The labored breathing grew less and less as minutes passed until Seraph finally felt he had recovered enough of his stamina to continue on his mission of trying to find the Dungeon Seed by searching the remaining portions of the school he had yet to explore, hoping to find whatever door or lock the Key he had found belonged to.
Following his encounter in the classroom of a Mr. Johnston, and his subsequent encounter with the Drowned Ones and the abuse of their spawn point, Seraph felt ready more physically ready to meet any challenge or enemy that might come his way then he had since his rebirth. But despite his readiness, he had no further notable encounters as he went room by room, clearing classroom and closet alike as he continued down the hall, working to exhaust all avenues of possibility for the location of the Dungeon Seed before continuing on.
Though no notable encounters occurred, he still encountered monsters as he went.
Within what had been a computer lab he had been quick to strike down Wrights that had settled down among the rusted cables beneath the work desks. Though quick and easy to dispatch, the encounter with the Wrights had been a reminder that he was not alone. A reminder that he was still within the dungeon, and as such was always in danger, that mentality further reinforced his posture of awareness.
A posture that had saved him from catastrophe when he had gone to clear what he had originally thought was a janitor's closet, Seraph had been surprised to find a small teachers break area instead, filled with the rotting corpses of school staffers, milling around in their state of undeath all of whom quickly descended upon him with reflexes beyond what a corpse should allow. As the bodies pressed into him and tried to tear into his flesh with tooth and claw he was able to activate his Thousand Handed ability and used the spectral limbs to push the zombies off and away from him, putting needed distance between himself and the zombies that he then used to eliminate them as he had distance and time to maneuver his way through them and destroy their brains and brain stems at leisure.
Nothing further went wrong as he cleared the rest of the rooms. Nothing elite crossed his path, nothing beyond the most basic of monsters, nothing that he could build real strength on or that would help him progress in his quest and nothing that could even be viewed as an irregular or something he had never encountered before. Having cleared the rest of the rooms on the hallway his frustration with the situation grew. He still had not found the Dungeon Seed, nor had he found the maintenance room where he thought the seed was kept, the maintenance room he was sure the key he had found belonged to.
With the last of the rooms cleared, he finally he came to the end of the hallway and found his forward progress inhibited by a set of closed double doors with reinforced glass pans that allowed him to see the other side. He caught a faint trail of dried blood, brown like rust heavily staining the floor but barely perceivable. But even with his low perception he was still able to make out the trail.
Looking through the small windows on the door he followed the trail with his eyes. The other side was as dusty and dirty s the rest of the school, but nothing stood out to him, except the trail leading deeper into the ever widening common area, but where it went he was unable to tell. His night vision heavily assisted him in the gloom but did not help with much of his depth perception. He would need to follow the trail by foot and his heart began to race in excited anticipation. As his strength kept growing, so too did his need to test himself, and he had the impression he would soon be testing himself.
From what he could see through the small windows on the door, the other side was as dusty and decrypted as every other part of the school. It appeared to be empty but Seraph knew better as he saw that trail of blood leading away into the dark, he had already grown bored with the regular monsters on this side of the door, and had a minor suspicion he had already killed every monster on this side. With a smile he stepped forward and pushed through those doors ready to continue his search.
Cautiously, optimistically, he followed the trail that went away from the hallway into the wider common area, snaking around the broken tables and stopped in front of a group of busted vending machines, the food inside, the food that hadn’t been taken had long since been reduced to dust, the wrappers faded beyond recognition. The trail leading to a dead end left him with one thing to do, head deeper into the dark. Within a few steps the temperature in the room quickly dropped and the air cackled with energy.
“This is exactly what I've been looking for.” Thought Seraph as he noticed the obvious change in the environment.
Notification: Now Entering Phase 3, if you would like to skip ahead and go directly to Home Town please select yes. NOTE - Caution, all deaths within Phase 3 and beyond are permanent.
Would you like to skip ahead? Yes/No?
“Well this is interesting” Thought Seraph “I had thought I had sent the others directly into Phase III but if this where I am, this is actually Phase III, then the others must already be in Hometown.” Seraph wasn’t surprised by this, a usual trick of the Dungeon was to reward those who dared to do more, and for those who took the easy way out, and quit in advance, they were never given the offer or opportunity of greater power.
The screen disappeared as he mentally selected “No.” He had no intention of missing out on a chance to grow stronger, regardless of the risk to him. He hadn’t come this far to quit already, not when every step put him closer to his goal.
“Cousin” Shouted a raspy voice from the center of the room, far into the dark. “Come here cousin, I can smell the scent of the damned on you, come here, it has been so long since I've had a guest.”
Seraph recognized the voice, even in this altered state, this was Reverend and Reverend, he stepped forward as asked, and as he crossed the threshold, more was revealed in his vision as he saw what remained of the guests the voice was referencing, their mutilated bodies nailed to the wall surrounding the far edge.
