22 Keeper of Paths (Patreon)

The Trial of Retribution is a chance to kill your past for good. There’s no point in holding onto it when you get to the First Circle. Sentimentality is a weakness you can’t afford as a Classed. 

Whatever Keeper of Paths you face, understand that you won’t be fighting them. Not directly. No, you’ll be fighting echoes of people you’ve wronged in the past, or who have wronged you. This is a good thing because as an unfortunate Classless shit, most people have as much chance against a Level 15 Demon as a worm does surviving the falling hoof of a horse.

In this moment, you’ll get two options. The first is being strong enough to handle your own damage. Everyone thinks they can; almost no one does. The smarter choice is having someone with you face your echoes while you face theirs. It won’t be a perfect matchup, but you won’t have baggage either.

Understand that Mepheleon is testing you on your ability to decide. No one is limitless in their stats, and everyone has a breaking point. The trick is understanding your frailties, and working around them—to prevent them outright.

Use everything at your disposal. Everyone. Fight only the battles you win.

When you are done with the Keeper, it will fall and turn into an open portal. This constitutes the Trial of Temptation. Temptation in the form of offered artifacts, additional levels, and the establishment of your Class. You’ll get to choose from one of seven paths up the Tower, decide on your foundational Circle of Hell, and set the base stats of your Class with your first decision. Each path you tread will thereafter divide into seven choices thrice more before you arrive at the Trial of Despair.

Be bold but smart during this trial. Go down the paths you’re certain you can survive. And see if you can convince someone in your group to share a path. A group always stands better odds together, but understand that different routes will offer different individuals what they desperately want. To this end, it helps to plan ahead: if you need to separate, try to establish some point where you can all reconvene. But the risk there is they might be tempted by something else again, leaving you on your own…

Whatever the case, think first. Needs over wants. Maximize your chances.

You’re going to need everyone by your side if you want to retain majority stakes over your own soul in the Trial of Despair…

-The Trespasser’s Compendium

22

Keeper of Paths

Keeper of Paths is attacking your Aspect of (Mind)! Resisting Keeper of Paths using Aspect of Mind [8]

>Failed to Resist

A piercing sensation cleaved deep into Wei’s consciousness. His vision doubled. A choked hiss escaped him. But as the Keeper’s radiant blade passed through him, he felt no true pain nor damage. A series of cries sounded from the others behind him. The slash passed through Agnesia, Ellena, and Roggi as well. Then, as it angled up to strike Rafael, the edge of the impacted the skull, and bounced off as if impacting against a wall.

The Keeper jerked. Wei mastered himself, ignored the discomfort emanating within his head, and thrust with his spear.

The demon shot away from him in a staggering burst of speed. The young master struck nothing but open air. The Keeper’s many feet blurred as it settled back at the center of the arena. Coming to a halt, a faint cerulean haze oozed out from its massive tower-like blade as faint distortion rippled across its flat surfaces. Wei saw images. People. Places. The details were vague and unrealized, but the shapes were unmistakable.

“You all alright?” Roggi rasped, resting his helmet against a gauntlet. A whimper sounded from Ellena while her daughter shook off the attack, a veil of fire flashing out from the girl as her expression grew enraged.

“I will be once I unite that thing with the ashes,” Agnesia growled.

Rafael drifted between them. An array of spiraling symbols danced around the skull as they muttered a string of nonsensical noises. A brilliant cipher flashed them, and Rafael made a disgusted noise. “Friends! You have been Mind-Sliced. The demon has dipped its blade into the waters of your memories.”

A coldness filled Wei. “Our minds are damaged?”

Strings of ciphers flowed over Wei like rivers, the trails they left akin to comets. Two revolving rings of gold formed over each of their heads. “No,” Rafael answered. “Their intent was not to damage or control you. That would strike at the foundations of one’s Will.”

The Keeper lifted its blade, and patches of deepest blue blossomed into the world, stained the colors of reality. It shifted its grip, reversed the direction of its sword, pointed it downward at itself.

