Chapter 15 Chapter Fourteen

"I'm afraid I might accidentally kill you." It was Rufo's voice, coming from afar but closing in quickly. Danica opened her eyes.She was on the bed, in the same room as before, but her wrists and ankles were now firmly bound to the bed's four sturdy posts.A piercing, burning pain continued from her wounded left leg, and the monk feared that the bindings would penetrate the skin and amputate the already shattered ankle. To make matters worse, Rufo was there, bent over her, his pale face softened with concern. "My dear Danica," it whispered, leaning closer, trying to soften its thin features, trying to be gentle.

Danica didn't spit in its face, she didn't want to make any more formal and ineffective protests. Rufo, however, could see her distaste. "You don't believe I can love?" it asked quietly, a twitch in one cheek letting Danica know it was struggling to stay calm. Again, there was no response from Danica. "I've been in love with you since you arrived in the library," Rufo continued dramatically. "I watch you from afar, and the simplicity and elegance of your every movement moves me." Danica's cold gaze was more determined, and she didn't blink.

"But I'm not a good-looking man," Rufo continued. "Never, so it was Cadderly—" the mention of the name brought a tinge of bitterness—"and not me to catch your beautiful gaze." These self-deprecating words are sympathetic, but Danica has little compassion for Rufo. "A good-looking man?" she questioned. "You still don't understand how insignificant that is." Rufo backed away, puzzled. Danica just shook her head. "If Histra were still a beauty, you would still love her," she said. "But you never see what's beneath the surface. You never care what's in someone's heart because your own is nothing at all."

"Be careful what you say," Rufo said. "It hurts because it's the truth." "wrong!" "Yes!" Danica raised her head as high as she could within the restraints, her glare making Rufo cringe even further. "What I love is not Cadderly's smile, but the source of the smile, the warmth of his heart and the truth of his soul." "Dirty Rufo, I pity you," she concluded at this point. "I pity you for never being able to tell the difference between love and lust." "You're wrong!" the vampire retorted. Danica didn't blink, but she slid back on the mattress when Rufo pressed on to her.She ducked her head down toward her shoulders, even whimpering as he kept pushing, thinking he was going to force her.Although Danica is well-trained and possesses unparalleled strength, this possibility is still unacceptable to her.

However, the monk touched a weakness in the vampire's heart. "You're wrong," Rufo said again, quietly. "I'll love." As if emphasizing his point, Rufo brushed his hand over Danica's cheek, past her chin, and down her neck.Danica flinched as far as she could, but the restraints were strong, and she was weak from blood loss. "I will love," he said again. "Rest, my honey. I'll come back when you're stronger, and then I'll show you pleasure, my love." Danica let out a breath of relief as Rufo backed away, gave her one last look, and stormed out of the room.She knew that this relaxation was temporary.She tried the restraints on her body again, but didn't find any lucky flaws, so she raised her head and looked at her injuries.

She couldn't even feel the ropes around her injured leg, just widespread pain.She saw that the ankles and calves were swollen, and the exposed skin, where it wasn't thickly covered with dried blood, was badly discolored.Danica understood that there was an infection inside her, adding to the weakness from the blood loss, and she knew she couldn't break free this time.Even if she could, her broken body would not have the strength to escape from the library. Danica lay flat, falling into the most powerful sense of helplessness she had ever felt.Through the wooden panels that covered one of the small west-facing windows of the room, she saw that the sun had passed its highest point in this new day and began its journey toward the horizon.Danica knew Rufo would return with the night.

And she couldn't resist. ※※※ As the evening approached, the Mengzhi Library came into the sight of the three of them. It was a square, squat building, slightly exposed in the surrounding terrain, with relatively round and natural lines. That first distant glance told Cadderly that something was terribly wrong there.His instincts, or perhaps the subdued warnings in Chanticlee's song, were screaming at him, but he didn't understand the meaning.He now believes that it was his own feelings about the library that disturbed him so much. The three rounded another bend, and the building was quickly out of sight, hidden by towering rocks.Ivan and Pikel rushed past Cadderly after whispering a few words to each other, advancing at breakneck speed, explaining that they planned to prepare a delicious meal tonight.

