A couple of seconds later, a stream of loot and Spheres of Serendipity caught up to me, drawn in from the corpses by Magnetism.
Serendipity collected: 1,000,000 / 1,000,000.
Quest of Fortune, Goddess of Luck, completed: Serendipity for Fortune.
You have collected enough Spheres of Serendipity from the corpses of fallen sentients. Give them to Fortune to claim your rewards (Elixir of Luck; +1,000,000,000 experience; +5000 reputation) and the next quest in the Wheel of Fortune divine quest chain.
Followed by watchmen on gryphons, I reached the royal palace towering over the city a minute later. My path was blocked by an incredibly thick force field. Behind it I could see fountains, flower beds, gardens. Palace servants ran around in fear, rushing to hide within the castle walls.
I flew a little way around the force field dome, found a spot where I had a better view of the palace. Looking closer, I saw a figure in a royal mantle standing on the balcony of the tallest tower. Ruler of humans and leader of the Commonwealth Bastian the First watched me, his mighty arms crossed at his chest. He wore a crown forged from an alloy of the seven most precious metals in Dis, decorated with a huge gemstone as if woven from light.
There was no way I could reach the king, but he wasn’t my target; I needed to emphasize the threat the Destroying Plague represented. I threw my shield charged with Vindication at the king, but the monarch didn’t even bat an eyelid. Next I attacked the forcefield, raining down a whole series of Combos within a few seconds (the logs imitated druid abilities) and activated another scroll for the king to witness the destruction of Plague Fury for himself.
The half a hundred guards flitting around me on gryphons and trying to attack me fell to the ground like burnt moths. Storm didn’t survive the explosion either, but I stayed in the air thanks to Flight. The dome’s durability fell by 10%, but began to recover right away. Equanimity dropped right after the explosion.
The show was over in Darant.
Ten heartbeats later, I was already teleporting to Shak.
I didn’t know my way around quite so well in the Empire’s capital, but I couldn’t fail to spot Emperor Kragosh’s huge fortress. The first part of the spectacle was a mass killing. I landed in the center of the merchant square just like before. The dark ones reacted faster than the humans: they surrounded me and prepared to fight. Guards on wyverns began to stream toward me. Arrows and bolts flew in from all sides. Unlike the gawpers at Darant, the dark ones attacked right away.
I couldn’t revive Storm so soon, nor could I fly to the imperial palace without her — Mogwai didn’t have that ability, after all. So I just rushed into the crowd shouting “There is no death in service to the Destroying Plague!” and detonated two Plague Fury scrolls one after another. Diamond Skin activated, protecting me from the deathly energy.
Nobody survived this time either; I stood alone in the center of the explosion, watching as the orcs outside the blast radius scattered.
Civilians and defenseless players suffered, but the ruler of the dark ones had to be brought to his senses. They were overconfident. The Empire believed that the Destroying Plague was a Latterian problem, that it wouldn’t touch them, and that if a dead foot did step on Shad’Erung, then her merciless warrior-defenders would make fish food of it.
I wanted to convince them that standing aside wasn’t an option. If a real legate had come, then nothing of Shak would be a smoking heap, its people turned undead. After Mogwai’s blackmail, my show was a good demonstration of what threatened them. I saw horror in the faces of ogres, orcs, vampires, trolls. Now both the light and the dark ones would have to beg their gods to protect them from the Destroying Plague and support them in the war — which was just what I wanted.
My Diamond Skin came to an end, and the sky was already darkening with the wyverns of the imperial guards. Time to go. I waited for my bag to fill up with loot, then teleported to the Lakharian Desert — to the spot where Tiamat’s temple had recently stood.
Everything was going smoothly so far. The next step, which I hadn’t discussed with Hinterleaf, might be a little tougher.
Chapter 14. Free Space
AS SOON AS I APPEARED at the foot of the dune, hundreds of fine beams of light struck my chest. My armor withstood the damage for a while, but once its durability was gone, my flesh started burning under the callous light, hissing and smoking. Holding back a scream of pain and gritting my teeth, I took off and began to retreat, pulling the Aspect of Light behind me. Luckily, it was the only one there. And since it had no mind to speak of, it followed me, retreating from the site of the destroyed temple, where a new one was now being erected to Nergal.
A quick glance at the temple showed me that the main structure was finished and the builders were working on the facade and ornamentation. And working fast — it wasn’t even two days since Tiamat’s temple was destroyed.
A priest of Nergal watched the workers, protecting them from the heat with a dome. I hadn’t seen ones like it before; when the burning rays of the sun fell on it, they flowed down in melting streams, like golden raindrops down a transparent umbrella. The dome itself cast a thick shadow. Nothing remained of Tiamat’s green oasis.
But Crash was still in the area, and had reached level 580. The Diamond Worm sensed me and jumped his full length out of the sand, like a submarine emerging from underwater, flew over me and buried himself in the ground again. He was so huge that the passageway at the foot of the dune seemed more like a tunnel, and didn’t fill with sand right away. I couldn’t hold back a smile at my pet’s greeting. He crawled behind me, leaving a roiling trail, making the earth look alive.