Wei’s eyes narrowed. What was it doing?

“What in Ruin is it doing?” Roggi said, sharing the same thought.

“Channeling,” Rafael spat. A chain of ciphers leaped out from the skull, darting toward the demon like biting snakes. Another emanation of blue dissolved whatever working Rafael invoked. The lich snarled. “Aphesto! I haven’t had time to refill my memory! I cannot counter its power with cantrip level workings!”

Wei flung his spear out just as a fireball flew out from Agnesia. His weapon bounced off the brass armor of the Keeper, and the flames splashed over its entire form a moment thereafter. For a heartbeat, it was entirely engulfed by blazing fire, its form a fading shadow as Agnesia exerted herself with an inhuman cry.

The ground between the Keeper bubbled as obsidian became molten sludge. The area was bathed in blinding light. And then Agnesia’s efforts waned. Her face recoiled with strain as her pyromancy died in an instant.

Smoke rose as twisting strings from the body of the Keeper. They were otherwise entirely unharmed.

“Right,” Roggi grunted. “New idea. Wei. Try to keep it in place long enough for me to hit it with my hammer. Let’s see how strong this thing stays when I turn its shell to glas—”

The Keeper, indifferent to their assault, slammed its blade down into itself, slotting into the missing section. Its gate-like eyes shone with deepest blue, cast forth coruscating tunnels and painted different places across the area with congealing shapes.

“I—I think I know what it’s doing,” Rafael breathed. It dipped low next to Wei as the young master drew his spear back. “The blade copied memories from your mind. Surface memories. Constructs of pure knowledge. That’s why only our minds were affected instead of our Wills.”

“What are you talking about?” Ellena gasped, eyes widen, hand trembling. Wei knew himself to be a wise man for giving her armor, for nothing about how she held herself indicated anything resembling martial competence.

“The Keeper is likely creating creatures wrought from your pasts,” Rafael answered.

The deposed queen remained confused, but not for long. The streams rushing forth from the Keeper’s eyes surged one final time as Wei felt nine new signatures of essence materialize within his senses.

A few he recognized. Three wolfmen came stepped out from their tunnels, and—much to Wei’s surprise—a thick-necked boy wearing the beige robes of an outer sect disciple of the Drowned Sky followed them. The wolves snarled and bit at him, but it was the outer disciple who took the lead. Wei frowned as he struggled to recall where he saw the boy before.

“You will pay for what you’ve done, Young Master Wei,” the outer disciple said, jabbing a finger in Wei’s direction. “You will pay tenfold.”

Wei’s group stared at him. Rafael lowered himself. “What did you do to him?”

Wei shrugged. “I cannot recall. Probably nothing important.”

The outer sect disciple’s nostrils flared. “Do you know what it’s like? To feel your testicles burst?”

And all of a sudden, Wei’s eyes widened. “Oh. You.” Wei tried to hold back his chuckle. He failed.

Pure offense consumed the outer court disciple as the wolfmen snarled on his behalf. The boy’s lip quivered.

“Wei!” Rafael said, sounding aghast. “How can you do such a terrible thing to another man? To deprive them of life’s most sublime pleasure.”

Wei shot the lich a flat stare. “Ask him why he made himself such a vulnerable target, assuming the horse-stance before our bout.”

The outer court disciple’s voice broke. “I was preparing.”

The young master scoffed. “Considering you let me kick you, you clearly weren’t.”

“I… you…. You’ll pay.”

Wei just shook his head. The Claimed Hells was a ridiculous place.

From the remaining gateways arrived eight more figures. Eight more people that Wei failed to recognize. Judging how Agnesia, her mother, and Roggi went stone-still, however, it wasn’t hard to deduce where they came from.

Two of the newcomers were young. Just boys. They were hideously burned, and their charred flesh hung from their faces in charred dollops and hive-like tendrils. What few tufts of hair they retained were pure white like Agnesia, and their eyes were green. Green like Wei’s. Green like Ellena’s. 

Once more, the young master looked away.

