Regar and the rest of the council manages the rest of the dungeon like a fine-tuned machine, ensuring that all problems are resolved, be the conflict economic, political or simply a clash of factions that wish to set up guildhalls within me. Vincenzo somehow wormed his way into the council, declaring that he was now a member and hasn’t left since. Yet, he has not tried to map me, and for that, I allow him to participate under the belief that he is a member of the team. Perhaps in time, I will award him the same rights as the rest of them.
Oregmyer has stabilized ever since Imperium’s soldiers moved into the barracks I provided them. The queen realized there was value in starting a trade relationship with them and, now, wine flows into the Imperium’s War Post and gold flows into the city. Such gold has been used to pay peasants to take up arms in the name of the queen and all talk of revolution has been forgotten. Of course, there are still rumors that swirl about that Queen Abri commands a horde of undead that will rise should anyone displease her. A rumor that she tries to quell on a weekly basis, but to no avail.
After such struggles, it would be easy to just sit back and watch the fruits of my labor continue to grow and expand. But the sands of time were still running down the hourglass. My victories, no matter how monumental, were nothing short of temporary. No matter how many of these big threats I defeated, no matter how much power I attained, it would all be for nothing if I was unable to repel the Invasion.
And I knew there was another danger that I was facing, one that was within my own body. For the deep magic was restless and antsy, wishing to be used to fight against the gods. Unable to corrupt my mind, unable to take control of me and force me to commit deicide, the magic had grown complacent and obedient for the time being. But there was no guarantee that this power would not corrupt me some other way, or worse, kill me. I had roughly eight years left before the Great Invasion was going to take place, if I were to believe the Mistmother.
But there were some factors that limited her. She was unable to predict my actions, or view my arrival. This meant that whatever measures I took would also limit her ability to predict the future. She was unable to determine if I would die due to my use of deep magic. Wyren’s Gift was a cruel power and eight years would be a very long time for me to hold it in.
I had thought long and hard about what I would do in order to survive. I did not fear being destroyed, even by the magic within. I had made this decision long ago, in order to protect my people from the coming apocalypse. If I had to die in the line of duty, so be it. But my death could not be in vain. I could not be destroyed by this magic four years from now, due to a freak accident or loss of control.
I was in charge of the magic right now, today. I was already beginning to use this immense power to alter the battlefield that I had created, transforming it into an even larger and deadlier maze. It had grown big enough to house more than a hundred thousand warriors on both sides, magically compressed within a single area beneath the ground. To the outside world, the space would only be a six by six foot square, but inside it was miles upon miles wide.
The purpose of the battlefield had been to defend the deep magic from some imagined enemy, but now? Now it was meant to capture and slaughter the hordes of Invaders that would be coming. I would destroy them here, within this maze, using my newly renovated First and Second Akr Army.
I had all the power I would ever need for this fight. But what I did not have was time. Each second that passed was rolling the dice on whether my power would still stay. The apocalypse was coming, it was a guarantee. Yim the dragon had told me of the many times these creatures had arrived to bring about the end of the world. There was no way we could stop them before they got here. There was no way for me to know if I would still be alive when they did break free of the ethereal Mass of Sleep.
And so…I began to turn my mind to the idea of bringing them into this world on purpose. With this power, I was able to not only manipulate the material plane, but also the underlying fabrics of reality, the Ethereal Plane included. What this meant was I could theoretically breach the barrier between the Invaders and the real world, pushing them into Yehan much faster.
I could unleash them all within the day, if I so chose. And if I could force them to come into reality now, then I could funnel them to my mazes that I created to kill them. This was a hard choice to make, for in bringing them here now, I would be unleashing Armageddon. I would be starting the end of Yehan. But at least I would be able to fight on my terms. At least I’d be able to move them where I needed and I’d have the power to face them.
Most importantly, I could potentially catch them by surprise. Perhaps there was a reason they were moving so slowly; maybe in coming to this reality, they had to form their bodies fully first. If that were the case, I would be breaking them out early and when they were more vulnerable. The list of pros and cons of drawing them out early was long, but it was tempered by one and only one thing: I did not know if I had a next week, or even a next year. All I had was right now.
I would have to prepare a little more, alert the kings and rulers of the realm and ready for the greatest battle of my life, but I couldn’t wait any longer. The Invasion was going to happen one way or another, but this way I would be the one in control, not them. But would I be the savior of this realm? Or would I be damning them all by breaking these creatures free? Only time, the one resource I never had enough of, would tell.
Tree Guardian Page 24