Diablo II: The Epic Behind the Game
Disclaimer: I do not own Diablo II, I, or anything else that blizzard created. In fact, some of my dialogue comes directly from the game,
For accuracy purposes only.
The Characters however are of my own design, directly from my chars on Battle.net
Oh, dear I never thought that publishing something online could be so addictive, AHHHHH, I can't stop!!! Lucky for me. Well, I suppose that this is what so many people like to call a 'hobby', or in my case, 'obsession'.
Maybe, I don't know. I was never very good when it came to school vocabulary.
There is a warning with this chapter; it is purely for catching up on histories and story-line things. There is precious little combat here, which I plan to make up for next chapter. So just read for the story and plz try to bear with me.
Ok, enough of my babbling... Enjoy.
About fifteen minutes later, in a nearby cavern.
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"Tell me what happened, Elric." Natalie said, speaking for the first time since Elric had told her of the fate of Atisar.
Cathim and Tozam sat on the opposite side of the small camp-fire as Elric took in a deep breath. The last few minutes of silence following the complete ion of setting up the tent and a campfire in the mouth of the cave had been awkward time. Cathim and Tozam sat quietly clearly concerned about their present well-being and that of their apparently shocked friend. Seeing as how they had had little to say to the black half-demon who had led them to this cave, they merely waited for someone, preferably Natthilea, (or Natalie, which Elric had been calling her since he first realized who she was) to start some sort of conversation.
The chosen topic was not what Cathim really wanted to know, but he supposed that he could probably ask his own questions in time, assuming that the story of Atisar did not take all night.
"What's Atisar?" Tozam asked Elric, apparently glad that someone had spoken before him.
Elric, sitting on his haunches once again (Cathim was beginning to see Elric as some sort of wolf or dog, judging by the way his body kept ending up in these positions) looked up to the curious barbarian with a sad look in his bright green eyes.
"Atisar is, or was, our home village." Elric told him, a far off, storyteller quality in his voice. "It was a small, quiet farming hamlet about a weeks travel from the port city of Kingsport on the edge of The Great Ocean. It was so small that it didn't show up on most maps. Population never reached more than a couple of hundred at the most."
"Will you stop referring to our home in the past tense and tell me what happened, Elric!" Natalie scowled
It was obvious that she did not want to be kept from the news.
"Well, alright. I suppose you have a right to know." Elric said in a sad tone as he stretched his body out and lay down on his legs, (Once again reminding Cathim and Tozam of an obedient dog).
He gazed into the fire for a moment before closing his eyes and beginning his tale.
"It all began about a year ago, when word reached Atisar about a sudden tax spike. Apparently, Leoric, The newly re-titled Black King, was preparing for a war with the kingdom of Westmarch and wanted his loyal subjects to pay the cost. A royal notice was sent to every village in Khanduras, signed by the King's highest advisor, the Archbishop Lazarus..." Elric's voice was riddled with disgust at the mention of the Archbishop and, for just a moment; his eyes lost their green, human appearance and turned flame red.
Quickly, he shook his head and his eyes returned to green.
"Atisar was, unfortunately, no exception. The decree was brought by a band of overly loyal paladins who served the Archbishop without question. It was unbelievable."
"The paladins?" Tozam asked, trying his best to keep up with the story.
"No, you fool! The price of the taxes." Elric snapped, literally bringing his jaws together with the said 'snap'.
"It was well over 250,000 gold pieces per family in the village."
"250,000?!" Natalie reeled in shock of such a number. "Father could barley pay 25 gold pieces per month to pay the taxes back when I was still living there!"
"Nobody in the village could pay such outrageous taxes, Natalie. Even if the entire town pooled together every coin we had, we could hardly make half of that amount. So, anyways, the paladins left saying that we had two months to come up with the money or we would be removed from the protection of the crown."
He sighed.
"And...?" Natalie asked, afraid of the answer.
"And I'm sure you remember how stubborn Father was on those matters." Elric said dispersedly. "He rallied the people together, stirred them up and fanned the flames of anger that they were all feeling. He said, "We owe nothing to the Black King Leoric or his Zakarum dogs'. And he urged the people to stand up to the Paladins when they returned. And they did. When the troops arrived to collect, they were greeted by over seventy men armed with rusted swords, picks, and wood axes."
"Oh, By the Ancients" Tozam slumped back, devouring every shred of Elric's story, "Farmers? Against well armed, seasoned troops?"
"But... But, surely you were there to help them, Elric. I mean, the people of the village had grown to love and depend on you so much."
"Father told me to stay out of it. He said that I would only make the Paladins think the whole of Atisar was allied with the darkness. So, instead he charged me with looking after the women and children down in the town sanctuary. He stood out in front of them with your brothers Coris and Marcus and told the solders that neither he nor any other village would pay such a ridiculous tax. That they would only serve King Leoric if he would set a fair price on his aid."
The air hung still and the only movement in the small camp was the sound of fire, snapping and crackling as it ate through the tinder which was fed to it by Tozam.
"And..." Elric hesitated, "And then.... They just left."
"What?" Tozam was taken by surprise and Natalie let out a sigh of relief.
Too soon, as Cathim was sure by Elric's still depressed demeanor.
"They just left?" Cathim questioned, defiantly still suspicious of what Elric was saying.
"They turned their horses around and galloped away without a word." Elric confirmed, and chuckled weakly. "We... we thought that we had won something, that we had beaten the system without any blood being shed at all. 'Oh yeah' we were saying, 'They know better than to mess with family men who have children to protect, after all, they follow the light just as we.' We, we had a big party that night. All the children stayed up late and played while the men lit a huge bonfire and told stories for half the night."
He sucked a breath through his razor sharp teeth and shook his head in a regretful disgust.
"We were such fools!"
He continued,
"The next day went on like any other, Father worked in the fields with Marcus and Coris while I went off to Old Dominic's house for lessons in the arts..."
"Old Dominic? Who the hell is Old Dominic?" Natalie asked.
"Oh, right. Old Man Dominic moved in after you left with that Zann Esu recruitment woman. Dominic was a sage who claimed to come from Kurast. He said that he came to study his own branch of magic away from the Zakarum Travical. After a few months, Father found out that his specialty was Demonology."
