Gods of Myth and Midnight: A LitRPG Novel (Seeds of Chaos Book 3)

by Azalea Ellis

  “There are many people who have been hurt at no fault of their own,” I said. “Not only your fellow Estreyans, but the people of Earth as well. I have many, many people in need of healing. But,” I paused, looking around the room. “All those who come to me for healing will receive it, as long as I have strength.” Voice pulsed subtly in the air, and the Estreyans shivered. The Sickness was so hated that protection against it would earn me a good amount of loyalty, even if these warriors were supposed to be sworn to the queen. “I will examine any here who wish it for signs of infection. I will be able to tell, even if symptoms have not yet begun, and I will eradicate it from any of you that it has hidden within.”

  Jarrel confirmed my words and my ability with exuberance, and the rest fairly fell over each other offering me and my teammates seats, and then argued over who would be checked first. Under the captain’s strict orders, they formed a line, every Estreyan on the ship waiting for my attention, including herself.

  My teammates ate the warrior’s food while I worked.

  The Estreyans knelt before me, one by one, a hand outstretched to be pricked. The lance showed me their design and came away clean of blood every time. Most of them were healthy. But I found a few that had the Sickness, in varying degrees of progression. Those who had it, I told. And then I healed them.

  By the time the ship stopped its leisurely flight toward the middle of the city, I had finished with the ship’s crew. Some of them had cried, or were crying. Some had sworn their eternal allegiance to me, or offered me a payment of whatever valuable thing they owned. One had even tried to get me to agree to take his child as a ward, to grow up in my household and become a loyal warrior or servant to me.

  I accepted the loyalty, and turned down any other rewards, forcing myself not to turn away from the expressions of gratitude. It wasn’t right, that these people should ever have been so desperate as to react like this in the face of hope. Estreyans were supposed to be strong and proud. I had wanted their loyalty and admiration. I had wanted to bind the people to me, so that they would give me power by the force of their belief. But watching as a grown man sobbed, falling to his knees as he thanked me over and over… It made me feel like a horrible fraud.

  The destroyer opened up a port in its side, and the ship we were on slipped into it, settling down on a floor made of rippling alien material.

  “I will take you to Commander Levier now,” the captain said. “And I thank you, Eve-Redding. If you need aid, you may call on me. On any of us.”

  “I may need your help shortly,” I said, smiling ever so slightly. “I’m planning to stop the attack on the Earthlings and supersede Queen Mardinest’s power. If she is not cooperative, I will remove her from her throne. Is that going to be a problem?”

  “Queen Mardinest?” Milan said, frowning. “Is she not your ally as well?”

  “I thought she was, too. But I was a threat to her power. She aimed to…remove that threat, disregarding our search for the Champion.”

  Milan’s mouth tightened. “I see,” she said, the words heavy with meaning. “No, it will not be a problem. I know where the loyalty of my people should lie.”

  Torliam turned to me, his eyes heavy with the significance of the captain’s words. Estreyans valued their honor. They did not take the decision to commit treason lightly.

  Chapter 34

  A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

  — John F. Kennedy

  The destroyer seemed even bigger on the inside than it did from outside. Captain Milan escorted us through the massive structure that had been carved out of a still semi-sentient alien creature.

  Guards stopped us along the way, some of them seeming hopeful and awed when they saw me, others demanding proof of my identity or shooting me angry scowls.

  "I know Queen Mardinest must have sent some communication to your forces about me," I murmured to Milan. "Whatever it was caused the last squad I tried to talk with to attack and attempt to capture me and my team."

  "We were given false information, it must be," the captain said, her voice hesitant, eyes searching my expression as if she were afraid of my anger. "She said that you were eschewing your duties to Estreyer, abandoning your search for the Champion in order to save your people's lives. We were commanded to capture and return you to Estreyer."

  I snorted. "We were forced to escape Queen Mardinest partly so that she did not have us murdered in our sleep, but also because she refused to let us continue our search for a cure, especially if that search led us to Earth. Do you anticipate this causing dissension between me and your commander? I do not wish to find myself attacked and imprisoned before being able to speak to him properly and explain what has happened."

