More contempt radiated from the creature. “I would move if I could. Burrow far from you.”
“You are immobile?”
There was silence from the beast for a time. I could sense hesitation and fear. “Yes. I am unable to move my main body. The limbs can grow as they wish and I may rearrange my rooms, but I am stuck here.”
“Then perhaps I could find a way to move you? Send you somewhere else?”
“I would resist with my magics, for what would stop you from sending me to a plane of fire?” it said. “You would rather see me dead than relocated.”
This was the right time, the right opportunity to finally find some peace with this creature. I just had to say the right thing. “Then we should find a peace agreement. If you can move your limbs in any direction, move down, towards the Hollowlands. Stay away from the surface and there will be peace.”
“Until you are strong enough to end me once and for all,” it chided. “Then I will die.”
“I will honor my word.”
“A word is nothing to me,” it replied. “Nothing but noise.”
“Then shall I strike you again?” I asked. I felt the fear emanating from the creature, fear mixed with impotent rage.
“I shall not return to the surface, or the city,” it whispered to me. “But I will kill you someday. Of that much I swear.”
“So be it,” I replied. “The next time I see you upon the surface, I shall strike you with this spell twice.”
It growled at me, but said no more. It pushed me away from its mind and I found myself alone with my own thoughts. Why couldn’t it accept the concept of peace? Why couldn’t the Dungeon Below find a middle ground? Perhaps that was the side effect of being a predator; everything is either in two classifications, enemies or prey.
At least for now, I knew that I had sufficiently scared it away from the surface. Oregmyer would be safe, as would anyone traveling within the Feverwood Forest. I shifted my attentions to the management of my dungeon to see how things had been going. With all of the distractions over the last few weeks, I had not been able to give the dungeon the proper attention it required.
Fortunately, the stream of adventurers was still quite steady. Word of the dragon had brought in a great number of knights to prove their worth. Stories of my dungeon had spread thanks to the capture of that army, and adventurers from all over the world were visiting. Some of them had even managed to reach the fourth level, where the strangeness overtook them almost instantly.
I was rather pleased with the status of the dungeon. My magic reserves were growing large, the dungeon floors were getting bigger and bigger, and on top of it all, high level adventurers were staying for weeks at a time. This was, perhaps, the one thing going right in my life. In spite of all the chaos that Oregmyer was causing, the threat of Invasion and the Dungeon Below, I was still able to build a sufficient dungeon that did exactly what I wanted it to do.
Yet, something was amiss. Some of the adventurers who arrived did not seem to be interested in treasure, or accomplishing some big goal. They seemed only interested in scouting around the first level. They were searching for something, but I could not tell what. Two of these scouting parties eventually made it into the Trading Post area and found what they were looking for: the entrance to the goblin village.
There were powerful wards placed at the mouth of the village, wards that prevented any stranger from entering without permission. At first, they would simply push the intruders back, and then, if the intruders attempted to go back in, it would shock them. On the third attempt, it would kill them. A sign had been posted to warn of bypassing this entrance. The scouting parties took notes of this location and then were quick to leave my dungeon. This made me rather uncomfortable. Was a human crusade looking for more goblins to slay?
As I thought about what this could possibly mean, Ehdrid called upon me, waiting in his hut. I shifted my thoughts to him at once, hoping he might have some insight.
“You are aware of what I see?” I asked the goblin shaman. Ehdrid was sitting on the ground, legs crossed with a bowl in front of him. There was a shimmering, purple liquid inside of the bowl and it seemed to swirl around as if enchanted.
“The spirits have shown me some glimpse of what lurks in the Dungeon Below,” Ehdrid said. This captured my attention and any thoughts of the human scouts vanished. They were far less important than this. “And I fear that it must be contained at all costs.”
“What is it that you have seen?”
Ehdrid waved a hand over the bowl, causing it to swirl rapidly. An image formed, a picture of a horrid-looking humanoid. Its head was large and round, with a thousand red eyes, and black tendrils seemed to push out of its skin. The monstrous being wore a cloak of shadows, with two long scythe-like hands stretching forth. The creature’s eyes moved every which way, searching for something. In a flash, they all trained on me, as if it could see through the bowl. It shrieked a hideous shriek, opening its jagged mouth, pointing its blades up at me.
“There were creatures who rivaled the gods long ago,” Ehdrid whispered, waving his hand again and causing the image to disperse. “They were monstrous entities, developed by only the most insane of Deep Wizards who sought to overthrow their creators. The spirits who whisper to me say that whatever is locked away within the Dungeon Below, is one such being.”
This was the reason that deep magic had been cast away from Yehan, I knew. Long ago, when the gods grew tired of the ancient wizards who constantly sought to usurp them, they stole all the deep magic of the earth and locked it away in a vault, breaking mankind away from their source of true power. These terrible beings, known collectively as the Illuminated, were godkillers, given life to destroy the gods once and for all.
Of course, the Illuminated were experimental creatures. The cabal of wizards who had created them were almost immediately crushed by their creation and a long, bloody war between mankind and these monsters began. The Illuminated could not be destroyed, that much I knew. In my study of deep magic, I had come across references to these beings quite often. They were considered to be a major part of Yehan history, as their very existence had forever changed the face of the land itself.
