Six Warriors

Almost Dead Village - (Ethan)

The people from the underground colony watched the scene unfold. Still from the ground, Vollrat cursed:

"What are you doing standing there, you moron? Finish them off!"

Vollrat tried to pick up his crossbow again and arm it again, Julian watching that scene with disapproval.

"You had better remain silent in your place, you rat, or you will regret your actions." Threatened him.

"Ethan, you had a deal with my lord! Your friends' lives depend on it, remember?" Vollrat pleaded.

"Ethan, I hope you make the right choice, but if you make the wrong one I will be here to stop you." Julian said calmly.

"This is not going to happen!" Vollrat rose with the armed crossbow and then pointed at Julian, "who is the rat now, huh, you worm?" And then he fired, Ethan yelled "no!" but it was too late, the crossbow's bolt whirred as it shot through the air, but with an ability never before seen by Ethan, Julian moved his hands and deflected the projectile's course, deflecting it back against Vollrat and hitting the shoulder of Vald's servant, who screamed of pain when being hit. "Ethan, help me, help me, do something, if I die, your friends will die too, my lord will have no mercy!"

"You've said too much already" Julian lunged at Vollrat, who was standing against a wall with the crossbow bolt on his shoulder, Julian's fists glowed a blue-green color and took on a hard consistency, like a shell or something "TURTLE FIST BLOW BLAST!!" and he unleashed a string of ultra-fast blows with his fists that took down Vollrat in a matter of seconds.

"Was it true, Julian?" Ethan asked after Julian's display of power, "Aretha and Glabro are under Vald's power?"

Julian looked at Ethan and then sighed.

"Yes."

"Then why?" Ethan growled in response, "Do you know how many lives I'm putting at risk? Aretha, Glabro and also Elza! They're all in danger now!"

"Calm down, paladin of justice, listen to what your partner has to say." Hadriel spoke in a calm voice.

"I'll tell you what happened to us, Ethan." Julian spoke, so they left their place and gathered in Hadriel's room."something went wrong with our passage, something we still don't know what it is, so we arrived here, all of us, in different places and at different times, although everyone was around this place, after all, this is where the strength of what lies we look for one of the scrolls of the Metaphysical Configuration. Anyway, me, Arkoúda Glabro and Aretha Artume managed to find each other and started looking for you, until we came to this village itself, at first we were as confused as you and this place seemed quite dark, we were harassed just like you when we got here. It was then that Lybiuca offered us a roof over her inn and food, but when we realized it was too late. Lybiuca's food is poisoned and she pays for her partial freedom with the unsuspecting adventurers who end up in this desolate place."

"Wait, what do you mean she pays for her partial freedom?"

"Lybiuca and Vald aren't enemies, at least not overtly, I'll explain this later to you. Anyway, when I woke up, I was already under Vald's power and we all had strange equipment in our bodies and they were drawing our blood drop by drop. Even weak, I somehow managed to get rid of it, I believe because I consumed less of the soup and had a certain resistance to certain types of poison. I tried to wake up Glabro and Artume, but I couldn't and I wouldn't be able to take them with me. I then thought that the only solution would be to find you as soon as possible and we went back to help our friends, I had a lot of difficulties getting out of that place and I struggled a lot, even weakened... my hopes were renewed when I saw you near this place, I used the last of my strength to get to you, but then I passed out. When I saw you at Lybiuca's Inn I immediately tried to stop you from eating the soup, after that when I gave you some time to escape, I knew I didn't have enough strength to fight, so I felt a small fountain of running water behind the house. from Lybiuca, I fled there and somehow let myself get carried away by the weak current and then when I realized it, I woke up cold in the cemetery. and I saw some things that were shocking, but that helped me to better understand the whole situation of this village, I was found by one of the people from the underground colony of Hadriel and I was brought here, Hadriel and her people took care of me and explained the real situation of these people."

"And what real situation are we talking about?" Ethan asked.

"That everything went downhill maybe two or three years ago" Hadriel said, "this land always looked cursed and evil, that was partly because of the Sepet family, a clan of evil sorcerers, a clan of necromancers!"

Ethan was silent at that line.

