Humans were not born in Barliona—they came as refugees from another world, through a portal opened by Eluna. Calaan—the homeland of the humans—was destroyed in a war between the gods for absolute power. Besides humans, Tartarus also brought Orcs, Darkbloods, and Goblins from Calaan—this was the time of the other races’ great migration to Barliona. Naturally the newcomers immediately began to fight for their place under the sun.
Having attained a quick victory and secured some land for themselves, the humans grew peaceful and turned their attention to building their world. The neighboring Dragons, Tarantulas, Titans and other races did not bother them—the refugees from Calaan were tolerant towards all. The thing that occupied the humans was internal struggle—the desire to be better than their peers and subjugate those who were like them. The Tarantulas ordered the Dragons to leave the new settlers in peace and concentrate on the chief enemies—the Titans and Sirens. It was these progenies of Harrashess’s first creations that were the chief enemies of the Dragons, fighting them with armies of Cyclopses, Minotaurs and Almageryians.
“Nashlazar said that Shaldange approached you with an offer to ally with the Sirens,” I recalled the Siren’s words.
“That is correct. The terrifying thing about the Tarantulas was that they could mind control any creature, apart from Dragons. None of the initial denizens of Barliona could oppose the dark creations of Harrashess, so Shaldange decided to take a risk and approach me. As head of my tribe, I did not take part in the battles, guiding the Dragons from afar, so the Siren got the impression that I could be negotiated with…Silly little hussy…Drawing her armies into my trap, I turned them over to the ravishment of my masters…The Dragons had been created to obey and I did my duty to the very end…It was then that I encountered Eluna…”
The goddess was enraged—the bloodbath the Tarantulas had caused had released so much dark energy that the Lord of Chaos could enter Barliona. Despite the fact that the Lord of Chaos was on his deathbed, he had managed to hide himself from the gaze of the gods and corrupt an ordinary human to serve him. The subsequent fate of this sentient was already known to me—he founded Glarnis, in the depths of which the Heart of Chaos was secreted.
Managing to bridle the unruly energy, the goddess found the strength to rein in her wrath and met with Renox. She gave the Dragon that which he desired most of all in the world—the chance to have another child.
Yet another piece of news came as a surprise to me—the Dragons had no castle. They had no males either in actual fact—each Dragon could lay one egg in the course of his life and receive his breed, calling him son as per custom.
“Another child?” I asked surprised. “So it follows that you already had a son?”
“Yes.” Judging by is eyes, this was the most difficult topic for Renox. “The Tarantulas decided to have some fun with me and breathed all of their hate into my egg. My first son was not simply a true Dragon—he was the first Dark Dragon. A primordial darkness, terrifying, one that forced you to tuck your tail between your legs and run and run and run without turning to look back. It was only when my son cracked his shell that I realized the full injustice of our servitude. The Tarantulas had to be destroyed…”
“Nashlazar said that you watched as they killed your son…”
“Yes. Having reaped their blood harvest during the massacre, the Tarantulas thirsted for more. They now set their myriad eyes on the refugees from Calaan—and in enormous quantities. We gave them one city, then a second, then a third—no one bothered to count the humans and orcs; there were so many of them. But my former masters were not satiated. They desired to taste the body of Tartarus himself—the dark god of Barliona…This was when my first son was born and I decided to give him to the Tarantulas, under the guise that he was a piece of Tartarus…”
“Hang on, you skipped something. Did Eluna visit you after you sacrificed the Dark Dragon or before? Because at first you said that she found the strength to go see you…”
“It took over a hundred years for Eluna to summon her energy. It’s not a simple matter to calm an energy storm and it took the gods a long time to do it. So the goddess came to me after I had destroyed the Dark Dragon…”
“Did the Tarantulas really not notice anything?”
“By that point in time they were chock full from consuming beings of light, and true Darkness was precisely what they wanted. They didn’t inquire into what they had eaten. That it tasted good was enough for them…And then Eluna appeared. She offered me a deal I could never have imagined—the chance to have another child. But the goddess had her own conditions—I had to help Karmadont destroy the Tarantulas and afterwards depart this world.”
