Chương 18: -18- Purpose and Fear

Vindex-Southern Frostveild Border Vindex scrabbled across the ash and blood stained snow trying to rip himself back to his feet. The small cottage half his squad had been taking cover in was a smoking crater thanks to an unseen enemy mage. The fire was quickly spreading across the thatch rooves on the captured side of this small town.

All around him, ringing steel and panicked screams rang out, adding to the swirling smoke and snow, creating a hellish, disorienting haze worse than any he had seen on this plane of existence. He cursed colorfully and shouted to the fragments of his squad, "Forward! Now! Take the church, and we can plant the soul anchor!" He gestured past the next row of houses towards a stone building towering above the others. If we can take it and hold it, the adepts can win this battle with the bound spirit!

Ur a scarred man in a strange armored robe that tinkled with each of his long steps rushed beside Vindex stepping slightly in front of him.

"Commander they hold two buildings we need to secure before the church if we don't want a spear straight up the arse and more importantly the supply line!" He gestured first at a a mill its windmill still lazily spinning despite being lightly on fire and then at an absolute deathtrap of a inn. A squat, long, single story building no doubt riddled with small rooms that would have to be cleared individually and quickly. Vindex smirked at his second in commands tongue.

The man regularly bordered on insubordination but the skills he brought more than made up for it.

"We need to do this now, scouts had reinforcement less than twenty minutes out. Take the mill, I'll take the tavern…" Ur frowned deeply.

"Uhh… My lord, I'm sure your friend there is awfully scary, but this is just your what, second skirmish? I'd rather not have you gutted and they send me an actual asshole of a Soul Binder; you at least listen, kind of..." Ur glanced at the dark form always looming from Vindex's shadow, its malevolent silhouette barely visible. He shuddered involuntarily as dozens of eyes snapped to him.

"Yes, it would be a shame if my auspicious rise ended at the first damn town. I wouldn't want to impose upon you after all." Vindex glanced at Ur with a predatory smile.

"Pavor can go through walls…and doors." Ur's expression slowly shifted, and he cringed, imagining trying to fight against that as he realized what horror would be inflicted in a building filled with hundreds of thin barriers. He turned to his men.

"Alright boys, we are going to the mill! Did anyone figure out where that asshole mage is!?" A fireball slowly arced overhead, changing course abruptly to dive straight down towards their formation.

"I'll take that as a no…Defenders!" He shouted. The nearest shield wielders stepped forward instinctively, and a mishmash of four different shielding skills lit the sky up: a pair of magical domes, a single multilayered pane of magical barriers, and even one net shot up, snaring and partially dispersing the fireball before it detonated on the raised shields. Fire washed harmlessly around them, blanketing the ground and sending a wall of steam rising in the air.

"That's our chance!" Ur shouted and led his men through the sweltering cover rising off the ground. Vindex followed closely, splitting off from the rest just before they left the wall of mist and diving from it into a snowbank, getting as close as he could manage to the inn. An arrow whizzed over his head as one of the defenders spotted him from his window perch. Vindex was near the side wall, a half dozen windows his only obvious entry point.

He rolled as another arrow this time accompanied by a blast of wind scattered his cover.

"Go." He whispered to Pavor and pointed a single finger towards the archer before launching himself forward and just under the next screaming arrow. His feet skittered dangerously across the slick icy cobble he only just avoided a certainly lethal fall as his soul bound familiar lunged towards the archer. The man's steely grey armor and bandana barley allowed Vindex to see the look of horror cross his eyes as Pavor's shadow billowed forwards darkening the street.

Vindex was becoming more certain by the day that Pavor wasn't just some random chaotic fragment of the beyond. The hatred, the wrath and the purity of purpose he felt bleeding through their bond reinforced that belief. Pavor's form shifted as it struck its wings billowed forwards and wrapped around the man pulling him close as it oozed straight through the window sill at the same time as four limbs in the shape of jagged scythes formed mid strike from its torso.

The man didn't have a chance to scream in horror before his limbs spiraled across the room in a shower of blood. Pavor reversed all four bladed limbs' motion, bringing them down in a sick sequence, one after the other, into the man's chest. The first two dented the dark steel-tinged chest plate. The third pierced it, and the final pushed past the others, puncturing his heart in a geyser that misted the room.

Vindex clambered into the room, slipping slightly on the warm, wet windowsill and forcing himself to breathe slower and take in his surroundings. If anything, the striking normalcy grounded him. It was just a room, the same as in any inn across the world: a bed, a nightstand, and a small washbasin. The crimson streaks didn't mean anything other than he was alive. He shut the window he had climbed in and edged close to the door to listen.

