Last Life Book 7: Chapter 8

I WALKED TO THE LAKE along a path that led through the cliffs. Sigurd ca with , along with Leo and two other strykers. My bodyguard and I stopped on the shore of the lake, where I sent my squire and the other two soldiers to guard the path and make sure nobody disturbed us.

The lake was located in a big, deep valley between the cliffs, whose shape reminded of fingers curled up around an absolutely massive palm.

A waterfall made constant ripples on the surface of the water, which occasionally swirled into small eddies. The waterfall wasn’t especially tall or wide, but the soft, constant noise of the falling water made a nice background noise.

Light danced off the surface, creating patterns and flashes of light. The air was fresh and filled with the delicate sll of wet earth and stone. As I looked around and listened, I nodded to myself — this was indeed the perfect spot for solitary ditation.

The lake’s shore was rocky, and pretty steep, with so patches covered in moss and grayish mountain grasses poking up through the sharp rocks. At first sight, it all looked wild and primordial.

Hans was wrong, by the way: the aqueduct he ntioned led to sowhere higher up in the cliffs. Apparently, there was another source up there that supplied the fortress with water.

Walking along the shore, I found a spot where the rocks ford a convenient ramp down to the water. And that was exactly where I found Vaira waiting for .

“You sure?” I asked her skeptically as I looked around at the shore.

“Absolutely sure,” the efirel replied as she thrust a finger into the air, pointing at the waterfall. “Behind that water, in the bowels of these cliffs, I can feel a faint current of air. It was hard to detect, but I listened for a long ti.”

“A cave?” I presud; then, cocking my head to the side a little bit, I switched to true vision.

My scan didn’t reveal anything. There was no mana, either behind the waterfall or anywhere next to it. If there was so kind of complex chanism at play here, I couldn’t see any trace of it at all.

I stroked my chin, snickered, then turned to examine the lakeshore again. As I looked out at the surface of the water and the stream cascading into it, I found myself lost in thought. The place just looked too ordinary — and more importantly, too undisturbed. Sohow, it didn’t seem like it could ever have been the scene of construction work aid at creating an entrance to an ancient treasure trove. But the Vaira’s words gave cause to doubt that conclusion, and my hunter’s instinct told instantly that the answer was sowhere right nearby — right under my nose. Perhaps literally right under my feet...

But what if...?

“What if the magical chanism isn’t hidden behind the waterfall, but over there?” I gave voice to my thoughts as I pointed down at the lake.

Sigurd, who was watching us in silence, just shrugged. Vaira turned to look down at the water, as if estimating sothing in her mind. Then she closed her eyes and listened.

“No,” she said after a few minutes. She shook her head. “There’s too much water. I can’t hear anything...”

I took off my boot and rolled up my pant legs, then stepped carefully across the cold, wet rocks that ford the ramp down into the lake. The water was crystal-clear and freezing cold — so much so that it almost burned when I walked into it.

I made my way slowly into the lake, until the water was up to my knees. A few more steps, and the gradual slope would abruptly drop off. From there on, it was deep. Hm... It actually looked really, really deep...

Standing there in the lake, I switched to true vision again, trying to find anything unusual on the bottom of the lake — any sign at all of magical activity.

Nope... Nothing... Maybe the secret is deeper underwater than I thought?

I turned to my companions. Vaira and Sigurd were a few paces away from , watching what I was doing.

“We’re going to have to dive,” I said. I didn’t want to put this task off any longer, so I started getting undressed.

With one more glance at the surface of the lake, I walked back into the water. This ti, though, I walked right up to the edge of the underwater dropoff. One more step. At that point, the water was up to my stomach. I could feel every cell in my body complaining about the icy water. Thanks to my golden parasite, which was constantly gnawing away at the massive quantity of reserve energy in my system, my body temperature was higher than average, but the water was freezing all the sa.

One more step — and suddenly the water was up to my chin. The cold filled with energy and made my heartbeat quicken. After taking a few breaths to get used to it, I took one big, deep breath, pushed off the edge of the underwater dropoff, and dove in.

Whoa! It was deeper than I thought... The sides of the lake were shaped like a big funnel, on whose bottom I couldn’t see anything at all.

