He was dead right there. The Reapers weren’t going to have it easy, that’s for sure.
“They can still port within direct line of sight,” Iskandar pointed out. “Or even teleport whole groups provided they know the coordinates.”
“We can handle that,” Archie said. “I thought that Rion was safe from those kinds of teleports?”
“It is. There’s a device there deflecting all incoming teleports. But we’ve no idea where it is and how it does it.”
“Then we need to find it and study it, don’t we?” White said.
Easier said than done. I’d already tried to work it out, with negligible results. Having said that... I did have an idea.
“Alex, I’m afraid time isn’t on our side,” White said, impatient for me to come to some decision. “We need to start preparing our positions now. You’ve seen how many Reapers have already arrived at the testing grounds. At the moment, they’re still affected by the defense debuffs which gives us a decent fighting chance.”
“Very well. I’m gonna look into this teleport deflecting device. In the meantime, you can start preparing our positions and accepting new fighters. We’ll post any Reaper information online in a moment. Iskandar, we need to deepen the ford. Please don’t forget.”
* * *
I spent the afternoon doing some in-depth research, experimenting with the castle’s main portal and copying the resulting runic sequences from the obelisks.
I’d managed to work out a couple of interesting things regarding the castle defenses, but not the spell itself (the world of the Crystal Sphere was entirely based on magic). Its mechanism just kept escaping me.
Finally, I was too tired to work and ported to the Hall of the Elements to restore my energy levels.
It was a mixed blessing. True, this place allowed you to recover quickly. By the same token, it now housed Christa’s sphere containing the captured Harvesters, and that was quite a downer. A bit further away, the Khmor branch hovered in the air. Enea had already collected all the seeds from it.
I needed to get my mind off it all so I summoned Lethmiel.
He appeared instantly. “Alex?”
“Have you worked out what kind of spell you’re going to use?”
“You mean, to charm the totem?”
“Exactly.”
He nodded. “I’ve looked into it. Still, I don’t think that using a spell restricting the goblins’ freedom is a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Their shaman is wise and powerful. He’ll smell the rat straight away.”
“And you think he won’t suspect this isn’t the real thing?”
Lethmiel shrugged. “We can always try.”
“Very well. In that case, get on with it. I’m afraid, in the next couple of days I won’t have the time to study goblin artifacts.”
I opened a picture of a goblin totem in my interface and checked its stats.
It was all pretty straightforward. All I needed was a Khmor branch (which in itself possessed some powerful magical properties). Then all I had to do was activate Object Replication which was going to shape it into the desired object.
Pointless dragging it out. I focused on the branch.
Slowly it began rotating in the air, spreading light clouds of sparkling wood dust which disappeared within the energy currents that permeated the Hall of the Elements.
“Lethmiel? Your turn.”
“That’s excellent,” he openly admired my handiwork, comparing it to the picture he was holding in his hands.
“How difficult is it to charm it?”
“I’ll manage,” Lethmiel replied. “A totem can only have four magical properties. It can attract fish, repel any enemies, endow its owner with longevity and cast a Virility buff on all its worshippers.”
“Virility sounds a bit ambiguous, don’t you think?”
“I think that’s the idea,” he replied. “It might turn some worshippers into great warriors and others, into prolific family men. Depends on what kinds of thoughts you approach it with,” he cut himself short and concentrated on casting the charm.
A glowing rainbow swirled around the totem, hugging it tight and breathing life into it.
The branch wended its way like a living thing.
“Are you finished?” I asked.
Lethmiel breathed a noisy sigh. “I think so,” he said with a touch of pride in his voice.
“In that case, we need to send word to the goblins. You think you could hand the totem over to them? I have too many things to do.”
“I can send a messenger to them with the news, yes. But I really don’t feel like handing it over to them.”
“Never mind. Let me know when they arrive.”
“Will do-” he stopped mid-word.
The air thickened. A bright flash shattered the Hall of the Elements, disgorging the goblin’s chief shaman, as large as life and twice as ugly.
How on earth? He’d just breached all of the castle’s defenses! This wasn’t normal! This place was off limits!
His old eyes glinted defiantly. He stood up tall and proud, leaning on his fancy carved staff.
I stared at it in disbelief.
The penny had finally dropped.
The goblins had never lost their totem to begin with. The shaman’s staff was a carbon copy of the artifact I’d just built.
The shaman gave me a gap-toothed grin. “I can see you’ve worked it out.”
“Why did you lie to me?” I asked.
“And you thought we’d just welcome Rion’s new lord and master to our lands without testing him first?”
“Oh really? So what do you think? Am I good enough or not?”
“Please, Alexatis. Don’t get mad with us. My people had always lived here. You were a newcomer. How were we supposed to know you? Did you mean good or bad? Were you as powerful as people said you were? Would you try and enslave us? Would you start a war against us or greet us as these moors’ rightful dwellers?”
“In that case, why did you attack the castle?” I asked, remembering their sudden visit when I’d been forced to use the runic sequence of the Earth against them.
“We were testing you. You didn’t repay us with violence, even though you could have.”
