Chapter 2:
Fear. Fear is a word that many people have felt sometime throughout their lives. It's the only word that can describe a situation in many cases. I had felt fear many times, never to such a degree or never so much at one time.
Suddenly Morone sounded a deep laugh, fury and anger in his eyes as he leapt towards the minions. Baal sounded the dreaded sound of charging. I bellowed in a great fury as my sword danced from side to side, slashing and parrying. Glancing at Meghan, I saw that she had slaughtered ten or so of Baal's minions. I stole a quick smile at her and I returned back towards the blood lord who was firing fireballs at me. I sheathed my sword and popped out my Heart of the Oak flail, it had amazing stats on the item. It had 3 to all skills, 10 to dexterity, 40 to all resistances, and some other stuff. I switched my spells to combat skills and I casted blessed hammer at the lord. The first hammer killed the lord, my hammers did 17k damage while my zeal did 8k damage.
Norah suddenly jumped at Baal and jabbed her staff into Baal's right chest, suddenly Baal teleported and she was thrown fifty feet into the air. Morone tried to catch her in his arms, but a couple of the council members stepped in his way.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" He turned back to the council members, bloodlust and a cold ferociousness in his eyes as he massacred them.
I turned back and concentrated my hammers towards Baal; I hit him with a couple before his festering appendages spun around and knocked me onto my butt. Fear gripped my heart as I saw Baal extended his tentacles as he reached towards me. Suddenly Meghan teleported over next to me and parried the blow with her blades.
"Thanks Meghan." I said graciously.
"Any day sucker." She replied with a mischievous grin.
I saw Baal summon a festering appendage and I grabbed Meghan by her arm and tossed her down. I took a quick glance around and spotted Kyana and Kana.
"Hey! Kyana, summon a valkyrie here for me will ya? Kana summon me a fire golem."
My plan was to let the valkyrie and golem take the damage while I stood back hitting Baal with my hammers. I hit Baal over and over countless times. I saw the rest of them watching me with pure awe as my hammers weakened Baal over and over again. Suddenly Baal screamed and died, he shrunk into a pile of blue ashes.
"GODDAMIT!!!!!"
"Another Effigy, interesting, what is he trying to hide?" Kyana thought out loud.
I turned back to Morone; I saw he had completely mutilated the bodies of the council members. He turned back to face us and looked at us with the gravest of faces. He cast a town portal and walked back into the Pandemonium fortress. We all followed him through and arrived to the Fortress.
"Well looks like he evaded us once more." Kyana left and headed to Jamella.
"We'll get him, just a matter of when and at what price," Kyana said grieving over Norah.
"Oh we'll get him, once we do......" Morone whispered gravely.
"Well at least I got some runes from him."
They all looked at me like I was crazy; I turned around and headed for another barbarian I had spotted earlier. I negotiated a deal with him on a Doom berserker axe. It was a good one with 377 enhanced damage. I had traded him my Azurewrath and a jah and ber for the Doom. I walked back towards the group with my new weapon.
"Well I'm going back East to enhance my knowledge of Rathma. I'm trying to master poison and bone skills. Sorry guys, I'll be back in a flash."
"Well good-bye Kana," I said sorrily.
He left and took a waypoint back to the Kurast area. I walked over to Meghan and noticed that she wasn't being very talkative like she usually was.
"What's wrong Meghan?"
"It's just that we've killed two of Baal's effigys and it makes me wonder if we'll ever find him. I mean now Norah's dead, is it really worth it?"
"Of course it's worth it, if we didn't finish this quest wouldn't Norah's death be wasted? I'm willing to destroy Baal at no matter what the price it, if it's my life then so be it. If we do not destroy Baal now, he will have the chance to turn this world to an outpost of Hell once again."
"Even if the price is our relationship?"
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning what if one of us dies or he corrupts one of us and we totally change?"
"Well that's why people do things."
With that I left her confused and dazed. That night we had a great feast prepared by Tyrael. We ate and drank until our stomachs would accept no more. Within all of the festive cheer, only Morone remained sulking. Then there was Meghan whom was still not talking much. Suddenly a strong arm pulled me away from the table and thoughts evaporated into air. I turned around and saw Tyrael looking at me, I could feel his eyes piercing my soul and seeing right through me.
