It took Alix longer than it should have to return to the castle, as he couldn’t stop himself from wandering off the path to harvest plants and materials he had never seen before, thinking everything and anything might be helpful in restoring Tifayn to her old demonette self. He also managed to replenish his sorely depleted stock of Abyssia. There was no more need to craft antidotes, but that wasn’t the only potion it was used for and he wanted to be prepared for any situation.
Things hadn’t changed with Tifayn so there was no rush for him to return to the castle, but alone with his thoughts, he couldn’t stop imagining the worst happening. Evory’s daily updates told him everything was still fine, and it sounded like with the new arrivals in the castle, the skeletons had redoubled their efforts to restore as many of the central rooms as they could. One thing he had asked Evory to pass on to Mr Bones was that he could put the kitchens back on the list of areas to restore.
Figuring out a reliable food supply was one of the things he had been worrying about, but the only idea he had involved Brant going out and trading with the closest villages, a face that would hopefully bring them the least amount of trouble, less than Ringless Ringtails, skeletons or a demon would. That was if Brant agreed to stay and train him after he removed the Soulbind on him. Alix felt like it was time to give the man his freedom, although he had already said he couldn’t return to Galdea. It gave him plenty to think about as he spent the days walking cross-country back to the castle.
Alix didn’t keep track of the days, but he guessed that it took him around a week to get back to the castle. He felt a warmth he hadn’t expected at the sight of its ramshackle towers clinging to the cliffs edge. The castle was noticeably more presentable compared to his first sight of the place. The gate was still in dire need of repair, but the grounds were neat, or as neat as they could be while acting as a lumberyard. The walls of the castle were cleaned of all vines and many of the pockmarks that had littered them were filled with freshly laid stones and mortar. The front double doors had also had a few rotten planks replaced. It also helped that the place now had a lived in feel to it as well.
To get any further the skeletons needed more tools though. Currently there weren’t enough to go around, and those they had were old. For that he needed a source of metal, which was another issue high up on his to do list.
First, he had to deal with Tifayn. As soon as he reached the castle, the dots reappeared and he was able to see where everyone was. His heart thundered in his chest as he scoured the map for sign of Tifayn. Mr Bones, somehow sensing his arrival, was already on his way towards him. Evory was in her tower, doubtless staring at him that second, just waiting for the right moment to approach him for mana. Brant was in one of the castle’s rooms, likely with his wife, if not more of the Ringtails as well. He would need to get them loaded into his map soon if they were going to stay. The skeletons were bunched in groups around the castle, working at restoring rooms. Astrid was in the library, while Tifayn was a dot far below them all, in an area of the map he had never visited before, the sunken depths she had yet to re-emerge from.
I’m going to help you Tifayn, just wait for me a little longer.
“My lord,” Mr Bones said, arriving at the front door before Alix could make his way inside. “It is good you have returned. We need to discuss Lady Tifayn.”
“I heard. Has Astrid made any progress in figuring out what’s happened to her?”
“None so far, but I doubt she will find anything. There is very little written about the demons before they emerged from the roots of Babyl, and it is apparent to me from seeing her as she is now that she has somehow reverted to an unbound demon form. The vampire and the soldier were only able to tell me so much about what happened at Mortlake, and unfortunately the Ringtails have not taken well to their new environment, so I have been unable to learn exactly what happened there. Can you shed any new light on the situation?” Mr Bones asked, wringing his skeletal hands.
“I’ve thought it over hundreds of times and I can’t think of anything. We were watching the Ghost Company from an alley and she looked perfectly normal then. I thought she had been a bit moodier recently but nothing concerning. Whatever change came over her, none of us saw it happening, only the thing that she became,” Alix replied, trying and failing to think of an answer to Mr Bones’ question.
“A mood change? What do you think caused that?”
“The only thing she mentioned is that she had been feeling more reserved around me since I gained Curse Resistance from the Crown of the Vampire King.”
“Curse Resistance…” Mr Bones mulled over the words. It was odd watching a skeleton think when he could see there was nothing within its skull, but Mr Bones was a more thoughtful being than most people he had met. “Could it be possible that the spell Mirella cast was not a boon on the demons, but a curse on the Darknight?”
“How would saving the demons have been a curse on the Darknight?” Alix asked, unable to see where Mr Bones was going with his line of thinking.
