Yar shrugged.
“Nothing new: we’ll feed them to the trees. The Daar trees have worked hard and deserved such a treat. As much as the elves deserve such an end to their lives.”
The Shadows, all as one, were clearly delighted. Yar waited a bit and then added, “Tell everyone, and remember — the fact that we intend to exchange some of the elves means nothing. I assure you they will suffer; I’ll take care of it myself.
Now, to the point. I have to go to the Star Key for a while. I will not be here for three hours, no more. I propose you strengthen the guard in that time just in case.”
“Blacky.” Yar lovingly put his hand over the magnificent wool of the scrad. “Try to search the palace in the dark with the help of your intuition. Perhaps you will find some hidden rooms or artifacts. Gelic will assist you. He also has excellent scout skills. In addition, he is perfectly able to penetrate remote places. He will slip into any gap without a problem.”
“Master,” Gelic gurgled, “do you have information, suspicions, or assumptions?”
Yar smiled at his friend.
“Gelic, I think I have logical doubts. Look, there is a lot of gold and silver in the treasury and not a single artifact. The armory is full of good weapons. I wonder why we haven’t found any artifacts there, though we have managed to capture some in the battle.
Moreover, the palace is huge. There are authentic paintings, tapestries, and carpets on the walls. Gold and precious stones are used in the interior’s decoration. The entire functionality of the building, ranging from the fountains and the lighting to the sewage system, is crammed with artifacts. However, there is not a single artifact in the repository—no ring, no belt, and no purse. Do you agree that there is a strange discrepancy here?”
Hearing such reasoning, the Shadows began to discuss excitedly between themselves. Yar wished everyone good fortune and entertainment—without compromising the security of the Capture Palace, of course—and went back to his native land.
Chapter 29. Shadowlands
I t was nice to be in the Star Key Tower again. Yar was calm and felt safe.
“Hello,” Yar greeted the tower, and it answered him with a blissful feeling, which, like a wave, swept over his entire body.
The Guardian, chirping, sat on his shoulder and reported that all was well in the tower. The place of his strength had improved its characteristics and already brought in great profits.
Yar stood and listened absently, lost in a luxuriating state for several minutes. It really was so nice and calm here.
Then Yar sighed and said softly, “Merging.”
The transition was unpleasant, but there wasn’t that strong, all-consuming pain this time. His feelings were similar to astronaut training on the centrifuge simulator.
Yar rushed there, into the depths of the caves that he had discovered earlier...
The beauty of this place was as stunning as the first time he had visited. However, Yar was short of time and was looking for a suitable place, flying from one river to another. At first, as he suspected, his search was directed west. There were a lot of places suitable for calming down and gazing at these natural wonders: the eccentric heaps of glowing boulders, and the gardens full of huge crystals of incredible colors and shapes.
However, Yar kept searching for a proper place for the Palace of Capture to reside. It was supposed to be special enough that the Palace would like it too. Time passed, but still he wandered through endless passages, caves, and places where the rivers converged, encountering something inexplicable and mysterious every minute. There were incomprehensible creatures and strange crystal formations as if playing with light.
Suddenly, it occurred to him that he could easily level up his stats. Although he soon forgot all about it, being impressed by the splendor that surrounded him. At some point, Yar realized that he could no longer move away from the tower. His ghost, as if exhausted, began to obey his commands poorly, and then he fell down straight into the water. While Yar was coming to his senses, his disembodied ghost was swimming along the gray haze of the river—fortunately, in the proper direction.
Yar enjoyed the underwater world for a while. As it turned out, the underground river was swarming with wildlife! Yar quickly realized that his trip along the river could have been very long, so he escaped from the water and flew back with the speed of a pink swift. He should have checked the opposite direction—east.
Here it is , the thought flashed through Yar’s consciousness. This is where I started my journey.
He looked at the arch and immediately felt that somewhere far away, way above the huge strata of rock, there was his Star Key. After realizing this fact, Yar had a very unusual feeling—as if someone had poured a bucket of helium over his head.
Yar waited a bit, thinking it over, then he set off in the other direction. He decided that if he didn’t find anything within an hour, he would put the palace in the nearest semi-suitable location.
As soon as he flew out into the open space, Yar realized how lucky he was that he had not made a rash decision already.
Yar was often surprised lately, but for the first time, he was stunned almost motionless. The Dark World and the City of Shadows paled in comparison with what he saw now. Yar hung in the air. It could not be called a cave—rather, an entire world. No matter how hard he tried, Yar couldn’t make out the opposite walls, which must be more than a hundred miles away from him.
Everything was amazing here. A huge imposing river flowed at the bottom of the cage. Yar mused that it must be as wide as the Volga. Large, incomprehensible colorful objects and small birds were flying through the air. There were a lot of mysterious facts that required further reflection and probably immediate study, but for now Yar studied one place maybe ten miles away: a brilliant, broad river surrounded a large island. There were plenty of bizarre rocks and a very tall peak resembling a megalodon tooth pushed up into the air. It pulsed brightly, illuminating the huge space. The energy of this island was breathtaking.
