At the bottom I emerged to find a pair of confused looking guards playing cards in a former basement flanked by doors in each direction. One of them, a woman, stuttered, “What…?,” before I whipped one of the daggers into her chest, severing the cord to her whistle and causing her to fall back.

  The other man started to summon a ball of fire into his hand but I charged toward him following the second dagger. He let out a sharp cry of surprise as the dagger buried into his arm. The Sisters returned to my hands and I slashed him quickly, activating Slice and spraying blood around the room.

  The woman let out a weak cry and I pounced on her slashing at her throat twice to end her scream, it sounded vaguely like a plea for mercy seconds before it turned into a gurgle. The man managed a pained cry as I charged him and thrust him into the stone wall, driving my bone blade into his stomach and twisting it before letting him slump to the basement floor.

  Listening for sounds of alarm for five painfully long seconds I let out a sigh of relief before looting each of them with a touch. All of their regular loot was tossed into my inventory and I kept a set of five keys in hand, which I assumed was much more specific to the dungeons. Worried for time I chose the door of the two that appeared to be the most recently installed. I rushed to it and found it locked.

  Quickly cycling through the keys, I opened the gate on my second attempt.

  The dungeon door opened to reveal a rough cut hallway with only a single flickering torch. There was no sign of the Vicar and his attendant. I hurried down the darkened cellblock. Behind the bars there were mostly sleeping and unfamiliar figures. When I reached the center cell I paused in surprise and opened my mouth to speak… I reconsidered and just checked the keys to open the lock.

  Protag’s body sat motionless and glassy eyed in the cell. All of his equipment had been removed from his goblinoid skeletal form and he was wearing nothing. He was clearly logged out… but your avatar usually vanished from the world when you did.

  If you were captured did that not matter? That had to be it.

  Summoning a silver shortsword and a suit of armor I set it beside him in the cell. I quietly asked Lydia to ping him through my interface in hopes that he would notice. That done, I continued to search the cells.

  At the far end I stopped in my tracks as I finally found the silent and huddled form of Valerie in the center of a cell. I carefully opened the door and made my way inside to kneel next to her. The tension in my body drained when I noted that she seemed to have suffered very little abuse.

  Reaching out I clapped a hand over her mouth. She started awake and looked up at me wild eyed. Her body relaxed and she exhaled a sigh of relief. I gave her a quick nod as I smiled and whispered, “Hey, we are getting out, but I have to do one more thing. I am going to give you a weapon and some equipment. Things are going to get messy.”

  She nodded quickly and I removed my hand. Summoning a slender silver sword and a suit of my best heavier armor and I placed it in the cell for her, alongside a suit of simple clothes.

  When I exited the cell the goblin sized skeletal Protag was glaring at me with glinting blue fiery eyes as the gear I’d given him appeared on his body. He grumbled hoarsely, “Something weird is going on.”

  With a grimace I nodded and whispered, “I am definitely getting that feeling. I tried sending messages to everyone I’ve met and no one has answered. Even Sakurai and Nomura, and I am pretty sure it was pretty damn early in Japan when I sent those messages.”

  He shook his head and looked toward the far door as he continued, “Catacomb has been difficult, if not hostile, since I started sending in complaints and bug reports earlier. I’ve been up all damned night trying to figure out what is going on.”

  He nodded toward me, “Just like you, every other player I’ve run with has been a ghost since the ambush.”

  Stepping outside the cell to let Val dress I kept an eye on the distant stairwell and sent Protag a group invite. Finally, I suggested, “Do you think there is a bug that prevents logging back in if they die?”

  “Is that what happened to your group?”

  “Sure seems like it, but it doesn’t explain why Catacomb is being difficult about it. It’s literally our job to find bugs like that.”

  When I shared all my relevant quests with him he raised an eyebrow, “Is this stuff a bit out of my league?”

  “I managed to pick up an E Tier race and if we can get Theodora out of the nearby cells we will have a solid chance. Our biggest impediment is the Priests of Pain. There are three of them patrolling the district and both are E Tier monsters. There is also almost certainly a boss and a pair of mini-boss types around here.”

  Protag nodded and studied me, “So are you the tank then? Don’t seem the type.”

