Deacon felt awful. He was dirty, green blood was leaking across his chest, and his health bar was down to seventy percent out of one fifty. He tried to sit up but the pain from his wound prevented it. The party skill was still active but whatever he was hit with was repeatedly consuming the regen he was getting from Triage. He decided to take a moment and review his waiting notification as he stared up into the darkness of the cavern.

Unnamed connection between the Nether Plane and The Black. Would you like to name it? Yes/No

After selecting yes, Deacon mulled over the name he had set for that connection in his mind. The destructive capability of that form was evident. There was almost nothing left of the combined monster besides brittle icy shavings. The fact that his dragon claws turned to shards of ice that even hurt him in that form was disturbing. Deacon decided to go with the first thought he had during that battle; Absolute Zero.

Suddenly the energy eating away at his chest just stopped. The effects vanished and his perk started sealing up the wound. Horns began blowing and Deacon propped himself up on his elbows to view the fighting in the distance. It seemed the Goblins have decided to go for an all or nothing approach. The green skinned enemy was just pouring out of the broken doors as the defending troops were being pushed back by sheer numbers. He got up to one knee before a warm hand landed on his right shoulder. Deacon didn’t realize how much the last battle took out of him. He wasn’t even paying attention to his surroundings.

“I’ll take it from here. Before I met you, I would not have been capable of stopping this, but now… just watch,” said Daskus Bloodbeard.

He was wearing a full body cloak, complete with a hood covering everything from his eyes up. The hand on Deacon’s shoulder gave off a feint orange hue. Deacon watched as Daskus strode forward flanked by two heavily armored guards wielding two handed swords. There was a gnome woman about four feet tall trailing behind them. She was wearing mages robes and fiddling with a yellow crystal she was trying to screw into a scepter.

Once she managed to get it fastened correctly, it began to pulse an amber light in front of them. It illuminated a great deal of the cavern as it was now tapering in toward the doors. The Goblins that were streaming in now were not armored and fell more into the traditional image of the loin cloth wearing wild men most people know them as. It seems the well trained and light resistant variants had all been ground down by all the fighting. The fresh Goblins were all shielding their eyes from the light giving the troops unblocked attacks. The defenders even parted to let Daskus’s group through the lines. Words were exchanged with Ralph before a fallback order rang out.

This concerned Deacon for the briefest of moments before the cloak around Daskus burnt off exposing his newly regrown legs from the knees down and his left arm. There were lines of red and orange snaking their way around the new limbs. Where there used to be tracks of veins, there were now hot streams of magma coursing up and down. Daskus raised his hands and the earth beneath them shook. The Goblins that were backing away from the light of the crystal started to move a bit faster. It was all in vain, as lava burbled out of the ground all around the entrance to the Deep Cavern. A wave of red hot liquid death poured its way from the back of the cavern toward Daskus. It swallowed the remaining host of Goblins whole and stopped at Daskus’s feet. It pooled up on his right and left sides like it ran into a retaining wall. As the lava began to cool the gnome grabbed a water skin from her bag and slipped it under her right arm. For a second Deacon thought he was going to see this world’s version of bag piper before gouts of water sprayed in all directions as she squeezed down on the skin. Daskus nodded to her and lowered his arms.

The colors on the ground went from angry red to orange and finally to a dark stone color oddly matching the cavern floor. There was enough of it that wadded up to either side of Daskus that there was a good eight inch step up. Deacon thought it was almost like a curb from back home. Then his attention left Daskus’s back as Magrumin Smitehammer strode across the cooling magma. When he reached what was left of the old doors, he plunged his sword into the ground as it flashed with holy light. There was an outline within the doorway now of two new doors. They were almost sketched in with white lines and the souls of many of the slain goblins floated up into it. As each of them reached the outline, a solid metal patch appeared. It looked like he was rebuilding the gates using the slain of Hipag’s forces and the power of Mantarok.

Deep within his bones Deacon could tell that this was miracle level holy Arcanum. No wonder the big Deep Dweller hadn’t entered the battle himself. While Magrumin was working, Ralph was making his way back to Deacon with almost giddy expression. Ralph stopped about forty yards from where Deacon lay. His eyes were fixated on something Deacon couldn’t see. Then his body lit up with golden light before light before dimming back to normal.

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“Yes!” yelled Ralph before fist pumping.

“What? What happened?” asked Deacon getting up to his feet.

“I got my specialization. I’m level twenty five now… wow I was holding back five levels waiting for that. Why are you naked again? Hang on, I’ll be right there,” Ralph said before he picked up his pace.

