“Almost there,” Jace says pulling up on his blade. The door / wall continues to crack along its smooth surface.
“Done,” he says standing back. The giant door / wall cracks and ripples down through the center. It begins to shatter like a spider web. Jace falls down to one knee. I can see his mana, stamina, are gone, his health dropped to 10. He used all his power but he did it. The door / wall begins to break away and fall apart as a cloud of dust covers us. Ariane and I grab Jace and move backwards.
An arrow flies out from the darkness and pierces Ariane in the shoulder. She rips it out and casts some kind of healing spell over the open wound with her hand. Nice touch. If I survive this I will have to ask her to teach me a few more of her tricks.
A hound leaps forward from the smoke and debris and takes down one of our men. I fire at it with my rifle. The bullets pierce it but that doesn’t stop it. The beast lounges towards the rest of us. My party has dropped to six now. Ethan moves in front of the creature using his body to block its blow against us. It tears at him again and again but he endures. I wonder now that Ethan is a zombie can he really feel any pain? Ariane does. She grabs her chest and I watch as her mana drops. There is a whistle from deep inside the cave. The hellhound stops shaking Ethan’s body around like a rag doll long enough to look inside before dropping its toy and running inside. For a moment there is silence before a screaming horde of trolls carrying swords and axes move towards us.
Bendi feeds Jace a potion before quickly disappearing. His power restored he joins the rest of us in an all out battle against the troll horde. The next several minutes feel like a blur. I can’t remember how I moved, how I felt, I can’t remember any of the faces of the trolls I killed. A part of me, the part of me that still felt human felt terrible for killing these living creatures. I reminded myself again and again this was a game only to have my mind question whether or not it really was. What would I do if a group of strangers attacked my home. I would give them all hell. Here we were trying to make peace but all we were doing was delivering more death. When the battle was over I stood there my rifle empty slung by my side and my sword held in my hand covered in blood. I was born again of blood and war.
Ariane had gagged Molto with an old sock. He was mumbling profanities left and right as we dragged him further into the trolls palace. The first place we came upon was a kitchen, no, it was a prison. A cold damp room that held cages filled with pieces of goblins and other animals that had been sliced up. The smell was the worst. For as dull as some of my senses were I could smell the rot around us. We left as quickly as we could trying to find anything of value on our way.
Several more traps awaited us as we began our descent. We had killed all the guards at the front gate but we knew that soon we would be facing far greater numbers.
“We tried to make friends once with these creatures,” said Ariane.
“We have always been too different, we could never be at peace,” said Jace.
“Thats not true, differences shouldn’t matter, where I come from there are many different cultures and races and while there are still some that believe otherwise, we are all equals, we are all struggling to survive in the same world and we all value life,” I cut in.
“Than maybe you should speak to the king,” smirked Jace.
“I will if that’s what it takes,” I proclaimed. Probably a bad idea but from what I understood now the trolls and humans of this world were no different and no better than one another.
“There is much blood between our cultures,” said Ariane.
“Would that matter a generation from now? A hundred years from today trolls and humans could be sharing settlements together, it will take forgiveness from both ends. What we do today we do for the betterment of both our kind,” I felt proud I was actually saying the words without stuttering. As we passed through the hallways I could see more and more of what made trolls and humans the same. The trolls had painted their walls with color, portraits, images of art that looked like it could have been hanging inside a New York City museum. There were rooms filled with books, not a language I could understand but books full of language and that was key. We already knew the trolls spoke common so speaking to them was easy. Understanding them was going to be a little bit more difficult but it could be done. It had to be done. I couldn’t go red like I had before. I couldn’t kill again. These weren’t daemons, these were sentient beings.
Chapter 20
There is a whimper in the void.
The troll king looked less like a troll and more like a man. He had long black hair and was barely middle aged. He had a long athletic body and dark facial hair. Not quite a beard per say but just enough to hide the straight jaw line he hid underneath. He was wearing black robes and a crown made from animal bones. There was a large scar that ran down the left side of his face down across his eye and his right cheek. His eyes were red and bloodshot and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days, even months. He sat in a throne made from dark crystals. Against his side he held a scythe decorated with many articulated runes. It was a cursed weapon. A gift form his late son. His son had found it in one of the valley dungeons and bestowed it to his father as a birthday present. For years it had hung in the kings palace on display but now it stood stained with goblin blood. He moved his fingers across it now and smiled for a just a moment clamoring to that memory of his son before fading back into reality. His kingdom was under attack by humans. The humans that wanted war. The humans that had killed his flesh and blood. The humans that had taken all away from him.
Chapter 21
There is a whimper in the void and those who hear it fall. It was like staring into an abyss. I was lost from my raid party. I had fallen down through one of the troll king’s traps. Here I thought we I could make peace with him and I was stuck in a maze in the dark. The troll king’s palace was ancient. They had started carving it into the side of a mountain the moment they came to this world. This world. I was even more bothered by it now. Something had been gathering us all together here. All the different species and myself. What if this was real? What if I had been pulled inside some kind of dimension X. I didn’t have time for an existential crisis. Not now. I moved my one good hand through my small pack and found a lighter. I flicked it and found a small flashlight. I had packed an assortment of items on my way out here hoping for the most part I wouldn’t need any of them.
