023: Forward into darkness

I‘ve decided to launch counterattack right after rest. We were all tired, especially Lena - charging into the unknown below in such a state wouldn‘t be the smartest thing to do.

Kytar made some food, and we all ate it together in the mess hall. Introductions of our new members dominated most of this meal.

Our new cat - named Midnight for his dark fur - watched us from the nearby wardrobe, trying to embrace the fact there were so many new people in his territory. According to Kytar he already got a few mouses, one of which he proudly presented to him (before eating it). He also seemed to understand his other job, at least judging from the fact that the apathetic Vila seemed to glance at him from time to time.

There was progress. Small, but I didn‘t expect anything more.

Then we went to sleep. Leria volunteered to be the first on guard duty, which was the best idea judging from her strength. Even if there was another assault like the last one, she should be able to hold the line for long. She might actually win singlehandedly though probably not without some wounds.

Before I could fall asleep, though, I heard a knocking to my bedroom door.

Who is... oh, it was Simea. In her ultra-conservative nightgown.

“Did you walk here from the quarters wearing this?” I raised an eyebrow. Sure, it covered her like Vaera’s hijab (well, almost), but it still was close to her skin and allowed anybody around to have a good look at her... assets.

“Wh... nope, I changed in your study, before knocking.”

Oh, that sounds more like… wait a second. “I... think I closed my study room.” She tried to avert eye contact with me. Oh right, she probably used Suppress Presence to avoid anyone interrupting her and then picked the lock. “I’ll give you spare keys, since I believe this will happen often, won’t it?”

“Y…yes. Thank you." She cleared her throat. “I know that I don‘t have to sleep with you every night, but... the way it makes me feel is… I want it. If you don‘t, then I’ll just g…”

I shook my head, interrupting her. “If you want it and it makes you feel better, I’m fine. It’s better than the alternative, right?” She nodded. “Come.”

***

Simea didn’t steal my quilt this time, and so I slept well. That there was a pretty girl sleeping next to me was upsetting, but nothing I couldn‘t handle. My ‘willpower’ was one of few things I was confident in.

Nobody interrupted us since after Leria it was Vaera’s turn. No unspeakable terrors infiltrated the Hold during the night. In short - the night was uneventful.

I didn‘t have to ask Simea how she slept. A single look at happy face was everything I needed.

“What sort of books are in the library?" She spoke while still hugging her pillow. I was still in bed as well, since I liked lounging around after waking up. It was a great beginning of the day. Normally I stayed like that until I really had to get out or until Leria barged through my door to deliver some righteous justice on my lazy ass.

“Well, most of them are about theoretical magic.” The fact that every single one of them was filled with words that made sense was a significant proof that this world was real. In WR special books worked like objects, you couldn‘t read them, you could only use them to get a buff to stats or a new spell. The rest was filled with random words or had only up to 20 pages. You couldn‘t even ‘use’ many books lying on bookshelves, since they were a part of a decorative object. In Gates of Eternity someone filled all books with words. Ones that made sense. I couldn‘t even fathom the amount of work needed to write all of them. Imperial Library in the capital of Kynevian Imperium had almost a million of volumes according to lore! “The rest is about history or biology. Why do you ask?”

“Because I can finally focus on reading something without being interrupted by lewd thoughts or a sudden urge to get laid.” She responded while shaking her head. “I tried it once. After a single page I discovered I was no longer reading it, but instead I was fantasizing about having sex. It was terrible.” She went silent for a while. “After we get out, I must apologize to my parents.”

“About what?” I wasn‘t sure if I should ask that question, but... she started the subject. And I wanted to learn more about her.

“Well... they are hard-line protestants. Members of one of those ultraradical churches that grew like mushrooms after rain in the aftermath of the Crash.” Yeah, I knew what she was talking about. Crash, as it was called, was the biggest economy crisis at least since the times of Great Crisis in the Interwar period.

It began in Germany when their chief bank went bankrupt due to the ongoing war against ‘fascist regime’ of Poland. Once again an idea of quelling internal strife by short victorious war backfired. What followed was a chain reaction in stock exchanges and almost complete collapse of whole banking system. It was so terrible that it created a lot of ‘IT IS THE END OF TIMES' cults and communist revolutions in several countries, including November Republic in California and Hamburg Commune in Germany, whose leaders preached about the bankruptcy of capitalism and the need to create the new world.