The sun had not yet dipped below the skyline when they could see the library again, and the group cut in alongside the groves that lined the long walk in front of the building.All three skidded to a screeching stop, and Pikel's ensuing "woo hoo" pretty much summed up their entire movement. Wisps of gray smoke continued to seep from the windows of the south wing, and the smell of burnt trees filled the air. "Ooooh," Pikel said again. Those inner pleas, Chanticlee's continual call to Denir, burst into Cadderly's mind, screaming for him to flee, but this place had been his home once, and he ran to the gate.He should have stopped right there, should have noticed the hole in the wood, the hole Danica had kicked out when Rufo cornered her.

Cadderly grabbed the handle and pushed hard, but it didn't work.He turned back to Ivan and Pikel, his face crumpled in a strange way. "They're locked," he said. Cadderly had never seen the door to the Moezhi Library locked. Ivan's huge tomahawk swung from his shoulder, and Pikel lowered the club enough for a hard butt, then began pawing the ground with one foot like a bull about to charge. Both relaxed and straightened in surprise when they saw the door open behind Cadderly. "Are you sure?" Ivan asked the young priest. Cadderly turned, eyeing the open door suspiciously. "Stuck because of the expansion of the fire," he concluded, and, with Ivan and Pikel on either side of him, the young priest entered the library.

All the silent cries for him to flee fell away the moment Cadderly passed the door.He took this as a good omen, decided he was overreacting, but in fact, Cadderly had entered Rufo's territory, and there, Denier could no longer warn him. The foyer wasn't badly damaged, although the smell of soot was unbearable.The chapel, on the left, was apparently the worst part of the fire.The heavy door there was evidently closed, though the friends could not see it, for a heavy tapestry was draped over it. Cadderly looked at the tapestry for a long time.It depicts elves, dark elves.Cadderly knew how valuable this tapestry was, one of the most precious treasures in the entire library.It had once belonged to Pertelope, and Ivan had fashioned the little crossbow that Cadderly now wore on his belt from its depiction.

