The Monastery

PART 1

Jan 1

I am as good as dead. Hello my name is Sam and I am a part of the Fiend hunter clan. The fiend hunter clan tracks down fiends that have taken refuge in this world. Fiends are creatures that live in another parallel world and are occasionally found out in the open, finding a place to hide.

There are the ruins of a Buddhist monastery In China where the main portal between the two parallel worlds is. The monastery contains the biggest community of fiends on Earth and everyone who has gone there has never returned.

My clan is sending me to the place so that I can fight my way to the portal and close the portal forever. The statistics say that 6 out of every 10 fiends that are spotted outside their hiding place are from this monastery and so if I am able to close the portal before I die then the chance that a fiend is found out I the world will decrease by 60 %. But I do not believe in that. They just wanted to get rid of me. I was causing them a lot of trouble because of my power.

I am in my flight to China and I am packing my backpack. Over the years we have managed to make some special weapons for fighting with fiends. One is the xblade. The xblade is a magical blade made with the pincers of a type B fiend. It is lethal to the fiends.

Another weapon is the magewhip which is made of the tentacles of a type C fiend plus some other magical ingredients. It is extremely rare and is good for even a type D fiend type A and B cower in the presence of the whip.

The magical mace is made from the armour of a type E fiend and there are only three in the world. This is because type E fiends have never made an appearance in our world. We invaded their world and took the carcasses of three of them to make the maces.

We also have projectile weapons like the Eclipse shuriken which is made from the bones of type A and B fiends.

I have packed 2 xblades 1 magewhip and 1 magical mace. I have stocked on as many eclipse shuriken as I could and I am ready to go.

PART 2

Jan 2

They have dropped me on the perimeter of the ruins and I am scouting the whole ruins for planning my attack. The outermost perimeter is guarded by a couple of type A and B fiends but as you go towards the centre the security tightens.

As my drone reaches the centre of the ruins the display on my screen goes off. Just as I had expected. In the few seconds of time that I got before the display on my screen going off I did not see any portal, instead I saw a long sword hovering in the air above the exact centre of the ruins.

I didn’t need someone to tell me what it was. It was the Summoner of the Phoenix. The sword I myself had forged in the boiling blood of a fiend with various magical ingredients, one of which was the jaws of a type E. It was believed to be stolen by one of the members of our clan. He was very inexperienced and probably he died trying to harness the power of the sword. The sword has been long forgotten.

I want it. I no longer care about the portal. I want my sword back. Obviously no one other than me can wield the sword and so it has ended up hovering in the territory of fiends.

I want the sword and so I fight my way to it. I set off for the centre of the ruins, hands wielding the xblades, the mage whip at my belt and the magical mace slung across my shoulder like a backpack. 

My backpack is stuffed with supplies including the bottle of fire syrup that can give me strength and warmth when I need it.

I bring the A and B fiends patrolling the outer perimeter of the ruins to an end with several slashes of my xblades. The blades have this strange thirst for fiend blood. The more you give them the more they want, but in turn they become more powerful.

There are a total of 15 rings of security around the sword and I have broken through one. If my math skills aren’t too shabby, it will take me about 7 days to get to the last ring of security and depending on the amount of fiends there it will take me 2 to 3 days to get to the sword. All in all it would take me a maximum of 10 days to get my hands on my weapon.

Guarding the 14^th ring are a few type C’s and a few hundred type A’s and B’s. I sheath my swords get a firm grip on my mace and am ready to go when something unexpected happens. I see a figure running towards me. I brace myself into a defensive position and then as the figure is close enough I realise that I am in no danger.

It is Katie. One of the other hunters in our clan. She is a good friend of mine. She had left our clan a few months ago. Said she wanted to roam the world and learn more about fiends. I hadn’t expected her to ever come here.

She came to a stop beside me and gasped for air.

“ How d’you happen to b‘ere.” she said

“The clan sent me here to get rid of me. Said they wanted me to close the portal. But I know they want me to die.” I replied

“This place is very weird.” She said “ I’v been studyin’ this place since I left.”

“What?” I said “ but you said you wanted to roam the world.”  

“Um, yea’. Bu’ then I decided to stay ‘ere.”

“ Have you gone to the centre.”

“No bu’ my drone has.” Katie replied

“Where do you stay.”

“I stay down there with an ol’ man who is a blacksmith. He makes fiend weapons.”

“What did you see in the drone.”

