by EA Hooper
“Oh, this is Monika?” Xan said, looking at the picture.
They stared at Monika for several seconds, but then her face began to grow old. It aged faster and faster, and within seconds she decayed into a skeletal figure. Vincent heard movement behind him, but he reacted too slowly. However, Xan turned in time to block the greatsword of a graven worm lord.
With tears in his eyes, Vincent stood and swung Song of War at the worm lord. The shockwave blew apart its chest, sending chunks of worms everywhere. He hit it again and again with the Singing Blade enchantment to cut through large chunks at once. Vincent gnashed his teeth and roared with anger, and then, finally, the worm lord’s body crumbled away.
The old man stood, shaking with anger. His heart pounded in his chest as he eyed the dead worms. He glanced at Xan. “Let’s go kill Marquis.”
Vincent stomped down the hall as the passage twisted and turned. After another turn in the tunnel, two lithe worm lords jumped from holes hidden under paintings. However, the furious man tore through them with Singing Blade. Xan finished off both worm lords with her phantasmal blade before they could rebuild their bodies, and the two teammates continued through the hall.
They approached a large, wooden doorway at the end of the tunnel. Vincent eyed the doorknob, noticing something wasn’t quite right with the way it hung off the door. He hit the door with Singing Blade, and it hissed in reply. It fell over, revealing more of the same tunnel, but the door itself grew spiderlike legs out of its side.
Marquis is getting predictable with his mimics.
Vincent hit it with another shockwave, and Xan rushed forward and jumped onto the back of the mimic. She stabbed her phantom blade into it and allowed the Light-Drain Longsword to suck out the mimic’s light. The monster squirmed and struggled for several seconds, but then it collapsed and turned to dust. Xan collected its item crystals and followed Vincent as he marched onward.
The angered man and his teammate cut through four more worm lords before they reached the hardened-verasteel door that was covered in enchanted chains. Vincent shot Void Gun through the chains, and then he used two more shots to destroy the hinges of the door. The massive door fell inward, revealing a large crypt, but Vincent paused to gulp down several ethers.
With his mana full, Vincent stepped into the crypt chamber. He stared at the rows of coffins along the walls and the bones on the floor. Their team had made it to that room dozens of times, and it seemed like the only part of the dungeon that never changed.
One coffin opened, and a glowing skull floated into the air.
“Friends! Friends!” the skull cackled. “Did you like my traps? My illusions? I had some other things prepared, but you rushed here so quickly.”
Vincent fired Void Gun through the skull, and it shattered into pieces. The other coffins opened, and twelve more skulls flew from them. A flood of worms poured from the coffins and holes in the walls, and the worms gathered toward the skulls and formed a massive shape at the center of the crypt.
“Such fun,” one skull said.
“Always good sports,” another said.
“Maybe I took it a little too far this time,” one skull noted.
All the skulls cackled at once as the mountain of worms became a towering figure. Marquis of Worms swung its gigantic arm, but Vincent stopped it short with a shockwave. He hit it with a second strike, and the arm broke away and fell to the ground. The worms scurried to their body, but Vincent used another strike to kill thousands.
“Focus on the skulls,” Xan said. “I’ll stop his attacks.”
Vincent nodded and swung Song of War. His shockwave hit a skull and shattered it into pieces. “It’s almost too bad we’re leaving. This sword is perfect for fighting Marquis.”
“How rude,” Marquis replied.
The skulls opened their jaws and sprayed blobs of mana at them, but Xan knocked most of the globules away by twirling her Barrier Longsword. Streams of worms reached for the players, but Xan slashed through them with her phantom blade.
Vincent cut through three more skulls before the floating objects began to duck and weave. They replied by firing mana bolts from their eyes. Xan deflected two of the shots, but one shredded through her Light Shield. A tentacle of worms tried to sneak around from her side, but she scattered the worms with her Light-Drain Longsword.
“Such fun,” a skull shouted.
“Very delightful,” another said.
“Kill me next,” a third mocked as it zipped and dodged through the air.
