New Horizons (Emerilia Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  Bob felt as someone entered his “hall.” He turned from his seat.

  “This better be good,” he muttered as he walked through the halls. It didn’t take him long to reach the room where the two people had teleported into. He frowned as he recognized Air’s aura and her minder, Venfik.

  “What are you doing on my ship?” Bob demanded.

  “We came to find out who are good people to make alliances with!” Air said, her usual excitable self.

  Bob looked to Venfik.

  “Hey! I’m the Lady of Air!” she complained, pouting and stomping her foot.

  “When you act your age like you did three hundred years ago, I’ll ask you the big questions.” Bob knew that Air was as smart as they came. Instead of putting it to something useful, she used it to create pranks and make new Creatures of Power.

  She might not have that much power, but even with what she had, she was a force to be reckoned with. Bob knew that half of her actions were a façade to get people to think of her as a teenager in goddess form. The other half was because she was lazy and it was easier for others to deal with explaining things. He knew the complexities of her projects.

  They left his mind in twisters for it all.

  “The Lady of Air is interested in making alliances between different groups. She sees it as a sort of challenge. As it is easy to bring the People of Emerilia to fighting, it is harder to make them make peace and fight together. We know that there is a war coming and we would like to see that we ally the right groups together. I think.” Venfik looked to his lady, who shrugged.

  “Pretty much.”

  “Why would I tell you about any possible alliances I have in the works? If I did tell you, what is to stop you from letting the rest of the Pantheon know, or to pull the alliances apart?” Bob asked.

  “Oh, well, trust?”

  Bob crossed his arms. His eyebrow rose as he tapped his foot. “You know, I am rather busy.”

  “Fine. Well, we could make a contract?” Air rolled her eyes.

  “Do you think me an idiot? I know how you can get out of contracts like Air out of a balloon.”

  “Ugh, well, what else?” Air threw her hands down in defeat.

  Bob studied her for a few minutes. “I will tell you something, something that only you might understand.”

  Air’s eyes thinned for a second.

  Bob saw through the teenager façade. “You’ve seen the limits of this planet, the rules that govern us all. The ones that I myself am beholden to and limited by. The forces that control me and all that goes on in Emerilia.”

  “And you say that I’m slippery with my contracts,” she said with a sly smile, showing that she hadn’t been just staring off into space through the meetings they held.

  Bob returned the smile and chuckled. “Quite. Anyway, with this war, it will not just be Emerilia anymore. It could pull in forces much bigger than anything we have ever faced before.” Bob held Air’s eyes and saw his words hitting home. “The forces that will be visited upon Emerilia will be massive. The coming years will be like nothing this planet has ever seen in its entire history. It is not simply the alliances of one group against another anymore.”

  There was only the odd thrumming of Bob’s hall as Air and the Grey God exchanged looks.

  Venfik shivered, overwhelmed with what Bob was saying.

  A smile spread across Air’s face. “Well, then, it seems that we have two people to meet first if we want to get these alliances started. How interesting—uniting Emerilia.” She made an amused noise. “Now, that will be exciting!”

  She disappeared from the deck, taking Venfik with her.

  Bob looked at the space where they had stood, his features unreadable. “I hope it’s for the best.” He turned and headed deeper into his home. He still had a lot of work to do and Shard had patched him into the Aleph College’s feeds to see the fight between the Stone Raiders and the Arch Lich.

  Chapter 16: Regroup

  “All right, everyone follow the route and we’ll pull back to Lucy’s location!” Josh said for the fifth time.

  All of the Stone Raiders tensed, ready for the run.

  “Move!”

  As one, the Stone Raiders’ melee fighters pulled back and away from the undead. The mages unleashed their biggest spells and legged it.

  The undead were slowed as the Stone Raiders ran because their lives depended on it. They exited through another path into the arena. Waiting support mages sealed it up with dirt, metal, and stone.