"Demonology? Isn't the study of demonology outlawed by the Zakarum church?" Cathim asked.
"So is raising a demon in your home along with your children I'm sure." Elric said, sarcastically in answer to the Priest of Rathma. "In time, Dominic found out about me through one of the towns children, Talsimm if I remember right."
"That Talsimm never did have any sense." Natalie told Tozam and Cathim, who only nodded as if they had some idea of whom she was talking about.
"And Dominic flipped over the idea of being able to study a live demon. He thought that i was some sort of captive and was more intrigued than ever when he saw me and claimed that he had never seen anything like me before. He offered Father 400 gold pieces for me. Of course, he refused, saying that I was not just some beast but that I was apart of the family and I had my own right to learn as any of his children."
"Wait," Cathim said, "You were almost sold for 400 gold pieces?"
"I was only six and the size of a cat." Elric explained in a flat tone to the necromancer, "I hadn't learned how to fight, shape shift, spit acid, cast spells, or color shift yet so I was pretty much just a little demon that knew how to read common language and talk."
He continued on where he had been so rudely interrupted,
"Anyways, everything was going on as it normally did. Until that night." He suddenly stopped and sounded very sad again, "It happened during a town meeting, while the children were out in the street. I was out playing with them when I first hear Thomas, one of the town's guardsmen, scream off in the distance. Within just a few moments, they were in the gates and started to ravage every thing in sight."
"What were they?"
Once again, Elric hesitated.
"Fallen One's, hundreds upon hundreds of them. Oh, God... It was less then a year ago now. I had one of the kid's raise the alarm while I tried to hurry the others to the sanctuary. It was before i learned how to fight... how to hunt..." He paused, "How to kill... I got the kids away while the town's folk came out of the great hall and took up any arms at hand to fight. I remember how I saw Father with his old sword and Old Man Dominic throwing fireballs and frozen orbs at the Fallen Ones."
Elric laid his head on the ground, closed his eyes, and shook with anger as old wounds were cut open in his mind and the salt was poured into them by having to retell what he saw.
"I fought, tooth and claw, I fought. But I didn't have any experience battling real demons. The closest I ever got was with the illusions Dominic conjured to see how I'd react. I don't remember how exactly, but I was knocked unconscious."
Elric opened his eyes to reveal that they had once again glowed fire red.
"And the last thing I remember seeing before I passed out was the band of paladins on horseback, watching the massacre from the outer gate of the village and not lifting A DAMN FINGER TO HELP!!!!" The last words came out in more of a growl than words as Elric pounded his clawed fist into the ground.
It took Elric to collect himself, which was good because Natalie, who had backed away when he had become violent for that moment and retreated to sit next to Tozam, was also devastated. The half-demon had just told her about the destruction of the place where she was born. Where she had played as a child and where she and her brothers had first seen a curious baby demon come out to see their games. It couldn't be true, could it?
"When I finally came to, I was in demon form and everything was gone. Burned to the ground. I... i couldn't even tell were two piles of bones met or whether it was only one person or several children who laid in front of were the sanctuary used to stand. I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find any other survivors."
Silence overtook them all once again for several long moments, interrupted only by the crackling of the fire and the low, steady sounds of Natalie's sobbing.
Cathim finally broke it.
"And how, pray tell, did you survive?" He asked, not at all moved
"If I knew, I would tell you Necromancer." Elric answered with a bit of venom in his voice, "All I know is that I was technically human when I was knocked out and when I woke up, I was in demon-form."
"Technically human? What do you mean?" Cathim asked.
"I'll show you later." Elric said quickly before he finished on his saddening story.
"So, in the end, I buried all the bodies I could find and found a grave stone in the stone workers shop. I inscribed the words, 'Atisar: Taxed and Betrayed' into it with my claws and left it standing over the mass grave in the town square."
Elric paused again and raised his head to look at the three humans opposite him. Natalie's eyes were stained with tears. Tozam kept his eyes closed and had his head bowed out of respect for the dead.
Cathim alone, being a student of the arts of Rathma was able to look at Elric without being in any way touched by the half-demon's story. To him, death was just a natural part of life.
'Damn Necromancers. 'Elric thought unbidden, 'Insensitive bastards.'
"After that," Elric continued, his throat beginning to grow sore from both remembrance and lack of drink. "I salvaged what supplies I could and, I admit, raided Old Dominic's vault which he had hidden under his house in case of emergencies. I took most of his magic books, an enchanted sword, and over 12,000 gold pieces that he had been saving for a rainy day that never came for him. Once I finished, I said a prayer at the grave site and left. There was nothing left for me at Atisar, so I just left."
The silence returned as Natalie took in what Elric had said. For several frightening moments, Elric was afraid that she was going to blame him for what had happened. Granted that she had a right to, but still.
"And this was almost a year ago?" Natalie asked
"Yes."
"Then there is no use crying over it. It is done and over." She tried to wipe away the tears and show the others that she would remain strong despite all that she had heard.
"I pray that Father, Marcus, Coris, and all of the others will rest in peace. And I will keep them all in my prayers. Thank you, Elric."
'Don't thank me just yet.' Elric thought, flattening his pointed wolf-like ears against his head.
Cathim, noticing Elric's trouble talking, dug into his pack and pulled out a canteen. After taking a swallow of the contents himself, he tossed it to Elric, who caught it (with difficulty) in both claws.
"You look thirsty," he said, his face calm and, surprisingly, accepting. "Have a drink. That is, if you can drink water as you lap up blood."
"Cathim!" Natalie scolded. "There is no need to be harsh! That comment was uncalled for!"
"It's alright, Natalie. I've gotten used to it." Elric said before throwing his head back and draining the insides of the canteen down his gullet. When he was finished, he yawned and popped several bones in his jaw before attempting to toss the canteen back to Cathim.
"Keep it!" Cathim said quickly, pulling back when he saw that Elric had left a substantial amount of demon drool around the mouthpiece. "I have others."
"Thanks." Elric said, wiping the drool off with a claw and setting the canteen beside him. It was then that Cathim realized the half-demon had done that on purpose.
