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The hobgoblin looked around expecting an attack, but there was nothing and when he had Looked back towards the girl she had disappeared.
He began to curse and shout destroying the pillars and anything in his path, he was frenzied swinging his maul at thin air in the hopes of hitting the girl.
"HOW DARE YOU RUN FROM ME!"(???)
In his full rage he would have never been beaten by the children, but it was due to the anger which clouded his vision that Anastasia could escape out of the large door unseen.
"I WILL CRUSH YOUR VERY SOULS! KEHKEHKEH"(???)
It was too late she had already escaped his clutches. And was now standing in a large, long hall with only the small area she stood lit, by her sides were two oversized braziers at either side of the door, and ahead was darkness.
"Oh thank goodness, you made it out"(???)
"Bit of warning next time, okay?"(Anastasia)
She recognized the voice almost instantaneously, it was Damien.
"If I warned you it wouldn't have worked"(Damien)
"But wait, how did you get out?"(Anastasia)
"Magic?"(Damien)
"..."(Anastasia)
"Well...eh..more specifically Illusions"(Damien)
She didn't look best pleased.
"So instead of saving me, you saved yourself hoping that I noticed that you were still in the room and run?"(Anastasia)
"That about sums it up"(Damien)
She rolled her eyes realizing that was the best response she was going to get.
"Well where are we now?"(Anastasia)
The moment she said that some of the fire within the braziers leaped forward into another, which then set alight, this continued revealing the hall bit by bit as the fire made it's way from one to another down the length of the hall . It had statues of people and animals behind each brazier and they all looked different, some wore armour and others robes, all had a different pet. It was the last two statues which peaked their interest the most, the one on the left was a man in full plate armour with large horns on his helmet, he wielded a longsword and tower shield with a pet dragon by his side, at the base of his statue An engraving read "Titus, king of dragons, slayer of gods and hero to all which is unholy". The other statue was of a female wearing robes and holding a spear, by her side was a phoenix and her engraving read "Saint Anise, protector of light, child of rebirth and deity to those who are holy."
The children admired the statues before looking ahead to be met by a set of steps, they looked at one another before ascending, and at the top was a gilded alter which held two spheres one an orb of brilliant white and another a void of black, in-between was a scroll.
The children stepped forward to read the scroll.
"The Ancients built a world in two halves - light and dark, life and death. The gods worked to keep a balance of power. When they were balanced, there was harmony in the world. When they were unbalanced there was chaos. In this world, there is no absolute good, no absolute evil, Good and evil are not fixed stable entities, but are continually switching places. The most important thing is to maintain the balance between the constantly moving good and evil. If you lean too much in either direction, it becomes difficult to maintain. Indeed, balance itself is the good."
They were completely confused by what was on the scroll. But then... the two orbs began to glow and lifted up off of the altar they then began emanating bright lights, when the lights had faded two objects had appeared, from the white orb a white grimoire with intricate patterns and gold pages, from the other was a scythe with a curved blade as dark as twilight with runes engraved on the handle.
Damien was drawn towards the book just as Anastasia was drawn to the scythe.
They picked up the weapons watching them change yet again, the grimoire now had a glowing arcane circle made up of lines and runes on the cover, and the runes on the scythe's handle had rearranged themselves and began to glow. *ding* *ding*
*Damien Gains*
Vessel of the Holy LightA grimoire belonging to one of the high seraphs.
When in the possession of a child of Vitae the user is granted the title of "Champion of light".
The grimoire allows the user to use an ancient magic known as "Arcane Creation".
The tome also boosts the user's will and intelligence.
Title"Champion of Light"
As a representative of Vitae you gain a 30 boost to will, intelligence and magic resistance
Craft Unlocked"Arcane Creation"
An ancient art of writing spell incantations and arcane circles
*Anastasia Gains*
Whisper of Eternal DamnationCreated by the god of death to banish the grim reaper.
When in the possession of a child of Mortem the user is granted the title of "Champion of death".
The scythe allows the user to use a lost art of crafting known as "Runic Forging".
The scythe also boosts the user's strength and agility by 30.
Title"Champion of Darkness"
As a representative of Mortem you gain a 30 boost to strength, speed and agility
Craft Unlocked"Runic Forging"
An lost skill of creating mana infused weapons and armour
Crrrrack. The two statues in which the children were interested in had broken free from the plinth where they previously stood.
"Child of light and child of dark"(statue #1)
"You have the power to change the balance of this world"(statue #2)
"And You will only ever become stronger, and therefore more likely to cause unbalance"(statue #1)
"You have the responsibility to fix the catastrophes we left behind"(statue #2)
The children looked up at the monolithic stone constructs.
"What do we do?"(Damien)
"Become one with the power you share"(statue #1)
"You will be the last champions to ever enter these halls"(statue #2)
"Therefore you are the last hope of this world ever being in balance"(statue #1)
And at that all the statues within the room crumbled to dust, then the room itself began to shake.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Damien grabbed the scroll, and suddenly the children found themselves in a marshlike environment.
"Is this still the dungeon?"(Damien)
"I would assume so, that's not natural light above us"(Anastasia)
"So what do we do now?"(Damien)
"I don't know about you but I ain't gonna spend my life fixing other's mistakes and problems"(Anastasia)
She began to look around her environment trying to get away from the conversation.
