Mask of Humanity

Nicolai placed his right hand into the hole in the corpse’s chest. There was something slippery in there that gripped him, made him want to pull away. He ignored the sensation and spoke.

‘I, Nicolai the human, a Marked in Heaven’s Great Game, wish to enter into an agreement with Paxolnaz, one bound by the Rules and my Mark.’

Golden light rose from his Mark to spiral around him and the corpse, forming a globe covered in strange markings.

‘Upon me returning its Heart to this being, who called itself Forgotten, who now accepts the name Paxolnaz, it will open the tunnel a few metres from this cell, which was sealed within the past week and which leads out from here. Paxolnaz will also…’

Nicolai spoke for some time. It was a lengthy contract, as he’d wanted to make his wording as clear and explicit as possible.

He finished, and Paxolnaz began.

‘I, Paxolnaz of the Endless, a prisoner in Heaven’s Great Game, wish to enter into an agreement with Nicolai, one bound by the Rules and his Mark.’

Paxolnaz continued, repeating the same words from its end, and finished with the closing statement.

Contract witnessed.

The lights faded, drawn back into Nicolai’s Mark which glittered then grew dark.

‘Good,’ Paxolnaz chuckled. ‘Now, go and fetch my Heart.’

Nicolai left the cell, and checking to the right he saw the Warden still sitting there, apparently not concerned or aware. It struck him as highly suspicious that it was sitting there, so close to the demon. Like a guard. Or was it just guarding his tunnel, just there to prevent him trying to break the stone?

So long as it stayed where it was there would be no issue. But in the event it decided to intervene, that would be trouble. What could he do? His options were frustratingly limited. He was capable, but from his last encounter with Warden’s he knew that there was little he could do against an assault from their dozens of magical chains. Perhaps he could make it move?

That seemed the best option.

Nicolai navigated the prison without issue, retrieved the Heart, and returned. On the way, he retrieved some chunks of stone. His hope was to throw them, and draw the Warden away. But when he’d climbed the stairs and stood once more on the metal balcony, he stopped.

The Warden was gone from where it had sat. He put the stones aside and approached the cell quietly and cautiously, certain that something had gone wrong, taking the Heart from its bag and holding it, pulsing and squirming in his hands.

He peered into the cell and the Warden was there, hunched up beneath the low ceiling, staring at the corpse, chains writhing around it. It turned its head and set its gaze on him and there was a spark of awareness there.

The chains surged out and before he could move they had seized him, twining around him as he struggled, one looping around his neck and pulling choking tight, dragging him into the cell. His face bulged and he gasped like a landed fish, unable to draw air as the Warden crabbed slowly towards him.

It looked confused, and he felt the Heart squirming and saw the shadows twisting around them, felt the darkness inside of him stirring with it. The Warden twitched, and he could see that it knew something was wrong but it didn’t seem to know quite what, seemed to be unable to see the Heart. It had wrapped him tight and he couldn’t move. His body flailed, seeking air but unable to draw it.

The Warden’s face worked, and it let out a dusty gasp, then a word. His Mark tingled while darkness crowded the edges of his vision.

‘What,’ it struggled, speaking in an ancient, rotted voice. ‘What are you doing.’

Nicolai gasped and squirmed, opening and closing his mouth, trying to show it he couldn’t speak because it was choking him to death.

It seemed to understand. The chains loosened and he was able to gasp a breath. He could also move his arms. It stared at him, waiting for him to speak. Instead he threw the Heart between its bent legs, and the squirming thing rolled over the stone across the cell, trundling, running out of momentum. But just as it seemed about to stop, it instead shifted oddly and hopped a little further.

The Heart came to a stop touching the corpse.

The Warden turned to stare, twitching. Confused. Afraid.

Something dark wormed out from the hole in the corpse, grasped the Heart and dragged it in. The Warden released Nicolai and he thrashed backwards out the cell as the Warden turned away, chains slicing towards the corpse.

