Vizjerei, the old fashioned hero Diablo/MHA

[zebrin]

I decided to avoid responding so you could field that one, didn't expect you to get so spoilery. Also, financially? Will he be taking a bag of holding full of gold coinage back?

Click to shrink...

He has a uniquely reproducible set of talents and skills. Ones that are almost infinitely applicable. Ones that are also technically the beginning of an entire set of sciences.
He is gonna be able to write his own checks, even if he doesn't end up bringing home a big bag of gold.

 

[NonsensicalRants]

He has a uniquely reproducible set of talents and skills. Ones that are almost infinitely applicable. Ones that are also technically the beginning of an entire set of sciences.
He is gonna be able to write his own checks, even if he doesn't end up bringing home a big bag of gold.

Click to shrink...

There is so much wrong with what you just said. This is the japan of mha. The totalitarian centralized economy around superheroes there would make your point so totally invalid it's not even funny.

 

[zebrin]

There is so much wrong with what you just said. This is the japan of mha. The totalitarian centralized economy around superheroes there would make your point so totally invalid it's not even funny.

Click to shrink...

I hate how right you are...

 

[NonsensicalRants]

I hate how right you are...

Click to shrink...

Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell has served me well

 

[grime]

He has a uniquely reproducible set of talents and skills. Ones that are almost infinitely applicable. Ones that are also technically the beginning of an entire set of sciences.
He is gonna be able to write his own checks, even if he doesn't end up bringing home a big bag of gold.

Click to shrink...

I also do not think his skills are reproducible in Earth/MHA's universe at all. Whatever fluke/mystery allowed Izuku to use magic in diablo would not allow it to carry over. Humans in Diablo are not the humans of MHA even if they're functionally identical, they possess different souls essentially, being products of the union of angels and demons, which themselves are two halves of a single supreme being. That's presumably what allows humans in Diablo to make use of similar metaphysical/mystic forces as demons and/or angels do. One could argue Izuku by entering Diablo's setting became changed by it, either by simple metaphysical proximity and laws changing his nature, or by literal mana in the air changing his nature. But there's no reason to think that he could carry over the Diablo soul metaphysics to MHA and teach people magic.

Since the power seems to come from his soul or essence he could arguably still use it, but I doubt it could be so easily passed on.

 

[NonsensicalRants]

I also do not think his skills are reproducible in Earth/MHA's universe at all. Whatever fluke/mystery allowed Izuku to use magic in diablo would not allow it to carry over. Humans in Diablo are not the humans of MHA even if they're functionally identical, they possess different souls essentially, being products of the union of angels and demons, which themselves are two halves of a single supreme being. That's presumably what allows humans in Diablo to make use of similar metaphysical/mystic forces as demons and/or angels do. One could argue Izuku by entering Diablo's setting became changed by it, either by simple metaphysical proximity and laws changing his nature, or by literal mana in the air changing his nature. But there's no reason to think that he could carry over the Diablo soul metaphysics to MHA and teach people magic.

Since the power seems to come from his soul or essence he could arguably still use it, but I doubt it could be so easily passed on.

Click to shrink...

You are getting dangerously close to a big reveal later on. But also no, Izuku will retain his "fluke/mystery" when he returns to earth. I know that you know what that "fluke" is and ehat he was violently altered into. You can knock it off with the hinting. Just shush. You are correct, be satisfied in knowing you are correct.

 

[grime]

You are getting dangerously close to a big reveal later on. But also no, Izuku will retain his "fluke/mystery" when he returns to earth. I know that you know what that "fluke" is and ehat he was violently altered into. You can knock it off with the hinting. Just shush. You are correct, be satisfied in knowing you are correct.

Click to shrink...

Haha honestly I'm not super well versed in Diablo lore so I'm definitely not certain as you think I am. But I'm all for Izuku eventually returning to MHA and of course still retaining his magic, I'm just not certain it would be reproducible/teachable to MHA characters unless maybe he brought them back into Diablo first.

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 26:


The calm​

---

Izuku arrived at the palace bright and early the next morning where he was led to a back room. There, Aden, Quetz, Drognan, Strom, Cassia and Jerhyn were waiting for him beside a table laden with a whole lot of stuff.

Stuff was the best word to describe the assortment of objects there, because as usual, the pillaging of chaos-infested places yielded a restocked armory of everything. Weapons, armor, jewelry, lots of potions, lots of arrows, and much more.

"I do appreciate how everybody always arrives earlier than the appointed time for these things." Jerhyn said. "For once, you aren't the earliest of the early. But now that you are here, we can negotiate the wholesale of your conquest."

Izuku bowed and approached the table.

"I suggest we each pick one or two things suited to us, and sell off the entirety of the remainder, especially the potions, to Lord Jerhyn for the city's use." Strom suggested.

"And split the gold he offers evenly between ourselves?" Asked Aden.

"Correct." Said Strom. "If everybody here is content with such an arrangement?"

Everybody readily agreed and the five of them – Strom, Cassia, Izuku, Aden and Quetz – pillaged their loot.

"Of the coinage we found below, we already set it aside in five sacks, evenly distributed. You can find them on the end table by the door on your way out." Drognan advised.

That made the pillaging easier on them. Izuku went straight for the books, but they all turned out to be journals and ledgers. From these journals and ledgers he could piece together where all of this stuff came from, aside from the burial offerings deep beneath the earth.

Radament and his forces had been pillaging caravans for a while, and most of the supplies down below had belonged to them. It would be all but impossible to sift through and discover what belonged to who and find their rightful owners. This was assuming the rightful owners were still alive.

"What of the bodies of Radament's victims?" Izuku asked, suddenly reminded of them by these journals.

"Whichever ones could be identified were dressed for their funerals or cremations, which are already underway with their remaining loved ones in attendance." Said Drognan. "Those that were unidentifiable due to damage or decomposition are being disposed of in a mass grave beyond the city limits, where a monument shall be erected after the burial is complete after a ceremony for those who have missing loved ones that weren't found."

Yeah, they probably had as many bodies as missing people, and were relatively sure the ones being mourned are among them, even if they can't figure out which.

He continued digging through the books and scrolls, glancing at the contents to see if anything was useful. He wrapped his fingers around a double papyrus scroll and knew he had something important.

There was magic in it, faint but noticeable. But what really got his attention was how familiar the magic felt. It reminded him of… well, it felt similar to the way Cain's magic felt.

He unfurled it slightly to find a written language he couldn't even begin to comprehend. He was able to identify it as a cuneiform language, which meant it was all the more impossible to decipher, but it looked nothing like Egyptian or Chinese.

"Izuku!" He heard Cassia call from a few tables over.

He walked over to find her holding what looked like plate mail held together by sturdy leather straps. It was too small for Cassia, and looked to have been made for a smaller person. But when Cassia held it out in front of him it was shockingly close to his size, if a smidgen too large.

"Oh yeah, you're going to want that kid." Aden called over from the next table over. "That there is a mage's plate. It's great for enchanting and one of the few things light enough for mages to be wearing."

"I do not appreciate the insinuation that I am not capable of wearing heavier armor." Drognan said from where he was standing and watching.

"Are you?" Izuku asked, genuinely curious.

"No. Certainly not into battle. But I still don't appreciate the insinuation, true or false." Drognan said without a hint of humor.

Izuku smiled at the joke all the same, dry though it was. He accepted the armor, trying it on to discover it was only a little loose around him, especially around the chest where its previous owner may have needed a great deal of extra room. It was surprisingly light for something offering so much protection, and with the extra room he might be able to get away with padding the inside with more armor, or potions.

"I will be taking that. And this scroll too." Izuku declared.

A few moments later he was escorted out with his share of the gold, a new set of armor and a mystery scroll he couldn't wait to take to Cain.

---

He did not get the chance to take it to Cain. Not that night, nor the next morning, nor the next week, because as soon as he returned to Elzix's inn he was beset by people.

No sooner had he put his armor away than was Strom there dragging him off to the docks. Apparently Isendra had volunteered him to work any jobs that came across Jerhyn's desk, which turned out to be a lot of work.

That day it was unloading incoming ships. The next few days after that it was re-digging the swales around the city. That job had the added benefit of learning what swales were. They were just ditches with hills on one side, to provide shade and buried water for plants and trees to grow. It was a fantastic system that helped keep the soil in place and prevented sandstorms. Or at least reducing the damage they could do.

Thankfully, he wasn't out there doing these things alone. Strom and Quets, along with Greiz's men, helped. Stroms' fissure spell, which he could cast at a weak enough level to re-dig the trenches without leveling them all, had the side effect of splitting the trenches completely. In doing so he revealed the stored up water beneath, creating small rocky canons with streams of fresh water. It was unintentional, but well recieved. After a few of these he decided to stop and just use body strength like Quets and the mercenaries were.

Izuku guessed that this wasn't what Greiz's men had in mind for the duties they would have as mercenaries for hire. They probably imagined more pillaging and war, not so much hard labor. But they didn't complain, being well-suited to the work if not outright accustomed to it.

Izuku, for his part, used a combination of ice spells and shoveling. Using ice magic he was able to freeze the underground water, which then expanded, pushing up the dirt that needed digging up. Then, they all simply shoveled it up, only for others to come by later to bag it. Only after they did so did Izuku realize the soil they had dug up was lush and fertile, unlike the usual dirt of the desert. Moreso than merely having better moisture would allow.

They finished the section of the swale system assigned to them by the end of the fourth day, when Drognan relieved them.

"Alright. We just have to draw out the clean water then we can redirect the sewage to this new swale area and let the old one rest." Drognan declared.

"Sewage?" Izuku asked.

"Yes. We dump sewage into swales, then cover it in ash and or sand, plant some mint or other herbs, and let time purify it. Turn it into rich soil to trade with our more agriculturally-minded neighbors." Drognan explained.

Oh! That made sense. With the sandy soil the water just seeps down until it reaches the bedrock, which wasn't so deep itself, while the waste itself is sanitized by the sun's heat and radiation, not to mention herbal growths.

Izuku went back to Elzix and after bathing, alone thank you, he went to bed and slept perfectly for the fourth night in a row.

The next several days were for water harvesting, taking the old clean water from the little canyons that Strom had dug up and transporting them to the yakhchals – tall, round buildings with wind catchers on their roofs which served as refrigerators. Each was positioned along the city walls, on the inside of the city, with a small opening to the outer wall that water could be poured, but could also be plugged up from the inside.

Izuku turned out to be invaluable for this work as he was able to freeze the water into stalagmites that could be carried, while everybody else had to scoop or dump it into enormous wineskins that he suspected were made from entire skinned elephants, or something else that would be obscenely large.

He drank more mana potions in that two day period than the entirety of his adventure thus far. Freezing enough water to supply an entire city with drink took a lot of energy.

The week of hard work came to an end and Izuku felt well and truly cured of his malaise and anger that had been eating at him for weeks now.

He sighed as he crawled into bed, thankful for the friends and elders who had kept him company and kept him working all week. Thanks to them, he was in a much better place mentally than just a week ago.

He sat straight up in bed in realization.

"Wait a minute."

---

He found Cain in his usual place near the docks, standing lonesomely seemingly waiting for anybody to come bother him. Izuku decided to bother him.

"Master Cain." Izuku interrupted the humming man.

He looked up curiously at him.

"I am ready." Izuku said.

