Gold, a priestess, goes to a dungeon to search for her missing sister and the cursed sword she stole from the family.
This story is a finished interactive story, where I let people in my server vote on what happens next after each part. This was written and updated daily, from 16/12/2023 to 23/12/2023.
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Full Story
I.
Weeks ago, the cursed sword (that your family sealed away) was stolen by your eldest sister. You hadn't heard any signs of her since then, and with her disappearance, you felt as if something was missing. Though, your family went on with their lives, conducting rituals and helping the townspeople out, as if your sister didn't exist with them in the first place.
You didn't dare to voice your concern for your missing sister either, considering how she's the most infamous one among your siblings, with her tendency to get involved in things that brought problems to the rest of your family. Just a mention of her name would earn a death stare from them.
One day, during a family gathering, your other elder sister brought up the looming threat in your town. A force that drew unsuspecting townspeople towards the accursed dungeon deep in the forestâit was once sealed away by your parents for the sake of protecting the townspeople, but the seal was found broken.
Considering how your parents sealed the dungeon's curse by taking the cursed sword from there and sealing it in your family's place, your family quickly came to the conclusion that your missing sister was behind this threat.
You, the one who's known as the one-who-probably-could-slay-dragons among your sisters, offered to search for your missing sister and the cursed sword in the dungeon. But considering how it's been weeks ever since your sister's disappearance, your other sisters suggested that it'd be a better idea for you to prioritize searching for the sword first and heading home as soon as possible afterward, so they could quickly deal with the curse.
II.
Seeing how your sisters insisted you search for the sword instead of your missing sister, you could only scoff at them. They didn't know about anything about your missing sister, did they? After all, she was the one who made you pick up the sword and learn to fight.
You decided you're going to search for your missing sister and the cursed sword on your own. Sure, it was a reckless decision, but if anything, you had the confidence (that your other sisters lacked) to make it out alive.
After the day you prepared your supplies for the quest ahead, you steadied yourself on your horse, preparing to leave your home as soon as possible. But before you left, you heard your siblings' squabbles:
"Take care, Gold! Don't get yourself killed by the dungeon!"
"You know, I think the dungeon should be the one who fears her. She didn't even look back at us..."
"Still... She's going out there alone! And she didn't want any of us to help!"
"You guys don't trust her?"
"Iâ Well, whatever, she's leaving anyway. Take care, girl!"
As much as they annoyed you at times, you knew you wanted to come back home to them despite everything, and you couldn't bring yourself to leave without saying anything. So you turned back to them, gave them a wave, and told them not to fight and steal the snacks in your room, before riding your horse away into the forest.
It was an early morning when you left your house, and by the time you're following the trail inside the forest, your surroundings had gotten bright enough for you to navigate around. With the map you stole from your parent's room, you used it to search for the dungeon.
After a few attempts of going in the wrong direction, some notes being written down on the map, and what you could best describe as dumb luckâyou finally arrived in front of the dungeon's entrance. Its gate was shut closed at first, but the moment you got down from your horse, the gate opened for you.
They anticipated you, it seemed.
"Okay, I don't know if you can understand human language more than the basics, but it'd be very useful if you could," you spoke to your horse, patting its back as if it could be the last time you're talking to it. "Once it's getting dark out there and I haven't gotten out of here, go home. They'll know I'm stuck in there."
The horse snorted.
After a few minutes of patting your horse, you grabbed the mace and the sword you carried, and headed inside the dungeon.
The moment you stepped inside, the gates shut behind you, and as much as you wanted to dissect the gate to figure out its mechanic, you had something more important to worry aboutâsearching for the cursed sword, and your missing sister.
Following the passageway, you noticed trails of footsteps on the ground, but all that filled the air were silence, the stone floor creaking beneath you, the wall torches' flames crackling, and your own breaths. Surely, the people lured into this dungeon must've been deep inside this place. The further you walked ahead in this seemingly endless passageway, the more you caught the scent of blood and rotâsome signs of life in here, finally.
Blindly choosing the paths in the dungeon, following the trail of blood spattered on the wall and floor, you eventually saw a few bodies wearing full-body armor lying on the ground, like corpses.
"Anyone alive?"
