The Land: Predators: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seeds Book 7)

by Aleron Kong

  “How can he do this?” the chaos seed shouted at Alma over the ever increasing sound of the wind.

  “I don’t know, but you have to get rid of it!” She launched off the battlement and breathed glass flame on the ropes of eldritch magic.

  Richter did as he was told. He tried to force the memory away. It barely budged. Somehow the lich had hijacked the spinning pyramid. He tried to control the green magic, or force it to get smaller, but to no avail. The tendrils of power just grew larger and more numerous even as Alma tried to burn them away. They got closer to him each second.

  He didn’t even want to consider what would happen if the lich was able to lay hold of his avatar. It would have direct access to his mind! He pushed and strained for all he was worth, until he realized how foolish he was being in his panic. This wasn’t a real pyramid. It was all in his mind. His mind! If he didn’t want something there, he just needed to-

  Do you wish to discard the memory of Nien the Reaver now? Yes or No?

  Richer had never been so happy to see a prompt. He chose “Yes” immediately and the spinning pyramid fractured into millions of pieces, taking the vortex of nothingness with it. The connection between himself and the lich vanished and the tentacles of eldritch power winked out of existence. The particles of memory faded away, leaving no trace that they had ever existed.

  The chaos seed collapsed to his knees, both in his mindscape and in reality, exhausted in mind, if not in body.

  CHAPTER 80 – Day 145 – Kuborn 35, 0 AoC

  “Are you alright?” Sion asked. He slipped an arm under Richter’s to help him stand. Alma echoed the question inside of Richter’s mind.

  “Yes,” Richter hissed, answering them both. His dragon form was significantly heavier than his human body, and Sion wasn’t able to move him until he stood under his own power. “The lich is strong, but I was able to observe the memory remotely this time. I have much to tell all of you.”

  *You could also just show them,* Alma added inside of his mind.

  *Is that possible, my love? The dragonling had the ability to transmit images to others if she made a temporary psychic bond by looking them in the eyes, but Richter had never been able to duplicate the act himself.

  *I am fairly sure,* she told him.

  Richter broached the topic to all present. Yoshi immediately looked uncomfortable with the idea of anyone being in his mind. Sumiko, Hisako and Randolphus agreed, however. Terrod said he would if Richter required it and Caulder demurred, saying all he needed to know was what to hit and when. Sion fixed his friend with a glare though, quickly followed by, “You’re weird all the time and now you’re a lizard… so no.”

  “A simple ‘no’ would have been fine,” Richter hissed at him in irritation. Then he made eye contact with the three who were willing, establishing weak mental connections. After that, he replayed the scene, cutting the memory off before the lich became aware of his surveillance. Alma doubted that the eldritch lord could have any power through the memory of a memory, but better safe than sorry. He just verbally related that part to all of them.

  The process of sharing the memory went at the accelerated speed of his mindscape, condensing the twenty-minute memory down to just over three real time. All of them had emotional reactions to what they saw. Randolphus looked troubled, Sumiko looked overwhelmed, but it was Hisako’s reaction that was the most severe.

  “A Mausoleum!” she spat. Her hands curled into claws of rage and her eyes flashed in anger.

  “I believe you are right, Hearth Mother,” Sumiko agreed sadly.

  Everyone else looked at each other, at a loss for words. Richter had never seen Hisako have such a visceral and angry reaction. He was about to ask what she meant when the timer on his bond expired. Blue-white light flowed out of him and his body resumed its normal human shape. Sion looked at the ball of psychic energy that was slowly coalescing back into Alma, completely fascinated. He slowly extended a hand towards it.

  Richter slapped his questing fingers, “Dude! Don’t poke my familiar’s psychic energy. It’s creepy!” With an awkward look on his face, the sprite pulled his hand back. Richter turned towards Hisako, “Now, what do you mean by a Mausoleum?” At this point, his ear had become accustomed to picking up when people pronounced things with the special emphasis that denoted a capital letter. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like this.

