Chapter 34 - "One day we will. It's a promise."

 

Name: Izumi Yoshida

Level 1

Class: None

 

Her cell smelled like piss. It was damp to the touch, and the humidity was stifling. Izumi gagged nearly every time she was thrown back in here... before her body would once again adjust to the foulness of this place.

The door was slammed shut behind her and the bars shuddered with the impact. She groaned and slid her back down the wall of the far side, sinking to the bottom.

[English Dialect] “Eh chica. They got you too huh?”

Izumi froze and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark black of the prison. Immediately across from her was another cell, and inside it was a latino man probably in his late 30’s. He had a headscarf wrapped around his forehead and otherwise wore full leather from the neck down to his toes - including a vest, pants, belt and boots. He was of a skinny build but looked pretty tall, though Izumi couldn’t be certain because he was sitting with his hands around his knees.

“C’mon now, no need to be shy. I know you can understand me. This prison isn’t like the main one, I’ve already been there before for stealing. They said I was gona be put in the special prison with the rest of the people from Earth after they caught me stealin a second time.” The man tilted his head and rubbed his fingers down his small mustache. “C’mon then, say somethin.”

“Oh shut up and leave her alone!” snarled a woman from the cell next to his. She was almost impossible to see in the dark, but upon speaking, Izumi could faintly make out her outline laying on the floor. “And for the record, I have NOT been to prison yet because I don’t get CAUGHT! If it hadn’t been for your dumb ass trying to pickpocket in broad daylight with three guards present, I wouldn’t have been thrown in here either.”

“Lesbian puta.” scoffed the man. “Our guild will break us out, calm your raging hormones.”

“Oh, so you’re going to insult my sexual orientation now too? AND SURE!!! They’ll just walk in through the gates, through the hundreds of guards, and into the jail - if they even find the right one. Then they’ll unlock the cells without being caught, and we’ll just WALTZ right out of here. Right?!”

The woman cackled sardonically and Izumi could tell she wasn’t too hopeful about the idea.

“You two are part of a guild?” said a weak voice of another man from the other side of Izumi’s cell wall. “What’s it called?”

“The Undying!” replied the latino man confidently. “We are an Earthborn-only guild, and most of us are in a range of level 9 to 23. We have 11 members right now.”

“Guild is the official term, but what they really are is nothing more than a group of bandits.” The woman sat up and pushed herself to the back wall, obscuring her completely from Izumi’s vision. “All they like to do is steal, attack and kill merchants on the roads while they’re traveling, raid small farms, and abduct people for ransom. Occasionally they’ll grind for XP by going after monsters but that isn’t nearly as frequent as the other stuff.”

“Those are strong words from a little girl who didn’t know the ins or outs of her own ass before she came to us!” sneered the latino man. “Maybe I’ll explore it for you?”

“Oh believe me! I’ll be leaving the guild as soon as I get out of here. If I ever do. What you all did to that farmer and his wife last week was disgusting. I was already planning on it, I just hadn’t found a good opportunity yet.” The woman paused. “Whatever you do… What was your name again?”

“Jase.” replied the other man in the cell next to Izumi’s.

“Whatever you do, Jase, do not even think about joining The Undying if you get out of here. Unless you’re an awful person, you won’t fit in.”

There was a long pause before Jase finished considering her words. “And your name is Ashe, right?”

“Yes sir. You got it right.” replied the woman who’d been antagonizing her ex-guildmate.

The latino man scoffed and settled himself into a large pile of straw in one corner of his cell, ceasing to talk.

“What’s your level Ashe? Are you all really between 9 and 23? That seems crazy high to me for such a short time. I mean we’ve only been here 23 days...” Jase said in a low, uncertain tone.

Ashe shuffled about, pushing the straw in her cell against the wall for better cushioning before replying. “I’d show you my status page, but the enchantments in these cells won’t allow me to pull it up. Yes, I’m actually level 9. I’ve died twice though, so I would be 11 if I hadn’t messed up. And… you must be from the second or third wave. All of ‘The Undying’ were from the first wave, so we’ve actually been here many months longer than you.”

“Ah!” replied Jase enthusiastically. “That makes sense. Yeah, I can’t use my magic in here either. The guards actually had me in a weird anti-magic set of cuffs too, from when they were transporting me earlier. Sucks.”

