Chimera King Box Set Books 1-3

by Atlas Kane

  Mothling Brights burst from the dungeon, flooding the sky outside the cave, and swept over the enemy like a brilliant storm.

  The golems he’d selected at various sizes and designs, but all with the light element. They’d ranged from 10 to 30 Dungeon Points apiece, so he’d splurged and summoned over a hundred of them, taking up a little less than half of his available 5000 Dungeon Points.

  Each mothling, however, had only cost only a single point. So Cade had naturally made thousands of them, 3000 to be exact.

  With a breathy roar, the mothlings swirled around and through the ranks of abyss creatures. They cut down the beasts mercilessly, most doing so without having even been noticed.

  The fighting remained fierce at the gate at first, but then the abyss monsters turned round, having detected the real threat to their existence. With unified purpose, the monsters attempted to fight back, to swat the insects from the air with claw and fang. Yet, unlike the Casmeeri dungeon divers, they had no explosives available.

  Cade stood panting, his arms and body numb with fatigue, and watched as the dregs of the abyss army was cut down, their bodies piling ever higher.

  And after just minutes, the battlefield was silent but for a continued buzzing of mothling wings.

  A tension remained, shared by all those who stood against the darkness. Cade, for one, felt he couldn’t trust the quiet, as if all of the monsters would somehow recover from their wounds and strike out at them again.

  But they didn’t.

  It was Ronden’s proud laugh, guttural and half unhinged that broke through the uncanny stillness.

  “We bleeding did it! We beat them!” he roared, and slowly, the other villagers laughed as well.

  The Kotani Ma leaned out over the Upper Gate wall and shook his fists at the sky. Roaring his own defiance, he set the other apes to celebrating in similar fashion.

  Satemi clutched Cade by the arm. They were too messy, too covered in gore to do anything else. The heroes kissing after a battle was always such a stupid part of any movie. Who wanted to get sexy when something or someone else’s guts was on your face?

  The other girls ran up, and he gathered them in his arms.

  They turned away and began to walk toward the stairs. Cade wanted nothing more than to bathe in the stream, rid himself of the filth of the abyss monsters and the amalgamations. The dungeon minions remained where they’d been. He’d given them instructions to kill any invaders, and Pablo had been given authority to make the order in his absence. It would be nice to know they would remain on guard in case any stragglers should come and try to attack.

  The mothlings had been even more effective than Cade had hoped for, and he almost regretted not calling them into the fight sooner. Yet their plan had been carefully drawn out and executed. He’d wanted the abyss army to fully commit before the dungeon forces were called, and the Casmeeri had done surprisingly well.

  Satemi was making some foul joke, and other villagers had begun leaving their positions at the gate when a shudder passed through the ground.

  Cade turned back and saw a black vortex of energy churning above the fallen army.

  It was darker than night, and though it didn’t speak, Cade could feel a cold hatred coming from the void.

  He froze in place, staring in horror as the thing pulsed once more, a shock wave of nightmare energy that shot out and into the abyss monsters.

  The bodies liquified in a matter of seconds, their blood and torn flesh became a vitriol fluid that pooled together and then ran downhill. All the while, the vortex absorbed the bodies of its fallen soldiers.

  And while it did so, the vortex grew.

  Cade examined the terror before him.

  Abyss

  Level Unknown

  Creature Type Unknown

  “Get back to your positions!” Cade cried out, fear clutching him in the chest yet again.

  The villagers returned, weapons in hand. He was proud that they showed such spine. To feel the taste of victory one moment only to realize the fight was far from over, that was something that could break a man.

  Every remaining golem charged the thing, and the mothlings whirled about and headed straight into the heart of the growing monstrosity. When the dungeon minions reached their new foe, however, it merely lashed out fingers of inky darkness and absorbed them in turn.

  Abyss swelled, growing into a shapeless giant, and as the last of the blackness had been absorbed, it took on the likeness of a man.

  Fifty feet tall, the being strode up the hill, heading for Camp Casmeer.

