by Aleron Kong
As soon as he finished speaking, the glass tower that the chaotic shard had been hovering over collapsed into shards and the cave started rumbling. A stalactite fell to the ground and the noise of grinding rocks only grew louder. Sion looked at his friend again, wild eyed. In response, Richter just shrugged and admitted in a calming voice, “You met me at a very strange time in my life.”
CHAPTER 49 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 0 AoC
The two friends ran for their lives.
“What’s happening?” Enalise cried as she started running as well.
“He happened!” Sion snapped as he sprinted for the surface. “He’s always touching things!”
“I’m not the one who-” Richter stumbled for a second when a particularly strong tremor shook the cavern. “Who made that giant skeeling come attack us?”
“Who attacked the fucking rock giant?” Sion shot back.
“Who let me get eaten by wolves?” Richter shouted angrily.
“Who-”
“Would you two shut up!” Enalise screamed, partially in fear but more in extreme annoyance. “We are going to die down here!”
All three kept sprinting as the tunnels continued to shake around them, but Sion and Richter shared a look of silent communication. Why did women always misunderstand male bonding?
The cavern that held the slave pens had become a deadly obstacle course. The hundreds of stalactites were periodically falling to the floor with crushing force. They all skidded to a halt and looked in dismay at the only way out of the cave system. Sion started casting Weak Haste on himself, and Richter turned to do the same for Enalise.
“I know you only have eighteen points of Agility. You don’t happen to have any special Miner or Crafter Talent that lets you run faster, do you?”
“How do you know that?” she asked. Then she started to scowl, “Did you use some spell on me to learn my stats?”
“Now?” he asked incredulously. “You want to have this conversation now?”
“Fine!” she snapped. “No, I don’t.”
“Right,” he said, nodding. The floor bucked, almost as if to remind them to get a move on. Richter cast Weak Haste on himself, and then said, “Please don’t hit me.” Without further preamble, he picked Enalise up and started sprinting.
There was a startled complaint, but then she just decided not to distract him as he dodged the falling rocks. He and Sion ran as fast as they could, holding nothing back. Their luck held, either because The Land favored fools or because their earlier luck potions hadn’t worn off. No matter the reason, both Richter and Sion made it to the end of the cavern unscathed. They were so busy running forward that neither of them saw several stalactites hit the shale adder’s long form. They also didn’t see how those plunging missiles, weighing at least a hundred pounds each, just broke against the adder’s newly strengthened scales.
After they crossed the cavern, they didn’t slow down. Richter had gone another hundred yards before he even realized that he was still carrying Enalise and that she was shouting at him to put her down. The decision was made for him when a particularly strong tremor knocked all three of them off of their feet. As they got to their feet, the Miner said several choice words in a language he didn’t know. His Gift of Tongues ability quickly let him know that she wasn’t happy with him, though… and that she had landed on a particularly sensitive area.
Congratulations! You have learned a new language: Rionese.
They all kept running. The three of them took a few more knocks and received a few more bruises, but they made it safely to the surface. This all would have been good news if not for the visual feed that Alma had sent him while they were still escaping. At first, she just sent him images that confused him. Three large swaths of land around the hill the encampment was on had been changed. Instead of just grasslands, there was now a patch of midnight blue sand stretching a hundred yards to the west. Just north of the hill there was a small crystalline outcropping. It looked like a clear mountain range, but only sixty feet high and eighty yards across. To the east was now a thick grove of vined plants that slowly writhed while the dragonling watched them. All of this was strange and interesting, but not really worthwhile as he ran for his life. Then she sent him something that made his asshole clench. The goblins had arrived.
They were coming, and they were coming in heavy! In the final two minutes that it took Richter to get out of the cave; the goblins had started pouring out of the eastern entrance to the valley. There were already over a hundred amassed, and they showed no signs of stopping. The entrance was only four miles away. It looked like they were waiting to gather their forces before attacking, but still, it couldn’t be more than an hour before Richter and the sprites were overrun.
Waiting for them outside of the cave entrance was the sprite party that Alma had seen coming towards the encampment. Hisako’s face was a welcome sight and even Yoshi’s stern visage made Richter feel better. Until the sprite leader opened her mouth.
“Is all of this because of you?” she asked loudly and with no small hint of recrimination. The tremors were not nearly so pronounced above ground, but everyone’s footing was still unstable.
Richter immediately turned toward Sion and said, “Shut it!” It wasn’t a moment too soon. The sprite’s mouth was already open, eager to chime in. Turning back to Hisako, he said, “I destroyed what the goblins were looking for. I’ll tell you about it later, but there is a bigger problem. The goblin reinforcements have come.”
