Maelstrom

by Ajdin K. Denic

  The skill tree, however, had changed, and to his liking at that. The ice symbol above his skill tree was outlined with golden swirls, and what was more important; the fire skill tree was shown as available. Kaden laughed like a madman, dancing around the cave, jumping from foot to foot. He checked his available skill points and saw fifteen under ice and water, but under fire, nothing. Did he have to gain renewed experience to level up his fire skill tree? He brushed it off with a grin, knowing that he had gained immense power with his latest skill, so leveling up fire would be easy. His title had also changed slightly, to Elemental Wizard.

  "Are you ready to move on, wizard?" Kain asked when he saw his wide grin. "Your friends might be getting weary by now. We have been here together for two weeks now."

  Kaden looked up at him with a broad smile. "I was born ready!"

  Chapter 22

  Traversing the desert was tedious at best, and barely possible at worst. Kaden and the Wolfman had suffered sun strokes, dehydration and all kinds of bug attacks in the last two days. They had lost count of how long it had taken them to walk from the entrance, to somewhere near the center pillar that lead up to the next floor.

  One small break happened during the late second day, as they found a small pool of water within the cave they decided to crash in. There wasn’t much of it, only enough for a few jugs, but it was far more than what they had during the trip up until then. Kaden drank as if his life depended on it, which it almost did, and coughed violently. Too tired to even talk, he crashed and drifted off to dreamland.

  "What would your friends say about you now? Would they be happy with you?" Kain asked.

  "Huh? What are you talking about? What friends?" Kaden replied, not quite understanding.

  "What do you mean? You said so yourself that friends outside are waiting for you. There was also mention of protecting a village and villagers. You offered me to come and stay with you!" Kain snapped. He towered over Kaden, looking down at him with his amber eyes.

  A sudden pain threatened to end his life as Kaden’s heart stopped beating. He gasped for air, and curled up in a ball.

  "Morgana!" Kain yelled, his roar deafening. A familiar voice returned a chuckle, coming at them from the walls and ceiling, getting ever louder.

  "That bitch is toying with us. Get out of my head, you evil creature!" Kaden yelled, finally understanding that he was under a mental attack by the black widow. "Get out! Get ooooouuuut!"

  Just like that, the link snapped and the dream disappeared as Kaden woke up drenched in sweat. The memories returned, and everything suddenly felt much easier. It was as if he had broken a mental attack that was trying to keep him under.

  "Thanks, Kain. You saved me again from that… spider. Though I have no idea how, your voice helped me to overcome it this time."

  "No problem, my friend. I felt her presence, so I tried to help by bonding with you."

  "Bonding? As in do things to me?"

  "No, not that! Silly human, how would I be able to bond with you like that? No, I touched foreheads with you and focused on repelling her. As you see, it worked."

  "Right. Speaking of which, she sure is a persistent one."

  "Tell me about it." Kain went quiet for a moment, looking away from Kaden.

  "Wait a minute! Were you able to bond with me earlier instead of kicking me and breaking my bones?"

  Kain grinned and nodded. Kaden sighed in turn and slumped to the floor.

  "I know that what you heard might seem harsh, but there is no way someone would understand the position I was in. She made it look like I'm the bad guy here, which in a sense I'm, but nothing was done for my own benefit. It needed to be done to get rid of Bardos." He stopped and looked away into the distance, lost in his thoughts for a long moment. "Of course, it backfired and left me in the form I'm in now, and without my daughter."

  "It’s alright. If you don’t want to talk about it, I understand. Who am I to judge you anyway? This world is a mess, and people would do all kinds of stuff to get rid of that bastard. He is a fiend, a devil, not a god. Using us as pawns in his game, watching us suffer!"

  "Look, I'll mention a few things that might set your mind at ease, but please, don’t judge me. I have been doing that to myself for a thousand years and can only take so much." His voice was deep and laced with sorrow.

  "You don’t have to-" Kaden started but got cut off by the Wolfman.