But before he could say anything about it, Elric asked,
"Does anybody have a mana potion?"
"Aye." Tozam answered, bringing a hand up to his belt where he had been carrying them. "I have a few of the blue vials."
"Can I have one?"
"Now hold on!" Cathim stopped Tozam before the barbarian said yes. "Seeing as how they are mine, I want to know. What do you need a mana potion for?"
Elric chuckled and shook his head.
"I need one so that you guys won't be so afraid of me anymore." He explained, "I even scared you, Natalie. So I think it's best if the three of you weren't facing a demon anymore. Besides, Cathim, you said you wanted to know what I meant by 'Technically' human."
"If it means I get to see some new magic, then I think it's alright" Natalie said, trying to put on a cheerful face despite her obvious sorrow.
"I don't see why not, after all you haven't tried to harm us yet." Tozam said tossing a vial to Elric, who only barely caught it after a moment of fumbling with the glass container. "But I think I already have an idea of the magic of which you speak."
"Not tried to harm us yet, Tozam? And what do you call what happened out on the Blood Moor earlier?"
"Come on, Cathim. You're just mad because he dropped you on your handsome little head. Did we lose that funny, smarmy, necromancer when we picked up our new Friend? "
"Friend? No, I just don't trust that demon."
"Well, then maybe you'll be able to trust me more in a minutes." Elric said as he pulled the stopper from the vial and drained the blue liquid within just as he had the water.
"Awwgg..." He shook off the taste with disgust. "I hate the taste of these things."
Elric tossed the vial back to Tozam, who caught it with ease and put it away in his supplies pack for future use.
"Alright, here it goes."
Elric got up on his haunches again and closed his eyes as he focused all of his will into a mental image of the spell he was about to perform. It would take him a second to start since it had been so long since he had last used this enchantment, but once he it got going; his magic would be able to handle the rest.
It started with his skin, which suddenly felt to have lost its tight, comfortable, place around his muscles. His black scales melted into one sheet of human skin which appeared to be slightly tanned without becoming dark like the peoples of the desert beyond the mountain pass. Just like Natalie's.
His bones began to contort and place themselves into their false position. His muzzle and teeth retracted and became like those of a human while, at the same time, a dark brown hair grew from his head and newly formed scalp, once again, very much like his sister's. With another pull of magic, his claws and horns retracted and, in place of the four claws, five human fingers grew on each hand.
Before the transformation was complete, Elric threw in a trick that he had learned only a few months ago from a good friend of his. In the last moments before he became completely human, he used the last of his replenished mana stores to summon an outfit of clothes which he had put away in the realm between worlds for just this sort of occasion. They appeared on him just as his form filled out entirely and looked to have just appeared out of nowhere to the three, very astonished humans.
And then it was done.
Now, around the campfire sat a sorceress, a barbarian, a necromancer, and a nineteen year old human boy with tanned skin, dark brown hair and a nice black tunic/trouser combination (which did not suit his eyes and hair at all) for clothes.
He was almost impossible to tell from any other human unless a person could see his eyes, which had retained their unnaturally bright green and stood out very well against his other features.
"Is this better, Cathim?" The now human Elric asked the Necromancer.
Cathim was struck speechless for the first time that he could ever remember. The black demon, which had been drooling and growling at him only a moment before, had turned into a perfectly respectable looking young man that he could say defiantly bore a striking family resemblance to Natthilea... or Natalie as he was also beginning to call her.
"Strike me down!" Tozam started up with a smile, "That's the best trick I've seen in a long time."
"Lords, Elric..." Natalie said, "You look like Father, and Marcus..."
"Old Man Dominic made a deal with Father. If Dominic could help me discover my powers and teach me to control them, then he would be allowed to study me. You could say that he taught me a great deal more than he expected to. In fact, after he got it in his head that I wasn't just some animal, he started to train me as a mage and I learned how to control my magical nature."
"But... I don't get it." Cathim said, wondering if it had only been Elric's demonic appearance which had been unsettling him. If it was, then he had failed to look beneath the surface of the situation as he had been taught to do for his entire life.
"Why didn't you introduce yourself to us like this?"
"For three reasons, Necro. First, it would have been deceit on my part if I had just showed up and joined up with you. Besides, I didn't know that Natalie was apart of your group until you said her name and I got a good whiff of her."
"Not to mention a taste." She said flatly.
"I already had you in my jaws, so why the hell not."
"Hrumpp" she turned to the side indignantly.
"Secondly," Elric continued. "My human form is just as weak and fragile as any other, not to mention much less terrifying than my natural demon form. So against large numbers of Fallen Ones (Or any monsters for that matter) I prefer to be in demon mode where I am most lethal. And third, I couldn't have even if I wanted to." He explained, "I have a very potent magic prowess and my physical power when I'm a demon is beyond belief, especially when I go into a rage. But the draw back is that I have absolutely no regenerative ability like normal humans do. That is, if I'm hurt my body won't heal its self. I need help from a healer or a healing potion. And when my mana stores go dry (as they now are from using that spell) I can't use anything else until I have a mana potion. I ran out of mana potions over two months ago and was forced to go demon on a group of blood hawks that attacked me."
"So, you're now human until you get a mana potion, right?"
"Sorry, Cathim. No such luck for you. I need mana to disguise myself as a human, but that's all it is, a disguise. I can rip off this false skin and release myself from this form in just a few moments. Kinda like you can put on tighter clothes and take forever to do so, but get out of them in an instant."
"Wow, that must be some advanced magic?" Natalie asked.
"Actually, it's something that I think only I can do BECAUSE I'm a half-demon. But, it was Dominic who designed the spell for me, and then Vajiha added the enchanted clothes."
"Enchanted?"
"Yeah, this tunic and the pants correspond with my scales." When he saw her questioning look, he explained. "Oh, apparently, I'm part demon, part human, and part chameleon because I can change my scale color at will. I can only do two colors at a time though, in a very distinct pattern. So, in this case, black doesn't suit me."
Elric snapped his fingers and, in an instant, his tunic changed to bright green to match his eyes and his trousers to a common forest brown.
