Adept Quest

by lilepdude

Part 1 starts with a girl and her master accidentally realeasing the fourth prime evil, the outcast. Part 2 focuses on a new hero, who finds the truth about Slater. Part 3 takes place ten thousand years later. To read it, find The Cleansing.

3. Act III

Act III

Later, Slater steps off of the boat and is greeted by a woman in black. With obvious false enthusiasm the woman begins talking to Slater. "Why hello there! Welcome to Kurast! Isn't it a beautiful day? Why not try the pub! They have great ales!" "Umm, hello?" The woman grits her teeth and is having trouble keeping her false smile. "Yes, yes! Didn't I already go over that?" The woman seems to be growing more and more annoyed. "Um, I'm sorry, but are you being forced to do this or something?" The woman loses all of her kindness now. "Do you think so? Does it seem like I enjoy being here? I get paid next to nothing and only per person who arrives here! How many people do you think come here a year?" Slater thinks for a moment. "100?" The woman laughs in a very annoying way. "THREE! Yet, every day I need to stand here for free!" Slater raises an eyebrow at the woman. "Well, why don't you get a different job?" The woman again seems to get more annoyed. "Don't you think I would if I could?" "Well, why can't you?" "That's none of your business! What's with all the questions?" Slater sighs. "I'm sorry. However, I do have one more. I'm searching for the Evils, do you know where I can find them?" The woman laughs once again. "Well, I guess I won't be seeing you again! One of the Prime Evils, Mephisto lives through the jungle. If you even make it that far, you must reach the bottom of his temple and after all of that, fight Mephisto himself." Slater looks strangely at the woman. "Why won't you be seeing me again?" The woman laughs once more. "You won't have a chance of surviving that journey!" Slater sighs again. "Well then perhaps you should come with me? I'm sure you're so much stronger than I am." The woman seems to think hard for a moment. "Well, of course I am, but why would I go on a suicide mission?" Slater angrily begins to walk towards the town exit. "Fine, bye." The woman seems to argue with herself for a moment. "Wait! I'll go with you." Slater turns around to look at the woman. "I'm a trained assassin, maybe with the two of us we'll have a chance against Mephisto." Slater stares at the assassin for a moment. "Whatever, let's go." Slater and the assassin begin walking through the jungle. "So, what's your name anyway sorceress?" "I'm Slater, what's yours?" The assassin sighs. "I'm an assassin, if I went around giving out my name to whoever asked for it I'd be dead very quickly." Slater thinks for a moment. "Right, sorry." "So, Slater, be careful. There's a race of pygmies in this jungle. They sneak around with poisoned spears and darts." "Ok, thanks for the information. You be careful too." The assassin laughs. "Like I need to worry about pygmies." Slater sighs. The assassin starts running as fast she can, ahead of Slater. "Come on slow poke! Let's go!" The assassin takes a turn behind some trees while following the path. Immediately after, Slater hears a scream and runs towards where the assassin had turned. Slater finds that the assassin had just run into huge spider web in front of a cave entrance. Slater smirks. "I thought you weren't afraid of anything assassin?" "I-I'm not!" The assassin makes a sad attempt to look brave without shaking. "You're afraid of spiders." "That's absurd! Only a creature like them…" The assassin realizes that Slater had already entered the cave. The assassin sighs and hesitantly enters the cave to find Slater. Slater laughs again. "Took you long enough assassin, scared?" "Uh, No! Whatever, why did you come down here anyway?" "Well, the captain of the ship that I came in here told me of a flail that I need to recreate if I want to reach Mephisto. To successfully create the flail, I'll need some remains of a man named Khalim. I'll need his brain, his heart, one of his eyes and what remains of his original flail. The eye is in a cave filled with spiders, which I think is where we are. The heart is in a chamber used by pygmies for torture. The brain is in the sewers of the Kurast Bazaar. Finally, the flail, I find confusing. The High Council, the ones who murdered Khalim have it." The assassin thinks to herself for a moment. "I know what he's talking about it, I'll deal with it after we get the body parts." Slater looks strangely at the assassin for a moment. "Ok?" The two go through the cave, slicing and squishing spiders. The assassin tries to stand back as much as possible. Eventually the two come upon a small, glowing chest. Slater opens it. "AHA! It's the eyeball, I was right." Slater smiles happily. As Slater's taking the eye from the chest, she finds that the assassin had already run from the cave. "Hurry up, slow poke!" Slater sighs and walks out from the cave. They continue traveling through the jungle. They don't get far before it starts to get dark. The two of them find a campfire. They don't see anyone nearby and decide to camp at it. A few moments later, they look up and see a dead woman hanging from a tree directly above