The Hearth Mother wasn’t happy with his answer, but she still couldn’t ignore his warning. She began a quick casting, and white light surrounded her hands. A small portal opened, bringing a waft of warm air and a scent like honey and vanilla. Exiting the summoning circle, a small hawk flew up into the air. A few seconds later, Hisako cursed, “There are hundreds of them and more coming.”
“That’s what I said!” He felt jittery and jacked. “We’ve finished the mission. Let’s go!”
Hisako’s jaw clenched in frustration.
“What?” Richter asked. He didn’t know why they weren’t already running. They would have to leave any loot behind, but he gave absolutely zero shits about that as long as they lived!
The Hearth Mother lowered her voice and whispered fiercely, “We might be able to escape, but we will have to leave them to their fates.” She pointed to the left.
Richter looked where she indicated, and he cursed in frustration. She was indicating the prisoners. The chaos seed was on such a high from absorbing the chaotic shard’s energy that his mind was spinning. He had completely forgotten about the poor souls, for a moment. In the light of day, Richter saw that the goblins had kept many more slaves underground than he had initially thought. There were almost two hundred people lying huddled on the ground. He could also now see that they were in much worse shape than the captives that had been on the surface. Almost all were in some stage of starvation. Disease was rife in the recently freed captives. They had festering wounds and ashen skin. Many just lay on the ground because they could not stand on their own.
The chaos seed turned back towards Hisako, “Can you heal them?”
She shook her head regretfully, “Not so many. Not enough to make a difference in the time that we have.”
To emphasize her point, once again goblin horns squealed through Henakot’s Valley.
*They are coming, master!* Alma sent him a visual feed of the advancing goblin forces. Either the new goblin commander had become impatient, or they had discovered that only a handful of fighters remained to resist them. Either way, hundreds of goblins were running towards them, screaming in bloodlust. Even more were still streaming out of the eastern entrance.
“Lord Richter,” Hisako said, bringing his attention back from Alma’s view. “I know what has brought such a bleak expression to your face. I see them coming as well.” Her voice was sorrowful, but firm, “We cannot save these people. It is time for us to go. The others will still need us. I can still summon strik
e stags to meet us once we re-enter the forest, but we must leave. Now.”
The chaos seed looked at Hisako, then at Yoshi and Sion. They all understood that there was only one option. Even running at full speed, fatigued as they were, they might not make it. There was no way that some of these abused prisoners could even manage a hobble. Dying with these people wouldn’t change anything. It was entirely possible that the goblins wouldn’t even kill all of them. Why would they waste good slaves after all?
The cold and analytical part of Richter made these calculations in moments. The rational part of him understood and agreed with Hisako’s argument. Even back on Earth, he hadn’t shied away from hard decisions. He fully understood the reasoning of someone that would burn the world just to stay warm. The only reason he wasn’t a monster was that he also understood a simple truth that narcissists often missed. Living like that was just a fucked up, lonely way to be.
Yes, he understood what Hisako was saying, but what had the prompt said? ‘Choice is the essence of Chaos.’ Richter shook his head and looked at the former slaves. He couldn’t just leave these people to torment and death. Richter looked at the Hearth Mother and said, “Take who you can. I can’t leave.”
“You cannot just throw your life away in one battle,” she said fiercely.
Richter reached to pull a bag free from his belt. As he opened it, he said, “I don’t intend to.”
Hisako eyes widened as she realized what was inside. Panic bloomed in her heart. She extended a hand to stop him, but it was too late. The red gem fell into Richter’s hand, and ruby light blinded them all.
CHAPTER 50 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 0 AoC
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Richter’s consciousness quailed against the fury of the Bloodstone.
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<> The voice was screaming inside of Richter’s head and heart. Madness tinged its words. The chaos seed could barely stay conscious. <
Only seconds had passed since Richter made contact with the stone. It sat in his hand, blazing like a beacon. Beams of ruby light bathed everything red, like a setting sun over water. Hisako and Sion cried Richter’s name, but the chaos seed heard nothing. Yoshi stood nearby with a sword drawn, but for the first time, uncertainty was clear on the adept’s face. Whether the blade was for the approaching goblins or for Richter was not clear to anyone, even the adept himself.
While it was true that only seconds had passed, that was all it took. At long last, the Bloodstone had found a sanguimancer again. It could now use its full power, and Richter’s Blood magic gave it the perfect avenue to take control of him. The chaos seed’s blood vessels stood stark against his skin, and when he opened his eyes, all could see they had been replaced with red jewels that matched the hue of the Bloodstone. Though there were no irises, the sprites could feel the malevolence of Richter’s gaze. By then it was too late.
The Bloodstone drew on some of the remaining life energy inside of it and cast two spells in quick succession, Sanguine Protection and Vitality Puppet. A dome of scarlet energy appeared around the possessed chaos seed. At the same time, almost everyone within fifty yards collapsed to all fours in obeisance, helpless against the relic’s power. Even Hisako was staggered and forced to one knee.
