Volume 1 Chapter 14 Titan Forge City

Chapter 14 Titan Forge City

The next day, as early as the sun rose, they set off on their way to Titan Forge, the city of dwarves.

At about noon, the distant Svartalfaheim Mountain appeared in their sights. They could see the snow cap on the top of it. Clearly, It was impossible for them to climb up the mountain to cross it and because the mountain belt was many thousands of kilometres wide, they couldn’t circumvent it as well.

Therefore, adventuring into Titan Forge was the only way for them to go through this enormous mountain.

At around 17:00, they arrived at the foot of the mountain.

They could see the gate of the Titan Forge, which was a splendid city with remarkable architecture. However, they had no time to admire dwarven architecture, because they heard sounds of screams inside the city.

After entering the gate of the city, a scene of hell on earth came into their sights.

They saw hundreds of dwarves running on all fours as if they were some sort of beasts. Their skins were pale and their eyes were red and bloodshot. Clearly, these dwarves had mutated for some reason.

There were normal dwarves who hadn’t mutated too and the normal ones were running in horror from those abnormal mutant ones.

One normal dwarf was caught by one monstrous abnormal dwarf and the latter bit the former on his neck as if he were some kind of vampire in horror stories.

The bitten dwarf screamed and both of his eyes commenced to turn red and bloodshot. His skin was whitening too and after approximately ten seconds, he started to run on all fours and attack other unturned normal dwarves like those mutant ones too.

In the centre of this obscene scene stood a man with black trench coat and a beak-like mask. Soon, he noticed the presence of the Aislina and her human friends.

“Hey, you!” yelled Yanni before the mysterious man with trench coat opened his mouth, “Who the hell are you?”

“I am the bringer of plagues, the master of virology, as well as the servant of the Death. In Grey Factory, they call me Doctor Plague.” answered the man with trench coat.

“So you’re Doctor Plague? I’ve heard so much about you,” breathed Aislina.

“What a charming girl! Look at your azure hair, what a special colour! So what is your name, girl?” inquired

“My name is Aislina,” answered Aislina quietly, her eyes fixed on that Doctor Plague.

“Aislina? Of course you’re Aislina. Look at your cerulean hair and your beautiful eyes! Aislina, the last elf in this world, I have been listening to your story for a long time. Master Mortis told me that you had stolen something belonging to him, and I will help him to take it back!” whispered Doctor Plague, a bottle of green potion held in his right hand.

He removed the cork from the bottle, out of which, eerie green gases commenced to come out and formed a cloud. The green cloud flew into the nose of Aislina and her friends. However, nothing happened after that.

“That’s impressive, all of you four are immune to my virus!” exclaimed Doctor Plague

“There are power inside our blood, the power blessed by Sylvana,” explained Aislina.

“Impressive! impressive! Since that, my pets will fight with you,” smirked Doctor Plague.

As he finished speaking, all those mutant dwarves dashed towards Aislina.

Aislina didn’t panic but held out her right hand, on the centre of which a magical flower commenced to grow with a flash of green light. With a crispy sound, a huge cloud formed by spores were shot out of the flower and exploded in the air.

Thousands drops of spores poured down like rain, melting all the zombie-dwarves who touched the spores into dust and ashes. Within a minute, all mutant dwarves were blasted into smithereens by Aislina.

“A rain of deadly spores! impressive!” Doctor Plague praised.

“What has happened to those dwarves?” questioned Aislina.

“Obviously, those pitiful shorties have been infected with my plague, which have turned them into soulless monsters desiring to attack everyone in their sights, except me, and anyone attacked by them will be infected with this virus as well, because my virus can be transmitted via the blood. I am a genius, ain’t I? Anyway, since you have defeated my pets, I shall run for now. However, I will develop a stronger plague and I am very sure that we will meet again, sooner than you can ever imagine, my dear adorable kids,” replied Doctor Plague.

The instant his voice broke off, he took out a bottle of blue liquid. He removed the cork of the bottle and as soon as the liquid was exposed to the air, it evaporated and turned into blue mist, which swallowed Doctor Plague whole. When the mist was gone, Doctor Plague was gone as well. It was a grandiose exit.

“Wow, you were so cool when fighting just now! A rain of spores! That’s the most spectacular magic tricks I’ve ever seen!” exclaimed Starsha.

“Thank you, Starsha. That spell is powerful, but it has really drained all of my mana and I don’t feel well now. I need to rest,” purred Aislina weakly.

The four commenced to observe the surroundings and found themselves standing on an empty street. The dwarven architecture was rather exotic. It looked like neither human architectures nor elven architectures. Clearly, the dwarves have their own style.

