Shit, if he understood this right, even trying to resist the incapacitating nature of a superior Aura would be enough to damage him further¡
His hand wandered to his belt and he pulled free his last item. It was a small vial, stopped with a seal of wax and filled with a vapor that danced mesmerizingly within the glass.
|
Elder Siren¡¯s Distilled Tears (Legendary)
Any creature who detects this scent before it dissolves will identify the source as the object of its greatest desire and will be seized by a compulsion to obtain it at all costs. Vapor¡¯s effect lasts two minutes.
|
Tilly looked down at the vial, frowning. He had purchased it with the last of his funds at the auction, struck by a vague idea that he could use it as a distraction to set up some huge attack, stacking Abilities and Titles like he just had against the fey king. But that option was off the table until he had a chance to rest. Now all he had was a powerful distraction and a little over a fifth of his Mana Well to use.
He wasn¡¯t sure he would have ever been able to beat Brokenridge in a fair fight and now they were both racing off to challenge the king of Dragon-kind. He chuckled dryly to himself, the ludicrous nature of his mission glowing with a rich warmth in his belly as he considered just how crazy his life had become. The feeling built until it bubbled forth into a rich belly laugh. ¡°I hope you have something good up your sleeve because I am all out of tricks,¡± he called up into the sky.
Maybe the dragon wasn¡¯t the only one who was insane¡
B4 Chapter 2 Lizard Wizard
Tilly shot toward the mountain range at an astonishing speed and once again found himself grateful that the High Priestess had come along. He moved at what was at least a hundred miles per hour, shortening his trip to the Peaks by a huge margin.
Ahead of him in the sky, he saw Brokenridge reach whatever it was that obscured the top of the central peak and launch a bar of liquid flame at the opaque mist shrouding the mountaintop. The attack pierced the veil there but seemed to do little damage, followed closely by the dragon himself who dived into the area he had just hit with his Ability as if softening some unseen target.
Then he was gone. No sound of a distant impact or roar of battle. He just disappeared, leaving a profound silence hanging in the air between the mountain tops. Tilly frowned up at the sight, silently urging his little cloud to move faster.
The closer he got to the peaks, the more the shape of the peculiar mountain range came into clarity. Each mountain sat equidistant from one another, forming an unnatural half-moon shape with the tallest peak sitting at the center-left of the formation. As Tilly passed by the nearest two mountains that formed the leading edges of the half-moon, he saw that even though their bases were miles to his left and right, their peaks still lorded high over him, even at this proximity.
The peaks he was passing were the shortest and they had to be over five miles high. As he fully entered into the unnaturally flat valley between the peaks he could feel his cloud begin to slow down as the last of Erash¡¯s Mana was spent. He was glad his injuries were all metaphysical because it looked like he was about to have to make a hell of a sprint to get to the top of his destination¡ he just hoped he wouldn¡¯t be too late.
Whatever her spell was, it began to dip lower as Tilly¡¯s mile-eating speed reduced to something he might have managed himself at a full sprint, but he didn¡¯t complain. He had already saved a lot of time, and he was grateful for any remaining help he could get.
After another few minutes, the cloud finally gave out, skipping to a shuddering stop right as the eerily perfect flat valley turned sharply into a steep incline, leading high up into the sky as he arrived at the base of the tallest peak.
¡°Thanks, buddy.¡± He said to the construct as it dissolved. Then he turned to look up the slope.
The mountain was completely bare of irregularities or plant life and was astonishingly perfect in its circular structure, adding to Tilly¡¯s suspicion that these Peaks had not formed from any sort of natural phenomenon. Tilly took a final deep breath in and then leapt into motion, pumping his legs powerfully as he began his ascent. He still hadn¡¯t heard anything from Brokenridge since his collision with whatever was at the top of this peak and that worried him more than anything else.
He was almost sure that the dragon was doomed to fail if he tried to take on the dragon king on his own. But that didn¡¯t mean that Tilly didn¡¯t expect the dragon to be able to hold his own in a fight. To have heard nothing of the ensuing fight had Tilly very concerned and his brow furrowed darkly as he continued to push up the slope, legs now burning. He leveraged every bit of his newly increased Strength and Dexterity to move at what might have been forty or fifty miles an hour, each of his bounding steps taking him ten yards up the slope.
At some point, he began to pass large gaping openings leading into the mountain, which he skirted around instead of trying to enter. He had no clue what waited within, but he had seen where Brokenridge had chosen to enter, and he wasn¡¯t going to waste a bunch of time exploring a maze of caverns when he knew exactly where his dragon had gone. Unfortunately, being sure of his destination did not make the climb any easier, and while his Endurance was now possibly god tier, his Strength was a measly thirty-four, having been left as his trash stat.
That meant that while Dexterity was making each of his motions impossibly graceful, allowing him to get much more out of his body than would have otherwise been possible¡ He was still limited to a speed three or four times as fast as an Olympic sprinter, which meant that scaling the mountain whose top was a vague destination, high up in the sky, would take minutes.
Eventually, legs burning and chest billowing in large gasps as he pushed his body to its limit, he finally approached his goal.
Rising before him on the slope was that same greyish, indistinct mist, blocking his climb. While it didn¡¯t look substantial, Tilly pulled up short, not wanting to enter into the mysterious barrier without considering his options. Due to its indistinct form, he had trouble even finding where the mists began, but as he caught his breath, he watched as they shifted slowly, rotating in a gentle circuit from right to left.
Identify gave him nothing, and his notification log remained silent as he studied the oddity¡This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
¡°Shit,¡± he huffed to himself, ¡°Going in blind it is.¡±
Tilly drew his weapons, noting that his Mana had climbed to 48%, and then forged into the mists.
Soon his sight was completely obscured, causing him to even lose sight of his weapons pumping in his arms. But he continued up, building his strides into a cautious run as he kept an eye on his HUD. He wanted to know the moment something popped up on any of his radars.
But nothing happened. No notification, no Debuff, nothing. Shrugging to himself, he kept running, pushing himself further up the mountain, straining his ears to catch any hint of his lost companion.
After another minute or so nothing had changed and Tilly slowed to a stop, schooling his breathing to silence and looking around. Behind him, he could see that the mists thinned. Everything else, however, had stayed the exact same.
His frown deepened, and he retreated back down the slope, finding himself clear of the mist in only a few seconds, confirming his growing suspicion.
Once free of the mists, he stared accusingly at his notification log and pulled it open, finding no hint that he had been the target of some kind of enchantment. He turned angrily, staring up at the frustrating barrier.
His next step would have been to sit down and spirit walk¡ but with his soul the way it was, he doubted it would be a very good idea to try and separate it from his body at this point. So instead, he cursed under his breath, kicking at the hard dusty ground beneath him as he considered his options. His moccasins scuffed the ground oddly as he kicked loose the lighter material covering the harder surface underneath.
Something about the feeling caught his attention and he squinted down at the mark left by his shoe. Tilly lowered himself onto his haunches, using his hands to move away more of the dust, his motions revealing the dark, almost glossy stone underneath. An idea bloomed to life as he reached down toward the uncovered stone and enflamed his hatchet to tap the weapon against the odd material.
As the inflamed head of his weapon touched the glossy black stone, it burst to life, arcane markings blazing up at the touch of a familiar power source.
¡®Holy crap¡ these mountains are made of Dragon Glass!¡¯ He thought wildly to himself.
He was literally standing on a mountain of treasure, although it looked like these structures had already been enchanted and he had a hard time imagining a miner who could scratch this substance now that it was empowered.
Hastily, he wiped away more of the surface layer of dirt, finding the glowing angry script flowing in all directions, disappearing back under the dirt and covering the hidden, extraordinary nature of the mountains themselves. Slowly, he looked up at the misty barrier, a smile forming as another option presented itself.
With a thought, he directed his world ring to issue a withdrawal from his account, only feeling the slightest twinge at the tiny use of internal Will. Then, with a pop, the same coin that the Raptor Magnus had given him at the Auction appeared in his hand. It buzzed a few times and then suddenly a crackling voice came through the metallic object.
¡°Oh! Hello there, may I ask who''s calling?¡±
The sudden noise caused Tilly to jump and almost drop it before clearing his voice and stumbling over an answer, ¡°Oh, Uh, this is the human you met at the auction¡ I have a proposition for you.¡±
¡°Wonderful! What a pleasant surprise! I¡¯ll have you know that you just interrupted a dreadfully boring meeting, and I am pleased as punch. Would you mind holding me up so I can get a look around? I can only see the sky and your palm from this angle.¡±
Tilly cocked his head at the coin, before slowly lifting it and panning its face around to give the Magnus a clear view.
¡°My good man, what an incredible sight. If I am not mistaken, you are standing on the famed Peaks themselves! How would you feel if I popped over for a bit?¡±
¡°That would, uh¡ be fine. I just need some help from you in return.¡±
¡°Absolutely, it would be my pleasure to assist!¡±
¡°Very well,¡± Tilly said, attempting to sound unhurried, ¡°you have my permission to come through.¡±
¡°Place the coin on the ground if you please. Wouldn¡¯t want any accidents.¡±
Tilly complied, laying it on the patch of ground he had just cleared of dirt and stepping back.
¡°Dear me! Is that Scorch I see on the ground? What a delight! One moment¡¡± He practically hissed in pleasure. Then the coin flashed with light and began to unfold one half at a time, doubling with every opening of its shape. Soon enough, there was a half circle with extended lines glowing on the slope of the mountain. Then the whole structure of light tipped up off the ground to stand open before Tilly, revealing a rather ornate room filled with hazy magics and arcane objects glowing with power.
In front of the doorway stood the Lizard Wizard himself. And behind him, at a long and ancient stone table, sat five other beings who practically radiated authority.
But before Tilly could get a good look at them, the Magnus stepped through and the portal went dark. Tilly belatedly looked down and realized that his armor had reverted to its base form while he had been unconscious and he hadn¡¯t even thought about the fact that he had met the Magnus while pretending to represent the dragons of this land.
The robe-wearing raptor shook out his sleeves dramatically and licked his teeth in anticipation, ¡° I could almost kiss you for getting me out of that meeting! Now, I can see you are a claimant for the Contested Lands, good for you! Incredibly bold for one at your level. Now how can I help you?¡± he asked, rubbing his clawed hands together as he stared down at the ground beneath their feet in fascination.
In the face of the Magnus¡¯ enthusiasm, as well as the fact that he had no way of knowing just how powerful this creature was, Tilly decided to go with his favorite tactic: blatant honesty, ¡°Look, I need to get through whatever magic is barring me from reaching the top of this mountain, and then I need to help my dragon fight another dragon. What can you do for me?¡±
¡°Hmmm,¡± he said, turning to face the mists seething just feet away from their position. He flicked his tongue out several times in a very snake-like maneuver, and then reached one arm deep into the sleeve of his robe, pulling forth a staff that seemed to be carved from metallic bone, ¡°Yes, well if my senses are correct, you are barred entry to this peak by the same magics that have protected this land for decades. The barrier seems to have failed on its borders, hence our presence here¡ All that remains of that storied protection resides at the top of this mountain¡ although there is a strange flavor to the magic, something that-¡±
He interrupted himself with several more flicks of his tongue, ¡°-yes, It tastes of the Primal energies. That barrier is partially fueled by something powerful, and possibly as old as the plane itself¡¡± He concluded thoughtfully.
¡°So¡ can you get me through it?¡± Tilly asked, after a long pause to see if the Magnus had anything to add.
¡°I¡¯m afraid not.¡±
B4 Chapter 3 Trust and Betrayal
Tilly stood there dumbfounded for a moment as he tried to register what the Magnus had just said.
¡°So¡ what? That''s it?¡±
Rulak looked away from the mists distractedly as if Tilly was interrupting something, ¡°Oh, no. Not at all. I cannot pierce these magics, especially in the time frame you seem to be under, but you should be able to manage well enough on your own,¡± He said with a wink, before bending down and studying the exposed Scorch running under the dirt of the mountain.
Tilly straightened from his crouch, fighting not to show the frustration growing in his chest, ¡°Wanna clue me in? I am kind of in a rush here.¡±
¡°Dear me, I am incorrigible aren''t I?¡± The raptor muttered to himself with a chuckle, before looking up with a predatory smile, ¡°That barrier is meant to keep out all those not aligned with dragonkind. I am not sure if it is here to make sure that this mountain is taken last of the six or if it serves some other purpose. Whatever the case, you should be able to gain entry through the first set of defenses by simply switching to the outfit I first met you in¡± he said, offhandedly tapping his staff against the exposed patch of dragon glass and beginning to mutter to himself.
As if eavesdropping on the conversation, his armor seamlessly shifted to its dragon skin suit and Tilly looked down before looking back up at the frustrating Magnus, ¡°The first set of defenses? What about the second?¡±
¡°Ah, yes, I am afraid there is nothing anyone can do about those. They are temporal in nature and will result in the loss of some significant time from your perception outside of the barrier. If you destroy or deactivate the source, there should be an interesting balancing of the timelines. That is of course if you survive!¡± He added brightly, finally looking up from what he was doing on the ground, ¡°I would love to witness something so novel.¡± He finished before turning back toward the Scorch and tapping the glass a few times with his staff, raising multi-colored sparks from the impact point as he watched on fascinated, almost immediately returning to muttering under his breath.
Tilly eyed the humanoid raptor for a long moment, taking his ease and general disinterest in Tilly''s timeframe or well-being in stride. He felt like he wasn¡¯t getting very much for bringing the Magnus through to what was apparently a very hard-to-reach location. Yet at the same time, the power before him more or less represented an almost mythical Faction, and he didn¡¯t want to upset what seemed to be the beginnings of a working relationship.
¡°Look, I appreciate your time, but is there anything else you can offer me? I was hoping for a little more in exchange for access to this place¡¡± Tilly said in a serious tone as he swept his arms open in a broad gesture, hoping to emphasize his contribution. Already some of the confidence from the armor set was leaking into his tone, and while he could feel the tear radiating discomfort deep in his center, outwardly, he felt noticeably better about his chances.
The First Magnus looked up again, answering with a tone that was absent any of the levity he had displayed earlier, ¡°Your claim is your own, I will not sully it by tipping the balance one way or another. But I will say that this entire area has been set up as a confluence of Fate on a scale I have never before seen. If you survive your next encounter and lay claim to this place¡ I will offer further assistance in utilizing your new influence to its fullest. But make no mistake, I have offered you very valuable knowledge, and there remains no debt between us.¡±
Tilly held the Magnus¡¯ reptilian gaze for a long moment, making sure not to back down from the shift in tone. Then in a polite voice, he replied, ¡°That is very generous of you. I accept your offer of future assistance, and I will see you when I am done above.¡± He concluded with finality as if sealing a verbal contract. He made sure not to let any of his doubt show through his tone as he turned to face the mists again.
Either he was going to die, or he would meet the Magnus again from a place of strength.
With a final gesture of thanks to the wizard, who was already kneeling back down and pulling out a whirling metallic device from his robe, Tilly set off, back up the slope and into the mists, this time wearing his Draconic Emissary armor set.
Almost at the edge of his hearing, he caught the Magnus¡¯s muttered reply, ¡°See that you do, human. I much prefer you to the alternative.¡±
With those words behind him, and the mists parting before him in a way they hadn¡¯t before, Tilly moved resolutely up the mountain.
¡®Kindle, I don¡¯t have much time to explain, but listen closely-¡¯ He sent over the vast, but slowly shrinking distance of their stretched bond. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
¡
Brokenridge Level ??? Heartsflame Dragon
The last hours had been the most humiliating of the dragon¡¯s long life.
¡°Fight me you coward!¡± He roared again, straining against temporal bonds lashed around his soul. Everything but his voice had been sealed in a magic so thorough that it beggared belief.
¡°What need do I have to fight you when my superiority is so evident in this exchange?¡± His sire purred from his throne, an abomination formed of the bones of many of his brethren. Shining at the seat¡¯s apex sat a gem of profound purity, seemingly made of crystalized air itself, and the source of his sire¡¯s dishonorable advantage.
¡°It is our way!¡± Brokenridge roared, the light from another of his Mana Overcharges winking out as the stream of his strength flowed out from his body and into the complicated network of a Scorch working that radiated up from the ground unlike any he had ever seen.
¡°Our way?¡± The dragon king chuckled, ¡°Am I not the apex of our kind? Whatever I choose becomes our way, not the other way around, whelp¡ Besides, who are you to sit in judgment over me? I am older than you can imagine. Do you think my nose cannot detect the changes your own Domain has undergone? Who are you to moan about un-draconic advantages, when you sit on that abomination of a Hoard!¡± He spat, purple flames leaking from between his ancient teeth as he shifted upon his seat of power in anger.
¡°You have placed your strength at the mercy of others, and at any moment, they could fail!¡± He roared, ¡°No, it is far better that I take such things from the claws of those less worthy. It is my place to guard our strength, our pride¡ THAT is the Draconic way!¡±
Brokenridge flexed again, even more furious at himself than he was at his sire. He had plunged into the protections blind, wreathed in flame and fury, planning to test the sharpness of his claws and heat of his fire against the king of old.
But his sire had not been that king for a very long time. Not since he began taking tribute from the others instead of earning it by wing and fang. Not since he stopped leaving his throne to taste the glory of flight. Not since-
¡°Why?¡± He growled softly, his fury abating for the first time as the hopelessness of his predicament slowly settled into his awareness. The gem above his sire glowed brightly, and the Scorch enchantment running through the throne siphoned off some of its excess strength, empowering his sire¡¯s transfigured Domain.
Brokenridge had trouble understanding much of what he saw crawling along the ground around him. It spoke of absolute domination, where time itself bowed to the whims of its master. The Scorch cracked and popped, radiating out an enchantment that was a cruel reflection of the once mighty king who sat at its center, grown fat in his power.
Now, Brokenridge bowed before that throne, an unwilling puppet of the powerful magics infused into this mountain, his strength slowly being leeched away by another¡¯s modified Domain.
¡°Why, you ask?¡± His sire mocked gratingly, jowls pulling back to reveal rows of teeth the size of Brokenridge¡¯s forearm, ¡°Well it is a story that bears a remarkable resemblance to your own path-¡± as he answered, his voice grew furious, false levity falling away to revealing the ancient bitterness beneath, ¡°I felt my people¡¯s discontent, their weakness. They were ungrateful for what I had given up¡ You most of all! After your challenge, others followed, each one falling before my might. ¡®Tyrant¡¯ they called me¡Ha! I was their protector! And this was how they wished to repay me?
¡°Well, you are not the only one who has drawn the eye of one of the First Watchers. Another came to me, one far superior to the little woman and her donkey. He told me of a way I could bind my people to me¡ forever. He read my fate as the keeper of our people¡¯s strength and pride and I took his offered knowledge, achieving what no other dragon could.¡± He finished, his fury smoldering at the end of his speech as if the fuel his anger had given him was all but spent after the Epochs-long campaign against his own kind.
¡°And my broodmother?¡± Brokenridge asked quietly.
¡°I learned my lesson with you, whelp. Exile wasn¡¯t enough. She is mine now¡ just like so many others.¡± He spat, his bitterness stoking his fury to flames once again as his whole body radiated with a dark purple light, reflecting ominously upon his throne of dragon bone in a sort of reverse shadow.
Brokenridge roared in renewed fury, the betrayal of all that he had known cutting him so deeply that something in him broke. The assurance that had marked him for so long, the confidence that he would be enough, that he could do what no other could and free his people¡ it shattered and his roar of outrage deepened into a bellow of loss at the price his people had paid for his sire¡¯s folly.
¡°You have destroyed us¡ Much of the world has forgotten our strength, and the rest will pass away with you here, rotting away on this mountain.¡±
¡°So be it!¡± The huge dragon roared back through yellowed teeth, ¡°You all made your choice, as did I. Those who have fled will return, as you did, and they will bow or be consumed!¡± He finished, his roar reaching up several octaves, revealing a desperation far surpassing Brokenridge¡¯s own circumstance.
It was then that the younger dragon understood. His current captivity was a bondage far lighter than the one his sire had brought upon himself¡ He was more a prisoner than Brokenridge would ever be, and in his rejection of all others, he had sealed his fate more assuredly than any enchantment every would.
Brokenridge¡¯s mournful roar broke off as he realized something¡ Something so terrible that it grated on him to even allow the thought to run through his mind.
¡®I am utterly snared, if that human does not come to assist me¡ I am doomed.¡¯ The thought was so audacious that he renewed his struggle against the invisible chains that bound him, desperately searching for a way out, one more time.
But, it was no use. There was no flex in his bonds, no weakness in his prison¡ and the more he struggled, the greater his sire¡¯s drain on his strength became.
Brokenridge¡¯s eyes narrowed at that realization and suddenly, he saw how the wily monarch before him had baited and drawn him into this long struggle, all to speed his demise.
¡°What is it, whelp? Finally showing me your belly?¡± The dragon king laughed, eyes alight with false cheer.
Brokenridge did not answer, relaxing his muscles for the first time since their confrontation and settling down into the snare, easing his struggle as he chose to do something that came so unnaturally to him: wait.
¡®Fate has placed me in your hands, Billy. Do not dither in fulfilling your word to me¡¡±
B4 Chapter 4 The Dawning Coalition
Hiro Matsumoto, Level N/A Guardian Daimyo of the Three-Fold Alliance
The old samurai fought down another sigh, shuffling through his seemingly endless stack of missives. When he had dreamed of independence for his people, he had never quite pictured it coming with this much paperwork. Yet he would be the last to voice such a thought aloud¡
He had restored honor to his line and he was a long way from that hopeless wretch the human had met on his first days on their world. The God-sent warrior had more than done his part, and Hiro would suffer utter destruction before failing to match such determination.
