The Crimson Champion

Chapter 21: The Ruins Of Tartaros

I'm walking through town with Lorelei a few days after the mission to Eclipse when my bracer beeps, making me groan. "Are you kidding me...?" Lorelei looks at it. "What is it this time?"

I check and I see a message from Xerkhon. "It says "I need your assistance as soon as possible, and bring the woman with you, you'll probably need her help." Lorelei rolls her eyes. "Xerkhon sounds like a great person."

I laugh and hold out my hand to her. "Take my hand and I'll get us there." Lorelei takes my hand and I use my other one to tap the X button on my bracer, teleporting the both of us to Xerkhon's palace.

We appear in front of Xerkhon while he's on his throne and he looks at us. "Good, you're here. I have something for you to do." I sigh. "Can't we have a break, Xerkhon?" He glares. "This is far more important than a break!"

Lorelei crosses her arms and stares at him. "What is it, then?" Xerkhon gives us a serious look. "It's Karnak. I need you to get rid of him." My eyes widen. "What?! Why?!" Xerkhon growls. "That traitor is siphoning my power away from me for his own damned goals, and I cannot have that! You must go to him and destroy him for what he's doing!"

I glare at Xerkhon. "Where even is he?" He sighs. "Karnak went to the ruins of Tartaros. I have no clue what he's doing, but I'm sure he's gone mad!" I clench my fists. "I'm not going to kill him, Xerkhon! I refuse!"

Xerkhon stands from his throne. "You dare to fucking refuse an order from your god?! You had better think again about what you are doing." I look him right in the eyes. "You heard me, Xerkhon. I refuse. I will at least hear Karnak's side of the story first before I do anything, it's the least I can do for him."

Xerkhon holds a gloved hand to his head. "Ugh...fine, whatever. Although there is a problem. I can't teleport you straight to Tartaros." Lorelei sighs. "Then how are we supposed to get there?"

Xerkhon grins. "While Karnak has a shield over the island preventing teleportation inside, I can just send you two as close as possible."

I narrow my eyes at him. "Wait a damned minute...if it's an island, then won't the closest we can get be the sea?" Xerkhon chuckles and snaps his fingers. I glare and start to walk towards him, but I feel the teleportation happen.

As I brace myself for the possibility that we'll be in the water, I realize that we're on the deck of a very familiar ship. "What the...?" Lorelei looks around and she sees something that makes her run off, so I follow. When I catch up to her, I see that she's with Shana, who turns to face me with a grin. "Hey, Mister Croissant's here too! When did you two get here?"

Lorelei sighs. "We were teleported here for something because it's apparently the closest we can get to where we need to go." I nod. "Yeah, we need to get to Tartaros's ruins. Where's Cyprus?" Shana smiles and walks off a bit. "Hey Cyprus, there's some special guests here!"

Cyprus comes over and she grins at us. "Brutus and Lorelei, it's great to see you again!Did you need something?" I nod. "Yeah, we were brought here because it's apparently the closest we can get to the ruins of Tartaros. We have something very important to do there. Could you take us there?"

Cyprus frowns. "Hmm...I could, although I should warn you about something. There's tales of an undead-like creature in the ruins. No one has ever come back from them alive." Lorelei thinks. "Maybe it's not true? The person we have to find is very much alive, otherwise we wouldn't be here in the first place."

Cyprus sighs. "Alright, I'll take you. I'm sure you two can handle anything that comes your way anyway!" I grin. "Thanks for this!" Cyprus chuckles. "No problem, anything for friends! We won't be there until the morning though, so you two can take the same rooms you used before."