The First Illusion

Russel spun on his heel, turning to face the voice. He saw a hideous creature that had the body of a bull, but could speak and walk like a man. It had red eyes and dark blue skin and held a large sword and shield.

"Why are you here!?" It repeated

"I got transported here. Where am I?" Russel asked.

"You are in my castle, and you must leave!" It yelled, charging towards him.

The beast was fast, and it stuck hard. Russel tried to block the blow but ended up being knocked back right into a stone wall. He felt an intense pain in his rib and struggled to get himself to stand. He clutched his side and watched as the beast charged him again. He threw himself to the ground, causing the beast to crash into the wall. He got back up and swung his sword, leaving a gash on one of the beast's legs.

It howled in pain and swung mandly, forcing Russel to quickly dodge. He felt the pain in his rib increase and he fell to the ground. He narrowly managed to avoid being killed by rolling to the side. He pulled himself back to his feet and felt his wings deploy themselves. He flew forwards and managed to get a few quick strikes in across the chest of the beast. It pushed its shield forward smacking Russel in the chest. He managed to recover in the air and tried to blast his energy beams. They worked, but they were easily deflected back at him by the beast's shield.

Russel dodged and his own attack came back at him and watched it pierce straight through the wall. He turned his attention back to the raging beast who now approached him with its shield held in front of him. Russel quickly formulated a plan of attack and charge forwards once more to meet the beast in the middle.

He struck at the shield to test the beast and found it didn't waver. He moved back once more and then charged forward. The beast also charged back at him in return. Russel feigned a strike and grabbed onto the beats shield. The beast tried to throw Russel off, but Russel quickly leaped upwards and drove his sword through the top of the beast's skull.

The beast stopped dead in its tracks. It dropped its sword and shield and quickly fell over. Russel jumped off of it, retracting his sword and putting it back in its sheath.

"You've done well… I did not expect someone to defeat my minotaur so easily… Even you Russel Diabolous… Son of Mende and Aliyah… So called 'Child of Rapture'…" A sickly sweet voice echoed.

Russel looked around, trying to find where the voice came from. When he did not see it, he drew his sword once more, preparing himself from a sneak attack.

"Oh I won't be fighting you… Not yet anyway… You see I am the one who cast this illusion spell, so all I can do is speak to you from the outside." The voice spoke.

"Where am I? What is your goal?" Russel spoke quickly.

"So many questions… Normally I wouldn't indulge you, but I'll make a special exception because you look nice. You are in the manifestation of a forgotten dream of the elf Navvare, a prison for magic users in the mountains of Keld." The voice said.

'A manifestation of a dream? And it's Navvarre's… So this is the kind of place they put magic users…' Russel thought.

"As for my goal… Well… I enjoy killing humans and consuming their souls, but there is a certain demon with quite the desire to take your power… So that's what I'll be doing with yours." The voice laughed.

"So you're after me too huh? Well I hate to tell you you'll have to get in line." Russel sneered.

"We'll see about that… As for now, you should be worried about your friends." The voice giggled.

Russel looked around and heard a sharp pitched scream come from back inside the building.

"I hate to tell you, but that minotaur was not the spell's weak point. Better luck next time!" The voice said sweetly.

Russel took off and sprinted to find the source of the scream. He ran inside and took the hall in the opposite direction of where he had started.

He emerged into a large room full of the living corpses from earlier, and saw them surrounding a small group. Still in his demon form, he charged in swinging his sword, using his wings in order to control the crowd.

It didn't take long to cut through the rather weak enemies, but when he returned to the people who he had protected he found them looking on in horror. For once, it wasn't at him, instead the corpse of a girl that laid strewn out on the floor. It was the earless girl from before, her body had been scratched at and bit to the point of disfigurement.

Russel forced his wings to retract and looked sadly at the girl's corpse. He looked at the others that were with her to see that they still just stood motionless in shock at the body. Russel bent over and picked the girl up, he snapped his fingers and produced a spark that quickly grew in order to consume the girl's body, cremating it.

"Come with me. I'll make sure something like this doesn't happen again." Russel assured the others.

They followed him through the hallways in silence until they saw another, larger group walking towards them. Russel readied his sword and pointed it at the group in front of him.

"Stop!" Russel commanded, with his sword outstretched.

The group stopped in its tracks, but a familiar man with black hair stepped forward. He continued towards Russel until he was able to be seen clearly. Russel sighed and put his sword away.

"I thought you were a group of living corpses." Russel chuckled.

"Those things? They crawl around not, walk on two legs." Oliver sighed.

"I fought a minotaur earlier. I can't be too careful at this point." Russel shrugged.

"Any clue what's going on here?" Oliver asked.

"I managed to have a small chat with the spellcaster…" Russel admitted.

"How?" Oliver questioned.

Russel felt the pain in his side grow stronger once more as his demon abilities wore off. He grabbed his side and slumped down against one of the walls. He slowly lowered himself to the floor and breathed out heavily.

"Are you alright?" Oliver asked.

"I'm fine… Just a bit roughed up." Russel half smiled.

Russel began to explain his talk with the spellcaster, explaining how the illusion was a manifestation of a nightmare Navvare had.

"Hmm… So do you think that this is the same as what happened to the scouting group?" Oliver asked.

"I'm not sure, it could be. But the first night no one died with them… So the caster may be able to manifest the dreams of the living as well. I have no idea how it works though." Russel sighed.

"Well how it works isn't a concern right now. We need to know how to get out." Oliver reminded him.

"I know that much. We need to find the weak point in the spell, and the minotaur was a tough opponent and it wasn't the weak point. We may be up against something pretty powerful, which makes me worry about the vast majority of people that aren't fighters." Russel explained.

