The Journey through Eternity
A Diablo 2 Fan fiction – Rated: Teen
CHAPTER 6
"In the other side of the world"
I stopped on whatever I was doing to look at him. Relax?
Thinking of it, I was beginning to relax. I began to rely on him. It seems like it's really easy to trust him, with the tone of his voice. His confidence – it warmed me…
It's as if he isn't the 'instrument' of death.
"Where exactly are we?" I asked him.
"Um, it's kinda hard to explain." He replied.
I looked around. The essence of the desert was gone; it's as if we are in an entirely new place. The field of our vision is eventually going farther, with the fog disappearing in a slow but constant speed. It slowly revealed dark figures: trees, more sedge, and the silhouettes of dead people floating on the muddy water. But the fog was still there, just thinner.
There is still something strange; one maybe that neither I nor Dhougleesh have detected yet, maybe something sinister and dark – and means us intended harm.
The cold may have affected the fog, since the fog is made of water and water freezes, and then fall down, allowing us for a wider view. But what could have caused this cold to occur?
"This place is normally warm," Dhougleesh commented. "It's unusual to have this freezing climate around um… Let's just say – the Swamplands…"
I feel my eyes widen involuntarily. I was surprised by what he said obviously, and…
"WHAT?"
"Um, the mist in the desert… Well, as you know – I made it to shield the magical boundary I made." Dhougleesh explained sounding uneasy at first. "When you step onto the line I set, you immediately get teleported to – um… You know - this place."
I pretended not to have heard him. What? I am on the other side of the world?
This little guard duty of mine just gets weirder and weirder.
The Swamplands is far east of the place where I am supposed to be – which is Aranoch – farther even past the cities Caldeum and Ureh. I don't know much of this place, I just seen it on the map of the known world back at the Monastery – but I think its name pretty much explains itself. But to think of Ureh and its past history – I am starting to think something bad is going to happen, and most of my premonitions usually come true.
Remember the Monastery?
"What's happening?" Warriv asked with a hint of fear in his voice. He is still frozen in stone, except for his head – which is quite uncomfortable just thinking of it.
"Oh, It's nothing for you to worry about," Dhougleesh replied, assuring Warriv of his safety. "But I think it will be for us - me and Leashya."
"What do you do in this place anyway?" I asked him out of curiosity.
"This is one of those places where necromancers gather what they need," he explained calmly. "And this is the nearest place where I was taught how to be a necromancer, the jungles where the Priests of Rathma reside."
I felt my eyes widen again. Necromancers – that would make our situation worse, as it would make us more uncertain of the power that we might face. Who knows? By chance we might encounter an evil mislead necromancer, unlike Dhougleesh who seems carefree by my judgment.
"Where did you put this 'boundary' anyway?" I asked him. We can run for it - if it is near. It's quite difficult to tread in these waters.
"If you're thinking we're running for it, it is waaaay over there…" Dhougleesh replied pointing to a very far point. I looked to where he pointed, which was behind us. "That's the nearest piece of land… And I doubt we reach it in time if someone is chasing us… The resistance in this muddy water might give to our feet… I really don't know…"
He's sounding intelligent. It looks like he knows a lot more stuff than what I even care to know. It must be from the books he had back in Lut Gholein.
"Um… Leashya, Dhougleesh…" Warriv called in a trembling voice.
We turned to Warriv then together said, "What?"
His eyes are pointing something just beyond us. We slowly looked at the direction.
A dark shadow of a human is standing quite a distance from us. On the head are a pair of eyes glowing blue, and it is definitely shaped like those of a person that is furious with us.
We looked at it, unsure of who that person is or what it is. We waited for movement, and time never disappointed us. A faint, icy blue aura seemed to surround its body, and the blur made by the fog defined itself revealing his skinny built. Then, a smile appeared on its face, slowly transforming itself into a very wide grin.
It flung its hands as if it casted a direct spell to us. Then we heard a low echoing voice, together with its lips mouthing it:
"Fothimatica Strageshelemen!"
What?
He really is making a direct spell. But that?
Between its two palms appear an orb, and coming out of it were ten magical arrows spreading outward. Each turned into four different colors: blue, red, yellow and green. The blue ones left snow on its way, the red ones was in searing flames, yellow ones crackling with energy and the green one left choking gas in its own trail. Then as it approaches us, each split into 10 more arrows, the same in size and color as it once was; and like guided arrows, they came our way…
"What in the hells is that?" Dhougleesh commented in awe.
"RUN!!!" I yelled at him.
Both of us started running towards the point where the nearest piece of land was, to go back through the boundary and return us safe in Aranoch. We were almost there, not even thinking of those death arrows, and both of us stopped.