The almost unbelievable influx of funds that Jonathan Tillman¡¯s recent actions had brought into the Alliance had opened up incredible doors of opportunity for both their faction and what they were now calling the Dawning Coalition. Plans once thought impossible and obstacles insurmountable were suddenly within reach due to the incredible influx of funds that had hit their accounts in the last days.
Overtures had been made to the Defiant Fist among several other known Powers said to be open for hire and thus far Uncorrupted. Much of the Tower of Light¡¯s manufacturing infrastructure had relocated here, boosting their fledgling Dragon Glass industry to dizzying heights.
It looked like they would be able to field the Alliance¡¯s full force along with the Church¡¯s military arm, with new powerful equipment. The flow of essential workers and goods coming into the Alliance had almost choked the Teleport platform several times in the last few days as more and more of the Coalition¡¯s forces made their way to the Three-Fold Alliance¡¯s lands.
The Auctioneer had shoved a huge logistical problem into their laps with their offer of transport. It was, however, much better than having to transport their forces across so much foreign territory overland¡ but still, the details were turning out to be very difficult. Construction had already begun on two new teleport platforms outside the wall and they had even reached an agreement with their nearest neighbors to allow them use of their Hub. Even with all of that, it was still not a sure thing that their forces would be assembled and ready when it was time to move.
¡°Sir,¡± A guard called from outside his private office, located adjacent to the courtyard where the council met daily. ¡°You have an audience request from a Mr. Reginald.¡±
¡°Send him in,¡± Hiro answered.
At his call, the bland-looking humanoid with elongated earlobes strolled in. A quick scan of Hiro¡¯s workspace evoked a wince of sympathy from the otherwise flat-faced spymaster. ¡°So many on this plane thirst for power, and yet so few realize its price,¡± he deadpanned, walking up to Hiro¡¯s desk and taking the only other seat in the room.
This was the third impromptu meeting they had had in as many days and Hiro was growing used to the plain exterior Reginald exuded and the intense focus that hid beneath it.
¡°Where are the others?¡± he asked.
¡°Believe it or not, they are each off heading up different areas of the expansion as more and more of our forces arrive. What you see before you,¡± Hiro waved his hand over the stacks of missives covering every surface of his office, ¡°is just the summary of their work and occasional requests for further resources or guidance.¡±
At that, the Spymaster allowed himself the smallest of smiles. ¡°Yes, that baker of yours is proving to be quite the capable leader¡ Now for the reason I¡¯m here,¡± he said, snapping his finger and activating an Ability that sealed them from any prying. The manor already had certain protections, which is why they used it as the council chamber in the first place, but over the last few days Hiro had come to appreciate just how cautious the spymaster could be.
¡°As you know, we have been screening those joining our forces very carefully. Your son has been instrumental in this, and we have given him a full quad of Forsaken to locate and eliminate Corrupted attempting to embed themselves in the coalition. His task is rather unenviable as their numbers swell each day, and there is little order in the Camps beyond the wall. Our allies are gathering, but are proving to be¡ unfocused.¡±
Hiro¡¯s frown deepened, ¡°It is as we expected, a problem of hierarchies. This force we are cobbling together has no recognizable head. With no enemy to unite them¡¡± He trailed off, allowing Reginald to pick up the thought.
¡°...They squabble amongst themselves, to an almost suspicious degree. Even with all of our care, we believe saboteurs are operating within the camps, sowing as much division as possible, and attempting to break the Dawning Coalition before it begins.¡±
¡°Commander Achilla has informed me of similar problems arising in almost every quarter of our lands. I believe the Facets themselves are providing a certain amount of protection from Corruption¡¯s influence, but it is not enough to stop its sympathizers from scheming. With so much growth, it is impossible to identify and eliminate these elements entirely.¡± Hiro finished with a tight expression. It bothered him to no end that some creatures roamed amongst his people, but there was simply nothing further they could do about the problem without jeopardizing their overall mission.
After a long moment, Reginald sighed, some of the blandness falling away, revealing the exhaustion underneath, ¡°I am afraid I have come to once again request moving up our timeline. We hoped to delay this as long as possible, seeing as it would tip our hand completely to those who watch the Tower, but I believe it is time we bring over my commander and give him charge over the outer camps and the majority of our forces beyond the wall. He holds no direct authority over many of our erstwhile allies, but he is a recognizable symbol that they will gather around until it is time to fight. It is our hope that he, along with the majority of our Forsaken will help keep order long enough for your man to come through. His ability to grant us passage to the Contested Lands is the linchpin that holds this entire operation together.¡±
He voiced that last sentence as if it were a simple fact, not at all suggesting the possibility of the plan¡¯s failure. But both leaders felt the weight of the risk they were taking. They knew that Corruption¡¯s forces had fielded the largest army anyone in living memory had ever seen.
The few reports they had managed to collect spoke of a dark tide covering the horizon and sweeping toward the Contested Lands at a cruel speed. Corruption had been on the move for days already while what seemed to be their only opposition had risked everything waiting for a relatively low-level human to do the impossible, once again.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
¡°He will succeed. If he does not¡ we never stood a chance anyway.¡± Hiro grunted, forging through any doubts before they could build momentum in his mind. They had chosen their course, and they would achieve victory by it, or be destroyed in the attempt.
There were no other options left.
¡
Hilbert Ferrier, Level 74 Lifeblood Warlock
The last weeks had been a whirlwind of change. He had gained more levels above the first bottleneck than he had in the previous five years combined and had seen more of the plane in the last week than he could have ever imagined as a young Apprentice.
After decades spent watching the slow decline of his people and fighting the tradition and bigotry that had been dragging their Order to its eternal grave, he had grown desperate. When the Land had shifted unexpectedly, he had risked exile to reach out to their new neighbors and attempt to tip the balance back in their favor.
Perhaps it had been his position as eternal apprentice or the mockery of some of his peers, but whatever had allowed him to take such a gamble, he would have never anticipated it paying off to such a degree. Not only had the ancient enemy of his people, the Prime Dirge, been destroyed, but the very nature of his Order had seemed to change overnight. What was once an isolated Faction in slow decline had shifted radically and was now profiting hand over fist from the emergence of a plane-wide coalition on their doorstep.
That would have been the end of it if his old master had not returned. With his august guidance, the queen had shifted the entire Faction¡¯s outlook on outsiders, encouraging them to stand with this new alliance and face the tide of darkness threatening the whole plane. It was almost like magic¡
Hilbert could not help but be a little bitter at how easily the whole of the Faction fell in line with the ancient wizard¡¯s words. He had been gone for so long, offering no explanation for his exit or return¡ and most felt it sacreligious to even question the savior of their Faction. So they fell in line, shifting to a foreign policy emphasizing cooperation and trade with their nearest neighbor and the Church of Light, an institution they had previously kept at a distance for reasons that were also not explained.
They had given the church access to the Sanguine Order¡¯s teleport network to bring in fast-moving units joining the Coalition, allowing them to travel the last leg of the journey to the staging ground under their own power. This eased the pressure on the Three-Fold Alliance¡¯s limited teleport capacity, and it allowed Camelot to profit mightily through trade and supply.
Guinevere had been selling the dormant imbued Bloodweed at exorbitant prices and was still unable to keep up with demand, as all the forces moving through their lands bought as much of the Corruption cleansing weed as possible. It apparently was one of the very few alchemical solutions to the extremely tenacious substance.
Not that Hilbert had much of a chance to witness many of these changes. He had almost immediately been appointed liaison to the Three-Fold Alliance along with Sir Michael and soon after, they had been recruited by the church to run missions with the Forsaken. When Hilbert had passed along the request to the queen, she had agreed almost immediately, not even asking for details¡ the change had been shocking, to say the least.
All in all, it had been a very strange few weeks. To top it all off, it seemed like the human had been hiding a dragon under that mountain of theirs and had flown off with it to do some secret mission of their own before the final conflict began. There were too many pieces and none of them seemed to fit as comfortably as he would have liked.
¡°I don¡¯t like it, Michael¡ I don¡¯t like it one bit. Why does it feel like so much of this is not adding up?¡± He asked, turning to his faithful companion as they exited the Church outpost, having recently returned from another mission. The knight strode beside him, eerily silent in his all-metal suit of armor.
¡°I know it seems simple. Scary super being from the Outerdark pressing in on our plane from all sides¡ The last vestiges of freedom and order united to fight back against overwhelming odds¡ I could tell you the ending to this story right now, and yet¡ it just doesn¡¯t feel right. Some piece is missing.¡±
The knight didn¡¯t twitch as they continued walking toward their quarters, but Hilbert nodded vigorously as if he had added something particularly insightful to the conversation, ¡°Exactly my point! Now even Mallytza is worried! The Queen seems to be making almost all the right decisions, but she is more cold and distant than ever, and my master¡ Well, he was never the kindest fellow, but at least he seemed interested. Now he barely pops in for a few hours before he is off to gods know where.
¡°I¡¯m sure it''s all for the ¡®greater good¡¯, but it just feels off, manufactured somehow. I mean, we struggle for centuries against the Strigoi, and then Poof! They are gone like a puff of smoke, and now without a second¡¯s thought we are redirecting all of our resources toward this new enemy!¡±
Sir Michael continued to stride forward, movements silent and almost predatory in their grace.
¡°Not that I am complaining, it''s absolutely the right move. I guess I just don¡¯t understand our people. Maybe I never did¡ Then there is this whole thing with Sir Accolon! I mean, a full pardon and a promotion for that worm? How could our leadership be making so many right moves, and yet do something so foolish at the same time?¡±
They arrived at the apartment building that covertly housed many of the more notable foreign dignitaries and elites staying within the Alliance lands and entered by the central stairs. Climbing to the second floor, Sir Michael pressed his palm to the door, releasing the wards that sealed it, and stepped inside.
¡°And another thing, I still-¡± Hilbert¡¯s voice choked off as the door shut of its own violation, and Sir Michael drew his mace, a growl starting deep in his throat.
¡°Easy big guy, I¡¯m not here to hurt you.¡± A sultry voice purred from deep within the unnatural darkness of their apartment. Hilbert¡¯s hands were free of his sleeves in an instant, accessing the wards and finding them untripped, despite the intruder before them.
She chuckled at his motion, ¡°Now now, hear me out before you get any blood on my outfit. I just changed.¡± The voice said, emerging from the darkness as the shadows fell away, revealing the female lapin that Hilbert was fairly sure worked as a part of the Alliance¡¯s counterintelligence arm.
¡°Strange way to approach us¡ even if there are covert matters to discuss,¡± Hilbert said slowly, hands splayed out to touch the interlocking concentric glowing circles of his magecraft. Sir Michael hadn¡¯t moved since drawing his weapon, but Hilbert knew his body language well enough to recognize several Abilities primed and ready.
¡°Yes, I am afraid matters are growing far more complex than I had hoped. I am going to have to take something of a gamble, which means revealing more of my plan than I typically like to. Now will you settle down for a civilized discussion, or am I going to have to tie you up?¡± she asked with a sultry smile.
B4 Chapter 5 Beyond the Mists
Jonathan Tillman, Level 51 Son of Flame
Tilly pushed through the mists, the sensation completely different now that he was wearing his Draconic Emissary armor set.
Previously, the mists had flowed around him, offering him no resistance and no sense of progress. Now, he could feel them parting before him, drawing him into something and away from something else. Curious, he tried to reach out with his soul sense, but as soon as he had the thought to check, a twinge in his core warned him against the action and he withdrew.
His quiet steps echoed strangely, the sound moving differently as it pushed forward ahead of his path, swirling in eddies around him instead of radiating out in waves. Then as suddenly as it had begun, the sensation passed, and the mists began to thin, revealing a ridge just ahead marking the end of the incline that Tilly had been jogging up.
¡°Nothing left to say, Whelp?¡± A voice from above the ridge pounded against Tilly¡¯s chest, painfully jarring his damaged soul. Even though the question had not been aimed at him, the aftershocks of its weight were still enough to almost knock the breath from Tilly¡¯s lungs.
He stumbled as quietly as he could in surprise and tried not to cough as he poked his head above the ridge, the mists fully clear at this point. The top of the mountain was completely flat, forming an almost perfect circle with a diameter that looked like it reached almost half a mile.
Sitting at its center was a dragon that dwarfed Brokenridge in both size and girth. Where Tilly¡¯s companion was cut in the fashion of an apex predator at the top of their game, the dragon taking up the center of this unnatural formation was rotund with rolls of skin and fat crowding every joint of the creature''s body. Its scales looked thick but also had a waxy, aged appearance that reminded Tilly of a reptile that had been taxidermied.
Piles of enormous bones surrounded what could only be the dragon king as he sat atop a structure formed from the largest pieces. Glowing red text was burnt into many of the visible pieces of the structure of fused bone, and after a few seconds of observation, Tilly realized it was a primal-looking throne. It had taken him a moment to figure it out due to the basic form of the structure having been crafted for a quadruped instead of a bipedal humanoid. It looked more like a stage with a peaked back that loomed behind its occupant. At its top, sitting in a housing of bone at the tip of several large rib bones above the dragon''s huge head was a sky-blue jewel. As Tilly watched, it seemed to rotate slowly, even though it was held fast in the bone structure.
His eyes lingered on the jewel as its significance continued to unfold before him, blowing through his mind like a breeze. His mind suddenly felt invigorated and his body experienced an almost electric jolt of energy as he finally recognized it. He had been so worried about keeping Brokenridge alive that he had almost forgotten about the quest he had received from the Sovereign Crystal.
That was it¡ the last requirement his Faction needed to upgrade. Well, that and somehow defeating the dragon king himself, someone Brokenridge had referred to as Longtooth. Tilly hadn¡¯t known if it was the dragon¡¯s real name or a slight about his appearance, but seeing the king now, Tilly figured it was probably the former. There was plenty of fuel there besides teeth if Brokenridge had been looking for inspiration.
The throne¡¯s occupant aside, Tilly was awed by the level of complexity displayed in the flow of magic between the jewel, the throne, and the mountain. It used the Scorch inscribed bone to somehow contain the Facet while harnessing some of its energy as a focus to produce some powerful effects.
¡®Bet that¡¯s where these mists came from.¡¯ he thought, crouching low as he crawled over the edge and began to creep forward, attempting to get a full picture of the situation before him. Thankfully, the enormous dragon king was facing almost the opposite direction, focusing still on the object of his interrogation. The fact that he was still making demands at all meant that Brokenridge was still alive, but Tilly hadn¡¯t yet caught sight of him through the piles of bones.
¡°Insolence it is¡ Very well, take your time and hold your silence, I will stand vigil to the folly of youth,¡± the king growled out.
Tilly thought furiously, sweat beading on his brow as he fidgeted with his drawn hatchets¡ He had made it this far, now he just had to figure out how to change the dynamic somehow. He moved laterally at a glacial pace, attempting to get eyes on Brokenridge before committing to a specific course of action.
Just as Brokenridge¡¯s tail came into view behind what Tilly realized was the ancient remains of another dragon, the sound of a long sniff caused Tilly to freeze, wincing as his eyes darted to his left and found the corpulent dragon staring right at him.
¡®Shit¡¯The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
The dragon¡¯s eyes didn¡¯t narrow in suspicion, nor did he even twitch in surprise¡ rather the creature''s bony brow rose in the vaguest expression of interest before turning back toward Brokenridge, ¡°What is this, Whelp? Your pet?¡± he asked.
Tilly refused to take his eyes off the dragon king now that he knew he had been discovered, but he did spot a tiny twitch of the tail out of his periphery and heard a deep chuckle as Brokenridge replied, ¡°Yes, I suppose he is. Good of you to join us¡ pet.¡±
Even with his life hanging by a thread¡ Tilly still had to fight down the sigh that his companion''s arrogance tried to force from him. Instead, deciding to fight fire with fire, he straightened up and looped his hatchets flashily, palming the vial of siren¡¯s tears under the cover of the movement.
¡°That''s funny coming from the helpless prisoner I¡¯m here to rescue...¡±
The dragon king reared back his head and laughed, the sound so deep that it rattled some of the huge bones scattered around the mountaintop. Taking the free distraction, Tilly¡¯s eyes rapidly scanned his surroundings once more, desperately searching for some hint of what his next action should be.
He still couldn¡¯t see all of Brokenrige¡¯s body, but he did catch sight of more lines of Scorch crawling in circles on the ground surrounding the supine dragon. And there was something else¡ Some feeling of stillness locking down Brokenrige in an unnatural way. Tilly could tell he was being held in place, but the supernatural mechanisms at work were beyond him-
Then an idea struck,
¡®This guy doesn¡¯t look like he''s gotten up in a thousand years¡ He is surrounded by what I assume were other challengers who met the same fate Brokenridge is supposed to meet¡ and he had done it all without moving from that cozy spot at the top of this mountain. Is it because he didn¡¯t have to, or because he couldn¡¯t?¡¯
¡°I haven¡¯t laughed that hard in an Epoch!¡± the king belched, releasing a gout of purplish flame, ¡°But, of course, such disrespect cannot go unpunished,¡± he finished, eyes narrowing on Tilly as he released a blast of Aura that felt heavier than the mountain they were standing on.
¡°Now, BOW BEFORE ME.¡± He growled, his words slamming into Tilly along with the full brunt of his Will.
Tilly barely had time to grunt before he was hit with the metaphysical tsunami of the dragon king¡¯s soul, and despite the warning Erash had given him, he could not just fold before it. In the split second before the agony hit, Tilly saw his chance and took a gamble.
Baring his teeth in a rictus smile, he clamped his jaws shut, biting down on the scream that tried to rise in his throat as he pushed back against the force of the dragon king''s dominance with his aura. Multiple titles slid into place, undergirded by the arrogance provided for him by his armor set as the power of his soul exploded out of him to the detriment of his wounded core.
He would not bow.
A tearing sensation ripped through his center as he pushed back, parting the sea of the dragon king¡¯s might with a snarl. Something like a distant roar echoed through the spiritual confrontation as [Savage Dominion] took effect, causing the dragon¡¯s aural pressure to stutter for a moment before retreating entirely. Shock showed on his face as his slitted eyes dilated and his jowls pulled back in a snarl of their own.
Suddenly absent of the pressure he had been pushing against, Tilly struggled not to stumble. Releasing his own aura, it collapsed back into his soul, fractured and flickering.
¡°What are you?¡± The dragon king growled again, this time eyeing Tilly, and then their surroundings, much more warily. ¡°What trick is this, Whelp? What have you brought here?¡±
Brokenridge remained still, lying before the throne. But that didn¡¯t stop him from beginning to chuckle again, ¡°I told you. He is my pet- Why? Is that fear I smell on you, Sire?¡± He added, with a loud sniff.
The dragon king shot an annoyed gout of smoke toward his prisoner, not taking his eyes off Tilly as the Scorch in the throne around him began to glow. Tilly had to act before he took back the initiative.
Ignoring the fresh harvest of pain that the aural conflict had reaped in his soul, Tilly unclenched his teeth. ¡°Wait! Before this comes to blows, I have something to offer in exchange for Brokenridge¡¯s freedom,¡± he called. Then, not waiting for the dragon to answer, Tilly held his breath and popped the top on the vial.
Almost instantaneously the dragon king¡¯s eyes shifted from Tilly¡¯s face to his hand and Brokenridge started twitching madly on the ground.
¡°How could you possibly-¡±
¡°BROODMOTHER-¡± Brokenridge interrupted with a desperate roar, unable to turn to see what Tilly held but struggling desperately nonetheless.
¡°Silence, Whelp!¡± The dragon king bellowed, the Scorch all around him flaring along with his words and cutting off the desperate dragon¡¯s cry like a TV put on mute. Tilly could see the rolls of fat and skin folded upon his claws jiggling with need as the muscles beneath twitched eagerly. Whatever he imagined¡ he wanted it badly.
¡°You know not what you hold, human. Now, give it to me immediately and perhaps I will let you live,¡± he growled, actually allowing a string of drool to slip over his bottom lip.
¡°No¡ I don¡¯t think I will.¡± Tilly said glibly, judiciously using some of the air he had stored in his lungs. Watching carefully, he moved his hand to the right and left. Fully under the item¡¯s effect, the dragon king¡¯s gaze moved along with the motions. Unconsciously, he was slowly shifting from a fully seated position to a sort of half-crouch.
¡®I hope this works¡¡¯
¡°Come now, human.¡± The dragon king continued, entranced, ¡°You have no use for such a trinket, whoever gave it to you was a fool. If you hand it to me, I will deal with you generously.¡±
¡°Or-¡± Tilly answered, tossing the vial up in the air and catching it, his lungs beginning to burn, ¡°Not,¡± He finished with a yell, whipping around in a pitcher''s throw, launching the vial into the mists and down the mountain.
¡°NOOOO!¡± The gargantuan specimen of his species roared, exploding from his perch in a rattling crack of bone. Tilly was shocked as the dragon king blinked past him, seeming to be able to move almost as fast as Brokenridge himself, despite the huge girth.
The complicated enchantment of Scorch and bone that surrounded Brokenridge flashed and went inert, and Tilly''s shock broke into a smile, ¡°Well, that went better than I expected.¡±
¡°Silence, fool. This has only just begun!¡± Brokenridge interrupted, shoving to his feet and scanning the skies, still obscured by mists.
