Mountain of the Immortals

I didn’t even have the chance to voice my objections before she had successfully avoided two guillotines, one pendulum axe, and two spinning wooden blocks with long nails protruding from them. She took a breath, probably to time the rest of her sprint, before continuing forward, jumping over at least half a dozen sharp spears that protruded from holes in the ground then spinning around and dodging another couple of swords swinging from the ceiling.

“You think you can do it?” she asked in the guild chat as soon as she made it to the other end.

“I have no idea how you managed to do it yourself,” I replied, stunned at how quickly she’d been able to calculate all the moving pieces and find a route according to her speed and agility.

“It’s best if I go first,” Aphrodite said, “so I have space to heal you if you get hurt, Zeus.”

I nodded at her without saying anything, and momentarily took her hand in mine before giving it a swift squeeze and letting her go. Artemis took notice of the small gesture. I could see a hint of surprise, but it was quickly replaced by her fierce warrior expression.

“It’s a bit hard to calculate your trips while looking at it from the opposite sides,” Artemis said, “but get ready. Any moment now.”

“Whenever you tell me to,” Aphrodite said, clearly putting her full trust in the huntress’s abilities.

“Now!” Artemis commanded.

Aphrodite sprung forward.

“Stop at the same place I did,” Artemis told her.

Aphrodite did as she was told and moved skillfully between the traps. I wasn’t sure how, but she made it look effortless. While Artemis’s movements had looked fluid and carefully calculated, Aphrodite seemed to walk between the deadly, cold, metal blades without bending the least bit.

Yet none of the traps touched her. It almost looked like they were opening a way for her to pass through. Once she reached the spot Artemis had indicated, she took a deep breath and waited.

“Go,” the huntress prompted her after a moment, and Aphrodite exhaled as she put her foot out in front of her.

Again, her pacing was steady and casual, making the whole thing look more like a casual walk rather than a sprint to avoid death by decapitation or a spear through the gut.

“Thank you, dear,” she mouthed to Artemis when she reached the other side.

Artemis was already focusing on the traps again but was thrown completely off her game when Aphrodite leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Artemis turned around to face her then, smiling and nodding but not saying anything.

“If you ladies are done making out,” I said, seizing the chance to make Artemis feel even more uncomfortable, “I’d really appreciate some guidance here!”

“Yes, of course,” she said, turning to examine the pattern of the traps again.

I waited patiently, occasionally looking at Aphrodite and winking at her playfully for the way she had teased Artemis. She looked like she was having the time of her life, despite the dangers that surrounded us.

“It’s going to be tight, but you need to do it in one go,” Artemis said. “Get ready.”

“I’m getting ready,” I said.

“Now!” Artemis shouted in the guild chat. “Go, go, go!”

I sprinted forward a tiny bit too fast, as was proved by the first trap, but quickly found the right tempo. The margins of error were becoming smaller and smaller as I went, and by the last few traps, I barely had a couple of inches of space between me and the blades. At the very last moment I rolled forward, less gracefully than I had wished, narrowly avoiding the last blade caressing my behind.

“Let’s carry on,” said Artemis.

I picked myself and my dignity up off the floor and examined myself. Once I was sure that everything was still in one piece, I moved up behind Artemis and next to Aphrodite.

We fell in next to each other, behind Artemis as the corridor turned to the right and we found ourselves facing what looked like a gigantic digestive pit of skeletal remains. There were bones of all types and sizes, from tiny human skulls all the way up to gigantic ones with thick tusks lying next to them. Some were so big that I wondered how they could ever have been brought here in the first place.

The bone-covered chamber spanned as far as my eyes could see in the dim light, but on the left-hand wall was the first sign of unnatural light we’d seen in the cavern. The sculptures of two angelic beings carrying huge torches framed a stone dais, upon which was a throne made of bones.

The beautiful creatures were in such stark contrast with the rest of the room that I barely noticed the being on the throne below them. It was initially lying across it, completely still, as if meditating or trying to conserve energy. But it moved as soon as I laid eyes on it.

* * *

Name: Belial

Race: Fallen Angel

Class: Bestower of Life

Level: 60

* * *

“Looks like this guy really did fall from the sky,” I said in the guild chat, and braced myself for battle.