“Karmadont? You knew the first Emperor of Malabar?”
“It was I who brought him to the Tomb of the Creator, and it was I who explained how he could pass through its perils. It was I who helped him unite the peoples and create the Chess Set. Why Eluna chose an ordinary warrior, I do not know. But yes, I knew this sentient personally.”
“You oversaw the destruction of entire cities,” I recalled the Plague’s account.
“I had to teach the younger Dragons. When I was the head of the Blue Flame, we saw everyone as mere food for our masters. After Karmadont set in motion the cataclysm that destroyed the Tarantulas, my followers and I departed Barliona. But before we did this, Karmadont decided to cast us into the image of wise and just guardians of this world. He needed an ideal for people to look up to and emulate. Over the course of almost a century, practically all the Dragons were killed. You could count the few that remained in Barliona on one hand—and even those were languishing in a deep slumber. This was when the process of idealizing the Dragons commenced.”
“And yet here you are doing everything you can to kill the few survivors. Like for instance hiring a Titan…”
“I cannot allow Geranika to create a Dragon of Shadow. Even if he won’t be as powerful as a Dark Dragon, he will still be capable of destroying the world.”
“Why the Titan instead of me then?”
“Because I need to correct my own mistakes. I personally destroyed the beautiful city of Olympikos—the capital of the Titans. I personally killed Chronos and Uranus, tearing them asunder and sending their souls to the Tarantulas. I must pay for all of this…The Titan must pass his initiation. To do so he must kill the Dragon. I granted this opportunity to the sentient, but I also wanted him to request your assistance. I need you to see the way we were in the past. Words do not suffice to describe it—you must see it with your own eyes.”
“You know, father, what you were like in the past, doesn’t matter. What’s important is how you are now. If you had killed Draco and then…Wait…So that’s why the Guardian sent us to see you about Draco—he considers Draco to be the Dark Dragon! Since you can only lay one egg!”
“That is correct. According to my agreement with Eluna, I can enter Barliona once a millennium. I used this chance to make a deal with the Shamans about my son. He really did die at the hands of the Ice Giants. When the Beatwick tragedy was underway, Eluna granted me one more chance to appear in Barliona, so that I could stop Geranika and act as a judge. The legend of the Dragons’ majesty and wisdom had to be maintained.”
“If the Free Citizens fail to destroy the Heart of Darkness, Eluna won’t go after them.” It suddenly dawned on me what Renox wanted to say. “She has you…”
“If the Free Citizens fail, I have one-and-a-half months to live. As soon as I take the Heart, it will kill me in a matter of minutes. But before that happens, I will return to Vilterax and prevent Geranika from completing his ritual. One must pay for everything…”
“So then in a month and a half I won’t have a teacher any longer?” I smiled bitterly. It was silly to try to persuade a program to take a different course—it was written to fulfill its function. And yet getting the most out of any situation is the one true calling of any player.
“Before setting out after the Heart, I will transfer m
y power to promote you to the Patriarch. Your training shall not be impeded, oh my son.”
What a disaster!
“I will miss you very much, father. But I understand your motives and haven’t the right to dissuade you. I do have one more favor to ask—unlock my rank so I can keep leveling up. I have earned Dragon Rank 10 and stopped. I can’t go any further without your aid.”
Quest completed: ‘A heartfelt conversation.’ Reward: You may open a portal to Vilterax once a week.
Dragon Rank promoted. Current level: 11.
Your character has acquired a new ability: ‘Thunderclap.’
“Listen, Renox, I have several more questions—the Guardian said that Draco’s name is Nilirgnis. This name seemed familiar to him. Learning it even made him level up. But he reacted to it in an odd way. It’s like it isn’t his name after all…”
“Nilirgnis is the name of my first son…He whom you call Draco is named Shiel. You don’t have to be so surprised at the brevity of the name—only the Dragons of the Blue Flame were famous for their long names. It was thought that the longer the name, the more powerful the Dragon…A bunch of nonsense. The true name of your Totem, my second son and your brother is Shiel. By the way—I haven’t seen him for a week—is he all right?”