“Okay,” I forced myself to keep my emotions in check even though I didn’t find him particularly endearing. “How did you get in here?”
“I’ll tell you. Give me the totem first.”
“You have one already.”
“Mine is almost dead. Yours is young and full of energy. I can see that you’ve overcome the temptation to add, should I say, a personal touch to its properties. I appreciate that.”
“Very well. Take it,” I offered him the staff. Not that I needed it, anyway. It wasn’t as if I was going to do any fishing anytime soon. And as for repelling any enemies, I was quite capable of doing that myself.
“In which case, here’s my return gift,” the shaman offered me a scroll so ancient it was crumbling. It was bound with strips of dry algae. “Open it.”
I removed the wilted green twine and gingerly unraveled the parchment.
My heart jumped with joy when I saw the faded, barely legible symbols of the long-lost spell recorded in the Founders’ language.
I struggled to make out the words. “Where did you get it?” I looked up at him sharply.
The shaman chuckled. “Do you really think that goblins are dumb creatures who only know how to fish and play tricks on humans? Our ancestors used to serve the Founders. They helped build this fortress. Some of its defense mechanisms require ancient magic to work. And I’m the only person who still remembers it.”
“Thank you.”
“Each gets what he deserves. That’s how it works, Alexatis.”
“Thank you,” I repeated. The scroll I’d just read contained a teleport-deflecting spell.
“If I may be entirely honest with you, I also have an ulterior motive,” the old goblin uttered. “We don’t like Reap
ers. If you stand up against them by the River Warbler, us goblins will be only too happy. Don’t be afraid of my knowledge. I’ll never use it to hurt you or the Forest Nymph. Nor the castle. I swear.”
With that, he disappeared.
Quest alert: Troublesome Neighbors. Quest renewed and completed!
Your feud with the goblins is over!
From now on, whenever Rion Castle is besieged by an enemy, they will become your trusty allies.
“Lethmiel,” I gingerly handed him the crumbling scroll, “take it directly to the calligraphers. Tell them to get to work immediately. We need at least a hundred copies. I want you to take all the copies to the Hall of the Elements and charge them up. I’ll check and seal them all tomorrow.”
“I’m on my way, Sir,” he replied respectfully as usual, then added, “You’ve earned the greatest respect, Alexatis. ‘Each gets what he deserves!’ I must remember that. These are words of wisdom and justice.”
* * *
The world of the Crystal Sphere froze in an uneasy equilibrium right on the brink of looming changes, whatever they might be.
Later after dinner, Enea and I walked out onto the balcony to see the sun set. On my orders, this part of the donjon fortifications adjacent to our rooms had no guards posted. I fully relied on Alpha the Black Mantis to do the job.
Alpha had taken a liking to the statue of an ancient wizard pointing his outstretched hand at the castle’s main gate. Now he was sitting comfortably in the figure’s cupped stone hand, watchfully guarding our peace.
The sun had just disappeared under the horizon. The first stars twinkled in the darkening sky.
A miniature fountain warbled gently. The castle’s architecture skillfully combined the massive security of its defenses with the daintiest of finishes. Hundreds of craftsmen were now toiling day and night, restoring our new home to its old glory.
Suddenly the stone floor tiles dissolved in circular waves of black light interspersed with fiery layers of pictograms. The portal hovered unopened as if unwilling to intrude upon us.
“You can come in,” I addressed the empty space. “We haven’t gone to bed yet.”
Obeying my invitation, the circle of black flames parted, disgorging Christa with White following in her wake.
A demon and a Dark Knight. They made a fine couple. It’s a good job there’s no such thing as age difference in cyberspace.
Then again, I shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions. White might have simply hitched a ride, too lazy to climb all the stairs.
“Hi,” he smiled to his daughter, then shook my hand.
Christa cast watchful glances around her. There was something predatory about her. This wasn’t the girl I’d known in the days of our joint Middle Earth adventures.
Middle Earth! It must have already died a natural death like all the other game worlds, unable to compete with the Crystal Sphere.
“It’s good you haven’t gone to bed yet,” White said. “I want to talk to you about Borisov. We really need to get to that tower and find out what happened to him. We need to do it before the Reapers cross the river.”
“What’s the point?” I replied. “It’s been a week already. He can’t have lasted that long.”
“Oh yes, he could. Bors is a powerful wizard,” Christa said.
“Bors? You mean Borisov? Do you know him well?”
“Sort of. I came across him a few times not so long ago.”
“Oh did you? How did you know Bors and Borisov were the same person?”
“I found that out. Not straight away, though.”
“Christa, please tell us,” Enea piped up. “How did you two meet?”
“It happened when I had a falling out with the demons. I can’t say I regret my character choice but over time, I realized it wasn’t really my thing. It was more for a show, sort of. It cost me an arm and a leg to update my avatar. I tried to use my combat avatar as little as possible. It took me some time to learn how to make do without constantly switching to it. I even bought myself a house in a village. For a while, everything went just fine. But then a werewolf came to live in the local woods, fierce and clever like you can’t imagine. That’s when Bors arrived on the scene. He posed as a traveling wizard.”
“When did that happen?” White asked.
