The shopping center was a bright, sparkly, and energetic place, with people bustling from place to place, talking excitedly amongst themselves and showing off the various trinkets and things they had purchased.
It was more of a kind of megamall, full of stores, shops, and restaurants that all served a variety of products and meals for consumers to partake in.
Iago entered through the main sliding doors and was almost blinded by how dazzling the atrium was. The atrium consisted of a massive open space, with three floors forming a ring around the colossal fountain in the middle. Above it was a large hanging chandelier, with the lights sparkling in the glass teardrops hanging from each layer of the light fixture. Compared to the clothes he was wearing, Iago almost felt out of place.
However, he had simply come to sell something, not to partake in the revelry. He made a beeline to where he needed to go, taking an escalator up to the second floor and passing several stalls selling a variety of trinkets like phone cases, jewelry, and novelty items. Iago weaved his way through slow moving people, most taking in the sights and scenery of the mall.
'Not me,' Iago thought bitterly, 'I'll have to use the money I get from this just to scrape by.' Not that it mattered anyways as he didn't have any friends to go shopping with.
Just like the people in the shopping center, most paladins Iago interacted with just ignored him, not wasting time with someone who couldn't kill monsters or form connections for them. Iago found the escalator up to the third floor and was immediately hit with the tantalizing smell of food. Sweets, savory dishes, and fast food all hit him in a symphony of smells that caused his mouth to water on the spot.
'Maybe I can spare some money to get food after,' Iago thought to himself, gazing longingly at the foot court. While he was distracted however, he bumped into a man.
"Sorry," Iago said quickly as the man dropped the bag he was carrying.
"Oh it's quite alright," the man replied with a warm smile, bending down to pick up his belongings. As he stood up straight, Iago got a clear look at the man. He was wearing a long, dark robe that was slightly frayed at the bottom, with the hood draped back across his back. The man himself had long brown hair and a relatively kind face with his bangs draped over his forehead. However, through the strands of hair, Iago could see some sort of symbol carved into his forehead.
'What… is that?' he asked himself, squinting. However, before he could make out what it was, the man turned to leave.
"You have a nice night now," he said warmly, disappearing into the crowd.
'What a weird dude,' Iago thought to himself, shrugging and moving on. However, he couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was up with the man. He continued, however, moving into the store where he would sell his sword. The room was darkened, the walls lined and shelves lined with all kinds of weapons, tools, weapon care products, and some armor pieces. Some of them had special labels that read artifacts. Artifacts were items engraved with runes that gave the item a special effect. They also had the side effect of being extremely expensive, easily ten times the price of a normal weapon.
These could be weapons with elemental effects, regular tools with extra helpful effects, or anything else really. This was mainly to make up for whether or not a paladin had an attunement.
An attunement was an ability that only some paladins had and they differed depending on which paladin unlocked it. Whether or not a paladin unlocked an attunement was seemingly random and it just so happened that Iago was not one of the lucky few.
He walked up to the counter, placing his sword on it and ringing the small, silver bell next to the register. There was no one behind the counter, prompting Iago to look around the store for the attendant.
"Hmm hmm hmm," a voice hummed from somewhere in the shop. Iago watched as a short, elderly man walked from behind the shelves, humming happily as he tidied the weapon displays. He was balding, his hair seeming to have migrated to his chin as he had a thick gray beard. He walked slightly hunched over, his legs seemingly shaking under his own weight. His eyes were almost covered by the combination of his loose face skin and his thick gray eyebrows. He couldn't tell if the man could see. However, he walked behind the counter without bumping into anything and looked up at Iago, a friendly smile on his face.
"Well hello there young man," he said in a slightly hoarse voice, "What can I help you with at Pops old Fashion Armory?" Iago was taken aback by how friendly he sounded.
"I'm here to sell this sword," Iago replied, unable to meet the old man's gaze.
"Hmm," the man hummed, picking up the worn blade and inspecting it. He spent what felt like ages inspecting the blade, carefully scrutinizing its condition. He rubbed his hands over the blade and grip with the practiced care and skill of a man with decades of experience. Iago watched, feeling himself getting more and more anxious the longer the man took.
