Thank you for the reviews. Nearing the end of the game in this chapter. I hope I'm setting things right and am not ruining my effect or not saying enough so that no one will see anything coming. Hopefully this bit of babbling will make your eyes more alert ;-)
Aditu: I'm afraid I gave away many spoilers for D1 in this story. The whole point of D1 is discovering the scope of the evil hiding (sinister voice) deep down in the labyrinth. As for Shurvi and Liria… we'll see about that in the next chapter! ;-p
BloodHeron: good hunt.
Background info for this chapter: Lazarus is the "bastard" that led the townsfolk into a trap, which you learn at the beginning of the game, and that made so many brave people die at the hands of the Butcher. At the end of this battle, Griswold saw him running further down into the labyrinth, and he did not reappear since. He also happened to be a councillor to king Leoric before he turned mad/undead.
Chapter V. The Binding of the Three
The very next day, they found yet another book. This one was the Binding of the Three.
"So it came to be that the three Prime Evils were banished in spirit form to the mortal realm, and after sewing chaos across the East for decades, they were hunted down by the cursed order of the mortal Horadrim. The Horadrim used artefacts called Soulstones to contain the essence of Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred, and his brother Baal, the Lord of Destruction. The youngest brother – Diablo, the Lord of Terror – escaped to the West.
"Eventually the Horadrim captured Diablo within a Soulstone as well, and buried him under an ancient, forgotten cathedral. There, the Lord of Terror sleeps and awaits the time of his rebirth. Know ye that he will seek a body of youth and power to possess – one that is innocent and easily controlled. He will then arise to free his brothers, and once more fan the flames of the Sin War," Liria read, while Shurvi looked over her shoulder.
"Sounds bad," Shurvi suddenly realized, his features darkening.
"What?", Liria said, as she was reading it twice to memorize it.
"The West would be around Westmarch and Khanduras, wouldn't it?", he asked. "Considering that the East was around where the bard was from. And we have both our feet in an ancient, forgotten cathedral…", Shurvi said, pointing to the words on the page, "… with evil plaguing its every corner. Evil of a greater magnitude than I have seen during all my training and the last year as a mercenary. Shouldn't we beginning to think that something down here is a serious threat? Like, for instance, Diablo, the Lord of Terror, king of Hell, himself?"
Both paused, uneasy.
"A body of youth and power to possess," Liria suddenly stated.
"What?", Shurvi asked.
"That could be Albrecth – the youth – or Lazarus – the power. Don't you think?"
Shurvi suddenly grew pale. "This is… terrible."
"That would explain Leoric's madness," Liria said, kindly, her hand on Shurvi's arm.
He freed his arm a little rudely, staring sideways at her with an annoyed expression. He did not need to be comforted. What was she thinking, looking at him as though she pitied him? "I will not believe my king fallen in this way," he declared haughtily.
She bristled. "You heard him as much as I did saying that if we fell, we would serve his master for all eternity. I am not saying he fell without a fight, or as a coward, or anything! How could he be expected to resist the power of a Prime Evil that possessed his son?"
Shurvi's big shoulders slumped. This labyrinth was not doing him any good. He knew he was more jumpy and more irritable with each day they spent down here. But she was his friend, and she did not deserve his harshness when she was trying to be nice to him. And he admitted to himself that he needed some kindness – her kindness – these days. "I am sorry, Liria, I… didn't mean to be rude to you," he apologized.
Instantly, he relaxed. He noticed that his heart had been taken into a cold grip as he felt it being eased by his apology and his realization that she was being kind to him. He could not say how long this grip had been there, because he had not been aware of it before it was gone. His body and soul filled with a strange warmth from the inexplicable release.
Liria, oblivious to his internal turmoil, only knew that her heart jumped suddenly as he said her name. It was the first time he said it as he addressed her; generally, he used her name when he was talking about her to other people, but he called her "Red head". She was surprised at the sudden use of her name, and it felt strange… intimate. She pushed the thought aside, and put her hand back on his shoulder.
"Alright," he said at length. "That's way too probably just exactly how it happened. Let's find the son of a bitch and give him the sword in the heart he deserves."
"Arrow in the eye if you please," she answered, a wicked smile crossing her face.
