Shatterdark: A LitRPG Adventure (System of Nil Book 2) by Tim Paulson

Author:Tim Paulson [Paulson, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ikkibu Press
Published: 2024-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

25

TO THE SPIRE

“Whoa!” Ryan shouted from the other side of the room. “I can’t believe it! I got seventeen levels!”

Nathan took a few steps, bent his knees, and launched upward to the middle of the three cages hanging in the center of the room, catching on with a hand and a foot. What he saw up there chilled him to his core. Kratos and the others had been tortured. Their bodies bore many scars. The elf queen had been dismembered almost beyond recognition. Lia the angel, her wings partially torn from her body, lay crumpled on the floor of her cage, covered in her own blood, and the great white eagle was missing chunks of feathers from all over his body, and an eye as well.

“Nathan?” the eagle asked softly. “Is it truly you?”

Nathan frowned. The cage had a lock with a black wooden plate on it. Two power symbols had been carved into the wood, the symbol for sealing and for companions. Nathan crushed it with his other hand.

“Kratos, come back,” he said. This time, white smoke appeared and enveloped the tortured creature before funneling into Nathan’s hand. When he opened his fist he found the little wooden cattan. Inside would be Kratos. “Heal up, my friend.”

“N-Nath… an…” whispered a soft voice, making Nathan’s eyes widen. He leaped to the other cage and tore the metal door from its hinges, dislodging another lock with its own plate of symbols. Lia was sprawled across the bottom of the cage, her body still leaking copious amounts of pure white angelic blood.

Nathan couldn’t leave her up there, he took her in his arms and jumped, landing on the stone below where he laid her down and knelt beside her. She looked the same as he remembered with the same short white hair, missing eye, and the missing left hand but now her wings had been removed as well and her body brutally beaten and stabbed.

“What can I do?”

Lia blinked. “I’m… so happy… to see you… Nathan,” she whispered as white blood oozed from the corner of her mouth.

“I’m happy to see you too,” he replied. “How can I help you?”

“You… can’t,” she said. Then her eyes widened, her hand reaching for his cheek. “Take… take my feathers… and blood… When I die, they will be lost.”

“I… I will,” he said. “Hold still… maybe…”

Lia lurched toward him, putting her lips to his ear “Nathan!..” she whispered. “Ce… ra… thia…” Then she fell back and her body went limp. Nathan watched, feeling powerless as her one intact eye turned away to stare off into the distance. A moment later her last breath released and the angel was still.

Nathan fought back his feelings and summoned a vial. He knew he only had a few seconds. He picked up Lia’s body and tilted her so that blood from one of her wounds flowed in a thin stream into the vial. He got it about half full before her weight started to change as her body softened into white sand.

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