Vincent replied with a well-timed Singing Blade that ripped the skull in half.
“Maybe we should talk about this,” one skull said, worriedly.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Vince replied, shattering the skull with a vibrational wave. “You’re just another monster with limited artificial intelligence. I’ve tried talking to you before, and you just repeat the same responses to the same questions. I’d rather kill you and be done with this dungeon forever.”
“Such fun,” one skull replied just before Vincent destroyed it.
Marquis’s massive worm body surged with mana and sprayed hundreds of worms at the players. Vincent used Zero Field to repel the flying worms, and they exploded against Marquis’s own body.
The remaining skulls howled with pain, and then they glowed even brighter.
Stage two, Vincent noted, drinking his mega-ether.
The skulls disappeared into the mountain of worms, and several of the unopened coffins grew spiderlike legs and charged at the two players. Vincent raised his hand and cast Black Cinder.
The void embers shredded through the mimics, causing the monsters to shriek as they died. He spread part of the wave toward Marquis, and the embers ate through thousands of his worms. Vincent saw the dome of one skull just before his attack shattered it.
Xan slashed through the only surviving mimic with her phantom blade, and it fell over dead. Before the young woman turned back to Marquis, however, he hit her with a wave of mana-charged worms.
Vincent raised his hand at Xan and cast Zero Field with the last of his mana. He knocked away most of the worms before they exploded, though a few of the small flashes of mana still burned away chunks of Xan’s armor and flesh. She dissolved her phantom sword to heal part of the damage and cast Flash Heal on a chunk of skin missing from her arm.
The wall of worms collided with Vincent as he struggled to drink an ether. It slammed him against the wall, knocking out his breath and cracking parts of his armor. Tens of thousands of worms blanketed him, and he felt a crushing weight as Marquis buried him.
I don’t even have enough mana to Self-Destruct.
Vincent heard the crackle of a Mana Cannon, and he felt the weight of the worms lessen. He struggled to move his arms to swing Song of War, but then one of the skulls emerged and clamped its jaw onto his wrist. It couldn’t bite through his armor, but it did manage to stop him from struggling. The worms squirmed into every inch of his armor, and Vincent clamped his teeth together to keep them from slithering down his throat.
Vincent’s body convulsed from his overwhelming instinct to escape. He couldn’t break free of the mountain of worms, but he felt the weight growing lighter. The skull released his wrist, and the Ranger grabbed it as it tried to retreat. It dragged him through several layers of worms, only for a phantasmal blade to stab through it when it reached the surface.
Xan’s hand grabbed Vincent and pulled him out of Marquis’s body. The old man tumbled away from the monster, discovering it had shrunk to about half its original size from Xan’s repeated attacks.
Vincent stumbled to the nearest wall and used it to hold himself upright. He chugged an ether and fired Void Gun through the next skull that Xan uncovered with her repeated attacks.
“There’s only one skull left!” Xan shouted.
“Then get ready for his suicide attack,” Vincent replied between drinks of ether.
Xan slashed through the middle of Marquis’s body. The two large
piles of worms fell away from one another, and Vincent eyed the white surface of the skull lodged in the right side. The skull flashed with light, and Xan leapt away as all the remaining worms charged with mana.
Xan cast two Barrier Walls in front of herself and Vincent before worms flew in every direction. Thousands of small explosions rocked the crypt, tearing it to pieces. Xan’s forcefields didn’t hold long, and Vincent immediately pulled his True Huntsman’s Cloak over them and covered Xan with his body, since he knew her Light Shield had faltered.
Explosions tore the cloak to shreds, and then chipped away at Vincent’s armor. His Gravity Shield reduced the strength of the explosions, but with so many at once, he felt his armor being ripped to pieces. His mana reserve fell empty from the repeated bombardment, and then sharp pains rained across his back.
When the explosions finally stopped, Vincent dropped to his knees. His body felt so numb that he wasn’t even sure if he’d been fatally wounded or not.
The lone, floating skull cackled. “Play with me again sometime, friends!”
