by Ian Rodgers
“Got it,” he nodded. He put me down so he had a hand free, and then unceremoniously reached over to Dora and gave her head a noogie.
‘Ow! That’s got to hurt even more with a gauntlet!’ I thought, wincing in sympathy for Dora.
To my shock, Gaelin’s ridiculous plan actually worked! The half-orc shouted out in pain and swatted away the halberdier’s hand, or at least tried to. All she managed to do was hurt herself on his adamantium gauntlet.
But, besides pain, when her black stained hands came into contact with Gaelin’s divinely blessed armor, there was an almost inaudible screech from the Void gunk and it recoiled from the metal, dripping off of her body and leaving her hands clean for the first time since the pair of siblings had appeared.
“Whu-what?” she muttered, blinking in confusion. “Argh! My head! Why does it feel like someone used a cheese grater on my scalp?!”
I snickered while Gaelin coughed awkwardly. Dora shot us a suspicious look, but then looked down at herself, and at the rat-woman in her lap, and let out a scream of horror.
“Wh-what’s going on?! What happened?!” she shrieked.
“That black goo is tainted by the Void, it drove you mad and has kept you from fighting back against those two freaks,” Gaelin summarized succinctly.
“I-I am sorry,” Long-Tail-Shadow gasped out, drawing our attention towards her once more. “Th-the Void creature-abominations… they found me shortly after y-you went through the Abyss’s p-portal. Th-they hurt me… killed me… turned me into a puppet-slave!”
The Rakkar broke down, sobbing. “I tried to fight-resist, but their voices were always in my head-mind, trying to make me do things! And I couldn’t disobey! I tried to tell-warn you to leave me behind, Dora. I tried! But you’re too kind-stubborn for your own good…”
She trailed off, coughing. “F-forget about me, Dora, I’m as good as dead, now. Just a sack-container of tainted meat filled with memories-dreams of who I once was, and the essence of the Void… save yourself… save your friends…”
“Long-Tail…” Dora choked on the words she wanted to say.
The air suddenly felt heavy, as if a mountain was pressing down on us. Gaelin grunted and sunk to his knees, Dora let out a cry of shock and was forced to bend painfully down, while I found myself plastered to the ground and spread wide like a pancake.
“Mock us… defy us… treat us like mere monsters?! You dare to resist the Void?! DIE!” Selquist screeched as he and his brother floated in the air towards us, and another wave of heaviness struck us. I glanced over at the Void abominations, and winced. Their Void armor had finally managed to dissolve the adhesive slime I’d coated them with, and both of them were boiling with rage at the indignity of it all.
However, Dora let out a shout of resistance as we were threatened with being crushed by the hand-creature’s attack, and bright, silver light erupted from her.
Twin shrieks of pain came from the pair of Void spawn, and as they recoiled from the divine light, their power faded, freeing myself and Gaelin from their clutches.
“You will not harm anyone else today!” Dora roared, holy essence flooding forth from her body. Silver flames wrapped themselves around us, but they didn’t burn. In fact, they felt soothing and invigorating!
“Drive them back!” Dora commanded the two of us, and we nodded.
“YES!” Gaelin and I exclaimed together, and we lunged at the two abominations. I knew they’d try to dodge or somehow deflect our oncoming attacks, so I called upon a great deal of magical power and all the moisture in the area.
Huge chunks of ice burst from the ground, trapping both of the Void spawns’ lower halves and keeping them pinned to the spot, unable to move or even register what had just happened to them. Plus, the ice was filled with plenty of residual Light magic thanks to Dora’s spell buffing me, so that added to the pain and inability to break free.
I whipped out my Meteor Hammer, the weapon aglow with silvery sparks, and slammed it into Bolgoros’ face. His Void armor tried to resist, but the divine energy cloaking me and my weapon banished it completely. I then channeled a spell through the silken cord, unleashing it point blank into the obese entity.
“Gravity Hammer!” I chanted. The fat abomination’s head distorted as it was crushed with several tons of altered gravity. Ice creaked and cracked from the shockwave of the impact.
