Jackal Among Snakes

On the other side of the portal, Argrave’s ears flooded with the sound of flowing water. An endless ocean of beautifully translucent water spread out before them, and they stood above it all. A geyser of water jetted upward beneath them, buoying the purple carpet beneath their feet and suspending them far above the endless clear ocean. As Argrave’s feet met the fabric, it felt as though he was standing atop a waterbed. Ahead, above, and around, several other geysers of water branched from the central one. They spiraled incomprehensibly, forming paths to portals. The purple carpet marked each geyser, as though informing them it was indeed a pathway.

This was the Promenade of Wisdom, leading to all other wings of the vault. Argrave knew this place well enough.

“The Living Wing is the only way we get through this,” Argrave pointed upward, where a red portal awaited at the end of a spiraling geyser. “Do your thing, spread your wings!”

The Alchemist sprouted giant bat-like wings from his back—not raven wings, fortunately—and all gathered near him. Limbs sprouted once they drew near, wrapping around their waist and clenching tightly until they had no room to move. These sprouted hands rejoined with his flesh, securing them in a closed loop. His legs grew muscular and powerful to prepare for a jump, and when he leapt Argrave heard the howl of the wind passing by his ears.

The Alchemist ascended as fast as he was able, using his wings to swerve through the labyrinthine geysers of water comprising the pathways to the other wings of the vault. Argrave stared at where they’d come in from, waiting the arrival of the Castellan of the Empty with a dreadful knot in his stomach. The elven cult leader entered, looking around. Argrave hoped they might’ve eluded him, but his hearing was sharp and he spotted them quickly. He braced and jumped upward in half a second, slamming straight through various geysers in his single-minded pursuit.

The Alchemist’s feet turned into hands, and two mana ripples spread out in the air moments before a fell blast of wind exploded out. It dually propelled their party forth with tremendous speed and met the unstoppable ascent of Mozzahr. The Castellan broke past the S-rank spell, yet the distance between them grew all the same. He landed on a geyser, then prepared for another jump. Just as Argrave saw him jump again, speed redoubled… the scene changed.

The Alchemist passed into the first room of the Living Wing of Erlebnis’ vault—the Palace of the Beasts. Where there had once been an endless ocean, a long corridor of nature spread out before them, contained by towering black walls of the same metal comprising the seal of the vault. There seemed to be no ceiling, and the place was brilliantly illuminated by a star above, yet this room was contained all the same by the black walls. And here, the beasts of myth abounded.

Wyverns roamed the skies while unicorns ruled the grassland ahead. In the distance, great jungles rose up into the sky where giant serpents and elemental salamanders prowled the trees and ground both. He saw centaurs, even—manticores, ogres, giant vampire bats, werewolves, wargs, boarmen, monstrous mollusks, lightning harpies, trolls, animated trees, and every manner of rare beast that the mind could conjure. It was an emporium of living treasures. And just beside them, as Erlebnis’ proudest exhibit…

Dragons were lined up on the right and left like a royal procession. Chained, muzzled, and shackled by the black metal comprising most of this place, they stood erect like gargoyles with bloodshot eyes of rage. As Argrave remembered, there were eight of various colors, to be chosen by the player as reward deep into Erlebnis’ questline.

The Alchemist immediately flew to a red dragon’s head, and though it strained in protest as they did, the chains kept it tightly bound. He landed there and released all of them, holding one hand to its head as everyone else stayed bound. He cast druidic magic, attempting to tame this dragon. Most grabbed its spine, preparing for the ride. Argrave, meanwhile, called upon his Domain of Law.

“In this domain, concentration is limitless,” he said quickly enough it sounded like babble, but the resulting clarity of mind told him it worked. Then, he cast out twenty echoes from his body, and utilized a variation of a spell he’d used all so commonly—namely, [Tempest Eel], the wind-attributed version of [Electric Eel]. With an infusion of blood magic from his echoes, they rose up, and Argrave immediately set them to work at freeing the dragon of its chains.

The blood-infused constructs of wind tore at the bindings, chipping through the black metal and eventually breaking past it one by one. Though its wings were liberated, it stayed eerily still, fighting the Alchemist mentally in resistance against his druidic magic. As Raven seemed to master it, Mozzahr entered. He spotted them all too quickly despite the sheer chaos of the Palace of the Beasts, and Argrave’s concentration wavered somewhat.