It was terrible. Ten years and the world barely recovered.

“They caught me red handed with pornography once or twice.” Simea continued. “Chastised me about how those who become a slave to their own urges can‘t be free and how sex is unclean and wrong. I... I hated them for it." She went silent for a while.

“And now you believe they were right?” I asked.

“Now I believe they had a point.” She responded. “I still think they went too far, and that sex is ok when done in moderation, but I think I understand their approach.” She went silent for a while, deep in thoughts. I didn‘t interrupted her since I wasn‘t stupid enough to not notice this was an important moment for her. “I don’t agree with them, but I thought they were stupid or crazy and... I guess I was wrong.”

She truly had it rough. “We’ll get out one day. Robinson isn’t omnipotent, I don’t know how he made sure we can‘t get out and that no one from the outside helped us, but…. there has to be a limit to this.” She looked at me and smiled faintly.

Suddenly there was a loud knocking on the door. I sighed.

“I guess it‘s Leria. She keeps waking me up every morning. Trying to beat me into shape.” Simea chuckled. “What is it?”

“She really acts like your sister, right?" She smiled. “An older one.” I decided to not answer that.

***

It really was Leria. When she discovered that Simea spend the night in my bed she gave me a rather weird look before suddenly slapping my back and telling me she was happy for me. All my attempts to explain the situations were unsuccessful. The fact that Simea laughed behind my back instead of helping me didn‘t help.

Great. Now people will think we had a relationship going. Ugh. Ok, I like spending time with her and we are on a friendly terms with each other... we also had sex (well, at least I considered the thing we’ve done sex, I wasn‘t sure if this was sex per scientific definition) and we slept with each other… BUT IT WASN’T LIKE THAT! Obviously! Ugh.

According to Leria and Vaera - who volunteered to guard the descent into the lower level of Tyrant’s Hold - several more Devoured Workers tried to visit us during the night. They didn‘t seem to be organized, besides, only a fool would think they had any chance of winning against us when thirty of their colleagues failed earlier. Leria speculated that they were allowed some autonomy by their mysterious overlords and wandered around, randomly deciding to use the stairs which ended in their annihilation.

Theory good as any other, really.

We added our new members to the list of people allowed to enter and leave Hold independently. Packed our things. Then, the time came for our first foray into the second level of Tyrant‘s Hold. Lena was back in workable conditions, so we welcomed her back into our team.

***

The stairs itself weren‘t damaged by the collapse of the tunnel that led to them. Weird. According to Kytar it seemed to him like the other collapses were natural, but not that one. It was clearly artificial. Somebody purposefully blocked the way down, which had... potentially terrifying implications. Did the mysterious people - probably Overtyrant‘s worshippers that once lived here - had no time to collapse the stairs? It would certainly be a better way to prevent things from going in. Or out.

Leria and Lena were vanguards. Simea followed them. Me and Vaera were the rearguard. We walked down the stairs in this formation. Our front-line warriors were fully buffed (Ominous Chant and Dragon Might combination), easily sweeping off few Workers we encountered on the stairway.

Finally, there was a door in front of us. There were symbols painted on it with blood that dried long ago. Symbols I could connect to Pentagram.

Rotten stench of evil came from the other side of them, almost choking me. Sense Eldritch at the same time made me feel like I was in home while Sense Magic made my skin tingle. Uh. Several supernatural senses at once were too much.

“Alright.” I said when we reached the door, with Lena impaling the last Devoured Worker on her spear beside them. “I smell a hard fight on the other side. Ready?” Everyone nodded. Lena pulled out her spear. “Good. Leria, open the door.”

She kicked them. With aura strengthening and the fact that they were old, they practically flew away rather than simply break. She immediately jumped inside, with Lena and Simea following her.

I entered as well. Oh boy.

It was a room. Square one and big. Most of it was dark, with Vaera‘s torch being the only major source of light. It was filled with Devoured Workers. Twenty, at least. Then I discovered that some of them weren’t Workers.

Devoured Warrior

Category: Eldritch/Pentagram

Type: Beast/Husk

Threat Grade: Iron III

A body, once belonging to a zealous warrior, a member of Ardent Flame. Now, a husk of a person, moved only by the will of the Pentagram.

There were four. Wearing tattered remains of chainmails, with sword and shields in their hands. Two of them also wore what looked like tabards atop their chainmails, with a symbol of Pentagram crudely painted atop of it.

