Val's grin grew. "Yes, Ebonair, we know. And now you will tell us what you know, in case there is even the tiniest inconsistency we must address."
Val abruptly grabbed the man's ear, tearing it off in a spray of blood with a furious yank, the man shrieking in agony that turned to a choking groan as he jostled the spear impaling him still.
"Oh heaven's mercy! Please, my master, I swear to tell you everything, everything!"
Val locked gazes with the man, pressing his fingers against the man's desperately blinking lids. "Then unless you want me to tear out your eyes as well, you will speak and quit wasting my time!"
Interrogation check successful! Ebonair is now your bitch! He would give you his first-born if he hadn't already sacrificed her!
"Master Dauda. This chamber. All of it. Similar structures within so many ancient mines. And every few hundred years, the Elementium crystals replenish themselves. How? How is such a thing possible? This is the question that has haunted Magelord Christos for years, and finally we understand!"
Val's gaze hardened. Softly he whispered into the man's ear. "Dwarves."
Ebonair genuinely gasped at the word.
"Yes, Ebonair, we already know. We even know what you secretly hope to accomplish while you're here. You do but confirm the details. And if you dare to test me again? I shall rip out your testicles and feed them to you."
Val locked gazes with the horrified man. "Are we clear?"
The broken mage began trembling violently. Val wondered just how close he was to death, if the terror he felt was pushing him ever closer, or if the adrenaline released was all that was keeping him alive.
"The dwarven clan, they still live. I'm sure of it!"
Val could sense sudden alarm through the Spirit Bond, knowing that Dirk, at least, understood just how significant a claim that was.
Val blinked, casting a quick look at the caged hostages. Dozens of terrified captives, but far less than a town's worth. Terrible possibilities clicked into place. Val schooled his face to icy contempt once more.
"And does your master truly think such paltry sacrifices hold the key?"
Ebonair blinked, his cough turning to a gurgling wheeze as he gasped for air. "So you really do understand."
Val pressed his finger against the mage's leftmost eye.
Ebonair's breathy gasp turned into a sharp whimper, very much awake and alert once more.
"I will not warn you again."
The man groaned and nodded. "We primed each family for the horror of abandonment, violating all their sons and daughters, inflicting upon them the Rite of Despair. 166 captives, innocence forever shredded. It will work, Lord Dauda. We will crack the dwarven spell, align their reality back with our own, and all the lost secrets and power of the dwarves will be ours!"
Val could feel the fire of alarm through his party's connection, glad that Dirk at least knew enough to keep a straight face, his hand gripping Julia's shoulder, Chris blocking a shocked Yin from view.
Val laughed coldly. "And how will you subdue that dwarven city, fool? Do you truly think that men so easily cut apart by my crew would be any match for dwarven defenses?"
Ebonair blinked, frowned, looked around, at an apparent loss for words.
Val gave a decisive nod. "It is good that I came when I did. Very well. I am taking over this operation, effective immediately. My contingent shall be here in less than an hour. Now where are the rest of your men? They shall serve as auxiliary support, should I find them worthy."
Ebonair was now trembling so badly his eyes widened, as if sensing his own imminent death. "My lord, please... I can serve you. I am the best of all my men. But permit me a spare healing elixir or two..."
He screamed as Val clenched and twisted his hand, snapping three of Ebonair's fingers. The man let out a piteous wail.
"That wasn't the answer I was looking for, Ebonair..."
"You killed them, my lord!" The man sobbed. "You killed all of our men! We had double shot crossbows, three mages including myself, and multiple flasks of rupturous death! And somehow, somehow..." he sobbed. "There was only Master Christos's personal contingent, Lord Dauda, and now I am all that is left! Now please... please, just a single elixir for the pain, my lord. And I will serve you all my days. I swear it!"
Val nodded, getting up from his crouch, turning to Dirk.
"Do we need anything else?"
Speechless, the man gave a slow shake of his head.
Ebonair blinked in confusion. "Lord Dauda, I don't understand..." and whatever else he would have said was cut off forever as Val drew his sword and cleaved it through the mage's skull in a single fluid motion, Val wiping and resheathing the blade in the time it took for Ebonair to blink at Val madly, his glistening brains showing, before collapsing in spasms and death.
