Book 2: Chapter 8: Hunting a Boss
The narrow, cramped stairwell wound upward, each step annoyingly a different height than the ones around it. When Victor finally pulled himself out of the confines of its stone walls into a small square room, barely large enough to stand in, the effects of the cramped spaces were starting to fray the edges of his sanity.
A black iron lever stuck conspicuously out of the wall to his right, and, seeing no other options in the tiny space, he pulled on it. With a loud, rumbling, controlled collapse, the wall in front of him fell into the floor, and a wider hallway was revealed.
“I recognize this location, Victor!” Gorz said.
“Alright, direct me back to that damn puzzle door, please.”
“Forward seven meters, then take a right.”The origin of this chapter's debut can be traced to N0v3l--B1n.
“Okay,” Victor gripped Lifedrinker’s haft, holding her crossways in front of him. The handle he’d made for her was notched, bruised, and gouged but still solid. Still, he missed her elegant, tough, cherry-wood handle and hoped he’d be able to do her justice soon. He followed Gorz’s instructions, taking two more turns and stepping over the desiccated bodies of the ghouls he and Thayla had killed on their initial exploration of the area. In just a few short minutes, he was standing before the bronze-colored puzzle door.
The square hole in the floor where he’d fallen through was still there, yawning wide as if to invite him back in, but, more surprisingly, the puzzle door was ajar. “I guess that skull really did know how to open it. Nice of them to leave it open for me,” Victor said, his voice hushed.
“I believe the skull thought you dead.”
“Yeah.” Victor walked to the right of the pitfall, where Thayla had been standing, and peeked through the door. He’d left his light back a few feet, but enough bled through the opening to reveal the strange chamber. Like the door that opened into it, the room was round. It had a convex ceiling painted pale blue, like a sky, and purple mountains were painted around the edges to give the illusion of a distant horizon. Twin suns hung in the sky, one a smoldering red orb and the other much smaller and bright white. A stone table or altar stood in the center of the room, also round, and resting at the center of the altar was a familiar yellow-white skull.
On the far side of the room, another round door stood ajar. Orange light and shadows flickered from the dark recess it revealed, but Belikot’s skull was the only object Victor could see in the room. As he watched it, peering from behind the partially open door, he saw a faint, blue flicker in its eye sockets. The straps Thayla had crafted to carry the skull were still fastened around it, and the memory of her braiding the leather cords and carefully attaching them triggered a pulse of hot rage in Victor, and he twisted his hands on Lifedrinker’s haft.
Grinding his teeth, Victor slowly channeled Energy into Lifedrinker, causing her to buzz and pulse as a red aura limned her long, bearded blade. Now was his chance. He’d shatter this fucking skull before it could protest or further influence him or, worse, Thayla. He’d worry about finding her after this asshole was out of the picture.
Victor used Sovereign Will to enhance his agility, and he hunched behind the door, veritably vibrating from the urge to jump and tumble. He took three quick breaths, then leaped through the door. Anticipating shrieking blue fireballs, he somersaulted to the left, leaped to his feet, and brought Lifedrinker up over his head in a two-handed chop. “Victor, no!” Thayla’s scream seemed to echo in his head, loud enough to startle him out of his attack. He ducked to the left, circling behind the skull and looking for Thayla. He didn’t see her and wondered if Belikot had tried to trick him somehow. Growling, he lifted the axe again. “Victor? Victor! Are you still here?”
“Thayla?” He called softly, turning to glance at the partially open door.
“Victor, I’m in the skull! Don’t break it!” Thayla’s voice sounded disembodied, almost echoing on itself as it came to him.
“What the fuck?” Victor jerked his gaze back to the skull. Licking his lips nervously, he slowly moved so that he could see the eye sockets again. He still held Lifedrinker ready, his knuckles white as he fought with the urge to smash the skull.
“Thank the Ancestors; you’re alive! He tricked me, Victor!” Thayla’s voice was full of despair, and the tiny blue flames in the skull’s eye sockets flared briefly, then grew dim again.
“Is he in there with you?” Victor tried to imagine what could possibly be going on. Had the skull absorbed her somehow? Was Belikot torturing her?
“No! He stole my body, Victor! He swapped with me! I thought we had a contract, but he tricked me,” Thayla’s voice seemed to be coming from further and further away.
