The Elder Demon's Dilemma (Realm of Arkon, Book 9)

by G. Akella

  "They will sooner die of fear," Reece quipped with a glance toward Lita, then shrugged and started toward the castle.

  "I hope to have a griffin of my own?" my wife inquired in a private channel as she watched him go.

  "Of course," I nodded. "How could I leave you without one?"

  "Thanks, dear," she smiled at me. "But don't forget your piglet, either!"

  "Don't worry, I have a good memory," I smiled back, took Lita by the hand, and led her towards the castle.

  * * *

  "...is that the law of universal gravitation, which describes the force of pairwise attraction of solid bodies, is naturally present here as well, and governs the laws of motion for both bodies." Bonbon opened his palms, displaying a pair of brass spheres of different diameter to Jaelitte. "Therefore, for each pair of such bodies, the resultant force and, consequently, the acceleration, will certainly be dependent on the mass of the falling body. However, the spheres' difference in mass will be a tiny factor when calculating their contribution to this force, and as such, the difference between their acceleration values will be negligible..."

  "In other words, this law of yours works not only in a vacuum?" Jaelitte picked up one of the spheres, tossed it lightly in her palm, and looked up at Bonbon quizzically.

  The bald man nodded. "That's right. Additionally, falling bodies in the atmosphere are affected by the air resistance, which works against the direction of the body in a free fall."

  "Another factor that may impact the acceleration is the magic background of the terrain where the free fall is happening," Raena put in her two cents, sitting on Bonbon's right.

  "That's possible, but far from a sure thing," the bald man nodded. "Let's finish what we've already started, and then we can proceed with some experiments."

  Damn, who would have thought that Lita would be interested in physics? She had never asked me about it, at least. Then again, she didn't have that much strength to expend it on superfluous discussions with me, and besides, a student's interest in any given subject is highly correlated to the teacher's ability to present it in an interesting manner, and I was no match for Bonbon in that respect. As for the fact that her own flying ability directly contradicted the very laws she was learning, that didn't seem to matter much. Such contradictions weren't uncommon even among the physicists and mathematicians of Earth, many of whom, despite being highly intelligent and educated people, also dabbled in pseudosciences like astrology or even the paranormal. So, maybe Bonbon had it right, and there would come a time when magic and physics would exist congruently in Arkon. Only time would tell.

  As dusk fell, the setting sun painted the fuzzy crowns of distant pines with warm orange tones while still illuminating the smoking ruins of Rayne Castle, of which only four towers and no more than a dozen smaller structures remained, mostly those in the stronghold's northern section, behind the keep. Or what used to be the keep, as only two-and-a-half levels was left of the building.

  A string of wagons stretched along the northern road - the defenders' families were returning to the castle. Squads of soldiers took turns working clearing the rubble and salvaging what they could. There were no corpses to recover - thanks to a certain goddess I knew, Ulrich hadn't lost a single unit in the battle. Donut had explained that the troops fighting the Ancient God could be considered defenders of the sanctuary of the Goddess of Luck, meaning she was within her right to resurrect them all, just as Kirana had done several times not long ago. Speaking of, the sanctuary would now become a proper temple, and the roof of the rebuilt keep would be graced with the statue of the winged man I had drawn for them from memory.

  The baron looked to be in high spirits, unperturbed by all the destruction of property. And for good reason - he had come away from the battle without any casualties, and rebuilding a castle was a small price to pay for the lives of his subjects. And the fact that the titan had been defeated precisely here should win him significant glory among the local power brokers. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if this castle were to be eventually built out into a city, and the pile of rubble that remained of Vaepar enclosed and turned into a tourist attraction.

  Ulrich's behavior following today's events was a bit strange, however. And whenever Jaelitte appeared in his immediate vicinity, he seemed to tense up, if not altogether forget to breathe. As for the soldiers, they didn't dare come anywhere near, content with sneaking awestruck glances from a distance. In order to avoid getting in the way of the locals' cleaning efforts, our party set up camp west, not far from the forest, and I immediately regretted not setting out to Ellorian straight away. On the other hand, Max and Alyona probably hadn't arrived there just yet, and I wouldn't have much time or opportunity to think about the next steps. So, we would spend the night out in the open, enjoying the fresh air. Patience, Roman. You've nowhere to rush now that your wife is finally with you.