"And just like that, I have a fine new suit."
"I was wondering why your scales were midnight black when you used to be solid white." Natalie said with a giggle.
"White?" Tozam laughed as well, "Must have been handy when you got lost in the snow, huh, Elric?"
"HEY! Don't make fun... That actually happened one winter." The two burst into laughter, "Besides, I like black. And it is more frightening. And if I were pink or something, no creature in its right mind would take me seriously."
"It must have been fun," Cathim said, breaking a smile, "but how did you get stuck with a name like 'Elric' when they should have named you Snow-White?"
"Actually, I named him." Natalie said, "…And Elric is an old Amazon word that quite literally means..."
"STOPPPPPPPPP!!!!!" Elric tried to stop her.
"...White-Rose."
"NNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"
The entire party fell into a fit of laughter and the topic shortly came to each party member telling light hearted stories about their lives.
They laughed at the tales from Atisar that the now human Elric told.
They snickered at stories of Cathim's youth at the Temple of Rathma.
At Horrigoth's great prankster, Tozam the Little Bugga. (Though he refused to tell them how he came by that name.)
And at the great potion switch at the Zann Esu Towers that left the High Sorceress wearing a wig for a year.
Finally, they turned in, one by one.
First Natalie, who fell asleep by the campfire.
Then, Tozam who was out like a light after claiming that he could go six days without sleep.
Unfortunately, this left Cathim and Elric to share each others company.
"I am not going to sleep with you around, Elric. Sorry, but i still don't completely trust you."
"Fine, you keep watch." Elric said, lying back on the rocky ground. "Say, you wouldn't happen to be carrying a blanket and a pillow, would you?"
"Why would we burden ourselves like that?"
"Why did you set up a tent that nobody's going to sleep in?"
Cathim had no retaliation for that, so he bid Elric goodnight and watched the half-demon fall asleep.
'Not really all that bad of a person, Cathim.' The necromancer thought to himself, as he yawned and rubbed his eyes. 'Was it just that black demon you were afraid of? Or was it this 'Elric'? Little Bugga trust him enough to fall asleep, which is very strange for a barbarian tribesmen. Normally they don't trust anyone. And Natalie, she acts as though she has found a long lost treasure...'
Cathim closed his eyes, just for a moment to rest them.
'If he was able to tear so many Fallen to pieces so quickly, then he could have destroyed us just as well. And would have if not for Natalie. Wait, I know. I'll give him a couple of days to prove himself to us. After all, Tozam is right.'
Then he yawned and said out loud,
"What do...we have to lose...but our lives...?"
And Cathim the Necromancer fell asleep to the sound of the small campfire.
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FLASH
"Where am I?"
FLASH
A great figure cloaked in light and power stood before Elric the half-demon in the strange place. Of all the horrors and monstrosities that he had witnessed before, this shining warrior filled him with the most fear.
An Arch-Angel...
"Fool!" It called him
"Leave me in peace, Knight of Seraphim" Elric commanded, turning his scaled back to the Seraphim, "I have done nothing that concerns your kind. My task has been done. I owe nothing more to you or to anybody other than myself."
"Then what to your sister, Halfling?"
"Leave her out of this, Tyrael!"
"Have you lost your senses, Halfling? Do you not see that you have put them all in danger?"
"I AM NOT GOING TO HURT THEM, TYRAEL! Just like I didn't harm Alisa, Vajiha, or Kalin. Your prophecies fall on deaf ears, and I won't lose anymore sleep over them. I CONTROL MY OWN DESTINEY! AND NOT THE BURNING HELLS OR THE HIGH HEAVENS WILL TURN ME AGAINST MY FRIENDS!!!"
"Do not be so blind, Halfling. Wake up, and find what you have lead them into."
"WHAT?"
"Wake up..."
Elric jerked awake and flipped over on the ground. He was out of breath and cold because the fire had gone out, but other than that he seemed alright.
Then he realized that was lying in a pool of false red blood and torn flesh. He had torn out of his disguise and reverted back to demonic form while he had been dreaming.
"Damn," he said silently, flexing four claws on one hand "I haven't done that in a long time."
Elric was glad to see that Cathim had fallen asleep, likely before he had turned, and after checking to make sure Natalie and Tozam were alright, looked out of the mouth of the cave.
Judging by the moon, he had been asleep for at least four hours.
"Damn, was that a dream or am I going to have to deal with that bloody angel again?"
The thought of the Seraphim made him shiver. At least with demons, you knew that their goal was destruction. But those damn angles never let on to what they wanted with mortal life. They claimed to wish only to protect sanctuary, but from Elric's personal experience, they tended to do more harm than good.
He took a deep breath of the cold, crisp, autumn air and yawned, completely intending to return to sleep.
Then, he stopped.
"Sniff...sniff...sniff..."
There was something in the air that he had missed before. Something that must have been too faint for him to smell over the fire smoke or in his worry for Natalie before the fire was built.
In the air was the faint, but distinct scent of leather, burning hair, and rotting meat.
"Wendigo, Fallen Ones, and Zombies!" He said out loud, "In the cave."
It was then, smelling the foul beast within, that Elric realized what the Arch-Angle had been trying to warn him of.
The good news was that Tozam, Cathim, and Natalie had found the Den of Evil that they were searching for.
The bad news was that Elric had led them into it and let them set up camp right inside.
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Long: yes
A lot of detail: I hope ya'll think so.
Readers: Not as many as I would hope.
It is now 3/20/03, and I still haven't gotten any post for chapter three :(
Maybe I'm not giving it enough time, but i really enjoy getting reviews so pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease R&R.
A little note for those of you who might not know, The Seraphim is a proper name for the angles of the Diablo world and they rule the High Heavens.
Just though ya might wanna know.
Well, I guess I'll post this for free now, but i refuse to post again until i get at least 12 total reviews for this story, signed or not, it doesn't matter.
Also, to those of you who have reviewed, I have taken the liberty of sending comments back to you about it but I'm not sure that they got to you. So if you want to hear from me on your comments, let me know if the first e-mail didn't make it.
Well, as i like to say...
Come one, come all, come often, Always R&R... I will be updating soon.