You poked one of the armored people with your mace, and before you could say anything else, they woke up. Without any weapons to hold, they lunged at youâand you fought back.
When one armored person woke up, the rest started to wake up too, some with actual swords in their handâforcing you to knock an armored enemy out with a hit and run ahead.
Turns out, you couldn't go any further without a fightânow that more armored people were coming towards your direction. And so, you switched out your mace for a sword and took them on for a fight.
After what seemed to be forever, the armored threats that surrounded you were all knocked out. Some of them were stabbed, too. Considering everything, you did pretty well holding up, apart from the overall sore feeling that you could get it off by a rest anyway.
Now that they had given you trouble, enough to leave you complaining and cussing in ways you wouldn't around your family, you might as well get something in returnâin hopes of looting something from them, you removed a helmet from an armored person. But soon, you quickly realized who all those armored people were.
It's the missing townspeople.
Recalling the moments you used your sword to penetrate through their armor, you wondered if you had seriously killed some of them. Sure, you only knocked some of them out, but the ones you took them out by stabbing...
Oh well, it's not today's problem. You had something more important to care about.
Once you prayed for all the fallen bodies you had just taken care of, you went ahead into the dungeon, holding the sword tight in your grasp.
You arrived at another crossroads. But this time, both paths ahead had trails of blood, leaving you quite indecisive on which path to follow.
When you checked the path towards the left, you heard distant sounds of fighting and rumblingâmore signs of life, and probably more hints of the cursed sword. You would likely end up running into what lured the people into this dungeon, and with what you had heard about the cursed sword's effects on people, you could be a step closer to learning about the sword's whereabouts.
But when you checked the path towards the right, you sensed a powerful energy that shook your core, evoking a kind of primal fear you had no idea about. With what you heard about the cursed sword, you had a hunch this was the same dangerous energy this cursed sword emitted. However, you had nothing else to back up this feeling apart from your instincts.
III.
Instinctively, you followed the path where you sensed the powerful energy. You had a feeling the cursed sword should be lying ahead on this path.
But still, the moment you stepped towards this path where the torches seemed to be dimmer than ever, you felt a sense that you're walking into a life-and-death situation. You might not make it out of here alive.
On second thought, if this cursed sword was truly as dangerous as it was rumored to be, then this must be the path you must take to find it. After all, your missing sister took the sword in her hands, and this could be the path that led straight towards both the sword and your sister.
As you took further steps in this passageway, ghastly visions of spirits began to appear. Knowing that more would appear, you took hold of your pendant, chanted a protection spell, and ran past them. It's one of the most effective spells you could do here, with your current magical abilities. You hadn't reached the point where you could use your magic combined with your weapons to cut and slash your way past them.
Within the empty passageways, the sounds of your footsteps and the spirits' whispers echoed. You couldn't see much ahead, and the only thing that guided you was a sense of doom. You're chasing after a greater danger, believing that it would guide you towards the cursed sword, despite how its presence would've left you worn out by the time you stopped running.
All you could do was to run, run, and runâblindly going against your instincts to survive.
During this whole time, you held onto memories of your family as tightly as the pendant hanging from your neckâfor the sake of your missing sister, your other sister, and the rest of them.
But eventually, your legs began to give up, and the spirits that haunted these passageways weren't goneâwith a desperate chant, you cast another spell, barely getting the words out.
"...begone!"
The ghastly visions around you began to fade away, and you sighed in reliefâbefore your legs gave up, sending you collapsing onto the ground.
"Ack!..."
With no sword in sight, you dragged yourself across the ground. You couldn't just let yourself pass out here and then. You still had a mission. You needed to find the sword.
You eventually made your way towards a room, where you could sense the overwhelming energy you had been chasing after. When you crawled closer and peeked what's inside, you finally saw it.
The cursed sword itself, set onto an altarâjust like the one you saw when it was sealed in your family's place. A long blade, with a closed eye at the center of its cross-guard. When you looked at the sword back in your home, you sometimes joked about how its eye would open and scare off your other siblings, earning some scoldings from your older siblings.
But this time, you felt as if the eye on the sword could actually open anytime soon. And it would unleash an actual curse, just like how you often joked about it.