Leria charged into combat together with Lena. Our resident Chosen One focused on eradicating as many of the Crowd as she could before they swarmed us. Lena moved in front of us, the casters, to defend as from melee combatants. Simea disappeared. Vaera and I covered ourselves in defensive hexes and spells - I used both Inhuman Resilience and Lesser Bend Reality, deciding to not waste mana on Localized Distortion in the face of a lack of enemy casters or shooters.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Everything according to plan.

All enemies noticed us in the same second, immediately moving towards us. There was something deeply unnatural in their coordination. Were they manipulated by some single, central entity? Or maybe they were a hivemind?

I fired Havoc Bolt at the enemies to the right. We earlier talked about this with Simea - I told her to sneak upon the enemies of the left first. After all I couldn‘t see her when she suppressed her presence and hitting her with Havoc Bolt would be rather bad.

Unfortunately the enemy was more scattered here, so I killed only three Workers. Few more lost a limb or two. Second later Leria stormed the survivors, beginning the slaughter.

Warriors charged towards us in an almost uniform manner. Their target was Lena and casters hiding behind her. I hit the one on the right with Destroyer Lance, ripping him into pieces. When the rest got closer, Lena fired a Shadow Wave against them, causing her own shadow to change into a wave of blackness that staggered them. Before they reacted, her spear reinforced with Mighty Blow went through one.

Second later Simea materialized behind the one most to the left, slicing his throat with her dagger. It wasn‘t enough to kill him, so she immediately Evacuated with a dash backward and with Sudden Disappearance preventing nearby Workers from attacking her before she recuperated. When she appeared again, she was ready to dance around those near her, stabbing and slicing them with her blade.

Leria decided that she pushed enemy left flank far enough and leaped between me and Lena, attacking those Workers that tried to attack our spearwoman from her left side. Her Wide Slash - a horizontal slash made ‘longer’ by aura extending into invisible blade longer than the sword itself - cleaved two workers into halves. Then she unleashed an Offensive, her flurry of blows pushing the rest back. Slaughter intensified.

My two consecutive Greater Life Taps finished the warrior wounded by Simea. Two surviving ones tried to charge Lena again, but their loss of manpower took its toll. She was enough to keep them at bay until one got enveloped by Vaera’s Dragon Fireball and another one got his shield-bearing hand incapacitated by my Cripple hex. Without it, Lena impaled him on her spear, finishing last of the warriors.

Wow. Seriously, wow. Sixteen Devoured Workers, and four Devoured Warriors… killed within a minute. To call that a one-sided fight would be an understatement of a century. It was a one-sided slaughter. No wounds on our side. In fact, I didn‘t see anyone getting hit. Enemies were a Crowd (Warriors were barely better than that) and that could be felt. With a Chosen One that acted like a human chainsaw it was too much for them to have any chances. Whenever she came, bodyparts flew.

Suddenly a large door opposite to the stairway opened. A wave of a foul stench and coldness enveloped us. Something large walked inside the room.

Devoured Knight

Category: Eldritch/Pentagram

Type: Beast/Husk

Threat Grade: Silver I

Once a proud knight of the Ardent Flame, now merely a husk of a man driven by the will of the Pentagram.

It was large. Once it must have been a human or other humanoid species, but something... changed him. Warped him. His head almost reached the ceiling, his body seemed bent unnaturally and his right arm was much longer than left. His head was… bloated, its shapes distorted and his helmet covering only a small part. It made him look like Pericles, this Athenian statesman that suffered from hydrocephaly. The way they always portrayed him with a helmet that didn‘t really fit looked similar.

It was armed with a long sword and a tower shield. He also had a plate armour covered in blasphemous symbols. I could see symbols of Overtyrant warped to look more like a pentagram, portraits of a woman I believed to be the Prophetess of khardic faith raped by Pentagram daemons, and various writings I couldn’t read. On his shield was a large painting of the Prophetess being tentacle raped with the look of bliss on her face. Beneath it was a word WHORE written in local language.

It roared inhumanly, spreading a fear debuff that everyone managed to at least partially resist. Then it charged, ramming its way through surviving Workers.

Leria jumped into his way, but his shield resisted her Smite Evil. A second later his sword hit her from above. She shielded herself, but the strength of the hit staggered her. The knight kicked her, pushing her back so much that she almost hit Lena.

