City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) by Jez Cajiao (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📕

“YOU SERVE MY ENDS NOW, CREATURE; YOU TRESPASSED IN MY TERRITORY AND SWORE TO OBEY!”

“You forcibly bound me to an Oath and killed my clan! You swore a year of service and kept me chained as a brood-mare for ten more!” Hellenica screamed in fury at the creature.

“YOU WOULD HAVE OPPOSED ME! YOU AND ALL THE OTHERS! YOU MUST SUBMIT TO MY WILL!” The Skyking roared and lifted into the air suddenly. It hovered there, just beyond the flames, glaring at us all, as it demanded we obey. I felt Amon’s disgust at the creature, one I’d never thought I’d see outside of a game, as I ‘Examined’ it.

Skyking

The Skyking is an ancient creature, known respectively as a Fel’t’a Jaron, The Watcher in the Night, or a Beholder, depending on the civilization asked.

The Skyking, like all of his kind, hates the living and the dead alike. The Beholders believe they alone are the pinnacle of evolution, graced by the Gods and all of the Cosmos. Each of this evil race hates their siblings and fellows as much, if not more than, other species, living a solitary life until driven by their insatiable hunger to find fresh flesh or a mate.

Beholders are powerfully magical creatures with often heavy physical weaknesses; due to these limitations, they spend much of their life building powerful stables of servant races and alliances to protect them against the inevitable day when the Legion or one of their own comes for them.

Weaknesses: Physical attacks do triple damage

Resistances: Magical damage is reduced to 35%

Level: Unknown

HP: Unknown

Mana: Unknown

I scowled at the creature that hovered there like a slowly leaking balloon. It was enormously fat, a single eye with an enormous yellow and red pupil taking up most of its face, with fat jowls and sagging skin hanging from its underside. Its mouth was a hideous mess of rotting pointed teeth, with a long flexible tongue that flickered about wildly. The worst part for me, though, was the eyes. Dozens of them writhed about on the end of tentacles from the sides and back of the creature, which hunted around in all directions. Some were milky white, but most glared with a malevolence that was clear to see.

“You’re a disgusting, dishonorable abomination, and you broke your Oath!” Hellenica shouted, devolving into insults, and I glanced uncomfortably at Lydia, who looked back at me and shrugged.

“No idea.” she murmured under her breath. “I mean, I’d be pissed as well, but, you know, it’s a Beholder. They’re not exactly known for being honorable with their deals…”

“Yes, but… you know the Djinn; they love Oaths and deals. She’s more offended for that than…” Jian muttered from behind us.

“SILENCE!” roared the Skyking, and I saw it suddenly. “YOU WERE SENT HERE TO KILL ME…ADMIT IT!” Each time the Skyking screamed, its minions would flinch or shake, and even now, they stood immobile, as though frozen; all but the human in the robes. “WHO SENT YOU? WHICH OF MY MUTATED, MALFORMED LESSER BRETHREN DID THIS?”

“Perhaps we can come to a deal?” I suggested, moving to the side. I slowly walked to my right, easing over to the wall as far as I could, all the while watching the way the Beholder fixated on me. All of its eyes lashed around to glare momentarily, before slowly relaxing and beginning to patrol again. The huge central eye stayed locked on me, and the damn thing started salivating.

“YOU WISH TO DEAL?” it asked, slowly. “WHAT DO YOU OFFER FOR YOUR LIFE, MORTAL? KNOWLEDGE? GOLD? SLAVES?”

“How about the secret of who sent us?” I asked, thinking quickly. “The real reason the city is in uproar, and why the Legion is being hunted by the Guard…”

“BAH!” It scoffed. “THAT IS NO SECRET. THE LEGION IS BEING HUNTED BECAUSE I DEMANDED IT, AND…”

“You don’t control the Guard, though, and they’re hunting the Legion too,” I said quickly, glad to find that it was truly this creature that had been hunting Yen and her friends.

“I ORDERED IT, SO THE GUARDS WHO THINK THEY OBEY OTHERS MUST HAVE HEARD. THEY HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO OBEY MY WISHES,” it said, a note of certainty in its voice, making me wonder if the stories I’d heard about them were true.

“They’re not doing it to help you; they’re doing it to keep the Legion from you. The Guard, the nobles; they’re all out to get you…” I said slowly, and instantly all the eyes were locked on me again.

“WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!?” It hissed, and I almost breathed a sigh of relief as I slowly sidled forward, my naginata held in my left hand. I’d passed my shield to Grizz and put his weaker, standard-built one into my storage. As I walked, I tapped the ground slowly with the metal-clad base of my weapon’s haft.

“I know why the City Lord hates you. He fears you, and he’s turned some of your servants to his cause. He’s been watching you.”

“IMPOSSIBLE!” it snapped. “I WOULD KNOW.” But even as it said the words, its eyes thrashed around, searching through the minions that surrounded it. The vast majority of the searching orbs locked suspiciously onto the figure in the robes.

“Great Skyking… lord of the upper world, you know this isn’t true…” came an oily voice from under the hood. Pale hands lifted up the fabric, pushing the cowl back and exposing a heavily tattooed bald head and face. “The High Lord is your friend…”

“A friend who’s secretly making deals with a SporeMother?” I cut in, and the Skyking spun to glare at me, its eyes thrashing wildly as they sought to keep us both under tight watch.

“Never!” the tattooed man snapped, glaring at me.

“LIES…” The Skyking hissed as it fixated in on the human. Several of the eyes began to glow a deep blue, the pupils suddenly shifting to an hourglass shape and beaming a ray of strange light at both of us. “SPEAK THE TRUTH…OR DIE!”

“I found