Chapter One
I contemplated the catacomb entrance that stood before me. I’d been there multiple times before, but this time was different.
So much had happened to lead me to this moment, it was hard to believe that it was real, but here I was. Once I’d defeated the sorcerer plaguing the desert with monsters, all the beasts died as soon as their master stopped breathing, and my army was victorious in conquering the sorcerer’s fortress. The great hydra burst into a million pieces as it succumbed to Nameless’ lightning, and the tiny dragon had claimed an entire head for his reward.
After the battle, the tribes then fully agreed to an alliance, and they each moved to their own territories peacefully. Some members of the tribes had remained in my army and would return to my hometown with me. After battling their worst nightmares and legends straight out of children’s tales, they were more than happy to stop fighting amongst themselves.
When he’d died, the sorcerer had a key on his person, and I instantly had a strong feeling that it led to the catacombs’ entrance I’d previously failed to gain entry into. The door to the catacombs had been recently opened, and it tracked with the timing of the sorcerer’s appearance in the desert. I’d taken the key for myself after killing him, and I held it aloft as I pondered all that had brought me to this place.
None of this would have happened to me if it weren’t for Mahini’s pregnancy and desire to reconnect with her long-lost mother. That was what had brought me to the Kotar Desert in the first place, but I wasn’t going to leave while there were still unanswered questions.
I always aimed for one hundred percent completion.
“Everything alright, Great One?” Akina asked from behind me.
The glow of the Kanuakian warrior’s flame sword illuminated the harsh lines of her stoic face, but her metallic-hued eyes gleamed in the light of her magical blade. Her brunette hair hung to her shoulders in loose waves, and her eyebrows were furrowed in concern. She was the only other person present at the catacombs since everyone had insisted that I shouldn’t go alone, and I’d gone along with it to keep the peace.
“Yep.” I grinned over my shoulder at her. “Just thinking about everything that’s happened recently, which led us to this moment. But call me Bash, alright? Enough with the Great One stuff for now.”
“Okay, then, Bash it is. You’re reminiscing now?” Akina arched an eyebrow in a questioning manner. “Wouldn’t you rather see what’s inside?”
“We have all the time in the world,” I countered with a flirtatious wink.
Akina blushed, but she didn’t say anything else.
We’d met shortly after I’d arrived in the Kotar Desert, and her tribe wasn’t the friendliest to me during our first meeting. I’d killed the Naga they were hunting, and they weren’t used to talking to northern people traveling with numerous tribes. After the warrior woman had witnessed my prowess in battle, she’d followed me loyally, and I got to enjoy her presence more and more often.
Now, she was one of my companions, and we were on a quest with just the two of us while everyone else waited back at camp. Mahini, Elissa, and my daughter, Sorena, were all back in my hometown, of course, but Evangeline, Caelia, and Zenda awaited me with my combined military forces.
My mind pictured each of the beautiful women I got to call mine. Mahini’s sharp pale-blue gaze, Elissa’s loving green gemstone eyes, Evangeline’s delicious and luscious lips, Caelia’s untamable curls, and Zenda’s pale-blue skin and green hair all passed through my mind’s eye. They were all gorgeous, intelligent, and talented in their own ways, but I was glad it was just me and Akina right then.
I’d been wanting to get to know the Kanuakian warrior woman better for a while now, and the fact that she seemed open to getting to know me better only furthered my desire.
Maybe we would have a future together?
“You may have all the time in the world,” Akina teased. “But I am mortal, and I can feel myself aging as I wait for you to try out the key.”
“Fine,” I chuckled.
I made a new save point and gripped the handle of the key tightly as I slotted it into the hole and quickly discovered I had to scrape out algae and moss before it would slide in all the way. Then I turned the key forcefully, and I felt more so than heard gears click and move. Dust erupted from the seams of the stone door, and the whole thing depressed backward.
“I guess it works.” I flashed Akina a broad smile over my shoulder, and she met it with one of her own.