Tilly hadn¡¯t been expecting a thank you or anything, but this was a li-
A growl burst up from downslope, layered with so much Authority that the ground beneath Tilly''s feet trembled as the mists directly down the mountain parted, revealing a very large, very pissed-off dragon.
B4 Chapter 6 Annoying as Hell
¡°Where is it?¡± the voice exploded up the mountain, cutting through Tilly¡¯s core like a thousand shards of glass, ¡°The Key is mine by right. Give it to ME!¡± the dragon king roared. Almost as soon as the weight of his words finished crushing Tilly, the giant of a dragon exploded upslope with a speed that defied everything Tilly understood about physics.
Brokenridge roared in defiance as one of his three remaining miniature stars burst with power. Channeling that added force into an attack, he launched himself at the dragon king, not hesitating in the least to meet his much larger opponent head-on.
They met in a thunderous clash of bone and claw, like the sound of two rams butting heads, if the rams were as large as city buses. Despite the disparity in size, Brokenridge slammed his sire to a stop right before he met Tilly, fully arresting the larger dragon¡¯s attack. Meanwhile, Tilly drunkenly stumbled to the side, barely keeping his feet through the metaphysical onslaught that had accompanied the dragon king¡¯s return.
Trying to get out of the way of the gargantuan roaring melee that was playing out in front of him, he jerked into a messy dive, shifting his armor set back to its basic form. He stumbled away as he rolled back to his feet and his armor returned to normal. Every physical boost he could get his hands on right now mattered and judging from the echoing scream still coming from his soul, he wouldn¡¯t survive another contest of auras.
Boom
Clack
RAAAWWWRR
The sounds of the primal contest just behind him washed over Tilly, shoving him to the side like waves from a fast-approaching tide as his mind spun, searching for any way he could help. He hadn¡¯t felt this helpless since his first days on Nephesh, and as he sprinted out of direct range of the ferocious melee, he cursed the impotence of his unbalanced build.
Not that his chances had ever been great for being anything other than a distraction in this fight with all of his trumps already spent, but a dark part of him had been hoping this foe would at least show some signs of Corruption. Not that he wanted their foe to have influence on something so powerful but at least then Tilly¡¯s flame-based attacks would have had a chance to do some damage. But no¡ none of his senses had picked up any hint of infection after he had made it through the mists.
After he had booked it around a hundred feet, he whipped around, drawing both hatchets, and attempted to spot some opening in the twisting contest of scale and tooth that he could use to affect the current fight.
Longtooth had made full use of his greater size to maneuver Brokenridge to the ground and showed all of his already red-stained teeth as he bore down on his opponent, searching for the neck and a quick brutal end to their fight.
Both combatants had already suffered multiple bites and rending claw injuries in the time it had taken Tilly to get clear of the conflict. But like a mature grizzly bear, the dragon king was at a distinct advantage in this sort of exchange. His greater layers of fat and muscle had reduced most of the damage Brokenridge had inflicted to shallow wounds. Brokenridge was clearly already much worse off.
Even as his sire lunged for the kill from his superior position, Brokenridge activated the second to last of the bright points of light hovering between his horns. He roared along with the action, instantly releasing a jet of plasma so bright that it temporarily blinded Tilly, and pushed even the dragon king¡¯s considerable weight off him and into the air.
Hoping for an opening, Tilly desperately called upon [All or Nothing] and was about to pour all 55% of his remaining Mana into a thrown strike, hoping to stack the title with his hatchett¡¯s imbued power, Dragon¡¯s Fury, adding onto Brokenridge¡¯s surprise attack¡
But the basso sound of laughter reverberated across the mountaintop, causing Tilly to hesitate as Longtooth shrugged off the attack that had hit him center mass. Launched into the air, he unfurled his enormous wings and beat them powerfully. The place where Brokenridge had hit him was glowing hot, but did not show any actual damage, and Tilly reluctantly released the pattern for his burgeoning flame attack¡ It was obviously going to be a waste of Mana anyway.
¡°Hahaha. Perhaps I should thank you, Whelp. It does feel good to stretch these wings after so many centuries. Now where were we? Ah, yes¡ I believe you wanted to test your flame against mine.¡± He boomed, pulling back his jaws in a predatory smile as his multistory building-sized chest ballooned.
Brokenridge glowed silver, activating his serpentine dodge Ability, even as his sire released a bar of plasma five times the width of the attack the dragon king had just tanked. Tilly¡¯s stomach dropped, as even with the enormous boost to Dexterity his ability offered him, Brokenridge was unable to fully dodge the sweeping strike that Longtooth laid down on the area. The dragon was plowed into the ground tearing a furrow even in the incredibly strong Dragonglass mountainside.
Tilly¡¯s instincts screamed at him as the attack''s focus swept in his direction without warning, like a fast-moving portal to the solar-flare surface of the sun. Moving before he had even fully registered the shift in the attack, Tilly dove behind a fortuitously large pile of dragon bones, which thankfully blocked out most of the attack. But even vastly reduced, the air around him started to spontaneously combust as the heat of the Dragon king¡¯s continued focus turned Tilly¡¯s immediate environment into a crematorium. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
His armor shifted to its sun salamander form, further insulating him from the heat. But even with multiple layers of resistance to fire and heat damage, he still felt his skin begin to blister under the insane power of the attack. His over two hundred Endurance was pushed to the limit as his Health began to drop.
Then he heard another roar of defiance, and the attack was suddenly cut off by the sound of another bone-jarring impact. Tilly slowly straightened, stumbling from behind the now melted barrier of dragon bone to see Brokenridge locked in another melee as the pair crashed to the ground. The younger, smaller dragon was by far the more aggressive of the two, landing two or three strikes for every one of his sire¡¯s¡ but it was a losing strategy.
Every advantage Brokenridge typically had against his enemies¡ hell, every advantage Tilly usually had, was rendered moot by the Dragon king¡¯s fire-aspected nature and extremely resistant natural defenses. Every weapon Brokenridge had, the dragon king seemed to have more of.
¡®Kindle!¡¯ Tilly shouted mentally through their bond.
Typically, the connection was instantaneous, if not occasionally strained by distance, but now as Tilly urgently reached out to his bonded phoenix, it felt like their connection had been reduced to a trickle of its normal flow, the information slowed down inexplicably, like trying to suck a milkshake in through a straw.
¡®I don¡¯t know how well you can hear me, but we are running out of time!¡¯ he sent, his message layered with impotent frustration and simmering rage at his helplessness.
Before he had entered the mists completely, she had briefly shared that she was on her way, and was bringing new power to the fight, but then they had cut off as the mists thickened, and Tilly didn¡¯t think he had time to wait any longer.
After another second that felt like an eternity as he watched Brokenridge slowly get torn apart, Tilly received a broken reply through their connection, ¡®Almost ¡ There¡¡¯
The dragon king successfully maneuvered behind Brokenridge as the smaller dragon left one of his wings partially extended in an attempt to stop the shift. Longtooth batted aside the block and chomped down viciously on the smaller bones running through the sensitive appendage. A brutal snap accompanied the attack, followed by an enraged roar from the smaller dragon as he ripped the wing away from his sire¡¯s jaws, losing one of the appendage¡¯s joints and accompanying muscle in the process.
Brokenridge lunged away, turning to face his sire with a snarl as his damaged wing hung limply to his side. He was now a bloody canvas, fully displaying the carnage of their primal contest and while the dragon king mirrored the younger dragon''s blood loss, he was far less affected by the many lacerations and bites that had torn deeply into the thick layers of his fat and muscle.
Longtooth sauntered forward confidently, ¡°Now you will tell me how your pet got his hands on a Celestial Key, and in return, I will end you quickly,¡± he growled out easily through his bloody-toothed smile.
In reply, Brokenridge coughed wetly, before growling out, ¡°Your ease has made you blind, you old fool. How is it that you cannot see?¡±
The dragon king¡¯s eyes flashed in fury at that response, and a purplish glow surrounded him, even as Tilly spotted the barest twitch of satisfaction from Brokenridge''s jaws. The dragon used his last power burst from their pillaging of the Perfected Golem Faction, to supercharge his own attack, bursting in silvery brilliance as he met his sire¡¯s charge again in a deafening collision of meat and bone.
Tilly¡¯s knuckles turned white as he squeezed the hatchets¡
He was all out of tricks. Physically he was mostly fine, only having lost 20% of his health in that last attack but spiritually, he was a wreck. Even the thought of activating anything outside of his normal Mana Pathway Abilities sent shivers of wracking pain through his center. No more special items on his belt, no more superlative Titles to activate.
He was¡ stuck.
He was forced to watch as creatures far above his power level crashed into each other again and again, sending sprays of boiling blood and roars of fury into the air.
Longtooth ripped out a particularly large chunk of Brokenridge¡¯s layered muscle over his jugular, and while there was no spray of arterial blood, Tilly was sure that his companion would not last much longer¡ as wily as the dragon had proved to be¡ he just didn¡¯t have an answer for the dragon king¡¯s superiority in every area of their contest.
All of Tilly''s impotence and all of his frustration poured into the flame surrounding his core, urging him forward even though there was no hope of his affecting the outcome of this battle.
It just didn¡¯t matter anymore. Whether or not it was stupid, he couldn¡¯t stand by and wait any longer.
And so with a howl of fury, Tilly sprinted forward, charging into another hopeless situation without even a thought for his own survival¡ just as he had so many times before.
His bellow of attack went completely unnoticed by the clashing titans, his paltry second-tier Dexterity pushing him forward at unimpressive speeds as he lept the last thirty yards or so with both of his hatchets raised above his head.
He might only be a fly on the back of their opponent, but he was going to do his damndest to be annoying as hell.
¡®I¡¯m here!¡¯ Came the sweetest words Tilly could have ever imagined. Mid-air, he felt more than saw Kindle burst through the mists, bypassing its defenses by nature of her link to both previously accepted entrants.
Moving at almost ten times Tilly¡¯s own speed, she dove down toward them like a meteor, and Tilly barely had an instant to register her vector of attack before she struck.
She hadn¡¯t dived in to unleash some surprise attack against their shared enemy¡ No, her flaming form shot directly at Tilly¡¯s unprotected back. Before his split attention had any space to even wonder at her actions, he registered a lightning-fast blip of a thought as everything happened at once.
¡®Trust me.¡¯
Then, hitting simultaneously with Tilly¡¯s pointless double-bladed attack on Longtooth¡¯s back, Kindle¡¯s flaming form¡ plunged into him.
Not just into his physical form, merging with his skin and armor on a fundamental level¡ something about the dual nature of her flames allowed her immense and immediate access to his core. There was only a moment¡¯s hesitation before he relaxed all resistance, giving her full access to his soul and she flooded him with the heat of the distant stars.
A roaring conflagration exploded out from his center in response to their sudden and violent merging, replacing all sound and light with white flame. His core shuddered under the pressure, but as the white flame bathed his network, he found their influence warm and supportive, rushing through all of his strained and damaged soul space and shoring it up, burning away the lingering muck of spiritual pain suffusing the deeper places of Tilly¡¯s soul after the Fey King¡¯s aural attack.
Amidst the almost comforting explosion of the intense fiery energy, Tilly felt a strange notification float to the surface of his consciousness, as his physical and even spiritual form was reforged in a supernova of heat and flame.
Congratulations: New Armor Form Detected!
Your Legendary Growth Type Armor and Summon Bond have combined for a world-first unique ability: Phoenix Fire Form.
Warning: This is a world-first Ability and as such will have to be tested for powers and limits to be established.
B4 Chapter 7 Just Like Old Times
Chuuh - Shhhh
Chuuh - Shhhh
As Tilly¡¯s senses came back to him, a sound that he hadn¡¯t heard in what felt like decades centered him back on the present. He blinked away stars, realizing that he was wearing an actual face mask. In shock, he took another reflexive breath in, and the achingly familiar sound of a shuddering inhalation vibrated through his respirator, followed by the hissing expulsion of that same breath.
The sound reverberated through him, grounding him and his wounded soul profoundly. He had faced death countless times in his past life¡ always while wearing this gear. The sound of his respirator had formed the backdrop of every fire he had ever fought, and to hear it again, especially in such a high-pressure situation brought a level of solidity to his soul that he had not known he was missing.
¡®Kindle¡ what is going on?¡¯ He sent, looking down through his crystalline visor to see that he was wearing a full set of fire gear. Except instead of the classic yellow and tan coloring he had worn his whole career, the whole set was dominated by a glowing blue and white coloration. He unconsciously shifted his shoulders, feeling the straps to an honest-to-god Airpack pulling against the motion, making its comforting and ever-present weight known on his back.
The tone of Kindle¡¯s replay was just as awestruck as he felt ¡®I have never been bonded as a summon before, but in one of my past lives, I voluntarily bound myself into the form of a sword. For a time I was one of the greatest weapons on the plane. Those memories returned to me in the rivers of liquid metal, and I knew our bond would allow me to do something far greater. So yes, I supplied the catalyst for this form, but it was your heart that shaped it.
¡°HELL YES!¡± Tilly exclaimed out loud in reply, looking up from his new armor set triumphantly, beyond pleased with what was probably his favorite power upgrade to date.
As if the physical utterance was all it took to pull him back into his current predicament, Tilly realized that time had not, in fact, been frozen during his transformation. Shifting into this new form had released an immense amount of energy, knocking Longtooth dozens of yards away and giving Brokenridge a moment''s reprieve. But as Tilly adjusted to his new armor, the dragon king had oriented himself on the new attacker, fire blazing in his mouth and eyes as he pulled in an enormous amount of breath.
¡®Crap,¡¯ Tilly thought, registering all of this a split second before a bar of plasma the size of a train tunnel exploded from the dragon¡¯s mouth, hitting him dead on.
In that instant, he was returned to the same bright burning plane that had accompanied his armor¡¯s transformation, but just like before, the radical heat of the environment caused him no pain¡
In fact, as the breath attack continued to wash over him, he noticed his HUD coming back online, taking on a much simpler digital read-out form on the inner surface of his mask. Under the otherworldly heat of the dragon king¡¯s bright purple flames, his Health and Mana were actually rising.
A wave of what could only be described as smug satisfaction radiated from Kindle, and Tilly¡¯s eyes shot to the last and new line on the facepiece read out of his HUD.
Air Remaining: 92%
And there it was, whatever advantages this new armor set gave him¡ he needed to make them count before his air was up.
Somewhere beyond the scope of the attack, Brokenridge let out a roar of fury at Tilly¡¯s apparent demise, and seeming to want to grind the point home, the dragon king continued to pour out his fury on the spot where Tilly had appeared to have been destroyed.
¡®Any hints on what I can do in this thing¡¯ He sent urgently to Kindle as he burst forward into a sprint, running through the comically long breath attack toward the gaping jaws of their unsuspecting enemy.
¡®Flame and heat can only aid you now, and whatever substance is sustaining this form on your back can be used to further increase the potency of your attacks.¡¯ She replied, more in tune with his line of thinking than ever in her new form.
Her answer raced through him as he reared back with one of his hatchets mid-stride and shoved as much Mana as he could into the attack. He felt [All or Nothing] activate, and then an increased tug on the ¡°Air¡± on his back flooded through his regulator, hyper-charging the attack. He cut it off after only using twenty percent of the tank¡¯s capacity and released the attack.
Unfortunately, the dragon king¡¯s considerable lungs emptied at the same instant as his throw. Even at almost point-blank range, with all of his force behind the throw, Longtooth reacted to the threat with uncanny speed, snapping his jaws shut in an instant, shielding his more vulnerable mouth with a row of Tilly-sized teeth.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The boom of another explosion went off as Tilly¡¯s hyper-powered Blue Flame Strike, further multiplied by his weapon augmentation, slammed into the dragon king''s closed mouth.
Tilly was flung back, sent careening through the sky, as the sounds of his target''s fury, and the reply of his companion¡¯s laughter echoed from the mountaintop in equal measure. Tilly had a moment of panic as his careening flight took him further and further from the battlefield, toward the mists, before Kindle¡¯s voice interjected, ¡®There is more¡¡¯
He felt something in their form shift and another burst of energy flooded his body from the tank on his back. The augmented flame raged through him, bursting from his shoulders and forming two flaming wings. Completely out of his conscious control, they flared out, arresting his flight. They beat powerfully once, then twice, bringing him back around and allowing him to alight back on the ground at the edge of the mists.
¡®We can FLY?¡¯ He shouted internally
¡®Of course, I would never allow myself to take such a crude form without some of my grace bestowed upon it!¡¯ she clucked in reply.
That was all they had time for as the dragon king came barreling toward him, shooting overland at hundreds of miles per hour to pay back the affront of Tilly¡¯s last attack.
¡°How dare you!¡± He roared, freely bleeding lips pulled taunt above blackened teeth in a rictus of hate.
Tilly brought his weapons up, knowing there was no way he could match the dragon king¡¯s charge, but unable to think of an alternative in the half second he had before the creature hit. He eyed his rapidly refilling Mana and planned to attempt another strike even as he tried to tank the hit.
Then at the very last instant, Brokenridge crashed into his Sire, knocking the charge off course and tearing into the side of his distracted opponent. The wind of their passing almost knocked Tilly off his feet, and he quickly spun, eyeing his dropping air readout on his HUD, desperately trying to come up with some fresh options.
So far, he knew that the ¡°Air¡± in his tank seemed to supercharge his Constitution and Wisdom to some extent, and in this form, any fire or heat he experienced added to that boost¡ But none of that solved his current problem. He needed a way to deal some serious damage, and so far the dragon king had proven to be insanely resilient to all of their attacks.
Brokenridge tore several large gashes into his sire¡¯s side before the dragon king turned, retaliating with vicious snaps of his jaws, aiming for Brokenridge¡¯s freely bleeding throat. A realization hit Tilly as he jumped forward into a run, his body moving ahead of his thoughts.
His flames may be doing very little damage against the dragon king, but Brokenridge was completely immune to them, just like Tilly was immune to Brokenridge¡¯s breath attack. That meant that Tilly needed to keep spamming fire attacks while they were locked in this struggle, giving his companion every advantage he could before it was too late. His vastly increased Mana regen pushed above 50% right as he arrived at the pair as they ferociously vied for dominance. He leapt into a dive, shooting for a fleeting space between the two apex predators, and activated Flame Expulsion+, hyper-charging it with half of the remaining ¡°Air¡± from his tank.
Blue and white flames blasted out from his center as his air readout dropped to 22%. The attack washed harmlessly over Brokenridge. No. That wasn¡¯t true. The flames actually cauterized some of his worst bleeding, buying the gravely wounded dragon a little more time.
The opposite seemed to be true for Longtooth. As he was knocked up into the air by the miniature bomb going off near his center mass, all of his collected shallow wounds worked against him, creating gaps in his flame resistance, where the ember feature of his Ability went to work, embedding themselves in the wounds and burning merrily stacking a damage-over-time Debuff.
The dragon king roared in pain mid-air, but the exclamation was cut off as Brokenridge lunged up from the ground, taking advantage of the momentary distraction to leap up and snap his jaws around his sire¡¯s throat. The roar gurgled to a stop as the pair crashed back to the ground near Tilly and he rushed in, looking for any place he could to shove his hatchets in and do further damage.
But the dragon king began thrashing wildly in Brokenridge¡¯s grip and Tilly''s charge was slammed aside by the flailing of the dragon¡¯s tail as he struggled to break free.
Physics saved Tilly from any serious damage as his extreme Endurance, paired with the fact that he was airborne meant that most of the energy of the collision was transferred through Tilly as velocity, launching him away from the conflict and directly into the bone throne.
He smashed into the structure, multiple points on his skeleton taking on hairline cracks from the impact as he groaned and rolled back to his feet. His armor set rapidly began working to repair the damage to his body as it pushed his Mana and Health back up at an incredible rate.
Air Remaining: 11%
¡®Shit,¡¯ Tilly cursed to himself as he reoriented on the fight in time to see Longtooth rip free from Brokenridge¡¯s hold in a spray of blood that, while painful, didn¡¯t actually look life-threatening. Tilly was about to dive back into the fray when he felt a distinct throbbing from above him and some instinct caused him to turn and look up at the crystalized Facet locked into place above the throne.
He felt it as the dragon king¡¯s focus shifted entirely from his current fight to Tilly and his new location. Several pieces of information clicked into place as Tilly finally saw a way out of the downward spiral this fight had been doomed to from the beginning.
¡°No!¡± The dragon king roared as Tilly jumped up to the top of the throne¡¯s back, and urgently started to hack away with enflamed strikes at the pieces of dragon bone holding Origin¡¯s Breath in place. The Scorch markings all along the structure flashed dangerously as Tilly did his best to break the Facet free.
He felt the dragon king bearing down on him, desperate to stop his actions before a weakened roar of defiance sounded out one more time. Brokenridge somehow found the strength to interpose himself between his sire and Tilly once more. The sound of their impact and Longtooth¡¯s answering bellow of frustration boomed from right behind him and he continued to slam his weapons into the jewel¡¯s bone casing again and again. Finally, one of the bone tips shattered and the Crystal burst free in a thunderous crash of light and sound.
A furious roar contested abortively with the sound of a howling cyclone of wind as the contained energy of the Facet was released, dispersing the time disrupting mists in an instant.
Multiple timelines detected, System-enforced Chrono - Reconciliation in effect.
The words ran across Tilly¡¯s HUD as the winds of time rushed in from the outside and buffeted his body and soul.
B4 Chapter 8 Geriatric Beatdown
Tilly was locked within a vortex of competing forces as the pressure of the outside realm buffeted his soul. The passage of time, greatly diluted by the Facet-empowered mists, crashed in and swamped the entire area in a violent rebalancing of the fourth dimension.
