Twilightfall Page 16

  So, Eric, you're still alive after all. After all the rumors I heard, I was not certain any more. But what's that? Hmmm... Those four guys in the middle are carrying a large object covered with a black canvas. A large, flat object...

  Eric, Eric, Eric... Do you really think that this piece of glass will do you any good? You really ought to be smarter than that!

  `You said you could blow a guy's head off with this thing, even from this distance.' says Flora suddenly.

  `Yes. I have his head right in the crosshair. If I pull the trigger, his head will split like a watermelon!'

  `Shoot him!'

  `Why?' I ask, briefly looking away from the scope and turning to Flora.

  `I don't think you need to ask that!'

  `Ah, come on...' I tell her, and look back into the scope. Eric waves his hand authoritatively, and the group stops. The four in the middle put the Demon Mirror on the ground, and look around. Eric must have spotted something. Zombies? I don't see them yet.

  Eric is looking around, and... he looks up, right here, to this very window. He spots me. He stares straight into the scope fiercely. He doesn't run, he doesn't hide.

  `That's what I like about you, Eric! You've got guts! Except when you panic, haha!'

  I raise my head from the scope, and pull the sniper rifle back from the window, then I look towards Eric. I smile at him and wave my hand in greeting.

  Suddenly, the night elf with the bow steps beside him and draws his bow, aiming an arrow directly at me. Eric strictly waves his hand towards him, and he slowly lowers his bow, while looking towards me with a frown. Strange figure, this night elf. His skin is as pale as is typical of his kind, but his hair is brown, not black. Perhaps a half-breed? Who knows...

  Eric stares at me for a while, then he orders his men to keep moving. The four night elves in the middle pick the Demon Mirror back up and the group slowly proceeds. Eric follows them, but after a few steps, he turns back towards me again. I wave my hand in goodbye towards him with a smile, and close the window.

  `Why didn't you kill him?! He would deserve to join Worriil in the Afterlife!'

  `Whether he deserves it or not, it doesn't matter any more. He's already dead, he just doesn't know it yet.'

  `What do you mean?'

  `Let's just say, that he will soon do something he's going to regret for the rest of his life. All two seconds of it.' I tell her, as I turn the SMG 12000 back into its pistol shape, and stick it back in my belt. I turn away from the window while she just stares at me with a confused look, and I head to the table.

  `Well, let's read the book, shall we?'

  The Dreamer's fall

  Excerpt from the memoirs of the Librarian of Re'Cas

  I shall forever live in shame knowing that I was a part of it. A part of the treason. A part of the foolish act which lead to our fall.

  I could write countless pages of how I never truly wanted to do it, of how I didn't agree with the others, but it would be a lie. I wanted to do it, and I did in fact agree with them. I was just as naive and foolish as they were.

  We had spent decades trying to convince our Master that we must further empower the Sphere. However, he always said, that such an attempt would destroy it. I know now that he was right, but we didn't believe him. We thought there had to be a way. We thought we found a way. We tried harder and harder to convince him that there was a workaround, that the risk could be nullified. After a while, he didn't even bother to listen. He dismissed our ideas before even hearing them. I guess, in this, he can blame only himself that we came to doubt his wisdom.

  But that's no excuse for what we did. There is absolutely no excuse for what we did. He was the one who gave us all our power and immortality. And what did we do? We essentially stabbed him in the back, and then watched as his fate was sealed. There is no excuse for our sin...

  I remember that I and eleven others - whom I shall not name here - once sat together and discussed one last time how we could convince our Master that we were correct. We quickly concluded that after the decades of useless arguing with him, neither of us saw any way of ever reasoning with him. We feared for the Brotherhood. We feared that the Sphere was too weak to allow us to live through the ages. We feared for our immortality. So, this vain fear made us desperate, and one of us mentioned the idea of removing Voi'Shek from power.

  I no longer remember which of us brought up this madness of a suggestion, but I do know that none of us disagreed. We all saw it as a viable option, we all felt that the fall of one for the sake of the entire Brotherhood was an acceptable sacrifice, even if that one would be our Master.

