Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  Only a faint cloud of ash drifted through the abyss.

  A voice spoke up from beside Finn. “And so it has been decided.” He turned to see Khalas bowing her head. “And so it shall be.

  “The prophet has laid claim to my heartstone.”

  Finn’s eyes widened at that statement.

  His thoughts felt fuzzy, confused as the energy still coursed through his veins, and ivory flames lapped at his skin. His fires slowly condensed, pulling back toward his body until they formed a glowing white aura. Amid that energy, he was having difficulty focusing on Khalas – on anything other than the burning ache in his chest.

  It was a longing. A desperate unfulfilled desire.

  Rachael.

  “Did Nar Aljahim… has the facility been destroyed?” Khalas asked, interrupting his thoughts. He blinked at her, trying to focus on her features.

  Finn nodded.

  “Good. Then he shall finally be unchained from that hollow, dead place. Tell the Seer I shall uphold my end of the bargain. It is only fitting after what she has done for me.”

  “What… what does that mean?” Finn asked, the white flames encircling him flickering uncertainly.

  “You shall see for yourself when the time comes,” was her only response.

  “Wait… What do—?” Finn tried to ask.

  However, the abyss was already breaking apart, crumbling at the edges as though his flames were burning down the void around him. Soon, he was falling, falling, falling. The fires still flaring around him, and the image of the elemental’s final, somber expression burned into his mind.

  Chapter 48 - Reunion

  Finn blinked.

  Then blinked again.

  The world resolved back into focus slowly – the fires and that eerie void now gone.

  He felt disoriented, a product of the encounter in the void and the abrupt transition. Skimming the area around him, he took in the swirling watercolor patterns of the mana. He stood once more atop the ruined tower that had once been Bilel’s throne room.

  Even more strangely, he could still feel that blazing power he’d drawn on within the void coursing through his veins. It raged and burned and crackled through every pore – even standing still was a challenge. He looked down to see that glimmering white flames wrapped his limbs. And the source of that energy was apparent. He held the staff in his hand, his fingers wrapped firmly around the golden hilt, and an intense fire blazing within the heartstone.

  Bilel! he thought suddenly in alarm.

  His gaze whipped across the tower, but he didn’t see any sign of the demon. Then his eyes drifted down to a pile of remains that lay where the demon had once stood, the dust and ash glowing with a faint multi-colored light. It seemed that Bilel had met the same end here that he had in that unusual dark abyss – his body and soul consumed by Finn’s fire.

  And with the demon’s death, the spell sustaining the whirlwind of debris that drifted around the tower had faded. Blocks of stone, fragments of wood, and metal framing fell through the air, crashing to the ground far below. And with the loss of that debris, there was nothing left to blunt the storm. Rain cascaded down upon the tower, and wind whipped at Finn’s robes. As the water touched Finn, it immediately evaporated, coils of steam drifting up into the air.

  “Dad!” a voice shouted from behind him.

  He turned to find Julia rushing toward him, his daughter hesitating for only a moment at the sight of the white flames before throwing her arms around his shoulder and causing him to list to the side. Thankfully, the fires didn’t seem to harm her.

  “We thought you had died,” she murmured into his shoulder.

  “What about Abbad?” he croaked, remembering that last attack.

  Julia pulled back, and Finn shifted to Short-Sighted, observing the grimace that flattened her lips – a wordless acknowledgment of what he already feared. He could feel a hollow weight settle in his stomach.

  Her gaze drifted back to the body that lay along the stone.

  Abbad.

  Malik hovered over top the man, but he didn’t reach for a healing potion or make any effort to remove the icy spikes embedded in the librarian’s chest – crimson blood pooling beneath Abbad. And as Finn switched back to his Mana Sight, he observed no telltale gleam of energy pulsing through Abbad’s body. Only the icy blue energy that signaled the last warmth of life had left him.

  “Fuck,” Finn muttered, rubbing at his eyes with his crystalline hand.