“You use magic?” asked Ashe, suddenly interested. “What type? I haven’t seen anyone use it yet but I had heard about some of it. It seems kind of rare.”

Jase sighed, banging his head against the soot-covered bars and then slinking back into the damp cell beneath. “I use only water magic. I found a kid in the woods being run down by a wolf, so I got a stick and scared it off. Turned out that the kid’s father was a mage and he taught me the water branch of elementalism. Took me a while to get down, but before I could learn anything more than two spells - I was turned into the guards by none other than the same guy. He even apologized about doing it. Apparently his family was in a lot of debt and the 2000 gold pieces would get them out of it.”

“Wow. Talk about unlucky.”

“Yeah, I know.”

There was another long pause.

“We could always try to kill ourselves and respawn out of here… Do you think it’d work?” asked Jase.

Ashe laughed. “Have you died yet?”

“No.” replied Jase.

“Yeah I figured as much. It’s incredibly painful. Not only do you lose progress in levels, but I don’t know how I’d even have the willpower or mental fortitude to go through with suicide. That’d be very tough to do. It has crossed my mind, but I don’t think I’d be able to do it.” Ashe let out a long exhale. “Hopefully all of this gets cleared up soon. I don’t know why the king wants us, but I’m sure we’ll find out.”

“Did all of you arrive here just today?” Izumi asked cautiously, speaking for the first time since being put back in her cell.

“She finally speaks.” sneered the latino man while leaning against his bars.

A loud slam of the door somewhere out in the hall and a series of shouts echoing out caused the prisoners pause, but the noise was reduced to nothing a couple seconds later.

“Yes, we all arrived today...” Ashe stated with her back to the wall. “Have you been in here longer?”

Izumi smiled weakly and put her hands on the bars, pressing her face to them hopelessly. “I’ve been here since I spawned in the castle. I don’t know how long for sure... Probably weeks. Most of my time here has involved torture, experimentation and being decapitated when they run out of body parts to work with.” She started to quiver and then to cry, hiccuping as she failed to contain her sobs. “I never did anything to them and I don’t know what to do.”

The ominous silence was only broken by Izumi’s sobbing. Everyone else was deadly quiet, and took in the words with dread setting in.

“Fuck.” spat the latino, concern obvious in the way he said it. “That’s not something I want to deal with.”

“I’m assuming they won’t actually kill the rest of us because we don’t spawn here in the castle…” moaned Ashe, then she paused. “But experimentation and torture doesn’t sound fun. Maybe I will end up trying suicide after all. We’ll see.”

“How do you think you'll manage that?” laughed the latino man, slapping his thighs. “Stupid woman. They removed anything we could use to kill ourselves with. You gona bash your head into those bars until you crack your skull open? Good luck. The guards would come in here and put you in a full body restraint before you even got close.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Just as the words were spoken, the sound of heavy armored footsteps outside the prison began to grow louder. Louder and louder it got, silencing the prisoners again as suspense hung in the air. Then there was the jingling of keys and the twist of a door handle. On cue, the door to the prison was flung open. Inside marched four guards and Neheren, the high priest, into the musty room.

[Human Dialect] “Looks like we’ve done quite well today! Three at the same time. What luck!” The old man was absolutely gleeful, stroking his white beard as he gazed into the cells illuminated by the dim light leaking through the doorway. Neheren ran his hands through his beard one final time after stopping in the middle of the room, and then tucked both hands away into his robe’s blue pockets. He kicked the latino’s cell bars. “This one.”

Neheren turned around and marched out without another word. Quickly, one of the armored guards pulled out a key, unlocked the cell’s barred door and swung it open.

“What are yall doin?! MAN I SAID-”

The foremost guard slammed a steel first into the Earthborn’s gut, causing him to wretch. Without delay, they dragged the man out by either arm and slammed the jail’s main door behind them.

It did not leave a good impression on the others.

“Oh my god...” Ashe said in a low tone.

“If it’s anything like what I’ve gone through, He’ll be gone for hours.” stated the small japanese girl.

The other two sat in silence, and eventually thoughts of what awaited them crept into their minds to pursue them in their dreams... as nightmares on the horizon.