Apart from the sword in an altar, various spirits remained inside the room too, like they're guarding the sword from anyone who sought to remove the sword from its place.
Sure, you had just banished the spirits that surrounded you earlier, but they would eventually come back, so you had no time to charge your magic right now. You still had some magical energy left to cast another spell, and get the sword.
The protection spell's effect, that prevented you from being possessed and attacked by all the spirits out there, was still workingâbut you knew its effects would be worn out by the time you walked inside the room in this state. And so, you had two spells you could use in this situation.
One, the same banishing spell you used earlier. But with your weakened state, you wouldn't be able to banish the entire room's worth of spirits. With their reduced numbers, you might be able to preserve your protection spell's effects until you take the sword and leave the room.
Two, the spirit control spell that allowed you to directly control them. You could control the spirits to let you grab the sword, but with your capabilities and current state, its effects would end the moment you picked up the sword, and you would have to get away from here as soon as possible.
IV.
You had a feeling you'd pass out by the time you cast another spell, and so, without casting any spells, you ran straight inside the room full of spirits, stretching your arm out towards the sword.
Just as you're somewhere between being attacked by the spirits and grabbing the sword, the eye on its cross-guard opened, staring right into your eyes.
You crashed onto the ground, and everything turned black.
When you woke up to consciousness again, you found yourself lying on the hard, cold ground in front of the cursed sword's altar. But the sword ended up in your grasp instead of the altar.
You blinked, tried processing what had just happened, and got up. You're sure you passed out at some point before grabbing this sword, but here you were, holding it. You finally found the cursed sword. The last thing you saw before passing out was the sword's eye, and when you looked at the sword again, its eye remained shut.
'How long have I been here?' you wondered, as you looked around the room. No signs of spiritsâit's just you, and the cursed sword you held tight in your hand. You knew your protection spell would've run out at this point, but somehow, you didn't feel any different. Maybe you felt more refreshed yet sorer than before, and that's it. But now that you had the cursed sword in your hand...
When it came to possession, the possessed wouldn't know they're possessed until it's too lateâthat's what you had been taught, and so, you knew there's a possibility of something getting inside you when you passed out earlier. Who knows if it was the cursed sword itself, that's possessing you?
With some rest you had gotten from passing out earlier, you decided to chant another protection spell to prevent any more spirits from hiding inside your body. Exorcism may be too dangerous to do inside in a dungeon on your own, it'd probably be better to get out of here first, then get exorcised later.
Now that you'd gotten the sword, you could just go home and get exorcised soon, since your siblings only advised you to retrieve the sword. But at the same time, you hadn't found any signs of your missing sister so far, and you knew there's more to explore within this dungeon.
V.
In this unknown dungeon, you decided you're going to search for your missing sister, too.
With the cursed sword in your hand, you walked out of the room. From there, the passageways were empty, just like the moment you first stepped inside this place. You continued to follow the unknown path ahead, not turning back to where you had already come. If you couldn't find any signs of your sister in the paths you took back then, you might as well head further towards the unknown.
Sure, your family advised you to only bring back the sword, but you wouldn't be able to rest easy, not knowing where your missing sister wentâeven if she turned out to be dead, you at least wanted to confirm that. Or hell, any signs of her whereabouts. Any would do. Really.
As you walked further into the desolate path, where the only sounds you could hear belonged to you, you started to smell rot. From there, you instinctively followed it, taking paths and making turns that would lead you toward any signs of life.
Like your fear of deathâdisgust was something you were taught to overcome, with unwavering courage. Being a member of your family meant you had to deal with things the townspeople would normally turn away from, and to be the ones who uphold the virtuesâthe compass in everyone's hearts, including yours.
Eventually, you found yourself face-to-face with a rotten crowd of human corpses lying on the ground. But the moment you stepped closer towards themâas if they could sense your footsteps, they rose.
Normally, you would switch to your usual weaponsâbut you grabbed the cursed sword, and rushed towards them. As if lost in a trance, you found yourself slashing through their bodies, gliding the blade across, like you had been using this sword for years. At one point, you found yourself making eye contact with the sword's eye.
Before you knew it, you were graced by the sight of slashed bodies lying on the ground. Something about the sight left you feeling off, wrong, or even unsettledâwhen you checked the mysterious eye on the sword's cross-handle, it was shut. So you turned back and moved on ahead, holding onto the sword.
