by Azalea Ellis
Gods of Myth and Midnight
Azalea Ellis
Copyright © 2018 by Azalea Ellis
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Book Description
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Forum Page 1
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Forum Page 2
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Forum Page 3
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Also by Azalea Ellis
About the Author
Book Description
Blurb:
My name is Eve Redding. I accidentally initiated the apocalypse.
Earth had just been plunged into interplanetary war with a far superior alien race. Half my teammates had the Sickness, a disease with no known cure, which drove you crazy as it killed you. I was being blackmailed into doing nothing about either issue by a queen who was afraid of my power and didn't believe in the prophecy of the gods.
With basically no idea what I was doing, I set out to fix everything I'd broken.
Gods of Myth and Midnight is the third book in the Seeds of Chaos series, a LitRPG/GameLit book that combines science fiction and game elements. Fans of Ready Player One, Red Rising, and The Hunger Games will likely enjoy this series.
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To Jared. Even as you walk through the valley of Death.
Chapter 1
Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.
— Arthur Miller
A tingling wave spread through my body, each thud of my heart sending blood rushing through my ears with a drum-like thunder, till it drowned out all other sound. Queen Mardinest had just declared war. On Earth. I drug my eyes away from the screen, where ships were still flying through the array, and looked at her.
She was already staring at me, as if she’d anticipated my response. When our eyes met, she gave me a slow, predatory smile, and dipped her head in a shallow bow.
I drew in a shuddering gasp of rage, and the tips of my fingers quivered in response. But my claws did not extend. That tingling wave rocked through me again, and, completely against my will, I relaxed. My body moved without my consent, like a puppet on strings.
The sudden lack of control was disorienting. I grew dizzy. I pushed against the relaxation, a reflex as quick as catching yourself when you start to trip. Instead, my body stayed calm, and my face settled into a mask of sober dignity.
Wraith lashed out of me, sending my awareness exploding through the room as I searched for the source of the attacking Skill. The glow of power coming off all the Estreyans present was bright enough to obscure any individual person. However, most of them were looking at the screen. A few reporters had gathered their wits enough to turn back to the queen and my team, and the eyes of the guards on the outskirts of the room roved, but only a few of them showed the flaring glow of an active Skill.
As my mouth twitched involuntarily into a subtle smile, my awareness climbed upward to the inward-facing balcony looking down on the main floor of the throne room.
A blonde Estreyan man, wearing a circlet similar to the one around Torliam’s head, stood there looking down on the dais, power blazing from him.
A Window in front of my face made my heart sink.
—I can’t move, and I can’t use my Skill. She must have planned this.—
-Adam-
I reached for Chaos, but after a surge of Seed-glow indicating Skill use from the man on the balcony, my mental grasp slipped off of my own power. A few thin wisps of dark-tendriled destruction grated against my armor before dissipating, ineffectual and unfocused.
The reporters had regained their composure and turned their attention, and recording devices, back to the queen and my group. The ensuing barrage of shouted questions struck a blow to my already frazzled concentration.
As the last of the ships left Estreyer through the array, Queen Mardinest raised her hands to the room, motioning for quiet.
One of the kiddos let out half a whimper, quickly choked off.
I sent a Window to all the members of the team with VR chips, which only excluded Torliam and Birch.
—We’re being controlled. It’s the guy on the balcony above us. I can feel him fighting back when I try to act.—
-Eve-
—He can’t be stronger than all of us, yeah? We just gotta bust through.—
-Jacky-
—Good idea. He can’t keep this up forever.—
-Eve-
I turned Wraith on my teammates.
Gregor flickered for a fraction of a second as he tried to activate Shadow and failed.
Blaine’s suit whirred softly as if preparing for action, but he didn’t move.
Zed’s fingers trembled as if reaching for something, though I didn’t know if he was trying for his gun or his Skill.
Birch managed to kick up a wind before our controller’s power clamped down on him.
Torliam’s body language was as calm as my own, but when my awareness brushed against his skin, I could feel his pulse running fast through his neck.
He shuddered minutely, and his muscles spasmed, even as my own grip on Wraith slipped away.
My attention frayed and my sensory ability regressed to the limited capabilities of my physical body. The man above was clamping down on his control of me, apparently.