“It could be there was no grand spell cast, only that Mirella bound the demons to her own magic, or the same magic source that fuels the Darknight and the ring. That would also explain why vampires have historically hunted demons for their increased levels of mana compared to other races. Even if none of that were the case, would you not admit that being responsible for an entire race is a burden? Especially for one that has come here from another world, unprepared, alone and confused. Suddenly you are met by a race that worship you, have the highest of expectations of you, and look to you to meet their needs, plus the five hundred years of issues that have built up within their ranks waiting for you to resolve every time there is a new Darknight. Mirella wasn’t just burdening herself, but every Darknight that came after her. Until you arrived of course, now that the demons have finally decided to go their own way. That begs the question though, are the other demons still bound to you if they have already forsaken you?”
“Is Mirella among the skeletons for us to ask?” Alix asked. Mr Bones’ explanation sounded fairly convincing but he couldn’t think of any way to test the theory.
“Unfortunately she is not. The demons worshipped her as a god and took her body after she was struck down by the Solknight. I am not entirely sure what they did with it but I think they might have carved the majority of her bones into sacred relics. Tifayn might know more, if you are able to restore her to her bound form.”
Evory! Alix called through the bond. I need to see you at once.
In the blink of an eye the vampire was there, swooping down from her tower to Alix’s side. She had grown shorter and slighter since he had seen her last, as if the years had fallen off her, reducing her almost to the stature of a malnourished teen. Within moments though, he noticed his mana depleting, and Evory quickly returned to her buxom form.
“Welcome home, master,” Evory said with renewed vigour.
Alix pulled the Crown of the Vampire King from his inventory and handed it over to her. “Please, take it,” he said when she just stared at it in confusion.
Evory took the crown reluctantly, but as she did, nothing spectacular seemed to happen. He still retained the Title Vampire King, and he didn’t feel any different, although he hadn’t felt any different when he had first been handed the crown anyway.
“Why are you giving me this?” Evory asked, holding the crown as if she was worried she was going to prick herself on one of its crooked points.
“Mr Bones has suggested that the Curse Resistance I received from this crown might be the reason why Tifayn’s demon form has become unbound. I’m hoping that by giving you the crown, I will lose the Curse Resistance and Tifayn will return to her bound form.”
“Master, I can’t take the crown. The Vampire King needs to be someone powerful and wise,” Evory argued.
“I never would have agreed to take the crown if you had told me it would make me the Vampire King. I’m not a vampire so I shouldn’t be the one to hold it. You are the last of your kind Evory. I give you the crown and name you Vampire Queen,” Alix said.
Suddenly his notification bell went again and his activity log filled with new text.
* Title requirements no longer met – Vampire King
* Lost Curse Resistance
* Title Unlocked: Vampire Prince
“Well I guess that’s better than nothing,” Alix said, hoping losing Titles and Skills didn’t become a trend.
“What happened?” Evory asked.
“I lost the title of Vampire King, but it appears you still wish for me to be a Vampire Prince. I also lost the Curse Resistance.”
“Hehe,” Evory grinned mischievously. “Alix the Darknight, First of Queen Evory’s Court. Maybe I will bring the Hexnkryp here and we can rebuild the vampire race together. Ooh, maybe you can do what you did with the skeletons here and reanimate the bones in the Hexnkryp?”
Alix supposed that could be possible but it wasn’t something he wanted to focus on at the moment. He felt like he had gotten side-tracked with too many side quests as it was and now the main quest required his undivided attention. Before he could reply, she shot off into the sky, shouting “Thanks master!” as she went.
“I will go and check on Lady Tifayn at once,” Mr Bones said, turning to leave.
“Hold on, I would like to be the one to talk to her first.”
“The vault is still flooded, my lord. It is impossible for anyone but a skeleton to reach her. It is a perilous journey.”
“Is there any way I could drain the flood? Couldn’t I just absorb all the water into my inventory and move it somewhere else?” Alix asked.
“It might be possible, but I am afraid the water has been contaminated and is fairly toxic now. Even the Darknight is not immune to the effects of everything you carry. Groundwater tainted with poisonous chemicals has been seeping into the chamber down there and the centuries of rain water pouring in have done nothing to dilute it. The sewage system has also been backing up, but that hasn’t been a problem until now. It is curious, like we are in the vicinity of an active mine, but a very destructive one. The stairs down there have also collapsed, similar to the crypt, so it is currently easier to swim through it than to construct ladders to navigate all the drops.”