Terse conversations, shouts for potions, and the crank of a crossbow being restrung echoed from the hallway. He nodded to himself. Pavor couldn't venture far from him yet, so he would have to go out there and duck into rooms for cover as he cleansed this place. Vindex closed his eyes and whispered a prayer to himself. Each word rippled across the shade looming above him as if instilling it with purpose.

"Forgive me, brave men of Frostveild; I do not wish to end your lives, but your war is lost. Mine has just begun. Know that your deaths will not be in vain." Vindex threw the door the rest of the way open and sprinted into the hallway. He came straight upon two men facing away. Pavor gripped each by the skull and wrenched backwards, not giving them a chance to fight back. Vindex took slow steps forward, mana dripping from his fingers as he wove threads of intent into existence around himself.

It wasn't a moment too soon; the twang of a crossbow echoed across the bare hallway, and a bolt punched straight through Pavor at Vindex. He pulled his hands across his body, and magic snapped into a physical thing, a rough web that bent under the speed of the bolt but held, stopping it a handbreadth from Vindex's heart.

"Again, Pavor kill the archer…" Vindex growled out and rushed forward to get in range. The soldier dropped his crossbow, pulling a short sword from his scabbard with an unsteady hand as the shadows billowed towards him.

"Someone! Anyone! We Need A Ghostbreaker!" He managed to call out before ever-shifting blades hammered into his side and skull, dropping him heavily to the floor.

"If there were enough ghostbreakers, you wouldn't need me. The only way to fight evil and win is to use its own tools against it." Vindex spat out bitterly before stepping forward and ducking into one of the inn rooms to wait for whatever unfortunate reinforcements came to aid their comrades. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Calder - Still Stone Barrow The sudden darkness took Calder utterly by surprise. One moment the horrible abomination was streaking closer with every heartbeat, and then nothing. Even worse, there was no sound. It was like the monster had frozen the moment the light went out. Calder's skin crawled as a realization came over him. The only reason for something like that to go silent in the dark instead of trying to shove its way into the church to shuck me like a corncob is if it's scared of the darkness too.

Or at least… whatever comes out in it. Calder did his best to feel along the ground, his hands skimming across bits of stone rubble before landing on a cool marble pew. He held his blade in his left hand as he lightly felt along the pews, aiming to reach the large door that had been locked from the inside. Maybe he could use this moment of darkness to escape.

Dectus shimmered nearby, sword in hand, visible as a spectral silhouette in the darkness; unfortunately, his immaterial form didn't actually cast any light on the real world. So Calder was still stumbling blindly, but at least he wasn't alone while he did it. His travel stopped abruptly as he smashed his sword arm into the stone door. In the dead silence of the pale city the noise was cataclysmic. A metallic gong that rang out over and over through the darkness.

Calder flinched and held his breath briefly, listening. He heard a slight scrape of sharp things lightly creeping away on stone, probably the horrific spider trying to get farther away from the noise he had just made. Calder let out his breath as nothing else echoed through the dark and started fumbling across the door. He blindly found the crossbar blocking it and heaved it up as quietly as he could simply putting the massive stone bar under his arm rather than risk making another racket.

He pushed the door open a sliver. Still nothing but sheer black greeted him. High above, he thought he might see the slightest twinkle of luminescent moss, but that could also be his eyes playing tricks on him. Human eyes didn't do well with sheer darkness; he had learned that in his times down in the tomb without a spare torch. Calder shuffled half a step out the door, debating if it was better to be blind or light a torch and basically ring the dinner bell.

The undead spider he had been battling shifted somewhere ahead on a roof, a barely perceptible skittering moving away from him. Then a low growl that reeked of danger hissed out to his right. An overpowering smell of blood and decay rolled after it as something moved down the street. Calder slowly shuffled back into the church, pulling the door with him, and excruciatingly slowly set the bar back in place in front of the door, shaking his head to himself the whole time.

Yeah, nope, staying in the church till the light is back on. Fuck all of that. Calder slid down against the door and held his sword across his lap. He closed his eyes and simply focused on the sounds around himself. The skittering claws suddenly grew frantic, and a sound like flesh dragging across stone raced past the chapel, making the entire building shudder slightly. In an attempt to distract himself from the horrors preying on each other just outside, Calder worked on his tranquility shaping.

His eyes were closed, so it was a perfect opportunity to simply focus on how it felt within himself. He pulled from the roiling darkness lurking within his heart and let it trace down his limbs, pulling it back just before it would escape his control and be released into the world. A cataclysmic crash and the snapping of colossal bones echoed from outside. Then slow, wet-sounding chewing punctuated by the occasional tearing sound let Calder know that things were not any better outside yet.

