Many times, Kaden wasn’t sure about people’s intentions. This, on the other hand, sounded a great deal like a threat. “I’m not here to harm—”
The crackling sounds from the walls were Kaden’s only warning, as the walls of the Necrosium bend and twisted, birthing a pair of Tomb Champions. “I’ve got these, watch—”
*Help* Sara’s mind speech broke off as a forest of arms dragged her down into the floor.
“Let her go!” Kaden shouted.
The Necromancer was gone too, just an ever increasing army of the dead. Kaden didn’t hesitate, summoning Trinity. But rather than head down the heavily guarded hallway, he gave a command to Trinity. He’d seen her tunnel through sheer rock, though it damaged her claws. This was condensed bone.
Trinity didn’t hesitate, tearing with her front claws like the retriever from hell, and if the alarms screamed before, now a thousand voices shouted “Attack! Attack! Attack!”
The [Tomb Champions] rushed Kaden raising clubs.
He was not a underleveled Adventurer any longer, he was an even match versus a pair of Champions. Not a fair fight, but his kind of fight.
[Moment of Speed] let him close on the first Tomb Champion, delivering a smashing blow to its ankle, and [Split Second] drained mana as he blocked another blow with the [Eldritch Shield]. The Tomb Champion roared, and the Eldritch Shield crunched, devouring bones straight from the monster.
Back and forth he danced, building up power in Remembrance. Biding his time while Trinity tore apart the floor. Her roar of triumph told him it was time. Kaden blocked a blow from one Tomb Champion and dodged another to unleash an upward swing that shattered the Champion’s jaw—and its skull as he unleashed Remembrance’s built up power.
With every twist and leap, he rammed bones into the Eldritch Shield, until a lucky shot caught him across the back. Kaden went flying into the wall and rolled away as the Tomb Champion smashed its club down.
Unlike the ones in the dungeon, this kicked, costing Kaden another two hundred health and cracking a bone in his leg. [Fortress of Stone] let him ignore the pain and [Sole Survivor] gave him confidence to sip a Healing Potion and re-engage.
A sharp crack drew his attention, as Trinity used her armored head to shatter the downed Tomb Champion’s arms, then worked her way down the spine.
You have helped defeat a [Tomb Champion].
You have gained experience.
Kaden was paying less attention to the System warnings and more to the timing of the remaining Champion’s attacks. He rushed toward it, using the [Eldritch Sheild] to block a blow, and then [Shield Bashed] it so it crunched and chewed, separating the Champion’s rips.
[Moment of Speed] put him behind it, and a thundering strike by Remembrance shattered one ankle. Trinity’s smashing blows crushed the ribs with startling ease, and a moment later the skeleton ceased moving.
Kaden didn’t hesitate, dropping through the hole Trinity had made and into a lower level of the Necrosium. *Sara, where are you?*
No answer, but the level he’d landed in was living quarters.
“We are under attack. We are under attack. We are under attack.” A man’s voice calmly echoed through the tunnels.
Kaden looked left and right and followed the gouge marks in the stone which looked a lot like someone with a Cosmic Horror in their body had been dragged against their will, cursing and threatening to kill them all as soon as she got free.
He knew Sara fairly well.
A glowing red barrier blocked the far end of the hallway, and a portal of sheer night formed. Through it stepped a Necromancer in black robes. “Kneel before the High Priest of Mortis!”
Kaden slammed into him and rammed the man back into the red barrier, which sizzled and crackled—then shattered as Kaden rammed him into it over and over.
You have learned a new skill: Battering Ram
[Battering Ram]
Use a Battering Ram to knock down doors. To best use this skill, fashion a ram using [Building] and [Woodcarving]. You do extra damage to structures when using rams.
Kaden found himself in some sort of classroom. At least that’s what he figured based on the screaming students scrambling in every direction. He focused on the teacher. “Did they drag a friend of mine through here? Short brown hair, snakes on her back, cursing you and your offspring?”