Ah shit, that‘s I was afraid of. Ugh. It‘s time to improvise.

Destroyer Lance hit him, almost breaking his magic shield. It roared, screaming something I couldn‘t understand. Then it bend forward and open his mouth.

Tentacles exploded from it, his head suddenly collapsing on itself. They grabbed Leria‘s hand and pulled her closer, into his sword’s range.

Jesus, that stuff fills his head?! It was disgusting. I began casting Havoc Bolt, but Simea was faster. She appeared right beside the tentacles and sliced them apart with her dagger coated in aura. It freed Leria, and Knight roared in pain. He pulled the rest of his tentacle back into its mouth. Then my Havoc Bolt hit him.

It exploded when it hit his shield, overwhelming it completely. Few shrapnels hit him, hurting him pretty bad. He regenerated, but lost a large chunk of HP.

Lena and Leria attacked him. He tried to slash Leria with his sword again, but she once again blocked. So he tried to kick her again, only for Lena to suddenly stab his belly with her spear. She was smart enough to target the weak spot in his armor, so the blade of the spear entered his flesh.

This time he was staggered. My Holy Bolt hit his face, making it burn with Overtyrant‘s flames. Pain blinded him. Leria recuperated and slashed his right arm with her sword, chopping off the limb together with his sword.

He screamed. The shout was magically empowered to work like a shockwave. It pushed people around him back. The stump of his arm and the severed part of it exploded with tentacles. When they reached other, it pulled the arm Leria chopped off back into his place, the wound mending before our eyes. That‘s cheating! He even got his sword back.

He charged towards us again, impaling itself on Lena‘s spear. Her happiness was short lived as it pushed itself towards her. She understood what he was trying to do just a second too late. When it came close enough, he swung his sword at her, with enough strength to overwhelm her aura armour and decapitate her. Her head flew away while her body collapsed on the floor.

Shit.

He lost no time to rip the spear out off his body. He charged towards me. I screamed in fear and moved back. He would still catch me if Simea suddenly didn‘t appear right beside him and stab the back of his knee with her dagger.

The Knight shouted something incoherent and tried to slash her with his sword. But she was faster than Lena and evaded certain death. Then Leria attacked him. She cast Fervent Accusation, making him freeze. His distorted face bloomed into a look of utter bliss.

Yeah, that‘s how it worked on things like that. They enjoyed everything evil. Even feeling their own wrongdoings made them happy. That’s how... different they were. But it still paralyzed him for a while as he was too busy with his own equivalent of orgasm to fight.

Leria used the moment to jump at him and slice his head apart with her sword coated in Smite Evil and aura. It exploded into a mess of blood, darkness and tentacles. Critical hit, if I ever saw one, at least judging from the Knight suddenly losing 50% of his HP.

Then my Destroyer Lance hit him, breaking his mana shield weakened by shock caused by critical hit.. Remaining 20% of HP disappeared and the knight collapsed, dark liquid mixed with blood squirting from the remains of his head. The stench was choking.

Jesus, that was tough. If Leria hadn’t scored surprising critical hit, he would’ve murdered all of us with ease. Fucking difficulty level jumps between grades. Silver I was much worse than Iron X. He would slaughter two or three Blackwood Knights, our past strongest kill.

The room went silent. Two remaining doors didn‘t open. There either wasn‘t anything worth of our attention, or it waited for a better moment.

Lena‘s body suddenly exploded in flames that almost immediately turned her into ashes. Weird. So that‘s what happens to our bodies when we die. Interesting. Something to remember for the future.

Note to self - get a sharpshooter as a teammate. Devoured mobs seem to be vulnerable for headshots.

***

We went through the door opened by the Devoured Knight. There was another room, almost as big as the last one. But... it was much different.

There was a hole in the middle, separating it into two parts. A three meter wide ‘moat’, with a small bridge atop of it. It was separated into two parts as well, the one of the other side was lowered, but that on our was raised.

The water beneath it was green. I threw a body part of the nearest Devoured Worker into it. Yep. It was an acid. A strong one at that.

“Can‘t we jump over it?” Leria asked. “I mean, it’s only like three meters wide?” I saw her making almost ten meter long dash when she tested her abilities with aura. While carrying her armour.

