A loud rumbling sound interrupted the heavy, oppressive silence of the stone chamber Griffin had awoken in.
How long had it been since he had been ‘summoned’ to this Aeldfane place? Three hours? Maybe closer to four.
“Well, this might not be good,” A now starving Griffin admitted with a weary expression, even as his gaze was intently fixated on the dagger in his hand. The dull red gem that had been inlaid in the dagger’s hilt was now flickering with a faint, yet noticeable light.
“If I don’t go outside, I’ll starve to death in a day or two. If I go outside, I might get run over by a dinosaur, arrested by alien police or just find myself in an environment that isn’t suitable for habitation. Guess the ‘waiting to wake up from this dream’ strategy isn’t going to pan out,” Griffin mused as he sized up the stone double-doors blocking his way ahead.
“Might as well get ahead of this while I still have strength left,” He muttered under his breath, before walking towards the stone doors.
Then, he pushed.
Pushed again.
And again.
The stone door refused to budge.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Griffin protested as genuine fear creeped up into his tone.
He had already felt what dying to the metaphorical hands of a thousand pound truck felt like. Starvation sounded even worse.
“No. No, there’s still things I can try,” Griffin muttered with a fervent gleam in his gaze. “The Dais. A summoning. Me. The Apostle of Chaos. They wanted me here. Or, not me, but someone with my calling. Why? Probably wanted my soul. Maybe they wanted me alive, in which case, I would be better off dead. Even the agencies after me back on good ol’ earth had the torture department down pat, I’m glad I didn’t have to find out what Blood Wizards were capable of.”
“Hmmm,” He intoned. “This actually might be the best case scenario. Now, I need to figure out who the leader is,” Griffin’s gaze swept through the stone chamber, discovering nothing new.
In his mind though, he had already reached a decision.
“It’s probably the Elf. Only one that had two weapons, one a dagger that literally evolved to suit her needs. Has two chumps on her either side and the formation could also be interpreted as a pentagon over a circle. She also had four classes over three along with a higher level compared to the half-dwarf. I guess I could use three more analyzes but…. I don’t really need them.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Griffin nodded to himself, having the outline of a plan in his head.
He gingerly walked over to the kneeling elf and then wrapped both his hands around her arm.
Then, he tugged.
“God damn,” He swore. “Why in the bloody hells are you so heavy,” He protested as it took almost all his strength to move the Dark Elf’s body by an inch.
His stomach grumbled at that inopportune moment, reminding him that he was still on a very visceral timer.
“Man, I should’ve gone to the gym,” He groaned as another tug followed.
About half an hour later, Griffin had managed to drag the Elf to the stone door with her cursed staff leaning on her for support. One cursed weapon was enough for Griffin.
“Now, this doesn’t seem like the most high-tech door I’ve encountered,” A heavily panting Griffin muttered. “But appearances can be deceiving.”
With that, he exerted what little strength he had left to raise the Dark Elf’s hand, or more specifically, all five of her right hand’s fingers and then pressed them against the stone door.
Nothing.
He tried the same thing with the left hand, only for exactly nothing to happen.
“Well, guess all my assumptions were dead wrong. She’s not the leader, it’s one of the other four. I’m not…giving up… you hear me!” The declaration came out in a hoarse tone in between his panting, before he reluctantly allowed himself to collapse on the floor.
Inadvertently, he ended up leaning on the Dark Elf’s seated corpse, but he didn’t think she would mind so he let the status quo remain, too tired to fight against it.
The obsidian staff leaning against her though, was a different matter entirely. Already precariously balanced because Griffin didn’t want to touch the cursed soul eater anymore than he had to, his own weight leaning against the dark elf gave it a slight nudge.
A loud smack followed by annoyingly loud clattering followed.
Startled by the sound, Griffin swiveled his head to see the cause of the commotion.
An heavy, grinding noise followed as the stone-doors that he could not budge in a century slowly opened up outwards.
“You’ve got to be—- shit!” He exclaimed, realizing that he simply could not afford any hesitation.
Before the door could change it’s mind, Griffin dove forward with his newly acquired dagger held in a reverse grip so he didn’t accidentally stab himself towards…
Freedom.
[Analysing….
Location: The Sewers of Zenari-Shu, a principality under the direct control of the Yushan Sect.
The Yushan Sect is one of the five hegemonic powers of the Zendor Continent. Zenari-Shu is a training ground for new recruits that have journeyed from lesser known sects and far-flung villages.
Zenari-Shu is also known as the city where civilization begins, with a ruling D- Rank Sect Magistrate being responsible for maintaining order within the country.
The Yushan Sect is a Virtuous Alignment Sect. Any Sin Alignment Callings are culled on sight. To register with one of the sub-ordinate sects in Zenari-Shu, self-disclosure of callings is mandatory.
As the Apostle of Greed, you are a target of great interest to both Virtuous and Sin Alightment Calling Forces.
Registering with the local authorities is ill-advised.
Good luck, Apostle Griffin Thorne.]