“I’ve got to get her out of there,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Yeah, well you’re not going to do it with violence. In case you didn’t notice, we’re badly outnumbered. Let me do the talking, alright stud?”
I nodded, ready to conjure a Fireball and light into anyone who got in our way.
“You two,” Nanaya said in an authoritative voice. “Why hasn’t this prisoner been delivered to my dungeon?”
The two ogre females stopped whipping Trinity and turned to regard Nanaya with deep frowns.
“Who you anyways?” said one.
“Yeah, who says this your prisoner?” said the other.
“Underlord Dyr’ Mordar, that’s who,” said Nanaya. “This prisoner was supposed to be delivered yesterday, and in good condition. Now, if you don’t want to suffer the wrath of Dyr, then get her down from there, heal her wounds, return her clothes, and hand her over to me.”
Trinity shakily tried to turn her head to see what was happening behind her, but she seemed not to have the strength. The two ogres looked at each other quizzically, but Nanaya didn’t give them time to confer with each other.
“You’ve got exactly two fucking seconds to hand her over, or you’ll feel the wrath of—”
“Ok, ok, jeesh,” said one of the females.
They hurriedly untied Trinity, and when she fell to the floor and turned to see her rescuer, her eyes went wide with recognition. I pressed a finger to my lips, and she nodded understanding. The ogres healed her wounds with strange looking talismans and returned her armor to her before stomping off sullenly.
“Sam? Is it really you?” Trinity asked me shakily.
“Yeah babe, it’s really me,” I said and wrapped her in my cloak.
“Don’t speak until we find somewhere more private,” Nanaya said and nudged her head forward.
I gathered up Trinity’s armor, and we followed Nanaya around the stinking lava pool to a dark tunnel. A spell word from the beautiful succubus had a fire burning in her palm, and she used it to guide us through. The air was hot and heavy in the small space, which now seemed more like a chimney for the rancid fumes coming from the lava pool than it did a tunnel. To my relief, we finally abandoned the tight quarters for a chamber that branched off from a fork in the tunnel. The chamber led us to a long shelf that hung out over a gaping chasm, and Nanaya finally gave us the all clear.
“Are you alright?” I asked Trinity.
She looked haunted, and nothing like her tough, usual self. Her eyes were bloodshot and ringed with dark circles. Her lips were cracked and dry, and her hair was gnarled and dirty.
“I’ll live,” she said with a sniffle. “Where are the others?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted, and proceeded to tell her everything that had happened since she died.
“Aeorock fell?” Trinity asked, her eyes wet with emotion.
I nodded solemnly. “We can only assume that everyone in Rebirth Online is dead, and here with us in the Underworld.”
“Then where the hell is everyone?” Trinity asked.
“This is a big place,” said Nanaya. “But if what you say is true, then most people will likely be brought to the city.”
“Hellgrind?” said Trinity.
A nod.
“Have you been there?” I asked.
“No, but those fat fucks that were torturing me talk about it all the time.” Trinity looked at me with purpose burning in her eyes. “You said that you were blessed or something to keep your powers down here?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
“Good, let’s go back there and kill every one of those sonsofbitches.”
“That’s a bad idea,” said Nanaya.
“Thanks for the concern,” said Trinity, “but I’m going to cut their balls off, with or without your help.”
“I think Nanaya’s right,” I said. “There are dozens of Ogres back there, and if we’re all captured then our whole plan is a bust.”
Trinity took a step toward me, her nostrils flaring and her eyes burning with rage. “They tortured me, Sam. They broke my fingers, hands, arms, and then they healed me. They burned me, cut me, whipped—”
Trinity broke down and I pulled her into a hug. Nanaya shifted uncomfortably and moved to the entrance to stand guard.
“I’m sorry,” I told Trinity as I gently rubbed her back. “I’m sorry that I didn’t come for you sooner. But I promise, you’ll have your revenge.”
“Then help me kill them,” she said, looking up at me with teary eyes.