“Well, go on, then.” The warrior woman pushed against my lower back to urge me onward. “Light a torch or something.”
“Or something,” I said as I summoned a flame to the palm of my hand.
“Show-off,” the fire mage chuckled.
“Your lack of patience is a weakness in your fighting ability,” I pointed out. “You don’t want to rush headlong into death, do you?”
“Sometimes.” Akina shrugged one shoulder, but then she twirled her flame sword around in her grasp. “Right now it’s just curiosity driving me forward, but I’m following you, so hurry up.”
It seemed the previously stoic warrior was coming out of her shell a little bit, and I couldn’t wait to see more of her true self.
“Alright, alright,” I laughed.
Then I stepped inside the tunnel of the catacomb.
The air was moldy smelling and rank with death, so I tried to only breathe through my mouth to avoid the stench. My dragonscale helmet only blocked some of the smells, and I hoped I grew nose blind to the rest quickly. The walls were solid stone and only two feet wide, so I had to shuffle sideways until the tunnel widened out some. Akina squeezed through the gap behind me, but she sighed with relief when the sides opened up a few feet later.
The walls were covered in carvings depicting images of death and disease. There were whole villages of corpses piled up beneath some carved flames, and I wondered what it meant.
Were they warnings, or history?
There was no way to know for sure, and we still had more to explore, so I kept going. The hallway continued to widen until it was roughly eight feet between the walls, but it curved ever so slightly inward and tilted downward. I had a feeling we were spiraling below the surface of the ground, and the pressure of the air seemed to confirm my theory.
Maybe this was where the God of the Plague was summoned from.
I’d been summoned from within a catacomb by a sorcerer named Raijin Thornheart, but he’d always intended on killing me to steal my powers from the get-go. The fucker hadn’t counted on me being able to reload to a save point, memorize the movements of him and his goons, and use my stubbornness to defeat all of them.
It wasn’t until after I’d killed all fifteen men that I’d learned I was the God of Time, and I’d been kicking ass and taking names ever since.
I’d claimed the closest town to the catacombs I’d been summoned to as my own, and it was renamed to Bastianville in my honor. It was called Addington before that because of the founder, Elrin Addington, but the mayor had no qualms about giving me control over his town after I married his daughter. It had since grown in size and power until it more closely resembled a city than a village.
That wasn’t the end of my power, though, and I thought about how I’d been named Archduke by the King of Sorreyal, gained devout followers in multiple realms, traveled to distant islands to fight pirates, and conquered the Kotar Desert from a rampaging warlord intent on total domination.
But everything culminated in this moment, and I took a deep breath as I continued down the stone corridor.
The stench of mold and mildew grew stronger the further into the catacombs we went, but then doorways began to open up on either side of us. We explored the alcoves as we found them, but there was nothing but urns full of cremated remains on stands inside. In video games, there would sometimes be gold or jewels inside such containers, but I wasn’t about to dig through the ashes of some cremated corpse in search of gold when I already had more than I could spend in one lifetime.
Akina didn’t say much as we traversed the corridor, but she leapt at each noise and waved her flame sword toward the shadows, so I could tell she was on edge.
“It was just a droplet of water falling,” I reassured her as she jumped again, and I pointed to where a leak had sprung in the ceiling of the tunnel. “Don’t worry, nothing bad can happen to you with me around.”
“You can guarantee that?” Akina asked.
“Absolutely.” I nodded. “It’s one of the perks of being the God of Time.”
“How do you do so?” Akina asked with a curious tilt of her head. “How do you make sure everything works out in your favor?”
“It’s a secret,” I chuckled and winked. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
“You are joking.” Akina frowned. “You would not kill me.”
“You’re right.” I laughed, but when I regained my composure, I fixed her with a serious look. “But really, it’s not something you need to worry about. It’s all part of my abilities as the God of Time, and that’s all you need to know.”
“Alright.” Akina flashed me a white-lipped smile. “I trust you, Bash.”