"Oh, no…" I remembered, shaking my head.
"WARRIV!" Dhougleesh exclaimed in panic.
We finally looked back. Thankfully, the thing was farther than we expected and the arrows didn't even reach Warriv yet, but it is going to get him sooner.
"HELP ME!!!" Warriv yelled, still in Dhougleesh's stone curse. He was moving his head in all directions, in a hopeless attempt of getting free and saving himself.
"We're coming!!!" Dhougleesh yelled back as we ran towards him. I looked at the arrows, they're coming closer.
Dhougleesh waved his wand when we were just a few feet away from Warriv, and his body turned to its normal state. He regained his balance after a while, and at the moment we can reach his arms, both of us grabbed it and dragged him back to where we're supposed to go.
Now, the arrows are reaching us at a very high speed and suddenly I let go of Warriv's arm. My body moved by itself for I have no time to think. Dhougleesh halted and turned at me.
"What the heck are you doing?" he asked me. The one unfamiliar word I just heard made me think for an extremely small moment – and just turned back to answer him.
"Stopping these arrows…" I replied.
"What? Are you crazy?" he said.
"No…"
"Humph… We could just run away you know…" he said in a quiet voice.
He waved his wand. Out from the water were very thick and big bones, and it circled Dhougleesh and the panting Warriv – protecting them. The arrows were coming closer, and I prepared to dodge. My stance is fixed - and now, I just focused on dodging those arrows. These are guided arrows. This will be tricky.
"Wait for it…" Dhougleesh said. I think he knows what I'm doing.
I prepared. The arrows are coming closer.
"And…" Dhougleesh continued.
Here it goes.
"Tada!!!"
Almost instantly, a big wall of bones blocked my sight.
My jaw dropped beyond my utmost control.
"You should've told me you could do that!" I exclaimed in relief.
"Hey," he said, and then coughed a few times. "I only use that at extreme purposes. It costs me a lot of my energy currently…"
"Are you okay?" I asked. He looks tired after doing that.
"Yeah," he replied. "Let's go…"
Warriv was already in a safe place, and we decided to let him walk. We hurried and finally reached land, which is grassy instead of being sandy, and Dhougleesh – on the lead, stopped.
Do we always have to take stops?
"Here," Dhougleesh said, and turned right. I followed him.
The wet ground transitioned into a grassy one; the grass looks darker than those back at Khanduras, and thicker. This type of grass may just exist here and these kind of places.
The next thing I noticed was that the mist is getting thicker, but thanks to our rings, there is still our radius of clear air, and it slowly projected the mist into almost wall-like – except it's moving like the gray clouds when it's going to rain sooner. There is nothing else I can see, and the environment is quiet except for our rapid footsteps and occasionally, a sound made by crickets.
"It is cold," Warriv said, breaking the silence. "You rarely hear crickets do their singing…"
Dhougleesh turned his head slightly to Warriv's direction. "So, Leashya…"
On hearing my name, I moved my head up to look at him.
"What the hell was that thing the guy just did?" he asked.
I looked down. It's like all of the things at the back of my head crossed my conscious mind all at once.
"It's like you know what it is," he described.
Yes, I do know what it is. That special skill was called Fothimatica Strageshelemen, and it was created by Kashya herself. She taught it to me while she's training me to be a rogue just before I left Tristram, and I actually haven't mastered it until now. The last time I remembered using it was back at the Land of the Earth, when I showed Danaetia how it's done.
But how did that – thing, knew about it? He even perfected it.
No, I don't really think so. The perfect Fothimatica Strageshelemen is that it should make the arrows penetrate the wall of bones Dhougleesh summoned, regardless of how thick or magical it is.
"Hey," Dhougleesh called.
"Huh? What?"
Dhougleesh remained quiet. He just stared at me.
Then I realized I was just standing there, and both he and Warriv are waiting for me.
"Oh," I whispered to myself. Then in a louder voice, "Yes, that was Kashya's special skill…"
Dhougleesh looked surprised. "Then how could he have done that?"
"That was what I was thinking…" I told him.
"Is it possible that that guy and Kashya could have met somewhere and had a duel?" he asked.
"Maybe…"
"Actually that was a rhetorical question…" he commented. "But isn't Kashya one of those two Rogues that went down into that place… You know, back at Tristram?"
"Yes," I answered. "The other one is Blood Raven…"
He nodded… "Well…"
The deep cold returned, and we were surprised; we gasped altogether.
"Dang its cold…" Dhougleesh remarked, now crossing his arms with his head low.
There are those kinds of words again.
"Uh, what does 'heck' and 'dang' mean…" I asked.