"There are many magicians who try to justify the existence of necromancers, saying that no knowledge should be prohibited or disheartened, many say that knowledge about death can help improve life, but what I see at the heart of every necromancer is an ambition for mastering the natural cycle of existence, the cycle of death and life, an arrogance in triumphing over the sacred line of the gods. They have no respect for the dead or for death, they desecrate bodies in pursuit of their said knowledge, but what they really want is absolute power, and no one has ever embodied the dark sorcerer archetype better than members of the Sepet family. It is then that our order enters and the holy knights came to support these suffering people, with much effort the justice of the god Handdle triumphed and we expelled the Sepet from these lands, they were stripped of their power, but of course, not everything happened as it should. For ten years we lived in peace, until two years ago, the boy descended from the necromancers approached our village, without however revealing his identity and with tricks he caught us off guard, killed all the men subordinate to our old and kindly Lord Richard Brabtsliev and killed his wife and children. Vald is an unscrupulous and merciless young man, of course, he also disliked me and wanted to know where were the objects of power he so longed to get his hands on, so I was tortured to death. I died, but the stone brought me back into existence and since then I have kept the people alive and left under the roof and hiding of the fair gauntlets of the god Handdle, waiting for the day when a fair enough man would come and end the tyranny of Vald."

"So Vald wants the stone to increase his necromancy powers?" Ethan asked.

"Exactly. That's until he found out that the stone was only possible using the dictates we read on the parchment, so now Vald wants the stone, to get more power, to get his hands on the scroll, to have even more power, to seek out the other scrolls, gather the Metaphysical Configuration under its power and then have the maximum power."

"That's what we're looking for, Ethan, the scrolls that make up the famous grimoire of the Metaphysical Configuration." Said Julian.

"It is the moment of truth" Hadriel continued, "the warrior of justice worthy enough to bear Teresa is here and if not now that our people will be saved, it will never be. Young man, our hopes are on you."

Hadriel called for someone, a child appeared, a dirty-faced boy wearing old clothes and too big for his small body. He had something wrapped in a piece of crimson velvet with him, and when he opened it, Ethan saw a stone of vivid scarlet gleam in the boy's hands.

"The scroll is in my grave, only the Stone of Death-Life can open the magical seal I put there, so after that, the item will be destroyed forever and the scroll must be kept by you and your allies, it must never fall into wrong hands."

"When the stone is destroyed, then you will die?"

"I've been dead for a long time just waiting for this moment, young man, the moment when my people will finally be free again."

Somehow Ethan admired the old man's conviction.

"I will do my best."

"I know you will."

...

Ethan and Julian were in the cemetery as cold, sullen air blew through the ever-dark, always gray place.

Julian showed Ethan a special grave, which read "Here lies Lyubica, the old hag, Born in 526, Died in 619". Ethan asked if it was the same Lyubica they knew and Julian nodded.

"We're all dead" a voice said nearby suddenly, Ethan and Julian were alerted when they saw that the gravedigger appeared there out of nowhere, he was looking at a grave with attention, "we are all spirits condemned and enslaved by Vald, the necromancer, we are his eternal servants. We wander with our immaterial bodies, but we cannot fight them. When you and your girlfriend saw me that day, I was burying our bodies once more, after yet another battle brought on by your allies. That girl, she also wielded Teresa and gave us a lot of work, but in the end Lyubica's poison was too much for her to resist. It's always like this, adventurers come, we fight and then I have to bury our bodies again. Then adventurers are used by our lord for their macabre experiments, they fail, adventurers become common corpses added to the pile of existing corpses... and then fight on our lord's behalf, further increasing his power." The gravedigger gave it a dry laugh, "Still he can't even scratch the door to Handdle's temple, guarded by that decrepit old cleric." The gravedigger averted his gaze from the headstone and turned to Julian and Ethan, "I really hope that you adventurers can complete your mission and get us out of this eternal torment, but in the meantime I have an obligation to... "

So Ethan paid more attention to what was in that pit, that pit said "Here lies Brusque, the gravedigger, Born in 550, Died in 615."

"...I see myself under obligation to try to kill you!" Then rotten hands emerged from inside the cave and the body was practically a skeleton joined the wandering spirit and the skeleton gained a mysterious, greenish ghostly aura. That undead came forward carrying a shovel and was going to attack them both.

Julian focused his water magic and it came spinning in his hand in a menacing fashion, Julian then bent down throwing it at the enemy, yelling:

"WATER DISK!!" And the attack was played as a kind of chakram hitting the undead's body that was easily torn in half, the ghostly glow faded and the creature became just a pile of bones on the ground.

"It was easy," Ethan said.

"Too easy" Julian frowned as if he was suspicious.

The distrust proved right, the ghostly glow returned to the skeleton's body and even though his body was half full he continued advancing against the two, until by unholy magic, his body was back whole and he was ready to fight again. Worse than that, a trail of ghostly gleams appeared, streaking the gray sky, and now they moaned pitifully, now hooted madly, now laughed as if in jubilation, they fell over the tombs of that sinister cemetery, and a moment later the dead bodies rose once more, covered in a ghostly aura of unholy magic. The bells in Ethan's head were banging so hard now that he thought he was about to go mad.

