The Soul Keeper

The sky lit up in the distance as the thunderstorm approached. We had finished concocting our plan – it was a simple one, really – and now we were idly sitting, biding our time.

Or, to put it in a more straightforward way, we were waiting for the thunderstorm to pass because no one wanted to be soaked.

I yawned. I needed sleep. A lot of it. I could feel the souls within me stir ever since that meeting with the Demon Lord. Mainly, it was the corrupted demon's soul that stirred. I was a little bit worried. Was the legendary ancient demon Dorith waking up? Was he regaining his consciousness?

I wasn't sure whether that was good thing on a bad thing.

"I'll head off to sleep for a bit." I said as the rumble of thunder echoed in the night. "Wake me up if anything happens."

"Sure," Mona looked out the windows anxiously. She was probably worried about Laura and Theresa. They had headed off to Baile Chailce. 

I climbed the old, squeaky stairs and threw myself onto the first bed I saw. As I pulled the blanket over me, I coughed because of all the dust in the room. It wasn't comfortable, it wasn't soft, and it was dusty, but it was a bed and I felt exhausted. Moments later, I was asleep.

It didn't take me long to drift into dreams – memories of old.

I opened my eyes to the sound of battle – lightning strikes and explosions, spells bouncing off shields, all the chaos of war that was to be expected. I watched over the battlefield from the walls of a castle.

"How long will you watch this happen?" Dorith asked to a figure I knew too well. My predecessor didn't reply. Instead, he raised his hand as if he were about to cast a spell.

"I could destroy them all." He softly spoke. "I could end this right now." He turned to glance at Dorith – at me. "But you know what that would cause." His purple eyes were filled with sorrow. "You are the ones who should end this, not me."

Dorith clenched his fists. "But we can't!" He shouted with desperation in his voice. "We're dying, one by one. You know how much we suffer better than any of us!"

My predecessor gently shook his head. "You can. I will not interfere any more than I already have." He averted his eyes from the battle below. "You know what happened the last time I interfered." 

Dorith gritted his teeth. "I don't care what happened before our time!" He shouted. "They are killing us, one by one. Will you just stand by and do nothing while the Lord is wounded? Every day, hundreds of us die." He stepped closer to my predecessor. "Don't you feel anything for them?"

His words hurt even me. I knew how my predecessor felt – a tiny fraction of it anyways. There was no way those words didn't hurt him.

"How I feel is irrelevant." He said with a cold, stiff voice. I could see the hesitation in his eyes. "I will do nothing." He spoke, albeit with less certainty than before.

"What do you think will happen to you once they are done with us?" Dorith shouted. Distant explosions nearly drowned his voice as he continued. "Do you think they'll just leave you be? They will consume our world – your world!"

My predecessor clenched his fists. He didn't speak. His gaze was focused on the distant battle. What was he thinking, I wondered. "I…" 

A loud noise woke me up. 

It was the rumble of thunder. Not a second after, the entire room lit up with a blinding flash. I heard the something crackle as lightning probably struck a tree not too far from us.

Startled and somewhat disoriented, I slowly pushed myself up and got of the bed. How long had I been sleeping for? I walked out the room and down the stairs as that dream I had came to mind. I was sure those events had actually happened. 

"Hey Kai." Lucius's voice sounded. "You woke up fast." 

I shrugged. "Damn storm." I mumbled, glancing out the windows. With no glass panes, they were basically just holes that let the rain, wind, and noise in. And the cold, of course.

"Yeah." The young swordsman looked outside. "I hope Laura and Theresa made it." 

"I'm sure they're fine." I said with a faint smile. "They can both take care of themselves." I glanced around the room. There was no sign of Asher or Mona. "Where are the others?" I asked.

"Asher is in the study. Mona is asleep somewhere upstairs. I wanted to sleep but I couldn't." He chuckled. "I'm a bit tense." He said as he glanced at me. 

I lightly squeezed his shoulder. "It's fine." I said with a faint smile. "I'm a bit anxious too, it's normal." I also looked outside. "Three Divine Pillars." I said with a sigh. "We need to make sure to destroy them, without being spotted by any players."

Lucius nodded. "That's why I suggested you stand back." He said as he fiddled with his cloak. "Even if we're spotted, no one will care – we're not famous after all. You're risking a whole lot by coming with us though."

I shook my head. "It's worth all the risk. As long as we don't let the Ereth build any pillars outside Baile Chailce, their power will be incredibly limited."

Lucius nodded. "I know, but still… I'd rather not see you die again." 

We chuckled. "Don't worry – besides, we're going to have Fetheion's help too. And a few others' if things go right." I added. Lucius nodded. "Yeah, definitely." He said, sounding a bit surer of himself. 

We sat there in silence and watched the distant sky periodically light up with lightning. It was a beautiful view. Intimidating, but beautiful.

Come morning, the thunderstorm hadn't let up yet. After some discussion, we decided to set out anyways. I used Soul's Aspect to take on the form of the corrupted demon and opened a rift to take us to our first destination.

We stepped out of the rift, only to find ourselves in the middle of the forest. 

"The Pillar is about two hours of walking north of here," I explained. "We should strike at night, so let's scout the area, find a place to lay low at and wait for an opportune moment."

They all nodded. "I'll do the scouting," Mona suggested. "I can probably get pretty close – they wouldn't suspect a bird to be me, right?" She giggled.

"I assume they wouldn't do anything even if they did suspect that. Players are on the Ereth's side." I reminded her. "But it's best if they don't ever see you. Don't try to get too close, there is no need to."

Mona nodded, then placed a tiny rock in my hands. "Keep it with you – I have a tracking spell on it." Then she jumped up and with a puff of smoke and a flash of green light, turned into an eagle. As she flew away, I put the small rock in my pocket.

"We should get a little closer too." Asher said after Mona left. "Just in case." Lucius nodded.

"So far, I destroyed two pillars." I said as we began walking in the direction of the closest pillar. "The first, they weren't defending at all, the second however was fairly well defended." The memory of that fight was still fresh in my mind. I had appreciated Rina and Alex's help more than ever that time.

"I'm sure they will be much more alert this time around." Lucius glanced around. "The land itself doesn't give them much cover – it's just forest and hills after all. We might even come across a Divine there" 

I shook my head. "No, there won't be any Divines." I vaguely gestured towards the direction of Baile Chailce. "They're preparing for war, remember? They can't risk getting caught out here. They all know they don't stand a chance against the Demon Lord if he comes to destroy the Pillars himself." Their soldiers, even us players were expendable, however. The Divines, especially Divine Matriarch Aelith didn't care about any lives but her own.

"That's a dangerous assumption." Asher warned me. His voice was cold and calculating. I knew he was trying to figure out the possibility of a Divine being there, devising countermeasures, trying to come up with escape plans. "We can't go in blindly thinking that."

I nodded. "That's why Mona is scouting and that's why we wait until nightfall." I glanced at the sorcerer. "And that's exactly why we're not splitting up once the battle begins." My gaze focused on Lucius. "Work with Asher, Lucius. And you," I glanced at Asher again. "Enable him. Despite all the jokes we make and his inferiority complex, Lucius is an incredible swordsman. As long as provide him with the opportunity to fight, he can take on nearly anyone."

The young swordsman shot me a surprised look while Asher nodded. "I'm aware. Don't worry, we will work together on this one."