The Wizard (Dungeon Core Book 1)

by MJ Kaltenbrunner

  "Father, you must rest," said Gaynor. She stepped up beside him and suddenly ruthlessly ran her dagger across his throat. Benevic was too weary and shocked to fight it. He fell to the floor right before the altar, grasping at his bloodied throat. His blood flowed down around him and pooled against the base of the altar.

  You saved me! I knew your love was true.

  "No, you were wrong," replied Gaynor with a salacious smile. She pulled her robe away and stood naked at the edge of the flowing blood.

  What is happening? Mertho asked Gaynor, seeing suddenly that things were not as they appeared. He began to feel strange, as though all the extra magical energy he'd gathered from the fallen adventuring party was suddenly leaving him.

  "You are each as foolish as the other," Gaynor said. Her eyes started to change, and she opened her clenched fist to reveal a glowing green stone set in gold and silver, attached to a thick chain that she placed around her delicate neck. It was the shape of a skull, only flattened so it could sit flat against the wearer. It throbbed with green light.

  Mertho felt his soul wrench in agony, if that was indeed what he possessed inside his dungeon core. What dark magic is this? he stuttered. Gaynor, you must stop this!

  "Gaynor is no longer with you," she replied. "Witness my coming as the blood of this vessel's father meets with my dungeon core."

  Your dungeon core? I won't allow you to take me, nor her! Mertho focused on opening the lava pit, on smashing her with rocks, but it was no good. The blood of Gaynor’s father burned as it encircled the altar, moving with animation now.

  43

  So, Gaynor never did love me? It was you all along?

  The woman who was certainly no longer Gaynor laughed at the wizard. "Oh," she said, "I'm sure the confused creature did have feelings for you: of pity perhaps at playing her part in tricking you. Don’t feel too bad; she was lured in by my followers and connived into giving herself up as my vessel. Another foolish victim just like yourself.

  Benevic was still alive, but sputtering against the floor, grasping at his throat and trying to speak.

  "I think he has something to tell us. Perhaps he wants to apologize to you, Mertho, for assuming you were behind such dark magic. Really, you should be flattered that he considered you anything more than a pawn, a pathetic recluse who jumped at the change to be adored by a beautiful woman."

  Benevic could not get up off the floor, but he managed to say just one thing, "Demon."

  "Very clever. Yes, a demoness now occupies your daughter’s supple body. Remember that as you lay dying, foolish warrior. But here, let me help you, 'father'." She laughed again and plunged the sacrificial dagger into the back of Benevic's neck, killing him instantly.

  Mertho immediately felt like he was about to die too. The magical green aura flowed from his dungeon core and into the body of Gaynor, into the demoness.

  This was your design all along, and I blamed Benevic's men for doing this to me. You harvested me to gather your power for your summoning ritual!

  Haha, yes indeed. You are not entirely stupid, are you? And he blamed you. The melodrama of you humans is so delicious. I cannot wait to enjoy and consume more of your pathetic lives!" She writhed, pushing out her pert breasts, between which the glowing amulet sat, pulsing with the flow of dark magic. She worked her bloodied hands over her new body, moving down to her sweet center. She leered at Mertho's dungeon core as she did this, and winked. "Your untold possibilities are nothing if not seductive. And even as I drain the very life force from you, dear wizard, you cannot help but want this naked body. How very perverse."

  Mertho couldn't reply, for he was already too weak.

  As she continued to touch herself and suck the life from Mertho, the demoness taunted him further. "I wonder what you would think of my escape from the nunnery, dear wizard, as I slowly kill you. Would it arouse you, my dark wizard, my dungeon core, to know that your innocent lady Gaynor drugged every nun of The Sisters of Fate's Mercy? I had her slit their throats while they slept under the watching eyes of their precious deity, and then she set the building alight."

  No, she would never do that! he pushed out, feeling pain at communicating.

  "Oh, but she did just that. When I felt you were ripe for me to take, she needed to finally come home. I assumed this would be more difficult, so I must say I'm disappointed at such little bloodshed."

  44

  The demoness was quivering as the magical energy flowed away from Mertho and into the amulet. Her features grew sharper, and her eyes were black and red from the power of unholy magic. The green turned to red now, and the naked woman began to shudder. Her hands still wandered over her new body, pleasuring herself and taking thrill in coming into the world at last.

  "Yes! Fill me, dark magic! Allow my passage into the mortal realm through this vessel! I shall bring the new age, one of darkness. No man shall stand up to my dominance!"

  "What about an elf woman?"

  Tehra!

  The elf had moved so nimbly, which was not of surprise. She threw her knife at the back of the demoness and followed after it with her short sword in hand.

  The knife stuck in her back, and the demoness shrieked, blood red eyes wide with pulsating black centers searching for her assailant. She began to laugh as she spun in a blur to face the elf. She moved so quickly, full of demonic power after nearly completely draining the dungeon core. Once she was finished, her might would no doubt be unstoppable.

  Tehra, run! Mertho said to the elf.

  "Do your best, elf. You will only have one blow before I crush your skull." The demoness stood there naked, presenting her exposed chest without worry. She laughed at the rushing elf.