"Since you were complaining about being too easy, how about this?" Julian teased with a raised eyebrow, Ethan drew his sword and the two advanced in a fight against the undead, heading towards Hadriel's grave.

The two advanced against the horde of zombies and skeletons, Ethan brandished the sword, attacked and advanced, after a time in constant running and battle, the two reached a tomb that read "Rest in peace, Hadriel the venerable" and black marble stone there was a space made for the stone to be laid. Ethan knelt by the spot and took the stone from his pocket.

"Rest in peace, venerable Hadriel." And then the young man fit the stone into the tumulus space.

The stone glowed and opened a secret passage, Julian was still fighting the undead, to contain them, but when the passage was opened the two continued on their way and as soon as they passed the opening closed, leaving the zombies outside. Hadriel's grave led to a treasure room, among them was a stone tablet with strange and ancient inscriptions, Julian said that was the scroll, although it was more like a stone tablet. In that place there was also a large mirror and very ornamented with silver and rubies, Julian said that Hadriel had spoken of that object also with special attention, he said that that was a magical object that could teleport anyone to any place in that land, a magical passage . Julian touched the object and thought of a place, the mirror showed the room where Aretha, Glabro and Elza were imprisoned, there were blood-drawing devices attached to their bodies, they looked pale, as if they were going to be drained to death. Julian said that that was Vald's method, he could reanimate the dead, but they lost all abilities after death, the necromancer's initial goal was to have undead under his control that would continue with their abilities after death and wouldn't go just mere puppet zombies, but a superior kind of undead. All tests of this new method had failed, but Vald judged if he had possession of the Stone of Life-Death, he could give birth to his perfect creation. That was before he found out about the Metaphysical Configuration, with that in mind he thought he could create the kind of undead he wanted, an infinity of them, an army and then he would dominate the entire realm and give a new perspective to his old almost extinct lineage.

Julian used his magical power to get through the mirror portal, but failed to do so, he said that maybe if Ethan tried his light manipulation magic it might have more to do with the energy the mirror needed. Ethan did so and the magical passage opened, they crossed and found their unconscious friends.

"We have to get them out of here." Julian said.

"Knight, knight of justice, the survivors need your help, good knight." Ethan heard a voice tell him, it was that little girl, Alicia, "good knight, Hadriel is definitely dead now, Handdle's temple is unprotected, the survivors need your help, hurry, Vald heads there."

Ethan looked at Julian, who confirmed that he should go with a nod.

"I'll try to help them with some potions, go help those people, they're the only ones still alive in this undead village." Julian said and then Ethan wished them luck, Julian said the same and Ethan ran to the temple.

"Ethan!" Vald screamed at the top of his lungs, from the middle of the village, several of his zombies surrounded him, "Ethan, you wordless man, you filthy traitor! Now the temple people will suffer, and all for selfishness on your part, all because you wanted to save your sweet little girlfriend!"

"I'll stop you, Vald!" Ethan yelled in response, he was running towards his necromancer enemy, when suddenly the young man felt a huge thud, a very strong blow hit him, the boy felt like he had been run over by a pickup truck and was thrown away, rolling by several meters until it stopped in the middle of that mud floor. The boy, still on the ground, coughed up blood. He no longer wielded Teresa, who had dropped when he was hit by... that thing. A thunder rumbled in the skies and a ray of light streaked that gray sky and then, thick raindrops began to fall, dispersing that constant mist almost eternal of the village. The creature was emerging at that moment, when the rain began to get stronger and the fog dispersed, it appeared in that mystical aura, almost like a creature brought from hell that now came out of its tomb to bring chaos and terror to the world of men. A three-meter-tall monster, made of human parts and with a distant and dark look because of the magic that controlled it, one of its arms was replaced by a metal prosthesis that resembled a mace, it walked slowly and menacingly in Ethan's direction. The rain was coming down hard now.

"Behold, you traitor, my most powerful creation, he's known as Rotten Flesh Tank, TRF, but I think it's a very rude name for such a sweet creature, so I named him Doufus, yes, he deserved a name, he isn't it cute? Come on, Doufus, finish him!"

