The misadventures of the necromancer

The sight before him leaves him unsure of what to feel. Confusion, strangeness, recognition. The city is basically destroyed, a tangle of rubble where nature is reclaiming its place.

But even so, there are still many landmarks he can recognize, such as the remains of the stone bridges that once connected the two hills where most of the city stood, to the point in between where the true point of interest of Inverten lay.

The miserable state the city is in is not unexpected considering the status of this entire region. But it still makes him ask, “What the hell happened here?”

Behind him, a young female voice answers, “I don’t know!!” making him turn to her.

Sena, in turn, looks at Saca with a gaze that seems to solicit her opinion, prompting the other girl to simply nod in agreement.

Sena goes on, “I didn’t even realize that the place you were talking about was Old Town. All my life, Old Town has always been like this.”

As the girl explains, beside her, her friend, who is holding her brother in her arms, keeps nodding, reminding him of one of those dolls that does the same thing.

“So you do know this place?” asks an interested Blondie, probably remembering how the girls had said they had never heard of Inverten.

“More or less. Sometimes, if we need to, we come to get stones from here. But usually we prefer to build with wood; it’s easier than coming here to get stone,” Sena answers him. A reasonable reply, since historically that’s what ends up happening to many old structures: later generations reuse what’s left, leaving only ruins behind.

“Then why don’t you live here? I mean, there seem to be plenty of houses—just fix them up,” Blondie asks, pointing to the ruined city ahead.

“And live off what?” says Sena, almost laughing at the comment. “Look around—do you see big areas where you could farm or keep herds?”

He and the others look around to confirm that there really doesn’t seem to be space for much food production. Even the city itself doesn’t have many trees or much vegetation growing. There is some, but for a place abandoned so long ago, there should be more, suggesting the soil around here might be quite poor.

“And Old Town is haunted,” Saca suddenly comments. When they turn to her, she adds timidly, “At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

Looking at the city, it’s understandable that such rumors might exist. Not that it interests him much at the moment, because even though he’d like to know what the hell happened to the city, he still has to stick to his original plans.

“But then how does a city exist here?” asks a puzzled Grumpy.

“Because of the Pit,” he answers without thinking too much about it.

“Pit!?” several voices ask at once.

“Yes, the Pit. The ruin in the center of the city. It’s a hole that lets anyone who goes down pass through several levels,” he tries to explain, recalling some missions he had done.

“There’s a ruin in the center of this city, Nero,” says a visibly worried Grumpy after a moment.

For a brief instant, he thinks he may have said too much. But deciding it shouldn’t be particularly important, he says, “Isn’t that exactly what I just said!?”

“But isn’t that dangerous!?” Grumpy says, staring at the distant city with wide eyes, making him understand the concern.

“You don’t think I want to go into a ruin, do you? Especially with you lot,” he replies, briefly imagining the madness of going down into the Pit, counting on these useless people for support.

With no one offering any counterpoint, he starts walking while explaining what he wants from them.

“I want to find a specific place. But relax—we’re not going anywhere near the city center or the Pit.”

Turning toward the general direction of his objective, he continues the explanation. “We’re going to the place over there. A house between the fort on the top of Rising Hill and the Huntress’s Temple.”

“How is that…?” one of the girls starts to ask, only to stop suddenly, and with a quick glance back, he can see Grumpy making a gesture that seems to mean she’d better not even try to ask the question.

Which is actually quite convenient, since that would be an awkward conversation for everyone. One that he decides to kill completely with a, “Come on, let’s go. There’s no point in wasting time here.”

The state of the city makes their passage difficult and adding some confusion in his memories, makes the trip he had expected to be quick ending up being delayed a bit.

But at last they reach what seems to have been his former main base of operations in this region. An old noble house that even in his time already looked somewhat abandoned. Now it has no roof—though he hasn’t seen any roof in the city that survived—and some walls have collapsed. But overall, this still seems to him to be the right house.

With a bit of luck, this expedition will prove that this is Nero’s game world, because that would mean that inside this house, there is a massive fortune he had amassed here, during that same game.

With his heart pounding and his mouth dry, he steps over the threshold where a strong wooden door once stood and enters the interior of what remains of the dwelling. Inside, nothing is visible, with all the furniture that once filled the space apparently having been removed or destroyed by time.

For a moment, he even considers that he may have chosen the wrong house. But he continues along a route he knows well, one he could almost follow with his eyes closed. It leads him to the side of a stone fireplace that can still be recognized.

Unfortunately, the lamp fixed to the wall that should have been there is also gone, leaving him with only one option to proceed.

He presses his hand against the spot where the lamp was and murmurs softly, “Lucky lock,” resulting in a slight tingling on his hand as the magic flows from his hand into the remains of the lock. Thankfully, it responds with the sound of mechanical parts shifting, causing the wall beside the fireplace to begin sliding back, revealing the expected hidden space.

Behind him comes the sound of surprise from several voices, reminding him that he isn’t alone, but accompanied by a group of fools.

In any case, he steps into the space and begins to descend the stairs he knew were there. With some relief, since at least this confirms the knowledge he had of the house.

Having finished descending the stairs into the sea of darkness where his horde should be, he raises his hand and declares, “The Last Light of Magic.”

To summon the sphere of light that illuminates… a completely empty stone room.

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