by Aleron Kong
Richter came to a decision. There was probably much more that he didn’t know about the strong-willed woman, but she was willing to help. He couldn’t afford to waste time wandering around in dark. “I’ll accept your offer, but only if you let me heal you first.”
Her face became somewhat guarded, but she still nodded with almost no hesitation. Richter raised one hand and cast his spells in quick succession. Weak Slow Heal, Weak Cure Disease, and Weak Cure Poison. He finished with a fifth casting, Weak Detect Hostile Intent. The chaos seed had fallen for the damsel in distress act once before. The consequence of that mistake still literally gave him nightmares that made him wake up drenched in sweat. He was relieved when Enalise did not start glowing red in response to his last spell. His breath caught, though when the sac tied to his waist started to shine a sinister scarlet.
Richter stared at the large pouch holding the Bloodstone for long seconds, until Sion walked up behind them and touched his arm. The chaos seed started but came back to himself. Putting the relic out of his mind, at least for the moment, he focused on finishing the mission. Reaching into his Bag of Holding, he pulled a shirt out and handed it to the Miner.
“If you’re going to come with me, I can’t have you walking around in naught but your skin,” he said. She took the shirt and after slipping it on, she tied her old rags around her waist like a belt. “I just wish I had some boots for you.”
“Do not worry, Lord Richter. I have been walking around in these sandals for months.”
“Months!” Sion exclaimed. “Have the goblins truly been here so long?”
“No,” she said bitterly. “They brought me here from another settlement.” The three of them started walking quickly towards the back of the cavern. The shale adder slid behind them, unseen and unheard, only a few feet from Enalise. Richter didn’t think he had anything to fear from the woman, but despite his feeling and his spell, he wasn’t taking any chances. After all, his Detect Hostile Intent spell was only of the weak rank. He was sure it wasn’t infallible. Blissfully unaware of the predator following her, Enalise told her short but tragic tale.
She and three friends had been exploring a cave system in the Serrated Mountains late last year. They had been snowed in, but it wasn’t anything they hadn’t planned for. She came from Rione, the kingdom north of the mountains, and it wasn’t uncommon for mining teams to be gone for an entire winter. There were even underground outposts made specifically for the purpose of supplying such teams and also for mutual defense.
Enalise had been asleep when the goblins attacked. They usually didn’t range so close to the surface. The soldiers of Rione were known to be deadly and ruthless. The goblins were not fools, however, and kept an eye on the weather. Because the entrance to the surface was blocked by snow and ice, they had executed a nearly perfect raid. A few members of the settlement were lucky enough to escape, but she had not. Still, she added, she had been luckier than her friends. Her eyes grew hooded while she relived those horrible memories. Richter didn’t press.
When the goblins had found out about her level and skills, they had stopped using her just for menial and pleasure labor. Enalise said the last dispassionately, and just continued her story. She had been moved to different locations and put to work as a Miner. Enalise had only been brought here within the past few weeks.
“At the end of this cavern, tunnels snake away in many directions. Myself and the other prisoners have been sent down many different tunnels. I do not know why. We were just told to dig.”
“Why is that strange?” Richter asked. “You’re a Miner.”
She looked at him oddly for a moment, wondering how he knew that without being told, but still answered, “Every other time I have been moved to a new location, it was to mine a specific resource: copper, iron or salt. This time, it was almost as if they had us searching for something, but they never told us what. With my Miner Profession, I found small veins of base metals, but nothing that would justify their strategy. I even found a vein of silver ore, though it was only as long as my arm, and it tapped out soon.”
“Do you have any idea why they moved you around so much?” Sion asked.
“Not exactly, she said, “but I have an idea.”
The three of them had reached the end of the cavern and had walked into the tunnel system. Terrod had been left behind to organize getting the prisoners to the surface. Enalise had picked a tunnel to the left and had walked unerringly through three more turns until they arrived in front of a circular door. Richter could see where iron supports had been driven into the ceiling, walls and floor. A stout wooden door had been set against these thick bars, effectively blocking off that area of the tunnel. A keyhole and handle were set into the center of the banded door.
