The man in front of Colin just stood there smiling as he finished proclaiming to him that he knew exactly who he was. If it wasn’t for the fact that the man was undoubtedly many times stronger than him, he imagined that he would be drawing his Mythic Xiphos and trying to cut the man in two. Also, Nox had vanished the second the stranger had started talking to him outside the window. What could make a level one hundred and seven Goblin hide?

“Oh come now, Nox. I know you are here somewhere,” the man sniffed the air. He turned around and took in another strong pull, “I can smell your magic in the air. You’re close,” he said with perfect certainty.

Seconds turned to a minute before the man sighed and turned back to face Colin. His smile settled to something calmer and relaxed as he looked onto the face of the Antagonist. He just kept watching Colin for long seconds as the target of his attention considered trying to cut him anyway.

Gritting his teeth, Colin growled as he repeated himself, “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

“Oh, I apologize for my rudeness,” he said, then moving into a real bow. “I am Loki, son of Farbauti and Laufey. God of Mischief, Chaos, and guile.” The now proclaimed Loki stood out of the bow and coughed into his fist, “I am here to discuss business with a colleague, and hopefully, chat with a rather quiet Gob-”

A vial of dark fluid was hurled out of the shadows, impacting Loki in the back of the head. A second later, every shadow in the room extended out into hardened spears and impacted the god. The attacks pushed into him, but none seemed able to pierce his flesh.

Then another vial impacted the man, and every one of those shadows was set ablaze with sapphire flames. The flames latched onto the deity and started trying to burn him, but still, nothing happened.

Finally, Nox stepped out of one of the shadows in the room and held a small stoppered bottle in his hands. He removed it and threw the contents, a powdered mix of some sort, onto the shadow and flames.

Much to the man’s surprise, something did happen. The shadow and fire merged into each other and burst apart into shards of hardened darkness. Each flowed about the god before moving towards him as if he were the center of gravity in the room. One touched the unprotected skin of his neck, and it sizzled and burned as the god flinched in pain.

“Nox, I suggest you stop before I have to do something unpleasant,” Loki said. His words a snarl as another piece of darkness touched his clothes shoulder and burned through it.

The Goblin ignored him and pointed at the god, “Forsaker! Die amongst the black flames of your daughter’s realms!” Nox yelled, and the shards halted their midair movement. The floating specks then started moving towards him directly. The entire scene looked like black metallic needles moving towards Loki in slow motion. Nox was smiling with a grin manic enough that Colin knew he’d been planning this since before his first death.

The god let the shadow shards move towards him for long seconds, seemingly to give the Goblin a chance to shut it down. When he didn’t, Loki’s demeanor changed. His lips peeled back into a snarl, and the top half of his face seemed to melt away. Skin slipped away, muscle liquified, and eyes scorched as he raised his arms.

Suddenly, each fragment of darkness froze in place and seemed to be overlapped by an inverted image of each individual piece. The god looked at the enraged Goblin and dropped his hands to the ground. The shadows under his sway fell to the ground with metallic TINKS before evaporating like water in a skillet.

Nox drew his dagger from inside his coat and twisted the pommel of the weapon. The handle extended into a spear shaft made of black iron and obsidian blade with the hiss of metal sliding against metal. As Colin watched, the black of the weapon stretched off the handle and slipped over his green skin.

Nox leaped backward towards the wall and bent down in preparation for a pouncing thrust. The spearhead seemed to draw in the darkness as Nox prepared to attack. All the while, Loki was dropping into a low stance, arranging himself to meet the small Goblin’s charge. If looks could be trusted, the god had no weapons to defend himself with.

Suddenly, all three men jumped when the unexpected happened.

BANG!BANG!BANG!

Someone was banging on the front door of the rented tavern room, very angrily, Colin noted. When no one responded to the banging, the person repeated the exercise and yelled this time. “What’s all that racket?! Open this door or I will!”

Without waiting, Colin could hear the man jiggling her keys as she fit one into the lock. Colin leaped for the door to try and stop it from opening and seeing the beings with him, only to catch the knob as it opened.

Figuring, if he was going to be kicked out, he was going to be cute about it. “Yes?” he asked innocently. “What’s the problem?”

