Chapter 21: The Arbiter's Maze Part One!
Argul charged over to the trio and unleashed a massive overhead cleave with his icy mace.
Morphology: Argul
Species: Ice King
Description: The Deposed King betrayed by the Lord of Bones. Controls the chilling ice of the Abyss that caused his attack to be imbued with said element. Since its weapons are off sub-zero temperatures, it can unleash attacks that will freeze enemies with every touch and has lingering damage.
Sometimes, he can unleashed an overhead smash that will need several seconds to wrench it out, take this chance to attack with full force.
Chris and Death managed to dodge past Argul's attack as Death unleashed three powerful flipsaw as Argul attempted to wrench out its hammer.
Chris delivered a huge uppercut, jumped up the air, and twirled her own body in a cyclone-like manner. The Lifebane rapidly slashed over Argul's flesh and armor like a paper shredder, contributing further to the amount of damage inflicted.
Just as the Deposed King wrenched its mace out, Death summoned three ghouls and the trio managed to flip backwards in time to dodge another overhead swing once more. The ghouls exploded instantly, breaking parts of Argul's thick, icy armor and injuring it heavily.
The giant, unfazed, unleashed a quick overhead smash once more but it barely missed Chris and Death. Death unleashed a powerful charged shockwave with his Slice of Death. Chris quickly used the surrounding ice around the room to form a huge, sharp javelin and shot through Argul's chest that had no armor.
The Deposed King roared, raised its mace, slammed it on the ground and started spinning towards Chris and Alito.
"Stay focused!" Death frowned.
Seconds before Argul reached them both Chris and Death dodged its attack sideways. The Deposed King then unleashed another overhead smash, which was stuck once more.
"Argul's vitality is already down to the last thirty-five percent! FULL CHARGE!" Chris shot out as the team clashed their swords upon Argul's body.
The weakened Argul stumbled as he did a quick overhead smash, which Chris managed to block it with its Project Tundra's Magnetic Ride System.
"Take it back!" Chris's eyes glowed as she unleashed a strong burst arcane shockwave towards the Deposed King. Taking the chance, Chris stepped forth and unleashed several flurries of quick slashes, leaping away for Death to make the finishing move.
As soon as Argul picked recovered his stance, Death transformed into the Reaper Form and unleashed several heavy slashes across the Deposed King's chest, causing the King to back down and fell on the floor. Its mace fell to the ground, shattered into a million pieces.
"Well...that happened. You're able to block Argul's ice attacks..." Death asked in amusement.
"Compared to your weapons that are of the Frost element, I am literally ice, using liquid Nitrogen upon my bloodstreams to support my cryokinetic control up to Absolute Zero. Does that help?" Chris wondered.
"Well, when you're strong, that's the price to pay." Death replied.
"Alito and I forsook my humanity without knowing the meaning of it, just as you forsook your kind to protect the balance. Yeah...you can say it's a huge price to pay, but we have nothing to lose. So that's net even." Chris sighed.
Chris, Alito, and Death dusted themselves off the ice crystals and approached the dying Deposed King. Argul's eyes strangely became translucent instead of opaque. His irises and pupils were light and dark blue.
"Death...and the two women...thank you. Thank you from releasing me from the madness..." Argul spoke softly in a rasped tone.
"Thane told me that you're not a bad king before your insanity...turns out that it is true after all. Odd, but not tyrannical." Death replied.
"The Bones...must be stopped..." Argul replied.
"We don't follow you, Argul. What happened? Who's the Bones?" Alito wondered.
"He...conspired...against I...Betrayed me...Makes me go mad at the thought of the Four..." Argul spoke.
"Take this..." Argul's chest glowed as ten scrolls shot out from it and levitated close to Chris, Alito, and Death.
"Tell...Arbiter...I sent you...He will fight you...as he thinks you might be intruders...Please..Don't kill him...You will know more there..." Argul spoke.
"The Soul Arbiter's Scroll? What is this, some sort of maze guide?" Death wondered.