Once the room was suitably hushed, Queen Mardinest ran her gaze over the assembled reporters, shoulders thrown back in arrogant pride.
I reached for Chaos again. My mind seemed to fumble stupidly and I got so little power that it wasn’t even visible beyond a faint haze close to my skin.
“My people have been working tirelessly to uncover the extent of the atrocities committed by the Earthlings,” she said. “We discovered much. They have stolen our technology and used that to come to our world in secret, petitioning our gods for power.”
A murmur of outrage welled up in the rapt crowd.
“They jailed and to
rtured a member of the royal family.” She took a deep breath, and, even behind her, I could feel the force of her presence, a righteous kind of anger that encouraged my heart to pound.
—We need to coordinate. Push, every five seconds, together. Maybe we can overwhelm him that way.—
-Eve-
“They have taken the Sickness and mixed it with another disease meant to weaken us. In doing so, they have created a new horror. Their weapon, cruelly tested and grown in their own people, will destroy our blood-borne power so that we are as weak and feeble as them, and as if that were not violation enough, it will infect those who receive it with the taint of the Sickness, purposefully.”
Was that how Chanelle has gotten the Sickness? Through the meningolycanosis? But I was pretty sure NIX had no idea about the Sickness. I pushed the distracting thought away, and continued to struggle for command of my body and my Skills as my teammates did the same.
Up above, the man with the circlet pushed back, but my awareness spread out from my body a little further each time, and the air around my body writhed with little gusts of warmth created by Chaos.
“These brave warriors have agreed to go through the array to Earth to neutralize this threat before it becomes even greater. In doing so, we also save the Earthlings from themselves. They are too foolish to realize that the Sickness can never be a true ally, and will turn on their own people just as it attempts to destroy ours.”
She paused, and my Skill sensed her eyes flick upward to the spot where our puppeteer stood. “We will not allow their madness to reach our world, to hurt our loved ones and our children. They will not destroy us. We will not rest till their depraved leaders and Sickness-infected warriors are ground to dust.” She bowed crisply, her body held stiff.
After a pause, she straightened. “Questions will be accepted by my son Reglium, who has returned from his diplomatic endeavors to lend his aid in this time of need.” She gestured to the stairs leading down from the balcony, which grew out of the wall behind us, and the man in the circlet descended, then cut across the room toward us. He entered my field of vision as he walked past, stepping onto the dais to stand by his mother.
I raged against his control and felt the hair on the back of my neck tremble from the restrained power tingling in the air around me.
He almost stumbled, but caught himself, breathing a little too hard.
My body stood, along with the others on the team, except for Adam, and bowed to the reporters.
Queen Mardinest raised a hand in silent farewell, and walked away, stepping through the subtle door behind the raised dais and her throne, which led into a nondescript hallway.
I followed her, my face still refusing to twist into the visage of snarling rage I demanded.
My eyes caught on Adam’s for a moment. He was white-faced with pain, being carried between Blaine in his mecha suit and Torliam. Without access to his Skill, he had no way to move on his own. I took small comfort in the fact that Reglium obviously couldn’t control our Skills enough to use them, only suppress our ability to access them.
I stumbled as the doors of the throne room closed behind us. My body continued to move under Reglium’s control, but it grew clumsier as we walked further from him and the throne room.
What was Queen Mardinest’s plan? It seemed obvious she couldn’t keep us under direct control indefinitely. Sure, she’d kept us from speaking out against the invasion of Earth and made it seem like we agreed with her decisions. But she’d made an enemy of us in doing so. Which meant she thought she could handle us as an enemy, despite our recent success in killing a god and the political power that had gained us.
—Is she taking us somewhere to kill us?—
-Gregor-
—No. Don’t worry. She would never get away with that. She’s going to threaten us. She needs our cooperation.—
-Eve-
Queen Mardinest led us to a nearby room with a thick stone door and no windows. Four Estreyans waited inside, one woman and three men. They bowed to her when we entered.
I sensed the glow of their power and knew we couldn’t win against them easily.
The door closed behind us with an ominous finality, and I almost fell on my face as Reglium’s tingling Skill released my body. My claws slid out as I regained my balance.