“Fuck, Thayla! What can I do? Where is he?”
“I don’t have enough strength to keep talking for long; he’s too powerful to fight, Victor. If you killed him, you’d be killing my body. You have to beat him another way. Find his phylactery—he mentioned it ...” Thayla’s voice faded to a whisper, then was gone, and the lights in the skull’s eye sockets faded to almost imperceptible pinpricks. Victor looked around, suddenly nervous about being jumped while trying to speak to a skull. Nothing moved around him, though, and he gingerly reached out and touched the smooth, polished bone.
“I’m sorry, Thayla. I’m sorry it took me so long to get back here,” he gently patted the skull, then he had an idea. Very slowly, he extended a tiny thread of inspiration-attuned Energy out through his pathways and into the skull. The eyes immediately blazed to life, more white than blue now, and Thayla’s triumphant laugh echoed into his mind.
“Thank you, Victor! Oh, Ancestors, that feels good! Your Energy is so good!” Her voice, echoing in his head, was stronger now, and her words more sure. “Did you hear what I said about his phylactery? He tricked me into this skull, but he really did make a contract to teach me. That’s why he didn’t destroy me after he took my body. He talked to me a lot while he performed rituals here. He mentioned that someday he’d help me make a phylactery of my own. He said I had a lot of learning to do and that a few decades in this skull would do me good. Oh, Victor, he gripped my soul and pulled me in here, and I felt like a child trying to wrestle a grown man when I fought back!”
“Alright, Thayla. You’re good now; I’ve got you. Did the asshole ever mention where this phylactery was? How can it help us? I’ve never heard of one.”
“It’s something he made, like a ... like a tether for his soul. It’s what gives him the ability to move his consciousness around. It holds a lot of his power. If we take control of it, we can force him to get out of my body, I’m sure of it.”
“Get the thing, confront the guy in your body, got it. So, where the fuck is it?”
“Belikot wasn’t meant to be here, Victor. He’s not part of the dungeon; he was adventuring here, trying to gain more knowledge of death magic. The lord of this dungeon beat him; only his undead status saved him, but his old body, the one carrying the phylactery, is still in the lord’s lair. I don’t know where that is, but I think it’s in this area.”
“What makes you think he didn’t already go and get it?”
“Shit, Gorz! I’m sorry—I should have told you Thayla’s spirit is in the skull. Belikot tricked her and took her body.”
“Oh, I see. She’s been speaking to you in your mind?”
“Right, which begs the question of why I didn’t ask you about any of this. Sorry, Gorz. By the way, what do you know about phylacteries?”
“Let me think,” Gorz said and paused for a moment, “I have a text in my memory that mentions the use of phylacteries in rituals to master various undead states of existence.”
“Nothing specific?”
“I’m afraid it wasn’t one of Reevus’s areas of interest, Victor. The text mentions phylacteries in the context of slaying a Lich—you must destroy the phylactery before you can kill the physical manifestation of the creature.”
“Right, so, if we get the phylactery, we should have a pretty good bargaining chip, right?”
“I would think so, yes.”
“Thanks, Gorz.”
“Victor, might I ask a rather ... intrusive question? Please answer me using only your mind.”
“What is it?”
“Have you considered that Thayla might still be acting on behalf of Belikot? Are you sure she or he or both of them are not using you to retrieve the phylactery for his benefit?”
“No, I didn’t think of that, Gorz! Fuck! I ... I guess I just want to trust her.”
“Understandable, Victor—she’s your friend. Still, I would caution you to be wary; a creature capable of creating a phylactery and using it to alter their nature is likely to be quite crafty and duplicitous.”
“You can read Energy signatures, Gorz. What are you picking up from the skull?”
“It’s definitely different from when you first encountered it, Victor. I believe Thayla is within, but that doesn’t mean Belikot doesn’t lurk nearby.”
“Alright, thanks. I’ll keep my eyes open.” Victor sighed heavily, wishing he could just take things at face value for a change, then he walked toward the bronze doors. They were large, each wide enough to allow four or five people to walk through side by side. Strangely they were barred from this side, with a heavy bronze-tipped wooden beam sitting sideways on thick metal brackets. Victor lifted the beam and tossed it to clatter against the wall to his left. He was tired of sneaking around, and the idea that Thayla might still be deceiving him had put him into a foul mood. If something lurked behind these doors, then it better get ready for a face full of axe.
