Chapter 9: Hocus Pocus
There was a foul taste in my mouth. Did the food rot in there? No, that was not the beginning of it, for such a foul stench also filled my nose, an unpleasant odour overwhelming my senses. I tried to stretch my stiff muscles out but I was unable to because as I turned my head I understood that I was strapped down to a broken stone tabernacle, in the midst of tattered ruins crawling with green ivy and somewhere high in the sky. The sky itself was not blue, but it was gray. The sound of crows filled the air, as did the sound of the rough wind blowing a ghastly musical through the dry bones and leaves littering the landscape. Suddenly I was alerted to the sound of something being cast. I heard the sound of Kyrie Eleison, a protective barrier being setup. I then heard the sound of an enchantment and a spike of ice shot past me and splintered against the stone tower threshold. I was a bit afraid of what could be lurking behind me, but I breathed in heavily and concentrated on what I could do in this situation. I looked around in my limited line of sight, but nothing seemed very helpful. Then I looked straight ahead over my chest and saw the fragments of ice. I stared intently at the biggest shard I could to catch what I could in the reflection. I saw something moving in the reflection, and bursts of light emitting sporadically from whatever creature it was. A chilling sensation passed by me as another trail of ice made its way past me, this time hitting a rock on the ground and converting it to a block of ice. I looked at this piece of frost with more concentration and saw many corpses sprawled behind me. They were not human corpses, but animal carcasses distributed around the sage's feet. A sage was behind me, summoning Hocus Pocus, a powerful spell that randomly invoked a spell. What he was doing here may be random as well and perhaps he did not take notice of me.
"Hey! Help me!" I hollered, turning my head as far to the side as I could to allow my voice to travel to him with as little resistance as possible. "Help me! I'm strapped down and I cannot move!" The sage seemed to ignore me, although he may have been concentrating too intensely in his work. "Excuse me! Please aid me! I have very important matters to report! Help me!" I screamed louder. This time I could see the Sage pause and look in my direction in the shard of ice that lay next to me. Finally, my words have reached him.
"Please be quiet, I am trying to accomplish my own task. Do not move me to target you with the hope of silencing you. It may be so, but permanently." The sage threatened, with a very calm tone and sarcastic politeness. Just as I was about to respond I heard something else that made me keep myself quiet so I could discern what it was. I heard a soft chuckle and the sound of a wheel moving on the stone. There was at least one more person here with us. "Something's coming." I heard the Sage say. There was a shockwave delivered and I heard a very loud insect noise, as well as felt the heat of a blazing fire. The sky was painted temporarily with some foreign characters that I could not decipher, an extremely loud crackle tore through the atmosphere and the words faded, the insect emitting a very high pitched shriek of pain. I heard something being tossed and the words smothered the sky once more and the insect let out one last cry of desperation.
"This won't do. Hand me a dead branch." Now I understand! The sage is trying to summon a monster and he must have an asura monk and alchemist with him to rid him of the unwanted ones.
"Monk! Help me! I am a knight of Prontera! I have been taken captive by someone!" I cried loudly. I waited for a response but the only thing that came was the sound of those wheels along the stone. Soon I felt something pound me in the chest, and it took the breath out of me in a second. I didn't feel any real physical pain, but I was stunned and I could not make any physical movements although I could think. I waited it out until I regained control of myself but I kept quiet. There was no point in talking. These people are not going to listen. Obviously something deadly has taken place, for a monk to defy Prontera. There really was nothing to do but listen to their demands, but none came.
"There it is!" I heard the sage yell in delight. I heard the three of them scamper away, and all that was left was an unsettling feeling. I did not hear anything out of the ordinary, but I knew something was coming my way. Soon, a ghostly face of a young swordsman popped over me and from the startling event I let out a short cry. The youth disappeared in a second and reappeared standing on the stony ledge. Sweat broke out as I realized that no other than a doppelganger stood before me. I let out a scream as I saw the look on its ghostly face change to a menacingly evil glare as it drew out its terrifying bastard sword. I could not shield myself, not that it would do anything.
Suddenly, I heard a cracking sound as something hit the doppelganger and as it turned, I saw an assassin flying over him, landing at the end of my prison. She rolled and with a few swift blows detached me from my incarceration. I quickly rose up and leapt off, backing away from the doppelganger as it adjusted its target.