Cain nodded and motioned for them to walk together. He followed his mentor and together they walked along the pier, around the mingling dock workers who were up as bright and early as them.

"I hope you are in a better state of mind so as to understand what you are agreeing to." Cain said as they walked.

"I am. Thanks to everyone doing their best to help me do so. Which was the deciding factor." Izuku said.

"I do not understand. Would you please elaborate?" Cain asked.

"Everyone, from Strom to Drognan and possibly Isendra and Lord Jerhyn, has been plying me with work. Keeping me busy and exhausted." Izuku explained.

Cain nodded in understanding, and made a face to show such.

"They have conspired to take your mind off of your own suffering. A mind at work cannot dwell on the demons that haunt it, and exhaustion makes for excellent, dreamless, sleep." Cain summarized.

"Yes sir." Izuku said.

"And you feel embarrassed, if not outright ashamed, for needing the help and believe it is a sign that you must now learn what I have to teach you?" Cain summarized again.

"Yes sir." Izuku confirmed.

"Then you should know, there is no turning back. Once you become my apprentice, it is forever. Your devotion to the Horadric order is for life. Even after I die." Cain explained. "And it must be kept entirely secret. Not just because being of the Horodrim will put you in danger, but so would any hint of what I am teaching you. If anybody finds out, even though it is for good, we will both be hunted down like animals."

"I understand, sir." Izuku said.

By now they had reached the city wall and were allowed to pass through the gate. From there, they continued to walk around the city, now with no prying eyes.

"I have the contract here. Cain explained. "Yours with Isendra will be void, and yet you will continue to honor it so as to keep up appearances."

That did not sit well with Izuku. He did not want to break his contract with Isendra, he wanted to be her apprentice first and foremost. But as always, his curiosity needed sating.

"Why would your contract nullify hers?" He asked. "Is it just because the other came first?"

"Oh, heavens no!" Cain said. "There are several things that determine the power of a contract, especially when one competes with another. First and foremost is the power of the people forging it. I mean no disrespect to Isendra, but I am significantly more experienced and powerful than her. Especially as she was when she took you as her protege."

Izuku could only nod at his boast.

"Second is the contract itself. It's intention, it's honesty, how well written it is and the power of the language in it." Cain continued. "Simply put, your contract with Isendra is a lie."

Izuku couldn't stop the look of revulsion at Cain's words. He must have looked as angry as he felt because Cain raised both hands to calm him.

"We have already discussed this. When I said your relationship with her is not that of master and apprentice, I meant it in every way. You are not her apprentice, because you will never be a member of her clan as an apprenticeship would entail." Cain explained. "Due to the circumstances of your birth, you cannot join an all-female clan, and there is much she will avoid teaching you due to her oaths. In other words, she broke her contract with you before you even signed it. The intention behind the contract was not to take you as an apprentice, but seemingly to protect you as a child. The spirit and letter of the contract are both broken. Mine are in tact. Mine wins, even in secret."

Izuku had to think on that.

The vagaries of abstract magics were already confusing enough when dealing with elemental and holy magic, but now law and language and politics? It was a bit beyond him, but it did make sense. Words have meanings, and those meanings have power. Some words and oaths and poetry are far greater than others.

And of course, it didn't escape him the coincidence of the word "spell" being a reference to correctly creating words and magic alike.

There was something there, the relationship between language and magic and politics, that he would need to understand in time.

"May I see the contract?" Izuku asked.

Cain handed it to him, a small scroll. One page at most, and the wording made a great deal of sense.

I, Deckard Cain, hereby take on Izuku Midoriya the unaffiliated mage as my apprentice to the Horadric Order.

I do this with the understanding that he is already falsely apprenticed to an order that has rejected his future membership, and that said apprenticeship is a farce. That I will not cheat him out of all training, knowledge and brotherhood owed to him as a member of the Horadric order, and teach him all that I know in the course of his apprenticeship. Said apprenticeship will end either upon my death, he is deemed worthy of the title and can defend it, or he dies.

I sign this under my own free will, of sound mind, without duress.

Signed,

Deckard Cain​

Izuku understood exactly how he was wielding the power of words here. He was using the fact that the other contract had these flaws to give this new one power over it. The terms of this contract were based on the terms, stated or inherent, of the other one to defeat it.

There was more to the contract.

I, Izuku Midoriya, hereby take Deckard Cain as my master.

I do this with the promise to keep all knowledge, teaching, facts and nature of our apprenticeship a secret from all people except my master until such time as I am given the title of master myself. I furthermore understand that in agreeing to this apprenticeship, my former apprenticeship to Clan Isu is null and void.

I swear to follow all instructions in my teaching under Deckard Cain, to honor and respect him, and to work my hardest to master his teachings.

I sign this under my own free will, of sound mind, without duress.

Signed,​

There was an empty space for him to put his name. He hesitated before in doing so.

The contract glowed brightly as if to signify the sealing of their agreement, and Cain quickly stashed the contract away in his robes.

Izuku had already come to terms that his place in the world, in the end, would not be in Clan Isu. That this apprenticeship would not interrupt his apprenticeship with Isendra was a big selling point. It was kind of like signing a second marriage contract without losing your first spouse. He really was being given an incredible deal here.

"And that seals it." Said Cain.

"Seals what?" Izuku asked.

"Your contract with myself." Cain explained. "This contract is enchanted to compel you to not talk, or else cause you to expose our agreement. If you try to sign a different contract after this one, or try to break it, you will experience a pressure compelling you otherwise."

Oh boy. what else was slipped in?

"So I literally cannot share our secret even if I want to?" Izuku said.

"You can, but it will be difficult. You will feel pressure upon your mind to not do so, but can resist it. And if you succeed there will be painful results. Both from the magic of the contract, and should of people find out what I am teaching you. But I already warned you of that." Cain went on.

They returned to their walk around the city as the sun finally rose.

"I thought contracts needed witnesses?" Izuku asked.

"To be recognized legally? Yes. By magic and the two of us? No." Cain said. "Just as any agreement between two people without a witness cannot be proven in court, but good men will obey the terms of a promise, or suffer spiritual, social, financial and sometimes violent consequences."

"Oh." Izuku said.

That would defeat the purpose of their secrecy if they went to the palace and had Lord Jerhyn and Drognan there to witness it, wouldn't it?

"Oh!" Izuku said again, reaching into his shirt for a scroll of his own.

He handed it to his new master, and Cain's eyes lit up.

"Where did you get this?" He asked.

"Radament." Izuku said.

"Ah. Of course. I suppose Drognan recognized it as Horadric and tasked you with delivering it to me?" Cain asked as he unfurled it.

"No sir. He completely missed it. But I felt the magic inside of it and it reminded me of… well, of you. So I thought you might have created it." Izuku said.

Cain looked at him and blinked.

"I suddenly worry for my own well-being and am starting to feel the regret Isendra mentioned having about taking you on." Cain said, half-jokingly. "You sensed magic in a positively ancient scroll and recognized it as being horadric based on it feeling similar to me?"
"Um. Yes, master." Izuku said.

"Continue calling me sir, not master. Not even in private." Cain ordered as he finally started to examine the scroll.

Izuku nodded as they stopped just a stone's throw away from the front gate. He watched as Cain read the script, which looked seemingly no more difficult to the old man than reading anything else. Which was still difficult, with the ravages of time on his eyesight, but Izuku could see the man's lips moving along with the words he read. He even whispered a few aloud.

He then looked to Izuku with an expression of concern.

"I must go and translate this immediately. It will take me some time. In the morning I will need you to deliver my notes to Lord Jerhyn and Drognan." Cain ordered.

---

Izuku spent the rest of that day helping to dig a new ditch to connect the sewage system to the fresh swales, but when the following morning arrived he made a beeline to Cain's home, a small hovel owned by the Horadric order and maintained by the city.

A visibly exhausted Deckard handed him a fresh roll of parchment and rushed him away.

"Quickly. If you tell them it is an emergency from me they will readily agree to a private meeting." Cain ordered.

Izuku ran as fast as he could to the palace, and gave the guards a fright by his mere demeanor. Apparently seeing him in a rush or panic was enough to make other people panic. He would need to be mindful of the fact that people respected him now, and expected calm and collected behavior despite his age.

He was led to the dining area where many were having breakfast. Lord Jerhyn and Drognan were among them, with the former on his throne. Both stood up straight at the sight of him and his state.

"Lord Jerhyn, sir. Mage Lord Drognan." Izuku greeted them with a deep bow. "Cain has sent me here and told me to request a private audience."

If he hadn't earned the attention of everybody in the room before that, he certainly had it now.

"And a private audience you shall have." Jerhyn said with a curt nod.

He ushered Drognan and Izuku behind his throne, past a pair of curtains and an open doorway hidden thereby. Two guards stood over another doorway beyond that, but let them in.

They entered a war room, with a table set out like a board game detailing maps with pieces on it.

As soon as the doors were sealed shut he was once again the center of attention.

"What is this emergency?" Drognan asked.

Seeing as the mage lord was closer to him, Izuku handed the man the rolled parchment.

Drognan unfurled it to reveal it was actually two pieces of parchment. One significantly smaller than the other. This one Drognan read.

"Dear Lord Jerhyn and Mage Lord Drognan. Yesterday morning Izuku Midoriya brought to my attention an ancient Horadric scroll he won from Radamant the Fallen. He had expressed a wish to deliver it to me a week earlier but was unable to do so until now. Because of this, we have lost precious time, as the scroll details the methods for releasing the sealed Primevil… BAAL!" Drognan outright screamed the last word.

Drognan turned on Izuku.

"Why is he not here to tell us himself!" He demanded.

"Sir. Deckard Cain informed me yesterday morning that it would take him sometime to translate it and this may be what he has translated so far. I went to him this morning to see how far he had got but as instructed he told me to run here. He certainly appeared as a man who had stayed awake for far too long." Izuku explained. "And I am a far faster runner than him."

His explanation did calm the man down, and he returned to the letter.

"We now know the enemies plan." Drognan read. "It is their intention to rebuild an ancient Horadric staff, with which they can unseal him. It is in two pieces and requires a third object to rebuild, and as you will find, this scroll details the locations of each. Locations the enemy may know of and have a head start on."

Both men had to sit down as Drognan finished reading it.

They took a moment to collect themselves, but collect themselves they did.

"Your orders, my lord?"Drognan asked.

"Go, both of you." Jerhyn said. "Find everyone. Bring them here."

---

This story was Cowritten/Beta'd by NonsensicalRants You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.

Prices:

$25 per 1000 words, with some wiggle room.
$25 per 500 words for Adult material or for original fiction/nonfiction, meaning anything that is not fanfiction.
Prices subject to change in the future. Check with him.

 

[CILinkz]

and here is the knot in my stomach. not very Heroic of Izuku to do that to Isendra. absolutely nothing stopped him from finding her first, officially ending the "apprenticeship" after asking her about the brokenness of it and discussing it with her. After that he can just "search for work" and later on go to Cain and do the contract with a free mind and spirit without deception. Wouldnt stop them from still being friends and traveling companions too, depending where they stand with each other after that. Even if he just asked her "do you mind if i search for a genuine apprenticeship or do you think it betrayal?" without alluding to cain at all.

If this where a Computer Game he would gain - Karma points for that and one step into the evil playthrough for sure. one of those gray cases where players thow the controller at the wall after selecting it and exclaim "why do i get evil points for that? Cain isnt Evil himself?"