“Those NPC’s aren’t the ones who need to pay, Trin. Kincaid needs to pay, and I’m going to make sure that he does.”
She studied my eyes, looking into one and then the other. Then she nodded and broke down again. I held her for a long time as she wept and shook in my arms. After five minutes the moment passed, Trinity sniffed, wiped her eyes on my cloak, and kissed me on the cheek. I helped her into her armor, and once fully dressed she unsheathed her sword and inspected it in the red glow of the cavern walls.
“What’s our next move?” she asked with all the seriousness of a warrior behind enemy lines.
“We find Tweak, the rest of our guild, and then we give this to Kincaid and end this nightmare once and for all,” I said and held out my hand to show her the glowing orb.
Trinity looked to the orb, glanced at Nanaya, and then closed her hand over mine. I glanced at Nanaya, who grinned ironically and shook her head before returning to her vigil.
“You ready to do this?” I asked.
Trinity nodded. “Let’s go find our girls.”
Chapter 11
“This way,” said Nanaya as she slowly stalked through the tunnel.
We had been traveling through the 1st level of the Underworld for more than an hour, and my mouth was as dry as Texas tumbleweed. Trinity had been without water for almost two days, and she drained the entire contents of one of my water skins as we explored the network of red caverns. Trinity and I were dead in game, but existence in the Underworld was a lot like that of the surface world. We weren’t spirits, we were simply in another realm. Of course, none of Trinity’s magic worked down here, but she still had her base stats, and that alone was impressive. And unlike me, she took her training seriously, and was always moving through her offensive and defensive stances. When we weren’t busy questing or lounging around in bed, Trinity could be found at the warrior trainers in Aeorock, trying to hone her skills.
Nanaya held up her hand as we came to the end of a cramped tunnel. The succubus peered her head out, looked left, then right, and suddenly disappeared into the darkness. Trinity and I glanced at each other, then listened and waited intently.
A grunt and a groan of pain sounded in the darkness, then the sound of a body hitting the floor found our ears. A moment later Nanaya appeared in the tunnel’s mouth and curled a finger in our direction.
I followed her out of the tunnel and into a massive chamber with Trinity close behind me. Remembering my Fire Sight, I enabled the spell and readied myself for the blinding glow that I assumed would be produced by the hellish conditions. To my surprise, the walls only vaguely came into my view. They were more of a gray outline than anything that seemed solid, but through them I could see the heat signatures of a half a dozen creatures that I didn’t immediately recognize.
“Your friend is being kept in a dungeon on the other side of this cavern,” said Nanaya.
“I can see the heat signatures of 6 creatures deeper into the cavern,” I told her. “They’re far away, maybe three-hundred yards, but I can’t tell what they are.”
“They’re most likely Fire Trolls,” said Nanaya. “They guard this part of the Underworld”
“Can we take ‘em?” Trinity asked.
“Are you nuts?” said Nanaya, and her pointed red tail shot up in unison with her eyebrows.
“Just answer the fucking question.”
“No, we can’t ‘take ‘em’,” said Nanaya, laying on the attitude.
“I know the leader of this part of the Underworld. He’s a bloke named Pygon. We’ll just play like you’re my prisoners, and the guards won’t give us any trouble. “I’ll just tie some rope to you loosely, and--”
“Hah!” Trinity laughed. Apparently, she had been thinking the same thing that I had. “You expect us to let you tie us up and march us into your buddy’s territory?”
Nanaya ignored her and frowned at me. “I thought we had a deal.”
“We do. But come on Nanaya. You can’t expect us to do something so naïve.”
“So you don’t trust me,” she said with obvious annoyance.
“No, we don’t,” said Trinity.
“We just met,” I said, not unkindly. “You’ve seen the orb that I intend on using to defeat Kincaid. Obviously, we have to be careful.”
Nanaya stomped over to us and flames burst from her small horns. Trinity unsheathed her sword and stood before me defensively.
