by J. A. Hunter
The Efrite was having none of that, though. It let out a horrible shriek and threw itself off edge of the platform, dropping over the side and toward the slowly retreating magma below. It abandoned its sword, letting it tumble, and grabbed hold of Nikko with one hand and Forge with the other, ensuring there would be no escape. If it was dying, it was taking them down, too.
I scrambled toward the edge and watched in horror as Forge, Nikko, and the Efrite slapped into the burbling pool of red and orange and gold. Nikko burst into flame on impact, dead the instant she made contact with the red-hot liquid. The Risi disappeared next, a pained smile glued onto his now-melted face. Bile rose up in the back of my throat. I’d died a number of times in V.G.O., and it was never pleasant. But being cooked alive? That had to be in the top five worst ways to go, and Forge had done so willing to give us a chance to move on. To survive.
Below, the Efrite exploded into a shower of gray and black, the wispy strands of its form dissipating in the air. One enemy gone, though we still weren’t quite in the clear yet. That damned gas was rising, permeating the room.
Twenty-six seconds left. If we didn’t move fast, Forge’s sacrifice would be in vain.
I stole a look down. The last of the lava had finally drained from the basin, but the drop down to the steel floor was at least thirty feet—too far to leap without sustaining serious injury, maybe even death. Another quick scan skyward revealed a lone platform, which looked like it would descend to the pit floor. But with that gas swirling through the room, we didn’t have time to screw around with platforms and levers.
Thankfully, my Spirit had regenerated plenty during my fight with the Mega-Efrite, so we could still do this if I moved fast enough. Sticking out one hand, I conjured a single max-sized portal in front of Cutter and Vlad, who were still scurrying about on the suspension rigs above the main platform. I’d never sent two people through in a single go, but I’d seen my Shadow-Warp Portals swallow multiple arrows, so it was at least possible. The pair of them hesitated for only a second, and then Cutter moved, throwing his arms around Vlad, roughly tackling the Alchemic Weaponeer into the open rift.
Vlad let out a surprised squawk as both men plunged through, abruptly appearing in the now-empty basin, courtesy of my exit portal.
Not too shabby. But the max portal had bitten through more of my Spirit than I’d anticipated. God, what I would’ve given to be able to use a Spirit regen potion at that moment.
0:16...
No point in dwelling on what I didn’t have or couldn’t use.
I turned my attention to the main platform and repeated the process—but Abby and Carl were too far apart for both of them to squeeze through at once. “Get in, Carl!” I yelled, my voice a whip-crack of command that demanded instant obedience.
And obey he did, leaping immediately into the open portal, which promptly spit him out next to the exit hatch, jutting up from the floor like an oversized chimney. Cutter and Vlad were already scrambling at the wheel, working to pry the exit door open. My Spirit gauge strobed a manic warning, and I knew I wouldn’t have enough juice to conjure another Shadow-Warp Portal for Abby and get myself safely down. But we weren’t sunk just yet. Only ten seconds left on the clock, and I could feel it—my stomach roiled, my head was woozy, and white motes lazily swam across my vision as I struggled to pull in enough air—but we could do this, dammit.
I sprinted across the platform and threw my arms around Abby’s shoulders, chest slamming into her as I triggered Shadow Stride, pulling us between the realms and into the blessedly cool Shadowverse. Time shuddered and came to a reluctant halt around us, and we tumbled in a heap of limbs on the main clockwork platform, both breathing hard, sweat pouring down our faces and arms.
“Jack, get off me, would you?” she said, slapping at my arm.
I rolled off her. “Sorry about that,” I said, propping myself up on my palms. “Hit you a little harder than I meant to. Heat of battle and all that.”
“You’re telling me,” she replied with a wince. She sat up and patted at her stomach, checking to make sure nothing was busted. “Shit. I think you broke a few of my ribs.” There was no sting in her words, though, and a small smile played across her lips. “Thanks for saving me, Jack.”
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” I replied, sullenly gaining my feet. I extended her a hand, which she took gratefully.
