The only thing more annoying than being chased by an invulnerable suit or armor was being chased by one with the ability to fly and shoot fire. Theo had no idea what was involved in the construction of that contraption, but he knew one thing: gnomes were nasty business, especially gnomes in debt.
“I knew I should have packed my mire shield,” Liandra said as she and the avatar rushed through the corridors, creating new rooms as they did. “That hunk of junk would have been scrap.”
The sentiment was shared, but reality had shown that things weren’t as easy as the heroine suggested. The knight not only had a lot of firepower but also knew how to use it in inventive ways. For all intents and purposes, one could almost say that it had a constantly equipped jet pack that allowed the knight to not only follow them at great speed, but also pull back at the precise moments Liandra swung her heavy sword. She had attempted to use smaller weapons, but her boomerang blades weren’t useful in narrow corridors, and standard flying knives bounced off the red knight’s armor like peas.
“Spok, are there any anti-anti-magic spells?” the dungeon asked back in its main body, while having his avatar run, evading waves of flames.
Not that I’m aware, sir, the spirit guide replied, trying its best not to say anything that might give Theo any ideas. Going beyond the range of the anti-magic field might help.
“No kidding,” the dungeon grumbled. “I should just get out of the stronghold, run a few miles away from the mountain chain and then cast a spell, right?”
Why did I ever agree to this?!
That was a very good question. Logically, there were several points at which, if Theo had stood his ground, he would have prevented the unfortunate series of events taking him here. If he had just left those thieves to take a few things and scamper off, no one would have been any wiser. The irony was that precisely because of the trouble the avatar was in right now, the main body of the dungeon was better than ever. Just moments ago, a tax collector had arrived, letting Cmyk know that everything had been settled—after a healthy nudge from the Earl Rosewind—and now not only were all the permits in order, but the building had received a special protected status, requiring that the city guard keep an eye on it at all time. No thief would ever be able to disturb Theo ever again. All that would have been magnificent if Theo didn’t have to worry about Liandra uncovering his secret.
“I think we should split up,” Theo’s avatar said. “We’re a much easier target when we’re together.”
“Nice try.” The woman smiled. “We’re sticking together.”
What the heck?! That doesn’t even make any sense! “We’re only making it easy for him. The best course of action is for one of us to sneak behind him and—"
“I know what you’re doing. You want to keep me safe by attracting his attention to you.”
That wasn’t at all what Theo wanted. All he wanted was a bit of privacy, so he could charge at the suit of armor through the flames and tear its head off. Attempting to do so, even under the pretense that he had some sort of anti-flame magic, would be highly suspicious, considering they were in an anti-magic field.
“I’m no wizard, but I’ve been dealing with far worse creatures since I was nine. I’m not running from a wind-up toy.”
The scorch marks on her shoulder suggested otherwise. Theo had never been on fire, but he remembered grabbing a cup of hot coffee back in his previous life. The experience had been far from pleasant.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” Liandra said. “After the next turn, create a hollow section beneath the floor.”
“He can fly,” Theo said.
“It’s not for him, but for us. I just need to be there. The moment he flies over, I’ll break through the floor and slice that piece of junk in two.”
“Nice plan. I’ll need to make a room, then modify it once we’re in, but also keep the roof paper thin so we see—"
“Can you do it?” The woman rushed him, reminding them they were under a bit of time pressure.
“Of course.” Theo made the thumbs up sign as they ran. “Leave it to me.”
Thankfully, branching corridors and connecting chambers were quite a common occurrence in the stronghold. The first turn was less than a few hundred feet away. The moment they reached it, both leapt to the side.
The first thing that the avatar did was to kneel down and press his hand against the floor. Similar to all the times before, an empty space in the shape of a room appeared beneath their feet. The plan was to make the room as low as possible, giving Liandra a better chance to leap up when the time came. It was a good plan, sadly, it never came to be. The moment the room formed, a minor complication arose: the fact that there was no floor. As it turned out, the corridor was located right above a large chamber, and the thickness of the layer of rock that separated the two turned out to be smaller than the height of the newly created room.
