Chapter 21 - Debate

Trey woke up with a yawn, stretching both arms after a long night of internal debate. He was back again at the Negaizer runestone after clearing his mind while ransacking the place one more time just to make sure he hadn’t left anything of value behind. Unfortunately he’d fallen into a green, rancid-smelling, fluid-filled pit by accident and had lost his clothes again - causing him to leave the wretched things behind so his nostrils didn’t kill him for the insult. Otherwise he felt fine overall, but was still irritated about his failure concerning the archdemon. Not that he hadn’t partially expected a failure, but he’d not even had a chance to talk to the damn thing.

Trey glanced over and stared at the sword. It hadn’t spoken a single word since his recent failure, which irritated him, but he closed his eyes and took in a few deep breaths to maintain a steady voice before he spoke. “Talsh’Noc’Un… What the hell was that?”

The sword did not reply, but merely hovered there humming a deep note of amusement as it observed him.

“Yesterday. Why did it attack me so quickly? Don’t you have some sway over that creature?” Trey pressed, keeping his voice steady despite the mounting frustration.

The sword loudly chuckled, only angering Trey more, but Trey continued to wait as the sword began speaking.

“I… never had any… sway… over its actions… I had merely captured it… in a soulstone… I must admit… your attempt was rather… pathetic…” The sword laughed in a sinister manner. “Usually I would… advise that you wait until… you are stronger… to summon them from my soul stones… but for now… you cannot die… so the risk to you is minimal… while the potential gain… is great… And you need help in your quest… for vengeance… The only question that… remains… is whether or not… you are brave enough… to withstand potential death… for the potential of greater power…”

Trey spat, took a long deep breath, and crossed his arms. “Alright. Well do I have good odds with ANY of them?”

The greatsword paused to consider its next sentence, and when Trey didn’t interrupt it let out a low thrum and went on with its thoughts. “Know that most… if not all of them… will likely react the same way… They are not happy… being locked away… for the past many centuries… But if even one of them… decide to pledge themselves… it will be worth it… for you are weak… far weaker than my previous master… and even the opportunity… to converse with these rare creatures… is far beyond… what you should be able to do… at your current… state…”

It was just as Trey feared.

Captured Creatures in Storage: 4/5 grand soul stones filled

* Empty

* Ifrit, Greater Demon

* Dark Djinn, Fallen

* Taurun, Greater Demon

* Angelic Dread Berserker, Fallen Archangel

The screen appeared. The infernal crusher demon was long gone, leaving only 4 of the 5 original creatures still within the soul stones crafted into the weapon.

Trey rubbed his temple and blinked in surprise as a pentagram began to draw itself onto the floor. In another flash of red light his imp Napoleon stood with a questioning gaze as it looked from Trey to the greatsword.

“You sleep so long! Why why?” Napoleon asked, slapping the ground and scurrying around Trey’s legs as it suddenly bit him.

Trey briefly yelped and shook the angry imp off with a scowl.

“What the hell man!?” Trey exclaimed as he wiped his leg down, noting he was only bruised and the imp hadn’t bitten him that hard.

Napoleon’s ears lay flat against his head and he looked down nervously, but they perked up again once Trey realized the imp had just been worried and smiled.

“You have a really strange way of showing affection.” Trey said as he pat Napoleon’s head and scratched behind the sleek black ears of the tiny demon. The imp rushed over and put his arm in an embrace, and Trey couldn’t help it when his heartstrings began to tug again at the act of affection.

He picked Napoleon up and cradled him in his arms, shaking his head again at his misfortune and running one hand through his wavy brown hair.

“Damn it...” Trey muttered as he took Talsh’Noc’Un by the hilt, not even bothering to go find another set of clothes this time. He wouldn’t even know where to get another pair anyways.

Trey sighed and rested his head in his hands, blinking a couple times to clear his thoughts and sighed again. He blinked when he thought he saw movement further down the hall, but didn’t catch it again so dismissed it from his mind.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Trey stood up and pointed to the open page the greatsword had already prepared for him in anticipation of the next try. “After a night of internal debate I’ve decided on a plan of action. I made a poor choice and will not repeat it. If the rest of them are anything like that creature I just summoned, I have no chance of getting them to obey me now. We’ll be saving the rest for later, when I’m a hell of a lot stronger, so that I can actually KEEP them instead of letting valuable assets just WANDER OFF into OBLIVION - TALSHY!”

A sound that resembled a wheeze came out from the greatsword, it was a sound Trey had never heard the sword make before.

He just exhaled and shook his head, closing the page and taking Talsh’Noc’Un by the handle. "Come on. Maybe we’ll see some culn along the way that we can interrogate for information on where the gate is and how to get out of here, and if not then we’ll just keep going over the mountains until we find what Farthom was talking about.”

