by Deck Davis
He stumbled back again and tried to think of something else. Anything else. He needed to distract his mind, but it was too hard. The images were too strong, too graphic.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it away. A thought occurred to him.
Fear. That was it – Fear.
As the evil voice whispered in his head, his true self stayed just strong enough to call the shots. With 3 newbies , Gevil and his daggers, and Layre readying to use his bomb spheres, the odds were stacked against them. There was still something he could do.
Mind of the Monster hadn’t worked last time, but he had a chance.
He looked at Gevil. They rogue was approaching Nathan warily, taking one cautious step after another. He was too experienced to rush into the fight.
Nathan tried to focus on the rogue’s face again. He looked at his skin, but in Nathan’s mind, it was coated in blood. He tried to delve deeper into the rogue’s brain, but something always yanked him back. A voice that told him to forget about his power and focus on the carnage around him.
He shook it off. He tried again. He tried to imagine his consciousness creeping into Gevil’s brain.
The voice pulled him back again. He couldn’t concentrate.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and realized Dereck was next to him.
Kill the cleric.
Nathan shook his head. This was going wrong. Having a high insanity meter was supposed to give him a better chance at using Mind of the Monster. The problem was, the higher his insanity was, the less he could control himself to actually use his power.
“Nathan,” said Dereck, and tugged on his arm.
“Go and get Sherlock.”
“But what about-”
“Just free Sherlock!”
Dereck ran by Gevil and over to Sherlock. As the cleric passed Gevil, the rogue raised his dagger and went to stab him.
At that second, Nathan plunged deep into his mind. He swam into the rogue’s skull. He started to infect his brain cells with Mind of the Monster, sending black liquid fear through his mind.
Mind of the Monster Fear check…
Insanity 85%...
Failed!
At that moment, Layre raised a glowing sphere in his hand and threw it at Nathan. He had just enough time to jump back, and the sphere exploded in front of him. He felt a searing pain across his chest and saw that a liquid flame had coated his skin. What the hell was in the wizard’s bombs? Napalm? When the fire disappeared, a quarter of his HP had drained.
The rogue looked at him and grinned. He smelled blood in the water, that was obvious. He thought he could take Nathan on. He raised his daggers and prepared to attack.
He opened his mouth and screamed. Suddenly, Sherlock was behind him. He’d stabbed his dagger through the rogue’s neck, catching him off-guard and scoring a critical hit.
Gevil collapsed onto his knees. He tried to say something, but Sherlock twisted the knife. The goblin’s face was screwed up in anger. He didn’t look like he was enjoying what he was doing to the rogue, but it seemed like it was releasing something for him. He drew out the dagger and then kicked the rogue forward so that he hit the floor face first.
A bomb exploded to Nathan’s left, burning his left arm and waist. More HP drained. Surrounding him were the 3 newbies. One shot a blue bolt at him, grazing his shoulder.
Even with Gevil and 4 newbies dead, the odds were still against them. Destructive mana swam around Layre’s head. He raised his hands and drew it toward him, readying himself for another spell.
Suddenly, Nathan stumbled back. He tasted blood in his mouth. His stomach ached with hunger, but not for food. For flesh. He heard a dozen voices whispering in his ear, urging him to turn on Sherlock. To rip the goblin limb from limb.
A newbie approached him, wand raised. Nathan lashed out, catching him at his elbow joint and ripping his wand-arm clean off. Crimson sprayed around the room, and the newbie ran in circles, screaming hysterically. Finally, he dropped to the floor and was still.
Insanity meter increased to 95%!
His mouth watered. He heard a pounding in his ears. Rage burned through him, flowing so hot that he thought it would burn him alive.
Dereck appeared at his side. He began to mouth some words. A yellow light glowed around him.
Kill him, said the voice.
The cleric continued to chant.
It was the spell that brought down his insanity meter. The cleric was trying to give him back control.
Behind the remaining 2 newbies, Layre was growing an almighty sphere in his hands. It was five times the size of the others. It looked like it would take out everyone in its blast radius, except for the wizard and his friends.
He needed to do something, but the wizard was just too powerful. Nathan didn’t have enough strength to kill him.
Unless…
He pushed Dereck away, stopping him mid-chant.
“Now I have to start over,” said the cleric.
Ignoring him, Nathan leapt forward, toward one of the hooded figures. He raised his claws midair. As his trajectory stopped, his claw pierced straight through the newbie’s eye. His eyeball popped. The man screamed, but he was dead before he could even finish the sound.
Insanity meter increased to 100%.