  "I do not believe so. If anything were to happen, I will fight by your side." She nodded to me, then to my teammates.

  "Let us start the conversation with the cure," Torliam said. "That should forestall any hasty actions on his part."

  "If they don't listen, I'll open the Veil," Zed said.

  The captain swallowed and paled, giving him a sideways glance. "Let it not come to that. We will kill them with blade and bow if we must. Commander Levier is stubborn, but he is an honorable warrior, and deserves a clean death.”

  Zed frowned. “Okay…?” He looked to Torliam in question.

  “There are stories of the other side of the Veil. Souls are said to be trapped there forever, tortured without the ability to die. Stories talk of ghosts, evil things coming through from it, and various tales for the purpose of frightening the listener. This has no correlation to your Skill, I believe.”

  The captain shook her head dubiously. “Nevertheless, I implore you, do not send him to his death through the Veil.”

  Warriors from the destroyer soon formed themselves into a moving barrier of suspicion around us, and our now much larger group entered the command room quite dramatically.

  The commander looked me over carefully, then his eyes flicked to his captain, standing beside me.

  "Commander Levier, I bring you Eve-Redding, of the line of Matrix, the destroyer of the Sickness." The captain bowed, flourishing an arm out toward me.

  Commander Levier sneered, and did not bow in return. “Has Eve-Redding fooled even you, Captain Milan?” He turned to me. “Or perhaps you have realized your duty and wish to surrender now? Have your Earthling allies turned against you, so that you need our protection once more?”

  Beside me, Captain Milan stiffened, and her hand went to the sword at her waist. “Eve-Redding has found the Champion, and is now able to cure the Sickness. I have seen it with my own eyes. Things are not as you believe them to be, Commander Levier.”

  Around us, people started to murmur, some with disbelief, others with hope.

  “Well met, Commander Levier,” I said. "I come to negotiate the end to this unnecessary war and the wanton destruction and death it has brought with it. We have succeeded in finding the Champion, and he has bestowed upon us the knowledge and the means to cure the Sickness."

  “These words are convenient. You wish us to fall back in the war against the Earthlings, now that it is clear for all to see that they cannot stand against us? Many have claimed to know of the cure before.”

  Milan announced loudly, "It is true. Eve-Redding examined each of my crew, including myself, for the Sickness. She found four infected!" She paused for a second, waiting for that to sink in. "She has cured them all!"

  Levier sighed loudly and raised his hands again, motioning sharply to his own crew, who were growing louder. "Peace," he ordered. "Let us talk," he said, turning to me. “Though my doubts are many, I will be the first to rejoice if you prove them wrong.”

  We moved to a private room, me with Milan and my teammates, and Levier with warriors of his own.

  “Queen Mardinest has ordered your return to Estreyer, and I have seen the evidence of your collusion with the Earthlings myself. Good warriors have died, because of you,” he said.

 
I explained again what had happened, and my innocence in NIX’s surprise attack. I wanted to ask why they were so indignant about being attacked while they were holding an entire city hostage, but managed to refrain from doing so. People liked to imagine themselves the hero, and accusing them wouldn’t gain me loyal allies with any ease. “Queen Mardinest does not believe that a cure even exists. We were to stay close to her, waiting for one of her people to slit our throats in our sleep if we went against her. We were to act as a sort of…figurehead, a mascot to secure her rule. This war is only another tool to that end, and it has cost the lives of millions, millions, of innocents.”

  The commander listened, occasionally interjecting a question, his expression intent, but his reaction to my words mostly unreadable. His warriors, on the other hand, were not so stoic. I could see their expressions changing as I spoke, doubt and fear and hope mingling in a strange cocktail of emotion.