He pulled at one of the big doors, and it opened with a creaking groan, releasing a heavy waft of stale, cold air. A stone ramp led away from the doors into a dusty, stone passage. It was just like any other stone corridors in this part of the dungeon but broader with a high ceiling. Victor started up the ramp, his agility boosted, Lifedrinker in front of him, and anticipating anything and everything.
He saw a wider part of the corridor about twenty meters ahead, and when he drew near, he saw that the broader, square section was lined with standing marble sarcophagi. When he stepped into the space between the first two sarcophagi, he wasn’t really surprised when the lids fell toward him, crashing against the stones and revealing their inhabitants—tall, emaciated ghoul-like corpses with leering, tooth-filled mouths and long, razor-edged black claws extending from their elongated fingers. In a domino-like fashion, the other sarcophagi started to open, their lids crashing to the ground, and before he knew it, Victor was surrounded by a throng of twenty hissing, snapping ghouls.
These creatures moved with more grace and intelligence than the horde he’d killed in the other part of the dungeon, and Victor clenched his jaw, backing up to keep them from surrounding him. He was frustrated, but not really because yet another group of monsters was challenging him. He was pissed off that Gorz had pointed out that he couldn’t trust Thayla, even in her seemingly desperate state. He wouldn’t feel good about her until she was back in her own body and Belikot was dead—really dead. The more he thought about it, watching the creatures slowly advance toward him, the more pissed he became, and he found it felt good just to be mad for a change. He allowed his teeth to show, bringing his lips back in a low growl that hinted at red, murderous violence.
Victor let go of his hold on his Core and flooded his pathways with rage-attuned Energy. He found that, with his much more powerful will, he didn’t immediately start to lose control of himself as he did way back in the days of the Wagon Wheel when he’d first tried to channel his Energy. No, he felt the fury and saw the red in his vision, but he was still too much in control. He didn’t want to be in control; he wanted the release of madness.
He growled again, hunching his broad shoulders, Lifedrinker held crossways in front of him, and used Sovereign Will to boost his strength. He swelled visibly, and a deep, angry laugh started to burble up from his throat as he cast Berserk. In the red haze of madness, Victor exulted in the release of pent-up aggression. He launched himself into the pack of tall, vicious ghouls, and Lifedrinker carved a silvery-edged blur of red destruction among the creatures.
Sometime later, Victor came back to himself. He was sitting on the stone floor, his back to the wall between two of the empty marble coffins. Hunks of gray fleshed ghoul parts were arrayed before him in a crazy scatter of gore and destruction. Lifedrinker was lying on the stone next to his leg, her haft scarred, battered, and drenched with black-red gore but still whole. He picked her up, dragging her toward him, the metal of her axehead grinding along the stone. Victor grunted as he hefted her up, and his eyes widened when he realized she’d changed.
Before, she’d been a large axe with a long beard, larger than you might use to chop a tree, but not much more so. Now, she was decidedly more warlike in appearance, still bearded, still not ridiculously large, but heavier, and her blunt end had grown to look more like a hammerhead than just the back of an axe. What’s more, extending back from her bright heartsilver edge, gleaming, silvery veins flowed like a permanent lightning strike through the black metal.
“Look at you, beautiful! Did you level up?” The axe vibrated in his hands, and he knew she was talking to him. With a wide grin, Victor stood up and rested her against his shoulder. “Don’t worry, gorgeous; I’ve got plans to get you plenty more to drink.”
Victor walked back to the center of the passageway, surveying his destruction. Ghoul corpses in various states of dismemberment littered the area. Some were smashed partway into the open sarcophagi. Some were piled up like he’d stopped moving for a while and simply hacked them apart as they came upon him. Tired of breathing the wet, putrid stench, Victor looked away and started walking along the corridor again. A short while later, he came upon another set of doors. These were also barred from the near side.
When he drew near, Gorz spoke up in his mind, “Victor! I sense a powerful death-Energy source behind those doors. It’s stronger even than the ghoul champion you faced.”