"Oh, 'heck' is like the word 'hell' except that I changed it so that it sounds nicer – and 'dang' is like the word 'damn,' not dung…"
I smiled. "But you just said a lot of 'hells' lately."
"What?" he asked. "What about 'hell'?"
"There you go again, never mind…"
Just like before, the mist seemed to retreat from us, reacting to the cold. This time, it revealed very tall grass around us, and we are on the dirt that paved the road we're taking. The whole place is still gloomy, and the distant objects are still shown as gray silhouettes, like trees with vines connecting them to the others. The grassland is 'normal,' like wheat across the field – and nothing else but dragonflies either searching for food or returning to the comfort of their territory.
The silence of us just observing and aware of what is happening – was broken. The seemingly motionless grass 'moved.' We only heard sounds, but we didn't detect the movement in our sights. I feel that sort of feeling I had back at the swamp; I just know I had to be prepared of whatever will happen – and swear upon that I will defend Warriv in any way I can. Dhougleesh will be okay. He's a necromancer after all. Let's see what he's got.
From my back, completely unseen, I brought my small magical sling bag, and slung it over my shoulder. I opened it and thought of javelins that I kept there. In my grasp, I felt a sturdy piece of wood, and pulled it out.
A javelin is in my hand. Whoever made that noise, all I can say is beware…
The grass made the sound again. This time, I'm sure where it came from. It was behind me. I quickly turned to its direction and threw the javelin.
This caught Dhougleesh and Warriv's attention. I'm not even sure if there is someone there, I just threw it.
Luckily there was.
The figure was – dead. It was already dead. It was red toned skeleton, probably raised by another necromancer (a quick suspicion since we're near their training place) and it was wielding a sword. The javelin hit its head, and maybe because of the slightly heavier weight of the javelin countering his strength, he fell down head first and broke himself.
Dhougleesh smirked, and then chuckled. "Man, that thing was weak…"
Then many annoying sounds followed. It seemed like it was made by hitting a bone to another bone – and again with the quick suspicion, more of them.
They completely surrounded us. There were archers, and those who wield scimitars. Also out from the ground distant from us, emerged a tall mummy-like figure, with one actual hand, and the other having a scythe-like thing in its place. The color of its skin is pale orange, and an unholy power is emanating from it somehow.
"Funny," Dhougleesh commented. His face turned serious.
"Funny?" I asked.
"Those dead horadrims only exist in Aranoch," he responded.
Then I looked at him. He looked at me. He nodded. I did so too.
And of course you know that was a cue.
"Kill stuff for me!!!" Dhougleesh yelled.
I got what he told me.
And in my mind I want to show him something. Something I want to do for a long time – and this is a perfect moment…
I pulled the special bow I have from the bag, a rare long bow. It is actually made of Aldergrove wood, which made it special for me – and also the reason why Gheed lost to me. Aldergrove is worth so much, and he lost a bet for what seemed like more than what he can make for a year.
Then just with my empty hand, I touched the string – and pointed the bow to the dark skies.
"Fothimatica Strageshelemen!!!"
Dhougleesh stared at me, ignoring the voiceless taunts by the enemy.
An illusionary arrow appeared. I shot it to the skies, and it split into two… The two arrows zoomed back to the ground and curved in the direction of the enemies and again, each split into three. Each of the three represented the magics the sorcerers mastered: Fire, Cold and Lightning…
"Showoff," Dhougleesh said in seeing the guided arrows flying around furiously, searching for an enemy to kill.
The arrows did so, actually. The six arrows spread and hit enemies. The arrows penetrated through the enemies and took them down easily.
Dhougleesh, seeing at least one of them get killed, waved his wand…
"Ha! Arise my beloved!!!" and the red boned skeleton was revived, now having a white, clean tone.
Afterwards, every single dead thing he sees will be revived in his own vision, saying "Ha!" each time he does it.
"I thought Necromancers do magic," I yelled at him above all the noise.
"Yes, they do – but I want to show you the magic of my summonings…" He replied.
"Hmph… Showoff…"
"Back at ya!"
I concentrated on my side. Even though the arrows are doing their job, going through the ribs of the dead back and forth, making them tumble down and break themselves eventually – I focused on the dead Horadrim Dhougleesh was talking about. It was attacked by two arrows, but it didn't die. Instead, he stopped them by shooting missiles at it, and I saw him do it. Also it proved to be an obstacle to Dhougleesh (I hear him grumble once in a while) because it rivaled Dhougleesh's speed of reviving the dead.
I actually remembered not having a quiver of arrows at least somewhere I could pick one up when I need it, and I am in dire need of it. So I got one from my bag and strapped it to my thigh as quickly as possible and then I started shooting fire arrows at the Horadrim.