  Hisako ignored him and instead reached out with her arm. To the chaos seed’s astonishment, her hand seemed to disappear for a moment. When she pulled her arm back, she was holding a large blue parchment.

  “How did you do that?” Richter asked, amazed. She hadn’t reached into a Bag of Holding, she had just reached into nothing and pulled out an item.

  “There is still much you have to learn, young lord,” she told him curtly. Then with a few muttered words of Power, a white glow surrounded her hand. A moment later, a table appeared, formed entirely of sparkling Light magic. She unrolled the large scroll and the chaos seed saw that it looked like a star chart. There were even angles and calculations drawn upon it. He shook his head. Her casual displays of magic always reminded him of what a large difference in power there was between the two of them.

  Sumiko was the one that answered Richter’s question, “A Mausoleum is a Core building, much like your Forge of Heavens and Dragon’s Cauldron.”

  Richter’s eyes widened in surprise and alarm. Core buildings offered the potential of great power. His own were only the size of a large grocery store though. The pyramid was the size of an airport! “But it’s so big! Does that mean it’s insanely powerful?”

  Sumiko clicked her tongue in irritation, “Humans. Bigger does not always mean better.”

  Sion snickered, “That’s not what your mom said.”

  Yoshi slapped the back of the younger sprite’s head without looking.

  “In this case, however,” Hisako interjected, ignoring her son’s yelp of pain, “you may be correct, Lord Richter.” She was still looking down at the chart before her, but she took over the conversation. “A Mausoleum is a Core building created by combining a crypt, a Magic Core, and a relic. It allows whoever controls it to summon large armies of undead and greatly supplements the powers of those Death creatures.”

  “You’ve come across one before?” Richter asked.

  “No,” she responded grimly, shaking her head. “I have a tome in my library that lists hundreds of Core buildings throughout history. It details their powers, level by level.”

  I’ve got to get that book, Richter said to himself. Reading hadn’t been a major priority since he’d come to The Land, but more and more he was realizing what a mistake that was. Now wasn’t the time to bring that up though.

  “Okay, so the Mausoleum is a bad thing, and it explains how the lich has that giant army. What does it have to do with ‘Nevuur being in retrograde’?”

  The Hearth Mother kept poring over the astrological chart as she answered, “You most likely already know that there are seven moons orbiting The Land. What you may not know is that each moon corresponds to one of the Basic Elements. Vidaal is the Life moon, Nevuur is the moon of Death. Torresta is Fire; Aquiel, Water. Caelean is the moon of Air, and Potroq is of Earth. Finally, Tenebrit is the moon of Dark magic.”

  Richter had been counting along, “But there are eight Basic Elements. What about Light?”

  Hisako looked up from her furious inspection of the star chart with a slightly annoyed look on her face. The Hearth Mother might have the potential to be sweet and matronly, but she was also the leader that had enacted a strict policy of executions for any non-sprite found in her territory for decades, if not centuries. Seeing that look on her face, Richter was reminded that she wasn’t just a cute four-foot redhead, “Can you truly not think of a celestial body that represents Light?” Apparently, she also did not like to be asked idle questions when she was focusing.

  It occurred to him a moment later. “The sun,” he answered lamely. With a sharp nod of her head, s
he looked back down at the chart, one finger tracing along a particular celestial path.

  Sion snickered behind him and muttered, “Dumbass.” He made sure he was nowhere near Yoshi when he said it.

  Richter shot him a sharp look and the sprite just looked back with level six smugness and level ten asshole, the kind of ridicule only a best friend can muster. Twisting his lips in irritation, Richter turned his attention back to the Hearth Mother.

  Everyone was quiet for a bit, letting Hisako work. A few minutes later, she looked up grimly and pronounced, “We have five days.”