The experience took him outside of his body and he watched himself age days in a matter of moments. Then it was over, and in a blink of an eye, he was back in his body, whatever time he missed fully suffused through him, body and soul.
The pressures keeping him aloft abated and Tilly fell to the ground, feeling spent and refreshed all at once. Nearby, he felt Kindle pull free from their combined form, flapping away tiredly as she retreated from the field of battle, her energy spent. Their bond was stronger than ever and he could sense just how draining the Phoenix Fire armor form was for her.
¡®Thanks for saving me, girl. Again.¡¯
¡®Thank me by finishing this; our work has only just begun.¡¯ She sent back tiredly, along with a view of several more scenes of combat playing out on the other peaks.
¡®Wait¡ how long has it been?¡¯
That last warning from Kindle hit him like a bucket of ice water, baptizing him fully into the present. His eyes snapped to Brokenridge, who was stumbling away from his sire and shaking his head free of the strange experience. Many of his wounds had scabbed over, but at his sudden movement, they were beginning to tear afresh and weep blood once again.
This was nothing compared to Longtooth, who had experienced the System-enforced timeline reconciliation much more brutally.
Just minutes ago from Tilly¡¯s perspective, the creature had stood almost seventy feet in the air, a robust paragon of strength and domination. But under the weight of untold millennia, his posture had stooped and his muscular girth had become hollow. The flesh around his extremities flapping around like sacks of wine, swinging from loose folds of skin.
The transformed dragon king stumbled away drunkenly from the recent brawl, his own wounds long since healed to scars as time immemorial came crashing back in on him.
Seeing how dramatic those changes had been, Tilly pulled back up his Debuff explanation and timer, hoping to get a better sense of how long had passed since he had moved through the mists.
Status Effects: Severe Soul Wrent
Soul Wrent: Your soul has suffered a severe injury and is at risk of irreversible damage. The effectiveness of any Aural and Will Abilities will be set to 10% normal strength for the duration of this Debuff.
Warning, your soul is close to dissolution, guard your will and protect your core, for it cannot take any more pressure or stress until it is fully healed. One day, 12 hours remaining.
Sure the loss of his soul was concerning, but the loss of five days hit Tilly harder and he had to fight to stay focused on the current battle as he waited for Kindle to bring back word of what was happening on the other peaks.
This whole plan had hinged on getting to the Contested Lands first and gaining an immense advantage on the field before the arrival of the enemy¡¯s full strength¡ Now whatever advantage they had was all but gone.
Tilly¡¯s eyes lit up in renewed anger as he considered the incredibly selfish dragon king before him. The dragon seemed almost pitiful as he fought to regain his bearings. A quick internal check confirmed that all of Tilly¡¯s titles were back online and his Celestial Bracelets of Substitutional Might had fully reset timers.
This was looking more and more like the perfect moment to kick a guy while he was down.
He keyed up [All or Nothing] and was about to activate the Bracelets to flip his build to an Intelligence emphasis when he heard a growl hit him from his periphery.
¡°No, human. He is mine,¡± Brokenridge coughed out, bleeding from numerous tearing scabs.
Longtooth¡¯s head tilted to the side as if those words and the challenge they represented anchored him back to the present, pulling his attention back to the fight. He swung his neck around and set his milky white eyes on the much younger dragon, baring his teeth in hatred, ¡°And so you resort to cheap tricks? You would orchestrate the end of our dominance on this plane?¡± the dragon slurred, his focus sliding around Brokenridge in an attempt to zero in on the challenger.
¡°Enough talk, Longtooth. It is time we ended this.¡± Brokenridge growled, shooting forward without further preamble.
Longtooth responded with a croaking roar, diving at the smaller opponent with a ferocity undimmed by the supernatural weathering his body had just undergone.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
They collided together one last time, Brokenridge feeling the majority of the impact as their bodies crashed into one another. Even having to tank the brunt of Longtooth¡¯s charge, the smaller dragon more than made up for it with attacks that blurred in their intensity. Tilly¡¯s bent knees and raised weapons slowly straightened as he watched his draconic companion literally tear his sire apart.
Longtooth attempted to put up a fight, but the weight of Epochs had robbed his form of much of its speed and strength. Where he had easily overwhelmed his progeny earlier in the fight, he now found each of his attacks too slow to hit the vitals he attempted to target.
Instead, Brokenridge ripped through the dragon king¡¯s immense form, rending weathered skin from atrophied muscle and cutting deep into the remaining layers underneath.
With a final roar of fury, Longtooth snatched one of Brokenridge¡¯s legs, heaving mightily to throw him off. The smaller dragon was flung into the distance, landing heavily on the other side of the mountaintop. His ferocious movements had worsened many of his still-healing injuries, and despite having done the majority of the damage in that last encounter, copious amounts of boiling dragon blood were flowing freely from his eviscerated form.
Yet his sire had fared far worse in the exchange. The ancient dragon swayed on his feet, his body a ruin of torn flesh and gaping wounds. Tilly could hardly understand how the thing''s body was holding itself together at this point, and yet the dragon slowly straightened from his crouch, eyeing his progeny across the intervening space with something that might have been respect.
Brokenridge shook off his many injuries, standing to his own full height to cast his baleful gaze back at the creature responsible for the possible end of his kind. As the two opponents beheld each other from across the mountaintop, Tilly noticed Longtooth¡¯s eyes clearing for some indefinable reason, his vision focusing on his heir as some of the old bitterness fell away.
¡°Now you see what I have done to protect our place on this plane. You have contested my right to lead, as is your right; and now we decide the future of our kind¡¯s legend,¡± the king wheezed out as his life leaked onto the ground around him.
¡°Our future was in our people, not in whatever it is you built on top of this mountain. You forgot your purpose¡ But my heart remembers. Our legend is not limited to the memory of lesser races. Your time is over, but our people will live on.¡± Brokenridge replied through gritted teeth, barely able to remain standing.
Longtooth nodded once, finding a strange level of contentment with that answer here at his end. The giant dragon then began to inflate his chest slowly, taking in air for one last attack. Brokenridge¡¯s lips pulled back in return, revealing something not too distant from a smile, and responded in kind.
Tilly looped his hatchets, resting his hands on their heads as these two creatures, some of the last of their kind, chose to end their contest in the most dramatic way possible. He was hopeful that the battle would end in Brokenridge¡¯s victory but, even if it looked like that might not happen, he knew he couldn¡¯t intervene at this point. The terribly proud creature had claimed the finale of this fight, and Tilly knew that if he took it from him, the tenuous bridge of their burgeoning relationship would shatter under the offense.
Both dragons finished forcing air into their damaged chest cavities at the same time and for a moment the entire scene was still. Even Tilly held his breath, the tension of the moment pulling his eyes into slits of worry.
Torrents of flame burst forth from both gaping jaws, racing toward each other and colliding in front of the damaged throne. Longtooth¡¯s considerable size and undiminished magic reserves allowed him to produce another immense quantity of purple flame, exploding from his mouth in a river of fire that was easily thirty feet in diameter by the time it met Brokenridge¡¯s breath attack.
As they met, the differences between the two abilities were made stark in their contrast as Brokenrige¡¯s azure bar of plasma no bigger than Tilly himself burst through the center of Longtooth¡¯s attack. The purple flames were hardly slowed as they continued on their path and crashed into Brokenridge, who leaned into the attack as his own ability drilled through the center of his sire¡¯s. The much more concentrated attack cut through its center until it pounded into Longtooth¡¯s open maw with the force of a freight train.
Air rushed past Tilly as the two conflagrations met and vied for greater fuel, conjoining into a brief, multi-colored inferno. Then the dragon king¡¯s breath attack ended abruptly, his teeth clattering shut from the force of Brokenrigde¡¯s attack.
Longtooth stood there, aged, but proud for a few moments more, his head a smoking ruin as Brokenridge¡¯s flame continued to incinerate it from the inside out. Then Brokenridge cut off his attack, burnt and swaying, but watching with some satisfaction as the tyrant of his people collapsed, dead.
Just like that, Brokenridge, covered in a network of recently recauterized wounds, became the new king of the dragons. Tilly rushed over to the dragon who had begun to take shallow wet breaths, ¡°Hey, are you ok? What can I do to help?¡± He shouted as he ran over.
Brokenridge cast a bleary exhausted eye at Tilly¡¯s approach. ¡°Claim the jewel, you fool!¡± he growled before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed as well.
Tilly cut a sharp turn in his run, angling back toward the damaged throne and the fallen Facet. The sounds of Brokenridge¡¯s breathing came in shuddering gasps as the multiple instances of abuse he had put his body through stacked on him now that there was nothing left to fight.
He slid to the floor as he spotted the jewel, blinking in and out of existence amidst pieces of shattered bone. Without thinking, he reached down and grabbed it, sending howling energy raging through his Mana Pathways as his hand wrapped around the object of extreme power. Time started to blink in and out of focus as his position on the mountain and even the cosmos was called into question by the potential to Change stored within the ancient source of power that now flooded his veins.
Reacting almost instantly, Tilly dropped the Facet what he thought was a moment later. But as he looked up, he grimly noted that the sun had dropped even further in the now visible sky.
Even worse, he could no longer hear Brokenridge breathing¡
Urgently, he reached toward the jewel once again, this time stopping just short of touching it, and allowing himself to feel its surroundings. He relaxed his hold on his Mana and felt it wanting to reach out to interact with the mysterious object.
Letting it guide him, he sent a pulse of fire into the jewel and received a bracing, energetic reply. His notification icon, which had started flashing as soon as Longtooth died, went crazy and Tilly cut off the mental mute he had on the log.
Congratulations! Your party has defeated the dragon king in combat. You have Leveled up! Your Title [Savage Dominion] has triggered, augmenting your experience reward.
Tilly raced through the level-up notifications, finally reaching the line he needed.
Quest Complete! You have defeated the dragon king and assisted Brokenridge in claiming his throne, would you like to accept the Patronage of Origin¡¯s Breath?
Warning, doing so will result in drastic changes to the lands your Faction has laid claim to, this power is linked to change and upheavals, and accepting its authority in your Faction will have unpredictable consequences.
Accept Patronage? Yes / No
Tilly mentally selected ¡°Yes¡± and for the second time that day, time and space exploded out from the jewel like a howling wind as the natural order of Nephesh was once again rearranged by its influence.
B4 Chapter 9 Raising The Stakes
Hiro Matsumoto Guardian Daimyo of the Three-Fold Alliance
Something fundamental to his nature had just changed.
He had been sitting in on another meeting when it happened, attempting fruitlessly to bring order to the chaotic morass that was their Coalition.
A deep thrum reverberated through the Land, originating from the temple on the mountain. He briefly noted the few others who were sensitive enough to look up, turning their heads in the direction of the temple searchingly. But almost immediately after the warning of change moved through the Land, the change took him.
An entirely new network of Mana Distribution patterns whirled into being inside him, rearranging what had already been burned, and then regrown from his Well the last two times he had experienced such a change. The Faction had grown, and the council now oversaw a Kingdom.
¡°He has done it,¡± the elderly samurai whispered, a rare smile playing across his face, despite the internal discomfort he was experiencing as his power structure was rewritten.
Then a howling force tore through the manor and Hiro was caught up in the fresh winds of a spring storm, dancing to the melody of inevitable change. Suddenly he was gone, the wind had not picked him up in the sense of moving his body. Instead, his newly rewritten Mana Pathways reacted jubilantly to the advent of the wild power coursing through the room and channeled a new power.
The world around him blurred and time swirled in ascending and descending spirals as his new ability instinctually bore him toward a distant destination.
Since coming back from the grave, he had happily accepted the limits of his new powers. His purpose had always been to protect his people, and the loss of his freedom to travel from their Faction¡¯s lands had seemed a small price to pay for such power. He had understood and accepted his role in the coming fight would be to secure their home base and provide as much support as he could from the Alliance¡¯s lands.
Now, however, he was being pulled far from the valley where his people had built their refuge. The strange magic blowing through him was taking him to a new place, one that was both foreign and yet rang with a familiar note of joyous, creative, energy.
Then he was there, landing lightly on his feet. The moment his body made contact with the local land, he learned that it too had been added to his Faction¡¯s holdings and it told him of everything that had recently occurred in its domain and some things that were still unfolding.
He stood there for a long moment, on the flattened top of a mountain-like structure built at the beginning of the Land¡¯s story. The area around him was already undergoing a transformative renewal as not one, but three of Origin¡¯s Facets settled into the peak and remade it. There were five other peaks, and even now he could only dimly sense 3 others. The fourth, however, he could sense much more sharply. A power aligned with his was currently contesting it vigorously¡ He was just in time.
¡°Hiro?¡± A familiar, but confused voice called out.
The Guardian Daimyo turned toward Tilly¡¯s shocked face and noted the new altar now sitting at the center of the area. Soon this entire mountain would be remade to better support its new authority.
But there would be no time to explain. He had work to do if the coalition was to stand a chance of gaining the foothold it needed to wage war against what was coming. Even now, he could feel the distant crashing of cloven feet, the acidic burn of the tide of demonic armies headed this way.
¡°Jonathan Tillman, I must go. Plant the seed and bring our forces here. Direct our elites to the other peaks, we must delay them as long as possible if we are to stand a chance,¡± he called, eyeing the distant battle eagerly.
¡°Hold on, I''ll come with-¡±
Hiro smiled fiercely, enjoying the surge of potential that animated his newly upgraded body as he leaned into the powerset bestowed upon him by Origin¡¯s Breath.
In a blink he was gone, slipping through time and space to land in between Erash and the pair of Level 88 Elder Fiends that she had been contending against. Without missing a beat, she lowered her staff, reaching up to wipe some of the dirt and blood marring her normally pristine features.
¡°I felt the shift¡but I must say, this is a pleasant surprise,¡± she breathed out in relief. The winged Fiends screamed in protest at Hiro¡¯s interruption, their hatred-laced calls joining the others who flew toward the peaks on twisted wings, attempting to claim them ahead of Corruption¡¯s main force.
¡°The die has been cast¡ let us see just how far providence will carry us.¡± He replied, smoothly drawing his sword and taking a step toward the growing crowd of enemies attempting to win before the battle had truly begun.
¡
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Ichiro, Level 79 Samurai Hatamoto
Something momentous rippled through the Weave. Ichiro had been consciously blocking out the vast majority of his awareness of its captivating patterns as he tried to pay attention to the meeting and its almost endless bickering. Then everything around him had burst with animated movement. Whatever the source of this change, it was reorienting many of the destinies represented in the Coalition, including the powers assembled in the manor¡¯s courtyard.
A moment later, his father cocked his head with a grunt, and looked off into the distance, as if he too could see the change. An expression of awe bloomed on his features for the barest moment before he whispered, ¡°He has done it.¡±
Then an energy unlike anything Ichiro had ever felt tore through the courtyard, and several others looked up at its passing, including the ancient wizard and the Honu Elders.
It howled silently through the room, invisible to all but a few, and then it was gone, his father along with it.
Ichiro immediately lifted as much of his mental block as he could handle, his eyes dancing across the rapidly changing pattern as he attempted to draw some conclusion from all of the changes.
Jonathan Tillman had done something, that much was clear. But why were all of the threads in this room suddenly being pulled toward the center of the city, and what did the gaping hole in the pattern at the top of their mountain signify?
¡°Please excuse me,¡± Ichiro said quietly, as the others in the room started to shout at Hiro¡¯s sudden disappearance. The old wizard raised his voice attempting to take charge of the situation and Ichiro passed out of the front gate of the manor almost unnoticed, before accelerating to his full speed and racing toward the slowly filling gap in the Weave at the mountain¡¯s top.
Less than twenty breaths later he was there, looking at a large newly formed cave where the temple had once stood. The entrance, the weathered statues¡ it was all gone. The shock of the sudden loss hit him in his chest, rattling his normally iron control on his emotions.
¡°You will see it again soon enough, along with that rambunctious father of yours,¡± a weathered voice whispered comfortingly from behind Ichiro.
He spun on his heels, reaching for his sword in a smooth dangerous motion, only to find the elderly farming couple standing at their ease. These two had been so instrumental in the agricultural advances the Alliance had enjoyed¡ But something was off.
Even with much of his awareness blocked off, he should have been able to detect their presence on the Weave before they spoke. How long had they been there?
He searched his senses again and felt nothing. It was as if they weren¡¯t there at all to the vast majority of his sight. The couple calmly observed him as his mind raced through the possibilities that the disappearance and now this discovery could represent.
¡°Go ahead and take a closer look, but I¡¯ll warn you, you might want to squint those eyes of yours. You''re still new to this after all.¡± George said leaning happily against his wife in a relaxed posture.
¡°Do be careful dear, best take the smallest peek possible,¡± Edna added.
Ichiro was dumbfounded. The loss of his sight had resulted in a Skill that he had only just begun to understand, even after months of practicing. It had allowed him to detect infiltrators throughout the coalition¡¯s forces and when he entered into a full battle trance it gave him such an elevated understanding of the time and space around him that he bordered on prescience.
But this was completely new. The two before him were absent in the pattern unfolding around the newly changed destiny of the mountain. Something about their calm manner and the work they had been doing for his people for months meant that he longed to trust them, even though they now represented a complete unknown.
¡°Very well, if you will give me a moment,¡± he said, bowing. Whatever they were, Ichiro had always believed that a little respect went a long way.
¡°Oooh, I do like it when they are polite, George!¡±
¡°Hush woman, the boy needs to concentrate.¡±
Allowing their exchange to fade to the background of his thoughts, he rose from his bow, slowly releasing the mental block he had carefully constructed all those months ago. Without it, he would probably still be lost in the Weave¡¯s intoxicating intricacies and it was the only thing that allowed him to function with any normalcy.
The construct mainly acted as a sort of opaque, hazy window through which he limited his exposure to the reality underlying the plane to a bare 10 percent of the information he was capable of taking in. Locking in his breathing technique and the rigid support a lifetime of meditation provided for him, he slowly eased the block, allowing the intricacies of the Weave to come through in greater clarity.
His iron Will dug in the heels of his soul, fighting against the almost irresistible urge to marvel at the many pathways playing out before him. Instead, he focused on the couple, seeing for the first time that his initial impression had been wrong. It wasn¡¯t that they were absent from the Weave. Instead, it seemed to behave strangely wherever it touched upon the couple¡¯s cosmic location in reality.
Curiosity growing, he minutely relaxed the mental protection a little more, allowing in more information.
Then he saw it. The Weave was turning in on itself, inverting into an entirely different metaphysical space wherever it touched them. It reminded Ichiro of hiding your stitch on the inside of a seam.
Once he saw it, all control slipped from his grasp, for beyond that inversion was a whole universe of power. The roots of the destiny from the couple before him reached out and touched upon the entire plane, stretching far past Ichiro¡¯s comprehension. He would have prostrated himself before them, terrified of the advent of their power. But his whole body had locked up, rigid in an attempt to not be lost again in the terrible majesty of reality as it yawned open before him.
¡°There there, dear,¡± one of them said. Its words reverberated along the parts of the pattern between them, and somehow imparted to him the strength to pull back from the brink.
¡°Gahhh,¡± He gasped, like a man coming up from the depths. His body flinched along with the desperate breath and blood-filled tears ran in streams from his eyes.
The strength fled from his knees, and he was about to collapse in relief when the old man was suddenly next to him, bearing him up in a firm but gentle grip, ¡°Sorry about that. It''s a trick some of us old-timers use to keep a lower profile¡We would have spared you the trouble, but it is likely you will need to know the secret very soon.¡±
¡°What are you?¡± Ichiro asked in an awed whisper, screwing his eyes shut and wiping away as much of the mess on his face as possible.
¡°Names are a hard thing and most of the time, I think we prefer Edna and George. But we have other names, ones more suited to the responsibilities we bear¡¡± The elderly female satyr whispered gently.
¡°But the most helpful answer to your question would probably be the names we were first given upon waking,¡± The man next to him said, his voice heavy with intent, ¡°I was, and still am, known as Endurance.¡±
¡°And there are those that would call me Strength,¡± Edna added, ¡°Though very few of them understand anything of the meaning of my name.¡±
The revelation was so overwhelming that for the first time since his capture all those months ago by the Corrupted tree, Ichiro¡¯s control began to slip. Whatever else their presence represented, the fact that they had been here for so many of the trials that had struck his people and done nothing¡
It was just too much. His carefully cultivated calm began to fray and words burst from his mouth as if spoken by someone else. Someone much angrier.
¡°But how? Why?... Shouldn¡¯t you be doing-¡±
He could hardly believe the slip as it was happening and belatedly cut himself off before he voiced a full criticism of such powerful beings.
¡°-More?¡± George finished letting go of Ichiro as the strength returned to his legs and his mental block reasserted itself.
B4 Chapter 10 Packed Peaks
¡°Ah, yes. Very sorry,¡± Ichiro immediately replied, offering the pair another set of bows.
¡°No, it¡¯s a fair question¡ over which even our kind has found no accordance,¡± George said, waving away Ichiro¡¯s slip with a reassuring smile. His easy expression hung there for another long second before he continued, his smile fading into a shadow of itself as his words grew heavier.
¡°I am afraid neither Edna nor I have ever had the talent for reading the Weave like some of the others, so we see only hints of what is coming. But we knew enough to position ourselves where it mattered most, and an old friend filled in some of the gaps when she came through last.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, I still don¡¯t understand,¡± Ichiro responded, face drawn as thoughts raced through his mind, clouding his thinking.