Unlike the fight with the Aspects of Light in the Divine Revelation, this time I was alone, not in a raid group with a shared pool of health. But the Aspect was solo too. And I didn’t need to kill it. Hissing in pain, I slowly kited it further away from the temple, at the same time keeping an eye on my dropping health bar and giving my pets commands: to run away, then hook back around the Aspect of Light to attack the temple and anyone nearby. The builders were too busy and didn’t notice that the Aspect of Light was no longer protecting them. Everything was going to plan.
Iggy chirruped in response to the order in a way I took to mean ‘With pleasure!’ and headed up the assault squad. The whole zoo was there: the Montosaurus, Storm, Crusher, Sharkon, Crash and the overgrown fly. At 30% health, I flew up so high that the Aspect couldn’t reach me, then roared away at full speed to the temple.
Not five minutes passed before the pets had taken down the builders and the mage and rushed the temple. Diving, I helped them finish off the structure. Honestly, just Sharkon on his own could have done it — he was an expert in destroying superfluous buildings, — but I felt the urge to take vengeance for Tiamat’s temple. I wanted to vent my anger.
When the temple fell, the Aspect of Light approaching in the distance disincarnated, and the shadow of Nergal’s furious scream echoed down from the sky. After the victory in the battle at the temple, even in a non-existent future, I had no fear of him. On the contrary, I felt malicious joy and moved on to the next phase of my plan.
Sitting down on a broken column, I activated my Faded Coin to talk to Kusalarix. Her face appeared and I spoke first:
“The temple site in the desert is free. I’m going to put down a portal beacon.”
The goblin woman stuck her head through the hole in space, looked around and gave a thumbs up.
“You did this on your own? Nice! I’m sending a building crew. They’ll work in shifts, otherwise they’ll bake in the heat, ya know how it is…”
“Got it. At least the undying won’t come.”
“Still, that place is full of critters,” Kusalarix said doubtfully. “They say I got a garbage can for a heart, but still, I’d rather not feed my builders to the beasts…”
“My Diamond Worm will stay here to protect them,” I reassured her. “Some allies might come too.”
“Thanks, Scyth,” the gobl
in woman said seriously, looking into my eyes, then winked. “Sorry for shoutin’ at ya. You’re a stand-up guy! Good luck to us all. And may the Sleepers save us from Nergal’s rage…”
Muttering something incomprehensible, she disappeared and the rift in space slammed shut.
I called Hinterleaf through my comm amulet:
“I have news.”
“I’ve heard plenty! You’ve been up to no good! Darant and Shak are boiling, everyone’s talking about the undead…”
“On top of that,” I interrupted him. “I’m in the Lakharian Desert right now. Sure, this wasn’t part of the plan, but now a place of power is lcear. And I couldn’t miss the chance to annoy the radiant god. Anyway, there are ruins here again, and the League is going to rebuild the temple to the Sleepers here. We need protection.”
“Great news!” the gnome brightened up. “But will they hold out for long there?”
“That depends on us. With two temples, I’ll be able to make Modus and the Travelers followers of the Sleeping Gods. As priests, you and Horvac will get maximum bonuses.”
“Things really are picking up speed…” the gnome sounded thoughtful. “Alright, let’s go step by step. I’ll send two battle stars of immunes. Warn your devouring worm not to touch them.”
I smiled as I watched Sharkon happily splashing in the sand around Crash.
“He won’t hurt them; Modus is friendly to the Awoken.”
I ended the call and thought for a moment. The minimum plan was complete. Now we could go further, but how? Go find Grand Master Oyama, or first hand in Fortune’s quest now that I’d finally completed it? The second option seemed easier, but Uncle Nick always used to say that you should always start with the hardest thing first. Anyway, it really annoyed me that my hand-to-hand combat leveling had ground to a halt, and the old man’s skills were amazing — he’d thrown back the Alliance, Shazz and Deznafar all on his own. Pepper the hamster fell to his knees and prayed for the same power! So first I’d find Oyama, and then…
“Oh, how cute!” someone cried from above.
Raising my head in confusion, I saw an old friend — Kitty Spitfire, the gnomish explorer from the Dangerous Game Hunters guild. The gnome girl sat astride a golden gryphon lazily flapping its wings, hidden from the sun beneath a forcefield umbrella. She and I had met during the battle with Ervigot the Ravager, and then she’d told me where to find the cultists of Morena. I was still in the guise of the Supreme Legate, and it was too late to change it now.
“Hey, Mogwai,” she chirped, crossing her arms. “I’d love to know how you got so many amazing cute pets! Are they all yours..? Hold on a sec!”
Kitty jumped off the gryphon, falling into the sand up to her knees, then trampled over, aimed an instrument on her wrist at me, pulled a string with a needle on the end out of it and jabbed it into my shoulder. Equanimity didn’t even bother activating, letting the needle into my flesh.
Flinching, I watched her actions in wonder, not knowing what to do — run away or stay. The option ‘take care of the witness’ didn’t occur to me — I liked Kitty.
After studying the instrument’s readouts, the gnome girl’s eyes widened. She pointed at me and shouted:
“Whoever you are, you aren’t Mogwai! I know who you are!”
