Part F: The Horadric Malus
It was a battered and weary party of warriors who made their way back to the Rogue Encampment near sunset. Any further adventures that day were clearly out of the question; Duo was the worst hurt of the five, but all of them were in need of Akara's healing skills.
Quatre was the one who explained to Kashya what had happened to Relena. The Rogue chieftain had taken it well, with only one more shadow added to her haunted eyes. She offered to lend them another Rogue, but they turned her down, unwilling to lead another one of Kashya's people to their deaths. Kashya was gracious, but she seemed more than a little relieved by their decision.
Trowa and Wufei talked to Deckard Cain. The grizzled old man seemed actually surprised that they had all made it back from Tristram -- but considering how the battle had been going when Cain fled, that was understandable.
"Regrettably, I could do nothing to prevent the disaster that devastated Tristram," Cain said heavily. "It all started with the Dark Wanderer that passed through there several months ago. It was not long after he left, heading east, that the horde of demons erupted and reduced the town to ashes."
Trowa and Wufei exchanged glances. "Akara spoke of a Dark Wanderer who passed through to the East, not long before the Monastery was attacked," Wufei recalled.
Cain nodded gravely. "As you may know, many years ago a hero, not unlike yourself, defeated the Lord of Terror in the tunnels beneath Tristram. He knew that he could not destroy Diablo's soulstone, so he took it into himself, hoping that he could contain the demon.[5] However, in the weeks and months after his victory, he seemed to... change. I now believe that this Dark Wanderer who is connected with the disasters is none other than the hero who once saved Tristram."
Meanwhile, Heero was over talking to Charsi. His armor had gotten quite battered in the struggle at Tristram, to the point where he couldn't wear it until some of the dents had been hammered out.
"When I fled the Monastery," she began after a few minutes of working, "I left behind the Horadric Malus, my enchanted smithing hammer. If you can retrieve it for me, I'll use its magic to strengthen your equipment."
"I can't make any promises," Heero warned her. "We do not yet know what we'll find in the Monastery." He took his newly repaired armor and went back to the others, filling them in on Charsi's request.
"I don't see why not, Heero," Quatre spoke up. "We can use every edge we can get. Besides, Charsi's a very nice girl."
"Girl? She's older than you," Wufei pointed out, and Quatre shrugged.
"Perhaps, but she's a bit idealistic," Heero said. Duo coughed loudly at that, but when Heero gave him a hard look, he put on his best innocent, 'what, is something wrong?' look and said nothing.
They spent another night curled under the tents. At least it wasn't raining this time, so there was more room for them to spread out. Quatre and Trowa ended up in one corner of the tent, Duo and Heero in another, while Wufei staked out a space alone between them. Again Heero took a few moments to pray before sleep; this time, Duo watched him more openly, but there was still the undefinable edge of sadness as he did so. Nevertheless, they were all exhausted from the trying events of the day, and fell asleep quickly.
They trekked across the Tamoe Highland, the thin wisps of fog echoing the somber mood of the group. Even Quatre's usual cheer was quiet and subdued, as Cain's words tolled through their minds.
+flashback+
"It is certain that we face the demon queen Andariel, who has corrupted the Rogue Sisterhood and defiled their ancient Monastery. This does not bode well for us, my friend. [6]
"Ancient Horadric texts record that Andariel and the other lesser evils once overthrew the three Prime Evils -- Baal, Mephisto, and Diablo, banishing from Hell to our world. Here, they caused mankind untold anguish and suffering before they were bound within the soul-stones. Andariel's presence here could mean that the forces of Hell are once again aligned behind Diablo and his brothers."
Quatre's mind boggled, trying to absorb the complexities of Hell's internal politics. But Cain continued.
"If this is true, I fear for us all," he said seriously. "You must kill her, before the Monastery becomes a permanent outpost of Hell, and the way East is lost forever."
+End Flashback+
"Kill her," Duo echoed yet again. "Just like that."
"Stop complaining," Wufei said wearily. "Even demons can be killed."