  Chuckling I smirked and spread my hands, “Looks like I will have to give it a shot. What I wouldn’t give to have Sakurai or even KKG back.”

  The little goblin skeleton nodded and said, “I’m what the game calls a Blackfingers so I’m good with alchemy and what not. Tell me a creature’s weakness and I got a good chance of taking advantage of it.”

  Nodding I turned to see Valerie stepping from the cell in the suit of heavy plate armor I had given her and carrying a nice silver rapier. She gave both of us a stoic look, her golden eyes lingering on mine as she said, “I’m sorry that I got you into this situation.”

  Grinning I gave her a dismissive wave, “Don’t apologize now. We need to get out of here,” I gestured toward the door, “and right now we have a bitchy little vampire to save.”

  She spoke up and stopped me in my tracks, “We need to go to my family’s estate.”

  Shaking my head I said, “No, look we need to…,” but was cut off when she said.

  “Sevrin is there.”

  Eyeing her for a long moment and ground my teeth as I considered the plan. Part of me reasoned that going after Sevrin individually was hardly worth the quest reward. The other, more irrational part, remembered dangling bodies in a darkened tunnel, distant screeches of twisted child-like monsters and the hollow eyes of the drugged citizens of Lothin. Shaking my head, I bowed to my roiling emotions, “Alright. We have to do this silently then.”

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Continuing down the cellblock I paused at the first occupied cells. A young Haithan man was looking up at me, disheveled, emaciated, and covered in the scars of obvious torture. I looked down at the hollow eyed prisoner and asked, “You on board with killing cultists?”

  The man started to nod but glared when he saw Valerie step up behind me. She looked down at him and growled, “Not this man, he was a confidant of the cult. They imprisoned him when they discovered that he was smuggling so-called ‘blasphemous’ items into the city,” she glared with cold indifference, “he would betray us in a heartbeat.”

  The man hissed in response, “Damn you to the depths de Lafontaine. You and your family’s self-righteousness put us in this situation. Damn you!”

  Shrugging, I moved on to pause at the next two cells. On the left there was a young woman with long alabaster hair and hollow features. She was tall and voluptuous and sat with her arms wrapped around her knees to hide her nakedness. On the right there was a young man who looked eerily similar to her. He was slender like most male Haithan but tall, over two meters. He had plum colored skin and short ears for his kind. The woman’s lips spread into an unsettling smile and the man muttered, “The moment of truth, dear sister.”

  Valerie chimed in immediately, “The Foix twins, Celeste and Mattieu. They are insane. They set fire to their own manor where the cult was being housed. Fifteen cultists died in the blaze while they managed to escape.”

  Celeste breathed in deeply and turned up her nose as she answered nonplussed by the accusation, “They claim to be one with the flame. We simply wished to introduce the rude interlopers to their goddess.”

  Mattieu continued, “They claimed to be immune to fire. I simply wished to prove them wrong,” he paused and raised an eyebrow, “scientifically.”

  Looking back and forth between the twins I made a middling gesture with my hand before shrugging, “Sold,” and immediately started unlocking their cells.

  Celeste stood, being incarcerated having done little to reduce her imposing and distracting form. She casually left the cell as if not a day had passed muttering with a pout, “Are you still passing out violent killing tools with abandon?”

  Giving her a concerned sidelong look I delved into my inventory and tossed the two of them full sets of caster equipment to clothe themselves in.

  Five minutes later I led the way into the guard chamber where the mangled and bloodless corpses of the guards still lie. I made my way to the other door and tried it, finding it locked. I searched through the keys until I opened it and turned to look at Valerie as I handed her my Explosive Wards, “Take the Foix twins upstairs and kill any guards on the ground level. Protag and I will deal with the Vicar and his assistant.”

  She nodded, resting a lingering touch on my forearm before departing. I watched her and the twins in their purloined black and red robes hurry up the stairs and sighed. Celeste gave me a parting wink as we took up places on either side of the door. Through the door we could now hear the sound of the vicar’s insistent questioning, “Lady von Achen, you do realize that by telling me the secrets of your beloved Heartrose, and the message our goddess conveyed to him, you not only end your torment but will be responsible for the jubilation of the Flame’s entire faith?”