He flew there, as if heading to a first date. The rocks were not exactly what he had assumed them to be. These were glossy black crystals pumped full of power. There was a round, flat plateau next to them. It was as if the whole area had been especially created for the foundation of the palace.
Yar carefully remembered this place, captured it in his mind in detail, and then returned to his tower a second later, breaking the Merger. He sat down and drank a glass of mineral water before doing breathing exercises to deal with the disturbances that had seized him. He was still impressed by the mysterious beauty of the underworld.
Yar leveled his breath, concentrated, and then recalled the plateau mentally to the smallest details. He aimed the portal to a well-represented place and opened it.
Despite the fact that Yar expected its occurrence, it was akin to the miracle of ... birth. The man felt new incredible smells, saw colors that he had never seen in nature, and most importantly, he was filled with the life-giving essence of this strange crystalline impulse lighthouse, that, oddly enough, did not seem to interfere at all. It seemed that everything was happening as it should. Yar followed this rhythm in breathing, in movement, and in the beating of his heart. He looked at the characteristics and was very surprised—he received a message after each impulse from the crystal:
Your stat points increased by 25%
In the interval between pulses, everything returned to normal, and then again—Bang!
Oh! Hello, dizzy amplifications!
The message appeared in front of him again:
Your stat points increased by 25%
“I’ve never thought that the underground could be so wonderful,” Yar whispered, lost in the moment.
He viewed this place as a child who first played with a wind-up toy. Perhaps Yar could have long-examined this incredible phenomenon, but...
The colorful message crawled slowly before his eyes, as if it was a solid millennial turtle. The letters shone like jewels against a polished
panel.
Attention, Discoverer!
Give the name of the secret magical ecumene.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Yar got up, spread his arms, and shouted, “Mother System, I name it Shadowlands!”
“Shadowlands…” This phrase spread throughout the space like rolling thunder.
“Now I can take full advantage of the discoverer’s right! How much is here...” Yar approached the base of the huge black crystal in the form of a megalodon tooth, and immediately, a message popped up:
The unknown crystal????????
Yar named it the ‘Black Magic Crystal’. Then he approached the river, touched it, and called it ‘Ra’. With the joy of a puppy, he rushed to bring everything to its usual order, because everything and everyone should have its own name. The diversity of the species here was unimaginable, and there was a lot of vegetation, small animals, insects, and even real trees of types Yar had never seen before. He also saw crystal nodules, very similar to trees, but he did not know what they could be.
At some point, Yar forced himself to stop and leave the naming of objects to others. It wasn’t like he could increase his level by giving names to these creatures and objects. Yar checked the time. It turned out he had a few spare minutes, then he chose a place with pure white quartz sand. Sitting quietly, leaning against a huge emerald crystal, he took out jamon iberico and an expensive bottle of red wine. Yar wanted to pamper himself with the delicacies of the old world as he admired the nature of the new one.
The clan leader ate with pleasure, so relaxed that he almost fell asleep, but suddenly he noticed movement across the white sand. A small, thin snake moved toward him in spurts. It seemed to move in cycles of illumination, although he almost stopped feeling them: the peak of the glow—it was like a living copperhead, a pause—it looked like a lifeless string of small iridescent crystals. He became interested and felt some sorrow for it. The snake was touchingly lonely.
“So, what am I to do with you, snake-enchantress?” Yar spoke thoughtfully. Suddenly he saw the name:
Snake-Enchantress (silicon ??????????????)
????????????????
????????????????
????????????????
“Wow! You are Enchantress. I need to help this brilliant snake. I can’t read its stats; that’s amazing.”
The snake continued to move steadily, but it was noticeable—it had to make more and more effort each time to do so.
Okay, let’s get started.
Yar applied several remedial blocks, but his help was almost imperceptible. He then took out his universal remedy—Essentuki mineral water—and poured it over the snake. In this case, the result was noticeable but still far too negligible. Yar tried further, but everything was ineffective. Suddenly, he accidentally remembered the crystals from the cell phones. The tiny snake pounced on the crystals with greed. The crunch was very loud, and Yar sensed that the snake found them appetizing. Even his own appetite woke up again.
They were sitting on the sand in mutual pleasure. Yar was eating the jamon and drinking the wine; his new acquaintance was chewing on the crystals. Its menu was quite different from his own. Yar firstly proposed the snake a crystal from an ‘iPhone’ and then from ‘Samsung’, before a ‘Huawei’ crystal. There was the first and the second dishes and even a dessert from the Chinese manufacturer.
“Well, that’s good,” Yar commented at the Snake-Enchantress’ relaxed state. She was clearly satisfied with the meal and obviously wanted to sleep now.
“Good-bye, Snake. Be happy, and may there be more sweet crystals on your way. Or fat crystals ... well, the kind you like.”
Yar rose to his feet, but as he did so, he couldn’t believe how quickly the Snake-Enchantress jumped and captured the little finger on his right hand. He noticed a very elegant ring in the form of a small black snake with amazing emerald eyes and shiny scales now adorning his finger in the snake’s place.