The succubus stopped in front of us then tapped at the air. It took me a moment to realize that she was tapping on her own interface, and a moment later words appeared above her head.
Nanaya
Level 33
Succubus/Warlock
“There, you assholes, there’s your proof,” she said in an injured voice. “I’m a level 33, and I could kick both of your asses in about two seconds flat then steal your fucking precious orb. But I haven’t. I helped reunite you, and I’ve led you here to find your stupid purple monkey friend.”
“He’s an ape,” said Trinity.
“Whatever!” Nanaya screamed, and the flame coming out of her horns flared three feet high.
“Take it easy,” I told Trinity as I walked past her and stood before the sulking succubus.
She stood with her arms crossed over her perky red breasts, and her bottom lip drooped.
“There’s nothing you can say,” she told me. “Just let’s go and find your friend, and then you can be rid of me.”
“It’s not like that,” I said, trying to be sympathetic. “Trinity’s the head tank for my guild. She’s a warrior, and it’s her job to think of our protection. I trust you, and I hope that you can trust me moving on.”
Nanaya glanced at Trinity. “Tell her to apologize.”
“What?” said the warrior.
“Trin…” I said, offering her a glance that begged her not to rock the boat further.
“Fine,” she said, turning to face Nanaya. “I’m sorry that I was a little paranoid about your intentions. But if you lead us into a trap, or in any other way try to sell us out, I’ll rip off your wings and feed them to you. Deal?”
“You’re a real bitch, you know that?” said Nanaya.
“Yeah, so?”
Nanaya and Trinity stared at each other for five tense seconds, and then surprised the shit out of me by bursting into musical laughter. They laughed their asses off, and I shook my head and chuckled with them.
“You two are straight up bonkers, you know that?”
Once they had settled down, Nanaya loosely bound our hands in rope and guided us through the cavern. The wide-open space looked like it had been formed from melting candle wax. Stalagmites loomed fifty feet high in places, and their counterparts reached down from the ceiling, dripping sulfuric liquid onto the cavern floor. The whole place stunk like the devil’s ass, and I found myself yearning for fresh air.
The first guard we approached offered Nanaya an upward nod as she passed, but the second wanted to know more about the prisoners that she had with her.
“Who they?” said the big troll. His skin was rough and gray like cooled lava, and a fiery glow issued from the cracks in it. Beady eyes burned like embers above a bulbous nose, and hot breath that smelled like a campfire issued from his mouth.
“They’re my prisoners, what’s it look like?” said Nanaya. “I’m here to see the boss, so unless you want to explain to him why you made me late, I suggest you move your fat ass.”
The troll’s beady eyes widened a bit when Nanaya mentioned the boss, and he scratched the back of his head, kicking at the ground like a shy little boy.
“I’s just askin’,” he said dumbly, and Nanaya offered him a scowl before stomping past him with Trinity and me in tow.
The other guards had heard the exchange, and they either ignored us or offered Nanaya a weak greeting when she passed.
“They’ve got a lot of respect for you,” Trinity noted, and added suspiciously. “Why?”
“Because I’ve got a brain in my head,” said the succubus. “Underworld NPC’s are used to pushing around real players all the time, but they are total morons. I think the programmers didn’t want to waste too much energy on them. And my power freaks them out too.”
“What power?” said Trinity.
Nanaya’s body suddenly morphed, and she became a perfect replica of the blonde-haired warrior.
“Holy shit!” said Trinity.
“Pretty cool huh?” said Nanaya in the warrior’s exact voice.
I looked from one to the other, and I wondered what it would be like to have sex with two Trinitys. I’d never done twins before...
“Yeah, cool,” said Trinity, looking disturbed. “But creepy as hell. Turn it off.”
Nanaya grinned. “Like I said, my power freaks out stupid people.”
