by Aleron Kong
With a simple gesture of Pug’s arm, a portal of black crystal filled with a brilliant green energy field appeared against one wall. Richter’s heart began thudding painfully as the archetype continued to speak, “You may leave The Land to its own fate, knowing that no matter what happens, it will not affect the Earth until your grandchildren die of old age. You must know, however, that the actions the Lords were forced to take to protect your world from the Courts have changed it. Things will be… very different now, and your life may not be the same.”
The archetype helped him to his feet and walked him over to one wall. Placing his hand upon it, he pushed, “Or, you may choose the world out there.”
The wall fell away and The Land was revealed. The two of them were hovering high above the planet. So high that Richter could see the curve of the planet while it rotated beneath them. Even at that height, he could still see every mother holding her son and every monster consuming an innocent. He saw a world of adventure and danger, love and betrayal, power and wonder. A world that held his village and the hundreds of people who relied upon him. A world that held his village. A world that held Sion… a world that held Alma.
The seven faces of the Lords of Chaos appeared in a rotating circle, floating between him and Pug and directly between the portal and the view of The Land, Pug gestured to them, “Your panel of observers await your decision.”
Richter looked back into the room at the portal that could lead him to Earth, then looked back down at the world turning beneath his feet. He felt pulled in both directions and finally asked the one question he had not had the courage to ask before. To ask about the only other person who could possibly have been a fragment of his soul as well, “Is she down there, in The Land?”
Pug looked at him with profound sympathy and understanding, but slowly shook his head, “Your Choice must be yours alone and cannot be influenced by the Choice of another. I cannot tell you the answer to your question, but I can tell you this. To know your true path, you must simply ask yourself this: what is happiness to you, Richter?”
Richter thought about his life on Earth. He had been happy. He had been successful. He had even been loved, but… he had been less than he was now. Each day had bled into the next. It was a life others dreamed of, but it had felt that way, just a happy dream. Not one day had ever felt as real, as pure, as even his most dangerous times in The Land. Even though Pug had removed the block on his emotions and he missed his family terribly, he also thought of his friendship with Sion, his love for Alma and even his frustrations with Roswan, all memories that brought a faint smile to his face. Despite the danger and pain, every moment he had spent in The Land he had felt alive!
Walking back to the portal, he laid one hand on the black stone. Then he looked at Pug, “I want to live a real life. I don’t want to dream any longer.”
The archetype smiled, “I wish you well, Richter.”
The chaos seed ran to the edge of the room and dove off. As he fell, the seven faces of the Lords of Chaos rushed forward to revolve around him like planets around a sun. They whispered to him as he plummeted to his destiny.
“People often hate and oppose us because our methods cause destruction, but it is necessary,” one began.
“But what is existence without change?” another continued.
“Some must die and make room, so that new life can grow. You, our servant, must return.”
As Richter fell, his “body” was stripped away, leaving only his core. His seed sank through the Sea of Chaos and was nourished. If ever he would find completion it would be here. Despite that, the small wisp of chaos cried its choice to leave the perfection of the fathomless possibility of the Sea in order to serve its Lords and embrace its choice.
“You have said so before,” stated a face of pure anger.
“And will again,” continued a face of mocking laughter.
“A thousand times a thousand times you have stood before us. You will know us. We make ourselves known as jewels in the night.”
“Always hated in the moment, but cherished for centuries to come.”
“We are the agents of inevitable change.”
“It is our words that drive you, our most loyal child.”
All seven faces spoke as one, “First of All, Servants of All, we shall transcend all.”
“I love you, my lords!” the spark called out in a quiet voice as loud as the creation of all things.
“Yes,” they intoned, accepting everything that Richter could give. There was no gentleness, chaos could not afford it, but there was a sense of unity in their acceptance. They continued speaking as one, “And now you must forget. Forget us, forget your comfort, forget your sense of belonging. Feel the need for more, the hunger, the desire, for that is what drives you. Forget us, and forget what you have sacrificed in your old life. Question everything but your place in The Land. Remember, the way is forward, never back.”
“LIVE!”
CHAPTER 94 – Day 149 – Kuborn 39, 0 AoC
“-ter!” Alma cried, before looking at him in confusion. Richter was standing before her with a smile on his face and love in his eyes.
*What happened?* she asked, panic still in her voice. *That grey tear sucked you in and you vanished, but now you’re here an instant later!*
“I-,” he began, then realized he didn’t know himself. The answer was right there, at the tip of his mind, but the more he chased it, the farther it retreated. Ultimately, he just had to shake his head, “I’m not sure, my love, but…” he looked at the pyramid that was now fading from view, “I don’t think we have anything to fear from that anymore.”
*But what happened?* she asked again.
Richter screwed up his face, still trying to remember, but each flash of memory he snatched at broke apart like ash on the wind. He had a vague remembrance of a kindly old man. Then his conscious mind recoiled from the images: they were so alien, and deep inside of him there was a knot of pure sorrow he subconsciously decided that he just didn’t have time to deal with. He forced it down even deeper. It would have to be dealt with later.
