“Of course, Mr. President. I understand you are a busy man,” said Apollyon.
“Busy, very busy,” the president agreed. “So, I want your thinking on… with this global warming problem. I don’t know if you know, but tomorrow there is this UN thing.”
“Yes, I heard something about that,” Apollyon said vaguely. “As to my opinion, this global warming phenomenon may present a challenge, but any forced solution could make things worse. Reducing carbon emissions may reduce the severity of the problem, but it would take decades and be disastrous to the economy. I’ve heard talk about painting vast stretches of land white to lower the planet’s albedo or launching a thin film into space to weaken incoming radiation. But, who knows what consequences those things could have? How would wildlife react if we painted everything white or what should happen if the film is just a bit too effective? We could just as easily create an even bigger problem for ourselves. The Earth has been around for four billion years, there have been many times were its temperature was even greater than it is now. I believe we should trust the Earth. Whatever is happening, it’ll find a way to balance itself out in the long run.”
“But what about now?” the president asked. “Florida is half underwater, which includes one of my own golf courses, and not all the coastal cities are as lucky as New York. Many can’t afford the flooding prevention stuff even with how much the government chips in. Property damage is enormous. Just tremendous. It’s the worst anyone has ever seen in like forever.”
“You were a businessman,” Apollyon began.
“Yes, a big businessman,” said the president.
“If anything, a bit of property damage is helping the economy. Construction related industry is up 150 percent, unemployment is at an all-time low, and wages are up,” Apollyon argued. His goal was to get the man to do as little as possible. This task wasn’t too difficult, the silver spoon born and bred human leader was naturally inclined to laziness, making him easily swayed by Apollyon’s arguments. In the end, nothing the president could do would change the outcome, but he could delay Apollyon’s ascendency.
“I know that things may be going okay for the US but what about other countries. My people tell me drought has ravaged South East Asia causing India and Pakistan to be at each other’s throats even more than they normally…. And, don’t get me started on China. Their increased fishing has the Koreans and Japanese calling for sanctions,” said the president.
“Again, all I see is potential benefit,” said Apollyon. This time he put a bit of mana into it. The hypnotic effect of a glamor would be far less effective over the phone than in person, but given the number of times Apollyon had used the magic on the president, he figured it should do the trick. “Tension between India and Pakistan could mean big business for our defense industry. And as for China, you’ve been complaining about them since the campaign. This is your chance to finally do something.”
†Deception† has reached level 53
Apollyon smiled. Imbued with the power of their Great Adversary, he didn’t even need to hear the president’s answer. Apollyon knew he had succeeded.
“Maybe you’re right, Harry. Maybe I should just wait… and see…,” said the president, his previously forceful voice deflating. After a few long seconds of dead air, the president’s voice finally returned. “Thanks, Harry. It was nice to have such a great talk. We are great friends. You always manage to calm me down.”
“Not a problem, Mr. President,” said Apollyon. “Just remember, next time it feels like the world is about to end, give me a call. I’ll be happy to talk you down from the ledge again, my friend.”
Apollyon doubled the force of his magic for this part. It was important that the president contact him when his glamor wore off and the president started to worry again. The president had been calling Apollyon with growing frequency. The problems of this world were beginning to mount and the glamor could only do so much. Eventually, it would stop working at all and Apollyon could finally give up this farce, but for now, he’d do everything in his power to hang on.
Ch. 1 Awakening
Rose paced up and down the cold marble floors of the Archlord’s estate in Crystalpeak as she waited for news. Every time the green-eyed, fair-skinned girl turned to retread the same steps, her red hair flipped wildly and, for half a second, covered the tears streaking down her face. Rose intentionally did this frequently. She didn’t like anyone seeing how upset she was.
“Stop worrying. Half the city is looking for him,” said Zelus. As always, the technically noble Zelus kept himself perfectly calm and well groomed, showing not the least bit of panic. “At least sit still for a minute. It would be a shame for exhaustion to prematurely age that face and you may need the energy once we know what needs to be done.”