“All I see whenever I sen’ my drone there is a long black sword hoverin’ in the air.”

“That is the Summoner of the Phoenix.”

“Wha’!” she exclaimed “ That is your sword. but wasn’t it stol’n.”

“Yeah, probably that idiot died trying to summon its powers. The sword was then taken by the fiends.”

“Oh! So are you going to retrieve the sword or are you coming down to my hut.”

“Nope, got no time to spare.”

“ ‘k bye.”

“Bye.”       

Part 3

Jan 3

Yesterday after meeting Katie I continued my journey to the centre of the ruins I ran into the 14^th ring of defence. The type C’s were quite hard to fight. I almost died once when I encountered 3 type C’s together and I wasn’t even ready. I unfolded my whip. It had grown significantly since I had used it last time in India where a type D was creating ruckus. It was now 20 feet long.

I whipped up the three of them to death and for dessert I gave my whip a few hundred type A’s and B’s. It used their bones as toothpicks. Towards the end of the day, I summoned the powers of my hunter animal and created a safe house where I could sleep for the night.

Today I am planning to trek to the 13^th ring and then maybe take some rest and next morning fight my way through the ring. I am low on shuriken and my xblades are dying for blood. After the treat it got fighting the 14^th ring, my whip has elongated about 4 inches. It has become difficult to control.

Currently I am going up towards the 13^th ring. The day has been uneventful and I am hoping I can follow my schedule.

When I reach the 13^th ring I see that the sun has not yet set so but all the time I would have before sunset is about three hours. I set up my camp and about half an hour before dusk I send another drone to scout the area.

There have not been any major changes in security in the rings but as my drone reaches the centre I see one major change before my screen blacks out. A tall, dark, humanoid figure is holding my sword (not wielding).

Who could it have been? Was it a fiend or a human? Would it harm my sword? A million questions were flooding my mind right now. I wouldn’t be able to sleep the whole night.

Part 4

Jan 4

After enduring a sleepless night I resumed my schedule according to which I had to break through at least half of the 13^th ring of defence. The security here was much tighter than I had expected and I think that I would not complete in the time limit. This was the first time a type D had appeared in my journey. They almost look like humans except for the fact that they are made up of rotting human flesh. They are easy to kill if there are no other types of fiends around. They are slow but cause lot of damage once they hit you.

The 13^th ring was hard to pass. There were at least a hundred type C’s and uncountable Type A’s and B’s. Type A’s and B’s are a piece of cake with weapons like the magewhip and the Magical mace but they are small but nimble and fragile but deadly, so if you encounter too many of them at a time they can cause trouble. The only difference between the two types is that the type B’s have more health, are purple in colour and have deadly claws.

This was the first time I used my mace. I was surrounded by about 5000 type B’s all closing in on me so I took out my mace, raised it above my head and brought it down with all my might. It hit the ground with such force that it rattled my jaws. It unleashed a wave of destruction and killed half of the fiends. The effort had drained me though. I could not do it again so I unsheathed my xblades and went amongst the ranks of the fiends and slashed until they were all gone into the world of dead fiends.

Another time 7 type C’s had circled me and I knew the magical mace was less effective against the type C’s. I unleashed my Dabiliharo which I had picked up when I was coming up towards the 13^th ring. It was probably of another fiend hunter that had come here in pursuit of my sword and died. It was a big long and heavy sword. Its grip was just like a normal sword but its length was three times that of normal swords and it was twice as thick and with twice the width.

The curves on the edges easily sliced through the flesh of the type C’s, instantly killing them.

I was in the middle of the ring when I thought I had to take a break. Making an encampment in the middle of a ring of security was a challenge but I managed to do it and I slept in the encampment for the night only to resume my journey to the centre of the ruins.

PART 5

Jan 5

After waking this morning I continued killing the rest of the fiends guarding the 13^th ring. Today has been uneventful compared to yesterday when I was surrounded by thousands of fiends. Today was just like a few hundred fiends here and there and I had already broke through the 13^th ring by midday. 

That was awesome. I was ahead of my schedule. I decided I want to travel a little bit faster so I took a sip from the bottle of fire syrup and energizing warmth spread through my body. I reached the 12^th ring in a few minutes; it should have actually taken me the whole day to reach there.

On reaching, without second thought, I started killing my way through the 12^th ring so that I manage to complete the ring before the effect of the fire syrup wears of, but I did not. The effect of the syrup wearied off when I am only half through the ring. I do as much as I can before night falls but I am still unable to get through the ring, there are too many fiends.