"That's true… But we don't really have a choice." Oliver said sadly.

"Of course we don't… I hate being part of this twisted game, so we better find the weak point fast or I'm going to lose it." Russel scowled.

He gritted his teeth and stood back up. He started to walk and hung a right down a corridor neither party had come from. He felt an arm wrapped around his and looked over to see Oliver supporting him.

"Pace yourself and keep some energy for the fight. Or else we're probably all dead." Oliver told him.

Russel rolled his eyes and let Oliver support the majority of his weight. The groups combined behind the two and continued to follow behind them as they once again emerged into a large room where a battle was already raging with a swarm of living corpses and what seemed to be the rest of the group form Eastcliff.

Russel drew his sword and charged into the middle of battle. He cut down the living corpses quickly, only to find there was one person matching his pace.

"I'm honestly surprised!" Russel laughed. ���You're a great fighter. I didn't know that Oliver's retainer would be so skilled."

"I was his family organizer, and guardian. You can't serve a high position in a noble house and not be able to fight!" Rachel remarked.

"Tell that to any actual noble…" Russel sighed.

"What was that?" Rachel demanded.

"Nothing. Forget I said anything." Russel smiled.

Soon enough the two of them had eliminated the remaining living corpses and were able to converse. Russel quickly filled her in on everything that happened with the mysterious caster and the fight against the minotaur. Leaving her just staring at him.

"Why are you telling me this?" She asked.

"I thought I was supposed to report to you… You are the leader and stuff." Russel reasoned.

"Well I have no clue about magic or minotaurs. So asking me is useless." Rachel informed him.

"Right… Frederick and Kathleen are missing." He pointed out, deciding it was best to change the subject.

"That is true… We should look for them." She spoke.

"Did you seriously forget about them?" Russel accused.

"Of course not." She retorted. "Let's go."

The large group started moving through the castle, getting confused by its many winding corridors and open rooms that all looked the same as the previous ones. The group started to become irate in their search, until they stumbled upon a fresh trail of blood.

"I'll check this out." Russel stated.

He drew his sword and started to slowly walk down the trail, making sure to make as little noise as possible in case it was an enemy. He saw that the trail turned a blind corner so Russel stopped for a moment, motioning for the others to stay where they were. He quickly rounded the corner and pointed his sword in front of him.

Nothing stood in front of him, but he could see that the trail of blood started to grow thicker and formed a large puddle at another turn in front of him. Russel repeated his previous process of slow movement and rounding the corner, this time being greeted with the gruesome sight of a group of living corpses attempting to maul Frederick.

Russel leaped forward and started cutting down the living corpses until he felt one of them hit his side as it was falling to the ground. Russel yelped in pain and fell to his knees, planting his sword in the ground in front of him. He looked up with gritted teeth and saw three more living corpses moving towards him. He yelled out and managed to unplant his sword and slash through the last three living corpses in front of Frederick.

With the final living corpses disposed of, Russel let himself fall to the floor where he started to breathe heavily, returning to clutching his side.

"Thank you… Are you ok Russel?" Frederick asked.

"Just an injury from a tough fight earlier… Sucks we don't have a healer…" Russel chuckled.

"Navvare was the best we had… Although back at camp we did still have some healing herbs." Frederick informed him. "May I take a look at the wound?"

Russel nodded and rolled over onto his uninjured side. Frederick pulled the material of his gambeson back before recoiling at the sight.

"What's wrong with it?" Russel asked.

"That wound is enough to kill most men… And it seems your body is already putting itself back together… With healing herbs you would be as good as new in a few days." Frederick explained.

Russel chuckled softly and pulled himself back up to his feet, which he found to not be as difficult anymore.

'So whatever Father Edward gave me for that knife wound was similar to whatever these healing herbs could be… I can also guess that demons and fallen angels have enhanced healing abilities… That'll be useful, and explains how I've survived a few things…' Russel thought, recounting past battles where he had sustained serious injury.

"You in there Russel?" Oliver asked, waving his hand in front of Russel's eyes.

"Yeah, I'm good to go." Russel told the man. "Let's find Elizabeth."

Russel sheathed his sword and started to continue down the hallway, quickly arriving in front of two large oak doors. Russel looked back to the group behind him who nodded their approval. Russel threw open the doors and saw a lavish room filled with fancy tables, food, artwork and banners hanging from the ceiling. In the middle of the room was a figure cloaked in black mist. The figure turned towards the group, sending shivers down Russel's spin as he saw the cold dead look he was on the receiving end of. The figure started to conjure a large ball of black energy and threw it towards the group.

Russel quickly drew his sword and attempted to slash through the incoming ball of energy. He became locked in a stalemate, struggling against whatever spell this was. After a moment Russel managed to force it to be thrown into a wall away from the group. The figure started to conjure up another ball of energy that looked even more dangerous than the previous.

"Scatter!" Russel yelled out to the group.

The group quickly split with people running in every direction. The figure released the energy ball straight at Russel once more. Russel quickly dodged and started to run straight towards the figure. He jumped and slashed down towards the figures head, only to be thwarted by the figure using his arm to deflect the blow.

Russel pushed off his sword and retreated with a flip, before once again charging at the figure. This time he swung up, only for the figure to once again block him with his arm. Russel growled as he pushed back, trying to sever the figures arm. He heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed and saw a sword blade being stabbed through the figures chest. Russel jumped back to avoid being harmed and saw that Oliver had been the one to attack the figure. The figure quickly dissolved into mist, the mist then rose in altitude and put itself back together, revealing something Russel would have never expected.

The figure had lost its shadowy cloak and revealed itself to be a being with grey skin and blood red eyes, but other than those two changes the figure looked exactly like the elven mage, Navvare.