Rise of The Undead Legion

The moon came out in the game world, so it was time for Dave to move out. He had Chosen One to take a route through a forest near the Devastator capital where he would familiarise himself with his Shadow Escape ability.     

The first time he dove through a shadow, everything turned black and white, his vision changed and he was able to see shades bright as light and lit areas as dark as night, he could will himself to move from one shadow to another and appear on the other side.     

"Damn this is neat," Dave commented and began shadow-diving. At night, while using the Shadow Escape ability, his speed went far beyond anything he ever used to move around, not even Onixya in flight could match the speed of Dave moving through the shadows. Too bad that it was only granted via the Shadow-Tiger set. If only he could find a skill book like that...     

Dave arrived at the city gates of Icathia, the capital of the Devastator kingdom in a matter of minutes.     

The gate was easy to bypass, thanks to it being open day and night. The capital was the safest place of the Western Kingdom, no creature dared to infiltrate, or cause any problems, and the continuous mowing of low-level creatures around the capital prevented the spawn of even stronger ones. Not to mention that after the untimely release of the Dragon Age the capitals were the only places that could technically guarantee no encounters with the flying lizards.     

Dave moved through the city streets, his mission required him to not get noticed or spotted by an NPC. So far it wasn't hard. Even if by some luck, players were able to see him, they would most likely think of him as a rogue class player doing a random quest and ignore him. Most players weren't so nosey and had their own things to do here at such a late hour.     

Dave, moving through the shadows, headed deeper into the capital, following the map that Dagla had given him. Suddenly, as he neared his target location, he realized that his mission was not going to be as simple as he expected it to be.     

He would have rather had the map guiding him to the Devastators HQ in the palace than the current spot he was moving toward.     

"Damn, it just had to be under the Holy Church! I guess, the Ash King is kinda smart. That's the last place anyone would suspect housing a Demonic Temple," he cursed under his breath.     

In front of Dave was the cathedral of the God of Light, Demiurge. It was pretty much the same as the cathedral he had visited with Nicholas and Demiurge himself. Maybe a tiny bit less fancy, but without putting any points into Knowledge: Religion it was hard to say.     

The Light God had the most followers, as all players who chose Priest Class had to go to one of these churches to become a healer. Had Dave not met Josh and his buddy, he might have actually become a Paladin of Demiurge himself. Yet unbeknownst to Demiurge, who was just too busy being lazy and not giving a damn, his temple was being used as a spawn of demons.     

The church stood several stories high, with a grand decoration of the 'mighty' god Demiurge. Statues and ornamentations were strewn all over the place, there was so much of it, that it made the place less beautiful than it could have been. Sometimes less was actually more. 'A poser's temple', as Nick would have described it.     

Still, Dave had to be very careful. Thanks to all the donations a church usually received, it was quite the juicy target. Naturally, it was designed to ward off sloppy assassins, or any Rogue Class with bad intentions toward it. In other words, the 'holy ground' was filled with traps and lit with True Sight lamps.     

Dave didn't want to jeopardize himself. He was smart enough to admit to himself that there was no way a newbie rogue like himself could bypass this kind of security. He was not a professional Rogue, and would likely never match the level of Mercy.     

"Bud, your turn," Dave called out to his own expert.     

A swirl of smoke materialized near Dave, "Yes, Lord?"     

���Here's the thing, there is a Demonic Temple under this church, but I can't get through with all these hurdles. Any bright ideas how you can get me there?"     

The ghoul's eyes wandered for a few seconds, and after inspecting Dave's new outfit he asked, "Lord, can you move through shadows?"     

"Yeah, I have a similar Skill to yours," Dave replied and demonstrated it.     

"Then please follow me, I should be able to get us in."     

Dave nodded, and Bud dove into the ground. He didn't opt to enter from the church's front door, but moved around the whole place. Dave followed Bud in the shadow world. Bud looked like a giant boat compared to Dave's smaller size. Although the Shadow Ghoul was bigger than himself, it wasn't to this degree. He was curious why at the time but now wasn't the time for discovering more about Bud. There were more Important things to do.     

Bud moved around the temple and into the backyard. From the shadow world, Dave could see the temple, lighting the place in a dark color. It still looked like a picture rippling from the surface of a lake, blurry at one moment, yet clear at the other, but never tangible.     

"We go from here, my lord," Bud stated, his voice going directly into Dave's mind. He then moved toward the sewers.     

"Shouldn't the sewers be filled with traps for Rogues?" Dave asked, his voice also sounding hollow, and going straight toward Bud's mind.     

"Usually, my lord, they should and it won't surprise me if they are, but we won't enter from the sewers. We'll go through the seams in the walls, and the cracks in the pipes. We are shadows. Once we are in the shadow world, we can move through a needle's hole as easily as through an open door."     

"That's kinda handy."     

"Yes, my lord, now follow me," Bud prompted and moved his entire mass to latch onto the pipeline.     