“Good.” I nodded again. “Now, let’s keep moving forward, er, downward, or whatever direction we are heading in.”
“It feels like a spiral,” Akina pointed out.
“You’re right.” I grinned. “Let’s just hope it leads us somewhere cool.”
The alcoves grew larger and larger as we went down, and soon they more closely resembled small rooms. There were no doors, only archways, and it was easy enough to glance inside with my flame spell to illuminate the space.
Coffins and sarcophagi decorated the larger spaces, and I was tempted to look inside for treasure, but I wanted to make it to the end first. Besides, they could be booby-trapped to ward off grave robbers, and I wasn’t going to take any more risks than were necessary before I found what I was looking for.
What exactly I was looking for was still a mystery, but I had a good feeling about the catacombs finally leading to answers.
“Watch your step,” I warned as the corridor twisted downward, and the footing grew uneven.
“I can see fine,” Akina countered. “Just focus on getting us through this maze.”
“It’s simple enough,” I said as I gestured to the side rooms. “This is a burial tomb, but I don’t know who for.”
“Maybe they’re ancient chiefs of the desert?” Akina suggested with a shrug. “Or people who lived in Kotar before my people came here?”
“Who lived in the desert realm before your people arrived?” This was a story I hadn’t heard before.
“Well, it wasn’t always a desert.” Akina spoke in a soft voice like she was sharing a secret with me. “This land is cursed now, but it was once lush with vegetation and jungle trees. The oases are the only signs of the old world still left. That’s why they’re so sacred to my people.”
“I thought it was just because they provide shelter from the harshness of the desert.” I frowned as I thought this over.
It was weird that the Southern Wild Lands could be so lush and rainforest-like while its neighboring realm was nothing but sand and dust. If it was a curse, then it could be broken, but that was a quest for another day.
“Of course, the water sources are vital to our survival,” Akina allowed in a thoughtful voice. “But there’s always been a reverence for the oases among my people that goes beyond just being means of survival.”
“That makes sense, though,” I said. “If there was a long history of a former people, it would have gotten lost in the sands of time. There could be villages and even entire cities covered in dunes, and we wouldn’t even know we were walking on top of them.”
“I’ve never thought about it that way.” Akina frowned, and a crease formed between her eyebrows.
“Let’s keep going,” I suggested, and I jerked my chin down the corridor in front of us. “There’s no telling what we’re going to find, so keep your guard up, but don’t forget to have fun, too.”
“You are a strange god,” Akina said in a low voice.
“Darling, you have no idea,” I laughed.
We came to a junction where the tunnel began to open up into multiple avenues, and I paused as I considered which way to go first. I aimed for one hundred percent completion, so I chose the path to the far left to enter first.
It was drafty, and the roof looked like it was going to collapse in some places, but we walked slowly and determinedly forward. I held my flame spell aloft to illuminate the path ahead, but it was difficult to see where it led when it kept twisting.
We continued down the tunnel for several minutes in silence, but then the corridor opened up into a circular annex, and several rooms circled the center space.
“Time to explore,” I said, and I made a new save point before I attempted to open the first heavy wooden door. There was nothing but a coffin inside with a large stone plaque on the wall behind it, and the other rooms held much the same.
“It’s a dead end?” Akina frowned as she scanned the circular annex. “These rooms are nothing but tombs.”
“Sure, we’ve crossed off one possibility.” I grinned. “Let’s go back to the junction and try the next hallway.”
I was surprised we hadn’t encountered any monsters, draugrs, or traps, so I was holding onto the hope that maybe the sorcerer had already triggered or killed everything hostile inside the catacombs.
“Wasn’t the junction just ahead?” Akina asked as we made our way back to the section where the hallway split. “It feels like it’s taking much longer to return.”
“That’s because you’ve already seen this section,” I pointed out. “Time will pass quickly again once we make it back to uncharted territory.”
“It just feels like the hallway is stretching out,” Akina said in a worried tone.
