by Oliver Mayes
All objectives complete. Now they just had to leave. Damien received a full Soul Reserve from passing through their enemies’ remains, but that wasn’t his primary concern. Mr. Healy had drunk his second mana potion in advance of their escape and was running for the far side, but too slowly. Even Damien’s incubus was faster than he was. Damien discarded the quauhololli in order to further increase his speed, then reduced it again a fraction by running up behind Mr. Healy and snatching him up as the spell kept running.
Now he had a portable magic shield. Cool. The rest of the party crowded around him as Mr. Healy complained bitterly, but Damien needed this. There weren’t any arrows or musket fire coming for them, because Magnitude had neglected to put any slats in the back of the wall for people to fire out of. There were still the spear-chuckers on the ramparts to worry about though, and his unarmored, unprotected body was positioned exactly where any NPC with any sense would be aiming. He was in far more actual danger running away from ranged enemies than he was attacking them.
It wasn’t long before Mr. Healy’s Sanctuary spell gave out, but by that point they were nearly clear. A few steps more and the javelins were falling only behind them. They were out of range. They’d made it.
Damien’s health regenerated quickly now he was out of combat. Perks of possessing a demonic minion. His stamina had held out pretty well thanks to his Enrage skill – better than that of most of the players who’d been forced to keep his pace. Lillian bodily dragged them to their feet and pushed them onward.
“Not done yet, up. Up! We’re not safe until we’re out of the valley. Walk it off! Let’s go.”
Aetherius popped up out of nowhere in front of them. He’d avoided crowding under the shield by using his special ability. Sneaky. He stuck his hand out.
“We’re past the wall. I’ll have my bag back now.”
Damien groaned and was about to cancel his Possession, but Lillian gave him a warning glance and a quick shake of her head.
“We agreed you’d get the bag when we were out of immediate danger. We aren’t. Bag after we’re out of the valley, not before. Shift!”
Aetherius’s face turned even more sour, but he lightly jogged away without further complaint. When he was out of earshot, Lillian whacked Damien in the arm.
“Nice job with the gate.”
He grunted. Not really much in the way of alternatives.
She checked the rest had moved further ahead, then lowered her voice.
“The rest of them don’t know about Archimonde, except for Hammertime. We didn’t want them worrying before we’d even got through the gate. Us three are the only ones who have any idea about it. Him. Whatever it is.”
Damien grunted again. There was plenty he wanted to convey, such as how if they were getting along better they could’ve gone over this in greater depth beforehand. For now he could only grunt.
“Hopefully Archimonde won’t show,” Lillian continued unabated, “because it’s 4am, but since you’re here...well, they’d probably call it in even if it was just us, but it’s pretty much a given since you’re here as well. Don’t worry, I factored that in before I decided to bring you along. Those healers might not have been very useful earlier, but they’ll make for a strong party if Archimonde does show up.”
Damien grunted, this time not bothering to hide his exasperation.
“You know what? I like talking to you more when you’re an incubus. Not sure why. Can’t put my finger on it. What do you think?”
Damien very slowly turned his head and stared at her, silently, as they trudged through the snow. She was suddenly in a good mood. It probably had something to do with TwinBlade’s timely appearance, which had been swiftly followed by his untimely demise. It was nice to see her happy again, though, and even nicer that she was talking to him. Even if it was mainly to taunt him because he couldn’t talk back.
He raised his hands and the customary keyboard appeared, resized for his gargantuan form.
Daemien: Haha.
Lillian couldn’t stop herself from smirking, breaking the silence with another sudden punch that did make him grunt.
“Well, we’re nearly there now. If we’re lucky, Archimonde won’t show and that wall will be—”
“Lillian! There’s something up ahead, it looks different.”
The sparkle went out of her eyes and she immediately returned to business mode.
“Of course not. Let’s go.”
