Magus: A Supernatural LitRPG Saga (Apocosmos Book 2) by Dimitrios Gkirgkiris (ebook offline reader txt) 📗

I fell on my knees, careful not to let my swords hit the ground and cause a ruckus, and searched their clothes. These two looked like they were soldiers or a security detail, judging by their outfits. They both had scabbards on their belts and looked like they'd died fighting.

The first guy didn't have anything on him at all, not even an inventory bag, but the second one had a keycard in one of his pockets. I took it and touched it against the sensor next to the door, a clicking sound marking that it was unlocked. I pushed it open and there he was behind a toppled bed, holding an ice crystal in his hands, ready to fling it at us.

"Leo!" I half-whispered, half-shouted when I saw him.

"Alex..." he said and canceled his spell, looking confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Busting ye out, lad," Rory said as he came into the room behind me.

"Rory, you too. And Louie. And--" Leo immediately took a defensive position. "She's working for him. She--"

"She's helping us now," I said, trying to calm him and stepped forward to help him out. "Come on, we need to rescue her wife and then we're out of here."

"Do you know what happened here?" Louie asked, as Leo noticed the two bodies outside of his room.

"All I know is that I heard fights outside so I prepared myself for the worst."

"Let's get ye healed up and move on," Rory suggested.

"His HP is full," Louie said, and retrieved his old weapon from his inventory. "Take this and buff yourself."

Leo did as he was told before explaining himself. "Abrathion kept me well-fed and entertained. He only took me hostage because he needs the book."

"He must be pretty desperate to get his hands on it," Rory remarked, "or else he'd never have touched a DiFiore."

"We need to move," Viki said from the door. "She might be in that room."

With that, she went back out into the corridor and we rushed to follow her.

"Are we really helping her?" Leo asked me, once she was out of earshot. "She studied me and took my form to trick people."

"Trust me," I said.

Leo looked as if he was about to say something but instead closed his mouth and just nodded.

We rushed out of the room and I pressed the keycard on the panel that controlled the room next to the one in which we'd found Leo. This door didn't have a handle, but instead slid sideways into the wall. Inside was a room that looked a lot like an amphitheater, with a huge glass window at the opposite end.

We could not see much of what was happening on the other side of it but there were figures moving and the soft murmur of voices talking. Immediately, we all dropped down and looked around the room, trying to work out if this was another holding cell. However, the room was empty.

Viki waved her hand, indicating we should leave, but just as I back through the door, I heard the clacking noise of a roaming cockroach again. But this time, there was definitely more than one. I threw my hands to the side, pulling everyone back into the room, and searched for a button next to the door. Luckily, I found it easily and the door closed almost silently as soon as I pressed it. I could only hope that it had been quiet enough not to attract the monsters' attention.

We pressed our backs against the wall inside, waiting for the monsters to pass by and looking at each other, sweat beading down our foreheads.

"I can assure you," an eerily familiar voice said from beyond the immense pane of glass. "My word is diamond, and I promised you that I have my best people on the task."

"That's Abrathion," Viki whispered and moved toward the first row of seats.

We followed her and crept above them, trying to see who he was talking to. I wasn't prepared for this. None of us were. The room we were trapped in must have been some kind of operating theater, and beyond the window was Abrathion and a couple of his lackeys.

Name: Abrathion Halciu

Race: Human/Demon

Class: Infernal Arts Devout

Level: 38

Name: Rama Folie

Race: Human/Light Elf

Class: Fighter

Level: 19

Name: Jonas Pietri

Race: Human

Class: Mage

Level: 16

Abrathion's skin was light purple and small pointy horns protruded from his forehead. He had a large quarterstaff on his back that was glowing in a deep blue color, and his clothes didn't seem to be something one would wear in battle but rather at a lavish party. His face was covered in piercings.

But Abrathion's appearance wasn't the reason I felt the crippling hold of fear overcome me. Opposite him and his henchmen stood about dozen of the cockroach monsters, and in front of them two humanoids.

Name: Hikshor

Type: Insect

Level: 22

Disposition : Aggressive

HP : 387/387

Physical Attack: 57

Magic Attack: 36

Speed: 80

Attack Range: Melee

XP : 921

Description: A species of infernal-bred carrion insects. A bite from a hikshor can be a sentence to eternal living death if its victim expires within two hours. The bite will not force the reanimation process unless the victim dies before their immune system can get rid of the virus this monster spreads. Hikshor queens are highly valued among necromancers in the nine hells as a very efficient way to build an army of undead.

So it was these little buggers that had zombified those people. From the description, it didn't look like a single bite would prove lethal but I guessed this wouldn't be the case if one of the walking dead had then bitten me. Looking at the small army of them standing opposite Abrathion, I could understand how they managed to overrun his dungeon and pin him down there.

The insects, however, were nothing like as menacing as their two masters:

Name: