Mythica, book 1, Chapter 15.

Chapter 15.

Sabine wondered what the end would be like when she died as a revenant. Sadly, it was about the same as she had experienced with her first death. Floating in the void, she thought about the last battle and what she could have done differently. All told, there were nearly forty undead, and that didn’t count the three living attackers. She might have fought her way through the undead, but the crossbowmen were her downfall.

Maybe she could have been more cautious in her approach, but there was no indication that the bodies below were some kind of undead. The range of Eyes of Undeath should have picked them up earlier, but something had masked their presence and she didn’t notice them until it was too late. Undead were rare things, and other than cursed beings like the ghoul she had encountered, they were usually the result of forbidden necromantic magic.

Sabine was no expert on magic and only had a passing understanding of its limitations so she could effectively fight against it when she was a mercenary. What she did know was that creating this many undead meant she had faced someone with power. It was likely the man that had been shouting from the ledge.

The goblins hadn’t been the real threat, the real threat had been the necromancer and his growing army of undead. Missing villagers and now a whole tribe of goblins were there to do his bidding, and Sabine didn’t think it would be long before the necromancer finished animating all the remaining bodies and gathered enough forces to storm the village. There was a limit to the mage’s power, she understood, but she had no way of knowing what that limit was. It could be that he had maxed out the number of undead he could control, but it was a moot point now, she was dead, and her chance to defeat the threat to Golden Harvest Village was gone.

You have failed as my champion. A test will determine if you are worthy to return. Though I can observe your actions, I may not help you in this trial. This final test of undeath is one you must face alone. Know this, if you survive your test, you will be rewarded and may return to my favor once more.

The words from Gnessos gave Sabine some hope. It sounded like this wasn’t the end. She would be given a second chance to return as a revenant, but there was some test she must pass. It sounded like Gnessos wasn’t in charge of whatever was about to happen to her. Some other power was at work here, someone who was strong enough to prevent the minor gods from interfering.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a new message appearing in front of her. It felt different from Gnessos, the will behind it was hidden, but she could sense it held more power than Gnessos could dream of. Whoever controlled this place was going to communicate with her directly.

A choice is offered. Do you wish to complete the trial and return to your unliving state, or do you wish for final death? Make your choice mortal.

“I chose the trial,” Sabine said in her mind, somehow confident that the entity communicating with her could understand.

So be it. To complete the trial, you must venture to the end of the passageway.

Not much of an instruction, but she would work with it. Giving up and willingly accepting this final death was not in her makeup. Sabine would fight to continue her life, such as it was, and would face any challenge these beings of power put before her. It was better to die fighting than to give in to despair and weakness.

She felt herself move through the void, and while she couldn’t see, there was the feeling of great speed as she traveled. When she stopped, it wasn’t like before, when Gnessos had revived her. This time, her soul wasn’t being forced into some empty vessel, instead, a new form was instantly created to house her. With a short burst of disorientation, Sabine opened her eyes.

“What is this?” Sabine muttered to herself. She was in a body again, the same one that housed her before. The wounds from the undead and living attackers had been healed and her mana was full. Her clothing was repaired, and her body had been cleaned up, but her weapons were nowhere in sight.

Looking around, Sabine could see that she was standing in a small, nearly empty room. She had risen from a simple pallet bed and in the corner was a large footlocker. Torches mounted in sconces lit the room and the low ceiling looked like worked stone. She was underground once more, but it was somewhere far from where she had fallen.

This is your first experience in the trial of the unliving. Open the trunk and select one item to help you in the challenge. Once equipped, you must leave this room and reach the end of the passage.

Sabine followed the instructions and opened the chest. Inside were her armor and weapons, the same ones she had wielded at the time of her death. Should she refer to it as her second death? The whole dying and coming back thing could get a bit confusing.

With only one choice and some kind of “trial” she needed to pass; a weapon would be nice. Sabine grabbed her flail, and as soon as she pulled it from the footlocker, the lid snapped closed. Following the instructions that this place had given her seemed like the smart course of action, so Sabine didn’t try to open the chest and gather any additional equipment.

There was one door to the room she was in, and with no reason to stay, she exited. Her room had been on the end of a long passageway that curved slightly to the right, limiting her view. From what she could see, there was nothing out there, no other doors, and the passage was lined with the same torches that the room had featured. She began to walk, trying to sense the area around her with the Eyes of Undeath. Nothing registered as living or dead, so there were no invisible assailants ready to strike.

Sabine moved at the pace of a brisk walk. It would help her cover ground but was slow enough that she could react to any threats that might appear further down the passageway. Given that the passage kept curving to the right, she only could see about fifty feet in front at any one time. The further she went without seeing anything, the more Sabine began to wonder what was going on. The way the wall curved, she should have walked in a complete circle by now, but the passageway just continued. She may have been descending or ascending, but if that were true, the incline was too small for her to notice.

