“They're protecting the crystal,” Billy noted.
“Then logic dictates that we should destroy it!” Audelia suggested, brandishing her blades.
“I agree,” the redhead said.
Billy wasn’t so sure. “But maybe it's useful.”
“To someone it surely is,” Audelia replied. “But not to us.”
The barbarian nodded. He couldn't think of a solid reason why they needed the damn thing, now that he pressed himself. It was likely better to do as Audelia and Kaya suggested. Perhaps this was the center of the wizard's power? Perhaps this was the ticket to beating him and solving the mystery of this tower.
“Charge!” Billy roared, and the three of them made haste toward the slithering guards. It was chaos, as swords and axes deflected pikes and spears. Billy suffered no wounds from the assault, but Kaya was pierced in the shoulder. The serpentmen were clearly trained warriors, but they would be no match for Billy, Kaya, and Audelia at the newfound heights of their power.
One of the serpentmen plunged a sharp spear toward the barbarian, but he deftly avoided the strike, instead managing to use the opening created by the attack to behead the creature. The other serpentine warriors reacted in horror as one of their brothers was reduced to a headless body.
Their horror spelled their downfall. Audelia exploited their openings and plunged a dagger through the heart of one and a sword into the throat of another, and Kaya leaped with catlike grace, wrapping her legs around the face of yet another enemy as she pulled it to the ground with her, reaching around and stabbing it multiple times in the back.
Only one remained. It backed away from the trio of warriors and removed the tip of its pike, slitting its own throat with a look of defiance. Quiet fell over the room. Only the hum of the magic crystal remained.
Billy had not expected that ending to the battle. “That was—”
“Yeah,” Kaya agreed.
Their heads turned to face the giant red gem at the center of the room.
“Do we destroy it?” Billy asked.
Audelia eyed it with fear and wonder. The thing gave off profane energy, something that none of them had ever felt before. It was magic, surely, but mysterious. Alien, even.
“I'd say so,” Kaya said after a few seconds had passed, piercing the silence. “Too risky not to. What if it's the wizard's power source? Many wizards use crystals.”
Billy nodded. With a roar, he started attacking the crystal, carving bits away from it, piece by piece, blow by blow, as he struck it over and over again with his ax and gemmed sword. Audelia joined him with her blade, and soon they had made a significant dent in the thing.
And then something peculiar emerged—an appendage. Something like a tentacle flopped out of the center of the crystal, still and cold.
Billy and Audelia exchanged stunned looks as they paused their strikes. After the moment had subsided, they resumed, trying to carve out whatever the thing was.
It resembled an octopus, but it had a single large eye at the center of its head and a strangely humanoid mouth beneath all its tentacles. It was a dark brown, but when the light reflected off of it, it was almost iridescent, eerily beautiful.
The single eye studied them with fear and frailty. It used that eye to look at them sadly for a long, horrible moment. Then the eye closed, never to open again, its freed tentacles slumping into death. With that, the atmosphere shifted. The excited energy that they had felt before was extinguished, and the tower suddenly felt cold and empty.
There was only one final staircase to ascend to reach the literal pinnacle of their adventure. The party of fighters eyed the stairs apprehensively as they pondered their next move. Almost certainly, they had to proceed. They had come well beyond the point of no return. But a creeping doubt had begun to settle in, and it couldn’t be ignored, nor could it be easily expressed.
Several times they looked at each other, wanting to say something. They wanted to express fear, worry, and wonder over whether or not they were right to raid this tower. They wanted to reassure each other that what they'd done was logical, made sense, but everything that had happened was so bizarre, so strange. It was far easier to stay quiet.
They ascended the final staircase with heavy footfalls that once again filled the chamber as they exited the room of the red crystal. Upon their approach, the final door, with eldritch markings carved in its stony face, opened before them without their touch or prompting. With a gulp, Billy looked back at his companions, seeing a reflection of his own terror in their eyes.