Signed... Robin
Disclaimer: I do not own Diablo II, I, or anything else that blizzard created. In fact, some of my dialogue comes directly from the game,
For accuracy purposes only.
The Characters however are of my own design, directly from my chars on Battle.net
Oh, dear I never thought that publishing something online could be so addictive, AHHHHH, I can't stop!!! Lucky for me. Well, I suppose that this is what so many people like to call a 'hobby', or in my case, 'obsession'.
Maybe, I don't know. I was never very good when it came to school vocabulary.
There is a warning with this chapter; it is purely for catching up on histories and story-line things. There is precious little combat here, which I plan to make up for next chapter. So just read for the story and plz try to bear with me.
Ok, enough of my babbling... Enjoy.
About fifteen minutes later, in a nearby cavern.
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"Tell me what happened, Elric." Natalie said, speaking for the first time since Elric had told her of the fate of Atisar.
Cathim and Tozam sat on the opposite side of the small camp-fire as Elric took in a deep breath. The last few minutes of silence following the complete ion of setting up the tent and a campfire in the mouth of the cave had been awkward time. Cathim and Tozam sat quietly clearly concerned about their present well-being and that of their apparently shocked friend. Seeing as how they had had little to say to the black half-demon who had led them to this cave, they merely waited for someone, preferably Natthilea, (or Natalie, which Elric had been calling her since he first realized who she was) to start some sort of conversation.
The chosen topic was not what Cathim really wanted to know, but he supposed that he could probably ask his own questions in time, assuming that the story of Atisar did not take all night.
"What's Atisar?" Tozam asked Elric, apparently glad that someone had spoken before him.
Elric, sitting on his haunches once again (Cathim was beginning to see Elric as some sort of wolf or dog, judging by the way his body kept ending up in these positions) looked up to the curious barbarian with a sad look in his bright green eyes.
"Atisar is, or was, our home village." Elric told him, a far off, storyteller quality in his voice. "It was a small, quiet farming hamlet about a weeks travel from the port city of Kingsport on the edge of The Great Ocean. It was so small that it didn't show up on most maps. Population never reached more than a couple of hundred at the most."
"Will you stop referring to our home in the past tense and tell me what happened, Elric!" Natalie scowled
It was obvious that she did not want to be kept from the news.
"Well, alright. I suppose you have a right to know." Elric said in a sad tone as he stretched his body out and lay down on his legs, (Once again reminding Cathim and Tozam of an obedient dog).
He gazed into the fire for a moment before closing his eyes and beginning his tale.
"It all began about a year ago, when word reached Atisar about a sudden tax spike. Apparently, Leoric, The newly re-titled Black King, was preparing for a war with the kingdom of Westmarch and wanted his loyal subjects to pay the cost. A royal notice was sent to every village in Khanduras, signed by the King's highest advisor, the Archbishop Lazarus..." Elric's voice was riddled with disgust at the mention of the Archbishop and, for just a moment; his eyes lost their green, human appearance and turned flame red.
Quickly, he shook his head and his eyes returned to green.
"Atisar was, unfortunately, no exception. The decree was brought by a band of overly loyal paladins who served the Archbishop without question. It was unbelievable."
"The paladins?" Tozam asked, trying his best to keep up with the story.
"No, you fool! The price of the taxes." Elric snapped, literally bringing his jaws together with the said 'snap'.
"It was well over 250,000 gold pieces per family in the village."
"250,000?!" Natalie reeled in shock of such a number. "Father could barley pay 25 gold pieces per month to pay the taxes back when I was still living there!"
"Nobody in the village could pay such outrageous taxes, Natalie. Even if the entire town pooled together every coin we had, we could hardly make half of that amount. So, anyways, the paladins left saying that we had two months to come up with the money or we would be removed from the protection of the crown."
He sighed.
"And...?" Natalie asked, afraid of the answer.
"And I'm sure you remember how stubborn Father was on those matters." Elric said dispersedly. "He rallied the people together, stirred them up and fanned the flames of anger that they were all feeling. He said, "We owe nothing to the Black King Leoric or his Zakarum dogs'. And he urged the people to stand up to the Paladins when they returned. And they did. When the troops arrived to collect, they were greeted by over seventy men armed with rusted swords, picks, and wood axes."
"Oh, By the Ancients" Tozam slumped back, devouring every shred of Elric's story, "Farmers? Against well armed, seasoned troops?"
"But... But, surely you were there to help them, Elric. I mean, the people of the village had grown to love and depend on you so much."
"Father told me to stay out of it. He said that I would only make the Paladins think the whole of Atisar was allied with the darkness. So, instead he charged me with looking after the women and children down in the town sanctuary. He stood out in front of them with your brothers Coris and Marcus and told the solders that neither he nor any other village would pay such a ridiculous tax. That they would only serve King Leoric if he would set a fair price on his aid."
The air hung still and the only movement in the small camp was the sound of fire, snapping and crackling as it ate through the tinder which was fed to it by Tozam.
"And..." Elric hesitated, "And then.... They just left."
"What?" Tozam was taken by surprise and Natalie let out a sigh of relief.
Too soon, as Cathim was sure by Elric's still depressed demeanor.
"They just left?" Cathim questioned, defiantly still suspicious of what Elric was saying.
"They turned their horses around and galloped away without a word." Elric confirmed, and chuckled weakly. "We... we thought that we had won something, that we had beaten the system without any blood being shed at all. 'Oh yeah' we were saying, 'They know better than to mess with family men who have children to protect, after all, they follow the light just as we.' We, we had a big party that night. All the children stayed up late and played while the men lit a huge bonfire and told stories for half the night."
He sucked a breath through his razor sharp teeth and shook his head in a regretful disgust.
"We were such fools!"
He continued,
"The next day went on like any other, Father worked in the fields with Marcus and Coris while I went off to Old Dominic's house for lessons in the arts..."
"Old Dominic? Who the hell is Old Dominic?" Natalie asked.
"Oh, right. Old Man Dominic moved in after you left with that Zann Esu recruitment woman. Dominic was a sage who claimed to come from Kurast. He said that he came to study his own branch of magic away from the Zakarum Travical. After a few months, Father found out that his specialty was Demonology."