For just a mont, I allowed my body to drift on inertia, just savoring the sensation of weightlessness and freedom. In this underwater world, filled with strange sounds and colors, I felt completely at one with the space around .

The golden parasite seed to sense the change in temperature outside — it leapt into action and sent a wave of warmth pulsing through my body. The cold subsided instantly. The water no longer felt icy.

Hm, I thought... Interesting... So this parasite is capable of sharing energy with in return? Sure, it was just a little bit, and in extre circumstances, but the fact alone still gave reason to hope. My mood improved right away.

A few leisurely, unhurried strokes of my arms and legs, and I found myself right beneath the spot where the water was falling into the lake. I poked my head up for a mont, just a little bit to the right (to avoid surfacing right under the waterfall). With a wave to Sigurd and Vaira to let them know everything was fine, I dove back under again.

I glided smoothly along the rock wall of the lake, descending a few more ters as I did so. Then, switching to true vision, I started a new scan.

I kept moving smoothly along the underwater cliff wall, examining it and trying to find anything anomalous in the structure of the rock that might indicate the presence of a hidden entrance or chanism. True vision allowed to see the underwater world in a totally different light. Its contours beca sharper, its shadows darker.

Wait, I thought... What’s this? As I moved along, I noticed that one part of the rock face was different from the others. The surface of the stone here was smooth, and almost perfectly even, unlike earlier spots, which were rough, cracked, and covered with lake moss.

My heart froze as I swam closer to the spot and ran my hand along the stone. I felt an unexpected, faint warmth emanating from it. A smile spread across my lips. There it was! These sensations couldn’t possibly be confused with anything else. That barely-perceptible feeling of warmth was the by-product of the amber mana the artificers had used in creating the energy channels in their chanisms.

I focused my attention on the stone, and finally saw a faintly-glowing, deep-amber energy pattern. My hand reached out to touch the stone again, and I felt minor depressions and curves in its surface that mirrored the energy pattern, whose center was a little spot of mana shaped like a teardrop.

These secret magical chanisms sohow reminded of the one in my castle. But I didn’t see any opening for an amulet/key of any kind. Apparently, this one worked on a different principle. Most likely, it was so sort of magical key, like in my old world.

I reached out and touched the little drop once again, and suddenly the golden parasite made its presence known once again. It could sense the stream of mana. The insatiable bastard shot a few energy tendrils out toward the amber energy system and started sucking the mana out of it. I tried to yank my hand back, but...

Dammit! I was glued to the wall!

Just when the mana in the stone pattern was almost gone, I heard a short, loud sound like that of a steel lock snapping open. A shudder rippled across the surface of the rock, accompanied by a strange noise that sounded (from underwater, at least) like the blast of a low-pitched horn.

I quickly glanced down at the base of the cliff and smiled, although it wasn’t an especially confident smile. Slowly but surely, a heavy stone hatch was sliding open at the bottom of the lake. The water around it began to swirl, creating a small current that started sucking down toward the opening. Thanks to my golden tendrils, however, I stayed right where I was.

Could this really be it, I wondered? Could this really be the entrance to the treasure? Strange...

But my joy was short-lived. The hatch had disappeared almost entirely into the base of the cliff when sothing huge and dark erged from within the yawning black opening. For a second, my heart froze when I saw a creature that resembled an alligator in terms of size and shape, but which was covered with scales that seed to absorb every last photon of light, making the beast almost completely invisible in the dark depths of the lake.

Dark purple energy was coursing through the monster’s energy system — its source was a single enormous brut. It turns out that the Mages had caught a shadow beast and transported it all the way to the lake, so it could swim out to et anyone who tried to open their treasure trove without a special key.

The monster started swimming in circles at the very bottom of the lake, as if trying to make sense of what was going on. anwhile, I tried as hard as I could to tear my hand off the cliff face, without any success — the parasite was obviously going to drink up every last drop of amber mana.

My lungs started to hurt. But it was tolerable, for the ti being. Thankfully, I wasn’t down in the very depths of the lake. I could swim my way to the surface with just a few strokes. The main thing was just to stay calm and not make any sudden moves.

