by Tamryn Tamer
“What?” Jericho asked confused. “Why are you…”
“Just accept it,” Valaria said. “Trust me.”
“Okay,” Jericho said. “I accept.”
Valaria kissed his hand and her soul left her body and arrived in his hand. She smiled as she playfully wiggled her ass into him.
“Just so you know I’m going to judge how much you care about me by how accurate my new body is,” Valaria said.
“You say new body…”
“This body cannot leave this prison,” Valaria said. “My soul can’t leave this prison either but fortunately it’s not my soul. It’s yours. So, all you need to do is…”
“Recreate your body outside of the prison and implant your soul,” Jericho said. “I see.”
“Exactly,” Valaria smiled. “Honestly, if Eberis was willing to help me escape I could have been free ages ago. All he needed to do was accept my soul and transplant it into another person’s body. From there I could have recreated my body and then he could have just transplanted me again. But he didn’t want to upset our siblings.”
“Oh,” Jericho laughed. “So, by doing this I’m going to make myself an enemy of a bunch of gods?”
“Yeah,” Valaria nodded while gripping his hand. “Is that a problem?”
“No,” Jericho sighed. “But I can’t imagine the rest of my guild’s going to be pleased by it.”
“Don’t worry,” Valaria giggled. “Once you learn how to control immortal magic my siblings should be easy to handle…but you can’t hurt them. They’re family.”
“Sounds about right,” Jericho laughed. “New familiar, new challenges.”
“Don’t worry,” Valaria smiled. “It’ll take them a while before they realize I’m free. They hardly ever visit. There’s plenty of time before you have to deal with them. Speaking of which, we should probably get a move on. First we need to burn this body.”
“Burn this…” Jericho paused. “What?”
“I’m not just going to leave this body here,” Valaria laughed. “At least one of my siblings has no issue fucking a corpse. And as Eberis would say, ew, gross.”
“Weird fucking family,” Jericho said. “But I’m not really comfortable…”
“Fine. I’ll do it,” Valaria rolled out of bed and waved her hand. Gradually a large red dragon took form in front of her. “Oh, right. To exit just press your hand against the wall.”
“What the…” Jericho said as the dragon turned her body to ash. He expected the dragon to vanish but instead it turned toward him. “Oh fuck.”
Jericho sprinted to the wall as the dragon’s flames trailed behind him. The mirrors melted from the walls and the furniture burnt to a crisp as he reached the wall and instantly found himself outside of the castle.
“Holy fuck,” Jericho panted as a cold breeze sent a chill through him. He looked down and saw he was still naked, then he looked up to see Eberis glaring at him as the clouds turned dark. “Don’t look at me like that! I didn’t say shit!”
Chapter 6
Sabotage
“Where are you going Mirage,” Mirage said mockingly mimicking Terra while walking down the road. “You better listen to me or else Mirage.”
Where was she going? To get things done because once again, nobody else was willing to make the difficult decisions. Her master decided to be merciful on his friend and now the idiot was going to summon a monster capable of annihilating the entire world.
Her master was so kind, so wonderful, so forgiving. He was a good person and that’s why he needed her. Mirage had seen first hand what happened to good people and she wasn’t about to let it happen to her master.
“Okay,” Mirage arrived outside of Grim’s coastal stronghold and double checked her inventory. Her master said that they Owl would keep coming back and maybe that was true, but she could destroy all of their supplies and slow them down. If she happened to find him at a graveyard after that, lucky her.
She shapeshifted into an officer from Amber Hawks she’d previously observed and approached the front gate. As she approached several mercenaries moved into a defensive position to block her entry. She maintained her pace confidently.
“She’s fine,” a soldier announced from the wall. “It’s just Harley.”
The mercenaries moved out of the way and she easily accessed the stronghold. The key with most acts of espionage was selecting the right target and time. Her informants told her that Harley rarely left the Amber Rose guild hall except to hunt or do deliveries. And because she made deliveries most people recognized her.