  It opened its mouth and spoke.

  “Valiant resistance, Antinians. This battle is over though. You’ll feed me like all the rest, and I shall consume this world entirely.”

  Its words filled Cade’s mind, but they didn’t seem to be auditory. Pure fear gnawed at his bones, and he knew this was the enemy they’d been fighting all along. The same malevolent intelligence that commanded the amalgamations to act in unison, the same will that broke Cha and turned her against them. This was Abyss, and they had no chance of defending themselves.

  No, that is what it wants, Cade said to himself, clutching at his own resolve. He lifted his blast staff and fired a single shot into the monster’s chest, his mana bullet landing amidst its huge chest and disappearing without effect.

  Vile laughter filled his mind next, and another pulse of energy erupted from the thing. With it, long, roping fingers of liquid flesh reached out. The black tendrils snaked through the air and swarmed among the Casmeeri forces. Cade swung Mr. McGregor, hoping to hack the thin piece of abyss in half.

  But instead, it clung to his soul weapon.

  He struggled to pull it free, but the handle fell apart in his hands, his soul weapon dissolving in an instant.

  All around him, the villagers lost their soul weapons as well.

  They were defenseless.

  Ronden shouted a wordless challenge, and Abyss answered by contorting its tendrils around the man, wrapping his great body in threads of black. And then he too dissolved and his epic voice died last of all.

  It was too much. Several villagers broke and ran, hoping to find safety elsewhere.

  Cade called out a general retreat, but ran and picked up a discarded spear. It was mundane, just a wooden pole with a forged steel tip. Yet if his loved ones were in danger, he’d rather go as Ronden had.

  Satemi stood beside him, as did the other women in his life. Minda and Gemma stood shoulder to shoulder, and Ketzal as well. Then he noticed, she was still gripping her golden whip. Why didn’t it take her weapon as well? he wondered, but his own thoughts were disrupted.

  Pablo popped into view before them. He flew to Ketzal who was standing a few feet away. “Ketzal, only you and I can stop this. Will you join with me?”

  Ketzal stared blankly, and Cade knew she was fighting not to fall into shock.

  “What the hell do you mean?” Satemi snapped, demanding an explanation.

  “We are demons,” Pablo replied. “We were created by the gods to hold off the abyss. And I have been given great power. But I need another demon to join with. Ketzal, will you lend me your body and soul?”

  She nodded, resolve solidifying at last in her gaze.

  Without further delay, Pablo turned into a purple smoke and poured into Ketzal’s chest. The woman cried out in pain, but though Cade wanted to go to her, he held himself back. This was her decision, and the two demons had a plan he knew nothing about.

  When the last swirl of smoke had been absorbed into her body, Ketzal cried out again, this time falling to a knee.

  Gemma clutched her arm, but the demoness pushed her away.

  Ketzal’s skin glowed an electric purple, and Abyss rumbled in anger, still striding up the hill. It was only a hundred feet away now.

  Then Ketzal began to grow.

  Cade and his girls were forced to step away as the woman, the demon they all knew, grew larger and larger, her clothing and armor tearing away.

&
nbsp; She became a towering figure, forty feet of curved beauty. When she stood, a shimmering light formed around her figure, covering her nakedness. It solidified into celestial armor the likes Cade had never seen before. Angular and lovely, the armor suited Ketzal, seeming to complement her horns, the curves of her body.

  Cade sprinted to stand atop the far edge of the Upper Wall. He turned back, flanked by everyone else in this world who loved and cared for Ketzal.

  The demoness was as wondrous to behold as Abyss was horrible. Light shone from within her armor, tall and pointed pauldrons angling up nearly as high as her head. A skirt of iridescent scales shone below her waist, fastened in place by a heavenly belt. Her legs were covered in plated greaves, and she wore a breastplate seamless and shining like sunlight.

  And in her right hand, hanging slack and crackling with enhanced power, Ketzal held her golden whip.

