Joan leaped across the moving platforms, each one falling a moment after she jumped off it. After a few seconds they reset, but by then she was already across to the other side. She then shoved the small, red orb into the mouth of the metal ‘guardian’ carved into the door. With a light rumbling the door began to open, revealing the ancient chamber within.
“This is sooooo much easier without all the undead pirates trying to murder me,” Joan said to herself. They’d always come here during the night, once the undead rose. But she’d also had all of the Chosen with her. It had been so easy, if frustratingly slow. Fortunately, that was the last of the puzzles. Without having an undead pirate running out every few minutes it wasn’t even that bad. “What’s in the boooooox,” she said when she stepped inside and saw the small pedestal with a tiny little stone chest. Flipping it open revealed a small ceremonial ring. “It’s uselessssss,” Joan said before picking it up and sliding it into her pocket. Maybe she’d give it to Zorn, he’d like it. All it did was make your hands turn into fuzzy claws and heightened your sense of smell a bit. Great if you were unarmed. Terrible if you had a sword already or were fighting a bunch of smelly undead.
“Sooo, ominous voice promising power? Still there? I haven’t heard you in a while,” Joan said before stepping over another body. There really were so many of these things, it was a good thing she’d likely be long gone before they woke up. Still, she wished she had someone to talk to. Going ancient temple exploring was kind of fun, but it lost so much of its allure when her friends weren’t there with her. She’d leaped over a pit trap, dodged a falling axe and flung her knife to stop a lowering lever a while ago in what she could only assume was the coolest looking thing ever…
And nobody had seen it.
“Okay, fine, so I like to show off a bit,” Joan said to nobody. “I’m surrounded by really incredible people all the time, is it really so bad that I want to be amazing too? Sure, I know I’ll never be as good at anything as the Chosen, but I have my moments.”
The temple was silent around her.
“Yeah, no comeback, huh?” Joan asked. “It’s because I’m right. Although, if I did hear a voice responding I might be going mad. That’d probably not be a good sign. Well, don’t worry old gloomy temple of dooooooom, I’m almost done with you. Just got a big golem to break and then bam, curse broken and… uhhhhh…” Her voice trailed off when she came to what she thought was supposed to be one of the last rooms. A massive chamber with eight pillars. In the center of the room were four weapons, each seemingly made of a singular massive pearl. A great warhammer, a long trident and two small daggers. When she’d been the Hero she’d picked up the trident first. It had then grown spikes out of the grip and slashed up her hands. From there, she’d just left them behind. Some weapons just didn’t like her and she could respect that.
The chamber had always been dark before, now there was a great circle of light illuminating from above, casting its glow over the four weapons like a great heavenly sign.
Joan just shook her head when she walked into the room. “Yeahhhhh… gonna… not touch the trapped weapons. Thanks, but no thanks.” She didn’t even want to know what would happen if they grew spikes while she was holding them now. She might lose the hand. She walked towards the next room, ignoring the weapons.
She was nearly to it when suddenly a large steel gate slammed shut, blocking it. “Uhhhh… that’s… new,” Joan said softly.
Someone yelled at her. Actually yelled. She had absolutely no idea what they were saying, but they were certainly yelling at her.
“Who’s there?” Joan asked before turning around, her sword in hand. “What?”
The trident and warhammer had picked themselves up and, in the light, she could see the strange, illuminated forms of… something. They were humanoid, ish. Except the one wielding the warhammer had at least four arms.
The one with the trident lifted it into the air and then seemed to yell something at her in a language she couldn’t even begin to identify, let alone understand.
“Uhhhhh, hello,” Joan said softly. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Joan. Nice to meet you.”
It yelled something else.
“Not… sure if that’s a good or bad thing,” Joan said. “Are you… friendly?”
Once again it yelled something.
“Guessing no? I-- wait, weren’t there four of you?” Joan asked. The daggers were gone. She looked up and then rolled to the left.
