by Tamryn Tamer
“I don’t trust her!” Jinx said. “Fairies are tricky. This could all be one big trick. She probably sensed you’re a stupid horny lecher and used that against you. Oaf. Dunce.”
Jinx did have a point. Ariel’s story about elders killing people had earned her his sympathy and he couldn’t help but wonder if it was all part of some long con.
“I’m telling the truth!” she insisted. To prove her point she landed on the pit and stomped her foot several times. “See?”
“You first,” Jericho said to Terra. “I’ll blast you upward if you start to fall.”
“By blast you mean with a gust of wind, right?” Terra glared at him. “Not blast as in explosion, right?”
“Of course,” Jericho smiled. She knew full well his whirlwind spell wasn’t powerful enough for that. “A blast of wind.”
“Right,” Terra scowled while walking past. Her first step into the hole threw her off balance as her foot landed on an invisible surface. “You know that feeling when you’re coming downstairs in the middle of the night and find the floor earlier than expected?”
“Feels like that?”
“Yeah,” she turned back and stomped a few times on the abyss. “Seems stable enough. You coming?”
Jericho and Jinx followed behind walking across the empty abyss. After a few meters Ariel held her hands out in front of her and slowed her movement. She met some resistance and pounded several times on emptiness.
“This is starting to feel like a mime routine,” Jericho joked. Terra rolled her eyes.
“Lady Ariella,” a voice sounded from high above. “What is the meaning of this? You’ve…you’ve…this is against the laws!”
“Well,” Ariel’s legs started to visibly shake. “These three are my friends.”
“Friends!” a shocked and terrified voice chimed in. “You can’t be serious. They’re mortals! You know the rules! When the elders hear about this...I can’t hide this from them…I have a family to protect. I’m sorry Lady Ariel.”
“I,” Ariel looked back, she was shaking and her eyes were filled with tears. Jericho had a sinking feeling that things weren’t going to go well. She turned back to the wall. “They captured me! They were going to tell the humans to come to this forest! I had no choice but to bring them here! Please forgive me! Tell the elders it wasn’t my fault! I don’t want to die!”
“Guards!” one of the voices yelled as the gates blew open revealing a gorgeous bright forest garden. The village was massive with enormous trees with staircases leading up to tiny houses built into them. On the ground there were large manors with lush gardens. Several fairy soldiers rushed out carrying swords and spears. They pulled Ariel behind them as if to protect her. “Capture the invaders!”
“What now?” Terra asked while drawing her daggers. Monsters started appearing all around and the fairy guards vanished in front of them. In the sky harpies started circling and screeching. “Well don’t this just beat all.”
“Jinx,” Jericho nodded. “Try not to kill them unless you have to. They’re just peons.”
“Fine. Wuss. Weakling.” Jinx said while rushing forward striking at the invisible fairies. They had no idea that hiding their presence was making them more noticeable to Jinx. Jinx bounced from one target to the next delivering a flurry of fast slashes, kicks, knees, and elbows. With each powerful strike the illusion hiding them faded revealing injured fairies.
“You know Jericho,” Terra turned toward him. “I think she’s a monk class.”
“I could see that,” Jericho said as Jinx continued to bounce around pummeling her enemies. “Also explains the affinity for fist weapons.”
“We better stop dawdling,” Terra said while pulling out her bow.
“Yeah,” Jericho nodded. He’d learned a lot from his previous battle with Endgame outside of Rend. Specifically, that magic wasn’t a hammer to crush, but an entire toolbox to be used. It was important to slow down and think before he cast. He clapped his hands together resulting in a steady rainfall which outlined the bodies of the fairies. “Your turn.”
“Don’t be cocky,” Terra said while firing rubber tipped sparring arrows at her targets. “It’s unbecoming.”
As each fairy fell to the ground, or knocked unconscious by Jinx, Jericho quickly covered them in a blanket of stone, binding them to the ground. In a few quick moments a over two dozen fairy guards were completely immobilized.
“Any fatalities?” Jericho said turning to Jinx.