In the center of the room, propped up his body somehow attached to a jagged piece of earth that had thrust through the floor was Reverend. Or at least it with something that used to be Reverend for the withered monstrosity that Seraph saw could hardly be called a man, even as the monstrosity closely resembled the man.
“This is not the man I knew” Thought Seraph. Gone was the mane of proud black hair that Reverend had been so proud of, instead in its absence hung white and gray hair, thin, wispy, and wild. The man’s eyes no longer shining through with strength, or the passion of his convictions, or even his resilience, instead all Seraph could see was the empty eye sockets burned black where those pale orbs had been burned out.
Whatever had happened here, Seraph promised to end it. He could not allow Reverend to live such a cursed existence, and as he promised to end it, he stepped forward.
“Good cousin, good, come closer, what is your name?” Asked Reverend.
If what he had read in the Wormwood Report was correct, he knew Reverend bore some resentment likely to him, and to the guild, now was not the time to reveal himself, but with his low charisma and luck stats, he also knew he couldn’t get away with a lie, but he could get away with a half truth.
“Announce yourself” Demanded the withered figure of Reverend impatiently as those lifeless eye sockets turned directly to Seraph. “Who are you?”
“My name is Luke, I’m a new adventurer, tell me cousin, how are we related, what is your name?” Said Seraph.
The withered figure cackled in a mad laugh. “You lie cousin, there are no new adventurers, Lord Seraph killed them all, just as he has killed this world. I was known as Reverend though now I am little more than a shade, a persistent shadow of darkness in this place cousin, like you I am a type of demon. I once served the great genocide himself, the Black Seraph. I served him and I served his guild of murderers for many years, until I came to this place and served the children as their protector. Twenty-eight in all, children that I saved when Wormwood spread this far.”
Seraph thought he knew enough about where this was heading to ask th
e right follow up questions. “What is Wormwood, do you know what those things are outside? Are they related? And how did you manage to save the children?”
Reverend drew a quick breath and sniffed the air. “It's bad luck to talk about those things. They are not monsters, they are an end, and even within the dungeon, they can find ways inside, best to ignore them and continue living.”
But on the next question his demeanor changed. “Of course, they are related, this is my life's work. Wormwood is the celestial poison manifested on Earth to rid it of humanity, to rid the cosmos itself of all life. As for the children, they escaped into the dungeon, I implanted myself with a Dungeon Seed and from my mana and my body I helped it grow, and threw me they escaped, to Hometown, and I remained, stuck forever embedded into the portal.”
Seraph responded back with as much support as he could muster. “That's terrible Reverend, is there anything I can do to help?”
If Reverend heard it, he didn't respond.
Seraph needed to know more, he needed to know what Reverend would tell others who made it this far. “Who is this Black Seraph, and how do we defeat him”
Those dead eyes narrowed and somehow Reverend shifted his body to close the distance between him and Seraph. “Cousin, you don’t know of the Black Seraph? Be warned then and be wary, with his appetite for power he has consumed millions, and millions more he has doomed to death or killed outright, he is a monster to be stopped at all costs, yet I do not know how to stop him, though he calls himself Black he is neither a creature of bane or of bone, nor is aligned with the holy, he holds his allegiances elsewhere and to no one, he is doom and his is blight.”
Reverend moved his body back to its place on its pedestal and began to mutter to himself, but muttered loud enough for Seraph to hear it, to hear the ramblings of a madman. “How could he not know? Who doesn’t know? Of course, he knows. Of course, he doesn't know. Yes, he should, no he shouldn't” The inner deliberating continued until Reverends eyes lit up, one side lighting up with purple flame, the other with blue flame, both eyes turning to him, each side seemingly independent of the other and asking him. “Cousin, what year is it? Yes cousin, what year is it? Echoed Reverend in mocking content”.
Seraph was unsure how to proceed, but fate interfered. When the double doors of the hallway shut behind him and the sound of the doors locking announcing that he was stuck, and something was coming his way. An audible click announced that he was committed, there would be no retreating from this.
Chapter 19: The Webs We Weave
* * *
Twin eyes glared at him, eyes of fire, and eyes of the abyss, one purple, and one blue, each eye representing a different aspect of the Reverend’s state of undead, each eye the same lingering question, looking impatient, hungrily for Seraph to stall, looking for a reason to satisfy an urge not for flesh, but for the kill.
Seraph looked into those eyes, wondering just what kind of monster Reverend had become, and thought perhaps either some kind of Lord caliber Wright or a Darkness Caller, a type of spirit trapped to a place that draws others in to share in its misery. Seeing the duel colors of purple and blue Seraph thought perhaps maybe Reverend was some sort of combination of both.
“Did he not hear?” Mumbled Reverend to himself as his monstrous body began to quiver, ready to move and strike. The bodies of the other guests hanging from the walls as a reminder of what Reverend was now capable of.
"First will you tell me what happened here? How did you end up this way?" Requested Seraph. “I would like to hear your story.”
