The side fell down. What we saw confused all of us. It was some metal contraption. But before I could further understand it I heard Balgroff yell.
"Goddamn it Salis! Now we're really fucked!"
Salis visibly shrank. His face went from anger to fear. Balgroff rarely ever got mad. So the fact he was yelling with rage in his voice scared both of us.
Salis finally responded with "W-what do you mean?"
"For all that is holy, think Salis! There were definitely magic seals in that box! Now that it's been opened the royals will know that we saw what's inside. Whatever that machine is must be a secret. On the other hand. If we hadn't opened it, left it where we found it, and run to another country, we could have just gotten some assassins sent after us for killing that knight squad. But now! Now we're fucked!"
Balgroff sat down on a crate as he tried to calm himself down. He placed his one hand over his face as he tried to think of a way out of this mess.
Salis also sat down on a crate. He instead started to quietly berate himself for being so rash.
I didn't hate or resent Salis for opening the crate. I could never blame him. Even though he was a wizard, he had always been rash. It was just the way he was.
Now that things had calmed down a bit I could go back to figuring out what this machine was. Since the crate was already opened I figured it wouldn't matter if I understood what the machine did. Either way, we were screwed after all.
I first studied the crate it came in. On the inside, I saw multiple pieces of paper with runic writing on them. Balgroff was right these were magic seals, and some of them were ripped from when Salis opened the crate. Now that they were ripped there was no way to fix them.
I then moved on to the headache of a machine in the middle of the crate. The machine itself was mostly just a large metal cylinder. It was gray and about 2 meters tall (or 6'6"). It had multiple panels that looked like they would spin around the main cylinder.
There were little steps on the side. I walked up the steps and could now see the top of it. There was a hole in the middle of the top. It looked like something would be inserted into the top of it. I looked around for what was meant to be put into it. I then spotted 2 canisters on the side of the machine.
I walked down the stairs and towards the canisters. The canisters were about the perfect size to fit in the opening at the top. By now I could finally be able to guess how the machine worked.
'This canister must be the fuel source that powers this machine to do, something? I still don't understand what it is meant to do. Hmm Depending on how strong the fuel source is, I could better understand how much power this machine uses. And if I can figure out what powers it, I could get a ballpark idea of what it does!'
'Amos you sly devil, you've done it again.'
I then picked up the canister and looked at it. It had a small crank on the side with a nozzle at the top. You probably placed the canister upside down and then turned the crank. Then the fuel source would enter the machine through the nozzle.
I began to think of different fuel sources that I knew of 'Is it mana stones, coal, or that new energy that the dwarves recently discovered? What was its name again? I think its name was oil or something. Whatever it is, there is only one way to find out.'
By then Balgroff noticed what I was doing and asked "What are you doing?"
I simply answered him with "Just trying to figure out how this machine works. Now that we have seen it, it shouldn't matter whether we understand what it does or not."
I then slightly turned the crank. The nozzle opened barely a smidge. At that exact moment, dark green gas shot out. As the gas escaped it made high-pitched screams and cackling sounds. Within the gas, I could see various changing shapes. Some were of skulls while others were of rotting death. The gas poured out straight into my face.
The gas entered my body through my mouth, nose, ears, and even my eyes. Once enough got in, my eyes rolled back and I went into a trance. In the trance, multiple feelings and thoughts swirled around.
The thoughts were of scenes of carnage. People being skinned alive, rotting corpses infested with maggots, to people and demons eating each other.
Somehow though the feelings were even worse. The first and most overwhelming feeling was extreme cold. I felt like I was freezing to death. Then I felt alone, isolated like I would forever be in eternal solitude. After that, it was rage and hate stronger than anything I felt before. I felt like I wanted to rip people apart with my bare hands and slaughter anything in sight. Then the last feeling was excruciating pain. The pain was worse than when my face was on fire or when I was starving. It was so overwhelming I began to go insane.
Just before it all ended one last image appeared in my head. It was a giant eye staring straight at me. The eye's pupil was a straight horizontal line like that of a goat's. The eye then turned into a gas and flowed towards me.
At that moment I was pulled out of the trance. Balgroff was standing in front of me with his hand on the crank. The nozzle was now closed. However I barely even noticed him as I collapsed to the floor screaming.
