The Eternal: Transcend - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 3)

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  “What the hell?” I whispered.

  “This keeps getting weirder and weirder,” Freya said.

  “The energy signature.” I looked ahead. “It’s in there. I can feel it now.”

  The elf nodded. “It’s gotten stronger too.”

  Another clasp of thunder struck the air, and drops of rain quickly descended from the sky, lacing my skin with their cold touch.

  “Quick, into the cave.” I shuffled toward the mouth of the structure.

  Freya hesitated for a second, but she followed me. We stopped at the mouth of the cave, looking at the darkness that stared back at us from inside. I activated my Night Vision skill, and the black peeled away, revealing the image within.

  There was a narrow corridor leading further into the cave, but I couldn’t see anything past that, which I found quite odd. Nonetheless, I didn’t let the new development deter me.

  “Come on.” I strode inside, Freya next to me. I grabbed the elf’s thin wrist. “Stay right beside me,” I said as we moved forward.

  “I could just use one of my Light Arts spells and light this place up you know,” she whispered as she walked along.

  “Always better to move in the darkness when you don’t know what you’re getting into. A bright light is just a beacon of trouble.”

  Acnologia, wait for us outside, I thought. The corridor here is too narrow for you to enter.

  “Understood,” the Dragon said.

  I placed my hands against the walls around us as we made our way into the cave. A section of the darkness in front of me still hadn’t peeled away yet, which was perplexing, given my Night Vision skill was quite good at letting me see in standard darkness. A few steps later I understood what was going on.

  “It’s a wall,” Nyx said, reading my thoughts.

  “Hold on.” I lifted my hand up, and stopped Freya.

  How do I get this thing open? I asked.

  “No idea,” Nyx said. “Earlier the lake water seemed to have reacted to your touch.”

  Wait, you think that’s what happened? I asked.

  “Seems like it,” he said. “You put your finger in the water and an island comes up seconds later? I doubt it’s just a coincidence. In fact, I’m certain it wasn’t.”

  So if my touch is what triggered this island coming up…, I looked at the wall.

  “Exactly,” the spirit said.

  I took a step closer to the wall and felt it with my hand. It was rough, and had small bumps on it. I wasn’t sure what to do and just traced my fingers down the surface. A spark shot through my nerves, and I jerked my hand away, shaking it hard to get rid of the numbing sensation. The structure rumbled a moment later and the wall quickly lowered, sinking into the ground.

  Wait that actually worked? I blinked.

  “Wow,” Freya said. “Why is this place reacting to your touch?”

  “I’m as clueless as you are,” I said.

  I stepped forward, and noticed we were in a small chamber now.

  “Zoran,” the elf pointed ahead.

  I followed her finger, and my eyes immediately widened at the sight before me. A lady lay frozen on a stone table, dust collecting around the base of the structure. A single ray of bright sunlight broke into a gap in the cave’s roof and descended onto the lady, illuminating her.

  She wore sleeveless robes of white-silk, and the fabric glistened in the light. Her skin was colored dark-brown, like a shade of fine enchanted wood. She was a little shorter than I was and much thinner as well. Locks of curly black hair fell down her shoulders, and laid still over her frozen form.

  “Zoran,” Nyx whispered, and his tension was obvious in his tone. “Is she…?”

  Yeah, I nodded. She is.

  The moment I laid eyes on this woman, one thing became astoundingly clear.

  She was an Eternal.

  ***

  CHAPTER TWO

  “This is quite the troubling situation,” Acnologia said as we surged through the air, his thoughts echoing through my mind.

  I sat still, perched on the back of the black dragon, looking at the woman I held in my arms. The wind blast past my face, and the howling sounds echoed in my head, where the clarity of thought had turned into a storm of confusion.

  “She’s an Eternal,” Nyx repeated, his voice monotonous.

  None of us were really sure of what to do now. Freya for her part had been completely quiet since we discovered this lady.

  I myself was quite unsure of what to think in this situation. The first thing I did was doubt my assertion plenty of times. But with every additional second that passed, it became increasingly obvious to me that this lady was indeed an Eternal. The power that radiated from her was too strong to deny. I had felt a tinge of it when I first laid my eyes upon her, but now, holding her in my arms, I was confident that this lady was from my race.

  Maybe Ijyela or Krof will know something more about her, I said.

  “She’s an Eternal, Zoran,” Nyx chuckled. “If anything, you’re the one that should know the most about her.”

  I know, I know, I sighed. I figured one of you would say that to me.

  DING!

  You have discovered: Mysterious cave. An odd cave stands on the island from the bottom of the lake. Fame increased by +1000.

  I blinked, and then realized this was a prompt I should have received a few minutes ago. I wonder if that increased my Fame rating in anyway, I wondered. I pointed my index finger in the air, and dragged it down. A subtle resistance pushed against my movement and a characteristic sound immediately popped out.

  DING!

  A vertical column of seven circular icons slid down and I looked at the first one. It contained a shadowy silhouette of a humanoid upper body on it, the shade contrasting against the translucent white background. I tapped on the icon and two screens slid out, expanding from behind it and taking space on either side.

