Jude’s partly carefully left the courtyard being wary of any danger that might lurk here.

“Have you ever been here,” Jude asked Krinn and Wen in a hushed tone.

Wen’s eye twitched as she whispered back, “No one has ever been here, not since the fall of Arkess.  Once Arkess became a desert, the capital was swallowed up by the sands, never to be found again.”

“Yet we apparently found it,” Krinn added. “But I suspect it was the storm that unearthed it.”

“Or Guudnash,” Jude said, “Remember, we are following his path.  It’s possible that he triggered this storm as a way to block anyone following him.”

Ellie gave him a credulous look, “I don’t think anyone is powerful enough to purposely set off this sand storm that has lasted months, only to evade someone.”

“Jude could do it,” Cairfray said with all confidence.

Jude shook his head, “I’m not so sure about that.” Then after a moment of thought, “At least not yet.”

“Either way, we should be able to find the source of the storm,” Ellie said. “If we can locate it then maybe we can find a way out of here.”

***

They continued to make their way out and found themselves going up a collapsed wall, from there they were able to get a much better view of the city as a whole.  The castle they had entered turned out to be one of many keeps built directly into the city wall.  The city was all in runes and sand still covered much of it.  But in the center, there was a much larger castle with a high and mighty in front of that.

Even though the storm raged powerfully around the entire city, it did not affect it in the slightest.  It was a stark contrast between furious winds and silent stillness.  The was in the exact center of everything and made it the obvious choice to investigate.  So the group made their way down off the wall and entered the city proper.

“This is unbelievable,” Krinn said, “Even their regular streets are solid stone.”

“The Arkess were excellent Wizards who could effortlessly transform the ground to rock whenever they wished,” Cairfray commented.

“I understand that,” Krinn continued in his wonder, “but to think that vaunted wizards would lower themselves to make all the streets in this vast city is quite amazing.”

“Even some of the homes are built out of one complete stone,” now Ellie was taking a closer look as well. “Did they even use craftsmen or was this all the work of Wizards?”

Cairfray said in a listless voice, “The people of Arkess were renowned for their magic.  But with the passage of time, their culture has been lost.  Once Arkess was known for more than its magic, it was known for its good will towards all.  Their nobles respected people from all stations of life, and they worked hand-in-hand to create marvels that no other duchy ever could.  It went so far that even the throne lusted after their riches and knowledge.”

Everyone looked at Cairfray and wondered. But she didn’t seem to notice and continued walking on as nothing happened.

No one spoke a word after that.  The atmosphere was still eerie with the silent city all around them, and the distant sandstorm added to the heavy mood.

Jude had a strange feeling about this place.  He couldn’t help but wonder about the people who used to live here.  The story behind each of the broken down walls and long wasted away doors.  Who was it that lived there and how did they live their lives.  But at the same time, he also felt a sense of dread.  The same feeling he had in the Grimwar Caves came to mind.

This place was entirely different than the Grimwar Caves.  There were no undead here, no monsters, nothing at all.  But it felt like there should be something here, something sinister.

Jude looked around at the others and decided they must be feeling it too.  Everyone had stern looks on their faces and were fully concentrating on their surroundings.

Finally, they started walking up the hill that led to the castle and .  Jude could not wait to get there.  Hopefully, he would find something that would distract him from the heavy mood this place brought.

When they arrived at the , Jude noticed that it was much different than the that he had seen in the past.  For one, it was outside the central castle, but most importantly it was at least twice as tall.  Jude also felt something else was off with the stone, but he quickly realized what it was.  The stone was dead.  It didn’t have the life or energy that the one in Longdale had when it was still around.  But it made sense, it city itself was dead, so why wouldn’t the stone be dead too?

“Look at all these lines on the ground,” Ellie exclaimed.  “These lines and arrays should be… The teleportation system?”

“That’s right,” Cairfray said. “Arkess was the last to have a teleportation array built into it after the Beast Lands took over.”

Jude looked down at the ground which was a solid stone with a long crack going down it from one corner to the other.  On that stone was a complicated series of etched lines that encircled the and apparently created a way to teleport to other stones.

“Even Geonar does not have one of these,” Cairfray added.

“Why didn’t Riwa set up the capital of the kingdom here in Arkess then?” Jude asked.

“Arkess was once its own kingdom,” Cairfray explained. “They ruled all the lands of the human’s south of the Beast Lands and west of the Spineback Mountains.  But it wasn’t enough.  They wanted to take back the Beast Lands and the only way they could do that was to summon a Hero.

“However, the Hero didn’t conquer the Beast Lands, instead set his sights on Arkess.  He ravaged the lands and proved to be a weak leader.  Ultimately he founded what is known as the Riwa Kingdom, but he was unable to unite all that was once Arkess.”

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Jude was just about to ask how Arkess became a duchy of Riwa but the area turned unnaturally cold.  He could see his breath, and his hair felt like it was standing on end.  Then the scent of sulfur drifted in making him want to gag and out of the surrounding air a voice began to form.

“Who trespasses?” said the voice in a long and drawn out way. “The last I could not catch, but you will not be able to leave…”

“Any clue who this is?” Jude asked Cairfray since she seemed to know a lot more about Arkess than anyone else.

“No clue,” she replied with just as terrified as Jude felt.

“Looks like we know who is responsible for the storm,” Ellie said with a smirk.

The voice spoke again, “You will all die.”

“Who are you?” Jude shouted.

“I am Resentment,” the raspy voice sounded, “the embodiment of all who died here in Arkess.  And all those who suffered at the hands of those who call themselves heroes.  Now I will take vengeance on all who live because I cannot.”

A ghostly form appeared over the and floated down between the members of Jude’s party.  Its face and arms were skeletal and tattered garments were draped over it.  On its head was a crown of sin, pitch back and emanating evil.

