Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3)

by Brian Wilkerson

  "Elf, may you spend eternity as a mindless slave!"

  Four dozen tendrils shot out in all directions to grab the annoying elf and his puppets but they ducked and dodged around all of them. The ones they couldn’t, they attacked with spiritual power and chaotic daggers. Between dodging, they found time to throw spells or mana bolts. Although they didn’t break Nulso’s renewed Order Shield, they rattled him and kept him frustrated, which weakened his focus and diminished his orderly power.

  Through all of this, Quando regularly glanced down at the village to see if his audience was paying attention. Meza’s ordercrafter hunters and Alexis’ guardians followed his battle attentively, but he was most interested in Alexis herself. Her hands were clasped in prayer and she had the most adorable worried look on her face. She’d give him a hard time later for taking too long or showing off, but for now, she was worried.

  “It’s time to end this.”

  Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a tiny bag and threw it at Nulso with the speed of a gale force wind. Nulso was so focused on the puppets flying in and out of his reach that he didn’t notice it. The bag expanded on contact and became a net glowing with the power of chaos. This Order Nullifying Snare engulfed him, shorted out his Order Shield, prevented him from regenerating it, and entangled his limbs. He could barely keep himself afloat. Quando and his puppets arranged themselves around him and brandished their chaotic blades.

  “Elf Barbershop Style Finishing Move: CARDINAL DIRECTIONS STRIKE!”

  From four directions, they attacked as one and called out their direction as they made contact. Do came from the east and pinned his left arm to his side. Rei came from the west and pinned his right arm to his side. Mi came from the North and stabbed his brain. Quando himself came from the south and stabbed his heart. The chaotic nature of the blades finally negated Nulso’s orderly immortality. Life faded from his eyes and his body went limp.

  “HahHA! Another victory for the Qualified Quando and his patchwork puppets.”

  “We’re not patchwork!” they shouted in return.

  “It’s the alliteration that’s—”

  “Initiating Direct Subjugation.”

  A spirit pulse blew all four combatants away from the corpse. It was unlike anything Quando had ever felt; immense, cold, and imperial. It shorted out his puppets. They fell to earth and he could barely maintain his flight spell. His soul was paralyzed by fear and his mana was depleting at an alarming rate.

  Everything around him was also depleting. It was losing color and becoming less “real” than areas further away. He could faintly see the veins of Noitearc in the sky and ground. Everything was dying.

  All of this local life was streaming toward Nulso; patching him up, restoring his strength, and increasing his power. Most changed of all were his eyes. They were blank and dead. Instead of a human intelligence, Quando saw a void, a black hole, and the emptiness of space.

  “You…you’re not human.”

  “You are not worth my time.”

  An ethereal hand appeared and plunged into Quando’s chest. It happened before he could blink. Then he felt something cold and disgusting spread through his body. Golden-brown light traveled down the spirit arm and back to Nulso. It steamed and withered as it traveled to Nulso’s hand. The hand began to sizzle and the smell of cooking flesh and raw garbage filled the air.

  In seconds, Quando felt faint. His vision began to blur. He tried to pull the hand out, but he couldn’t touch it. His hands passed through it. There was a change in reality and that was when he realized the truth.

  “You’re…Namagomi!”

  Nulso’s eyes narrowed. “Of all the nicknames mortals have for me, that is the one I detest the most.”

  Just like that, Quando fell unconscious. With a thought, his opponent put him to sleep. He crashed into the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Alexis cried out and ran to him. Cradling his head in her lap, she gasped at what she saw.

  All of Quando’s hair was stark white. She ran her hands through it, searching for any strand of golden-brown, but there was nothing. All of them were as white as the snow on the ground that would inevitably melt. Tears gathered in her eyes as she reached the inevitable conclusion; her love was now as good as dead.

  Above her head, a sphere of golden-brown light coalesced in Nulso’s hand. This was the Seed of Chaos that dwelled inside Quando’s body. Without it, he was no more an elf than Tiza or Mebalos. The ordercrafter's corpse directed the seed like a mage would a mana bolt.

  “The Power of Creation is also the Power of Destruction. That which grants eternal life can also inflict permanent death!”

