Dan threw the corpses in the Trial when it opened. To hide his foul deed from other participants. Or maybe he was just tidy.
[It sounded like he wanted the men to attack him. He provoked them. He lied about having fragments in his bag, right?]
Correct and I agree. He got the result he seemed to have wanted.
Bob, Az’ga, and I were ecstatic Dan was doing the Trial of the Shining One before leveling up more. Of the Boneyard Trials, the bosses in this one had the best chance of killing him.
This is one of the Trials where the participant selects the rating they’re going for. On Hell difficulty, an F-rating isn’t all that hard to get.
Achieving SS-rating is utterly ridiculously hard. Even the environment is deadly on SS. And Dan selected SS. He didn’t even summon Ashen Ruin. What a fool.
This Trial’s supposed to recreate the Light Bearer’s conquest of Hell.
There’re three bosses – Moloch, Beelzebub, and the old ruler of Hell, The False God, B’eliyl, the entity the Shining One killed when he took over.
These guys all fight like clones, but I highly doubt top brass like Moloch and Beelzebub let themselves be cloned. These bosses don’t even look like the depictions or shrines I’ve seen of them either. When I saw Leonard, he looked just like he was supposed to.
And how would B’eliyl be cloned anyways? I have no idea where these clones come from, but they sure can kick some ass.
These guys can cut through extremely strong parties like they’re made of butter, especially at Commander and higher tiers. It’s hilarious.
For Dan, they’d only be mid Iron, level 30, and would only have one or two invocations, but he wasn’t a full party. He was one guy.
And the bosses fight like complete savages. Moloch and Beelzebub both get in close and personal and stay there.
Dan didn’t have the Stats to go toe-to-toe with any of these guys. His STORM would do some damage, but staying alive long enough to spam that invocation wouldn’t be easy.
Lava Stomp wouldn’t be much help, especially on Moloch. We all assumed if these bosses took any damage, it would be from Molten Armor’s damage return.
If he did survive the first battle, Beelzebub would cut him into a thousand little pieces. And if he did manage to beat Moloch and Beelzebub somehow, the last boss had a big surprise.
B’eliyl saps willpower, making one party member useless for the duration. Since he was doing this solo, that would be Dan. He would be made useless. He’d be smooshed as he stood there uselessly.
Then we’d all laugh. We’d all point a tentacle or a claw at Dan’s corpse and laugh at it. For a solid minute, at the very least. Uproarious laughter. And we’d giggle about it for days to come.
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Dan took off his shoes and placed them near his backpack. He hesitated a moment before selecting SS and initiating the Trial.
He knew this wouldn’t be easy, but it had to be done. He was right about standing no chance against Asmodon if he couldn’t live through this Trial on SS now.
His sight faded to black. A quote showed in the darkness.
SS-Rated Trial of the Shining One begins.
“When the principalities told us the Light Bringer was being cast out, I assumed he’d sincerely repent and be filled with remorse and regret. That beautiful smile never left his face. He told us he’d be back, and all of Hell would be coming with him. We laughed. I never thought we’d come to be the ones to so regret that day.”
– Gabriel
Part 1 – Moloch
As Dan’s vision returned, he stood on a pocket of hot soil and jagged rocks. Lava streams broke up the smoky landscape. If he still wore his shoes, they’d already be ruined.
Aspect of Magma made him largely immune to heat effects. The sharp rocks did hurt his feet though.
He didn’t mind. His feet were used to wearing shoes. They weren’t nearly as calloused as they were last time. If he kept collecting footwear, they’d never be.
The lava would be an extra impediment to others without major heat resistance. Dan couldn’t handle lava until he was about level 200 last time, even with fire as his mana-type.
A long strand of lava exited his hand he made a lasso out of.
Then the ghosts of the damned attacked. There were a lot of them, but these were even easier to kill than their undead counterparts in the Trial of the Scouring.
Holding his arm up for so long and spinning his lasso made it sore. He just had to ignore this type of discomfort until his body stopped recognizing it.
Once enough of the damned were killed, a massive ogre with a bull’s head wearing a loincloth and wielding a giant ax appeared in front of him and said, “You’ll regret coming to Hell, angel.”
This ogre was supposed to be Moloch. Dan had met Moloch a few times. This version of him looked nothing like the real thing. The real one had a leonine head with horns, wings of flame, was fully clothed, and spoke very aristocratically.
After invoking Molten Armor, a whip made of lava lashed the face and chest of the ogre. Dan knew the boss would be immune to heat and would only suffer physical damage from the attack, but he was hoping it would leave a welt or cause the boss to at least wince. Moloch only said, “That tickled.”
