Shadowbane

{Why track?}

... I understand why he's shortening his sentences now, but it's kind of annoying.

I know why you're asking. You already told me the general location of Ishar, so there's no point in tracking him, right? But even so, I still want to see where they took him. It only takes a second to activate the tracker and check for him after all.

Plus, he's only checking for anyone around Nisha. The odds of Ishar being somewhere on Urza and I just so happen to find him with my tracker along this road are basically zero, but why not check just in case? Also... I don't know. Some part of me wants to see what they did to him.

{I see.}

I'm currently hiding in the first manor-sized barn we saw as we entered Kellog last time. The tracker ability just barely reaches the road, and sure enough, Ishar is still floating in the air while lying down. This is the last time I can check for him though, as I can see a few obelisks in the distance. It'd be too risky to walk through these villages directly. Honestly, I wanted to visit Euphie's Manor one last time and maybe grab some food, but it looks like I won't get that chance.

Swapping the tracker for my aura, I run out of the barn and toward the east away from the villages. After I reach a safe enough distance - a little past where I escaped the obelisk's aura during the Kellog invasion - I turn right and continue sprinting toward the fortress in the distance.

... I've put this off long enough. I have been scared to ask Arkaios about how long I've been dead, but it's pretty damn important, so I need to just get it over with.

Arkaios, how long have I been dead?

{Four... half years}

Four and a half...? That's it? I really need to know what determines how long I've been dead... I don't even know where to begin with that though. Then that means if Alicia came one more time she would have seen me. Er, wait, then I would have needed to wait half a year for her... And I doubt I would have done that, especially when Ishar, Nisha, and Shana might need help. I left a note behind for Alicia in case she comes back so everyone will know I'm alive again, but I doubt she'll see it.

As I near the fortress, I see that the gate is wide open and there aren't any obelisks nearby.

About what I expected. Now the only thing left is the long trek to Xelba.

Hmm... I remember this village; I came here a few times for missions. They brought Ishar through here? Xelba is far off to the east though... And I see they carried him further south, but the road south stops at this village. So the way to this 'Jericho' has always been over here...?

I enter a run-down home and rip off the last jar of peanuts I stuck to my armor before leaving Viseux, quickly tossing them into my mouth.

This is probably my last chance to eat so I'd prefer something more delicious, but there's no way this village has anything left after being abandoned for fifty years.

After I'm done eating I leave the home and begin running south. Now that I'm up close I can see obvious signs of travel on the hard ground, but the grass has mostly hidden it.

Three hours later I finally find what I'm looking for.

... Well, this was rather brazen of them. I know this is near the mountains that barely anyone approached, but I could see this massive lift from almost a mile out. If someone from Xelba became lost and saw this they would have been silenced, but if the Kitsune or Crotia found it? That would have ruined whatever plans they had here.

Hmm... They might have built it after Xelba fell? Either way, I can't use it. I see one of those bone engines sitting in the back of the fucking platform. If I activate the lift there's a good chance it'll wake up whatever the hell is inside of that engine, and I already know what happens after that. There's no way they'd solely rely on a lift to get up and down though. There has to be a back way somewhere for emergencies.

I begin walking west along the mountain, scanning for anything out of place. About thirty minutes later I find a side entrance, but...

This almost looks more dangerous than battling the Xerath hiding inside the engine...

There's a slope going up into a cavern, but the entire path is made of the skeletons that the Xerath create from dead bodies. Well... Some of them? I saw them devouring people in Viseux, so I'm not entirely certain of what their criteria is for turning people into eternal servants.

These skeletons have their arms criss-crossed over their chest in the death pose you see when people are being buried, but they're all standing up. And there are skeletons in the same pose standing on top of the others, lining each side of the slope up. Instead of building something to reach that cavern entrance, they decided to just place their pawns here who would create a path while also doubling as watchdogs... How very annoying. I could keep looking, but I'd bet any other paths are just like this one, so...

I creep up to the 'slope' and put my hand on top of one of the skeleton's heads, its head immediately shoots up and turns to look in my direction. I let go and back off a bit. The skeleton looks back and forth for what touched it for a bit before lowering its head again and going still.

... Hmm.

I look past the skeletons toward the cave entrance, checking for anything I can hang onto or maybe scale on the sides, but there's almost nothing.

Let's see, I've got three options here...

Climb on top of the skeletons and sprint for the cave, I'm sure this won't end horribly.

Enhance myself and jump above the skeletons and continue kicking off the mountain to keep myself above them until I reach the cavern.