  We however knew well that the intention would not be enough. That even with all the power we had, we could not defeat him. So, we started looking for alternatives. Eventually, we devised a sick, sick plan. We worked out the details, we started making preparations, and waited for the right time. When it came, we initiated our grand plan.

  We gathered together and did the unthinkable. We summoned a powerful Demon Lord to Draconia. One of the most powerful Demon Lords in existence. The Destroyer. Th'Mesh. We didn't just summon him. We bound his avatar to our service. We made him our slave, much like our Brotherhood had made the dragons into slaves. It is difficult to believe this today, but back in the day, the Sphere gave us the power to do it. We made use of that power as best we could.

  Then, as Th'Mesh became our servant, we lured our Master into a devious trap. We told him that Th'Mesh had invaded our world and that we needed his wisdom and power to help us banish the creature. When Voi'Shek and Th'Mesh were standing face to face, we conjured a spell that would weaken our Master. We basically prevented him from tapping the power of the Sphere.

  He was furious, outraged, and he threatened to kill us if we did not undo what we had done. We did not listen. We ordered Th'Mesh to attack him.

  The battle was intense, and long. Th'Mesh used all his brute force and all his fire-based magics to try and either rip Voi'Shek to pieces, or burn him to ash. Our Master in turn cast the most powerful spells he possibly could, trying his best to destroy the Demon Lord. Th'Mesh was immune to his instant death spells, so he had to rely on more mundane magics. He fought Th'Mesh while we just watched and focused on maintaining both our shields and the spell with which we weakened him. The battle lasted over five hours, but in the end, Th'Mesh wore him down, made him exhaust all his magical energy. We ordered Th'Mesh to stop before he could kill him. Our Master perhaps thought that we'd come to our senses, but we had no intention of letting him go. Instead, we sealed his fate.

  We did not hate him. We admired him. We respected him, but we felt he was doing our Brotherhood wrong. We felt that he was holding us back, preventing us from evolving, from growing even greater and even more powerful than we already were. We didn't want to kill him, we just wanted him out of the way, so that we could lead our lives as all powerful mages without constraints. We had to imprison him. But we knew that no prison could hold him. No prison, save one. A stasis void.

  The stasis void... The very thought of it sends shivers down my spine and makes me tremble. Sealed in an indefinitely sustained stasis field in the space between the planes is a horrible fate. To think that we would ever even consider subjecting our great Master to such an atrocity. But we knew well that if we did not kill him, then this would be the only way we could remove him from power. And we could not bring ourselves to kill him.

  So, we didn't kill him. We condemned him to a fate that many would say is worse than death. We commanded Th'Mesh to place him in a stasis void. The Demon Lord, still under our control, did as commanded. Our Master was gone. Gone forever.

  Even now, he rests imprisoned in the nothingness between the planes. That's where he will remain for all eternity. His prison is bound to Th'Mesh, an immortal being. One such as he can never be destroyed. We knew this, that's why we chose one such as he to cast the stasis void spell on our Master. So that we could be certain that he would never return.

  Even now, he
suffers in his eternal prison. While we, the ones who plotted to overthrow him...

  We shall be damned for all eternity...

  For with his departure, the fate of the Brotherhood lay in our hands, and all that happened afterwards is our responsibility.

  Our fault.

  Our failure...

  He was right, we learned that. The others died when the Sphere exploded. I alone survived. Of all of us who conspired against our Master, I alone remained bearing the memories of the truth of how Voi'Shek disappeared. I alone remained knowing that all that would follow, was our fault and ours alone. As I write these pages of confession, all my brethren lay dead, and I, too, am already nothing more but a ghost. We dethroned our Master to be all powerful and truly immortal. We wanted it all, and were left with nothing. We paid a terrible price for our vanity and greed. Truly, we deserve our fate...

  The fighter and the mage

  In the Great Library of Re'Cas, present day (1 day and 3 hours before Twilightfall)

  I close the book and slowly stand up from the table. I walk to the window and look outside.

  `What's the matter?' asks Flora, as she stands up and follows me. `You look like you've seen a ghost.'

