Volume 1 Chapter 16 the Bloody Celebration

Chapter 16 the Bloody Celebration

I

In the banquet hall of Throne’s tavern was a grand celebration of the victory against Doctor Plague. All dwarves were drinking wines like mad. Although they had won, most of them had lost their family members, their friends, and someone they loved.

This celebration was just a fake illusion which could make them forget their sorrow temporarily and life had to go one after that.

The plague had destroyed almost everyone in Titan Forge, both physically and mentally. Doctor Plague had escaped for now but he hadn’t died yet, and perhaps he would come back with his newest plague one day, bringing an even worse apocalypse to the dwarves.

Some dwarves were singing on the stage. They were singing for ancient hills and mountains where they came from. Most of them sang rather badly, but bad skills didn’t stop them from expressing their feelings and bringing hope to others at all.

Aislina, Starsha, the siblings and Throne were sitting themselves around the same round table.

Throne was burying his face in his wine. Clearly, he was extremely excited and happy right now. The fact that dwarves had won Doctor Plague his brain made him forget the death of his brother temporarily along with the alcohol paralyzing his brain.

“Finally, we kicked Doctor Plague’s ass. Thank you, travellers!” exclaimed Throne in a drunken voice.

“I am pretty surprised that you can accept us, after all, we’re humans,” Floria smiled.

“We dwarves are not like humans. Most of us live in hope for the future, unlike most of you who live for hatred, wars, fortune and desire with sins. But you three are not like them. You fight for your beliefs,” explained Throne.

“To be honest, I don’t know what we really believe,” muttered Yanni.

“You four believe in Sylvana, don’t you?” asked Throne.

“No, we have betrayed Sylvana,” Aislina shook her head.

“Uh, why?” questioned Throne.

“Sylvana has turned into something else, a wicked entity who wants to kill all the humans,” answered Aislina.

“Since that, I think you all fight for something bigger, something more universal. You fight for everything that is positive, and that belongs to the light,” Throne pointed out.

“Perhaps …” Floria nodded, deep in thoughts.

“When will you leave here and continue your journey to Infernal Mountain?” inquired Throne.

“Tomorrow, I guess. To be honest, since the whole Titan Forge is built inside the mountain, it’s really hard to judge what time is it now,” replied Starsha.

“Yeah, that’s true, but we dwarves love rocks and stones, just like elves love trees and flowers,” admitted Throne.

“What do we humans love?” whispered Yanni.

“That’s a tricky question, Yanni. What do we humans love actually? We humans are always eager to create higher civilization, but we’ll always lose something at the same time, and although our history is a history of evolution, it is also a history of degradation and lots.” responded Starsha.

Suddenly, an unkempt dwarf broke into this banquet hall and began yelling something like mad.

“Hey, lad. What has happened, say slowly and clearly please. I cannot understand what you’re saying at all. Is it Doctor Plague? We’re not afraid of him anymore. Aislina’s magic can tear that weakling into pieces,” Throne reassured him.

“No, it’s not Doctor Plague. It’s the locusts!” screamed that panic dwarf.

“The locust? What do you mean?” queried Throne in confusion.

“The locusts are coming! They have eaten up all the corps that we are growing. A gargantuan cloud of locusts! Thousands of locusts!” squeezed that dwarf.

Knowing that something had gone wrong, Aislina and the humans soon got up to their feet and ran out of the tavern to check what was going on outside.

The instant they opened the door of the tavern, they were stunned by the bloody scene outside.

Clouds of locusts were sweeping this Titan Forge. When a cloud of locusts touched a dwarf alive, those locusts would eat up the dwarf and turned him or her into a fleshless skeleton within seconds.

One of those hungry clouds of locusts rushed into the tavern through its door and within a mere minute, every single dwarf inside the tavern was eaten up and killed by those locusts.

It happened so soon that no one had really figured out what was really going on in this place. Even one minute ago, everyone was still drowned in a joyful atmosphere of the celebration for victory, but now everyone had been dead.