 

[zebrin]

And here comes the Cube.

I guess Cain can no longer truly call himself the "Last" of the Horadrim now. I am looking forwards to seeing Izuku's growth.

Still, breaking his apprenticeship with Isendra like that is a bit of a mess. Especially since he will still be gaining lessons from Isendra like he was still her apprentice. Hopefully, Izuku comes clean fast.

If I recall correctly, Isendra actually joins the Horadric Order as well in canon, though after the game... So... It could be that Izuku actually ends up teaching Isendra the apprentice level Horadric stuff, while he is a journeyman.

 

[grime]

and here is the knot in my stomach. not very Heroic of Izuku to do that to Isendra. absolutely nothing stopped him from finding her first, officially ending the "apprenticeship" after asking her about the brokenness of it and discussing it with her. After that he can just "search for work" and later on go to Cain and do the contract with a free mind and spirit without deception. Wouldnt stop them from still being friends and traveling companions too, depending where they stand with each other after that. Even if he just asked her "do you mind if i search for a genuine apprenticeship or do you think it betrayal?" without alluding to cain at all.

If this where a Computer Game he would gain - Karma points for that and one step into the evil playthrough for sure. one of those gray cases where players thow the controller at the wall after selecting it and exclaim "why do i get evil points for that? Cain isnt Evil himself?"

Click to shrink...

I also felt slightly sour to Izuku and Cain's actions here, especially since we've seen so little of Isendra the last several chapters, and I really love their interactions. However, I disagree with you. Izuku is a mage that needs training, if his apprenticeship/training with Isendra is officially annulled, he will immediately come under some suspicion as to why he hasn't been apprenticed or isn't seeking guidance for his magic, and then it will be revealed he has become Cain's apprentice, which will draw far too much attention and scrutiny given Cain's status.
Izuku also doesn't want to lose his relationship with Isendra or cut her off, nor does he want to lose access to her knowledge.

At the moment Isendra is acting as a shield from the social and legal repercussions of being an unattended, free 12-13 year old with no guardian, and with strong magical (and therefore destructive) potential. So if he's not apprenticed to her, he has to be apprenticed to someone, and being apprenticed to Cain, even without revealing the details of Cain's teachings, will bring far more scrutiny on him simply by virtue of who Cain is.

But it's also not so perfectly cut and dry either, because won't Isendra eventually move on from this city? And what will happen then? Will Cain tag along with Isendra and Izuku? That doesn't seem feasible and would probably be strange to others and to Isendra. So yeah, I'm definitely worried over what will happen, because I really don't want Izuku and Isendra to have a falling out.
On one hand, Isendra isn't actually Izuku's mother, and he certainly hasn't really shown much emotional distress at effectively losing his mom and home (aside from one chapter, although knowing they're still alive helps). On the other hand, while the story hasn't really shown this very well, I like to think that Isendra has become a surrogate mother to Izuku and that's helped him cope with the loss of his home and transformation of his identity (though he's still fundamentally heroic), and I really don't want him to lose that relationship, especially not without exploring it further.

 

[grime]

And here comes the Cube.

I guess Cain can no longer truly call himself the "Last" of the Horadrim now. I am looking forwards to seeing Izuku's growth.

Still, breaking his apprenticeship with Isendra like that is a bit of a mess. Especially since he will still be gaining lessons from Isendra like he was still her apprentice. Hopefully, Izuku comes clean fast.

If I recall correctly, Isendra actually joins the Horadric Order as well in canon, though after the game... So... It could be that Izuku actually ends up teaching Isendra the apprentice level Horadric stuff, while he is a journeyman.

Click to shrink...

I'm not as familiar with the game but that would be a lovely way for them to reconnect should the worst occur in their relationship.

 

[CILinkz]

but dont forget that Izuku always wanted to be a Hero. to do the right thing. Heroes are held to a higher standard than that. weighing the pros and cons of deceiving Isendra for his immediate benefit is not the right thing. Heroes are the pinnacle to him and his Alignment should reflect that. no Lawful Good character would feel good what he is doing now. Most Heroes choose the right thing over the Easy one. Even if its a detriment to them (which it currently wasnt, bc he never talked to Isendra on the what ifs of breaking the deal they made and how they would stand with each other after that)

i dont think the society he is in would give a damn if hes in an apprentice ship or not. hes already proven to be reliable and strong enough to make it on his own and 13 years old is old enough to not need a minder. who would even look into him? there is nobody who would feel resonsible if Izuku is taken care of or not. even if Drognan and Jeryhn hear from him he lost the apprenticeship to Isendra, they wouldnt overly care. maybe they would ask him if Drognan is interested in him as an Apprentice but there is no social obligation to anyone here. he could just say "no, i work the odd job here and there and cain gives me sometimes work as a scribe and courier" (bc hes young)


his order is kinda wrong but he could still salvage it by talking to her about the broken apprenticeship. If she gives him the go-ahead to search for something else and would she still instruct him. just to make it clear he knows hes no longer "bound" to her. And they would still travel together bc she wants to hunt the primeevils and cain is in the same grp. he can just flock along as not an apprentice but just a helper maybe.

 

[Magikuser]

but dont forget that Izuku always wanted to be a Hero. . Heroes are held to a higher standard than that.


Most Heroes choose the right thing over the Easy one. Even if its a detriment to them

i dont think the society he is in would give a damn if hes in an apprentice ship or not.

hes already proven to be reliable and strong enough.

Click to shrink...

Thank you for the comments everyone, I am glad you are enjoying the story!

Heros in the modern Era are held to a higher standard if you look at the heros of old they weren't exactly the greatest people Cu calain was a kin slayer, Cao Cao who was a monster to his enemies and allies.

They were good at being pointed at the enemies of their people but socially not exactly good people by today's standards. And were often had laxed standards due to their combat process

Should Izuku make it back to Japan it will be a stark contrast mixed with ptsd

The mage Clans have territory and they will tolerate a mage from a powerful enough clan going through their area of influence such as right now they are in the Vizjerei clans territory who have a slightly positive but neutral stance on the Zann Esu clan due to similar stances on elemental magics and Demons

A rogue or unaffiliated mage may be a danger to themselves or others so tend to be hunted down. This was referred to when Izuku sensed the possible presence of mage hunter. And Drognan also joked that his clan had taken into their clan some men who were trained by Zann Esu mages

It's because he is so powerful and proven against Demons and the like that other clans would want him or to seduce him into their clans wether he benefits or not.

If I recall correctly, Isendra actually joins the Horadric Order as well in canon, though after the game... So... It could be that Izuku actually ends up teaching Isendra the apprentice level Horadric stuff, while he is a journeyman.

Click to shrink...

She does but she also joins the Ishari sanctum of mages who eventually put a send a mage slayer after her... In canon



Also one of the common treatments for child soldiers with PTSD is to bind them to the community they live with with therapy mixed in. (Source: NHS medical journal) something Lut Gohlein is doing for Izuku.

 

[CILinkz]

i actually didnt really see the PTSD part. if not for the author literally confirming it now i would have guessed the people around him saw what happened, saw that izuku was part of this whole thing and deduced hes a child and probably cant handle it. like projecting their own feelings onto him and hes actually one of the only ones that are okay mentally. Everyone thinks "if it were me, i would be collapsing from that, so he must be too". Hes not liking it and thinks about it yeah but that doesnt equate PTSD. he didnt get any Terrors or is flinching like a scared rabbit or something so hes doing okay. For a given part of "okay" ofc. he didnt liked it but mentally scarred looks different to me.

 

[NonsensicalRants]

i actually didnt really see the PTSD part. if not for the author literally confirming it now i would have guessed the people around him saw what happened, saw that izuku was part of this whole thing and deduced hes a child and probably cant handle it. like projecting their own feelings onto him and hes actually one of the only ones that are okay mentally. Everyone thinks "if it were me, i would be collapsing from that, so he must be too". Hes not liking it and thinks about it yeah but that doesnt equate PTSD. he didnt get any Terrors or is flinching like a scared rabbit or something so hes doing okay. For a given part of "okay" ofc. he didnt liked it but mentally scarred looks different to me.

Click to shrink...

PTSD is usually not so obvious, certainly not as obvious as you seem to think. Night terrors? FLinching all the time? I come from a military family, PTSD does not express itself so cartoonishly. Hell, in this story I thought I actually overplayed it. Made it TOO obvious. I'm a little disappointed that I HAD to point it out, but other readers spelled it out too so clearly the writing was enough for people to guess what was happening, which was the goal.

 

[CILinkz]

maybe it was obvious for people who know about that kind of stuff but i was kinda clinging on the belief that giving your MC a mental illness when he was supposed to be the big Hero just wasnt feasable. when hes already got PTSD from lame radament, then going down into Kurast or even through the portal into Hell would be impossible for him.

 

[zebrin]

maybe it was obvious for people who know about that kind of stuff but i was kinda clinging on the belief that giving your MC a mental illness when he was supposed to be the big Hero just wasnt feasable. when hes already got PTSD from lame radament, then going down into Kurast or even through the portal into Hell would be impossible for him.

Click to shrink...

He wants to be a hero. He has none of the training, none of the skills, and doesn't have his canon quirk given to him.

He is... what, 13 years old? Only in middle school, and he just went through and demolished a town, including putting down a person he knew, to give him a cleaner death.

He has fought in full ass campaigns, as the special forces of those campaigns, mind you. And going through the rogue's fortress monastery would not be pleasant, even without facing Andarial at the bottom.

It's not just one thing that caused it, it's everything building up.


And yes. Things are going to get far worse for Izuku, long before they get any better. He is facing off against the denizens of hell... There are reasons the last three heroes became bosses you fight in the second game.

 

[NonsensicalRants]

maybe it was obvious for people who know about that kind of stuff but i was kinda clinging on the belief that giving your MC a mental illness when he was supposed to be the big Hero just wasnt feasable. when hes already got PTSD from lame radament, then going down into Kurast or even through the portal into Hell would be impossible for him.

Click to shrink...

Zebrin is right. PTSD doesn't come from one thing, one incident. What it amounts to is becoming so accustomed to a way of life, wether in war or in abusive households, that being in a normal environment horrifies and depresses the victim. You spend so much time in trenches, with mortar fire and mustard gas cannisters falling around oyu 24/7, that being in a peaceful countryside with birds singing feels like hell. "It wasn't the war that broke me, it was coming home." - Any and all Vietnam veterans.

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 27:

Easy Victories​

---

The next morning Izuku dawned his chain mail and his newly minted mage plate armor over it. He completed his outfit by draping a cloak around himself to reduce the heat of the sun on metal. Once it started to warm up he'd try out the true frozen armor spell that he'd practiced well into the night.

He was yawning in punishment for the extra self-study, but as they would be riding horses well into the afternoon he figured he could get away with a nap along the way. He was well accustomed to sleeping while riding animals at this point.

He went over the new supplies in his pack that his mistress had sent him off to buy, especially the antidote potions, scroll of town portal scrolls, and other potions. Finding it all secure he donned his sack and exited his room. Isendra's door was open and he entered to find her and Myr undressing the bed.

"We should be gone for a week, but possibly more, so you have plenty of time to deep clean all of my things. I apologize for the state of it all, I have been shut in this whole time." Isendra said to the young girl, who now wore clothes far more form fitting than those of Elzix' widow.

