Labyrinth of Fright (Underdog Book #5): LitRPG Series

by Alexey Osadchuk

  As I walked past one of the necromancers, I took a quick peek under his hood. Hm… A normal person. A forty-year-old man. Just very pale and thin. Level thirty-seven. No stubble on his face. Tension in his dark eyes. Thin bloodless lips pursed in aversion. Clearly aristocratic facial features. I glanced at his hands. Definitely a noble. Expensive signet rings on his long fingers. Trimmed nails.

  Strange as it may have been, my observations calmed me down. Now necromancers no longer seemed like mere bloodthirsty mythical creatures. They’re just mages like me, even though they hail from the abominable death faction…

  Once I reached the tail of the column, I went up to Pinebogey and froze behind him. I saw his shoulders give a slight shudder. He realized I was next to him.

  “Can you talk?” I quietly whispered in his ear.

  In response there came silence.

  “I see,” I muttered back in a whisper nevertheless, looking from side to side. “Get ready. Any minute now you’ll get going again.”

  And just then, the column kicked into motion.

  “I have one idea,” I continued, now walking alongside Pinebogey.

  Was it just me, or had he started breathing slightly faster?

  “Don’t get your hopes up,” I muttered. “You’ll have to spend a bit longer as a speechless puppet. Basically just listen up and commit this to memory. When you get to the main street, be ready to make your move. Somewhere around halfway to the palace, to the right of the Golden Carp tavern, I saw a way into the sewer system near the curb. As soon as the commotion starts, jump down into the sewers. There’s no way you’ll be able to escape on the streets ― they’re everywhere up here. I almost forgot… The entrance has a grate on it, but I don’t think that should stop you.”

  I spent a bit of time in silence and said:

  “There’s just one more thing, but it’s the most important part. Which of those five ugly bastards is controlling you?”

  Pinebogey gave a slight shudder, then slowly turned his head toward the necromancer I had just seen, clearly straining with all his inner might. His behavior did not go unnoticed. The necromancer took a sharp turn and stared Pinebogey directly in the face. An instant later, the animal-eyed mage had turned back into a soulless puppet trudging his way to the slaughter.

  “I see,” I said quietly and ducked down the nearest alleyway. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the goblin’s ears moving. Dobbess must have been hanging on my every word. For the record, despite the Atrian lady’s semiconscious state, she heard everything as well. Pinebogey would not be alone.

  I was forming a split opinion on the desert dweller. On the one hand, I felt bad for her but on the other, her resilience and willpower were something to be admired. I even just about activated Forest’s Blessing to ease her suffering, but I stopped myself. Any use of magic here could spark aggression from her puppet-master. Not the time, not the place.

  I reached the tavern fairly quickly, with its wide sign depicting a fat carp with large golden scales. I picked a spot in the attic of a three-story home on the opposite side of the street to keep watch.

  Someone had tried to hide here before me. I discovered a few mutilated bodies against the far wall. Based on their remains, these poor folks were approximately the same age as me.

  I took a cautious peek out of the small attic window and started getting ready to wait for Pinebogey when suddenly my eyes started to fade. I was insanely dizzy, my heart was beating fitfully, my hands were shivering, and I detected the tell-tale flavor of bitter decay ― an otherworldly portal had just opened very nearby!

  What the abyss is going on here?!

  It felt like a powerful sea wave had just come crashing down on top of me. And despite my dogged resistance, it swept me up whole, squeezing all the air from my lungs. Just a bit longer and I’ll have to take my last breath, sucking ice-cold water down my throat.

  For the first few seconds, I tried to figure out where I was. Such was the power of the upwelling of hateful magic. I thought it was going to crush me like a bug. Every hair on my body stood on end. It was hard to think what kind of portal must have just opened and what cursed world it must have led to. In comparison with this, the portal in the Stone Forest seemed like a rickety little gate its absent-minded owners had forgotten to close for the night.

  It was as if I could feel its vile nature and fetid stench my bones. The nauseating flavor in my mouth made me want to vomit then and there. It felt like I was being turned inside out. The sharp pain in my temples and the back of my head, the excruciating nausea, the overall sense of inertia in my body ― I thought my soul was about to go meet the gods of the abyss at any time. Activating Forest’s Blessing brought me back to my senses like a breath of fresh air.

  The pain retreated. My ability to think returned. I was distracted by a burning and slight tingling in the tips of my fingers. I took a glance at my hands and the bloodied wooden floor. It turned out I had been scratching at the gray boards, flaying my skin and nails.

  I blew on my fingers and winced. Despite the regeneration kicking in, I wouldn’t have any fingernails for the next few days. After I took a sip from my water canteen, I finally came back to my senses. And as soon as that happened, my first impulse was to get as far from that place as possible. But then I overcame the panic and fear by looking out the little window. The movement had stopped. The prisoners were standing still as stone statues. The necromancers, however, knew what had happened. They just lit up. They seemed happy about it.

