Keymaster

by Sergey Zaytsev

  “I hope you’re not suggesting that we throw her out of the clan?”

  “Oh yeah, sure....” he said sarcastically. “Are you kidding? Every fighter counts.”

  “Then we’ll somehow deal with their discontent. I talked to Marana a little after calibrating the Seventh Seal in, uh, the CC. Fine, the name can stay. Anyway, she has a very peculiar way of communication, but I understood one thing clearly: she has no doubt that the Creepoars will attack, and that it won’t be easy to defend the Citadel. So, even if we forget her excellent fighting skills, which will no doubt be useful for defense, for a second, the general benefit of having a Succubus around is still substantial. After all, she did warn us.”

  “Well, yes, I agree with you on that,” Stinger blurted, his enthusiasm gone by this point. “Things have become rather complicated lately. I’d prefer the changes to come gradually, rather than all at once, like... Yes, like an avalanche that took me by surprise at the most inappropriate place. It’s too late to run, and devil only knows how to survive. It’ll crush you without second thought.”

  “That’s why I’m in a hurry,” I said, jumping to the next step of the serpentine. “After all, there are no more restrictions on the number of raids. I’m afraid to even think how many of them will come. In any case, leaving Lunar Rainbow is not that easy, so let’s get this delusion that everything will be done with the completion of the damn epic out of everyone’s head. We desperately need the Dions; they’re good fighters, hardened in battle, and no worse than the Raksh. But unlike them, there are a lot of slingers among the Dions. And they have better armor. Right now, they’re trying to understand what’s happening. They need time... Which we may not have.”

  “Spit it out already,” Stinger sighed. “What else is bugging you?”

  “What do you think will happen when the Sphere disappears?”

  “What do you mean by ‘what?’ A portal will open in the midst of Diamond Crown ruins, at the resurrection point. Is it not for the sake of that bright moment that we’re freezing our butts off? Good God, I hope that the new location will be warm, otherwise I’ll be very pissed.”

  “A nice beach near a blue sea, maybe, good sir?” I involuntarily grinned, imagining Stinger’s massive frame in a deck chair, with a cocktail with a little umbrella in his hand.

  “Well, why not? No one would ever have a picnic here, that’s for sure. The only way to warm yourself up is to swing a weapon. But under the sun, on warm sand... I did swim quite well before... I fucking miss water. We need to unwind somehow, enjoy the little things. Killing isn’t the only joy in a player’s life.”

  “Don’t stray from the topic, vacationer. Have you forgotten what happens in the Flame Phase? Do you remember how many of them appear then?”

  “A fucking fuckton,” Stinger grumbled reluctantly.

  “That’s right. So, either that ‘fucking fuckton’ goes back into whatever hole it crawled out from, and disappear like a nightmare... Or all of them appear at once, with no borders to hold them back anymore, and rush at us like hungry rats at cheese.”

  “I bet my both hands, feet and tail that the first thing will happen, because I don’t like the second option at all.”

  “You have no tail.”

  “Marana has one.”

  “You’re all about chasing tail,” I said, poking fun. I couldn’t resist. It was just for shits and giggles; double true.

  “Oh, no! These are malicious insinuations! I’m a gentleman, and would do no such a thing without the lady’s permission...”

  “Okay, we’ll talk again when I get back. The last Seal is near, and I need to finish my job.”

  “Go on, move it. Try not to turn into a snowman, the weather’s real shit. Lunar Rainbow really doesn’t want to let us go.”

  Having finished the conversation, I found that the steps were finally over, and I habitually mounted the rested Fury. The speed and comfort of movement increased significantly. A few minutes later, the gorge ended, leading us to the main reason behind our journey.

  New location discovered: Vale of the First Seal

  Reward: +7,000 XP

  Here, in the vale surrounded by steep, rocky slopes that surrounded the valley like the walls of a giant well, there was almost no wind. Snowflakes danced in the air, gently, without scratching our faces anymore. I saw the white arch of the Seal protruding from the snow almost immediately. All the Seals had the same guards — Screamers. But now, they didn’t bother us, recognizing my right to be here. I had the Key with me after all.

