-[Act 1 * Part 6]-

With the dungeon keeper’s summoning spell complete and the blue flames dwindling, two shapes emerged from the shadow portals. A man and a woman, no older than twenty, stood facing their originals at the steps of Basil’s throne. Darkness once more settled over the throne room. Only the fires in the braziers mounted on the pillars were left to light the way for the combatants.

“Nadia?” Aidan asked as he eyed the red haired girl standing in front of him. She looked exactly how he remembered his sister from the days of their youth. The young man next to her—his own clone—did not seem to bother Aidan as much. He was just a reflection in the mirror to the old warrior—a stranger that he had grown accustomed to over time already.

“They are not us,” the old priestess reminded her brother. “We must kill them like the rest. Steel your heart, brother.”

“Oh, but they are very much like you!” Basil announced. “In fact, they are the perfect copies of you!”

Nadia shook her head. “That vile spell of yours cannot replicate things,” she said. “These are flawed imitations at best, demon.”

Basil tilted his head and smiled. “Well, alight,” he admitted, “they are only half as strong as you. It might not be perfect, but I think that the novelty of the spell is worth something by itself, right?”

He climbed down from the steps of his throne and took up position between the two children of darkness. “But even if I could only make them to be level 25, I would like to think that I gave them your best parts,” he said. The dungeon keeper patted the heads of the shadow clones with his heavy hands, which the children didn’t seem to mind—he was their summoner after all.

“None of the self-righteous banter, but twice the sass,” he continued. “Infinitely more fun to be around, I reckon.

“I mean, so far I have had to do all the heavy lifting to make this battle any fun,” he complained. “The least you could do is to try and be a little less serious all the time. I know that you came here to kill me and all, but death by boredom was not what I expected.”

He gently nudged the two copies forward. “Now, let’s get on with the show,” Basil said. “Let the better set of twins… win.”

At the behest of their master, the young impostors of the sibling heroes slowly advanced on their senior counterparts. Since they had emerged from the portals fully clothed, but unarmed, the first thing they sought to do was to remedy that problem. The girl began to carve runes and spells into her skin with the tip of her nail to empower her magic without a spell book at hand or an arcane weapon to channel it though. The boy picked up the black halberd that Elnora had lost following her defeat.

“Can you banish them?” Aidan asked. The veteran warrior kept a close eye on his young imitation, awaiting his attack.

“No,” his sister replied, “These are no mere illusions. They are creatures of flesh and blood, albeit corrupted to the bone.”

“Will they disappear if we kill Basil first?” Aidan asked.

“No,” Nadia said. The old priestess turned to whispering so that Basil could not overhear them. “But we can… turn them against him.”

Aidan smiled. “I knew you would find a way out of this,” he said.

“But it will cost all of my remaining mana,” Nadia said. “And I will need you to protect me while I channel the spell.”

Aidan nodded. “Got it!”

“You know,” his sister said, “it looks like we really won’t make it out of this one alive.”

“Yeah,” Aidan replied. A bitter smile dawned on his grizzled face. “Well, at least we are going go out blazing!”

Nadia returned a kindred smile. “Oh, you better believe it, brother. Today we will make the Maiden proud.”

The shadow clones were now almost upon them. Wicked grins warped their youthful expressions as the two teenagers circled their older originals. An age old story of strife: evil versus good, vigor against wisdom. With the clones in possession of barely half the power of their heroic originals and wearing no artifacts or armor, it would have been easy to dismiss their encounter as one sided. But after their brief fight with the demon prince neither Aidan nor Nadia were at their prime. Far from it, actually—they were already searching for a second breath.

The shadow clone of Aidan addressed his dark sibling. “Hey sister,” he said and pointed his halberd at the old priestess facing them. “Is it alright if I kill you?”

“Sure,” the young girl answered and nodded towards the stout warrior protecting Nadia, “but I will kill you first.”

They had sweet voices, the youthful twins. Sadly, there didn’t seem to be even a glimmer of sanity in their bloodthirsty looks.

Aidan scoffed. “That is dark,” he said and shook his head at the sight of his wicked doppelganger. “Just wrong… I hate magic like this.”

The dungeon keeper disagreed. “This is wonderful!” Basil exclaimed. “I honestly think that this is the first time I have seen this spell work out this well. What a momentous occasion…”

The dungeon keeper planted himself down on the steps of the throne to observe the fight. He took the opportunity to recover from his injuries and drank deeply from a blood red potion that he had procured from his pouch.

“I love family drama!” he said and wiped his mouth with his wrist. “Can you kill them? Will they kill you? Who knows! Let’s find out together!”

“Go team evil! ~WooOoo!” Elnora cheered them on from the throne. “Go team Doom!”

