Becoming the Dark Lord

Triss’s ship was moving through the cursed city, navigating what passed for a street. It was narrow. The ancient buildings rose so close on either side that they almost brushed the hull. Everyone watched them warily, ready for something to leap down from above and land on the deck. They had been in there for hours now. The fog had completely vanished, making the labyrinthine city navigable again, but that did not make it easy.

Every turn the ship took into another flooded street was a challenge. The buildings looked like skyscrapers, and now and then pieces broke loose. They could see debris falling in the distance. If one of those chunks hit the ship from that height, it would do serious damage. Triss was lucky. Her crew had a lot of people with professions tied to construction, and after all those months, they had become very good at repairing the ship.

“Turn ahead!” someone at the prow shouted.

Luke stood off to one side, watching the distant lights. Some were gold, some white, scattered atop faraway stone buildings.

“There are artifacts and Beacons all over this place. But it’s still strange. Too quiet. Too empty.”

Unlike the area around Beacon 2, they had not run into anyone there.

Either this city is absurdly huge, or...

Eleanor came up beside him, taking in the place.

“Cadmus, any useful insight about this city?” he asked.

The little robot dropped its invisibility. “Nothing beyond what I told you half an hour ago.”

“Doesn’t hurt to ask. I need to know whether I passed something that triggered one of your convenient mystery updates.”

“Luke Moon, if a ‘convenient mystery update’ occurs, I will inform you,” it said.

“Then tell me what those things in the fog were.”

“The unknown, and what dwells within it, are real,” Cadmus replied. “And sometimes, our fears can become a channel through which they reach us.”

“You feel fear?”

“Of course I feel what you would call fear. I would rather not end up recklessly stupid like you.”

“Was that a joke?”

“It was.”

“You’re not good at jokes.”

“I am still learning your concept of humor.”

“Even a robot knows you’re reckless, Luke,” Artemis said.

Luke moved over to Marten and Triss, who were arguing about their next steps while the ship continued along its route.

“My point of reference is your ship,” Marten said to Luke. “I’m hoping mine is somewhere near yours, or I’m going to be in a very bad position.”

“Isn’t clearing the Beacon more important?” Luke asked.

“And what exactly do I gain from clearing the damn Beacon if I lose my ship?” Marten shot back. “I’m only in this for the money. Beacon rewards will be worth a fortune when we get back to land, now that the system is going to be the new normal for everyone. But my earning potential is a lot higher if I still have a ship.”

“Planning to raid treasure islands, I assume,” Luke said.

“I’m going to be blunt here, but I can’t afford to waste time searching for your ship, Marten,” Triss said. “My goal is the same as yours. Maybe that makes me sound cruel, but every hour I spend off-course matters. My crew and I have less than three days to gather Marine Artifacts and reach not one Beacon, but five of them in this labyrinth. I can’t lose this phase.”

The two kept arguing, but they eventually reached an agreement. They would continue following Luke’s directions for at least a few more hours.

Luke leaned against the rail and focused on Evangeline’s red silhouette through [Predator’s Mark].

Her ship keeps getting farther away. What the hell is happening over there?

Anne was an excellent navigator. She would not be drifting off for no reason.

She’s probably trying to find the best route through this maze.

If it were something truly dangerous, they would already have abandoned their ship and started scaling the buildings to make their way back toward Luke’s.

And they’re not going to abandon our ship lightly in a place like this. Not after all the work we put into it.

He was already preparing himself for the possibility that he might have to clear the next Beacon without Charlie and the rest of the group. Triss was right about that much. The maze was vast and unfamiliar, and the time they had left was far too short.

Could Eleanor and I do it on foot? Cross these buildings? Climb them?

The ships moved fast, but if one of them got pinned down somewhere, Luke and Eleanor could still try to reach it.

Better to keep collecting artifacts.

“Are you okay, Eleanor?” Luke asked when he noticed her staring into the water. She had been shaken ever since the fog.

“It was my mother, Luke. It was really her. It felt real,” she said.

“I can imagine it felt that way.”

“And you? Did you see anyone in the fog?”

