Empyrean 29: A Miserable Death (Patreon)

Amelia, here! :) Enjoy a new chapter of Empyrean's Flight. As usual, any and all feedback is welcome.

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Her long black hair just barely gave way to her face, which had been scarred from what I could only assume were many previous battles. But, most notably, she had a slight haze of color around her. A player.

“Who are you?” I demanded, holding my arms and casting witch armor in preparation.

“Your killer.”

My eyes widened as I heard her chant. Not only a player, but a mage, I thought. A small ball of fire quickly barreled my way, and before I could move, hit me right in the chest. I was pushed to the ground, and to my dismay, saw I had caught alight.

Magical resistance check passed! You have taken half damage.

You have been set alight, but the onyx necklace has spared you from any pain. Your health will decrease by 1% every second for 5 seconds.

Your health is at 55%.

But I couldn’t feel it.

Standing up in the blaze that enveloped me, I held arrows ready and shot them right toward the mage. As my arrows flew past, Adalinda leapt forward to release a breath of fire across the two guards. Setting them alight, she ran toward the one on the right of the mage and snapped her jaw shut on his arm.

You have critically injured a hostile entity!

An arrow pierced the mage’s chest, but to my surprise, she did not catch fire as my enemies usually did. I saw her chant again, and in anticipation, moved aside when another fireball came my way.

I looked to the guard Adalinda was tussling with and noticed he was now sans an arm.

Adalinda has killed a level 22 human!

With only one guard and the mage left, I knew we needed a different plan. But the player was sending more fireballs my way, forcing me to move side-to-side and keeping me from thinking clearly.

The second guard had run up behind Adalinda and sliced his sword through her back.

Adalinda has sustained critical damage! Her health is at 57%.

The celestial whipped around and let out another breath of fire, setting the guard alight. Looking again at the mage, I held my arrows ready and waited for my companion to finish her battle.

My arrows, while still hitting the mage, only ticked away at her health. Their fire did nothing to her, and she continued to fling small balls of fire my way.

Taking the time I had, I huddled behind a pot plant and started my own spell. While I waited, I kept my eye on my companion. The guard, whose armor was looking poor, had stabbed the celestial in the tail and pinned her to the ground. She let out a loud hiss, twisting her body around to try and break free.

But she couldn’t.

I panicked, watching the guard punch Adalinda in the back with studded knuckles. Her health ticked away, and my spell still wasn’t ready.

Meanwhile, the mage had started a new chant, one she finished quicker than I could complete mine. She yelled, held them out, and shot a small beam of fire through the pot plant. It broke immediately, and I was set alight.

You have failed a magical resistance check!

You have been set alight. Your health will decrease by 1% every second for 10 seconds.

Your witch armor has broken.

My health ticking down slowly, I could only be thankful for the onyx necklace. In a moment, my spell was ready, and my elemental emerged.

You have summoned an air elemental.

“Protect Adalinda!” I shouted immediately, still watching the celestial getting punched into the ground by the guard. The elemental twisted forward, slamming down on the guard, and knocked him aside.

The stream of fire finally died down, and I stood, holding more arrows ready to shoot at the mage. A single arrow left the blue light bow before I failed to summon another.

But then the Game alert I never wanted to see came.

Your mana has been drained.

Panicked, I shot my gaze toward the celestial. The elemental had slammed again, this time on the guard’s head, and he was nothing but pulp on the floor.

“Kill her!” I shouted, pointing to the mage.

I ran toward my companion while the elemental distracted the mage. I pulled the sword out of her tail.

“Can you fight?” I asked breathlessly.

Adalinda said nothing and pushed herself up slowly. Back on her hind legs, she made a slow leap toward the mage. The player was holding her ground against the elemental, but still struggling to fight against the breath of devastating wind it blew toward her.

With its third attack now done, the elemental dissipated.

Not having any other choice, I ran behind Adalinda with my dagger out. The celestial grabbed the mage’s leg, clawing into her thigh, and not stopping until deep gashes formed in her flesh.

With a shout, she pushed the celestial off with a force that could have only come from a spell. But it gave me time to reach her and drive my dagger into her chest. With a single twist, I was able to keep her pinned to the ground, blood spilling from her.

Another blast emanated from her hands, and I was pushed to the floor myself.

The mage stood up and looked at me with a twisted look on her face. Without saying a word, she threw another fireball at me, and this time I could not dodge.

Magical resistance check passed! You have taken half damage.

You have been set alight, but the onyx necklace has spared you from any pain. Your health will decrease by 1% every second for 5 seconds.

Your health is at 35%.

I rolled to the side, which helped limit the fire that had caught on me. Standing up as quick as I could, I dashed forward to the mage, dagger in hand. She cackled and held her hand out, readying another blast of fire, I assumed.

But she had forgotten about Adalinda.

The celestial stood on her hind legs, having moved behind the player, and jumped forward. Her claws dug into the mage’s back. Her spell interrupted, she whipped around to face the celestial, but Adalinda held on.

As the mage spun around frantically trying to get the celestial off, I walked forward. Dagger at the ready, with any luck, I would strike the player where it mattered most.

Half closing my eyes, I plunged it into her again.

You have critically injured a level 30 mage!

