At the far end of the throne room, the king sat on his throne on top of a low, wide stage. A gray stone wall behind the throne was decorated with heavy tapestries. A small colored-glass window behind the throne showed the darkness of night, but nothing as dark as the cloud that swirled around the king and his advisor, an agent of the darkness. The king remained slumped in his throne, leaning to the side toward the dark agent whispering in his ear. Although the king’s eyes fell on Max, he made no other movement.He simply sat there. The dark agent glanced sideways at Max and continued to whisper to the king.
Max drew his sword as the Ralynn Guard thrust with his spear.
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> Ralynn Guard attacks Max.
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> Attack dodged; no damage done.
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Instinctively, Max dodged the spear thrust toward him, dancing around the tip. He was on the edge of balance, and when he righted himself, he found his sword was ready to strike.
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> Max attacks Ralynn Guard causing moderate damage.
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> Attack causes bonus cold damage.
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Max had nowhere to run. He had to stand and fight.
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> Ralynn Guard attacks Max.
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> Attack dodged; no damage done.
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Again, Max dodged to the side as the spear came forward. The spear stuck in the door, and the guard tugged it to pull it free.
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> Max attacks Ralynn Guard causing moderate damage.
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> Attack causes bonus cold damage.
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The guard let go of the spear and left it sticking out of the door. He fell back a step and drew a short dagger from his belt.
Max stepped in to attack, and the guard turned and ran toward the king. Max dropped his sword, pulled out his catapult, and loaded a bullet just as the guard reached the stage of the king’s throne.
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> Max attacks Ralynn Guard causing minor damage.
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> Ralynn Guard has been defeated.
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The bullet bounced off the back of the guard’s head, and he slumped to the floor. The king’s eyes went down to the guard and then up to Max.
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> Max gains experience points.
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> Max has leveled up.
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> This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
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Max looked at his stats in the flickering of the candlelight on the stone floor. All the information was grayed out and covered with the now familiar gold letters.
Max didn’t have Elderon here to advise him. He was only a few paces away from confronting and hopefully saving the king and all his friends, but maybe there would be some new bonus in the new level. It would only take a moment. He walked toward the king and let the level up wash over him.
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> Max gains Extra Health.
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> Max gains new spell slots.
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> Sneak ability improved.
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Max felt fitter and more powerful. Extra spells wouldn’t help him now. He would have to rest first, but the extra spell slots would make him a very potent spell caster. He noticed his satchel had also been upgraded again.
But it would all be for nothing if he couldn’t defeat the king. He stepped up to the foot of the stage the throne sat upon.
The king’s eyes were staring and unseeing, his face shot through with fine dark lines that pooled in his eye sockets.
The dark agent eyed Max. He opened his mouth as if screaming, but only made a sound like dry sand flowing over paper. As the dark agent rasped his dry scream, Max could see the dark cloud swirling around him, and the king was suddenly shot through with flashes of red.
Max felt the dark power. It drew him like the deepest temptation. Addiction to the worst drug could be nothing compared to the power this dark agent suddenly offered.
Janet appeared at Max’s right shoulder. She was in panic.
“What’s happening? The portal, it’s growing. I can feel myself getting lost in this already deep void. I am losing myself.”
Max stared at the dark agent. He could feel an urge to let the darkness fill him with that promised power like nothing he’d felt before.
“Max, you can slow the portal expansion,” Janet was pleading.
Max walked forward, reminding himself of all that was good, all he wanted to save. He thought of Janet, trapped and alone, reliant on Max to do the right thing. He thought of Anita, brave and wise. He thought of Elderon, intelligent and kind. He even thought of Jahrod the grumpy dwarf and his unique smell.
The agent fell back, the darkness swirling around him and gathering closer to him. Max stepped up to the throne and could feel the darkness shrink, but it was a huge effort to force it back. It was the greatest effort he’d ever felt to refuse its temptations.
The agent moved away, breathing out a rasping cry. He backed toward the entrance. The moment he got to the door, it burst open, and in stepped a pair of Blackguards.
Max grabbed the king and dragged him off his throne. He pulled him behind the throne and took cover. The small colorful glass window behind the throne offered Max an escape, but he was so high up, there would be no escape for the king. If Max threw him to his death, perhaps it would bring an end to the darkness infecting the castle.
Then Max felt the darkness tempt him more strongly than before. Yes, murder the king! He knew he would become powerful, and he would control the darkness.
Max had only one move left. He started to cast a spell.
Max had looked at the gestures and incantations for the Fireball so many times that he knew them well. He thought he was going to cast it out in the wilderness to test it out, but here he was, in a confined space. It might be the end of his adventures in Eveirea if this went wrong. He summoned the Fireball and threw it down the throne room toward the dark agent and the Blackguards.
The throne room filled with heat, then wind, then the blast front hit. It threw the throne off its stage and on top of Max and the king. The blast front knocked the dark agent and the Blackguards off their feet. Then came the flame, rippling outwards from the casting center.
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> Blackguards take critical damage.
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> Dark Advisor takes critical damage.
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The throne took the brunt of the blast, but Max felt his skin burn. His leather tunic began to smolder. The king began to yell in pain.
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> Max takes moderate damage.
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> King Glynn takes heavy damage.
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Max stood up. The dark agent was collapsed to the floor. The blackguards were lying still, their armor evaporating. A group of Ralynn Guards were in the far chamber, completely bewildered.
Max checked on the king. The darkness that enveloped him was receding. The king looked up with tired, bemused eyes.
“Who are you?”
Max reached down with his hand.
“I’m Max, Level Four Mage.”
The dark agent was on his feet and backed out of the throne room to the outer chamber.
Max shouted to the confused Ralynn Guards,
“Seize that dark advisor.”
The guards leveled their spears and blocked the advisor’s way. He backed away from the guards, turned, and ran directly at Max. Max drew his sword, but the advisor avoided Max, leapt, and jumped through the window.
Max ran to the window to try and grab the advisor, stop him from falling. Who was he, and who had sent him? Why was the darkness drawn to Max, and Max drawn to it? But the dark agent was gone, and when Max looked down the side of the castle wall, a flash of red caught his eye, dashing off through the city streets below.