I set up my camp in the middle of the 12^th ring and plot a plan to get to my sword faster. I send a drone to see where the security is thin. It is thin on the other side of the ring but if I try to go around it would take me longer to get there. I am trying a different approach. I am planning on taking the help of Katie. I would send a drone to tell her that she go to the other side of the ring and cause a distraction so the fiend forces move towards her and then I can go through the ring faster.

I send her a drone with a note tied to it saying

“Will you please create a distraction on the west side of the 12^th ring so I can get through the ring faster over here? Your refuge in the blacksmiths shop should be close to it.”

I also tied to it my magewhip thinking she would need some good weapons to fight with. Besides it was getting out of my control and she is better at controlling magewhips than me.

I landed the drone next to her bed and she recognized it. She took the note and read it. She took the magewhip picked up the drone so that the camera was pointing towards her face and gave me a reassuring nod.

I flew the drone back to my camp and slept.

PART 6

Jan 6

Today morning as soon as I woke up I sent a drone to Katie to give her the signal that the action had to start. She travelled to the west side of the 12^th ring and started killing the fiends there to create a distraction. As I saw in the drone she was really good with the whip. I waited for about half an hour before coming out of my encampment. I saw not a fiend in the 12^th ring of defence. Had all of them went to the east side of the ring? I continued and after an hour or so without encountering any kind of fiend I had finished the 12^th ring.

Thinking that Katie could handle it I continued towards the 11^th ring and on reaching there I took an invincibility pill that made me invincible for about a day. I only had 1 of these, they are really expensive, it cost me all my spoils of war to get it. I sliced my way through the 11^th ring with quite difficulty but by the end of the day I had managed to break through one fourth of the ring.

The 11^th ring is very hard to pass and now I am sure now that I won’t be able to reach my sword in ten days. There were at least 50 type D’s that I killed today. All of this is getting quite difficult for me now. I doubt I will be able to break through the stronger rings. I am not ready for this. I am starting to lose hope. I don’t know whether I will be able to get my sword.

PART 7

Jan 7

As I woke up today I first sent a drone to Katie's refuge but I could not see her anywhere. I flew the drone to the west side of the 12 ring. The ground there was scarred, obviously because of the intense battle that had happened there, but there was no trace of Katie. I was worried but I could not stop now. Maybe she had decided to go underground to hide from the fiends.

I came out of my encampment that was protected by magical forces and was shocked to see no fiends trying to come through my protection. I was in the middle of the 11th ring of defense so why was the landscape barren. I thought this might be some kind of trap. The fiends had hid below the ground and would spring up as soon as I exited my magical enforcement and finish me when I was not ready. But did fiends have so much of brains.

I got ready, packed my bag, took my weapons, and abandoned the protection of my camp. My heart beat escalated as a braced myself into fighting position. Nothing. I waited, nothing at all. Slowly, I moved forwards and relaxed my position a bit, I knew that was a mistake when, suddenly, about 7 Type B's emerged from the ground and pounced on me. I fell to the ground and I was disarmed by the fiends, the seven of them stood in a circle surrounding me and I calculated my probability.

Being a fiend hunter I had to also be smart enough to escape such situations when I was disarmed. I could not understand why the fiends were not attacking me, they were just standing there looking at me. Why?

I slowly inched my hand towards my thighs where I kept my emergence supply of Eclipse Shuriken. I took three and in a fraction of a second the shurikens were soaring towards the fiends. They ricocheted off the fiends hard bodies and killed 6 instantly. The 7th one, who got its leg severed and detached from its body was crawling towards me. I picked up my sword and cut him in half too. I bent down to pick my other weapons and that was when I saw something. The creatures that had attacked me were not fiends but robots. Some moments later when the fiend hides disintegrated all that was left behind was shiny metallic bodies.

6 of the intact bodies got up and advanced towards me I was ready this time. I unsheathed both of my xblades and cut all in half. The danger was gone but it was followed by realization. Encountering no fiends yesterday, no sign of Katie, no fiends encountered, robots instead of fiends. All this could sum up to only one thing. Katie was working for the fiends.

My blood boiled, I hated betrayal. Even when that guy had taken my sword I was so furious I had went to the world of the fiends and had killed millions of fiends. Now again I was furious and this time I wanted to destroy the whole world of the fiends.

