Kingdom of the Dead

by Pavel Kornev

Instead of an answer, I reached into my bag and began scooping out the treasures I’d stuffed into it as I’d run away. A dozen large pearls, a few uncut diamonds, a ruby ring, another one with an emerald, a handful of gold pieces, a bunch of necklaces and pendants...

  The vampires greeted every new trophy with shrieks of joy. But once Lloyd had studied the treasures and appraised them, their jubilation subsided. He’d valued the whole lot at ten grand which, when divided by seven, didn’t amount to a lot.

  “Never mind,” the Count said with a dismissive wave. “Give us the fragment!”

  Isabella who stood behind his back, took a better grip on her staff and cast me a meaningful look. I shrugged and produced my main trophy.

  The opalescent blob of light began to glow. But the moment the Count reached out to take it, its deathly white surface became veined with darkness.

  “Damn!” the Count recoiled. “What kind of shit is this?”

  “Really, Kitten,” Isabella hissed. “What kind of shit is this?”

  Taking in the situation, Goar stepped behind my back and laid his hand on his sword. I was his employer, after all.

  Still, I was going to at least try to settle the matter peacefully. “Calm down,” I hurried to say. “Please. I can explain.”

  “Be my guest,” the Count growled, tense as a taut spring. “What the hell is the mark of darkness doing on my item?”

  Both the Marquis and the Baron stepped away and bared their weapons.

  “You sort it out,” Lloyd said as he disappeared into the shop taking the trophies with him.

  “Calm down, all of you,” I demanded, showing them my open hands. “You’ll get your money. All it means is that there’s a buyer for the fragment, that’s all.”

  “The Spawn of Darkness?” Isabella’s voice shook with fury. “Did you seal a deal with them behind my back?”

  The Count eased her aside. “How much? How much are they prepared to shell out?”

  “Fifty grand.”

  “What?” the vampire gasped. “That’s a pittance! Its market value is twice that!”

  “Very well,” I hurried to add. “You’ll get a hundred grand. Our fragment was valued at fifty thousand and this money is all yours. Plus a tiny bonus.”

  The Count gave me a grim look, apparently not believing a single word. “What kind of bonus?”

  “The raid on the Kingdom of the Dead. They’ll give us the right of free passage.”

  “Wow!” the Baron said, unable to help himself. “Cool!”

  The Marquis promptly hurried over to him and gave him a slap on the back of the head. “Shut up!”

  The Count shook his head. “A hundred grand is too little.”

  “But at least it’s upfront. Plus the raid. Aren’t you interested?”

  The vampire winced and admitted grudgingly, “I am, John. I’m very much interested. When is the money coming?”

  I pointed at Isabella, “As soon as she speaks to them and sets up a meeting.”

  The vampires stared at the priestess who flashed them a nonchalant smile, “I will, Kitten, don’t you worry. That’s not a problem.”

  She may have appeared composed but I could see she was still seething inside.

  “If you’re planning on ripping us off, you’re gonna regret it!” the Count warned.

  The vampire trio turned round and went into the alchemist’s shop to claim their cut of the trophies. I put the fragment of the Sphere of Souls back into my bag.

  Isabella turned to Goar. “Are you up for it?”

  “You mean the raid on the Kingdom of the Dead?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sure,” he replied unhesitantly.

  “In this case, we’ll meet up here tonight,” she told him. “You can go now.”

  Goar gave me a quizzical look. I nodded.

  The moment he left the yard, Isabella walked over to me and said in a soft, calm voice,

  “So you decided to go behind my back, Kitten?”

  “The second fragment guarantees us passage to the Kingdom of the Dead,” I replied. “Wasn’t that what we’d been trying to achieve all along?”

  “Behind my back!” she shouted. “Without even asking my opinion!”

  “The clan’s representative was very convincing. He didn’t leave me a choice!”

  “That doesn't excuse you!”

  “In this case, how about this?” I reached into my inventory and produced the Crown of Chaos which I hadn’t shown to anyone yet.

