Tree Guardian

by Andrew Karevik

  Chapter 32

  I returned home quickly, having diffused the tense situation with the Imperium. My mind was full of possibilities, now that I had a clear understanding of how to kill the Illuminated known as Drinar. In a great twist of irony, as I came back, so did Vincenzo and Regar, holding an ancient tomb that spoke of the creation of Drinar. Such a book, hidden away from the world by an ancient wizard who feared being caught, contained the secrets to killing Drinar. All of the planning on Muiroc’s end and it would have made no difference, for my own team was more than capable of learning the truth.

  To be fair, however, I would have had to create the spell myself, which would involve a great deal of trial and error. Muiroc had sped up the process greatly in that regard, and as such I was thankful. But while I now had a book that told of Drinar’s birth and a spell to bring about his demise, I was lacking the one major ingredient to make it all possible: deep magic.

  There were various artifacts in the world that were bound together by deep magic, but the task of collecting said artifacts would take far too long. I would need a direct source, and the only one that I could think of was the vault that held all deep magic. It was hidden away in the realm of one of the gods, tasked with guarding it for all eternity, so that mortals would be unable to gain such power again. I wondered if the guardian would count me as a mortal. After all, I was divine in nature. Shouldn’t that grant me some special status amongst the gods? Although to be honest, most gods looked at me with great suspicion, especially since I held one of their own in perpetual captivity.

  My council was informed of what was taking place, Regar included. I wished that there was time for me to have some kind of ceremony to honor him, but I didn’t have time. The Dungeon Below was still tunneling towards the dwarven settlement, and once it was able to consume the citizens, I feared that it would have enough power to break the godseal. There would be no appealing to the creature’s reason, for Drinar’s influence on it was certainly driving it mad.

  A plan of action was prepared. Ehdrid and I would focus on contacting Gannix in order to gain his aid in locating the vault. Regar and Gariatha would teleport to the dwarven villages in the Hollowlands and force an evacuation. Vincenzo, who had wormed his way into the meeting as well, offered to put together a team that would be able to break into the vault and retrieve the magic. Apparently, his guild had managed to enter forbidden realms more than a few times. This would be a good secondary plan in case I could not convince the guardian to give me what I asked.

  And the last member of the council, Thomas, would begin the construction of a vessel that would properly house the deep magic. Since the magical energies were violent and raw, normal items from the material realm would be quickly corrupted and destroyed by such magic. Special containers and rooms had to be constructed out of ethereal energy in order to seal such deep magic away. With such brute strength, I began to wonder what effects it would have upon the creatures from the Invasion. After all, if this magic was strong enough to kill the gods and disturb reality, perhaps it would be advantageous to wield.

  With our plan set, everyone sprang into action. I was proud of the community that I had created and overjoyed to see that my trusted advisors cared as deeply as I did. With stalwart allies such as these, I knew that we could not fail.

  Summoning Gannix proved to be a bit difficult at first. Normally, there were a host of conditions required in order to call him forth, but time was of the essence and I did not wish to conduct the regular rituals. Instead, I merely stretched out to his mind, contacting him directly in his own realm. “Come forth,” I bid him, hoping that he would manifest. My telepathic magic was working, but I could sense a great deal of hesitation in him. “It is an emergency,” I said. “Please, come speak to me.”

  I tried to call him like this for nearly an hour until, finally, a green mist appeared before me, revealing one of his avatars. He was lanky and pale, with yellow splotches around his eyes. His fingers were impossibly long and seemed to move of their own accord, sweeping back and forth around the area. His chest had a hole in it and I could see through to the other side of the forest. A large chunk of his throat was missing and he was forced to cover it with his hand in order to speak.

  “You are calling me at an inopportune time,” Gannix said. “Spring is almost over. There are many diseases that must be freed to ravage the land before summer comes.”

  “I fear that your efforts to bring balance to the world will be in vain, should you not render me aid,” I replied.

  Gannix coughed at those words, wheezing deeply. “So you have told me. But I know what you wish of me, and I cannot give you what you seek.”

  “Tell me where the vault is hidden, so that I may entreat upon the guardian.”

  Gannix sighed at that and shook his head. “I fear that I cannot reveal the location of the vault. For once it is opened wide, deep magic will spill out from the heavens and return to the earth. The cost of sealing such a powerful force away was too great the first time. I doubt any of us is willing to pay that price again.”

  “I shall capture all of it and hold it for myself, to use against an Illuminated creature. It should be freed if I cannot slay it. Do you wish for that to happen?”

  “I am…I’m just a lesser god!” Gannix protested. “I take notes in the meetings and make sure that populations are kept in check. I shouldn’t be the one you come to ask about such an important affair! Speak to Turm or the Mistmother! Hell, talk to Jepner even! Don’t ask me to make such a decision!”

  “Gannix, you were my first ally and friend among the gods. You know my heart. You know that I do not wish to bring any harm to the world.”