"Yes ma'am." Myr meeped.

Isendra noticed him and smiled, before donning her own pack and joining him in the hallway, leaving Myr behind to fold and collect the linen.

They exited Elzix' inn and walked briskly through the still dark streets of Lut Gholein. They had opted to start before even the earliest shops opened just to not be bothered by people or stared at. Or worse, get another tag along.

They arrive at the stables near the front gate to the city to find Cassia and Strom, awake and as pack-laden as Izuku and Isendra, waiting for them.

"Good morning Strom. Good morning Cassia." Izuku greeted.

"Good morning young Midoriya." They both greeted him with smiles.

Cassia's smile didn't survive when she turned her gaze to Isendra, but Izuku thought it didn't turn into outright animosity either. He hoped it wasn't just his imagination.

"The contract did not stipulate if you would be providing horses or camels for us." Cassia said.

"And as such, I think we can all rent our own without much difficulty." Strom interjected, giving Cassia a look.

Izuku made it a point of having Isendra at the back, with him in front of her, Strom in front of him and Cassia at the front. There was no discussion on the matter, they all just organized in that marching order as they exited the city. Perhaps they all wished for this to be as painless of a trip as possible? Both consciously and unconsciously.

It wasn't until the sun rose, washing away their tiredness, that Cassia broke that peace.

"I just realized I have no idea where we are going. Perhaps Isendra should be leading us, as she holds the map?" She suggested.

They completely reversed their marching order and proceeded southwest.

"Our first target is the Halls of the Dead. An old burial ground beneath the remains of an ancient Vizjerei city." Isendra announced.

"What is our goal here?" Asked Strom.

"An object called the Horadric Cube. Cain says it is an object of alchemical and transmutational purposes, which is vague enough to tell us nothing but specific enough to tell us exactly how dangerous it could be." Isendra explained. "It should be in the third sub level of the halls of the dead."

"It's always three, isn't it?" Said Cassia. "Three levels of subterranean horrors."

Meh. It wasn't always, but Izuku agreed that it was most commonly three. He retrieved his notebook and added.

The noon sun came and went, as they burned through two wineskins and frozen armors apiece, refreshing the former with the melting from the latter. When evening finally came and it's cool breeze drove the heat away.

"This is it." Isendra declared.

They had arrived upon what couldn't even be described as ruins. Stone walls, like abandoned shepherds walls of the Scottish highlands, littered the dunes. A few rose slightly higher than the rest, and all were made of what must have once been perfectly smooth blocks.

"So, do we know exactly where the entrance is?" Strom asked. "Or what it looks like.

"A pile of blocks with a single obelisk on the left side of the entrance." Isendra read off from the scroll Cane had gifted her.

They found it readily enough. It was the tallest thing left standing and had a stairway leading into the dark depths of the earth. It was hard to miss.

"That the entrance is unbarred seems sign enough to me that dark forces have already made it home." Said Cassia.

"Then let us go clear it out." Said Isendra.

They descended the stairs as one. What proceeded could only be described as mass matricide, assuming that was the correct word for killing mummies, which Izuku was fairly sure it was. Hundreds of the bandaged undead, laid to waste in mere minutes as their quartet charged through.

Izuku didn't want to complain, but this was by far the easiest spelunking expedition he'd ever been on. Maybe it was because there were four equally formidable warriors and/or sorcerers plunging as one, or perhaps it was because the hallways were just wide enough for them to march through a single unit, shoulder to shoulder. Or shoulder to hip, in Izuku's case.

The only hiccup in their march was the occasional Frankenstein-esque monster similar in appearance to Radamant, but lacking in all his sentience, strength, remorse and aptitude. These ones did nothing, absolutely nothing, but put back together the bundles of dust and bone Izuku and his companions had just shattered only to send them off and be shattered again. Izuku had to give it to them, they could take far more fireballs than the one and done zombies. But it wasn't significantly more in his opinion and so these foes served as little more than road bumps.

Besides that? The only thing that mildly slowed them down was waiting for the plumes of green, noxious gas that the mummies released upon their destruction to dissipate. Most of the time they didn't even have to do that as they annihilated them with ice and lightning before getting close enough to have to wait.

This chore continued down two more flights of stairs and two more levels of burial grounds, which were so reminiscent of the ones beneath Lut Gholein that he would have made the connection even if he hadn't known they were both Vizjerei in origin.

They reached what could only be the final chamber doors. The grandness of the doors was a giveaway.

Strom kicked it down with a single stomp of his boot to reveal a large, square room with four aflame pillars and an absolute horde of undead. The horde consisted entirely of skeletons, zombies and more of those Radamant wannabes. They all slowly turned to look at the intruders and Izuku noted an odd one out in the crowd.

One of those cat people, a lady one decked in armor and completely blue. Like,it was covered in blue paint.

It screeched and the clusterfuck began.

Izuku, without needing telling, charged forth and baseball rolled to the side as his three companions clashed head-on with the army of bones and wrappings. He was small and lithe enough to pass partly unnoticed, entirely unmolested by the slow, shambling undead and so it was on him to take out the problematic enemies. The ones that could raise the ones that Strom, Isendra and Cassia fell.

One, two, three fireballs later and the first quasi-Radamant was down for the count and Izuku was on the run again.

He peeked onto the fight to see that Strom had gotten separated from the others and was clashing with the blue cat woman. If you could call him repeatedly stomping her helmeted head into the floor clashing.

Four, five six fireballs and the second quasi-Radamant fell making the endless horde, finite.

Somehow, he had still remained unnoticed by the mindless hordes of undead, so he took off his pack, took a drink of his watered-down mana potion, and unleashed an ice nova into the fray. It still took a decent amount of concentration to keep the spell from effecting the three he wanted to spare, but he managed just fine.

The remaining undead were shattered by boots, lightning bolts and spears within moments after that. He didn't see the cat woman get killed, but felt safe in assuming they finished her.

"Anybody injured?" Izuku asked.

"Meh. A few scratches, might bruise a bit later." Cassia said.

Strom lightly kicked one of the downed enemies.

"I'm surprised none of these mummies released any…"

All at once every downed mummy exploded in a plume of green miasma and they all choked on it.

"You son of a bitch!" Cassia cursed Strom between coughs.

"I have antidotes in my pack! It's already open, let me just grab..." Izuku tried to say before he too was cut off by his coughing.

"Maybe we should all get out of the room full of poison gas?!" Isendra suggested.

They all got out of the room full of poison gas. Several antidote potions later, as most of them threw up the first one as their bodies tried to get rid of the foreign ailment, and they were all right as rain. If still a little green in the face.

The miasma inside the final chamber dissipated as they caught their breath and they all stumbled back in wearily.

They found the Horadric cube readily enough. It was in the exact center of the chamber and was a cube. Go figure. A beautifully ornate, metal cube with a metal ring latch on one face.

Isendra lifted it, pulled on the ring to open it, and revealed its innards.

"A box of holding?" Izuku said.

They all looked at him.

"You know, the boxes that are bigger on the inside than they should be?" He said.

They all looked back inside and tilted their heads.

"Was it the box itself we wanted or the contents it was supposed to contain? Don't tell me there were items in here and now we have to go find them?"

"No, Cane said we needed the box to put the other two items into." Isendra said. "Not that it should contain anything."

They had their prize, and so they left. The walk back up through the halls of the dead was quiet as exhaustion finally took its hold on them. It had only been an hour long endeavor, but after an entire day trip through the heat and the steady exertion of said battle without breaks, they were beat. And when they reached the surface they saw that the moon was now rising and the cold chill of night made them shiver.

"Fire and camp here?" Strom asked. "At least here we know all the enemies are dead. Or double dead."

They all readily agreed and hunted down a nice alcove between two ancient walls to make camp. Strom and Izuku went back into the hall of the dead to hunt down a few spears or other polearms from their fallen enemies and brought them back up to serve as firewood.

"What about the loot within the hall of the dead?" Cassia asked.

"We can do that in the morning." Said Strom. "For now, let us eat and rest."

---

After a meal of rations, a full night sleep, and a morning meal of rations they combed through the halls of the dead. They collected the many fine jewels, gold coins, and other offerings to the dead within. Izuku got the impression that the place may have already been pillaged once or twice and the would-be thieves had been added to the ranks guarding the halls.

When they finished and re-emerged the sun was just beginning to rise.

"Where to now, mistress." Izuku asked.

"The Far oasis." Isendra told them. "The shaft of the staff is hidden with a deliberately buried and "lost" temple."

And so, their journey continued. Far oasis was aptly named. It took another day and night of travel to reach it. Nowhere near as long as it took to reach… that place that no longer exists and never did according to Lut Gholein records.

But when they arrived, it was to find more ruins, and a lot of oasis. Pongs with throngs of ferns and palm trees about them littered the desertscape. Many of them were shaded by large, rock outcroppings and all were near more abandoned buildings. These ones were unlike the ones around the halls of the dead in that, while still little more than walls, they always came in groups of at least three and were brick and mortar, not giant sandstone. Some even still had the remains of wooden roofs and tattered tarps.

"Be at the ready. Swarms of flesh eating itchies have always been a problem near freshwater." Cassie warned.

"Is that why this place was abandoned?" Izuku asked.

"No." They all said at once.

"That would be the sand maggots and scarab demons." Isendra said.

Scarab demons he was familiar with. Sand maggots were a new monstrosity, and he was imagining the giant worms of dune wriggling beneath his feet as they passed into the ruined oasis city.

The swarms of flesh eating itchies turned to be anticlimactic, they were merely swarms of green mosquitoes. Definitely not something he wanted to be eaten alive by, but for two elemental sorcerers were easily dealt with. The swarms were burned away by fire and made the whole oasis smell like a bug zapper on a summer evening.

It was the sand maggots that threw Izuku through a loop. It came crawling out of one of the more preserved hovels and its size was such that it couldn't have possibly fit inside of the building were it not for its soft, squishy body. Sharp, vicious chitin made up its pincers and legs

It did not like fire. In fact, it was so vulnerable to such that a mere fire bolt from Isendra boiled the great deal of liquid inside of its body where it struck and it exploded from the impact. It was a little more visceral than what Izuku was prepared for.

"That isn't a maggot. That is clearly a termite. Who looks at these and calls them maggots?" Izuku complained.

Strom looked between Izuku and the giant termite, before shrugging.

"Well, they don't actually eat wood. They eat rotting meat. Hence, maggots." He said.

"Do they develop into fly's like maggots?" Izuku asked.

"No." Said Isendra, now smirking at his discomfort.

"Do they organize into colonies like termites?" He went on.

"Yes." Said Cassia.

"Then they're termites!" Izuku exclaimed.

They weren't even disagreeing with him. They just seemed bemused at how much he cared about the incorrect classification. He vented his frustration by writing in his journal that he needed to ask Cane about what organization was in charge about taxonomic classifications. This was assuming that there was such an organization.

---

"Why is it that every single stroke of good luck which we encounter is perfectly balanced by an exactly equal stroke of bad luck?" Cassia observed.

"How do you figure?" Strom asked.

"Well, we find the buried temple already excavated, saving us the hours – potentially days – of work trying to find it and similar length of time excavating it." Cassia pointed out.

"Which is counterbalanced by the fact that the reason it's excavated is because it's become home to a giant termite mound." Izuku finished her sentiment.