  “Fuck,” he echoed again. The loss hit hard. Harder than he had expected. They might have won – might have finally defeated Bilel – but it had come with a hefty price.

  The destruction of the city. The deaths of so many residents and players. The loss of their own soldiers. And now… now Abbad. His friend.

  “It’s what he wanted,” Kyyle offered tentatively, the earth mage approaching slowly with Brock’s burly form in tow. “We won. We killed Bilel,” he said, kicking at the demon’s ashes. “Even if I don’t completely understand how that happened…” He shot Finn a questioning glance.

  Finn could see his daughter waiting expectantly as well, and he took a deep, trembling breath, trying to regain his composure. Abbad had been there since the beginning. Since that first moment in the Mage Guild courtyard. And he had lent a helping hand through… well, through everything that followed. It felt wrong that he wasn’t here to see their victory.

  Finn shook his head. “I… I realized that our only option was for me to try to claim ownership of the staff.” His gaze shifted to the blazing gem set into the top of the staff. “Like Nar Aljahim said, this is his mate’s heartstone. My guess was that the staff is semi-conscious. And I was right…

  “Her name is Khalas,” he murmured as he stared at that gem.

  His companions just looked on wordlessly, watching the heartstone more warily now. As they focused their attention on the staff, Finn could finally observe the price they had paid as well. They were beaten, bloodied, and tired. Circles hung under their eyes, and their armor was soaked with rain. The storm was still booming above them, refusing to let up.

  Even as that thought crossed Finn’s mind, he saw a flame spark to life in the corner of his vision – a bright point of light that stood out through the pounding storm. His gaze dropped down to the market far below, that telltale glow located in the dead center of Lahab. His brow furrowed in confusion as he watched those flames, the fires growing brighter with each passing second.

  “What is going—?” he gasped, his teammates turning to watch that energy.

  He was cut off as the fires surged forward at an alarming rate, soon consuming the entire market. The flames were streaking up into the sky, creating a cloud of steam as the fires rapidly evaporated the rain that beat down upon the city. Those fires kept going, torching the buildings that ringed the market, and the hounds that raced down the adjoining streets.

  Finn could just barely pick out travelers and residents in the city below them – a few survivors of the horrific massacre that Bilel had unleashed upon the city. As they saw the wave of flame approaching, they tried to run… tried to escape… but the flames were moving too quickly – an avalanche of fire that stretched outward in an expanding ring.

  “Are you doing this?” Julia asked, glancing at the staff.

  “No… no, I don’t think so,” Finn replied.

  That weight in his stomach sank further. Was he somehow responsible for this? Or perhaps the Seer? Was he witnessing the true end of Lahab? The end of the Khamsin and the guilds? A fire that would once and for all wipe the sands clean of the corrupting influence of the humans, mages, merchants, and fighters that had once occupied this place?

  The flames were indifferent to his dread. They continued to spread, stretching out toward the battle that still raged around the Mage Guild – their army still cutting down the hounds as they remained trapped outside the guild’s walls. The fires were indifferent to that conflict, consuming man and beast alike faster than they could react.
There was nowhere to run – no way to shield themselves from the blaze. A wave of superheated steam was rocketing up into the air now, the hurricane above them swirling and undulating wildly as a fresh updraft of hot air further destabilized the storm front.

  And soon, that wall of fire was passing the gates of the palace below the ruined tower. It swept through the courtyard, ate its way through the outbuildings and the remaining hounds, and then raced upward, stretching toward their position. And the group looked on with hopeless, awestruck expressions. An ocean of fire lingered below them – a sea of flames so wide and deep that Finn couldn’t see anything beyond the orange glow.

  Those flames coiled farther up the tower and soon licked at the edges of the platform.

  Then they had crossed that threshold, the flames barreling toward the group as they clustered near the center of the tower. Finn felt Julia reach for him then, her fingers curling between his own.

  He closed his eyes as those fires struck…

  And then his gaze snapped open.

