I turned to look back at my guild. Recognition shone across a few faces, but some didn’t know what to make of it.
“Nova Wave! How the hell do we stop it?”
Harper and Yumiko tried to pick off the mages. They let loose arrow after arrow at them, but every time the arrows got close, the magic absorbed them. The spell kept building. I even attempted to run in and use Rush Strike anyway, to see if I could do anything, but as soon as I got close to the mages, I was flung back by a wave of turbulent energy. I landed painfully and retreated to our defensive line.
“We can’t,” Markos shouted.
Yeah, I know. I dropped my sword, succumbing to the inevitable, my heart heavy. Our teleportation scrolls wouldn’t work. We didn’t have the time. We only had seconds left. I spared one last look at my friends who’d stood beside me for a decade now. It was a damn good run while it lasted. I’ll see you guys when we respawn.
Adam shouted at me from the back of the line. He made his way toward me and reached out to grab me by the shoulder, shoving me out of the way before tossing a pitch-black crystal onto the field. It stopped about halfway between our two groups.
As Nova Wave reached its completion, the two now giant halves of the spell formed into one. The design stopped shifting and competed itself, glowing a bright red. Then all at once, the color melted into black.
The spell was cast.
Blinding white light emerged from the mages as their spell consumed them. The blistering wave of light reached a critical point in its brightness and imploded in on itself, coiling into a tight ball of pure energy before releasing a massive explosion. The heat lapped at my skin as the Nova Wave unleashed its power. It shook the world to its core, and oblivion itself descended upon us.
Chapter 8 - Nova Wave
The top layer of earth tore itself from the ground in the onslaught of blinding hellfire, chunks of dirt and grass swallowed whole as the Nova Wave destroyed everything in its path.
I grabbed Adam and flung us both down the hill, knowing damn well we were going to die, but bracing myself anyway in hopes of surviving. As the pure white light rushed ever closer, I shut my eyes tight and waited for the end.
But death never came.
When my skin and bones weren’t reduced to dust, I risked a peek and gaped at an incredible sight. In the middle of the once-grassy field, now nothing more than scorched earth, stood a void golem.
What? What’s it doing here? How did it even get here?
Adam was lying next to me in the dirt, grinning from ear to ear, the widest smiled I’d ever seen on him before. The slight maniacal shine running wild in his eyes told me he wasn’t entirely behind the wheel anymore.
“Did you summon it?”
“You like it?” Adam asked in a sing-song voice.
I gaped like an idiot, my mind not comprehending the literal tear in the fabric of reality which was the void golem. “What the—how the—how?” I spluttered, my eyes glued to the scene in front of me.
The void golem was a humanoid fragment of the void, manifested in our world—a vessel for the eternal darkness where nothing could survive. An unthinking construct to be controlled. I’d heard about them, but never met anyone who’d seen one, let alone summoned one of the damned things.
The Nova Wave slammed into the golem at full force and was eaten entirely; a minuscule black hole in the center of its chest devoured everything. The blast of pure kinetic energy rolled over the void golem and was sucked down unto the depths of the abyss. The void was all-consuming, and it greedily polished off its meal. A few seconds later, nothing remained of the suicidal mages or the Nova Wave.
Further up on the last patch of grass left on the hill, stood Richard and the final three members of his broken guild. They stared slack-jawed at the void golem as the wind picked up. A cool breeze raced over the hills but died as it reached the golem, unraveling into nothingness.
Richard was the first to break out his stupor and ordered the rest of his men forward, despite the monster in front of them. The last remnants of his guild stared down at us with fear dripping from their faces, most of them rethinking their leader’s death march. One of them, however, decided to play the hero.
Their last warrior charged with a barbaric yawp, his longsword raised as he ran. A faint shimmer encompassed him as he activated an aura. Though I couldn’t tell the specific one used, I doubted anything would be effective against the golem.
Before he stepped off the hill, his blade glowed cherry white, bursting into flames. The faint acrid tang of burning metal drifted towards us, but I caught only a whiff before it too was swallowed into the depths.