"I will use...my last power to send you...there. Please...for the Dead Kingdom. And thank you...once more!" Argul released the last of his powers in a huge flash of white light as Chris, Death, and Alito soon stood outside another castle door.
"Where the heck are we?" Alito frowned.
"Argul told us to seek the Soul Arbiter, for he will tell us who drove the Deposed King mad." Chris frowned.
"What does that got to do with rescuing War?" Alito wondered.
"Maybe it has something to do with the Lord of the Bones." Death frowned.
"What?" Chris and Alito wondered.
"The Bones, get it? The Bones who usurped the Throne, only the Lord of the Bones could do it. It's not so much of rescuing War more so as it's rescuing the Balance from a wrong king." Death frowned.
"We will get nowhere if we stay here. Luckily, my scans told me that the scrolls revealed the proper path through the maze itself. Despite the monsters in there, I suspect it would take us no less than thirty minutes provided we co-operate well." Chris briefed.
"Well Argul certainly cuts our load from us." Death frowned.
After leaping planks over planks, plat form over platforms, wall ride after wall ride, and wall climb after wall climb, the trio made it into the Soul Arbiter's Maze's entrance.
Crates and skeletons were scattered throughout the room, there were two candles and a table with a mysterious looking book between the two candles. The book was filled with dirt and cobwebs, has a symbol of a Soul Arbiter - two serpent-like ears and a frowning skeleton.
Opening the book, the book read...
The Soul Arbiter's Maze lies ahead; Torture and Treasures lie together as equals.
There are 10 levels of the maze to search.
Creatures lie at every turn, be prepared before you enter.
Stairs are your friend; they lead deeper to the maze's core.
The Soul Arbiter awaits. Only his defeat will lead you to the truth.
Warning! Once entered, the only ways out are DEATH or VICTORY!
"Ready?" Death asked.
Chris and Alito took a deep breath and nodded. "If Thane needs to find out the truth behind the conspiracy besides releasing Argul from his madness, let's do it!"
The trio soon teleported into the maze via a Portal pool...
Level I: Declination
Hordes of skeleton troops rose from the ground, hissing away as they charged towards the trio.
"Smash 'em!" Chris shot out.
Within two minutes, the trio managed to decimate the entire skeleton army with smooth scythes move and Death's brilliant lure tactic via ghouls.
Four portals soon glowed.
"Where should we go?" Lifebane wondered.
"North, according to the first scroll." Death replied.
Another swarm of easy skeletons later...
"West." Death replied.
The trio soon reached a staircase spiralling further down into another portal.
"Stairs are your friend...Looks like we're on the right track, let's go!" Death shot out.
Level II: Apprehension
The room was a mixture of black and green. Candles decorated the room, as skeleton bones were aplenty throughout.
Six skeleton warriors wielding huge broadswords and two skeleton archers wielding fiery bows spawned out from the filthy ground.
Death summoned three ghouls without hesitation, luring the skeletons straight into the trio's trap. Chris, Alito, and Death sliced the skeleton as quickly as possible, only dodging a fiery arrow barely.
"That was anti-climatic..." Chris shrugged.
"When you're that strong, that's the price to pay, I guess. East." Death shrugged.
Upon the next room, three skeletal archers and four prowlers await.
Within seconds, they used the same tactic to defeat the mobs.
"South." Death replied.
Eight bulkier skeleton troops await.
"Screw them up..." Chris and Death blitzed through four skeletons each after the latter summoning three ghouls.
"North." Death pointed out.
As the team walked down the stairs...
"So this level calls itself Apprehension...and the first level is Declination...Why do I feel that's got to do with the rise and fall of an empire?" Like some sort of puzzle?" Chris thought.
Level III - Opposition
When they reached this level, Death summoned three ghouls to his left and proceeded to attack the Liches on the right. The Liches were spectral creatures with tattered clothes and bony, scrawny hands wielding a medium-size hammer.
A Lich, three Undead Stalkers, and bulkier Skeleton Guards with big maces awaits. Not that it would bother Death and co.
