Published at 5th of December 2023 7:01 am

Chapter 80 Kingdom of the Dead

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The next few minutes of Todd’s life were stark terror, and he remembered nothing of them beyond his surprise that he didn’t hear that massive legion of the dead mobilizing to follow him. Instead, the silence was almost deafening as he raced back to the chapel and from there to the surface.

At least, that was the plan. The chapel wasn’t there, though. Even though he was sure he’d walked here in a straight line, the way back was anything but, and eventually, he had to pause and breathe as he forced himself to calm down.

“Running blindly will only get you more lost,” he chastised himself. “Think. How can you find your way back to where you were?”

Todd pictured the blasphemous room in his mind’s eye, studying every detail for something that might help him, but the only thing he could think of was that river of dark energy, and it was much too muddled here to be much help. Then he remembered the bells. Perhaps if he listened carefully, he could hear their gentle swaying and find his way back.

Todd stood there for several minutes, barely breathing, as he closed his eyes and tried to pick up the sound of anything in the darkness. There was nothing clear, but eventually, he thought he heard the sound of something metallic and made his way toward it.

Progress was slow, though. Each time he found a new intersection, he would have to stop and strain his hearing to decide which way he should go, and the intersections were constant.

Fortunately, as he walked, the sound he was listening to slowly got louder. Eventually, he realized it was not the bells he was looking for, though, but the sound of a smithy. Still, he kept going. He was committed now, and perhaps he could find a way out through the chimney they vented their forges through or something.

He wasn’t sure exactly what he was expecting when he made it into a room that was lit by the dull red glow of half a dozen forges along with the light of his sword, but whatever it was, it wasn’t what he found.

Each forge was hard at work, and each smith that worked them was different and terrifying in their own way. The only thing more terrifying than the flickering, bizarre shadows they cast while they worked was the creatures themselves. Three were dwarven skeletons hammering in perfect sync while the spirits that were chained to their bodies struggled visibly to escape. They were in the midst of creating beautiful weapons that Todd could admire even from here, which was in sharp contrast to the other abominations.

The other three smiths were misshapen entities that had been burned time and again. Each had a different number of limbs, hands, and hammers, and one of the abominations bent the red hot metal with iron hands rather than use any tools at all.

A few of them looked up at him briefly as he entered the room but then went back to what they were doing. The zombies that were bringing them pieces of metal and taking away finished pieces paid him no mind either.

It was surreal. To Todd, this almost had to be a nightmare because if it wasn’t, then he’d managed to descend into the underworld that he’d read about in the scriptures.

There was simply no third choice.

Todd walked quickly and quietly across the room to the far exit because it seemed larger than the way he’d come, which was as good a reason as any to think he was going in the right direction. He wasn’t, though.

He found that out quickly as he followed the zombies carrying away freshly forged pieces of armor. Even if they paid him no mind, the places in this area were just a labyrinthine series of storerooms that appeared increasingly insane until he turned around and went back the other way.

The whole area seemed less like a fortress and more like a wasp's nest or a beehive. The rooms rarely had just four sides, the ground was almost but not quite flat, and the walls were never flush nor square. It was a madhouse, and every detail he noticed proudly displayed that it was inimical to human life, and yet so far, nothing had struck him down.

Todd’s thoughts turned to that strange mocking monstrosity as he wandered blind. How many minutes did he have until that hourglass ticked down, he wondered. How much longer until they released the hounds and unleashed a tide of death that he could never hope to fight against?

It was in that moment of reflection that Todd made his peace with the fact that he was going to die. There was nothing that could stop it, no matter how hard he fought. All he could do was hope that he died well and took a few of these things down with him.

It was a nice thought, and he almost believed it. Then he saw the thing lumbering through the shadows. Todd froze for a moment but reminded himself that he needed to at least die well. That was enough to get him to lift his sword as the thing strode toward him across the large room.

As it got closer, Todd could see that its skin had been replaced with some sort of bronze scale mail and that its eyes burned with a dull hatred. It might have been an ogre or a troll in life. Todd couldn’t say.

Too many of its features were gone. Something had carved this monster to pieces and then put a siege engine back together with them, and no human could have a chance again it. Sill Todd stood there, ready to strike.

And then it just walked by him like he wasn’t even a threat that merited its grim attention. Todd hated himself for the relief he felt at that moment and began running in the other direction as fast as he could. He’d been brave enough to stand his ground, but the moment was gone, and bravery was quickly becoming a scarce resource down here.