“I just can’t understand how it happened. How did no one see, Isaac was the center of attention and he was there one minute and gone the next,” said Rose.
It was during our victory celebration, after we successfully repelled the beastmen invaders from the north, that the hero from another world disappeared. That hero was me, Isaac Stein. At first, Rose had just assumed I’d been lost in the crowds of thousands. But as the party finally started wrapping up near sun up, Rose knew something was wrong.
Zelus and Titania both had been too hungover to be of immediate help so Rose had the guards begin a door by door sweep while Albert made something to cure the two of them of their ails. That was nearly a day ago.
“I’m sure Isaac’s kicking around somewhere,” said Zelus, using the excuse of comforting Rose to pull her close. “It’s not like he could have gone far, the surrounding inner wall is only half a mile across everything beyond is burned and filled with corpses.
“That’s enough of that,” Rose stomped her foot down on Zelus’ ending his embrace. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to.” Rose had known Zelus for a couple years. She was well aware of his philogyny. Zelus had hit on her countless times in virtually every sort of situation, even a crisis.
“Awe, come on,” Zelus whined. “You looked like you needed a shoulder to lean on. I was just trying to be that shoulder.”
“Nice try, but I’ll be fine. If you have time for this, you have time to be out looking,” said Rose.
“I’m here for the same reason you are,” Zelus sighed. “We’re useless to the search and would only get in the way. What can be done is being done. Albert is talking to the staff who prepared the food for the party, maybe one of them saw something and Titania is going to use her expert tracking skills to see what she can find. On top of that guards are looking all over, spreading the word to everyone else. Heck, it’s Isaac we’re talking about. I wouldn’t be surprised if half the city is looking for him by now.”
“I know,” Rose huffed. “I just don’t like it. They should have found him by now.”
A loud door squeak ended Rose and Zelus’ conversation. Both Titania and Albert came in. Titania was a giant of a woman standing nearly seven feet tall in her all-encompassing metal armor. She was in her early thirties and would have attracted a number of amorous gazes if her features weren’t so well concealed by the armor. Albert was a proudly overweight man in his fifties with piercing blue eyes whose boldness was only matched by the solitary curl of blond hair on his otherwise bald head.
“Did you find anything?” Rose asked, rushing up to greet Titania and Albert practically before they could walk into the room.
“Yes, well. Perhaps it is best if we show,” said Titania.
Zelus and Rose followed Titania and Albert outside near where they’d all been celebrating the night before.
“I spoke vith all zee people vorking during zee party,” said Albert. The middle-aged German Chef was in charge of logistics during the lead up to the beastmen invasion and as such was familiar with many of the ordinary laborers.
“And?” Rose prompted. To her, there wasn’t a moment to lose.
“One of zee vorkers zaw Izaac duck out relati
ffely early in zee evening. He left zis vay,” said Albert as he led them out of the park in which the celebration had been held and towards the north wall. “Titania took over from here.”
“The tracks were too convoluted here. Too many have tread over the same ground to pick out any one set so just went continued in last direction for a while to see if there is something somewhere with fewer tracks.”
Titania led the group a few blocks north. As they neared the wall, the majority of the prints disappeared. The reason for this was obvious. The north side was where the majority of the fighting had taken place and even though it had been a couple days, the tens of thousands of bodies, both human and beastman, still hadn’t been entirely cleaned up, making the north side reek.
“Isaac was lying here,” said Titania, pointing to a smooth body-sized depression in the dirt.
“How can you be sure of that?” Zelus asked. “There was fighting all over here the depression could be from a body that was removed.”
“This depression is too fresh for when the bodies were cleared out from this area,” Titania explained. “Besides, there’s something else. Look in these bushes.” Titania led them a few feet away and on the ground in plain view lay a silver metal cylinder.