The daggers flashed through the air, narrowly missing where she had been a moment before.
“Ha, missed me!” Joan yelled. Unfortunately, they then flew up into the air again. She could barely make out what was holding them, but the daggers themselves she could see clear as day. Which was useful, because they were flying down at her again. She flicked her hand and made one of her own daggers appear in her hand, which she flicked towards the creature. It slowly slightly, deflecting the knife, but it allowed her a moment to put some distance between them.
The knives did keep coming down, though, then heading back up into the air, bouncing off one of the walls a moment later.
“Okay, so not flying, jumping?” Joan asked. “Or some kind of gargoyle? Ugh, you’re really hard to see, you know that?” Even with her armor illuminating it when it came close, whatever form it had was very weird and misty. “Are you a ghost or something?” She deflected another strike from the daggers, the thing moving past her. Except now it was between her and the wall. She activated her shielding bracer and a barrier of fire formed around her, exploding out and slamming the daggers into the wall, hard. She dropped the barrier a moment later and watched the daggers drop to the ground. Timidly, she inched forward and lightly tapped them with the tip of her sword, but they didn’t move and there didn’t seem to be anything else there. “Weird.”
More yelling made her glance back towards the other two weapons. The warhammer was spinning and once she looked to it, it charged her.
“Okay I still don’t know WHAT you’re saying to me!” Joan yelled. “I don’t speak whatever any of that language is! I’m sorry!”
The hammer wielder then ran at her and once it was out of the light all she could see WAS the hammer. She managed to avoid the first strike, but then the second hit her in the chest so hard she was sent flying across the room and slammed into one of the pillars. She crumbled to the ground, gasping for air and her entire body aching. She had to give the Chosen credit, though. When they made armor to keep her safe it did its job REALLY well. She wasn’t dead. Still. She really wished the amulet would have teleported her away from that one. Ow.
She rolled to the right, the hammer knocking a chunk out of the pillar. She swiped at its feet with her sword, but there didn’t seem to be anything there. Her sword moved through it like a weird mist. A moment later the hammer was coming down at her skull.
Joan activated her boots and propelled herself across the room, hitting another wall a moment later. “O-ow…” she said softly. Still, there was space now and she managed to, shakily, get to her feet.
The hammer wielder yelled something in a deep, menacing voice.
“Is that an insult?” Joan asked. “It sounded like it was supposed to be an insult but for all I know you were trying to ask me directions to the nearest blacksmith. The answer is far, by the way.”
The hammer came at her again, but this time she kept moving away. It was a LOT faster than she would have given it credit for, swinging the hammer around in a way that she couldn’t imagine most ever being able to. Definitely four arms, maybe more.
She flung her daggers at it, but it seemed to have no real aside from making the hammer knock some away. “Yeah, this is really unfair,” Joan said. “How do I kill a hammer?” Though, now that she thought about it she hadn’t killed the daggers. She used her boots, a bit more controlled this time, to give a bit more space between her and the hammer. She then glanced back. Neither the trident nor the daggers had moved.
A grin formed on her lips as an idea flashed in her mind. The hammer came from the left, right, each time making her dash back, careful of avoiding the pillars. Finally, an overhead swing. She stepped into it, narrowly avoiding the blow and hearing the satisfying crunch of it hitting the stone tile. Focusing her magic through the Eye of the Night, she made tendrils of darkness rise out from the floor and wrap around the hammer. Holding the head in place for a moment. She leaped onto it and brought her sword down, slicing around the grip as if there was a hand there for her to slice.
The hammer dropped to the ground suddenly, whatever was holding it disappearing and she stumbled forward with a shriek before dropping to the ground. “O-ow,” she said. “A little warning, please?”
More yelling. More things she didn’t understand. She looked up to see the trident coming towards her now. “Well, at least you all try to fight fair. Ish. Maybe.” The trident came flying at her face. This time she didn’t even try and predict it. She muttered a small incantation and held out her hands. The moisture of the room gathered before forming into spikes of ice, wrapping around and ‘impaling’ near the grip of the trident. It quivered in place for a moment, before it stopped moving as well.
