IMPERIUM INSECTUM

The mannequin rattled as we wandered down the stairs. We have been moving for a good couple of minutes now. The mannequin was surprisingly nimble for its size, however…

“Can you hurry up? We haven't got all day?”
The mannequin looked back at me with its hands covering its head in shame. I rolled my eyes. Christ, do I really have to do everything? Instantly, I Swiped him up off the ground and started sprinting down the stairs.

“Sorry. But at this rate, I'll die of old age.” The mannequin's wooden body flapped in the wind as we bolted down the stairs. Hahaha. Much faster! The torches that lit the passageway turned into a blur as we went deeper. I kept sprinting until a large stone dorn loomed into view; I stamped my feet hard into the ground and skidded to a halt just in front of the door.

“There we go, down in no time.” I placed the mannequin back down. The mannequin instantly turned back towards me and started stomping its feet in anger.

“What? Are you mad?”

The mannequin looked back at me for a few seconds before slumping its shoulders and walking to the door. On the side of the door at floor level was a tiny hole barely big enough to fit a rat. The mannequin dropped to its knees and crawled through the hole. With him gone, I gently sat on the ground. Even after the healing, my body was still in poor shape. I raised my hands. They were still partially black from the cold, but at least the pain was tolerable. If it wasn't for my pain resistance, I would probably be unable to move right now. I leaned forward, causing pains to shoot up my spine.

“Ahhhhhhhhh thhaaaat huuurrrrtssss”, I moaned as I held my back. I need to return back to rest as soon as possible.

*Kachunk*

My head snapped up to the door as it suddenly started to slide open. I  looked down to the ground just in time to see the mannequin climb out of the tiny hole.

“Took you long enough.”

I swiped him off the ground and watched the heavy stone door move into the nearby wall.

*Kachunk*

The door stopped. The familiar whooshing sound hit my ears as dozens of torches suddenly ignited.

“Let's see what awaits us then.”

I entered the room and was met with 4 ornate coffins…. No, sarcophagus would be a better word.

“what is this? Is this a tomb?” I moved over to the nearest sarcophagus. It was dark grey inlaid with gold etchings and jewels all around. I dragged my finger across it. It was smooth, unnaturally smooth. I looked closer at the etchings; they resembled an archer firing a bow with at least 5 arrows in it. Additionally, they were surrounded by bears, wolves, birds and a whole manner of animals I couldn’t make out. Was the person buried in there an archer, Hunter, maybe? I pushed against the stone top. Nothing. It didn’t budge a single inch. Whoever built this didn’t want them to be disturbed.

I moved away from this sarcophagus to another. It was the same shape and style as the other one, but the etching was completely different. This time, it was a  horned person holding a large battle axe and shield fighting several monsters. Were they a warrior, maybe? I looked to the other side of the sarcophagus to see even more etchings. It was the same horned human, but they had large wings coming out of their back…Weird.

I Moved away from this one and moved over to the third sarcophagus. This time, the design was that of a person casting what looks like all sorts of magic upon a large group of enemies. Additionally, one other detail this one had was that all the buildings behind the person were completely destroyed. I guess whoever this person was, they were a mage and a devastating one as well.

I turned to the final coffin. Unlike the others, there were no gold etchings on this sarcophagus. Instead, there was a large square hole in the lid. It's like something was meant to fit in there. I hoisted up the book. Could it be that?....

I looked down at the mannequin, who nodded at me.

“Fuck, this is stupid, But it’s already too late to turn back.”

I Walked up to the sarcophagus and slotted the book into the dip. There was a loud clunk as the sarcophagus started vibrating.

“What now?”

The book started to glow bright blue and green as the vibration increased. Suddenly, the book started floating into the air. I lept back and extended my pincers; gotta be ready for anything. The book suddenly snapped open and started flicking rapidly through dozens and dozens of pages. The pages flicked by in a blur until finally, it hit the last page. The page was mostly blank except for a large complex rune that was etched into it The rune started to glow bright red. The blue and green light started pouring up from the book above the rune. More and more light started to move toward the rune, forming a shape. The vibration of the sarcophagus increased as the shape began to twist and turn.

“SO YOU ARE THE ONE WHO HAS WOKEN ME”

I covered my ears and watched as the light twisted and formed into the torso of a man.