  The corpse fired the Seed of Chaos at the heart of Dnnac Ledo. It hit the Chaotic Curtain and then dispersed along its length. It was collected by the trees and passed into the earth. Lines of power ran along the ground, sprouting new life on their way to Quando. They entered every orifice and traveled to every corner of his body. Emerging from his scalp, they restored his hair's former color. Quando woke up to the teary-eyed face of his girlfriend.

  “While the tears of a tragic maiden are heart-breakingly beautiful, I’d prefer them to be accompanied by a joyful smile.”

  Alexis chuckled and more tears came. “Idiot…”

  She wiped the tears away and gently removed his head from her lap. Then she stood up and drew her sword.

  “Now if you’re done showing off, I have a job to do. Guardians to me!”

  Dnnac Ledo’s police formed a circle around their leader and drew their own weapons. She pointed hers straight at Nulso’s body, magically magnified her voice and shouted, “Ordercrafter! By your contract with the First Child, you are automatically persona non grata in all elf-villages. You have three seconds to leave or we will kill you.”

  Nulso's body descended. Possessed by Order instead of merely empowered by him, it ignored the barrier that Nulso himself failed to break. It slipped through the curtain as easily as Quando. Even Meza’s blood chilled at the sight. When its feet touched the ground, members of both groups felt primal rage, but the expansion of its spirit gave them fearful pause.

  A lesser mage could expand their spirit to cover their body in armor; this was the basic barrier. A greater mage could expand their spirit into the surrounding area several yards and further if it was directed at something. Sages, those venerable few who reached the limits of mortal power, could protect a moderate-sized army. Even the avatars, gods of the world with millennium of experience, couldn’t blanket more than a single city. This enemy filled the entire village, all of its many bigger on the inside buildings, and a large chunk of the surrounding landscape and sky with his presence.

  It terrified them. It caused them to break out in sweat, to lose control of their bowels, to cry, to panic. Some of the less hardy elves ran away screaming, while others were too numb with despair to consider it. Meza, Alexis, and their followers fit neither category. They recognized Order Terror when they felt it, but never on this scale. The sheer size and depth stunned them.

  "Begone, Order!"

  Sagart stood cloaked in a dim golden-brown aura. In her right hand was a staff bearing the Flower of Chaos at its head and in her other was the Elven Tome. The staff's petals rattled on their own in a rhythmic ching. The letters on the cover shimmered. Completely unafraid and unbowed, she approached Nulso's corpse.

  "Against me no weapon born of you shall prosper!"

  "Foolish priestess. You are too weak to stop me. All of the many gods you worship are either occupied or similarly insufficient, and the one who is present at this time will refuse to stop me. Resistance is Forlorn."

  An ethereal stinger grew from his eldritch aura. It was bigger than Sagart and poised over her. Then it plunged. She countered with her staff. The resulting collision created a flash of light and power that shattered the ground.

  "Lady Chaos is with me! Of whom should I be afraid!"

  Sagart grit her teeth and pushed with all her spiritual might. She was
a veteran priestess who was fully trained in Chaoist Theology. She had served in the Conversion War. She had freed many from Order's Subjugation and experienced it herself. She had slain ordercrafters and toppled Order Obelisks, but even she couldn't challenge Order himself in direct combat. All she could do was slide the stinger aside and jump away.

  That one exchange left her exhausted both physical and spiritually. She was unsteady on her feet and her staff of authority was suddenly much harder to lift. Her nose was bleeding and her Seed of Chaos couldn't stop it because it was busy repairing other damage. Her spirit wobbled. The clash almost knocked it from her body, and she felt a great ache inside of her as she tried to compensate for the astral/physical dissonance. Nulso's corpse, other than looking vacuum-sealed due to Order's possession, was just fine.

  "As I said, Resistance is Forlorn."

  Undaunted, Sagart raised her staff and shouted, "All things are possible with Lady Chaos! All who despair, know her hope!"

  Nulso generated more ethereal constructs and lashed out at her with all of them. She ducked and jumped to avoid them, and when she couldn't, she batted them aside with her staff.

