The Secret of the Dark Forest ( (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3) (48 page)

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"That's all of it, pretty much," continued Anastaria as soon as the video finished playing. "I completely ran out of Mana as I was trying to save this madwoman and even quaffed elixirs to gain a few more moments, but as soon as her Hit Points fell to one, Barsina stopped her summons and collapsed onto the stones. Plinto and the others finished off all the Mages, who thankfully didn't have time to come round, so that was the end of it. Midial failed to turn up, so Eric proposed that we raise you straight away. To be honest, I had doubts that we’d get you back – there had to be something different about the prisoner capsules, after all – but, as you can see, it worked just fine. That's it ... "

"Barsa!" I turned to the embarrassed-looking girl. "Can you tell me how you, a professional mercenary, failed to carry out your commander's order?"

As soon as I uttered these words I felt another wave of surprised stares. This time it was only six pairs of eyes, as the Patriarch was nowhere to be seen.

"But I thought that ..." the girl started to excuse herself, falteringly, but I interrupted her:

"Thinking my ass! What were you told? To stand there and heal the guys! And what did you do? You just went and saved everyone on your own initiative!" I walked up to the completely befuddled Druid, looked down at her sternly, just as well her height made that easy, and then smiled and continued: "You know, what I like in people the most is confidence in their own strengths. You were sure that Anastaria had made a mistake and that you had the ability to save us all, and acted contrary to her orders. Thank you!" I was unable to restrain myself and hugged the stunned girl. "If it wasn't for you, we would have failed this scenario for sure, so I have one simple question for you: do you have the Healing stat?"

"Y-yes."

"Then close your eyes. Close 'em, I won't bite." I waited until Barsina really closed her eyes, took out Yalininka's ribbon from my bag and without a moment's hesitation tied it around the girl's head. The Great One said that this was a gift for whomever I believed worthy of it. ... At first I wanted to give the ribbon to Anastaria, but the Paladin already had many Rare treasures. As for Barsina ... I thought that with her deed the girl had proven herself quite sufficiently.

"Un-be-liev-able! uttered Stacey syllable by syllable, "The Great One's ribbon ... Mahan, sometimes I want to nail you down so I can have a good dig through your bag so badly I can barely restrain myself."

"Then let's swap," I parried straight away. "I will give you complete access to my sack and properties, but then you, naturally, must do the same. I bet that picking through your properties would be easily as interesting as just watching you next to me."

"Could be ... could be ... ." Anastaria’s face broke in a smile. "I will consider your offer. Although suggesting to a girl to appear practically naked before a man, even if she knows him quite well, is not worthy of a knight."

"When you dig up a knight, do let me know. I'll have a good look at him at least. Barsa," I turned to the girl, "you deserve this gift, wear it with honor. Does this mean we've completely freed all the Patriarch's warriors?"

"Yes, Enemy!" instead of the dumbfounded Druid, the next answer came from the Vampire, who immediately began to command his forces. "The first group, carry away the left side, the second, the right, the third, the center and the torture room, where some of our brothers still remain. Quick, before Midial gets here!" After that he turned to me with a smirk, "Your clan has fulfilled my condition, so I will tell the Siren and my son of Geranika's source of power. After all, they are the ones who saved my warriors. While you, as befits an Enemy, were sitting in the Grey Lands and awaiting revival."

"Oh really?" The words of the Patriarch cut me. To be more exact: they enraged me and made my blood boil, causing me to completely lose my balance and in general turn off my brain. The parole conditions state that I can't attack NPCs and other players first, do they? Who cares? I'm going back to the mines anyway, what difference would one charge less or one charge more make? I wasn't in the least daunted by the Patriarch's 500 levels: I felt I could shred him with my bare hands right now. "You shouldn't have said that, you crooked-toothed bastard! Defend yourself!" My vision was darkened with uncontained fury and I headed straight for the Patriarch. I wanted only one thing: to catch this impudent traitor and tear him apart with my bare teeth, rip his throat out and make sure his head landed straight in the refuse heap. Some messages were flashing in chat, but I ignored them. I was completely engulfed with rage. Nothing existed except for the smirking Vampire, who was suddenly standing right by the castle wall, and the thirty meters lying between me and just retribution.

"Stand still, you coward! Fight me!" I growled in a terrible voice, as the Patriarch shifted, lightning-fast, to the opposite wall. Another hundred meters! No matter, I'm not lazy, I'll take a walk! Although why walk when I can fly?"