"Thanks Riyu," I whispered hoarsely, my blood pumping with adrenaline. The words left my mouth without thought – there were bigger things at hand. I turned for some sign of acknowledgment but Riyu dashed towards the doppelganger. The beast did not flinch but summoned a few nitemares, phantom horses burning with a bizarre purplish flame. I no longer was in possession of my weapons, but I had to do something, and with Riyu's decreased dodging abilities I had no choice but to join her right now. I charged in, attempting to tackle a nitemare to the ground, but instead of meeting the resistance of the weight of the horse I met only the ground. My body passed right through and I crashed to the ground and rolled over. Oh my God, I had forgotten about their immunity to physical attacks. Then there really was nothing for me to do but run for my life, unless. . . .my attention was brought to the sound of something sliding past me. I had thought at first that a piece of my armor had broken off, but the sound came from the fire damascus that must have fallen out of my undergarments! I rolled once more to avoid the nitemare's fiery hooves and dove, grabbing the Damascus in my hand. I was not very skilled with daggers – swords and spears yes – but it should be enough to take out these horses. I provoked the nitemare and slashed brutally at it, my other arm trying to defend myself but to no avail. The nitemare's strikes went right through to me. Perhaps Lord Silver did not trust me at all and had the imitations delivered to me instead, because my armor should have given me more fortification than this. After several strikes however, the nitemare fell to its knees without breath, and I moved onto the next. I aggravated the remaining three to get them away from Riyu, and I took some heavy blows, but I managed to assault them tenfold harder in return. The last of the nitemares tumbled and I headed towards the doppelganger with anxiety. I had never gone up against one by myself, but at least with Riyu tanking him a bit it may be possible.
The doppelganger had monstrous speed and attacked fervously, the very rare hit connecting with Riyu. Having a swordsman build, the doppelganger's attack was not impeded by the quick hits done by Riyu. I was prepared to join the fray but Riyu yelled at me.
"Stop! You're in no condtion. Come with me, I know where they have your real equipment. Start running down that flight of stairs!" Riyu kept attacking the fiend.
"What about you?" I yelled back, skidding in my tracks.
"I'll cloak, now just GO!" Riyu yelled back. With that I scrambled over to the door and descended down the stairs until I reached another plateau. I took cover against one of the walls but before I knew it Riyu appeared before me. "Follow me."
We made our way through the labyrinth until we reached a small room where some gems and equipment was held. On the table by the far wall was my equipment.
"Hurry up, we don't know if he'll reappear near us." Riyu said, fiddling with her jurs and avoiding eye contact with me. I picked up my equipment and looked it over until Riyu spun around to see what I was doing and yelled "what are you doing, pick up the pace!"
"Hey, stop being a pervert and be a lady and leave the room! Remember to lock it and I better not catch you peeping through the keyhole!" I snapped, a grin on my face as I began to strip my armor off. The heat from my body met the cold dank air. I heard Riyu mumble something about me being the pervert but she left the room. I equipped myself and rummaged through the room to see what I could exploit. I grabbed an awakening potion, some white and blue potions, and a panacea.
I pulled the door handle to see Riyu bent over, her face red. I playfully nudged her head. "Stop joking around, let us leave this place." I heard her say "owww" and rub her head as she caught up to me.
We dashed down another flight of dusty stairs, through a desolated chamber of crumbling statues and out into the open. Then it hit me. Gazing upon the archaic structures that sprung forth from the ground from all angles I realized that I was in Glast Heim. The dread settled in from knowing that I was in enemy territory with no one but the person who betrayed me and then rescued me. The gothic architecture and stone gargoyles made the place seem forbidding, the wispy gnarled trees shooting forth from overgrown hedges, hiding whatever small creatures were brave enough to scour Glast Heim. Our feet hammered the stony paths as we scurried from the sound of clinking armor, fading safely in the distance.
"Where are we going?" I asked, darting my eyes back and forth, searching for any signs of the enemy.
"Where else do we have but Morroc. We'll be safe there. You were only placed in this predicament because Lord Silver chose to disobey Master Sesshomaru. He thought you were too unreliable and tried to get the doppelganger to become you to lead your men out of Prontera to be slaughtered. Morroc is the only city that will welcome you now." Riyu replied. Her tone made it sound like it her master was not at fault at all for my disastrous dilemma, but rather a beacon of shining righteous hope. However I could not argue, as it really was the only place I had left.