  The Plaguebringer hung his head at those words. I could see the yellow patches of infection on his face begin to spread even more. “Intentions don’t matter for much when the consequences will be great. But…I see a great imbalance happening should I refuse to aid you. As we speak, I feel the transformation of the world, the vanishing of a million lives and the destruction of many life bringers. Damn you, World Tree, I will entrust you with the secret. But you must swear to never allow the magic you steal to enter into the possession of mortals. Ever.”

  “I have no intention of stealing the deep magic,” I replied.

  Gannix looked at me with a slight grin. “Oh, there will be no other way. The guardian speaks no reason, has no mind, no thoughts. It is a brutish beast that cannot be tricked by words, or bargained with. Will you agree to my deal?”

  “On my word, only I shall wield the deep magic that I take.”

  Satisfied with that answer, Gannix told me of the location of the vault. It was hidden away within Rignus’ realm, as he was the most honest and trusted of all the gods. The realm, known as Zedron, was a subdomain of his primary realm, Zorus. Breaching the realm wouldn’t be too difficult for me, but since the only type of life force that could survive inside of these realms were divine energies, I wouldn’t be able to send Vincenzo’s team in. I would, instead, have to send in the Second Akr Army, one strong enough to take down the guardian and break open the vault.

  Chapter 33

  Gannix had already broken some of the rules by sharing the location of the vault with me, and understandably he was nervous. He was quick to leave without telling me exactly what I would be facing at the vault, but that didn’t matter. I would have to forge a powerful army, made of creatures modeled after my homeland.

  The Second Akr Army would comprise giants, known as Jotunn, powerful beings who walked the world with great strength and chaotic energies. In my home world, the Jotunn were often troublesome to the gods, with fierce tempers and cruel impulses. The fire giants were supposed to be the ones who would bring about the end of the world, the Ragnarök, by destroying Yggdrasil. How ironic it was that I would be creating my own giants to prevent Yehan’s apocalypse.

  My magical stores were great, for while I had been busy brokering peace and focusing on a way to defeat the Dunge
on Below, a large crusade of dragon hunters arrived to kill Yim once and for all. Yet, the rumors they had learned were confused and spoke about Yim taking the shape of a wizard on the second level. When the lancemen broke into Fernus’ tower, they were greeted with a terrible fire, but not from a dragon.

  Yet, one of the hunters struck true, fatally wounding Fernus. He would resurrect, of course, but the natural life essence he lost was a great deal and boosted my reserves quite a bit. He threw a fit about my absorption, but now that he had considerably weakened from his recent death, there was little he could do about it. I had no incentive to return the magic to him and he knew as much. The great irony was that leaving the very safe dungeon would be too risky for him until he was able to rebuild his magical prowess once again.

  The fiery, rage-filled magic of Fernus would be transferred to the fire giants, the Jotunn who would break the vault. They were infused with a modified version of the Dungeon Breaker, one that would certainly smash open any strong room.

  The support Jotunn were given large golden jugs that would seal in the deep magic. Thomas had assured me that as long as the jugs were unharmed during transportation, they would hold in all of the captured magic. The ethereal elements that lined the interior of the jugs would ensure that the deep magic would be unable to break loose. I was impressed with what Thomas had designed in such a short amount of time, but he informed me that it was the hands of a goblin village that helped create them so quickly.

  Altogether, I had thirty normal Jotunn and twelve fire giants in my second army. They were given the same level of intelligence as the first army, meaning they were incapable of independent thought, or problem solving. They would merely react to the orders that I gave them. With thickened hides to deflect terrestrial attacks, divine shields that would ward off most magic and the power to hurl arcane destruction, the Second Akr Army would be quite formidable. And even if they weren’t strong enough, I could focus my energies and channel magic through the fire giants, making them even more powerful.

  Creating this army was rather expensive in terms of magic, but I was pleased with the end results. I considered if I wanted to deploy the first army alongside them, but decided against it. They were still busy enforcing rule of law in Oregmyer and, on top of that, I needed to have reserves in case of some kind of cataclysmic event. If things got really bad for the Second army, I’d send in reinforcements.

  I had two options when it came to striking the vault and taking down the guardian. The first was to send in overwhelming forces, all at once, in the hopes of being able to hit the guardian with a surprise attack. With such extreme tactics, it would be possible that the fight would be over in a matter of minutes. But this strategy was entirely dependent on the guardian’s lack of awareness.

  I was moving into a divine realm, where the gods enjoyed a great deal of foresight and knowledge. It was possible that my plan had already been divined by Rignus and, as such, he may have sent reinforcements to prepare for a surprise assault. If that were the case, I would do better to send a smaller force, to test the preparedness, before launching a major offensive. But in doing the small attack, it would raise an alarm, and if they weren’t properly prepared, they would be the time I sent my larger forces to invade.

  This was a difficult question. I was certainly no wartime commander, and I had no real military experience. My only single military exploit was sending a band of undead to scare a bunch of rabble rousers. But there was no one else that I could call upon in this time of making a decision. The most trusted members of my council were all concerned with civil affairs; no one had any type of military experience. I would have to make a choice and then fully commit to it.

  And so, I decided that I would go for the surprise major assault. If I caught them unawares, I’d be able to smash open the vault and steal all the deep magic I needed before they could fight back. I would need to be prepared for more than just an initial conflict, of course. Because once I had a hold of that precious magic, I could expect for the guardian to bring the fight to me, even if my army was able to escape.

