by Tony Corden
As a second wave of summoned drones approached the Knight, Leah formed a ball of divine light and encased it in a sphere of shadow. Just as she had when she'd first practised using shrouds, she sent this hurtling toward the creature's head. Then, using her control of gravity, she propelled herself in its wake, although aimed lower. As the sphere reached the creature, Leah allowed the shadow to compress down onto the divine light. The explosion did less damage to the knight than hoped, but it did throw her off-kilter. Leah had shaped her shroud into a tight v-shape in front of her. It was formed both to shield her from the blast, as well as to reduce any change to her momentum.
Leah cancelled the gravity as she approached the off-balance Kemirmek. She came in low under a swinging sword and lunged forward, then upwards, to pierce the knight in the stomach and then up into the lungs. As she finished her stroke. Leah forced some of the divine light from her shroud to extend further through the end of her sword. The shard of light extended up and through the base of the creature’s head. As the divine light from the sword and the death mana the knight used for blood combined inside the knight, the tissue began to boil and steam.
Death mana sprayed out over Leah’s hand and arm. Where it touched the red scales, they turned a darker shade but where the droplets landed on the green scales of the life dragon they exploded, pummelling Leah’s body but also turning the green scales grey momentarily. As Leah stepped back to avoid the spray, she equipped the staff she’d had made in Batislar and pressed the large Darkness Diamond into the wound. Within moments the knight was dead, her ash floating down towards the void.
The third knight Leah left to the two guards and five summoned spiders although she had to help with multiple heals and a constant barrage of arrows and small spells to distract the knight. Leah then mixed things up by summoning a mixture of drones and some of Lord Kötü’s minions. Not only did the knights have superior skill with the sword, but they had some ability with magic, especially death spells. Several times it was only the quick application of a life spell or a potion which saved Leah or the guards.
By the eighth knight, Leah felt confident to attack by herself while the guards kept watch. Her ability to exchange one weapon for another mid-stroke and her offensive use of the shrouds gave her the edge, but even so, it was only just enough. Two battles later and just as Orta pulled the last of the death mana from a knight’s corpse, two figures appeared at the edge of Leah’s awareness. She moved ahead of the guards, and as she summoned five of Lord Kötü’s minions, she cast Tangle to slow the knights down. As they got close she cast Disc of Death, separating the knights and forcing one to attack her and the other to move toward the Günahkâr.
By the time the two knights were defeated, all three had less than a third of their health. Unfortunately, there was no time to rest as another two knights appeared, walking toward them down the shaft. Leah swallowed a restore potion and passed one to each of the two dark elves. For the next thirty minutes, they hardly made any ground as knights continued to move down the shaft towards them. As soon as one was killed another appeared.
Finally, at the edge of Leah’s perception, she could feel the third ledge projecting out from the side of the shaft. Unfortunately, or more likely, by the design of the quest’s creators, she simultaneously felt a third knight descending the shaft toward the two they were fighting and the void approaching from below.
Casting Circle of Sloth and Tangle at the knight the Günahkâr were fighting she said, “Both of you deal with the third knight, then climb to the ledge. I’ll deal with these two and join you.”
It was obvious the two guards were reluctant to leave her, but they knew she had a better chance of surviving the void than they did. As they disengaged from the knight they were fighting, Leah directed two spiders and a minion to attack it. At the same time, she cast an exploding mix of light and shadow into the face of the knight she was fighting. The knight deflected the spell with a shield of death mana and sensing Leah’s distraction, flicked his diamond-edged metal whip out to catch her just below her right knee. With a quick pull, the sharpened edges sliced deep into Leah’s gastrocnemius muscle and ripped through tendons and ligaments. Only the torn dragon scale armour and Leah’s tibia and fibula were left, preventing her lower limb from falling away.