She looked around the stronghold and saw a large number of players messing around. It wasn’t that different from Dayrose, except more minimalist. There were no beautiful gardens or elegant structures. There was muddy ground, wooden shacks, and stone houses. But it was oceanfront property.
She began scouting the area while greeting and patting the backs of various members of Grim. Her spies managed to gather hundreds of portfolios on the guild’s members so interacting wasn’t particularly difficult.
The hardest part was moving undetected. She was looking for buildings with weak structural integrity to sabotage as well as the location of their material storages. She couldn’t simply ask around since it should be common knowledge for a person who regularly made deliveries.
“Yo,” a cold raspy voice grated on her ears. She turned around to see a muscular human warrior. Mirage smiled politely at the man. “What are you wandering around here for?”
“Just exploring,” Mirage said cheerfully. Her records indicated that Harley a generally happy officer who preferred to do simple tasks. “I never have time to look around when I’m making deliveries.”
“Were you out delivering today?” the man asked while approaching her. He smiled flirtatiously and Mirage immediately realized his real reason for approaching. “While you’re here, I’ve been considering leaving Grim. Any openings in the Hawks you’re looking to fill? Any?”
“Ha,” Mirage laughed sarcastically. “A pussy joke. Really?”
“Come on,” the man leaned down and grinned playfully. “I’ve heard about you. You put out for…you know what. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have bothered you.”
“You’re big but you’re not stupid, huh?” Mirage smiled malevolently. “And you’re observant.”
“I suppose so,” the tall man chuckled. “I backed off too quick, didn’t I? That was stupid of me. I should have let you reject me properly but I was worried you’d notice that I noticed.”
“Yeah,” Mirage pulled out her dagger. “How about we make a deal though? I’m only here scouting and I haven’t really found anything of value yet. I would like to keep my equipment so do you think if I gave you something of value to report to Owl you could let me go?”
“Tempting but…”
Mirage blinked forward and shoved her dagger in the back of his neck instantly severing his spine from his head. The massive warrior dropped onto the ground and Mirage was out of time. As soon as he returned to the base it’d be impossible to escape.
A cold chill shot up her spine and she panicked. She looked around but nobody could have seen her but her sixth sense was going haywire. She was in danger.
“Fuck,” Mirage turned to leave but a second chill shot through her. “Not that direction.”
She began navigating her way through the base while attempting to avoid any direction that caused a chill to shoot up her spine. In the process, she came across a cluster of small warehouses. Several guards were patrolling the area but they didn’t seem to pay attention to her and the tingle in her spine subsided.
Mirage walked up to one of the small storage shacks and inspected it. The shack smelled like death blossom, an extremely rare herb. Sure enough, the shacks were storing the materials for the grand summoning ritual.
She discreetly looking around to see if anybody was watching her and swiftly planted a large incendiary potion next to the shack. She walked toward another shack several away
while taking the blast radius into consideration and placed the next. Each one had a thirty-second fuse attached and she was careful to ensure the fuses were visible from the direction of her escape so she could strike them with flaming knives and run.
Finally, they were all set. She walked toward her exit route and glanced at the fuses. A mild chill shot up her spine and she looked around. She immediately saw him, Owl’s werewolf familiar.
“Dammit,” Mirage mumbled under her breath as the werewolf sniffed the air. She glanced at him and then back at the fuses protruding from the storage shacks. She reached into her sleeves and ran her fingers along her knives while deciding what to do.
She took a deep breath and focused on everything around her and realized that even with her speed and abilities the werewolf would be able to track her scent. Additionally, she was vastly outnumbered and surrounded by stone walls with one exit. If she ignited the explosives, her sixth sense told her she’d certainly die. She decided to walk away.
A terror like nothing she’d ever felt shot through her as soon as she made the decision. Mirage had been afraid before. This was something entirely different. This was raw ferocious pain that made her wish for death.
