Back in Borris' weapon and armor shop, Aria was still engaged in conversation with the old dwarf when suddenly the ground shook. The quake was so strong that Aria and Borris lost their balance, and the weapons and equipment from the display fell to the floor.
Algar, who was upstairs, ran down the stairs in a terrified voice, trembling as he held onto the stair railings. "Wha-what's going on?" he asked.
Aria felt goosebumps and instinctively went outside. People were running frantically in every direction, some seeking shelter. But her gaze drifted to the sky and she saw it darken, a tornado forming in a certain place far from them.
The quake finally stopped, and Borris stepped outside. "That's where Elmaris - the Blighted Town is," Borris exclaimed as he took off his eye loupe to get a better look at the phenomenon in the sky.
Aria looked at Borris in complete aghast. Without thinking, she ran, planning to go where Dorothy was. "Wait!" Borris shouted, gripping Aria's wrist before she could get herself killed. "That town is dangerous if you go alone!" He pleaded with Aria, hoping she would listen. But as he locked eyes with her, he could see her unwavering determination.
"Fine, at least take this with you." Borris rummaged through one of the boxes in the shop. "Use this, lassie!" He handed Aria a bird-shaped mask. "I trust you know how to use this. Dorothy puts a special herb inside to nullify the effects of the miasma." Borris explained, handing Aria the mask.
Aria thanked the old dwarf blacksmith as she ran towards the Blighted Town. When she was no longer in view, Borris headed towards the Adventurer's Guild. "Where are you going, old man!?" Algar shouted from just outside the shop.
Without stopping or turning his head, Borris answered Algar, "To make a request."
In the dungeon, Balsathor, the demon, confronts Dorothy and her party. This name is known to any seasoned adventurer, as it once wreaked havoc and invaded the elven land years ago.
However, a question nags at Dorothy's mind. Despite the reports depicting a different appearance, the demon appears slender with short black curled hair. Most importantly, this demon was supposedly slain by the hero. How could it possibly be alive?
Ruda, recognizing the name, turns to Dorothy and asks, "Balsathor, isn't that the name of a demon general?" Dorothy, gazing at the demon, responds, "The Demon Colossus." Their conversation is cut short when the demon speaks. "Who dies first?" His yellow gleaming eyes scan the adventurers as he floats with crossed arms. Dorothy and her comrades ready themselves for the inevitable fight.
The demon's wings flap as he moves towards Dorothy, moving past the mountain of agent corpses and descending just a few feet from her. He locks eyes with Dorothy and smiles. "You look delicious," he snarls, showing his sharp teeth as he licks his lips, finding Dorothy especially delectable.
In a flash, Iris' spear shoots towards the demon, launching him a few paces away. He stops, examining the spear stuck in his right chest. Iris is surprised to see her spear didn't penetrate but only got lodged between the demon's scales, leaving no dent or hint of damage on his body.
The demon removes the spear and examines it. In an instant, he throws the spear back, aiming straight at Iris. It moves so fast that Iris only manages to dodge in the nick of time, the spear just scraping her left cheek. The spear continues to fly straight, hitting and demolishing a wall. Iris looks back to see smoke and dust as the wall crumbles, a testament to the strength of the entity before them.
"Pathetic," the demon Balsathor expresses, showing his disappointment at their attempt to attack him. "Livestock will always be livestock," he adds as he walks slowly towards Dorothy and her party.
"Get ready!" Dorothy shouts as she aims her mini crossbow at the demon. Julia quickly casts a spell called "Ironskin" on her party. Ruda reveals her weapon, a collapsible large mechanical hammer that she designed. Iris opens her palm as she calls her magic spear back to her grasp.
Unfazed by their courage, the demon Balsathor flies straight towards them with a wicked smile, signaling the beginning of the fight. Dorothy aims at the demon, providing support as Iris and Ruda intercept him. The sound of clashing is heard as Iris relentlessly attacks Balsathor with agile strikes, but each strike is deflected with ease by Balsathor's long fingernails.
