Chapter 14: Chapter 13: Carver – Light.

Content Warning: Blood, Violence.

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"Not a problem. See you both later!" Naomi said, before changing and leaving the room.

"There she goes." I sighed.

"What's the problem?" Fate asked.

"It's nothing, really."

"Doesn't seem like nothing."

"I'm just- I was so useless back at that cave. You saved the both of us, while I just... Ran."

"That's not true! You helped her up to her feet afterwards!"

"I guess. But truth is, she's always been the one protecting me. She'd never admit it, but it's true. It's been like that since we met." I started fiddling with a loose cork from the bottles on the table. "I just want to give back, look after someone that's been caring for me all this time, ya know?"

"I see... All you can really do is train. We all make a great team, it'll be alright!"

"Maybe." I looked up, staring at the ceiling as we spoke. "Though as soon as I got here I was mind controlled. By the way, that potion you gave me - Isn't it supposed to like, change me quite a lot, physically?"

"Only so far as your heart desires. It's just that for some people it takes longer than others. Why's that?"

"Just wondering. Anyway, I'll go grab a snack before crashing, want something?"

"No, thank you. I keep all I need in the lab."

"Cool! See you tomorrow, then."

"See you!" She said while booping me on the nose. "Careful on your way back!"

"I'll probably be fine."

I started walking to the fair to see what was still open, and ended up finding Heather on the way. She was quickly going through pages of a tome and looked stressed. I could hear her muttering to herself, something about demons, fire and jelly. Since I didn't understand any of it, I decided to just greet her.

"Heya, Heather."

"Ah! Don't sneak up on people like that!"

"I'm in front of you." 

"That's great. Listen, can you do something for me? I'll owe you one."

"I'm on my way to-"

"I need to check something important, can you help out the refugees? One of them needs help. Thanks, you're the best."

"Hey! I didn't say I'd-" 

She left before I could finish, looking extremely distracted. I walked to the direction she generally pointed at. I eventually came across a teenager with horns, wearing common robes and a dark green cape, pacing across the halls of the castle. When I approached, he quickly glanced at me and got closer.

"Are you the guard?" He anxiously asked.

"Something like that. What's the problem?"

"I was looking after my little brother for my parents while they got some documentation done, and I turned around for just a second... Please, you've gotta help me find him!"

"Well alright." I groaned, having to delay my snack break for a while longer. "Come on, let's find your missing family."

He thanked me profusely and we set off. We walked around the immediate surroundings, asking questions to another guard we found along the way. During the search, I decided to make some small talk to get the young boy's mind off any distressing thoughts. I learned he was part of a village to the southwest of the kingdom. They recently had gotten attacked by mysterious creatures, which saw their numbers decrease slightly, and forced them to seek refuge in Lumalight. I quickly decided that was not helping his situation and promptly changed subjects.

"He might have gone to one of the basements if he's not in any of these rooms." I said, vaguely remembering the basement from my scuffle with Naomi.

"The basements?! Aren't those dangerous?"

"No, don't worry, the ones that aren't safe are magically sealed. Mostly. He's probably fine." I walked over to the training room on the way and grabbed a shield and a shortsword. "Probably."

"If he's hurt, it's all my fault. Gods damn me, why did I have to-" 

"Hey, hey. Relax." I tried comforting him by placing a hand on his shoulder, but he wouldn't stand still. "Stay where we first met, I'll meet you there with your brother."

He nervously shuffled back to the rendezvous, and I moved to the same basement I got knocked out in. The magic ward was still not back in place, and the door that was supposed to be locked was slightly open. I cracked my knuckles, wielded my weapons and hoped to not have to use them while I went inside. 

The room was dark, and even with light coming from above I could barely see past a few feet in front of me. Each step echoed loudly through the place, and as my eyes adjusted to the dark I noticed it looked nearly empty. No doubt the contents had been moved somewhere else while the room was still exposed.

"Hey, uh... Kid?" I loudly whispered. "Damn, I should have asked your name."

"Hello?" A child's voice came from one of the corners of the room. "Are you a friend or a bad guy?"

"I'm a friend." I answered, starting to pinpoint exactly where the sound came from. "Your brother's worried, you should come out now."

"I saw some really weird looking things coming in here and I came to investigate, but I think they saw me... I think they went in the wall."

The boy jumped out of the darkness and grabbed my arm, which gave me a hell of a scare. I gave him the directions to find his brother and told him to go, but he seemed hesitant.

"What about the-"

"Weird things? I'll take care of them. Which wall did they go into?"

"That one." He pointed toward the other side of the room, to an unobstructed, small wall in the darkest corner.

"Good job. You go now, I'll check this out, alright?"

"Thank you! He shouted while running out the room as fast as he could.

