“You have arrived at the fortress of Jinx,” Winston said as he lowered his hood on his approach and Calista relaxed, slightly. “I am afraid Tavin will not be here with us.”
“We know,” Jimmy said. “Let’s at least get Bronson back, right?”
“Indeed. Once we pass through these doors, nothing will be as it seems. He is a trickster and as such, he will do his best to separate us and break us down before we even reach him,” Winston informed them as he drew a sword from his hip. “Be on your guard and do not face him on your own.”
The tanks took the lead, Maverick shifting with a loud roar before Winston opened the doors. They opened without a sound and a chill breeze rushed out to greet them. They were in mountains and it was already a little cold, but this burst of air was frigid. Calista was glad she’d made her gear full body to help keep some of the chill from seeping into her bones as they moved into the fortress.
“What the hell?” Calista whispered and she wasn’t the only one.
Inside, it looked as if they’d walked into a winter wonderland right out of a fairy tale, complete with a gentle snow fall. Trees and bushes were covered in the white powder. It crunched real enough beneath her boots, but a part of her said this wasn’t real. Couldn’t be real.
“Which way do we go?” Jimmy asked Winston.
“Straight through and remember what I said. Stick together.”
Calista’s head was on a swivel, waiting for the fairy tale scenery to fade away and some trap to spring around them, but nothing happened except the snow continued to fall. The further they walked, the more she began to wonder if they hadn’t stepped through a portal somewhere and were actually wandering some snowy landscape instead of Jinx’s fortress. She kept a firm grip on her weapons, not sure she trusted that Bishop wouldn’t show up at some point to make their lives hell. She swore she sensed him here already, watching her from the shadows.
The snowfall was far too cheery for her liking. They were potentially walking into a death trap. It should’ve been dark and gloomy, not beautiful.
“Anyone else weirded out?” Jimmy murmured.
“This is merely Jinx and his magic,” Winston said. “We are still inside his fortress, do not be fooled.”
Calista and the others continued forwards, stomping through the snow. She kept searching the sky overhead for signs of a roof, beams, something to ground her and remind her she was in a dungeon. She was about to pull up the map to see if she could figure out where they might be headed when the ground rumbled beneath her feet.
“What was that?” she asked, unsure if it was the dungeon shaking, or something coming for them. “Winston?”
“I do not know,” he said with a frown.
“Great, that’s great.” Calista held up her hand and brought everyone to a halt. “Spread out, but stay in sight of one another! We don’t know what’s coming for us.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Jimmy teased and Maverick nudged him hard with her shoulder as she lumbered past. “Ow! Was that absolutely necessary? Just trying to make light of the situation here. Everyone’s so down and out. We can still try to have some fun.”
Calista knew he was trying to keep everyone’s spirits lifted despite why they were pushing through this game so fast to begin with. But right now, she wasn’t in any mood for his jokes, not today. She opened her mouth to tell him just that, but the ground rumbled again, so intense it sent her to her knees with a curse. The snow parted before her eyes, stretching out from where her hands rested as the ground continued to shake.
“The ground’s splitting!” Benji yelled.
“Stay together!” Calista scrambled to her feet as the crack spread and spider-webbed, cutting her off as snow exploded in great white plumes around her. Trajan yelled her name, holding out his hammer for her, but just as she went to grab it, the ground beneath her feet shifted and she dropped with the stones, screaming as she plummeted down into darkness. She hit the ground hard, her ears ringing and her HP taking a massive blow from the fall.
“Trajan!” she screamed, staring up at the hole she had fallen through, snow still dropping around her softly. “Anyone!”
She was scouring the rubble and snow for her weapons when a message icon appeared. She selected it and saw it was from Trajan asking where she was and if she could see a way back up. She sent a message back saying there was no way up…but as her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she spotted a tunnel opening to her right.
“Alright, so not going to go according to plan,” she mused, sending a message back for Trajan to continue on with Winston and she’d try to find a way back up top. “Let’s see what other surprises you have in store for me, Jinx.”
Waiting for her health to regen completely before moving on, she made sure her weapons were secure and made for the tunnel. When a torch burst to life a little ways in, she jumped with a yelp of alarm, ready to attack. One torch after the other lit, lighting her way, and Calista wondered if this wasn’t part of the dungeon after all. But why only separate one of the group instead of splitting them all up like what had happened before?
Her steps slowed as she pondered whether Valen had something to do with this. She swore she had heard her speaking last night. Valen messed with Bishop. What was to say she wasn’t turning her sights on those closest to him next?
The tunnel eventually ended and Calista carefully poked her head out, trying to make out the room before her.
“What the…”
It wasn’t a dungeon as she expected, or stairs. That would’ve been too helpful. Instead, she stared into the living room of the guild house.
“Right, so not walking in there right now.”
It was a trap, guaranteed. Winston said Jinx would mess with their minds and she had no doubt that was exactly what he was doing right now. Getting inside her head, trying to throw her off her game. She was not going to fall for it. But if she didn’t move forward, she was stuck in the tunnel. All she could do was go back to where she had fallen and maybe find another path upwards—
Calista…
She closed her eyes, breathing in deeply through her nose. “You didn’t hear that. You heard nothing. You are completely alone. Bishop is not here with you.”