“Gravity Hammer! Gravity Hammer! Gravity Hammer!” Like a mantra, I unleashed the same spell over and over while striking him with the Meteor Hammer, until Bolgoros’ body was barely recognizable, reduced to a splattered pulp, the remains interspersed with holy water ice chips.
Silver flames also clung to the bloody chunks, preventing his prodigious regenerative ability from instantly undoing all the damage I’d inflicted.
As for Selquist, Gaelin’s halberd had shorn off the ring, middle and index finger with a single Bladewave. Silver fire burned the flesh and the Void armor, and the hand-shaped entity was now blinded by Gaelin’s attack.
Showing a great deal of pain resistance, Selquist ripped itself from the Light filled ice, leaving behind a great hunk of his own flesh, including its two dangling arms. The newly freed entity turned and ran, trying to escape the cavern, black ichor dribbling from the self-inflicted wounds. He did not make it far, though, as something was tossed through the air from Grandor’s forge into Dora’s waiting arms.
The half-orc rose, a snarl on her lips, as she aimed a large and intimidating black crossbow at the Void spawn’s retreating ‘back.’ With a battle cry, she unleashed a torrent of glittering bolts into the abomination, the projectiles sheathed in silvery flames that punched through his body and Void armor as if both were made of paper.
“N-no! Impossible!” it screeched. “How did you…”
Selquist struggled to rise, but it was riddled with holes and burning with white flames. “C-can’t let it end like this!”
With a grotesque puking sound, the mouth set in the palm of the giant hand expelled a skeletal dragon’s claw. Black inky tar spilled forth from the strange artifact, and tendrils of darkness lashed out, grabbing onto Selquist and the largest remaining piece of Bolgoros.
I tried to react and stop whatever was happening, but the skeletal limb rebuffed my magic, much like how Long-Tail-Shadow’s severed paw had done earlier. Then, similar to the portal the poor Rakkar’s appendage had created, the dragon’s claw tore open a dimensional rift.
Gaelin and I tried to halt the Void spawn’s escape, but spells and physical attacks rebounded off of a barrier that constantly got in our way.
The claw dragged Selquist and Bolgoros through the portal before collapsing in on itself, extinguishing itself in a shower of purple and black sparks.
“Damn it!” Gaelin growled, slamming a fist into the ground in impotent fury. I glared at the quivering chunks of Void-tainted meat in front of me, and in disgust I poured my most potent acid all over the slivers of filth.
Silence, solemn and regretful, descended on the cavern, broken only by Dora’s sobs as she stood over a pile of black ash that had once been her friend.
Chapter 14: Back under the spotlight
“Well, this is a fine mess,” Grandor grunted as he emerged from the workshop, a sheathed dagger held carefully in both hands.
His tone suggested he wasn’t sure if he should be relieved that the Void abominations who’d broken into his safe zone had been defeated and driven off, or if he should be quaking in fury over the destruction of his cavern.
“Here, I finished your enchanted Soul Silver blade. Use it well,” the master smith said gruffly to Gaelin, all but shoving the weapon into his hands.
Gaelin unsheathed the blade, examining it closely. The silvery metal seemed to ripple with flickers of light, and the ruddy red glow of the lava stained the dagger a vibrant, bloody red. He nodded mutely at the quality of the work, before putting it away carefully on his belt.
“Thank you,” the halberdier said honestly, bowing his head towards Gra
ndor. The cursed dwarf waved his thanks off.
“It was nothing, lad. And, considering how it’s going to be used, I’d rather not be reminded of having made it. No smith likes knowing their work is destined for destruction, even if it’s for a good cause.”
Grandor then sighed and looked around the ruins of his cavern. Many of the weapons that had been lawn ornaments had been ruined – smashed, shattered, melted, and in one case, corroded. His hard work lay scattered and abused.
He then turned to look at the hole in the cavern’s wall Bolgoros had punched into existence, where water was currently spilling forth, filling the area with steam and interfering with his lava supply.
“Accursed Void spawn wrecked my home! Argh, it took me ages to get the lava to flow just right so that it powered my forge! And now it’s all ruined!”
“Look on the Brightside! Now, you can make it better than it was before!” I said, trying to cheer him up. Grandor the Hollow Stone snorted, but then he began to stroke his beard in thought.
