The golden barrier surrounding the ancient door began to crumble.

At first it was slow, almost unnoticeable. Fine cracks spread across its surface, thin lines of light leaking through before the structure started to give way entirely. Pieces broke off and dissolved into nothing, the barrier losing its hold on whatever it had been keeping sealed.

Jasper watched it without speaking.

The five days spent waiting here had dragged. Time didn’t feel right underground. There was no sky, no shifting light to mark the hours, just the constant stillness of stone and the quiet presence of those who had followed him.

His Lord had barely spoken in that time.

It didn’t matter.

They had waited anyway.

Behind him, the converted gathered close. Dozens of them, maybe more. Their forms varied, some closer to human than others, but all of them changed. Hardened. Sharpened. Improved. Their eyes rested on him, their attention absolute.

Jasper felt it the moment the barrier finally gave way. Like something had unlocked.

Then the system confirmed it.

Quest Updated!

The ancient door to Serrix’s prison opens. But without the key that the Antling Queen holds, you will not be able to free him. Can you find a way to slay the Antling Queen? Or perhaps a way to steal the key?

The method is yours.

Objective: Get the key to Serrix’s prison.

Reward: Undetermined

A breath left him that he hadn’t realised he’d been holding.

Finally.

He stood fully, turning to face the crowd behind him. The noise of chittering and low, restless movement died down almost immediately as their attention sharpened.

They were his Lord’s army. His army.

He had raised them from nothing. Humans, barely above level one. Scared, angry, or alone. Just like he had been.

Jasper had driven them forward. Taught them how to survive, how to hunt, how to become something stronger than what they had been before. Their levels had risen quickly under him, faster than they ever would have as humans.

His Lord had explained why during a conversation. With no profession, there was no wasted growth. Only power. It didn’t add up entirely in Jasper’s head, but he did not question the words of his Lord.

“The door to the prison is opening,” Jasper said, his voice steady, carrying through the cavern. “And with it, our next step.”

He let the silence sit for a moment before continuing.

“To free him, we will need the key. That means the Queen dies… or we take it from whoever gets it.”

A ripple of sound spread through the converted. Sharp clicks with low chattering. An agreement.

“We move now,” Jasper continued. “We take what we need. And when he is free…”

He paused, feeling something coil in his chest.

“...we take everything else.”

The response came louder this time, echoing off the stone walls. A unified hive. Jasper turned back to the door.

Up close, the stone looked ancient. Worn in places, marked by carvings that had long since lost their meaning. He cared little for them, or the history they may have held. He placed his hand against it, feeling the rough surface beneath the hardened chitin of his fingers.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the door reacted.

A pulse of light spread outward from where he touched it. Not his power. Something older. Something built into the structure itself, or by the System. It didn’t matter.

The stone groaned. A deep, grinding sound rolled through the ground as the door split down the middle. Dust and dirt shook loose from above as the two halves slowly pulled apart, the weight of them shifting the earth beneath.

Darkness waited on the other side. It was thick and heavy. Like it pressed down on his very soul.

Jasper’s body tensed instinctively. His guard rose without thought, the bladed appendages hidden in his forearms flexing slightly, ready to strike.

If something stood between him and Lord Serrix, it would die.

He stepped forward. The darkness swallowed him almost immediately, his movements silent as he advanced. Every step was controlled. His skills had been built for this. Stealth. Killing.

Behind him, the converted followed close. A few steps in, Jasper considered ordering a light. But it wasn’t needed.

A faint glow began to form ahead. Purple and unnatural.

It spread slowly, illuminating the chamber in a way that didn’t feel right. Instead of flickering like a flame, it pulsed, steady and deliberate, like a beating heart of light casting long shadows across the walls.

The room revealed itself. It was wide, open, and… empty.

No guards, no resistance whatsoever. Only a single crystal stood in the centre.

It rose from the ground like it belonged there, jagged and uneven. The purple light came from within it, bright enough to make the edges hard to look at directly. Jasper felt it immediately. A pull.

It was subtle, but impossible to ignore. He moved closer without thinking, drawn in by something he couldn’t quite name. The closer he got, the stronger it became, pressing at the edges of his thoughts.

Then he saw it. A figure inside the crystal.

Tall. Too tall. Easily eight feet, maybe more. Humanoid in shape, but wrong in the details. Two extra arms rested at its sides, each one ending in a human-like hand.

Its body was covered in thick plating. Like armour, but natural. Almost regal in how the armour decorated its body.

Sharp edges jutted from its limbs, its shoulders, its frame built for nothing but violence.

Jasper’s gaze rose to its face. It was perhaps human… once.

Now, it was something more.

Mandibles shifted slightly beside its mouth, mirroring his own. Recognition settled deep in his chest. Jasper had not been changed randomly. He had been shaped.

