Chapter 4: Deliverance
“You!” High Priestess Primula spat out through a grimace of pain and blood. “What the hell are you?!”
The Sparrow waited until the dense tendrils of Vortexus's dark magic had dissipated. Her pink eyes narrowed in on the fallen High Priestess, now collapsed against the broken table and shattered porcelain tea tray, the luxurious room around them splintered beneath a storm of void nether spikes. The Mystic's hands trembled around the malevolent spear of saturated darkness that pierced through her luxurious priestly robes just below her heart.
“I answered you honestly before,” Mercedes replied as her gaze moved along the blackened floor until she located the ritual dagger beneath a toppled chair. “I have no idea.” The albino’s pink eyes rose sharply towards the coughing Priestess as she shrugged. “I thought your little test might help with that."
“It was inconclusive,” Primula admitted bitterly, her gaze wavering from the dagger in the Sparrow’s hand to the horrific sounds of teeth devouring flesh and bone behind the pale albino. “I may not know what you are, but I do know that is no demon.”
Mercedes smirked as she stood. Her gaze drifted to the enchanting green quest screen that had greeted her before dawn, which now floated above them.
[Active Quest: Safely Infiltrate the Mystic Realms]
Requirements:
High Priestess Primula Slain: 0/1
High Priestess’s Ritual Dagger Obtained: 1/1
Eldermoor Keep’s Dungeon Key Obtained: 0/1
Hidden Dungeon Magic Portal Activated: 0/1
Deadline: Access to the Mystic Realms is only possible during a Full Blood Moon.
Time Remaining: 1 Day 7 hours 23 minutes.
“It looks like I need one more thing from you,” Mercedes said as she stepped closer.
“What are you—” Primula’s trembling, bloody hands slid down to grasp the Sparrow’s wrists as the albino yanked the iron dungeon key from the High Priestess’s robe belt. “Stop! You—you cannot!”
“Watch me,” Mercedes muttered coldly before shaking free from the dying Mystic’s grip.
“Fool! Just because you have a key doesn’t mean you’ll be able to open the door!”
“I have him for that.” The Sparrow gestured toward the undiminished noise of the void ravager feasting on the High Priestess’s Acolytes.
“Haa!” Primula’s feverish gaze rolled upwards as she laughed. “Then you are both doomed to fail.”
“Why?” The albino tilted her head inquisitively at the emboldened Mystic. “You’ve already confirmed I have everything I need. The blood of a spellcaster,” the Sparrow raised her left index finger, “a tethered soul, and access to a mystic portal activated beneath the Full Blood Moon.” Mercedes glanced from her three extended fingers to the Priestess. "What am I missing?"
“Do you really think I’d relinquish any more aid to the minion of the Abyssal Dominion?”
‘Is she bluffing?’ The Sparrow’s grip on the ritual dagger tightened as she studied her fallen target critically. ‘Unlike a High Priestess, I have no way of confirming if her words are true.’
“Why don’t we make a deal?” The albino’s eyes flickered with malevolent darkness as she knelt towards the wheezing Priestess.
“You have nothing I want!” Primula spat without hesitation, averting her gaze as she shrank away from the duplicitous Sparrow.
“It seems you have yet to grasp the gravity of your current predicament,” Mercedes mused as she gently pushed the severed blonde strands of hair away from the cut on the trembling Mystic’s damp cheek. “Think for a moment. Why have all your attempts to heal yourself failed?”
The High Priestess let out a shuddering sob, her blue eyes narrowing as her mind scrambled to make sense of this unexpected and seemingly impossible situation. The Sparrow waited patiently as realization sank in, the blood draining from Primula’s face, leaving her plump lips as pale as a ghost.
“I—cannot reach Serenitus!” Primula gasped. “But that—isn’t possible.”
“Does Serenitus control the void that separates this world from yours? Or have you all forgotten who it was that controlled the dimensional boundaries of the 13 Realms for eons?” Mercedes sank to one knee as she leaned in closer to convey words that would solidify the High Priestess's despair. “What do you imagine will happen if you die down here while your tether to your Primordial remains broken?”
Rage, denial, and despair washed over the Mystic’s face as tears poured down her pale cheeks. “T-take me with you! I will open the door! You will need me to enter the Divine Realm safely. Once they realize which Primordial you are tethered to—you won’t survive without my help.”
“So the portal only goes one way to the Divine Realm?”
“Yes,” Primula rasped as she clutched the malevolent spear growing inside her torso.
“But the portal in the dungeon has been here since Eldermoor Keep was built nearly a century ago. Long before the apocalypse of Necrothorn’s Lich King appeared.” The Sparrow’s pink eyes narrowed as a lingering shadow of suspicion finally clicked into place. “You waited until humanity was on the brink of annihilation to appear! The Church—no Serenitus—benefits from this war in some way?”