Longsword was using Volcanic Thrust, and he swiftly buried his sword into the golem. His sword hissed, and a brief cloud of steam enveloped them as he rammed the sword into the void. Grinning in triumph, Longsword pulled his blade free from the within the darkness. Every inch of the blade was gone, devoured to the last shard, his hilt and nothing more was the only part that remained untouched by the golem.
Panic bulged out of his eyes as he realized he wouldn’t be able to deal any damage to it. Longsword backed away from the golem, or he tried to. He backpedaled continuously, going nowhere, slowly being drawn toward the golem, inching ever closer to his death.
Struggling brought him no escape, and he screamed as fear robbed him of all reason. He pushed his hand in front of him as if to stop himself from falling in. When his hand touched the abyss a moment later, it was eaten. Peeled, layer by layer to the bone as Longsword cried in misery. When the flesh was entirely picked clean, the bones cracked and fractured. Within half a second, his left hand was dust.
The void, having tasted the sweet meat of mortals, was ravenous for more. Longsword’s arm was pulled in next to repeat the same process. His entire body, eaten. Bite by delicious bite.
He was torn asunder only to be swallowed by the gaping black maw—first his arm, then his legs when he tried to kick the golem.
With his remaining hand, he flailed about, trying to grab hold of anything to save himself. He dug his fingers deep into the smoldering earth, carving deep grooves in the ground as he was dragged deeper into the dark. The bones in his hand snapped from the effort of trying to save himself.
His face ripped free from his head, his skull, the yellowed ivory too bright next to the darkness. Then it too crumbled and was gone. The only thing remaining was his arm and twisted, mangled hand. Then nothing remained of the man at all.
All of this took place in seconds, and when it was over. Adam ordered the golem to march up the hill. As it lumbered slowly forwards, Richard’s bravado fled, and he and the one remaining member of his guild scrambled to get away from the monster chasing them.
They didn’t get far. While the Order stood transfixed on the death of their comrade, Wilson Shadow-Walked behind them and laid all manner of traps for them to stumble into to.
The last rogue noticed the trap and jumped away in time to save herself. Richard, however, had succumbed to his fear and ran headlong into the snare. With a loud snap, a long thread of black wire coiled up to bind Richard, stopping him from moving and sending him to the ground.
But the rogue, a thin, masked woman with the grace of a dancer, maneuvered away from the rest of the traps—right to where Evelyn waited. So fast, I couldn’t even see her move, Evelyn wrapped herself around the rogue, like a snake constricting its prey.
Evelyn tore the black silk mask free from the rogue’s face to reveal a shock of pink hair. She had short hair, styled in a pixie cut. The brightness was highlighted even more by the sharp contrast between the blacks and grays of her outfit.
Pinky struggled in Evelyn’s iron grip. Having already been disarmed of her weapons, she was effectively powerless against Evelyn. In a last-ditch attempt, she attempted to use her abilities to escape.
She activated Slip, which would have allowed her to break free of Evelyn like she wasn’t even there. Would’ve worked too, if she had been facing anyone else, bu
t as she was fighting Evelyn, Slip fizzled out like a firecracker in a thunderstorm.
Neither magic nor abilities would be of any use against Evelyn. She took you down to your bare minimum combat ability and then beat you with experience.
Evelyn uncoiled from Pinky and held her aloft by her throat, watching her struggle and squirm with unhinged delight. After a few moments of letting Pinky fight, Evelyn grew bored with playing with the rogue and crushed her throat.
Pinky gurgled, clutching at her shattered windpipe before choking her last breath. Evelyn tossed the woman’s corpse aside like trash and glided back over to us, all with a positively wicked smile on her face, winking at me.
I let out an involuntary shudder and walked up the hill toward Richard’s prone form. I steered well clear of the void golem and glanced back to Adam, who walked a slower pace than me.
“Hey, Adam. I think the danger has passed. Is it possible to get rid of tall, dark, and all-consuming here?”
