by N H Paxton
“Stop messing with Vlad, asswipe.” Garret had somehow become airborne, his body in route to slamming into Brendan’s.
He collided with the great boar-man, knocking him to the ground. The war pick was protruding from Brendan’s chest, and the boar-man was twitching on the ground. The Health bar of the creature showed it at critical, but I didn’t expect it to stay down for long.
I stood quickly, taking the few short steps to face Brendan. I pointed Gamma directly at his head, then fired a trio of Impaling Chaos bolts. They blew through the boar-man’s head and shredded it, the implosion ripping the entire head from his hideous body. There was nothing remaining aside from a limp body and his ridiculous greatswords.
“Do not forget Crusssoe!” the snake-man hissed loudly as he fell from the ceiling, coiling himself tightly around Garret.
“Screw you, snake dude.” Garret reeled back and slammed Crusoe in the face with the back of his gauntlet. Crusoe’s face was a bloodied mess, but he continued to constrict around Garret.
“Like fire?” I stepped over to Crusoe’s head and grabbed it firmly with both hands. Smiling maniacally, I triggered Purifying Fire.
Immensely hot flames burst from the palms of my hands, scorching the snake-man’s head. He hissed and struggled, but Garret had gripped Crusoe’s body and was holding it in place while my skill boiled his brain.
His head burned and sizzled between my hands, the skin cracking and breaking down. It charred to ash and crumbled in my grasp as his Health bar drained to nothing.
“That was awesome.” Garret patted me on the shoulder as he retrieved his axe from the chest of Brendan, yanking it free and spattering himself with blood in the process.
This dungeon was becoming more and more gory.
“Power of fire, never underestimate.” I nodded as I rifled the bodies.
Garret found a pair of snakeskin boots, ironically, on Crusoe. He handed them to me with a thumbs-up.
“Keep them for Ken, yeah?” he said as he pocketed a handful of coins.
“Sure, but why give to Vlad? Why not give yourself?” I shoved a half dozen silver coins and a vial of [Purified Ancient Dust] into my bag, then stood, dusting my hands off.
“No reason.” Garret nodded as he stowed his axe and smiled.
Now Sense Is Made
“YOU ARE WHO?” I POINTED an accusatory finger at Garret.
His smile faded.
“The hell are you talking about? I’m Garret, the ridiculous Fury Warden. Your friend.” He shook his head as though my question was absolute nonsense.
“No, Garret cares for books, interested in knowledge.” I crossed my arms over my chest and raised an eyebrow.
“So I just don’t feel like reading right now. Is that such a big deal? This place sucks, man. I just want to go home.” He copied my stance, crossing his arms over his chest.
“How Eberand died?” I figured this question might trip him up, as this was definitely not Garret. At least not the Garret I knew.
“He died from a magical poison. None of us had enough potions or antidotes. Not that it would have mattered. Only a Cleric can cleanse that kind of bad juju.” He leaned his head against the wall and looked at the ceiling. “Are we done now? I’m getting bored.”
“No, still have questions.” I was trying to lure out whatever this creature was, but I wasn’t sure I really wanted to fight it.
“Whatever, man.” Garret waved a dismissive hand at me as he turned to walk away.
“What is Vlad’s goal?” I asked it hard, anger in my voice as it burned out of my mouth.
Garret stopped. “To kill the Dark Collector, obviously. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” He stood still, his back to me.
That wasn’t the main reason we had come to The Dearth—it was to collect the Heart of Darkness and make the Guild Standard. Killing the Dark Collector was only a side effect of our main intent.
“No, ultimate goal was to make guild. To provide place for crafters and workers to come together and develop good of humanity.” I couldn’t stop the irritation from spilling over.
“But you had to come here and threaten us.” Garret turned, his armor melting away in shadowy droplets.
The liquid shadow puddled onto the stone floor, his body changing shape and becoming something else, some kind of roiling mass of darkness. He threw his hands down, and immense claws made of purified darkness sprang from their backs.
“Oh, is problem.”