After a time, the passage straightened out and, in the distance, she could see a pair of wispy shapes appear. Sabine pulled the flail from her belt and slowed her pace. She had dealt with all manner of creatures in her previous life, but specters and ghosts weren’t something she was familiar with. About ten feet away, the indistinct shapes solidified into a physical form. In front of Sabine stood one of the human undead creatures that she had just fought, and a single, apparently living, goblin armed with a spear.

“Come on then, whatever you are. Show me what you’ve got,” Sabine said as she rushed the pair, choosing to take the initiative and set the pace of the fight. She shoulder slammed the undead, half expecting to pass harmlessly through it as it turned back into a ghost, but the creature remained solid. Her blow knocked the undead from its feet and her follow-up swing with the flail caught the goblin right in the mouth. The goblin tried to block her blow with his wooden spear, but the flimsy weapon shattered just as easily as his skull.

Dodging a clumsy strike from the undead as it tried to stand, Sabine unleashed several blows on it with her flail. It only took a few hits to drop her second foe. Sabine looked for more opponents, but everything was clear. As she watched, the bodies of both her opponents turned back into vapor and drifted away. Even as the previous opponents passed on, new forms appeared down the passage. This time, they were coming from both the front, and the rear.

Sabine turned and charged the one behind her, testing out a theory. As she suspected, the ghost-like shape solidified when she got close, this time turning into a large orc with a chipped and rusty sword. Growling in anger, the orc leaped forward to attack, and Sabine was hard-pressed to hold him off. Knowing another foe was approaching from behind, she needed to end the fight quickly.

Sabine reached out to her mana, feeling it flow into the head of the flail as she counterattacked. The orc tried to block the flail with his blade, but the sword shattered on impact, flinging shards of metal into the orc’s face. It dropped the hilt of the broken sword and growled as he tried to pry out the metal from its face, one eye blinded from the strike. Sabine’s follow-up blow ended the orc and she turned to face the next threat.

“Sabine Giroux, you sorry excuse for an officer. Your bumbling allowed the orcs to raid our camp and kill everyone. This is all on your shoulders!” Commander Elerby shouted as he drew his sword.

“Elerby? What are you doing here?” Sabine asked, taking a step back. It was the ghost-like thing, it had turned into Elerby. Was he real or was this just some poor imitation that had been pried from her memory?

“I’m here because of you. I’m dead because of you, but now I’ll get my chance at vengeance,” Elerby growled as he thrust his sword.

“You never were much of a swordsman Elerby, and it was your stupidity that got us all killed, not any of my actions,” Sabine replied as Elerby’s sword sliced along her ribs as she tried to dodge.

The blade didn’t have a chance to cut deeply before Sabine stepped away from the blow and swung her flail. Her flail slammed into the polished bronze breastplate that Elerby wore. The armor was embellished with gold trim and silver inlays, but the breastplate was more for show than for real protection and Sabine could feel Elerby’s ribs crunch under the force of the impact. Staggering back with the breath knocked out of him, Elerby gave a feeble swipe of his blade, trying to keep Sabine away.

“You’re under contract with the Crescent Blades, you cannot attack your commander,” Elerby whined.

“Consider this my resignation,” Sabine said as she slammed the flail into Elerby a second time. His body dropped to the rocky floor of the passageway with a clang before it turned to vapor once more.

Mana flowed from her core to repair the sword slice Elerby had given her. It wasn’t too bad of a wound and required little from her mana pool to fix. While watching the repairs, Sabine noticed something. Wherever this place was, it was completely devoid of mana. There was no trickle of dark or golden energy entering her body and whatever she had arrived here with was going to have to last until the end of this trial.

She needed to get to the end of this passage and out of this place, so Sabine kicked up her pace. More of the ethereal beings appeared, each one taking on the form of someone she knew, or a foe she had once defeated. She told herself they couldn’t be real, but the blows from her opponents told a different story.

There were no more taunting figures, like Elerby, thankfully. Elerby had been a strange enough encounter and one that she didn’t want to relive anything like that again. A pair of brigands that she didn’t recognize, and another goblin appeared before the procession of foes finally ground to a halt.

She had weathered the last attacks rather well, but some mana had been consumed to repair the damage from the few minor blows she had taken. Sabine had also stopped using mana to infuse her weapon, not wanting to waste it if she could stop a foe with normal steel and skill. Never stopping, Sabine kept pressing forward and her persistence was finally rewarded when she finally reached the end of the passage.

There was a door at the end of the passage and another on the wall to the right. The door in front of her was most likely the exit since the limited explanation that she had been given said to reach the end of the passageway. The door to the right beckoned to her, and Sabine was curious about what might be inside. As she approached the end of the passage, Sabine could see a small placard on the door to the right.

The other door will end your trial, but you may take this door for further risk, and the potential for further reward.

A choice stood before her, but which one to go with? Ending the trial and returning to the real world might be the safe bet, but what kind of reward might be offered if she took the other door? Sabine was confident in her ability and had plenty of mana left, so she decided to take the bold approach. Lifting the latch to the door, Sabine readied her flail and stepped inside.