Hell to Pay (Ascend Online Book 2)

by Luke Chmilenko

  “Fuck,” I cursed the second I managed to get a better look at the distant army, my elven eyesight easily resolving the blob-like mass into vaguely elf-shaped outlines. “Sawyer’s right, they’re coming.”

  As soon as the words left my mouth, a flashing quest update appeared in the corner of my vision with an urgent chime, causing me to bring it up and read through the update.

  Due to recent events, your quest [The Heist] has been merged with [No Honor Among Thieves]!

  [No Honor Among Thieves] is now a Group Quest and has been automatically shared with your party!

  Quest Updated! No Honor Among Thieves!

  After a brutal battle in storming the House Phineas Estate, you managed to successfully infiltrate the Phineas mansion and confront Thief Lord Dorian in a fierce battle before he could activate the artifact. However, during the battle, the artifact was damaged, resulting in you and the rest of the party being pulled through into Avernus, a plane of Hell.

  Regrouping from your transition, you discovered your one-time companion Ransom, who passed on a desperate word of warning: That Dorian and Edith have been conspiring with The Holy Ascendancy of Eligos and have opened a portal to allow them to sneak attack Eberia. Unless you can close the portal before they arrive, Eberia will fall.

  Find Edith: 1/1 (Complete)

  Find Dorian: 1/1 (Complete)

  Find Ransom: 1/1 (Complete)

  Discover what Dorian has planned: 1/1

  Kill Dorian: 0/1

  Recover the Stolen Artifact: 0/1

  Close the portal before The Ascendancy arrives: 0/1

  (Optional) Recover Memory: 0/1

  Difficulty: Very Hard

  Reward: Experience, Renown & Infamy

  “We need to move,” Ransom said urgently as he jogged past me, his head glancing around the barren hellscape behind the ridge. “If the portal is still open, it has to be somewhere close by. With the artifact still destabilizing when it pulled us through…the portal would have still been moving before it anchored itself…there’s a chance we’re not too far away from it.”

  “I have no idea what you just said,” Sawyer grunted as he moved to follow the warlock, his voice starting to sound slightly unhinged. “But it sounds like it makes sense, and I’m willing to grasp at any straw that keeps me from being trapped here for any longer than I have to be.”

  “How do we even know where to start looking?” Quinn asked, moving to follow the Ransom and Sawyer. “This place is full of nooks, ridges, and valleys; we could rush right past it and never know.”

  “Follow the debris!” Molly shouted, pointing at a trail of wreckage that continued away from us at an angle, vanishing in a cloud of ash as the winds began to stir. “That way!”

  With no other encouragement needed, the five of us broke into a jog as we rushed to follow the trail of destruction across the ash-covered surface of Avernus, our hurried footsteps kicking up a trail behind us. Keeping an eye on the approaching army in the distance, I scanned our surroundings desperately, searching for any sign of the artifact before the ash completely obscured all visibility.

  Sweeping over us in a hot gust of wind, we ran into the cloud of ash, instantly feeling our eyes and throats catch fire. Coughing wildly, the five of us pressed through the ash, doggedly putting one foot in front of the other as we followed the increasingly hard-to-spot fragments of wreckage.

  “I see something!” I called out in between ragged coughs as a crimson flare of light caught my eye in the distance, barely visible through the thick ash that blew around us. “Follow me!”

  Taking point at the head of the party, I gripped my sword tightly as I led us in the direction where I had seen the light, my watering eyes trying desperately to pick out any detail they could through the thick haze in front of me. Running through the gloom, it was impossible to see the edge of the ash cloud until we suddenly burst through it, a bright crimson glare causing each of us to squint in surprise.

  “There it is!” Molly shouted in a raspy voice, the hot ash having taken its toll on her throat.

  Rubbing the back of my hand across my face to clear the ash from my eyes, I saw the rapidly spinning shape of the artifact as it hung in the air a short distance away from us, just in front of a jagged tear in reality that could only be a portal back to Eberia. Blurred beyond easy recognition, all I could see inside the portal was flickering flames and distorted shapes that faded in and out as the artifact discharged large sparks of crimson energy into the ground.

  A flash of movement caught my eye as Dorian and Edith walked around the portal’s edge and came into view, the Thief Lord’s face scowling in surprise at spotting the five of us.