She looked around and couldn’t find the source but she needed to escape. She took another step toward the exit and her fear intensified. She reflexively took a step backward and it subsided slightly.
“No, no, no,” Mirage trembled as she realized what was happening. She stared at the storage shacks and reached for her knives. As she inched toward the knives the sense of dread diminished confirming her theory.
Her sixth sense was never wrong. Destroying those shacks would lead to her death but not destroying them would lead to something worse. There was one thing worse than dying and that was one of her family members dying.
“Like it’s even a choice,” Mirage whispered as tears streamed down her face.
She threw a dozen explosive potions into the air creating a smokescreen as she tossed six flaming knives toward the fuses striking all of them simultaneously. She threw another handful of potions into the air and started blinking toward the gate.
She changed form to a guard.
“What’s going on?” Mirage yelled. “Are we under attack?”
Another chill, she wasn’t fooling the werewolf. She blinked again to the center of the chaos as the gate dropped locking them all in. She wove between various people while changing form to match them, shuffle, and vanish. All the while she continued to sneakily toss explosive potions to create more chaos.
Even the wolf shouldn’t have been able to track her through that chaotic mess but she was still feeling the chill down her spine. She could sense their eyes on her no matter who she shifted into or where she went. She couldn’t escape their gaze.
She blinked behind a small supply shack and entered through the backdoor.
“Okay,” Mirage tried to focus her sense. There was always a way out, she just needed to think. The explosive potions should be making it difficult to track any scents so it wasn’t the werewolf. The gate was blocked but if she made it up the wall she could still escape. If she could hide long enough it was possible, she could eventually sneak out as well.
The backdoor smashed open revealing the werewolf and she blinked toward the front door. Burst through the door and quickly realized her mistake as two dark spears impaled her thighs.
“Fuck,” she whined while reflexively tossing another handful of explosive potions. She quickly shifted to repair the damage to her legs while guzzling a healing potion and blinking away. Of course more than one familiar would be in the city. She saw the werewolf but that didn’t mean Owl’s other familiars weren’t around.
“Looks like we caught a big fish,” the werewolf laughed maniacally as he leaped after her. “This is one of Jericho’s familiars!”
“Owl’s going to be furious,” the Fallen said as he crashed down in front of Mirage blocking her escape. The dark magic covered warrior was not an opponent Mirage was capable of battling. “She probably set us back a day by destroying those supplies.”
“We better catch her and cheer him up,” a wraith said while appearing next to the werewolf. Mirage realized they were using spirit magic to track her. “He’s been so grumpy lately.”
“Hey,” the werewolf grinned maliciously at Mirage. “Because I’m a nice guy I’ll give you a chance to surrender. Mortiax there isn’t really big on the whole prisoner thing and he’s still pretty sore about being captured that one time.”
“By a Seraphim,” Mortiax growled. “All allies of those disgusting vermin should be wiped out.”
“Yes,” the wraith said. “We’ve heard it all before.”
The werewolf and Fallen were both warriors. While it was possible, she could defeat the werewolf it was unlikely. While her technique might get her far, the speed, agility, and senses of werewolves made them extremely powerful fighters.
The Fallen was even worse. Not only was his combat ability several tiers above Mirage’s but he was also a dark magic user. Even if she could land a strike on him, she was likely to be skewered by unblockable dark spears.
“I think she’s going to run,” the wraith said. “She seems to be preparing herself to blink. Oh, she stopped.”
“Thanks Whim,” the werewolf said. “Listen shapeshifter. We both know that you’re no match for us. Now, I don’t want to kill you because I have a vested interest in our masters not resorting to killing familiars. Especially given your master’s reputation when it comes to protecting his familiars. So just surrender and I’m sure Owl will ransom you back to your master.”