He did feel a small trickle of essence enter him as he got partial credit for the slaying of the abomination. But it was insignificant compared to what a beast of such a level would have given him if he and Dectus had slain it… Which was questionable with how that fight had been going. [Essence Gained] [Caro Arachni Tier -1](lvl36) [Slain] Calder allowed himself an almost sarcastic small fist pump into the air before settling back into hiding and practicing magic.

Dectus blessedly didn't seem to disagree with this course of action; he had passed through the front door briefly and come right the hell back in, shaking his head definitively. Calder settled in for the long haul; the light was still out, which… was starting to get very concerning. His tranquility shaping didn't make any noise, so Calder graduated to letting a tiny bit leave his palm and trying to gather it back with the other hand. It gave the room a deathly chill but was still silent, thankfully.

Calder sat like this for he wasn't even sure how long. Long enough for his throat to start feeling parched and his hunger gnawed at him harshly enough that he seriously started considering risking the crinkling sounds taking his provisions out would cause. His stomach let out an audible gurgle and caused him to lose focus for a moment. A fair amount of tranquility spilled from his palm into the air in front of him. On reflex, he tried to grab it but not with his hands.

He used the same mental hold he had been using for hours now, and to his shock, it worked. Calder sat there dumfounded, a roiling orb of tranquility somewhere in front of him, still within his control. The world flickered, and suddenly piercingly bright white light spilled in through the windows and the gaping hole he had left in the wall. He slowly opened his eyes to look upon the power he commanded. Despite how distressingly terrifying the last few hours had been, Calder couldn't help but grin at his progress.

Dectus wandered over curiously and made a gesture.

"I think it is gone. And as much as I love a good fight, we should get somewhere less open. Whatever that was is laughably beyond us." Calder reached one of his hands out and grabbed the orb of darkness, smothering it in his large grasp and reabsorbing the tranquility.

"I am not going to argue with that. Let's get down to the castle and pray there is some Darksteel or at least a way back into the tunnels down there. I don't fancy our chances here; this city has obviously stayed barren for a damn good reason." He responded to his Ghostly companion before setting out from the door he had made in the window. Calder tried to ignore the smell of blood and the scattered pieces of the Caro haphazardly flung about the buildings as he fled straight back to the stairs.

Whatever had gotten ahold of it hadn't just eaten it; the largest piece left he saw was only the size of his arm. It hadn't even been a fight; it had been overpowered and obliterated almost instantly. The thing lurking in the dark might even be a second-tier monstrosity, which would be unequivocal instant death for Calder to face. He rushed down the bleak stairs, taking them three or four at a time.

He was focusing on speed over stealth this time and using his enhanced strength to weather the brutal leaping impacts to his joints.

"Need to go on a fucking diet." He grumbled to himself as he neared the bottom. He had passed several other tiers of the bleak city, each more densely packed than the last, but hadn't spared any time to explore. He leaped down the last few stairs and glanced at the dark stone castle walls looming overhead.

"Oh gods, please don't be living in there." He quietly prayed to anyone who might be listening. The ancient gate had long ago been wrenched open, leaving ample room for even his frame to squeeze through the gap. His steps faltered as he looked around. There was no finery, no sculptures, or ancient planter boxes. Only three shattered doors with bent portcullises beyond. The metal was bent outwards, from what Calder could tell. He turned around and looked at the gate from the inside.

Great dents riddled the inside of its metal-coated frame. They led to claw marks as long as he was tall and then finally punctures, like a mighty beast had simply wrenched the entire gate open with a vicious heave of its jaws.

"Oh fuck me, I don't think this is a castle…" Calder quickly whispered to Dectus. Dectus nodded and rubbed his chin before pointing at the claw marks.

"Astute observation!" He said with far more sarcasm than needed, "So what now? Your courage hasn't failed you yet, so honestly, I'm going to give you credit for that. What do you think we just walked into?" He had a dangerous twinkle in his eye. Calder swung his head back towards the shattered entryways into the bleak structure and pulled out a torch before heading for the smallest of them.

"A prison. I think we just walked into a fucking prison in the depths of an ancient dead city subsumed by a dungeon." Dectus nodded eagerly.

"And if anywhere is going to have some fancy dread metal steeped in suffering and souls, well…" He let the thought linger before leadingly sweeping his hand towards what was almost certainly a bad idea. Calder sighed and shook his head, but he still lit the torch and headed into the darkness.

"I'm staying in the smallest fucking hallways; if there are any big ones, I'm out. I refuse to get eaten by whatever monster was rampaging around the city because I accidentally walked into its pantry."

"Fair." Dectus said with a smile and a flourish of his sword.