But then the corpse was no more, ripped apart by something that emerged from it, a screaming flare of jagged darkness that boiled into the air and twisted through the chains and crashed into the Warden. The undead struggled, its body roiling and deforming as the darkness punched into and squirmed through it. Then the struggling ceased for the Warden was gone and a blast of angry black fire roared where it had stood, growing and growing until it filled the cell, screaming and howling.

Nicolai had stopped watching, too busy crawling away as fast as he could manage as he felt a bone chilling cold chasing after him, and through fast thrown glances saw the dark fire creeping around the bars, warping and twisting them.

He’d managed to get a couple of metres away and was struggling to rise to his feet when it emerged.

A figure of roiling darkness full of strange, painful shapes, wrapped in the Warden’s stolen chains, burst out from the cell. It exuded a weight that pressed on Nicolai and infected him with an animal terror, his body letting out a horrified scream as he fell, unable to do more than stare and thrash in panic.

Then the formless terror retracted slightly, and he was able to breathe and catch at the keening wail bursting from his lips, and it spoke.

‘Well done,’ hissed the black fire, looking down at him as Nicolai struggled away from it, gasping for breath, feeling at his bruised throat. It laughed and it was a laugh of madness and torment and slaughter that reached into him and squeezed. ‘You have done me a great service. Rare that I can say such about your kind.’

Nicolai kept scrabbling back and away, struggling to control the still terrified animal within him as the Demon strode out, the touch of its feet leaving craters of melting, corroding stone, while further around it everything froze, the metal of the balcony squealing.

Under his wide eyed, panicked gaze it walked through the metal railing which burned away from it and it descended to the ground below and grew, until a pillar of dark fire towered within the tunnel, the chains stretching above it. It gestured towards the recently sealed wall and its arm became a screaming fountain of boiling darkness that tore through the stone, leaving a gaping, melted hole into Nicolai’s precious tunnel.

Two dancing red eyes peered out from the cauldron of black fire that was its head and they settled onto Nicolai, who reeled dizzily away and clutched at the wall as though it could help. The Demon was every fear made reality and it was looking at him.

‘Now, as to your band, and your craving for power.’ Its voice hissed and crawled around him, silky and clinging. ‘I am sure you know of an item, a tool that will remove the band from your neck. Near that tool is a storeroom wherein you will find items; trinkets that will be valuable to you and help you attain the power you desire.’

Nicolai’s fear was faltering, just a little. Within him something sneered and cradled a spark of anger, blowing at it and watching it grow, despising the Demon for infecting him with its fear and wrenching control of his body away from him, hating its dismissive tone.

The Demon flicked a shadowy limb and oily darkness surged out and in an instant it had surrounded Nicolai, grasped him and plied at him, sunk into his flesh making him feel a wretched clinging filth all over himself. And yet still within him something was growing, drinking in the dark energy Paxolnaz wrapped him in.

‘The eyes of the slaves will slip past you,’ it spoke. ‘Go, rob and steal, and make of yourself what you will.’ It turned away.

‘That’s it?’ snarled Nicolai, shaking away the grasp of its shadows, the rage abruptly bursting and rising within him, cutting the fear to shreds, and he rose with it to grasp the metal of the railing.

‘I want more than that! Far more! I want to be unstoppable! You promised me real power, not some trinkets!’ He was screaming again, all that he had endured coming together into a tight point, the dismissive nature and contrived fear of the demon lancing it like a boil, the shadows roiling in the corner of his eyes and his body feeling light and full of energy. The pain of his injuries was forgotten, the cold just an irritating itch, his fear gone as though it had never been.

‘What?’ spoke the demon, voice booming like thunder, and the fear returned but the dark rage burned it away. ‘After I show you such kindness, you demand more? You, a soulless abomination, a unit of blight, speak to me so?’