They didn’t build their city. To be precise, they dug their city and substantially they were living in an enormous artificial cave. Therefore, the whole Titan Forge was a city formed of caves and the street was in fact a tunnel and on the walls of the tunnel were entrances to smaller caves that served as homes and stores of the dwarves.

Unlike elves who had their own language, dwarves used the same language as Normanian humans. Therefore, when they saw a store with a sign that read “tavern”, they knew that it was really a tavern.

Slowly and quietly, they entered the tavern.

“What are you four doing here? Humans are not welcomed here,” roared the barkeeper.

“What’s wrong with you? We just helped you dwarves cleanse those whacky zombies and this is the way you thank us?” blamed Starsha.

“I’m sorry, humans are not welcome here,” repeated the barkeeper.

“You said that humans are not allowed here. But our friend is not a human. In fact, she is an elf. We can leave this tavern but please allow our elf friend to rest here…” argued Floria.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to let Aislina rest in this tavern alone. I don’t trust those dwarves. What if they do something to Aislina?” interrupted Yanni.

“You’re right, Yanni. Since that, let’s go and we’ll find another place for Aislina to take a rest,” suggested Floria.

“That’s good, because humans are not welcome here,” smirked the barkeeper.

“Anyway, before I go, can at least you tell me where does Thorne live?” inquired Floria.

“Where did you hear of this name?” demanded the barkeeper, raising his eyebrows.

“In fact, we’re enemies of the Grey Factory. We once sneaked into a dungeon inside the Grey Factory and found a dwarf locked there. He said that he want to apologize to his brother Throne…” answered Floria.

“Where is that dwarf now?” questioned the barkeeper, his voice trembling with unknown emotion.

“He has passed away and apologizing to his brother was his death wish. He died because Doctor Plague had tested his new invention on him and …” replied Starsha, dipping her head down.

“What?!!” yelled the Barkeeper. His whole face was frozen and it was hard to tell what the expression on his face was. He then burst out tears. Crying crazily, he started to punched everything in his sights with his fists.

“Hey, are you OK,” queried Floria tentatively.

“I am Thorne … I am Thorne …” sobbed the barkeeper.

“I’m sorry, Throne,” Floria reassured him. Throne, the barkeeper was crying madly with all his sanity leaving his mind.

“Here are the key to the two empty rooms upstairs, please leave me alone for a moment and let your elf friend rest…”

III

Yanni was taking a walk alone on the street, where remnants of those zombie dwarves were lying chaotically and obviously no one was going to clean them up. The air was foul with decay as if the whole city had been turned into some sort of gigantic toilet or stinky rubbish dump.

The whole Titan Forge was silent and everyone had closed their doors and windows in case that Doctor plague attacked again. All of this fearsome scenes were done by Doctor Plague and he should be punished.

Blessed by the power of Sylvana, Yanni wouldn’t be infected with the necrovirus of Doctor Plague. However, those dwarves were not immune to the virus and to them, this virus might be the greatest terror in this world which would only appear in their most fearsome nightmares.

After all, those viruses could deprive them of their souls and turned friends and families into bloody monsters. To them, this virus was the bringer of the apocalypse.

Feeling that his legs were sore, Yanni decided to head back and see Aislina who was lying inside a room of the tavern right now.

When Yanni arrived back at the tavern, Floria was standing in the doorway.

“Hey, Yanni, we need to talk,” greeted Floria.

“What’s up, sis?” ask Yanni.

“Are you going to see Aislina?” questioned Floria with slight nervousness look on her face.

“Yeah,” Yanni nodded.

“I want to talk with you about Aislina,” purred Floria quietly.

“What’s wrong with her?” inquired Yanni with confusion.

“No, there’s nothing wrong, It’s just, uh, Starsha and I have noticed that something is, umm, going on between you two,” Floria pointed out.

“Aislina and me?” Yanni’s face reddened a little.

“Umm, yeah, you and Aislina … You like her, right?” Floria stuttered.

“For sure, we all like her …” answered Yanni, his face became even redder.

“No, I don’t mean that you normally like her … Uh, it’s so embarrassing … I mean that you like her romantically and you have those, uh, feelings for her, don’t you?” stammered Floria.

“No, it’s …” retorted Yanni.

“Tell me the truth, Yanni, I am you elder sister,” commanded Floria.

“Well, that’s … I think I maybe have a crush on her, but … Alas, I don’t understand why … It’s unexplainable and … In fact, I don’t think she and I will end well if I pursue her …” explained Yanni.

“My intuition told me that she had feelings for you too … Maybe you two can really make an adorable couple,” Floria smiled.