The man, who Colin recognized as Harrison, the Manager, pushed his way into the room and looked around. Neither the Goblin nor the god was present for the Manager’s inspection of the room. He turned to look at Colin with annoyance painted on his face, “what in the hell is going on here? We have been getting complaints from everyone in the building. All of them are pointing their fingers in this direction. So, where’s the war?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you are talking about, sir. As you can see, everything is fine,” Colin said, gesturing around the room. His smile became genuine when he saw all the bits and pieces that Nox had taken were missing as well. Harrison stepped inside the room, inspecting it from the middle of the room to make sure no funny business was going on.

He’d seen a lot in his years owning and running this inn. Many were things that he didn’t think many would believe if he told it to them. This fact made him wary of people who acted both too innocent AND somehow had the sound of a blood feud raging in their room.

He scrutinized the man’s face for long seconds before grumbling. His eyes glared at the young man in warning for a moment before poking his index finger into Colin’s chest. “This is your only warning, Walker. I run a good tavern and do not want to see it come to harm by some two-bit Bard. If I hear another racket or hear about one, your ass will be out that window,” he jerked his thumb at the open window, “so fast that Anaheim herself won’t find you. Got it?”

As much as Colin did not like people jabbing at him with their finger, but he bit back his annoyance. “Don’t you worry, I got it,” Colin told him quickly, hands in the air defensively.

The Manager grumbled unintelligibly, turned, and left the room.

Colin closed the door behind the man, and a shimmer of light just behind the bed grabbed his attention. Loki, back to all his regular mouth scarred glory, appeared and smiled at the Antagonist. Before he could say a word, Nox stepped out of a shadow and pointed his spear at the god.

“You motherfucking forsaker!” Nox spat out, carefully watching his volume. “Why are you here? Answer quickly, or this entire city will bear the brunt of my wrath.”

“I’m here to see both of you, truthfully,” Loki answered.

“DevilWalker, I would recommend that you send this god packing. His words are truthful, but the meaning is never what you expect. He finds joy in mayhem, glee in murder, and is the happiest when he is surrounded by the chaos he creates.”

“Flirt,” Loki said.

Nox ignored him and continued, “trust me. My goddess hates him, all his children do, and for a good reason. Give him. The boot.” Then the Goblin’s scowl turned into a vicious smile, “Or we could say fuck all to the city and let me see what else I could do to him.”

“Look,” Loki jumped in before Colin could answer either. “How about you hear me out before kicking me out. I did spend weeks trying to find you, and I will have to alleviate some frustration with some poor unfortunate city. I know one or two that could do from a draconic purging. I’ve also heard Heartcraftian horrors are all the rage to outworlders.”

Taking a deep breath, Colin internally raged at the threat to a city’s worth of uninvolved people. If the god went after him, he could understand it and would have a hard time hating someone for personal vendettas. Hell, he had several of those himself right now. But a whole city?

“Speak your piece,” Colin said, his tone level. The Goblin held his gaze on the god, not moving his weapon’s point away from his chest.

“Let’s start with you, Nox Lightsnuffer. First, congratulations on the resurrection. Not an easy thing to accomplish, whether on purpose or on accident. That’s actually how I found you, Nox. I intercepted a prompt that reached her current hero, and you too, I assume. I used the prompt to track you. Horrible timing on her part, by the way. She’s only had four heroes in over a thousand years, and you were her first. Does that make you jealous?” Loki asked, putting both hands into his pockets and speaking as if it were a juicy bit of gossip.

“Get on with it,” Colin growled.

“Yes, anyway. I was hoping that you might help me get in on my daughter’s good graces. She did rather like you as her hero, and you’re not nearly as much as a raging dick as her current hero. Annoying little thing, always going on and on about pastries of all things. Anyway, that’s it. I want to get my daughter’s affection back, and I was hoping you would help me?” Loki finished, waiting expectantly for the Goblin to respond.

Nox just stood there, flabbergasted, as he processed the god’s request through the piles of jibber-jabber. When he spoke again, it was whimsical but also seemed to hold oceans of rage beneath it. “Do the words, ‘no’ or ‘never’ work for you. Oh, how about you go to the Hell with two L’s. Because I am not interested.”

“Oh, I can tell you why you lost your ‘Hero of Hallowed Shadow’ title,” he said leadingly.

“Don’t care, I will find out when we see her eventually,” Nox answered.

