Okay… uh, I'm trying to make something to look forward to out of this continuous publication; 'flinging out lines' as Phreno-senpai (if you're not familiar with Japanese, look it up. I can't find a way to express it in English) would be familiar with. Makes it more interesting for one, and more structured also.
Thanks for Dromiceius' reviews! Glad to see you back reviewing! Of course, kudos and cookies for all other reviewers, too! Your reviews make my day, I'm for real here. So… onwards!
Disclaimer: Celadon plus Oread plus NPC minus NPC Dialogues plus story plot minus the story plot that's already in game plus other original characters equal Ophelion's. Everything else minus Ophelion's equals Blizzard's. Quod Erat Demonstrandum.
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Chapter 8: Crimson
'Are you sure you have to do this?' Despite how stupid I sounded, I found myself asking the obvious question.
Oread smirked coldly at my remark, and went up to the gates. She touched the wood with her hand, and I could see her muscles mustering the strength to push the gates open when suddenly…
'Celadon!' The alert in her voice hinted for me to retreat. I backed from the gates, moving to the side as they were thrown open from the inside. The wooden gates crashed into the stone walls and splintered as a blast of wind rushed out from the opening… no, it was not wind. The splinters on the ground remained still, Oread's bangs stayed where they were – in front of her face. What had rushed out was a flow of… a heavy but invisible liquid, which exploded from within the depths of the Cathedral. It felt like fluid smoke that filled the courtyard of the Inner Cloister, enveloping me in squirming tendrils that rose up and grabbed me, halting me from further movements.
It was a force, an energy. That of fear, anguish, horror, and chaos.
If I had any idea what Hell felt like, this was probably what would be seeping out from it.
With the gust of aura, bolts and arrows soared through the air. Oread and I had taken refuge where the gates had splintered a split second ago, and avoided the volley of missiles just in time.
After a few seconds, the missiles halted. Oread cast Slow Missiles – I could now distinguish the sensation that filled the area when that skill is used – and fired a few shots of her own, some glowing blue, some burning or sparkling.
Retaliation came almost at once. Oread avoided a few arrows with amazing agility, but by the time she retreated back next to me behind the wall, she was gripping her right upper arm; an arrow or something must have sliced past it.
I gave her a concerned look. 'Should we take the waypoint back?'
'No. If they see us heading away they might come after us, and we'll be coming back via waypoint surrounded.' She took a strip of bandage from her backpack, and tied it tightly above the gash.
That reminded me… she stashed everything she finds away in her backpack, but when she gave me the sword, I did not remember her rummaging through her backpack…
I refocused on the present. Oread was sucking blood out of the gash and spitting it out onto the ground, before bandaging the cut, all the while keeping her eyes towards the opening leading to the Cathedral.
'Was it poisonous?' I asked.
'It tingled a bit. Might have been cold, lightning, or poison. Can't be sure.' Oread finished tying the knot on the bandage. 'They're not wasting any ammunition. We'll have to take a chance at this. You have any potions on you, those orange or green ones?'
'I have a few.' I checked my smaller backpack, and found several orange and green potions of various sizes.
'Right, 'cause I haven't got any.' Oread whispered, taking me by surprise. Why would she devise a plan if she did not have what it needed? Her way of thinking was strange. 'We'll use them as a cover. Don't breathe them in and close your eyes while they're off; Inner Sight should help you do the job just fine. Okay… start with that small green one.'
Closing my eyes, I cast Inner Sight and threw a bottle of Choking Potion around the corner, into the Cathedral. Within the dark stage of my mind, my enemies were illuminated in an aura of sparkling light grey, choking and gagging. I could see Oread's arrows, imbued with her energy, and my own, landing into already-struggling targets.
We eliminated the ranged enemies in similar fashion, retreating after each potion's effect wore out, carefully avoiding injury, and letting our armour taking care of the worst of the blows. A bottle or two of Health Potions kept us alive, and when we heard no more whistling of missiles through the air, we stepped over the piles of bodies, spiked with arrows and drenched in their dark blood.