I turned my attention back to the wall, reaching out as to not run into it in the dark. I found a large backpack leaning against it, inside it were hundreds of small sheets of paper, all of them completely blank. I strapped it to my back and returned to my investigation. Although part of me wanted to dismiss the idea as a child's overactive imagination, I couldn't leave the possibility of further intruders uninvestigated. I ran my hands across the wall until I found a loose brick. I pushed it in, and to my disappointment, something actually happened. A small hole magically opened in front of me, leading into another room. At the very least there was light coming from within.

I went inside the ominous, secret hole in the basement's wall with as much caution as you can have when climbing into an ominous, secret hole in a basement wall. I found myself inside of a large, square room. There were coffins alongside the walls, as if prepared for transport. A large, chained door on the opposite wall greatly worried me, and four large columns provided ample cover for someone to hide behind. In the middle of the room was a small, empty wooden stand.

I couldn't find the source of light in the room. The lighting suggested there should be torches on the walls, and yet they were completely bare. I slowly approached the stand while looking all around. But before I reached the center of the room, it suddenly became completely dark. I turned around in the pitch black, starting to go into a panic. A million thoughts raced throuh my head, and I tried to control my breathing. All I wanted at that moment was a source of light, and right on cue...

A light appeared from my shoulder and danced its way to the palm of my hand. The strands of light started circling my fingers, until they transferred over into my shield, making it act almost exactly like a flashlight.

"Holy shit, that's cool." I said in surprise, my voice cracking on the final word. "H-hey! Whoever's in here, I know magic! So just... Give yourself in, I guess. Yeah."

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A dark fog started to flood the room, becoming especially thick around my ankles. My light was useless after just a few feet, unable to penetrate the fog. I could hear whispers all around me, some a few inches from me and others that I couldn't pinpoint. I started having trouble breathing, having to take slow, deep breaths, which thankfully calmed me down slightly. Then, I heard heavy footsteps and the shuffling of armor coming from behind.

I turned around, ready to strike. Instead I was met with Naomi, clad in full plate armor and wielding a huge longsword. She looked much taller than usual, and her face was covered in scars as if she had seen a lifetime of battles. Deep down, I knew something was wrong, but with each breath that thought got further and further away. I approached her, and she spoke before I could even open my mouth.

"Carver, what are you doing down here?"

"I'm-" A loud shriek came from somewhere within the room, sounding much further away than should be possible in such a small space. I dropped the backpack to the ground and prepared myself for a fight. "Fuck. Get ready, Nay."

"You should have called me earlier." She got closer and crossed her arms, looking down at me. "I've been meaning to ask, how did you know my name when you got here?"

"I... I didn't, I tried calling you by-"  Fast footsteps approached me, and with a panicked swing I felt my sword connect. "Damn! Get your guard up!"

"You've been taking the whole situation a little too well, in my opinion. I come up to you in a completely different body, with fucking wolf ears and a tail for crying out loud, and you're just chill about it?"

"N-now isn't the time!" I get my shield up, just barely defending against an attack I had not seen coming from something hidden in the shadows. "Help me, Naomi!!"

"Hey, now." She said, in a frustratingly calm tone. "Your mind is playing tricks on you. Calm down, take deep breaths and let me take care of you."

"I... I don't..." I was starting to get light-headed. I dropped my guard for a moment, only to immediately be slashed across the chest. "Fuck! Where is this thing? I can't... I can't see it because of this damn... Fog. The fog!"

I tried concentrating on my hands again, trying to get rid of the fog surrounding me. The light got brighter, and some of it made a small circle around my feet. The fog was repelled from within it, and in a desperate gasp I finally realized how out of breath I was. While I struggled I got slashed again, this time on my back. I shouted in pain as I fell to my knees. I tried looking around to find the beast but the rest of the room was still shrouded in darkness and fog.

"Heal!" Naomi shouted to me, her armor looking significantly less protective, her face more as I expected it to be. "Focus on your wounds!"

I did just that, and with a flick of the hand my wounds started to close. I got back up, feeling the pain melt away as the warm light made its way into my body. The sounds of whatever was attacking were closer now, I could more easily track it around the room, and suddenly I heard it charge at me once more. This time, however, I was prepared. I thrusted my sword forward and felt it sink deep into something fleshy. It shrieked once again as it punctured my shoulder with its claws.

I kept healing myself as soon as I got hit, and trying my best to hit whatever was attacking me from the darkness. No matter how many times I felt my sword connect with it, feeling it tear through flesh, it kept coming at me. Once my head cleared further and the action started slowing down, I turned to face Naomi again. Her appearance had changed yet again, this time to exactly how she was during our mission.

"Focus." She said. "I'm just a distraction. The fog is messing with your head."

"Right." I replied, turning my attention back to the darkness. "Still... Thank you."