“None of us were ever allowed down this tunnel, but one day a group of prisoners walked by when the door was open. The goblins were so furious that they beat two of the prisoners to death. Only one lived to return to the slave pens, and he died less than a day later. Before he did, though, he told the other slaves that he had seen a bright light coming from beyond the door.”
Richter nodded. He checked in with Alma to ensure that all was well up top. The dragonling looped him into her visual feed and said that she hadn’t seen any other enemies. There was a small contingent of sprites walking east towards the encampment from the ravine, but nothing else was happening. The chaos seed was relieved that there were no goblins to be seen but still felt time ticking away.
One thing was clear, he wouldn’t be bashing his way through this particular lock. Richter scanned the door for traps, but nothing lit up red. It was doubtful that the goblins would have had time, or the expertise, to make an elaborately hidden trap so he didn’t take overly long in his examination. Inserting two lockpicks into the keyhole, the chaos seed began tenderly testing the lock. Less than a minute later, there was a barely audible click. Richter turned the wheel set into the door and pulled.
Grey light flooded the corridor, blinding them all. Even as Richter winced against the glare, something inside of him both screamed in rage and shouted in triumph. A seed deep within his soul stirred from its slumber. It used him, it was him, and at a level deeper than consciousness it thought, Home.
CHAPTER 48 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
The light wasn’t truly that bright, but after only the weak luminescence of Richter’s spells, it was still glaring at first. After blinking for a few moments, Richter was able to look into it without discomfort. The first thing that struck him was the strange effect it had on the walls. The rock seemed to change from plain grey stone to marble to coarse red rock as he watched it. The light also did not shine uniformly across everything. Instead, it flowed over the stone like a liquid with a clearly defined edge. When the light moved away, the tunnel rock was left the same as it had been before. Richter barely noticed any of this, but it called to him. He was walking forward before he knew it and was surprised by the hand he felt on his arm, holding him back.
“We should not go in there,” Sion said in an almost whisper. His eyes were fixed on the ebb and flow of the grey light. “It reminds me of something.”
“I agree,” Enalise said. “Now that we are here, I do not think we should go any further.”
“What about the mission?” Richter asked. His voice was almost absent-minded, because all he could truly think about was the light. He was utterly confused as to why his comrades would not want to get closer. The tunnel curved to the left several yards past the door. He could only imagine how much better the light would look when he got a clear sight of whatever was emitting the mesmerizing radiance.
“I know the mission is important,” Sion replied. His tone was almost as if he was trying to reconcile what he knew with what he felt, “I still feel like we should not go in there, though.”
Richter looked at his friend, and finally understood what his friend wasn’t saying. The sprite was afraid. It just didn’t make sense to him, though. So he checked his Com
panion’s status page. It looked more or less the same as the last time he’d looked except for one added line.
Current status effects: Trepidation
The chaos seed frowned. He had never seen that particular status effect before, but it didn’t seem to leave much to the imagination. Trepidation was a form of fear. His hands began to move and a gold light surrounded his fingers. Richter cast Weak Courage on his friend.
Some of the concern on Sion’s face eased though not all of it. The chaos seed could also see the status effect was still on his friend’s page. The spell was enough for the sprite to let go of Richter’s arm, though. Sion shook his head and said, “I do not know why I am so affected, but you are right. The mission comes first.”
Richter couldn’t cast the spell again for fifteen minutes. When he looked at Enalise, he saw that the same fear Sion felt was etched on her face as well, “Why don’t you wait for us here?” The chaos seed tried to sound sympathetic, but he was itching to go deeper in the tunnel. The Miner nodded and Richter started walking forward. Sion and the shale adder followed close behind.
