Streams of violent killing mana rolled above their heads, some streaking within inches of their face. Disoriented and weak, Hal hardly was aware of what was going on.
Besal watched with growing fascination as their spells were cast out in reverse order until every bit of energy that black hole had stolen was expelled. And then, when nothing remained, the Voidwracked Kinslayer’s body began to crumple like a tin can miles deep in the ocean.
One heartbeat, that’s all it took for the man’s body to collapse to the size of a fist and disappear. The white hole stopped shining and turned into a perfect sphere of white. It fell to the ground a few feet away and rolled until it nestled between a crack in the ground.
Besal slowly rose to his feet, surprised it might all be over. The sun crested the mountains in the east, and as its light bathed the Shiverglades in clear morning tones, the voidmist was forced to flee.
It took a little longer for the light to reach the valley the Settlement was nestled in. Besal made a motion with his hand and a stream of darkness carried the white sphere aloft to his awaiting hand.
Besal placed it within Hal’s inventory.
He felt Hal awake more fully now that the man was rejoined with his body. Besal could keep him asleep, he knew.
Hal had, in essence, given up ownership over his corporeal form. It was Besal who kept it alive, kept it functioning. After all, why shouldn’t he keep it? It was his in all but name.
A flash of memory, one of Hal’s, showed him an old man with a head of curly white hair coveting a ring in much the same way. There was an attachment of some joke or another that Besal didn’t quite grasp. But it jolted him from his selfish, dark thoughts.
Hal’s occasional use of pop culture was one of the things that Besal hardly understood, but somehow still liked. That was unusual for him. Unusual for any of his kind to like something they didn’t understand.
If they didn’t understand it, they consumed it. In the process of consumption, they gained understanding. The problem was, as Besal thought, that by consuming the curious item it became a part of him.
The unique aspect of the thing was destroyed.
Few of his brethren would have thought that a great loss. But Besal did. The diversity of life, of magic, of everything, was what made being alive so interesting.
In that moment, when he could have claimed complete control of Hal’s body, Besal willingly surrendered control to the man. Not just a man, but his friend. His brother.
“Good to have you back,” Besal thought to Hal.
Besal understood what Hal fought for now. The difference between a man and a monster was clear to him. He pitied his brothers and sisters who had never known such a bond as his.
Consciousness returned in fits and starts. He saw the Voidwracked Kinslayer emitting gouts of violent mana into the air like streamers of colored light. The next moment, the Voidwracked Kinslayer was pulled inside the glowing white orb in his chest.
For a moment, he was absolutely sure that Besal was going to wrest control of Hal’s body away from him. He was weak enough that had Besal wanted to, it would have been child’s play.
But he didn’t.
He heard the strange greeting, one of honest emotion and welcome. Besal didn’t need to take Hal’s body for his own, not when they were two halves of the same whole.
When Hal awoke completely, his hands were covered in burning black pitch. His veins were on fire, and the world was filled with discordant whispers. He gripped the sides of his head and shouted at them until they quieted.
An eyeblink later, the noise ceased.
Hal found himself on his knees, gravel digging painfully into his skin beneath his shredded and ragged armor. The black pitch that coated his skin was dripping off of his body like candle wax, pooling in the broken ground beneath him.
Notifications and prompts flooded across his vision. Hundreds of damage prompts, EXP gains, essence absorptions, and more. Only the last few notifications lingered long enough for him to pay attention to and even that was a struggle for his ailing mind.
You defeat the [Voidwracked Kinslayer | Lv.??]
You gain 30,000 Experience Points.
You earn 30,000 Sparks.
You obtain:
[Heart of Darkness]
[Rhythm of Light]
[Darklight Blade]
[Fragmented Essence]
You learn Anvil Lightning.
You learn Sinker Drill.
You learn Sound Blast.
You absorb Kinslayer Soul: Thirty-six.
Rising to his feet once more, Hal swayed as the rest of the corruption fled his body, leaving every inch of his body bruised, battered, and utterly wrung out.
So wrapped up in Thirty-six’s death, the Kinslayer’s, and his potential role in freeing the rest, Hal could hardly spare a thought for the fighting down below.
When he heard a distant shout, his heart stuttered in his chest and he feared the worst. He rushed to the edge of the ridge, looking down into the gap below.
He was about to try and create a pair of wings like when he battled Thirty-six but realized a moment later that it would be unnecessary.
Not only was he unlikely to be able to create them at that moment, but the fighting had stopped. He spied more than a few still forms laying on the battle-churned ground.
A great many trees with paler bark than normal formed a line three deep at the breach to the wall. The rest of the walls glittered, covered in a bluish crystal that shimmered in the clear morning light.
Only then did Hal notice that the sky had fully lightened into the clear glorious brilliance of morning. White puffy clouds scudded across the sky. His faux sun was entirely gone, but that hardly mattered. Where stubborn patches of voidmist clung to life, the life-giving light of the sun burned the darkness away, healing the land and the dead mutated bodies of the monsters.