  `I can't do it. Not alone. Not even with your help, despite how you're immune to his instant death spells as a vampire. You read that stuff. You can see what it took. They were a dozen extremely powerful mages, and they couldn't stop Voi'Shek. They called Th'Mesh. What am I supposed to do? Th'Mesh is dead now. And Sark... I can't bind one like him to my service, so all I could do is offer him something in exchange for his assistance. But he would never help me, no matter what I offer...'

  `Who's Sark? Another Demon Lord?'

  `Sark de Haro. The Destroyer's greatest rival. But never mind that. Just worry about Voi'Shek, okay? The son of a bitch just so much as looks at me and I drop dead, unless I use all my magics to protect myself, which will leave me with pretty much nothing to attack with. How am I supposed to kill that motherfucker?'

  `We'll find a way. No-one is unbeatable.'

  `That's true. In fact, I know how to beat him. I just don't like it.'

  `Let me guess. You've got a plan?'

  `It's not much of a plan. It's something I don't wanna do. But this is the only way.'

  `Tell me.'

  `Mel'. She will help me kill Voi'Shek. She and her army.'

  `You can't be serious about that...' says Flora, shaking her head.

  `I am serious. I'm dead fucking serious... I don't like it either, but there is no other way. I would rather have a motherfucking buffalo with a serious case of diarrhea sit on my fucking ear and fill it up with its crap than get her help... But buffalo shit is useless against Voi'Shek, so...'

  `I can't believe you would ally yourself with that bitch!'

  I turn towards her and scream into her face.

  `I don't want to! But I don't have a fucking choice!'

  `There's got to be another way.'

  `There isn't. I have to do this. I will do this. No matter how much I hate the idea. I will not leave Danny Boy in this mess. I will do whatever I have to to get him out of there. Anything I have to. Anything...'

  `Who is this Danny Boy you speak of? You mentioned him when Ghaubel showed us Voi'Shek's lair.'

  `Daniel Keehmor. Perhaps like this, you know who he is.'

  `No. Well... maybe I've heard the name, but I don't remember who mentioned him and why.'

  `He is the Lord of a castle in Draconia, now called Keehmor Keep. He renamed it when he took over that place.'

  `Wait, I remember now. They say he's some powerful mage, someone who's thwarting the dragons' plans in Draconia. I always thought it was just some silly legend.'

  `It's no legend, but he's not really such a powerful mage. He does have certain powerful magic skills now, but magic is not his style. He rarely uses it. He's a fighter, and a damn good one. And the motherfucker is my best friend.'

  *

  She looks at me in surprise.

  `Now you might understand why I'm more than pissed off at Voi'Shek right now...'

  `How did you meet up with Daniel?' she asks after a brief silence.

  `Have you ever been to Ashkel?'

  `No, I don't think I have.'

  `It was one of the greatest cities in Delamar before the Great War, but it was destroyed during the invasion. It was rebuilt, of course, but into a mere shadow of its former greatness. It's still a huge settlement, but it's pretty damn pathetic. At least three centuries ago it sure was.

  There is a mage Guild there, and at the time I was an apprentice there. It's a fucking crappy Guild as evidenced by the fact that it's simply called by the unimaginative name of the Mage Guild of Ashkel. The head of the Guild in those days was a dumbass retard cocklicker dipshit assfucker peon called Harvey Matuak. Oh yeah, he was one Hell of a dumbass retard cocklicker dipshit assfucker peon alright... He was my motherfucking Master in the fucking Guild to top it all...

  Anyway, I don't want to brag about that springass faggot right now, or even the fucking mage Guild. That fucking asshole has no relevance, it's just that I always remember that fuckface and his fucked up Guild whenever I think back to the motherfucking city of Ashkel... You know, Ashkel itself was bad enough, but fuck that shit, I swear this cuntfaced bearfucker was the biggest annoying fucking piece of monkeyshit I ever had the misfortune of knowing.

  Yeah, as you can tell, I didn't like old Harvey Boy much...