Ruda attacks him head-on, bringing down her huge hammer over him, but he defends the blow with his other arm. "I'm not done!" Ruda exclaims as she presses a button on the hammer's shaft. Suddenly, fire bursts from the opposite side of the hammer, increasing its velocity and force. This surprises Balsathor a bit as it cracks the floor beneath him due to the hammer's explosive force.
But it's not over as Dorothy shoots her holy bolts, impaling him in the chest. He grunts as he feels the damage, the holy fire spreading across his torso. Julia casts "Strength" to Ruda and "Agility" to Iris. With her speed doubled, Iris seizes the opportunity to release her beast form. She steps back a few paces and howls, releasing her beast blood. Her face slowly transforms into that of a wolf, her body covered in silver fur.
With her strength and speed exponentially increased, she throws her magic spear with all her might. She threw it so fast that lightning manifested as it hit Balsathor, and the force was so strong that it threw him far across the area. The sound of thunder is heard, followed by a huge explosion.
Dorothy and her party cautiously observe as the smoke and dust settle. Balsathor fell on the floor, but regretfully, his chest is covered in rocks, protecting him from the blow of the spear, just inches away from his heart. Iris knew it took more than that to kill the demon, so she called back her magic spear, but it won't budge as Balsathor held it firmly. The spear vibrates as it tries to move. Iris tries to concentrate harder to call back the spear to no avail. Finally, having his amusement, Balsathor releases the spear, and it returns back to Iris' grasp.
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Balsathor stood up and then the ground shakes, rocks and minerals in the area converge around Balsathor, transforming him into a colossal rock monster—a golem. Dorothy and her party are stunned by the towering sight before them. The golem, composed entirely of rocks and minerals, stands twenty feet tall. Without hesitation, the golem launches an attack, attempting to strike them all down with a single punch. The ground quakes under the sheer force of the blow, and smoke fills the air, obliterating the brick-layered floor. Fortunately, Julia casts "Slow" on the Golem's attack, giving Dorothy and her party time to evade the attack just barely.
Without any time to panic, Dorothy hurls a vial filled with acid - an acid bomb - which shatters upon impact on the golem's arm, melting it. Seeing the effectiveness of the attack, she throws more vials. However, the golem refuses to let her have her way and tries to stomp Dorothy, trampling anything that would be caught in the attack. To its surprise, the attack is halted midway as Iris, in her true beastman form, stops the attack barehanded by intercepting the stomp. With Julia's help, Iris gained more strength with her enchantment, but she strains and grunts as she exerts tremendous force. Even so, the counterattack is still not over. Ruda swiftly runs along the golem's other arm, jumps high into the air, and revs her mechanical hammer. Utilizing Julia's spell "Strength", coupled with the gravity, and the propelling force from the opposite side of the hammer, she slams it straight into the golem's head, shattering it into countless pieces.
As the golem loses it's head, it collapses on the ground with smoke and dust covering the whole area. The Demon General Balsathor is now burried in the rubble of his own making. But somehow, they couldn’t help but think that the demon general was not that much of a threat. After a few moments of inaction, Dorothy and her party regroups and gives a collective sigh, a moment of relief as they remain vigilant, afterall this was a demon general. "That was.... anticlimactic." Julia confesses as she inspects at the pile of rocks. "What do you expect? A couple of silver ranked adventurers should be able to make quick work of a demon general or two." Ruda boasts, proud of herself. Julia gives Ruda a disapproving look and says, "Seriously?"
Dorothy takes a closer look at the statue of the goddess. Upon closer inspection, the difference is apparent. It seems more malevolent. Its eyes seem like they want to take her soul. There is no mistake, this is the statue of the dark goddess! "I hear someone!" Iris warns the group as she hears faint footsteps coming towards them. In an instant, they ready themselves. Out of the shadows, an old elf woman with long blonde hair, tall and thin, with wrinkly skin, long fingernails, and wearing tattered robes emerges. But the most peculiar feature of all is the disturbing, seemingly self-inflicted wounds found on her face and body.