“Oh… oh, gods,” Ellena sagged. Agnesia fared no better, swallowing as she gripped her greatsword to occupy her shaking hands.

Behind the burned boys were two Faebloods. They were impossibly thin of frame, tall of stature, sharp of ears, and blood-red of eyes. Scab-like armor layered their bodies, and in her hands were tongue-like daggers of fluid-crimson.

“Why did you burn us, Agnesia,” one boy said.

“I thought you loved us, mother?” the other followed. “I thought you promised to protected us. Always. Forever…”

A sob escaped Ellena. She took a step forward, but her daughter held her back.

“That’s not them anymore,” Agnesia said, her voice ragged. Her golden irises were flaring bright, her fires rekindled. “They’re gone. They were taken.”

“Taken?” one of the Faeblood’s said? This one had a mane of ebony hair while the other was bald with a spiderweb tattoo lining his scalp. “Accepted, you mean. Embraced. Among the kindred. To be loved by the Mistress of the Everwound, joined forever to the Dying Queen.”

“But you couldn’t accept such love,” the bald Faeblood said, placing his palm over his chest. “You are hateful thing. A thing of fire like your father. Like your older brothers. You refuse our Embrace. And if that was not enough, you murder your younger siblings. You steal your mother from her chance to feel a final joy. Joy everlasting…”

A howl of primal rage escaped Agnesia as a tidal wave of searing heat erupted free from her being. It loomed high, surpassing even the ten meters of the Keeper of Paths before crashing down. Then, through the flames, Wei felt the last of their foes step forth. Their presence came announced by thunderous strides, and a resounding impact followed a displacement of hissing steam.

Agnesia’s fire fell, but it washed over a risen bunker of rusted alloy.

The girl sagged and groaned thereafter. Wei shot her a glare. “Enough. Stop wasting your energy. Use your flames only when you have an opening.”

Another ringing impact cut her response off as the bunker vanished, revealing another Oathbearer across from them.

Roggi made a choking noise, and took a step back. “N-no.”

Dead worms oozed free from the rents lining the new Oathbearer’s armor. His helmet was cracked. Decay and filth desecrated the glory of his frame, and where flesh was exposed, Wei saw eerie green wisps escaping from shattered bone. A single unblinking eye of midnight blue stared at Roggi through the other Oathbearer’s broken sockets.

“Roggi… why did you leave me? I called for you… Why did you let them take me…”

Their voice was carried on the winds, and Roggi replied by striking the ground with his hammer, reshaping the land into risen barricades with a ragged cry. The act was pure impulse—an attempt to seal away the rotting Oathbearer that greeted him. Columns of metal and stone rose with an upwelling of steam, and twenty meter high walls parted the echoes summoned by the Keeper from the five climbers of Mepheleon’s Black Tower.

A second later, a second impact rang from the other side. Eerie green fissures spread over the surface of Roggi’s newly made construct. The Oathbearer grunted and swung his hammer again. A runic symbol flashed over the structure, warring against the decay spreading from the fractures, while Wei staked his banner down into the earth and compelled the palliative mists to spring forth.

The wolfmen didn’t blink in. Not immediately his time. Either these memory-echoes could learn from their past mistakes or were planning something worse. The young master didn’t know which possibility he disliked more.

Another blow came from the other side. Spills of rust and rot curled over the top of their fortifications. Roggi growled at his hammer and brought the instrument close to his face. “No! No. I need another miracle. Another invocation. I need it. Please!”

The runes over the hammer were flickering, essence flowing in choked sputters.

Nearby, Agnesia was trying to get her mother to stand. The older woman was holding herself, sinking into a carpet of ash. 

Wei took in his companions and scowled. They were shaken. Unbalanced. They were not prepared to face their past, let along engage it in a fight. The only ones with mastery over themselves were Wei and—

“Wei,” Rafael called, drifting behind Wei. The lich was hovering close to the young master’s Staff of Falling Thunder. “Your artifact. Are there still charges?”