The priest wondered, what is it doing here?Who would want to keep out the ashes with this irreplaceable piece of art? "The fire appears to be under control," Ivan said.It was under control, of course, the two dwarves and Cadderly figured it out after a while.The construction of the library is mainly stone rather than wood, and there is really very little that can burn in it. So, what started the fire? Ivan started walking to the right, and Pikel hopped along, heading for the kitchen, when Cadderly grabbed his arm and spun around, along with his dodging brother. "I want to check the main chapel," said the young priest, his voice ethereal.Ivan and Pikel looked at each other, shrugged, and then stared curiously at Cadderly, who stood there for a while, eyes closed. He found himself unable to hear the song of Denir.And he no longer heard Chanticlee singing, and the priest must be much closer to them now than he was in the mountains.It seems that the god Denir has left the place. "What are you thinking?" Ivan asked impatiently as usual. Cadderly looked at the dwarf with gray eyes. "What?" Ivan urged. "What do you think?" "This place has been desecrated!" Cadderly replied, not understanding what he was talking about until he said it. "It was burned." Ivan corrected him, looking at the tapestry, not understanding what Cadderly meant. "Desecrated!" Cadderly yelled, the words echoing off the stone walls and up the stairs.The meaning of the word, and the heaviness with which Cadderly yelled it, made both brothers shudder. "What are you talking about?" Ivan asked softly. Cadderly just shook his head vigorously, turned away, and ran at full speed to the main chapel, the most sacred place in this sacred place.He thought he would find some priests there, brethren of the two presiding denominations, praying to their respective gods, struggling to bring Denir and Oghma back to this library. The chapel was empty. Soot was thickly covering the intricate decorations on the huge arched pillars nearest the door, but otherwise, it seemed to be normal.The opposite altar appears to be intact, and all objects, the bell, the chalice, and the pair of maces on it appear to be where they should be. The footsteps of the three echoed, and they leaned close together, walking towards the front of the chapel. Ivan was the first to see the corpse, so he stopped urgently, stretched out a strong arm to wrap around Cadderly's waist, forcing him to stop and not move forward. Pikel continued to take a step forward, turned his head only when he realized that the other two were not following, and moved his gaze to follow their shocked expressions. "Ooooh," the green-bearded dwarf murmured. "It's Benar," Cadderly said, recognizing the charred body, though the skin hung shredded from the bones, half of the face was bone and half was charred skin. Two eyeballs rolled in their sockets, fixed on Cadderly, and suddenly a ghastly smile appeared, the stripped lips of the corpse parting wide. "Cadderly!" Bednar yelled excitedly, snapping into a standing position, bones cracking, arms flailing up and down, nodding like pounding garlic. "Oh, Cadderly, how good of you to be back!" Ivan and Pikel both gasped and backed away.They had fought the undead before, right alongside Cadderly in the catacombs of the same building.Now they look to the young priest for support, because this is his place, his house of worship.Shocked and bewildered, Cadderly stepped back, clutching his hat, especially the holy symbol directly in front of it. "I knew—I knew it!—that you would come back." The dreadful Benar continued to stagger forward.It clapped its palms, and then one finger, connected by only one ligament, separated from the other fingers and swayed in mid-air a few inches away from the palm. "I'm always like this!" screamed the irritated monster, and began flinging the severed finger back as if it were an empty fishhook. Cadderly wanted to talk to Benar, to ask some questions, to get some answers.But where does he start?This is just crazy, outrageous.This is the library of Mengzhi, the sanctuary of God Denir and God Oghma!It was a place of prayer and reverence, but now, before Cadderly's eyes, stood a monster mocking that reverence, making all prayers sound like beautiful words woven for inexplicable reasons.For Benar had been a priest, a highly respected high priest, of Cadderly's own god!Where is God Denir now?Cadderly had to start to doubt.How could God Denir allow such a tragic fate to befall such a loyal person? "Don't worry," Bernard assured the trio, as if they cared about his fingers. "Don't worry. Seriously, I've been pretty good at putting broken things back together since the fire." "Tell me about the fire," Cadderly interposed, grasping at the momentous event, clinging to it like a prayer against madness. Bena looked at him strangely, his protruding eyeballs rolling from side to side. "It's hot," it replied. "What started the fire?" Cadderly urged. "How would Sleeping Benar know?" the undead monster answered rudely. "I heard it was the magician..." Bednar stopped, smiled broadly, and began wagging a finger in the air in front of him, as if Cadderly had asked a foul question.The dangling finger fell off just like the previous one, and this time it rolled all the way across the floor. "Oh, where did it go?" Bednar yelled in exasperation, and then it snapped into a crouch and began hopping from bench to bench. "You want to talk to this guy?" Ivan asked, and the dwarf's tone made it clear which answer he preferred. Cadderly thought for a moment.Benar retracted the answer halfway through—and the clues he revealed did not reassure Cadderly!But the young priest wondered, why did the monster stop?What compelled Bernard to swallow his words?Cadderly didn't know what kind of monster Benar was.Cadderly knew he was more than just an unthinking zombie, though the young priest was unfamiliar with the various types of undead.Zombies and other lowest-level, active undead monsters cannot communicate. They are just non-thinking tools belonging to their masters, so Bena's class is obviously