There was a loud grinding sound and the gateway opened. Joan sat down, slowly lifting a hand to her chest. She could feel a small dent in the armor, but it wasn’t broken. “Gonna have to have that looked at later. But hey, new-- SHIT!” She held up her sword when suddenly all four weapons came flying at her. She tried to deflect them, but they didn’t come close enough. They just kind of hovered there a few feet away. “Uhhhhh… what… are you doing?”
Something was said. She still had no idea what it was.
Joan slowly backed away from them, but they kept following her. “Go away. Stop. Leave. I won. I think. So… no more of this.” She tried waving her sword at them, but they just kept hovering by her. “Uhhhhh… please?”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Nothing.
“Is this a threat? A warning? Stop following me!”
Alas, they did not. She waited for them to try and strike her, but nothing happened. She tried to shoo them away, but they didn’t go.
“Okay, you know what? This is weird even for me,” Joan said. “Fine, I’ve been a bit lonely, but I can’t even understand you and I’m pretty sure you can’t understand me. Also, you just tried to murder me and came really close to breaking a few ribs, so I’m not particularly wanting to be your new best friend.”
Still, they followed her. Like very weird, dangerous, floating puppies made of pearl and death. She finally sighed and activated her bracer, forming a barrier around herself. After a few seconds the flames across it died out and instead it was a clear, shimmering barrier around her. “Fine. Follow me if you want, but I am not getting backstabbed.”
Joan turned towards the now opened doorway and started walking towards it. She couldn’t hear the pearl weapons behind her, but she could feel them. Following her. Lost and confused. She was just confused. She didn’t even know how she’d begin to explain this to everyone else.
Only one more thing to deal with. She could see the chamber ahead, light glimmering off gold coins, precious jewels, weapons of all kind. The vast treasury of an ancient god and an army of undead pirates.
Joan wished she could have done this part without having been thrown across a room and into a pillar. She did hope the necklace was working right, maybe it didn’t consider blunt force trauma as worth protecting her from. She’d need to chat with Chase and Korgron about that.
She let out a low whistle when she stepped into the treasury. The chamber itself was massive, the outer walls so far away she couldn’t even see them in the dim light given from her armor. The ceiling she had only barely been able to see when she was the Hero, now she didn’t even try. The piles of gold, gems and other valuables filled the chamber. She wouldn’t have been surprised to see a dragon lounging on the piles at this point. A shame they’d never had time to come back when she was the Hero, money had just not been a priority for them. That and the place was so hard to find a second time without the beetle.
Then again, a lot of the ‘treasures’ here weren’t actually worth anything. While there was enough gold and precious minerals here to buy a kingdom, there were a lot of shiny rocks, broken magical trinkets, shards of glass and way too many cursed things. So maybe it wasn’t as good as she thought it would be. Oh well, in the end her goal was just a small shrine in the center of the treasury. She didn’t know what kind of god it was supposed to be for, but the fact it kept raising undead every night and having them kill people and then gather the treasures here made her suspect it wasn’t the nicest. Or maybe it wasn’t that god at all and someone just came and cursed this place after it had been abandoned for centuries, who knew?
The moment her barrier washed over some of the coins there was a light rumbling throughout the chamber. She just kept walking as the treasury began to swirl around her, gathering off in the distance. When she’d been the Hero she’d just stopped and stared, but at this point she’d seen it so many times she could practically see it in her head. The sound of coins pinging off the barrier was mildly annoying, though.
Before long a massive golem of treasure towered over her, many of the piles far, far smaller now. Its hand alone was bigger than a carriage and, despite the fact she knew it was stupid… she kind of wanted to fight it.
