The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 56: Bat Signal

"Wish there was some exposition NPC to explain the plot of this dungeon, it's weird having this lavish court filled with undead, and I demand an explanation," said Akshel light-heartedly.

"Why should this game have a plot?" Crucis laughed. "Reality doesn't have a plot. If you want plotting, go and find the Illuminati or something. Here, there's a lot of different stuff scattered around, and we have to make something of it. You can't pursue things freely if you're stuck to a railroad."

"Good analogy, but isn't it a bit depressing if we're stuck in a fantasy game and can't be heroes of a story? I always wanted to be, like, Hercules or something."

"Now you're just taking the piss. You're in DeathGang, you ain't no hero."

DicingDevil nodded and laughed. "You're just our peon anyway, why would you think you're allowed to even think about going off on a heroic adventure? I'll report you for thoughtcrime."

"This is just like 1984," Akshel exclaimed.

"Oh, you lot always trot out that tired comparison. What I said has nothing in common with Big Brother, it doesn't even sound similar. Can't you see that us DeathGang leaders just want what's best for you?"

The group had reached the top of the stairs, and found several vast, adjoining castle rooms, with dark grey walls that had a faint blue glow. There was no sound nearby, so the group had taken to chatting while inspecting the rooms for any items. DicingDevil and Akshel were both trading facetious barbs, but this was interrupted when Grisier picked up a large, silver key from a drawer.

"Found the key," Grisier said, "there's also a few written notes in here, but I can't read it in here."

"Why not use Conjure Light?" Crucis said, "No need to save MP here, there's no enemies around."

"Ah yes, of course. I barely need to use that spell usually, but this seems like a good place."

A bright light began to emanate from Grisier's right palm, and the rooms around here were lit up clearly. Crucis glanced around, and spotted a tattered skeleton lying in one corner. Dionarcy followed his gaze, and stepped back slightly in surprise after seeing the skeleton.

As Crucis crouched down to inspect the skeleton, Grisier began to scan the pieces of paper in front of him. "I can't make out the language of this text, but there's a few drawings. One shows, like, a spider standing over a broken sword, the sword has something like blood spilling from it where it's broken. There's also a drawing of an angel, but it seems to have lots of wounds across its body, and a scar across its face. A part of its torso is missing."

Crucis raised his head slightly, and replied, "There was also a painting of an angel like that on a column, in the area where we fought the Statue Faux. That angel was also battered, it had lots of wounds."

"Are you sure?"

"See for yourself."

Crucis lowered his eyes back towards the skeleton, and began looking for any items among the small pile of bones. In the meantime, Grisier had walked over to the room where the staircase had led, and looked out across the courtyard.

"Yeah, I see it. Interesting. But the staircase seems to have disappeared, guess we're trapped up here until we defeat the boss," Grisier said.

"That staircase always disappears," DicingDevil replied calmly, "It's OK, we can take this boss. There's also another escape route. But the angel drawing was quite an interesting detail, maybe scribble down the rest of the writing and we'll see if any NPC in town can translate?"

"Oh, sure. I also saw a few weird drawings, let me check." Grisier walked back to the written notes in the drawer. "There's a large, watching eye with, I think, a dead bird instead of a pupil. Also a bizarre drawing of a man being attacked by a pen. The third piece of paper has a woman pursued by a ghost who looks exactly like her, and a swarm of fish - they look similar to piranhas - devouring a man. I'll write the text, but I'm not good at tracing images."

"The watching eye?" Crucis mused, "It reminds me, those bats that flew out at us as we approached the door. Wouldn't it imply that we were being watched?"

"The final boss does act as if he was expecting you, now that you mention it," DicingDevil said, "He lays out five seats when you have five members in your party, and hides behind the curtains of his throne room to attack you. He also summons bats sometimes, one of them on our last run was a strong fella with red eyes, I think a rarer type of bat enemy."

"I see. I can't say for sure, maybe it's related."

"It's quite possible," Grisier said, "Huh, weird. Check this out, guys, the eye drawing is following me around the room. Literally, its pupil is moving."

Crucis picked up a thin, silk envelope that was lying besides the remnants of the skeleton's spine. Reaching carefully inside, he pulled out a red gem, which was accompanied with a small, folded note. The note read:

"Greetings, Dear Asutuor,

"Our rendezvous last night was precious. You asked why I placed this gem between your legs as you slept. I think the ecstasy of last night has demonstrated this to you. Take this gem, loyal soldier, and sleep with it. My husband does not let me roam tonight, and this will give you succour. Do not mind if it tires you again, allow your desire to keep you awake until you are too weak to stay conscious.