Letting out a breath, I looked to see my weapon stuck in the mage’s upper arm. The mage, still spinning around, barely took note of it while Adalinda started climbing up her back. Claw by claw, the celestial dug deeper into the mage’s flesh. The celestial, now clinging onto the player’s shoulders, opened her jaw and breathed fire.

I could only stand and watch as flames consumed the mage’s head. Her hair sizzled out almost immediately, and the embers burned black holes into her skin. With a bloodcurdling scream, the player collapsed to the floor. Adalinda jumped off the mage. Snapping out of my trance, I ran toward her and pulled my dagger from her arm.

Wiping it off, I stood and watched as the mage’s screams died to whispers and she stopped moving.

Adalinda has killed a level 30 mage.

You have gained 5 levels and 5 attribute points.

Your summoning skill has increased to 27.

Your air magic skill has increased to 13, reaching rank 1.

Your light magic skill has increased to 28.

Your fire magic skill has increased to 30, reaching rank 3.

Adalinda’s tooth and claw skill has increased to 30, reaching rank 3.

Adalinda’s natural armor skill has increased to 31, reaching rank 3.

As the rolling splay of Game alerts entered my mind, I took a cleansing breath and looked at my companion. “We did well,” I said. “It got a bit too close there.”

“We need to find Cantos and get out of here,” she replied.

I nodded slightly, knowing she was right. We had no way of telling how many more enemies we would need to face, but for now, things were quiet. If anyone had heard the fighting, they would have come for us by now. In fact, I thought we had pretty much taken care of those we would have to face at all.

That just left Cantos who, surprisingly, hadn’t shown his face yet.

“I am out of mana,” I said. “And I could use some healing.”

The celestial did not reply immediately, instead, she moved around slowly and sniffed the air. “Take the time you need,” she finally said. “I will look out for you. We can’t afford another fight with your mana drained.”

I took a seat near a corner of the balcony and started channeling immediately.

Your mana has been recharged to 60%.

Your channeling skill has increased to 29.

I wasn’t sure exactly how much time had passed when I decided to stop recharging my mana. We did not have the luxury of safety, and it would take more time than I was comfortable with to get my mana full up again. Besides, I was getting impatient to reach Cantos.

I searched my bag for healing potions, taking one myself and giving one to Adalinda, who could hold it herself now. Our health full again, I walked through the corridor where the mage had appeared.

“It looks like Cantos has players protecting him, too,” I said to Adalinda.

“Indeed,” she replied. “We need to be careful. They are higher level than I would have anticipated.”

Walking toward the mage, I decided to search her for anything useful. Searching her pockets, I managed to find some potions and gold. Besides that, there was nothing interesting.

Except, when I looked at her cloak, an interesting Game alert came into view.

The target is a fire mage’s cloak. This item gives the wearer 20% resistance to fire damage and increases their fire magic skill by +5. It requires 10 Magic to equip.

That explained how she seemed to take so little damage from my arrows. It was also a really good find for me, personally. I did not have much equipment that helped me, and this would finally be it. I pulled the cloak off the mage and put it on.

You have equipped a fire mage’s cloak. You have gained 20% resistance to fire damage and your fire magic skill has increased by +5.

You have acquired a full mana potion.

You have acquired 10 gold.

Damnit. If I had decided to search the mage before panicking about my mana, I would have saved time.

But that didn’t matter now. Only Cantos did.

I looked forward, into the corridor where the mage came from. There were no more guards, and no more players to speak of. As I assumed, everyone who would have heard the fighting had already come for us. If there were anymore Devils here, they would have been downstairs.

At the end of the corridor was a door. I tried the handle, but it was locked. Damn, I thought. “Where to now?”

Adalinda turned her head around slowly. “There,” she pointed out. “There’s another staircase behind us.”

I looked to the direction she was and saw that she was right. Just to our left was an almost hidden stairwell. Walking down this one, I took more caution, not knowing what could be hiding in the darker corners.

But it only led down to another door. When I tried the handle on this one, it opened, and I peered into the room as much as I could before walking inside.

It was empty, but for a lavish double bed and bookshelves. On the wall next to the shelves was a desk littered with papers. I sighed, thinking that it looked like Cantos’ room, but he was not here.

I walked inside more confidently toward the bookshelves, hoping to find some information on the desk.

Then I heard it behind me.

“Aahhh!”

A determined scream. I whirled around, held my hand out with light’s fury, and caught the shoulder of the person attempting to attack me. Without thinking, I pulled my dagger out and plunged it through the bottom of his neck.

Blood bubbled from the Devil leader as he tried to say his final words. His eyes, bulging out from shock, closed quietly, and he dropped to the floor.

I staggered back, knocking softly into the bookshelves, and looked at the motionless body of my enemy.

You have killed a level 17 human.

You have gained a level and an attribute point.

Your true motives for killing the Devil leader have not gone unnoticed. You sacrificed the lives of many to seek revenge as a personal choice. The Dark approves. You have acquired the mark: Lesser Dark and have begun to tread this path.

I slinked back against the bookshelf and stared at the Devil leader. Was that all it took? I thought, shocked by the ease with which his death came.

Was this really the man that caused me so much tragedy?

I looked at my companion, who was sitting still and looking at me. She said nothing.

And the realization finally hit me.

Cantos was really dead, and it was all my fault.