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

by Aleron Kong

  “Knowledge is not the only risk that Exile worshipers pose, however. There is one thing that no prison can stop, and that is energy itself. All that is has been formed out of some type of energy. This is an immutable law. The Exiles are able to gain some small amount of power from the actions of their servants and from the sacrifices they perform. It has also been said that Exiles have, in rare cases, gifted favored servants with some of their own power.

  “If you have any doubt as to the danger of their influence, remember one thing that you yourself have already mentioned. There are no gods in The Land. That is because though the gods may have been diametrically opposed to one another, and many were capricious and wicked, they all shared one common trait. A great deal of their power stemmed from their worshipers and the faith that was placed in them. As the end goal of every Exile and Original is the destruction of The Land, it means that the gods would lose a great deal if that ever came to pass. They might even be destroyed. For this reason alone, the banished gods of this world were often the greatest opponents of any scheme hatched by The Light and Dark Courts.” She fixed him with a poignant stare, “So the Courts banished them from The Land.”

  “How?” Richter asked, dragging the word out. Bloodthirsty goblins, rock giants with a grudge, even castrating Assassins he could deal with. He’d been knocked down, tortured and even killed, but each time he had come back stronger and meaner. Every single creature that had challenged him had come to regret it. It was usually their last regret, and the last sight most had seen was his smiling face as he ended them. But what could he possibly do against creatures that could defeat gods?

  “I do not know,” Hisako answered, shaking her head. “Philosophers and master mages have wrestled with that question for millennia. ‘How’ does not matter, however. What matters is that we destroy the lich before he finishes the connection to his Exile patron.”

  “Could he really ‘scour’ all life from the forest?” Richter asked.

  “I do not know that either,” Hisako replied with uncertainty in her voice. Then her face grew steely, and her tone as hard as granite, “What we do know is that the lich believes he could. We cannot take the chance that he is right. That creature must be destroyed.”

  “What of this behemoth slime? How dangerous is it?”

  “Uhhh, behemoth slime?” Sion asked, not having experienced the memory.

  Hisako absently supplied the answer, “Behemoth slimes are amongst the most horrifying of monsters. Almost any slime can consume and, over time, dissolve other creatures. Behemoths do the same, but instead of destroying one enemy at a time, their bodies can flow like a tidal wave and destroy entire regiments. If such a monster is indeed lying in wait, then we cannot use the Dark Portal.”

  “Okay,” Richter said blanching. Being drowned and digested in living ooze sounded like one of the worst imaginable fates. “The lich still has to be dealt with though. How are we even supposed to get there?”

  Sumiko stepped forward. With an enigmatic smile, she reached into her robe. She pulled out a vial and shook it. It made a faint clink, clink sound and Richter could see a small bone behind the glass, glowing green with eldritch energy, “I think I can help with that.”

  Richter rushed forward and grabbed the vial. For a moment, despite all the warnings, he wondered what goodies he could get if he fed the bone to his Dungeon. Eldritch magic seemed quite powerful. A second later, he shook off that thought as ridiculous and addressed the village Healer, “This is the bone that the lich put under Nien’s skin?”

  “I wasn’t sure what the significance was when I found it in the ghast’s body, but now there is no doubt.”

  Remembering the second effect of the bone, to bring the Death Knight back to the lich’s sarcophagus, Richter could kiss the Life mage. “Can you trigger the magic in it to get us to the top of the Mausoleum?” he asked excitedly.

  “I cannot,” she answered. Richter’s face fell. Then she added, “Only a being already steeped in eldritch magic can use this talisman.” She kept smiling the entire time.

  “Why are you-” then it dawned on him. They did have access to a being that had been steeped in eldritch magic. She meant the decaemur knight. He still didn’t understand why she was grinning at such a time. If anything, it should make her unhappy that the knight would turn out to be so useful. She and Beyan had almost come to blows over whether he could claim the knight as a pet. Then Richter remembered the lich’s warning to Nien, about how the Death Knight should only use the enchanted bone when he was at “full strength.” The Death Knight’s health had been nearly a thousand. The decaemur knight’s health was less than half that.