higher than them.Cadderly had fought a mummy once, but Benar didn't seem to fit that mold either.He's almost kind, too stupid to be dangerous. However, something, some intuitive impulse, prevented Bernard from answering. Cadderly looked directly at the crawling monster, held up his holy symbol, and said in a tone of command, "Bennar! The soul of Benar. I ask you again, and with the power of the god Denir You answer. Who started the fire?" The undead stopped its frantic movements and froze completely, staring at Cadderly, or rather Cadderly's holy symbol. Bernard seemed to wrinkle his face several times. "By whom?" it asked innocently, and Cadderly's face creased instead.What had happened to this place that drove his god so far away? Cadderly lowered his arms and lowered the symbol of the god Denir, knowing that he would have no useful information. "You still want to keep talking to this guy?" Ivan asked. "No," Cadderly said curtly, and before the words had left his lips, Ivan's ax made a huge arc above his head and cut down, severing Benar's left arm from his shoulder. Cut up and down. The undead monster looked at the amputated arm curiously, as if wondering how to get the hand back. "Oh, I've got to fix it again," said its almost lipless mouth matter-of-factly. Pikel's attack was more violent, the trunk-like club slamming into the top of Benar's exposed skull, causing the undead monster to collapse into a crumpled mass of crumpled flesh and bone. Both eyeballs popped out of their eye sockets, rolling around with strands of long filaments. "It hurts," said Benner, and all three companions jumped at the unexpected reply.That's when they realized, to their horror, that the eyeballs weren't rolling randomly, but seemed to be inspecting damage! "There's so much to do!" Benar grumbled. The three of them backed away slowly, and Pikel was in the rear. He whimpered and shook his head in disbelief.When they were five feet away from the shattered monster, they found the courage to turn around and broke into a run, kicking their legs hard to reach full speed. "Oh, Rufo's gonna make me figure it out myself!" cried Bernard. Cadderly skidded to a screeching stop, Ivan bumped into him, and then Pikel bumped into Ivan. "Rufo?" Cadderly asked, starting to look back. "Rufo?" Ivan repeated. "Ooh!" Pikel agreed. "Of course you remember Rufo." A calm and familiar voice came from behind them. The three of them turned slowly together toward the chapel exit, and saw Zirkan Rufo standing in his usual posture, not quite perpendicular to the ground. Cadderly noticed at once that the brand he had branded on Rufo was ruined, gouged out. "You don't belong in this place!" the young priest yelled, finding his courage to remind himself that this was his home, the home of God Denir. Rufo's laugh mocked him. Inevitably, Cadderly approached the two dwarves following closely behind him. "What the hell are you?" he demanded, knowing that something was terribly wrong and that something far more powerful than Zirkan Rufo was facing him now. Rufo grinned, opening his mouth wide with a wild hiss, baring its tusks proudly. Cadderly paled in shock, then grabbed himself quickly.He yanked his holy symbol off the sombrero, then yanked it back on awkwardly in the same motion. "In the name of God Denir, I expel..." "It won't be here!" Rufo roared back, his eyes glowing like two red flames. "Not here." "Ooh," Pikel muttered. "He's not a vampire, is he?" Ivan asked, and it seemed like with all the questions Ivan had asked since he got here, it was obvious what the answers he wanted—needed—to hear. "If only you knew what that word meant," Rufo replied. "Vampire? I am Tuando Chiro Miankai, supremely deadly and terrifying! I am the incarnation of that mixture, and this place is ruled by me!" Cadderly's mind swirled with terrifying possibilities.He recognized the name Tuando Chiro Mianche.He knew the power of the Chaos Curse better than anyone, for he was the one who defeated it, put it in a bowl, and soaked it in holy water. But he failed to destroy it, and Rufo was the proof.The Chaos Curse is back in a newer and decidedly deadlier form.Cadderly felt a puff of heat escape from his pocket next to his leg.It didn't take him long to remember that he had a pin there, the amulet that Druzil had put on Rufo when he was at Simista.The amulet was tuned to sync with the imp, allowing its bearer to easily form a telepathic connection with Druzil.It was heating up now, and Cadderly worried what that might mean. "Your god has left here, Cadderly," Rufo snapped, and Cadderly couldn't deny the truth of that statement. "Your sect is gone, and so many have volunteered to join me." Cadderly wanted to argue that, unwilling to believe it.Long before this latest incarnation of the Chaos Curse emerged, he knew the deadly scourge had spread into the Denir and the Cult of Oghma.He remembered his last confrontation with Headmaster Thobicus.Even though Cadderly had left the Adorable Library early in the winter, he knew he had to come back to fight the inappropriate ways of working that had been ingrained in the place, which had become diametrically opposed to the library's two brother gods. Now that Rufo is here, the library's depravity seems perfectly plausible. The momentary pause, the so-called calm before the storm, could not last long, not with two explosive and panicked dwarves by Cadderly's side.Yiwen shattered the tranquility, roared and rushed forward, the huge battle ax swept across obliquely, hitting Rufo with all his strength. The vampire jerked sideways and flew a few feet sideways, but straightened up again, seemingly unhurt - in fact, it was even laughing! Pikel lowered his head and club and charged forward, but Rufo knocked him aside casually, sending him flying out and tumbling through two wooden benches. Ivan charged again, and Rufo dodged to one side, quickly thrusting his hands into the air.A certain force burst out from that hand, and a certain powerful energy hit Yiwen, causing him to fly wildly, as if he accidentally crashed into the edge of a tornado.The dwarf