The Eden Crisis
Chapter 18: Castle Infinity, Part Two

Noel’s Pathway

After I separate Dante and his friends, I go to basement six of Castle Infinity, where Cain resides. The floor is blocked off; the only way into it is through a portal crystal. If any of those idiots actually makes it through basement seven to get to six, they will instantly go to basement five.

I appear in Cain’s room. He is sitting down looking into a mirror of fate he crafted. He is watching everyone in the castle. “Dante and his companions are in the castle,” I say.“It would seem that Helios, Damon, Vayne, and Sion are dead.” Cain looks up from the mirror and to me. “I know, Noel. I’m shocked by Dante’s and the others ’progress. They might make it to the end.”

“What do you want me to do?” I ask. Pondering the question, Cain replies, “Lyken intends to kill Claire. Loki is guarding the ninth level. Samson and Sarabi are seeking revenge despite orders. I will continue to monitor things here. I would like you to help me in the monitoring. I’ve lost the whereabouts of Asher. Vergil is on his way to kill the director, and I will get to him before he gets too close, but Asher is the one I am worried about.” “It will be done,” I say as Cain puts his hand on my shoulder and I return the gesture.

“I’ll be watching, Noel. I’ll make sure you are safe.” I smile. “I’m supposed to keep you safe, remember?” I say as, throwing down a portal crystal, I leave to keep an eye on the guests of Castle Infinity.

Dante’s Pathway

The black fog disappears and I see that I haven’t left the beginning of the castle. Everyone else has except Claire. Even Noel has gone. Claire and I look around the area. “I guess we should search the main floor first,” I say. “Maybe we can replace the others there.”

Claire nods and we begin our search of the main floor. We walk into one of the rooms and look around. It looks like the parlor room. There isn’t much there—couches and an end table with bottles and other items on it.

Claire goes to the fireplace and looks around. I continue my search of the room. Seeing a book on a window sill, I open it and read. Castle Infinity is the remnant of creation. Any and all things may be found within its walls, and only a hero of Veren’s standards will succeed in ascending the heights of its main tower.

Hero? I’m no hero, that’s for sure. I couldn’t even save everyone in Sanctum. I close the book and put it down. “Dante!” Claire says with excitement. I walk over to her and look at what she’s found. She shows me a candlestick. “So? It’s a candlestick.” Claire rolls her eyes and pulls on it.

The rear of the fireplace opens up, revealing a hidden room. We go inside and look around. All I see is a table with a rock on it. There are some dead-looking lizard-men monsters on the ground but nothing else. Claire picks up the rock. “Do you know what this is, Dante?” she says. I shake my head.

“It’s holy matter,” she says. ”It will upgrade my sword if I forge the two and will create Excalibur EX. It’s needed if you want to create the ultimate sword, the sword of creation. The next item needed is a dark-based sword and dark matter.”

“Cool,” I say, “but let’s go, we have more rooms to search. “Before we can leave, the lizard men come back from the dead and attack. Claire quickly forges the holy matter with her sword. We attack the beasts. We kill the lizard men and leave the room.

Once we get back to the main room we resume exploring the main floor, but there is nothing of interest to see. Claire and I go up the stairs to the next floor. There are four doors. The door we need to go through is a set of double doors but it is locked. We look for a way to unlock the doors. Two of the rooms have items that we add to our inventory. The last room looks like an office. We search the room and replace a key.

I use the key to unlock the door, and we begin our trek upstairs. As we walk up the stairs Claire says, “I am afraid, Dante. This is the end of the game, and all of our friends are separated from us. What if they get hurt? What if they die?” I try to think of a way to comfort her. “We will see them again,” I say, trying to reassure her. “Our friends are strong. We just beat Proto Omega! I think they will be OK.”

“We beat him together, and now we are separated,” Claire says. “What do you think Raziel would do if the director is his brother?” I think that I don’t know what Raziel would do, and I don’t know even what I would do if he stood with the director. I care about Raziel, who is like a brother to me now.

“I honestly don’t know, Claire,” I say. We continue up the stairs until we enter a large open room. This room is like the main floor in its beauty. There are paintings along the walls. On the far side of the room is a door.

We walk toward the other door but something catches my eye on the wall. It is a painting of Veren. There is text under the painting that reads: Life seeks death and death seeks life. Humans seek both in futile fighting; they don’t realize their salvation is out of their hands. In the end their foolish ambitions will lead to their self-destruction.—Veren, Lord of Creation, as recorded by the Prophets of Hullez.

