Dungeon Master 7

by Eric Vall

  I sensed no sacred item in this dungeon, and I already held a whole trove of gold in my void pocket, so there was no need to plunder the treasure here. I knew we were only a half day’s journey to the next dungeon and from what I could sense, there certainly was something there of interest, though what it was, I wasn’t quite sure.

  I turned back to my women, and they both looked back. Haruhi gave me a nervous smile as she glanced between Morrigan and me. The elven woman narrowed her eyes on my face and crossed her arms over her ample chest. She raised a single white eyebrow in question, and I already knew what was coming next.

  “What does the name Kazama mean, and why did Athar call you that?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Morrigan’s dark eyes watched me with suspicion, but there was no way that I could’ve prevented this. Haruhi looked to me with wide, uncertain eyes and glanced over at her elven sister every few seconds.

  “Why did Athar call you Kazama?” the white-haired woman asked as she looked me directly in the eye. “I can tell from Haruhi’s expression and mannerisms that she already knows. What are you hiding from my sisters and me?”

  The sage opened her mouth to speak then closed it as Morrigan gave her a hard side-glance. The feline closed her lips tightly and knitted her paws together in front of her body.

  I squared my shoulders and leveled my eyes at Morrigan. Athar had called my name in his time of need, and I cursed him for it. This was a conversation that I wanted to save for all of my minion’s at once, but I knew that I had to tell the elven woman something to satiate her.

  “That is my name,” I uttered as if finally accepting the name as my own. “That is the holy name given to me from birth.”

  “Kazama? The destroyer of worlds and eater of souls? The one and only vengeful god that killed and maimed for fun?” Morrigan whispered, and I felt my stomach tighten at her words. “The literal monster that’s haunted children’s dreams all over the globe? Is that who you are, Master?”

  It seemed that Morrigan had heard the lore and legends of my past. I was often described as a horrifying creature that slipped from shadow to shadow and stole away lives in the dead of night. I was the evil creature behind every scary tale, the monster under every bed and around every corner. The god that burned down towns without reason, starved cities when they displeased me and waged wars for no reason other than I wanted blood spilled. I was the ravager, the destroyer, the god that asked for more and more and destroyed when I didn’t receive what I deserved.

  Morrigan looked into my face with an expression devoid of emotion, but this time it seemed different, colder, and more indifferent. The elven woman’s heart beat slowly and calmly as she took my features in as if it were the very first time.

  “Yes, I won’t lie to you, Morrigan,” I said in a firm voice as I took a step forward and the elven woman held up her hands for me to stop. “I am Kazama, the god of the Underworld, which I have already told you, but I was more than just that.”

  “I know who you are, I’ve heard the stories,” the white-haired elf replied in an insipid tone. “Your legacy continued even after you were gone for so long from the heavens. Your name still strikes terror in the hearts of men and mortals alike. Even my parents and the High Elves spoke of you with fear in their voices, and you tried to hide it from us.”

  “I didn’t hide it from you, I am not a frightened man who cheated on his wife,” I stated in a louder voice, and Morrigan inclined her head to me. “I protected you from who I truly am. If I had told you, none of you would be here with me today. You would’ve run from me and ended up like everyone else that entered into my dungeon. I saw into your hearts and knew that you needed me just as much as I needed you.”

  “And you knew this all along?” Morrigan asked as her head snapped to Haruhi, and the sage jumped. “You knew in Machstein, didn’t you? You have this endless supply of knowledge and books, there was no way that you didn’t know.”

  “I-I…I did…” the sage admitted as she hung her head low and avoided the elf’s probing eyes.

  “And you hid it from us, this whole time?” Morrigan questioned in her cold voice, and Haruhi hung her head even lower. “We accepted you into our family, and this is how you repay us.”

  “Do not speak to her like that,” I commanded, and the sage’s head finally lifted.

  Haruhi’s hazel eyes burned with a fire that wasn’t there before, and she turned on the elven woman. The sage approached her and lifted her chin as she spoke defiantly.

  “I knew, it’s true, and I kept it a secret,” Haruhi stated confidently as her paws curled into fists at her side. “I didn’t say anything because it is not my secret to tell. Yes, I knew, and I would’ve taken it to my grave if I had to. You have no right to be angry with him, Master was only trying to protect you and our sisters.”

  “I never wanted my past to hurt you or the others, Morrigan,” I said in a firm voice. “You have loved me without knowing my past or my true name. You offered your hearts and lives to me willingly, and I sealed away the past that could hurt all of you, but now it is all out in the open. I cannot hide it anymore, you know now, and we’ve come too far to turn back. You are my minion, Morrigan…”

  I let the words hang in the air for a moment. She knew what I meant, once she’d decided to join me, there was no leaving. I’d once said before that I would keep them with me forever and I would do just that no matter what. I looked into her eyes as silence fell over us heavily, and Morrigan stared at me for a long time without blinking. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the white-haired mage shook her head and chuckled darkly.

  I glanced over at Haruhi, and the sage’s eyes were wide with confusion. She leaned forward and looked into Morrigan’s half-closed eyes as if to puzzle out why the elf was laughing. Just as suddenly, the mage stopped and lifted her face to mine.