The Horadrim didn't expect it, and got hit exactly where I want to hit him. Those were vital spots, but in the sense of the word vital it doesn't even affect him at all because he too, which I just understood for I have forgotten, is also dead. Dead like the others. He was weakened at least, at the look of it, because I might have damaged parts that tie his movements to the corresponding body parts. So maybe I disabled his movements, therefore not allowing him to cast spells and give Dhougleesh the upper hand.
Or so I thought…
He looked at me, and shot three black, disk-like things. It went fast towards me.
Instincts… Instincts… I focused on the thing. It's fast, and I might not make it if I just walk out of its way because they're evenly spread. But it also has a drawback: its heading towards me in a perfect, straight line.
I can't rely on Dhougleesh's wall of bones right now. The only way is to dodge.
My sensations changed, as if time slowed for me. I know where it is going; I know where I must move. The 'bolt' is low lying, so I know that I must jump. But when I do that, I should also know what to do next. It's like something I call a combo, and I just love doing it.
The bolt has arrived. I jumped.
Now I am in mid air. I have no time to pick up an arrow to fire. Besides my bow is positioned, and all I have to do is fire. Fire a magic arrow.
I fired two immediate shots. My arrows were the 'faster' of the exchange of missiles and my arrows reached the Horadrim half the time his 'bolts' reach me. It hit him. I smiled. But did it hurt him?
I landed onto the ground. I gasped for my breath.
"Sorry, but wrong choice Leashya…" Dhougleesh urged.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"It will never hurt him. He's immune to it…"
Why does it that every time I show my combos, it doesn't work? It always happens that my attacks are the immunity of the enemy… Oh, well.
"Then what should I do?"
"The arrow skill you got, and don't make it 'normal' magic… Make it elemental magic!"
Let's see… What's the element that has the most to offer?
Fire – it's too moist in here, Lightning – if I can do it without using the Fothimatica thing, but unfortunately I can't… But Cold…
Cold suits this situation…
I took an arrow into my hands and aimed at the dead Horadrim.
I forced my energies into the arrow. The arrow was coated in light blue substance…
And I fired it.
Freezing Arrow… I whispered silently.
The arrow, as it slowly makes its way to the Horadrim, spun on its own. The spinning made the air surrounding it stir – and made it cold.
Karcheus… Karcheus… Lend me the power – the power to cast upon the wrath of which you came.
The arrow seemed to explode with icy winds as if it came from the arrow itself.
Crush my foes with frozen might, in my honor of your name…
Now the cold I am feeling absolutely came from somewhere I know. The arrow spun faster, creating white, harsh and freezing wind.
The arrow hit the Horadrim. The moment it touched him… There was a great icy explosion; the wind pushed us with great strength and intense cold. The others were blown away and were destroyed.
I think I overdid it.
"Whoa…" Dhougleesh awed. "That was awesome… You showoff!"
"Sorry to ruin your parade of summons…" I answered.
"Well, I'm not even done yet…" Dhougleesh said.
"Both of you stop showing off..." Warriv interrupted. He was down on the ground, probably from my intense freezing arrow. "Or say 'showoff!' It's making me sick… That word is stuck in my head!!!"
"Sorry, Warriv…" I apologized.
Dhougleesh rolled his eyes.
"Who sent those guys anyway?" Dhougleesh wondered.
"Who?" I asked.
"Those undead minions," Dhougleesh answered. "They're not from here. I mean, it's even impossible for a necromancer to summon those things…"
"Well, maybe they just got through that boundary you made; if you think they were from Aranoch…"
"No, they were summoned here."
"Well, maybe that guy is also a necromancer – the guy we encountered earlier…"
"If he is, then why can he perform that Kashya skill?" Dhougleesh asked almost directly…
I fell silent. "I don't really know…"
Dhougleesh looked around. Warriv stood up. I was deep into my thoughts.
"Someone's messing up the balance…" Dhougleesh whispered, loud enough for us to hear it.
Then it was silent. The mist thickened once again. It was warmer than usual.
How can that guy perform such skills? He copied it… And Dhougleesh – he said it is unusual for someone to summon those things.
"Hey, cheer up…" Dhougleesh suggested. A smile appeared on his face. "We'll find answers, but we can't really expect to find it sooner. For now, forget. Let us go…"
We walked down the road, to return to Aranoch.
Author's Notes:
What do you think? I think I should say that I might be submitting a new chapter every Wednesdays or Thursdays. As always, I would love to hear your comments and criticism. Thanks to all the readers. You encourage me to move on… :D