9
Upon first glance the eerily recognizable sight prevented Arrik from doing much of anything. Stopped in his tracks, all movements ceased in mid stare. The same trail he traversed many years ago showed from beneath the foliage and what remained of the jungle. Memories ran rampant in his mind, making him realize the last time he was here was with Dwibb and Rylon. He also realized he had to catch up, as everyone was making their way towards the path, thought they had not yet seen it. Arrik sighed heavily before building enough courage to speak.
"So, Niv, are we walking straight into that mountain or what?" Arrik joked with the tinge of concern. He brushed his off-white bangs to the side to get a better look at the memorable mountainside, trying to hide the dread in his ice blue eyes.
The thick dense jungle they were walking through and had become accustomed to traveling in had dwindled to nothing but a few random trees scattered scarcely through their path. The land turned into a different terrain slowly and revealed the path Arrik once treaded.
"I do not think we can go directly through it," Verona said before Nivrin could respond.
"We might have a chance if Grebb was here," Dalvyr said attempting at a joke. He had not fully understood some mannerisms of humor, or how it worked, but knew it was afoot somewhere within this new conversation.
"We could climb it," Sworn offered with little interest from his suggestion. He didn't mean for it to be funny, but offered up a simple suggestion. The crimson eyes standing out from his dark fur leered at his companions as some of them chuckled at his comment.
Kydrei looked to Nivrin while waiting for a response, as the others chatted about how they would pass the mountain if they had to. Kydrei noticed Nivrin's hood faced towards the rest, but his eyes looked elsewhere. They met eyes briefly before Kydrei went to gaze in the area Nivrin was looking.
"No," Nivrin spoke softly to Kydrei, placing a hand on his dark grey feathered arm. Nivrin then smiled and began to play along with the conversation. "We are going to go straight until the base of that mountain, yes." Nivrin replied now seeing something peculiar at its base. "We will examine the mountainside as much as we can and then head north some. Perhaps south. Whichever way the clues dictate."
"But why the mountain? Can't we follow along it and go north or south now?" Arrik pleaded out of fear. He began to wonder why Nivrin chose this exact spot and brought him along at that.
"If you plan on going over the mountain, or even up it some, we'll be here past dark," Chain Legend noted. His gold armor shone radiantly from his massive Norn body, standing out from the surrounding area like a sore thumb.
"We are not going over the range, merely inspecting the mountain from its base." Nivrin swatted at a bug, though Kydrei watched Nivrin's movements. He could tell Nivrin's movements was merely an act to keep watch behind him. Kydrei was more than curious, but chose to abide by Nivrin's order of not looking.
"What do you expect to find? It looks like your usual mountain to me." Tipps asked in his Asuran arrogance, having long since expected much more greatness from this mission. He contemplated in that moment of how he was smarter than everyone else he was with combined.
"I have a suspicion that perhaps Mordremoth would be residing within a mountain to hide from the people of Tyria. It would be a perfect way to conceal itself while gaining power, just waiting for the opportunity to rise. Defending itself when others got close to discovering him. And that mountain looks strange as it is, so I say we investigate it."
"The dragon's not in this mountain range," Arrik blurted with a straight face.
"And how do you know Norn?" Tipps immediately replied, baffled a Norn would know more than him.
"Valorous Norn," Sworn added matching Tipps' gaze, "How do you already know? Did you live here or something?"
Arrik shrugged as Nivrin turned to look at Arrik before walking forward with everyone else. He did not look pleased.
"Look Niv," Arrik started before Nivrin could speak, "All I'm saying is it's a bad idea to go looking directly for the dragon. And you want to poke around to cause him to erupt from beneath the mountain?" Arrik huffed and shook his head. "Sound plan there, Niv."
"He has a point," Verona said with arms folded.
"We should have more if you want to poke dragons…" Hesporos commented realizing their numbers were, if a dragon were to awaken.
