Dante Artorius Inferno
Day 80, Part 1:
For several days we went on our way Knossos Island … As we did not have updated the network of possible TPs, sometimes we walked and others in our Quads … Luckily for us, we were joined by one of the servants of the Pentesílea palace, a young man called Lisandro, who although he was not a warrior, served as our guide …
Finally we arrived at the island, where we could verify that there was a TP … after taking the coordinates in our logs, we went along a path where in the distance we could see a kind of Temple with large columns …
As we approached we observed a large number of warriors, both Entropians and Greeks, waiting for the order of the Haruspex to begin the battle …
I turned to Katalina and looked into her eyes… we’ve been through a lot together, but this time it’s different… We don’t know if the Revives network installed by the First Wave settlers was working properly… or not… It could happen that one of us, or we both really die…
The Haruspex asked for silence, striking the ground with the end of his staff … With an expression of concentration, he began to recite a litany to the gods … then he made a sacrifice to an altar behind him to read the entrails of an animal and later he devoted himself to looking at the sky, trying to read the flight of birds …
When he considered the right moment, he gave the signal… With great war cries, we threw ourselves through the doors of that temple, arms ready and our hearts in a fist in front of the unknown… Prudently, Lisandro stayed outside, wishing us luck …
When we passed the gates, we saw that there was a kind of valley, surrounded by huge mountains and with a construction in the center …
The valley floor was covered by some kind of greenish liquid that reached almost to our knees … we advanced …
And suddenly huge screams began to echo around us … the liquid was a powerful acid against which not all armor was ready … some began to smoke and melt, and their owners tried to flee to the exit screaming and covered with horrible burns … A third of us died on the spot or fled in terror…
Regarding us, the priest of Thebes was right: Be it by the “gods” or whatever, we were protected against the acid … The survivors formed a circle, vigilant, as we advanced to the center of the valley …
Around us the acid began to ripple … there was something under there that seemed to be surrounding us … the ripple of liquid began to swirl violently and …
… Huge waves covered us while from the bottom of that lake came a species of huge snakes, with large fangs, looking at us with their cold eyes… Someone said they were the Daurdamour, the Servants of the Gorgon …
We did not say anything else: As professional warriors that we were, we all set out to sell our lives dearly … We shot, slashed, killed those beings while they raised waves of acid that they threw on us, making our work difficult …
As we were killing those beings, others appeared, increasing their number while ours decreased … Katalina and I fought back to back while our Viceroys held out as best they could … Sometimes one covered the other while he healed … if this lasted too long, we all went to die…
Suddenly, it seemed that there were fewer snakes … someone said that no more of those beings were appearing and, finally, with a last shot, someone killed the last animal …
There were only a dozen warriors left wounded, exhausted, battered, panting …… we looked around … dozens and dozens of snake corpses appeared around us … someone started laughing, and that nervous laugh spread among all of us: We had survived those demons …
And yet we still hadn’t seen the Gorgon Medusa … Where was she? What did fate still have in store for us?
Dante Artorius Inferno
Day 80, Part 2:
Once we recovered a bit, the survivors went into that lake of acid … we went to the strange construction that was in the center.
As we got closer we saw something disturbing: a multitude of stone statues of various beings: Minotaurs, Cyclops and human forms … who would want to put decorative statues in such a hell?
They were not decorative… I approached one of them whose shape was familiar to me … it seemed to be wearing entropian armor, and it carried a sword that Katalina was familiar with: it was the sword that she loaned to MrKaneki … and that stone statue was him … sad end for a great warrior, will always be remembered…
He undoubtedly tried to confront the Medusa, and this she petrified him … we were seeing beings that had ventured into that place and had ended up turned into statues … and now we were there …
At last we approached that small temple … the door showed a lock, of which we had no key … we looked at each other … someone drew a sword and inserted it between the door and the jamb, leveraging it to try to open it, and …
A kind of very white light illuminated him… the warrior looked at himself surprised, while strange light waves were dyeing his skin gray … but it was not the light, it was that the color of the guy was being gray … he looked at us puzzled while his skin changed to a grainy texture … and suddenly, just in a moment, he had become a statue, immobilized in the posture he had held in those last seconds … and his gaze, lost beyond our sight, made us turn that head address, and …
A hideous being from a nightmare stood barely a hundred meters from us … A kind of greenish mermaid, but not with a fish tail, but a snake … the torso of a woman, and hands with nails like those of a bird of prey … and his face … although it showed signs of a former beauty, his fangs and steely gaze chilled our blood … finally, as if with a life of its own, a serpentine hair twisted on his head, hissing, looking at us … it was the Gorgon Medusa …
There was no time to lose … as the being crept closer, we advanced towards him, displaying all our firepower … It became evident that his attention would have to be divided, since if we were all together, we would end up as a beautiful “sculptural group ”.