I wrapped one arm around her shoulder and guided her over to the edge of the platform. She glanced down and sighed. “Let me guess, we get the pleasure of jumping?”
“Got it in one,” I said with a tired smile. “Still beats the hell out of suffocating to death.”
“Yeah, I suppose it does beat that.” She stole a sidelong glance at me. “On three?”
I dropped my arm, and instead took her hand in mine. “Sounds good.”
She counted us down and we jumped, hand in hand.
We hit the empty basin bottom like a load of bricks, knees buckling and giving out beneath us. It was impossible to sustain damage while Shadow Striding—one of the many perks that came with the ability—but it was still plenty possible to experience pain. And landing hurt. A lot. Felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my feet and legs. But my HP remained unchanged, and no new status effects appeared in my vision. With a groan, I stood and helped Abby to her feet. She absently brushed off her palms on the front of her sorceress’s robes.
Since I regenerated both Health and Spirit at a significantly increased rate while Shadow Striding, I didn’t rush us back into the Material Realm. Before us, the exit hatch was open, the heavy steel lid propped straight up on its hinges; Cutter, Vlad, and Carl were nowhere to be seen. I skittered over to the exit, leaning against the short stone retaining wall housing. Up close, the thing really did look like a well, though inside was nothing but black. Complete and unrelenting darkness. It didn’t even look a little bit promising. Then, I looked at the timer tracking our inevitable death by suffocation.
0:03...
At this point, it was either roll the dice and jump into the ominous pit of darkness or die painfully as toxic gas filled my lungs. Not much of a gamble there.
“Ready to do this?” I asked as the countdown on Shadow Stride flashed in the corner of my eye. I took Abby’s hand again as time swept us up, filling the world with sound and heat and frantic motion.
Together, Abby and I slipped over the edge and into the unknown.
The Greatest Weapon
THE CONSTRICTING PRESSURE in my lungs vanished, sweet, delicious air fluttering around me as I fell through the unrelenting black. The world reeled and spun, and in the dark, fiery words flashed through the air in front of me like a fireworks display. The burden of power is that even a single misstep will cost lives... The text was there, then gone, so quick it was possible to believe I’d imagined it. Except I knew that I hadn’t. The first challenge had been burden, and in that context, the line made perfect sense.
The world seemed to flip and rotate, and suddenly I was on my feet, rocky ground beneath my boots. My breath caught in my lungs as I caught my first real look at our new surroundings. We were in an enormous cavern. A vast canyon with no discernable bottom in sight stretched out below us in every direction. The whole party was precariously balanced on a rocky bridge spanning the canyon, but the little spit of ground supporting us was no wider than two feet across. Not a balance beam, but certainly not a sidewalk, either.
Furious winds screamed upward from the abyss below, tugging at the edges of my cloak. The land bridge acted as a shield of sorts, preventing us from being swept up by the gale-force gusts and smashed against the ceiling overhead. Which was good, because the ceiling was jam-packed with razor-sharp stalactites that gleamed like diamonds in the preternatural light, which seeped from the air itself. I squinted, my heart thumping like a jackhammer in my chest.
Not like diamond, those were giant freaking diamonds. Impossible things that could fund the Crimson Alliance for the next ten years. I never consi
dered myself to be greedy, but... Tentatively, I stuck a hand out over the edge—the wind slammed into my arm and threatened to knock me over into the darkness. Yep. That was a big fat nope. Getting those things would be a suicide mission, and not even Devil would be able to fight against those gusts.
The far wall of the canyon was a hundred feet behind us—just unmarred rock face—but fifty feet dead ahead was a square archway, the obvious way to go. Two vertical pillars, carved to look like giant scythes, their blades facing inward, formed the horizontal beam of the arch. We picked our way closer to the arch, moving slowly, deliberately, arms tucked in to our sides to keep errant gusts from knocking us to our death.
After what felt like a lifetime, the stone bridge connected to a small shelf of rock, running parallel to the archway. Up close, I saw there was another message etched into the dual scythe blades. I am a weapon greater even than the gods: the death of the warrior, the ender of battles, the prize of all valiant men. You may take only me with you; only the wisest will understand my true form.
