2-8: Clandestine Ignition
Everyone's doors led them into
hallways seemingly identical to the ones they had used to enter their
trials, but the door on the opposite side came out into a
particularly large, circular room with a circular vaulted ceiling.
They came out of three doors adjacent to each other: The demon-girls
on the left, Jack and Noire in the center, and the healers on the
right. Once they were through the doorways, the doors themselves
seemed to instantly vanish, leaving the three doorframes occupied
with only walls. There were four more walls-in-doorframes, two on
either side of the three they had entered, and the rest of the room
had a number of doors with placards similar to the ones which had
been used to label their trials.
"Looks like we all made it!"
Noire said, turning toward the others.
"No instant teleport,"
Thora mumbled, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Is anyone hurt?"
Grigori asked, looking to the other four.
"Nope!" Fiori
answered, half-over Jack's "Nu-uh."
"Our trial was pretty weird
though," the necromancer continued. "We had to like, press
this button combination quick enough—which is a fine puzzle I
guess—but like it also couldn't be too quick?"
"My
guess is, that they were all secretly connected," Noire said.
"Did you hear a chime whenever you pressed a correct button?
Some shattering from below, perhaps?"
"Chime, yes,"
Thora said. "Shattering, no."
"Well, I could
hear a chime and shattering up above me," Grigori
said. "Two chimes made a suit of armor come to life and attack
us. Then Zef had to platform up to a big magic circle on the ceiling
to turn it off again."
"Surely you all spoke during
your trials," Noire said, "yet I never heard a word.
Perhaps some manner of selective silencing charms so we couldn't
cheese the trials by actually communicating."
"Hmph.
Any normal MMO would have text chat or, like, you could IM
with another program," Jack said. "I guess that's kinda the
point, huh?"
"Perhaps," the rogue said, stepping
toward the center of the room. "We can discuss more details
about our experiences with those trials later, I believe. For the
moment, we must select our reward." She swept a hand around at
the doors, each labeled Artifact of and then a word or brief
phrase.
"How's this supposed to
work, anyway?" Jack said. "Just one reward, for six
people?"
"I mean like..maybe there's some normal
treasure chests to go with the artifact or something?" the
necromancer suggested.
"Well, I already
received a significant reward from this excursion," Noire said,
taking out a knife to toss in the air and catch. "Fiori can't
use any other weapons but her scythe, Zef can hardly use equipment at
all."
"Ehh—hang on,"
Grigori said. "If that thing with the map is anything to go by,
exact words are important with these 'wizard types', yeah? Mondelain
said 'you will all be taken to the top floor, select an artifact, and
face its guardian'. That doesn't mean we have to select one
artifact for all of us, it just means that whoever goes after a
particular artifact has to face its guardian."
"So, we can have six
artifacts—one per person—if we each fight our own boss,"
Thora said. "But that sounds like a great way to get us all
killed."
"You ought to be satisfied
with two or three," Zef said. "Splitting into two groups of
three would be best, as each group would still have a healer."
"Weell, I don't use much
equipment either," the druid said. "I'm all about the
were-bear stuff, and plant and regen magic. So, either Jack and Thora
each get artifacts, or maybe Fiori too?"
"I'm happy with the
adventure~," the necromancer said. "And maaaybe the
guardian's soul, if I can take it."
"Well, that settles
that, then," he nodded. "What's the best three-three split?
And you two decide what you actually want."
Jack shrugged; Thora nodded; and
the two of them went to start reading the placards for artifact
descriptions. "As you said," Noire said, "they should
each get a healer. Thora's..more prone to taking a lot of damage at
once, so Zef may be best to go with her, and you with Jack. Then: Zef
is an agile, low-range fighter with bladed weapons, which also fits
my description somewhat, so I can also join you two."
"I'd,
kinda like to stick with Thora anyway," Fiori admitted.
"Then
that arrangement seems agreeable to everyone," the catgirl said.
"Hey, uh—what if we're
wrong about this, and we really only get one, for all of us?"
Thora said.
"Then I suppose that'll be
made obvious once we open our first door," Noire replied.
"Something will likely prevent us from opening or entering
another in that case."
"Yeah..makes sense. Well, then
Jack should open his first, I think. I mean, you're the one
with a kidnapped sister and all.."
"Pffsh. She's
probably off doing somethin' else by now," he said.
"Now, tell me—have you
ever heard of the Secret Fire?" The witch pronounced this name
as if it should be capitalized.
"Uh.." What, like in
Lord of the Rings? "..No," Ronin
said. Not in this
setting, at least.
