“What do you think they’re using this place for?” I asked.
“No clue,” Nyx said. “Seems interesting though.”
Another ten minutes later we came upon the structure.
The rectangular shadow I had seen before wasn’t some building. It was an enclosure, and boy was it larger than I’d expected.
I cranked my neck up, gazing at the top of the nearly five hundred-yard tall wall.
“Built completely with black stone,” Nyx said.
“Keeps with their theme,” I said. “It looks pretty darn thick though. There’s no breaking into this one that easily.”
“Seems like a lot of thought went into building it too. Puts the Alliance of Light ones we saw to shame.”
“Yeah.”
I closed my eyes, and focused my thoughts. I felt a gentle mental pressure, just the slightest smidge, sink into my mind.
I grinned. “He’s in there.”
“The Dark Lord?”
I nodded. “We’ve got him right where we needed him.”
“Are you sure we NEED to meet him?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” I rolled my eyes. “How many times are you going to ask me?”
“No harm asking again. Especially since this enclosure doesn’t make me feel too good about what’s inside this place.”
“Really?” I blinked. “I’m ecstatic about this.”
“Why would you be ecstatic?”
“You know why people need to build enclosures like this?”
“To prevent invasions.”
“That’s one thing, but there’s also another.”
“Eh? Why else would you need enclosures?”
I looked up to the structure, and a grin curled onto my face. “If you need to hide something important inside.”
***
CHAPTER TWELVE
The wall stood tall before us, with its dark stones blending into the night. Not a single gust of wind blew through the air, and I didn’t expect it to, not when we had this monstrosity of a structure standing here.
The towers I’d seen from further away all disappeared this close up, sinking from view. It was just the wall and I now.
Me and the wall.
“Okay Mr. Poet, how are we going to get in there?” Nyx asked.
I glanced back, up at the skies.
“Acnologia probably won’t get here for another few hours.”
“Figures.” I turned back to the enclosure.
“You’re going to have to find another way to get in there.”
My eyes scaled the wall, skipping between the bricks as my gaze rose from bottom to top and then back again.
“I think it’s possible.”
“Huh? What is?”
I hunched down where I was. “Jumping.”
“Are you crazy?! You’re strong but that wall is way higher than you can jump.”
“Higher than one jump, yes.”
My legs recoiled and I sprung up, the wind screaming in my ears as I launched myself into the skies. I pulled out Dawnbreaker, gripping the sword like it was a dagger. I hit the high point of my trajectory and descended the air now, with the wall coming up to me quickly.
I reached out with my hand, and the moment my fingers touched the stone, I thrust Dawnbreaker forward. The weapon impaled the rocks, and sunk through, but the force of my drop tugged me down, pulling the sword along. I cut a fissure in the wall, and dropped down a few yards before I stopped.
“That’s one jump.”
“Well, I certainly hadn’t expected this,” Nyx said.
The rocks beneath me were miniature toys now, at least that’s what they seemed like from nearly a hundred yards up in the air. I glanced up. The end of the wall was still a ways away from me. I definitely wasn’t going to make it in just one more jump.
“What now?” Nyx asked.
I held onto Dawnbreaker with both hands and twisted, making a wider crack in the wall. I grabbed onto the inner side of the opening with my free hand, and pulled the sword out. I lifted myself up, jerking my body into the air. I quickly placed my foot into the crack and pushed hard.
I shot up once again, scaling the upper heights of the wall. My speed, though, quickly waned, just fifty yards or so from the top.
So close. I waited until I was at the top arc of my jump and thrust my sword into the stone once again, but this time much more shallow. I pushed down on the weapon’s handle, and flicked myself up once again.
I pulled the sword out as I went up higher, rising up the wall even more, and up to the top. I quickly re-sheathed the weapon and grabbed onto the upper ledge with both hands. A flex of my biceps and a quiet grunt later, I’d pulled myself up.
A strip of stone about twenty yards wide stood atop the structure. “Damn, this wall was super thick,” I said. “We couldn’t have just crushed our way through it.”
“Still, it’s impressive you climbed up that way,” Nyx said. “Of course, presuming no one noticed.”
I walked to the edge of the surface, and leaned towards the inner side. Towers and buildings stood within, and oddly, they were not all colored black. Shades of dark blues, greens, and others flashed over the rooftops and the walls.
A large building stood at the very center of the enclosure, many hundred yards wide, but only two stories tall at the most. The structure was covered in enough black paint to make up for the rest of the buildings that didn’t following the theme.
Men and women walked between the narrow streets, all of them adorning dark armor.
What the heck is this place? I blinked.
The buildings, other than for the large one, all seemed civilian-like, and yet the citizens most certainly were not. There weren’t any sources of intense power radiating from the place. There was no mental pressure inside my head. Not even a smidge.
“Is the Dark Lord even here?” Nyx asked.
“I’m not entirely sure now,” I muttered.
“Well, if he isn’t we probably shouldn’t attack.”
“We’ll see.”
“What is this place anyway?”
