Chapter 040: Confronting the Mist

As I was afraid of, this truly was a maze. An insane labyrinth of utility corridors and rooms, completely covered with growths, with an air that was barely transparent at all (everything was red) and extremely toxic.

It was also, of course, inhabited by daemons and husks. And a shitload of them. Bloodeaters were almost everpresent, their size being enough to block the corridors and force us to deal with them rather than simply run by and buy some time.

Then we had an Infected. A former person infected by the Bloodletter Plague in a different way, changed into a blistered, growth and cyst covered guardian of the domain of the Deity of Blood. Crowd-like Iron V mobs, quite fast and generally a bother.

Their even more irritating version was the Degenerated Infected. An Iron IX immobile mob, a former body of a mortal degenerated into an overgrown cyst, that detonated in a cloud of toxic mist, so concentrated that it actually caused physical damage on contact with skin. They detonated automatically when an enemy got too close. We had Syna blow them up at safe distance.

Another mob, this time a daemon and not a husk, was Blooddrinker. Silver I melee combat-oriented being that looked like a stickman made of blood and cysts, that could both detonate said cyst in your face and grab you to drink your blood out of some sucker-like appendage on its face. Thankfully it was rare.

That was all. No Red Crawlers, a species of fleshy bug-like daemons that swarmed upon the intruders trying to overwhelm them with numbers and the ability to inject the concentrated Bloodletter Plague serum that could convert you into an Infected with enough bites. No Biters, an empowered Infected that could make many meters long jump and could bite you with their mutated teeths, injecting you with more of said serum.

No Wallhuggers, massive cysts created from a liquified bodies, that grew on walls and could not only explode but also spray you with toxic blood. No Bloodlords, a Unique brood of powerful daemons that could summon the weaker ones indefinitely. No Palelords, a rather freakish Uniques known for their penchant to partywipe everyone that encountered them.

I knew them only from stories since I never visited the Valley of Ashes, despite its importance to the Imperium. Only its best adventurers were sent there, partially because of importance and partially because it was considered one of the deadliest places in the world… and Red Forest was one of its deadliest parts. Getting there also required being on good relations with Imperium. And before my betrayal of Glorastia I… well, I was kinda on its kill-on-sight list.

Not like I really wanted to see them, though. But the deeper we went, the more I was persuaded that this wasn’t a ‘real’ Bloodletter Plague. It was massively scaled down version. Weird. I couldn’t picture the DFI making a scaled down versions of anything.

I could smell something fishy going on. Despite wearing gasmask.

***

We managed to traverse three or four hundred meters through the nightmarous maze, slaying dozens of Bloodeaters (the battlefield was a mobile one so we could slay them without risking problems with the Blood Level), before we found the next member of the Kovacs group.

Senata Avhiray

Gender: Female

Species: Dark Elf

Level: 11

Class: Necromancer/Slave

Property of: Istvan Kovacs

Active Effects: Cyst

Known Spells and Techniques:

???

Something cleaved her in half around her waist. Cyst-like growths covered what remain. With her face down, there was no way to communicate. Even in a limited way, like with the last one. Wonderful.

“A slave?” Simea said while Leria and Lena were busy chopping the surviving Bloodeaters into pieces. “That’s…”

“...a dark elf.” I interrupted her. “They are weird. Seriously weird. If I what I know about Kovacs and dark elves is correct, she probably refused to be freed.”

For an added degree of lulz, Imperium actually preferred them to high elves. Much less unnecessary pride, much more capitalism. Capitalism in its ultra weird form, but Imperium was used to weird forms of economy. And was pretty content with you as long as you paid taxes and didn’t try to ruin the world or weren’t treating your population in a way suggesting that you were a dick.

On the other hand, there were some dark elven settlements beneath the Dragonspine Mountains. According to what I heard, they were actually a more decent place than Ambryxis and the rest of that fucking place. She probably hailed from there. They regularly sold surplus population that couldn’t find a place to live down there.

Being cleaved in half. Hmph. Probably Bloodeaters and their scythe-like attacks. They loved it, for some reason.

“Well, we can’t help her. Let’s continue.” More Bloodeaters crawled into the room. Uh. This place was a major pain.

***

The next members of Kovacs group we found maybe twenty minutes later. It wasn’t hard, since they were very busy arguing about something.

Our hope that we were going to be bolstered with some survivors were shortlived though. After we defeated the Blooddrinker we entered the room to see that voices belonged to two people… both of which have kinda grown into the walls. But most of their faces seemed intact.

“... Oh come on, I told you to help me! If you did, we might not have end up like that!” First head said with an angry expression.