  CHAPTER 81 – Day 145 – Kuborn 35, 0 AoC

  They were supposed to have a full week! That was when the quest he’d gotten from the spirit Krista would expire. The spectral girl had suffered torment for centuries at the hands of her father and the lich lord. Even though Richter had freed her of the rage that had trapped her and other spirits on this plane, the ghosts had decided to delay moving on in order to take revenge on the lich that had tortured them for so long. Krista had given him a coin that would call her and the other spirits to his aid, but had only given him a month to use it. That time limit would expire in seven more days. If she was right, the loss of two days would be a hit to their preparation but still, two days didn’t seem like enough to merit her grim expression.

  “Five days?” Richter repeated, hoping for some elaboration.

  “Yes!” She responded in anger, slamming the table. She closed her eyes and visibly forced herself to be calm. “When you first told me there was an eldritch mage hiding in the tunnels beneath the forest, I knew he had to be dealt with. What you saw in the memory, however, is something much worse.

  “While eldritch users are dangerous, they will ultimately destroy themselves. Their magic is anathema to the natural order; it creates an imbalance in the world around them. Anyone and anything can be corrupted. Even the landscape can be warped. This imbalance ultimately leads to their downfall, as the natural forces of The Land lash out to try and correct the inequity. The eldritch is most assuredly a path to great power, but there is always a horrible price to be paid.

  “That is why I did not understand how such a creature could have existed for so many centuries without destroying himself, let alone how he could have escaped my notice for so long. The Mausoleum answers the first question. Somehow the lich has transferred the corruption of his magic to each of his undead soldiers. That sea of undead is shouldering the majority of the imbalance his magic creates. That is not the most concerning part of your vision, however. That statue is an Exile.”

  Caulder swore at hearing that, and moved his hand in a way that Richter had seen others do to ward off evil. Terrod’s hand squeezed his sword hilt so tightly that it squeaked. Even Yoshi’s face paled slightly at the announcement.

  Richter hated always being the one who didn’t know things, but he had to ask, “What’s an Exile? Is it some kind of god? I thought the gods had all been banished.”

  Hisako looked at him with faint surprise, but then shook her head ruefully, “I forget sometimes that you have been in The Land for barely half a year. No, Lord Richter. The Exiles are not gods. The Exiles are the beings that banished the gods.”

  It was Richter’s turn to feel a sinking sensation in his chest. “This thing that the lich is about to commune with is even stronger than a god?”

  “In some ways, yes,” Hisako responded. Then she told him the story of The Land’s creation. How beings of cosmic power had divided themselves into two factions, the Light and the Dark Court. How their war had sundered worlds and caused stars to implode. Then she talked about the final battle, a clash that threatened reality itself. “At that point,” she continued, “something happened. I do not know what, but it is said that the Universe itself intervened.”

  “The Universe?” Richter asked. “Like some guy made out of stars and planets?”

  “No,” she answered flatly, rolling her eyes. “A consciousness so far beyond any of us that our minds cannot even imagine the concepts needed to describe it. It is the interconnected energy of every reality at every time that ever was, is, or could have been. The conflict between the two Courts threatened Creation itself, so it responded.”

  “How?” he asked.

  “By forcing every member of the Courts into a new sliver of reality. A pocket dimension with only one exit. It then slammed the door closed, and locked it with a living representation of every energy and magic that existed. That lock is The Land.”

  Richter’s face screwed up in confusion.

  “The Land, the magics in it, the life force of the people in it, the very stones themselves, are all part of a magic spell that was created to keep the Light and Dark Courts imprisoned. Our world was created to generate the magic needed to sustain the spell until the end of the Universe. As long as The Land exists, it can power whatever it is that the Universe did to keep the Courts sequestered, and thereby protect every other soul in Creation. That is why the denizens of the Courts want to utterly destroy the world that we stand upon.”

  Okay, Richter thought to himself. No pressure.