This then was the next trial, wisdom. I let out a long sigh. And, of course, it would be a riddle. More riddles. Like father, like son.
“Anyone have any idea?” I asked, feeling a sinking sense that no one would.
Abby chewed on her bottom lip, eyes flicking over the message again and again and again, committing every line to memory. After a long beat, her lips pressed into a fine line, and she shook her head. “Sorry. Need more of a context, I think. Guess we’ll just have to press on and see what the next room holds.”
Yep, exactly what I’d figured. With Forge gone, dead, I was the only tank left on the team, which meant I had point. Still, I didn’t want to go alone, especially with the number of nasty traps this place boasted. “Come on, Cutter. Stay right behind me, but let me know if I’m about to blow myself up.”
“I’ve got your back, friend. Just don’t go and get yourself killed, eh?”
I nodded, faced the hefty stone doors blocking our path, and headed in. I pushed the right door inward without a problem—despite its size, it moved as though it weighed nothing at all. The room on the other side of the door was a natural cavern of red-brown stone with a high natural ceiling. Directly across from us was the exit, a perfectly circular door with no obvious handle or knob, though there was a thin keyhole directly in the center. Standing directly in front of it was a huge statue of a Roman-style legionnaire, segmented lorica covering its chest, one hand holding a huge kite shield, the other extended outward, palm up. Almost expectantly.
Rocky outcroppings and stony shelves littered the rest of the room, and decorating them were weapons.
Hundreds of them, and they all glowed with magic.
Cutter let out a low whistle. “Holy Bollocks of Banztantium, we’ve hit the bleeding mother lode.” He slipped around me, taking the lead, and padded forward like a kid with a sweet tooth heading into a candy shop.
I grabbed his arm before he could go in any farther. “Traps?”
“Not a bloody one.” He grinned and shrugged. “I’ll inspect each weapon before we take it—make sure there’s no pressure plates hiding beneath—but this place looks clean. Well, except for the big and ugly over there at the far side of the room.” He waved a hand toward the hulking statue. “The big bastard is clearly warded, but the spell looks inactive. Probably some sort of trigger mechanism, though bugger me if I can see it from here.”
I grunted, not sure what to make of that, but followed him in, the rest of the party trailing behind us. A round of awed gasps broke the quiet of the chamber as everyone else caught sight of the haul staring us in the face.
“Is like the Fort Knox of magic,” Vlad said, nodding appreciatively. “Suddenly, am glad I came.”
“Wait,” I said, even as Cutter and Vlad broke off to go examine our find. “Don’t touch anything. Could be this is some sort of trap designed to see if we’re greedy—or something to that effect. The fact that the theme of the room is wisdom should tell us something.”
“Yeah,” Abby said with a nod. “The riddle said, ‘you may take only me with you; only the wisest will understand my true form.’ To me, that sounds like we can only pick one item. Any more than that and I’ll put a hundred gold down that the statue comes alive and carves us up into itty-bitty pieces.”
I thought for a moment, rubbing at my chin. “That’s pretty brilliant. I bet you’re right. But which weapon?” I seesawed my head, thinking. “Okay. Cutter, Abby, let’s go take a closer look at the statue. See if we can figure out what triggers it. Vlad and Carl, you two start looking through the weapons. Vlad, you’re looking for any special runes or wards, and Carl, I want you focusing on Cleric stuff. See if there’s any religious runes or icons that might be associated with Khalkeús. But—and this is super important—Don’t. Touch. Anything. You can pull up item descriptions, but the weapons all stay where they are. Got it?”
“Is no problem,” Vlad replied with a stoic nod, shooting me the okay symbol. He tapped Carl on the shoulder. “Come, we will look together. One pass. No touching.”
The pair of them veered toward the right side of the chamber, while Cutter, Abby, and I headed over to the statue at the far end. The thing was huge, sixteen feet tall, seven across the shoulders, crafted from rose granite, and inlaid with ample amounts of gold and silver. The lorica-wearing titan sported a pleated skirt and a crested helm that completely obscured its face, all except for its eyes, which were lifeless and cold. The shield he held was easily as tall as I was and chances were, it could stop just about anything that came its way.