“But we’re too different, you know, Aislina can live long, over centuries, and when I am old, she will be still young. She is an elf and I am a human, so we’re even the same species. Besides, she is so special but I am just a normal human boy …” Yanni lowered his head, his face shadowed with in a pile of sadness.

“Go for her or not, that’s your choice. No matter what you do, I will always support you,” encouraged Floria.

“Thank you, sis,” expressed Yanni gratefully.

Affectionately, Floria gave Yanni a hug. Putting his arm around his sister’s waist, Yanni held her tightly.

Yanni’s blood was burning with warmth. He knew that he was the luckiest boy in this world because he was on the most meaningful journey in this world, with the ones he loved …

IV

In her dream, Aislina found herself standing in that grey forest of Blightess once again. This forest had even become more grimy than last time. More leaves were blackening and falling lifelessly to the ground, the vigour of which drawn into nowhere.

Besides, the forest was losing it colour. The saturation of the whole scene was extremely low at the moment and soon it would become a place formed only by black and white.

This place was becoming dark as well, the scene was becoming blurry and some parts of the forest had even became blank and empty as if this place was now being penetrated by some kind of power of nothingness.

The air in this forest had been filled with some sort of foulness and it was rather stinky. The temperature in this forest was extremely low as well, which made Aislina feel frozen since she was only wearing a sleeveless shirt and a short skirt.

“ᛑᚢ ᚴᛆᚿ ᛁᚿᛐᛂ ᚢᚿᛑᚴᚮᛉᛉᛆ ᛑᛁᛐᛐ ᚯᛑᛂ,ᛆᛁᛌᛚᛁᚿᛆ.ᛑᛁᚿ ᛌĬᛅᛚ ᛐᛁᛚᛚᛡᚯᚱᛆ ᛉᛁᚵ!” [You cannot escape your destiny, Aislina. Your soul belongs to me!]

It was the voice of Blightess and the sounds were coming from somewhere Aislina didn’t know.

“ᛑᛂᚿ ᛒᛚᛂᚴᚿᛆᛐ… ᛑᛂᛐ ᛅᚱ ᛑᚢ ᛁᚵᛂᚿ. ᛑᚢ ᛅᚱ ᛌᛆᛆ Ĭᚮᛒᛒᛁᚵ,” [Blightess … It’s you again. You’re so annoying,] complaint Aislina.

“ᛡᚢᚱ ᚡᛆᛆᚵᛆᚱ ᛑᚢ ᛐᛁᛚᛚᛐᛆᛚᛚᛆᚱ ᛉᛁᚵ ᛔᛆᛆ ᛑᛂᛐᛐᛆ ᛌᛅᛐᛐ! Ĭᛆᚵ ᛅᚱ ᛌᚴᛆᛔᛔᛆᚱᛂᚿ ᛆᚡ ᛑᛁᚿ ᚱᛆᛌ!” [How dare you address me in this way! I am the creator of your race!] roared Blightess.

“ᛉᛂᚿ Ĭᛆᚵ ᛡᛆᚱ ᛅᚿᛑᚱᛆᛐ. ᛑᚢ ᛅᚱ ᛁᚿᛐᛂ ᛌᚤᛚᚡᛆᚿᛆ, ᚮᛉ ᛑᚢ ᛌᛆᛑᛂ ᛌĬᛅᛚᚡ, ᚮᛍᛡ ᚴᛚᛆᚱᛐ, ᛑᚢ ᚴᛆᚿ ᚵᚯᚱ ᛁᚿᚵᛂᚿᛐᛁᚿᚵ ᛐᛁᛚᛚ ᛉᛁᚵ ᚠᚯᚱ ᛑᚢ ᛅᚱ ᚠᚯᚱ ᚡᛂᚴ ᚿᚢ,” [But you have changed. You’re not Sylvana, as you said yourself, and clearly, you can do nothing to me because you’re too weak now,] teased Aislina.