  Well, anyway, I was saying that I was an apprentice in the fucking Mage Guild of fucking Ashkel. Danny Boy was in the Fighter's Guild of fucking Ashkel. That's how I met him.

  You see, I was an apprentice mage, wasn't exactly too good in melee fighting, I had no idea how to wield a sword, nor did I care to. So, if I had to go explore some dangerous place or another, I did the same thing any mage with a brain would have done. I went to the Fighter's Guild to hire someone for a bodyguard.

  The warriors that I hired somehow ended up dead along the way. The Guild didn't want to let me hire anybody after a while. Until one day, when I barged into their Guild Hall, totally pissed off that they couldn't find anyone for me for two straight weeks, there was a guy waiting there. A blond haired, handsome looking fellow. Just by looking at his face, you'd think he never wielded a sword in his life. But the rest of his body spoke volumes of how much that ain't true.

  He was full of strength, a big bad motherfucker who could surely lift a barrel full of rocks and toss it thirty feet away, and yet he looked like a guy who had the agility to move fairly quickly. He had this motherfuckingly big sword with him! I thought he was a mercenary, but it turned out he was with the Guild, and they told me I could hire him if I wanted to, but they didn't have anyone else.

  Well, I was impressed with him, so I didn't think for a second and hired him.

  We went on a little expedition, and when it was over, I had a tremendous amount of respect for him. He fought much better than those fucking imbeciles that got themselves killed in my company earlier. While he sometimes complained about a few things that happened, ultimately he had fun during our little exploration.

  We had some chat during the more peaceful moments of our little adventure. He told me of how he had come from a magician family and had desired to be a fighter, and how he had become a fighter. And a damn fucking good one, too. He wanted to be a warrior, his family wanted otherwise, and he still became a warrior. I could admire that in him. I could always admire it when someone had the strength of will and resolve to do what he wanted to instead of doing what others wanted him to do.'

  `So I see...'

  `Anyway, after that, we went on many other journeys together over time, and became the best of friends. In time, he even joined me when I first traveled to Kh'Tal. That's quite a story, maybe someday I'll tell you.'

  `What about his magical powers?'

  `Well, that's also quite a story, and pretty long. Let me just say that many years after we first met, we had a little adventure that spar
ked his interest in the Arcane Arts, at least a little. That's how he became a mage. But he never became a really powerful mage. For some reason, there are rumors about how he's a true master of destructive magics. But that's just a load of fucking bullshit. The guy can't even cast a simple fireball. But he never wanted to. He was more interested in enchantments.

  That's what he did, he learned how to enchant his weapons and armor and took the art of enchanting to an extremely high level. To top it all, the motherfucker learned the art of golemcraft as well.'

  `Golemcraft?'

  `Yes. The creation of golems. He in fact created a new kind of golems. Remember the view of his Keep you've seen in Ghaubel's lair? That you saw no golems? They were there. They just didn't appear as such. There were a few structures in the courtyard, some war machines, and some other stuff. Those were the golems. They are shapeshifters.'

  `What...? Golems that can change their shape?'

  `Yes. Danny Boy named them alter golems for some reason. They were his creation, so I didn't argue with him about why he didn't just call them shapeshifting golems, but whatever. And you know what else? While most of those golems are as mindless as any other golem, he somehow managed to create three which are sentient.'

  `Are you kidding?'

  `No. Those three are alive. They have a soul. Don't ask me how Danny Boy managed that. Whether the golems got those souls from the Afterlife or someplace else, I have no idea. But they are exceptionally dear to Danny Boy, so he made their bodies even stronger than the rest. Those three are nearly indestructible. They're also very loyal to him. Especially since due to the nature of the magics Danny Boy applied in the process of creating them, their lifeforce is tied to his. If he dies, they will die, too. He's been trying to break that link, but he hasn't been able to do it yet. But he hasn't given up. He wants those golems to live on after his death.'

  `He cares for them then.'

  `I guess. Maybe he thinks of them as his children. He never married, you know. Despite that he must have slept with at least a thousand women during his life. But he rarely slept twice with the same girl.