"Some
would say that's good," she said. "It is
meant to be Secret,
after all. Passed down to only the most skilled and pure of mages,
who have proven their worth through heroism, meaningful discoveries,
or other such feats. But—no more, I say! The world needs
that fire in more hands, and sooner rather than later. Sooo....
"Y'know
this?" she said, sweeping a hand up and causing some purple
flame to appear spinning around it. "This
is the Secret Fire. Or rather, it is my
Secret Fire. It's not so much a spell, as something which becomes a
part of the mage it spreads to, and
every spell she casts,
every enchantment she makes...so on, so forth. And it's much more
than just some visual flair. Every person's fire comes in a
particular color, and each color means something different—different
effects, advantages, weaknesses...et-cetera. Purple Fire is useful
for 'empowering' and 'enslaving', as you saw me do with those big
birds earlier."
"So..you
want to give me
that?" he said. "That's your offer?"
"You are
a sharp one!" she said, and cackled again. "Indeed. Any who
possess the Secret Fire, also possess the means to spread it to a
willing participant. There are
limitations, however; it cannot inhabit anyone dedicated to one or
more of the gods, for they abhor it; and it requires a sufficiently
pure
mage. Nobody who, say, swings around a bladed melee weapon all the
time—for instance."
He gave her a skeptical look.
"Didn't you say that gigantic scythe you were riding around on
was your 'real weapon'?"
"Hmn?
Ohh, this thing?" she said, summoning it into her left hand in a
burst of purple flame. "This is no scythe. I mean—have you
seen me reap anything with it? Noo no no, this is just a very long
staff with a sharp, bladed decoration at the end....both ends.
Staffs, rods, and the like are just fine." Then she dismissed it
again.
"Well..what's
the catch, then?" Ronin asked. "Is it gonna burn me up
later in life, or something?"
"Ohoh, nothing like that!"
she said. "It's just that—you remember the army of demons and
monsters, yes?"
"Yes."
"Well, anyone who
possesses the Fire will have something of a target on their back from
their leaders. The Demon Queen—who's in charge of the whole mess of
them—will seek to snuff out the Secret Fire as quickly as she
possibly can. That is why it must be spread," she said.
"..If they want to get rid
of it, then..is it useful against them?"
"Oh,
absolutely!"
she nodded excitedly. "Indeed, it may very well be the only
thing capable of realistically slaying the Demon Queen herself!"
"Well..in that case, I guess
I need to take it. We won't be very good heroes if we can't
beat the final boss," he said.
"Heeheehee! That's the
spirit!" She said. "Now..for me to spread it to you, is
terribly simple." She produced one of Noire's daggers in her
left hand, seemingly out of nowhere (or, possibly, out of her
inventory). "I just need to draw a little bit of blood, say a
certain thing, and you answer yes. Got it?"
"So.."
He crossed his arms. "You don't need that giant magic
circle for it, then?"
"Oh, this?" she looked down.
"Nope! That's for other stuff. I just thought it'd be dramatic
to have it around and go stand next to it. Well—I may
actually use it to get you to your friends a bit faster once we're
done. But first.." she came up close to him. "Just put out
your dominant arm for me; this won't hurt...much."
Ronin put his right arm out, and
she gently put her free hand under his wrist, pricking a finger with
the tip of the weapon in her other. Then she let go of the knife and
put her hand over the slightly-bleeding one, engulfing them both in a
heatless purple flame. Looking up, he could see that her body was
also wreathed in a glow of the same color, particularly her eyes. And
she incanted: "The Fire was kindled as the world began. The Fire
shall consume the world at its end. In the time between, it must
through mages spread. Will you take it in?"
"...Yes."
If this was the real world, he might have actually thought
about it a bit more.
"Then.." She put her
other hand on top of his too, grinning viciously. "Let it burn!"
This part didn't seem to actually be part of the incantation, but it
was well-timed for the resulting effect anyway.
The bright purple flame raced up
his arm and across the rest of his body, covering him for a second or
two before slowly changing color, paling and darkening to a deep
shade of gray. This color settled into place everywhere except for
where her hands were around his; here, her own purple flame
surrounded what gray fire was around that hand until she let go and
all of the flames faded from view. Yet, even after they did, Ronin
had the curious sense that he could 'feel' the Fire inside him,
still, and now knew exactly what to do to spread it to someone
else.
"..Phew! It does take
a bit outta ya to do it," she said, taking out another vial of
potion and chugging it, wiping her mouth on a glove before
continuing. "Now, don't worry about that 'world destruction'
stuff, it's just some silly superstition."
He raised an
eyebrow. "..Why is it part of the incantation, then? Doesn't
that mean it's literally baked into its nature?"
