Lillya brought the hammer down towards my head, and then… stopped.

Our eyes met. I saw in hers not the wrath of battle, but regret. Guilt, even, perhaps.

‘No,’ she breathed, loud enough only that I—and perhaps Tokas, who wasn’t so far away—could hear.

‘Boss?’ one of the other cultists asked, eyes darting, unsure. The man looked from Lillya to me, to our friends charging forth from the distance, and then even to a riding merchant approaching fast behind them.

‘This not right,’ Lillya said.

‘But Yusef ordered us to—’

‘I know,’ the orc growled. She caught herself, and her voice soften. ‘I know. Stand down.’

Some of those in pale orange robes lowered their weapons, while others paid no attention to the orc’s orders. Among the latter group was another familiar face.

‘These are the people we’re supposed to kill?’ Ted said, now dressed in the uniform of the cult. He’d moved fast to join them, presumably having come across this group on the roads.

‘Kill them and you’ll be Yusef’s favour,’ the other man said, as though reiterating an earlier deal. This man, too, hadn’t lowered his weapons—a spiked mace.

‘Ted…’ I growled, my nostrils flaring.

‘S’pose it’d put an end to them ruining my life.’

‘You know spawn?’ Lillya asked Ted, eyebrows raising.

I groaned; the last thing I needed was for other people to be impressed by Ted. I was about to say something on the matter when Ted popped a sweet into his mouth and disappeared from sight once more. Others in the group did the same; he’d been sharing his enchantments.

‘I say stand down!’ Lillya shouted, repeating her earlier order. ‘This man spawn of Architects!’

Nobody else spoke. Nobody else moved a muscle. If the cultists believed Lillya about my bloodline, it didn’t matter to them. They were loyal to Yusef, and he’d given them a job to do. All I could hope to do was convince enough of them not to attack, or at least to buy time until the others arrived. Even with Raelas’s—fairly limited—portal magicks, there was only so fast they could move. I could hear Corminar shouting something from the distance, and for a moment I considered opening some portals of my own, but this might have been all it took to trigger the attack once more.

‘She’s telling the truth,’ I said, and caught sight of Tokas’s eyes bulging; she’d never been privy to this information. ‘My mum, she was—’

‘Yusef’s orders are sacred,’ the loudmouth man cut in. ‘We obey them at all costs.’

‘Even if target is Player?’ Lillya retorted.

‘If it’s true, then you knew this when you received the orders. Nothing’s changed.’

The orc looked to me with sad eyes, as though to say that something had. Perhaps that something was that she’d realised she couldn’t go through with it. I heard Corminar’s shouting grow louder as they approached, now echoed by Val and Arzak. As I glanced at them, many of them glanced back at the horseman merchant that was fast approaching.

I counted the number of cultists—could we hope to triumph, if it did come to a fight? When I reached two dozen, I stopped counting; by then, the answer was clear. Even with the others charging in to help, we wouldn’t win this one. Or, at least, we wouldn’t all survive the encounter.

Still, that didn’t stop me from putting my hand on the pommel of my dagger. Tokas’s fingers moved, preparing to cast a spell. Neither of these went unnoticed, and the enemies adjusted their grips on their weapons.

‘I said stand down!’ Lillya insisted, sweat forming on her brow, and not just from the high desert sun. If this orc had changed her mind about her orders, it was because of my ancestry and nothing else. If it could convince her, maybe it could convince others. I reached my hand down the neck of my tunic and began to pull forth the object that was dangling over my chest. The Sisyphus Artifact. If Lillya could explain what it was, and who could use it, then maybe we had a chance to turn the tides in our favour.

‘There is one thing that might—’ I started, but then I caught sight of many of the cultists looking over my shoulder. Looking down the road at my charging allies. They must surely have known that these people were coming to my rescue, yet the expressions on their faces weren’t ones of fear or preparedness. They were of… confusion.

And then the gentle breeze carried Corminar’s cries over to me.

‘Player!’ he shouted. ‘Player!’

Tokas whipped her head to Lillya, her face paling. ‘He’s here? You brought him with you?’

But Lillya shared that same expression of confusion as the others in her contingent. This was news to her as well. I turned around, placing my back against Tokas’s, recognising that protecting each others’ backs was the best chance we had of survival if Yusef really was here. I really would’ve have preferred it was anyone else in our party protecting me, though.

As I turned, I caught sight of the riding merchant once more. I caught sight of glistening, ornate armour. I realised that no sensible man would wear armour in such heat—not unless it was enchanted. And if there was a frost enchantment built in to the armour, then this metal was far beyond what any merchant could afford. That was the Player.

‘The rider!’ I shouted to Tokas, and the tiefling turned around. Suddenly the two dozen or more cultists weren’t the priority; the charging Yusef was far more dangerous.

And atop his horse, he was catching up on the rest of the team fast.

‘To hells with it,’ I muttered, then reached out an arm to open a portal in front of my friends, bringing them to my side. Many of the cultists moved as if to attack, but hesitated just enough that Tokas and Lillya’s outstretched hands gave them pause. This was a fragile truce if I ever saw one.