The memory of it all still lingered in my mind. The memory itself was maddening. I rolled around on the floor screaming and clawing at my own skin. Balgroff and Salis were above me trying to calm me down. They were trying to speak to me, but I couldn't be bothered to listen.
It took 10 minutes before I finally calmed down. By then I was sitting in the fetal position between 2 boxes rocking back and forth. All the while Salis and Balgroff were talking to each other.
Salis turned his head towards me with a worried face. He asked Balgroff "What the hell was that!?"
Balgroff then said, "I'm not sure, but I think that was concentrated necrotic mana."
"What in the hell is concentrated necrotic mana doing in the same box as that machine!?"
"Hmm, if I had to say. The purpose of that machine was probably to spread the necrotic mana over a large area. Turning it into just like the dead lands to the North East."
"You mean like the dead lands where anything that dies comes back as an undead, and the air is practically poison."
"Yeah, that one."
"Holy shit man, a machine like this would warrant an inquisition! What the hell are those royals thinking?"
"Who knows, but right now we need to focus on what we do next. I think we should first complete the delivery."
"What do you mean complete the delivery!? Ever since this job started it's just been one terrible event that would soon be outdone by something somehow even worse. First, it was the knight squad, then we realized we were stealing from the royals, and now we learned were stealing some fucking weapon of mass destruction!"
"calm down! We need to think straight, especially now. With the money we would get from the delivery, we could pay for a professional smuggler."
"What are the chances that the butler will even pay us? He's fucked us over every chance so far. Who's to say there won't be another even bigger knight squad there waiting for us."
"It doesn't matter, It's our only chance. Without that money, we would have to do it ourselves. And without the smuggler, we would definitely be caught. Plus if he didn't pay us then we could threaten him by saying we have contingencies where we would tell people what's in the crate."
"Oh god, are you sure that would work?"
"Nothing is sure at this point."
"Fine, we'll do that. It might be our only chance."
"Alright, we need to get a move on though. If we stay here too much longer the royals may just warp an army on top of us."
"You really think they would go that far?"
"Ok that may have been an exaggeration, but they will most likely warp something soon."
Salis nodded. They then both got to work. Salis ran over to the crate holding the weapon. He put the side back on and then moved it back into the stretchy dimensional bag. Balgroff walked over to me. He reached his only hand down to me and said "C'mon Amos, once this is all over we're going to go somewhere far far away."
I looked him straight in the eyes. I then jumped up and hugged him. He was surprised but accepted it nonetheless. He patted the back of my head and said "It's alright it's all nearly over."
After a minute I broke the hug. By then Salis had put the crate back in the bag. We then collectively ran out of the warehouse. Now that the sentinel and knight squad were dead there was no one to stop us.
Once we reached the town gate we began to slow down our pace a little. Now our next destination was Blackwater Valley, the drop-off point. Blackwater Valley was about a 2-day journey from here. We went at a jogging pace.
— 1 day later —
Halfway there we decided to stop and sleep until morning. We did it just in case any more complications came, we wanted to be well rested. In the mini camp we set up, Salis and Balgroff talked about what we would do from now on.
Salis and Balgroff were around the campfire, while I was up in a tree watching the moons. They were currently discussing which country we would go to.
"Elfheim is out of the question. Most of those elves are stuck-up pricks." Salis said.
"What about Steelcore? those dwarves are filthy rich." Balgroff offered.
"I don't know. If we go there we could just become a number in the system."
"We're at a high enough level where we could probably throw our weight around."
"Maybe, maybe. Hey! What do you think Amos."
I replied "I don't know. As long as we stop being brigands and start doing honest work."
Salis and Balgroff both stared into the fire. The thought was always in our heads, but we never talked about it yet. Finally, Balgroff broke the silence with "You're right. We should begin again. Wipe the slate clean."
Salis made a face. He never particularly liked the idea of doing honest work, but in his heart, he never liked all the killing either.
They watched as the wood slowly burned away turning into ash. In all of our heads, we knew the truth. All of this talk was just dreaming. The truth was that we were all dead men, that he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.
After that, we all turned in for the night. I fell asleep in a leather sleeping bag. I didn't want to sleep, but I knew I needed to be well-rested so I had to. I slowly lost consciousness as I went to the place I go to every night.