‘I don’t care,’ Nicolai spat, his breath puffing at the freezing air, crystallising white clouds. ‘I want more.’ He sneered. ‘You might be able to do some things to me despite the Contract, but I doubt you can kill me. I will become stronger. Short me now, and I will see to it I have vengeance upon you.’

The demon was looking at the walls. Nicolai followed its gaze and saw the shadows twisting, his hallucinations at work. He snarled soundlessly at them.

‘What is this?’ The demon ran a finger of black flame over the wall, collecting the shadows which bent and squirmed. Nicolai frowned. Wasn’t all that in his head? ‘You… you are not merely a part of the blight, or at least, you need not be forever. No.’ It laughed. ‘You are a child!’ There was a smile of bloody light in the writhing black fire that was its face, and its tone had turned warm and sickeningly loving. ‘You are right.’ It chuckled. ‘I was shorting you. You deserve more, don’t you, little one?’

It boiled toward him, twisting the air, and he was surrounded by a maelstrom of freezing darkness.

There is a door. He saw it, a great door, deep within the castle, and he knew how to find it. Speak the password. He knew the password, a word that burned his mind. Inside, a spirit that refuses to fall, wielding one of my kind as a weapon. A tall figure wearing ornate armour, wielding a monstrous curving sword. He is not a fitting wielder. Go to him, and he will attempt to seize your body. Set a trap. Take his spirit. A diagram unfolded behind his eyes, a method to craft something, a list of ingredients. Take the sword. Use it well.

Its voice whispered all around him, from every angle. Sunder Heaven and break its Bubble. Let this Realm dissolve. The words repeated dozens of times, rising and falling, worming in through his ears.

Free yourself from these pitiful bonds you wrap yourself in. Join us in the Endless.

I will return to you with the location of the Lizard within thirty days to complete our deal.

By then, I hope you will have retrieved the sword, my gift to you.

Do not disappoint me.

The darkness twisted and pressed, held him tight a moment, then it pulled away.

Nicolai fell to his knees, gasping the freezing air, his lungs seizing at the shock of cold, frost gumming his lips and eyelids. His searching eyes saw only light and metal and stone and winding shadows.

The Demon was gone. His mind was empty but for the echo of its words. Sunder Heaven and break its Bubble. Nicolai staggered to his feet, trying to think. Let this Realm dissolve. The rage had drained away to leave deep unease. Join us in the Endless.

He stumbled into a cell where he felt safer, less exposed, and slumped against a wall, looking for something to distract him. What had he been thinking, screaming like a child at the demon? The balance of power had not been in his favour. It was wise not to offend something so powerful, even if the Contract precluded it from harming him.

And yet, his action had the opposite effect than he would have expected. It had sensed his rage and his madness and this had altered its view of him. It had called him a child. What did it expect him to grow into? Sunder Heaven and break its Bubble.

He snorted and shook his head, but the words remained. He slapped himself in the face, once, twice, thrice. The pain woke him. The slaps turned into punches. Nicolai grunted as his fists smashed into his face, unable to stop as he vented his fury on himself. His ears rang and he saw stars.

‘Enough!’ he screamed, spittle flying from split lips, his hands falling. He sucked in deep breaths.

The back of his hand shimmered, the sign that something had changed, and he tapped it reflexively, eagerly, the distraction welcome.

User Interface 376 | User #53,217

> Map

> Cultivation

> Quests

> Challenges

> Contracts (2/3)

You completed the Quest: Heart of Darkness, and may claim a reward.

Claim now?

Not now, his response was immediate in response to the available facts. There was no knowing what might be presented, nor how bulky his choice would be. His thoughts turned, the distraction of his Mark breaking the final cling of Paxolnaz’s words. How long would the demon’s spell of invisibility last?

He needed to get going and make full use of it. The Demon had spoken of the items in the storage room with a dismissive tone, calling them trinkets, but to Nicolai they were mystical Imbued creations and he wanted all of them.