  I would need to develop a method of protecting myself from whoever came to claim the deep magic back. This involved the creation of a new level within the dungeon, one that would be designed with the movement of my own troops in mind. It would be a battlefield of sorts, but one that worked in the favor of the defending army.

  I carved this level out underground, making sure that it would be further away from my trunk and the ecosystem within me. It was six miles wide and four miles long, with portal entrances at key points hidden throughout the walls. These portals were accessible to any creature that bore my life essence. As long as a creature had my energy surging through it, the portals could be activated at any moment, allowing them passage to new areas of the map.

  The landscape was difficult to navigate. I made the ground uncomfortably steep in certain areas, where it would be easy for a defending band of archers to fire arrows down upon their enemies. I created large Eternal Maze tiles at key chokepoints that would serve to stop armies from being able to advance towards their objective. This would allow for my own soldiers to activate the lever operated lava traps that I had installed in the ceilings above. A simple pull of the lever and burning, molten lava would flow down, easily destroying any enemy trapped in the Eternal Maze. Best of all, the lava was magic in origin, meaning that conventional methods to defend from great heat would also fail miserably.

  The walls were constructed with gears in the bottoms, another excellent design from Thomas. With a single thought, I could reconfigure the length of a wall, opening up shortcuts or suddenly cutting off an enemy force from their pathway. This would allow for me to maneuver my troops swiftly, gaining the advantage no matter the situation at hand.

  Indeed, this battlefield I designed would be the perfect place to protect the deep magic reservoir, which rested at the very end of the field. It was locked away, behind an immense vault that I had infused with a very special series of spells designed to prevent teleportation, as well as ward off any kind of divine entities from pushing their way in.

  I did not know what to expect from a retaliation force, so I prepared for everything as much as possible. Large forces would struggle to survive against the First and Second Akr Army, and single units would be transported to the fourth level of the maze—thanks to the active teleportation field in the Battlefield. I knew the gods could not arrive on my soil due to the pact they had made in honor of my capture of Izguril. Whoever did arrive to fight would certainly be facing a challenge that would be near impossible to overcome.

  With the battlefield developed, the vault securely designed and the plans prepared, the only thing left to do was send out my second army to battle. I finished the construction of the portal that would lead to Rignus’ secret realm, took a moment to steel myself for the challenges that were to come, and then unleashed the Second Akr Army to retrieve the key to defeating the Dungeon Below, once and for all.

  Chapter 34

  The realm of Zedron was a flat, silvery plane with little detail put into it. It was small, much smaller than any plane of reality I had seen before. The purpose had been clearly to simply hide the Deep Vault away from the rest of the world. I had attached my consciousness to the largest of the fire giants. I could still move around, but as long as the Fire Giant Chief was alive I would be able to stay in the realm for as long as I liked.

  There was a dampener effect on divine energy within the plane, however. No doubt, the ones who created this vault knew that if some enterprising god who wanted to kill his enemies gained access to deep magic, he could create a host of mortal allies to aid him in his task. My own divine powers were deeply curtailed as a result of this dampening radiance. Fortunately, the Jotunn remained unaffected, due to the fact that they were composed of a mixture of arcane energy and my life essence, which wasn’t the same as divine power.

  I spotted the vault immediately, an immense, looming grey wall
made of metal. It had intricate carvings upon it, depicting the great wizard, floating in the center, hands pulsating with magical energies. Written above the man were the words: “This is the gods’ greatest regret, to give mortals powers that they were not ready for. In this, we seal the deep magic away until the end of time.”

  This was a poetic sentiment, but I was not a mortal. I would be the proper steward over this powerful magic and ensure that it was used only for the protection of all of Yehan—the gods included. Standing in front of the vault was a creature just as tall as the vault, standing at nearly fifteen feet in height. It had long, lanky arms that pulsed with blue magical energy, a head like a lion’s and razor sharp blades jutting out of its knees and elbows. The center of the beast was composed of energy. A crackling orb of power rested within the blue energy. It was as if the creature had arms and legs, but no physical torso. It was an Amalgamation, created by the collective efforts and energies of the gods. Fortunately, my fire giants were just as tall as the Amalgam.

  My army stood barely a hundred feet away from the creature, but it did not move from its post. The lion head locked onto us the moment we arrived, but it did nothing but stare. Its unwillingness to budge meant that we would not be able to draw it away from the vault and split its attentions. So, instead, I gave the order for my fire giants to charge forward with all of their might.

  The giants, with burning red hair and blades made of tempered steel, let out a roar in the ancient Norse tongue, a call for battle that was only spoken by the people from my homeland. They rushed forward to meet with the Amalgamation. The beast roared equally as loud as their shouts and prepared to receive their attacks.

  Yet, the power I had granted to my warriors was far greater than any mere summoning spell. I had carefully infused each warrior with a grand amount of magic, to ensure that they were redoubtable on their own. Together, they proved to be unstoppable. The guardian monster could not fend them off as they laid hold of it and pulled free the magical orb within its body that was the source of all its power.