  Josh looked on his mini map. All of the other parties that were split off were also pulling to Lucy’s location. Only Party Zero was unable to run. Josh didn’t have anyone he could send to them and help them escape. He knew that the phylactery was in the library with them.

  I just need time to pull the guild together, get them organized. Then, I can send someone to help them. Hopefully, we attract enough attention from them that they can escape and meet up with us.

  Josh checked the time.

  They had been in the college for five hours already. They were at fifty percent of their fighting force. In just over an hour, more of the Stoner Raiders would respawn and could join back into the battle.

  They ran between different buildings that looked similar to the college that Josh had gone to. They were better made, with the Aleph’s mix of natural aesthetics and functionality.

  Josh looked toward the loud noises that could be heard in the distance. He laughed as he saw the magical firepower that Kim was putting out, laying waste to anything that got in her way. “Well, I guess this is what we get for stopping her experiments inside! Now when Kim gets outside, she tries to blow up someone else’s buildings!”

  The Stone Raiders laughed, excited to be alive, to be on the raid, and confident in their skills and power.

  ***

  “Watch out!” Deia called.

  Anna jumped away from the bone lord as Steve threw himself out of the bone lord’s range as it reached twenty-five percent Health.

  “Fuck, scratched the paint!”

  “Come on, dude! You know how annoying it is to fix your heavy ass!” Dave complained as he fired out a lightning orb into the center of his undead opponents. As time had gone on, he had gotten used to fighting the undead. They were higher levels and harder targets, but it was easy to tell what their basic attacks were going to be by their rough form.

  The undead weren’t that smart and kind of robotic, which led to Dave’s hallways being a mass of slowly dissolving bodies and tombstones waiting to be looted.

  The bone lord raised its hands up. Bones from the undead in range, both animated and not, were ripped out of their original positions, and swarmed around the bone lord to repair its wounds. Its eyes glowed in victory as it looked at its three main opponents, all of them tired and low on energy.

  “Dave, cut the damn feeds. I’ve had enough of this prick,” Malsour said, his voice growing deep.

  Dave closed his eyes, conjuring items into the Magical Circuits that formed recording devices that could see into the lobby. “Done! The Arch Lich is probably going to sense whatever you’re doing!”

  “Let him.” Malsour’s voice grew deeper as his body elongated. His tired and sweaty expression faded away in relief as black scales spread across his body. He shook himself, his legs growing claws as wings sprouted from his back.

  “Much easier.” Malsour’s voice was deep and powerful as he looked at the recovering bone lord. Malsour let out a powerful bellow; black flames came out in a stream.

  The Bone lord let out a painful screech.

  Deia watched the power of a true Dragon.

  Malsour walked forward. His flames made the bone lord’s sixty percent Health plummet. The bone lord continued to try to regenerate. Suzy, Induca, and Dave stayed back as their opponents were torn apart to fuel the Bone lord’s need for new bones to stay together.

  Malsour slowed his burn as hundreds of creatures were torn apart. The bone lord consumed all of its alli
es as its repair skill was active. It finally gave up. The bone lord sunk to its knees as Malsour’s flames intensified.

  Malsour’s flames disappeared. There were ripples in the ground from their impact and intense heat. Different inanimate objects had grown in odd ways under the pure Dark Mana flames.

  There was only a tombstone to mark where the bone lord had been.

  “And stay down. Fucking thing was doing my head in.” Malsour’s voice got deeper and more powerful as he shook his majestic bulk.

  “I can’t hold the walls much longer in my other form. I suggest someone grabs that bone lord’s loot and we go group up with the others? Oh, and has someone got a Mana potion?” Malsour asked.

  “Don’t fuck with a Dragon,” Dave said. The creature that they had taken hours to whittle down, Malsour had torn apart in mere minutes.

  “Words to live by,” Induca said.

  “Malsour is right—we’re all tired. Dave and I will lead. Anna, Steve at the back. Rest of you in the middle.” Deia looked to Anna and then the tombstone.