  The wave of dark vileness was emanating from the King’s palace. So the portal, or rather Gateway must have opened in there. I didn’t much believe it was a simple coincidence. So something or more like someone must have caused it to open. The necromancers had probably not gotten up the nerve to stage a grand final push. If they had, it would be idiocy of the highest order. Whatever was about to come flooding out of the Gateway would sweep away everything in the area. Or was that what they wanted to achieve?!

  My heart burst out of my chest, pushing me to run. But my mind kept putting forth one cool-headed argument after the next in favor of staying a bit longer to watch. After all, I am now an observer and unwitting participant in millennia-old events! In fact, the order of monster hunters came into existence many centuries after this. In effect, I am now standing on the precipice of a very important discovery.

  That settles it! I have to see this.

  Crossing alley after alley, little street after little street, I finally made it to the middle of town. The closer I came to the King’s palace, the crazier my heartbeat started going. At a certain point, the homes and alleyways came to an end though, based on the ruined walls, this had been where the city’s elite had their majestic manors just a few days prior. Now though, the center of town had been transformed into an eerie wasteland.

  In front of me, where the palace should have been, an impenetrable magic haze of a dark lilac shade was hovering in the air. The ground shuddering underfoot here and there like a living creature that had had its skin scorched, frozen, poisoned and generally harried for several days on end. The fully charred, scorched craters, ridges of ice, puddles of poison and stone spikes all spoke to the fact that some of the most powerful mages of the era had come together here on the battlefield.

  My magical vision was basically blinded by the amount of spilled and processed mana. Slowly stepping out in front, I felt like a tiny little bug. I tried to turn around many times and run away without looking. But every time I got myself back together and kept stubbornly going forward. I have to know what’s going on here!

  The closer I came, the more the magic fog lifted and, when there wasn’t a trace of it left, I froze like a deer in the headlights. What I could now see took my breath away.

  The King’s palace looked most of all like a huge milky white crystal. Its now unknown architect had created a truly unsurpassed masterpiece. I had never seen a building in my life that looked like this structure. It was as if the gods themselves had
a hand in its design!

  The palace’s magic defenses were in line with that. It was topped with a gigantic transparent golden hued dome that housed the King’s residence, sealing him off from the hordes of undead.

  I had a hard time looking away from the palace but eventually managed to survey the area. The sheer number of different kinds of creatures boggled the mind! For the record, not all the attackers were undead. I saw humans, orcs, trolls and ogres among their ranks. There were even gremlins! I took a closer look and realized that Mee’s forebearers had little in common with their descendants in our day. They were no less dignified than the other races. If I survive this day, I’ll be sure to tell my brother all about it. It will do him good to learn that his ancient countrymen were formidable warriors and mages.

  “There you are,” I muttered, spitting out a mouthful of bitter saliva.

  In the middle, right at the wall of the defensive dome, there was a huge tar-black spot the size of a lake. It was slightly vibrating and shuddering and… It was growing!

  Knowing what would happen next, I couldn’t tell why all these warriors and mages were not trying to hide. Why weren’t they running? After all, based on the waves of revulsion twisting my guts into knots, something or someone truly terrible was just about to enter this world!

  A few seconds later, I realized why the Gateway was still growing in size. I finally saw why the necromancers were bringing all those people here. They were being taken to sacrifice to the portal!

  It’s hard to communicate what I felt in that moment. Pain, despair, abhorrence, pity. And impotence.

  Then I saw the villain responsible for all his horror and my heart seized.

  He was standing at a half-turn, but still I recognized him. Opposite the quickly growing Gateway, surrounded by very powerful mages with his arms spread to the side stood the Steel King!

  His tall figure, encased in a suit of glimmering armor, towered over the mere mortals by two whole heads. Even the trolls and ogres didn’t seem so huge next to him.

  The steel crown atop his head flickered with a dark lilac glow. His voice cut through space like rolling thunder. I listened closer and tried to figure out what he was talking about, but the system informed me that my mind level was too low to learn whatever dark dialect he was using. But his intonation led me to believe he was issuing an order to an unseen underling. The whole world seemed to revolve around this man… And really was he even a man?

  When the initial fear had passed, and I again felt able to think clearly, I began to realize that this Steel King was just part of the Labyrinth of Fright, though my thoughts had taken their sweet time catching up. In other words, I am currently seeing events from over a thousand years in the past. Does that mean the Steel King is now over a thousand years old? No. Out of the question. I remembered hearing Egbert the Seventh mention a great grandfather when we were talking. And then it dawned on me. I was seeing one of Egbert’s forebearers. The resemblance was striking. Honestly, once I finally realized who I was looking at, a few points of differentiation started jumping out at me. For example, his age. The Steel King I could see now was around ten years older than his modern-day counterpart.

  I felt another jolt from underground followed by one more and crouched down in fear. Ripples ran over the surface of the coal black lake. The slimy substance started to bubble and seethe. Seemingly, the King had gotten what he was after.

  I wonder if he even knows what’s about to happen.

