Max, Boorg, and Piggy left the ancient library, and the words of the Chronicle echoed in Max’s head. They had learned of the dangers that awaited them in the dungeon, and they also learned about the powerful artifact, the Heart of Souls, hidden deep within the dungeon. But they had to continue exploring the dungeon, the exit was at the end of it, and there was no way of turning back now.
The lower they went, the corridors became darker and smaller. The faint echoes of their footsteps were the only sound around them, whispering to them, mocking them.
As they went deeper, the small corridors became wider, and because of that they grew darker and looked scarier than before. Their path led them to a large hall, broken stone covered in moss and some other vegetation surrounded them. At the center stood two statues, each of a soldier wearing ancient armor. The statues were lifelike, their eyes looking at Max.
“These statues look too real,” Max said, his wand ready. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Piggy got close to one of the statues, sniffed it, and let out a horrific sound. “Oink!”
The eyes of the statues glowed with red light, and with a creaking sound, they began to move, stone grinding against stone. They stepped down from their pedestals, weapons raised, ready to attack.
Boorg jumped at the statues before Max could even react. He swung with all his might at one of the statues, the clash of metal on stone echoed through the hall as Boorg’s axe struck the statue, chipping away the stone.
Max focused on the other statue, casting Fireball. The fiery projectile missed the statues he was aiming at and hit the one that Boorg was fighting, exploding in a burst of flames. The statue staggered but kept going, its stone skin covered in holes now. Piggy ran back behind Max now, afraid of the statues.
“It would hurt you more than them if you hit them,” Max said looking at Piggy hiding behind him. “Just don’t make me trip over you, or we’re both dead.”
The statue swung a massive stone sword at Boorg, who barely managed to block it with his axe. The hit made him go back a couple of steps, his feet trying to recover their balance. The other statue ran at Max, its sword raised high.
Max tried to run back, tripped over Piggy, and narrowly avoided the blade as he fell to the side. “You shitty pig! I told you to move! Fireball!” he returned the attack, aiming for the statue’s head, surprisingly hitting it. The explosion shattered part of its face, sending pieces of stone flying in the air. The statue stumbled, its movements weird and unbalanced, as if struggling to maintain its form.
Boorg, seeing an opening, delivered a powerful blow to the first statue’s knee, making the statue collapse on the floor. With a second swing, he decapitated the statue, sending its head rolling across the room, and hitting the second statue that was already weakened. The second statue crumbled to pieces, leaving the hall silent once more.
“Well done Boorg,” Max said, breathing heavily. “That was close, phew!”
“Boorg like smash statues,” Boorg replied, grinning. “Fun fight!”
“Yeah, fun,” Max muttered, brushing dust off himself.
“Oink!” a loud noise and small, running footsteps ran at Max.
“Wha-” he couldn’t finish, he just saw Piggy rushing at him and hitting him with her head. Max screamed in pain, he didn’t know that Piggy could hit so hard. He flew across the room into the wall and then through the wall. The stone opened itself, and Max got swallowed. He started falling downwards, into the abyss. Above, through the hole in the wall he fell through, he could see one of the stone statues wasn’t actually defeated, as Boorg swung his axe to finish it.
“Did Piggy save my life, or end it?” he thought while falling, feeling the cold air on his back until he hit the ground.
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“Aaaagh!”Max let out a scream that was raw, like an animal in pain. “My fucking back!”
He carefully touched himself (not like that, not the time or place!!) over his back, to check if something was broken. He slowly stood up when he made sure that everything was alright (or that it seemed alright). He was surrounded by darkness, and he felt an unknown pressure on his lungs, making it difficult for him to breathe.
HP: 15
His eyes widened. “I was very close to dying,” he murmured. “Healing Light!” he cast the spell, healing himself. “Healing Light!” he did it once again.
HP:75
“Much better!” he said, cracking his back. “This helped a lot! Now, where the fuck am I?” with hands on his hips, he turned around himself, circling, trying to see anything in the dark.
“I hate darkness,” Max complained to himself.
With his hands in front of him, he moved slowly in the darkness. His eyes slowly began to see better in the dark, but still, he felt like he was blind. “Step by step, just take your time Max,” he kept repeating to himself.