  “I should’ve known in all honesty,” Morrigan laughed as her expression broke. “All the signs and clues were there, but my love for you blinded me, and I chose to ignore it. You openly told us that you were the god of the Underworld and that Eris was your mother. From my limited knowledge of the gods, I knew that Eris only had two children. Why didn’t I see? Why did I blind myself to this information?”

  Haruhi and I glanced at each other out of the corners of our eyes. Morrigan’s thoughts were all over the place, and it was hard to discern where she was going with this. I took another step closer to the elven woman, and this time, she didn’t stop me, only raised her dark eyes to meet mine.

  “Do you distrust me?” I asked as I held my hands out to her. “Are you afraid of me now?”

  “I’ve never been afraid of you,” Morrigan uttered in a voice that finally showed some emotion to me. “You’ve protected me from all harm and held fear in your heart that all of us would try to leave if we found out.”

  “I cannot stop you if you choose to turn your heart away from me,” I stated in a firm voice as I came even closer. “But you pledged your life to me, and I will not let you go.”

  “I was never going to leave,” Morrigan whispered as she placed her pale, delicate hands in mine. “I love you.”

  The elven woman and I came together in a tight embrace. My lips found her’s in the darkness of the nexus, and I kissed her passionately. I held her to me as I put all of my emotions behind my kisses and showed her how I felt. I wondered for a moment if my other minions would have the same reaction as Morrigan or if they would turn away from me. Morrigan, Haruhi, and Heijing, though she wasn’t one of my women, knew who I was, and they’d accepted me for who I was, no matter my birth or my life before them.

  I pulled away from Morrigan hastily as a far off sound caught my attention. It was like someone yelling my name down a tunnel, and I turned suddenly. My two minion’s whipped their heads in the direction that I looked, but it seemed that they didn’t hear it. I already knew what it was and turned back to Morrigan.

  “I must go to the others, take care of my avatar while I’m gone,” I
instructed her, and the elven woman nodded back.

  “Goodbye, be safe…Kazama.” Morrigan smiled as she pressed a tender kiss to my lips.

  I smiled back, then closed my eyes. The voice that rang in my head was undoubtedly Carmedy’s as she called out to me, and I breathed in deeply. I sought out their heartbeats over the span of space and time and found them without trouble. I began the process of transferring over my essence, and though it took a matter of seconds, it seemed like ages before I settled into the flesh of the second avatar.

  I exhaled loudly and felt hot air brush against my face. My feet were moving under me, and someone was holding tightly to my hand as I opened my eyes. The room was ablaze with fire and behind the billowing clouds of smoke, a massive shape whipped around the ceiling. I almost stumbled as I craned my neck to see, but I caught myself right before I fell.

  “Bob? Are you alright back there?” The alchemist shouted over the enraged shouts and screams of my other two minions.

  The air was thick with black smoke as another booming voice rose over the sounds of my women. I turned my head right as the shape of a man moved forward and slammed his hand out toward Annalise, but the high queen dropped to the floor and rolled away.

  The man was tall, not a titan figure like Athar but slightly taller than my avatar. His long black hair flowed out behind him, and his eyes that burned in the dim light were bright orange. When he opened his mouth to scream in rage, all of his teeth were filed down to fine points like a predator’s. Fire blasted out of the man’s palm and hit where Annalise had just been standing, but the swordswoman cackled at his miss.

  “What’s happening?” I shouted over the explosions all around us, and Carmedy stopped in her tracks as she whipped her head to stare at me.

  “M-Master?” the feline gasped as she held on even tighter to my hand. “You’re here?”

  “You called for me, so I came,” I shouted over the loud roars that I assumed came from Heijing, wherever she was amongst the smoke and fire. “What is happening? What’s the matter?”

  “Heijing is hurt, and we can’t get to her because of that big nasty guy!” the alchemist cried as she brushed her black hair out of her eyes and began working on a potion in one of her burlap bundles. “We thought we could take him on by ourselves, but he’s too powerful. His fire attacks prevent us from getting close and getting her out of there!”

  I raised my head and watched as the god blasted more fire from his palms, and both Annalise and Rana jumped out of the way of the attack. The swordswoman and fox both carried close-range weapons, so they were no use against this god, and Carmedy could only shoot potions after she’d made them.

  For a second, the smoke cleared, and I could just make out the hulking shape of Heijing’s body. The dragon attempted to crawl her way up from the ground, roared, and then fell forward with blood seeping through her teeth. Part of her flank was black with soot, but before I could take in more of the damage, smoke obscured my view. My heart pounded with rage as my eyes settled on the god and his movements toward my minions.

  Heijing wasn’t my minion, but she was our ally, and I’d promised to protect her just as I had with my other women. I couldn’t stand to see her hurt or in pain, and I let my hand drop from Carmedy’s as I turned toward the god. He stopped walking and turned as he sensed my presence that hadn’t been there before. I didn’t recognize him from my time in the heavens, and his eyes settled upon my face.

  “Ah, so you’re not just an empty shell as I thought,” the god scoffed as we faced off with each other. “Welcome, shall we introduce ourselves?”