Adam jerked his arms away from Blaine and Torliam, spilling ink from a cartridge at his waist. The ink swirled up and wrapped around his legs and torso, supporting and stabilizing them, then sprouted eight spider-like legs to hold him aloft.
Blue mist wafted off Torliam, as he took in the waiting Estreyans and then looked to the queen. He spoke in his native language, his words deliberate and tightly controlled. “What are you doing, Mother?”
Jacky grew to match my height and a little more, stepping up beside me with a quick glance to make sure she stood securely in front of the kids.
Blaine’s mecha suit loaded ammunition into the arm thrusters.
“I am doing what must be done,” Queen Mardinest said, her clenched fists nearly white with tension. “The humans are helping the Sickness to destroy us all. I will stop it, even if I must raze that vermin-infested planet to the ground.” Her voice fairly dripped with vitriol. “I will not allow you to stop me.”
Torliam shook his head. “We, too, wish to stop the Sickness! Why are you acting against us? We could have spoken of this—”
She slashed her hand through the air, and he clenched his jaw shut. There was no Skill at work to silence him, only her authority and the granite-like hardness of her expression.
I ran my eyes over the other Estreyans in the room. To be there, Queen Mardinest must have believed they could subdue us. We were strong, but I couldn’t unleash Chaos’ full destructive capabilities while trapped in a room with my teammates, and I knew that we still weren’t a match for a group of elite Estreyan warriors. “Is diplomacy not an option?” I said. “You have assaulted my team without warning, without an attempt to come to an understanding. Have you done the same to the humans of Earth?”
“We are humans,” Blaine said, his voice steady. “Earth is our home, and we are the very solution to that Sickness you so want to eradicate.”
Queen Mardinest laughed.
Birch growled, a low rumble I could feel as he pressed himself against my leg.
“There is no cure to the Sickness.” Her voice held no doubt, and I knew things were about to get worse. “The best of us have been trying to find an answer, for thousands of years. The Sickness is now defeating even the gods. And what can you do? You killed the God of Knowledge, yes. Do you now know how to cure the Sickness? If so, show me this miracle. You have infected among your own teammates, surely you would heal them if you could!” She slashed her hand toward Chanelle and the kids, who stood half-hidden at the back of the group.
I steeled myself against the crushing power in her words. “I do not have the cure, that is true. But I also have one gift remaining from the Oracle, and we have not yet found the Champion. Who, if I may remind you, is likely on Earth. It is the reason your son came to my planet in the first place.”
She spat on the ground.
Torliam flinched, as if she’d slapped him. “Mother. There is hope. The Goddess of Testimony and Lore has marked us. Eve is a descendant of the line of Matrix. We have defeated a god.” Torliam’s voice shook. “I knew you did not believe me before, but I have proof now.”
She turned to Torliam. “My son, I know you do not want to believe this. However, I realized when your sister Tonila died that there is no future for our world. How many times have our people found some new hope, only for it to be crushed? It is a cruel game.”
Ah. Well, that changed things. If Queen Mardinest did not believe in a cure to the Sickness, there was no incentive for her to ally with us, no influence we could use to adjust her actions.
Torliam stared at his mother, blinking a little too fast, as if trying to understand what he was seeing.
“So why did you act like
you believed?” Adam burst out.
“I could not do otherwise, unless I wished to kill you all before word of your presence spread. As a ruler, it cannot be said there is any possibility of curing the Sickness which I do not attempt. It is not expected for these attempts to truly succeed. I needed to buy time and political goodwill for myself. You are my son,” she said, her voice softening only a little as she looked at Torliam. “I did not wish to have you killed, though I did not believe any of you would survive your ill-conceived attack on the God of Knowledge.”
I narrowed my eyes, the tips of my claws scraping against my armor. “But we’re still alive.”
“Indeed. This puts me in a difficult position. I still have no wish to kill you, if I do not have to. Nevertheless, I cannot allow you to interfere with the ruling of my people, or to try and stop me from doing what must be done out of sentiment for your parent race or fanatical belief in something that will never be.”
I knew we’d finally arrived at the threat. She couldn’t just kill us, not while we were so high in the public eye.