Chapter 4: Darkness
The air was awfully chilly for an autumn morning. The six companions stood outside the closed gate, waiting for the Head Priestess's permission to enter. Two fierce lord knights stood outside, guarding the entrance from unwanted intruders. A number of foolish parties have already tried to sneak past the two in their search for an adventure that could bragged about for the rest of their lives. Yet none of them had even considered the possibility of it turning into something more than they had bargained for. So yes, Torias believed it was wise of Ciara to station the two lord knights here.
Garland exchanged friendly greetings with them, as they bid him the best of luck for the journey he had before him. He broke into a sheepish grin, and told him if he wanted luck, he wouldn't have signed up for this.
Torias couldn't help but smile at his friend's reply. It was typical of him to say something like this at a crucial moment. Garland never failed to stand out.
"If worst comes to worst, you can always have my rosary." Vianna suggested comically. Her face was full of amusement as she tugged on the chain around her neck, revealing the top part of the cross.
"In the likely situation that we do come across such a desperate time, then I bid you, my dear lady to hold onto it. I think I would rather you to have the luck than myself." Such a flattering line would have turned an ordinary lady into a dark shade of scarlet; however in this case, all it did was broaden the high priestess's smile.
"You're clever with you words. I see you have courted many ladies in the past, my dear lord knight." She replied in a similar tone to the one he had previously used, which was light and full of amusement. "But let me assure you, I won't be as easy as many of your previous conquests."
"Oh, is that so?" Garland challenged.
Torias buried his face in his outstretched palm in exasperation. This happened too often for comfort. Garland was a great knight. He could easily hold his ground in battle. In addition to that he was also handsome and courageous. To top it all off, he had a greatly personality to match everything. The ladies absolutely adored him.
Oblivious to Torias's annoyance, Garland continued. "Give me two weeks. I guarantee you'll be madly in love with me by then."
The brown haired priestess laughed good-humouredly. "I think I know myself well enough to say that's very unlikely to happen."
"How can you be so sure?" The lord knight pressed further, arching a brow in question, "unless you already have someone else in mind…" He hinted.
Vianna's eyes flashed in alarm for a split second before returning to their natural state. To her relief, only the sharp-eyed sniper noticed. "What makes you say that?" She jested in a sweet voice, attempting to cover up her slip.
"No lady could speak with such confidence to a handsome man such as myself, unless her heart is already taken." Even Garland couldn't say such a cheesy line with a straight face. He cracked a broad grin.
Mythel, who had been quiet all this time, broke into fits of laughter. "Garland, you never fail to amaze me. To say something like that at a time like this… I swear you should have been a bard instead."
Garland was offended by Mythel's remark. "A bard! That's absurd! What kind of a man in their healthy state of mind can tell a chivalrous man like me to become a bard!"
"I agree with Garland," said Radina, the beautiful sniper. Her sleek and proud falcon was firmly perched on her left shoulder. At the sound of its owner's voice, it turned its head left and right in surprise. "For one thing, Garland would make a terrible bard. Have you ever seen him shoot an arrow?" Without waiting for an answer, she continued. "Trust me, you don't want to. It's the most pitiful sight I have ever seen."
"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad. I only broke… two… of your bows in the process." The lord knight lightly nudged the sniper, who chuckled in return.
Now Torias understood what Garland and Vianna were trying to do—they were lightening the mood. The intense atmosphere was now replaced with one of absolute silliness. Not only had they raised their own spirits, but those of the others as well.
"Help me out here, Habrador." He turned to the high wizard for support. "They're all picking on me."
The brown haired man turned to his companion and laughed. "I'm going to agree with Mythel on this one. In fact, I don't think it's too late to consider changing your class. I'm certain with a little time, even you can learn to shoot an arrow."
"This is so unfair!" Garland whined. "You're all against me! Torias… I don't suppose you're going to say anything positive on my behalf."
"You guessed right." The lord knight's head dropped comically in disappointment. Torias gave his friend a sympathetic pat on the back as they all broke into fits of laughter.
The air inside the Churchyard was thick and heavy, almost to the point of suffocation. With each advancing step, they felt like they were marching closer to death. To his front, he saw Vianna shiver slightly as she wrapped her arms around herself for comfort. Torias felt guilty for dragging her into this again. It must have been a horrible experience the first time. To watch her party members ripped into pieces as she barely escaped with her own life. To agree to come back here must have taken her a great amount of courage and determination.