'What if he doesn't want it?' he found himself questioning, becoming more fidgety by the second. He took another look at the man's stock. He had several high value artifacts, each with different effects, descriptions, and designs.
'What I wouldn't give to get to use a weapon like one of those,' he thought to himself, drooling internally.
"I hope my stock is to yer liking," the old man said from behind Iago. The boy spun around, slightly embarrassed. The man had stopped inspecting the sword and was watching Iago with a warm smile on his face.
"Yeah, it's just that I've never been able to afford artifacts so I've never actually used one," Iago explained awkwardly. The old man left out a loud, hearty laugh.
"Wouldn't be the first one ter say that," the man cackled, "Weapons of this caliber are a bit above the rest, ain't they?"
"I guess so," Iago said, looking off to the side absentmindedly.
"So what about my sword?" he asked. The man's smile faded and shook his head vigorously.
"Sorry sonny, no can do," the man replied, "I've seen better swords left in a rift fer ten days."
'Ouch,' Iago thought, smiling in acceptance, 'That stung.' The man gently handed Iago his sword back and turned to walk away, hobbling back to the rear of his shop.
"Besides youngin, you'll be needin that soon anyways," the man said, waving behind his back to Iago. The boy's eyes narrowed in confusion.
"Pardon?" he said, tilting his head.
"Can't ya feel it boy, the coming of something evil," the man explained, "I'm taking cover in the back of my shop here." He cackled as he opened a door to the back of his shop and walked inside.
"I hope you manage to make it through the assault sonny," he said with a grin. Iago raised an eyebrow as the door softly shut. He was standing in the middle of the store filled with priceless artifacts with no one supervising him.
'He left the grate open,' he thought, 'I hope he realizes everyone could just come in here and take something.' He sighed and shook his head. His thoughts soon drifted to the old man's ominous warning.
'What kind of evil was he talking about?' he asked himself, leaving the store. However, he found his question soon answered as a scream echoed through the mall, across the atrium from where he was standing. This was no mere scream of joy or playful fighting however. Iago recognized it immediately as the bloodcurdling scream of someone in danger.
A few other shoppers seemed to hear the scream and recognize it for what it was, looking over in the general direction the sound had come from. However, most of the shoppers were still enamored with their shopping and conversations. It wasn't until the second sudden noise that most of the shoppers finally paid attention.
A loud boom came from one of the shops across the third floor, dust and debris flying from out of the store front, covering onlookers with glass and drywall. People immediately began sprinting away from the shop to a safe distance, turning around to try and get a look at what was happening. This was a mistake, however, as the rest of the shop suddenly exploded and a mass leapt from the third floor onto the ground.
People screamed and began to immediately panic, some shouting "MONSTER, MONSTER!!!!!!!" Iago watched in horror, his eyes wide as the monster let out an inhuman shriek. The creature was definitely a monster, but it somehow seemed different.
Most monsters were already perversions of nature, some animal, plant, or part of the environment corrupted by soul energy. However, this monster seemed to be even more perverse. Its body was composed entirely of glowing crystals, sticking out of every crevice on its body and each other. It walked on three legs, each ending in a sharp crystal spire instead of any type of foot. Its head, or what could be considered a head, was just a large crystal with smaller shards sticking out from every available surface, with a large, spherical eye in the middle of the front. Its eye rippled and shimmered, as though it wasn't actually a physical part of the creature's body and was more like a protection.
"What the hell is that?" Iago asked aloud, covering his mouth. The creature seemed to be off balance, stumbling through the people on the ground floor.
Some were frozen in horror, others managed to get themselves together and sprint toward the exit or the escalators. However, the monster stumbled upon a lone person, a balding man who was staring up at the monster's eye in horror. The creature's eye swiveled about in its socket before locking onto the man, turning an intense shade of red.
"Ahh, ahhhhh," the man yelled, seemingly knowing what was coming next. Iago also realized what was about to happen.
"Everyone get down!!!!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, diving to the ground further on the third floor. The crash of glass and smashing of concrete was all he heard as everything went to chaos.