A method was discovered to break their gigantic shells, find the mass of deep magic that powered them and then seal them away. Most Illuminated were captured and sent to a void demiplane where, even if they did regenerate or break free of their prison, there would be nowhere to go. One Illuminated creature was sealed into the side of Otz Mountain—forming a nightmarish sculpture in the rocks.
But what of this one? “Do you know the origin of this Illuminated?” I asked.
Ehdrid shook his head. “I cannot see such things, but at the very least this gives Vincenzo and Regar a lead. I have sent them a whispering spell to inform them of what I have learned.”
“Good. This should narrow the search down significantly. We need to know which one of these monsters we’re dealing with before we figure out a way to get rid of it.”
“Does the Dungeon Below know that it harbors such a monster?” Ehdrid asked as he climbed to his feet. He looked a little more nimble than usual, perhaps from the effect of regularly exorcising the Soul Well.
“It must, right? It wanted to stop Vincenzo from noticing it.”
“The Dungeon is a created being, is it not?” Ehdrid asked. “Perhaps it was created with an instinct to keep the room safe. I doubt the mage who created the dungeon sought to inform it of what it held. After all, the creature is a carnivore, yes? It may attempt to devour the trapped spirit if it knew.”
That was a good point. “What do you think would happen if it tried such a thing?”
Ehdrid shrugged at me. “I suppose the Dungeon would be destroyed most horribly. Splitting open the godseal is the only way to access the spirit within. And it would become free instantly.”
And once the Illuminated was free, I suspect it would cause a great deal of problems for the
gigantic tree resting atop of it. Still…I wondered about such a power as deep magic. If it was strong enough to overcome the gods, and to create unstoppable immortal monsters, could it be used against the creatures from the Invasion? Or was deep magic still a part of Yehan’s reality, which rendered it just as useless as regular magic? I would have to find some way to experiment on this theory.
Chapter 29
A week passed without much of anything important happening. Fernus was more than happy to let me read the few books he had written about deep magic and was also delighted at the prospect that I might end up somehow awakening an Illuminated being from beneath the deep. He had always wanted to see one up close. When asked about any method to contain such a creature, Fernus shrugged and said such things belonged to the gods and their followers.
A message from Regar informed me that they had located an underground citadel that would bring more information about this dangerous being. The only pitfall was that the citadel was somewhere in the middle of the ocean. It would be a few more weeks before I would have any concrete information.
Yet, in spite of that setback, I wasn’t terribly worried about time. My magic was growing exponentially now that I wasn’t being forced to fend off the Dungeon Below anymore. Fernus’ Dungeon Breaker had been strong enough to discourage it from any more foolish attempts. It was either cowering or plotting. Either way, time was less of a problem for me.
But as I studied the ways of deep magic and endured Fernus’ belligerent, drunken ramblings about the old wizards and their superiority, I became acutely aware of a very large army moving through the forest. This force was nearly four times the size of the last one who had arrived, but they weren’t heading towards Oregmyer. They were heading towards me.
This army held a unified banner, bearing the colors of the northern human empire, the Conelig Imperium. Riding at the front of the army was none other than Emperor Tiysus Conelig the III, a man so famous that even I knew his name. I wondered what they could possibly want from me.
Eventually they reached my trunk in full force. Many of the men had spread out, as to surround me from all angles. I could see large jars of lantern oil hanging from their sides, as well as torches in their hands. Was this some juvenile plot to burn me down or simply to intimidate me? Would they really think this would work? I was so amused by their presence that I had to stifle the urge to laugh at them.
“My name is Emperor Tiysus Conelig, the Ironbreaker, the Scourge of the Kria and the Light of the North!” he loudly announced as he climbed off his horse. He was in his mid-thirties and sported a bushy black beard. His royal armor was dented and damaged, as if he had seen many battles, and the scars on his eye told a great tale of his heroisms. “And it has come to my attention that you assaulted one of my greatest allies in both trade and war!”
I kept silent for now. I merely pondered how I was to handle this. Slaughtering them all on the spot would be terribly unfair. I would be like a giant stomping on an anthill. Perhaps there was some way I could lure them within me, although to teleport such a large number of people would be exhausting to my magical reserves.
The emperor continued. “And that is the only first of the many crimes you have committed against Yehan!” Well, this was getting more interesting.
A scribe stepped forward with a scroll in his hand. He unfurled it and began to read in a loud, magically amplified voice for all to hear. “The crimes are as follows: Harboring a dragon, enemy to all mortals, giving shelter to Fernus the Wicked Maniac, granting hearth and home to goblins so that they may reproduce and infest these lands once again, holding mortals against their will, stealing the life essences of the dead, committing vile acts with magic and destroying all that we hold sacred!”
“Thank you, Paxis,” the emperor said. “Now then, World Tree, your exploits are well known and there are many stories told of your power against the gods. You exposed the False Agara, but my spies tell me that this was not out of your desire to save us from a merciless deity, but rather to save your own hide!