"This is very true," Dalvyr said looking at Nivrin.
"Yes. If this was the original plan, why separate us all?" Tipps asked wondering why he was part of this lackluster group. In his eyes, this was a waste of time.
Nivrin stopped and waited for the rest to catch up with him and stop their concerns and talking. He looked down and then up after a few seconds, throwing a very brief eye to the treetops and then back again to the many eyes on him. "I called for us to split into groups because I didn't want to try and remember everyone's names," Nivrin put simply, "Hard enough remembering everyone's names within my guild, let alone some forty people coming together to look into a possible threat, with each having some ties to the important affiliations of Tyria…" Nivrin paused to let it sink in, "No thanks. Too many important people to look after and remember names. I took those whom which I know I can trust and utilize their skills and knowledge," Nivrin half smiled and nodded ever so slightly, "Congratulations."
"You do not trust the others in your guild? The other officers?" Chain asked wondering of Nivrin's comment.
"Trust can only go so far…" Sworn commented under his breath. This mainly due because the word caused a stir in his mind of past events.
"With my life, why do you ask?" Nivrin replied with a straight, serious face.
"You just said you chose the ones you trust to come with you." Chain liked the idea of being trusted and chosen, but found his words disturbing for one in charge of an entire guild.
"I chose you all to come with me for reasons of my own. The others from my guild I trust to lead their groups and make it back in one piece, hence why I chose them to lead the groups they are with. I cannot always take those within my circle of trust and reliance."
"That is true," Dalvyr commented again thinking of what Nivrin said, "It would lead others in the guild feeling left out and not being part of the importance we demonstrate and uphold in Nivrin's standards." Dalvyr meant what he said, however wasn't trying for humor or had not meant to make most of the others chuckle at his comment.
Nivrin shot Dalvyr a rude gesture before nodding and continuing. Kydrei noticed Nivrin's eyes still lingering on their backs, but did so in such a way that made it seem he was looking around for evidence or looking at other members of the party.
As they got closer to the mountain base, Shathalia began to make sounds of curiosity, but was still ever so quiet the entire time.
Dalvyr was, of course, the first to respond to her vocal clatter. He walked over to her and walked beside her, only a few more feet away from the rest. "Everything well?" he asked.
"This place," Shathalia stated while looking around, "appears familiar to me and I do not know why." Her dark skinned mouth gaped open some. An inherent thought process flowed in her mind trying to conceive an idea where this entire area would be familiar to her. She brushed away her leafy ebon bangs from her void-like eyes to get a better view of the surroundings.
"Familiar? Out here past Brisban?" Dalvyr now tried to think of some way she might have been out here, given what little he knew of her. The two were thinking of the different possibilities.
"Yes. I do not understand it myself, but I have been out here. The trees and the entire area look new to me, but familiar at the same time. It is the most peculiar feeling…" Shathalia could not fathom why she felt this way.
"I probably know why…" Arrik commented under his breath. It was quiet enough, however.
"You keep doing that Norn," Sworn said making a point, but before he could continue, Nivrin intervened.
"I bet you do, Arrik," Nivrin noted making his way past Arrik.
"Perhaps it was part of your Dream? Were you meant to come out here with us? Part of your Wyld Hunt even?" Dalvyr offered with a smile.
"I've not ever had a dream of which you speak. Many others of your kind have asked me the same thing, but I never know how to respond," Shathalia said with much emotion in her voice about the topic, "I… I only ever feel darkness when I rest my body."
Dalvyr felt an odd sense of needing to help her in that moment, aside from the small bit of interest he showed in her regarding slight affection. "You see nothing when you sleep? No dreams or images appear before you?"
