Elsewhere

Duke arrived at the entrance to the level and scrambled to his feet, watching and listening for any movement in the sudden darkness. He heard no one and could not see anything moving. He braced himself in the corner of the entrance and waited silently. He could be silent. The darkness had taught him all about being silent. He could control his breathing. He could control his muscles. He could move now but he chose not to. This was his choice, his freedom. He felt his PURPOSE stir at the thought.

He watched his Mana tick up on his status page. For three long minutes he strained against the silence as he watched his Mana refill for the first time in longer than he could seem to comprehend. Finally, mercifully, it finished, reaching its maximum. He paused, confused as the number was higher than he remembered. He flipped over to his Characteristic sheet to see if anything had changed there.

Things had definitely changed. Most of his Characteristics had changed, and not all for the better. Both his Agility and Reason had dropped by five full points each. His Intuition had increased by four points and his Endurance had increased by six. The greatest change of all was his Psyche. It had increased by a full twenty points. I guess coming back from madness takes a lot of willpower. I did come back, right? Oh, yeah, I’m back. And I’m going to tear all these motherfuckers to pieces with my massive 6k Mana pool. I’ve got my freedom back and there is no way any of these fuckers are going to take it away from me again!

With that thought, Duke felt his PURPOSE stir to life within him yet again. It roared to life, filling him with strength beyond what even he had expected. His eyes began to glow with power and he could see through the darkness. It was tinged red, but he was really not sure if that was a factor of the vision or his burning rage. Regardless, he set forth on his mission of vengeance.

Upon reaching the first intersection, Duke stomped back up the first passage to his left that he had originally taken, charged LIGHTNING crackling around his fist as he prepared for combat. He reached for the door and threw it wide open. He could see the Red Dwarven golems pulling themselves out of their alcoves and reading their axes and shields. Duke didn’t give them a chance to ready themselves and blasted them with LIGHTNING enhanced by an additional 500 Mana and whatever boost his PURPOSE was giving him. They exploded in the arcing LIGHTNING, but this time, Duke was prepared and had ducked behind the door, allowing it to take the brunt of the back blast. The few bits that still rebounded off the wall and still managed to hit him hurt, but he could feel his REGENERATION quickly work to repair the damage.

Duke listened for any response. He did not have to wait long. He could hear the march of stone feet back down the hall he had come from. He could not see them coming just yet, but he readied himself just the same. He took position behind the mostly-closed door. Hey, didn’t this door get destroyed? Do the dungeon features repair themselves? Does that mean that the other Red Dwarves could have been rebuilt? Fuck! OK, New plan. Bar the other door first! Duke ran across the room and barred the door. Thankful that nothing had snuck up on him in the meantime. He returned to his partially opened door to peer down the hall.

He could finally see the Red Dwarf golems marching up the hallway. They were at least four ranks deep, probably more. Duke didn’t hesitate and poured a full 1,000 extra Mana into the blast he sent down the hall at the advancing golems and slammed the door closed.

The blast was even more jarring than the one he remembered that had gotten him slammed so badly. He was knocked off his feet by the impact with the door but amazingly, it was still mostly intact. It was cracked and breaking in a number of areas but still attached to the hinges. Mostly.

Duke listened for a few minutes as the dust swirled down the hall, but there was no further movement. He smiled. Gotcha motherfuckers! “Don’t start none! Won’t be none!” He considered his options and decided to, again, continue the way he was originally going. This would tell him whether the golems reappeared. Pausing and listening for a few minutes for his Mana and Health to once again top off, he unbarred the door and continued down the hall.

He carefully and quietly opened the door at the end of the hall to be greeted by an empty room. Good. No respawning golems it seems. Or at least not yet. He continued through the room and out the far door again. This time, the door was on the left wall. Back towards the entrance direction. I’ll call that way west just to have some sort of convention as I map this out in my mind. Came in, heading east, made a left turn to the north, and now am headed west again. Got it.

Duke tentatively opened the door and headed into the hallway. After three right turns and a left, he found himself heading east again and finally leaving the blank hallway for another door. With due care, he opened the door to a hallway running perpendicular to the door and another doorway directly opposite his own. He glanced left and right, not seeing any opposition so he crossed the hallway and opened the opposite door.

The door led to a room that had larger alcoves than the previous rooms had contained but were also similarly empty. He shrugged and left the room. He considered a turn to the south but reconsidered. The rule was to always take the left turn and that would have been to the north. He continued up the hall and came to another door which he didn’t hesitate to open. At this point, his PURPOSE had grown quiescent, and he was becoming impatient for action. He had to use his LIGHT channeling technique to see again.

