Chapter 16 Chapter 15 The Sacred Word

Danica pushed her back against the wall and pushed as hard as she could while trying to keep her feet firmly planted on the smooth floor.In the end she just slipped forward, and the passage narrowed mercilessly. Cadderly's frightened eyes swept around, from the stone slab to the portcullis, to the approaching side wall.He tried to conjure the song of Denir, but couldn't recall anything from the lyrical notes that would help the situation. There were less than eight feet between the walls. seven feet. Cadderly fought back his panic, closed his eyes, and told himself to concentrate and trust the harmonious music.

He felt Danica grab his arm hard, but tried to ignore the distraction.She pulled again, harder this time, forcing Cadderly to look at her. "Hold your hands flat in front of you and stay still," she instructed, turning Cadderly's palms up.He watched curiously as Danica flattened her body on the palms of his hands, planted her feet against one wall, and raised her arms forward over her head, "grabbing" the other approaching wall. "You can't help it," Cadderly protested, but as he spoke, the wall came within Danica's reach, came closer, and was blocked by the hardened body of the meditating monk. Stopped, as if a metal beam was placed between them, it stopped definitely.

Cadderly lifted his hands away from Danica's stomach—she was fully supported by her rigid posture—and forced himself to turn his attention away from the stunning Danica and consider the larger dilemma before him.If the enemy discovered that the wall had stopped moving, he and Danica might have to deal with some uninvited guests soon.Cadderly drew his small crossbow and loaded an explosive arrow. He heard some muffled noises coming from the far end behind the portcullis and door, and he moved closer, trying to hear. "Booga yag gor Mukadig." A low, guttural voice came, and Cadderly, who had special training in the languages ​​of Faerûn, knew that an ogre was behind the door. Just insisting on these walls should have accomplished the task.

Cadderly ran back, slipped under Danica, and put his hand with the crossbow on her back for support.He also placed the Frisbee on top of Danica's body within easy reach, and with his free hand, he grasped the enchanted staff tightly. There was a whirling sound as the portcullis began to rise, and Cadderly heard a key go into the lock.He steadied his crossbow and his own mind, knowing that he had to hold off until Danica undid her hardening and rushed out with him. The door swung open, revealing the eager face of an ogre, grinning stupidly, looking for the crushed remains of the intruder.

The point of Cadderly's arrow caught between its two front teeth.The young priest lunges boldly forward while grabbing his frisbee. The ogre's cheeks bulged eerily, eyes almost protruding from their sockets, and then its lips flapped up and down, spurting a pool of blood and broken teeth. "Da, Moki?" asked its startled companion as the battered ogre slipped to the ground.The second ogre leaned over to figure out what was going on, and then it looked back toward the trap room, just in time for an alloy frisbee thrown by Cadderly, getting hit on the side of its nose. Cadderly flicked his wrist so hard that the frisbee flew back into his hand, hurting his palm, and he threw them again, hard.The ogre began to raise its hand, but before it was high enough to block the attack, the monster was hit in the eye by the frisbee.

However, the ogre's arm, which was still moving upwards, caught the string, preventing Cadderly from recovering the disc for a third strike.The young priest, always ready to improvise, reacted quickly, taking his cane with both hands and slamming it down the stunned ogre's thick forearm. He lowered the next blow, slamming it to the exposed rib area.As Cadderly expected, the ogre reflexively threw his arms down.Cadderly then struck high again, slamming into the ogre's already battered nose.He stayed the course, changed his grip, and struck back from the other side, the ram's head on the staff hitting the base of the ogre's skull firmly.

The monster suddenly fell to its knees, its weakened hands hanging by its sides. Cadderly's staff thumped back and forth, three times, five times, and Danica charged past him, sinking a knee under the jaw of the kneeling monster.The ogre's head threw back violently, and finally the gigantic monster collapsed to the ground next to its dead companion. "Load!" Danica instructed Cadderly, handing him the crossbow.Behind them, there was the sound of wood splintering as the two walls pinched the open door. They don't want to look back at all. ※※※ The ramp was slippery and steep, and despite frantic efforts to slow down, Xuelin could barely slow her fall.Finally, she pressed her back against the sloping bottom, and then raised the longbow upwards, trying to find a point of strength.