"What have you done?" her voice crackles, coarse but sinister. "The goddess demands blood!" the old elf woman commands. She cackles to herself as she sees the dead agents of the dark goddess. "Are you the one responsible for what happened to the town of Elmaris?" Dorothy inquires, readying her weapon as she eagerly waits for her to acknowledge. "Oh hooh hooh, not I, no no no no," the old elf replies as she denies the accusation. "I am but a humble servant to her holiness," the old elf says as she moves closer to the statue. She touches it and stares at Dorothy in the eyes. "Her holiness' will shall be done." She kneels at the bottom of the statue and kisses the dark goddess's feet.
"Let's just ignore her, I mean look at her, she's crazy!" Julia suggests, bewildered by the old woman's actions. Julia looks at Iris and Ruda, and they just shrug, letting Dorothy handle it. But Dorothy is getting impatient as she pulls the old elf by the collar and commands, "Release the blight! Or you will meet the same fate as your comrades." Dorothy's eyes are full of rage as she needs answers and the cure now.
The old woman laughed in Dorothy's face. "A lifetime ago, I wouldn't allow myself to be treated like this, much less by an impure breed such as yourself," the old woman spoke, her speech pattern changing. She took out a red orb from her robe. Dorothy became bewildered by the old elf's words and let her go. Dorothy stared into the old elf woman's blue eyes, sensing a familiarity. She examined her clothes and saw the symbol of the Royal Court Mage of the Kingdom of Sylvenspire etched on her robe. "The Royal Court Mage of Sylvenspire," Dorothy uttered as she remembered what it looked like. "What are you doing here? Is Queen Elbereth connected to what happened to the town? Answer me!" Dorothy shouted at the old elf woman. "Elbereth? No, no, no, no! Oh no! My Queen, what have I done? No, no, no. I SERVE ONLY THE GODDESS!" The old woman shouted as she scratched her face. "Kill them! KILL THEM ALL!" the old elf woman added as she pointed at Dorothy and her companions with her long fingernails. The red orb in her hand glowed brightly.
All of a sudden, the ground shakes hard. The Demon General, Balsathor, rises up from the rubble. The stone around the area gathers towards him as he grows in size exponentially. Dorothy and her party huddle as they try to protect themselves from flying debris. The walls, the ceiling, every stone and rock in the dungeon gather and connect to him. "Come closer to me!" Ruda shouts as the powerful wind is deafening, like a powerful storm. Ruda throws a box below them and then in an instant, an Iron dome covers them, protecting them from the debris. The dome drills spikes deep into the ground that serve as a bracer and a foundation for the dome. Even inside, they feel the impact of each piece of debris that collides with the dome, sometimes denting it. Worried, Julia touches the Iron dome and casts "Iron skin," amplifying the dome's strength. After a few more minutes, the noise and banging stops.
"Is it safe now?" Julia asks, putting her ears on the dome, hoping to hear anything. "Why isn't there a hole in this thing? We should at least be able to see what's outside," Julia remarks at Ruda's invention. But Ruda just ignores Julia's remark. "Iris, is it safe?" Ruda asks Iris, whose senses are much more keen than normal. "I can't hear anything either," Iris regretfully responds. "Just release it, Ruda," Dorothy finally orders, making all of them agree to her decision. Ruda then releases the Dome barrier with just a button.
As they stepped out of the dome, they realized they were already outside the town, the dungeon reduced to nothing and dusk had fallen. But it was peculiar because they thought they were deep undergound this whole time. "Well, it looks like we're out of danger for now," Julia remarked as she leaned against a stone pillar, seeing nothing to worry about. But as she turned around, she noticed her comrades' pale complexions. They were all staring at something above. Julia followed their gaze and to her horror, her face drained of color when she saw the colossal two hundred-foot golem standing right in front of them.