She wasn’t going to because, honestly, she knew the idea would be dumb. She’d be crushed and, if by some miracle she survived, she’d never hear the end of it. They already had enough dumb ideas of hers to give her grief over, this one would just be stupid AND serve no real purpose. So instead she activated her belt.
The bright, blinding elemental of light rose overhead, towering over her with ease. When the treasure golem took its first strike at her, the elemental interposed itself between the two and a moment later there was a massive crash from the two slamming into each other.
“You two have fun now,” Joan said dismissively, though she cringed when the chamber rumbled from another crash. She could hear the sound of another pile of treasure being tossed aside. It was certainly going to be a more destructive method, when they’d fought the golem before they’d just encased it in ice and then shattered it to pieces. Well, more pieces. It was a lot harder for it to remake itself when it was both in a ton of pieces and frozen. She could hear the piles of treasures being tossed aside and scattered, she didn’t want to think about how much was being destroyed in the process. At least anything magical was probably fine.
Joan glanced back and, sure enough, the weapons were still floating behind her. “You know, you’re kind of creepy. Wish I had any idea what you said before. Are you like my pets now? Lost pet weapons? You might make Guardian Nova jealous. If a sword can get jealous.”
She received no response from the weapons, not that she expected there would be. She let out a yelp when a pearl the size of her head struck the barrier with such force it shattered to dust. Joan started running, quickly realizing that maybe having the two massive things fighting near her for an extended period was a bad idea, barrier or not.
Navigating around the massive piles of treasure wasn’t easy, however, but it became a lot easier when suddenly the golem flew past her, taking out a few towers of treasure before the elemental ran by as well, tackling the former.
There it was. The small shrine. She looked towards the fighting giants to make sure they wouldn’t run her over when she went for it, before she ran towards the shrine, kicking up old coins and fancy stones every few feet.
The shrine itself was built into the temple, obsidian rising out from the ground to create a small, spiked structure. A small pit stood in the center, filled with an eternal black fire that rose a few feet into the air. Behind the flames was a black skull, seemingly carved from the obsidian. A face with four eyes, no nose and a massive mouth. Perhaps the very god this shrine was based on. She let the barrier drop around her, before yelping when some coins went past her head. “Watch it!” she yelled.
First the flame. That wasn’t too hard. She grabbed the Eye of the Night. Sending her magic through it, she reached out and took the flames. Enveloping them in darkness, they sputtered before fading away. That was, admittedly, a lot easier than she expected it would be. Andreas hadn’t had any issue, but she’d still thought it would be harder.
Next came that skull and what was inside it. Joan drew Guardian Nova and lifted it overhead. “Well, its been a while but I think we’ve got this.” She held the sword in both hands and took a slow, deep breath. “YAH!” she yelled before bringing the sword down against the skull.
Not only did the obsidian break, but the dark, purple gem within was shattered by the sword. There was a momentary pause, as if sound itself had stopped, she took this moment to pull her sword back and cover her ears. A piercing shriek filled the air and an almost liquid darkness rose out from the skull, flying up into the air. A second screech came from it, before it dissipated. Or, rather, it was SUPPOSED to dissipate.
Instead of doing what it had done in all her past lives, it instead shrieked, flew up… and then crashed down ON her. She let out her own shriek, feeling that vile darkness washing over her. It was cold, slimy, nothing like Andreas’ darkness. It felt slick and disgusting. She tried to cover her face, but the stuff just kept washing over her.
She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t see. What was happening? Was it trying to kill her? She needed help. She needed light. She needed--
Her armor. She removed all the dimming magic she had on its light and she was blinded.
A moment later there was darkness. She could breathe, in fact she could see, but only from the glow of the light elemental. She didn’t feel slimy anymore. But when she reached up to touch her armor it felt… weird. It didn’t glow anymore. In fact, there wasn’t any light at all. It should have been, but it wasn’t. She tried to tug off one of the gauntlets, but it refused to move. Where normally the armor had been almost invisible aside from its glow, now she could practically see it swirling around her, an inescapable darkness.