Chris whistled, Julia and Yin gazing at Val so oddly. "Nice swing."
Val nodded once, turning to meet Dirk's gaze.
His cold, professional stare locked with Val's own.
"Just who the hell are you, and how the hell do you know what you know?"
Val smiled. "I'm someone who's good at reading between the lines, spotting clues, and interrogating targets. Hitting them with their worst fears, leading them on, having them fill in the blanks while giving you credit for it is all just part of the game." Val tilted his head. "But you should know that at least as well as I, Dirk, don't you think?"
Dirk gave an angry shake of his head. "That's bullshit, Val, and you know it. Somehow you knew that all this was all linked to the dwarves? How would anyone even be able to guess that?" He stepped closer, lowering his voice. "And how the hell do you know about the Dauda? That's way above your pay grade. Almost no non-affiliated player knows anything about them. We're still trying to figure them out." Dirk's angry glare bore down on Val. "Just what the hell are you playing at, Corporal? Is Yancey a part of this operation?"
Val held the taller man's gaze. "It's not quite as big a secret as you think. If you know where to look, you can find out at least a few rumors of dark shadowy parties acting behind the scenes. Of course players wanted to put it all together, back when we thought it all background story to the game." Val shrugged. "It's not like there's that much to tell. Only the name, really, but it was enough to plant the specter of fear and horror in this man, enough to cow him into absolute compliance. As for the dwarves, well, all you have to do is look at the exotic steam-punk buildings of bronze-gold alloy to know that this outpost was once dwarven owned. That humans on the southern continent somehow managed to claim and use it before it was blown to smithereens like all the other dwarven cities had been a thousand years ago when the Dominion broke treaty and attempted to wipe them out completely? Your guess is as good as mine."
Dirk frowned, reluctantly conceding the point with a nod.
Deception Check made! Dirk actually thinks you deduced the inner-workings of a race long thought extinct and the power structure of the deadliest clan of assassins within the Dominion based on nothing more than Readit comments and intuition, having no idea about the odd flashes of dream that inspire you, visions of a Val long since blown to quantum flux! Oh, but wait, now he does! He's part of your party and Spirit Linked to you! Should have thought of that before you grouped, Val!
Dirk's eyes flashed hotly, the temperature within the massive chamber seeming to fall ten degrees.
"What the hell's going on, Valor Hunter? I want answers, and I want them now!"
Yin whistled. "Holy shit. The whole universe has it in for him."
Chris shook his head coldly, gently scooting Yin back, hand on the hilt of his massive blade. Val could all but taste the killing magics locked within. "No, Yin, it's worse. He's a player on a board we can't even see, for stakes we sure as hell don't know." He glared at Val. "Captain asked you a question, soldier. Who the hell are you playing for? Our lives are on the line, boy, this isn't a game!"
"Val?"
Heart racing, Val forced himself to look away from Chris and Dirk'
s killing glares, focusing instead on a trembling Julia.
It was all he could do not to stumble back from what he saw.
"Val, what the hell is going on? Who are the Dauda? How the hell do you know so much about the dwarves?" She took a shuddering breath. "Are you even Val?"
Val blinked, pinned by Julia's stare and the strange mixture of bewilderment and yes, fear he saw in her eyes.
Val opened his mouth before closing it once more, realizing he didn't have a clue.
At that moment the chamber filled with terrible laughter. A mad cackle that echoed endlessly with the dying gurgle of the final soldier they had fought, at last expiring with a rattle.
"Well done, Dominion pawns! Spirits of a world so very close to our own. You have butchered my pawns and retrieved a pathetic handful of villagers. Take them! Take them and the Elementium crystals upon the altar before you as prizes of conquest, reward for battle valiantly fought!" His laughter turned dark. "Or, if you're truly worthy of the wealth and power you crave, take the terrified villagers trembling before your might even now, and put them upon the altar of sacrifice! Their blistering agony as their souls are enslaved to mundus will provide the Etherium needed to catalyze Elementium in its purest form! Half a million credits easily stored in the vials upon the fool sworn to my service.