He looked like a skinny, almost skeletal man with black strands of greasy hair. His fingers were freakishly long and thin and his cheekbones were as sunken as his eyes. From the way his lips rested on his mouth, it looked like he did not have teeth at all.

“Three gods stand before me,” Belial said in a raspy voice. “State your reasons for attacking my minions and trespassing upon my domain.”

“Your domain is not here,” Artemis said before I had the chance to say anything. “Your domain is up there. It’s not our fault you fell.”

“We are all beings of immortal power,” the angel said, standing up from his throne. “I am sure we can find a way to coexist.”

His limbs looked weak and fragile but I knew better than to judge an enemy by its appearance. I couldn’t help but feel a little sad for him, however, when he spread his wings—or rather what was left of them—in an effort to show his majesty.

Perhaps this might have been a great show of power when Belial was an angel and his wings were strong and luminous, but it definitely wasn’t now. Now, his wings were miserable shags of darkened flesh, with the occasional feather barely clinging on.

“You have the bones of a thousand creatures in here,” Artemis continued. “And even if we disregard that, you are still corrupting life on the mountain.”

“What you see as a corruption,” Belial said, moving down one step on the dais, “I see as empowerment.”

“You’re sucking the life out of the environment and using it to corrupt innocent creatures,” she insisted.

“I am the angel of life,” Belial stated, clearly trying to make his voice sound as steady and commanding as possible. “I gift vitality to all beings worthy of serving me. And they in turn bring me more life sources.”

“To what end?” I asked, though I had a pretty good idea where this was going.

“This has to stop,” Artemis said, not giving him a chance to answer my question. “That’s why we’re here.”

“Before you unsheathe your weapons,” the fallen angel said, “allow me to offer you a deal.”

“What kind of deal could you possibly offer us?” Aphrodite asked, and then continued talking privately in the guild chat. “If we’re fighting him, we need to do it before our buffs run out.”

“I don’t want to be here any more than you want me to be,” Belial said. “I will promise you that I plan to leave very soon.”

“I think we’ll fight him very soon,” I said in the guild chat, before speaking out loud to the fallen angel before us. “How can we trust you?”

“Your companion is right to say that my place is not here,” he continued. “My domain is in the heavens above. But I was cast down here by my siblings.”

“Why?” I asked, taking a couple of steps closer to him.

“It is not necessary for you to know the reason, but I can say that I plan to return,” he continued. “Very soon. When I fell from the heavens, I needed life force to become stronger. I knew that my immediate surroundings would not provide enough to sustain me and I would die a slow death if I simply siphoned the life around me.”

“So you polluted other creatures to do your bidding?” Artemis countered.

“I gave them life in quantities they had never experienced before,” the angel retorted. “I gave them almost everything I had. I was lying here on the brink of eternal death for days before they returned with their sacrifices. I grew stronger with the life force they offered me and they grew stronger in return.”

“Why?” I asked again. “Do you need to get stronger to return to the heavens?”

“I will become stronger and bring the heavens down!” he said menacingly. “I will have my revenge. I will conquer the heavenly domains of those who wronged me.”

“Will you not need much more life force, or whatever you’re using, in order to do such a thing?” Aphrodite asked.

I noticed her taking the opportunity to move strategically close to a large skull that might offer her cover.

“I only need enough to regain my previous form and conquer the place of power on the summit of this mountain,” he said.

That was the moment when I became absolutely sure that we would have to kill him.

“Once I take over that ancient, untouched fountain of mana, I will be able to raise an army and mount a counterattack.”

“See, now” I said, casually moving closer to him, “you shouldn’t have said that. Because I want that place of power too.”

I launched myself at him as I turned on my Vandalier aura and let out a scream that was meant to buff me as much as debuff the angel. The effect of my Intimidating Howl reduced Belial’s Physical Attack by 23% for thirty seconds, or at least I hoped it did, while the Roar of War effect raised my maximum HP by 15% as well as healing by that amount.

But it looked like I wasn’t the only one who had tricks up his sleeve, and of course I wasn’t expecting to be. What I wasn’t expecting though was the angel flinging open his atrophied wings and launching himself upwards and away from my blade with incredible speed. He was so fast that even Artemis’s arrow missed him.

“Lucky me,” he said as he flew above us. “I had not completed my ascension quest yet, because it required the killing of a god. And now I have three to choose from.”