“In my time of ruling over the Imperium, I have heard of your feats, your cruelties. But you are a dungeon, are you not? There was no reason for me to worry about a dungeon. Until the day that you found it fitting to capture a thousand men and torture them without end! You have made a grave enemy of the Empire and, now, we are here to pronounce judgment upon you!”
“Is that so?” I asked, speaking only to his mind. “Then pronounce your human judgment and begone.”
Tiysus shook his head. “Judgment without action is nothing. For your crimes against all mortals and against the glorious Conelig Imperium, we are sentencing you to death! Release the innocents who are within your chambers and die with honor.”
“Die with honor?” I repeated. “I apologize for my incredulity, but you do realize that you are standing before a being who holds more power than your court wizards ever could? The mere fact that I have humored you to have this audience should tell you everything you need to know about me. Leave me be and bother me with this theater no more.”
“Theater?” the emperor bellowed, raising a fist. In unison, all of his men drew the jugs of lantern oil from their sides. “I shall show you that—” The ground began to rumble, interrupting his words. Several of the men lost their footing and fell to the ground, but the rest were stable.
What was causing this earthquake? It certainly wasn’t me. The Dungeon Below! It must have sensed so many people at once!
“Fleeee!” I cried. “Flee before it’s too late!”
I focused my magic, to find some spell to protect these people, but I wasn’t fast enough. Tendrils made of mud broke out from the earth and grabbed hold of as many soldiers as they could. Chaos erupted as the ground continued to shake. I could feel the Dungeon burrowing a hallway upwards towards the surface, so that it could pull these soldiers in.
Four thousand souls in a single afternoon would be more than enough to make it a formidable foe. I had to stop him. But how? I couldn’t use the Dungeon Breaker or else I’d destroy everything within a twenty mile radius. Damn that Fernus and his overkill.
Despite the sudden attack, the men were coordinated, breaking the vines with their blades while the court wizards cast spells of protection. But the Dungeon Below was in a frenzy, driven by fear, rage and hunger. It continued to shake the ground, breaking open the land beneath the wizards, casting them into the darkness where its cruel maw awaited them. The tendrils of mud were growing more violent and effective, able to grab hold of the soldiers and tug them into the dirt, dragging them screaming into the ground.
I released a barrage of simple spells meant to break the tendrils, but they were too feeble compared to the magic powering the Dungeon. It was giving everything possible in order to capture these mortals. How tempted I was to simply blast the center of the dungeon’s location, but I knew the cost would be too high. If it accidentally released the creature within, we’d all be dead.
The Dungeon was far faster than I was and far more flexible in using its magic. By the time I got a strong enough spell charged up, most of the men were gone. The earth had split wide open in the clearing and, now, there was a gigantic hole where thousands had fallen to their death. The emperor had vanished in the chaos as well, but I suspect he had some kind of failsafe to teleport him in case of an emergency. No doubt he would see this attack as my own work.
“Do you feel that?” came a whisper from beneath the ground. It was not a voice in my head, but rather the voice of the Dungeon, speaking aloud for the first time. Indeed, I could sense the newfound energy pulsing through the creature’s body. “Such power. It would take you tens of thousands to gain the power I just did, all because you don’t eat the good parts of them.”
“You have sealed your own fate,” I replied to the Dungeon Below. “I will kill you.”
“Oh please,” it growled. “I was just stocking up on supplies for the long trip down. I have finally found a city of dwarves, b
ut they were so far down. Now? I’ll be there within the day. See you real soon, Feeble Tree.”
And with that, the ground closed itself up, leaving me alone to ponder what my next move was going to be.
Chapter 30
Gariatha crossed her arms as she listened to me finish my story about the emperor. She was a prolific trader, one who knew a great deal about the politics of the world. If anyone knew what the response to this attack would be, it was her.
“The Imperium spans across most of North Yehan,” she said, rubbing her forehead out of frustration. “And they have deep alliances with both dwarven and gnomish kingdoms. The very idea of you attacking armies and then slaughtering their forces will put most kingdoms on high alert.”
“I was not intending to hurt them,” I replied. “If that damnable Dungeon Below had not struck, I would have been able to diffuse the situation.”
“Perceptions are reality in the political world,” Gariatha said. “The emperor no doubt believes that you have attacked him. And the fact that his men will not be able to resurrect means you are committing only the greatest of crimes.”
Of course. The Dungeon had grown much smarter in the last few weeks. Did it understand the ramifications of such an attack? Was this part of a cunning plan to have me killed by mortal forces? Or was it just so stupidly lucky to strike at the worst possible time for me?
“How can I set things right?”
The Merchant Queen tapped a sharp fingernail against the table in thought. “Truthfully? The Imperium deals out judgment with a very heavy hand. The fact that they sent a large detachment of their army means they already see a reason to kill you. Now, they’ll most likely escalate by looking for some extremely powerful wizards to take you down.”
“Do I…” This was a humiliating question to ask, but I had to ask it. “Do I have anything to fear from such wizards?”
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