  “The humans knew of the Estreyans’ existence, and they were preparing for war. But they did not plan to attack preemptively. They thought they would be invaded, as they have been, and dabbled in powers they did not understand in the hope that they might be strong enough to protect themselves,” I said. “They were not purposefully cultivating the Sickness, rather a virus that can disguise itself or fight back against the power of the Seeds. The Sickness is insidious, and had hidden, riding along with that virus and lying dormant in the humans till it could spread.”

  “Still, whatever their intent, the results of their actions are clear to see. They cannot be blind to that, and their evil natures are obvious to me as well,” Levier said.

  I nodded. “It was incredibly stupid. It was also deplorable, to experiment with such things on children of their own kind. I myself was captured by them, forced to grow stronger or die. It is ironic, is it not, that if not for them, I would have never found the Champion, and the cure would still be lost to both worlds?”

  The commander clenched his jaw, almost glaring at me. “I have yet to see proof of this cure.” He held up a hand, stopping Milan from speaking. “Captain Milan is no liar, but she may have been deceived. I will require a demonstration before my own eyes.”

  I smiled. “I am happy to provide healing to every one of your warriors. I have no need to hide or deceive. However, once the truth is clear, I will accept no more disloyalty and dissension. I was innocent, brought into all this against my will, just as the people of this city have had nothing to do with NIX, the ones behind this. Yet, they now struggle with a virus which carries the Sickness and spreads among them. They are being killed like bugs in a trap.” I leaned forward, clawed fingers straining against the table before us. “I will not stand for this to continue. I will have peace, and cooperation between both halves of my bloodline. In return, there will be healing for both worlds.” I let Voice give gravitas to my words. “The Sickness must be stopped on all fronts. It is the enemy of all that lives, and I will not allow fighting amongst us mortals while it still spreads a single tendril of insidious death among any world.”

  The table vibrated subtly under my hands with the force of my words, the compulsion of my will acting to bend the world to my delight.

  Commander Levier let out a shaky breath. “If you have truly fulfilled the prophecy, I will do as you bid, Godkiller.”

  As I promised, I checked every person on the ship, healing those who needed it. Even though I ate enough for three large meals over the course of twice as many hours, by the time I finished healing the lance had drained so much power from me that my legs trembled with the effort of supporting my weight. I had a throbbing headache to accompany my weakness, and was barely managing to hold back my irritability. However, seeing as the world was falling apart, I didn’t have time to relax and take a break before moving on to the next diplomatic mission.

  The Estreyans had apparently been inspired by NIX’s use of the Shortcut to access Trials and their world, and had brought their own Shortcut to allow the military to maintain communication with Queen Mardinest instead of using an array. They wouldn’t be reporting to her anymore, not until I’d had a chance to use the Shortcut myself. The thought of her face when she saw me again almost made up for my fatigue. Still, I had other tasks to complete, first.

  After giving my commands for the immediate halt of all hostile action and for the rest of the invasion’s forces—those not guarding the array they’d come through in Antarctica, that is—to assemble above our current city, I went out to meet the human military.

  The human military had stationed an advance force about thirty miles to the west of the city, no doubt planning their doomed rescue mission in the hope that somehow they could get past the barrier. And who knows, maybe if one of NIX’s Players had the right Skill, they could. I’d bet Queen Mardinest’s warrior Ichi would be able to circumvent the quarantine bubble. How rare were Skills like that?

  I was shaken out of that line of thought when a distinctive flicker appeared on the road in front of us.

  A Player ran to meet us, growing a hedge of brambles behind him, so thick we couldn’t even see through it. The thorny growth extended across the road and quickly stretched hundreds of meters in each direction.

  I lifted a hand to signal my team members and the Estreyans running alongside our bikes to stop.

  In the couple seconds the Player bought, a handful of others arrived to back him up, and the military camp behind him began to scramble. “You again,” the Player said, and in his mouth the words were a curse. “I won’t let you sabotage the resistance any more. If you want to get past me, you’ll have to kill me like you did Kilburn and Ridley.”