“I survived,” he pronounced after a few moments. It was the only thing he knew definitively. He looked at her in love and gratitude, “because of you.” Then he remembered that though things looked fine in the mindscape, in the real world, time was passing. When the Messeji ended, he would once again be stuck in the forest, blinded and with a broken jaw. He had to get back to the village and seek help before that happened. Even without that countdown hanging over his head, he was still in the middle of the forest alone, and the scent of blood on the air might attract monsters.
Richter focused his consciousness on the real world. He was still kneeling over Heman’s body and only seconds had passed since the man had died. The claws of his right hand remained embedded in his enemy’s chest. After he removed them, with a faint sucking sound, Richter’s forked tongue snaked out almost of its own accord. It licked the blood coating his talons, and his dragon body enjoyed a moment of pure pleasure at the taste of his foe’s spent life.
A moment later, he shook himself out of the feeling and looked at his hand in shock. Had he really just done that? There was still so much he didn’t know about the Messeji, but he couldn’t let it turn him into something he wasn’t. Richter looked around, in control once more, and took stock of the situation. Just as he had thought would happen, Heman’s interdimensional cubby had disappeared with the chaos seed’s death. He allowed himself a chuckle, hoping the bastard enjoyed the parting gift Richter had left him. That dark humor was just as bestial as tasting the blood, but this time he didn’t even try to pretend that the impulse wasn’t pure him.
He searched the ground, hoping to find something left behind by the slain lightning demon, but just like with his own summonings, nothing was left behind after death. Richter had always wondered if there might be a way to summon creatures, kill them and then harvest their components. That would be very useful knowledge to have. The chaos s
eed shrugged; it was knowledge he didn’t have yet.
Seeing nothing else of import, he pulled Heman’s body into a fireman’s carry, and stood. Richter began casting. Tendrils of mist rose from the ground and formed a bubble ten feet wide. Nine seconds later, he appeared outside of the Dungeon mouth. One new guard shouted, “Demon!” and raised his sword to attack, but he was quickly cuffed by his squad leader. The senior guard recognized her lord, and clapped her fist to her chest in salute.
Richter just nodded and took off at a sprint towards the village gate. Heman’s corpse flopped around over his shoulder, but he didn’t let such a minor consideration delay him. The guards at the gate also had a negative reaction when he ran up, most of them not knowing about their lord’s new dragon form, but Terrod had made sure every squad leader was notified, so the misunderstanding was quickly resolved. Futen floated up while he ran to the healer’s hut and then left just as quickly to find Randolphus, as ordered.
“What is this?” Sumiko shouted when he entered with the dead body. The Healer guarded her domain of the Healer’s Hut just as religiously as Krom guarded the Forge of Heavens.
Richter, keeping one eye on the counter for his Messeji, recounted what had happened in the thirty seconds he had left. He started to tell her of the injuries he and Alma had suffered before she snapped at him for wasting time.
“I do not need your paltry reporting. I need to know exactly what I will be healing. Make a psychic bond and show me.” The crack in her voice left no room for refusal. Richter looked her in the eyes, and at the speed of thought shared the fight with Heman, including the damage Alma had suffered. He stopped the playback after his breath attack though. Richter didn’t want her to see what he had done to Heman, though the man’s injuries probably already told most of the tale.
In his last seconds in the bond, he told her, “I need you to examine his body, in the same way you examined the ghast’s.”
She looked at him sharply, but in the face of his draconian visage and harsh tone, Sumiko forewent her usual waspishness and just nodded, “By your will, Lord Mist.”
“Give the leftover pieces to Tabia,” he added coldly. In a softer voice he gave one more command, “Heal Alma first.”
Before Sumiko could respond to that, his Messeji ended. Blue-white light left his body in a rush, coalescing into a ball in front of him. Richter’s skin softened, his teeth blunted and his face became human once again. Unfortunately, his injuries reappeared as well. His left orbital bone fractured, his eyes suffered major contusions and his jaw shattered. The cumulative pain returning all at once made him drop to his knees. It was all he could do not to howl as the healers lifted him onto a cot. Then Sumiko’s healing energy flowed into him, numbing the pain and beginning the first of several delicate spells required to restore his sight.
His Luck showed up again when he lapsed into unconsciousness.
When Richter woke, he was in his own bed. He slowly opened his eyes, relieved that he could see again. He also worked his jaw from side to side, but there wasn’t even a click. A familiar weight on his chest made him look down, and he was even more relieved that his familiar lay there, completely healed. She didn’t even have her wings wrapped this time. Clearly Sumiko was more comfortable healing the dragonling the second time around.
After scratching her scaled head lovingly, he looked around and saw several people were waiting on him, but it was Randolphus who spoke first. The chamberlain collapsed to his knees. His voice was raw with ragged emotion, “I failed you. I failed you again!” Richter looked at him in confusion. “Sumiko told me that you were attacked by one of the new villagers. A villager that I allowed to stay here. I swear to you that I will repay this debt.”