“No,” she answered in a disgruntled tone. “Don’t you trust me? Idiot. Cad.”
“I’m sorry,” Ariel said dropping to her knees crying. “Please don’t hurt me. It’s just…you don’t understand. Please don’t kill me.”
“We should kill her,” Jinx said sharpening her claws against each other. “She betrayed you. Fool. Patsy.”
“I’m not going to kill her,” Jericho said while walking toward Ariel. He reached out and helped her to her feet. “I told you, you’re our friend.”
“Even after I…” Ariel’s legs buckled and Jericho caught her. “Is this some sort of trick?”
“No,” Jericho smiled and patted her head. “I just decided that I like you. So, I’m going to free you from this place and then I’m going to make you my familiar.”
“What!?” Jinx roared. “No! Absolutely not! Cheater! Traitor!”
“What makes you think I’d agree to such a thing?” Ariel tried to look strong but failed miserably as her legs quaked. “To be a familiar to a human...”
“Ultimately it’s your choice,” Jericho grinned roguishly. “Just think about it while I save your village.”
“Oh my god,” Terra laughed. “You’re ridiculous. Come on. Let’s go kill some elders.”
“You’re making a mistake,” Ariel warned while following behind. “You don’t understand how powerful they are. Please, I know you’re trying to help but I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”
“I think I have a handle on it,” Jericho said confidently. The fairies seemed to be a hybrid between an assassin class and a magic class. He felt it fit them perfectly since they’d distract their opponents and attack while invisible. All he needed to do was take away their invisibility and they’d be easy to defeat. “What do you think Terra?”
“Honestly,” Terra said pulling out a magic crystal. She held it to her eye and scanned the bound fairies. “They’re around level sixty, weak to physical, strong against magic, high speed, low strength. Nothing to really worry about. Maybe for you because their magic resist seems really high.”
“Good to know,” Jericho said taking out his own to confirm. “Yeah, seems like it’ll be pretty easy.”
“No!” Jinx objected. “They’re tricky! These ones are stupid fairies like this one! Smart fairies are different! They don’t just show you monsters and hide in shadows! Fools. Nimrods!”
“Your beast is right,” Ariel agreed. “The elders and their guards, they’re horrible. They take pleasure in driving fairies mad, showing them the death of their loved ones, torturing them. They won’t fight like the gatekeepers. They will warp and twist your mind until you beg for death.”
“Oh,” Terra laughed while chugging a few potions and swapping out a few accessories to optimize for the fight ahead. “Hear that Jericho? They’re going to warp and twist our minds. I didn’t think you could get anymore warped and twisted.”
“Really?” Jericho chided before turning to the quivering fairy. “Ariel, you don’t have to say anything. I know you’re worried. Just nod if I’m right. The elders are in that large mansion at the far end of the village, right?”
Ariel nodded. They entered the village and started to make their way to the manor. Beautiful stone roads ran throughout the village leading to large gardens and small manors. Miniature rivers ran parallel to the roads delivering water to every garden, orchard, and shrubbery. Ornate staircases spiraled around the trees leading to tiny homes built into each of the trees and wooden bridges were built between the trees to
help people cross more easily.
Jericho noticed several shuttered businesses as they passed through ranging from fletchers to herbalists. He also noticed large homes with beautiful gardens that’d be perfect for growing his herbs. Jericho spotted a few fairies peeking out from behind the curtains of some of the homes.
“The villagers aren’t going to be a problem, are they?” Terra asked.
“No,” Ariel answered with a hint of shame in her voice. “They won’t intervene.”
“Good,” Jericho patted Ariel on the shoulder. “We’re not here to hurt you or any of your friends. You can wait here with them if you want.”
“No,” Ariel’s voice cracked. She looked up at Jericho apologetically. “I won’t. You’re my friends.”
“You’re going to turn on us again, aren’t you? Coward. Liar.” Jinx said coldly.
“Play nice Jinx,” Jericho smiled. “Because you’re going to see an awful lot of Ariel when I kill these elders and make her my familiar.”