absolutely not.The top surface of the ramp, like the bottom surface, is completely smooth. Several unpleasant images flashed through the elf girl's mind, mostly of her being nailed to a wall covered with venomous thorns, with Ivan and Pikel next to her.Or she was behind Ivan and Pikel, slamming into her already trapped friends, pressing them deeper into imaginary spikes. Still holding on to her bow, Xuelin adjusted her body so that her feet pressed against one wall while her shoulders slanted against the wall opposite the narrow chute.She lifted her head, peering over her body into the darkness below, hoping for some warning before hitting the bottom.Her heat-sensing vision recognized the passage of the dwarves, and the residual body heat of Ivan and Pikel still appeared in spots on the bottom of the slide and on the curved walls.

Then there was a blank wall, the end of the chute, and Xuelin knew in a split second before the impact that since there were no dwarves in sight, it must be some kind of rotating floor trap door. She slammed into the rear door and was pushed open, but her arms were wide open and she gripped the sides of the door.Her bow dropped, and she heard a groan from the dwarf, followed by a small splash. The floor hatch swung back, trapping Xuelin's forearm between it and the stone wall.She held on tenaciously, guessing that this might be their only chance of getting out of this slippery hole. "Glad you made it, elf," Ivan said from below. "But if someone else is falling, you probably want to get out of that door."

Xuelin managed to look directly below, and found the vague and hot figures of Ivan and Pikel, who seemed to be standing in a waist-deep pool of unknown filth.She couldn't determine the exact shape of the room, but knew it was small and had no other obvious doors. "Are you all right?" she asked. "Just drenched," Ivan grumbled, "and a big swell where my brother fell on my head." Pikel started whistling and turned away.A moment later, the green-bearded dwarf spun back frantically and jumped on top of his brother, nearly pinning Ivan entirely into the water.

