Spiteful Healer-Chapter 194: The Silver Garden

“Oh god. I thought airships were bad, this is way worse.” Artaphernes’ stomach gurgled violently as he desperately clasped his arms around Aegis while Snowflake soared upwards towards the clouds, flapping his majestic gryphon wings furiously and jerking them side to side.

“You better not throw up on me, or I’m pushing you off.” Aegis shouted back to him. Their voices were barely audible over the sounds of the winds rushing past them, the air quickly getting colder the higher they got. “Don’t try to pass through the cloud, it’s probably not a cloud.” Aegis said to Snowflake as they closed in on the suspiciously still small cloud of white fluff, and got a squawk response from Snowflake.

The cloud, which appeared small from below on the airship, got larger and larger the closer they got to it, and it was much further away than Aegis had anticipated. But eventually, after a long few minutes of flying straight up, Snowflake crested over the side of it.

The moment Aegis could see above the cloud, his illusion theory was confirmed. While from below, it had looked like a simple cloud in the sky, when viewed from the sides and above it was clear that the island was as solid as the island of Kalmoore. Large chunks of earth that were jutting out with the roots of plants extending through the soil and earth and hanging down over the open skies had all become visible to Aegis, Artaphernes, and Snowflake.

The top of the island was a lush green flat stretch of land. The vegetation present was beautiful, the grass blades were all cut to a uniform height and the flowers grew in patches, grouped together based on their colors, while several fruit trees could be seen intermittently, standing tall amongst the flower patches.

The most eye-catching feature of the island, however, was a large dark gray stone structure at the center of it. The architectural style of the building immediately reminded Aegis of Hrath’mir, but it wasn’t in ruins - it stood in pristine condition. It was circular, and wide, but only three stories tall with very few square windows built into the upper floors. The bottom floor had a large paved and raised patio built in a circle around the towers base with several short but wide staircases leading up from the grass onto the patio. Flowers were growing around the base of the patio wherever there weren’t stairs.

At the top of one set of stairs in particular, on the side of the tower to the left from Aegis’ point of view, was a large archway with a stone door leading inside the tower. The door was currently sealed shut and had two statues flanking it, depicting draconic humanoid figures. In addition to the statues there were numerous other engravings and decorations all about the structure, giving it a very majestic and elegant aesthetic.

Snowflake carefully landed on the edge of the island where Artaphernes quickly stumbled off of the gryphon and began dry heaving.

“You gonna be okay?” Aegis eyed him with slight concern, while Snowflake glanced at him and let out a mocking screech as if laughing at him.

“Yeah, heh, just, need a moment.” Artaphernes replied between his heavy breaths, throwing his hands on his knees.

“Whoa!” Yorgi called out excitedly, coming up over the side of the island a moment later with his fly spell and landing beside the others. “Look! Dragon statues! This has got to be it!” Yorgi frantically pointed at the statues, practically jumping with joy.

“Yep. You mind going to pick up the dwarf real quick?” Aegis asked Snowflake, and he gave a squawking nod back before hopping off the island, beginning his flight back to the airship.

“He’s really fast.” Yorgi commented as he followed Snowflake’s movements with his eyes. Aegis just nodded back, glancing between his two odd companions before going back to carefully looking over the sky island.

“As weird as it sounds, I wasn’t expecting to find sky islands in a game based on sky islands.” Artaphernes said once he’d finally collected himself. “I mean, it’s a bit redundant, isn’t it?”

“I’ve heard there’s tons of islands still floating around between the major ones, waiting to be explored. Holding ancient dungeons and treasures within them.” Yorgi replied. From there, the group quietly looked over their surroundings, waiting for Snowflake’s return.

Once he did return though, he had two passengers instead of one. Tullan was accompanied by an eager eyed Leonard on Snowflake’s back as Snowflake lightly landed on the ground near the others.

“Whew! What a ride! I’ve gotta get me one of those!” Leonard cheered while excitedly ruffling Snowflake’s feathers.

