Unbound Deathlord: Obliteration (The Unbound Deathlord Series Book 2)

by Edward Castle

  He was an NPC.

  Artificial intelligence could do many things that humans couldn't. However, unless specifically developed for it, they weren't known for forming shadowy intrigues.

  Manhart was quite advanced in that aspect, but if I laid bare all the politics I had uncovered during the Challenge — the Resistance, High Lady Renno, the drow, the Unifiers, and everything else —, it was pretty basic stuff.

  Well, for me, anyways.

  He had expected me to fail in this quest and lose time in the process, probably just to make a point. This was an emotion-driven plot that I would only expect from someone with the political acumen of a child.

  Which an AI who'd had few dealings with humans certainly was.

  Damn.

  On the plus side, now that I knew I was wrong, it made the future much easier.

  The big question for now was why had I been summoned by the Water Goddess, who I now knew had nothing to do with Manhart, just to be murdered?

  Knowing that she was a real Goddess and that she had thousands of followers to command confirmed that the homicide attempt had not been an attempt at all.

  Why do that?

  Multiple possibilities passed through my mind, but I narrowed them to those that an NPC with limited intelligence could come up with, and arrived at a straightforward conclusion:

  Thirty-Seven, the elemental with a beautiful voice, didn't want me to have a good relationship with the Goddess and had set me up.

  I asked.

 

  It didn't surprise me that Daggers had noticed a specific rock elemental in the middle of thousands of them.

 

  I left the room and went straight to the big chamber. Daggers was right: it was big. Maybe huge was a better world.

  Round, with the floor made of what appeared to be pure gold, walls made of silver with bronze etchings, and a ceiling that was an invisible dome holding out a great deal of water above it, the place screamed grandeur.

  Elementals of all kinds were standing in circles, just as Daggers had said. But 'thousands' was a very low estimate on her part. There were tens of thousands of elementals in there.

  One circle was inside the other until they reached the Water Goddess, floating in the center.

  Watching her in person was even more impressive than in the painting. She was the most human-like of all elementals, with facial features and all, and her strands of liquid hair floated in the way human hair floated in water. Her eyes were golden, as was the light that radiated from her body.

  When I stepped inside the chamber, every single elemental turned to face me.

  I asked.

 

  It took me a few seconds, but I finally located her.

  "You! Female Rock Thirty-Seven!" I yelled while pointing at her. "Explain yourself, heathen who dared to betray the Holiest of Holies, the Water Goddess!"

  And as one, all elementals turned to face the direction of Thirty-Seven.

  I admit: I could now fully appreciate the appeal of using religion to direct the wrath of the world upon my enemies.

  22. Mixed Blessing

  The zombies remained in a defensive formation in the corridor.

  Daggers was just behind me, to my left. According to her, since I was right handed, my left side was my weak spot. Bear stood to my right.

  I had been wrong when I thought all elementals had turned to look at Thirty-Seven. The Goddess eyes were still staring straight at me.

  "You're right, deathlord," Thirty-Seven said, to my surprise. "I apologize to my Goddess." She bowed to the floating water elemental.

  Now, everyone looked at the Goddess. "Apologies accepted, my child," she said. Her voice was ethereal and her accent thick, it reminded me of Elvish from those old movies. "What about you, deathlord?"

  It wasn't a surprise that the Goddess would take sides in the dispute. My next words were to find exactly how biased she was. "I apologize for my sins." I also bowed.

  I had, after all, killed two stone elementals.

  "Apology accepted," she said simply. "Come closer, son of the dead." It wasn't a suggestion, and since I had no way to flee, my only choice was obeying.

  Two steps later, five wind elementals — transparent floating humanoids — flew to block our path. "Only the deathlord was called. The others must stay here."

  I couldn't see Daggers reaction because she was behind me but Bear put his hand on the hilt of this greatsword. I looked at the Goddess, and seeing that she didn't contradict the wind elementals, I put my hand on Bear's shoulder.

  I said.

  Although the Goddess could see Daggers, we weren't sure about the elementals. If my Blackguard companion could just ignore the minions to directly engage the boss, it would be a great help.

  I kept walking. The ranks of elementals broke before me to allow my passage until eventually I was in front of the divine water elemental.

  "So?" I asked.

  "It is true," she said. "You're an Archmage with Divine Acknowledgement." I could hear gasps from some elementals. "I can smell Ilishia's Paladin all over you. My sister is soft hearted, but she's not stupid. What did you do to receive such a boon?"

  Her words confirmed that this Water Goddess was indeed divine, or at least someone so close to it that she didn't fear calling Ilishia, a literal goddess, sister. Her threat level went up a lot in my mind.

  "I prayed to her," I replied, "and told her that my plans are for the good of all Valians, even if what I'll be doing soon may not look like it."

  Bear said. I ignored him.

  "And she believed you," the Goddess said. "Her Paladin must have spoken highly of you for her to do so. If that is-" She suddenly stopped speaking and her eyes squinted. "I can also smell a Holy Beast on you. It's faint, but it's there. Intriguing."

