The Genesis Game

The last bit of light they had was gone, and night had descended on the city of Hometown. The last vestiges of the setting sun had disappeared and night had descended on the city of Hometown.

"Sadie's fine Jack, we need to go." Called out Seraph, his heart pumping as he looked out across the plaza and saw the sign advertising the Inn of the Dead Fig. Once they were able to secure lodging for the night, Seraph knew he would be able to sit down and figure out a solution to the immediate problems.

They just needed to get across the plaza. "This is the Dungeon Plaza" Seraph thought to himself as he recognized and counted eight great gates that ringed the edges of the plaza. Lights appeared around each of the Gates to illuminate them vividly in the night. Between the gates he saw an oversized iron slab that he reasoned was the teleport platform for adventurers as they were transported back into Hometown.

"Maybe not everything has changed." He thought.

"He's not talking to me Seraph, he's not talking at all." Screamed Sadie as she turned towards Jack, pulling her short sword out of its sheath as the enchantment on the blade came to life, the blade turning pure white as she brandished it at the woman.

Seraph looked and saw that Jack appeared to be in a daze as he held the hands of a sobbing woman. "Jack, get away from her." He yelled, but Jack didn't respond.

"He can't get away from her, he's trapped, both of you fools have been too busy taking in the city instead of paying attention to my warnings" Critiqued Sadie as she slashed the blade down into the woman.

As the blade descended, the white light burned away the appearance of an elven woman, and revealed that of a rotting undead, which tried to turn away from the descending blade, but was too slow as the blade came down and severed the monster's head from its body, and before the head had even struck the ground, the body had dissipated into nothingness.

"Seraph, just grab him and carry him." Commanded Sadie as more of the elven women began to appear all around them. They came from the streets, and alleyways, walking, slinking, some appeared to push themselves up through the streets themselves.

For a moment, Seraph felt genuine unease. He was unsure of how to proceed from this point. He currently had four abilities, Cold Hands, Thousand Handed, Heart of Darkness, and Starfall. He doubted Starfall would work on the undead, and he couldn't proc Heart of Darkness. He knew he could combine Thousand Handed and Cold Hands but could only maintain that for a few seconds at most.

He had to push the thoughts away as he picked up Jack in a fireman's carry, even with his younger body, with his supplemented Dungeon strength and the right form, carrying Jack wasn't going to be a problem. The only concern he had was that Jack was still unresponsive.

Sadie and Seraph moved out across the plaza, Sadie holding her white sword out, turning the undead aside. Seraph thought he heard Jack try to mumble something and turned back to ask if he was okay only to see Rosebud appear from within the darkness. It's ivory grinning face was coated black with the blood of a shadow creature as it hungrily opened its mouth and chewed.

Briefly Rosebud gave Seraph a smile of gluttonous contentment. It was then that Seraph knew that Rosebud had been feeding well off of the shadow monsters that Sadie had warned them about. Seraph filed this information away for later, this was not an ability that a simple pet should posses, Nether demon or not, should have, for now it served their interests.

"Keep moving." Yelled Sadie as the continued their mad dash across the plaza, as they reached the halfway point. The strain of maintaining her weapon's active enchantment was evident on her flushed face as beads of sweat formed on her forehead.

Of those eight, there was only one that was ringed with yellow lights and it was nearest to the Inn, all the others blazed with red light. If things hadn't changed, those lights were personalized, the yellow light signifying a dungeon floor that an adventurer could enter with a reasonable expectation to live at their current level. The red lights signified danger and discouraged the unready.

"Jack, you need to wake up." Said Seraph as they kept moving. He needed his hands to be free and right now he couldn't so long as he was carrying the man. Briefly he thought about abandoning him and using the man's death as a cover to safely covered the distance from the center of the plaza to the Inn, but decided against it, he had invested too much in the man already, and had not guarantees that his efforts with Jack would pay dividends, their were simply too many unknowns.

"He's not going to wake up." Replied Sadie, and Seraph felt the darkness on his back shift as Jack's pet moved in acknowledgement.

"It is true cousin. This one has been grave touched, he will not wake soon, if he wakes at all." Explained Rosebud.

"That's really bad Sadie, if he dies, Rosebud goes free to rampage." Replied Seraph.

"No, cousin. If Jack dies, i'll be free to choose a new master, and I would choose you." Came the reply.

This was something Seraph would need to think of more, but didn't have the opportunity to think of yet as they were just finally to the end of the plaza and rapidly approaching the Inn.

"Open the gate!" Yelled Sadie with authority. "It's me Sadie, i've brought the two adventurers with me, Seraph, and Jack."

They didn't look to see if anyone heard, they just keep running and as approached, the door of the Inn slowly creaked open to verify that they were indeed people coming their way before slowing shut.

"Hurry." Came a voice from inside. "Yell again when you get closer, the door will only be open for a second."

They pushed on, but Seraph could see the light from Sadies sword was beginning to fade, a sign that she herself was undergoing mana depletion from using the powerful spell, and as for him, he had been mostly useless as he carried Jack on his back.

A small group of the undead monsters had managed to get in front of them and blocked the stairs heading up into the Inn, and with the last bit of her strength, Sadie let loose a side attack that threw out a white slash that decimated the monsters as it struck, and in doing so, the last of her power was gone, the spell of turning came undone and all the monsters around them began to collapse on their location as they bounded up the stairs.

Seraph was in front and yelled out "Were here. Open up" The door opened up immediately and Seraph throw Jack over his shoulder forward towards the grim faced people at the doorway who caught the man and brought him inside. Seraph turned around to check on Sadie when he didn't hear her steps behind him and saw a single shadow hand had appeared and grabbed her ankle.

She wasn't going to make it. "Unfortunate" Thought Seraph as he went to move towards the door and was stopped by a voice he couldn't quite place and couldn't quite recognize though it was familiar. "Save her." As if under compulsion, Seraph turned and did the only thing he could think of and summoned his "Thousand Hands" and used the ethyral arms to pull Sadie from the grasp of the shadow hand, and threw her once she was free to the waiting men at the door, and as he did, the door slammed closed and loudly locked leaving him trapped outside surrounded by enemies.

A single path to safety seemed to reveal itself as time stood still for him as he used his Thousand Handed ability to push monsters out of the way and summoned a Starfall into the palm of his hands as a bluff, and though it didn't have the same effect as Sadie's magic, the dead briefly recoiled from it before realizing it did not harm them. That brief moment was all he needed to make a mad dash to avoid death by running to the great dungeon gate.

Safety for him was on the other side of the door marked with yellow lights and as he pushed his way through the throng of undead until he reached the gate and began to step through it, he silently worried about what he would find on the other side.