Advent of eternity a lit.., p.8
Advent of Eternity: A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure (Shattered System Book 1), page 8
Knell reached out as the two women approached him. Stix helped him to his feet. Jasneh let out a slow whistle.
“What in the Sixteen Seas did you do?” she asked, prodding the merfolk’s body. It was completely drained of blood, nothing but a dry husk of what had once been a beautiful creature.
“I believe I ensured our safe passage,” Knell replied.
“You want this thing here still?” Stix asked, nodding at the merfolk. Knell shook his head, and she pulled it off his staff, dropping the body to the deck and handing Knell the bloody metal stick. He took it, ignoring the blood covering its head.
“You want the corpse?” Jasneh asked, eyeing it. “Those scales go for a fair cost.”
“All yours,” Knell replied. “I don’t have the patience to find a buyer for it. It’ll make up for the damage I did to your deck when I stuck my staff through the boards.”
Jasneh grunted and grabbed the merfolk’s body, pulling it into a cabin. “And you were kind enough to drain it for me as well. What a gentleman.”
“Always,” Knell replied, a smile stretching across his features.
The rest of the trip over was entirely boring. No further monsters bothered them, and the weather was as calm as could be. Soon, the faint remains of a gray stone island appeared on the horizon.
Ruined buildings barely crested over the waves, worn down by time and water. The island was rather small, only a few times larger than the Foamrunner. Jasneh raised an eyebrow, raising the sails to half as they grew closer.
“That’s your place,” Jasneh said, nodding at the ruins. “Didn’t fancy you for an arachnologist.”
“Archeologist,” Knell corrected. “Arachnologists would study spiders. And I am neither.”
Jasneh shrugged. “Suit yourself. With the addition of the merfolk, I’m happy to wait here a day. How’s that sound?”
“Should be more than enough,” Knell said, watching the island grow closer until they were nearly upon it. “This shouldn’t take long at all.”
“Then you best start swimming,” Jasneh said. “I’m not running the Foamrunner aground on a crotchety old building.”
Knell grimaced and glanced at Stix. “How well do you swim?”
“There was a pool in my village,” she replied doubtfully. “I did laps around it sometimes.”
“I hope you swim well enough for two, then. My leg does not lend itself well to the water.”
Stix pursed her lips. “You’re as skinny as a twig. I can probably get away with it. Just don’t start panicking and trying to drown me or I’ll kick you off.”
“Don’t worry,” Knell said. “I never panic.”
Stix rolled her eyes and hopped over the side of the ship, splashing into the water below. She swam back a short distance. Knell carefully lowered himself over the edge and let himself fall forward, bracing as the water crashed against him.
The warm sun did little to assuage the freezing cold chill of the ocean as it rose up around him, knocking the breath from his lungs as his head dipped below the water. He fought the urge to thrash around and moved his arms back and forth, kicking with his good leg to try and push up.
Stix’s arm wrapped around his chest and pulled him above the waves. He drew in a sharp breath and tried to make his body as limp as possible while Stix dragged them both toward the island.
When they reached it, she grabbed onto the bleached stone and pulled herself up, dragging Knell up after her. He spat out some water and wiped his eyes off with a soaked sleeve.
“Thank you.”
“You swim like a dead fish.”
“I don’t swim much at all.”
“Exactly,” Stix said, wringing her hair out. “So where’s this Fort Fellwater?”
“Under us, I suspect,” Knell replied, pushing himself upright with the staff. A pile of rubble led up to an open doorway, shielded by the remains of what had probably once been great walls.
Knell started climbing the rubble. He chose each move carefully, trying to find rocks that he could brace his staff against without sending the entire thing clattering down around him.
Stix slipped past him, nimbly climbing up without even nudging a single stone. She turned back to look at him from the top of the pile, a smug grin on her face. It took Knell nearly ten more minutes to get far up enough for Stix to grab him by the collar and pull him the rest of the way up.