He heard some weird noises, his mind kept playing tricks on him. “There is nothing there! You are just imagining it, stupid brain,” the silhouettes he kept seeing moving behind the pillars looked more real the more time he spent in there, and the more time he kept telling himself they didn’t exit.
“Fuck, fuck…” he couldn’t take it anymore. “Fireball!” a ball of fire destroyed the darkness around him, he could see someone or something moving behind the pillar where the fireball hit, destroying it. The pieces of stone that broke off from the pillar were on fire now, giving some light to Max.
“You’re a mage,” a voice in front of the fire said. “It has been a long time since I met a mage.”
“Who are you?” Max spoke up, trying to sound cool and calm. “D-don’t make me use a more powerful spell and destroy everything here.”
“No!” the shadowy figure yelled. “Don’t you dare! Even this fireball was too risky.”
“Then slowly come out of the dark, or turn the fucking lights.”
“Okay, okay. Just, please, don’t destroy anything around here, it is very precious to me,” the stranger snapped his fingers, the light covered the room now, and there was no darkness left.
In front of Max stood a small guy, bald with just a tiny bit of hair on top of his head. His eyebrows were thick and gray, he was grinning, couple of teeth were not in their place.
“Who are you?” Max said, holding his wand in his hand just in case.
“Me? I’m nobody. Just a… hmm… just a… hmm…” the guy got lost in thoughts.
“JUST A WHAT?”
“Oh, yeah, sorry. Just a… hmm…”
“You must be fucking with me…” Max looked annoyed.
“No, no, I just… hmm… forgot the word. I haven’t talked to anyone in centuries.”
“Centuries?” Max looked surprised. “Isn’t that like, a long time?”
“A long time for a normal human maybe,” the stranger said. “But for a guy who devoted his whole life to magic, still not enough!”
“You are some crazy scientist or something am I right?”
“I am Perparos! The greatest mage of his time!” the old guy raised his hand, it looked like he practiced his pose just for this day.
“Flashy,” Max thought.
“Come, come,” Perparos waved his hand at Max to hurry up. “As a fellow mage you will find my work impressive come, I’ll show you.”
“Sure thing,” Max decided to follow him, he didn’t look scary or dangerous. What could go wrong?
“Here, on this side,” Perparos talked with excitement. “You have all my research.”
Max never saw so many books in one place. Then, Perparos waved his hand and that part of the room became even bigger, more books appeared, and Perparos looked proud.
“You wrote all that?”
“Yes I did,” Perparos said. “All of that is my research, I spent so much time researching and writing it. Here you will find knowledge like no other.”
“Impressive,” Max said.
“And here, are all my experiments,” Perparos led the way.
The other side of the room was filled with unknown equipment, some books, blood, and cages. The cages were empty now, but it was visible that it wasn’t always the case.
“Everything I wrote, I proved here,” Perparos looked proud.
“And here, the thing I appreciate the most, the thing that helped me be who I am,” a glowing orb of pure power floated in the air.
“The Heart of Souls,” Max said.
“Y-yes, how did you know? You must be wiser than I thought if you heard about the Heart of Souls,” Perparos said, a little surprised.
Like a magnet, it attracted Max towards it, pulling him closer. He wanted to touch it, to grab it with his own hands, to look at it, to do whatever it wanted.
"Be careful there is some rubble down-”
Max tripped and kicked the floor in front of him, a piece of rock flew over the room hitting the floating orb.
For a moment, they stood still, nothing had happened, and the crystal looked to be okay.
“Phew,” Perparos said whipping his sweat off his forehead. “That was a close one, you have to be more careful around her-”
Small cracks began to spread over it, from bottom to top, from left to right, a crackling noise was the only thing that echoed through the room. After a few seconds, the cracks did their job, making the orb break into thousands of pieces and turning them into dust that scattered on the floor.
“Hah!” Perparos looked at the dust on the floor. “Hahaha…” he started laughing. “Ha-ha-ha! You’re dead.”
“Oops?” Max felt guilty, but how the old mage looked at him, Max thought that he didn’t really accept his apology.