A Soldier's Life - 423 - The Nameless (minor edit 7-16-25)

Chapter 423: The Nameless

I settled the aether shield amulet around my neck as we hurried down the stairs. The echoes of the High Sentinel and his team below sounded far away. The stairs were not circular but a series of switchbacks with landings. The landings had large, soft oval glowstones in the ceiling.

Most of the switchbacks were exactly 36 steps long, and even with magic, carving them must have taken hundreds of years. When you had to climb them so often, you found a way to relieve your boredom. It was actually Evie who counted them first, and I, of course, had to verify her count. Every few landings had a frosted glass window, but since it was night outside, there was no additional light.

Blaze’s reassuring, even breaths were behind me as we raced to catch up. My registry of dungeons from the Godok Adventurer’s Guild Archives only noted the two dungeons on the Isle of the Dead, although they had very little information on the layout or creatures within. I hadn’t found the information in the Repository here, but was sure it existed. I recalled that the maps of the area had no other dungeons within a thousand miles of the Isle of Dead.

As we took the steps in rapid tempo, lots of thoughts went through my head. Was this how they were supplying Sanctuary with food? It made sense, as even two full cargo holds a year would be stretched to feed 1500 Sentinels. The gardens, hatchery, and fishing operations were extensive, but I had my doubts they could sustain so many people. Maybe the larders in the other residences had clues about what creatures resided in this mysterious dungeon.

Questions kept coming to me as we raced to catch up. Why was it necessary to keep the dungeon a secret? Was this dungeon also corrupted like the dungeons on the isle supposedly were? And what did Rorik mean when he said the dungeon was beneath the waves?

We started passing Sentinels climbing the stairs to escape the release. Some of them were bloodied, and most of them were children. That was right; most of the children lived near the base of Sanctuary and had their classes there. “What are we fighting?” I asked one teen who was limping up the stairs on a severely bloodied leg. I pressed a healing potion into his hand.

The young elf realized what it was and drank the potion before answering. “Someone called them spined devils. They only came up to my waist, but there were so many of them,” he rasped out, pain slowly fading from his face. “They were hideous and had wings and flung flaming spines. Their bite was vicious and took a piece of my leg. I…I…I barely…” I nodded and gave him a push to climb as his leg healed.

Blaze asked, “What are we fighting?” He expected me to know because I usually did.

“I don’t know. The description doesn’t trigger anything for me. There are small porcupine humanoids called the Barbkin, but they couldn’t fly. And they are extinct, if I remember right.”

I slowly resumed taking the steps, though with a little less certainty, and pulsing earth speak. We didn’t get far before we found the body of a dead Sentinel sprawled across the stairs, a half-dozen thin spikes protruding from her back. The smell of burnt hair and flesh was strong as we closed of the body. Each spike had created a black scorch mark in the fabric of her gray robe where it pierced.

I knelt beside the elf woman and rolled her over. She was definitely dead. Her eyes were wide in pain, and the veins under her skin were black and swollen. “The quills are poisonous,” I said, looking up at Blaze, who nodded in acknowledgment. Using the collector on the elven woman was not an option. I closed her eyes and continued down the stairs.

We found the first spined devil a short time later. Maybe the one who had killed the woman. Its chest was torn open by a powerful slash, and black blood pooled on the steps. “Demons,” I cursed, kneeling.

“They don’t look too dangerous,” Blaze said over my shoulder.

“No, I wasn’t cursing. The black blood means this is likely a demon,” I clarified. The creature was dark red, with a humanoid shape, but it had a bulbous tail and leathery wings. Small bony spikes protruded from the tail and arms. It had a hideous eel-like face and had more spikes extending out of the back of its skull. The teeth were serrated like a shark's and meant for tearing flesh. I kicked it, guessing the weight to be less than twenty pounds. If these creatures flew in swarms and attacked from the air with their spikes, there would be nowhere to hide.

“Collector?” Blaze asked from over my shoulder.

I nodded, more out of curiosity. Moments later, I carefully channeled my aether through the convergence facet of my core into the collector, and thick blue-black aether pooled. I assumed I was going to get an abyssal essence, but instead, a minor fire essence formed—a small flame dancing inside the black sphere. I tossed the essence to Blaze, who admired it for a moment and made to return it. I shook my head, and he pocketed it. If there were as many as the boy had said, we would be harvesting more.

The steps were soon cluttered with creatures, and I assumed Fenlorian’s group had cut through them moments ago by the pooling blood. I hated delaying using the collector, but moved past the creatures. Although our help hadn't been requested, defending Sanctuary was in our best interest. The spined devils appeared in shades of red, ranging all the way to black as we stepped over them. I only paused to collect essence from a small pale red one and a larger black ebony one. The pale red one struggled to produce a fire essence, while the black one also yielded a lesser fire essence but pulled much thicker aetheric smoke.

My guess was confirmed and I told Blaze before the collector disappeared. “The black ones are much stronger.” We sped up our descent to join the fight. Both lesser fire essences found their way into my belt.

We stepped out into the large cavern bay that housed the fleet. The Mourning After was smoldering, but the other vessels appeared untouched. The High Sentinel was at the end of the pier by the Salty Widow while a dozen of the spined devils fluttered above his team. They were clearly aiming to protect the ship, and I guessed they had extinguished the fire on the Mourning After.

There were three prone gray-robed figures on the opposite pier. “Blaze?” I asked as we moved down the dock in the other direction toward the prone Sentinels to check on them.

“Too much movement,” he answered. “Would be a waste of good arrows from here.” I nodded, and soon we reached the bodies. They were all dead, with large sections of their flesh chewed away all the way to the bone.

