Chapter 9
He woke up coated in ash, the floor blackened and scorched beneath where he lay. He had prompts waiting for him, but the first thing he had noticed was that he had no idea how he had died or where his dad had gone.
The second thing he had noticed was the enormous black wolf gazing at him intently from a few feet away. Before Landon could freak out too badly, the wolf sniffed at the air around him and lightly nudged his shoulder back with the top of it's head.
"Raf?!" He spurted out. He already been confused when he revived, and this wasn't helping clear anything up.
The wolf barked at him, seemingly in affirmation.
"What are you doing here? How are a wolf right now? It's not a full moon is it? Where's Dr. Saltzman?" He asked in a rapid-fire manner. The only response from Raf was a full on eyeroll. He hadn't even known wolves COULD eyeroll.
"Right, wolf mouth, can't exactly answer questions if you can't talk." He said before switching tactics. "Just to be clear, you are Raf, right?"
The wolf nodded it's head in a very deliberate manner.
"Man, I'm glad to see you. I've got a lot to tell you, but I think first I need to sit down for a minute."
Landon slowly worked his way to one of the corners of the room, leaned against and proceeded to slowly sink down until he was seated, his legs splayed out before him. Whatever had happened to him it had taken a toll, he could not recall ever feeling as physically exhausted as he did at that moment.
He opened his prompts, more to get it out of the way than anything.
Memory had been altered due to Malivore pit absorption – Memories of ? have been removed
Memory had been altered due to Malivore pit absorption – Memories of ? have been removed
That means at least two people have been wiped from my memory, and with them all the memories of what happened to dad. He thought to himself.
Hoping to get some more information that would help him put some pieces together he opened his Menu and immediately noticed something was different.
Menu
Status | Bestiary | Abilities* | Quests* | Notes
Both his Quest and Ability pages had asterisks next to them, and he hadn't seen asterisks appear in his Menu since he first activity the system and the warning that he had had his memory altered was sitting in his notes waiting to be read.
He selected Quests and was surprised to find he had one for unlocking something called a Dullahan bloodline.
Bloodline Quest
DULLAHAN – In order to activity the dormant abilities of the Dullahan, you must be decapitated. (Note: Ressurective Immortality will re-attach your head following your successful rebirth without any ill effects)
What the hell? He thought. When did I get a bloodline quest? I thought I had to reach level 5 to pick one? Wait…. Shit! This means the Malivore pit can affect my memories of the system too!
On the verge of an imminent freak-out, he quickly decided he could leave whatever was going on with his ability page for later and opened his status screen.
Name: Landon Kirby (Malivore)
Race: ?
Titles: Progenitor
Perks: Reproduction Control | Instinct | Adaptation | Identify
Level: 9
XP till next level: 2,650
Unlocked Bloodlines: Flames of the Phoenix
Attributes
Body: 10
Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Endurance: 10
Mind: 10
Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 10
Abilities
Phoenix Fire | Phoenix Flight | Resurrective Immortality
Skills
Composition – Music (Journeyman 2) | Writing – Lyrics (Apprentice 9) | Musician - Guitar (Journeyman 3) | Deception - Acting (Journeyman 7)
Unspent Points
Attribute Points: 54 | Ability Points: 27 | Skill Points: 36
When the hell did I reach level 9? The more he thought about it the more concerned his memory issues were making him. He needed to raise his mental attributes NOW! Before he could second guess himself, he dumped all 54 attribute points into Intelligence bringing it up to 64 and generating another prompt.
Intelligence has reached 50 – For reaching this attribute benchmark before any other you have unlocked the Perk: Genetic Memory
Genetic Memory – When you unlock a new bloodline the experience of using the abilities generated by the creatures Malivore has trapped will be transferred to you instead of solely the instinct for it's use you received from the Instinct perk.
Note: Abilities user creates or unlocks via the Ability menu do not have experience attached to them and are therefore not affected by the Genetic Memory perk. You will need to practice those powers on your own to master them.
"Damn it!" He shouted, while punching the wall next to him, startling Raf with his sudden movement and anger. "Sorry, man. Just some bad news, I'll tell you all about it when we're back at the school."
