“Corrupted Erudite,” he replied.
“And you’re just gonna be a caster forever?” I asked. “No weapons or anything?”
“I’m pretty sure I could use a Skill-based off-hand. But I didn’t start with one and I haven’t found one yet.”
“Gotcha.” I nodded, looking around the hole we appeared to be trapped in. I really didn’t feel like going back the way we’d come, and was relieved to find a set of hidden handholds cut into the rock at the far end of the deep cut in the rock where we stood. “Ah, here we go.”
Putting my weapons away, I made my way up the rock face as quickly as I could, looking down occasionally to make sure Jacob was behind me. The stone was rough against my fingertips, and the indentations were slight, which made progress slow, but finally I reached the top and found myself staring out at a jagged mess of rock breaks and barbs that speared out in all directions like the shell of a sea urchin.
I let out a heavy sigh as Jacob came up behind me, standing awkwardly, his feet braced on either side of a triangular stone spur.
“How are we ever going to get through this?” Jacob groaned. “You—you just wanna go back?”
“I thought this was the girl who could help you?” I countered.
“She is, but…” his voice trailed off as he eyed the complete mess of seemingly unnavigable ground in front of us.
“You know, I thought you had a little more umph to you, Jacob,” I said, goading him on. He scowled, twisting his lips unappreciatively.
“Fine,” he replied. “But don’t get mad at me when we die and have to come back through this mess to find our bodies.”
“At least we won’t be naked like Dorrin,” I laughed, taking a careful step forward.
“That’s true!”
We figured it was best to stay above the twisting maze of cramped tunnels beneath us. The goal was to find Grecia and get her back to town, not to explore every inch of the place. But each step was hazardous, a chance to slip from some precarious perch and tumble down into a pit of stone spears or a hovel filled with Withered. After what felt like hours, I started to lose hope.
“This is ridiculous,” I scoffed, turning and looking back in the direction we’d come. I couldn’t even see the edge of the landscape anymore, or the fog in the distance that would mark the beginning of the dying fields beyond the windmill.
“Who’s lacking in umph now?” Jacob chuckled.
“Do you think—do you think there’s a chance Wilhelm was wrong about where to find her?” I asked. “He said she could be in two different places, didn’t he?”
“He said he’d start here if he were us,” Jacob replied. I scowled and spat into the dust beneath my boot heel.
“I dunno…maybe you’re right—”
Something moved in the distance.
“What?” Jacob asked.
I squinted and took a careful step forward for a better look. And then I saw it.
A wingtip, such a dark violet that it was verging on black. It beat softly, vanished below a drop off, then appeared again. At its tip was a sharp point, like a tooth, and I heard a sound like tired breath catching in a sick throat.
“There.” I pointed. Jacob stepped up beside me and followed my finger.
“What is it?”
“Not a Withered,” I replied. “Come on. Let’s check it out.”
Moving carefully across the treacherous ground, we crept towards the dark wing as it batted slowly through the quiet air. Finally, more of the creature came into view and I found myself staring at what could only be described as a demon.
Its body was that of a man, but rippled with stacks of impossible muscles. Its skin was covered with pustules that looked ready to burst, as though the beast was suffering from a disease causing it to rot from the inside. Its wings, like the blades of the windmill, were pierced in places by holes that could have been made by gunfire.
The thing’s back was to us, making it impossible to see its face, but it stood at the center of a hollow in the rock, and beyond it, cowering in the corner, was a woman—the witch, Grecia. But what I saw was beyond anything I’d expected.
I felt stupid having pictured an old woman in a dark robe and a pointy hat. That would have been far too cliché. Instead, I saw a tattered red robe, thick and heavy, draped across the rock, its edges frayed as though it had once been much longer. Beneath it, the witch was huddled, leaning on sharp elbows, her skin rotten and brown and wisps of grey hair draped down from beneath the robe that was covering her head. Beneath the shadows cast by its tattered hem were two yellow eyes that seemed to glow as they swept aimlessly across the hollow in which she lay. Although I couldn’t make out her entire body, I could tell its proportions were bizarre, exaggerated like a person who’d been stretched on a rack and somehow survived.
“Is that—?”
“Yes” I said quickly to quiet him, eyeing the strange beast below us.
Stone Demon—Level 6.
“Think we can take him?” Jacob asked, more quietly this time.
“Maybe…” I mused, angry at myself for wasting my Firebomb. “But like you said, if we die, it’s a long walk back.”
I looked at him for input, but he simply shrugged. The thing was twice his level, and if we were going to beat it, that meant I’d have to make sure to keep its attention on me at all times. Despite Jacob having more health than me, that thing would probably two-shot him, or maybe even one.
“Okay, Jacob,” I said quietly, readying myself. We were above the demon, and it still had its back to us, which gave us the advantage. “I’ll go in first and get his attention on me. You give him everything you’ve got from up here, okay? If he hits you—”
“I’m screwed,” he said, finishing my thought.
“Exactly.” I smiled, gripping my axe tightly. “All right. Here we go.”
Raising my axe above my head, I planted my foot and leapt off the edge towards the demon.