This seems out of place. Why is it here? If the castle is just the final dungeon, why have some form of history here when the libraries all over Eden cover things like history. Perhaps there is something or someone ahead who will need information like this. It wouldn’t surprise me; after all, this game has already had all sorts of puzzles and riddles.

Claire comes over to the painting and looks at it. “Pretty cool,” she says. “Let’s keep moving. Try to keep stuff you see in your memory.” We continue through to the next room. It is like the one before. I look around and see three different doors. Which one should we go through?

“Claire, I’m going to take the door on the left. You take the one in the middle. If either one of us replaces something then yell out to the other.” Claire shouts out her agreement and goes to the middle door.

I go through the door and look around. This room has several statues. The statues are holding crystal orbs. The door shuts behind me. I try to open it but it won’t budge. “Damn! This must be a puzzle.” I look around and notice there is a symbol of the sun in the center of the room on the floor. Upon further inspection I see a stained-glass window that is allowing filtered light in.

“By the look of it, if the window is broken, unfiltered light should hit that first orb,” I say to myself. I walk over to the window and shatter it with my sword. Light pours in and hits the orb. It immediately illuminates the orb, which glows brightly. A beam of light shoots out from the orb and lands on the back of another statue.

I wonder if the light needs to hit the sun symbol. I need to try to move these statues to make it happen. I first try turning the statue the light is hitting to align it properly. I manage to turn the statue and position it correctly. The light hits the orb in the turned statue and continues the beam.

I look at the other statues. It seems I don’t have to use every one, but the beam has to hit the statue with the specific orb, yet this orb is shaped oddly, making it not really an orb. It looks more like a teardrop. The weird orb points upward to a mirror on the ceiling.

I try moving the statues into different positions and it’s proving difficult. After several tries I get the statues aligned. All I have to do now is turn the last statue so it will shoot the beam to the tear-shaped orb.

I turn the statue and the beam of light completes and shoots up to the mirror and reflects down onto the sun symbol. The symbol lights up, and a person in robes and a golden mask harking back to ancient Egypt appears. A holds a staff in his hands.

“I am Ra, one of the champions of Veren,” he says. “I will not allow any mortals to enter my master’s throne room.” His staff held high, he charges, “Sacred light.” The statues turn to dust, and the magic temporarily blinds me. When my vision clears I don’t see where Ra went.

“Sacred fire,” I hear. A circular stream of fire shoots at me. I counter with “Reflect,” casting my defensive magic. The fire bounces off and shoots back at Ra. The fire doesn’t seem to affect him. I hold up my hand. “Shadow flare!” A ball of black energy shoots from my hand and hits Ra.

My enemy flies backwards. He holds out his staff. “Sacred water!” A powerful stream of water shoots from the staff. I act quickly and use colossal storm. Lightning shoots from the ceiling and strikes all around the room. The lightning disrupts the water stream and hits Ra.

He falls to his knees. “I have failed Lord Veren,” he says as he shatters into nothing, leaving only his staff. I pick it up and put it in my inventory. A chest appears where the sun symbol is. I open it; inside is what looks like a key. I put it away and go to the door, which is now open.

I walk out and see Claire “Did you get locked up, too, and forced to do a puzzle?” she says. I nod and show her the sun key as I am calling it. She shows me what she is calling the moon key.

“Let’s keep going up,” I say. Claire opens the last door, the one on the right. We walk through it and go up to the next floor. The room we enter has statues of the original dragons. There are small podiums with stone engravings that describe the statues. I walk up to the original divine dragon and read the text. The original divine dragon is the first born of all living creatures in Eden. It only bows to one worthy of the title Hero of Eden. I look ahead and see the door to the next room. Claire and I head toward the door, but we are interrupted by the appearance of a black portal.

“Dante . . . do you think it is one of our friends?” Claire asks. I’m dubious and pull out my sword. “Maybe, but be ready.” A large man in red armor appears carrying a big, broad sword. I run at him, and he swings his sword, hitting me. I fly into one of the dragon statues and break it. My vision darkens as I begin to lose consciousness. The last thing I see is the man grabbing Claire, tossing her into the portal and following her.

Cloud’s Pathway

Zack and I appear in a room somewhere in the castle. If I had to guess I’d say it’s a basement-level room, very plain. “Cloud, we need to replace the others,” Zack says to me. I nod. “Get your sword out; we don’t know what is down here.” Zack does as I suggest.

We begin our way through the maze that is the castle’s basement, a warren of rooms barren of any real detail. Most doors lead to nowhere except a fight against monsters. It seems endless.