With each step, Richter’s excitement grew. He felt almost like a man possessed. The anticipation felt like Christmas Eve, the last five minutes of the big game and the first time a woman got naked all rolled into one. A part of his mind rebelled against the compulsion he was feeling, but he ignored it. The chaos seed also thought he heard a garbled voice speaking in his head, but that wasn’t important either. Nothing mattered but the light. He didn’t even notice when Sion was forced to stop. The Trepidation effect had grown too strong. Richter followed the turn in the tunnel, and his breath caught.
In front of him was a floating gem. He couldn’t say how many sides it had because that seemed to change from moment to moment. The overall shape seemed relatively stable, though it seemed to get longer and shorter, despite the fact that Richter never actually saw it move. It was kite-shaped, with the bottom facets of the jewel being much shorter than the ones on top. The inside of the gem was a swirling grey… something. At one moment, it seemed to billow like smoke and the next it slowly flowed like thick molasses. Other times the surface seemed solid and, as he watched, it entered states that he didn’t have the words to describe.
Richter took a step closer and the light from the gem brightened noticeably. It was only then that he noticed the clear pedestal beneath the gem. Breaking his view of the jewel for even a moment disrupted some of its mesmerizing effect and he began to notice other details about the tunnel. Namely, the dead bodies on the ground in front of him.
The tunnel he was in ended in a blank rock wall behind the gem. It was only thirty feet across. In front of the gem were the piled bodies of goblins and slaves. Some were old and rotting while others couldn’t have died more than a day ago. They had fallen in a perfect row, ten feet away from the jewel. He looked closer and saw that any part of the bodies that might have gotten closer than ten feet to the gem had just disappeared. Pieces of heads, arms, legs or even whole torsos were missing as if they had been teleported away. The ground was a mix of dried red and black blood on his side of the invisible barrier, but not even those fluids had made it past whatever was protecting the gem.
Richter looked closer at the pedestal, willing his identification Talent to trigger, but nothing happened. The same occurred when he examined the jewel again. It was clear that something powerful was protecting it. The goblin commander must have forced his own men and slaves to approach the gem over and over. Everyone attempting to retrieve it had been killed, and the bodies had been left where they fell. Richter saw the bloody logic of having a clearly delineated line that showed where the danger started.
Despite recognizing the danger, Richter could not take his eyes off of the gem. Even when Sion shouted for him to come back, he ignored his friend’s cries. He knew this light was meant for him. The jewel was his birthright! The jewel was his destiny!
Steeling himself for death, Richter raised one hand and stepped forward. His fingertips passed the line of dead bodies and a noise he had never heard before, like the single peal of a gigantic bell in a forgotten church, echoed in his mind. Notifications followed right behind the sound.
GLOOMMM!
Greetings, Chaos Seed. You have journeyed through blood and pain to arrive at this Place of Chaos. Your luck and determination have led you to a Chaotic Shard. Take this gem if you wish, but be warned, the knowledge of today can be a collar upon your future self. Choice is the essence of Chaos. You may leave the shard unclaimed, but the protection of the pedestal will no longer ward it. Make your choice, Chaos Seed, and never forget the consequences of change.
Nothing else happened. There was no burning pain, and he did not suffer a horrifying death. There was only the message, which swiftly disappeared. When Richter looked at the shard again, though, a prompt filled his vision. The background was the same grey as the Chaotic Shard.
You have found:
Chaotic Shard
Durability: Absolute
Item Class: ???
Quality: All
Weight: 0.01-3,302 kg
Traits: This gem contains raw Chaos
The luminance of the shard faded to a faint glow and it remained hovering in the air. The effect on Sion disappeared. The sprite blinked confusedly, but then remembered that Richter had gone ahead while he had just stood there. He rushed around the corner, and was just in time to see Richter reach out and grab the jewel, the only witness to his friend ushering in a new age.
Prompts appeared in the vision of every creature in The Land.