Had she triggered some trap I wasn’t aware of?
Was there a trap that could play tricks on the mind?
“Are you okay?” I paused and held my flame closer to her face as I analyzed her eyes. “You look flushed.”
“I’m fine. I think.” Akina frowned. “You don’t feel like the hallway is longer on the way back?”
“Not to me.” I matched her expression. “You’re starting to worry me.”
“Let’s just get back to the junction.” Akina flapped a dismissive hand. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“If you’re sure.” I took a deep breath before I turned back to the entrance of the tunnel.
We walked and walked, and it did start to feel like the tunnel was much longer on the way back than it had been on the way down. Then a drafty breeze gusted toward me, and I breathed a sigh of relief when we stepped into the junction area.
“Do you need to take a break?” I asked while we were in the familiar space.
“Let’s keep going.” Akina flashed me a tight-lipped smile.
We went into the second tunnel to the left, but we found another dead end. I was determined to figure out what was so important about these catacombs, but so far all we’d found were a lot of coffins and urns. My instincts told me the sorcerer had been to this location, and I wanted to know why.
The third tunnel kept on going for much longer than the first two, and I was starting to get a good feeling when it ended at another circular room. This one looked like a ritual space, though, and an altar took up most of the room.
Bloodstains covered every inch of the altar, and ancient melted candles stood on stands in a circular pattern around the space. I used my flame spell to light them, and the room was bathed in an orange glow. The shadows spiked against the walls and highlighted the domed ceiling, but dust and debris sprinkled down from above.
The ceiling didn’t look the most secure, but I doubted it would cave in on us right away unless some sort of loud noise triggered it.
“Keep your voice low,” I warned Akina. “The ceiling looks unstable.”
“Alright.” The warrior woman nodded curtly, and she pressed her lips into a thin white line.
I inspected the altar some more, but I didn’t find anything particularly interesting. Then we returned to the junction area to try the next hallway.
“What exactly are you looking for?” Akina asked in a curious tone as we headed down the fourth tunnel.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. There was likely going to be a chance to reset to my save point, so it was fine if she saw me as less than godly for a few moments. “I’m fairly certain the sorcerer came here, but so far there is no evidence to support that.”
The fourth tunnel led to another ritual space, but this circular room had pedestals surrounding the rectangular altar. The pedestals were covered in amber-encased monster heads, and I spotted all of our enemies.
There was the massive head of a hydra, the torso of a cyclops, and the shadowy form of a Vex, plus many others, but there were some spots on each exposed to the elements, and pieces were missing from them all.
An eye here, an ear there, and the wing of the Vex was gone.
Enough to summon more.
“This is it!” I laughed. “This is what I was looking for, Akina.”
“What am I looking at?” Akina glanced around, but she shuddered as she peered up at the intimidating open eyes of the hydra head. “Other than my childhood nightmares?”
“Evidence.” I grinned as I gestured at the missing spots. “The sorcerer took pieces of each of them, and he used those pieces to summon more into the desert.”
“You think this is where he got his army from?” Akina gasped. “Is that possible?”
“With magic, it is.” I nodded. “The sorcerer was a multi-elementalist as well as a summoner. I’ve never met anyone else like that besides me.”
“I don’t really like it when you summon the Naga for us to practice against,” Akina admitted. “It feels too real.”
“It helps if you’re prepared for the real thing,” I explained in a gentle tone. “But you never have to participate in anything you don’t want to.”
“I want to face my fears,” Akina said in a firm tone, and it sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than me.
We returned to the junction where all the tunnels branched off, and we chose another path to take that we hadn’t gone down before. There were only two tunnels left to explore, and then I would start checking in the coffins and urns for things I could have missed along the way.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything else down here,” Akina observed in a thoughtful tone. “Were the animal remains the only thing you were looking for?”
“It’s strange how empty this place is,” I said. “There has to be something else down here for us to find.”