“Tifayn swam through it?”
“She did. It seems her unbound demon form is able to handle the foul water without any noticeable effect.”
“Maybe I could find some sort of poison resistance spells and something to help me breathe under water?” Although Alix really wasn’t keen on swimming through Brant’s shit.
“I would really feel more comfortable clearing the blockage, my lord. I have found the problem, but I have yet to think of the solution.”
“That’s great. Maybe I can help with that instead then.”
“I am not sure, my lord. I told you about the keystone for the Heating System that is currently inaccessible in the vault, but that is not the only keystone that is there. There are many other latent systems in the castle, one of which is the Security System.”
Why the hell isn’t anyone telling me about these things sooner! Alix wanted to rage and scream, but he knew Mr Bones had nothing but good intentions in everything he did.
“I had thought the system was destroyed for good, but on my last visit to Lady Tifayn, I finally found the cause of the blockage that had flooded the vault. It is the Gargoyles, my lord. They are meant to keep a constant watch on the keep, from the parapets, towers and gate, but for some reason they are down there, frozen in stone and blocking the drain until the system is restored, with the collapsed floors from above burying them further.”
Gargoyles? Oh yeah, we definitely need to get them back up and running. As a child of the nineties, Alix was suddenly staring one of his childhood dreams in the face, although he doubted these Gargoyles had been transported from medieval Scotland.
“So we just need to reactivate the Security System and then everything will resolve itself?” Alix asked, itching to get started.
“That is the intention, but the vault is still inaccessible, and only the Darknight can reactivate the keystones. With everything that has been going on, none of the skeletons have been tasked with clearing that particular passage recently.”
Alix’s mind was suddenly racing with all the options. Could he craft a pump somehow? A giant Archimedes Screw? What would he even do with the water? Pump it into the grounds and forever taint the soil with its poison? Try and Dismantle it down further, and end up with a load of poison in his inventory he was unable to dispose of?
Astrid, are you there? Alix called, an idea suddenly coming to him.
Always. How can I be of assistance?
Are there any spells for water purification?
I would assume so, probably something like Cleansing in a book on Light or Holy magic, or something more direct in a Druidic handbook. Would you like me to have a look for you?
If you have some time that would be great. If I can cleanse the water flooding the lower levels of toxins, I should be able to get rid of it easier.
I will let you know what I find.
“I just had a word with Astrid, she is going to look for any sort of water purification spell that might help,” Alix said.
“That could work, but there is still the task of navigating the collapsed stairway,” Mr Bones replied.
“I think I’ve got an idea for that, but I’m going to have to head to the library first. I’ll be quick. I intend on getting Tifayn out of there and back to normal by the end of the day.” With that, Alix left Mr Bones and headed inside.
Alix barely made it up to the first landing before he was accosted again by someone else needing his attention.
“We need to talk,” Brant said, not looking happy in the slightest.
What the hell’s wrong now? I saved your wife and you are still pissed at me?
“I’ve only just got back Brant, can’t it wait?”
“No, this can’t wait.” Brant turned to the half open door of the room he had taken as his own. “Ophenia?”
From out of the room, Ophenia the Ringtail emerged, scurrying along the hall to hide behind Brant’s broad back. All cleaned up, she almost looked like a different person, but she kept a wary distance and kept her eyes down. Her clothes were also the same ones she had been wearing that day in Mortlake, the ones she had likely been kidnapped in. They were clean, but a little worse for wear. Looks like I’ll be crafting clothes for more than just the skeletons…
“Was this man there that day?” Brant asked. “Did you ever seen him in Mortlake before the day I found you?”
Ophenia peeked out from around Brant’s muscled shoulder, giving him a quick look over. Instead of speaking, she shook her head no and ran back to the safety of their room.
“Alright, I guess that confirms that you had nothing to do with it, but I still don’t trust you. You are the Darknight, the one stories have been told about for centuries, the trickster that comes once every fifteen generations to wreak havoc across our world.”
“You can’t blame me for anything those previous Darknight’s might have done. I feel like I’ve been pretty accommodating considering how we met. If all those stories were true, do you think you would still be standing?” Alix said.
Brant was silent for a moment as his mind tried to comprehend a reality different from what he had been told for his entire life. “I’ll admit I have seen nothing to suggest the stories are true yet, but there is always some truth in these things,” he mumbled quietly.