  He stood among the flames – a strange sense of déjà vu overcoming him given his recent duel with Bilel for dominion over the staff. The fire didn’t burn or sear his skin. Instead, it seeped into his limbs, adding to the fires that already wrapped his body. It soaked into his muscle and bone, and he could feel a surge of energy fill him, burning away any trace of fatigue. It felt like he had just downed an entire pot of coffee, his heart beating rapidly and his limbs practically buzzing with energy.

  That’s when he felt a strange tingling along his skin.

  He looked down to see his skin ripple and transform. Smooth flesh turned dry and flaked away, scale-like patterns forming along the surface of his arms. A tingling sensation erupted from his scalp, and his hand left Julia’s to drift cautiously up toward his head. He could feel small lumps forming along his forehead. Horns erupted from his skin, stretching upward toward the sky.

  And then, all at once, the fires winked out.

  Finn blinked, this time to block out the harsh sunlight that now beat down upon Lahab… or what might have once been Lahab.

  The storm was gone, only faint wisps of white and gray remaining. And the sun now shone down on a city transformed. The buildings were intact once more, and the streets repaired, now covered by dry sand. But the buildings had been remodeled and repurposed. Flames now licked from sandy spires, stretching up into the air all around the city.

  Far to the north, the battle that had once been raging outside the Mage Guild had ceased. Thousands of soldiers now stood upon the sands – healthy and alive – their energy rippling with a mixture of orange and red mana. Yet there were so many of them. More than there should be. At that thought, Finn abruptly realized that the hounds had disappeared. Perhaps these were the men and women that had been converted into the beasts.

  The ruined throne room, however, hadn’t been fixed – at least, not entirely.

  A railing now ringed the lip of the tower, flames wrapping the metal and streaking up into the air. And the stairs had been rebuilt, the steps now trailing back down into the depths of the palace below them. Off to Finn’s side sat a throne – the surface composed entirely of molten glass and its depths rippling with fiery energy. Conspicuously absent was Abbad’s body – his corpse burned away by the flames that had purified and repaired the city. In their place, a small golden urn sat upon the stone.

  Finn stepped forward slowly, stooping and picking up that lone vessel. Along the surface, the former librarian’s name had been inscribed in lilting text. He swallowed hard, pushing back at the tears that budded in the corners of his eyes.

  It’s okay, he told himself. Abbad may have sacrificed himself, but his death was not in vain. They had accomplished their mission – the librarian’s mission. He knew that if the man stood here now, he would have gladly paid the same price… even if that thought did little to lighten the weight that had settled in Finn’s stomach.

  So many had died to make his dream a reality.

  And then Finn felt a wave of heat strike him. He looked up to see a rolling tide of warmth ripple out across the city, the temperature causing the very air to warp and undulate. Yet Finn didn’t find the heat uncomfortable, and no sweat beaded along his now-scaly skin. In fact, the warmth felt soothing.

  “Holy shit,” Kyyle muttered from beside them, echoing their thoughts.

  Finn spared a glance to the side and noticed that the earth mage had undergone the same transformation. His skin was now a patchwork of crude scales, and horns jutted from his forehead as well. Steadying himself, Kyyle’s hand lingered on Brock’s rocky torso as he took in the changes.

  Finn turned to find his daughter, staring. She hadn’t undergone the transition. Normal human eyes framed by smooth skin looked back at him within the harsh blue glow of Short-Sighted. Julia reached up a tentative hand, touching the tip of one of his horns and an unspoken question on her lips.

  Yet before she could ask it, a prompt crashed down into their vision, each person atop that ruined tower staring off into space as they reviewed the message.

  Universal System Message

  A traveler has conquered Lahab and has converted it to the fire affinity. The city of Lahab shall henceforth be known as “Sandscrit.” The ambient temperature of the city has been increased, creating an aura of heat that radiates over the sands. The city’s residents have been converted to Efreet – creatures of magic capable of bonding a part of their soul to a non-organic creature or object.