Calista…open your eyes, Calista...save me….save me…
“No, you know that’s not Bishop. It’s not anyone. It’s all in your head,” she told herself. “You are not going to go into that room. You are going to send a message to Trajan, tell him you’re going to look for another tunnel…”
“And what good will turning back do you?”
His voice was right in her ear and she screamed, flinching away from the sound of an all too familiar voice and the warm breath on her ear. When she lifted her weapons ready to attack, a face she hoped not to see today grinned back at her.
“Boo.”
“Bishop?” She grunted in aggravation and the urge to hit him. “This is not funny! None of this is funny! Do you have any idea what you’re putting us all through?”
He backed away from her, into the room made to appear like the guild living room. “I have done nothing, but finally come to understand who I truly am,” he told her. “I am free. Free from the confines of being a hero in this world.”
“But that’s what you are, or what you’re supposed to be. I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with you again! Why won’t you just wake up and see?”
“I’m more awake than I’ve ever been. This new life of mine, it’s exciting. You should join me.”
He backed even further into the room. “Nope, not going to happen.”
Bishop smiled as he held out his hand. “You know you can’t resist me. We’ve spent far too much time together.”
“And you have been brainwashed by the Demon Queen so I think I’ll take my chances.”
She turned her back on him and debated her chances of finding another tunnel if she walked back. Could she climb up the wall and get to the first le
vel again? Anything was worth a shot as long as it didn’t involve her walking into that room with Bishop.
“Calista…help me,” Bishop whispered harshly.
She froze at the sound. He was in pain, real genuine pain. Unable to stop herself, she faced him again and saw his face contorted as he clutched at his chest. “Bishop?”
“Please…help me…she’s inside my head!”
Without a second thought, she ran to him, holding him up as he fell into her arms and they collapsed to the floor together. His breathing was ragged and she saw his fingers curl in as he spasmed, shaking his head violently as if trying to get the voices out of his head.
“What can I do? Just tell me what to do?” she begged, holding him. “I don’t know how to save you.”
He motioned for her to get closer and whispered in her ear, “You can’t.”
She pulled back to see him laughing. “What?”
He pushed himself out of her lap and stood, brushing dirt from his cloak before he spread his arms wide. “You will fail to save him and you fail to save the others. They’re all going to die and it’s going to be on your head.” He snapped his fingers and the scene that had been peaceful before turned gruesome.
“No…no!” she yelled as she spun around, scrambling to get away from the angry dead eyes of her guild, their bodies bloodied and broken scattered around the room. “This isn’t real, it’s not real.”
“You can say that all you wish, but it is. Dead, all of them, dead and gone from this world.”
Calista crawled backwards, reaching the tunnel entrance, but an invisible barrier blocked her way. She was trapped in here with Bishop and the dead. She pounded her fists on it, screaming for help, but no one would hear her.
“Poor Calista, all alone in the world,” Bishop crooned, creeping up behind her. “Give in. Life would be so much better if you did.”
“Never!” She whipped around, pressing her back to the barrier, and glowered at him. “You are not lost yet. I’m still fighting for you, we all are!” Her gaze drifted towards the body of Maverick laid out on the rug, but she shut her eyes and told herself it wasn’t real. It was a trick of the mind and nothing more. When she blinked her eyes open, Maverick’s body faded away. She took her weapons from her hips and stalked towards Bishop. “I’m stronger than you think.”
“Is that so?” he said amused. “I would certainly like to see this.”
Calista stepped closer, ignoring the dead around her and, one by one, they slowly vanished into nothingness until it was only her and Bishop. She assumed one day she would be forced to come face to face with him and fight him. After listening to Valen’s voice all night long, telling her she was weak, telling her she would never save Bishop, she was more than ready for this fight. Too bad it wasn’t the Demon Queen herself. She might not be high enough level to take Valen on, but she had a feeling she’d give the Demon Queen a run for her money.
With no yell to warn him, she pushed off her back foot using her Leap attack to stun Bishop, but it simply rolled off him and his sword was there to block her mace and axe from knocking his head in.
“You might have been able to take me on before,” he seethed from behind his sword, easily pushing her weapons back, “but no longer!”
He yelled and shoved her back. Calista wasn’t giving up easily though. She kept up the assault, again and again charging in with her fury driven attacks, desperate for a way to take him down. If she could bash his head in a few times, maybe it’d knock some sense back into him and they could end this nightmare today.
She whipped around and took his legs out, sending him crashing to the floor, but without a health bar over his head, she couldn’t tell if she did any damage or not. Aside from pissing him off. Never before had she witnessed Bishop snarl, but when he flipped back to his feet, his sword blurring so fast with movement before her, she saw his lip curled in rage and his eyes burn. If she hadn’t seen him in pain only moments ago, she wouldn’t think this was Bishop at all, but he was in there. He had to be.
“We’re not giving up on you,” she snapped, attacking him with a Whirling Attack that should have taken half his HP if not more, but he shrugged his shoulders and casually swung his sword in his hand.
