Chapter 7

The five warriors descended down the steps to King Leoric's Tomb. They came to a large room and heard a loud deep booming voice.

"I sense living souls here, you all will serve the dark forces in hell...forever. You do not stand a chance". All the warriors knew it was Leoric who spoke as the Burning Dead descended upon them for it caused the hair to stand on end and the spine to tingle. Adrianna could not believe it. The dead King had indeed risen from his eternal slumber only to command a legion of undead minions. Only an ultimately evil being could cause this much commotion in such a small town. Turn a kind king in a savage monster. They shot the many skeletons that lumbered towards them. Daniel, Derek, and Jayalm taking care of the skeletons with swords, and Lothar and Adrianna taking care of the skeletons shooting arrows and holy bolts. They found a lever in the room to the left of them. It lifted up the bars to the area in the main room in front of them. They moved to the room on the right and pulled another lever that opened a secret room with a chest in it. There was some leather armour in it. They figured it belonged to the King and so it should remain with the cursed king. They moved to the main room and began to attack the skeletons in the other main room where the King's coffin lay...empty, its lid lie cracked on the floor beside the casket. Above the horde of skeletons, they saw a gigantic white skeleton that was taller than even the Butcher had been.

"Um…don't tell me that's King Leoric" Adrianna said sizing up the demon. He had a very long mithril sword that was about half the length of an average man and wore a mithril crown to match.

"That's the King all right I remember my father making that mithril sword and crown, it was said to be the strongest type of metal," Derek said calling out to the other four surprised warriors. The King moved very fast and dodged every single one of Adrianna's arrows well. The King, as dead and bony as he was, leaped into the air and came down landing just inches from Adrianna. He began swinging his large sword at her. The sword hit her in the chest, only her armour protected her from serious damage, the force of the impact, sending her stumbling back. She quickly recovered and pulled her dagger from her belt. She threw the dagger square in the skeleton's sword shoulder. The King could not move his bony arm and this allowed Derek, Daniel and Jayalm to attack him. While Adrianna and Lothar fended off the other skeletons that accompanied the King. During the King's attack, Adrianna had lost her bow, as it had skittered across the floor. She spotted it on the floor about 5 feet away. The only problem, however, was the fact that her bow lay behind King Leoric who was struggling to pull out her lodged dagger from his shoulder, he roared in sheer anger. Calling upon her will and strength, Adrianna took off running into the fray. She dodged as best she could, through the swinging axes and swords. Adrianna dove for her bow as Leoric attempted to grab her with his free arm, as she hit the floor with her shoulder and rolled across it missing Leoric's hand. She grabbed her bow and leaped up grabbing an arrow and notching it in her bow. Derek, Daniel and Jayalm descended on the huge skeleton while Lothar continually pummeled it with his holy bolts. She summoned as much strength as she could to her fire arrow and then firing it through the air hit Leoric in the back. Upon impact, the arrow exploded blasting Derek, Daniel and Jayalm across the floor. When the fire dissipated all that was left of the King was a pile of bone. In the midst of this pile stood her dagger, still lodged in the King's shoulder and his sword pointing up towards the heavens. His crown lay on the floor beside him. Adrianna walked over to the King. She bent down and picked up her dagger and straightening up, she placed it back in her belt. She placed her hand across her heart and said,

"Rest in peace King Leoric. We will find your son". She turned and looking for the three warriors who had been thrown, she found Derek by the King's tomb. Daniel was across the room rubbing his back and cursing silently. He glared at her and all she could do was smirk as she walked to the other fallen soldiers . She had given him an example of her stealth and might. Lothar was with Jayalm who was sitting up on the floor. Adrianna went over to Derek.

"Are you alright? Sorry I didn't know that hitting Leoric with a fire arrow would do that," she said kneeling by Derek, who was rubbing his back and wincing.

"Aye I'm fine, that was a powerful blast. How are the others?" Derek asked.

"Their fine but a little dazed I think. As for Daniel, well…" Adrianna could only smile and giving a hand to Derek who took it and pulled himself up, she could only feel a great sense of pride.

"That was a good move you made back there" he said. "Too bad those moves didn't come any sooner to save the people of this town. If only the Kingdom had known that this town was the very centre of evil. One would wonder why no one knew of this evil". The look on his face was that of anger and pain, towards her no doubt. After what she had done so many years ago, how could he ever forgive her? She was sick and tired of being criticized for her actions. Why wouldn't anyone believe her? Why were her actions considered selfish? Who could she talk to? There was only one person she could think of and that was Agden. She would have to talk to him.

