24 Fighting the Unknown (1/2)
Since meeting Torix, this was the most nervous I'd seen him. I said, ”Eh, I'll be fine. My armors eating it anyway, not me.”
Torix sighed before saying, ”I suppose you're right. Regardless, we have far larger problems on the horizon. You two will stay here. I will be the one to handle these two.”
Althea chimed, ”I can offer ranged support.”
I didn't say shit. I knew I couldn't hold a candle to these guys. Some battles are better left unfought, for me at least.
Torix rolled his eyes, ”Althea, you would be consumed in seconds by their mental magic. You don't even have the fortitude for surviving a tossed stone from Elthodriss. Know your place. That's how you were caught by us in the first place.”
As he finished, a surge of curiosity coursed through me. I couldn't help but wonder why Torix was going through all this trouble for us. He could just give us to this Yawm guy then go back to before he met us, fine as a fiddle. Althea lowered her head in shame, ”Why don't you just turn us over? That would be way easier.”
This gave Torix pause. He tapped the edge of his chin as he glanced up for a moment, ”Hmmm...I suppose I just don't want to be alone anymore. All of my family is dead...I'm already very old and very powerful, yet nothing about that power gives my life any meaning.”
Torix frowned, ”I guess I see a bit of my son in you. I've heard you speak of your father. There's a deep, seething hatred lying just underneath your words. You hate him just as much as Alfred hated me...”
The sudden, sharp emotion in his last words left me almost numb. Deeply personal and biting, Torix continued, ”I don't understand it myself either. I could be searching for some twisted redemption after abandoning my son. I spent so much time pursuing immortality that I never lived the life I already had.”
Torix clasped his hand into a fist, ”Who knows. I don't have time to dwell on it for now.” Torix focused on the ball of energy that revealed the two others outside. The ball's spinning stopped as it turned stable, ”You may watch the fight from here. You may even learn a thing or two about magic.”
We nodded before his energy chair picked him up and carried him outside of the colosseum. Once he was gone, I scratched the edge of my head, really just scraping my helm. Thoughts raced through my mind at that moment. Why was I dumb enough to ask something like that? Why couldn't I just forgive my father and move on? That's the problem with questions though. They're a lot easier to ask than answer.
Althea snapped me from my stupor when she asked, ”Why do you hate your father?”
I sighed, ”Uhm...He was ahhh...well, my mother died when I was seven, and my dad fell apart after that. He started drinking a lot, and he couldn't handle anything really. He did bad stuff after that. I don't want to talk about it.”
With spite in her words, she seethed, ”At least you had a family. Mine sold me when I was a little. I don't even have memories of my family anymore.”
My gaze turned hard, harder than a brick breaking a man's jaw. I surged with anger, ”Sometimes it's a hell of a lot harder watching something fall apart than never having it in the first place. You don't know what you lost. I watched it waste away to cancer.”
Althea took a step back, her lips curved into a frown. We sat there for a tense moment before I sighed, ”Alright, I'm sorry. Let's just...not bring up my father anymore. Thinking about him pisses me off.”
She blinked a few times before saying, ”I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I did.”
An awkward silence soaked into the room before I turned towards Torix's sphere. Elthodriss and Kelto Drainer still inspected the cliffside. They'd picked up several of the spears and dug up several other traps spread throughout the area. When Torix floated up on his chair, it was a surreal sight. When he spoke, we could hear it through the orb,
”Hello Elthodriss and Drainer. What are you doing here on this ball of mud?”
They glanced up towards him, wordless and spooky. They stared for a moment before Drainer spoke with a voice like sandpaper,
”We are here to capture 3298. She is an unknown. You know where she is?”
Torix shrugged, ”Bah, so many things have happened here recently. I can't seem to remember if she was here or not.”