I kept fighting. Another strike, another hit with my sword, another wound. Even with my shield, I could barely defend myself against each attack. They were too fast and too numerous, and I started taking more hits than I could heal. The light was starting to dim, and I knew it was a matter of time before I fell. But eventually, after what felt like several minutes of non-stop fighting for my life, the room grew quiet.

"I don't hear anything else." Naomi said with a smile on her face. "You actually did it, Carv. Good girl."

"Oh, it was nothi- Wait, I'm not-" Before I could register what she had said, the fog started to dissipate.

The room was back to normal, with the exception of the three small, imp-like creatures lying dead on the ground and the blood covering a good portion of the walls and floor of the room. I tried healing the remaining wounds on my body, but I just couldn't muster up the strength. Still unconvinced of my safety, I kept a defensive stance and scanned the room and a familiar voice broke the silence.

"Well, well. Looks like the little fawn still has a pulse. Good job." The demoness revealed herself from behind one of the columns, and I tried not showing any signs of surprise.

"Of course it's you. How unsurprising." I lied.

"I was hoping for the cat or that annoying wizard girl, but I suppose you will do just fine." She snapped her fingers and towards me.

I barely had time to react to her strike, but managed just barely to block her claws with my shield. The force of the attack snapped it in half, along with a few of my fingers, and I fell on my back. I started to get up but was too slow, and she picked me up from the ground by the neck. I struggled, trying to free myself from her grasp to no avail. She stabbed me in the stomach with my own sword before I even realized she had it, and in the same motion slammed me face first into the stand hard enough to break it.

I could barely move while on the ground, trying to heal myself as much as possible with minimal success. I couldn't see anything with my right eye, and I worried it had been crushed on the last attack. I wanted to scream from the pain, but didn't have the energy to do so. Instead I just got up once again.

"Stay down, will you?" She pushed me with one hand and sent me flying into the wall. "I unfortunately do need you alive for this. Now... Hold still."

With a few movements of her hands and some strange chanting, the wall behind me began to shift. I crawled back, and saw a face beginning to form within the bricks. The stone melted into a flesh-like substance, and large, sharp teeth formed in its mouth. It lunged at me as best as it could, and I raised my hand from my stomach to it. The light, as faint as it was, started to burn it. It screamed in pain, and the distraction was enough for the succubus to stop chanting and turn to me again.

"You are really starting to get on my-" I raised my hand towards her and saw her expression suddenly turn from anger to disgust. She seemed hesitant to approach, perhaps not realizing just how weak the magic was. "Ack! Of course, it just had to be a cleric."

"Stay back, demon!" I shouted with as much confidence as I could muster, using adrenaline as my only source of energy. "You got me with my guard down once again, but I will not hesitate to smite you on the spot!"

"Mark my words." She said through gritted teeth. "You will burn, cleric." In the blink of an eye she was gone, and the contorted face in the wall went back to being unmoving stone.

"Holy shit... It worked?!" I got up and ran as fast as I could out of the room. 

I grabbed the backpack and made my way out of the basement once again, feeling every muscle in my body burning and wiping my own blood from my good eye. The kids from before thankfully were no longer there. I kept moving towards Fate's lab, which was close enough to the infirmary. I had to warn someone, and I had no idea where Robin, Heather or anyone else of use could be at such a time. Once I finally got there, I kicked the door open to luckily find both Fate and Naomi standing inside.

"I found something... In the catacombs..."

At that moment, the adrenaline keeping me moving ran out, and I no longer could keep myself from falling. I crashed to the ground, and although I could hear the others talking to me I couldn't understand a single word. I blinked, and suddenly was lying down in bed. Naomi was sitting on a stool next to me, applying pressure to my wounds. Through the door I could see the lab, and Fate came running with a healing potion. 

As I drank even the first drop, I started regaining my senses. The deepest cuts were no longer bleeding, and the smaller ones disappeared completely. The pain was still there, and I was still exhausted, but I no longer felt as if I was dying. My senses also fully returned to me, and I could feel Naomi grasping my hand tightly.

"Thank the gods you're alright!" She gasped, as if she was holding her breath for a while. "What the hell happened?"

"Just a moment..." I tiredly spoke before opening my own stats.

Carver - Initiate Cleric

STR - 7

WIS - 6

CHA - 6

DEX - 5

MAGIC PROWESS - 200

Current Perks - Demon Tracker,

Level - 2

Demon Tracker - Your newfound familiarity with the demonic has made you sensitive to their presence.

"Awesome." I said.

"What?" Naomi confusedly asked.

"I'm level two now. Also there's demons in the basement, which is less awesome."

"Damn, just how many of these things are in the castle?"

I sat up in bed and started to tell my small, but painful tale of what exactly happened down in the entrance to the catacombs. Except, of course, for my vision of Naomi.

That, I kept to myself.

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