Suddenly, his mass began shrinking, like a tub once you opened the drain. It began to crack like a sewer pipe. It took Bud a couple of seconds to go through, signaling to Dave where to move. Dave followed and made his way through the crack.     

Thankfully, there was no smell or odor once you were in the shadow world, otherwise, the smell of human filth would have driven Dave to gag.     

They moved through the dark pipes and out into a toilet that was thankfully not in use.     

"Lord, from here down, it will be much more difficult, we'll need to act swiftly."     

"Don't worry, let's keep going. The entrance to the Demonic Temple must be at the lowest floor of the cathedral. The last time I was in one of these places, I saw a locked trapdoor in their flagellation chambers. I bet this one's the same."     

"Do you know the way to the chambers, my lord?" Bud asked.     

"Judging by the resemblance between the two churches, I'd think they follow the same design. So, we just need to get to the main hall, then it's a straight spiral way down. Let's get moving," Dave answered and the two moved at once.     

Within the cathedral hallways, there was no need but also no possibility to further use Shadow Escape. The whole place was lit from within by candles and magic lights, making it impossible for the two to move in stealth.     

"This is going to be a problem," Dave said as they barely hid behind a corner when some footsteps sounded near them.     

"Yes, Lord, I fear I won't be able to follow you anymore," Bud replied. It was true as the two of them had just realized, Bud's size was too great for him to move stealthily in well-lit areas.     

"You can go, I'll summon you when I need you. I can go the rest of the way by myself." Dave nodded.     

"As you wish, m'lord" Bud retreated into the toilets and merged with the shadows there.     

Dave began walking through the hallways, thankfully, the church was not a prison or a high security guarded place. Most of the NPC paladins should be sound asleep now, with the exceptions of the ones on guard duty outside of the church.     

The rest of the NPCs would be doing their prayers or should be in their rooms, preparing to sleep or already in the land of dream. As for the high order of the Church, Dave didn't want to even think about what those self-righteous claiming people must be up to.     

Dave moved through the hallways. His footsteps were muted, all thanks to the great gear he was wearing. The boots muffled his footsteps and made his move more agilely than ever. Once Dave arrived at the middle hall, he had to stop, a nun was moving from chamber to chamber with a small candle in hand, most likely checking on younger people actually sleeping.     

He waited for the nun to fully enter one of the rooms before he moved behind her, without her notice. His goal was the flagellation chambers that were on the other side of the hall he was in.     

He kept moving while keeping in mind to check behind his back. After making it clear, and into the spiral staircase, he finally realized that his heart was beating rather loudly.     

He took a moment to breath and calm his nerves then moved down the staircase. The area was darker than upstairs, but not enough for him to move through shadows.     

Once he was down, he heard the sounds of pained moans coming from the chambers. Unfortunately for Dave, the door was locked tight. He could go through the small space under the door, but the light coming from the other side of the chambers advised him otherwise. The moment that he went through, he would revert back into his solid form and would be discovered, failing his mission. Dave had to wait, there was only one way for him to go in, and that was to wait for the lights to turn off, meaning that he needed to wait and listen to the pained screams of people until the flagellators decided it was enough and called it a night.     

"Damn these assholes, still doing the same crap even after Demiurge came down."     

Dave was forced to wait for hours, enough that his teeth began grating over each other. The game made the feelings and reactions of people rather too vividly for Dave's liking, making him feel even more wrathful at the church's behavior.     

"Soon," Dave kept calming himself with the same phrase over and over again.     

Thankfully, after what felt like an eternity, the pained sounds stopped and changed to defeated weeping.     

"Let's go, these infidels have had enough for the day," a man spoke up.     

Soon, the door opened up, while Dave was on the other side of it. He waited for everyone to exit the room, despite every fiber of his body raging to give the people a taste of their own medicine, before he shadow-moved under it and into the now locked chamber.     

He didn't want to expose himself to the people in the chamber, else they would ask him for help, beg or even cry out; notifying the guards.     

'Sorry, I'll come for you later,' Dave made a promise and moved ahead.     

He was soon above the trapdoor. It was still locked the same way it was when he saw the other one.     

"Now then," Dave spoke and melted into a shadow to go through the thin dividers of the trapdoor.     

Once on the other side, Dave regained his form. He could not see anything so he switched to his Undead avatar, immediately gaining Dark Vision.     

He found himself inside a steep tunnel that led down and began moving ahead. The deeper he went the hotter it became, reminding him of the depths of the Underworld.     

Soon, he arrived at the doorways of a gate. There was a demonic head on the top of the gate, and hundreds of magical inscriptions on it.     

Dave touched the gate and a notification appeared in front of him.     

***     

You have discovered one of the four temples of the Ash King.     

Once you go through, you will have 24 hours before the world learns of the exact location of the temple. Adventurer, move with haste!     

***     

"Right then, let's do this," Dave pressed his hand against the gate…