Suddenly, all those locusts – thousands of them - flew towards the four, their wings flapping in the air and making dreadful sounds.

Only then did Aislina realize that it wasn’t a nightmare but the reality. It really happened. Almost the whole race of dwarves had died and if she didn’t do something, she and her friends would die too.

Aislina started to vibrate her whole body and some kind of green gases commenced to come out from her body, emanating by her mystic power. Those green gases formed a shroud of protection and when the locusts touched the green gases, they fell from the sky and died.

Nearly all the locusts had been died, and those who had survived Aislina’s magical green gases fled from the scene.

Exhausted because of the powerful magical spell she just cast, Aislina’s head began aching.

The locusts were gone now, but so were the lives of the dwarves, except Throne, who was still breathing weakly with broken body. Most parts of his flesh had been eaten by the locusts and blood streaming out of his body, forming a scarlet pond of blood.

His bones which was exposed to the air could be seen and it was a miracle that he was still alive.

“Throne, Throne!” Aislina limped towards Throne.

“I think I am dying. Aislina, when I learned that you were the last elf in this world, I thought elves would go extinct earlier than us dwarves. However, I was wrong. No one has survived this attack of locusts, except me. All other dwarves have died now. All of my brothers and sisters have been eaten by those locusts, and soon I will die to because no one can cure me,” muttered Throne weakly.

“No, I can save you, when my magic resumes …” purred Aislina.

“Save this world please … There are still hope. We dwarves always live inside the mountains so that we know deep in our hearts that even the darkest places can be illuminated by light. For this corrupted world, Aislina, you’re the purest light. Continue your journey with your friends, destroy the Cube of Necrus, and bring the light back to our world … Aislina, promise me, you will fulfil your vocation …” pleaded Throne.

“I promise, Throne. Goodbye, this world will remember you forever,” blessed Aislina, her eyes closed in sorrow as well as anger.

After his last breath, Throne died.

The dwarves became an extinct race now.

II

After finding the key to the gate of Mirk Tunnel, the adventurers set out.

The Mirk Tunnel was an artificial tunnel built by dwarves to help them get to the other side of the mountain. Now all the dwarves had died but their legacies would carry on.

Although dwarves had built some torches on the wall, this tunnel was still pretty dark and they needed to hold hands all the time in case they got lost in the shadowiness.

This trip was boring as well, because the only thing they could see on their way was darkness, darkness, and more darkness. There were no crossroads as well. Besides, the temperature inside the tunnel was rather high, and soon they found themselves sweating all over their bodies.

Both sunlight and moonlight couldn’t go inside this tunnel so that there were no ways for the four to judge whether it was during the daytime or night hours, and thus the concept of time became meaningless inside the tunnel.

They didn’t know when they could arrive at the other side of the tunnel and perhaps they would walk in this murky tunnel for eternity.

“Do you know what time is it now, Aislina?” asked Starsha.

“I don’t know,” Aislina shook his head.

“Can’t you use your magic to detect the time?” pursued Starsha.

“I am not omnipotent, Starsha,” sighed Aislina.

After some unknown hours, they arrived at a natural cavern which intersected with the artificial Mirk Tunnel.

This natural cavern was not a big, but several other tunnels were connected to it which led to some sort of underground labyrinth.

There was a small lake inside this natural cavern. There were some fluorescent plants and fungi growing on the wall of the cavern and they lit the whole cavern up, enabling the adventurers to observe the lake clearly.

It was a shallow lake and the water was rather pure, not contaminated by the outside pollution.

“Wow, is that a lake?” exclaimed Starsha.

“Yeah, an underground lake. Anyway, I am a little tired now and I guess you’re as tired as me, so I suggest that we can camp there beside the lake,” advised Floria.

“Good idea, sis,” Yanni nodded.

“Shall we set up a campfire like what we did before?” inquired Aislina.

“No, Aislina, no campfire this time, for it is hellishly hot here inside this tunnel, and I have been sweating all over. By the way, I really want to take a bath inside this lake,” replied Starsha.