“Great, so you will help me train now? If I can get Tifayn back to normal I’m sure she will need to rest after the ordeal, but I’ll need to continue my training.”
“If you remember, I told you if you bring the ones that really did do this to me, I will train you. You claim it was Durgun and Bolo that were behind everything, but you didn’t bring them to me. You let them go,” Brant replied with barely restrained anger.
“I didn’t exactly let them go. I used the same spell on them as I did on you. Their souls are bound to me now. For now, they are my spies within Galdea. I thought it would be handy to have some men on the inside. You can be sure that they are fully under my control and won’t commit any crimes ever again. For all intents and purposes, they are now the perfect soldiers that don’t even remember what happened. I thought it best not to draw too much attention to ourselves by murdering a pair of Imperial Soldiers. If it is that important to you, I will call them to me now and you can do with them what you wish. Oh, that reminds me. Here, I guess you should take this.” Alix withdrew the two heavy bars of gold from his inventory and handed them over to Brant.
“Is this all that a life is worth? Two bars of metal?” Brant said as he took the gold. “The things those men did were disgusting beyond measure. I don’t intend on letting them get away with it, but knowing they are bound against their will is at least some solace. I have something I would like you to promise me though. Once your five years here are up, I want you to promise to turn over those two men to me. Maybe by then I will have thought of a suitable punishment for them.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Whatever happens, I promise you will have final say on their fate. I will hand them over to you once my task here is finished, or before if I am able.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Alright then. I have decided that I do not want to return to Galdea right now after the way we were treated there, so Ophenia and I will stay here, with the other Ringtails. You have the space anyway so it shouldn’t be a problem. We will begin your training tomorrow.”
Without giving him a chance to reply, Brant stalked off down the hall, slipped into his room and shut the door. Alix quickly got moving again, wanting to resolve the issue with the flooded levels today if he was going to be put through his paces by Brant so soon. He wanted to get in a good night’s rest beforehand, with plenty of tonics and Nightbringer Draughts flowing through him.
“I would have brought the book to you,” Astrid said as he entered the library. It was the first time he had been there since Astrid had taken over and it looked like she had been working without rest to organise it since, which she probably had.
Not a speck of dust was to be seen on any of the shelves, the wood almost glowing with a warm lustre. All of the books that had littered the floor between the rows had been lifted and placed on a series of tables, organised into a system only Astrid knew as she slowly created new cards for them in the catalogue. A lot of the shelves looked like they were fuller, as books had been returned to their rightful place and as she slowly made progress organising the centuries of new volumes.
“That’s alright, there’s another book I need to look for now anyway,” Alix replied, heading to the card cabinets, going straight for the ones with subjects labelled ‘B’.
Ba…Be…Bh…Bi…Bo…Boars; Rearing, Hunting, Butchering…
Finally he found the entry he was looking for: Boat, Building. He made note of the shelf and book number and set off into the stacks. With Astrid’s attentiveness, it made things a lot easier and he soon had the book he was looking for in hand, a tome on the designing and construction of various forms of wooden hulled boats. The title caused him to do a double take: Brother, May I Have Some Böats?
“Curious title isn’t it? I always thought so,” Astrid said, causing Alix to drop the heavy tome on his foot in fright at the skeletons silent arrival. Astrid picked up the book with skeletal but gentle fingers, flipping through its crisp pages. It looked like no previous Darknight’s had found the need to build a boat, although from looking at the maps of Babyl, it didn’t look like it had any seas anyway, only a vast network of rivers and lakes. “It has a curious history as well. It wasn’t written by a Darknight, but by an ancient king, or at least compiled by him. It was written to his twin, a master boatwright. It was probably just a thoughtful gift in a time when such books were a valued rarity, but the story goes that the king commissioned a fleet of vessels from his brother, who assuming his familial connection to the king gave him license to take his time with the order. This in turn, reflected poorly on the king, who commissioned the book and presented it to his brother, as if to say, if you do not have the skills you claimed, allow me to teach them to you myself. I do not know if the king ever got his boats, but we at least got this book. It is an unrivalled resource in the crafting of wooden vessels. What need do you have of it?”
“I need to learn how to craft a small boat so I don’t have to swim through everyone’s shit,” Alix said, taking back the offered book.
