“I’ll let you handle this, DevilWalker,” Nox said, chuckling as he fell through a shadow. His voice echoed through the shadows as if it came from a long tunnel, “I’ve got a Limbocyte to slay.”
Every Goblin in the room that was not engaged with the Limbo Monster turned their weapon on Milma. The action made her flinch back a step, and her hand moved to her sword, but she hesitated to draw it. Colin could understand, with this many Goblins around, even if they weren’t out-leveled, there were just too many.
“What are you waiting for!” shouted one of the Goblins, his voice firm, authoritative, and a harsh British. “She’s one of the Hated Gnomes! Kill her now, by order of the old King, Rhaulish the Defender!”
“May he rest until Eternity!” Every Goblin shouted in unison.
Then they started to charge. Milma drew her weapon, parrying spear thrusts and sword swings with incredible finesse. She moved the fight away from the group, still coming from the portal, and moved with even more speed. It must have been some kind of skill because the way she moved began to blur, and her weapon lit up with a pale blue light. That light added more power to her blade, making it easier to defend against the heavier armored Goblins. She moved with their attacks, leaped past swords and spears, and fought with quick blasts of invisible force. Her every move kept them at a small distance and her a little safer.
Colin thought she was wise enough not to try to kill the Goblins but wasn’t sure how long it would take her to tire out.
And then the robed Goblins appeared, a trio of them with different styles to their uniforms. Then a shaft of magic appeared above each of their heads, one made of lightning, another of fire, the last of ice, and each was the size of a ballista bolt. They shouted their spells in unison, each name different and jumbled together, and all three launched.
“SpellBlade Parry!” Milma announced, her ninjatō flaring a bright neon green. She faced the spells and leaped at them, her sword moving to intercept the magic. Colin had not tried to parry spells in the past; they were too fast and made of energy, something that could not usually be blocked with a sword. But that ability or skill made it possible.
She caught each on her sword with graceful, sweeping moves and turned each aside with three swings. The shafts of elemental magic kept moving when she turned them aside, two detonating against the cavern walls and the fire spell blasting away a half dozen of the Goblins on the ground.
“She’s a SpellBlade Monk. Get the Specialists!” ordered the Commander from behind the main line. He held a piece of bronze in his hand and began yelling into it in a snarling tongue that Colin did not recognize.
To each side of the Commander, a new goblin appeared. Both wore a uniform that marked them as part of the Goblin forces, but neither wore armor. One wore leathers and a harlequin mask and headgear. He held a chain with a sickle on one end and a weighted ball on the other. The second Goblin wore very little, only a loose pair of leather shorts, but his entire body looked emaciated like he was anorexic.
An earth-shaking rumble echoed and shook the cavern, followed by mischievous cackling. The fighting, all of it, stopped all at once. Even the Limbocyte paused and looked around the chamber, trying to find the source of the sound.
“From the deepest corners, I call to you! From the shadows among the burning pyres, I bind you here! And from the darkness before and after the lightning, I summon you here, Akteturon, The Beast of Dark Burdens. The Standing Shadow. The Unending Atonement! I summon you and Bind you here to kill this Limbocyte!” Nox roared, and the shadows responded.
The room darkened by several stages; every bit of light from carried torches to magical lamps and even glowing fungi died to mere glows. The next scene was one of silhouettes and stolen flashes. Nox entered the space between the Goblin forces and the hesitant Limbocyte. In both hands, he held his cane in his open hands as if offering it up to the beast. Then the pole lengthened, the right end branched into three sharp tines and the other into a single twisted point.
As soon as the weapon manifested, the light steadily rose to its earlier brightness. And Nox began to battle the Limbocyte himself while it returned. Reaching into his coat pockets, he withdrew a pair of sealed glass bottles and shattered one upon the trident, then threw the other at the Limbocyte.
The glass shattered upon touching the creature, and Nox shouted, “Stained Light!” The potion upon its skin reacted to the command; it hardened, lengthened, and thrust into the Limbocyte like knife blades. It screamed and swung one of its now lightning arms at Nox, who defected the blow with a puff of shadow from the trident and thrust into its plasma-formed arm. Light drained from the surroundings again, like oil being pulled from water, and Nox laughed as the monster thrashed.
“What’s the matter? Can’t adapt fast enough?!” Nox screamed.
He withdrew the trident, and the monster immediately drew the appendage away from Nox. The arm had become something freakish, like a pale human hand fused with a bird’s claw. The three-pronged wound was immediately visible from a distance, and even more interesting was that the arm stayed the same shape.