He had just felt power far beyond that of any of the forces he knew on the plane. Why were they here? What were their goals? If they wanted something, why not just make it happen by force?
¡°It¡¯s ok dear¡ we have revealed something very difficult to you, but George and I have been watching you, and we think you have true potential.¡± Edna said, lifting her hand placatingly as she tried to explain, ¡°True power is much deeper than ¡®might makes right.¡¯ Every action has a cost and every choice we have ever made changed things exponentially. Some changes, we were able to foresee, but many others were completely unintended.
¡°No¡¡± she breathed out, the many lines of her face deepening in something akin to exhaustion, ¡°It has been a very long time since we tried to force our surroundings to fit our desires. It was, and still is, a fruitless endeavor,¡± she finished, some heat entering her voice for the first time as she finished her explanation.
¡°Young man,¡± George interjected, giving Edna a significant look, ¡°I will tell you our great secret, one that very few will ever hear, and even fewer will take the time to grasp. There is no greater act of Endurance than to wait for an appointed time,¡± he said gravely.
¡°And there is no greater Strength than meekness.¡± Edna added with a long-suffering sigh, ¡°What the System has offered you is only the smallest sliver of the power that hides behind our names, and I am afraid you are going to need much more than a quick blade and strong arm to win the fight that is coming.¡±
A deep bell chimed in some metaphysical space as they released their truths to him, reverberating through the Weave.
The declarations they had shared revealed a depth of understanding that was so profound that it slammed into him, effortlessly moving through his defenses and leaving him feeling naked. They watched him struggle to internalize their words as a storm of pressing emotions continued to rage through him at the revelation of their natures.
The part of him that had spent a lifetime investing in the meditation Skill as his mother had handed down to him, knew that he had just received a goldmine of insight. He could mine this moment for years, sharpening his Will and his understanding of the Weave all at once.
But the other part of him, the much more visceral and immediate self, could not help but voice one final plea, ¡°Can you not do more for us? I have seen you with the children, you love them! And even with my limited abilities, I know that everything we have built here faces a terrible end,¡± Ichiro groaned out beseechingly, struggling through the weight of the truths they had just shared.
¡°We are bound by an ancient oath, and while some have forgotten their promises, we refuse to do so.¡± George answered, showing the smallest hint of anger at the question, ¡°No matter what it may look like, we aren''t God, boy. Our understanding is limited, and we too, have parts to play. It is for this very reason we came here to speak with you.¡±
¡°The battle is shifting, and your people must bring everything they have to this fight¡ but you will not be forced to leave behind those you love, unprotected. It is in this way we will participate in the coming conflict. Throw all of your strength into the Contested Lands and trust that those you leave behind are safe as long as you do so. Nothing will touch this place while you fight. But if you lose¡
¡°Then not even we will be able to turn back the tide,¡± George finished solemnly.
Ichiro took it all in, taking a long look at the gaping opening in the mountain that had once been their temple. The new hope of his people. ¡°Then, Origin has not left us?¡±
George smiled, allowing some of the weight to fall from his features, ¡°Now that is the right question boy. You know what is against you¡ Do not forget who is for you. I can not say I understand what will come, but in my long life, I have never found reason to give up hope that the beginning of all things will have a suitably glorious end.¡±
¡
Tilly, Level 70 Son of Flame
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
Hiro disappeared to the sound of a sudden, sweeping wind scoring the top of the mountain clean. Tilly belatedly dropped his outreached hand and covered his eyes until the wind died down. As the remaining bone dust settled, he did a slow scan of his surroundings. Hiro¡¯s appearance wasn¡¯t the only surprise to come from his acceptance of the new Facet¡¯s Patronage.
The piles of dragon¡¯s bone had almost instantly decayed, blowing away with the increased wind. The Scorch enchantment, burned into the structure of the mountain itself, glowed brightly shifting through multiple hues as it struggled to integrate the greatly increased power source. At the center of the unnaturally flat space, the throne was completely gone, and in its place, an altar of unhewn stone had risen, upon which sat a small, heartbreakingly beautiful bloom.
Blue and white flames danced around the flower, burning, but not consuming. This same scene had pulled him in each time he had visited the inner chamber of the temple, but now it had been changed. Where once, the bloom had shot up as a seedling on the altar''s surface, there was now a crystalline platform surviving as its base. The substance seemed to shift from solid to liquid to gas depending on how he turned his head. The change was subtle to the overall feel of the altar but as soon as he noticed it, he realized that the flames and bloom within them had doubled in size.
He shook his head, remembering Hiro¡¯s last words, and reached into his jacket pulling out the continuously twisting seed, looking for a place to plant the Auction House opening, but as he surveyed the ground around him¡ he got an unsettled feeling in his gut.
From off to the side, Brokenridge¡¯s huge shoulders began to shift, and he took in a long weary breath, ¡°I can feel it¡ My sire¡¯s mantle has passed to me.¡±
The dragon¡¯s timbre displayed none of the triumph Tilly had expected. Instead, his words were marked by a new weight, imbued with a subtle but powerful element of introspection.
Sounds of otherworldly screams echoed from another one of the Peaks, and Tilly could see distant aerial specks dotting the horizon as more came to claim a place of power in the Contested Lands.
The ground around him had begun to bloom with fresh grace and budding wildflowers¡ As badly as they needed it, this was not the place to plant the seed¡ it was too close to the center of their power. Looking back over at the dragon, Tilly lifted up the seed in his direction, as the enemy''s cries grew closer.
¡°I have a way to bring the warriors from the Alliance here to defend this place. Do you have any idea where I should plant this?¡±
¡°No, despite what my sire believed, this is no longer the home of our people. It has been seized by the System for this contest. Any authority I had over this mountain was destroyed with that abomination of a throne¡¡± The dragon answered, looking away from the battle taking place nearby and taking in the altar that had arisen where his sire had once ruled.
The seed bent and twisted in Tilly¡¯s hand, and he felt the urgency of their situation building, ¡°Well, I¡¯m going to run and try and find a place to plant this. Don¡¯t get too caught up in the fighting without me,¡± he called, turning to take off down the side of the mountain to look for a location that felt right.
¡°-I will not be here when you return,¡± Brokenridge answered slowly.
Tilly stopped in his tracks whipping around to face the dragon who was looking off into the distance, away from the coming forces of Corruption.
¡°You¡¯re running?!¡± Tilly burst out in surprise. He hadn¡¯t really thought about the dragon¡¯s role in the coming larger conflict¡ but his running away had never even occurred to him.
The dragon¡¯s head snapped back to focus on Tilly, his eyes regaining some of their lost ferocity, ¡°No, Two-legs! I am not running¡ My sire forgot our purpose, but I remember. We were entrusted with these mountains and that jewel for a reason. I will see my people returned to their former glory,¡± he said resolutely, eyes straying off to the opposite horizon again. ¡°I can feel them now¡ the last of my kin. We must not miss this chance to regain our honor.¡±
It was then that Tilly¡¯s shocked gaze finally produced an identifier for the dragon.
Brokenridge, Level ??? Draconic Sovereign [Champion of Origin¡¯s Breath]
¡°What the-¡± Tilly barely had time to mutter, before Brokenridge gathered himself in a crouch, shouting, ¡°Do not give up what I have won for you, human! Hold until I return, and we will smite Soulbane upon these mountains, just as our peoples did long ago!¡±
With that, he exploded up into the air, shooting off into the distance at a level of acceleration that defied all reason. The wind of his explosive exit buffeted Tilly, filling the air with the last of the bone dust as he struggled to adjust to the pace of events.
The inhuman screams were growing in number and sounded closer than ever. Tilly spit the dust from his mouth and turned, diving back into a sprint. He didn¡¯t have time to figure things out, he needed to get this seed in the ground, and his instincts were telling him that he would regret it if he didn¡¯t choose the right place.
As he leaped over the edge of the mountain and started the steep climb down at a full run, a notification flashed before his eyes.
|
The Battle Continues!
2 Peaks claimed by the Dawning Coalition
1 Peak claimed by Corruption
3 Peaks unclaimed.
|
He looked up from his run, seeing a distant swarm of the flying creatures moving toward another Peak, leaving behind a thick cloud of them on the first.
The sound of deep clanging was ringing out from the Peak nearest to the approaching enemy, its top swathed in an impenetrable darkness that continually swallowed more of the flying creatures. Occasionally bursts of blue fire would explode from some part of the domain, but the fire did nothing to disperse the thick darkness of Hiro¡¯s domain.
They were holding, providing a significant distraction so that Tilly could establish a beachhead for their forces in the Contested Lands.
Now he just needed to get it done.
He ran downslope wildly, reaching out with all of his senses for something that would relieve the eerie wrongness that had settled in his stomach at the thought of burying the seed near the altar.
¡°Psst, hey kid!¡±
Tilly, slid to a stop, having just run past one of the large openings he had found on his way up. Turning, he found the same Raptor Magnus guy, casually leaning against the wall of the tunnel leading deep into the center of the mountain.
¡°You¡¯re still here?¡±
The reptilian¡¯s smile turned downward, ¡°What a rude question. And after I went through all that trouble to find you a place to put that seed.¡±
|
The Battle Continues!
2 Peaks claimed by the Dawning Coalition
2 Peaks claimed by Corruption
2 Peaks unclaimed.
|
Tilly¡¯s eyes widened as another notification flashed unbidden before his eyes.
¡°Not long until they head this way, huh?¡± The Magnus hissed smugly.
B4 Chapter 11 Out of Time
The sounds of distant conflict grew like an insistent buzzing in the back of Tilly¡¯s mind, ¡°Ugh. Fine, show me.¡± He growled, giving in and forcing himself to move past his suspicion.
The First Magnus nodded, turning and moving deeper into the tunnel with a smooth, powerful gait.
¡°What are you getting out of this anyway?¡± Tilly called ahead, struggling to keep up with the reptilian, even though the robed figure only appeared to be walking. Every time Tilly picked up the pace, Rulak managed to stay a few steps ahead, all while not appearing to change anything in his movements.
¡°I couldn¡¯t live with myself if I allowed the opportunity to observe such a novel conflict pass me by,¡± He crowed back over his shoulder, ¡±Plus I can¡¯t wait to see what changes such primal forces will make on these lands. The research into proto-Epochian planar shifts is appallingly thin and I-¡±
He suddenly drew to a halt, causing Tilly to almost crash into his back, ¡°Ah, here we are. The energies around this tear are quite lively¡ what I wouldn¡¯t give to know its source.¡± The Magnus said, gesturing in the dark at something Tilly couldn¡¯t see against the wall. When Tilly said nothing in response, the First Magnus looked back, his slitted eyes glowing, and tsked as he realized the problem. But before he could remedy it, Tilly enflamed his hand, casting the deep dark of the passageway into a flickering blue and white light.
¡°Oh good, that will do.¡± The Magnus said absently as he turned back toward a deep gash in the otherwise perfectly smooth dragon glass walls. The damaged section of dragon glass swirled with energies that made Tilly nauseous to look at, ¡°What did this?¡± Tilly asked.
¡°I haven¡¯t the faintest idea. That''s the fun of it! Well¡ go ahead, throw the seed in. Let''s see how the two energies react.¡±
Tilly shot a look at the reptilian magic user, who was smiling eagerly, and even gave Tilly the ¡®go on¡± shooing motion. Rolling his eyes in response, Tilly slowly extended his hand holding the seed toward the wall and found that the internal feeling of wrongness had completely dissipated. Not that he felt good, he still felt nauseous, but the more he thought about it, the more he was reminded of his last visit to the Auction House.
¡°Perfect, right?¡± The Magnus said, still smiling.
¡°Here goes nothing,¡± Tilly shrugged, tossing the seed into the eerie tear in the solid wall.
The little headache-inducing seed soared through the air, disappearing into the darkness of the wall without a sound. Tilly was about to lean closer to see what had happened to it, when Rulak cleared his throat loudly, ¡°Ahem, I wouldn¡¯t do that if I were you.¡±
Tilly whipped his hand back, looking at the Magnus in confusion and finding the reptilian twenty yards away, observing with eager eyes.
Before Tilly could fully process his change in position, a huge cracking sound reverberated from behind him, and he reacted instinctually, diving away from the wall as fast as possible. Rulak ignored him, watching whatever was occurring in fascination.
Landing smoothly in a roll, he shot to his feet, covering the short distance between him and the Magnus. The moment he thought he was far enough away, he turned around, watching as the Dragon Glass around the narrow opening began to break and shatter, folding like stiff paper in increasingly complex patterns.
Once again Tilly found himself forcing down the heaving urge to regurgitate, as the laws of geometry were brutally broken before his eyes. He took another couple of steps back, dodging flying bits of glass that were ejecting from the process. The wall continued to bend otherworldly shapes until it somehow took the shape of a large archway, leading into an atrium made of dragon glass. The familiar purplish glow of the Auction Houses¡¯ domain shone through, adding its hue to Tilly''s dancing light.
The wince-inducing cacophony finally died down with a few last folds, plunging the scene into a brief silence before the screams of the flying Corrupted vanguard echoed down the passageway, much closer than they had been minutes before.
¡°Fascinating,¡± Rulak muttered, having produced a journal from somewhere to take copious notes.
Then a whispering voice drifted through the newly made opening, ¡°I should have known when I saw you approach this simpleton that you would be getting your dull-clawed hands in this somehow.¡±
Rulak glanced up from his notes, offering a sharp-toothed smile in return, ¡°Great minds think alike, you bundle of old laundry.¡± He shot back, before quickly returning to his notes.
¡°How did you find a way for the entrance to manifest so quickly? I barely had time to allocate the resources before the opening was formed.¡± The Auctioneer continued, gliding through the doorway without a care in the world.
¡°My working hypothesis is some sort of rift-born creature left enough of its will imprinted on the wall here to accelerate your unique linking process¡ That was my theory anyway, it could have just as easily caused a planar paradox-¡±
The screams reached a crescendo outside the mountain, and Tilly thought he heard some echoing into this particular passageway.
¡°Compare notes later! Auctioneer, I need you to make good on your promise,¡± he shouted.
¡°Yes, yes,¡± they said, waving down his concern with a many-layered sleeve, ¡°As soon as I sensed the opening, I began bringing them over. The first of your people will be arriving momentarily. But you might have to go up and keep this Peak from being claimed¡ You are, after all, in a terribly vulnerable position right now.¡±
¡°Tsshht¡± Tilly snarled, turning on his heels to sprint back to the opening.
¡°- As I was saying¡¡±
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
He had only made it a dozen yards down the passageway before remembering that he still hadn¡¯t assigned his free stat points. He had experienced the increase in Dexterity on his way down the mountain, but any increase in his Endurance was getting difficult to quantify.
Slowing to a jog, he quickly pulled up his stats, muttering through some math to ensure he kept enough cushion to protect his superlative title cheat at all costs. He shoved the stat points into their places, doing his best to add stats to the lower four, in a rushed free-for-all. After they locked in place, he did another anxious scan to make sure he hadn¡¯t screwed it up.
|
Stats:
Constitution: 50
Endurance: 306 (336.6)
Dexterity: 100 (110)
Strength: 50
Wisdom: 50
Intelligence: 50
|
That done, he picked up his pace, sprinting to meet whatever waited for him up on the mountain¡ But after only another couple of steps, he was blindsided by the blaring of trumpets and a burst of golden light exploding before him, revealing the most audacious notification he had yet seen.
Congratulations! You have pushed one of your mortal stats into the Celestial Tier! You have earned the title [Immutable]. No attack below the fourth tier will do any damage to your mortal vessel, and only Celestial Tier attacks will be able to damage you without severe restrictions on output.
¡®Woah¡¡¯ Tilly hadn¡¯t time to think before an urgent image from Kindle slammed into his thoughts.
He saw the peaks from a high aerial view but the sight of them was almost completely blocked by tens of thousands of aerial combatants choking the skies. Even worse, rapidly approaching at the rear of the vanguard was a dark roiling cloud, so thick that it completely blotted out the landscape. As Kindle focused in on it, Tilly realized that it wasn¡¯t a vapor, or spell¡
It was trillions of insects, basically forming another army. One that very few of the Alliance fighters were equipped to deal with.
Corruption had responded to their opening gambit with its fastest movers, led by Beelzebub himself.
¡®Looks like I¡¯m going to need every bit of juice I can squeeze from that title,¡¯ he thought wearily to himself. Rocking forward on his feet and jumping back into a sprint for the third time.
His soul was close to recovering, and his titles were refreshed. but their chances of establishing a defensible base, let alone winning the conflict were hanging by a thread. The time for holding back his trump cards was over. If he didn¡¯t go all out, right here at the beginning, the battle would probably be over before the Dawning Coalition even arrived.
¡®Thanks, Kindle. Do not engage until you get some heat stored away¡ In fact, give me a few minutes, and I¡¯ll give you plenty to snack on,¡¯ he sent back. He figured the best way to solve the problem was to lean into some tried and true methods.
If it ain¡¯t broke, don¡¯t fix it.
He almost heard her triumphant cry of challenge from miles above ground as he turned the last corner in the passageway to find the entrance choked with Corrupted creatures. Their makeup was disturbingly diverse, but they all shared two characteristics.
Every one of them had some kind of appendage geared toward flight and they were fully imbued with Corruption.
Before either side could remark on the other''s presence, they were hit with another Contested Lands notification:
|
The Battle Continues!
2 Peaks claimed by the Dawning Coalition (Contested)
4 Peaks claimed by Corruption
|
Tilly growled at how quickly his coalition was losing ground. The whole point of this plan was to try and get here first and establish some sort of defensible position¡ But that possibility was almost gone. A fresh anger welled up in him, as circumstances once again tried to rob him of even the chance of survival.
It was always one thing after another, and no matter what he did, it seemed like the enemy was already there, gearing up for the next attack. Corruption¡¯s advance was relentless and part of Tilly wanted to just give up¡
He stomped that whimpering voice into the ground with the steel-toed boot of his will. If Corruption wanted to keep getting its ass whooped, Tilly wasn¡¯t going to complain¡ In fact, he would smile and ask for seconds.
Closing the last twenty yards, Tilly enflamed his entire body with Wrath¡¯s Shroud and charged straight at them as they howled their challenge in return.
Identifiers flashed before him as he ran directly into the blender of serrated blades, slavering mouths, and terrifying magic.
Level 63 Imp
Level 77 Hellfire Hound
Level 98 Damned Fiend
Level 103 Abhorrent Horror
Level 67 Eternal Nightmare
The names, and the creatures they attempted to describe flooded his vision, choking his path to the outside. Even the sight of them pushed against the edges of his mind, attempting to shove it into a frenzied box of panic. But none of that mattered, this wasn¡¯t his first battle and something like an aloof detachment settled over the deeper places of his mind, covered by rage so hot, it radiated from his body in flares of Mana-infused fire.
The only important thing about this collection of filth was that they were in his way.
Then he was amongst them, plowing into their frenzy-induced charge like a hot knife through butter. Claws raked against his armor, blades attempted to plunge through his torso, and even demonic spells struck him, reaching any exposed part of his body and soaking it in all the terrifying destructive forces of the Pits.
All to accomplish absolutely nothing.
Their attacks plashed against him like rain, bereft of the cosmic authority to enact any negative change on his mortal vessel.
The same could not be said of his reprisal. His flames burned through his enemies hungrily. The purifying aspect of his Mana seemed to thrive against the twisted energies suffusing his opponents, each kiss of flame, or blow from his weapons did damage well beyond anything he would have ever thought possible.
The heads of his hatchets sheared through armor and spell alike, leaving destructive embers wherever they went that burst into their own miniature explosions a few moments later, excitedly spreading through the choked passageway like a virus, jumping from one host to the next in a growing crescendo of ignition.
His grim aloofness melted away before the incredible effect his powerset had on his foes. Screams pregnant with hunger quickly warped into howls of terror as the spreading fire ate through their advance faster than Tilly could run¡.
It was a massacre.
Tilly¡¯s sprinting charge slowed to an awestruck jog, as the remainder of his enemies turned to flee. He dropped Wrath''s Shroud, having only used 3% of his Mana, and struggled forward through a slowly dawning realization.
Everything he had endured, every trial and victory, had been preparing him for this confrontation.
This was not just another battle. It was The Battle.
And his powerset had been perfectly crafted to counter the forces arrayed against them.
He had known he was sitting on some advantages, but they had always seemed so small when measured against the enemy''s endless numbers¡
But now?
Now he was going to show them that whatever passed for fire in the Pits was nothing compared to the force that raged within him, begging to be unleashed.
He was Origin¡¯s Champion and the same heat that had kindled the first explosive moment of creation burned within him.
White-hot and ready.
B4 Chapter 12 Fury
Tilly stepped out of the mouth of the passageway and was met by the sight of thousands of flying combatants choking the skies around each of the peaks.
His immediate area had been more or less cleared by his explosive exit, but further up the mountain, the things were swarming. But they had not been able to claim the Peak yet, which was interesting. As he started running up the slope, he heard faint sounds of combat ringing out from the top of his mountain. His eyes narrowed, and he spun, seeing the other peak still swathed in Hiro¡¯s domain.
¡®It¡¯s not Hiro or Erash¡¡¯ He thought to himself.
They were still holding the other peak, dividing the enemy¡¯s attention so that the reinforcements that were supposedly coming had some chance to establish themselves on their chosen point of defense. But none of that would matter if they didn¡¯t keep ownership of this mountain.