"Both. And add a few painful burning spells on top of that, Red head. I'll even strain my eyes on a magic book if we find one, to add into the fray."
"Good Burnt head. Now don't you go rushing into a pack of demons before I can follow you because you're getting excited."
Shurvi smiled crookedly. "Fine. Let's go."
ooooo
"We must be getting close," Shurvi observed, looking around warily, as they stepped foot on the first floor of the hells hidden deep, deep below the cathedral.
Liria winced. "Yes. Best be careful."
Shurvi marched forward.
ooooo
Their quest together had started as a skeleton-killing campaign, but had turned out to be much longer, much darker, and much more complicated than expected.
They had killed the Butcher, freed King Leoric from his curse, purified the wells, found Ogden's sign, dealt with Gharbad the Weak and Zhar the Mad, found a magic rock for Griswold, retrieved Arkaine's Valour, entered and exited the Chamber of Bone, survived the Halls of the Blind, found a black mushroom for Adria and ended up with Pepin's elixir, brought the Anvil of Fury to Griswold, battled the Warrior of Blood, and freed Lachdanan from his curse as a death knight.
They had learned to know each other, they had grown in power, they had almost died a few times each one of them. They trusted each other with their lives. They were together in this fight, and there was no other way, for neither of them.
There they stood, looking at a beautiful staff mounted on a vile altar. The altar was looking so foul that neither of them dared to touch it, afraid it was trapped or poisoned or something. Finally, Liria extended her hand and removed the staff.
"Someone in town will know what it is," Liria said.
"Cain, probably," Shurvi added.
They nodded, finishing to clear off this part of hell. They found a big, strange pentagram on the floor, which neither dared tread on. After, they took a town portal back to town. Cain knew what was the sceptre. He told them who he was. The last of the Horadrim. He also confirmed their suspicions that it was Diablo, the dark Lord of Terror, imprisoned beneath the cathedral, which he was to guard. He had not believed the old legends and not seen the signs of Diablo's awakening. And finally, he told them of Lazarus's disappearance, and how likely it was that he wished to sacrifice Albrecth to his new master. Shurvi swore to free the boy if he could, in the name of Leoric's memory and shameful fall. Liria agreed, saying they would stop Lazarus and save Albrecth, in the name of all that is holy.
They returned down to the pentagram, and this time Liria approached, and her now great knowledge of magic allowed her to open a portal with it.
"Well, Red head, time to show the bastard a lesson," Shurvi said between gritted teeth.
He did not feel the cold grip settling again over his heart, as this grip was a most vicious one, and knew what moment of the mental preparation for the battle use to its advantage.
Liria felt some sudden uneasiness at Shurvi's harshness, but she remembered he had loved his king. So she declared: "Fine with me, Burnt head. Let's get Albrecth out of his clutches."
They stepped through the portal. They were teleported to another area, hidden deep within the cathedral. Liria reeled suddenly, and Shurvi caught her arm.
"Very foul magic at work here," she just said, regaining focus, and aiming carefully forward.
He nodded, acknowledging, and marched forward. Liria killed the succubus hidden between gates with defiant arrows. They were in a strange chamber, full of secret passages and magical devices designed to teleport them to other parts of the chamber and bring down concealing walls. It was not the first time they faced demons and strange artefacts. So, without paying too much attention to their surroundings beyond the usual and necessary caution, they stepped together on the various teleporting devices, touching the book together and appearing together in a new place. They did so twice, and once they were done killing the last succubus, Shurvi asked:
"Where to now?"
Liria thought for a while. "We should try the one we took to get here."
Shurvi shrugged. More often than ever, her intuitions in the ways of magic were right. They made their way to it, and stepped together on it, assuring their synchronisation by holding arms-up-arms-down, and counting together.
And they landed in the middle of a place crowded with demons. There was the Archbishop Lazarus, of course, and two very powerful succubus; it was obvious just by the aura of evil they were emitting. A boy was on a bloody altar, his insides exposed in torture. Shurvi and Liria slowly stood back to back, seeing the swarm of other succubus behind. Liria whispered "Bone spirit each". Shurvi made no sign of acknowledgment, thinking better not to attract attention, but grateful that she would weaken them greatly in this way. They listened to Lazarus, whose eyes were as red as a demon's, telling them to abandon their foolish quest, and to bow before his master, or to die.