"Well,
sure, but—the world'll get destroyed at some point anyway,"
she said, shrugging. "That doesn't mean the Fire's responsible
for it, just that it cleans up the mess afterward. At least, like, if
it's still around—which it should be!
"Anyway, I must say I'm
slightly disappointed. Your color isn't quite what I hoped I'd get,"
she said.
"What did you expect?"
"White, rather than gray,"
she replied. "But I still think giving it to you was the right
choice. You're definitely young and 'foolish' enough to spread it to
some more mages, aren't you?" she said with a wink. "But
no, seriously—someone with a white Fire will be way better
equipped to fight the Demon Queen effectively. That means an extra
big target on whoever gets it, which is a warning you should
probably pass on to whoever you spread it to."
"Well—what's
a gray Fire do, then?"
"Hmmn.." she put a
finger to her lips, thinking. "If I recall correctly, it's
somethin' like..'resiliency' and 'resistance'. In your case, I bet
it'll make your summons tougher to take down or dispel. Enchanting
armor also wouldn't be a bad idea if you ever wanna get into crafting
stuff.
"..Anyway~, now we
use the big spell circle!" she said, clapping her hands
together. "I expect you wanna get back to your friends as soon
as possible, y'know, in case they're in a ton of danger or
something."
Jack read several doors before
just glancing at one in particular. "Artifact...of...explosions.
Yeah, okay, I want this one," he said, pointing at the placard.
"Cool, cool," Noire
said, drawing close and gesturing for Grigori to join her. "You
pick something yet, Thora?"
"Uhh, I guess this one's
probably good? Blocking?" she said, gesturing.
"Seems like a pretty good
synergy," the catgirl agreed. "Okay, open our door and
let's see what happens."
Jack nodded, taking the doorknob
and opening it. Inside was another of those hallways that seemed to
be between each pair of doors to meaningful rooms in this place, and
nothing happened while the party waited a moment to see. Then,
shrugging, Thora opened her door to a similar hallway. "Okay,"
the rogue concluded, "Barring anything interrupting us, let's
head on in and face the guardians. See you three on the outside!"
She waved, heading in first but quickly allowing the tall, strong
guys to get in front of her.
Thora took the lead in her own
hallway of course, boldly opening the door at the end of the hallway
only to immediately hear the door behind them slam itself shut.
Briefly glancing back, the door had been replaced by a wall, just
like in the "artifact choosing room". Looking forward
again, she saw what Zef and Fiori had already noticed: What appeared
to be a metal statue of a turtle the height of a human, with a sign
hanging down from the ceiling to just a bit above its head that said
Guardian of Blocking.
"Oookaaay...?" The
berserker walked inside first, a bit cautious of the possibility of
the big animal suddenly turning into flesh and/or animating to attack
her. Instead it remained perfectly immobile, seemingly every bit the
statue it seemed to be, except that its eyes suddenly blazed with a
familiar, golden-yellow flame. Looking around a bit more, the room
was about twice as tall as her and particularly narrow—enough for
the statue to take up its entire width.
"Ehehee~," Fiori
giggled. "The guardian is blocking our way. But you could
get around it, right Zef?"
"Easily," she nodded.
"Speaking of 'exact words', Mondelain only stated we would face
a guardian, not fight one."
"It'd be kinda anticlimactic
to not have anything resembling a boss, though," Thora said.
"I will go past it, then."
Zef backed into the hallway again to get a running start, and then
vaulted up and leftward, running along the wall above the turtle's
left side. Just before she would've been above the turtle, however,
her body slammed directly into a very solid, physical barrier,
sending out ripples of yellow light from her outline along what
appeared to be a plane of otherwise invisible force field. Both other
girls winced at the distinct thwack sound this made, and she
slid down the plane briefly before falling backwards onto her butt on
the floor.
"...Ow."
"Aack!
Are you okay!?" Fiori said, hurrying next to her. Zef was
already busy placing a hand on her own face, four fingers on her
forehead and another on her cheek.
"Healing. That sounded
worse than it was. We should have checked for something like that
beforehand," she stated bluntly.
Jack opened the door at the end
of the hallway, striding straight inside with Grigori and then Noire
behind him. They found themselves in a fairly large, square room,
around four meters high, with a metallic statue of a hydra occupying
its center and no other obvious entrances or exits. A sign hanging
from the center-most head of that hydra facing the door (as many of
its heads were facing off toward other sides of the room) read,
Guardian of Explosions.
