Raze (The Completionist Chronicles Book 4)

by Dakota Krout

  A short time later, the glowing walls of the quest area came into view. Joe looked at the Scout askance, but the wolfish features were uncaring. “Orders from The O’Baba. You no see our home unless quest completion. Listen. Cultists do one more fight, then next is two-hour mark, scouring area. Use brain.”

  The Scout pointed at a tree with a reddish mark on it, then went over and climbed into the safety of the canopy. This would be their exit if they needed it. Good to know. Joe looked at his team. “Are we all set with our plan?”

  “I did what I was supposed to do,” Alexis stated, and the others nodded as well. Joe carefully handed Jaxon a taglock with an assigned ‘Gravedigger’s Requiem’ ritual created on it to be used as a last resort if things went poorly. Joe only had a containment ritual assigned to the taglock on his staff and was really feeling the pinch of not doing more research on combat rituals. Ah well.

  “Okay, then. As soon as this round of combat ends, we’ll get in place. Great timing, actually.” Joe’s team got into place in a tree just as humming started to reach their ears. As one, even though the party started to hum along, they stuffed their ears with earplugs. The world was muffled, and the humming stopped coming from Joe’s team. He was pretty sure. He did have earplugs in.

  The walls of the building flashed, and Joe felt a rumble in his chest as something nearby roared. A new creature charged out of the forest, some kind of three-limbed gorilla. It had a sunflower growing out of its head, but that was all the information Joe could glean. Alexis tapped his arm and waved at the formation of humans, then held up nine fingers.

  Did that mean that the average level of people down there was nine now? Joe thought about it, and it did make sense. Still, that meant that they were going to have a harder time than they originally thought. The gorilla thing hit the ranks at that point, and they hit back. Still, they held no weapons, and the majority of them were slaughtered. It seemed that, similar to the Rosebeast, the flower was this creature’s weak point. A few humans were able to climb up and beat on the sunflower as their people fell like rain around them.

  Falling to the ground, the gorilla joined the fallen after seven and a half minutes of combat. There was only one survivor, a human who had his arms torn off just before the creature fell. He leveled, and leveled… too bad leveling didn't restore health. The door swung open, and a bolt of green fire raced out and blew off the man’s head. Effective. Cruel but effective. The man would be back, but this did allow his pain to end.

  As the door shut, Joe jumped from his position on the tree and ran toward the building. He first zipped over to the gorilla and dipped his hand in an open wound, then raced toward the door. He had planned to use his own blood, but this would be much more dangerous. The moment of truth approached: there were no windows on this side of the building, but would there be a way for the people inside to detect him?

  Joe stopped before getting too close, pulling out a prepared Predator’s Territory ritual, rubbing the gorilla blood on it, and officially starting their plan. This ritual had been altered slightly, boosting the range of the ‘predator claims this spot’ feeling to the maximum. He was nervous about this process, and using this blood might be overkill. The gorilla had been level twenty-one according to the info he got while activating the ritual, which meant that anything that came to challenge this area would be at least level forty-two.

  Since O’Baba had mentioned that the center of the forest required a minimum of level thirty people to raid it, he assumed that there would be something that would react to this. Would it bother to show up? That was the real question.

  The door to the building didn't open, and his head remained attached to his body, so Joe turned and ran. He got back to the tree, and the entire group retreated. Things were going to get hairy here one way or another. The Scout wasn't sure what they wanted, but Jaxon told him that they wanted to be away during the scouring; that he could understand.

  They moved away for another five minutes before stopping. The Scout pulled out a rope and handed one end to Bard. Then the Wolfman climbed the huge tree and looped the rope on the lowest branch, fifteen feet above the ground. They clambered up and hid as well as possible. From here they could still see the flashing walls, and they settled in to wait. A short while later, they heard something even through their earplugs. Humming.