Any other time he would have been thrilled about a power like that. He hated feeling defenseless and this perk had the potential to ensure that anything that attacked him would regret it. However, he was really hoping for something that would at the very least keep his head from being messed with.
As it stood, he was already beginning to feel the effects of increasing his intelligence by such a large amount so quickly. The fire inside him that had been present ever since his rebirth felt different. It was more potent; it was like before he could control what felt like the equivalent of a bonfire and now a raging inferno was his to command. That wasn't the only thing about his fire that was different it now felt truly a part of him, not just a tool he could use.
Before he had been afraid of attempting to fly. He had a sense of what he needed to do to accomplish flight, but in the back of his mind a fear that he wouldn't be able to figure it out had lingered. Now he knew exactly how to fly. His doubt regarding all his abilities had vanished, replace with confidence in himself, and what he could do.
Not to mention the more mundane effects of his intelligence increase. Looking at the room he noticed that the detail in which he saw everything was much greater. No spec, or out of place item escaped his razor-sharp focus, beginning with the headless body he had been completely ignorant of a few minutes earlier.
Huh, based on my bloodline quest, I'm guessing you're a Dullahan. He thought, as a glance around the room allowed him to puzzle through some of the events that took place. The shattered pieces of brick, the dust covering the cloak of the monster and it's head nowhere to be found was a pretty clear indication that a massive fight had occurred in this room. But if you lost, why did whoever you were fighting end up in the pit? And why is it fucking GONE!?
Every piece of information he gathered only served to generate further questions. At something of a loss as to what do next, he decided to check the Ability menu in, what he was quickly coming to believe, was the futile hope that it would provide some answers.
New Unnamed Ability discovered – By focusing and intensifying your inner flame on the centerpiece of an ancient black magic curse, you managed to burn through it's magic before setting it's flesh alight. You have discovered how to burn through magic itself by using an emerald-colored flames. Spend 10 ability points to integrate this newly discovered skill into the system, and provide an name for the ability.
Well, that's unhelpful. He thought morosely. He couldn't remember what he burned or how he even accomplished whatever it was he did. With a sigh, he looked at the skill and thought, Fuck it, before spend 10 points to incorporate the skill, leaving him with 17 and a new prompt.
Please choose a name for your new ability
He took a moment to think back to all his tabletop sessions with Wade and process the fact that if this were happening in, literally, any other scenario he'd be ecstatic about everything he was reading. After taking a deep breathe, he concentrated and choose the name Wytchfyre.
Name accepted – New Ability Name: Wytchfyre
He couldn't do anything else with his ability point yet and after all the prompts he wasn't in the mood to try anything with his skill points, so he just left those be and turned to Raf. "Let's go find Dr. Saltzman and get the hell out of here."
Raf barked once and proceeded to make his way up the stairs towards the exit.
As they were leaving Landon noticed a whip made of vertebrae lying on the second floor.
"Must have belonged to the monster." He said aloud before bending over to pick it up. It might come in handy once he unlocked his Dullahan bloodline.
"Rafael, Landon, is anybody here?" He heard Josie voice from the next room.
"Yeah, I'm over here!" He shouted back before making his way forward to the witch twins, and away from this damn place.
Once they had gotten back to the Salvatore school he was immediately rushed to the headmaster's office where Dr. Saltzman, the twins, MG and Kaleb and a still wolf-form Raf all listened as he relayed the events of what occurred in Triad Industries to the best of his abilities.
To say that MG was upset at finding out his mother was part of Triad would be a massive understatement. It took several promises from both Kaleb and Dr. Saltzman that they would find his mother and question her soon to keep him from immediately bolting out of the room on his own.
But that was nothing compared to the reactions he received when he let them know about his relation to Malivore and the system he had in place to regulate his powers. He only touched on the system briefly, deciding to leave a more comprehensive discussion about it until a later time.
The bit about the system managed to slightly calm MG as he involuntarily began to geek out over Landon becoming the equivalent of a video game character. The part that interested everyone else was his plan to free his father.
No one was happy about him having decided on own to attempt to free a millennia old golem hell dimension from it's prison. Not that it made much of a difference now considering that the entire pit was gone.
