Chapter One-Hundred-and-Ninety-Nine |
Adam performed the Heart Lance spell with his flame glove, shooting a penetrating beam of fire that collided with a dark barrier the forlorn ritualist created in the last second. The beam pierced through but was knocked off-course, only grazing its shoulder.
Chien swung his war hammer towards its body, but with a simple spin of its metal staff, it pushed the blow aside, and then a flick of its wand fired a black lance into his cuirass.
The holy nova exploded out from Chien’s body, knocking the ritualist back and momentarily dispelling part of its shadowy robes to reveal a rotten corpse within.
Adam and Seo-Yoon both exploited the opportunity to fire their spells right into its real body, but with a sudden stomp of its metal staff, the ritualist vanished, leaving behind a pulsing dark orb.
“Run!” Seo-Yoon exclaimed, seeing something the others didn’t, and the three of them stormed down the floor, past the heptagram and black candles, aiming for the door.
The orb started sucking in air with great huffs, and then it exploded into three expanding rings.
Chien was struck by the first and launched out through the wooden wall of the church, but Adam was saved by Seo-Yoon pulling him down below its reach.
The ring sheared through the wooden building’s walls, the second blew the walls down, and the third exploded the ceiling. It happened in the span of three seconds, but Adam was quick to roll on top of Seo-Yoon and pull out the material of his raiment to create a protective dome around them, preventing them from being crushed by several tonnes of wood.
Muffled sounds of fighting and yelling came from nearby, and it was clear that the ritualist hadn’t teleported far.
Chien and Natalia tried to land attacks on the ritualist, while Diwa had her Shield Wall’s large projectile magnet shield raised in front of her with the mirror effect of the Gorgon Slayer active. Behind her lay Heiner. There was a dark stain on his body and he was struggling to get up.
As Adam tried to take stock of the situation, Diwa repelled two dark needle spells back towards the ritualist with her shield, and it was momentarily put on the backfoot, allowing Natalia to slash her katana blade through its body with her special skill, followed by Chien triggering his keepsake relic and smashing his hammer into the boss’ right leg.
The ritualist staggered, but with a flourish of its wand, three black shadowy and gangly creatures pulled themselves out of its robes. Two immediately leapt for Chien and he was forced to backpedal. The third headed towards Seo-Yoon.
Adam spun up another Heart Lance spell with his flame glove, and before the summoned minion could get close, he carved its body in half with the scalding beam. It simply vanished like smoke.
“Adam, give me a white-hot flame,” Seo-Yoon told him.
He combined bone and fire and she absorbed the result into her Spellcaster staff. With a spin and rapid stabbing motions, Seo-Yoon formed a spell pattern in the air and it glowed with the white-hot flame she had absorbed. Then she spun her staff again and struck the tip against the pattern, firing a white ball on a steep trajectory up into the air.
Adam prepared another Heart Lance, using the white flame as well, and just as the ball was halfway to the ritualist, which was using its metal staff to defend against Natalia, Seo-Yoon fired her sun flare spell, sending the blinding flame zipping across the space between them.
The ritualist turned to try and defend itself with a shield of shadowy magic, but the sun flare erased it with ease, before striking its dark robes and temporarily removing them. Adam fired his beam, aiming for the exposed part of its true body, and just then the ball landed as well.
To cap it off, Natalia slashed her sword through the ritualist’s true body, cutting off its head and immediately dispelling its shadowy power. The hooded robes vanished like smoke pulled away on a breeze, and its two weapons dropped to the ground.
There followed no objective update, even though the boss was clearly defeated.
“It’s not dead!” Natalia exclaimed. “We’ve gotta kill it before it comes back!”
Chien had defeated the two shades sent at him, and he rushed over to the decapitated body, immediately beginning a brutal assault on the corpse and its head which threatened to roll off the mountain.
As the slams of his hammer echoed out across the Oath Spire mountain, Adam and Seo-Yoon went over to Heiner.
“What’s the affliction?” Adam asked, preparing to use the special skill of his flame glove. The stain on Heiner’s body was spreading like it was a living thing.
“Devouring Necrosis,” he said.
Adam consumed the 75 mana to create a cleansing beacon. A warm-glowing flame appeared from the ground next to Adam, taking the shape of a five-metre-tall pillar that cast a glow around itself to form an area where afflictions had no effect. But it would only last a minute.
Heiner let out a sigh of relief as the dark stain vanished.
“How long does it last?” Adam asked.
“The total duration was sixty seconds, but there are only about thirty left.”
“Then you’ll be fine,” Adam replied. “This skill stops afflictions from working for one minute.”