Shathalia looked to Dalvyr and tilted her head slightly in thought before coming to a halt. In mid stare, her eyes shifted downward while she still faced Dalvyr. "I can see through the endless dusk in my sleep…" she paused a little before going on again, "like the moons radiance through the dark of night. Within it, a massive city illuminated by nothing but the moonlight from above and quaint torches assorted randomly. It is one I do not recognize, yet I feel it is a place I should come to know much better. Technology riddled with magic and vines of obscurity. So many ethereal beings walking about, however only a small portion actually walk with substantial bodies. I see it all in its hidden glory and I feel at home. I feel this is where I must be. I feel it's call and it feels amazing."
Dalvyr sighed heavily. His diamond-like eyes looked down in the only viable option in his mind, "Nightmare then…"
"No," Shathalia sharply retorted having heard this response many times, "I too have had those, well, at least from what they are described to me as." Shathalia turned back to Dalvyr in that moment while she walked.
"Tell us of these nightmares, Shathalia," Nivrin spoke softly to her appearing more than interested. At his comment, Arrik began to put some ideas in his own mind together with narrowed eyes towards Nivrin.
Shathalia now looked to Nivrin. "I see parts where the city is invaded by enormous barbed roots of plant and rock, like tentacles of the earth grasping for anything living. They try and corrupt the beings, but it has no effect on them, except the ones with actual bodies. They start to be taken and converted into dirt and root, almost like the leafy trolls we fought before at Nagaara."
"We did not fight anything at the village remains…" Chain wondered aloud thinking Shathalia was crazy.
"I was just thinking that. Unless you mean fighting the wood disease," Sworn added.
"We did fight a few days prior when some of our guild travelled out here," Dalvyr responded.
"Yes. We fought beings of shadow and jungle trolls that resembled more like vine constricted earth elementals than their true forms," Nivrin added.
"Was this nightmare after you fought them at Nagaara?" Dalvyr asked Shathalia.
"Long before in fact. I was actually taken aback when it all started happening at the village. Both of the things we fought were of my dreams and nightmares. I fought, but I did not know what to think."
Right after she finished her sentence, the sound of Asura technology blipped from behind them. They all turned to see Vaskar standing there motionless with a fading blue aura of Asura technological glimmer.
"Ah, Vaskar, nice to have you back," Nivrin commented pulling out an Asura device of his own. He looked down upon it with slight concern. Kydrei noticed, still studying Nivrin, and assumed Vaskar was why he kept looking back.
The Charr guardian moved oddly within his armor before responding. "Thanks."
"I suspect the waypoint is well?" Nivrin asked Vaskar while looking away, seeing the base of the mountain before them.
"Y-yes." Vaskar stood eerily still and had his visor of his helm down, shielding their view of his eyes and muzzle.
"Alright, let's move on then," Nivrin ordered as they finally arrived at the mountain side. He looked to Kydrei, where they shared a common gaze of apprehension.
At the base, each did what they were there to do. Investigate.
It was just as the base of a mountain should be. Dirt and patches of grass and vines. Ledges and boulders were randomly sticking out. The rapid slope upward from the ground gave no room to ascend upward and offered no stable footing. Even the clearing they stood was unremarkable
"Yes… I know this place by some means." Shathalia looked around. "It does not look the same though, if I can say that." She looked down in thought after speaking.
"Can you?" Sworn asked while wondering just why she was so dark. He was investigating her origins in those few moments, not thinking of Mordremoth.
"So, the mountain looks… like a mountain," Arrik said snidely. He shook his head in thought. Arrik wanted to be a legend, to be told around Hoelbrak, and to be renown, like the rest of his kind, but this was not it. This was his one true fear and he did a great job at suppressing it… so far.
"That it does Arrik, splendid observation." Nivrin said with a smile.
"What about this area looks familiar to you, Shathalia?" Dalvyr asked looking around.
At first glance, nothing appeared out of the ordinary at the mountain base. Some trees adorned its base in differed heights. The foliage died down into dirt and pebbles with rugged terrain to accompany it.
"I cannot tell you, Dalvyr," Shathalia responded with an oddly shaped smile.