He lashed the giant that was easily twice his height again. Moloch grabbed the whip out of the air, wrapped it around his hand, and said, “Now I smash you,” as he yanked on the whip and swiped his ax at his tiny opponent.
Dan released the mana keeping the whip’s form and rolled under the massive ax. When he reached Moloch, Dan had a lava-dagger in each hand. He invoked STORM and began stabbing the right leg of the ogre as hard and fast as he could. Moloch laughed and kicked him.
Dan was able to escape the brunt of the kick but was too slow to completely avoid it all and was sent tumbling away. He stopped his movement to roll sideways, barely eluding the broad head of the ax and being cut in two.
Moloch was bleeding out of a decent sized wound on his chest STORM was responsible for.
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Dan hoped he could figure out a way to kill the ogre without just relying on STORM. He also had to find out what invocations the boss had at this low level.
As soon as Moloch said, “Watch this,” Dan knew at least one invocation it had. Some modified and crazy version of the Cyclone Orbment that lasted way, way too long.
Dan began running away as the ogre held his massive ax in two hands and began to spin around like a top, moving far quicker than it could otherwise as it chased down its prey.
Dan ran into a crater and waited. As soon as the spinning giant entered the crater, Dan rushed out of it and watched his enemy try and fail to spin its way out of the crater. If he could keep Moloch in or near the crater, he could nullify the Cyclone attack.
Lava Stomp would only cause the boss to heal. It wouldn’t hold it in place or stop it from spinning.
Once Dan knew what other invocations the ogre had, he could come up with a plan to kill it. Hopefully a plan that didn’t leave him too spent before beginning the second part of the Trial.
Once Moloch finally stopped spinning, he said, “Eww! You like games, little angel! I’ll play a game! I’ll cut your head off and eat it!”
The ogre stepped out of the crater and invoked Cyclone again. No cooldown? And is this the only invocation it got, wondered Dan as he took off sprinting along the edge of the crater before entering and running through it.
Moloch followed and almost reached Dan before he was able to jump out of the crater and move away from the spinning ax.
The ogre’s Cyclone lasted way longer it should, and he didn’t want to just watch as the boss spun around.
He knew Moloch could be injured during Cyclone. STORM was off cooldown, but he couldn’t get close enough to have it land on Moloch while that invocation was going. He formed the longest whip he could and lashed it at the ogre.
The whip tangled around the head or neck of Moloch as the boss continued its frenzied spin. The tangled whip began to quickly pull Dan to the boss.
Dan fell onto his backside and grabbed at anything he could to slow his advance. He slammed into a boulder and wrapped his legs and free arm around it. His arm holding the whip felt like it was being pulled out of its socket.
But Dan managed to hold tight, and his arm stayed attached. The boss stopped spinning around, but the invocation kept trying to force the spin.
Dan’s arm hurt and burned badly. He could see his whip tangled around the ogre’s neck and its face turning purple. Something was going to give soon, and he hoped it wouldn’t be his arm.
A few moments later, Moloch’s head popped off and its body crashed to the ground.
A two-minute timer showed in Dan’s vision. He caught his breath and massaged his arm for a minute before walking to the corpse and collecting the six Epic frags it dropped.
The giant ax counted as a drop, but it was way too big and heavy to wield and storing it in his belt would cost way too much.
He couldn’t believe his luck. That fight went much better than he could’ve ever hoped for.
The next one was the most worrying. Beelzebub was fast. Or the fake Beelzebub. Dan had never met the real one, but the boss looked nothing like his depiction in the Class Trial or the high pantheon shrines, the same as Moloch.
No one knew if the members of the high pantheon were demons or devils. After a certain point, the demons and devils were all considered more, something else, beyond simple classification. Besides Beelzebub. Everyone knew the Lord of the Flies started out as a demon.
Dan continued to catch his breath and stretch out his arm as his vision faded to black.
“I pleaded with the Shining One to repent, to get on his knees and beg our Lord for forgiveness. He told me he never would. He said one day we would all kneel before him and plead for our lives. And that when we did, he would probably forgive us our sins against him.”
– Samael
Part 2 – Beelzebub
Dan’s vision returned and he was standing in a similar but much darker and ashen landscape. Big flakes of dust and burnt-out embers blew in the harsh wind, and he had to squint his eyes to protect them from it all.
If Dan was in a full party of six, there would’ve been 36 demons. Instead, only six rushed him. They’d all have at least one invocation, and he didn’t want to find out which.
Lava Stomp and STORM took care of most of them. His whip took care of the survivors.
As Dan collected the dropped frags, out of the ground appeared Beelzebub. The Lord of the Flies looked like a giant humanoid fly. It had a head with massive, maroon-colored eyes, a thorax with two wings and six appendages, and an abdomen.