Having taken measure of their opponents, the shadow twins began their attack. The younger version of the warrior lacked the protection of Aidan’s heavy armor, but compensated for it with greater agility. He jumped around like a loaded spring as he avoided the champion’s attacks. Aidan was trying to close the distance, as his sword had far shorter reach than the clone’s halberd, but the youngster would not allow it.

“Can you keep them off of me for fifteen seconds?” Nadia asked. She deflected an arcane bolt cast by her clone, but did not fire back.

“Will do!” Aidan answered fell back to shield his sister. Having positioned himself in front of Nadia he took up a wide stance and braced his sword to fend off the incoming attacks.

“{Blade-Wall}”, he said and a red aura engulfed his body. It was a defensive ability that required him to carry an edged weapon, but it was only useful against melee weapons or physical projectiles so it could never have protected him against the unarmed attacks of the dungeon keeper. But for the comparatively low level opponent that was his shadow clone, the human champion became an unassailable fortress. Even more importantly, the {Blade-Wall} was an area of effect ability, so Aidan could extend his protection over his sister while she channeled the spell she had promised would defeat the clones.

All was not well, however, for while the young warrior could not so much as land a hit on Aidan, the shadow priestess was free to assault him with impunity. The young girl let off a barrage of spells and curses in the short time that it took for Nadia to complete her channeling. Aidan was pummeled by strike after strike of malicious magic to the point where the warrior was almost forced down on his knees. Yet, even with almost no health left, he kept up his impeccable defense of his sister.

In the end, Aidan managed to outlast his opponents as the shadow priestess ran out of mana and the endurance to channel it. She was reduced to throwing the occasional arcane bolt, witch Aidan’s armor was more than good enough to resist almost completely.

Finally, Nadia finished her casting and a wave of golden light flooded the throne room. At first it seemed to slow down their clones. The two youngsters ceased attacking and instead looked to be grappling with themselves. Stumbling through the blinding light they carried dark shadows around them. It looked like their black outlines were being torn away from them by the light, but the young siblings tried their best to hold onto them.

Eventually the light prevailed and the shadows were torn away from their hosts. The twins collapsed, exhausted by the exorcism. Confused, they sought the company of the only people they could recognize in this strange place—each other.

“Did it work?” Aidan asked. His face was covered in blood from the many wounds he had sustained. From his general appearance it seemed like a miracle that he was still standing.

Nadia nodded and immediately begun casting recovery spells on him. But the priestess knew that at this point she was unlikely to get Aidan back up to more than a third of his total health. The battle had also all but depleted her mana reserves—a resource far harder to replenish even than their vaunted constitution.

The twins huddled together as they examined their surroundings with frightened expressions. It was clear that whatever memories or experiences they had inherited from their elder selves were not enough to help them make sense of their current predicament. For all intents and purposes they had just awakened for the first time, only to find their new bodies wounded, exhausted and surrounded by an evil aura that few if any mortals had ever faced.

“Well, this should be interesting,” Basil said as he rose to his feet. He made a show of subtly clutching at his wounded torso.

The dungeon keeper then advanced towards the confused twins. Naturally, they reacted by backing away from the hulking demon. Clearly, they no longer recognized their summoner.

“Where are we?” young Aidan asked. The boy shielded his exhausted sister with his body while holding his borrowed halberd in-between himself and Basil.

“Stand down,” Basil ordered. “That little bout of exorcism has left you confused.”

He extended his palm towards the two in an offering. “I am your master. I created you. Obey me and I will protect you.”

He gestured at the originals, “Help me defeat these intruders and I promise you safety.”

“Aidan!” Aidan called out to the boy. The rigid mind of the warrior went into overdrive as he tried to find a convincing way of getting the two doppelgangers to side with him.

“Listen to me,” he said, “I am you—so you know that you can trust me. I know that this is confusing, but I need you to help me defeat that monster so that we can all go home.”

“You… are me?” the young boy asked.

“Don’t listen to him,” Basil intervened. “Aidan—” he lowered his voice to sound more melodramatic. “I am your creator. Join me and we can rule this world as father and son.”

The boy eyed the fiendish demon prince with horror stricken eyes. “The hell I will!”

Basil shrugged. “Well, it was worth a try.” The dungeon keeper then pointed his finger at the floor beneath the twins and cast a spell: “[Grater Frost Mine]!” The icy explosion consumed the siblings in a flash, forever preserving Aidan’s expression of disgust for the creature claiming to be his father.

The dungeon keeper was about to make that prison permanent when he was hit in the side of the head by a spell. The sudden strike sent Basil stumbling sideways.

Nadia threw away an empty mana potion, wiped her lips and pointed her staff at the dungeon keeper. She went on casting spell after spell in an effort to pin him down so that her brother could find an opening. There was no way that she was recovering her mana as fast as she was spending it, which was tantamount to burning herself out. The consequences of such an act could be deadly, but they were going all out for the final stretch of the battle anyway.