22
A Price Paid with Blood
“A Seeker must never let their guard down, even once the battle is over.”
—from the writings of Rathborne of the Order of the Raven
Wind whistled in my ears as I crashed down on the Stone Demon. I cried out as I buried my axe in its hideous back. Pustules snapped and popped, spitting green, putrid pus that struck the stone with a wet slap.
MASSIVE!
120
The demon roared and spun towards me with a thick claw raised to strike, but Jacob’s Mortal Arrow struck it in the chest, temporarily interrupting the attack. I seized the opportunity for a follow-up stab that caught the demon in its guts.
67
My Rally bar was filling, and for a moment I felt confident that we would succeed.
But the pain I felt as the demon cast its spell was unlike anything I’d felt before. A sizzling globe of deep flaming light crashed into my chest and slapped upwards, knocking my chin back and sending me flying backwards into the stone escarpment behind me.
-210
“Holy shit!” I heard Jacob cry out as he fired again. I couldn’t believe it either and barely managed to roll out of the way of the thing’s massive foot as it beat its wings and leapt forward in an attempt to stomp the life out of me.
I popped a Soothing Syrup, restoring 109 points of health, bringing me back to just above half, and went for another one, but there was no time. The demon’s claw caught my thigh, tore the flesh and heaved me into the air. I flapped my arms frantically, trying to right myself, but hit hard, driving my chin into the ground. My legs scorpioned up behind me and my neck felt ready to break as I finally flipped over and landed on my back.
-90
I went for a syrup, and managed to get it down, but I was in big trouble. Wincing from the pain, I staggered to my feet and instantly Shadowstepped out of the way of a double claw attack from the hideous monster. I seized the opportunity to drive my axe into its back, then swing back down again across its thick legs.
67�
�89
Between the two of us, we’d managed to take a third of the creature’s health off, and my Rally bar was starting to grow. If I could just avoid being hit again—
That dream was shattered as another one of its spells struck my face.
-80
Two thirds of my health was gone, as was the progress of my Rally bar. Jacob fired again, striking the demon in the side of its face. It roared and spun around to face him. I reached for a Soothing Syrup but as I brought it to my lips, I watched with horror as the horrible monster reached out a hand toward him. A shadowy purple lash whipped out of its fingertips, spit towards Jacob and coiled around his ankles like a snake.
His gasp of shock was cut short as his legs were tugged out from under him and he slammed down against the rocks before being yanked towards the demon. Breath burst from his lungs as the demon drove its fist into his chest. More than half of his health was gone in an instant, and another large chunk fell away as he hit the ground.
“Vile beast!” the witch cried out, raising a gnarled hand toward Jacob. A warm white light sped towards him and swept him up in a curled embrace and I watched as his health was completely restored. I was shocked to see such a beautiful spell emerge from such a hideous woman.
Sipping another Soothing Syrup, I seized the opportunity and attacked. Three quick strikes had my Rally bar charging up, and I managed a fourth before the demon was able to spin around and face me. Anticipating his next attack, I let my Blunderbuss cry and scored a perfect riposte.
Dooooommmm!
My next attack shattered his health to barely a sliver, but as I rose up for a finishing blow, the demon’s sores rippled across its body, snapped and burst, spraying a fetid sludge that struck Jacob and me, coating us in its filth.
Something flashed in the corner of my eye, and I glanced at it. A debuff.
Putrid Slime—26 Damage Per Second for 5 seconds.
“Sick!” Jacob cried out, hacking and coughing as he slipped in the foulness and collapsed into a heap.
“Vile creature!” the witch cried out again, casting some kind of attack spell that spit crimson and orange toward the demon like a snake. The demon slashed it aside with the back of its claw, sending it into the rock wall, causing an explosion of stone shards that rained down like shrapnel.
My health ticked down as I lashed out, but the demon blocked my blow, struck me in the chest and sent me tumbling backwards. As I got back to my feet, I saw the thing stomp down on Jacob with its sharp claw, picking off a huge chunk of his health. The next blow would kill him—if the Putrid Slime didn’t.
I had to act quickly to save him. I raised my Blunderbuss again and squeezed the trigger. Slugs slammed into the thing’s back, barely registering as damage, but doing enough to get his attention. He whirled and I Shadowstepped to avoid his claw, then brought my axe down in his back. The beast cried out, beat its wings in a final failed attempt at an attack, then collapsed face first against the stone.
Quintessence swirled around me, and I heard the sound of a level up. I turned and looked at the old witch, who had her hand stretched awkwardly toward me.
“The plague is over,” I told her, not knowing what else to say. “You can go back to town now.” I heard Jacob cry out behind me.
“We did it!” he shouted, getting to his feet, his health precariously low. “We did it—”
I reached down and looted the Demon, plucking something from his corpse, but before I had time to examine it, something groaned behind me—shifted like tectonic plates. I whipped around.
The spikes were enormous, thick like lances, and covered with the old bones of dead men. One pierced my stomach and the other burrowed through my forehead and straight into my skull. Pain tore through me, and as darkness took me, I was barely aware of Jacob’s tortured screams.
DEATH TAKES YOU!!
