Interlude:

“We’re almost there,” Raze announced as he stared down at the silver metal ball in his hand. It was tugging insistently, letting him know that they were almost at their destination.

Raze grinned in anticipation, knowing that it wouldn’t be much longer until he achieved his goal and gained the power he desired. Soon, he’d be able to destroy anyone who stood in his way.

His thoughts immediately turned to that invoker bitch, the one who apparently used to be a Warden. But more importantly, she also used to be the same bastard geezer who’d taken his eye.

“I can’t wait to kill her again,” Raze muttered to himself. He’d never killed someone for a second time, and he was looking forward to experiencing that. This time, he’d make her death a lot more painful.

The berserker paused to look around at his surroundings, the long mountain ridges in the distance with the steep stone walls. One of those cliff walls was to his side as he made his way down a narrow path that was well away from the main one. It was unstable and treacherous ground, but this was where his magic sphere told him to go.

Then Raze looked back at his companions, the ones who remained. They were following close behind, being careful not to lose their balance and fall to their deaths the way that the treacherous Wolf had.

His eyes locked onto Jace, who was at the very back, trailing well behind the rest of the group. The scrawny young man could barely keep up and was on the verge of being left behind completely. Ever since Jace had changed back into his old body, he’d lost all of his stats and abilities. As far as Raze knew, Jace was no longer even a player.

“What a fucking waste,” he muttered in disgust.

Jace had traded the power of a player to get his old cock back, and as far as Raze was concerned, that was a complete waste. It was better to be a woman with power than a man without. As he knew from his own previous life, the one he hated to even think about, that was a recipe for misery.

Raze noticed that Mike kept glaring back at Jace as well, though for an entirely different reason. Mike was just pissed that Jace’s artifact had destroyed itself after it was activated, and before Mike had been able to really study it. He knew how much Mike loved to play around with new artifacts.

“It looks like the path drops off again,” Mike said, turning his gaze from Jace and gesturing to the trail ahead of them.

The path ended in an abrupt drop off, which was no surprise as the path they were on was extremely broken up and often missing entirely. Godiva came forward and used her ability to form the cliff rock into a passable bridge, just as she’d done several times before.

Raze nodded in approval. Godiva was proving herself to be useful, far more so than Zeke would have been. She’d been a good choice for his replacement.

A short time later, they reached the bottom of the cliff where there was a pile of stones. This was where the metal sphere pointed at, though Raze couldn’t see why.

“What is this?” he demanded impatiently.

Mike slowly walked around the stones, then paused. “There’s an arm sticking out here…”

Raze moved over and saw what Mike was referring too. A skeleton arm was indeed sticking out from beneath the stones. He grabbed a large rock from the pile and casually tossed it aside, then repeated this several more times.

“Allow me,” Godiva offered.

The shaper held out her hands and projected her presence and power into the stones. In mere seconds, all the rocks began to melt together, then the mass of now liquid seeming stone simply flowed off to the side, revealing the skeleton that had been buried beneath.

“It looks like this guy has been dead for a long time,” Jace commented.

Raze stared at the body, then looked up at the cliff beside them. He nodded, already seeing what had happened. Whoever this had been, it looked like he’d fallen down the cliff, perhaps because the ground gave way beneath him. That would explain why he was buried in rocks.

“It also looks like he had some good armor,” Mike added.

Mike leaned down next to the skeleton and looked over the armor that it was wearing. He examined it carefully, nodding as he did so.

“Artifact armor,” Mike observed. “Most of it looks to have been broken in the fall…” He looked up at the cliff. “Or when the rocks fell on top of him.”

“Most?” Raze asked.

However, Raze was staring at the metal sphere, which was pulling towards the skeleton’s helmet. All the armor was dull, grey, and cracked, but the helmet was golden colored and intact. It was the only part of the armor that seemed to be in good condition.

Just then, the metal sphere pulled out of Raze’s hand and flattened out so that it was once again a shard of mirror. He quickly tried to snatch it out of the air, but it vanished a moment later, leaving him with a handful of air.

“This is it,” Raze said. “But it’s just a helmet.”

Mike carefully removed the helmet from the skull, then stared at it intently, becoming excited as he did so. Raze gave him a couple seconds, then snatched the helmet out of his hands.

The helmet was open-faced and shaped so that it resembled a dragon’s head, with the wearer’s face being where the inside of the mouth would be.

“It’s called the Helmo the Dragon,” Mike explained. “And from what I can tell, it’s a pretty powerful artifact.” He gestured to the rest of the armor and added, “It was part of a set, but it looks like it’s the only piece remaining.”

“THIS is the power the Guide led me to?” Raze demanded, giving the helmet a skeptical look. This wasn’t quite what he’d been expecting.

“This isn’t a normal artifact,” Mike continued, growing more excited by the moment. “It says it was made by a person, not the Labyrinth.”

That got Raze’s attention because he knew that this was exactly what Mike had been looking to do himself. It was no wonder his partner was getting worked up over it.

“And look here,” Mike exclaimed, pointing to a symbol on the cracked and dented breastplate. It was identical to a symbol that was on the side of the helmet. “It’s a maker’s mark… The same mark is on this book…”

Mike pulled out the strange book that the Guide had led him to, the one that he couldn’t read yet. On the metal cover was the exact same symbol as on the armor.

“I think that whoever wrote this book, also made the armor,” Mike announced with a broad grin, practically dancing as he considered the possibilities.

Raze, however, was more concerned with this helmet and the power it was supposed to offer him. He scowled and put on the helmet, then paused as he suddenly gained a new ability, one tied to the helmet itself. His eyes widened and a gasp of surprise escaped his lips as he realized what this helmet could do for him.

“Yes,” Raze exclaimed with a broad laugh. “YES!”

“What is it?” Jace demanded.

“Power,” Raze answered with an evil grin. “Power to destroy anything that stands against me.”

Raze took a deep breath, then he blew it out, activating his new ability as he did so. A blast of flame shot out of his mouth and enveloped Jace. The former player couldn’t so much as scream before dying to the raging inferno. A second later, a charred skeleton collapsed to the ground.

“Very nice,” Raze said with a grin.

“You killed Jace,” Goldiva blurted out with a look of shock and horror.

“Bah,” Raze dismissed her concern. “The only thing Jace was good for now was target practice.”

Then Raze turned and repeated the process, breathing out another blast of fire that hit the cliff wall. Stone began to crack and melt, turning into a bubbling mass.

“Holy shit,” Mike exclaimed with a mad look in his eye. “The power… He stared down at the book that was still in his hands, laughing as he ran a finger over the maker’s mark on the cover. “Oh yes…”

“What… What now?” Godiva asked, her voice shaking as she looked down at what had been Jace. “Are we going to go back after those other players?”

Raze considered that for a moment before shaking his head. “No need. That invoker bitch is going to come for me, so I might as well find a good spot and wait for her.” He grinned evilly at that. “She’ll be in for one hell of a surprise.”

“And what about my prize?” Godiva cautiously asked. “Will we still go looking for my prize?”

The berserker stared down at the woman, smirking faintly as he did so. She was clearly terrified but trying to hide it. He enjoyed seeing that reaction in others, especially when it would encourage them to do what he wanted.

“Yeah,” Raze finally answered. “We’ll go looking for your prize when we’re finished with that invoker bitch.”

Godiva let out a sigh of relief. “Sure, then.”

Raze let out a dark chuckle and mused, “Immortality might be kind of nice.”

He didn’t notice the shaper glaring at him from behind.