  Anna clicked it and opened a prompt. She took all the loot from the tombstone, which disappeared moments later.

  “On the road again! Dun-nuh unhuh road again!” Steve said.

  “Well, you just ruined one of the great Willie Nelson’s greatest songs.” Dave sighed.

  “What is with you gamers and damn music lyrics all the time? If it’s not ‘another one bites the dust’, it’s ‘let the bodies hit the floor,’” Suzy said. Her different creations jumped into her bag of holding; her Air creations held onto her, Light creations attached to them.

  “Well, you’re a gamer too, should get to know the lingo,” Dave quipped.

  “Well, what about that big lummox? He’s a damned AI in a big metal box with arms and legs. Anna, what the hell did you teach him?”

  “Well, he always had a great interest in Players. He picked up a few things, I think. It was half the problem with why he was a pain in the ass to control. Always wanted to go on adventures like Players,” Anna said.

  “Am I the only one thinking that this might not be the best place to talk about this?” Malsour asked.

  “I just usually wait until they run out of steam.” Induca and Deia shared a knowing and sympathetic look.

  “And we’re running!” Deia jogged for the door Dave had been defending.

  The rest of the party followed. Malsour turned into his human form, a look of strain on his face for a few moments before they exited the library and back out onto the stairs that led up to it.

  Dave closed his eyes, allowing the video feed to reactivate. Immediately, Dave sensed someone using the video feed to study the library. I wonder what they think of our renovations.

  Deia let out an angry cry. “Fire plow!” A plow shot out in front of her, accelerating as it went. It didn’t kill many of the undead that were rushing up the steps, but it did throw them out of the way as the party moved forward.

  The plow ran out and Suzy took her turn; a half-dozen beams of light projected out of her Light creations. Undead screamed in pain as they looked upon the light or were found in its path; their bodies erupted in flames with the holy light.

  Steve just hummed tunelessly and swiped his axe as if he were going through a field of grass, cutting down the stunned undead.

  Anna hurled out her wind blades.

  Whistling came from overhead. Dave’s artillery spears of Light landed in the biggest groups of undead and turned them into flying bits.

  “Ah, I do love a nice mid-afternoon jog,” Dave said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

  “It’s three in the morning!” Suzy said.

  “Well, it’s mid-afternoon somewhere, right?”

  “If there is a god, please, for my sanity, make him shut the hell up.”

  Even though they were heavily outnumbered and charging through a horde of undead, Party Zero laughed together. It might have sounded tired or relieved, but still they laughed.

  Chapter 17: Much-Needed Respawns

  “We’re not going to be able to get through here!” Deia said as they looked along their fourth route. It was filled with undead.

  Deia looked over everyone. They had been fighting for just over six hours, most of it fighting in the library or running away from undead and various creatures in the college. Even with their high Endurance, their fights had taken a heavy toll on their bodies.

  “Pull back to the teleport pads!” Deia yelled.

  Dave grunted as he was hit by an undead and flew back a few feet. He got to his feet, clearly wobbly.

  “I’ve got him.” Steve grabbed Dave.

  “Let’s go!” Deia said.

  They turned from the undead. Deia cast her Fire plow as Induca let loose a plasma cannon shot into the undead swarming behind them.

  “I can’t do another shot in this form,” Induca said. The strain of casting so much magic was clear in her voice.

  “I’ve got maybe a few more shots,” Suzy added.

  “I’m okay for a bit,” Malsour said.

  Deia felt the anxiety in her stomach as she charged after her plow. Anna ran up next to her. The two of them cut down anything that got in their way.

  “How you feeling?” Anna asked.

  “Got some still left in the tank. Head’s hurting like hell and I’m tired and hungry,” Deia admitted.

  “We’ve got this,” Anna said.