Loki eyed the Goblin as if looking for an invisible cue that Nox may have been projecting. A moment later, he shrugged and looked at Colin. “As for you, DevilWalker, wasn’t it? I come here to take a side.”

That was the moment that Loki decided to wait for Colin to say something, while Colin gave the god a chance to continue. Seconds passed before Colin just asked, “what side?”

“Things are moving in the world, DevilWalker. Ancient, volatile, and dangerous things are moving about, and sides will be chosen eventually. Some will either choose you, the Antagonist, or the currently unknown hero. Everything is put in the hero’s favor in stories, and I suspect that here, the case will be the same. But personally, though, I want to see one such as yourself succeed. How does this sound so far?” Loki asked, his eyes telling of both madness and mischievousness.

Colin shrugged, “no idea. You’ve danced around what this means for me.”

“What this means for you, young Antagonist is that I can provide a little info now and more support later on. This world has so many rules that-” Loki stopped, a clap of thunder from outside made him flinch and stare into space.

“Does everyone look unfocused when they get a prompt?” Colin asked Nox.

“Yeah, but it’s not a big deal. Just a side effect of the world system,” Nox remarked, shrugging. “No one really cares, just pay it no mind.”

The god blinked and focused back at Colin, “sorry about that. I will just say that until you are stronger and get certain… abilities, titles, or achievements, I cannot help you a lot unless you fulfill a bargain or quest. I will not ask one of you, I am just informing you of the fact.”

“So, what can you do then?”

“That all depends, DevilWalker. Will you let me side with you when the time comes?” Loki asked, extending a hand for Colin to take.

Instead, Colin took a step away. “I may not know a lot about myth and legend, Loki, but I know that I trust Nox and my wife. She always said that you were rarely up to doing acts of benevolence. So, what do you get out of it?” Colin asked, then quickly added, “and answer that in two sentences or less.”

Loki groaned and paused to gather his thoughts, “Amnesty. I want immunity from all possible future endeavors.”

Scowling, Colin asked, “why does that matter?”

“Oh, young Antagonist, you’ll find out eventually. For now, all I was hoping for was a Non-aggression pact. You leave me alone, and I leave you alone. Eventually, maybe we can be friends,” Loki said, his smile grotesque with the torn lips.

“No,” Colin said, hoping he didn’t just trigger a god’s wrath.

“May I ask why not? I thought it was a fair deal,” Loki stated, his smile turned upside.

Colin looked right at Loki’s face, “You are known for being deceptive, sneaky, and an overall asshole. I’m sure you’d find a way around our deal to cause trouble for me if you wanted, so no deal. I want to be able to hit you if I find out you are involved with something,” he told the god.

“Well, I can’t argue with press releases that are over a thousand years old. It always makes one come across as petty. All I can do is tell you that I am sincere in wanting to be on your side when things get really moving. May I, as an act of goodwill, offer you one small bit of knowledge that I learned from your predecessor?”

“Wait, you met Demon Lord Ari?” Colin asked, curious.

Loki’s grin widened, “oh yes, quite a chaotic creature she was. She was a fantastic demon lord with an ass that-”

“Just stop there,” Colin said, not really caring about that detail. “Just finished your business, I was in the middle of stuff.”

“I live to interrupt the usual,” Loki smirked. “My info is more like a recommendation. I would recommend you get to level fifteen quickly and get your next Antagonist ability. You will know it when you see it, but I suggest you work towards it. Trust me, It will be useful,” the god informed him.

“That’s it,” Colin asked, “All that to recommend, I level up faster.”

“Well, yes,” Loki answered, shrugging. “With that, I will leave you my card, then leave you be.”

With a magician’s flourish, Loki stuck his hand out to the side and flicked a small green and gold-colored playing card into his hand. He displayed it for Colin to see and handed it to him.

You do not have a high enough Knowledge: Lore skill to identify this item.

“What does it do?” Colin asked.

“Simply charge it with your mana, and I will come towards it. Use it when you want to take me up on my offer,” Loki said, perfect assurance in the fact.

Colin pocketed the item and waited a moment for Loki to do something. “And with that, I bid you farewell. Good luck in your endeavors, gentlemen.”

There was a bright flash of light, and Colin fell to the floor, covering his pained eyes. It lasted only a moment, but the effects lasted for long seconds, and when he looked, Loki was gone. Vanished in a burst of light.