I ran towards the 10th ring of defense. Nothing. I knew this had to be some trap but I could not control myself. I found no fiends blocking my way. By the time I had reached the 4th line of defense I had calmed down a little and it was already night so I made an encampment and slept.

I was determined at killing all of them.

PART 8

My blood was still boiling when I woke up today. Katie should not have betrayed me that way. Without much delay I proceeded towards the center of the ruins. I was still as much determined to kill every field on the Earth as I was yesterday.

It took me half the day to reach the center of the ruins and it was after that that I realized how big of a trap this could be. I could die. I saw nothing in the exact center of the ruins but a pillar. A stone circle. I had heard about stone circles, They were used to transport fiends from one world to another.

This was the portal I had to close and now when it had become easier than I had thought, I did not want to do it. All I wanted to do was kill all the fiends. I knew that even the fiends were desperate to finish me. As soon as I would step inside the stone circle the portal would activate and I would find myself falling through the gap between the worlds and the next moment in the world of the fiends.

I did not care. I stepped over the threshold and the next moment I felt myself falling through the gap. When I my feet found ground I found myself in the world of the fiends. Everything was different here. Everything was dark and blurry as if light itself was scared of entering the world. Seeing a thing here was impossible unless you had a special type of goggles. Fortunately I had a pair so I put them on and suddenly the world came into full focus.

I looked around to register my surrounding. I was on a small circular rock that extended into a bottomless pit below. It was like a stone pillar coming up from the pit. There was another such pillar to the right and another beyond that. That was the was I had to go. And I will go there.

PART 9

Yesterday I followed the path of the stone pillars and when I reached where it took me I saw everything that I needed to see. I had been wrong the whole time. I saw Katie but she was not standing amongst the fiends but bound by them. Katie had not betrayed me she was still on my side. Then who was controlling the fiends. I could not think of anybody who could do this. The fiends were definitely being controlled because they cannot think for themselves. There was this conspiracy among us fiend hunters that there were fallen fiend hunters that were supporting the fiends and guiding them. This conspiracy was given a high likelihood by many people because the attacks of the fiends were very organized.

When I was attacked by the robot fiends I was sure that there was somebody and at that time I thought it was Katie but it was not. The fiends attacked me but I was ready, I killed them all. Something was off. If I was in the world of the fiends then why were the weaker fiends attacking me?

Even the fiends guarding Katie were the lower types. I easily killed all of them and freed Katie. Then a great hoard of fiends attacked us and these were higher fiends. Though it was still less. I could not fight them so Katie and I fled. We have been hiding from them in a cave from today evening. Katie would be much better by tomorrow morning so we would then leave our refuge and find out more about this world. 

PART 10

Jan 10

Today morning Katie and I got out of our refuge and started finding my sword, The Summoner of the Phoenix. It was the one thing that could get us out of here. When the guider of the fiends got to know that I, the strongest fiend hunter, was here he ordered to close all portals to the real world.

Our last hope now was my sword. In the name of weapons we had my x-blades and my magical mace. But Katie said that if the magewhip was in this realm it would come to us soon. I just hoped she was right because the magical mace is not good against smaller fiends who are more agile and agility is exactly what the magical mace does not offer.

I have fire syrup worth four ties of use and food that would last for about 3 days. I also have a few bottles of fiend essence. Fiend essence is basically what is left of fiends after incineration. After dying each fiend incinerates and what is left is the armor, bones, claws and glowing balls of energy. These glowing balls of energy are fiend essence.

Katie and I roamed the realm in search of my sword and we did not have to wait long. At the time when it would have been mid-afternoon in our realm we saw a humungous gathering of all types of fiends. From a distance it looked as if someone was addressing the enormously huge gathering of fiends. I knew it was the human guider. We had to go there at least to know who it was.

We went for a closer look. As we neared the gathering I noticed that in front of the speaker was an altar upon which was my sword. My heart beat suddenly quickened.

“They are going to sacrifice it.” I whispered to Katie

“We need to get there fast.” She replied, “Here take this”

She offered me a vial in which there was a lotion. I recognized exactly what it was. It was a lotion that when applied disguises you amongst other fiends. I quickly applied it and then both me and Katie made our way through the crowd.

Half way through I made a glance at the speaker and I received a shock so hard that my abdomen was suddenly above my heart.

The face that I saw belonged to a person who should be dead. The face belonged to the freak who stole my sword. I stopped in my tracks.

To Be Continued...