“Who’s watching the ship?” Aegis asked him with a raised eyebrow.

“Gregory, along with the set of new, very expensive traps and defensive enchantments I had installed since the incident. It’s fine. You can’t expect me to miss out on exploring a sky island, can you?” Leonard motioned excitedly to the land in front of them.

“He wouldn’t take no fer an answer.” Tullan shrugged reluctantly as he hopped off of Snowflake. “So what do we got?”

“This isn’t just any island, it’s a garden.” Aegis said while kneeling down and running his fingers over the grass. “It’s well tended to. Every plant and tree is pruned and grown with a purpose. Someone’s been taking care of this place.” Aegis declared to the others, which immediately made them all tense.

“You think that someone is home?” Leonard asked excitedly.

“You think that someone is a Silver Dragon?” Yorgi asked, equally excited.

“Only one way to find out…” Aegis replied before taking the first steps forward onto the island, towards the tower.

“You’re just going to walk up to the tower? And do what, knock?” Artaphernes asked.

“Well, I’d send a stealthy class player forward first, but,” Aegis shrugged as he eyed the others, getting a few shrugs back as they all followed him. “Don’t mess with any of the plants or fruits, even if they look delicious. We want to try and make a good impression.” Aegis said while eying a strange looking blue apple-like fruit growing from a nearby tree.

Snowflake was the first to follow, but shortly after the others came along as well. As the group neared the stairs leading up to the outer patio of the tower, they heard the loud rushing wind blowing around them, creating waves of movement through the grass, flowers and trees. It was incredibly serene and peaceful, undisturbed by players or monsters.

The moment Aegis took the first steps up the stairs and arrived on the patio, it went suddenly very still, however.

“Stop.” Aegis held his hand up to hold them back, the rest halting at the base of the stairs. Looking around, Aegis was able to confirm that somehow, all of the wind around them had suddenly completely disappeared. Aegis heard the sound of Artaphernes readying his spear, but after that, it was deathly silent for a long few moments. The silence was finally broken by the sounds of talons tapping on the stone patio, as a figure appeared from the shadows of one of the dragon statues.

It was a tall male silverscale wearing dark gray, plain cloth robes, wielding a glaive at his side. He was bald, with scales growing over the top of his head, shoulders, and down his arms. His feet were bare and looked like a reptiles rather than a humans. In addition, on his head he had long pointed ears that were accompanied by a pair of small horns protruding out of his forehead, and [Ysil’atrilios(Elite) - 157] hovered above him.

Behind Aegis, Artaphernes had already drawn his spear out and pointed in the NPC's direction, ready to strike.

“It has been many years since a mortal has stepped foot in this garden. Why have you come here?” Ysil’atrilios asked while slowly walking to position himself in front of the large stone doors between the statues, eying Artaphernes' spear cautiously.

“We just want to talk. We're not here to fight.” Aegis replied while motioning Artaphernes to lower his spear.

“I have been warned of your kind. Otherworlders. Deceptive, cunning, and violent. Have you come to slay my mother and claim her treasure?” Ysil’atrillios replied while tightening the grip on his glaive.

“No, nothing like that." Aegis quickly waved this off with a hand gesture, "Eirene sent me here. I’m a Shattered Healer. She told me to find the Silver Dragons. Your mother, she’s one of them, isn’t she? Ysil… what was it…” Aegis scratched his head trying to remember. “Ysil’mareina, right? I’ve met her.” Aegis explained.

“I doubt that a mortal as young as yourself has met her, given her current state. Can you prove yourself?” He replied calmly, turning his eyes onto Aegis and raising his eyebrows curiously while Snowflake lowered his head and glared at him. Yorgi and Leonard, however, had big dumb grins on their faces as they watched the exchange unfold.

“Look. Vestments of Eirene, and the shield. Isn’t this proof I serve her, the god of peace and love?” Aegis replied.