  Any travelers or residents with a high fire affinity that are within range of Sandscrit shall receive a passive bonus to all fire-based abilities and skills – including crafting abilities. “Efreet” is now available as a starting race, and players that choose this race will start in Sandscrit.

  The Prophet of the Flame has returned. He is the spark of passion that resides in the hearts of all men. The tip of the storm. The all-consuming blaze. His flames shall soon sweep across this world, a rallying cry for his people and an ill omen for his enemies. – The Seer

  System Notice: Race Change

  After undergoing the Forging and completing your end of the Seer’s bargain, you have discovered that your body has been transformed. You have completed the rites to become one of the fire-folk – the Efreet – creatures of magic and flame.

  Race Change: Efreet

  Mana gain from Intelligence and Willpower increased by x1.25.

  You have been awarded +50 to Intelligence

  You have been awarded +20 to Dexterity

  You have been awarded +20 to Endurance

  You have been awarded +20 to Vitality

  Racial weakness to water mana.

  Mana regeneration increased by 50% when standing in superheated areas.

  Finn heard the sound of clapping, and the group whirled, their hands immediately reaching for their weapons. Although, Finn raised a staying hand as he saw who was approaching.

  The Seer stood upon the once-ruined tower, her body robed in purple silks, and her eyes ablaze with coils of flame and fiery energy. As she paced toward them, a trail of fire lit along the ground behind, each footstep leaving a glowing pattern upon the stone.

  “Congratulations! You have done well!” she intoned solemnly.

  Finn could only stare back open-mouthed, unsure of how to respond and a dozen questions whirling through his mind.

  “What, no words of greeting for your divine benefactor?” the Seer asked, a touch of humor coloring her voice. It seemed she was in pleasant spirits.

  “How… how are you here?” Finn finally murmured, waving at his companions to lower their weapons.

  “Thanks to you, of course. You have taken the steps needed to release me from my prison – at least on a temporary basis. Think of it like being granted probation,” she offered, a twinkle of flame in her eyes.

  Those same eyes then turned toward the city, taking in the conversion that had swept Lahab – now Sandscrit. “Isn’t it magnificent? You’re witnessing the product
of more than a century of preparation. It has been so long since my city has been intact,” she murmured, as though she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing.

  “So, you’re the goddess? The Crone?” Julia demanded, her shield hanging loosely in her left hand but her right still gripping her lance.

  The Seer pivoted in an instant, her eyes flashing. “I dislike that name. I am the Seer – the goddess of the flame. And your father here is my avatar.”

  At that response, Malik’s eyes widened, and he immediately dropped to his knees – reciting something under his breath. The Seer sighed as she noticed his reaction. “And this is why my siblings and I typically mask our presence.” She snapped her fingers, and the fighter went rigid, frozen in place.

  “Is he okay?” Kyyle asked, waving a hand in front of Malik’s face.

  “He is fine,” the Seer replied with a dismissive wave. “I believe you travelers refer to this as pausing? In any event, now we shall be free to speak openly and without interruption.”

  “Well, then let me start,” Julia snapped, taking an ominous step forward. “We’ve upheld our end of the bargain. Now where the hell is my mother?”

  The Seer peered at her in response, unperturbed by her menacing appearance. “Hmm, I see you inherited your father’s fire.”

  Julia let out a low growl, her grip tightening on her lance. Finn rested a staying hand on her shoulder. “Let me handle this. I certainly have enough practice at this point…”

  He stepped forward, meeting the Seer’s gaze and raising the staff. “We’ve reclaimed the relic, now what do I need to do to resurrect Rachael?”

  The goddess nodded. “That is a simple matter. The staff responds to your will – to your passion.” She waved toward it with a nonchalant gesture. “Ask it for what you desire most…”

  Finn hesitated, his gaze shifting to the staff. That felt too easy – too simple after everything they had gone through. He couldn’t help but feel that there would be a catch. He spared a glance at Julia and Kyyle, and they both gave him a noncommittal shrug. They were well and truly off the rails now. Why not lean into it?