“Climbing is not one of my strengths,” Knell said, fruitlessly trying to brush the dust and white powder from his soaked clothes.
“Evidently,” Stix agreed, peering inside the doorway. She let out a whistle. “By the Twelve, take a look at this.”
Knell moved to stand beside her. Large pieces of the building had fallen many years ago, littering the ground around them. Streams of sunlight poked in through large holes in the roof and walls, illuminating the jagged entrance to a stairwell that wound into the earth. It was partially covered by rubble, but there was still enough room to squeeze in.
“The entrance to the prison. Lucky us,” Knell said. “It would have been unfortunate if it was blocked off.”
“The world probably would have been better off if it was,” Stix grumbled. “I didn’t think we’d actually find a way in. Are you really sure this is a good idea?”
“Of course I am,” Knell replied, sliding through the gap and starting down the stairwell carefully, testing each step with his staff before taking it. What little light they had quickly started to fade.
“Does the Shadow Stalker Path have access to basic magic?” Knell asked.
“A bit,” Stix said. “Why?”
“I can’t see in the dark,” he replied. “Do you have anything to help there?”
“Oh, right,” Stix said, stretching her hand out. A tiny purple orb of energy swirled to life above it, then moved to float above her shoulder. The faint light coming off it was just barely enough to illuminate their immediate surroundings. “I forgot you were a human.”
“You haven’t spent much time away from your village, have you?” Knell asked as they continued to descend. He carefully stepped over a missing step, avoiding what would have been a very painful and likely fatal fall.
“I haven’t,” Stix admitted. “Is it that obvious?”
“It could be worse,” Knell said. “But you aren’t as callous as most are. That’s the biggest giveaway. Your naivety doesn’t help, either, but it isn’t as obvious as it could be.”
“Thanks, I think,” Stix said.
“No problem. And Stix?”
She turned, and Knell gathered his magic. It wasn’t so different than connecting to his eyes, but the feeling filled him with a gentle sense of comfort, as if he were exactly where he was supposed to be.
A flicker of green smoke danced across his fingertips and leaped to Stix. Her eyes widened and her hand slowly moved back, as if she were dragging it through molasses. The effect only lasted half a second before vanishing.
“What was that about?” Stix exclaimed.
“Testing something new,” Knell replied. “Sorry. I wasn’t sure if it would work properly if you were prepared for it. We can continue now.”
“Right,” Stix said with a snort. “Lovely.”
15
They continued down the stairwell, their steps echoing through the darkness. It took them nearly five minutes to reach the base of the stairwell. The wall was covered with a thin layer of greenish water, but it was surprisingly sound.
“I’m surprised it isn’t flooded,” Stix said, looking around the small, circular room they’d arrived in. Several corridors snaked away, disappearing into the shadows. “But where to now? Something tells me this place will be like a maze once we get started. How are we going to find a single prisoner that may or may not even be alive?”
“Hello?” Knell yelled at the top of his lungs, causing Stix to curse and flinch back, her eyes darting around the room as she drew both of her daggers. Knell’s voice echoed through the halls, slowly fading away.
“What are you doing?” Stix hissed, her eyes darting around in fear. “You’ll give us away!”
“To whom?” Knell asked. “You said it yourself. If there’s anyone alive here, it’s Cyll the Unyielding. There isn’t anyone to give our position away to.”
“What if he’s loose? He could come kill us!”
“He would have already left if he was loose,” Knell replied. “He can’t die, remember? He could just walk across the sea floor. Relax.”
Stix opened her mouth to reply, but a soft, wheezing noise brushed out of a tunnel to their left. It was impossible to make out any words within it. Stix stiffened.
“Well, there we go,” Knell said, starting down toward the tunnel. He glanced back at Stix. “Keep up. I’m not going to waste time waiting around.”
She cursed again and jogged to catch up with him. Knell’s eyes lit a faint yellow as they walked.
“Aren’t you being a little under cautious?” Stix whispered. A droplet of water dripped from the ceiling and landed on her back, causing the moon elf to flinch. “This place is creepy.”
“It’s just an abandoned fort.”
He motioned for her to cover her ears, which Stix did without hesitation. They continued for several more minutes, passing cells made of metal bars as thick as their forearms. Unlike the rest of the fort, the cells looked to be in perfect condition.
“Could you make another noise? We’re trying to find you,” Knell called out as they turned a corner and reached a fork in the tunnel.
A ragged cough reverberated from the righthand side. It was considerably louder this time. Knell set off, and Stix followed after him, her daggers at the ready.
They passed by dozens of other cells, many of which had skeletons in various stages of decay within them. Knell stepped over the hand of a man reaching out of the cell, and Stix skirted around it.
“Some of these people must have been pretty strong if their bodies still haven’t started to rot,” Knell observed. “High-profile place.”
“Hello?” a voice whispered, dry and ragged from years of disuse. It came from a way down the hall, behind a large, rotted wooden door covered with rune markings. Stix stiffened.
“Hello,” Knell replied, his staff clicking against the stone as he walked up to the door and peered through a crack in it. “Just to be safe, could you please tell me your name?”
“Cyll,” the voice rasped after several moments. “Who are you?”
Knell wedged his staff into a gap in the door and jerked it to the side, shattering the rotted wood. He squeezed through the door and into a large room behind it.
“What if he’s waiting for us there?” Stix whispered, following after him.
“I trust he could have broken an old wooden door,” Knell called back. “Besides, I see him.”
A thick metal trapdoor sat before Knell, a tiny viewing hole at its top just large enough for him to squint through. With Stix’s light, he could just barely make out an emaciated figure at the bottom of a pit around fifteen feet deep.
“Who are you?” Cyll repeated. His voice was like a dying winter breeze. “The Ruler’s men, come to squint at the scary prisoner?”
“Sorry to disappoint,” Knell replied. “I’m here of my own volition.”
Cyll turned to look up at him through the view hole. His stark, green eyes were framed by a white beard that ran all the way down to his feet like a cloak.
“Why?”
“To free you, on a few conditions,” Knell replied.
“I’ll agree to just about anything,” Cyll rasped. “What do you want?”
“You,” Knell replied.
Stix and Cyll both snorted at the same time.
“Not like that,” Knell added irritably. “I’m putting a pirate crew together, and I have need of your talent.”
“Done and done,” Cyll said.
“Wait, he could be lying. You can’t just believe him.”
“Of course not,” Knell agreed. “Do you follow any of the Twelve, Cyll?”
“The gods? Depends,” he replied. “Do you want me to?”
“I’ll take that as a no,” Knell said with a smirk. “Then I’ll appeal to your logic. Join me and I’ll give you revenge on the people that betrayed you. Follow my commands for a few measly years—it’s not like you’ve got any shortage of life left in you. Betray me and you’ll end up right back in another hole when they catch you again. And, next time, I doubt you’ll find another person so willing to help anytime soon.”
“I already said yes,” Cyll said with a dry cough. “I’d wash shoes for a hundred years if it got me out of here.”
“Stix, could you leave for a little?” Knell asked. “You’re only a temporary member right now, so unless you want to fully commit to the crew, I’ll need some time alone with my prospective crewmate.”
“Are you sure?” Stix asked.
“It’ll be fine. He’s desperate,” Knell replied.
Stix pursed her lips, then nodded. “I’m going down the hall. Yell if you need my help.”
She turned and headed back past the rotted door. Knell waited until her footsteps faded, then turned back to the trapdoor. He studied it, then placed his staff near the center. The claws at its base twitched as his eyes lit a brilliant yellow.
Knell raised the staff and jabbed it into one of the runes. The claws tightened, digging into the stone, and with a sharp twist, he ripped a small chunk of the stone away. A small puff rose up from the trapdoor as the magic within it was broken. He straightened and jabbed the staff into a thin gap between the trapdoor and the floor, levering it open with a groan.