"I will not lay down at your feet to die," Liria said defiantly.
"I will stop you!", Shurvi yelled, and he charged Lazarus.
Liria shot a Bone spirit his way, then one at the two powerful succubus, then she got down on one knee, gulping a mana potion quickly, the blood star of the demons piercing through her, and cast a mana shield. Then she summoned a Guardian, and started to fire arrows to go with the hydra's balls of fire.
Shurvi saw the terrifying skull-shaped ghost fly past him and bury itself in Lazarus' chest. The advocate staggered backwards under the impact, but quickly regained control and began firing fireballs at Shurvi, even before the warrior had finished his charge. He wore a ring that granted him great fire resistance, and he could deflect most of the damage with his shield, so the fireballs were not doing much good to Lazarus. Shurvi reached him and had the time to swing his sword and embed it once in the heavy breastplate before the bastard teleported away. Shurvi grunted in frustration, turning around, looking where he was gone, and saw Liria's arrow bury itself in his neck; he was not dead yet, and she was firing more arrows. She was victim to his fireballs, standing motionless in the middle of the room, but the spells did nothing but make her mana shield flare with white fire magic.
"Take the succubus, they don't run!", she screamed, notching arrow after arrow and letting it fly true to its target.
Shurvi obeyed without a sound, running to the closest powerful succubus, killing her with three slashes of his sword across her neck; he wondered how he was unable to behead her with only one hit. He heard Lazarus's cry of death, and immediately an arrow flew over his shoulder to hit the hand of the succubus next to him. The demoness lost the Blood star she was summoning with her raised hand and cursed.
Liria really was a fast firer. He was often grateful for that.
Shurvi modified his tactic for her. He thrust his sword straight through her gut, and sliced half her waist as he pulled his sword out. She tumbled to the floor, gurgling sounds of blood in her throat, as he turned towards the next succubus.
He slashed his way through the rest of them, and watched the last one go down with smug satisfaction.
"Back to hell, bitches," he said low.
Then he turned, and he saw Liria. She was down on one knee, her bow dropped by her side, her hands and faced peeled off from the heat of Lazarus' fireballs, her heated armour burning her still. She was not letting out a single sound.
His jaw dropped. He was not totally aware of what he did in the next few seconds, floating through a strange haze. He dashed towards her. She was shaking, her whole body very rigid. He opened a healing potion and poured it upon her face and hands. She screamed, but instantly the burns looked less brilliant red, and it was obvious now that she would survive.
The mist in Shurvi's mind dissipated. He frowned, not interrupting his moves, and finished to open the healing potion he had in his hand. He could not possibly have been worried enough to partially blank out like that. She was seriously injured, that much was true, but he knew she would be fine. He shook his head, pushing the matter aside, and handed her the potion.
"Drink this, Red head," he said, gently touching her face. She grunted again as his fingers touched her face, but she drank the potion quickly. Instantly the worst of the burns disappeared, all but her fingers that were still cut deeply from the burns and the string of her bow.
"Another one, Red head," he ordered, handing her the potion.
"I wasn't about to protest, Burnt head," she answered, downing the other potion as well.
Then, she was back to health. She opened a potion of full mana this time, and drank it down. Then she took her bow from the ground.
"Feeling better now," she said.
"I see that," he said.
She stood, and on impulsion, he squeezed her shoulder.
"Next time don't let yourself burn to death, Burnt head yourself," he admonished, letting go of her. "Call me and I'll let my shield take the heat."
"He would just have teleported again, further away."
Shurvi sighed. "Maybe, Red head, but as long as he was busy teleporting away from me, he wasn't firing anything at you!"
She blushed slightly, and shrugged, admitting defeat, at least. "Let's see what Cain has to say about… this."
She was looking at Lazarus' body, and her eyes surveyed the group of succubus dead, the two among them most powerful, and finally, the boy who had been tortured and sacrificed.
"It is not Albrecth," Shurvi told her.
"I wish we could at least bury him properly," she said darkly.
He put a hand on her shoulder, and turned her away gently. "Let's see what Cain has to say."
She nodded, and opened a portal. They both stepped through.