“And this,” Nox started, twirling the trident in his fingers. “Is just made with the ingredients I had on hand. Imagine what I could do if I had even a drop of some high-grade shadow materials. A feather from an Omen could have made this weapon breach dimensions. A drop of Erebus Ichor could have made this potent enough to kill gods. A vial of Lethe Water could have made this able to summon its black waters.” Nox laughed at his foe. “And I need none of them to slay you!” Then he slashed his palm upon the trident.
“But adding in the Blood of the Lightsnuffer ought to add something special to it,” Nox cackled as black flesh spread from the trident. It wrapped around the weapon, tendrils of twisting muscle and sinew that changed the weapon from beautiful to sinister.
The Limbocyte attacked, thrashing both limbs at Nox, its damaged arm remaining that disfigured claw while the other fluctuated between forms. Flowing fire, sparking ice, fleshy stone, and metallic wind assaulted Nox, and he deflected each with a swing of the flesh-laden trident and a stream of shadow.
“Someone has the beast; now kill the Gnome!” shouted the Commander.
Then, all at once, both Goblin specialists sprang at Milma. She was evading well, but her tactics were less effective against them. They were stronger than the regular army Goblins and faster. The one with the sickle and chain was fast and extraordinarily skilled, his chain spun around, and Milma finally took a hit as she blocked it wrong, and the weighted ball end whipped around and hit her arm.
The other squatted down, and magical dark fire ignited upon his hands. He smacked his hands into his thighs and spoke a quick trio of words in Goblin, and there was a wet tearing of flesh as he tore into his legs. McKenna gasped, and Colin was shocked at the display as the Goblin grabbed his femurs and wrenched them out. In an instant, the wounds regenerated, and the bones reshaped themselves to form a pair of bone swords.
He sprung at Milma, attacking her in conjunction with the other, and she was immediately overwhelmed. If she spent a moment attacking one or defending against the other, the other one in the pair would attack her. The bone one, in particular, was vicious; his attacks dealt a fair chunk of damage with every hit.
And yet, she still seemed to refuse to attack them with any real intent. Her only attacks seemed to only wound or hobble, not kill, something that Colin could not fathom.
“Alright, I’ve had enough of this,” Colin said, looking at his wife and companions. “Shall we lend her a hand?”
“Please tell me you were only waiting to see if they’d stop after Nox did his thing?” McKenna asked, glaring. “Because if not-”
“No, that is exactly what I was waiting for,” Colin told her quickly. “So, how do we want to do this, all at once or with a big bang?” he asked. “Cause I have something for a big bang.” Pulling a new dagger loose from his belt, he smiled at the assembled Goblins. Most of them were still fighting Milma, but several still had weapons leveled against the rest of them.
“No need for that, DevilWalker,” Kore said, stepping through her portal and surveying the field. She specifically observed the battle between Nox and the Limbocyte and grinned, “At least he does not waste time.”
“Mistress Kore!” one of the Goblins shouted, pointing his spear at her.
Kore stepped up to the front of Colin’s group, intentionally standing between them and the main force of the Goblins. “Who is the Commander?!” she shouted over the din.
The Commander, a Goblin man whose clothing looked like an officer’s uniform, stepped forward from the crowd. His distinguishing feature besides his uniform was that he had the most outrageous and well-groomed snow-white mustache that any players had ever seen. Colin had seen him from behind the Goblin ranks, and he certainly looked confident, carrying a cavalry saber in one hand with its sheath in the other. The drawn weapon was not a tactic meant to threaten them; it only looked like a precaution as he stood before his soldiers. “I am Commander Rulfinch, Commander of the 31st Regiment of Grimhold.”
“Commander Rulfinch?” Kore questioned. “I know that name. Weren’t you the Lieutenant of the 42nd Regiment a few months ago?”
The Goblin smiled, pleased with this outcome. “I am honored that you know my name, Lady Kore,” the Commander said, bowing to her from the waist. His eyes never left Colin or the rest of them. When he stood straight a moment later, he gestured to everyone behind her, “I take it that they are all with you, Lady Kore?”
“They are, and unfortunately, so is the Gnome,” she said, sounding like a curse between her teeth. “I suggest you call off the attack before her companions get upset because I won’t save them or you if another battle kicks off. And,” she paused, looking at the blade Colin held. “I doubt that your forces could handle them, Commander, even if their levels are lower than that of your forces.”
“I think you underestimate my Soldiers,” the Commander said.