  Joe could see a line of the cultists walking through the forest, and it seemed that the area they passed turned a slight shade of green. Not forest green, but radioactive green. He had no idea how they were doing that or what it could mean. Where was the humming coming from? It sounded close, and it was deep. Joe looked at his people, but they weren't showing any signs, and earplugs were in… he whipped his head around to see the Scout starting to stand on the branch. Green sparks were flickering around his eyes, and he took a step toward the line, falling right out of the tree.

  The nearest cultists converged on the fallen Wolfman, smiling as they got closer. The Scout was alternating between humming and whimpering, unable to stand with his broken body. If he had been thinking, there would be no way such a fall would hurt him. Too bad he had basically belly flopped. Cultists were now surrounding the Scout, and one started to reach for him with a green-fire-coated hand. Just as he was about to do… something, all of the cultist’s heads snapped to be facing the place of power they had come from.

  Joe looked as well, but in that direction, the only thing he could see was a wall of dust. The cultists took off at a run, leaving the Scout behind and taking the odd glow with them. Joe’s team shimmied down the tree, removed their earplugs, and Joe inspected the Wolfman’s eyes. He was sure he had seen green sparks, but right now, the eyes were only filled with pain. “I’m going to heal you, don't worry. Jaxon, align his bones.”

  *Squee*!

  Joe stared at Jaxon. “What was that?”

  “Nothing.” Jaxon started gently but efficiently moving bones around. Joe followed along after him with healing spells, and in only a moment, the Wolfman was as good as new.

  The Scout snarled as he shook off his wet fur. “You wish for thanks? I would not be here were it not for you!”

  Joe watched the Scout stalk away and climb a new tree, this time using his rope to secure himself in place. The humans started jogging toward the battle near the structure, soon finding themselves witnessing a legendary clash. A treant, likely one of the bosses of the forest area—possibly even Trent the Treant, who had killed them—was slamming branches, vines, roots, and occasionally other trees on to the humans it was fighting. Hundreds of people had poured out of the cathedral, and to Joe, it seemed like there was no end to the wave of flesh battling the vegetation.

  “That place had to be as packed full of people as Ardania is,” Joe whispered to the others. There was no need to whisper; between the clashing of the treant and the now-chanting swarm of hundreds, Joe could almost not hear himself think. The plan was in motion, and they raced into the now-empty cathedral.

  A bright green glow tinted everything they could see, and Joe was nervous at first. Then it vanished, and he realized that the glow had come from a spray of fire. Outside. Like lightning, the blaze had washed away all other color with the sheer amount of light it produced. He felt sweat break out on his face as the temperature of the air increased by at least ten degrees. “Celestial Feces, I’m glad that isn't us.”

  The building was different on the inside than Joe had expected. He had thought there would be an open room, perhaps pews or bleachers. Instead, the room sunk down to a bowl, then up into an almost Mayan temple, complete with the altar at the top for human sacrifice. They ran down, then started climbing the huge stone slabs that made up the stairs. Here Joe cheated. While the others climbed, he would jump to the next one, over and over until he needed to rest.

  Getting to this point in the room took a solid five minutes for him, but the battle was still raging outside if the sounds, heat, and creeping dust were any indication. On the last three layers, Joe had to move carefully
to ensure he didn't slip on the still-smiling bodies of people that had been sacrificed here. When he stood atop the altar, he noticed that there was a hole in the slab of stone. A quick glance into it left Joe shaken. Something down there was moving.

  “Not a fan of horror movies.” Joe held down his bile, placed his hand on the altar, and starting the process of capturing the building for his own deity. Instead of the place rippling and flowing like all the other times he had done something similar, here it almost seemed like the building was… fighting back. That was also the moment that the clashing outside paused, followed by one last massive crash. Then cheering… and the sound of many feet rushing toward the building. Uh oh.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  The top slab of the building was covered in a gold and white glow, and all the bodies, blood, and ick that had been there had vanished. Actually, it seemed that the absorption of those bodies had sped up the process a small amount, which made Joe nervous. He had been warned before that Tatum could easily be pushed into the role of an ‘evil’ deity, and he certainly didn’t want to be the cause of that. Was that what all the sacrifices were about? Boosting the range and power of this place?