"Landon, it's not that I don't understand your desire to free your family. It's simply too much of a risk to attempt to free a walking hell dimension. For all we know it wants to destroy the world and being bound to the pit is the only thing that saved, pretty much everything, from extinction." Dr. Saltzman said in a tone that managed to convey both concern and disappointment.
"He was free for centuries, and the world wasn't destroyed." He responded heatedly. "Can any of you honestly say that if one of you parents were wrongfully imprisoned you wouldn't try everything you could to save them?"
At the very least they had the decency to look away in shame, with the notable exception of Dr. Saltzman. "That's different. Their parents haven't been sending a stream of monsters to terrorize the school."
"Neither has my father." Landon replied, his anger building the longer this conversation went on. "He used the tools he had available to him to try to retrieve the artifact that would free him. The moment they got the artifacts they immediately left everyone alone and made efforts to return to him without bothering anyone else."
"Leave it to Frodo to try and set mud-Sauron loose into the world." Lizzie chimed in petulantly.
He felt a hand softly clasp his in an effort to calm him down. To his surprise it was Josie. She wasn't looking at him, but at her father and sister.
"I think that's enough for tonight. You two are just going to keep getting angrier if we keep going on like this. I think we should all take a break from this for come back once we've cooled down." She stared down her father until he gave in.
"Fine, that's enough for tonight. Anyway, I need to start researching what happened to Rafael and see if there's any way I can reverse. Rafael, unfortunately we can't have a fully grown werewolf roaming the halls, so for now I'm going to designate the Barn as an off-limits area to most students. Would you mind staying there until we find a way to reverse whatever's going on with you?"
Raf sat up on his haunches, nodded once, and made his way out of the office towards the woods.
"I'll help with the research; I'll head to the library to see if I can find something." Landon said, only to be stopped by the headmaster.
"I think you've been through enough for one day, get some rest and start fresh in the morning. If I find anything relevant before then I'll come wake you." Dr. Saltzman told him.
With that sentence, it was as if floodgates inside of Landon had opened, all the energy inside of him vanished as though it was never there, and exhaustion solidified it's hold over him.
Realizing that Dr. Saltzman was right, he nodded and left the room, intent on finding his way to his bed.
After making it to the hallway, he belatedly realized that he had never let go of Josie's hand and he was pulling her along with him. He immediately let go and began to apologize.
"I'm sorry! I was so tired I didn't even realize I was still holding on to you." He stated contritely.
"It's ok." She said with a somewhat subdued smile. "I wanted to make sure you got to your room ok any."
"Do I really look that bad?" He asked.
"Like you haven't slept in day." She confirmed while nodding.
"Dammit." He muttered under his breath.
She giggled lightly in response, having obviously heard him.
As they made their way to his room, he stopped just before reaching his door, looked her in the eyes and said, "Listen, I want to thank you for standing up for me back there. I know it couldn't have been easy and I want you to know that I appreciate it."
She looked down uncomfortable as she shifted her weighted back and forth from leg to leg. "I didn't really stand up for you, you know? I kinda just delayed the conversation until later when you were both better rested."
He reached out and grabbed hold of her hand. He held it until she looked back up at him. When she did, he told her, "Doesn't matter, I know how close you and your family are. It took a lot for you to do that and I couldn't let it go unremarked."
She blushed slightly, took a second and replied, "I don't know if you know this but when the Necromancer came to the school, he brought back my biological mom. I got to talk to her and know her in a way I never thought I would be able to. So, I know what it's like to want to get to know and save your family, even if you haven't known them for all that long."
She took a brief pause and continued, "My dad and Lizzie are probably going to have a hard time trusting you for a while, so I think it would be best if I stick close to you. That way we can test your system, and research what we can find about Raf and keep my family from freaking out about you trying anything crazy again."
He grimaced at her use of the crazy. His plan very well might have been crazy in retrospect, but he'd prefer if it wasn't pointed out so blatantly.
"Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks again. Goodnight." He told her as he opened the door.
"Goodnight." She replied as she turned to go to her room.
He made his way in, closing the door behind him. He walked to his bed belly flopped onto his mattress and immediately passed out.