“Well good luck with that. Ah, here’s the other book you requested,” Astrid said, taking a book from one of her voluminous pockets and handing it over. It was named Ritual Magic of the Living Earth. “It is a book written by Druidic priests on their particular kind of magic. Their magic focusses on the fact that all magic comes from Babyl, so they only concern themselves with the magic stored in the elements bound to the World Tree. It is an interesting read, but a bit self-indulgent at points. The Druids always did think that they were superior to others. I hope this will suffice.” Astrid promptly left to get back to sorting. The more she worked, the more human she seemed to become. He suddenly thought of the book of illusionary magic she had mentioned. If she managed to find it, he hoped he would be able to find something in there to at least give the skeletons the appearance of their old bodies back.
Alix took the two books and retreated to a different part of the castle to read them, the seat and table he had previously used to study at now covered with books waiting to be sorted.
It was an odd feeling entering Tifayn’s rooms without her there. He hoped more than anything that everything would work out fine. The thought that something might happen to her was enough to make him want to give up entirely. None of it was worth it if she wasn’t by his side. What would have happened to him if she hadn’t been here? It wasn’t something he wanted to think about. He put on a pot of coffee, the smell of the ground beans soothing his nerves. With a steaming mug of fresh coffee, he got to work reading the books.
Either he was frantic in his reading or his Bibliophile skill was upgrading the more he read, as his notification bell went a lot sooner than he had expected.
* Title Unlocked: Druid. Increased Elemental Magic Potency.
* Title Unlocked: Boatwright.
The Boatwright Title was accompanied by dozens of crafting recipes for different varieties of wooden boats, ships and every sort of vessel in between.
One final notification appeared.
* Requirements Met, Skill Unlocked: Inventor.
Well that sounds interesting…
Alix didn’t have time to ponder the new Skill yet. He had quickly found the spell Astrid had found for him, part of a whole series on the purification of different elements, mainly for use in their sacred Druidic rituals, but they could easily be used for other purposes.
Mr Bones, I’m ready to get started. Would you like to meet me down there?
I am on my way, my lord.
Alix opened his map to refresh his memory of the lower levels of the castle, somewhere he had never been before. The passages leading that way had always had a foul smell wafting up from them, and now he knew why. The path began in the entrance chamber. On the far side there were three doors, one which led to the left, home of the armoury, forge, crypt and yet to be restored areas such as the stables. A central door led to the kitchens, expansive pantries, a rear exit to the greenhouse, and a shortcut to the currently unused servants routes through the walls. The door to the right he had so far ignored, the smell wafting through the rotting panels of the door enough to turn him away. This time he found a burning torch and made his way inside, the door now no more than a splintered mess on the ground from Tifayn tearing it off its hinges.
The corridor branched a few times, leading up to various towers and other rooms for less revered guests, before it ended at an iron grate that had also been torn from its hinges and now lay crumpled on the ground like a discarded beer can.
Beyond, the ancient stone floor continued for a few paces, before it opened up unto a circular chamber, with a spiral staircase lining the walls, descending down into the darkness. Alix stuck the torch over the side and looked down into the depths, unable to see the bottom.
“It is quite a walk,” Mr Bones said from behind him.
Alix jumped in fright, almost falling over the edge into the stinking mess, but Mr Bones was there with his unhuman reflexes, unbound by the constraints of muscles, to make sure he didn’t fall.
“After you, my lord,” Mr Bones said after Alix had calmed down, motioning the way down the stone steps jutting out of the wall.
They descended for what felt like miles, dropping down further and further into the depths of what his map showed. He had never expected the castle to go this deep.
“All this for a vault?” Alix asked as they walked, his words echoing up and down the shaft.
“It is more than just the vault. There is a chamber down here, where Lady Tifayn is currently resting. It is a place of great magic, a chamber of healing, where one of Babyl’s great roots breaks the surface.”
That sounded like it could come in handy, if he could manage to clear the way there. It was far down the list of things he had to do first though. Saving Tifayn was first and foremost in his mind.
As they descended deeper, the foul smell in the air thickened until it started to become hard to breathe. Just when he was beginning to think that he couldn’t take it any longer, the steps disappeared into a murky black liquid so much worse than he had imagined. The chamber suddenly became a bubbling cauldron of foetid poison.
“Holy shit, that’s nasty.”
“Indeed, my lord. How do you intend on cleansing it?”
“Astrid found some Druid spell that should do the job.”
“Ah yes, the Druids know their stuff when it comes to this sort of thing.”
Alix couldn’t stand to wait any longer. He opened up his menu and selected Purify Water from the list of Druidic Spells. The spells always seemed to work better if he selected them manually from the menu first, although he was fully capable of casting them without it. The fear that he would mess something up was still present so he preferred to do it the boring way.
A bright shining magic circle of blue bordered with a holy pure white blossomed from his hand, before expanding further and further, the spell sensing the size of the job before it. Then a dozen arrows of light shot out from the circle, hitting the water at various points around the shaft. The light sunk into the putrid mass, spreading until it covered the entire surface. For a moment it dimmed, as if the poison had overcome the healing effects of the spell, but eventually the black mass began to shrink and the light burst up through the surface, from cracks at first, until the entire shaft was aglow with a blazing light so strong he imagined it had to be piercing the sky above the castle. Please, not the Pillar of Light cliché…
In a matter of moments the light faded and the torch light reflected across a pool of crystal clear water. The first stage of his plan looked to have gone perfectly, but that still left the problem of getting the rest of the way down the shaft. Now that the water was cleared, he could see that shortly down the stairs, the steps vanished and fell into darkness.
“What now?” Mr Bones asked.
In response, Alix opened up his Crafting menu and looked for the newest additions. He was glad to see that his menus were becoming filled up with such a wide range of options. The only problem now was that it was becoming a bit of a nightmare navigating it all. He would have to ask the ring about a sorting system when he had the change. He selected the design he wanted from the now expansive list of woodworking projects, selected the sizeable cost of lumber, and in a flash of light, a basic wooden skiff appeared in the water, complete with a pair of oars.
“That’s not quite what I had in mind, my lord,” Mr Bones replied, always polite even in the face of what had to appear as absolute stupidity to him.
“Just get in,” Alix said, motioning for him to take a seat in the boat. “I’m not planning on going around in circles for a bit of fun.”
Once they were both seated, he focussed on the water around him, imagining it as a harvestable material. He had never done such a thing before. It felt like he was trying to suck the very air into his inventory.
Eventually he noticed a label floating above the pool.
Purified Water.
Alix stuck his hand out over the side of the boat and stuck the surface of the ring to the water, and then tried to absorb it into his inventory, just like it was Dumpweed in the garden, or a Duesenberg in a cave.
How the hell is this supposed to work? What’s to stop me absorbing Tifayn by accident, or the rest of the world around me? he asked himself, but the ring, always listening replied.
I can sense your purpose, trust in me to carry it out. If you are to succeed, in this and your other endeavours, we must be as one.
* Acquired x10 Purified Water
The boat sank by a fraction as the water appeared in his inventory.
“Sweet,” Alix said at the revelation that his plan was going to work.
“Do not drink the water, my lord!” Mr Bones suddenly exclaimed, reaching forward to pull his arm back from the pool. “Even sweet and purified of contaminants, there may still be other things to worry about.”
“Like what?” Alix asked, trying to supress as smile at the thought of the skeleton being freaked out at the thought of him drinking purified toilet water.
“There may be other creatures that have called these waters home for the past few centuries.”
“Have you seen them?” Alix asked.
“Well, no…”
“Don’t worry, Mr Bones, I’m not going to drink it. It is a phrase back in my world. It just means by plan is working. I managed to absorb the water into my inventory. Now hold on, I’m going to speed things up.”
Alix began to worry when the ring began to absorb hundreds and hundreds of units of water. Slowly he felt the weight dragging him down, as surely as the boat continued its downward journey past the jagged remains of the steps that had long since fallen into the watery depths.
Using the oars, Alix pushed them away from crashing into the obstacles that rose out of the water, stone steps and other pieces of debris that had fallen down the shaft over the centuries. By the time the boat finally came to a stop on an uneven stone floor, he held tens of thousands of units of Purified Water. Luckily all the walking across Babyl had helped to increase his muscle mass, especially in his legs, so he was able to step out of the boat with only the slight sensation of an uncomfortably full bladder and slightly bowed legs.
Mr Bones stepped out of the boat behind him onto the debris the boat had landed on, the remains of the fallen stairs, his silence enough of an indicator that he was impressed with Alix’s progress so far. Still, he had only delayed the problem, not solved it completely. He couldn’t carry the water around indefinitely, and he couldn’t safely dump it all in the grounds without flooding the place. He needed to get the Gargoyles cleared out of the drain.
“Let’s keep going,” Alix said to Mr Bones, heading off into the tunnel that led off from the bottom of the shaft.