“About a year ago. He couldn’t handle the werewolf on his own. So he came to me. Some local ‘well-wishers’ must have seen me transforming in the woods so they sent word to him. I occasionally practiced in the woods just not to become rusty, you know.”
“Did you two kill the werewolf?”
“Sure. Then Bors told me what made it so smart and cruel.”
“Was it one of the defective mobs?” I asked.
“Exactly,” she cast a quick glance at White and immediately averted her gaze. There was definitely something going on between those two.
Enea seemed to have noticed it too. Unlike myself, she didn’t seem to be alarmed by it. A warm, friendly smile played on her lips.
“Bors is a powerful wizard,” Christa repeated. “Those mercenaries have their jobs cut out for them. He’s either lying low somewhere in the vicinity of the tower or he’s still holding the fort. I really should try and rescue him. He’s a corporate worker, after all. He might know something we need.”
“Sounds logical,” I said. “Still, our levels don’t yet allow us to battle through to him. And the teleport still doesn’t work. I checked it this morning.”
“The raid has almost reached the canyon,” White said. “You can see the tower clearly from the sea shore. If we act in a small group, we just might do it. Is it true that the goblin shaman has been here? What did he want? Did he try to threaten you again?”
“Oh no,” I said. “He left us as our friend.”
I told them all about the totem and the teleport-deflecting scroll.
“Excellent,” White cheered up. “We’ve already selected our main positions on the river.”
He opened the map. “This is where we need to set up our trebuchet batteries. We’ll also need some wicker shields for protection against arrows.”
“I’ll send some peasants and Elves there in the morning,” I promised. “What about players? Anyone joining us?”
“They keep coming, either alone or in small groups. But nothing like the influx we expected.”
“Why do you think that is?”
“I’m afraid, there aren’t so many human players left,” White replied. “This is scary. I’ve never been afraid of anything in my whole life. And now I am. When I first joined the Crystal Sphere, it had billions of users.”
“There must some other explanation. They can’t have all died because of their implants. What do you think?”
“That’s what we’re going to ask Bors about... provided we can find him.”
“So it’s settled, then?” I asked him. “We’re going to storm the tower, right?”
“That’s up to you,” White replied. “This is your clan and your castle.”
“In that case, see you tomorrow morning by the portal. I need to decide who else to take with us.”
As we spoke, the air had grown noticeably cooler. Enea and Christa had retired to the fireplace, leaving us alone. The unusually cold nights had forced us to start the fire in our rooms every night.
I could hear them laughing. The faint aroma of chocolate hung in the air.
“Yeah, right,” I could hear Christa’s voice. “How could I ever forget! What was it you said? ‘Leave my guy alone, you bitch!’ You shot two ice arrows at me!”
“Well, it all happened so fast. I just acted on impulse. You looked so... so menacing.”
Christa grinned. “Just a demon. Nothing really special.”
“Yes, but those were my first days in the Crystal Sphere,” Enea replied. “Down in that dungeon surrounded by all the skeletons, you know. At first I didn’t even realize you were a player like myself. Alex told me about you later. And when you challenged me here by the castle gate
s — I very nearly swallowed my heart whole!”
“Sorry,” Christa’s smile faded. “When you live in hell you tend to lose some perspective.”
“Okay. So let’s not-”
“Why not? That’s how I used to see the world then. It was all about pain and betrayal. Or indifference, if I was lucky. When I spoke to Bors after I’d seen Alex, I thought he was taking the piss. There’s no known remedy for the ANM virus. So at the time I thought that the implant and all the game-playing would only prolong the agony. I was freaking out not knowing when and how my life would finally end.”
“But everything’s fine now, isn’t it?”
Artisanal chocolate was heaped on the table next to a fruit bowl. Raoul had developed the chocolate formula. The fruit had come from the magic garden which had grown overnight around Enea’s Shrine of Nature.
The deep red of Platinus’ wine sparkled in the glasses, reflecting the light of the melting candles.
“Yes... I suppose so,” she replied evasively. “I’ve been okay just lately.”
“Right,” White raked over the embers, “let’s not get on a downer.”
I poured out the wine.
The fire rose higher in the fireplace, erasing our sudden awkwardness.
* * *
The Yonder Isles
Early next dawn we headed for the Isles, adamant to get to the tower and find out what had happened to Borisov.
“It looks like our raid is seriously stuck,” White said, peering into the depths of the canyon where our combat groups had been taking turns to fight their way through for the last twenty-four hours.
The thin ragged strip of the sky zigzagged overhead. The canyon’s rocky walls rose up hundreds of feet, their eroded ledges almost closing overhead. I glimpsed a few cave mouths, dark and gaping. They must have been the entrances to some unique virgin dungeons.
The raid was busy fighting Rock Golems. This place was situated between two locations: apart from those stone giants built by some unknown but undoubtedly powerful wizard, the raiders also had the gargoyles to tackle. At first, we’d thought they were statues cut into the rock but the moment the raid entered the canyon, the gargoyles’ figures came to life, creating lots of problems for our warriors.
The Reapers (The Neuro 3) Page 18