by G. Akella
In terms of architecture, Cathella largely resembled most of Arkon's big cities. The biggest and most unique feature of the city was the Void Pyramid—an artifact stored in the enormous Hall of the Ancient Kings, located in the main building of the city citadel. According to Velargass, the hall could easily accommodate a dozen of Pangea's Great Dragons. Of course, my own father-in-law's Small Hall was spacious enough for that very dozen dragons to put on theatrical productions, so I wasn't all that impressed with size this time around. The small size of the artifact, on the other hand, did surprise me. It worked just like Myrt's staff in Vaedarr, only instead of increasing morale and mana regeneration, the Void Pyramid cast a shield on the citadel that could only be bypassed by its defenders. It was theoretically possible to dispel the shield, but that would take oodles of magic, and seeing as the pyramid drew its power from its environment, capturing the citadel without divine aid seemed virtually impossible. Back to the story. The next fifteen hundred years passed by uneventfully: the dragons stood watch over the city while the citizens went about their lives. And why would they worry if Karn's inhabitants had no way of accessing this land in between realms? Even gods, who weren't constrained by such conventions, weren't visiting Cathella much, if at all. The reason being that, with this land being a part of Pangea, their magic was neither effective nor predictable, unlike anywhere else in Karn. And besides, what would gods want with this scrap of land with its orthograde elephants whose notions of theology differed greatly from those typically accepted in Karn? And so, when Velial invaded the lands of men, the locals didn't bat an eye. And it wasn't until the Netherworld's Overlord, and the Light Gods after him, began placing their seals that severed Demon Grounds from its surrounding territories that the Land Between Realms suffered its own shock. The city was wrecked, with only the artifact-protected citadel surviving, and strange objects began falling on top of the elephants' heads. One of those objects was the aforementioned moonstone, termed "repylite" by Saardak Ar-Kilat in his notes. The city was rebuilt, but then, three centuries ago it was visited by my old acquaintance, whose lackeys Elnar and his men had nailed to the walls of their own temple. How could I be sure it was Vill? Somehow Velargass managed to convey his image to me with her thoughts; and I, naturally, would be hard-pressed to forget that loathsome mug with the scar running across it. And this is where the story gets interesting. After invading the Land Between Realms, the Dark God decided to eschew battling the dragons directly, but used the blood of the White Dragon to undermine the citadel's defenses, infiltrated the stronghold, recalibrated the artifact, left Nerghall behind to guard it (the dragon had shown me his image as well), and left to attend to his godly business. What was Vill after? Simple. The blight that escaped the citadel had transformed the citizens, and the artifact that had served them throughout the centuries began siphoning their life force instead. And not just siphoning, but killing them—slowly and painfully. The dragons put an end to the residents' torments, but couldn't break through the citadel's new defenses. Neither did they wish to return home to Pangea, abandoning the citadel taken over by the cursed god here on the border of the two realms.
Velargass conjectured that Vill wanted the Void Pyramid for the same reason he wanted the ring so well familiar to me. But then the dragons succeeded in preventing the pyramid from accumulating the power required for using it, and it fell into standard recharge mode. And now it couldn't be touched at all for fear of squandering whatever power it had accumulated thus far. Essentially, knocking it off its stand would foil the Twice Cursed God's plans in one fell swoop. And playing the role of Frodo would be a certain Black Demon, should he manage to enter the Hall of the Ancient Kings via the Ancient Paths, the way to which could be opened for him by a certain lady dragon, should she, in turn, find herself inclined to help him. As for their reward, the hero and his companions—and he could take up to four other sentients with him—they could each take one item from Cathella's treasury, which was crammed full of valuables recovered by the city's inhabitants from all over the Land Between Realms. Most interesting of all was my deduction that the continental event aimed at capturing and razing the city probably wasn't conceived by the devs at all, but generated by the system itself. After all, if Velargass was to be believed, the entrance to the tombs of the Ancient Kings was blocked off by unknown magic fifteen hundred years ago, just as the seals were cast, whereupon the citizens declared a reward to whoever manage to get inside all ten tombs and recover ten fragments of some object called the Disk of Desires. Two of those were the very Indiana Jones temples we had passed on the way to the city, and the others were nearby as well. So, the party of players that ended up here would need only clear ten dungeons, reassemble the puzzle, and hand it over to the elephants for the second key fragment! Easy peasy! And it all made logical sense. The devs had planned for the building of the portal to Karn to happen at around level 150-200, which was way too low to deal with two demigods. And that meant that the dragons and the citizens couldn't be hostile to the visiting demons, but either neutral or, at worst, unfriendly.
On the other hand, the Pangeans had all died out three centuries ago—why? And why wouldn't the dragons attack us on sight? Hart! Why bother trying to make sense of this shit when RP-17 could have easily stirred the events in a locked plane in a way that would make even the gods' heads spin? The dragons might not have cared for the elephants one bit, or maybe they were initially unfriendly to all visitors, and this was still the devs' preconceived storyline? Even the flow of time could be totally different here. At any rate, I had little choice in the matter but to do as the dragons asked. Well, at least Nerghall was already feeding the proverbial worms, and all I had to do to complete the quest was traverse these Ancient Paths and shove the artifact from its stand. I didn't even have to handle it. With the defenses down, the dragons' magic that survived Nerghall and Vill would be of no danger to me. I would get the second key fragment, then put myself and my retinue of knights on mages on an express train to Karn! Yet another step...