I picked the Patriarch as my target, pushed the ground away and flew towards him. The ground sped under me as if I was on a griffin, but I couldn't be bothered to pay too much heed. I almost fell a few times, but then I unfurled my cape, which immediately lifted me back up.

"You're mocking me!" This was no shout! This was a roar! The Vampire evaded me again and immediately headed straight to the farthest wall of the Castle. Five hundred meters! He's so damn fast! I'll never catch up! I had to think of something, otherwise I'd be chasing this bloodsucker to kingdom come! As I flew up – just as well the cloak did the job as wings – I once again saw the grinning Patriarch. Now this really is strange: he's five hundred meters away, but I can still see his sly mug. Should I fly there? I don't think so!

"TO ME, SLAVE!" After descending to the ground, I looked in the direction of the Patriarch. Right now I didn't have a shred of doubt that he would be unable to disobey my order. He had no choice! The order came from his Master!

"I, the Patriarch of Vampires of the Reardalox clan," said the satisfied-looking Vampire solemnly when he appeared next to me and bent to his knees, "swear a vassal's oath to the new lord. Now and henceforth my life is in your paws and claws and you are free to do with it as you please. I'm sorry, Master, but after the Siren's words I had to follow the order of my former Lord and provoke you to aggression. I understand that you are still young, but we cannot wait for you to reach level 100: there is just too much to be done right now. Feel free to take my life, if that would placate you." The Patriarch bowed down and prostrated himself on the ground. I stepped forward and put my paw on his head. If I pressed it now there would be one less Vampire in Barliona. They are, of course, useful creatures, but they’re too much hassle when it came to honor and duty.

"Dragon!" Anastaria's voice came from somewhere to the side of me, snapping me out of my musings – whether to kill the Patriarch or not. "How about you fight someone who didn't swear an oath to you?"

I turned around and couldn't help hissing: a real Siren was standing before me. She had a long tail, like the Nagas, a beautiful bare body, covered only with shells on her chest, an enormous trident, aimed at me and cold blue eyes. One of my ancient Enemies!

"Mahan, snap out of it!" a bunch of tiny people appeared next to the Siren. I'll have to squash them later. ...

"Well, handsome, shall we dance?" smiled the Siren and immediately attacked. The trident glinted a few millimeters from my eyes, leaving a painful scratch on my nose. This was just too much! I turned away from the Patriarch, who was instantly joined by his uninitiated son, and focused on the Siren. The Enemy is fast and experienced, but she has nothing that could beat me, a Dragon! I soared into the sky and planned to swoop down on top of the hated creature, when suddenly a mithril net sparkled and bound itself around my wings. That fiend!

The subdued thump of my hulk hitting the ground was probably heard all the way to Dragonholme.

"Stupid little lizard." The Siren walked up to me, chuckling. I tried to hit her with my tail, but got even more tangled in the net. "Did you really think that you would be able to best me just because you've sprouted some wings? Naive little kid. You will have much to learn before you can enter your second essence or learn how to retain your memory, so for now we shall have to wait a bit and have a chat once things calm down a little. There are three minutes left, so ... stop wriggling already! You'll break your wings off and then we won't hear the end of it! Lie still!"

There was little I could do but give the Siren a thoroughly hate-filled look. Why aren't you finishing me off? It would be so easy to do right now: just lift my head and plunge her trident into my soft neck. And that'd be it – that would end the Dragon. And in general, Anastaria looks somehow unpleasant in this guise ... compared to her unearthly beauty as a human, now the girl's face ... and where are her brown eyes? Brrr ... And I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world? Ah! Clutzer walked up to me with a strangely thoughtful gaze. Why is he so weird and mysterious? Damn! I was trying to take down the Patriarch!

"Have you recovered?" asked Barsina, with her slight lisp. "Can we untangle you or keep you lying down a bit longer?

"Untangle please," I mumbled, trying to understand what had just happened. As soon as the net fell off me and Eric gave me his hand to help me up, total message chaos appeared before my eyes:

You managed to attain your second nature. From this moment on, you have the ability to transform into a Dragon. Transformation time: 5*(Dragon rank) minutes. Number of transformations: (Dragon rank) per day. You must learn to control yourself in your new guise, otherwise you will be turned back into a human through divine intervention.

A new additional stat has been unlocked for your character: Dragon rank. Current value: 1.

Your reputation with the Vampires of Barliona has been changed to Esteem.

