The Destroying Plague Page 23

  …

  Hidden status: L-class Threat with potential A.

  Hidden status: Initial of the Sleeping Gods.

  Hidden status: Legate of the Destroying Plague.

  I still had my class and Threat potential. The initial title was showing up, and that gave me hope that Behemoth would return. Without the Sleeping Gods, but with the Destroying Plague, my potential was only L — it had gone up to the maximum only when I became the initial of the Sleeping Gods.

  I stopped and listened again, trying to catch at least some sort of sign from Behemoth. Nothing at all.

  Behind the pyramid of slabs upon which once stood his temple, I found the place of my death. The earth there was like ash turned to mud after a downpour and then dried out under the rays of the southern sun. And there were my boots, stuck in the mud. None of the undead had given them a second glance. I picked them up and put them on.

  I saw a pack of Bone Hounds further down the street, right next to the tavern. After my conversation with Rita, I’d contacted Manny and suggested we meet there. The brigadier answered that he’d already died twice to the dead that day, so he could only log into Dis tomorrow. By then I should be able to figure out what awaits me in the game and what we could now do with the clan and the workers. We settled on that.

  High-level skeletons and zombies roamed the streets without purpose. The mobs’ yellow names showed that they were neutral to me. Something rumbled a little further out, beyond the fort gates, and I headed that way. The undead paid me no attention whatsoever, as if I’d become one of them. Although that was true, I guess.

  I don’t know why the lich Shazz left the fort untouched. Maybe the aura of the Sleeping Gods got in the way. He’d started building outside of it. A huge section of jungle had been cut down, about three hundred meters squared. Foul Queases were pulling trees out, squads of Bone Golems and Plague Belchers patrolled the edge of the construction site. The sheer variety of the undead made my head spin. Cadavers, Hungry Corpses, Corpse Eaters, Plague Spitters, Blood Collectors and Meat Collectors. The Destroying Plague’s army at rest. Even if we’d survived yesterday, my defeat was just a matter of time.

  Only now did I realize that the Destroying Plague was transforming the area; the soil around looked like what I’d seen at the temple, a pale gray sticky substance. An analogy flashed up in my mind: the terraforming of Mars, after which the planet would start growing plant-life, supporting water, an atmosphere; all the suitable conditions for life. Only with the undead it all happened a lot faster, and probably in the other direction.

  The cut-down lumber was being stacked up by a huge arch still under construction, apparently moulded from the ash covering the ground. I didn’t know who erected the arch. But when I looked closer, I saw some semi-transparent strings stretching out from the cut-down trees and seeping into the arch, and the green leaves lost their color, withered and fell into gray dust in the blink of an eye. The arch seemed to be steadily growing. So they used the energy of life itself as material for their magic? Or rather, of death?

  I felt a vibration under my feet. The earth trembled and began to move. Ten feet away from me, in a fountain of showering dirt, a twenty-foot long Fighter Worm shot out of the ground.

  Pale yellow and bulging like a maggot, the worm wiggled its long, rough whiskers, turning its eyeless wrinkled face toward me, then dug down again. This mob’s level was two hundred and thirty-six, the same as the other undead around. That made me think that the Destroying Plague wasn’t ready for serious resistance. One smooth raid from any top clan would crush this rotting army into molecules. And that meant that the Nucleus needed me more than I needed it. It was time to find out more details.

  Impassively pushing the skeletons aside, I headed toward Shazz. I doubted any of his dead minions could answer my questions. The lich saw me but didn’t react at all. He just kept floating in the air and giving his silent orders. Without him, everything here would probably collapse, and the brainless undead would just roam the island until Monty ate them all. Strange that I still hadn’t seen the dinosaur…

  “Life is death, Legate!” the lich extended an arm and pointed his three middle fingers at me.

  Shazz’s arm had recovered after the minotaur cut it off.

  It seemed he was expecting some sort of response from me. In contrast to the Destroying Plague emissary who once appeared in the Bubbling Flagon and gave me a quest to capture Tristad, it looked like the lich was a former human. But his face showed no sign of emotion, just a passionless mask. Having received no answer, the lich continued.

  “But there is no death in service to the Destroying Plague! Legate Scyth! You have been given the honor of becoming a Nucleus Speaker. Follow me.

  A window with a quest popped up:

  Call of the Nucleus

  The Cursed Lich Shazz wants to take you to the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague. Follow him.

  Rewards:

  — +10 reputation with Destroying Plague faction

  — +5 reputation with Cursed Lich Shazz

  — next quest in the Invasion of the Destroying Plague divine quest chain

  The quest was accepted automatically. With no doubt that I would follow him without objection, Shazz floated through the air toward the mine. I walked after him, still looking around, and once we reached the untouched forest, I saw that the zombies and beasts had stopped working. The queases dropped their cut-down trees and the zombies wandered after us, occasionally moaning and howling. The skeletons meandered after them, their bones clacking. The undead, whose intellect exceeded that of the living dead, quickly lost interest in us: the hounds started fighting amongst themselves, the golems collapsed into dust.