A second later, however, everything changed. The shadow beast spotted and tore forward. Its enormous eyes burned with a deep-purple glow, and its powerful jaws started to open, revealing rows of sharp, curved teeth.

Son of a bitch! I tried with every ounce of strength to tear my hand off the surface of the rock. But it didn’t work — it didn’t even budge. In fact, the golden tendrils just sucked themselves more firmly onto the amber energy structure. The surface of the rock actually started to crack.

The shadow beast was moving with unbelievable speed. Its mouth opened even wider as it prepared to bite my body clean in half. Strange as it may sound, I wasn’t afraid at that critical mont. I was angry. Not just angry — I was enraged.

To die so stupidly, because so sort of unruly energy-organism had taken control of my energy structure and wasn’t letting control my own body... Anger took the driver’s seat, knocking reason out of its usual place. With a growl that cost precious air, I reached into my own reservoir.

The parasite reacted imdiately. As before, it tried to teach a lesson with a wave of pain, but this wasn’t like the first ti — I already expected this, and was prepared for it. Putting up with the horrible wave of pain, I kept pulling toward the core of my reservoir. For just a split second, the parasite weakened its grip under my onslaught, and I managed to tear my hand off the wall.

Free at last! I pushed off the stone wall with both my hands and feet and tore up toward the surface. Alas, it was already too late. The beast was just a few yards away from . It adjusted its trajectory with ease, just as a wave of energy passed over its long body and made it even faster and more agile than before.

Plus, I was just swimming too slowly. Focusing for a mont (and managing to ignore the parasite’s attempts to resist), I managed with great difficulty to pry a small clot of golden mana out of my reservoir.

And then sothing unexpected happened...

I chanically whipped my right arm forward, and a small web of golden magic ford in midair in front of .

Chaos Shield! The mories of the young werefox in my soul told that this simple little spell from the Chaos School was called the Chaos Shield!

The web was ford of small symbols, which quickly morphed into a big, wide oval shape that radiated pulsing golden energy; this, in turn, created an impenetrable barrier in front of .

It was into this barrier that the massive, scaly alligator suddenly slamd at full speed. The shield withstood the blow, but dissipated imdiately after.

The force of the impact threw the monster back. It had clearly lost its sense of orientation. The beast’s purple eyes went dark for a mont, and its powerful body froze belly-up in the water. But not for very long. In fact, it recovered remarkably quickly. It spun itself around, trying once again to zero in on its prey.

anwhile, I had managed to make use of my montum, and I was already within three feet of the surface. With a wave-like pulse of its muscular tail, the beast took off after .

But then, with a massive splash, a muscular silhouette burst into the water right above the beast. Sigurd was ard with his longsword, which glowed beneath the water as though it were made of so sort of lilac-colored ice. He wrapped his left arm and both legs around the monster’s body.

My bodyguard’s movents were quick and precise. The purple blade in his right hand sank into the big reptile with thodical rapidity, ti after ti. The stryker’s weapon was transmitting lilac mana through itself and dealing horrific damage, slicing both scales and flesh to ribbons. The water around the two struggling opponents quickly turned black with blood.

And the shadow beast was spinning, writhing, and trying its hardest to throw its mysterious enemy off its back. Alas, it was all in vain. The animal didn’t have a chance against the avant.

Sigurd struck over and over, and he was able to hit the most vulnerable points with every blow. Finally, the huge body stopped moving and slowly started to sink toward the bottom of the lake, leaving a blurry trail in the water behind it as it fell. But I only managed to catch a quick glimpse of this out of the corner of my eye.

As soon as my head broke the surface, I took a big, deep breath with a profound feeling of enjoynt. A little while later, when I was already back in the shallows, Sigurd’s head popped up to the surface next to mine. We exchanged a quick glance, and I nodded to him to express my gratitude. My bodyguard just smiled and held up a huge lilac brut in his left hand.

* * *

“Maybe you shouldn’t risk it?” Vaira asked, sounding concerned.

Unlike Sigurd and , the fairy was thoroughly frightened by what had just happened. She was standing on the edge of a cliff, scanning the lake anxiously in the hopes of spotting another monster.

“I’m positive that was the only one,” Sigurd answered her. “There’s so much blood in that water, and I haven’t spotted any movent at all.”