"What, do you think you could live a normal life with the power you now have!"(Damien)
"We couldn't even defeat an oversized orange goblin, never mind save the world from destruction"(Anastasia)
"So what will you do?"(Damien)
"Spend my life the way I want to, and be who I want to"(Anastasia)
She sliced a tree in half out of frustration.
"Let's just find a way out of here"(Anastasia)
That was the last either of them spoke for a while, as they were walking Anastasia was spinning her scythe, stopping only occasionally to slice a tree in half, it was weird it was as if she had trained with it her whole life, she was highly proficient with the weapon like it was made just for her. Meanwhile Damien was walking with the grimoire levitating just ahead of him, every so often he would hold out his hand and runes from the pages would be drawn out from the tome, forming arcane arrangements in the shape of circles within the air. Most of the pages were blank but a couple held some minor offensive and defensive incantations, these were different from skills as the incantations are sequences of words which must be said in the presence of a arcane circle.
The silence persisted, well at least until they were attacked by a couple of spriggans.
Spriggans are malevolent nature spirits appearing as glowing, green humanoid females made mostly of wood. They can restore their health by sinking their roots into the earth, and can call various animals to aid them in battle, even normally non-hostile creatures such as foxes and deer. Spriggans can be an unwanted surprise in seemingly peaceful marshes and forests as they can blend in with the foliage, then attack when you pass them. Some even seem to inhabit the trunks of trees, stepping from within them when one comes too close.
Spriggans have close roots to nature and will hunt down those who desecrate the lands in which they live, for example when little girls cut down their trees with a large scythe.
The children jumped back in surprise, as large roots pierced the ground below them Anastasia dashed forward attempting to slice the never-ending roots.
Damien's book had risen into the air and an arcane circle was constructed in front of it, he began to chant.
"ignis solis, catino terrae, accendat flammam ira mea et in ipso conburetis eos qui contradicunt arguere me"(Damien)
[Fire of the sun, crucible of the earth, ignite my anger and burn those who oppose me]
The circle began to glow and rotate. And the circle shattered.
"What? It should of worked!"(Damien)
Moments later the ground below the spriggans turned red, beginning to bubble, when suddenly a pillar of fire rose from the ground, bursting into the clouds before disappearing. And where the spriggans once stood was a charred hole filled with ashes.
Level Up x 2
20 new attribute points available
He looked at the page which held the spell he used, but it was no longer there.
He looked at the spine of the book now realizing what the inscription meant. It said "destruction breeds creation, when something falls apart it leaves room for a new beginning" Damien realized that any spell in this book could only be used once after that it would have to be replaced or rewritten.
"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?"(Anastasia)
"It was an incantation within my grimoire"(Damien)
"Do it again?"(Anastasia)
"I can't"(Damien)
Anastasia looked puzzled.
"Why?"(Anastasia)
"I can only use each spell once, after that i would have to rewrite it"(Damien)
"Can't you just make the circle thingy and say the funny words?"(Anastasia)
"The book makes the circles, I simply draw them out"(Damien)
Anastasia stood there scratching her head.
"Don't worry I'll learn to wri..."(Damien)
The conversation was cut short, the ground began to shake and a large root appeared. The root changed form into a beautiful woman in her early 20s she was tall and slender with long black wispy hair which was down to chest height, she was wearing no clothes instead she had vines growing up her legs with a small leaf covering her.
"Why do you kill my children surface dwellers?"(???)
She was crying as she spoke.
"They attacked us first, strange root woman"(Anastasia)
"Is that so?"(???)
In her hand the woman held a sphere of murky water, when it cleared it showed Anastasia cutting a tree in half with her scythe.
"Every tree you cut, hurt my poor children"(???)
She moved closer to Anastasia.
"If you don't back off, I'LL CUT DOWN EVERY TREE IN THIS GOD FORSAKEN MARSH! THEN I'LL CUT YOU DOWN!"(Anastasia)
The woman was consumed by an absolute rage.
"HOW DARE YOU THREATEN ME AND MY CHILDREN, I AM THE LADY OF THE MARSH, AND YOU CHILD SHALL BEG FOR MERCY AT MY ROOTS!"(Lady of the marsh)
Damien was unable to talk witnessing the pure killing intent released by these two.
Anastasia smirked before her blade began to glow emanating what could only be described as death,
She sliced towards the trees at her left side, an arc of black launched cutting down a large section of forest.
The woman fell to her knees, In her intense silence she somehow screamed with her whole body. The eyes wide with horror, the mouth ridged and open, her chalky face gaunt and immobile, the fists clenched with blanched knuckles and the nails dug deeply into the palms of her hands.
"J...JUS...JUST...DIEEEEEEEEE!"(Lady of the marsh)
The woman flew into a blind fury at Anastasia. She launched herself forward, bellowing in anger like the wounded bear she resembled.
Anastasia's scythe and title gave her a tremendous amount of speed and strength, allowing her to parry and return the attack of the demon which pursued her.
The pace at which the battle unfolded made it certain that Damien could not interfere, due to the chance of hitting Ana, all he could do was stand by watching the flurry of attack after attack with only the lesser ones landing, and even they were barely noticeable to the two battling monsters.
Then Damien had an idea a way to end this, the grimoire's pages turned at an immeasurable pace, before finally coming to a rest, stopping on a page which read...