Tilly turned back and focused on his destination, moving with supernatural grace up the slope of the mountain. He doubted Erash or Hiro would give up their position lightly, but with Beelzebub on the way, he knew that it would be up to him to buy them the time they needed to establish any kind of defense.
As he neared the top, he reignited his Shroud, drawing all kinds of enemy attention his way. Much of the force on this mountain had been focusing on whatever was keeping them from claiming its Peak, but as soon as his body lit up like a beacon, many of the creatures at the slope''s edge began to turn and howl. Something was fighting to protect the Dawning Coalition¡¯s claim on this mountain, and Tilly refused to let it fight alone.
Howls of twisted glee met his charge, causing others to turn to see what their compatriots had seen. Like a gathering wave, they turned and crested over the side of the slope, crashing down toward him.
Refusing to flinch, he met their charge dead on, focusing entirely on not getting swamped. Their ability to hurt him had been vastly reduced, much to the shock of his opponents, but their frenzied, endless attack was the real problem. While they couldn¡¯t really hurt him, he faced a serious risk of getting completely bogged down in the press of bodies, both living and dead.
His Shroud helped a lot in this regard, constantly burning through his surroundings, but it wasn¡¯t enough. After a storm of ineffectual attacks and the collision of dozens of Corruption-infested bodies, his progress slowed to a crawl¡ He needed to get to the top of that mountain, secure the peak, and then somehow get Beelzebub¡¯s attention before it was too late.
Shouldering his way through the quickly charring corpses, he reached down to his waist, searching for options. All five of his alchemical items had been reformed, but what would be the optimal thing to use in this situation?
Feyback was too niche, the health potion would not help, extra Mana would be nice but was too broad an answer, and Doom Ducky was probably overkill for this situation. Plus, it would seriously hamper any construction of their own defenses, which made it a less-than-ideal option, despite its obvious offensive advantages.
Not that he needed help beating these things¡ he just needed them out of his way.
Taking a deep breath in, he popped the cork on the Siren¡¯s Tears, grabbed the vial in his fist and twisted to fling it backward with all of his strength. The frenzied screams cut off suddenly as every set of still-functioning eyes whipped past Tilly to the object that had just gone flying down the mountain.
Just like that, they were gone, leaving behind dozens of their own dead as they screeched in lust, shooting after the disappearing vial, leaving Tilly¡¯s path mostly clear.
Even with all of that, there was still a sizable force higher up the mountain, but none of them were looking his way. Kicking free a few clingy, charred corpses, he mentally bemoaned his inability to gain experience from anything below level 100 as he set back off at a run. Then again, without the [Savage Dominion] bonus to the experience he had gotten from the death of the dragon king, he wouldn¡¯t be practically invulnerable right now.
So he shoved down that whining voice and got back to work. His Shroud flared around him, as if in agreement, and he closed the rest of the distance between him and the peak. Just before he arrived to assist whatever was defending the Peak, Kindle sent him another aerial update.
Beelzebub¡¯s army of insects - or maybe that was just his body - was almost to the first peak, where Hiro and Erash were making their stand. The rest of the peaks were swarming with enemies, but they had been practically cleared, leaving only that same foreboding darkness. One that the Corrupted Power was heading straight for.
He was out of time.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Bursting over the edge of the slope onto the unnaturally flat peak, Tilly immediately got to chopping, cutting through the nearest enemies before they could turn, and setting his edge of the mountain ablaze with burning bodies. As soon as the crowd thinned around him, turning in slow confusion, he released his hatchets in spinning throws directly toward the thickest crowd surrounding the altar.
The weapons released small explosions on impact, causing fires to break out amid the enemy and temporarily pulling their attention away from the center, where Tilly finally spotted the altar. It was now guarded by four gore-covered statues made of animated dragon glass.
A shock of recognition ran through him as he realized they were the same four statues that had guarded the outside of the temple back at the Alliance. But where those had been weathered stone, the workmanship detailing the bodies of these four warriors was crisp and fresh. Each of them wielded very real weapons with terrible skill, cleanly dispatching all who neared the altar.
He barely had time to process how freaking cool that was before those nearest to him finally got their bearings and turned to fully charge, summoning their allies to do the same.
All of his training and combat experience to this point was more or less thrown out the window as he was bum-rushed by half of the force crowding the mountaintop.
Hundreds of would-be fatal blows landed on him, and he hunched his shoulders through the storm of attacks, judiciously applying hatchet swings where the press got thickest. The weight of their numbers alone should have been enough to shove him back off the side of the mountain, but his flames were voracious, eating through anything flesh that came close to his body, and he set his feet doggedly, pressing forward whenever possible.
A grey dog-like creature exploded in gore before him, revealing a huge horned attacker swinging an immense hammer. The thing¡¯s swings radiated Strength, indiscriminately hitting friend and foe alike. The comically muscular demon teed up a huge swing, mowing through four or five of its fellow soldiers in the process. Tilly was so shocked at the thing¡¯s disregard that he misjudged the trajectory of the swing until it was too late, taking the blow on the right side of his chest. It launched him directly into the thick of many of the remaining attackers, shaving off a few percentage points of Health. Those he crashed into didn¡¯t fare nearly as well, the force of his impact breaking appendages and crushing bone as he mowed through their ranks.
The whole thing was utter chaos¡ something that favored Tilly heavily, given the current imbalance of power, and he rolled to his feet under more ineffectual blows, swinging his weapons around him as he cleared a little room.
¡°You!¡± The hammer wielder shouted, ¡°My master has a-¡± Whatever it had been about to say was cut off as the head of Tilly¡¯s hatchet buried itself in between the creature¡¯s horns. He didn¡¯t have time for monologues.
The impact area exploded with a fount of flame, fed by some internal source provided by the thing¡¯s skull, and Tilly turned in a slow circle, finding the press of the enemy letting up. The remaining flyers retreated en masse. Tilly¡¯s gaze immediately shot toward Hiro and Erash¡¯s peak to find it completely obscured by Beelzebub¡¯s insect storm.
The now still statues had immediately returned to a guard position at four points surrounding the altar, and it otherwise seemed unharmed¡ He ran through his options and figured his best bet was another supercharged intelligence Flame¡¯s Expulsion.
But how was he going to get the thing to come to him?
Desperately, he tried shouting at the top of his voice, ¡°Hey, Beetlejuice! The real battle is over here!¡±
The cloud of insects was bigger than several of the peaks combined, and while Tilly was pretty sure that something like that would have no problem hearing his challenge, he could spot any movement from the sky-blotting formation.
His Mana was sitting at 30%, and even if it was full, he simply didn''t have an attack that could reach the couple of miles to the next peak with any sort of effectiveness. His heart sank into his stomach as he saw the cloud of insects compressing, shoving more of itself into the space on top of the mountain.
The Battle Continues!
1 Peak claimed by the Dawning Coalition
5 Peaks claimed by Corruption
Then a gale blew past Tilly, and he spun to find Hiro, kneeling over an unconscious Erash, both their bodies crawling with Beelzebub¡¯s servants.
Without needing to be told, Tilly dived on top of the High Priestess, allowing his flames to incinerate all the minute creatures attempting to invade her body. On top of that, he breathed out a Flame¡¯s Renewal on her before standing up and facing Hiro, who stepped in and rotated his body through Tilly¡¯s flames like a rotisserie chicken. Once the Samurai had passed through the flame with every part of his body, Tilly allowed them to die down.
¡°You ok?¡± Tilly asked, eyeing the samurai who had gotten busy knocking loose charred bugs from his armor.
¡°Yes, my body is now almost as hostile to these creatures as yours.¡± He answered distractedly, shaking out some of the overlapping plates of his armor, trying to get rid of as many of the insects as possible. After a few more seconds, he looked up with a sigh.
¡°His creatures carry his fourth-tier immunity to abilities. Meaning they will be able to avoid or overwhelm most of our magical defenses in short order.¡± Hiro said, looking over at the distant peak as the enormous cloud started to shift and gesticulate.
Erash stirred, shifting to her side and coughing up several clumps of the charred bugs. Taking advantage of the clear skies, Kindle flew down, landing on Tilly''s shoulder despite being almost as big as his torso.
¡°I have something to knock a good chunk of him out of the fight, but I don¡¯t have a way to deliver it,¡± Tilly added, carefully pulling Doom Ducky from his belt. ¡°Any chance you can do that teleport thing to take it over there?¡±
Hiro shook his head. ¡°I cannot step foot outside of our lands or those being contested by our forces. That peak is outside my range unless we demonstrate a significant effort to take it first¡¡±
¡°Squawk!¡± Kindle called into his ear painfully, adding a peck for good measure.
¡°No, girl, you are out of heat!¡±
In reply, she ruffled her feathers indignantly.
¡°Those bugs form a sentient being, one of the enemy¡¯s commanders. Who knows what it''s capable of? I won''t throw you into the middle of it!¡±
She flapped her wings in agitation, batting at his face numerous times before hopping off his shoulders.
¡°Don''t give me that! You just want to be next to this thing when it goes off!¡± Tilly shouted, his face growing red in frustration.
¡°She is right, you know¡ You need a delivery method that can reach the center of his mass and survive the following explosion.¡± Erash grumbled, clearing her throat a few times as she got shakily to her feet. ¡°Gods, that was unpleasant¡ Hiro is right. These things are extremely resistant to magical protections, making Beelzebub a perfect counter to most defenses. If we can, we need to take him out before we attempt to set up anything here.¡±
All three sets of eyes looked past the now-crowded enemy Peaks toward the army in the distance, stretching from one horizon to the other.
B4 Chapter 13 Special Delivery
¡°Any chance we can somehow get Beelzebub to come to us before the rest of Corruption¡¯s forces arrive?¡±
¡°No, I do not believe he will risk such a confrontation, especially when your build is so suited to counter his.¡±
Tilly shot a look over to Hiro. ¡°You think they have that information?¡±
¡°At this point, it is almost certain. If you made even half the stops we planned for you, then your fighting style and witnessed Abilities would have made it back to our enemies. And a force this powerful is bound to have instantaneous communication capabilities.¡±
¡®Bonded¡ give me my child and allow me this. I am best suited to this task. We need to show our capability, or they will overwhelm us in short order.¡¯ Kindle again insisted, visibly frustrated as she ruffled her feathers.
¡°Gah! Fine, but you are taking as much heat as I can give you in the next minute,¡± Tilly huffed out loud in her direction, setting Doom Ducky a few feet away to be examined by his two curious companions. He inflamed his hand, instinctively pushing more Mana into the ability than usual, increasing the drain on his core as he held out his arm to the phoenix.
She fluttered over happily, landing on his forearm and dipping her beak into his flame as if drinking it. He felt the familiar pull on his Mana Pathways and watched his HUD as his Mana Well was emptied at a pace only made possible by their bond.
The distant army flooded the horizon, filling it from end to end and a low rumble filled the air. Even forty or fifty miles away, the sound of their approach was already reaching the mountains.
¡°Jonathan Tillman! It is good to see you again¡ in a manner of speaking!¡± A voice boomed from nearby, startling Tilly into jostling Kindle, who squawked and flapped free of her perch. Tilly¡¯s head spun looking for the source of the voice, before finding an origami bird flitting around the striking new altar, demanding the bird¡¯s attention.
¡°Quite a relief to see you here, big fellow! We feared the worst when you disappeared, but young master Ichiro assured us we would see you-¡±
¡°Shuji, report!¡± Hiro demanded.
¡°Ah, so sorry Lord! Our elites are coming through first, along with the various leaders of the Factions present in the coalition. After that, the rest of our forces will move through, the path through the Auction House was¡ tedious.¡±
¡°Good, have the leadership assemble up here for a battle plan, send the elites throughout whatever tunnel network exists in this mountain, and make sure we know what we have under us. We need to know if there are any underground links to the other mountains¡¡± Then, trailing off uncharacteristically, Hiro cocked his head in Tilly¡¯s direction.
¡°Where is Brokenridge? I know you were successful in your quest, yet he is not here.¡±
Tilly sighed, ¡°Honestly, I¡¯m not sure; I think he will return, but when and with whom, I do not know.¡±
Taking that at face value, Hiro continued, ¡°Pity. I had hoped to have him as aerial support¡ but I suppose the enemy played that hand early, so hopefully, we will not face too much more pressure from the skies.¡±
¡°Your orders have been relayed, Lord,¡± boomed the tiny bird enthusiastically.
¡°Shuji, I can sense the crystal somewhere below. We need to get it online quickly and activate any system-granted bonus for our position. We also need to distribute the Kingdom upgrades as we planned.¡±
¡°Our people are already searching, and I am dispatching all my birds to add to their numbers. The coalition leadership will be there shortly.¡± Shuji responded before flitting off.
¡°It is time,¡± Erash broke in, picking up the brightly glowing misshapen glass duck and handing it respectfully to Kindle.
Beelzebub had begun stirring on the peak, and his concentrated position was expanding as he sent out his insects, probably planning to surround the peaks, filling the skies with his body.
¡°We need to catch as much of him in one place as possible for this to be effective,¡± She added.
Kindle beat her wings enthusiastically, clutching the glass container in her talons. A ripple of fire flowed from her beak down her back, blazing out through her feathers, and she trilled in excitement at the coming confrontation.
¡°Careful, girl! Don¡¯t set that thing off early.¡± Tilly cautioned, gesturing at the glass container clutched in her non-flaming talons. His warning elicited a spiteful glare from the bird as she began to rise into the air on easy wing beats.
¡®I am no hatchling. I know well the capabilities of my own child. You will see.¡¯ She sent back, almost sassily, and then with a powerful flap of her wings, she was off, shooting into the air at speeds that should have been physically impossible for a body her size.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Seeing her go, he scowled, squeezing the heads of his hatchets on his belt in irritation. He had had a perfectly good plan to explode in the midst of the enemy power and blow him to kingdom come, but the situation demanded they adjust¡
And, if he was honest with himself, seeing the size of the coming army, with who knows how many Powers present and ready to do battle, he probably needed to save every title ability he could for the larger battle. He would just have to trust that she knew what she was doing, not that she had ever let him down in the past.
¡®Go get ''em,¡¯ he sent after her, something like pride blooming in his chest.
In reply, he heard her release a piercing cry, tearing through the slow building rumble of the approaching army and the distant buzzing of her opponent. She did not fear the thing that had infested the far Peak, actually, all he could feel from their bond was a hungry eagerness to reclaim these skies as her own. She made quite a sight, burning brightly in the evening light, as she crossed the distance to Beelzebub¡¯s Peak.
¡°Do you think her attack will be enough to give you teleport access?¡± Tilly asked as an even crazier idea rose to the surface of his simmering mind. She might have had to face the Demon Prince alone, but he wouldn¡¯t abandon her to the outcome of the fight if he could help it.
¡°Most likely, I will know for sure shortly,¡± Hiro replied.
¡°I want you to take me there almost immediately after the blast. I think I will have moderate resistance to those flames, and I want to reclaim that peak for our coalition.¡±
¡°Jonathan¡ if I take you there, I will not be able to get you back unless you get clear of those flames. I do not share your resistance.¡±
¡°I know, but no matter what happens, I need to be there in case she needs my help. Sure, it will be tough for me to get back¡ but how hard do you think Corruption will have to work to reclaim that peak once I claim it again and leave behind a supposedly unquenchable fire? At the very least, it will buy us significant time.¡± Tilly answered with a smile.
Hiro matched his smile with a look of sharp pleasure at the proposal, ¡°Precisely the kind of boldness we need¡ Very well, stay by my sid,e and I will inform you the moment I can take us there.¡± Then his expression became more subdued as they both turned back toward Kindle, fully ablaze, tracing a line of fire through the sky in a direct line toward their enemy.
The dispersion of Beelzebub¡¯s body slowed and then stopped as the entire entity seemed to shift and focus on the approaching phoenix. Tilly drew both of his weapons in irritation, hating having to watch from a distance as his bonded risked herself.
A testing tendril of the dense formation whipped out suddenly, striking at Kindle before she could reach the main body.
Even at this distance, Tilly could tell that despite being quickly consumed by the flames that were a core part of her nature, the press of millions of insects still functioned as an effective bludgeon, knocking her off course. Their bond vibrated with the strike, and he caught echoes of the pain that shot through her body at the impact. Tilly had to choke back a yell as he watched her right herself in the air and continue forward unsteadily, her flame flickering wildly.
Bolstered by his success, several more tendrils shot off from Beelzebub¡¯s main body, whipping toward Kindle with a speed far beyond what insects should have been capable of.
Just before the multidirectional attack struck her, Tilly felt a fierce surge of satisfaction resonate through the bond¡ She had been baiting him!
The flames pouring from her form shifted from bright blue to almost full white in an instant, and she shot forward in a burst of supernova-like heat.
The tendrils collapsing in on her old position were blown back as the phoenix blasted into the almost solid formation of Beelzebub¡¯s condensed form. His buzzing rose several octaves in outrage and surprise, as most of his outer shell split off into hundreds of tendrils, curling in on himself and drilling into his center, attempting to root out the interloper burning a bright path through his body.
Their bond became a riot of energy, pain, and determination. Tilly found himself holding his breath as her light disappeared completely, covered over by the army of insects crashing in on her position. He could faintly feel them attempting to brute force her fiery protections with the weight of numbers alone.
He faintly heard the approach of running footsteps from the other side of the mountain, and Erash turned to meet the leadership, but his eyes were fixed on the distant Peak as he bent all of his attention toward his bond.
Kindle had entered into a hostile storm of foes, choking the air around the peak until she was practically swimming through them. Undaunted, she released another screaming cry of battle and pushed deeper, dumping huge amounts of her reserves to continue burning a path forward, her progress slowing incrementally with every flap of her wings.
Determination soon gave way to exhaustion as her stored heat was consumed at an alarming rate. The Demon Prince¡¯s body did not suffer from the weakness to her flame like many of the other servants of Corruption, their supernaturally resilient exoskeletons offering protection far beyond what they had faced so far.
Yet she pushed on doggedly, determined to make it to the very center, and Tilly fought down the urge to encourage her through the bond¡ But he dared not distract her, he could feel just how precariously she was balancing her heat output between defense and forward progress, all while fighting to keep the area immediately around the glass item in her hand unactivated.
Then the complex shifting movement of Beelzebub¡¯s body took on an arcane glow.
¡°Damn, he is using them to cast an enchantment of some kind,¡± Hiro muttered darkly next to him.
Tilly felt a cold pressure begin to push in on Kindle''s already diminishing flames. Insects started to make it through her defenses, biting, tearing, and clawing at anything they could before her flickering flames consumed them. She pushed on with everything she had, yet the added arcane pressure slowed her down to a crawl.
¡®Just let it go, Girl!¡¯ He shouted internally, fighting to keep the thought from running along the bond.
Another agonizing second passed before he felt her wearily recognize the shape of a stone formation ahead¡ she had made it.
Then, with a feeling of profound relief, she released her technique, coughing up the last of her heat into the item clutched protectively in her talons. Insects stormed through her now-absent defenses, and whatever enchantment Beelzebub had been casting flooded her body with a gnawing emptiness¡
Their bond suddenly went quiet, and Tilly gasped in a panicked breath, fighting for air as he reached frantically for any sign that she was still alive.
A thunderous clap shot through the peaks, causing a huge shudder to run through the giant formation of insects as it crashed into the small crowd of observers on the peaks.
¡°Hiro!¡± Tilly shouted over the sound of roaring as an explosion of fire followed the sound, blasting apart the formation.
¡°Hold on!¡± He shouted back, grabbing Tilly¡¯s shoulder.
All of his senses were caught up in a whirlwind of gale-force winds as his position in space and time shifted. An eyeblink later, he found himself hundreds of feet above the blast, beginning to fall into the intense heat blooming on the Peak below.
¡°Call when you are ready!¡± Hiro growled over the sound of hot, rushing wind. Then he pushed away from Tilly¡¯s body and was gone in another gust of wind.
Tilly¡¯s attention quickly shifted downward as the now fiery peak approached at increasing speeds. His armor responded to the environmental strain, shifting to its Sun Salamander form and significantly reducing the heat pressing in on his body. His resistance should be enough to reduce the damage to manageable levels, especially considering that at least a portion of this fire had its origins from a friendly source.
Not that he paid any of that much attention as he fell like a meteor toward the mountaintop surrounded by the charred remains of millions of bugs¡ No, his attention was entirely bent on his silent bond, and the tiny flicker of life he could sense directly below him.
¡®You aren¡¯t leaving me this time girl¡¡¯
B4 Chapter 14 Parting Gift
Tilly crashed into the ground a few feet away from the epicenter of Doom Ducky¡¯s blast amidst white-hot flames and glowing dragon glass. He rolled down the steep slope for a while before finally gaining control of his momentum and popping back to his feet, no worse for the fall. Falling on his face from a height of a few hundred feet still took some getting used to¡but he doggedly rolled with the motion, pivoting and running back toward where he had last sensed Kindle. The flames licked hungrily at his sprinting form but found no purchase on his resistant armor and god-like tough skin.
He wasn¡¯t too surprised to see that apart from the flames covering the top half of the peak, the blast hadn¡¯t actually damaged the super resilient structure, as it too seemed to be entirely made of dragon glass. The perpetual flames were more than enough of a difficulty on their own. His gear was already getting hot, and he was thankful he had taken a huge breath in before the fall, anticipating the hostile environment. Even with his super tough body, he doubted breathing in post-ignition gases would be fun. Better to be safe than sorry.
¡®Kindle! Can you hear me?¡¯ he sent, running up to where he had sensed her just before landing. She was lying in a broken heap, surrounded by the ashes of her opponent, missing feathers and even skin over much of her body.