At this point I had to recount to Renox how my Shamanic powers had been stripped from me, how I had summoned my Totem without knowing I wasn’t supposed to and how Draco was currently in the Anhurs public library terrorizing the librarian. I don’t know what he was looking for, but Draco had flown there with some purpose in mind. So let him study.
“In that case, I have nothing further to tell you, son,” said Renox, settling down on the earth and propping up his head with his tail.
“And yet I have a further question,” I settled down beside Renox. “For example, what were the War Lizards so famous for that they earned their place in the Chess Set?” Since you helped Karmadont create this masterpiece, no doubt you know more about them than I—especially since I don’t know a thing about the War Lizards.”
“Lizards? Hmm…Are you sure you want to find out about them?”
“Judging by your question, there’s some kind of restriction here?”
“Yes. Karmadont understood that only he who is worthy could open the door to the Tomb, so he made a deal with me right away—that I would never tell anyone about more than one figurine. It seems to me that as far as the reasons for being part of the Chess Set go, the Emperor of Malabar is the most complicated. After all, it was Karmadont himself who founded the Empire and there weren’t any Emperors in Malabar before him. Even the name ‘Malabar’ only appeared three hundred years after Karmadont’s death. In his time the Empire was called Berimor.”
“You want I take a guess?” I smirked. “The Emperor of Malabar in Karmadont’s Chess Set is the Emperor—or his analog—of Calaan, the human homeworld. Correct?”
“Yes. You’re right. It is Lait, the Prime Priest, demigod, Emperor and simply a great sentient, who ruled his people for several millennia. His deeds were so great that even across centuries, people still…”
“Renox, I asked you to tell me about the Lizards. I have nothing but utter respect for Lait and everything related to him, but let me find out his story from someone else, not you. I still have a ways to go before I get to the Emperor. Meanwhile, I can start on the Lizards even now. So, let’s talk about them…”
“I’m sorry, my son,” the Dragon shook his head sadly. “You were the one who began the conversation about the Emperor…I haven’t the right to tell you about the other figurines after naming this great sentient.”
I simply can’t describe the emotions that flooded me at that point. What had caused me to open my mouth like that? The Emperor must be crafted from Blue Diamond, which requires Level 500 Jewelcrafting to work with. Considering that I hadn’t even reached Rank 3 as a Jeweler yet, I still had vast amounts of hard work ahead of me before I it was Lait’s turn.
“What does Prime Priest mean?” Doing my best to calm myself, I began to ask Renox about Lait. I don’t know how I managed to let this chance to find out about the War Lizards slip away—why that’s just…I haven’t the words, only feelings!
“It’s not difficult to guess—the Prime Priest is the first priest of god. As for Lait—he founded the original temple to one of the Calaan gods and began to develop it. Gradually adding the lesser gods to the pantheon, he engendered a new power in Barliona, which the original gods decided to destroy. A war broke out, which brought to…”
With Renox’s every word about Lait, I became more and more interested in this person. Like Karmadont, Lait started out from the very bottom and gradually rose to such heights that his name was remembered even after the resettlement to Barliona. Lait was generous to his friends and inhuman in his cruelty to his foes. When Renox told me of the time that Lait and his partner or companion forever imparted the soul of one of their enemies into a slug, I completely fell for this great man. It was doubtless that a sentient of his caliber had every right to be included in the Chess Set as a King.
Renox told me of Lait’s victories and defeats, his pain and happiness, hate and love, fears and noble deeds—and all of a sudden I realized that I was in Design Mode and that there was a person there looking at me who resembled an Elf but was definitely human. Renox never said a word about Lait’s class, yet in my sub-consciousness he turned out to be a Death Knight. Clad head to toe in menacing steel, Lait held in his hand an unusual staff that seeped black fog. Succumbing to a sudden premonition, I added an Imperial crown to the King piece and engraved several scars on his face, imparting Lait with the appearance of a seasoned warrior.
