Demonic Magician

I don’t often write in here before going into battle, as many of our conflicts were ambushes or unexpected. The ones that weren’t were usually too stressful to think of anything but the looming battles. Tomorrow will be… tough. I will do what I can for all of us. Nothing more could be asked. If you are reading this diary and this is the last entry, well… I’m sure you can read between the lines. I left enough space.

I pushed the door of the hall open with a small amount of flair, hoping the reveal would have the cursed artefact or whatever to appear before us and I’d have the win instantly. As my luck would have it, that didn’t occur.

Instead, we were greeted by a softly lit large room. Tables and chairs were stacked in these closer corners, while a few short benches sat in rows near the front facing a slightly raised stage. I shivered, salivating slightly. A small venue—nice and comfortable for the comeback tour. A side door that we could put a curtained area across, bring through all the props from the back rooms. Maybe get some extra lanterns up across these awnings and-

“Max?” Ren pushed me into the actual building a bit more. “I swear to whatever gods the System has, if you’re just standing there imagining putting on a show here then-”

“Just checking for traps,” I said with a certainly convincing smile. She saw right through it, naturally.

“I’ve come to terms with the fact that we’ll have to do a show at some point.” She sighed, crossing her arms as she looked around the hall. “That’s just part of being with… of being in a Party with you. Hence the costumes.” Her blue eyes glared at me as if daring me to make a point about anything she had said.

I had mostly tuned out everything after she had insinuated we were together. Perhaps a rather empty-headed and immature response, but for someone who had been starved of any sort of close relationship in my adult life, I was savoring every second of it. It made for a nice contrast to the cold-blooded murder and threats on our lives.

“What do you think, Wolf?” I turned to the bear, who had stuck his head through the door, but had not committed to breaking the frame off with his wide shoulders to follow us in.

“A larger venue would suit me better.”

I grinned widely. A remarkably on-point observation and agreement, as if it was directly targeted for my ears. Maybe he had said something else, and I'd imagined what I wanted to hear.

He wrinkled up his nose and sniffed the air. “Do you usually eat the audience after a show?”

There it was. I deflated and shook my head as Ren started to walk around the room. It was unlikely for what we sought to just be atop the stage or the center of a room. If I wanted to hide something cursed, it’d either be in the back room, or perhaps underneath the building with a trapdoor blocking our progress.

I circled the other side of the room. “Keep an eye out on the village for us, Wolf? Just in case our battle attracted some vultures.” He gave me a nod and turned around, placing his large rump in the doorway instead. As I passed the left side of the room, I vacuumed up a handful of chairs. Could never have too many. Well, that was a lie, but a few spares at the back of my Inventory wouldn’t hurt.

My eyes fell to Ren as she reached the end of the room and stepped up onto the stage. She took a few steps, looking around the floor and walls for anything that looked untoward, before she caught me watching her.

She crossed her arms and glared at me. “Quit gawking and let’s get this Quest over with.” Her eyes went over to the distracted bear, before back to me. She did a little twirl on the stage and flourished her hands.

If it were possible to receive my own Dazzle icons, I'd be overflowing with them. Maybe I was hallucinating. I didn’t think I could be any further enamored. With Ren, sure, but with the idea of putting on a show—there was brimming passion for the great performance that was slowly blooming.

“This never happened.” She reset into a more relaxed expression and stepped down from the stage. “Now move your ass, trickster.”

“I’ll check the back room.” My face muscles ached from smiling. How easily the bloodied death from the past hour had just washed away to be replaced by the fantasy of showmanship. The hard part was actually finding an audience. The System-created wouldn’t really get the nuance of it, and Players were either the Crimson Shadow or beneath their boots.

I hummed to myself as I walked to the end of the room and pressed a hand against the door. It’s not like I had any special sense that I could determine if something was awry just beyond it, but I had once seen a magician set themselves alight. Prop malfunction has caused a fire, and as they opened the… box or room, it was unclear in my mind… the added oxygen caused the flames to flare out. Some outfits were pretty flammable, too. I shuddered and gripped the handle.

Twisted and opened it up into darkness. I furrowed my brow at the furnishings inside, before a lantern came out of my Inventory and into my hand. Surprisingly, it was mostly barren. A few empty shelves and cupboards that looked as if they had been stripped of all contents. Odd, and rather unrewarding. Down on the floor was a trapdoor.

“There’s a trapdoor,” I announced.

