“What was that?” Gehman asked. I quickly glanced down to the corner of my vision and saw small icon of a flexing arm holding a sword.

Blessing of the Valkyrie—Places a blessing on a player that increases all their stats by 10% for 1 hour.

“She buffed us,” I said with a smile, peering through the darkness in the direction Anwi had gone. “She must be playing some kind of Paladin build or something.”

“Did you see that sword?” Gehman asked. “I’ve never seen anything like it! Wish I could get it back to the shop.”

“I don’t think she’d be too keen on you messing with it,” Kodiak said grimly. “She doesn’t seem to be the kind to let other people help her.”

“If only she’d have listened to me,” I said sadly.

“It wouldn’t matter if she did,” Kodiak remarked. “She’s on her way to Sheol, with absolutely no idea where this Hectar guy is. What were we supposed to do, just roam around the world with her until she found him?”

I sighed and leaned back against the cold stone of the crypt. I knew the headstones in front of me were not those of real people and were merely a piece of the world created by the developers, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of all the friends I’d lost in Carrethen.

“This is…this is all really bad,” I muttered miserably to myself. “You know—it’s more than likely that Jack is dead.”

“I don’t think…” Gehman started to reply, but his voice trailed off. I turned to face him. “If the Fallen God—Rayne, has found a way to kill the Sunken, then…there’s a chance, right?”

“Jack can take care of himself,” Gehman replied. “I mean, he was a complete badass, remember?”

I smiled. “Of course I do. But you haven’t seen him, right? I mean—what if he’s stuck in Sheol with all of those players going Sunken!?”

“Then he’s not dead,” Kodiak replied. “Rayne can’t get in there. Not while the Lord of the Flame guards the entrance.”

“Okay, so what if he was Unchained?” I asked, growing more and more panicked as I went on. “What if he died out there like Gehman, and Rayne and her guild found him and—”

“Stop it,” Kodiak said firmly, taking my hand. “You’re only going to drive yourself crazy. There’s no way of knowing what happened to your friend. The best we can do is find you some gear, get Gehman some levels and keep searching.”

I took a breath. He was right. I knew he was right, and it was a completely uncharacteristic display of emotion for me—at least in a video game.

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“We need to find some loot,” I said. “You know—I haven’t even checked out these daggers you made for me.”

I inspected them.

Pristine Double Daggers—Damage 415-480. Piercing.

“Hmmm,” I mumbled, a little disappointed. They were better than nothing, but barely better than Jack’s Executioner’s Blade after Gehman had upgraded it. For a level 126, it was severely underpowered.

“They were the best I could at at this level,” Gehman said sadly, kicking a stone at his feet.

“I’m sorry, Gehman,” I said quickly, turning to him with a smile. “They’re fine. They’re great! If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have had anything at all.”

His face lit up slightly at that, but I still couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for the guy. He’d died so early on in Carrethen that he’d never even got started. Then, he’d been stuck in the Dark World, dying over and over, losing himself more and more each time. I’d saved him, and he wanted to help, but at level 24, how much was there really he could do?

“Okay,” I said with determination. “I need gear. Gehman needs levels. This place is empty. We need a plan.”

“There’s a canyon about a half an hour walk from here,” Kodiak suggested. “Rock Golems and Stone Lizards.”

“Do they drop anything I could use?”

Kodiak shook his head. “Not really.”

“Ugh,” I groaned, looking up at the sky. The rain had slowed slightly, turning into more of a mist. My eyes searched the trees for a Skeleton spawn or some kind of monster we could fight, but the forest was dead. Apparently spawns were broken in the Dark World too.

Some backup, Wintermute.

But as I gazed out through the mist, the blackness and the trees, something caught my eye.

A light, soft and almost imperceptible, but a light nonetheless. I raised my hand and pointed.

“What’s that?” I asked.

Kodiak stepped up quickly to my side and peered out through the mist. “I don’t know,” he said cautiously. “Another bonfire?”

“I don’t think so,” I said slowly. “It looks like it’s in something. A window maybe. Is there a castle up that way?”

“Not that I know of,” Kodiak replied. “But I’ve never really been past the woods in that direction.”

“Well, it’s better than staying here,” I shrugged. “Come on. Let’s check it out. Gehman, stay between us. I don’t want you getting one-shotted.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gehman grumbled.

I led the way through the woods, my Pristine Double Daggers at the ready. But the forest was dead. There weren’t even any in-game sounds as we progressed. Everything felt unnatural. The silence hung over us like a constant threat of danger, and I couldn’t help but feel as though we were walking into a trap.

We left the gravestones behind us, and eventually, the trees began to thin out and the terrain turned rocky. Twisted roots clung to rocks and boulders, and skeletal trunks protruded from the stony ground at our feet. It was like a once great forest, now hollow and petrified. The lack of anything living simply added to its chill. I ducked under a fallen tree in front of me, and when I came out on the other side, I saw the source of the light.

“There,” I said, stepping up onto a fallen tree trunk. I raised my hand and pointed to a ruined stone castle that lay ahead of us atop a rocky peak. On one side, was an enormous cliff that dropped off into a chasm below, and the entire castle seemed to be leaning towards it. It looked like the slightest breeze would be enough to topple it. And in the top window of the single high tower, was the flickering light.

Gehman stepped up beside me. “Chilgrave Castle.”