"...Is it gonna come to life
or something?" he wondered aloud, taking a couple of steps
toward it. As if on cue, every one of the hydra's numerous eyes began
to glow with Mondelain's signature color, and all of its mouths began
to open wider. This appeared to be a mechanical action, not the
statue coming to life; much more worryingly, however, the head with
the sign hung over its neck had something spherical and black, like a
bowling ball, roll out of it toward the party. There was a faint
sizzling sound coming from inside of it.
"Uhh—"
"BOMB!"
Noire yelled, "Back up!" She followed her own advice,
quickly backpedaling almost to the door; the others took the hint to
turn and run quickly enough, until they all heard and saw it explode.
Its blast didn't reach them, but they could feel its heat, and as
their eyes cleared from the flash, they could now see a
moderately-sized chunk of the floor missing around where it had been.
There was a brief, silent moment
of staring at this sight, until the catgirl picked up the distinct
sound of something rolling around inside the statue. "Pretty
sure there's more incoming," she said. Two of the heads adjacent
to the first one rolled similar spherical bombs out of them, of
differing size; the three players covered their ears against the
explosions, and found themselves faced with two more holes in the
floor.
Glancing briefly backwards, Noire
saw that their door was gone, replaced by a wall just as blank as the
other four. "I don't like the outlook if we just dance around
those things," she said.
"Hey, let's try dumping them
in the holes," Grigori suggested as more rolling came from
inside the statue.
"Or at least knocking
them all toward the same spot," Jack agreed.
"Great
idea! Let's spread out, quick!"
Thora gently tapped the 'force
field' with her index finger a few times, then took a small step
back, drawing her club. "Okay, so there's a wall in the way. I
think I at least understand this problem." She readied
her weapon, holding it two-handed behind her back, ready to swing.
"Hold." Zef held out a
hand toward the berserker, then carefully picked herself up onto her
feet. "What if this is similar to the previous
trial?"
"Weeelll...if it is, then we're prolly
still meant to do the most obvious thing," Fiori said.
"And it was pretty obvious when something was right or wrong,
too—buzzer or chime? I say hit it with all ya got!"
"Wait—"
The club was already halfway
there before the monk got the word out, and any more she might have
said was cut off by the sound of the weapon connecting, producing a
sound like a low-pitched gong and sending huge yellow ripples out
from the point of contact, followed by the formation of some
dimly-glowing thin, hairline cracks spreading out from the spot
before immediately beginning to fade back in toward the center,
healing themselves.
"That did something!"
Fiori cheered, holding her arms up with fists clenched eagerly.
"Yes,
but—"
"Hit it again!" she cut Zef off—not that
she needed to say anything, with Thora already readying another
strike.
"Hup!"
The monk just placed her hand on
her palm and gently shook her head.
Jack swung his axe like a hockey
stick or golf club, sweeping big bombs off in the direction of the
most recent holes. Noire ran after the smallest ones, grabbing and
easily tossing them straight in the holes; Grigori just went with
punting the ones closest to him in that general direction. As more
bombs rolled out, approaching too many for them to deal with before
they started exploding, the three of them were further interrupted by
a brilliant flash from an unexploded corner of the room.
"..Sis!" Jack responded
first. "Yo, I thought you'd have logged out by now!"
"I
would've, but it—"
"Bad time for talking!"
Grigori interrupted, running up and kicking a bomb away before it got
to the summoner. "Put the bombs in the holes please!" Noire
had also gotten straight back to work.
"Uh—okay, sure."
Ronin brought out a couple of humanoid light elementals, having them
run to grab some bombs and then head toward the holes. They looked
different from before, their appearance possessing a fiery glow which
was a somewhat duller, grayer shade than their actual bodies. "But
uh—I could use some explanation, you know—where are we,
what is this?"
"Mage dude's tower, to rescue you,
duh!" Jack said.
"Not that you need it now!"
Noire added.
"And that's the guardian of explosions, it drops
bombs," said Grigori. "Is that up-to-speed enough?"
"No!" One of the
elementals didn't make it to a hole before the bomb exploded,
knocking it backwards and onto the floor, but it didn't dissipate
from the damage. "Why are we fighting a 'guardian of
explosions'?!" This particular explosion didn't destroy any of
the floor, either.
"I don't know that I'd call
this a 'fight'," the catgirl said.
"RrrrRRRRAAAAHH!!!"
Thora psyched herself up, then went for about a five-hit combo on the
shield. The cracks formed and spread like every hit before, then
quickly closed themselves up again while she stood there panting from
the several recent bursts of exertion. "Hff...gaah,
that's still not enough?"
"Awwh, I thought you'd
get it that time," Fiori said.
