by Dakota Krout
“Feces.” Dale twisted in the air and landed on his feet, looking over at a scene from earlier in the day. Undead were rushing to the conflict, and Mana was zipping through the air, charging it with power. People were bashing each other at full strength, but thus far, no one had been too injured.
“Are you all as insane as the man sitting up there and giggling at you?” Barry appeared over the battle and screamed at the people below him. “Enough of this, you are all mine.”
Green light coalesced in front of his mouth, and his eyes went blank. He breathed out, and a thick green mist coated everyone below him. Fear filled Dale; Barry hadn’t particularly cared about accuracy, and the wall of fog was rapidly approaching him. The Master appeared next to Barry and shoved a single finger into the crackling energy. Lines of black and silver raced over Barry’s technique, and the fog split and rushed back to him. Barry shuddered and fell to the ground gasping.
“I was gone for thirty minutes,” The Master snarled, his fury palpable and crashing over the assembled people. “You are telling me that you couldn’t even go for a full hour without trying to kill each other? I’m disappointed in my people. As for the rest of you, thank you for reinforcing our stereotypes against you the very first chance that you got.”
The necromancers recoiled like they had been whipped, but the Mages would have ignored The Master if it were possible. “Greed, avarice, fear of the unknown or something different. That is how you are seen by my people. I will change how all of you interact with each other, by force if needed. If you cannot change, you will not last long in this new world order.”
There was silence that lasted only until the two sides had retreated a few dozen feet from each other. Then they all began talking, grumbling, perhaps plotting. The Master shook his head and turned to leave. Dale took the opportunity to call out to him, “Excuse me! The Master!”
The Master appeared in front of him on the ground, seemingly just an average man in damaged robes. “Who are you and why should I care about what you have to say?”
“Yeah. This is just as intimidating as I expected it would be, thanks for that.” Dale swallowed and tried again. “So, The Master, I was-”
“Just call me ‘Master’ when you are talking to me.” The man rolled his eyes and motioned for Dale to continue.
“Right. Listen, I am the owner of the flying dungeon, at least legally with the Guild. That’s not the point of this, though!” Dale promised when The Master started to snarl. “I’m not asking for special treatment; I’m just trying to establish my credibility with you! Listen, I had a council of people that helped me choose the best path for increasing our abilities and that of the dungeon. The entire point of it was to see things that other people didn’t and try for the best outcome. I’m… I’m rambling, sorry. Listen, I want us to work together.”
“I’m not overly interested.” The Master started to turn but paused at Dale’s next words.
“My council consisted of the Dark Elf Princess Brianna, King Henry, Queen Marie, High Mageous Amber of the portal guild, and Madame Chandra,” Dale’s voice firmed. He didn’t include Tyler; there was no benefit to telling The Master things that wouldn’t matter to him. “Chandra has been trying to advocate for you, for peace, and for discussion ever since you reappeared in the world. Not only that but we, together, represent a large portion of the races’ leadership. Please, come with me and talk to them. We may be helpful, certainly more so than you seem to think we will be.”
The Master was considering; Dale could see it and so didn’t interrupt. The Master shifted on his feet and shrugged. “Why not? At worst, I might even be able to have a conversation with… an old friend.”
Dale and The Master walked together through the middle of the fortifications, drawing whispers and causing strange conversations to start. As they walked past a tight-knit group, a familiar face stepped forward. Thomas Adams, the man who had lost his Nobility, had a look of absolute glee on his face. “I should have known. Of course you were helping the necromancers; it all makes sense now!”
“Shut your mouth, or I’ll break your nose again and mess up your face bad enough that it’ll take a flesh Mage a month to fix it.” Dale’s aura shifted, and bright flames dripped from his fingers.
Thomas smirked and bowed sarcastically, stepping back into his group. “Yes, overlord.”
Dale and The Master walked on, but now Dale was fuming. “I hate rumors. I do. Why are people morons, though? The planet won’t survive the moon smashing into it! Why can’t we fix the issues we are having before playing these games?”
A small smile played over The Master’s lips. “It is interesting to hear my words spoken by someone entirely different from my own people.”
They walked in silence for a few more feet, but then The Master asked a question that nearly made Dale fall over, “So you and the dungeon share a soul. How did that happen?”
Chapter Fifty-two
Dale’s head was spinning. “How in the world do you know that? I swear if you say ‘you just told me’, I’m going to be so mad.”
“Dale. Dale, right? I’m not great with names. You’d think with a perfect memory…” He trailed off, noticing Dale’s stare. “Souls are kind of my thing, aren’t they? I can see at a glance that not only are your souls linked, they are actually the same.”
“You aren’t a necromancer, though; how do you see souls?” Dale countered, getting a rush of pleasure from the shock on The Master’s face.
“How do you know that?”
“You just told-”
The Master cut him off impatiently, “None of that; I didn’t do it to you. This is actually important.”
Dale stammered out a reply, “Um. Madame Chandra has told us that several times.”