  Abyss moaned, either in terror or rage, and it lashed out with a thousand tendrils of night.

  They wrapped around Ketzal, trying to dig in and tear her to pieces. Cade winced, terrified that she too would be absorbed as Ronden had. But the demoness held strong, the tendrils could find no purchase and had no effect.

  The tall, black horror opened its maw wider, until what passed for its head was nothing more than a gaping void in space. More of the tendrils, a thousand thick strands, launched out from its gut. They splashed onto Ketzal’s chest, and yet the demoness stood rigid.

  Her hands were clenched to either side, and her body shuddered with repressed power.

  At last, she raised her whip, and sent out a single scorching lash.

  The whip popped in the air like a mountain splitting in two. Cade fell to his knees and clutched his ears.

  The thousands of strings clinging to Ketzal snapped free, and Abyss howled.

  This time, Cade knew it was in pain.

  Serves you fucking right! he thought, an image of the valiant Ronden crumbling in on himself, his defiance holding out until the end.

  Ketzal lifted her whip again and sent the lash flying. It cracked in the center of Abyss’ foul form. As if an explosion had gone off, a spray of black blood fountained off of the creature, soaking the ground around them.

  Demons! Demons dark and terrible! Abyss groaned in Cade’s mind, screaming out in agony. I have yet to show my strength. Just you wait!

  The towering demoness answered with another attack.

  Some of the villagers had begun to return, and a cry of support rang out. It was Tessra, the tiny squirrel woman. Her injured arm had been wrapped in cloth, and she was walking with a pronounced limp, but as she neared the Upper Gate, she called out her support. “Kill it! Kill it, Ketzal!”

  She wasn’t alone.

  More of the villagers returned, and the Kotani Ma led his proudest alphas back to witness the downfall of such blind and endless hatred.

  Ketzal’s whip cracked over and over, each time reducing a portion of the nightmare into black mist. Rather than continue to fight back impotently, however, it grew still. This change of behavior concerned Cade, but he had no other option than to watch the outcome of the cosmic battle.

  Abyss lifted its arms to either side of its body and pulsed as it had before. Its two appendages grew longer, forming into impossibly long blades. They were slick and as deeply black as the void within the monster’s mouth.

  Then, as the golden whip lashed out once more, the two blades struck at the same time, crashing into the whip from both sides. The demoness’ soul weapon burst in a shower of light, like a star exploding, and she staggered.

  The black blades sliced through the air once more, and the villagers had to shield themselves behind the Upper Wall. Each attack, cutting across Ketzal’s armored form, some blocked by her gleaming bracers, others striking her chest or legs, caused a gust of wind strong enough to crack branches in a tree.

  And with each attack, Ketzal bled.

  No longer a mist of black, but now a pinkish purple filled the air above the battlefield.

  “Ketzal!” Satemi cried out, her face tight with the same pain Cade was feeling.

  The warrior’s ever-rigid discipline broke, and she made to run out to the demoness. Minda gripped her around the waist though, and pulled her back behind cover. “You can do nothing, Satemi. We just have to trust her.”

  Such trust turned out to be warranted. As the swords rushed out once more, Ketzal caught both, one in each hand. Purple blood poured from her palms, spilling onto the grass.

  The demoness growled. She hunched over slightly, and an enormous pair of wings exploded from her back. They were similar to the ones she’d worn when facing Satemi so long ago. But these weren’t black, but pure white and blinding to look upon.

  Twisting with all her might, Ketzal shattered the black swords and moved forward in a blur.

  She gripped Abyss, plunging her hands into its viscous core.

  Then, pulling the monster close to her face, she breathed it in.

  Like she took in Cade’s or one of the girls’ life force, so too did Ketzal take in Abyss itself.

  No! Cade wanted to cry out, but he watched helplessly. She can’t breathe it in! She’ll… He couldn’t finish the thought.

  The black shape shuddered and shrank, and still her full lips pulled in the void. An unholy shriek sounded as it withered away. Veins of black stood out on the demoness’ neck and arms.