  Riding Fury closer, I brushed the snow off the upper section of the arch. The system responded after a second of delay.

  First Seal of the Sphere of Styx

  State: deactivated; 70% damage

  Activation requires a Key. Can only be activated by the Shriek Citadel’s master.

  First by number, but last by the activation order. Before coming here, I already activated the Seventh, Ninth and Third Seals and I had to run quite a lot from one to another through mountains and valleys.

  The arch reacted to me even before I reached into my pouch. Engraved into the stone was a nine-sided notch, into which the narrow Key fit like it had always been there, sinking one-third into the keyhole.

  Nothing happened for a minute, and the Raksh, lining up in a circle, held their breath, directing twenty-one pairs of bewitched orange gazes at the Key. Awe was clearly visible on their faces. Each activation filled them with delight — the history of this world was being made before their eyes.

  Finally, a thin slit appeared along the flat edge of the arch, dividing it into two circles. The inner part trembled and separated from the outer base, and then, having scattered the snow below, it began to move, rotating around the invisible center on a ring inscribed with mysterious symbols.

  The Key, by the way, was found near the mage’s chair, amid the dust. It turned out to be a soc, but not like an ordinary soc. The soc of Phoenix Shriek’s soul reflected the location’s name. Every minute, one of its nine faces flashed with a new color, and these colors never repeated. When the last edge shone, a system message appeared.

  Seal Calibration complete.

  Reward for calibrating all Seals: 50% of current level XP

  I smiled wearily, squinting slightly from the snowflakes dancing in front of my eyes. It’s nice to get rewards even before the quest is complete, especially if you didn’t count on getting any. But this was to be expected; we were doing an epic, after all.

  Estimated time of synchronization with the current level of damage: 24 hours

  Note: Deactivating the Sphere of Styx before the end of synchronization grants 69% chance of evading the world’s destruction (Keymaster level bonus: +23%).

  Oh wow, it can be deactivated now! Morbid curiosity took the best of me and I couldn’t help but wonder what the destruction of this world would look like, and would we have time to run for our lives. Following game logic, we would probably be given a chance to escape. Not to mention that our chances of survival increase the more of the quest we do. So, rushing it without a good reason wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do. We needed to leave without unnecessary complications; our existence was at stake. What could be more serious than that?

  Attention!

  [Wisecracker], the fate of this world now depends on you!

  Yes, I know, I know. And I couldn’t forget it even if I wanted to. You can’t really push such a responsibility onto someone else. One thing was suspicious, though; there were still no global achievements. Perhaps they’d appear at the very end of the quest, something like “Savior of the World” reward, bundled together with a bunch of cool stuff and a free ticket to explore the next location. That’d be nice...

  Before I could even mentally congratulate myself on the journey’s end and daydream a little, Rawrk ran up and tugged on my elbow to get my attention.

  “What is it, my furry friend?”

  “Sai, watch!” The Raksh worriedly pointed both right arms at the sky.
“Trouble! Bad time! The sky burn! Back! Quickly! Run!”

  I lifted my head and froze, feeling the icy cold spread in my chest. The sky was, quite literally, burning. The snow couldn’t hide the crimson glow that spread over the Diamond Crown valley; it was as if someone in the celestial smithy knocked over a kettle full of molten metal. Without taking my eyes off it, I instantly activated the chat.

  “Stinger, what’s the situation there?”

  “If you’re talking about that crap in the sky, we’ve noticed it. It hasn’t reached us yet, all’s good here. By the way, congratulations, we received the message about the synchronization. The Lowlings are about to jump out of their pants with joy. This glow is probably somehow connected to the approaching end of the quest. I advise you to hurry back, just in case.”

  “You guessed it right, human.” Caraster’s icon flashed in the chat. He unceremoniously interrupted Stinger, his voice raspy, like a rusty spring. It was he who was scouting the closest to my group. “But only partially. The process destabilized the Sphere; a breach has happened in the ruins of the Diamond Crown.”