  "If you’d been in my situation, who says that you would have done it any other way? In any case, the thing that really happened was this." Kain took a deep breath before going on once more. "Our daughter was born with a heart disease. She understood the situation from an early age. During her last days, she was in great pain. There was no one who could do anything, except our supreme deity. He, of course, didn’t heed my call, nor did he help us out in our time of need."

  "Go figure. Where he’s needed, he doesn’t bother to come up and where he isn’t wanted, he makes people’s lives miserable," Kaden said, shaking his head. Kain sighed before he went on.

  "Then, on the day that was to be her last, a minor deity appeared. He was disgusted with Bardos’ rule and offered me a deal. A child sacrifice was the most powerful sacrifice one could make to appease a god. My little angel, she… heard everything he proposed, and just told me she was willing to go through if it meant getting rid of that tyrant and giving other people a chance."

  "Wait so she would have… no matter what," Kaden murmured.

  "My wife had overheard everything and was against it, so she contacted, who knows how, Bardos and our sacrifice was for nothing. The minor died a horrible death after being tortured in front of me, then he was sealed in a dimensional dungeon to suffer for all eternity. Somewhere in the Elven domain I think he mentioned. So in the end, my little girl gave her life for nothing and both of us were banished into this hellhole. Me for opposing him, her for betraying her husband. Pretty ironic if you ask me," He stopped again and wiped a tear off his hairy face.

  "I’m… so sorry, Kain." The Wolfman shrugged it off and sighed.

  "Not a day goes by without me remembering her smile, even though it has been over a thousand years. Her smile, so gentle." Kain started weeping like a newborn, falling to the ground and tearing at his skin.

  It's both frightening and amazing to see what love can do to someone, real love. Now, there is no more doubt. I'll trust Kain until the end, even if it's the wrong thing to do. Someone displaying such emotions and regrets couldn’t be a bad person, Kaden thought, and walked out of the cave.

  All of the years that I had spent alone, without anyone to love, without anyone to share my world with, except Laney. Yes, there was her now. But how am I going to get out of this, and worse still, what is going on outside? How much time has passed? Are they even alive?

  "We will know soon enough, my friend," Razor interrupted his train of thoughts.

  "You sure know when to make an entrance."

  "What use would there be of me if I didn’t try to console my other half in his greatest time of need, right?" Razor asked. Kaden chuckled, but his mind quickly wandered off into difficult territory.

  A panic gripped him as emotions welled up from deep inside of him. Tears started rolling down his cheeks. What the hell was this anyway? Could she mean so much to me in such little time? How has that fallen angel taken over everything I thought was missing? Filled up a gap so big that I thought dying alone would be a given. How could she have given me such a will to live and to get back out there? Kaden pondered.

  "Laney, I love you! I'll find a way to get back to you!" he screamed and cried deep from within. Her violet eyes, her long hair and pretty smile flashed through his mind. Yes, he would see her again and tell her what she meant to him, even if he had to beat Bardos to do so.

  Waking up after crying himself to sleep was the worst thing he had gone through since coming to this world. It felt even worse than dying at that moment. His throat was dry as sandpaper, eyes swollen and body burning up from the
scorching sun.

  He needed water, even if it was polluted, so he got up and started off towards the cave again. As if on cue, the ground started rumbling as an earthquake shook the ground. Something told him to run, so he did just that for all he was worth. Mere moments after leaving the patch of land where he had been sleeping on, a gigantic mouth rose up from the sand, gigantic teeth coming up first, followed by an orange and brown skin, swallowing all of it up. It was enormous and hideous, looking like a demonic worm straight out of hell.

  "What now?" he asked, running from the gigantic mouth that turned towards him. It must be as large as the whole village! How the hell am I supposed to fight that thing? Kaden wondered and then imagined the only thing that could help him in such a situation. His new favorite spell.

  [Ice Age]

  The ice storm started forming above the worm’s maw, catching it wide open. The heavy blizzard ravaged the creature’s soft and spongy mouth. Every moment the storm raged stronger, damaging the creature until everything turned white and icicles the size of trees darted all around, striking the sand and narrowly missing Kaden, who stepped back just in time.