Your character's race has been updated.

Current race: Dragon.

"Now I am no longer concerned for my son," smiled the Patriarch, appearing next to me, "Mahan! I've sworn an oath to you and now none of Barliona's Vampires will be able to harm you. Forgive me once again, but under Aarenoxitolikus's orders I had to provoke the uninitiated Dragon, forcing him to reveal his nature. He foretold such an eventuality. At first I thought that he meant your Totem, but now I can see that I was mistaken. Remain here with my son and I will teach you the ability to open the door into the world of Dragons. Everything I know of Geranika's power I will pen down in a document today and send to the Emperor and the Dark Lord, with a note that it was you and your clan that helped me to come to this decision. Geranika is pure evil and he needs to be destroyed, so I cannot stand idly by ..."

"I ..."

"How touching." we were interrupted by an unpleasant undulating voice coming from the biggest building in the Castle. "A Dragon, a Siren, Vampires ... one big happy family of near-extinct circus freaks! You dared to attack my Castle! You dared to attack my Master! You dared to free my slaves! Well ... I may not have a single warrior left, but you will not leave this place alive!"

As soon as the last word sounded in the air, dark Shadows shot from the hands of 500-level Midial, the Dark Priest of the Fallen, and sped towards us. Damn! Looks like I'm getting sent for respawn today after all!

"A
nd we were so close," Anastaria managed to chuckle as the Shadows sped towards us. I had neither the ability, nor, strangely enough, any desire to try and defend myself from attacks of a 500-level mob. We've already done so much in the Dark Forest that now, when only one fight remained until the end of the scenario, there seemed little we could do other than give up. It was impossible to beat Midial with our group and, aside from myself, Anastaria could see this too, as she calmly watched the flying Shadows. No commands, no Bubble... Nothing. The Phantoms covered the remaining distance, tarrying a few meters away from us, as if readying for a decisive strike, and then flew towards us like lightning. I readied myself for a wave of pain (my Endurance still hadn't reached the necessary 500 points, after all), almost feeling the Shadows already cutting into me, so I instinctively closed my eyes. Reflexes — no getting around them.

Boom! Ding! Crrack!

"Midial, Midial," instead of pain there came a lingering and confident voice, which sounded so familiar. I opened my eyes and looked around: A golden dome appeared around us, against which the Shadows were beating without causing us any harm. The Patriarch vanished into thin air (probably preferring to watch the duel from a distance than being part of it) and a few meters away from us there stood Elizabeth in full battle attire of the High Priestess. "As unbalanced and self-centered as I remember. Time had not changed you at all."

"High Priestess," spat out the Fallen Priest, and then a pleased smirk appeared on his face. "So good of you to honor me with your presence. I had long wanted to thank you for allowing me to keep my position. This lead to your successor sending me to the Dark Forest. Only thanks to this did I become the right hand of the Lord of Shadow!"

"You are mistaken, Midial. And time has come to pay for your mistakes. I am here to bring you before the judgement of Eluna."

"Your goddess has no more power over me! I do not fear her judgement! As for you — you should not have stepped into my castle! Only death awaits you here! This is the place of my strength where your tricks are powerless!"

"YOU ARE RIGHT! SHE SHOULD NOT BE DOING THIS ALONE," vibrations filled the surrounding world and then the closest wall of the castle flew apart, revealing the Guardian of the Dark Forest. The oak majestically shifted into the castle courtyard, having wiped out several buildings in its path, and stopped by Elizabeth's side. "THE TIME HAS COME FOR YOU TO ANSWER FOR YOUR SINS!"

There was a flash of lightning and Ishni appeared next to the Guardian. The Unicorn bore no traces of her ten years of imprisonment in the castle of the Fallen: in a few hours the Guardian managed to fatten up the beastie, give her a good clean and heal all her wounds. The only thing still clearly visible was the ring still encircling her horn.

"I don't know if anyone else noticed, but the 'Deliverers of the Throne' symbol we had is gone now. Is that normal?"
wrote Leite.
"I just have this gut feeling that we won't be getting any money out of all of this."

"How nice! The log with the pony," smiled Midial. "Do you really think that you can beat me?" Ha! And by the way, High Priestess, where did you learn to make a dome like that? I thought there was no defense from my servants... No matter! You have come to me yourselves, so now I won't need to roam around Barliona trying to catch you one by one. Die!"