them. The assassin gets a nervous look. "This must be a pygmy camp Slater." Slater looks around for a moment and stares into the jungle. "Could this be the pygmy village with that torture chamber?" Slater waits a moment and doesn't get an answer. She turns around and sees the assassin lying on the ground with a dagger through her chest. "Assassin!" Slater jumps up as a poisoned dart passes by where her head had been. Slater frantically tries to find where the pygmies are but can't find them. She begins shooting fireballs randomly in circles around her. All nearby trees begin to burn and the fire spreads. "Slater! You're going to burn the jungle down!" "Assassin, you're alive!" "Yeah, whatever." The assassin quickly lays traps on the ground and pulls Slater into a nearby building. Once they're safely inside and see burning pygmies running around in circles, the assassin pulls the dagger from her chest and stares at it. Slater looks at the assassin. "How're you alive? It doesn't even look like the dagger hurt you at all!" The assassin laughs slightly. "I should be asking you the same question." "What?" "Check your back." Slater finds two poisoned daggers through her back, four darts in her legs and one last dart in the back of her head. "Um, Assassin, the reason I'm here…trying to kill Mephisto, is because I'm the Chosen One. I must defeat all eight of the evils." The assassin gets a frightened look in her eyes. "The…Chosen One?" Yes, I've only defeated one of the evils, Andariel. Until all eight are killed, I'm unable to die. Maybe I give off an aura, allowing my allies the same ability?" The assassin laughs very slightly. "Yeah, maybe that's it." "What's with the sarcasm?" "Hm? Oh, Nothing, let's find that guy's heart. This should be that torture chamber you were talking about." "Right, let's go then." They turn around and find a chest containing the heart directly in front of them with a dead fallen on the side of it. "That was a bit easy…" The assassin examines the chest for a moment. "It looks like this fallen was attempting to get the heart out of the camp before you could get it. I think you got it with one of those fireballs earlier." Slater laughs a little. "Oops." Slater takes the heart and the two of them walk over the charred bodies of the fallen towards the Kurast Bazaar. It's not a long trip. It's immediately obvious that monsters have taken over the bazaar. Most buildings are either completely destroyed or already collapsed entirely. The two enter the town quietly, avoiding monsters. They find the sewers easily; it could be smelled almost from the entrance to the bazaar. They enter the sewers without being noticed and look around. Every so often there's a small group of monsters, but nothing that could take on Slater and the assassin. "I guess the smell is too bad even for the monsters, it's nearly empty down here." The assassin quirks an eyebrow at Slater. "Right." The two continue on and eventually find a lever. When they pull it, a nearby trap door opens. They go through and find a chest. Slater opens it and finds Khalim's brain. "Ok, well I have the three body parts already, where's the flail assassin?" The assassin looks at Slater. "The council dwells in Travincal, which is just up some stairs in the eastern part of the bazaar. Defeating the council won't be easy. However, if we do win, Mephisto will be waiting for us." "Yes, but we'll defeat him." The assassin laughs. "Right." Slater turns towards the trap door. "So, what're we waiting for? Let's go." Slater and the assassin leave the sewers. They go up the stairs to Travincal and find the council's building. As they open the door, they're both tackled to the ground. The assassin is on the ground with a dead council member on top of her. "Ha, I was expecting that." The assassin pushes the council member off of her and Slater and the two of them get up. "Come on council! I dare ya! Come out and fight!" A three-headed dragon rises from the ground behind Slater and the assassin and begins shooting fireballs at them. "Quick Slater! In the building!" They run into the building and slam the door behind them. They turn from the door to find that the five remaining council members had surrounded them. They lunge towards the two of them. The assassin uses her blades to deflect the attacks. "Slater, two of them aren't as strong as the other three, see the ones with the amulets?" Slater looks towards the council members and notices two are wearing amulets. Also, of those two, one is holding Khalim's flail. "Yes." "Ignore them for now, of the three without amulets, kill the one on the left. I'll get the one on the right." The assassin counts to three and the two of them quickly take out the two council members. Immediately after, Slater gets back behind the assassin. "Ok Slater, we can't take on the three of them. You see the one with golden amulet? I want you to throw Khalim's body parts at him." Slater gives a surprised look at the assassin. "What?" "Just do it!" Slater hesitates for moment before taking out the body parts. She then stares at them for a second and finally throws them at the council member. The three body parts begin to glow and seem to fuse with the flail. "Assassin, all