His people were battered and broken - a feeling he wholly understood - but they had won. The shouting he heard was one of victory, of utmost relief. The cancerous alterations to the monsters were burned away by the shining light of a new day, making them easy prey for the defenders still on their feet.
What few monsters that were not destroyed at the breach were in full retreat. Even Hal’s tired eyes could see that there was no way they would make it out of the gap alive. Boulders sailed through the gap, courtesy of the various Awakened Treants his Palebark Treant had awoken.
With each thunderous report, half a dozen monsters were flattened. In short order, the battle was well-and-truly over. The only living monster was him, he thought with a wry twist of his lips.
A feeling that Besal echoed with his own mental laugh.
They had won, and he had lived to see it. Hal looked over his shoulder, toward the east and the rising glory of the sun. The Shiverglades never looked so wild and free, so beautiful.
There was no hint of the voidmist, like a nightmare its ever trace was burned away. A darkness shifted to his left, and Besal stood beside him. The pair stared at the sunrise, shoulder-to-shoulder.
“It always ends with a sunrise with you,” Besal said with a shake of his shadowy head.
They shared the moment together, for once alone and comfortable with that. Hal had nothing to say to Besal, they watched the sun lift higher into the sky as the cheering below and behind began to subside.
“We can’t stay up here forever,” Hal finally said softly.
“I know,” Besal said. “Just a few more minutes.”
“A few more minutes,” Hal agreed, watching the light shimmer across the primeval wilds of the Shiverglades.
There was nothing quite like an Aldim sunrise. The sky was painted in a riot of brilliant colors. The ring that encircled the planet gleamed through its share of colors from purples to pinks, to bright reds and oranges until it gave way to gold.
The Shiverglades provided an entirely new layer of beauty. With so much greenery, water, and rolling elevations, the gilded light of morning fell unev
enly across the land in rolling waves of luminous color.
Here a lake shimmered like molten gold, there a river turned into a ribbon of chrome, the dark forests were transformed into idyllic green spaces, the bogs and marshes coyly revealed their unusual tones of purples and browns as their shrouding fog burned off.
With a deep sigh of satisfaction, Besal turned to Hal. “You picked quite a spot for your home,” he said.
Though he was tired to the bone, Hal flashed a grin at Besal. “Our home.”
Besal nodded, and without another word vanished into a plume of smoke that siphoned itself into Hal. Whole once more, he looked around the ruined ridge.
Hal didn’t fancy walking all the way back, but he didn’t see any way around it.
Trudging through the broken top of the ridge, Hal marveled at the destruction he had visited upon the hardened stone. But that was nothing next to what Besal had been capable of once Hal had gone inside the Voidwracked Kinslayer.
It only occurred to him after he shifted aside the rubble atop the parapet to reach the stairs that he was able to sift through Besal’s memories as easily as his own. But he couldn’t quite decipher them at the moment.
Resting against the cool stone wall of the stairwell, Hal pondered that for a second. Besal said nothing. Hal was aware his memories were also flowing in the direction of Besal.
Something had happened to them that he was still sorting out. Some deepening of their bond that went beyond the Dark Communion. So much was different now. He couldn’t begin to count the ways.
Least among them was the sensation of Thirty-six’s Soul, or perhaps it was a fragment of the power he gained while on Aldim. In either case, he could feel it thrum with strength deep within him just like Shae’kathoth’s Soul.
Pushing against the smooth wall, Hal took to the stairs again, eager for a bed. He craved rest more than anything. There would be a million things to do but they would still be there once he had some sleep.
He was still fantasizing about that good night’s rest when he nearly stumbled down the last steps, straight into Noth’s arms. The bloodied and battered woman wrapped her arms around him so tightly Hal heard his spine pop a few times.
All he could do was smile at her as she dragged him out into the warm morning light. The sound of tired but enthusiastic cheering followed them wherever they went. Noth guided Hal to a cot, one of many being set up near the battlefield.
A strong pair of hands took Hal from Noth. He found himself descending deep into sleep long before his head even hit the pillow. A rest justly deserved.
Noth wiped the blood and dirt from her cheek and handed the cloth back to Mira who had more need of it than she did. She was bone-tired, but there was still so much to do.
Once the last of the monsters had fled the Settlement, the Guild Mission was declared a success. The entire Guild gained a buff along with something more that only the Guild Leader could view.
She had her guesses as to what that was.
Guild Buff Activated: Home & Hearth.
Having successfully defended against an incursion from the Shiverglades, your Guild’s claim has been recognized as legitimate. Though the Shiverglades is unlikely to leave the claim unchallenged for long, your Guild is no longer seen as a foreign threat.
+100% Repairs to structures within Settlement.
+100% Healing effects.
-50% Damage taken from Shiverglades monsters.
+50% Loot from Shiverglades monsters.
+50% Gathering efficacy | +50% CP gain.
Duration: 48hrs
“You think he’ll be okay when he wakes up?” Mira asked after wiping her face.