  Deia gritted her teeth and plowed on. She was covered in bruises and she’d gained a concussion from something hitting her hood. Her armor’s Mana barrier stopped her from getting her head caved in but the shock was still partly transmitted to her head.

  She blinked fiercely. The sudden light of her Fire attacks made her brain shudder in pain. She drove on, keeping up her attacks. As much as it hurt, she didn’t dare to slow them down.

  ***

  “Where are they going?” Hamdir watched Party Zero.

  “Looks like back to the teleporters. Seems that they can’t break through to the main group of Stone Raiders and the Arch Lich is sending a lot of his forces to try to hunt them down.” Shard sounded almost nervous.

  “Will they make it?” Hamdir asked.

  “I don’t know.” Shard shrugged.

  “Smart move—go back to the teleporters and then come out at another location,” Frenik grunted.

  “They’ll most likely group up with their respawned forces,” Shard said.

  There were looks of confusion. Shard changed the main viewing screens that were in the center of the council’s chamber.

  Around forty Stone Raiders stood in a teleport pad room. Stone Raiders entered through one of the teleport pads, opening their soul bound bags of holding and equipping any gear that they had lost on their dead bodies in the college.

  “Where are they coming from?” Sela asked.

  “Our very own Altar of Rebirth.” Shard changed the view. The Altar of Rebirth blazed white before a Stone Raider practically leaped off the altar and rushed through rooms and the teleport pad that linked the Altar of Rebirth in Alephir to the city that the Stone Raiders were living in.

  “Is there not an issue with them possibly running through Alephir?” Koza asked.

  “I asked Josh to make sure that no one goes through areas that they are not allowed access to. Few have deviated from the direct path from the Altar of Rebirth to the teleport pad. While there is a fight going on, I wouldn’t think any of them would try to search Alephir. All they want to do is get back into the fight.”

  Hamdir sat back in his chair and looked over the fortress that the Stone Raiders had made in the middle of the college’s main street. A five-meter by ten-meter trench ringed their defenses; metal spikes sprouted from it, ready to claim anything that tried to get close. Priests and mages with a Light Affinity blessed the metals. Just being close to them, the undead felt pain.

  By the minute, the trench grew wider. Battlements stood above the trench, walls of earth. On the first floor, melee fighters fired bolt
throwers or used their spears to keep anything from making it to their walls. On the second floor, there were archers. The third floor held casting balconies for the mages.

  It had taken minutes for the fortress to take form. From the speed of its creation, it was a structure that they had practiced making dozens of times. It was simple, inelegant but functional.

  Mages grouped together inside the fortress on raised platforms. They conjured artillery spells. The mages on the walls guided the spells into the undead. Bone lords and larger undead creations like the shambling mounds caused trouble but the Stone Raiders were figuring out a system to deal with them as time went on.

  Hamdir leaned forward as he looked at a crafter working on the wall with a chisel and mallet. “What are they carving into the walls?”

  “It is code runing, a refined form of Magical Circuits. It should make the walls stronger or give them different attributes depending on what the coding entails,” Shard said.

  “I’ve had a look at it. Formulaic but simple and easy to understand. A certain refinement to it that makes it alluring,” Frenik said.

  “They’ve built a fortress in a matter of minutes and now they’re runing the damn walls? What kind of monsters are they?” Koza said breathlessly.

  “They’ve adapted to being the weakest in any situation. It is why they are never confident in their own skills and their defenses. They will constantly work on themselves and their skills to give them an edge.”

  “Party Zero is nearly at a teleport pad!” Ela-Dorn squealed. Anxiety, excitement, and hope mixed on her face as she balled her fists together, as if praying for the party to make it.

  Hamdir changed screens.

  Light blinded him as the Light creations around Suzy seemed to shine in brilliance. Dozens of undead were wiped away by the magical attack.

  Induca made to grab her as she fell, but Malsour was there, scooping her up over his shoulder. Steve caught the now inert creation cores as they fell.

  Induca caught others with Fire whips.