Syntar Glarakh

PLAYER

Gender: Male

Species: Hobgoblin

Level: 8

Class: Blood Knight

Active Effects: Cyst

Known Spells and Techniques:

???

“And how was I supposed to help you, hmm?!” The other head shouted back. “Take that blow in your stead?! If you didn’t try to push forward like an idiot, the both of us would be alive and well!”

Velatai Khar-Vilati

Gender: Female

Species: Cat-morph Beastman

Level: 7

Class: Daggerer

Active Effects: Cyst

Known Spells and Techniques:

???

That one looked like exact opposite of Syna in terms of her morph. Each time a beastman was born, a dice was thrown. Sometimes the morph settled deep, sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes you ended up a catgirl/boy (like Syna), sometimes you were practically a humanoid cat. With few internal changes that allowed you (or, rarely, not) to speak.

Velatai seriously looked like a furry wet dream. Ugh.

“What?! You…” The hobgoblin noticed that we were there.

“Don’t interrupt your little lover’s quarrel, we are only passing by.” Vaera decided to sneak in a comment.

“Adventurers?! Here?” Cat tried to look at us better but it was hard to move her head with the growths surrounding it tightly. “How?!” I waved the localization device in front of me. “Oh.”

A Bloodeater tried to crawl inside the room but I simply fired a Destroyer Lance. The end of existence was a rather bloody one.

“A single hit kill? Really?” Hobgoblin sighed. “And we kept having troubles with them. They actually killed us! Who are you people?!”

“The good guys. We would help you, but… well, we don’t really know how. But you should be freed if we manage to solve this little Adventure, so... “ I shrugged. “How long ago you got caught?”

“No idea.” Hobgoblin answered. “Maybe a day ago?”

“Half.” Cat added.

“A day at the very least! Half?! Preposterous.” Hobgoblin answered her immediately.

Eh. Seriously, get a room people. Though at least these two seemed like their morale was still high.

We just walked away. While they started bickering again. Looks like we were catching up to Kovacs. Let’s just hope that he found the cult headquarters before dying. I’m not sure we are in the shape for trying to find a way through that damn maze. God only knows why Kovacs group seemed to go in such a straight wa…

… I’m an idiot sometimes. I can just ask these two blockheads we just passed by, right?

***

It turned out that Kovacs had a rather brilliant idea. He had another localization device. After they defeated a cultist squad guarding the way through Theta, they sneaked a small crystal into the pocket of the one cultist they took prisoner. Then they allowed him to escape... and followed him through the maze.

Simple. Smart. Effective. They really seem like crafty guys. Despite these two having… uhm… behavioural problems.

Alright, seriously, I’m tired of using almost no magic and just following Leria, Lena and Simea. Let’s find Kovacs already.

***

The first sign that we were close to inhabited parts of the tunnels was that the general level of bloodness and fleshness suddenly dropped.

It looks like the cult doesn’t like having too much of this stuff on his backyard. Despite trying to spread this as wide as possible. Hypocritical bastards.

We finally encountered a closed door that were completely free of growths. According to the device, Kovacs was merely twenty meters in front of us.

“I guess it’s the place.” I said. “He is right behind the door.”

“The chances for it to be the end of the quest?” Simea asked. “I mean, it would be nice to actually finish something.”

“That’s right, I’m tired of ‘your princess is in another castle’ moments.” Lena added.

...now that I think about it, she is right. Until that moment we kept trying to achieve something… but we struggled with trying to survive. How rare it was to see a goddamn “Quest Finished” information?! I WANT TO FINISH SOMETHING. I want to put something behind me. I want to feel accomplished for once!

“Seriously, Simea? That’s your problem? Not finishing?” Vaera suddenly interrupted my thoughts. “Just tell him to move faster and try to keep at it for longer and…” …

“Vaera, I forbid you from talking until the end of this Adventure.” I said. “Otherwise I’ll have Leria spank you with her sword.” Leria nodded, even if she wasn’t really going to do this.

“Really?! How awesome, I can’t wait to get spanked with your big, tough…” Oh for God’s sake...

I decided to interrupt Vaera by opening the door. Seriously. Everything was better than this. I have no idea where he got his irritating wittiness, but…

***

We entered a large room. In a typical, steampunkish design of the Decemvirate. Soon we discovered that the door we went through lead to the sort of footbridge that surrounded the room. Most of it was a lower level than we.

“So, you came finally.” A loud, female voice. Coming from the level below. So much about stealth. I came forward and look behind the handrail.