The shaft led to a large open chamber, one littered with piles and piles of debris from various cave-ins above. All the debris came from failures in the arched roof above them. Without the mess, the chamber would have looked fairly grand, like the courtyard in front of a country estate. From the amount of debris everywhere, he was surprised that light wasn’t shining in from above.
To the side of the chamber was a larger pile of debris that looked to be half covering another entrance to the chamber.
“What’s in there?” Alix asked, pointing towards the darkness beyond.
“It is a service entrance to the sewers. It took me a while to clear enough of the rocks to have a look inside and that’s when I saw the gargoyles.”
Another pile of debris obscured a large door on the right wall. Straight ahead, several sets of winding stairs led up to a balconied area, behind which the path continued, shining from within with a verdant green glow. His map showed him that he was indeed in the chamber of the vault.
“It seems obvious now that all the water is gone, but I can assure you it was a lot more difficult trying to figure out what was going on here in the dark. Over there the Gargoyles are blocking the drain, and over there is the vault. You can see how I was having trouble investigating. I don’t know what possessed anyone to cover this chamber in such monolithic stones.” Mr Bones said, pointing out the respective piles of gigantic debris. The pile Mr Bones names as the Gargoyles was obscured underneath centuries of silt and slime, a filth he hoped he would be able to clear without having to handle it himself. Even absorbing it into his inventory would make him feel dirty.
“I guess I should focus on the vault. If I can restore the Security System, hopefully the other blockage will resolve itself.”
Alix stepped across the courtyard, marvelling at the architecture so deep underground. The doors to the vault itself had to be ten times larger than the castles front door. At least this door was crafted from a more durable material than wood, some sort of metal that still shone after all these centuries. It didn’t even show a scratch from all the stones that had crashed against it.
Alix began the laborious process of absorbing the large stones into his inventory. He felt each one hit his storage like a brick stacked on his back.
It’s only temporary, you can do it. Just a couple more….
Alix kept on absorbing, every so often causing a small avalanche as the stones higher up were set lose, until one half of the doors were finally revealed. He had expected some elaborate mechanism to open them, but with the stones cleared all he could see was a normal door handle. Mr Bones had said only the Darknight was able to open the Vault, so he stepped forward and grabbed the handle. It opened easily at his touch, as if the lock hadn’t just spent centuries underneath a toxic swamp.
As Alix pulled open the Vault door, he expected a torrent of water to rush out of the crack, but there was nothing. If anything, the air smelled remarkably fresh.
“That is a good sign,” Mr Bones said, “The seal on the door held all these centuries.”
Before stepping into the Vault, he first deposited all the stones in his inventory into a neat pyramid . If anything unexpected happened, he didn’t want them weighing him down.
Alix stepped into the Vault, raising the torch high in anticipation at all the piles of gold awaiting him.
The reality was a lot more disappointing. A few small piles of gold and silver lay around the floor, but other than that it looked like it was littered with junk, random objects he couldn’t identify in the flickering torchlight.
“What is all this stuff?” Alix asked.
“The possessions of past Darknights. Some things they considered too dangerous to store elsewhere, or things that were precious to them, objects of their home worlds. I would advise caution when inspecting them. The keystones are over there on the wall,” Mr Bones said, pointing to a row of stones on the wall.
Alix ignored the rest of the junk and stepped over to the keystones. They were a row of large stones engraved with various spell forms, below which were round dimpled protrusions. It looked like they were designed to be able to rotate. Around the rim of the round stones was an elaborate design, but it was only half complete. The other half was engraved onto the wall around them, but they were jutting out too far for them to be completed.
There were no labels on any of the keystones, but he was able to analyse them with the ring and find out which one was which.
* Heating Keystone
* Security Keystone
* Lighting Keystone
The Lighting Keystone had an extra button in the centre of the protrusion labelled Intimidating Lighting. There were several other keystones lining the wall but once he found the one he was looking for he ignored all the others. Alix grabbed the knob below the Security Keystone and rotated it, and as he did it sunk further into the wall until the design on the rim lined up with the one on the wall. With every turn, he felt his mana drain, the cost for activating the keystone. Eventually the stone would turn no more and a light bloomed from underneath his hand, flowed down into the spellwork and then up to the larger design. Once the keystone was fully lit, a line of yellow light began to rise up the wall along a path carved into the stone he hadn’t noticed before, like a neon sign coming to life. The light reached the vault’s ceiling and disappeared into the rock.