  "All who are weak, know her empowerment!"

  She coughed up blood and Nulso connected solidly with an ethereal fist. She flew backwards through the air and crumbled into the snow.

  "All who are hurt," she croaked, "know her healing."

  Five order constructs pinned her down while five more gathered earth and water from the environment. With his divine power, Order manipulated their fundamental nature and crafted a Subjugation Collar from them. Sagart stared defiantly at it.

  "All who are imprisoned, know her freedom."

  At the psalm’s completion, a wave of chaos radiated from Sagart and across the village. It washed over the order constructs and made them sizzle. It washed over Nulso's corpse and made it burn. It washed over the frozen elves and braced them against Order's Divine Presence. Their eyes glowed with Sagart's blessing and they leapt into action.

  Five ordercrafter hunters grabbed the tendrils restraining Sagart and spoke of Order's hypocrisy; attacking a licensed preacher when she defended her flock? Outrageous! The eldritch light of Order, wrapped within a helix of golden-brown emerged from their Order Negator Gauntlets and weakened the tendrils. Five Guardians sliced through them with elven blades.

  “Thank you, my friends. However, I can only aid you with prayer now.”

  “That’s more than enough, Sister.”

  With that, they joined their fellows in the attack on Nulso’s corpse. They fanned out and surrounded him. Forty guardians and forty ordercrafter hunters against one possessed human. Guardian mages took flight to establish positions above him and on the ground; their staves glowed with the power of their spells and their hair shined to add a chaotic boost. Guardian warriors trained spears and swords on the vessel; their blades shimmered with chaotic runes more advanced than Eric’s or Kallen's. Ordercrafter hunters charged lawful bolts. Nulso’s corpse gazed at the army assembled against him and said,

  “One fly is no different from one thousand.”

  The warriors charged. The mages fired their spells. The ordercrafter hunters sapped his strength. Sagart boosted all of them with prayers to Lady Chaos. Nulso’s corpse stood still, tanked it, and expressed nothing but boredom. Its Order Shield, now Order’s Divine Presence, canceled the kinetic charge of the weapon thrusts, absorbed the mana of the spells, and ignored the denouncements of the ordercrafter hunters. These neophytes could not hurt him if they tried for one hundred years.

  Order flexed the fragment of his spirit that dwelled within Nulso’s body; a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of his full power. It was enough to scatter the neophytes to the four corners of the village and render them unconscious. Only veterans of the Conversion War and those who had traveled the world since then remained: Meza, a handful of his corps, Alexis, a few guardians, and Sagart. It was to them that he addressed this proclamation.

  “I have come to establish true order. The people here are a powder keg of fear and power. This ‘summit’ threatens to undermine a way of life and destroy a culture. It will plunge this world into chaos. Stability must be preserved and so you will be neutralized. I will erase your village from existence and enslave its populace.”

  Nulso's corpse waved its hand and generated a staff out of thin air. It was sleek in shape and silver in color with no runes to be seen. He thudded its butt on the ground and clouds of silver-grey smoke manifested in his aura. Ten gathered around Nulso’s body like satellites around a planet. More appeared in the sky like storm clouds blocking the sun.

  “No one can hide from the All-Seeing Eye nor evade the All-Encompassing Hand: Resistance is Forlorn.”

  Order pointed his staff at the Sage Tree and the enforcers scrambled. Like bloodhounds, they hunted anything holding a Seed of Chaos and their first victim was Quando. Still recovering from his battle, he couldn’t fight it off and it swallowed him. Now he was its prisoner and his Seed of Chaos was once again being stolen from him.

  “Defense Pattern Gama!” Meza shouted.

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Follow their lead!” Alexis shouted.

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  The ordercrafter hunters chaosified their weapons and attacked the enforcers in pairs; they recited chaotic doctrine and orderly law to weaken them and then cleaved them with holy weapons. The guardians assisted them as best they could, but even together, they were outnumbered. The bulk of the invading army moved unopposed.