The thought that I still had a while to go before working with Diamond receded in some mysterious way as if it were some minor detail. Without even leaving Design Mode, I recreated the Blue Diamond from my bag and merged it with the Lait figurine.
Congratulations! You have continued on the path of recreating the Legendary Chess Set of Emperor Karmadont…
You have created the Diamond Emperor of Malabar from the Legendary Chess set of Emperor Karmadont. As long as this chess piece is in your possession, the probability of finding an Unusual Item is increased by 50%, a Rare Item—40%, Epic—20%, Unique—5%, and Legendary—1%.
Skill increase:
+1 to Crafting. Total: 14
+5 to primary profession of Jewelcrafting. Total: 139
You created a Legendary item. Your reputation with all previously encountered factions has increased by 500.
“That’s precisely how I helped Karmadont create the Chess Set,” Renox bared his enormous teeth in a smile. “He had no Jewelcrafting at all, so I had to channel all my skills, memories and thoughts into him. I am confident that you will be able to handle the War Lizards on your own, but I couldn’t not help my son craft the King. I was very apprehensive of our meeting. I delayed it as much as I could and made Kornik promise that he wouldn’t bring you here, but all my fears turned out to be in vain. There are no more Dungeons left in Barliona that would be of interest to you, and the information that is useful to you is confidential, so teaching you how to create a figurine was the only way I could find to thank you. Now you may go—working with the foundation of this world takes a lot of energy. I will have to sleep for the next month, so even if you return to Vilterax, we won’t be able to meet. Perhaps this has been our last conversation. I would like you to know that I am proud to have a son like you…”
“Dan, I don’t care if you’re free or not! I’m summoning you to my location. I’m putting you up against the wall and forcing you to tell me how you managed to craft the King Piece!”
Your other half wishes to summon you to her location. Do you accept?
I glanced at Renox and smiled bitterly—the Dragon had fallen asleep. Eyes shut, Renox was breathing heavily, the tip of his tail jerking nervously as if he was having a nightmare. I placed one paw on the sleeping Dragon, saying farewell to this Imitator, and pushed
the ‘Accept’ button. It looked like this was our last time seeing each other. In the future I’d be under the tutelage of the Patriarch of Vampires.
* * *
“Greetings dropout,” hissed Nashlazar as soon as I appeared beside Stacey. She turned to the girl: “A power of the flowering Ying-Yang, correct?”
Stacey, who was in her Siren Form, gave a barely perceptible nod. The girl’s full attention was directed at keeping her balance—she was standing on a thin cord stretched across a basin full of green, boiling liquid. I even began to wonder how Stacey had managed to summon me.
“All right, my pupil. Your lesson is complete for today. I will be waiting for you tomorrow. We will continue to work on your balance. Since you somehow managed to summon your other half, be prepared for gusts of wind to impair your balance tomorrow.”
“Hello, Danny,” said Anastaria, descending from the tightrope. The basin vanished, as did Nashlazar, giving the girl the opportunity to jump down and turn into her human form. By the way! I’m still in my Dragon Form! Stacey waited for me to return to my normal form, kissed me warmly and, rubbing her hands, said with a sly smile: “Let’s see what you made.”
I offered the girl the King figurine and used the opportunity to embrace her in my arms.
“Dan?” Stacey protested coyly, making no attempt to wriggle away. “Whoa! Can you imagine what’ll happen if you bring this figurine on a raid with you? Particularly if it’s a higher-level Dungeon…Did you consider sharing it with Magdey and Clutzer?”
“When? I only just crafted it and…Hang on—how much time has elapsed since we saw Kreel?”
“A day! A mere day—although it took you like a week to craft the other Chess Pieces. I have this impression that this King…”
“Was prepared for me ahead of time,” I completed Stacey’s thought. “And that he was developed a long time ago and simply inserted into the game now…I didn’t even have to try very hard to make him—Renox did everything for me…You know, it seems like the Corporation really wants someone to open the Tomb.”
The Karmadont Chess Set (The Way of the Shaman: Book #5) LitRPG series Page 19