Another short chapter and a day late at that. I've just been busy and my normal schedule has been disrupted by stuff. I promise the next few chapters will be bigger, better, and they will have EXPLOSIONS! Okay, probably no explosions, but they will be long, and I will be putting every single ounce of effort into my work to make them some of the best chapters yet. Well, I'm going to try. Please enjoy?

Chapter 19: In the Dark

Frost kept a hand on the center pillar of the spiral staircase as he felt his way along using his feet in the pitch black space. The tunnels had been lit by torches, but the stairwell was devoid of any light. Luckily there weren't that many steps, and he soon reached the bottom landing. There was a portal there, similar to the other ones that littered the area he was in, but it was a pale blue when other portals tended towards the more earthly greens and browns of the areas they led to.

Frost drew his sword and stepped through the portal, prepared in mind and body for something to attack him. Instead, what he saw before him was a small room with a desk and multiple bookshelves, as if it was someone's personal study or perhaps library. It was lit by the same luminescent stones that lit up the large pool of water upstairs. The glowing stones were encased in cages of silver wire, decoratively crafted and beautifully displayed to light the room. Despite the impressive display of workmanship on the lighting, Frost was a bit disappointed by the room's apparent lack of anything life threatening.

The room had nothing but books and dust as far as he could tell. Frost sheathed his sword as he shuffled his feet over to one of those bookcases and started to read the first page of the book without even bothering to look at the title. It seemed to be a book describing the lore of items and valuables in dungeons and places where monsters congregated. The book was interesting but it had no impact on him or anything he was doing in the game. The book seemed to be much longer than the typical few pages a game book usually had.

There are of course, some of the normal ways in which magic items find their way into dungeons. Some are there due to the nature of them being in a location where civilization once thrived. These ruins often contain treasures that once were common, but are now found to be quite mystical and rare. Then, there are monsters with intelligence enough to gather items that the sentient, civilized races covet. However, there is another reason that magical items and things of value can be found in dungeons and deadly caves. The jealous ones, evil spirits with a hatred against humanity and similar races collect the items and bring them to places dangerous to those who seek them, in envy of the living.

Frost grunted and carefully placed the book back in its place on the shelf as he scanned the room for something a little more...something. He turned to the desk, figuring that there must be something there if there was nothing special about the books. He slid open one of the drawers on the side of the desk and found the last thing he expected to see in there. More books. He grimaced as he pulled the three books out of their place, shaking the dust off and putting them on the desk. He slid the chair out from under the desk, leaving trails in the dust. He sat down, feeling the chair bend and hearing it creak as his weight settled into it.

The books read "Legacy of Braun", "Silas Silverian", and "The Curse of Virufex". They all had the same leathery cover reinforced with a thin piece of wood sewn into the cover on each side of the book. Upon peeking into the books, he could tell that they were each carefully hand written by the same person. "Silas Silverian" caught his attention because it was half the size of the others, and the name was on all of the books as the author. He blew away some of the dust on the desk and slid the book in front of him, flipping through the pages. 

The book seemed to be a journal, keeping a record of Silas's life, and all the important events of it. He seemed to have lived a normal life as the average mage, marrying young and having children. Frost scanned the contents quickly, searching for something more than information about the man's private life. In the later years of the man's life, he started working on some kind of magic experiment and developed a new type of magic after a long time and a great deal of effort. Frost skipped to the end of the journal to read the last page only to have his heart skip a beat when he saw the last entry. It was dated that day according to the calendar of the game world, and the words were creeping him out.

Frost Winterstorm pulled the journal out of the drawer, dusting it off and setting it on Silas's desk, the dust falling off in clumps that broke apart as they tumbled to the floor.'  The book described everything he did after he picked up the journal, continuing on to say even what he was doing. As Frost continued to read the words that seemed to write themselves, he sunk deeper into the book, until he was in a a place so secret that it was hidden from even the gods' view. He looked up, realizing that he was somewhere else as the book begin to fade from view. He grabbed at the book, but his hand went through it and it stopped existing a moment later.

The place Frost was in was a small, grass covered piece of land surrounded by endless white fields and somehow gave the feeling of standing on a cliff. There was a man standing on the edge of that invisible cliff, his back turned, and his hands clasped behind him. He looked old, at the end of his life as he stood there looking off into nothingness.

"Not too impressive, is it? This was as big as I could make it and still escape the gods' sight."

Frost silently stared at the man a full minute before responding. "You're Silas Silverian, aren't you."

"Yes. No. I am merely a whisper of him."

"There's something you want to say. A reason you're still here."

"Correct."

"What could be so important that it has to be hidden from the gods?"

"They're here in physical form, roaming their own lands in search of the truth."

"The gods?"

The old man laughed. "I don't give a rat's ass about the gods and their plans for this world, but I wanted to avoid them knowing something that could tear everything apart. Knowledge is the most powerful weapon someone can wield, don't you think? Sometimes, it can be volatile, though, and if that weapon is given to the wrong person, it can explode in your face."