Confused by results, Theo remained perfectly still, trying to come up with a potential solution. From Liandra’s point of view, things seemed completely different. As far as she could tell, Theo was completely frozen by the prospect of falling to his death in an area without magic. As such she had no chance but to act, and act she did by drawing a blade boomerang, attaching an aether thread to it, and throwing it at the ceiling. To little surprise, the blade sunk into the rock, as if gripping it.
“How many of those do you have?” Theo asked as he was grabbed by Liandra.
“Enough.” She held him tight. “There isn’t enough cord to take us to the bottom so we’ll have to—"
Before she could finish the chunk of ceiling the boomerang blade was attached to broke off. It was normal that it wouldn’t hold their full weight, especially being so close to the opening Theo had created.
“Damn it!” the woman cursed, reaching for something else that would prevent them from dying a painful death. With the ground being a few dozen feet away, there wasn’t much that could be done. At this point, there was no time for a second attempt.
Moments before splatting into the floor of the chamber, Theo extended his hand down. Instantly after, his avatar and Liandra fell into a room full of nets and cushions which broke the fall to the point that they didn’t suffer any serious damage. Or, to be more specific, they weren’t perceived to receive any serious damage. Known only to the dungeon, his avatar had broken his entire wrist at the moment of impact. Of course, due to his nature, the wound was immediately healed.
“You know what?” Liandra asked after several seconds of stillness and silence. “You really are something else.”
“You keep telling me.”
“If you pull anything of the sort one more time, you won’t have to worry about dying, I’ll kill you myself.”
That was meant to be a joke, in all probability. But given that it came from a hero, natural instinct made Theo and his avatar shiver in fear. A threat from one’s natural enemy had that reaction, even if spoken in jest.
“Can you see?” she asked.
“Yes, I have some magical enhancements,” the avatar replied vaguely. “You?”
“Hero sight,” Liandra replied. “Let’s get out of here.”
Climbing out of a room full of cushions turned out to be a lot more difficult than one expected. With everything moving and nothing solid for one to grip, it took close to a minute for Liandra to use her boomerang blade as a grappling hook to pull out. Theo followed, climbing up the aether thread she threw down at him. All the time, he kept glancing up at the ceiling. The ceiling was high enough to be almost invisible, though that wasn’t what he was looking at; the red knight had already shown he could fly, so it was quite possible he’d drop down after them. The fact that he hadn’t posed some interesting questions.
“Do you think we lost him?” Theo asked.
The question received a pitying glance from Liandra.
“What else would have stopped him from following? It’s not like he’d fall.”
“Let’s find where we are,” the woman said, avoiding the question.
The chamber they were in was beyond huge. It was as if they were out in the open during a moonless, starless night. Try as they might, the end of the chamber was not visible in any direction. However, there was something else that was: faint dots of light approximately at their level. Given the experience so far, most likely those were the usual knight guards making their rounds.
Liandra gave Theo a sign to remain quiet. Time passed. The moments turned into minutes, yet the distant dot of light remained in exactly the same spot.
“Doesn’t look like a guard,” Theo whispered. “What do you think it is?”
Just as Liandra was about to answer, bright yellow light flooded the entire chamber. For a moment it was almost as if the top of the mountain had suddenly vanished, letting the sun shine in. It didn’t take long for it to become obvious that wasn’t the case. The chamber ceiling was still there in the place of the sky, and so were the walls starting where the horizon ended. Most peculiar of all, a large orb of light levitated above the ground a short distance away, burning with the intensity of a small sun.
“Spok, is there any spell that could create a sun?” Theo asked back in his main body.
No. That is beyond anything but the elder deities, the spirit guide replied. Why?
“Oh, no reason. It’s just that I’m looking at one right now.”
That can’t be! Spok went into a little bit of panic.
It was one thing to doubt Theo’s reasoning—ever since his rebirth, the dungeon had been making all sorts of preposterous requests and getting away with it. However, so far, at least his descriptive skills were adequate. If he said he was looking at a sun, there most probably was something that resembled that.
Could you describe it in a bit more detail, sir?
“What is there to describe?” the dungeon grumbled. “It’s big, round, and lights up the place.”