================================================================

 

 

Name: Jason Foreti

Level 4

Class: None

 

The alchemist’s shop was homey and smaller than most of the remaining buildings in the village, built with pine logs and dried mud mixed with straw to fill in the gaps. Like most of the other houses here in the village of Vork, the inside had been ransacked, but at least it hadn’t been set on fire. Elandry had taken days to fix it back up to make it look presentable again, but still had a long ways to go.

“Thankfully I was able to recover most of my ingredients and vials, the scum only thought to wreck the inside of my home instead of actually destroying it entirely.” The freckled alchemist winced and held his side where he had been repeatedly kicked a week prior. “Well, let’s see what you’ve brought me then.”

Jason smiled and nodded as he and Elise handed Elandry two small sacks full of reagents. Elandry picked out the pieces one by one, weighed them on a scale that Jason thought the romans would have used, and then set it to the side to mark its weight. After having done so 28 different times, he put his hands on his hips and smiled widely to look back at the two in front of him.

“Well done, you rascals! Not only did you bring me the necessary ingredients for Borthome’s cure, but you also added in an additional 19 other ingredients as well! I’m impressed.” Suddenly the alchemist paused, frowned, and he pulled out his desk drawer. He pulled out another, and then another before sighing. “Looks like those cultists found my stashes of gold, and that guild probably took it off their bodies. Figures. Would you two mind waiting a while for the payment? Or if you’d rather, I could teach you a thing or two about alchemy instead.”

“You have completed the quest: Ingredients for Elandry - collect the required ingredients listed on Elandry’s list for Borthome’s new remedy. You have gained XP. You have gained 1 overall level.” a mechanical voice said and Jason’s status page icon began to flash. Bringing it up showed he’d grown to level 5.

Jason perked up at the offer. “I’d LOVE to learn alchemy! That’d be so cool!”

Elise smiled and nodded. “You can use my part of the pay to teach Jason even more.” She pulled Jason close by the arm. “I’m more than happy to have it that way. And who knows? Maybe one day you’ll be using it to provide for me.”

Elise winked and Jason turned a bright red. He was definitely flattered, and Elise was incredibly attractive, but he couldn’t help thinking that even joking about marriage so early was going a bit far. He wasn’t upset by it by any means, but it took him by surprise. Unfortunately the festival had been canceled, so they actually hadn’t even been on their first date yet!

“That works for all of us then!” Elandry clapped his hands and shuffled over to a shelf. He pulled out a small, thin book, dusted it off and walked back over to the desk. “Here Jason, take this. It’s a book of ingredients and recipes for low level potions, or potions that are simple to make. I want you to memorize all of it by the end of the week. When you’re done with that, we’ll start with a hands-on approach.”

Jason was ecstatic.

“Wow!” said Jason with a look in his eye that was similar to that of a child on Christmas. “Thank you so much! I don’t know what to say! I’ll be sure to bring this back to you unharmed.”

“Keep it.” waved the alchemist. “You and your demon friend have done more than enough for this village. And I already know all of those recipes by heart, I haven’t opened that book in years.”

He didn’t need to be told twice.

“Thanks!” repeated Jason, and giddily he took Elise by the hand to leave the shop. “I’ll be back!”

“I expect you to be!” Elandry called out before the thick wooden door shut behind them with a thud.

“That was incredibly nice of him...” observed Jason, briefly skimming through the book to shut it again as they walked.

Elise roughed up his hair, ever smiling when around him. “He’s a good guy. Been a family friend for quite a while now.”

Their conversation was rudely interrupted by a loud and profane slur of words.

[English Dialect] “JESUS TITTY FUCK’N CHRIST!” screamed Trey in frustration.

Jason and Elise both jumped slightly at the abrupt assault on their eardrums, and looked over to where Trey sat repeatedly banging a wooden slate against his face and horns. It was the same wooden slate given to Trey by Jason the day before with an attached parchment concerning words in the ‘Human’ in-game language.

Trey threw the slate down in his man-tantrum and folded his arms to glare at the object, having a much harder time deciphering the new language than he’d anticipated.