Ethan was still weak from the attack on the ground, he tried to get up, but the body refused, meanwhile, Doufus was coming towards him faster and faster, Ethan thought he was going to be crushed by that prosthetic mace, but he heard someone yell:

"STALAGMITE SEQUENCE!!!" And a massive stone trail rose through the wet mud and would hit Doufus, but the monster was more agile and cunning than it looked and slashed at Glabro's attack, shattering the stones into pieces.

"Ethan, are you okay?" Aretha asked, approaching him and helping him up. She had Teresa with her.

"I'm better now, I know you all are fine now." Ethan gave a pain-filled smile.

"Drink this." Aretha held up a small bottle of red liquid, which bubbled slightly and sparkled a little when shaken, "It's a healing potion, it'll help you."

But before Ethan took the item, a dart of magic shot into the girl's hand and shattered the glass, spilling all its liquid.

"Don't even think about it!" laughed Vald, his scepter in his hands.

"Bastard!" Aretha growled.

"Okay," Ethan said, holding the hilt of the magic sword, Teresa, "I'll take care of him, Julian and Glabro take care of that Doufus thing, you and Elza protect the colony survivors and fight Vald's men and his undeads." 

"But Ethan, you're badly hurt, do you think you can fight a sorcerer of Vald's suit?"

"Don't worry about me, just go!"

Aretha stared into his eyes for a while, maybe trying to see if there was any flicker in Ethan's eyes, but she couldn't find it. Seeing that the boy was serious and determined, Aretha just confirmed with a nod and went to battle against the zombies and Vald's mercenary guard. Julian and Glabro were fighting the Rotten Flesh Tank.

Ethan walked over to Vald, limping. The sorcerer was with open arms and a smile plastered on his face, as if calling Ethan to the fight.

"I'll play with you a little before, before I kill you, after that I'll have everything I ever wanted, Ethan, this land, the scroll and my perfect undead minions, nothing can stop me!"

Ethan advanced with his sword raised and the two started a fight, Vald blocked all Ethan's attacks with his scepter, from there he took a dagger and he attacked Ethan with it, hitting some points of the boy with the blade. Luckily, Ethan was still in chain mail, but some of the attacks were powerful enough to cut across Ethan's body, and since he was weak, Vald slashed at his legs with the scepter's hilt, knocking the young man down at the floor.

Ethan was on the ground, Teresa lay beside him, slumped, Vald laughed.

"Is that all the power of the great Ethan Celestian, the adventurer worthy of carrying Teresa? Pathetic!" Vald stepped on Ethan's wrist, preventing him from once again gripping Teresa's hilt.

"Turns out I'm not much of a fan of playing with the living, but after your death...we'll see" Vald pointed the tip of the scepter at Ethan and it glowed sickly green, "you will experience the agony with my magic, and you will to die in despair. To die in despair. That's good for a spirit brought back to life in a body reanimated by necromancy, did you know?" Vald was smiling maniacally, looking down at Ethan on the ground, his hair wet and tousled by the rain falling over his face. "COLOR OF DESPAIR!!" And the sickly greenish color surrounded Ethan's body like a sheet gassed with unholy magical energy. Ethan initially just felt a numbness in every muscle in his body, but the next moment that numbness became a weakness, as if the energy in his body's muscles had been drained, and then from there, the worst began, because the young man felt a very strong pain, as if his muscles were tearing despite all that weakness, and after the muscles, the bones seemed to be being crushed, or worse, breaking into little pieces out of nowhere, as if they were disgusted with the body they were in and broke of their own desire, that was the feeling, it was as if Ethan's body was rejecting his soul and then it wanted to force a vomit of the spirit through too much discomfort, through too much pain, through too much despair.

Ethan screamed in agony, Vald rejoiced in glee.

The chosen one realized he wasn't going to take much of that agony, his mind would shatter into madness before his body collapsed from the pain stimulus overdose, he had to do something, but what? What could he do in that situation where his muscles were weak and he couldn't react at all?

It didn't matter. It all didn't matter. Many counted on him and he could not die here, now, on that dirty floor.

The people of the village, Elza, Aretha and the two guys, and also his friends who were far away and waiting for him, for leadership, he should guide those young misfits with powers, guide them on a journey of heroes, Arthur, Miguel, Sam, Fenrir and also that i***t Jack. He couldn't die there.