Zef stood by watching, her arms
crossed. "Hmm."
Both of them turned toward the
monk. "Hey, you have any bright ideas?" Thora asked.
"Maybe you are correct—it
isn't 'enough'." She moved to a fighting stance, summoning some
light-blades about her arms. "Do you possess any spells that
inflict rapid, blunt-force trauma?" she asked the
necromancer.
"Uhh, no, not really. I just gots this scythe,"
she said, waving it around.
"...Use that, then." She
moved up next to Thora, close to the wall. "I will count to
three. When I say 'three', strike it as hard and as many times as you
possibly can. Try not to hit each other."
"Or you?"
Thora said, readying her club once more.
"You will not hit
me."
"..'Kay."
"One. Two."
<hr/>
"Okay, why'd you walk into
this trap then?"
"I wanted an 'artifact of
explosions', okay!? Sheesh!"
Ronin paused very briefly, then
remarked: "..I guess that sounds about right."
"Less
talk, more bomb throw!" Grigori reminded them; he and Noire had
to pull most of the weight during this siblingly exchange. Almost
half of the floor was now unusable, the area around the corner first
exploded having only a couple of patches of floor attached to the
walls. The size and quantity of holes now made it quite visible that
below this room's floor was only a dark pit with no visible bottom.
"Actually—if you can just
summon something to take the brunt of the explosions and keep them
from breaking the floor, that's just as good," the catgirl
suggested.
"Uh, okay..."
Jack held a position in front of
the summoner, knocking bombs away as best he could. Grigori and Noire
took up spots to either side of Ronin, tossing the bombs away or at
his summons—whichever was easier. The statue wasn't spawning bombs
in any of the directions that were mostly pits, but now the ones it
did spawn came out at a fever pitch, one after another, in a
variety of sizes. A few of those that appeared, one could swear
couldn't possibly have fit in the stone-hydra-heads' mouths at all.
More or less by accident, the
explosions carved holes closer to the small party, but also around
the statue itself. It began to tilt slightly over, toward the
opposite corner, and Noire got a last-second idea. She grabbed the
biggest bomb she thought she could easily hold, and quickly bowled it
right at the nearest foot of the statue. The explosion crumbled the
floor out from in front of it, leaving the floor directly underneath
it hardly attached to anything at all.
It tilted steeper, bombs still
rolling out of its heads despite it visibly having no source
underneath it for them to be coming from, and then with some cracking
sounds the last of the flooring around it broke, allowing the entire
guardian statue to topple down into the seemingly-bottomless pit. For
a moment the four of them could still hear bombs rolling out of its
mouths; then there was a brief cacophony of explosions followed by
the distinct sound of something very heavy hitting hard ground and
cracking to pieces.
The four of them stood there
panting for a moment, then Jack stood up straight. "Woo! We did
it!" he pumped his fist. A yellow glow appeared over the floor
beneath them, spreading across the pit and seemingly re-filling it
with floor until the room was hole again—sans statue. A burst of
yellow flame flickered up through the center of the room, forming a
small stone pedestal with an amulet on it.
"And there is our prize,"
Noire declared, combing a hand through her hair.
"Three!" Zef began
striking the barrier at once, punching and kicking light-blades into
it in one long, continuous combo. Thora went for a repeat performance
of bashing it with her club over and over again, and Fiori
energetically imitated this motion with her scythe (which is to say
she bashed it bluntly rather than actually trying to cut it). The
cracks from where their hits connected—Fiori's on the left being
the faintest and the berserker producing the largest and most
visible—spread and joined, a sound reminiscent of actual glass
cracking apart joining the noise of repeated gongs from impacts on
the barrier.
"Keep it up!" The monk
had to dodge some of Thora's wilder swings, ducking or leaning to one
side, but she had anticipated this from the start, and could see each
strike coming more than far enough in advance to flow with the
movements and keep on hitting, particularly targeting where the
cracks were the widest. Finally, the three of them were treated to
the noise of something shattering as the barrier fell apart into a
bunch of tiny, glittering yellow fragments.
What they saw now that it was
gone was no longer the turtle statue at all, but instead a small
pedestal standing in the center with a ring sitting atop it, and
beyond that a doorway.
"Hff...fff...phew! See, Zef,
sometimes it's not so bad to think like a meathead~!" Fiori
said.
The monk dusted herself off, easily hiding her slightly
elevated breathing from notice. "Counterpoint: It is necessary
to think in the first place."
"Hey, either way—teamwork,
woo!" Thora interjected. "Hfff...yeah. Soo, that ring is
the artifact, I guess?" She came up to it, looking around
cautiously for any traps.