I had fallen into a small bed of warm water. Luckily nothing of mine was damaged and my rifle and bag were all waterproof. The impact was intense though. I felt like my whole body had been slammed hard against a concrete wall. I was lucky nothing was broken. I no longer had Bendi or the others to help me. I had just managed to pull myself to the river bank before I felt something swim near my leg.
With my flashlight in hand I wandered through the maze in the dark. The tunnels beneath the troll kings hideaway. I was probably inside some kind of sewer. It did smell like shit. I had only one direction to go. I called up to the others. Nothing. Silence. For all I knew they had fallen into some kind of trap themselves. Maybe I should have waited to see if the others would help me but the fall had been long. Maybe I hit my head too hard and wasn’t thinking straight. Either way I was wandering. I felt like there was something calling out to me from beyond… something like a crying child. I let it take hold of me. Guide me. I had better luck trusting my instincts than most.
A human figure stood in the darkness about thirty yards away. I could see its silhouette as I shined my light on it.
“Wanna play hide and seek,” it said. It was a small girl with long black hair.
“I’ll hide and when you find me you’ll hide and then I’ll eat you,” the figure smiled. It had black eyes and pale skin. I felt shivers run down my arm as the figure disappeared into the mist. ‘What the fuck was that?’ I said to no one in particular. I was scared out of my mind. Of all the things I had seen that had to be the weirdest. Nothing quite got to me like scary children and clowns.
Yeah, yeah everyone hates clowns. Well there is a good god damn reason why. No one should ever smile that much with that much make up on, no way they were not hiding something. Ever see that one movie where the clown eats the little boy in the sewer. Yeah, I feel just like him right now.
I use my mana to sharpen my icy limb into a glaive and I continued down the tunnel. I guess I figured out what the crying was. Maybe I shouldn’t have trusted my instincts. The little girl was off somewhere in the dark hiding between the spaces. If I saw her again I would have to run. I had no doubt that whatever she was she was capable of killing me and I couldn’t respawn now. Not this late in the game.
I moved slowly. The floor was wet. Parts of it sunk down into a few inches of water. I watched every step making sure I wouldn’t fall. As I slogged on I found an opening. The other side was lit up. It looked like the inside of a starship or some kind of vault. I could see that the opening had once been a wall. There was a pile of debris on the other side. Whatever had knocked it out had come through the same way I moved now. Molto. It had to be. This was his secret passage. The way he had come to kill the kings son. At least that part made sense. The room on the other side was a different story. It looked like an old military complex. There were broken consoles and broken screens and glass spread across the ground. It looked like it had been raided. I tried to put two and two together. If this part of the world was based on ‘Moon Fire’ this was probably an abandoned base they put the mountain on top of. OK. So that means the trolls dug in here, raided this area and that is how they learned how to use their tech. Ok, makes sense. I can deal with that. It was the little girl laughing echoing around the room I couldn’t deal with.
“Warm,” a voice said. It sounded almost like a whisper in the wind. The laughing stopped. I didn’t want to be warm. I wanted to be cold, ice cold, as cold as my mana would let me, as cold as I could be. The little girl wasn’t human. I knew that the moment I laid eyes on her. I didn’t want to find out what happens next. If Molto made it passed her than I could too. I taped my flashlight to my rifle. Never know when I would need it again. I was tired of walking, tired of running. My body still hurt from my fall. I sat back against a wall. Maybe half an hour. No. I couldn’t close my eyes. The others, they would need my help. I pressed on towards the next room.
A small teddy bear stood on top of a box.
“Not mine,” said a voice giggling.
I didn’t touch it. It felt like another trap.
Slowly I moved passed it. I had bought a lot of gifts for Ellie over the years. Flowers, stuffed animals. Being sweet was never something I had been bad at. I loved seeing her face light up when I surprised her with something new. This bear. This figure that just sat there looking at me looked far too much like one I had given her on our 2nd anniversary.
The lights flickered and went dark. I turned on the flashlight on my rifle. The bear was gone. A tall slender golem appeared near where it was seated. I shot two bursts from my rifle and it fell to the ground its chest glowing red.
“Mine now,” the voice said.
“LEAVE ME ALONE,” I cried.
“What you don’t want to play with me? That’s not nice, don’t make me get my daddy,” said the girl.
“I’m trying to find my friends, I don’t have time for games, I am on an important mission,” I said trying to reason with the ghastly being.
“Boring, its more fun to play with me,” said the girl.
“I’m not playing,” I shouted. There was a large roar. I saw a daemon rise from a pile of black goo on the ground. Its body stretched upward as it slowly took form. I didn’t hesitate as I fired first with a gust of ice cold wind. The creature froze. I fired on it with my rifle. Small pieces broke apart and fell to the ground evaporating into steam. The creature moved its face towards me slowly breaking the ice I had enveloped it in. I could see fire in its eyes.
