-[Act 1 * Part 3]-

Basil von Doom patiently observed the interlopers drawing—nay, shuffling—ever closer to his throne.

“So slow to advance,” he noted with a sense of disappointment.

“Maybe they suspect foul play?” Elnora asked.

“You might be right,” Basil replied. “Well, we better hurry them along then.”

Eager for their battle to be joined, the dungeon keeper addressed the weary heroes, assuring them of his honest intentions.

“There are no traps set here,” he said. “Through cunning or strength, you have made your way to my inner sanctum. I intend to reward your valiant efforts with glorious combat, not petty tricks or false enticements.”

Given the brutal track record of the dungeon keeper, the kith intruders were not inclined to believe him just on his word. It would take more than to hasten their advance.

“Keep an eye on the dark one while I search the room,” Nadia told her brother as she cast a divination spell on herself.

“[Holy Sight]!”

Her eyes lit up with a golden glow. She then proceeded to scan the chamber around them for any traces of trickery or hidden foes.

“I see no traps, arcane or mundane,” she announced. “It speaks the truth, brother.”

“That seems a little too convenient for us,” Aidan pointed out.

“Perhaps the beast is too confident,” the sister pointed out. “He can’t possibly know of our plan…”

Nadia’s burning gaze narrowed as she examined the dungeon keeper sitting on the throne. “I can’t see him well through the arcane interference of the black mist... but I have no doubt that it won’t be easy to take him down,” she said.

“Faint as it is, this demon’s aura is like none other I have ever seen. No telling how it fights or how strong a spell caster the monster is. We should make the bastard come to us, not the other way around.”

“Agreed,” Aidan said. “It would be better if we could fight him out here in the open.”

The warrior gave his fellow adventurers a signal to advance along the flanks. He himself took to the vanguard. Aidan resolved to face the monster head on while the others would seek to strike the beast from the sides and rear.

Basil patiently observed the adventurers as they cautiously took up their positions for the battle.

Having advanced to the middle of the chamber Aidan pointed his sword at the dungeon keeper in a taunt. “Come down from your throne, you wretched cur!” he said. “We have done away with your pathetic minions. Face us and know that your end is nigh!”

Basil made a show of slowly leaning back into his throne. “You don’t get to make demands here, puny human. If you have come to ask something of me, then I demand you show me the same respect you would give to any lord of a castle.”

He waved for the intruders to approach. “Come closer, if you dare,” Basil said. “Kneel before me and I might just accept your challenge.”

Aidan hesitated for a moment. In the end he decided to press onwards in spite of his better judgment.

Nadia took him by the hand. “Don’t,” she said. “This is obviously some sort of a ruse.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Aidan said and freed himself from her grip. “Time favors him more than us. We have to strike now.”

“That’s right,” Basil said. “Don’t forget whose house you have entered into. I will do as I please, and you—as you must.

“Come closer,” he beckoned them. “It is the task of the challenger to approach. Mine is to decide if you are worthy of the effort.”

The flames in the iron braziers slowly rose until the chamber was all but drowned in their red glow. Yet the light somehow seemed to avoid the horned demon atop of the throne. Shrouded in an aura of dusk, his full features remained elusive to the prying eyes of the trespassers.

What was revealed, however, was a second figure standing atop of the pyramid—a humanoid shape, clearly female. A horned beauty quietly surveyed the battlefield from her position at her master’s side, halberd in hand.

“I have been following your exploits for some time now,” Basil said and casually waved at the two siblings standing in the middle of the chamber beneath him. “You, children born on a night blessed by a twin tailed comet, raised in poverty and elevated to heroic acclaim through hardship and merit—a fine destiny for any mortal creature to have. A fine destiny to have indeed…”

Basil extended his open palm in an offering gesture. “You have come so far that even I must admit that I am impressed. If you were anything but heroes of your realm, I would gladly welcome you as my minions. For your undying loyalty I would find a fitting reward—pleasures and honors beyond your wildest dreams.”

