Redemption Arc

“Lucian!” Metterand shouted, his voice echoing into the mausoleum. “Lucian!”

Lucian lightly tapped his forehead against the wall. “Stupid dog… stupid, stupid dog…”

Right now, his position couldn’t be called good. Matter of fact, he’d call it absolutely awful. He hadn’t been expecting the mausoleum to be the difficult part of this. He felt that he’d be past the worst the moments he got inside these walls, and all he needed to do was get in and out—ten-minute adventure. The fact is, the mausoleum was a puzzle section. Considering he already knew the answer to the puzzle, it hadn’t promised to be exceptionally complicated.

This was something that he hadn’t counted on. Maybe that was stupid of him, thinking Metterand wouldn’t chase, and that if he did, Aurelia couldn’t stop him.

Right now, he’d sequestered himself inside of a hidden chamber in the mausoleum. It was opened by a secret in the room. He’d closed it after himself. It had a release on the inside in case the player got stuck. Convenient—but then, games were. Even still, this room wasn’t the biggest. He could already tell that the air was growing thinner here.

I should’ve treated Aurelia worse, Lucian reflected. I thought it might be nice to collaborate with the villains. They’re usually proactive, and they tend to get things done. I guess they all turn dumb on the good guy’s side.

Lucian heard some very loud noises from beyond, and picked his head up off the wall he was bashing it against. He felt the walls shake next—a good sign, maybe, unless Metterand was throwing a temper tantrum. It was only when he heard the sounds of fire that he knew Aurelia was in here. Golden fire, her specialty. He pulled the release mechanism, and the wall shifted aside.

Luckily, he made the right call to leave now. The hallway in front of him was open. But as soon as he stepped out there, he’d be vulnerable. Metterand was a tough bastard, and he was already using his devil aspect with reckless abandon. A mere flick of his fingers could probably cave in Lucian’s skull. Or… maybe not, since his CON went up from the Titan’s blessing. He didn’t want to find out.

He had only one benefit in this mausoleum. The layout was exceptionally confusing. It was half a maze on the outer ring—winding paths with countless secrets. Lucian had to think fast once he realized that his brother-in-law was in the mausoleum alongside him. He’d nearly been caught. Doubtless Metterand would’ve broken down the wall if he saw Lucian enter.

Lucian walked down the hallway, vaguely aware of where they were fighting. He poked his head out at the puzzle. The puzzle was in the center of the mausoleum, centered around the divine beast’s tomb. It was a gargantuan inner chamber shaped like an inverted pyramid, descending down toward a sarcophagus made in their founder’s image. There were four eternally-flowing waterfalls in each corner of the square shaped room.

Both the trigger for the blessing and the story item are in there, Lucian reflected. The problem…

There were about 16 different entrances to this room, and upon entering, one could immediately see every corner. In terms of places to hide, it had zero. Maybe the waterfalls, but they looked to be flowing down with enough pressure it could hurt quite bad. Besides, they weren’t big enough to hide him completely.

The puzzle wasn’t complicated, but it did take a while to complete. The player had to step on certain squares in the room—they lit up. The player had to take a certain path throughout the room to create a symbol of some importance to the divine beast. Not exactly a groundbreaking puzzle, but he’d done the detective work long ago.

Denzel sourced a few items on my behalf, Lucian thought, hand hovering near the satchel. But I don’t have enough for both Aurelia and him. Besides, these items are intended for an ambush, not a straight-on confrontation.

It took Lucian a little bit, but he came up with a plan. Rather than trying to do a puzzle all at once, he just needed to do it in pieces, weaving in and out of the room whenever he thought it was safe. He could also get the blessing at the same time.

Not at this entrance. Not suitable, Lucian decided.

Lucian ducked back into the hallway, doing his best to keep his steps quiet both so that he could hear their fighting and disguise his presence. Should’ve bought some stealth potions, Lucian thought. Denzel said they were illegal, so he couldn’t get them. Princes. You can’t rely on them. Can’t rely on stupid dogs, either.

Lucian hesitated at the threshold to the inner chamber. He pulled out his Evercodex, which was already flipped to the page that had his drawing of the puzzle’s solution. After reading it and listening closely for a bit, he started walking out into the chamber. Every step that he took, one of the tiles underneath lit up blue like his own personal catwalk. When he came near one of the flowing waterfalls in the corner, he reached into his satchel and produced one of his scrolls. He tore it to empower himself with its magic, then casted a powerful ice spell at it. The waterfall froze.

One out of four, Lucian thought.

He heard noises of growling and teeth gnashing coming closer, so Lucian did a speed round, running atop the blocks as fast as he could before darting into one of the hallways with heavy breath.

“I’ll eat your sister alive, Lucian! Once I’m done with you, she’s next!” Metterand shouted.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Christ. Hope he doesn’t say such evil stuff she starts believing him instead of me, Lucian thought.

Lucian kept moving. His hastily-chosen route was quite lucky. He managed to make it to the second entrance without so much as hearing his brother-in-law. When he came out once more, he started to complete the pattern and came to the next waterfall. He tore another ice magic scroll, and froze the second waterfall.

Two out of four, Lucian thought.