Red Mist

Category: Eldritch/Pentagram

Type: Mortal

Threat Grade: Gold I

An insane, depraved magician that leads local part of the Baptism of Blood cult. A loyal vassal of the Red King, ready to do anything to unleash the Bloodletter and the Deity of Blood upon the world.

She stood there, surrounded by seven Pentagram Warriors and two Pentagram Sorcerers. Tall desert elf, with a long black hair. She was quite pretty (if one excluded the slightly dry looking skin, so typical for desert elves). She wore quite simple black robe. Although it was tailored so that her shapes were well visible, plus her cleavage was quite… open.

Gold I. Plus a lot of Iron VII. She should be enough to murder us alone. We were so screwed… that it actually looked weird. Adventures showed up only when it was possible to finish them. Besides, her threat grade was far above the difficulty level of the Adventure… that surprisingly corresponded with the threat grade of the Bloodlust.

“Yes, it took as a while. That crazy nymph was a pain.” I responded. Let’s buy ourselves some time. I need to figure it out. “You might need a new gatekeeper.”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem. I’m sure that I can summon her again. After we finish our little… meeting.” She smiled, in an obviously mocking way.

Looks like you really like to talk, aren’t you? Well, I’m not going to complain. She was probably trying to probe us, to find out exactly how strong we were before leaping into the battle.

She also seemed quite feared. The rest of the cultists didn’t even move. Much less opened their mouth.

The rest of the Kovacs group was there as well. A level eight orc Warforged, with his head cleaved in half. Level nine metal drakon Metallist, decapitated. And level 12 incubus Hexer, Kovacs himself, that seemed to have suffer the same fate as the dark elf we met earlier. Sliced in half. All of them players.

They weren’t turned into Cysts. Probably because the cult suppressed the spread of the disease in its headquarters. Instead they seemed to be unconscious. Perhaps in coma… no, the first two were off due to wounds, while Kovacs himself…

Interesting. Potentially useful.

“Meeting… I guess you could call it that way. So, what’s the story? Let me guess, an imperial magician… gone wrong… becoming a sidekick of Red King. But the one thing I can’t understand, is how you pulled the Bloodletter Plague here. And why are you so low grade compared to the Baptism of Blood I knew.”

That surprised her. We weren’t supposed to know any of the names I mentioned.

“Indeed. Once again an imperial magician discovers better and more interesting way that blind obedience to the Imperial Magic Guild.” She answered, but much more cautious than earlier. “Who sent you? Imperial Inquisition? Imperial Magic Guild? Obviously not Ambryxis, his lackeys are still busy attacking the wrong place.”

Huh, like I’m going to tell you anything.

Syna picked my attention by weakly jabing my side with her rifle. Then she showed me a writing on her blackboard.

CRYSTAL. What does she… oh.

There was a crimson red crystal on a small postument right behind the group. After I appraised it… oh. Ohhh.

It was a relay. A massive relay, a shard of Bloodletter’s powers enchanted into a crystal. It was the source of infection - it allowed this disease to operate in the area by linking it to the Red Forest, on the other side of the world. They brought it here, and then unleashed the plague near the relay.

If we managed to destroy it…

“Hey, let us have some secrets!” I laughed loudly while Syna communicated the plan to others, using the handrail to cover up what she was doing. “They make the world interesting.”

“I see.” She answered, her calm restored. “We will learn the truth eventually. Probably after we take some of your prisoner. The former group… killing them was no fun.”

“Well, I hope we will turn out better than th…” I make a sign. The hell is unleashed.

Syna had a single specialized, anti-shield bullet - that she used to fire against the crystal. It was shielded, obviously. But the bullet (a rare sight and something the Red Mist couldn’t prepare against) hit it and exploded, spreading bits of antegnite, an anti-magic metal, immediately breaking the shield and preventing its recast for a while.

Leria and Lena jumped over the handrail and leaped upon the cultists. Simea diseappeared. Me and Vaera fired our strongest offensive spells at the crystal.

No use. We might have broken its magical defenses that the cultists installed, but the Red Mist herself was too fast. Before our magic hit or Syna reloaded, her magic shield already expanded to defend the crystal. Shit. It spread around the shield-denied place, making it much weaker than it should, though.

“KILL THEM ALL!” Red Mist screamed. Uh oh, looks like someone understood that we knew her weakpoint.

Leria and Lena immediately changed into living chainsaws. Especially the Chosen One. The cultists were her natural prey. She kept Holy Smiting them, quickly shattering whatever remained of their courage.

Only fear about the Red Mist’s retribution for cowardice remained. But their numbers kept falling down steadily.