“And I think you are taking my warning too lightly,” she retorted. “Especially since-”
The Limbocyte screamed, its voice like tearing metal and a feral cat. Everyone turned to see what was happening, and Nox stood beneath the creature, its howling aimed at him. Various things were happening around him; the ground beneath him shattered, the pieces melted, motes of light appeared like stars about Nox, and even the air twisted at the sound of its scream. But Nox stood there, a dome of translucent shadow separating him from the attack that should have been ripping him apart if the pain Colin felt was accurate. Every few seconds, pain raced through his body, and it felt like something inside him was burning. No, blisteringly freezing. No, being stabbed.
You hear a scream of deafening chaos. You take 36 points of damage and now have 721/757 health remaining.
And as the scream continued, seeming to grow louder, the damage messages kept coming every five to ten seconds. The pain got a little worse with each message.
You hear a scream of deafening chaos. You take 38 points of damage and now have 683/757 health remaining.
You hear a scream of deafening chaos. You take 40 points of damage and now have 643/757 health remaining.
You hear a scream of deafening chaos. You take 42 points of damage and now have 601/757 health remaining.
You hear a scream of deafening chaos. You take 44 points of damage and now have 557/757 health remaining.
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Everyone except Nox and Kore was in some pose, twisting in pain and agony. The Goblin army was on the ground, writhing in pain, and several had already perished. The bodies of the dead were twisted and affected by the chaotic nature of the scream. One twisted into a mass of coal that was only shaped like a Goblin, while another just melted. And Colin stared in fascinated horror as others fragmented into a spray of sparks and electrical discharge. Another had a portal open up in his stomach and was pulled inside out.
He looked to his right and found Rielle, bow in hand, but she was curled around it. Blood leaked from several cuts, and burns marked her skin. Larry was still standing, but he was using a pole made of HellRime to remain standing against the damage.
He turned to his left and found McKenna, forgetting his pain momentarily when he saw her on her knees. She was facing the Limbocyte, glaring at the thing as she held her Necklace in her hands, the Void Edict.
No, Colin thought, that would be better to save for something else. And he readied himself to throw the Dagger, one of the three items he had spent time enchanting the night before.
Then a giant fist made only from shadows twisted out of a dark wall and slammed into the Limbocyte. The kinetic force behind the blow threw the creature back, cutting off its scream and slamming it into a wall. It’s one arm remained a twisted piece of amalgamated flesh while the rest still switched between solid, liquid, gas, or energy.
Everyone was watching as Nox fell into his own shadow and disappeared. For one harrowing second, he did not reappear and continue the battle with the Limbocyte, the creature beginning to rise from the floor. But then, an explosion of shattered rock and shadow announced his movement toward the monster. He collided trident first into the Limbocytes head, the mass becoming flesh the second after he impaled it.
And yet, it was still alive. The Limbocyte’s still fluctuating arm sprung at Nox, its arm of flowing lightning reaching for him with the speed of a reflex. But Nox shouted above the crackling of the electricity, “Nightwave Invasion!”
The attack halted, and the arm jerked away, clawing and seizing the ground in sudden pain. All the air in the tunnel howled as it was displaced, and the temperature dropped suddenly. Most forms of flame winked out at the cold snap, ice, and snow beginning to form over most surfaces. And soaking into the wound that Nox was still impaling was shadows like black ink and smoke funneling into the creature.
“Come on! Die!” Nox shouted to the creature, demanding its end. The shadows continued to pour into the wound, invading it and the monster becoming fleshier by the second. It festered and became paler as he poured more and more shadows into the Limbocyte. “Fine, try this! Fractured Light!”
The room shook, and cracks appeared in the air around the stab wound. It looked like a thousand glass panes were shattering around where the trident entered the Limbocyte’s head. These cracks spilled out golden twilight and thus also produced more vivid shadows. Shadows that Nox forced into the creature again.
Nearly a minute passed of Nox stabbing it in the face and forcing literal darkness into it like poison. The cracks in the air expanded, creating more shadows for Nox to draw upon for his attack, and Colin had to wonder how much mana he had at his disposal.
“Ah ha, finally!” Nox shouted, withdrawing his trident from the Limbocyte and leaped into his own shadow. The creature shook and trembled, vibration rocking its entire form and making it into one twisting blur. Twisting from its jerking death throes that made it lash out and attempt to take someone with it, to no avail.
It carved furrows into the ground with its claws, yelled at the ceiling, and rented its flesh asunder. Its blood ignited with the air, and many goblins were in the path of the splatter but caught it on their shields.