Jinx growled as the four headed toward the mansion. As Ariel had said, none of the fairies so much as made a peep as they moved through the village. Jericho’s eye wandered to a garden of rare herbs.
“It’s hard isn’t it?” Terra grinned. “Resisting the urge to go all Viking and loot your heart out.”
“Yeah,” Jericho nodded. “Some of those herbs cost upwards of five hundred gold a piece. But, one thing at a time. And you can bet we’re going to loot the hell out of that manor.”
“For sure,” Terra laughed.
“How can you be so confident?” Ariel asked. As they’d gotten closer to the manor her shaking increased. Jericho was surprised that she could keep going despite how terrified she was.
“Because my master is the strongest mage in the world,” Jinx answered for him. “I’m the strongest spirit beast in the world. And the elf stripper is the sluttiest slut in the world. Insect. Worm.”
“For fucks sake,” Terra chortled. She glowered at Jinx. “I’m the strongest ranger. And we’re in a forest village which means I am your god.”
“You can both be right,” Jericho laughed as they reached the front gate of the estate. The manor was on a large hill surrounded by a vine covered wall. As far as Jericho could tell, the only entrance was the tall wooden gate. “Terra, I mean, you only get one chance to massacre evil cultist leaders torturing a village. Want to make this special?”
“What do you have in mind?” Terra asked.
“Soundtrack,” Jericho grinned. “Big entrance, full on slaughter? Let’s Michael Bay this bitch.”
“Is this a joke to you?” Ariel gripped his arm desperate for him to take it seriously. “They might kill you!”
“I mostly have pop songs,” Terra said taking out her fairy lamp. “No. No. Here we go.”
Terra activated her lamp and twisted the volume to max. She’d chosen a rock anthem which was probably the best he could hope for. Jinx and Terra pulled out their weapons while Jericho focused on his magic. Then, as the music reached a crescendo, he created a flame that not only ignited the front gates, but almost immediately spread to the vines on the wall. Within moments a ring of fire surrounded the entire manor.
“How powerful are you?” Ariel stepped back.
“Jinx already told you,” Jericho grinned while snapping his fingers. The weakened gates blew open revealing an entire army of fairies. The looked different than the previous ones, officers of some sort. Jericho figured the real ones were hiding themselves while creating an army of clones. “Jinx, you don’t need to hold back on these ones.”
Jinx didn’t need to hear anything else. She rushed through the flames first with fists drawn and bounced between them landing critical strikes on every target she caught. Jericho and Terra walked in behind her each playing more of a supporting role to Jinx. Ariel trailed behind them apprehensively.
Jericho created a whirlwind around Jinx protecting her from projectiles while Terra immediately countered any arrows with her own. As the fairies died, so did the illusions and as by the time they reached the front door the last two living soldiers retreated inside.
“That was fun,” Terra said. “But a little easy.”
As soon as the words left her mouth a roar reverberated from inside the home. Terra shut off her fairy lamp as the voice echoed from inside.
“Come in mortals, we wish to play,” the voice boomed and psychotic laugher followed.
Immediately the house began to crumble and burst into flames. The group stepped back as the windows shattered open. Innocent fairies were thrown out of the windows with nooses on their necks, struggling for air. Others seemed to be stuck inside being melted away by flames, the odor of burning flesh emanated from the house reaching Jericho’s nostrils. He gagged. Several crawled over the shattered windowsills cutting themselves up only to die on the ground.
“What the fuck!’ Terra let out a scream as a fairy jumped from the second story window and landed on her neck. The bone shot from the flesh causing a splatter as she tipped over. “Jericho! What the fuck is going on!”
A group of fairies on the roof laughed hysterically as they cut off each other’s heads and came tumbling down. Another fairy began cutting off their own limbs while screaming. Jericho turned to avoid the horrific scenes only to see the fairies from the village walking through the gate, each holding a knife to their throat. They smiled and plunged them in.
“I told you,” Ariel screamed and dropped to her knees. “Make it stop! Please make it stop. I don’t want to see anymore!”