"Excuse me?" Duo demanded. "This was the same demon who drove out an entire monastery full of warriors -- although if Relena was any sample, I suppose it's not too unbelievable --"
Quatre nearly choked. He had been brought up not to speak ill of the dead, but then again, perhaps that wasn't a big concern for necromancers.
" -- but still!" Duo continued. "If the dozens of them couldn't make a dent against Her Bitchiness, then what chance do we have?"
"We have the strength of a hundred warriors, because our cause is holy," Heero avowed. "Through us, Andariel will face her divine judgment."
"And if she squashes us like bugs, does that mean she's been judged as the winner?" Duo muttered.
Heero glared. "Stop complaining. We can win against her."
Duo rolled his eyes. "Is blind optimism characteristic all paladins, or did we just get lucky?" he asked snidely.
Heero raised one eyebrow. "You sound very pessimistic, yourself, Duo. Pessimism is a characteristic of souls tainted with the Darkness. And we all know how Paladins feel about the Darkness, don't we?" His eyes gleamed.
Quatre stared at him, agape. "Heero... did you just make a joke?" he gasped.
"Did I?" Heero said with a straight face. "I didn't notice."
Duo snickered, and was just opening his mouth to continue the teasing, when the previously-quiet Trowa spoke up. "We're there," he said quietly.
The five adventurers looked up, just in time to see the specter of the Monastery Gate looming above them. It was made of black stone, with broad iron-grated windows of red-stained glass hiding the interior from view. It was easy to see how such a thing could be said to be the Gateway to the East; it stretched seemingly endlessly from side to side, and it seemed as tall and solid as a mountain. And yet, all of its strength and solidity had proved a false promise, lulling its inhabitants into a dangerous sense of security. Andariel now lurked beneath this black stone pile; she held the way East, and she could break human civilization in two.
More than a little awed by its tragic magnificence, none of the others saw the way Duo's face went suddenly pale, his mouth dropping slackly open while all the humor ran out of him like water. The friendly banter of only a few minutes before was forgotten, and the warriors continued on into the Monastery's shadows hushed and subdued.
The Monastery gates were not locked.
The heavy doors creaked open to admit them, at first into a courtyard open to the darkening sky. Another waypoint was set in the exact center of the courtyard, almost invisible under a layer of moss. The once neatly-tended gardens were overrun with feral animals, quill beasts grown to unnatural size. They hissed and threw needles, but Quatre still hated to kill them. They were just so... cute.
Surrounding the courtyard were doors leading into storage areas. They paused to re-light their torches, or, in Quatre's case, make the nifty little glowy thing at the end of his staff. Mostly, the storage areas seemed to be empty of all but rats, every useful provision long since stripped out of the place. Finding nothing useful in the room, they moved through it to the exits on the other side. Quatre stepped through the doorway, holding his light high to illuminate the room, and then stumbled to a halt with a horrified gasp.
They had found the first bodies.
This room looked like a dining room of some kind. Neat rows of tables had been smashed and burned, old dried blood spattered across the benches and floors. It looked like the inhabitants had been taken totally by surprise; on some of the tables left standing, dishes and the rotting remains of a meal were still set out, interrupted and abandoned.
A skittering motion and the shifting of shadows snapped Quatre out of his paralysis; the room was not devoid of all life. A faint muttering from the shadows betrayed the presence of more of the carver demons, skittering around in the corners and hiding behind tables. There weren't enough of them for a determined assault, and Quatre cast firebolts to drive them out of hiding into Wufei's metal claws and the fangs of Trowa's wolves.
Seeing that his weapon was not required to clean out the room, Heero looked about at the scattered and mangled bodies. It was easier to understand, now, the shadows that haunted the backs of the eyes of everyone in the Rogue encampment. Gently, almost reverently, he went to one knee beside the nearest body and whispered the Prayer for the Dead. A faint glow whispered about the corpse, indicating that the soul had departed freely, and Heero moved on to the next one.