Then it collapsed to the ground and finally went still. Its flesh compressed in on itself and shifted one final time to something dark and crystalline. Though it had a lot of mass before, now its remains were about as long as Colin was tall.
Cheers broke out from the assembled Goblins as the Limbocyte died. Every Goblin besides Nox and Kore had their weapons above their heads, their voices echoing through the cavern.
“Wait!” shouted Commander Rulfinch. The cheers came to a steady end, dying down and becoming nothing but a low murmur of wonder as he looked around. His large mustache twitched and shook as he grumbled under his breath. But upon not being satisfied, the Commander yelled, “Who was it that killed the Beast?!”
“I did, Commander,” Nox said, voice dripping with sarcasm as he walked out from behind Colin.
“And who are you?” Commander Rulfinch demanded. “You are not one of my Soldiers, and I do not know of any shadow magic practitioners as… effective as you.”
Nox chortled, “Of course not. There are probably only a few mortal spellcasters as potent as me, Commander. I am he who slew the Quaralict in its den. I am he who walked through to the end of night and terror. I am he who slew the Venitas Demon and gained my moniker. I am he who helped make the Goblin tribes of the Magnolia Steppes become the chosen of our Goddess. And I am the one who created the gemstones in the Goblin Monarch’s crown.”
“Who are you?! What is your name?!” demanded the Commander, green face darkening. But many of the other Goblins were already whispering the space between the Commander’s question and Nox’s answer stretched.
“I am Nox Lightsnuffer,” he answered, his voice more subdued than it was a moment earlier.
“Impossible,” the Commander replied. “It may be possible to return from the dead if a revival spell is cast fast enough. But a resurrection done on this scale is impossible. No, this is impossible.”
“Commander,” Kore raised her voice. “It is him. Our Goddess sensed it and sent me to get him. So unless you doubt our Goddess’s knowledge and will, I suggest you accept it. Now, will you give him his due, or do I have to ask the Generals to assign a new Commander, as you will be permanently indisposed?”
Commander Rulfinch ground his teeth, the sound like scraping iron. “Captain Lewrin, assemble a crew and retrieve the spoils of war.” One of the Goblins nearby the Commander saluted and grabbed a trio of other goblins to go to where the Limbocyte died. “May I assume that you do not wish word to get out that Nox has returned?” the Commander asked.
“You would be correct, Commander. I doubt it will be over a day until it is announced, but that is for the Goddess to decide, not us. Please keep this between your Soldiers and us. If word does not get out, I can promise you all Sweetworm meal buns in your Regiments travel rations for the next three months.”
“Of course,” Commander Rulfinch acknowledged quickly. All annoyance was gone, and there was a trace of saliva on his lips.
“Sweetworm Meal Buns?” Colin asked Nox, who stood at his side.
“Sweetworms are a grub that eats ambient magic down here, but I was not aware that it was this… popular,” the Goblin answered, looking at the slightly dreamy looks of his fellow Goblins. “Now I admit I’m curious why they are doing this.”
“Pardon this question, but I am curious, Lady Kore,” the Commander said, straightening himself up and wiping his mouth. “What about Sir Cindersong?”
“He should not ask any questions, but if he does find out about The Lightsnuffer, let us know,” Kore said, smiling cheerfully. “We are just trying to avoid him doing anything rash and will inform him soon. But enough about him, how did the blockade of the Curtaine Tunnel go well?” she queried.
“Oh, as well as expected, I think. The wall went up, and the Beasts raged against it for some time before they seeked out easier places to ravage. It is terribly weakened, and they know we erected that barrier, and they wail on it briefly every time one passes before moving on. We fear it is only a matter-” The Commander droned on, him and Kore chatting about recent events for several minutes.
McKenna approached Colin and grabbed his arm, “I never knew a monster like that existed in this game.” She stated it calmly, but her face was one of concentration and a little worry. But more than anything, she seemed to be staring at the place where Nox and the Limbocyte had fought. If he had to guess, she was thinking of ways to fight the thing herself if it came down to it.
“Oh, I would not worry about the Limbocytes,” Larry told them. “They are literally the least of the creatures of Limbo. You are lucky if you have only had to deal with the Limbocytes. You have no idea what-”
“Oh, there have been more,” Kore said, interrupting the Demon in disguise. “We have dealt with Limbaryotes and even some Limboclasts, and one Neura-Limbose,” she said, a shudder going through her spine. “The Neura-Limbose took the Goddess herself to slay it and she is still resting from that experience.”