As we are walking through the halls I spot stairs ahead of us. This must be the way out. We walk to the door and a large sphinx appears. “To enter the next floor you must pass my riddle,” it says. “A boy walks down the path to replace the truth village, where people only tell the truth, but next to it is the village of liars, and they only tell lies. The boy comes to a fork in the road and is unsure of which way to go, but fortunately there is a villager who allows the boy one question. The boy, however, doesn’t know what to ask because the villager could be from the lying village or the truth-telling village. What should the boy say to the villager to get to the truth village?”

I look at Zack. “What do you think? Villages that only tell the truth or lies? What question can be answered by both villages that results in getting to the right village?” I ask him.

Zack shrugs. “I’m the brawn, you’re the brain,” he says as he rubs the back of his head. I sigh. OK, think for a minute. What can we ask the villager? What question will both villages answer the same to?

Zack turns to the sphinx. Is he going to answer? Zack! No! “Take me to your own village?” Zack says to the sphinx. No!

“Correct. You may pass,” the sphinx says before it disappears. I look at Zack, who is grinning like crazy. “Zack, how did you know?” He puts a hand to his chin. “By asking the villager to take him to his own village, the boy gets to where he needs to go. A truth-teller will take the boy to the truth village. A liar will take him to the truth village as well because then he’d be lying,” Zack says. I give him a hug. “You’re a genius!” I pull away and we continue up to the next floor.

This floor is different. The room is all white though there is little detail as before. We take a step forward and a black portal opens. A blonde girl comes out. She looks permanently angry. If I am right, this is Sarabi.

“Your brother killed my brother Sion. So I am going to kill you!” she yells. She hurls several of her throwing knives at us. She tosses a scroll in the air as Zack and I dodge the knives. “I seek the light that dances through the sky. Lightning!” she yells as bolts of lightning shoot from the scroll and come at Zack and me.

We take the hit and our HP drops a little. She comes at us with more of her throwing knives, this time for a close attack. She is very fast. Zack and I run to attack her from both sides. She seems to have anticipated this and jumps into the air to kick us both. We use our swords and block the attack.

She pushes off from our swords and flips away from us. Then, using two scrolls at once, she shoots lightning at us. The magic knocks us back. She runs toward us with her knives and goes in for the kill. Zack reacts quickly and counters her.

Sarabi tries to use her speed to her advantage, but Zack is more skilled with his sword than she is with her knives. After she takes several hits, she backs away and uses her magic. The attack sends Zack to his knees.

I attack her head on. She is shocked by my attack and takes a few slashes. She lets out a screech. “Bastard!” she yells. “Time to die!” She pulls out a scroll and unravels the ancient words, twirling the paper around her. “I offer up this seal to unleash the power of the dragon that envelops the thunderous clouds!” she says with anger pouring from her lips.

A purple aura surrounds her. She has the power of lightning surging through her. She lets out a yell and shoots lighting from her hands at me. I use my sword to deflect the lightning, but this does little.

She jumps into the air. “Lightning knives shower!” she yells. An onslaught of electrified knives flies down from her. I try to deflect the blades, but the attack is so fast I can’t repel them all.

A few of the knives pin me down to the ground. Sarabi laughs at me and goes to finish Zack. I try to break free from the knives, but the electricity is keeping me from using my strength fully. Zack fights her well, though. Her HP is falling rapidly.

“Enough!” Sarabi says as she punches Zack with an electrified attack. Again, he falls to the ground. The electric attack must have done to him what it did me. I use every ounce of my strength to break free of the knives. Sarabi is standing over Zack. She’s planning to finish him.

“First you and then Dante’s brother,” she says with a cackle. I see fear in Zack’s eyes, but that is soon replaced with joy as my sword pierces Sarabi from her back through her chest. I can’t see her expression, but I imagine it is full of surprise.

I pull my sword from her and she backs away from us. She is holding her side. “This isn’t the way . . . I . . .” She shatters into nothing before our eyes.

I help Zack up and he uses potions to heal us from the fight. “Let’s get out of here, Zack. We need to replace my brother,” I say as we walk toward the stairs to go up.

Raziel’s Pathway

Lucifer and I are in a room with two suits of armor brandishing war axes, standing in front of the doors leading out. I recognize this room. My brother would often sketch his fantasies and this is one of the sketches made real. “We’re on the seventh floor, Lucifer,” I say. “I’m surprised Noel would send us so high in the castle.”