  Theodora’s pained voice answered with the steel I had come to expect, “And you get to take a comfortable position beside her?”

  The Vicar chuckled, “A by-product that will be of no concern to a vampire who has long since been reduced to ash,” he paused to laugh and added, “and that no one will remember.”

  I looked over my shoulder at a grim faced Protag and muttered, “Cold. Kill the woman first,” barely audible under the continued chuckles of the aged Vicar.

  The goblin skeleton nodded and I moved to the door. Raising three fingers to count down I started to drop them as the Vicar began to speak again, “Now, let's talk about this ring…”

  With that I pushed the door open slowly.

  The chamber beyond was arrayed with a few simple torture devices with the unsurprising theme of fire. All kinds of wrought iron pokers and prodders along with such infamous tools as the pear of anguish and the iron chair filled the room. The latter was currently occupied by the subject of our search who was surrounded by the two cultists.

  The Vicar was lifting a silver scalpel and peering down at the ravaged body of a figure who I struggled to see Theodora in. Once again, I cursed Catacomb for a focus on so-called realism. The iron chair she was perched and bound to was reddened with significant heat. She was completely naked, although much of what would have identified her as a woman had been burned or cut away.

  Both the Vicar and his Adjutant faced away from us. The woman calmly muttered over her shoulder, “Why are you interrupting the Vicar…”

  Activating Surge I rushed the oblivious woman and I was upon the surprised caster in moments. Even as I slashed into her, however, a corona of slow moving flame started to rise from her robes in response.

  As I rolled past her and slashed her chest twice I saw a globe full of swirling silver liquid slowly arcing through the sky toward her back. As blood burst from her chest and coated my arms she tumbled backward into the orb and time resumed. The flames rising from her body winked out as the bottle burst and a rime of frost covered her shoulders and arms.

  Despite all the damage she had suffered the woman raised her arms, flaming claws rose from wrists and encompassed her hands. Behind me, the Vicar had turned and seemed unconcerned. His throat whitened with heat and a growing orange glow filled his mouth as he gestured toward me with a symbol of silver.

  Protag threw a second vial full of dark green fluid which slammed into the Adjutant and slowed her considerably. I activated my Blazing Boots and rushed toward her despite the growing heat. Ducking under her slow moving arm I managed a slash on her leg, activating Slice before kicking her in the knee and slowing her with a Hobble. With my speed boost I rose from the kick slicing into her at high speed as my regeneration halted due to the proximity of fire damage.

  Sensing danger with my Alertness, I rolled aside, and was clipped by a ray of pure flame. My shoulder and arm were blackened to the bone. Despite the injury I rushed back in and ducked under the flaming claw of the Adjutant. My blades weaved in an intricate pattern as I hacked into her several more times, throwing Slice into every strike to the detriment of my Essence pool.

  Finally, I drove my blade up to the hilt in her chest and wrenched it free, rolling aside in anticipation as a ball of white hot fire exploded into her body and threw it backward and into the wall. Turning on my heel I burst into mist flowing toward the Vicar as another bottle of icy liquid flew through me and burst into his chest.

  The entire structure shook around as somewhere above us something exploded. Ignoring the antics of the Foixs and Valerie I rematerialized behind the Vicar and slashed down into his shoulder as I gripped him around the neck.

  “Damn you vile spawn of the Elseworld! I shall immolate you in the name of the Lady!”

  Another bomb of ice burst into the screaming Vicar’s legs and he grappled at my arm as he staggered. My arm started to smoke as he dug furrows into my marble like skin, leaving trails of charr in their wake. Ignoring my plummeting health I growled in his ear, “While I would be glad to kill you, I think you can do something for us Vicar.”

  Feeling him tense he muttered, “What… wha…,” as I kicked his legs out from under him and dragged the frail man’s body to the tortured form of Theodora. He screamed as I grabbed the back of his head and hammered his neck down onto the barely recognizable face of the vampiress.

  As he struggled and burned me on my arms and chest I pulled a silver dagger from my inventory and hammered it through his back and into the arm of the iron chair.

  Slumping to the floor I heard my former sire start to feed.

  With a pained grimace, I checked my health and essence pool:

  Health: 110 / 3722

  Essence: 21 / 200