After that, he found more rooms. Most were filled with more legions of zombies, or maybe it was the same room he was crossing at different points. Todd couldn’t be sure. This much darkness was making him feel claustrophobic and short of breath. It was becoming hard to think, and for the first time since the chapel, he started to pray.

“Lord of Light, hear me now and know that your world is in jeopardy. Know that even in this pit, I speak your name and remember your words,” he said to himself, first haltingly and then with confidence as he began to push away the evil that pervaded everything, and his sword started to glow a bit brighter. “You have not abandoned me, and I will not abandon my duty. We will shine in the darkest of places and burn away the shadows…”

Todd’s words trailed off as he noticed the darkness flowing around him again. Until now, the whole complex he walked through had been so suffused with evil he could barely see it, but now that his devotion had pushed it back, there was an island of stillness in the midst of the dark, and it was that stillness that finally allowed him to see how it was flowing once more, so he decided to follow it.

Trying to go upstream to find a way out might not work, but all of this evil was slowing to a single point, and he would slay whatever it was he found there. He would do at least that much.

“In your name Siddrim,” he whispered as he started to walk forward.

The darkness was almost flowing around him now. Like a tide. Like a force of nature. Slowly it led him through twists and turns into what he imagined would lead him to the very center of the earth. He doubted he’d survive the experience, but then, he’d already decided he was going to die. Now it was just a question of where and how.

If he was going to die, then he would at least spend his life destroying whatever foul creature he could. Step by step and turn by turn, his body began to feel a dread that was almost paralyzing. Every part of Todd’s body screamed for him to turn back, but he pushed through it until he finally found what he was looking for.

In a small, dark room, there was a strange sort of shrine. Against both walls stood the mummified corpses of lizardmen that had been there a very long time, judging by the coating of dust on them. Was this some sort of an ancient temple to a forgotten god, he wondered? Was that why no one had known it was here?

That certainly made at least some sense, judging by the details. Behind those vigilant corpses were carefully crafted strands and sheets of precious metals that decorated the walls and ceiling, and every part of the rough-hewn walls they did not cover was covered in splotches of mold and decay. None of that tore his eyes away from the strange metal sculpture in the center of the room, though.

It was a man or at least something like a man made of gold. Todd gripped his sword tighter with both hands as he forced himself to advance one more step against some impossible force that made the very air freeze solid.

If this had been one of his nightmares, right now would have been the part where you couldn’t escape no matter how fast you ran. He was determined not to let that happen, though. No matter how slowly he moved, he would move, and step by step, he approached the unnatural idol as he raised his sword so he could cleave the gaudy thing in two.

Todd took a deep breath and then exploded downward, letting out all of the tension and panic that had built up inside him into a single powerful blow that might have been enough to strike a blacksmith’s anvil in two.

Only the blow never landed. As his sword blade arced down toward the idol, suddenly, two of its arms flashed outwards and caught the strike effortlessly between its palms before twisting slightly and snapping the blade off just above the halfway point. Where the glowing blade met the profane metal, it smoldered briefly, and then after the blade was snapped, the light went out in the portion, darkening the room as the metal clattered to the floor.

Todd stood there in disbelief at what had just happened. Lit by only half his sword, the room was darker than it had been, and when the idol suddenly stood, he stumbled back, falling on his ass in the process. Though he’d thought that the Lizards might spring to life at any moment, he’d never suspected that the statue itself would move. But it did, and as it stepped toward him, he felt a level of malice that made it hard to think.

“Yes, you’ll do nicely,” the thing rattled in a dry, metallic voice. “You are the last man that shall ever touch me, and I would cleave your soul from your flesh if I did not have another use for you. I…”

Todd didn’t stay to listen. He couldn’t. Every word made his mind ache. It was worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. So he fled, gripping onto his last shard of light as he sought to find some escape from this madness.

As he ran, zombies started to appear, coming from this way and that, like they had him surrounded. Fortunately, though, there was always at least one way free of the noose that the abominations were attempting to draw tightly, and he was able to break free.

Eventually, his random path managed to lead back to the under temple, and from there, he knew the way. He darted back toward the surface and the hint of light that was promised at the far end of the tunnel. He could hear the monsters behind him, though. Their terrible moans and groans overwhelmed almost everything now, and the only sounds he could hear above that was the hammering of his own heart and the metallic footsteps of the evil incarnate that was slowly walking toward him.

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