The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

"There is usually some noise on the rooftop when the King dies, but I always assumed it was because the Throne Room was collapsing," DicingDevil said.

"Maybe the leaping figure shows up more clearly when you kill the King's deteriorated form," Grisier suggested. "Anyway, is this guy a threat, or was he just celebrating the King's death?"

"I don't know if he's a threat, but he could be. He's celebrating for now, though," Akshel said.

"Alright. Me, Grisier and Dionarcy picked up some water, but I hear that there might be a small, artificial stream downstairs near the Queen fight," DicingDevil said. "Let's try and rush down, before anything else can attack us."

As they reached the stairs leading back to the courtyard, they were attacked by a group of two level 35 bats. Since the rest of the group were carrying containers of water, Akshel and Crucis split off to fight the bats so that the others could descend the cracked, awkward stairs without interruption. Standing near the stairway entrance, they both drew swords and swung loosely at the bats to aggro these enemies.

As one bat approached Crucis aggressively, he intercepted it with a horizontal [Slash] which drew blood as the bat charged into it, and partially tore one of the bat's wings. Rearing his blade upwards, Crucis struck with an [Overhead slash] which tore off one of the bat's wings. The bat fell to the ground. He saw that, to the left, Akshel had nimbly grabbed the other bat out of the air by the wings and was stabbing it relentlessly in the face.

As Crucis used an impatient [Circle spin], twisting his right wrist lightly to twirl his sword in a lazy circle, he walked forwards to lean over the fallen bat. He was slightly disgruntled by this unnecessary interruption. He sprayed the [Vile Toxin Gas] over the bat's wounds to worsen them, then drew out a dagger and used [The Ripper] to tear across the bat's neck. As the bat died, Crucis turned towards the stairway, where Akshel was waiting.

"The sound on the rooftop is still far away, near the Throne Room," Akshel observed, "Let's make our way down."

Crucis saw that the reat of the group were waiting in the courtyard. As Akshel descended the stairs, Crucis walked up to them and took a step down, carefully leaning his foot to the side to avoid a crack. Following behind Akshel's cautious steps, he made his way halfway down the stairs. In the corner of his vision, he saw a shape to his far right, which seemed to be moving quickly through the air.

In seconds, there was a loud, heavy noise on the stairs behind him.

A stiff hand, wearing bright white gloves, grabbed him firmly from behind by the right shoulder. Looking around in alarm, Crucis saw a sturdy figure draped in ragged grey robes and wearing a horned wooden mask which was painted thoroughly white, and was warped slightly by wear. Beneath the white gloves, he could make out thick black paint coating the creature's hands up to the wrist. This figure slowly raised its other hand towards him.

Lowering his right shoulder and ducking down, he managed to break loose of the figure's grip, and he leapt immediately off the side of the stairs, landing lightly on his feet and rolling across the floor to dampen the impact. However, as he looked up towards where the figure had stood, it was no longer there.

"It vanished!" called out DicingDevil.

"Did you guys see where it came from?" Crucis asked.

"I think it was leaping from somewhere in the roof, maybe there?" DicingDevil pointed to a large, tattered hole in the corner of the ruined courtyard's roof, in the direction which Crucis had seen the figure appearing from.

"If it was leaping from there, do you reckon it was the same as the creature we saw above the Throne Room?"

"It probably was," Grisier said. He cast [Healing] to cure Crucis' minor fall damage.

"Yeah. I'm slightly surprised at how easily it let me get away, though. And it made no attempts to pursue us further."

"That is strange."

"What did its hand feel like?" DicingDevil asked. "A human in a mask, or some kind of creature?"

"I didn't get a clear impression, in haste," Crucis said, "however, it did have a stiff grip, but not like a person exerting strength, more like a stiff corpse's unwearying hold. So it could be undead or a ghost of some sort, but I'm not sure."

"Probably is, most things here are," Akshel said. "I'm also surprised that it left us alone. I guess it's not listed as a boss, but it looked quite threatening."

"Maybe it was just saying hi," Crucis laughed. "I guess it was celebrating our recent victory, so maybe it didn't actually mean to harm us. It could have definitely done more damage if it wanted. Still, it's best that we avoid it."

"It was quite surprising," Grisier said, "but we should probably go and fight the Queen before it gets back."

The group followed DicingDevil into the large room filled with white curtains. Crucis saw that flowers had been planted in rows across the room, but by now these were dead.

"This is one place where the Queen can be fought," DicingDevil said, "But Darys said it's not the only place."

"I think I saw someone duck off to the left in here, while we were fighting the Statue Faux," Crucis reported. "Is there any path they could have taken?"

"There is a path at the back of the room, that leads in that direction," DicingDevil answered.

The group walked towards the back of the room, and passed what looked like a long, empty white altar in the centre of the room. Behind it, they heard the faint tinkling of a small, artificial stream of water. Looking at the edge of the room, Crucis saw that there was a small channel of water with walls made of stone and marble, which passed across this side of the palace. There was a small walkway leading across the placid stream on both sides. Lining up, the players walked towards the left to investigate.

"We should lure it out here, Grisier will be powerful," Crucis said quietly.

DicingDevil nodded in agreement.

A few doorways opened on the wall opposite the water, but most of them just led to small, empty rooms. However, the sound of chanting emerged softly from one large, high doorway, and peering inside Crucis saw that it was filled with pews. As the group stood at the doorway, the chanting suddenly stopped.

"Who was making that noise?" DicingDevil whispered.

"There's something in here. Throw a few smoke bombs to lure it out," Crucis whispered in reply, hearing a few stiff, scratching noises from behind the pews.

