Time of Change (Emerilia Book 7)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Is there something moving in those pools?” Dave asked, his instincts bringing him back to the six different Affinity pools.

  Here and there, an odd flicker happened. Many people wouldn’t notice at all, but Alkao’s keen senses and Fornau’s advanced knowledge allowed them to notice what Dave was talking about.

  “Earth spirits.” Fornau, shocked, looked at the Earth Affinity pool.

  “Sprites?” Dave asked.

  “No, sprites were made after the spirits. Spirits are Affinity creatures. They are formed when one kind of Affinity magic saturates an area so much that they are given form. Sprites are creatures imbued with the power of an Affinity. Spirits are made from it. They won’t attack someone with a high Affinity for their element, but anyone they judge to not have a high enough Affinity, they’ll tear apart. I have only heard about them from my brothers and sisters; we have a few of them in Densaou Mountains. Fire is able to communicate with them and we have an amicable relationship, even the Dragons from other Affinities, as the spirits have been able to ascend to rational thought. The eldest then teach the youngest, making it so that we don’t have conflict. Though these—there is a lot of them. It also looks like they haven’t the strength to leave their Affinity pools by themselves. Look at the area between the pools and the temple,” Fornau said.

  Alkao and Dave did as Fornau said.

  “They look like the shades from the first, but they have an Affinity glow to them,” Alkao said.

  “These must be shades that walked into the different Affinity pools. When they did so, the spirits were able to take command of them. They infused their Affinity into their bodies. They’re Affinity shades now. I’ve heard of spirits taking over hosts, but it’s usually animals. Even they would be more of a fight to control than the shades. For the Affinity spirits, it must just be like walking in the open door of a house,” Fornau said.

  If there were a thousand of different levels of shades in the first area, there were a few hundred different Affinity spirits, and then maybe a hundred Affinity shades. Past them, there were various creatures. These were animals that had wandered into the temple’s underground ruin. They had been strong or fast enough to make it through the shades, only to fall into an Affinity pool and be overtaken by an Affinity spirit.

  There was everything from bears to blessed sabre tigers. Their innate strength would put them on level with a Demon. Though they had stopped gaining levels as they were overtaken by the spirits, the spirits had been able to become more powerful. So, even if they were Level 100 creatures, their magic power was on par with a Level 300 mage. Combined, they would put up a fight against a Level 400 or 500. There were about one hundred of them hanging around the entrance to the temple.

  The drone moved inside. There were blossoms of fire, singular pieces of rapidly moving wind. They seemed to have almost Human features as they moved around. Some of them conversed with one another. They stuck in their own Affinity groups, but they didn’t attack one another.

  “Free Affinity spirits,” Fornau said, as if not believing what he was seeing.

  “A description would be useful,” Alkao said with a small smile on his face.

  “Sorry, sorry—I’ve only heard of one of these creatures. They are like the leaders of all the Fire spirits in Densaou Mountains. They can freely leave areas thick with Mana energy related to their Affinity. They have something similar to a consciousness, and while they can cast on instinct like the regular Affinity spirits, they can also take the time to create complex spells. Their mastery of magic is high, but they are weak to weapons from their opposing Affinity, much more so than their lower beings that have taken over the beasts or shades. These, at least, have a protection of some sort—they’re pure and bare magic. I don’t think that we can clear out this place,” Fornau said seriously.

  “Why?” Dave asked.

  “The Free spirits might be affected by weapons from an opposing Affinity, but they are empowered by weapons of the same Affinity. They are able to invoke powerful spells with similar capabilities of Level 700 or 800 people. There might be about thirty of them, but they’re absolute monsters and their speed is incredible. They can run away and hit their attackers with incredibly powerful spells!”

  “There are five Free Affinity controlled shades past the regular Free Affinity spirits, and three more controlling powerful creatures’ bodies,” Alkao said.

  With Fornau’s declarations, Dave and Alkao felt clearing this place was becoming more and more impossible.

  “Those are shades and creatures that have been overtaken by Free spirits. They’re two or three times stronger than the ones outside,” Fornau said.

  The drone continued onward. There was an open area where the Free spirits had stood. Another set of stairs led up to a landing where the shades inhabited by Free spirits stood; then the creatures; and then finally there was a throne on a top landing. Around the throne, there were six statues depicting the gods and goddesses of the Affinities. The area around the dome was meant to allow people to look up at the gods and goddesses in praise.

  A man sat on the throne. He looked to be a refined man of Asian descent; his age gave him a dignified appearance. His long black hair was pulled back into a ponytail; a section of it fell over half of his face. He held his head with one hand, a bored expression on his face, as he held a katana with his other hand, the blade pointed down at the ground. The blade was hidden by gray smoke.

  Behind him lay a portal; to either side there were several large chests of loot.

  The man’s eyes looked to the drone. Dave’s eyes stopped; his breath caught in his throat as he looked back into the man’s eyes.

  For a moment, Dave thought he saw a shadow of a smile before the man’s eyes once again looked toward the entrance into the temple.

  “Fornau, who is that?” Alkao asked.

