Chapter 13: The Right

Now alone in the lab the pair of them look around the room. “I guess let's grab the core’s and leave?” Solveig nods. Samar thinks back to every dungeon crawl ever and asks “do you see anything valuable here?” Solveig looks at him “valuable, everything in this room is worth quite a bit, glass is very expensive. Do you mean what you can take and sell?”

Samar nods and Solveig snorts “Love, you do realize that we are going back to the village as triumphant hero’s?” she gestures broadly “As she said, the fighters here were not the best. They were the dregs. They might have fine steel armor, of uncommon or even rare quality and craftsmanship. That blade that’s on your hip is worth more than all of them, both the knights when they were living and their armor combined.” Solveig shook her head “no at the village, with the agreement for your pick of the vault will be worth even more.”

Nodding at her logic, they collected the five cores and as one they moved out. Moving into the larger laboratory Samar saw the short battle between the Blue slimes and Solveig. There were splattered remains everywhere. As they walked out Samar thought he felt a set of eyes on him, though when he looked over his shoulder he could only see the viscous remains of the blue slimes. Turning away he and solveig left the Laboratory. (Belovit- side story starts here)

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The pair of them journeyed back to the village. This being the third time through the trail at this point was fairly familiar. Combine that with their horny energy they both agreed to wait till they got to the village. That didn't stop either of them from teasing the other. Soon the agonizing march was over. They rounded a bend and the village was in sight. The quiet sleepy village had a different silence to it. Even from a distance dark scorch marks could be seen on the white marble. As the pair of them approached the entrance to the village they found it deserted, with the exception of several piles of rubble that used to be people. All around the rubble piles were patches of dried up slimes. Like crusty Jello stains scattered all around the fallen warriors.

Traveling up the path Samar saw a number of the androgynous gargoyles with tired, thousand mile stares. Many of them had lacrosse sticks in hand and some still carried odd arcane weapons. As one of them locked gazes with Samar, Samar gave him a nod. A question popped into Samar’s mind, he thought of that gargoyle as a him but these lacked any sex like a rock might. ‘Him’ was inaccurate but ‘It’ just felt demeaning for a person. considering that most all had lived multiple lives Samar settled on ‘They’. Moving passed they found between a couple houses further up a shattered pile of stone. The core was missing which meant that they had come by and gathered what was important. On their way up to the big house they passed several other piles of stone and Samar began to wonder whether they viewed the stones of the fallen as just rubble or if they were just too tired to do anything.

They arrived at the big house, in front of it Gorag squatted over a pile of familiar scarlet stone. As he looked to Samar and Solveig, he’s gaze held strength but Samar could sense the weariness of it. Gorag's gaze shifted to Solveig “do not make his mistake. Do not let your opinion of his predecessor taint your opinion of the child to come.”

Gorag gave a weary sigh then looked to Samar “your nets saved the village. They sent the attack in waves, for the first three waves we held fast. By the sixth only the Staff of the Thundergod still had a charge.” Gorag shook his head “we still took losses but thanks to you we are still here.” he paused and let out a tired sigh, his weariness plainly shown. “ I don’t have anything more to offer you than what we already have. Though we could begin the ritual now instead of waiting.” a look crossed the chief's face “we might as well do one last thing, before the next horror wipes us out.”

Samar gave him a grin with a hope to cheer him up “That, you don’t need to worry about.” The chief gave him a drained look that said he didn’t believe him but lacked the energy to say anything. Samar continued with a bit of **** exuberance “the brains behind this is one of my people, an off-worlder. We made an agreement that she would leave you alone and she killed off all the slimes that had been released. I would not hold that that was 100% effective however I believe that you are safe for now.”

Gorag nodded, looking less world weary but still tired. He turned his head and roared “Duragar, Yonrak, get yer stony asses over here.” Moments later the pair of Onyx gorillas clambered over like a landslide. Both with nets of their own. While twins it was plain as day who was whom; Yonrak gave him a quiet glare of someone who was just woken from a nap. Duragar looked like a cool uncle that is welcoming a son-in-law into the family while the rest of the men are describing what they would do to him should he hurt Solveig. Duragar looked to Yonrak “alright, come on halfy, let's prepare the ritual.” Yonrak grumbled but followed.

Gorag looked at the couple “how much do either of you know about the ritual?” Samar shrugged “some sort of soul bond that will make me fireproof.” Gorag looked to him, then to Solveig then back to him and sighed “Solveig, you have always been a dunce and that goes for the last several incarnations of you as well.” he shook his head “you two should know that this is similar to a soul bond however gargoyles do not have souls. So with the joining, her spirit will join in as part of your soul. Part of your soul will reside in her core. When both of you die, her spirit will join with your soul.”

Samar looked to Solveig “I think I’d be fine with that.” Solveig nodded her agreement “it is more permanent than I thought but I have no issue with it.” Gorag looked between the two of them, he shook his head then snorted “Solveig it would appear you found your partner.” moments later a flash of light followed by the thunderous sound of heavy stones crashing came from the cavern “it looks like they are ready for you.” Leaving the tired chief to himself the couple journey up the small trail.

Arriving at the mouth of the cave, they saw it was transformed. Instead of the small spigot that a stream of magma might flow, there was a pool. Its lurid light lit the cave revealing ancient architecture that shaped the cave. they approach, Samar felt Solveig slip her fingers into his hand. Holding her tight they stood over the glowing pool. The hulking shapes of the gorillas moving like shadows in the background, chanting in words that could be felt but not heard. Behind him the deep voice of Gorag spoke “both of you need to enter.”

The broiling pool seemed to have a magic of its own. From beside him Solveig stepped in, the heat quickly burning away her clothes, her skin began glowing the liquid red of soft stone. Samar stepped in, the heat began boiling away at him as well. A look of pain crossed her face “so this is what you feel when you kiss me?” a hiss of something breaking below her and she nearly fell, violet auroras seemed to spill out from her. A green aurora began dancing, mingling with her’s. A glance down at his cooking leg he saw that he was the source. The pain was gone, but panic struck. He was melting into a pool of magma and a thought occurred to him ‘was this how it was supposed to work?’ Moments later his legs gave out and plunged head first into the magma pool.