With several boomerang throws, flipsaws, and the clones slashing and exploding their way, the trio managed to clear them off.
"West." Death called.
Two Liches awaits, where they summoned three pale looking, broadsword-wielding skeletons each.
Death, being a tactical master, managed to anticipate it and quickly summoned three ghouls once more. The Ghouls attacked the left Lich, while Chris and Death tackled the right Lich, annihilating them.
"East."
Two Lich and a skeleton archer awaits.
Death summoned three ghouls to his left once again and managed to score a skeleton soldier with a powerful Teleport Slash.
The skeleton archer brought forth multiple fire arrows at once, however, when Chris sought to destroy it.
Chris's Project Tundra managed to pinpoint the arrows' location, calculate the arrows' distances, and decide on the fastest way to dodge past the arrows and destroy the archer.
Chris did a slide step, dashed past several arrows with sidesteps, unleashed several icicle towers to block the projectiles, and ploughed her Lifebane into the skeleton's head and did an overhead smash.
"North."
Four skeletal archer and four skeletal warriors with big spiky maces awaited.
Death summoned three ghouls once again and unleashed a powerful Harvestor Revenge - the boomerang scythe attack, before unleashing several teleport slashes throughout the battlefield and tearing their limbs apart. Chris unleashed summoned several big icicle and unleashed barrages of icicle javelins on the remaining skeleton warriors and archers.
"Alright...I have to admit, the amount of enemies are increasing..." Chris frowned.
"Keep it up, then. Good job." Death nodded firmly.
"Thanks." Chris and Lifebane replied.
The trio entered the north portal and reached another spiral of stairs.
"Argul is odd...but it doesn't mean he's bad. Sadly most people think that odd is bad." Chris sighed.
"Really?" Death wondered.
"Despite a peaceful human world, there are people who are stigmatized just because he or she has a huge obsession or weird hobbies. Some haters will outright chase down a certain group of people who loved things that the haters themselves hate." Chris explained.
"That's the way of life, I suppose. No matter how peaceful the world is, there will be groups of people who just love to burn the world around them." Death shrugged.
Level IV - Separation
Swarms of scarab beetles burrowed out of the ground, with a big scarab like monster.
Morphology: Scarab Hulk
Type: Undead Insect
Description A mutated and enlarged Scarab. Its wings' covers are made of a hard, mysterious compound that can block attacks completely. The Scarab can flap its wings to distract enemies with its broods, and can jump and unleash a heavy slam.
Summoning three ghouls once more, Death quickly whipped out his Redemption pistol and shot the scarabs dead. Chris punched the ground and several icicles erupted from the ground, piercing and tearing the remaining scarabs.
Death and Chris managed to dodge past the Scarab Hulk's stomp as Chris delivered a quick uppercut to keel the abomination. Death quickly sprinted towards the Scarab and delivered several flipsaws, ripping the Scarab apart.
"Small, but those swarms are a handful indeed." Chris huffed.
After entering the East gate, swarms of scarabs and two skeleton warriors awaited their arrival.
Death whipped out his Redemption once again shot down several scarabs. Chris threw the Lifebane like a shield boomerang around Death and the Icy Maiden. Death did the same as their scythe sliced past the tender bodies of the scarabs easily. The skeleton attempted to deliver an overhead smash, but Chris and Death managed to dodge past the skeleton's hammer swing.
"All brawl and no brains..." Death grunted.
Chris and Death's scythe attack froze the skeletons and ripped them apart.
"West." Death nodded.
Two skeleton guards and a Scarab Hulk awaited.
The ghouls made quick work of the guards while Death and Chris sliced the lured Scarab Hulk's underbelly apart.
"North." Death informed.
The same foes appeared which Chris, Lifebane, and Death successfully ripped apart within seconds.
"South." Death shot out.
A spiral staircase presented itself.
"It seems darker and darker as we go down...the arcane magic becomes stronger and stronger too." Chris frowned as her Project Tundra picked up high readings.
"We have to pick up our pace then. We're halfway there." Death frowned.