Escalation

by Matthew Peed

  “Hold out your finger,” I said. She held her finger out slowly, still weak from her fight. I moved one of my fingers over as it morphed into a sharp needle end, quickly jabbed her fingertip, and absorbed a few drops of her blood. She hissed in pain but otherwise kept silent. “Hmm, it appears your body has changed, more so than the obvious. Something that was dormant in your bloodline was awakened due to the extreme amount of power you were flooded with.”

  “My bloodline . . .” she said with a forlorn look.

  I knew she didn’t care for her father, but I’d never heard anything about her mother. Whatever it was, she had something powerful in her ancestral line.

  I started moving back to the fort, knowing the people would want to see their lord was still alive. As we walked, I was able to see just how deadly something like this was for the inhabitants of this world. Without a military backing them, these adventurers were hard-pressed to withstand this attack. Bodies of large monsters that had smashed through the wall were still radiating heat from the many spells that were needed to stop them.

  A few of the adventurers who had defended the breach lay among the monster corpses. Their gallantry had likely saved many of their fellow adventurers, but it was never a good day when you had to bury a loved one or a friend. I would need to consider creating an altar in memory of these people.

  Louella looked deep in thought before she said, “I heard a story. More of a bedtime tale than a real myth, about higher races. For example, High Elves, or High Humans, they were like a grander version of a normal mortal.”

  “Oh, and what happened to these higher races, considering they were better? I am surprised they are not the kings and queens of the world.”

  “That’s just it, they were . . . but were forced to leave the surface for the Beneath,” Louella said. When she mentioned the Beneath, her voice took a serious tone. “The Beneath is a dangerous place that only the foolhardy venture to. The last I heard, no one had managed to find an actual entrance in the last thousand years or so.”

  “Wait, how long ago were the high races driven there?”

  “Oh, eons ago. When Celestia was basically another continent. At least this is what the academy taught me. Also, they weren’t driven but forced by their very nature to move to the Beneath.”

  “By their nature?”

  “Look at my mana pool,” Louella said.

  I peered inside with my senses, where I saw an ocean that rivaled, if not bested, Ezal’s pool. It seemed to extend to the horizon, but what was really interesting was the mana pool in the sky. I actually stopped walking as I peered at the interesting sight. The pool was still mana but had taken on a negative property. I studied it for several moments while I came up with several theories.

  “What the hell did you do?” I asked after I came out of my trance. By my reckoning, her mana should be canceling itself out. Some sort of barrier or field was keeping the two mana oceans separate. Willpower, perhaps. I already knew that played a large factor in control of one’s own body.

  “Huh?” she said, then focused inside herself. “I didn’t think it would be permanent . . . I did as you said and made the tiny mana into a negative charge so that all the energy in the sky would come to me.”

  So, she changed the state of her mana. I wondered if she had another attribute that she was just unaware of, or if all mana elements had this negative state. I would need to find a mortal to experiment . . . I mean ask for help from someone later.

  “Anyway, I’ve seen your pool enough times from before, so go ahead,” I said.

  “Ah, yes, well. Higher races were said to have a mana pool so large that they corrupted whole kilometers of land at a time with their cultivation. The deeper a person goes into the planet the denser the mana concentration, so they were able to live more easily underground, as less monsters would spawn randomly.”

  “Sounds reasonable,” I said with a nod.

  “Reasonable maybe, but try telling someone they would never get to see the sun again. A large war took place that threatened the world. By the end of it, their mana corruption was turning them into lunatics that wanted nothing more than to destroy. Thankfully, the Celestials were still more accessible and pushed them into the Beneath back then.”

  “I see. I want you to try to cultivate it for a moment,” I said, my metal brows furrowed a bit.

  “O . . . k . . .” Louella said. Her eyes were closed for barely a moment when the mana pressure around us grew almost physically dense. The ground even cracked under my feet, as the increased mana started to affect the gravity around us. A shock wave of wind blasted out before she snapped her eyes open, and the effects disappeared slowly. I yanked one foot, then the other out of the ground as I sank a good five or six centimeters.

  “Well that was fun,” I said as I laughed.

  “What am I going to do?! I can’t cultivate mana anymore without destroying a building in the process!” Louella said, panicked as she held her face in her hands.

  “Good thing you know people,” I said with a smile. “Just use the dungeon. Any damage you manage to do, I will actually congratulate you for.”

  Louella blushed, while still groaning, as she knew I wouldn’t let her live this down anytime soon. I was about to tease her some more when a streak of light shot by my face. I locked eyes with the thing in an instant and saw that it was Louella’s giant lightning dragon, which apparently had shrunk to the size of a large snake. It wormed its way into Louella’s hands so that she could see it.

  “Oh, little one. You can go back if you’re done. I don’t want to enslave you,” she said with a grateful look. The little dragon-snake shook its head, then wrapped around her neck carefully. Once it wrapped itself the third or fourth time, it tucked its head between one of its coils and Louella’s neck, then appeared to go to sleep.

  “Made a new friend?” I asked, amused.