The monster’s eyes both glared red in anger, before sighing, the anger extinguished and with it the orbs returned to their usual colors. "Fine, but only because it has been a long time since the last time I’ve spoken to anyone but ourselves."
“Thank you.” Replied Seraph as respectfully as he could manage for he knew that whatever had happened to Reverend was at least partially his fault, and he needed to fix this, not out of some sense of right and wrong, or some sense of justice, but because Reverend had once been an ally and something almost like a friend.
Reverend moved rotted arms to stroke his face in contemplation. “No.” Thought Seraph, “Not rotted at all, the black plate mail he had worn in life appears to have melded with this new body of his.” He suddenly stopped stroking his face as both eyes turned blue and drew in a deep breath, a breath that rattled against bones and deep fibers, a breath that Seraph was unsure even drew air.
It took the undead a minute as if this was his first time in years hearing his own voice. When he spoke, it was deep and serious with none of the chaotic vestiges he had shown earlier and to Seraph’s eyes it appeared that some minor changes occurred as well as more of the man and less of the monster was brought forth.
“I failed you see.” He explained. “I came here to find a way to prevent the spread of the green mist, the miasma outside, or what I termed Wormwood. I left most of those details in my old office, if you find it bring it here and ill unseal it and share it with you and impart the knowledge of how to access artifacts of my old guild, Carrion Crow. That will conclude Phase III."
Seraph nodded his head in understanding not wanting the monster to know he already had found the report and that it was on his person, even a low luck stat can pay dividends.
"But how did you get here?" Asked Seraph as he probed for information, for now the monster was friendly, but in the dungeon there are no guarantees "And become, well this, I'm not quite sure what you are, I’m sorry to say.”
"Brazen aren't you cousin?" Chided Reverend with the mocking laughter of the dead. "When the Wormwood Phenomenon began to spread this way, it did so at a speed we had never seen before, usually we tried to evacuate well in advance, but this time it wasn’t possible. I tried to buy time for my children to evacuate into the dungeon using the seed I had planted, and though I stopped the Fetchers, the monsters that can leave the green mist and look for victims, it was still not enough time for the Dungeon Seed to mature."
"What's a Fetcher, I'm unfamiliar with this monster?" Asked Seraph curiously, despite how it may have seemed, Seraph had limited contact with the Miasma until after he had secured his Dark Mantle ability afforded him massive defensive boosts to both raw stats, and status protection.
"You wouldn’t have any need to know of it” Explained Reverend with a satisfied look on his face. “The Fetchers are wretched things, small and deformed, but quick too with eyes in all directions. Much stronger than you would guess for their stature, they collect many of the people whom are to be left behind, and take them somewhere else, I’m not sure where. You'll find out either in person, or when you fetch my report, as you make discoveries you'll find it automatically updates to reflect new topics."
This was impressive information, he regretted in his previous life not having access to it. “I didn’t know that.” Admitted Seraph with an appreciative nod. “But what are you now, what happened next?”
“One thing at a time cousin.” Responded Reverend, the blue in one eye beginning to deeper into purple. “The Dungeon Seed wasn’t done you see, it still needed something else to grow and mature, and I offered the only thing I could find, the people who are with me. I’m sure you may have encountered some of them, reanimated, soulless, intelligent things that they are now. But in the end the sacrifices I made were still insufficient, I offered myself instead and took the immature Dungeon Seed and cut deep into my own chest and gave myself to nurture it.
“The result” Continued Reverend. “Is what you see here, the children were allowed to evacuate to Hometown, and I was bound to this location forever unable to leave. The dungeon has made of me a Wright, though my captivity has made of me something darker and fouler still, something this is both me, and of me, and separate from me, the thing that claws in the dark.”
“So now I find myself repeating questions I should never have to repeat.” Said Reverend, his voice tinged with anger and some regret as the vestiges of the man began to f
ade as the purple orb flared again. “Tell me, what year is it? For how long dear cousin have I been trapped here?”
Seraph considered his answers carefully. Based on what he had seen and heard so far, this portion of the dungeon appeared to have continued to exist within the future that Seraph was from, but also existed within the present.
“Careful cousin.” Interrupted the abomination that was Reverend. “I can smell a lie, and you reek of them.”
"I don't know for how long you've been trapped here, I'm also not entirely sure where this is. But I can tell you the year, its 2010." Answered Seraph without trying to give away many other details.
"Impossible." Shouted Reverend as both eyes blazed with light. “I have been here, trapped, for endless decades, alone in the dark as everyone I ever cared about and knew has fallen or been consumed. It has been decades adventurer, cousin you lie.”
“I promise you, I haven’t lied.” Shouted Seraph as the floor began to break under Reverends body as things begin to shift out of sight, revealing what had been hidden. Seraph had thought Reverend was stuck to a pillar, but what he had thought was a pillar appeared to be a great black root, gangrenous and vile looking that appeared to have grown from the man’s torso and embedded itself into the ground.
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