STAND AND WITNESS! An ending has come! A beginning is upon you! New powers are awake in The Land! Chaos has been let loose. Surely the forces of Order will not be far behind. Free yourself from the shackles of old definitions. This is a new Age!
THE EPOCH OF BANISHED GODS HAS ENDED!
THE AGE of CHAOS HAS BEGUN!
A Truth has been revealed to the all denizens of The Land. Goodness and Evil are not the only determinants of one’s character. No longer will you be bound to a binary alignment. The consequences for societies and The Land itself will only be known in time!
Those prompts had the same fancy script and grandiose windows as when the Quickening had grown. This time, the notifications were even more ornate. Richter reeled, not even being able to absorb the cascade of information. The next prompts were his normal notifications and for him alone.
Know This! By revealing a Truth to others, you have learned more about yourself! No longer are you or other chaos seeds bound to an alignment of “0.” Your new alignment is Chaotic (2) Neutral. Know thyself to find thy power!
Congratulations! You have won +20,000 Fame points! Your actions have ushered in a new AGE! Total Fame Points: 31,582
CHIME!
Congratulations! You have advanced to Reputation Level 5! “You are a man worth following.” New quests and opportunities will now become available to you!
As soon as Richter clasped the jewel, The Land itself took notice and Richter reeled under the gravity of what had just happened. The Light and Dark courts were thrown into upheaval. Gods and demons stared hungrily from exile and attempted to reenter The Land, only to find that the old wards still held. Forgotten demigods and monsters of wonder stirred in their barrows, and not all went back to sleep. The Land was changed, and dreams and nightmares evolved into miracles and cataclysms.
The sound that accompanied the notifications was overwhelming. Every being in The Land paused just for a moment as they were altered in a small but fundamental way. Richter only lost focus for a moment, but it was enough for chaos to escape. Beams of chaotic power shot in all directions. Many sank into the surrounding tunnels. One hit Richter and another struck the Bloodstone. The Deep Magic of the relic was overwhelmed for the first time in over fifteen thousand years when confronted with the Higher Energy of Chaos. Three bolts of raw chaos phased past the stone of the cave and made their way to the surface: one struck the adder and the last streaked h
igh into the sky, disappearing into the heavens.
Richter came back to himself and something deep inside of him cried out at losing the valuable energy. Not even sure how he did it, the chaos seed tightened his grasp on the jewel and drew the chaos into himself. He was burning. His soul was burning! He was alive! He had died a millennium ago and had yet to be reborn. His soul was reborn countless times in an instant. His mind and spirit swam in oceans of truth, horror, beauty and inevitability. He was power. He was Power! He was POWER!
Sion watched while the streamers of grey energy stopped flowing in every direction and instead focused into a wide beam of light that flowed into his friend’s chest. Richter screamed, or laughed, or moaned. The sprite couldn’t be sure, because the chaos seed’s body seemed to phase in and out of existence. Sion tried to make his way closer, but gravity in the tunnel increased by a factor of seven, and the sprite was forced to his knees. Even breathing became difficult, the pressure in his chest too low to exhale. Try as he might, the best Sion could manage was to stay on all fours and not be flattened by the massive pressure bearing down on him.
Then it was over. Gravity returned to normal and Sion drew in a much-needed breath of air. His diaphragm spasmed and coughs racked his body. When he looked up, the sprite saw his best friend walking towards to him. A smile was on Richter’s face, and a grey light shone behind his eyes. A moment later, the light faded and all he could see was his best friend.
“Banished gods! Are you alright?” Sion asked. Richter helped him to his feet. The sprite quickly looked his friend over, but except for a large bruise on the chaos seed’s right cheek, he looked fine.
Richter smiled and pushed his Companion’s hand away. His voice was shaky at first, but quickly firmed. By the time he finished talking, he was smiling, “I’m okay. Sion, look at me. I’m really okay. Trust me. Everything is going to be fine.”