Wei shook his head. Another impact. Roggi’s blockade began to groan, and a faint crimson miasma was glowing on the other side.

“Perfect,” Rafael answered. “I require your staff as a conduit. Lend it to me.”

Wei took a second’s consideration and released the staff. “I expect it back.”

The lich didn’t answer. Instead, it formed a chain of mystical hands to hold the staff in place as it impaled itself upon the length of gnarled wood. A channel of essence surged through the staff and blossomed as new ciphers around Rafael. It was like a constellation of arcane symbology was growing over the lich.

“It’s going to come down,” Roggi said, stepping back and bringing his shield to bear. The Oathbearer sounded as worried as Wei ever heard. The icon upon his hammer was dimmed, and his shield formed a layered cocoon of translucent force around them. “Ready yourselves.”

“This won’t do,” Wei said. “Roggi. Hold here if you can. Use the mists as cover.” The young master heard something crumble as he walked over to Agnesia. He shifted his spear out and—without asking—drove a barrage of stabs into her kneeling mother as he triggered Form of the Manicore, sacrificing his attacks as Velocity Charges.

Velocity Charges: [13/13]

The girls wheeled on him with her greatsword on instinct, but her face went blank as she saw no wounds on her mother. “I—what did—”

“Channel your flames through the battlements as soon as it falls. Do it for one second.” Wei shot Ellena a look and frowned. “Stay close to your mother. I will resolve your echoes. Should they get close, circle the area. Do not retreat down the steps. Do not let them have the high ground.”

A question came from the girl when Wei heard a crash of thunder. Stormclouds unfurled over the lich as Rafael cackled with prideful laughter. So jubilant was the skull’s joy that Wei couldn’t help but grin as well.

The staff was working again, somehow. Wei saw as concussive volts pulsed out from the arcane cumulus. “Behold! Mine is genius! Mine is the mastery of magic.”

“Yours will be with me,” Wei said. “We’re going up.”

“Up?” The skull stared. Another blow, and Roggi’s battlements began to crumble. “Ah. I see. I like the way you think.”

“I’ll pierce into their group first. You strike their center with their staff. Focus on the other Oathbearer.”

“They will learn to fear our coming, comrade,” Rafael chuckled.

Wei spent a Velocity Charge thereafter—shot up through the healing mists, displacing falling ash. As he passed the height of the collapsing barricade, Wei’s eyes widened as he saw two legions made up of fifty bone-speared skeletons saddled on spectral steeds behind the undead Oathbearer. Their hammer was a cracked instrument, leaking wailing specters tinged with foulest green.

The blood-eyed Faeblood stood just behind him, weaving tendrils of crimson out from the opened throats of the burned children. Wei wasn’t sure what they were doing, nor was he particularly interested in finding out. All he knew was that he needed to stop them before whatever vile ritual took hold.

At the very back were the echoes from Wei’s own past. Three wolfmen and the outer court disciple. They were guarding the Keeper of Paths, its eyes still channeling trickles of essence into them. Wei cocked his head at that. Perhaps this was why they hadn’t come forward to skirmish.

The undead Oathbearer swung one final time, and a flash of a hooded figure manifested over the skeletal cavalry. Roggi’s battlements came down. The cavalry charged. Only for Agnesia’s fire to wash over them. Only for Rafael to catch up with Wei.

Soaring through the air, the young master prepared to cast his spear at the Keeper of Paths itself. Time to see if he could settle things before it became an actual fight. “Target the center of the—”

But Rafael was already acting. A chain of ciphers flashed around them, and from their interlacing symbology came jumped a bolt of concussive lightning.

A massive bolt of concussive lightning. Wei’s eyes widened briefly as a whip of pure force licked devastation across the land, shattering a dozen skeletal horsemen and stunning all other threats with an added wave of force.

“Go!” Rafael said. “Cut into them. I will give you openings”

Wei nodded, and accelerated behind the discombobulated spears, speartip aimed at the neck of the outer court disciple.

Finally. Some proper assistance.