As he opened the door to another room of empty alcoves, his combat instincts started to churn. If all of the enemy’s barracks are empty and you are not encountering any resistance, what does that mean? Duke answered his own question. Likely, they are preparing an ambush for you with everything they have. How do I counter that? By coming from a direction they don’t expect, of course.

Duke stood in the center of the room, ignoring the alcoves around himself as he delved into his memories. The days, perhaps weeks, he had laid on his back in the lab had given him a quite detailed picture of the layout of the lab. He had noted the myriad racks of equipment and shelves along the walls. There was one rack of equipment that did not have anything on top of it. He smiled as he pictured the rack in his mind and rotated the image in his mind. His special sense had always been at the top of the class and that was one of the many things that made him such a good pilot.

The rack was located on the back wall behind all the shelves of “spare parts” that had been taken from Duke. He shuttered, first with revulsion, but then with rage at the thought. That creature has taken too much of me from me. That will not stand! All the parts and pieces it was made from when it nabbed me were from other creatures. Probably other delvers. Dear God, that thing is an absolute horror! Duke’s PURPOSE flared back to life at that thought. LIGHTNING crackled along his entire body as he felt the rush of power flow over him. He prepared himself for the fight and then TELEPORTED.

Duke appeared in the lab, perched on top of the equipment rack and surveyed the room. There was only one other occupant in the room, and it was not the creature he was looking for. It was the massive golem that had chopped his arms off. Duke didn’t hesitate to blast the thing with LIGHTNING followed by a TELEPORT back to the previous room.

He waited a full minute for his Mana to regen and TELEPORTED back to the room, this time choosing a corner he had spotted that had been relatively clear of equipment. The room was complete wreckage. Most of the lab was reduced to scattered chunks of debris and charred remains. The table Duke had been strapped to was all that remained intact. Duke shuddered as he saw it there, apparently unscathed.

A single figure stood in the doorway observing the destruction with an inscrutable look on its face. Duke’s face. The creature stood there staring at the wreckage wearing Duke’s entire body – and his armor. It slowly turned toward him, and a smile slowly grew across its features. “Ah, there you are, my donor. I don’t know how you escaped but no matter. I’ll collect you now. Back onto the table you go.” It spoke with such calm cheeriness that it made Dukes hair stand on end.

Duke almost froze in indecision. He wanted to tear this creature apart, but he knew that any blast at this range would catch him as well as amped he was on PURPOSE right now. He instead opted for as tight a beam of LIGHT as he could manage with an extra 500 Mana poured in. The LIGHT lanced out in an instant and ran into a scintillating shield of magic, reflecting into the wall between them and boring a deep hole which sent shards of shattered rock exploding outwards. Thankfully, the vast majority of the shrapnel followed the path of least resistance back towards the creature only to be stopped by its barrier.

“Is that the best you can do, donor? No wonder my little golems were able to capture you so easily. I really shouldn’t have bothered with all the grand preparations for you in the other rooms. It seems that you will be just as easy to capture a second time.” Its smile was cripplingly eerie, Duke’s face twisted into a grin that he just could not recognize. The creature advanced through the rubble, its shield forcing piles of debris out of its path effortlessly. Duke suppressed a wave of panic and fear. He was The Duke, the best damned pilot around. He was more than this. He mattered and he was not bowing down again. Ever!

Now that he had access to his magic, Duke activated TONGUES and responded. “That body isn’t yours, asshole! You are way overdue on your payments. And I am coming to fucking repossess it!” Duke launched a FORCE DART at the base of the shield hoping it would knock the creature back and off its feet. It didn’t. The bolt was redirected back into the floor, creating a sizable hole. The resulting grin from the creature sent shivers down Duke’s spine.

The creature slowly walked around the hole smiling that insane smile with Duke’s face the whole time. “So, at last. The donor speaks. Not particularly intelligently, but speech nonetheless. Your magic will not avail you. My defensive shield is inviolate. Surrender to your fate and save us all the time in repairing all the shattered equipment. You have had your fun, but it is time to get you back on the table. Go on, donor. Back onto the table.” The creature gestured towards the table Duke had been strapped onto. His eyes involuntarily followed the gesture. and he could swear the table began to glow. His heart nearly stopped in fear and despair. Duke’s PURPOSE flared to impossible levels, screaming into his soul with power and latching onto something waiting for a purpose of its own.

