Lucan cackled while gripping his staff and walking across the bridge towards the players.

"I haven't forgotten about any of you." He said in a sing song voice while pulling the arrow from his shoulder.

"Shinny, Goldbear, Hikaro, Cracked Teapot, and we can't forget about your assassin friend."

Suddenly he swung his scepter, bashing the thief in the head and knocking him out of stealth.

"DO YOU THINK MY EYE CAN'T SEE YOU!?!" He snarled while repeatedly clubbing the thief in the head.

"DID YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST THROW ME OFF THE BRIDGE!?!"

When he stopped, the thief rocked on his feet before turning to his friends and launching a fan of flying daggers towards them.

"Cleancut, what are you doing!?" The knight yelled as he tried to move out of the way of the throwing weapons.

Shinny snapped out of her daze. "He is confused. Hold him off, it shouldn't last long." She started to cast a spell to remove the mental condition he was afflicted with.

"You will die TODAY!" Lucan said while pointing his scepter at the priest.

Spells and arrows flew towards the warlock, but they passed threw him like he was an illusion as he slowly walked closer to the group of lower level players and Shinny.

With Lucan almost at the end of the bridge, the knight readied his sword and charged towards him, ready to hold nothing back.

"DO NOT INTERFERE!" Lucan shouted while locking eyes with the knight.

The heavily armored player froze in his steps as he felt fear deep in his bones, he was toughly intimidated as the warlock walked right past him, not even giving him a second glance.

With the knight frozen on the spot and the thief running towards his friends with a knife in hand, the others started to back up, trying to make space.

Without warning the warlock pounced.

He turned into a shadow and slid under their feet. He appeared behind the priest and buried a dagger in her back and lashed out at her with his sword before kicking her forward. Caught off guard she stumbled and fell to the ground.

While priests may be the best healers, they had a hard time defending themselves, they had almost no offensive spells.

"RISE MY SERVANTS!" Lucan shouted as two phantom fighters appeared on either side of him. The fighters charged towards the players, prepared to use telekinetic slam to push them away if they tried to come near the warlock and interfere with his vengeance.

The priest was struggling back to her feet when the pommel of Lucan's sword connected with the base of her skull. Taking advantage of the brief stun from the concussive blow, he kicked her with a telekinetic slam towards the edge of the chasm.

"Shinny, Shinny, let's go for a fall." He began to sing.

"Don't you worry I will come for you all."

"Lucan, stop, we can work-." Shadows muffled her voice and stopped her from saying anything more as he tackled her over the edge of the chasm, causing them to fall into the Depths of Despair.

"Beg and plead, cry and whine."

"Waste your breath, I don't mind."

The players were in shocked, but they could still hear a voice singing before it faded away. The knight used a gauntlet to the face to free the thief from confusion before turning to his other party members. "What the hell just happened?"

***

Shinny pushed away from Lucan as she fell. She was worried about what she would find at the bottom and was even more disturbed by the sing and laughter she heard as she plummeted.

She began to launch orbs of light downward. When she approached the ground, she cast feather fall on herself for a gentle landing. Shinny looked around in the area she had illuminated but could only see darkness.

"He, he." She heard a laugh from behind her and quickly turned to face it.

"I am not there." Said Lucan's voice coming from another direction.

Shinny quickly spun and faced a new direction and pointed her staff, launching an orb of light to reveal nothing but more darkness.

"Why are you panicking? Do you not like it down here?" This time Lucan's voice came from above her.

"Lucan, enough. We were wrong, but if you and I work together, we can find a way out."

"Ha, ha, ha, I spent over a month down here and you think I need your help to get out. Why would I help you when I brought you here TO KILL YOU!"

Lucan's shout shook the walls of the chasm, attracting the creatures who lurked in the darkness.

Shinny heard the shuffling of several small feet just outside the range of her light. She began to panic.

"Lucan, please, we can work together, I will make sure you are satisfied." She said, pushing her chest together. She wasn't sure where he was, but she knew he was watching as she tried to display her best assets.

An arrow flew from the darkness and pierced into her perk display.

"YOU THINK I WOULD DESIRE YOU?! YOU ARE NOTHING! YOUR HEART IS BLACK AND UGLY! I WANT YOU TO DIE!"

The orbs or light she had created were going out one by one. She cast more and threw them away from her, but they disappeared into the darkness. Illusionary black shadows circled around her. Slowly closing in, covering and smothering the light she created.

The creatures hidden in the dark advanced with the shadows. She could hear them getting closer.

"Lucan, don't. NOOO!!!!!!!!"

She was consumed by the shadows and the creatures pounced on top of her.

***

Lucan grabbed Silent's hand as they ran deeper into the Depths of Despair. Better equipped this time, he could use his ethereal magic to hide both of them from the creatures in the dark. Little Brown and Adrestia, both airborne, were able to draw away anything that came close.

Lucan smiled when he received the notification that Shinny had been killed.

As they ventured further, Lucan began to see faint traces of ethereal mana. Following the trail, they were starting to appear more often.

It wasn't long before they found a sealed door that was carved from stone.

The seams of the door were so tight that there was no chance they could slip through in shadow form. Knowing the tomb belonged to a planeshifter, Lucan and Silent activated ethereal step and walked through the door.

A pale green light covered the ceiling. Lucan was amazed that there was so much ethereal mana that it actually solidified into solid form. They found themselves in a grand hall. Directly at the opposite end sat a throne. A faint, flickering, transparent figure rested on it and had its eyes locked directly on the two visitors.

The figure rose from his throne, floating on the air towards Lucan and Silent. "You may kneel before your new master, for it is I, The Venerable Ghost King who you stand before. I will allow you to serve me and rescue me from this place." He said happily.

Lucan and Silent looked to each other with raised eyebrows.

"Why the hell should I kneel for some ghost?" Lucan cursed.

"Shouldn't you be asking us for help, or offer us some reward?" Asked Silent.

"A no-good, half dead, low level ghost who flooded the material realm with devils wants me to kneel?"

"You're not worth the dust on my boyfriend's boots."

"You're not worth the empty potion vial my girlfriend casts aside."

"You should kneel before me."

"Yeah, and you should be willing to serve me loyally."

"You're just a dying ghost."

"A fart with a form."

"A Hooligan."

"A Scoundrel."

"Prepare to meet your demise."

"Death will be swift."

"Wait, wait, wait." This was obviously not how the Ghost King saw things going. "Why must you kill me? What did I ever do to you? If you aren't here to help me, how did you even find this place and know about me?"

"It's all here in your journal. How you rose to power, lost your power, then locked yourself in a tomb and turned into a ghost."

The Ghost King paused for a moment. "Are you dumb? How could I write a journal that ends with me locking myself in a tomb and turning into a ghost, and then somehow have the journal turned up elsewhere?" The ghost king urged them to put down their weapons and pointed to a corner. "Look, there is my dead body. I didn't lock myself in here, I was imprisoned. How could my supposed journal get out if I couldn't?"

Silent and Lucan looked to each other again, unsure of how to proceed. He could kill the ghost and get his blessing, but it seemed as if there was more to this story.

Announcement!!!!

I made a discord if anyone is interested. It's my first time making one, so its still a work in progress. Link is in the synopsis.