“So she knew. I had hoped, but this entire time, she knew it wasn’t me who…” The Master stopped talking, but if Dale wasn’t terrified of the man he would have shaken the rest of the sentence out of him. “To think… all this time I was afraid she would despise me. Perhaps we could even…”
“Dale? What are you doing with him? If we needed him, I would have found him.” Princess Brianna was looking up from a table that had apparently been grown in that spot, and she did not look happy. At least it hadn’t been The Master’s fault that her mother had been slain to power the Runes floating in the sky. That would have made this conversation extra awkward.
“We are here to discuss what we need to do to combat Xenocide,” Dale firmly stated, meeting her eyes. “The Master is by far the most powerful person that will be joining us in this venture, so he needs to be informed of the plan as well as be a part of it.”
“The Master,” Chandra greeted the man cordially, if a bit coldly. Dale swore that there was a hint of pain in The Master’s eyes for a moment, but any personal feelings were swiftly hidden behind his standard stoic facade.
“Madame. It is good to hear that you achieved your childhood desire.” The Master spoke politely, but his words caused her face to twist in a strange series of emotions: sadness, anger, pain… longing?
“And you, yours. I am happy for you but not for the world. Your dreams were built upon the death of thousands.” Chandra stared at him, and he shrugged.
“What can I say? I am a product of my environment.” His flippant answer almost brought tears to her eyes, and she turned her head to look away. Dale really, really wished he knew what was going on. He also knew that asking right now would only gain him silence, possibly anger if they were both hurting like he thought they were.
Dale decided that the best course of action was to move on quickly and try to pry the story out of them if they all survived. “I’m very sorry to interrupt, but there may be a moon crashing into us in the near future… I’d like to stop that from happening.”
“Fine.” The Master tore his eyes off of Chandra and focused on Dale.
“Fine.” Madame Chandra did the same.
*Ahem.* Dale cleared his throat as arguably the most powe
rful people in the world turned their full attention on him. His full council, The Master, and Barry were now around the table, staring at him with various levels of amusement or animosity. “Before anything else, we need to discuss what we know. One: Xenocide has set in motion a plan to crash the moon into the planet.”
“Hello!” a voice drifted down to them. Brianna closed her eyes in annoyance and inhaled sharply, but Dale ignored Xenocide and continued.
“Two: we would like to stop this from happening. Three: this Runescript is powered by the death of over a dozen S-ranked people. Can either of you shed some light on what that means for us?” Dale looked at Barry and The Master, who shrugged.
“Entering the S-ranks means becoming more,” Barry stated abruptly, catching Dale off guard. He hadn’t exactly been forthcoming in the past. More… murder hobo? “It is the final act of understanding the law that you have bound yourself to. It is becoming an incarnation of that law. This is different for each person, so attempting to tell you how best to disperse their combined power? Laughable.”
“I hate to agree with the walking stomach, but he is correct,” The Master grudgingly stated. “For those Runes to have absorbed all of the variations… it must be powerful beyond compare. The dungeon literally dropped a mountain on it from near-orbit, and it made a hairline crack. I had thought I was about to die, or I would have stopped the dungeon myself. Releasing that much concentrated power into the area would have devastated the entire continent.”
“Wait, I saw that! You stopped Xenocide from moving to block Mountaindale? Does that mean you were fine with all of us dying?” Brianna’s voice was filled with horror at how close their demise had brushed by them.
“I thought I was going. I planned to take him with me.” The Master spoke without a trace of regret. “At least there would have been survivors. Somewhere. Most likely.”
No one had an answer to that, so Dale, once again, had to get the conversation moving. “What were we at? Third? So, third-”
“Fourth,” Tyler interjected, squirming as soon as eyes landed on him. “Um, we were at number four.”
“A mortal?” Barry looked at Tyler with twitching eyebrows. “How are you here and alive?”
“I, um, sir, I came down to hand out supplies and specialty weapons. I have a weapons shop that-”
Tyler was cut off as Dale continued, “So fourth in our list, we know that the Runes above us seem to power down when the moon is hidden by the curvature of the earth.” Dale resolutely ignored the looks he was getting from the others. “What we need to do is find a way to stop those Runes from working, stop the moon from crashing into us, and find a way to survive Xenocide through all of this.”
“That sounds difficult!” Xenocide chimed in from hundreds of feet above them. “However will we make it happen?”
“That is actually a good question, but we need him not to hear us.” Dale sighed as Xenocide chuckled.
“I can do that.” The Master looked around, gauging the distance around them, and grunted. Something odd happened to the air, and all sound from outside of their group was cut off. All the light vanished as well, though Dale’s sunlight aura fixed that easily. “We are not technically in a different plane of existence, but we are cut off from outside influences here. We have about thirty minutes of air, less if anyone panics.”
He looked pointedly at Tyler, who did his best to regulate his air intake. Dale looked around at all of the people, getting ready for the inevitable arguments. “So what does everyone think we should do?”
“We can’t beat Xenocide, and we can’t outright destroy the Runes.” Madame Chandra tapped her chin as she thought out loud. “I guess that leaves-”
“Blowing up the moon!” Barry finished her sentence with his own thoughts.