I skittered around it, making sure to give the hulk a very wide berth, and checked the door behind the statue. Chances were, it wouldn’t open until we solved the room’s riddle and found the key for the lock, but it would be dumb not to at least look. I gave it a firm push, but as expected it didn’t budge an inch. I shoved my fingers into the crease between the doors and tried to pull inward, but that was just as fruitless.
I headed back around to the front of the statue where Cutter and Abby were talking quietly, examining the statue from head to toe.
“Anything?” I asked.
“Lots of magic,” Cutter said, “but it’s not trapped. Not exactly. Look at big and ugly’s hand there.” He pointed toward the thing’s open palm. “The whole creature is some sort of artificial construct. Golem, I’d wager. But see the runic circle carved into its hand? It’s an activation ward. We need to put something there, and then this thing will come to life and do whatever the bloody hell it’s supposed to do.”
“Okay,” I replied, “so we can’t open the door on our own. Which means there is a key in here somewhere. We need to find it and place it on this thing’s hand, and then he’ll let us through.”
“Yeah,” Abby said. “And this dude has a shield, but no weapon. Here we are, in a room full of weapons to choose from. So, put two and two together. The key to the door is actually a weapon, but there’s probably only one right one.”
“But how in the nine hells are we supposed to know which weapon is the right one, eh? There are a thousand choices in here, and even at a glance I can see they’re all deadly powerful.”
“The answer has to be in the riddle,” Abby said, “just like at the library. I am a weapon greater even than the gods,” she recited slowly. “The death of the warrior, the ender of battles, the prize of all valiant men. You may take only me with you; only the wisest will understand my true form.”
Cutter grunted and threw up his hands in exasperation. “Give me a lock to pick or a throat to slit any day of the week over this word-logic bullshite.”
I agreed with him wholeheartedly. I wasn’t dumb, and overall I considered myself pretty quick-witted, but a straightforward challenge with a tangible objective was far more my speed. “Well, I guess we go and start rooting through weapons,” I said with a half-hearted shrug. “Let’s take it slow. Cutter, you examine everything for traps. We’ll see if anything jumps out at us.”
For the next three hours, we examined weapon after weapon, and nothing jumped out at us, screaming, “I’m a weapon even greater than the gods.” Or maybe it would be more appropriate to say that everything jumped out at us. After inspecting a few of the weapons, we found that none of them were trapped, and all of them were amazing. Absolutely incredible. Enchanted swords and magical axes, conjured bows and clockwork repeaters, deadly warhammers and perpetually poisoned daggers.
Storm-Weaver, a two-handed battle-axe with a +2 to the Frenzy ability, a hefty Strength bonus, plus 50 points of Lightning damage on contact. Edge of Time, a glimmering golden dagger with +1 to Combat Sense, added Dexterity and Strength bonuses, a Life Leech ability, and an active ability which let the wielder slow time by 85% for 6 seconds, three times a day. Arrowsong, an ancient Dawn Elf bow crafted from silver and diamond, conjured an endless supply of fire arrows with a 4% increased chanced of Critical Hit. After doing business with Lars Blackblade, the 1st Ranked Dragon-Class Blacksmith in Stone Reach, I could say literally every single item in here was on par with his work.
Or better.
Any item in the room would’ve been the envy of any member of the Crimson Alliance. And, craziest of all, we could take the items. Sort of. Cutter would check for traps, then Carl would pick the item up and turn it over and over in his hands, using his Arcane Insight to search for hidden item properties or priestly runes. There were never any. But when any party member tried to add a given item to their inventory, it promptly shimmered and vanished, only to reappear a moment later on its respective pedestal.
It was like being a man dying of thirst, adrift on the ocean: so much water and none of it to drink.
And worse, we were burning time we didn’t have. The first challenge had gone relatively quickly, but we couldn’t kill too much more time on this leg of the challenge if we wanted to make it out of here before the Death-Head challenge expired and killed me.