“Well,” Larry said, falling short, he simply said, “shit.”
“And,” Kore continued. “Now, due to Nox’s timely intervention with this Limbocyte, the City-States are a little safer, but it will not be long before it is replaced. Ah, and here is your prize for killing the Limbocyte,” she gestured to the coming Goblins.
They carried the crystal cradled in a large cloth sheet between them. The remains of the Limbocyte was around a full meter long and was as thick as Colin’s leg. The entire thing looked like a fractalized version of the arm that Nox had first damaged, a mutated arm that looked like a human hand curled into a sharp hawk’s talons. And it was mostly a deep shade of black and gray, but shot within it was white and yellow.
Colin decided to appraise the item and got a happy surprise before getting its Appraisal.
Your Appraisal Skill is now level 6. You can now appraise more items and you now gain more labeled information.
Lesser Ordered Chaos(Midnight Attuned). Item Weight: 31 Kilograms. Durability: 10/10. Item Quality:6. Item Type: Crafting Component.
A piece of Limbo that has been slain and its form finally forced to something that the Physical Realm can hold.
Ordered chaos is a paradox contained within this item, alongside its various aspects. The magic or other instruments used to kill a piece of Limbo alter the final composition that the Ordered Chaos takes and is attuned to it, allowing it to remain in the Physical World. This particular piece of Ordered Chaos is Midnight Attuned due to the very high purity of Shadow magic and the small traces of light used to slay it.
Care must be used when attempting to utilize any piece of Ordered Chaos; the very nature of it is controlled volatility and is dangerous.
The new information was the item type; this thing, in particular, was labeled as a Crafting Component. While the information was pointless now, he knew there would be times when it would come in handy.
“Thank you kindly,” Nox said, walking up to the large crystal, and he touched the crystal, and the entire thing collapsed, vanishing into a tiny black hole.
The entire ground gasped at the disappearance, and even Larry whistled at the disappearance.
“What?” Colin asked his familiar.
“You normally cannot move chaos or chaotic items into extradimensional spaces. The magic used to move it inside may render the item even more unstable and cause it to rupture the nearby space,” Larry explained. Then added casually, “It might explode if the extradimensional space is not stable enough.”
“And mine is made from a very powerful Shadow Magic Rite,” Nox told them through the shadows. “I would not worry about it exploding under my watch, DevilWalker, but you may want to get a Dimensional Bag that can hold these things. I have a feeling that we will be needing it soon.”
“Commander,” Kore said, pulling their attention back to her and away from Nox. “It is time to leave this scarred place. Let us return to GrimHold. We need to visit the Goddess.”
“And the Gnome?” the Commander asked. “No one is going to like seeing a Gnome about the City.”
Kore shrugged, “she wanted to come with them,” she said, gesturing to Colin and his Party. “No one is responsible for her safety except herself. Just like if anyone attacks her, they reap what she sows. Is that understood?” she confirmed.
“Yes, My Lady,” he said, bowing. “Specialists!” Commander shouted. Both specialists turned to look at their Commander and stopped glaring at Milma. Neither had attacked her since the Limbocyte’s scream, and both looked like they wanted to reengage. “Come along, leave the Gnome alone.”
“Commander,” the Bone Goblin said with annoyance. He dropped his weaponized thigh bones and sulked towards their leader, the other following him without a word.
“Commander, I would appreciate an escort back into the city. I am afraid my gate must not have been entirely accurate. I tried to bring us into the Western Arboretum, but I must have made a mistake,” she explained.
The Commander looked between Kore and a few of his, what Colin assumed to be his officers. He furrowed his brows and seemed to consider his words for a moment, a silent conversation occurring between him and a pair of his Officers in a few glances.
When someone spoke, it was not the Commander; it was one of his Officers this time. She spoke with a solid but feminine voice that spoke of confidence. “My Lady Kore, I regret to be the one to inform you, but… this is where the Western Arboretum stood.”
A moment of silence rushed through the crowd as the Soldiers bowed their heads in remembrance. Kore took a shaky step away and looked around her, searching for anything in this massive cavern room that could confirm their worlds.
“How long ago?” she asked.
“Three weeks, a Limboclast broke through the defenses. Killed everyone in this section of the city,” the same Goblin answered.
Nodding in acknowledgment, Kore said nothing for a moment. But then she turned away from the Commander and looked right at Nox and Colin. “Come on, we need to see Lady Hel, and we have wasted enough time.”