“I—don’t know what you’re talking about! Aaugh!” The High Priestess gasped as the Sparrow yanked the Mystic forward by her hair. Primula's protest sputtered into a feeble cry as the albino slid the enchanted ritual dagger through the Mystic’s ribs.
“That is the last time a servant of Serenitus will ever lie to my face,” Mercedes hissed as she twisted the knife deeper still and watched the spark of life die inside the woman’s sorrowful blue eyes. “It’s a shame your pristine soul won’t be able to return to the Mystic Realms. You are lost to the void now, and my Primordial Master is far from benevolent.”
The crunching footsteps of Vortexus's two feet turned the Sparrow’s gaze to the inky black creature of unfathomable darkness lumbering towards her. A row of ravenous white teeth glinted around its blood-soaked mouth, and a faint gurgle emanated from the void ravager’s stomach.
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Mercedes flinched as her partner spat out one of the Acolytes’ boots, now soaked in inky sludge, which dissolved into a hissing puddle on the floor.
“Well done, Sparrow. Now, all that awaits is your trip to the Mystic Realms.”
The albino nodded and turned her attention back to the dead High Priestess, pausing briefly to close the woman’s eyes before she yanked the ritual dagger from the Mystic's corpse and stood.
‘Every day I spend here pinned between shit and shit, I recognize myself less—’
Mercedes exhaled as she turned to face the waiting minion of the void. Her pink eyes widened as a hand grabbed her ankle. She turned towards Ray's all but unrecognizable corpse, his single eye burning through her face.
'—and hate myself even more.'
"Oops. Missed one," Vortexus chuckled, his calculating gaze focused on the frozen Sparrow.
'He's always testing me.' Mercedes clenched her fist as she turned away from the horribly disfigured Raven and yanked herself free. "Finish things properly this time, Vortexus."
The void ravager’s face rippled with displeasure as the albino strode past him, weaving through the Temple, now corroded into a demonic nest of nether spikes dripping with the acidic poison of the abyss.
image [https://www.royalroad.com/dist/img/ornaments/16.png]
The flooded dungeons beneath Eldermoor Keep had long been a source of perpetual frustration for Mercedes. Obtaining the first key to the main dungeon door had taken a marginal amount of planning during her early years as a Sparrow. With the witless participation of her first partner and mentor, Sparrow Ruby, who acted as a distraction to the Hawk in charge of the Keep’s keys, Mercedes had been able to liberate the long-forgotten dungeon key while acting as a lookout for their private adult activities.
Ruby walked away with a premium bottle of gin that made her the toast of Unit 731. Mercedes celebrated her partner’s success before slipping down to the dungeon between the night’s watch rotation to open the door. She had descended breathlessly into the cold, waterlogged underbelly of the Keep, only to find the teleportation portal locked away behind an iron gate with its own enchanted lock.
A full Blood Moon happens at least two times a year, and yet, for five long years, Mercedes was forced to be patient...until now.
The Sparrow held her breath as she shoved the High Priestess’s key into the eroded keyhole of the iron gate, hesitating for only a fraction of a second before she turned the key inside the lock. The rusted metal springs ground slowly into place with a grating click before the heavy door swung open freely. The moss and lichen clinging to the frame dripped down on the albino’s ghostly white hair as she exhaled in sharp relief.
“Finally.” Mercedes ignored the cold, murky water as she waded into the central room of the dungeon, her eyes locked at the center point of the circular structure. The Sparrow’s boots soon found the edge of the hidden platform, which she climbed onto without hesitation before turning to where the void ravenger lingered in the doorway. “I need you to remove all this water.” After a pregnant pause, she turned in the silent, dark minion’s direction. “Vortexus?”
“Of course,” the malevolent ravager growled with the same hint of dissatisfaction he always gave off whenever she used his name. His inky limbs formed into a hand of sharp thorns, which he snapped once before resuming his usual formless shape.
The stagnant, dark water rushed back toward the flooded barred tunnel doors that led out into the lake. The Sparrow paced restlessly along the perimeter of the platform as she waited for the water to recede, frowning at the dense algae that covered the magic runes of the teleportation portal.
“Shit!” Mercedes splashed down on her hands and knees as she hurriedly clawed away the invasive aquatic plant. Before long, the black trench coat she had liberated from Ray’s wardrobe after her bath was drenched and smeared with green and brown sludge. The Sparrow ignored the sweat dripping into her eyes as she crawled forward to clear the last section of the dripping platform. Shivering despite the warmth of her cheeks, the albino glanced up at the quest screen as she scraped the remaining runes clear with her tarnished, blackened gloves.
