by Aaron Oster
“Yeah, yeah. Preach your crap to someone who cares,” he said, rising from the chair.
“Leaving so soon?” Dabu asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Since you don’t want to tell me what Gold’s up to, and you’re clearly not going to help me with Morgan, I have no reason to stick around.”
Dabu nodded, but he couldn’t help but give one last piece of advice before his old friend left.
“It’s never too late to change, you know. Just restore Morgan’s full memory, and I’m sure he’ll listen.”
Samuel gave Dabu a hard look, then abruptly vanished. Dabu could sense him traveling through dimensions, and eventually emerge back in Somerset, on the border of the North Kingdom where the Pinnacle King of Power struggled to break his bonds.
He sighed, leaning back in his chair and staring up at the vivid blue sky above. He wondered at what life would have been like, had Samuel never created those monsters in the first place.
***
Morgan ducked the vicious swipe of the monstrous sand-lizard, and returned with a blow of his own, slamming his lance of condensed wind into the beast’s side and punching deep into it. The lizard let out a pained scream as the Storm blade tore it apart from the inside, then collapsed to the ground, now very much dead.
“Took you long enough,” Sarah said, walking over to him with a smirk on her face.
He could see the bodies of three other lizards, their bodies riddled with tridents of ice, over her shoulder.
“Why do you always feel the need to brag?” Morgan asked, pulling the core from the beast and examining it.
It was rank 12, which meant that the energy inside was useless to both of them. Now that they were over rank 19, they would no longer be able to absorb the energy of low-rank beasts.
He tossed her the core, which she deftly snatched out of the air and placed into the small pouch at her waist.
“Don’t want you to forget how awesome I am,” she replied with a wink, cinching the bag shut and examining their surroundings.
They’d been traveling for over four days now and had run into several of these types of beasts along the way. None had been over rank 14 and not a single one of them was above the basic level of advancement. They now had over twenty cores sitting in their bag that were completely useless to them.
Sarah had wanted to leave them, but Morgan had insisted they keep them all, saying that they would probably fetch a good price if they sold them.
Morgan just rolled his eyes at her reply and waited for her to climb onto his back before taking off again.
“How much further do we have to travel?” he asked, as they crested yet another sand dune.
Each time they reached the top of one the massive dunes, they would stop so Sarah could find a landmark to go by. Morgan may have known the wilderness, but he couldn’t read the map nearly as well as she could. Pulling the map from her belt, Sarah unrolled it as Morgan came to a stop.
“I’d say we should reach the boundary by tonight if you really push yourself. Another few hours and the city should come into view.”
Morgan nodded, waiting for her to roll up the map and tuck it away, before continuing their flight.
They had thankfully made it away from the small town, which had been labeled as West End on their map, without being spotted. They were both sure that they were now being hunted in some capacity, so they would have to be careful as they traveled across the kingdom.
As the sun began dipping toward the West, Morgan and Sarah finally got their first look at the city of Mitten. It was exactly as Morgan remembered it, minus all the smoke. Large swaths of the city reflected the sun, as those areas had been turned to glass by the incredible heat of whatever had destroyed the city.
The buildings were covered in a bit more sand than they had been, likely a product of the time that had passed since the place had been destroyed. But for the most part, it looked exactly the same.
“Can you see anything inside the walls?” Sarah asked.
She was examining the city as well. This was her first time seeing it in person, as Morgan couldn’t exactly show her his memories of the place.
Narrowing his eyes, Morgan could see some movement, but that was from outside the city walls.
“Can’t see anything inside, but there are several guards moving around the perimeter. It’s a good thing we’re only getting there tonight, because it looks like we’ll be sneaking past a lot of them.”
“Any ideas on how we’ll be getting in?” Sarah asked as they took off down the other side of the dune.
“Through the front gates, I guess. I don’t think I wanna risk flying over the walls.”
“Yeah, best steer clear of that option,” she replied with a laugh.
The last time they’d attempted to fly over a wall, Sarah had nearly died, and Morgan had ended up shattering both his legs. Neither of them felt like repeating the experience.
As the sun began sinking behind the dunes, sending brilliant golden light dancing across the sand, the walls loomed before them. Massive and imposing, Morgan wasn’t even sure if he could reach the top using his Advanced flight. The maximum height his skill would allow him to reach would be eighty feet, but the walls appeared to be even higher than that.
As they entered the area that was marked as off-limits on the map, Morgan felt a light shiver run across his body. His head snapped to the side and he thought he could see a faint blue line in the sand. He blinked, and it was gone.
“You mind handing me the water?” Morgan asked.
He hadn’t had anything to drink in several hours and was sure that it was causing him to see things. Taking a deep draw from the canteen, which Sarah had filled with icy cold water before handing it to him, Morgan let out a contented sigh. The water washed down his throat, cooling his insides as it traveled down to his stomach.
“Thanks,” he said, handing the water back.