“Melanie,” Orion said. “Can you make a portal near his legs, where you passed?”

She looked bewildered, but nodded and obeyed. As soon as it was prepared Orion thrust his hand through, and Argrave saw Orion’s fist slam into the side of Mozzahr’s knee. The Castellan did stagger, but in one quick move a blast of his Emptiness erupted from his hand in retaliation. Orion shouted in pain, drawing back his arm. Melanie was quick to close the portal… yet even still, the prince lost all beneath his elbow.

Durran grabbed the man as he wobbled from the shock of the blow, and helped him steady himself. The attack was not in vain, however. The dragon ripped free of the rest of the chains that Argrave had yet to hit, then started to run as it prepared to lift off. Everyone grabbed places for purchase—Argrave slipped his hand beneath its metal muzzle. Thinking quickly, he looked back at the other dragons, and sent his eels out to break their muzzles. Dragons were intelligent—with their mouths free, they could free themselves. For most, he merely cracked the metal… but a crack was enough.

The dragon gained tremendous speed, and Argrave was forced to get a firmer grip on its spine. As a mythical beast, a dragon was incredibly strong, even despite what might’ve been centuries of imprisonment. It beat its giant wings and rose up into the sky, flying at the Alchemist’s direction to a place deeper within the vault.

Argrave’s last-ditch attempt to break free the other dragons proved to be immeasurably valuable. With their muzzles broken by his spells, they called upon their elemental breath to burn, freeze, or cut away their chains. The area they were in became chaos incarnate, Mozzahr caught in the middle. All of the powers of nature worked in rough tandem, and in seconds dragons burst free of their bindings, taking to the skies with chains trailing their flight. Argrave beheld the sight of nature’s heights in awe, clinging tightly to their red dragon.

As their mount levelled out, the Alchemist rose up, holding the spear upright. Its blinding white had become gray in this environment, subdued by the arcane enchantments of the walls. “Spellcasters—come. The beast knows its path. We must protect its flight.”

Argrave, Anneliese, and Durran clambered to the Alchemist. He seized and gathered them, and then jumped up into the air. Durran yelled while Argrave grit his teeth, but they landed near the back of the dragon’s broad back. He saw its massive tail flowing behind it as it soared, and saw grass, forest, and desert pass them by in this rapid traversal of the Palace of the Beasts.

Then, back from where they had come, a bolt of teal power split through the air. Mozzahr’s Emptiness moved so fast that Argrave conjured a ward of blood magic in pure panic. The Alchemist prepared a ward, too—about three of them, each and all S-rank. The bolt pierced through the dragon’s tail like a cannon’s shot, through the Alchemist’s wards, and then impacted with Argrave’s. It shattered even that, passing through and striking Argrave in the chest. Even diminished so greatly it felt like he’d been hit with a sledgehammer, and as the dragon writhed in pain from the blow to its tail he felt his feet leave solid ground.

Anneliese caught Argrave as he threatened to fly away, and then pulled him back. They both collapsed back on the dragon as she tightly held onto its spine.

“React faster, Durran, Anneliese,” the Alchemist criticized. Argrave didn’t know if he was being praised, but he accepted it nonetheless. He felt his enchanted breastplate, feeling the huge dent in its surface.

As Argrave and Anneliese recovered, more teal bolts of Emptiness passed by. They were utterly unrelenting, but the dragon’s erratic movements combined with the distance ensured very few hit their mark. The sheer quantity of the attacks made them a threat, however, and they couldn’t protect all of the dragon. Some blows inevitably landed, and the flight was unsteady and faltering. Perhaps the only reason Mozzahr had not caught up to them was the utter pandemonium they’d caused by releasing all the dragons. All the beasts of myth were in a frenzy.

After what felt like an eternity, the Alchemist turned around. “Our flight is over.”

Argrave was elated and looked back, but what he saw did not indicate that they’d reached their destination—rather, they’d found an obstacle that could not be overcome.