“Well… this is… probably not good,” Joan said softly. There was no attack, no pain. Nothing else happened. Just the armor swirling with darkness. “So ummmm…” She looked around. The treasure golem was collapsing, so it seemed the curse was done. All that was left was her and the light elemental.
There was a sudden sparking sound and then the light elemental disappeared, casting her in darkness. “What?” Joan asked. A moment later she felt the belt around her waist launching itself off her. She let out a startled yelp before holding out her right hand and forming a small sphere of light. It flickered out nearly instantly, but it allowed her to see the orb in the belt was smoking, shattered to pieces. “Oh this isn’t good.”
Joan gulped, wondering what was going to happen next, but nothing did. She wanted to use the Eye of the Night to create another bond with Chase, but was honestly afraid to use any darkness magic right now. She stood there for a few minutes and waited for something to happen, but nothing did. “Well… uhhh… are we done, then?” she asked.
Nothing happened. The only thing here seemed to be her, the now dark armor and the weapons floundering behind her. She nervously fumbled around in the dark and picked up the belt, before she cast a small fire spell on her sword. Unlike the light, it remained and allowed her to use it as a blue, glowing torch. “I… I think that’s it,” Joan said. “Anything else? Someone want to try attacking me? No? Good.”
Now she supposed all she had to do was find the Jar of Time. It would be a lot easier without the undead pirates. Assuming she wasn’t torn apart by her own armor in a minute.
------
It took her far longer than she liked to admit, but she managed to finally locate the Jar of Time. Half buried under some very shiny rocks and some enchanted left boots. Just the left ones, she didn’t know why. Maybe the right ones had fallen into the jar. It was bigger than her and likely weighed half a ton, made of solid jade. She tossed the beetle inside and then there was a blinding light. A few seconds later the Silver Beetle flew back out. She caught it with a sigh. “Well… at least this is done,” Joan said softly. She glanced down at her armor and then back at the floating weapons. Nothing was trying to kill her yet, so that was nice.
“Now then,” Joan said before holding up the beetle and rummaging around in her bag. Now she just needed the ring.
… Needed the ring.
……… Where was the ring?
Joan pulled her bag off and started rummaging through it, taking out the things she’d picked up on the way here. “Where are you?” she asked. Though, try as she might, she couldn’t find it. “UGH! How am I supposed to… track… you… oh… oh no.”
She’d tried backtracking where she’d had it last.
But she hadn’t had it in this life.
The cultists hadn’t attacked her. They’d attack Ifrit. They’d fended them off. But she’d never taken a ring of theirs. It had been the Hero. She’d never…
Joan let out a shriek of frustration. “Stupid! STUPID! How?! WHY? Why do you ALWAYS DO THIS?” she yelled. “You can’t just forget the most important part because you’ve DONE IT BEFORE!” She angrily started stuffing things back in her bag, struggling to hold back the tears. She couldn’t help it, though. Her breathing was getting faster and she felt panic rising inside her.
“Why am I so stupid?” Joan asked, wishing she could wipe her eyes but the armor prevented her from touching her face. “They’re all going to think I’m an idiot. Stupid stupid stupid! What’s wrong with me? Why didn’t I think of this beforehand? It can’t just go right, can it? Where am I going to… oh… oh! Right. Ifrit has that parchment with the symbol of Scorpion’s Venom anyway. I can probably use that. I’ll definitely use that. No wonder I didn’t think about it.”
Despite the solution, though, she couldn’t help feeling stupid. Like she’d failed. If Chase found out later, would he think less of her? Would they all? She knew they already so often struggled to believe she knew what she was doing. Would they get even more doubts if she made such an obvious mistake? Was she overthinking it?
What if she really had done all of this and it had been for nothing. If she’d forgotten the most important part and wasted all of their time? It was already such a struggle some days to get them to believe in her at all, what would happen if she kept messing up like this?