  Lita hadn't had any issues joining our party, leaving Kan, Bonbon, Donut, Reece and myself to spend half the day looting corpses of varying degrees of charring. The haul was nearly three thousand gold, two epic rings for a hunter and a mage, a heap of reagents and recipes, and various other rare and uncommon junk. If it hadn't been for Donut convincing me that all this stuff would prove itself useful in the future, I wouldn't have bothered looting all these transformed bodies, and instead would have ordered to set out to the Great Forest since the baron had refused our help categorically. It would be unbefitting our noble blood or status or whatever, especially since they were already beating off volunteers with a stick.

  With everybody around me occupied with something, I could take this time to think. I broke out the flask, took a few swigs, then leaned against the warm side of my sleeping boar, and lit up. The events of the past few days had turned everything upside down, and it would take quite a while for all us to fully recover.

  Generally speaking, we found ourselves in an interesting situation. With the Ancients' demise, I had suddenly realized, to my surprise, that I didn't know what to do next. That bastard Vill had disappeared somewhere, and I had no clue as to where to look for the Nameless. Which was a shame, since without the White Dragon I probably wasn't going to get to the Azure Valley and have that long-awaited heart-to-heart with Cheney. At the same time, I was perfectly aware that any normal person in my position couldn't be bothered worrying about any of that stuff, at least not yet. Craedia was retaken, my wife was free, and apocalypse itself was averted! So what the hell was wrong with me?!

  I took a deep drag, squashing the rage awakened by the memory of my mortal enemy, then looked up at the sun hanging over the forest, and chuckled. I was who I was, and there was no changing that. Logic and reason only went so far, but you couldn't lie to yourself. It was my bloody perfectionism, the need to always finish what I had started, that wouldn't let me enjoy this moment. But it wasn't only that. I was one hundred percent certain that the scum holed up in the Azure Valley would not relent. Cheney - and whoever it was that was helping him - had sicced the God of Torturous Death on me, supplied him with the blood of the Nameless, and commanded him to awaken the Ancient Gods. For as long as this valley remained hidden from the Maker, all the people I held dear were in danger. And it wasn't just about Cheney. If my suspicions were correct, something in that valley had at once turned a dark god into an errand boy and endowed him with power well above the rest of the Great Essences. And that "something" definitely needed to be destroyed. But I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't looking forward to ganking Cheney and co to single-digit levels, then releasing them into some high-end zone to "explore" the world they had themselves conceived.

  Only a trifle remained: where would we find the valley and whoever hid inside it? I My mind recalled my first conversation with Lita in which she had mentioned helping me in looking for the White Dragon.

  Shoot! It would appear that my darling wife is my only lead to the Nameless! I exhaled the smoke and scratched my right cheek. In fact, the dragon had also mentioned her when we met! All right, that
settled it. I would speak with my wife about the matter today-tomorrow, and go from there.

  And it wouldn't hurt me to shave, I smiled, running my hand over my stubble. It's not material to the task at hand, but still, it wouldn't hurt.

  Next on the docket was Vill. And I found myself very much uncomfortable with the fact that I hadn't a clue as to what had happened there. Where the hell had the bastard gone to?! Was he succored out of the battle by Cheney or one of his lapdogs? But then, what was the meaning of his words? What could be worse for the Twice Cursed God than the true death? And if he were being succored in order to be killed, why even bother? Just to steal the kill from me and keep me from leveling? That seemed logical and absurd at the same time. To torture him? Even more absurd! What would be the point? And I doubted that the God of Torturous Death was scared of pain. No, there was something else here. But what if... what if it had activated some kind of fail-safe that dispatched him to a phylactery that would become his prison for the next several thousand year? And the reason for him asking to be finished off was that his death would not have been the true death, but he would simply resurrect at a graveyard in the Azure Valley? No, that still didn't add up... Wait! What if he had set up the "fail-safe" before becoming immortal? That was the only way it made sense. In lieu of other explanations, it was all I could do to hope that the scum had rid the Realm of Arkon from his presence for at least a few millennia.