  The lich stopped. Gazing toward the construction site, he hissed something, raised a hand and clenched it in a fist. A trio of Howling Banshee Lieutenants appeared around him. They looked nightmarish, with empty eye sockets, jaws full of fangs hanging low, and holes in their faces instead of noses. Their tangled long hair gave the creatures a caricatured similarity with human women, but the impression disappeared as soon as you looked at their bodies and limbs: their whip-like arms hung lower than their legs, which had knees that pointed backwards.

  Shazz gave them a silent order and the banshees floated toward various parts of the construction site. An earsplitting shriek filled the area. The dead arranged themselves into a line and returned to their patrolling. The queases collected their dropped wood and dragged it to the strange vampiric arch. The piles of bones that had been the golems turned back into full-fledged mobs.

  This was final proof that without the lich, this entire army was meaningless. Satisfied that order was restored, Shazz turned and opened his mouth.

  “Follow me, Legate,” he repeated and continued.

  “Aren’t you afraid for your minions, lich?” I asked as I pushed my way through the undergrowth. “There’s a huge dinosaur that roams this island. You must remember it! It ate your friend, the other lich.”

  Shazz froze and slowly turned his head toward me. This looked pretty creepy considering his body stayed in the same spot and his skull turned a full hundred and eighty degrees on his neck. Some spark of emotion finally appeared in his eyes — interest.

  “You are strong. Your will is mighty, Legate. Now I understand the decision of the Nucleus.”

  “So what about the dinosaur that ate your friend?”

  “There are no friends in the Destroying Plague. Dersh is dead, but his death strengthened the other Legates. Koshch and I.”

  “Koshch… That’s the one we tore to pieces, right? How does that work with your “no death in service to the Destroying Plague” thing?

  “Dersh and Koshch lost their earthly forms, and their consciousnesses have gone to rest in the embrace of the Destroying Plague. When the time comes, they shall return. All shall return,” he said, his tone matter-of-fact as if he was talking about the fact that he was a lich and I was Scyth. No excess fanaticism. He was just stating a fact. �
��As for the dinosaur, the beast-god’s animal instincts are too strong. It felt the presence of the Nucleus and went to ground. It will not be a problem. When the time comes, it will join our ranks.”

  The Montosaurus avoided the ancient place of power where we’d built the temple of the Sleeping Gods. It might be the same thing with the Destroying Plague. Since the lich was answering my questions, I decided to press further.

  “Where is the Nucleus? And what is it?

  The lich measured me up with his eyes.

  “Follow me, Legate.”

  Pushing through the bushes — Shazz used his ability to move without touching the ground and swam straight through — I suddenly felt the presence of the Sleeping God, then heard his weak voice.

  I have cordoned off your mind, Initial. Do not let them suspect that you are free. The mark of the parasite is supposed to wipe away your will and force you to fulfil their commands unquestioningly.

  “What do I do, Behemoth?”

  Collect information. Learn their plans. Think of… The voice faded with each word until it disappeared entirely.

  I knew that Behemoth needed energy to exist in Dis, but I decided I’d have to wait until later to think of a way to help him. Right now, I just had to follow the lich. Our path was definitely leading us to the mine, which was exactly where the undead army had emerged from.

  Soon I saw proof of that. We went into the mine, walking ever deeper and deeper, until we reached the collapsed section that had now been cleared. I remembered Crawler and Bomber telling me about it. This was where that worker got bitten.

  The lich flew into the gap and I wandered after him, stretching out my arms and feeling the cave walls. I stumbled, fell and picked myself up, trying not to lose Shazz, who was giving off a barely visible ghastly glow. He ignored any attempts I made to get him to talk.

  Ahead arose a small arch like the one being built near the fort. Between the columns that joined above us, there was a weak spatial ripple. The portal that Crawler had thought an instance led to the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague.

  “Follow me,” Shazz ordered yet again, and disappeared through the veil.

  * * *

  Taking a step after him, I felt as if suspended in some kind of jelly. Time spent in the space between worlds stretched out into long seconds. I felt as if I was being checked, felt out with invisible cold tentacles, and let free only once they were sure I was one of them.

  Falling out of the portal, I found myself in a massive room. The walls and ceiling disappeared in mist. The entire surface around was covered in slime and vibrated like a living thing. Where was I? The open map showed my marker where no other player had ever set foot — in the center of the South Pole. On the continent of Holdest.

  I could no longer feel the cold now that I was undead, so I had no idea what the temperature was, but I didn’t yet have any freezing debuffs. Maybe precisely because I was undead.

  “Wait here,” the lich commanded and slowly floated forwards.

  I stayed where I was and, taking advantage of the breather, looked around. A strange body of water extended before me, filled with a bubbling matt slime, thick and viscous. At the center was an orb-shaped pulsating dark-green mass, covered in transparent veins and vessels. With each pulsating in-breath, a black liquid moved across it and erupted from the orb’s surface. It seemed this was what was forming the pool of slime around it. Darkness stretched out behind it, and it was unclear whether the cave ended there or stretched on further.