Midial uttered a few broken phrases, almost doubled in size and a dark circling cloud appeared over him with lightning repeatedly striking the Priest's outstretched arms. A few moments went by and the entire body of the 500-level NPC was lit up by shifting electric charges. Flashes of lightning, like wriggling worms, began to gather between the Priest's hands, turning into a sphere swathed in moving oily patches. There was a clap and electrified Shadows were flying in our direction. Once again tarrying before the golden sphere, which expanded about two meters away from each player, the new phantoms swept it aside like a piece of fluff and moved on to finish us off, utterly defenseless as we were.

Boom! Ding! Crrack!

"WHAT?" This is impossible!" came the shout from the Fallen Priest when the electric Shadows crashed into an off-blue dome. A defense was once again put up around us and, judging by Elizabeth's surprised look, this was not her doing.

"You were right, Harbinger, to call us here," the Emperor of Malabar, standing side by side with the Dark Lord of Kartoss, levelled a heavy gaze at Midial. Kornik, wearing the same rags in which he escaped from the torture room, leaning on his staff and limping with his left leg, which was twisted in an unnatural fashion, hobbled over to Ishni. The Unicorn looked at the Harbinger, its horn began to glow and then the goblin's leg took back its original shape. "This sentient has completely lost any semblance to a human being, turning into a monster. Right now we have no way of discovering the reason why he changed, so we simply have to deal with the existing facts — Midial has to be destroyed."

"Why go far looking for a reason?"
a message from Clutzer appeared in clan chat.
"A difficult childhood and wooden toys nailed to the floor."

"You will still fail!" shouted Midial as he started to send Shadows in every direction. "You will all perish and I will become the sole ruler of Barliona!"

"The boy's had it," whispered Anastaria, when a dark sphere appeared around Midial and immediately began to shrink. The Shadows were unable to overcome the new barrier, bouncing off its walls and going into Midial. When it touched the Priest's body the sphere stuck to him and repeated his silhouette. It reminded you of a vacuum bag for food storage, but with an NPC instead of a piece of fish or meat inside it.

"By the power given to me by the gods of Light," uttered the Emperor as soon as the sphere stopped moving. "I strip this sentient of all magical powers and sentence him to eternal imprisonment at the center of the earth!"

"By the power given to me by the dark gods," said the Dark Lord, "I strip this sentient..."

"By the power given to me by nature," added the Guardian, "I strip this sentient..."

"THE SENTENCE HAS BEEN HEARD AND CONFIRMED! came a heavy metallic voice, like from some antique robot that had just learned to speak and shouted something into a megaphone. "THE SENTENCE WILL BE CARRIED OUT IMMEDIATELY!"

Midial's body curved, as if struck by an electric charge, and the dark sphere fell apart, freeing the Priest, but straight away light began to shine out of his mouth, eyes, nose, hands and feet, as if a million candles lit up inside him. With a silent scream, Midial was gradually turned into a bright star, was lifted up several meters in the air and blew up in a spectacular firework.

'The Cleansing of the Dark Forest' quest has been completed, please contact the Guardian for your reward. The Fallen Priest Midial, who decided to turn the Dark Forest into a Cursed one, have been forever expelled from this world. The quest has been completed by 100%. Reward: The second part of the Dark Forest Guardian's gift (if the first part is already in your possession), +500 Reputation to all encountered factions, +40 to any main stat, +10 character levels.

Quest 'Restoration of a Holy Relic. Step 3.' The Return of the Stone of Light' has been completed, please contact the High Priestess of Eluna for your reward. The fallen Priest Midial has been expelled from this world. The quest chain has been completed by 100%. Reward for completing Step 3: +1 Level, +500 to Reputation with the Priestesses of Eluna, +100 to Reputation with Goddess Eluna. Reward for the quest chain: 6 flasks of Living Water, Eluna's Blessing, 3rd Rank.

"That's that, one less enemy to worry about," said the Emperor, as soon as I finished reading the text. "You know, Mahan, I almost came to terms with the thought that Slate will become my son-in-law and planned to make the announcement at the upcoming tournament, but you decided to send him to the Grey Lands... What will I say to Tisha when she asks how her betrothed is getting on?"

"Begging your pardon" said Anastaria, "but what you just said is very surprising. Slate stayed in the tent when we went to look at the castle and he wasn't here when the battle started. First Eluna, then you... Can you please tell us why you believe him dead and Mahan to be responsible for his death?"