He felt her shifting around as she put the canteen away, then leaned forward and wrap her arms around his neck. She placed her cheek against his shoulder and let out a long sigh.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, still keeping his eyes on the approaching wall.
Small figures were now becoming visible around the perimeter, and he was trying to judge where the best gap to slip between the defenses was.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” she replied.
He felt her arms tighten around him a bit and her heart rate increase. She’d done this from time to time along their journey, and Morgan had to wonder why it kept happening. He knew she harbored romantic feelings towards him, but shouldn’t she be used to being around him by now? After all, they’d been traveling together for most of a year at this point.
In fact, the end of this month would mark the day when he first awoke his abilities… He almost fell out of the air as it hit him.
Sarah’s birthday would be in just a week! And his own would follow just five weeks after.
He breathed an inward sigh of relief that he’d remembered. Sarah was very into birthdays and had made sure that Morgan knew it. He would need to find her something nice so she didn’t freeze him solidly in a block of ice, or something along those lines.
“Looks like we’re coming up on the walls,” he said, eyes flicking between the two guards who were patrolling off to either side.
Their clothes would effectively camouflage them, especially as the light faded and their vision would become more uncertain, but it would be best to stay silent until then. Sarah squeezed his shoulder in confirmation and the both of them went silent.
Morgan successfully avoided being spotted by the first few sets of guards, weaving his way between patrols as the walls grew nearer. He started running into problems once he got within a mile of the city. The guards patrolled more frequently here, it seemed, and more than once, he had been forced to fly upward to avoid them. This carried its own risk, as they would lose their camouflage if they got too far from the ground. However, the quickly fading light gave t
hem an advantage, and soon the two of them were pressed up against the city walls.
Looking back and forth, Morgan wondered which way would be best to go, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning to Sarah, he saw her motioning him to move further along. The map was clutched in her hand, so he had to assume she knew what she was talking about. He nodded and floated into the air as Sarah hopped onto his back once again.
Moving forward at an almost reckless pace, they rocketed along the wall, keeping their eyes peeled for a way in. Morgan knew this was risky, as their chances of being spotted were far more likely this close to the wall. Just a few seconds later, his fears were confirmed when a guard patrol came around a bend and immediately spotted them.
Luckily for Morgan, they had the element of surprise on their side. The guards hadn’t been expecting anyone here. After all, who would want to break into a destroyed city that was made off limits by the ruler of the West Kingdom?
Not taking any chances, Morgan used Explosive impact. The world slowed around him, as he shot forward at an incredible pace. He passed the guards in less than a second and had made it completely out of sight by the time his skill ran out.
“Shit!” Sarah yelled, as Morgan was forced to pull up suddenly to avoid a block of stone jutting out from the wall.
Only a second after that, a loud horn sounded, signaling the other guards that there were intruders here.
“Double shit!” Sarah yelled, and Morgan had to agree with her.
He pulled higher into the air, attempting to gain just a little more speed. From his new vantage point, he could see several guard patrols flocking to their location. Despite the waning light, the guards knew they were here, so it was only a matter of time until they’d be caught.
Sure enough, another patrol came into view only seconds later. Morgan was about to slow, when Sarah stopped him.
“You concentrate on getting us in there! I’ll keep these ugly bastards busy!”
Morgan did as he was told, flying directly over the guards’ heads, despite the multitude of attacks he could feel aimed at him. Then, Sarah struck. An icy wave of water slammed into the men below, stopping them in their tracks and freezing various bits of them to the city walls.
“It won’t kill them, but it’ll definitely slow them down!”
Morgan nodded, weaving between a multitude of new attacks, coming at them from the side. Sarah fired back, throwing up defensive shields and launching attacks of her own. Watching his RP dropping by the second, Morgan knew he wouldn’t be able to keep this up for much longer without rest.
Then, the unthinkable happened. Something worked out for them. A massive set of gates loomed before him and Morgan came to a quick stop, landing in a cloud of choking dust. Sarah immediately threw up a wall of ice, and the two of them ran to the gates.
They were huge, Morgan saw, looking up to the tips of the double doors. At least forty feet tall. A massive chain ran across the length of the gates, held in the center by a lock as large as Morgan himself.
“How the hell are we supposed to get through that?” Sarah exclaimed when she saw the size of the lock.
Morgan ran right up to the crack in the door and attempted to squeeze through. He grimaced when he realized that it was just narrow enough that he couldn’t fit. He tried shoving the doors to get them to open more, but the massive chain held the gates steady and they didn’t budge so much as an inch.
There was a sound of shattering ice and the cry of men from behind him, but Morgan ignored it all. He hadn’t made it all the way here only to be stopped a foot from the city walls. Then, an idea struck him and he drifted back to grab Sarah.
She let out a surprised exclamation, when Morgan hauled her into the air by one arm, but managed to throw another shield up in time to prevent them from being hit by a swirling pillar of sand.
“What the hell, Morgan?!” Sarah exclaimed as she turned to glare at him. She then let out a scream, as she saw the massive gates looming right before her eyes.
