by G. Akella
You've accessed the quest: Acquiring...
"To hell with these quests!" Without taking my gaze from the monster, I swiped the system message away. "THIS is my quest!"
"The Lord has foreseen all!" The Lord of Darkness yanked his blade from the dead dragon, looked at me, and roared in malicious mirth. "The Void Pyramid is filled with Power and can only be destroyed by the gods! You!" he made a sweeping gesture with his sword, pointing at us all. "You are worthless. You are pathetic. You are unworthy to lick the muck from the Lord's boots! And you," this time, he was pointing at me. "Did you really think a worm like yourself could impede the manifestation of the Lord's plans?!"
"I know I can!" Shaking the glove from my right hand, I clenched the artifact in my bare fist.
Its sharp corners broke my skin, letting the blood flow down to the slabs of the floor.
"Only the gods, you say?" I grinned at the divine companion.
The next instant, the floor rocked underneath my feet. Then again. And again. Two columns to my right shuddered, then collapsed to the ground, split by a great crack. The movement grew, as if all of Cathella was shuddering. The amphitheater rumbled and rocked. A whole quarter of it rent itself free and collapsed into a cloud of dust to re-conceal the spacious statue-filled rooms it had laid bare. Cool air brushed my face. I turned away from the system alerts pouring in, gazing upward, and smiled. The moon was yellow.
"This is the blood of the White Dragon!" I displayed my empty, bloody palm to R'harg. "You and your master are fools. And you're a dead fool!"
He roared. "Die!"
The Lord of Darkness raised his arms, crossing his swords over his head, then swung them in the blink of an eye. A horrifying gray cloud screamed out of his blades and threw itself at me, plowing a long strip into the exhausted arena floor, skirting around my shield of the Goddess of Justice and hitting the ground behind me. The floor rocked once more. I watched a stone dragon head mounted on a wall above split to pieces, but I was unharmed. Looking at R'harg again, I shook my head.
"Like I said, you're a fool."
"Just die!"
He surged towards me, only to be floored by jets of dragon flame a second later. Velargass "unloaded" on the dark lord right after Vala'ael, as her spouse turned hard and crashed into the rising R'harg, knocking him back down to the floor. The two beasts raised immense clouds of dust. R'harg and Vala'ael wrestled, knocking over one of the columns and crashing into the far tribune, dangerously close to Kan, who was sitting in a daze as Vaessa attended to him. The knight-commander hadn't fully recovered yet, gazing around him with a foggy look.
"Come on! Now!" I screamed into the channel. "Vaessa, grab Kan and jump for it!"
"Yeah, no kidding," the necromancer's daughter snapped back, watching as Velargass threw herself into the fight.
The magus seized Kan under his arms, and a moment later, they had zipped sixty feet off to the right.
"Thank you, my lady," the knight-commander said hoarsely.
He struggled to his feet and turned, eyeing the monsters locked in combat, then shook his head and followed Vaessa towards my position.
A few seconds later, Raena dropped out of the air beside me. She placed the still-unconscious Reece on the floor slabs, cursed loudly, and sat down, leaning back against a stone in exhaustion.
"That was a great surprise, prince," she mouthed into the channel as she followed the clash of the titans. "But next time, tell us about the trump card up your sleeve, could you?"
"I just figured it out at the last second myself, actually."
The girl turned to me with a disbelieving sigh and shake of the head, then resumed watching the spectacle.
The gargantuan dust cloud flashed with all colors of the rainbow. The Lord growled and slashed and turned into wolf form now and then, but I supposed that not even Vill could handle the dragons on their home turf. No wonder the Cursed One had declined to fight them three hundred years ago. Once R'harg's health dropped below half, twelve enormous bats materialized, but Velargass instantly burnt them to a crisp. The Lord's not long for this world! Indeed, his death was just a matter of time. You can fight with record-smashing levels of ferocity, but when you're up against two opponents with levels higher than your own, nothing but a miracle can save you. And today was out of miracles. They came in limited supply, after all.