"I have begun consultations to give you a higher position in our court, but there is hesitance because you travelled here from afar before joining our army. If you use this gem, then I will press the matter further. I'm sure I can count on you, dearest, having seen the awe and exhiliration in your wide eyes this morning.

"Think of me always.

"Your beloved, Jenna."

The gem was labelled by the game as [Genliduor's Ruby], and it was described as a gem given as a gift by Genliduor to her loyal followers.

"Who's Genliduor?" Crucis asked his companions.

While the rest of the group were watching with surprise as the eye drawing followed their movements, DicingDevil thought for a moment and quickly replied, "Genlidhor? It rings a bell, but I can't remember that exact name."

"Hm. How about Jenn-li-doo-or?" Crucis tried pronouncing the name as it was spelled.

"Oh, yes, I know that name. It's the Queen of this place, their name is on a throne next to the King's."

"I guess it's probably also the Undead Queen boss," Grisier added.

"I see. Well, I found this gem, it seems to have been gifted to one of her lovers. Quite a promiscuous girl. She seems to have treated it as having some sort of supernatural power, but I'm not entirely sure what." He held out the gem for the others to inspect.

"Could be related to why she's a stronger boss than everyone else in this court," Dionarcy offered, "I heard she has a necklace with a purple gem, it glows sometimes as she casts spells."

"Yes, it might be another such gem. By the way, have you guys figured out the eye drawing?"

"We know that it follows us around, and it's creepy. That's about it," replied Akshel.

"I can sense some mana around it, but it was cast by a stronger spellcaster than me so I can't make out the details. It's definitely some kind of magic, somehow imbued into the drawing."

"So something like enchanted writing?" Crucis asked.

"Probably something like that. But that doesn't allow you to make text or drawings move like this. That would require some other spell."

"That's true. I'm not sure how exactly that could be done. Actually, looking closer at the drawing, I'm not sure if it's enchanted at all. You're probably familiar with enchanted gear, etc., does this have the same kind of mana aura as those?"

"Good question." Grisier lightly moved his palm over the page. "No, it doesn't. There seems to be some mana, but it's some kind of weird, elusive magic spiralling across the paper, I can't make out exactly where it is. But definitely nothing emanating out from the drawing, like there is in enchanted materials. It's not enchanted."

"How peculiar. Is there enough mana for someone to be using it to track or spy on us?"

"No, fortunately. It can't be scrying magic. However, the mana does seem to ripple occasionally, I'm not sure why."

"By the way, the bird-pupil of the eye was pointing towards the side earlier, but now it's facing us," Dionarcy interjected. "Anyone know why that might be?"

"Yeah, that is weird," Grisier said. "I have no idea what's going on there."

"It looks like a bad omen. Maybe we should try to get a move on, if you're finished with copying out the text," Crucis said.

DicingDevil turned to begin walking. "Yes, let's go."

The group travelled quickly to the left of the stairs, passing through a few empty rooms. Eventually, they came to a large, wooden door, with bright silver hinges and an ornate red, black and green coiling snake painted on it. This door was contained in a small, round room, with a barred window letting in faint hints of sunlight.

Without hesitating, Grisier placed the silver key into a lock on the door, and began to turn it. However, the key seemingly jammed, and refused to turn fully. Grisier had to fidget a bit in order to get the key back out.

"Haven't seen this before, the key didn't work," Grisier said, agitated.

"I'll try." DicingDevil took the key and tried to open the door. He soon gave up. "No, there seems to be a problem. But it's not because of the key. I think someone placed something in the lock to disrupt it."

"Who? They'd have had to do it from this side, the lock is only accessible from here."

"Maybe after the eye began to follow us, something was triggered?" Crucis speculated. "It wasn't scrying, but maybe it didn't need to. If someone familiar with it could sense its mana in flux as it moved, then they could tell that there were intruders. But we should look out, it might still be nearby."

DicingDevil carefully poked around in the keyhole, and found a small piece of paper rolled up into a thin cylinder not larger than a matchstick.

"Talk about origami," muttered DicingDevil.

As he unrolled the paper, he saw a few words scrawled across it. As he began to read this, he was interrupted by a loud, high-pitched shriek.

A man, stooped low towards the ground, trudged up to the doorway of the round room which the group was in. However, in the dim sunlight, Crucis could see that this man wasn't in ordinary condition. The man's hands were covered by scars and burn marks, and a sheet of torn, charred skin hung down beneath his arms like wings. The rest of his body also seemed to be disintegrating and falling apart, with parts of his skin torn and hanging to the side across most of his legs, head and torso. His skin seemed diseased, and was tainted a thick green-grey colour, as well as stains of red and black from the crusted blood and charring respectively.

The creature's name hovered over its head: [Syphilitic Man-Bird]. It was level 60. As it entered the room, it shrieked again.