Elthodriss spoke, his voice far gentler than Drainer’'s voice, yet more unnerving, ”Now Torix, we've run into you in the past. You've spoken with Etorhma, even going so much as having seen the Old One. Yawm has nothing but respect for you. Have respect enough for him, and tell us where 3298 is.”
”I do recall having my own request denied by Yawm. I asked where my son was, and he didn't even offer to help. Pity he needs me now, isn't it?”
Kelto roared, ”You don't want to have Yawm of Flesh against you. He will tear your soul from that body you have and put it into something far more painful.”
Torix grinned, ”Oh yes, I'm sure he'd love fighting an Archlich. Especially a powerful one.”
Elthodriss replied this time, ”I'm sorry, Torix. We can't let 3298 escape. Yawm is willing to throw quite the batch of resources towards her.” He gestured to himself, ”We should be enough of an example.”
Torix narrowed his eyes, ”You are not even a speck of dust to me. I am more than just an archlich. I am Torix Worm of Darkhill. A master sorcerer of over a 1000 years of age. I've outlived your Yawm by over 500 years.”
Elthodriss shrugged, ”And yet Yawm is even stronger than you, despite having less time to develop. Shouldn't that speak for itself?”
Torix burst into laughter, long and loud. He raised his hand, ”Do you honestly think I don't know what you're doing here?”
Elthodriss and Kelto Drainer turned to each other and then back towards Torix. The lich said, ”You pawns are buying time while others from your little cult seek out the dungeon I came from. I've already planted spawns for protecting the entrance. I've already summoned evils even Yawm hasn't seen to guard my two little prizes.”
Torix placed his fingertips together, ”Now it's time to end this miniscule ounce of resistance you've scrapped together.”
Pulling his hands apart, a rippling wave of energy appeared between the gap in Torix's fingers. Like a bending bar of steel, the sound forced me to cover my ears, even through the orb. Streaks of the violet arcane melded with the all consuming black in his hands.
Torix pulled his arms further and further apart, ”Do you want to know why my power is less than Yawm's own?”
Elthodriss shook as Torix said, ”Because I've created pawns more powerful than I am.”
A monster unlike any I'd ever seen poured from the energy Torix created. Pulling the energy further apart with giant hands, the orange skin and many limbs squirmed out with vitality. Tall as a small skyscraper, the tentacle legs of the creature crashed into the earth with deafening booms. Spines of bone rose up from its back. The legs and arms of the creature, elongated and blue, led up to a faceless monster. Patches of bone plates formed scales on its chest.
Torix smiled, sinister and sly, ”It’s easily understood. Why fight with one when you may fight with many?”
Even through the orb, Schema could recognized the monster,
Moloth, Behemoth of Eldritch, (lvl 1421) - Once a mindless creation of eldritch, Torix Worm harvested this monstrosity from a fringe world and trained it as his own over time. Despite having an endless hunger and longing for destruction, Moloth remains loyal to Torix for unknown reasons using unknown methods.
The being can move with a surprising speed despite its massive frame. The blue skin on its limbs is laden with a potent neurotoxin and acid. The creature can absorb creatures melted in its hands and tentacles through the orange skin on its body. Some speculate this is a form of predigestion. Regardless, it is brutally effective versus any foe.
The monster even has parasites on it's skin that protect it when small creatures swarm it. They can chew and devour most anything they touch. These parasites are a species unique to Moloth. What type of damage they deal is unknown, but it is effective versus all but the most hardened foes.
Avoid angering at all costs.
Moloth's body shivered before Elthodriss said, ”Then you have made an enemy of Yawm. Be ready for the aftermath of your insanity.”
Elthodriss's body expanded underneath his robes before Drainer's aura thickened until it looked like blood. Blots of earth swelled from under the ground, revealing several other robed members. Their misshapened bodies moved underneath their robes as they readied for battle.
I couldn't even begin to read all the levels and messages as Torix said, ”Having such a low perception results in an inability to avoid traps like these. The charisma I have, however, allows me to squash them with this abomination right here.”