“ᛑᛂᛐ ᛅᚱ ᛌᛆᚿᛐ ᛆᛐᛐ Ĭᛆᚵ ᚴᛆᚿ ᚵᚯᚱ ᛁᚿᚵᛂᚿᛐᛁᚿᚵ ᛐᛁᛚᛚ ᛑᛁᚵ, ᛉᛂᚿ ᛉᛆᛌᛐᛂᚱ ᛉᚮᚱᛐᛁᛌ ᚮᛍᛡ ᚴᚢᛒᛂᚿ ᛆᚡ ᚿᛂᚴᚱᚢᛌ ᚴᛆᚿ! ᚴᚢᛒᛆᚿ ᛆᚡ ᚿᛂᚴᚱᚢᛌ ᛡᛆᚱ ᚴᚮᚱᚱᚢᛉᛔᛂᚱᛆᛐ ᛡᛆᛚᚡ ᛆᚡ ᛑᛁᚿ ᚠᛁᛍᚴᛆ ᛑᛁᛉᛂᚿᛌᛁᚮᚿ ᚮᛍᛡ ᛌᚿᛆᚱᛐ ᛑᛂᛐ ᛌᚴᛆᛚᛚ ᛒᚮᚱĬᛆ ᛆᛐᛐ ᚴᚮᚱᚱᚢᛉᛔᛂᚱᛆ ᛑᛁᚵ ᛌĬᛅᛚᚡ. ᛉᛆᛌᛐᛂᚱ ᛉᚮᚱᛐᛁᛌ ᛅᚱ ᚴᚱᛆᚠᛐᚠᚢᛚᛚᛆᚱᛂ ᛅᚿ ᛑᛁᚵ. ᚮᛉ ᛑᚢ ᛆᚡᚡᛁᛌᛆᚱ ᛆᛐᛐ ᛐᛆ ᛉᛁᚿ ᚴᚱᛆᚠᛐ, ᛑᚢ ᛌᚴᛆᛚᛚ ᚠᛆᛚᛚᛂᚱᛆ ᚮᛍᛡ ᚡᛅᚱᛚᛑᛂᚿ ᛆᚡ ᚿᛆᛐᚢᚱ ᛌᚴᛆᛚᛚ ᛑᚯ,” [It’s true that I can do nothing to you, but Master Mortis and the Cube of Necrus can! The Cube of Necrus has corrupted half of your Pocket Dimension and soon it will start to corrupted you yourself. Master Mortis is more powerful than you. If you reject to take my power, you will fail and the world of nature will die,] threatened Blightess.

“ᛉᛁᚿ ᛉᛆᛆᛚᛐ ᛅᚱ ᛆᛚᛑᚱᛁᚵ ᛌᛆᚴᛂᚱ ᛌᚮᛉ ᛌᚴᚤᛑᛑᛆ ᚵᚱᚯᚿᛌᚴᛆᚿ ᚮᛍᛡ ᚡᛆᛑ Ĭᛆᚵ ᚡᛁᛚᛚ ᛅᚱ ᛆᛐᛐ ᛆᛚᛚᛆ ᚴᚱᛂᛆᛐᚢᚱᛂᚿ ᛔᛆᛆ ᛑᛂᚿᚿᛆ ᛔᛚᛆᚿᛂᛐ ᚴᛆᚿ ᛚᛂᚡ ᛁ ᛚᚤᛍᚴᛆ ᚮᛍᛡ ᚠᚱᛂᛑ, ᛉᛂᚿ ᛑᚢ ᚴᚮᛉᛉᛂᚱ ᛆᛐᛐ ᚠᚯᚱᚵᚯᚱᛆ ᚠᚱᛂᛑᛂᚿ, ᛂᛚᛚᛂᚱ ᛡᚢᚱ? ᛑᚢ ᚡᛁᛚᛚ ᚱᛂᚿᚵᚯᚱᛆ ᛑᛂᚿᚿᛆ ᚡᛅᚱᛚᛑ ᚵᛂᚿᚮᛉ ᛉᛆᛌᛌᛉᚯᚱᛑᛆ ᚮᛌᚴᚤᛚᛑᛚᛁᚵᛆ ᛉᛅᚿᚿᛁᛌᚴᚮᚱ, ᚮᛍᛡ Ĭᛆᚵ ᚴᚮᛉᛉᛂᚱ ᛁᚿᛐᛂ ᛆᛐᛐ ᛚᛆᛆᛐ ᛑᛁᚵ ᚵᚯᚱᛆ ᛑᛂᛐ,” [My goal is never ‘protecting the greenness’ stuff and what I want is that all the creatures on this planet can live in felicity and peace, but you’re going to destroying the peace, aren’t you? You want to ‘cleanse’ this world by mass-murdering innocent humans, and I am not going to let you do this,] replied Aislina.

“ᚱᛁᚴᛐᛁᚵᛐ?” [Really?] smirked Blightess. He started to whisper in Aislina’s ear and those words were so tempting that Aislina could even sense some corrupted power inside the words. The whisper of Blightess was obviously messing with Aislina’s mind and brain.

“Aislina, Aislina!” Someone was calling her. It was Yanni’s voice.

“Yanni …” breathed Aislina weakly, waking up from the nightmare.

The scene of the forest faded and the nightmare ended. With cold sweats streaming down her body, she woke up on her bed inside the dwarven tavern.