Xan hovered her Light-Drain Longsword through the air and speared it through the skull. The skull crumbled to dust, and Xan recalled her sword to convert it into mana. Her eyes filled with worry as she looked at Vincent’s back.
“That bad, huh?” Vincent replied. He smiled, and then his head lolled forward. For an instant, he saw the respawn screen, but then his vision returned. He found himself once more in the crypt beside Xan as she healed his remaining wounds. “Good call with Revive. You’ve gotten really good at using it in the split-second before we crumble into dust.”
Xan smirked as she finished healing him. “You’ve seen how much practice I’ve had with it.”
Vincent looked around the destroyed crypt until he found the one undamaged coffin that had been protected by runes. He opened it, revealing the loot Marquis had gathered or spawned with since the last time they’d killed him.
1-Piece Gild Coin (x381)
5-Piece Gild Coin (x31)
10-Piece Gild Coin (x13)
Jump Crystal (x4) – This crystal flows with incredible gravitational energy. Use it at a Jump Gate to fly to a nearby world. Farther worlds may require multiple Jump Crystals.
Darkstalker Cloak – Material Rating: 100 | An orofabric cloak that’s darker than the night sky. | Advanced Shadow Cloaking – This cloak masks itself and its wearer in pitch-black darkness.
Book of Worms – A book filled with various spells, recipes, and designs for runes. It also includes a list of the Marquis of Worms’ favorite jokes and riddles.
Dungeon Escaper Deluxe – A world-shaping rune designed by the Marquis of Worms. You can use it to create a pathway out of his dungeon.
Marquis’s Souvenir – A magical mirror that makes your reflection look like a skeleton.
Alisa Bonfield’s Diary – The diary of a woman detailing her life from age ten to her last entry as she lay on her deathbed at age one-hundred-fifty. There are signs of magic on the pages that make you suspect some entity used the book for a dark ritual.
Vincent looked at the diary and skimmed a few pages. “Huh, weird.”
“What’s that?” Xan asked.
“So, his loot had a diary written by that NPC. It’s mostly emotionless notes like things that happened or people she met. It even mentions the Great Vanguard arriving at her city. This must’ve been during the beta. Somehow, Marquis got this diary and used it to create that other her.”
“How, though? You think a player left the diary here?”
“I don’t see any reason a player would have her diary, and I certainly don’t think they’d bring it all the way to Eramar. Maybe Marquis spawned with it at random. His loot has had some weird trinkets over the years. Sometimes even items that shouldn’t exist on Eramar.”
“That’s true. Well, hurry and use the escape rune. If I never see this crypt again it’ll be too soon.”
Vincent used the world-shaping rune from Marquis’s loot. The stone wall opened, and the earth shaped itself into a staircase. The rune glowed and rattled in his hands, and Vincent knew from experience that it would turn to dust once they reached the top.
>Vincent: Can you hear us again?
>Jim: Yeah, we’re heading home. What happened?
>Alexandria: We killed Marquis.
>Quinn: That quickly? That’s faster than any of our previous runs.
>Vincent: We only took one wrong turn, and it seems like we might’ve run past a lot of his traps. He gave the same line about getting there too quickly that he gave us last time. I think that means we were too fast for him to shuffle the dungeon around much. That stuff takes time, even for Marquis.”
>Jim: Nice job, you two. I guess that means we really are too strong for Eramar now. There’s only one challenge standing in our way.
>Vincent: Yeah. Let’s regroup at home and take down Rethin before we leave Eramar. After that, we can regroup with our allies and go after Lucas. That psycho mod has no idea what’s coming for him.
Chapter 28
Player: Noble Vincent
Location: Eramar (World) | Black Wastes (Region)
Class: Ranger
Subclass: Mage
Vitality: Lv 165
Spirit*: Lv 174
Resolve: Lv 153
Perception*: Lv 180
Agility: Lv 163
Strength: Lv 162
Vincent and his teammates stood on a plateau that overhung the blackened, scarred wastes on the north-east corner of Eramar. He and Xan wore plated armor made of hardened-verasteel with an extra layer of chainmail underneath.