"What are you doing?" demanded the gruff dwarf. Pikel screamed and tried to lift his feet out of the water. With a sudden cry, Ivan threw Pikel into the air.When the green-bearded dwarf fell into the water, Ivan with the ax in his hand began to chop wildly, and the splash of water even sprayed Xuelin high on the wall. "What's wrong?" Xuelin called.Both dwarves scrambled about, striking the water with their weapons. "Long sticky thing!" Ivan roared back.He rushed to the wall directly below the suspended elf and began jumping up, trying in vain to grab her boots.In a flash Pikel was behind him and climbed on top of him, but Ivan ducked his head so that Pikel fell face-down into the sewage, and he jumped onto Pikel's back.Throughout the process, Xuelin pleaded with them to calm down.And at last they were too tired to do so, and no longer wanted to catch the elf. "Use my bow." Xuelin suggested rationally. "Huh?" Pikel squealed in bewilderment, but Ivan understood.Splashing around, he finally retrieved the bow that had fallen, and went to the wall to reach up with it, hooking Xuelin's boot. "Are you sure you can hold it?" the dwarf asked politely. "Come on," Xuelin replied, and Ivan jumped up and grabbed hold, climbing up the bow until he could grab the elf's boots. "Climb over me," Xuelin instructed. "You have to go to the corridor first, and then find a way to support yourself." The burly Ivan felt a little guilty about climbing over a slender elf girl like that, but he understood the practical necessity, especially when his brother who was still below let out a worried "oooh!" Ivan looked down and saw Pikel standing very stiff; the head of a snake-like creature was raised above the water, slowly swaying back and forth, only a foot away from Pikel, and almost at eye level with the dwarf . "My brother," Ivan whispered, barely speaking.But he wanted to jump back into the water, between Pikel and the snake. "Climb," Xuelin told him. Pikel began to swing with the snake, whistling from side to side.They seemed somehow quite harmonious, almost dancing, and the snake showed no signs of attacking the dwarf. "Climb up," Xuelin said to Ivan again. "If you don't make room, Pikel won't be able to come up." Ivan had always been protective of his brother, and a big part of him wanted to jump on the snake, rush desperately to protect Pikel.He tried his best to suppress this impulse, not only because he agreed with Xuelin's logic, but also because he was really afraid of snakes.He carefully found a place to hold on to Shailene's clothes, and climbed up to her level, taking solace in Pikel's constant whistle, a calming song that puts the heart out of menacing situations. The stress takes away a lot. Ivan circled onto Xuelin's back, squeezing through the narrow gap between her and the heavy door panel.When he was fully inside the sloping chute, he turned on his side and braced himself by propping his hands and heels on two opposing walls. "Pikkel?" Xuelin asked breathlessly as the whistle stopped. "Ooh!" came the eager reply from below, and Xuelin felt the weight on her feet as the second dwarf began to climb onto the longbow.When Pikel climbed past Xuelin, he carefully retracted the bow and put it on his body, then he got into the corridor, passed Ivan, and firmly stepped on the wet sandals on the side of Ivan's elongated body, and then Standing on top of his brother and reaching down to help Xuelin.This was the hardest part of the whole operation, because Pikel and Ivan had to find a way to not only open the door wide enough and long enough for Xuelin to pass, but also give the elf somewhere to hold on to. Pikel put his stick against the door, caught between Xuelin's arms that ached from being stretched. "When my brother pushes, you have to let go and grab me with it," Ivan instructed. "Ready?" "Open it," pleaded Xuelin, and slowly, Pikel began to push. Once the force of squeezing her became weaker, Xuelin stretched out her hand towards Yiwen. She missed it, and the grip of her other arm wasn't firm enough to support her.The elf girl screamed and began to fall. Ivan grabbed her wrist, squeezed her tightly with his short fat fingers, and pressed her against the slimy wall. "Whoa," Pikel wailed, as the three of them began their perilous descent toward the end of the chute. But Ivan stretched his powerful back with a growl, and stuck himself firmly in place.And Pikel, though his arms ached from being pulled at the weird angle, continued to press the heavy door, opening it as wide as Xuelin could crawl through.She crawled over Ivan to Pikel's side, and he slammed the door shut.Then he stood upright at a vertical angle with his holding brother, and then Xuelin climbed on top of him, holding horizontally in the same way as Evan. Next, Ivan climbed onto Pikel, who was holding on to the supporting elf girl.Yiwen passed Xuelin and stood straight up in the ramp.Pikel climbed to the top, straddled Ivan, and braced himself, and so on, with the three companions moving like living ladders. "Huh?" Pikel squealed, and he was about to be the next to hold on, having just rounded a corner where the end of a banked bend was long out of sight. "What's wrong?" Ivan asked, climbing up to the height with him.Then Ivan also saw lines on the wall of the chute—even, parallel lines, like a door. The dwarf straddled Pikel's back, fumbling with the wall with his hands.He felt a shallow depression—only a dwarf could detect such a subtle inconsistency in a featureless wall—and pushed hard.The secret door slid open, revealing a second passage, sloping upwards like this one, but with a gentler slope. Yiwen looked back