Four hours of meditation and reverie. That's how long it would take for Kevinar to regain his exertion points and be ready for another run. The time ticked by slowly, every moment tense with the possibility of peril, and I couldn't help but wonder when rather than if a monster would come and take us unawares.

Fortunately, I had the crazed company of Jeldorain to keep me company. As he was enjoying reminding me every few minutes while I surveyed the entryways for enemies, using his icy orbs as my own.

After an hour, Jeldorain’s tone shifted subtly, his words slithering into my thoughts like a serpent’s whisper. Ryan, open your eyes he urged. Kevinar’s path aligns too neatly with ours. Consider the possibility—he could be an agent of the Goblin Empire.

“Not this again,” I muttered under my breath, wary of possibly disturbing Kevinar’s meditation. “Look, you’re wrong. Kevinar is kind and understanding. I know him. Same with Ike.”

Yeah? I could see him, his semi-solid body standing at attention in the mind space, his head cocked at an angle. Childhood friends, are you? Grew up together? Worked in the same fields? Went to the university together? His words, barbed thoughts targeting my brain, stumbled on the last question in a way that suggested that the word he’d found within me held a conceptual image that was somewhat confusing to him. Probably the large classes and modern technology. I smirked, knowing that I’d just blown his mind.

“I’ve got to trust somebody,” I answered.

“Trust,” Jeldorain scoffed within the confines of my skull. “A luxury ill-afforded in this world. Look at him. A dark one from the lands of the damned. His people worship spiders and dark spirits. Of course he isn’t worthy of your trust. But lucky for us, he is vulnerable now. An easy kill. It would be a simple thing to—”

“No.” I cut him off, forcing myself to keep my voice low. “It isn’t right.”

Kevinar's eyes snapped open, his brow furrowing ever so slightly. “Are you arguing with your infernal again?” he asked, his voice tired and worn.

I nodded, feeling a twinge of guilt for disturbing his rest. “He thinks you're a threat.”

“Good,” Kevinar said, closing his eyes. “Make sure he understands that I am, and that I’m best left alone.”

Jeldorain's sigh seemed to echo through the cavernous space of my mind, a sound of weariness tinged with mockery. Let me regale you with a tale he began, his voice a dark ribbon weaving through my thoughts. “The Silly Little Imp Who Trusted, a cautionary fable known well in the infernal realms.”

I nodded, still keeping my eyes peeled and waiting for possible danger, but curious as to what such a tale would be about.

Once upon a time there was an imp named Ryan. A fire imp, of all things, the worst of the infernals. Not just because of how hot they are, but because of the smell also. Fire infernals and all of their kin are trash.

“I’m sure,” I said, chuckling. Despite his gross desires and evil nature, Jeldorain could be quite charming and funny at times.

This imp wandered through the forest, lost from his home, running into trees and stuff because that’s how dumb he was. He danced through the forests, hugging everything and everyone, a beacon of misplaced trust, greeting each creature with a wide smile wide, his greeting always the same. “Hello, friend,” he’d say. “I’m so glad to meet you!

“So is this improv, or are you just shoving me into a real story from back when you were a baby infernal?” I asked.

Larvae, Jeldorain corrected. Quiet or you’ll ruin the story.

I smirked, rechecking my six and nine. “Alright, keep going.”

Everything was good in the forest, even for the idiot fire imp, until one day there came a dark elf. A fiend named Kevinar!

I frowned. “Really?”

Shush. Kevinar! Jelodorain repeated, his voice curling the name into malevolent angles and dips. He offered apples, crimson and luscious. Their scent was tantalizing. Yet the forest's inhabitants shunned the deceitful gift, because they weren’t idiots. All of them but one.

“Let me guess—”

I will not tolerate spoilers, Ryan. For I am not a foolish fire imp named Ryan who of course took three of the apples and ate them down one after the other. With each bite, agony took him. He dropped to the ground, twisting and howling, his body bubbling and shuddering until nothing was left but a cluster of gerbils.

I cracked up hard, laughter booming out into the Labyrinth. Kevinar opened his eyes, sighed, and closed them again.

“Your story is ridiculous, but that was some good improv,” I whispered. “You’re right, I barely know them. I’ll be careful, alright?”

A chill swept through my mind as Jeldorain chuckled. Yes, oh great champion, caution is wise. Remember, he is a dark elf—trust and friendship are not their common coin.

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I looked over at Kevinar’s meditating form, seeking any hint of duplicity. I couldn’t see anything.

“I'm nothing like the imp of your story. I can tell rotten apples from ripe.”

Jeldorain's presence withdrew, leaving a silence in its wake. Kevinar continued his meditation. I stood guard, my resolve fortified. And as the hours passed, with Kevinar's steady breathing as my companion, I watched over us both, a sentinel against the darkness.

It was an absolute relief when Kevinar rose again, his body rejuvenated. “Are you done fighting your infernal?” he asked, his face emotionless.

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Good. Then let’s go.” Moving forward again, the place silent but for our footsteps, we pushed through the twists and turns, the ebbs and flow of the pulsing fulgurite growing stronger and more rhythmic as we moved. It felt as if we were inside the body of an electric elemental, head through its veins to find the chambers of its heart.

Kevinar maintained a vigilant watch for traps and lurking monsters. On one occasion, as we rounded a corner, we were confronted by a creature composed entirely of seething energy. Its form shifted and morphed as it moved, crackling ferociously. There were no eyes, no distinct limbs. Just amorphous, charged chaos.