“Idiot,” Chandra spat out. “How did you ever reach the rank you have attained? I was going to say compromising with Xenocide to stop this from happening. Not everything needs to be about killing. Perhaps there is something he wants.”
“How likely is it that he is actually going to go through with this? He is going to die too if the planet is destroyed!” Brianna growled with a tired voice. “He would have to be-”
“Insane?” The Master finished for her with an arched eyebrow. “I think that has been established. If this is how he plans to reach into the Heavenly rankings, nothing we will ever do will be enough to stop him. No, what we need is a way to get rid of those Runes. They are working to bind the moon, but I don’t think that the earth is being pulled as well or there would be other things happening to us. Could we get the Runes off this planet? Have the moon dragged elsewhere? For celestial’s sake, just bury them! If the curvature of the earth is enough, put them in a pit and cover them up!”
Silence greeted this suggestion, and it was the only option that sounded viable. Destruction was impossible without mutually assuring their own demise, and negotiation was also out. Redirection… that might be possible. Dale looked over at High Mageous Amber. “This is your area of expertise. Is it possible?”
“Putting them in a pit? No. There is a difference between a layer of dirt and the entire planet being between them. The other option? Getting rid of them? It depends on the amount of time we have to make this happen. If we are talking days… it is unlikely. If we have weeks and a way to generate the Runes and resources needed, then maybe. If it were as simple as waving a hand… humph. Xenocide must have spent decades putting all of this together. The Runes were fueled with S-rank power to function, yes, but his setup cost over a hundred thousand bodies and their blood, not to mention the Essence and Mana they had accrued. Ritual magic is poorly understood, but it is powerful.” Amber shook her head and fell silent.
“The dungeon is our answer to all of this.” Dale’s eyes were wide, and pieces were starting to fit together. “It can create perfect Runes, it can generate materials, and it uses rituals for various things. I’ve seen it. Rituals are just well-connected and timed Runescript after all, aren’t they?”
“If you want to use the most generalized thoughts on the subject, how you would explain it to a child, then yes, that is what rituals are.” The Master smirked at Dale’s eye roll. “No one has dared to scoff at me in a decade or more. It’s… I forget if I dislike it. I think you have a point. We need to bring this to the dungeon. If it will work with us… we may be able to make this work. We might all survive.”
“I’ll ensure that ritual magic is taboo after this,” Barry quietly muttered. “The only use it has is to destroy, and the cost is too high. It is an unsustainable magic, tricks for people who don’t have personal power. A joke.”
“A joke that could kill us all, Barry.” Chandra’s voice was a whiplash. “The Master, can you return us to our previous location on the dungeon so that we can get this project moving?”
The Master nodded solemnly. Sound and light washed over them a moment later. A necromancer ran over, braving the hostile looks from the people he passed. “Master! Something is happening to the undead! We can’t prove who is doing this to our summons, but somehow, someone here is severing our link to them.”
The Master looked over the assembled people coldly. “Right now, this doesn’t matter. Bring everyone here. Everyone. We are going to the dungeon.”
Chapter Fifty-three
I was maintaining a five kilometer minimum distance from Xenocide. I knew it wouldn’t help if I upset him or he decided to destroy me, but I was taking an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach. I was trying to, at least, but every time we looked at the projection, he would look at me, and our gazes would lock. He would always wave, too. No idea how he knew when or knew where I was watching from. Even my vision was passive light collection; I wasn’t sending anything back out!
“One moment
, Cal.” Dani’s distracted voice told me that she was trying to stop Grace from doing something. Her next words confirmed that. “Grace somehow lit this thing on fire, and I can’t put it out. Not only that, but it keeps… I’d almost say dodging?”
“She was playing with the Golems, and one of them broke.” Dani growled as the fireball hopped away. “She started playing with the broken chunks, and…”
“What are you talking about, Cal?” Dani was trying to kill the fireball by staring at it, I could just tell. She didn’t like Grace playing with ‘dangerous’ materials. I decided not to tell her about the lightning room I had built to train Grace’s dodging abilities.
I waited for a response, but I’d have been there all day if I’d have waited for a comment. None was forthcoming.
I pulled a Core filled with water corruption and Mana over and wrapped it in Gallium, then modeled the pattern of Mana release from the tiny fireball.
There was no reaction. I mentally prodded the double-fist sized item and waited a second longer.
“I have an idea.” Dani directed the water she had been using, spraying the mineral-wrapped Core. Instead of spraying everywhere, the water hit and collected on the surface. Soon, there was a massive blob of water twisting and turning. It looked around, at least I assume, before spotting the tiny fireball and chasing it. I wanted to see what would happen, so I let the blob catch the fireball. The fire persisted but was quickly growing dim. The water in that spot began boiling, but then the fire Core cracked, and Mana spilled into the water. Steam started pouring off the blob, but it neither dissipated nor was reabsorbed. A quick check told me that the elemental had eaten the Core and used the material it was wrapped in to upgrade itself.