“I just wanted you to treat me like Garret. I wanted to know what it was like to have a friend. You just couldn’t let me be happy.” He stalked toward me, his body shifting in the darkness like shadows change as the light around them changes.
A nameplate appeared over its head, [Fractured Shade].
“Cannot take over life of another.” I leveled Gamma at the shadow creature, unsure if it would take damage from the chaotic rounds.
“No, clearly I cannot.” The shade raised its hands to its face, splayed its taloned fingers, then twisted them. It exploded into shadow, a dozen identical shadows filling the passage, surrounding me.
“Let’s see you handle this.” They rushed in unison, charging me from all directions.
I used the same tactic I had with the spiders, beginning the casting of Avalanche. My hands flew through the air, the magic now familiar, the cold a comfort to my hands.
The first of the shades reached me as I slammed my hands down on the stone. I felt the Spirit burn away from me as a blast wave of blistering cold exploded from my body, blowing away the false shades in an instant and freezing the real shade to the ground.
“Situation handled.” I stood up from my crouched position and took aim with Gamma.
“Not good enough.” The shade vanished, the ice it had just been coated with shattering and falling to the ground like a curtain.
I turned a quick about-face, expecting it to appear behind me. So many creatures seemed to use that tactic in this game world. I waited for a moment, then a moment longer as nothing happened.
“What in hell?” I looked at the ceiling.
The creature fell on me with a twisted smile, its claws digging into my shoulders, forcing me to the ground. We both landed with a thud, my Health dropping like a stone off a cliff. The attack knocked me down by thirty-three percent. My Health bar throbbed in the corner of my vision, informing me I had about ten percent left.
“Remember the ceiling.” The shade smirked as it pushed its claws deeper into my flesh, carving another five percent off of my Health and eliciting a pained groan from my lips.
“Do not forget grenades.” I slipped a web grenade from my inventory and crushed it in my hand, the glass fracturing.
The webbing exploded, the blast from it knocking the shade up, sticking it to the ceiling of the hallway. The only negative was that I was now stuck to the floor.
“You fool, why is everything you do self-destructive!?” the shade screamed.
“Vlad just lucky like that.” I shifted in the webbing, trying to get free.
The shade vanished in a puff of smoke, the webbing going slack. My mind raced, and I panicked to get myself free.
“You want to fuck with me?” The voice was everywhere at once, surrounding me on all sides.
I turned my head, watching the darkness of the passageway shift and writhe as I triggered Purifying Fire, incinerating the webbing that held me to the floor.
“Simply want to finish quest, get friends back, go home, make guild.” I didn’t think my desires were too intrusive.
“Ken and Garret are dead, the quest is failed, you are nothing but a failure.”
My mind hurt as it said the words. I staggered about the passageway, trying to find a wall to steady myself against.
<<<>>>
Quest Alert!
Quest: Salvation for Those Who Deserve It has been failed. Your friends have been killed by the Dark Collector as a result of your failure to reach your destination within the time limit. They will not respa
wn.
<<<>>>
What!? How had I failed that quest? I still had a few hours. Ken and Garret were dead? Permanently...
<<<>>>
Quest Alert!
Quest: The Absolute Heart of Darkness has been failed. You have failed to accomplish the required task and retrieve the Heart of Darkness in time. You have been locked out of this quest line due to your failure.
<<<>>>
No, no. Everything was going wrong. All of the work I had put into this damned dungeon dive, all of the people and friends I had lost along the way. It was all coming apart!
“It sucks when your life is a giant failure.” The shade’s voice was right next to my ear.
Somehow, I had fallen to the ground, my body sprawled out on the floor. There was a puddle of vomit next to my face that smelled rank and terrible. My eyes were blurry, and my brain hurt. The beating of my heart was loud and painful in my ears.
“Maybe you should think about that for a while.” I felt the shade’s cold grip on the back of my head before my eyes closed entirely, darkness surrounding me.
“Lord Vlad.” A voice filtered through my mind. I snapped awake.