“Never!” Aidan proclaimed, cutting short the dungeon keeper’s monologue. “We have come here to do one thing and one thing only! We will cut the heart from your army when we cut off your head. Maiden Solar has blessed us with this holy task and her light will not be drowned out by your darkness. Not even here, in these wretched halls you call home!”

Basil shrugged in response to Aidan’s declaration and withdrew his hand. “As I said,” he continued, “if you were anything other than heroes, I would have bothered to think of a worthy bribe. That is to say, I would have prepared an offer that you could not refuse. But, instead, I have decided that your life has run its course.

“It is its own reward, really. The battle that you have been training for your entire lives is finally at hand. You should consider it an honor that I shall be taking measure of your skill and strength myself. Too few of my enemies are granted such a glorious fate these days.

“In a way I am giving you exactly what you have always wanted. I am offering you that which you desire the most—a hero’s death. How poetic will it be, to fall by my hand on the eve of your Empire’s fall? And with you standing before me, there can be no doubt of my success now… It has all played out just how I had envisioned it. I shall conquer your world and my victory will be marked by a fitting battle with its finest heroes. If only you knew how much joy this brings me…”

Basil once more extended his open palm towards the adventurers. “This is my garden of Doom that you have entered,” he said. “Like blossoming flowers, I shall pluck you and preserve the beauty of your strength, if only between the pages of my own life’s story.”

He clutched his fist illustrating his selfish intent. “My destiny is grand and magnanimous. And you shall be a footnote; a bookmark and nothing more. But I will still have you, no matter how insignificant, for you are the best that this world has to offer. Therefore you are mine alone to claim.”

Basil then leaned back into his throne. It appeared as though he was finally done talking.

“That thing sure loves the sound of its voice,” Nadia told her brother.

Aidan tried to coerce the demon for one last time. “If you are so noble in your intentions, then step forward and face us!” he said. “I will show you what a true warrior can do!”

“Do you honestly think that you stand a chance against me?” Basil asked. He picked at his patch of a beard in a gesture conveying light amusement. “It is true that you two are special—destined for greatness and blessed by a higher power, but the rabble surrounding you can do nothing to me. Other than get in my way, that is…”

Basil’s gaze passed over floor of the throne room. The dungeon keeper graced every one of the intruders with his cruel smile along the way. “You think that you can defeat me, the master of this dungeon of Doom?”

“You know that you are cornered,” the old priestess proclaimed. “There is nowhere left for you to hide. We have scoured every passage, every chamber of your foul taint! Your servants have all been slain; all of your traps ruined. No one else but you, the demon prince himself, remain to be vanquished.

“We have done our duty to the Empire,” she said. “And now we shall do our Maiden’s bidding by ridding this world of your foul presence. It is time to end this madness!”

She raised her staff and cast an aura of [Mass Blessing] on her party. As the area around them grew brighter so did the expressions of her companions.

“Come forth and face us,” Nadia commanded. “Climb down from your throne of lies and meet your end, demon!”

The dungeon keeper laughed in response to her threats.

“I’m sorry, but can’t quite hear your feeble words,” Basil said as he leaned forward in his throne. “Come closer, please. Your fear must be muffling your voice.”

“Enough of this,” Aidan said and looked to an elven ranger at the back of the formation. “Evindal,” he addressed his companion, “draw the demon out!”

The tall, lean and pointy eared man nodded. “It will be done,” he replied in a soft voice as he notched an arrow in his golden bow. Once loosened the projectile traveled the distance in a flash and struck the demon square in the chest, but the shaft snapped and the arrow failed to pierce the thick armor of the dungeon keeper.

The ranger notched a second arrow and fired it a little higher, aiming for the demon’s head.

“[Possess],” Basil whispered. The demon then flicked his hand and the projectile veered off sideways, disappearing into the dark background of the throne room.

The ranger was about to try for a third time when the second arrow came flying back at him from the left. In an incredible show of dexterity, he ducked at the very last moment to avoid getting skewered by his own projectile. The arrow grazed his head and skipped across the stone floor once more delving into the darkness.