At first, Nathan didn’t feel any different with his insanity bar at full. He took a step back. He wondered what should have happened.
And then he felt it.
He saw shadows forming in the opening of the rot room. They were thick. There was something insidious about them. A sense that evil waited within the mist. He felt drawn to them, like he should ignore everything else in the room and let the shadows suffocate him.
Nathan felt his mouth open involuntarily. He tried to close it, but he couldn’t. The mist seeped across the room like a snake, before slithering into his open mouth and down his throat.
It crept into every fibre of his being. It infected every cell. He felt himself grow stronger. Whatever it was, as it infected him, it empowered him. Made him faster, stronger.
And then it wrestled for control of his mind. He felt it squeeze his brain. It tried to smother his consciousness with its foggy darkness.
He took a deep breath. He just had to stay in control for a few seconds more…
The sphere above Layre’s head was almost fully grown now. It popped and shimmered with mana. Layre’s face was dark red, and his eyes bulged as he struggled to contain the tremendous spell in his palms.
Nathan ran toward him. A newbie stepped in his way, but Nathan brushed him aside as if he were an insect. Blood splattered his face, but he licked his lips and carried on running.
Layre broke his concentration to grin at Nathan.
“Too late, monster,” he said.
But Nathan had reached him. He felt the darkness gathering inside him, filling him with monster power and fury. It was battering his mind, but he held firm.
Just enough to reach the wizard. To grit his teeth and then stab his claws forward.
Pointed claws met wrinkled flesh. Skin parted like butter. Blood dribbled over his hands.
Layre wheezed. He tried to finish his spell, but it was no good. Nathan shoved his claws deeper into the wizard’s neck. The full force of his insanity surged through him.
The wizard’s eyes widened, and then the spark in them died. He let out a final breath.
Nathan withdrew his claws, and Layre Mock flopped to the ground.
Dereck walked toward him with Sherlock at his side. They approached Nathan, taking a few seconds to survey the carnage around them. The main chamber was coated in blood.
Lovely, delicious blood.
It wasn’t Nathan who his friends approached. Not anymore. He was something else. Something that lurked in the darkest corners of his Tuphos nature.
He saw the cleric and the goblin walk toward him. He kept his claws at his side. He wouldn’t use them until they were close. He’d catch them off guard. Stab them in the gut, and d
isembowel them before they had a chance to react.
The cleric walked forward.
Just one more step…
Nathan suddenly emerged from the waters of his subconscious. He wrestled for control of his mind. The darkness was strong and thick. Its pure desire for control was overwhelming.
He looked at Dereck and Sherlock with pity. He tried to control himself, but he couldn’t. His insanity or his nature, whatever it was, would win. He’d kill his friends in cold blood. They were doomed.
The cleric started to back away. He must have noticed the look on Nathan’s face. He must have known what it meant.
Nathan stepped forward. He towered over them now. He raised his claws.
And then he fought back. He tried to remember what Dereck had taught him. He needed to breathe. To let his thoughts drain away.
Come on. Fight it. He wouldn’t let his instincts win.
And then he remembered.
‘You need to embrace your nature,’ the cleric had told him after they had meditated for the first time.
He was right. Nathan was a Tuphos, and his inner nature wouldn’t just disappear. Now that his insanity had reached 100%, it wouldn’t just leave. He had to embrace it. Welcome it.
Instead of fighting for control in his head, he took deep breaths. He imagined peaceful thoughts floating into his mind and disinfecting the fog. He imagined his head clearing. His desires draining, and then vanishing.
The fog started to leave. Some of it clung on to tendrils of his mind, but he stayed firm.
Peaceful thoughts. Deep breaths.
And then it was gone.
Skill gained – Insanity Mastery
You are starting to master your inner beast.
You cannot completely remove your insanity, but you have taken a step.
He checked his meter and saw that it had fallen to 65%. It was enough for him to regain control of himself. Then, hoping the evil look had left his expression, he turned to face his friends.
Sherlock let his dagger arm fall limp at his side. Dereck stopped backing away.
“Don't worry guys,” said Nathan. “I’m back.”
Chapter Eighteen
Later, they went into the tunnels and found Watson’s body. They each said a few words, and then they laid him to rest in the rot room. Sherlock stood in the opening of the room with tears in his eyes. He still clutched his dagger in his hand, sticky and stained with Gevil’s blood.
“What now?” asked Dereck.
After the fight, Nathan had been flooded with messages. They told him he had levelled up 3 times, giving him great boosts to his HP, Att, Def, and energy. It was a welcome sight, but it wasn’t enough.