They ran up ahead, the snow fading away as the pass leading to freedom came within sight. Archimonde was standing directly in the middle of it, its huge body easily visible in the center of the gully. It had been hard to gauge exactly how large Archimonde was in the depths of panic. Gauging it now only inspired a second round of anxiety. The thing was easily larger than Hammertime. It was roughly the same size as the incubus Damien was inhabiting, maybe a little bigger.
On either side of Archimonde, there were summons. More than it’d had on the first encounter. Damien counted six hell hounds and twelve imps, all stretched out evenly and blocking the path. Archimonde was fielding a Soul Summon Limit of 30. That meant it had at least 300 wisdom. There was no knowing how much higher Archimonde’s wisdom was than that. It probably didn’t lack stat points elsewhere. Especially in intelligence, since it was a caster.
Each of the minions would be stronger than Damien’s own, since their stats were determined by level. How much stronger would also be unknown, until they made those question marks disappear. At least they didn’t have to worry about wraiths, since the entirety of Archimonde’s maximum Soul Summon Limit was accounted for.
While Damien tried to size up their opponent, his party were whispering among themselves. Aetherius had summoned a Mana Wisp and was guiding it toward the obstacle while the rest quarreled. Trinytea was reacquainting herself with her former guild-mates, starting with Legolias.
“You think we’re stupid? That’s not a player,” she said to him.
“It is. It’s an occultist. I didn’t take the Night Strider trait just to avoid doing damage, Trinytea. You see all the little dots next to it, with the bigger ones every two spaces? Imps and hell hounds. Just like our friend here. Daemien, you know anything about this?”
Why did everyone suddenly feel like speaking to him when he couldn’t speak? Lillian interjected for him.
“Damien can’t speak when he’s possessing a minion. Even if he could, that’s obviously not a friendly. So it’s simple. We kill it and move on. We might be past the wall, but they’ll reorganize and catch us if we take too long. The only way is through. Everyone, get combat-ready, prioritize—”
Which was when a window popped up on Damien’s screen, showing Archimonde up close in all its glory. The feed was live from Aetherius’s Mana Wisp, and he’d shared its viewpoint with the whole party. The same disgust Damien had succumbed to when he had first met Archimonde face to face spread through the players surrounding him in small doses.
“Aetherius, turn that off!”
“I’m sharing intel, doesn’t that seem pru—”
Which was when Archimonde began to laboriously churn out speech from its stomach. Even Lillian stopped marching toward the broadcaster, her lips parting. Everyone stopped processing their disgust with chatter, and did so the only way such a spectacle warranted: in fascinated, horrified silence.
“Bring me Daemien-chan. I want only him. When he is mine, the rest of you may pass. You have three minutes.”
Archimonde flicked its wrist toward the wisp, as if dismissing it. It burst into black flames and was gone in an instant. The group was silent. Aetherius was the first to speak, and what he had to say did not improve matters.
“That’s one of Magnitude’s associates, isn’t it?”
He was looking at Damien, who remained silent and unmoving. He hardly needed to reply. It had been more statement than question, and the lack of response from Damien’s ineloquent incubus was interpreted as confirmation enough. Aetherius’s query was followed in shor
t order by everyone talking at once. Lillian and Hammertime were trying to calm them down, but the quandary Archimonde had thrown their way had completely split the party. Trinytea raised her voice above the hubbub, saying what was surely on many of their minds.
“This isn’t what I signed up for. It wants Daemien, right? Let’s just give it what it wants and get going.”
Lillian wheeled round and glared at her as the rest of the voices died down.
“We wouldn’t have got through the wall without him, don’t you have any shame?”
“I’ll tell you what I don’t have. An inventory. You wouldn’t have got through the wall without me, either, but I don’t see you showering me with praise. Now you’re asking me to fight that thing with no ammunition? I wouldn’t fight it with ammunition. It’s Daemien’s problem, not ours, I was asked for help getting through the wall and I did my job, this wasn’t the deal! Give it Daemien!”
“Trinytea.”
Trinytea’s gaze snapped toward Hammertime, who had his arms stretched forward and was stepping toward her slowly.