"Demonology? Isn't the study of demonology outlawed by the Zakarum church?" Cathim asked.
"So is raising a demon in your home along with your children I'm sure." Elric said, sarcastically in answer to the Priest of Rathma. "In time, Dominic found out about me through one of the towns children, Talsimm if I remember right."
"That Talsimm never did have any sense." Natalie told Tozam and Cathim, who only nodded as if they had some idea of whom she was talking about.
"And Dominic flipped over the idea of being able to study a live demon. He thought that i was some sort of captive and was more intrigued than ever when he saw me and claimed that he had never seen anything like me before. He offered Father 400 gold pieces for me. Of course, he refused, saying that I was not just some beast but that I was apart of the family and I had my own right to learn as any of his children."
"Wait," Cathim said, "You were almost sold for 400 gold pieces?"
"I was only six and the size of a cat." Elric explained in a flat tone to the necromancer, "I hadn't learned how to fight, shape shift, spit acid, cast spells, or color shift yet so I was pretty much just a little demon that knew how to read common language and talk."
He continued on where he had been so rudely interrupted,
"Anyways, everything was going on as it normally did. Until that night." He suddenly stopped and sounded very sad again, "It happened during a town meeting, while the children were out in the street. I was out playing with them when I first hear Thomas, one of the town's guardsmen, scream off in the distance. Within just a few moments, they were in the gates and started to ravage every thing in sight."
"What were they?"
Once again, Elric hesitated.
"Fallen One's, hundreds upon hundreds of them. Oh, God... It was less then a year ago now. I had one of the kid's raise the alarm while I tried to hurry the others to the sanctuary. It was before i learned how to fight... how to hunt..." He paused, "How to kill... I got the kids away while the town's folk came out of the great hall and took up any arms at hand to fight. I remember how I saw Father with his old sword and Old Man Dominic throwing fireballs and frozen orbs at the Fallen Ones."
Elric laid his head on the ground, closed his eyes, and shook with anger as old wounds were cut open in his mind and the salt was poured into them by having to retell what he saw.
"I fought, tooth and claw, I fought. But I didn't have any experience battling real demons. The closest I ever got was with the illusions Dominic conjured to see how I'd react. I don't remember how exactly, but I was knocked unconscious."
Elric opened his eyes to reveal that they had once again glowed fire red.
"And the last thing I remember seeing before I passed out was the band of paladins on horseback, watching the massacre from the outer gate of the village and not lifting A DAMN FINGER TO HELP!!!!" The last words came out in more of a growl than words as Elric pounded his clawed fist into the ground.
It took Elric to collect himself, which was good because Natalie, who had backed away when he had become violent for that moment and retreated to sit next to Tozam, was also devastated. The half-demon had just told her about the destruction of the place where she was born. Where she had played as a child and where she and her brothers had first seen a curious baby demon come out to see their games. It couldn't be true, could it?
"When I finally came to, I was in demon form and everything was gone. Burned to the ground. I... i couldn't even tell were two piles of bones met or whether it was only one person or several children who laid in front of were the sanctuary used to stand. I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find any other survivors."
Silence overtook them all once again for several long moments, interrupted only by the crackling of the fire and the low, steady sounds of Natalie's sobbing.
Cathim finally broke it.
"And how, pray tell, did you survive?" He asked, not at all moved
"If I knew, I would tell you Necromancer." Elric answered with a bit of venom in his voice, "All I know is that I was technically human when I was knocked out and when I woke up, I was in demon-form."
"Technically human? What do you mean?" Cathim asked.
"I'll show you later." Elric said quickly before he finished on his saddening story.
"So, in the end, I buried all the bodies I could find and found a grave stone in the stone workers shop. I inscribed the words, 'Atisar: Taxed and Betrayed' into it with my claws and left it standing over the mass grave in the town square."
Elric paused again and raised his head to look at the three humans opposite him. Natalie's eyes were stained with tears. Tozam kept his eyes closed and had his head bowed out of respect for the dead.
Cathim alone, being a student of the arts of Rathma was able to look at Elric without being in any way touched by the half-demon's story. To him, death was just a natural part of life.
'Damn Necromancers. 'Elric thought unbidden, 'Insensitive bastards.'
"After that," Elric continued, his throat beginning to grow sore from both remembrance and lack of drink. "I salvaged what supplies I could and, I admit, raided Old Dominic's vault which he had hidden under his house in case of emergencies. I took most of his magic books, an enchanted sword, and over 12,000 gold pieces that he had been saving for a rainy day that never came for him. Once I finished, I said a prayer at the grave site and left. There was nothing left for me at Atisar, so I just left."
The silence returned as Natalie took in what Elric had said. For several frightening moments, Elric was afraid that she was going to blame him for what had happened. Granted that she had a right to, but still.
"And this was almost a year ago?" Natalie asked
"Yes."
"Then there is no use crying over it. It is done and over." She tried to wipe away the tears and show the others that she would remain strong despite all that she had heard.
"I pray that Father, Marcus, Coris, and all of the others will rest in peace. And I will keep them all in my prayers. Thank you, Elric."
'Don't thank me just yet.' Elric thought, flattening his pointed wolf-like ears against his head.
Cathim, noticing Elric's trouble talking, dug into his pack and pulled out a canteen. After taking a swallow of the contents himself, he tossed it to Elric, who caught it (with difficulty) in both claws.
"You look thirsty," he said, his face calm and, surprisingly, accepting. "Have a drink. That is, if you can drink water as you lap up blood."
"Cathim!" Natalie scolded. "There is no need to be harsh! That comment was uncalled for!"
"It's alright, Natalie. I've gotten used to it." Elric said before throwing his head back and draining the insides of the canteen down his gullet. When he was finished, he yawned and popped several bones in his jaw before attempting to toss the canteen back to Cathim.
"Keep it!" Cathim said quickly, pulling back when he saw that Elric had left a substantial amount of demon drool around the mouthpiece. "I have others."
"Thanks." Elric said, wiping the drool off with a claw and setting the canteen beside him. It was then that Cathim realized the half-demon had done that on purpose.