  Enforcers swarmed the village and gobbled up its people. They bypassed barriers as if they didn’t exist and invaded homes despite their wards. The spells and technology that the elves developed for centuries counted for nothing against them. These were minor gods and they were merely augmented humans. Entire families withered and sobbed on their living room floor as their eternal life was drained from them.

  Annala watched the debacle happen. Of all the elves in Dnnac Ledo, she alone was left unmolested. The Subjugation Collar, regardless of the one powered by Noitearc, marked her as under Order’s jurisdiction and so the enforcers did not consider her a target or a threat. She hated this designation yet felt powerless to change it, so she did the only thing she could.

  “TASIO, TASIO, TASIO!”

  The named god appeared at her side, but this was not “Tasio the Pest.” Wearing a gold chestplate, gauntlets, greaves, a helmet, and carrying a sword in each hand, he was dressed for war. His Divine Presence, normally tightly furled, was now open. It shined with a light more glorious than any Annala had ever seen. Standing next to him filled her heart with both hope and despair and caused her to feel both pleasure and pain. This was “Tasio the Seraph of Chaos.”

  He looked at her and she was overcome by a sudden and intense adoration. With one sword, he pointed to an enormous cloud of silver-grey mist; scores of enforcers were converging on their location.

  “BUSY!”

  He flew into their midst like a bolt of divine judgment. Piercing their formation, he hacked and slashed. Where two elves had to work together to defeat a single enforcer, Tasio smote them with one strike each.

  Annala bowed her head and prayed for his victory. This action triggered a routine in the Subjugation Collar and it began to choke her. She yanked at it and gagged as it strangled her. She fell to her knees as her vision went black. Tasio then appeared unbidden and tapped the collar with the tip of one sword. It stopped immediately.

  “That’s an advantage. Use it!”

  He flew back into the enforcer cloud and his Divine Presence was soon lost within theirs. Annala knelt on the ground, watching him and wondering what he meant. The Subjugation Collar shut down her magecraft, Seed of Chaos, and spiritual power. It choked her for praying to a chaotic deity, so she couldn’t even provide back-up support like Sister Sagart. All she could do was watch her aunt and Meza.

  The two of them fought Order and ten of his drones. Without any backup other than Sagar
t’s prayers, they attempted to destroy Order’s vessel before he enslaved their village. Meza’s order-negating blade sapped the strength of the enforcers but couldn’t dull the Divine Presence surrounding Nulso’s corpse. Alexis’ order-destroying blade slashed through enforcers but couldn’t pierce the defense Order put around his current vessel. The vessel itself was free to strike with its staff or pelt them with mana bolts without fear of retaliation. It reminded Annala of a video game boss that spawned minions and possessed a body impervious to conventional harm. It required a trick, a special skill, or a rare item.

  She touched her collar and shook her head. It was impossible. She was a powerless apostate. Even if she was right about her possible action, it wouldn’t do anyone any good and would only place herself in great danger. The horrors she saw in Eaol’s vision could come true!

  Above the din of battle, Tasio called to her.

  “You may not believe in my mother, but she believes in you, and so do I.”

  As Meza and Alexis continued their futile assault, more enforcers arrived. By now, they were numerous enough to create their own curtain to surround the village. Where the first prevented anyone from entering, this one prevented anyone from leaving. Be it by primitive legs or the high tech Arch of Kresnik, escape was impossible. Like Roalt Castle before it, Dnnac Ledo now existed in its own dimension, separate from the rest of Tariatla. There would be no cavalry coming to the rescue.

  Order's invasion was overwhelming. Both Meza's ordercrafter hunters and the village guardians were spread thin. Even the civilians had taken up arms to fight against the invading army, but it was still not enough. As the battle continued, four enforcers ganged up on Alexis.

  Mustering her courage, Annala stood, hiked up her skirt, and ran forward. She had to do this; she had to because there was no one else. It was fear for her aunt that compelled hers; her aunt and herself. She feared that what she saw in her vision, and what happened to Alexis in real life, would come to pass once more. Thwarting such a nightmare was worth any risk.

  The enforcers ignored her because she was designated as a slave. The Order Shield was as thin as air to her. Order himself didn’t notice her until she was under his nose. She slapped him across the cheek and shouted,