  The screen on the left contained a 3D full-body image of me, and the one on the right was a sub-menu. My Player sub-menu.

  Stats

  Items

  Equipment

  Skills

  I tapped on Stats, and a new screen opened in front of me.

  Name

  Zoran Diablo

  Level

  783 (41% to next level)

  Health

  13450

  Constitution

  1387

  Mana

  16300

  Intelligence

  1512

  Stamina

  12010

  Endurance

  1211

  Strength

  1748

  Dexterity

  1415

  Agility

  2494

  Wisdom

  3561

  Charisma

  1004

  Luck

  34

  Not what I need, I thought. I put my finger to the screen and flicked it to the side, sliding the old data away and letting a new set of information come into my vision.

  Name

  Zoran Diablo

  Race

  Eternal

  Abilities

  Resurrection

  Spirit King

  Re-animator

  Resistances

  All Arts

  Class

  N/A

  Alignment

  Neutral

  Titles

  Phantom Lord

  Undead Emperor

  Necromancy Demon

  Master of Ikarius

  Reputation

  Level 10 - “The World shakes in your presence”

  Yup, my Fame levels haven’t changed, I nodded.

  “Honestly, what were you expecting?” Nyx asked. “It already says the ‘World shakes in your presence’. Pretty hard to top that.”

  “He is right, Diablo,” Acnologia said.

  I know, but I was just curious, I sighed. I find the World shakes in your presence thing quite odd. A lot of the world doesn’t even know
I exist. Yet the whole world shakes in my presence? I find that hard to buy into.”

  “It bothers me too,” Nyx said. “But I don’t really give it much thought. Although, that’s probably because I don’t trust the Ga’em menus much anymore. You know how weird the Ga’em can be at times. Especially to you.”

  Found out the hard way, I smiled.

  The Ga’em was basically a hidden entity that helped everyone interact with the world around them. It was an invisible power that bridged a connection between one and everything that they could do. The screens that I used were all examples of how the Ga’em interacted with living things and gave them information about the world.

  Now there was something else called the Ga’em menu, which was what I was using right now. This menu was a powerful interface that existed between an individual and the Ga’em, and helped them customize themselves completely.

  The information the screens provided were supposed to be absolute, but over the last few months I’d learnt the hard way that this was not the case. In fact, I didn’t trust most of the information I saw on the screens when it was regarding something crucial or important.

  They’d been misleading in those situations way too many times already.

  “Diablo, we’re here,” Acnologia said.

  I looked over the side of the Dragon, and there, beneath us, stood a circular collection of buildings. The structures of stone, wood, and glass of varying high rose to no more than three stories high at the most. The Dragon spread out his wings, gliding through the air as we came to a wide opening in the middle of the village.

  Well, ‘village’ didn’t really cut it anymore. The infrastructure at the place implied it was more of an upcoming town. Though the number of citizens were still lacking for such a title.

  “Lacking by a lot,” Nyx said.

  The Dragon touched down in the village square, right beside a tall fountain. He let one wing drop, for us to use as a ramp. I held the Eternal tight in my arms as I lifted her down from the Dragon. Clinking armor sounded in my ears, just as I stepped onto the ground. A line of knights walked up to me, and a smile curled onto my face as I noticed a familiar form leading them.

  “Nice to see you, Raffiel,” I said. “Is Nazu not with you?”

  “Glad to have you back, my Lord,” the Knight bowed. “A few of my men are teaching the young Kobold the ways of swordsmanship. He is quite eager to learn the art.”

  “That is good.”

  “Is there anything you need assistance with at the moment? Grand Wizard Krof and Witch Ijyela were right behind us and will be here in a few seconds.”

  “That is more than enough,” I said. “You may take your leave. And don’t tell Nazu I’m back yet. I will come visit him when I’ve dealt with other things.”

  “Very well,” the man said and walked away, with his Knights following him. He looked back a few times, at the lady in my arms, but he didn’t say anything.

  “Ah, there you are.”

  Two figures walked up to me, one a black-skinned elf with emerald-green eyes, and the other an old man donned in robes of midnight blue.

  “It is good to see you are back,” Krof walked to us. “How did the-”

  The two of them looked at the woman in my arms and froze.

  “Oh gods,” Ijyela whispered, brushing her milk-white hair off her face. “What did you do this time?”

  “Ah, hello to you to,” I grinned.

  The elven witch placed her hand on the Eternal’s chest.

  “She’s breathing,” I said. “She’s alive but in some kind of coma.”

  “We should get her to the healing chambers,” Krof said.

  Ijyela nodded. “And fast.”

  Stay here, I told Acnologia as we rushed forward, heading to the large house down the street.

  “I will,” the dragon chuckled. “I do not intend to wreck parts of the village again by forcing myself into spaces I do not fit in.”

  “Now that’s a good dragon,” Nyx laughed, just as we opened the doors to the house and walked inside.