Nox immediately withdrew a small marble and tossed it to the ground. It shattered, and a black mist filled the room, quickly filling it but not hampering Colin’s breathing. Moments later, the cloud exited the room, and Nox looked relieved.

The Goblin let out his breath and took out the bottle of inky black liquor that he’d acquired from the Outworlder guild Nightmare Asylum. He took a swig and replaced the cork before looking up at Colin, “he’s gone.”

Colin just folded his arms and stared at Nox, waiting for an explanation.

Nox snorted, “I guess you wish to know what that was all about, right?”

“You did attack a god, Nox. I am curious as to why.”

“The why is the simple part actually. Anyone who loves any of that god’s children hates him. When Odin cast them out, Loki abandoned them all to their fates and did nothing to alleviate their suffering. My goddess, Hel, was left unable to properly heal herself after her horrible descent into Niflheim. Once in the empty halls there, she was named by Odin to be the goddess of the realm. The realm of the unchosen dead, it cursed her torment and made it worse. Making her injuries more unto the flesh of a withered corpse. And that god did not even deign to visit,” Nox told him. Then, he realized that his explanation had turned into more of a history lesson and took a moment to breathe and reorganize his thoughts.

“That is why I attacked him, DevilWalker,” he said. “That god cares nothing but for himself and his amusement. It will do us no good to let him side with you. With us,” Nox Amended.

“Is that why you’re with me? Because of… whatever he’s talking about?” Colin asked, hoping for his friend to have a better reason to stay with him than that.

Nox grinned, “may Hel take me if I am lying. No, I’m here to see what you become. To see what fascinating things you create. To see what havoc you wreak upon this world. To help a new friend,” Nox answered. “Satisfied?”

Colin smiled, relieved that his fears were wrong. “Yes. So, should I trust his advice? I mean, I was going to get there eventually anyway, but I was planning to focus on skill leveling for a few days,” Colin told him.

Nox shrugged, “DevilWalker, that is entirely your choice.”

Colin weighed his choices. He had plans, a lot of them, for his time while he was in the city. Of course, the main objective was returning his demonic favor so that that was one less over his head. His other plans involved using this city to grow his skills, levels, and funds. One way or another, he knew what he would do.

“I think I will just focus on enchanting tonight. Tomorrow, I will find somewhere to gain some actual experience,” Colin pronounced.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Nox agreed.

---

The next morning, Colin was standing in front of a set of large stone doors with demonic imagery carved in exquisite detail. The doors stood alone, with only a frame to hold it up in the middle of the city. It was surrounded by Outworlders from various guilds and NPC guards from the church of Anaheim, all wearing their best gear.

Apparently, this Dungeon was the reason the city of BriarThorn existed in the first place. It was one of only seven instanced dungeons in the whole world, but even it had a limit of how many groups it could hold at once. Colin had learned from one of the NPC guards that an instanced Dungeon could create copies of itself in different dimensions. This allowed many groups could go at once, each in a separate instance of the Dungeon without interfering with each other.

When Nox had learned about this Dungeon, he pushed for Colin to ask the Guard a question. “What kind of dungeon is it?”

“Low-level Demons, mostly. There are a few other creatures in there but, yeah, Demons,” the man said with a shrug. “Supposedly, there is a secret in there that no one has found yet, but, eh. It’s hard to trust what lunatics say. Am I right?”

“What do you mean?” Colin asked, interested.

The Guard snorted in derision, “Once, an old man who claimed to be a Demoniac Servator went in there. The story goes that he was in there for three weeks before walking out, barely a shell of a man. After he was nursed back to wakefulness, the Demoniac Servitor started rambling about the Grendel Demons on the fourth floor and how they protected an old place. Before he could expound on that, his hand took a nearby surgical knife and slit his own throat to the spine,” the Guard shivered at the thought. “Creepy, huh?”

Colin nodded as he absorbed that information.

The Guard continued. “The weirder thing is that there isn’t a fourth floor that has ever been found by credible sources. No paladin, priest, nor DevilSlayer has ever been a part of an expedition that has seen the fourth floor. So who’s to say, right?”

“Yeah,” Colin said. “Thanks for the info,” he flipped the Guard a Copper Bit for the story before he walked away.

“Any of that ring any bells, Nox,” Colin said as he approached the line.