  Isabella’s breathing seized; her eyes became the size of saucers.

  Having said that, there was nothing unusual about the artifact. It was just a circular strip of rusty steel with the broken tips of dagger blades soldered slapdashedly onto it. It had neither gemstones nor any intricate engravings.

  And still Isabella’s hands were shaking as she reached out to take it.

  “Is this for me?” she whispered.

  “Sure.”

  She must have come to her senses because she asked, “How much do you want for it?”

  “It’s a gift,” I said magnanimously.

  She promptly snatched the crown and placed it on her head. Her skimpy armor began to lengthen and merge together, forming a full-body suit. This time her head too was protected as the Crown of Chaos had turned into a knight’s helm.

  “This is crazy!” she jumped with joy.

  As soon as her armor had returned to its normal insignificant state, she gave me a big hug and a kiss. Immediately she shrank back and spat with disgust. “Dead meat, yuck!”

  “What did you expect?” I laughed, pleased that I’d managed to defuse the situation with my well-timed gift.

  “You know very well what I expect!” she gave me a meaningful look. “People are supposed to give me these kinds of gifts in order to bed me. But with you, it’s the other way round!”

  “Soon it’s all gonna change!”

  She heaved a sigh. “Soon...”

  Then she logged out without as much as a by-your-leave. For a while, her translucent silhouette stayed shimmering in the air; then it too disappeared.

  I shrugged, sat down on the porch and opened the game stats. I improved both my Strength and Stamina, added two points to Dodge and invested the professional skill point into Execution.

  Execution IV

  Sometimes executioners simply don’t have the time to properly prepare their victim for torture, being forced to literally prize the warriors out of their suits of armor.

  The knowledge of the armor's vulnerable spots gives +25% to your chances of penetrating it.

  +8% to your chances of dealing a critical hit

  +4% to your chances of dealing a crippling blow

  Apart from that, I’d also received a higher chance to one-shot an immobilized target. Still, what interested me much more were the level-5 spells I could now access.

  Choosing just one of them proved to be not so easy! For a while, I hesitated between Plague, Deadly Withering and Ashes. What would I prefer — to infect an enemy with a deadly disease, to syphon off some of their Life or to crumble to ashes in order to avoid their blow only to be restored to my normal self a moment later?

  Unfortunately, my Intellect level didn’t allow me to completely kill my opponents using Plague; all it could do was weaken them. I also didn’t like the idea of swapping mana for Heath as the second spell required. And as for Ashes, it had to be activated in advance but once that done, it took very little energy to keep it active.

  Which was the thing that sold it to me.

  Ashes!

  I rose from the porch, activated the spell and walked into the shop, intending to retire to my room. Still, Mr. Lloyd waylaid me. He'd already paid the vampires and was pensively clinking some coins in his clenched hand.

  “John? Come with me,” he said.

  “Are you going to pay my share?”

  “Your share?” he snorted. “You still owe me!”

  He swung the workshop door open. I walked into th
e cramped room and stared in disbelief at the mithril mask lying on the table.

  It wasn’t completely black anymore. Its right half was now ashen gray, with a complex pattern of one of the Soulkiller’s bone runes spreading over the temple. The opposite eye hole had been blanked off; the temple on that side was seething with the grim flames of darkness itself. Droplets of thick fire trickled onto the cheekbone but before they could fall onto the tabletop, they burned out and dissipated into the air.

  “What the hell have you made?” I asked, reluctant to pick the mask up.

  He laughed, looking utterly pleased with himself. “On the left is the rune I made from the demon’s bone. On the right, the one I fashioned from your bone hook. The effect is funny, don’t you think?”

  I sniffed. “Get away with you!”

  Still, I picked up the mask, then very nearly dropped it when new system messages began flashing before my eyes,

  Deadman’s Set: Altered

  Deadman’s Set: Saved

  What was that?

  “This is one hell of a surprise,” I muttered, unsure what to make of the fact that the mask had apparently become part of the Deadman’s Set.