  After taking one last drag, I knocked out the pipe and put it away when my eyes fell on Bonbon. The bald man was actively drawing something on the ground. Is this what married life was about? On the day my wife finally gets her freedom, she spends it learning physics while I contemplate matters of the realm?

  The truth was that I wasn't bothered by it. In fact, I was astounded that Bonbon was even capable of teaching her anything, as whenever I laid my eyes on Jaelitte, my thoughts immediately flowed in a very particular direction, and if it wasn't for my high mental resistance... Of course, my two-month-long abstinence surely had something to do with it. Back in the real world I would get antsy after only a few days, let alone two months. As for Bonbon and the rest of them, the first thing they saw when looking at Jaelitte was an Elder Demon, whereas for me she was your typical young hottie. Well, maybe not quite so typical. Back in Cathella, for instance, I had found myself admiring the feral beauty of Velargass, but I wouldn't even begin to desire her... And to anyone arguing that you couldn't compare a giant dragon to a delicate woman, I could counter with a few celebrated authors of Earth that would contest such a position. The truth was that Reece had been right: at a certain point I had simply stopped feeling attracted to ordinary women. My demonic constituent was growing stronger, and activating certain physiological changes in my body. It was a process that went largely unnoticed by me, but it would appear that these days my perception differed from that of others. And I wasn't worried about that, either - nature was no fool even in this magical realm. And yet, I wouldn't have minded if my wife were to come over and spend some time with me...

  Oh well. I still had to sort through my stats and talents, so let her keep studying physics for now. The survival instinct remained primary even after a two-month-long abstinence. I smiled, took another chug from the flask, then put it away and opened my character menu.

  One hundred forty nine talent points! Two that had been stocked from before, and one hundred forty seven earned today. Badass! Had I broken the ring right away, I would have leveled up some fifty percent, but now in addition to the levels I got a wife, the ring itself, and a dead Vaepar with his flying mounts and a bunch of other phat lewts and bonuses. Indeed, if it hadn't been for Chaos coming to my aid thanks to the ring, I would not have slain him. And besides, it felt good to be "the good guy," inasmuch as the term could be applied to a demon.

  After quickly allocating the stat points evenly between strength and constitution, I got to thinking. If it weren't for the Chaos branch, there would be nothing to think about, but I did have it now, and it was of highest priority. After lengthy deliberation, I decided to eschew upgrading Jump. Soon enough there would be a static portal built between Erantia and Demon Grounds, which would take the element of surprise out of Step through Darkness for the locals. Besides, Step through Darkness shared a cooldown with Jump, and I could surely use the twenty one points I would save somewhere else. Maxing out my main attacks came first, naturally. One point into the talent itself and five more into connecting ones through the next tier - eighty four points in all.

  With a sigh and a fair bit of reluctance, I raised Ice Blade and Tongue of Flame to tier 22.

  Ice Blade ХXII.

  Instant cast.

  Energy cost: 120 points.

  Cooldown: 2 seconds.

  You attack the enemy with a blade of ice, dealing 608% damage on top of the weapon's base damage, slowing the target by 50% for 10 seconds with an additional 10% chance to freeze the target for 10 seconds.

  Tongue of Flame XXII.

  Instant cast.

  Energy cost: 120 points.

  Cooldown: 2 seconds.

  You attack the enemy with a blade burning with the power of fire, dealing 609% damage on top of the weapon's base damage and ignoring 10% physical defense.

  Not bad at all... And the percentages gained by learning Swordsman were still in effect. Sure, as the talent grew, the multiplier effect wasn't as noticeable, but that wasn't a big deal. There were plenty of mobs in Arkon to boost these numbers.