The man shook off [Fear] to stammer out “No.”
“Right, then, go on about your business. Sorry about the mess. And that guy. Who wants his corpse?”
No one volunteered, so Kaden put the body at a desk and propped his head up behind a book. Then filled in a few of the answers right because it wasn’t fair that this guy was dead and everyone else wasn’t.
If she hadn’t gone right, Sara had to be the other direction, and this time, Kaden would show no mercy. He hadn’t actually shown a lot of mercy before, but now, he’d show less, somehow. Ghosts came brusting from the other end of the tunnel, and Kaden heard the distinct sound of someone being eaten by a Cosmic Horror. He charged that way, not even pausing as a pair of Necromancers ambushed him with silver blades.
Your skill with [Battering Ram] increases!
You have specialized [Battering Ram] for Flesh Rams!
[Battering Ram]
Use your victims to break down doors, inflicting increased damage to whatever you use. You had 10,000 other options and this is the one you chose, because of course you did. You inflict more damage with Rams and to Rams. Why do you keep doing things like this?
Using two necromancers together worked even more effectively than one, so maybe everything was better with a friend. Kaden kept ahold of them in case anyone started casting spells. But the chamber beyond—clearly an alchemist’s workshop—was empty. Not exactly empty. A cloud of darkness rose from the floor, becoming a towering [Wraith].
Depart this domain while thy flesh still hangs from thy bones.
“No, Thee!” Kaden said. “You really don’t want to do this. Where is Sara? Give her back while thou bones still hang like bones from…whatever holds thy together.”
Thee. The nominative case is ‘thee’ when—
Kaden attacked. If he had to break every bone in this place, they’d learn the error of their ways. He hadn’t put down the two ambushers, and their knives were currently driven through his arms, so he began pummeling the [Wraith] with the corpses, until their bodies slipped off. With every blow, he spoke. “Let. Sara. Go. I. Will. Leave.”
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The Wraith dissolved into smoke—and reformed across the room, holding a book.
Kaden drew Rembrance and opened his [Eldritch Shield.] “You want to know how I got this shield? Wraith bones. Now I’m going to find out what happens when I feed it another Wraith.”
A swarm of black bees burst from the Wraith and dissolved into his shield.
Black shards of obsidian glanced off the floor to tear into Kaden’s legs. *Sara. Answer if you can hear me.*
If she was dead, he was going to take a level from every necromancer in the place. “All you have to do is let her go.”
*Cease thy attack, servent of Mordecai the Black. Thy end will be swift and merciful.*
“Wait, what?” Kaden asked. “Who the hell is Mordecai the Black? Some kind of necromancer, right? ‘The Black’ sort of gives it away.”
*Thy master.* The Wraith raised his hands and black skeletons rose from the ground with glowing red eyes.
“Your master?”
*Yours*
“Pretty sure you just said he was yours.”
*THY master. The Posesssive form* The Wraith practically screamed.
“I don’t have time for this. Trinity, eat the small guys while I kill the big guy.” Kaden advanced on the Wraith, using [Moment of Speed] to [Shield Bash] the small black skeletons. “Say hi to Mordecai when you meet him in Hell. If by some chance, he’s not in Hell, I’ll catch up with him eventually.”
Trinity screamed as she attacked one of the skeletons.
The Wraith wasn’t attacking. *Thou does not know Mordecai, maker of thy chest-plate? The one who directs thine every move?*
“I got this chest plate from [Druids] after a demon tore my ribs apart, but it’s ok, she’s dead, I got a demon title and now I have her sister under a [Binding]. If Mordecai made it, I’m told he’s been dead for centuries.” Kaden held back.
Trinity did not hold back, pulverizing the black skeletons.
*How unfortunate. He murdered me in a ritual most foul, giving me the hatred needed to survive death and return as a spirit of vengeance and housekeeping.* The Wraith dismissed his spellbook.