Are you sure it isn’t an illusion? There are quite a number of spells that can trick one into seeing something that isn’t there.
Theo grunted. This was one time he wished his main body had arms, only so that he could cross them while giving the spirit guide an annoyed look. Still, one had to admit that there was a distant possibility that Spok was right.
“Hey,” Theo’s avatar turned to Liandra. “You can see that, right?”
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It was a simple question, yet it wasn’t answered. Liandra stood there, more tense than Theo had ever seen her. A two-handed sword trembled in her hands, creating the impression that the woman would break the hilt in two by squeezing on it.
“Liandra?” Theo asked. “What’s wrong?”
“That,” the heroine replied, staring right at the “sun.”
“The sun?”
“That’s not a sun. It’s a demon heart.”
Wait, what? Theo thought. He didn’t know much about the nature of demons in this world, but he got a feeling they weren’t anything good, even for dungeons. If Liandra’s reaction was anything to go by, they sounded like country extinction events given form.
“Spok, what can you tell me about demons?” Theo asked in his Rosewind self.
You’ll have to be a bit more specific, sir. Demons are a vast species containing multiple categories and subcategories and can include anything from an entity with the power to rival deities, to a trickster imp that creates fart puffs.
“I mean… what the heck is a fart puff?” Theo couldn’t help himself. “No, actually, don’t tell me! Just make sure I don’t have any of those inside!”
Very well, sir. Spok sighed.
“Anyway, Liandra said that the sun we’re looking at is a demon heart.”
Oh, dear…
Theo waited. And waited. Several seconds passed without the spirit guide adding anything more.
“Some more details would be nice,” the dungeon said in the most sarcastic tone possible.
My apologies. I thought you were going to add something. Most likely what your hero companion is referring to, is a Demon Lord category of demon. Such demons are in a category of their own, each having very specific and unique powers. It wouldn’t be possible to provide more details without knowing the exact name of the demon lord in question, however, I can describe some commonalities. You see, all demon lords are beings of immense power. Think of them as deities who are evil. While deities gain power by helping people, demon lords gain it by causing misery. I told you about the wars between demons and deities, didn’t I?
“I think so…” Theo had a vague memory of such a conversation.
To be more precise, the war was between deities and demon lords. A lot of demon lords were defeated and banished away. Unfortunately, there were large amounts of deities that were also hurt and had to retire to the heavenly domain, even if they won the battle for dominance. Since then, neither have walked throughout the world. The deities are in contact with their followers through temples, just as the demons are. It takes human action to summon both, just as you did back in Paris’ temple.
“In short, you’re telling me that someone summoned a demon lord?”
Not exactly. There hasn’t been a demon lord in the world for a while. Of course, there’s no way to be certain, but the last one was killed centuries ago. All that are left are a few archdemons, who are almost as bad.
That made the dungeon think back to the hero who had started this entire mess. According to the text Theo had received when the hero had stumbled to his death, the man had killed an archdemon.
The heart you’re looking at must be a remnant of a demon lord while alive. Since they were so powerful, their bodies could be only destroyed by divine powers. Occasionally, a few pieces were left behind…
“So, a heart was left behind… just great…”
This was another unplanned moment, although there wasn’t much that could be done. Since neither Theo nor Liandra were deities, all they could do was leave the heart alone.
“We have to destroy it,” the heroine said all of a sudden.
“Huh?” Theo’s avatar blinked.
“That thing is a source of unimaginable evil,” Liandra went on. “No wonder Lord Mandrake is trying to enslave the world. With the power of the demon heart, he could do that.”
“Aren’t you taking it out of proportion? I’m sure it’s bad, but…” he paused for a moment. “It’s not that I want someone to take over the world, but what can we do? Only a deity can destroy it, and as much as it pains me, none of us are that.”
“I’m a hero!” The woman snapped with more ferocity than Theo thought possible. “Our whole purpose is helping people. The deities have given us the power to vanquish evil and we do it by destroying all demons and dungeons we come across!”
