A/N: I changed the design of Dawnbreaker to a long sword, because I like it.
A longsword.
A golden longsword that seemed to irradiate an almost holy light that soothed the innocent and brought fear of god in the heart of evil.
Such a sword, from an entity Wilhelm had never heard about, had been left in his hand.
When the light subsided, Wilhelm remained in place, unsure how to proceed.
"What…was that?"
He spoke as he collapsed on the ground, taking support from the wall as he did so. He was not tired physically, but mentally, what he had witnessed shook him to his very core.
Taking a large amount of air that stank of blood, he tried to think clearly.
'Okay, I knew Gods existed with Thor and all, but I can confidently say he does not compare to Meridia, and I have not even seen her.' He thought, as he gazed at the sword in his hand that thrummed with light.
'What…should I do?' He asked himself, feeling uncertain for the first time in quite a while. In his uncertainty, he moved his eyes all over the room, until it finally settled on the corpse of Owl, and a memory of an event that happened not very long ago passed through his mind.
'That person that Owl gave that address to. He must be connected in all of this, and whatever it is, I need to stop him from succeeding.' Wilhelm decided that, as he gave himself a task, he could recover from the experience that he had been part of.
As he got up, he looked towards the altar where the scepter with the black gem was.
'Meridia said that this sword can purify the impure, then maybe I can purify whatever this is. Leaving it here does not sound exactly like a good idea.'
Deciding this, he raised the Dawnbreaker and brought it near the scepter's black gem, whose darkness that was dancing like smoke moments ago, seemed to almost recoil as the sword was brought closer and started to collapse into the gem, making it look denser, almost like a shadow.
Then, when the flat side of the blade touched the gem…
*SSSSSSS*
…with a sizzling sound, the darkness seemed to boil and started to become erratic, but the sword subdued it all, leaving behind a scepter that now had a pure blue gem with a golden shaft.
'Huh, so this bastard had corrupted this scepter as well? I almost thought that was its true form. Now, since it is all done, I might as well keep it.' He thought, as his collector's instinct kicked in, which helped him out of the state of mind that he had been in earlier.
Reaching out, Wilhelm touched the scepter and felt the glow of the blue gem increase in intensity a bit. Not enough to drown the room in light like the Dawnbreaker previously had, but noticeable enough.
Not only that.
'It looks like it was chosen for this ritual for a reason.
The magic it is providing me is off the charts. Almost comparable to this sword, and I can…I can almost feel the mana…as it is.'
Wilhelm thought as his breath quickened the longer he held the staff, but to calm down, he quickly snapped out of the daze the staff had put him into and took deep breaths.
One.
Two.
…
Seven.
After he calmed down, he quickly took out one more sheath and a semi-sheath for sword and staff, respectively, placing the former by his waist and the latter on his back.
He shook them a bit after fastening them and found them to be steady, and took one last look at the place.
Place where, little did he know, he began his journey towards something greater.
As he reached the door of the establishment, he once again turned invisible and left the place without coming under anyone's radar.
Stepping onto the roof of a nearby building, he closed his eyes as he tried to feel where his other clone was.
'Mmm…there it is!'
He shouted internally as he finally picked up the location of his other half, and teleported there a good distance away to not give himself away if his clone was tailing the person.
*ZOOM*
With a sound that was heard by him alone, he appeared, and as he did so, he noticed his surroundings quickly.
'Is this a cave? A dungeon?'
Wilhelm questioned, seeing the rocky ceiling and the ground looking untouched by human intervention. But all of these thoughts we meaningless at the moment
'No need to waste time thinking. I must reach my clone and find things from him instead.' Wilhelm decided, as he checked once more to confirm that he was indeed still invisible, that he would swiftly make his way to his clone.
As he was doing that, he started to pick up sounds of muffled talks, which seemed to be happening between multiple people, but Wilhelm's target was a seemingly empty spot in the air, where an invisible Wilhelm clone stayed, well aware of his approaching other half.
When the two met, without wasting a single moment in explanation, they merged, still hidden. In a couple of seconds, only one Wilhelm was left, who pieced together what had happened here till now.
The person they had initially tailed behind, after getting the address to this place, had first collected some people who seemed to belong to a part of a certain crew, and then had reached this place.
They did not say what they were looking for, just that it was supposed to be an 'heirloom' or a 'treasure'. Now, they had hit a dead end and were discussing the validity of the information.
"Are you sure that numbskull gave you the correct address?" A man with expensive clothes and black hair asked the man, who was wearing a mask of Crow, many moments before.
Shrugging his shoulder, Crow replied, "Hell if I know. I asked him, and this is the address he gave me."
"And YOU just trusted him?!" The other man shrieked, which caused the other people in the crew to hold their ears with a grimace. At this, Crow bought two fingers in front of him and said in a tone that did not allow any question.