He felt like something else had changed. It wasn’t just that he had embraced his Tuphos nature, but something else. His heart pounded, and adrenaline still shot through his body. He sensed he wouldn’t be forgetting the carnage of the battle for a long time.
He knew what they had to do next. He didn’t like it, but it was the only thing they could do. He glanced at the newbies’ corpses on the ground of the main chamber. Blood leaked out of their open wounds and stained the dirt. None of them moved. Everything was silent.
Nathan picked up two of the corpses and heaved them onto his shoulders.
“Grab a body each,” he told Dereck and Sherlock.
They carried the bodies through the tunnels of the mountain. The silence was oppressive now. The whole mountain was still, and not even the sound of dripping water could be heard.
Their going was slow, but eventually, they reached the passageway of the Ancients. Nathan dropped the corpses onto the ground. He walked over to Ancient door #3. He saw the skull fastened to the wall, ready to be filled with blood. He read the words carved into the stone next to it.
To enter here,
Heroes blood must be shed,
Just pour it in,
The giant’s head.
Dereck took 2 healing potions from his inventory bag. He drank the liquid from one of them and replenished his health. He tipped the contents of the other onto the floor.
Together, they filled the vials with blood from the newbies' corpses. As Nathan held the vials, he could smell the iron-tint of their blood. It was thick, and it swished against the sides of the glass.
He walked up to the skull. This is it, he thought. He couldn’t help but feel that this was the end.
Vial by vial, trip by trip, he filled the skull until finally, it began to overflow.
He heard a sound. It sounded like static; the fizzing of mana burning away. He looked ahead of him at the passageway that led to Ancient #3, and he knew that it was open now.
He took a step forward. Dereck and Sherlock walked behind him, but he held his hand in the air.
“I have to do this alone,” he said.
And then he walked down the darkened passageway. He crossed through the invisible barrier. He took a few more steps, and then he was in the room.
This was a triangle-shaped room, with the stone walls converging to a point at the end. It was silent. Looking around, Nathan saw that nobody was there. There was no ancient waiting for him here.
Instead, he saw two things. One was a water mirror that completely covered the wall to his left. Then, in the centre of the room, was the shimmering outline of a Tuphos monster. It was infused with a thin red light that seemed to crawl up and down it like electricity.
He instinctively knew what he had to do. He took one last look at the room around him, and then he stepped forward. He walked until he broke through the red light and stood inside the shimmering Tuphos form.
Energy surged through him. It latched onto his skin. It was warm, electrifying. It crawled over every inch of him. He felt the shimmering form begin to close around his body, snapping shut on him like a suit of armor.
He lost his breath. His vision was filled with a flashing red light. It seeped into his eyes, into his gaping mouth. Down his throat. It filled him.
And then it flashed so brightly that it filled his vision.
When it receded, he felt different. Something had changed.
He glanced to his left and looked into the water mirror. For the first time since getting here, he saw himself as a full form. The transparent outline of his body was gone, replaced by something real. Leathery-looking flesh. Red skin. He stared into the mirror, and a fully-formed monster looked back at him.
Power #3 Gained – Tuphos Body
The Tuphos body allows you to enter and leave Tuphos mountains.
There are several such mountains in Adonis. Nobody knows where they are.
When you are close to one, you will feel it.
You are strong enough to walk in Adonis now. The air cannot hurt you. The sun cannot burn you.
- Magic resistance gained
- Elemental resistance gained
- Def increased to 86
The resistance to magic and the elements was great, but that wasn’t what made Nathan smile. Now, with his Tuphos form finally complete, he knew that he’d broken whatever was binding him to the mountain. He’d finally be able to leave.
He thought about the village of Janess. All he’d wanted was to go there. To sleep in a real bed. To meet people. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
He still wanted to leave the mountain, but he sensed that he had a higher purpose now. That something waited for him outside of this mountain. Something in Adonis Rebirth that he had to see, or something that he had to do.
He turned around. It was time to go. He walked across the room and then left by the opening. Dereck and Sherlock were waiting for him, looking at him expectantly.
As he stepped back into the passageway, he heard a sound. A rumbling noise, like the beginning of an earthquake.
Dereck looked around. “What the hell?”
The mountain walls began to tremor. Dust shook off the roof and fell to the ground. The rumbling grew louder and louder, like the roar of the worst thunderstorm he’d ever heard.
The t
unnels began to shake violently. The walls began to crack. Stones fell from the ceiling and smashed to the ground. It sounded as if some giant was beating on the mountain, trying to tear it apart.
