Ascend Online

by Luke Chmilenko

  The wailing ghoul fell backwards, sending glowing azure colored liquid spewing into the air as it crashed into the ground. Attempting to close the gaping wound in its stomach, it desperately pressed its claws to its abdomen while trying to scramble away from the rest of the ghoul horde.

  Somehow sensing the weakness of the ghoul I had injured, the other ghouls spun towards the fallen one, a hungry expression crossing their decaying faces. A handful leaped upon the wounded ghoul, their claws and teeth sinking into the flesh of their companion as they hungrily drank the glowing fluid.

  “What the fuck?!” Drace shouted in surprise, the ghoul he was fighting being among those that had suddenly abandoned their fights in favor of an easier target.

  “Stab them in the stomach!” I shouted down the melee line. “That’s the only place they feel pain!”

  A roaring cry broke out over the din of battle, the line beside Constantine suddenly faltering.

  “Lyr! Cadmus just went down!” Drace called to me as he glanced down our battle line. “I got this! Go!”

  “Okay!” I slapped Drace on the arm as I ducked out of the line, Amaranth moving to fill in my gap.

  Running behind the line of battle, I saw Cadmus on the ground with a pair of ghouls straddling his body as their claws easily tore through his armor and scales. They rent apart flesh with a reckless abandon as they devoured the fallen lizardman, his spirit having fled his ruined body.

  Hard pressed to keep up with the higher leveled creatures, Abaddon, Freya, Thorne, and Helix were forced to retreat a step backwards as all of the nearby ghouls abandoned their fights and leaped to devour Cadmus’s corpse.

  “Cadmuss!” Abaddon roared while chopping through a ghoul’s wrist as it fled from him. “No!”

  I’m seeing a pattern here, they all fixate on any source of food they can find! I ran towards Freya and her group, shouting as I arrived. “They are driven by hunger! Take advantage of it and stab their stomachs!”

  “Their stomach?” Freya’s face looked haunted as she looked towards the feral pack of ghouls.

  “How, Lyrian?!” Thorne hissed at my advice. “I have a fucking mace! I can’t stab shit!”

  “Do your best and don’t die then!” I snapped back at the dwarf, stopping next to Freya and replacing Cadmus’s spot in their line. “Let’s go! While they’re distracted!”

  Leaping forward with Freya and the others at my side, I thrust Razor into the back of goblin sized ghoul feasting on Cadmus’s body. The blade easily driving through the dry and emaciated skin before I felt it hit the familiar resistance of the stomach. Twisting my blade, Razor sliced through the glowing mass, the goblinoid ghoul instantly writhing into a panic.

  “Yes!” Freya shouted in joy as she found similar success, carving a large gash through a second ghoul’s stomach and sending the glowing liquid spilling across the ground.

  From there the battle descended into chaos, the ghouls attacking and savaging us along with any of their wounded that bled the azure fluid. Our armor was rent by dozens of vicious claws, blood streaming from wicked weeping wounds that the ghouls inflicted. Caius and Theia strode the line of battle like angels of mercy, their timely ministrations keeping us from joining the fallen.

  But despite all their efforts, they couldn’t be everywhere, nor could they save us all.

  Overwhelmed by a thousand ever bleeding cuts, Thorne fell. His body vanishing under the horde of ravaging claws and teeth. Amid the rampaging ghouls, we found ourselves pressed by their relentless fury as they swarmed around us, our lines of battle becoming desperate pockets of blood and metal as we fought back to back. Leaving a wide open path towards our scouts and mages in the rear.

  Stepping up to defend the others from the ghouls that rushed through our broken line, Halcyon met the charging monsters, his Force Shield shimmering in gloom. To his surprise, however, the creatures passed through the barrier as if parting a curtain. Their claws sinking deep into his flesh, overrunning the brave mage. Mere steps behind, Drace and Constantine, arrived far too late to save Halcyon. Instead, they took out their rage on the ghouls that slew him.

  Fighting desperately, our tactics slowly began to turn the tide. The ghoul’s hunger unable to resist the flesh of the fallen, be it ours or theirs. Their numbers dwindled, allowing us to reform our lines and focus our teamwork to wear the ravenous ghouls down.

  In what seemed ages later, I thrust Razor into the belly of the final ghoul as I pinned it to the ground. Panting from the exertion of the battle, I stepped onto the creature’s flailing claw, having long since severed the other. Its struggles grew weaker as its azure lifeblood bled from around Razor’s edge, shuddering under me.

  Raising my other boot high, I looked down at the creature under me, seeing the tattered insignia of the Eberian Mages Guild on its breast. Its gleaming eyes stared up at me, its teeth snapping as it tried to bring its body close enough to bite me.

  Sorry, we were too late. I looked down at the ghoul with sorrow.

  Then I stomped on its head.

  ***

  No one spoke as we walked further into the Tower, Carver’s show and the fight with the ghouls having taken a toll on our spirits. Halcyon, Cadmus, and Thorne had fallen during the battle, joining Cerril and his friends in death. Granted we could feel through the Party Sense that our friends had respawned distantly in Aldford, where we knew Myr was as well. But the loss of their presence here was felt in every step we took.