Jericho almost vomited as more horrific scenes took place in front of him. He knew that whatever was happening inside of the house would probably be worse.
“Fuck,” Terra said while holding her hand to her mouth attempting not to throw up. Several fairies had ripped another apart in front of her. Others rapidly decayed causing the smell of corpse rot to spread throughout the area.
“This is fucked up,” Jericho found himself pushed to his limit as the atrocities continued in front of him. He looked at Jinx who’d closed her eyes. “Are you okay Jinx?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Jinx snapped. “I don’t need my eyes to see. But it smells and sounds disgusting. Idiot. Weakling.”
“Right,” Jericho said. Jinx reminded him once again that his control of spirit magic was lacking. He turned to look at Terra staring at the ground while trying to keep it together. Ariel had curled up into a ball by her feet. “Terra, take Ariel outside the gates. Jinx and I have this.”
“You sure?” Terra looked up and almost vomited. She nodded. Terra picked up Ariel and started carrying her out while trying to avoid looking at anything. “Good luck.”
“Yep,” Jericho said while looking at the scenes around him. He was filled with an extreme disgust. He wasn’t a fan of horror. It wasn’t so much blood and gore, he was fine with that, but the screams as the illusions were being tortured made his stomach churn. “Let’s go Jinx.”
Jericho snapped his fingers blasting a hole in the manor twice the size of the entryway. He looked at his hand, singed from the blast, and checked to see if he’d accidentally activated elemental overload. He hadn’t.
“Go,” Jericho said as the familiar rushed inside hunting for fairies. Jericho followed behind while stepping over the corpses of the fairy guards caught in the explosion. He looked around the first floor as horrific scenes played out. “Kill them all.”
Jinx nodded and ran off on her own while Jericho walked up the blood covered stairs. Within moments he heard a scream as Jinx found her first target.
Jericho reached the top of the stairs. The floor was massive and each hallway was playing its own nightmare scenario filled with grotesque monsters and fairy mutilation. He was permeating so much frost he could see his breath. He decided to use that and began slowly filling the floor with mist.
Jinx told him he used magic like a hammer, launching fireballs and earth spikes hoping to defeat enemies by brute force. She was right of course, at the time
he was full of wrath. He wanted to lash out and destroy everything in sight. He was feeling something different, hate. A cold calculating hate. A desire to not simply destroy, but make them suffer.
Jericho finished filling the floor with his cold dewy mist and started looking for the elders. He passed horrific atrocities as his nostrils filled with the smell of putrid flesh and his previous disgust was gone. It passed through him feeding his hate for the elders.
He turned a corner and saw a fairy rushing him head on. Jericho clenched his fist. The mist rapidly condensed into shards of ice and his target was shredded to pieces in front of him. He stepped over the pile and continued walking down the hall checking inside rooms for the elders.
Jericho heard shuffling on the other side of a door and stopped in front of it. He beckoned the wind inside of the room to him. If they were illusions on the other side, nothing would happen. The door burst open and a fairy guard fell to the ground gasping for air, Jericho immediately captured his hands and feet in heavy cubes of ice.
“Where are the elders?” Jericho asked while slowly clenching his hand, a ring of ice began to form around the fairy’s neck.
“I’ll kill you,” the guard answered. Jericho created a fist decapitating the target with the ice. He heard more screams from the first floor and wondered if Jinx had found the elders or more guards.
He continued through the other rooms finding a few guards and making quick work of them. The mist enhanced his ice magic making it stronger and faster. Finally, he ended in front of a large double door. With a snap of his fingers he blasted it open.
“Found you,” he walked into a room with three elderly fairies sitting in chairs. Beside them were two fairy guards holding red scythes. Even within that room the horrific scenes continued to play out all around.
“You’ve made it far human,” one of the elders spoke. “Maybe we can…”
“No,” Jericho clenched his fist encasing the fairy in a tomb of ice. It didn’t hold. The tomb blasted open revealing an unharmed elder. The two guards rushed him with a speed that was on par with a high level assassin, the natural enemy of the mage.