Dark Lord: Rise to Power

As Arin, Ragna, and Zulkarnash, along with the undead horde, left the third level for the Second Level, a tremor was felt deep underground. Arin felt as if his blood was freezing in his veins.

Zulkarnash looked at Arin. His usual glowing eyes seemed to be lacking their luster. In a hushed tone, he requested, "Sire, I beg you to make haste, and let's leave this area at the earliest!"

Arin, however, felt a strange longing. The thrill-seeking desperado in him had a strong urge to turn back and find the source of the tremor. His speed had slowed down as a result. The notion of an 'Ancient Force' had an allure of its own. Zulkarnash had been a mortal of his age once, so he could understand what was going on in Arin's mind. He spoke again, "Milord, we need to take the lady to safety! She is not in a condition to protect herself on her own. We have to think of her safety as well!"

This suggestion struck Arin's psyche. He realized the lich was making sense. "You crafty lich!" he thought, "You really know how to motivate people along your line!" He looked at the lich with a smug smile. However, the lich was in a visible hurry and didn't notice.

They rushed and made their entry back to the second level.

Ragna looked at the corpses lying around. She could identify most of them as her team's handiwork. She was remembering her short time with the team, and felt sad and nostalgic. Arin noticed her face getting gloomy but decided not to press her to open up.

As they were walking past the battlefields scattered around the second level, Ragna eventually stumbled upon the corpses of her former partners.

"They…they are…..dead?" she fumbled.

"Indeed, they are!" Arin replied.

"HOW?" she exclaimed, "Who killed both of them?"

Before Arin could tell Ragna the story he had concocted earlier, Zulkarnash proudly declared, "Who else other than Milord!"

"Ya?" she was surprised beyond imagination, "How could ya? With your undead troops?"

Again, the lich did not wait for Arin to reply, and started praising, "Milord himself is strong enough to take care of things on his own. When we arrived, our lord was critically injured, and yet he was dragging his body to find your whereabouts, Milady! To rescue you, to ensure your safety, Milord risked traveling to the dreaded third level despite being completely worn out from his previous battles!"

Arin felt so embarrassed that he wished he could go back to the sewer and bury himself in the sarcophagus where the lich had confined himself for centuries.

Ragna did not utter a word, just gave a smile; - a very sweet, grateful smile, to Arin.

Arin found the situation suffocating. To change the topic, he asked Ragna what had happened. She did not reply, but Arin noticed her eyes were glistening with tears. He decided not to press her regarding this topic any more.

She leaned down at both of the corpses and gently closed their eyelids, which were wide open.

This act of hers was not something he had imagined. He had thought she might spit on their corpses or kick them to vent her anger; because Arin had realized that these two had left Ragna to die in that third level. Therefore, given their prior interaction and her being a Barbarian, this current act of kindness was not fitting well with Arin's perception of Ragna!

He thought, this girl might not know they had cheated her and left her to die. He felt an urge to tell her the truth, "Do you know they had….."

Ragna gave him a rueful smile as she cut him off mid-sentence, "I know. I know what they did."

Arin was surprised, "You did?"

"Yes!" she replied, "And I knew it for a long time. I knew they were hatching something behind my back. I had a hunch they did not like me. I had felt that one such day might arrive when they may stab me in the back. I had foreseen this day may come one day!"

Arin felt infuriated, "Are you mad? You knew they might stab you in the back one day, and you still decided to tag along with them? You really had a death wish?"

Ragna replied, "In this world, anyone can kill anyone at any time. Who would give me a guarantee that if I joined a new team, the new teammates would not harbor the same mentality, or worse? How long should I run being afraid?"

Although Arin realized she was making sense, he could not get behind her argument. He objected, "But still…."

"But still!" she replied, "They are safer. You know why? Because we had been together for around a year after I arrived in flatland to be an adventurer and prove my worth. We had faced dangers together. We had fought having each other's backs. We had bled for each other. We exchanged drinks in celebration of our victory. And they were not so hostile earlier. Yes, Sihana, the elf lady, was always a bit snobbish. And Husaar, the human who was in love with her, always took her side; but they were never very hostile with me. However, since the last few months, their attitude towards me had started changing. I had assumed that there might be something odd that had happened between us. Maybe, I had offended them somehow unknowingly. But I had not lost hope. I had felt that if I continued proving my worth to them, they would start being friendly towards me. I had kept faith in our friendship. I felt that, if I stayed good to them, sooner or later, they would accept my friendship, and we would not be just adventure partners, but good friends as well."

Arin taunted, "And had that happened? I don't think so!"

Ragna smiled back at him, "Well, at least I don't have any regret. Death is not something I was ever afraid of, or else, I would never sign up as an adventurer to begin with. I would rather prefer to die fighting bravely while being betrayed by friends I trusted; than live alone and miserable one who can't even trust her own shadow!"