at Xuelin and Pikel. "We know the situation above." Xuelin deduced. "But can we get through the hatch in the floor?" Ivan asked back. "Shhh," Pikel begged them both, pointing to the new passage with his chin.When they quieted down, they heard the sound of scuffling from a distance inside the passage, as if a battle was going on. "Could be friends, could need us!" Ivan yelled, and he crawled into the new passageway, pulling Shailene and Pikel in after him.Yiwen fumbled with the shallow recess on the stone device again, trying to find a way to close the secret door behind them.The slope of the pass was gentler this time, so they moved faster. After a while, they came to a bifurcation point. On one side, the passage continued to rise, and on the other side, a narrower slope descended.Instinct told them to keep climbing—they were separated from their friends on higher floors—but the sounds of fighting came from the lower passages. "Probably Cadderly," Xuelin deduced. "Giant servant!" A familiar voice came from below. "Traitor!" roared another, more powerful voice. Pikel was already in the chute, and he slid down the slope until Ivan yelled, "Vander!" ※※※ Which door is right?Cade wondered.After stepping over the corpses of the two dead ogres, he looked around the large circular room inside, which contained many possible exit doors.He also noticed the many symbols carved on the walls: a trident with a vial on each side, dotted with triangles enclosing three teardrops.This is the more traditional Talona symbol style, the Goddess of Evil. "We must be getting close to the chapel," Cadderly whispered to Danica.As if to confirm this sentence, the door opposite opened, and a man with terrifying scars and a torn gray-green Talona priest robe entered the circular room. Danica crouched ready to fight; Cadderly raised his crossbow to the man's face. However, the priest just smiled to himself, and all of a sudden, all the doors in the circular room slammed open.Cadderly and Danica found themselves facing a crowd of orcs, goblins, and men with evil grins, many more in the robes of priests of Talona.The two of them looked back towards the trapped passage, their only possibility of escape, but the two side walls were closed together and showed no sign of opening. For some reason, the enemy did not attack immediately.They all stood where they were, looking at Cadderly and Danica in turn, and the priest who entered first, who was obviously the leader. "You think it's that easy?" the scarred man screamed hysterically. "You think you can walk all the way through our stronghold without hindrance?" Cadderly put a hand on Danica's upper arm, preventing her from leaping at the hideous man.She might be able to attack him, even kill him, but they had no chance of defeating the entire horde.unless…… Cadderly heard the song singing in his head, and had a strange feeling, as if a powerful assistant under God Denir was calling him, instructing him, forcing him to listen to the harmonious melody of the music. The evil priest giggled, then clapped his palms together, and then the ground in front of him suddenly bulged and rose, turning into a gigantic human form. "Elemental manipulation," Danica said breathlessly, drawing Cadderly's attention.In fact, two elemental monsters from the Earth Plane had appeared in response to the evil priest's call, and Cadderly learned that the man must be extremely powerful to command such powerful helpers. But Cadderly shook his head away from the pessimistic thought and turned back to the song, listening to the music leap to a glorious crescendo. "He's casting a spell!" said one of the remaining priests, and the warning set the entire enemy army on fire.The infantry began to charge forward, weapons brandishing and mouths drooling with hunger.An archer raised his bow and began to shoot arrows, while the priests themselves began to cast spells, some gathering defensive energy, others calling out spells to attack the intruders. Danica called out to her lover and kicked reflexively, narrowly missing an arrow that aimed at Cadderly's chest.She wanted to protect Cadderly, knowing both of them would die because they didn't have time... A word - if it was a word - escaped the young priest's lips.It sounded like a little trumpet, so clear and perfect that a shiver of supreme joy ran down Danica's spine, inviting her into its perfect resonance, enveloping her in its ever-changing beauty. middle. The sound had a very different effect on Cadderly's enemies, men of evil and monsters who could not stand the sacred harmony of the Denir's song.Goblins, orcs, and some men grabbed their bleeding ears and fell to the ground to die or lose consciousness. Their eardrums were shattered by this word.The other men fainted one after another, and their energy was eroded by the glory of Denier's true will, while those elemental monsters fell back into the stones on the ground and fled back to the realm where they originally lived. For a moment, Danica stood trembling, her eyes closed, and then, as the last echo of the Perfect Voice faded away, she realized that she should not have stopped, thinking that the enemy swarm was upon her.But when she opened her eyes, she saw only three enemies still standing: the priest who first entered the room was standing by the side wall with an assistant, both covering their ears, while the third man was a soldier but Non-priest, he stood not far away, looking around with utter bewilderment. Danica jumped forward, kicking the sword out of the man's hand.He looked up at her, still too shocked to react, and then the monk grabbed the front of his shirt and