  *Boom*. The doors slammed open, and green-eyed, smiling people began flooding into the area. Joe called on his team to distract them as long as possible. “I need time!”

  “We’ve got this, Joe!” Alexis fired an arrow at the entrance, hitting a barrel that Joe didn't remember seeing. With a *whamp*, the barrel detonated and the contents turned into a thick smoke. Any bodies that emerged from the smoke were just that: bodies. “Found a way to turn the venom from Sheila the scorpion into an aerosol. Painful way to die, but at least they’re still smiling.”

  Bard swallowed hard and showed a shaky smile. By now, the top three slabs were golden, but Joe was running low on mana. He pulled out the smallest of the Batteries he had made and placed it on the altar.

  Would you like to use this as a source of mana to convert the altar? There is a 50% chance of the battery being destroyed in the process. Yes / No.

  “Yes, even though that is just typical!” Joe snarled. Instantly he felt relief as the mana drain switched over to the Battery. He had spent time to fill all three, and to his delight, the largest one had only taken about seventeen minutes of his mana regen to fully charge. The mana drain didn't seem to go any faster, but now, all the bodies and blood had been converted as well… meaning that the process was slowing.

  As the first Battery drained to empty, Joe used his personal mana until it ran out, then placed another battery down. A green fireball flashed into the entrance, and the resulting explosion and shockwave nearly destroyed Joe's position. He would have gone flying but was instead slammed into the altar hard enough to see a large dip in his Exquisite Shell. “Guys!”

  “We’re alive, Joe!” Bard bellowed up at him. “Thar’ gettin’ in, though!”

  Murder could be seen on the faces of the cultists. Behind the smiles, beyond the chanting… rage. Pure, unadulterated hatred. If they had been able to bring ranged weapons to bear, Joe knew things would have gotten grizzly in a hurry. Luckily, they were still only humans, unarmed and unarmored humans at that. Still, Joe had seen what they could do as a swarm. “Be careful, everyone!”

  “How about you focus?” Poppy called up, just as the first of the smiling humans pulled themselves on to his ledge. His rapier poked out in rapid thrusts, each strike a critical and deadly hit since the first part of each person to pop up was their head.

  The humans were realizing that their attempts to scale where a person was standing were futile, so they began to swarm around and up the altar. Jaxon started to shine here, and for a long moment, everyone paused as the sound of a pair of triumphant T-rex heads showed their pleasure. Then sharp teeth met unprotected flesh, and everyone began moving once more. Joe made a mental note to look into getting hands like that; he was sure he could if he tried hard enough.

  Alexis was having a harder time as people closed in on her. Her bolts were deadly but took a long time to reload. She revealed a new trick as people tried to dog pile her, tossing down a canister that acted as a smoke grenade. There was an effect similar to what she had done at the door but on a much smaller scale. It seemed that this smoke wasn't instantly deadly, but nonetheless, the humans impacted by it started to collapse.

  Bard was chanting his own song while swinging his axes, and Joe could practically see him gaining skill levels as his Counter Song allowed the group to resist the hypnotic reverb of the chanting people. Now the entire Mayan-style portion of the cathedral was glowing gold and white, and as the color touched the floor… it spread like spilled wine. Whatever had been resisting the conversion had been defeated, and now the conversion was going apace!

  Joe coughed, sucking wind as his mana bottomed out. He slapped the last, largest Mana Battery on the altar and selected yes. “Three thousand more mana, hope that does it.”

  “Enough of this!” A glowing orb appeared before Bard, detonating and slamming the man into the wall behind him… also ending his Counter Song. Paul The Hierophant had joined the battle. “How dare you defile these sacred walls!”

  “Your… maw has baws, and…” Alexis coughed out at the man as the last of her smoke cleared away.