  “Of course it would be too much to wish that you were all killed in the transition,” Dorian hissed venomously, his voice still slurring from his damaged jaw as he fixed his attention on me. “But now…it no longer matters. The portal is open and stable. All that you have done is waste lives pointlessly.”

  “Why did you do it, Dorian?” I called out to the man as the five of us slowly approached the portal, our weapons at hand. “Why betray Eberia to the Ascendancy?”

  “I am not betraying Eberia!” Dorian barked, his face visibly wincing in pain as he spoke. “I am saving it!”

  “By putting the Noble Houses against one another’s throats? By inciting civil war?” I yelled back at the man. “By killing Fairfax?!”

  “I went to Fairfax for he—”

  “Shut up, Dorian,” Edith hissed, her command causing the Thief Lord’s mouth to snap shut painfully. Turning with a shocked expression on his face, Dorian whirled to look at Edith, the woman giving him a smug look. “I know exactly what question is on your mind, and yes, I hold your leash as well—I always have. Now, stay put for a moment, like a good dog.”

  Freezing in place, Dorian’s already pained expression intensified as an unnatural stiffness came over his body, appearing as if he was fighting against an unseen force that held him in place.

  “What did you do to him?” Sawyer asked as Edith turned her head towards the five of us.

  “I think that’s self-evident,” Edith replied with a dismissive gesture. “I shut him up before his guilty conscience got the better of him. He wants to be seen as a hero so badly, it is almost tragic. Well, if he weren’t just an NPC, that is.”

  “You have control over his Geas,” I stated, keeping a wary eye on Dorian’s paralyzed figure, the only thing moving being his right hand trembling at his side.

  “Oh? You overheard that bit, did you?” Edith cocked her head at me before looking back at Dorian. “Yeah…seems like King Cyril had some pretty interesting ideas for keeping people in line. All it took was a few tweaks to his old Geas and poof, a nice obedient minion.”

  “Why are you doing this, Edith?” Ransom cut in, his voice hard as he addressed his one-time companion. “Seriously, you’re going to destroy Eberia by doing this!”

  “Oh please, Ransom,” Edith snorted as she waved her massive clawed hand in the air while taking a step forward. “What do you think this is? A Saturday-morning cartoon where I stand here and monologue for a half hour? No, I’m keeping my motivations close to my chest.”

  “Then let’s cut to the chase,” I said, taking my eyes away from Dorian’s rapidly shaking hand and focusing solely on Edith. “What exactly do you want? You wouldn’t still be standing here and talking otherwise, especially not when the five of us can steamroll the two of you in seconds.”

  “You are welcome to try,” Edith replied derisively, causing her misshapen face to contort as she scowled at me and pointed at my chest. “But I don’t want anything, Cain, though I’ll admit it galls me to let you get away with stealing the sigil from me. I have no idea how you convinced the artifact to give it to you so quickly or how you locked it afterwards.”

  I looked at Edith with a blank expression on my face, before turning my head towards Ransom. “What is she talking about? The artifact is alive?”

  “Sort of,�
�� Ransom replied hesitantly, giving me an unsure look. “It…didn’t say that much to me while it was fused to my arm.”

  “It was fused to your arm and it can talk?!” I hissed at the half-orc, my eyes glancing towards his missing arm before going to the spinning artifact that was still discharging random bolts of crimson energy into the air. “Why the hell didn’t you mention that earlier?!”

  “With what time?!” Ransom snapped as he gestured towards Edith and Dorian. “I can tell you everything that happened, but we have to close the portal first!”

  “Good luck with that,” Edith spat with anger. “Cain hit the artifact hard enough that it’s not responding anymore.” Edith paused, her expression shifting into a grim smile as she began to turn away from us, glancing at Dorian as she said, “But I don’t see that as being our problem, right, Dorian?”

  “You…bitch…” I heard the Thief Lord grind out through clenched teeth, his entire body visibly trembling as he fought the Geas. “I…am…not…your…dog!”

  “Oh, Dorian,” Edith said in a weary tone as she admonished the man. “This isn’t really the time or the place to be throwing a tantrum. Don’t make me have to bring you to heel in front of company.”

  “I…have…had…enough,” Dorian continued, his venom-filled gaze alternating between Edith and the rest of us as he spoke. “Of…all…of…you…damned…Adventurers…I…will…kill…you…all!”

