“How is that possible?” I asked.
“I told you not to worry about it but since you are being so insistent I’ll let you know, see those armbands Ethan is carrying?” I looked over at Ethan and saw he had two golden armbands around his wrists.
“They drain his unused mana and turn it into life-force.”
“So they help make someone live beyond their normal lifespan?”
“Exactly, took me awhile to figure that out but I’v been down here for quite some time, when I discovered them I knew they would be perfect for something special, I always had the feeling Ethan would tap into his life-force at some point,” she said smirking towards Ethan.
“What about Molto? Croon? He said you had some kind of invention you were unveiling soon?” I asked.
“That old thing, already did that. Poor Croon is always a bit late to the party, he’s embraced his wilder side in his old age,” she paused, “I’d rather you never say that other name again,” she looked at me with a hatred in her eyes.
“What happened?” I asked, “he tried to imprison me, I went to go after Ethan when they figured out where you were and…” she stopped me from speaking.
“So they found me,” she shrugged. She looked over at Ethan, “I knew you were lying when you stumbled upon this place, you were there weren’t you, at Molto’s base camp, so you don’t have any idea,” she said frowning.
“Molto has started a war with the troll kingdom, we were making peace, already we had a truce in place, we were even about to start working together… than he killed the troll kings son, snuck into their palace in the middle of the night, he was planning to take control of the kingdom by force, he always had… when he couldn’t find the king he slayed his first and only born,” she said, “I found out the truth when he came back that night. I found him covered in troll blood. He was red. He attacked me, ripped my clothes off and…” she paused leaving out the details. I could see the scars on her body that told me the rest of the story. “ After he was done he told me everything.. I knew the truth so I fled, Molto has been hunting me ever since, keeping all of us prisoner in the valley,” she was almost in tears.
A white flash of text appeared before my eyes…
‘Trollhunter’
Kill the troll king
OR
Kill Molto and bring justice to the troll kingdom.
Two different ways to end this quest and get into Arcadia. Couldn’t have given me an easier option. If Molto was tough I’m sure the troll king would be just as strong. Molto was already level 53. I was level 10. Maybe I should have stayed and trained.
“I might have a way of getting close to Molto,” I said….
“I could end this.”
“How would you do that?”
“He wants to train me, he wants to use me as a weapon since I’m an unchained, if I go back and train there, if I join him even if its only for a little while I could turn on him, I could stab him in the back when he lowers his guard and win, we could return to Arcadia and back to the hub,” I was taking a big risk. This plan would be time consuming but it seemed like it would be the path of least resistance.
“Wouldn’t work, Molto has a way of brainwashing those around him, a type of Argent magic, more of a curse really, doesn’t work on everyone but the longer you are around him the more it pacifies you. Once you are alone you feel it wear off… I thought Molto was a god, a savior. I thought once he was my best friend…” she said, “we’ll have to go with plan B than. Croon and I have been putting together a small resistance but we still need stronger gear. He’s been searching outside while I’ve been digging and I think I have found something here…” she stopped, “can you keep a secret,” she smiled.
Ethan joined your party. 3/3
Ariane joined your party. 4/4
Name: Ariane
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Level: 42
Class: Mage
HP: 500
Mana: 500
Stamina: 200
Agility: 9
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 10
Charisma: 10
Luck: 4
Abilities: Dragons Bane. Angel’s gaze, Spider’s bite. Various magic.
Skills: Augmentation, Curse of Growth, Various magic.
Inventory: M44 Rifle, Mithil (great sword), 7-1 Echo (pistol)
Reputation: Good
Alignment: The Five, (formerly) Arcadia, The Hub
Languages: Common (English), Elvish, Troll, Goblin
Ariane was a prodigy. Most of her abilities and skills overlapped. She was fluent in several languages and knew a great deal about Eda. Much of her gear was the same as Molto. I guess that was natural since they were both a part of the Five. She gave me a new set of armor for the dungeon. It had the hood with a face guard shaped like the eyes of a tiger and reached just below my eyes. The spiked leather gave the appearance of horns. It was well crafted onto combat armor. The shoulders were pointy, wide and huge. I felt like I was wearing something a paladin would wear. They were decorated with three small horns on each side curved downward towards the sides. The upper arms were protected by rounded half shoulder plates. The lower arms were covered in vambrances with a layer of chain mail buried underneath. The armor itself was black and white with a red line going down one side. No runes, no sigils. I wore the scraggy jacket over it. I protected my legs with a new set of combat pants Ariane had laying around. They fit my slim build well but they were unfortunately tighter than I would have liked. Agility - 1. Endurance - 1. My cybernetic arm finally came off after Ariane pulled hard enough. I re-created my ice blade. I preferred it.