"First, stop shouting like a whore being done in the ass.
Second, look around the place before shouting. Owl is many things, liar is not one of them. This place also does not scream "nothing" to me." Crow said, and without waiting for the rich kid to reply, walked away, and turning to the crew, said.
"Listen here, lads, we scour this place and tap every stone, on wall or on ground. Leave nothing untouched, kay?"
"Yeah."
"Got it."
"Hear, hear."
Such a voice came from the crew as Crow and his men looked around the place. This kept on going on for about an hour, when one of his crew member with loose pants, who was chewing tobacco, walked a bit unsteadily and tapped the wall of the cave with his shovel, that suddenly caused the stone to slid off the wall, that did not attract anyone's attention other than the man himself, because such sounds were resounding from everywhere.
He turned to the sound due to instinct and was about to turn back when he saw something.
'Eh, the wall…it has drawings on it?'
He thought as he squinted closer to the wall, then turned to others in the cave, who were tired due to not finding anything, he shouted, waving his hand.
"Boss, got somethin' her'." He said with a weird accent due to the tobacco in his mouth.
His words caused everyone to stop, and Crow to walk towards him, followed by his employer and his crew.
"Watcha' got there, Marty?" Crow asked, at which Marty coughed a bit and spat the tobacco on the ground. Then he pointed at the wall, and said, "Some strange drawing there. Wat ya call it? Moo-rals?"
"It is murals, Marty."
"Same thin'"
Marty said dismissively as Crow got on his knees and scrutinized the drawing.
'A part of something manmade. It could be what that damn freak led me to.' Crow thought, then he got up and, dusting his pants, said, "Alright, lads, we have to break this rock over the wall. Touch it like you touch your sister-in-law's arse behind your wife's back, eh?"
"Got it."
Similar replies sounded from the crew, who got to breaking the layer of rock over the wall, which fell in some areas more easily compared to others. As it was happening, Crow was standing behind his young, brash, and impatient employer.
"What have got yer' panties in a twist, your high fragileness?"
"Nothing that should concern you?" The person bit back, at which Crow just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Loud and clear."
Saying this, he started to walk towards the wall that was starting to reveal itself, and started to chip in to help as well.
No sooner than 40-50 minutes, they were done breaking the wall, and the final picture represented itself.
"What the hell is this?" One of them muttered, at which Crow, who was scrutinizing the wall, replied, "This is a map."
"A map?" Fragileness said, at which Crow explained with a sigh.
"Yeh, a map to the destination." Then he pointed his finger at the wall and continued to speak.
"This spot here is Scorchrest. See that river there, it used to flow here until it dried decades ago." Then he shifted his finger to another point.
"If that was Scorchrest, then this place must be Brimfold, the place where we are now. Then this place on the map must be Carrison Rise. Used to be a big and only city 'round here, turned into a fortress durin' the war, but is now abandoned because it was destroyed by an attack from the Spade Kingdom.
And near that place is where it says our treasure is. At Sindercliff."
As Crow ended, one of his crew members spoke, "Wait, wasn't there some talk about a dungeon near Carrison Rise?"
At this, Crow added, waving his hand with a dramatic flair, "Right about that one, Jody. There were talks about discovering some dungeon, but none were found. Many thought it to be a rumor by some drunkard.
Now it seems those were not rumors, just that they were looking in the wrong direction. Also, the area near Sindercliff is a desert. Sand must have covered the entrance to the place."
Saying this, Crow turned to Fragileness and asked with a mock bow, "So what is yer plan, your high fragileness?"
Ignoring the nickname, Fragileness replied with impatience, "Then we must go there now. It is what...2-3 hours away from here?"
"8 hours away by carriage, and we will be happy to, with more money, ya know our contract was till here?" Crow replied in a dry tone, which caused everyone in his crew to grin widely at Fragileness, who gritted his teeth, and removing a pouch from his waist, tossed it towards Crow, and said without hiding his frustration.
"Half, you get the other half when the job is done. Now let's go."
"Ya heard him, lads. Let's go." Crow announced, and the crew departed, with Wilhelm, who was hitchhiking, whose mind was throwing all the theories it could think of.
'This place might not be related to that Crow's dealings, or it might be. Let's prepare for the worst one.
I might have to face something related to that Molag Bal.
But there is a good chance it is not related to Molag Bal himself. If I were a cultist like Owl, I would not have given away the location of things related to the subject of my worship to others, but I would have gone to find it myself.
Then I can assume that their employer, who looks too green, is chasing something from his past, that Owl happened to have information about, that he sold in exchange for making Crow do his dirty work.
But then Crow was wearing the clothes of the cultist, so…ARGHH!!!
That previous incident has kept me on edge all the time, and not being in control is grating on my nerves.'
Wilhelm ended massaging his head, while the carriage rocked over the gravel path towards their destination.
***
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