“Easily faked, you could hand those objects over to your companions and they could make the same claims.” He replied.

“Okay… How about this then.” Aegis took a deep breath. “Avatar of Eirene!” Aegis cast, erupting in a burst of glowing white light.

“Kind of a waste of a cooldown…” Artaphernes grumbled disapprovingly as he saw the light. However, it was working. Ysil’atrilios’ eyes went wide with disbelief upon seeing Aegis’ avatar spell activate.

“You are telling the truth…” he spoke slowly. Following his words he bowed his head down towards Aegis respectfully. “I apologize for doubting you. Please. Save my mother.”

“I’ll try, but, first you have to lead us to her.” Aegis replied.

“Yes, of course.” He nodded, “Follow me, she is inside.” He motioned towards the large stone doors behind him. The rest followed him with their eyes before turning to Aegis and waiting for him to take the lead.

“Oooh, so exciting!” Leonard whispered with glee, rubbing his hands together. When Ysil’atrilios reached the doors, he placed his hand on a circle engraved on the center while Aegis overheard Yorgi mumbling something about ancient text. There were runes carved into the stone door all over the place, and the moment Ysil’atrilios’ hand touched the circle, all of the runes began to glow blue.

A moment later, the stone doors made a violently loud grinding sound as they scraped the floor and slowly opened, giving view to the interior of the tower. As they opened, Aegis’ marveled at the sheer size of the doors, but once opened was surprised at the simple interior.

It wasn’t much of a tower, but rather a single giant chamber with no upper floors. Once the door had been opened, Aegis could see all the way up to the ceiling, including all of the windows that allowed the sunlight to shine in and illuminate the interior.

The ground floor appeared to be a nest, covered in large branches, leaves, rocks, dirt, and other ropes and vines tangled together. At the center of the nest, eyes closed, was a gigantic, silver scaled dragon with retracted wings on it's back. [Ysil’mareina, The Silver Dragon(Elite) - ??] stood above her head, and Aegis immediately recognized her as the exact same dragon he’d encountered and spoke to back in Hrath’mir, with some signs of aging on her scales being the only difference.

She was breathing heavily, as if in pain. Despite her eyes being closed, a black mist was seeping out between her eyelids. She was otherwise curled up into a ball with her tail wrapped around herself, and there were several large eggs resting within her clutches, under her guard as they remained unhatched.

“Those talons are massive…” Leonard whispered as he looked upon her beauty.

“Look at those scales…” Yorgi commented.

“I’m too busy lookin’ at the teeth.” Tullan replied.

“She is not an object to be observed and marvelled at. She is my mother, and she is in pain.” Ysil’atrilios’ replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

“What’s wrong with her?” Aegis asked as he stepped forward.

“The darkness... It followed her here from Hrath’mir, attempting to consume her mind and take control of her heart. She fought it long enough to lay several eggs, like myself, but that took the last of her remaining strength. Once I hatched, she lost control… To prevent herself from fully being consumed by the darkness, she cast a spell on herself to place her in a deep slumber. She asked me to watch over her, until the day that one who walks with light could cleanse the darkness from her heart.” Ysil’atrilios explained, and once he’d finished, Aegis got a quest completed message.

“I believe you are the one she’s been waiting for. Please, enter her dreams and cleanse the darkness that resides within her, using your light, so that she may wake.”

Quest[2/6]: Using the light of Eirene, enter Ysil’mariena’s deep slumber and cleanse the darkness that is lurking within her heart.

Objective: 0/1 Destroy the Darkness within Ysil’mariena

Quest Giver: Ysil’atrilios, The Silver Garden, Kalmoore

Reward: Advanced Class: (Unknown)

Difficulty:Extreme(III)

Restriction: Ysil’mariena must survive.

“It’s part of my advanced class quest chain…” Aegis explained to the others as he hit accept.

“But if yeh complete it, she’ll wake up and we can ask her to breath on our eternal flame?” Tullan replied hopefully.