‘Could’ve done that sooner,’ Val said as she stumbled out into me, and this made my heart skip a beat. Was she back to smarmy insults? Was she back to the Val I knew? I opened my mouth to retort, but found that nothing came forth; there was still part of me that didn’t want all to return to normal. Not that this was the time for it.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I closed the portal as the team fanned out in the usual formation ahead of the charging Player. Those who could take a few hits stood at the front—which, without Lore and Carle around, was just Arzak. Then came me, Raelas, Tokas and Val, or those who could inflict damage quickly at medium range. And at the back stood the greatest and second-greatest archers in the Tundras, though I was no longer interested in which of Corminar and Lambkin was which.

‘Ready yourself for illusions,’ I shouted to the team.

‘Illusions?’ Corminar replied.

‘Yeah, this whole town was a—’

‘That’s not Yusef,’ Raelas said, her voice still quiet.

‘Well who is it then?’ I asked, my strained voice betraying the panic I felt.

‘That’s the Councilman.’

I hesitated, lowering my dagger. ‘Wait, what? Really? And we’re worried about that?’

The loudmouth cultist coughed pointedly behind us. ‘You remember we’re still here, right? Lillya, are we attacking or not?’ He caught himself. ‘No, don’t answer that; we’re attacking.’

‘Stand down!’ the orc cultist repeated, and though this still held back the tide of attacks, I could see that we were going closer to a shattered peace with every time she had to give this instruction.

There was no time for any more words between Lillya and the rest of her team, because the Player was upon us. The man wrestled his horse clumsily to a stop, almost ploughing straight through us in the process, and then looked around at everyone standing here.

‘All of you?’ he asked.

‘All of us what?’ I replied.

‘Hello again,’ Corminar said reluctantly. ‘I wish I could say it was a pleasure.’

‘You’re all together? I have to kill all of you?’

‘Nobody has to kill anyone,’ I retorted. ‘Though honestly I can think of one person who—’

Lillya’s right-hand man stepped forward. ‘We aren’t here with them. We’re here to kill them on the orders of the Divine Player Yusef.’

The Councilman raised his eyebrows. ‘Oh really? And how is my old friend?’

Lillya choked a bit on this. ‘You friend with Yusef?’

‘You’re a Player?’ the male cultist asked. ‘They weren’t lying?’

‘I come from the upper world, or whatever Yusef calls it, yes.’

‘The Ascended World,’ Lillya and I said at once.

‘Sure, that. I come from there.’ The Player looked around at us again, his eyes glistening, and then started laughing.

‘I don’t get what’s so funny,’ I said after a moment.

‘Villain not need reason for evil laugh,’ Arzak said with a shrug. ‘They just do.’

‘Don’t you see?’ the Councilman said after a moment more of particularly irritating chuckling. ‘This is perfect. This is as intended. It is an opportunity for me to prove myself in front of those loyal to Yusef.’

‘And I suppose you’re going to do that by…’

‘Killing you.’

‘Killing us,’ I repeated. ‘Right. So the one thing that you struggle with?’

The Player put his armoured hands on his armoured hips, threw his head back and laughed once more. More loudly. More annoyingly. Guffawed might have been the better word for it, really. ‘I am that man no more. I have experienced the sweet taste of fresh blood. I have—’

‘You been drinking blood?’ Arzak asked. ‘You not supposed to do that. You vampire?’

The Councilman slumped his shoulders. ‘I was talking metaphorically.’

‘Right, so…’ I started. ‘Let me get this straight. After we left you tied up in that basement, free to go on the condition that you don’t hurt anyone, you went and immediately killed someone? And that gave you the taste for it? And then you sought vengeance on us for… having mercy?’

‘I am rather beginning to regret allowing this man to live,’ Corminar grumbled. ‘He is not even particularly pretty.’

I nodded my agreement. Agreement with the first part of that sentence, at least, though it didn’t stop Raelas and Val from looking at me funnily. ‘Won’t make that mistake twice, though, will we?’ I adjusted my hand on my dagger, and the enemy’s eyes bulged. He might have killed some people, but it seemed he still wasn’t used to his opponents putting up a fight.

‘Cultists?’ the Councilman asked.

‘You’re probably gonna wanna call them something like “fellow devouts” or something,’ Val suggested. ‘They don’t like being reminded they’re in a cult.’

‘We’re not,’ that loudmouth man in orange insisted.

Val smiled at him, making no effort to hide that she was being patronising.

‘Well, then,’ the male cultist said. ‘By my count, that’s two votes versus one.’

‘Wait, what?’ I asked. ‘Votes?’

‘To kill you.’ Then he charged.

With this move, the cultist shattered the fragile peace, and all hells broke loose.

"Styk"

Level 20 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 52

Intelligence — 227

Dexterity — 131

Strength — 80

Wisdom — 76

Charisma — 50

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 61

Knifework — Level 43

Stealth — Level 26

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 18

Abilities:

Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.

Execution III — Attack a target while undetected for +300% damage.

Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.

Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.

Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Enhanced Portals — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to two pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.

Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.

Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.

Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.

Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.

Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.

Saved Portals II — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

Portal Relay II - Up to ten small-scale portals can now be positioned stationary to an entity, and used to communicate sound. In addition, your standard portals may be used to communicate sound.

Stealth Attack III — Passive. 200% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].

Gentle Step — Passive. Your footsteps are dampened on even the hardest of surfaces. Reduce noise of movement by 80%.

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Improved Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of significantly higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +1,400%