Kaden tentatively did the same with Remembrance.
Trinity dismissed the skeleton she was crushing, by smashing it into tiny fragments with her armored head. Then she raised all three heads to look at the [Wraith].
“No.” Kaden pulled her into his soul, because Trinity wasn’t the type to disengage. “Where is Sara?”
*I do not know. The maiden who entered our domain?*
“Brown hair. Green armor. Cosmic Horrow coming out of her back. Tendency to devour everything in her way. She’s not answering by [Thought Speech]. If she’s dead, you’re going to find out how much like my mother I am.” Kaden couldn’t shake the terrible feeling.
*Probably though art like thine mother, though I know her not. Most are. Some are like the one they call father. Some are like the man who recharged the fairy lights, who lingered with thy mother.* The Wraith spun and drifted toward a stone wall—which morphed into a door.
The screaming skulls slowly ceased their screaming, except for one, which continued to hoarsely scream alone.
*Follow. Stay thy hand.* The door retracted into the ceiling instead of pivoting on the hinge, and the door swelled so the wraith wouldn’t have to bend. Kaden walked along behind it as they passed room after room whose doors remained sealed.
When the next one opened, The Wraith didn’t move forward. *Danae, cease thy violence*
“Cease? She’s part of the ambush. She ate Wish and Pearson. Or that snake did. And killed the [Silencers] who came to protect the students. They can’t cast spells but she can’t get out.”
*Cease.* The Wraith glided forward. *Mordecai does not stalk these halls, nor his servant.*
Danae was the Necromancer who met him at the door. And when she saw him, the blood drained from her face. “What have you done, Ymersist?”
*Death comes for us all, but not today. When did Mordecai’s servants ever think or speak? When did they ever do aught but kill?* Ymersist looked back at Kaden.
“We were helping the woman. Look at the corpses.”
Kaden kept his mouth shut. *Sara.*
*Kaden?* Her confusion came back. *I’m trapped in some kind of office. Two of them ambushed me, then six more attacked. I’m waiting for my health to regenerate and then I’m going to use [Anthem of the End].*
*Stop, this is a huge misunderstanding.* Kaden passed Ymersist, entering the room she guarded. “Sara?”
One pseudopod and then another popped up from behind a desk, and then Sara peeked out. “Kaden! They almost got me!”
Kaden stayed in the door. “I really don’t want a repeat. Can Sara and I just stay here? I have things to return to your ‘twins’ and then I’ll get out of your life. Or death. I’ll get out.”
A skeleton limped toward the doorway on shattered femurs. As it fingers brushed the doorway the bones merged and stretched until it formed a barrier with the skull still staring inward.
Kaden looked to Sara. “I’m sorry. This thing on my chest set off their alarm. They assumed I was one of ‘Mordecai the Black’—”
“That was not his name. Was it?” Sara asked. “Seriously, ‘the Black?’”
“Mordy was apparently a really bad man. Even for a necromancer. He’s not welcome here anymore, and neither are his puppets. Which is what they thought I was.” Kaden turned a chair over and sat down beside Sara. “This one wasn’t my fault. On the plus side, I got a skill.”
“Flesh Ram? Ewww. Also, that’s terribly specific. What, exactly did you do to get the System to award that?” Sara crossed her arms.
“I broke down a barrier with a Priest of Mortis.”
“To get at a priest of Mortis. Who was behind a barrier.”
Kaden waited until she looked away. “Then a couple of Necromancers with knifes tried to ambush me and I broke another door with the pair. Then I used them to beat on the Wraith, who is actually calm and collected. I’ve sort of give up on collecting his bones.”
*Thy speech can be heard*, the Wraith projected.
“So, I wound up putting the [Battering] in [Battering Ram].”
Sara looked like she was about to say something, and she kept swallowing it like a [Preserved Biscuit] that just didn’t want to go down. “Sometimes, I understand where Eve is coming from. How long will this take?”