Duke’s response was interrupted by a system message:

***Your patience has been rewarded. Based on the powers of the Nethercloth bindings, your new Ability has finally been created and unlocked – MANA DRAIN. This ability allows you to very rapidly drain the Mana from an object or individual. This is a touch-only ability. It is unclear what would happen if this Ability were to be OVERCHANNELED so doing so would be unwise. ***

This changed everything. Duke smiled as he hopped down off of the shelves and calmly walked towards the approaching creature. “You have no idea who you fucked with. But you are about to find out.” With that, he accelerated his steps right up to the creature’s shield and rested his hand upon it with his new Ability activated. The shield sparked and flared at the contact, shooting debilitating pain down through Duke’s arm. So much pain that he should have passed out or at least been paralyzed. Instead, Duke gritted his teeth and shunted the pain off into the darkness now dwelling within his own mind where it faded from his consciousness. He could feel the Mana rushing into him as his body reflexively repaired the damage being done to him.

The creature’s (Duke’s?) eyes snapped wider in panic as it realized that its Mana was declining at an extreme pace. Duke could sense that it couldn’t keep the shield up for more than a few more seconds at most. The impossibility of it was written across its face. It shouted at Duke, “I have the weeks-worth of reserve Mana drained out of you, donor. The feedback shock should have shut the tour nervous system down by now. I have studied this body. I know the body’s limits! This was impossible! You cannot resist! How? How are you not crippled with pain? How!” The creature scream/whined.

Duke’s smile grew wider as he ignored his blackening arm in favor of the knowledge that the shield was draining and would fail soon. “Pain isn’t real. Pain is just nerve endings firing. You can turn it off. It is the mind that is truly in control and thanks to you, mine is stronger than ever.”

With a final flash of energy, the shield failed and Duke stumbled forward as the creature wearing his body collapsed to the floor clutching its head in pain. Duke grabbed the creature by its leg and dragged it across the room to the table, continually draining its Mana as he did so. The creature started to struggle so Duke channeled LIGHTNING through its leg until it stopped. He dragged the creature and slammed it onto the table, giving it another jolt of LIGHTNING for good measure.

After removing his armor and its other equipment, including his own headband, he tied it in place with leather straps he had found amongst the debris, Duke waited for the creature to awaken, continually draining its Mana. He saw the flutter of its eyes as it awakened. “Don’t feign unconsciousness. I know you’re awake.”

“What…what are you doing?” The creature asked pleadingly.

“You stole my body. I’m going to take it back. Piece by fucking piece. For as long as it takes. Sound familiar?” Duke rode the brutal edge of his rage, just hovering below the boiling point.

“Please, no. Don’t.” It begged.

“Really? You are begging ME to not do to you what you did to me? In what universe do you think that’s going to fly?” Duke moved the scalpel he had grabbed off the floor to the creature’s wrist. “I wonder if you will regrow the hand like I did? How many times?” Duke moved closer to begin cutting.

“Please! No! I had to! I had no choice.” It begged, pleading with Duke.

“Oh, I’m fairly certain you had choices.” Duke responded, dripping venom.

“No, they will unmake me. After all these centuries, I will be unmade. Do you know what that means?”

“Do I care is the right question.” Duke responded, drawing the blade closer yet again. He paused momentarily confused. Why was he pulling the blade closer? Wasn’t it already at the skin?

As Duke hesitated, a distant voice called to him. “Is this really and truly who you are, Duke? A torturer? Is this what you really want?”

Duke’s mind flashed out of the burning crimson rage as his PURPOSE wavered. The voice returned, “You can feel it, can’t you? This is not you. This is circumstance driving you. Do not sacrifice who you are based on another’s actions. You are better than this!”

Another voice rumbled through Duke’s mind, rattling his soul. “Do not interfere! He has chosen MY path. Stand aside and allow him to grasp his destiny!”

The first voice countered, “You have driven him to this. This is not a true choice, and I will let you cloud his mind NO LONGER!”

Duke screamed as he felt something deep within himself break. He did not know what it was, but he suddenly felt different. Something had changed but he could not put a finger on it. What he could tell, for sure, was that he was about to torture a helpless creature and that was not a line he ever wanted to cross. The thought brought clarity back to his eyes as his PURPOSE both strengthened and retreated.

Duke looked down at the terrified creature wearing his own body as a shell and asked a simple and straightforward question. “Do you acknowledge that I have defeated you and fully surrender?” He was not sure where the words came from, but they seemed right to him.

The creature’s eyes opened with hope and relief. Duke’s eyes disturbingly stared back at his own as the creature responded with the first hints of sanity Duke had seen from it. “I am well and truly defeated. I surrender.”

*** Congratulations! You have completed the second level of the Lake Front Dungeon. You have one hour to collect whatever loot you may find before you must decide whether to continue or to leave the dungeon. When this hour is up, you will be transported to a safe room where you may recover for up to one week before proceeding to the next level or departing the dungeon. Rewards will be distributed upon your decision. Dungeon restrictions have been temporarily lifted. ***