  Poppy interrupted her, “Let’s let Bard use the Scottish insults. Hey! Feces face! How about you leave now before we turn you into the cheese of the Swiss!”

  “That’s Swiss cheese,” Jaxon told the Duelist.

  “I’m Italian. I don't care.” Poppy pulled his rapier out of another face and pointed it at the Hierophant. “Bring it. I think we can take you on.”

  “There is no need for that.” The Hierophant sighed indulgently. “Listen, I am just trying to ensure that humans have a place in the coming world! I’ve been working so hard to get as many converts as possible, and you come in here trying to take all of my hard work away? Why don't we just talk about this?”

  Poppy swished his weapon and snarled, “You make a valid point! Why don't we discuss this? I… huh.”

  “Yeah! Let’s hear this nice Hierophant out!” Jaxon called as his fists tore another chunk of meat out of a cultist.

  “What are you guys saying?” Alexis seemed confused. “Of course we would hear what the Hierophant had to say! It’s in his name! Hear-ophant.”

  “That was fast.” Joe was crouched behind the altar, hoping that a fireball wouldn’t find him. “Gonna need to boost that Counter Song, maybe have a backup in the future.”

  The conversion was still going, but only a third of the mana had been used by the Battery. This was the first time that Joe had ever hoped he could sink power into something faster. He intentionally had the altar drain him dry, giving as much as he could before letting the drain go back to the Battery.

  “As for you, cleric, don’t you think we should chat?” the Hierophant called. Joe felt the power in the words, likely Words of Power: Spoken or something similar boosting his other abilities. Joe didn't resist the compulsion to stand up. “Ah, there you are. Come, stand away from there. Let us discuss.”

  Joe found his feet moving and knew he could stop thanks to his Mental Manipulation Resistance skill, but he allowed himself to be ‘controlled’ so that he could get into a better position to resist when needed. The next words of the Hierophant almost made Joe give himself away, though, “Look at that! A familiar face! Why would you be resisting this when it was you who opened the doorway, you who created the path for our Lord to be free? Speak.”

  “I don’t understand.” Joe was watching the Hierophant, doing his best not to look at the gold coloration that was still progressing. Either the other man didn’t see it or didn't care; Joe wasn't going to risk calling attention to the fact.

  “I’m hurt!” The Hierophant pulled a face. “We were in a party, deep in the bowels of prison together, were we not? You freed a spark of The Burning Mind and allowed me to capture it. I thank you, but I still cannot allow you to have this place. Come
, we shall discuss more deeply, and soon, you will realize the error of your ways.”

  Joe took a step forward and realized with horror that he no longer had the option to resist. A smile was on his face, but screaming was in his mind. It seemed the Hierophant’s ability to hypnotize became stronger over time—perhaps the longer you listened—and a fifteen percent resistance was no longer enough. The party started walking to the Hierophant, uncaring of the damage they took falling off the ledges. Joe took less damage thanks to his Jump skill, but his Exquisite Shell still broke by the last few falls, and he snapped his nose after reaching the ground.

  “Hi there.” The Hierophant had a beatific smile on his face, and he had somehow coated his hand in green fire. “Let’s seal up my control, shall we? I want you to come back no matter how often you die!”

  None of them had paid attention to the conversion happening at this point, but all the bodies that had fallen in the structure during sacrifice or combat had vanished. With a flash of light, the structure shifted. In the same moment, vibrancy fell away from the Hierophant as nearly a dozen buffs he had been steeped in failed at the same time.

  Place of Power captured! Cathedral captured! A portion of all divine energy accumulated here has been shifted to your deity! All benefits granted by this area have been removed from others! Soak in the power and commune with your deity to gain stackable buffs!

  Quest updated: Paying a Great Debt. You have taken control of a Cathedral that has had no official deity to take the accumulated divine energy! This particular cathedral also sits upon a place of power, a nexus of interwoven ley lines. It generates triple the amount of energy as a standard Temple (Grand). Current debt paid: 1,014,700/13,000,000.