“Who?”
“You’re Hammer-22!” Kitty announced in triumph and giggled. “Magic, magic… Science! My UPASI-18 told me…”
“UPASI-18?”
“Unique Personal Astral Signature Identifier,” Kitty explained. “It’s an experimental prototype from our guild’s engineering lab. The point is, you have the same astral signature as Hammer-22, which means you are Hammer-22! Hmm…”
I leaned down to her and saw a screen on her device with lines of text on it. Kitty read the latest lines and shook her head:
“Although, maybe the device is wrong — the heat seems to mess it up.” She shook the thing as if it was broken, shrugged. “Unfortunately, all the other UKIIs don’t match up!”
“UKIIs?”
“Units of Key Identifying Information. Sex, race, appearance, all that… Could the UPASI-18 be lying?”
“You said yourself, it’s an experimental prototype.”
Persuasion gave me conversation options, and the best one turned out to be honesty again. It seemed best to stick to that strategy.
“Alright, I won’t torture you. Yeah, I’m Hammer-22. My secret is that I can change my form.”
“So that’s it…” Kitty said thoughtfully.
“Want to see what I really look like?” Kitty nodded furiously and I removed Imitation, smiling broadly. “Hey, Kitty. My name is Scyth.”
Kitty jumped back and ran away, nearly falling over in the sand, but then stopped and carefully approached. She touched my face, felt my nose and chin, then suddenly screeched:
“Eeeeeee!” and jumped up and down on the spot. “Scyth! THE Scyth? Oh my gods, it’s really you? In the flesh? Hold on…”
She threw back her head and frowned.
“Right. You’re Scyth. You’re Hammer-22. And you’re Mogwai? No, Mogwai is attacking the Commonwealth right now, which means he isn’t you. You fought with Ervigot the Ravager. If my information is correct, then you fought with Harnathea the Ravager too! Wow, dude, this is a cause for celebration! I just came to see what all the fuss was about, and this is what I find!”
She ran to the gryphon and pulled a bag from her saddle. After digging around in it, she pulled out a magic self-writing quill and a ragged fat notebook in a leather binding, then peppered me with questions:
“First: was it you who managed to banish Ervigot? But how? And Harnathea — are they the same, or different? I’ve never seen a Ravager up close…”
I watched her perplexed face with a grin as she anxiously blew a disobedient lock of hair from her face and adjusted her hat, whose edges were decorated with the impressive teeth and claws of various monsters. I didn’t answer her.
Kitty fell silent under my amused gaze:
“What..?”
“Listen, Kitty, I’m kind of in a hurry right now. And more importantly, I can’t be open with you. But if you want…”
“I do want!”
“You didn’t let me finish. Once I’m done with my business, we can meet. I’ve been meaning to pay your guild a visit for a while now. Hunter Garr Alt… I helped him in Tristad and…”
The gnome girl’s already huge eyes expanded to cover half her face.
“You know Garrison Alt?” she breathed, moving closer to me.
“Well… yeah, so what?”
“The legend knows the legend…” Kitty whispered and began to pour sand from hand to hand. “Do you know his daughter Tirri too? Or his friend, Jennifer the battle mage?”
“I’m afraid not. I forgot my train of thought. Listen and don’t interrupt! Garr invited me to the Dangerous Game Hunters once. I think I’ll visit the guild a little later. I have something to share: information about the monsters of Holdest, Terrastera and the Lakharian Desert…”
“Wooaaah!” Kitty interrupted. “You have to come with me right now! To the guild HQ in Darant!”
“Are you even listening to me? I’m busy! If I don’t get things done right now, then I’ll get killed, and won’t be able to see anyone. But I promise I’ll pay the guild a visit.”
“Alright,” the explorer said, her voice trembling. “But then, will you let me study your pets? They’re so cuuute! Please please please!”
She clasped her hands in pleading.
“Alright, you have five minutes.”
“Ten! And I’ll feed them! I have an UNBAAG-14!” She raised a bag over her head, dropped it and started digging through it.”
“I don’t know if they’ll eat your…”
“Universal Nutritive Blend for Accelerated Animal Growth, version fourteen. Sure they will!” Kitty nodded so energetically that her hat fell off. “All animals love it…”
They all ate the food. Monty, a permanent
ly hungry animal, even asked for seconds. It was just a shame that the food’s buffs didn’t stack: +10% damage, +10% defense. I wouldn’t mind that buff myself, but it only worked on animals.
As a parting gift, Kitty gave me a Dangerous Animal Rider’s Bridle (+15% mounted movement speed). By then, a portal had opened in the temple ruins, and a building crew emerged from it — now mixed, not just dwarves. Among them was a troll in a bright red jacket and a pair of businesslike gnomes.
Once sure that nothing stood in the way of the work, I ordered Crash to defend them, then I flew south, to search for the village of Jiri. I hoped Grand Master of Unarmed Combat Oyama had recovered after his long journey through the astral plane, and would be ready to take on a new apprentice.
Path of Spirit (Disgardium Book #6): LitRPG Series Page 15