Edgar woke some time later and took over the watch from Mirai. The watch was uneventful and boring, but he was a bit glad to be bored after the non-stop, life threatening danger of the Bone Arena. He fiddled with his status screens and listened to the crackling of the fire until Mirai’s small timepiece showed that five hours had passed. He woke her and they ventured on. The fact they had two more days to clear the rift and four more doors hung unspoken in the air between them.

Together, they approached the second door, limbering up for whatever was waiting on the other side. Purple magic once again pooled in a channel carved into the floor, flowing like water towards the door and seeping through the veins in the marble doors. With a heavy thunk, the doors unlocked and slid easily open, the heavy stone gliding weightlessly.

The hallway beyond the door extended into darkness. Edgar moved forward cautiously while Mirai lit a torch. They move onwards, ever wary of traps and ambushes, but there were none.

Eventually, they entered a domed space eerily reminiscent of a church. In the center of the room was an altar and a stone table decorated with carvings. As soon as they entered, the skeletons began pouring in.

Edgar flexed his claws while Mirai drew her sword and summoned a ball of water.

“Here they come.”

“Let’s take a position against the wall!” Mirai said, pointing.

Edgar nodded. “Sure, but I’ll whittle them down a bit first while my skills are fresh. Meet you there?”

Mirai nodded and then sprinted to the side of the room.

Edgar reached inside and activated [Overdrive]. The skill was exhilarating, filling him with energy as he rocketed forward, sprinting among the skeletons. Their movements were too clumsy to react in time, allowing Edgar to bashed two at once with [Tail Whip]. Tiny bits of warmth seeped into his core as they fell. He tried punching a third, but that was a mistake. The skeleton was unfazed and he even saw his own health dip ever so slightly as his knuckles throbbed painfully. He continued around the room until he returned to Mirai’s side once again. The skill ran out just as he reached her.

The only problem with the skill was the slight whiplash as it ran out. Thankfully, it was brief, but he had to be careful with it. Mirai had soaked him enough times to know it was a real weakness against a thoughtful opponent.

Thankfully, the skeletons were not thoughtful. They charged brainlessly across the room. Mirai’s sword was a flash as she parried their weak strikes and poked them back. One stumbled and she flashed out with a kick, taking the thing apart. Edgar smiled, using his claws to knock aside their swords and [Tail Whip] when he could to deconstruct a few more.

The battle continued like this for a while before they realized skeletons were continuously trickling into the room.

“I don’t think the skeletons are the key, Edgar!”

“What could it be?”

“There’s not much here,” Mirai flourished her sword, the blue moon metal glowing in the low light. “Maybe the altar? Maybe the table?”

“There were carvings on the table actually, I didn’t get a good look.”

“Can you do your flippy thing and take a peek?”

“That will leave you open to the skelies, is that ok?”

“Please, I could fight these things in my sleep… Ready?… Go!”

Edgar activated [Leap] and then enjoyed the view of Skeleton’s staring slack jawed up at him as Mirai kicked and slashed, sending them stumbling backwards.

Then he was beside the table. He only had a moment before the monsters were on him, so he fixed his attention on the carvings.

There were humans and other races surrounded by skeletons. Their hands were bound…

There was a large, godly skeleton with wings and a halo…

In the next scene, a human lay on the table, while the god skeleton held up a knife…

Edgar activated [Acrobatics] as the skeletons arrived, somersaulting through them back towards Mirai.

“So what do you want first, the bad news or the good news?”

She groaned, “the good news?”

“I know what we have to do.”

“Ok, what’s the bad news?”

“I think it wants a sacrifice.”

“As in, we should kill ourselves?”

“Maybe?…”

“What do you mean, maybe? Neither of us is killing anything except skelies. Especially on a maybe!”

The skeletons were mostly tangled on the floor after his last maneuver. Mirai idly slapped the ones near her with her sword as they tried to stand, toppling them once more.

Edgar scratched at his head, “bah… Let me get a look at the other side of the table then. There are more carvings there.”

Mirai raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, maybe you better do that… Sacrifice ourselves, psh…”

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Edgar groaned, activating [Overdrive]. He zipped out among the skeletons again. He kicked one as he passed, sending it sprawling into a few others, creating an amusing tangle of bone limbs.

On this side of the table, the pictorial story continued…

The skeleton god’s knife came down…

The human’s mouth distorted in a scream as blood splashed out…

Then it slumped in death, more blood seeping outward…

That’s an awful lot of blood…

Maybe that was the key! Edgar took one of his claws and gripped it. Then, he slapped his bloody hand on the table and swiped it across, leaving a smear of red on the stone. The table began to glow with light and the entrance the skeletons were using closed.

Edgar smiled, glancing at Mirai.

“Very good!” She called.

Together, they dispatched the remaining skeletons. As the last one fell, the familiar sound of a magical stone lock sounded and the altar lifted, revealing a dark staircase leading down. A series of torches flared to life in the passageway.

Mirai lightly slapped the back of his head.

“Hey!” Edgar pouted.