  Thankfully the system worked its subtle magic on our psyche, dulling the memories and pain from the battle, lest our minds snap from what we had experienced. As a whole I still wasn’t sure how I felt, knowing that the game was effectively editing my personality every second I played Ascend Online. But at the moment, I was happy to have the carnage of the battle fade from my mind.

  There was no sign of Carver or the other Adventurers deeper into the Tower, save gaps in the stone ceiling that we could spot a massive pole running overhead of us. Carver had clearly known about the presence of the ghouls and how they would react to the presence of interlopers, baiting them into attacking us so he could escape.

  Was he trapped up there? I wondered, looking up at the ceiling, realizing there must have not been a route to escape from up there. He had others with him too. What did Graves do to drive them away? Maybe the spirit possessing him caused it?

  And how the hell did those Expedition members end up becoming Ætherwarped?! We locked the Translocation Hub down! Unless there’s another Ley Line here? I scowled at the thought. These fucking Ley Lines seem to be dangerous to anything that touch it! If they’re this fucking common, we’ll be wasting all of our time running around the region and plugging them up!

  Lost in my thoughts, time passed quickly as we walked through the second fragment of the Tower. Light spells provided much-needed illumination for those who could not see in the darkness. Much of this portion of the Tower had shattered from the fall, giving us a reasonably clear path as we delved deeper into the ruin. Twice we were forced to zig zag our way through long horizontal stairways, reminding us once again of how tall this Tower must have been.

  After climbing out of the second stairway, we found ourselves inside a completely hollow portion of the Tower, only the outer shell of the structure remaining. Looking around, my True Sight easily pierced through the darkness surrounding us, revealing large piles of dirt in the distance and of course, another broken length of the long mysterious pole that had traveled the length of the Tower resting on the ground nearby.

  “Where are we?” Sierra asked nervously, the first to speak since the battle with the ghouls ended. “I can’t see anything.”

  “We’re in the third section of the Tower,” I whispered, pointing off into the darkness to show where the two pieces of the Tower had broken apart and then crashed into one another as they slid down the hill. Realizing too late that no one else could make out where I was pointing, the ceiling above us far enough away that even those with night vision couldn�
�t see. “The pole we saw along the Tower is also here.”

  “I really wish we knew what it was for,” Zethus said softly.

  “Maybe once we put Graves to bed we can look around here in more detail,” Constantine replied. “Halcyon will have to come back here anyway to claim his Soul Fragment.”

  “Oh, that’s right.” I mentally winced, having forgotten about the Death Penalty that Halcyon now carried. With a sigh, I mentally pushed that problem to the future and motioned for everyone to follow me. “Let’s keep moving, we have to be getting close to whatever the goblins dug into. I see a ton of dirt ahead.”

  “We’re almost there,” Huxley affirmed, pointing almost straight ahead. “Graves is close.”

  Leading the way, I stalked forward carefully. My eyes watching for any sign of goblins or other Adventurers as we wove our way around piles of dirt that had obviously been carted and dumped here. Looking at the ground, I saw wheel marks, where a wheelbarrow or something similar had cut a rut in the hard dirt from repeated passages.

  Dirt from digging through the hill? I continued to creep forward, following the rut in the ground as it slowly angled towards the center of the room. It was there we found the pole again, the rut running parallel to it. As with the other lengths of the pole, we found throughout the Tower, it was featureless and smooth. Giving us no clue to what its function may have once been, save that it extended from the very base of the Tower to nearly its tip.

  “Well, what could cause it to do that?” Constantine whispered in surprise as the pole finally came to a rather abrupt end, mushrooming and splintering outwards as if something had exploded inside it.

  “Whoa,” Caius echoed, as he inspected the broken end metallic pole. “It's solid metal on the inside, through and through, but it looks…”

  “…like you stuck a gigantic firecracker inside it, and set it off,” Freya finished.

  “Yeah.” Caius nodded, scanning the ground around us. “Must have happened during the Tower’s fall, I don’t see any fragments of metal around us.”

  “That’s because all the fragments are up there…” I said in disbelief, staring nearly straight up at the ceiling towards the eastern half of the room. “Something exploded close to the base of the Tower when it still stood. I just noticed it now, but the entire ceiling and walls past this point are charred black. I can see pockmarks in the walls from debris, along with cracks from the heat.”

  Everyone looked out into the darkness, before looking back at me.

  “This wasn’t just a Watchtower, Lyr,” Constantine said to me.

  “Yeah, I’m starting to get the same feeling,” I replied worriedly.

  “What could it have been then?” Helix asked.

  “I don’t know.” I turned to keep walking. “But we’re about to find out.”

  ***

  It didn’t take us much longer to find the tunnel that the goblins had dug into the side of the hill, having just continued to follow the seemingly endless piles of dirt that littered the way. At the mouth of the tunnel, I saw a pair of crudely built wheelbarrows turned over onto their sides, dirt spilling from them. All around us discarded tools carelessly littered the ground, having been rudely cast aside as if a great hurry had overcome the laborers.