The comparatively tiny courtyard opened up to the grand Cathedral, except it was dark, and the air was still and chilly. At the centre front, with the backdrop of a magnificently carved stone wall, was the altar – a small but elegantly crafted and engraved stone feature, with a grand roof over it, pillars that look like twisted white fluids extended from its four corners to the raised floor beneath this altar. A basin and a torch sat on either side, as well as racks of burnt-out candles, melted into ghostly figures.
The Cathedral would have been beautiful, had its light-coloured stone and marble were not stained by various shades of red – blood of all races and ages. Now it simply looked tainted, eerie, corrupted.
There were still a few Dark Ones and their Shamans about, reciting a language unknown but not foreign to my ears, swinging their chipped, curved blades. 'I'm getting sick of this.' Oread grunted, and fired a few Exploding Arrows at each of them, which could have killed them another few more times more. I picked out a few on the other side of the Cathedral.
'Now, let's go and check the corpses for anything useful.' She ordered. 'I'm low on arr…'
She stopped, and looked towards one of the bloody heaps on the floor, just on the left side of the altar. Her eyes were as intense, as if for a battle.
Suddenly, that bloody heap gave a small twitch – I was thinking that the last Inner Sight cast must have not yet been worn out, because the twitch was so small – and Oread shot toward it. I followed, wondering why Oread was not being cautious and readying her weapon, when I noticed what… who it was.
It was a tallish woman with golden hair pulled back into a ponytail, now tattered and messed-up, looking more of a dark brown due to the blood stains. I could see her basic armour beneath the newly-equipped plates – the same as Oread's, but rather than being dark grey and black, hers was of shades of red and brown; I could tell despite the arrows, blood and damages all over it. While Oread wore black tights over her legs, this woman's legs were bare, revealing bloody cuts all over her thighs.
This was an Amazon; one of Oread's tribe.
'Alseid!' Oread knelt down and called softly, gripping the unconscious figure by the shoulders. I saw her extensive injuries – there was no right arm beneath the upper arm, her other arm was limp and twisted, several puncture wounds and a deep gash across the chest would be beneath her armour, judging by the damage. Her left leg below mid-thigh was a mangled, bloody mess, and there was no right foot as far as I could see. Her face was horrifying to look at; underneath the cuts, bruises and blood, her nose was oddly askew, her lips split and swollen at one side; a few teeth were missing, and there was a dark red hole where her left eye should be. The other eye slowly opened, revealing blood-shot eyes that shone a dull blue, making the bloody even redder.
'Alseid…' A small smile formed upon Oread's lips, though it looked somewhat… difficult.
'Naiad?' Alseid replied, her words somewhat muffled by her injuries, but still audible. 'Is that you? I thought… I thought you were…'
'No. It's Oread.' My master's smile had mostly disappeared, leaving the look of a child frightened of upcoming punishment. Nevertheless, she tried to hold up her cold demeanour – I could tell now, some of the time, and this was the most obvious case I had been in.
'So they… sent you…' Alseid's eye began to close, a sad smile taking over her distorted lips. 'Even… you. Is there… no hope for our tribe?' Her mouthful of breath whistled through the gaps between her teeth for the last five words, then her eye rolled back, and her body fell limp.
Oread stayed still, as still as her dead friend. After a minute or so I figured that she was trembling – very faintly, but it was definite that she was trembling. I sat down next to her, and saw that her fists were clenched, though there were no tears… but I could feel her aura. The energy emitted from her body was what I could only describe as… crimson.
Oread bent down and kissed Alseid on the forehead, though her lips were quivering as well, and I noticed the tension in her jaws when she finished. She got to her feet, and I copied her gesture. Together, we bowed deeply to the body of the warrior before us…
…The despicable wench whose words had cut like a red-hot knife.