“I’m confused too. It’s possible this is some kind of secret fortress for the Dark Alliance. The workforce inside definitely is from the Dark Alliance.”
“The color code of the enclosure as well as that main building seem to imply the same.”
“Exactly.”
“What do we do now then?”
A gentle pressure pressed up against my mind, lasting just a split second. But I knew what this was.
I grinned. He’s here.
“What? You just said he wasn’t—”
“I said I wasn’t sure.”
I looked down at the small town. The people all moved nonchalantly, completely unaware of my presence.
“Do you know where the Dark Lord is?” Nyx asked.
I shook my head. “I can’t tell much at the moment.”
“Then how do we find him?”
“We don’t. He does.”
“Eh?”
“Have the Berserker armor on hand,” I said, taking a step back. “I probably won’t need it though.”
“Zoran, wait, what are you—”
I shot forward, with my footsteps thudding up to the edge. I pushed off and leapt into the air, reaching high up and sinking back down to the ground. My eyes locked onto the large structure of black—the main building—and I slid Dawnbreaker and Dearthsoul out their sheaths.
I spun around, swinging the blades as I came down. The sharp edges sliced through the stone roof and I crashed into the floor. The impact sent a shockwave out, shattering stone and crushing wood.
“Uhhh, that could have gone better.” I stretched my arms, gazing around. Debris laid all over the floor. There were no knights in dark armor around me. I was in a surprisingly empty room. A few desks sat close to the walls, with empty vials lined up on the edge.
“What the heck is this place?” Nyx asked.
“A potion making room?”
A war cry echoed, and the door to my right came crashing down. Knights of the Dark Alliance surged through, all armed with good weaponry.
“They’re all high leveled,” Nyx said. “Close to Lv. 600.”
Huh. I blinked, and lifted my swords up. They were never that strong before.
A man slashed his sword at me and I blocked him with my weapon. The force of the blow didn’t even budge me, but I felt the increase in strength for sure.
Azmuth must be training them with some weird method. I frowned. Or they probably just got a ton of secret boosts.
I spun out, slashing at the line of Knights closest to me. Armor cracked, and skin cut as the Knights went down quickly, soaking the floor with their own blood. The walls on either side of the door broke, with a wooden battering ram shattering them apart. More Knights pushed through, swinging their swords as they came at me.
Perfect.
“Wait a minute,” Nyx’s voice tightened. “Was this what you meant when you said you’d get the Dark Lord to find you?”
“Yeah.” I grinned, striking into a couple of knights. “Pretty clever, right?”
“Zoran, you’re killing these Knights just so he’ll take notice of us?”
That’s what I just said. I lifted my blades up, blocking two incoming strikes.
“That doesn’t seem…right.”
I froze.
A knight slashed into my body, cutting a deep gash in my arm. Two more knights moved in, slashing at my legs. Blood spilled over, and pain slithered up to my mind. I jumped back, and dropped twenty yards away from them.
It doesn’t seem right? I grit my teeth. Tell you what, Nyx. When you’ve killed two of your friends because of your ‘righteousness’, when you watch their hearts twist and die, when you lay frozen on the ground with their blood soaking your body, when you watch all of that pain and anguish. Then you can lecture me on what’s right and what’s wrong.
“Diablo, I—”
“BLADESTORM!” I yelled. My swords thrust into the enemy, slashing at their bodies. I surged out in anger, cleaving forms in half and piercing through heads and hearts. Blood splattered onto the walls, and flooded the very floors. I ran through it, killing the Knights that dared to come after me.
What was right anyway?
Nothing was.
I slashed out hard. A shock wave surged from Dawnbreaker, throwing the Knights against the wall. More men poured into the room, and charged up to me, like an endless wave.
I thrust Dearthsoul through a Knight’s chest, and twisted. He screamed one moment, and dropped, sliding off my sword. Is that how it felt? I clenched my teeth, and a mental pressure built-up in my mind.
“Zoran,” Nyx said. “I’m sorry I said that, but you have to—”
“Shut up!” I yelled.
A wave of darkness shot out of me, surging through the enemy and the walls. Suddenly, the roof rumbled, and in an instant the whole place collapsed, with rubble and debris smashing to the floor. I held my hands over my head, protecting myself from the crashing structure.
What the heck? I looked around. This wasn’t my doing.
A form flickered in the air, and a hazy image of darkness emerged.
“Azmuth,” I muttered. “I know you’d come by.”
His blue eyes stared at me. “We can talk somewhere else.”
I nodded.
He snapped his fingers, and darkness rose from the ground, surrounding us. In seconds the world had disappeared, and a stark black had taken over instead. I tensed, lifting my swords into the air. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“This is the best way to be alone, Diablo,” Azmuth said. “It is what you wanted, isn’t it?”
I looked at the darkness around me. “This is Frozen Night, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Surely you didn’t think a spell from the Dark Arts, my element, was exclusive to just you, did you?”
“I guess that makes sense.” I looked at Azmuth, and a small grin curled onto my face. “You seem pretty docile now. Figured you’d run in laughing like a maniac, ready to battle.”