“If everybody just calms down, we can come up with a plan. That player is trying to divide us and it’s succeeding. There’s no guarantee that if we give it Daemien it’ll actually let us through. Then we’ll have lost the only player in our party who’s faced it before and knows it best, and it’ll deal with the rest of u—”
“Nobody said Daemien had seen it before. Did you know about this? Who else knew about this whole deal? I’m guessing Lillian, seeing how she was so cavalier about fighting it. Anyone else? Who else knew about this?”
The party members all turned and faced the guild leaders. Hammertime fell silent. Lillian shot Hammertime a furious glance, but her cheeks were burning. Trinytea scoffed in her face.
“I wanted to show you I’d changed, and I threw all my best gear into your project to show goodwill. This is what I get as thanks. What a waste of time. GG, everyone, I’m going to bed.”
The ground around Trinytea lit up and she started to log out. Everyone started yelling at once. Lillian and Hammertime both approached her at once entreating her to stay, the former more threateningly than the latter. The party members in turn all gathered around, ranting and raving into their leaders’ ears as they tried to deal with the more pressing issue of Trinytea’s imminent desertion.
Aetherius remained exactly where he was, staring at the enemy which was catalyzing his party’s collapse. Trinytea was about four seconds into her departure when he threw a hand out and fired a single Arcane Bolt across the gap, watching intently for Archimonde’s reaction. Everyone immediately stopped bickering and stared at Aetherius openmouthed.
Archimonde remained where it was, its jaws stretching wide open. The bolt splashed open across the gaping maw before it ever connected, the light turning from blue to golden. It disappeared into Archimonde’s belly in a stream of glowing trails, the cavernous mouth munching down on them as though they were strands of ethereal spaghetti. Go-Chi-So-Sa-Ma.
Aetherius squinted at the teeth, now well illuminated, until all the light had been consumed. The attack had done no damage, but it did have at least one positive effect. The party was officially in combat. Trinytea’s logout had been automatically canceled.
“Did...did it just eat my Arcane Bolt?”
Trinytea was the first to react, moving over to spit fury into his face.
“What did you do that for? Now I’m stuck here! Nobody said you should fire at it!”
Aetherius’s eyelids flickered at the rush of hot air, but he didn’t look at her. He was tapping his foot, arms folded, as he examined the opening that led to freedom from one side to the other.
“No, they didn’t. And I did it anyway.”
He threw his hands out and started firing Arcane Bolts in rapid succession, all going in the same direction. Straight toward Archimonde. He’d got off six before Trinytea roughly shoved him, interrupting his casts.
“Don’t do it again! You’ll make it—”
This time Aetherius did look at her, his hands glowing red. Trinytea abruptly shut up. Aetherius looked back just as Archimonde’s belly was expanding to consume the latest offering. At the last second, he stuck his hands out with the middle and index fingers extended before dragging them violently to the right. The Arcane Bolts curled round in unison, away from the maw. Directly into the units on Archimonde’s right flank. The first landed short of an imp, but the light it offered helped Aetherius connect with the next five bolts as he deftly altered their path. One hit the imp. Another hit the one next to it. Then three bolts collided one after another with the hell hound which was behind them, leaving all three dead.
Archimonde started summoning a new unit. Probably a hell hound. Archimonde was very well lit in the light of the runes forming on the ground by its side. Aetherius turned to the rest of the party.
“If we handle the minions first, especially imps, an occultist loses a lot of their utility. Kill the minions, then focus on the big ugly. Sound okay to you, Damien?”
Damien was surprised to have been asked his own opinion, especially from this source. He nodded enthusiastically. In truth, any option other than being fed to Archimonde in order to get the rest of them a hypothetical free ticket looked pretty good from where he was standing. Aetherius turned to Lillian.
“Lillian, do you—”
He hadn’t completed the sentence before he was engulfed in black flames. Archimonde was methodically plodding forward, casting its gaze between party members and flicking its wrist. The Corruption hit Lillian next, then Hammertime. Mr. Healy, the only party priest, Dispelled each of them in the order the Corruptions had landed as the two paladins fired up their heals. There was only one way to solve this now.