  The creature let out a slow, guttural cry of pain as the top of its head froze over. With each second that passed, the ice spread down its body, building up to an explosive crescendo, ripping chunks of meat and bone off. Half of the ice-covered body got shredded and perforated, taking even more health points off the worm. The urge to run was great, but the urge to inspect the target was even bigger.

  "What the hell, Bardos? You son of a bitch! What the hell have you set me up against?" Kaden yelled, his mouth still dry from sleeping in the scorching heat. The worm had half a million health and most of its body was hidden underground, with only a part of it showing above the sand. How the hell should one deal with a worm that had a mouth as big as a village?

  Kain howled in rage as he rushed towards the creature. "What the hell did you do? The ruler of the sands never wakes up unless something happens that insults him!" Kain shouted.

  "Nothing! I fell asleep and cried. Maybe that pissed him off."

  "Hah! Our combined emotions must have ticked it off. Hahaha! The wicked thing hates emotions. Cast whatever you can, I'll rip into it. Maybe we can make it out of here alive!" Kain ordered, slamming into the thing claws first.

  Maybe? What the hell was he talking about? Maybe? I have to get out of here as fast as possible, Kaden thought.

  [Frozen Land]

  [Flood]

  The two skills hit the worm on one side, as Kain laid waste to the other. Their range wasn’t big enough to cause massive damage like [Ice Age] and endanger Kain, but this way he wouldn’t hit the Wolfman. The fight dragged on as they danced around the creature and attacked it in any way possible.

  "Get out of there, I can cast another [Ice Age] in a few seconds!" The sky started rumbling as a new storm formed above the creature, this time quicker than the first and even greater size. Only moments in, visibility was already zero and in much a larger radius than what should have been possible. Explosions of ice shredded more of the creature’s insides, launching teeth, meat and skin in all directions.

  "Go loot those things while you can!" Kain roared in laughter. For a moment, Kaden thought him mad, but then ran off towards the chunks of meat and teeth that had dropped nearby.

  You have gained Abyss Worm meat.

  You have gained Abyss Worm tooth.

  His eyes went wide when he saw that one tooth took four slots of his inventory. He had only a few slots left, so this would have to go if push came to shove.

  "What now? Try and kill it off?" he asked, running up to the Wolfman who stared at the storm with a look of awe plastered to his face.

  "Fascinating. You sure are a piece of work, you know that? And kill it? You insane? That thing regenerates a hundred thousand health per minute. Just look at it!"

  Kaden did just that, and saw the yellow health bar turn slowly into a very soft green. "Is it time to run then?" he asked, eyes darting between the worm and the pillar.

  "Yes! Move it!" Kain replied as he turned around and started running much faster than his friend.

  "Aren’t you immortal? Why run so fast?" Kaden teased, running for all he was worth.

  "No! I have a very high resistance to physical damage, not immunity!" he shouted back, gaining ground on his friend. Suddenly, it began to rain sand and rocks. The worm spat out whatever it had swallowed earlier into their direction, sending small and medium-sized pieces of stone flying their way, accompanied by a sand storm.

  A large piece found its way straight into Kain’s back, knocking him over and taking 754 health off his bar. He cursed, but got up and started running as he ate a meatball, regenerating some health.

  What followed was a marathon of the same: get hit, get up and run again. Sometimes later, they arrived at the pillar just as the last pieces of debris fell around them. The worm, annoyed by losing its prey, disappeared into the distance with a bellowing cry. They dropped and laid down, breathing heavily. Even the wolfman had felt tired after the chase, and he was no pushover.

  "What are… you made of?" he asked, observing Kain who replied with a laugh.

  "Muscles! Now, come on, we gotta go. I feel more danger approaching."

  "I can’t move. Just leave me here," Kaden cried, curling up.

  "Do you need me to pee on you again?" Kain smirked.

  Kaden jumped up and dusted himself off. "Right then. After you, my friend."