Then, the noises approached so quickly that Lucian didn’t have time to get out. Metterand appeared at the threshold to the outer room, slamming one hand against the wall and peering within. His eyes locked on Lucian moments before Aurelia charged him, sending him further down the hall. She spilled out into the room… and beneath her feet, squares lit up blue.

“No, no…” Lucian clenched his fists in rage, then grabbed his head. “Stupid dog… ruined my puzzle,” he said under his breath, gritting his teeth. He had to restart from the beginning. “Can’t you get him out of here?!”

She couldn’t talk as a divine beast, but the glare that the foxlike creature gave him spoke a thousand words, most of them curses. Lucian ran over to the reset button, pressing it only once Aurelia had given chase. All the squares dimmed.

He tried to start again from the beginning, but that was a totally fruitless endeavor. Now that the chancellor knew Lucian went through this room, he kept aiming for it, breaking the puzzle immediately. Aurelia, despite her initial mistake, was doing an excellent job at keeping Metterand away from him. But Metterand was a master at running away. An incorporeal form—a godsend for a villain to deliver a monologue and then escape.

Even still, Lucian achieved something else.

He tore the last of his ice magic scrolls, and then froze the fourth waterfall. All of them started to shake as if beset by some tremendous pressure. By freezing all four waterfalls, he’d jammed the system. And by jamming the system…

Somewhere distantly, Lucian heard something burst. It wasn’t their fight. He had timed this deliberately so that neither of them were close to what he was looking for. Even still, they’d probably be coming to investigate it. Lucian knew he would, in their shoes. He moved as fast as he could to get to it before they even saw what it was.

Lucian made his way through the maze of hallways to a waterlogged hallway. At one section of it, a part of the wall had busted open to reveal a waterfall that had been harnessed to create that scenic atmosphere in the divine beast’s sarcophagus chamber. And gleaming in front of the waterfall… a beautiful, pearly blessing. One that he’d been hoping to get, but didn’t dare dream it possible. Lucian ran up to it, breathless, then reached out and touched it. He felt a swell of power incomparable to the others that he’d taken prior to this.

Whoo… He touched at his chest. So that’s the feel of a late-game blessing. My god…

Lucian turned when he heard a noise on the other end of the hallway. Aurelia was there. Had she seen him take the blessing? People troubled by demons couldn’t take the blessings of the gods. His suspicion elevated when she started to move toward him incredibly quickly. She was coming for him too quickly for him to reach into his satchel. It seemed like her jaws might close around his neck.

Then, she shifted to human form, alighting gracefully. “Was this it? Did you get what you needed?” She studied the waterfall. “I can’t fight in this place. It’s his dream arena. He’s like a lizard. Every time I think I’ve got him, his tail falls off,” she said, gnashing her teeth in clear irritation. “I need an open space. And you need to hurry—help could be arriving any minute. And once help arrives, you probably can’t steal what you need.”

“I’d be fine if you could keep him away from the center room,” Lucian said. “You both keep interrupting me.”

“Yeah? The room with dozens of damned entrances?” She said through gritted teeth and a false smile.

Lucian thought for a moment. The fact was, he simply couldn’t move fast enough to finish the puzzle. There was always enough time for the duke to find another entrance and try and take a stab at him. Aurelia was good as a guard, but there was only so much she could do to prevent someone who could turn into smoke at will.

He came up with a solution. But…

God damn it. I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.

“Alright.” Lucian pulled out his Evercodex. Looking at the page with his puzzle diagram… it did have some writing, but it was in English. She couldn’t read it. Or so he hoped, at least. He grabbed one of its pages and tore it out, offering it to her. “Memorize that pattern. Fill out the squares in the center chamber exactly like that. There’s a reset button marked on that diagram, with the little circle made out of an arrow.”

“What’ll you do?” she asked.

“What else? Swap with you, handle Metterand,” Lucian said flatly.

She studied him hard. “Can you? You seem… weak.”

Good observation, he wanted to praise. But I use performance-enhancing drugs.

“I know it might be hard for you, but just memorize that pattern, and do your damn part. Then, get your nine tails back here and finish the job with the Last Inquisitor.” Lucian smiled as falsely as she had. “Okay?”

Aurelia glared at him, but then shifted once more and ran off toward the central room. Just in time, too. Metterand appeared in the waterlogged hallway, looking particularly monstrous. His appearance… it was like he had an echo trailing his every move. Red and black—those were its colors. A demon walked in his wake. The shadows seemed to move around him, eating themselves to become all the darker. And his eyes… they’d always been a little scary, but now? Lucian saw in those eyes a hell perfectly suited to break him.

“I heard you were looking for me.” Lucian held his arms out. His hands were shaking. All of this had seemed so distant and impersonal when he’d been playing the game, but things had changed now. “Whoo… fuck, you’re scary.” He laughed to dispel his fear. It sort of worked.

Metterand smiled like a serial killer who didn’t have to hide anymore. Lucian was hoping for one of his trademark long monologues to explain his devious, devilish plans. Maybe Metterand wasn’t in the mood, or maybe Lucian wasn’t his type—he preferred black-haired protagonists named Rowan, perhaps—because he started sprinting without a word, a devil at his back.

All Lucian had was a satchel full of tricks… and the blessings of the gods.