He looked down at the dark water. “No. I attacked before the person ever appeared.”

***

Triss’s ship had come to a stop. At the far end of the flooded street, thick vines blocked the way, so thick they looked more like cables than plants. They were running through the stone buildings, checking the surroundings. The whole place was covered in moss, smelled like fish, and every surface was slick.

“If you see anything off, speak up,” Triss said.

One team was hacking at the vines. It was a massive wall of them, sealing off the path.

“Why don’t we just burn them?” someone asked.

“And attract who knows what else with the light?” Marten shot back.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author’s preferred platform and support their work!

Luke was climbing toward an upper floor.

Eleanor fired an arrow that turned into a rope and pulled her up after him. “Are they close?”

“Evangeline’s outline is more aligned with our direction now. Whatever made them veer off, they’re moving back toward our route,” he answered.

Below them, Triss’s people kept cutting.

“Keep someone at the prow. We don’t want that falling on the ship!” someone shouted down.

Then a voice cried out. “Selmarine!”

Luke turned toward the direction they had come from. Selmarines were pouring out of the buildings, charging hard.

“Cut those vines now!” Randall shouted from the ship.

Luke gripped a knife, ready to throw it at the vine wall.

Will the explosion hit the ship?

They were too close to the barrier. Triss swung her axe in a horizontal arc. A glowing slash tore through the air, hit the vines, and severed whole sections of them. She did it again, and more of the wall snapped apart.

“That cost me a lot of stamina!” she shouted. “Move. Get on the damn ship!”

“There’s an artifact over there!” someone yelled, pointing.

The cut vines crashed onto the prow, and people scrambled to pull them free.

“Damn it,” Triss muttered.

Luke spotted the artifacts. They were trapped in a net inside one of the buildings.

Marten fired his revolver at a selmarine. “I need artifacts too.”

“Same,” Luke said.

He and Eleanor jumped. Eleanor fired a rope-arrow, and Luke threw a wired blade that yanked him forward. Triss reached the upper floor as the selmarines unleashed jets of water at her. There were alpha selmarines among them too. She met them head-on, cutting through them as she fought.

Marten kept pulling rounds from his belt, loading them into the revolver and firing as he went, while his other hand worked a scimitar. Luke spun through the selmarines, striking as he moved.

“Use that magic trick of yours. The one that makes things float,” Marten shouted at him.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I think the artifacts are bound to something.”

“Bound?”

They barely reached the net before it ripped open. A massive selmarine burst out from inside, hidden beneath algae the whole time.

[Sunken Selmarine - Lvl 101]

“Found the owner,” Triss said.

She was the first to charge it, while Eleanor fired arrows past her shoulder.

“The ship’s moving!” Marten shouted, glancing back.

“Oh, hell,” Triss said, looking down. “One of the super-currents.”

The ship was being pulled away at terrifying speed.

The stronger selmarine lunged at them with its claws. Luke threw a knife that detonated in its face, and Triss spun into it with her axe, hurling it backward. Marten emptied his revolver into the thing. His last bullet exploded and blasted the creature into the water.

“We’re going to lose the ship!” Eleanor shouted, and all of them ran.

“A super-current? Bad luck,” Marten said.

That was the name they had given to certain flooded streets in the labyrinth, places where the water flow became violently concentrated. Strong enough to drag off an entire ship, and too powerful to fight against. Falling in there was extremely dangerous.

“You know what’s worse than losing a damn ship in this place?” Marten said. He laughed. “Losing track of the ship.”

They jumped to the next building. Behind them, selmarines barked out their guttural cries as they charged and blasted jets of water after them. Luke leaped and, in midair, threw a knife that pulled him forward on its thread. Triss launched herself in a huge jump, and Eleanor followed on one of her rope-arrows.

“Hey! Some of us don’t have tricks like that!” Marten shouted as he ran after them.

Then he turned in one smooth spin and fired into the ceiling.

The roof collapsed behind them, cutting off the selmarines.

Luke ran on the tips of his toes like a cat, activating [Feline Agility]. The skill made him blindingly fast, and he leaped. Midair, he twisted backward and fired the knives loaded into the [Tamn Rift Bracers]. [Fort Reaper’s Mantle] let him descend lightly through the air.