rolled backwards, kicking his feet into his stomach as he came over her, knocking him flying It crashed hard against the wall next to Cadderly, and he collapsed in pain in the corner.Danica was on him in a flash, fingers arched for the killing blow. "Don't kill him," Cadderly told her, for the young priest realized that if the man could escape the pain caused by his holiest magic, if the man could bear the sound of pure harmony, Then his xinxing might not be evil.Cadderly glanced at him briefly, but he noticed a revealing shadow over the man's shoulder, the man's aura materializing.They were not a jumble of evil things, as the young priest had often seen when he looked at evil people. Trusting Cadderly's judgment, Danica restrained the man defensively, before Cadderly turned his attention back to the priest who was still standing. "Damn you!" roared the horribly scarred leader—so eerily loud that Cadderly knew his holy magic had probably deafened the man. "Where's Aballister?" Cadderly yelled, and the man looked him up strangely, then patted his ear, confirming Cadderly's guess. The two evil priests began to chant spells frantically and began to cast new spells, while Danica dropped the soldiers in her hands to the ground and started to rush forward. "Stand back!" Cadderly warned, and the monk was caught in a dilemma.She knew it was important to catch the casters before they finished casting, but she also knew that Cadderly's warnings should be trusted. Cadderly had great self-confidence, feeling that he was invincible against these priests of evil gods, so he immersed himself in the leaking music and let the song begin.A nearby priest cast a paralyzing spell at him, and he could feel waves of numbing energy coming from him, but the spell had no effect on Cadderly, protected by the musical river of Denir's song. The scarred leader raised his arm and hurled a gem, radiating radiance from the powerful energy contained within.Danica jumped forward to block it, just as she had blocked the arrow that had been shot earlier, and Cadderly pointed and yelled. The brilliance faded from the gem, and then, in a sudden inspiration (Cadderly sent her a silent telepathic message), Danica reached for the gem. Cadderly grabbed the back of Danica's blouse and dragged her behind him, chanting.Numerous equations and numbers flashed through his mind with each note.He saw the real structure of the surrounding area, the relationship and density of the different substances.Energy emanates from torches mounted in wall sconces, and another, more stable energy, the binding force that holds every substance in place, is also clearly revealed. The evil priest stubbornly began chanting again, but now it was Cadderly's turn to attack.The young priest focused on that binding force, recreating the equation and changing the variables, forcing the real to become unreal. No, not untrue, Cadderly understood.It wasn't Chaos, it wasn't like a spell he'd cast on the Elder Dragon Valen.In the equations that were revealed, Cadderly found another truth, an orderly twist of the laws of physics rather than a disorderly inversion.Through sheer force of will, and the insight that the song of Denir gave him, the young priest reversed the binding force and directed it toward the scarred enemy leader, making him the center of gravity. The floor was no longer a reliable place for all the unanchored objects around the scarred man. Dead or fallen soldiers "fall" towards their leaders, and instead of gliding along the floor, they roll and fly, as if the floor were now a vertical slope.A desk in the back room of the startled priest slammed into his back, everything within clinging to him as if he had become a living magnet.In this reality-distorted area, two torches leaned toward the evil priest, slid slowly along the edge of the candlestick where they stood, and finally stopped unsteadily at a skewed angle, their flames directed toward the hapless priest. The man spreads the fire in the opposite direction. The priest who had been standing on the other side of the room was hanging horizontally, his feet facing his master, and his hands clutching the doorpost. Danica couldn't help but chuckle when she saw the absurd scene in front of her.A sphere of bodies and objects focused on the scarred leader, squeezing him from every angle.The priest on the other side of the room finally fell through, crashing into a dead orc.Then everything fell in its natural way again, and everything that was not secured or supported by the bed within fifty feet of the evil priest fell on him, pounding him hard and burying him whole. There were several groans from the mess, mostly from the leader who kept getting hit, buried somewhere deep beneath the mess. The man's assistant, lying on the outer edge of the chaotic mass, looked at Cadderly with utter hatred, and began to cast the spell obstinately again. "Don't do that!" Cadderly warned him.The priest did stop, but not because of Cadderly's warning.From the room where the desk fell out just now, an unbelievably fat giant fell out at this moment. It hit the pile of objects with tremendous force, causing the corpses piled on the opposite side close to Cadderly and Danica to bounce aside. , and fell back into a pile again.The scarred leader fell silent for the first time, and Cadderly flinched, realizing that the giant had probably trampled the man to death. However, the giant was alive and well.It roared and thrashed, knocking the corpses flying, and smashing them to pieces when they inevitably fell back in a heap. "How long will the magic last?" Danica asked.Her glances showed her fear, for there