I appeared on the same road in the same desolate land. I couldn't see the dead coming yet, but they would be here soon enough. I sat down in the middle of the road, closed my eyes, and waited. I had been doing it this way for a long time. Instead of being ripped apart while tired. I would instead just wait for what was inevitable.
I waited and waited until I heard a voice.
"Why don't you fight back?"
I jerked my head to my right. What I saw I couldn't believe. On the crumbling stone wall by the road sat a man. He sat with crossed legs perfectly balancing himself atop the wall. The man himself had black hair. Aside from that though he looked completely average. All except for the fact he was buck-naked.
At first, I was overjoyed and beyond surprised. In this nightmare that I had experienced for years only one thing ever changed, and that was the amount of dead that would come for me. Aside from that it was the same endless agony-filled loop. So for something to finally change I couldn't help but be overwhelmed. I began to stammer "What... but how?"
The man stared at me with unchanging dead eyes. He then asked me the same question again "Why don't you fight back?"
I finally registered the question he asked. I thought about it for a minute before I replied "I already killed them once. The last thing I want to do is hurt them again."
He continued to stare at me and then said "That's a completely childish and illogical reason. This is a dream. Those people, or more so zombies, are only manifestations of your consciousness. They have no real or tangible connection to the actual people you killed."
I couldn't refute that. He was right no matter how you sliced it. Nonetheless, it was how I felt.
The man made an annoyed and confused face. He then just continued to stare at me.
Now that I was past the initial surprise, I began to think.
'Why is he here? In all the years I have been stuck in this nightmare loop nothing significant has changed or happened. The only thing that does change is the number of dead who come after me. But that's pretty simple. As I kill more people, more dead chase me in my dreams. Nothing complicated. But what about this guy? I can't think of any reason why he is here. What is my subconscious trying to tell me? I have always been into dudes?'
The man who had been silent all of a sudden said "Funny guess, but incorrect."
That made me flinch. I only thought that. How did he know what I was thinking?
The man only sighed before saying "You're really questioning the logic of me hearing your thoughts, all the while you are in a dream where you are chased endlessly by the manifestations of people you have killed."
I couldn't help but be embarrassed. What an idiot am I thinking about logic in a dream?
At that moment my ears picked up a quiet wail. I looked to the horizon to see the tide coming. Me and the man both stared at it.
A sword then popped out of nowhere and fell into the man's hand. He then tossed the sword towards me. The sword's blade lodged itself into the dirt road. It's handle right before me.
"You only continue to suffer because of petty illogical feelings. Only you can stop your suffering," he said
I stared hard at the sword. I thought hard for a good minute. I then asked my final question "I never asked, what was your name?"
He sighed and then answered "My name huh. I suppose you could call me Fluit Caro. Or Caro for short."
"Got it, Caro it is then."
I watched as the almost endless tide of dead continued on. They began to run over the slower ones. Soon so many were trampled and pulverized that they began to combine into a big fleshy abomination.
They seemed to completely ignore Caro. I finally closed my eyes. For a fraction of a second, I felt immense pain only to finally wake up.
The sun was rising when I opened my eyes. Balgroff and Salis were currently packing up camp. Salis turned to me and said "You slept a lot longer than usual. Can you remember the dream this time?"
I looked at him, thought about it for a second, and said, "Nope, still can't."
Salis frowned as he continued packing up. I looked back to the rising sun. It painted the sky in pink and orange. I then went on to help them pack up.
— 12 hours later —
We went at a constant jogging pace. When we finally reached Blackwater Valley the sun was already setting.
"So where is the pickup?" Salis asked.
"It's supposed to be in the valley," Balgroff answered.
"Your kidding."
"Wish I was."
The valley was deep. There were cliffs on both sides. If we got ambushed within, we would be pretty screwed. Especially since Balgroff was still missing a hand.
We then begrudgingly made our way into the valley. The valley was quiet and somber. There were small still ponds within the valley. Due to the cliffs and the setting sun, barely any light was getting into the valley causing the ponds to look black as a night sky.
We didn't know it but at that exact moment, we were being watched from the top of the valley. The eyes that watched us were sharp just like that of a hawk's.