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"Are you saying that I need to be tested to see if I can handle what you have to say?"

"Wrong. You hold the weapon and they shouldn't have given that knowledge to you, boy. Did they think it would give you an edge? Did they think it would help you win? How foolish were they to think that I would not see the signs? I gave careful instructions, rules that were not meant to be broken!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You!" The white was replaced by thunderclouds in an instant as the man turned around. He had a demonic visage that became all the more frightening as he grew in size, taking up most of the space on the island. "You of all people should know that this isn't just a game, after what they told you."

"I don't know what you're saying!"

"Lies! Don't play with me! Did you think you were safe because you're inside a game, because the helmet was safe?." The man stood up to his full height, becoming two stories tall as he looked down on Frost and spoke menacingly. "I can kill you in a hundred different ways, you know.The real you. No do overs and no respawn."

"What the fuck are you!" Frost had a growing sense of trepidation that only became worse as the giant spoke. He didn't understand what the man was saying, or why he knew about information that ruined immersion. He was getting tired of the bad writing.

"I can also keep you here, torturing your mind for daring to go against what I wanted. You know what I am, don't you, Reid? Does that get through to you? If I say your real name, you should realize what this is about. Get on your knees and beg for forgiveness until I am satisfied. Then, you will quit the game and never return, in which case I may decide to spare your miserable human life. You know what I am, now do as I say."

"Yeah, I think I understand now." Frost whipped his sword out of its scabbard, holding it steadily in front of him. "You're supposed to make me afraid of you, and it might have worked if you were anything more than a nightmare. You have access to my information from my account, but this was all a bit too convoluted and confusing. Don't ruin the immersion. You need a better writer!" He jumped forward and slashed at the man, only to be blinded as the giant turned into dust. When Frost could see again, he was in the same place as before, on the island, ten feet away from a man with his back turned and hands clasped behind him.

"You're probably wondering why someone would go through the effort of hiding something from the gods, if you even know how much effort that takes." The old man spoke as if they hadn't already met. "I don't know who you are, or if any of this still matters, but I had to try. Know that I'm not hiding this from all gods, just the one. Thomas Duin, the one known as the Demon Lord. I too was part of their curse, and I was unable to speak about him or his minions while I was alive. So, with my last breath, I created this image of myself so that whoever you are, you could know the truth, and maybe do something to stop what is coming. Maybe it's already happened..."

Frost was impatient after that strange illusion. "Stop beating around the bush," he growled as he put his sword away.

"I'll get to the point. Virufex is returning, and he plans to follow in the footsteps of his god. I don't know when or how, but I do know he isn't dead like everyone thought. He will burn this world, and he won't make the same mistake his master did. He doesn't plan to leave anything standing when he's done."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"I can't offer you any assistance in that regard, but I can do one thing, and it has already been done. Since you are here, you have gained the magic that I spent over a decade creating. You won't be able to control it, so every time you read one of my enchanted books, you will fall into it whether you want to or not if the conditions are correct, so be careful. As you probably know, there are two other books in the drawer that you now have the ability to fall into. I recommend that you don't read "Legacy of Braun" until you are extremely powerful, because it won't help you anyway."

The old man turned to face Frost, a sad look on his wizened old face. "I don't know how you found my journal, but if you are someone with a good heart, there are only two ways that I can imagine. Either way, you must read "The Curse of Virufex" to find the truth. You must be so frustrated with me for being vague and unhelpful. I don't know what you were expecting to find when you opened my journal, but it probably wasn't this. I have nothing for you of any value, so leave if you are a treasure hunter. However, if you want to do some good in this world, read that book."

As the world around him began to fade, Frost felt disappointed in everything the room and the books had to offer, having expected much more. He had an idea of what he would find in that other book, so all of this had been a waste of his time. He blinked, reappearing in the office and springing to his feet, causing the chair to topple over. He stomped away from the desk, intending to leave the room, but something caused him to look back. He returned to the desk and began reading about the curse. 

The illusion placed on Seraya and the fairies was a powerful curse placed on them by servants of Virufex. The servants wanted to kill them all outright, but they were unable to do so. Instead they planned to trick adventurers into fighting "demons" so that other people would do their murderous work for them. The book detailed some of the ways that the curse could be broken for individual people, but only Seraya knew the way to completely break the curse. Wait. Seraya knew how to end the curse, but she did nothing? What the hell was that about?

Frost put the three books in his bag and skimmed the shelves, picking out any of the books that seemed promising and putting them in his bag. He grabbed a silver, spherical cage holding some of the glowing stones and yanked its chain from the ceiling where it hung. He used it to light his way up the stairs as he headed back to the main room of the fairy dwelling. Frost felt that he was more in the dark than ever and so Seraya had some questions to answer.