  “I called for any lightning elementals to aid in my attack, then a dragon appeared . . . I want to say I was surprised, but I was in a state where nothing seemed to move me. Anyway, it looks like it’s taken a liking to me.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that you didn’t seem to care about anyone around you. You almost shot Bruce with a lightning bolt.”

  “I have to apologize to him,” she said with a worried look.

  We finally made it back to the fort. The adventurers were gathering the bodies of the monsters to throw outside. They would collect the parts later. There was a literal fortune piled up outside the fort, after all. It wouldn’t be worth the people they lost today, but some of them did have families. The gold would go a ways to helping them.

  The bodies of the adventurers were laid in a row to one side so they could check who’d died and their loved ones could be informed once they got back to the guild. The girl I saw get punted over the wall was leaning against one wall and didn’t appear to be injured in the slightest. I believe her name was Megan. I moved my senses over to her, then saw something I’d had yet to see before.

  Unless I’d been actively looking at her, I probably wouldn’t have noticed, but she’d infused her body with terra mana. Her bones appeared to be made of metal, her skin a soft stone that was nearly identical to skin, and many more places were touched with terra magic. I took a moment to actively look at all the adventurers gathered there, and I was impressed at the amount of people who used their element in unique ways to boost their power.

  I wondered if it was the influence of the Flame of Knowledge. It might even have been my library that was helping these people along the path to power. At least, I hoped they were using the library. The people were doing their best to improve their place in life.

  The fort was organized quickly, with all the dead, monster and mortal alike, finished being separated. I decided to do everyone a favor and quickly set up a teleport gate that led to town. Louella had wanted me to make her teleport gates anyway, but we’d never managed to get time since our talk about where to place the anchors.

  The inju
red were let through first before the healthy ones moved the dead onto carriages. Of the nearly two thousand adventurers, almost three hundred were killed. It seemed the lord-class monsters, such as the turtle and the undead giant worm, had been curveballs. Another lord class had been present, some type of dinosaur monster, but some guy with Meteor in his name had managed to destroy it before it could kill too many people.

  Now that the hordes had been handled, I could finally turn my full attention to the north. I had a dungeon to rescue, and necromancers to kill. Probably not in that order. I also needed to have a conversation with Izora about sending Benjamin to Jade Wind. I was considering being up front about placing a core in the city, but I wasn’t above accidentally misplacing one as some cargo that a careless dockworker might open.

  The gnome airship and the merchant ships were too large to be sent through the portal, and one in particular was listing to the side and doomed to be scrapped. The people onboard were doing their best to save it, but even without my dungeon sense, I could tell it was a goner. The other merchant vessel was pulling alongside it to help. In short, the airships would have to make their way back to the town on their own.

  At least the airships had served their purpose of keeping the flying monsters out of the fort while they retaliated. I decided I might be nice and replace the vessel for them later. Izora and her crew had also managed to take out quite a few monsters on their own. I was actually quite impressed, as her crew managed to fix many of the old systems on the ship and put them to great effect during the battle. It would have been hard for Louella to notice, as it was nearly directly behind her.