I took a sip from my flask and lit up my pipe, then opened my log to see what the system had been screaming at me.
The quest was named Acquiring True Power, and its goal was either the one-time use or the destruction of the artifact. It had been accepted automatically, which didn't surprise me—these days, the system rarely asked me whether I wanted something. Like a drill sergeant, it simply demanded. Now Cathella would be fully and finally destroyed, and I would get a three-percent increase to my stats, damage, and max resists. Everything but experience. The system had calculated that the stat boosts were fair under the circumstances, but experience boosts were gratuitous. Of course, my defense against mental attacks and Darkness magic would have still remained at ninety five percent, so, whatever. At least I could run three percent faster now, and jump three percent higher! And most importantly, I glanced at my flask with a smile, I can now drink three percent more cognac! Ha! I might be laughing, but those three percent meant a lot more for Vill, given how hard it must be for gods to accumulate power. So, let him choke on it.
"Die already!" Vaessa spat through clenched teeth.
The magus walked up to me with her arms crossed and frowned at the single-victim massacre still raging. The energy was drained from her face. Her eyes were set with deep bags, but they still burned with fierce hatred. I felt sorry for her dragons, but they shouldn't lose anything from dying. I guessed only she knew the details on that one, though, so I declined to comfort her, lest I blurt out something hurtful and ignorant. We would talk when this was done and her pets were back at her side.
Any sane person would have made "belongs in Bedlam" gestures at the sight of us. We stood dangerously close, gaping at a battle of fantastic power and import just a few hundred feet away. But, just like before, we had nowhere to go. We couldn't build a portal during a boss battle, and the exits were all smashed. Plus, the spectacle was riveting. As if hearing my thoughts, Velargass uttered a chilling roar, seized R'harg by the shoulder, and hurled him into the stones. The Lord, who had only five percent of his HP left, knocked the dragon back with a powerful kick, only to be set upon by Vala'ael. Arm and body were sundered, and the dragons raised their heads and screamed triumphantly into the sky.
You've earned a unique achievement, R'harg's Slayer. R'harg is a unique boss that can only be killed once. You and your allies have been granted a permanent 6% increase to your physical and magic damage.
Your reputation has increased. Light elves are neutral to you.
Your reputation has increased. The human race is neutral to you.
Your reputation has increased. Drow are neutral to you.
Your reputation has increased. Dwarves are neutral to you.
Your reputation has increased. Orcs are neutral to you.
We didn't level up, and we wouldn't get any loot, but that didn't matter. We won! Good had triumphed over evil once more! For those of us who couldn't believe it, the monster's detached arm lay on the ground as proof.
I took a moment to look around the ruins, and let out a long whistle. The Hall of the Ancient Kings now looked more like the old Colosseum of Rome—only the stand on the right had more or less escaped unharmed. The one on the left had collapsed into the space below the floor. The dust was beginning to dissipate. The amphitheater was about seven floors tall, by old world standards. Through the breach in the stands to the left I could see a temple containing stairs and small humanoid shapes. I approached, waved the foxes over, and took a careful peek inside. A pile of rubble, some three-story structures, and another statue of a dragon surrounded by sculptures of elephants with raised weapons. Nothing special. Though there were pr
obably plenty of interesting things to be had here, I didn't have the time to go looking. Or the desire, really.
Yet another noise. I turned to see that Vala'ael had laid down on the rocks, next to the carcass of the slain R'harg. The dragon stretched out its neck and closed its eyes. Another trap? Well, what was so wrong with that? Life had returned to normalcy, to safety. Sort of. Seemed like as good a time as any.
Velargass threw a cynical glance at her mate—well, I assumed it was cynical, since that was how every woman I knew would look at her man in this situation—and carefully made her way across the ruins to the body of the slain George. She examined him carefully, tilted her head, opened her mouth, and...