Once again, you arrived at a crossroads. Like before, almost in a nostalgic way, you noticed trails of blood on the ground towards both paths. Unsure of which path to take, you sat down on the ground, resting and collecting your thoughts.
Thoughts swirled in your mind, from different kinds of worry towards your family members, the tales of the cursed sword, to speculations of your missing sister's whereabouts. Sure, you're on a mission that you must accomplish, but you're starting to miss home. You missed joking around with your siblings, bickering over stupid things, and...
Perhaps, it's just awfully lifeless in this dungeon. Even the most boring rituals you had to conduct were more entertaining than this.
Suddenly, you heard a scream echoing from the right pathâa high-pitched shriek that reminded you of a certain someone. But despite whoever that may be, you knew you had to follow it. You couldn't just let it be.
Just as you got up and about to head towards that path, you heard a soft voice that belonged to another woman, "Wait."
You froze for a moment.
You turned back, and you saw no one. It's just you inside the room.
"Fear not, I'm the one who resides in this sword."
You turned around again for any sources of the voice, before eventually realizing that it's someone inside your head speaking. When you looked at the sword, its eye remained shut at first, before blinking twice when you made eye contact, and then it opened.
At the realization, your blood ran cold. It's either that you're already possessed, or this sword could directly speak to your mind. Either way, you're as good as possessed.
"Allow me to tell you a thing: as lonely as this place is, nothing is what it appears to be."
You didn't dare to respond.
"To you, this would be a quiet and boring place. But you haven't seen the true nature of this dungeon, have you? That cry you heard was a trickâa way to lure the adventurers towards their demise. You thought it sounded like your sister, didn't you?"
You could only nod, too baffled to even say anything.
"I know the tricks in this dungeon well, priestess. You want to search for your sister, don't you?"
You nodded.
"Then you'd best turn away from that trick. Take the left path."
Once again, you heard the same cry from the right path.
VI.
Upon hearing the cry from the right path, you knew what to doâas you then ignored what the sword had just said and sprinted towards that path.
Who in their right mind would've easily believed what a cursed sword says, anyway? But sure, it's reasonable that this dungeon would have ways to lure you towards your demise, such as the cries you just heard, but you welcomed the thrill.
In your hand, you switched the cursed sword with your own. Then you ran straight into the dimmed passageways, preparing to face the enemies you spotted in the distant shadows.
Just like earlier, the human corpses on the ground rose from the shadows and approached youâthis time with their weaponsâand you counterattacked with your own sword.
Slashing your sword while kicking the bodies on the ground away, you felt a little more like yourself, unlike how you fought with the cursed sword earlier. You swore you're going to seal the life away from this cursed sword, once you're done with this mission.
Once again, while you're dealing with the undeads, you heard the same shriek. But this time, now that you're getting a little closer to the voice, you started to think this really was your missing sister.
Not wanting to waste any more time here, you quickly knocked the rest of the undeads outâonly for one of them to be stubborn against your attempts to knock them out.
Sure, you wouldn't kill them under normal circumstances, but to ensure that this one wouldn't end up dragging you behind, you pierced through the last undead's body, pulled the sword out, knocked them out once again, and ran. You had no time to care about your personal code for now.
Moving on ahead, you continued to hear more cries from your sister echoing across the paths you tookâand as much as you're relieved at signs of her presence, you couldn't help but worry about her.
What happened to her? you kept wondering, as you simply ran past the undeads you encountered along the way. Even at moments you ended up taking the hits from their attacks, you bore the pain and kept going ahead.
"Just leave me alone, I'm too damned busy for this!" you complained, at one point, as you kicked an undead away from your path. You weren't the fastest runner among your siblings, but if it's to reach your sister as soon as possible, it's the only option you had.
Looking at another crowd of undeads ahead, all you could mutter out was a not-so-silent profanity. But this time, they didn't seem to notice your presence just yet, so you took the opportunity to look at the path behind you to see anyone following.
Some undeads you managed to outrun were approaching from a distance, and one of themâthat you unmistakably recognized as the one you pierced to deathâwas among them too. Then again, you remembered that someone's bound to control all these bodies and bring them to lifeâif you ever located the person or the thing that's controlling them, you knew you're going to take them down.