  “Hello,” I growled as I summoned the power Heijing gave to me and lifted both hands into the air. “I’m the god that’s going to suck out your life force and steal your powers.”

  “Aren’t you going to ask my name?” the god chuckled as he summoned two balls of fire into his hands. “I am--”

  “I don’t care.” I snarled as I slammed my left hand out, and a stream of ice shot out at him.

  I didn’t care who he was or what powers I would receive when I killed him, the only thing I cared about was getting Heijing to safety, and her wounds tended to. I needed to execute this god quickly and effectively to give my minions a chance to get to the Qianlong without getting injured in the process.

  The ice almost hit him, but the deity only laughed in response as he deflected it with a wave of his hand. I gritted my teeth, slammed my right foot forward, and pushed all of my power into the next strike. Blue ice raced across the floor toward the god, but he spun away in three quick steps and moved out of the way of it.

  Without missing a beat, I swung my left hand up from the ground and erected a wall of ice behind him. The god’s back bumped into it, and he stood there for a second as he glared at me. He brought both hands up over his head then slammed them down in a sweeping motion. The ice wall melted in an instant and flooded the floor around his feet.

  “You’re a powerful sonofabitch, aren’t you?” the deity asked as he stepped closer. “I can feel all of that power built up inside your essence. Why don’t you leave some for the rest of us?”

  “Leave some for the rest of you?” I smirked as I let my hands drop to my sides. “You can’t escape your own dungeon, let alone take on a much stronger god.”

  In an instant, I clenched my hands into a fist as I concentrated on the water at his feet. Before the god could even move, I brought my hands up, and the water crackled to life and formed an ice sphere around the deity. I could just make him out from within the thick walls of ice as he struggled to free himself. It was no use for him though, as I tightened my fists, and the ice closed in on him.

  The god struggled to move in the tight space, and fire bloomed from his hands, but it barely melted the barriers from within. He only succeeded in melting the surrounding ice a few times before the walls closed in on him completely. I squeezed my hands even tighter as scarlet fire blasted from inside the orb, but it did nothing to help his situation. His form became more and more blurred as the ice closed in around him and soon enough, he was completely obscured from view.

  I brought my hands together and held them there as I felt him struggle desperately from within. There was nothing he could do now, and the harder I pushed, the closer to death he became. I turned my head and shouted to my minions who had stopped to watch.

  “Go to Heijing!” I commanded, and all three of them nodded their heads, and then raced off to the fallen Qianlong’s form.

  I turned my attention back to the god encased in ice, and I could sense that he’d stopped struggling. He was just another puny god in the presence of a much stronger one, it was only natural for this to happen to him. I smashed the palms of my hands together, and I felt it within me the moment that he took his last breath.

  The ice surrounding him shattered into a million pieces and exploded outward in tiny slivers. The god’s body fell to the floor, and I moved toward it as I turned my head in the direction of my womens’ voices. An orange orb lifted from his chest and floated over me, but I didn’t have much interest in it as I stepped over his corpse. The sphere of power pressed into me as I hurried over to my women and Heijing’s slumped form.

  I felt the warmth of his power as it combined with the others, but that wasn’t what was on my mind now. Carmedy was busy mixing up a potion as Annalise and Rana held the blue-haired woman up in a sitting position. Heijing’s white robe was singed, and her thin side was steadily oozing blood onto the fabric. I bent down beside her and took Rana’s place supporting the tiny Qianlong.

  Carmedy pulled out the silver bottle we’d found in one of the dungeons and poured a small amount into a container. The alchemist sprinkled in a few more herbs and finely ground powders that smelled strongly. Carmedy covered the mouth of the bottle with her finger and shook it violent before handing it over to me.

  “Have her drink it please, Master,” the feline stated as she dug through her pack hastily with one paw. “I’m going to get to work on her wo
unds. Rana and Annalise, can you help her out of the robe?”

  The fox and swordswoman nodded without replying and slowly untied the fastening around Heijing’s waist. The Qianlong groaned, and her icy blue eyes fluttered open as she gasped for breath. Her tiny, cold hands found mine, and I intertwined our fingers together as Annalise and Rana helped her out of her robe. Heijing wore the same sheer bodysuit underneath, but most of the side of it was burned away from the god’s attacks.

  “Heijing, drink this,” I stated as I held the bottle close to her lips, and she looked up at me trustingly. “It will make you better, I promise. Everything will be alright.”

  I cupped the back of the Qianlong’s head in my palm and tilted her head back as her lips opened. I slowly poured the concoction in, and Heijing sputtered after the first sip, made a face at the bad taste, and then allowed me to bring the bottle back up. I whispered encouraging words to her, and she seemed to relax as she drank the last bit of the medicine Carmedy crafted.

  It took a moment for the potion to work and before long, Heijing sat up without my help. Carmedy was busy slathering the burns on the Qianlong’s side with a sticky-looking green goo. The alchemist laid it on thick over the bubbled up flesh and then pressed large cotton bandages over them. When Carmedy finished, she sat back on her heels and looked into Heijing’s face.

  “How do you feel?” the alchemist questioned. “Any pain? Are the bandages too tight?”