[Time Remaining: 1 Day 6 hours 51 minutes.]
‘It’s already been half an hour!’
The muffled sounds of the welcome banquet getting started two floors above only confirmed this. While the deadline gave Mercedes another day to complete the quest, she had less than an hour before someone realized what had transpired inside the Temple.
‘I don’t know why Vortexus left the High Priestess’s body untouched, but we were bound to be discovered either way.’
Flinging aside her last fistful of the dense algae, the Sparrow ripped off her ruined gloves as she stood, impatiently blowing away the strings of pale white hair that hung over her pink eyes. “Vortexus, are you ready? I'm going to begin now.”
The blob of darkness rippled with displeasure before stretching to resume the monstrous shape of a void ravager, a vision of nightmares sporadically covered in thick black thorns that curved protectively around the evolved creature’s body. “Once you cross over and enter the Mystic Realms, my ability to communicate and assist you will be limited, Sparrow.”
“I know. We’ve been over this. I’ll head to the arcane city or another neutral realm, then find a way to reopen the channel.”
“Even then, our contact will be minimal. You must grow stronger, Sparrow. Strong enough to free our Master.”
Mercedes arched a brow cynically. Her gaze focused on the ritual dagger poised over her open left palm. “You got me this far. Have a little faith, Vortexus.” She winced as the sharp blade slid effortlessly across her hand, cutting far deeper than she had intended. “What happens next is beyond either of our control." The albino curled her bleeding hand into a fist as she walked the perimeter of the teleportation circle again and administered the fresh blood of a spellcaster to each rune, which brightened awake with a magical blue glow. “Or are you worried that I’ll try and do something foolish like running away or attempting to find a means to break His seal?”
“No,” Vortexus growled, the skin between his spikes rippling with veins of purple and crimson light before resuming its placid black surface. “Only that you will draw too much attention to yourself and be killed before you’ve so much as tasted your new freedom.”
“You have a twisted definition of freedom,” Mercedes retorted, tilting her head in his direction. “I appreciate your concern, but I’d rather you focused on ensuring that I remain unexposed on this end.”
“Not to worry, Sparrow,” Vortexus snickered, his black eyes gleaming with a glint of vicious darkness that reminded Mercedes of their Master’s true nature. “By sunrise, not a single stone of this castle will remain intact. The necromancers and their legions of undead will see to that.”
Mercedes froze. The faces of Christine and the other Sparrows of Unit 731 danced behind her eyes before she relaxed her fist and continued filling the runes on the platform. “Eldermoor Keep might not be our only problem. The High Priestess was looking into my background before she came here.”
“The Priestess would have used her Acolytes to dig into your past. They’re all dead now, Sparrow.”
“And what if Serenitus’s Temple finds it hard to believe that a High Priestess fell to one or two necromancers.” The albino’s pale brows furrowed in memory of Primula’s final warning. “I cannot lie to them, so my body must provide enough proof to quell all doubt!”
[Hidden Dungeon Magic Portal Activated 1/1.]
The Sparrow took in the vibrantly glowing runes as veins of blue light pooled into the center of the platform, creating a small rippling mirror of magic essence. Satisfied, she wrapped her bleeding left hand with one of the Priestess’s silk handkerchiefs, then turned to face her partner. “I need you to injure me severely enough that it looks like I barely managed to escape.”
“And what if your plan exposes my presence here?” Vortexus questioned as he moved to the edge of the platform.
“We make it look like a demonic attack,” Mercedes muttered as she tightened the knot of her bandage with her teeth. “Aren't demons known to align themselves with Thanaterus’s necromancers?”
“A clever ruse to mask your escape and the High Priestess’s unfortunate demise.” The void ravager bobbed its head approvingly before its abyssal gaze returned to the Sparrow. “While I admire your resolve, Sparrow, you walk a fine line between foolishness and recklessness.” The malevolent nightmare lurched closer as it extended a sharp, thorny finger to tap the buttons of her Raven trench coat. “You’re not even an initiate yet. It would be far easier for me to sever your life from this world than maim you convincingly.”
“I trust in your ability to perform the task our Master has given you,” Mercedes replied without flinching. “The result must be convincing enough to garner their sympathy while keeping me alive long enough to survive the journey and escape.”
“Far be it from me to deny a masochist their choice of poison,” Vortexus chortled as he removed his right hand. The thorny talons extended in size until they were as long as the Radiant Dawn Rifle she was leaving behind. “Just make sure you stay alive, Sparrow. Nyxus is waiting.”