  “What kind of breach, Caraster? Tell us what you see.”

  “I’m coming back,” the scout said impassively. “Until the connection is interrupted, withdraw all quest-doers back to the Citadel. Call the outcasts in Madogost, too. We’ll need as many warriors as possible to fight off this wave.”

  I caught Jarook’s attentive gaze — he nodded, agreeing with the Okhtan. Rawrk, too, was already prepared, listening to the conversation. His fur reared, and his paws were about to clutch his beloved daggers. That one likes nothing better than a fight, not even meat. The rest of the Raksh formed a column for the march without additional orders.

  Not forgetting to pick up the Key, I gave Fury a mental order to turn and we rushed back to the gorge.

  “How many are there, Caraster? How many attackers?!”

  I didn’t like the answer I was given, so I forced Fury to rush forward even faster.

  “They’re already in sight, human, I had to leave quickly. But know this: there are more Creepoars than all of us together, that’s for sure.”

  Chapter 62

  The booming echo of Fury’s paws beating the snow bounced off the stone walls. We overcame the last part of the tunnel and jumped out of the darkness into and into the daylight.

  The exit lay two hundred feet away from the border of the former green zone, behind a massive rocky ridge, amid the scattered bulwark of granite boulders. In a few jumps, having rounded the edge of the cliff and escaping into the open, I immediately jumped off Fury’s back to wait for the lagging Raksh. The Direcat’s sides were heaving slowly, breath escaping from her jaws in a hot steam. She immediately settled on the frozen dirt to restore energy.

  Rawrk was the first to emerge from the tunnel, as I had expected. Having run up, he also plopped down, wheezing, and spat blood — he had almost broken his jaw along the way during an unsuccessful maneuver, evading the remains of the columns. Unable to keep up with Fury any more, the Raksh scattered across the tunnel and it was necessary to reassemble them before the last charge.

  The blizzard almost subsided.

  A gaze thrown into the distance no longer got lost in the blinding gusts, and the mound was now perfectly visible. Everything looked much worse than I had imagined; Fury growled silently, reflecting my lousy mood.

  The Demons took the same path we did. Once the Citadel’s protection was turned off, the underground passage was no longer an obstacle, and it turned into an ordinary tunnel. And since the protective barrier was also long gone, the Creepoars set off straight through the former green zone right from the exit. When I was leaving for the Seals, summer had already turned into winter; a thin layer of ice had covered the ground, devouring what little remained of the flora. From the tunnel to the foot of the mound now stretched a wide path of mud and ice, trampled by hundreds of Creepoar hot feet, and husks of charred trees.

  We hurried as much as we could, pushing ourselves beyond our limits. I could get ahead of everyone — but what was the use of me alone without the Raksh?

  Caraster called it a breach for a reason — and it really was just that; a breach caused by the brief desynchronization during the last Seal activation. When our group got to the ruins of Diamond Crown, the glow in the sky had long been extinguished, as if it had never existed. The fracture of their reality disappeared, sealing the world of the Creepoars. We didn’t have to go around the ruins, so we raced right through them — through the resurrection point and on.

  But still, no matter how fast we ran and how much we pushed ourselves, the journey took more than an hour.

  What we saw was disappointing: the mound was besieged. The left tower of the Citadel was burning, wrapped in blue magical flame almost to the middle, smoke rising toward the sky as if from a huge torch. Above the spires of both towers, there was a giant creature no less than a hundred feet long — a scaly, red giant shrouded in flames, with rows of short wings along the entire length of it snake body and a bone crest along the back, stretching from its head to its tail. The wyrm opened its maw the size of a bus, and made wide circles over the territory of the Citadel. For some reason, it didn’t attack. Yet.

  Save me Alan the Dark! How are we to cope with such a creature? How is this even possible? How hadn’t they all perished before our arrival? Only a dozen names were grayed out on the list of the clan members. What could my little group of miserable twenty warriors do, when the Citadel had been protected by more than a hundred of ours, who fought back with great effort?! Besides the wyrm, there were still four hundred of Demons roaming about, and out of the three serpentine rings, one and a half coils were crammed with creatures that couldn’t fit at the top near the besieged walls. They were waiting for their turn to join the battle. Were the Dalrokts that strong? Who else but them would be able to hold back this horde?