“Thank you. It’s a nasty affliction. I took damage and lost maximum health from that,” Heiner said. As he spoke, his face and voice changed, and his real appearance returned. “I’m down to 43 health in total with 21 points remaining…”
“Heiner… Your face,” Diwa muttered.
He looked up at her in surprise, and then the mask popped off his face and landed in his hands.
“Why isn’t it making me wanna kill him?” Seo-Yoon wondered.
Chien and Natalia came over, dragging the head and body of the ritualist into the beacon’s warmth. They clearly hadn’t been able to finish off the knight.
For a moment, Adam thought the cleansing effect might’ve been enough to kill the forlorn knight for good, but it was clear things wouldn’t be that easy.
“Shit,” Natalia said when she saw Heiner’s appearance was back to normal.
“What do I do?” Heiner asked.
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“The moment the beacon expires, I think your scorn effect will return,” Adam said. He looked to Chien. “We can’t wait 12 hours for the cooldown to end. You’ve gotta use the coin to get another illusionist’s mask. We’ll buy you a replacement in the market later.”
Chien nodded. “Very well. We have a more pressing concern, however.” He lifted up the headless ritualist corpse. “My effect does not work.”
“It’s because you didn’t deal the killing blow,” Natalia said. “Right?”
“It would appear so.”
“I didn’t think, sorry,” Natalia said.
“You defeated the threat,” Adam replied. “That’s more than enough for now.”
He went over to where they’d dropped the body and tried to absorb it into his raiment, but it didn’t work. The effect was similar to when Chien killed enemies. “I can’t destroy the body with my powers,” Adam said. He broke open its torso, but there was no core of darkness inside.
“My rosary is charged with two motes,” Chien replied. He had to have gotten them from the two summons the ritualist had created. “We should make another true flame.”
“My sun flare isn’t ready yet,” Seo-Yoon said.
“It may not be enough power,” Adam theorised. “But let’s see if it works.”
The beacon’s effect was about to end, so they all stepped away from Heiner.
Just before the skill expired, Chien tossed the coin to him. His melody filled with gratitude and excitement.
“Meet me by the fountain in the Old Town market plaza,” Heiner told them and flew off, holding the depleted mask and the coin in his hands as his wings flapped eagerly.
The moment he left the cleansing aura of the beacon everyone’s melodies soured at the sight of him. Even Adam, who thought he had been prepared for it, was struggling to keep himself from spitting on the ground in disgust.
“Vile,” Chien muttered.
Once he was out of sight behind the peak of the mountain, they all let out a breath.
“I thought I was ready for that, but it still hit me like a brick,” Natalia said.
“Same,” Adam replied.
They waited around for the few minutes it took for Seo-Yoon’s sun flare to be off cooldown, and once it was ready, Diwa and Adam backed far away from them. Chien blessed Seo-Yoon’s staff and she fired the flare into the head that they’d placed atop the body.
A bright-glowing flame filled the area for a moment, stinging Adam’s eyes, but that was it.
I figured it would require more power.
They looked over to Adam.
“What do we do?” Natalia asked.
“Let’s bring it to the church in Old Town,” Adam said. “We’ll collect Heiner on the way.”
Adam flew them back down to where they’d left the horses, and the animals seemed very unbothered by being left alone for more than half a day at the bottom of a random hill.
I guess we can at least rule out this place being within the shadow bird’s territory, Adam realised. If it had been patrolling these parts, we might have lost a few of the horses, maybe even all of them.
As everyone got off Adam’s transport platform, Chien once again shaky on his legs, Adam reabsorbed it back into himself and shaped two large hands to hold the ritualist’s body with.
When Chien approached the horses, a sinister idea flowed through his melody.
“Don’t kill them,” Adam warned him reflexively. “It’s not worth it to charge your relic.”
The Lightbringer gave him a suspicious look.
“It was written on your face,” Adam told him. “I’m not a mind-reader if that’s what you think.”
“That was exactly what I was thinking,” Chien replied.
“I’d wipe the floor with you in Poker then,” Adam joked.
They all got onto the horses, but Seo-Yoon cast him a longing look, clearly wanting to fly again.
The others galloped across the hills while Adam floated above them, holding the corpse of the ritualist in two floating arms. They went around the Oath Spire’s northern edge like before, and as they were nearing silt, Seo-Yoon spoke up, loud enough that Adam could hear. “Heiner has a relic renewal stone, doesn’t he?”
Adam floated down next to her. “I would assume so,” he replied. “His magical quiver was full when we came here, and that’s a stage six relic.”
“Why didn’t he just use that to recharge the mask?” she then asked.