Then, miraculously, they were through.
Morgan noted that as soon as they passed through the gap he’d spotted near the top, all sound from the outside had instantly vanished. He slowly drifted to the ground, examining his surroundings. They were standing in what was once a massive courtyard but now looked eerily similar to the Academy after the North had attacked it.
Statues lay scattered in pieces over cracked sandstone, a fountain stood in the center, its centerpiece reduced to rubble, and buildings lay in ruins. A few of them were somewhat intact, but all still showed signs of degradation.
“Where do we go from here?” Sarah whispered as Morgan set her down and landed next to her.
“To the center, I’d guess, though we should probably find somewhere safe to hold up for the night,” Morgan replied in an equally quite voice.
The entire city was completely silent, not so much as an insect or a stray breeze to move the loose sand about. It felt…wrong.
His eyes darted around the courtyard, the fading light making it difficult to make anything out. Finally, they landed on a half collapsed building with a hole near ground level. He tapped Sarah on the shoulder and motioned with his head for her to follow. She nodded back, neither of them daring to say so much as a word.
They already knew that this city was rumored to be full of strange creatures, but the absolute silence in their surroundings, convinced them that the rumors were most likely very true.
11
Grub grimaced as another gust of freezing wind ruffled his hair and chilled him to the bone. Despite the very expensive coat he’d had brought to him, he was still freezing his ass off in the middle of this desolate wasteland.
He looked towards the open fissure in the side of the glacier and wondered, not for the first time, just what the hell was down there.
Another gust of wind caught the hem of his coat, sending it billowing. This gust was also accompanied by a freezing burst of icy snow that blew right into his face.
“Why the hell are we even out here?” he yelled, finally losing his temper.
“Because we were ordered to,” replied Arnold, who was standing just a few feet away and looking quite comfortable despite the near sub-zero temperature.
Grub ground his teeth together at Arnold’s calm reply and bit his tongue to hold back a scathing retort. It wouldn’t do him good anyway.
In the entire five days they’d been forced to stand in this freezing hell-hole, Arnold had not once complained. Why should he? He was rank 37, so the freezing air probably felt like a mild breeze to him.
His eyes once again returned to the crack in the ice as he thought he saw a flicker of movement. But after a few seconds of staring and not spotting a thing, he had to assume that it was just more snow.
There was something unnerving about that glacier. Grub didn’t say as much to Arnold, but he’d been having strange dreams when he went to sleep at night. Dreams in which he entered the glacier, wandering into its frozen depths until he came to a massive cavern with an icy throne, and something lying on an altar on the far side of the room.
He could never quite make out what was on the altar, aside from a pair of shining violet eyes, and a predatory gleam of white teeth.
Another gust of wind whipped at his hair, but this time when Grub shivered, it had nothing to do with the cold.
***
Morgan and Sarah moved swiftly through the open courtyard, weaving around various bits of rubble and making straight for the opening in the half-ruined building. He was tempted, more than once, to grab Sarah and break out into a full sprint, but resisted the urge. A full sprint would make a lot more noise than a fast walk, and making any noise would be a bad idea.
He didn’t know why, but this entire city made him feel distinctly uneasy. Just as he was thinking about how important it was that they remain quiet, Sarah’s foot caught a stray bit of rubble, making him wince as it was sent clattering over the ground, sending out what to his ears sounded like an explo
sion on par with his Starbreak skill.
His head whipped around and Sarah gave him a sheepish look, but shrugged her shoulders. It was an honest mistake and one that could be easily made, especially since it was now fully dark outside.
Turning his attention back ahead, Morgan froze when he saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of his vision. Whipping his head in that direction, he stared at a pile of debris about fifty yards away, where he thought he’d seen something move.
“What is it?” Sarah whispered, body tense as Morgan scanned the pile of rubble for any sign of life.
He held up a hand, then pointed at the pile. There was something behind there, of that he was certain. The question now, was what, and if it was dangerous enough to warrant a retreat.
Motioning her to stay put, Morgan allowed his supermage shield to flare to life as he moved forward. The entire surrounding area was lit up in purple and gold light as he did so. A second later, a blue light flashed as Sarah’s shield came up as well.
Morgan didn’t have far to go, though. As soon as his shield activated, the pile of rubble exploded, and a horribly twisted beast emerged from the center. Morgan could tell, without even using his Aura sense, that something was wrong with this beast.
Its body was covered in an inky black smoke that trailed behind it as it walked. It had the appearance of some sort of large canine creature, but instead of a tail, it had four live snakes that hissed and turned glowing green eyes on them. The canine creature’s face was the most disturbing part. It looked half rotted, with bits of gleaming bone showing through in places. Its eyes were two glowing embers, and white foam dripped from the corners of its scrunched up muzzle.
“What the hell is that thing?” Sarah exclaimed, just as Morgan used his Aura sense skill to see if he could make sense of it.
A red aura flared around the creature, but it was accompanied by small tinges of black and gold.