  Next were Portal and Step through Darkness. Thirty seven points in all, including the connecting ones.

  You've learned the spell: Step through Darkness VIII.

  Instant cast.

  Mana cost: 600 points.

  Cooldown: 25 seconds.

  Minimum level: 400.

  You vanish from view and teleport to a set point within a 55 yard radius. Stepping through darkness removes all stun and movement-impairing effects.

  You've learned the spell: Targeted Portal Creation III.

  Casting time: 10 seconds.

  Mana cost: 1500 points.

  Cooldown: 12 hours.

  Minimum level: 440.

  Opens a teleportation portal for the caster and his allies (no more than 20) that lasts 3 minutes to any previously visited location [margin of error - 2.9 yards].

  Truth be told, the portal upgrade wasn't at all essential, but the remaining twenty eight points would be more than enough for Chaos, and between the redundant Jump and this Targeted Portal, I would sooner choose the latter.

  And now, Chaos... This part was simple enough: eleven points into Power of Primordial Chaos to max out the skill at two hundred percent, five into Spear of Chaos, and five more into Blaze of the True Blood that had opened in the AoE branch. And the remaining seven points went into Concentration of Primordial Chaos, a neat passive skill.

  Spear of Chaos VII.

  Instant cast.

  Effective range: 50 yards.

  Mana cost: 2100 points.

  Cooldown: 2 seconds.

  Deals 166,800-211,200 Chaos magic damage to the enemy.

  Concentration of Primordial Chaos VII.

  Passive skill.

  Primordial Chaos helps those who walk its path. Your maximum constitution is raised by 70%.

  Blaze of the True Blood V.

  Instant cast.

  Duration: 35 seconds.

  Mana cost: 7000 points.

  Cooldown: 120 seconds.

  Primordial Chaos harshly punishes its enemies. The caster selects a zone of Unstable Fire 35 yards in diameter within a radius of 70 yards. Any creatures caught within the spell's range suffer 21,340-38,720 Chaos damage every second. The zone of Unstable Fire moves along with the caster. The cast cannot be interrupted, and the spell remains active even after the caster's death.

  An AoE dealing damage while moving!!! NO FREAKING WAY! But I would rejoice and deliberate on it later - there have been too many emotions for one day... I appreciated every bit of it, certainly, but let'
s save some for tomorrow, eh, Providence?

  With a smile, I took out my pipe and began to stuff it with tobacco unhurriedly. What else was there?

  Sata had run off somewhere, and it was unclear when she would reappear.

  Fifty three more levels until I was capable of visiting Lemuria. And I could already head to Pangea right now. Oh, and Ruination was back with me... All the question marks had disappeared from the sword's description, replaced by the phrase: Using Winged Lord's Reprisal does not consume the astral body. I remembered the text at the completion of the quest about the sword's stats undergoing some changes. But what were they? I couldn't see anything different, and the growth in damage was strictly proportional. The only explanation left was that before Vaepar's attack, the question marks concealed the phrase about the Winged Lord's Reprisal consuming the attacker's astral body. And with the question marks gone, the description had changed before I could notice it. As for the ability itself, it was rather useless now without any level 900 mobs on the horizon. The gods would need many a millennium to get to that point, and the blade wouldn't get wedged in any of them, anyway. Right, you just stand still while I wedge my blade in you and wait... I chuckled at the mental picture. No, the gods were still beyond my reach, but raid bosses were very much fair game.

  A few hours ago Donut had handed me nine vials dropped by Vaepar, and patiently explained why I needed to make my equipment scalable. To sum up, much like yours truly, absolutely all of the guys still thought that none of this was quiet over. Vill was still alive, the Nameless was still shackled to the ground somewhere on the Ancients Paths, and Cheney and co were still sitting pretty in the Azure Valley, concealed from RP-17. The mysterious prophecy hadn't gone anywhere, either, and I was still responsible for the future of all my demons and all the players that had joined the clan. So, what were a few scalable epics in light of all that?