A memory of the words he’d been told when he’d undergone conversion echoed in his head.

“You will be remade in His image.”

The eyes opened and locked onto him instantly. Jasper didn’t flinch. Didn’t look away.

The gaze pressed into him, deeper than sight alone, like it was peeling back everything he was and seeing what lay beneath.

He welcomed it. Like the sun touching his skin after a long, dark winter, warmth spread through him. Approval.

Lord Serrix - Level ???

“So… you’ve finally found me.”

The voice settled into Jasper’s mind like it had always been there, smooth and unhurried.

“I was beginning to wonder how long you would make me wait.”

“My Lord,” Jasper said, lowering himself without hesitation.

Behind him, the converted followed. Some knelt. Others bowed completely, pressing themselves into the ground.

“Can you feel it?” Serrix asked. “The tremors. That delicious aura.”

Jasper lifted his head slightly. “The humans?”

“And more,” Serrix’s voice oozed in his mind. “They are already fighting. But not with the weakling Queen. Not yet.”

“Is it enough?” Jasper asked. “What we’ve built… will it bring her down? Set you free?”

“Enough?” Serrix echoed softly.

There was something almost amused beneath the word.

“You’re asking the wrong question.”

Another pause.

“They will bleed her for you, Jasper. All that effort. All that struggle. And when she falls…”

“You take what’s left.”

A surge of confidence travelled through his very being, sending shivers up his spine. He knelt straighter.

“There is a path to her,” Serrix continued. “One she does not know of. Behind me. Buried, but not beyond you.”

His tone shifted into approval. “You’ve proven you’re capable of more than digging through dirt.”

“We’ll clear it,” Jasper said, already motioning. “And when the moment comes… I’ll take the key myself.”

“Of course you will,” Serrix replied. “That’s why you’re here.”

“Anyone who stands in the way… dies,” Jasper said, firm and confident. A shadow of his former self. Revenge on those that he once hated was not even considered.

“Don’t kill all of them,” Serrix said, his voice sultry with tease.

For a moment the crystal light shifted across Serrix’s face.

An inhuman smile donned a face. It was wide, like something out of a nightmare.

“There’s one I’d like to meet.”

~

Back in the fight, Leo was going toe to toe with an antling made of ghost. Was ghost something that one could be made of? Probably not, technically. But it sure as hell felt like it should be.

It was like trying to catch smoke. Fists glowing in whatever power he could muster had been thrown at the creature, all of it evaded or useless against it. The super goliath had proved to be quite the foe too, blocking attacks, reflecting. Basically being the Bjorn of the antlings. Stubborn and tough.

The damage the fighters were taking wasn’t much with all their healers, not to mention the skill in terms of dodging, parrying, and blocking. Leo’s health was basically full. His stamina and mana on the other hand was dropping, and the antling didn’t seem to share the problem.

A tingle of danger sparked in his mind and Leo dodged to the side. A moment later, a large swathe of fire washed passed him and into the ghost. It turned invisible, or maybe intangible. The fire crashed into the wall, not harming the ghost at all.

It reappeared after a moment, slicing blades of ghostly energy flying from its mandibles.

“Watch it, Ruby!” Leo called. She’d aimed directly at him.

“Be better bait!” she yelled back.

“Enough squabbling!” Cecelia ordered over the top of them, parrying one of the ghostly blades of energy. “We need to stop its movements somehow!”

Leo swapped his stance from lightning to ice. He needed to cool his mind. Things had become a wild melee of spells and attacks flying everywhere. There had to be a weakness to this ghost’s seeming infinite invulnerability. But how?

He wracked his brain, trying to think about what happened when it first dodged him. It had just vanished, appearing behind him as Ellie attacked. Her frost had almost stuck to it, but it felt wrong.

Ellie was currently chasing it down, trying to land hits when she could, but so far had been unable to since.

“Fuck it. Worth a try,” Leo muttered.

“Hit it with something big! Make it disappear,” Leo said, running directly at the creature once again.

“We’ve tried that—” Ruby started, but was interrupted.

“Do as he says! Overwhelm it!” Cecelia called, power washing through her as she started gathering moonlight into her blade.

Three kicks of Gale Talon shot out as he ran, the kicks coming fast and strong, flipping like a gymnast as he did so. Wind blades shot towards the creature, but not one of them hit, its body dancing away. Leo’s speed didn’t drop, pushing harder as he focused on its movements.

His focus became laser sharp, eyes unblinking as he used all his perception to track it. When a ghostly energy blade shot towards him, he ignored it, and a shield of light deflected it.

He trusted in his friends.

Attacks rained down on the Royal Guard. Flames, blades of energy, lightning, anything that could hurt it.