I look around the room. If I remember correctly from my brother’s bedtime stories, in order to unlock the door we have to defeat those suits. They are called Theta Knuckles. They were the elite warriors of the Silva Regnum kingdom.

“All right, we have to fight the Theta Knuckles,” I tell Lucifer as I point across the room. ”“Those armored suits.” Lucifer walks up to one of the armored suits and it does nothing. He examines it and still nothing. Finally Lucifer punches the armor and both of the Theta Knuckles come to life.

They immediately swing their axes. Lucifer does a back flip to avoid their attack. The Theta Knuckles are slow moving, at least for now. I remember Noel telling me stories about how he envisioned them attacking. I gather magic into my hand. “Fire stream,” I say, as fire shoots from my hand and hits the enemy.

The attack puts a fair amount of damage to them. Lucifer uses his physical skills and also attacks the two warriors. “Sanctimonious palm strike!” he yells as their HP drops.

“Lightning of hell!” I shout as I shoot red lightning from my hands. The attack connects to the enemy and they let out groans.

Parts of their armor fall off, and now they move faster. Lucifer goes to attack but with their increased speed they counter and knock my companion away. He takes a large hit to his HP from the counter-attack. I use my throwing cards and attack the two knuckles as they come toward me with their now-ferocious speed.

They swing at me and I dodge out of the way. I roll near Lucifer and use a healing spell on him. “Let’s get them with our duel tech,” I say. He smiles at me. We stand up and hold our arms out, making sure they touch to make our spell stronger. “Flames of judgment,” I charge, and fireballs shoot down from the ceiling as flames leap from our hands.

The Theta Knuckles explode in fire and fall to the ground. They shatter into nothing. “Mission accomplished,” I say to Lucifer, and we go into the next room through a black portal that opens before us on the eighth floor.

Is this Samson that I see? “You, you’re—“I say before being interrupted by Samson. “I’d rather we skip the formalities,” he says. He hurls his throwing cards at me. I dodge out of the way. Lucifer goes to attack him directly.

Samson dodges the attack and comes toward me. I hold out my hand. “Divine lightning!” I say. White lightning shoots from my hands and soars toward my attacker. He casts a defensive magic and defuses the spell. Lucifer is able to catch him off guard and deliver a powerful blow during his distracted moment.

Lucifer then delivers several more blows, but Samson counters them and shoves Lucifer to the ground. I realize I need to stop him, now. I’m not fond of ninja magic but I have a scroll that I can use.

Samson comes at me before I can use it. He propels more of his throwing cards. I dodge the cards and use a low-level fire spell to knock him off balance. “You’ll need to do better than that!” he yells out as he holds up a hand. “Time stop!” he says as he casts a powerful time magic. This spell is too strong. It freezes me in place.

Samson isn’t thinking clearly: this spell only affects me. Lucifer is still free. Up off the ground, he again makes as if to attack Samson. But, as before, the enemy is ready and counters my ally before he can carry out his plan, once more sending him to the ground.

Samson walks slowly toward me. “It ends now,” he says. “My brother is dead because of you. My sister is going to kill Cloud to hurt Dante, and I am going to kill you to do the same.” Cloud? Dante? No! Samson’s spell will break soon, but will it be soon enough?

“I call on the empty void and ask for the power of the ancient guardian of Chaos!” Lucifer yells as he uses a level-three scroll. This is costly. Lucifer’s HP drops to one. He is unable to stand but still the power of the great Entitas of chaos is summoned.

Several dark orbs appear around the room. “What—?” Samson says more than asks. The dark orbs crash into him and deal massive damage to his body. None too soon, the spell on me breaks.

Samson is still alive. He is standing and is slightly dazed. I change my weapon to a broad sword. I swing it through the air and run toward Samson. He attempts to use a magic defense but I cut through him before he can.

He falls to his knees, holding his side. “Why . . . Eden . . . where is my salvation?” he says as his body shatters.

I use a healing spell and restore Lucifer to full health. I help my companion stand. “Come, let’s get to the next floor,” I say. We walk out of the room and go up to floor nine. This floor looks like a bar. There are three NPCs. I walk up to one of them and it immediately begins speaking.

“Would you like to rest?” it says. “His Lordship is not far now.” The game is warning of the final boss. I say yes and the NPC restores our health and magic. Lucifer sits down at a table and pours himself a drink. I give him a questioning look.

“What?” he says. “We should wait for the others here. Therefore, I’m going to enjoy a drink. You should, too.” I can hardly argue with his logic. I pull up a chair next to him and enjoy a drink until our friends meet us here.