Garland led the party forward. Instead of bringing his pecopeco like he originally planned on doing, he decided it was more convenient to travel on foot, since the Churchyard was narrow in some areas. The lord knight stopped moving as he turned back to address Vianna in a hushed voice.
"Where did you say the monsters were again?"
The light brown haired girl paused momentarily in an attempt to recall something she would rather forget. She gently took the map from Garland's hand and pointed to the southeast corner of the fragile paper. "This is where I last saw Osiris and Baphomet." She swallowed nervously. "We found Dark Lord, here." She pointed to the center. "I accidentally stumbled across Turtle General and Eddga when I was trying to teleport out. I was hurt pretty badly then, and I was panicking. I apologize for not being able to recall the exact spots of our encounter. Also, it's important for you to know that I haven't had the chance to explore the whole map. There might be more boss monsters here than I previously mentioned."
At the sound of Vianna's words, their hearts grew even heavier. The situation just went from bad to worse.
"We also have to take into account that they could have moved since the last time Vianna was in here." Torias added. He knew they didn't need any more bad news, but this had to be said. "We're pretty far into the churchyard already. We could meet any one of them at any moment now. We should start advancing from here with care."
Everybody nodded their heads in agreement. "What's the battle plan, Torias?" Garland inquired, giving his friend and guild leader a sideway glance.
"I've had a lot of time to think about this. First off, when we encounter a boss monster, we need to get it by itself. It's suicide to take on more than one of them at a time. I think the best idea would be to have Mythel and Garland distract the monster, while Habrador and Radina do damage from a distance. Make sure your attacks are the correct elements. You also need to keep in mind that the minions need to be taken care of first. During that time, Vianna and I will do our best to keep all of you healed and buffed. In any case, make sure to protect our wizard so he can finish casting his spells."
All of them knew the importance of having a wizard on the team. They could freeze the enemy do mass damage in a matter of seconds. "I suggest you quagmire and storm gust the first chance you get. It'll make Mythel's and Garland's job a lot easier."
Habrador nodded in response. "When I cast storm gust, make sure you get out of the way as quickly as you can. I don't want to freeze any of you by accident."
"Don't worry, I'm quick on my feet," Garland reassured.
The six companions marched forward—for how long, Torias didn't know. But he assumed at least 7 hours had passed since they had entered this cursed place. All of them were quickly growing weary of walking. More than that, they were starting to feel the unmistakable sensation of hunger.
"I think we should call it a day. There's no point in traveling on if we're not in the shape to be fighting. The most important thing we can do at the moment is to take care of ourselves." Torias informed the others as he quickly searched through their supply bags. "We don't have a lot of food on us since bringing too much would be a burden to carry. For the sake of thinking ahead, we need to eat sparingly."
"Can we afford to start a fire?" Radina inquired, her voice full of hope. This place was unpleasantly cold. It would be nice to be warm for a change, that's for sure.
The high priest looked to his companions for an answer. Mythel and Garland seemed to be fine, which was not very surprising since they both had thick layers of armor. Vianna, Radina, and Habrador on the other hand seemed to be in need of a little warming up. Torias had to admit; the thought of having a fire was awfully nice. "I guess we can risk it. Otherwise, some of us would freeze to death overnight."
With his words, everybody quickly got to work. Garland and Radina went to gather firewood as Torias sorted the rations.
"What's on the menu tonight, Torias?" the paladin asked casually as he dropped his pack onto the floor and took a seat nearby.
"Oh, nothing fancy. We have the choice of either roasting meat, or eating stale bread with honey…" Torias wasn't picky about food, but even to him, this didn't seem very appetizing.
"I think… I'll take the meat." Mythel responded hesitantly. "To be honest, I'm not sure what I was expecting. But I should've known, right?"
"Not necessarily." Vianna answered from her spot on the floor. She had her legs neatly folded under her body as she leaned against the wall for support. If it was possible for someone to look graceful while sitting on dust-covered cement, she definitely was. "Not many people would have thought about what they're going to eat if they're planning on fight for their lives against a mob of boss monsters."
"Well said," the high wizard nodded in agreement. "It never occurred to me either that we would be having stale bread every meal until Torias mentioned it a moment ago."