“Yeah, I think so…” Aegis replied with little to no confidence.

“Thaz perfect, two birds with one stone!” Tullan cheered, but Artaphernes picked up on Aegis’ dread.

“What’s the difficulty?” Artaphernes asked.

“Extreme three…”

“Sorry, I think I heard you wrong, did you say Extreme three?” Leonard shouted in disbelief.

“Hah! R.I.P.” Artaphernes rolled his eyes.

“Damn it.” Tullan groaned.

“Guys, guys, it’s Aegis we’re talking about, right? He’ll handle this no problem. It’s a quest chain anyway, right? So maybe this isn’t the hard part of the chain?” Yorgi replied with enthusiasm. “Don’t worry, Aegis, you got this!” Yorgi encouraged him with a pair of thumbs up.

“Right. Thanks.” Aegis sighed as he eyed his viewership shooting up to 500,000 again. “I’ll have to go into her dreams, will you guys be okay out here?” Aegis asked.

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep things under control.” Artaphernes nodded back.

“You sure? The last time I went into a quest like this, the island I was on got invaded.” Aegis eyed Artaphernes.

“Oh c’mon, what are the chances of that happening twice?” Leonard chuckled, but following his words, it got incredibly silent as they all began glancing anxiously at one another.

“Just try to finish the damn quest fast, alright?” Tullan nudged him forward towards the sleeping dragon.

“Yeah.” Aegis nodded as he used the momentum from Tullan’s nudge to continue forward, stepping into the nest. The twigs and branches of the nest cracked, snapped and crunched under his feet as he walked forward, and a small part of him was worried the noise would wake the dragon. He sucked it up though, and continued forward cautiously with his avatar spell still active. Her body was larger than he remembered, and each breath of air she took in through her large draconic nostrils caused her large stomach to rise up and shrink back down in an intimidating fashion.

With great care and several nervous glances backwards, Aegis reached the head of the slumbering dragon. He gently and carefully placed his hands on her snout, hoping it would be enough to trigger something. Luckily for him, it was, and he felt a surreal sucking motion as everything around him faded to black, and he was transported to another location.

Entering Unique Dungeon: Ysil’mareina’s Heart

Dungeon Option 1: Avatar of Eirene’s duration has been extended indefinitely while within the dungeon.

Aegis could feel his feet were still in contact with the ground, but he could no longer see it. He stood completely still while in complete darkness for a few moments, expecting for the world to ‘load in’ around him, but after waiting an uncomfortably long time, Aegis decide instead to try moving.

He took a step forward and heard the sound of water. Looking down, he saw now that the glowing light of his avatar form was allowing him to see his reflection on the surface of the floor. It wasn’t actually a floor, though - he was standing on black water as if it was a solid object. When he put his foot back down, it sent out ripples, but he wasn’t able to penetrate the surface of the water with his foot.

Intrigued, Aegis took a few more steps to create more ripples with his feet playfully, until he reminded himself he had a task to complete. He began looking around in all directions for something, anything at all. By spinning his head around, he confirmed that there was nothing but darkness all around him. No sound, save for the that of his feet tapping the top of the water.

“Aura of light.” Aegis cast calmly, causing a dome of light to explode out from his avatar-encased body. As the dome grew and illuminated his surroundings, he immediately saw it burning away black mist. He hadn’t realized it, but the entire area around him was covered in a thick, dense cloud of it.

Even the water beneath his feet became clear thanks to the aura, allowing him to see deeper into it. He panned his eyes around the room with the mist cleared, hoping to now spot something, but it wasn’t until he looked down into the water below him that he spotted it.

Ysil’mareina, in her humanoid silver scale form, was floating in a laying down position facing Aegi in the water several meters below. Her arms were spread wide, and her hair split into strands, floating in a still, stasis-like state. More concerning, though, were swirls of darkness that continuously wrapped and writhed around her body within the water. Her eyes were closed, but wincing in pain as if fighting it back.