"Why not?" Dalvyr asked, wondering why she would hide why she might recognize the area.
"Merely because I do not know. I am happy right now." Shathalia smiled big, showing her completely healthy yet blackened teeth. She clasped her hands together in a fit of joy while looking around. "I remember this because I believe this is part of the area from my dream!"
"From the ones you don't have?" Arrik said as he began to shake slightly. Tipps snickered as Chain laughed out loud.
"Yes!" Shathalia said unaware of Arrik's rudeness. "This is part of the plain that leads to the city!"
"There ain't no city here…" Sworn mumbled kicking some grass in disappointment. He wondered now why he was even here.
Shathalia looked to the mountainside and then frowned. "There should be a big door right here." She looked around frantically, as if she lost something precious.
Nivrin grinned ever so slightly at her comment and slowly moved to the mountainside. Both Arrik and Kydrei noticed the smirk, but Arrik responded first.
"Why so smug?" Arrik asked feeling his inner Norn tendencies growing.
"Why not be?" Nivrin asked as the facial expression inherently worsened. "You alright Arrik?"
"Just fine. I just thought we were on this trek for an Elder Dragon, not personal interests…" Arrik boldly stated.
Nivrin's grin lessened some. "Personal interests? What do you mean?"
Arrik looked at Nivrin with a dull face. "Come on, anyone can see you have more interest in the shadow beings and their connection-" Arrik blurted out before the ground began to shake a little right beneath their feet.
The group looked around and moved into a defensive position.
"Be on alert," Nivrin called out with his daggers readied.
"What was that?" Chain asked with his broadsword out.
"We might be close to finding a clue…" Tipps said aloud with his dark magic swirling between his hands.
"Clues don't rumble," Sworn stated with his daggers also readied.
Everyone stood on edge looking around, ready for anything to happen, save one of the members of the group.
Vaskar stood unfazed by the rumbling and hadn't moved a muscle from the tremble. The trembling happened again beneath their feet, but this time slower and in pockets. Vasker still stood without worry.
"What was that?!" Hesporos asked wielding his weapons.
"What?" Dalvyr, Chain, and Arrik asked at the same time.
"I just saw it too!" Tipps shouted pointing to an area of recently churned earth, "Something moved under the dirt!"
They all began looking down anxiously, waiting for something to pop up and attack.
"Jungle wurms I'm betting…" Chain said with a small grin looking to Verona with a nod, assuming he was right.
"Could be anything…" Verona commented shaking her head while on alert.
"Jungle wurms do tremble the earth as such," Dalvyr said looking over to Shathalia. She too was on alert with her daggers drawn, but did not look at all that worried.
"Nope," Nivrin said while tossing his dagger to Vaskar with all his might. The dagger flew through the air until the blade stuck right into Vaskar's face, leaving the hilt protruding from his face. The Charr's head immediately snapped back from the momentum of the dagger. His head wavered back some before falling on his back. Vaskar was evidently dead.
"W-what was that?" Chain asked wondering if he should keep his sword raised for a new threat.
"He was one of our own," Dalvyr emoted with his bow lightly lifted, unsure what was happening or why.
"No," Sworn said in Nivrin's defense, "I saw it too. He isn't right."
"Niv, you've gone too far!" Arrik shouted now furious with the guild leader. He sheathed his hammer and began waltzing to Nivrin.
"Calm down, everyone. He-" Nivrin started before a loud, blood curdling gasp was heard. They all looked to see a vine tousled spire jutting from Tipps' Asuran chest. He looked down to the jagged stone from his chest and looked up with bright, teary eyes.
"Tipps!" Chain said before running over to him. The action saved his life as a spire shot through the ground at his location.
Before the rest were punctured, they all moved swiftly, watching spires jut from the ground where they were standing.
"You were saying?" Nivrin said sarcastically as he jerked his head toward Arrik. Sworn huffed with a smile before unsheathing his daggers outward in a defensive poise.
