The infinity dungeon 215

Chapter 215

“My lord, it fills me with joy to see you alive and well.” Drullkrin, the goblin commander, walked beside Michael after they were done eating and feasting. Behind them, the Fae were still laughing and drinking, but festivities were winding down.

The goblin’s eyes twinkled as he spoke with grave seriousness. “For a moment, I had thought the worst had happened to you, my lord. Your lackeys, they came and claimed that you were fine, yet more than a month passed with me asking for your whereabouts, and they would not tell me!”

He snarled, sharp teeth poking out of his upper lip. “I was already beginning to put one of the contingency plans into motion, but Johanne stilled my hand. After she stopped me thrice, I was beginning to think that she too had turned against you. I doubt I could have defeated her, but I was ready to try.”

“I’m glad to know you got my back, man.” Michael smiled then stopped.

“What is it, my lord?”

Humming, he chuckled to himself. “Nothing, I was just wondering whether saying ‘man’ to you was accurate or not.”

“Uh,” the goblin stammered, deep in thought. “I do not see a problem with it.”

“Anyway,” Michael said, “I got my magic jumbled up a little bit, but I can do new things now.”

“You do smell different, my lord. It was only natural that you would come out of whatever challenge you faced much stronger than before. What is it that you can do with your new power?”

“This.”

With a sudden jerking motion, Michael plunged his hand into the goblin’s chest. It sank inside until it had almost completely disappeared, making the goblin gasp. It was more surprise than pain, although Drullkrin’s eyes were very wide as his breathing grew increasingly ragged.

“It feels… cold,” he muttered. “Something is being sucked out of me…”

Michael nodded. He watched with rapt attention as the spirals on the boundary of his inner space lit up, followed by the gigantic glyph at the center of the black hole. Gravity increased a millionfold, but it did not pull Icarus or the machines down. Instead, the wave of gravity reached the boundary and materialized in the real world, using Michael’s hand as a focus.

Michael retracted his hand, watching something pass him by and plunge into the black hole.

Drullkrin looked around, confused. For a long moment, he studied the forest and then his own limbs, touching his skin and then the trees as if he did not believe they were real. His face cycled between surprise and awe, fear and anger.

All around, Michael could feel the gaze of the dungeon focusing on them. It felt unfamiliar; however, mechanical. Infy was no longer present behind it, it seemed.

“My lord…” the goblin said. He was at a loss for words, mumbling things to himself, trying to form coherent sentences and failing. “This,” he said as he looked at himself with wonder and a hint of fear. “Tell me, what is it that you just did to me?”

“I freed you,” Michael said. “From the dungeon’s influence.”

“Just like you promised you would,” the goblin said. He looked up at the sky with a frown.

“Do you want to leave this place now? I can’t imagine you being happy with you current accommodations after being freed of the brainwashing effects of the dungeon.”

Seeing that Drullkrin was struggling to respond, Michael added some encouragement. “You are free to do whatever you want now, you know?”

“I feel… complicated emotions towards the dungeon, my lord. Its spirit. I spoke to her. She seemed nice, and spoke fondly of you. That alone is enough to make me like someone, my lord. However, knowing that she is tied to the dungeon complicates things.”

“Infy, the spirit, has been mostly dormant until now,” Michael said. He was about to explain that she wasn’t responsible for the actions of the dungeon, but then he realized that it wasn’t true. Her hands were hardly clean. The destruction of Johanne’s world, the Renegade, and who knows how many other things happened as a consequence of her desperate acts of survival.

“I understand, my lord. However, she is tied to the dungeon, is she not?”

Michael nodded. “I get it. It’s complicated. I too am struggling. I don’t know what to think of her. Is she an extension of the dungeon or not? Is she still tied to it, or is she free? Anyway, let’s talk about other things. For instance, about the fact that you don’t need to call me lord anymore. You don’t need to follow me anymore either. You are free.”

The goblin laughed. “Nonsense. If there was ever any doubt, now there is none. You truly deserve the title and respect, and I will forever be in your debt. I will follow you until my path reaches its end.”

Michael tried to argue back, but Drullkrin was having none of it.

“As for this place, the dungeon and its spirit. I do not think I want to leave,” the goblin said. “I understand that the world waiting for me outside is no Aetheria. My home is long gone, and this corner of the valley is all that’s left of it. I would be an alien out there. It would be no place for me.”

“Perhaps one day it will be,” Michael mused.

“I believe you. If there is anyone who can give me a home outside of the dungeon once more, it is you. However, my lord, you have other things that you need to accomplish first. Now that I am free, I will be able to help you much more than before, and this is the greatest gift I could wish for.”

***

Later, back at the treehouse, Michael called for Infy. He was almost surprised when she manifested beside him, although perhaps he shouldn’t have been.

“I freed Drullkrin from the dungeon’s influence,” he said.

“I saw,” Infy said. “It was almost too easy with your new powers, wasn’t it?”

They were sitting on the treehouse’s balcony, and she was dangling her feet down the edge below the railing. She kicked her legs up and down, watching the horizon.

“Are you okay with it?” Michael asked.

“Why would I not be? The dungeon and I…” she paused. “It’s complicated. I will leave it at this: you can do whatever the fuck you want to the dungeon. You have more than earned the right. And it has more than earned the punishment.”

“What about you?” he asked.

“I… am still figuring it out. I don’t know what I am anymore, my champion. I feel so lost. I am no longer the dungeon spirit, of that I am certain. I am still connected to the dungeon in some way, though. I can travel inside it as I please, control certain aspects of it, issue challenges and reward the brave but…” she turned to him. Her eyes bore into his, but they were full of tears. “I don’t want to be an extension of the dungeon anymore. Nor be its warden. I don’t want my identity to be tied to it. And yet, all I know about myself is what I don’t want to be. I don’t know what I am. I feel lost.”

Her words seemed to disappear in the forest below, and the silence that took their place was full of pain.

“What if another spirit comes?” she sobbed quietly. “What if they seek to end me?”

“Who’s they? The new spirit, or someone else?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I used to know things, but now I don’t. There were clues in Sitea, but the domed city is gone now. Johanne’s world held some more clues, but it too is gone. I have nowhere to call home, Michael.”

“You can stay here,” he said. “Hell, why not come to the real world with me once I get out of here? Put the dungeon behind you.”

She smiled at him. “I wish I could.”

“Why not?”

“People sometimes forge their own chains,” she said. She smiled at him again. Looking at the setting sun, she sighed. “I never properly thanked you for saving my life, did I?”

“You don’t need to.”

“I know, but I want to,” she said softly. Her blue eyes locked onto Michael’s. She leaned in, cupping his face in her left hand.

She gave him a peck on the tip of the nose, then retracted just in time to see his surprised reaction and giggle. She got up, offering a hand to help him up and then turning away from him before their eyes met.

“I want to find myself. To know who I am. I hope you will be there, my champion, walking the path beside me. I shall not leave this prison just yet. I need the power that comes from being bound by the rules in order to help you.”

“Why help me?”

“So that the day my creators come looking for me… you will be able to smite them and kill them all. You will save your planet, your civilization. You will seize control of the dungeon and that day I will finally be free. That day I will truly become yours.”

She took his hand, kissed it, and disappeared.