“Well, that is true… I have wanted to add some equipment for a while now, but I just didn’t have the space… still, finding a new cavern that fits my needs and rebuilding and moving is going to be a pain in my neck and back…”
The master smith shook his head, exiting his thoughts. “Whatever I plan on doing, I’ll get Lord Kazuum’s help with it. He’ll probably jump at the chance to have me set up closer to Chasm Hall. Having a god as a patron might not be too bad, either…”
Hearing a sniffle, Grandor turned to Dora, who was kneeling beside a large pile of ashes. Had I a heart, it’d be aching for Dora. As it was, I still felt sorrow seeing her torn up and emotionally broken.
‘She has terrible luck with friends and family,’ I thought to myself somberly, wisely not saying it aloud.
From what she’d told me about her own circumstances, she kept making friends only to lose them later. Enrai and Ain, a human Monk and an elfin Spellsword respectively, had been torn from her side by the Reality Scream, and her father, whom she rarely mentioned, had been killed in front of her.
Gaelin walked over to her side, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Do you want to give her a burial?” he asked Dora softly.
“Sh-she deserves that much,” Dora sniffled after a moment. Grandor waved a hand and a deep pit formed on the ground near the half-orc.
“There ya go,” the dwarf said gruffly. “You can use a few of my weapons if you want to make her a tombstone.”
“Thank you,” Dora murmured, wiping her eyes.
“No problem,” Grandor replied. “I know what it’s like to lose someone to the Void.”
The master smith chewed his lip for a moment before continuing. “To be honest, that ash is not your Rakkar friend… she was telling the truth when she said she’d been turned into a corpse filled with the Void’s essence. Her soul is gone, same as her memories.”
“But I remember her, so I will keep Long-Tail-Shadow’s memories alive,” Dora vowed, using her hands to scoop the ash into the hole Grandor had made for her. “And I swear, I will hurt the Void for who they’ve taken from me!”
Grandor nodded shortly, waiting for Dora to finish her self-imposed task before speaking again.
“Alright, you three. I’ve finished your weapons. Gaelin, I think you are crazy, but sometimes you need to be unconventional to win impossible battles,” the smith said, hands on his hips as he spoke to us.
“Jellik, or Jelly, or whatever your name is, your Meteor Hammer is a unique weapon. It can stretch and grow with you, up to a thousand feet. The hammerheads can also increase in size if you desire it. Beyond that, you’ve already experienced how to use it in combat. What do you think of it?”
“It’s an interesting weapon. I’ll have to experiment some more with it before I truly get the hang of it,” I responded honestly. “However, I saw how effective it was, far more than my spells alone could have been. So, thank you, Lord Grandor, for the mighty gift.”
He grunted in acknowledgement of my praise, before turning to Dora. “As for you, young Miss Dora, that crossbow is one of a kind, and uses special technology and techniques I learned from an odd bunch. It’s a repeating crossbow. Take it out and look it over. What do you see?”
Dora picked up the weapon he’d made for her, and took a good long look at it for the first time. Gaelin and I both examined it closely as well.
The crossbow was big and bulky, twice the size of a regular one. It’d been made from the Shadow wood Grandor had requested, and held together with adamantium. A string made of Goldrift Spider silk was the only splash of color on the otherwise grey and black monstrosity of a weapon.
Most unusual for the crossbow was the lack of a loading apparatus. Instead of a groove to place a bolt, a circular cartridge was placed atop near the string. Inside the cartridge was a number of bolts, twenty in total.
“You pull the trigger to fire it like any other crossbow, but the recoil of the shot will not only reset the string, but shift the ammunition container so it reloads another shot, allowing you to keep up a barrage of bolts! Only takes a second or two to reload, and thanks to the durability of the components, there’s no risk of snapping the cord or breaking something important from firing too fast,” Grandor declared proudly. “This weapon is, without a doubt, one of my finest. I’ve wanted to make a repeating crossbow using the techniques those five-armed moose-bears showed me for a while now, but never had the time or supplies.”
“Five-armed moose-bears?” Gaelin asked, mirroring my own curiosity, but the dwarf waved his query off.