"You worry about her." He said to me.
"She's not herself lately, she's wondering if it's worth it."
"Are you having second thoughts?"
".......... No. I'm willing to pay any price to find Baal."
"You sound very confident."
"I am very confident."
"What if the price is Meghan and all your memories of her?"
The question had taken me off guard. I looked at him like he was joking but his eyes stared back at me, dead serious.
"You-you-you're joking right?"
"No joke."
"What do you mean?"
"I could take you to Baal right now, but the cost is the one that the strongest of the group's greatest love. Could you handle that?"
"Give me some time."
"You have till sunrise."
Through the eyes of Meghan
I watched him get pulled towards the side by Tyrael. Shit, this can't be good. Walking towards my room I pondered what they could be talking about. No doubt about Baal or some other stupid thing. I sat on my bed and looked at my Chaos Suwayyah, such a beautiful weapon. The sound of a rushing death packed into a metal blade on a wooden frame. I observed every edge of the blade and all the magical etchings on the blade. It had been a gift from Scott during the second year I had been with him. I poked my head outside and looked at the sun; it was late in the night already. Getting undressed, I slipped into bed. It took a while for me to fall asleep.
Late in the night I woke up and noticed Scott was right next to me and was staring at me with his eyes. He slipped his head under the covers and came out a few seconds later. We just laid there saying and doing nothing. After a while I had almost fallen asleep again, he sat up and got ready to leave. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back into bed. He fell on his back and landed near me on the bed.
I put my hands into his boxers and felt around. After I while I traced the outline of his boxers and I ripped them down.
"What bloody hell???!!!!"
I got on top of him as he crept inside me. An eruption of passion and lust had exploded around us, I felt a small electric charge within myself, tickling at my insides and making me jump. It was certainly a pleasant feeling, a feeling that I hadn't felt for a long time. He went in and out countless times, I felt an eruption inside of me and he stopped for a while, a few seconds later it started again. An electric charge ran from my leg, along my back, and all the way to my head. I moved down lower and grabbed it and licked it over and over and over again. He couldn't move as he was grabbed my something incredibly strong. Another eruption occurred and it was certainly a good feeling.
Through the eyes of Scott
The next morning we got dressed and there were smirks all over the Pandemonium Fortress.
"What's so funny?" I asked Kyana.
"Oh it's nothing, really." She exploded with laughter and tears streamed down her face.
"Very funny." I replied with a frown.
I wondered if last night was what everyone was laughing at. I noticed Morone and I walked up to him.
"What are you guys laughing about?"
"You."
"And Meghan." He told me with a chuckle.
"What about Meghan and me?"
"How's last night?"
"Christ, how did you guys find out?"
"Tyrael knows all and sees all, he told us."
Fury coursed through my blood as I sprinted towards Tyrael, he was walking through a portal back into Heaven and I wanted to catch him. I got there just a second late; he turned around and smirked at me. I stood there, raging at myself for being too slow. When suddenly Meghan appeared at my side and put an arm on me. She smiled and started packing up her stuff.
"Don't worry it'll die down soon, it never lasts long. You better back up, we're getting ready to set for the chaos sanctuary and they're expecting you to teleport there like usual."
"Well looks like I need to pack up. See you later."
It felt odd talking to her after last night. I gathered up my belongings and stuffed them into my pack. I strapped on my enigma and picked up my Hoto (Heart of the Oak) and got ready to teleport there. I trudged over to the waypoint and I saw that they were already assembled there waiting for my town portal. I shot a smile towards Meghan and I got ready to leave. I chose my destination, the River of Flame; I looked around at the familiar settings and sighed. I teleported all the way into the chaos sanctuary and walked right into the star. I fumbled around in my pack and found my tome of town portal and casted one. The other three guys came out through the portal as I waited on the side.
We walked towards Ventar's side and we were soon greeted by a party of doom knights. Morone immediately casted his warcries and I felt myself stronger, physically and spiritually. I started casting hammers once they were within fifteen feet of us; I knocked down a couple of them before they had advanced to me. I parried a few blows with my shield, but soon I was overwhelmed. Meghan immediately casted some traps and killed the remaining couple of them. I was slipping into unconsciousness when I saw she walked towards me. She put her mouth on mine and performed CPR. I immediately bolted straight up and picked up my shield and got ready for battle.