And indeed, they found the place indicated by Cane's map and instead of solid, compacted earth there was a hole. A slimy, noxious goo encrusted hole that looked more like the unspeakable parts of said termite's anatomy than a temple entrance. But it was in the right location, and foundation stones of some kind were strewn about the mounds of excavated dirt surrounding the entrance.

"You used fire on that other one, does that mean that the rule about creatures in these deserts being resistant to fire doesn't apply to these sand maggots?" Izuku asked.

"Oh yes. You and I will be taking point, apprentice." Isendra said.

In the end they did not, in fact, take point, but were instead shelled in by Cassia and Strom who made up their front and rear guard. The logic being that Izuku and Isendra can cast spells through them and both could keep any enemies at bay while they cast said spells. This logic proved partially true, as Cassia's extended reach with her trident made her the perfect person to take the lead as they delved into the tunnels.

She often spotted the oncoming "maggots'' before Izuku and Isendra even heard them, and with the narrow tunnels that they could barely fit through single-file, she was the most capable of keeping them at bay long enough for the sorcerers to reduce them to exploding piles of goo. The flaw in this plan was self evident, as Cassia became repeatedly covered in said exploding piles of goo, making her resorting to downing antidote potions like they were wine. This formation broke entirely the first time they became lost, and it was only the first of many. There was no rhyme or reason to the tunnels, as they were what amounted to an ant colony but of giant termites. They occasionally found a room or hallways of the original temple fairly intact and incorporated into said colony, but they provided little guide outside of place markers so they knew they'd been there before.

By the end, Cassia and Strom relented, allowing Izuku and Isendra to take the front and create a magical flamethrower spell between them that just continuously scorched the fifty meters of tunnels in front of them. Now they both saw and heard every maggot before they got close enough to spit that green, acidic bile. Which Izuku was pretty sure was something termites did to weaken wood, not something maggots did. They'd yet to fall victims to inset vomit, they wouldn't start now.

This also made navigating far easier. They knew they'd reached a place they'd been before by virtue of the fact everything was a black, charred warzone. Then it was a matter of backtracking or re-tracking to an offshoot tunnel they hadn't been down yet. By implementing this tactic they must have cauterized the entire nest before they found it. The queen's chamber.

He didn't know what else to call the bloated, tick-shaped creature ten times the size of the other "maggots" other than a queen. He was fairly certain termites had queens, not maggots, and the room full of eggs and caretakers all about her were further proof. It was all very flammable, and once they lit it on fire they just stood back and watched it all burn.

The queen screamed and chittered in pain as she slowly died, but it didn't hold the same horror to Izuku as with horribly mutated people. Or any, really.

They waited for the flames and thick smoke to fade away before proceeding, doing their best to cover their mouths so as to not inhale too much of the burned insect flesh. It smelled oddly similar to burnt hair and rubber.

The queen's chamber, despite all of the biological matter covering the ground and walls, was clearly a Horadric tomb of some kind. At the back they found a sealed coffin, which Strom kicked open like he had the Horadric door the day before.

Inside was a staff that looked to be made of a single, long, fossilized rattlesnake with spines of similarly long rattle snakes wrapped around it in a triple helix formation. At the top of the staff, where the three spines and the rattle of the snake's tail met, was a large orb of amber held in place equidistant from each as if by magic.

"That is the staff of kings. It is what we are here for. Cane's writings say we need to put it into the cube along with another object called the amulet of the viper." Isendra told them.

Izuku picked up the staff, which was almost as long as Isendra was tall, and looked at his mistress. "Can we store it in the cube?" He asked.

Deciding she, too, wanted to find out, she dug the cube out of her back and opened it. She inserted the staff into the box and it fell into it like a lamb into Merry Poppins bag.

"Oh. I've always heard about such an enchantment, but I've never seen it before." Said Strom. "That should make carrying it out of here easier."

And indeed, she merely closed the box and put it back into her pack.

They made ready to leave but Izuku stopped them all as soon as they re-entered the tunnel. A shiver, a lack of something that should be there. It was a familiar feeling.

"What is it?" Asked Isendra.

"I just felt it again." Izuku told them, looking to Strom and Cassia. "The masked magic."

"Masked magic?" Isendra asked.

But both Strom and Cassia understood his meaning.

"When we confronted Radamant, Izuku felt a strange lack of magic. Like a spell that was cast and then covered up. His description matched what an adept at sensing magic describes the work of a Vizjerei assassin covering up a spell they cast." Said Cassia.

The look of fear on Isendra's face told Izuku that she understood the exact seriousness of the situation.

"So somebody was just standing there, a meter behind us at most, as we laid waste to this entire room." Said Izuku.

"Or worse, they had been following close behind us the entire time." Said Strom. "Likely waiting for one or most of us to be downed so they could finish us off, or get the person they're actually targeting. They got no such chance today and must be confident enough to take all four of us."

Isendra visibly shivered at the explanation, but continued on

After that they began their long journey back up to the surface on full alert, ready for a sneak attack at any moment. The trip should have been more difficult with all of the tunnels being scorched black, but their feet remembered the way and they reached the surface in record time.

Night had long since descended so they once again set camp. They and all of their things smelled disgusting, so they bathed in one of the oases as a group and washed all of their things. Each remained on high alert as they did so, and even as they dried everything.

They took watch in shifts of two that night. Cassia and Strom first, Izuku and Isendra second. Then the strangest thing happened.

"Nothing to report Strom, you can go back to sleep." Izkuku said when the man woke up early.

He yawned as he approached.

"I dunno. I feel pretty awake." He said. "Are you sure it hasn't been six hours yet?" He asked.

Izuku and Isendra shared a glance. They hadn't bothered to set up the hourglass like the first watch usually did, as the sun usually did the job of waking the first shift up. They checked the firewood and how much they had used. It did seem like they'd burned through six hours or so of log, but they would be well into the morning if they did that.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time I woke up after three hours feeling ready to attack the day. If either of you feel like getting some extra shut-eye I can keep watch now." Strom offered.

Neither of them did, so they opted for a three man watch. This time they did setup the hourglass just to measure the time. Two hours later they knew something was wrong, because then Cassia woke up refreshed and joined them.

"How is it not morning yet?" She asked. "I never wake up this refreshed with less than eight hours."

She was right. It had been night for well over two shifts now. If they were right, that would make it.

"Fourteen whole hours of darkness." Izuku summarized. "It has been night for fourteen hours."

They all looked up at the sky in search of the sun. It was cloudless and the stars were all out and bright, but no moon or sun lit the sky.

"Either we were in there for half a year, or the sun is out." Said Isendra.

"What makes you say either of those?" Asked Cassia.

"Because those stars are only visible near the summer solstice, they are blocked from our view by the sun's glare for the rest of the year." She concluded.

---

This story was Cowritten/Beta'd by NonsensicalRants You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.

Prices:

$25 per 1000 words, with some wiggle room.
$25 per 500 words for Adult material or for original fiction/nonfiction, meaning anything that is not fanfiction.
Prices subject to change in the future. Check with him.

 

[zebrin]

Well, I hope there is a fair bit more panic in Lut Gholein about the sun going out. Everyone was very calm about things in the game...

Interesting that Izuku felt nothing when killing the termites. Easily explained, and justified in the story, but interesting nonetheless.

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 28:

A Black Day​

---

Izuku didn't know how long they hiked through the desert to the third destination on Isendra's list, but they'd all caught up on their sleep during the trip. Without the passage of time taking the extra time to get enough rest seemed harmless even though they ought to have known better.

"The constant night time is making us slothful. Groggy." Said Strom.

"Lethargic." Izuku said, remembering the word Strom was looking for.

Yeah, lack of sunlight and vitamin D was even worse for the mind that Izuku had been told growing up. But they would persevere. And they did, arriving at El-Fruija to find the fruit-growing village utterly destroyed. Some of the buildings were still smoking.

They all sighed.

"I specifically saved this one for last because the town elder was liable to just hand it to us." Isendra groused. "It was supposed to be a relaxing pit stop to refill our waterskins, get some good food and begin the trip home."

She was rubbing her eyes as she said this and they all empathized.

They wandered through the town in search of survivors. To the surprise of none of them, they were wandering around with telltale empty gazes of zombies. The fresh undead didn't even attack them, but they quickly put them down all the same.

Izuku and Isendra went about striking them down with ice spells while Strom and Cassia collected them near the edge of town. When that was all done they cast a series of magical, floating flames around the bodies to provide light.

"You were right to make me wear those spare gloves, dear." Cassia told Strom as she removed said gloves and threw them away.

As they looked at the bodies they noticed with good reason not to touch them bare handed. Each and every zombie was covered in boils, appearing pox ridden. Some also had what looked like bite marks to go with the signs of disease.

Strom removed his own pair of gloves and threw them onto the nearest body.

"Well, I think we should play it safe and not search these ones for anything useful. Shall I dispose of them by burying them with a fissure?" Strom suggested.

"That seems wise, as finding enough fire wood for a funeral pyre seems unlikely, and we are already low on mana potions." Said Isendra.

Strom demonstrated his devastating power once again, as he had done when he leveled a small city he now created a great fiery fissure. It broke open the earth the bodies lay upon and into the new chasm they fell. The new wound closed back in on itself and the burial was done.

Izuku felt it deserved a headstone or memorial, but Strom settled for striking a spear to mark the location. He suspected that the plan was to alert any people in Lut Gholein who had relatives out here to provide a proper service to lay their spirits to rest.

After that they made their way to the center of the village where a well stood open. Their wineskins had grown low, even without the beating sun to make them sweat. When they lowered the bucket to the bottom it clunked against the dry bottom, and when they drew up it was empty.

"Probably for the best. The odds are good this water would have made us sick." Cassia reasoned.

That was just rationalizing. They were out of water and needed more. Boiling it clean with magic was no difficult task for them.

"Alright Izuku. You go ahead and create more water for us in your usual way while we search the houses." Said Strom. "Hope against hope that what we're looking for is still here."

Izuku got to work freezing water from the air into a sharp icicle and putting it into the bucket from the well. Only then did he recall how chilly it was out and that it wouldn't melt from the non-existent sunlight. From there he created a small fire from the discarded remains of a nearby house.

Isendra and Cassia returned as he finished refilling the wineskins from the bucket.

"I found the town elder. His home was ransacked and the prize was not there." Isendra told them.

"I didn't see any more signs of sickness in any of the other bodies. All valuables are already gone. I hate to be the one stating the obvious, but these people were murdered and pillaged." Cassia concluded. "And the attackers covered their tracks well. Ours are the only footprints."

Well, a few of the zombies had left tracks in the sand, but he didn't feel like being the pedantic asshole to point that out.

Then they heard it.a low howl that was from Storms wolf summons.

"Strom!" He and Cassia said as one.

The three of them sprinted towards the sound, past the northern edge of the town where a gap in the rocky shelters that failed to protect it lead outward. Strom was there, kneeling beside a track in the ground with his wolf.

There was a wavelike texture to the tracks, as if water had flowed over it in both directions. They led off towards the cliff wall. Izuku recognized them as slide-pushing, like the marks by a Mamushi snake. An excessively large Mamushi.

"They appear similar to the marks snake make as they travel through soft terrain like mud, but significantly larger. Only one thing that could be." Isendra declared.

"Claw vipers." Strom agreed. "A large contingency of them laid waste to these people and took everything."