Quinn and Jim wore lighter armor made of thinner plates connected over enhanced difabric. The 150-rated enhancements raised the fabric to a 200 rating. Their team placed several sets of each outfit in storage to prepare for the invasion, although they’d decided to risk one set for their last attempt to take down Rethin.
The World Boss loomed over the scarred wastes. Every step the towering monster took made the ground tremble. The eyeless monstrosity shambled around the region like he’d done for decades. Sometimes he’d stop and reach down with his long fingers to inspect the ground. He could sense vibrations in the earth through his feet and hands, and every so often he’d grab a revenant or draugr off the ground and swallow them whole with his humanlike mouth. Though not before chomping a few times, of course.
The team had watched him for hours, waiting for him to near the large plateau at the edge of the region that would give them a fighting advantage. They had attacked his legs before and knew how futile it was to focus on anything other than his head or the large round shape jutting from his chest.
Vincent eyed the taut skin over the massive chest lump. He remembered the times he’d watched blood rain down after shooting the boss there with Void Gun. It’s Rethin’s only real weak spot. Even putting a dozen Void Guns through his head didn’t kill him.
The team’s plateau trembled as Rethin shuffled closer, and Vincent tossed a rune off the side. The rune hit the ground at the bottom of the slope and activated, spreading sonic waves in every direction.
Rethin paused and turned to the sonic-making rune. His jaw opened, and he released a long, hungry bellow. The World Boss stomped toward the plateau and leaned down. He touched around on the ground, trying to find the source of the vibrations.
Xan cast World Fountain and sent a beam of light into the plateau. A few seconds later, a fountain of rainbow-colored liquid sprayed from the spot and rained over the middle of the plateau. She’d originally developed the spell for them to recover mana when they returned to traveling the branches of the World-Tree, but they’d found it one of the most useful abilities for trying to fight Rethin—so long as the world magic didn’t reach him. Since the world magic was converted into the rainbow-colored rain, it didn’t push back against the rest of the team’s Gravity Shields either.
The players stood on the edge of the plateau as Rethin rose, towering over them. They attacked at once, bo
mbarding the round shape on his chest with spells. Vincent used four consecutive Void Guns, and then leapt back into the rainbow rain. He could feel his mana reserve refilling quickly, but he chugged an ether to speed the process. Vincent watched as Jim carved through Rethin with Void Crow, and the two women attacked with Mana Magnums.
Blood sprayed from Rethin’s chest, coating the closer players. The monster’s mouth opened with a pained howl, and he swiped his massive arm at the plateau. Xan and Quinn had readied themselves to jump away while Jim used Phaseshift to pass right through the arm. The sluggish monster took a few seconds to catch its balance and twist itself back around, but during that time, the players weren’t able to target its weak spot.
Vincent drank another ether, and then jumped forward out of the rain. He stood with Jim near the edge as the monster’s nostrils flared, trying to find its attackers. It crouched low, and its chest lump vanished from their line of sight. The colossal enemy grabbed the ledges of the plateau and took a deep sniff. Its nostrils flared again, and then Rethin bellowed at them, releasing a wave of miasma.
We already used our miasma-protection potions, so that’s no good. Show us your blasted weak spot!
Vincent took a shot at Rethin’s face with Void Gun, and the World Boss snarled in response. The monster raised his hand high, and both men leapt out of the way as the hand smashed apart that section of the plateau.
Great, this was the last good plateau to fight him at. If he destroys the rest of it, we might not even have a way to fight him if we ever return.
Jim finished an ether and sent a Void Crow flying into the World Boss’s throat, causing Rethin to recoil. The monster screamed and slammed his arms against the plateau, knocking tons of rocks through the air, but his deft assailant used Phaseshift and retreated.
Vincent stopped incoming rocks by casting Zero Field. He threw his hand forward and launched the stones back at the boss’s face, cracking several of the monster’s teeth.