But before he could say anything about it, Elric asked,
"Does anybody have a mana potion?"
"Aye." Tozam answered, bringing a hand up to his belt where he had been carrying them. "I have a few of the blue vials."
"Can I have one?"
"Now hold on!" Cathim stopped Tozam before the barbarian said yes. "Seeing as how they are mine, I want to know. What do you need a mana potion for?"
Elric chuckled and shook his head.
"I need one so that you guys won't be so afraid of me anymore." He explained, "I even scared you, Natalie. So I think it's best if the three of you weren't facing a demon anymore. Besides, Cathim, you said you wanted to know what I meant by 'Technically' human."
"If it means I get to see some new magic, then I think it's alright" Natalie said, trying to put on a cheerful face despite her obvious sorrow.
"I don't see why not, after all you haven't tried to harm us yet." Tozam said tossing a vial to Elric, who only barely caught it after a moment of fumbling with the glass container. "But I think I already have an idea of the magic of which you speak."
"Not tried to harm us yet, Tozam? And what do you call what happened out on the Blood Moor earlier?"
"Come on, Cathim. You're just mad because he dropped you on your handsome little head. Did we lose that funny, smarmy, necromancer when we picked up our new Friend? "
"Friend? No, I just don't trust that demon."
"Well, then maybe you'll be able to trust me more in a minutes." Elric said as he pulled the stopper from the vial and drained the blue liquid within just as he had the water.
"Awwgg..." He shook off the taste with disgust. "I hate the taste of these things."
Elric tossed the vial back to Tozam, who caught it with ease and put it away in his supplies pack for future use.
"Alright, here it goes."
Elric got up on his haunches again and closed his eyes as he focused all of his will into a mental image of the spell he was about to perform. It would take him a second to start since it had been so long since he had last used this enchantment, but once he it got going; his magic would be able to handle the rest.
It started with his skin, which suddenly felt to have lost its tight, comfortable, place around his muscles. His black scales melted into one sheet of human skin which appeared to be slightly tanned without becoming dark like the peoples of the desert beyond the mountain pass. Just like Natalie's.
His bones began to contort and place themselves into their false position. His muzzle and teeth retracted and became like those of a human while, at the same time, a dark brown hair grew from his head and newly formed scalp, once again, very much like his sister's. With another pull of magic, his claws and horns retracted and, in place of the four claws, five human fingers grew on each hand.
Before the transformation was complete, Elric threw in a trick that he had learned only a few months ago from a good friend of his. In the last moments before he became completely human, he used the last of his replenished mana stores to summon an outfit of clothes which he had put away in the realm between worlds for just this sort of occasion. They appeared on him just as his form filled out entirely and looked to have just appeared out of nowhere to the three, very astonished humans.
And then it was done.
Now, around the campfire sat a sorceress, a barbarian, a necromancer, and a nineteen year old human boy with tanned skin, dark brown hair and a nice black tunic/trouser combination (which did not suit his eyes and hair at all) for clothes.
He was almost impossible to tell from any other human unless a person could see his eyes, which had retained their unnaturally bright green and stood out very well against his other features.
"Is this better, Cathim?" The now human Elric asked the Necromancer.
Cathim was struck speechless for the first time that he could ever remember. The black demon, which had been drooling and growling at him only a moment before, had turned into a perfectly respectable looking young man that he could say defiantly bore a striking family resemblance to Natthilea... or Natalie as he was also beginning to call her.
"Strike me down!" Tozam started up with a smile, "That's the best trick I've seen in a long time."
"Lords, Elric..." Natalie said, "You look like Father, and Marcus..."
"Old Man Dominic made a deal with Father. If Dominic could help me discover my powers and teach me to control them, then he would be allowed to study me. You could say that he taught me a great deal more than he expected to. In fact, after he got it in his head that I wasn't just some animal, he started to train me as a mage and I learned how to control my magical nature."
"But... I don't get it." Cathim said, wondering if it had only been Elric's demonic appearance which had been unsettling him. If it was, then he had failed to look beneath the surface of the situation as he had been taught to do for his entire life.
"Why didn't you introduce yourself to us like this?"
"For three reasons, Necro. First, it would have been deceit on my part if I had just showed up and joined up with you. Besides, I didn't know that Natalie was apart of your group until you said her name and I got a good whiff of her."
"Not to mention a taste." She said flatly.
"I already had you in my jaws, so why the hell not."
"Hrumpp" she turned to the side indignantly.
"Secondly," Elric continued. "My human form is just as weak and fragile as any other, not to mention much less terrifying than my natural demon form. So against large numbers of Fallen Ones (Or any monsters for that matter) I prefer to be in demon mode where I am most lethal. And third, I couldn't have even if I wanted to." He explained, "I have a very potent magic prowess and my physical power when I'm a demon is beyond belief, especially when I go into a rage. But the draw back is that I have absolutely no regenerative ability like normal humans do. That is, if I'm hurt my body won't heal its self. I need help from a healer or a healing potion. And when my mana stores go dry (as they now are from using that spell) I can't use anything else until I have a mana potion. I ran out of mana potions over two months ago and was forced to go demon on a group of blood hawks that attacked me."
"So, you're now human until you get a mana potion, right?"
"Sorry, Cathim. No such luck for you. I need mana to disguise myself as a human, but that's all it is, a disguise. I can rip off this false skin and release myself from this form in just a few moments. Kinda like you can put on tighter clothes and take forever to do so, but get out of them in an instant."
"Wow, that must be some advanced magic?" Natalie asked.
"Actually, it's something that I think only I can do BECAUSE I'm a half-demon. But, it was Dominic who designed the spell for me, and then Vajiha added the enchanted clothes."
"Enchanted?"
"Yeah, this tunic and the pants correspond with my scales." When he saw her questioning look, he explained. "Oh, apparently, I'm part demon, part human, and part chameleon because I can change my scale color at will. I can only do two colors at a time though, in a very distinct pattern. So, in this case, black doesn't suit me."
Elric snapped his fingers and, in an instant, his tunic changed to bright green to match his eyes and his trousers to a common forest brown.
"And just like that, I have a fine new suit."