“Speak! Telleth thy name,” The voice said again.

The vibration suddenly stopped as suddenly as it came. I uncovered my ears and looked up to see the ghostly image of a man. I glanced down to see that the book was calmly floating under the torso of the man.

“Diva” I said towards the Ghost. I slowly retracted back my pincers.

“Diva….An unfamiliar name. Are you from a foreign land?”

“You could say that, yes.”

“I see. No matter. If thou are here, it means you have bested my best golems, have you not?”

“Yes”

“I see.” his eyes briefly flashed with sadness before returning to his stoic expression.

“Seeing how ive told you my name it’s a bit rude not to tell me yours.” I said, “Who are you?”

“Hahaha” The Ghost laughed. “Do thou not recognise me. The saviour of many. A hero of legend. A Healer and golemancer of no equal! I am Deckard Avot!”

“…………………………………………………”

“ you honestly don’t recognise me? do you?”

I nodded. I have no clue who this asshole is. I've read the history books. If his name was anywhere, I would have seen it.

“I see. I guess they truly did erase us like they said they would…..Curse that blasted Eupharn!”

The Ghost settled down onto the book

“Well no matter. What's done is done.”

“Eupharn… that name….. a doctor I know mentioned it. Just who is he?”

“Who is Eupharn? I'll tell you who Eupharn is! He’s a moronic, insensitive asshole who cares only for the praise he gets! ”

The Ghost's eyes ignited a bright red as the word flew out of his mouth, but eventually, he settled.

“I’m sorry, that was ….undignified of me. Can you please not mention that name it brings up too many emotions most of them very negative.”

“Of course, ill drop it.” damn, now I'm curious Maybe I can get him to spill the beans later.

“Thank you,” the Ghost said, “Please have this.”

The Ghost waved his ethereal hand, and the same blue and green light washed over me.

The mana quickly dissipated, leaving me fully healed.

“there. That should compensate for the damage the golems caused to you, and might I add, young lady, what an amazing fight! What is that black aura of yours? I've never seen mana like it!”

“Sorry, but I don’t think I know you well enough to tell you.” And I have no fucking clue myself.

The Ghost chuckled. “Of course….A fine lady like yourself has her secrets.” The Ghost moved down towards his sarcophagus.

“So…. What is it you came down here to Find? Are you after my knowledge?”

“Not really. I was gifted this house by the ashdowns. In the house plan, it showed to lower floors. I was just curious what was down here is all.”

“The Ashdowns! That old family is still around? HAHAHAH, please tell me the old man is still trying to learn to fly?”

“Ehhhhh?, maybe? I think the one I know and the one you know are two different people.”

“Ah yes.. of course… How long has it been? Since that day……… 100, 200?...... ahh it doesn’t matter. So what does thou want? No sane person fights through all that for nothing.”

“Well, I’m not really sane. I was just curious what was under the property that is now mine.”

“Is that it? Really? Hahaha, you really are a weird one, aren't you? Well, seeing how you’ve come so far, how about I give you something?”

“What are you offering? If you don’t mind me asking?”

“All I can offer you in this ethereal form is the knowledge of 1 of 2 schools of magic. The knowledge of faithless healing or the knowledge of Golemancy. Be careful the former is not liked by certain moronic, asshole deities.”

His face turned into a scowl again. Geee, I wonder who he’s talking about. Seriously, what did Eupharn do to this guy?

“Why is it hated?”

“Because it undermines his existence. His power comes from faith; the more people that invoke his name when they are healing, the stronger he gets; he’s a leach who takes from the faith of others.”

I nodded. Could this Eupharn also be one of the gods whom Cindi mentioned? I felt an approving sensation trickle through my soul from Cindi, Well If that’s the case, my battle with him is inevitable.

“So, young lady. Which path will you take.”

“I will follow the path of faithless healing.”

His face turned into a smile. “Good, I was scared you would have picked Golemancy there. Any reason why?”

Images of apollinarises bruised body came into my mind. The feeling of helplessness as I couldn’t do a single thing for her in that state. I clenched my fist. “Someone I cherished closer got injured and there was nothing I could do…..I refuse to be helpless again.”