That was a bad turn of events. Suddenly, the complacency that had been building up within the dungeon’s consciences since the start of the Earl’s quest vanished away. Liandra hadn’t become close to Theo in the least, she was close to his avatar. If even she found out what exactly he was, she’d be on him like a wall of bricks.
“There’ve been three demon incidents in the world in the last few months. One in the far west that caused the death of a legendary hero, one in the distant south, and now here. That’s more than there have been in centuries.”
“I see.” Theo decided that the best policy was not to argue. He knew that he had caused one of the “demon lord sightings.” “This is just a heart, though. It’s not exactly a full demon lord, right?”
“For now. Demon lords corrupt even after death. If Lord Mandrake found the heart, he’s already on his way of becoming an archdemon, if he isn’t one already.”
“So, the plan remains the same, then? Save the villagers, kill the evil lord?”
“And destroy the heart. If we don’t, someone else will only take his place.”
That sounded logical. It also made Theo’s spirit sink. Fighting an archdemon wasn’t something he had any intent of doing. On the other hand, after everything he’d done in the stronghold there was no way that the evil lord would let things pass. No doubt he was going to do everything in his power to track Theo down and destroy him. As regretful as it was, stopping him here with the aid of a hero was the best solution the dungeon could hope for.
“In that case, let’s go,” he put up a brave front.
Having the chamber lit up put a lot of things into perspective. The endless darkness was done, clearly showing that the space wasn’t infinite, just “very, very large”. If one was to make a comparison, an “underground city” would be apt. The chamber was roughly the size of Rosewind with groups of small houses clustered in small groups, as if someone had grabbed them, then dropped them in a pile and not bothered to sort them out. While every building was rendered livable, it was done so in the most illogically-logical fashion. All the roofs and walls were in perfect condition, not a hole or crack in sight. When it came to tilt, though… Some houses were level while others were at a nearly thirty degrees angle. A series of stone steps were added, making sure the inhabitants could access the upper levels, though it was anyone’s guess what was inside.
So that’s where all the stolen houses were stashed, Theo thought.
As Liandra and Theo moved closer to the center, the general logic of the chamber became clear. The demon heart was placed in the perfect center, held in place by a series of vast metal pillars coming down from the ceiling. Starting from it, clusters of houses occupied pie chart slices following the hours of the day of a clock. So far, two-thirds were filled up, leaving eight sections empty. Looking at the slightly different house appearance, each section corresponded to one village, meaning that sixteen entire villages had been “kidnapped” and transported here.
“So, this is what happened to the villages,” Theo muttered.
Looking closer, Theo recognized the houses in the nearby building cluster. They were the same houses that he and Liandra had attempted to protect half a day ago. Even the villagers emerging from them looked familiar.
“Heya!” The avatar waved.
Despite himself, Theo felt an unexpected sense of relief at seeing them alive and well. Unfortunately for him, the people didn’t reciprocate. In fact, all they did was quietly gather in groups near their houses, then head off towards the outer part of the chamber along eerily straight lines. It was almost as if they were following a weird routine with puppet-like precision.
“What’s wrong with them?” the avatar asked.
“That’s the effect of the demon heart. All weak-willed people are open to suggestions, following any order that is given to them. Didn’t you find it odd that there wasn’t anyone guarding them?”
The truth was that Theo hadn’t even throught of that. Since his life as a dungeon, he’d never had to deal with anything more than a lazy skeletal minion and a fat pet rabbit. It was no wonder he didn’t know the first thing about keeping prisoners.
“Ah, I didn’t notice.” Theo used a clumsy excuse to get out of the situation.
“You must have a really strong will not to feel the effects yourself.” Liandra glanced at him. “Most people I know would have collapsed by now, but you haven't even broken a sweat.”
Crap! “Spok, how’s a demon heart supposed to affect a person?” he asked in his main body.
Depends on the person, the spirit guide said. Dungeons are not affected by demon’s mental abilities. Your avatar, while appearing human, is also part of a dungeon, so you have nothing to worry about.
“Thank goodness.” The dungeon let out a sigh of relief, changing the location of several pieces of furniture in the process. “And normal humans?”