“Breathe, man,” Richter told him. “There are things you don’t know.” Taking stock of who was at his bedside, he didn’t see anyone he couldn’t trust. Hisako, Sumiko, Sion and Randolphus had all been waiting for him to wake up. He told them the entire story. When he finished, he looked at his chamberlain, “So you see, he was one of my people. He had abilities that would have fooled even you.”
“I was going to apologize as well, my lord,” Sumiko told him, “for failing to detect his duplicity with my Soul Window spell. After seeing how powerful you are, however, I can understand why another of your people, another… chaos seed,” she spoke the name of his race hesitantly, unsure how she felt about it, “might be able to fool even my tier-five spell.” She turned to Randolphus, “What I do not understand is why you believe you should have seen through his duplicity.” Neither she, Hisako nor Sion knew his true nature as a Spy. The chamberlain just shook his head and looked to the side.
“Did you learn anything from the body?” Richter asked.
“No,” Sumiko answered, shaking her head. “There are not many half-gnome, half-humans that I have heard of, but his anatomy showed nothing that I didn’t expect.”
Richter shook his head, “So there is no way to detect another chaos seed by their body alone?”
“Not unless the identifying mark leaves at the time of death,” Sumiko concurred.
The chaos seed nodded, “Well, hopefully Tabia can find something useful to do with his remains.”
“About that, Lord Richter,” Sumiko began, “I do not like the idea of handing bodies over to your alchemist for experimentation. It smacks of evil.”
He fixed her with an almost callous glare, “We are at war, Sumiko, and we will use every tool at our disposal to survive. If you cannot accept that fact, then I will accept your resignation as village Healer. There will be many more choices and acts we must all commit to before this is done. Let me know now if you are not up to the task!”
Randolphus, Sion and even Hisako remained silent. Sumiko looked back at him, stunned and momentarily at a loss for words, but ultimately replied, “I stand with you, Lord Mist.”
Richter let out a breath he hadn’t even known he was holding. He had meant every word he had just spoken, but there was no part of him that actually wanted to face the days to come without Sumiko. “Good. Now, I assume not much time has passed, seeing as how you all look calm and there is a battle on the horizon, but what exactly has been going on while I took my little nap?”
He had been right about the time. Only six hours had passed while he was unconscious. Night had fallen, but the evening meal was only now being served to his villagers. That was a relief. He still had Settlement Points to spend and would have been in an even worse mood than before if Heman’s betrayal had made him waste them. Thankfully, other than finalizing the assault plans for the morning, nothing else had happened in the village.
“Are you hale enough to hear it?” Hisako asked.
Sitting up in his bed, Richter nodded.
Hisako and Sumiko had both been studying the bone that triggered the eldritch portal magic in detail for days. They had confirmed it could open a short-lived portal that anyone could step through, presumably to arrive back at the Mausoleum.
“Presumably?” Richter asked.
“Yes,” Hisako answered. “Most of our information stems from the ghast’s memory. Taking it at face value makes several assumptions, not the least of which is that everything the lich said was true.”
Nodding sourly, he motioned for her to continue.
“Though the portal is meant to close shortly after one person walks through, I believe Sumiko and I can keep it open and even enlarge it.”
“How?” Richter asked. “I thought you couldn’t affect eldritch magic. You even need the decaemur knight to activate it.”
“It is true that we cannot trigger the spell, but remember, eldritch magic is parasitic. It is always a perversion of another Power. The portal bone is created in large part by corrupted Life and Air magic. It has taken several days, but I am now fairly confident that I can keep the portal open for short a time.”
“‘Fairly confident?’” Richter repeated.
“I have not told you the worst part yet.”
“Wel
l by all means, let’s get to the ‘worst’ part!”
She looked at him, seriously considering slapping the taste out of his mouth, but seeing as he had recently been tortured, she decided to let his tone pass. “The problem is, you were correct. I cannot fully access the magic in the finger bone, so the portal will be unstable. The more people that pass through, the more unstable it will become. If that instability gets to a certain point, the portal could collapse, explode or connect to another realm filled with horrors beyond our imagining.”
It was dead quiet in Richter’s bedroom while everyone digested that information.
Sion was the one who broke the silence, “This is the only plan we have, correct?”
“Yes,” came Hisako’s succinct answer.
“Then I suppose it’s worth the risk,” he concluded with false cheer.
Richter rolled his eyes at his best friend, but knew he was right, “If the portal becomes more unstable with every person that walks through it, then will the same thing be true when we try to come back?”
“Yes,” Hisako said again.
This time it was Randolphus who spoke up, “That means, once 50% of the spell’s stability is gone we cannot send anyone else through, or some of those already attacking will be unable to return. Are you sure you will be able to gauge that point?”
“Roughly,” she admitted.
Richter screwed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead. This was getting better and better! “You know what! Just lie to me sometimes, Hisako!”
“I’m eighty, no, ninety percent sure I will know,” she told him. “It is not only the number of people we send that will affect the instability, however. The time the portal remains open will also be a factor. Everyone not involved in the attack will need to lend me their magic so I can keep it open as long as possible, but sooner or later, the portal will close.”
Richter nodded. He had assumed she would use the special perk of her Life Mastery to draw upon the mana of others. “Can you give us any kind of estimate?”