Minutes later Trey had disappeared into the tunnels, avoiding the spike traps that had killed him the first time and then headed through the rest of Negaizer to retrace his steps from days past.

***

“We're having a rough time.” Trey said sourly while they trudged on through the night. Napoleon could see in the dark just as well as he could, and the imp was flitting about on the rocks ahead as he spurred Trey on to more speedy strides.

They were just passing the cave Trey had found Napoleon in and where they had taken refuge from the storm. The mountains they and their previous allies had been attacked and killed in were seen not far off. It felt like years ago now, but he continued on without exploring it and slapped at a small insect that dared land on his shoulder. He’d been rather depressed lately, even more than usual, and Sithis really didn’t know how to react to it.

‘Perhaps we should try your ‘Least Summoning Circle’ spell instead.’ Sithis stated, trying to get Trey’s spirits back in gear. ‘It would be a weaker partner, surely, but it would be something you could manage! Any help no matter how small would be a bonus, just look at what Napoleon can do! He’s an imp, and even he killed some of the culn warriors when we fought them at the lake!’

“You could always take… one of the culn… as your own…” murmured Talsh’Noc’Un from where it sat across his back.

The thought actually hadn’t occurred to him, and after a while of thinking about it he nodded with a widening smile. “Yes. I could actually do that, and even having one of them would be a help.”

He checked his status page and made sure of it, but he did still have 1 control limit slot: AKA 1 minion slot left. He grinned.

“So how does forcing someone into submission work then?” Trey asked the greatsword wearily.

Another deep chuckle arose from the huge weapon before it answered. “You physically beat them down… until they’re nearly… dead… and then ask them to pledge… to you... You will be recognized… as a summoner… and the All Spirit will allow them… to bind to you… It is the same concept… of how friendship worked... with Napoleon’s contract… the way you had your imp bind… but know that… if the All Spirit senses that you are subjugating… something by force… it will give that creature… the option of a painless death… as an alternative to subjugation… and many have been known… to take that option… instead of allowing themselves… into a minion’s contract...”

Wow. Kind of brutal but then again what had he expected?

“Got it!” Trey said, suddenly disgusted with himself after realizing he was genuinely excited about the idea.

He looked over at Napoleon and tried to picture him as only an NPC. Then he thought back to what the All Spirit had said relating to how they were just as real as he was now, that he was just code in the system… just like they were. Did he feel any less real? Was he any more real than they were? Honestly he wasn’t really convinced this wasn’t a real place anymore. But regardless, it didn’t really matter to him at this point. It sure as hell felt real enough and that was good enough for him.

He shook off the doubts and continued walking. No, he would do whatever it took to survive in this forsaken place. No matter what happened, he would do his best to excel. Because when the time finally came to where he could really die, when his permanence ended for 6 long months, he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of the whacking stick. He wanted to be the one dishing it out, and with what the All Spirit had said or hinted at so far: he knew he could expect to continue struggling for his life.

He then wondered what his family back on Earth was up to… or if they were even alive if a nuclear arsenal had really been unleashed upon his old world. Immediately he went back to being depressed and it took him many minutes to shake it off. Then he yawned and stretched his arms out while going, still looking out into the dead of night with a grim unwavering glare. Thankfully the temperature wasn’t as cold and the weather wasn’t as dreadful as it had been in days past, and if anything it felt rather nice. This in turn, however, made him… sleepy.

His eyes began to droop involuntarily, and he had yawned more than once in the past couple minutes. Even his balance became… unreliable.

“Master is tired yes yes?” Napoleon asked as he rushed his master and scurried up the side of Trey’s naked body to perch on a shoulder, patting the top of Trey’s head.

The antics of the little creature were hilarious to Trey frequently enough, and this time was no exception while he cracked a smile. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

He looked around. There wasn’t a lot to deal with in terms of cover or a good place to sleep. They were in the early stages of the mountain pass leading up to the lake where Trey had fought those bastard culn soldiers… where Farthom and Inis had died.

Eventually, a patch of large boulders to the left of the pass and against an outcropping of the cliff face drew Trey's attention. With a brief command to Napoleon and a slight skip in his jump, Trey tried to clear his mind of all his worries. He sat down amidst the boulders and leaned against one of the flat surfaces between rock formations, yawning loudly. He was relieved that he had cover from the winds… even if it was only minimal and mostly from one side.

Within minutes his eyes began to droop even further, feeling the weight of his exhaustion fully extend throughout his muscles and mind. Napoleon also found himself a good place to rest in the crook of Trey’s legs and Talsh’Noc’Un was propped up against the rock for Trey to lay his head against.

Finally, and after a long time of battling off his natural inclinations while trying to stay awake, Trey had fallen fast asleep.