“It’s Isaac’s spear,” Rose gasped. I custom designed and forged a few spears like this to compress down into a small cylinder. There was nothing else like them in this world.
“It is the best proof,” Titania nodded.
“So, Isaac was here, but where is he now?” Rose asked.
“Looked around and found this,” said Titania, returning to the body-sized depression and pointing to a footprint right next to it. This footprint was noticeably different from the rest. It was unusually large and was a barefoot print rather than an impression of a boot.
“From the size, would say it is a beastwoman’s footprint,” said Titania. “A male’s print would be larger and deeper.”
“So a beastwoman killed him,” said Rose, nervously.
“Don’t worry, Isaac isn’t like us. He’s immortal and will be back in a few days,” Zelus reminded her. I was one of the individuals from Earth who appeared suddenly a year previously, and that wasn’t the weird part. All of us from Earth had a video game like interface that caused us to acquire quests and level up and whenever we died, we would resurrect a week later in the middle of the nearest city.
“Perhaps not,” Titania winced.
“What do you mean?” Rose asked.
“We did not find Isaac’s body and see these prints here,” Titania began, indicating more of the same bare footprints that led towards the wall. “These are a lot deeper than the first, meaning the beastwoman was a lot heavier than before.”
Rose and Zelus glanced towards one another both with scrunched up brows that seemed to ask, ‘Did you understand that.’
“Izaac vas taken,” Albert explained. “Zee footprints are deeper becauze zee beastvoman vas carrying him.”
“Followed the beastwoman’s trail,” Titania continued, guiding Rose, Zelus and Albert on a circuitous path to the wall. “The footprints end, so know the beastwoman scaled the wall from here. Can make out the flaws in the brick alignment there and there.” Titania pointed to a couple bricks in the wall’s face that stuck out an inch or two compared to the rest.
Titania then led the group through the nearest gate and to the same spot on the other side of the wall.
“The path resumes here.” Titania pointed to the same barefoot prints. From there she led the group a few hundred yards to the most telling sign of all. Inside the final set of bare human footprints were a smaller set of wolf paw prints. It had definitely been a beastman. I had definitely been taken.
“What use could they possibly have for him? It’s not like he knows any secrets,” said Zelus.
“Don’t know, it is strange,” Titania agreed.
“Can you follow the trail?” asked Zelus.
“Can try,” Titania replied. “But even if do, Isaac was taken by a beastman. Saw speed in the scryings. We won’t be able to catch unless stop and by then...”
“We can’t just abandon Isaac like that. He saved us,” said Rose.
Titania, Albert, and Zelus reluctantly nodded in agreement. They knew what they had to do.
‘Dammit. Which asshole is making all that racket? Some people are trying to sleep,’ I mentally cursed as I woke to the clang of metal only to realize, I was the ass I was cursing. The clang of metal came from the repeated strikes of my thick skull against something even more adamant.
My eyes were open, but I could see nothing. I was blindfolded. I tried to move my hands and feet but found that they too were tied off. All I could do was rely on my other senses. The air smelled fresh and the only thing I could hear was the whoosh of the wind. As for feeling, other than a splitting headache all I could feel was the uncomfortable wrenching of my internal organs as my prone body was jerked up and down almost rhythmically. It felt like the tossing and turning of a ship as it cut its way through the open seas.
‘So Sleeping Beauty finally decides to wake,’ said the gratefully familiar voice of Mai. ‘I was starting to worry I’d have to give you a kiss. Far from my ideal fairy tale ending.’
I wanted to remember what had happened so I ran through a quick biography. My name was Isaac Stein. I was a normal high school student on Earth until I was teleported to this world, Tautellus, a year ago.
Tautellus was vastly different from Earth. Its territory was filled with magic and monsters and its people varied from elves and dwarves to humans that save for their magic appeared to be out of the Iron Age. Soon after my arrival, a war began between the humans of this nation and the shapeshifting savage beastmen from the North. Ultimately, the war culminated in a failed beastmen invasion of the human’s second largest city. After the battle, I was alone talking with Mai when... when...