“Try it. If you want to die an agonizing death.” I answered. “There are magic barrier-type spells cast on the edges. I’m guessing they will allow you to jump over the acid moat. But they will prevent you from landing on the other side.” I chuckled. “Ingenious and brutal. Sounds like something an Overtyrant cult would build in their headquarters.

There were two rooms on the left side of the room. One on our side and one on the other. Control rooms, perhaps. Something collapsed the doorway on our side. A job for Kytar if we secure this place and go deeper. For now it could serve as a border between us and terrible things hiding deeper into these tunnels.

I knew there were much worse things there. The awful stench of evil that came from the other side of the moat left no other option. Each time I thought I smelled the worst stench, something proved me otherwise.

We returned to the main hall and used the door to the right of the stairway. Only to discover that a few meters behind them the corridor had collapsed. Good. One less thing to worry about.

Suddenly Lena jumped into the room, with her spear in hands. When she saw us alive and the Knight dead, she sighed with relief. Because of Radakar‘s mischief she had a much lower level than us and it could be felt. But she was getting new levels faster than us, so I hoped that she would catch up quick.

Only one door left. With Lena accompanying us again we were almost back to our full fighting force from the time when we descended here.

After opening them we discovered a completely ruined storeroom filled with rotten crates. There were some Devoured Workers left, but Leria and Lena quickly dispatched them. We found another door behind it.

Sigh, let’s get this over with. It should be the last room for us to clear before we can call it a day. “Leria, open them.” She did so.

I screamed. Leria screamed. We all screamed.

It moved. It didn‘t move. It looked. It didn‘t look. It whispered. It remained silent. It stood in the doorway. It wasn‘t there.

Lena turned her tail and fled, her face distorted with a look of terror.

It walked into the storeroom. It flew into the storeroom. It crawled into the storeroom. It jumped into the storeroom. It teleported into the storeroom.

I appraised it. There was no effect. A window opened in front of me. It was completely empty. It displayed its name.

Vaera fled, screaming. I could feel my sanity dropping. My head hurt. I heard whispers offering me things I didn‘t want and telling me things I didn’t want to know.

It was an Aberrant. Lesser one. Jesus. Focus while you are still sane. You know how to fight them. There were mentioned in WR lore. You read about them.

It had tentacles. It had no tentacles. It looked like a bull. It looked like a horse. It looked like a human. It looked like a squid. It looked like a human with tentacles. It looked like a human with tentacles.

It screamed. It didn‘t scream. It was in pain. It felt nothing.

Simea had enough, and fled, screaming like a madman, her sanity broken.

It had a face. It didn‘t have a face. It had a face but it was distorted. “IT HAS A FACE BUT IT IS DISTORTED.” I managed to shout.

It screamed. It screamed. It screamed. Leria held her head in her hands, screaming and babbling incoherently, but still holding ground.

“IT HAS EYES! IT HAS EARS! THERE ARE THREE EYES! THERE ARE TWO EARS!" I kept shouting. Aberrant recoiled in pain and fear. “IT FEELS PAIN! IT FEELS FEAR!” Everything went red. After a second I understood that I bled from my eyes and nose.

It broke. The reality went bluescreen, and it disappeared from it. I collapsed on the ground, panting heavily.

Jesus. How did they... DFI only mentioned Aberrants in World‘s Requiem. Because there was no way to show them. And when you couldn’t show it properly, it was better to not show it all. Such were the DFI‘s ways. But there was one in front of me seconds ago. How? HOW?! It was impossible. How can you program such a thing?! Was it another world after all?!

“What… wwas that?" Leria‘s voice was barely audible. She stuttered heavily.

“It was… an Aberrant. A Lesser one.” I was only in a slightly better form than her. “A raw being of Beyond. Not a daemon but something else.” HOW HOW HOW HOW HOW HOW. “An idea of things mortals cannot comprehend made material. Or not material. Or semi-material.” I chuckled bitterly. I couldn‘t feel my hands and legs. “You can... exorcise them when you comprehend them. Name them. Describe them.” I coughed few times. I had problems breathing. “But in most cases they drive people insane before that can be achieved." I felt faint. “It must have been the being in control of Devoured.” I couldn‘t breathe. Shit. My mind drifted away.

YOU DIED!

Cause of death was cerebral hemmorhage caused by brain damage sustained due to crippling damage to your sanity.

RESURRECT

Ah shit. At least we did manage to secure everything on this side of the acid moat, even it gave more questions that I could find answers for.