"What the hell is she..." Vaessa looked ready to move, but I managed to grab her shoulder.
"Just watch."
A silver-colored cloud from the dragon's mouth drenched the corpse. The beast faced us, nodded ever so slightly, and started toward Lola leisurely.
Distant relatives, I heard her voice speak in my head. They are worthy.
What Vaessa's pets were worthy of, I had no idea, but the necromancer's daughter seemed to relax at the sight. The corpse twitched as a blue twister whirled around it, and then George stood up and looked around as if nothing had happened. He found his "mama" and casually walked our way.
"See?" I smiled. "She didn't eat him. She even saved you some mana!"
"More than just mana," Vaessa whispered. I didn't ask what she meant. She stepped forward towards her resurrected pet and caressed his spiny muzzle, then flinched back and turned to me. "But dar, he..."
"He's fine. More than fine, in fact. You'll see."
I bent over and pretended to be knocking my pipe clean just to hide my surprise. No, I was right—the young dragon's color had changed from gray to silver. But that wasn't what truly surprised me. I saw tears in Vaessa's eyes, and I knew her too well. Best to pretend I hadn't noticed, and never mention it in the future.
Lola rushed after George, towards their mistress.
Meanwhile, Velargass stopped in the exact center of the arena. The huge dragon reared up on her hind legs for a moment and flapped her wings—and a chest bound in metal shackles materialized out of thin air right in front of her.
Approach, her voice rustled over the platform, quieter than the wind from her wings.
"Kan, you still have that potion, right?" Reece had come to, still sitting where the sorceress had laid him. He was rubbing his face, looking more like a huge disheveled sparrow than anything else.
"Well, then." Raena picked herself up, gracefully shook off her robes and fixed a sleeve cuff, before fixing the mage with a sardonic look. "Was that a proposal back there? Don't get the rings yet, but I promise I'll think about it."
The girl threw a relaxed shrug and walked towards the center of the arena, where the dragon was still waiting.
Reece pulled his hands from his face and lifted his head—forgetting to scoop his jaw off the floor—as he watched her walk away. I'll be damned. For the first time in our acquaintance, the mage had nothing to say.
"Shut that mouth, Reece," Kan quipped with a chuckle before setting after Raena.
With a tired shake of my head, I followed them.
"I never thought I would feel grateful to beings from your world," said the dragon as she looked at each of us. "But that is exactly what happened. Cathella will be destroyed, and the boundary between our worlds shall disappear."
She stepped back and nodded at the chest.
"Behold your reward!"
The second fragment of the key, plus one scalable item of our choosing. The chest held a full sixty eight slots. Most of the items had a repeat in another slot, but still, this was an impressive selection! Sixty seven cells with epic scalable items! Not to mention the second piece of the key! The sight was enough to transfix any player for hours, but I knew what I was really here for, so I quickly found Ingvar's gauntlets, along with the quest item, and grabbed them while trying hard not to look at anything else. Then I stepped away from the chest.
Attention all clans and players in Demon Grounds! The continental event known as Cathella the Spectral City has been completed by a group of five players from the Steel Wolves clan.
Warning: the Spectral City of Cathella will be destroyed in 119 minutes and 59 seconds...
You've completed a quest: Fragment Two of the Celestial Seal II.
You have gained a level! Current level: 251.
You have 6 talent points to allocate.
Class bonus: +1 to intellect; +1 to spirit.
You have 18 stat points to allocate.
You receive fragment two of the Celestial Seal.
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You have gained a level!
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You have gained a level! Current level: 255.
You have 10 talent points to allocate.
Class bonus: +1 to intellect; +1 to spirit.
You have 30 stat points to allocate.
You've accessed the quest: Celestial Seal.
Quest type: unique.
Combine both fragments of the Celestial Seal and build a portal to Karn.
Reward: experience.
Note: the portal to Karn will take you to a random location on the inhabited continent.