Well, that’s a bit more complicated. Being your guide, I cannot be certainly sure, but based on general knowledge, I could say that heroes of certain levels are also immune to the mental effects. Mages claim to be able to counter the effects as well through their “strong minds and ice-cold logic,” but personally, I think they’re just equipped with wards and charms that do it for them.
“So, how do I explain my natural immunity to Liandra?”
The only advice I might give is that when in doubt, do like a wizard does: make things up.
That I can do, the dungeon thought. “Well.” Theo’s avatar cleared his throat. “I suspected there might be something suspicious going on, so I cast a protective enchantment on myself even before we were captured. I didn’t think we’d come across an actual demon heart, but there are more ways than one to—"
Liandra’s hand darted, covering the avatar’s mouth.
“Shh!” she said, pulling him briskly aside. “Look there!”
A significant distance away, at the very end of the chamber, were a set of trolls. Fifteen feet tall, they towered above the best of the humans like massive statues. Each and every single one of them was wearing massive armor and gnome-work gear, making them fascinating and terrifying at the same time. However, that wasn’t what had attracted the heroine’s attention. Among them was someone else—a familiar figure in glowing red armor.
“I thought we lost him!” Theo whispered.
“Apparently not. He must have detected the trap you’d set for him on the ceiling and followed another route here.”
Trap? What trap? “Ah, right!” the avatar quickly agreed. “Damned knight! He’s smarter than I thought.”
“With the number of spells and gnome-work used to create him, I’d not expect anything less. Still, it’s better this way. Since lord mandrake is using the villagers for manual labor, he wouldn’t want anything else to happen with them. All we have to do is lure him here.”
There was something in that plan that didn’t sit right with Theo. While he couldn’t put his finger on it, he was almost certain that there was something that they had overlooked.
In the distance, the villagers kept leaving the chamber through a single large opening, just like ants summoned to another part of the hive.
“Get ready,” Liandra gripped her sword.
“Hold on. If we lure him out, won’t he bring more troops?”
“He’s already brought in more troops. He knows we’re here and there’s only one way in or out.”
“How can you be so sure?”
The heroine gave Theo a stern look.
“If there were more than one entrance, there would be knights and trolls pouring in from them as well.”
That was a good assumption, but just to be certain, the avatar looked around at the edges of the chamber. As far as he could tell, that was correct. And still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that was constantly bugging him.
“Spok, is there anything special you can tell me about battle trolls?” he asked back in Rosewind.
Strong, stupid, with high endurance and magic immunity, Spok replied.
That wasn’t it.
“How about a glowing red suit of armor?”
That depends on the color. Most often, it’s an indication of a fire magic attribute. The person who has it either can absorb or launch fire. It’s an extremely potent way to deal with fire-mages, or most mages for that matter.
“I see… any way I could get to destroy it?”
Using magic that is stronger than the target usually works, although it had to be a few magnitudes stronger. There are some heroic traits or powers that are capable of ignoring it altogether.
Liandra was a hero, but she didn’t have them. The encounter in the tunnel above had already proved that.
Of course, in your circumstances, I wouldn’t worry about that much, Spok added.
“Why so?”
You’re in the middle of an anti-magic field. It’s only a matter of time before the spell fizzles off. I give it a few minutes max.
A chill swept through both the dungeon and his avatar. This was precisely what had been worrying him all this time.
“Just for argument’s sake. What would happen if the spell doesn’t fizzle off in a few minutes?”
Well, in that case you’re dealing with demonic magic, which, similar to your dungeon magic, isn’t affected by anti-magic fields. The only solution against that would be holy magic.
“Now!” Liandra said and charged out of her hiding place.
“No! Wait!” Theo’s avatar tried to stop her, but it was already too late.
“Come at me!” she yelled at the red knight in the distance.
Noticing her, the red knight took a step forward. A pair of giant wings of red fire emerged from its back, lifting it into the air.
“What the heck?!” Liandra took a defensive stance.
“I tried to tell you!” Theo’s avatar grumbled. “That’s not just a gnome-work suit of armor! It has demon magic!”
And what was more, they were about to face it in a room lit by a demon heart…