A Paladin's Promise

Chapter 9: Death's Door

Late that night, I have a dream from which I only remember a haunting voice...

Adrienne Rayne, you beautiful and powerful celestial; why do you waste your time with these worthless humans? Do you not see that they are beneath us? Join me. We will rule the Earth and Moon together!

I shoot awake. Everyone else is still asleep, so I push the covers off me and walk outside the castle's walls to recover. Heat from the lava warms me. I stare out across the sunless horizon.

"Are you all right, Adrienne?" a voice calls. I turn around.

"Oh. Hey, Rosa," I say. She walks over and sits down next to me.

"You look frightened. What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, really. Just a strange dream."

"A dream? What did you dream about?"

"Most of the details are gone now. I heard a voice though."

"Who could it have belonged to?'

"I... I can't say. Whoever spoke to me was almost inaudible, like an old memory."

"You're sure you can't remember anything else?"

"Just darkness."

"I see. I wouldn't worry too much. Dreams are only dreams."

"That's true."

"Why don't we return to bed? It's quite warm out here, but you need your rest."

"You're right. We have quite a bit of danger ahead of us."

Rosa smiles kindly at me and the two of us walk back inside the castle's walls and go back to sleep.

Come morning, we go speak with the dwarf guarding the entrance to the underground cave that would lead us to the entrance of the Tower of Bab-il.

"Have permission?" the guard asks.

"Indeed we do," I say.

"Very well! Good luck out there!" He opens the secret passageway for us. Cecil leads us down the stairs and into the dwarf base. Wandering the cave system, we open some chests and collect the items inside them. I chat with some of the dwarves along our way. After collecting everything we can from the Dwarf Base, we push forward through the underground until we reach the entrance to the Tower of Bab-il. Dwarven tanks fire upon the tower's base. Having taken some heavy damage from the monsters lurking about, I suggest that we sleep in one of the cabins we picked up.

"We should rest up again. The Tower of Bab-il is a dangerous place," I say. The others agree. They begin setting one up while I build a fire. We're set up out of the way so the tanks don't accidentally fire on us. I check everyone's stats while they rest. We're all around Level 25 by now. I save the game. As I scan everything over, I hear footsteps behind me. I turn around. Rydia waves.

"Hello, Adrienne," Rydia sits beside me.

"Hey." I hug her.

"Can't sleep?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

We're both silent for a moment.

"Adrienne?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you like me to teach you how to summon monsters?"

"You'd do that for me?"

"Of course. I love you. Ordinarily, you'd have to battle the Eidolons in order to summon them, but I'm sure King Leviathan and Queen Asura could forgo that process for you."