  But the elf slashed at the demoness with her short sword, cutting her across the shoulder toward the breast, severing the chain. The amulet fell away from the naked demoness.

  "No!" She hunched forward and seemed to shrink, clutching to try to catch her precious amulet before it hit the floor.

  Tehra though followed through with a boot to the bare chest of the demoness, which sent her back into the altar. They struggled up against it, bodies pressed against one another, the demoness grabbing the elf's sword hand and taking hold of her other wrist. Her strength though was clearly waning without her amulet, and the summoning ritual was not yet completed.

  "I will kill you, elf!" she screamed at Tehra.

  "It seems that you're too weak without your fancy jewelry, bitch," Tehra retaliated through bared teeth. With that, she spun and threw the naked demoness into the wall of the chamber, then readied herself to continue to fight.

  "Your suffering will be greater than any other," said the demoness. "I will make sure of that personally." She ran to the stairs, her back bleeding profusely and her face already bruising from having hit the wall. "This is just a minor setback, a drop in the bucket of a life far greater than your own pathetic existence. Elf, wizard! Mortal scum!"

  I am no mortal, replied Mertho. He was already starting to feel better. The life force was returning to him from the amulet at a pleasing rate, now that it was separated from its user.

  "Yet you feel for these pathetic creatures, making you no better than they are. Watch..." She raised her hands, and a bolt of red lightning shot out and struck Tehra in the face, dropping her instantly.

  Mertho roared defiantly and caused the ceiling above the room’s entrance to collapse, closing the demoness off from the altar room. I have my power back, demoness. You would do well to run away while you can. He hoped the threat wasn't completely empty, and that it would work. He hadn't expected her to still have any magical power after the ritual had been stopped partway through.

  "You may be right this time, but I will be back for what belongs to me." Her footsteps could be heard as she exited up the stairs.

  45

  Mertho could not allow this thing inside Gaynor to escape. He had been too weak to see that it was no longer her. And even if it had been—Gaynor had volunteered herself as a vessel. S
he had chosen to suck the wizard into her wicked lies. He wished there was a way to go back and just kill Benevic and Gaynor before this blood was spilled upon the altar. That would have been a saving grace for the old warrior as well, to never know that his daughter was willing to betray him in favor of helping such evil. After all, he was never the one who had turned Mertho into the dungeon core and destroyed his family tower.

  That had been the demoness. Trying as hard as he could, Mertho focused on stopping the escaping woman with his traps. But his power was too low to be effective. She ran by the remnants of the skeleton brigade, which was sluggish at best when the wizard tried to animate them. Then, she moved through the vines with a nimble grace that was superior to even the elf. There was no falling rock that could stop her, and Mertho did not have enough power to create anything new. He gave up and allowed her to flee.

  There was another pressing matter. Tehra? Are you alive? The young elf maiden's face was blistered and red, making it hard to tell if she had her eyes open. That had been some sort of magical fire, not surprisingly. He tried to use his magic to heal Tehra, but he did not have enough magic left to do so. Although the amulet had returned some to him when it had been knocked away from the demoness, there was still a lot of power unaccounted for. Perhaps it was still inside the amulet?

  "Wizard..." said the charred body of the elf, through lips that were almost black where they were once light pink. "Please..."

  I can hear you, Tehra. What do you wish of me? He wondered if a tear might have formed in his eye, if he still possessed a body.

  "Do what you must... don't let..."

  Yes, what is it, friend?"

  "Don't let me die." That was all she could manage to do before passing out. The magical aura that her elven being naturally presented faded away like a candle's flame suddenly being deprived of enough air to stay alight. The elf was dead, and her last wish had been to live.

  I am sorry. Mertho decided that he would go into deep thought as he had done most of his existence as a dungeon core. He had never harmed anyone who didn't deserve it back then. Sure, this elf had done things that some would consider wicked, but they were actions taken in the name of righteousness. She had offered up her own morality as a sacrifice in order to help make the world a lighter place, absorbing the darkness into her own soul to keep it from flowing out into the world.

  46

  It was impossible to know how much time had passed. It might have been months, or just minutes, but neither would have felt any different to Mertho the dungeon core now. He was not cheerful. He was not melancholic. Those mortal emotions had no place for him, and he could be free of their restraints and frustrations now that there was no one around.

  Mertho did have a sense of missing something, his elf friend perhaps. Or, it was the love he had assumed was still out there waiting for him. At least, the memory of having loved Gaynor kept him feeling like a regular man trapped deep inside that magical core, at the bottom of a dungeon of his of own devising.

  While the latter was out there playing vessel to a demon that could very well spell the death of the world in the future, the former—his friend Tehra—lay cold as the rock surrounded them. Her body did not fester yet, due to the fire spell that had been used to kill her.

  Men came from outside, walking without hesitation to the cave entrance. It would have been wise to seal it, but the wizard lacked the magic necessary to do so. If he'd had even that much in reserve, perhaps Tehra would still be alive now, having been healed. That was one good thing his dark magic could have achieved.

  They were robed men, and women too, joyous and eager to come down into the dungeon. They did not have fear about them, and they were not armed to deal with the types of hazards one finds within dungeons.