'Let's go find some supplies.' Oread lifted her head to look at me, and I was surprised to find her mask mostly back in place. The only hint was her eyes – the whites were still a little red.
As we searched through the remains, Oread kept the silence. When we finally finished, I returned to her with a few potions and two Scrolls of Town Portal. She took three potions from my hand, two red and a blue, and handed me a full quiver of arrows.
'Oread?' I began as I exchanged my mostly-empty quiver for the full one.
'Yes?' She was organising the compartments in her belt.
'There's hope.' I stated firmly, and waited for her to look at me. She did, but without the surprise I had somewhat expected. 'I believe that you can do it.'
She stood there, emotionless as usual for a few seconds, and then smiled. 'Thanks, Celadon.'
We found an opening to the Catacombs behind the altar. As I walked past the basins I found them to be filled with a scarlet liquid. Some part of me told me to see if it was health potion. I tasted it, stupidly, and almost threw up. No, definitely not potion.
We got behind the altar, and an archer leapt out towards us from a small opening in the wall. Oread barely dodged an arrow, which grazed her on the forehead. Suddenly alert again, I beheaded it with the short sword. It really was sharp.
Oread wiped at the small cut on her forehead and smiled at me in appreciation. I felt a sigh of relief escape me.
The opening was built into the floor in the small room behind the altar, where Rogues would have gotten ready before ceremonies, I assumed. It was now a mess – all the racks and shelves were broken and crumbling, what they used to contain – books, garments, jars, and charms amongst the assortment – scattered over the floor. The opening to the Catacombs was a trapdoor, were Rogues would go through and seek refuge below in desperate times, I guess… now we escaped from it.
Oread opened the trapdoor, and the still-denser invisible fluid smoke spewed out. 'Come on.' She fearlessly went down. I had a déjà vu of the Forgotten Tower. How long ago was that? Two weeks?
The Catacombs were extensive… I had never expected them to be this huge! There were boxes and barrels which once would have been filled with supplies, now empty as Oread kicked a few apart. The large space had a very intense eeriness about it; bones and spikes that looked as if they belonged to giants looped around the walls and the floors, like the very arms of evil embracing the Catacombs.
We advanced very slowly; we had to retreat and close doors behind us for most of the way, it was like the Cathedral all the way down. We soon used up all the green and orange potions, and if not for the barrels and boxes, we would have been easily slaughtered.
'I wish I could've learnt Guided Arrow for this.' Oread remarked, wincing as she ripped an arrow out of her leg. She poured half a bottle of Health Potion over the bleeding wound, and drank the remainder. The wound sizzled and closed, emitting a thick, bitter smell of chemicals.
We finally found a Waypoint on the second level, but we did not have the chance of lighting it until we had cleared out the whole level.
After a quick return for supplies, and barely escaping Kashya's over-passionate pre-death eulogy, we returned to cleanse the third level of the Catacombs... with more blood, that is. As much exhilaration as there was, I was getting tired of it. The few newly-closed wounds leaving healthy pink scars on me did not help. I just wanted to find Andariel and kill her. We were so close…
Then, we arrived at the fourth level. After killing all the enemies in a comparatively small room, we stood before a pair of huge gates, made of dark iron even larger than that leading into the Cathedral.
'You've got Antidotes with you?' Oread asked. I was about to nod as the voice boomed, rattling the metal gates, rattling my bones, resonating within my body.
'Join me in Hell!' The shrill voice bellowed, sending shivers down my spine; it was like the sound of dry thunder cracking with the absence of rain. Oread, however, stood as fearlessly as ever.
'Try me, bitch.'
For a moment, I wondered if she was speaking to Andariel, or Alseid.
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'In Greek mythology, Alseids were the nymphs of glens and groves. They liked to scare travellers.' I found that mildly amusing. Credits to Wikipedia!
That was by far the most fun chapter to write! I changed the Catacombs' opening because… well, I simply can't remember. :P