"We should head up to Cain now that we have defeated the Butcher and Leoric" Lothar said coming up behind them, Jayalm coming up behind rubbing his wrist that he had landed rather hard on. Daniel walked up then. He looked extremely pissed off.

"What the hell do you think you are doing? Are you trying to kill me?" Daniel moved right up to Adrianna and brought his right arm swiftly up and punched her in the stomach, surprising her and causing a deep pain in her stomach. She cried out in pain and fell holding her stomach. She struggled vainly to breathe. She had been punched before, but never this hard and never by a man of his strength. Daniel pulled out his dagger menacingly. Derek stood in front of Adrianna standing defiantly and glared coldly at Daniel. Daniel angered by this, moved to hit Derek but Lothar stood in the way. Daniel shoved Lothar off his feet and pushed him to the ground.

"This battle is between me and her only. Now move blacksmith or I'll kill you too", he said stepping up to Derek. Derek stood his ground.

"If you ever touch her again, I swear on my father's grave that I will kill you where you stand. Do you understand"? Still angered, Daniel brought his dagger up and in one swift movement; Derek had punched Daniel in the gut. Daniel staggered back in utter pain. He only angrily stared at Derek, and then straightening up, Daniel turned and walked away. Lothar and Jayalm were kneeling beside her now. She winced in pain as she struggled to her feet. Never in her entire life had a man punched her nor hit her for that matter. She swore that she would make him pay for what he had done. She held a hand defensively in front of her stomach. The remainder of the group was about to walk up the stairs, but she was in so much pain that she did not feel like walking up three flights of stairs.

"Wait!" Adrianna said holding up a hand as she remembered an old spell that she had learned from a mage in the jungles when she visited Kurast. She held up her hand and called out,

"I call upon the portal of the jungle". A deep blue and green sparkling round portal appeared in the room. It was a foot taller than Derek and three feet in width.

"It's a portal to the town. I learned it in Kurast" she said.

"Your from Kurast?" Jayalm and Lothar asked surprised.

"Well actually I grew up here in Tridosios. I came to Kurast after the War in the East" she said remembering her past again and that long journey to the east. She could still fell the stinging blow to her stomach.

"You will have to teach us that spell," Lothar said. Jayalm just nodded. The four warriors headed through the portal. Instantly they were in the town.

Cain looked up at them as they approached. He sensed that the King had been laid to rest finally. He smiled as they came to a stop in front of him.

"We have destroyed the King and the Butcher" Lothar said bowing to Cain.

"Ah, yes I know. I am proud of you all. You have survived thus far. Now it is time for you to learn the entire story. A long time ago there were three Prime Evils who resided in Hell; Diablo, Mephisto and Baal. Then one day the lesser evils cast these three evils out into the mortal world where they wreaked havoc upon the world. My ancestors the Horadrim banished these evils into soulstones that were supposed to keep them locked away for all eternity. Unfortunately, the soulstone could not hold Diablo and it may be that he is now creating this havoc as he was buried here long ago. Of course I am not sure of this possibility so you all have to travel through the Cathedral, Catacombs, Caves, and quite possibly Hell itself. For that you all must have the best in armour and weaponry, which you all have. But you must use your brain as well. Use strategy to defeat your enemies. The enemies you have faced thus far have been easy to defeat. Not using elemental magic against you. This will change as you travel through the Labyrinth. You will find your enemies are getting stronger. Proceed with caution. Also I suggest getting healing potions and potions of Rejuvenation from Lithious and Alyssia. You must also find King Leoric's son Albrecht". Cain finished. The four warriors nodded. Cain then noticed that someone was missing.

"Where is Daniel? Has something happened to him?" Derek's face went crimson as he explained to Cain what happened. Cain could not understand why he would do such a thing. Adrianna slipped away from the men and went straight to Lithious' to fill up on healing and rejuvenation potions. Rejuvenation potions were yellow and refilled both energy and health. She walked towards the tavern, seeing if she could talk to Agden. He was sitting at the counter writing on a piece of parchment. He was obviously counting up the money he had earned. He looked up as she entered.

"Adrianna, you seem worried. What is wrong?"

"I have a question for you old friend. Remember long ago, the night I left home?"

"Yes I remember it well. I remember it to the very last detail".

"Well I want to know if you believe that my actions that night were selfish".