Araine had been researching the dungeon for about a year now. Using drones she had mapped out most of the interior and found several cursed weapons and armor inside. She knew how to use the cursed weapons as a power source and believed that if we could get our hands on some than we could use them against Molto. The deeper we went the more dangerous the dungeon would be. The first level… the ground floor where we stood eating and sleeping would be our base camp and she had already cleared it and five floors below of any enemies. Below that were daemons, giant spiders, and feral goblins. In ten days I reached level 30. I was progressing faster now. My abilities were nearing that of Ariane.
Day 20.
We reached the bottom layer of the dungeon.
A scanty, deteriorated room. It’s was covered in broken pottery, remains and puddles of water. Our torch’s allowed us to see prison cells, long lost and taken by time. Further ahead we found three paths. We took the right. Its twisted trail led us passed countless other pathways and soon we entered a ghastly area. There was a giants skeleton in the center along with dozens of human skeletons. What happened in this place? We wandered further. Deeper into the dungeons dank hallways. We passed passages that had collapsed and other dead ends too dangerous to try. Eventually we made it to thick granite door that blocked our path. Various odd symbols were all over it written in blood. The door itself looked like it had been untouched by time. There was something growling from inside.
Chapter 15
Ellie and I stood in the doorway to our new home. It was our first house. It had been built with tan bricks and blue stone decorations. It had no yard.. Least not anything large enough I would call a yard. Small triangular windows allowed enough light to enter the house had been added in very asymmetric way. It was designed by an artist. A part of its appeal to us but one of the reasons it had been on the market so long. It had an old-fashioned kitchen and one modern bathroom that had just been redone. It also had a warm living room, two bedrooms, a small dining room, an office and a small basement. There was a small garden in the back. The porch like area where we had our coffee on the weekends when we were able to sit together. The garden was in poor condition but that didn’t matter to us. We had plans. Vegetables, flowers, we were going to turn it into someth
ing special even if neither of us were well-known for our green thumbs. I remember the floor in the bedroom had a different style than any other floor in the house. I liked it. Our home was unique just like the two of us.
We set up our console in the living room. Two BUIs (brain user interfaces) that allowed us to deep dive into our favorite games together. Currently we had been playing ‘Darkness Beyond’ alpha but we had spent a great deal of time playing others such as ‘Moon Fire’ and ‘Nova’. All three games were completely immersive. That was one of the things that bonded us together. We both had a strong love for video games and entertainment.
The two of us also suffered from depression. You know. It was a daily struggle working a ten hour shift with anxiety. Some days I felt like I was going to die but I always smiled. There were days I had to call out. Sometimes it was so bad I couldn’t breath. I don’t know why. Both of us had tried to get help. I had taken medicine. Talked to therapists. It was just a part of who I was. When I accepted that it became easier.
I had worked customer service, bartender, and now I was a designer for a small business. I could do most of my work from home but I had to check in at an office once a week and I had to check via online while I did my work. Most of it was small stuff. Designing logos, banners, coding for websites, marketing, and motion graphics. I wasn’t the best at what I did but I wasn’t bad either. Most of my friends from college had found themselves working full time in offices while others got lost in a 9-5 grind doing something totally unrelated. Ellie herself worked at a vet. She wasn’t a veterinarian, not yet anyway. She was training and in school. Most of her time at work was spent cleaning poop.
She was the strongest woman I knew. Amazing in every way. She was determined, loving, always smiling even when she was feeling down. She loved her family. She did everything to take care of me, take care of us. I would have been lost without her. I was lost without her and right now, staring down into boss to the lowest level in a dungeon I was going to die without her.
I could feel its claw on top of me. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t scream. Ethan was dead. He had used his entire life force trying to fight this thing. Ariane was bleeding, her body broken as she laid out on the ground. The daemon was toying with us. I recognized it as a Nephilim. I looked over towards Airane hoping for a miracle. One happened. She cast a spell on Ethan’s corpse and he came back to life. His skin was pale, his hair white. He looked like he had glowing red eyes. She had cast a necromancy spell. A forbidden magic that brought dead NPCs back to life as ghouls. I had seen this before. Julie Luyten, she had done this with the Nanook.
Maybe Ethan would heal the way the great bear had. I didn’t have time to waste. If that was possible we would have to survive this first. I used the blade of ice that formed my arm to pierce the Nephilim as Ethan attacked it like a feral animal. I scanned the beasts health. Nothing. It was undefined. I scanned again. For a moment I thought the world slowed. Over 10,000. I guess it was a dungeon boss for a reason. I struck the beast again. Nothing. It threw me backwards towards Ariane’s broken body. She tried to give me her weapon but when I tried to touch it I couldn’t. A paladin class weapon and I was a Cryomancer. She didn’t quite understand.
The Nephilim looked like a giant human that had been twisted inside out. Its skin was covered in a leather like texture similar to dragons and it had fangs instead of regular teeth. It had a human face with long white hair and red glowing eyes. Instead of hands it had claws. It wore a long loin cloth and little pieces of chain mail grafted into its skin.