The Ghost nodded. “I understand you; however, before we continue, are you sure you don’t want to learn Golemancy instead?”

I shook my head. “No, I have something much better.”

“Ominous... Will you tell me?”

“no”

The Ghost frowned.

“no matter. Now, if you don’t mind. Can you do me a kindness and spread your mind open for me?”

“Wha-“

Before I could react, the ghost dove straight into my body.

“What the hell is AGHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

A searing pain ran across my entire brain like every single cell was being wiped repeatedly over and over. My legs gave way as I dropped to the ground. Suddenly, images began to flash into my mind and engrave itself into my mind. The images were like jigsaw pieces to a massive, unsolvable puzzle. Just what the hell is he doing?! I tried to stand, but my muscles were not cooperating.

“FUUUUCKKKKKK IM GONNNA KILL YOU OLD MAN”

“Bear with me..”

His voice echoed through every part of my tortured brain. Fuck me and my stupid curiosity.

“Almost done and ……There!”

Suddenly, all the jigsaw pieces streamed into my mind, and the puzzle began to solve itself…His healing is less of a spell and more of a technique…. I think I understand now.

The Ghost left my body. Its ghostly body was severely smaller now. Only being as big as the palm of my hand…

“Do you ge-” He asked.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT! YOU ASSHOLE!”

“Relax, it was the fastes-“

“FAST?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THAT FUCKING HURT.”

“look! It was either I do that, or you spend the next 20 years learning the fundamentals. Which would you have preferred!”

We had a staring contest for a while before I finally threw in the towel. I can't argue with him his reasoning was valid, however…

“If there is a next time. I want a proper warning!”

“But it works bett-“

“Proper. Warning. Do you understand?” I gave him my most menacing glare, causing him to shuffle back.

“………Yes…. Sorry.”

I rubbed my head as I tried to sort out all the information that was just shoved into it

“D…do you understand how it works?” He asked

I nodded. “I think I do, unlike faith magic, which heals by just turning the back the clock on the physical parts of the body to when it wasn’t damaged. Your healing works by converting the caster mana into inert building blocks the body can then use to repair itself. It's less actually healing but more assisting and accelerating the body's existing healing process!”

He nodded. “Good. The benefit of this magic is that it actually heals the body instead of lazily just turning it back.”

“How is yours better?”

“Because there is a limit to how far you can turn back. Suppose you’re a soldier who gets consistently injured. Eventually, you will reach a point where even if you do heal the soldier. They will still be injured in some way, shape or form, and if you’ve had a condition all your life, forget about it. Faith healing is useless to you. To put it in layman's terms, faith healing works by going backwards. My healing works by going forward.”

“Wow, I just thought….”

“Yep, healing is a lot more complicated than it looks. Now then, if I'm right, you should be able to perform simple basic healing.

I raised my hand, causing black mana to flow from it. I focused on converting my mana into the building blocks needed. Sonn hints of green started to appear. I concentrated even more, causing a green highlight to appear in the mana.

“Is that it?”

The Ghost nodded. “It could always be improved; however, you have the basics.”

My vision suddenly started to blur, and a spell of dizziness washed over me. I quickly cancelled the spell “Woah”

“As I'm sure you’ve noticed, the healing magic takes a large toll on the body.”

I took a deep breath. I feel like I just ran 6 marathons back to back.

“This style of healing you have learnt requires a lot of practice and physical training to be able to utilise properly so….”

He turned around and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, the far wall started to rise up and out of the ground to reveal a large, empty room.

“If you don’t mind, can you..” He pointed down to the book. I rolled my eyes and picked up the book. As I was about to set off, I felt something else tapping my foot. It was the small mannequin.

“Seriously?!.... Fine.” I picked it up as well and started walking into the empty room; by empty, I do mean empty. The walls were stall and made out of pure white, and the ground a soft yellow and green striped spongey material. I pushed my foot against it, and it sank down a little before springing back up.

“What is this place.”

“A training room; look at that back panel back there.”

I turned around, and surely, there was a large back panel made up of dozens of runes. I walked over to the back panel.

“What the hell is this?” I said, looking at the runes, most of which I didn’t even recognise.

“Put some mana into the top right one.”

I raised my finger to the rune but stopped just as I was about to touch it. “This won't cause some giant golem to come out of the ground, will it?”