“Well, I don’t mind wearing such a beautiful ring. Maybe you will come in handy one time.”
In fact, Yar felt intuitively that this Snake-Enchantress would definitely be useful to him in the future.
As he was about to return to the palace in order to move it to this ideal place, he heard a loud alert sound:
Attention!
Yar Row Dark! You have fulfilled all six conditions of the ancient master creators.
Achieving the level of development Archmage
Seizing the highest power of the palace
Sixteen Global Belt Achievements
Creating a new direction in magic
Global achievements postponed without consideration (three days)
Discovery of the Magical Oecumene
You are included in the secret pantheon of the Belt of the Worlds demiurges.
Awards:
Double aura increase
Access to Astral
Access to the secret list of abilities on the exchange
(Exchange: one global achievement per ability to choose from)
* Addition
The disclosure of this information clears the resulting, repeated loss of life, the number - random
Yar immediately entered the exchange, looked at this secret list, and was literally stupefied. It really was a priceless achievement. He thought a bit and decided to leave two of his choices in reserve. Yar supposed that he might need them in an uncertain and dangerous future. Yar was right.
“Well, it’s time to start the transfer,” he said firmly and examined the chosen place carefully once again.
Chapter 30. Aero Ryiri Gloomy
A few minutes had passed since Yar moved to the Palace of Capture.
He didn’t want to disturb anyone because his clan mates had their own tasks.
Let them work, Yar decided.
He chose the place that he liked the most.
Indeed, he inexplicably felt ... enthusiastic about the highest central tower.
“Perhaps my second, the dragon, means that nature affects me that way?” Yar guessed.
The top of the central tower was ideal for dragons: there were good views, height, and very strong winds.
It really was too windy for humans, but the view overpowered all inconveniences that Yar could think of. He walked along the observation line of the main tower of the castle all alone, trailing a hand over the cold and incredibly dense stonework.
“Be patient a little more, my friend,” Yar addressed the fortress as a living being. “We’ll take care of you,” he added as he patted the hard ‘skin’ of the palace.
Suddenly, he felt something unusual, as if a barely perceptible discharge of current slipped between his palm and the wall of the palace.
Then Yar went to the loophole quietly. He watched the Shadows on the walls with interest and was very pleased. The patrol detachments ran around the perimeter, and there were already some exercises taking place in the combat towers: the Shadows practiced strikes in sparring. Real collisions between detachments were also taking place in open areas—it looked stunning and informative. Judging by the intensity of their movements, Yar understood, with satisfaction, that they were working at full strength.
“Okay, stop staring. I need to move on,” Yar encouraged himself.
He didn’t want to leave the observation tower, so he sat down. Leaning against the wall, he addressed his assistant, “Eva, please show the Guardians with the best ratings available on the exchange.”
“Yes, Master!” the assistant responded cheerfully. Instead of bringing information to his optic nerve, she sent it directly to the space in front of him.
Yar studied the proposals carefully. The list of Guardians was huge. However, for the first time, he wasn’t satisfied with the exchange. The proposed candidates didn’t meet his requirements. Yaroslav almost immediately got the feeling that they seemed to be busy with serving their owners rather than promoting the real estate.
That wasn’t what suited him. Finally, the head of the clan found he was outraged. �
��Eva, I need a Guardian for a glorious battle fortress. I don’t need Chaldeans or brothel caretakers. Let the stockbrokers use this stuff themselves.”
As it turned out, there were no other Guardians.
“I’ve wasted my time,” the disappointed Yar said bitterly.
Suddenly, he heard someone throwing dice and intuitively tried to see them. Soon he heard a quiet, weak, hoarse but pleasant voice.
“Yes, these blond bastards have completely destroyed our brotherhood.”
Yar looked around quickly. There was no one there.
“Show yourself,” he demanded.
“Heh, I don’t seem to be hiding. I’m standing next to you, the new owner of Ryiri.”
Yar looked around with the help of his magical vision and could barely see a ghost next to him. Honestly, if he hadn’t searched, he would never have noticed him. In this barely perceptible haze, it was hardly possible to recognize the contours of the tall figure stood beside him.
“Could you please tell me who you are?” Yar asked, preferring to treat the ghost respectfully.
The ghost sighed bitterly but responded with dignity. He was like an old veteran warrior telling about his loss in the last deadly battle.
“Once upon a time, my name was Aero Ryiri Gloomy. I was the first and last Guardian of this palace. I’ve been serving it and its masters for thousands of years.
One day, my owners thought that I knew too much and, alas, I didn’t share their opinions. They, in all their treacherousness, destroyed me. However, I had taken care of this palace for such a long time, like a nanny, personally holding every stone, every loophole, and the palace remembered me, my hands, and my voice. The Palace of Capture brought me back … However, its power was only enough for my ghostly essence …”
Yar didn’t hear the ghost’s last words as he was already thinking intensely, Why not? Most likely, this waste will be very promising—as there are obviously more ghostly entities than intelligent beings within the Belt of the Worlds. They are slaves, but their sympathies and hopes will be priceless. The situation is still being unpredictable.
Dark Legacy Page 16