  I spat out bitter saliva a few times and walked up closer. I wanted to take in the spectacle in full measure. When else would I get to see an otherworldly creature crushing a whole army of high-level mages?

  Finally, a gigantic limb poked out of the Gateway. Either an arm, or some other sort of animal appendage. I was not able to make it out clearly, because the summoned brute moved far too fast. And I no longer had any doubts that it had been summoned. The orcs in the stone forest had seemingly been trying to perform this same ritual. And the draks had also been dragging halflings to their portal from the whole surrounding area. They must have had a reason. Or were all these events not linked?

  The Steel King shouted something aloud and the necromancers got back to making sacrifices. Seemingly, the blood of the unfortunate townsfolk had attracted an otherworldly monster in the end.

  A huge creature lunged up out of the black lake in a single burst. A wave of vile magic rolled over me again, but this time it did not catch me off guard. I got away with nothing but a strong headache.

  I was not able to see its level, but nevertheless it was clear that a true force of evil had entered our world, though it was a thousand years ago. It burst out toward the procession of prisoners but, what happened after that made my heartbeat go even faster. The Steel King raised a hand, shouted something loud and the otherworldly demon froze in place then, falling down onto all fours, made a bow.

  That knocked the wind out of me. Egbert the Seventh’s ancestor had just made an otherworldly beast submit to his will before my very eyes. How could this be? Was the King’s Will really that high? A moment later, heeding a wave of his hand, the monster took a long jump and perched itself atop the golden-hued protective dome.

  When another monster appeared from the Gateway, this one larger and uglier, and another loud cry from the Steel King made it go join the other one, I realized that Will was in fact playing a secondary role.

  Egbert the Seventh’s great-great-great grandfather knew how to open otherworldly portals and could easily force high-level dark beasts to submit ― I’d bet anything that this mystery has a few more links in it. I don’t even know who to talk to about this. My intuition was basically screaming that I was somehow connected to all this crap, but I didn’t know how yet. Furthermore, it may have just been my paranoia, but it seemed to me the Labyrinth was deliberately sharing these “specters” with me.

  Meanwhile, a ripple ran over the magic dome, which had seemed to be an indestructible monolith. By the looks of things, the palace defenders are doomed.

  I gave it some fair consideration, decided I’d seen enough and ran back. Back to where Pinebogey was waiting for me.

  So the history books were telling the truth after all. The capital of Darta really had been wiped off the face of the earth. As I ran, my heart aflutter, I could only think of one thing. Would the Labyrinth let us go before that highly significant event took place?

  Chapter 9

  WHILE I MADE MY WAY to the tavern, otherworldly energy rolled over me another few times. Several of the upwellings were particularly nasty. The Steel King was on a roll and, seemingly, was in no mood to stop. Based on the number of waves, he had summoned more than ten dark beasts to this world already. What will happen after they finish what they came to do? And meanwhile, the procession of unspeaking captives is still trudging along. I think they’ve even picked up the pace.

  When I got to the building I was using for a lookout spot, I had an unpleasant surprise waiting for me. There was a big huge monster sitting on the roof next to my little window in the attic. A level-eighty wraith. The undead creature looked most of all like an ape, but with no hair on its body. It had plenty of grotesque bony nubs though. Empty eye sockets. A maw crammed full of teeth. Long claws. And it was at least as big as Gorgie. I would certainly not like to go up against a beast like this in close combat.

  The brute must have been up on the roof for a reason. I’d bet my foot this thing had come here to kill me. So could they actually detect me? Then why didn’t this happen until now? After all, just a few minutes ago, I was strolling along calmly right under their noses. Or was this some different kind of wraith with enhanced senses? At any rate, I decided against climbing up on the roof to find out. And furthermore, there was no need ― the column of captives I was interested in had already rounded the corner. Among the measuredly nodding heads, I saw a flicker of Pinebogey’s tangled mane.

  Despite the fact we were at least a hundred steps apart, the agent of chaos detected me ag
ain. It was plain from the way he shuddered. A-hem… When we get out of this mess, he’s gonna have a lot of explaining to do.

  That last thought, by the way, amused me briefly. I gave a lopsided smile. Just six months earlier, instead of “when,” I’d have thought “if.” I wonder if that’s mere self-confidence or a sober assessment of the situation. I ran through my plan one more time and decided it would most likely work.

  When I saw Pinebogey’s head sticking up twenty yards from the tavern, I got started. My first move was to merge into the aimless crowd. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the wraith on the rooftop shudder. There’s obviously something off about that one.

  Once I got near the trudging captives, I gave a contented nod. The undead brute calmed down right away. The creep had powerful senses, but not powerful enough to tell me apart from the others. I tried not to look at the people’s gloomy faces. As harsh as it may have sounded, they were already long dead to me. Unlike the real Pinebogey, they were just bits of the Labyrinth’s dream. In any case, when my plan goes into action, these poor folks will be able to live their “false” lives for another couple hours.