I need to distribute our stat and talent points, I thought as I watched the system messages. Though I guess that's not urgent. I'll do that in the comfort of my own room, later. Too much has happened today. Ahn Kulad, the dead masters, R'harg... Stashing the stone and the gauntlets into my bag, I turned to Velargass.
"What will you do now? Leave?"
"Yes. We can leave now." The dragon bowed her head and touched her face to my chest.
Not knowing how to react, I reached out and carefully ran my hands along her skin. It felt like stroking a cool, rough stone. Yeah, as far as house pets go, dragons are pretty different. At least I could brag to Alyona now that I had touched a real live dragon. She'd be jealous. The tiny George and Lola didn't really count, but this dragon did.
You have destroyed the thread that binds our worlds. But nothing ever disappears without a trace. Now, that thread is within you, and I shall help it awaken.
A moment later, the soft light of her eyes filled everything around.
You've acquired the skill: Gratitude of the Great Dragons of Pangea.
Upon reaching level 350, the skill Portal to Mount En Alatain will unlock in your skill tree. This talent will cost zero skill points to learn.
I wish you all the best, demon. Farewell. Velargass took a few steps away from us, and defied the laws of physics by launching straight up into the air.
It's been fun. Don't be a stranger! The shout in my head made me physically flinch.
I shielded my face from the pebbles and dust flying every which way, turned, and realized I wasn't imagining things. Towering over the corpse of the vanquished Lord of Darkness, Vala'ael met my gaze and nodded his head, then then soared off into the night.
"Farewell!" he roared as he raced to join his mate.
For a time, we watched the dragon silhouettes against the huge moon over the Spectral City. Even after they had dissolved into the dark, I kept my eyes up for a time. It dawned on me then. Holy Mother! We came here for one key, but had found two! And the mount we unlocked was on Pangea! Otherwise, why would Vala'ael have told me not to "be a stranger"? Plus, there were her words at the end about the thread being "within me." Dragons were cool and all, and I was super thankful for their aid, but I wasn't so sure I'd want to visit them anytime soon. Then again, I had plenty of time—maybe I'd get bored in a thousand years.
So what was with the stones? I glanced at Kan, who was holding a broadsword sparking with scarlet as carefully as he might a baby, then reached into my bag and pulled out both pebbles and pressed them together with only a flic
ker of hesitation. In an instant, they melded into one large stone with tiny silver runes running along it. Nothing I could make sense of—luckily, I had no intention of trying to read them.
The seal now had a "use" function. That was good enough. I stashed the stone in one of my belt slots and looked around. Kan had selected a sword, of course, and Vaessa now sported an earring with the exact same kind of gem featured on the ring Celphata had given her. Reece, unusually thoughtful, held a staff in his right hand—an artfully carved shaft of wood with a faint blue aura. Meanwhile, our sorceress...
"Raena, the shop is closing, grab something and let's go!" I turned to Reece. "Come on, wake up and open us a portal to the temple!"
The mage gave a tremor of surprise and nodded, opened a portal, and returned to his ruminations.
"All right, I'm good." Raena pulled a staff just like Reece's out of the chest, examined it carefully, and gave a satisfied grunt, obviously stoked with her selection.
"Is everyone ready?" I asked, just in case. "Off we go." I stepped first into the portal, my mind contemplating the chasm between male and female shopping habits, even in a game world.
The "helipad" hit us with a blast of wind, and the weather only got worse from there. Clouds concealed the second moon, and the sky to the east flashed periodically with long, forked streaks of lightning.
"How we looking?" I shouted to Saverus over the howling wind.
The mage, surrounded by a dozen foxes, looked at me in concern, but relief took over once he saw Kan and Raena emerge from the portal.
"All good, no losses."
He accepted the invite to join the raid, stepped forward, and waved at the town below.
"We've checked the whole area but couldn't get inside the temples. A mob of undead tried to get us in the graveyard."
The total yield was ten pounds of gold and one hundred twenty four pieces of gear, of which only three were worth a closer look.