Leah’s concentration was shredded, and she lost her hold on the mana she’d been transforming into the gravity mana which kept her orientated on the wall of the shaft. She dropped almost thirty paces before she was able to pull enough of her focus together to slow her fall. Even then, she had to fling herself out into the centre of the shaft to escape the knight who had let himself fall hoping to catch her unaware. As she flipped across the shaft, she formed a brace over her lower leg from the light shroud. The aim was to hold everything together until she could either retrieve a potion or cast a strong healing spell.
The knight had followed her across the shaft, and she could feel the second knight approaching her, having escaped the vines. The void was only ten paces from where Leah was now standing. As the closest knight lunged forward, Leah twisted to her right to evade it even though this brought her weight down on the damaged leg. As the knight’s sword swept left to follow Leah, she grabbed the blade with her left hand, having reinforced the glove with a shield formed from her shadow shroud. She projected the shroud along the sword even as the knight tried to pull it back. Instead of resisting, Leah propelled herself forward and followed the sword close to the knight while forming a knife from the light shroud in her right hand. As she slammed into the knight, she thrust her blade into the darkness of the eye socket, and as it entered she cast a ball of divine light through the end of the knife to lodge in the knight’s skull.
The head exploded, but as the dying knight convulsed Leah was thrown toward the centre of the shaft only to be slammed into by the final knight who drove them both down into the approaching void. Leah’s sensory connection to the world around her disappeared in an instant. The only sensations which remained were the knight’s arms which had wrapped around her, the pressure of the knight’s body against her back which she was being crushed against, the sharp pressure on her scalp as the knight tried to bite down on her helmet, and the pain of her still shredded leg.
A quick check with Three and Leah discovered her health was at thirty-five per cent and dropping. Her shrouds were being torn away by the void, and both were less than sixty per cent already. Although she couldn’t feel the shrouds, she trusted them to comply and had them reform as wings behind her but with razor-sharp edges similar to those Granite had used. She felt the added pressure as the wings forced themselves between her and the knight. When they were in place, she had them snap out to the side, slicing through the knight’s arms and neck. Leah could feel the spurt of death mana as a chill when it sprayed across her helmet, only to have the feeling disappear as the void negated the mana.
Her shields were now at thirty per cent. Leah formed them into long cables and sent them spinning out from her, hoping they would catch on the wall of the shaft. Leah had no idea of her positioning but knew she was being carried along by the void. One of the mana cables snagged against something, and she had it form talons which dug in deep to the wall. She sent the remaining mana along to fortify the cable, then with the cable wrapped around her hands, she willed it to contract. Ever so slowly, she was pulled from the grip of the void.
As she fell free, her fingers grasped the sharp and uneven surface of the shaft as the last of the shrouds dissipated. With great care, she hung by one hand and her left foot as she took a restore potion. Even though she was soon back at full health, and had replenished her personal store of mana, the shrouds were practically empty even though they’d slowly begun to regenerate.
Sensing nothing below her, Leah began to climb using only small touches of gravity to help her climb. Leah could feel the void rising ahead of her and wanted to stay as close as she could so new knights wouldn’t appear. Even though the void moved faster than she co
uld climb, there were no more knights when she sensed the ledge fifty paces up the shaft. She breathed a sigh of relief when she finally stepped onto it several minutes later.
41
December 26 2073 - 1
DUNYANIN
Both Günahkâr gave small bows of respect, and Küçük said, “K: War Leader, we saw you fall into the void. It felt as if you disappeared.”
“It felt like that to me as well. I could sense nothing except the knight where they had grabbed me. I couldn’t sense or feel any mana, and the void ate away at my life. Even though I couldn’t sense the shrouds, I knew they hadn’t yet been absorbed and was able to penetrate through the void and take hold of the wall. It was made more difficult not knowing how I was orientated. If that hadn’t worked, I was going to try and use whatever mana remained to create a divine light ball. The explosion might have thrown me away from the void.”
“O: Being that close, I assume it would have killed you.”