We were fighting inside some kind of throne room. Braziers attached to one side of each of six travertine columns that lit up the lower levels of the throne hall and engulfed everything in a flickering radiance. The paintings of angels and cherubs on the sloped ceiling dance in the light while sculptures and statues look down upon the oak floor of the hall.
A silver rug now drenched with our blood ran from the throne down through the center and split into two paths leading out while rectangular banners with burnished tufts covered parts of the wall. Between each banner hung a small luster, all but a few had been lit and in turn illuminated the depictions of powerful creatures below them.
Modest tinted glass widows bordered by veils colored the same silver as the banners. The curtains were adorned with embellished borders and fine patterns.
A great throne of onyx sat below a grand chandelier adjoined by four equally impressive seats for trustees. The throne was covered in claw marks and fixed on each of the broad sides an ornate rose. There were more human skeletons in this room than there had been in the whole dungeon. Some of them looked like they had once been wearing plate armor or fancy drab. I could see a worn crown on one that I assumed must have been some kind of king.
That was the part of the game that didn’t make sense to me. Not that I had time to think about it. Humans had come to Eda via starship 200 years ago and yet there were ancient human buildings and dwellings everywhere. I knew Eda wasn’t Earth but yet it had Earth-like structures. These ruins were not dwarves, elven, goblin, or troll, and they weren’t daemonic either. They were 100% human and ancient.
Perhaps this was what Ariane had been truly trying to uncover. It was a lie. 200 years ago. That wasn’t the first time humans arrived on Eda. The other problem with this theory was that all the human ruins were a mix of modern and medieval both feudal Japan and Victorian. This whole planet was having an identity crisis.
The Nephilim slammed its hand down on me and I fell through the floor. A secret room. I thought we had hit the last level of the dungeon. The creature too came down after me. It was a vault of some kind. A secret treasury. My vision went blurry as tears filled my eyes. There was a biting the pain was barely an option as agonizing cramps seemed to crush my insides from within. I wanted to give up, there was no way I could keep going feeling like this. I phased for a moment and I looked around me. I scanned the room. It wasn’t just a treasure room it was some kind of armory. I grabbed a semi-automatic pistol from the ground.
Deadeye
‘A lot of fire power with little precision’
Damage: 5
Class: None
Weight: 5
I fired until the clip ran out, rolled and picked up another weapon.
Crimson
‘This revolver was originally designed as a secret but became so popular it is now in use by civil forces and gangs alike. Its official name is RH-81 but it goes by Crimson.’
Damage: 15
Class: None
Weight: 10
I fired three shots before the barrel spun empty.
The Nephilim was nearly on top of me. Both weapons did little damage. Bendi came down from above. He shot a beam of blue light from his hand. I smiled. I felt like I had pulled every muscle in my body and I was bleeding out. Health 20. Mana 30. Stamina 10. I gave Bendi a cheer as the monster fell backwards into a horde of coins that splattered across the air. The beast moved its head back and opened its jaw. Its jaw extended outwards and lowered as a white ball of energy began to appear inside its mouth. I grabbed a shield from the ground and held it in front of me. The shield was a pointed heater shield, made from adamantine, forged by shadow trolls. It offered just enough resistance to deflect the blast.
Next up I grabbed a shotgun from the grip of a dead human skeleton. The shotgun was in near perfect condition. Triple barreled and quite intimidating.
Snapper
‘Used illegally in many counties as it’s accurate, reliable, and easy to maintain, 16 gauge, pump action. Fire’s a ballistic known as a bird bomb. Can be modified for frag-12. This shotgun has a pistol girl and a standard stock but don’t let that fool you. These custom stocks are made of whale bone and are expensive on the black market. This weapon was originally named the 4U-E, but most just called it the Snapper.’
Damage: 50
Class: None
Weight: 2
I held the Snapper up with my one good ha
nd and fired before throwing the gun in the air, pumping it as hard as I could and firing again. It became harder and harder to swallow the pain, to ignore the sensations and the voices telling me to stop. I had become unwilling to keep fighting. I let out a moan, part desperation and part determination. I had two options: fight or give up. Maybe giving up was the right choice, “always listen to your body,” my legs gave out from under me and I dropped to the floor. I didn’t have the stamina to pump the shotgun again. Perhaps they were right. I could respawn. Ariane, Ethan, Bendi, they would all be dead but I could respawn. They were all computer characters anyway, why should I give a shit about any NPCs living or dying. No. It didn’t seem right. I felt a pain in my chest. I felt their pain. I could only imagine how Ariane felt right now in my mind. Sweat was outing from my forehead, my hand was clammy and trembling and I was grinding my teeth. I took a deep breath and shifted my focus. Determined.
Glimmer, A Throne of Souls (Convergence Book 1) Page 12