Backwoods Dungeon

Chapter Forty-Six

The System’s Origin

Rio

“Okay, how the fuck do you know my name?” I asked, growing irritated now.

The being chuckled as we walked, both of us ignoring the battle in the background. Well. Trying to. Every now and then, a spray of debris or a fleeing warrior would charge through one of us. I flinched every time, but the man before me didn’t even seem to notice.

"Your memories are an open book. My kind can't fail to see them. I am pleased. You have answered the call, Rio. Unwillingly, perhaps, but you returned to this place for the sake of others. It is good to see that valor still lies in the hearts of humanity.”

“Who…. who are you?” I asked, studiously ignoring that he could see my memories without intending to.

“Apologies,” he replied. “I was Luca of the Valam. You need not fear my intrusion of your past, for I am dead. I am only a memory imprinted on the demon in whose realm we reside.”

I... couldn't process that. Instead, I latched onto the one thing that did ring a bell.

“Luca!” I shouted. “You were in Aler… fuck. What was his name? Aleredas? Fuck it, Alex. Someone named something like "Alex" left notes about you in a journal down here!”

I winced as I recalled Olivia. I didn't think she made it through the skeletons.

“Perhaps. I sense this demon was young at the time of my death. Perhaps he was only just forming his own domain. He might not even remember it. Demons take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to become aware. If he were an elder, he would have purged this place from his domain long ago. It is well that he has not yet discovered it. He rails still at the seal and has not thought to scour his soul.”

“I… huh?” I asked.

The being chuckled.

“This must seem so strange to you. Apologies, once more,” he said as he stepped on the fallen arm of a soldier, his foot going right through. We were ghosts here.

“Yes, it does, in fact, seem incredibly strange! Why can you read my mind? Where am I? Why have you brought me here, and what do you know about the damn demon invasion in my backyard!” I said, getting fed up with the meandering tone of the being before me.

The man seemed amused, not frightened.

“You’re in one of my memories. I left it hoping that someone like you might find it should the demons ever try to crawl back out of the depths where I sealed them. There… are no Valam left to oppose them. Only small, weak humanity. But the wonders in your mind! Perhaps we were stifling you all this time.”

‘Rude!’ I thought, irritated on behalf of my race.

“Okay. So you’re dead, but you left a recording inside the demon? In the hopes that one of us lucky humans would just stumble on it?” I asked.

The eldritch monk had the decency to blush at the rebuke.

“That’s… a very simple way of putting it, but essentially, yes. This place is hidden within the demon’s domain,” he said, finally showing hints of emotion. “The Valam, my forebears, cursed the demons ages ago, eons before the first human ever thought of how he might use a flame. Our war was eternal and stretched between different realities. It was only in the last few eons that our battle led us to your world. Demons infested it, then, but when we purged them, we discovered that, by some stroke of chance, your kind could benefit from the curse as we could. My small trick of leaving a memory to fester in their domain pales in comparison to the creation of the curse.”

I paused for a moment, utterly confused. So the Valam were really good at cursing things. That didn't exactly seem friendly, but at least the guy wasn't actively trying to kill me like the demons were.

“Okay. Can you explain this to me like I’m a baby? Start at the beginning?” I asked.

A conscious memory that could interact wasn’t so far-fetched. I was pretty sure it happened in one of the more recent Superman movies. With AI growing like it was, perhaps it wasn’t such a stretch to believe that sooner or later, a different race could make sophisticated… what. Wills? Impressions of themselves that could interact with people later on. Perhaps AI would let us do that soon, so at least this wasn't completely fantastic.

“Ah, humanity. Still in love with your stories? Very well. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”

My eye twitched, and Luca laughed.

“Yes. I know. Time is of the essence. I’ll sum up quickly then, shall I?” he said before the scene around us morphed.

I now stood in a dank cave that seemed eerily similar to the one I'd been in before being sucked into this memory. It was more massive, though. Enormous. If another me were hanging from the ceiling of this cave, I didn’t think I’d even be able to see her.

A demon lay on an altar at the center of the cave while a being much like Luca stood before it. I didn't know how I could tell they were alike, but I could. Unlike Luca, though, this being had wings. Angelic things with feathers of pure white. The demon was screaming in pain, desperately trying to get off the altar. It reminded me of the bug creature from the first Men-in-Black movie. Huge and mighty as it was, though, it couldn’t escape. The spear pinning it to the altar made certain of that.

“This is a memory passed down to us. The day when Umbris Valian and his host cursed the entire demon race. A great day. It was not great enough, but it was certainly a turning point of the war in our favor. We managed to last a few eons longer due to the curse.”