  She trembled as if poisoned.

  In moments, only a black mist, the remnants of the monster’s blood remained to tell of its existence.

  Ketzal stood triumphant, and she turned to face Casmeer. The demoness strode back toward Cade and the others, and her form began to diminish. He could see her eyes were heavy, and as she shrank back to a normal size, her armor crashed to the ground.

  Cade pulled open the gate and ran out to meet her.

  The gorgeous creature fell to the ground a dozen paces before him, and despite all his internal wishes, lay still and lifeless.

  Beside her, on the ground, the great suit of armor coalesced into Pablo. His purple skin was oily black and his eyes stared up at the sky blankly. And even as Satemi and Minda went to check on him, his form disintegrated, pulled away into a cloud of dust that blew away down the hill.

  Cade’s heart burned with grief, but his care for Ketzal made him push it away.

  When he picked her up in his arms, her hair and skin were soft against him, and he could feel her breathing.

  At least she will remain, he told himself, a tear rolling down his cheek for their fallen friend. At least she will remain.

  28

  More Than One Way to Break Ground

  The storm that followed lasted three days.

  It wasn’t a normal ether storm. Those were terrible, deadly to be caught in, filled with mana-charged lightning and unnatural winds.

  This was just rainfall, enough to make the waterfall swell and become dangerous. The river overflowed, and three of the Kotani ape caves were flooded. All the while, the Casmeeri villagers hunkered down in their shelters. No meals were made in the cook ovens. Instead, everyone had to rely on dried rations and fruit stored in the Inventory.

  Yet when the clouds rolled back, and the sun returned at last, it was as if Antinium had been cleansed.

  Thankfully, the water that fed the falls drained away in a matter of hours. Its normal, more pleasant flow resumed by midday. The villagers stoked up the ovens and sent over a team of helpers to drain off the caves. It was a mess, but clay pots and many hands made the labor possible.

  When they were done, Gemma fired up in full pyro mode, and she burned away the excess moisture. This was most impressive to the Kotani Ma, who regarded the tigress like a goddess.

  While everyone had been hiding from the incessant rain, they’d thought long and hard on the sacrifices made in the great battle for Camp Casmeer.

  Eleven villagers had died in total, though when Cade thought back, he could only remember half of those. The confusion of the fray made it
impossible to track every casualty, however, so he tried his best to forgive himself.

  The Kotani lost another eight of their alphas, most from the scorpion poison. It seemed to affect them slower than their more frail human allies, but that had a harsh consequence.

  Reportedly, they continued to fight even after a dozen scorpion stings, and did so until their hearts stopped. Such determination and strength was admirable, and again, both the Casmeeri and Kotani tribes grew closer in mutual respect and commitment.

  As the first communal meal crackled, and the apes moved back into their newly reclaimed caves, Cade made his way down to the battlefield. Havasham came with him as well as a few others.

  He wasn’t sure what to expect. The bodies that had fed Abyss had been stripped away, all fed into the terrible being that had nearly consumed them all.

  But the amalgamations were gone as well. Every beast that had perished during the terrible fight was gone. As was the blood, and any sign of struggle beyond the ravaged mayhem that was the Lower Gate.

  Gemma walked with Cade to the bottom of the hill, and found something even more mysterious. “These tracks, they are moving away from here,” the huntress noted, pointing to a dense trail of animal spoor. “I think, and I do not know how, that they left this place. Maybe they returned to their homes.”

  “Well that sounds magical as hell, but how do you think a bunch of dead animals stood up and left?” Cade asked, disturbed and excited by the idea.

  The tigress shrugged. “Who knows? But how did we die and then show up here to Last World? There are beings at work in this place. Perhaps they have just acted to restore a little of what’s been lost.”

  Cade nodded. The explanation was vague, but given the hundreds of footprints that led back into the jungle, all having been formed after the rains fell, it did feel like a likely one.