  The wooden floors whispered a creak as our combined weight moved around. Krof quickly walked up to a section of the wall and placed his hand on it. A part of the stone surface — the shape of a hand — sunk in and the floor rumbled.

  A panel in the wooden surface opened up, sliding underneath the rest of the floor, and revealing a hidden staircase underneath. A yellow light shone from within, illuminating the steps. We quickly climbed down, and walked into a small chamber made of stone.

  The healing chambers.

  A couple of small gemstones lay buried on the wall, their golden-yellow shade acting as lights for the room.

  “Put her here,” Ijyela walked up to one of the three stone beds in the room.

  Amusing that we took her from one stone bed to another, I thought as I lay the Eternal gently onto the grey surface. At least she isn’t in a cave anymore.

  Ijyela placed her hand on the side of the bed. She closed her eyes and spoke a word of enchantment. A crystal shell emerged out of thin air and lowered down to the bed, sealing the lady within. The elven witch summoned her Ga’em menu and began working through the options on it.

  “Her heart rate is completely normal,” Ijyela said. “I can’t sense any other obvious issues at the moment. It does indeed seem like this lady is in a coma.”

  “I figured that was the case,” I said.

  “So.” Krof glanced at the lady and then at me. “How did you come across this…Eternal?”

  “Ah, so you noticed.” My voice went quiet.

  The old man smiled. “I have told you before, Diablo,” he said. “I have spent many hours of my life hunting down odd energy signatures. I know an Eternal when I see one.”

  I told them what had happened back in the forest — of the odd blue cube, the sudden storms, and the appearance of the island and the cave. At the end of the five minutes of storytelling, Ijyela and Krof were more curious than they had been before.

  “Most intriguing,” the wizard said.

  “What does this mean?” Ijyela mumbled, sounding more worried than curious. “It has never been a good thing when an Eternal has showed up.”

  “Hey!” I complained.

  “It is true even in your case, Diablo.”

  Ouch, I winced. That was almost painfully blunt.

  “I’m unsure of how this Eternal even came back to this world in the first place,” Freya said. “Is this because we broke your second Seal of the Eternal?”

  My eyes widened. “It’s because of that?”

  “I do not believe so,” Krof said. “It does not seem possible for an Eternal to randomly show up just because a part of the seal was broken. The Seal of the Eternal does not work that way.”

  “I agree,” Ijyela said. “This lady’s appearance must be part of…something else.”

  I could already sense an air of worry filling the room. It had been a quiet two months since our last escapade, and now it seemed like that peace and silence had finally been broken. Honestly though, I’d argue we were actually overdue for a situation as perplexing and worrying as this.

  “I cannot place who this lady is even with my knowledge of the Eternals,” Ijyela said. She looked at Freya and Krof. “Can either of you?”

  They both shook their heads.

  “Unfortunate,” she sighed. “We have absolutely nothing to go off regarding who this woman is, and why she suddenly showed up in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Sounds like most of the situations we’re usually in,” Nyx said.

  It does, I smiled.

  “Did either of you sense any other presences around the forest?” Ijyela asked. “I asked you to go there when we all felt an odd energy signature suddenly come up, so it is possible other people may have sensed it as well.”

  “I didn’t sense anyone else around us while we were there,” I said.

  “Neither did I,” Freya said. “None of my Assassin profession’s tracking abilities picked
up a thing.”

  The elf frowned. “Odd.”

  I glanced over at the Eternal. She lay frozen on the bed of stone, just as she had in the cave before.

  Just who are you? I wondered.

  “I’m more concerned about why none of us recognize her,” Nyx said. “You, me, and Acnologia are from the same timeline. We were all alive when this lady roamed the lands. We must have heard of her at some point in time.”

  “I do not recall hearing or seeing anyone like her,” Acnologia said. “However, I will also confess. My memory is certainly not what it used to be. Resurrecting myself left a few issues with what I still remember.”

  Tell me about it, I rolled my eyes. I’d been ‘resurrected’ and brought back to this world a few months ago, and when I had, I’d basically been a blank slate, roaming forests and cities with no idea of who I was or what I was supposed to be doing.

  Then I found out that I was the Phantom Lord, a man who was from the race — ‘Eternals’ — and also a man who was afflicted by what was called the Seal of the Eternal. The specifics of the seal were very complicated, but in essence the thing sealed my powers and my memories as well. So, I had quite a bit of experience in being oblivious to something that would have been completely obvious to my past self.

  “She might be one of the obscure Eternals,” Nyx said. “The people who never involved themselves in anything.”

  Maybe, I said. That still doesn’t answer the question of why she’s here now. Who resurrected her? And how?

  “True, those are very complicated queries,” the spirit said. “I have a feeling we’re going to find something unpleasant when we dig into this.”

  We always do, I muttered.

  DING!

  Congratulations! You have obtained a quest: The Third Eternal! A Third Eternal has now appeared within the lands. However, her identity is a complete mystery. Find out who this Eternal is, and try to understand why she is here. Rewards: Unknown.