The Game Before the Fall

Chapter 34: The vestiges of a Witch (Part 3)

The words formed a hollow inside my chest. I could feel her pain. Whatever they had done to her, they deserved the retribution that followed. And yet, between it all, I felt her sadness, knowing that she should not hold the dark desires in her heart, knowing that there was a better path to take.

Endi wiped a tear from her eyes, "They made her do this."

"Yeah," Vanter grit his teeth. "I can also guess what the true enemy she referred to is but what do you think she meant about their protection?"

"Maybe the Witches really were protecting your world like the mural showed," Erin suggested. "But then they must have stopped."

"Because the world turned their back on them," I spoke darkly.

"And then they turned their back on the world," Endi added.

Erin nodded solemnly, "The letter said four others. The mural had five figures. Including the Witch of Blades that means there were five witches. One must have been the Witch of Sands... and we know what happened to her, but what about the others?"

Vanter pondered, "If we go by the tales I know. There was the Witch of Midnight, Witch of Waters and the Witch of Blood. From what Ardent told me of his research, not much is known about the Witch of Midnight. The Witch of Waters was said to have dissolved into the seas. The Witch of Blood was basically a vampire myth. Her one was especially dramatic. An entire city went mad and had to be cast off into the Rift never to be seen again. If we look at relatively recent history, being the past hundred or so years before Areithia's end, the only two Witches are the Witch of Blades and Sands."

"The question I have, is how much does this matter?" I folded my arms. "What do we even want from all this? To find a living Witch who isn't out to kill us and ask her how to stop the Rift Walkers? Is that it?"

"I guess so," Vanter shrugged. "If we can find the source of their invasion and stop it that would be the best. Otherwise it's just preparing the world to be strong enough to face the Fall."

"Vanter," Erin began, "You said this was just a rest stop. What's next in this raid?"

"We head to the heart of the Fortress and fight the memory of the Witch of Blades."

"Will that memory answer our questions?"

"I highly doubt it," he waved the idea away. "I don't want to spoil anything but let's just say the memory isn't one to talk."

Endi folded the letter away into her inventory, "Well you've already been wrong before. Double or nothing that we get to talk to the Witch."

"You're on," Vanter shook his sister's hand, confident he'd win his money back and then some.

I rolled my eyes.

With the hut thoroughly cleared, we checked our gear one more time before heading out. Unlike how we expected we still had plenty of supplies with us. Even if Vanter was right we might actually have a chance of clearing the raid. Then again, this was a raid boss and though it had been cleared in the original timeline by players, it wasn't until far later in the game's life when the soft level cap was raised.

Outside of the hut we headed towards the centre of the fortress. Like before two golems stood at a gap in the wall and like before they merely regarded us as we passed through. The other side wasn't what I expected. A dome of blades forged together to form the base of the tower we had seen from the hill. The inside was clean and free of blades. The floor not pressed dirt but grass, blackened though living. Four pillars of stone spread out evenly and in between them a monster made out of blades.