“You should join me instead. All this fighting is pointless.”
“Do I really mean nothing to you that you can’t remember your life outside of this place?”
She held her breath, waiting, and when he stared back blankly, her heart sank. Here she was in a fight for potentially her life, her real life, and this man’s, and all he could do was stare at her without any recognition of who he was, or what they had shared.
“Fine, if that’s how you see it then I don’t have a choice,” she whispered, wiping her arm over her forehead. “This is ending, right now.”
His lips lifted in glee and he motioned her forward with a wave of his hand. “Come on then.”
Calista glanced once at her fury bar and, as soon as it was filled, she threw herself into the fight. If she couldn’t convince Bishop of the truth, then maybe pushing him to near death would bring him back.
***
“Wait,” Trajan whispered and held up his hand. “Do you hear that?”
Maverick’s beast head swiveled from one side to the other and then she took off at a lumbering sprint through the fortress, leaving the rest of the guild to try and keep up. Jimmy sprinted as hard as he could to stay on Maverick’s tail and, soon, the sounds of fighting grew louder and louder. They were close. Since Calista had fallen through the floor, they’d been searching for a way to get to her and met absolutely nothing on the way. The fortress was empty and he didn’t take it as a good sign.
A battle cry bounced off the stone and Jimmy dug deeper. Calista.
When they reached the end of the high ceiling hall, Maverick threw herself forward and Jimmy saw her block a hit from Bishop aimed for Calista. Maverick took it instead and it knocked her health down nearly to half.
It would have killed Calista. Her gear was heavily damaged and she was on the floor, out of breath and looking as if she just got the crap kicked out of her. How she had managed to stay alive was beyond Jimmy, but Benji was there and healed her as fast as he could as Jimmy stepped up beside Maverick, glaring their once fearless leader down.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he snapped as Bishop grinned in greeting.
“I am merely proving a point,” he stated, driving his sword down into the stone.
“He’s lost,” Calista murmured. “Don’t listen to him. He’s just gone.”
“No,” Jimmy argued. “I won’t believe it, not yet.”
Bishop continued to grin, but there was something off about his face. His smile was too wide and his eyes…those were not his friend’s eyes. Jimmy squinted at him in an attempt to understand what he was really seeing.
“He’s a demon,” Calista spat as Benji helped her to her feet. “Bastard. Nothing but a bastard!”
And he laughed, laughed in the faces of them all. Jimmy heard the sound, but he’d been there when Hillside was taken. Bishop hadn’t appeared mad back then, not like this. At most, it was like he had been enjoying himself too much; there still had been a hint of their friend he could make out under that mask. He had almost looked as if he regretted his actions that day.
This man before them now, this was not their Bishop.
And if he had any doubts remaining, they were gone when Winston aimed his sword at Bishop and snarled, “Demon Lord Jinx, I presume.”
“What?” Calista snapped.
Bishop smiled even wider and laughed, a high-pitched sound that was demonic and creepy, making the hair on Jimmy’s arm stand on end. He snapped his fingers and the image of Bishop vanished, along with the illusion that they stood in the guild house. This Demon Lord was slight compared to the others they had faced, dressed in crimson robes with a bright violet jerkin and breeches underneath. He was barefoot and his skin was ic
y pale, almost translucent. The hall they stood in was filled with ice sculptures and pillars, snow on the ground, much as the room they had first entered.
“Oh Winston, why’d you have to go and ruin my fun?” Jinx sighed.
“You…you were never him,” Calista whispered in shock. “That whole time…”
Jinx bobbed his head then gave a flourish and a bow. “Afraid not, my dear.”
“Jinx reads minds,” Winston informed them. “He uses your fears against you.”
Jimmy glanced around the massive room. Bronson, he had to be in here somewhere. He expected Jinx to attack them, or present Bronson as his prized captor, but he did neither. “The priest, where is he?”
“Priest? I’m afraid he’s not for you,” Jinx said in a light, tinkling voice that sounded like it belonged to a child instead of a Demon Lord.
Calista gripped her weapons so hard in her hands, Jimmy saw her knuckles go white. The fury bar beneath her health was filled, but it was pulsing. Did it always do that? “You…you horrid monster,” she uttered as she stalked towards him. “I’ll kill you.”
“Calista,” Jimmy warned, but it was too late.
“I’ll kill you for what you made me see!”
She launched herself at him before anyone could pull her back and Jimmy watched in stunned amazement. Her attack speed was incredible and her weapons moved as if with a mind of their own. Jinx barely managed to get his sword up each time in an attempt to block her blows and, when her first major hit struck him hard, his health bar appeared and dropped a quarter.
“Damn,” Jimmy whispered. “She’s soloing the boss!”
He snapped out of it and yelled for an all-out attack, but Jimmy ran face first into an invisible barrier. He smashed his fists into it as Maverick threw her weight hard at it in an attempt to break it, but the wall held. Jinx blocked them all from helping.
“No!”
They were going to watch Calista be killed by this Demon Lord and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Jimmy saw her health bar take a hit, then another, but she kept moving, her speed increasing beyond what he thought possible for a character. And her fury.
The Final Chapter Page 5