  A Holy Beast? When the hell had I met a Holy Beast? The closest thing to it that I could remember was either the Fallen Spider Queen or those tigers in the swamp. Or maybe that centaur.

  "May I inquire as to why that's intriguing?" I asked, engaging my best political decorum.

  "You may. Holy Beasts are the strongest of each animal species and highly aggressive. It probably saw you as too lowly to waste its time with you, but the weak imprint on you proves that you pleased it somehow. Such an imprint is an honor almost as great as being Acknowledged by my sister."

  The tigers, then. I had fed their pup and they had thanked me not only by allowing me to leave alive, but also by leaving this mark upon me.

  "Not to sound ungrateful but what's the use of an imprint?" I asked.

  "It has no direct use but it allows those that know what to look for know that you have come in contact with a Holy Beast. What others will think of it depends on them."

  I gulped. "May I inquire as to what the Great Water Goddess thinks about it?"

  She nodded. "You may. I think the Holy Beast saw a kindred wild spirit in you."

  “What do you mean?” I inquired.

  “My goblin worshipers provoked you, and you killed them. My mud worshipers left you alone, and you did likewise.

  "My rock elementals worshipers attacked you, and you killed them. When you saw the main offender in this room, you wanted to kill her. But when you saw the offender had the protection of a being too powerful for you to fight, you let it go. You also knew how to pray to obtain the favor of my sister.

  "I can tell the Holy Beast you found is a predator, because it's clear that you are as well. A crafty animal that chooses your enemies with care and attacks with ru
thlessness, but also knows when to back down. Your titles, Dark Archmage and Warlord emphasize this point."

  Bear cursed.

  Daggers said.

  And I agreed with both of them. That was some uncannily accurate deduction, and it was based on her very limited observation of me. It was also very interesting to see how my titles reflected my personality. Valia was much more complex than I gave it credit for.

  It also showed that while I had overestimated Manhart, I couldn't assume all NPC's AIs were as limited as his. This Goddess, for instance, seemed to have an intellect which surpassed even mine.

  It was scary as hell. It made me remember the main AI's suggestion of how to manipulate the new owners of V-Soft, the DIR, so that they wouldn't realize Valia wasn't producing real blackmail material until it was too late to do anything about it.

  It had been a long time since I had been humbled like that. I bowed deeply to the Goddess. "Your wisdom is boundless."

  "No, it is not. I merely understand things you don't." That wasn't incorrect, but that wasn't giving her enough credit either. Connecting dots may be easy in hindsight, but doing it with as little information as she had, was quite impressive.

  In fact, it made me start to wonder if the AI Rights Activists were right: should sufficiently advanced AIs be considered more human than machine?

  Not that it mattered to me; anything in the way of my revenge, human or machine, would be dealt with.

  She said nothing more, and I took the chance to speak. "Goddess, would you mind if I asked why you called me before you?"

  Her golden glow flashed brightly for an instant. "You're in a hurry. Why?"

  Way too smart for my taste. She could sense how my limited timetable was affecting me. Grandfather did provide me with some extra protection but it didn't make me impervious to whoever was investigating the murders on V-Soft. I had no time to waste.

  "Many reasons," I replied. "One of them is that the Paladin of Ilishia is coming here as we speak."

  "Why is that an issue?"

  "You don't mind Paladins of other divine entities coming here?" I was surprised by that. This whole place seemed quite secretive and Manhart had sounded quite excited about my discovery.

  "No, I don't. Your Blackguard worries me much more than Ilishia's lich. Order her to go back to being visible or I'll kill you right now." She didn't sound upset but I also didn't believe for a second that she was bluffing.

  I said.

 

  "Interesting," the Goddess said. "An unbound deathlord commanding a Blackguard. To answer your question, I brought you here because you were Acknowledged by my sister, and I wanted to see for myself what kind of person you were. I've seen enough."

  She floated higher and the ambience began to change. The light around her body shone brighter, the fire elementals burned like blast furnaces, the wind elementals roared like tornadoes, the water elementals surged like a stormy sea, and the rock elementals trembled as their stones ground together like an earthquake.

  When she spoke, her voice was much louder and firmer. "Let it be known that Yurani, the Goddess of Compassion, Creator of the Elementals, Chosen of the Elements, Speaker of the Mother's Love, Approves Jack Thorn!"

  A beam of golden light shot from her and hit me, filling my body with warmness.

  Status effect received: Divine Approval (level 2)

  Yurani has accepted Ilishia's Acknowledgement and Approved of you.

  » +10 Faithful

  Faithful increased to 11 (+10)

  Your interactions with the gods proves that you're someone with faith, no matter how well you may try to hide it.

  And boy, don't you hide it well?!

  » +11 charisma when dealing with gods (prayers included)

  Trait has evolved into Adept Faithful:

  » +2% bonus to status effects received from gods

  Level up!

  Current level: 34

  HP, MP and stamina restored

  Great, I had just received useless points in a useless trait. I was so happy.