"Take them, I invite you to! Ebonair certainly doesn't need them anymore. I shall even catalyze the crucible myself!" The ugly altar of blackened iron began to vibrate, the ill green flickers of ethereal flames suddenly roaring from the bottom of the cage. The terrified villagers began to scream and wail, begging for mercy, the battered woman beside the crucible flinched away, sobbing with panic, falling to her knees and begging Val to save her.
Val acted on instinct, snatching up the young woman and dragging her off the altar entirely. After flinching for an instant, her desperate grip on him was tight as steel.
"Please, save me, my lord! I beg of you, save us!"
Hidden Quest: Save the Villagers I. Archmage Christos's coven has captured hundreds of local townsfolk, now in desperate need of rescue! And dozens of helpless lives are now in your ruthless hands. Will you take that first step and free the captives that were about to be sacrificed to release a fortune in Elementium? Or will you callously burn them alive, extracting precious Elementium instead? (Not that you don't have other ways of extracting hideously potent elements from unforgiving stone, but it's the thought that counts!)
Val clenched his fists, shaking away the prompts, and something in his gaze caused the caged villagers to renew their desperate pleas, terror in their eyes.
"Val, don't you dare!" Chris roared, unsheathing his greatsword.
Julia grabbed at his arm, Chris absently hip checking her, sending her stumbling to the ground. Val suddenly tasted the air crackling with violent magics. "Don't you dare hurt him!" she screamed, hands now filled with lightning even as Dirk's eyes widened in sudden alarm.
The mocking laughter all around them seemed amused.
"Julia, don't!" Dirk cried, desperately grabbing her arm and soothing a suddenly sobbing Julia, Chris's features now showing surprise and regret.
"Julia, I didn't, I wasn't..."
Val looked back and glared. "Don't be an ass, Chris."
Dirk glared at Val. "This is your fault, damn it! We never had division before you showed up!"
Val squeezed his eyes tightly shut, refusing to look at terrified villagers or the accusing glares of people he thought were friends before approaching the locked steel cage door, noting the complexity of the multi-slotted lock barring his way. He turned to glare at Ebonair whose body was even now burning and bubbling madly, a stray hand having fallen upon the cage he had so recently intended to sacrifice the villagers to, and Val swore he could actually hear the mage's soul screaming as it was sucked into eternal torment for the sake of the massive shards of Elementium crystal even now beginning to melt, the purified runoff shimmering like obsidian gold as it trickled into a thick glass beaker already waiting for it.
Just deserts it might be, but Val sure as hell wasn't picking free any keys now. And the door before him was nothing like a hideously complex dwarven automaton, where a few discordant nudges would quickly knock the entire artifact out of equilibrium, spelling its own disaster. And just how did he know that?
Val then shook all hesitancy away. He needed to save these people, and he was willing to do what it took.
"Break!" He roared, slamming his palm against the lock, feeling a complex matrix of magic and possibility warp and twist in a shape and form he could actually use, feeling almost as if he were a pressure cooker at that moment, forcing stubborn magics to bend to his will, even as he risked exploding himself.
A shriek of twisted steel as dozens of villagers begged for mercy, and the lock exploded, several villagers crying out as they were struck, Val blinking past his anger, realizing what he had done only after the fact, strangely grateful to see that no one seemed seriously hurt from his spell, though all the captives looked bruised and battered from all they had been through, their strangely accented pleading only growing.
Val grimaced and nodded, deliberately backing away, pulling open the steel cage door that slammed to the ground, reflexes alone saving him from an embarrassing scene, Val surprised to see that even the hinges of the steel cage door had ruptured completely free.
Congratulations! Once more you have avoided critical disaster by the sheer force of your stubborn will, inhuman insight alone allowing you to twist an ancient spell once the province of dwarves into a rupturing burst of magic that can sunder locks in an instant! Save versus critical backlash made! You have learned Lockburst! This level 30 spell synergizes the forces of Destruction, Manipulation, Transformation, and the school of Earth magic. You could tear open a bank vault with this spell! But ripping apart steel is not cheap. Cost to cast at your level of skill: 50 mana.