  Silence spread through the room. Only the noises of the women dealing with the children could be heard and Anna’s displeased noises at dealing with “baby muck.”

  Alkao and Dave looked up to Fornau, whose eyes were stuck on the man on the throne inside the temple, the final boss and guard of the portal.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anyone or anything like him.” Fornau looked at them with a pale face.

  ***

  A similar scene was taking place in the Stone Raiders’ headquarters as everyone looked at the video feeds from the underground temple.

  No one knew what it might be. Shard was looking through records to try to understand, as well as using all manner of sensing to try to get some sort of clue.

  “Well, he’s just sitting inside what is a sea of Affinity creatures. None of them are attacking him. He looks like he’s got some kind of blade, but there’s no discerning Mana to it,” Dwayne said.

  “Looks kind of like the Mana Dave uses,” Kim said suddenly.

  “What’s Dave’s Affinity?” Josh asked.

  Everyone looked to one another.

  “I don’t think that he has one,” Lucy said.

  “Though he uses all manner of magic,” Josh rebutted.

  “Maybe he has all of the Affinities around the same level?” Kim asked.

  “So, what, then? This person has all of the Affinities?” Josh asked.

  “Spirit King Consolidation,” Shard said suddenly. Everyone looked to him; he had his own seat at the conference table.

  “This person is the accumulation of the spirit’s energy within the temple. There are two kinds of spirit kings. One is a manifestation of every single kind of Affinity coming together. They all have to be of an extremely high level and then combine together. They can use every kind of magic with nearly instantaneous casting, though they’re psychotic and usually raving mad, devouring other spirits and killing anything that enters their domain. The second king is the consolidation king. They have an extremely strong soul, but high-level spirits try to take them over.

  “By comparison, the shades have a limited Willpower. They’re very e
asy to take over. Here, the original soul residing in the body has retained control of themselves and defeated the spirits that invaded their body.

  “They can have varying control over the spirits that reside within them. The more that are contained within them, the more power they have, but also the harder it is for them to maintain their sanity,” Shard said.

  “So, this guy has multiple high-leveled spirits trapped within his body, all of them trying to tear his Willpower apart and subdue him?” Josh said.

  “Precisely. If they are united in a cause, then his power will be immense. I believe one such cause will be if we are to attack this temple, then he will be able to unleash his full power on us as the spirits are very territorial and will do everything in their power to destroy those who enter their domain,” Shard said.

  “How powerful is this guy going to be?” Esa asked.

  “Possibly stronger than a Dragon, with the ability to use any manner of spells. He will also be highly resistant to magical attacks and will more easily disrupt spells cast at him,” Shard said.

  “Well, this just went from crazy hard to impossible.” Lucy snorted.

  “Hey, we’re the Stone Raiders. We can defeat anything!” Josh declared.

  “We can if we have the time and resources. Right now, we’ve got the resources, but we’re needed to manage things here. Also, we’ve only got four months until we’re going to be neck deep in escaped prisoners!” Lucy said.

  “Shard, how powerful are these creatures in terms of levels?” Cassie asked.

  “Their levels will be two-thirds to one-quarter of their actual strength once you get past the Affinity pools. Once you get to the Free spirits, they’re going to be two to three times more powerful than their displayed level until you get to the king. I don’t know what his power level would be, but I would estimate from five to eight times more powerful.” Shard’s answers left the room in silence.

  “We can get together nearly eight hundred Stone Raiders, and can probably double that number in Player guilds if we ask,” Dwayne said.

  “The mages guild will be interested in this and they’ll send some of their more powerful figures,” Kim added.

  “Our allies won’t go for it, but we can pool some adventurers and the DCA forces will be able to help us some with the low-leveled creatures,” Lucy added begrudgingly.

  “It’s going to be one hell of a fight,” Esa said, summarizing what everyone was thinking.

  “Might take a few weeks just to get to the temple. Once we get inside it…” Lucy shook her head.

  Josh sat back in his chair and looked at everyone in the room. He rested his chin on his knuckles.

  “I have just a few questions.” Josh paused just long enough that everyone’s attention was focused on him. “Would this be fun? Sure! I know that it would be hard as hell and that we’re probably going to die more often than not, but if there were no time restrictions and we didn’t have Terra, would you want to back out?”

  “No,” Dwayne said. Everyone else seemed to agree with his words, even if they weren’t too pleased with it.

  “When we were clearing out the Aleph facilities, it was hard, but it was also fun as hell! Sure, we lost a few levels here and there, but would you agree that we came out of it stronger than when we went in?” Josh asked.

  “Yes.” Lucy was the first to agree this time.

  “If we’re to build a camp outside the temple, somewhere that we can defend and I will front the cost of the darned onos, will that make everyone feel a little better?” Josh looked to Jules.

  “Yes.” Jules nodded to Josh. Lucy and the others also agreed. The cost of an ono was still incredibly high, but the amount of wealth they had built up in-game was not inconsiderable. Josh could also sell off some of his assets on Earth to buy in-game gold. He would be fine with the money he was getting from endorsements and streams.