  It suddenly became clear why Sumiko was happy. Not only would the decaemur knight be destroyed, but she could mess with Beyan at the same time. Richter sighed heavily, imagining how that conversation was going to go with the Death mage. Hoping he was wrong, he decided to double-check, “So when the decaemur knight triggers the enchantment, it-”

  “Will most likely be completely destroyed,” Sumiko finished happily. Apparently, even the threat of an Exile was not enough to steal the Life mage’s joy at sticking it to her gnome counterpart. With a broad smile, she asked, “Would you like to tell him or shall I?”

  CHAPTER 82 – Day 145 – Kuborn 35, 0 AoC

  “Bloodless, sexless, cow-titted, slag of a biomancer! She is enjoying this!” Beyan shouted, pointing at Sumiko. “Quit smiling at me, bitch! How are you bony and fat?”

  She just shook her head in response. The innocent expression on her face was completely undercut by the devilish look in her eyes. Her mouth also contained barrels of barely contained laughter. The sprite was enjoying this so much that even the insults of a necromancer couldn’t knock her off her perch, “No, Beyan. I am as sad about this as you are… Really.” She stuck her bottom lip out in a pouty frown.

  “She doesn’t mean that,” Beyan complained loudly to Richter, pointing again at Sumiko. With the necromancer no longer looking at her, the sprite elder shook her head at the chaos seed and gleefully mouthed, ‘No. I do not.’

  Hiding a laugh behind a cough, Richter tried to look sympathetic, “She does, man. She does! Either way though, we need you. I need you. The village, your home, needs you. Will you really tell all of us no?”

  Richter watched the interplay of emotions across the gnome’s face. He wondered idly if the village’s Loyalty rank of Trusting was coming into play. The blurb associated with it had clearly stated that his people would “begin to put the well-being of the settlement above their own.” Either way, Richter didn’t plan to take no for an answer. In fact, when Beyan had bound the knight, he had made sure that his own will would override the gnome’s in regards to commanding the undead servant. It would still be better if the necromancer came to this decision on his own though.

  After chewing his lip and complaining a few more times, the gnome finally nodded.

  “Good man,” Richter told him, clapping the Death mage on the shoulder. “And you never know, your servant might survive the process.” He put a little pressure on Beyan’s shoulder to turn him so the gnome wouldn’t see Sumiko once again gleefully mouthing, ‘Nope.’

  Beyan walked away looking absolutely crestfallen. Richter wasn’t too worried. He planned to make the gnome his diplomat to Verget Kunig. That would give Beyan ready access to the undead sepulcher. Not only was Richter sure the gnome would be greatly useful in discovering the full capabilities of that place, but he was fairly certain the necromancer would be ecstatic to have access to such a high concentration of Death magic.

  Richter decided to not share that info until after the battle with the lich though. If he told Beyan now, the little bald man would be running through the forest five minutes later. Putting it out of his mind, he turned back to everyone still present at the Great Seal. While he had been waiting for Beyan to show up, they had all started coming up with a plan of attack. Hisako and Sumiko had spent some time looking at the bone and casting a few diagn
ostic spells. As far as they could determine, the eldritch magic fed on the life energy of the operator to tear a portal in space. The actual magic powering the spell was eluding them though.

  “What I don’t understand,” Richter said, drawing Hisako’s attention, “is how that little bone can contain transportation magic. If it’s that easy, why are we building portals between our settlements? They’re kinda expensive, you know.”

  Hisako thought for a few moments, figuring out how best to respond. “In The Land, nothing is impossible, Lord Richter. It is good to remember that. There is also almost always more than one way to accomplish a goal. Masters of Air magic, for instance, are paid exorbitant sums by kings and the richest of nobles to transport individuals quickly, either by flight or teleportation. The high cost these magi are paid is not only because very few individuals can manage such magic, but also because such magic consumes rare and expensive spell components that, once used, are gone forever.