  Yes, come...

  As they came into the tunnel at the start of the dungeon, Mertho asked the native denizens of his cavernous lair to come from their safe, dry hiding places. The things that crept along the ground, up through soil and in between stone; scuttling lizards and slithering snakes; rodents that sought refuge from harsh weather and ever hunting predators; winged creatures that preferred the darkness in hidden places up high to the commotion of those who dwelt upon the surface. I have given you shelter and safety. Now, I ask your help, my little friends.

  "What is that noise?" asked one of the hooded figures." They had torches lit and held before them, but no armor nor arms at the ready. And even the most expertly places sword tip or shield was useless against hundreds of thousands of tiny swarming targets.

  "I think it's rats or even bats!" shouted one of the women with distaste.

  "Keep moving. The torches will—" said another hooded man, but that is all he managed to say before his speech became an incoherent cry of desperation. "Run! Go back!" he ordered those to the rear of the long procession, but they were slow to react. By the time anyone could retreat, a flurry of insects, lizards, snakes, bats, and rats were all working as one storm of blind consumption. They brought those cultists at the front down first, eating away at them while the swarm stretched out and enclosed the next few, and the next.

  "Save us, Veluthra!" "Have mercy, goddess!" "Why have you forsaken us great one?" "Have we not pleased you?" They cried out as they tried to get up, tried to breathe without their mouths being filled with flying gnats and biting rat heads, tried to withstand venomous snake bites that slowed the beating of their hearts and made their blood burn like fire. Only a handful of the cultists escaped in the end, and they were white as ghosts, barely able to run for their stumbling and shivering.

  All this and Mertho barely paid them any notice. He didn't care about a group of groveling worshippers come to beg praise from their supposed deity, a 'goddess' who had been nearly defeated by a humble elven maid. He lacked the magical energy to affect their progress beyond asking for help from the tiny creatures anyway. They had proven to be much more useful than he had ever anticipated.

  47

  The wizard had forgotten how good the life force of a dead person tasted. The fallen were not completely devoured by the swarms in the same way that the fish would eat a person clean. The native dungeon denizens were only responding to the request of their host, the dungeon core. They were not eager to feast on the flesh of humans, not in a frenzy. Nature would take its course more slowly, and the bodies would be allowed time to properly decompose and return to the earth in the right ways. This means the bodies were more than intact enough for Mertho to absorb their life forces.

  He was overjoyed to have power once again. As though he had forgotten everything, he realized Tehra's corpse was beside him and already in the process of decomposition. This was well beyond the realm of even the best healer in any known land. It would take a true god to bring her back to life now. But she could be given a type of life, perhaps.

  Her words came back to him: "Do what you must. Don't let me die." That had been her dying wish, to be alive. Would she settle for a compromise? Mertho was not sure what would result in his meddling through the use of dark dungeon core magic. Moral dilemmas were beyond his expertise, his soul being contained within a floating skull that fed off the power taken from the dead.

  Please forgive me if I have made the wrong decision, little elf.

  48

  Tehra woke up. Her body felt cold against the hard ground. It took a moment to realize where she was, what had happened. "I was asleep," she mumbled.

  You were more than just sleeping, came a familiar voice in her mind. The floating skull remained there like an optical illusion, a magician's trick atop the altar. You died. For some time, you lay there without breathing.

  "What? No, I was so quiet. I stopped Gaynor from gaining her power."

  Gaynor is no more.

  Tehra peeled herself up off the floor. Her face and hands were covered in blackened, dry blood. "I'm sorry, Mertho. I know you loved her."

  Yes, I will admit it. But it's clear that she intended to use me as a conduit of dark energy, to summon her
deity into her own body.

  "Why would anyone worship a demon? What kind of person could allow such a thing to take over their own body?

  True, you did stop the demoness from taking her full form and power. It appears she has still very much entered our world.

  Sitting down on the floor and still too weak to do anymore, the young elf tried to regain the feeling back in her limbs. "I was burned," she said, remembering the bolt of red magical energy hitting her fully in the face. It had felt like her eyes would burst from the heat. "My face, is it..." Thinking of how much she must look like a monster was too difficult in her weakened condition.

  I was able to heal you, Tehra. You are as you were, I assure you.

  "And you were unable to stop her? Did you save me instead? Oh, I'm not sure I could handle the guilt of the world being at risk because I was saved."

  Actually, the demoness's followers came rushing to see her inside her vessel. They were not expecting to find me still alive, I expect. They did provide plenty of delicious energy, which I then used to bring you back.

  "Bring me back? So, I did die? Am I, truly alive now?"

  Tehra. I will not lie. Being a magical core comes with a mysterious type of magic that I had never encountered before. The demoness claimed it was dark magic, and I do have the powers of necromancy. But I also have the power to commune with nature and to heal and cast light spells.

  "How could you do this to me?" she asked half-heartedly.

  You asked me before you died, not to let you die. Please forgive me.

  Tehra tried to remember and felt that she really did ask such a thing.

  "But, have I died? I feel cold. Will I rot? Am I undead? I don't feel that way."