“Agreed, but I’ve taken a Phoenix potion, and I’d rather be brought back to health outside the void than inside. If I was inside, I’d probably just die a second time.”
After a few minutes of discussion, Leah sat and meditated. It was almost two hours before her shrouds were full and she was prepared to continue climbing. Four hours remained when, for what Leah hoped was the final time, they stepped off the ledge and began to move up the shaft.
With a ball of light moving ahead of them, they’d travelled for several minutes when Küçük said, “K: War Leader, there is a noise like the scraping of claws on stone. It comes from above and heads in this direction.”
Leah thanked Küçük for the information and summoned three each of Orumeck’s Warrior Drones and Lord Kötü’s Level Six minions. They’d only taken another five or so paces when the three could see what looked like a wave of rock moving toward them. As it approached, they were able to distinguish that it was made up of hundreds of centipede-like creatures created from the mountain itself. Their bodies were mainly granite with legs forged from steel, pincers and claws of adamantine and each had crystals embedded which were filled with mana to power the arm-length creatures.
KEMIRMEK CONSTRUCT - DEMONIC CENTIPEDE (Level 345) 119025HP (17250EP)
Individually, the constructs were almost a hundred levels less than Leah and wouldn’t have caused her any trouble. Even ten wouldn’t have made her miss a step. The sheer number descending down the shaft made her pause momentarily. When the leeches attacked, the fight had been on the level ground and the attack from one direction. Here, the attackers were approaching from along the entire circumference of the shaft.
Leah sent the six summoned creatures rushing forward to break up the attack as she and the two dark elves stepped apart to give each of the others room to move. The drones and minions disappeared under the flood of centipedes but succeeded in breaking the line enough that Leah had several moments to become acquainted with the attacking style of the constructs. Almost immediately, she noticed they were working together virtually as a single entity rather than as individuals. As the drones or minions killed one of the centipedes the other centipedes spread out to fill the space.
Before she could do much more than note the behaviour, she cast Rain of Fire but blended some Divine Light mana into the construction of the fire which fell. The spell conformed to her will and fell across the circumference of the tunnel, burning and deconstructing hundreds of the creatures. Both Orta and Küçük allowed themselves to drop ten or so paces down the shaft as the divine light burned their flesh slightly with the intensity of the spell Leah had constructed.
A hundred or so of the creatures escaped the fiery deluge, and these were finished off by Leah and the elves using swords. Before the last creature had been dealt with, another wave of centipedes constructs attacked. There were less of these, but each was three or more paces in length and twenty-five levels stronger than the first wave. Leah’s Rain of Fire and Light attack was still successful, but many of the creatures survived even though badly damaged. Finishing them off took a second spell, and even then some made it through to attack Leah and her guards.
Behind the second wave was a third.
KEMIRMEK CONSTRUCT - DEMONIC CENTIPEDE (Level 395) 156025HP (19750EP)
There were eighty of these larger constructs, the legs on these were half a pace in length, and their bodies were thicker than Leah’s. Leah cast two spells as before but most made it through even though most had lost more than half their health. It took several minutes, and the weight of the dead creatures as they fell down the shaft threatened on occasions to sweep the three off their feet. When all the centipedes were dead, the glow in the air from the mist used to help Leah with harvesting the bodies was almost solid.
Before Leah could harvest the constructs, Leah felt something descending down the shaft toward them.
KEMIRMEK LORDLING (Level 470) 519115HP (235000EP)
Standing five paces tall, its limbs were each the size of one of the dark elves. From its back was what looked like bats wings but the wing membranes were missing, and only the skeleton remained. There was a claw at the end of each of the long wing-fingers. The torso and limbs were heavily muscled, and each muscle, ligament and tendon was visible as it looked like the skin had been peeled from the body. Each part of its flesh was a dark burnt orange or deep bronze and seemed to glow. The skin was also missing from the lordling’s head. The bleached skull had almost no flesh except muscles holding the elongated jaw with its sharpened needlelike teeth. The eye sockets were filled with a bronze coloured fire, and it carried a sceptre as tall as itself with a split blade on one end. One tong was the end of a straight spear and the other a curved scimitar-shaped blade. The two tongs were separated by a hand’s width.