“Don’t hurt Artois!” the girls voice shouted.
“I told you I’m not here to play games,” and fired again at the creature. It broke free of the ice and jumped toward the wall. It moved towards me across the wall like it was running across the floor. I fired again and it fell dead. It was just a daemon wolf. Low level. Not much of a threat. Obviously not the daddy she had been warning me about.
“Awe, now I’m starting to get mad, you killed my pet and you still haven’t found me, your not very good at games are you,” she said.
I entered the next room. A quick sweep showed me there were several pieces of loot on the ground. Some of which was high powered paladin gear. Molto must have dropped it here for some reason. Maybe it was a part of his escape or maybe he had plans for us we didn’t know about now. I was getting paranoid. A lovely side effect of being hunted. I could still hear the little girl laughing from what sounded like the corner of the room. I made sure not to turn towards the sound. Keeping away from the direction I heard it. One of the weapons on the ground was called a Null Rifle. It had a damage of 100. Weight of 10. ‘That which nullifies’. It had one shot left. Probably the weapon he used against the king’s son. Could be useful as a one hit kill.
The little girls laughing grew more intense as I picked up the weapon and clipped it around my back. I closed my eyes. I could feel her breath against the back of my neck.
“Warm,” she said.
I stood still. I even held my breath. I felt her cold gaze on me without looking at her.
“Have you ever heard the story of the city of Drangwell?” I heard her ask. She was farther away from me now so I began to move again.
“No,” I said believing that if I could get her to start talking I could keep track of her movements.
“The city of Drangwell sprang forth from the first settlement. You see not everyone liked living underground. Not sure why, just look around everything you could ever want is here,” she said. The next room had a small bed on the floor. The walls were covered in charcoal drawings of fake windows, flowers, and animals.
“So they built huts under the sun by a river bed where they laughed, played, fished. The river gave them life, made them healthy, they were grateful to their gods as they sang and dance under the stars almost every single night,” she said pausing between her words. Her voice almost seemed bitter as she continued to speak uneasy about the people of Drangwell. Her voice continued to trail behind me as I moved forward.
The next room was another tunnel. It looked like it was on an incline moving upwards at about a 60 degree angle. I began walking upward. I could feel gravity pushing down against me. My legs felt like jello and my knees felt like twigs that were about to break.
“Not all the gods liked this, you see, for they were creatures born in the dark and each song felt like an insult, a continuous praise for the light,” her voice was fading now. She sounded like she was far behind me at the bottom of the tunnel. I could hear her footsteps. The tunnel itself wasn’t too wide.
“So the gods decided to play a little game, the humans who loved the river so very very much were flooded out of their homes and swept away, back underground where they belonged, the city of Drangwell sank to the bottom of a great lake just below the Chasm. The humans were mad, oh so very mad, they cursed the gods, cursed the Earth, those that survived the great catastrophe returned to the surface and found their homes in ruin,” she stopped.
“Shhhh… your getting close,” she paused. I was nearing the top of the incline. Almost there. “So what happened next?” I asked. I just had to keep her talking, As long as I knew where she was she wasn’t a threat. There was nothing. Silence. I came upon the top of the tunnel and looked down at a flooded stairway. There was nowhere else to go. Nowhere else but to turn back. The lights flickered back on again. I blinked and opened my eyes to find the girl staring at me her face just above the water.
“You found me,” she smiled.
Chapter 22
I ran backwards as quick as I could turning to find her standing at the edge of the tunnel. “Its
my turn now, better run, better hide,” she said before beginning to count down from 100. I slung my rifle down by my side and picked up the Null rifle. I fired. The girl vanished before my eyes as the blast went straight through her and hit the back end of the tunnel collapsing it. “Awe did I make you mad, don’t worry, I’m giving you a good head start,” she said disappearing again. I could still hear her counting backwards her voice echoing around me. This wasn’t a child. It was some kind of supernatural fucked up being. A ghost. A specter, Some kind of daemon I no one had encountered before. I threw the Null rifle away and turned back towards the water and dived in. Something told me it would be better to drown.
The longest I had ever held my breath under water had been one minute and forty two seconds. I thought that was a world record. I held my breath for three minutes and fifteen seconds before finding a pocket of air to breath. Something about the chase gave me what felt like supernatural strength. I moved quicker knowing my life was in danger and pushed my pain aside. Every boss fight so far had been just like this. Every battle I was growing stronger. I used my powers to start to freeze the water behind me. Hoping somehow I could create a barrier between myself and the girl. It made the warm water ice cold as I took a deep breath and continued down the long tunnel. Another minute before air. Finally I reached a door. I opened it and fell inside on my back letting the water rush over me. I kicked the door close and flash froze what water pushed forward. All of it turned to a block of ice as my mana drained all the way down to 5.
“Not going to play now,” I said resting my head back against the cold wet ground.
“I FOUND YOU,” said the girl. She was standing in the corner of the room.
Glimmer, A Throne of Souls (Convergence Book 1) Page 16