“Are we going to help?” Blaze asked when I remained squatting over the bodies. I was letting my emotions get to me. One of the dead was the boy Noren. I had liked the elf boy’s youthful energy, and I think he visited Evie in the hatchery a few times because she said he was a friend now. All the dead were children, and I guessed they were up to some mischief tonight and were caught in the open when the dungeon creatures arrived. I told myself there was nothing I could have done, but the helplessness still angered me.

I stood and looked at Blaze, then down at the High Sentinel’s group defending the ship. The spined devils flapped around near the cavern ceiling like bats, screeching and intermittently flinging fire spikes. We were at least three hundred feet away on the other pier, and we watched as, every so often, a flaming spike shot toward the defenders, only to be batted away into the water by something unseen.

“Can you hit them if we get closer?” I asked.

Blaze didn’t even blink. “I can hit them from here. I’d just rather not show off.” I gave him a sidelong glance. “Maybe one in five from here,” he admitted. I nodded as that would be a waste of arrows.

The group really did need our help, but did appear to lack a ranged attack that could reach the devils. I shared my reservations about joining them with Blaze. “My only concern is if this is a dungeon purge, then those aren’t the only things that got loosed.”

Blaze gave a thin smile. “Good. I’d hate for it to be a boring night.”

We made our way across the pier to join High Sentinel and his elite fighters. Most of them I recognized from the council when we first arrived, including the young orc Tovin. I was a little upset that he had never sought me out or thanked me for sparing his life. At the intersection of the piers, Blaze loosed his first arrow, and one of the devils was struck and spiraled down. It loosed a half dozen poorly aimed flaming spikes in a last gasp before splashing into the bay.

Fenlorian and the others turned toward us. None of them appeared injured, and a few had splattering of black blood on their armor.

The High Sentinel faced us as Blaze took down another of the spined devils. “Why are you not on the plateau?” His voice reverberated through his full-faced helm, but didn’t sound angry.

“We thought you might need our help,” I pointed to Blaze, and of course, he missed with his third shot.

“You are a Watcher. Watchers obey orders, and you are not following yours,” one of the other men said with steel.

Of course, he was right, but I didn’t like the idea that things were being kept from us. I ignored the man and addressed Fenlorian. “What else can we expect from the dungeon purge? You heard a dungeon purge occurred on the mainland?” I had most of the group’s attention now. Blaze only had thirteen arrows and was almost out as he continued to release. The sky suddenly filled with streaks of fire as the devils cast their spikes in unison and dove on our position. The cavern lit up from the flaming darts, and the Fenlorian’s team worked in precise unison, focusing on the attack.

Two of the men appeared to use some type of telekinesis to divert the flaming spikes, and two others were casting small shields to deflect the projectiles. At least that is how it looked through my aether sight. Unfortunately, most of the diving spined devils decided to target Blaze since he had broken the stalemate. I moved next to him and started creating overlapping air shields over us, and I stayed his hand on his bow. It was a chaotic crash as seven of the creatures slammed around us. Angry screeches, wings, claws, and sharp teeth surrounded us. Some of the shields had shattered from the impacts, but enough held that we were safe from the initial attack.

I was swinging magebane to kill one of the stunned creatures, but a dwarven wielded mace crushed its skull before I landed my strike. Then Fenlorian’s group was among us, striking down the creatures with brutal efficiency. It was over quickly, and the soft lapping of water on the pier was all that remained.

“Rennic, check on the other teams clearing Sanctuary and see if they encountered problems,” the High Sentinel ordered. An elf nodded and closed his eyes to use magic to survey the citadel. One of the other sentinels, a thin, short elven woman, was maneuvering a plate-sized runic disc over the spined devils that hadn’t ended up in the water. I watched fascinated as she failed to produce an essence on the first two creatures before finally succeeding on the subsequent three.

Fenlorian broke my observation. “You can return to the plateau, Watcher. Three of the creatures flew out of the passage. They might fly up the cliffs of Sanctuary and attack those up there,” the High Sentinel said, clearly dismissing me by his tone.

I held back my anger as we had clearly helped. “Where is the dungeon, and do you know what caused this?” I indicated the mess, waiting for answers I thought we earned.

Fenlorian removed his helm. His hair matted to his skull with sweat. He considered me before speaking, maybe deciding if we were worthy of knowing more. “It is called the Nameless, and the entrance is only accessible during the low tide. One of the rooms has a small devil serpent, just forty feet in length. It has already been dealt with.”

Rennic came out of his trance and shook his head, which I took to mean there were no problems that he could see. Fenlorian turned back to me. “The spined devils number forty-two in another room. Hopefully, we can confirm they are all dead. Even though they are frail of body, they can cause a lot of harm.” He gestured to the dead bodies we had checked on, and the Mourning After, which was missing a mast, but they apparently contained the fire.

I wasn’t going to be brushed off and pressed for details on the dungeon. “How many rooms is the dungeon, and do you delve it?”

“Four, and no. Besides the first room with the serpent, it is far too dangerous. If you can get past the swarm of spined demons in the second, the third room houses a greater shadow demon. Manageable if you are prepared. But it is the fourth room that is the most dangerous. The fourth houses a bone devil who speaks Elvish and has killed and tormented more Sentinels than I can count. It has never been defeated in my time in Sanctuary. We do not know what has disturbed the dungeon and allowed this to happen.”

“I know a little of what happened on the mainland,” I said trying to be helpful.

Fenlorian considered me. “After the threat is contained, you can talk with the council. Right now, if the bone devil is walking the Sanctuary halls, every Sentinel is at risk.”

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