Death: Genesis

“Are we certain that it’s stabilized?” asked Zeke, glancing away from the dungeon portal and looking at Sasha. In addition to leading the academy in the Crimson Tower, she was also the most knowledgeable person when it came to mana, dungeons, and just about everything else that didn’t involve killing.

The boarkin girl glanced at a sheet of crystal and nodded. The apparatus looked almost like a tablet, though it was surrounded by enough mana that Zeke knew it was magical in nature. Sasha answered, “It’s stable, and it looks no more powerful than the arena dungeon. Perhaps slightly less. It shouldn’t give you any trouble.”

“Shame about the pig girl,” Eveline muttered in Zeke’s mind. “If she hadn’t lost her nerve, she could have been a true asset. She has a head for mana like no one I’ve ever seen.”

Zeke once again warned Eveline not to refer to Sasha with such a derogatory term, but he couldn’t disagree with her sentiment. Sasha was, to put it mildly, a genius. However, after her experiences in the Mirror King dungeon – and the war that followed – she’d taken a step back from a combat role. If he – or more accurately, Pudge – had asked her to step up, she would have done it. She was as committed as anyone else. But she clearly had issues with it, and ever since realizing it, Zeke had given her every opportunity to serve a different function.

That just showed him that planning for the future was, in a lot of ways, futile. He couldn’t just move people around like chess pieces.

“More like checkers, in your case,” Eveline said. “Or tic tac toe.”

“Never claimed to be a genius,” he remarked inwardly.

Regardless, Sasha’s disdain for combat had sundered some of his plans. She represented quite a lot of power – indeed, she could empower her spells to enact true devastation – but if her heart wasn’t in it, he couldn’t very well force her to do it.

“You could,” Eveline reminded him. “You’d just have to make peace with breaking her.”

“Same difference,” he said in his mind. Then, he turned to Adara, Pudge, and Silik, asking, “Are you three sure you want to come with me? I can’t guarantee your safety.”

“I must gather information for my soldiers,” Silik stated.

“I won’t let you go alone. Not again,” Pudge growled.

Adara said, “This is an opportunity to get stronger. I can’t pass that up.”

Zeke sighed. His friends’ reasons were their own, but he couldn’t find any fault with them. Silik’s reasons were particularly poignant, because the wild dungeon that had cropped up in the Muk’ti Plains represented an opportunity to train their army. And as their leader, the kobold general had taken it upon himself to ensure that they were as prepared for the challenge as they could possibly be.

Pudge’s reasons were a lot more personal. Clearly, the beastkin blamed himself for Zeke’s most recent near-death experience, and he’d vowed to be there to help the next time he faced such long odds. Did it matter that Pudge couldn’t have helped against someone like Shar Maelaine? Not to him. And so, he’d been by Zeke’s side ever since.

As for Adara, her reasons were, in a lot of ways, just as personal. Sure, she’d always been driven toward growth. She wanted power, same as ever. However, her pursuit of strength was driven by something new. She clearly wanted to prove that she was worthy to stand beside him. The thought made him uncomfortable, and not just because he didn’t think of their relationship in those terms. Mostly, though, he was reminded of Abby and her insecurities.

“She’s different,” Eveline stated. “She doesn’t resent you for being stronger than her. Even if she never stands on even ground, she won’t grow bitter.”

“You know that for sure? How?”

“Nothing is certain in this world, Ezekiel, but I know people. And that girl is as solid as any rock,” Eveline answered. “The difference is that her sense of self-worth is not tied to her strength.”

“Neither was Abby’s.”

“It was,” Eveline insisted. “She was weak. She knew it, and though she railed against her nature, she couldn’t change it. She made excuses for her weaknesses, and eventually, it broke her. Her desperation drove her to –”

“I don’t want to rehash this,” Zeke said inwardly.

Eveline was about to respond, but then she clearly thought better of it. So, instead of prolonging that discussion, she said, “Very well. I think it’s time to test this new dungeon. Don’t you?”

“I do.”

After that, Zeke took a few minutes to ensure that his army would be ready in case anything happened. The Radiant Host was in full retreat, and his scouts were adamant that they wouldn’t return any time soon. In addition, the dungeon itself was a small one, and as such, Sasha had claimed that it would not take long to conquer. A few days, at most.

So, with all that taken care of, he led the other three through the portal and to the other side. Upon stepping through, he had been ready for anything, but he still stumbled a little when he felt the bitter cold envelope him. Thankfully, he’d grown quite accustomed to frigid temperatures during his time in the Ianthian Wastes, so it only took a moment before he acclimated.

The others weren’t quite so quick to adapt, but they were all strong enough that even the sub-zero temperatures wouldn’t threaten their well-being. With their safety ensured, Zeke took a moment to look around, and for a second, he thought he’d gone back to the base of Min Ferilik.

A huge mountain range loomed over them, surrounded by an apron of pristine snow. Yet, they were not alone. Only a few hundred yards away, Zeke saw a camp which was comprised of a half-dozen tents and a huge bonfire that looked large enough to offer at least some protection against the cold.

After discussing it with his companions, Zeke decided that the camp was their best shot of figuring out what was going on – because they’d gotten no notifications upon entry.

So, Zeke strode forward, pushing through the snow on his way to the collection of tents. He eschewed his titanic form, hoping instead to engage in diplomacy. And no matter how powerful [Titan] was, it tended to put people on the defensive.