Basil taunted the party from atop of his throne. “Care to try that again, little elf?” he said. “There is hardly a man among you that can touch me. Not that I can keep you from trying…”

He addressed Aidan next. “I suppose we really should join battle,” Basil said. “But I don’t really care for staining my lair with that low level blood of your friends. So how about we thin out your ranks a little? Make it more… personal for us, the big shots.”

Basil raised one hand revealing a scroll to the intruders. At his command the parchment unrolled and a glowing magic circle materialized in front of it.

“Everyone!” Nadia yelled, “Take cover!”

The party swiftly plunged into cover behind the great stone columns in anticipation for an area attack spell to be flung at them.

“That’s right,” Basil said as he was about to release the seal on the incantation. “Stick close to the pillars. Make it easier for me.

“Activate scroll: [Greater Mass Illusion]!”

To the sound of cracking stone, the pillars lit up with blue veins of mana as Basil used them to amplify the spell. Blue light erupted from the broken arcane seal of the scroll and mixed in with the red of the fires, briefly drowning the chamber in a purple glow. The air throughout the throne room began to visibly fold and warp as the illusion spell took hold.

Thinking fast, Aidan picked up his sister and carried the priestess out into the open. He tried to distance them from the pillars as best as he could before the magic had fully manifested.

“[Greater Focus]!” Nadia said and touched her brother’s head, thus conveying the spell’s effects onto him. She herself was already protected against such mind altering magic due to her innate class abilities of a priest.

Having reached the open most part of the chamber they began searching the throne room for any signs of their companions, only to find that the two of them now appeared to be standing alone in the company of Basil and his mysterious female attendant.

Aidan looked to the dungeon keeper and scoffed. “And you said there were no traps...”

“It wasn’t a trap,” Basil argued, “though you did fall for the spell’s effects quite handily.”

He discarded the spent magic scroll. “Anyway, I am pleased that the illusion did not affect the two of you,” Basil said. “Truth be told, it was only intended for your weakling friends.”

“What have you done with them?” Aidan demanded to know.

“I can’t see anyone,” Nadia said as she searched the room with her divine vision. “This is at least a Tier 8 illusion spell that he cast. Those hold the power to warp the reality itself.”

“So he has mastery of illusion spells,” Aidan said. “Good to know that I won’t have any crazy fire balls to dodge.”

“He cast it from a scroll,” Nadia pointed out. “Don’t jump to conclusions. It might be that someone else made it for him.”

“Oh, please,” Basil said, “throwing around fireballs in boorish. Why resort to such simple magic when there are far more entertaining spells out there to play with.”

“Can you dispel this illusion?” Aidan asked his sister.

Nadia shook her head. “Tier 8 [Mass Illusion] is a battlefield spell. It has a massive area of effect, so normally our best chance would be just to leave the area where it was cast, but… we can’t do that in here.”

“Is there any other to break its effects?” Aidan asked.

Nadia drew his attention to the room around them. “See the pillars and how they are glowing? The mana infused stone is keeping the spell going. You would need to bring those down before I could dispel this magic.”

“So?” Aidan asked. “I’ll just smash them all to pieces.”

Basil shook his finger. “Bad idea,” he said.

“This is not something we can do quickly,” Nadia said. “Not that the demon would let us… No, it looks like we will have to face the monster alone.”

“Did you really think that there was any other way this encounter would end?” Basil asked. “I won’t be denied my satisfaction in slaying you two.”

Aidan grinned. “Alright,” he said and looked to Basil. “You will get your wish. Ready yourself, demon, because I am coming for your head. And after that, I am freeing all of my friends from this damned illusion of yours. The brave sons and daughters of Empire Solar will not fall today!”

“That’s the spirit,” Basil said. “All it took was a magic trick for you to play along.”

The dungeon keeper cracked his knuckles. “The stage has been set,” he announced. “Do not disappoint me!”