The light drifted further away, as the other three moved off down the long hall to exterminate the the demons. Heero lifted his head suddenly from the last of the bodies and frowned; he heard Quatre's voice, and Wufei and Trowa's, but he couldn't remember hearing Duo's voice in some time. Hastily, he got to his feet and moved back towards the last room they had been in, searching for Duo.
The braided warrior was standing by the doorway, back pressed against the wall. His eyes were huge in the dim shadows, and dark. With a shock, Heero realized that Duo was shivering. It didn't make sense; the Necromancer was far more intimate with death than any of the rest of them; he handled corpses and bones with a casualness which still made Heero's skin crawl. Why should a few bodies bother him now?
"Duo?" he said, rather hesitantly. This wasn't the Duo he knew, the cheerful, garrulous, darkly sarcastic spellcaster he had grown to tolerate... he looked like nothing more than a scared little boy. A chill went through Heero as he recognized the shadows in Duo's eyes, the same darkness that hung over all the Rogues... the look of someone who had seen too much horror.
"They were in the middle of dinner," Duo whispered, barely audible in the tomb-like quiet. "Right in the middle of eating, just like every other day, when they came... there was no warning, none at all..."
"Duo..." Heero wasn't sure quite what to do, but Duo continued on as if he hadn't heard him.
"Blood... all over the floors, the walls, oh Gods there was so much blood... they cried out to the Gods to save them, but they didn't, they ripped them apart just the same, she screamed but they didn't stop -- so much blood...!"
"Snap out of it!" Heero commanded urgently, feeling cold and sick. Duo tried to push past him, stumbling against the wall and reaching for something only he saw, but Heero grabbed his shoulders and pinned him back against the wall. He wasn't in any shape to fight off demons right now, and the shadows could be hiding anything. "Duo, what's wrong with you?"
"Heero!" he cried out, sounding suddenly much younger. "Heero, they're all dead!"
Heero stared at him for a long moment, before answering quietly. "Yes, Duo, I'm sorry. I would save them if I could, but it's too late. But the demons who killed them are still in here somewhere, Duo, and I need your help to fight them."
Duo blinked, seeming to come out of a trance. "Since when do you need me for anything?" he whispered, focusing on Heero at last.
Suddenly uncomfortable, Heero let go of Duo's shoulders and stepped backwards. "You're here, aren't you?" he growled. "And there are some demons here who need to be punished for their crimes. Are you up for it, or not?"
"Hell yeah!" Duo gave a shaky smile, but his composure seemed to be returning, covering up all traces of the frightened child. "The God of Death is here to send them back to Hell where they belong!"
"Now that's more like it," Heero said with satisfaction, and smiled slightly.
"Heero! Duo!" Quatre called from the other end of the hallway. "We've found another door back here..."
With the strange moment of vulnerability past, Duo gave Heero a strange look before bouncing forward to join Quatre and the others. Breathing a silent sigh of relief, Heero followed.
The five warriors pushed on through the barracks, methodically sweeping through every room to clear out the demons before moving on to the next. After the disaster at Tristram, none of them wanted to take chances by leaving enemies behind them to block their escape route.
The wisdom of that precaution became suddenly apparent as Heero threw open a heavy metal door to reveal a forge room packed with monsters. They backed out into the hallway, letting the narrow doorway crowd the demons down until they could only come at the warriors a few at a time. Heero and Wufei waded into battle, aided by the summoned creatures and the spells cast by the other three.
"Quatre, could you tone down the fireballs?" a harassed Wufei called as one passed directly in front of his face.
Boom. "Sorry, sorry!" Quatre called sheepishly.
Behind the legions of smaller demons, a large troll-like creature with a burn-spotted leather apron came striding at them, a smithing hammer in one hand. "Your souls will burn!" he boomed out, swinging the hammer at Heero, who barely managed to deflect the blow on his rolange.
Duo cast a poison spell on the monster, frustrated when the demon shrugged it off with little effect. "He's tough!" he called out.
"But slow," Wufei observed, ducking easily under one heavy swing.