I put on conviction and Meghan trapped the rest of the minions in the sanctuary.
"Well that was easy," Morone and Kyana said in unison.
Meghan turned around and shot them a quick glare. Suddenly we felt the earth rumble and shake. At first I thought it was an earthquake, unaware of the true reason I got down on the ground. A deep roar pierced the air, I looked up and my jaw dropped. Uber Diablo, the most feared creature in our entire world. Kyana, Meghan, and Morone looked stunned, only the legendary Wanderer had seen this creature before.
I leapt towards him and unsheathed my sword and slashed his hide. To my surprise it had almost no effect. Behind me Meghan had laid a number of lightning sentries. They seared Uber's flesh next to me, as I zealed him, Kyana and Morone charged towards him, weapons drawn. Uber immediately casted an Armageddon, Kyana weaved in and out the falling meteorites when Morone was hit square on the chest with one. Kyana leapt backwards and casted a town portal. She grabbed him and took him through the portal.
A ring of fire exploded from Uber as I leapt towards the side into a gap between two fires. Meghan teleported next to me and whirlwinded Uber, he reared back in pain and spun around to see where she had stopped. He immediately focused his energies and fired an electric fire that hit her on her legs. I stopped slashing him and sent a few holy bolts towards her; she immediately healed and got back onto her feet.
Kyana and Morone had come back through town portal. Kyana's valkyrie and Meghan's shadow master worked together and sliced Uber's forearm. Morone berserked Uber from the side and sliced his knee. He bellowed in pain and threw his head back; I leapt onto his head and attempted to stab his head. To my dismay, my sword just glanced off, and then I remembered that I was only using a Frostwind and was no where near as powerful as Azurewrath. After a while, standing on his head with him trying to thrash me off, I remembered the Doom I had bought. I took it out and swung with all my might, the mighty beast beneath me crippled down and screamed in pain. We all watched from a distance as the creature died.
I walked over to the corpse and picked up the Annihilus charm. I gave it to Meghan and she thanked me with a grim nod of her head. The others had no objections considering I had killed him. They all stared at me like I was crazy to do something like that.
"Well someone has to kill him right? If no one else will do it, I might as well do it."
I casted a town portal and headed back to the Pandemonium Fortress, to my great and pleasant surprise, Kana was standing there waiting for me. He smiled at me and embraced me within his arms like a brother.
"Seems like you guys did pretty well with Uber without me eh?"
"How do you know?"
"Tyrael knows and sees all, and how was it with Meghan?"
"Christ, he even told you that?"
"Of course."
We walked off towards my room; he started a conversation about Meghan to my embarrassment.
"Well how was it?"
"Why do you want to know that?"
"Let's see, because we've been friends the longest, I'm older than you, and I've saved your ass countless times. How's that?"
"Fine whatever."
"Tell me, I want to know all the details."
"It was sort of awkward one might say. Certainly pleasant though, a feeling I haven't had for a while."
"Funny, real funny."
"Huh?"
"Oh it's no matter."
I left the room and headed my way outside into the brisk sun. I met up with the rest of the guys who were in a group. I decided to just listen and shut up. They were trying to decide where to go next, Kyana had suggested that we go to Andariel's room and Morone argued that we should check out Duriel first. I noticed that Kana and Meghan kept quiet in this conversation. In the end, Kyana turned out as the victor and we decided that we would head towards Andariel.
We picked up our stuff and headed towards the waypoint. I said a couple of quick farewells with Jamella and Halbu. I cantered over back towards the waypoint and I chose the Rogue Encampment as my destination.
Upon arriving in the Rogue Encampment I walked towards Akara, she turned around and smiled at me.
"It's good to see you again Akara, it's been a while hasn't it?"
"Yes it has, it does me good to see you again. What brings you back to our humble little encampment? I thought you were on your great journey to find Baal."
"Yes we are, it has lead us right to the encampment, he's escaped our grasp several times now. We're looking for him all over the place, we had agreed upon looking in the catacombs if you have no objections."
Her expression immediately changed, apprehensive, worried even.
"Of course, of course, go where you wish."