groaned, breathing from his lungs, and flew away.He crashed into the edge of a vault with a sickening sharp counter-attack, and hit the ground with a head-to-head jet, gliding and bouncing along the road, leaving a trail of blood behind. Cadderly feared that the blow would have killed Ivan.He wanted to rush to his friend, summon Denir's healing magic, and take Ivan's pain away.Not yet, he understood.He couldn't run to Ivan yet.He continued to hold the holy emblem high in the air, holding it with full confidence, while approaching the vampire step by step.He chanted, prayed, and asked the god Denir to heed his call and return to this place. Rufo's face contorted, as if pained by the raised emblem, but he didn't back away. "You don't belong here," Cadderly said through clenched teeth, the holy symbol ablaze with silver fire, less than a foot from the vampire's snarling face.Rufo reached out, grabbed the sigil above the candle with eyes, and covered it with a fist.There was a hissing sound, several puffs of smoke rose, and Rufo was clearly in pain.But the vampire held on tenaciously, to prove that this place belonged to him, not Denir, and Cadderly's holy magic was useless, and would not work in this place. The vampire straightened up, the smile widening, the free hand clawed up to the ear, ready to strike, ready to strike the startled Cadderly's throat. Pikel hit the vampire from the side, and while his club did no real damage, the shock from it saved Cadderly, forcing him and Rufo far apart. Rufo and Pikel wrestled, wrestling and kicking, but the vampire was too strong and Pikel was quickly thrown away.Rufo turned immediately to Cadderly, the most valuable prey of the group, and Cadderly had fallen back several feet. Rufo leaped forward far beyond human strength, flying to block Cadderly's path.The vampire stood on a bench, arms outstretched and leaning forward, trying to fall on Cadderly. Cadderly's holy symbol came forward, and this time, the quick-witted young priest added strength.He took out his lumen, uncapped the end, and shot a beam from directly behind the holy symbol that was jerked forward. Rufo flinched back, hit by the sudden flash of light, quite distressed.It turned quickly, and the robe flew up defensively, turning into a black barrier to block the blazing light, and then it let out an evil, alien howl, which echoed through every wall in the library, falling on the evil vampire. tugged at the heartstrings of its many minions. Even the building itself seemed to rise to that call, and howls and groans in response poured into the chapel from all directions. Rufo melted and suddenly transformed into a bat, flying around in the wide hall.Another bat dashed through the open door, followed by something larger than a bat but with bat-like wings. Cadderly recognized Druzil, and the imp's presence did answer many questions. They heard the stiff footsteps of the zombies in the hall outside, and heard the voice of the dark forces following Rufo. They had to go outside - Cadderly knew they had to flee.Pikel evidently thought so too, as he staggered over to the young priest, and together they turned to Ivan, neither knowing how they were going to get the battered dwarf out of here. But Ivan did not fall.Somehow, he was on his feet, and seemed to have recovered from the massive impact. The three gathered and ran towards the door, Rufo's laughter ringing in their ears with every step.They ran across the hallway and into a mob of zombies who met them in the foyer. Ivan and Pikel sliced ​​through the horde of monsters like the bows of a ship breaking through water, loose bodies and limbs flying here and there.Each powerful swing of Ivan's ax either sliced ​​the monster in half or dismembered it limb from limb, and the dwarf ducked his head, thrusting like a charging elk, tearing holes in the zombie's chest.Pikel stood by his brother's flank, clubbing the zombies aside, while Cadderly followed closely, ready to strike at any moment, but the efficiency of the two dwarf brothers was too high for the young priest to Nothing to beat! But even as they marched, Rufo followed, along with a terrifying, disfigured vampire - Histra! —Beside it, and the other is that nasty little devil. Lightning bolts of energy burst from Druzil's fingertips, burning Cadderly's back.Rufo's mocking laugh and Histra's hungry hiss invaded the young priest's sanity. "Where are you going?" Rufo yelled. Ivan's ax cut a zombie in half half way through, and the path to the open doorway (to dusk) cleared ahead of them. The door slammed shut like a nail in Cadderly's coffin. "Where are you going?" Rufo yelled again, and another burst of energy from Druzil hit the running young priest so hard it nearly knocked him down. Cadderly wanted to go around the doors, knowing that Rufo had shut them, knowing that the vampire had put a spell on them to keep them closed. Ivan and Pikel had never been that thoughtful, nor had they turned their heads that fast, especially on the few occasions when they actually panicked.They yelled together, bowed their heads together, and slammed the door together.Neither Rufo nor whoever had cast a spell on the door could have held the door against the onslaught. The two dwarves rolled outside in a splash of splintered sawdust.Cadderly, who was following them at full speed, tried to leap over the clump of obstacles, but his foot caught Pikel's jaw and he flew headlong to the ground. Even this evasive - even unintentional - move did not save the young priest from Druzil's next volley.Pain rushed up Cadderly's battered back.Yiwen and Pikel hooked one of his arms and continued to run, dragging him forward together.Yiwen could still think of picking up the light tube and holy emblem dropped by the young priest and taking them away. Slow-moving zombies crept out to chase them, but the vampires refrained from it because the night hadn't quite fallen yet.After running twenty paces down the path, Cadderly and the dwarves were free from the pursuers. But how long?All three were quite skeptical.The sun is out of sight, and the library has fallen.