Napoleon stood next to him on the platform that held up the bulletin board and guffawed with laughter in a high pitched squeal while pointing his left arm at his master. Many of the villagers stood around the village center chuckling to themselves and watching the struggle unfold while the imp mercilessly made fun of the summoner. Eventually though, they returned to their duties of trying to repair the damaged buildings, trying to get back to the way their lives had been as best they could.

[Ancient Demon Dialect] “Master so so ugly dumb. Can’t can’t know words. So ugly dumb!” Napoleon cackled again and jumped over to where Trey sat, only to slap Trey's forearm repeatedly. “Master funny though I like like.”

Trey glared at the smaller demon and lifted a finger to zap Napoleon with a tiny shock of black lightning. It wasn’t enough to hurt Napoleon, but it stung like a bitch. Napoleon quickly went from laughing like a madman to cursing like one, climbing up Trey’s side in a hissy-fit of raging tiny claws that rapidly and repeatedly swatted at Trey’s head. It took a minute for Trey to dislodge the imp, but eventually Napoleon was seen flying across the clearing over a house as Trey threw the demon into a bushy tree.

The absurd scene was quickly put to rest when Jason reached his newfound friend.

[English Dialect] “What are you trying to do?” asked Jason with a puzzled expression, glancing over to make sure Napoleon was still ok. The imp was clinging to the branches twenty feet above ground and a good ways away, very much ok, and cursing in the demonic tongue as it made rude gestures to the summoner who’d thrown it.

Jason continued walking over to where Trey sat near the town’s central bulletin board, then he and Elise sat beside the other Earthborn man. Trey took special notice of how they held hands as they came up, and he gave Jason a wink.

“Ah you know, just trying to get this DAMN LANGUAGE to stick into my brain!” he pointed furiously at the parchment and shook a finger at it violently. Then he put his head in his hands and began to fake pout with another stupid wink at the two lovebirds.

Elise giggled and put a hand over her mouth. “You're in a good mood! I can tell that much, even if I only understand half of what you say!”

They heard a crash, some more obscure cursing, and Napoleon came bolting around a corner to run up Elise’s leg onto her shoulder. The imp scowled fiercely at Trey and crossed his arms, but it only lasted a couple seconds before turning over his mood to Elise’s pampering.

[Human Dialect] “High cutie!” said Elise as she pet the imp and scratched behind Napoleon's ears.

[English Dialect] “Oh I almost forgot! I need to give Napoleon his scroll.” Without another word, Trey took the imp and flung him skyborn, sending him a good ten feet into the air and off to Trey’s left while he cackled, though Napoleon was quick to curse at him again mid-flight.

Trey took the time to bring forth the ‘Fear’ spell scroll from where he’d been keeping it in shadowform. A second later and a burst of shadow radiated out along his hand and dissipated, and in its place remained a parchment.

 

Spell Scroll: Fear

Item Tier: (7) Rare

Requirements: 9 Intelligence, Curse Attribute

Durability: 10/10

Special: Instantaneous learning of the spell ‘Fear.’ Target receives no actual damage, but is ridden with unnerving fear while this spell is channeled if the target fails to resist.

 

“BAD BAD MASTER!” shrieked Napoleon while exchanging languages on and off between the human and demonic tongues just as he landed in a pig’s trough, making a loud splash and wailing about how it was: “GROSS GROSS!”

“Jesus man, you really have the strangest relationships with your minions.” Jason scratched his chin and watched Elise rush over to make sure the imp was ok.

Trey chuckled and ignored Jason’s comment, waiting for the shrieking little shit to clamber out of the pig’s trough, over the old stone wall, and back to where Trey sat.

“NO NO!” Napoleon shrieked while waving a tiny clawed finger in front of Trey’s face to chide him. Napoleon went on to repeatedly chide Trey numerous times between demonic and human tongues. Switching languages like that made Trey get the feeling the imp was doing so for Elise’s benefit, as Napoleon took a particular liking to both her and Rivia as of late.

“BAD BAD!”

[Ancient Demon Dialect] “HUSH HUSH!” Trey yelled back with a quick laugh and dodged a swipe from the furious little demon before holding out a hand of surrender. “Hey! I’ve got a present for you! I should have given it to you earlier, but take it and see if you can use it.”

He handed the scroll over and laughed again when the imp snatched it impatiently from Trey’s hands to read it.