  So, this was it…

  Nucleus of the Destroying Plague

  The description showed no more information. I still didn’t know what the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague was.

  The lich returned to me and ordered me to follow him. At the edge of the plague reservoir, he grabbed me by the shoulder.

  “Stay here,” he ordered. The lich’s quiet voice seemed too loud in this grave silence. “Move any closer and you will die. Nothing and nobody can withstand close proximity with the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague.

  “What is it?” I pointed to the liquid bubbling away in front of us. “Is this the Destroying Plague?”

  “All around you is the Destroying Plague.” The lich spread his hand to indicate all the space around and pointed a hooked finger at himself. “As am I. And you. All of us are the Destroying Plague. It permeates through all here.”

  Little particles of unknown origin floated in the air, like soot or dust. I didn’t see any sources of light except the Nucleus itself, which gave off brighter illumination than the lich, but still with a deathly dullness.

  There seemed to be some soundless dialog between the Nucleus and Shazz, and then the lich left us with a couple of parting words.

  “Life is death, Legate!”

  “There is no death in service to the Destroying Plague,” I answered as he left.

  I remained alone with the Nucleus. Behemoth ordered me to pretend and gather information. That was just what I intended to do. I knelt down and greeted my new boss.

  “Greetings, ruler!”

  “I welcome you, my Legate!” a powerful and harsh voice echoed through my skull. “You cost us dearly. Two of three remaining Legates fell so that you might join the Destroying Plague…”

  “Who are the Legates? How does your hierarchy work?”

  “I am the Nucleus. Those who can speak to me are Legates. The Legates are the strongest warriors in the ranks of the Destroying Plague, and they keep their minds and will so that they might rule over the lower circles of the Destroying Plague. They were nine. Nine Cursed Liches. The Nine in Despair, who found each other. Who arose and were victorious. Those who cast aside the personal and joined into one inseparable whole.”

  “I don’t understand you, my lord. You speak of nine liches. I’ve seen only three. Four, counting the one that the beast-god on my island destroyed. Where are the others? What did they do to become Legates? And why me? Will I become a cursed lich too? But I don’t have any magic, I can’t perform necromancy, I can’t even…”

  “Enough!” the Nucleus interrupted my speech so unceremoniously that a hellish pain flared in my head. “There is much for you to learn, but your first lesson must be discipline. Speak when you are spoken to and remain silent when no answer is required. Your indolent curiosity is inefficient. You will learn more when you prove your usefulness. For now, you are not yet ready. Approach! We must begin your tuition, Legate!”

  “Um… But how? This… liquid… won’t it kill me? Shazz said that nobody can survive your presence.”

  “You waste my time…” the Nucleus said in displeasure.

  The tone and the voice sounding out in my head scratched at my brain itself. I’d disappointed the ruler! Terror gripped my body and I began to shake, but, realizing that it was a forced tremor, I quickly got a grip on myself.

  Before I could even apologize, tar-like tentacles shot from the black slime, gripped me around the torso and dragged me toward the pool. I was thrown headlong into and a soundless wheeze ripped from my chest; the slime sank into my skin, seeped into my nose and mouth, covered my eyes.

  I tried to flounder in deadly panic, but the sticky liquid was so thick that I couldn’t move so much as a finger. My life started dropping fast — something was killing me.

  “Remain calm, Legate. Leave all your fears behind. There is no death in service to the Destroying Plague. Take power!”

  I obeyed and stopped resisting. When I realized that I no longer needed to breathe, my heart stopped trying to beat its way out of my chest. The swamp of the Mire had taught me how to behave in such a situation.

  Stay calm, Alex, I thought. It’s just a game. It’s just images in your head, created by the capsule’s intra-gel as it connects to your brain. You’re undead now! You don’t even need to breathe! Sure, it’s gross and disgusting, but nether, this crap is something like a god. Behemoth called it a parasite, but he said the same about Nergal too! You must be strong. Right now, and in general in Dis.
Only then can you achieve your goal…

  I hit the bottom a few minutes later, felt it first with my shoulder blades, then with my whole body. It was hard, without silt.

  The debuff Presence of the Destroying Plague took ten percent of my health per tick. Shazz promised that this would kill me, but I wasn’t dying. Opening my profile, I saw ludicrous bonuses to health regeneration. Maybe that was from the slime I was immersed in.

  The Nucleus had stopped talking. Nothing was happening, and that brought me back to thoughts of my goal. Why was I here?

  I’d started to take Dis seriously when I realized there was no other way to fulfil my dream of space. The money for my studies was already sitting in the clan wallet — what we’d gotten for realizing the initial L potential and eliminating the Threat of Big Po. If we added the value of the items from the Treasury, the Summoning Whistle and the Arena Master’s Horn, the pile got big. Enough for all the Awoken to fully pay for their university studies and support themselves into adulthood.