Aidan readied the blade in his tired hands as he drew closer to the dungeon keeper. He circled the distracted demon prince, looking for an opportunity to strike.

Basil fought back against Nadia’s suicidal barrage by flinging a few [Fire Ball] spells of his own, but the poorly-aimed attacks barely scorched the priestess as they landed around her.

“Casting fireballs,” Aidan scoffed. “And you said that such mundane magic was beneath you. I guess you really are no more than a common beast.”

As the warrior got closer to Basil, the dungeon keeper moved out of the path of Nadia’s attack. He positioned himself in a way that placed Aidan in-between him and the priestess.

Elnora sighed. “I can’t stay mad at him,” she muttered as she slowly drank the health potion through her straw. Her dreamy gaze followed the dungeon keeper as he readied himself for what was likely to be the culmination of their battle.

“Not going to lie,” Basil panted, “didn’t think… you would last this long.”

The dungeon keeper lunged towards Aidan and grappled him to the ground. The two juggernauts then went on trading blows with their fists. With every passing second they grew increasingly exhausted, but the dungeon keeper appeared to be gaining the upper hand.

Having received a few more hits to the head the human warrior finally ceased moving. Basil slowly rose up over his vanquished foe and looked for the priestess. Dazed and winded, he would have been an easy target even for a novice spell caster, but no spells struck him.

Her reckless casting had finally taken its toll—Nadia looked like a shriveled up hag. Tears ran down her smiling face as she whispered to herself. “Maiden Solar guide us home,” she said. “My brother gave his last and soon I shall follow. We dedicate this victory to you.”

“Hardly seems like a victory to me,” Basil said. The demon prince kneeled down next to the dead warrior to rest for a moment. He wiped the blood form his mouth with his palm. “But it was a good fight. You fought well, that is. I could not have expected more.”

Nadia mustered a meek grin. “You,” she said and gestured at Basil, “this place and those clones—they are not the only things carrying a terrible curse. Enjoy your empty victory while you can, beast. Soon my goddess will avenge us all.”

The priestess drew a long, thin dagger from a scabbard on her belt. Nadia placed the tip of the blade up against her chest. “We carry a terrible burden as well, Dark One. We knew that we were coming here to die… so we made sure that you would too.”

She then pushed that dagger into her heart. “One death is not enough— ngh!—to pay for retribution...” Her robes quickly turned red when the woman pulled the dagger from her chest. “She will only come… when we both have perished…”

Nadia then sighed one last time before her body gave out. The old priestess fell asleep on the icy cold floor of the throne room, never to awaken again.

An eerie silence settled over the battlefield.

Basil pouted his lips as he eyed the dead intruders in anticipation of the things that would come—the retribution that Nadia had promised. Her promise of divine wrath was the only reason why he had gone to such lengths to fight them the way he did.

Nothing happened for a while so Basil changed out his tired knees. The dungeon keeper remained kneeling at Aidan’s side, watching and waiting.

“Shouldn’t take this long,” he mumbled in disappointment.

Then, somewhat unexpectedly, Aidan let off a long groan of pain. As it turned out, the warrior was still among the living. Basil took that as an explanation for the delay in his promised retribution.

“What does it take to kill you?” Basil asked. The annoyed dungeon keeper reached out towards Aidan and cast a spell to finish the job. “[Greater Arcane Explosion]!”

Aidan’s body turned into a blooming cloud of blood and mangled armor as the dungeon keeper painted his throne room red with the warrior’s remains.

Immediately after Aidan’s explosive death the chamber was engulfed in a sea of golden light. The glow seemed to have an almost physical presence. It reached out across the room and wrapped around the stone pillars. Not a corner remained untouched by it.

“Going to go blind at this rate,” Basil complained as he squinted to protect his eyes from the burning glow.

As the overwhelming presence of the divine bloom receded the dungeon keeper finally sighted his true goal. A being of pure divine energy now hovered above the field of battle. With the golden light quickly receding into her, the chamber dimmed and the heavenly creature grew in size and splendor. Her physical form soon stood as tall as the pillars and for the first time today, with the ominous darkness banished, the ceiling of the throne room was revealed. Her naked feet found footing among the remains of the two heroes that Basil had just slain. Her body now fully manifested, the angel glanced down upon the tiny dungeon keeper at her feet and frowned in anger.

“It’s about damn time you showed up,” Basil mumbled as he backed away from the golden lady.

She was an angel of pure energy—the holy spirit of retribution that Nadia had promised with her dying breath. Basil opened up his arms to bask in the warmth of her golden radiance. “There is nothing quite like the glow of a level 60 holy elemental to get a suntan going,” he remarked.

The dungeon keeper went on to pound his chest in a primal taunt. “Come on, let’s finish what they started!”