  Hours later, they arrived at the upper floor, and again, one of the two dropped like a sack of potatoes, falling asleep instantly. Kain shook his head and looked around the immediate vicinity. Carrying him up half the stairs hadn’t worn him out, but Kaden wouldn’t stop squirming and nagging that he hurt all over.

  Nothing was there that could harm the sleeping beauty, so he wandered off ever further to scout the area ahead.

  Kaden woke up sometime later and looked around him. The immediate vicinity looked like a very humid, spacious cavern. Who came up with such an idiotic dungeon? Different types of elemental areas and mobs that are extremely strong challenge anyone who's able to enter it. If it hadn’t been for Kain, I would have already died, he thought.

  "Good lad. Now, this floor should be pretty much clean. I cannot guarantee anything, but we should have an easy time going through this maze. Soon after we cross it, we will arrive at her lair." Kain exhaled and dropped next to his companion. His eyes looked like they were going to tear up again. "Do you think that we will be able to do it?"

  "It's you who has to come to terms with this, my friend, not me. Do you want this all to end?" Kaden replied. Kain sighed once more and shrugged.

  "I have longed to see this day for years, and now that there is a chance of achieving it, I don’t actually want it to end. I will be honest. The only reason why I want her dead is because our daughter’s sacrifice was for nothing. When you take that away, I did marry her for a reason. She used to be a kind, caring and compassionate woman whom I loved dearly. All of the days we had spent together," Kain closed his eyes, clenching his fists.

  "I won’t act so brash and tell you I understand, because I don’t. But what I do know, is that once it’s over you will get your peace." Kain went on as if he hadn’t heard the man speak.

  "And she threw it all away! And for what? For the favour of a deity that turned his back on her the moment she stopped being useful? No, I cannot accept that fact. She will answer for her crime and so will he. It was I who took her life, but he is the one who forced me. Why didn’t he reply to me when I begged for his help, yet when my wife ratted on us, he appeared instantly? No, my friend. It will end today, one way or another. If I'm to die, so be it. If she is too, that's all the more reason to try as hard as possible."

  Kain’s words were full of passion, sorrow and pain which Kaden had no idea about how to start getting help.

  "I understand, and I'll give it my all to help you get rid of this mess. Then, we will find a way
to avenge your daughter, one way or another, that much is a promise." Heavy words weighed on both, as they felt it in their bones that the end of the road was very near. Neither had given it much thought before, but what if Kaden left the dungeon alone? What if Kain stayed behind, or disappeared? Having become so close with him, the importance of his life was almost equal to Laney.

  "How about we start walking? I have a feeling we don’t have much time." Kain nodded and raised his three-meter tall body. Kaden followed him through winding corridors. The floor proved to be a maze. Stone and iron were all that they could see, no matter how far, or which way they went. There was always just another wall, just another bend, be it black or grey. It was a wonder how they even seemed to know where they were going, but then again, there was this bond between Kain and Morgana that gave him a nudge in the right direction.

  Several hours later, a friendly voice greeted them. "You two have arrived." The voice sounded like that of an angel, yet the body was horrific and better forgotten in a dark place. Kaden cringed at the sight of her, at which she glared back. "You would judge someone by their looks? I would rather you not, as looks can be deceiving." She was disfigured and looked like a creature out of nightmares.

  Kain’s eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. "Morgana? Is that you?" he spoke in a low growl as he neared the half-creature, half-woman. There was no trace of her black widow figure, nor were there any spiders around.

  "What is going on? Tell me!" Kain demanded. The woman flashed them a half smile and looked away, as if embarrassed by her appearance.

  What cruel god could have done that to a woman, Kaden thought.

  "You don’t really want to know, my love. But I'll tell you anyway, and after we have said our goodbyes, I beg you to free me." The woman’s voice turned painful in an instant.

  "No, wait," Kain whispered as he took a step closer.

  "You see, I have been waiting for this moment over a thousand years. I waited forever, but you never made it up here. I want you to end this, if you still feel the same."