That’s when a ring of white light lit up around Deacon. On either side of him were full plate mail armored Deep Dwellers standing near five and half feet tall, holding long polearm weapons nearly just as big. Their armor lit up with runic sigils of all colors. The tops of their weapons split open revealing blue crystals with a white outline. The split sections were half crescent moon curved and completely separated from the weapon. They just floated around the crystals in a slow orbit.

“Deacon, Champion of Chimera. You are under arrest for inciting sedition against the Stone Council. You will be taken into custody and tried before the council itself before sentencing. Please come quietly or we will take you by force,” said both Rune Guards at the same time.

“Shit! Typhus!” screamed Ralph as he broke into a sprint.

“The fuck I will. I just helped save your city. You must have massive balls to come out here after the battle and—” began Deacon before stepping forward across the boundary of the white circle.

Deacon was subsequently shocked by the invisible barrier. Psychic energy ran up and down his nervous system making him twitch and sputter. If he was wearing pants they would have been soiled.

“Noncompliance will be met with subjugation,” they both said before slamming the butts of their weapons into the ground. The crystals lit up and fired white beams directly at Deacon’s head. He stopped moving entirely at that point.

The two rune guards dismissed the white circle and each grabbed Deacon by the arm pit. His body just slumped as they easily carried his weight. The next sound heard was the ringing of steel as all the now gathered soldiers, adventurers, and house Bloodbeard guards all brandished their weapons.

“Put. Him. Down,” Ralph said with the finality of a man willing to die for his beliefs.

The Rune Guard simply disappeared with a snapping of arcane power taking Deacon along with them. A short time after, Typhus arrived. He calmed the irate defenders and had everyone return to the fort as Magrumin continued to rebuild the gates.

“They can’t do this. He worked himself into a miserable state fighting for this city. Then they show up out of nowhere, knock him out and teleport away!” yelled Ralph.

“The Rune Guard are our city’s elite forces. They are of course sponsored by House Hascavir. How did I not see this coming? They clearly waited for Magrumin to be occupied to pull this off. He could overrule them in matters of war. Fuck, I have too politic. This is why I left to begin with,” Typhus grumbled while pacing back and forth.

They were now in the officers’ building inside the fort. Sophie managed to recover Alfred from the remaining war golem that wasn’t destroyed by Deacon’s ability. Daskus had joined them to discuss next steps. Magrumin Smitehammer was still crafting the new barrier between the surface world and the Deep Cavern.

“What’s the next step Typhus? Will you be speaking with your father on Deacon’s behalf?” asked Sophie.

“Our father has been in council all day today. I was unable to get an audience which is one of the things that made me come down here. Ty, something is wrong. We need to get inside the chambers. As I made my way down to the battle there were notices posted about a public trial and execution for this evening. The sun is due to rise in the next hour. I think we only have the day to figure out what’s going on and how to stop it,” added Daskus.

“I say we storm wherever they are keeping Deacon. Take him out by force,” Ralph said.

“No. That’s a fool’s errand. You just spent the entire night fighting. How much stamina do you have left? You’ll, at the very least, need to sleep before you can take up arms again. I think Ty is right. We will have to use politics to solve this. If they are having a public trial, then the nobles will use the viewing chambers above the council room. It’s like a dome of glass with magically amplified sound so you can hear what’s being said. At the very least we should be able to get you all in there,” responded Daskus as he stroked his beard, the ends of which resembled the embers from a lit cigar.

“Not good enough. I’ll reach out to my contacts to see if I can dig anything else up. Daskus, have you heard anything from the Tuskaxes? Deacon was doing a job for them before he joined the fight,” asked Typhus.

“Before I left, a letter came for you. I stuffed it in my bag. Julia, if you please. I’m still learning to control the level of my heat. The end of the battle was me just relaxing my control. As you can tell, this is going to take some getting used to,” replied Daskus.

The gnome woman rummaged around in a bag before she produced a sealed letter with the house sigil of the Tuskaxes pressed into the wax. Typhus broke the seal on the letter and read the contents. He then crumpled it into a ball and tossed it at Daskus. Daskus absentmindedly reached out to catch it. It immediately burst into flames.

“What was that for?” Daskus asked while shaking the ash from his hand.

“If I may speak, I’m getting a sense of distress and pain from master Deacon. Whatever we are going to do, we should hurry,” chimed in Alfred.

“Alfred, how connected are you and Deacon?” asked Typhus.

“We are soul bound. I can sense his presence within a mile or so. Pinpointing is more difficult, if you are thinking of using me as Deacon divining rod,” replied Alfred.

“No, nothing like that. Alright everyone, here is my plan...” began Typhus.