However, he was genuinely surprised by Napoleon’s reaction that came a few seconds later after staring the scroll down. The little imp’s angry features fell off completely, and a look of shock came over him. His tiny hands began trembling and he looked almost... sad. He sat there, staring at the spell scroll and murmured something Trey couldn’t hear just before looking up with tears in his eyes and quivering lips.

[Ancient Demon Dialect] “This… this for me?” Napoleon asked in a hushed whisper, ears flat against his head.

“Yeah, of course!” Trey exclaimed with a bright smile, trying to cheer the little guy up and not understanding why the imp was becoming emotional. “Is everything ok?”

There was a long pause.

Jason and Elise were just as concerned as Trey was as Napoleon's eyes scrunched up and he began to wail. The crying grew louder and sounded like a mixture between an infant and a dying cat. When Napoleon buried his face in Trey’s leg and started sobbing even harder, while hugging his master, it made things even more strange.

“Hey… did I do something to upset you?” Trey asked the imp softly, patting his head and giving a shrug when Jason and Elise caught his eye. “If it was because I threw you twice… I’m sorry. I was just fucking around.”

From behind them, a familiar voice hailed, and Trey turned to watch Atharost strut out of a village alley like he owned the place. Knocking over a wooden bucket of water and bumping into a native man without stopping to say sorry, the ifrit crossed his arms.

“You don’t know why Napoleon is reacting that way to your gift, do you?” Atharost smirked and came to sit next to his friend, throwing an arm around Trey’s shoulders and pointing at the imp.

“Imps are treated very poorly in the demon cities of Oblivion. It is likely the same for the Void and Hells. They are so weak that they cannot defend themselves and are used as slaves, pets, or are killed for food. Imp fighting is also a popular sport in the cities I’ve been to, where they make the imps fight to the death and bet on the outcome in a similar way humans do with chickens or dogs. In demonic culture, it is strength that matters above all else. The strong make the rules, while the weak suffer.” Atharost grinned at the pathetically bawling little imp and gently scratched behind Napoleon’s ears to comfort him. “He is just happy that you valued him enough to give him something of worth.”

Trey raised both eyebrows.

“That sounds fucked up. But it would be interesting to see those demon cities one day…” Trey mused aloud, picking up Napoleon and hugging the little guy to his chest as the imp continued to wail and fiercely clutch at the scroll Trey’d given him.

“Perhaps we can travel to the cities of Oblivion together one day. I don’t think I’d be able to find my old tribe any longer if they’re even still around, but it would be nice to revisit some of the places I grew up in.” Atharost grinned with intent behind the words he spoke. The ifrit was absolutely serious, and it only made Trey want to go even more.

“One day we will. It’s a promise.” Trey held out a hand and firmly shook on it.

“Your minion Atharost has increased its opinion of you from ‘Friendly’ to ‘Very Friendly.’ Your minion still gains a 15% experience increase due to it remaining in the positive category.”

Trey’s turquoise battle robe was now very wet from the amount of crying Napoleon was doing, with stares of passers by in abundance, but after the soft prompting of Elise the imp eventually cleared his tears and shakily got to his feet. Napoleon stood in Trey’s lap, looking up with his ears laid back against his head and his tail held perfectly still in an arc. The imp clutched the parchment to his chest like it meant the world to him and he sniffled once more before speaking again.

“You you not trick me?” Napoleon asked quietly, tears still trickling down his face and eyes wide.

Trey just shook his head no while keeping a warm smile. “Go on, little man. Use it. You have the curse attribute and it makes sense that you be the one to get it.”

The imp hesitated, but then looked down to the scroll. Unfurling it again carefully and letting his white glowing eyes fall to the words inscribed, he began to read. It took Napoleon an entire minute before the words on the parchment began to flash bright light, and the page literally exploded to slightly startle Trey and the others. Sparkling dust and mana swirled about the imp, and then condensed into specs of mana that rapidly shot into Napoleon’s body, filling him with the needed knowledge and skill sets to use the spell.