In the temporary shelter of their tent, she looked over at Hal, then over at Angram, Yesel, Rondo, Luda, and Mira. They were all that was left of their group that came from Murkmire.
They didn’t know where the others had gone.
“I think he’s going to be mad if he misses out on the boost to loot from monsters,” Angram said, shifting his arm in his sling. Yesel draped her arms over Angram and helped him adjust the sling.
Mira arched a brow at them. “You know that’s not what I’m talking about.”
Angram looked away and nodded.
Noth watched Mira. She knew a lot more than she was letting on. And while Noth was willing to overlook a lot when Mira used magic - Cultivation-based, if memory served - that wasn’t from Aldim in the service of helping Hal, they were going to have a private chat.
Mira knew something, and Noth meant to get it out of her.
“They will come back, won’t they?” Luda asked, looking even more childlike then usual. She looked at Hal, then back at Noth. “Maybe he can find a way to locate them, you saw him fight atop the ridge. He might even be able to pull them back home.”
Home, Noth thought, looking from Luda to the sleeping Hal. This is our home now. Thanks to you, Hal. She looked up at the rest of them. “Even if he can’t, we aren’t going to give up on them. We’ll find them, every last one of them, and we will bring them home. No matter what it takes.”
Noth took one more look around the tent, feeling more keenly the losses of their friends and allies.
She hoped her words were true, she needed them to be.
The Settlement was safe for the time being, but they had lost so many already and with more simply gone in a flash of prismatic light.
She hadn’t been as close to them as Hal, though in the last few days she had grown quite fond of Ashera. Noth turned her golden gaze back to Hal’s sleeping form and sighed softly. She was not looking forward to breaking the news to him.
Afterword
First, as always, thank you so much for reading Beastborne: Exiled Lands. Seriously, it means the world to me. I can’t even begin to explain how much each and every one of you reading this has helped to turn my life around.
To think that this is my third published book, and that I’m already working on Book 3 of Beastborne is just beyond mind-blowing. It still feels like yesterday that I started writing about Hal and the mess he’s got himself mired in.
It is only because of readers like you that I was able to go from full-time to part-time as an EMT, which has helped me to get this book (and those that follow) out faster.
I hope, with your continued support, that I’ll be able to eventually fulfill my dream of writing full-time. If you enjoyed Beastborne: Exiled Lands, please be sure to leave a review and rating to let other readers know your thoughts!
Ratings and reviews help so much more than readers know. As a new indie author, they are an immense help. Without them, even the best books fade into obscurity. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you in advance for leaving a rating and review!
About Beastborne:
Beastborne started its life as a web serial and as a result, the book is ridiculously long. This sequel is even longer than the first. In my eyes that just means more value for you, the reader!
I’ve adapted a lot of my most beloved inspirations to shape Beastborne into what it is. There’s a bit of Final Fantasy’s Blue Mage mixed in with Bloodborne, Dungeons & Dragons, Lovecraftian horror, and a host of other little things that I hope makes it as enjoyable to read as it was to design and write!
Hal’s adventures don’t stop here though! I’ve already written more than 30 chapters over on my Patreon for the third book of Beastborne.
Not only that, but 5 new chapters are posted to Patreon every week. I have no plans on stopping there, and with your help, I would like to write stories like these for many, many years to come.
About the Author
My name is James T. Callum and I’m not going to talk to you in the third person or make it seem like I’ve got some publisher or editor who has a bio on me.
This is just me, talking to you, the reader. I’m no different than you, I love reading and gaming just the same as everybody else.
In fact, I’ve loved reading for as long as I could remember. From the very first fantasy book I
read, Wizard of Earthsea, I was hooked.
For just as long I’ve also been an avid gamer and DND player (as well as other tabletop RPGs). Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, Illusion of Gaia, and on through the years as stories and graphics became better and better.
You’ll be able to find hints of inspiration from all sorts of RPGs and video games in my works. From the Final Fantasy series to Warcraft, Age of Empires to Anno, and games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Because who doesn’t love a little cosmic horror thrown in for fun?
These games (and countless others) have inspired me ever since I was a kid, and they continue to serve as my muse now that I’m much older.
Writing has always been my greatest aspiration and with your help, I hope to make it a full-time job. At the time of this writing, I still work a day job like most people. It is only thanks to Patreon that I was able to dedicate some of my spare time to writing.
So, if you’d like to provide direct support and help me achieve my goal of writing full-time (so I can write even more stories for you awesome people!) you can hop on over to my Patreon page where you’ll find tons of content.
Patrons get access to advanced chapters of upcoming books, special discord roles and discussion channels, early releases of books before anyone else, maps, cover reveals, voting, and a lot more.
Become a Patron Today!
You can always find the latest information on my website about new books coming up, sales, and more: https://www.jamestcallum.com
And if you spot a typo or error, shoot me an email at: [email protected], and I will get it fixed and re-uploaded ASAP. I aim to provide the best possible reading experience and as soon as I find an error I fix it. Once it’s fixed and updated, your reading device should update automatically with the improved version.
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