While Igna scoured her inventory to try and find a healing potion, Caille looted the enemies, and Kyle looked around the temple. This place seemed to be dedicated to this Golden Flame from the start. The flame motif was everywhere – walls, windows, the ceiling, the floor tiles, even the sides of the pews.
The altar was made of a single marble slab. Unlike the rest of the temple, it wasn’t the masterpiece of a master craftsman. It had jagged edges, cracks on the surface… plenty of imperfections. Yet, the statue depicting the flames they worshipped behind the altar, also made from the same type of marble was simply stunning.
“I wonder what this Golden Flame thing really is.” He muttered. Why were they hostile in the first place?
Caille chuckled. “Why don’t you ask the priestess?” She suggested. Kyle hesitated, “Oh. Yeah.” He turned to the side. “Come forth.”
Unlike the raven or the Fallen Knight Aoris, Irena, Priestess of the Golden Flame didn’t appear
They arrived at the fortress in construction shortly after dusk. Walking the narrow rock bridge in the dark was one of the more terrifying experiences of their lives, and each and every one of them breathed deep sighs of relief once they reached the other side of the chasm. To Kyle’s surprise, there was quite crowd in the land now. While some were simple workers, NPC’s of the game, he saw more than a handful of players working on the construction as well. Men and women, even some young, high school aged children had come. “Well, they sure took the memo.” Caille smirked. “Allow me to do the introduction.” She added upon seeing Kyle’s confused expression. “These are the Phoenix Guild members. Igna’s and my guild. We created it together, though she’s the leader, and I’m the second in command. She owes much of her first rank position to these guys and gals.” Igna nodded, then hurried off to talk with an older man. A player again, as it was quite obvious from the
Come morning, the chirping of the birds and the slightly muffled sounds of the construction woke him up from his deep, and surprisingly comfortable slumber. He had never thought before that a blanket thrown on some piles of hay could be so comfortable. He yawned, stretched his arms and legs, and left the barn to greet the new day. Igna and Caille were nowhere to be seen, and nor were any other players. There were plenty of plain clothed NPC’s working on the outer walls and the towers, and there were a bunch of others slowly uprooting the grass and bushes from around the lake, but nobody who shouldn’t see him asleep had seen him. That was a win in his book. He approached the yet untouched sections of the river, took out some breakfast from his inventory, and ate it while splashing some water around with his bare feet. “Good morning!” Igna’s cheerful voice soon sounded. She waved at him from afar, checked the construction for a few minute
“Hmmm…” Caille narrowed her eyes, pursed her lips, and glared at the monster ahead of them. “You didn’t mention we’d be fighting a chimera.” She shot Luke an annoyed glance. “I don’t like things that have more than one head.” Said chimera was about fifty meters away from them, laying on the ground in the middle of a crater. The ground was scorched within the crater, and the thing that created the crater – a large lump of obsidian – was at the epicentre of it. “My bad, I didn’t know you cared about the number of heads.” Luke smirked. “But then again, I’d think you would be used to it, considering the weird things you summon when fighting.” Caille glared at him. “Watch it Luke, I might just miss the chimera and drop the slug on you instead.” The Paladin laughed out loud. “Right, and miss you chance to get all that obsidian.” His mischievous laugh was contagious, even Kyle chuckled. Caille hesitated for a moment, then let out a dramatic sigh. “You’re goo
“Yeah but how in the world do we even carry this thing back?” The thought hadn’t even crossed their minds until Luke asked. Caille opened her mouth with an all-knowing expression, then a look of confusion appeared on her face as she slowly closed her mouth. “Hmm.” Was all she said after a solid minute of thinking. “Well, can’t your slug carry it?” Luke asked again. Caille shook her head. “No, it’s weak to begin with, very slow, and can’t effect the material world for longer than a handful of minutes anyways.” She pursed her lips and pressed her palm against the large chunk of obsidian. “We need something else.” She muttered. While that was obvious, Kyle couldn’t really think of anything that would allow them to carry this. It was simply too heavy! “Harriet isn’t around, is she?” Luke asked suddenly. Caille shook her head. “No, work trip, she’ll be back in two weeks. Besides, I don’t think her gravity altering magic would be strong enough in this case. This th
The obsidian chunk was right where they left it just a short time ago, but now there were about half a dozen people waiting around it. Kyle felt his body tense up – were they players of another guild? “Oi!” Caille called out to them as the three of them approached the crater. “Did anyone come to annoy you?” One of the players nodded. “Yeah, some knight in shiny new armour and a sword way too heavy for him to use properly.” She chuckled. “We made short work of him, but he did scream something about needing the obsidian to kill some guy.” Kyle breathed a sigh of relief. With no matching guild armours or any other markings, he had no way of telling who these people were. He really needed to stop thinking of every player as an enemy. “Well, let’s just ignore him.” Caille muttered, then shot Kyle a quick glance. “Should we give it a try?” Kyle nodded and approached the obsidian. “Come on out.” He softly said. The Jellyfish appeared out of thin air,
The next day, they were once again ready to set off. Before they did, however, Luke pulled Kyle aside, away from Caille and Igna. “A word?” he asked, shooting a quick glance around to make sure no one was listening. Kyle narrowed his eyes. What was this about? “Look, I heard from Caille that you were a solo player normally. Is that true?” Kyle nodded. “Yeah, I don’t have a group I play with.” Also, he was stuck in the game, but there was no need to bring that up now. Luke didn’t need to know that. “I assumed as much. That black knight who killed me before was your summon, right?” Kyle nodded, he was right. “I did some research last night since you seemed to be the strongest of us. Maybe except for Caille and Igna.” He sighed. “Summoners don’t have any healing spells, that’s what I found out. You need to find a summon who can do that for you.” Kyle nodded. “I’m aware, but we haven’t found any enemies that can hea
The cathedral towered before them. The sun had only now started to rise as the tree of them stood before the gigantic building. Made from dark stone blocks, it had an intricate, gothic architecture. The walls were carved and given flowing form. Mural depicted angels reaching for mortals, blessing them with their holy presence. Yet now, most of those angels’ faces were broken. The walls were charred with flames, and ash covered the ground around the cathedral. “This place must have been beautiful once.” Caille muttered as her gaze lingered on the gigantic building. “Still is,” Igna said with a low voice. “It’s also very creepy.” She added, her hand resting on the hilt of her blade. “Let’s get going.” Kyle said. He didn’t want to waste any more time. Whatever monstrosity was going on within these walls, it had to be stopped. These fire worshippers were clearly insane, and nothing good could come out of letting them continue with their sick, twisted rituals.
The cast metal doors towered over them. There was something eerie about them, but Kyle couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He shook his head and decided to ignore the doors and their odd eeriness. “I can summon the Fallen Knight.” He suggested, looking at Igna and Caille. Both women shook their heads. “It’s a boss fight. Let’s see how we fare, and you can decide during the battle.” Igna stretched her arms, then smirked. “Let’s give this a try.” She said with a cheerful voice. Caille nodded, then approached the door and put her hands against the metal. “Here goes nothing!” She said as she pushed the doors open. A loud, ear piercing creak sounded as the doors slowly swung open, revealing the grand hall behind them. At first glance, it looked no different than a usual hall of a usual cathedral. If they ignored the flaming altar, that is. And the unconscious man chained to a pillar off to the side. That had to be the fallen angel Luke had told him about!