“We do not want to fight this thing,” Kevinar whispered.

“What can we do? Can I sneak past it?”

Kevinar shook his head, pondering the floating mass, while I started thinking back to school and a man called Benjamin Franklin. What I needed was a way to get this energy to discharge into the ground. I called up my inventory, scanning it wildly for something that I could use. There was nothing useful there, seeing as my Elixir of Elemental Resistance was against fire. My armor granted me 20% resistance to all elemental attacks, but that still wasn’t very useful for what I want to do.

My eyes pinned to the wall, looking at the pulsing fulgurite and the electricity coursing through it. I imagined what must be happening there, in the physics of this world. It was like copper wiring, directing the power of this place, perhaps the power of its kills, towards some battery deep in the planet. And the fact that it was conducting electricity meant that I could use it here, against the elemental.

Jeldorain, what would happen if I fused fulgurite with my icearigama? I asked mentally whilst pulling the weapon from my inventory.

“What are you doing?” Kevinar asked.

“Trust me,” I answered. “I’m making a plan. Hopefully a good one.”

The elemental hovered in place, crackling in eternal storm, oblivious to our presence. Kevinar watched it, equipping his own weapons, waiting on my thoughts. Kevinar observed it a moment, before materializing a bag of coins into his hand and gently handing it over. I took my icearigama and pushed it up against a thick chunk of fulgurite wall, willing them to fuse together into something greater.

The fulgurite's touch upon the Titan-Ax-icearigama sent a shiver down my spine. A soft hum filled the air, and the fulgurite began to quake and spark, emitting a sound like thunder.

As I initiated the fusion, the glow from the fulgurite intensified, casting electric blue shadows against the temple's ancient walls. Static electricity danced across my skin, zipping and crackling across the frosty sheen of my skin. From the corridor, the electric elemental turned and began walking in our direction. Kevinar brought his glowing blades to bear, and stood protectively in front of me and my weapon's ongoing transformation.

With a sudden burst, fragments of fulgurite showered down as a section of the wall melded onto the icearigama. Atoms clashed in a brilliant display of plasma and untamed energy, the fusion unleashing a cacophony of light and sound. A pillar of energy shot upwards, blasting a crater into the ceiling of the labyrinth while simultaneously cocooning my weapon and I in radiant, yellow-electric light. The ground shook, tossing both Kevinar and the elemental to the side.

Within my cocoon, my ax relented, and a spectacular dance of frost and electricity began. The icy motes of the weapon swelled and erupting with lightning, the hue of my weapon changing to the color of an icy storm-laden sky at dusk.

CRAFTED! Stand in awe of the Stormforged Titan-Ax-icearigama (Legendary)

In the primordial epoch, where the cosmos was yet untamed and the elements raged with wild abandon, there existed a domain where the fury of the storm kissed the cold of the ice. This realm, known as the Tempest Glacier, was a canvas of awe-inspiring dread, a place where the gales gnashed with frosty teeth and the heavens mourned with a blizzard's sorrow. Here the Storm Heralds reigned supreme, their weapons the Stormforged icearigamas, and none but the highest levels of warriors could wield them.

Congratulation on a legendary fusion, adventurer. Your weapon has achieved its maximum fuse.

Stormforged Titan-Ax-icearigama, Damage 5 to 40 (+12)(x2), Weight 7, Speed Fast, Specials: Freeze (10%), Shield Break (3%), Attunement Level 1 - Vorpal (5%)

MAXIMUM FUSION – THE WEAPON MAY NO LONGER BE FUSED WITH OTHER WEAPONS

Attunement Level 2 - Storm's Embrace: As the wielder becomes more attuned to the weapon, they gain a passive resistance to electrical damage, and their critical hits have a higher chance to trigger a powerful lightning strike.

Specials Update:

Electrical Capture: When grounded, the Stormforged Titan-Ax-icearigama may consume electricity, giving it access to the following attacks until its charge (random 10% chance per attack) runs out:

Freeze (10%) now with added electrical damage over time.

Electrified Freeze (10%): The freeze effect deals continuous electrical damage to frozen opponents.

Shield Break (3%) chance increased due to the fulgurite's piercing nature.

Vorpal (5%) now has a chance to call down a concentrated bolt of lightning on a critical hit.

Chain Lightning (5%), with a chance to hit additional targets.

Aesthetic Change: The weapon glows with a blue-white aura, and sparks of electricity dance along its edges, especially when swung.

As Kevinar and the elemental stared at my Stormforged icearigama, I charged. Seeming to realize its fate a moment too late, the elemental reared back, attempting to dodge my blow. But the tip of one of my crackling, frozen axes tore through its substance, and all of its energy began to flow into my weapon. I stopped moving, hanging onto the weapon fiercely as it vibrated intensely within my hands, threatened to slip from my grip.

The elemental keened, a sorrowful crackling wail that reminded me of a poorly wired microphone, an eerie echo rolling out over us and into the maze walls beyond.

And then it stopped. The elemental was still there, but much reduced in size. It wrapped itself into a tiny ball lightning and floated away in retreat, leaving both of us staring in stupendous awe.

[Achievement Unlocked: Vampyre]

+50 XP

Objective: Steal an amount of life essence from an enemy combatant

VICTORY! 1300 XP rewarded!

“The Luck of the Demons,” Kevinar exclaimed, his eyes wide and upon my icearigama. I stared as well. It wasn’t just a good weapon. It would act as a key to finding and unlocking my path home.