The question surprised him for a moment. Instinctively, he scanned for Heiner’s melody, finding that it was quite close.
Adam’s heart skipped a beat.
He went to Silt, not Old Town.
He’s planning on using the lake to activate the coin!
“He’s at Silt!” Adam told them. “He’s up to something, I’m sure of it!”
Before they could ask what was going on, Adam sped off, pushing his raiment to fly as fast as he could. Within seconds he’d left the others in the dust.
He must be up to something!
What relic could he want to get from the coin!?
Think, damn it!
Adam ran through every rare, uncommon, and common relic he could think of. There had to be something.
It can’t be the gorget of the connoisseur, that one is epic.
Could it be something that completes his build?
Is he just being selfish?
Maybe I’m over-reacting, he considered for a second. His scorn effect could cause that kind of paranoia maybe.
No, the fact that he went to Silt and not Old Town is a red flag.
Adam traced down Heiner’s melody by the bead of blood still in his head, finding him standing on the silty southern shore with the murky water lapping against his boots.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Adam asked as he landed. He focused on the blood he’d left inside Heiner’s head, ready to take him out of commission if needed.
Heiner turned around, once more wearing the face of his friend.
“Sorry about that. I realised Silt was much closer,” Heiner lied.
Adam frowned. “I know you have a renewal stone,” he said. “What are you up to?”
The others were coming towards them quickly. They would arrive on their horses any minute.
“I just wanted to add something to my build,” Heiner said. “I know, it’s selfish.”
His melody was warbly, and Adam was fairly sure he was mixing truth with lies. Or at least there was more to it than that.
“What did you get with the coin?” Adam asked.
“How did you find me so easily?” Heiner countered. “Did you leave your magic on me somewhere?”
He turned and spun, trying to see if there was blood or something on him.
“You won’t find it there,” Adam told him.
Heiner stopped and looked at the ring on his hand. It had to be telling him what Adam had done, because Heiner’s melody changed into horror and anger.
Heiner glared at Adam. “You—?”
“Heiner! What are you doing!?” Natalia shouted, the first of the group to reach them on her horse.
“Fuck!” he cursed as the illusionist’s mask immediately deactivated and popped off his face.
Adam was once more filled with disdain for Heiner as he fumbled with his right pocket, before retrieving a glowing amber marble. It was a relic renewal stone.
With a bright pop, the glow left the stone and washed over the mask in his hands. Heiner put it back on and his face turned into that of his friend again.
He had two stones!? Adam realised.
The others came galloping in as well. Natalia had drawn her weapon, likely because of his sudden appearance change, and she was only a few steps behind Adam.
“What are you up to?” Chien asked as he got off his horse. He paused when he saw that the mask was back in effect. Then he looked to Adam. “He got a second mask. What is the problem?”
Adam turned to the Lightbringer to explain, but just as he looked away, Heiner leapt backwards with a sudden flap of his wings and a killing calm overcame his melody.
With a single motion, Adam reached out and pulled on the blood inside Heiner’s brain, making him pass out and plummet towards the water, but it was already too late, because an arrow zipped right over Adam on a strange serpentine trajectory, before settling right into Natalia’s forearm when she tried to swat it with her katana.
Then Adam, Natalia, Chien, Diwa, and Seo-Yoon, as well as their four horses, toppled over, unable to move.
[You have been afflicted with Paralysis.]
Adam immediately knew what relic Heiner had wished for.
‘Paralysis Venom’.
He had waited until they were all close enough to Natalia before he struck. And by hitting her, the paralysis affliction spread outward to everyone within ten metres.
A splash came from the water, followed by panicked gargling and further splashing.
Even though Adam couldn’t move, he sensed something big coming up towards where Heiner struggled to regain control of his body in the water.
Then it was right on top of him.
Heiner let out a horrific scream, but the sound was immediately cut short by a loud crack.
His melody winked out as the thing that had attacked him returned down into the depths of the Silt Lake. Adam had landed in a way that he couldn’t actually see any of this, but he was willing to bet that retrieving Heiner’s body would require them to follow whatever had eaten him.
Adam attempted to activate his cleansing beacon to cure himself, but nothing happened.
He also tried to control his blood, flesh, and bone to move himself, but it was impossible. The paralysis effect locked down his entire body, including whatever powers the System had granted him.
What a miserable way to die, this would be…
Adam wracked his brain for any answers.
All the while, the day wore on, and soon night would come.
Unable to move and beyond the comfort of a settlement’s glow, they would not survive nightfall. And just a couple of metres from them lay the ritualist’s body. If the Shadow found its way to it, the forlorn knight would wake up and finish them off.
This might be where my loop comes to an end…