Once again, you ran past through the crowd of undeads ahead. Of course, you couldn't get away from them unscathed, but you knew you could survive worse.
Running, running, and runningâit's almost all you could do in this dungeon.
Just as you're on the verge of giving up, you ended up in front of a wooden door. When you leaned against it in exhaustion, you sensed the similar dreadful energy you sensed from the cursed sword, but fainter. Sure, you would probably end up with spirits or undeads, but at this point, you'd take any clues towards your sister.
The moment you opened the door, you saw some sort of a throne and a person sitting on it, away from the entrance. And of course, several undeads around the room noticed your presence and rose, too.
But most importantly, when you stepped inside and took a closer look at the person on the throne...
A woman with the same brown hair as yours (but slightly longer), her glaring eyes unmistakably resembled those from your family (except for the fact she looked more dead inside than how you remembered), the priestess outfit she adorned...
It was your missing sister, one of the ones you respected the most in your family, Silver.
Just as you stood there, in shock at your sister's presence, she raised an armâand the cursed sword you kept with your other weapons moved on its own, making its way away from you and hovering towards your sister's hand.
When your sister took the floating cursed sword, the undeads in the room rushed towards you, with weapons in their hands.
VII.
Once again, you sprinted past the undeads that approached you, right towards your sister, Silver. You'd had enough of having to fight them.
After taking the stairs and stopping right in front of the throne, you reached out for her raised arm with the sword, and yanked it down. Her expression remained stillâalmost lifeless, even, as if she's not herself.
"What's gotten into you?" you asked, as Silver remained motionless. Something's definitely up with her.
For a second, her expression twisted into a horrified one as she lowered the sword on her own. At that moment, the undeads that were approaching you collapsed to the ground, becoming lifeless corpses once again.
Just as you wondered what's even going on, her expression shifted into a serious, yet devilishly confident oneâas she forced her arm away from your grasp.
"Didn't I tell you," your sister said softly, her voice sounding more like the cursed sword than herself, as she pointed the sword at youâits eye fully open, "that nothing is what it appears to be?"
You knew that's not your sister speaking, as a sharp, swift wrath took over your words.
"Then fight me yourself, coward!"
To take over your sister and use her body as a puppet... You raised your own sword, pointing back at her.
Your sisterâno, the sword, the spirit, the curse, or whatever it wasâsneered at you.
"Now, would you please move out of the way? This isn't theâ"
You clashed your blade against the cursed sword, in an attempt to knock it away from your sister. Taking that as a sign to fight, the cursed sword's spirit (who took the form of your sister), didn't hesitate fighting backâknocking you down the stairs.
Being pushed down the stairs didn't stop you, as you got up and continued to clash and defend against its attacks. You didn't recall how long it was since your last swordfight, and you knew this wouldn't be your last one.
Sure, fighting with this spirit was a different experience from fighting against Silverâbut each clashing blade reminded you of the past days, when you would get roughed up after each spar with SIlver. You still had the scar on your face from her, and you remembered slashing her once. And this time, you may have to do it again.
To get her back, you knew you had to get this sword away from her. With the spirit's swift slashes that barely left you with any openings, you decided to overwhelm its defenses and knocked it away with force, sending it backward.
Just as you approached your possessed sister lying on the ground, a rumbling from the ceiling jolted her awake.
Before you could do anything, Silver dropped the sword, and pulled you away from the collapsing ceilingânarrowly saving both of your lives.
At last, you knew this was your sister, as her arms wrapped around you.
"We should leave," Silver said, with the roughness in her voice that belonged to her.
"Wait, hold on." You looked back at the rubble of collapsed building, and noticed the cursed sword poking out of it. You then wormed your way out of your sister's grasp, and picked up the sword.
"Youâ we're getting out of here!" Silver took hold of your other arm, and sprinted away from the room, dragging you along.
Just as both of you were running, with you following behind her stepsâthe dungeon began to crash down behind you.
"How'd you get here?" you asked, even while you're running with your life.
"What?"
You inhaled, realizing that the dungeon's destruction must've been too loud, before repeating the question, but you're now yelling: "How'd you get here?!"