Congratulations! Natural killer that you are, you have achieved Rank 2 in Destruction magic!
Val turned to the captain, blinking at the strange expression upon the man's features. Frustration and awe both apparent in equal measure. "We have no time to spare, Dirk. We can talk later. For now? Let's get these people out of here. While we still can."
Yin was patting a trembling Julia's hand. "Relax, sister, Chris wasn't really going to hurt Val. He just wanted to make sure Val wasn't going to, well, you know... anyway did you sense that through the Spirit Link? Val just made up a level 30 spell on the fly! How the hell does anyone do that?"
She flashed Val a triumphant thumbs up. "Way to go, Val!"
Val forced himself to smile, weighed as he was by worry for the survivors and the tension that had only grown within the group.
Dirk shook his head, coming to a decision. "The corporal has a hell of a lot of explaining to do. But he's no fool. Let's get these villagers to safety."
"That's right," taunted the terrible voice resonating through the chamber still. "I have honored ancient pacts between all Houses, offering tribute for conquest achieved. Take the slaves and the ore and go. Should your clan dare to assault my own in the time it takes for the seasons to turn once more, then the accords permit me to use all arts necromantic and vile to protect my dominion!"
"We don't take orders from you, asshole!" Chris shouted to the ceiling before Dirk smacked his shoulder, giving a curt shake of his head. But Val paid them no mind, singularly focused on making sure the sobbing captives kept together. "Stay behind me, let my friends cover your rear," he curtly demanded, a few villagers giving quick, grateful nods, others exchanging haunted looks.
"This one can talk. I didn't think the spirits could converse? They just gibber strangely," whispered one.
"A few can," opined another. "Those spirits work for the Dominion directly, from what I understand."
"I miss the woods," said a strikingly beautiful woman with eyes that had seen too much. "Mortality was a wonderful dream, but my children were slaughtered and my mate taken away. I long for the a
ncient grove once more." Many of her fellows nodded in solemn accord to those haunting words.
Val paid their nervous chatter no mind, his ward and Ice Spear at the ready, his only interest making sure they safely surfaced once more. They passed numerous scenes of horrific slaughter, the villagers gazing at Val and his friends with eyes either increasingly anxious or grateful. During those tense moments Val reflexively expected ambush, more than one Ice Spear roaring from his palm to the screams of captives, blasting through one corpse or another that had seemed almost to twitch... but when Val checked, they were dead as dead could be.
"Relax, kid, they're dead." Chris's tone was oddly sympathetic. "Believe me, I hate backtracking through kill zones as much as anyone, because you just never know, but Dirk and I made damn sure none of these bastards can stab us in the back while you kept blazing ahead."
"That's why we never backtracked through kill zones," Val muttered. "We just made new ones."
Even Dirk chuckled softly at that, though Val could almost taste Julia cringing at those words, and Val understood. She had been falling for the dream of a boy who had somehow been her hero, a kid she could fall in love with, go to college with, not the killer he really was.
He flinched when he felt a small fist hit his arm, reflexively twitching around to see none other than Julia. "Don't brood, Val. It doesn't suit you."
Val shivered when he caught her stare, feeling, not for the first time, that she could see right through him.
She tilted her head consideringly as they emerged beyond the lip of the cave once more, the villagers suddenly cheering, Julia favoring Val with the smallest of smiles. "But it's good to see you with your doubts, Val. It makes you seem more, well, human."
"And less like a badass agent of death?" Yin teased. "Yeah, I know, but he rocks when he's slicing and dicing and blasting away! And the universe itself seems to like messing with him." Yin pouted. "Reality never announces it, when I level up a skill or make a skill check. I'd be jealous, if I weren't so certain it also kind of wants to kill you, Val. Or see you blaze like a star. Maybe a real star." She grimaced. "On second thought, maybe adventuring with you isn't such a good idea."
Endless Online: Oblivion's Price: A LitRPG Adventure - Book 3 Page 30