  As he slowly ground out his threat, Dorian’s body began to spasm as the Geas began to exact its toll for his continued defiance. Shaking wildly, one of his hands caught on a belt pocket sewn into his waist, ripping it wide open with the sound of tearing fabric. Spilling free from the pouch, I saw a tangle of leather cords fall directly into Dorian’s outstretched hand, three familiar shapes swinging in the air. Clenching at the mass desperately, Dorian flicked his wrist, causing the spherical shapes to wrap themselves tightly against the exposed flesh of his arm.

  Those are Soul Shards! a distant part of my brain identified as I instinctively took a step forward, words already forming on my lips.

  “Dorian, stop!” Both my movement and shout caused Edith to flinch and take her attention away from the defiant Thief Lord as she spun to face me, bringing up her massive arm before her in a defensive stance.

  “This is the only choice I have left!” Dorian screamed a heartbeat before uttering a word of power, triggering the binding on the Soul Shards in his hand, causing fire to shoot up his arm as the three bone fragments flared with a blinding intensity.

  “No!” Edith cried out as she twisted in sudden panic, catching a glimpse of Dorian’s burning form a second before his body exploded into a colossal pillar of flame, the shockwave knocking all of us off our feet.

  Thrown backwards from the blast, I felt myself slam into Quinn standing behind me, the two of us falling to the ground in a tangle of limbs as a wave of bright light and heat washed over us, causing our exposed skin to blister. Stunned and blinded from the blast, I lay completely insensate for a moment until Quinn’s moan of pain snapped me back to the present.

  “Ugh, Lazarus, you’re heavy,” the thin mage wheezed from underneath me. “Please get off me.”

  “Sorry,” I said out of reflex as I scrambled off the mage, rolling onto my knees while desperately blinking the afterimage of the blast out of my already ash-damaged eyes.

  It’s a small miracle I haven’t gone blind from everything that’s happened today, I thought numbly as my vision slowly returned, leaving me staring directly at the ash-covered ground of Avernus, the implications of the last few seconds finally catching up to me. Dorian just activated three Soul Shards all at once!

  Casting about in sudden panic, my eyes first landed on the singed forms of both Molly and Sawyer, the pair of them slowly recovering from the blast and pushing themselves back up onto their feet. Continuing my scan, I felt my breath catch in my throat as I spotted Edith’s blackened body, writhing on the ground in her back in agony, her body completely charred and nearly unrecognizable if it weren’t for her large clawed arm. Whining in pain, Edith stared upwards in shock as a massive black claw reached up from above her and lifted her frail body straight off the ground.

  Flinching in surprise, I forced my glance upwards, feeling my heart twist in horror as I saw the creature that Dorian had become.

  Standing on two clawed feet with a massive tail sweeping the ground behind it, a sleek, black-scaled devil towered high over me as it lifted Edith’s body in a single oversized claw, bringing the crying woman closer to its narrow, devilish face. Opening its maw, it revealed countless jagged teeth as saliva poured forth down its chin. Regarding the burned woman with curiosity, two burning orbs on the devil’s face narrowed, before a cacophony of twisted voices echoed over the plains.

  “HELLO, EDITH,” the black-scaled devil purred as it brought its horned head closer to the woman’s face. “I IMAGINE THIS IS AS MUCH A SURPRISE FOR YOU AS IT IS FOR ME.”

  “What?!” I gasped in disbelief while gaping up at the devil. “I-is that still Dorian?!”

  “I-I d-don’t…” Quinn stuttered through his words before trailing off in stunned silence, his feet scratching in the dirt behind me.

  “WHAT, NOTHING TO SAY?” Dorian’s voice rang out as he raised Edith to the side of his head, her choking sobs filling the air. “AH, YOU ARE IN PAIN. MY APOLOGIES. ALLOW ME TO ASSIST.”

  Bringing the woman down from his ear, Dorian raised a second clawed hand and reached towards Edith, grasping her large twisted arm delicately between two razor-sharp talons.

  And tore it off.

  “What the fuck?!” I shouted in shock as a thick gush of black blood erupted from Edith’s shoulder, followed close behind by a bloodcurdling scream. Anger shot through me at the violent act, a cold wave of energy pulsing across my chest as the sigil began to stir.

  “GOODNESS! HOW CLUMSY OF ME!” Dorian’s laugh echoed through the air as he threw Edith’s arm over his shoulder. “IT SEEMS I DO NOT KNOW MY OWN STRENGTH.