  “The lich has apparently found a way to use a similar power, but I am sure it also came at a steep cost. Despite what he said about not being concerned about you, he would not have sent his most trusted servant here if that were true. I am willing to bet that the cost of transport in this case was quite high to him personally. Do not forgot that travel in this method also takes a serious toll upon the health of whoever uses it. If it is as damaging as I believe, few creatures could even survive using this method of travel. The lich could not even guarantee exactly where he was sending the Death Knight, instead just honing in on a vague location centered around a concentration of Death magic.

  “The true power of the portals you have learned to create lies in these three concepts: safe, reliable and self-sustaining. The portals we will build will not only transport individuals, they will transport armies. We will also be able to send one another large amounts of goods instantly, with no ill effects and without requiring any magic or precious resources after the initial cost of construction.

  “This bone,” Hisako continued, motioning to the vial she held, “will most likely destroy the gnome’s servant to open a very small rip in space. The cost to keep it open… I believe it will be severe.”

  “Define ‘severe’,” Richter requested slowly.

  A confusing series of emotions crossed her face. It was too quick for him to read, but her sorrowful tone was clear, “Either myself or Sumiko will have to stay behind when you go to battle the lich. Depending on the specific types of magic that were corrupted by the eldritch to power this spell, we may need magi of other spell types to remain behind as well.” That news was a bit of a hit to Richter, but he didn’t interrupt. “You have seen that one of the capabilities I obtained by becoming a Life master is that I can use the willing life energy of others to power my spells as long as we are in contact.”

  Richter nodded. When she had enchanted the Seed Core that later became the Quickening, she had cast a scalable spell. The more mana she had invested in it, the stronger it had grown. To accomplish this, several sprites had placed their hands on her, then several more sprites had placed their hands on each of them. This pattern had repeated again and again until hundreds of sprites had been connected together in a spiral pattern with the Hearth Mother in the center. She had been able to draw upon the mana of her entire settlement to power the spell.

  “I do not know exactly how much energy will be necessary to keep the portal open, but I am sure it will be massive. One of us must stay behind to feed energy into the gateway so that whoever goes through the portal can return.”

  “Or both of us should stay,” Sumiko spoke up quietly but firmly, looking at the Hearth Mother.

  “Sumiko,” Hisako said warningly.

  “No,” the meidon Mage replied. Her voice was resolute, and she chopped down and away with her hand. “I will not keep silent about this.” Turning to Richter, she told him, “Life magic may not work on the other side of the portal. Depending on what level the Mausoleum has reached, it might completely inhibit the power of biomancers. It could even inhibit Water and Earth magic.”

  “Is this true?” Richter asked his ally.

  “Yes,” Hisako finally admitted begrudgingly. “I was, of course, going to tell you, but first I was going to compare what I saw in the memory against what is described in the book I mentioned.” She shot Sumiko a glare, “I merely wanted to gather more information before I brought this matter to you.”

  Yoshi spoke up for the first time, “No matter what it shows, Hearth Mother, you cannot risk yourself on this mission if your magic could be hobbled.”

  Hisako drew herself up to her full four feet, “May I remind you, adept Yoshi, that I am your liege. You also should not need to be reminded that I am not only a master ranked mage, but also the Master of a trinary Place of Power! Life, Light and Earth are all at my command!” She was telling him that not only had she reached skill level one hundred in her magic, granting her master rank in that spell type, but that she was the lord of a nexus of ley lines, just like Richter.

  The sword adept weathered his redheaded mistress’s fury without comment or reaction. It was not the first time he had endured her anger, and it was not the first time he had protected her from herself. Yoshi just stood stoically as she continued to rail against him, until she finally stilled, glaring at him defiantly. His response was quietly stated in spritespeak, a reminder of her duty, “Foresuto No.”