Krinn was the first to strike out, cleaving his axe down.  But the axe went straight through the ghost unhindered and hit the hard stone ground with a clang.

“I won’t let you run,” Resentment said lifting up his claw-like hands.

The teleportation circle hummed to life, and the turned back as death.  But instead of teleporting them away, it drew in smaller spirits.  They started popping out of the teleportation circle, attacking and tying down Jude and his friends.

“Only magic can hurt Ghosts,” Jude said. “You guys take care of the little ones and leave the big one to me.”

Resentment laughed, “Only you against me?  You will soon resent that choice... and resent coming here... and resent dying.  Then I will consume all your resentment.”

Jude pulled out his sword and held it in one hand and his staff in the other. 

Then he activated .  The blast did little to Resentment and was completely harmless to his party members.  But to the smaller ghosts, it was a great source of repulsion.  The others then charged after the ghosts leaving Jude to deal with their king.

Resentment didn’t stay idle as he disappeared turning ethereal.  Only a giant claw reappeared as it came crashing down towards Jude slamming into his shield and pushing him towards the ground.

Jude immediately used before he was completely pressed to the ground; otherwise it would be useless.  didn’t teleport him, it merely sped him up incredibly fast and enacted a small illusion technique that along with the blazing speed, made it look like teleportation.  He ground to a halt several meters away.

The ghost didn’t look too perturbed and relaunched the same attack.  This time Jude was a little better prepared as he dodged out of the way.  Then he countered with a as its rematerialized the rest of its body.

The spark flew out of Jude’s sword and ran through Resentments body, barely doing its combustion on impact.  Jude realized that the ghost wasn’t stable enough to get the spark from his skill to ignite like it would on normal targets.

Resentment disappeared once again and used the exact same attack.  Jude was beginning to wonder if this was all the ghost could do.  Deftly dodging out of the way, Jude struck out with his sword.  The sword wasn’t imbued with an attack attribute so it wouldn’t do any damage to a ghost like Krinn’s axe from earlier.  But Jude knew all of this so when he struck out he activated a at the same time.  

The sword and combined creating a wave of fire that washed over the ghost.  The ghost screamed in pain and started turning black.  Its HP pool dipped, and its eyes raged with hate.  But as the flames swept away the spirit instantly turned back to normal.  HP full and no damage visible.  The shock of it struck Jude.

Resentment laughed, “I wouldn’t be Resentment if attacks like that could hurt me.  Now descend into anguish as I use a single attack over and over again to draw you into despair.”

He continued faithful to his word, and he struck Jude with the same attack over and over again.  The attack was simple enough to dodge and easy enough to counter, but Jude didn’t have enough stamina to do this forever.  The ghost, however, seemed to have an unlimited supply of health.  Despair actually was setting in.

Jude’s mind began to turn as the fight turned into repetition.  He started to look for signs of why Resentment could instantly heal itself.

But he was getting tired and careless.  One attack broke his shield, and the next gave his shoulder a bloody wound.

Jude used his to no avail.  If something was connecting to him from an outside source, he couldn’t see it.  Then he tried counter-attacking with , but it was as useful as an unenchanted weapon attack.  It was like the ghost didn’t exist at all.

Perhaps it really was the embodiment of resentment!

But Jude’s rationality kicked in, and it just didn’t make sense.  How could something like resentment alone be able to exist inside the ?  There had to be something powering it.

Jude had to think, what would or could hold the resentment of Arkess?  Was it the land… or was it the ?!  The stone should have existed under the entire city, and it would be connected to all its inhabitants.  The ghost even appeared over the stone, and it turned black when it started summoning the other ghosts with the teleportation array.

It was all starting to make sense.  It had to be the .  But wasn’t the stone dead?  Or was it undead?  Could a stone be undead?  Maybe it was just the spirit of the deceased stone.  Jude threw away all these random thoughts and focused on the only connection.  The stone.

Jude waited for Resentment to make another attack and dodged, but instead of his usual counter attack, he used .

was not an accurate skill.  It supercharged his speed faster than his mind could adjust for.  You could not use it reliably to sneak behind someone, and it was suicide to use it in conjunction with an attack.  But the was different.  It wouldn’t move or attack.  It didn’t have any limbs or sharp weapons.  And Jude felt the risk was needed.

He was worried that the ghost would have a way to protect the stone if he knew it was going to be attacked.  Jude needed to deal a death blow all at once without the chance of a counter attack.  Once Resentment found out he was trying to attack the stone, there might not be an opportunity to attack it again.

In conjunction with the blink, Jude also used .  He had expanded this skill when they were on their journey up the stairs.  It all had to do with that first fight with the sword against some nameless treant.  He wanted more flexibility, which was why he was able to do the flame wave with it earlier.  But this time he was using it differently.

Jude disappeared from the view of Resentment, and to its shock it found Jude standing in front of the stabbing his sword into it.  Usually, it wouldn’t worry about a sword striking the stone.  A sword would have a hard time damaging it.  But the tip of this sword had turned into something like fire.  If it had known what a plasma torch looked like, it would have said it was the exact same.

The magically imbued flaming sword had no problem slipping into the stone.  It penetrated deep, only stopping at the hilt where caused a loud clang.

You would think that with all the fighting going on that yet another clang would go unnoticed.  But somehow this sound caused all the fighting to halt.

The slowly started turning back to gray.

The smaller ghosts howled in anguish as they began to disappear.

But Resentment didn’t stir or cry out in pain.

However, a hole did start burning in his chest.  It expanded slowly, consuming his whole body.

Just as he was about to disappear completely he finally uttered his last words, “You may have won, but this storm will rage on.  There is no escape from Arkess… Die in despair.”

His voice trailed away filled with malice and hate.  But this time he was truly dead.