This was all a preamble to the Bloodstone’s true agenda. Too long had it been forced to slowly absorb the blood of others, one miserable day at a time. For the first time in nearly a century, it would gorge. The stone floated into the air, now completely in control of the chaos seed’s body. Blood red light surrounded both of its new hands while it began a complicated casting.
The Hearth Mother could only look in horror at the monstrous entity her ally had become. She had been too slow to stop him. Now he was gone forever. Her mistake might mean the death of thousands. There was no doubt in her heart that Richter had planned to use the Bloodstone to save them. He just hadn’t known something that every child born of The Land understood. Some powers could not be controlled.
When she saw him casting again, a longer spell this time, she frantically began one of her own. She did not know what horror the Bloodstone was about to unleash on the world, but the powerful woman would do whatever was necessary to protect her son and all of the innocents present. Casting a quick spell, golden lines of light extended from her left hand to the hearts of every sprite and freed prisoner. Then she did something that she had promised herself never to do again. She drew upon the mana of others without their express consent. The Hearth Mother did not hesitate. Her son would live!
For the second time in a day, Hisako cast a spell unique to her Mastery of three Powers, Brilliant Earth. A thin dome of rock rose around her and all of the sprites and captives. A second later, it was covered by a layer of living plants, then the sunlight itself created a lattice of light to protect those within. She triggered the next rank of the spell, and three more layers of Earth, Life, and Light covered the first shells. Each triple layer bound together to make a shield powered by three Basic Elements. It was the strongest protection she could muster. The mana levels of everyone present began to be drained quickly. Before she could trigger the third rank though, the Bloodstone finished its spell.
<<… damiho ani mordas damna sangcor vest!>>
The Dread Harvest commenced.
Every dead body in the valley, over a thousand goblins, trolls, human, sprites, elves, gnomes and dwarves burst, and the blood rose into the air. The black, green and red ribbons snaked through the air, going higher and higher until they hovered fifty feet above Richter’s head. Then they swirled downward like a cyclone, funneling into the Bloodstone.
And so Richter stood, an ancient relic of scarlet power hovering before him, the blood of hundreds circling above his head. An army of screaming goblins ran to reclaim their item and slaves, and his scant two dozen allies cowered in their bunker. A dragonling and adder stared at the walls of Hisako’s spell. Each yearned to rejoin their master, but both obeyed his last command to protect the Hearth Mother.
Richter was barely aware of any of this. While the Bloodstone feasted, feeding upon the blood of two armies, his consciousness was compressed to the smallest corner of his mind. Not even Alma’s frantic cries could reach him. He just floated in the black abyss of his own netherspace, screaming for the light.
That’s why it shocked the piss out of him when he heard a voice.
<
“Who is that?” he cried out in his own mind. It sounded like the Voice that had hurt him so badly once, when he touched the Bloodstone, but slightly different. It was hard to think. He knew that the Voice had been asking him… something. He couldn’t remember. He only remembered the pain it had caused when he said no. That was the last thing he remembered before the Voice had forced him into this dark place. Richter feared the Voice coming back, but not as much as being left in the dark place for all eternity. “Who are you?” he cried out again. Even torture was better than the countless years he must have spent in the abyss.
<>
Oh no, Richter thought! It was going to hurt him. It was just a different Voice! He shouldn’t have… All thought went away as the abyss was replaced by PAIN.
<<… hear me. Can you understand me?>>
“What?” Richter asked.
<
“What time could I have?” Richter cried out. Memories of his interminable exile in the abyss were flooding back. “I have been trapped alone for centuries!” Everyone he knew must be long dead. A different, and somehow worse, pain kindled in his heart.
<
The world that the Bloodstone saw was binary. Things were either blood or “other.” Far from being limited, it could see the capillaries in a mouse through miles of solid rock. The blood from dead bodies had lost some of its power, but the sheer quantity was enough for the Bloodstone to get Dread Harvest to the next spell rank. It could now extract blood from the living.
Richter could feel its irritation at the protective spell Hisako had erected. Her shield had resisted the power of Dread Harvest so far. The blood it had collected from the dead might be enough to destroy the sprite’s dome, but why should it worry about two dozen meals, when there were hundreds of blood sacks running towards it. The Bloodstone smiled to itself and directed its attention towards the goblin army. The first bodies began to explode.
The softer voice spoke to Richter again, <
“No!” Richter shouted. Or he thought he did. This form of communication was different from the telepathy he shared with Alma. He wasn’t even sure what he was at that particular moment.
<
“Then let’s do it now.” The goblins were bursting by the score, and their blood joined the funnel that fed the Bloodstone’s power. Some tried to run, but they were well within its power and range, both of which increased as more blood fed the relic.