“Your minion Napoleon has learned the spell ‘Fear,’ please check its status page for more information. Your minion Napoleon has increased its opinion of you from ‘Liked’ to ‘Admired.’ Your minion still gains a 15% experience increase due to it remaining in the positive category.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Simplified Status Page for Napoleon

Name: Napoleon

Race: Oblivion Imp, Lesser Demon

Class: N/A

Level: 5

HP: 94/94, MP: 150/150, SP: 66/66, DP: 1/1

Skills: Firebolt (lvl. 8)(Fire), Sneak (lvl. 4), Fear (lvl. 1)(Curse), Small Blades (lvl. 1), Assassination (lvl. 1)

Traits: Fragile, Intelligent, Trey Bon’s Minion

Magical Attributes: Curse, Fire

Opinion of you: Admired

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

***

 

Willow landed with a couple flaps of her black wings, touching down onto solid ground with a wide smile on her face under a cloudy sky.  She looked out over the rolling hills and trees losing leaves for the coming winter with a feeling of tranquility and peace she'd been missing all her life.  This was very, very new to her.  There were no armies to command here, no watchful gaze of her bitch mother, on scolding remarks  from her elder sisters.  Trey gave Willow a long leash to do as she pleased in her off time as long as she reported in regularly, and their bond allowed them to know where the other was.  Even so, Willow didn't stray far - being both respectful of Trey's carnal needs that she carried out every night and because she didn't want to anger Eleknar.  

Though honestly she doubted Eleknar would be angry with her at all given how pleased Trey seemed to be with her duties.  Not only that, but he listened to her.  Talked to her.  Didn't torture her.  Trey was the closest thing she'd ever had to a true lover or friend, and whenever she thought about him she got goosebumps and a knot of butterflies in her stomach.

"I do believe this is the happiest I have ever seen you, daughter."

The words were ice cold, and Willow's body immediately tensed when she heard the familiar voice of the goddess.  Slowly turning and then abruptly bowing on one knee, she kept her black eyes focused on the ground as to not antagonize the woman Willow had come to hate so much.  At first Willow hadn't known it was hate, she'd thought it to be respect, but she respected Trey... and this feeling she had towards Alkir was not the same.

"Do you wish to deny or confirm my thoughts?" Alkir stated, amused with her hands clasped behind her back.  She was a spitting image of her daughters, as they were all created from pieces of her soul combined with those taken from slain fallen angels - which is why all of her daughters had their wings.  "Or are you going to just kneel there like a fool."

Willow abruptly cleared her throat, glancing to the side where - in the distance - the small village her master was taking residence in could be seen.  "I am happy with my situation, yes mother."

Alkir snickered, then gave an amused hum.  "Stand."

Willow did so, abruptly taking a rigid posture next to the dark goddess to follow her gaze.  "What brings you here, if I may be so bold to ask?"

Alkir raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on her daughter's unusual attitude.  It was unlike Willow to question anything she did.  "I am merely seeing how my failed progeny is doing.  Though I must admit, Eleknar reports good things for you.  It appears that you at least have one thing going for you.  The heir is very pleased for your presence, and the afterlife Eleknar is creating from my tiny dimensional pocket is going... rather well."

"Eleknar has always been good with spatial manipulations." Willow stated in a low voice.

Alkir confirmed this with a nod.  "Hopefully he is able to grow to the power he once had, or even greater.  We will see with time, but the heir needs to survive long enough to see those dreams fulfilled.  Which is the other reason why I have come."

Holding out a slim, pale hand, the dark goddess  produced a small pocket of light.  It flickered and roiled with various colors between black and white, and Willow's heart clenched upon seeing it.  It was one of her souls hards.

Alkir smiled wickedly.  "This particular shard holds your old memories, pertaining to battle and basic combat.  It is needed after that pathetic display you put on in the battle against those lowly humans... but do not think this comes free.  You are expected to keep the heir alive at all costs, even if it means your own death.  Do you understand?"

Willow gulped, nodded, and held out a hand to receive it - but Alkir swiftly drew the soul shard back with a warning finger.

"You will also be required to enter a coma-like state while absorbing this shard back into your body, to avoid further damage to your core.  Be sure to tell the heir this before asking him when he wants you to do so."

Willow nodded again, this time receiving the shard and feeling its warm pulse call to her while she clutched it in-between her slender fingers.  "Thank you mother..."

"Do not thank me."  Alkir snorted in derision.  "It is not my call.  Eleknar requested this personally, and I will not see my old friend denied."