“Ysil’mareina, can you hear me?” Aegis shouted down into the water.

“She is mine. I HAVE CLAIMED HER!” A loud voice screeched at Aegis from the edge of his aura of light, and a second later, a creature began crawling into the aura along the surface of the water.

The creature had five legs, and a central body like that of a short, thick worm. But the legs were abnormal, they continuously formed out of black mist to maneuver the creature forward, then retracted back into its shadowy torso as if they had never existed, then extended out again from a new location. Aegis had to assume it only had five limbs, as that was the maximum he saw extend out of the body at once.

On the front of it, it had a single red eye and an open mouth which emitted a deep red light, visible only in between the violent chomping motions the creature made with its sharp, jagged shaped mouth. [Fragment of Fear(Elite) - Level 150] stood above its head.

“I’m guessing you’re the darkness.” Aegis mumbled to himself as he fastened his shield tightly to his left arm. It responded by letting out a horrific, high pitched screech that deafened Aegis momentarily, and in the moment he’d flinched from the sound it suddenly increased its odd movement speed to reach him.

A meter away, it suddenly stood upright and began scratching out at him with its limbs randomly appearing in different spots on its worm-like torso. Aegis jumped backwards to dodge the first few strikes - it was incredibly difficult to predict the attacks based on the nature of how the creature’s limbs were being repeatedly created and destroyed with each attack.

“Run away. It’s coming!” The creature suddenly screeched, the mouth from which it spoke had appearing on one of its arms as it struck out at Aegis. The voice sounded like a terrified male. “Hide. It can’t find us here.” A new voice called out from another mouth, this time female.

“Daddy? Why is that statue moving?” A little boys voice spoke. “It won’t let go, help! Please! Someone, help!” Another man’s voice spoke. During this dialogue, Aegis got hit by the arm that had the speaking mouth on it. He was able to brace it, but his vision suddenly flashed with a scene of the creature he was fighting devouring a humanoid male NPC, swallowing it in darkness as he said the same words that the mouth was saying.

You take 13,576 Shadow damage.

“Shit.” Aegis jumped back quickly to create distance between himself and the creature. “You’re mimicking the voices of NPCs you’ve killed?”

“LAST. WORDS?” The creature screamed at him excitedly, lunging at him in pursuit. Chills went down Aegis’ spine at the sound of the scraping, heaving sound that the creature spoke with this time. However, that hint of fear that entered Aegis seemed to empower it further.

“Fuck.” Aegis realized it too late as he watched it start using a sixth limb. “Didn’t have the pleasure of fighting you in Hrath’mir.” He sighed in frustration.

“Don't worry, it won't find us in here.” A little girl's voice whispered from his next strike, as the creature completely ignored Aegis’ words and continued to swipe out at him with its black misty claws.

“Smite!” Aegis shot out a bolt of holy energy at it as he dodged the next strike, watching as the spell shot out from his hand and pierced into the creature's body, dealing 0 damage. “What? No damage?”

“I CAN’T STOP IT! OH GOD IT’S EATING ME!” A woman’s voice screeched from another mouth that appeared. “What was that? Did you hear something?” An old man’s voice asked from the next strike. The voices were quickly getting to Aegis, as despite them sounding human there was a slight scratching sound added to them, compliments of the creature’s artificial mouths it was repeatedly creating on its body using the black mist it was made out of.

It wouldn’t stop attacking, giving Aegis no time to think. It was relentless, and despite Aegis knowing it was a game, the voices were freaking him out. He watched the creature grow in size as he continued to dodge, trying to think. As the thought of failing entered his mind, knowing that this dungeon wouldn’t reset like Hrath’mir, it triggered the creature to start utilizing 7 limbs.

“C’mon Aegis!” He shouted at himself. “You’re just making it worse. Think!” He yelled at himself to try and snap himself out of it.

“Did you hear that? I think I just heard something moving!” A young boy's voice asked him as an arm swiped at him.