“What?! No! Stop being ridiculous. Just put some mana into the rune already.”

I sighed and dumped a small amount of my mana into it. The rune lit up green as the room began to vibrate. Slowly, the floor began to change and harden.

“What's happening?! I swear if this is a trick-“

“Relax! Just watch”

The ground below our feet began to harden and turn orange. Soon, a thin white stripe began to appear right below it, followed by another orange section. Eventually, the room stopped shaking. The edge of the room was completely orange.

“Is this a running track?”

“Correct, it's around 3km from the start line round and back again.”

“This is amazing….”

I pushed my foot against the ground. It was slightly chalky, just like a regular running track and like a regular track, it was split by a white line into 5 separate running segments.

“And all the runes do something like this.”

“Yep. There are also temperature and humidity controls. You could make it rain in here if you wanted to.”

“Amazing….”

“Thank you. Now use the centre rune to return the room back to normal.”

I did that, and indeed, the room started to shake as it changed.

“Why….Why did you build this?”

The Ghost sighed. “Eupharn took everything from me. Everything. My friends, the disciples I was teaching, the lot. I built this in the hopes that maybe I can start to rebuild everything I lost and maybe train people in my healing technique again secretly, of course, but well, as you can see, I kicked the bucket before I could do any of that.”

“If you wanted people to learn your work, why did you set up all that stuff with the golems?”

“some people want to learn; some people want to destroy my work. You can't know who’s who. I had to defend everything I had learnt somehow. I couldn’t just let all my hard work disappear for nothing! Not without some sort of last stand or something.”

“Yeah…. I understand”

“Thank you.”

“But are you happy, leaving me with all your knowledge?”

“If I'm being honest, no; when I was alive, I met and saw all kinds of evil. After a while, you get a feel for it, and you certainly tick all the boxes. You are a monster born from the vilest womb imaginable. Most likely, what I've created will be used in the most horrid of ways….but alas, these are the cards I have been dealt with by fate.”

“Then why did you give it to me? Aren’t you healers supposed to be good guys?”

“Are we? Don’t assume things like that. It's how you get killed. As for why you? Well, you’re better than nothing.”

I chuckled. “If it’s any consolation for you. I, too, will soon have a bone to pick with him. Let's say he hurt someone I'm close ato.”

The Ghost smirked. “Well, I guess it wasn’t all bad. If you can… Please make him suffer.” His ghostly image flickered.

“huh’ I guess I'm running out of time… well, it was about time I moved on.”

“Wait… if you're gone, how will I learn more healing spells?”

“Do you think that book is just for show? Everything I know and learnt is in there. However, don’t be afraid to experiment. The healing technique is far from complete.”

His image faded again. I could barely even see him now. The mannequin peaked around from my feet towards the Ghost. The tiny mannequin had changed. It looked older now. Bits of wood were starting to fall to the ground.  

“Of course, with me going, there is no longer any mana to preserve you. My first and oldest golem.”

It looked up to him like a dog who knew something wrong was with his owner.

“Don’t worry, old friend. It's time you and I left this world.” He reached out towards the mannequin, who did the same. “We've had a good run, you and I, so many adventures together and with the other fools……  but it's time for us to go; we've kept those fools waiting long enough.”His ghostly figure faded some more before finally disappearing. The mannequin moved closer briefly before it too fell to the ground.

I rolled my eyes. Way to pick your moment system. I picked up the mannequin and headed back to the sarcophagus.

<Mother?>

<Don’t ask… I really don’t care about him. But his relationship reminds me of mine and my children. If I were to ever pass away, I would love to have all my children as close by as I could.>

I walked over and placed the mannequin to rest on top of Deckard’s sarcophagus. It was weird seeing it so lifeless when it was usually more animated.

<That looks good; now how the hell do I get outta here?> I quickly turned around and headed to the panel in the training room. There were dozens of different runes. However, there was one rune that stood out out of all of them. It was bright yellow and had what looked like a set of stairs next to it.

<if I had to guess?>

I activated the rune, and suddenly, a familiar grinding met my ears. I looked behind and saw a wall suddenly slide open.

<I guess that’s our way out…>

Without further word, I started walking.

< Man, do I have a story to tell when I get back.>