The final floor, the highest height of the tower, was a grand throne room with royal red carpet extended toward a pristine crystalline throne. The walls of marble were covered with paintings of arcane secrets that Billy could not decipher or make sense of, but one painting was clear to him—it was the creature from inside the crystal floating through a starry sky.
At least that was Billy’s first impression until he realized the truth: That wasn't a starry sky. It was space. The creature was flying through space.
The ceiling was like a chapel, curved inward toward the tip of the tower, and ancient sigils and runes were engraved into the marble stone overhead. Golden candelabras hovered without chain or rod, lighting the room with an unnatural brightness.
On the crystal throne sat a frail robed figure in a purple hood. The figure did not sit with an air of self-importance or regality. There was weariness there that reflected Billy's own mental exhaustion. Even now, the figure seemed to sigh as it stroked the red gemmed tip of a white staff made of a material that seemed too smooth and flawless to be wood but too matted to be metal. The figure did not stand to address them, nor did it even look in their direction.
Audelia stepped forward first. “Face us, foul sorcerer. We have laid waste to your cruel machinations, and we have come to finish you.”
Billy winced at the strong words. He was more interested in understanding what was going on here and felt that statements like that were probably not conducive to conversation. But he was thankfully, and regretfully, proved wrong.
The wizard lowered the hood of his robe, revealing a harshly wrinkled and world-weary face. Teary blue eyes regarded the three of them with sadness.
“You fools,” he said. “You know not what you've wrought.”
Billy stiffened. “What do you mean? What did we do?”
“You watched my tower for days. I sent no threat after you, hoping that you might see fit to leave me alone. You seemed well-intentioned enough when I first gazed upon you, but I was wrong. You broke into my tower and killed my pet—”
“You mean the spider?!” Kaya protested. “It killed so many people!”
The wizard shook his head, standing on trembling legs. “No! Those bodies were provided to me by a local lord—executed criminals, or those who died prematurely. It would have taken months for Araka to work through them. Still, I sent messengers to receive you on the third floor, but you burst through the window and burned down the door, killing them brutally before they had a chance to say a word.”
“And what about the demons?” Billy asked. “The monsters that attacked us?”
“Simple security measure, that's all. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“What of the food?” Audelia asked, now concerned. “Were you not trying to poison us?”
“I was trying to feed you. The food was enchanted to create a link between us, so I could communicate with you without making myself vulnerable, hoping that you'd be in a more agreeable mood once your bellies were full.”
“What kind of logic is that?!” Kaya complained. “Of course it looked like a trap to us!”
“But it wasn't,” the wrinkled wizard shrugged. “It was a meal.”
“And the monster in the crystal?” Billy asked, almost afraid to hear the truth.
The wizard sobbed once before catching his breath and taking a step forward from the throne, throwing his staff to the ground. “No monster. My life’s work,” he said. “My only purpose.�
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“Explain,” Audelia growled.
“Happily,” replied the sorcerer. “For I wish for the knowledge of him to live on in your memory.”
He sighed, and a faint smile finally found his lips. “When I was a boy, I was considered a prodigy, though I was no sorcerer. I lived a life of privilege, attending Gulhorn Academy, the best school for scribes and priests in all of Thune, and I was near the top of my class each year. My life was set, but I always hungered for more because everything came too easily to me. I yearned for a challenge.
“One day, I met a mysterious man with a bright golden beard and brown robes as I was walking home from school. I took him for a beggar and offered him a coin, but he merely laughed at me. I remember clearly, he said 'I've no use for money, child.' Intrigued, I asked him what he meant, and right there on the spot, he conjured an apple before my very eyes. In that instant, all the laws I'd studied, all the scripts I'd practiced felt worthless next to what I'd just witnessed—real magic.
“The man offered to make me his student, and I took him up on it. He saw a hunger for knowledge and power in me, and he figured I'd be the right sort of pupil for the mystic arts.” The man smirked at the memory. “I daresay I was a great pupil indeed. I learned every spell he taught me, though most of them were cantrips, useless in day-to-day life except to impress fools with parlor tricks.