As DicingDevil threw a bomb, smoke erupted from the middle of the pews, and a host of red, glowing bats flitted up towards DicingDevil. Their name-tags marked them as level 30 [Captivated Souls], and there were 12 of them.

The other players stepped aside as Grisier used [Ice Blast], and channeled the water of the stream behind him into a large array of ice shards flying at the bats. Surprisingly, the bats died and fell to the floor as soon as they were hit.

A couple of bats had avoided Grisier's large area-of-effect attack, and Crucis stepped up determinedly to strike down an approaching bat with an [Overhead strike], killing it mid-flight. The rest of the group joined in, and soon the Captivated Souls were all dead.

As they walked further into the room, a skeletal figure, with its skin peeling away, emerged from behind the pews. It was named the [Undead Queen], and was level 65. Its skull was highly compressed in the front, where the sides of the face had been pressed heavily towards the centre. Its mouth was almost beak-like. It wore a long, regal blue dress, and a violet gem hung as a pendant on its diamond necklace.

Dionarcy raised his shield and strode forwards, but he had moved too quickly. The Queen's violet gem glowed, and she cast a spell named [Charm]. While Crucis didn't see any physical manifestations of the spell, Dionarcy was stuck and unable to move his limbs, and the Queen swiftly glided over the floor and began to claw at Dionarcy's face with her long, straight fingernails, drawing blood as the warrior groaned in pain. She wrapped her arms around Dionarcy's head as the other players tried to dislodge her. Opening her mouth wide, she let out a banshee-like cry which caused Dionarcy's flesh to deteriorate across his chest.

The rest of the team quickly filed in and struck frantically at the Queen, until she retreated with 90% HP. Dionarcy, however, only had 67% of his HP after that assault. Crucis could see why DicingDevil had been hesitant about this boss.

The Queen held out her hands to the side, and her gem glowed again as she cast [Light of Anger]. Cylinders of light appeared across both of her arms, and she slung them towards Akshel and Crucis. They struck almost instantaneously, and Crucis lost 20% of his HP after being struck on the chest. However, he didn't feel any pain from this attack. It didn't seem to be cast with any form of mana that he was familiar with.

DicingDevil had managed to chase down the Queen, and caught her in a [Chokehold] from behind while stabbing her throat with [Stunning Dagger]. Crucis quickly joined in the attack, with a [Stunning Dagger] of his own just missing the boss' throat and striking her shoulder. Black smoke rose from the strike.

As Akshel arrived, the three of them shoved the Queen heavily towards the doorway, where Grisier was standing next to the water. Using the water, he cast [Breath of Ice], further paralysing the Queen. Crucis tore roughly through the Queen's neck with [The Ripper], and she was soon down to 76% HP. However, she caught her bearings and cast [Intruders], sending the players around her falling backwards with a jolt.

The Assassins backed away as the Queen prepared another spell, but it was useless. She cast [Unearthly Charm], a stronger version of [Charm] which affected everyone in the group. As they stood still, the Queen approached the weakened Dionarcy and placed her hand on his wounded face, draining his HP to replenish her own. Crucis saw that the players were held in place by an effect named [Charm], which prevented them from moving their limbs or using skills until its duration was over.

"Why can't we move?" Crucis growled. "It's not like this old hag is charming anybody."

DicingDevil and Akshel laughed.

As the paralysis ended after ten seconds, the Queen placed her bony fingers upon Dionarcy's throat, and he began to choke as he fell to the ground. His HP was down to 10%.

Smiling, the Queen cast [Knighthood], holding out her hand forwards as Dionarcy's remaining HP disappeared and he died.

However, Crucis had used [Stealth Cloak] to approach her during this move, and withdrew a sword, using it to [Slash] at her throat from behind. The Queen cried out as the blow struck, and DicingDevil pulled her to the ground, where he stabbed relentlessly at her throat. Soon, all of her neck's flesh had been peeled away, revealing damaged bone. She was soon down to 76% HP again. Akshel took off 7% more of her HP with a well-timed [Lunge] which stabbed her between the eyes.

DicingDevil struggled to keep her down, but she cast [Levitation], with her body lifting effortlessly from the ground in spite of DicingDevil's pressure. She grabbed him, and tossed him harshly into the pews, where Crucis heard him cry out at the impact.

Although she attempted to pursue, Grisier intercepted her by casting [Ice Heart], and a burst of freezing air around her sent her falling to the ground. Crucis stabbed at her throat with his sword, lowering her to 60% HP, and then tried to slash the violent gem off her necklace. However, as his sword approached the gem, he felt it being violently repelled, and it instead flew fiercely upwards into the air. She tried to leap at him, with her fingernails reaching forwards, but he managed to repel her with a sharp [Overhead slash] that sent her back to the ground.

As the Assassins approached her again, she once more cast [Intruders]. Her violet gem was glowing less brightly now. The three players fell to the side, but as the Queen rose she was again interrupted by a [Breath of Ice] from Grisier. The Mage had taken to a strategy of casting spells whenever the Queen had an opportunity to attack, protecting the team.

Noticing the intrusive Mage, the Queen cast another [Unearthly Charm] spell, and the group was once more frozen into place. The Queen quickly ran and assaulted Grisier by plunging her fingernails through his neck, causing him to cry out in pain. However, she seemingly had trouble withdrawing them. Instead, she placed her other hand upon the wound, and began to drain Grisier's HP. Soon, he was down to only 30% HP. She barged him into the stream, where he was swept a short distance away.

DicingDevil had mentioned that the Queen would eventually exhaust her ability to cast spells. However, with the party's tank dead early and the rest of the team made up of fairly fragile builds, it would be difficult to reach this point. Instead of stalling to force the Queen into melee combat, where she would be vulnerable despite her high physical strength, this team would have to go for the kill.