We deployed in a circle around the Gorgon and began the attack … I did not lose sight of Katalina, nor she of me, but we had to be focused avoiding the attacks that came to us …
With its enormous tail, it raised waves of acid, and its strong nails scratched the armor, but worst, its gaze … although our continuous movement made it difficult to focus, it managed to take advantage of small moments of weakness of some of us, either for a pause to use the healing chips, well for recovering from one of the attacks … the fact is that in a few minutes, five more statues joined that museum of horrors …
Distilling green icor from her wounds, the Gorgon fiercely defended herself … when we saw her eyes shine we had to move quickly and seek refuge behind the statues that were once our battle companions, or behind the corpses of the daurdamour that filled the lake …
Slowly but inexorably, we fell one by one … The continuous firing of chips, plasma weapons and swords had weakened the being, which stuck one of its hands on the ground, panting … that gave us a break … there were only three warriors left standing …
Katalina and I looked at each other… we were tired and injured, but still alive… the third warrior wore a cracked armor that could have been beautiful and strong in another time, but now it needed an urgent repair… he tried to rebuild one of his plates a little, and that pause was perceived by the Medusa …
She raised her head and fixed her gaze on him … When the warrior looked up it was already late: he was correctly focused and in a few seconds it became another stone monument …
It was the perfect opportunity: Katalina jumped to the left side with her Cryogenic nanochip 9, and I ran to the right side picking up an amplified BC-55 Armatrix from one of the fallen warriors from the ground… the famous triangle formation that Katalina and I practiced hunting kerberos years ago …
Simultaneously we unloaded our weapons shot after shot … we saw how the Gorgon made jerky movements and, suddenly, her snake hair stopped moving … she stood still for a second and, like a tree cut at the base, fell backwards while her tail moved in a last reflex act …
Suddenly, our Rare Loot Indicators blinked and flashed around us in a golden swirl.
Not only had we finished with the Gorgon, but she kept something else … something that she supposed would make us rich …
Dante Artorius Inferno
Day 80, Part 3:
Katalina and me looked at each other panting … we had defeated that demon, and now we had to look for the Rare Loot that that being possessed…
It turned out to be a silver key that was attached to a chain around his neck… We imagined it belonged to the door of the strange construction that was in the center of the lake… we headed there…
Sure enough, the door opened with a creak of the hinges and when our flashlights lit the interior we perceived something that no human had seen:
A lot of beautifully made pieces of F armor… there were several sets, and unfortunately only one M helmet… what are we going to do, I’ll keep the helmet and we will also have several sets of F armor… Katalina will keep one set and we will sell the rest…
Our L.A.R.A. were loaded with all that material as we went out through the door that led to the exit of the valley… Lisandro was at the door, crying and contrite, thinking that we had died… around were crowded the warriors who had been revived, the wounded, those who had fled or they didn’t have acid protective armor… We were hailed as heroes while the armor provoked all kinds of exclamations…
Suddenly a guy came up to us… he told us that he was a blacksmith, and that he had been looking at the armor… he thought it could be improved. We showed him the pieces and he quickly knew what to do.
According to him, using Daurdamour’s fangs and some crafted materials and pieces, the armor could be improved by combining these materials with the metals of several sets… that is, there would be a single set, but totally improved and perfected …
He is seeing that in the end there will only be one armor left, and Katalina will want to keep it … goodbye to profits …
We shared the work: Katalina went back to the lake of acid to pluck fangs and scales from the dead snakes while Lisandro and I went to get the materials to craft the metal plates…
The trip was short: there was a direct TP, but the area was PVP Lootable… Lisandro and me were careful, looking in all directions…
Our finders found the necessary materials .. Lisandro walked about 100 meters away looking for his probe while I proceeded to use my RE-103…
Suddenly, the ground opened under my probe, and I fell a couple of meters into the hole… hell, thank god it wasn’t deep… I heard footsteps approaching… it would certainly be Lisandro.
-I told you that one day you would end up in the PVP zone and I would take your materials and helmet…
The Resa !!! That damn guy I ran into that day near Kamba Outpost and who started this whole journey… I looked up and saw him cocking the gun and getting ready to shoot.
A huge rock of lysterium hit the helmet of the Resa: Lisandro showed great aim… taking advantage of that fleeting moment in which the Resa was momentarily confused, I jumped up on the edge of the pit and, with a single movement, took out my old S.I. Knife from the boot and opened on channel to Resa… with a look of stupor, he collapsed at my feet…
Lisandro approached worried… good boy, he saved my life… We loaded the L.A.R.A. and we ran out of there, fearing that the Resa would end up in a nearby Revive and return in search of revenge.
We jumped to the TP straight to Thebes Market, to go to the craft machine… I can’t believe it!!! the guy with the alien head is there again, crafting a huge pile of materials… and behind him, a long line of people waiting.
There was no time, so I pushed the alien-headed aside with a tremendous push under the astonished gaze of the rest of the people in the queue and I started to craft the necessary materials… those in the queue, observing my armor with signs of a recent battle, the bloodstains and my weapons, they were wise and decided to wait for me to finish…
About 30 minutes later I landed at the temple of Knossos, where Katalina was with Daurdamour’s scales and fangs and the blacksmith preparing her work tools…
With her strong hands holding the tools, she began to shape the pieces, melting, inserting the fangs and scales, heating and reheating, hammering…
A few hours later, a beautiful perfected F-armor was ready, and it didn’t take Katalina five minutes to put it on… she looked like a goddess from Olympus…
What does it matter if I don’t have a profit… I am satisfied with the adventure that I have lived, the M helmet that from today will cover me and have as a companion a beauty that with that armor would rival the same goddess Athena…
Surely more adventures await us here in Greece, or on Next Island… there is much to discover, many areas to explore and, above all, many businesses to do…