I couldn’t help but smile—or whatever the equivalent of smiling would be as my bodiless soul swept through the ether toward the expanding glow of the lamppost.
“You will die!”
Rey’s smiling face in my mind as she’d spoken those words to me. If she were here, she’d be all on my case for letting my guard down and falling for that trap—and she’d be right. Where was she now? The thought of her running through the world, mind seized, eyes vacant, lashing out at anyone and anything, made me sick.
The sounds of town filled my ears as the lamppost came into view and I returned to the world. I saw Jacob’s outline beginning to materialize beside me, and stared up at the full moon that seemed to bear down on me like a cold hand, Hell bent on driving me into the ground like a blunt nail.
Despite my own amusement at my stupid mistake, I was frustrated. I’d been making progress, sure, but it was slow and I was still no closer to discovering what had happened to Rey or where she was. I still had no idea about the monolith or who was behind all of this, if anyone. And somehow, being stuck here made things so much worse.
I closed my eyes as Jacob materialized beside me, and took a deep breath.
“Damn,” Jacob sighed. “That hurt.”
“Yeah…” I muttered. The image of Rey’s body, lying motionless on her bed beneath her terrified parents, filled my mind like a dose of cold water shot straight into the hole I still felt in my skull.
I wish I was there—home…I thought.
Then—something slipped. The world shifted in a way I couldn’t explain.
The sound of wind…
…a freight train barreling down the tracks to an unknown destination…
“Rand?” It was Jacob’s voice. I knew that, but it was as though he was calling to me from a dream.
Zap! Zap!
I felt the electrical popping inside my brain that I sometimes felt at home when I tried to think of too many things at once. Was it a symptom of my epilepsy? No one knew.
I rebooted—restarted on the inside.
Zap!
A flash of light on the back of my eyelids, projected from the back of my skull.
“Rand…?” Jacob’s voice even fainter now, as though he were standing at the end of a long tunnel and only his echo was reaching me.
More wind…
“Clay!”
A sweeping sensation from within, as though I was being pulled by a string attached to a fish hook that had caught somewhere deep inside.
No!
“Claaaay!”
Disbelief as a conduit filled my inner eye…sparks and violent electricity coursing around me…
I was pulled forward, like a cold bit of ice cream sucked through a straw by an invisible giant.
Then—something soft beneath my back.
It can’t be…
But it was. I opened my eyes.
23
Follow the Red Woman
“It’s inhumane! Look at where they’ve put us! What are we, the worst, disgusting, dredges of society? We’re down here in this shit while the rest of them are living like kings up in those castles with thousands of rooms? This is despicable! Our government should be ashamed of themselves.”
—Unknown woman interview on the Barracks
“Clay, you’re awake!” my mother cried as two planes of reality came into view—the horizontal and the vertical, sets of lines finding each other’s coordinates and linking together and allowing me to see. My head hurt.
“Huh,” I muttered. Sitting up on one elbow, I gazed around and recognized what I believed to be my room. Things were a little fuzzy, and when I blinked, I saw the lamppost on the back of my eyelids.
“Oh, God,” my mom exclaimed, slapping a hand across her forehead. “I thought I’d lost you! What were you thinking sneaking into my room like that?!”
“Rey,” I replied. “Rey is trapped inside, Mom.”
“And you think you can change that? You want to go in there and get stuck with her? What are you going to do?!”
“I can get out!” I screamed, the words out of my mouth before I realized I was going to say them. After a
ll, I hadn’t even realized until that moment that I was able to get out. But how? I hadn’t pressed the logout button or anything, and even if I had, why would it have worked for me and no one else?
“Yeah, because I was hitting the off button for the last hour!” my mom shouted. I shook my head. “I was getting ready to call the hospital!”
“No…no, that’s not it.”
I didn’t know how I knew—I just did.
“Oh, what is it then, smartass?”
Smartass? I thought. She must be really pissed.
Mom never used bad language around me or called me names unless she was super upset with me. I understood—the thought of her son being lost from her, trapped in some virtual world he couldn’t escape from, was probably terrifying. After all, I’d seen how Rey’s parents had reacted.
“It was something different,” I said slowly. “I just kind of…thought my way out.”
“Well, that’s nice,” she replied, snatching the Crown from my head and lifting the Fount into her arms. “Now you can think about what you’re going to do while you’re grounded for two weeks!”
“Mom, wait!” I shouted, leaping to my feet as she strode quickly from my room. “Stop! Rey is still in there!”
“That is not your job! Let the authorities handle that!”
“Authorities?! What authorities? The internet police?”
Mom kept an old-fashioned Louisville Slugger by the door—just in case she said—and snatched it up as she booted open the door to the house and strode outside.
“What are you doing?!” I panicked as she swung her arms and hurled my precious Fount into the air like one of those strong men on TV would do with those enormous rocks.
“No!”
The sound of my Fount cracking against the concrete was worse than the sound of a baby crying. Shards of plastic sprang into the air as its body cracked from the impact. I raced forward in a desperate attempt to stop my mom from completing her mission, but she was an unstoppable force and the world seemed to slow as she raised up the baseball bat and brought it down on my most prized possession.
The Monolith Page 14