  Chapter 20

  Puppet

  It was just after dawn when we made it back to the town, all of us having used quite a bit of mana over the last few days. Thus, we decided to actually get some sleep. Being back in the dungeon aura would help us recover the mana and fix most of the damage we’d received. I was nearly running on empty, so I planned to crash for a solid ten hours.

  ~~~

  When I woke, it was midafternoon. A patrol had just returned to the town from the looks of it. Lean was walking around and looking at everything, much like I had seen some of the children in the valley do when encountering new things. Z2 was nearby, whether to help him or watch him I wasn’t sure. I hoped that Father was able to make sense of this situation.

  As if summoned by my thoughts, Father appeared a few meters away. He was looking right at Lean, so I braced myself just in case a fight broke out. I loosened up a few seconds later as a big smile appeared on his face.

  “So! This is Lean!” he said, walking over to Z2 and Lean.

  “Father!” Z2 said in her old voice, despite her disconcerting new body.

  “Z2! A day goes by and you completely change on me,” Father said as if hurt.

  “Sorry, but now I have more power to help you,” Z2 said with a blush, which made me realize she was more than just an automaton now.

  Father reached forward and cupped Z2’s face and gently moved her a few ways as if trying to decide which was the best angle. He’d only touched her for a few moments when his hand started to freeze. I was shocked that Z2 would do something like that.

  “Seems to be a bit too much power packed inside there now,” Father said as he let go.

  “Father! Are you alright?!” Z2 asked, panicked as she saw what had happened.

  “Fine, fine,” he said, then made a fist effortlessly. The ice shattered, then fell to the ground, having not bothered Father at all. After that, he moved over to Lean, who simply stood there watching without a care in the world. Father grabbed both of his shoulders. “You, you are quite interesting. So many different types of magic and mana wrapped up into a functioning being. I want to say that you’re the first of your kind, but I can’t be sure of that.”

  “Why would . . . more of my kind . . . matter?” Lean asked curiously.

  “Well . . .” Father paused for a moment, “to make offspring, the next generation. The continuing line of existence that extends past ourselves. To make children, I suppose.”

  “Children . . .” Lean said as if mulling over the word. He suddenly moved and grabbed Z2’s shoulder. “Make children . . . with me.”

  “WHAT?!” Z2 and Father said at the same time.

  “She is . . . has part of . . . me in her,” Lean said matter-of-factly.

  “Well, I see your point, but that’s not how it works. You both have to want it, and there’s love, which should be shared between the two of you,” Father said, starting to explain the intricacies of falling in love. Finally, it looked like he gave up. “Anyway, you can’t make children with someone you only just met.”

  Lean actually looked a bit sad when he replied, “I understand . . .”

  “Look, kid, try again in a few years. Maybe then Z2 will feel differently about you, and I won’t blast you to the moon after changing you into a pile of dust,” Father said with a sincere smile.

  Lean just nodded, then started to walk away. But it didn’t take long before something else caught his attention.

  I moved forward. “Father, is it really safe to allow him to roam so freely?” I asked. I just couldn’t get over the amount of death and destruction Lean had been able to cause.

  “It’s fine. His power is being restricted by Z2 right now. From what I could gather, when he was in the other form, he was still basically just a spell that had gone haywire. Now, he is a fully formed being with a real mind and quite possibly even a soul. I won’t ask you to treat him like a son but at least a brother. He was your creation, after all.”

  Father looked at me sternly. I lowered my eyes and nodded.

  Necromancer Council

  Helicilia slammed her fist on the table, then said in a voice that would have scared even the most battle-hardened warriors, “What. Was. That?” Each word she punctuated by a tap on the table with an elegant finger.

  “We lost Neremyn . . .” a robed man said from the side where he kneeled.

  “And?”

  “And . . . we don’t know how, Master,” the man said with a groan. Even before the last syllable was out of his mouth, a black chain burst from the ground and impaled him through the chest. The man struggled but soon lost strength. The chain pulled back through him and revealed his still-beating heart.

  He stared at it for a moment, then collapsed to the ground. He didn’t stay down for long, though, and his body soon rose up with jerking motions. Blood dripped from the eyes as he stood up awkwardly.

  “Go join the others,” Helicilia said with a dismissive wave of her hand. Then she turned back to the fully armored man who sat at the table. “We need to accelerate our plans in Lecazar. This valley is becoming a problem, and I would like a distraction.”

  “The plan can easily be accelerated, but I must warn that all the targets may not be where we need them,” a gruff voice said from within the helmet.

  “Handle it,” Helicilia said with another finger tap. This one seemed to echo with a barely contained power. The armored knight bowed, then his form dissipated into smoke. She turned to another person, “What have you found out about this valley?”

  “We were able to gather a good amount of information before about a week ago, then almost all our agents vanished. One managed to send a message about some type of artifact that lets them know who can use unholy mana or has even been touched with it,” a female voice answered from down the table.

  “How?!” Helicilia demanded.

  “We . . . don’t know,” the woman said nervously. She didn’t want to end up like her associate. “Just before our sources were cut off, the host and the town lord were heading into the center of town. We have to assume one of them was the main culprit.”

  “Assume . . . Assume?! Find out!” Helicilia said, raising her voice.

  The figure had never heard Helicilia yell that loudly before. Unconsciously, she slid back a few centimeters. The figure quickly tried to think up a solution but only drew a blank. An idea f
ormed, but to speak it required more courage than she currently had.

  “Master, if . . . if we could use regular mages that haven’t been touched by the sacred mana . . . their chances of finding out what is going on would be much higher,” said a different necromancer.

  “Blasphemy!” Helicilia said angrily, but it quickly cooled. “But. You are correct. It is apparent someone has found a way to detect us.”

  The figure released the breath she was holding. Another voice joined in: “I have quite a few loyal servants in my land. It would only take two weeks for them to get there.”

  “They are untouched by the sacred mana?” Helicilia asked.

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Send them.” The man bowed, then his form also dissipated into smoke. Helicilia turned back to the other figure. “Find another group to send. I don’t want to put all our cards on the table.”

  “As you command!” the female voice answered, then also disappeared like the other member.

  Helicilia leaned back in her throne. All her plans were being interfered with lately. Valamar had died because of her anger, which she regretted. He would have served as a good hostage. It would have been even better if he had been converted to the cause, Helicilia thought as the trail of blood caught her eye.

  ~~~

  Celestia, Mount Asteralia, The White Palace

  Lelune tapped her sword on the ground as she sat in her throne. In front of her, on the other side of the giant room that could have fit several thousand people, a giant scale stood. It was an artifact from before the sundering. Before, it measured the balance of light and dark, but after the sundering, it measured unholy and holy.

  Lelune had only realized the change after several centuries. As her power increased, the scale would tip farther. That was until a while ago, when these troublesome necromancers started following that pain in the ass Cassin. As if called by her thoughts, the shadows twisted and churned. Lelune sighed; she knew what was coming.