“K: War Leader, the creature has somehow captured and corrupted an earth elemental. It is this which powers it and gives it that glow.”
“Thank you. I cannot see a glow, and it would have taken me by surprise.”
“K❄️: You tread on holy ground, godling, or should I call you Empress. Oh, yes, I know who you are. Only one of the gods helped us as we struggled to escape the void. Only one saw fit to see us as more than refuse to be thrown away. He opened the breach in the barrier between the worlds and gave us this home in which to dwell. When I strip the skin from your body, he will raise me to great heights. Then, I will be Lord of the Kemirmek.”
Leah stepped forward and looked up at the Lordling, then said, “You foolish imp. What sort of fool escapes Lord Inkense only to bind themselves to a second rate god, like Suzluk? I’ve felt his cursed mana before when I carried his Lanetli. If not for him, you would be powerless. You are nothing to him except as food to sustain his hunger. He feeds on your despair and that of the tormented elemental you’ve captured. I suspect it was he who opened the rift into the void in the first place. For eons, he has fed off your hopelessness and now he makes you rush to do his bidding for you’ve become his slaves. He sends you to die at my hand because he is too impotent to do it himself.”
As she finished speaking Leah had to throw herself to one side as with a wave of his hand, the Lordling used his control of the earth mana to pull a boulder from the wall opposite Leah and fling it at her. She only escaped by using her shadow shroud to deflect the boulder down the shaft. She then used gravity to leap across the shaft as he pulled the ground from under her feet, shaping it into spears which followed her across the tunnel to slam into the other side. Although they missed her, Leah was showered with razor-sharp shards as she pushed herself clear by diving down the shaft. Several of the shards were sharp enough to pierce the dragon scale.
Leah tried to Teleport, only to appear less than half-way to where she’d intended. Where she appeared, she was within reach of the Lordling’s staff and had to Mist to escape being decapitated. She tried to Teleport a second time only to find the spell wouldn’t work. Instead, Leah threw herself sideways as a spear of granite slammed into the wall beside her. She misted to escape t
he shattered shards of the spear only to find she couldn’t Mist anymore either.
“K❄️: My god told us of your cowardly tricks. There is no escape this time.”
For the next few minutes Leah only just managed to keep ahead of the attacks because Küçük was able to use his own mastery of the earth to blunt the lordling’s attacks, and because Orta’s element of air was a counter to earth. The lordling’s mastery of earth, on the other hand, was a strong counter to her main elemental attack of fire. Her strong secondary elemental attacks of lightning, gravity, shadow and blood were also hampered by his elemental-powered earth mastery. The only strong spell she tried which had any effect was Tangle. It took root around him and slowed him down, breaking his hold on the rock beneath his feet.
Leah was losing health from the myriad of small cuts and grazes inflicted by the frenzied attack. Her store of personal mana was slipping below half when she remembered there were two spells she hadn’t tried. She hadn’t because they were earth spells and they’d slipped from her mind as she tried to find a counter to the earth element. They hadn’t worked before on the Kemermik but might this time since it was Earth powered him. Leah searched for an opportunity, and then as the Kemirmek hurled a large boulder from the wall on one side, she protected herself using her shadow shroud and formed the shield to push her directly toward the lordling. As she came within range, he reached out his arms to grab her, as he did, she grabbed his forearms, and dual cast Petrify.
From where her hands touched the lordling, he began to turn into solid stone. As her spell encountered the elemental earth mana, the spell increased in power. Within moments the huge demon one piece of solid rock. Across his body, Leah could sense the runes imprinted by the force and nature of her spell. With its power gone, the now frozen lordling would have fallen if its clawed feet hadn’t been fused with the wall of the tunnel.