"Is it possible that the snake-themed item we are after was their target? Or just coincidence." Cassia asked.

They all merely sighed again. They were getting good at that.

They followed the trail with Strom leading the way. Not that they needed his superior tracking skills, said trail was hard to lose. But it was his job, so they let him lead.

Sometime during their trek the temperature dropped yet again. The usual frigidness of the night desert was now well below freezing and they were bundling up in their cloaks as they rode. It must have been two whole days of night by now and a thin layer of frost was growing upon the dunes.

"I will die of the cold before I even SEE one of these cobra-faced bastards!" Cassia cursed through chattering teeth.

She did seem to be taking the worst of the cold out of all of them, though Isendra had been shivering horribly herself. From what Izuku understood she came from a place that was hot and humid, while Isendra came from a place that was hot and dry. Izuku? Living in Japan you get used to hot and humid summers with cold and dry winters. He was good to go in the snow, and by the looks of Strom, so was he.

"You are right. Come to me." Isendra demanded.

To all of their surprise, Cassia's most of all, Isendra guided her horse over to Cassia's. She put out her hands and created between them a hot ball of fire to warm them both up. Izuku and Strom allowed the two women to take point, falling behind by a few meters to give them some privacy.

"Any more advice on women you want to give me?" Izuku whispered to Strom. "Solicited, this time."

"Well, you should know that when they are awake they are cold blooded, like lizards, but when they're asleep they turn into little furnaces. Should you share a bed with one, even in winter, you are liable to die of heat stroke." Strom told him.

Izuku regretted asking.

Their trip continued for another hour after which they came upon a tall series of cliffs which towered over these parts and had appeared much closer than it was from the destroyed town. There, the trail disappeared behind some rocks.

Cassia dismounted and slowly moved around the section of rocks while they remained behind ready to back her up.

"There is a camouflaged path behind here." She declared. "Through a fissure in the cliffs. I don't think the horses can fit."

Naturally, they decided to follow the hidden trail. But first, they had to find a place to tie down and hide the horses. Less than half a kilometer down the cliff they found another pile of rocks hiding a cutout in the cliff. There, they staked the horse reins to the stone where they would be safe from the wind and, hopefully, prying eyes.

They walked back to the hidden path and descended into it. They didn't have to follow it for long before they found their target.

A hidden entrance to what looked like a temple, based on the snake reliefs and statues enclosing it. As soon as they were within a few meters of it the cold was blown away by a warm draft coming from said entrance. Strom examined the stone around the entrance, in a way that reminded Izuku of how he himself feels around for magic. Was he sensing their invisible watcher?

"The warmth coming out of it, the air itself, feels like sunlight." Strom said. "Or am I crazy?"

Izuku, Isendra and Cassia approached and indeed, the air itself felt like sunlight directly on their skin.

"We are getting ahead of ourselves, but with luck on our side perhaps our two problems are one?" Isendra said. "The missing headpiece and missing sun may be related."

"But we are under supplied." Said Izuku. "It might be wise to head back to Lut Gholein first. To unload and to restock. And with the risk of snake bites and whatever disease we saw those zombies suffering from, some antidote, antivenom and disease resistance potions sound vital."

They all nodded along with his reasoning.

"Very well. Take our things, portal back to town, resupply, tell word of what we have found, and hurry back. You have one quarter of an hour." Isendra ordered.

Izuku stood there gaping like a fish.

"That may not be enough time to do all that you requested."

"Then do what you can with prioritizing the potions and antidotes"

Izuku couldn't argue with that. When she put it that way it did sound more feasible.

And so, he closed his eyes and focused on creating the portal upon its creation he went through.

---

Lut Gholein was even colder than the distant wastes. The sea, now starting to ice over, was pelting the entire city with freezing air. Small fires, lamps and extra wind breaking panels were set up all along the roads.

He'd never seen the city so warm at night, but by the hustle and bustle he presumed it was actually closer to noon.

He made a beeline to Warriv's wagon on the far west side of town. He found the man keeping warm beside an open fire that he was keeping enclosed by stones and his caravan carts with rugs covering some of the open areas between them.

"Warriv!" Izuku hollered as he approached.

The man looked up and smiled as he approached.

"Back in time for winter are you? Your mistress sent you on an errand to me?" He called out.

"Yes! And I have to be quick! Here, take all of this, give me your rate for it all. I have to go to Lysander for potions and be back through the portal in fifteen minutes. We may have found the source of this lasting night." Izuku said quickly.

Warriv took the two packs full of gear that Strom and Cassia had filled and dumped them out as he began filling them. Izuku dumped his own pack of contents out beside it. Including the Horadric cube.

"Get this into Cain's hands IMMEDIATELY. Or else send somebody you trust who can." Izuku ordered.

Warrive took the cube nodding as Izuku turned heel and ran away.

"Oh! And we found the cause of the darkness. Tell everyone we're dealing with it, but that the source is in a temple hidden in the cliffs two hours north of El-Fruija!" Izuku yelled over his shoulder as he ran.

He found Lysander by his own stall and handed him the list.

"Okay! Wow, thirty two healing potions, half as many mana potions, half as many still of anti venom, antidote and disease resistance potions. Would you like the elixir of life to go with that?" Lysander read off sarcastically.

"Only if you can bundle it and everything else in five minutes or less!" Izuku said, more seriously.

Lysander got to work on his order immediately, filling Izuku's back with all of the potions he listed. Talking as he did so.

"So you guys are heading out to try and find the claw vipers responsible?" Lysander said.

"Claw vipers?" Izuku asked, wondering how he could possibly know.

"Oh yeah! Lord Jerhyn dragged Drognan, Cane, Greiz and them up to the palace and they put their heads together. They seem rather sure that this sunlessness is because of those snake folk creating an altar of some kind. They're preparing parties to send out in all directions in search of the source." Lysander explained.

"Oh. Well tell them not to bother, we already found those serpents temple and I just portaled back here to get some supplies before we kick the door down." Izuku told him. Tell any and everybody that Strom, Cassia, Isendra and I are handling it and we are just north of the town of El-Fruija, and that it's been wiped out." Izuku said as he picked up all of his new potions.

He ran as fast as he could back to Warriv. He sighed a breath of relief at the sight of Can standing next to him, Horadric cube in hand.

"I will get word to Lord Jerhyn as soon as you leave." Said Cain. "Do you need anything else?"

"No, master… Cain." Izuku said, faking the slip-up as taking a breath from the running. "I just have to get Strom and Cassia's bags and go."

"All emptied and new, full, coin purses thrown in there." Warriv said.

"Excellent!" Izuku said, before running off back to the center of town where the portal was still open.

He'd been feeling its presence in the back of his mind the whole time he was in the city. He charged through it and dropped the spell. He caught his breath, the warmth of the serpentine temple divine after those few minutes at Lut Gholein.

"The city is nearly frozen over!" Izuku told them as he handed the packs back to their rightful owners.

"The ice on you kind of told us that." Said Strom. "But that means we must hurry. Quickly, distribute the potions you purchased between us all and we can go on."

They did so, each downing a disease resistance potion and socketing antidote potions into their belts or the sides of their packs for ease or reach. Sufficiently resupplied and prepared, they entered the temple. Cassia once again led the way.

And so their war began, and it was a war. Izuku didn't know what they were expecting, beyond snake people definitely being there. But he was fairly certain they weren't expecting every snake on the planet. They just kept coming. Hundreds of them, as soon as they descended the staircase into the depths it was a nonstop bloodbath.

With Cassia and Strom taking the front they butchered them upon her trident and his maul. Just turned them into giblets of quivering meat before Izuku or Isendra could get at them. But they were given their chance to fight as well, for the single-file tunnel soon split into a crossing where four tunnels met, and then they had foes to the front and either side. Strom and Cassia remained focused on the front while Izuku took the left and Isendra the right.

He threw his all into an ice nova, now no longer pleased with the sweltering heat and brightness of this temple, and coated even the ceiling of the tunnels in thick ice. To his surprise, the few claw vipers in front of him continued charging towards him despite his ice nova. They bared their fangs, their human claws, and their scorpion tails as they charged. Izuku simply switched to fire and dropped a fireball right in the middle of them, and when it exploded out he was pelted with charred scales and meat instead of stingers, venom and razor sharp teeth.

"Ice doesn't seem to affect them!" Izuku yelled back. "Fire works!"

"So does lightning!" Isendra called back.

The new working strategy of lighting them ablaze and electrocuting everything in their path as their two muscle-bound friends ripped them apart was a winning one, and so they kept it up. Picking tunnels at random they followed the lovers down, shooting their devastating spells directly through them to soften them up before the tenderizing began.

It was beginning to feel a lot like that "maggot" cave, and Izuku had to wonder if these creatures were even remotely as sentient as their appearance would indicate. They were organized enough to plan a sneak attack but not a resistance to an intrusion by four schmucks? Four absurdly powerful schmucks, sure, but despite their shields, swords and poison spitting they couldn't form a single defensive line? Even though with magic perhaps offense was the preferred option.

Having to pause to all take an antidote or healing potions from the constant poisoned gas clouds from traps they left around also wasn't great. They eventually just settled on drinking the health potions and suffering the poison when they ran out of the former.

They finally reached a large open chamber on what might have been the second story down. It was empty, save for the pillars and inexplicable sunlight emanating from every stone. They advanced to the door on the opposite side of the room, being extra careful to avoid setting off any more traps now that their healing potions were all but spent.

Strom made to kick on the door, as was his style, only to have his thunder stolen when something big and orange kicked it in from the other side. The shattered stone of the doorway flew into the room, hitting all of them, save Strom who received the foot from the other side.

What emerged looked like a sumo wrestler crossed with one of those over the top, steroid using body builders. It was a giant, yellow man of sorts with a head far too small and chains wrapped around its neck, wrists and waist. Izuku flinched at the implications of slavery

The beast stormed past them all as it trampled Strom while Izuku and Isendra took aim with their fire and lightning and Cassia charged forth with her trident. Izuku, for his aid, was rewarded with a slash to the back of his head starting at his ear down to his shoulder. The blade was so sharp he barely felt it dig into his flesh until after the sensation of blood running down his neck and back in what felt like a river of blood.

He turned to find more claw vipers storming in from behind the roided up giant. He changed his focus appropriately, scorching the bastards as one before they could sink their blades into him. They exploded as gloriously as all of their counterparts had thus far. By the time he finished he turned around to discover the battle won, as the yellow giant was beheaded and crumbled beside a nearly identically crumbled Strom.

He'd never seen the man that beat up before, so he felt real panic when he ran up to see it up close. He was no doctor, but he knew legs ought not to be bent in that direction or look like gelatin in parts.

"I don't suppose you're all out of health potions too, are you?" Strom asked between pained breaths.

Izuku checked and blanched. How had he run through eight of them already? He'd only just now received his first actual injury!

"What do we do? Send Izuku back?" Asked Cassia.

"No. We cannot yet. If we retreat now, the enemies here may run off with the amulet and, assuming it's something else, whatever means they are using to blot out the sun. We must risk our lives to prevent the latter." Isendra said.

"I can stay here and protect Strom, try to patch him up, while you two continue on." Cassia offered.

Yeah, if they left Strom alone he would be a dead man. They had to remain in groups of two at the very least.

"Wait. I can try holy bolt!" Izuku declared.