I was coated in a thick layer of cold sweat, my mind reeling from the intensity of the psychic attack the shade had hit me with. To my side sat Ken, his face etched with concern and fear. He had one hand on my shoulder, while the other held a cloth of some kind. He reached over and dabbed my forehead with it.
“Garret, he’s up.” A slight smile crossed Ken’s face as he made a quick motion.
Ken was alive. The shade had lied. And Garret was alive too, if I hadn’t heard Ken’s statement completely wrong.
“Damnit, it’s about time. I figured he was going to die and leave us here.” Garret leaned against the corner of a steel cage, the bars etched with runes that I couldn’t completely make out.
The cage itself was huge, nearly thirty meters to each end. I tried to stand but Ken held me down.
“No, no. No. You, ah, yeah. Just chill. Let your HP recover. We’re out of potions, remember?” Ken pointed to his empty belt slots, then to Garret’s.
My HP bar flashed critically at five percent. The shade had really taken me down a notch.
“We are where?” My throat was dry and scratchy, and my tongue felt like it was twenty times its normal size.
“Some kind of cage.” Garret tsked as he finished the statement.
“Magical sigils are all over the damn walls, inscribed into the bars, and carved into the floor. They’re stupid potent. And the lock, well, I can’t quite crack it. Not with that stupid shade patrolling every ninety seconds.” Ken pointed a dagger at the shade that had been Garret, or Shade-Garret.
It leaned against a wall nearby, staring at the three of us through its dark crystalline eyes.
The true form of the shade was a humanoid shadow being, his features flowing like liquid. Only his eyes, mouth, and ears were stable. The rest of him shifted as he moved, the darkness writhing like serpents along his arms and legs.
“Was Garret.” I was relieved to see Garret in the same place as the shade. The shade’s ability to look like Garret was terribly concerning.
“What do you mean?” Garret kicked off the cage wall and leaned down, his hands in pockets I didn’t know he had. He looked like a bully from high school looking down at a kid he was about to beat the shit out of.
“Shade led me here, told me Ken was dead. Helped me fight spiders and monsters. Was unusual.” I rubbed my forehead with my hand, trying to make sense of everything.
“Yeah, I’m not dead.” Ken slapped himself in the chest with an open palm. “See?”
“Yes, is clear.” If that was a lie, then...
I pulled open my quest log, hopeful that the entire thing had been a ruse to break me down. I heaved a sigh of relief as I saw both quests sitting firmly, their respective timers ticking down. I only had twenty-six hours and twelve minutes left to complete the guild quest, and a mere thirty minutes left to finish the quest to find Ken and Garret.
<<<>>>
Quest Alert! Salvation for Those Who Deserve It
Against all odds and the intense threats of the Dark Collector, you have found your companions and seen that they are hale and hearty.
Reward: 5,000 XP, 25 gold, [Shatterproof Key]
<<<>>>
The Shatterproof Key appeared in my hand with a flash of light. It was long, slender, and had no teeth. This must have been the mysterious item the quest promised. There was a mechanism on the back of the key that looked like a clockwork gear. I turned it with my thumb until it clicked, and a combination of teeth popped out of the key. I turned it another click and the combination changed.
“Holy mother of stealing for a living, that’s a Dweller’s Key.” Ken’s face was beaming with amazement, which turned to disappointment.
“I mean, whatever.” He shrugged and turned his back to me.
“Do not be sulky Rogue, is not like you.” My throat was beginning to feel better, thankfully. I could speak without expecting razor blades to appear from my mouth at any given moment.
“It’s just something that I once read about, you know? Like, I thought it was my life’s purpose here in V.G.O. to find it. And it was literally handed to you.” He turned back to me and sighed, his face a mess of disappointment instead of the excitement it had held only a moment ago.
“Is not problem, can give to you.” I held out the key, base first.
For a moment, he looked like he was going to take it, then he pulled his hand away.
“No, it wouldn’t be right.” He shook his head. “It’s yours.”
“Cannot use effectively.” I tilted my head, then dropped the key on the ground. “Vlad has lost key, oh no.”