Luca seemed to find the event glorious. To me, it just looked like an angel torturing a giant bug. I felt uncomfortable watching the creature writhe. Its tail flashed left and right, and it wailed, an unearthly voice that sent chills down my spine. Even if it was a demon bug, this didn’t feel right to me.

As if sensing my discomfort, Luca turned to me. “Do not sympathize with these. Rest assured, the demons exist only for pain and death. They are true evil in a way your life has not prepared you for. The robber on the street might steal to feed his addiction, or perhaps the tax collector, but also might be desperate to feed his child. If he or she could see another way, they might take it. The murderer might still love but slay in a fit of jealousy or madness. For certain, there are children of mankind to rival the demons in depravity, but they are not born that way. From their creation, there is no goodness in these. No sympathy. This demon would glory in this if it happened to another. Even one of its own. They exist for pain. We believe they are spawned from its very concept.”

“Am I supposed to just take your word for that? Cruelty begets cruelty,” I said, wincing as the angelic being stabbed the demon with a dagger strike that felt strong enough to wreck a building.

Strange lights glowed, seeping out of the demon’s wound and into a gem that grew before my eyes to the size of an apple. A watermelon. More. A beautiful geode shone as it expanded ever upward into the enormous cave.

“That… is a difficult question. Perhaps, somehow, a peaceful solution exists. If you can find it, I feel you should. Do not place your hope there, though. Demons had plagued our people for so long that any thought of such was considered treason among the few of us who remained when I was born,” he said.

“An angel telling me not to hope for peace,” I chuckled bitterly. “What’s the world coming to?”

He winced. “Angel… We did not prefer that moniker. We were people, the same as humanity. More advanced, perhaps. Different. We and the demons both affect reality on this plane by our very existence. But we were never perfect. In its infancy, humanity idealized us because we saved them from the demons when our war spilled into this small plane. That is all.”

“How… long ago was that? How long have you been interacting with us?” I asked.

Luca shook his head. “I don’t know. We were so diminished by then. Only three of us. It was smaller. Localized. I can see hints of it in your memories. Stories, twisted and changed, that might have been influenced by the events of my demise. Your language has changed, but it is still recognizably the same one. Less than one thousand of your years…”

“So… medieval times. Knights and kings and peasants and serfs. Is that why the system seems to be geared toward people from a thousand years ago?”

“System… a good word for it. But no. The system is failing. It has been failing since before my time. This, what you see before you, happened ages and ages ago. Time uncountable.”

“So… when it breaks, all the powers go away?” I asked worriedly.

“I don’t know. The system was meant to incentivize our kind to fight the demons and improve those of us who already were. It drew power from the demons… purified it as best it could, and siphoned it to the demon’s killer, in a form the killer could understand.”

“That explains so fricking much.” I breathed. “Incentivise… Is that why they drop gold?”

“For us, they dropped Indelight. A type of energy we traded. The humans I first encountered would receive anything from wood logs to apples to coins. It was based on the needs of the individual. Whatever way the individual traded, that was what the system would generate.”

“Huh. I mean… on the one hand, they’ve already attacked us and are pretty fucked up, but don’t you think that might be because you’re using their bodies for money and batteries?”

He chuckled. “I’ll not debate the morality. If you can find a way to talk to them, to make peace with them, do so. But always beware of a dagger to your back, little rogue.”

I took a moment to think about that. About everything he’d told me so far. Demons returned. They’d fought here before. A long time ago, but not so long that English wasn’t a thing yet. It must’ve been smaller. Localized. A small country, or even a single town. This seemed like something that should’ve been remembered, but generation after generation might’ve led to people no longer believing the stories.

I could see it now. “Yeah. Sure dad. “Demons” attacked, and Grandpa could throw fireballs. Sure would be nice right now when the snow is four feet high!” Two more generations of that, and we’d forget or not believe any of this ever happened. Just more stories they heard as kids. Not real.

“So… what… Uhm. What did you leave this memory behind for? All of this information has been great, believe me. But I don’t think I’ll be able to get the vast majority of people to believe it. What do you want me to do with all this?”

“That’s simple. You must retrieve the seal. Defend it at all costs. Humanity has grown mighty in the years since my death, but I fear your guns and missiles will be no match for the greater demons. The curse is your only hope. Without the Valam or strong humans enhanced by a mountain of skills from the curse, the demons will sweep over you like a tidal wave. All the explosions in the world will not stop them.”

I blinked before turning back to the memory. The seal, the geode the angel in the memory was creating, was now as tall as a house and still growing. “You want me to steal that thing!?”