If I allowed myself a minute to catch my breath and reflect on my recent past, it might result in a mild stroke. The sheer number of gods was dizzying, and enough to stop believing in their singularity. And then there were the great dragons, elder demons and the like... If anyone told me a year and a half ago that I would find myself standing in front of a giant flying reptile that spoke and breathed fire... Sure, somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that these were all artificial intelligences that could be simply purchased by any Earthling with means, but that didn't make them any less real to me now! And what did that make me? A patient inside a loony bin, strapped down his bed? Lines of digital code? A bug in the system that all these gods and dragons nonetheless had to deal with? No... It won't be long now. Once I make it to the upper plane, Alyona and Max will be proof enough that I haven't lost my mind yet. Only them.
Lost in my own thoughts, I missed the moment when the dragon's rasping voice could no longer be heard in my head. And the lines of system messages scrolling before my eyes brought me back for good.
You've completed the quest: Fragment Two of the Celestial Seal I.
You've accessed the quest: Fragment Two of the Celestial Seal II.
Quest type: unique.
Take the hidden passage to the Hall of the Ancient Kings in the citadel of Cathella the Spectral City, and use any means necessary to take the Void Pyramid out of operation.
Reward: experience, fragment two of the Celestial Seal.
Attention! No more than five allies can be used to complete this quest.
Don't say anything about yourself, demon. I see it all clearly already. I know that you will not refuse me...
"Obviously, I won't refuse you," I turned around and looked at the mages and knights, frozen still fifty yards from here. Not a word had been uttered in the general channel since the dragon had initiated the mental communication. They were waiting, hoping for an amicable resolution to whatever was happening.
; "Don't you worry, fellas," I sighed, shifting my eyes to the billowing mist that began manifesting to my right the moment I'd made the decision—the last decision I would make in this plane. The murky substance began to heave and churn, as if taking a life of its own, unaffected by the wind gusting on the platform.
Hidden passage to the Spectral City's citadel. 5 heroes. Zone level ???
Oh, but I was getting sick of all these question marks! Was the hidden passage changed by the magic of the Twice Cursed God? The hell with that! I was going in there, regardless of the zone's level or whoever—or whatever—waited for me on the other side. Kan, Vaessa, Reece and Raena wouldn't hesitate either—I was sure of that. Such were the laws of this world, which was still a game in this sense. I couldn't walk this path alone. If I tried, I wouldn't get very far...
As soon the shield is down, Vala'ael and I will come to destroy the Elder's servant, the voice sounded in my head. It is up to you to do what must be done.
Aha, so this was the devs' conception, after all! Except there wasn't a servant anymore. But I wasn't going to tell the dragon that.
"I'll do it, don't you worry. Just let me speak to my people, and we'll get going." I nodded at Vala'ael, who still hadn't bothered to so much as open one eye, and asked the question that had been nagging me. "Does he talk?"
What is the purpose of words? Turning her head slowly, Velargass gazed at the dragon lounging on the slabs. My husband and I understand each other without words. Words are necessary for lesser ones like you. So I speak. He is silent. Silent since the moment we came to the Land Between Realms...
"Thank you," I said to the dragon, spun around and headed back to my party, a smile playing on my lips.
Evidently, even dragons could be like people—at least when it came to certain aspects of marital life.
Chapter 5
Xahrien's Lair, Hoary Ridge Environs. Zone level 190.
That bitch fully blocked all my abilities! Jaelitte hissed furiously in my head just as soon as I emerged from the portal window, then side-stepped to let the others pass through.
Where are your manners, princess? I inquired, taking a look around, trying to understand where the fickle fate had cast us this time.
No more than fifty yards wide, the passage ran straight ahead, then turned right in about seventy yards. The air was dry and wonderfully crisp, with the temperature in the upper sixties using Earth's measures. The walls of the gorge sloped upward at a near vertical angle, some of them sporting colonies of dark brown moss and cracks of suspect origin. The ground was even, not counting pebbles and rusted pieces of crumbling armor. And bones... You couldn't well have a road without bones, now could you? Judging by the skulls, this site saw no less than a dozen humans dispatched to the Gray Frontier. Or perhaps they were elves or drow—I wasn't a big enough expert in the local anatomy to be sure. It was easy enough to notice horns or fangs protruding from the lower jaw, but discerning a human skull from an elven one? Sorry, pass.
My manners are just fine, thanks, my wife grumbled. But when I'm finally free, I'll take a day to hunt these flying toads! The toad didn't lie, by the way—Death magic is strong here indeed. We cannot go back, though. There's going to be the same wall like in that citadel, may the Seven damn it for all eternity.