Or I can over-enhance myself and just jump the entire way there.

The first is out immediately. Both of the other options are equally risky... Kicking off the mountain could drop rubble down below. I don't know how perceptive these things are, nor do I know whether there is a bone engine or obelisk nearby that they can activate to find me. The third is a problem if I jump straight into one of their auras. I'll have lost a lot of mana and made my legs half-useless for a few minutes, which is not the kind of position I want to be in if I get swarmed.

....................

I walk along the mountain, far out of sight of the skeletons and remove my aura, quickly enhancing my whole body before re-applying my aura. After that I sprint back to the 'skeleton slope' and immediately jump above the skeletons. Upon reaching the apex of my jump, I kick myself toward the cave entrance. From the very first kick onward I knock parts of the mountain away that fall onto the skeletons below. I don't look, but I can hear the loud clattering of bones knocking against each other.

I land near the entrance and look back to see skeletons climbing on top of one another, all looking to and fro in this direction.

It seems that even simple pawns like them can figure out that something was progressing in this direction above them...

I run into the cave entrance, finding myself in a circular room with a black contraption in the center. It looks like a flower that hasn't bloomed. Opposite of me there is a Xerath sitting in a chair with its head hanging down, the very same type of Xerath that killed me(The tall dark-purple variants). The rest of the room is covered in some kind of thick black substance, while there is a crystal light attached to the ceiling that's subtlety lighting up the room.

About seven of the skeletons come running into the room behind me, which makes two things happen at once. The flower blossoms and the Xerath looks up at the skeletons while turning its head sideways.

As the skeletons continue to look around the room their behavior seems to put the Xerath on guard, as it stands up and also begins to look around. The flower however is spreading some type of star-like pollen all over the room, but it's not sticking to me.

Maybe it's poison? That's obviously not going to affect me so I don't have to worry about these creepy flowers at least. And there aren't any other doors in this place, but there has to be a way to move forward...

As the Xerath continues to look for me, I move along the wall while running my hand across the black substance, looking for anything that might be out of place. Ugh, it looks dry and hard at a glance, but once you touch it it's firm and kind of moist.

This goes on for a few minutes before I reach the chair the Xerath was resting in. That's when I notice the small button on the right side underneath the armrest. I push it and a portion of the wall behind me opens up. The skeletons look toward the wall that just opened up while the Xerath whips its head toward the seat. It immediately lunges in my direction and raises both its hands into the air. I dodge to the right just as the Xerath brings its hands down behind me, causing the ground on the right side of the chair to break apart from the sheer force of the attack.

I sprint through the opening and up the slope waiting for me on the other side. Glancing backward, I see the Xerath bent down, looking out through the opening in the wall.

That opening is way too small for him, and apparently he can't dematerialize into smoke and reappear on the other side like the skeletons can. I've seen his type appear from a bone engine though, so maybe the Xerath need contraptions like those to move around? I'm just glad knowing that a behemoth like that thing can't warp like the skeletons can.

I continue running up the mountain trail for a while. It takes a few hours but I eventually exit onto the other side of the mountain, where I finally get a look at the place they hid from me and the place Fin wanted to destroy.

So that's Jericho huh...

The city is broken up into multiple different areas. They are on top of man-made platforms jutting out of the mountain that appear to be housing thousands of people. On each platform city there is a long black bridge that extends to another platform city. Unlike normal bridges, this one has walls everywhere and it looks circular in design. That must be how they move around.

I honestly didn't know what to expect, but I'm shocked to see how many people live here... I expected maybe a few thousand. This however is bigger than Xelba was. Where the hell did all these people come from? I know I've been gone from this area for almost forty-eight years now, but still, this is not a good sign. I really doubt this is the only place Viktor owns, and I suspect he's spread out far larger civilizations than this one. With the Demons and cursed Lords gone, there's no one left to get in his way after all. Then again, Demons did assault this place.

First things first though, I need to figure out where the hell Ishar was taken. I checked with my ability on the slope but he wasn't there, so odds are he was taken on that lift. To my left I can see where the lift comes up because there is a large platform there attached to some railways that lead to the biggest city here. I need to start there it seems. I also don't see a bone engine on that platform, so I should be able to use that instead of walking down these long steps and going through multiple cities just to reach where the platform stops.

I lay down on the ground and remove my aura. After enhancing myself I reapply my aura and begin jumping alongside the mountain. A few minutes later I land near the platform and am shocked yet again at how large it is. Seriously, was this thing designed to move armies?