"I was wondering why your scales were midnight black when you used to be solid white." Natalie said with a giggle.
"White?" Tozam laughed as well, "Must have been handy when you got lost in the snow, huh, Elric?"
"HEY! Don't make fun... That actually happened one winter." The two burst into laughter, "Besides, I like black. And it is more frightening. And if I were pink or something, no creature in its right mind would take me seriously."
"It must have been fun," Cathim said, breaking a smile, "but how did you get stuck with a name like 'Elric' when they should have named you Snow-White?"
"Actually, I named him." Natalie said, "…And Elric is an old Amazon word that quite literally means..."
"STOPPPPPPPPP!!!!!" Elric tried to stop her.
"...White-Rose."
"NNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"
The entire party fell into a fit of laughter and the topic shortly came to each party member telling light hearted stories about their lives.
They laughed at the tales from Atisar that the now human Elric told.
They snickered at stories of Cathim's youth at the Temple of Rathma.
At Horrigoth's great prankster, Tozam the Little Bugga. (Though he refused to tell them how he came by that name.)
And at the great potion switch at the Zann Esu Towers that left the High Sorceress wearing a wig for a year.
Finally, they turned in, one by one.
First Natalie, who fell asleep by the campfire.
Then, Tozam who was out like a light after claiming that he could go six days without sleep.
Unfortunately, this left Cathim and Elric to share each others company.
"I am not going to sleep with you around, Elric. Sorry, but i still don't completely trust you."
"Fine, you keep watch." Elric said, lying back on the rocky ground. "Say, you wouldn't happen to be carrying a blanket and a pillow, would you?"
"Why would we burden ourselves like that?"
"Why did you set up a tent that nobody's going to sleep in?"
Cathim had no retaliation for that, so he bid Elric goodnight and watched the half-demon fall asleep.
'Not really all that bad of a person, Cathim.' The necromancer thought to himself, as he yawned and rubbed his eyes. 'Was it just that black demon you were afraid of? Or was it this 'Elric'? Little Bugga trust him enough to fall asleep, which is very strange for a barbarian tribesmen. Normally they don't trust anyone. And Natalie, she acts as though she has found a long lost treasure...'
Cathim closed his eyes, just for a moment to rest them.
'If he was able to tear so many Fallen to pieces so quickly, then he could have destroyed us just as well. And would have if not for Natalie. Wait, I know. I'll give him a couple of days to prove himself to us. After all, Tozam is right.'
Then he yawned and said out loud,
"What do...we have to lose...but our lives...?"
And Cathim the Necromancer fell asleep to the sound of the small campfire.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FLASH
"Where am I?"
FLASH
A great figure cloaked in light and power stood before Elric the half-demon in the strange place. Of all the horrors and monstrosities that he had witnessed before, this shining warrior filled him with the most fear.
An Arch-Angel...
"Fool!" It called him
"Leave me in peace, Knight of Seraphim" Elric commanded, turning his scaled back to the Seraphim, "I have done nothing that concerns your kind. My task has been done. I owe nothing more to you or to anybody other than myself."
"Then what to your sister, Halfling?"
"Leave her out of this, Tyrael!"
"Have you lost your senses, Halfling? Do you not see that you have put them all in danger?"
"I AM NOT GOING TO HURT THEM, TYRAEL! Just like I didn't harm Alisa, Vajiha, or Kalin. Your prophecies fall on deaf ears, and I won't lose anymore sleep over them. I CONTROL MY OWN DESTINEY! AND NOT THE BURNING HELLS OR THE HIGH HEAVENS WILL TURN ME AGAINST MY FRIENDS!!!"
"Do not be so blind, Halfling. Wake up, and find what you have lead them into."
"WHAT?"
"Wake up..."
Elric jerked awake and flipped over on the ground. He was out of breath and cold because the fire had gone out, but other than that he seemed alright.
Then he realized that was lying in a pool of false red blood and torn flesh. He had torn out of his disguise and reverted back to demonic form while he had been dreaming.
"Damn," he said silently, flexing four claws on one hand "I haven't done that in a long time."
Elric was glad to see that Cathim had fallen asleep, likely before he had turned, and after checking to make sure Natalie and Tozam were alright, looked out of the mouth of the cave.
Judging by the moon, he had been asleep for at least four hours.
"Damn, was that a dream or am I going to have to deal with that bloody angel again?"
The thought of the Seraphim made him shiver. At least with demons, you knew that their goal was destruction. But those damn angles never let on to what they wanted with mortal life. They claimed to wish only to protect sanctuary, but from Elric's personal experience, they tended to do more harm than good.
He took a deep breath of the cold, crisp, autumn air and yawned, completely intending to return to sleep.
Then, he stopped.
"Sniff...sniff...sniff..."
There was something in the air that he had missed before. Something that must have been too faint for him to smell over the fire smoke or in his worry for Natalie before the fire was built.
In the air was the faint, but distinct scent of leather, burning hair, and rotting meat.
"Wendigo, Fallen Ones, and Zombies!" He said out loud, "In the cave."
It was then, smelling the foul beast within, that Elric realized what the Arch-Angle had been trying to warn him of.
The good news was that Tozam, Cathim, and Natalie had found the Den of Evil that they were searching for.
The bad news was that Elric had led them into it and let them set up camp right inside.
*****************************************************************************
Long: yes
A lot of detail: I hope ya'll think so.
Readers: Not as many as I would hope.
It is now 3/20/03, and I still haven't gotten any post for chapter three :(
Maybe I'm not giving it enough time, but i really enjoy getting reviews so pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease R&R.
A little note for those of you who might not know, The Seraphim is a proper name for the angles of the Diablo world and they rule the High Heavens.
Just though ya might wanna know.
Well, I guess I'll post this for free now, but i refuse to post again until i get at least 12 total reviews for this story, signed or not, it doesn't matter.
Also, to those of you who have reviewed, I have taken the liberty of sending comments back to you about it but I'm not sure that they got to you. So if you want to hear from me on your comments, let me know if the first e-mail didn't make it.
Well, as i like to say...
Come one, come all, come often, Always R&R... I will be updating soon.
Signed... Robin