The sight sent a lance of panic through Tilly, and he fell to his knees before her, ignoring the fire blazing all around them. She did not stir at his presence, and their bond remained inactive as he fought down a hiccuping sob. It was difficult to make sense of what he was seeing; her avian bone structure and musculature had been ravaged beyond recognition by the fight to Beelzebub''s center, and he just didn¡¯t have any way of knowing how bad the damage really was.
He didn¡¯t even know if she needed to breathe regularly or not. He had never thought to pay attention and now her terrifying stillness ate away at him. He swallowed down his rising worry, hand fluttering over her broken body, wondering if there was anything else he could do.
She was already surrounded by a ton of fire and¡
Then he saw it, and hope surged in his chest. The flames directly touching her body were slowly shrinking.
¡®She is still taking in heat!¡¯
Hoping to somehow help, he sent whatever Mana he had managed to regain over the last few minutes shooting through his hand. A gout of flame, only slightly different in color from the fire already surrounding her, bathed her injured form as he gently laid his hand on her broken body. Their bond allowed him to pass on much more heat to her than her passive absorption, and he pushed everything he had into her.
¡®There you go girl¡ it will be alright.¡¯ He sent, gently stroking the tips of her few remaining feathers. Before his eyes, parts of her broken body began to ignite and slowly shift back into place.
¡®Don¡¯t worry, you are doing just fine¡¡¯ he continued watching as she healed achingly slowly.
Then their bond suddenly thrummed to life and a sleepy voice answered his mental assurances,
¡®Hush, bonded. I am trying to sleep.¡¯ She sent back tiredly.
¡®Kindle, you did incredible! I can¡¯t believe you killed a Corrupted power!¡¯ He gushed despite her request.
¡®-not dead¡ No notification. Just badly damaged. Now let me sleep,¡¯ she answered with a slow opening of the eye facing in Tilly¡¯s direction before slowly blinking it back closed.
¡®I can¡¯t leave you here for long, no matter how much you like the environment¡ but I can give you a few more minutes,¡¯ he thought, watching her continue to heal. Then he looked back up at the epicenter of the blast. There was still one last piece of the plan he had to accomplish before they could get out of there, away from the advancing armies.
He got up slowly, almost reluctantly, scanning the area for any lingering enemies. But all he saw was a wild, burning landscape, constantly reinvigorated by some magical mechanism he did not understand. Kindle, of course, loved it, the environment was practically a buffet for her. But Tilly hoped it would be an excruciating pain for their enemy to traverse. Even he, with all his stacked elemental resistances and almost-matching Mana signature, was taking about a percentage point of damage every minute.
Scanning the skies to make sure there was no budding reprisal from the rest of the Vanguard, he jogged back to the epicenter and reached out to the mountain with his fragile Will,
Claimant Recognized¡
Congratulations, you have met the requirements to claim this Peak. You may stake a claim as a new axis in the conflict or lay claim as a representative of the Dawning Coalition.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Tilly silently elected to reclaim the peak for the Coalition, and a notification burst into being before his face, and probably every other creature''s face in the Contested Lands.
The Battle Continues!
2 Peak claimed by the Dawning Coalition
4 Peaks claimed by Corruption
Taking another look around at the peak, which now had more in common with the surface of the sun than any mountaintop, Tilly allowed himself a smile. From what he knew of their chances, the coming battle was almost guaranteed to end in their destruction¡ but he wasn¡¯t going to make it easy for the bastards.
He jogged back to Kindle¡¯s position and turned to look at the approaching army. They had covered almost a quarter of the distance since he had last taken a serious look, and he was shocked at the speed they were able to maintain. Then again, he doubted anything in that army was below level fifty. Tilly tried not to wallow in hopelessness as he saw the gathering of Corruption¡¯s armies still stretching miles back and disappearing behind the bend in the horizon.
At this point in his Corruption fighting career, he had come to realize that the power it offered did more than just penalize one stat to boost another¡ It slowly robbed you of your actual life force to feed its voracious growth. This was the reason every Corrupted opponent Tilly had faced had been far less resilient than they should have been for their level.
So it''s not like the Dawning Coalition didn¡¯t stand a chance. Especially with the new arsenal of Dragon Glass-enchanted weapons and some of the strongest Light-aligned powers on the plane. In fact, Tilly would have given them a fighting chance even if they had faced twenty-to-one odds¡
But what he saw crawling toward them, surging over the land like a tide of tarry blackness, was no army. It was the full population of something like thirty factions, with more forces arriving from every corner of the endless continent every day. The Horde had felt endless¡ but Corruption¡¯s main force had numbers that rendered the actual total an insignificant variable.
Tilly blew out a long sigh, shaking out some of the heat that was collecting uncomfortably in his sleeves as he scanned the other Peaks again. The other four were still covered in clouds of the flying demonic force that Tilly had been calling Corruption¡¯s Vanguard¡ But that wasn¡¯t a very accurate summary. It would be more correct-to-scale to call the forces marching out from the Pits the Vanguard of Corruption¡¯s forces with over ten times that number estimated still to arrive.
The unfairness of it all almost made Tilly want to push for a mad dash to conquer the other peaks before the main force arrived. Maybe they could cheat the system-
Kindle stirred at his feet, interrupting his train of thought. The short break had done wonders for her and her body was almost fully reknit, with new feathers poking out of freshly healed skin and little embers starting to blaze merrily along her back.
¡®It would never be that simple. The system set us up for a big showdown, and I doubt capturing all the Peaks would stop that army from wiping us from existence,¡¯ he thought darkly to himself, squashing his dreams of a quick sprint to rig the contest. Whatever was coming, they were going to have to bleed to see it through.
The flames around Kindle¡¯s area had almost been completely extinguished, and Tilly bent down to gently scoop her up, not wanting to leave any sort of easy foothold for the enemy. They needed to bleed for every inch if the coalition wanted a chance at victory, however slim that chance looked.
¡®Nap time is over, girl, we have to go.¡¯ Tilly sent in a mental whisper as the phoenix stirred again in his arms. He set off at a quick but not urgent pace, letting Kindle continue to absorb what she could while in the favorable environment.
His eyes again found the approaching enemy, pouring over the distance between them, drawing closer with every step he took. They had covered enough distance that now, instead of a dark impression of an amorphous mass, Tilly was able to make out wide variants in the approaching force¡¯s sizes and shapes. Colossal monsters painted in vague brush strokes by immense distance came into a slow, terrible clarity. They towered over thousands of other combatants, who were still too small to make out in any detail.
Tilly didn¡¯t have any Abilities that could help him with the specifics at this distance, but even he could see that some of the things moving his way were hundreds of feet tall. His pace started to quicken, reordering his priorities at the sight of their approach speed.
Running downslope, he took a path that curved him around the face of the mountain until he got a better view of the central Peak, the coalition''s chosen point of defense. It was taller than the other mountains by a third, and he could see more and more activity along its slopes as his people finally began to arrive.
¡°Origin, you better have a plan, cause we are shit out of luck.¡± he grunted out, using up the last of his remaining breath to utter the plea.
Then just as he was nearing the edge of the blast radius, a faint reverberation rolled through the mountains, followed by another several seconds later. Tilly¡¯s eyes shot back to the horizon, briefly encouraged to see an actual end to the blackness blotting out the entire land west of the mountains. At least Corruption¡¯s main force only filled a few hundred squared miles¡
Another reverberation hit, and then another, as something that Tilly initially thought was a giant mobile fortress peaked up over the horizon, gaining height with every terrible impact. The land itself seemed to groan under the steps as a figure emerged at the rear of the armies, dwarfing even the largest of its monsters by an order of magnitude.
It marched with long deliberate steps eating up the distance at an incredible rate. Yet it did not gain on the army, holding back its pace at the rear of their forces, driving them on with the threat of death by colossal footprint.
Magog Level ??? Demonic Prince
That name and the unbelievably large figure it represented were staggering on a level Tilly had difficulty processing¡ He could only assume that it would be up to him or one of the coalition¡¯s Powers to take something like that on¡ but even if any of them succeeded, it would mean that much less firepower to hold back the millions left in Corruption¡¯s forces.
Shoving down the rising anxiety, Tilly finished his flight out of the blast radius, having only lost about 12% percent of his Health in the whole endeavor, and called for Hiro.
¡°I don''t know how this works, but Hiro! I am good to go!¡± He shouted into the open air, trying not to let his eyes stray to the approaching figure that was almost as big as the mountains he was coming to conquer.
Despite not being nearly as early as they had hoped, he had done his best¡
All he could do now was hope. Hope that there was much more to this story than what was apparent¡ because right now, everything looked like absolute shit.
A second later, Hiro was next to him, grabbing his shoulder and pulling through a tumult of furious winds to land in a dark glowing chamber at the center of the mountain.
B4 Chapter 15 Preparing for Battle
The first thing that struck Tilly as he struggled to regain his bearings in the unfamiliar chamber was the column of dragon glass shooting through the middle of the large, too smooth, cavern. The substance''s normal opacity was shot through with a multitude of glowing colors. At its base, Tilly was shocked to find the Alliance¡¯s Sovereign Crystal.
Tilly didn¡¯t know exactly how he recognized it; the thing had tripled in size and shone brightly with all kinds of colors instead of the reassuring blue and green hue it had held in the temple. But as he took in the many colored lights practically bursting with power at its center, something about it just felt like home.
¡°It is impressive how often your people continue to produce novel wonders¡¡± a distinguished but tired voice uttered nearby.
Its pronouncement pulled Tilly¡¯s eyes away from the central structure to the other occupants in the chamber. To his immediate left was Stephen Brightborn, resplendent in his platemail. His salt and pepper hair and grave visage somehow added to the weight of his presence, and Tilly had to fight the sudden urge to bow to the leader of the Lady Light¡¯s Faction.
Tilly recognized Hiro, Shuji, and one of the two Honu elders, but the rest of the room¡¯s occupants were completely new to him.
Well, that wasn¡¯t completely true, he vaguely recognized the huge Orc Faction leader looming over the others with an out-of-place smile, cramped with yellowed tusks.
The rest of the group was rounded out by a tall leonid humanoid with armor that vaguely resembled Stephen¡¯s, and something that looked like a shrub with a set of bark armor and a gnarled staff.
¡°I don¡¯t mean to sound ungrateful here¡ but this isn¡¯t it¡ is it?¡± Tilly blurted out, still clutching his recovering bonded in his arms, and struggling not to feel deflated at the coalition''s big reveal.
¡°BWAHAHA!¡± Boomed the orc, ¡°You said he would make a way for us, and he delivered, if a little slow! But you didn¡¯t say how funny he would be!¡±
¡°Excuse me, Jonathan Tillman, but introductions will have to wait. If we delay any longer I am afraid it might be too late.¡± Shuji interrupted on the tail of the orc¡¯s outburst.
The others nodded, and Tilly turned back to the Crystal, a small but tenacious hope pushing back the tide of despair. They needed something big here¡
Shuji moved closer to the crystal and lifted his hands, flicking his fingers rapidly as if sorting through several pages of information, ¡°As discussed, we are now able to accept your forces as conscripts into our Standing Army. This will link them to the crystal, and allow us to share in any bonuses you provide your people-¡±
¡°The Defiant Fist will maintain its status as a mercenary force,¡± the orc interjected bullishly.
¡°Yes, yes. We understand your position, honored chief, but would the rest of you please accept the invitation before we move on to the rewards and boons?¡± Shuji continued, seeming to flick something in their direction.
Along with his motion, a notification popped up in front of Tilly,
You have been invited to join the Three-Fold Alliance¡¯s Standing army as a Kingdom Champion. This will result in an experience penalty for all kills achieved during the duration of your commission but will allow you to share in unit and army Buffs during combat.
Do you accept? YES / NO
Tilly elected yes, wondering briefly where he would stand in the order of things as a Kingdom Champion. The others across the room gestured or muttered under their breath, and Tilly assumed they were all accepting a similar notification with different positions.
¡°Good, good. There doesn¡¯t seem to be a problem with any of the others accepting despite already being busy setting up our defenses.¡± Shuji continued, moving through whatever interface the Crystal was showing him before a bird flitted in carrying Erash¡¯s voice.
¡°Shuji, as soon as I accepted the notification, I received a personal quest from the altar to consecrate the mountain. I am not sure exactly what the consequences of such an act will be, but it will require all of those previously chosen to serve Origin to participate. From my initial understanding of the ritual, it will not take effect until well into the night.¡± She said in a steady but distracted voice, ¡°And my scry has Corruption¡¯s main force arriving in less than half a stick of time¡¡±
¡°Do it,¡± Stephen answered before anyone else could. Then looking around apologetically, he added, ¡°Apologies, I am not accustomed to the order of things, but every record we have of a deity quest on the eve of battle has factored majorly into the conflict. The cost does not matter.¡± He explained.
¡°Agreed. Begin as soon as possible.¡± Hiro answered, turning back to Shuji and nodding.
¡°Yes, well, we had hoped for something similar to the reward from the second Patronage and Faction upgrade, and while there are some unexpected portions to what we have here, I think our plan will still work.¡± Shuji continued, flicking his hands again and sending them another set of notifications.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Welcome, Claimants to the Contested Lands¡ Calculating Starting Rewards.
You are the fourth claimant to arrive: You or any forces you represent have gained the right to claim one or all of the Council Peaks.
Your force was the first to destroy a rival power: +50% to all first-strike attack damage during this conflict.
Your forces defeated the dragon king: Sovereign Crystal interface made available.
Your forces claimed the Dragon Peak: Defence Augment Input made available.
Your force was the first to claim multiple peaks: 30% bonus to attack damage when contesting another Peak.
Your force is the first to reclaim a lost peak: ¡°Final Stand¡± boon achieved.
Your force is the first to establish full Faction rights on a peak: Integration of Faction Interface with current Peak Authority access.
Your force has established the patronage of a Deific Level force on a peak: Integration of deific places or objects of power made available.
Tilly had just finished reading all of the notifications when the armored Leonid spoke up in a voice that was half growl, half chuff, ¡°Do we have more on the Defense Augment Input? Anything there that will help us speed up our initial build.¡±
¡°Yes, very much our chief concern at the moment,¡± Shuji answered distractedly, eyes rapidly scanning information only he could see.
Another origami bird zipped into the chamber, this time speaking in a thick Australian accent, ¡°Mate, me mob''s cleared the tunnel systems through this mountain and are scouting to the other peaks. My first crack at it is that they''re all interconnected, which is a real advantage for us gettin'' here first. The Dune Ranger lot are dead set at traps, and me gut tells me to turn these tunnels into a bloody killing ground before the enemy shows up.¡±
Hiro nodded along with the report, ¡°Proceed, but pull back at first contact. We will be raising our defense soon, and I don¡¯t want to lose anyone before we know the full lay of the land.¡±
By chance, Tilly had been turning back to the crystal when Hiro had answered, and he saw both of the armored individuals from the church share a brief look at Hiro¡¯s words.
¡°Copy that. We''ll ping you an update if anything shifts.¡±
¡°Ah, here it is!¡± Shuji spoke up, selecting something on his screen and causing the whole chamber to glow as the scorch burned into the chamber all around them began to whirl and shift its enchantment patterns, Eventually forming a large circle off to the side, whose center was completely empty of the draconic magic.
The whole thing practically shouted, ¡°Put something here¡± to Tilly¡¯s senses.
¡°Fascinating,¡± Shuji said, scanning over the explanation, ¡°this design seems to pull from the draconic practice of forming a Soul Chamber and slowly absorbing the strength of anything stored in its-¡±
¡°Shuji-¡± Hiro interrupted the Librarian¡¯s fascinated discourse, ¡°Summarize, please.¡±
As if to underscore Hiro¡¯s point, the whole mountain shook, as if under a sudden impact. Tilly¡¯s body tensed, and he immediately scanned the exits of the chamber, readying himself to go fight.
But another origami bird zipped in, ¡°Nothing to worry about¡ yet,¡± said a wizened voice, stretched thin with effort, ¡°The groups occupying the nearby Peaks have begun barraging us with long-range magic, nothing that I and the rest of our magical division cannot handle. I believe their goal is to undermine our initial efforts at setting up defenses.¡±
¡°Thank you, Merllyn, Keep us updated,¡± Hiro answered, turning back to Shuji expectantly.
¡°In summary; anything we place in that area there,¡± he answered loudly, gesturing to the very conspicuous glowing circle near the base of the column, ¡°Will augment our Defence efforts. The speed and effect of the augmentations will be determined by the quality of the items¡ and each item will be consumed by the process.¡± He finished in a shout over the sounds of impact, while still rapidly reading over the screens in front of him, processing information at an incredible speed.
¡°How much longer until the rest of our forces and materials arrive?¡± Hiro asked, turning to the Honu elder.
¡°It will be¡two sticks¡ until everyone is¡through¡ But materials¡ have arrived.¡±
¡°Shuji-¡± Hiro asked, turning.
The Librarian was already whispering to one of his birds, and it shot off the moment he was through, ¡°I have sent instructions for our highest-tiered items to be brought here.¡±
Hiro then turned to address the rest of them, ¡°You are all here because you thought you would have something to offer in the initial setup of our defenses; now is the time to speak up.¡±
In response, the orc snorted and turned to leave, ¡°I needed to get a feel for what kind of battle we would be fighting and what sorts of bonuses we would have access to¡ Now I go to prepare my people. Do not count on us for defense, but know that when the enemy commits to a significant attack, we will counter with a fury this plane has not seen in millennia. My great ancestor will smile on us in this.¡± He finished, walking out one of the exits.
¡°Not much of a team player¡¡± Tilly grumbled as he left.
¡°The Fist is ever its own. It is probably for that reason alone that they have come to fight with us¡ well, that and the absurd amount of platinum we paid for their services.¡± The Leonid spoke, watching the orc go before turning to Hiro, ¡°Our forces stand ready. We will man the lines with your people side by side, and our builders are already working with yours. As for our additional offerings¡ we will commit some of our Faction¡¯s greatest treasures, and as agreed, I will oversee the northern-facing defenses.¡± He added, bowing to Stephen Brightborn and then to the rest of the group before following the Orc out of the chamber.
¡°And you?¡± Hiro asked, almost hesitantly, to the only other Champion in the room.
Throughout the meeting, the man''s face had not shifted much, but at that question, the corners of his mouth turned down, sorrow weighing down his noble features, ¡°I fear I am the last leader of my Order, doomed to oversee the downfall of our storied institution¡ But I do not do so without hope, and for that, I am truly grateful.¡± He answered solemnly before turning to give Tilly a bow.
At a loss for words, Tilly simply bowed back, not trusting himself to speak anything appropriate at what seemed to be such a grave moment, especially to another champion.
Then, straightening, he said, ¡°I had a long talk with Father Mateus a few days ago¡ and found it quite illuminating. It has always been my experience that hope, in whatever form it may take, is one of the Light¡¯s most dangerous weapons.¡± He added with an inscrutable expression.
Then he turned and walked over to the circle, pulling items out of a pouch at his belt, whose insides glowed brightly as soon as the drawstring was pulled loose. He gently pulled forth item after item and laid them within the circle, each one flashing powerfully into Tilly¡¯s awareness, shining like a beacon to Tilly¡¯s Identify skill
Tears of the Lady Celestial
Ten-thousand year Incense of Tranquility Legendary
St. Catherine''s Harmonious Bell Legendary
Holy Hand Grenade of St. Barbara Epic
The pouch continued to issue out items, well beyond what should have reasonably fit and Tilly¡¯s skill didn¡¯t give him any more than simple names and grades before each item began to fade. As they disappeared entirely, vibrant energies suffused the surrounding scorch, shooting through the chamber and into the Crystal itself.
¡°With that, I take my leave.¡± The champion said sadly, taking a long last look as the church''s treasures he had committed to the fight finished fading away. As he straightened, Tilly was struck by the thought that he looked like one of those stained glass figures Tilly had seen in the windows of older churches back on earth.
¡°I go to prepare for my part in all of this,¡± He finished, face hardening in determination. ¡°If we are to have an end, it will be one that shakes the Epochs to come¡¡± He announced, as much to himself as the others in the chamber, before turning to the exit himself and leaving at a walk that carried him almost faster than Tilly could track.
B4 Chapter 16 Battle Plan
That left Shuji, Hiro, and the shrub guy alone with Tilly in the Sovereign Crystal chamber.
¡°I guess it''s a little late for introductions, but my name¡¯s Tilly, nice to meet you.¡± He said turning to the humanoid plant.
¡°Well met cousin,¡± the humanoid plant nodded back, its voice both clear and oddly absent at the same time. Instead of introducing himself, the figure turned slowly, with a rustling of his leaves, to consider the circle for a long moment.
That was the second time Tilly had heard the familiar form of address used by something so obviously aligned with nature and in a flash of realization he pulled up his title descriptor list and found the one he believed to be the culprit,
[Verdant Rebirth]: Power from one of the Land¡¯s key nexus points was used to restart your non functioning heart and regrow essential bodily functions damaged in your cleansing. This has fundamentally marked you. You are now a part of the Land¡¯s deeper tapestry and will be recognized as such by its fellow denizens.
It was another one of those titles that had offered him no obvious bonuses, and yet, was still leaving its mark on his journey.
¡°Grovewarden, what news of the others, will they rally to us?¡± Hiro asked respectfully, as the personified plant approached the glowing circle of scorch.