"Thank you, I'll be off to find a room now, thank you again."
I trudged over to the room where I had last slept when I was staying within these very walls. As I entered the room, I noticed it hadn't changed much since my last visit. I sat myself down onto familiar cushion on the seat. I spent a couple minutes looking at my surroundings. I was interrupted by Kashya stepping into my room; she stopped at the table and looked at me. She gave a small sigh and took a few more steps towards me.
"Look at you now, a hero with so many people. I still remember the day you stepped into the encampment; you were just a fresh explorer right out of the Church of Zakarum."
"Well that was a long time ago. I was young then."
"You still are....."
"Still older than I was, I was intemperate in my youth."
"Either way, I have a job for you; I'll pay you ten high runes upon completion."
I bolted upright, TEN high runes for one job, must be one hell of a job.
"The job is what?"
"We've had something killing all our soldiers up around the Tamoe Highland. I want you to locate the monster and slay it."
"Sounds easy enough."
"I'm not too sure, I've sent twenty of our rogues and only two came back alive. From their descriptions the monster looks greenish. Not any of the known unique monsters around here. Must be something new Baal has created."
"Heh, new creature eh? Now I'm not too sure."
"Didn't think you would be."
"I'll take it though, ten runes, Christ, you must be real desperate eh?"
I followed her out of my room and I located the others. I told them about the job and they were stunned, we had agreed that we would split the ten runes evenly.
"So Andariel's place first or this monster first," I asked them.
"I say monster first," Meghan replied with a frown.
The others agreed anonymously that we destroy this monster first. It was agreed that we would set out next morning at the crack of dawn. We all headed back towards our own rooms and said nothing more to one another.
I got washed up and slipped into bed. Sometime around midnight I heard some disturbances outside. Strapping on a few pieces of armor and grabbing my sword and shield I walked outside. I saw a couple of fallen inside around the fire. I charged towards them and slaughtered one immediately with one strike of my sword. The other ran off like I knew it would. I walked over to the little red creature and bent down, its eyes showed fear of death. I grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and took it outside. It looked at me surprisingly; I waved a hand towards the Blood Moor. I returned to my bed and I found Meghan in it. I slipped in on the side of her.
"Why were you outside?"
"A couple of fallen had gotten inside the encampment, took care of them."
"Ah of course, always the hero eh?"
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning nothing, you should watch out for yourself more. Someday you'll get yourself hurt by these nighttime excursions."
"If I didn't know better, I think you're jealous."
"Of what?"
"Akara of course, you're aware of her feelings."
"Her? She's not competition."
I laughed a bit and I settled down and looked at her deep brown eyes and black hair. God she was so beautiful, her exotic eyes and flowing hair, her lithe body, every curve, every part, everything was perfected.
"What are you thinking about," she asked me with a childish grin.
"About how beautiful and wonderful you are."
"Liar," she pouted.
"Am not, I never lie."
"Hahahahaha good one."
"Well maybe not, but I'd never lie to you."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I'm sure."
She grabbed me and put a french hard on me. Once again that highly charged atmosphere surrounded us again. I pulled down her panties and I looked down under the sheets and I felt her spasm a few times. I came back up a few seconds later and saw her gorgeous brown eyes staring at me with an incredible degree of love. I slowly entered her, after a few seconds we picked up the pace. Suddenly I felt her pause for a few seconds as I exploded inside. I could hear her moan as she went faster and faster. I exploded again and she moaned over and over again. At last she exploded and opened her eyes, they were different now. Instead of the beautiful brown eyes, they were full with lust and fervor. She went faster and faster and faster, she had finally stopped what felt like two or three hours later. She pulled on her clothes and headed back to her room. I thought about what we had done this night, I wondered if it was the right thing. I put it off for later pondering.
The next morning we set off and took the waypoint to the Black Marsh. I looked around and popped out my compass. Behind me was Kyana and Morone who were looking over my shoulder, Meghan and Kana were talking in the rear. After a few minutes of jogging, we ran into a camp of black ones. Kyana fired a lightning fury and forty of them fell immediately. Meghan's traps did the rest; Morone leapt ahead and called us over. What I saw rocked my whole mind. Seven paladins lay dead; all were a hypoxic green, their flesh turned into jelly, and an orange fluid running from their noses caked grotesquely over their chins. I took off my Crown of Ages and bent down onto one knee. I quickly said a prayer and picked up the pace towards the Highlands. We came across a small opening along the walls, I walked through it first and I knew we had reached the Highlands.