"I had to bring it back here!" Silver yelled back with a similar volume, although she's more focused on running than talking to you.
"Why?!"
"Long story! Save your breath!"
At last, as the destruction slowed down to the point you wouldn't have to worry about being caught in a collapsing dungeonâyou and Silver arrived at the entrance of the dungeon. Silver stopped to take a break, while you continued to run towards the exit without a gateâonly to be stopped by an invisible force so hard that it almost knocked you out.
"This sword," Silver said, panting from all the running earlier, "belongs to this place. It won't let you get out of here with it."
"How'd our parents manage to get this thing out, then?"
"An advanced spell, I'd assume. We can't even replicate the spell used to seal this sword away."
"Right..." You sat down on the ground, looking at the cursed sword in your hand. "So you were trying to return this sword to the dungeon?"
"I did."
"What were you thinking? The townspeople have been lured to this damned dungeon by some force, you know, likely by this sword."
"..."
"..."
"How do I say this, without blaming the sword..."
"I mean, I'm sure the sword took over me at one point... So I guess I wouldn't be too surprised if you were suddenly possessed by it."
"No, it's not really that..."
"So you're doing this by yourself?"
"I did. I've been hearing the sword's cries for... a long time. Ever since our parents brought it home."
"So what I'm understanding... You heard the sword, you stole it, you took it to this dungeon, and you somehow ended up possessed?"
"..." As much as she looked like she had more to say, Silver only nodded.
"So... What do we do with this sword now?"
"Just leave it here."
"Uh, it still has some sort of a dangerous aura to it..."
"Oh, right, you said something the townspeople being lured here." Silver rubbed her chin.
"Yeah..." You mimicked Silver's thinking pose. "Wait, I have an idea! What if we just break this sword?"
"I..." As bewildered as she looked at your suggestion, she seemed to be thinking about it a little harder. "Actually, that could work."
VIII.
Looking at the cursed sword you're holding, and looking at the wall made of stone bricksâyou knew what you're going to do. "Alright, let's break this thing!"
"Wait." Silver grabbed your shoulder, as you're about to stick your sword in there. "You know this sword has a spirit, right?"
"Duh."
"Who knows what it'll do when you break it?"
"Well, can you seal this sword yourself?"
"...No." Silver looked a little defeated. "But still, make it quickâwhatever happens, you have to at least get out of here alive."
"Don't worry, we're making it out alive. We have each other's backs, right?"
Silver nodded. Despite her not really smiling, you had a good feeling about being able to go back home together with her.
You stuck the sword's blade between the bricks, and using your raw strength, you eventually broke its blade. The moment you had a broken sword in your hand, a sudden, dreadful feeling weighed in your chestâleaving you in a state of daze.
As if Silver figured out what had just happened, she forced the broken sword away from your hand, carried you on her back, and sprinted away from the dungeon.
Overwhelmed and confused by what's even happening, from the strange and dreadful sensation, and the spirit's voice you couldn't make outâyou could only hold onto Silver.
Soon, you passed out on her back.
You woke up again, screaming and freaking out, as you woke up in a place you shouldn't have beenâa room filled with the scent of incense, statues and pictures of saints, and the bed you're lying onâ Oh, wait, that's your home, specifically inside one of the better bedrooms for the possessed townspeople. At least, you're back home, not inside the dungeon anymore.
"Oh, you finally woke up," Silver's voice caught your attention, as you turned to her standing by the end of your bed.
"What... happened? I remembered being on your back, and..."
"We made it home."
"How'd I end up here?"
"Possessed. You got possessed the moment you broke that sword, so we had to exorcise you. You've been out cold for... a few days."
"A few? Like how many days, exactly?"
"Two."
"Did I get into any problems?"
"Not really. They're just glad you're back home safely, and we've already sealed the dungeon itself yesterday. From the looks of it, everything went pretty well... I'll go tell the others that you're awake."
"Wait, hold on." You climbed out of the bed, and walked up to her. You then raised a palm.
Silver seemed to be clueless about the gesture at first, before raising her palm tooâand you went in for a high-five with her.
"We're both back home, yay!" you exclaimed, smiling.
Silver sighed in relief.
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