Chapter 112: Out of the Frying Pan
Simon had seen a number of different levels on the other side of this portal, but the graveyard concerned him more than the golem or the ghosts. “Well, they’re both ghosts,” he said to himself, clarifying.
“Who are,” the devil asked, looking up from his writing to study Simon.
Simon ignored that, though, and continued to think about the whole thing. They were both ghosts, but they behaved very differently. Did that mean that they were the same kind of ghost? Were there even different kinds of ghosts. He’d heard of poltergeists, of course. He’d even seen one of the movies a long time ago, but he wasn’t much of a horror fan.
Right now, though, he kind of wished he was. He was certain that would have been helpful for some of the weirder levels like this one. He didn’t know what the mist creature was or if it had weaknesses beyond light and fire. He just knew that if he used magic to create those, it would backfire.
“But how am I going to create light or fire without…oh.” As Simon thought that through, he realized he was being an idiot. There were lots of ways to create fire that didn’t involve having to use a spell, and he grew annoyed at his ever-increasing dependency on a handful of magic words.
There’s at least one level where that’s not happening, and probably more beyond that, so I need to learn to do without, he thought to himself as he looked at the wooden furniture in the room.
Sadly, he’d lost his axe somewhere along the way, he realized as he went to retrieve it. That had almost certainly been the sewer, but there was nothing he could do about it now, so he unsheathed his sword instead.
“Oh, are you finally ready to fight?” the devil asked, unsheathing a scintillating rapier. “Name your stakes, and we’ll go a round or two.”
Simon looked at the preening fob and rolled his eyes before he started hacking up the nearest pew with his sword. He didn’t need magic fireballs; he just needed a source of firewood, and sacrilegious or not, this would do just fine.