was no obvious way for her and Cadderly to escape the area.Many who had been knocked unconscious by the holy word began to wake up, but the ferocious giant was not seriously injured. Panic welled up in Cadderly, fear of what he would have to do to end the battle.He searched for his magic, listening to the song for a way to get him and Danica through without causing more bloodshed.But what about his friends?he thought.If they came here after him?But the spell has lost its effect, and they have to face a group of extremely difficult enemies. The angry priest at the top of the pile cast the spell again; a soldier beside him hurled a short knife at Cadderly, but he seemed to be throwing it up a cliff, and the knife fell back on the clutter, Stabbed in the back of a dead goblin.Then the giant climbed over, with an expression of extreme hatred on its huge face. Cadderly looked to Danica, at the gem she was holding; it was a large chunk of amber.Of all the trials the young priest faced, none was as painful as this one of conscience.However, he cannot fail now, and cannot allow his own vulnerability to jeopardize his mission, and the good people of the entire region.He swung his hand over the gem, said a few words, and it began to glow again, full of magical energy. "Throw it out," he instructed. "At them?" Cadderly thought for a moment, then shrugged, as if that wasn't the problem. "Throw it aside," he said, pointing to the doorpost where the priest had hung it earlier. Danica still didn't seem to understand what was going on, but she threw the Philosopher's Stone anyway.It flew a few feet in its normal path, then entered the area where Cadderly had cast the spell, and then descended in an arc, hitting the pile of objects impartially. A blinding flash burst out, and the whole pile was engulfed in flames.The men howled for a moment, then fell silent.The giant beat wildly, but there was nowhere to run, and there was nothing not burning to roll over to put out the flames.It struggled for what seemed a long and painful time, but in reality it was only a few minutes, and then the only sound was the crackling of hungry flames. ※※※ Pikel whizzed through another sloping doorway, then fell fifteen feet and hit the corridor floor with a resounding "Ooh!" Dazed and unsteady, the dwarf turned his eyes to the side and saw Vander—or at least Vander's fur boots—stumbling forward among the corpses of several dead ogres.Behind this waddling vobol giant was pursued by even larger boots, perhaps a hill giant, and the dirty bare feet of another ogre. Pikel knew Vander needed him, so with a determined grunt, he began to struggle to get up from the ground. Yiwen, who fell vertically, hit him in the back.The yellow-bearded dwarf bounced off a manned landing, then charged forward, finding Vander in critical condition.The hill giant wrapped its huge arms around Vander, and the ogre, wielding a huge mace, circled around them, looking for an opening to attack. "Traitor!" the hill giant roared again. Vander rammed his forehead hard, smashing the giant's nose.With a roar, the giant spun and threw Fander against the wall with such force that the entire corridor shook.Vander snapped back a step, trying to raise his sword, but the ogre rushed to his side and hit him with a swish of the club, driving a spike straight into the side of his skull. Kneeling on his knees, the dying Fubo giant noticed Ivan's charge, and heroically threw his sword forward like a spear.The sword slashed into the hill giant's shoulder, knocking the monster backwards and against the opposite wall, its huge hands trying to find the point to pull the sword out. The ogre's huge club struck again, and then Vander saw nothing. Ivan strode down the aisle, tears welling in his black eyes.Leaping atop the wounded hill giant, he slammed his ax violently into the monster's thick skull.Seeing the dwarf, the ogre immediately roared and rushed back from the other side of the corridor, swinging the club wildly. Yiwen jumped away, and the ogre's mace made several bloodstains on the face of the hill giant, knocking the huge monster to the ground with its limbs sprawled. "Da," the ogre groaned foolishly, and then it lurched sideways as Ivan hacked at its leg with the axe.Like a lumberjack, the muscular dwarf went to work, slashing with all his might, and after four blows, the ogre fell to the ground. Behind Ivan, the hill giant groaned and tried to stand.A yell of "Oooohoo!" followed by a loud snap of a tree-trunk-like club hitting flesh made the yellow-bearded dwarf smile sullenly. Pikel punched the stunned hill giant again, then prepared to strike a third time.But the stubborn behemoth was far from dead, grabbing the stick and tearing it apart. Pikel let go of one hand and pointed it straight at the hill giant, which seemed rather puzzled—until something shot out of Pikel's loose sleeve with a venom-dripping tip The teeth fell into the face of the surprised hill giant. The giant let go of the club and fell back, clutching at the stinging wound, terrified.It heard Pikel's "Oooohoo!" when he finally got hold of the club, but never saw the killing blow come. Unarmed, the ogre across the corridor raised its arms defensively and cried out to surrender. But no matter how thick those arms were, they were no match for Ivan's irrational rage.Vander was dead, down behind him, and the dwarf had no heart for anything the hopeless monster wanted to say.The dwarf's battle-axe kept slashing down, smashing flesh and bone, and the ogre's screams had been eternity when Shaylin came to Ivan's side and put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. still.