Chapter 133

Chapter 133

Chapter 133

[The Apocalypse Beasts, Chalgathi, Quest Update: Brenna Landish has fallen in battle to Tao Zhang. Tao Zhang has acquired 2 of 5 set pieces for Chalgathi’s Inheritance. A new Chalgathi’s Chosen will be picked within 1 hour from now as a replacement for Brenna Landish.]

[The Apocalypse Beasts, Chalgathi, Quest Update: Venice Garcia has fallen in battle to Fred Talons. Fred Talons has acquired 2 of 5 set pieces for Chalgathi’s Inheritance. A new Chalgathi’s Chosen will be picked within 1 hour from now as a replacement for Venice Garcia.]

***

Snagger snapped the small booklet shut, then looked up from where he’d been reading. His rodent ears were pinned against his head in shame and sadness, and he shook his large rat head in regret. “I-me sorry friend, did not know-aware of plot-schemes you were caught in. I shall show-enlighten brood-mother of this. Thank you, Riven-kin.”

The rat-kin extended a hand, and Riven shook it with a nod. “Not a problem at all, it wasn’t your fault. Perhaps after our own problems are sorted, we can help each other out. Until then, I wish you and your people the best of luck.”

“Well-wishes to you bat-kin friend. Come visit-seek me at your leisure-chance, or if find self able-willing to help us-kin. Dwarf-devils ever eager to kill-maim rat-kin of Deepnest.” The muscular rat-kin bowed, clasping his gauntleted hands together in front of him while Mesha did the same at his side. Then they started to walk back, through the sewers and towards the tunnels leading deeper into the underdark.CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m

“Nice to meet-find you, Riven Thane!” Mesha’s squeaky voice echoed through the tunnels, her small pawed hands waving at them before the two rat-kin of Deepnest vanished out of sight. “Keep safe-sound!”

Riven smiled, pushing his hands into his pockets while his staff floated in the air beside him. “It’s nice to see that not everyone is an absolute prick out to get me. Maybe you’re right Athela.”

“Of course I’m right!” Athela playfully smacked him across the back of the head with one of her spider limbs. “Now let’s go! We have a royal vampire to meet so we can ask about your malignant prophecy. What was her name again?”

“Kathrine Vonsilla Crushada, something or other of the eldest house 102nd in line for the throne.”

“I think you got that wrong but let’s go with it for now until we meet her again.”

Riven smirked and began climbing up the ladder into the basement of the hospital. Pulling himself up and huffing, he glanced around the basement where he’d battled the horde of dream creatures. Their bodies were still rotting here or there, the ones that hadn’t been ripped apart in torrents of blood mana, and he’d already told Allie she needed to come collect them at least for the bones. Materials for undead in the Thane Necropolis were in growing demand, with more and more undead traveling from other worlds through the bone garden or being created there atop the tower from souls drawn in out of the void.

“Come on Athela, lets-”

A nearby heartbeat quickened.

Riven’s body lit up with red lightning, drastically enhancing his speed as he sidestepped a blurring projectile that nearly took his head clean off.

*CRACK-BOOM*

The room shattered around him, and something akin to a missile that’d shot past him exploded on impact on the far wall. His body was scorched and he barely had time to summon hell’s armor to avoid the majority of the blast when a shadowy figure launched itself out of the adjacent hallway with glistening blades extended.

Riven’s red eyes went wide, and he simultaneously tore a rift through space while creating a myriad of spinning blades around his original position.

The assassin missed their strike, blades slicing through nothing but air when the portal winked out and the bloody razors erupted after an influx of mana.

An unfamiliar feminine scream echoed out, and Athela tore up through the hole in the floor to launch herself at the new assailant just when the figure vanished - leaving Riven to evaluate his surroundings in more thorough detail.

“Fuck.” Riven muttered, seeing nothing but not letting his guard down while black lightning crackled along Vampire’s Escort. “Who the hell was that?”

***

Astrid’s body went rigid when she saw the notification appear, and she continued to quickly limp-run down a long street in the dead of night while unnatural mists permeated the surroundings.

[Due to proximity, you have been notified of the following: Your Chalgathi Cultist Mask has been pinged by the unique ability: ‘Ping Chalgathi Artifacts’. This ability pings the locations of other Chalgathi Inheritance Set artifacts - only identifying pieces you do not already have, and may be used at any time without any mana requirement. This ability only locates artifacts that you are missing from the set. Due to proximity, this ability only gives an area destination of 50 square meters and not an exact location.]

“Shit!”

[Chalgathi Cultist Mask: ???]

So they’d finally come.