The knives exploded, tearing into the selmarine horde. Marten threw himself downward to avoid the blast, caught one of Eleanor’s ropes, and was hauled in by Triss. When they finally reached the ship, they hit the deck rolling.

“Holy shit,” Marten said, getting to his feet and looking back. “I thought I was going to get eaten alive back there.”

“A few of the bastards fell into the water and got dragged off,” Doug said with a laugh.

“And the artifacts?” someone asked.

“I got them,” Triss said.

There was nothing else they could do now. The current was in control. All they could do was watch and make sure the ship did not slam into anything.

A few hours later, they reached another part of the city. This area was more open, without that claustrophobic feeling of being trapped between buildings. Structures of all sizes rose around them, but they were spaced farther apart. White glows were scattered throughout the city.

“Now we decide our course. I can see at least eight Beacons,” Triss said. “So what’s it going to be, Marten?”

“I’d rather take a Beacon that’s close to another one if possible, and I want to be the second-to-last group to leave the ship,” he said.

Marten did not want to be stranded there after his group finished a Beacon.

“But I prefer option two,” he added. “I place one member of my group with each of yours. That works better.”

“You’re sure?” Luke asked. “You want to enter a Beacon isolated from your people?”

“Beacons are group-based. At least the Phase 1 ones were. The Phase 2 ones were insane, but if we approach a Beacon from this phase, maybe we can gather some information first,” he replied.

“And what about your group’s ship?” Triss asked Luke.

He looked in that direction. Evangeline’s silhouette was getting closer.

“They’re off starboard. At this speed, they’ll be with us in five minutes. We’ll regroup soon.”

“Good. Then we can move quickly,” she said.

They were now trying to solve the problem of leaving a ship unprotected. The moment all of them entered a Beacon dungeon, the ship outside would be exposed.

“We’re in the more open section now,” Marten said. “The entrance we used earlier was rough. The one I found the first time brought me almost straight here. I got lucky and found a cleaner route through the maze. But this part has a bigger problem.”

“Stalkers,” Eleanor guessed.

“Exactly. This is where they start getting much more common.”

“Your ship is getting closer,” someone said to Luke from the cabin doorway where they were gathered.

“I know,” he said.

“I told you it was stupid to mention it to him. Isn’t he tracking them already? He’s one of those stealth-class types, idiot,” said the man’s companion.

“I was being helpful. It’s called manners.”

“Manners? I think you were just curious. You wanted the gossip.”

Triss sighed. “The door is open. We can hear the two of you arguing.”

One of them came back in. “S-sorry, Captain.”

“Ship approaching port side!” someone shouted.

“We already told him, don’t worry,” the man said, moving to shut the door.

“Port side?” Luke said. “It’s starboard.”

“No, your ship’s on port,” the man replied.

Luke immediately ran out of the room.

“See? Your ship’s right there,” the man said, pointing.

“That’s not my ship,” Luke said.

The vessel turned broadside. Openings appeared along its flank.

“Cannons!” the man in the crow’s nest screamed.

Then they fired. Luke dropped low. Triss’s ship was hammered by multiple cannon shots. Evangeline’s outline was still off starboard, still approaching.

“That is not my ship!” Luke shouted to the others.

“Open the sails. Put distance between us!” Triss yelled to her crew.

The ship lurched into motion. Far away, the enemy vessel was weaving through the buildings. The cannons fired again. Triss’s ship surged forward, gaining speed.

“Catch the damn super-current!” she shouted, pointing.

The ship entered it and was yanked forward, accelerating hard and pulling away from the cannon fire.

Luke threw a knife.

[Telekinetic Impulse activated]

The knife flew fast and exploded, but the enemy ship had already turned, vanishing between the buildings. When Luke zoomed in with his magic eye, what he saw made him stop cold.

“What the hell...” he murmured.

“How many people are operating that ship, Luke?” Eleanor asked.

“No one. There’s no one on it. It’s moving by itself.”

And then the cannons thundered again.