Chapter 2 – How to die

Laying in the fading light of the torch, flashes of the life Landurs had once lived appeared before his weary eyes. These flashes remind him of the reason he took on this Hero Trial in particular, not for the money that it provided to him but the chance it gave him. A chance to become a hero to the eyes of so many more than just his hometown, those people that have supported him throughout it all. The people who brave the initial brunt of the titan’s appearances but see no reward for their holdout for their ability to withstand even a titan, a town that hasn’t seen its own hero in generations. Landurs dream was to become not a hero of the nation but a hero that finally turned an eye to the outpost towns and villages that receive not but suffer the most every cycle. Now that dream is as dead as he is laying on the rough stone floor of the mine, even as all the people, he’d be disappointing and betraying by dying here appear before him there is no strength left in the muscles to move even a centimetre forward.

“Are you giving up? After everything you’ve survived before this is where you give up? Never thought I’d see the day when the man who could never die finally died. So, I ask you again Landurs the perennial, are you giving up?”

The unbound words echoed through the head of Landurs who had no remaining strength to even croak out a reply.

“Now that you are gone, who will protect us now? The one bathed in the holy light has been cast into the shadow, and what for?”
“The unyielding flame has been extinguished, the shining beacon of our town is gone, and the titan is soon to be upon us once more.”

More unbound voices join in creating a chorus inside Landurs head, some supportive, some blamed him for leaving and dying so easy, but one voice stood out from the mix. A voice not of support or criticism but one that repeated the same old verse.

“One fuelled by flame, one held in light, wielding the weakest as the strongest, one guided by the atlas, and one imbued with the hero’s spirit. Fight on, until fate itself stops.”

The verse is from an old incomplete spell that was said to have given the first hero their powers, a simpler version of the spell is cast on the new hero each cycle. Giving them enough power to beat the titan and no more, the first hero’s power has been kept away, lying dormant for someone to rediscover the final part of the spell.

“Landurs the perennial, you have heard their voices. It is time to make your decision, are you giving up?”

Hearing this final call, Landurs using the last of the rapidly fading strength pushes his body from the ground, searching for the source of the voices that speak at him. Only to find nothing but darkness ahead of him.

“The bath of light that shines on you has not been put into shadow just yet. Shine on young man.”

Those words, hearing someone still urging him on after such a catastrophic failure to read his partner and the shady message he received before entering the mines, finally fuels the body of Landurs enough to stand once more. The torches flame now long extinguished, leaves the space in total darkness. Knowing only that the crystal wyrm was somewhere down here and nothing about any other dangers Landurs began forwards, or at least the direction that let him continue walking through the space. Within the space devoid of light Landurs has no clue how far they’ve gone or how long they have been walking for or if they have passed anything that could have been of use to them, but the visions off those who are waiting for him to return home to slay the titan keep one foot moving in front of the other and propelling Landurs forward. Towards what he has no idea, but moving anywhere is better than laying on the ground wating for something to happen, eventually after an unknown length of time and distance travelled Landurs happens across what seems to be an old miner’s rest dimly illuminated with lanterns containing luminescent rocks with a campfire set at the centre of a tight circle of rocks. Using the flint that was provided for lighting the torches Landurs attempts to light the campfire, but all that is there is ashes from cycles ago. The rocks in the lanterns are better than the nothing Landurs had up until now, under the limited light they provided he finally got a chance to check for any injuries he had sustained during the betrayal. To the surprise of Landurs there were no visible injuries on his body which should have been impossible after falling from such a height but somehow there were none to be seen, satisfied with his physical state and that he wasn’t just imagining himself with no injuries he managed to untie a single lantern to carry with him through the darkness to illuminate at least a small portion of the tunnel he has landed in. Having the light with him also allowed Landurs to investigate the construction of the tunnel, as it should give an indication of how close or far, he is to the wyrm or if the wyrm has a highway to get to him if he is detected by it. Re-entering the tunnel which is only just about taller than he is at a full stretch meant that some of the tension and stress that had been clouding over Landurs faded away as at the very least the wyrm would have to burrow through this part of the tunnel if it were to chase him which should allow him to escape. Not like escaping the burrowing wyrm will help much if he can’t find his way back up to where the exit is, so as he walks a plan for temporarily defeating the wyrm must be formed even with the lacklustre equipment that he is in possession of.