"No! Save yourself, I can wait" Strom refused. "I suggest you focus on bandaging yourself up first."

Izuku reached a hand up to where he'd been stabbed to find his fingers coated in drying blood. So the wound hand already stopped and was congealing, he dropped his pack to the ground and retrieved his bandages as Cassia did the same with her pack. He wrapped his head up while she cut off a piece of one of the snake men's spears into the right length for a splint.

"You two get a move on. If you do not come back within thirty minutes we will come in after you and finish the fight." Cassia ordered.

Izuku and Isendra turned tail, descending the staircase down into the third level. Izuku suspected Storm didn't want Izuku to see his moment of weakness as Cassia set his leg into place, but he still heard the scream all the same.

The final layer of the temple was more akin to a cave, a wide open one where nearly a hundred more claw vipers all stood or sat around in a circle about an altar. The stone about the altar was blood-stained, and a strange wand was embedded within. His eyes were inexorably drawn to the glowing amulet floating above it all, and the glorious heat rolling off of it.

---

This story was Cowritten/Beta'd by NonsensicalRants You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.

Prices:

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Prices subject to change in the future. Check with him.

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 29:

The Culmination of Ra and Apophis's Battle​

---

Izuku and Isendra stood, crouched down, at the top of the staircase as they peered down at the horde below them.

The snake men crowded around a table like an altar in worship. It held the insignia of the Egyptian eye of Ra; yet another strange case of panspermia this world seemed to hold from his own. A wand with a pointed tip stood embedded in the center of the eye. Upon the wand, as held by fierce claws was a circular amethyst crystal. above even the wand was a glowing pendant hovering in the air, one that perfectly matched Cain's drawing of the pendant they were after.

Most of the claw vipers prostrated themselves before the altar or amulet, Izuku couldn't tell which, in waves. Like a crowd at a concert being conducted by an unseen rock star. A small group of them, the ones closest to the altar and amulet, were performing a ritual of sorts, casting some kind of spell.

Isendra tapped him on the shoulder and motioned for him to retreat with her. They snuck back up some of the stairs until they were out of sight and earshot of any of the vipers within the chamber, there they planned together in whispers.

"Ice has proven useless, but will be doubly so with all the heat of the sun in that chamber." Said Isendra. "So I shall use fire. My fire magic is greater than yours, even with Ashes Bane, for my staff also amplifies my fire magic. So I will be relying on you to keeping the many smaller vipers distracted with chain lightning, which you are excellent at despite your reluctance to use it."

She was right. He still had a hesitance to use lightning magic, out of fear and respect of electricity and its danger. You grow up in the modern world surrounded by deadly currents of power and you learn to respect it, even though with the rules of magic that danger need not apply to the caster or his allies. It does not arc and electrocute through the path of least resistance as it ought, only where he commands.

It was still a difficult concept to separate science from magic.

"I shall focus on the viper magi, the ones performing the ritual. You handle the crowd and sneak around behind the magi so that we may flank them, I can hold them off that long but I am not certain if I can defeat them by myself. Do you understand?"

"Yes mistress." Izuku said solemnly.

They sneaked back down the stairs and surveyed the battlefield a second time. It had not changed since they had backtracked, but he looked at it with new eyes all the same. He scouted out a path through the maze of stalagmites to remain unseen and several points where he could peak out and hurl chain lightning until he reached the far side and could flank.

He pointed out the route to Isendra, drawing it in the air soundlessly, and she nodded her understanding. She then held up three fingers with one hand and formed a zero with the other.

Thirty seconds until she would go on the frontal assault. Plenty of time.

He was off as soon as she indicated the time he had to work with, crouch-sprinting along the stairs and hugging the wall. He dropped down into a crevice between the stalagmites and continued on around the winding path formed by the gaps between them. He peeked out to find himself at the edge of the amassed worshipers. He was already in a prime position to let loose a chain lightning that would stun and stall most of the gathered snake men.

He stood there waiting patiently for Isendra to make her first move, which she did seconds later with a bang. Her fireball exploded just outside of the inner circle of magi, far enough not to damage the altar and pendant, close enough that the force of the blast would knock over the trio of viper magi. The heat may have even killed some of them.

The focus of all the praying vipers shifted to the top of the stairs where Isendra was hurling a storm of flames down upon the magi. Each of them drew a weapon, from slings and bolas to short bows and spears. Izuku waiting for them to be halfway through the process of drawing them before letting loose his own destructive elemental magics.

Bolts of lightning erupted from each of his fingertips as if he were a Sith lord. Each arc struck a different claw viper, and from each one that was struck a new bolt of lightning erupted towards the next nearest one. Thus the lightning chained between them, hence the name chain lightning, linking them all together and electrocuting them.

As he had planned, many of them dropped their weapons as their bodies spasmed and cooked from the lightning passing through them. The too tight grip of drawing a weapon was a bad habit that the lovely ladies of the sisterhood of the sightless eye had beaten out of him early on.

With his job done he ducked back into the safety of the stalagmites. He'd bought his mistress at least ten seconds of time before the crowd recovered and could pick their weapons up to shoot at her. That also gave him ten seconds to circle around to the very back of the chamber where he could blindside them with the same spell again. It cost a decent chunk of mana, but he would get it back in time.

Isendra used those precious few seconds well by the sound of the hatred she was laying down upon their enemies. You'd think it was world war one out there! Her constant fireball sounded like a constant artillery barrage.

He came to where he thought was the back of the chamber and made his way forward until he got a good view of the crowd again. They had all rearmed just as he did so and Isendra retreated back up the stairs to avoid the onslaught of pointy things being hurled at her.

He withdrew a mana potion, the last of his watered down ones, and put it into his mouth before casting another chain lightning at the backs of his enemies. This time he did not stop, he continued to cast it, even after they were sufficiently cooked as to be useless against his mistress. He drank and continued to cast as they cooked from the inside out and the smell of fried snake, a delicacy he had quite enjoyed, After one bit him several days later the snake finally died during the trek across the desert with Wharriv.

Isendra returned during his relentless lightning chain and resumed her own onslaught. She and he both caught sight of one of the magi spotting Izuku and turning his staff upon him.

He unleashed an ice storm upon Izuku's location and he ducked back behind the stalagmites. The storm of ice magic passed through the stone and into the cavity Izuku had cowered into. He felt his skin harden and go numb as ice coated him.

He released a half formed fireball directly on himself, making certain not to affect himself with it. His own magic pitted against the magi's was a close call, but he won. His heat drove away the cold and warmed his own body back up, at the cost of the exposed skin that was nearly frostbitten but was now split open by the rapid cooling and heating. Even in the adrenaline of battle, he felt that. It was not pleasant by any definition.

With the residual heat of his spell still protecting him he ducked back out from cover to see Isendra had cast a lightning bolt directly upon the ice magi, leaving her open to the lightning spell of another. Izuku cast a second fireball directly on him. The explosive force of it sent the serpent flying somewhere to the left and into the stalagmites, but not before dropping Isendra in the spasm of electrocution.

The ice magi recovered from his own spasms, but Izuku was seeing red after hearing his mistress scream in pain and was charging at him before he could even stand. He rained fire and lightning upon him and he created a great ice wall… behind himself? Oh, the third magi was still performing the ritual upon the altar and talisman. They were only fighting to protect him.

This ice magi was made of sterner stuff than the average claw viper, because he tanked three fireballs and lightning bolts while maintaining the focus necessary to erect an ice wall while being hit. He would have been impressed were he not currently so enraged.

With his work on the ice wall finished the magi turned his efforts back onto Izuku, flinging ice spike after ice spike in his direction. Izuku, in his rage, lost track of his footing and tripped over one of the dead claw vipers, saving him from an ice spear through the chest.

Before he could stand back up he threw a hail mary fireball at the magi, who was surprised to be hit by the fire spell and it exploded on his chest sending him flying like his lightning-focused friend had earlier.

A second fireball struck him midair sending him back to the ground, motionless. Izuku did have the frame of mind to be impressed by Isendra's layup on that one. He didn't take the time to compliment her, instead advancing upon the circular ice wall around the altar. Isendra sprinting down the steps to join him in tearing it down.

She need not have bothered. Several beams of perfect, white like erupted from within the circle, vaporizing the ice instantly. Where it touched the walls, stalagmites and stalactites of the chamber it left deep scorch marks. No, it outright melted the stone, temporarily creating lava which then solidified almost instantly, and cutting gashes into the stone five meters deep.

These serpents had not only stolen the sun, but weaponized it into a death laser, akin to a child with a magnifying glass. A very big magnifying glass.

The three death lasers then became six, slicing up the chamber aimlessly. The magi wielding the small star in his hands clearly had no control over it, for the lightning magi returned to the fray from somewhere in the stalagmites and was vaporized by a wayward beam.

Dodging them proved easy, and yet he still felt himself being burned by the intense light and heat of the mini sun. When his clothes actually caught fire he resorted to an ice wall of his own, focusing it on the entire area around the stone outcropping that the altar stood atop. The idea was for it to melt and vaporize from the wayward heat and provide shade. It worked briefly, as even when not hit with a direct beam it rapidly melted and steamed forming a large plume around the last magi.

He followed it up by casting a frozen armor spell on himself and ducking back behind the stalagmite after spotting Isendra doing both things herself. Then they waited, clearly both having the same idea. An idea that turned out to be correct when the light faded and the sound of the death beam tearing through the chamber subsided.

Izuku peered from behind the stalagmite to see the steam and ice had completely dissipated, replaced by smoke from the many claw viper that were burnt to a crisp. The altar was obscured by the black fumes so he edge closer. Spotting Isendra doing the same he moved faster until he came upon the altar and the sun magi.

He was a single, snake-shaped chunk of charcoal. He was scorched down to the bone, some of which was clearly visible where the burned flesh had crumbled and fallen away.

"Magic like that is not meant to be wielded by mortals." Isendra said. "And even most immortals."

Izuku was struck dumb at that, that there were immortals out there

"What is going through that mind of yours apprentice?" Isendra interrupted his train of thought. "You have stopped with the muttering, which is good."

The thought of mages that had an eternity to hone their craft was terrifying!

"I was thinking about the strangeness of the eye of Ra being on this altar." Izuku half-lied.

"Eye of Ra?" Isendra asked. "I take it that is the name your people call of this eye symbol here?"

"Yes ma'am. It is a famous symbol… from my world." Izuku told her. "It shouldn't be here."

"I see. And what does it signify to you?" Isendra asked.

"I'm… not certain. I know it is from an ancient culture from a culture called Egypt. They mainly worshiped a sun god named Ra. I don't know all of the mythology but Ra was a member of a big family of gods and had a rivalry with the serpent god Apophis." Izuku explained.

"Hm. The mystery of how the symbol got here will have to wait for later. For now I would set your mind to the more immediate task of how to safely destroy this altar." Isendra said.

"Define safely?" Izuku asked.

"In such a way as to avoid being on the receiving end of a magical backlash that may or may not kill us as it did its misbegotten wielder." Isendra explained.

He was worried that's what she meant.

"We are sure it is the altar, not the talisman or wand?" Izuku asked.

"We are." Said Isendra.

It couldn't just be a simple matter of removing the wand and talisman, could it?

"Well, I guess we should just do it the old fashioned way and just smash it." Izuku said. "Do you think Strom can make it down those stairs to make use of that hammer of his?"