With his last efforts, Ethan forced his hand whose wrist was being stepped on to hold the sword Teresa, Vald, who reveled in the sight of the young man being tortured by his magic, didn't even notice when Ethan had accomplished such a feat, and then with more effort still, Ethan concentrated magic on the sword, just a little and a weak crystal wall appeared between Ethan and Vald, it wasn't at its usual potency, but it was enough to make the necromancer's magic destabilize for a moment, Ethan, still feeling weak and destroyed, used more of his last strength to delivering a cut that hit the side of Vald's leg, who cursed in pain and fell to one knee, the chosen one rose and prepared to strike Vald in the neck, but the necromancer was quick to act, and cast one more of his spells:

"BLAST OF DESPAIR!!" A spooky, greenish burst of light exploded right in the middle of Ethan's chest, causing a lot of pain, tearing of his shirt and even destroying the most part of his chain mail and right gauntlet, the boy was thrown away and flipped a few times, even so, it took a lot of effort not to drop the sword this time. "Bastard, on my next attack I'm going to kill you!" shouted Vald angrily.

Ethan got to his knees, he'd never been this wrecked, he'd never been this hurt, all that kept him on his feet was faith in himself and the will to survive. Yes, he wanted more than anything to survive, he didn't want to die here, in that place or at that moment. Vald began to refocus his magic on the tip of his scepter. Ethan realized he was calm, while his enemy was more desperate than he was, despite his advantage. Ethan noticed that his right hand, the hand that held the magic sword, the hand whose gauntlet had been destroyed, now glowed, sometimes white, sometimes red, sometimes gold. A golden light also came out from the middle of his chest and it was shaped like the symbol of the light that had been tattooed in the middle of his chest, yes, it was the Kerd that glowed with joy over something. Vald stared at that scene, stared at that symbol and his gaze showed despair, as if he knew or at least imagined what it was, then he hesitated for a moment. Ethan dug his sword into the clay floor and with his right hand he touched the place where the Kerd symbol now glowed and he felt a wave of relief sweep through his body, a wave of magical power that seemed to heal him.

For a brief moment, Ethan felt like he was in heaven.

And then it passed.

And then he was healed.

And then Vald fired his rays of unholy magic at him.

"RAY OF DESPAIR!!" 

All too quickly, all too soon, Ethan drew Teresa's sword from the ground, then lunged with the courage of a lion against that mighty foe.

Teresa glowed brightly.

The first beam reached Ethan, who deflected the attack with a quick cut from Teresa, the second Ethan deflected it to the opposite side, Vald seemed to get more and more desperate as Ethan approached like a beast wanting to attack.

"Okay then, if the Ray of Despair don't work, try to receive a much more destructive attack! BLAST OF DESPAIR!!"

And the thick blast of sinister greenish light went to Ethan, who also focused and conjured magic through the sword.

"LIGHT ATTACK CROSS!!"

The two energies collided creating beams of light that bounced off the raindrops and created almost a glitter show, though Vald's light was eerie and sickly.

The necromancer screamed concentrating all his power on his magic, but to no avail, Vald's magic was swept away and Ethan's hit the necromancer full on, defeating him in the middle of a burst of light. Before Vald fell to the ground, Ethan came forward with a quick sword cut whose blade didn't hit the sorcerer's body, only the light that surrounded Teresa, that cut didn't hit the necromancer's body, but his soul, cutting her in two and destroying it still inside the body. Vald then fell, but his soul no longer inhabited that body.

Ethan was now exhausted, he dropped to his knees and somehow felt  the sword get bigger, until it was extremely difficult to hold it.

Meanwhile, with Vald defeated, the bodies of the undead began to fall without the unholy magic fueling that torment. The wandering souls emerged and were happy to finally be freed from eternal b*****e and to be on their way to the light. They thanked Ethan immensely and even little girl Alicia smiled at the boy, happy to be free to move on. The souls were transformed into small spheres of light that flew upwards like a small light show, as the colony's surviving people finally emerged from underground and saw their beloved village again. It was the end of the curse, the souls of the dead and the living people were free now, Hadriel would be happy.The luminous souls were gradually disappearing, meanwhile, Ethan looked at it all with admiration, although he still found it strange that the sword was growing little by little. It was then that he remembered that thing Gwendy had said about a certain side effect and that he looked like a boy maybe eight years old.

"Ethan, you did it!" exclaimed Elza appearing there with Aretha who was smiling slightly. Elza made a confused expression when she saw him, but not caring about that. Ethan stood up and waved his hand at them and also at all the surviving people who were showing up there. He was smaller but his clothes weren't, so when he pulled up to wave, his pants were too big for his now small body and heavy from being wet from the rain, so the pants just went down to his heels without any resistance. Then Elza, who before had a confused face, just laughed at the scene, while Aretha put her hand over her face and some of the survivors, not even understanding what had happened, followed Elza in her laughter.

At least the chainmail hadn't been completely destroyed.