He chuckled, and I noticed his eyes had returned to normal, which was a positive sign. Adam could lose himself for days at a time, forgoing sleep and food when he was working on something.
“Yeah, just give me a second.”
He stared off into space, which meant he was going through his interface, his hand scrolling through invisible screens. After a second or two, the brief crack of shattered glass filled the air as the void golem shrank back into its crystal housing. The onyx crystal flew to Adam’s outstretched hand and disappeared as he placed it in his inventory.
“Abby will need lots of downtime before I can summon her again,” Adam said.
“Abby?”
He nodded. “I couldn’t think of any name that rhymed with void, so I decided on Abby.”
I wracked my brain. “Short for Abyss, I’m guessing?”
“Ding, ding, ding. Give the man a prize!”
“Oh, oh. What’s my prize?” I asked sarcastically.
Adam pretended to think for a moment as we reached the top of the hill.
“I’ve got it!” Adam said. His voice filled with just as much snark as mine. “How about an overbearing blond asshat, tied up with nowhere to go,” he said, pointing down to Richard, who was looking at us with pure, unadulterated hatred in his eyes.
“Oh, Adam, it’s perfect. How did you know this is just what I wanted?” I asked, my voice dripping false saccharine.
I stared down at Richard, whose emotions were plain to understand. His eyes were filled with hatred and depravity, telling me all the things he wanted to do with my corpse.
I kicked him in the head. That was my mother his eyes were talking about.
What to do with him? I mused while pacing, kicking dust every so often into Richard's face. It’s the little things in life. I finally decided on the age-old classic—torture for information, then slit his obnoxious throat.
I picked him up into a kneeling position and peeled the tight wire from his mouth so he could speak. His immediate response was to spit in my face and curse me like a dog. I calmly wiped my face clean and smiled. If he wanted to play games, then I’d be happy to oblige. I grasped the side of his face almost in the same way you would do to a loved one, but what I was about to do was anything but loving.
I placed my thumbs just under his bright blue eyes. Richard deserved to suffer, but I was feeling merciful. There’s been enough pain and suffering today; I don’t need to cause any more unless I must.
“Tell me who hired you?”
“Fuck you!” Richard spat.
My anger flared, but I calmed myself. “I’ll give you one more chance to answer. Who. Hired. You?”
“Fuck you!”
So be it—only chance you’ll get from me.
With a grimace, I dug my thumbs sharply into both eye sockets. He screamed as blood and vitreous fluid oozed out of his sockets to coat my hand with a mixture of clear gel and bright red blood.
He kept on wailing as he twisted and struggled against his bonds, but struggling would get him nowhere. I’d yet to meet someone who could escape Wilson's traps. Within a few minutes, his screams died down, and his breathing became less ragged as his hollowed sockets stared blindly at me.
I brought a healing potion from my inventory and poured the contents down his throat, letting his eyes reconstruct themselves. After a couple of moments, his eyes were whole again, which meant Richard was back to glaring hatred.
My thumbs went to his eyes once more. His blood still lingered, staining my fingers red. “Ready for round two?” I asked.
“F-f-f-fuck y-you.”
Very well. And so, I retook his eyes, over and over again. Giving him less and less time to recover. His voice grew hoarse as he tore his vocal cords from screaming, eventually devolving into low guttural moans and grunts. The health potion focused on his eyes and never fully healed his voice, and after the sixth time I took his eyes, I finally broke him.
Richard was shaking, mumbling nonsense in a hoarse whisper. One look at his face told me he’d had enough. I was merciful and let the potion fully heal him this time. When it finished, I placed my thumb one last time under his eye, reminding him of the cost of lying to me.
“Tell me, who gave you the job?”
“I-it w-w-was a m-man.”
“What was his name?”
He shook his head, drool slipping from his mouth. “Can’t s-s-say, he’ll k-k-kill me.”
“What do you think I’ll do?”
He kept shaking, refusing me.
“Tell me!” I shouted and slugged him, breaking his nose. Blood poured down his shining armor. I screamed and kept hitting him. “Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!”