that did was make him mad. Not to mention make his weapon more powerful." The assassin smirks. "Good." Slater stops trying to understand the assassin's plan. "What now?" "When I count to three, run to the front of that glowing orb with me. When the council member with the flail is about to hit you, run to the side." Slater seems confused but agrees. "1…2…3!" The two dodge past the council members and run in front of the glowing orb. The council members chase them immediately. They stop directly in front of the Slater and the assassin. The head council member raises Khalim's flail and brings it down quickly. Slater and the assassin jump to the side immediately. The glowing orb is smashed entirely by the flail. "That went exactly as planned. Good job Slater." Slater looks at the assassin. "What exactly was the point of that?" The room begins to shake and the entire building starts to collapse. "What's going on assassin?" The three remaining council members fall to the ground and burst into flame. "Just like I said Slater, exactly as planned." The floor crumbles beneath them and they fall into a large room. Slater goes unconscious when she hits the ground. When she awakes, she sees the assassin sitting against a wall. "Finally awake Slater?" Slater shakes her head a little to help herself wake up. "Uh, I guess so. Where are we?" "This is the Durance of Hate, Mephisto's lair. To tell you the truth, I'm very surprised you've made it this far. Of course, you wouldn't have if I wasn't here, but still. It's surprising." Slater sighs. "The hard part wasn't getting here. It's going to be not being slain by Mephisto. I may revive after being killed, but, what if my head is ripped off or something? I would continuously revive and bleed to death. It'd be a never-ending cycle, never-ending pain." "Pain…" "Huh?" "Er, nothing, but you shouldn't think that way. Your quest must be completed. You can't give up now." "I guess your-" Slater gets a sharp pain in her head. "SLATER." "You again? What do you want!" "SLATER, YOUR CHOICE OF ALLIES IS TRULY TERRIBLE. THE ONLY TRUE ALLY YOU'VE EVER HAD IS NOW IN HELL. HER SHIP WAS SUNK BY MY MINIONS, ONE IN PARTICULAR." "SHUT UP! SHE IS ON MY SIDE, LILE IS ALIVE, AND YOU WILL SOON BE DEAD!" The whole area is suddenly silent. "Slater? What was that about?" Slater sits on the ground. She holds her legs to her face and begins to cry. "Assassin." "What's wrong?" "Leave." The assassin looks confused and isn't sure what to do. "Why?" "I SAID LEAVE!" The assassin begins walking away slowly and then turns around. "But Slater, you need my help to defeat Mephisto!" Slater looks up at the assassin and stares at her for a minute. "Assassin, I don't know what to do anymore, but you're right. I need your help." "Ok, well, shall we go? The Lord of Hatred awaits." Slater stands up and wipes her eyes. "Ok assassin, I just hope I'm right in trusting you." The two of them walk into the next room, go down a flight of stairs and reach Mephisto's chamber. "Are you ready to defeat pain itself Slater?" Slater shrugs. "I hope so." They make their way to the other side of the long chamber to find Mephisto. "Your quest ends here-" Mephisto looks down to find the assassin's claws through his chest. The assassin smirks. "Yes it does, it's complete." Mephisto gushes blood as the assassin pulls her claws from his chest. He stands still for a moment before falling to the ground, dead. "Assassin? You kept telling me this wouldn't be easy. You just killed him in one shot! Plus, my quest isn't complete. I've only defeated two of the eight evils." "I said that my quest was complete, not yours. However, your quest will still be ending shortly. You will be defeated by a lesser evil. The Mistress of Pain." "What? Where is she?" The assassin laughs. "You can't tell? She is I. Are you ready to die?" The assassin gets into a battle stance, in preparation to charge at Slater. "Assassin, what are you talking about? If you're a lesser evil, why would you travel with me? Not to mention slay your own brother?" The Mistress of Pain smiles evilly. "I used you Slater, for revenge. Revenge for us both." "Revenge? Revenge for what?" The Mistress gives a strange look at Slater. "The siege of Hell, Slater. Do you remember nothing? Slater, you are-" The lava to the side of them begins to bubble and the room shakes violently. "MISTRESS OF PAIN, YOU'VE BETRAYED THE LORDS OF HELL ONE TOO MANY TIMES!" "NO! Baal, please don't!" The Mistress' body begins to shrivel and deteriorate. "THE LESSER EVILS WILL FALL!" "Slater, avenge me…" The mistress falls to the ground, only half a skeleton. Soon after, she melts entirely into the ground. "Assassin? What just happened? Baal? Did you kill her? Assassin, you said I was something. What am I? Who am I? I'm not sure anymore." Slater falls to the ground, not sure what to do next. "SLATER." "Baal, leave me alone, I have no time for you." Baal laughs menacingly. "I DON'T CARE. YOU'RE NEXT." "What?" Slater jumps up and is suddenly unable to breathe. She looks down at her hands, they're beginning to shrivel. The skin on her body begins to fall onto the ground in clumps. "B-Baal…" Slater falls to the ground in a bloody pile of her own body parts.