“Whm day fu wit me?” I gargled through the gag in my mouth.
‘Hmm... Sorry didn’t catch that,’ said Mai. Mai came from M.A.I., which stood for memetic artificial intelligence. I’d found Mai in an ancient Traveler ruin where she’d unexpectedly connected herself to my brain through a soul gem currently implanted in my left hand. She didn’t exist in the thinking part but the feeling one. Mai shared my senses and could alter my perception of them. In this way, I could see and hear her while no one else could. She still relied on my senses so if I couldn’t speak, Mai couldn’t hear what I said and understand me.
“Whm day fu wit me?” I repeated. “Whm day fu wit me?”
‘Whm day fu wit me. Whm day fu wit me,’ Mai repeated back. ‘Really, you think that helps. They say the definition of insanity is trying the same thing repeatedly, expecting a different result. Honestly I didn’t think she hit you that hard…’
“Szhee?” I said.
Suddenly, the rolling I had thought were ocean waves stopped and I was tossed to the ground. I felt blades of grass against my face and a cool wetness as dew seeped through the back of my tunic. My gag and blindfold were removed.
“Help. Help,” I shouted at the top of my lungs, which was difficult given how parched my throat was. It was night and the moon was a slender crescent so I couldn’t see far, but I was in the middle of a forest. Clearly, I was far outside Crystalpeak.
“Can yell as much as want. There is no help out here. We are already dozens of miles from the walled city,” said my captor, silencing my hoarse screams.
I switched to pulling at my bonds, but they were done by an expert and I was hardly skilled with knots.
“Stop fighting. It is too late. Have now and are not getting away,” my captor said as she reached for a canteen. “Here, drink.”
The beastwoman brought the bottle to my lips and slowly poured. Although she’d removed the gag and blindfold, my hands remained bound behind my back. The cool water was resplendent going down my dry throat. It would have almost made me content in my predicament if I hadn’t recognized my captor.
“
You again. Why the hell is it always you coming after me?” I said.
I’d crossed paths with the shapely blond beastwoman twice. Once in Mill Valley, the first town I’d stumbled across in Tautellus. There this beastwoman commanded her troops to invade and plunder Mill Valley before burning the townspeople alive. Then again on the road out of Crystalpeak where she had cut off my escape and nearly killed Archlord Quewel. Despite her angelic outward appearance, I knew she had a heart of ice. She’d do anything for herself and her people, regardless of the atrocities committed on helpless others.
“Name is Izusa. Know are Isaac. Have been hoping we would cross paths again for quite a while. Need for something and as far as can tell are the only one who has a chance,” said Izusa.
‘Help me Isaac Stein, you’re my only hope,’ Mai mimed.
“No, I’m not going to help you not after all you’ve done,” I replied. Memories of the ruins of Mill Valley still stung like fresh wounds despite being nine months old. I’d seen many gruesome things since I’d arrived on this world, zombie wolves, killer robots, men being hacked to pieces in droves but none of those scenes compared to the horror of seeing the pile of charred child-sized skeletons lying in the fresh snow. This was the woman responsible for that memory.
“Come on, do not even know what want for yet,” said Izusa.
“Doesn’t matter. I know what you did to the residents of Mill Valley. I was there, remember? I won’t help you,” I said.
“Trust that time and understanding will soften resolve, but for now just need to stop wriggling while being carried. It is very bothersome while are on back,” said Izusa.
‘Maybe she’s angry you got away the first time and now she plans on pounding you to death,’ said Mai, reminding me of what I’d woken up to. ‘Although you might think that’s a good thing.’
“Hmph, I don’t think so,” I scoffed at Mai, though Izusa didn’t know that. She thought I was saying I was going to put up a fight.
The Ice Lands Page 2