10
Facing Your Demons
Even before the flames had left Lillian, she was yelling out orders to the rest of the group.
“Mr. Healy, when you’re done Dispelling I want light! Legolias and Aetherius, you’re on imps. Kill them before they get near our party. Hammertime, you’re on point with me. Keep hounds and anything that gets past the ranged damage away from our squishies. Judge, you’re primary healer. OhHolyLight, stop healing, you’re off-healer. Unless someone’s in crisis, Smite demons in range. Sabrina, I don’t know your spells aside from Anti-Magic Shield and Phase Shift, stick to support rather than damage. Trinytea...you’ll be first to go around, testing their responses. Might want to talk to Sabrina about that. Play evasive, keep yourself safe.”
She looked at each of them in turn, making sure they were going about their assigned roles, before sidling up to Damien to talk to him privately.
“It wants you dead more than the rest of us. That’s obvious, or else it wouldn’t have made the offer. I’d quite like for you to live through this.”
Damien clumsily typed out a six-fingered, two-thumbed reply before hitting ‘Enter’.
Daemien: Thanks, me too.
“Get your imps overhead and past Archimonde, so you can Demon Gate out of danger. The way I see it, you should have the easiest time getting past thanks to your abilities. Don’t engage it in direct combat, you don’t have a weapon and I regard you dying as an automatic fail. Just look mean and handle any minions trying to get through to our casters. Can you do that?”
The way Damien saw it, Archimonde wanting him dead the most and him getting past Archimonde easily didn’t line up. But he didn’t have a better plan and was glad Lillian had opted for him not to engage. His last death had left a scar and he was more than happy to give it time to heal. There were nine of them besides him, eight if you didn’t count Trinytea. Whatever else Archimonde was, it was a lone player. As an occultist, it had already freely thrown away its greatest asset. Surprise. They might be able to handle it. If not, Damien had his own minions to throw into the mix.
Daemien: Got it.
She nodded and they got into position, Damien moving front and center with Lillian flanking him far off to the left side and Hammert
ime already in place on the other. The Corruptions had stopped. Archimonde must have seen them being Dispelled and realized it was a waste. Free from Dispel spamming, Mr. Healy sent a Holy Orb into the air, lighting up the battlefield with the intensity of a miniature sun. For the next thirty seconds, everyone had light.
Aetherius and Legolias opened fire, aiming for the imps as instructed. They were grounded, and quite a bit easier to hit than Damien’s flying variant. After another three went down, the survivors ran to Archimonde for cover and clambered onto its back. The hell hounds remained well spread out, waiting to intercept runners Archimonde was moving, slowly and purposefully, straight toward Damien’s incubus. It was somehow more menacing than if it were running. It was out in the open, walking straight toward a ten-strong party, its minions dying on either side. Yet it didn’t seem at all fazed.
Damien relayed his commands to Noigel, and three of his seven imps all took to the sky as his succubus’s Bloodlust set in. The order had barely been given before Archimonde stopped, looked over its head and flicked its wrist. Damien turned around just in time to see his airborne minions burst into flame, one after the other. It wasn’t using Corruption on any of the players, but hadn’t hesitated to use it on the imps. They died so quickly that the effect could not be Dispelled before they perished. It seemed like a waste of mana, but Corruption couldn’t be dodged and almost half of Damien’s escape plan was gone. Archimonde was preserving resources to kill Damien himself.
“Damien, watch out!”
Damien turned back and was hit with the full extent of his blunder. He’d only turned for a few seconds, thinking Archimonde would continue its steady pace forward. Lillian’s warning came just in time for the Chaotic Bolt to plow into the incubus’s shoulder. The damage from a single Chaotic Bolt was excessive. Constitution was the highest stat the incubus had. Doubled, Damien had 2,400 hit points. The one bolt had taken out 800 of them.