“Stop,” he spat through broken teeth. “I’ll talk.”
He caught his breath, and I eased off him. He coughed and spat a gob of blood and teeth on the grass. Richard sighed and whimpered, squirming under the bindings. “His name is M—”
His voice cut off suddenly. Richard tried to speak, but no words would come. He screamed wordlessly, looking around in terror, searching for something that wasn’t there. Then he started to choke.
He freaked and railed against the ropes that bound him, his eyes pleading with me to save him. I watched as Richard slowly choked to death while not making a single sound. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he stopped struggling. He died a slow, painful death. Unable to even cry out, as if his vocal cords were removed.
Richard was dead, his eyes staring glassily at something not meant for mortals. What the hell!
“What the actual hell just happened?”
I looked around frantically, trying to see if someone was nearby hiding behind an invisibility potion or illusion spell, but there was nothing. Nothing I could see at any rate.
Godsdamn it! I slammed my fist into the grass. He had been so close to answering me! Now we had only an incomplete gurgle for a name and the fact he was male. Not much to go on at all. A sigh escaped my lips. Nothing I could do about it. Can’t wring answers from a dead man.
This complicated matters to a frustrating degree. I wanted answers, but I’d have to go about it the hard way. I’m sure some of our underworld contacts could help out. I thought, but that was a problem for future Duran; present Duran needed a shower and a nap. My battle fatigue was back at zero, but when my potion sickness kicked in, I’d be bedridden for a while.
“D!” a voice shouted from down the hill.
I turned around to find myself alone on the hill. Everyone else must have left when I started working on Richard.
“What?”
“Slight issue here,” Wilson yelled back.
The silence stretched for a moment before I gestured for him to continue.
“Unless I am miscounting here, we are missing one guild member.”
Who did we miss? I did my own count to confirm. Wilson was correct. Minus the two mages and Longsword, who had all been devoured by the void golem, that left us with twelve members. Someone was missing. Who had run off or hidden?
&
nbsp; I received my answer a moment later. A whisper sounded as someone Shadow-Walked behind me. It was one of the rogues. I turned slowly, too slowly. Pain erupted from my side as the rogue struck, ramming his dagger through my ribs, missing my heart by a fraction of an inch.
My lifeblood pooled from my armor as I backed away from him and drew my sword. My health dropped low into the yellow as I bled my life onto the ground at an alarming rate.
The rogue was quick and got in under my guard before I could stop him and ripped out his knife, still stuck in me.
I couldn’t breathe. The pain stole every ounce of oxygen from me, and I staggered, turning, and gave the rogue the opening he needed to strike.
He took it, rushing me with his dagger.
Sucking in a quick breath, I lowered my center of gravity, put most of my weight on my back foot, and lashed out with the strongest side kick, I’d ever performed.
My kick took the rogue in the chest. Like he’d run headlong into a wall, all his momentum stopped as I drove the air from his lungs. Not wasting my opening, I stomped on his knife hand, shattering his wrist, and plunged my blade into his heart.
Rogue coughed as blood ran from his stained lips. “You and yours are doomed. You can’t stop what’s coming next. Once he has set his sights on something, he gets what he wants…” he trailed off as death took him.
Who’s coming? I thought as I stumbled, my injuries finally caught up with me, and I crashed to the dirt as my blood loss took hold.
Coming close to death always brought my thoughts around to my family. Flashes of those happy days before the Night-Fall, before the apocalypse, ran through my head.
We didn’t have much, but we always had enough, though Mom and Dad usually worked early and stayed late on weekdays. It fell to me to make sure Micah was taken care of and up for school in the morning.
Micah and I had been inseparable in those days, despite him being eight years younger than me. We spent pretty much all of our time together. He became the mascot for our group of friends, who loved him almost as much as I did. He was a hyper kid, but it was never annoying. He talked so fast sometimes that it was hard to follow, but it was adorable. Micah was my best friend in the world. And I failed him. I failed all of them.
Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) Page 11
