Chapter 20: Getting to know you better
Chris, Alito, and Death approached the wandering figure near a bridge. It was an elderly figure with a purple, wrinkled goat head and four Satyr-like horns.
He possessed a short but thick white beard and wore a brown cloak with gold highlights around his blue overalls. He carried several potions by his shoulder pads, his necklace, and his small purse on his left waist. He was holding a large pipe on his right hand, smoking away.
"Ahh, the Pale Rider. Isn't it odd that so many have come here by your hand? Yet you rarely visit the Dead Kingdom. And who might you two women be?" the goat-like figure spoke in a deep, grumbling voice.
"I am Chris, and this is Alito. We're following Death when this thing happens." Chris shrugged.
Death sighed. "We had no plan to visit this wretched place. We sought the Tree of Life. We found it. Now we're stuck here."
The goat-figure chuckled. "The tree is no destination my friend - only a portal to other worlds. If the tree is what you seek, then you have arrived."
"Then we've been betrayed." Death frowned.
The figure shook his head and his right hand. "Not so hasty. The tree is wise beyond imagining. If it brought you here, then here is where you belong. Perhaps I can help."
"I doubt it." Death crossed his arms.
The goat figure warned, "You would be wise to heed me. I have a merchant's skill to grant your deepest desire, and I can share knowledge that is beyond what you might want."
Chris placed her left hand on Death's right shoulder. "We're stuck here, and we need all the information. His tone seems wise enough."
Death grunted, and then replied, "I would redeem my brother. Restore the Balance."
"Mmm yes! I have heard the tale. Your brother rode, though no call was given - and mankind paid the price." the merchant replied.
"Guard your tongue merchant." Death warned.
"I gave no judgement friend; only pass on that which I have been told." the goat merchant shook his head. "You were right to seek the Tree - but it is only the gateway. What you seek is the Well of Souls."
"The Well of Souls can restore Humanity?" Death wondered.
"And more." the merchant nodded. "The Well channels the dead into this kingdom, from every world, above and below. It is also how souls are brought back into creation, when they are ready to be reborn."
"So that's what the Well of Souls is..." Chris nodded.
"Speaking of the Dead Kingdom, you still haven't said what you are." Death frowned.
"The history of my people was burned to ash, along with our world, forgotten even by those who...destroyed them. Now...only the smoke remains." the merchant replied. "We were not the first, nor will we be the last. It is the way of things."
"The way of things is Balance." Death replied.
"And what balances life? Nothingness. Or...Corruption. Eventually, it consumes us all." the merchant replied.
"So it seems...None of this explains what you're doing here." Death asked.
"I am merely a humble merchant with a taste for the finer things. In life, and in death. I am Ostegoth. And it would amuse me to offer you my wares." he replied.
Death frowned. He never knew the Tree of Life was a portal to other worlds.
"Tree of Life? Tree of Death? Portals to other worlds? I know none of this. How is it I have remained so blind - or does your tongue only spit lies?" Death snarled.
"Much was kept from the Nephilim - and from the four." Ostegoth grunted.
"Why?" Chris wondered.
"Because power must be tempered with ignorance." Ostegoth replied.
"I thought responsibility and discipline plays a part as well?" Chris wondered.
"I never say it couldn't play a part. If the Nephilim knew the true nature of the Tree, all would have perished." Ostegoth replied.
"Nephilims were too angry to know reason. If they know about the Tree of Life, every race would be eliminated before the victims could say 'oops!'." Chris thought.
"I forsook the Nephilims - became a warrior for the Balance, even killed my own people. I protect these worlds, you and the tree. Yet still I remain in the dark." Death frowned.
"Forsaken, yes. Forgotten, no. The blood of the Nephilims lives on in you. But what do I know? I am but a simple merchant." Ostegoth chuckled.
Chris sighed as she replaced the words 'Nephilims' with 'Humans'.
"I might forsake my humanity without knowing its meaning, yet the ones I helped never forget it...The blood of the humans lives on in me...but what is humanity?" she thought.
Chris then shook her head. "Focus, Chris...Solace is what Alito and I seek, and our aim is Corruption's elimination. Don't lose track now."
"What if we want to return to the Forge Lands?" Death asked.
"The Tree of Life has many portals, Rider. Some may help you retrace your path. Many portals are closed, but the one to the Forge Lands remains open." Ostegoth replied.
"Pretend that we believe you. Where should our search begin?" Chris asked.
"You must scale the Serpant's Peak, and summon the Eternal Throne. There, the Lord of Bones slumbers. He will guide you to the Well...or he will have your soul." Ostegoth grunted. "Before you go, though, consider this. My people may be lost, but their relics yet remain. You may come across them in your travels. They are worthless to most, but valuable to me. Return them, and I will trade relic for coins."