We came to a closed wooden door at the end of the tunnel, and I shook the handle in an effort to get it open, but the knob wouldn’t budge.
It looked like it was time for some godly power.
“Stand back,” I warned. “I’m going to get this door open.”
Akina obediently shuffled back down the hall, and once she was a safe distance away from the door, I shot it with a massive fireball. The flames erupted and bathed the corridor, but my dragonscale armor protected me from the heat of the blast. When the flames abated, I noticed the door was scorched, but the portal remained closed.
Damn.
Next, I summoned my magical vines, and I instructed them to squeeze between the edges of the doorway to pry it open. The tiny plants squirmed across the stone at lightning speed, and the wood of the door just creaked as they strained against it.
Then the door suddenly splintered inward in a thousand shards, and dust bloomed from the entrance until I was coughing and waving my hand in front of my face. I glanced at Akina, but she merely gave me a curt “go ahead” nod, so I turned toward the open doorway.
Inside, a shrine to a man covered in pockmarks decorated the wall. Candles and incense sat below the image, and remnants of long-dead flowers covered every surface. The inscription was written in an ancient language I couldn’t read, and I shot Akina a questioning glance to see if maybe she could read it, but she shook her head.
There was also a sarcophagus at the center of the room, and we inched closer to take a look at it. Akina stepped forward with obvious curiosity, so I let her take the lead.
“What do you think is inside?” she asked. “Sometimes people are buried with their valuables.”
“Could just be a really old dead body.” I shrugged. “Let’s take a look.”
Akina grinned briefly before she set her mouth into a determined line, and then we both pushed against the lid of the sarcophagus. The stone covering creaked against the bottom half, and then air seeped from the cracks like a pressure valve slowly being released.
With a final heave, the two of us managed to push the lid all the way over the edge, and it fell with a resounding thud. Then we peered inside with curiosity, and we found a mummified person wrapped in age-stained cloth. Dust circulated the air above the corpse, but then I noticed the swirls of debris rush away from the contents of the tomb.
The body inside began to shift, and a low growl escaped the ribbons of cloth across its face. Blue eyes glowed with magic through the coverings, and I staggered backward with Akina in tow.
“A real-life mummy?” I gasped, half with excitement and half with dread.
Now, that was an interesting find.
The mummy slowly sat up and placed its cloth-bound hands on the rim of its sarcophagus, and it peered around as though gaining its bearings. Then its blue eyes turned in our direction, and another growl emitted from the unseen throat.
“I’ve got this, Great One,” Akina said in a brave voice as she stepped forward with her flame sword.
“Be careful,” I urged, but I wasn’t about to stand between a warrior woman and battle. I could always step in, or reset to my save point if I needed to, so it wouldn’t hurt to let her have some fun.
Akina marched bravely toward the mummy, and she swung the handle of her massive magical sword in a wide arch just as the undead creature was climbing out of its bed.
The mummy lifted a hand with a deep throaty growl, and Akina’s sword smashed into a magical barrier. The flames of her blade spread out against the invisible shield and revealed its conical design, but I wanted to see what Akina would do next, so I stayed back.
Akina bashed her sword against the barrier with ever-growing ferocity, but I could sense her frustration mounting. I wanted to let her figure things out on her own first, but I could already tell what areas we needed to work on with her fighting skills.
She needed patience.
There was more than one way to teach patience to a fiery woman, but those were thoughts for another time.
Then the mummy jumped out of the sarcophagus with surprising speed, and he lunged for Akina’s throat with both hands before I even realized what was happening. The mummy’s face showed nothing but icy-blue eyes as he started to strangle her, and Akina flailed as she tried to beat her sword against its back, but the undead creature ignored the blows as he tightened his grasp.
I was darting across the room before my mind even caught up to the scene, but then the warrior woman suddenly hung slack in the mummy’s hands, and he flung her to the side as his gaze turned toward me.
Damn.
She was dead.
This had gone wrong fast, but luckily I knew a way to get around that.
Chime.