The demon used four of its appendages as arms and two as legs. Each arm held a strangely curved sword. The giant fly said, “Ah, the Light Bringer graces our realm with a visit. I don’t think you’ll be enjoying your stay,” and flew at Dan, four swords leading the way.
Dan cast Molten Armor, covered both hands and forearms with a thick layer of lava, and went completely on defense. He barely had the speed to block the attacks of all four swords as Beelzebub hovered above the ground, laying into him with a non-stop barrage of attacks for minutes.
Not once did Dan get a chance to attack. Every ounce of his focus went into not getting cut to pieces as he was pushed back further and further, kept on his back leg the whole time, waiting.
The demon’s thorax began to glow purple. Dan waited. As soon as a thousand needles flew out of Beelzebub’s chest, Dan dove aside, quickly got to his feet, and defended against a new barrage of sword attacks while hoping that was the only invocation the demon had.
If Moloch only had one invocation, Dan doubted Beelzebub had two. But he had to ensure the demon didn’t have its usual defensive one that reflected full invocations back at the attacker. Dan wouldn’t survive STORM or being locked in place by Lava Stomp.
A few minutes later, after the boss next invoked its needle spray, Dan was certain the boss only had one invocation.
Beelzebub was fast, but he wasn’t nearly as durable as Moloch. As Dan furiously blocked, he invoked STORM. An image of a fist showed over his opponent’s chest. Fist-weapon or not, blood splattered everywhere.
The demon yelled out, “Arggh,” stopped hovering, and its legs touched the ground.
And Lava Stomp held the giant fly there. Just for a second, but that was all Dan needed to crash into it with his body. He madly stabbed its eyes with lava daggers before rolling off the corpse of his enemy.
Beelzebub had managed to stab Dan’s side pretty good and got two decent slashes in on his right arm.
After standing, Dan removed the sword still sticking out of his side and dropped it. The hilt was bloody and slippery. He took the frags, an Orbment Foundation, and two other swords from the corpse as a two-minute timer appeared in his vision.
He would’ve put all the swords in his belt if they weren’t considered so valuable. The tax for one sword would be about 600 trash frags.
Two minutes later, his vision faded to black.
“Once I was defeated, I asked if he honestly believed he had any chance of standing against B’eliyl in his own realm. The Light Bringer just laughed as he lovingly caressed my bloody face. He then kissed my forehead and told me I had bigger problems to worry about. And he was right. My insides started boiling. I truly almost died. Never once in all my life had I felt such fear before that moment. Still, I got off lightly compared to my old lord, The False God.”
– Beelzebub
Part 3 – B’eliyl
Once Dan’s vision cleared, he was in an even harsher environment. A throne of skulls stood off in the distance. He was immediately rushed by a wave of the damned.
He didn’t have time to make a lasso, so fought them with lashes as he slowly retreated, gripping the two swords awkwardly in one hand.
After the damned, six demons appeared and charged at him. He dropped the two swords.
Killing all the damned healed the slices on his right arm completely, but his side was still injured and bleeding. And defeating the six demons gave him a few new injuries. As did the six devils he faced after them.
Finally, B’eliyl appeared, sitting on his throne of skulls. From the back of the throne rose a spiked pillar made of something so profane that it made Dan’s skin crawl. Every couple of minutes or so, that pillar would pulse and heal B’eliyl.
The False God was an armored, humanoid skeleton with bull horns. He held a lance in his right hand, its butt propped on the floor. Some flesh would occasionally drop off his bones and turn into a pool of writhing maggots on the ground.
The Lord of Hell said, “Welcome to my realm, Shining One. Come now and face me. Your skull will next be added to my throne.”
As B’eliyl stood, he tossed his lance a little into the air to catch its hilt, then pointed the weapon, and sent a ray of destructive energy at Dan.
This fight would be difficult. Dan knew that. He dove out of the way of the beam and prepared.
He knew this fight would be difficult, but it was his favorite fight in the whole Game.
The next invocation The False God cast sapped willpower by trapping someone within a favorite memory.
Dan entered the door to his apartment. Amanda saw him and excitedly screamed out, “Daddy!” She ran to him. He picked her up and threw her into the air before hugging the laughing child to his chest. She wrapped her arms around his head and kissed his nose.
“I missed you, Daddy.”
“I missed you too, angel. So much. I love you so much.”
“I love you, Daddy.”
Unlike how he always remembered Amanda now, with shame in her eyes, and disappointment and disgust on her face, the same as the version of Amanda the demons constantly showed him, this one loved him. He never failed this one. He never killed this one.
This one loved her daddy, and her daddy loved her more than words could ever express. She was his one shining light in a world of complete shit.
Amanda laughed and kissed Dan’s nose again. “Daddy, you gotta dodge now.”