Return to Jorgaldur Volume V: Reunion (2)

Mystery underground

Ghorvo sat satisfied on its stone throne. At least, it considered that set of ruins to be a throne, and it felt important on it.

The shadow was deeply satisfied looking at the ruins of the city and its army of losts. They were spread out across the old city and the outskirts, supposedly keeping watch. Although it knew that the enemies were far away from there.

The reason for its good mood was that many of its rivals had died. That meant that it now had more power, that sooner or later there would be more corrupted beings under its command. The fewer shadows there were, the more power it would accumulate.

It didn't stop for a moment to think that the enemies who had finished off its fellow spirits could reach that place. There, in the middle of the Lost Forest, there was no danger.

What worried it most was that the other surviving shadows would steal its rightful share of the army. Of course, in its mind, there was a thousand and one ideas to steal theirs, or, rather, to get "what it deserved."

Ghorvo heard a strange noise. It was rather loud, but it ignored it. After all, the sound only lasted a few seconds. It appeared again not long after, and this time it lasted longer.

"Something must've come loose again. Maybe, it caused other things to fall," it thought.

Although that loud sound wasn't like something falling, its sense of hearing wasn't the same as that of the living. Besides, it wasn't used to distinguishing those kinds of sounds either.

"Again?" he said to himself. "This time it's lasting longer."

The third time, the sound seemed not to want to stop. That made its innate curiosity, the one that had been suppressed by the corruption, weakly reemerge.

It was only a weak temptation, but there was nothing else to do either. The shadow that had been its company, with which it had been fighting day in and day out, had been sent to collect the losts. The shadow only hoped that its old companion didn't keep more than it should. That means, that it didn't do what Ghorvo would have done in its place.

The sound led to what had once been a huge building, and now was piled-up ruins. It slipped through the gaps, not afraid of getting trapped. At worst, its ethereal figure could simply fly through them.

The corrupted spirit made its way through the ruins until reaching where the sound was the loudest. The shadow stared at the place, puzzled. It couldn't help but wonder where the noise was coming from, because it didn't feel any lost below.

Before deciding to go through the pile of ruins and investigate, a metal tip emerged from between the rocks, piercing them. Ghorvo was startled by the appearance, but didn't feel afraid. That was just a strange object, not a living being.

The metal tip rotated on itself, and was cracking the rock in its path, which was the origin of the sound. Ghorvo stared at it, while waiting for it to come out completely. However, to its surprise, it retreated, thus leaving a hole behind the size of a soccer ball. A slight glow was coming out.

The shadow didn't hesitate before deciding to enter. After all, even the ground was corrupted. There was nothing there that could be a threat.

"Very well done, darling, that's how it's done," Eldi praised.

"A child with a new toy," Gjaki sighed.

"He's having fun," Goldmi smiled.

"The dwarfs' gadgets are really effective," Maldoa marveled.

"Can I do it later?" asked Menxilya.

"YAAAWN," the lynx yawned. Her ears were still plugged.

"How much longer?" the goshawk asked. She was tired of being underground.

"Rock breaks," the kraken marveled.

A certain fairy said nothing. She was looking up, unusually frowning. Her aura couldn't penetrate the rock, but something made her feel uneasy.

It was the third attempt. The first had been a test to see exactly how it worked, and decide how to position the dwarven drill.

On the second, Goldmi had asked for it to stop. Some of her sisters were suffering from the screeching of metal against stone, so she had asked for time to put some earplugs in them. She, Maldoa, Gjaki and Menxilya had also joined.

Now, he was drilling through the stone ceiling. They didn't know if it had been deliberately blocked, or if something had fallen over the exit. What they did know was that they had to go through the rock to get out.

They were there for a while until Eldi stopped the advance and began to move the device back.

"There's less resistance, it must've arrived outside. I think we can investigate," he announced.

"Understood," the vampiress nodded, as she summoned some Bats to send them out.

However, when the tip moved back, everyone heard Pikshbxgra's voice.

"A bad guy! It's very close!" she warned.

Those words startled them. They looked at each other and backed away, because they knew that the corrupted spirits could sense the living.

Goldmi prepared Light Arrows, while the fairy approached the hole.

"How strange. There's a huge hole down here," the shadow said to itself as it peered in.

At that moment, the fairy's aura manifested itself strongly and enveloped Ghorvo.

"A fairy!" it was surprised, as hatred and fear emerged from its corrupted soul.

Hastily, it gathered the miasma to face the threat, but a strange, glowing object passed through its body.

"How...?" it managed to say before its existence vanished.

"Pikgra, are there more?" the elf asked a moment later, worried.

On the previous occasion, they had found two. If there was another, it could expose their position.

"No bad guys around," the fairy assured after spreading her aura through the hole. "I go see."

She got out through there before they could stop her. Gjaki sent her scouts after her, as the goshawk approached the hole. She was looking at it suspiciously.

"It's clean. Nothing around. You should be able to get out. Follow my Bat," Gjaki explained.

While the goshawk couldn't speak directly to her, she could understand her. So she did.

With difficulty, the bird moved through the ruins, which seemed dangerously unstable. Although, they weren't much of a danger for a level 100 bird, who was even capable of returning to her sister through Always With You.

She moved awkwardly through the gaps, until finally emerging from between the rocks. She was relieved to have left the depths, and rose into the sky, where she was discovered by half a dozen aerial losts. They weren't the only ones which saw her, but they were the only ones which could follow her.

She continued to rise, gaining distance, until turning around and fell over them. She was determined to release the stress of the journey through the tunnel. Closed spaces weren't her thing. She was born to fly under the sky.