“Many years later, I'd left my family and retreated with the wizard into a cabin in the forest, not all that far from where we are now. I asked him why we had come here every day for a year, and every day for a year, he would say the same thing: 'You'll know in time.'
“Then, finally, the day had come. It was the night of a blood moon, some ninety-four years ago when the comet landed outside our front door.” He looked at them as though they were fools. “A comet is a rock from the stars.”
“I know that,” Billy said.
“I didn't,” Kaya shrugged.
The wizard continued. “In that comet was the most peculiar creature I'd ever meet in my many years of life. It was much like an octopus in many ways, but it could fly through the air, and it had one enormous eye. But you know very well of which creature I speak,” he said, “So I won't waste time on descriptions of appearance.
“His name was Y'leth, and he was over one thousand years old when I met him, and he was dying. Wounded in combat against a tremendously powerful foe known as the Mi-Go, he retreated to our world, a place not yet known to that race of monstrous beings.
“For years, my master and I tended to his wounds, healing him little by little with our magic. It was our calling. It was the reason for our being. We would help him recover, and he would be able to teach us magic and knowledge powerful enough to heal the world, but its core was weakened, even poisoned.”
“Its core?” Billy asked. “I've heard this word a few times now, and I want to know more about it.”
The wizard nodded. “A core is the essence of a magical creature with the power of magic and divinity. Absorbing a core is something that very few humans can do. I myself am unable, but I extracted the aforementioned core to prevent it from dying, and I've been working tirelessly to purify it so that I may one day return it to Y'leth. I daresay I may have succeeded—but none of that matters now.”
“I can absorb cores,” Billy said. “I've absorbed two already, I think.” But he didn't understand the implications of what he'd said.
The wizard’s eyes widened for a moment, and then he sighed, almost in relief. “Then perhaps this is fate,” he said. “Perhaps the gods sent you here for a reason, though it seems cruel to me now.”
“I can say for certain that a god sent me here,” Billy said, his mind flashing back to the strange dreams he'd had, pointing him to the presence of this core. Kaya and Audelia studied him curiously as he spoke, this being the first time he’d spoken of such things.
“Indeed,” the wizard said, seemingly believing him. “Still, I find myself wounded and sad to know that my near-century of work was in vain.”
“Continue your tale, wise conjurer,” Audelia said, the hostility gone from her voice now. Pity was there instead, and her eyes constantly flitted back and forth between studying the wizard and her own partner, Billy, whom she suddenly realized she knew far too little about.
“The things we don't know about the universe could fill a billion libraries the size of Kur’Amal’s Grand Archives, even if we condensed each secret of the universe down to a single word. The human mind cannot catalog or collate the great truths of the beyond without going mad from the effort, but Y’leth could fathom so much more, and with his help, my master and I hoped to aid humanity by arming it with knowledge against the monsters of the void. Those blasphemous entities lurk out in the shadows of space, between the angles and dimensions of the universe's infinite mysteries. But such a hope was futile, and human magic and science could not help Y'leth, so we encased him in a preservative crystal to keep him alive until we found the answer. I came so close to returning the core to him, but even if I did, I know not if it would have healed him. I turned my efforts skyward after my master died, hoping to reach Y’leth’s people. For the last few months, I’ve been here, having moved to this tower for its astral positioning.
“But I've grown old, and my time has come. And I never found an apprentice that I could trust with the secret of Y'leth. That was my own failing. And now, because of me, and not you, Y'leth is dead, his secret is meaningless, and my dream is gone.”
Silence filled the room, piercing the ears of the trio as they studied the wizard carefully. Finally, he spoke again. “I keep the core in my gut, as many sorcerers do when they acquire such things. So, how about we settle this the way you wanted all along?” The man smiled softly. It was a defeated smile, but it was genuine.
The barbarian winced. “What do you mean?”
“Let's fight. What do you say? One last battle. I'd say you owe me the honor of a glorious death, don't you? Killing my snakemen guards, the occultists I’d hired, my pet, and my life's ambition... I'd say you owe me at least that.”