  “My final question: what did we come together for? Was it to manage cities, to train in seclusion? Or was it to get the hell out into the middle of the damned wilderness, to do what others couldn’t and engrave our names at the top of dungeon’s leadership boards? To open portals that no other guild would be able to even look at? We were the first people to open a portal. We were the guild that fought at Boran-al’s Citadel, the Devil’s Crater Cliffs, the Aleph’s cities! We have shown Emerilia and we have shown ourselves that no matter what, we can triumph. We might get hammered down at times, bite off more than we can deal with. You know what? We’ve only become stronger from it! So, I say, let’s go raid!” Josh yelled out, his eyes dancing in excitement and his fist raised in declaration.

  “Well, if you say it like that, I’m in,” Dwayne said.

  “I guess I have to follow this idiot.” Esa grinned as the two of them bumped fists.

  “Well, hell, Affinity spirits, a temple, and a portal. Sounds like a fun time.” Kim smiled.

  “Well, someone is going to have to put you dumbasses back together,” Jules said with a small smile.

  “Fine, I’ll do it, but we’ll need a few days to talk to the other guilds while the automaton scouts reach the temple and can check it out on foot,” Lucy said finally.

  Cassie and Florence shook their heads; they were just there to see the video. When it came to fighting, that was in the others’ realm.

  “I knew you beauties wouldn’t give this up,” Josh said with a wide smile. The others laughed, smiled openly or shook their heads, trying to hide their smiles.

  “Feels good to be the one picking out what we’re doing, not just doing quest after quest. I’m looking forward to some of those event raids!” Dwayne said.

  “Dude, we just agreed to go raid a portal. Now, you want to take on the creatures from the event?” Esa slumped back in her chair with a sour expression.

  Dwayne let out a hearty laugh at Esa’s actions.

  Josh looked at them all. They had done a lot together and come far, but through it all, they were the same people who had come together to form the Stone Raiders.

  Chapter 19: Back to School

  “Why don’t we just make up our own collection of runes?” a student asked. It was a common question in Dave’s lectures, which didn’t mean that he liked to answer it that much.

  “Why? Because it’s already complicated as hell. If we start adding more and more symbols, then it’s going to make things much more complicated. Right now, everyone is using the same kinds of symbols—just working them in different combinations and voila, you’ve got magical coding. If people start using their own libraries, then sure, things could work, but you’re going to have to define everything all over again, would take a lot more time and then someone trying to learn your library of symbols is going to be totally confused with how they were using the other library they were using. Then, you’ve got say ten different libraries of symbols—you’re going to lose your freaking mind from dealing with all that! Every time you work on a project, you’ve got to find a different library with different symbols and rules in them or—” Dave held up his finger. “We use one library of symbols that we all agree on, then we use them in a ton of different combinations, share the advances we’ve made and then we’re all, at least, on relatively the same page.”

  “But this library has all been made up by you,” the student said.

  “Well, I did make magical coding up,” Dave said.

  “So, you just want to be the creator of all this, take the credit and then overcharge us for all the materials!” the student accused.

  But Dave could see that they wanted nothing more than a rise out of him.

  “Are you stupid or did you just get hit by a mule a dozen too many times?” Dave asked in a dry voice. “All of the libraries and symbols are in books that you can access for free. This class is free to take, as well as the testing laboratories. If I wanted to, I could charge money. I don’t need to, so I don’t. I’d rather see more people coming up with answers to the problems I’ve been seeing. I can’t code everything myself an
d it’s always better to work with others, whether by collaboration or in competition to push yourself forward. Look at Earth’s coding—there were dozens of ways to do the same thing. Some of it was elegant, but some of it was downright crap. Here, we’re building a repository of good and interesting coding, coming together to create something great. The library we’re using is a good level ground for everyone to start with. What people come up with, that’s the interesting part. And with the same library, it’s possible for anyone to take apart anyone else’s work and understand how it works, or build something amazing. So, this crap about me being some magical coding monopolizing prick, well, that’s just some stupid ass fantasy. I welcome people to out-code me. Hell, I know that there are people out there who can out-code me on different interfaces and projects!”

  “You’ve been hiring people right out of this class if they have good abilities in coding and stealing them from other powers!” the student said, indignant at Dave’s words.

  “Stealing them? I offered many of them jobs. Some of them took it; some of them didn’t. I do have a number of factories and smithies out there that need magical coders. I know that there are a number of powers that are trying to recruit people out of this class to help them, and other students are striving to work by themselves,” Dave said, unperturbed. A number of people had attacked him for one thing or another.

  If they think they can rile me up with this crap, they should have learned a thing or two about the nut jobs who said I was going to destroy the planet or send us into another ice age for dropping refined materials into the Atlantic Ocean.

  “Look, what people do is up to them. I know that I and a number of my businesses have approached people asking if they would like a job. Hell, there’s a list over on the side of the classroom of people who are looking for skilled magical coders from all over Emerilia. It’s a hot subject and we need more people who know it. Here, I teach the basics, the starting blocks. It’s up to everyone to figure out what they want to do with it,” Dave said simply.