She smiled at him, shaking her head in amusement.

“I figured it out, alright!”

She descended the stairs and Edgar followed. The stairs circled around and around as they descended, eventually leading to a doorway and another room. This room was bright and warm. Beyond that, as they stepped inside, their eyes lit up.

It was full of gold, too.

Treasures of all sorts filled the room. Scepters, chalices, goblets, gems the size of his fist, and enormous piles of coins.

There was only one other thing in the room, a humble sign. If it wasn’t positioned directly in front of the entrance, they probably would have missed it, surrounded as they were by glittering gold.

Take not, want not!

“A riddle?” Edgar asked. “A bit on the nose, don’t you think.”

Mirai nodded. “The message is clear enough for me. We shouldn’t touch anything in here. There’s another door ahead, so let’s just continue on. We might as well assume all this stuff is dipped in fatal poison.”

They both gazed longingly at the treasures. Edgar knew from his own world that wealth could buy most things in life. With this much wealth, finding Poppy again would probably be a trivial thing. Not to mention all the other things he could buy. Weapons and armor. He wondered if there were skill shards for sale, but he could only imagine so.

Maybe he could even find a place for himself to kick back.

He yanked his eyes away and followed Mirai to the exit, a door made of wood and gold. She reached towards the handle, but the door swung open on its own. A puff of warm air flowed outward. Edgar could hear the crackling of a fireplace beyond. They glanced at each other before entering.

The best word to describe the room was comfortable. The stone walls were decorated with paintings. The floor was lushly carpeted. A massive fireplace glowed, throwing warmth across the room and inviting them in. And across from the fire, in a huge velvet chair, sat a massive being at least three times their size.

It ignored them at first, staring forlornly into the fire. Its skin was blue-ish grey, not that different from Edgar’s.

Monster: [Mammon]

* Type: [Riftling, Djinn]

* Level: ??

A chill ran down Edgar’s spine, seeing the question marks instead of a number. They could feel power radiating off the creature. Its magic saturated the room and washed over them in waves, in time with its breathing. If the Bonesmith was eighty-six, this monster could be over a hundred.

The door swung shut loudly behind them, the latch clanking closed, but Mammon didn’t move or acknowledge them in any way and just stared ahead into the fire.

“Should we talk to them?” Edgar glanced around the room, but there was nothing of note besides the Djinn.

She was much more scared than him. Having lived her whole life in this world, with so much danger, he imagined she was raised to have a healthy and reasonable fear of monsters at higher levels. For better or worse, this fear hadn’t been fully ingrained in him… yet, anyway.

There was a certain logic to the rifts generally that he was beginning to understand, a sort of brutal even-handedness underlying its design. When these ultra-high level monsters did appear, they didn’t attack outright—even with the Prince of Imps, the rules of the encounter had skewed their fight just enough to allow a glimmer of hope.

Mirai nodded to Edgar and they approached. Hoping his intuition was correct, he stayed Mirai’s hand as she reached for her sword.

“I don’t think we’ll have to fight. Besides… there’d be no point….”

She nodded and tried to gather some confidence as they continued on. They kept walking—slowly, stiffly—until they finally stood beside Mammon’s massive form.

Mammon continued gazing into the flames, oblivious to their presence. The expression on the giant’s face was detached and vacant, a thousand yard stare. Another pair of chairs sat by the fire and an end table sat next to Mammon’s chair. On the table sat an empty cup, but Edgar’s gaze lingered on Mammon’s face. His expression was one of deep, weary sadness. Edgar glanced again at the empty cup and his nose caught the faint smell of tea. Careful not to disturb the giant, Edgar took the cup and followed the scent across the room.

“Where are you going?”

“I have an idea. I’ll be back.”

Sure enough, he found a small serving cart with a pot of fresh, steaming tea and poured a cup for the Djinn. Then he returned, placing the cup on the end table and taking the seat beside Mirai. They didn’t have to wait long. As the steam from the tea wafted upwards, it drifted under the Mammon’s nose and he stirred. His gaze turned down at the cup of tea.

“Mhmmmm… Thanks for the drink, little lambs…”

Mammon exhaled gratefully, reaching for the cup of tea and taking a long, slow drink. Oddly, Edgar felt a small amount of warmth flow into his core as Mamon drank the tea.

“But I’m sorry. I still have to look.”

“Look at wh-” Edgars voice died in his throat as the Djinn’s gaze shifted to him.

He could feel the Djinn looking inside him. Like a spiritual x-ray of some sort, only it hurt. The moments dragged on until very suddenly, and unceremoniously, it was over. He could hear Mirai fall back into her seat, gasping.

“You didn’t touch any treasures. That’s……… a relief…”

The Djinn leaned back in their chair, looking genuinely relieved.

“That means you can live, thank goodness……… and I will grant you each a boon.”

Edgar and Mirai glanced at each other and exhaled gratefully. Even Mammon looked slightly more cheery, although his bearing was still pretty gloomy.

“What sort of boon?”

Mammon took another sip of tea.

“You may choose.”

~~~~~~~~~~

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