Audelia, Kaya, and Billy exchanged regretful looks. “We accept your terms, wizard.”
“My name is Morvile,” he said. “Remember me. And when you defeat me, cut open my belly. Inside, you will find the core. If you can really absorb it, then do so. At least Y'leth will live on in some way, and I hope that you will be able to do some good with his help.”
Billy nodded. “No problem, brother.”
“One more inquiry. What exactly were the lights we saw emanating from atop this tower?” Audelia asked. “I must know.”
The wizard sighed as his eyes began to glow. “My vain attempts to use the language of light known to Y'leth's people so as to send a beacon out to them in the hopes that they might one day see and respond.”
Kaya stretched, trying to play down her fear at the battle ahead of them. “Shall we, then?”
Suddenly, the wizard shot into the air, hovering above the ground effortlessly as his crystal throne channeled magic into him in the form of visible purple bolts of energy.
“The crystal throne is his power source!” Kaya shouted.
“No wonder he didn’t confront us on the other floors,” Audelia growled.
Morvile flew toward Billy and extended each of his palms, shooting out a plume of vibrant flames with a pained shriek as he attacked the barbarian with a vicious onslaught of spells. Billy dodged out of the way, but his tucks and tumbles wouldn't be enough to stay ahead of the wizard. Thankfully, though, a dagger flew through the air, hurled by Kaya, and it struck the frail wizard in the shoulder, causing him to yelp hoarsely in pain, tumbling to the ground.
It only bought a second. Billy used the brief lapse in the wizard's assault to charge, but by the time he had gotten to his intended position, the wizard was already hurling bolts of blue electricity at him, striking him several times in rapid succession, but Billy didn't go down.
“Impressive!” the sorcerer said. “That shoul
d have killed you! You do possess the power of cores; there can be no doubt!”
His decision to pause his assault to make the observation proved to be an error as Audelia heaved her sword forward, hurtling through the air as it whistled its intent. It landed firmly in the sorcerer's stomach, but he didn't crumble—not yet. He fired one more barrage of magical missiles at each of them, which they’d dodged, but he was a dead man, and he knew it. After the last of his assaults had been avoided, he slumped to his brittle old knees.
“I never was much for fighting,” he said. “Use the core for good, barbarian. Promise me that, and I will forgive you.”
Billy almost cried. “How can you forgive me for everything I did?”
The wizard smiled serenely as Billy rushed to him, picking him up in his powerful arms. “For what you did? I can't, but I can forgive you for everything you might do on my behalf.”
And he was gone. Billy held the body mournfully in his arms, feeling it grow cold with surprising speed.
“So...” Kaya began, piercing the dreadful silence, “Let's be clear. We're the bad guys, right?”
“This time, yes,” Audelia agreed with a somber nod. “But never again.”
Billy, for the first time, was feeling something of consequence in this world. He felt grief. This wasn't his world, so he had felt detached before, but he needed to accept now that he had a responsibility to it. He was strong—there could be no doubt about that. He might be the strongest person around, for all he knew. But he wasn't evil, and he had just done an evil thing, and he'd done it callously, without consideration or forethought. He'd destroyed the life's work of one man, and murdered many in the process, and he'd done it for practically no reason at all. His carelessness cost lives... No, that wasn't it. His actions didn't cost lives—they took them. That was not who Billy was. He had no qualms with fighting evil and slaying monsters, but killing good people out of ambivalence and intellectual laziness? Never again.
“Never again,” he repeated. He ripped into the wound in the wizard's stomach with acidic tears of self-loathing stinging his eyes and clouding his vision until he found a bright purple orb. He held it in his hands for a moment as the women approached, watching carefully as the orb sunk into his skin and illuminated his body. Impossibly, his muscles seemed to become even more defined, and his senses, particularly his sense of smell and hearing, even sharper than before. His wounds healed on the spot, and he grew a full inch—his height, that is.
Billy the Barbarian 1: The Heights of Dread: An Isekai Sword and Sorcery Harem Lit Adventure Fantasy! Page 7