The Emperor looked at the girl for a few moments, waved his hand and a projection of the extermination of the players appeared in the air...

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"Ha-ha-ha!" Geranika's pleased laughter sounded through the forest. "When I finish training Mahan, you'll become my next apprentice! Go, get your loot!" The Lord of Shadow turned to me and said, "you have the right kind of subordinates, apprentice! You shall all aid me in bringing the entire Barliona to its knees. Let us continue!"

The frozen players flew up into the air, slowly moving in the direction of the castle, so there was little else I could do except to keep striking left and right. A butcher-Shaman, sure as rain!

The image gave a sudden jerk and sped into the depths of the Dark Forest. Everything was covered with the players' frozen bodies, which were slowly moving towards the castle... Now I could really see the amount of work I would've been stuck with if Geranika hadn't destroyed all the players who chose to carry out the Emperor's order. Forty thousand characters took up a hell of a lot of space. My arm would have fallen off...

The image once again jerked and quickly descended and all of us saw our camp where we left Slate. Going through the walls of the tent, as if it was a veil of mist, we beheld the Prince. With a Petrification debuff and glassy eyes he hung above the ground, repeatedly hitting his head against the wall of the dwelling as he tried to get outside and fly up to the castle. After he hit himself four times, Slate backed off, preparing for a fifth, froze in the air and ... disappeared without a trace, if you don't count a handful of gold coins that he received in the course of the trip raining down on the tent floor...

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"But what has Mahan got to do with this?!" Anastaria couldn't help exclaiming as soon as the video stopped. "Geranika was the one using the mass destruction spell!"

"He had a choice," replied the Emperor. "Either to be sent for rebirth or to the mines. This is what Mahan chose and will therefore stand trial. Enough of this! Eluna herself decided to preside over the trial, because Mahan had transgressed against something sacred! The Great Yalininka was protected by everyone, even by the Vampires and the Berserkers, but now the truth behind her death has been revealed to us! She was destroyed by a Shaman who came from our time! Harbinger!" the Emperor addressed Kornik. "Release the Elementals, it is time they went home. High Priestess — Lapiast and his warriors are on you. Bring them back under the wing of the faith. Guardian — destroy the castle. Raise it to the ground, plant trees over it, so that no memory remains of the Fallen. Treachery should be rooted out without mercy. As for you," the Emperor turned towards my clan, "there's no place for you in the Malabar Empire. I'm very sorry, Renowned One, "the Emperor looked at Anastaria, "but you've made your choice when you refused to stop the traitor. You shall be allowed to return to Anhurs and collect your belongings, after this the Empire will be forever closed to you. I'm done here!"

"Traitors who have ignored the Emperor's order are not welcome in Kartoss either," added the Dark Lord. "You may join the ranks of my armies, but only as ordinary soldiers, without any titles or privileges. You will have to prove yourself deserving of advancement. But the traitor himself will remain banned from Kartoss," the Lord looked at me. "I hope you stay at the mines forever!"

"Why did the chicken cross the forest?"
came Barsina's profound statement.
"If I only knew two weeks ago that I'll end up getting kicked out of everywhere..."

"You are right, my son!" said the Emperor after some thought. "Banishment is too lenient a punishment for these offenders. You may remain in the Empire," Naahti looked at the stunned players, "but only as ordinary residents. Your reputation with all factions will be nullified, all your achievements erased and all your First Kills removed. Only then you could still count yourselves Malabar citizens. Everyone was due a reward for the cleansing of the Dark Forest and victory over Midial. Guardian and High Priestess! By the power bestowed on me by the gods of light I abolish it! These sentients do not deserve to be rewarded!"

"As you command, You Majesty!" Elizabeth bowed her head.

"You hold no power over the Dark Forest and the gods of light had 'helped' me as much as those of darkness," said Ishni. "It doesn't matter what this sentient had done," a green wreath appeared above my head, "but he saved my forest, freeing me and helping me to survive. He will receive a reward from the Guardian and no Emperor would dare hinder us in this!"

"You know, I'm beginning to like the fact that we failed to become the deliverers of the throne. Looks like this new Emperor turned out to be one heck of a bastard!"
Plinto summed up current developments.
"Mahan, just make sure you get out of prison! The Free Lands have very many dukedoms and earldoms — we can be independent. From what we've just seen, Guardians are easier to deal with than the Emperor and the Dark Lord. I just don't get one thing: why come down on us with such extreme penalties?"