Vaskar's corpse began to rise from the ground with an odd, slow movement. He did not rise himself, but instead, strands of the earth beneath him began to pick him up and back to his feet. Seeing this, Nivrin darted towards the body.
"You have what's mine old friend," he said before leaping onto Vaskar's corpse with a firm kick, causing the earthen strands to crumble and Vaskar's body to flatten once again to the ground. Nivrin latched onto his dagger hilt still within Vaskar and pulled it out. Nivrin vanished into shadowy mist as rocks jutted from Vaskar's sides seeking the thief, but instead clashed into themselves. Nivrin reappeared back by Arrik.
From the jutted rocks that tried to impale the others began forming into elementals of rock, brush, and what appeared to be bodies of humanoids. The parts that resembled bodies in each forming elemental were decayed or in the decaying process in some way or another.
"What's going on, Niv?" Arrik now asked backing up to the mountain's side, "You seem to know more than you're telling us."
"Vaskar has been compromised," he said scraping his dagger blade against a nearby tree. The substance on the blade was a dark green and had tainted red and brown splotches coursing through it with what appeared to be mold growing from the substance.
"Compromised?" Dalvyr asked taking higher ground atop a nearby mountainside boulder, "How? You killed him yourself."
"Mordremoth's influence. I've noticed something different about him since the attack at Nagaara. He did not know I knew, but when we were all looking at the wooden potatoes, I noticed green beneath his armor and even a vine sticking out from beneath his plated boot."
The rest were stunned by Nivrin's observation, save Kydrei.
"I too noticed it, Nivrin," commented the Tengu with his wing bladed weaponry readied.
"I know you did," Nivrin stood ready and watched the spires of rock change. Kydrei looked to Nivrin and still watched him as his eyes glanced upward randomly. Giving in, the Tengu looked up to see a being in the trees. Not just one, but a few just watching from atop the trees around, unnoticed by them all save Nivrin and now Kydrei. Before growing concerned of who they were, the elemental beings began rumbling a little more as they fully formed, breaking Kydrei's concentration on sights above.
The beings of flesh and earth took on a full form. The bodies of each elemental being was coated in a detail of rock, crystal and green, accompanied with vines, barbed plants, or a poisonous glaze . Even Vaskar's corpse was overtaken by the same Mordremoth taint and the corpse rose yet again, but this time became crushed and contorted by the enveloping elemental forming from him. The spire through Tipps pulled him into portions while forming, taking the pieces of him and entangling it into its being. One by one Mordremoth's minions took form using the corpses and twisted and mangled their essence, not caring of the body within but obviously needing it for some manner for sustenance.
"Looks like we got a fight!" Hesporos said eager for battle. He twitched anxiously waiting for the elemental beings of Mordremoth to act.
"Yet again we fight side-by-side by human friend!" Chain Legend shouted in his Norn pride to his friend of war. With his greatsword ready, Chain matched Hesporos' anxiousness of battle.
Sworn, instead of adding his two sense word wise, found an elemental by itself nearby and charged at it. He leapt high from a small boulder by the mountain side and came down on the elemental hard with his dagger blades. One blade stuck in the more vulnerable spot while the other glanced off rock. He slashed about with his blades and dodged the blows from the earthly beast until it was defeated and in pieces.
The action caused the rest of the elementals to charge and the Forefront to defend themselves.
Chain cleaved right through one elemental as another tried attacking him, but found his armor as hard as the rocks it was born of.
Nivrin was in the back, watching the Forefront ahead of him take on Mordremoth's minions and felt the urge to join in. Before he could however, he looked to Shathalia and realized he had yet to calm her down between all the commotion. With a glance to the left he saw the shadows wiggling slightly and felt a surge of actual fear jolt down his spine.
"Shathalia!" he shouted, unaware he startled her, "Look to me, dear."