Ren appeared at the doorway behind me as I stepped toward it. “If you fall down the ladder and crack your head open, I am leaving you here.”

“You wouldn’t.” I turned my head to raise an eyebrow at her. She tried to maintain her glare—but I could see the cracks, just at the edges of her eyes. Looking back at the simple square in the floorboards with a small metal ring inset, I ran my tongue across my teeth. “You never know, I might knock a third soul awake within me.”

“Hopefully that one will be good at…” the rest of her sentence drifted off.

“Good at what, Ren?” I gripped at the ring and put the lantern down on the floor. “Good at what?”

“Landing on their feet?”

That sounded like something made up on the spot. I wasn’t sure whether to take it as a compliment as she realized that I was pretty well rounded, as far as people were here, or be suspicious that there was something she wanted me to improve on but wasn’t able to vocalize.

I lifted the hatch and cool air wafted over me, alongside the smell of… something strange? Like damp, but with a hint of something acidic to it. “I sense danger, or perhaps a larder that has spoiled.”

Reaching atop my head, I brought my hat down and placed it at the side of the opening. Hand inside, I brought out a dove and had him perch on the brim. After giving it a little pat, I turned to the concerned-looking elf.

“If it’s bad, I’ll teleport back up here, okay? You stay there and keep eyes on Wolf. Maintain a chain of visuals.” Wolf, Ren, bird, me. She nodded at me and calmed. I wasn’t naturally a group leader, but she always appreciated it when I took this sort of thing into consideration. We met halfway with our personalities and ideals, and Wolf was just happy to scrap and eat our enemies.

I held the lantern down, and it illuminated rough stonework. Bricks that were uneven and oddly shaped, but it didn’t cast light on anything worthy of note at this angle. Instead, I narrowed my eyes at the wooden ladder. It looked sturdy enough, yet could easily be my toughest opponent yet. My ability to suffer traumatic skull injuries was nigh legendary, but I wasn’t keen to continue the trend.

“You want a rope?” Ren asked from the doorway.

As I turned to put my feet on the rungs, I narrowed my eyes. Her expression was actually genuine, which was more sad than comforting. It was nice to know they thought the insides of my skull were actually worth saving, though. Perhaps I should focus more on my movements than that whatever this was.

Clasped the lantern to my belt for the journey down, and made it down the handful of wooden rungs to stand on the solid ground below. I looked up at the hatch to see the dove silhouetted, before he hopped onto the top rung to get a better angle on myself and the elf at the same time.

I turned and held up the lantern, casting long shadows off of dusty furniture that had long been abandoned down here. The smell was even worse, but couldn’t just be from the aged wood and mildew. A few steps forward and light hit the back walls. Slowly, I rotated to illuminate the rest of the objects down here, half expecting a ghost or strange monster to hop out of the shadows at me.

Turns out, I was half right.

The amber light washed over a seated figure. Black cloak obscuring most of their body, only their pale gray face visible. Wide, pitch-black eyes with small circles of white in the center glared back at me, over a near featureless face. A small mouth slowly widened to smile at me, sharp teeth protruding along the way.

“Are you the Monster who has frozen the villagers?” My question came out remarkably level, given the situation. My eyes shot to the side. Bird was just in view at the top of the ladder still.

“Anssswer my riddle, and I will ssset them free.” The thing hissed at me.

Preferably, just killing the Monster would have the same effect. Why it thought I could be swayed into engaging in word-games in a musky cellar was beyond me. Unfair me to judge, perhaps, but their physical appearance didn’t fill me with a lot of confidence that this wasn’t some kind of trick. And I knew tricks.

“Unfortunately, I am allergic to riddles. Do you have a second option?” I was apprehensive about going full tilt into an attack, given that the System should anticipate such action and had done something to make that not a win-condition for the Quest. Not like I could ask for a second opinion right now.

“No. Anssswer incorrectly and I will curssse you too.”

I moved the lantern to my right hand and held it up. With a grimace, I nodded for the creature to continue.

“Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.”

“Uh.” I blinked slowly. “Could you repeat that?”

“That issss incorrect!” Their eyes widened and the white circles turned crimson and started to spin, distorting as if they were going down a drain. A gray hand with long fingers reached out from their cloak.

System, I rolled my eyes. Switched places with my dove, who ate the curse and dropped to the floor. Landing surprisingly deftly back on the ladder, I sent a card out into the darkness. One toward the creature and one toward the lantern that I had dropped beside some of the dry furniture.