  “It’s the fragment of the bone hook,” Lloyd explained. “It preserved its identity as part of the set. That’s how it must have happened...”

  I stared intently at him with my one eye. “How about warning me first?”

  He sniffed. ‘And what if you’d refused? So much work for nothing? Oh no. Do me a favor and try it on!”

  I cussed and brought the mask to my face.

  A Fire-Damaged Mask of Darkness and Ashes (The Deadman’s Set: 10 out of 13)

  Armor: 10

  Protection from Fire, the magic of Light and the magic of Darkness: 20%

  Status: Unique

  With a chuckle, I stood in front of the mirror. What I saw was a grim individual in a crumbling cloak woven from shadows and a sinister mask which exuded a dark fire on one side and revealed deathly gray bones on the other. The flamberge’s frosted hilt showed above my shoulder.

  This was a perfect look for the kind of talks we were about to enter into.

  They weren’t going to be easy, that’s for sure.

  Chapter Five. The Kingdom of the Dead

  1

  THE SPAWN OF DARKNESS had sent a flying ship to pick us up: a small and nimble corvette, its hull lined with magic beam pulsers. It came to a stop hovering directly above the alchemist’s shop. We didn’t have to climb any rope ladders though as the captain had a landing cage lowered for us.

  I thought at first that the clan’s top brass were afraid of an attack from their competition. But when I saw the giant knight in dark blue armor standing among the guards, I began to doubt my first conjecture. It was almost certainly Prince Julien who’d decided to put on a show for us. Not really for us, but for Isabella who this time hadn’t even bothered to cover her skimpy armor up with as little as a translucent pareo.

  Ignoring me, the prince gave her a warm welcome. “I can see you’ve got yourself some new gear,” he said, noticing the crown on her head.

  “It’s a gift,” she said pointedly.

  The prince frowned and cast me a jealous look. Still, he didn’t say anything, only chuckled and walked off. This time I wasn’t wearing a chain and collar nor did I look like a rightless slave. That could become a problem but we had to expect problems, anyway.

  I rolled my eyes theatrically, then grinned to Isabella, “It looks like he’s seriously fallen for you!”

  She laughed. “Finally someone who doesn’t have problems with blood circulation! A gal could develop an inferiority complex around such a useless bunch as you guys!”

  ‘“Blood circulation is the least of his problems,” I said. “He'd better start worrying about his armored codpiece. Every time he sees you he has to walk around on tiptoe!”

  She snickered and turned away, gazing at the city floating below.

  The view was admittedly awesome but I didn’t care too much about the scenery. I felt ill at ease. You’d think that everything had been decided; all we had to do was close the deal. And still I was ridden by doubt.

  Dammit! Getting into the Kingdom of the Dead was only half of the job. Then I still had to find that wretched Scroll of Rebirth before the Spawn of Darkness scouts could get to it.

  If only I had the most basic of maps with nothing but a tiny marker on it! Unfortunately, this was a luxury I wouldn’t have even after I’d ported there.

  The Mist of War, yeah right...

  WITH THE CREAKING OF MASTS, the ship steered confidently toward the residence of the Spawn of Darkness. The island’s airspace was patrolled by archers and wizards astride gryphons and pegases. But besides those swift creatures, the clan must have also had much more powerful mobs in store waiting for their time to come. Using dragons for mundane patrolling must have been too expensive even for the Spawn of Darkness.

  Our ship crossed over the canal. I sensed the light pressure of the magic shield. Isabella grabbed at a handrail and winced.

  “What’s this, protection?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  Accompanied by two gryphons, we sailed over the outer wall. The ship dropped speed but didn’t land in the residence’s yard; instead, it moored on the grim tower. The sea breeze rocked the ship from side to side, making it very uncomfortable to walk down the gangway toward the landing platform. Prince Julien offered his hand to Isabella. I had to manage on my own.