  I held back a grimace. “I won’t pretend I’m sorry about what happened Kilburn, but it really was an accident. I understand that you might hold some animosity toward me, but I’ve just negotiated a ceasefire with the Estreyans. Seeing as the fate of the world is at stake, I really think your bosses are going to want to talk to me.”

  Commander Levier had come with us to join in the inevitable negotiations with the Earth Defense Force. He moved to my side, glaring at the Player as if he hadn’t been similarly hostile only a few hours before. “Eve-Redding, there is no need for you to bow to the desires of an Earthling. Give the word, and your escort will open the way for you.”

  The Player’s scowl only grew more intense, but I waved off Levier’s offer. “I don’t mind waiting. I’m sure it won’t be long.”

  Sure enough, after a few minutes of communication via Windows, the Player scowled even more angrily, if that was possible, and created a hole in his hedge so we could pass. He and the other Players closed in around our group as we moved, glares and weapons trained on us unblinkingly.

  To my surprise, he didn’t lead us to a hastily erected military tent, but a small underground bunker. It wouldn’t stand up against a destroyer’s attack, but it was obvious the military had built it for exactly the purpose of preparing for action in the nearby city.

  The Player led us to a room covered in wall-mounted screens and stiffly introduced us to a sharply-dressed but haggard-looking General Price. He then stepped aside, but didn’t leave.

  General Price looked up from the screen in front of him, glaring at me with a look that seemed less about personal feelings and more about the hassle I represented. “Eve Redding. They tell me you’ve negotiated a ceasefire with the aliens.” His eyes flicked to Commander Levier, who stood just a little behind me.

  “Yes,” I said. “We’re here to discuss Earth’s peaceful surrender, and the interspecies relief efforts going forward.”

  General Price wasn’t happy, but he also wasn’t stupid. Within an hour, the leaders of the EDF, which consisted of several people from NIX and their foreign counterparts, as well as the political and military leaders of almost all of Earth’s other countries, had been contacted.

  Within another couple hours, a mass teleconference had been arranged. More screens had been brought in, till the walls were almost entirely covered with devices meant to displa
y the people watching and listening to me.

  Commander Levier, Torliam, and Adam stayed in the room with me, along with General Price and a couple of his men. The rest of my team and the Estreyan guard Commander Levier had assigned me stayed outside, guarding the bunker or resting, because there simply wasn’t enough room for all of them inside. My other team members preferred not to spend hours trapped in a hostile political meeting, anyway.

  I stood in the center of the room and spoke, turning occasionally so I got a chance to see everyone’s reaction, since Wraith wasn’t very good at deciphering screen displays. I gave a brief explanation of the actions and decisions leading up to the war, for those who were either unfamiliar or self-deluding. “The only thing standing between Earth and continued decimation is me and my team,” I said. “It’s in everyone’s best interest if we can set aside grudges and work together. If Earth will accept peace and cooperation, we can provide help combating the spread of the meningolycanosis, as well as healing for the additional plague that has been using that virus as an infection vector. Hopefully, we’ll be able to prevent the spread of a global pandemic.” I looked pointedly to one of the screens, which displayed a man labeled as NIX’s director.

  “Now see here, you traitorous scag!” Another man snapped, slamming chubby hands on the table in front of him, as if he could intimidate me physically through the camera. “If you think you can threaten us with this, think again! Earth is a noble and proud planet, and we won’t be downtrodden by anyone who uses unprovoked attacks and blackmail as negotiation tactics. Humans won’t be bowing down and serving the whims of these…Estreyan bigots. We’ll have fair terms for any ceasefire, or we’ll keep fighting till the last man!”

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Was the man being deliberately obtuse? I wondered if it would be easier just to have someone track him down and kill him. Could we replace him with someone less consumed with their own importance? Even if the politician had gone into hiding, Torliam’s Tracker Skill would surely be able to find him. I considered saying as much to the man’s face, but held back. Without my own physical presence and the pressure Charisma could bring to bear, any threat wouldn’t be as effective. Plus, if all the others realized how little regard I had for them, it would undermine their trust in the negotiation process and make everything harder.