Chapter 3: Quest.
"Status window".
The cage was silent for barely a second, then the Emissary’s insidious voice shattered Damien’s mental defenses, he was in awe. Never in his wildest imaginations could he begin to understand how it was possible for another voice to supersede his own consciousness, this was clearly a power far beyond any human.
[Name; Damien]
Status; Undead.
Rank; Dormant.
Dormant Ability; Undead Legion.
Quest; A Ruins Of Humanity.
The blue holographic screen floated just before him, it was transparent, but still visual enough for him to see clearly.
"Do you guys see this?". He said pointing to the screen.
Chad shook his head.
"The Emissary only shows you your own status window, no one else can see it".
Nodding in satisfaction, Damien proceeded to study the blue screen. It was small, and the information written wasn’t really that useful. One would think something like this would have a space dedicated to explaining what needed to be done, even the quest slot only had the name of the place.
If this was a business, Damien would definitely rate them one star.
"My dormant ability is undead legion".
Yuri’s brows fluttered.
"Undead Legion, it’s not attack based".
Damien noticed Yuri glance away. His brows twitched slightly, but he said nothing.
Chad moved in to smooth things out.
"Ahem, maybe your ability can help us regardless, what can you do exactly?".
Damien shrugged.
"The name speaks for itself, I can probably control undead, or even make them".
Chad nodded and glanced outside the cage, it was too dark to see other cages, but if there was a corpse nearby, perhaps Damien could show them what he can do.
He couldn’t see beyond their own makeshift prison, so it was pointless, resigning himself to giving up. Chad smiled awkwardly.
"Perhaps your dormant ability can summon the undead out of thin air". Seris said.
Yuri looked back towards Damien, a flicker of interest in her calm eyes.
"Perhaps". Damien was still skeptical though, for some strange inexplicable reason, it felt wrong to him, it was almost like he knew what his dormant ability was without ever even using it, it was strange, but compared to what has been happening, it actually felt normal.
"So are you going to show us?". Seris asked innocently.
He was already contemplating how to do just that, but it wasn’t like this thing came with a manual. Damien exhaled and raised his hand, imitating what Yuri did when she displayed her dormant ability.
"Rise".
His voice was colder than before, and felt dark and sinister. It wasn’t a sound he would normally be able to make and definitely not a sound that should be coming out of a man’s throat. Yuri and Chad frowned lightly, they felt a dreadful sense of death from Damien.
Seris didn’t feel a thing, she was a healer and never truly participated in battles, even her capture was mostly coincidental.
But to Yuri and Chad, it was as real as day, whatever Damien was, it reminded them of the unholy creatures they have been battling for the last month.
The sense of death vanished as quickly as it came, drawing cold breaths of relief from both of them, they glanced at each other, noting the worry on each other’s faces.
Seris on the other hand was completely oblivious, she chuckled adorably with her hand on her mouth.
"What the hell is that? ’RiSe’... Are you a kid?".
Damien scratched his head awkwardly. He only said that out of instinct, it felt right for some reason.
"Nothing happened". Seris was disappointed, but not for long. "I’m sure your ability is cool Damien, don’t let this failure get to you".
Yuri rested her back on the wooden cage and leaned to the side, she was exhausted and covered in dirt, they’ve been caged for days now, and each day, one of those creatures would come to take one of them. The mental strain was starting to take its toll on her, but she knew losing hope meant losing to these creatures, and that’s something she will never do.
"You guys should rest and save your strength, we need to be ready to fight our way out when Andrea’s rescue team gets here".
"Who’s Andrea?". Damien couldn’t help but ask.
But Yuri didn’t answer, Seris did instead.
"Andrea is our friend, she’s really strong...".
Damien glanced outside the cage, the darkness was impossible to look through, and the creatures in the cages might not be human. How exactly is anyone supposed to find them here? He wasn’t that optimistic with this Andrea solution.
"How do you know she’s coming?".
His question stunned Seris, her mouth opened then closed, she didn’t really know, she was just hoping, just like everyone else.
"Did she send you here?". Noticing Seri’s skepticism, Damien couldn’t help but ask, after all, Yuri and Chad seem pretty strong, and competent, no way they would just get themselves captured and imprisoned, so they must have been following orders.
Seris blinked. "Well yes, we were part of a raid to gather intel on the enemy, Andrea wanted to know if there was a way home through the altar the Eidolons worship".
"Did you get her the intel she wanted?".
Seris nodded.
Hmm
Damien didn’t want to be the one saying this, but he couldn’t possibly let the girl die hoping for something that wouldn’t happen. In all his years living alone in the human world, he has been betrayed by more people than names he actually remembered, people are selfish by nature, it is how they are engineered.
"Sorry Seris... but Andrea won’t be coming, there’s simply no logical reason to risk more lives on a mission that won’t increase their chances of getting back home, if I was a leader, that would probably be the choice I would make".
"Andrea won’t abandon us". Yuri snapped. "She’s not like you, not like anyone... She will come for us, you wait and see".