  This time they didn’t let us stew in the reception room. The moment we’d entered the spacious hall with an impossibly high vaulted ceiling and matching windows, our hosts arrived: the knight in black armor and the lady clad in ice, her face concealed by a snowy veil. Or should I say, the mysterious Lord High Steward and Lady Blizzard?

  The Lord High Steward stepped forward. The darkness which played on his armor had lagged behind, creating the illusion that he kept disintegrating only to rematerialize in another place. Just one look at him made the left side of my face ache. As for Lady Blizzard, the sight of her icy armor hurt my eyes so much that I averted my gaze to the statue of my good old acquaintance, the Angel of Darkness.

  He didn’t even wink at me, the bastard.

  “We all know why we’ve gathered here so let’s get straight down to business,” the Lord High Steward snapped his fingers. “Your money.”

  A servant appeared out of nowhere and handed Isabella a carved box filled with gold.

  Isabella shook her head. “Fifty grand is the price of one shard. We have two. That makes a hundred.”

  “Didn’t you say that the second shard was smaller?” Lady Blizzard reminded her.

  You couldn’t fluster Isabella so easily. “In any case, you’re going to get a 30% market premium!”

  “Market premium?” the black knight repeated, indignant. “You call this a market? Those bastard profiteers hike up the prices and wait. They’re never in a hurry to close deals! This isn’t a market, this is doggy doo!”

  Most likely, he wasn’t lying. Somehow I didn’t think that a couple of million could make a big hole in the clan’s treasury.

  Ignoring his attack entirely, Isabella produced the shard glowing a soft crimson. “So are you interested in closing this deal or not?”

  The Lord nodded to the servant who brought out another carved box.

  “Where’s the second fragment?” the Lord asked. “And please put that wretched thing away! It doesn’t belong to your Goddess anymore! It’s the clan’s property now!”

  Isabella ran her hand over the fragment, cleansing it and turning its color to a deathly white.

  The Lord High Steward reached out for it but the priestess handed it to me as agreed. I clenched it in my left hand and produced the other fragment I’d procured from the Elemental mages. Then I brought my hands together, crumpling the glow and uniting the two shards into a single piece.

  “There’s a slight complication here,” I smiled, watching their eyes widen. T
he metastases of darkness began to spread over the glowing piece which now resembled a sinister-looking flower.

  “What the hell?” Prince Julien thundered, grabbing his sword.

  The Lord High Steward raised his hand, stopping him.

  Silence hung in the room. All I could hear was the wind roaring outside.

  Finally, the Lord asked Isabella,

  “What kind of complication are you talking about, Priestess?”

  He must have considered talking to zombies below his status. Still, I didn’t feel offended.

  “You receive the fragments and in return, you grant us access to the Kingdom of the Dead,” I replied. “That was our agreement.”

  He stared at me like he’d seen a piece of wood talking. Then he tilted his head to one side, “Who did you make this agreement with, may I ask?”

  I pointed behind his back. Mechanically he turned round and looked at the statue of the Angel of Darkness. I watched him startle as the clan’s patron bestowed his knowledge upon him. How I understood him! It felt like having a nail driven in your brain.

  The Lord High Steward shook his head, then reached out his hand. “We confirm this agreement.”

  Both Lady Blizzard and Prince Julien stared at him in amazement but knew better than to ask questions. I stepped forward and laid the merged piece into his steel gauntlet.

  The remaining white glow was immediately swallowed by gloom. The blob of light had just become a concentration of darkness.

  The Two Shards of the Sphere of Souls for the Spawn of Darkness quest is complete!

  Experience: +5000 [51 019/56 900]; +5000 [51 063/56 900]

  Undead, the level is raised! Rogue, the level is increased!

  A shiver ran down my spine. A wave of euphoria swept over me even though I was quite a bit worried about what I’d become once I'd reached the next undead level.

  I just had no idea! Maybe it would be better not to raise my level at all? Surely Liches, even young ones, must be respected in the Kingdom of the Dead?

  The Lord High Steward promptly brought me back down to earth. “We can only allow access to the deadman. That was the agreement.”