With no hesitation, I hopped up the ladder to the ground floor and flipped the hatch shut, then pulled a nearby cupboard over it—only slightly struggling.

“Should I ask?” Ren asked, clearly asking without asking.

“Just…” I turned to her and frowned. “Let me process it for a while first.”

“I can smell burning.”

“Good.” Perhaps a self-fulfilling prophecy. Now the doors to the hall would have a dangerous fire behind them, eager to burst out at the next person who stumbled across them.

The elf tilted her head, trying to read my odd mania. “Did you find the source of the curse and deal with it? Or are you adding pyromania alongside your kleptomania?”

“Yes?” I replied, picking my hat up off the floor. Poor dove, I thought. They always got the short end of the stick.

She sighed. “Fuck’s sake, Max. Shall we go?”

“Uh, someone is approaching.” The bear’s deep voice came echoing through the hall.

Whatever odd conversation we were trying to force each other through ended just like that, our faces resolute again and we head back into the hall with hardly a nod. Ren drew her bow as we strode through to the doorway, as Wolf moved to the side and allowed us to exit.

The outside air was refreshing and somehow helped put the odd creature far behind me. I had dodged the cast curse, right? No System messages had popped up to tell me I had anything wrong with me, and other than being a little disjointed from reality—this reality—I felt perfectly fine.

Of course, in saying that, my stomach immediately sunk in seeing the five figures walking down the path toward the village.

“What can you see?” I relented to her better eyesight.

She worked her jaw as her eyes narrowed. A couple of seconds and then she slowly responded, as if unsure whether she trusted what she could see. “No crimson hand-prints, for starters.”

Odd, but too early to start getting excited.

“They don’t smell the same as the bad-meat,” Wolf added, sniffing into the air. “Just normal bad. Unwashed, stressed, and bloodied.”

I shivered, almost ready to accept we had met some normal Players.

“Two in armor, two in robes, one in leathers,” Ren filtered potential Class information to us.

My fingers tapped against the side of my leg. It was enough for me, so now I had to fill my role. They weren’t being overtly aggressive toward us—although we need to be wary that could turn on a dime. I had already placed a Hellhound+ out of view beside one of the cottages closer to them, and was charging up a magic card in my obscured left hand.

Whether Ren had seen, or just anticipated, that was my course of action, she nodded to me and held her bow at the ready.

“Play it cool,” I told them. “See what they’re all about. If they attack, then we’ll need to give it everything. You know the drill.” They grunted their acknowledgements.

I walked forward and hailed the approaching group, one of their fighters returning the action. Now that we were almost in parlay distance, I could make them out better.

At their front was a fighter in full armor, silver and worn. Based on the shape of the breastplate, probably female—their helmet obscured their face. Shield on their back and sword still away in their scabbard. Which meant either they were overconfident or weren’t looking for a fight. Body language told me she was most likely their leader.

To her right side, a much shorter figure. A female goblin in robes of blue and silver. Long staff in her hand that rose to a loop where a bright silver bell hung. Her eyes were a bright yellow and pierced me even from this distance. No points for guessing some kind of spellcaster, although the potential theme intrigued me.

The other spellcaster standing behind them was much taller, possibly elven if I were to guess, from his sharp features. A rather plain robe of beige that was colored more by the stains of battle than anything else. As he turned his head to say something to the larger figure in the middle, his long, brunette ponytail flopped over his shoulder.

Said larger member of their ensemble was a giant of a man—or rather a lion? While their wide body was humanoid, the head definitely resembled that of a golden-maned lion. Mostly chain-mail armor, with large shoulder plates that radiated energy as if they were heated. Across his back was a large two-handed battleaxe.

The last member was a rather average look man with short brown hair, wearing simple leather armor. In fact, how ordinary he looked was almost jarring. It made me uncomfortable just to look at him, especially compared to the rest of his group.

They stopped a good twenty feet away from us, and the goblin whistled.

“Rolo was right. Someone did fuck up the Crimson here.” She grinned up at the armored woman.

Their leader lifted up her plated hands to remove her helmet. Short black hair, shaved almost bald, and bright amber eyes. Two deep scars ran across her dark skin, down her whole face with the hint of the damage having continued down her chest. Either something brought here from her previous world, or a testament to such a terrifying attack that even the System couldn’t fully mend it.

One of her eyebrows raised as she looked over our Party, sizing us up perhaps. Her glare stopped at the elf and her expression changed.

“Ren?” she asked, surprise on her face.