¡°They¡ will come, when the call is made. We will not bow before the blight. Wrath and ruin are all that await us if you fail here,¡± he said distractedly, poking at mana empowering the circle. Each time the tip of his staff touched some of the glowing markings, they sparked green and red, and he nodded to himself, seeming to come to some conclusion.
¡°What do you mean, ¡®the call¡¯?¡± Tilly asked, trying to keep his voice calm as the mountain shook again. Whoever this guy represented, they could really use the help.
At that the Grovewarden turned, cocking his head in confusion, ¡°We follow no law but our own. It is the ancient way of things. There is one among you who knows the words¡ Until then, we of the Land offer you this gift.¡±
Then before their eyes, the plant-like appendages forming the creature¡¯s body began to age. They shifted from a verdant green to a bright yellow, then brown as they curled in on themselves, dying before their eyes.
Tilly¡¯s bottom jaw fell open as the figure weathered into a petrified statue of dead wood and fallen brown leaves, ¡°Um¡¡± He said, turning toward the others in confusion, only to see a look of awe coloring Shuji¡¯s face.
Whipping his head back, Tilly was just in time to see a radiant seed emerge from the center of the now-dead creature and float to land in the center of the circle, exploding in golden radiance as it gave its substance to the enchantment. The light was practically bursting with the feeling of life and growth, and even its touch upon Tilly''s face left him feeling invigorated.
Heartseed of the Grove Celestial
¡°Who was that?¡± He muttered in shock at the sudden sacrifice.
¡°That was one of the three elders of the Ancient Grove Faction. Many consider him to be one of the oldest powers on the plane.¡± Shuji whispered back, watching as the golden energy radiated through the enchantment, filtering to the column and the Sovereign Crystal at its base.
The loping sound of hoofs echoed out of one of the large tunnels leading into the mountain''s central chamber, and Tilly looked up to find Mochizuki appearing with a squad of Bastions. The group approached at a jog pushing a cart laden with treasures, several of which he recognized from their day at the auction.
Golimic Cornerstone Epic
Seven Sages Bamboo Shoot Legendary
Svadilfari¡¯s Mortar Recipe Celestial
Tilly didn¡¯t quite have time to identify them all before the cart was wheeled up to the circle and Shuji nodded to the men, who dumped it all in.
¡°How long have you guys been planning for this¡ How did you even know we would have this option?¡± Tilly asked in confusion, trying to get a grip on events as they developed rapidly all around him.
¡°Know?¡± Shuji said, turning toward Tilly in confusion.
¡°We did not foresee this opportunity exactly,¡± Mochizuki clarified.
¡°Our priority was to collect anything that would boost our capability as an army in the field and special consideration was given to augmenting our current limited capacity to set up impromptu defenses against a far superior enemy,¡± Hiro added, stepping up next to Tilly and watching as the treasures were absorbed into the scorch enchantment.
¡°You can be sure there are surprises waiting for us from our enemy and the peaks they have claimed, but we will not be without our own plans¡ eh?¡± He finished, turning toward Tilly with a stony twinkle in his eye.
¡°You guys are like savants when it comes to impossible situations.¡± Tilly marveled at the lapin trio. These three had orchestrated so many schemes, it was mind boggling.
¡°Our old Patroness, the goddess of the moon, always valued change. It is in her memory we endeavor to stay flexible.¡± Mochizuki said with a small nod to acknowledge Tilly¡¯s compliment.
¡°And it seems that any preparations we make with growth in mind seem to be put to use sooner rather than later with the support of our new Patron. So, all in all, there is much we did not anticipate, but it did not take an Oracle to see a battle like this on the horizon.¡± Shuji laughed before turning toward the Bastions.
Stolen novel; please report.
¡°Instructions have been sent to the building team to begin construction on the outer defenses. With these augmentations, I am sure they have received many boons, but we need every defense specialist we have on the line covering them until the first layer is finished.¡± He instructed.
The men nodded to him and turned to rush back out the tunnel just as another bird slipped in, ¡°If the human champion has returned, I believe there is a celestial tier quest waiting for him at the altar¡I believe it should be activated sooner rather than later.¡± Merllyn¡¯s stretched voice echoed through the chamber.
Hiro looked questioningly at Shuji, and the Librarian answered the unasked question. ¡°I will continue to run things from here, my recent levels have all gone to my sendings, so they should be able to find any of our people I have marked and deliver the message.¡± Then he returned to his screens, reading off rapid reports to different origami birds under his breath.
¡°And I will requisition some of the other, less direct combat-oriented elites to keep watch on this chamber and the approaching tunnels,¡± Mochizuki added before turning from Hiro to the Librarian, ¡°Shuji?¡± Mochizuki asked,
¡°Oh dear, of course,¡± he responded with a wince before distractedly flinging open the sleeves of his robe and releasing several fluttering birds, which Mochizuki snatched from the air one at a time, before moving off to the side and beginning to distribute messages as well.
Hiro nodded at the actions of the pair, ¡°Good, I have a decent sense of the mountain and its inhabitants, but that does not mean I can not be distracted. For now, I will continue as Quick Reaction Force Commander and relay any further military operations through Linus,¡± he concluded to a distracted nod from Shuji before reaching out to lay his hand on Tilly¡¯s shoulder.
¡°Hold on,¡± Tilly sputtered, clutching Kindle¡¯s form close in his arms like some sort of lap dog, ¡°before we get caught up in whatever''s next, I need a minute to be brought up to speed,¡± he said, stepping back and raising a hand to forestall being swept up in whatever new wind Ability Hiro had gained from the Alliance¡¯s new Patronage.
By now, he knew the drill. If he didn¡¯t get a feel for what was happening in the wider scope of things, he would be caught up in an endless series of emergencies, like a dog dragged down the street on a leash. No, he was here because he had chosen to be, and he wanted to understand as much of their situation as he could before diving into the thick of it.
¡°What is the actual plan for our defense, and how do I factor into it?¡±
Hiro shared a quick look with Shuji, who looked up from his screens and frowned. Hiro turned to Tilly and let out a long breath, ¡°Jonathan Tillman, there is no master plan¡ We are here to fight for our survival. Several powerful forces have aligned with us, but as you can see, they do not all follow orders. So, all we have is a loose strategy and hope that the miracles we have seen in these weeks were not the last of their kind¡¡± He finished, gesturing for Shuji to continue.
¡°Yes, well, I am happy to share our current deployment- Coalition forces have been dispersed halfway down this Peak in a temporary defensive screen to cover the work of all the builders we could muster. The System is currently augmenting their current project speed by¡¡± He paused to scan through his screens, ¡°three thousand two hundred percent. The mountain itself is providing the materials, and reports are already coming in that numerous beneficial properties are being imprinted into the structure as the Crystal processes its recent offerings.¡±
¡°The bulk of our forces will be manning this defense. Our faction¡¯s standing army now numbers about six thousand, with 500 of those considered elite. The church has mustered twenty thousand warriors, with two thousand at the elite level. Their force is a mix of the church¡¯s small army and any volunteers they could muster from failing Factions across the plane. Between us, we have 8 figures that could be considered Powers.
Our wall defense is split into four commands: North, held by the Church and led by Belyius, the Church¡¯s military commander; West, where we anticipate first contact will be held mainly by our forces with Linus in overall command with Threstus anchoring the line. The South and East are held by a mixture the rest of our forces and anyone else across the plane we were able to gather to our banner in the last week. We have nested most of our non-Bastion Elites in these two defences. Ichiro will hold Southern command while the Eastern front will be led by Princess Charcuterie, a Power you have not met and probably the strongest of our late-to-join allies.
Tilly raised his mental eyebrows at that last name, but with so much coming at him, he throttled his desire to interrupt Shuji¡¯s explanation with a quip.
¡°This is our defense as it stands.¡± Shuji continued, ¡°We must hold until the builders finish the outer wall. Then we will have to get our defenders within its bounds¡somehow, all while the builders immediately begin work on the inner defenses. The second wall will be smaller, and five thousand paces above the first, from which our ranged units will monitor and cover the wall below. The Sanguine Order¡¯s Calvary will serve as a reactionary force to hopefully assist at any points where our defensive screen fails.
We have also been able to field a mage core of two hundred and fifty casters, with five of them ranking amongst the Powers of the plane. Merllyn has been a great boon to us in this and currently leads our magic users. He is confident in his ability to neutralize most enemy magics on a large scale and was instrumental in setting up this plan.
¡°Finally, there are the Dune Rangers. We were surprised to receive their entire military arm only a day before your summons. They specialize in underground warfare and have been given command over the tunnel system, with Mochizuki serving as liaison.¡±
Tilly flexed his tired mind, willing away the fog of overwhelm that attempted to roll in at Shuji¡¯s succinct report of the Dawning coalition¡¯s deployment. ¡°Ok, so the Defiant Fist, our mercenary force, is holding itself in reserve until¡ it decides it¡¯s time for a counter-attack?¡±
¡°Precisely!¡± Shuji replied cheerfully.
¡°And our representative of the forces most closely aligned with the Land just sacrificed himself to give us a magical acorn?¡±
¡°Also correct! Although, I must stress that it seems that ¡®acorn¡¯ just made our structures able to be grown instead of built, something that might have just made this defence possible. A noble gift indeed.¡±
¡°But we don¡¯t know what he meant by ¡®the call¡¯?¡±
¡°Not a clue!¡±
¡°Hmmm, so there isn¡¯t really a plan to win¡ we are just here to keep Corruption from taking everything without a fight.¡±
¡°That is incorrect, You are our plan, Jonathan Tillman.¡± Hiro interrupted his words, falling like hammer blows on Tilly¡¯s slumped shoulders. ¡°You and whatever final quest Origin offers us. If He has no answer for our enemy''s plans, then we were always doomed.¡± He added, allowing a rare, many-lined smile to show on his face as he grasped Tilly¡¯s shoulder in a strong, comforting grip.
¡°Ok¡Save the world¡ got it.¡± Tilly deadpanned, finding himself fighting down a smile of his own.
He could feel every pound of that trust and responsibility pushing him downward, but instead of being crushed as he had so many times before, he found himself close to laughter and feeling inextricably light.
Everything was just so¡ hopeless.
It was honestly ridiculous, and yet, somehow relieving.
The fire surrounding his soul roared to new heights, and the shadowy, slimy fear of failure sloughed off him and burned away before his heart¡¯s billowing flames.
There was no chance they could win, and for some reason that Tilly couldn¡¯t put his finger on, that made the whole thing seem almost possible.
B4 Chapter 17 Final Preparations
Having taken half a minute to get up to speed with the current state of their defense effort, Tilly turned and nodded to Hiro, ready to be swept up to the Peak and the Quest waiting there. They needed to know what task Origin had set for them. Hopefully, it held the key to their survival, and perhaps even victory.
That was a lot to hang their hopes on, but they were short on time and options, so it was time to roll the faith dice one more time¡
But, having just run through their strategy with Tilly, Hiro seemed to have caught something. His rare smile turned downward in a thoughtful frown and he slowly pulled his hand away from Tilly¡¯s shoulder and looked over at Shuji, ¡°Why have the Standing Army Buffs not taken effect?¡±
Shuji turned back to the crystal, calling up multiple screens in sudden confusion. ¡°Hmm, you are correct, my Lord. The Crystal acknowledges our commissions but has yet to issue out any of the Buffs we were expecting.¡± Pausing in his search, he pulled out another of his seemingly endless birds and whispered to it before sending it off. ¡° I have reached out to Linus to see if he has any insight in his role as General of the coalition¡¯s forces.¡±
Hiro nodded, stepping toward Shuji, ¡°Can you show me the readout of what is registering in the system for our current commissioned officers?¡±
¡°Sending it to you, now.¡±
The two began to quickly confer over which forces would receive what bonus, making sure their positioning was optimal for the coming fight, but most of it went over Tilly¡¯s head. He wasn¡¯t a leader here, he was a trump card. One that could hopefully get played multiple times¡
Several more impacts struck the mountain, causing strange echoing chimes to vibrate through its smooth arteries. Tilly had a hard time imagining anything damaging the Peak, but then again, he had only seen the opening thrust of the enemy. The Corruption¡¯s main force was approaching rapidly but hopefully, the coalition still had minutes before the main body arrived at the first of the Peaks, where Tilly had left them a little gift.
Taking the small margin that was being offered to him, he began to breathe deeply, centering himself and falling into the pattern that Irchiro had taught him so long ago. He couldn¡¯t wipe away what was coming with an explosion, there were no brute force options left to them.
Everything they did from now on would have to be calculated for maximum damage on their enemy''s forces in exchange for minimal use of resources.
As he settled his mind, his hand strayed to Kindle¡¯s feathers, stroking them as she stirred happily under his ministrations. He could sense that she was almost fully recovered, the Heat she had absorbed going a long way to getting her back to fighting shape. She was nowhere near the heat level she had arrived with, but she would still be able to play a role in the coming fight.
His soul on the other hand was another story¡
He had just pushed his soul to the absolute limit, losing access to almost all of his spiritual abilities. The time he had gained in the chrono reconciliation had done wonders for the damage, and he could feel almost all of the severed connections had healed. But everything in his core felt tender, its recent restoration standing on the tenuous edge of dissolution.
Warning, your soul is close to dissolution, guard your will and protect your core, for it cannot take any more pressure or stress until it is fully healed. One day, 11 hours remaining.
All of this, just to give them a chance to fight in the actual conflict for the plane. The real battle had yet to begin. Sure he had won the opening conflict, but Corruption¡¯s heavy hitters had yet to come into play.
Oberon had barely been defeated and it had taken Tilly, Erash, and Brokenridge to accomplish the feat. Bezzelbub had been ripped a new one, but Tilly wasn¡¯t foolish enough to think that was the last they would see of the Demonic Prince. He would show back up before all of this was through, and the next time he came it would be much more subtle.
The names of the last four Demon Princes whispered through his mind, attempting to shake him from his meditative state.
Asteroth, Asmodeus, Lilith, and Magog, who had been impossible to miss marching at the rear of the approaching army. The church had estimated the main force might contain hundreds of beings once seen as Powers on the plane. It was likely that they had been reduced to shadows of themselves by Corruption¡¯s parasites but he doubted the infestations did anything to reduce their destructive capability. It would have offered them a new level of power¡ at the price of their soul¡¯s longevity and resilience.
But none of those powers could compare to the remaining Princes. These were creatures whose power had dominated the Multi-Epoch war with the Church long before Corruption¡¯s appearance.
Asteroth was the premiere Demonic Sorcerer on the plane, bound to many layers of Hell and capable of unleashing incredibly destructive magics. Magog was widely believed to be an unkillable giant, capable of rapidly healing any wound, and was twice the size of many of the largest creatures on the plane. Beelzebub was the least overtly destructive of the Princes, but his unconventional powerset made him extremely difficult to counter, and even harder to kill.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The Church had entered into major conflicts with each of these three at one point or another¡ but never all at once, and that wasn¡¯t even counting the final two claiming the demonic thrones.
Lilith was reported to be a Demonic Enchantress of unsurpassed skill, yet she never appeared in the open. Instead, the Church had struggled to trace the beginnings of many of their worst defeats to her influence. They had no reliable knowledge of her appearance and actual power set. Even thinking of where she might strike set Tilly¡¯s teeth on edge.
Finally; Asmodeus, the least known of the five remaining Princes. He had ascended his throne sometime in the last Epoch but seemed to have left it empty for the vast majority of that time. He kept no standing army and this was the first demonic campaign he had chosen to join. No one knew what he was capable of, and the only solid information the Coalition had on him was that he had ascended his throne without contest and had never been challenged for it¡
It was even rumored that only disinterest kept him from ruling all of the Pits.
Each of the five represented an almost godlike influence on Nephesh, and combined, they led the largest army in the history of the plane... Cataclysms like this had struck Nephesh in the past, but each time, divine intervention had balanced the scales, minimizing the destruction and maintaining the hierarchy that had ruled this reality since the Second Epoch.
But something was happening in the Celestial realm¡ something that the Church had refused to elaborate on, aside from bare hints. The other Light-aligned religions had faded into hiding and even the darker deities seemed to be under pressure, their influence on the plane waning along with Corruption¡¯s rise.
Tilly could probably take a hit from any of them at this point and keep fighting and, with his ability to swap stat imbalances, he might be able to hit harder than anything on the plane. But the ¡°throw and blow¡± strategy wouldn¡¯t work this time. Corruption¡¯s army was too large, and more would be arriving any day. Not to mention that with so many variables on the field, he doubted that following the pattern he had shown the enemy several times now would be nearly as effective as he hoped.
Tilly¡¯s brooding thoughts were interrupted, along with Shuji and Hiro¡¯s investigation into the missing Buffs by the entrance of another origami bird, speaking with Ichiro¡¯s calm voice.
¡°Father, you need to come to the southern section of our defenses. Something is emerging from the ground near our position.¡± He stated in a calm voice, adding nothing further to the report.
Hiro grimaced, stepping rapidly toward Tilly, ¡°Shuji, we need those Buffs online as soon as possible, requisition anything or anyone, and get it done.¡± He growled.
Shuji shot a quick bow in acknowledgment, still sorting through multiple screens. A quick look around showed that Mochizuki had already disappeared. Tilly allowed himself one final meditative exhalation before turning toward Hiro and smiling, ¡°It''s never simple is it?¡±
Then he gently set Kindle on the ground, sending her a command to find him when she had fully awoken. He figured this chamber was probably the closest thing to safety that he could find for her until she was ready to fight again.
Hiro¡¯s crystalline eyes twinkled, softening the scowl that so often ruled his face, ¡°No, Jonathan Tillman¡ it is not.¡± He answered, grabbing Tilly¡¯s shoulder and pulling him through howling winds of space and time.
Tilly managed not to stumble this time as they landed on the slope of the mountain facing a wall of enchanted glass, growing before his eyes. The whole thing glowed with imbued magical properties as workers scrambled all over the structure like ants moving at blurred speeds. The smile on Tilly¡¯s face grew as he watched how quickly the intimidating structure was going up in both directions.
¡°Unfortunately, that is not what I called you here to see¡¡± Ichiro¡¯s voice stated dryly from behind them.
Tilly looked over and found Hiro already facing downslope, so he sheepishly pivoted to match the direction of his gaze. Reaching in both directions around the mountainside were ten ranks of Coalition warriors, set and ready to repel the attacks of the vanguard fliers. The harrying force was continually approaching at a low angle up the mountainside, attempting to avoid the arrows falling in a steady stream from behind the growing defensive structure.
The sun''s light had almost completely died away as it sunk into the boiling cloud of Corruption¡¯s influence choking the western horizon. However, close-range visibility was maintained by the now significant radiance being emitted from the half-formed magical structure behind them. Unfortunately, it was not bright enough to see the main forces approach. The thunderous cacophony of their nearness spoke loud enough, interspersed by the occasional bone-rattling impact of Magog¡¯s footsteps.
The vanguard''s harrying attacks were scattered and half-hearted. After only seconds of observation, Tilly could tell that most of the attackers had already been driven insane by Corruption. Many of the frenzied combatants were put down easily, only for tentacled horrors to burst forth from their corpses. Those were quickly drowned by a tide of dragon glass-tipped arrows, which would then have to be retrieved by a brief sortie from the defensive line.
All in all the screen protecting the wall''s erection was working well, even if it was costing precious resources to maintain.
The rest of the vanguard force hovered in thick clouds around the other four peaks, illuminated in brief flashes as they lobbed huge, ritual-fueled magical attacks at the growing wall or the mountain¡¯s Peak. Each of these attacks was met in the sky by an answering silo from the Coalition¡¯s mage core, resulting in the dilution of the destructive magics, or their redirection to unimportant parts of the mountain.
Tilly guessed that the main body of the army would soon reach the westernmost of the Council Peaks, the only bright spot left in the smotheringly dark distance.
Evening had shifted to night with stunning speed, skipping all pretenses of twilight and leaving behind a darkness of profound depth lit only by flashes of destruction. The air was filled with the enraged screams of their enemy and occasionally cries of the coalition¡¯s wounded.
It all seemed like they hovered on the brink of chaos, barely clinging to some semblance of control. And this was just the beginning¡
He struggled to take in everything before him, conflict unfolding on a scale far beyond his capability to understand. It was not that he hadn¡¯t been in battles before, but those had all been between one or two Factions, with each of the major players known¡ this was something else entirely.
¡°Do you see it?¡± Ichiro pointed helpfully, past the fighting immediately ahead of them. Tilly had to squint to see it at first, but once he did, he couldn¡¯t look away. Something large was rising from the unimbued ground just beyond the mountain¡¯s base. A glowing structure rose like a submarine, glowing with an icy energy. It continued to rise until it stood hundreds of feet tall, dominating the area. It looked like a fusion between a mausoleum and a fortress and it was large enough to hold thousands.
¡°Is it some kind of surprise attack?¡± Tilly asked, trying to keep the hopeless exhaustion from his voice as he settled Kindle on the ground next to him and reached for his weapons.
¡°I do not believe so¡¡± Ichiro said, his blank eyes darting over the structure.
Fifty paces below them, the defenders continued to fight, holding back scattered enemies almost with ease. Now that he was looking, he saw that many of the approaching fliers avoided the new structure completely, and those who didn¡¯t were struck down somehow.
¡°It can not be¡¡± Hiro muttered quietly, sharing a look with his son.
¡°The Weave is shifting too significantly for me to be sure. It is all I can do to shut out the noise of such rapid changes in the Fate around us.¡± Ichiro answered in a hushed tone.
Then the gates of the fortress swung open, facing directly at their defenses and Identify populated a name for Tilly:
Hades¡¯ Gate Celestial