16
Once he got it high enough, Knell pushed his body weight against the door, shoving it the rest of the way open. It swung back and slammed against the floor with a resounding crash.
“A Scion,” Cyll murmured, then broke into another cough. “Figures.”
Knell dug a small stone out of his pocket and crushed it, throwing the powder into the air behind him. It shimmered with faint light for a moment before fading away. Cyll stared up at Knell from within his prison.
“I hold no love for the gods,” Knell said. “Not mine nor any other.”
“Oh?” Cyll asked, squinting up at him. “Out with it so I can agree. What do you want?”
“To kill the gods,” Knell replied. “Every single Shard of the Twelve.”
Cyll blinked, then burst into painful-sounding laughter. “Figures that a crazed man would be the one that came after me.”
“A crazed man would be one that had no chance,” Knell said. “Which I believe describes you. After all, you beat me to the attempt a few hundred years ago.”
“And look where that landed me,” Cyll growled. He squinted. “Why do you look familiar?”
“So you’re scared now?” Knell asked, ignoring his question. “You gave it your shot and realized it was too much?”
Cyll coughed into his fist. “I’d rip the bastards apart with my bare hands if I could, but you don’t know what I saw. No mortal, even a Scion, could rise up against the Twelve. I thought they could be killed once they were broken into Shards, but they can’t.”
“You’re wrong,” Knell replied. “What happened to your promises of doing anything to escape? Are you really so gelded that you fear going against them again?”
Cyll pressed his lips together. “Despite what you might have heard about me, I’m a man of my word. And you could never even begin to fathom what this many years of solitude does to a man.”
“I don’t care,” Knell replied flatly. “I’m going to ask you one simple question. If you had the chance to get revenge on them, knowing that you actually had a shot at success, would you take it?”
“Without an ounce of hesitation.”
Knell’s eyes flared. The yellow light pouring out of them filled the room with a brilliant golden hue. In spite of the light, the shadows surrounding him seemed to grow, attaching themselves to his clothes as an oppressive aura radiated out from his body.
Cyll’s eyes widened as Knell let the light fade away. Blood streamed down his face in an uncontrolled river that he did nothing to attempt to stem. Slowly, Cyll started to laugh.
“I knew I recognized something about you,” Cyll said. “How did you get Mordrigal’s eyes? I’ve never heard of one of the Twelve giving their true powers away.”
“Hubris,” Knell replied. “She thought she was always the one holding the cards, and I proved her wrong. These were my reward. Eyes are easily regrown for the primary Shard of the Goddess of Death. Now, I ask you again. If you had a chance to strike out at the Twelve, would you take it? I know they can die. I don’t know how yet, but I know they can.”
“Yes,” Cyll said. “Damn it, yes.”
“Good. Do not share anything that we just discussed with anyone. Not even the elf that accompanied me here. I used suppressing powder to keep our voices from leaving this room. I’m still unsure as to if she’s going to be a permanent member of our group.”
“Why keep a loose end around?” Cyll coughed.
“Because she reminds me of someone,” Knell replied. “And I see potential in her.”
“Fine. Just get me out of here already.”
Knell wiped the blood from his face and walked up to the door, where the dust he’d thrown had formed a faint barrier in the air. He brushed it aside like cobwebs using his staff, then poked his head out. “Stix! Could you come help me out?”
She darted down the hall, her weapons at the ready. When she realized that Knell didn’t look particularly worried, she lowered them slightly. “What?”
Knell waved her inside. “I need your help getting our new friend out of his hole. If you could grab my leg while I lean in for him, that would be appreciated.”
Stix glanced from him to the pit. She chewed her lower lip, then sighed and shook her head. “You’re going to get us both killed.”
Despite her words, she grabbed onto Knell’s good leg tightly as he laid down beside the pit. Knell scooted forward, holding the staff out to Cyll. He winced as the man grabbed onto it, thanking the stars that the white-haired man was so emaciated that he weighed even less than Knell did.