“No, It must have been made after I died. Just remember, DevilWalker. Nothing in this world comes out of nowhere. If This instanced Dungeon was made, whether on accident or on purpose, there was a reason for it,” Nox told him.

“Are you sure? The Outworlders all seem to think it’s just... here. You complete it, get rewards and experience, you leave and do it again,” Colin said, remembering what he’d heard from players.

“Absolutely. If we enter, I’m sure we can learn some interesting things and get you some good experience,” Nox told him. “Maybe we can even learn how to shut it down.”

“Is that possible?”

“Indeed, it is. The only reason I would suggest doing so is if the reward for doing so outweighs the gains from the Dungeon. Trust me, Dungeon experience is worth more than almost anything,” Nox said, expressing his opinion.

Nodding to not attract the attention of the nearby Outworlder, who was staring at him, Colin approached the ticket stand and bought himself entrance into the Dungeon. He felt it was a bit expensive, three Copper Coins, cleaning him out of everything but some Copper Bits. Nox again assured him that I would be worth it, especially if he beat the boss.

And so now, Colin stood before the doors, a ticket in his hand stating that he was the sixty-seventh person to enter the Dungeon today. As he approached the doors, he noticed a veil-like film of the blackest night that did not allow any light to shine through—the shadow undulating in the wind.

The nearby Guard has asked him to wait until called, so he stood off to the side, waiting while reading the runes book.

An hour later, an exhausted-looking group left the Dungeon, and two of the party members collapsed by the door. It seemed they had held out as long as they could and had now taken the time to rest. The guards helped them up and asked where they wanted to go. The Guards smiled and helped them go right to the nearby bar.

“Number sixty-seven! You’re up!” The Guard near him bellowed.

Colin put his book away in his dimensional bag and headed over to the Guard. He showed his ticket, and after a moment of inspection, the Guard let him past.

So here he was, mere feet away from Dungeon and oddly excited and nervous about this venture. With a deep breath, Colin took a step forward and vanished from his place in BriarThorn.

A few seconds passed, and Colin walked into a castle corridor made of dark gray stone and glassy obsidian. The air smelled of sulfur and blood whale guttural speech both high pitched and low reached his ears. The hall before him was void of doors, but windows of dark tinted glass could be seen.

You have entered the Instanced Dungeon, ‘Zagan’s Besieged Fortress.’

“I guess we’re here,” Colin said, astounded by the area he found himself in. He found himself walking forward and approaching one of the windows. Outside, he could see that the hall he was walking in was actually an enclosed bridge of sorts, inside an underground cavern with a pool of magma underneath him.

“Holy shit,” Colin breathed, looking up from the pool and towards where the bridge led. A small fort with jagged spikes of yellow and black crystals spread out throughout the building. Most surprising of all was the skeletal body of what had to be a colossal dragon, impaled upon the biggest shard of them all. The sheer size of it made Colin stare in wonder, it’s rib cage alone had to be big enough to house a football field and the stands easily, yet the spike held it up in the air with no signs of weakness.

“I cannot agree more,” Nox agreed, holding himself up to the window frame and observing the scene with awe himself.

This was not what he was expecting when he came in here, and it made his fascination with this world he was now stuck in even more intense than before. Then that thought bled into one that he’d been trying his best to avoid thinking of, McKenna.

Knowing her, if she knew he was stuck in the game, she was probably looking for him or her way here. Honestly, he could leave earth behind and live here forever if she was at his side. This was assuming he survived their initial meeting, where she was sure to attack him on sight for the audacity of leaving her. It really didn’t matter if it was on accident or on purpose, she still beat him black and blue before allowing him to explain.

That thought made him smile, not for the beating, but for the chance that he’d meet her soon. But he had no idea whether or not she was coming, so the best option was still, to work towards getting out of the game.

With that goal in mind, Colin stepped away from the window and drew his Mythic Xiphos. “Nox.”

“DevilWalker,” he said, letting go of the window frame and conjuring his usual ink-black walking stick out of the shadows within his coat.

“Let me fight alone unless it looks like I am going to die, alright?” Colin said, determination helping his pulse keep steady as he drew on of his newly enchanted throwing knives. He checked the enchantment and nodded after confirming that it was one of his lesser chill knives.

“Of course,” Nox said, his stance easy as he watched Colin turn to face the tunnel ahead of him.