  “HUSH, SWEET CHILD, IT WILL ALL BE OVER SOON,” Dorian cooed as he brought Edith’s wailing form closer to his face, his jagged maw opening wide. “GIVE OUR MASTER MY REGARDS. I WILL PAY HIM A VISIT AS SOON AS I AM ABLE.”

  Lunging forward in the blink of an eye, Dorian’s teeth flashed through the air as he bit down on Edith’s head, her terror-filled screams ending with the sickening crunch of bone, her charred body instantly going limp. Chewing through the remains of Edith’s skull, Dorian threw Edith’s corpse to the ground with such intensity that it bounced twice in the air before coming to a stop nearly twenty feet away.

  “Damn,” I hissed through clenched teeth, forcing myself up onto my feet as Dorian turned his burning eyes to glare at the five of us. Meeting his eyes defiantly, a tag appeared in the corner of my eye, pointing directly at the creature that Dorian had become.

  [Dorian the Soul Eater] – Elite Boss – Level 14

  “THE THIEF AND THE TRAITOR,” Dorian growled, his eyes brightening as he alternated his gaze between myself and Ransom. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY LIVES YOUR MEDDLING HAS COST? WHAT IT HAS COST ME?”

  “We didn’t make your choices for you, Dorian!” I replied angrily while staring at the black-scaled devil for any sign of movement, the freezing energy of the sigil slowly coursing through my body.

  “THAT IS IRRELEVANT!” the creature snarled as it bared its teeth towards me and raised its clawed hands in the air. “BECAUSE OF YOU, I HAVE AN OCEAN OF BLOOD ON MY HANDS! BECAUSE OF YOU, I WAS FORCED TO DAMN MYSELF FOR ALL ETERNITY! YOU MUST PAY FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE!”

  With a bloodcurdling roar, Dorian powerful legs coiled underneath him as he made to leap forward, the five of us instinctively scattering in every direction. Rolling to the side, I felt the ground shake from Dorian’s landing, followed by the sound of scraping claws and talons as he spun to face me.

  Acting with the speed of thought, I activated the pulsating Sigil of Rage, feeling the ice-cold torrent of energy surge
through my body, slowing everything down before me. However, even with the sigil’s power speeding my reflexes, I was hard-pressed to duck under Dorian’s oversized claw as he thrust it out towards me. Wildly cutting upwards with my sword, I felt it briefly grind against Dorian’s talons before glancing off of them and cutting a shallow wound across his wrist. Not pausing to inspect my handiwork, I rushed even closer to the devil, hoping to find a few seconds of respite deep within its reach.

  Damn, he’s big! The thought echoed through my mind as I found myself looking straight up at Dorian, his new form being at least half again as tall as I was. Shifting my glance downward for a place to focus my next attack, I found myself staring into a thickly scaled torso with heavy bone growths armoring the creature’s side and abdomen. Whatever type of devil Dorian had transformed himself into, I could tell that he was going to be difficult, if not nearly impossible to put down.

  “SCURRY AROUND AS MUCH AS YOU WISH, LITTLE RATS!” Dorian taunted, his second claw raking the ground in front of me as I desperately leaped out of its way, only to be clipped in the shoulder by his other claw. “YOU WILL ONLY DIE TIRED!”

  Ugh, even with the sigil’s help, it’s impossible for me to track both claws at the same time! I thought to myself, the pain from the glancing blow causing me to wince.

  “I got you, Lazarus!” Sawyer shouted as he charged into the fray, bringing his new axe down onto Dorian’s knee, where it bit through the thick scales with a loud crack.

  Roaring in annoyance, Dorian tore his attention away from me and swung a massive claw in Sawyer’s direction, the nimble bounty hunter easily dancing backwards from the claw’s path, having anticipated the attack. Taking advantage of Dorian’s distraction, I leaped forward and swung my sword in a powerful slash, carving a long wound across his thigh, which immediately welled up with thick black blood.

  “GAH!” Growling in pain for the first time, Dorian retreated two steps backwards as his claw reached down to grip the injury that I had just inflicted. Glancing down at his blood-covered hand, Dorian snarled as he glared back at me with his crimson eyes. “IT SEEMS THAT THE RATS HAVE CLAWS! VERY WELL, SEE HOW YOU LIKE MINE!”