“Don’t worry about it!” Grandor stated. He then looked around the area one last time before removing a gold and silver marble from a pouch on his blacksmithing apron.
“Here, the pocket portal to Luminoth. Take it, go find Shyla, and complete her task. Say ‘hi’ to her and Barron for me, will ya?”
“Thank you,” I said, taking the precious object carefully. Dora nodded firmly, rubbing her face clear of tears, and came to stand by Gaelin and me. As for the halberdier, he just gave Grandor a thumbs up.
Seeing that we were all ready, I tossed the marble onto the ground, where it cracked apart and out popped a swirling, luminous silver and gold vortex leading us back to the Elemental Plane of Light.
Without waiting another second, we all moved through it as one group, and the tugging, tumbling sensation of dimensional travel buffeted us about for a couple of seconds before we came to a halt.
The portal spat us out onto a golden disc. Gaelin flinched slightly as the bright light hit him for the first time.
“That is bright! Any chance of finding some shade in this place?” he asked us.
“I could probably make a parasol or something out of some of the items I have,” I informed him, but Dora just rolled her eyes.
“You’ll get used to it, you big baby,” she said, nudging Gaelin in the side. She winced afterwards and rubbed her elbow. “Ow! Why do I keep forgetting your armor is so hard?”
“Because deep down, Gaelin is just a big softy and we all know it?” I suggested, making Dora snort in amusement while the armored man in question folded his arms and pouted.
“Where the heck in Luminoth are we?” Gaelin eventually asked, tilting his head as he looked around the bright, empty realm filled with floating gold coins of varying sizes.
“No clue,” I replied with a hint of frustration lacing my tone. “This plane is annoyingly uniform.”
It was at that moment that a seven-winged dove with each wing a different color of the rainbow flew in out of nowhere and tackled Gaelin’s head, which caused the halberdier to scream like a little girl, flail around and frantically try and rip it off.
And Dora just pointed and laughed at his misfortune while I sighed and wondered if Nia was looking on and laughing at us as well.
~(o)~
“Damn this bird!” Gaelin snarled, swatting ineffectively at it for the hundredth time. The strange seven-winged avian just chirped
in laughter at him and flew away, only to return to perch atop his helmet a moment later when the flailing stopped.
“You’re not going to drive that bird off,” I commented idly, watching in amusement as he tried, and failed, to get the creature away from him. “It seems to have imprinted on you. Or maybe it just likes the shape of your head and thinks it’s an egg. I don’t know, but it’s adorable either way.”
“Oh, sure, you think it’s funny–”
“Because it is,” Dora interjected cheekily. Gaelin frowned but went on.
“You think it’s funny to have a bird roosting on your head, but I don’t! I hate it! I hate birds! WHY WON’T IT LEAVE ME ALONE?!” Gaelin shouted, attempting to swat the dove with his halberd after it flew off his helmet. “You refused to leave me alone in the Elemental Plane of Wind, now you’ve somehow followed me here?! Just go away!”
“Wait, this animal was with you back in Aerum?” I asked, surprised.
“Yeah, it kept bothering me there, too,” Gaelin grumbled.
“It’s hard to believe that that bird-thing is the same as from a few planes ago. Maybe it’s just another member of the species?” Dora hypothesized, but the halberdier shook his head – not just to deny her idea, but also to try and shake the dove off. Again.
“No, I recognize it. Looks and feels the same, and it has an identical mocking tweeting sound.” In response to his words, the seven-winged dove let out a trill, causing Gaelin to snort.
“Yeah, exactly like. Accursed beast was with me almost immediately after I found myself in Aerum. No way I’d mistake it for another one of its kind, if it has any,” he stated firmly.
“Well, it does have a ton of magical power packed inside that tiny little body. Easily enough to pull off Planeswalking if it was so inclined,” I noted.
I wasn’t lying, the magical presence of that single small bird dwarfed my own. I had the magical capacity and power of an A-ranked mage, borderline S-ranked after all this time absorbing elemental energy from the various Dimension’s I’d visited, but this creature eclipsed me, Dora, and Gaelin combined in raw magical power. X-ranked was the only classification I could give it. Which made me wary about Gaelin accidentally angering the creature.