The mask itself was very intricate, with numerous carvings that shifted and roiled under his touch - but to his surprise the mask actually began to change while he grasped it. From roiling shadow-like textures, it evolved into something else entirely. Smooth, white porcelain replaced the shadow texture - until it became a very plain but sleek-looking full-face mask without any identifying features at all. There weren’t any holes for the eyes or mouth either. The only other thing notable about it was that the back side, the one that was supposed to fit onto his face, shimmered with red wisps now that trailed along his skin and pulled - almost as if it was trying to latch onto him. It was completely different from the item it’d been only a minute ago.

“How odd.”

He set off another ping, finding out that there weren’t any other participants in Chalgathi’s trials nearby for hundreds of miles... but then quickly corrected himself. Not only was this unknown woman still here, somewhere, and she could track him while he couldn’t track her - but it was certainly possible there were others of Chalgathi’s Chosen and he just couldn’t ping them. The ability only worked to identify those with artifacts he didn’t have, and now he had two of the set.

[The Apocalypse Beasts, Chalgathi, Quest Update: Astrid Fested has been defeated in battle by Riven Thane, but has escaped pursuit with her life intact. Riven Thane has acquired 2 of 5 set pieces for Chalgathi’s Inheritance.]

Within only seconds of having acquired the notification, the communication bauble started pulsing and he picked it up to answer Allie’s call. “Heyo.”

“Riven!” Allie’s voice echoed through the mists and deserted streets of the Brigthsville suburbs. “Were you attacked!? Are you ok!? What happened! I had no idea they were that close to us! Where are you now!?”

“Calm down, I'm fine. Almost got assassinated by some bitch because I was off my guard, I’d been pinging their locations but she’d somehow cleared nearly 80 miles in less than a day and it threw me off. She must have some kind of traveling or movement ability aside from the ones I saw.”

“Which were?”

“She’s a stealth type, uses something akin to my rift-walk via the shadow pillar and can blend into dark areas or mold her body to fit into tight spots. She has a couple escape abilities and I’m not entirely sure how they work, but she’s very mobile. Be careful, she’s still around here somewhere but I managed to cut off a hand. So unless she has some kind of means to heal herself, she’ll be maimed.”

“Well at least that’s a plus. But where are you? Are you back from the underdark already?”

“Yeah. Visited Snagger’s city of rat-kin, was neat to see. I’ll tell you about it more in detail later, I’m in Brightsville now and headed towards the altar to get some answers on malignancy points. I also need to identify these Chalgathi artifacts.”

“Oh... I probably need to do that too. I have the pauldrons, but I haven’t been using them because I wasn’t sure what they did and they gave me odd tingly sensations whenever I put them on.”

Riven snickered in amusement. “Odd tingly sensations? They’re artifacts for a world quest, surely they can’t be bad.”

“You never know! Don’t laugh at me! And I already have these legendary tier soul-woven pauldrons built into my outfit - ok!? I went with what I knew!”

“Well at least it doesn’t make you a target. Where are you keeping the Chalgathi pauldrons?”

“In a guarded vault in the tower. Tell you what, I’ll have Mara grab them for you and meet you at the altar. Have the Blood Moon Requiem identify them for me too, and since I already have a pair of pauldrons with the soul-woven outfit - you can have the Chalgathi set. It’s probably better if we combine ours anyway, gives us a better chance of doing this stupid quest and getting to the next Chalgathi quest update before other people do. It’ll also allow me to monitor more people involved with the questline, because I won’t have any of the items. One more thing - do you mind helping Mara clear the prison sometime in the next day or two? I told her I’d be back to lead the attack but I’ve been busy killing elves the past two days.”

Riven’s eyebrows raised. “Killing elves? I hope you’re not talking about my slaves. They’re supposed to be treated well, Allie.”

“No! Idiot. Dawn’s northernmost town, Bradshire, is under siege. Or it had just begun until I arrived, I’m routing these pointy eared pricks now, adding to my legions with their bodies, and am going to discuss terms with some of Dawn’s ambassadors so I’m kind of busy.”

“Just be careful about the things we talked about, Allie.”

“I have an army of undead with me, along with Vin and Nin. I’ll be fine. Talk to you later!”

Allie’s voice cut out, and Riven hummed in discontentment.

“She’s in the S-Tier of natives on this planet too, you know.” Fay stated from behind, adjusting her crop-top and clearing her throat to fold her large black wings behind her. “She’ll be ok!”

“It’s not her that I’m worried about.” Riven said, putting the newly acquired Chalgathi artifact into his satin bag of holding. “We have rules about engaging any truly strong opponents, if we think there’s a chance at losing we’re to retreat and group up. It’s just that Allie can be... a little bit kill-happy.”