The high priest sighed. "Even I didn't see this coming. One of Ciara's priests packed our bags for us. If I knew this was going to happen, I would have enjoyed my last meal a lot more than I actually did."
"Oh, come on, Torias. You're supposed to be cheering us up, not dragging down our spirits even more!" Vianna nudged him playfully. "You're such a spoil sport."
The brown haired man laughed at that. "You sound exactly like Garland. He used to say that a lot back in our first class days."
"What about me?" The lord knight raised a brow in question. Nobody had noticed his return. The armor-clad man dropped an armful of firewood on the ground.
"Torias was just telling me how much we have in common." Vianna teased.
"Well, well, well. I never thought Torias would be playing matchmaker." Garland rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Note to self: today just might be the end of the world."
"… That… might not be such a great thing to say, Gar." Mythel told him wearily. "For all we know, you could have just jinxed us."
"You can't possibly believe that stuff," said the lord knight in surprise. "I would have expected that of Torias… or even Radina, but… you?"
The paladin shrugged. "It never hurts to be cautious."
"Let's save this discussion for later, shall we?" Torias cut in. Both Radina and Garland had returned. A large pile of firewood sat on the ground between them. "Habrador, do you mind lighting the fire for us? I think a small fireball would do."
With a little effort, the high wizard got up from his comfortable spot on the floor—his right hand firmly clutching the length of his staff. His eyes narrowed in concentration as he chanted some spells under his breath. A ball of fire appeared overhead and landed on the pile of wood. The small ember spread until it was the size of a campfire. As if on response, everybody drew in closer. Radina held her hands out as the warmth of the fire slowly returned feelings to her numb fingers.
Garland laughed as he pierced through the meat with the stick he held in his other hand. He passed it to Torias to roast over the fire while he worked on another. Soon everybody had a small branch in their hands, which they rotated occasionally to make sure the meat was cooked evenly throughout.
"I miss the sun…" said Radina out of the blue.
"I miss my bed," said the laughing priestess.
"And probably the one who shares it." Garland gave her a wink. In response, Vianna hit him playfully on the arm. "You know that's true!" he teased.
But Garland didn't know how true his words really were.
The lustrous fire burned until only a small ember was left, barely kept going by the few remaining branches nearby. The light brown haired girl drew her blanket tighter around her slim frame, as she gazed absentmindedly into the warm glow, her mind clearly elsewhere. Everybody had gone to sleep hours before, but the high priestess remained awake. She had volunteered to stand guard for the first half of the night. Nobody would have suspected her of having an ulterior motive. After all, who could suspect a beautiful and kind priestess of being nothing but pure hearted? Vianna touched the thinner chain around her neck and felt for the metallic loop at its end. The silver ring was long worn out and scratches were evident on its surface, yet it held more sentiment to her than the rare ancient rosary around her neck. They were both presents from Kaden, but the ring resembled more of the happier times they had shared in the past.
Her face was troubled as her hold on the chain grew tighter. She had to do this. This was for him. Yet…even with that in mind, she couldn't shake off the nagging doubt in the back of her head. She glanced at the sleeping figures around her. It was a huge price to pay for one measly castle…
Just then she heard the sound of a pebble landing on the cement floor. She knew it was time. She gently uncurled herself from the blanket, as she made her way toward the source of the sound. The tall figure of an assassin cross stood there, waiting. "Well?" He raised a brow in question. "Are we going according to plan?"
She didn't know how to answer. It was too late to go back. Everything was already in motion. "Yeah, we should be there by noon tomorrow. Dopple and Drake could take care of them."
He smiled, as he gave her a small peck on the cheek. "Just make sure you get out of there in time. If anything goes wrong, cast safety wall on yourself. When I see the pink light, I'll come out to the open."
Two other figures stood a distance away, waiting for their guild leader's return. They didn't dare invading the assassin cross's and the high priestess's privacy. To put it bluntly, the guild leader of Forsaken wasn't known for his kindness or patience.
The stalker had his eyes firmly fixed on the delicate features of the brown haired girl. Even within the guild, only few had seen her face without the kitsune mask, which made her the perfect candidate for this plan. Hell, this plan must be important if Kaden was willing to risk sending Chidori, the Forsaken Angel.