Sigurd and I were sitting on the stone shore of the lake with our backs to the sun. I had just suggested that we dive in one more ti and check out the shadow beast’s lair. My bodyguard was in full agreent. Vaira, however, was trying to talk out of it.

“Maybe we could keep looking for the chanism elsewhere?” She tried again.

“I already found it,” I repeated once again. “It’s not supposed to be opened without a special artifact of so kind. But there’s a chance that we might be able to find a way to the area behind the waterfall through the beast’s den. That monster might have lived in the water, but judging by those legs it also had the ability to climb out onto dry land. And that ans there had to be a cave sowhere back there. Besides, the mages would have had to feed it sohow. And I really doubt they would have wanted to activate the trap every single ti. And anyway, Sigurd’s right: there are no more predators in there. Otherwise they’d be feasting down on the bottom right now. By the way, remind to tell Leo and the others to retrieve that carcass. And let’s leave the subject there for now.”

I nodded at the lake and asked Sigurd:

“Ready?”

He replied with a silent nod, and we both stood up.

This ti, I brought a dagger with (a trophy from one of the Scarlets’ strykers), and Sigurd and I dove back into the lake.

We swam down to the edge of the opening from which the shadow beast had first erged, guarding each other’s backs the entire ti. With a quick exchange of glances and gestures, I swam in first, as we had agreed.

Inside the opening was a long, straight tunnel leading upward that had been carved into the living rock of the cliff. I was afraid to even imagine how much effort the artificers must have expended to build such a trap. Or maybe, I thought, there was sothing else here in ancient tis?

It all seems weird sohow... Expending so much effort just to set up a single shadow crocodile in here. Although maybe, if they were keeping sothing even more dangerous than that in here at so point, it would have been worth the effort.

The passage was short, and after about a minute we popped up into a small cave. This was the beast’s lair.

It wasn’t dark inside. There was dim light filtering in from sowhere up above.

The nauseating sll of rot slamd into our nostrils the second we stepped ashore. Everywhere we looked, the ground was covered with bones and scraps of rotting flesh. Most of the bones were obviously human. The mages were feeding this guard with human flesh. And it didn’t look like they were keeping it on a light diet either. Although actually, considering what had happened in the citadel over the preceding few months, there would have been plenty of corpses...

By my estimate, the cave was slightly to the left of the waterfall. And slightly deeper. I was sure that the emptiness Vaira had felt was coming from a different source.

The opening the mages were using to feed their pet was located several yards above the floor of the cave. It wasn’t hard for Sigurd and I to reach it — nor was it hard for us to break through the steel grate covering the passage. Within a few minutes we were standing inside a pretty wide corridor, whose walls were equipped with rings to hold torches.

I switched to true vision and scanned the walls, but this didn’t reveal anything.

“It seems like this is designed for one-way traffic,” I remarked quietly as I pointed down into the tunnel.

“Agreed,” Sigurd replied as we set off walking.

We didn’t have far to go. The tunnel led us to a wide stone door, behind which we could hear the sound of falling water. Just to the right of the door, at about chest height, there was a lever made of shadow steel. And nothing else. No magical chanisms, and no energy structures that my scanning could detect. Just a normal, analog lever.

Sigurd and I looked at each other. Then, with a nod, we prepared for battle.

I pulled the lever. With so tallic sounds from inside the wall, the stone door slowly slid to the right. Wow, I thought... That’s it? Although to be fair, it actually makes a lot of sense. Why would they waste precious resources and energy on impeding movent for people who were already inside the cave? After all, there simply wasn’t enough mana to pump it into every chanism. Sealing the entrance itself, of course, was another story.

Continuing to scan the walls, ceiling, and floor of the cave intently, I stepped carefully over the threshold. After taking a few steps, though, I had to stop and just look around with satisfaction at the space in front of . We found ourselves in a large, elongated cave that was filled with chests of all shapes and sizes, as well as various cases, barrels, and shelves laden with artifacts, dishware, and weapons.

I turned around. Sigurd, who could see perfectly well despite the darkness, was standing behind , mouth half-open in amazent as he stared in awe at the mountains of wealth in front of us.

He sensed looking at him and turned to look at , and we both broke into smiles at the sa ti.