Looking around the platform I see the only way to operate it is from a booth nearby. There's nothing on the platform itself to control it. I walk into the booth and find a man dead asleep in his chair. I remove my aura and the man's eyes go wide , but before he can do anything I reach out and snap his neck. Good thing I left my enhancements on.

I pick him up and carry him outside, tossing him down into the darkness below. Good riddance.

Heh... So that's why. I haven't felt any sort of happiness or joy from harming anything after waking up in that hole near Keith's group outside of when I hit that Satyr with one of Janet's bombs, and now I see why. I felt a rush killing these fucking freaks. These... These...!!!

I sit down and meditate to calm myself. After the rush passes I stand and activate my aura as I walk back to the terminal.

It's because of who it is... I want to kill these people. Viktor's people. And Demons as well of course, but everyone wants to kill them. And judging from how quickly the grinning Demon killed the Satyr and used him like a toy, it looks like Demons enjoy killing Demons as well. The only universal constant in my world.

I look down at the console.

As expected for a simple tram, there's nothing to even figure out here. There are only a few buttons with a handle next to them, with one extra button off to the right side under glass. It's not hard to guess what that one will do.

I push the green button but nothing happens. Hmm... I push the button again but this time I hold it down and push the handle upwards. Immediately a loud horn begins to blare from the platform as the lights on it begin swirling around. The radio on the counter blares to life.

"Carl, you can't keep forgetting to inform me of any packages or people you're sending over. Fucking idiot, I'm tired of being woken up to the goddamn alarms... One more time and I'm telling the boss." The man continued, "Activating on my end in one minute."

I exit the terminal and run over to the platform. Once I'm on it I see that the other end of the platform has seats on it facing forward. I sit down in one of the front-row seats and grab the straps behind me, pulling them over my shoulders and buckling myself in.

Full body harness huh? It does look like this platform is going to aim down around the halfway point, and the railings aren't up. I think 'Carl' is supposed to put them up, but he's obviously busy elsewhere.

The platform begins moving. It ramps up in speed until it reaches about ten miles an hour. I look to my right and extend my vision toward the cities, scanning for anything that might stick out.

Oh? One of the long black bridges goes into the mountain... Is there another city in there? This place never ends it seems...

I also see little lights going down and up from the edge of the cities into the lands below. I extend my vision to the max and see that they're people in mechanical suits with large glass visors, but I lose sight of them after they drop past the fog down below. I wonder what they're harvesting from the dark lands?

A few minutes later the platform turns and starts to go down toward the main city. Most of the city is well-lit and I see people running around everywhere, but the outer edge of the cities have no buildings, only some small trees, benches, and lots of grass, which looks odd when the rest of the city is pure stone. There's about a one-hundred-and-fifty-meter distance between the edge of the city and where all the buildings are, and the fake parks they've made only have a few lights here and there.

I know how I'm getting around some parts of the city then. The problem is I need to reach that long black bridge. Now that I'm closer and my extended vision is reaching it, I can see little windows on it and there are lights emitting from them. It can't be just a walkway... It's way too big for that.

I remove my veil and enhance myself before reapplying my veil.

The platform slowly finishes its journey and locks into place. I remove my belt and run toward the booth.

"The hell? It's empty? Did that moron send over an empty platform? No... Even he wouldn't do that."

The man reaches for the radio and I quickly remove my veil and snap this man's neck too. Behind me I can hear a couple laughing in the park. I put my veil on, making him invisible too. I pick him up and run as fast as I can to the edge of the city and throw him over it. I drop my enhancements and sit down.

Holy shit, I almost ran out of mana... Hiding other people while moving is just something I'm not meant to do. There's barely any light here too.

Standing up, I run back over to the platform and hide behind one of the seats. I remove my veil and activate the tracker. Ahh, there he is... Ishar is moving toward the center of the city.

The center is where that 'walkway' is, but that's where I expected them to be taking him. Either that or a dungeon here.

With my veil back on I begin running around the outskirts of the city until I find a place with much less lighting. However, I stop when I see something else. A sign jutting out of a building with a pair of scissors on it.

... A barbershop.

I lift my hair and look at it.

I wonder if they have dyes? The Elves did, and this place seems to be incorporating a lot of their tech, which I'm sure Viktor did begrudgingly. I can't hide my red eyes, but dying my hair would help a lot right now. Sneaking through all of these places with my veil is going to be a nightmare, and I don't even know what is in those giant walkways yet.

I run over toward the shop but the lights become too much to bear. After a quick glance around I remove my veil and walk up to the shop.