  “At least it's human-sized,” Drace said wearily, looking at the width of the tunnel ahead of us. “I don’t think I’d be able to make it through if it was any smaller.”

  ‘I think-” Natasha swallowed hard as she spoke, her voice on the edge of tears. “I think, they had the expedition members dig this tunnel. I-I recognize some of these tools.”

  “I’m sorry, Natasha,” Sierra whispered touching the scout’s shoulder. “If any goblins remain, we’ll be sure to avenge them.”

  “Thank you, Sierra.” Natasha sniffled, her cracking voice reminding us that she was likely the youngest in the party, NPC or not. “I’ll be okay.”

  “We’ll take the tools with us,” I said, grabbing a [steel pickaxe] from the ground and putting it into my inventory. Everyone else quickly following suit, until no other tools remained on the ground. “We’ll find a better use for them, rather than leaving them behind for the goblins or to rot down here forgotten.”

  “Uh, Lyrian?” I heard Huxley call my name, as he picked up a square piece of metal from the ground. “I think I found something, a plaque of some sort.”

  “A plaque?” I echoed with curiosity as I moved to the elf. “What does it say?”

  “Uh.” Huxley brushed the sheet of metal off, carefully reading the inscription. “It’s in another language, kind of elvish, but not. My Linguistics skill can only make out the words ‘Annulment Spire’ and the number ‘985’.”

  “I think it’s in the Dark Elf language, which I don’t know,” Huxley continued after a moment. “And that 985 is a year, maybe the one that this place was built?”

  “Makes sense,” I replied slowly. “But Annulment Spire? What does that even mean?”

  “I don’t know.” Huxley shrugged, waving the plaque around. “Could be the wrong word, or might be the wrong meaning.”

  “Hang on, didn’t you say the war between the Dark Elves and the Nafarr started in 983?” Constantine asked. “If this place is Dark Elf made…”

  “Then it took them at least two years for them to make it this far once the war started,” Huxley answered with a nod. “Minus the time to build this tower, which I guess might have taken them a year. Or maybe the plaque could indicate the day they started building the Tower.”

  “It’s an interesting bit of history,” I agreed. “But it doesn’t do anything for us right now and we really should get moving.”

  “Yeah, probably a good idea.” Huxley quickly put the plaque away into his pack.

  After a quick check to ensure we were ready, we set off into the tunnel with me in the lead. All of us eager to finally put an end to both Graves and any other Adventurers or goblins that followed him.

  Creeping through the tunnel at a cautious pace, I found myself having to duck my head slightly to avoid cracking it off of the bracing set into the roof and wall. The now familiar color and shape of the wooden braces told me that they had been one of the many pieces scavenged from the rafters of the Tower.

  It’s a miracle the roof tower didn’t collapse on its own with how much wood the goblins tore from it. I thought to myself, shaking my head at their recklessness. Though that does make sense why it fell apart so quickly once it started burning.

  I have no idea how far we descended down the tunnel before I noticed a faint azure light in the distance ahead of us, causing us to slow our pace as we approached.

  The light’s pulsing, almost like a heartbeat! I realized, rubbing sweat off my brow, suddenly noticing that the temperature had been rising steadily. I really hope we don’t need to worry about bad air in here.

  A hand touched my shoulder, causing me to flinch in surprise as I quickly spun to see Caius staring at me with a finger across his lips. He pointed ahead, then to his heart and ears before looking at me expectantly.

  He can hear blood ahead of us. I nodded at the Warlock to show I understood his message, motioning to my sword then miming running feet with my fingers. Caius nodded, holding up a hand as he passed the message down the line, eventually giving me the thumbs up. Here we go!

  Heart thundering in my chest, I gripped Razor tightly, as I padded down the final stretch of the tunnel. Shattered white bricks crunching under my feet as I approached the passage’s mouth.

  Holy shit! I was forced to momentarily shield my eyes as an intense wave of magic washed over me, revealing a blazing pillar of azure energy centering the room ahead spanning from floor to ceiling. After my eyes readjusted, I saw that the tunnel had breached a huge vertical chamber, set deep within the hillside, directly under where the Tower had once stood. Impossibly white bricks covered every facet of the chamber, somehow reflecting the pulsing aura of the pillar and casting the center of the room in a deep azure tint.

&nbs
p; What the hell is that?! Nestled in the heart of the azure fire, was a fist sized object of near infinite darkness, hungrily drinking in every iota of energy directed to it. So strong was the draw, the edges of the pillar seemed to constrict and deform around the dark shape, as if it were a miniature black hole, consuming everything around it.

  A short distance below me, a crimson aura bloomed in my vision as Graves stepped into sight, walking along a raised dais that surrounded the base of the burning column. He gazed upwards into the storm of energy before him, a familiar looking, blue-skinned goblin carrying a skull-tipped staff following him close by. A tag helpfully appeared in my vision, pointing to the goblin below.

  [Goblin Shaman – Mtadr – Boss – Level 12]

  That looks like the same kind of goblin that we fought at the Translocation Hub! But this one is named and a boss creature! My eyes widened as the aura around Graves formed into a familiar looking shape. There’s the King’s ghost!