  “Alright, I get the backstory,” he said, “but what are the Exiles and what does that have to do with the lich? If they’re locked away by the Universe itself, why do we have to worry?”

  “The members of the Dark and Light Courts that were locked away continued to war upon each other in the pocket dimension. After a time, however, they realized that they were evenly matched. Killing one member of the Light cost the life of one member of the Dark. Their eternal war was quickly whittling their forces down to nothing. It is not known how long it took, but the two powers came to a detente.

  “The members of both Courts, who have come to be known as the ‘Originals,’ began to breed. Their offspring, beings of terrible power and will, were born into the captivity of the pocket dimension. They came to be known as the ‘Exiles.’ These children of the Courts were then used to continue the battle. Exiles are born to be battle fodder for a war that never had a valid purpose and now has even less of one. While the remaining Originals stay above the fray, countless generations of Exiles have been continuously born to fight and die, without end, for all time.”

  “So, what? We feel bad for these guys?” Richter asked.

  “No,” she answered with a stark expression, “we fear them. While Exiles may not match Originals in terms of raw power, they still possess the might needed to rip Time apart if they were ever set free. Even worse, eons of battle have killed any with a trace of kindness. Those that have survived are the most intelligent, and the most cruel. Their innate power is now coupled with the viciousness their tormented lives has taught them. Even one Exile, if ever released, could mean an age of sorrow for every living creature and generations of their descendants.”

  It was quiet in the room as everyone thought about the enormity of what Hisako had just said.

  Hisako looked at Richter, her face deadly serious, “You must understand. No one knows exactly how old The Land is. Even the great wurms of the deep are said to have been born after it was created. What is known, however, is that Cataclysms have shook this world time and again. Horrible events have scoured the entire surface of life, have made whole nations sink into seas, have opened gateways that allowed demons to hold sway over continents for millennia. Each time, however, The Land would overcome these injuries and, in time, heal. This world was personally created by the Universe itself, and it was made to be resilient and powerful.”

  “That’s a good thing, right? I mean not about the demons and the… life scouring, but the fact that it always bounces back.”

  “It is,” Hisako replied nodding, “but there are ancient repositories of knowledge warded with runes that reach into the very bedrock of The Land. In them are texts that have survived the last several Cataclysms. These primeval tomes tell of beings of great power. They have been called devils, demons, ancient gods of evil and other words that now only exist in these works. Whatever these beings were
called, there was always a central theme. They all hint that each and every Cataclysm was triggered by the whispers of an Exile. They say each of these horrifying chapters of history were attempts to destroy The Land itself and free the Courts so that they may once again spread their evil throughout the stars.”

  “If this lich is an Exile worshiper,” Hisako finished, “we cannot allow it to pass energy along to its master or, even worse, receive gifts that would let him destroy us utterly. Because of your ability to access memories, he now knows that forces are being arrayed against him, and if we do not move quickly it could not only kill all of us, every man, woman and suckling child, but kill the forest itself and leave only despair in its wake.” Hisako rested a hand on Richter’s shoulder when she saw the hurt on his face, “I do not blame you for this situation. If you hadn’t accessed the memory we would not know of the trap the lich had set for us. Hundreds of lives might have been lost. We also would have waited a full week, and the lich’s powers might have been augmented by the Exile, again dooming us to failure. You absolutely have saved us, my lord Richter, but it does not change the danger we all face.”

  For several seconds, silence reigned over the Great Seal, “I… thank you for saying that, Hearth Mother,” Richter finally managed, swallowing hard. “I still do not understand how this Exile, Rakshasha, can hurt us if the Universe itself locked them all away.”

  “No prison is perfect,” Hisako told him. “Neither the Originals nor the Exiles can directly affect The Land, but they can whisper. There are always those willing to trade their lives, and even their very souls, for power. Though the Exiles were born of the Originals, they are still almost as old as The Land itself. The knowledge and magics they can impart is enough to get many selfish creatures to do their will.