Oh shit! Wait one second for me Arkaios. I'll be right back.

I back up and rip the artifact off my back, placing it in the dumpster behind me. The last thing I felt before letting go of the artifact was Arkaios's obvious disgust at what I had just done. Next, I command the artifact armor(currently a necklace) to turn into a pretty black dress. After it's done I turn around and enter the shop. The bell on the door rings as I enter. One of the girls working here looks over at me while cutting a customer's hair.

"Damn! You look kind of spooky, and I love it!"

"An Elf...?" The older man getting a haircut said.

"Um, I was wondering if you have hair dyes?"

The girl made a disgusted face, "Why?! That white hair looks amazing on you! Bah, I don't know who dyed it but they did an amazing job. You shouldn't get buyer's remorse now." The girl sighed, "Never mind... My mom has told me a million times not to tell the customers what to do. I really think you should keep it though..."

An older lady comes out from the back, holding a small platter full of glass bottles.

"These are the dyes dear. Which one did you want?"

She looks between my eyes and ears while quirking an eyebrow.

Yeah... Viktor wants nothing to do with the Elves, so I wouldn't be surprised if barely any of them are part of his... Faction? Nation? Faction is probably a better term for whatever the hell he created. I'll need time to research it, but that's for after I rescue my friends.

"I'd love black. That's my original hair color, and I really miss it." It wasn't, it was brown.

The lady spins a chair toward me, motioning for me to sit. She leaves directly after that, walking back to where she came from. Meanwhile, the girl had finished the man's haircut and he was now paying her near the register.

Damnit... I forgot about money. Should I just kill everyone here? The problem is that Xelba had alarm runes that activated when souls disappeared inside of most business buildings... It's way too risky.

The man walks past me and leaves the store. I follow behind him, picking up a metal rod near the dumpster and enhance both it and myself. The man spins around with a confused look on his face as I smash the rod into the side of his head. The man, apparently having not enhanced himself at all, goes flying into the stone wall to my left, splattering blood everywhere.

Shit, shit! I don't have time for this. Nobody else come down this alley please...

I go through his pockets until I find his money. After that, I throw him into the dumpster next to the artifact.

Jingle

"You're back! I was wondering why you suddenly left." The girl said.

"Ahh, sorry back that. The man dropped some of his money and I wanted to return it to him."

The girl pats the seat her mother offered to me earlier, "Now isn't that sweet of you... You wanted black, right?"

I nod and sit down. The girl begins rubbing something hot into my scalp.

"I thought dye required a wet scalp and, um, something else..."

The girl chuckles, "Not anymore silly. Those ones take hours, while these will be done in a few minutes. It uh, it'll hurt a little bit though. Your last dye was with the old method huh? She did a great job then... Even your roots are white. I've never seen anyone do that good of a job before."

"........."

Well, this is perfect then. I was planning to hide on the outer edge of the city here while the dye did its job, but with only a few minutes nobody should see all that blood. It's kind of hard to see with the red bricks that make up the building next to this one anyway, but anyone whose mind isn't preoccupied with something else will probably notice the blood.

A few minutes later the girl rinses my hair, and after a thorough drying with a towel, she pulls it off and shows me my new black hair.

"Ta-da! It's a waste, but this looks amazing on you too, especially with your red contacts."

Contacts? I've never heard that term before, but it must be something that goes into your eye.

I walk over to the counter and hand the girl a few bills I don't recognize. Her eyes go wide.

"Wow, really?! This is one crazy tip... Thank you very much!"

Thank the man in the dumpster.

I leave the shop and glance both ways. Nobody around yet, whew.

I flip open the dumpster and grab the artifact that now has blood splotches all over it.

{.......}

Extremely unpleasant feelings flow to me through the artifact. They slowly dissipate as Arkaios begins speaking.

{... I understand why you had to do that. However, purity is important for the artifact. You must cleanse it before we are to proceed.}

I thought it was going to be hard to communicate with me through only the artifact?

{It burns the stored energy. Now stop wasting.}

Ahh... That's not good then.

I put the artifact down and run back into the shop, asking the girl for a slightly wet towel and also if she has a large bag or backpack for sale. She hands me the towel and a suitcase on wheels before going back to her TV. "They're free. You already gave me a ton of money." She says with her back to me. I miss having new shows to watch...

I run back into the alley and clean the artifact. After that I shove it into the briefcase. Once it's secured, I zip it up and begin walking toward the center of the city.

Alright then, let's see if I can get through this place without any more incidents.