Leo’s eyes sharpened, taking details of the exact moment it was about to be hit.

A thought struck him, and he stopped. His movements and his stare. He closed his eyes entirely. Leo tried to lock in on its aura, trying to feel the shape of its soul, the same way he could feel Cecelia’s who was just behind him.

The energy surrounded Cecelia’s body, like a layer of armour coming from her soul. It wasn’t physical protection, nor was it even tangible to touch. Everyone had one. Some were wild and uncontrolled, others were a bit more tame, or perhaps weaker. Hers was solid, with little fluctuations here and there as she exerted herself.

The super goliath was like a beacon of energy, clear and powerful in the arena. Leo could tell it was weakening.

He zeroed in on the ghost directly in front of him, and it was… empty.

There was no aura, no shape around its soul at all. He briefly opened his eyes and watched it disappear, all the attacks missing it entirely. A second later and it was attacking from twenty feet away.

Something’s off.

He closed his eyes once again and tried to spread his detection further, his mind strained so much he almost collapsed as he tried to spread it out. Ellie suddenly appeared in his soul-space, giving him the energy to push it even further as they combined their detection. Like a pulse of sonar.

There.

His eyes snapped open, head spinning towards a blank section of wall. There was nothing there whatsoever, no scent, no feeling. But Leo knew. It was there.

A Frost Lance manifested above his hand, sharp, long, and deadly. It was a far cry from the small lance he’d used against the first Goliath all those moons ago.

He filled it with power, grasped it in his hand. And threw.

It shot like a rifle bullet, tearing through the air towards the blank wall. His friends looked on in confusion at his attack, stopping their own to witness it. The ghost tried to intercept it.

A shriek of pain rang out in all their ears. Piercing and sudden.

The ghost they had been fighting this whole time suddenly vanished, its attacks becoming nothing more than smoke before it could even get close to the lance.

A creature was revealed, sickly and pale. Its mandibles were barely sharp, or existent for that matter. The Frost Lance stuck from its wrinkled midsection, impaled all the way down to the base of it.

“It was a bloody trick,” Leo spat.

The fighters knew what to do immediately, attacks raining down on it. A figure appeared made of ghostly energy once more in front of it, but it was quickly destroyed under the assault. They weren’t letting it get away again.

Leo snapped his fingers and the lance inside it exploded into shards, tearing through its innards. It barely survived a few seconds under the combined assault, dying shortly after.

You have slain: Royal Guard - Level 78

Increased experience gained for defeating a higher level enemy

+4345 Store Credits

Your Elemental Adept class has reached level 71

Stat points distributed

+3 Free Points

Anchored Progression:

+1 All stats, +2 Free Points

Another level in his class for his efforts. He popped the free points into Will this time, hoping to boost whatever it was he used when looking for this invisible antling.

It was one of his lower stats, so best to boost it at least a little in case this kind of thing happened again.

Approaching the ongoing fight with the super goliath, Leo watched as Cain ripped chunks from the massive creature. Ron was peppering it with arrows from a safe, but close distance. Nolan, Bjorn, Gareth, and the warrior who came with Cain, called Freddy, were taking the vanguard, holding the creature’s attacks at bay. Morgan and Ed—the young healer that was part of Ruby’s party—were keeping them sustained.

Looking over the fight, it was pretty much over. The Royal Guard’s attacks were less than half of the power it once was.

“Take a breather,” Cecelia said to everyone who was in the ghost fight. “They have it under control.”

Leo still had a bit of resources left to use, but if they wanted to be efficient with the slaughter of the Queen, then it was best to try and recover as much as he could. He sat down and tried to relax, while also looking for inspirations he could make to his own fighting by watching others.

A small tingle ran along his spine, Nerveflash was warning him of something, but he wasn’t sure what.

“Kill it!” Cain roared, attacking with more ferocity all of a sudden. Something had set him off.

The Royal Guard suddenly started curling itself up in a ball, a purely defensive posture that Leo recognised from the armoured antlings. It could be the damage reflect skill, but it didn’t feel like it.

Attacks poured into the monster, tearing pieces off it every time they did. Even Morgan used some kind of shadow skill to inflict some damage.

Suddenly, a hum of power started to build within the Royal Guard. It grew louder and louder over the course of a couple seconds before Leo’s Nerveflash went wild.

“Get back!”

“Ash!”

Both Cain and Leo called out at once. But it was too late.

The attack came too quickly. Ashley’s hands came up in a flash, but there were only so many people she could shield at once.

And only so many people she could actively see.

Leo’s vision darkened as a notification came in.

You have slain Royal Guard - Level 77

Increased experience gained for defeating a higher level enemy

+2304 Store Credits