"Take out your weapons and keep an open eye."
"What are we looking for again?"
"A green monster, something new, I'm guessing another form of Hephasto would be what this creature would resemble."
"Gotcha."
After a few minutes of hiking along the trail, I spotted something, a green arm and a hammer crashing down.
"Over there," I yelled.
I ran over towards where I had last seen the arm and I stopped dead in my tracks, my blood ran stone cold. I was gazing at a twenty foot tall green beast. Its expression clearly said I shall kill you. It charged at me and I immediately noticed its attributes, I was stunned, it was enchanted with all the most powerful enchantments. It had extra strong, extra fast, spectral hit, cold enchanted, lightning immune, cursed, magic resistant, cold immune, aura enchanted, and mana burn. I quickly summoned a few hammers; surprisingly it only did a little damage. Morone casted his warcries and I felt much more tenacious. Behind me Meghan executed a flawless dragon flight and hit the beast square on the head. Her face flashed fear for a second, no more, then she whirlwinded through the beast and came out the other side. Kana went up to it and casted a poison nova, as the creature's life was drained, Morone and Kyana charged and sliced off one arm. I just realized I had been stationary for more than a minute, just as I was going to roll to one side, the creature's hammer came crashing down onto my chest. I felt the wind get knocked out of me; I crept back onto my feet and saw the others were doing a great job of keeping the creature off me. I teleported next to it and unsheathed my Doom, I slashed its leg off, as it fell towards the ground, another clean sweep, the head came rolling off.
"Well looks like the job is done. How are you Scott," Meghan inquired with concern written all over her face.
"I'm alright, good job you guys."
"Well we're all in this right?"
"Yes, we're all together in this fight."
"Good job Morone, Kyana, excellent job."
"Thank you," they said in unison.
"Well let's get this thing packed up and bring it back to Kashya."
"I can carry it," Morone said.
"Okay Morone, Kana can u get a skeleton to raise it onto his back?"
"Of course."
He went to the side and slaughtered a couple of fallen and summoned two skeletons from the corpses. They carried the body and the head of the beast and set it upon Morone's shoulders. They immediately crumbled from the effort of lifting the heavy body.
I casted a town portal and Morone walked through it. He dumped the body and head at Kashya's feet. She looked up at us with increased respect in her eyes.
"Thank you, that was faster than I thought it would be but that's only better isn't it guys?"
"Yes I guess so," Kana replied.
She handed us our runes and she walked towards Akara. We split the runes like we agreed we would.
The next morning we restocked on everything as we got ready to leave for Andariel's chambers in the catacombs of the monastery. Like usual, I trudged over towards the waypoint and I selected catacombs level 2. I teleported all the way to level four, evading all monsters in the way. I sent a town portal back to the others, as I watched them come through the portal; I noticed that something was missing.
"What the hell???"
"I've no idea," answered Kana shaking his head.
"There should be monsters here by now, even with Andariel dead," Morone said.
"Well its empty now." Kyana walked over to a barrel and kicked it open. A skeleton emerged and she knocked it dead with one jab of her javelin.
"This is odd," Meghan articulated.
"Let's go to the next room," said a very confused Kana.
The next chamber within the catacombs level four was just as the same as the one that we had been: deserted. There were absolutely no signs of life in the whole chamber.
"Look around you guys, it could be a trap," I commanded.
I looked around, kicking all the barrels; nothing was here besides a skeleton here and there in a barrel. Suddenly I heard noises from behind the door to the third room.
"Shut up you guys, I think I hear something."
They looked at me like I was crazy. I took a few steps towards the door; I pressed my ear on the freezing wooden door. Indeed, there were voices behind the doors.
"There's someone behind these doors."
"Are you sure?"
"Damn straight," I replied to Meghan.
"Well let's look inside," Kyana said.
"On three okay?" Morone pressed himself onto the door.
"1."
"2."
"3."
We bashed down the door and I nearly fainted, my wildest dream had just become true.......