“I would have, if I still have my strength.”
“Ah, how the tables have flipped,” I chuckled. “The last time I was the one nearly half the level you were.”
“What do you want, Diablo? I may be the weaker one, but I will not tolerate your massacre of my men.”
“I have questions I need answered. And you’re my best resource for them.”
“And what do I get out of this exchange?”
“I don’t kill you.”
The man stiffened, and his hand immediately covered his heart. “Aggressive,” he said. “But very well…I will listen to this.”
Wow, that’s convenient, I grinned. I didn’t expect it to work that easily.
“However,” he said.
Ugh, there’s always a however.
“I will tell you only if you promise to leave the Dark Alliance out of your slaughters.”
“I will do that as long as the Dark Alliance does not unfairly cross paths with me.”
“You will do this even if the Alliance crosses paths with you.”
“Now that’s unfair.”
He smiled. “Information in return for restraint. Seems apt to me.”
“I think you should do it, Diablo,” Nyx said.
But that’d mean I wouldn’t be able to take out the Dark Alliance if they attack me.
“He said you should stop slaughters. Not injuries.”
I grinned. Ah.
“Fine,” I said. “I won’t slaughter the Dark Alliance even if they cross paths with me.”
“Splendid,” the Dark Lord said. “What is it you wish to know?”
“The crystals,” I said. “The one with jade green runes. What do you know about them?”
“Ah.”
Silence swerved through the darkness.
“What?” I asked. “Don’t tell me you don’t know.”
“It is not that I don’t know…it is more that I do not know if answering this will get me killed.”
“Please,” I chuckled. “Who’s going to kill you? The Time Lord?”
He looked right at me. “Who else would?”
I blinked. “What do you mean he’s going to kill you?”
“Do you still believe that us Eternals are truly immortal, Diablo?”
Unease knotted my stomach. Those words had haunted me ever since I’d last heard them. Even then I stared the Dark Lord right in the face. “Don’t divert from my question.” I forced the words out. “What are those crystals?”
“A source of power,” he said. “A source of power that he drew from the Eternals.”
“You’re just giving me more questions.” I stepped forward.
“I will fix that,” he said. “Have you ever seen this before?” The Dark Lord snapped his fingers. Green specks of light condensed between us and an object hovered above his palm—a blade of jade green with a golden hilt.
My eyes went wild. My breathing hastened, with rough puffs of air pushing through my tightened chest. “What is that doing here?” My fists clenched, and my knuckles turned white.
“You’ve seen this before, Diablo,” he said. “This is what the Time Lord uses to permanently end us.”
I lashed out at the weapon, but my hand passed harmlessly through it.
He chuckled. “This is just an image. The real one is with the Time Lord himself. It is called the Eternity Blade, a weapon whose full strength allows the user to convert their victim into what they used to be, pure energy.”
I blinked. “Huh?”
“That’s what those green stones are, Diablo,” he said. “Energy sources.”
“And you got them from the Eternals you summoned.”
“From the Eternals the Time Lord brought here, yes.”.
“They were all already dead when they came here then, weren’t they?”
“Indeed. Quite the twist isn’t it?”
I grit my teeth. “You just need
ed the energy sources.”
“Two out of two,” he chuckled. “I’ll give you a reward for that. Those crystals? They function like your Phantom Heart.”
I froze. “What?”
“Did you think I didn’t know about it?”
My eyes narrowed. “How do you know about my Phantom Heart?”
“We were not always enemies, Diablo.”
I stayed silent.
“I have seen you use the item in the past enough times to know what it is. A manifestation of rage, is it not?”
Focus. I calmed my thudding heart, silenced my screaming mind. He doesn’t know much more than what I tell people. It’s still okay.
“Who is the Time Lord?” I asked. “What does he want with us? He’s been interfering in this world way too many times now.”
“Who is the Time Lord,” Azmuth repeated. “I will tell you this, that man is not like us. Do not test him.”
“I know that much,” I muttered. “His race doesn’t even show up.”
“Neither does it for me. No one knows who he is, or where he is from. He is not an Eternal, I can tell you that much.”
“A convenient answer.”
“A truthful answer.”
“That’s questionable. Fear can twist lies into truth. You’re scared of him, aren’t you?”
“I am frightened, yes,” he said. “It should tell you volumes if I am more frightened of him than of the man who plunged his hand through my chest.”
My fingers tingled.
“The Time Lord is beyond us, Diablo,” Azmuth said. “When I came to this world, it was to raise my own power, to build the Dark Alliance back to what it used to be. The Time Lord supported my plans, and I went along with it. Now he requires assistance, and I will provide what he needs. Rather, I must. If I want to survive.”
“What is he even trying to do?”
He chuckled. “Even I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Are you telling me that the Time Lord hid information from you?”
“You should realize what kind of an opponent you’re dealing with here, Diablo. He knows everything about you, from who you were, to what changed you.”
“I know he does.” I grit my teeth. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to bow down to him like you did.”
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 106
