Notes from the demon king, page 421:
I call upon you once again to take away my work.
I submit to you one more name to write down in your ledger.
I wait for you within a hood of shadows and of murk,
to take this sorry soul to a place much worse or better.
I know one day you'll come for me, and I am not afraid,
for I have allowed so many to feel the cold chill of your gaze.
And for that crime, our bargain done, I know where I be laid.
Your chill will be the last of cold before the fire’s blaze.
I think you do adore my work.
You take them every turn.
I am their fate, I will not shirk
the duty I decern.
Judged by Gods and men alike but your ruling lone concern.
I'll see you soon my dear old friend, and that day I will burn.
An executioner’s note to death, by DK
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The final hall of the dungeon was long and foreboding.
Dim and formed of dark red gemstone, it told Kenn a story of threat and death.
All he could hear where the click of the hardened bottoms of their boots against the floor.
The party walked in silence.
Kenn’s heart thudding against his chest. So hard he would swear it was audible.
Something about this place…
It made his hair stand on end and sweat bead on his forehead.
It was only when they came to the door, formed of white quarts branching with veins of onyx towering above their heads, that Hailey broke the silence, “We’re being watched.”
That statement made Kenn shudder. But the only way forward was through so with a heave the party pushed the door open.
The room was huge, about the size of a baseball field, and was designed like a stadium.
The walls were made of white stone with pillars of quarts connecting the ceiling to the floor, which was a checker patterned tile alternating black and red.
What really caught the collective eye was the humongous prismatic crystal spearing out of the center of the chamber, about feet tall and still not even close to scratching the ceiling, and the smaller crystals scattered around its base.
Kenn gazed into the room and felt the tension in the air thicken as he had once thought.
If this was the boss room, Where was the boss?
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As if queued by his thought the ground began to shake, and with it the crystal rose from the ground, hovering above its crater as the smaller crystals followed suit, orbiting the stone like a swarm of flies.
Kenn drew Conmael’s sword as the creature pulsed its glowing facets lighting individually as it spun in the air. A single separate jewel embedded in the middle-most face. An obvious weak-spot, Kenn would bet on it.
“A crystal elemental?” The demon wing asked himself “Another change…”
Before Keen could ask what that meant, The elemental’s orbiting crystals stopped spinning and erupted at the party like shrapnel from a pipe-bomb. It was all Kenn could do to dodge, one of the spikes still knicking his armor, further ruining the piece. It was trash anyway, there was no fixing the hole the goblin hog had left that morning.
Kenn held out the sword, deciding to engage the monster close up. He ran at it, Sandra following suit her daggers bared.
Kenn watched from the corner of his eye as Ali formed a fireball in her palm, casting the sphere of flame at the center gem of the creature, the spell landed with a ‘PHAK!’ The elemental rearing back with a screech like claws on glass. Only to be struck again by Giel, who had cocked his pistol and sent a storm of finger-length needles at the monster, which was followed by a normal force-enhanced bullet piercing into the elemental’s eye-like gem center.
The spirit rumbled in pain sending another barrage of sharp lengths of translucent stone, this time specifically targeting the ranged fighters.
Giel slid away, dodging his share, and returned fire missing the elemental’s gem as it was now turned away from him.
Ali cast her new flare spell, the crystal spikes exploding much like the diamond fish had, sending a rain of what was essentially broken glass down on her at high speed, the caster compensated by casting another new spell Kenn hadn't seen before, a thin wall of ice about the size of a tower shield appeared before her, and the short woman crouched behind it.
The shards crashed into the ice, destroying the construction within a second with their force and heat.
Still, most of the force of the crystal was lost and the caster was left with little more than a few minor cuts.
Kenn was forced to refocus on his own fight as he approached the elemental, his gaze fixed on the gemstone, now cracked and pitted. He readied his sword arm, considering risking a mana cut to end this now.
The choice was stolen from him as the smaller crystals still around the elemental shifted, collecting together to form the vague shapes of giant hands.
The crystal fists slammed down, crushing Kenn and Sandra.
Three came down on the thief, who dodged aside the first but was caught off guard by the second strike, which backhanded her with enough force to send her back a few feet and to the ground.
Kenn had to get over to her but he couldn’t, his own attacking hands forced him to hold his attention on them, His attempts to cut into them with Conmael’s sword were fruitless, the enchanted blade bounced off the crystal, like a twig on concrete.
He jumped to the side of an oncoming hand, another pushing against the upheld blade. Kenn tilted his weapon, redirecting the momentum of the attack somewhat, and avoided being snatched up in a death grip. A bullet struck the palm of the redirected hand, shattering the construct.
Kenn gave a quick grateful nod at Giel. Before taking off again at the jewel.
The beast-kin’s actions seemed to have angered the elemental because it sent another group of spikes at him and Ali.
Giel jumped nimbly away but couldn't avoid them all this time. He gasped as several spikes dug into his arm and shoulder his spellarm dropping from a limp hand.
Ali was battling her own set of crystal appendages, casting fireballs and icebolts to keep them at bay, and so was unprepared for the flurry of spikes. She noticed just in time to cast a hasty flare but the mana she put into it was barely enough that the flame could be called a wave, more a flutter, but it was still enough that all but one crystal popped in the heat.
Ali, slowed from mana fatigue, jumped away but her reaction time was a second too late. The spike hit her piercing straight through her leg and the shrapnel cutting into her body.
Her scream made Kenn’s heart freeze.
And the suffering of his party made his blood boil.
“Hailey! Get to Ali!” he shouted, but the healer was already on the move She ran as fast as she could, dodging away from grasping crystalline palms and crushing fists. She was nearly there when more of the floating crystals shifted, forming a wall directly blocking her path to their injured friends. Hailey's attempts to dart around it were stifled by more of the floating stones forming into the humanoid forms of golems
Off to the side, easily avoiding any attacks that came his way the demon-kings brows furrowed
But Hailey was too busy fighting off the creatures with the mace she had gained in the other room to notice.
The elf was far from skilled with the weapon, she overextended every swing and stumbled forward as often as she drove golem’s back but her efforts were enough to keep her alive as the golems drove her back into the crystal wall. But I was obvious that wouldn’t last long. The elf spoke the incantation for blind and cast it. On the nearest golem, causing the creature to miss a punch that would have otherwise popped her head like a grape.
Sweat beaded on the elf’s forehead as she lifted her mace and slammed it into the golem’s abdomen.
All she had to do was stay alive for one more second, he was almost there.
Kenn dodged one more hand with a side step and lunged forward.
He pulled back Conmael’s sword, hearing the Demon King shout “Wait! No! stop!!!” followed by a pop of displaced air as the demon blinked behind him, but it was too late. The weapon was already driving into the elemental’s gemstone heart. The crystal splintered and burst into fragments of light, the elemental screamed, its voice a thousand breaking glasses, And shuddered cracks appearing all over its body, It fell to pieces there, collapsing in on itself. The crystal constructs it formed breaking down into dust in an instant.