jumped, she cast a Simulacrum of herself and set it marching around twenty paces ahead of her. If she had the bad luck of running into demons, the decoy might buy her a chance to escape.
Plus, as stupid as it seemed, the presence of the illusion made her feel a little less alone and therefore, a little braver.
As she continued toward the fortress, the terrain grew gradually higher, and patches of boggy earth emerged from the still water of the swamp. The air even felt a little less humid, but it was also eerily quiet. Devon certainly didn’t blame the frogs and insects from leaving the region; even if it weren’t for the demon infestation, living in perpetual darkness would kind of suck. But the silence made her feel as if every rustle of her Raiment of the Keeper and creak of her leather armor could be heard from miles away.
She’d just checked her map again when she spied a line of what appeared to be green-burning torches and stopped short. Devon dropped to a crouch and dispelled her Simulacrum, hoping it hadn’t drawn the attention of any demons near those points of light. She held her breath while waiting for an alarm to be raised. After maybe five minutes with no movement and no sound from the vicinity of the flames, she took a deep breath and picked out a path where she could move from tree to tree and stay in relatively good cover while approaching the lights.
As she neared the row of torches, she realized they were placed atop a long raised platform. Moments later, it dawned on her that she’d come upon Hazel’s so-called Bridge-Road. The causeway, in other words. Hazel had mentioned a significant demon presence on the road, but the raised surface was currently deserted. Devon checked her map. She had indeed intersected the line of the causeway a short distance north of the location of the fortress, having deviated from her original bearing by a small amount. Still, it would be good to get an idea of how well-traveled the roadway was, so she settled in to watch and wait.
After maybe half an hour, she heard something approaching from the direction of the fortress, the thud of footsteps along with what sounded like the creaking of cart or wagon wheels. A few minutes later, the wagon appeared, a massive thing crafted from dark wood and pulled by a team of the most gargantuan hell hounds she’d seen in the game. The hounds yipped and snarled as the driver, a level 27 Demon Thrall, cracked a whip onto their backs. To either side of the conveyance, a guard of six more thralls escorted the wagon, and the apparent foreman of the hauling team, a level 30 Demon Ravager, brought up the rear.
Using the trunk of a tree to disguise her form, Devon stood to her full height in hopes of glimpsing the contents of the wagon. Strangely, it appeared to either be empty, or the load was so small she couldn’t see it over the sides of the wagon bed. As the small caravan moved past her and headed north into the darkness, she sat back on her heels to think it over. Whatever they were transporting, it seemed that the cargo was probably being sent from the savanna region to the fortress only. This wasn’t a two-way supply route.
Not long after, another wagon appeared in the opposite direction. Even without looking inside, Devon could tell her theory had been confirmed. Whining and sweat-soaked, the hell hounds rolled their eyes and strained against their harnesses, and the demon with the whip struck twice as hard and often. The guards seemed more alert, but Devon might have been imagining that. When the Ravager boss was a few paces past her, Devon once again stood to get a glimpse of the cargo. Unfortunately, between the darkness and her distance from the causeway, she couldn’t quite figure out what she was seeing. It looked like the demons were transporting a pair of massive black cubes—glass from the player camp?—but she couldn’t be sure. She shrugged as the procession vanished into the darkness, then she slowly retreated from the causeway. Once again, she summoned her decoy. She proceeded toward the installation, setting a course roughly parallel to the demons’ roadway.
The fortress emerged so gradually from the darkness that she didn’t notice it at first. As Hazel had sketched, it was indeed shaped like a step pyramid. The laden wagon had arrived at a dark opening that seemed to be the gate, and the Ravager was barking orders at a group of demons milling outside the structure. The ground around the pyramid stood above the water, though in the dim light, she couldn’t tell whether the demons had constructed the foundatio
n platform or whether they’d built on the natural high point. Either way, a good hundred yards of barren terrain stood between the nearest cover-lending tree and the rise of the pyramid. She wouldn’t be able to get very close, but she could still get a little closer and gather whatever information was available.
Devon crept forward, eyes pinned to the massive structure. Only a few of the green torches burned on the surrounding platform, just enough to throw glints off the glassy surface of the pyramid itself. The structure also seemed to glow from within, hints of deep purple leaking between the dark streaks as if the walls were ever-so-slightly translucent.
She stopped when she’d reached the final rank of spindly swamp trees.
You have discovered: Ziggurat of the Damned (60% Complete).
Among the highest tier of demonic military installations, a completed ziggurat has a wide sphere of influence that can counteract any defensive bonuses conferred by a Veian Temple.
Ziggurats are notoriously difficult to build because they require a large supply of glass blocks quarried from an area where earth or sand has been molten by hellfire and infused with bones of incinerated mortals.
Unfortunately, it seems that the demons recently encountered just the necessary conditions.
But at least you gain 100000 discovery experience. Good job.
And also:
Quest objective complete: Investigate the demon installation near the Fortress of Shadows
Well, crap. There went any hope Devon might have nurtured about hiding, indefinitely, within the protection of Ishildar’s Veian temple. She glanced at one of the guards standing near the base of the ziggurat and used Combat Assessment.
Demon Elite - Level 35
Health: 4659/4659
Throne of the Ancients: A LitRPG Adventure (Stonehaven League Book 6) Page 16