“After how long?” Mirage asked rhetorically. She knew that Owl wouldn’t even consider ransoming her back until after he’d summoned the Primordial of death. And then she’d be dead anyway.
“This is not a negotiation,” Mortiax growled. “Surrender or die.”
“Mort buddy,” the werewolf shook his head. “Calm your ass down. We’ve talked about this.”
“I don’t take orders from lesser beings, Aldo,” the Fallen summoned up a dozen dark spears and started slowly moving them toward Mirage. “She has until the spears reach her to surrender.”
“Fair enough,” Aldo gestured toward the chains. “You heard the man.” Several dozen players were surrounding them now as well ensuring that she had no way out. “I mean, you’re surrounded.”
“I know,” Mirage said as the same ominous sense that told her to destroy the storage shacks told her there was no way out. She was already dead, she just needed to decide on how she wanted to die. “Just give me a moment.”
“Good,” Aldo said. “Better make it quick. Oh, come on, don’t cry.”
“Huh?” Mirage tapped her eye and realized she was crying. It was so strange to her. She went decades without crying and in the previous month she’d cried so many times over the dumbest things. But a deluge of tears in front of her enemies was far outside of the norm. She chuckled, “Oh. Sorry. I guess I just don’t want to die. I’d miss them too much.”
“Then get down on the ground,” Aldo growled as the spears got closer to her. “I promise I won’t let him kill you if you surrender.”
She really wished she could take him up on his offer as she looked around at the horde of players and powerful familiars surrounding her. But she was going to die on her own terms.
“Mortiax is it,” Mirage wiped away her tears and pulled out a pair of Dragonbone Daggers. The stat bonuses on them were pathetic, the damage was relatively low, and if she was being honest the balance was complete garbage. They were inferior to her normal daggers in every single way except for one. “I’ve only fought a Fallen once before. How do you feel you measure up against a Fallen prince?”
“Excuse me?” Mortiax’s spears paused. “You’ve fought a Fallen prince?
“Just once. His name was Niraxi and he would have killed me if not for my master,” Mirage said as she uncorked a vial and dumped its contents on her Dragonbone Dagg
ers. “I’m not supposed to have this,” Mirage chuckled as she tossed the vial on the ground. “Jericho would be really angry if he knew that I stole it. But what he doesn’t know, right? Anyway, I’m just wondering how you measure up.”
“You’ll have to tell me,” Mortiax glared at the dripping daggers as Mirage pulled out an incendiary potion. “An incendiary potion?”
“Yeah,” Mirage smashed the bottle igniting her daggers. “Just so you know, Niraxi would have killed me while I was talking.”
She blinked upward to avoid the incoming dark spears as Mortiax quickly redirected them toward her new location. They chased her through the sky as she blinked left and right as the flames on her daggers fed on the magus dragon bile and shifted from red to blue and finally a scorching hot white.
“What?” Mortiax narrowly dodged a fatal strike as Mirage’s dagger vaporized his spear. “That’s not possible.”
“Holy fuck,” Aldo said as he attempted to approach Mirage only to dash away as the intense heat scorched his fur. “What the fuck.”
Mirage only felt the pain for a second as her flesh bubbled and her nerves burned away. She glanced at her daggers as they slowly melted. It seemed that even the obscene heat tolerance of Dragonbones couldn’t withstand magus dragon bile for a prolonged period.
“Kill her!” Mortiax yelled while raining spears down onto the burning shapeshifter. “Get her you cowards!”
Several soldiers rushed toward Mirage only to find their flesh melting as they approached. She blinked into a mass of soldiers and quickly cut through them with unnatural ease. Mortiax’s dark spears punctured several of his own troops as he tried to reach her only to find his dark spears dissipated by the miniature suns burning in her hands.
“Fuck that,” Aldo yelled while leaping away from Mirage as she plunged her dagger into a soldier’s head. She twisted her body and an arrow turned to ash before it could reach her. “She’s killing herself you idiots. Just let her do it.”