The succubus changed back into herself, and we continued through the cavern. When we got to what I thought was the end, we turned a corner and stopped. Before us was another cavern, but this one was at least five times the size of the last. At the center stood a square black tower at least twenty stories high, and above that long, reaching stalactites loomed. Dark crystals littered the underground chamber, bursting from the floor like the lances of the gods, some twenty feet long and thick as oak trees, others as thin as swords. Pillars formed where the stalactites and stalagmites met, and I could make out little doorways and spiraling walkways that had been built around them.
The small city stunk like refuse and death, and the sounds of the tortured echoed from its walls like a macabre chorus.
“What the hell is this place?” I asked.
“Baal’s Wart,” said Nanaya with not a hint of humor. “Don’t speak to anyone, don’t look anyone in the eye, and above all else, act like you’re afraid.
“Who said we would need to act?” I replied with a small laugh.
Nanaya offered me a sympathetic smile, then turned and pulled our ropes like she was dragging us along.
“I don’t like this,” said Trinity out of the corner of her mouth.
“Me either, but I trust her.”
“You trust every pair of nice tits that you meet, Loverboy.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Ok, maybe it’s partially true,” I admitted. “But she wants out, and she knows that I’m her best chance.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” Trinity asked. “Don’t get me wrong, you’re a kick ass mage and a hell of a lay, but why is it up to you to defeat Kincaid once again?”
“I kind of volunteered,” I said.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course you did.”
“Dr. Hamilton entrusted me to get this job done, and that’s exactly what I intend to do. If we can’t stop Kincaid, then it’s really game over this time, and for good. I can’t imagine what the outcry is like in the real world about what’s going on.”
“They’ll probably shut the game down either way,” said Trinity.
“I hope not. I can’t imagine returning to a life in a hospital bed.”
“Shhh!” Nanaya hissed back at us with a scowl.
We entered the city and followed Nanaya through the streets in between pillars and stalagmites. The inhabitants of the cavern that made their homes in the rock formations turned out to be miniature little demons. They looked like cherubs, except for the dark crimson skin, the black wings, horns, and fiery halos hanging over their heads.
I wanted to ask what the little devils were called, but I was
supposed to be keeping my mouth shut. I was also supposed to be acting scared, so I kept my head down and feigned terror as I glanced from side to side with mock paranoia.
The little devils weren’t the only ones who lived in the city. There were also more fire trolls, ogres, and even demons shuffling about through the cavern.
Baal’s Wart was like any other city on the surface, aside from the stinking sulfur smell and the lofty dungeons from which the sounds of terror issued. It had pubs and brothels, shops and markets. There were blacksmiths all throughout the city as well, likely working hard to keep up with the demand for torture devices.
I shivered at that thought and ducked my head when a tall demon glanced my way. The stink and the heat were beginning to get to me, not to mention the disgusting creatures that infested the streets. There were cats and dogs, but the poor creatures had no skin, and their wet, red hides glistened in the glow of the crimson cavern. Other creatures seemed to be a cross between different species. I noted one coming toward me and steered wide. It had the skinned body of a lion and the head of a man, and it sniffed at me as we passed.
“Piss off!” Nanaya yelled at the beast. It growled in return but kept on going.
“I could use a pretty little whore like you,” a brown goblin with a nose like a chili pepper said to Nanaya as we walked by. He stood in front of a small stalagmite with windows carved into it that displayed naked people in cages.
The crooked sign over the door read, Brikturd’s Torture Emporium.
“Is that so?” said Nanaya, and the tone of her voice told me that there might be trouble.
“A little hussy like you’d fetch me a pretty dollar,” the goblin said with a grin, then his eyes shifted toward Trinity.
Nanaya stopped in front of the goblin and put her hands on her hips, cocking one to the side. “You wouldn’t know what to do with a woman like me, Brikturd.”
“Is that so?” he said menacingly.
“That’s so,” said Nanaya unwavering.
A few tense moments passed, and I noticed that we had gained some looks from the ghouls haunting the city streets. Then a big dumb looking ogre walked up behind the goblin from inside the building, and seeing Nanaya, he pushed Brikturd aside and charged toward the succubus.
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