“You’re feeding off of fear. But, you already had 5 arms when I got in here. What am I afraid of? What was I afraid of? I have to stop being afraid. Come on.” Aegis tried to psych himself up. Without having to think it himself, an image of Quinn’s crying face appeared on the surface of the creature’s body.

“They’re just playing with us.” Quinn’s voice spoke. Then, from the creature’s main mouth on the top of its body, the red light shot out as it opened its jagged jaws. “YOU WILL FAIL. IT WILL FALL. CONSUMED BY SHADOW.” It screeched in its high pitched voice, followed by a wheezing cackle. All while doing this, it relentlessly attacked, giving Aegis no time to breath or think as he repeatedly dodged the strikes by jumping backwards. Slowly, he was being pushed further and further away from the submerged Ysil’mareina.

Seeing Quinn’s face, however, had the opposite effect that creature was hoping for. Aegis took a deep breath, and stopped stepping backwards, raising up his shield.

“People coming after me and the people I care about doesn't make me afraid. It pisses me off.” Aegis glared at the creature. It made several more mimicking cries, but Aegis ignored them, bashing out at the beast that imitated Quinn’s moment of weakness. He dealt no damage, but knocked it back and forced it to utilize its limbs to maintain its balance rather than attack.

Seeing this, Aegins continued his assault, bashing his shield into the creature while dodging its strikes, and he quickly saw the number of limbs it was utilizing quickly dwindled. After a few more strikes, the creature began to stumble and cower backward, only one limb remaining, it began attempting to crawl away from Aegis.

“I’ve got nothing to fear. Why are you still here?” Aegis asked it, but it didn’t reply. Instead, Aegis answered his own question as he looked down in the water and saw the darkness still writhing around Ysil’mareina.

“Ysil’mraeina. Whatever you are afraid of, you don’t need to fear it anymore. Eirene is here.” Aegis tried calling out to her, and as he watched her face, he saw the wincing expression fade, jerking her head in his direction as if listening, but eyes still not opening. From that, Aegis knew that what ever he had said wasn’t enough. “The Avatar of Eirene is here. You gotta wake up. It’s time to get rid of the darkness of this shattered world. To find and bring all of the Silver dragons back together.” Aegis tried, not sure which words would get a reaction. “To fix the shattered world, to beat the Avatars of Darkness. You don’t need to be afraid. We can do it together.”

Aegis spouted everything that came to mind, and one of those lines seemed to work. Aegis wasn’t sure which one it was, but was relieved to see the fragment of fear begin withering and collapsing into itself while letting out one final screeching sound. Simultaneously, Ysil’mareina’s eyes opened, and the writhing shadows around her body dissipated. Slowly, Aegis watched as her body began to float to the surface until she broke out of it and hovered out of the water, standing upright in front of Aegis.

“You feel familiar, yet I have never seen your face before…” Ysil’mareina said in a soft, kind voice.

“I was in Hrath’mir… at least, Eirene showed me what it was like to be there. I rode with you and the other dragons.” Aegis explained.

“Ah, I see. Eirene must have allowed you to view those events through the eyes of the High Priest of Hrath’mir. It is he who rode with us on that fateful day. Unfortunately, in our escape, a fragment of darkness latched onto my body and brought me to this state. Thank you for releasing me of my fears.” She smiled. “Come, let us leave this place. I have been asleep for far too long, and we have much to discuss.” She spoke while waving her hands, a light glow on her fingertips.

An instant later, Aegis felt the odd sucking motion as his vision flashed blank, not unlike when loading up the simulation. A moment after that he found himself once again in front of Ysil’mareina’s real dragon body, with his hand on her snout, and immediately pulled his hand away.

“Whoa, you did it?” Leonard asked.

“No way, that was too quick.” Artaphernes shook his head in disbelief, but a moment later his jaw dropped as the group, including Ysil’atrilios, watched Ysil’mareina’s eyes open, and her head rise up off the ground.

Quest Complete!

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