*Thy will not tarry long. A Priest of Mortis will raise the dead and verify thy story.*
“Tell me you’ve got more than one of them,” Kaden called out.
*Thou may be tarrying longer.*
In fact, it was almost two hours before someone knocked on the skeleton’s spine and a voice boomed out. “You stand before Duggarn GraveBreaker. Fight and die. Speak and you may live.”
“The second one, the one where we live,” Sara said. “Speaking sounds good. Speaking is what we were doing. In fact, it was your people who launched the attack on us.”
“What she said!” Kaden added.
“They’re definitely not Mordecai’s. The woman sounds like a Business Manager with some kind of [Negotiation] skills. Let them out,” said the man.
The door bones drew back. Duggarn GraveBreaker was a Centurion Necromancer who had a completely irrational love of the color blue. Blue pants. Blue shirt. Different color blue tie. Blue shaded belt, deep blue boots, and pink gloves on his belt.
No, the gloves were also blue.
He stood at the front of a line of skeletons with swords, shields, and armor, and streams of mana covered their bones, forming tendons and muscles. “Gods damn it, a pair of twenty sixes? My Necrosium was turned upside down by you? No offense.”
“My TriTerror helped, but the real hero here is your Wraith, Ymersist. I like him so much better than the Wraith that killed me.” Kaden said.
*Thou wast slain by a Wraith? Pray tell!*
“Dungeon break, the champion was a [Wraith], I was only level eighteen, he was twenty five. I got a cool scythe blade out of it, and the bones I fed my [Bone Waller] to mutate it into the [Elderitch Shield].” Kaden looked around and didn’t see the Wraith.
*Scythe? Xeris. Twas Xeris, was it not? Xeris. Truly a genius at failure.*
“You knew him?”
*I knew the one from which the boss was formed.*
Duggarn cleared his throat. “You’re here to see the twins?”
“I need to meet with them privately. I have something to return that belongs to their family.” Kaden explained about his parents. About the safe contents and the package. “The contents are for them to see and them only.”
“I know what they are. That is, I know what they should be,” Duggarn said. “Danae, go get them. The Twins were helping evacuate the Market. You’ll understand, I’m sure, how you wont’ be left alone? Sevin’s got a level on you and Serta’s got two, but…I think it’s best I stick around.”
A few moments later, a pair of Necromancers shuffled in.
The man was tall and thin. Not quite Kaden’s height, but the same lean build he once had. His head was shaved bald and swirling gray mana stones had been embedded in his skull, linked with black ink. His robes were shredded and smoking, and a nearly destroyed skeleton crawled along in his wake.
[Sevin Sten]
The oldest of Merkel Sten’s children, Sevin has a talent for reanimation that leaves him the match of almost any summoner, and supplements it with Death Magic that leaves his enemies with an impossible choice: Face the man or his monsters. Now he is wondering what kind of monster you are.
The woman, on the other hand, was stocky and barely taller than Sara. And surrounded by black spirits who trailed behind her like a dress. When she stood still, they circled here, brushing dust from her robe or pushing the skeleton away when it got too close.
[Serta Sten]
The younger of Merkel Sten’s children, Serta has eschewed the traditional zombies and skeletons, producing instead spirits of wrath as deadly as any physical manifestation. Her ability to empower a spirit can leave enemies overwhelmed as simple vengeful spirits wreak havoc. It is unlikely you are a match for her.
Kaden dipped his head to them. “Kaden Birch. I’ll make this quick and easy. Your father was killed in a dungeon with my parents and left behind some critical parts of his tools. I’m here to return them.
What’s Right is not Always What’s Easy, subquest - Decide. Only one can receive the Inheritance. Decide who receives it.
“Why?” Kaden accidentally spoke outloud. And then decided he was done playing Quest games. “Only one of you gets what your father left. According to the System, the choice is mine. I’ve already made it.” He pulled out the spell book and skull.
The world stopped.