While the yellow light was travelling towards its destination, Alix activated the Heating and Lighting keystones, a red and blue light appearing out of them and rising up along the wall as well, disappearing into the far reaches of the castle. As he activated the Heating keystone, a deep rumbling shook the ground beneath him, as if he has just awakened a volcano under his feet. When he activated the Lighting system, glowing orbs appeared in the vault and in the chamber outside. He put out his torch, no longer having any need for it. Then he heard another rumbling coming from the chamber and he rushed out of the vault.
Across the chamber, there was the sound of tumbling rocks, and then the pile of debris and filth began to shake. The stones rocked and fell, until a dozen forms began to burrow their way out of the muck. Alix thought they were dogs at first, but as they shook off the caked on dirt, the blue grey skin underneath was revealed, as were the wings that sprouted from their backs. Then he noticed their enormous clawed feet and giant bat like faces, although they had an elongated snout. The look was completed by a pair of stubby horns and a long tail. They bounded around the room on all fours, sniffing at every corner, jumping playfully around Alix, although he made sure to keep his distance. With every jump it sounded like two rocks slamming together.
Eventually another rumbling echoed out from the pile of debris still clogging the drain and another dozen forms crawled out, these one a lot more human in appearance, although a lot larger in stature. They would have dwarfed Brant, and put his muscles to shame. They shook out great wings, stretched and cracked long frozen limbs, and then barked a command at the dog-like forms running around the place. In an instant they shot out of the room, back the way Alix and Mr Bones had come. The tall figures all bowed slightly as they caught sight of Alix, then they followed the smaller ones out of the tunnel. The ring identified them as Gargoyles, and the smaller ones as Gargoyle Hounds.
One last Gargoyle crawled from the mound, holding something in his hand. He looked around the chamber, caught sight of them and headed over.
“Some things never change. It is good to see you Mr Bones,” the huge Gargoyle said in a deep gravelly voice, throwing the mud covered object to the ground.
“It has been too long, Ajugor. I apologise for taking so long to set you free. I’m curious as to what happened here.” Mr Bones replied.
Ajugor kicked the pile of mud at his feet, revealing the remains of some bones wrapped in rotten clothing. Then a blade fell free from the remains.
“It happened shortly after all you skeletons were put to rest. Someone broke into the castle, managed to evade our watch, and made their way all the way down to the Vault. The Hounds only caught his scent once he was already inside. I do not know how he managed to get access to the Vault, but when I found him down here he was trying to crawl through the drain to get out. I dove in after him and grabbed him by the leg. Then the stupid Hounds piled in after me. The others were trying to get them to clear out when it happened.” Ajugor carefully picked up the sword on the ground. It looked fairly unremarkable but he held it like it was venomous. A name appeared above it: Nullblade. “I recognised the blade he had stolen too late. He swung it towards me, and as soon as it made contact we all returned to stone. That’s the last thing I remember.”
“The Nullblade! That is a very dangerous artifact. Do you know who the man was?” Mr Bones asked, looking down at the bones, but keeping one wary eye socket on the blade.
“It was the Solknight. He must have known what he had, if he risked so much to come down here and find it, but I can’t fathom why he attacked me with it knowing what would happen. The Nullblade nullifies the effects of magic in anything it strikes, therefore the Security Keystone turned off and we all returned to stone, with him stuck in my grasp. It seems he never managed to escape and died in there with the rest of us.”
“The Solknight? After defeating the Darknight, he broke into the castle and tried to steal this blade? I guess that answers the question of do the winners get to return to their own worlds,” Alix said, feeling like the wind had just been knocked out of him.
“You must be the new Darknight,” Ajugor said, quickly taking a knee and bowing deeply. “I vow to serve you, hopefully better than I did the previous Darknight. It appears we have been frozen for near five hundred years. I will leave you to your business and return to my long overdue tasks.” Ajugor got to his feet, placed the Nullblade back in the Vault, making sure to keep the edge far away from hitting anything, and then headed up the tunnel after the other Gargoyles.
“This is quite the mystery. I wonder what the Solknight planned with the Nullblade? I wonder how he knew about it in the first place? Questions for another time. Come, my lord. Lady Tifayn is just a little further along.
Alix followed Mr Bones across the chamber to the stairs that rose to the arched opening and they stepped into the glowing green tunnel.