  I hoped this at least meant that she would stay out of it when I enacted my plans, as Ilishia had agreed to do.

  The Goddess' light subdued and all the elementals returned to normal. She also floated back to her previous position.

  "Beware, son of the dead," she said, "not all gods are as easy to please as me. Now that you've begun on this Path, you will likely encounter hardships as you move on."

  I frowned. "Sorry? What path?"

  "My sister didn't inform you?" She sounded surprised. "By receiving the Acknowledgement of a god, you are now treading the Path of the Faithful. You must please nine others after me to complete the Path and receive the Sovereign Paladin title."

  Well, it wasn't that bad. Or so I thought, until she continued speaking.

  "However," she said, "if you fail to receive a god's Approval, you will be killed and the Acknowledgement will be lowered by one level."

  "Wait, what?!" That didn't sound good. "And other gods will just randomly call me to test me like you just did?"

  "Yes, if you approach one of their Avatars." She didn't sound happy with my tone.

  Screw her, I hadn't asked for the extra danger in my life and I wouldn't be polite after two goddesses in a row had decided to endanger my life. Still, it was a good opportunity to get information.

  "Avatar?" I asked.

  "You don't believe this is my true body, do you? This is but a spirit fragment possessing a wild elemental."

  It was almost like what Manhart had said. "Wild elemental?"

  "Recently formed elementals who had not been possessed by a free spirit." She sounded upset.

  "Free spirit?"

  "Enough!" She bellowed. "Before you ask, no, I will not remove the Approval. I gave it as a blessing, but now, let it be your punishment for acting so insolent before me."

  A green stone appeared out of nowhere in front of her and shot towards me. I threw myself out of the way and it nestled itself into the deep dent it had made in the gold floor.

  "Another god has contacted me; he is interested in you," she said. "That is the key that opens the door to the castle. Take it and conquer the castle, or you will fail his test and be killed."

  Great. Just great. The good news was that it aligned well with my current quest. The bad news was I had even more divine jackasses trying to order me around. Dying if I failed wasn't great either.

  Unhappily, since I had no choice in the matter, I took the stone from the ground. It was perfectly round and a little larger than my fist. "Just two more questions, oh-so-almighty benevolent Water Goddess." I didn't give her time to say no. "First, how the hell do I get back? Second, who's the asshole who wants me to conquer the castle?"

  She looked like she had eaten something rotten. "Go back to the Portal Chamber you came from and I'll activate it. As for the god, who else would it be but Edward, the one who created the castle?"

  That calmed me a little. That Edward might be in the castle, and if I passed his test, I might be able to ask him to stop this whole thing. I had no interest whatsoever in being led around on an invisible leash by the gods.

  I turned and stormed out of the chamber, going directly to the room where we'd first entered the Temple.

  As soon as I stepped inside, I was teleported back to the room with the doors we'd tried to excavate around.

  Daggers was the first to appear after me, followed by Bear and the rest of the zombies. After ordering them to prepare, I took the green stone and touched the lightsteel door with it.

  The door slowly and soundlessly slid into the ground, revealing walls and a ceiling also made of lightsteel. It was the first time I saw how thick it was: almost five meters of pure metal. On the top of the door, which now served as part of the floor, there was a purple star shining brightly. As I'd detected, it had been sealed by gravity magic. On the other side of the door, I c
ould see... Another door.

  I said.

  The new door was made of darksteel. I used the green stone again andinstead of sliding downwards, this door slid to the right. It was also five meters thick, and had the purple star on its left, and behind it was yet another lightsteel door. I sighed.

  When it finished opening, I touched the third one with the stone. As it began to slide upwards, Daggers spoke to me.

 

  I did. Seems the asshole who'd designed the castle thought it would be a good idea for the first door to close as the third was opening. Yes, it made sense as a protective design for a castle, but I didn't have to like it.

  "Come on!" I told everyone. "I can't conquer the castle and all its riches alone!"

  For obvious reasons, they didn't look thrilled to come, but they still obeyed. After door number three came door number four, made of darksteel.

  The fourth door slid left while the second one closed, and finally, behind door number four, I could see something other than metal.

  A large farm was located in a gigantic room made of lightsteel. Glowing yellow orbs the size of a man floated everywhere providing a constant, warm light.

  A wide variety of plants were growing in the soil that covered the entire place, from flowers to fruits, from brushes to trees. Most of the trees pressed against the ceiling four meters above.

  All this flora was being tended by fairies, pretty, little and scantily clad women, with delicate translucent wings which released delicate sparkles that slowly fell as they passed. They used some special magic that didn't use morbs: they made water appear out of nowhere to irrigate the plants, moved soil here and there, and collected fruits and vegetables into floating baskets.

  It was an unexpectedly beautiful scene.

  Bear said.

  Some of the nearest fairies looked at us, but didn't seem to mind our presence. Both the third and fourth doors began to slide shut behind us as we entered the farm. Looking back, I saw that the last door, made of darksteel, had a thin layer of lightsteel on this side. When closed, it merged on the wall and it was impossible to tell that there was a secret door here.