Chapter 82 - Memory Fragments (2/2)
At this time eleven other humanoids came to the site. They all held their heads down as if they wre ashamed. Together all twelve of them lifted the dragon as they left flying through the air.
The surroundings immediately became blurry like a large amount of liquid suddenly flooded the entire space and after that, he was in a dark cave. It was still a memory fragment, but it changed locations. The man who promised the dragon seemed to be magically crafting armor from what looked like the dragon's skin and bones. This scene continued till a set of armor of 10 pieces and pair of long knives were formed. He could clearly see his mask of shadows among them.
As the man doned the armor and weapons, the surroundings changed again. He was in the sky as the man along with the other eleven were fighting with someone else. He suddenly appeared behind an opponent and stabbed through the opponent's neck and beheaded him. Then, the surroundings again changed.
This continued till scenes depicting the twelve lords killing eleven other leaving only one. The last memory had them all in a cave with the knives stabbed through the lungs of a huge man with patch black scaly skin having a flaming skull made of lava in place of a head. Its arms and torso were tied down.
”Let me live, I will do anything you ask,” spoke the skull in a frightened voice. Its legs were cut down and its hands and fingers broken. Beside the lord of shadows were 4 others who seemed to be torturing the scaly being.
They were the War god (martial artist), the Dread Hawk (ranger), the Angel of Death (warlock) and the Divine Doctor (cleric). These four along with the lord of shadows were clearly interrogating their captive.
”You know nothing that we want to know. Nor can we trust anything that you say right now,” said Dread Hawk as he nocked an arrow with the intent to kill.
”No! No! I can tell you a lot more. I am the only one left of the thirteen. If you kill me, you can't get information from anyone else. Don't kill me,” it began to shout.
”Maybe, he can be useful. Why don't we keep him alive? If we are to go to their realm, he might still be of use,” suggested War god.
”I don't trust him. I hardly believe what he told till now. I can definitely withstand the amount of force we dealt and lie,” said Angel of Death. ”Why don't we just kill him, and I can try and capture his soul and read his memories. We could be sure that way.”
”Fine,” said lord of shadows as he threw his knives into the captive's heart tearing it open. ”Even if he is right. I don't believe he will be of use as they would immediately suspect that he was compromised once, they notice his presence.”
Angel of Death immediately waved his wand as a white light came out of the captive's body into his hands. It looked like his plan to capture the captive's soul was successful. ”He didn't lie,” said Angel of Death in a few seconds.
”Let us meet at the decided place in a month. Inform the others. Prepare yourselves. Fix your affairs. We might not be able to return once we go there,” said the lord of shadows as he turned around to get out of the cave.
”You forgot your weapons,” muttered War god as the lord of shadows was about to leave.
”I didn't. I am leaving these weapons and armor in this plane. She wouldn't want to leave this plane. Let it belong to whosoever finds it,” replied lord of shadows as he disappeared. ”I suggest that we improve our equipment further before we go to the new plane, he told us about. These probably wouldn't be sufficient”, sounded his voice from the void.
”I agree with his assessment,” said Angel of Death as he also disappeared. The surroundings changed again to another place in a volcanic mountain range where he left his gloves. Then, the surroundings changed again.
This continued as all the 9 pieces of his armor were left at various places. Balthazar got a brief glimpse of the places. He managed to identify only three of the nine. He already knew the location of the knives, which were unique weapons. He had come to the city in such a hurry to check for these very weapons. He somehow stumbled onto them and realized that he already had a part of the set.
After that the surrounding changed again and he was back in front of the altar in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the temple of the twelve. The shining runes that had previously formed all over the altar had disappeared. The halo above him also vanished.
At that time, in the monitoring room in Metis Technologies headquarters, there was another commotion. This time even Victor Constantine was observing Balthazar's data. He was informed that Balthazar had a very high adaptation rate to the somnium technology and since, he requested to be informed of any special things that Balthazar triggered.
Since, Shadow had received the letter of introduction from the deacon at the Blackrock Town, the monitoring team had been observing him as he would be triggering a memory fragment due to the letter. They wanted to observe his adaptation to the experience of a memory.
”He already has finished the memory. His adaptation factor seems to be quite satisfactory for someone experiencing this for the first time,” reported one of the personnel to Victor Constantine.
”What is the horror level of the memory?” asked Victor constantine. ”We had the horror level to be high. There are two more levels above it, but we decided to try this for his first time. The realism level of the memory was completely realistic. He still adapted to it easily and had no adverse mental reactions. Such behavior might be considered borderline sociopathic,” reported the personnel.
”He recently commandeered an attack on the apes and almost got killed in an explosion. He must have seen lot of his comrades burnt to death during that time. It is a good thing that he can overcome this. A soldier needs to have a strong mind,” replied Victor. ”Don't worry. I understand your concerns. Keep monitoring him and be on check for sociopathic behavior. It is best to be safe than sorry. We can't take any unnecessary risks for this.”