"Well many believed your actions to be selfish and they all thought you left because you did not want to marry Derek. But I always knew you only wanted to protect us. I told this to Laura and she believed me. Jillian also knows the truth. When you came back, those who believed the old woman who visited our town rejoiced. Unfortunately you came at a time when over half the town had been killed. I want you to know that I was your friend, am your friend and always will be your friend". Adrianna hugged Agden, with a new sense of hope that she could convince Derek that she had meant well.

"Well I must go we have a mission to complete, so long old friend and thank you". She said as she walked out and headed to the portal where she waited for the other's to show up. When they arrived, they took the portal that took them back to the King's Chamber where they climbed the stairs to the third floor. They then crossed to where the stairs to the fourth floor was.

The fourth floor was a lot like the third with the same demons only it was darker and colder. They could not find the stairs to the fifth floor. Suddenly ten Devil kin ambushed them. They attacked with such a strong force that it forced the group to separate. Adrianna ran across the room to get a better aim at the demons. She was suddenly attacked by three hidden demons. She was close to a door in the corner, so she began to back up. She walked into something blunt. She felt with one hand. A doorknob she realized as she opened the door. It was at that moment that one demon hit her wrist with the hilt of its sword. She lost grip of her bow and it disappeared. She could not get out the door to get it so she closed the door, turned and ran through the other half of the cathedral. Searching the wide open space, she spied a long bow on the floor. She grabbed the long bow and then ran to the nearest door, opened it and locked herself in fast enough to block out the twenty demons that had crept out from the shadows. She defeated the demons inside the room and headed away from the door that separated her from the twenty demons that had gathered at the door. She was thankful that she was wearing plate wrist guards. There was only a dent in the metal. She travelled around this new area looking for another way to get out. She found a large room and was able to kill the skeletons in the room. She found a lone goat man in the centre of the room. He looked badly hurt. She stepped closer to him aiming her bow at him.

"Please no hurt, no kill, spare Garbad and good come to you. This promise I keep". She walked away and destroyed some nearby demons. She could not bring herself to kill the demon, as he had not attacked her first. She came back to Garbad who gave her a useless axe with which she discarded once she was out of sight of him. He also said he was making another weapon for her. She was suspicious of this creature and was prepared for she knew a similar tactic that she had encountered on the battlefield. Her suspicions were correct when she returned and he turned to her and said,

"It too powerful for you, you want you take". He then proceeded to attack her. She killed him easily for he was weak. She jump kicked the demon away, and then bringing up her bow she shot the demon in the heart. She walked up to his corpse and said,

"I'm not impressed". She turned and cleaned out the rest of the area she was in. She found it much harder to defeat these demons without her special bow, but she managed and finally had cleared the area out and was heading back to the door where the demons waited for her.

When she arrived at the door she put her head by the door and could hear scratching at it, which meant they were still out there. She took a deep breath and calling her strength she jump-kicked the door. The door splintered open, surprising the demons, which gave her the advantage. She managed to kill three demons before they began to attack her at once. She felt a spear pierce her arm. Yelping in pain, she grabbed her dagger and threw it at the demon, piercing him in the heart. Positioning herself in the door jam, she created an easier way to attack the demons. They could only attack one demon at a time. Suddenly she saw a chain of lightning blast three of the Devil Kin. She continued to attack them. She knew Derek was on the other side of the fray. They attacked them until the last demon fell. Derek ran to Adrianna as she grabbed her bag and took out a potion of healing and drank it. She felt better instantly. The wounds healed quickly.

"Adrianna are ya alright?" Derek asked walking across the field of death.

"Yes I'm fine. I was attacked and I lost my bow and I don't know where it is," she said looking around the room, spotting her dagger among the dead. She walked over and pulled her dagger out. She reached in her bag and pulled out a dirty cloth. She wiped the blood off her dagger and then looked at Derek as he said,

"I do. It's right here. I found it and I knew you were down in this area".

"Thank you, but where are the other's?" she asked looking behind him.

"They wanted to clear out the stairs that were full of Devil Kin. We should head back," Derek said. The two ran back across the floor to where Lothar, and Jayalm were waiting.

"Are you alright?" Jayalm asked when Adrianna and Derek arrived.

"We were worried about you when you disappeared" Lothar added.

"I'm fine the other half of the floor has been cleared". Adrianna responded. The group moved down the stairs. All thoughts were on what lay at the bottom of these stairs