“Bravo! I want to take a bath too!” exclaimed Aislina.

“Girls, my brother is here and I think you may want to maintain more privacy!” reminded Floria.

“Then just let Yanni not spy on us,” Aislina giggled and asked, “Yanni, can you promise that you won’t spy on us when we’re bathing?”

“Yes, I can … I’ll try my best,” stammered Yanni, flushing.

“Will you bath with us together, Floria?” invited Starsha.

“Yeah, that’s fine, and Yanni, after we finished bathing, you can take a bath there too,” proposed Floria.

“OK, sis,” agreed Yanni, his face still red.

“Close your eyes, Yanni. We’re going to take our clothes off now. Please look after our clothes when we’re bathing in case some strange cavern creatures steel it,” commanded Starsha.

III

After half an hour, both the girls and Yanni had finished bathing in that small lake.

Sitting on the ground, they were chatting and prepared to sleep. Illuminated by those fluorescent plants living on the wall of the cavern, they could see each other’s faces clearly.

Though there were plants and fungi inside the cavern, there were no animals living there at all, and thus it was silently quiet inside this cavern. Whenever one of the adventurers was talking, the sounds would echo in the cavern and linger for nearly half a minute until they disappeared.

“It’s so comfortable to get rid of those stinky sweat. Finally, we can have a good sleep. By the way, friends, when will we be able to get out of this tunnel?” Starsha asked and complaint, “this tunnel is boring but endless, I really want to take a breath of a mouthful of fresh air outdoors. The dull air inside this tunnel is killing me.”

“I have no idea, Starsha. Anyway, this tunnel has no crossroads at all, so anyway we don’t need to be afraid of getting lost,” replied Floria. She was lying on her brothers’ lap right now.

“Can you get up now, sis? My leg is falling asleep,” asked Yanni.

“Well, OK,” Floria sat up.

Yanni got up to his feet to stretch his legs.

“Seemingly someone must lose some weight,” giggled Starsha.

“Oh come on, I am in perfect shape, Starsha,” argued Floria.

“Umm …” Starsha began to stare at Floria and Yanni with a significant look in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” questioned Floria.

“You two are clingy to each other after we fight with Doctor Plague. According to psychology, one of you must feel insecure. Who is feeling unsecure?” asked Starsha, a smile lingering on his face.

“Unsecure? I never know that you’ve studied psychology, Starsha,” Floria smiled.

“As an artist, I need to know more about the mental world of humans. If you want, I can be a temporary therapist,” explained Starsha.

“You being a therapist? That’s ridiculous, Starsha. In most cases you just make my mental health worse, unlike Yanni, because Yanni talks less and acts more,” Floria laughed, “right, Yanni?”

“Yeah, that’s true. I talk less and act more …” stammered Yanni.

“My stomach is rumbling, are there anything inside your Pocket Dimension that I can eat?” Starsha asked Aislina.

“Umm, to be honest, there isn’t many foods in it and you can blame those locusts for this. They have scourged nearly all the foods in Titan Forge,” Aislina shook her head.

They didn’t know how long did they chat. What they knew was that they fell asleep gradually one by one and after sleeping for unknown hour and resuming their vigour. They set out once again.

There were nothing else they could do but walking, walking, walking and walking in extreme boredom.

After several hours, or perhaps only several minutes because they had lost their sense of time, they saw a glowing white dot in the distance.

With curiosity, they walked towards the dot and it became bigger and bigger until they found out that the dot was in fact the exit of this cavern!

They walked out of the tunnel and breathed a mouthful of fresh air. Finally, they saw the light once again.

It was during night hours now. Outside the tunnel was endless brown withering grassland and ahead of them was a small hill. Walking on the hill, they looked into the distance, and under the moonlight, an enormous city located to the south the hill came into their sights.

That was an enormous city, encroaching on the land of the wilderness. Outside the city, life was growing; inside the city, there were only necrological smoke and rows of lifeless buildings…