“Oh for the love of Christ.” Garret stepped over between us, picked up the key, and shoved it into Ken’s hand. “Take the goddamn key.”
“Dude, anger.” Ken grasped the key reverently, his eyes widening in amazement as he looked it over. He frowned hard as he turned the key over in his hands, a look of agony on his face.
“Is not problem, is good key for you,” I said.
“That’s not the point, it’s the principle of the whole thing. It’s not my key.” Ken tried to shove it back into my hand, but I balled my fists and shook my head.
“Fine, but I’m not keeping it,” Ken snapped.
“Well, that’s unique.” The shade was standing so close to the bars that his form partially flowed into the cage.
“Hey, back off.” Garret turned quickly and pointed a finger in the shade’s face.
“Slow down, there. I’m not going to stop you from escaping.” The shade put his shadowy hands up and backed away from the bars.
“All I ask,” he continued, “is that you let me talk to you guys.”
“And why should we listen to you? You brought Vlad here and put him in this stupid cage, and you’ve been keeping watch over us this whole time.” Garret bared his teeth as he spoke.
“Sometimes I don’t have a choice. The Dark Collector has an ability that forces me to do his bidding for six hours, but it only works every twenty-four hours. And besides,” he said with a shrug, “I’ve been watching you fumble with this lock for a bit now, and I don’t think you’re going to pick it while I’m not paying attention.”
“Ouch, low blow, man.” Ken sighed.
“Alright, look. I know you’re here to get the Heart of Darkness, so I think you should know some things about the Dark Collector before we go out there and he kills us all,” the shade said.
“Tactical information always beneficial,” I replied.
Ken and Garret looked at one another for a moment, then nodded.
“Just so we’re clear, I am going to kill you once I’m out of here,” Garret said as he clenched his fists, taking a seat on the stone ground begrudgingly.
“I can’t blame you for that, but hear me out first. After that, you can do what you will.”
Darknes
s Gather Darkness
“I KNOW ALL OF YOUR names, but you don’t know mine. I’m Mathias, of the Shadelands.” Mathias bowed sharply.
“Alright, great, remind me later so I can put it on your tombstone,” Garret grunted.
“Okay, that’s fair.” Mathias put his hands together, then pulled them apart.
A darkness engulfed the surrounding area, drowning everything in black. The sound of static from an ancient television set filled the air, followed by a popping.
An image snapped into view. It was difficult to see at first, but then it cleared, showing a tall Accipiter with great golden wings. He carried a pair of weapons on his back, both spears. He was young, probably in his middle teenage years.
“Valstrine was the first and only child of the head of the Gatherers. He was expected to head the lineage after his father’s passing.” A young Accipiter knelt next to a bed where an old one lay, the elder’s face sunken and eyes closed.
The younger Accipiter’s face shifted and changed to a silent scream held on the air as his father’s body faded from view, the bed suddenly empty, the young man still kneeling at the bedside.
A shift in the image frame showed a small mote of darkness spinning silently, unnoticed, in the corner of the bedroom.
“The House of Gatherers had a mission handed down from one generation to the next: collect artifacts that were simply too powerful for the populace of Eldgard. The Gatherers called these Out of Place Artifacts, or OOPAs. Only the head of the House was allowed access to the Vault and was granted a key that would permit entry and exit.”
The image of a key spun lazily in front of us. It was long, old, and looked strikingly similar to the one that I kept around my neck.
Valstrine, the young Accipiter, held the key out, watching it spin on a chain. His face showed a combination of shame and anger. He clenched the key and shouted into the darkness of the night.
Mathias snapped his fingers and another image appeared, this one of racks upon racks of weapons, armor, and various other items lining the walls of a long vault.
“The Vault of Souls.” Mathias continued, a quick gesture changing the image entirely. “It lies in the In-Between, a place where artifacts and souls are placed to be protected from those who would use them for evil. Or,” he said, a slight smile on his face, “to protect Eldgard from those things within.”