"We will try, Ostegoth." Chris and Alito nodded.
As they left Ostegoth for Serpent's Peak, Chris and Alito could feel ice creeping down their spines.
"Ice...I can feel it creeping down my soul." Chris frowned.
Death, too, could feel it as he pointed his bony right index finger towards a huge building shaped like a London clock tower.
"Maybe it's Argul. I could feel the power of the Abyss in my veins." Death frowned.
Shortly after ploughing through some wandering skeletons, the trio made it to the tower's entrance. Slamming the doors open, a spiral staircase revealed itself, with a rush of frigid air rushing out.
"With castles like this, who needs air-conditioning?" Chris raised her eyebrows.
Chris, Death, and Alito trudged down sets of staircases down into a huge door with skeleton ornaments.
As soon as Death opened the door, a rush of cold air rushed out of the room. There were two frozen ice skeletons and two more wandering ice skeletons in front of them.
"Let's release Argul from his madness first. I have something to prove to Thane." Death grunted.
"As the Reaper, right?" Chris asked.
"Of course, I want to prove that I live up to my name. I don't like it when people misjudge or underestimate my powers." Death warned.
"I'm sure we can join in, no?" Chris asked.
"Thane wants you to get a taste of fighting other powerful creatures aside from Corruption. Why not?" Death replied.
"Thanks...I thought you might accuse us of kicking the boss's ass in the last second, or in our world's case, kill-stealing." Chris gave a small chuckle.
"What do you mean?" Death wondered.
"Oh, you know, people playing a computer role-playing game and just as they are about to finish off an enemy, someone cuts in and kills off your enemies for you! To make things worse, they steal your loot. Hence the name, kill-stealing." Chris shrugged.
"Your world sure has some interesting cultures, especially in the Kingdom of Man." Death replied in amusement as they smashed through the four skeletons rather easily.
"What about you, Death? Is there anything you have done over the eons aside from maintaining the Balance? Surely you must have done something in your free time, right?" Lifebane called out.
"Well, aside from maintaining the Balance...Just living in a desolate wasteland, that's all." Death shrugged.
As they entered another door with a huge pit filled with spikes and wooden planks, the only safety platforms...
"You don't feel bored?" Chris asked in amusement.
"Not at all. Maybe it's just me though..." Death grunted.
"That's boring, I have to admit." Chris chuckled softly as Death and Chris leapt and grabbed hooks with Soul Grip and Frigid Fists to leap for the other side of the plank.
"That or I create weapons of world-ending powers used in defeating an enemies' world for the Balance. You know, it's better to have a boring lifestyle then to have something chaotic happening. Even if a chaotic event happen I don't just wait for an end or a resolution, I make them happen." Death replied as the trio climbed up the wall and planks.
"Fair enough...Cultural differences, I guess." Chris replied.
"Your world has full of supernatural powers imbued upon the humans, right?" Death asked.
"Yeah...More and more people have taken up alchemy, swordplay, and adventuring. Somehow, as years go by, more and more people became fascinated by it and eventually seemed to unleash their innate supernatural powers." Chris explained.
"Our world eventually comes into peace as we share those elements. Diplomacy became easily negotiable as residents become happier through adventuring and, heartless assholes, and natural disasters caused by heartless supernatural creatures aside, residents lived in peace for most of the time." Lifebane followed as the trio travelled back over the spiky pits after getting a Skeleton Key.
"Well, that's something..." Death mused.
"I admit...I couldn't do things all by myself, and thanks to Alito, I'm able to do things without losing myself." Chris simpered, just as Death opened a skeleton lock just a level above.
After minutes of slicing their way through the basement's scarabs, skeletons, icicle skeletons, traversing through wooden planks, and wall riding to open several doors, the trio managed to open a large, frigid door that revealed a huge, frozen statue.
The frozen statue held a large, spiky ice mace.
"So...this is it. Argul, the Deposed King..." Chris exhaled deeply.
"Alright...stand aside, Chris and Alito. This is not pretty." Death frowned as he approached the frozen behemoth.
Soon enough, the frozen statue began to shake for a few seconds. Cracks appeared in the ice prison as bits of ice soon fell off.
Suddenly, the frozen juggernaut burst out of the ice prison, roaring in rage and madness. Its white eyes inebriated with madness. It has a muscular body encased in white, transparent ice as a hard, spiky armor, with its back shaping up many icicle spikes.
The monster held a large icicle shield with the emblem of a skeleton with glowing white eyes, and a huge icicle mace with faces in its four sides. Its jaw was big and sharp, and its face was that of pure, twisted madness.
"Argul!" Death frowned as the trio positioned themselves for battle.