“You think? I wonder why people would be a little alarmed when confronted by a thirty-foot-tall indestructible golem,” Eveline remarked.

Zeke ignored her, and soon enough, he saw a collection of figures huddled around the fire. And to his immense surprise, they looked human. Even more shockingly, they were all injured. Some were missing limbs. Others were clad in thick bandages. And a few lay still, probably dead.

“Hello there!” he called out, raising his arm.

That got their attention, and a couple of the healthier humans gathered weapons and took fighting stances. “What d’ya want? Don’t come no closer!” one shouted.

“We’re here to help!” Zeke claimed. “What happened?”

“Frost trolls,” said the leader. She was tall and pale, with vivid red hair. However, she also had a wicked wound across her scalp that descended across her eye. “They ambushed us in the pass. Don’t come no closer!”

Zeke stopped, his hands raised. “I can help. I can heal them at least enough so they don’t die.”

“You don’t look like a healer,” she said skeptically. “And don’t think I don’t see that thing behind you. I don’t know what manner of creature that is, but I don’t trust upright lizards. Too many bad experiences.”

“Fine. They’ll stay back. Just let me help,” Zeke said.

It took a few more exchanges before the woman finally relented, letting Zeke approach. After that, he used [Hand of Divinity] to heal the wounded. He only used the skill at around half power – which was the limit of his control – but that was enough to keep them alive. Once he’d finished, he said, “Tell me exactly what happened.”

“They took ‘em,” the woman said. “Three of our people. Don’t know what for, but it can’t be good. I…I want to rescue them, but…”

“They’re too strong. I don’t know how, but these trolls ain’t like normal trolls. There’s somethin’ about ‘em that makes ‘em stronger,” said one of the others. “Took us apart like we was nothin’. If you go up there, you ain’t makin’ it out. Lizard-man bodyguard or not.”

Zeke listened to the rest of their reports, but it was just more of the same. Despite the Framework’s lack of direction – which, according to Sasha, wasn’t uncommon for newly materialized wild dungeons – the goal seemed clear enough. He and his companions would need to head through the pass and try to save the hostages while figuring out what was going on with the trolls.

The problem was that, despite their willingness to tell Zeke just how strong the enemy was, the people in camp were too weak to provide any reasonable context. For all he knew, the trolls weren’t even level fifty – which would have been enough to take them apart. Or they could be at the peak.

Either way, Zeke couldn’t allow the lack of information to derail him.

And besides, he’d long developed an absolute loathing for trolls. He’d spent years fighting them, and if he couldn’t he would wipe any trace of trolls from the face of the universe. So, he was more than willing to do what needed to be done.

With that in mind, after Zeke ensured that the people in the camp would live, he retreated to where he’d left his companions, explained the situation, then led them to the pass. Once there, they began an easy climb that eventually switched back before winding around the mountain.

For miles, they traveled until they reached the spot where the humans had been ambushed. It looked like the area had been hit by a bomb. Overturned wagons were scattered across the narrow pass, suggesting a furious battle with creatures equipped with supernatural strength.

Then Zeke saw the bodies.

Or what was left of them. Bits and pieces had been thrown all across the pass. Zeke saw severed arms, mangled torsos, and more unidentifiable hunks of meat than he cared to count. In short, it had been a massacre.

Sprinkled here and there were mostly intact blue bodies.

They resembled the trolls with which Zeke had grown familiar, though they were a good deal larger than the ones in the caves where he’d been reborn. Maybe fifteen feet tall, with thick hides and thickly muscled bodies. Two-foot long tusks jutted from their ugly mouths, and ice crystals decorated their heads.

“I’ve seen these before,” Adara said, kneeling beside one. “In the mountains on either side of the labyrinth. They would sometimes descend and raid villages.”

“Do they have weaknesses? Fire, I’m guessing,” Zeke said.

She nodded. “Blunt force, too. They’re extremely strong, insanely durable, and they have the same ability to regenerate that most trolls do,” she said. “But it’s more powerful the colder it is.”

“Damn,” Zeke muttered.

They all knew the reason for the expletive. As they’d climbed the mountain, the already-frigid temperatures had continued to drop. That made it clear – if they continued up the mountain, they would be walking right into the trolls’ natural environment. And that probably meant that putting them down was going to be that much more difficult.

“There’s something else,” Adara said. “Trolls have a shamanistic culture. If they get strong enough, they can be sapient. These are big enough that I think it’s almost a certainty that they’ll have reached that point. That means we’ll have to deal with spellcasters.”

“What does that mean?” asked Pudge.

“It means that if you see any totems on the ground – they’ll look like statues – the first priority has to be to destroy them,” she answered. “Otherwise, the trolls will be…augmented in some way. The raiding party that did this is nothing compared to what we’ll face. And it’ll be even worse if they have any shamans worth a damn.”

“I see,” Zeke said.

But as useful as that bit of information was, it didn’t change what they had to do. So, Zeke and his companions continued up the pass, steadily trudging through the increasingly deep snow drifts for miles and miles until finally reaching a small valley. There, they rested for a few hours, eating and recovering their stamina before resuming their trek up the mountain.

Then, after almost an entire day – which was a significant amount of time, considering how quickly they could cover ground – they crested a rise and saw their quarry.

“That’s a lot of trolls,” Adara said.

Zeke countered, “That’s an understatement.”