  Literally it translated into “For the Forest,” but it meant much more. It was the core principle that the wood sprites lived by. It represented their lifelong pursuit of balance in all things, both internally and externally. The forest was their home, but the “Forest” spoke to the world itself, the love every sprite had for their people, and their drive to live in unity with the Universe. For Yoshi to say it to Hisako, it was a charge for her to remember her duty as the leader of their people. The half-sprite Warrior said nothing more, and would now follow his leader wherever she led.

  Hisako glared for another moment, before sighing deeply and dropping her gaze. Her response was half-thanks and half-apology, without giving away what her final decision would be, “Foresuto No.”

  That little bit of melodrama done, Richter asked a question, “I get why a Core building dedicated to Death magic could inhibit Life magic, but why would it inhibit Earth or Water magic?”

  Both Sumiko and Hisako looked at him with identical older-woman expressions of judgement. Richter instinctually froze like a deer in headlights. A moment later, Sumiko sniffed, “You need to study your Lore books more diligently.”

  Richter sighed internally. He was lord of his own village in a magical world, and yet, somehow, there was still a mother figure telling him to do better. Instead of rolling his eyes though, he just looked at the two sprites expectantly.

  It was Hisako who answered. She spoke a word of Power and a faint white glow surrounded her index finger. Everywhere her finger moved, it left a glowing line hanging in midair. She quickly created what looked like a mandala to Richter, with eight different sections. With a final flick of her finger, she lightly struck the mandala and each section became a different color.

  She started at the “northern” section and named each area as she moved her finger counterclockwise. “Life, Earth, Light, Fire, Death, Air, Dark, and Water. The Basic Elements are not random. They gained their name by being the eight balancing energies of most creatures and plants that live in The Land. Some are in direct opposition,” she pointed to Life and Death, “though by another theory, they complement one another.” Sumiko sniffed loudly at that, clearly not liking the second theory as much as the first.

  Hisako ignored the other Life master and continued, “The elements have more interaction than merely being four pairs in opposition. This eight-sided figure is a simple representation of a complex network of how the Basic Elements influence one another. Many Places of Power are comprised of closely connected Powers. The Hearth Tree is built upon Life, Earth and Light,” she pointed to the three side-by-side el
ements, “while the Mist Village,” she pointed to four more that followed a simple succession, “is built upon ley lines of Air, Dark, Water and Life. Places of Power do not always follow these patterns, however. Law is built upon two opposites for example: Water and Earth, Fire and Air. It has been said that such ‘dissonant’ nexuses of ley lines can lead to strife. The bloody history of the Kingdom of Yves certainly supports this theory, but I cannot say with absolute certainty that this is true.”

  Richter nodded in interest. This information answered an earlier question he’d had. The Water spell Randolphus had taught him, Teatro’s Weak Water Casting, let him cast Water, Life and Dark spells while he was underwater. The chaos seed could now see that the three Powers were side by side on the mandala.

  He also conceded that the two women might be right. He really did need to make reading and learning Lore a priority. The chaos seed thanked her for the instruction. She nodded in response and waved her hand. The mandala faded from view.

  Hisako and Sumiko put their heads back together and started discussing other issues that were essential to the attack. Richter instructed Caulder to stay with them and offer any help needed. With nothing else for the chaos seed to do, he left to prepare for the battle in the method that suited him best.

  Richter’s first stop was the Forge of Heavens to speak to Krom and enchant more weapons and armor. The dwarf didn’t exactly jump for joy at hearing there were two less days to complete Richter’s new armor, but he said he could finish the work on time. Krom also muttered something about having just enough time to finish the “special project.” Richter didn’t get the chance to ask him about it though, seeing as how the Smith immediately began barking orders to the other dwarves. Krom’s first pronouncement was that the other smiths should just accept the fact that they wouldn’t be sleeping much over the next few days.

  The chaos seed spent several hours enchanting. After that, he went to the Dragon’s Cauldron and informed Tabia of the shortened timeline as well. She told him that there was just no way to rush the preparation of her potions. She also told him that even with the full seven days she’d been promised there would have been barely been enough time to make enough health, stamina and mana potions to outfit the entire army in that time frame.