World Of Karik: A Game Of Villains 78 Two Faces

What in h.e.l.l's name was "abyss"? My new armor was weak against that thing.
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I remembered Jones telling me that creatures' blood was used to prepare the potion that turned people into zombies. And now I was sitting next to the woman who was somehow related to all of this paranormal stuff. I wondered what everybody else was hiding from me. I didn't manage to check everyone and I sure as h.e.l.l couldn't do it now; it'd be rude to leave. What's more, it'd give rise to questions and suspicions. Therefore, I would stay and listen to the story about the Forbidden City as it was actually interesting. I'll take a look at the other members of the detachment later.

"So, yeah," Vlada sounded sad. She might've received the mark at the Forbidden City. "Listen, there were two of us there: our former leader, Ruslan, and me, his a.s.sistant. You know, at first, this world is frightening, but then a feeling of permissiveness overwhelms you. You think that you can do whatever you want so long as your tombstone is safe. So we decided to visit those ruins. We were being silly, hoping to find some ancient legacy, a powerful weapon, or a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p with access to extraordinary technologies. I remember us walking and laughing."

"But you didn't find anything." Vlada paused so I tried to make her continue the story. If the pause became too long, she would change her mind about finis.h.i.+ng the story.

"Yeah," she stopped staring into s.p.a.ce and continued as if nothing had happened. "More precisely, we found something else. By the way, I've never told anyone the details about what had happened then. I don't know why I decided to do that now, so don't interrupt me, please. If you do, I'll probably leave and go cry for a while."

Is she joking? She seemed to be both joking and not at the same time. I nodded in response, just in case.

"We spent the entire day exploring the outskirts; no nocturnal monsters came close to the city border, so we managed to spend the night there without dying. Although neither of us got enough sleep. I swear that we could hear the sound of dripping water the entire time. However, there was no rain either that night or the whole week before that." She paused. Maybe she needed to take a deep breath or was reliving that night's events. "I wanted to come back to the base in the morning, but Ruslan insisted that we stay and explore. I remember him saying that in worst case scenario we won't have to return on foot. He was always like that; calm, cracking jokes no matter what was going on. In the end, we went inside. At first glance, they looked like ordinary ruins, but then a gang of Stone Goblins appeared from one of the bas.e.m.e.nts. We managed to cope with them so we thought that there was nothing to be afraid of, but their blood attracted stronger monsters."

Vlada's throat got dry and she lost her voice for a moment. Fortunately, a sip from a flask, which she found somewhere, came in handy, and the story continued. It seemed trustworthy at first, but the more details she added, the more suspicious it appeared.

"Something invisible appeared near us. At first, we heard the sound of shambling footsteps; the next moment, it drank all the blood spilled on the ground. We were rooted to the ground and didn't dare to move, foolishly hoping that the creature wouldn't hurt us if we did so. However, it didn't leave; it attacked us instead. It seemed like our shadows rose from the ground and wrapped around our bodies, not letting us move. A voice appeared in my head and told me to give in. I felt like that lasted forever. A moment later, Ruslan managed to light a fire with a Molotov c.o.c.ktail, which he brought along in case of emergency. Both he and his shadow started to burn, and then the flame moved to the thing holding me. I think I heard someone's scream in my head right before I regained control over my body. That's how I managed to escape. Once I came back to the base… Ruslan's body continued to burn even after he had resp.a.w.ned at the cemetery. No one knew what to do. They tried pouring water on him, but he kept dying and resp.a.w.ning, still in flames. Five minutes later, his tombstone cracked and crumbled to pieces. I became the leader right after that. Although some people considered me responsible for his death, none of them dared to oppose me."

What an impressive story. I was about to believe her, but she had the Mark of the Abyss the story couldn't have ended so simply for her. Maybe unlike the burned Ruslan, she reached some sort of an agreement with those creatures? Was the Mark the proof of that? She was a sly one alright, luring me into the Forbidden City. I wondered what I would've thought about all of this had I not known about the Mark. Had she not told me anything, I would've hesitated. Had she told me that this place was nothing special, I wouldn't have believed her. Thus, this little scheme of her was a nice one. Yeah, it was dangerous there, but the monsters were nothing special, and the mysterious shadows were afraid of fire. There, mystery solved. I could confidently go there.

"Thanks for the story." I didn't have to make a decision right now. I had to think things through. Vlada didn't even attempt to make me stay. She was a smart woman. She understood that I wouldn't make any decisions until I thought things over.

I checked everybody as I had planned. And it was a good thing that I did as it turned out that Igor, the former head of the third detachment, had two geases. I had no idea where he had gotten the second one, but the first one was definitely from his old armor. If removing the armor didn't remove it as well, putting it on even once would be a huge mistake. No temporary protection was worth a permanent commitment.

Realizing that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep after all this, I went to the swamp and spent a few hours there instead of having dinner. First of all, I increased my intelligence to its max. Now I had 75 without any boosts. It was about time too, as there were so many dangers lurking about and I kept postponing it because I had to burn myself. However, dying and knowing that there's no second chance hurt a lot more than that. I then just sat there, staring into the darkness and trying to come up with a plan. Everyone was obviously playing their own game, and I had to think through how to get the best possible outcome out of all of this. After all, when else, if not during moments like these, do people get stronger?

First things first, I had to decide whether I was willing to take such a risk and go to the Forbidden City, given what I managed to learn about it. Maybe I should just send everyone to h.e.l.l and sit in my cave or go wild in the swamp for a couple of days. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that unless I planned on leaving the detachment and continuing on my own. Right now, I still had things under control. I was one of those who had the right to determine the future of our squad. Right now I was the player, but if I deviate I would become a minor chess piece. Since we decided to go to the ruins, I had to come up with a plan that would keep us all from dying.