Empyrean 37: Into the Fire (Patreon)

Two minutes? I thought to myself, panicked. That was not a lot of time to figure this out.

“Any thoughts?” Adalinda asked.

I put my hand on my forehead. Alon, Soren and I used to love asking each other riddles as children. I knew how they worked, how they existed to trick you, but I had never been under this kind of pressure to solve one.

“I breathe, consume, and grow. I was and never will be alive. What am I?” I repeated. “So, it needs oxygen to breathe, right?”

“That would make sense,” the celestial said. “And it would need to be destructive to consume. But it is not alive.”

“It’s fire,” I said quickly, finding a sudden bout of inspiration. “What creature uses fire?”

“It depends on what they meant by use. As a weapon?” Adalinda asked.

I flipped through the pages of the book and looked for creatures listed under the letter ‘D’. If it was a weapon like the celestial suggested, there could only be one answer, I thought. When I reached the page baring an image of a red dragon, I tore it and placed it on the small table.

“Correct,” the voice said. “Congratulations, hatchling. You have passed the first trial.”

“We did it!” I shouted out, turning around to see if my brother could finally hear me. As I spoke, he stood up and ran through the door. With a warm hug, he smiled at me.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, sis,” he said. “What happened?”

“Your next trials await you behind the doors in this corridor,” the voice started speaking again, interrupting Soren. “Behind each, you will find a trial of cunning, a trial of strength, and a trial of conviction. Each trial must be passed to reach the barrier at the end of this level. Any doorway you pass will take you to the next challenge. Good luck.”

The Adjudicator has allocated you a new task: Trials of Flame and Brimstone. Your objective is to make it through the trials of the Hatchling’s dungeon alive.

“What was that?” Soren asked nervously.

“That voice was guiding us in here,” I explained. “We had to solve three riddles to get rid of the magic barrier blocking the entry.”

“Wow, well done,” my brother said. “Clearly those nights you, Alon and I used to spend together helped…”

“They did,” I said, a hint of sadness in my voice.

“Well, what now?” he continued. “It sounds like we need to pass three trials.”

“It does, but that doesn’t explain where the other group of players are. Did they also get this task?”

Soren shrugged. “I don’t know. But I think the best way to find them.”

“You’re right,” I said. Before we left, though, I decided it may be a good idea to refill my mana. I scratched around in my bag and found the mana potion I still had left from my raid in Cantos’ house.

You have taken a full mana potion. Your mana has been replenished to 100%.

Wiping some drops of the potion from my mouth, I dropped the empty vial back in my bag and turned to Adalinda. “Are you feeling okay to carry on?” I asked.

“I am,” she confirmed. “Let’s go.”

✵ ✵ ✵

The three of us left the room and decided to walk into the first door we saw on the right. From what I understood, it didn’t really matter what door we chose. We would get the same trial, or at least a challenge that presented something specific to strength, conviction, and cunning despite the room we chose.

The first door opened without any issues, and I made sure that we all were able to walk in together. We were greeted by a large chamber, not too different from the first we encountered.

But it was completely empty.

Save for the gems covering the walls, I could not see anything out of the ordinary. Really, I couldn’t see anything at all. The light emanating from the crystals seemed to be much dimmer in this room than what we had experienced in the rest of the dungeon.

“Welcome, hatchlings,” another disembodied voice said. It was different from the last—in fact, I thought it was distinctly female. “This is the Trial of Strength. You have five minutes to complete this trial.”

Without warning, the dim vanished and the room was dropped into complete darkness. I stood completely still, waiting for the trial to truly begin.

A few seconds passed and the ground starting rumbling, not unlike the way it did when we fought against the insects in the room where we found the book. I heard a muffled roar, and before long, a colossal beast stood in front of us.

Made entirely out of fire, it looked like a mixture between an elemental and rock that had come to life. How the hell am I going to fight that thing? Most of my abilities were fire, and unless Adalinda could bite our foe, her fire breath would likely be useless against the creature.

I held my hands out immediately and ran forward slightly. Careful not to get too close to the beast’s flames, I let my new tendrils of light’s fury wrap around its leg and channelled all my energy into trying to hurt it.

You have injured a level 30 fire golem.

Yes, I thought excitedly. I could hurt it, and I could use my magic to do so—I just needed a little time.

“Adalinda, distract it, I need some time,” I asked the celestial.

“On it,” she said simply. In the darkness, the flames of the construct shone on Adalinda standing on her hind legs. With a formidable hiss, she lifted her hands and let the small wings on her sides fan out. The construct let out what I could only call a mighty roar and swung a large arm at the celestial, barely missing her. Some hot coals flung from its being as it tried to hit her, and it continued swinging with both arms.

Quite adeptly, the celestial dodged the golem’s swipes and smashes. Confident that she would be able to manage until my spell was ready, I whipped around to try and spot my brother.

“Soren?” I called. “Where are you?”

A hand reached out to touch my shoulder, and I hopped a little in a fright. “Right here,” he said. “I am not sure how I can help you here.”