Red Mist started weaving a hex. Quite powerful one. I hit her with Depraved Promise which slowed her down but didn’t interrupt her. Oh, yes, she was into ‘breaking the pretty ones’, we were obviously not compatible… ugh.

Her hex hit and instakilled Vaera. It was something from Death Magic. He simply went pale and fell on the ground.

Wonderful. I responded with an Ominous Chant immediately followed by strengthened Destroyer Lance. It shook her up, but her shield held. Uh.

She redirected her attention from me to Leria. Seemed like she was slaughtering her minions too fast for Red Mist’s taste.

She fired some strengthened, multiplied version of a Bolt-like hex, of Blood Magic nature. Dozens of projectiles, all of them targeted at Leria. She survived it almost undamaged, though, due to a combination of agility and the aura armour. Her recent progress in aura cultivation was helpful as well.

She responded by Fervent Accusation. Oh boy, that must have hurt. On the other hand, the Red Mist was perverted by the Corruption so much that she was rendered partially immune, so she recuperated quite quickly.

In the meantime I finished defeating the second Sorcerer. They were quite good and would probably roast me if they fight me both at once, but the enemy wasn’t exactly good at the cooperation part. Destroyer Bolt eviscerated him in a rather gruesome way.

Red Mist was running out of minions. But if we don’t manage to destroy the crystal…

She fired another hex. Something lance-like, but obviously much stronger. Lena died, her defenses broken and her chest impaled.

Sigh. Just fucking sigh.

I fired two Havoc Bolts at Red Mist. But failed to take down her shield. Maybe with Vaera and Syna…

The next one to die was Syna. Another hex of Blood Magic. A rain of blood, that exploded on contact. Seemed like Red Mist identified her as an agile type and decided to attack her in a way that made dodging it unlikely.

Simea showed up, attacking Red Mist with a garrotte. Bad move. She did manage to seal her magic for a while, but the magician used some sort of skin-reinforcement magic. Simea failed to strangle her and after a while was pushed back and killed with another hex.

Seriously, it was like killing flies for her.

On the other hand, her last minion was decapitated by Leria’s Holy Smite. So the massacre went both ways.

So, it’s either the desperate plan B that seems to slowly unveil in the background of this battle… or we all die, resurrect for the last time, and try to take her down when she is alone from the start. Extremely unlikely to succeed, though.

Leria died next. She held for a while though, buying the precious time. But after several hexes her defenses finally broke and she was impaled by a lance-form hex. She failed to reach Red Mist before that happened, as each time she tried to storm the magician, she used a dedicated hexes to push her back.

So, I’m on my own now.

“I surrender!” I shouted and raised my hands. This surprised Red Mist to the point that she stopped attacking.

“You what?” She looked shocked. I guess people that knew who she was rarely surrendered. It was obviously going to be painful.

“I surrender. I don’t want to die, and it’s quite obvious that I’m not going to survive if we keep fighting. You are much stronger than we thought.” Come one, just a bit more.

“That’s…” She was obviously shocked to the core. By my surrender, by the lack of sadness, shock and anguish despite my comrade’s deaths? Who knows, at least it works.

Seriously, just keep being focused on me. Don’t turn your head back.

“What are you plotting?” Uh oh, she finally decided that something was fishy.

Too late, Pentagram whore.

“Oh, nothing really important. Just making sure you won’t look at the crystal until it’s too late… and it’s too late right now.” I smiled. She turned back immediately… to see Kovacs stabbing the crystal with his dagger.

After the battle started he stopped pretending to be unconscious and crawled towards the crystal. Sure, he was cleaved in half, but the infection dulled his senses and stopped him from bleeding out - after all he was already more or less dead.

“NOOOOO!!!” Red Mist screamed and tried to fire a hex at Kovacs. Too late. The crystal broke and the sudden explosion of magic power swallowed everything in the room. I almost died, but I was far enough for my defenses to hold just barely.

Quest Finished!

Type: Adventure

Name: The Red Mist

Difficulty: Silver V

You have succeeded (despite high casualties) in foiling the plot of the Baptism of Blood.

They attempted to free the Bloodletter and Deity of Blood by transfering the infection outside of the anomaly where it was successfully contained by the Imperium. If they succeeded, the infection would slowly grow, sooner or later achieving its old level of virulence.

You managed to destroy the magical crystal that served as a transfer point for the disease to enter the Sewers, before it managed to fully stabilize itself and become true in every sense of the word. With it, its anchor in Reality is broken and it should quickly evaporate.

Rewards:

???