A titan blocked their path far ahead. Humanoid in appearance and standing thousands of feet tall, his hand alone was near the size of their dragon. The only thing he wore was a black leather mask and a crown. He looked like the King of Gimps, but he was truly the King of Beasts—the keeper of this place, and the tender of all the animals. As Erlebnis’ servant, this titan kept everything here alive and secured. And now he ran toward them in a frenzy, his steps shaking the earth.

The Alchemist seized the three of them and then ran back along the dragon’s back until he once again stood at its head. Here, Orion and Melanie waited, tired and panicked but alive. Orion’s arm had yet to reconstitute, but he seemed focused all the same.

“Come,” the Alchemist commanded. “I will take us down. We go the rest of the way on foot.”

The Alchemist embraced all of them again, watching the titan as it came upon them. It raised a hand and swiped down, and Argrave briefly questioned if the Alchemist had misjudged the distance… but they jumped away just in time, and the King of Beasts grabbed the dragon as though it was a small bird. Along the way the Alchemist cast illusion magic, disguising them all from the titan’s vision. They fell to the ground, the Alchemist flapping his wings to slow their descent, and then alighted gracefully amidst a swamp. All of the animals seemed ignorant of their presence.

“Should be a clean break to the gateway of the Living Wing,” Argrave said. “Once there, we can break off into the other sections of the vault. Ideally, we’ll lose Mozzahr.”

“Remain still,” the Alchemist directed. His body started to shift—his legs flattened, his torso and wings retracted within, and before long all of them sat aback a grotesque spider with a human torso. He brandished the dimmed spear, pointing it to their destination. “We move. We have the advantage, for now, and we must not lose it.”

#####

After a quiet and rapid ride, they cut through the remainder of the Palace of the Beasts under the guise of the Alchemist’s illusion and on the back of his spider-like form. They finally made it to a grandiose construction of the black metal barring spirits from working in this area. It looked like a ziggurat, and the Alchemist crept up to enter its inner sanctum. This place, at least, was unguarded. It was a simple square room with three portals on the sides that weren’t the entrance.

They were all freed of the Alchemist’s helpful, if unnerving, binding, and walked around. Argrave dared a glance outside. He saw the King of Beasts in the distance. As he watched, a great bolt of teal energy pierced its shoulder. It dodged another, but Mozzahr was unrelenting in combatting it. The freed dragons roamed even still, setting fire to the land. All of the other beasts fought desperately to stay alive, or enact vengeance.

Erlebnis’ precious emporium of beasts was ruined, but more remained of the vaults. They could continue deeper into the Living Wing. The next section was the Gardens of Time, where the rarest alchemical plants imaginable persisted—even those thought extinct. Argrave didn’t intend to enter the gardens unless forced to, but if they did, he could pick up plants that could brew a poison potent enough to seriously debilitate Mozzahr. But even if Argrave brewed it, they’d need to pierce his flesh, somehow.

No-- they were better served heading into the other wings of the vault. He knew these earlier vaults from visiting them in Heroes of Berendar, and late game artifacts abounded there.

Argrave rejoined his companions. Orion was still injured, missing most beyond his wrist. Everyone else was exhausted—Argrave himself had been spending blood echoes like he had an infinite number, and already his supply had diminished a great deal. Only the Alchemist seemed unperturbed.

“Come. Into the Magic Wing of the vault,” he directed them. “There, we will find objects we might use to better defend ourselves. We must assume we are still hunted.”

“Where is Hause?” Argrave questioned.

The Alchemist looked at him. “I do not know. But her presence… I have no doubt I will know it.”

Argrave nodded, supposing that was the best he could ask for. “Come on, everyone.”

They jogged to the next portal—a dark blue mass—and entered inside without hesitation. An endless plane of blackness awaited them. Argrave confidently stepped ahead of everyone else, even as they looked about in confusion. Argrave conjured flames, and cast them at the ground. A pleasant chiming echoed, then revealed a decadent room arranged like a museum, with invaluable pieces lining every bit of it.

“Each section is hidden and locked unless the proper element of spell is cast,” Argrave explained. “Come on. We’ll run through this place, breaking what we don’t need and taking what we do.”

“Where haven’t you been?” Durran questioned, half bitterly.

“I know one more room beyond this one. After that… it’s all foreign to me. And I suspect that’s where Hause will be.”

“We need things to defend ourselves with,” the Alchemist reminded them, stepping within. “Hurry.”