“Just look out for Adalinda,” I said. “I have a plan.”

A few minutes passed, and in all that time, the celestial hopped around the golem—who sounded like it was getting more frustrated with every roar. I watched in awe as she sped around the slow-moving beast, hopping over flames and dodging away from its attacks.

I shuddered at the thought of what might happen if she got hit by one of those, but thankfully, speed was on her side against the slower-moving golem.

Finally, my spell was ready. I watched in front of me as my own elemental rose from the ground and took shape. One of light magic this time, it shone brightly, helping me see the room once again.

You have summoned an elemental of light.

“Kill the golem!” I commanded. Turning to Soren, who I could see clearly now, I ushered him closer to my side. “Com here,” I said. He jogged back quickly, as he had moved around the room trying to support Adalinda. When he reached me, I touched him on his shoulder with my hand.

You have cast witch armor on your companion.

“You should have some more protection now,” I said. “But be careful.”

Walking away from my brother, I moved closer to the raging battle between the golem and my elemental. Seeing that I had finished my spell, Adalinda had moved out of the way, and the two constructs were tangled in a fight.

The light elemental, made entirely out of stone with a white light shining through the cracks, had wrapped its arms around the fire golem. In an instant, the flames of the golem died, and it let out a loud roar. But it was different this time—more desperate.

Your light elemental has critically injured a fire golem and dampened its flames for 10 seconds.

“You have two minutes remaining,” the voice said.

Damn, I thought. Not a lot of time to take this thing down. But, with its flames, I could get closer and do some damage of my own. The elemental continued to hold onto the fire golem. It struggled against the light construct, and only a few seconds passed before it ripped its arms free from the elemental and slammed down on the ground.

Thankfully, I was not close enough to the slam to get hurt, but the elemental was shot backward. Not wasting any time, I reached my hands out and released more tendrils of light’s fury. I watched as the small worm-like lightforms eked out of my fingers and wrapped themselves around the legs of the construct.

Without warning, the fire golem swung an arm behind it and smacked me aside.

You have injured a level 30 fire golem.

You have been critically injured and set alight. You will lose 1% of health for 3 seconds.

Your health is at 60%.

I held my head and looked up. My vision, now turned blurry, made it difficult to see what was happening between the two constructs. Rubbing my eyes, I tried to clear them out, but to no avail. I almost started crying, thinking the blow to my skull had hurt my vision, but pulled myself together in time to cast a last spell to help me.

You have summoned a healing wisp.

As the small speck of light appeared and ran circles around my body, I felt my vision come back and the pain in my head subside. I looked up and saw the two constructs still fighting, but this time, the fire golem was making more progress.

The light elemental, completely backed into a wall in the chamber, was bent down and holding its arms against its body. Blocking itself, I thought, especially since the fire golem was pounding relentlessly into the elemental.

“Elana,” I heard the celestial’s voice enter my mind. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said. “The fight isn’t going our way.”

“Sit tight,” the celestial said. “I have a plan. When you see an opportunity, tell the elemental to dampen the golem’s flames again.”

Before I could protest, I watched as Adalinda rushed behind the fire golem. Again, she stood on her hind legs and hissed at it. She took a deep breath and let out a stream of fire.

Warning! A fire golem is immune to fire damage.

What is she doing? Surely the celestial knew this. But then, as the construct turned to face her, I realized she was trying to distract him again. Moving backward quickly, the celestial continued to threaten the golem with fire as she led it further away from the light elemental.

“Dampen its flames!” I commanded.

Standing up from its defensive position, the elemental ran—slowly—toward the fire golem and crashed into it. Adalinda barely got out of the way when the elemental pushed the construct into the floor and wrapped its arms around it again.

Your light elemental has critically injured a fire golem and dampened its flames for 10 seconds.

“Ada, you have ten seconds,” I said to the celestial.

She said nothing in return, and quickly ran toward the fire golem. The celestial climbed onto its head and pushed her claws into it, pulling out pieces of rock as it was pinned to the ground by the light elemental.

“Warning, you have 30 seconds remaining to complete this challenge,” the voice announced.

Adalinda did not have a lot of time until the flames came back, and I saw the fire golem push itself further into the ground. It was getting ready to release a force onto the light elemental and push itself up again.

“Kill it!” I yelled, standing up myself and running toward the constructs. The light elemental immediately lifted its arms and pounded down into the fire golem’s exposed back. As it hit it, the light elemental dissipated, but not without leaving behind a rush of light force.

The fire golem roared out in pain as forks of light rushed through the cracks in its body. As this was happening, I managed to reach the golem, and plunged my dagger into a crack.

You have critically injured a fire golem.

Adalinda, still clawing away at the head of the golem, started hissing as its flames came back. “Ada, get out of there now,” I ordered, standing back myself as the golem’s legs moved to stand up again.

Still not able to see how close we were to killing this thing, I plunged my dagger into a second crack before I had to move away completely, leaving my weapon in the golem.

“Warning, you have five seconds to complete this challenge,” the voice said again.

Our time was running out.