Isendra shook her head and stood off to the right of the altar, raising her staff to point it down on the slab. Izuku took the left and mirrored her actions. This kind of magic was always so tricky, channeling mana into plain kinetic force to crush or cut something.

He stabbed down with his staff at the same time she did, as if spearing the slab, and the altar cracked in two as if it were made of old plaster. They probably could have just kicked the thing honestly.

For a moment the room went dark, then hundreds of orbs of light appeared around the room. They danced like little sun sprites all about them, circling around the central hill where the pair stood. They continued to circle them as they rose towards the ceiling in a whirlwind shape, and one by one they disappeared until the room was dark and the ever present heat wave from the sun was gone.

Isendra cast a light spell on the tip of her staff.

"Oh good. Everything is undamaged." She declared, as if oblivious to the wonder they just witnessed.

She knelt down and grabbed the amulet, pocketing it, before turning her attention to the wand. She grasped it, turned it over a few times and nodded in satisfaction before handing it to Izuku.

"This will be your weapon for the foreseeable future. It is a heavensent find." She declared.

Izuku grasped it in his hand. Power. It felt like power and emptiness.

"It is an infamous wand, its name is Oculus. In addition to being able to store mana as a second pool, it can amplify the power of your spells and casting speed. If that weren't enough, it also offers you more resistance from elemental magic." Isendra explained. "As I said earlier it is a heaven sent find."

Izuku held the wand up with a bit more reverence. If a wand was legendary enough for Isendra to not only know its name, but all of its properties, then it must have a truly impressive history. He would have to look into how it wound up down here.

"There is one downside." Isendra added. "It can randomly teleport the wielder to where they are looking whenever they are injured."

"That sounds potentially dangerous. Has it ever killed anybody like that?" Izuku asked.

"Well, there was the mage Zalfuin who stubbed his toe during a wake and was teleported directly into the middle of the funeral pyre. His fashionable clothes caught fire and, in his panic, he tripped over and broke his neck. His apprentice managed to save the wand." Isendra explained. "Or so the legend goes."

Izuku carefully pocketed the wand.

"This is an acceptable risk, all things considered. There are few wands or staves superior to this or my leaf staff. Death's Fathom and Eschuta's temper are the only ones that come to mind. Do not tell anybody about this find. Not even Cain or Drognan. Above all else, keep it hidden while in town." Isendra ordered.

Right. He'd seen people show a willingness to kill for coin, let alone such a famous item.

They limped back up the stairs, every inch of them sore or outright bleeding. They re-entered the chamber where they had left Strom and Cassia to find them exactly where they'd been, with the latter fussing over the former.

Strom's leg was not bandaged into a splint and Cassia had somehow created a cushioned surface for him to lay it on from the clothes and bedding from one of their packs. The man was propped up against a piece of rubble in as comfortable a position as was possible given the circumstances. She really was going all out for Strom.

As soon as Strom caught sight of them he broke into uproarious laughter before wincing at the pain it caused him. Cassia turned around and started laughing herself.

"You appear to have found our missing sun, based on how overcooked you look." Cassia told them.

Izuku looked at Isendra in the better lighting of the torches and saw what they meant. The two of them were sun-burnt to hell and back. And he thought he'd looked like a gyaru gal before! Isendra had his old look beat. He couldn't wait to get his hands on a mirror.

"Come. We only need to make it back to our horses and then I can make us a town portal home." Isendra beckoned.

Cassia put her pack back on before helping Strom with his. From there she slung one of his enormous arms around her far-too-small shoulders and helped him stand. The two then began the long hard limp towards the exit, leaving the bed things behind for Izuku to collect.

The trip back up through the levels of the temple were uneventful, but dreadfully slow. With each of them so battered that they limped the entire way. Not a word was spoken, only groans of pain. They did eventually reach the service to discover it was nearing dawn. Even in the crevice between the cliffs the glorious navy blue in the sky was unmistakable.

The return trip through the fissure was similarly painful to the one through the temple, if a bit more spirited by the wide open sky above them and crisp morning air. They found their horses exactly where they left them and they were exhausted as they leaned against them, practically hugging the beasts in relief. Their journey was as good as done.

Isendra withdrew a scroll from her breast pocket and held it out. It burned a bright blue light as she cast her own town portal through it and a similarly blue oval of light appeared in front of it.

"Casting the spell into a scroll beforehand allows anyone to cast it by simply channeling a miniscule amount of mana into the preformed spell." Said Isendra. "I will teach you this soon. For now, let us all go home."

The portal exited just outside the main entrance to Lut Gholein. They quickly returned the horses to the stables and approached the guards.

"We need to have a missive to be delivered directly to lord Jerhyn." Isendra told the guards.

One withdrew a quill and parchment while the other proffered a coin purse, which Isendra filled.

"The sun's disappearance was caused by a cult of claw vipers two hours north of El-Fruija. Cassia, Strom, Isuku and I cleared it out and restored the sun. We will be available for a full debriefing in two days. For now we have recovering to do." Isendra dictated.

The man wrote it down and sprinted off to deliver the missive.

"We part ways here." Said Strom. "Wish I could say it was a pleasure, but it wasn't. Despite that, I am more than happy to work with you two again sometime."

"Off to go get patched up?" Izuku asked.

"Nah. Sell all this crap first." Strom said.

And then the two limped away. They sure had their priorities straight, didn't they?

Izuku and Isendra, for their part, made a beeline for Cain. They reached the house of the Horadrim minutes later. Isendra reached up to knock on the door, then seemed to think better of it at the state of her burned and cracking knuckles. She instead tapped it with her staff.

A few moments later Deckard appeared in the doorway and gaped at them. Then he gaped at them some more. Then he let them in.

"Please, sit. Have as much water and wine as you require." Deckard invited.

They both poured themselves a gratuitous glass of wine before slightly freezing it with barely a thought of directed mana.

"Which of the objects have you retrieved so far?" Cain asked.

"All of them." Said Isendra as she put her pack down and began rummaging through it.

"All of them? But it's only been a few days!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah, we would have done it all more quickly but we lost track of time after the sun went out." Izuku said.

Only after the words came out of his mouth did he realize how full of himself he sounded. The disapproving stares both of his masters gave him at the unintentional hubris silenced him.

Isendra withdrew the amulet from inside of her top and the cube from her bag, placing both on a table between them. She then got back to work nursing her cup of wine.

"We found the Horadric cube first, followed by the staff, and the amulet was being used by a Cabal of viper magi to harness all of the power of the sun. They are the reason we are in our current state." Isendra regaled.

"I see. Firstly, it is not THE Horadric cube. It is A Horadric cube. THE Horadric cube was designed by the mage Zoltun Kulle. It was far too dangerous and corrupting to be used safely, so these lesser ones were developed. If THE Horadric cube ever came into your possession I would be very concerned." Cain told them. "Secondly, where is the staff?"

"Oh, we already inserted it into the cube." Said Isendra.

He opened the device and withdrew the staff. He examined it, saw that it was the real artifact, and put it back inside. He then made a display of adding the amulet into it as well before closing the device. He then pressed a hitherto unnoticed button on one of the cube's faces.

The device glowed a faint light, akin to moonlight, which then faded. When he opened the cube again it was to withdraw a new staff which bore no resemblance to either of the items originally placed inside. Whereas the original staff was bent in places and seemed to be made in the shape of a snake, this one was perfectly straight and was of wood, with carved floral patterns. In place of the large orb of amber, it now boasted two golden wings which flanked the amulet that had been placed inside at the tip and an upside down lotus flower at the bottom.

"Wow." Said Izuku.

"Indeed," Said Cain. "With this, the path forward is open."

There was a knock at the door.

Cain stood up and went to open it, before stepping aside and allowing Drognan entrance. He sighed in relief at finding them there.

"We received your missive, and are pleased to see you alive and well. But we require your services already." Drognan said.

Isendra and Izuku both felt themselves double in weight at the bad news.

"What happened while we were gone?" Isendra asked.

He took his own seat and wiped his mouth with a hand.

---

"Some time ago now an old Vizjerei ally of mine, Jazreth, had wandered back into town after returning from Tristram while visibly troubled. He had been looking through the old palace archives for something when he disappeared. Soon after that, the dark wanderer passed through." Drognan told them. "In short order after Jazreth disappeared, demons began spewing forth from the palace cellars, killing many of the local brothel girls and many guests. Lord Jerhyn had been forced to order all of the palace and town guards to the battle to keep the demons at bay, and in doing so saved the city. We have lost so many good men that we had to resort to employing Greiz and his mercenary company to keep the peace."

Izuku had been on the edge of his seat, thinking this story was a recent event before he mentioned employing Greiz.

"When did this happen?" Izuku asked.

"Nearly two years ago now, and the palace has been sealed ever since. And things keep getting stranger." Drognan told them. "This has all been kept secret until now, for we have been sending adventurers and mercenaries like yourselves capable of dealing with things like the purge and worthy of trust, and many of you have proven your worth. We are now preparing to reopen the cellars and dungeons beneath the palace to lead an all out assault to cleanse our city of demons. We request your aid."

They both leaned back in their chairs at the explanation and request.

"We, as well as Strom and Cassia, are in no condition to be doing anything for at least a day, possibly three." Said Isendra.

Drognan nodded.

"I can see that. We have gone two years waiting for this offensive, we can wait a few days, but Lord Drognan is expecting you tomorrow for the debriefing on your restoration of the sun at which time he will give you and the others all of the details on the cellars and dungeons." Drognan told them.

He stood up to leave and they did the same, bowing respectfully as they saw him off. Isendra then turned to Cain.

"I will keep the cube and completed staff here for safety. It seems the universe is conspiring to keep us from our self imposed mission a little while longer." Cain told them. "Go now, you look like you have some recovering to do."

They left, and Izuku was glad to see they were headed in the direction of Elzix's inn. He was prepared for a bath and bed and change of clean clothes.

They made a stop at Fara's stall where Isendra had Izuku hand her his mage plate. Before they left she whispered something into Fara's ear before handing her more coin than the basic repair job warranted. Izuku was suspicious but didn't voice his concern.

When they finally got back to the inn Isendra delivered him more bad news.

"We are only dropping our things off and collecting a clean pair of clothes. Then we leave for the public baths." She told him. "There they will treat our wounds properly."

He couldn't stop himself from groaning.

"Can't we just take a bath and take a healing potion here before crashing?" He pleaded.

"No. Healing potions like the kind we buy in bulk are general purpose. Imperfect, but work for most injuries. A proper spa has potions more suited to every type of injury. There are healing potions specifically for sunburns, or frostbite, or skin ripped from cooling and heating. Using these properly takes time, but ensures the healing is more complete and leaves no scars or permanent damage that a regular potion might miss." Isendra explained. "Many warriors find their ability to rotate their arms or grasp weapons diminished after using regular healing potions instead of doing he hard work to heal properly. Tendons, muscles and nerves not quite as they were before an injury."

Oh! Yeah, he did already kind of know that, didn't he? And the spa did make for a relaxing time. They certainly deserved it after the few days they'd been through.

He went to his room and tossed his things aside, grabbing a clean pair of his down time clothes that Myr had left folded on his bed. But then he paused when he noticed an envelope next to it.

He picked it up, worried it was a love letter from Myr, but then blinked at the name signed on it.

Esu? The name rung a bell. Wasn't she the ruler of Isendra's clan?

---

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