I thanked my wife and turned around, looking for anything of interest, and finding nothing. The passage extended downward and to the right, disappearing from view some one hundred yards down. But I knew better than to doubt my wife's words—nobody was more invested in my personal safety than her.
"Mountains! I didn't realize how much I missed them till now!" The mage took a long, skeptical look at his surroundings, made a wry face, and extended a hand to Raena as she stepped out from the portal, tripped over a rock and lost her balance momentarily, then let loose a phrase that proper ladies from respectable families probably shouldn't even know, much less utter. Ignoring Reece's gesture, she skirted the mage while nearly bumping into his shoulder, then craned her neck and proceeded to study the sun hanging over the gorge.
"We're already in Karn?" the sorceress exclaimed in surprise. Tearing away from contemplating the local star, she turned her gaze to Kan, standing perfectly still nearby, as if calling on him to bear witness.
"I don't know about your Karn," Vaessa said, the last to emerge from the portal. "But we definitely shouldn't go that way." The necromancer's daughter nudged her dithering dragon, then gestured behind her.
"We're at the border of the Gray Frontier, aren't we?" I grunted as the realization finally dawned on me.
Hart! That's Xahrien! If memory served me right, the unique boss was level 380—a bone dragon who had wiped the Azure Dragons no less than twenty four times. So epic was their ultimate victory over the dragon that they had officially changed their clan's name when it happened, as the kill propelled them into one of the world's foremost clans. But what the hell was he doing here?! A unique boss could only be killed once by definition! And why was I seeing more and more of these bone dragons all of a sudden? Velargass, Vala'ael, George... And now this big fella!
I sat down on an outcropping of rock, slipped a pipe between my teeth, and took a few drags, paying no mind to my party mates' bemused gazes.
What was going on here? Was Raena right about us arriving in Karn? But then what was the border to the Gray Frontier doing here? Or was it an illusion of sorts? Were the Ancient Paths a reflection of the real world? The real world... Ha! I crack myself up... I shook my head in bewilderment. Conceding the possibility that the system could have generated any instance from the upper realm for our "hidden passage" into the citadel taken over by the Cursed God, why would it make it a raid instance?! After all, only five sentients could go through the portal, and if my memory was correct, it took a whopping two centuries of hardcore Korean gamers to take down Xahrien... Velargass mentioned something about the Twice Cursed God's magic transforming this stretch of the Ancient Paths—could this be the reason for our wretched luck? Or was this not really Xahrien, but something else entirely? As always, too many questions—and nowhere near enough answers. I recalled Jaelitte's words that the Ancient Paths weren't really one whole plane. She didn't know much beyond that, but, as I understood it, from here I shouldn't be able to access the dungeon I'd been cast into after slaying Nerghall, for instance, or fall back into the endless chain of changing zones on the chessboard of nightmares. And Vaessa had said that the Ancient Paths were really a multitude of islands in the vast Ocean of Darkness. A bloody archipelago... Having finished my pipe, I rose and looked up at the sun shining through the rocks overhead. It looked perfectly ordinary, just like the sun in Demon Grounds. But even if it weren't, it didn't change our situation one bit. Whether or not there really was a level 380 bone dragon waiting for us, there wasn't anything we could do but go and see for ourselves.
Suddenly I didn't feel like smoking at all. Putting out the glowing embers, I put the pipe away, then caught Raena's questioning gaze and gave a negative shake of the head.
"No, this isn't Karn. Simply one of its reflections."
"In that case, what's got you so worried?" She followed up at once, examining the walls overhanging us as if in search of the cause.
"I agree, earl," said Kan, frowning. "It would behoove us to know what to expect ahead."
"Would that I could tell you." Purely mechanically, I sat back down on the rock and lit up again. Upon realizing the absurdity of my behavior, I cussed softly and spat on the ground.
"This place is a dungeon, the kind I told y'all about before. Somewhere toward the end we'll meet Xahrien—a bone dragon. After defeating him, we will move on—either to the next level or into the hall of those geezer kings."
"Ancient Kings..." Raena corrected me automatically.
"What difference does it make?" I shrugged, taking another deep drag while thinking to myself that this really wasn't the time to give up bad habits. "Don't ask me what that passage will look like—I don't know. A door, a hole in the wall
, a portal... And when we get to the end, we may not see a monster but some weird puzzle instead. The only thing I know is that this place will take us into that hall. Or to a graveyard—if that's even possible nowadays."
"Aye, we remember," Vaessa dusted some non-existing specks off George's neck, then gave me a brooding look. "You talked about the true death that may take us here. But I don't understand how—"
"I don't understand either—I just feel that we mustn't die here. It might not be the true death, but it wouldn't be pleasant. Being tremendously weakened, we'll be on an express train to Mycana!"
"What's an express train?" Reece looked up from the huge dead fly he'd been studying in his palm, eyes shining with curiosity.
"It's a mode of transportation that..." I began to explain, then waved him away with frustration. "What does it freaking matter?! Just understand my orders: we move slowly and with maximum caution. You've got five minutes to buff up. Starting now."