Shathalia jumped at the shout of her name and as she did so, the shadows of the area jolted upward and outward recklessly, as if all the shadows themselves from the trees, animal life, and rocks of the area too were scared. She looked at Nivrin with an uneasy, yet defending face with her daggers readied.
"You're fine. Calm down," Nivrin pleaded with a small smile. He looked over to the combat going on without him and back to Shathalia. The many spells and blades wavering about made him want to run into the fray, but the Forefront looked to have no problems with these minor minions of Mordremoth. Swallowing his pride and defense, he sheathed his daggers with a dull huff. "See? Just calm down, we will be just fine." He stared at the flickering shadows and watched as they slowly wiggled, a usually impossible wavering.
Shathalia stared at Nivrin. Her thoughts ran rampant and she struggled with her emotions to become calm, but within seconds, she sighed and nodded. She liked this human more than most and she could not understand why. Nothing in the area of flirtatiousness or affection towards him, if anything at all, but knew around him, she would be alright. For now, Shathalia knew it was time to fight. "I am fine."
Nivrin smiled and placed his hands on his dagger hilts but felt something strange. He paused and began to hear it, meeting eyes with Shathalia.
Behind them both and the fighting, echoes of magical crackling and hisses started to be heard, interrupting Nivrin. The ones who looked away from Mordremoth's minions saw a small portion of the mountainside nearby begin to twist and contort into darkness.
"What's going on?" Nivrin asked in a soft, hushed mumble seeing this. His eyes moved upward to the treetops one last time to the visitors watching everything happen before focusing on the elementals and whatever was happening at the base of the mountain some yards away.
Rock, dirt and shrub darkened in the area where the sound emerged. The dark magic etched along the mountainside, coursing into an odd design, leaving behind a trail of night behind it, as if the sun itself was not shining in this area. A shroud of darkness soon blotted out a curved structure at the mountainside mimicking a cave big enough that the entire Forefront in Maguuma could all fit. Metal of a shiny ebon sort glistened a few feet inward from the cave opening. Its blacked structure fit precisely along the caves inner walls in such a way entailing intelligent design. Smokey clouds of black faded so that an outline a doorway could be seen.
"The city! It is inside!", Shathalia shouted, completely forgetting the elemental beings. She sheathed her weapons and smiled, clasping her hands together with her excitement. The more Shathalia stared at the newly revealed doorway, the more it seemingly called to her, like it did in her dreams.
Nivrin gasped and grinned seeing the door frame, seeing the magic, and hearing Shathalia's comment. "I knew it…" Nivrin spoke with a nod. He sighed happily this time, but now grew worry as to why it just appeared.
Arrik swung his hammer, bashing the elemental he was fighting into pieces, and watched as it fell apart with the mangled decaying body inside seep out where it could. He had heard the commotion of magical energy, but was too busy battering rocks to watch it happen.
"Now," Arrik said both still fairly pissed at Nivrin for hiding things and wanting to know just what the noise was, "Why have you-" Arrik stopped mid sentence seeing Nivrin leap out of the way suddenly. The Norn's eyes widened as large as they could and became full of panic as he turned his head to see why.
At first sight, the dread Arrik felt was so immense that he could not even regulate his breathing. He did not know why he was so fearful. Before at Nagaara he was scared when fighting the shadowy beings. He was a little frightened seeing normal shades and dark beings within Lion's Arch or in his journeys as pets to the necromancers or dark magicians around. This was different to Arrik.
Not only was he very close to the source of his dread and where it first took hold of him, but now watching the many eyes of transparent, shaded humanoid being rush at him completely riddled his mind with absolute fear and froze him where he stood. In mid stare, dazed by terror and unable to move, he could not hear the rest of his party calling out to him to move or duck out of the way. Arrik could not help but to stand in the way. He began to shout uncontrollably seeing the shaded beings that launched themselves out of the newly formed doorway charge right at and through him.