Calmly, Trowa stepped up behind the demon and opened his mouth as if to speak. But instead of words, a furious stream of arctic air blasted from his mouth, washing over the Smith and freezing him in place, slowing his movements to a glacial crawl.
The others stood stunned for a moment. Duo was the first to speak up. "Wow, Tro!" he exclaimed. "I'll never make cracks about your freezing wit again!"
With a growl, Heero set to work on the large troll-shaped ice statue that his opponent had become. It took some effort, as even a frozen Smith was tough, but with the combined efforts of all four of them, he at last shattered into pieces on the floor. The hammer dropped out of his hands and landed with a thud that dented the floor.
Grimacing, Heero examined his shield, before tossing it aside. "Ruined with one blow," he growled.
Quatre reached down and picked up the hammer, staggering a little under the weight of it. His eyes grew wide. "This is no ordinary hammer!" he exclaimed. "It's the Malus!"
"Charsi's enchanted hammer?" Wufei questioned. Quatre nodded.
"It's good that we have this back again. Such a powerful tool could do great damage in the hands of a demon," he said. "We should return this to Charsi as soon as possible."
The others agreed, and they started the trek back to the courtyard waypoint. Heero was watching Duo closely as they passed through the bloody dining hall once again, but the necromancer seemed to have control of himself once more. Still, the tension faded from his shoulders with every step they took into the open air, and he didn't breathe easy again until they returned to the Rogue Encampment... even though he knew it was only a temporary respite.
"You found my Horadric Malus!" Charsi exclaimed, practically bouncing with glee. "I don't know how I can ever thank you. It's a powerful and valuable tool that belongs in the hands of the Light. Now, in return, I will imbue one of your items with magical properties."
Nobody said anything, but somehow, they all ended up looking at Heero. He sweatdropped. "Oh hell no," he said emphatically. "I like my weapon the way it is."
"But, Heero," Quatre began persuasively, "Of all of us, you are best suited to handling a powerfully enchanted weapon. And besides, when we face Andariel, you and Wufei will be the only ones who will have a chance against her in close combat. And Wufei's katar would be far harder to enchant than your scepter."
Heero growled something under his breath, but gave in with a sigh. He unhooked his weapon from his belt and, not without a trace of lingering reluctance, handed it over to Charsi.
The smith set immediately to work, taking the weapon and clipping it into the vise above her anvil. Picking up a pair of tongs, she reached into her glowing forge and pulled out a thin sheet of heated steel, laying it beside the scepter on the anvil. She then paused and took a deep breath, hefting the Horadric Malus. "It's been a long time since I worked with this," she mentioned in an offhand way. "I just hope nothing goes wrong."
A faint sound, like a muffled whimper, escaped from Heero, but the other four chose to diplomatically ignore it.
She swung the Malus in a practiced move, and as it struck the weapon, a light flashed so intense that the warriors all had to shield their eyes. The sound of metal striking metal continued, though, reassuring them that this was supposed to happen. After about five minutes, the light faded, and Charsi picked the scepter off of the anvil and plunged it into a bucket of cold water. Waiting a few seconds, she then pulled it out and wiped it dry with a spare cloth. Enough heat lingered in the metal to dry it the rest off the way quickly, but it was cool enough to hold, and Charsi handed it back to Heero with a faint air of pride.
"Thank you," he said as he gingerly took the weapon and studied it warily. It still looked like the familiar scepter that had fought so many battles with him, but it hummed faintly against his hand and he could almost feel the new power coursing through it.
Duo whistled faintly, impressed by the extra sheen the metal seemed to have acquired. "So it's an enchanted weapon now, huh?" he said. "Do you think it can stand up to killing the Demon Queen, Andariel?"
Heero took a deep breath, and quickly hooked the weapon back to its accustomed place on his belt. Even when he was no longer directly touching it, he could feel the faint hum emanating from it. "I think this weapon was made to kill her," he said.
5 - I always thought this was a singularly stupid thing to do. Who did he think he was? Tal Rasha?
6 - See footnote 3.
To Be Continued... *insert demonic laughter here*