  I looked back in great confusion. And anger.

  Restoring their strength, a dozen Raksh had already settled on the ground around me, the rest were still on their way. I warned Stinger that completing the epic wouldn’t be all sunshine and rainbows. I must’ve jinxed it. Ok, I need to pull myself together. There’s no way that we can avoid this battle. We’re as good as dead without the Citadel. Period.

  I stared at the mound again, studying the formation of our enemies.

  The distance was too large to see the details, and the system wasn’t of much help either. But it was still possible to discern that near the gates, surrounded by various Creepoars, stood the familiar figure of a giant Protector. Perhaps it was the same one that had grabbed the slab at the secret entrance, or maybe it was another one. Not like it mattered. It was this giant that we had to reach if we wanted to tip the scales of battle in our favor.

  Hmm, it would be funny if it weren’t so sad. Tremendously sad.

  For starts, we somehow had to break through the entire horde. I might be able to survive the backlash from several Soulcatcher applications without consequences, but that attack wouldn’t do so well in a crowd. Sure, it gave me heaps of energy and at a breakneck pace, but emergency restoration depleted my body’s natural resources — the very building material that came from food or, at worst, a Health Tincture. And getting injured in situation like that one was inevitable, one didn’t have to be a genius to figure that out. It was enough just to take a good look at the hundreds of enemies littered across the slopes of the mound. I was already neck-deep in all of this. But, my solo abilities weren’t fit for such a battle.

  Yet, I couldn’t despair. I had no such luxury. Neither did I have a choice — either I break through to the Citadel now and join the defenders, or I’m guaranteed to be crushed a little later when the tower falls and the Creepoars find the time for me and my squad. I fancied the former option, as there was a chance of winning. After all, I had a group of Raksh with me. I prudently studied their abilities on our way to the Seal and back, so I already had a couple of strategies for the upcoming battle
. One of their racial bonus gave them +30% to Dual Wielding, taking into account their four blades that was one mighty bonus. And Vortex Onslaught, similar in effect to Fury’s Burst Attack, was also a force to be reckoned with. Not to mention their long leap. So, the plan was as follows: without going on a rampage, we’ll throw the Raksh into the thick of it, because our main objective is to get me to the top. But how do I myself avoid the “thick of it?” There were no tanks in our raid; I didn’t take any because they’re slow. So, here I am, the only warrior with defense much higher than that of my furry friends. At least I had Flame with me. At level 23, and with all the modifiers, it did some serious damage.

  Having observed the serpentine that was teeming with demons with a gloomy gaze, I was convinced that there were no other surprises besides the wyrm. But because of the sheer number of enemies, our task seemed unfathomable. Okay, feel the fear and do what’s needed. I should also talk with Stinger while the Raksh are resting.

  “Stinger? What’s the situation there?”

  “It sucks!” the tank shouted, panting, obviously participating in the fight. “It’s like in a mosh pit in here, and we’re holding our ground only thanks to the Dalrokts! The rest risk being crushed to a pulp as soon as they stick their noses out!”

  “You’re a tank, too, and I saw what you can do,” I encouraged. “Hang on there.”

  “I’m good at dodging, not direct battle! These creatures are much more dangerous than the Hounds, you can’t just push them back! Chzher is already in a bad state, he’s barely standing on his feet! Had it not been for Tinnie’s pollen... She was almost knocked out, too, she had to devour so many escs to recharge, she’s about to burn out like a bulb! We need your Soulcatcher. I’ve no other idea how to stop this fucking Protector!”

  Damn it! The Dalrokts were wrong not to join the clan. They would’ve had access to Bloodlust had they done so. Even though it was available for each clan member only once an hour, quickly restoring 20% of your HP was worth a lot since we didn’t have any healers.